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Two hours later, Rowan was in Viscardi’s private jet, alone in a private cabin. Grace, Isla, and Lizzie had returned home through a portal, and Cora helped Viscardi with flying the plane, in the cockpit. There was a knock on the door, and he shouted: “Enter.”

Victoria stepped inside the private room with slow steps. “You… wanted to see me?”

“Yes,” Rowan nodded. “Since Vegas will become my vassal town, you’re working for me now, right?”

“Yes, your Lordship,” she bowed.

“Then, I want to ask you for a favor.”

There was a short shiver over her body, and Victoria lowered her eyes. “Very well… But let's keep this between us. I’m seeing somebody now.”

She started to unbutton her blouse and reached the fourth button before Rowan managed to yelp: “Stop, it’s not that! What the fuck! Why is everybody thinking I’m sex obsessed?”

“Maybe because you have three wives. And I did notice you looking at me,” Victoria said coldly, rearranging her clothes. "Don't deny it."

“You’re... noticeable. Doesn’t mean I want to have sex with every pretty woman around.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment.”

“It was a compliment… never mind. You worked for… err… Novosibirsk? No… fuck… not that. These Russian names are confusing…”

“Vladivostok?”

“Yeah, that.”

“I worked with them, not for. We prospected a few alliances before we settled for you.”

“They have these cores they want to activate. That puts Earth at risk. Who will activate the cores for Vladivostok with the Knyaz dead? Not many can do it.”

“He didn’t have the Artifact using Perk anyway. There’s an old lady who works for them, a former teacher. I met her only once. Stern, severe. The kind—”

“—to beat kids into submission, I can imagine. Can you kill her? Maybe steal the cores, if possible?”

The Vampire stood silent for a few seconds, then nodded.

“I have to kill her twice because they have Rezzes now. The first time will have to appear accidental.”

“Avoid collateral damage if possible, but do whatever is necessary.”

“Consider it done,” she nodded, then turned around to leave, only to stop at the last moment and look at him with a frown. Interest. “Is this all?” she insisted on the word.

“Yes,” Rowan blurted.

“I was just a little curious,” the blonde shrugged and left for good.

Sighing, Rowan moved to the bed, trying to relax. Cora had told him not to activate the Joint Trip: Warp, out of fear of breaking the plane, and they still had a couple of hours to go. At least, with the core claimed, they’d be able to teleport between their towns.

He couldn’t sleep, it was too early, barely half past five in the afternoon. Outside, there were some fireworks, from time to time. Somebody was taking potshots at them, firing rockets. What faction of the former US, was hard to tell, not that he cared. The airplane’s shield resisted them, as it was expected.

----------------------------------------

Finally, the moment had come. In front of him, sitting on Viscardi’s desk, a black ball, whirling energy inside.

“Pocket universes never cease to amaze me,” Cora said.

“A pity,” Viscardi said, looking longingly at the core. “This is worth so much money…”

“Let me guess: in the civilized part of the Galaxy there are plenty of Awakened Towns already but not so many Dungeons anymore, right?” Rowan asked.

“Something like that. Well, how are going to do it? You want us to take over the state or only Clark County?”

“How much area can a core cover?”

“The surface is proportional to its power and level, but it can be customized,” Cora explained. “This is a top-level one, so it can go as big as… maybe two hundred thousand square miles. The smaller it is, the more energy it has for perks, and the larger, the economy and population. Some of the Dungeons levels will be lost in transition, but I guess this Town Core will start around level twenty-five nevertheless.”

“Can I have a map?”

Cora forwarded her phone, but Viscardi was faster, producing a real paper map and a pencil from his inventory.

“What if we start… around Las Vegas, just a sliver, then go northwest, climb up with the Sierra Nevada, then go west to the sea, north, up here, and come back?”

The Vampire Lord frowned and leaned over the map. “It looks like a prosciutto leg, with the bone part in Vegas. I get why you’re bypassing the desert, but why the big cities?”

“I don’t want to manage big crowds. They’re grown-ups and should take care of themselves. Smaller cities are friendly, and I guess that’s good agricultural land and scenery, and a few ports… What happens if the barrier meets the sea?”

