“It’s going to cost how much?” Blake blurted in disbelief as he sat in the weekly holo-meeting.

His mother’s mouth twisted and she confirmed the number. “According to the interface, the shield generator will require two billion nano.”

“Is that going to be a problem?” Jessica asked from behind her desk in Phoenix.

Blake ran a hand through his long, messy hair and took a deep breath. “Well, no, but I didn’t think it would be so expensive. It doesn’t help that upgrading the faction hall wiped out my nano last week.”

“So I take it this is a bad time to ask for another donation, then?” Jessica smiled.

“You could say that,” Blake snorted. After a moment's pause, he asked, “How much do you need, and what for?”

“Ideally, another two hundred million nano,” she replied. “That would be enough to get our faction hall to level three and allow us to start on some of the interesting buildings, like the enchanter’s workshop.”

“Do you have the materials to upgrade to level three?” he asked.

Jessica smiled. “Yes, there’s plenty left over from your upgrade, and now that we have a warehouse, it’ll just transfer right over.”

“That’s handy,” Donna commented. “But, then we’ll be short on nano for the shield generator.”

“We’re going to be short no matter what,” Blake reminded her. “One point five billion nano is insane.”

“It is,” his mother agreed. “Although, Jordan said we could cut that down in half if our enchanter was higher level”

A bit of hope flared. “How soon before Debra’s high enough?”

Donna pursed her lips. “According to her, at least a month.”

Blake swore.

“How much nano do you have right now?” Jessica asked.

He opened the status of his inventory. “Seven hundred and eighty-six million nano.”

His mother smiled. “You’re over halfway there already, and it’s been, what, a week?”

“Yeah, but I still need to upgrade six spells, and I was hoping to reach level three before Invasion day.”

Donna frowned. “Then we can delay the shield generator until that happens. It’ll only take two weeks to construct.”

Blake shook his head. “No, we can’t hold off on it. Actually, if I could somehow find a way to speed it up, I would.”

“We have another four weeks before Invasion day,” Jessica reminded him. “Is there a specific reason you want to rush construction, or is it just general paranoia?”

“A bit of both,” he admitted. “I can’t help but think something’s going to go wrong, and we’ll need it. Honestly, I’m surprised the cops or the feds haven’t found us yet.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about the Feds,” Jessica advised. “I doubt very seriously the Sheriff will cooperate. Especially when they’ve lost some of their own and the Feds took away their crime scene.”

“Blake’s right, though, the Sheriff and his deputies are still a problem,” Donna said.

“Will the shield be enough to keep them out?”

Blake grinned. “Easily. There’s nothing they have that can get through it. They could ram an armored vehicle straight into it at high speed, and it would never even notice. Hell, now that our gate and wall are level two, they’re pretty much invulnerable to the police, too.”

“Then why the rush?” Jessica asked.

“Because they can just climb over the wall. All they need is some twenty foot ladders. If that’s too slow, they even have access to a helicopter. We could repel them pretty easily, but the last thing I want to do is start slaughtering people just trying to do their jobs.”

“Yes,” his mother nodded seriously. “That would be bad.”

“Then what is the plan?” asked Jessica.

“The faction comes first,” Blake sighed. “I’m strong enough right now, that no one can come close to hurting me for at least six months. But, I can’t be everywhere and do everything. After the meeting, I’ll transfer over all my nano, again. That way, you can upgrade your faction hall, and we can start building our shield generator immediately.”

“How long until you have the rest?” Donna asked.

“Well, Oliver said my scent suppression potion is finally ready. With that and my bow, I feel confident in taking on higher level scenarios again. On average, a level four scenario should give me about twice as much nano as a level three. If I can get to where I complete two of those a day, then I’ll have the nano in less than a week.”

Donna frowned. “I don’t like that you work yourself that hard. If you’re exhausted, you’ll make mistakes.”

“Yes, it’s hard to lead a faction when you’re dead,” Jessica agreed.

Blake rolled his eyes. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

“Speaking of leading a faction,” Jessica segued. “My people love the updated onboarding document. They want to meet the author.”

“I thought we were trying to keep my identity a secret,” he reminded her.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“There’s no need to give them your real name, and no one pays attention to wanted notices anyway,” Jessica pointed out. “It's not like the Gila county sheriff is looking for you.”

Blake considered the course of action, and decided that meeting his faction members was worth the exposure. Not only would it be good to acquaint himself with the Payson expansion, but if he were lucky, he could find a way to motivate them as well.

In the week since Dahteste’s death, the natives had become workhorses. Their increased productivity had even rubbed off on some of the others, like Jason and Owen.

Blake nodded. “I’ll head over this afternoon, but I want to run a level four scenario first.”

“As long as it’s before four, they’ll be there.”

That’s gonna be tight.

“Well, in that case, unless someone else has something to add, I need to get going.”

“Nothing on my end,” Jessica said.

After Donna shook her head, the meeting was closed, and he used the town interface to transfer over all his hard-earned nano. When that was done, he hugged his mother goodbye and left.

In the now level four faction hall, the Chancellor’s office was on the third floor, at the end of a long hardwood hallway. That path led to a balcony that allowed you to either look down on those entering two floors below, or up to the vaulted ceilings above. The stairs to this upper level were curved marble masterpieces lined with dark wooden banisters.

This came a long way from a hut with no door.

Blake exited the oversized faction hall double doors, and traveled down the gravel path Owen and the other stonemasons laid to cut down on mud. This road crisscrossed throughout the budding land, which was almost filled to bursting with new structures.

