by Dante Doom
Gold: 500
The rumbling all around them had stopped at the moment when the Siren Queen was killed. As Sang and Van looted the corpses of the monsters, thin beams of moonlight pressed through the ceiling of the cavern.
“Hey, I think the shaking was probably strong enough to weaken the ceiling,” Van remarked. “I bet, if you give me a boost, we can just pull the ground apart and climb out.”
“Alright, let’s give it a try,” Sang replied as she knelt down and helped boost Van up. He fumbled with the stones that were by the lower area of the cavern, but was then able to pry them apart with a great level of ease.
“Perfect!” Van said as he climbed through the small hole he had made. A few seconds later, a rope dropped down for Sang and she hoisted herself up.
“Well, that was a fun adventure!” Van said as he dusted himself off.
“I don’t know, I could have done without the part where you got abducted and almost killed,” Sang replied.
“Just goes to show you how much is in this game,” Van replied as he stretched his arms out wide. Sang could see that his health was pretty low; distracting the enemy monster must have resulted in him taking far too many wounds. “There’s so much, it’s impossible to know it all!”
Sang glanced at her UI to see the experience bar filling up halfway to the next level. That diversion had been well worth it, given that amount of points.
“Well, I hope that spell you learned was worth it,” Sang said as she looked around for Jet. He was nowhere to be found. She had assumed that he would have followed her into the cavern, but apparently, he had not.
“It certainly was,” Van said, grinning ear to ear. “With a spell like this, I don’t have to rely on scrolls to prevent my enemies from attacking me! Easily worth fighting dozens of bandits and almost drowning.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that it was worth it,” Sang said. “Have you seen Jet anywhere? Last time I saw him, he was by my satchel.”
“Hmmm,” Van said as he searched around the area. The bright moonlight made it easy to survey the area, but finding a dragon that was pitch black wouldn’t be an easy task, no matter how bright the moon was.
“There he is!” Sang said, pointing to one of the trees. Nestled up in the tree was little Jet, gently snoozing on one of the branches. Something was dripping from his face, though... Sang climbed up the tree and scooped the dragon up.
“What is all over your face?” she mumbled as she lifted the sleeping dragon up high. The moonlight illuminated the dragon enough for her to realize that the dragon was covered in blood. “Eugh,” she groaned as she noticed a squirrel tail hanging out of the black dragon’s mouth. Apparently, it liked to hunt.
Chapter Three
The wind whipped around Van, causing him to shiver a little. He felt most comfortable being in the mountains, though; they were his home. The mountainous realms had always been a preferred place of adventure for Sivlander. There was a lot of action and excitement to be had within the tunnels beneath the Mountains of Craggy Doom, or within the towers of the mad wizards who preferred high places so that they could perform their weird experiments. The mountains were his element, and with the cold wind came a sense of excitement.
Sivlander’s own village, Silver Peak, rested at the base of the Aern Mountain Range. It was where he had chosen to set up shop—in the hopes that he would be able to operate large-scale operations. His plan, before getting wrapped up in all of this alien CIA stuff, had been to start his own guild and turn Silver Peak into a formidable city that would wage war against other nations that didn’t play fair during the war seasons. His hopes had been that Draco would hire him as a pro and he’d be able to use his status to recruit the top talent in the region so that his forces would have a crack team of commandos.
There were a lot of people within the Aern Mountain Range, as it was the largest mountain range in the game, spanning nearly four thousand miles across the landscape. Many players took up residence in the area and it was easy for a player to spend his entire career without ever having to leave the mountain range.
Van sighed as he felt a snowflake land on his cheek. He could see that his town wasn’t too far off in the distance, and he felt a strange, nostalgic longing. He remembered the long nights of playing the game, working to fight against enemy NPCs or players. The raids, the battles. For all of this talk about Draco being composed of evil aliens, they sure knew how to make one hell of a game. While he was convinced that there was something screwy going on with the game, the more time he spent in Dragon Kings of the New World, the more inclined he was to forget about the whole chaos of what Draco was planning.
