“So what are we going to do with all the new people?” Edward asked.

Shrugging I gave him an honest reply, “I’ve not had time to process yet. It was all about getting people in here and to safety. Which worked for the most part.”

“Who do we still have out there?” Ainsley asked.

“Rose’s brother and his fiance, boyfriend. Not sure about their relationship status, didn’t ask. Blaze’s brother also refused to join, but was happy enough to save the credits he was spending on his mother,” I said.

“Are they going to be okay?” Sarah asked, clutching her girlfriend’s hand.

Kira answered before I could, “I think Rose’s brother and boyfriend should be fine. They’re BIS officers.”

“Marcus already framed one BIS officer, so I’m not so sure about it, but Josh seemed adamant that they could take care of themselves,” I said.

Edward decided to add, “And with regards to Blaze’s brother, he has been living on the edge of the law for a long time. The people he works for are not to be taken lightly.”

“I’m just not sure it’s enough, but we’ve tried. And we’ll just have to keep trying,” I said before changing the subject. “Okay, I’ve not managed to talk with all of them, but we got three more kids that Miss Elleby will look after while their parents play, and eight adults joining us, including Hei.”

“The sudden influx of players did not delevel the guild?” Edward asked with a worried frown.

Pulling up the numbers, I manipulated them to show what it would look like with our boosted member count. I showed them as a hologram on the table in front of us. It was only the five of us, what I had come to think of us my inner circle, since Blaze was busy talking with his mother. Maybe someday the inner circle would include Blaze, but I was not sure that he was too interested in management. One-Eye seemed uninterested in the running of the guild.

Members

Guild Points

Level 1 Requirement

Level 2 Requirements

21 members

2905 points

2100 points

10500 points

“We could add eight more if our finances could bare the brunt of the cost,” I said.

“Speaking of finances, how does that look?” Kira asked.

It was Ainsley that answered that one. “Not good. We withdrew all coins the guild had collected and converted it to credits, since we did not know how much this was going to cost us. We had Denise pull Phil out of the game for a minute before he went in and converted everything for us. Thanks to Phil’s offer to pay for Denise’s family, and the influx of credits from Hei, we still have nineteen thousand credits. However, that’s not even a tenth of what we need by the end of the month.”

“What’s the monthly expenditure up to now?” I asked with a frown.

“Two hundred thousand credits.”

Edward whistled, before saying, “Can we even get that amount together in less than eighteen real life days?”

With a groan I admitted, “It’s going to be tough. We still have over a month ingame, but we’re going to be ramping up. In a week ingame I hope to make two hundred platinum from the auction, maybe a bit more, and from just rabbits alone I’m making maybe two platinum every three days after expenses.”

Kira asked was the one to ask, “And how many credits are that?”

“Two hundred from the auctions, and then twelve platinum from butchering rabbits, converted to silver, withdrawing ten percent for taxes,” I mumbled as I did the math in my head. “A bit over seventy five thousand.”

“Which is not enough. How many platinums do we need?”

Edward supplied the answer, “Five hundred and three, rounded off.”

“How are we going to get anywhere near that?” Sarah asked with a frown.

“Well, the dives into the ancient dwarven outpost usually generate a couple of platinum,” Ainsley said.

“With the time restriction, we’re lucky if we get twenty five runs,” Sarah pointed out.

“Still another fifty gold,” Ainsley protested.

I was the one who said, “Meaning we’re still missing around half.”

“What else can we do?” Kira asked. There was silence for a few minutes as all of us were pondering what to do. The only real option I could see was pushing for a higher level content area, meaning pushing into the forest and find the next dungeon. However, that would require a substantial investment of coin as well, since we would be away from the town for a while.

Seeing that no one else had anything to say, I said, “I got an inkling of an idea, but first I need to know the disposition of the new recruits. I only talked in depth with Rose’s parents. They’re willing to do whatever we want. They’ve played some games before, together with Denise after she lost her eyesight. It was the only way she could see them.”

