Greile let out a sigh, It had barely been a few weeks, and he was moving once more. Sena took inspiration from his words about the elves, and was in the midst of creating a village in the trees of the forest. She was employing a number of techniques to ensure the trees had plenty of room to grow, and wouldn't end up damaging the houses and other buildings built around them. The materials were quite natural, or at the least seemed so to Greile's untrained eyes. The end result would be an elven wonderland that looked like it came straight out of some fairy-tale.

The village would be quite large, yet none would ever suspect just how large until they were to enter into it. What had already been built was well, and truly, camouflaged from the ground and the sky, and used a number of ingenious methods to hide any emissions from the incendiary toilets that were used to turn any fecal matter into ashes for the hanging garden that had been suspended in a particularly dense looking section of trees. This garden was well-hidden under the canopy of the forest, and included hydroponics, as well as soil gardening in what might be termed raised, or suspended, beds. While the canopy did cover the glass construct quite well, it was designed in such a way that the glass was light a matte paint, and didn't reflect light in a way similar to gloss paint, but was less conspicuous. This would keep someone from easily seeing the construct through the canopy, but also kept the canopy from having to be so dense that no light could make it through for fear of the construct being found.

Greile didn't think it was necessary to hide the greenhouse the way she had, but Sena argued that it was most emphatically needed to pull off the whole elven vibe. In fact, she had it planned out that four such greenhouses, all hidden in particularly dense sections of the trees, would be made. She planned on using another setup for the others, which could potentially hide the greenhouses even better. This setup had been inspired by Greile once more, this time remarking that the way they built the completed greenhouse would make it somewhat easier to see from the ground. Greile didn't see how his innocent words inspired Sena, but that was what she had told him as a look of realization came upon her. Greile thought she was attributing her own genius to him, and told her so, but she still stuck to her story.

Actually, Greile had been having others give him such credit as well, but he didn't understand why they attributed their successes, and ideas, to him. One such individual was Artor, who had come up with the idea to camouflage the garage for Greile's vehicle as a hunter's cabin prop from a few words Greile had said. Sena was happy with it, because it acted as a kind of disguise for the tree village, as if the elves were trying to hide the village using a fake hunter's cabin. This would make emersion more inclusive, as Sena wanted to make the place into a kind of tourist attraction, a kind of theme park, if you will, to hide it's true nature as a place to hide Greile, and the families of The Guide Company who had managed to piss off influential celebrities, political activists, or politicians.

Magnus and Cordelia loved the idea of the elven village, and had talked quite fervently with the others of their company, and had gotten them to agree with the idea. There were some requirements added to their agreement, namely things Greile had already insisted on for the safety of the residents. Greile's house had been built in a particularly huge, tree, which was thriving, and Sena had found would easily live another thousand years. This was, of course, accounting for any damage the constructs built in it's branches and around it's trunk would cause. Passages and rooms were quite well hidden, but the tree basically had a small mansion's work of space held aloft by it. It had enough rooms for all of them, and some guest rooms as well. While this was the truth, the place didn't look so large, and all the constructions were very well disguised, so that they blended into the tree, and it's surroundings quite well. While not perfect, the imperfect blending actually lent it an air of realism that no perfect match could have done. The tree house was so well hidden that one wouldn't be likely to recognize it until they were right upon it.

Greile shook his head, and gathered up his final belongings. Their pods had already been installed, and everything was ready at the treehouse, they only needed to move in. The water tanks for the treehouse had been filled by a recent rain, and it was currently overcast, the perfect time to move him, according to Artor.

-----

"How's the operation going?"

"Terribly, we haven't been able to get anyone onto the island yet, and our buddies over in central intelligence say that a storm that's hitting the coast a bit north is obscuring the island from satellite surveillance."

"That's fine, the boss said to leave the kid alone unless he involves himself in our business, but I just can't rest easy unless we can find a way to observe him. Do what you can, but don't risk our people for this."

"Don't get me wrong, but I don't get what's so important about this kid."

"He set our plans back by decades," she responded.

"I know, but that was just a fluke, and it wasn't even him who did it. I get that Maggie is a hard target, but this kid hasn't actually done anything, all that's been happening is because of our people, and wasn't even the kid's fault. I'm pretty sure if we had just let him be, all of this would have been over already."

