"I really hate running errands," grumbled Eclairs Fawn as she stared at a golden scarab on her palm—a teleportation item. The tiny insect, its carapace encrusted with multi-colored gems, shifted its wings and scuttled all over her hand. "Is there no one else to send? Isn't this supposed to be Halkor's job?"

"Halkor is on vacation. Didn't you see his notice in our forums?" Grand Mille Feuilles, the guild leader of Divergent Boulangerie, was stirring a cauldron filled with one of their most expensive products—a six-star brew sold exclusively to the Victores Sors. "A week in the real world with Melina and his kids, no virtual world at all. Maybe I should get a vacation too."

"Tell me about it," Eclairs murmured as she paced around the cauldron with her webbed feet.

The ancient pot they looted from the Demon Below was colossal. It was two times her height and wide enough to fit maybe twenty of her standing side by side. It was faded bronze and had the five faces of the Demon Below carved around it in even spaces. The eyes of the faces glowed, staring at her menacingly as she passed them. Violet smoke came out of flared nostrils and grimacing mouths.

She cautiously inhaled to confirm that her smell settings were off. I've already learned my lesson.

Wonderful smells usually abound in their guild castle that many players pay for tours to smell and eat the food and drinks they made. But they do have recipes that had foul odors.

The potion G-Milf was brewing was especially putrid, a mix of rotten eggs and milk that had gone bad with a sprinkle of truffle. I hate the smell of truffles.

"It's going to be just a quick discussion, Eclairs," G-Milf said. "Talk about the contracts. And clear things up regarding our ingredients supply. Then you can log out and manage your store."

Eclairs looked up at her guild leader towering above her. G-Milf's character was a female Impyrean of the Desecrated Variant. She looked like a porcelain doll that was taller than the massive cauldron, with eight multijointed arms that were almost long enough to touch the floor if she held them by her sides.

"If it's going to be quick, then it can be a call," Eclairs said. "Or why doesn't Rudarch come here himself?”

"Rudarch messaged Halkor that he couldn't visit our castle because they’re power leeching their giants," explained G-Milf. “All three of them at the same time. Probably leveling the new Ocadules they discovered at the Unremembered Pyramid.”

“So, this warps me to the Silent Dunes?” Eclairs said, referring to an end-game PK zone under the control of the Victores Sors. She held the struggling golden scarab between her fingers. Its golden color contrasted nicely with her blue scales that she pictured changing the paint job of Vanguard gaming to something like this.

Since there was a war and all that, she understood why Victores Sors members would be too busy to visit their castle for transactions. Guilds usually only had a single giant because of the manpower needed to level them, their Cidules, and their Ocadules. Victores Sors had three.

Even though the Silent Dunes was one of the best places currently discovered for Gli farming—according to Victores Sors and a few of their allied guilds allowed to go there—It would still be awfully slow leveling for their giants. Their guild of a hundred members would be divided into three parties to leech each giant.

And so, the big question was why Victores Sors didn't wait to max the new Ocadules of their giants before declaring the war against Syndicate?

I guess, there's the element of surprise, Eclairs conjectured. Following the hype and excitement of discovering the Unremembered Pyramids, including the new items found inside which Victores Sors proudly showed off on their website, no one expected probably the biggest war in MCO history to start.

Did Victores Sors find something inside the Unremembered Pyramids that prodded them to invade Syndicate territory on another continent? Maybe something connected to the game lore? Something that could lead to the Dalkanus ship?

No, no, the question she should ask was, "So, why isn't this a call if they're so busy?" she repeated herself to G-Milf.

"You're right, their order could've been a call. Rudarch did suggest that after learning Halkor was on vacation, but I insisted that you're going to visit them. You don't want to see Rudarch?”

Not particularly, no, Eclairs wanted to reply, but she didn't want to give her guild leader the ammunition to tease her. There was a time Rudarch was not so subtly interested in her after seeing the Siren form of her character underwater. Although she was flattered because her character's face was modeled after her real appearance, she was still weirded out by it.

She really just didn't understand how people could be attracted to something not real. Perhaps it was like her love for swimming in the Seventh Sea even if it was just a virtual environment.

Eclairs ignored G-Milf's question about Rudarch and mulled over the possible reason for visiting Victores Sors territory. "Hang on,” she said. “I'm going to spy on them, aren't I?"

"Correct," replied her guild leader.

For who? Eclairs wanted to ask, but that sounded like a dumb idea. If she knew more about secret stuff, she'd certainly have more responsibilities relating to it.

She examined G-Milf's face if she could get any hint of what was going on. An Impyrean's angular head with humanoid features was like a statue's, impassive and unmoving, so there was nothing to read.

