Tatiana’s eyes drank in the reassuring palpable sense of weight that Randidly Ghosthound carried with him for several seconds as he used his bright emerald eyes to measure everyone in the room. Randidly’s black hair had grown rather long since he had left almost a year ago so that the long strands hung down to his shoulders; he likely hadn’t cut it at all. In comparison, it seemed like the stubble along his face regularly received the attention it needed to stay short

In addition, the bones of his cheek were much more prominent upon his return. He had likely lost some weight while he was away. But all it did was serve to accentuate the sharp lines of his face and body. Despite the fact that he was simply wearing leather pants and some sort of dark grey armor, there was something extremely dangerous in his balance and poise.

In front of Randidly Ghosthound, one could sense the violent path he had taken to arrive at this point. To Tatiana, who had known the dark side of humans even before the System arrived, there was something extremely reassuring about that violence contained in Randidly Ghosthound. But as she managed to drag her eyes away from him, she couldn’t help but notice some of the nervousness of the surrounding members of Kharon’s government.

I suppose it’s better to find out this way. This city was never meant to be a nest for individuals seeking soft lives...

Still, perhaps the most noticeable change on Randidly’s person was his left arm. The rather bulky stand-in limb of bloodsteel had been replaced by a sleek and glimmering obsidian arm. And as Randidly shifted slightly, considering the assemblage, Tatiana could see the way the small lines along the arm lit up when he moved it.

But all in all… there was something definitely different about Randidly Ghosthound after his most recent adventure. Wherever he had gone had changed him. There was… an aura about him. Something that hid in the dark and acted meek as he met them amicably, but some instinctual part of Tatiana still felt a thrill of fear as she stood there. That pervasive power was not the main reason that Kharon was here, but it was the reason why Tatiana never felt any real threat that she would lose her job in the near future. If Randidly Ghosthound was gone, they would have much worse things to worry about.

Yet even as she thought about speaking, that aura made her pause.

Perhaps Tatiana had been too deeply occupied with studying him because Randidly coughed lightly and spoke in a tone of forced dispassion as he turned to look at her. “How are things?”

With the connection of the Eidolon Crucible, he probably has at least some idea of what’s been happening with Kharon… Tatiana steadied herself as everyone slowly began to turn and look at her. Although Randidly hadn’t likely done it purposefully, his way of speaking had a… thoughtless pride to it. By speaking to her, Tatiana had been designated as someone on his level.

Meanwhile, Tatiana could feel some of the others in the room, those that hadn’t met Randidly Ghosthound before, pressing as far back into the walls as their physical body would allow. She forcefully resisted the urge to look at Antonio, the de facto leader of the newly arrived population. His reaction was the most controlled, which made her all the more worried.

But, that was all the backdrop. Which, if Tatiana was honest with herself, was what Randidly had her manage. So… start with news?

“...you’ve likely sensed it, but we’ve had a huge influx of population in the last two weeks. But the important point to note is that we’ve begun to encounter what we call ‘bubble cities’ out in the Wildlands; they are locations that were isolated when the System hit, but not frozen in time.” Tatiana folded her hands behind her back. “They are periodically attacked by large numbers of monsters, proportional to the size of the population. But based on the reports we could gather… it’s a much easier existence than the System gave us. No Raid Bosses, no Raid Dungeons.”

“We met our own demons there,” Antonio added with his voice pitched so low it was near a whisper. “Monsters are one thing… but humans with unparalleled power… that’s the true face of evil.”

Tatiana briefly examined Antonio out of the corner of her eye. His fists were clenched and he was looking at his own leather shoes, but Tatiana could tell his entire attention was focused on this stranger, this Randidly Ghosthound that he had heard so much about. About spending over three years working as a lessor manager underneath one of the fearsome Chosen who had monopolized Classes and hoarded knowledge about the System in his bubble city, Tatiana could understand why Antonio would worry that he had walked out of one hell into another.

She had no doubt that the wrong sort of behavior from Randidly would have the entirety of the rescued population fleeing in the night. Considering the unnerving actions of Heiffal’s group in the last few days...

But to Antonion’s interjection, Randidly just tsk’d lightly. “Troublesome. So they come out after having three years to learn bad habits. Then are all the bubble cities really cities?”

“As far as we can tell, yes.” Tatiana nodded. “We’ve encountered three so far and been able to determine the location of each: the Southside of Chicago, Mexico City, and Kolkata. And if I’m being honest, all three have been… dangerous. Mexico City was the most stable, but the other two were basically controlled by power-hungry despots. Helen cleaned up Chicago, while Donnyton dismantled Kolkata.”

“I assume to slow Earth’s growth, the largest population centers were cut off from Zones… interesting.” was all Randidly said. Then he looked to Tatiana to continue. After taking a breath, she shifted the papers in her hands and continued.

