INTERLUDE: A WHOLE NEW WORLD
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00:01 5TH MARCH 1ME
UNCOMMON PERIOD
MORTAL REALM
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LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles was a war zone. According to anyone from outside who had made it to Los Angeles in the early days, the rest of California was much, much worse. The Breaking which everyone had to be aware of by now, had made large areas of the state uninhabited, powerful beasts and monsters had claimed them, and they were incredibly territorial creatures, and commanded numerous minions.
The war between the hoarders and the local governments hadn’t gone well anywhere, no one won, but a metric ton of people lost. In Los Angeles, three factions existed but only two fought for control.
The local government was the biggest group most of the civilians siding with the known over the unknown. All of the migrants from outside of the city also tried to make their way to the local government Stronghold.
The gangs were the next biggest they were surprisingly successful because of their willingness to work with the other gangs over siding with the local government. On the whole Gang members had higher levels than the average government people with a few exceptions.
These two groups fought.
The last group was the strongest by far, but they had a very specific mission to carry out, so they didn’t concern themselves with the local wars. They were the Native American tribes that had combined forces into the Golden Bear tribe. The tribe had the most powerful Classers and Professionals, most importantly Clergy, but the smallest numbers of the three groups.
It was a whole new world. On January first most were lost and confused. The newly elected mayor of Los Angeles and the governor of the state were together celebrating the new year with friends and family when the world changed.
Fortunately, they were both competent leaders and got the law enforcement, JTF, and local military assets under them as soon as they figured out they could. It helped them establish a Stronghold, a beacon of hope and shelter for the displaced citizens.
The fighting didn’t start until people realized that electricity wasn’t coming back, and this world was now the norm. Most people wanted safety. But in this world, there was only safety in personal power, or in numbers. Nothing else was guaranteed and the latter was barely guaranteed.
After the first week of relative peace, the first beast horde came, and without walls or high-level combatants half of the population was killed or permanently displaced, that was over five million people. The survivors were stronger for it, however. So when the next horde came they were more than ready.
After the first six hordes the defenders were all strong enough to easily put down the Horde, and local beast.
The seventh horde was different. The creatures were much stronger than the first six Hordes, and the death toll for low-level individuals skyrocketed. It affected the government side the most, the gangs seeing weakness took that chance to try and take out the leadership of the government.
They failed, but that officially started the war. Having failed to get to the government leadership, the gangs tried to ally with the Golden Bear tribe.
That was when the government made its biggest mistake. Not wanting two powerful enemies on either side of them they attacked the meeting.
That was when the Golden Bear, the tribe’s God and her pantheon descended, and the weakest of her subordinate gods; The Chupacabra lord, put down the government's best fighters easily including severely injuring the governor who was the highest level at the time, almost level 29. It was a devastating blow to the fighting force of the government. They went into defense mode, and so did the Golden Bear tribe.
The gangs rose to prominence over the next few weeks. Gaining power and getting more of their higher-level members to their third specialization.
They were ready to take on the government and had started to slowly take land back from them while still keeping an eye on the Golden Bear tribe. The gods never left the land that the tribe had control of, as far as they could see, but the fear was always there, they were powerful beings with an unfathomable amount of pure stats. The tier suppression in their Presence alone was enough to make grown men shit themselves.
The campaign against the government was going well for the newly dubbed Westside gang. The leaders of the gangs were OGs who had either served in the military, or had been members of organized crime for decades, as well as artists and some entertainers who had gang connections.
The Government was on the ropes until everyone got an Event alert that changed Los Angeles forever.
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< ALERT >
{A LOCAL DUNGEON HAS BEEN UPGRADE TO ANOTHER TIER!}
{Prepare yourself for a continuous Monster horde}
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< CURSE ADDED >
{CURSE NAME: Scourge of the Undead
CURSE TYPE: Physical/Death
CURSE LEVEL: 1
DESCRIPTION: Scourge of the Undead is a curse that slowly levels over time, or as more undead are assimilated into the local area. As the curse levels the more the adverse reaction affects living beings in its sphere of influence. The Scourge also levels the highest level Death or Dark being over time. This being must be killed to end the curse.
Level 1: Allows the recently dead to rise again as undead in 24 hours' time under the leader of the scourge. Mana and Health Regen for non-Dark and Death creatures is reduced by -10%.
NOTE:
{The Curse information does not show up on your Character Sheet. Pay attention to your POOLS.}
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That night a ghoul apocalypse descended on the city. The fighting between the factions was halted until the sun came up. The ghouls turned out to be much weaker in the daytime. They also gave much less Experience but were still ferocious.
The fighting continued until they all realized that continuous horde meant continuous, as in, it would continue to make your life a living hell. Neither of the sides could afford to lose people anymore so a ceasefire was created and magically enforced by the Golden Bear herself.
