Chapter 55: Meddling Gods Unmasked
I rushed to the gates and was disappointed to see we only had about a quarter mile of the earthen wall converted to stone. I had pulled my build teams off the project in favor of getting buildings up. When I looked down, it was, in fact, an army. Two hundred calvary and five hundred infantry. Manto appeared on my left, and the bastard was smiling. His young rabbitkin apprentice was hiding behind his robes in fear of the army a the gates.
My angelkin commanders were organizing our own troops behind the closed gates behind me. I looked at Manto and said, “Is this what you wanted to happen?”
The powerful mage looked me in the eye and said, “Yes. Isn’t this much more interesting? Don’t worry, lord Tallis. They will not attack. I suspect their leader down there will start with a request to meet and then negotiate peace between their kingdom and Malcum. The show of force is so they can get the best terms.”
I shook my head in disbelief, “What makes you so sure? They look ready to fight.”
Manto smiled knowingly, “You haven’t looked close enough. They have 20 horsemen in the front who are level 35. But the other 180 soldiers are all level 20. The foot soldiers are the same. The front row is 15 levels higher than the ones behind. The only strong members down there are the Magistrate, level 80, and the Captain, level 60. If they choose to attack, it would be a bloodbath with a few area-of-effect spells.” I didn’t like Manto’s nonchalance, but Tanguin soon confirmed what Manto had just said.
Manto was definitely pulling Malcum by puppet strings. This was exactly what he had predicted would happen after he scared away the last group seeking taxes. I faced him, ignoring the opposing army, “So what is your plan? In a way, you have orchestrated all this by your actions,” I waved my hand below. “Do you want me to eliminate those NPCs?” My tone changed to a hardness I didn’t know I had, “If you are conducting everything, then why should I even have to make a decision? Just tell me. I assume you are the Matron AI.” It was a wild guess, but I thought it could be true.
Manto’s face soured. He scoffed, “Close, but no.” He looked behind him at the young bunny girl. “Well, I guess I need to move along then. I gave you a 40% chance to figure out I was more than I seemed. You only focus on one thing at a time and ignore what is happening around you. Keep your eyes open. Just friendly advice.” He reached down and put his hand on the rabbitkin girl’s head, and she fell to the ground like her strings were cut.
Manto held up his hand to stop everyone from rushing him, “She is fine. I just gave her all my skills and spells so she can replace me. Need to maintain fair gameplay,” he grinned. “Best for me to get going now. I will see you again in the Grand War, player Tallis.” Manto lifted rapidly off the ground and took to the air. After he was 100 feet up, he disappeared.
The Grand War…that was the event put on by one of the game’s gods…was Manto a god in disguise? It made sense when I looked at his comments. He said my guess that he was the Matron AI that governed the game was close…who else but a god would have the audacity to think they were close to the one all-powerful being? I had other concerns. Bella, the bunny girl, was being attended to, so I turned my attention to the army on my doorstep.
The magistrate rode forward and announced himself, “I am Grand Magistrate Filip Jarak. Overseer of Law and Order of the Northern Provinces and Executioner of the Lord’s Will.” He made a pompous, insincere bow on his horse. “We have traveled to your humble town to correct a slight against my lord’s tax collector.” That man sat on a horse just behind the magistrate, but I didn’t see any of his other men.
I gathered my thoughts and remembered what Manto had said, “I am not sure what you mean. Your officer came to my walls and demanded a payment your kingdom did not earn. We turned him away unharmed.” The man next to the Grand Magistrate turned red with fury. “I would happily welcome you and you alone with our walls, Grand Magistrate. Perhaps we can reach an understanding?”
It took some heated words below before Filip responded, “I will come in with my aide,” he pointed out a young man.
Ten minutes later, I sat with Galana on my left and Kytalia on my right across from the two men. The two women were clear-headed enough to help in the negotiations. The conversation started as a back-and-forth, with the magistrate producing old maps detailing his kingdom’s boundaries and me asking about how many times they patrolled or supplied the towns this far north. He had a silver tongue and took a few approaches, but I had come into the conversation already planning not to yield.
The food that was brought out changed his mood, and Fareth winked at me after she placed the plates down. I also used my ability Words of Influence (+20 to charisma for 60 seconds) to make my final arguments. Whether it was something in Fareth’s food or my ability, the magistrate backed down.
