A young man with dark hair and fair skin, sat alone in a booth in Paragon Cafe. The cafe was located at the end of a street with a one-way passing by. There was plenty of foot traffic, as it was located between many apartment complexes and a larger shopping plaza.

Paragon Cafe was the young man’s usual real-world meetup spot for him and his best friend, but the time of day had changed recently to evenings and nights, instead of their morning meetups.

Riley sat on his usual side of the booth. His elbow rested on the table, while he held his head up with his palm. He glanced through an open menu and read over the descriptions for the various items.

He wore a long sleeved brown shirt and a pair of denim pants. He flipped another page on the menu. The offerings at Paragon Cafe seldom ever changed. Sometimes there was a special item for the day or week, but the owners didn’t do much to change away from the norm.

Riley yawned and flipped another page. He stared at the imagery for blueberry and strawberry glazed pancakes with bits of chocolate strewn throughout. He turned the page and was greeted by a selection of sandwiches. One was on multigrain bread with crisp lettuce and a succulent slice of tomato. The description said that it was a turkey sandwich, but the almost amber slices of bacon, made him think it was a bit better than your regular turkey club.

He wasn’t sure why he was even looking through the menu, for the fifth time.

Movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He looked up, just as another young man entered his view.

“Sorry, got held up,” said the guy with soft androgynous features and shoulder-length black hair. He sat down across from Riley and sighed. His chest rose and fell beneath his hoodie, which wasn’t too dissimilar from the one his character had been wearing earlier in Sigil Online.

“No worries,” said Riley. “I’m just sitting here decompressing. Was a really weird day in-game.”

“Tell me about it,” said Aaron, who reached over and grabbed the other menu that was laying on the right side of the table. “It was a rough day, even with the regular monsters. But once you throw in all the player-monsters, it just...ugh, makes me tired thinking about it,” he grumbled. “I didn’t even think about what I wanted to order,” he flipped topics as his gaze ran over the selections. “Everything looks delicious right now,” he murmured.

Another figure walked up to the table. He had short black hair and wore a uniform, indicative of working at the cafe. He was carrying a large plastic tray with two plates and drinks. He stopped beside the table and set a plate in front of Riley.

“Chili cheese fries,” said Paul, the waiter.

The savory aroma of the fried food wafted up to their noses. Riley took in a slow, deep breath.

Paul set two glasses of water down, before placing a plate in front of Aaron.

“And here’s your double chocolate blueberry pancakes with bananas.” Paul then looked between the two of them. “Anything else I can get you?”

“This is good, thanks Paul,” said Riley.

Aaron just sat there, staring at the pancakes before him.

A thin slice of banana—covered in blueberry syrup, slowly slid down the edge of the dark fluffy hotcakes.

“Paul said they’re short staffed today, so the food would take longer to prepare. So I went ahead and ordered for you,” said Riley. “Was that a good choice?”

Aaron’s jaw had lowered, still staring at the plate. He closed his mouth and swallowed. “This is perfect!” he said as he grabbed his fork and began cutting into the pancakes immediately.

Riley took a sip of his water and began pulling out french fries covered in meaty chili sauce and nacho cheese.

No words were exchanged as the two of them dug into their respective plates.

“Mmm,” Aaron murmured, chewing a bite.

Riley crunched on one of the crispy fries and swallowed it, before finally speaking. “So it was a rough day?”

Aaron took several long seconds to finish his bite before speaking.

“Yeah,” he murmured, then swallowed. “The monsters in the enchanted asylum are really mobile. I kept getting patrolling monsters that wandered into where I was fighting. So I’d be  controlling one and having it fight something a little smaller, only to have something even bigger wander over. I had to reposition and waste stamina to deal with it all. It was just...I dunno, it felt really unproductive. Then, on my way back to logout, I got jumped by this crazy looking bone monster.”

“A player?” asked Riley, before crunching on another fry.

“Yeah,” Aaron confirmed. “I had to use my bug form to get rid of him, and he dropped one of those usual monster-player items.”

