Conquest

by Dean Henegar

  After replacing her headset and making sure her machine was shut down properly, Rose clocked out for the day. She lingered at the drinking fountain for a bit, waiting for her co-workers to rush the elevator to leave for the day. Rose didn’t dislike her co-workers, just didn’t want to hear their gripes about the job. Working a call center job was tedious, but Rose knew it was just a stepping stone to better things for her. The others had determined this was their lot in life and were always complaining about what this customer or co-worker did that day. Once the crowd had died down, Rose had the elevator to herself on the ride down to the main floor. The next stop was the employee cafeteria.

  The cafeteria had been a pleasant surprise during her time at Mantuco. The food was very good and the company priced everything below cost as a benefit to the employees. She had a ritual of ordering food to take home with her most nights, the meal usually being consumed on the long bus ride back to her house. Riding the bus hadn’t been so bad, selling her car was a necessity if she wanted to pay for school. The internship paid a good chunk, but with only working part time she couldn’t justify the luxury of a personal car. The bus service in town was safe and reliable.

  A pesto crusted chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries kept Rose busy on the bus as she thought about what to do with the guild. She knew she was going to disband it. The other players would either keep going with Narbos, or would just drift off to other guilds. Rose would continue to play, but was planning on rerolling to another character, not wanting to be reminded of the mess that she had allowed Narbos to make for her. She didn’t blame him, he was just playing to win by any means necessary and Rose had the same intention initially. After having some time to think about it, she realized that she had been selfish and didn’t want to hurt other players’ experience with the game. Narbos had some competition going on with others from his school and was ruthless in his attempt to win. He was one of those people that just couldn’t lose to anyone else, a personality defect Rose was now determined to not develop for herself. After getting home, Rose logged into Limitless Lands to make her changes and let Narbos know she was leaving…along with his financial support from the guild.

  At login, Rose’s character Vhellia appeared in the town of Bharga’s Crossing. Almost immediately, she began to get angry messages from Narbos and some others in the guild. Making her way to the bank in town, she opened the guild bank tab for Chaotic Outcomes. There was a sizeable sum of coin and various bits of gear and resources available to the guild. Vhellia set the AI to equally divide the coin and gear once the guild was dissolved. Glancing at the guild chat, she could see that Narbos had started his attack on Haven early…and that things weren’t going as planned. She crafted a quick message to the guild and sent it out before she committed to her next action.

  Members of Chaotic Outcomes, I wanted to let you know that, effective immediately, the guild is being dissolved. Our partnership with those providing outside resources has been terminated and I no longer have the desire to run a guild. I have set everything to divide equally among all members once the guild is dissolved. Feel free to reform if you want to, but I have no desire to play in this toxic manner any longer. I will be rerolling to another class and will try to play in a manner that benefits the community. I encourage you all to do the same. Best of luck to you all…Vhellia.

  /guilddissolve

  The guild, Chaotic Outcomes, had been dissolved.

  With that command, Vhellia dissolved the guild. She then transferred all her gear and coin to her account. The things she had accumulated would give her new character a good boost while starting fresh. After transferring the items, Rose began to delete her character Vhellia.

  Warning! You are about to delete your character, Vhellia. This is a permanent deletion and cannot be undone. Are you sure you wish to continue? Y/N.

  Smiling, Rose gladly hit Y and then began to create a new character, looking forward to just playing for fun once again. Her future in the real world was no longer caught up in what she did in-game.

  Chapter 26

  Narbos was furious. The battle for Haven was difficult, but his forces had the upper hand, and then Vhellia went and pulled her little trick. There had been twenty-five guild members participating in the assault and now he had only seven. The rest skittered off after they heard the guild wouldn’t be supported financially by outside sources. They all received a decent chunk of coin and some gear or trade goods, enough for them to get a start elsewhere. The seven that remained were all lower level players, except for one level six barbarian. Most of these players had fewer options for advancement in the game and had stuck around to see what the rewards would be for conquering the town. Trying to message Vhellia was a bust, she had even deleted her character!

  “How did this happen,” Narbos muttered, not realizing that Darkfallow had moved up next to him.

  “I’m not sure, but at least she split up the money. Are you going to keep with your plan to conquer stuff? Maybe we can form our own guild now, without the other losers,” Darkfallow offered.

  Narbos sighed while thinking, not bothering to reply immediately to the idiot Darkfallow. Narbos wondered who had put Vhellia up to this? He could only assume It was one of the other students competing for the scholarship, but which one.

  He didn’t think it was Danica, she wasn’t the sharpest student, too dumb to plan something this complex. Narbos knew she could spout political slogans and was fully committed to creating a socialist utopia in-game…no, her zone was collapsing. He could rest assured that she didn’t have the resources, or the intellectual muscle to plan something this complex.

