“What’s going on? What are you doing?” Taylor Lynn asked. Jay barely listened since his attention was still on the notification before him. A cascade of other game options was calling for his attention, available through his newly added siege interface.
“I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. Hold, please,” Jay said, with the voice of an impatient call center employee forcing themselves to be polite.
The first and seemingly most crucial notice calling for his attention was an interface to accept or reject his place within the fast-forwarded Mayor elections for Ilra. A catalog of information on the assumed duties of the position scrawled in front of him, but Jay ignored it entirely. He was already adjusting to his place as the guild leader for Red Player’s Society. He wasn’t about to add becoming the city leader on top of everything else.
His interface converted when he rejected the election, eliminating all the previous information. Replacing this were menus related to converting guild headquarters into a Fort. The Fort system was in place as part of the Siege mechanics to allow the guild leaders to defend their property and, consequentially, boost the effectiveness of the city.
A slew of options was available within the new system. There were siege weapons, various structures to provide bonuses to defenders, and even defensive structures resembling automated tower defense simulation games. Taylor Lynn glared impatiently as he sorted through the new menus. Finally, Jay discovered what he was searching for. There was an option to add guild lieutenants as Fort Managers, which gave them access to whatever permissions he allowed them.
He went to add Taylor Lynn but discovered she wasn’t ranked as a guild lieutenant. First, he promoted her, which triggered a cascade of congratulatory messages within the guild chat. He added her, as well as Ichibad and Lucille, to the list of Fort Managers. He felt much more comfortable with four people being responsible for the guild Fort.
“Looks like we have a lot of work to do,” Jay pointed out. “You should be able to see what I see. It’s a Fort system we can utilize to boost the defensiveness of guild hq. At a glance, a huge amount of materials is required for each asset. This is going to turn into an all-hands-on-deck situation. Buying these items will be problematic since all the top guilds will want to purchase the same items. We need people crafting and gathering, even those used to running dungeons or having freedom.”
Taylor Lynn’s eyes shone at the promise of a new adventure. “Really? Let’s figure this out, then. We can stay up all night if needed; we’ll figure the system out and prepare some instructions for the guild pronto.”
Jay’s attention particularly caught onto a magic circle, which boosted the damage of anyone standing within it—costing them mp. The construct design alluded to siege mechanics and allowed defenders an extra boost to repel attacking players. The list of items undoubtedly promised massive effort required: 250 units of powdered herb chalk, an investment of 10,000 total mp, several hours of crafter time to manually draw the circle, and 1,000 gold Prints to make the structure permanent.
A quest timer on the side of Jay’s screen ticked down from 7 days. The week was going to be a long one.
***
Five hours later, Taylor Lynn and Jay had developed a rough plan for constructing their Fort using the guild headquarters. Lucille stopped by to give some input but promptly ran off to finish last-minute dungeon running while they worked. She would be part of the all-hands-on-deck task of preparing the Fort, but she was also nearly level 60. Like the Assassin T, Lucille’s build was unmatched in solo play.
Creating ten magical circles for siege defense required 7,500 herbs, 2,500 units of sap, a quarter of the gold in the guild treasury, and two full-time spellcasters dedicated to drawing and processing them. Collecting the items would take at least four dedicated players to collect and two to process, calculated from the maximum possible gathering rate. To keep things safe while respecting the time of guild members, they needed to dedicate at least a dozen people to the crafting process.
This wouldn’t pose a huge issue, except that the guild membership had steadily dropped since Lester left. Several new people left each day. Even with the current recruitment, they still lost around two players daily. After the initial mass exodus, the current guild membership sat around 100 active and 120 casual players. The casual players could be relied upon to log in for the event and support the city. However, their participation in the building process would be tenuous at best—non-existent at worst.
Other required defensive structures, like the walls, were absolutely required. The wood and metal to build a siege wall, which allowed defenders to stand atop it, would take eight dedicated players to collect and develop. Luckily, the wall mainly required labor and would be easier on the guild treasury.
Automated defensive towers, on the other hand, required an absolutely enormous amount of effort. They made the powered magic circles look like child’s play. A single tower cost 7,000 gold Prints in addition to materials. Jay committed the guild to produce a single tower, which required eight dedicated members. The treasury couldn’t afford to build a second one, even with half the guild still unallocated to work.
Traps were going to be a massive boon for the coming fight. Unfortunately, the Trapmaking skill was rather rare since the utility while hunting was marginal. Both guild trapmakers chose the profession for their support-based classes. The traps allowed them to expedite solo hunting encounters where they might otherwise be unable to kill the monsters. The players were committed to producing traps for the land surrounding the guild headquarters. Giving the skill to new players was unlikely to yield anything helpful under the time constraint.
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Creating ballistae was also a necessity. Such siege weapons could not damage players, given the angles involved in targeting attacking players. The weapons were, however, precisely the needed devices for repelling enemy siege weapons. Rough calculations resulted in four players being required for each armament. The guild committed 16 players to build four devices, so there would be one in each cardinal direction of the Fort.
