And indeed, the first person, a man in sturdy clothes, carrying a solid ax, stepped up to the table and put his hands first on the purple crystal and then on the blue crystal, before stepping back, grinning in anticipation. The man that had brought the crystals, apparently that was Chad, took a look at the gems and then announced in a carrying voice: “Blue ten; Purple ten. Four silver coins.”

He then took out a few softly glowing coins from the box on the table and handed them to the man at the head of the line, before motioning for the next person to step up.

A woman with a tightly pinched face and a perpetual-looking frown moved to the table and put her slender hands on the purple crystal only. After a moment, Chad announced: “Blue 0; Purple 13. Two silver coins and 6 copper coins.”

Doing some quick math in my head, it seemed as if things followed the standard roleplaying rules of copper coins as a lower denomination, and silver above that. I presumed that gold was the next one above that. Each point, which in the case of the blue crystal, was likely the number of mana, translated into two copper coins, with ten copper coins equivalent to one silver coin.

Which meant that the coins I had found in my bag of holding were a fortune. Unless Chad severely underpaid everyone for their labor. Which was a possibility, but I had no way to find out at this point. And, at least compared to everyone else in Lake Placid, I had no real need to donate points to the I’tisch League of Cities for money…

“Jimmy, what can you use these coins for?”

“Like to buy stuff? Duh. No one accepts dollars any longer. Most things are managed centrally by Chad… so if people hunt or harvest stuff, they deliver what they get to the Best Western. And they have spells for sale too… which really is what everyone is gunning for. Food is still freely available from the various abandoned houses around Lake Placid, the same for clothes. But weapons and spells, that is what we are all saving up for.”

“And how much is a sword, for example?”

“About five to eight silver for a crude one and several gold coins for something fancy.”

I scratched my head at those numbers. So the first two people I had seen would have to work for roughly two weeks to afford a simple sword. That seemed like a lot. From what I recalled, an average sword could be forged in a couple of days, perhaps three, assuming that the metal was available.

However, the smith presumably was more specialized and trained than some random forager and needed to be compensated for that… plus there was the material costs of the raw material and the required forging equipment. Considering all that, perhaps five silver wasn’t really all that much.

As the line moved ahead, I saw that most people received right about four or five silver coins for the week, but there were some clear outliers. A few people only got one silver coin or even less, and they were clearly unhappy about it, based on the glares they shot at Chad and his giant companion. And then there were some who received a full gold coin or even more, indicating that they had earned at least fifty mana during the last seven days – a respectable number.

And then the EFU showed up.

Instead of waiting in line, like the rest of us, they pushed their way through to the front. And no one even blinked twice.

What the fuck?

I looked at the others around me, and while I saw a few people scowling, no one made a move to protest.

I couldn’t believe it. I thought this was the United Fucking States of America! Where people stand up against that type of shit. But I guess I shouldn’t have been that surprised. Back when the bikers had killed Mike, no one had really lifted a finger either. Pragmatism over principles, I supposed. And I got it.

I probably should keep my mouth shut too.

“Hey, asshats. The end of the line is over there!” I shouted.

Immediately, every movement stopped, and plenty of heads turned my direction, staring at the moron that had dared to raise his voice.

“Shit, Daniel, what the heck? Let’s go,” Jimmy whispered urgently from my side, trying to pull me away from the line, clearly intending to escape.

I wasn’t having any of that.

“I am not going to have some wannabe elitist pricks walk all over me,” I said loudly enough for everyone to hear my words.

“Guys, it’s the skinny loser from this morning,” one of the guys in the EFU cackled. “You’ve gotta give him credit… he has balls, even though his brain is sadly underdeveloped.”

“Hey, you, Jimmy, right? You better get him away from here, before one of us uses him as a punching bag,” a smirking girl in a tight pink and brown sports-outfit said.

I was about to shout something snarky when Sue raised her voice.

“Fuck off, Nancy,” she snarled while stepping protectively in front of me. “He belongs to us, and if you try to rough him up, you’ll have to deal with us first. He has twice the balls of any of your fucking EFU boys.”

“Sue, just keep qu-.”

“Shut up, Jimmy. I meant what I said. If they try to mess with Daniel, I’m going to bust their asses.”

“Sue, you are such a stupid bitch,” Nancy laughed. “Are you still upset about not being good enough for making the EFU? Let me try to recall… oh, yes, you weren’t able to actually hit that monster, right? Too weak. All talk and bluster, no action.”

“I’ll show you action, alright,” Sue growled as she moved forward.

Immediately, a good half of the EFU stepped closer to Nancy, some of them fingering the hilts of their weapons as they stared warily at us. They seemed ready to escalate things at any moment.