“It goes down, into the sea, ground, and all the way around. An Awakened Town is an enclosed space, like a sphere, only molded to an irregular shape. Some perks allow the marine life, or other birds and animals, to pass through unhindered, but they’re expensive,” Cora detailed.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“So, in theory, we can go take some sea as well? For fishing at stuff?”

“Yes.”

“You can have the sea in California, why go up?” the Vampire asked.

“To put a wedge between California and Oregon. They’re at war, right?”

“What do you care, you’re into charity or something?”

“I don’t want to change their pampers, but if I can help stop a war with minimal effort…”

“Very well, but I want Reno,” Viscardi said and pressed a button on his desk. “We have invested a lot there. Vera, can you come for a moment? Bring Reno’s financial situation please.”

Moments later, a young woman appearing in her mid-twenties, with brown hair, short and on the plump side, wearing glasses, entered the room, a thick folder in his arms.

“My youngest daughter, Vera. She’s my secretary and an economist.”

“Hi,” the woman waved discreetly, then forwarded the folder to Rowan. “Here you are.”

Are all their names starting with V? Rowan asked himself but tried to be polite and refrained from voicing the question. “Give it to Cora, I don’t understand data as well as she does.” The Nekojin took the papers and moved to another couch, leafing through the folder, as the secretary exited.

“Indulge my curiosity… err… is there any difference in rank between them?” Viscardi leaned and whispered to Rowan.

“No,” he whispered back. “But I call Cora baby, Isla, honey, and Grace sweetheart, to avoid confusion.”

“Good point,” Viscardi nodded. “So, Cora, what’s your take?”

“Reno looks good. Should we give it a go, darling?”

“Yes, let’s do it... How exactly are we going to do this? The last time the core did all the job.”

“Actually, I did all the job. Now, it will be a little more complicated. First step, I’ll scan the map you draw,” she paused and took a photo with her phone. “Second step, I’m overlapping it with the existing counties on the internet, simulating a takeover… OK, we might have quite a few enclaves, or independent entities,” Cora touched the map with her finger. “Worst-case scenario, we can go around them.”

“Why is that?” Rowan asked.

“Native territories. We didn’t have them in Randolph. The System adores little city-states, it will treat them like countries, and the voting process will be more lengthy and complicated, based on their own laws. They’ll have the option to become enclaves, with their own portals to the outside, or retain the same status but within our new territory."

"What if they claim their old territory?"

"The System isn't here to patch back human history, it works on the status quo. It's take it or leave it. OK, I’m sending all a notification. They’ll have to vote one way or another.”

“Trust me, they’ll want in, rather than stay out with some crazy people that throw nukes and nerve gas at each other,” Viscardi said.

“Touch the core, honey. We’ll do it together.”

Sitting on each side of the table, Cora and Rowan joined hands over the sphere and a visual notification appeared above.

Do you want to claim the Blackswarm Dungeon Core, and transform it into a Town Core? Y/N

“Yes. Consume the Dungeon Core to create a new Town Core, its capital on our current location, with the boundaries of the new polity based on the map I’m sending now,” Cora said, touching her phone for a second.

A soft light started to shine from the sphere, enveloping the room, and supposedly going all over the town. Ten seconds later, the core vanished and there was another notification:

The Town Core has finished installing its processing unit. The transformation will continue at a slower pace for the next forty-eight hours, creating new boundaries as soon as the voting process ends. Combatant forces have been detected in the area and Warped away. Suggested names for the new polity based on combinations of the first syllables: Vegorcal, Vegcalor, Calveor, Calorveg, Orcalveg, Orvecal. Please select an option or create a new name.

“Viscardi?” Rowan asked.

“Uh?” the Vampire jerked. He had dozed off while the two busied with the core.

“Select or create a name for your domain, we’ll go with your choice. Right baby?”

“It’s only fair, he did most of the work.”

“… let’s go for Calveor,” the vampire said after taking a moment to think.