“We’ve worked with Ghost and created autonomous all-terrain vehicles, basically tanks, that track the moss spirits’ energy to zero back in on Kharon despite the distance. So although it’s somewhat slow, trade with the Zones has been reliably established. With some of our progress in metals, we once more control the high-end of the materials market. In addition, Kharon is basically a walking printing press from marking and harvesting the raw materials of the Wildlands. East End especially will buy almost anything to try and create elemental focai. At least for the foreseeable future, we have a surplus of cash.”

Essentially, we are operating at a ridiculous surplus. I want to pat myself on the back for creating such an immaculate budget, but the real drive is Kharon itself. The moss spirits find and locate anything valuable before we even need to send out a team… Even if we don’t gather any resources for a month, we will still have work to do processing everything we’ve gathered in the storehouse so far.

Again, Randidly simply nodded at the end of her explanation. Tatiana had to sigh inwardly. I suppose any more detail than that would be pointless. But I wish you would have asked a bit more about our surplus cash flow… There’s basically no one I can brag to...

So Tatiana glanced at Naffur and then shifted topics. “With the ten inductees into the Order Ducis, we’ve ceased the expansion efforts for the Order. Mostly, we poured resources into training and outfitting these ten and the prior three inductees with the best equipment. After passing every test we threw at them, they are ready to operate independently of Kharon. But we were waiting until you returned to talk about what those independent operations would be.”

Sensing the small signal, Naffur cleared his throat. “We’ve already had a few requests for jobs back by the Zones if there isn’t anything particularly pressing in the Wildlands. Most of them are requests from the border cities of the other Zones that we investigate weird activity, but one sticks out; we’ve been asked to be security at a football game in ten days.”

That finally earned a reaction out of Randidly; he snorted. “American Football?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“American Football,” Tatiana confirmed. “Only a week ago, Theodora Greyman, President of Zone 1, announced the return of television networks and part of the grand allure of television was the return of sports. Also during that speech, she was assaulted by a five-story bloodbeast in the middle of the speech. She escaped with only an injury to her pride.”

Randidly tilted his head to the side. “Bloodbeast?”

“Powerful avatars of a Classer named Straud. Serial murderer, too. Drains the blood of his victims to form bloodbeasts. Hank Howard has spent almost a year and a half tracking the guy, and he’s the source of most of the information. But the bloodbeast that attack the President definitely proves that Straud is dangerous.”

“How powerful was the bloodbeast?” Randidly asked lightly.

Tatiana shook her head. “Hard to say. But the combined forces of Alana and Hank were the only reason that the President wasn’t killed. And although they destroyed the avatar, they weren’t able to apprehend the mastermind.”

Suddenly Randidly’s gaze sharpened. “The image of the mastermind… it’s related to blood right?”

“Yes,” Naffur answered. “The string of murders started almost a year ago now… coming out of Zone 19. The victims were found with their blood completely drained from their bodies. But with the growth of the Wildlands and these bubble cities, it’s been almost impossible to keep track of all the missing people. He’s likely stayed active, but become much harder to track.”

Humming, Randidly closed his eyes. There was a shift in the air that Tatiana felt, like the sensation of an impending electric shock. Strangely, the colors around Randidly seemed to sharpen, as though someone had turned up the contrast on a picture. His hair became a sea of darkness, his skin pale, his lips a light pink. Every hair on his cheek was the deepest, inky black Tatiana had ever seen.

For a few seconds, he stood like that, until a frown crossed Randidly’s face. “...I sense it. Yea. That image… is strong.”

Tatiana nodded, mentally filing away the fact that Randidly might be able to track others from afar using their image. “Which is why we considered accepting the mission to protect the attendees. And besides the safety concerns, the World Council is requesting all Orders to participate. As the Order Ducis is the leader of the Orders… well, per your orders we’ve stayed out of the squabbles between the various Orders. However, it’s worth noting that the Order Valorem has done quite a bit of work to clean up Raid Bosses now that we are in the Wildlands. They are gaining quite a bit of popularity and will definitely use this security detail as a PR stunt.”

“Heh,” Randidly chuckled and shook his head. “Might be fun to see, but they won’t need us. Not if Alana and Hank are already both tracking this Straud.”

Of course, Randidly didn’t acknowledge the hint about the political ramifications if the Order Ducis didn’t attend the inaugural football game. He simply hummed lightly and gestured for her to continue. Last night, Tatiana had been worried about exactly this reaction. It displayed an obvious callousness to the opinions of the rest of the world. Yet now that she saw it… it was oddly a relief.

Those things aren’t important. That’s why I followed him out there. Because I trust that he can discern between those things that actually help our world and everything else that just gets in the way… Tatiana clenched her fist and continued.

“A few days ago we received a notification about the Danger Zones. A fourth Zone was cleared, and for the third time spreading the world-wide experience boost was selected. Following that, we received a System notification that there would be a special benefit for Earth if we cleared five Danger Zones and selected to share the experience.

