Looking around the dining area, it was much more lively than it had been before Marcus’ visit. I was sitting in the corner and observing the new and old guild members. Phil and Nise sat with his parents. Edward was sitting at another table with Robert, his father, as well as Liam and the siblings. Sarah, dressed in borrowed clothes that were too small, and Ainsley were sitting with Miss Elleby, who was keeping a sharp look on the four kids she had taken under her wing.

Three of them were around ten years old and was quite excited over their new accomodations. The last one, a little black haired girl around five or six years old, looked quite sullen, with puffy eyes from crying too much. I had heard from Miss Elleby that her mother had been scooped up by the BIS during the New Years’ mass arrest of tax delinquents. I felt bad for the little girl, but there was nothing I could do just yet.

It had been a hectic day and a half since Marcus’ unpleasant visit. My head had been spinning with the implication of what he had told me; still did. Not only was I convinced that he was totally off his rockers, but he knew a lot of details about me. At first I had dismissed his claim about erased memory, but the more I thought about it, the more I came to believe him.

There was no way that he would let another guild become the First Recognized in the entire game. There were lots and lots of secret quests that was available from the start that could boost Guild Points on the main continent. It was much easier to earn Guild Points and coin on the main continent than the rest of the game world. It was set up that way to balance that the main continent would be lost, and everyone had to flee.

There were also the matter of the starter quests. He would certainly have gone for that achievement himself. Or maybe it was him messing with my mind, and making me believe he had no memory of ingame knowledge. In the end I decided to take him at his word, because he had seemed very dismissive of me. I would plan for the worst, and hope for the best.

Him possibly not having any ingame knowledge gave me a bit of self-confidence. It meant there was a chance, however, with the revelation of his knowledge made me reevaluate the plan I had made. It had been entirely too passive, with little to no risk, the way I liked to operate. However, with him knowing me so well, it would be time to act against my natural inclination. I had done so before with my introvertness, and I was sure I could find a way to do so with my passivity as well.

Immediately after leaving the meeting capsule, I had beelined for my room. I did not trust him to stay away from Miss Elleby, or the family of my guildmates, and the only safe place I could think of, was the hotel. He might be able to get into a public area and threaten me, but it was another thing to get to the floor we were occupying. However, that option required a lot of credits. Credits I did not have.

I considered asking Phil if he would be willing to invest what little money he had gotten from his parents, but dismissed it again. If I did that he wanted to know why, and I did not feel like lying even more to the people I had to rely on. Telling him the truth would be a recipe for disaster. I had given in to the pressure of my five first guildmates, and that had turned out semi-badly. Most of them still thought I was crazy, though Ainsley and Edward had started to give me the benefit of the doubt, while Kira believed me.

I had been sitting in my room, wracking my brains with ideas on how to raise the credits, when my eyes fell on the box. The box that contained the only possessions I had left from my adoptive parents: A collection of first edition books from the 20th and 21st century. The books would be worth a good amount of credits, but if I wanted to sell them immediately I would take a huge loss. And a personal one as well.

Cursing, I had known it was time for action and not overthinking. Pulling up the info on a rare book dealer, I had contacted his AI with the information about what I wanted to sell. They agreed to buy them, and transfer the credits immediately. For a further reduction in price of course. I had also converted most of the platinum that Dawnguard’s spy had provided, into credits.

In total I had managed to raise 45,360 credits in just a few short hours. With the help of one of the receptionists, I calculated the credits needed. A double room was a bit cheaper, only a thousand credits, than two single rooms, meaning we saved a bit on Phil’s parents. Together with Robert that meant I had spent 31,000 credits on getting the three of them out. It also meant I had pulled out everyone I had promised so far.

However, it still left Miss Elleby. I was a bit dismayed when Ainsley and I went to pick her up. She had four orphans she was taking care of, and while I did not need to pay Minimum Welfare Tax for them, they still cost to house at the hotel. More than what I had left. That was not the first hurdle to get past however. The first was convincing Miss Elleby to move into the hotel, and that I would support her and the kids.

