Maxwell

After leaving the wall, I was on edge the entire time. I knew they could handle themselves, but just being there to help brought me some comfort. I worried about the next attack since I knew there would be more. The wolves had been able to hit the wall hard enough, the next group of monster could potentially bring it down altogether.

Back in the village, I found Rowena returning from her commune. With her help, we had designed a park in the future planned city that was large enough for her to commune in. The park made it easier and safer for her to fulfill her class requirement. Even with her three beasts, there might be a time she is attacked by something that they couldn’t handle.

“Glad to see you. We have an issue,” I said as I ran up to her.

“Seriously! I left you alone for two hours! Two! What did you do now?” she replied crossing her arms.

“Hey! This is from the earlier mess up not a new one.” I argued holding my hands up. “What I think was the dungeon just publicly and very violently created an entrance to the surface a way down the along the foot of the mountain. About twenty kilometers, I’d wager.”

“You really pissed this thing off didn’t you,” Rowena remarked with a chuckle.

“I guess. It’s not like I meant to gain the Divine Territory. It just sort of happened.”

“Well… there really isn’t much more we can do but stay the course. Build up our defenses, our forces, and most importantly your town.” Hearing her say it did calm me down a bit. There was a type of equivalent exchange in this world. Just because she could summon monsters didn’t mean she could do it instantly or for free. There most be a cost.

“You’re right. There were a few magical defenses I was planning to add in the future. Perhaps I should skip to those given our limited manpower.”

Rowena clapped me on the shoulder. “There you go! Just tell me where I can help.”

“Level up. We’re going to need some stronger fighters than the enemy. Go level up and take a few of the royal guard and militia with you.”

“You should come with me.”

“I’d love to, but my mana is better served on my people.”

Rowena looked like she wanted to argue but finally just nodded. She waved to me before she left toward the wall. I headed for the manor myself. In my planning room, I pulled up the map of the area to get a look at my options and to try and plan for potential attacks. A large red spot on the edge of my territory caught me off guard.

Zooming in on the spot, I found that it was ‘claimed’ land by another person. The goblin area was free of such a thing which led me to believe that I was in fact against a player. This was going to be tough. Players had more than a little advantage over the inhabitants of this world. Just take my own land as an example. I was using what the system gave me to rapidly increase the skill and power of my people.

I stared at the map longer than I cared to admit before I got back to work. There were several magical defenses that I could build in the territory. I was deeply thankful that level one of any of them only cost a single mana stone. Otherwise, my choices would be even more limited. For starters, there were several towers that I could install along the wall that had magic-based attacks. They were automated and didn’t require anything more than target designation. Looking the details over, I decided to leave the spotting to the Commander until he trained someone that could take his place.

Placing a preview of the tower on the wall, I could see the range of the spell assigned to the building. To cover all the wall, I would need close to thirty towers. Still, if I spaced them out, it would take the enemy some trial and error to figure out the range for themselves. I went ahead and placed ten towers, focusing on the wall closest to the dungeon entrance with four of the towers.

Next on my list was to improve communications. The world was locked into the medieval era. There were no cellphones or in-game messaging that could be used with NPCs, Payers maybe, but with only Rowena, that limited our range quite a bit. You had to rely on the methods available in the game. Which was word of mouth, letters, and of course, magic. I used another mana stone to construct a Telepathy Base. I would have to train and assign a mage to the structure, but once that was done, the leadership of a territory could communicate quickly and easily.

That left me with three more mana stones to spend. I had to wait for everything to construct as well. My mana had been drained after the first three towers. I could pull from the villagers, but only a few of them had a sizable pool, and they were in the guard or militia. I’d rather not pull from them if I could avoid it.

I scrolled through the list and debated what to buy next. A golem workshop really called my name. I had already seen the power of golems in this world. I thought of the Quarry and Mine. The Magic-work level one of each building came with three rudimentary golems that could work around the clock. They were powered by mana supplied by the buildings thus couldn’t leave the vicinity, but the gains I was seeing were already well worth their cost.

My only concern was that while the Golem Workshop only required a single mana stone to construct, it most likely cost mana stones to construct the units. I didn’t want to waste my limited mana stones on a structure that might not be able to perform. Rolling the three stones in my hand, I continued down the list.

The next thing that caught my eye was a mage tower. I could class change the villagers to the mage class, but this would allow them to train for it on their own. Plus, it allowed any mages to gain new skills. I had three elements I wasn’t tapping into. If I could gain some higher-level spells from the tower, I might become a true force to reckon with during the coming conflict.

