The trip back was a struggle, both emotionally and physically. The first physical obstacle was the barge itself. Taking it with us would make us a huge target. Leaving it behind would be a waste.

I decided to remove anything of value and abandon the barge in the jungle. A plasma cutter helped make quick work of cutting the panels free. Removing the control systems and runic lines took longer but within two days everything had been stripped, leaving nothing behind but a steel shell. I imagined a lot of confusion would follow for anyone coming across the sight of an ocean barge sitting in a jungle near a river barely large enough to float a canoe down.

Maria remained silent on the trip home, with only the occasional sob slipping from her lips. She was having a hard time dealing with what happened or I suspected what I had done. So it wasn’t surprising when we arrived in Saint June and she hurried off without a word. She needed time to grieve and process what had happened. I hoped she would continue working for me but I couldn’t assume she would.

Not much had changed in Saint June during our absence. The wall was finished and the third – now technically the second – barge was complete.

Charles had done a fantastic job keeping the workers going even after we had been gone far longer than I thought. Almost a full month as opposed to the week I had initially planned for. Charles didn’t ask about the absent Javier or the missing barge. He had witnessed a teary-eyed Maria hurry away after we landed.

“Charles, can you find a new captain?” I asked, not quite ready to replace Maria yet.

“Uh… yeah, I should be able to find a few people willing,” he replied solemnly

“Thanks,” I replied, patting him on the shoulder before I walked off to the warehouse where I could unload the gear I had stripped off the barge.

I took the time to reflect on the battle. I hadn’t wanted to do so earlier because killing Javier had been too fresh in my mind and the rage I had felt at his betrayal twisted my thoughts.

I had been angry during that fight but I hadn’t killed them all without knowing what I was doing. I almost wished I had blacked out during the rage, it would make dealing with this so much easier. I sighed and opened my menu to look at the skills I acquired.

Most of the skills were trash and I would drop them using Void Lottery as quickly as I could. I had finally run out of open skill slots on my second class and was debating on whether I should swap my experience back over or not. For now, I just left it and got rid of Summon Pygmy Goat and Fuel the Anger. Fuel the Anger – especially with my mental state – seemed redundant and dangerous. It would be more beneficial now with my new armor but I hadn’t used it at all in my fight at the barge. So it was just taking up valuable space.

I looked at what I got in return.

Hex Circle: Draw a magical circle along the ground in a ten-foot area. Allies within the circle gain a boost of ten percent to their health and mana which lasts for five minutes after they exit the circle. Enemies take a ten percent loss of mana and health that lasts for five minutes after they enter the circle. Requires magical chalk. Lasts indefinitely or until the circle becomes damaged. Cost 400 mana

It was the first ability I had seen that required preparation, it kind of reminded me of the Totem class I could have chosen. I did have an idea that might make the ability worth keeping but I would need to test it out.

The other only notable skill was the barrier that the gang leader had used. I had to engage him in “combat” four times before I managed to get it. It was a good thing that kicking an unconscious man counted toward entering into a new fight.

Cage of Vengeance: Erect a cage of damaging energy that traps anything within. Cage dimensions are 10m x Int. Cost half casters full mana. Cage causes damage equal to INT every second of contact, cage can be shrunk to half its area at the cost of a quarter of the caster’s full mana, increasing damage to 2 * Int. Upkeep of cage is half caster’s mana pool, or three quarters if the cage is shrunk. After releasing the cage, mana regeneration is reduced by 50% for the full cage or 75% for the smaller cage for 1 hour. Cooldown 1 day

The spell was quite powerful but it actually took away more mana the higher your Intelligence became. Still, It would come in handy, I just needed to manage my mana if I used it. That left me with five useless abilities I had collected. I decided to add the Boiling Oil ability to that list and over the next few days, I would recycle them to see what I got.

***

The next week went by without much happening. I had sent a message off to Martin and gotten a reply, stating they had taken refuge at the Hornwell ranch. Edward Rosewill had taken over as Houston’s new Mayor and fired Marshall Sumner. Rosewill replaced the Marshall with his own guard captain. This didn’t sit well with most of the Marshall’s men and they up and left, following the Marshall north to the Hornwell ranch where they were accepted with open arms.

Martin said that information on Houston after that became spotty. Some people said that a lockdown was implemented and people were being kicked out of town if they couldn’t meet some undefined goal that Rosewill put in place. Anyone trying to gain entry was fired upon by the mana cannons that the previous Mayor had purchased from me. Martin also stated that a warrant had been issued for our arrest or proof of death. All-in-all it was turning into a real clusterfuck over there.

All the work Martin had put in to create the alliance had fallen apart. Rosewill didn’t want to share his power with anyone and was essentially a dictator elected by the idiots within the city. I had a hard time feeling sorry for them but something would have to be done about the threat that Houston now posed. Being smack dab in the middle of my trade routes, I couldn’t send barges through there for fear that they would be attacked or confiscated. Attacking Houston would be too costly in lives and much more dangerous than attacking Randy Cotton in Chicago, thanks to all the mana cannons he now had at his disposal.

I let Martin know to hang tight and I would see what I could come up with.

I wasn’t idle during the week, I had assembled all the new sensors and deployed them around town. Tim was now working on another dozen, thanks to Kurt’s people bringing back a few pounds of mithril. The guy still acted like an ass most of the time. I think he blamed me for all his woes.