"Just do your job..."

The man had stated the truth, but his words were angrily ignored. If not, perhaps some of the series events that would embroil both sides could have been avoided, and her fall prevented. Sadly, the woman ignored her subordinate, leaving in a huff.

-----

Greile put the last of his luggage into the the lift that would carry them up to the village above.

"That the last of them," Trombol asked, "Let's do one final check."

The group headed over to the cabin that the garage was disguised as, and made sure nothing was there, then proceeded to verify that Sonny's vehicle had nothing left in it.

"We're clear," Greile said, then turned to the man, and said, "Thank you, Sonny."

"No problem, Brudda," Sonny responded, then got into the cab of his truck and drove away. Thankfully the trees were not too dense for him to take his big truck through, and the high suspension prevented the vehicle from catching on roots as he went.

The group saw Sonny off, and then rode the elevator up into the trees. The elevator platform had been the first thing Sena had built, followed shortly by a series of bridges and platforms that would act as the walkways for the rest of the tree village. Next came the first greenhouse, followed by the hidden away section that held their new home, and that of Magnus, Cordelia, and Helen the young mother of three that Greile had insisted he would allow shelter on the island. The walkways were all covered, and camouflaged into the trees, this was ostensibly to hide the village as the elves would do, but served a larger purpose of hiding them from satellite surveillance that managed to see through the trees above should the wind blow the branches more than normal. This section wasn't yet hidden, but construction had already begun on the platforms and buildings that would hide away the small courtyard platform, and treehouses that would soon house them.

They made their way the rest of the way to the treehouse manor, and began to place their luggage, and packed up things, then head back and return to the elevator gor more things, which they soon returned with. It took the better part of a day to move in, and organize their things, before Greile found he could relax once more.

Greile had three rooms at his disposal in this new home; an den he could spend his waking hours in, should he wish for some peace and quiet, his bedrooms, which was fairly small, but allowed him enough room to get around the queen size bed, and had end tables and dressers, and a dual purpose library and pod room with a little seating area. Cupboards above the bed allowed for storage of some items, and closets on the end of the bedroom by the hall leading into it served as storage for suits, and other clothing that were best to hang up. Greile had not originally wished for the setup, but Sena insisted that at some point he would want to have a wife. He didn't think that would happen quickly, but he couldn't really gainsay the idea with Hevna being so present in his life, so he conceded the point, and she had it built this way. The setup was minimalist in nature, but somehow cozy. As for the den, this was a bit more open, and included display shelves which would serve as suitable storage for any nicknacks or gravoids he built and employed. It also held a couple of couches on opposite sides of a coffee table to relax on. The room also included cabinets, and shelving for storage. As for the library, it was simply decorated, with many bookshelves built into the walls on three of the six walls.

These were not all of the rooms in his little section, for Hevna also had a bedroom attached to it, which was somewhat less spartan than his own. For some strange reason, Hevna had insisted that the room have a bunk bed, which was setup with the upper bunk being a murphy bed that hid into the wall above the single bed. The bed was sunk into an alcove on one side, with a small storage, and closet at one end, and storage bins on the opposite side of the room from the bunks. It was like the room was setup for children, rather than an adult, but the beds were adult sized.

Across a short walkway, sat a platform which could be used to enjoy the outdoors, and a restroom, in addition to a small kitchen that was mainly to be used by Hevna and himself. The area wiuld also be used for meetings which required less privacy.

It had been decided that once a day everyone would gather in the main hall of the treehouse, and would prepare, and eat, a meal together. This was something that Greile had requested, and in the end would often be the first one to arrive for these gatherings. Magnus, Cordelia, and Helen would also participate in these gatherings. Of course, this meant that the three children were included. Greile insisted that they join them, pointing out that her children needed good role models to look up to.

The tree manor was quite sprawling in nature, but the individual sections were rather homely, and compact. It was quite a contrast to the manor provided with the island. As for Magnus Cordelia, and Helen's homes, they were a bit larger in overall feel, as they were not so spread out amongst the trees, but they contained much less overall area. In addition to these structures, there were two more in their hidden away section, but these were currently unoccupied. Greile had Axel looking for the police officer who had been dragged down by the faux protesters due to doing his job, but the other home had no intended occupant at this time.