A snowy owl sounded out from nearby, hooting as it took flight to search for food. Van couldn’t help but grin at the majesty of the creature’s wingspan. How crazy was it that everything inside of this game was programmed? Every molecule, every fiber of being within this game, had been designed by a team of programmers who understood exactly how to create ecosystems, feelings, emotions, and sensations. Draco might have some crazed plans, but didn’t all of this beauty prove that they knew something about humanity? While Van would never be okay with the idea of earth’s population being reduced for Draco’s purposes, he still had to wonder what exactly their plans were. Why would they create something of such beauty, only to then kill off the majority of humanity? Something wasn’t adding up to him. He just wasn’t fully convinced that things were so cut and dry. They were aliens, right? Perhaps they didn’t understand conventional morality. Perhaps a lack of Judeo-Christian values in these alien creatures could have prevented them from realizing that mass extermination of mankind was a bad thing. Maybe. Van simply didn’t know what to think. The only thing he knew was the he was happy to be back in the game.
“Is that it?” Sang asked as she stopped to point at the large guard tower a few hundred feet away.
Van smiled as he recognized the first thing he had built with his own two hands when founding the town. That guard tower had been designed to withstand just about any kind of assault, and it made him proud to think of the many battles the town had survived.
“We’re home! Welcome to Silver Peak. You’ll find that, while it’s not the biggest of towns, it has the highest caliber of NPCs. I spent years going on quests to add the best people to my town.”
“Looks… decrepit,” Sang said as she examined the rotting wooden beam that was supporting the guard tower.
Van frowned once he realized that the guard tower was empty. It looked as if it had been long abandoned. “That’s not good,” he mumbled as he rushed down the snowy path to reach the rest of the town. Much to his dismay, the entire town was in a state of disrepair. Buildings were falling apart; market stalls had been overturned and trash littered the streets.
“What happened to this place?” Sang asked as she bent down to pick up a piece of paper. “Look!” she said, showing it to Van. It was an advertisement encouraging people to join a nearby player-run city. There were dozens of these papers scattered around the town.
“This place has been completely abandoned!” Van shouted, hearing his voice echo through the empty streets of the town. The bank had been completely destroyed; its roof had collapsed, damaging the building beyond repair. The clocktower that was in the center of the town had fallen over. Van could only see a few NPCs walking around, but they were just the basic NPCs who were automatically generated by any town.
“My home! Silver Peak! It’s ruined! Completely ruined!” Van moaned as he sank to his knees.
“Damn, this sucks,” Sang said, putting a hand on Van’s shoulder. “Any idea what happened?”
“We must have been attacked… multiple times,” he mumbled as he stared around at the various indicators of violence. There were scorched marks around some of the doors to the shops and heavy damage to most of the structures. “I wasn’t here to protect this place. Crap. When a city owner doesn’t log in for a solid two weeks, the city’s protections lower and players are fr
ee to attack, even if it isn’t the war season. Arrrg, why did I completely forget about this?”
“We've been busy; you know, with aliens?" Sang offered. "Your absence definitely shows,” Sang said. “That explains why there are recruitment posters here.”
“All of that progress. Gone, in the blink of an eye. It’s bad enough that they deleted Sivlander… now this? This is ridiculous.”
“So, what do we do? If our plans to rally up an army have failed, we have to figure some other strategy for getting into Bloodrock. Maybe we should come up with some kind of disguise?” Sang offered.
“No! We’re not leaving this place!” Van said. “I’ll rebuild this whole damn town if I have to. Silver Peak was one of the greatest accomplishments in my life and I am never going to abandon it again.”
“Well, that’s nice and all, Van, but don’t you have to own the town first?”
Van shrugged, but Sang was correct. Sivlander had founded the town, so Van’s new character wouldn’t have the ability to build up the town without permission from the original character. Unless…
“Wait! I know!” Van said as he walked over to the base of the Sivlander statue that he had built. This statue was where all of the controls and settings for the city were activated. Van fiddled with the display, opening up a menu.
