Novels2Search
NPC 210M
334 Access Delight

334 Access Delight

"The Kobold empire is a misleading name", GritSifter started the lesson on political powers in the VR world, "few outside the Kobold community know but it is actually a benign meritocracy and has been from the days of the Kobold Conclave Guild", she gave a crooked smile, "I should know since I was actually there", the lesson continued, listing the current leaders of the empire and naming some of the kingdoms it had relations with, "Players enjoy the stability and relative freedom under the rule of law that the empire provide in an uncertain world", were her last words before their time was up.

Allen's new calendar included tutoring sessions with various teachers, since very few Kobolds could be trusted with his identity those teachers were all picked from the original Conclave guild, they were ancient in every possible measure but had perfect memory recall and a literal millenia of experience to draw on, which made just meeting them interesting and being able to learn from them an unexpected delight.

His favorite tutor was BoneSmith, the old Kobold took him under her figural wing and on the first day just worked him through his frustrations, explaining that the Kobolds knew what it would take from the first time they discussed the distribution plan, how they mistook Allen's enthusiasm for confidence and though they moved him through the paces, his choice to be involved in every level of execution was misread as supervision when in reality he was trying to push a mountain with his bare hands.

After the initiation phase of his tutoring program and getting a much needed break Allen decided to heed her advice and remove his various sensors from around the temple grounds and the commercial building repurposed to accomodate the beurocratic needs of the distribution plan.

Attending five cure ceremonies each day and even those only to administer the NPC detection effect and teaching new ambassadors the beastial language was what they figured was his limit, they read the names of the original Ferals with each ceremony and they all had some family in the shrine that reacted with deep emotions to their siblings 'success' when their eyes glowed red and even deeper when it shifted to the soft white indicating the original scion was free from Player control.

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There were some incidents where families who's requests were denied tried to subvert other ceremonies but the tragedy of the Feral plague was so prevalent through the Kobold society that no one wanted to deny others the return of lost loved ones, only pushed through frustration at the delay.

Allen found he had more in common with Gem and Jovial than with the elders and requested their attendance in his classes, after telling them about his special calendar they showed a great interest and although some subjects were unsuited for them, due to Gem's young age and Jovial being a Player they spent most of their days together under Garnet's unhappy agreement at having his life subverted once more after so long under the Feral plague.

It was this tention that brought Allen to his current conflict with the middle generations of Kobolds, though few knew why, it was known that Garnet was forced to stay Feral for long hours while the ancient tutors experimented on the first cured Feral, calling themselves the Feral generation started as a joke and derogative but was soon caught on and Garnet was a hero to them, one of very few cured Ferals that didn't need an ambassador to speak for him they saw him as a symbol of stoic defiance and powerful resolve, suffering from constant indignation and supervised by a teenager at all times seemed unfair to the young man who was kept from his life longer than necessary.

 Relations with the NPCs let the rich and powerful empire purchase more NPC activation codes, the simplicity of the process to immunize the younger generations almost caused another rebellion when accusations of using the plague to suppress the masses surfaced, Allen's worst nightmarea came true when groups of young Kobolds used skills or magic to become Ferals and literaly selling their souls to criminals for a few hours of wanton pleasure before they were caught and the NPC tag removed, if they managed to catch them in a few hours the Player wouldn't know his removal was intended and could just assume his charge was slain somehow when he wasn't in control but the danger these almost ferals imposed was unproportional to the damage they caused in their NPC induced fervor, so severe punishments were dealt on any who crossed the line.