After unpacking his personal things, and helping to unpack those of others, Greile sat on the couch in the den, and considered his options. As the other buildings were not yet in place to fully hide the section they were in, he wasn't ready to spend the day outside. This was because Trombol had warned him that there were signs of individuals trying to make their way onto the island without permission. Considering all the protesters who had hounded him, he had become cautious, and didn't wish to chance them finding him. Aside from that, the weather had turned rainy soon after they got onto the platforms, and it just wasn't inviting outside right now.

He had been procrastinating logging into Gravoid, but putting it off forever wouldn't help things. He just wasn't one for conflict. Sure, he could handle one versus one combat, but combat against whole mobs, that was anything but fun. What if these people followed him into the game, and came after him? It was troublesome enough dealing with this in the real world, let alone in Gravoid's worlds. If he had to deal with this in both worlds, he had no idea what he would do.

"Something seems to be bothering you, Master Greile," Hevna said, sitting at the couch beside him.

"Yeah..."

"Would you be willing to share your cares with me?"

"It's those "protesters." Those people have chased after me so much here in this world, I can't help but worry if they will chase after me there too," Greile confided in her after some hesitation.

Hevna showed a bewildered look, and then asked, "Isn't that better than if they chase you in this world?"

Greile looked at her in confusion, to her questioned response, he couldn't help asking, "Why would that be?"

"You don't die permanently if you're killed in Gravoid Online, and they can't torture you there no matter how much they may wish to do so. Isn't that safer?"

"...Yeah, but they can grief me any time they find me alone," Greile responded, letting out a sigh.

"Master, you're never alone," Hevna responded, "Your {Seraphic General} cannot be considered as alone, because you can call allies into any battle you're in. I've been considering the wording of [Seraphic Gate], and I'm pretty certain you can even call allies into solo facility raids. Aside from that, your {Seraphic General} can grow along with you, in ways that even the most impressive known gravoid units never could."

"I have to develop any abilities over tier one, and the {Seraphic General}'s tier one abilities are rather limited," Greile told her.

"Yes, but [Seraphic Gate] is a powerful ability," Hevna reminded him. "There is no other gravoid unit with the ability to call allies into battle from a distance, and have them arrive so suddenly. It's a perfect ambush unit, let alone the fact that you can potentially bring an entire squadron of gravoid units into a battle."

"I have to have those units though, and pilots for them," Greile responded.

"Don't you already?" Hevna looked at him very seriously, and said, "You have quite a number of seraphic generals assembled, and if you allow them to, I'm sure the others could combine leftover parts with gravoid unit models to produce units that are more powerful than the basic units you can purchase at a gravoid shop. Sena put in a number of security measures to alert us of intrusions even while in gravoid, so we can have the others join us inside Gravoid, and we can ask our friends at The Guide Company to help us purchase the models everyone will need, and deliver them for us to work with."

A knock could be heard as she was talking, and Magnus, Cordelia, and Sena all stepped into the room. Magnus picked up on what she was saying, and said, "You don't have to do that, I have a number of models we can take apart for parts, and we can head over to the cities on the mainland using the motor boat we just purchased in order to get new models if someone wants."

"Captain Ahab is about to start taking trips back to the mainland for things other than the construction crews as well," Cordelia pointed out, "We can always start having him ferry someone over to pick up model parts and weapons."

"Aw, come on, they can use my unit collection," Magnus replied.

"You'll need that for yourself now," she replied, shaking her head. "You're no longer stuck with feminine models, remember? I'm sure the guys would prefer masculine units, rather than feminine ones."

"Ah, yeah, I hadn't thought of that," Megnus agreed, "but I won't be using all of them. I've been working on incorporating the parts I got from Greile into one of my TR-400s, and I should be done soon. Already converted MAGS-1, so that should be enough units for me to work with. They can use the others for parts, or as full units, I don't mind."

"You'll need a {Seraphic General} for Greine, but he should modify it into it's own unit," Sena brought up, "Aleisha can make a copy of Hevna's unit, and use it. That way they can act as decoys. The rest of us can make our own units. Since I'm not much of a combatant, I was thinking of making an engineering unit. Also, I have a hunch Master Greile should try scanning in all his copies of the {Seraphic General}, he might be able to use them for A.I. controlled units, and decoys."

