Waking up with the weight of someone lying on you, their breathing synchronised with yours, the warmth spreading from every place your bodies touched, was not an unknown feeling for me. However, it had been so long that I could not remember the last time it happened.

Mia was sleeping atop of me, her head lying on my chest. With a gentle touch, I moved the hair from her face so I could watch her sleeping. She was really beautiful. Asleep, she relaxed, meaning the worry lines on her face smoothed out. I noticed she had put on a bit of make-up, but I thought she did not need it.

Her hair fell down to obstruct her beautiful face once more, so I stroked it back behind her ear. The touch made her crinkle her nose and pout a bit, which looked extremely cute, for some reason.

I glanced at the digital clock in the lid of the pod and saw there were only a bit over an hour until it was dawn in-game. Deciding it was time to wake up, get some food before it was too late, I started gently stroking Mia’s back. After a minute or so, she started to slowly wake up. Even the way she yawned was cute.

Or maybe it was just the serotonin and dopamine running amok in my brain. Seeing her eyes open, I gave her a gentle smile. “Good morning.”

“Good evening,” she corrected after a quick glance at the clock. It was eleven in the evening. However, living underground, the time of day had lost all meaning.

I shrugged. “We’re living mostly in a world where it’ll be morning in just an hour. This is just a place we come during the night to refill our bodies with the fuel it needs.”

“Why don’t we arrange a trip then? To one of the beach resorts or something?” she asked.

“It’s way too expensive.”

“We just got a huge pot of gold, we could spend some on having fun,” she replied, following up by nibbling at my ear. Before I could respond, she whispered, “You could even make it a nudist resort. Just think about it, me naked all the time.”

I groaned at the thought. The lower part of me definitely liked the idea. However, I knew it was a bad one. So were the things I wanted to do to her. At least at the moment. We had obligations to take care of.

“You paint a tempting picture, but it’s still going to be a no,” I said, straining hard to not get distracted by the naked woman. The threat of Marcus was still all too real. While we stayed ensconced in the hotel, he would not be able to touch us. If moved beyond the confines of the hotel, it was something else entirely.

However, I could not tell her that. Neither should I be telling her the truth about me. She seemed like someone who was not entirely willing to entertain such notions. Nevertheless, I felt I should tell her eventually if we moved on with our relations, which was something I should get clarified.

“Oh no,” she said in mock horror. “You got a serious thinking face. Am I not attractive enough, now that you’ve had a taste?”

She had a mocking tone, but I thought I could hear undercurrents of a bit of fear and uncertainty. I gave her a kiss. “You’re a very attractive woman. You know that. But you’re right, I was thinking. Thinking about the future, where do you want this to go?”

“Where do you want it to go?” she returned challenging.

“Fair, I guess. I just thought I would give you the chance to start, since you’re the one that aggressively pursued me,” I replied with a gentle smile.

She raised up a bit, enough for her to swat me on the shoulder. “Only because you’re dunce that never noticed the subtle flirting I was sending your way.”

Thinking about it, there might have been a flirty tone to our interactions lately, but it was not something I paid any mind to. Like everyone else, she was classified in my mind as a subordinate. Out of bounds. Meaning that if she had been subtly flirting, I would just have ignored it.

“I guess I just ignored it because you’re my subordinate, I didn’t want to muddy the water, so to speak,” I said, immediately regretting it when she got a hurtful look on her face. “No, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m sorry, it was not meant in a bad way. Geez, I’m bad at this. Let me speak frankly for a moment, and please don’t be hurt by what I say.”

She nodded reluctantly. I took a deep breath. “As you know I was a teacher for a long time. Teaching the higher grades, when young people start exploring their sexuality can be a trial. Some will dress provocatively, some will flirt with you. Not because they want you, but because they feel safe with you.

“As a teacher, you’ve to either stunt their growth or allow them to explore friendly flirting in a safe environment. If you do the latter, you’ve to be in firm control. For me, that meant putting people in a box that are locked down tight. A box of people that are unapproachable. I taught myself to ignore small clues from people in that box. When I started the guild, I put our members in that same box. Of course, you chose to take a sledgehammer and break out of the box, something I’m eternally grateful for.”

She had a thoughtful look. “I guess that makes sense. I just need to know one thing.”

“What do you want to know?”

She got a playful look on her face. “Has the hole been repaired? Or do I need to fear that you’ll run amok amongst all the nubile female members?”

I laughed nervously. “It’s closed, only you slipped through.”

“Good,” she said before giving me a long, deep kiss.

When we came up for air, I said, “I still want to know where this is going. And I guess I should start where I want this to go. I just hope I don’t put too much into it. I hope for a long healthy relationship. If we continue this, I want us to be a family. I don’t do trysts, friends with benefits or things like that. I want a monogamous long term relationship. Is that—”

I was interrupted by another passionate kiss. After we broke apart, she whispered, “I want that as well. I want a father for Alicia.”