“Lord Tallis, your reasoning is flawed but understandable. We will recognize you as an independent city, but if I may leave my aide here as a diplomatic contact?” The young man smiled, and it did not sit well with me. I nodded reluctantly. “Fantastic! We will also rectify our past failures and garrison Barrista to the south with three hundred and fifty soldiers.” He had a slimy grin, “If you need military aid in the future, do not be afraid to request it from the garrison commander. You already know him as he led the original mission to your walls.”
My stomach churned, and I realized I had been played. This was what they had planned the entire time. They were leaving half of their force in Barrista with the asshole in charge. I smiled tightly and wished Manto had been here. If he was a god, I assumed he would have worked things out better. My notifications chimed a few times, but I saw the Magistrate out.
As he left through the gates and his aid wandered around Malcum, I checked my notifications. The first thing was my relationship with the Kingdom had improved to neutral. The second thing was all my exports to Barrista now had a 10% higher tax attached to them. The third, and most irritating, my espionage tab was blinking. It said I had to appoint a Master of Spies in order to utilize the tab. My digital blood boiled—stupid freaking game. I assumed the espionage was blinking because I had just allowed the kingdom to leave a certified spy in my midst.
I thought maybe Mira could be appointed, but her title as Master of Scouts was too important. I went down the list of all my NPCs, and nobody popped out to me as a good choice. This was a position that needed a high degree of competency. I also couldn’t wait as I had invited an opposing spy into our midst. I added the need to my list for the next NPC auction and found Kytalia so I could ask for advice on who I should appoint.
She tapped her chin before saying, “Zion would make an acceptable Master of Spies. He has a few skills and a high level.” My jaw dropped, the barber and sheep herder? It made a weird kind of sense. A barber did interact with a lot of people…
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I went into my interface and promoted him and it flashed for a few minutes before confirming the appoiontee. I could now access the espionage tab and it had all my agents listed…just Zion. They had a slider to determine how the agent functioned. Counter Espionage - Espionage. I slide it all the way to counter-espionage since Zion was in Malcum. I guessed that meant he would be on the lookout for spies. Maybe I should abandon Malcum and just become a solo player. All these details in running a city were not fun. At least the appointed NPCs were more competent than myself.
I sent a message to Mad Dog and told him about the details on the new tab so he could get some money to sell the info. It turned into a little bit of a bitch session on my part. He told me that a large guild would have a dozen different people running a city, with each member responsible for a different aspect. So, I should consider appointing players to certain postings, such as the Master of Spies, in the future. I had been thinking about being in this all by myself for so long that I forgot about the Silver Linings Playbook guild that I was a member of.
After a few messages back and forth, Mad Dog said once they started the game, they would be happy to help in the city's administration if I wanted the help. He also let me know he had finished seven tier 1 quests already! He planned to get his bronze Adventurer’s Guild Token in two more days! If Malcum didn’t need the resources so badly, I might use our stockpiles to complete quests myself…if that was even possible.
My next problem was checking in on Bella. The rabbitkin was with her parents in the house. She was awake and spoke to me, “Lord Tallis! I have all of Manto’s spells! They are at level 1, but I can cast them all! I even have seven magic skills at master rank!”
That was all I needed. Was Manto the god of chaos? Who thought giving a child bunny girl the power of a level 108 war mage would be a good idea? My head started hurting again. “Bella, I think we need to find someone to help guide you in your new power. What if I paired you with Titus?” Titus was my gnome paladin/hospitaller and was a quest giver for seeking out to destroy elements of chaos. He was the only one who was a more powerful wielder of magic than Bella in my entire town. Even Sanso was only level 93, and his power came from his spells all being over level 43.
Bella smiled with her rabbit teeth and nodded enthusiastically, “I know Titus! He is teaching at the school and has the best classes! He tells us scary stories about greater demons, vampires, and the chaos gods.” Well, I guessed Titus needed to find something to do since we didn’t have many players in town to give quests to. Teaching the youth seemed understandable. I would have to get him to spend time in the Adventurer’s Hall. That way, when the players did arrive, they could easily find him. I rubbed the young rabbit’s soft head, and she leaned into my head, appreciating the reassuring gesture.