Battering rams were also available through the Siege interface, so the guild needed to prepare their possibility in defensive plans. Four players were allocated to creating a kill zone area in front of the gate. Ice traps would weaken the attacking structures and slow the players. Five to six players could stand within the box above the entrance to rain attacks down on the attacking players.
Creating an escape tunnel was expensive, requiring eight dedicated players proficient in the Mining skill. It wasn’t a rare skill, which was fortunate since the tunnel was an obvious build choice. Taylor Lynn and Jay had no idea what limits a Siege might put on resurrections. With the tunnel, the guild could retreat within a block of the main governmental buildings. Those buildings were already being reinforced by NPC workers in preparation for the coming battle.
Beyond defensive structures, the siege was sure to use many consumable items, including potions. The guild had a total of five alchemists available, with Sarah being the most accomplished, courtesy of her time on Mercura Island. Funneling more herbs to those five alchemists would take ten more players dedicated to farming.
The potions produced by five crafters, even with that many people farming, were unlikely to be enough. Still, they were limited by the same thing limiting the Trapmaking skill: it simply wasn’t worth training up new people given the time constraint.
A further dozen players would be allocated to farming and crafting new gear for members in good standing. Not much would be done to support new players since current membership would be prioritized. Taylor Lynn was adamant that she didn’t want people who had no loyalty to the guild profiting from the treasury to upgrade their gear. Consistent players, of course, would also have the first choice before casual players.
The final dozen of the core group would assist the NPC workers around the city. Before the siege, these NPCs offered work quests that granted small sums of money, split between the player and the guild treasury. The boost to the treasury could make the difference in creating extra defensive options, depending on how open casual players were to assist with Fort construction efforts.
Casual players would be allowed to do as usual since forcing the issue otherwise could only result in further guild departures. It was better to attain some benefits from their participation, which would come from funds to refill the guild treasury. The guild tax system siphoned a small portion of every item sold by the players and every coin looted through dungeons. Red Player Society’s leadership agreed to accept donations from casual players but didn’t factor their potential goods into the Fort construction estimates.
Income generated from the casual players could be used to supplement potions and equipment needed for the coming battle. Prices were sure to skyrocket given the scenario, but players seeking to profit from the coming siege would also be in abundance. The cost of the quest would be significant, but the rewards were sure to be equally magnificent. Player killing was also an effective way to level, so fighting other players in the siege would be highly beneficial.
“My brain feels like it just ran a mile,” Jay groaned, sitting back after all orders were distributed. Taylor Lynn seemed energized by the process instead of being drained.
“Mine is over the moon right now,” she smiled. “This whole thing is going to be a riot. Jenny and I are the only ones available to Enchant and Imbue the gear. We’re sure to see huge boosts to our skill levels.”
Jay stretched as he looked at the remaining paperwork. Papers were slowly appearing on the stack as requests came in from the membership in response to the coming Siege quest. “I’m glad you’re excited. I feel like I’m going to spend this week just doing all the paperwork. But if I can, I’ll help gather herbs. Do you think you and Jenny can boost everyone’s gear alone? I wish we had more people available.”
“Odds are we’ll get some help from the casual players,” Taylor Lynn said hopefully. “Ultimately, we’ll start with the same priority order we created for the crafting queue. If we don’t get to people, we don’t get to them. I could start with upgrading your new gear, though.”
She raised her eyebrows, seeing if Jay would take her up on the offer. He found it tempting, especially with his new crossbows. His brain lacked the power to decide what enchantments would be best. Besides, he assumed her skill and available options would grow throughout the week. He would sneak in some of the best options at the end, presuming he had free time to figure his choices out.
“No thanks,” Jay said, shaking his head. “I’ll steal some of the better options once you boost your skill level.”
“Sounds like you,” Taylor Lynn grinned. After a moment, her demeanor shifted to become more serious. “How are you doing with all this? The guild leader stuff? I think it should be obvious by this point, but I’m here to help wherever I can.”
“I know,” Jay said earnestly. “Probably couldn’t get it done without you. You’ve already been an enormous help. If all goes well, we’ll win this quest, and you’ll find a few bugs along the way. Make sure Tumult knows you’re the best.”
Her face broke into a smile, but she hesitated slightly before asking her next question, “Should I expect a new member named Claire soon? I assume you’ll want her to get an exception from the new member priority hierarchy?”
Taylor Lynn looked hopeful that Jay would assure her there was no chance of Claire showing up. He grimaced.
“Honestly, I’m not sure what to do about her yet,” Jay confessed. “I feel weird about her being a recent Tumult employee.”
“They let her go?” Taylor Lynn asked, not seeming upset by the new information.
“They did,” Jay acknowledged. “Anyway, I’d love to get your opinion. Do you think we can trust her? I figure the bad blood with her former company will put her firmly on our side, but I don’t know.”
His game view cut sharply, changing completely—
Forcibly, the game ejected him, resulting in him staring blankly into the ocular sensor for the full dive machine. He was perplexed but rebooted the system, attempting to log into his character. The game provided an infuriating notice of the avatar’s unavailability.
Jay was locked out of the game and firmly convinced of the purposeful intention behind the action.
After all, Tumult had never been on his side.