Outside in a small courtyard, the old wizard exchanged increasingly heated words with an eight or nine foot tall humanoid in gleaming silver armor. The giant stood with arms folded, blocking the only way out to the street—unless you were a wizard who could phase through wrought iron doors, perhaps. The argument escalated until the wizard shouted something, causing the armored man's face plate to snap in Silas's direction.

Silas and the hulking man in armor stared at each other for an uncomfortably long pause, until Silas raised an eyebrow and looked to the old wizard for some sort of clue.

The silver-clad man bent in an elegant bowing pose, taking one deep step forward, practically a lunge, bending that right knee while his left leg remained straight, toe pointed back. He bowed at the waist, head down, such that his torso and bent right knee were practically touching. His right arm was folded in, somewhere between his chest and knee, while his left arm swept outward and up.

The overall effect almost seemed mocking, for how well the maneuver was performed. A humblebrag of a bow. 'Look at how amazing I am, to bow like this so perfectly, you pathetic scum who can't even touch your toes without bending your knees.'

Or maybe the guy just liked showing off how limber he remained while wearing plate armor.

Holding the pose, the shiny man began an impromptu speech of sorts, full of flowing, well-articulated words.

The old wizard met Silas's eyes and did a head jerk towards the exit, a nonverbal 'Stop standing in the doorway and get moving.'

The armored man with his cultured voice continued talking, probably to Silas, but it was all a bit pointless since he couldn't understand the words…yet. Later Eve should be able to play him back a recording with subtitles, after she cracked the language barrier wide open.

After another minute of word listening, with no sign of the speech slowing down, Silas shrugged at the old man, who seemed to have developed a tic the way he kept twitching his neck and head while giving Silas increasingly intense looks. The way his long hair and beard flowed in the moderate breeze with every movement was quite magnificent, worthy of a book cover, with the old man atop some mountain, raising his staff towards the sky in defiance, a look of anger on his face much like the one growing on his face now.

Ah. But what did Silas owe the old man? What if he had wanted to save his get out of jail free card for later?

Silas approached the still speaking man. "Uh, I don't understand what you are saying. They sound like nice words, though, so…thanks?"

The knight—he was probably a knight—paused and slowly stood. He asked the old wizard something, who shot back a short, annoyed reply.

The armored giant deflated a bit, his shoulders slumping, before perking back up. A bag appeared in his hands, an old hiking backpack full of straps holding down an assortment of tools on the sides, the pouches full to bursting. He dug around it for a bit, taking out package after package, setting aside a few random objects he placed into another, smaller bag. He then reloaded the pack and offered it to Silas, speaking slow and loud, the tried and true method of communicating with foreigners everywhere, it seemed.

Silas nearly fell over and had to drop the anvil disguised as a bag.

It landed on the cobblestone with the distinct sound of something shattering, like pottery or glass.

The giant said something and made to pick up the bag, but Silas waved him off and summoned Taylor, his personal mule.

The pink elf in a maid costume curtsied immediately. "Master Silas? Would you like dinner, or perhaps a–" She blinked and looked around. Ears gaining a darker shade of pink, she asked, "How may I be of service, Master?"

He glanced at his two observers, who seemed lost for words, as was appropriate for how long he'd spent optimizing her assets. "Can you do things, when I don't summon you?"

"I have access to the public guild areas and my personal quarters. Beyond is…an emptiness." She shuddered. "We closed all the curtains."

We? He focused on the important things. "Anything good in the guild bank?"

"Just crafting supplies for all the professions and a few other trinkets." She glanced at her audience, "And the treasury is intact. We seem to have all the professions covered, with the rest focused on gathering raw materials, among the dozen of us who retain access to the guild, Sir."

"A dozen of you." He sighed. All his characters within World of Fantasy, an even dozen, had been in the same guild with some of his friends from middle school. HiMyNameIs. Such a great guild name, to float just above the character name. Silas was proud to have conceived it. They had almost been YourMomSaysHi, which would have been funny, if not as funny.