She was the cultivator in charge of the west coast. She was, is the highest-tier god responsible for the tribes of West Coast. Their shared history all had some animal representative, and they all came back to life under the banner of the Great Spirit that ruled all of the former United States and Canada. The Golden bear was just the strongest so naturally she led.
The mortals on the other hand had a new mission. The new mission was to find and clear the Dungeon to end the horde because every night the city became more dangerous. But like everything in the GREAT GAME finding the problem was always a major part of the fucking problem.
So the ceasefire turned into a tentative alliance. During the day parties from each group would seek out areas of high creature concentration hoping to find the Dungeon.
They didn’t.
The problem was that ghouls evolved by killing and eating other creatures. As they level they can make more of themselves, and the smarter ones hid during the day bidding their time. Those ones gained so much power that they created their own Dungeons and since one continuous horde was active they all started adding to the hordes.
The Dungeons had to be cleared, but being caught out at night was a death sentence. But as iron sharpens iron, Mana had sharpened man, or in this case Mana sharpened woman.
***
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13TH APRIL 1ME
UNCOMMON PERIOD
MORTAL REALM
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LOS ANGELES
JANE SANTOS
The mayor of Los Angeles, Jane Santos was a big-name Dominican-American actress before she ran for political office the year prior. She believed she could help with the city’s homeless problem during the pandemic. When Magic came back she was given a Noble Title, and as such two classes allowed her to gain great balance in her stats.
In the new world, your personal power eclipses everything. And there was only one person in the government more powerful than her, he was the governor of the state. He also got a Noble Title. They established a Stronghold together and started gaining more benefits from it. The more people they had under their banner the more powerful the stronghold became. So naturally they had to protect their people to keep the benefits.
It was a balancing act between getting stronger, and not dying. So most parties go out at sunrise and have to be back by sunset.
Jane’s group didn’t make it back one night and had to survive until the morning. Not only did they survive they thrived. Their teamwork was top notch led by Jane. Her class spells and titles made killing her party members incredibly difficult. They did the rest. The amount of EXP earned that night was at least a month of clearing beasts and common dungeons. Also, her entire Party got a title.
Titles were rare, especially for commoners and NPC, but every one of her team gained the title
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{YOU HAVE GAINED A TITLE}
{TITLE NAME: Survivor
TITLE TIER(UnCommon)(Upgradable)
For surviving the night outside of a Stronghold or secure location during the continuous horde, while fighting for your life and those of your party or team, you have gain this title.
TITLE EFFECT: Ability gain; Silence
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She smiled as she walked through the gates much to the surprise of everyone in the stronghold. The governor wanted to debrief her party so while they waited for him to show up, it took hours to cross the city since cars were no longer a thing, she looked at her new Ability.
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{ABILITY NAME: Silence(toggled)
ABILITY LEVEL: STUDENT 0
As a noble, you have the ability to subdue people below you. In order to be able to do that a noble must have the ability to limit the skills of other players.
ABILITY EFFECT: Touch one player to silence any skill(Spells, Trades, and skills only) below the level of the noble + ability level.
Cost -5MP per second
STUDENT EFFECT: The number of players that can be affected is based on Ability level. Cost an additional -1MP for everyone after the first.
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The Ability was amazing some skills were so powerful that it made the players more dangerous to themselves than the creatures they fought. The beast and monsters took more lives but other humans did their fair share of killing as well. This Ability gave her an edge.
Everyone had gotten different rare bonuses, and she was the only one to get an Ability as a bonus. Abilities seemed to be just as rare as titles, and now she had gotten both in just one night. It was unbelievable.
The governor and she sat down for a meeting and decided from that day forward, she would lead groups out every night. She was now their most powerful deterrent, but also she still needed to get stronger.
The Silence Ability was special in many ways, but it didn’t have a direct damage component. So she needed to continue to advance in tiers because that was one of the only ways to get skill points for her as Noble, and she needed more skills.
If she could get more Titles that may help as well. Speaking of Titles, she even upgraded her title after the seventh night.
***
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06:34 20TH APRIL 1ME
UNCOMMON PERIOD
MORTAL REALM
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LOS ANGELES
JANE SANTOS
Jane had just killed a rotting boar the size of a couch as the early morning dawn began to color the sky with its orange light when she got the prompt.
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< TITLE UPGRADED >
{TITLE NAME: Survivor
TITLE TIER(Platinum)(Upgradable)
For surviving the night outside of a stronghold or secure location, while fighting for your life and those of your party or team members you have gained this title. For doing it again for an entire Common period your title has been upgraded.
TITLE EFFECT: Ability gain; Silence
Rare BONUS: Stat gain; +3 to mental stats.
