Maxwell

Leaving the massive pools of blood and bones behind me, Lapis and I returned to the city. I had to return to the Union to collect my reward. It had barely been a day and I could say that I missed my little village tucked away from the world. I knew that I would be hearing the horrifying sound of Lapis eating in my dreams tonight, but for the first time since being trapped in this world, I was actually looking forward to sleeping.

Back in town, I pushed the door to the Union open with exhaustion weighing on me. If I learned anything from today, it was not to exhaust my mana quite so much. Glancing around, I thought that most of the patrons were the same from a few hours ago. I dragged myself over to the reception counter and to Oka.

“You’re back!” the receptionist cried with clear joy. “Are you going to forfeit the job? No one here would blame you.”

“No.” I reached into my inventory and pulled out the two magic cores from the Razorfangs. “Here.”

“Two of them?” she exclaimed. “One wasn’t enough for you?”

I ground my teeth. They had to know they traveled in pairs. Calming myself with a few deep breaths, I shrugged. “It just happened. Can I get my payment?”

“Sure!” Oka reached under the counter and there was a brief glow before a bag was placed in front of me. Luckily, there was a game mechanic for money and it vanished into my money icon. There were several different types over the world. The currency I got was for the Elven Kingdom of Craia. I made a mental note of that before turning from the receptionist. I was going to find an inn and relax for the night.

A collective note of awe went up as I turned. On a wall next to the door, a sign glowed before I saw my name take up a slot on the list. I walked over to inspect what it was for to find that it was a list of the top earners in the Union. I had shot to the top of the list just like that. Normally, that might be an amazing feat, but when the next highest earner was just short of a thousand gold, it became a lot less impressive.

“Hey you!” I blinked at the rude tone and turned to find an elven woman waving at me as she walked over. “You’re Maxwell?” Considering the list updated as soon as I turned my quarry in, that should be obvious.

“Maybe,” I replied, not sure I wanted to engage with the person. I could tell she was a player, but that was about it. We were technically supposed to be enemies as she was my surface cousin. Light and Dark and all that jazz. The last thing I wanted was a party of elves hunting me for a bounty or something.

“Come have a drink with us.” She pointed to her table where a good mix of races sat drinking from tankards. A few of them were well on their way to being shitfaced. I was tired, but one of my goals was to make connections with other players. I might miss out on a chance if I ignored her.

“Sure.” We walked back to her table and she introduced me to the others. “This is Maxwell. He just made a bucket of money and thus has been deemed interesting enough to share a tablet with the Jade Collective.”

“Jade Collective?” I asked suppressing my chuckle.

“Sorry.” A man that had on glasses and wore a black trench coat sighed and shook his head. “That’s our guild name.” He reached out a hand to shake. “I’m Kevin, by the way.”

I took it with a grin. “Ah! That’s cool.” Now that I looked, they all had a piece of jade in their uniform. Rowena had said there were guilds in the game. I just never really thought about it since I’d basically been at war since I started this game.

The woman that led me over clapped me on the shoulder. “So, tell us Maxwell. You are playing this game even though you are dead?”

I tussled my hair as I thought about that. “I guess. I mean, it’s a done deal, right?” I said as I pulled up a chair. “I’d rather live in the moment then wallow in my self-pity and regret for a world that I’m supposably never going back to.”

Kevin raised his mug to that. “You see, Sasha. Rather than sit here getting drunk, we should be out doing things.”

“Bah! You don’t have to tell me. This area is dead though. As soon as most of the major guilds besides Snake stopped reporting, the King went crazy and enacted martial law.”

“Then we just need to move.”

“You say that like its easy.”

“Snake? Martial Law?” I repeated. Sounds like I came to a serious place.

“Snake is a bit less… merciful than some of the other player run guilds. I bet it won’t be two or three months before they take over everything in this city.” Sasha took a swig of her drink. “It doesn’t help that the remnants of the other guilds ran off to their other bases when this world turned upside down.”

“Better to be with friends right now.”

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I felt a tap on my shoulder. Glancing behind me, I found Lapis. She had wandered off at some point when I was making my way here. She had a wide grin for some reason. She took on a mechanical voice that I would expect to hear from a guard NPC or something. “Lord Maxwell. Your village needs your assistance.” I glared at her. She just let slip my biggest trump card.

“You have a village?” Kevin asked with clear excitement.

I narrowed my eyes further at Lapis who simply walked away. Just how much about this world did she truly understand. I groaned and turned back to the two. “That’s right. I’m a lord.”

Kevin and Sasha shared a look before wide grins formed on their faces. “You in need of some help around your lands? Monster clearing, resource gathering?”

“I would be lying if I said that I didn’t, but I’m not sure how it will benefit you.”

“Are you kidding?” Kevin remarked. I just gave him a shrug. “No. I guess you’re not. Okay. I’ll level with you. Guild Bases are incredibly hard to come by. You have to have a lord’s permission to build one. Before it was already challenging to work out a deal with a lord, now… Well, it is almost impossible. If the remaining lords don’t already have an established relationship with a guild, they don’t look too kindly to inviting people that might threaten them into their territory.”

