Two whole days passed in agony for Devon. The pain wasn’t physical but the mental anguish of someone who wanted, needed, to move, to act and progress their plans. But there was no helping the massively reduced pace of level gains now.

He spent that time meticulously designing new masks to use, since there was really nothing else for him to do. His skill saved all the faces he created, allowing him to stockpile an assortment of different disguises.

The plethora of extra time also allowed him to stop and think over all the possibilities for what could occur within the tutorial. There wasn't just the situation with both human factions and the overseers, he needed to think of possible problems that hadn't even popped up yet, and ways to manage them. The tutorial was something nobody from earth had ever been prepared for, but now that he knew all the rules there was no reason he couldn't anticipate potential scenarios.

Once he was finally off the ladder he teleported to Plainstown to take his still damaged equipment to the craftsman who’d made it. After depositing it for repairs he set off to try and find Trey. He wore the guise of Gregor today.

He couldn’t help but smirk when he found what looked like an enclosed command pavilion that was almost exactly like the one Nix had set up in Arkania. He slipped inside and saw Trey talking with Susan. He waited patiently at the entrance and listened to their conversation, which they didn’t seem to mind.

“…Trey, please. You have to do something. If that lunatic keeps hunting down rankers… I’m afraid of what will happen.”

“You’re concerned Vanir might end up in his sightlines, huh?”

The elderly woman nodded, a conflicted expression on her face. It seemed like no matter how much she wanted to pretend to care about everyone equally, there would always be people she put first, “Please, do something.”

“I’m working on it. Trust me, this isn’t something anyone is happy with. I need you to give me time. It’s not like I can just walk out there and challenge him to a duel, can I?”

“No, I suppose not…”

Trey consoled the woman for another minute before she pretended to notice Devon and made her way out.

Trey rubbed his temples before turning to Devon, “So, what can I do for you, Mr…”

“It’s Devon.”

“Fuck man, you gonna show up with a different face every time?”

“Not likely, but my last identity was… compromised.”

“Do tell.”

Devon relayed everything that had happened when he’d visited Arkania, including his meeting with Nix and the rescue of Phil.

“Well, it’s good to hear old man Phil’s doing alright at least.”

“Yeah. What were you and Susan talking about?”

“Something I was wanting your help with, actually. You been keeping an eye on the level ladder?”

“Not extremely close, why?”

“There’s this psycho going around offing people from the list. They’ve gotten at least three of the highest rankers, and they don’t show any intention of stopping. We’ve got a person in mind, but it’s not certain.”

Something flashed through Devon’s mind, something he’d noticed when he’d looked at the talon ladder, “Is it Ray?”

Trey looked at him, surprised, “Yeah, how’d you know?”

“I got just shy of 3000 talons when I killed that overseer, which tells me that any wealth an individual carries is transferred to whoever kills them. If Ray’s been hunting down the people who’ve been the most successful at hunting it makes sense they’d have an excess of cash.”

“Yeah, the problem is that I don’t actually know anything about the guy. And none of the people that’ve come from the forest camp seem to know anything about him either.”

“Let me go talk to Nix. I’m pretty sure she’s one to keep her ear to the ground, so she might know something.”

“All right. Despite how I might have sounded to Susan, this is actually the top of my priority list. If that psycho keeps killing off the higher ranks…”

“We’ll have that much less manpower when the final struggle comes around, yeah.”

Devon left the pavilion and headed over to the craftsman who’d made his outfit. After submitting it for repairs and handing over 100 talons he opened up the messaging function with Nix, then stopped.

When he met Nix he’d been under the guise of Erik. He wasn’t sure how much Eve had told Nix, but if she hadn’t blown his cover as a man of disguises, then there was still the possibility of remaining truly incognito in Arkania.

The Mask would make his name appear as whatever identity he wanted in the instance of messaging, so he could still message Nix as Erik if he wanted to. But with that personality being one he wished to abandon, it didn’t seem smart to reach out with it. As far as Devon was concerned, Erik had returned to being the mountain man, and he wouldn’t ever come back down.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He rubbed his temple, fighting a slight headache. The simplest strategy he could pursue would be to work as an advisor or handyman to both factions, strengthening them so they could stand against the threat of the overseers, even divided as they were. But something within him fought that idea. Not only were there issues with it, it was also… boring.

So instead, he teleported directly to Arkania while still under the guise of a man nobody there had ever laid eyes on.

Outside Nix’s command tent was a woman who was level 28. When he said he wished to speak to Nix he was turned down flat.

“Nix doesn’t have time to deal with every little problem that pops up around here. I’d direct you to Larry for general affairs.”

“I’m here on behalf of Trey from Plainstown, I wanted to talk to her about a string of murders that have been happening.”

The guardswoman eyed him for a moment before saying, “Nix isn’t here at this moment. I’ll message her, please wait.”

Devon waited almost an hour before Nix showed up. When she did, she looked like she’d just come back from a bout of hunting, and her increase in level supported that theory. She looked him over before she said, “Come inside.”

They went into the command tent together, and Nix stared at him expectantly.