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More stats were always good, and she wasn’t the only person who had gotten an upgrade. The Government had grown in power because of the title holders, and they were taking people out constantly to grow. Even with the continuous horde the classer got more powerful, even some NPC Skill users with combat General Skills had gotten powerful. Items were found constantly. Most were a mixture of modern and medieval, but mostly magically enhanced and plain out-of-the-world exotic items were dropped. Some were even cursed.
A soldier James and his team were on patrol when they had to fight a corrupted beast, and they were all killed except for James in the battle that ensued. For being the only survivor of the battle and completing the event one of the drops was a cursed skill tome. He used it and when he returned to the city he wasn’t the same. He had gained a god complex because the Skill he had gained was powerful. He learned a tornado Skill the only problem was how it manifested was varied. So one time he had wiped out an entire section of wall during an UnCommon beast horde. After Jane and The Governor had to leave their post to come and clean up his mess, James had fled to avoid punishment, but because of him all items had to be turned in and the finder had first dibs, but Jane had to dispel the curse if she could, or store it away in the Stronghold vault for safety.
***
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21:46 13TH MAY 1ME
UNCOMMON PERIOD
MORTAL REALM
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LOS ANGELES
JANE SANTOS
It was time to address the real problem. The dungeon they believed was the one causing their continuous problems was found in Long Beach. The government officials were going to send their best, brightest, and highest level to clear it. They didn’t want any of the other groups to get to it first, clearing a Dungeon first comes with greater rewards, so they were going to leave at night so they couldn’t be easily followed. Night had started to come earlier and earlier every day. New people who were trickling in still had mentioned the curse was getting worse. The damn Curse of the Undead was insidious. It was always there, but no player knew how it affected their Character build because it didn’t show up on their CS.
Two parties of the highest level Noble guards, who were the policing force, had taken up the task to clear it. The Governor himself Ron joined them for noble support leaving Jane in charge of the Stronghold.
She watched them leave with a frown on her face. They had left with all of their level thirty-plus combatants except for her, and two others, the Knight Captain and her Noble guard Captain. It was a gamble. She had recommended getting the Golden Bear tribe to help, but the Governor wasn’t having it. He was level thirty-nine, but the amount of EXP to get to forty for his Class was astronomical so it was obvious he didn’t want to share the EXP. She just hoped that didn’t get them killed.
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She wasn’t worried too much about them, they were strong she was just worried about the Stronghold security in their absence. It was why she had stayed behind, she had been the best person at keeping players alive and their most precious resource was their citizens.
Every seven days they got Mana, EXP, and stats to distribute among the stronghold members in Events, Jobs, and Task posting, even the occasional Quest. But the amount heavily depended on the amount of people that were part of the Stronghold. So keeping the people alive was the more important mission for her. The randomly generated Events that popped up helped level many of the citizens within the walls. Fetch Tasks were the most common. So as long as they could keep any strong monster or beast from entering the city proper she felt confident that she could keep the Stronghold strong.
***
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07:00 1TH JULY 1ME
UNCOMMON PERIOD
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LOS ANGELES
JANE SANTOS
Jane sat in quiet contemplation in her office. Her headquarters was in a rundown tall former corporate building. It was the tallest building in the local area that the professionals were still working on. She stared out of the window overlooking the city center. It had changed drastically since the Breaking. All of the small inconsequential pieces of green space had grown into lush gardens some of them even forests throughout the Area of Control of the stronghold. The streets were covered in grass and professionals were needed to clear and maintain the new roads between the stronghold buildings and the rest of the stronghold proper. She looks out far enough to see each of the three walls surrounding the Stronghold in expanding concentric circles. The third and final wall was at least fifty miles away from her building. Between the lack of air pollution, and her improved eyesight, she could just barely make out the professionals, and NPCs enough to see that they were starting their daily construction job. Of course, she knew that she did authorize it, but the wall was taking way too long. They had to stop construction at dusk every day so they wouldn’t lose professionals to the ghouls at night. It was a gamble, but a very calculated one. Once the inner walls of the stronghold were formed all creature spawning had stopped within the walls, and as an added benefit all of the cleared Dungeons inside the walls formed a Dungeon Hub; an area where all of the Dungeons were placed for easy access. It also notified the Stronghold where new Dungeons form for a certain range. The Stronghold even automatically generated Events to clear the Dungeons for the nobles.
The Second Wall did the same, but it happened over time as the Stronghold grew in level and citizens. The area that was protected by the wall was ten times the size of the inner area. Most of the civilians live in this area. Royal and Noble guards patrol to kill any spawning creatures. The Dungeon Hub of the middle area was five times as large as the inner, but the higher tier Dungeons moved to the inner area.
The third wall was needed to prevent the ghouls from hiding anywhere near the Stronghold center. It was a massive undertaking, that had taken months, and most of the weekly resources to construct. It had over two months before completion, and the area was already showing benefits. Events were popping up to hunt down hostile every hour. While none of the guards or soldiers were over 35 yet, most of them were over 30. Jane couldn’t imagine the other groups having over a hundred thousand tier 3+ combatants at their command.