“Calveor is the name. Count Rowan Allinder is the suzerain but appoints Viscardi Blackswarm as his permanent representative and Lord Mayor of Vegas City. I and Rowan will have Admin privileges for the Town’s Core settings, as well as Lord Viscardi and a person he’ll appoint…”

“I appoint my oldest daughter, Victoria Blackswarm.”

“Continue installation on default parameters. I’ll dabble with the perks tomorrow,” Cora said. “It’s late and—”

“We have to go back home,” Rowan said.

“I was thinking of staying the night and enjoying the town. It’s Vegas, after all. I… already called home to tell them we’ll arrive tomorrow.”

“I’ll give you the best apartment in town,” Viscardi promised.

----------------------------------------

Definitely, there was something strange with Cora. On a scale from one to ten, her assertiveness was now at least an eight. After playing in the Casino for an hour, and having some snacks while at that, she insisted on retiring to their room. That had been at nine o’clock. Then, she told him she had to do some shopping, and that it’d take some time. Which made sense, because the next day was Christmas Eve.

But why leave him alone? What gifts could she buy, he couldn’t see? OK, maybe the one for him, but for the rest? He knew Isla, Grace, and Lizzie better than her, so why not ask for his help?

Well, now he had an INT at seventy-five, it was up to him to use it. Rolling his little gray cells, like Hercule Poirot, and adding a ton of grimacing, he reached an unbeatable conclusion: Cora was searching for a special gift for him. What did he like the most? Bourbon. There were a few decades-old bottles that could be found in Vegas, for an exorbitant price, or in auctions. That was why she was so late.

Promising to pretend to be surprised, he went for a second shower, just to kill time. When he exited, the room was in total darkness.

“I disabled the lights,” a whisper came from the direction of the bed. “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, so I wanted to give you a gift.”

Now, his high INT has begun to ring alarm clocks over alarm clocks. What if Cora had taken on Grace’s example, and the surprise was a threesome, with a specific blonde Vampire? OK, gifts are hard to refuse… but his two other wives could break his neck, or poison him. He was struggling to find words to reject the offer when the light turned on.

Oh my GOD! Rowan gasped, letting the towel around his hips fall. It was not practical to keep it anyway, his enthusiasm had reached full proportion in a blink.

Cora had somehow shapeshifted, transforming into the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen. A Goddess. As sensual as Isla, as attractive as Grace, and as cute as herself simultaneously. Dressed in revealing silk underwear, she beckoned him.

He dashed forward, covering her in caresses and kisses, inebriated by her scent, which had changed too. First, they’ll have sex, inquiring about the metamorphosis later. Acts, not words, show, don't tell. Well into the process of making love, he remembered something.

She told me her mating season starts now… Nekojin women must shapeshift while at that… Never mind.

Their passionate intercourse held for well over an hour. Finally, it was done, and they rested in each other's arms.

“It’s the most wonderful gift I ever received,” Rowan kissed her.

She was panting, hiding her head in the pillow. “Thank goodness you like it… I thought I’d die…”

“Did I hurt you?” he rushed to ask, ready to cast Combat Heal.

“No, silly!” she laughed, showing her face, and merry eyes. “I enjoyed every single moment. Preparing for it, that hurt. A lot.”

Yeah, it’s understandable… if the body changes so much…

“But it was worth it. I’ll gladly go again through everything if that’s the reaction I get from you.”

“You mean, you have a choice?”

“Of course, I have a choice. Do you think Viscardi or Victoria kidnapped me and made me go through that hell by force?”

“Err… what happened to you?” Rowan asked, a terrible premonition nagging at his mind.

“I don’t know where to start… Everything is so painful. When they curl your hair and pull it, then you feel that sticky paint in it, then they throw burning air to dry it… And the eyebrows, how could Grace do that to herself? And the wax… oh my, that hurt so much. No, the claws, that was horrible. They have no idea Nekojin has nervous terminations in it,” she showed him her fingers, where the fingernails had a red color and a less pointy shape.

“So… you’ve been to a Beauty Parlour?”

“Yes, downstairs. First time in my life… I had no idea doing my hair and stuff could have such an effect on you,” she walked two fingers on his chest.

“Thank you for going through all the effort,” he kissed her.