What the fuck had happened? Where people like brainwashed? This was unbelievable… at least the other half of the EFU looked uncomfortable as they witnessed the rapid deterioration of the situation. The glances they shared, indicated that they clearly weren’t ready to jump in and duke it out with their fellow Placidians over skipping a line.

Kudos to them.

At least there was some decency left there.

On Sue’s side, Tom, Ben, and Betsy stepped forward, somewhat resigned, but without hesitation. A moment later, Jimmy cursed, let go of my sleeve, and stepped up as well. Which left me behind them, somewhat befuddled over what had happened so quickly.

Was my comment going to lead to bloodshed?

For the moment, each side stared at the other, trying to project confidence and resolve. Only that the EFU did a better job at it. We just didn’t have the impressive muscle on our side, or anyone exuding the dangerous vibe of someone like Cobra. We were a group of ordinary folks, mostly, with some flab on our bodies, a mix of scavenged gear, and much less of a swagger. The EFU… model athletes every single one of them.

Not that they were all pretty… but they were lean, with sculpted muscles, some bulky, some endurance, or speed based. A far cry from what we sported.

And then Nancy decided to make another snark comment. “Look at how they are protecting that skinny wuss hiding behind their backs.”

“That’s it, bitch,” Sue snarled, and immediately exploded into action. Supported by a strong gust of wind, she rushed forward at incredible speed and rammed her fist into Nancy’s openly flaunted abs. The impact was audible several steps back, as was the woosh of Nancy losing her breath as she bent over and dropped to her knees.

The reaction was immediate and violent.

All around, people rushed forward, screaming, ready to pound each other to a pulp. Luckily, no drawn weapons yet, but I thought it was just a matter of time. While jumping to the side to avoid one guy running at me like a speed train, I glanced around, trying to gauge the reaction of people around us. Was there anyone that would give us a hand? Anyone ready to stand up for what was right?

Of course, by now it was questionable who was in the right… I had called them out for skipping the line, but Sue had escalated from words to physical action.

Fuck.

And then I was double-teamed by two guys trying to hit and kick me. And despite the stressful situation, I had to almost cackle in delight at feeling the improvement in my perception do some serious work. I knew where and how they were going to kick or punch. And with my spatial awareness, I was always on top of things, ready to twist and turn slightly to deflect their strikes. So while not exactly easy to keep them back, I mostly held my own, doling out more than I was receiving. It might have been a different story with real weapons and their superior strength, speed, and agility, but just with fists, a few glancing strikes here or there weren’t going to take me out.

But it was just a matter of time before I would run out of steam.

And the rest of my group didn’t fare nearly as well as I did. Tom had managed to head-butt one guy in the face, breaking his nose, but someone else had used the opportunity to tackle him to the ground, and now both guys piled onto him. Betsy was fighting against one girl, but she was weaker, slower, less agile… all around inferior. She tried pelting her opponent with some water constructs, but that was woefully ineffective. Sue, meanwhile, was on top of Nancy, engaged in a real catfight. Both of them pulling hair, biting, scratching, having seemingly entirely forgotten that they were much stronger now than they had ever been before. Which made for a pretty spectacular yet odd-looking fight.

Lastly, Ben and Jimmy were each attacked by two EFU members and looked pretty bloodied and bruised already, even after only a minute of fighting.

Things were just about to get nasty when suddenly the temperature dropped precipitously, and we were pelted with hundreds of little ice crystals that were painful but didn’t cause any injuries. For a brief moment, all of the action ceased, and then the giant that had accompanied Chad walked into the middle of the fight. One by one, he grabbed the combatants and tossed them like rag dolls out of the fighting areas, the EFU toward their remaining members that had not participated in the fight and our group in the other direction.

The first one to be so tossed was Sue, and she was almost comically squeaking when she was airborne, before grunting in pain as she slammed on the concrete. In quick succession, it hit Tom, Betsy, and Ben as well, by which time everyone remaining had seen the writing on the wall and backed away voluntarily.

How the fuck was this guy so strong? And it wasn’t just strength… he was quick too.

My musings were interrupted by Chad clearing his voice.

“So well, that was entertaining, but I’m not looking forward to standing around forever. “You,” he turned toward us, “are expelled from the proceedings until further notice. Don’t bother to come back next week, either.”

“The rest of you… get back in line, and let’s get this shitshow over with.” With a sidelong glance at me, he added, “EFU has priority as befitting their station. If you don’t like it, become a part of the EFU and set your own rules.”

Well, shit. I had done it. Kind of. I mean, Sue had escalated things, but I had instigated the situation. And now everyone in the group had suffered the consequences. And by their hanging heads, they didn’t take it too well.

And I got it. Having access to better equipment and spells was going to make a massive difference in the upcoming fights.