She looked away from the window, and to a screen on the wall that had a tactical map on it. The major benefit that the third wall added was the extended range of the Area of Influence with added surveillance, which generated events and sent them to the Taskmaster hall. The map moved in real time so she could see all of the troop movements and citizens in public areas. Even for a limited range outside of the Stronghold. Every so often little red dots appear near the green dots showing battles happening around the whole city. At night the entire area was covered in red dots.
She frowned she wanted to see a trail of new green dots led by the governor walking in. Jane was getting the bad feeling that they had failed. It was bad enough that she was still only one of two other level 39. She was up against two factions that both have multiple level 39s at last reported, and they have been testing them lately, not directly but some of their clearing parties had been ambushed by players, and some whole parties never made it back and were assumed killed. Just as she thought about it, she and everyone in the greater Los Angeles area received two very important prompts.
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< ALERT >
{A LOCAL DUNGEON HAS BEEN UPGRADE TO ANOTHER TIER! It has been cleared, however. For the next Uncommon Period, the continuous horde will be paused. Clear the first floor to increase the pause time.}
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< CURSE DOWNGRADED >
{CURSE NAME: Scourge of the Undead
CURSE TYPE: Physical/Death
CURSE LEVEL: 1
DESCRIPTION: Scourge of the Undead is a curse that slowly levels over time, or as more undead are assimilated into the local area. As the curse levels the more the adverse reaction affects living beings in its sphere of influence. The Scourge also levels the highest level death or dark being over time. This being must be killed to end the curse.
Level 1: Allows the recently dead to rise again as undead in 24 hours time under the leader of the scourge. Mana and Health Regen for non dark and Death creatures is reduced by -10%.
NOTE:
{The Curse information does not show up on your Character Sheet. Pay attention to your POOLS}
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“They did it!” Jane let out a breath she had been holding for months it felt like. She had actually forgotten about the damn curse, no wonder it was getting harder for people to level. She absently wondered what level it was prior.
She turned on her prompts just to see if she had gotten enough EXP to level up to 40 finally.
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< TOP SHEET >
{TITLES: Nobility, Hero, Survivor
PLAYER NAME: Mayor Jane Santos
LEVEL: 39/39, EXP to level [342,200/6,000,000]/[3190/2,500,000]
Free EXP:0
CASTE: Noble BASE CLASS: Mage/Noble Viscount
Specialization:
1)Shaman(MAX) 2)Shaman+(MAX) 3) Witchdoctor
RACE: Evolved Human(Tier 3)
POOLS:
HP: 8,620/8,620 regen 968HP per day
MP: 538/538 regen 1,074MP per hour
DR: 27/27 3 DR per minute
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength:196 Dexterity:229 Constitution:431 Magic:2.69 Intelligence:537 Charisma:537 Luck:386
Free Attributes:4
Current attribute gain per level:
Noble Class: +3 to all except for magic
Combat Class: +16 INT & CHA, +10 CON, +4 LUCK including Specs
Title: +4 to mental
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Nothing new, when she had gotten her Intelligence the first major threshold she had noticed that her memory had become almost photographic, so she could pick up changes easily. She had to protect the Stronghold so her combat Class level had stagnated. Though her skill with her spells had increased. She started to relax it was time to get the others and get her main class to level forty. It was supposed to be a minor milestone to cross, and EXP cost alone was not easy to get especially when you can’t go hunt things like she couldn’t. The things she could hunt weren’t giving her much EXP because she had out-tiered them. Then she reread the alert prompt. “Wait the Dungeon upgraded again.” She turned to her House guard leader Alicia Rivera.
She was a tall dirty blond woman of Irish and Germanic descent deck out in full plate armor hiding the coiled muscles below. She held her helmet under her left arm and a long spear in her right. The house colors of the Santos Family were draped around her shoulders. “Why is everything in this new world good news, or bad news my lady?” Alicia asked also letting out a breath.
Jane’s noble steward answered. “To make us stronger for what’s to come. This game is for keeps, and now that we are all low-level specialists we see the stakes.” The steward was Alicia’s husband A.J. Rivera who was also a big-name actor before the breaking. His having a close personal working relationship with Jane got him the position of Noble Steward, and his wife’s strength got her the Noble Guard leader position.
Between the three of them, and the head of the Stronghold’s army Alejandra, a former soldier who was the second highest level person they had. They had learned a lot about the GREAT GAME in the last seven months.
The Golden Bear tribe had provided some information when they were still communicating with them. But most of it they figured out on their own as they leveled up. They had done events and cleared Dungeons that were giving out information on the world and its system. It was very much like a video game. But the stakes were much, much higher.