Ainsley went next. “Her aunt is the same, and Rose’s parents seems open to everything as well, though they’d like to go on adventures, since they were stuck in repetitive jobs. Mia, Alicia’s mother, she has never played any games, but she said she would do anything for the people that reunited her with her daughter. The only problem I see is Blaze’s mother. And you know Hei best, since you were friends with him in your previous life.”

“I know Andrea a bit,” Edward said. “She’s as lazy as can be. Never did anything to provide for Blaze or his brother, putting her with one of the teams would be a waste.”

“Having her in the hotel cost the same whether she plays the game or not,” Ainsley pointed out.

“And if we threaten to throw her out, she’ll just go back to her other son, and Blaze will be pissed,” Kira pointed out.

“True, maybe we can give her some skills where she doesn’t really have to do much?” Edward suggested.

They all turned to look at me. With a shrug I said, “Since we seem stuck with her, I think the only solution would be to stick her with Farming and Horticulture, and then let Denise Harvest her fields. Edward, since you know her and Blaze the best, could you handle that?”

“Okay, one down, seven to go,” Sarah said.

Turning to Edward, I asked, “Ed, you know a bit more about the game now. Take Denise’s and Rose’s family and make them a temporary party. Are your Leadership getting close to Apprentice?”

“Not so much, haven’t invested any XP in it.”

“Start focusing on that so we can have a ten man party at some point.”

“Okay, so you want me to assign them skills, none of them should pick up Leadership,” he asked.

“Correct. That leaves Hei and, what was her name? Mia?” I said. When I got a nod from Ainsley, I continued. “I’ll take Mia as my assistant, while Hei will be a floater. Joining and leaving Kira’s party.”

“What? That’s going to mess with the party XP,” she protested.

“I know, but hear me out.” I held up a hand, trying to forestall more protests. “Ed’s party and I will run the Outpost one more time, hoping to pick up enough coin for provisions.”

“Provisions for what?” Sarah asked.

“For a trip to the next dungeon. Ainsley, do you still got that slot open for Camping?”

“Sure.”

“Good, we’re going to offer, for a modest price, to take people with us as we go deeper into the forest. Going to another dungeon, the Squirrel Knights should be interested, and hopefully so will a few of the high levelled independent players,” I said. “We’ll provide the camp, and provisions for a price of course. Then camp out there for a few days, making it back in time for the monthly auction.”

“Are the loot good at the next dungeon?” Edward asked.

“Sure, it’s pretty decent compared to what they can get from the Warren or the Sewer Dungeon. But I can give you what I know later.”

“Why only a few days?” Kira asked. “Why not stay out there for a week or more if it’s lucrative?”

“Because we need customers to help offset the cost, the gear to set up a protected camp is around three platinum. When we return there’ll be talk about the new loot and the high level creature. All the extra XP. There’s already people starting to go into the outer edges of the forest.”

“Couldn’t they stumble onto the dungeon?” Edward asked with a frown.

“Sure, but I doubt it. You’ve to travel almost the entire day to get there,” I replied with a smile.

“Which not a lot of them are willing to do, because they’d need skills like Cooking, Camping and other skills to sustain them,” Kira said with a bright smile, seeming happy she had figured out why it was unlikely the other players would travel that far.

“Yes, those skills are still undervalued, but that will change,” I said.

“Okay, so my party and you and your new assistant will go to the new dungeon. What about Kira and the new temp squad? And the others?” Edward asked.

“Okay, let us start with the temp squad first. It will be training in the morning with Kira’s party, then run the Sewer Dungeon as many times as possible. Then hunt low level rabbits. Kira’s party will take Denise with them when they run the dwarven outpost.”

“But we don’t have the Escort perk, we can’t do that,” she protested.

“Exactly, you’ll be taking her as a party member,” I said.

“That’ll make it harder.”

“I know, but you and your brother is fairly high levelled, and with Elize picking up a ranged heal spell, you should be able to cope.”

Frowning she reluctantly nodded. “What about Hei?”