"A.I. as in like you were, or..."

"No, our A.I.s, I have never once considered myself an A.I., not then, and not now," Senna responded to Magnus.

"Fair enough," Magnus acquiesced, and went on to say, "So, lesser A.I.s, and also not residents of the world there. You might try it, Greile, I don't think it will cause a problem, although if it doesn't work, you might have to talk to an admin to straighten things out."

"It shouldn't come to that," Cordelia stated, "If anything, it will use the most complete unit, and ignore the others. I'd suggest you scan in the over-armors, and the associated weapons separately, however. That should ensure it does not consider your main unit as a variant, abd add it as such."

"Is that a common problem?"

"Not typically, but there is a rare instance where it can happen. In general, these variant units end up with different abilities. I'm not certain this will occur with a myth tier, or unique unit, but it's best to be cautious. It won't really keep you from playing, but a sudden change in the base abilities of the unit would be troublesome."

Greile couldn't help but nod at her words, it would certainly be problematic if loading in the unit with the over-armor and other equipment caused it to become a variant, and removed the seraphic gate ability, for instance. It would also be troublesome if the unit somehow became unable to connect with the other triun units, and became unable to gain their abilities once he found them.

"Okay, I'll make sure to take off the over-armor," he told her. He didn't comment on the additional copies of the gravoid, but he doubted it would do any good. Still, he could always try it anyway, and see if her hunch was correct.

"Alright, so we'll have Greile log in again, you should have some time before anyone notices you and can put any plans into action. During that time, Mags and I will let the others use our units to produce new units using the parts from the remaining {Seraphic General}s. Hevna, you'll go in with him, and make sure he stays safe, and I'll help Greine clean up the parts and produce another {Seraphic General} that we'll modify a bit. Hopefully a few minor visual changes will work with the idea I have in mind for the modifications."

Cordelia hesitated a moment, before she spoke up once mire, saying, "On another note, Greile, why don't you form your own clan. It would provide a common place for Sena and the others to join you, and the communications features that are made available for such groups will allow you to respond quickly should any of you come under fire."

"A squad would also work," Magnus said, "That or the fleet system, but that one takes quite a bit more funds within the game."

Cordelia frowned, "Access to the fleet system takes a minimum level of forty, and completing a series of quests that culminate in a mission liberating a vessel from a pirate base in the floating stones. It's a difficult mission, and our clans barely managed to scrape by on the fourth try, when we got the weakest vessel that can be found in the pieate base, the patrol cruiser. There's the trouble of collecting the ship, and then there's the problem of staffing it, and upgrading it once you do manage to complete the mission."

"Actually, I think they can do it~," Magnus said, "Remember, the mission is more difficult with more people, but with the [Seraphic Gate]~..."

Cordelia's eyes widened, "Oh no, you're right, and it's scary that you're right," she cried out after a moment. "If the ability is like it says, then Greile and the minimum sized group could actually enter the mission, it'll set the difficulty once they capture the ship, then Greile can begin to call in allies, and totally own the mission, they might even be able to capture the freaking dreadnought! That thing was super hard, but if they can bring allies into the minimal difficulty for the thing it might be possible to beat it! I'm in! If you can get your group up to the required level, we'll help you do the mission, but you have to make sure it's the Dreadnought or Carrier you go after!"

"Uh, okay, but what's the difference," Greile asked.

"Not much in the long run," Magnus said, this time not talking in his usual singsong, and carefree voice. "It's more a matter of what you want the focus of the ship to be. A dreadnought has massive batteries of cannons, and great firepower while being a tank, but has little in the way of aircraft. A carrier, on the other hand, has great armor, but when it comes to firepower it has little of it's own. Instead, the ship relies of aircraft and gravoid units to fight. It provides bonuses for every fighter, or gravoid unit launched from it's bays, but has no anti-ship guns of it's own to fight with. Instead, the ship has some anti-aircraft guns, which are capable of damaging gravoid units, and fighters, but won't even dent a patrol cruiser. The largest clan barely managed yo collect one, but even they have trouble fielding it, due to crew, and fuel costs. Still, it's suuuper powerful~."

