Chapter 158

Chapter 158

I had gotten less experience from the conquering of the city than at Dead Water. It was a smaller city size with a smaller garrison. Still, it had been enough to give me another level and I put the points into intelligence. The more power I had access to right now the better.

On the second day we were there, a group led by Aaron arrived. They were leading a platoon of six of the controller type zombies, led by an advanced eldritch bone archer. With the two I already had, that brought me up to a total of eight of the controllers, which meant I could effectively control eight hundred mindless undead inside of my army.

Is Vito going to use players to run troops out to me then? I asked when Aaron dropped off the soldiers. Abimelech was already integrating them into the army.

No, Aaron shook his head. We are actually here on a quest to look for something he said would help, since we were coming this way, he sent what he had with us. Kellnock created a holding pen of sorts for troops that he will send.

Thats good, I said. I didnt want to be reliant on players. Marcus, if youre interested in swapping who you follow, theres a death temple here now following a raven god.

I shall go check that out. Marcus looked at his friends. If you guys dont mind. He, along with his team, had become living dead. I doubted Olattee was thrilled with him and with what we knew about Olattee, it was now making people question where their loyalties lay.

No one protested and Marcus headed off into the city. I didnt need to tell him where it was, after all, they had been to this place before.

Vito made it up quicker than I expected, I said, wanting news.

He arrived only a few days after you left, I think you were still building your road, Jessica the archer said. But he didnt have his soldiers for you yet. The towns official name is now Dead Wood, and Vito is trying to convince Livia to run it for him.

Jess, my sister, was with them as well, but she was logged off and her character was in autopilot. She told him she had to take care of something on Earth and wanted to be free when they got here, evidently, something had delayed her.

Hows that going? I asked.

Last we heard she was holding out, Aaron said. She wants the job, but she is pretty certain she can get Vito to give her something.

I bet those two make quite the pair. I laughed. It didnt bug me that what she was trying to get in the end came out of resources I could use, but it would likely be inconsequential anyways.

Oh they are. Jessica rolled her eyes. Vitos just her type. They both enjoy that tedious administration work a little too much.

I shudder to think whats going to happen when Livia finds out that Vito has his own espionage side. I shook my head. Then again, you never know when youre going to need a spook.

Maxwell and Raven strode up at that point. Raven was in her lynx form and went over to Jessica to get some pets.

Why are we standing out here? Maxwell asked. Theres a tavern.

I have a hard time believing there is a tavern open, I said. We did just conquer the place.

You, my friend, know nothing about how taverns work. Maxwell shook his head. Of course there are open taverns, we just invaded. The people dont need a reason to drink now and theres a potentially entirely new customer base for the ambitious tavern owners to steal coins from.

Who has coins other than us three? I asked, following as Maxwell took the lead.

The Dread Thirteen do, Maxwell said. You really should pay them, but they looted some people they killed while taking the city.

No, please no, Decker sobbed as Marcus pulled up a chair, fighting a smile.

Jess, Jessica said, you should think about streaming, weve all been talking about it.

I thought you guys already did that? I asked.

We do, Aaron agreed. But we were approached by a producer, evidently there is some pretty big desire for the next thing now that Loxs story has run its course.

Really? I asked, leaning forward on the table. What ended up happening, I followed the story, but dont know how it ended.

Oh, thats my bad, Maxwell said. Thats actually something you might find interesting.

Several hours later, after much alcohol and conversation, I was caught up. I cant decide if Im happy thats how it ended or sad. But youre right, that does explain why the world went mad.

Yeah, we thought that was a bunch of shit, Aaron said, slurring his words slightly. But then we met you and realized we had been purposely ignoring a lot of stuff. Once we started looking for it, this place being a real world started to make a lot more sense.

You have to be careful about Ezekiel in your streams though, Maxwell said. If people find out that hes from Earth, it could cause a big problem.

An awkward silence spread, then Nick, the normally quiet one, spoke. You do know this is live streaming, right?

Oops Maxwell said. Silence stretched again as all of the team members got distant looks and one by one indicated theyd stopped the stream. My bad. Maxwell gave me an apologetic look.

I shrugged. Im not hiding any more, Im strong enough to mostly protect myself, and I have a horde and the Dread Thirteen.

I dont know. Jess looked at me in concern. What happens if one of those messed up guilds come after you?

You mean like the one I was in? I asked.

Yeah. Jess nodded.

I sighed. While they are dicks, I doubt it would be as bad as you think. Truth be told, I was probably an idiot for running away. The real people that would be a problem are the PKer guilds, but even then I might be crossing the line for a lot of those people. They like messing with regular players, only the real sickos would actually want to cause real harm.

I dont know, Aaron said. The world is full of real sickos. I do think theres a degree of truth. If it was widely accepted that you werent just an NPC, even if they dont accept this world is real, there are a lot of people who wouldnt tolerate you being messed with overly much.

It doesnt matter, if theyre not here to help, Jess said.

The other thing youre missing is that Im not some lone, easy target. A Lich is never an easy target, and even when I was refusing what I am, Im still more powerful than anyone of equivalent level. And now it would take a large, focused guild to actually be a threat. That or some crazy over-level bound soul, outside of the immortals, I dont know of very many who meet that category.

And the immortals are likely to leave you alone, Aaron agreed. I think, heck they might appreciate you helping convince people that this world is real.

What you guys are also forgetting is one of the reasons Ezekiel gave me for not wanting to tell people at first, Maxwell said. Think about what this would cause on Earth. He looked around the table, everyone was buzzed but the conversation was rather sobering. Do any of you have a hard time thinking that governments wouldnt want to get their fingers on this? I dont care where you live, federal governments love to regulate things that they should honestly have no part of.

And, Nick added, think about how it would change how people saw this world and the streams.