“I’m glad you feel that way,” I said with a big smile. I took a deep breath. “However, there’s something we need to get a handle on.”

“What?” she asked with a bit of trepidation in her voice.

“The guild. I don’t want to hide our relationship,” I stated, stroking her face. “There’s a big elephant in the room though. My status as the guild master, the boss. I’ve realized I need to take a more active role. Need to get a firmer grasp of the reins. However, your position as my wi—girlfriend is not something that equals power in the guild. That’s something private between the two of us. You’re my assistant, so you already wield a lot of power. But your status in the guild is that as my assistant.”

“I understand. You’re treating the game as work,” she said with a serious look.

“You’re right.”

“I can accept that, with one proviso,” she replied, still looking very serious. Which made me a bit worried. A playful gleam in her eyes made me relax though. “That you take your time to ravish your personal assistant once in a while. I’d like to be ravished on the beach at least once.”

I chuckled. “I guess we can arrange that.”

“Good,” she said and rewarded me with a kiss. Her stomach growled. Or maybe it was mine. She smiled, “I guess we should get a shower and something to eat.”

“I think you’re right,” I replied while she got to her feet. My left side freed, I could see my wrist device blink. “You go ahead, I got some messages I need to go over. It’s not like I can scrub your back in the shower.”

“Unfortunately, the showers are just barely large enough for one person,” she said as she walked into the bathroom. She gave me a sly smile, just as the door closed. “Maybe we can change that in the future.”

I had to mull over it for a second or two before I realized she was talking about moving in together. If we combined our pods, we could get better accommodations, and actually, save a little credit.

I started checking my messages. They seemed to be all from Kira, along the lines of “Where are you?”, “Where the fuck are you?”, “Don’t fucking ignore me! Open your goddamn door!”. If they had been text messages they would probably have a lot more exclamation points. I looked towards the door. Mia must have hit the do not disturb setting, so we did not hear anyone knocking.

Besides Kira, there were also a couple of messages from an irritated Ainsley. Along the same line, except with less cursing, and a not so gentle reminder that I stood up the new recruits that arrived two hours ago. ‘Fuck!’

‘I hope that they’re still in the dining area, otherwise, I’ll feel like a total fool,’ I thought as I heard the door to the bathroom open again. Mia was deliciously naked still, all her clothes, the little that there were of it, were still lying on the floor.

“All yours,” she said with a smile. I got out of the pod, gave her a peck on the cheek before heading to the bathroom. That was my plan, but she grabbed my arm and pulled me back around, giving me a scorching kiss.

One that left me a little addled brained. A fog that did not lift until I stood in the shower. I could not believe how things had evolved. It was so far outside of my expectations. I felt giddy, felt a wide smile threatening to split my face in two constantly. I felt on top of the world.

When I got out of the shower, I felt an intense stab of disappointment. Mia had left the room. It made sense, she needed to change clothes, and she had not brought any. Nevertheless, I felt disappointed. I guess that in the matter of the heart, logic does not rate very high on the list.

After getting dressed I made my way to the dining area. It seemed wrong to call it a room when it was larger than many restaurants. When I stepped into the dining area, it felt a bit wrong calling it that, I saw that everyone was still gathered, except for Mia and Philmore. The latter should be in the game finishing the barn and the quest.

As soon as Kira saw me, she got a very dark look. One shared by Ainsley, though slightly less dark. I could see Kira starting to wheel in my direction, and I did not care to have a confrontation, so I took the bull by the horns and raised my voice. “Hello everyone, if I could have your attention for a moment.”

I waited a few seconds as the conversation died down and everyone turned their attention to me. I gave a large smile. “My name is Damian Pryce, better known as Damian Heosphoros in the game, and I’m the guild leader and founder of Blue Lotus. First off, I would like to apologize to everyone, especially our new members, for not being here. Unfortunately, some important personal business came up.”

As soon as I said it, I realized the double entendre and felt my face flush a bit. I quickly moved on, “Next I want to bid all you new people welcome. It’s a great pleasure to have you here. Each of you have been carefully selected to help the guild grow. By now you’ve probably heard about the Challenges. Our goal is to win these games and get as many people out of the coffins as possible.”

That got a bit of cheering from some of the more boisterous members. I gave them a smile. “It’s not going to be easy. We’ve our share of enemies, including the number one guild in the world, Dawnguard. However, many of our enemies are starting from behind. And those enemies are the big corporations. Every single corporation out there is starting their own guilds. They might be starting from behind, but they have what we don’t have. Money.”

I took a deep breath and saw that Mia had arrived. She had snuck in and sat down next to Alicia. “It might seem like I’m painting a very bleak picture. I’m not going to lie to you, our situation can look bleak. However, I believe in what we’ve built here. We started with just six players in the guild. Today we’re sitting ninety-one players in this room. A week from now it’ll be one hundred and sixteen. All this was achieved in less than two months.