City Status: Unclaimed
City Rating: -1
Renown Rating: 0
Total Net Value: 50,000 GP
WARNING: UNCLAIMED CITY WILL DEGRADE INTO NON-CITY STATUS IN 3 WEEKS
Van clicked on the City Status section. The display said:
Status: Unclaimed
Owner: ERROR: CHARACTER NOT FOUND
TRANSFER CODE: ______________
Van stared long and hard at the transfer code space. This was what would allow a player to transfer ownership to another player if they felt inclined to abandon their city, or if they wanted to give another player a chance to rule as the king. At the beginning, when he had founded the city, he had received the transfer code, but he hadn’t bothered to write it down because he knew he could change it to whatever he wanted; he thought he had gotten around to changing it, though... There were only two codes that he would ever use for transferring items to players, so he shrugged and tried one. The word ERROR flashed before him, eliciting a sigh from him. If the second code didn’t work, it would mean that the township was lost for good. He gritted his teeth and typed in the second code.
A loud woomph greeted Van as the clocktower suddenly flew back to its original position. A pulse of energy blasted from the clocktower, causing the rest of the buildings to automatically repair themselves. The damaged frames began to heal, bricks appeared where there had been holes in walls, and the bank’s roof floated back up into its rightful position.
“Wow! You fixed the entire town! How’d you do that?” Sang asked.
“Transferring the town repairs all of the core buildings,” Van said, pointing to the damaged guard tower. “The things that come free with a town will be restored, but we’re going to need to repair some of these establishments by hand.”
“Still, good work. So, you’re in control of the town now?” Sang asked as she examined one of the market stalls that had flipped itself upright.
“Yeah, I remembered my transfer code, thank goodness,” Van said. “Now I’m the rightful owner, we can get this place running again. It’ll be a good base of operations for our movement against Bloodrock.”
Sang nodded, then paused. “Do you hear that?” she asked as she pointed towards a tavern called The Silver Axe.
Van could see that the lights were on inside of the tavern and he could hear some voices coming from within.
“Are those NPCs?” Sang asked as she drew her bow.
Van shook his head. “Nah, NPCs aren’t that loud. I didn’t even notice the lights were on in there. Let’s check it out. It might be players just stopping for a drink, but it could also be trouble. Be on your guard.”
Sang nodded as they approached the tavern. There were loud shouts and laughter coming from the inside of the building, making Van’s heart race a little. If they were bandits or raiders, they’d be able to easily kill him and automatically loot the town. Whenever an owner of a town was killed, the town would go into pillage mode, letting anyone steal as much gold from buildings as they wanted. He had to play it cool and not let on that he was the mayor of the town.
Van grabbed the brass doorknob, took a deep breath, and looked at Sang. She nodded. Van threw the door open wide. Much to his surprise, he could see six people sitting at the bar of the tavern, laughing up a storm. He recognized a few of them—they had been members of the town when he had been playing Sivlander. Most of them had recently signed on to join the town of Silver Peak, but he’d been forcibly removed from the game before he’d gotten a chance to really get to know them.
“Hail!” said a tall, brunette woman wearing holy robes of the White Fox. Her name was Bidane and she had been one of Van’s top recruits. “Be you friend, or foe? If you’re foe, I’m afraid there’s not much here for you! The owner’s long gone and the town is in ruins!”
“No, I’m not a foe!” Van said, trying to think of the right thing to say. He couldn’t just tell them that he was Van, primarily because he was still having to lay low with Draco on the prowl. He wasn’t sure if the aliens were capable of watching his every step, and so they were under orders to stay incognito.
“Then pull up a glass and drink!” shouted Kylian the fighter. Kylian was a tough as nails older man who was enjoying the game in his lengthy retirement. Van could see that there were a few other players along with these two who he knew, but he didn’t recognize them. They must have been friends of Bidane and Kylian.