“When you’ve run the outpost, you’ll kick Denise from the party and have Hei join you. Then you provide security for the Phils to get wood and so on, you know the normal routine. And when that’s done you should hunt down the Shadowguard and Bears as much as you can.”

“I guess that’s doable,” she said with a slight smile.

“You’re forgetting something,” Edward said.

“What?”

“The poor, you’ve been feeding them daily.”

“Fuck,” I muttered. “Okay, we need Elize to spend a good time butchering rabbits for meat then. And then pay the kids to get rid of it, they’ll make sure to distribute it.”

“That’s going to make it harder to hunt down the bastards,” Kira pointed out.

“I know, but the quest is more important at the moment. It could change things a lot, in the previous timeline Almighty Al somehow completed it, and he was a bit famous for it,” I said.

“How did he do it?” Ainsley asked.

At the same time Sarah said, “The guy with the ridiculously named guild?”

“Yup,” I replied to Sarah, before answering Ainsley. “No one but him knew. He never told anyone.”

“You’re not worried he’ll complete it before you?” Edward asked.

“A bit actually, but there’s nothing else I can do right now. The poor can’t really afford to buy food, and right now there’s not a lot of jobs for them. So we need to find ways to create some for them, without crippling our own progress in the process,” I said.

“Makes sense,” Kira said.

After half a minute of silence, I looked around the table. “Okay, so everyone knows what they need to do for the next week ingame?”

They all gave nods, and headed off to do their own things. Well Edward would be organising six of our new recruits, leaving just two for me: Hei and Mia. I choose to go for the one I knew.

Making my way to the table, I saw Hei, or Shenshun sitting at a table with his son Fai. Standing at a respectful distance, I waited for him to look up. “Got a moment to talk?”

“Sure, just keep it clean,” Hei said and indicated his son who was watching cartoons on the wall screen. The vid screens in the common areas never showed anything but cartoons or other shows for the children. Some of the younger members had complained about it. I had told them to suck it up, and wait for us to grow big enough to be one two floors, then we could have a floor for the children, and one for the “grown-ups”.

“No problem,” I said and sat down, making sure I did not block Fai’s view of the screen. He sent me a few shy glances. Even in a few years he would still be a shy boy, as far as I could recall, though he had warmed up to me on some of his father’s visits. It probably had something to do with the supply of cookies I kept in my desk.

Turning my attention back to Shenshun, I said, “In a day or two Ed’s party and I will leave for another dungeon in the forest. Only be gone for a few days. I need you to run the Sewer Dungeon until you’ve run it a total of fifty times.”

“Why do you insist on that? Some kind of hazing? I mean it’s a level one dungeon,” he asked with a frown. Not in a whiny tone, just curious.

“When you’ve run it fifty times, the guy that controls the dungeon will allow you access to the next tier of the dungeon. While it’s not needed if the others have high enough reputation with him, it’s better if we have as many as possible that fulfill the requirement.”

“I can see that, but why don’t I just join the other veteran party you have?”

“To complete the dungeon you need someone with the spell ability Imbue, and since they’re not a dungeon centric team, they can’t pick Escort.”

He thought about it for a second, before nodding. “I see they need one of the crafters in the fifth spot. Anything else you want me to do while you’re gone?”

“Yeah, join Kira’s group each day after they’ve run the second tier of the Sewer Dungeon, they’ll need your help with tracking the rest of the Shadowguard and Blood Bears.”

“I can work with that. I do have a question about Taint though. Never really paid attention to it before, just dismissed the warnings whenever they popped up. Now I know better and need to start paying attention, since others like Kira can track me down and cripple my account.”

“You want to know how to get rid of it?”

“Exactly.”

“There’s two ways. The first is simply to let time pass by, without incurring new Taint, then it will slowly fade. The more faded it is, the less of a punishment you receive,” I said. “The other way might be a bit unpopular, but it’s more effective. Go to the temple and confess that you’re a sinner. You’ll receive a penance quest like if you had been killed by an Inquisitor party, but the punishment is lighter.”

