Sitting in front of the bubble containing the Silver Dawn guild I felt very nervous, though I was able to affect an air of confidence. The reason why I was nervous was that I had to handle this in the correct way or it could end badly for the guild. It was an opportunity to gain an ally that could not betray our guild, and at the same time make problems for Dawnguard. Maybe not huge problems, but they would definitely lose credits and resources if all went according to my expectations.

The situation only came about because Dawn had chosen to abandon her alliance. It did not come as a surprise that Dawn had chosen to backstab the others in the face of adversity, but it was clear she had no real idea of the consequences. It was within her character and the main reason I had rudely dismissed her when she approached me. If I could ensure her loyalty through the system, having a schemer like her on my side could definitely be a boon.

Her bodyguard had just tried to send her to respawn, so she could avoid the penalties that I had informed them off. Of course, it would not be that easy for them. I could not help but chuckle. “You think the system would allow you to escape? You’ve surrendered, you’ve to await the victor’s judgement.”

Blushing she got to her feet. “You are aware that what you’re asking us to sign will make it impossible for us to stay here on the island.”

I cocked my head in a thoughtful manner. “Hard, definitely. Impossible, no. I also know that no matter what you won’t leave the island. If you left, how would you be able to hinder your sister from winning your competition.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

I flashed her a smile. “The competition regarding which of you two will be the new guild leader of Silver Clover, your father’s guild.”

“How do you know about the competition?” her bodyguard asked, his body radiating a dangerous aura.

I suppressed a groan when it suddenly hit me. ‘Right, it hasn’t become public knowledge yet. Their father would have a stroke at the end of February. To appease the shareholders in the guild, he had announced the competition for a successor, and it had leaked to the public.’

With what I hoped was a mysterious smile, I gave an answer I hoped they would accept, “I know people who are well connected.”

The bodyguard did not look convinced, Dawn was hard to read. Nevertheless, she gave a sad shake of her head and said, “Doesn’t matter how you know about it, you clearly do. However, what you’re asking as a compromise would cripple my opportunities while allowing my sister to flourish.”

“You already made it harder for yourself by breaking with the alliance. You’ll be facing harsh penalties for that. The system doesn’t like oathbreakers,” I pointed out.

“You’re mistaken,” she replies with total confidence.

“Oh?”

“It was not I who broke the alliance, it was themselves,” she said. “So our position is not as bad as you think they are.”

“Interesting,” I mumbled. That did put her in a better position. From nearby, we could still hear spells going off, the detonations of Ed’s elementals, and painful screams and grunts. I focused on Dawn, seeing something in her eyes, which told me we had entered negotiations where I stood weaker than I had thought. “Still, there’ll be hard feelings.”

“Hard feelings can be dealt with, especially since I don’t think Dawnguard gives two fucks about hurt egos. All they want is you and your guild shut down,” she countered. It was a strong card to play outright. Clearly, she wanted to establish a dominant negotiation position.

“I guess the time for subtleties is over,” I commented dryly.

She flashed me a smile. “So as you see, your demands are quite unreasonable.”

“No.”

“What do you mean no?” she asked.

I shrugged. “They’re not unreasonable. To be frank, I would prefer that we could still make a deal, but I know your reputation, and your action here confirmed it. You’re a sly one, who’ll stab someone in the back as soon as it’s convenient. The magical contract or death is what I offer.”

“So we choose death,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Oh, I should mention a thing before you decide that,” I said and indicated our surroundings where the fighting had died down. I could already see our members moving in our direction.

“And what is that?” she asked.

“When you surrender, you forfeit all your items if you die. You can’t fight us if we choose to kill you, nor can you escape,” I answered with a large smile. “The way you tried to escape by being killed by a friend, tells me that there’s an item on your person you wish to protect.”

Her eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth to reply, but I held up my hand to stop her. “One moment, let me congratulate my guildmates first.”

She seemed to be shouting something, but the bubble around her silenced whatever it was, reacting to my intentions. Something she seemed to become aware of quite quickly. She settled on giving me a hideous scowl and a stare, which would have killed me if it could, as I stood up to greet Ed, Kira, and Robin who was heading over.

“Congratulations on your victory, how bad were our losses?” I asked.

