Robert Murdoc, heir to the Murdoc Corporation and gaming enthusiast, was at the security gate in Las Vegas, waiting to be checked through so he could get on his personal flight when a group of humans who had been taken during the morph entered the line for the private flights security checkpoint behind him. Each of them had a carry on bag behind them and looked lost. He could hear them asking each other if this was the way to the private flights.
Ever since the morph, many corporations and governments had tried to push a pro-human agenda, which Robert had thought hilarious after all their former demands for inclusiveness of those different from them.
"How the hell did Leech get us a private flight? And where the hell is 'Tarmac, Oklahoma'?" a young looking lioness catgirl asked. (Eternal Darkness)
"Well, if I remember my research off the internet, Tarmac is a new city that is almost exclusively for the reclusive rich. The Government also has taken interest in the area over the last month," a deep voiced dwarf who stood as tall as the catgirl answered. (Istand Alone)
"Does that mean that Leech is really one of those arrogant richies?" a tanned elf inquired. (Sakura Ranger)
"At least the rest of you are over five feet! I swear, if I ever get my hands on the deity that turned me into a gnome, I'll give them a piece of my mind with my wrench to their head!" a gnome with bright red hair growled. (Vivian Enflamer)
"Well, most of us ended up in bodies similar to the style of gaming we played," a pale elf stated. (Pious One)
"True," the male drow in the group chuckled. "Vivian always was a tinkerer, and that's a gnomish habit." (Shadow Storm)
"I'm still amazed that Leecher ended up as a Dungeon. I mean, you read stories of things like that but you never expect it to happen to someone you know," Darkness said as she skipped along beside them.
"You know, when I watched that anime named GATE, I always thought of you when the loli was on screen," Vivian laughed. "Imagine our shock when you posted on the Guild forum that you actually became a loli."
One of the others looked away. "We were never as close to Leech as the rest of you... why would he extend the invitation to us?" a thin, almost skeletal, young man asked.
The half orc behind him rested a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Jarick. We're all part of the same Guild, and I think that is all that really mattered to Leech. I remember you and he had spent hours discussing your build for the game, just think about this as a personal life consultation then, that we're being asked to attend."
Jarick nodded firmly, "You're right, Marson. Thank you. After all, could you imagine if I actually managed to pull off the juggernaut armor on an elder archfiend like he suggested? You have no idea how much I was imagining that. How the hell does he come up with these ideas?"
Robert turned and looked at them. "Excuse me, you were mentioning a private flight heading for Tarmac? It looks like we'll be taking the same plane then... How do you people know the Montgomery family?"
The guild stopped in their tracks. "Montgomery, as in Vice President Elinore Montgomery?"
"Of course. Forgive me, I am being rude," he said as he bowed. "My name is Robert Murdoc, and Aunt Elinore asked me to take their family jet to check in on her son, Reginald. I was informed when I got here that I needed to wait for guests invited by Reginald, and that would seem to be you, as there are no other flights to Tarmac."
"Well, that explains quite a bit about some of the nights when he had to suddenly disconnect," Istand Alone murmured.
"I'm afraid we never knew his IRL name... that was always a rule amongst the Guild," Darkness said warily.
"Oh, so you must be the Eternal Gamers! Reg wouldn't shut up about some of the antics and system breaking combinations he's made you pull on nights where he and I could find a way to sneak out of those damned political meetings. I would have moved to Tarmac myself, except Tarmac is designed for all of us to get away from the political world," Robert said. "Well, now that you're here, we can all head on through the security checkpoint, I think."
After they had all been cleared and guided to the private jet, Robert stated calmly, "I'm not really surprised that Reginald managed to arrange for all of you to be here at the same time. He has always been highly skilled at organization. I can't wait to see him again."
"About that..." Eternal Darkness started to say something before the others all looked at the giant, wall-mounted television, which has the guild logo displayed on it with a notification of a Live-Stream occuring as soon as the plane has taken off.
A stewardess helped them store their bags, and informed them that their checked luggage will be transported to the Montgomery Family Estate by courier and should arrive before sunset. She then helped them to seats with their names on them, arranged by Reginald. The only one who didn't have an arranged place, was of course Robert, since he wasn't planned for.
"The flight will be a little over two hours. After we have taken off, I will be around with the prearranged drinks. Mister Murdoc, would you like your standard request?"
"A rum and coke, yes, unless Reginald has supplied something special?"
"Oh, Master Reginald has indeed provided specialty beverages for each of his guests. Let me see if he left any special instructions for you!" she scurried off into the employee area, and skimmed a list. "Ah, yes, he sent something special for you as well, although he listed you as a 25% likelihood of showing."