“That’s a pain,” said Riley. “Did you already identify it?”

Aaron shook his head. “No, I was too concerned with getting here. I’ll see what it is tomorrow. Hopefully it’s something with elements I can use.”

“Was the player very strong?” asked Riley. “Is that why you were so late?”

Aaron took a moment to get another bite of pancake. He took his time and chewed it before swallowing. “Kinda,” he said. “I was already late, because my last encounter with the monsters in the asylum was taking way longer than I expected. I couldn’t queue a cheap taxi near the portal location, so I decided to run back. That’s when I got jumped. It didn’t take long to get rid of him. I don’t think he was even a hellion yet. But he sure had that ‘air of superiority’ about him, that most of the monster-players seem to have.”

“I know what you mean,” said Riley. “But there weren’t any cheap taxis? Has there been a lot of monster-player activity in your city and district?” he asked. “I heard that over in Tall City, a bunch of the districts have had issues with taxi services, due to the amount of monsters there. They keep targeting the local vehicles and NPCs to increase their progress. It was on the news a few minutes ago,” he said, gesturing over to one of the televisions that was always on a channel that had Sigil Online news and reports.

Aaron shrugged. “It’s been the same as most of the other cities, I guess,” he said. “We’ve been keeping their nests to a minimum. Well, I guess I should say, the players in my city, have. I’ve been delving into that enchanted asylum to see if there’s any sweet loot from all those new regular monsters. My mindset, is that if I can find awesome things to sell to the players in my area, then I’m helping keep the city safe from the monster-players.”

Riley nodded. He knew that Aaron couldn’t always trigger his powerful bug-form, known to many players as the White Weevil. Apparently there was some ‘cooldown’ or ‘time limit’ effect that Aaron had loosely mentioned. His friend also made it seem as though triggering the transformation was a bit of a burden on him.

“I guess the hellions expansion hasn’t been the best for you then, huh?” prompted Riley.

“Oh no, it’s great, I love it!” said Aaron. “It’s just...well, the monster-players are proving really problematic. There’s more conflict going on within the city. Everyone has to keep on their toes, you know? It’s tough. But there’s a lot of awesome features that I’ve been enjoying. Like all the new crafting stuff has been really cool. And when I do kill a monster-player, I usually get something that I can use in crafting.”

“I guess being a crafter is really paying off then,” said Riley. “Even though you live a double life,” he said a bit accusingly, but smirked afterwards.

“For the hundredth time, I said I’m sorry!” said Aaron. “And I wasn’t lying about being a crafter. I do a lot of crafting! I kinda had to, when I kept getting loot I couldn’t sell. It’s just...you know, I didn’t really tell you about how I acquired all my materials.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I always thought you were some sorta business mogul, with your shop and your crafting” said Riley.

“Well, I’m kinda that too,” Aaron quipped. “But I’ve made a bunch of in-game friends who are also crafters. I’ve got this nice little tight-knit community of crafting friends. We have some pretty rare recipes.”

“I still have yet to find a cool recipe for an item,” said Riley. “I found a couple when I was playing as Radiance, but it feels like there’s just less recipe drops lately.”

“Yeah, I’ve been hearing that as well,” said Aaron. “Maybe they lowered the drop rates a little?” He then paused for a moment. “Which reminds me,” he shifted gears and even lowered his hand that he held his fork with. “There’s something I wanna tell you. Or I guess I should say, show you. In game, that is.”

Riley lifted his eyebrows. “What do you mean? Why can’t you tell me about it now?”

“I...well,” Aaron murmured at first. “It’ll just be a lot easier to show you. It’s kind of a secret, a crafting secret. I honestly shouldn’t even be talking about it, but I really hate that I kept the Weevil thing a secret from you. And I want to help you out, you know? Something more than meeting up with you and your friends to control bosses for you.”

“Everyone loves you,” said Riley. “I think they love you more than me, in fact. They really like my power stealing buffs, but I’m pretty sure that getting to watch two bosses fight it out, while they damage the weaker one, is a bit cooler.”