As I was heading home, Sanso found me walking, and we talked briefly. He had handed over his old tower to the new miners, who were taking over the copper mining. The good news was another of Sanso’s golems was free, and we agreed to have it work on the outer wall. Getting a stone wall around Malcum was a priority, but it was a huge resource investment.
Later in the evening, I was eating dinner with Jaesmin at the inn. I noticed my enchanter eating a meal with Harrod and his wife…who was watching their clutch of crazy foxkin kids? Were they rampaging through Malcum? Jaesmin and I went to sit with them, and I pulled the greater teleport scroll out of my personal storage.
“Persephone, can this be used on the auction house?” I asked, handing her the scroll. Her eyes went wide as she read it.
“Lord Tallis, it can, but it would only increase your auction house range by 500 miles. If you incorporated the magic into the portal stone, then it would increase its range by 1,000 miles,” she said while handing the scroll to Harrod to look at.
I wanted to increase my auction house range so that more players could view my offerings when I sold things. Otherwise, I could go to a larger city with the portal stone and post my blueprints there. “Ok, use it on the portal stone then.” I conceded.
Once again, Persephone seemed to hesitate, “Our portal stone is pretty mediocre. Maybe we should build a higher tier portal stone before using this precious item?” she suggested. I nodded, held out my hand, and put the scroll back into my inventory.
I contacted Grinder and asked how his portal stone building plan search was coming. He linked a description in the chat window. It was the exact portal stone plans we had already built. I told him about the scroll and asked him if he could find an improved version…but I still needed those portal plans for the outpost… if he could find another set of plans for our future mining outpost…
He sent me an image of a horse being whipped. I just responded, ‘Thanks, you’re the best!’ Ignoring his attempt at humor.
All of this work for a better portal stone would be worth it. It would allow more players to reach Malcum and make it a viable location for them to set up their base of operations. More players would mean more revenue for us. I had one more thing on my checklist before I left Malcum to level up.
We needed to finish the Lord’s Manor. We had accumulated enough high-quality material that I thought it was time. If my entire build team worked on it, I figured three full days of construction.
For the next three days, that was our focus. At night, I worked on making copies of building plans to be utilized or eventually sold. Knowing this would be the center of my power and a huge boon for Malcum, I spent a lot of time supervising the manor’s construction. It took four days instead of three, but when it was done, it was marvelous!
Very Rare Lord’s Manor, 780,000 health, (Bonus +16% to the productivity of subjects, +17% experience to subjects within 1 mile of structure) (Effect: Palace Guards 6, Spawn Rate 1 every 12 hours, Level 72)
Rare Royal Vault (ruling building upgrade), (Bonus: +16% to tax revenue) (Effect: +5 levels to palace guards, upgrade one palace guard one rank)
We got slightly over a 50% bonus for all the effects. These remarkable bonuses would put Malcum on the map as our growth was about to skyrocket. The first guard even spawned as we celebrated with a meal in the massive dining room in the manor.
Palace Guard (lesser boss), Catkin Male, Level 78
He came fully equipped since he was a spawning NPC. It also meant he would respawn if killed. Palace guards were already considered elite NPCs, so his rank upgrade made him into a lesser boss. The reason he spawned as a beastkin cat was due to the fact most of my population was beastkin. All buildings that spawned NPCs reflected the population demographics.
Mad Dog, Grinder, and Black Beauty were at the completion celebration, and they kept trying to get me to let them move into one of the many bedrooms. I told them when they returned to the game, I would consider it if they took on a role in the Malcum’s government.
Grinder volunteered to be the Royal Taste Tester for all my food. I told him he was hired. Black Beauty wanted to be Jaesmin’s Lady in Waiting. Hired. And Mad Dog had slightly different aspirations. He wanted to be the Chief Constable. That way he didn’t get in trouble every time he slapped someone on the back too hard! Hired!
The party lasted well into the night, with players and NPCs mingling in my new and luxurious Lord’s Manor. I was looking forward to my first night with Jaesmin in the Royal Sleeping Chambers, as tomorrow, I would be venturing out into the world. Tomorrow was day 148, leaving me just 32 days before the game launch!
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