She nodded. "It's just us, the staff, and the servants. The others are all in a daze of sorts, just going through the motions of training and their regular tasks. I'm doing my best to cheer everyone up though, don't you worry, Sir."

Silas did so very much not want to deal with the emotional insecurity of one minion, much less a dozen, plus staff (and servants??), nor would he even know where to start. "Right. Well." Gesturing at the bag on the floor, he said, "Take this and sort through it. Oh, and something with low durability shattered. See if you can get it repaired. And get me a list inventorying the guild's resources. Items, facilities, people, everything." He recalled the annoying yet useful mini-games added to the MMO over the years. "And see to the farms, everyone should be producing food for…KookyCookyCookieMonky to turn into meals. And the pet and mount stables, have someone see to them, if they need seeing to."

She bowed. "As you say, Master. The servants see to the stables, but I'll make sure each gets proper attention and exercise. Wouldn't do for you to call on your winged nightmare, only to find it grumpy and annoyed."

"Indeed." He had to worry about his mounts' feelings, now? How would his Skill treat mounts? They looked powerful, but they didn't actually do anything but help transport him from A to B, at least in the game. One hit, and the player was dismounted to fight while the mount vanished until called for again.

He had a pretty sick mount collection, though. Sitting atop a dragon wreathed in purple flames or a blazing green phoenix would be quite the power move, as long as no one called his bluff. It would be cool if when summoned they were now as strong as they looked, though also not because then they would be useless for him at the moment. He did have some basic flying mounts, like six differently colored giant eagles, which he could probably still summon with his current Skill level.

The dirigible from his Mechanic profession could hold ten players, the number for a small-sized raid introduced in that same expansion. There had been a larger one too, for twenty five players, but it required a series of drops from twenty five man dungeons, which Silas hadn't bothered to try and collect. He should have, the game now two expansions beyond that one, meaning his over-leveled characters could have gone in and soloed the place for the materials, but there was only so much time for gaming in a day.

Even he had to pick and choose what content to spend time on, when trying to balance gaming time with the rest of his life. Piano, homework, food, sleep, and his other hobbies all still had their place. He did want to get into a good college, somewhere with a strong programming department, so he could work on developing games instead of just playing them. His mom nearly went to find her belt the one time he joked about how many successful gaming developers skipped college, instead going straight into creating their own games. After that discussion, his college plans were all but confirmed.

Back to more relevant matters, he nearly laughed as he considered one particular mount which previously slipped his mind. The giant rabbit, Lucky, had been a seasonal event reward a few years back. Lucky came in a variety of Easter egg fur colorations, Silas's a pastel yellow patterned with lines of fine white stripes. It (He? She?) had a power which allowed the mounted player to save any six locations and warp to them once an hour. The game had many transportation options to the various in-game locations of interest, so within the game Lucky was of marginal utility. Most lucky enough to earn the mount used it to check rare spawn locations, or to quickly arrive outside certain dungeons for speed runs of the older, harder to reach content.

"If the crafters can produce items from locally sourced materials, that would be best," Eve added into his ear, bringing him out of his thoughts. "Such items would theoretically not rely upon your mana."

She had a point, which Silas acknowledged as he made a mental note to call upon Lucky later. Seeing Taylor had vanished the indicated pack, he gave her a nod then vanished her, back to the realm of his guild house it would seem. Though now each character had their own quarters, when his account had only had access to the one. A question for later.

The previously arguing duo were now whispering back and forth, the beginnings of another disagreement.

He had openly shown off his ability, or a part of it, which maybe he shouldn't have done, yet trying to keep such things hidden would only become more annoying as time went on. Eve getting herself turned into a skill really was quite useful, as it opened up a summoning slot he could now use for a simple solution to his communication problems while Eve tried to understand the local language. Having someone act as a translator would doubtless speed up her work by a large factor, which he didn't do earlier, because, well, he didn't.

He summoned the communications officer from the same ship of space elves as the previous ensign. Her uniform consisted of a long-sleeved yellow form fitting top with the ship's insignia on the left chest area, a short black miniskirt, yellow tights, black combat boots, and a standard issue sonic blaster on her hip. With the features of a little girl and the same glittering black skin and short pointed ears of all space elves (or whatever their race was called within the story), the communications officer was in fact a newly created android still learning to show proper, well, not humanity, but elf-ness, who often failed to understand when others acted in ways which went against basic logic.

