Maxwell

I stared at the road wishing more than anything that I had a cup of coffee right now. Dozens of bodies laid dismembered in front of us. Some of them looked like they had been rotting for weeks or even months. I didn’t have to be a genius to know what the cause of this was. Somehow my friendly neighborhood vampire had found out about the coming Inquisition and had decided to have a snack.

Rubbing my face, I walked over and took a seat on a rock. Razz joined me with a crocked grin. “Looks like our problem went away.” I snorted at that. That might be the case, but I couldn’t help but wonder how much experience Aurora might have gained from this little venture.

Sighing since I knew whatever the case, it wasn’t good I decided to nod all the same. “For now. This might have been a show.” I gestured to the massacre. “If she was able to do this in the middle of the night without none of your scouts finding out then she amassed some serious military power.”

Razz crossed his arms notably upset. “We’ll have to rethink how we’re going to address our mutual friend.”

“You can say that again.” I grabbed Razz’s shoulder then teleported back to his village. With my changes to the management in place, the village was quickly coming to life. His population was already springing back to before he led an attack against Aurora. It would be a few more days before he was back to full power once his citizens start training as well.

“Oh here,” Razz remarked as he handed over a sack. I took it and glanced inside to find a dozen or so Mana stones. They would help back in my village. Every stone counted.

“Thanks! It pays to have someone that knows the lay of the land.” I tossed them into my inventory. He already gave me a bag yesterday. That he could gather this in a single day was a show of his power.

Razz got up and dusted off his pants. “I checked the bodies, by the way. They were stripped clean. Nothing useful. Though I’ll be taking some of the bodies back to my village. If I mount the heads, their happiness will go through the roof.” I swallowed not wanting to think about such a gruesome thing but understanding that goblins had a different set of standards.

“Sounds fun,” I remarked, watching some goblins run by carrying a log.

“You should make sure you understand the values of your race. If you’re not careful you might piss them off or even worse make them come to hate you. NPCs can dispose of a leader just as easily as another player. Easier, actually.”

I nodded. “Thanks for the warning.” Razz chuckled before heading off to handle his own tasks. I glanced around the area. The town was quickly being repaired now that the citizens were actually being directed in their actions. The happiness was climbing quickly. Compared to my elves, the goblins didn’t need much to be cheerful. Personally, I felt Razz had made a good race choice. He probably would have even been able to overcome his management issues had he been given enough time.

Looking into the distance, I could just make out the point of Aurora’s tower. That woman had thrown a wrench into that destiny ever happening. Now that Razz was my vassal, it was incredibly hard for him to go his separate way. Not to mention, once my city grew and the two sites merged, he would lose his claim on Free-Mud. His only path now was to serve as my general and hope to claim a new territory as my nation expanded.

Cracking my neck to try and relieve some of the tension that my current life caused, I teleported back to my village. I had a bag full of mana stones and plenty of buildings that needed to be upgraded. I also needed to bring the newest batch down from the Gate. It was times like this that I envied Razz. His race was, and I meant no offense, on the weak side of the scale in the world. That meant he could spawn many more NPCs with his buildings than I could. They were easier to build as well.

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Reappearing in my village, I nearly collided with Kaga. I stepped back to give her some room while she caught herself from falling with some serious reflexes. “Sorry about that. I can’t exactly predict what’s at the spot that I’m teleporting to.”

She waved me off. “That’s fine, ja… boss. Umm… welcome home, I guess. Making the rounds?” She asked. I wondered what she was going to say but decided that it probably didn’t matter. She was alone in the woods for several weeks. There was bound to be some quirks.

“No. The goblins that were coming to deal with Razz’s village were massacred last night. While it saves us the trouble of dealing with them, it most likely means that the vampire has gotten even stronger.”

“Really?” Kaga asked obvious interest. I raised an eyebrow at her curiosity, but couldn’t find any issue with it. “How are you sure it was her?”

“Death magic. She’s the only one around this area that can use that branch of magic.”

The woman crossed her arms nodding. “Ah. Good point. The only other dungeon is several dozens kilometers into the forest and uses earth magic mostly.”

“You know of another dungeon?” I asked before I could stop myself. Of course she did, she’d been playing longer than I had and had been scouting this area for a while before the Takening.

“Well yeah. I can draw you a map to it if you’d like.”

“That’d be great.” We agreed to meet up later. I watched her walk away. I wasn’t sure if it was for my benefit or not, but I was memorized by the sway of her hips. After staring for far longer than should have, I shook my head and headed into the village. While Razz’s village was coming along quickly, mine wasn’t falling behind either. The golems had sped up all the mining. Once I spent a few more mana stones on more of them, our output should triple at the minimum.

The only thing that made me groan a little was the amount of wood that had to be spent for our new trading partners. If it weren’t for the fact that the Master Magic-works relied on magic reagents and stones after the first couple stages, I would be groaning a lot louder. Since the trade agreement with Neratherma was going to consume a large chunk of our wood, I needed to get more of starting buildings built in the next couple of days.

I shivered as a chill in the air hit me. Rubbing my arms, I turned to find Lapis walking behind me as if she’d been there the entire time. “Where have you been?” While her absence had done wonders for my anxiety, I couldn’t help but worry if she was out eating some of my villagers.

“Around. When you sleep for decades at a time, you some times forget how quickly the landscape can change.”

“And?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Not much this time, though there were a few things that I found interesting happening.” Contrary to her statement, she yawned as if she was bored.

I didn’t expect an answered, but I asked anyway. “Care to share with the rest of the class?”

Her smiles curved into a toothy grin. “That would spoil the fun.” I glared at her, but quickly sighed and dropped it.

“Fine.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose to try and relieve some tension. “Are you sticking around for a while?”

“Probably.” I didn’t get anything else after that. Shrugging, I headed into the village. My people were active and quick. With the help of the new players from the Jade Collective, they had cleared large swathes of the forest in nice pre-planned sections. I had purposely left a few lines of trees to add to the ascetic of my future city. Dark elves originate from the Labyrinth, thus don’t often get to enjoy nature like this. If word of my city reaches other dark elf cities, I might get some more immigrants.

Walking along the stone paths, I looked over the lots. There were plenty of buildings that I needed to add to the village before it would become a town. Most of them have to do with governance and culture. I quickly scheduled the ones I had the resources for. The finance administration alone cost me a dozen mana stones almost making me cough blood.

Sucking up the expenditure, I pressed confirm on the list of buildings. Soon, I would be able to deal with commerce, finance, agriculture, housing, and more. Since I had to plan for expansion, I made sure to check the upgraded versions. The dozen or so buildings took up the entire section of cleared land. That would have been more than enough for two or three dozen houses. Though from what I could see with the ghost like preview, the fully upgraded buildings would be quite grand.

I still had some mana stones left over, so I spent them on defensive upgrades. The spell tower had been a great aid during the battle with Aurora. While its cooldown was on the long side, there were other towers that fired more often. The fireball tower, for example, could cast its spell once a minute. That wasn’t too bad considering the spell was much more powerful than if a mage cast it.

Doing my best, I placed them as strategically as I could around the village. I felt a bit better about things once the twenty new defensive towers were placed. Once the materials were delivered, Alflona would be a much safer place. If only the future didn’t look so grim.