Personally… I hadn’t planned on donating my contribution points to anyone else anyway. What the fuck did I care if the I’tisch League of Cities won the competition or not? Granted, they were probably better than those fucking elves. But surely, some of the other factions were equally good, or bad, as the I’tisch League of Cities. So fuck them all. Let them duke it out between each other.

Mutely and dejectedly, we trotted back to the hotel, the mood utterly destroyed. I tried to come up with something to say, but I drew a blank. Apologizing seemed wrong, mainly because I didn’t really feel like what I had done was wrong. Granted, the outcome had not been what I had wished, but that was at least as much Sue’s fault as it was mine.

But what if…

I called up the ladder again and then thought about adding a name to the list. What should I call it? Daniel’s faction? No, probably not. I didn’t fancy the idea of being that easily identifiable. Plus that sounded plain stupid.

So something a bit more heroic perhaps? The Avengers? Justice League? Not bad, even though it sounded a bit like a copycat. And probably off-putting for some people.

United States of Earth? That sounded better. But why not then United Nations of Earth? Then again, both sounded like a democracy, which I wasn’t sure if it was the right way to move forward. As much as I liked democracy as a concept, it depended on the right people in the population and the need for fast and immediate action. So far… it almost seemed as having a non-elected leadership, perhaps a meritocracy was the way to go. Or Emperor Daniel! Well, no. Not really my interest.

So… just Earth. Short, concise, somewhat lame, but easily identifiable for other people from Earth that might have been transferred here and understood some basic English. Or perhaps The Earth Alliance? Not sure about an alliance with whom, but it had a better ring to it.

As I focused my thoughts on the words and envisioned it part of the ladder, I could feel something. I wasn’t sure what exactly. It was kind of like… a tether? A featherlight connection? A moment later, the name The Earth Alliance appeared on the screen at the very bottom of the table.

Faction

Ranking

The Brood

1

Darkalves

2

Gormod

3

Azkeron

4

Albar

5

Mountain Alliance

6

I’tisch League of Cities

7

The Ovgard Conglomerate

8

Havenoord

9

Troll4Love

10

2BR8

11

The John!

12

Reach4the*s

13

The Earth Alliance

14

I allowed a brief smile on my face.

The Earth Alliance was dead last, but that would change in a few moments. I had no idea how many points these factions were able to put into their ladder standing, but on an individual basis, I thought it was highly unlikely that it could compete with my tally for the last couple of weeks.

And maybe I could entice others to join in and try to compete for a higher position up the ladder. I wasn’t sure it was realistic to try and win the whole thing, but if we didn’t even try, we’d for sure lose our independence. And I wouldn’t be able to look into a mirror if I didn’t at least attempt to secure an independent future. More pragmatically, I thought that there might be some advantages from a higher ranking on the ladder, perhaps some benefits that were going to be doled out on a weekly basis or maybe just at the very end.

To start off… I could help out the others for this week. I had plenty of money and felt that they had stood up for me against the EFU, something that perhaps had backfired spectacularly, but was appreciated, nonetheless.

“Guys, how about this… I’m going to pay you what you would have earned…,” I said into the silence that was covering the group like a heavy blanket in the lobby of the hotel.

“Just forget it, Daniel. No need to cheer us up. We did what was right,” Ben said quietly. “And greenbacks are worth shit by now, so you wouldn’t be able to give us any meaningful money anyway.”

I reached into my bag of holding and summoned a bunch of silver coins.

“There you’re wrong, my friend,” I said while dumping the coins onto the table in the middle. “Five mana equals a silver coin, correct? Just give The Earth Alliance credit, and you’ll get the money.”

When I saw the expression on their faces, I burst out laughing. “You see? Things aren’t all that bad.”

“What the heck, Daniel, how do you have so much money?” Ben asked after having recovered his ability to speak. “This is a fortune!”

Betsy stared at the coins and then at me. “You would just give that to us? Why?”

“I’ll take it,” Sue barged in, reaching for some of the coins. “I have twenty-two mana… so that is four silver and four copper. Since you don’t have copper coins, I’ll take another silver and return the change to you later.”

Before Sue could just take the money, I put my hand on top of the coins. “You have to transfer those points, though.”

“Sure, sure, no worries. I was going to do it in a sec. What faction did you say? Earth Alliance? I don’t think I have seen that one before.”

“No wonder, I just created it,” I responded while taking my hands off the coins.

“But why?” Betsy repeated her question.

I struggled for a moment to come up with a good response. Because, honestly, there were multiple dimensions to my answer, and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to share all of them. There was the fact that I wanted to help out my new friends, but not with a gift, more like a transaction that was beneficial for them. I didn’t believe in handouts, I wanted to earn my rewards. And I thought they might think the same way. But there was also the idea of perhaps pushing The Earth Alliance higher up in the ranking and eclipsing the I’tisch League of Cities and some of the others… for whatever it was worth. And lastly, less logical, and more emotional, I wanted to make a statement, wanted to demonstrate that people from the US, and more generally from Earth were not just pushovers, that we would stand up for ourselves and fight, even if, perhaps, it was a losing battle.