  Narbos knew that left only Delling. Delling was sharp enough to do something like this and was beginning to acquire more resources, Narbos had found out from his spies. The town of Hayden’s Knoll had been doing well in-game lately, thanks to his new friend the commander guy, Raytak. That was fine as far as Narbos was concerned. He had developed a plan to take care of Delling’s little helper. A plan that had all the pieces in place already. Narbos was always planning. He even had a plan to deal with Vhellia. Thankfully, she had saved him the trouble by deleting her character. That would save some resources that could now be spent elsewhere. Time to activate his plan to get rid of Raytak; much was riding on his analysis of the AI’s behavior. He was genuinely curious as to what was about to happen to commander man, Raytak, once his plans reached fruition.

  “Darkfallow, I’m going to finish up the battle here. You need to deliver a message for me. Let our friend know that it’s time for him to act. Give him this and let him know there will be a bonus if he completes his task quickly.” With that, Narbos handed over the bag of coins he had just received from the dissolution of the guild. Vhellia had unwittingly provided the means for him to complete his plan. Narbos would not be outsmarted by Delling and his newest minion. Let’s see how fast his control of the zone progresses with his soldier gone on a vacation. Darkfallow took the coin and hustled on his journey. It would take him a long transition trip and bit of legging it to meet with his contacts. Narbos wanted quick, but here was a lot of travel involved in this plan.

  Narbos turned his attention back to the battle in front of him. Things were not going so well now that most of the former guild players had abandoned him. The AI had created quests for at least a half-dozen players to oppose his assault on the last free city holding out in the zone. Before they left, his players had managed to force open the gates of the city, as well as create a breach in one of the walls to the east of the town. His forces had poured into the breaches, but it seemed they were being forced back now that they no longer had the guild players supporting the attack. The guardsmen of the town had rallied, gaining some kind of short-term morale buff.

  Narbos had gone with a quantity over quality strategy early in his build, leaning toward commanding more and more forces. The lack of gear and training of his AI generated forces was beginning to show. They were vicious and bloodthirsty, just not very effectiv
e. The majority of his troops were human warriors called reavers. They were lightly armored with crude leather and carried a hand axe and wooden shield. Several bands of the reavers were set up as ranged troops and carried a sling as their primary weapon. The item level for the reavers’ gear was about 15-20 despite the soldiers sharing his level of nine. While their health pool was stout, there would need to be more investment in their gear after this fight. Quality and quantity would have to merge; he couldn’t count on waves of poorly equipped forces doing the job for him any longer. Arrayed around Narbos was his elite guard, the executioners. These wore dark chainmail and carried a two-handed axe. The item level of gear for the executioners was better and they had several good combat abilities. He was loath to use them for anything but bodyguards though, as they respawned slowly if killed and there were only a few of them in his force.

  He had started the battle with nearly 600 reavers, the guild members, and some npc mercenaries he had hired. The forty mercenaries had been killed in the initial assault, helping to breach the wall. The reavers had taken many casualties before making it into the town and, from the sounds of the battle, Narbos was now sure they were being pushed back. While he watched, several reavers left the breach in the wall, their morale broken.

  “Runner!” Narbos ordered and one of the executioners moved up. Gather the seven players we have left and help the assault at the breach. Kill any that try to flee.” Narbos grinned as he gave orders, loving the feeling of power over life and death his class gave him. Soon after, the executioner had rounded up the players, of which only four were still alive, and charged into the breach in the eastern wall. Half a dozen of the fleeing reavers were cut down by his players before he lost sight of them in the breach. A system prompt appeared.

  You have executed the weak, setting an example to all your forces who would flee from their duty. Morale increased by 1 for the rest of the battle.

  Looking to his left, Narbos considered his reserve. He had a force of fifty reavers he had held in reserve and about forty kobolds. The kobolds had been taken as slaves when he conquered their mine here in the zone and he had brought some along for fun. He didn’t care if they were wiped out, as they would respawn again quickly at the mine. The kobolds had no armor and wielded only crude picks and shovels for weapons. The kobolds health pools were also small, as they were only level two. He sent the kobolds to reinforce the faltering attack on the main gates. The kobolds trotted the two hundred yards toward the town, already nearing morale failure despite having taken no casualties. His executioners suddenly brought their axes to bear as a figure appeared next to Narbos.

  “Pull the leash on your dogs, Narbos. I’m here to collect my fee,” the assassin Lovely said as she held up her hands to show she was no threat.

  “Lovely, you really need to stop doing that. One day the guards will attack you before I realize who it is. What’s this about collecting your fee? The attack is still progressing. You were supposed to help us win,” Narbos grumbled. The assassin had been hired to take out certain key town leaders and players defending Haven.

  “I did exactly what the contract asked for. All three targets you gave me were taken out. I even killed one player twice, after she respawned, to delay her getting back to the fight again. I would not recommend you try to cheat me, Narbos. You should be giving me a bonus, not a hard time,” Lovely growled. She was getting angry as it wasn’t her fault the attack was in danger of failing. Narbos was not a great war leader. He had a huge numerical advantage and squandered it away, using head-on attacks into the strongest of Haven’s defenses. Lovely had spent the last hour sneaking into town and setting up her targets. The player she had killed twice was a level 5 cleric, which were always a pain to take down quickly with all the heals they had. Her other two targets had been npc’s of level seven and five. Both went down easy, though the town guard did spot her once, forcing her to use up a daily stealth ability. Lovely was perfectly ready to leave without her reward, if Narbos went back on the contract. She would then spend every spare moment in-game ganking him for breaking a deal.