Jane was too busy trying to keep everyone alive to handle the day-to-day of the Stronghold, so she leaned on AJ who had done an amazing job. The Steward Job or in AJ’s case profession gave the player knowledge about the magical world as they level. All Noble positions do, but Stewards especially. “We must be careful now my lady.” He said in Spanish to Jane “The Dungeon will be even more sort after now.”
Controlling Dungeons was very important to the growth of a Noble faction, any faction or Stronghold really. It hadn’t happened yet. But everyone in the room knew when the war started back it would be for the control of Dungeons in the area.
Currently, the government controls most of the Common and Uncommon Dungeons, control was a little misleading. They had houseguards stationed at the ones outside the middle wall during the day. At night they abandon their post for the safety of the Stronghold. They would often come back to other groups leaving these dungeons. They were the independents out in the world.
“I will set up a twenty-four-hour rotation on our Dungeons immediately,” AJ said making sure he got a confirmation before writing in his HUD notes, another ability that Stewards got access to.
“I will get the house guard out to train we need to get back to leveling. The Dungeons are too limiting until they upgrade again.” Alicia added.
Jane sighed tiredly. “The job is never done. Once the wall is finished the inner Dungeons should get to Rare. That way we can start getting real EXP from it again.” She looked at her team with a smile. They were not powerful, but they were adaptable which she believed was way better, power will always come if you can adapt. “I am just waiting for someone to say cut, so we can move on from this damn movie.” She laughed dryly
“If only we could be that lucky.” AJ nodded at her knowingly at her.
“Don’t worry ma’am, we will make sure the Stronghold will be ready for anything.”
Jane was right about being worried because of course as soon as Alicia finished lay up of a statement another prompt surprised her even more, though it shouldn’t have. She was having that type of year.
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< CEASEFIRE HAS EXPIRED >
< EVENT: WAR >
{WAR HAS BEEN DECLARED ON YOUR STRONGHOLD BY THE WESTSIDE GUILD.}
{Time until the start of war 3 Common Periods}
< PREPARE >
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Jane’s eyes widen “Get me Alejandra now! She needs to go get our High Classers back, we only have three weeks until the protection of the Golden Bear disappears. Looks like the Westside gangs have upgraded their organization from a Gang to a Guild. How the hell did they do that during a continuous horde without Nobles.”
“That is not good,” Alicia added. “Only the House guard got that Prompt, but the word will spread soon. Gossip dissemination is always undefeated.”
“You had to say something didn’t you my very unlucky wife,” AJ said with a cocky grin.
“Yeah, that one is on me.” She admitted sheepishly. “Think it's time to open the jail? We will need the bodies if there is to be a war.” The new world had some of the same problems, some people took advantage of the lack of policing to hurt others or fight old battles. But because of the hordes the ‘criminals’ were given time off their sentences, if they fought in them. They could also help defend the Stronghold in the war for full pardons, but the governor had to do it, Jane didn’t have that authority yet, which is how she knew the Governor was still alive.
Jane shook her head, she was starting to get a headache. “Those people must have a constant eye on them. We just don’t have enough high-classers to keep them in check currently.” All of them were above level 20 some even in their 30s and the Herbalist was gods knows, no one could identify him. Jane sighed thinking about the kid, he was tough to talk to without feeling stupid.
“We can have them make Vows or at least magical contracts is preferred to leaving fighting assets unused.” AJ agreed with Alicia.
“That just feels like slavery AJ,” Jane said warily. “We can’t walk that road, we will NOT walk that road. It is too easy to fall into the trap of exploiting others for power in this new world.” She sighed. “I know the herbalist and the blade dancer are useful, but they are too high tier to let run around without supervision. Plus their leveling speed will surpass any guard, and then what?” Leadership depended on power to maintain the peace so having assets not loyal to the strongholds could lead to civil unrest. It has happened many times in the hamlets and villages that have popped up since the Breaking.
“They are both looking for someone, the minute they get a chance they will leave to go find them. We need their strength to defend the others more than we need them to find the people they are looking for.” AJ added. “Maybe we just offer them Jobs.”
“Not a bad idea, but I don’t think the stats from the Jobs will keep them here, but it will keep them coming back to the Stronghold,” Alicia added.
“We have to upgrade the Stronghold to a city before we can offer mercenary type Jobs, so while it is a good idea it is a future solution, not a current one.”
“Why don’t we just let them go look.” A new woman walked into the chamber. “For sure Jeremy will come back, he has his son here, and he just turned thirteen so we gained another Classer combatant.”
“Really Alejandra, you got here very super fast, what Class did he get?” Alicia asked the question everyone wanted answered.
The short Mexican woman, with short black hair, sat in the chair across from Jane. She glared at AJ to Jane’s left and nodded at Alicia to her right. “I happened to be on my way here already just lucky I guess, and Blade Dancer like his Dad’s first specialization.”