"I'll take that then, thank you. Let the pilot know we're ready to fly."
***
As soon as the airplane stabilized in the air, the guild emblem vanished from the screen and a giant number five appeared on the screen, and provided a countdown, which ended up streaming a live feed of an emerald haired man examining the camera in his hands. "Ah, we're live? Good, good," he stated before tossing the camera up, where it started hovering around him, letting them get in a good look at the new Reginald Montgomery and the inside of the extremely high magitech room that is the heart of his Dungeon. "Hmmm, counting heads, it appears we've got an extra on the plane. I'm guessing that's you, Robert, and that mother must be worried since I haven't done anything but email her these last couple of weeks."
"Reginald, as straight to the point as always, yes, that is one of the reasons I am on this plane. Imagine my surprise to find myself waiting for your guild at the Security gate!"
Reginald chuckled softly, "yeah, I can imagine you were a bit impatient. I see from recent status posts and news articles that you and mother are still standard humans, while your father became a gnome and many of those in congress became goblins and gremlins. Fitting, I guess."
"Leech, that really you?" Istand Alone asked.
"Yes, it's me. I've hit Level 20, and created not just my first Avatar, but an entire new race called the Dunatar, who will be appearing on this planet with a high-magitech society sometime soon. Let me show you around my Heart Room," he answered, and motioned at the Construction Core bot. "This is where my primary body and soul is, the Centralized Construction Core Module 18394754-382-001. I've made a couple more of these Core bots as extremely rare treasure drops. According to the AI, since everyone has gone through the Tutorial, the binding will just allow you to have Construction Core Master status, instead of being pulled into the core, which happened to me do to an abnormal mana pressure wave after they crashed in my backyard."
As Reginald talked, he walked through the dungeon, walking past mobs that ignored him, and stepping over pressure plates and resetting puzzles as he passed on his way out. "I have spoken with Borick and Marlon, two of the 'gods' of the Pantheon in charge of this new system we are all using now. Borick is the god in charge of the gaming elements of the system, and Marlon is the god of the Overpowered, who eventually get chosen by other gods as their Champions or Heroes, and are given 'Storyline' quests."
"If you remember the recent update that announced the introduction of Ego items, those were my idea. You should have seen Marlon's face go pale at the mention of Id Items. The traitorous AI in my core passed them the information regarding the Super-Ego Items I was planning on keeping secret for the Guild, but to be fair, it would be wise to spread them around too."
The Stewardess emerged from the staff area with a cart, loaded with wrapped packages, she slowly, carefully distributed them to the proper passenger. Reginald continued on with his speech. "Each of you have received a specialty beverage from the world your new race originated on, created from my Loot Table. Sadly, Robert, you remained a human, so I sent one of the bottles of scotch from my family cellar."
There are a lot of cheers as people open their packages, and then gasp when they realize some of these liquors have ceremonial serving containers and instructions. Everyone also has four black cards with golden caligraphy on them. "Those cards will be what you swipe at the Instance door in order to gain access to the Instance coded into them. You will notice that they say 'Home', 'Guild Crafting Hall', 'Guild Library', and 'Guild Training'. The Home one is the only unique one each of you have. When you enter your 'Home' Instance, you will be granted full control of the Instance, and it's ten million mana reservoir for changes.
"The Crafting Hall is set up for grandmaster artisans and is fully stocked. Crafting in each of the specialized zones of the Hall has a bonus to success, quality, and a reduced resource cost. The Library is unique compared to the Library access I left at the Guild Counter. The Guild's Library has five Librarians who I purchased from the system. Apparently, I pulled them from their afterlives to work for me? Anyways, I have it set up into four quadrants: System Lore and Non-Fiction, Fiction, Skills and Spells, and Blueprints and Recipes. If you want a specific book to take with you, you must pay for it with mana to generate a new copy for someone else. Yes, you can learn use the Automatic Learn function of Skill and Spell books, but you will be charged mana to produce a new copy if you do so. You can also read through the entire book to try to understand the skill or spell yourself without System Guidance, and that doesn't cost you mana."