Aaron smiled. “Well, I wish I could pop over more, but you’re really far away and I have my shop...and I know the economy better in my city and I already have my crafting friends I do things with occasionally, and—”

“It’s alright!” said Riley. “It’s not a problem.” He smiled. “I’m glad that we can at least hang out a little bit in game now, is all. Even if it’s only once a week or so.”

Aaron nodded, his lips still curled. He looked down to the messy pancakes. “Me too,” he said, as he slowly cut into them again.

“So tomorrow’s the big day for you and your friends, isn’t it?” asked Aaron.

Riley groaned. “That’s one of the reasons this week has been a pain. Rushing to get things together by tomorrow.”

“I thought you’d be happier?” asked Aaron. “You’re all forming a guild! That’s something to be happy about.”

“I am happy,” said Riley as he prodded the pile of fries with the one in his hand. “It’s just been a lot of work to get it going. Items, mini quests, all sorts of stuff. You know how guild-forming goes,” he prompted.

“Actually I don’t,” said Aaron.

Riley looked up with raised eyebrows. “Really?”

Aaron nodded. “Never been in a guild, and I’ve never bothered looking up what it takes to make one.”

“Damn, I thought with your boundless knowledge of Sigil Online, that you’d have that info ready and waiting.”

Aaron shook his head. “Nope.”

Riley chuckled a moment and sighed, as if remembering a painful memory. “Guild creation is a series of quests. You can’t do them by yourself. Or, well, most people can’t. Maybe you could, but some of them have been beyond what I think you’re capable of when you’re solo. But anyway, we get choices on what quests we want to do. It’s so that different players with various powers can tackle things that are more suited to their group composition. So that’s what we’ve been doing. Knocking out quests, killing monsters, acquiring special items, and some of our newer members to the group are taking over some of the crafting stuff.”

“Didn’t you say Constructor was a crafter?” asked Aaron.

“Yep, He’s our main crafter currently. He has the most skills in it. So he’s been sitting on the sidelines back at his place in Gargantuan City. Which he doesn’t seem to mind, apparently. Even though his pylon things are pretty cool. We’ve been knocking monsters out really quickly, most of the time. But finding the correct ones and getting the drops we need, have been the hardest parts. Also, getting to the correct zones where the creatures are. Then, factor in all the monster players that think they can jump us...it’s...just been a really rough week,” he grumbled finally.

“So you’re all done the quests?” asked Aaron.

Riley nodded. “We’re all done. We finished earlier today and I’ve just been looking through my items and taking account of everything. We’re going to do some votes tomorrow, once the guild contract is signed by all of us. That’ll decide if we stick to Bunker Seven as our main base of operations. At least temporarily. We’ll then start looking for a small place to buy for ourselves.”

Aaron chewed another piece of hotcake, then murmured through the bite. “You have the money to buy a place?”

Riley shrugged. “If we all pitch in an equal amount, there’s a couple places we could consider buying. But I think we’re going to settle for Bunker Seven, for the time being. I can only imagine how expensive the Rook Den was, when Warcry bought it. They must’ve really earned some serious money, for a bunch of mostly tier-zeroes.”

“You going to buy Bunker Seven?” Aaron questioned.

Riley laughed. “No way, that place is way out of our price range. The owners of the bunker know what they’re doing. There’s a lot of players who operate out of it. It was one of the earliest group spots. I’m sure they’re making enough money to cover their rent in the real world, if not more. I’m not sure what costs are associated with running a spot like that, but they do put some money back into it to help us out. And they pay people to work there. But based on my rent and the fact that so many people use it as a hub, I imagine the owners are doing well for themselves.”

“Yeah, that must be nice,” said Aaron. “Wish I could’ve taken out a small loan when the game first came out. Then I could’ve bought some property and rented it out to players.”

“I’m sure some people had the same thoughts at the time,” said Riley. “I bet plenty of people lost money on that very risk.” He munched on a fry and then swallowed it. “So how’s your mom?”