"Actually, I don't know if it's true, but there's a rumor that a five fleet alliance came across a dreadnought carrier, but no one knows what it can do, they couldn't complete the mission, and had to settle for a dreadnought instead. The logistics costs for that sucker are taxing on their combined resources though, so I can't even imagine what the ship they couldn't capture would cost to maintain," Cordelia told him.

"I see, well, I don't think we'll get to that anytime soon," Greile responded, "but I'll consider it."

"I have a question," Hevna said.

"Go ahead," Cordelia responded.

"Can that mission be undergone multiple times?"

Cordelia was quiet for a moment before she said, "I'm not sure, we've never tried a second time, and I've heard both ways. Some say it can, and some say it can't. I'm inclined to believe it can, but it's easier to see a shipyard after the first time completing the mission. That's how we've gotten four patrol ships between our clans. Patrol ships seem to be easier on the resources, so we've been able to maintain them pretty well despite the numbers."

Sena, who had been silent this entire time, suddenly spoke up, "Are there any refueling ships among the lists of ships in the shipyards?"

"There are repair and refuel vessels, but they're insanely expensive. We just couldn't justify the costs," Cordelia responded.

"I don't know how much I can share, but being as you have been such a good friend to Master Greile, I would suggest you get one if you wish to have any substantial fleet presence," Sena told her.

"Really? Why?"

"I don't think I can say anymore than I have, but they're important," Sena told Cordelia.

Cordelia gave a thoughtful look to the woman, then turned to her husband, and said, "It looks like we'll be gathering a lot of resources."

"I'll log in and let the others know," Magnus responded. "You should be helping the others prepare make their own gravoids~."

Cordelia let out a sigh, "Okay, but get back qiick, you need to tell me which units to not touch."

"Just don't mess with the two newest~."

"Got it, I'll make sure they don't touch the parts for them either," she responded, and Magnus ran off ahead.

"We'd better get going," Cordelia told them. "Log in, Greile. I know it's tough considering what they've done to you, and the modicum of comfort you've had since being isolated, but hiding from bullies doesn't make them go away. We've tried that, and they only grew bolder. I won't preach at you, but you should fight back." Once she had said those words, she left the room.

"She's right, Young Master," Sena told him, "You shouldn't let fear stop you from living your life. You don't have to be a victim, don't let them make you into one. It doesn't take attacking them to fight back, and you don't have to stay silent either. You can just live your life, and if they come after you, you can defend yourself, there's nothing wrong with that. Just don't let them get to you, that's the only way they can win."

Sena then left the room, but her words left him perplexed. He didn't know what to make of them, especially that vague last sentence. He especially wasn't certain about that last sentence. Who was he kidding, he knew alright, he just wasn't comfortable dealing with them in the first place, let alone after they had hounded him so much. He had already had enough of an aversion yo them due yo his uncle, but now he had double the reasons to not wish to have anything to do with them. Some of them might believe they had reason to act that way, but it only reinforced his fears, it didn't do a thing to address, and help him get past them. If anything, their hounding had only made his fears flair up. For those supposedly wanting to be understood, they were certainly affecting the opposite result.

Greile let out a sigh, they were right. If he continued to run from his fears, the people who attacked him had won, not because they had fixed some misunderstanding, but because they bullied him unto submission. That didn't sit right with him, but setting aside his fears after being affected by them for so long wasn't easy. It would take baby steps, he'd just have to log in, and hope the others could join him before these people noticed him.

Hevna startled him by taking his hand gently into hers, "It's okay, Master Greile, I'll be there with you through it all," she told him. "Shall we get our units, and prepare them to scan in when we log in?"

Greile released a pent up breathe he didn't know he had been holding in, and nodded his head. "Yeah, let's do that. If nothing else we can ensure our units are saved," he told her.

Greile and Hevna went yo the display case, and got their units, then took them, and placed them into their pods. Greile first took off the over-armor, and associated weapons and placed them to the side before he placed all seven units in the pod scan area as well. As for Hevna, she placed her three in the scan area of her pod. The pods could scan more than one unit at a time, thankfully. His unit was unique, do he wasn't sure how the system would respond, but he went with Sena's hunch anyway. He then sat down in the pod, and closed it while setting his body in the correct place for the straps before calling out for the unit to connect.

