1 Prologue

The conference room was an odd one for a modern business. The walls were made of blocks of grey stone covered with rich red tapestries. Red banners emblazoned with large black swords hung from the ceiling while wooden high-back chairs surrounded the conference table. The table itself was a work of art. The entire thing was made of heavy dark oak, stained black, then lacquered and polished to a mirror shine. Gold leaf in the shape of a large broadsword was inlaid into the center of the table turning it into something that bespoke both wealth and power.

The whole room was more than a little overdone but that was to be expected. The place was mostly about showing off. It was the meeting room of the Swords of Solomon, one of America's top Otherworld guilds. It was located within Sword's Bastion the massive fortress the guild had built over the last three years.

A tall human in dark-grey armor stood at the front of the table, looking at the the assembled group. It was quite the amalgamation, dwarves, orcs, elves, mermen and mermaids, and anthropomorphic races of seemingly endless variety. They all sat in the high-backed chairs looking at the man at the head of the table.

"Alright… You all know why you're here, but let's start with the basics to get everyone up to speed and get things rolling. Sari what do we know?" He asked a blue-skinned undine with elegant snow-white hair and thick glasses sitting on the left side of the table.

Sarieal spoke in a soft voice with a bit of an east-coast accent. Her words were quiet but everyone listened attentively. When Sariealspoke, it was best to listen. She was razor sharp and was in charge of the guilds information network. "It was as we've suspected for a while. Nexus announced Otherworld's second expansion at World-con earlier today. They've titled it Cloud-Kingdom. The majority of the content will take place on a floating continent above the fire-wastes near the Eastern-Frontier and introduce other floating landmasses. They are also adding five new races and two-dozen classes, as well as their normal amount of new monsters, skills, and abilities. " She said calmly as she read from a screen in front of her. "It's set to launch November 22nd, which gives us a little over six-months to prepare."

"What's our exploitation plan, Karnag?" The grey-armored human asked as he looked over to wolf-man with ebony furr. The wolfman's eyes were burning red and his fur was criss-crossed with white scars. It looked like a monster and It's voice came out as a low growl.

"Last expansion we moved two brigades, that should suffice this time as well. Closest teleport to the Firelands would be Trika in the Yazra desert…. Sooooo that's what... two weeks on mounts?" The wolf, who was commander of their forces, said.

"Are you crazy?" a dark-skinned gnome said from the end of the table. He had dark purple hair, and nearly black skin, while large sparkling gems glittered from his ears and on his fingers. He was a deep gnome, or Svirfneblin. "Don't you remember the mess last time? Three weeks might be enough to get all you knight-in-shining-armor types there, but what the hell are you gonna eat? They didn't open the portal to Avalon until a year after the last expansion launched. What happens if they do that again? If we're gonna avoid the fluster cluck we ran into last time we gotta move a ton of materials and personnel there with you."

"That's gonna make the trip take at least another two weeks. Then on top of that we've got an ass-load of food and other ingredients to buy, and most of the markets started shifting ten days ago. Which means other guilds have already started stocking up on this stuff. You boys better start lubing up because the merchants are gonna be bending us over." The gnome said, exasperated. "I've been warning you guys for a month but all you fighter types have swords for brains."

The man at the head of the table frowned at the gnome. "Last expansion really was a mess." He said thoughtfully.It was clear no one in the room really liked the gnome, but they had to put up with him. He was greedy and crude but he had a nose for money and markets.

"Of course it was!" The gnome shouted belligerently. "You all were out there swinging your swords, but you had no food, no potions, no support at all.We spent months trying to ship all the stuff you needed to you and the Crimson's raided the hell outta our supply lines because you sent all our fighters ahead. You guys got the world-first for the Mists raid, but we LOST nearly a million gold over those six months. If it wasn't for selling that legendary tree-sap from the ent-boss at the end we'd have gone bankrupt."