Ed gave a snorting chuckle, while Robin just shook her head. Kira meanwhile was grinning like a maniac. It was the latter of the three who answered, “No one.”

“Say what?” was my astonished reply.

“You heard her, no one. We had a couple of players go down, but with Fallen Respite, we managed to save everyone,” Ed explained. Fallen Respite was an ability we recommended our healers to learn. It was one of three resurrection spells available before level 75, and the only one that could be acquired without completing very challenging quests on the mainland. It was not a true resurrection, but a buff that needed to be applied ten seconds before death, with some serious drawbacks.

If the player did not die within the ten seconds, they would fall unconscious. If they did die within ten seconds of getting hit by the spell, they would fall unconscious and the healers would have thirty seconds to heal the entirety of the downed player’s health pool. If they did not, the player died and would be unable to respawn for twenty-four game hours.

It had a lot of drawbacks, but it was the only thing available to us. As its tier was raised, the drawbacks would become less, and the benefits better. However, it was like Mentor in that regard, since there were no increases when it levelled up, only when it tiered up.

“Good to hear, did any of them get away?” I asked.

“Nope. Chased down all of them,” Kira said, still grinning widely. “Too bad we couldn’t let Benny’s squad participate, they would have gotten a lot of party XP.”

“Unfortunately, we were too low level for these guys. We got plenty earlier though,” Benny called from nearby, having apparently heard it. Benny was leading one of our newbie squads. He had chosen a party speciality called Guild Soldiers, one that focused on guild warfare. It was one that I had argued against getting with Ed and Kira, but it turned out that we would need it in the end.

“Okay, are we tracking where they come from?” I asked Robin.

She shook her head. “Not yet, we’ll loot and rest up first. Then I’ll grab the other with Tracking and we’ll find them.”

“Good. Do you want to sit in on the negotiations for their surrender?”

“No, I say we just kill them and be done with it. We can’t trust them,” she replied.

I cocked my head. “I’ll take that under advisement. Good hunting.”

“Won’t be much of a problem, they were quite sloppy in so many ways,” she said and walked away with Kira.

Ed looked at me. “Could you give or sell some of the large rocks to Phil? The increased mana capacity of those manastones really did a lot for my elementals. Especially the detonations. It might be a lot of money per pop, but the results were amazing.”

I had to think about that for a moment. We had no real way of getting a lot of new rocks quickly. However, I did have 4,400 of them, so that should not be a problem. We could always order more. “Sure Ed, we’ll figure something out.”

After thanking me, he left me to deal with Dawn alone. Almost alone, Mia remained at my side, so did Benny’s squad, however, neither was there to assist in the negotiations. As I was sitting down on the chair again, I said, “I apologize for the interruption. You were saying?”

“You’re bluffing,” Dawn accused.

“Actually, unlike you, I’m a horrible liar. Ask anyone,” I said with a shrug. The bodyguard that had tried to kill her growled a bit at my insult.

“He really is,” Mia mumbled from her position next to me.

“There’s no way we’ll lose all items,” the one called Slayer said. He was one of those idiots using a lot of Xs in his name. He was also someone I recognized from my past on Blackport. He and his friend Viceman were notorious player killers who had joined the Iron Bears in the past, but it seemed that things had changed.

“Roll the dice then, don’t accept my offer and be killed,” I said. “It would be a shame to lose all your equipment. You probably have some in the camp as well, right?”

“I’m going to fuc—” Slayer started ranting, but was shut up by one of the bodyguards.

“If what you say is true, it’ll be unfortunate,” Dawn said slowly. “However, if we enter into your contract, it’ll be impossible for us to level up. We’ll be constantly set upon by our former allies unless we ally with you. If we ally with you, we’ll become the enemy of Dawnguard, how will I win the competition then?”

“It’s quite the dilemma, I’ll give you that,” I mused. “If you make the deal with me, I’ll provide a way for you to level both your guild reputation and skills. Even if you don’t ally with us, just to sweeten the pot. If you ally with us, I can promise that there’ll be great opportunities in the future.”

“Why should I believe you? We’ve all access to the same quests,” she countered.