“No drinking for me!” Van boldly declared as he climbed atop one of the bar tables. “Allow me to introduce myself! I am Semimodo, bard of renown and courage! I am here with a message from the ever-powerful Sivlander!”
This caught the whole of the group’s attention. They all stopped their drinking and leaned in to listen to Van’s words.
“Alas, Sivlander’s time on this mortal plane is done! He has chosen to walk the path of going back to college and thus won’t have time to play this game anymore! But one of his most trusted friends, his cousin Zan, has been chosen to take control of this town. You can see by the fact that the city is restoring itself that I am now in charge!”
“Wait,” Bidane said as she threw her long hair back over her shoulder. “You’re meaning to tell me that Sivlander went to college and left you in charge?”
“How else would you explain his sudden disappearance?” Van asked, hoping that they’d buy his lie. There was no way that he’d be able to reveal who he actually was to them. And while he felt a little bit guilty about lying, he reminded himself that the literal fate of the world might hinge on him getting them to follow him on his quests.
“That makes some level of sense. He was really excited about getting this whole city together… but then he just vanished,” Bidane said. “I always thought it was weird, but if he got accepted into college, it would make sense.”
“I thought someone said that he was in the hospital,” said one of the players. She was a wizard, wearing red robes with flames emblazoned on the sleeves.
“Well, a near death experience can definitely make someone rethink their life choices,” Van said. “Look, I’m not sure what his deal is, but even if he does come back, the fact is, I’m in charge and he mentioned that there might be some players still hanging around.”
There was a long pause as the party members exchanged glances with one another. Kylian didn’t seem phased. He merely shrugged and raised a glass. “Don’t try to fool us, Van,” he calmly said. “We know it’s you.”
Sang snorted a little at that, causing Van to shoot an angry glance at her. It was clear that she wasn’t particularly impressed with the web of intricate lies he had been weaving.
“What? No, it’s… I’m not…” Van stamme
red, “I said I was--”
“His cousin?” Kylian asked. “I just find it troublesome to believe that Van, a player who was days away from becoming a pro player, who worked so hard to recruit a killer line-up of team members, would abandon his dreams to go to school.”
“Well… I…”
“But the question remains, why would you lie to us? You clearly want to adventure with us, but you aren’t playing Sivlander,” Kylian said as he twisted his whiskers a little. “This leads me to believe that you got in some sort of trouble with Draco, and perhaps Sivlander isn’t available to play for a reason.”
Van was surprised at Kylian’s deduction skills. Apparently, he really shouldn’t have tried to lie to a sixty-year-old man who had been a detective for thirty years. “Um… yeah, I, uh…”
“So, what? Were you banned? I can’t imagine that you’d get in trouble over hacking, you were always so straight-laced,” Kylian said.
“Uh, okay, fine, you got me. I’m Van; sorry, guys. I wasn’t trying to pull a fast one—I’m just in trouble with Draco, and Sivlander was removed from the game due to a problem I encountered with one of the pro players. The player had some fierce disagreements with me, and rather than handle it like an adult, he tattled on Draco to me and had my character suspended. I would like to get him back, but you know how bad customer support can be. So, I’m laying low and playing my alt until Sivlander is unbanned. But in the meantime, I don’t want Draco to know that I’m in the game, because they wouldn’t hesitate to permaban Siv.”
Kylian slowly nodded at that. And Van technically hadn’t lied about anything, except maybe for the suspension. Truthfully, he didn’t know what had happened to Sivlander, but maybe there would be some way to retrieve him down the road. “I see. So, you want to keep your town functional, but don’t want to blow your cover.”
“Exactly!” Van said. “Please don’t tell anyone!”
“And who’s she?” Kylian asked, pointing to Sang. Sang had been quietly standing off to the side, trying to avoid drawing attention to herself. Van could see that she was clearly nervous about seeing a bunch of other players. She had reason to be nervous, however, because the last few groups of non-NPCs that they’d met had been murderous thugs trying to kill her.