-----

"Father, he's logged back in." A young blond woman in an old Victorian Era dress stated.

"Who has, My Dear?"

"Greile," she responded. "He's trying to scan in his new unit, but he's scanning in multiple copies."

"Hmm, let me see. Ah, one of them has mounts for over-armors. Hmmmm, he did quite well with it. Ah, these are the over-armors, he did well with them. What did you wish to talk to me about, my dear?"

"I know he's supposed to only get one unit, but I wonder if there is any way we can make an exception," she asked.

"We can't make an exception in the number of units," he stated, but then said, "but, his unit only had three tier one abilities, correct?"

"That is the default for his unit until he collects one of the other triun units, yes," she replied.

"Alright, while we can't give him more units, let's give him an ability that will let him make decoys that can do just as much damage as the {Seraphic General}. They won't be able to be damaged, but if the opponents manage to hit him, he will automatically switch with a random decoy. If over-armor is equipped, let it be cloned with the unit on the decoys. As for the over-armor, remove the standard mounts, and have them mount using advanced seemless mounting systems. Hmmm, whst else... Ah, yes, adjust the over-armors to fit the {Geraphic General}'s design once the other triun units are found, and devise a way for it to fit in the mean time. As for the weapons, keep the rifle, and spear, but replace the others with dagger bits. Add that as a fifth ability for tier one. Those abilities won't get that strong, but they're more of a stop gap until he can find the other triuns anyway."

"What if we don't simply make them a stop gap, Father?"

"Go on..."

"What if we have them as separate abilities from the others, abilities that can tier up with him as he levels," she responded, "He should have already had two abilities at each tier above the first, and just had to make any abilities beyond those, but we heavily nerfed that when you decided on the triun unit."

"Hmmm, I probably did overdo it. Alright, let's do this, we'll have every ability but [Seraphic Gate] tier up with him. In exchange, [Seraphic Gate]'s ability to nullify difficulty increases will be reduced so that difficult increases will be ten percent of normal, rather than no increase from summoning allies in. He'll still be allowed to call them in, but in solo missions and quests limit the number to only three units to assist."

"Father, I think it best to limit the difficulty boost to five percent. That will preserve the balance of the myth tier units, and ensure some of the more difficult content has a chance of completion," she told him.

"Hmmm? Ah, you mean that dreadnought carrier? Well, I suppose you would like to see your personal creation be used. Fine, but limit the number to a maximum of seven, and reduce each of the parameters of the ones after the first by five percent. The first one can be unique, and unlock purchasing server-wide for the other six. Whether the boy will be the one to claim it depends on his blessings," the old man responded.

"Thank you, Father," the girl replied, and then began to make the changes, unintentionally making an adjustment that tipped the balance in the process.

-----

Greile logged in to find a message saying that an administrator had been contacted once more. A short while later, another message popped up.

Your {Seraphic General} has been updated, please view the information within the gravoid menu to see what the admins have decided.

Greile pulled up his unit's information in the gravood menu.

Triun Gravoid: Seraphic General

Type: Humanoid

Class: Command/Support

Rarity: Mythical/Custom

This unique unit was customized for Greile, and is inspired by the seraphim. This unit is Unique, in that it is the only current unit in existence which will require the user to develop higher tier abilities.

Level: 1

Armor Class: Medium

Base Armor: 500/500

Additional Armor: 1000/1000(Over-Armor)

Base Durability: 20,000/20,000

Core Strength: 1,500

Weapons: Longarm Sniper Rifle, Ameliorated Spear

Sidearm: Hidden(Unlock Required(Minor))

Armor: None

Over-Armor: Seraphic Plate

Packages: Command, Bit, Advanced Over-Armor, Calling(Unique)

Abilities:

Unique: Seraphic Gate

Growth: Commander's Influence, Celestial Wings, Seraphic Decoy Field, Dagger Bits

Tier One: N/A

Tier Two: None Developed

Tier Three: None Developed

Tier Four: None Developed

Tier Five: None Developed

Note: Additional abilities must be developed, while some abilities which are currently hidden have to be unlocked by meeting certain criteria.