“That would be a good point if it wasn’t wrong,” I replied and then shared the screen of our expedition quest. I did not let her join, just let her see what we were working on. I was not afraid of showing it to her. Even if she told others about it, they would not have the necessary reputation to get the quest. Neither did it contain enough information for anyone to sabotage the quest for us.

She just stared blankly at me for a minute or two. “How did you get this quest?”

“Reputation with the Lord and Blackport in general,” was my simple response.

“How much?”

Instead of answering her, I just shared my reputation screen with her. It would reveal some of the effects of my titles, but such effects were not unique. People could find out what titles I had by combing through the Announcement Panel, and from similar titles, they could extrapolate the effects.

Faction

Reputation Points

Reputation Level

Needed for the next Level

Blackport (Overall)

935.2

Close Friend

4500

Blackport (Lord)

500

Friend

900

Blackport (Guard)

221.2

Accepted

225

Blackport (Rich)

180.4

Accepted

225

Blackport (Middle)

180.4

Accepted

225

Blackport (Poor)

3594

Close Friend

4500

She just stared at it for a moment, before whispering, “How is that possible?”

“Luck, hard work,” I replied. “As you can see, I’ve certain advantages. Unless Dawnguard spends a week on moving troops here, they’ll always be less skilled than my members. We’ve just in two fights annihilated everyone we’re at war with, without a single of our members being sent to respawn.”

“Can we get in on the expedition quest?” she asked with a gleam in her eyes.

I shook my head immediately. “Unfortunately not. However, if you become allied with me, there’ll be plenty of opportunities in the future.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“I’m not going to reveal all my cards to you, right now you’re still an enemy,” I pointed out.

“And if we ally with you?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

“I’ll share some of them with you. I can definitely provide you with opportunities that’ll enable you to beat your sister,” I replied. “And as long as she’s allied with my enemies. Well, I got a battle crazy squad that’ll make a lot of problems for her.”

“Okay, what’s the specific wording of the contract you want us to sign? I’m not going to commit to an alliance right now, but I’ll take you up on the offer for guild point and skill grinding spots,” she said.

We started going over, and arguing, over the specific wording of the contract she would be signing back in Blackport. A discussion that took the better part of an hour. She had tried to put a lot of loopholes into it, by using specific phrasings. However, I insisted on keeping it simple, so there were no loopholes, exceptions and so on. I did concede to a clause for her to get out of the contract if I allied with or supported her sister’s guild.

You have accepted the surrender of the guild “Silver Dawn”. Negotiations have ended up in a deal that requires them to:

Leave their current Alliance

Sign a Magical Contract (To the specification agreed to)

It requires you to:

Provide a secret about grinding guild points

Provide them with a levelling spot away from their former allies

“So, are we heading back to sign the contract at once, or tomorrow?” she asked after negotiations had finished, and the golden bubble had disappeared.

I shook my head. “I’m not heading back to Blackport for another ten days or so.”

Her face darkened. “Ten days without earning XP will cripple us.”

“You misunderstand,” I quickly said. “If I try to prevent you from fulfilling the deal we just made through the system, it’ll be nulled. If you head back to Blackport and seek out Nise, she’ll sign the contract on our behalf.”

“Okay,” she said, still looking upset, but I caught a glint of excitement in her eyes.

I let out a sigh. “Don’t even think about it. If you don’t sign the exact contract we agreed on, you’ll not be able to earn any XP. And don’t bother deleting your accounts, it’ll follow you over.”

“Spoilsport,” she muttered. “Okay, what about your side of the deal then.”

“Nise will give you a boat when you go talk with her.”

“A boat?”

“Yeah, if you want a good levelling spot without being harassed by your former allies, the sea is the perfect place,” I said with a smile. “Don’t worry, if you don’t go out too far, there’s no real danger. Also, I doubt they’ll be able to get their hands on a boat anytime soon, so you should be safe from harassment there.”

“Doesn’t sound as idyllic as you made it sound,” she responded with a pout.

“There’s a new group of people, they’re probably in the mid teens with regards to levels, which you can team up with if you want. They fancy themselves to be pirates, though right now they’re focused on levelling up. Just mention that you’re allied with me, and you might be able to come to an arrangement.”