In the end, I just said: “I felt bad for causing you all to lose your earnings because of me not being able to keep my trap shut. And I think there might be benefits to being higher up on the ladder. Just a hunch. In the worst case, I am giving some coins to people I like… and in the best case, I am actually gaining some benefit from that.”

Tom shook his head, but went ahead and grabbed a few coins, equivalent to about thirty mana, and then one after another, the rest followed suit.

“Excellent,” I said while rubbing my hands. “Now, I just have to put in my own points, and we’ll see where that gets us.”

“Well,” Jimmy said with a grin, “so far you managed to eclipse a whole four others, namely The John, Troll4Love, 2BR8, and Reach4the*s. Well done!”

I ignored Jimmy as I focused my attention on the ladder. As I thought about contributing, I didn’t see, but… felt the precise amount of contribution points I could add. I had collected a grand total of 870 mana over the last week. A huge number, but not nearly everything, because, to my surprise, there was also a huge bonus for being the first to complete the first level of the dungeon, amounting to another one thousand points.

Holy shit. That was probably as much as Placidians as a whole had collected this past week!

Eagerly, but also with some trepidation, wondering if I just was making a huge mistake, I dumped all my points into The Earth Alliance faction. And the results were immediate.

Faction

Ranking

The Brood

1

Gormod

2

Azkeron

3

Darkalves

4

Albar

5

I’tisch League of Cities

6

Mountain Alliance

7

The Earth Alliance

8

The Ovgard Conglomerate

9

Havenoord

10

Troll4Love

11

2BR8

12

The John!

13

Reach4the*s

14

The Earth Alliance had moved up from dead last a few minutes ago to 8th place. Not earth-shattering, especially considering that the last four positions were basically fake factions, but I had almost single-handedly overtaken two real factions with my huge contribution.

During the last hour, a few other changes had taken place as well, such as the Darkalves dropping a couple of spots, and the Mountain Alliance falling further down, so factions weren’t apart by huge margins, and there was hope for catching someone else. Then again, I had received a considerable leg-up from completing the first level of the dungeon first, so that was not something I could count on again. And chances were that without that, I would still be sitting on the 10th spot, instead of 8th.

“What… what just happened?” Jimmy asked incredulously, staring into empty space, clearly looking at a screen that was invisible to all but himself.

“Why, what is going on?” Ben asked, suddenly tense. Betsy, Sue, and Tom leaned forward, worried that something had gone wrong.

“The Earth Alliance, just… I can’t believe this. It just went from 10th place to 8th place. This is incredible. And look,” Jim pointed into the air straight ahead, “There is a new entry in the individual ladder contributions, right underneath the Brood Mother.”

“Jimmy, we can’t see any of that, so quit fucking gesticulating like that,” Sue grumbled distractedly while apparently pulling up her own screen to check on things herself. “It just shows a bunch of random symbols. What the heck?”

Ben turned to me. “Daniel, do you have allies somewhere that contributed points? How is this possible? This must have been… at least a thousand points. And who is that person on the individual ladder? Someone you have met in the wilderness? Another foreigner, perhaps?”

Shit, I had never considered that there might be another ladder out there. I quickly looked at it and saw that there indeed was Brood Mother on 1st position and then a bunch of symbols on 2nd place… and I felt the same tether that I had felt going to the ladder also connected me to that name.

But to my disappointment, nothing much beyond that happened. No sudden riches were dropping into my lap, no surge in mana, nothing.

Ah, well, it had been worth a shot.

And, then again… it was like two in the afternoon. Perhaps the cutoff was at midnight? So maybe good things were still to come.

In the meantime, I decided to fess up about finishing the dungeon first. At least, it was a credible explanation for the number of points, so I didn’t have to divulge more details on my experience with the weyr swarm. At first, the others thought I was trying to mess with them. But once I changed the name on the individual ladder, at the insistence of Sue, to ‘SkinnyDude,’ they were finally convinced.

While the others started arguing about the implications of this for the future, I excused myself to get back to what I really needed to do – push my body to its physical limits to build up my physical stats as quickly as possible.

I hadn’t forgotten my short-term goal of dealing with the bikers and finding Annie but just had added some long-term aspirations to my to-do list.

The rest of the day passed in a blur, with physical workout, stretching, and stuffing myself all blending together into a hell of pain and suffering.

But I could feel changes taking place in my body. The adjustment was almost real-time, and I couldn’t wait to see what I’d have accomplished by the end of the day.