The room was quiet. AJ looked through his notes. “Six stats per level at tier one. His potential will be ridiculous, that is three times the average base player. We have to get him into common Dungeons as soon as possible. Send him straight to combat school?” He asked excitedly.
“He is just a kid AJ.” Alicia admonished.
“So are our girls, and they are teaching at the Combat School.” AJ retorted.
“Our girls being kids is hyperbole, they are in their twenties.”
“Can you two flirt somewhere else,” Alejandra said rolling her eyes. “Alicia it is a whole new world out there. We have to take advantage of any and all resources.” She turned to AJ. “We will have enemies at our doorstep in three weeks, so the kid won’t be much help by then, even with Dungeon training, unless we want to throw him to the wolves in Uncommon and Rare Dungeons.”
“He took a passive skill like his father had. So by his first specialization, he will be even more useful. So I say yes throw him to the wolves.”
“Are listening to yourself? Throw a teenager to the wolves.” Alejandra said.
“The Knight leader is right. We have what we have now. Even the wall won’t be done in time. We will have to abandon the outer area for the war. I hate that idea, but can’t be helped.” Jane started. “But my steward is also right. We have to plan for the future. Get him specialized see what were his options and we can reevaluate.” Jane ended the back and forth.
Alicia’s eyes unfocused as she read a message in front of her. Her eyes then widened. “We may have bigger problems, my lady.” She said with a frown.
The Knight leader Alex also looked at her messages coming in as well. “Shit, if we are talking about the same thing, she is really underplaying it.”
AJ looked at his own messages trying to glean what the problem was.
Jane rubbed her face tiredly. “We just can’t get a day of rest, can we? What is going on?” As they all were about to chime in at the same time, she raised her hand to forestall them. “No, House Guard leader first, then Knight leader, and lastly Steward.” They knew if she wasn’t using their names, it was an order, and they were compelled to obey.
Alicia bowed slightly. “Lady Viscountess, there is a force of troops gathering to the North. Numbers are now coming in from the gate, but preliminary numbers are in the ten-thousand range. They have siege weapons. Their coat of arms is not of the Westside gang, guild, or whatever the hell they are calling themselves these days.”
Jane calmly nodded, she knew for them to attack her stronghold with a big enough force to do any real damage they would have to declare war on them, the penalties were severe if they didn’t. They had found that out when they had attacked the Golden Bear outpost where they were meeting with the gangs early in the conflict. So if they haven’t, they might just be there as a deterrent. She nodded at Alejandra to proceed.
“My Lady, the scouts had seen them, and three other groups setting up at every Cardinal direction along the Noble roads we were beginning to set up. The Northern force is the largest however they have gathered at the major Noble Road intersection the five and 134 near the old zoo. The Governor’s house guards are in charge over there since he uses the Griffith observatory as his governor’s mansion, with the governor and his high classers gone though, they don’t believe they will be able to protect it for long against such a force. The third wall starting there is the only saving grace.”
AJ picks up after a nod. “From what we can see from all of the reports coming in about the Westside guild, the south central gangs were not involved in this new guild. Which can only mean one thing.”
“There was infighting between the gang leadership in the last few months.” Jane deduced.
“It would seem so.” AJ said, “My spies within the gangs and Golden Bear tribe just reported in since the Dungeon was cleared.” He shook his head as if the news was giving him a headache.
“Spit it out, Steward.” Jane had to fall into the noblewoman role, it was difficult at first, but as she got stronger she saw the need for formalities. Also, everyone knew the game was subtlety pushing everyone into a role.
“The gang leaders had a coup, half of the leadership was killed by the other half. The only survivors that were close to us were Snoop, Dre, and Kendrick. Game saved the OG’s in a bloody battle. The rank and file were split, so it took over a month to consolidate turning the gangs into three separate entities. The westside guild which is the biggest group with the leaders that had started the coup. They are all over level forty supposably.”
“Shit!” Jane cursed
“No!” Alicia blanched
“FUBAR! Alejandra swore.
“Yeah, not good at all.” AJ agreed, and then he continued. “The group formed by the OGs named themselves the OneBlood gang in honor of the Game’s sacrifice. They have all of the old gang's high-level professionals. They are seeking shelter and support from us, and the Golden Bear tribe. They have Artisan rank professionals.”
“Multiple ones?” Jane asked slowly.
“Yes my lady, at least three non-combat and one combat, and quite a few more on the cusp,” AJ answered.
“The last group?” Alicia asked before they got caught up in the crafters.
“The last group is the group outside. All of them are combatants, either Classers or mid-level Combat professionals. They are loosely affiliated with the Westside Guild and call their gang the Syndicate. They are led by two level forty-five plus former wise guys from Las Vegas that brought in a few items and people that shifted the balance of power in the guild, which made them a major part of the coup. For their help, they were offered downtown LA.” AJ finished.