“Thanks, I’ll have to think about it,” Shenshun said. I bid him goodbye, and headed over to the other person I needed to speak with.

Mia was sitting with Alicia, who was all smiles and hugs. As soon as she saw me approaching, she gave me a big smile. “Damian! You brought mommy back to me.”

“Hey munchkin. I did indeed, have you been taking good care of the surprise?”

“Yes, Missy and Kitty are so cute, mom is going to love it!”

“Love what?” Mia asked.

“That’s a surprise,” Alicia said with a serious face. “But I know you’re going to love it, since you love cats so much.”

Mia was having a hard time holding back her laughter, so was I, at Alicia’s unintentional slip of the secret. To get a moment alone, I said to Alicia, “Hey munchkin, could you go tell Miss Elleby that it’s time for you to move?”

“But I don’t want to move. I want to keep living here with you and the pool. Mom you’ve to see the pool, it’s so neat.”

“Don’t worry munchkin, you’re not going to move away from here, you and your mom is going to live in a room right next to Miss Elleby,” I said.

“Okay, be right back,” Alicia said before jumping down from her chair. She ran across the room, to find Miss Elleby.

“Thanks for everything,” Mia said.

“Don’t worry about it.” I waved it away. “I came over to grab a quick conversation with you.”

“About my duties in the game?”

“Something like that. Do you have any preferences?”

“Not really, just want to be able to provide for me and my daughter,” she said with a frown.

“Which will be the goal. I was hoping you could be my assistant of sorts.”

“Of sorts?”

“Yeah, I’m swamped with animals that need to be butchered, and I can’t really keep up and get anything else done.”

“Ah, so you’re talking about a skill, you want me to be a crafting person?”

“That would be ideal,” I said.

“Isn’t it a bit unusual for the guild leader to be a crafter, normally they’re the best or one of the best fighters in the guild?”

“True, they usually are because so many resources are focused on them, but Blue Lotus does things a bit differently.” Cocking my head to the side, I had to ask, “I thought you didn’t have any gaming experience.”

“I don’t, not really. But Alicia’s father was some hot shot in the Berserkers last I heard.” she said with a shrug.

The Berserkers ranked in the top fifty of guilds consistently. Barely above the threshold each time the list was updated. I felt a bit uncomfortable asking, but I was a bit curious, “What happened to him?”

“His rich upper management daddy got him legally removed as parent to Alicia. He did not want a granddaughter of ‘low status’ in the family,” Mia said angrily.

“I’m really sorry about what you went through.”

“It’s fine,” she said with a deep breath. “So, production class. From what I understand there’s all sorts. Since you want my to help butcher animals, do you need help cooking?”

“No, that one I got covered.”

“What else do monsters drop? Oh right, there’s the skin. Do you have anyone making clothes or armour from it?”

Smiling at her willingness to embrace her role, I said, “We do now.”

“Okay, but you’ve to help me, I’m not sure about what I’m doin—” she started to ask.

“Mommy, mommy!” Alicia shouted as she ran back through the room. “I got all my stuff, can we move now?”

Mia looked at me with a helpless look. With a smile, I said, “Go enjoy some time with your daughter. We got training in an hour anyway, so I’ll send you a message with some skills I think you should pick up.”

“Okay, thanks,” she said as she was dragged away by her daughter.

“No problem,” I said with a headshake. It felt good reuniting the two of them. Hopefully I would be getting some more time to myself, now that Alicia had her mother. Despite the short time until I had to log out again, I logged into the game.

I had expected to log into the game in the root cellar, but apparently the people that stayed in the game had gotten us transported back to the inn. I would have to remember to repay the silver when I found out who did it. I had an important task to do before it was time for training: Better known as cooking for the poor. The entire night before I had butchering rabbits, and the meat would spoil if I did not use it soon.

I made sure to stay to the well-lit streets, and kept an eye out for trouble. Not that I found any; not a hint of a Shadowguard or a Blood Bear. Whistling I set up my table and grill, and started yet another evening cookout.