After a long discussion with Ainsley and I, she broke down and admitted she would not be able to run the orphanage much longer, nor pay her MWT. She had been selling her extensive collection of books and possessions to run it for the past few years. Ever since non-government run orphanages stopped receiving financial support. She did have some spare, which she used to pay the difference. Leaving the rest for a rainy day.

“Damian.” The voice of Ainsley dragged my attention back to the present. Looking up I saw her and Edward standing in front of me. I noticed Kira demonstrating how to throw punches and other things. Almost as if she was distracting the rest of the guild.

“What’s up?” I asked, taking the last sip of my foul NutriShake.

It was Edward who spoke up, in his quiet voice, “We’ve been talking.”

I waited for a continuation, but it did not come. After a few seconds, Ainsley picked up, “We’re a little unnerved by what you told me and Ed about that guy Mark. No wait, Marcus. But they found that girl’s body, and you haven’t been alone at any point, so it couldn’t be you. So we’re inclined to believe what you say. Even the fact that they suspect a BIS officer to be behind the gruesome murder”

“Yes,” Edward added. I had decided to tell Edward and Ainsley about my conversation. They were acting like my officers in the guild, so I needed to tell at least them. I had also taken Kira aside and told her, since she was the only one that seemed to truly believe me. Masuro and Liam was kept in the dark, since they did not believe me at all.

“But that brings up something else. With the sudden influx of the rest of our family, Miss Elleby and the kids, the monthly expense must be high. How high is it?” Ainsley asked.

“Thanks for believing me,” I whispered and pulled up the figures. “One hundred and twenty six thousand credits per month.”

“We still have twenty four real days, or forty eight in game days, to gather that money, but we would feel better if we don’t add any new members to the guild until we’ve at least that saved up. Especially since Miss Elleby isn’t playing, but looking after the kids. And you need to be eighteen to play the game,” Ainsley said.

Narrowing my eyes, I could see where they were coming from, but it would also hinder our growth. Even now we could still add three new members, without losing our guild level. We were bringing in one hundred and seventy Guild Points per day at least. Meaning at least one new member per day could join the guild without delevelling the guild.

“Amend the contract,” Edward said.

I looked expectantly at him for an elaborated answer, but he did not give me one; Ainsley did. “We can take new members if they provide us with eight thousand credits as well, which will cover the second month. We will of course compensate with Contribution Points. And we need for them to sign a magical contract.”

“That’s going to be expensive,” I reminded them.

“We know, but after the last spy, we can’t be too careful. We should also have the old members of the guild sign one,” Ainsley said.

Mulling it over, I thought it was not a bad idea. However, I was not a fan of leaving people in the Coffins, which would be the case. Coming to a decision, I nodded. “Okay, but I’ve one condition. We need one more person out of the Coffins as soon as possible.”

“Who?” Ainsley asked.

Pointing to the little girl, whose name I could not remember, in fact I could not remember any of the children’s names. “Her mother.”

“Of course,” Ainsley immediately said, while Edward looked for a brief moment as if he wanted to object. However, he stopped himself.

“I can easily understand your worries, I don’t want to end up there as well. But no child should be without her parents,” I said. Both of them nodded their agreement. Which I took as a good sign. Standing up, I said, “I’m going to log into the game. Need to grind some of all those bones, and work on my skills. Getting close to level ten. How is your grinding going, Ed?”

“Need two more levels in Shared Senses, but already level twenty in the two others. Haven’t upgraded to the next tier though. Will wait until I’ve the class,” he replied. Finally getting a bit more out of him. Unless he was angry, or talking about games, he rarely said much.

“Okay, should I delay using my Free XP to level up? I think the extra World’s First achievement would be of more use on a fighter than a crafter,” I asked.

Shaking his head, Edward answered, “No, we can’t hold back. Just like with someone else grabbing the first class in Blackport. We need to grab the achievements we can as soon as possible.”

“You’re right, just thought I would make the offer,” I said. “See you ingame in a few hours.”

I was grilling some skewers for myself as dawn broke inside the game. Most of the night had been spent grinding bones and butchering rabbits. I had seen the rest of my guild leave the inn a bit earlier, but I wanted to finish meditating before heading out to our normal spot.