“So they are here to take what we’ve built?” Jane said angrily.
“It would appear so ma’am,” AJ responded.
“They will have to declare war as well just to get the bonuses. But now they are there to make sure we can’t send parties out to level. That’s low-key genius, I’m not going to lie.” Alejandra said.
“These geniuses are planning to kill and enslave the people our lady is charged with protecting Knight,” AJ said souring the Knights face. “The reason for the coup was basically slavery. The leaders believed that the weak were only good for labor, so the NPC weren’t even worthy of pay, or given a choice of profession Trades. The OGs saw it for what it was, slavery, but they were too late to see the signs of the civil war. The Syndicate and the Westside guild indentured contracts, oaths, vows, and then collars were giving them so much power that they couldn’t just give it up. Remember they don’t have Nobles, so their leadership is of the Merchant and high Classer path. Which means they have to force people to pay taxes. And they can not grow their Strongholds. Though it is already massive.” AJ said still going through all of his spies' reports.
“They can take ours though then they wouldn’t have to grow it. Just connect it to theirs, and it will grow.” Alejandra stated dryly.
“AJ, invite the One Blood gang into our Stronghold with their numbers we should be able to upgrade the stronghold defenses quicker, if we are lucky, they can help with the wall. I doubt it will be enough if we have to fight against multiple level-forties. We don’t have any, and very little knowledge about tier 4 in general. That is why you have to go find our high-classers and bring them back. The world has grown a lot since they had left and we haven’t been able to maintain the Noble road because of the fucking continuous horde.”
“We are going with you!” A new voice filled the room. A short pale-skinned, brown-haired woman in light cloth armor walked in with three others. A man with similar features to the woman, but much taller, and with curly hair, her son, carried a sword and kite shield and wore heavy armor. The two others were his twin sisters dressed in studded leather armor. One with a crossbow the other with a short bow. “We will find my husband, his raid party, and bring them back.” She said with finality.
“Absolutely not Lisa, we need you all here to defend the Stronghold,” Alicia said to the newcomer. There is literally an army at the walls.
“Oh, I am sorry, I made you think that was a request. It wasn’t. We are going, you can try and stop us, but it won’t go very well.” Lisa retorted. “For you that is.”
“Lisa please be reasonable your family is the only other noble family here, we have enemies on the northern border the border your family is supposed to be protecting. If we lose you, who will take over if I am killed? Who would command your troops in your absence.” Jane tried to take control of the conversation.
“Someone else will.” Otis the Warrior of the party said. “The governor left you in charge because he knew you would hold us back. But these odds are too stacked against us. We saw what was gathering and came here immediately, we need him back ASAP.”
“Not for his leadership, You have that down.” Clemy one of the twin women started as she readied her crossbow.
“But for his power. He should be getting close to level fifty, that alone may be a deterrent. Make them think twice about attacking.” Lulu her older sister finished.
“Plus we all know scouts who come out from Dungeons after a couple of weeks can be lost even with a Map Ability. They have been gone for months. We need to find them before they just wander into the Syndicate at best or a Westside guild’s Army at worst.
Jane sighed, she couldn’t argue that. They had the most people out of all of the groups. Over three hundred thousand souls lived within the protection of the Stronghold that encompasses all of downtown LA with The Convention Center as the seat of power. That doesn’t even take into consideration the plethora of hamlets camps and villages that were loosely affiliated with the stronghold.
She looked at her teammates. AJ nodded, and Alicia shook her head.
“Alejandra, what do you think?” Jane asked.
“We need the high Classers back if we want to defend what we have. Maybe in a few more months, we could raise our own Artisans, but we don’t have that time. So we need the One Blood gang. A Combat Artisan sounds powerful. But Classer will always beat out professionals in stats though their combat usefulness can not be denied.” She turned to Lisa and her family. “If they come with me, I’ll only need to bring a medic along, and we can cover far more distance than a squad or a platoon.” She paused “In short, yes, it's better this way. I also will be leaving more bodies for the patrol schedule. Since the Nobles don’t patrol anyway.” She smirked at the family’s collective frown.
“Okay, make it happen. Bring them back alive Alejandra.” Jane ordered.
“The High Classers or the Governor’s Family,” Alejandra asked.
“Hopefully both.”
“If you find any points of interest mark them on the Stronghold area map,” AJ said.
“AJ!” Alicia admonished “We are on a timer, don’t be so callous.”
“Of course, my bad. Please mark any points of interest on the Stronghold area map if you have time, please.” He smirked at his wife who glared daggers at him.
Alejandra chuckled as she got up. She bowed to Jane. “My lady, we will take our leave.” With Jane’s nod, she saluted Alicia, who returned it. She looked at AJ and then gave him the finger. “Later Pendajo.”