In this war, between Victores Sors and Syndicate, Divergent Boulangerie found itself unofficially aligned with the first-ranked guild in MCO. When Victores Sors’ order for large volumes of consumables came and Divergent Boulangerie chose to accept it, that was already tacit support for them. Their guild couldn't make the excuse they didn't know anything about the impending war.

Even the kids renting AU-VR Helms in her store to play MCO wouldn't believe something like that. What would Victores Sors do with all those meal buffs? Have a picnic?

Eclairs didn't know of the nitty-gritty details, but the Syndicate predictably got angry with them, canceling all contracts despite the heavy penalties imposed by the game system. The business of their guild did suffer.

But only momentarily. As the war escalated and days turned into a couple of weeks, there were many other orders from smaller guilds dragged into the conflict that made up for the shortfall.

This little spying mission might be an act of goodwill to restore relations with the Syndicate guild. Eclairs had a sneaking suspicion that the Expeditionary Legion was related to this.

"Do I like, um, ask questions about their forces or something?" said Eclairs. "Their secret allies or—"

"Just record everything you see, that's it." G-Milf grabbed with her many hands the various ingredients presented by her gnome assistants. She dumped them one by one into the cauldron. A different color of smoke puffed into the air each time.

Eclairs wrinkled her nose even if she couldn't smell it. "I'm sure I can wiggle information out of Rudarch. He's on the logistic side of their guild admin, isn't he? I bet he knows a lot of stuff about their forces."

"No, don't do that. You're making it too obvious you're up to no good."

"How can this pretty face be up to no good?" Eclairs said, cupping her scaly cheeks with her slimy hands. Too bad there was no body of water in the Silent Dunes to allow her to use her Siren form.

"You're making this harder than it has to be."

"That's what she said..."

"Huh? Who said it?"

"It's a joke," Eclairs said, raising her brow as she wondered if G-Milf was messing with her. “Derrick told me that was your favorite joke when you were all hanging out at Vanguard Gaming. Like back when it was a PC Cafe?"

"Oh, right...right...Those are ancient times." G-Milf stopped stirring her brew and stared into the cauldron. "I can't even remember when I last made that joke. Nowadays, the busy life of managing Divergent Boulangerie is what's on my mind. This isn't just a game anymore. We're also earning real money here. Lots of it."

"Maybe you need a vacation," Eclairs softly suggested. She knew just how taxing managing people could be given her own experience with Vanguard Gaming.

"Maybe I do." G-Milf resumed her potion-making process. "For now, how about you go on your own vacation to the desert?"

“BiteOfEclairs moving out for a spy mission!”

"Are you done taking measurements?" Eclairs asked the guy from the banner printing company. Vanguard Gaming was a tech store so they'd naturally have a holo-display for their MotherCon stall. But only one. The rest would be banners and posters.

They did have a few holo-display units at the store. However, it was a freaking huge hassle to drag all of those expensive units from there to here. There was also a chance some of them might get damaged, especially when hordes of people would pass by during the convention.

And if she transferred the units, what would she place in their spot? Cardboard cutouts of her? That might draw a lot of customers, she sarcastically thought to herself.

Banners and posters it is! Plus, she could use them at the store after MotherCon.

"All finished, ma'am," said the banner company guy.

"Okay, good." Eclairs flicked through a list on her WeeCee. "Electrical outlets, size of our area," she mumbled while reading, "the way from parking, the schedule, what else?"

"Hello there, Ms. Manager," said a familiar voice behind her.

Eclairs turned around and saw Herald Stone, dressed in a crisp dark gray suit, waving as he descended the wide stairs in the middle of the convention center. Then she realized, I didn't tell G-Milf about Herald! She wasn't sure if they knew each other, but they probably did since Herald mentioned he used to play at Vanguard Gaming when it was a PC Café.

"I see that Vanguard Gaming will have a stall here during MotherCon?" Herald guessed, nodding at the banner company guy packing his tools.

"I'm guessing Dolly's as well?" she said.

"Come by our stall when the convention opens," said Herald with a smile. "If I'm around, I'll give you and your employees free lunch."

"But how will I know if you're here?"

"By visiting our stall."

"And if you're not present?"

"Then you won't get any food." They stared at each other for a couple of seconds before Herald burst out laughing. "Just kidding, Ms. Manager. I'll tell my employees about you. I'm going to make sure that Boady's cousin isn't going to leave our stall hungry."

"That's...that's pretty nice of you."

"I do owe Boady, so you can have as many of our hotdogs as you want. We actually have a new menu—"

"That's what she said," Eclairs muttered under her breath, recalling her earlier conversation with G-Milf.

"Excuse me?"

"The hotdogs, I mean…Nothing!" Eclairs quickly said. Did he hear that? He probably did. She frantically tried to divert Herald's attention from her inappropriateness. "So, Mr. Customer...how goes your MCO character?"