Reginald had just reached a long corridor, which is the entrance to his actual dungeon behind him, the door closed and read: 'Eternal Gamers Only - Live Dungeon Challenge'. He motioned for the camera to show the Level Sync doors as well as the Lilian's Garden and Mineshaft Instance doors. "The Guild's Training zone is where I am currently housing my first Overboss and the clan of goblins and orcs that Marlon gave him. Please do not kill any of his goblins and orcs, as I have to pay mana to respawn them. Hurolg is a Drill Sergeant and Slave Driver, designed to make people pump their stats the hard way, as well as level only using maximum overlevel. Lilian's Garden is an Alchemical reagent paradise, including a zoo and aquarium, meanwhile Mineshaft is of course, a mineshaft, where you can practice your mining for ores, jewels, and mana crystals.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
"Across from the garden and mineshaft, you probably noticed the doors marked Sync Level 1, then a series of letters. These zones will drop your effective level to one, removing the bonus statistics from having leveled up. It will also unequip any gear you have that has a level requirement. They are zones designed to make you think and react, and train your statistics. Unlike in a game, there is no 'useless' stat for any class, although thanks to perks we can mitigate most of the need for outside stat effects.
"This door here," Reginald stopped right outside a door marked 'Death and Despair beyond this point', "leads to the hardest challenge I have created. It will sync you down to level one, and the enemies inside are maximum overlevel monsters with levels in the mid two hundreds. Now, even if you have unlimited hit points, every being has a spot that that is considered fatal if damaged enough. For most of us biological beings that includes the brain and heart. If you can complete this dungeon solo, I have crafted a complete set of Super-Ego gear, including eight rings, two bracelets, a necklace, and two earrings.
"Resurrection for dying in my dungeons is free, because of a quest I completed for Marlon, the God of Overpower. Each of you will have a treasure coffer in your private instance with a thousand gold coins. I would recommend you purchase Resurrection Tokens for yourselves and those you care about from the Grand Temple. Resurrection Tokens are only ten gold, and it's another reason why the world should switch to the system currency. You have two months to prepare before I release more pressurized mana into the atmosphere and raise the global mana level to Average. Now, I'll meet you all at the Guild Hall, which I created outside my dungeon entrance. Leech out."
The screen went black, and then the Guild Logo came back up. The Stewardess smiled and said she would leave them to discuss, only to ring the bell on the table if they needed anything.
***
Robert looked absolutely flumoxed while everyone else seemed excited about what Reginald had just been talking about. "How can he just give away so much money and be so..." Robert rubbed his face before pouring himself a double shot of scotch and slamming it.
"Oh, you get used to Leech doing this in games. He's always been the most generous when it came to getting the guild set up, and we never knew how he would generate the funds. A lot of people accused him of hacking the games we played in the past. Well, this time, he literally is the Dungeon Master, and apparently for mana, he can create things, not unlike what we read in so many light novels regarding dungeons," Eternal Darkness stated as she sipped from a small glass of dragonfire wine, which was made with a strong cinnamon flavor.
"Well, looks like the global economy and work forces will need to be changed. I would suggest that ye pass that on to the Vice President, along with the fact her son be alive," Istand Alone added while craddling a small barrel marked 'Endless Ale'. "Leech never held back on gifts in the past, and his personality is definitely the same. I don't care if he's a mind in a computer core, he's still the same man."
"Agreed," Vivian confirmed while sipping on gnomish version of sake. "That man has more luck or ingenuity than almost anyone else I've seen. Did you know that he once got what everyone was considering the worst drop in a game and found a hidden quest around it, simply because he paid attention to the lore of the game?"
"That was messed up. I remember that he got us all exclusive beta access to their next title as a reward for that!" Shadow murmured.
"I think the government should try to purchase a few of those construction cores, or visit the Gold Shop in the Temple and purchase mana-stabilizing devices for the big cities, if what he said about raising the mana concentration to Average will do what he said it would on the forum," Pious calmly explained. "Once the level of mana in an area outside of a dungeon's control reaches Average, the mana can start condensing and spawning random monsters."
"What!?" Robert jerked upright in his seat. "He's going to make the world deal with monsters in addition to the rest of this bullshit?"
"Well, actually, yes. I think he's planning to groom us to go and raid the Mana Syphon below the Vatican and the one in India," Darkness replied cautiously. "Apparently, this world was supposed to have had mana all along, but... well, the victor rights the histories, so we can't really do much about the last two thousand years, but that's the approximate era where we haven't had gods and magic around." She pulled a file out of her bag. "The site in India has the lesser syphon, and wouldn't have been detected without the general level of mana in the area having been increased as much as it is, where as the one at the Vatican seems to be trying to syphon all mana away.
"According to the Indian Government, Vault B's Secret Door requires a special monk to perform the Garuda Mantra. Sadly, the last monk who qualified died in 1935. Therefore, Leech recommends we either ask the gods to transfer a suitable monk from another world to ours or we need to train a Monk to have a maximum Meditation and Chakra ability with a mastered Chant skill. Another idea was he could 'create' the needed character with his Spawn and Enhance capabilities as a Dungeon.