“Yes, the other guilds might have reputation, numbers, or money going for them, but they don’t have what we have. Momentum and a higher purpose. We might be a small insignificant guild in their eyes, but we were the first guild to be recognized officially by the game. We’ve gotten more world firsts than any other guild in the game when calculated based on membership.

“They don’t have our drive, because we’re not doing this just for ourselves, we’re doing this for everyone like us. The unfortunate, the waste of society as we’ve been called. We’re doing this for a better tomorrow, and we’ll show them not to look down on us, just because we weren’t born with a silver spoon stuck up our arses!”

That got a lot of applause. I gave them a self-conscious smile, I raised my voice to be heard, “Now, I’ll not take up a lot more of your time. Because frankly, I’m starving and it’s getting time to log into the game and join Philmore. But before we do that, I have a personal announcement.”

I waited for silence. “Mia and I have decided to give a relationship a try. This is a personal matter that has no influence on the guild. I’m still the guild leader, she’s my assistant. Nothing changes for the guild.”

That got us a round of congratulation, but what stood out was a little girl shrieking and running at me, “Daddy!”

I caught Alicia as she launched herself at me, spinning around to arrest her momentum, before hugging her. In a low voice, I said, “I’m not your biological father. But I’ll be a very loving dad who dotes on my cute little daughter.”

Her arms tightened uncomfortably hard around my neck, almost making me choke. However, I could not get myself to tell her so. The feeling her joy gave me was worth any discomfort I might feel.

The congratulations took up a long time, meaning that I did not get around to eating before dawn in-game. The others had already logged in, the kids, including a reluctant Alicia, had been herded off by Miss Elleby, before I got around to eating. It was a silent meal with just Mia and I. Not an uncomfortable silence, a joyful one, with a lot of small touches and looks.

However, we had a job to do, so with great reluctance, I separated from Mia and logged into the game. As soon as I arrived, I was bombarded with quest notifications.

Quest Completed

Establishing the Hamlet II

Reward Pool (Guild Leader’s Discretion)

None for you.

Quest Accepted

Type: Chain

Establishing the Hamlet III

Your guild has placed a settlement token. You have 48 hours to build 3 new advanced structures and 7 new basic structures. At least 3 of the buildings must be of defensive nature.

Reward Pool (Guild Leader’s Discretion)

500,000 Free XP

5,000 Guild Points

7 Upgrade Points

Penalty for Failure

Loss of settlement token

Quest Accepted

Type: Chain

Securing the Hamlet II

Your guild has taken the first step towards establishing a hamlet. Five points of interest within 5 kilometres of the settlement token have been spawned or were pre-existent. You have 48 hours to conquer at least three of these. Extra rewards for conquering all of them.

Warning: These points of interest might be lairs, which will attack if not conquered.

Reward Pool per Point (Guild Leader’s Discretion)

500,000 Free XP

2,500 Guild Points

5 Upgrade Points

Extra Reward Pool for Conquering All Points

2,500,000 Free XP

25,000 Guild Points

20 Upgrade Points

2 Skill Slot

100 Elven Essence Shards

Penalty for Failure

Loss of settlement token

All of these were great news. The best one was that with the completion of Securing the Hamlet I and Building the Hamlet II, we received a bonus reward. The size of the settlement grew. It was only an extra 1,000 square metres, but they were welcome, as that meant we were including the beach now. When we completed the new set of quests we would receive another 2,000 and when we completed the last set of quests, we would receive 4,500 square metres more. For a total of 10,000 square metres.

I delegated the quest for the warriors first. With almost half our fighting away, we would probably not succeed in conquering all of them. We could only hope. I asked Ed’s party to clear the mine before they went hunting. The expanded radius underscored the urgency of getting a freaking boat built.

“What’s the plan, boss?” Philmore asked. “I had hoped you would’ve laid out the plans at dinner, so I could get a headstart on the building process.”

“Ehm, I was unavoidably detained,” I said with a small flush. Making the other crafters laugh. “Anyway, here’s the plan.

“First priority is the shipyard. As soon as that one is done, Philmore needs to start building some boats at once. That takes care of one advanced building. The sawmill should definitely be one of the basic buildings and goes up next. We need more planks going forward, for boatbuilding etcetera.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Philmore said. “What about the rest?”

“Okay, since we need some defensive buildings, we’re going to erect four guard towers. A special effect of defensive structures is that they can be built in the periphery area and still count. One tower at each of the cardinal points, and yes, that means one down on the beach next to the shipyard,” I explained. “The second advanced structure we’re going to make will be a mess hall. The third will be an alchemist lab. For the last three basic structures, we’re going to make pens for Nise’s animals. Cattle, sheep, and then make the last a corral for horses.”