However, first I needed to pay a visit to the Fillard’s Sundries. I had a lot of items to sell. When I stepped into the store, I was greeted by a jovial store owner, “Good morning Damian, here for the usual?”

“Yeah, have a lot of furs, eyes, blood and other stuff to sell. Need to stock up on wooden skewers and glass jars again,” I said and started putting things up on the counter.

“Good, good. I was afraid I was going to send my crates a bit light, but with you coming in every day or two with haul like that, it won’t be too bad.”

“When the next ship due to arrive?” I asked curiously.

“Three days, coming from the new continent and going to the capital,” Fillard said happily as he counted the glass jars with blood. “Another one is due in six days from the capital, but there’s not much value in sending all these materials to the new continent. No, better to send it to the capital, where all the craftsmen are.”

“Interesting,” I muttered, before telling him what I needed.

After finding the items I wanted, he started counting out coins. “Very nice haul you got here Damian, worth almost two platinum.”

“Yeah, been lucky with it.”

“After deducting the cost of the items you wanted, it leaves you with one platinum, three gold, nineteen silver and five coppers. Do we have an agreement?” he asked.

“Sounds good,” I said and scooped up the empty glass jars, wooden skewers and coins that were now mine.

“See you tomorrow?” Fillard asked.

“Maybe, no later than the day after tomorrow,” I said and bid him goodbye.

A few minutes later I arrived at our usual spot. Phil and his father Philmore were making planks. For what I did not know. His mother, Elize, turned out to be adventurous soul, and was playing as a healer. The Ewers had a tradition of all their males being named Phil something. Luckily for them it was a small family, or it would quickly become even more confusing with duplicate names. Nise was staring daggers at the Dusts, who had started emulating her. Growing crops and providing food with buffs. Since they undercut my prices at every turn, people only came to buy Nise’s sour bombs or Phil’s arrows.

Speaking of Nise and crops. She had continued to be lucky. Once again achieving the best result on her Harvest uses. It was unbelievable, and if not because I benefited from it, I would certainly have been complaining to a mod. Her luck was not that great with Lesser Transmutation though.

She had to try twice with the carrots before getting seeds of below average quality. She failed three times with the potatoes, before she gave up and bought some new seeds. Not optimal, but that was the way the RNG worked sometimes. Since both Farming and Horticulture had gone up, she had been able to plant three fields with the former skill and two with the latter. She had a carrot, potatoes and wheat for Farming. Thyme and chamomile for Horticulture.

“Morning kid,” Philmore said, while the others just nodded. Philmore was more extroverted than his son, and he liked to hear his own voice. Usually talking about shipbuilding and the majesty of sailing on the open sea, though he had never been out sailing according to Phil.

“Good morning, Phil, Phil Senior and Nise,” I said. Philmore was probably in his late fifties, so around twenty five years older than me. Still it irked me to be called kid.

“Are we going to do anything about those miscreants?” he asked, and thrust his chin in the Dusts’ direction.

“They’re throwing away money the way they conduct business. Right now the two parties can keep me occupied with carcasses and you in supply with wood, so I don’t see why we should bother for the moment. We just keep on offering things that they don’t. If they get a large infusion of coins again tomorrow, we might consider doing something else,” I said.

“You can buy coin?”

“Yeah, there’s a credit to coin auction tomorrow. We can’t see who buys it, but we can see which town they’re bought in,” I said.

“I see. But what’ll we do if they do get a large infusion?” Philmore asked.

“Move,” I said.

“Move? That sounds like a bad idea,” Philmore grumbled.

“The fighters are all starting to receive their class. They’re starting to outgrow the starting area. Hell with my Butchery at level ten the level one rabbit only provide one or two XP, I’d like to get further inland as well. The critters might not be as valuable, but they provide more XP. And there’s access to more and better material.”

“But travelling far every day would be inefficient,” Philmore opined. Nise and Phil looked at me in interest as well.