"Regarding the Vault B information, we've come up with a lot of information that is misleading or false. Leech thinks it could be the remnants of a dungeon behind the door, and wouldn't be surprised if after we entered, the doors closed again. We have no information on what could be inside in truth, although someone had a vidtube clip claiming it as a likely genetic modification laboratory and the cobras on the doors were a predecessor to the caduceus."
As Darkness was talking, the screen pulled up various images, showing that Reginald had left something connected. "We have no real information at all regarding what is hiding under the Vatican, but that will likely be where the real threat is. I'm afraid our enemy this time is an ancient Fleshbound Lich. For reinforcements, we might be able to call upon the Guild Teachers, if we can accept them into the Guild, which is a roundabout way of bypassing their resurrection rules. Whatever is there has been festering since before the Basillica was even built in 326 AD."
"So, in a few months, we're going to be going on an intercontinental trip?" one of the usual support members of the Eternal Gamers asked.
"Oh, we aren't nearly ready to face a Lich over two thousand years old. Leech thinks it will likely take us about two years to be ready to attempt the Garuda Instance as he has dubbed the India site. He said we might need up to ten years for the Vatican, and that's if we can get permission from the people there. If we can't, it will require a lot more work and a vast amount of manpower," Darkness answered.
"So, our first goal as a guild will be what?" Istand Alone inquired.
"Our first goal is to try to convince first the USA, and then the rest of the world to switch to the System Currency and see about getting 'City Cores', 'Dungeon Cores', and other such utility items from Leecher and the gods. We will also need to get the governments of the world to issue Guild and Adventurer accreditation and certification," Darkness informed them. "Mister Murdoc, I am happy you are here with us, as we will need you to pass these to the Vice President and try to get them passed into law." Darkness pulled out another folder marked 'Government Oversight' and passed it to Robert.
"The government needs to also openly accept the worship of the various deities of the Pantheon," Pious one murmured. "We need to see about setting up shrines, churches, and temples. We need these passed as Federal Laws, not just city and state laws. While we can all carry a few items in our inventories, adventurers will also need the right to open carry weapons. Not just guns, but swords, daggers, spears, axes, bows and arrows."
"Any other laws that you would suggest?" Robert sighed. "Aunt Elinore won't be very happy if this causes her planned campaign to derail..."
The screen changed back to displaying an image of a large guild house with Reginald out front of it. "Just tell mother that a dungeon is the ultimate resource if handled properly. After all, I can provide an unlimited amount of grain, meat, ores, and herbs, as well as coins, gear, spell books, skill books, blueprints, and mana crystals or Fluidic Mana," Reginald stated. "Sadly, most dungeons will be run by AIs with limited direct oversight. Since the gods didn't want anyone to die on their arrival, you'll have noticed that anyone who did die was brought back, and most of the buildings that were damaged were fixed by the gods, I was the only one out of all that who ended up dead, which was why they made my mind and soul the primary ruler of the construction core dungeon module. They only started eliminating people who were actively opposing those whom they were trying to help, hence the elimination of the violent religious extremists by their will.
"Oh, and I'm outside the First Guild Hall for Eternal Gamers, which is on the driveway to my family home, with my dungeon entrance right behind the Guild Hall," Reginald stated as he closed his eyes, focusing on something. A metal case appeared at his feet and he smiled. He leaned down and pressed a button, the case unfolding and extending into the shape and size of a bus, hovering above the ground, with a control crystal in his hand.
"The government will also need to consider passing laws regarding magitech equipment. Just so you know, we do have at least four interplanetary ships headed our way with the intention of immigrating. The leader of one of the expidition is a level 2,000 rabbit demihuman hero. Their ships should arrive in a year. The governments need to understand that the Gods intend to open our planet for immigration, and the lower level ones will be able to emerge through the Grand Temple I created, where as others, such as the Level 2000 Hero need to arrive on their own.
"Just an fyi, Robert, the government has absolutely nothing that can damage these ships, as they have mana barriers that can and will stop nukes and convert the radiation into extra mana which it will then syphon off to recharge itself. We will need to welcome these immigrants and assist them with settling in, and they will not cause trouble, as the gods have decreed. Anyways, I'll be waiting for you at the airstrip to pick you up."
With that, the screen cut back to the Guild Logo. "Damn it Regi, you just love causing problems for me to clean up, don't you?"
Darkness stretched and yawned, "It is only a problem if you intend to resist the changes occurring. It is better to go with the flow as Leech is doing and try to control it to some extent. At least you've got the warning of immigration. Perhaps people from Earth could move to some other planet."
"That was freakin' cool, he made a Jetsons-esque flying bus!" Shadow exclaimed. "I can't wait to see what gifts he intends to give us in addition to all the information he has helped us with."