“Adios Puta.” He returned with a smile before Alicia's metal gauntleted fist hit him in the head. The sound was loud enough to ring out through the room. AJ’s head hit the desk in front of him, his feet temporarily leaving the ground. “Ouch babe, I told you to watch your damage, my constitution is much lower than your strength crazy. That really hurt,” he complained.
“It was meant to. Treat my friends with respect, and you won’t have any headache issues in the future.” Alicia said unapologetically.
“But she started it,” AJ whined.
Alicia rolled her eyes “How old are you?
“Old enough to know my wife is always right when she has THAT look on her face.” He begrudgingly admitted.
“Good. That will get you a little something later.” She turned to the royal family members who were looking on in shock as AJ picked himself up bleeding from both the top of his head and his broken nose. “He’ll be fine.” She handed him a potion bottle of red liquid.
“Uh-huh,” Lisa said as she turned to her family. “Let us go find your father, lead the way, Knight.”
Alejandra nodded and led them out of Jane’s office. Otis lingered with wide eyes looking at AJ heal from the potion he had just drank, his nose snapping back into place. He shook his head.
“Ouch. Was it worth it?” He shook his head and left after that.
Jane let out a big breath in a huff. “That woman scares me.” She said looking at the doorway.
“Which one, Lisa or Alejandra?” AJ looked at Alicia but thought better to leave her out of the options, his head still hurt.
Jane thought for a second. “Both?”
Alicia nodded her agreement.
AJ nodded as well. ‘All four of you are scary.’ he thought.
“But I was talking about Lisa. She may be just as powerful as her husband, he just had levels on her. Plus she is the best teacher in the combat school, and teachers always made me nervous.”
“Should we get the blade dancer in here?” AJ asked after a short pause.
“Yes, let's leave the Herbalist on ice though. I don’t have the energy to deal with his snark right now.” Jane said with an eye roll.
“I’ll get a runner to get him,” Alicia responded and left the room to do just that eyeing her husband as she left.
AJ put his arms up in surrender. “I’ll be good mi amor, I’ll be good.”
Jane smiled beside herself. It was going to be a long three weeks, but if all worked out they would be stronger, and more ready for what comes next.
Los Angeles was going to be a war zone again. Good thing she had the warriors to defend it properly this time. Now she just had to figure out how to stop multiple triple specialists. With any luck, they will have their own to help out. If not the city of LA will be a city of slaves.
“What are our chances?” She asked already knowing the answer.
AJ looked through his HUD notes. “Level fifty is a milestone level according to the information the Golden Bear tribe provided to us. No more information was given out about that, or any other tier five advancement.” AJ frowned “That could be the power the gods have. If level fifty gave a person that kind of power. We are in serious trouble, ma’am. I doubt it though. But Tier five is the Artisan rank in professions, and we see how different those professionals are to lower level professionals.”
Jane nodded. The Stronghold had gotten a few Artisans in the last few weeks, and they had been figuring out their capabilities. “What is the new pool they gain called again?” She asked while looking out her window and the professionals on the other wall who were probably oblivious to the coming war.
“-Intent-. For crafters and other non-combat professionals, everything thing they make has a chance for extra bonuses based on what the professional intended for it. Their creations have a chance of slowly growing stronger over time.” He continued to read. “The spear that Alicia uses gained a bonus effect that resets her cooldowns every ten minutes. Not amazing, but that was just the first level of intent every level above that will make a more powerful bonus.”
“That's just non-combat professions. What about combat one?” Jane asked looking back to AJ.
“Combat professional Artisans can use their intent to create an image of their Styles and powers. Still don’t know what the fuck that means. But we will see once we get the One Blood under our banner. It is called -battle intent- or -warrior intent-.”
“I hope it's powerful. Or else everything we have been fighting for in the last six months will be for nothing. I won’t be anyone’s slave, and neither are the people of my town. I have been charged with protecting them, and I intend to do that with my life.” Jane said with conviction.
“Agreed.” AJ and Alicia cosigned.
***
Two men sat in a tempered glass cell with a few holes in it for airflow and breathing. One was a shirtless Filipino man who was in incredible shape, and smiling as he did pull-ups at a provide bar. He had two tattoos on his back one of a beautiful woman with blue hair and a little boy with the same color hair.
The second man a half black, half east Indian man opened his eyes slowly. “Looks like they are coming to get you, Jeremy, tell Victor hi for me, and congratulations on a new Blade dancer in your family.” The second man said as a thin nearly imperceptible vine slid back through the hole in the glass.
“Thanks for telling me about my son Cerulean. I can’t believe you can spy on anyone in the entire area. That profession you got is nuts. What rank are you?” Jeremy replied with an even bigger smile now.
“Above Artisan, I did a lot of training in the forest so I am kind of a big deal there.” Cerulean paused with a smirk. “And LA is mostly forest now.” He closed his eyes again as more near-invisible vines snaked in from every hole in the glass prison cell.