Devon introduced his persona for the day, “Name’s Gregor, I help Trey out over at Plainstown. We were hoping you could assist us with some information, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”

“So Trey wants to do something about Ray, does he?”

Devon looked at her in surprise, though he supposed it was probably obvious what he was there for after recent events, “We weren’t even sure it was Ray, to be honest.”

“Man, you guys are really behind the curve, aren’t you? Yes, the one you’re after is Ray. So what are you going to do about it?”

“The plan is to stop him,” Devon said dumbly.

“Right, usually I wouldn’t care too much to help solve someone else’s problem, but he’s been a real pain in my ass as well. He’s hiding out in a dungeon, some kind of burrow in the woods.”

“Okay, tell us where and we’ll go flush him out.”

“Not so fast. You think you can just charge in there and expect to come out alive? Even if you went in as a team you’d suffer casualties. This guy isn’t some run of the mill killer of passion, he’s a bona-fide serial killer. Walking into his home turf is like asking to be slaughtered by him.”

I was actually thinking of using the excessive amount of wood from the forest to start a fire and burn him out, but whatever. I’ll just keep playing stupid and see what she suggests. Even before that though… Create plot.

What is the objective of new Plot?

Set objective as kill Ray.

Error. Command rejected. Entity does not possess the power necessary to elevate task-level command [Kill] to Plot Objective status.

Figures.

It was quite irritating how the system wouldn’t allow him to create plots for everything he needed, but he supposed such a broken mechanic would never have been allowed into the system in the first place.

“Alright, what did you have in mind then?”

“My second in command, Zane, is good at tracking people. We’ll have him stake out the place and wait for Ray to leave. Then, while he’s gone whatever strike team Trey wants to assemble will enter the burrow, disarm any traps the man has potentially set up, and lay in wait for Ray to return. From there it becomes a simple ambush.”

“Why not just ambush him in the forest?”

“Because he’s a slippery fucker. I had Zane try that after one of his kills, but he managed to slip away, even with the level difference between them.

It wasn’t a bad plan. Though Devon still felt his burning out idea was more practical, he couldn’t deny that it would kill Ray before they got the chance to actually fight him, meaning they wouldn’t be able to claim his talons or exp.

“Okay, we’ll go with that.”

Nix frowned, “I was meaning for you to take it back to Trey for him to mull it over. Did he give you full control over this matter?”

Devon simply tapped the side of his head, and Nix muttered, “Right, system messaging. It’s still annoying to get used to the rules of our new reality, even after almost two weeks.”

Of course, Devon hadn't messaged anyone, but he didn't need Nix to get her suspicions raised about a guy she'd never seen having a concerning amount of authority.

“When can you have Zane ready?”

“He’s out hunting today, and I’d like to keep it that way. We’ll go ahead tomorrow. Have Trey assemble his team before then. Preferably no more than three people.”

“Very well.” Devon left after that, not seeing any point in wasting more of the leader’s time.

He stopped by Phil’s food stand, the biggest in Arkania, and grabbed a bite to eat before he teleported back to Plainstown. Even in a primitive place like the tutorial Phil still managed to grill up some damn fine food.

When Devon returned to Trey’s command space he was nowhere to be found. Most likely Trey had finished all of his most pressing matters to go hunt. Devon did feel a bit bad, forcing Trey into the position of leadership. The man was extremely good at boosting morale, but Devon knew at heart he was a man of action.

When he did return, several hours later as the suns were setting behind the mountain, Devon was waiting for him.

“You couldn’t have messaged?” Trey asked.

“Didn’t want to distract you.”

“Yeah, well as you were lounging around here another person was murdered.”

“Another ranker?”

“No, a level 28.”

“Does their death anger you?”

Trey stopped and looked at him. Devon himself wasn’t exactly sure where the question had come from. It was only natural that someone’s death should incite anger, wasn’t it? Still, Trey’s hesitant look reassured Devon he hadn’t accidentally crossed a line too far.

“It does. But… It’s not like before. It’s hard to explain, but it isn’t so much that their death angers me. It’s more so that somebody is purposefully ruining everything we’re trying to set up, and the setback is what pisses me off.”

Devon nodded, and Trey continued, “It’s strange, isn’t it? I feel like I should be disgusted with myself for even thinking like that, but I can’t deny that’s how I feel.”

“This place has changed us all,” Devon said sympathetically. That memory had certainly changed him, and even the outside world was exacting its toll on the mentality of everyone else.

“So what came from your talk with Nix?”

“Ray is the murderer, as you assumed. Nix even knows where he’s been hiding out, and we have a plan to make sure he doesn’t get in our way anymore.”

Devon filled Trey in on the details of the plan, and he nodded.

“Okay, let’s you and me go in then.”

“Just us? You do realize that having the leader of the camp and his second go in alone is a bit of a hairbrained move, right?”

“I’m tired of sitting around, playing little king and hunting in my spare time. I need to do something more, you know?”

Devon smiled, “Yeah, I know. That’s just who you are.”

“Damn right.”