"They are the ones that robbed me", the unfamiliar voice made Jeremy look away from the enemy and see the crowd gathered around the dragon, he counted at least seven parties easily distinguished by their color schemes.
Party color schemes? What madness is this? Who chose to stay in the same party for long enough to pay for personalized color schemes? And most of these Players looked like children barely out of preschool, he guided enough of them through the pass to recognize the appearance even in specialized and legacy avatars.
"They beat me up and took all my gold", another voice cried out, "they took my stuff" the chorus repeated over and over with minor detail changes until finally in the silence one girl was still crying and Jeremy couldn't hear her story bit she was the only one painted blue with slashed hearts in groups of five, he could guess what happened to her and her half party, which was the norm for youngsters who wanted familiar company while mingling with other half parties, then realising she was wearing dirty and torn free clothes which could only happen if she had nothing else in her inventory, another boy had slashed diamonds and he noticed the slashed five emblem pattern was repeated quite often.
"THATS A LIE", Julian screamed, "they are all filthy liars that just want to rob us because they have a dragon", looking balefully at the youngsters, "I will not be bullied by children or by a fake dragon"
"Do you deny taking my customers' possessions?" The deep rumble sounded almost like a challenge.
"If I find things in my dungeon they are mine", Julian sounded confident, "who made you a judge anyway?", looking at his party, "lets go I don't have time for children's games or lies" and turned his back to Allen
Jeremy saw the dragon gurgle and thought he was about to speak when he opened his mouth wide and puked a rainbow on Julian's party splashing sparks of color all around the twelve shocked people.
"What the fuck?" Looking at their dark green lines on orange background Jeremy was surprised by his own voice.
"Take it off me", he heard screams from the besieged party before "you fucking robbed us"
"If I find something in my dungeon then its mine", innocently repeating Julian's words.
"You fucking looted my inventory thats not in the fucking dungeon" Kluvis screamed at the top of his lungs.
The others suddenly stared blankly at their displays before Gurim equipped a sword and charged alone at the crowd, two of the sorcerers dopped to the ground an one of the rangers outright fainted, automatically going offline.
"Ahhhhhhh" Gurim screamed, charging at the dragon thief with his sword swinging wildly, when he reached action distance Allen moved to intercept him.
"Rrrrhhaa", Gurim was flung backwards and seemed to be tearing apart, when he stopped rolling Jeremy saw he had no hair and no gear equipped, Allen walked over to where Gurim's equipment was strawn and slowly picked it up before the stunned eyes of everyone in the field, "I found it and its mine now", Jeremy gulped at the words.
"My father will hear of this atrocity", Julian's scream whistled out when Allen turned to look at him.
"You killed me" came the quiet accusation from Kluvis, "not in the fucking game", he answerd the questioning look from the dragon, "I have debts to pay in the real fucking world and they will fucking kill me".
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"Well if you need money why not take a loan?" Allen asked innocently.
"I cant pay back the loans I already had you moron I have a thirty percent interest loan from a black market banker", Kluvis held his head with both hands and fell to the ground, "I'm fucking dead"
"If you take a loan from me I can give you a discount of fifty percent from my charge fees and only five percent total interest on the initial sum", it sounded rehearsed and from the looks on the children's faces they each heard it a thousand times.
"Five percent total on the initial?" Kluvis sounded broken, "you don't even have a hundred grand", he said despairing at the joke on his account.
"You heard right", the dragon sounded jovial, "only five percent total on the initial", then added, "actually for a hundred grand you can have it at four point five percent total on the initial", Looking at one of the children, "Naoli please prepare the contract for mister..."
"Kluvis" the man answerd.
"Kluvis", Allen continued, "by the agreed on details"
"Right away sir", a girl with slashed doves or dragons said, "should I sign it for you?" she asked genuinely and Jeremy's jaw would have hit the floor if it could.
"Yes thank you", turning to the other Players in Julian's party he looked almost giddy, "and how may I help you gentlemen?"
"You can fuck yourself to death" Julian answered angrily.
"That is rude", Allen said and added, "you may leave now"
"I will leave when I want to leave", foaming at the mouth, "not when a giant sparkly lizard tells me to".
"Security", at the word Jeremy saw two full parties step out from the groups, almost a third of them Legacy avatars, "please escort mr bad manners out" it sounded so proper and polite Jeremy thought he was dreaming.
The two parties pushed their way through the shocked enemy fighters and sorcerers, "dont touch me" Julian screeched, "protect me" he looked at his men, "I will kick you from the part"
"Fuck you Julian" Cergei said, "I quit your fucking party", which lead to a cascade of voices sounding the same sentiment.
"My father will hear of this" Julian raved, "you will all join the loser's ban from the guild"
"Who cares about your guild moron?" One of the two women in the party said, "all it does is take taxes and give us stupid escort quests", looking in her display, "there I fucking quit".
"If you don't come with me right now you will all be banned from the free guild alliance" Julian's voice broke into a whisper but half of the people stood up to go with him, carrying the three unconcious men and surrounded by the 'security' force.
The woman that quit the guild put her hands on her face and sobbed quietly when a few of the children surrounded her for support she wailed in anguish and was offered handkechiefs and water.
Allen walked to her but one of the girls stood up and shook her head and he turned to the remaining three people.
"Do you need a job?" Saying the words in a quiet rumbling undertone.
The men looked at their displays for a second and then nodded at a blonde ranger who replied, "it looks like it" adding "what are you hiring?"
Allen looked back at the gathered children, "we need guides and teachers".
The small group looked at each other with astonished stares and nodded furiously, "we can do that", the ranger finally said, "for the right wages".
"Excellent" was the rumbling reply, "you can finish the details with my head of human resource department", looking at the crowd and then to the group helping the woman, "Sutul come here please", Jeremy was flabbergasted, Sutul was the most beautiful man he ever saw, an obvious Legacy character if he ever met one and it had eleven slashed stars on his cheek, a whole party sacrificed themselves so this one Player would keep its character away from danger.
"Yes Allen?" His voice was so charming Jeremy fealt his heart flutter.
"A random group of instructors appeared", the dragon smiled, "what do you want to do"
Sighing at the dragon's archaic joke, "I will hire them", even frustrated his voice was a gift to mankind.
"Sutul I choose you", Allen kept the joke alive, "use your power of negotiation to help find them a perfect place with us"
"Sure thing" Jeremy yawned at the tiring dragon's demands and saw many others in the same predicament.
"Follow me" was all Sutul had to say to make the four hardy warriors follow it like ducklings.
"I admired the whore class", Jeremy heard Allen say in remeniscence "but I could never force myself beyond the first resurgence".
"What are you talking about?" Jeremy heard his voice betray his inquisitive mind.
"Just some old memorys", came the reply, "forget I said anything".