She heaved a heavy sigh. “I guess it’s better than constantly being harassed by a hundred and fifty players. What about the guild points?”

As we made our way toward their former camp, tracked down by Robin and the others with Tracking, I explained the secret to the Sewer Dungeon. She did not look impressed but at the moment, so few people knew about it that it was still counted as a secret. Even if we did nothing to conceal our activities.

When we arrived I was pleased to see that they had captured both of the Dusts and three others, though they had not surrendered officially. They were just surrounded by the members of my guild. As soon as he saw me, Lord Dust started ranting, “Damian, you let us go this instant, or Dawnguard will kill you a million times. Dawn, you made a huge mistake, we’ll—”

He was cut off by a punch by Hei who was guarding him. Hei gave a snort. “Have some dignity in defeat at least.”

“Sounds like a typical cartoon villain,” Benny commented to One-Eye.

One-Eye grunted. “I know exactly what you mean.”

Mason laughed, “I think he sounds more like one of those martial arts types out of those cultivation novels.”

Benny nodded, and then in a shrill voice shouted, “You’re courting death! Kowtow one thousand times or my mighty clan will kill everyone you ever met!”

That got a laugh from my members, and I could not help but chuckle either. I looked at the two of them. “Listen, save the vitriol, it’s not going to help. Marcus will make sure that happens even if I let you go. Kill them.”

Hei reacted instantly, killing Lord Dust in a second, while Kira did the same to Lady Dust. The three others begged to be spared, but the rest of the guild quickly ended them. Dawn looked at her former allies as they turned into motes of light for a moment. She then pointed to one corner of the camp. “That’s our equipment over there.”

“Go ahead,” I replied and then looked at drops from the Dusts. There was quite a bit of coin among it. I looked at the members of my guild. “Go ahead, loot it. Benny, you or one of your party members need to put out the campfire.”

“Eh, why?” he asked confused.

“It’s a camp set up by an enemy guild. Since they’ve used a protective effigy, it counts as a guild asset—” I started to explain.

He caught on immediately, shouting, “Party XP!”

“Exactly, and some guild points,” I said.

“Sweet,” he said and turned to his party. “You heard the man, let’s put out that fire!”

In less than ten minutes the camp was stripped and we were heading towards the place we thought the Squirrel Knights were camping, the Silver Dawn members following us a little mutely. We ran into a few animals along the way, and though it slowed us down, we let our low levelled members handle the fighting with backup from the higher levels if needed. It was good XP for them, while it was almost inconsequential for people like Ed who was level 37.

Ed came up to me, and asked, “How are we going to split the loot?”

“Though they didn’t help as much, the loot would be a boost for the new members,” I said. “Mia, the Phils, and I did nothing, but the three new squads did help in killing the lowbies that followed us. Some of that loot was there as well. To be honest, I think the easiest would be if the forty of you who participated in the two battles just divided everything according to shares. Three shares for party leaders, two shares for everyone else. Divide the coin, donate the equipment and resources to the guild.”

“My father is not going to like that,” he admitted. “Some of the older players think they should have a greater share.”

“Tell them that we’re all equal here. We’re in the same boat.”

“In that case, I think it’s better if the party leaders don’t get extra, will make the grumbling have less bite,” he replied thoughtfully after a moment.

“If you think that is best. When we get to the camp, we’ll hold an internal auction for the equipment dropped. We’ll do five items before logging off,” I said. “Then we’ll do ten items at every meal until we’ve gone through it all.”

“I’ll organize it. It’ll mostly be normal items I guess, but we can always use backups.”

After a few minutes of silence, I asked, “So how much did we get?”

“Not counting the coins, the guild will receive items with a selling price to merchants worth about four hundred and seventeen platinum. Though almost a fourth of that is from materials dropped in the dungeon,” he replied. “We also managed to loot almost three hundred platinum coins. So expect a lot of the members to convert the coin into points. There are a few nice pieces among the loot. Especially the Dusts dropped nice items.”

“Excellent,” I replied with a grin. Not counting the coin, even if we just sold the items to the merchants and converted it to credits without auctioning it off, we would be able to clear over 150,000 credits. War really was profitably when you had the upper hand.