  Narbos bristled, but realized he was frustrated at the situation and Lovely had done everything he had asked. He begrudgingly handed over the box containing the matching dagger to the one he had given Lovely earlier, lamenting that he had lost the outside benefactor that Vhellia had been working with. The lack of funds would put a damper on his plans until he could get the zone producing more coin that he could tax.

  “Would you be open to another job? How much to help the attack?” Narbos offered, thinking if he could get Lovely to help, the attack would be a sure success.

  “Our business is done, Narbos. Rumor has it your guild is gone and so is your funding. I’ve got other jobs to attend to. Pleasure doing business with you.” With that, Lovely activated stealth and made her way toward the transition point, admiring the new dagger. The set was now complete. These daggers would be top tier until close to level 30!

  The Long Goodbye. This dagger is the twin to the Final Kiss dagger. The pair has taken the lives of many over the years. If the poison of the final kiss didn’t kill them, the bleeding wound from the long goodbye would. Item level 125. Guaranteed bleed effect on hit, dealing 5 damage per second for the next 10 seconds. This ability stacks with itself, allowing for horrendous amounts of blood loss. Requires level 8 and the user must be of neutral or evil alignment to use.

  Set bonus! You have brought together both daggers of this set. Additional abilities unlocked. Item level +25 for each dagger. The final kiss now will allow up to two different poisons to be applied at one time. The long goodbye damage over time effect increased to a 12 second duration.

  Narbos watched Lovely vanish. He liked the assassin; she was all business. He could appreciate someone who was as single minded and focused as he was. Too bad she was so hacked up and ugly. He wasn’t sure why she built her character that way. Snapping his attention back to the battle, he was just in time to see his kobolds fleeing. It looked like they had lost a dozen of their number. Hopefully they at least did some damage to their foes.

  Looking to the last of his reserves, Narbos sent the fifty remaining reavers into the fight at the gate. Narbos was no tactician and had never heard the military axiom to “never reinforce failure”. Following their overlords command, the last fifty reavers charged the breached gate, reaching it just as the last of the prior attackers were forced out. A line of town guards formed, blocking the open gateway with their spears and shields ready. The reavers began to take casualties as they approached. A half-dozen archers now appeared on top of the wall, adding their fire to the gate defense. The reavers crashed into the shield wall, briefly breaking the line and hacking apart several defenders with their axes.

  His latest group of reavers began to push back the defenders, slowly gaining ground step by step. Just as he gathered hope for a victory, Narbos received a message from one of the players attacking the breach in the wall.

  “Dude, we got creamed by the other players and guards. They had three level fives and sixes, too much for us to handle. Were out, dude. Good luck with the game, but it’s time for us to find somewhere else to level. I’m heading somewhere to spend all the sweet, sweet guild loot we all just got,” Haxxorsupreme420.

  A dozen town guards and two level five players poured from breached wall. They made their way toward the gate to flank the reavers. Seeing their escape was about to be cut off, the remaining reavers fled, throwing down their weapons to get away faster. Fewer than a dozen made it back to where Narbos waited, brooding at his shattered and destroyed army.

  “Take care of these brave warriors my guard,” Narbos ordered before turning and heading back to his seat of power in Bharga’s Crossing. His executioners’ axes flashed, killing the reavers who had retreated from the battle before falling into position once again to protect their master. System prompts began to appear.

  Your vicious response to failure has earned you the reputation “failure is not an opti
on”. Forces under your command will have a +2 bonus to morale in battle, more afraid of you than the enemy in front of them.

  You have failed in your attack on the town of Haven. Ownership will remain the same. Take control of the town hall and graveyard to control the town.

  Narbos would have a long wait for his forces to regenerate, but he would be preparing in the meantime. There would be another attack on Haven in the future, one he was determined to win.

  Chapter 27

  My faculties returned slowly as the AI applied its processing power to my mind once again. The room swam as it came into focus. I was thankful that I couldn’t feel nauseated in-game…at least I didn’t think I could. I rose from my cot and made my way outside the headquarters building, while a message popped up from Yendys.

  Old man Raytak, we’re ready to go when you are. Jacoby was able to get his friend Nitor to join the raid. Nitor is a bard and can give everyone a save bonus with his music to help us not get all paralyzed and stuff. We’ll meet you at the front gate when you’re ready.

  Great, just what I needed; some bard singing the whole time. I couldn’t complain about the logic though. Anything to boost resistance against the ghoul touch was a win. I sent a reply to Yendys as I made my way to the parade ground inside the garrison. Sergeant Brooks and my friend Ty were ready for me, already having the entire force formed up and ready for travel.