Her character featured in several subplots, often as a foil to the jaded captain who lost much of her humanity/elf-ness during a drawn-out war. The captain was then forced to face her beliefs when asked pointed, innocent questions by her ignorant communications officer.

Which…didn't really matter, Silas supposed. Any of the ship's space elves could act as a translator. But he figured an obedient android, summoned from her first appearance in the series, should be easier to handle.

"Orders, sir?" The child android asked.

"I need you to act as my translator, Lieutenant Ai." At least he couldn't be blamed for this bad name choice.

The little android just nodded. How wonderful, for an AI to just follow orders.

"You're thinking something mean, I can tell," interjected Eve.

He focused his thoughts, the way his character Cole had when he wanted to communicate silently with Eve, to see if it actually worked. "Shut up, you."

"Shutting up, sir. I'd work on updating my appearance, but your tastes appear so varied I'm not sure what form would please you most. Once I dig through your laptop's data I am certain I shall be better equipped to service your future needs, Master."

Ignoring Eve, he turned to the again arguing duo.

Ai pointed at the wizard, "He is saying you need to be put on a ship bound for Port Searl with all haste, while he," she pointed at the giant, "says you must be taken to meet with the King."

A ship, when there was some tentacled horror coming towards the city? "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!" he said, pointing at the old wizard, who seemed shocked by this turn of events.

Ai dutifully translated, repeating his words, and even his gesture, in a dull monotone. Thanks to sci-fi magic, the sound waves she produced included embedded thought patterns which enabled all intelligent species to understand her words. A common technology back in her universe, naturally.

The old man spoke and waved his hand dismissively at the ocean.

Ai translated. "What. Oh. The ocean monster." She mimicked the gesture. "If it is indeed coming next quarter, you have nothing to fear, my boy. You would be on dry land on a different continent before it surfaced from the depths. Safer for you that way, yes indeed."

The old man began speaking again, and so she continued, "What translation magic is this, projected so. Absolutely amazing. And what is she. And that other one. What sorcery is this, young hero."

Ah. The H-word.

Ai continued translating the giant's interjection, "I must insist the Hero come to the royal palace for a visit. If not, Father will have my hide."

Father? Was he a prince, or was his father someone else important?

"As amazing as both of those offers are, I've been in a cell for…five days? Yeah, five days. I need to stretch my legs, take a bath, get some proper clothes," he gestured at himself. "Maybe meet the king next week? And after that I can go to this port, if I need to? Why the hurry?"

As Ai translated the two began whispering, which of course she could hear perfectly fine with her android ears. She pointed at the giant. "We should tell him." Then to the wizard. "We really shouldn't. We have a greater responsibility here, the gift of the sea." Back to the giant. "Exactly, yet you squander our people's chance, lonely wooden clearing."

Both of them turned to Ai. "That is not my name," she translated for both.

"She does literal translations," added in Eve.

"No duh," he replied. "Care to take over?"

"If you're happy with a fifteen percent accuracy I can give it a go."

"Roger that, Red Leader."

"Was that a yes?"

"No, and stop distracting me, I can't do a gazillion things at once."

"No one can. It's not a number. Over and out."

Silas sighed. The two had been talking, explaining some things, and Ai had translated it to him, only he hadn't heard it thanks to Eve.

"Sorry," he told her. "Can you repeat that from the beginning."

The advanced intelligence gave him a flat look. "That from the beginning."

He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He wasn't getting his peace and quiet again any time soon, he just knew. Maybe they'd put him back in his cell, if he asked nicely?

"Start from the beginning," he told the two men, knowing anything he said to Ai would only add to the confusion.

The wizard started talking before Ai had finished translating, only to be cut off by the giant. Ai then repeated their words back to him verbatim.

What would it take to go back in his cell? Stealing a loaf of bread? Punching someone in the face? Might be worth finding out.