“Sounds like a lot of work, is there anything I can do to help?” Martine asked.

“Yup, you’re going into the mine together with me,” I said. “Philmore, how are we doing for wood?”

“We got enough for the shipyard, the sawmill, and a boat or two,” came the reply.

I nodded. “Okay, for now, Mason and his group will come into the mine as well. Around midday, they’ll come topside to chop down trees.”

“Sounds good to me,” Mason said. With that, we broke up the little powwow and went about our business. Together with Martine, and Mason’s party I went down to the mines. Hopefully, we would get enough iron for Martine to make the necessary parts for the lift. I also needed her to make some large pans for extracting salt from seawater. Relying on the mine was a bad idea.

The mine was not that large, only enough to accommodate around 75 to 100 nodes of common quality. It might once in a while spawn a single node of uncommon quality. However, the possibility for that was something like 1 in 10,000.

We made our way down the mine. Martine would have to make some sconces we could attach to the wall. I had already learned the illumination rune, so I could easily make the light sources when I had the fixture. It might be more expensive to run light with manastones than torches. However, they would not need to be changed as often. For now, we did use torches to light the way. Since none of us knew a light spell.

“Are those crystal veins?” Mason asked, indicating the rock wall where you could see a seam of crystal, almost looking like a tree branching, but without leaves. The crystal was of a greyish colour, with just a little lumination coming from them.

“In a sense, but they’re indestructible. They’re the mana veins of the mining node. Unlike topside and in the rabbit warren, these nodes are the product of a node seed. It means that when it has gathered enough mana, the node is ready to be mined again,” I explained.

Seeing that I had the attention of all of them, I expanded on the explanation, “This white-greyish colour means that it’s a common node. If you find one where there are few flecks of green, it means that it’s a common node seed that this time contains uncommon materials. A green vein would mean an uncommon node seed. This mine should only contain common node seeds.”

“Huh, that’s pretty cool. How long does it take to be ready again, and how do you mine them?” Jiro asked.

“Good questions,” I said to Mason’s party member. “A minimum of twenty-four hours. If left alone to regenerate from ambient mana, it would probably be between two and four days. Depending on randomness. To mine it, you just hit the veins, like you would a normal node. Just take care not to destroy too much of the rock around it. You can permanently destroy a node seed if the rock around it is ruined.”

“Ambient mana?” Mason noted. “Does that mean you can hurry it along?”

“Yup, with Imbue,” I replied. “Or by touching manastones to the veins. Both will boost the recovery time. These common nodes will take about forty-eight hundred to ten thousand mana to regenerate. They regenerate one hundred mana per hour normally.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Martine exclaimed. Ahead, we could see the light from Ed’s group. They were fighting a pair of spectres of high level. Almost sixty. The sight of them made me freeze up.

I recognized those spectres. They were special mobs that only appeared in one place. That place was not here. They should be deep inside the mountain range on the new continent. It was discovered by a guy called Agamemnon the Conqueror, he ran a relatively unknown guild called Immortal Knights. They had risen to fame after the destruction of the old continent.

Not because of anything they had done as such, but because Aragoth wanted the lands they had. Especially their mine. So Dawnguard declared war on the small guild and annihilated it. Not without trouble though. Agamemnon turned out to be an exceptional player, who Dawnguard had a hard time bringing down. Despite being an obstinate person, who kept coming back to fight Dawnguard, he had never succeeded.

The two spectres were actually not spectres, but astral projections of the two final guardians which guarded the treasure of the Ancients. Somewhere around here, there should be a hidden entrance into a giant underground labyrinth. Filled with traps and monsters. At the middle of the labyrinth, there was a single artefact and a scroll. It was guarded by two level 100 NPCs.

It was their astral projections that Ed’s party was currently fighting. They were much weaker in their astral forms than in their real form. That did not change the fact that they were very powerful.

The projections died, leading to cursing amongst Ed’s party. Blaze saw me standing there. “Why the fuck aren’t these bosses give any XP or loot? They’re fucking hard to beat.”

That shook me out of my shock. “Uhm, maybe they’re just projections of a much stronger boss. The scouts didn’t say anything about their being bosses here.”

Blaze got a confused look on his face. “Why didn’t you tell—”

“Maybe it’s an event,” Ed quickly said loudly, interrupting Blaze. “We’ll talk about that at an officers meeting tonight. Good work everyone, let’s leave the mine to the gatherers. We got some lairs to find and conquer.”

“But—okay,” Blaze said.

“Thank you for your hard work, all of you. We’ll increase the reward of clearing the mine every day to triple, as long as these bosses respawn here,” I said. That was met with some cheering. As they filed back up the mineshaft, I turned to the gatherers with me. “Let’s get to work.”