“Yes it would. Which is why Blue Lotus can offer a campsite, and once per day or every second day, we’ll go to town and sell their loot for a small fee. We of course take a fee for them staying in the camp as well,” I told them. The idea was not fully formed, but it was starting to take root.

Nise looked like she wanted to protest, but she had become a bit more shy when Philmore was around. Probably worried about making a bad impression in front of her boyfriend’s father. Still not sure if any of the others had noticed the budding romance between Phil and Nise.

Reckoning what the problem was, I said, “You should not replant your fields after the next harvest. We can’t keep staying here, if we want to find new resources and level up quicker. Even if the Dusts don’t get an infusion of coins, we should consider it.”

“Sounds like an idea, but it will be hell to ship all that around. Good thing we’re working on a wagon then,” Philmore said.

“Oh. Might be better to buy one from the carpenter, can hold more. At least until you get levelled up more,” I suggested.

“Nonsense, never buy something when you can build it yourself,” the old man disagreed.

Shaking my head, I turned my attention to making some fertilizer for Nise’s fields. After that I would either be making some manastones, or butcher some seagulls or rabbits.

A few hours later, the rest of the guild trooped up. after their daily training at the Imperial soldier’s training ground. They wanted some food and we had our daily trip to the sour joys and the edge of the forest. It took me less than ten minutes to cook their food and pack my stuff away.

While eating, Blaze had been bragging about having received his Evoker class the day before, and showed off his Burning Hands spell. Masuro had also received a class, Shield Warrior, and the Charge ability. Neither had asked me for advice, and had gone for a class supplied by the Imperial soldiers. Not that either would easily qualify for a hidden or secret class anyway. It still irked me they had chosen without asking me for advice.

Not that they had chosen badly. Evoker was a class that focused on damage dealing spells, while Shield Warrior was a Fighter variant which focused on defense. Both were one of the classes I would have suggested to them anyway.

Kira had not gotten a class yet, not because she was low levelled, but because she had come to ask me, and since she was already working on Temple quests I suggested that she went for the hidden class Templar Assassin. It would suit her well. It focused on quick strikes, stealth and PvP. And she had stated she wanted to start a PvP squad at some point.

The quest to unlock it would probably be easy for her. It was an obstacle course you had to traverse without being seen, as well as a combat bout. However, before you could get that quest you needed at least 250 reputation points with a Temple. And temple reputation points was not easy to get. She spent every evening grinding out quests for little reputation gains. According to what she said, she might qualify in another day. The Temple had a handful of other classes you could pick as well, but none that would fit Kira as well.

Petals were closing in on level 10 as well, though she had just hit level 9, half an hour earlier. The other two new recruits were Elize, Phil’s mother, and Robert, Ed’s father. Both of them were level 4. Elize was going for a healer slash buffer build, while Robert was going for a barbarian build. Two handed axe, leather armour. And he had a temperament to match.

While we were heading to the first patch of sour joys, Robert found time to fall back and talk with me. I had only spoken with him perfunctorily up till that point. “Listen, I appreciate you getting me out of those boxes, and what you’ve done for my boy. Been observing everything the last couple of days, and I like your plan. But it’s a bad idea letting these kids be in charge. Especially my boy, he’s not the leader type. You should pick the most senior guy to be the leader.”

“With all due respect Robert, then it still wouldn’t be you. Elize and Philmore are more senior than you” I said to the man who was only five years older than me. He looked like he was about to protest, so I interrupted him by saying, “Ed is a very capable young man. Especially when it comes to games. When we grow bigger as a guild, you can have your own party, if you prove trustworthy.”

“Fine,” he grumbled and stomped away. Luckily he took his anger out on a hapless rabbit instead of me or his son. I had overheard him berating Ed outside the game. Robin who had been nearby, shook her head. That was the problem with families sometimes. They came with baggage.

To occupy myself I pulled up my skill panel. I had a lot of XP to spend, and only eight skill levels from receiving a level up to level 10, where I would be getting my class.