I stroked my chin. That was interesting. “Going by that, my inclination is to say no.”

“Hey. Hey. Don’t rule it out just yet,” Sasha said quickly. “There are things in place to control this sort of thing. Much easier than in the real world, I might add.”

“Like what?” I asked intrigued.

Sasha played with the tip of her ear. “Contracts. We make a contract with you and both sides will have to uphold it. It can be as detailed as you want.”

“I see. Just as a matter of interest, how many people do you have in your guild?”

“Fifteen. We had more, but a few flipped out when the world changed and retreated into their shells. I am trying to bring them out, but for now, they aren’t really worth much.” Sasha answered. She tried not to, but ended up glancing at the human that was passed out on the table a few seats down from us. He was dressed like a mage, but that didn’t tell me much.

Fifteen. That wasn’t a small number considering what I was dealing with. Razz’s true number were up in the air. I knew he had at least six under his command that were players. Being a warlord, he hadn’t worked for anyone before he met me. Plus, I was hesitant to say he worked for me. Begrudging partners might be better.

I got up from my seat. “I’m not saying no, but I need a night to think about it.”

Sasha and Kevin looked relieved. “Thank you for even considering it.” She glanced at Kevin then lowered her voice to just above a whisper. “Be careful. Snake has people here. With how much gold you made, they might make a move on you.”

“Thanks for the tip,” I whispered back. Raising my voice, I looked to find Lapis apparently terrorizing some drunk man. “Lapis! We’re leaving.” She pouted but followed after me. Once we were clear of the Union building, I turned down an alley and rounded on her. “What the fuck? I thought you were going to watch, not ruin my chance to negotiate?”

“Blah, blah, blah. It’s not fun to just sit back and watch. You other-worlders at like everything revolves around you. I could make this a lot more fun.”

“Really?” I rubbed the bridge of my nose. My patience finally ran out. Today had just been too long for my liking. “Fine! Do it. See if I care if a dragon slayer comes after you.”

Lapis grinned. “Wrong move, dear Maxwell.” Her body began to bulge as she assumed her true form. “Wrong move,” she said again much deeper. She turned away from me and sucked in a breath. A beam of blue light erupted from her mouth before it exploded into the building next to us. I had to teleport to avoid the falling debris. Stumbling to a stop on the roof a few blocks away. I took in the sight of Lapis rising into the air. “By order of my master, Maxwell Orfen. This city is to be encased in ice!” She punctuated the announcement with another beam of ice that demolished a tenth of the city.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

Warning! You have declared war on the Craia Kingdom by attacking Galim City!

“Mother Fucking—damn it all!” A beam of blue light lanced through the air toward the castle behind the giant stump. I thought the place was going to be demolished instantly, but a barrier of some sort came into existence at the last moment and deflected the attack. It still blasted a chunk of the city to little more than rubble.

I dropped to my knees as I knew there had to be NPCs in all theses buildings. After getting to know those in my village, it was hard to see them as just strings of code. Especially given that I wasn’t much different now. To me, Lapis was committing a massacre and it was in my name.

“Stop!” I shouted before I teleported onto her back. “I said stop!” I pointed my palm at her neck. I would do whatever it took to make her stop even if it meant my death.

“Make me!” She laughed as she twisted in the air. I growled as I grabbed onto a spike on her back. I barely had half of my mana back, but it didn’t matter. I placed my palm on her scales and launched Spatial Tear after Spatial Tear. To my horror, the spell simply glanced off her armored back. “Weak!” She pulled in another breath before unleashing it on another section of the city.

The wind was tearing at me as Lapis twisted and spun destroying the city with abandon. Gritting my teeth, I climbed toward her head. I might not be able to penetrate her scales, but her eyes were another matter altogether. I nearly lost my grip twice as she turned upside down completely, but I managed to reach the crown of her head.

“Last chance! Stop your destruction!”

“Pitiful creature. I am the peak of the food chain. I only stop when I feel like it!” her laughter was haughty and crazed. She sounded almost drunk. As Lapis leveled out, I threw myself forward and slammed my hand on the orb that was her eye. The organ easily twice my size.

“I might be pitiful, but I’m not a quitter!” I teleported the organ just a few meters away. Lapis roared as she thrashed in mid air. This was too much, flinging my well away from her body. I had used all but a few drops of my mana to teleport her eye. I never knew that falling to your death made the world slow down. I watched as the first stars popped into being. The fall felt like it took an hour, but I blinked then slammed into the cobblestone street below. The world went black.

“That was fun, right?” I blinked rapidly as I found myself back in the alley with Lapis. She had a finger to my forehead. She pulled back and put a hand to her left eye. “Damn. Going for my eye. I’ll remember that.”

“What?” I looked around but everything was back to normal. It wasn’t even night yet. It was like just a few seconds had passed. “What the hell is going on?”

“An illusion, you idiot. I’m an all-powerful dragon. Remember that.”

I glared at her, but I was out of energy. I couldn’t even be mad at her. At least, I wasn’t actually at war with the Kingdom. That was the last thing I needed right now. “Let’s… Let’s just go find an inn to get some sleep.”