The grey-armored man looked over to a small pixie woman on the other end of the table. "How are our finances?" He asked. The pixie looked at her own interface and started to scroll through some numbers. "Well, after the last auction and the rewards you gave out for the summer tournament. Then you have to understand that we've got a lot of long term investments that we can't easily….." She started, but the leader cut her off.

"Just spit it out." He said resigned.

"In ready money…. About 200,000 gold, before we start dipping into our long-term assets." She said, wearily. The room went silent. 200,000 gold wasn't a large amount of money. For a single player it was a lot, but for one of the largest guilds in America? It was basically broke.

"What!?" The grey-armored man yelled incredulously. "What the hell happened! Didn't we just give you 2,000 dollars to convert into gold last month!" He shouted.

"Yes sir, the pixie said but I told you we needed that to pay out the monthly bonuses. We've only managed nine successful raids this month and nothing above mystical dropped. I've been warning you for months that we needed to lower our expenses."The pixie said, with an 'I told you so' expression.

The gnome laughed riotously from a seat at the end of the table. "Hey tinkerbell, when the boss makes you auction your panties off to pay for his new armor, give me a call!" He said, while leering at her. The pixie turned to him and flipped him the bird with her small delicate hands.

"You're such a pig Simon." She said. Her cute face scrunched up in disgust. The gnome grinned back at her and winked, before adding.

"Yes, but a useful pig, otherwise the boss woulda tossed my ass out along time ago." Simon replied, unruffled. "Well, I'd say that makes us pretty much screwed." He said to the room. "Our supplies for herbs, and crafting reagents are pretty good. In fact we might be able to sell some of them in a pitch. Food is the main problem, with metals and lumber not far behind." He said as he made a few hand-motions that ended in a flick of his wrist. A large display window appeared in the middle of the table showing the current prices of grain. They were very high in nearly every region, and rising quickly as all the other guilds hurriedly purchased everything they could get their hands on. "See that? 200,000 won't even feed the horses at those prices."

The grey-armored man sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair. "Well then, let's hear some solutions instead of everyone piling on more problems. Lidrian?" He said turning to a muscular human woman with a blonde mohawk and a scarred face.

"We could just grow our own couldn't we? I mean we've still got six months until the expansion launches. So if we wanna take a month to head to the fire-wastes that still gives us a bit over five months" She said with a shrug of her broad shoulders. The grey-armoured leader turned back the gnome, who was in charge of their crafters and logistics. The gnome snorted derisively.

"You know how many farmers we have in the guild? One, and he's a cookie old man who doesn't even play much. Farmers are rarer than unicorns in this game, and all the ones I know are independent operators, or they work for Gold and Steel, since they pay way better than we do." The gnome explained.

"If the prices of grain are so high why aren't there more farmers?" asked the muscular blonde.

"Same reasons there aren't many lumberjacks or miners. You only get one character, your skill points are limited, and mining, farming, and lumberjacking are damn hard work. The game is practically impossible to bot and there aren't many people who are willing to pay 100 bucks a month to sweat their asses off swinging a axe. Sure they can make good money from a game perspective, but that's on par with what you'd make working 40 hours a week at a gas station. AKA, it's not worth it unless you get to a high rank, or get lucky." He explained.

"Aren't you a miner?" The pixie asked.

"Yeah, which is why I'm rich." He said, flashing his heavy rings with their sparkling gems. "The reason I joined this guild is because I found a gold-mine and the boss gave me a seat on the council because he was too cheap to give me a good price for it."

Everyone at the table sighed. "Well, why don't we get ourselves some slaves then? The muscular blonde asked. Everyone looked at her stunned.

"You can't buy NPC salves." The gnome said with an eyeroll. "That's one of the few rules this game has. Apparently the ESRB decided owning people set a bad example for the world's youth. ."

"Yeah, which is why we use real players." The blonde said, with a 'so there' expression.

"You mean you wanna buy actual slaves, like human trafficking." The grey-armored man said alarmed.

"No you dolt… Christ, how the hell did you end up as guild-leader anyway? Your brain is made of pasta. I mean you use the one thing we actually have to make them slave for us." The muscular blonde said, tapping the golden sword in the middle of the table.