Name

Tier

Level

XP

Observe

Beginner

2 (+)

473/3000

Lesser Transmutation

Beginner

0

0/1000

Greater Transmutation

Beginner

2 (+2)

320/3000

Imbue

Beginner

3 (+)

3726/4000

Message

Beginner

0

700/1000

Meditation

Beginner

6 (+3)

810/7000

Butchery

Beginner

10 (+3)

3434/11000

Gem Cutting

Beginner

2 (+)

600/3000

Alchemy

Beginner

4 (+2)

2546/5000

Cooking

Beginner

9 (+4)

1363/10000

Herbalism

Beginner

9 (+3)

615/10000

Mining

Beginner

0

349/1000

Unassigned XP: 8047

Upgrade Points: 3

I could easily get 6 or 7 skill levels by investing the XP. However, I felt like waiting until I could reach level ten before I started to invest the free XP. You never knew what you would gain. I might be able to get closer to a level in Herbalism which could be more cost efficient to invest in, than one of the other skills. That would be unlikely because I only seemed to get around 5000 XP in Herbalism each time we went out to gather sour joys. Nevertheless, I was not far from reaching level 10. It should happen sometime during the day, or the next hopefully.

If I was not so invested in reaching level 10, I would have thrown all my XP in Meditation or Imbue. The time were approaching where I would be spending more time on Greater Transmutation and Lesser Transmutation. They needed a lot of manastones and mana to operate. Well it was more the greater than the lesser I would be using. I had not expected to find someone to take up Farming, so I had taken it with that in mind.

Nonetheless, I would be able to use Lesser Transmutation for getting seeds for some of the plants used in Alchemy. Now that we were a week from being able to acquire our own guild house, it would give us the room to start growing different crops and plants. I might not pick up Farming but would definitely consider Horticulture. Herbs, fruit trees and flowers would be useful, and only relying on one person was not enough. If I could get Nise to use Harvest on whatever I planted though, it was probably for the best. The RNG was definitely with her, when it came to Harvest.

“Hey Damian, why didn’t you tell us about Camping?” Robin asked with an annoyed expression. She held it for a second, before breaking into a grin.

“Because no one asked, and if I told you everything I knew, you would suffer from information overload,” I said with a smile.

“Fair,” she laughed. “Philmore told us about the idea you got. Since Elize has volunteered for our all girl exploration squad, I think I should pick up Camping, it’ll complement my Tracking spell and class. Then Elize can pick up Butchering, while Marion grabs Herbalism. I know you said Mining and Logging as well, but if we’re moving around a lot, it doesn’t make sense to lug such heavy resources around. So the next two who joins will pick up Harvest and Cooking respectively.”

I thought it over for a moment before saying, “That’s actually a good idea. But what about Leadership?”

“Oh crap, I forgot about that. Maybe I’ll take that then, then we’ll drop Harvest.”

“Or you could get someone to take it later on. You’ve to remember when you reach Apprentice in Leadership your party size increase from five to ten,” I pointed out.

“Right, you said that when we started,” she said with a thoughtful look. “Anyway, could you teach Marion?”

While I would not mind picking up Mentor, it was not a good idea, yet. “I’d rather not until I reach level ten. Sure I could live with the XP penalty if it only applied to what I earned in the skills. However, it also applies to free XP that you invest and earn. So I’d rather wait until tomorrow.”

“Oi, are you selling me?” Marion suddenly appeared behind her girlfriend and poked her lightly in the side.

“Stop it,” Robin giggled. Apparently she was very ticklish. “I was just talking about the plans we made for our all girl exploration squad. You learning Herbalism will have to wait till tomorrow though.”

“That’s perfectly fine with me,” Marion said before walking away again. Throwing a spell at a nearby rabbit.

Soon after we arrived at the sour joys. Ed’s party led the Ewers to the edge of the forest, while the undermanned temporary squad stayed near the patch. Hunting rabbits and keeping an eye out.

Over the last few days, we had started to see the Bears more active again. They seemed to have recovered a bit from the beating we had given them. Or more precisely Ed’s party had given them. Their numbers had fallen though, because they were down to about a dozen or so.

Shaking my head, as if to get rid of any thoughts of those clowns, I turned my attention to the more immediate task: Getting some sour joys.