The double blow of increasing not only my own power but my peoples sold it for me. I spent the two mana stones on the building. Unlike the other buildings, when I approved its construction a screen popped up that allowed me to customize the structure to some degree.

I played around with the options and settled on a steel spire that went along with the metal and purple design of the rest of my buildings. While the fact that it might inspire fear was a side effect, I thought it was cool-looking. The next thing that really amazed me was that I could have the building floating in the air without foundations. I found this out purely on coincidence as the building was hovering above the ground when it opened the larger map.

Moving the structure around the city, I finally settled on a spot partially up the mountain. The extra two hundred meters gave it a commanding view of the forest and mountain. A quickly constructed path up the side of the mountain soon had the floating building connected to the village. A bridge was the only way for people to reach the tower and I thought it would serve as a great fallback point if we ever came under siege.

“One stone left,” I mumbled tossing the stone into the air and catching it. I decided to hold onto it. There were far too many options for me to choose and I wasn’t sure which would serve us well at the moment. I closed the menus and stretched in my chair. It would take a few hours for everything I selected to build. My mana was hovering at only a single point as it was.

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Everything caught up to me at that moment. My lack of sleep, my trip to the void, the attack, the impending danger that was so close to our necks, and just about everything that came with controlling the fate of over fifty lives. I got up heavily before making for my bed. Collapsing into the rough covers, I decided a quick nap would be good.

~~~

A pressure on my shoulder brought me back to the living. I yawned as I sat up and found Rowena looking at me worriedly. “I was starting to worry you wouldn’t ever wake up.”

“Just catching up on my beauty sleep. What’s up?” I asked stretching as I got out of bed.

“Pip sent me some worrying images. I was hoping you could teleport us so we could get a better look.”

I rubbed my face to remove the last of my drowsiness and nodded. “Where to?” She wanted to go to a spot up the mountain where we could take in the goblin village. I didn’t have a spot off the top of my head, but I had plenty of mana to use after having slept most of the afternoon away. I grabbed her hand and teleported us first to the overhang that I used as my lookout. From there, we jumped along the upper part of the mountain until we reached a spot that we could see the village in the distance.

Though even with my elven eyes, it was hard to make much out. Rowena held out a spyglass. I chuckled and took the item. That was my friend, being prepared for everything. Looking through the item, I was able to zoom in on the goblin village. While it was slightly blurry, I didn’t need HD to know they were being slaughtered by something.

“What the hell is that thing?” I whispered as if the thing could hear me if I was too loud.

“A greater demon I’d wager. I saw a few examples when I was studying up on the world. Fucking hard as hell to kill,” Rowena answered me in a similar whisper. Some sort of… beast was tearing through the village. It appeared to care little for the wounds the goblins were inflicting on it. Those that were brave enough to attack the thing usually ended up in two pieces as they were bitten in half. “It's not alone.”

Following the direction of her finger, I spotted a few men that looked like they stepped right out of a shojo manga. Each was more handsome than the last. That did little to lessen their violence. They were tearing through the goblins like they were made from paper. One in the back used magic to turn the blood splattered all over the ground into more deadly weapons.

To top it off, men and women that looked much more average were moving at speeds that normal people couldn’t as they attacked the goblins. The only saving grace at this moment was that the goblins appeared to at least be giving them a challenge.

“IS that what we’re up against!?” I gasped in horror. There were only four of the men and about two dozen of the other creatures. The horror was on another scale that I didn’t want to even consider.

“You really wanted to play on hard mode didn’t you,” Rowena said rolling over to stare at the sky.

“I wonder if I could apologize.”

“That’s always an option. I just have a thought.”

“What’s that?”

“If she was a dungeon core when Earths’ guests took our minds, do you think she knows that?”

“You mean she thinks she is trapped in the game.”

“Exactly. If this is the sort of actions she takes with that mindset. What do you think she’ll do if she finds out for sure that she is dead and trapped in this digital world forever?”

I stared at Rowena as the many ways this could play out went through my head. They all ended with the total destruction of just about everything the woman named Aurora could get her hands on. “Fuck.”

The battle happening in the goblin village only started to subside toward the end of the night. The sun hadn’t risen yet, but the monsters began to fall back toward the entrance that was still clocked in darkness. Since the gruesome night appeared to be over, I held my hand out to Rowena then teleported us back to the village.