“In light of the recent movements from the Ogre Gorge and World Crater, Mrs. Hamilton urged patience at the most recent World Council. But even she admitted that there is an incredible value to the world-wide experience boost. And it appears that Franksburg’s Lucifer is determined to seize the benefit for the Earth. Currently, Franksburg’s elites are heading to the Crystal Shaft Danger Zone in an attempt to clear it.”

“A benefit from the System huh… I can guess why Mrs. Hamilton would preach patience,” Randidly smiled for a second and as his focus clearly shifted, and that violence hiding on his person finally revealed itself in the curl of his mouth. Across the room from Tatiana, Antonio stood without moving an inch.

Then Randidly’s expression changed and the heaviness passed. “Well, it should be fine. Honestly, a Danger Zone might be a good test of the new Order Ducis recruits… also, you said activity at the other Danger Zones? Are the worlds on the other side acting up?”

“Yes. A letter came from Nordawn, the capital of the Ogre world.” Tatiana replied. She watched Antonio carefully arranging the papers in his hands, wondering what the man was thinking. “I believe an army is marching toward the portal as we speak. As for the World Crater… it appears that Neveah and Sydney went into the toad world together. Neveah sent us a message but it was light on the details. However, she seemed to imply that the Toad World had been taken care of for the immediate future.”

Again, Randidly hummed. His finger tapped against the line of his jaw. A hesitant silence fell over the room. Tatiana kept most of her attention on Antonio, trying to read the man’s reaction to Randidly. The rest of the people just watched the man who stood at the center of Kharon, waiting for his direction. Likely for some of the assistants that had begged for this chance, this was the first time they had seen the man in person. They had heard the stories and now they were slowly realizing what it meant to be the most powerful man on Earth.

Before Randidly spoke again or Tatiana figured out the right way to draw the man into a conversation, Heiffal stepped forward. “Commander, I also have something to report.”

Blinking, Randidly said, “Oh? Is there a problem with the training? I know keeping your specific images back is difficult, but it is necessary-”

“No sir, it’s not that.” Heiffal shook his head. “I wished to inform you that I have learned to bowl, as is the tradition on Earth. I’m enjoying this diversion immensely.”

There was a second of silence. Heiffal brought his fist to his chest and then stepped back to stand against the wall. The corner of Randidly’s mouth quirked up and then a playful grin stretched across his face. His emerald eyes danced with amusement. Like a released breath, the tension in the room vanished. “Well then… anything else anyone would like to share?”

You should smile like that more often, Randidly, Tatiana thought fondly. You really do have charm enough to run an entire city by force of personality.

Gradually, the topics started coming faster and faster from the surrounding individuals; finally, Tatiana could release a breath of relief that everything didn’t flow through her. Naffur talked in more detail about the state of training for the Order Ducis and Vye asked about recruiting some helpers to map the entirety of the wildlands as her independent mission. The forgers brought up some successes and failures that they’ve experienced with regard to impressing an image upon a metal.

Tatiana spoke up again to talk a bit about some of the behaviors of the moss spirits. Even Antonio finally came out of his shell, talking about the individuals worth recruiting among the shifted population and how to approach them. As a follow-up, Tatiana talked about the most powerful of the Chosen still being at large, leading almost ten thousand followers as he fled from the persistent gait of Helen.

And at the end, Randidly hummed to himself.

Breaking a much more peaceably silence, Tatiana cleared her throat. “So… now that you’ve returned, what’s next?”

The gazes of the people of the room changed as they once more turned to Randidly and his focus brought the weight back to the surrounding air. The potency of his determination practically buzzed. Seeing him sitting there, the head of the colossal operation that was Kharon the moving city, and displaying both his power, his focus, and his humor likely did a lot to alleviate the fears of individuals who hadn’t met him before. Suddenly, they could catch a glimpse of the human wielding all the power.

For people like Tatiana and Naffur, who knew Randidly and his penchant for an unusual operating style, it was equally relieving to see that Randidly was listening to all the information without wandering off.

Perhaps because this was the first official governmental meeting… well, basically since the beginning of Kharon, Tatiana could immediately feel the shift. Likely without them even knowing it, Randidly’s powerful image magnetically pulled people over to his viewpoint. With the exception of the still wavering Antonio, Tatiana saw a commitment to Kharon in the eyes of everyone else in the office.

Before he answered Tatiana’s question, Randidly shifted his left arm and the pure lines of white energy illuminated the motion. After rubbing his chin, he asked, “How long would it take to return to the Zones?”

“The whole city, or just a group?” Tatiana asked while pulling out some maps.

“The whole city,” Randidly replied.

“Then… probably about a week?” Tatiana glanced toward Vye, who nodded her agreement. “Assuming there isn’t some pressing need to get there.”

Nodding, Randidly scanned the entire room, pausing briefly on each person that had given a report. It made Tatiana shiver lightly. The whole of Kharon shivered with her. “Then set a course for the Ogre Gorge. And in the meantime… let’s get to work. There are some changes I want to make to Kharon before people finally get their eyes on this place. I think it’s time we expand a bit.”