My goal was to make Saint June a fortress of its own, making anyone think twice about attacking it. So I drew up plans for my Earth mages to erect twelve towers along the wall with a short spire on the top of each of them, I left Kurt out of that planning. I then calculated the central point of the towers and had them erect a massive reinforced stone obelisk.

Now it was time to take the idea to Kurt.

“You want to erect shield towers?” Kurt asked in confusion.

“Yes,” I replied.

“I don’t know, it seems like overkill. We didn’t have that many issues with beasts before the wall but since it has gone up, we haven’t had a single issue inside the city. So why would we need a shield?”

“There are plenty of dangers out there that a wall simply won’t stop. It's best to be prepared before trouble comes to your doorstep.”

“I don’t know,” Kurt said again, scratching his chin, “not that I am against making the town safer but I don’t think we can pay for something like this.”

“I am willing to fund the entire project. As this is going to be my headquarters, I don’t want to come back from another long trip and find out the entire town was burned to the ground.”

He looked at me tersely, “I somehow think this wouldn’t be needed if you hadn’t moved into town.”

I shrugged, hiding my irritation, “some people envy or fear my success and will do whatever they can to stop it. Can you truly say that Saint June hasn’t prospered from just a few caravan trips?”

Kurt grunted noncommittally but didn’t reply as he mulled over my words. “Fine, but eventually the city is going to decide we need a government and if they decide your services aren’t welcome, you are going to have to leave.”

“Fair enough,” I replied, snatching up the blueprints and walking out.

I couldn’t leave my fate up to the whims of some shitty bureaucrats. Thankfully I knew someone who might be able to secure the seat of power. Would it piss Kurt off, probably but if the man was duly elected he had no say in the matter. I needed to find time to go visit him though. There was too much to do and too little time.

***

It was another two weeks before I managed to get time to visit Martin and Fiona at the Hornwell ranch. I did fly past Houston and the outer city, beyond the walls, was in a sorry state. It seemed over half the city residents had been kicked out of the secure walls and forced to fend for themselves. With the Marshall and his men gone, monsters had started to move back into the abandoned buildings making it that much more dangerous.

I saw a third wall had been erected within the city, walling off a small section of luxury skyscrapers. Edward Rosewill’s new seat of power. I could tell that by the fact that over half the mana cannons now dotted the top of that wall, instead of defending the outer wall. That wasn’t the only thing, the light seemed to dance off the walls and I spotted visible enchantments coating the exterior of the buildings within the compound.

If Rosewill joined up with the Enchanters guild, that just made things exponentially more difficult. We needed information we were sorely lacking. My thoughts drifted back to what the Stygian Order man had told me. Was this the first act of the guild?

If I was a massively powerful organization spread over multiple worlds, my first step would be securing all of the cities around Bazaars. Even if they didn’t get all of them it would cement their power. I would have to keep an eye on them and Lord Vik’t.

As Ska and I arrived at the ranch, Martin, Fiona, the Marshall, and Carlson Hornwell came to greet us.

“Welcome back,” Carlson said, “just wish it was under better circumstances.”

I nodded, shaking the man’s hand and greeting the Marshall next.

“Sorry about what happened to you.”

“Eh, I was close to retiring anyway, getting too old for this shit.”

“Still, it wasn’t right.”

I hugged Fiona and slapped Martin on the shoulder. “Should have figured you couldn’t stay out of trouble,” I said with a grin.

“Look who’s talking. Anyway, this is only a temporary setback. Rosewill may have outplayed us but he is shortsighted and driving people away. He will probably get strung up by his own people eventually,” Martin added.

I wanted to agree with Martin but I wasn’t so sure.

“You keep saying that,” Fiona replied, “but it's been almost two months.”

“Yeah, I think Fiona might be right about this. When I flew past Houston I saw the inner compound enhanced by enchantments. I think Rosewill may have joined up with the Enchanters Guild.”

Martin groaned, “so the reports were accurate, we were hoping they had been mistaken.”

I didn’t bring up my conversation with the Stygian Order agent, mostly because I didn’t trust everything that man had told me.

“How about we all retire to the dining room and have a chat?” Hornwell suggested.

***

A few topics were discussed in the meeting. Plans to get rid of Rosewill were high on that agenda but most agreed that if rumors were true that attacking him directly without a solid plan was doomed to failure.

“What about your trading route?” Carlson inquired.

I knew this was going to be brought up as trading had come to a halt for the entire time I was gone and only just resumed two days ago when Maria finally returned to work.

She still refused to talk with me but she talked with Charles and the others. I had already given Charles an updated travel route to avoid Houston and we had enough merchants coming and going that the loss of access to the Bazaar wasn’t critical. I did expand our route north to Nashville though. If anything we could gain some merchants from under the nose of the Mohai Council. If not at least our merchants could resupply there. Those were both short-term solutions though.

“Yeah, sorry about not getting the word out, there was an issue I had to deal with personally and I lost one of my captains. The route is back on track but it is considerably slower until I get another barge going again. So figure two or three weeks until it shows up.”

“Sorry to hear about your captain and the problems,” Carlson added.

“I guess I should bring up why I came all this way.”

“And here I figured it was just to visit with friends,” Martin quipped.

“If only I had time for that. But I did actually come to see you,” I smiled at Martin.

He groaned, “now what scheme are you planning?”

It didn’t take as much convincing as I thought to talk Martin and Fiona into joining me in Saint June. I had tried to talk the Marshall in as well but he turned me down, saying he was fine here and didn’t want to be involved in politics anymore. I couldn’t argue with the man, I didn’t want to be involved either, which is why I recruited Martin to do it for me.