Along each side of the property stood row upon row of bunkhouses, all four stories tall. Now that the faction hall had reached level four, they could finally upgrade them again. The level three bunkhouses would be eight stories in height, would include air conditioning, a refrigerator in each room, and an elevator. Of course, the shield generator came first. Safety was a higher priority to him than even housing.

As Blake traveled the path toward Oliver’s workshop, he waved a greeting to those he passed. With only a few dozen people present, even this small town seemed empty, but he knew that would soon change.

Only four more weeks. So much to get done.

“Hey Jordan, hey Noah,” Greeted the constructor and his six-year-old son as they passed him on the street.

“Mornin’ Blake,” the man greeted him in his southern accent. He then stopped to chat. “See my little helper?” he asked proudly as he gestured toward his son.

Noah’s arms overflowed with tools the constructor would need to work on his next task. The child smiled as he struggled to follow his father.

“I do,” Blake replied. “Are you guys headed to work on the shield generator?”

“Ayup,” he nodded. “The thing’s downright fascinatin’. I don’t rightly know how it works, but as long as I follow the computer thingy’s instructions, everything seems to work out fine. It’s a crying shame that Debra isn’t able to help. That’d save a pretty penny, and get her done faster to boot.”

“Yeah, it’s a shame.” When he saw the conversation was going nowhere, he tried to politely extract himself. “Hey, it’s been good talking to you, but I’ve got to get going. Lot’s to do.”

“Of course,” Jordan waved goodbye. “I need to get started as well.”

Blake nodded and strode down the empty street. A moment later, he turned a corner and laid eyes on the alchemy workshop. As he neared, a deep thumping resounded from within. He opened the door, and was blasted by heavy metal music. His brother stood with his back to Blake and slowly stirred the liquid within a large pot as it set over an open flame.

“Can you turn that down!” Blake asked loudly.

When his brother did not respond, he searched the large table until he found a phone and quickly lowered the volume himself. That finally got a reaction from Oliver.

“Dude! I need that! It helps me focus,” his brother complained.

I couldn’t even hear myself think. How does that help you focus?

“I’ll turn it back up when I leave,” Blake promised. “You mentioned you had a batch of the scent potion for me?”

“Scent WASH, not potion,” Oliver corrected. “You pour it on yourself, you don’t drink it.”

Blake rolled his eyes. “Well, thank you for making the wash for me. I know there was a lot of other stuff you could have chosen to master next. I appreciate it.”

“No problem, bro,” Oliver waved his thanks away. “This stuff is selling like hotcakes!”

Huh?

“What do you mean?”

“Evidently, Jason is the one that’s been stinking up the bathroom every day. When I was talking up Owen, I let slip what I was working on, and he had a great idea. Use the scent wash to clean out the bunkhouse bathrooms!”

Blake stared at his brother in disbelief.

“We emptied out some glass cleaner spray bottles and filled them up. Now, all it takes is one spray, and the next six hours are blissfully clean.”

“You’re telling me people are using an expensive alchemy potion to make the bathroom smell better?”

“Wash,” Oliver corrected him. “And, it really stinks. I swear, Jason eats nothing but eggs and beans, and we have to suffer for it!”

Blake had never heard of such a use in his past life. While faction towns came with the obligatory potent smells of humans crowded together in close confines, no one had been willing to pay the extravagant prices alchemists charged. Not when there were better things to spend their money on.

“It’s now my biggest moneymaker!” Oliver exclaimed. “No one cares about the attribute boosters anymore, and I even doubled how much you get from them.” His brother nodded to the table while he continued to stir. “Check out that phone.”

“What about it?”

“Elan gave it to me for a spray bottle since he didn’t have any spare nano. Did you know leather workers use piss to tan monster hides?”

“No, I didn’t know that,” Blake admitted.

“They do, it’s part of their process. Tanning hides smells AWFUL. But, one spray of my new wash, and BAM, zero smell.”

Blake had to admit that it was an incredible use of the wash. While Blake did not realize that they used urine in the tanning process, he had smelled the foul scent each time he visited a leather worker. There was a reason they lumped most of the crafting professions together, away from the cook house and bunkhouses.

You know, I bet Debra can make a sound dampening enchantment to cut down on the noise Kuruk makes. That would dramatically improve morale.

The blacksmith hammered at his anvil at all hours of the day. Now that the bunkhouse and other buildings had glass windows, the racket was not as loud as before, but it was still distracting. He reliably used it as an alarm clock most days.

“Well, I’m glad the wash is useful to more than just me,” Blake said.

“Totally,” Oliver nodded. “I’ve already gained enough nano to max out my attributes and everything.”

Blake was impressed. Alchemists generally did not become wealthy until they gained enough mastery to specialize. Even then, the special ingredients required for higher level potions were expensive, and experimentation ate heavily into their profits.

“Nice, does it help with the shakes at all?”

“Eh, not really, but I do have a crap ton more energy now. Plus, I’m like, super strong.” Oliver raised a single arm and flexed. However, as the nanomachines did not bulk up muscles to achieve strength, it did not look impressive.

“So, where’s my scent wash?” Blake asked, eager to test it out.

“Over on that shelf,” Oliver pointed to his right.

Blake thanked his brother again, retrieved his prize, and turned up the music before he left.

Forty-five minutes later, he stood before the water-filled gravel pit on the outskirts of Snowflake, Arizona. After a deep breath, he dove in and was then transported to the void. When presented with a choice, he increased the difficulty twice to level four, before the objective was revealed.

Objective - Assassinate the Lupus Pack Leader

Blake grinned.

Perfect!