"You mean we offer people a chance to join the main clan if they farm for us." The pixie said.

"That could work, we make them work for say… three months, then we let them in as a probationary member.." The guild leader said, rubbing his chin.

"And pick up their subscription." Simon shouted over-top of the guild leader. "It'll make it seem like a better deal, even though they are still getting ripped off. Those prices are only going to keep going up, and even a newbie should be able to pay for their sub farming in a week or two. That'll draw more people in, and we'll still be making a profit." He said with a sly smirk.

"And we pick up their subscription." Grey-armor added. "That should take care of that, in the meantime, all DKP payouts and bonuses are suspended until further notice.

"What!" A beautiful dark-elf shot to her feet looking furious. She had blue-black hair that trailed down her back to her lovely hips. Sparkling blue eyes were set in a heart-shaped face. Her body was well developed all over and many male eyes lingered on her after her outburst. "I've been waiting WEEKS for my daggers and you've been putting me off. Now you wanna pull this crap on me?!" She shouted belligerently.

"Jess, calm down." An orc in leather sighed. He said it in a way that made it sound like something he'd said a thousand times and planned to say a thousand more.

"I will not calm down. I've been busting my ass for months saving points and now you're just gonna pull the rug out from under me." She asked, furious.

"Doesn't look that busted to me." Simon said, as he leaned sideways in his chair, to get a look at said ass.

"That's my sister you perverted bastard." Said the orc. "And she's not even eighteen yet, so roll your tongue back-up before you end up in jail."

"SHUT UP!" The leader yelled. "We've got real problems here. You can beat up Simon later." He said before turning to the enraged elf. "Jess, I know you're mad, but really don't have the money."

"Don't have the money? How much did this gaudy ass table cost you. What about all those stupid banners? Now you're telling me I can't get daggers that I've spent the last three months earning because you guys have wasted all the guilds money."She said indignantly.

The leader rolled his eyes. "You're still 100 points short anyway, but if you can get five people for our new slave program, you can have your daggers." The leader said exasperated. Jess the drow scowled at him.

"Fine, but I'm outta here." She said as she stomped off towards the door in a huff. The others around the table watched her go, while the leader sighed. "You know, you sister can be a brat." The leader said to the orc. The orc rolled his eyes.

"She can be, when she wants to. Notice how she threw a temper tantrum and got what she wanted. If she'd have thought threatening to leave the guild would have worked, she'd have done that. If she'd have thought showing a little cleavage and hanging on your arm would have worked, she'd have done that. If she thought being rational and making a solid case for herself would have worked,she would have done that. Instead, she knew you were already annoyed and a soft-case, so she annoyed you further so you'd cave to get rid of her." The orc explained.

The leader stared at him in silence for a few moments then shook his head. "Women…" he muttered darkly before turning back to the table. "Alright, now let's get on to other things. Sari?" He asked turning back to the undine.

"Well, We've got wind of a new raid-class dungeon opening near the Borean sea in the Northlands. It might be an underwater dungeon so we've had some water-breathing and cold-resist potions made. The Crimson's are talking with a smaller guild… the Chu-chu's about buying a mine. Possibly a mithril mine if the rumors are true. They've currently got about 100 people guarding it while they negotiate.

There are also rumors of an alliance forming among some of the second-class guilds to compete with the first rank guilds during the expansion, although it still seems to be in its early stages. We've got some spies among them, but none at a high-enough level in the guilds to get us useful intel. Gold and Steel is announcing they've obtained a dragon-heart and they are having Brodan, their top smith, craft it into a sword. They plan to auction it next month. Other than that all the chatter is about the new expansion, and the markets." Sarieal finished.

"Hmmmmmm… Karnag send some people to rough up the Crimson's mine guards, maybe see if we can collapse it." The gray-armored leader said, before raising a hand and waving it. "We'll call it here today. I'm sure you've all got preparations to start making."