Aaron was cutting into the last portion of his pancakes, having almost finished them. “She’s doing really well. The doctors say that there’s no complications and that the cancer’s all gone. She had a rough couple of months there, with the therapy and everything. But she’s doing a lot better and I think she’s applying to a new job. Or a couple new jobs...not too sure. But I’m sure she’ll get something and then want to get her own place again.”

“I’m glad everything worked out,” said Riley. “I’m sure it was tough.”

“Yeah, me too,” Aaron murmured as he poked at his pancake.

“Maybe you won’t have to take so many risks nowadays,” said Riley. “You’ve still got money from that interview, and don’t think I haven’t seen the ads on TV for Weevil-strength bleach. So I’m sure you’re not doing too bad financially. So if that’s the case, maybe you could keep your head down for a bit. You seem to be having trouble with the monster players, since you can only deal with them in your bug form. Your infamy has waned with all the new monsters running around. So maybe take it easy for a bit? Or even come join us more often, so we can watch your back.”

“There’s also the anti-bug bug spray,” Aaron sighed, but smiled. He looked back to his friend. “I’m doing what I enjoy. I love exploring new content. I’ve gotten used to playing alone.”

“You know,” said Riley. “You might’ve killed Paladin, but he could’ve destroyed some monsters, I bet. He was really powerful in one-vs-one fights. As you saw. But you’re only strong in solo fights when you’re in Weevil form. He was powerful all the time.”

“Are you criticizing me for killing Paladin, now that we have all these monster-player troubles?” asked Aaron, with a slight frown.

“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Riley sighed. “What I’m saying, is that Sigil Online has all sorts of players with different powers. Paladin was really powerful when he could directly fight someone, you’re powerful when you can directly fight someone as the Weevil, but both of you have a hard-counter.”

Aaron nodded. “Yeah, I’ve noticed,” he murmured. “When I fought your friends back in Death’s Chasm, the ones that could pin me down and use their powers to grapple me, were really problematic. Todd, Snow, Erica. If they had more damage behind their abilities, I’d have some real trouble. If Erica and Todd had been paragon, I might’ve been crushed even faster.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying,” said Riley. “For every player out there, there’s several power-types that are good against them. It’s like one giant game of rock-paper-scissors. Which you’re well aware of. All I’m saying, is that maybe you should be more careful. You have money, you don’t need to risk yourself to make even more money.”

“I like being ahead of the curve, though,” said Aaron. “I really enjoy delving into places others can’t.”

“I know,” said riley. “Just...be aware of your surroundings. There’s tons of monster-players out there, that would love to beat you, if they knew where you were. For right now, most of the player-killers are having a great time fighting monster-players, instead of regular players. So that’s given you some reprieve from being hunted.”

“Also, that monster that attacked me earlier, seemed extra surprised when he realized who I was,” said Aaron. “Lots of people seem to think I died, since I haven’t been making my presence known.”

“Which is good!” said Riley, leaning forward slightly. “Let that protect you. Come hang out with us more. Keep your shop, sell your items, whatever you want to do. Just...be careful, alright?”

Aaron looked up to his best friend and offered a smile. He nodded. His plate was empty, save for lines of fruit-flavored syrup. “I’ll be careful,” he said. “It might be annoying to fight these new monsters one on one, but they’re going to need to try a lot harder to bring me down.”

Riley leaned back in his seat. “I guess if a few of them get lucky and manage to kill you, you’ll have no reason not to come join us, huh?”

Aaron narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you go planning my demise, just to have me come party with you.”

“There’s a lot of cool pact powers out there,” said Riley. “That’s what Seth ended up doing. He got tired of being tier-zero and got himself a pact.”

“Ehh,” Aaron shook his head. “The pact system is cool and all, but it’s way too ‘double-edged-sword’ for my taste.”

“Seth seems pretty happy with it,” said Riley.

“After months without powers, I’m sure he was happy with anything,” Aaron murmured.

The two friends continued to chat. There was never much silence between them when they met up at Paragon Cafe. With the arrival of Sigil Online’s newest expansion just a month prior, the two had even more to talk about with each passing day.