Additional Values: Growth Unit

Greile,

We have modified your newly detailed and modified {Seraphic General} to better allow it to continue as a Triun unit. That being said, I think you should know the final form of your unit will be female, as father wished to make a clear separation between the concept behind your unit, and Father God's triun nature.

Greile was surprised to find two abilities in the gravoids information, but what really surprised him was when he looked at the information for the [Seraphic Gate]. Greile had previously glanced at the information, and, the bonuses of the ability had doubled, but not only had this occurred, the number of units that could be summoned at once had tripled. Seeing this, he immediately went to the help menu and requested to contact an administrator.

"Hello Greile," a voice soon called out to him. "How may I help you?"

He looked around, but didn't see anyone.

"Don't bother looking around, I'm contacting you via voice transmission. What did you need," the pleasant female voice contacted him.

"Um, you can hear me?"

"Yes, quite well," she responded.

"Ah, okay, I requested administrator contact, would that be you?"

"Yes, that would be me," she responded.

"Okay, well, I was looking through my windows after my gravoid was updated, and I found something troubling, my [Seraphic Gate] Ability was modified."

"I would think you would be appreciative of the modifications," the woman responded, obvious confusion in her tone.

"I am," Greile responded, "Am I right in your being the one who modified the unit?"

"I am the one who inputted the upgrades, yes," she responded.

"Can you pull up the information?"

"I have it in front of my right now," she replied in an amused tone.

"Well, can you take a look at [Seraphic Gate]?"

"What am I looking for," she asked.

"Um, the bonuses were doubled, and the maximum number of summoned was tripled," he told her, "Was that intended?"

"Ah, oops, I only meant to double the max number of units summoned outside of a solo quest. Well, that's not your mistake, so don't worry about it. I can't modify the unit now that it's been uploaded, and upgraded, so just enjoy the ability. Is there anything else?"

"Uh, no, I guess not. I'd better go," Greile said, noticing Hevna wave as she approached, "thank you for your assistance."

"No problem, take care of my sister for me, thanks," the woman replied, startling him as he turned to address Hevna. It threw him off, and he forgot what he was going to say to the beauty.

-----

"Ahahaha! That's so funny," the woman laughed as she watched Greile stumble over the words he had intended to say.

"As amusing as that is, it's not right to lie to the customer, my dear. You have never made a mistake in entering gravoid modifications and upgrades," the old man replied.

"Ah, if I had answered truthfully, I might have revealed some information he really should learn through practice, so I avoided the ensuing question a bit. I'm sorry, Father, but I didn't do it to harm him."

The old man let out a sigh, and said, "So you've learned the value of a "white lie", but remember, a lie is a lie."

"I will, Father, I would have answered truthfully, but I don't want to ruin the surprises for him. I promise to only do so in cases that are not harmful to the players."

"Fine, although, you really need to explain why you setup the dagger bits that way, they're more like light sabers than daggers," he said, shaking his head.

"Well, they are similar, they're actually photonic blades," she responded. "I decided to use them as their size is much smaller, and it was easier to incorporate them into the triun unit without interfering with the connecting points of the other two units. I thought it better to apply them that way than as part of the over-armor, which would be far more situational in usage."

"I see," the old man said, considering quietly, "How many sets?"

"Only two, but if he uses them separately, he should be able to launch the second set as the first is coming back, or vice versa," she replied.

"Hmmm not a bad idea," he responded, "It'll depend on him as to whether he thinks of that or not, or maybe Hevna will notice. Let's add in a general purpose set as a weapon for the Wasp, and other similar units, they need a good upgrade weapon. Same case, but make them more like a dagger, and reduce the damages and energy costs appropriately."

"Oh, good idea, Father! I'll call it the H.I.V.E System," she responded. "Hmmm, I think I'll make it three sets of four daggers in the shape of stingers or kunai. The players can decide if they want to use them for single use for improved short term damage, or use them one set at a time and be able to continually use them."

"Heh, reduce the daggers, and increase the utility while reducing the damage," the old man responded. "Why don't we..."

The two continued with their discussion while a certain young man and his partner decided what they should do.