“This is insane,” she said as we returned to the manor. If there was one good thing that came from this night. It was that we knew at least some of what we were up against.

“I agree.” I sat down at the table I pulled some jerky from my inventory and nibbled on it. I really didn’t have an appetite, but my body was telling me to eat something. “I think I will try to talk to her.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Rowena asked, joining me at the table. “We could be giving up any number of advantages. Not to mention, we have no idea at to her mental state.”

“I know, but if I was trapped in a game like this, I would want someone to tell me.”

She stared at me before sighing dramatically. “Fine. I’ll be your wingman so you can hook up with the deadly dungeon babe.”

I snort the water I had just took a drink of and had to cough for several moments to be able to breath again. “That’s not funny! Sure, I admit she was hot when I saw her earlier, but… I think we’re far too different to be in that sort of relationship.”

“Hey, yin and yang. Good and evil and all that. You never know, you might make a great pair.”

“Let’s just drop it please.” She snickered but nodded. “And I’m going to go by myself. I would like it if you’d stay here in the village. Just in case things go sideways.”

“Expect the pretty lady to kill you?”

“I hope we can at least talk it through, and if it comes to it, I have my teleportation spells. I’m pretty confident that I can make a timely exit.” Rowena stared at me before finally nodding. “I’m heading off then.”

“Wait. Now?” she asked surprised.

“Yes. From what I can tell, she obviously just won a nice victory. I’m hoping she’ll be in a good mood and thus willing to converse.”

“Okay. God speed my friend.”

I stood up then teleported a distance from the entrance. The sun was now casting its life-baring rays over the forest and onto the mountain, but in front of me felt like I was looking into a black hole. As I strode forward, I grew colder. Much like something was sucking the warmth from my veins.

When I was about fifty meters from the entrance, I came to a stop. Reaching out my hand, I could almost feel the edge of the dungeon’s territory. I stuck my hand through the film not sure what to expect. A notification certainly hadn’t been on my list.

Vampiric Dungeon of Demonic Delights. Halls of the Night Queen. Omen of Evil and Destruction.

I nearly turned around and left just from that. Steeling my resolve, I pulled my hand back and yelled as loudly as I could. “Aurora Nightingale! I wish to speak!” Nothing but the wind answered me for a long time. I yelled out a few more times over the next five minutes or so. Finally, the ground shook as the paw of the massive horror I saw last night burst from the darkness. It continued until half of its body was exposed even as the same half was smoking from where the light hit it.

The woman I saw yesterday emerged next. While she squinted in the light. She didn’t appear to suffer any damage like the beast. Reaching up, she pulled the monster’s head down and whispered something. A second later, it pulled back into the darkness. The woman glared with open hostility at me before she walked to just a few meters from me.

“Why should I not kill you where you stand?” she asked with a hiss. Yep. She was still angry from yesterday morning. It did not help me that she was still dressed in nothing but a coat that covered little more than her shoulders. She could have easily buttoned it but instead was letting it hang open.

I coughed to get my head out of the gutter before spreading my hands wide hard as it was. She had a very shapely body that looked like a master crafter had worked for months to get just right. Her red eyes gleamed like gems in the morning light, while her hair that possessed a monochrome appearance due to the white or black streaks flowed like water down her back. “Look. I just want to say I’m sorry. I just sort of triggered an event and I had no intention of hurting you. The name’s Maxwell, by the way.”

The malignant aura from yesterday burst into life around her. I took a step back and activated my Holy Void aura almost subconsciously. Her glare deepened. “Be that as it may. Which, by the way, I’m not sure I believe you in the first place. You’ve caused no small amount of pain in my dungeon. I’m not inclined to forgive or forget.”

I wanted to grind my teeth at the stubbornness of the woman. I rubbed the back of my head as I racked my brains on what to do next. “Listen…” I decided then that I really should have thought through what I was going to say before coming here. “Are you a player?”

Aurora’s eyes widened then narrowed. “That’s right. And you?”

“Yes. Though I just started playing four days ago.” It might not be in my favor to tell her my limited knowledge, but I did have the fount of knowledge that was Rowena at my side. There wasn’t much she could do with the information. She crossed her arms as if to say so what. I bite my lip and continued. “So… this might sound insane, but when all that error shit went down. The server was apparently being taken by aliens that wanted to study us. From what I understand, our bodies are dead while our minds will live on in this world.”

“Are you stupid? Or rather, do you think I’m stupid?!” Aurora yelled clearly pissed. Yeah. That was to be expected. Even I still thought it was insane. The black and red aura around her was writhing around her and looked like it wanted nothing more than to lash out at me. What to do now?