Asher carried Zora as they jumped out of the portal onto the platform. “We didn’t think you’d make it,” Jin said, eyeing them up. Their clothes were fine, but he was sure their hair was messed up and they reeked of sex.
“Good to see you Jin,” Asher said. He was the leader for the raid they did in Korea a year ago.
“You too,” Jin said. “You married yet?” He asked Joon.
Joon lifted her hand to show her ring. “I said it was only a matter of time.”
Asher leaned over and kissed her. Moving to the front of the platform most everyone was already there. “Where is the Junak Guild?” Asher yelled.
“Over here,” a woman’s voice said. Asher saw it almost straight ahead. Zora had been underneath his platform, no wonder he hadn’t seen her. He jumped over and landed. “Wore her out, sorry.”
“Fine with me,” the woman said. “She works too hard. I see she wasn’t joking. You are a horse of a man,” she said. “I’m Lenette the guild master.”
“Asher, her husband,” he said, setting her in one of the chairs. Zora smacked her lips and puckered them toward him. He kissed her. “Love you,” he said. “Did Wayne Tyler give you a Comm?” Lenette nodded. “What about you 3?” He looked to the other 3 armored girls. He pulled 3 out and tossed them to the women. “Thanks for keeping her safe.” The girls were bathed in light revealing the other 3 girls they saved from the pornography ring. “Oh shit,” Asher said. “You’re all safe. I was worried.”
Asher walked up to the 3 girls and gave them a big hug. “Please go to your own platforms,” a very haughty self important voice announced.
“Ugh, we will catch up. I’ll be stopping by for Zora soon,” he promised. The 3 girls were quiet, but each gave him a kiss on the cheek. Asher waved and jumped out to the Community platform. Everyone but Nadir and Tosh were there. “Sorry,” Asher said.
“Don’t worry about it, we will catch you up,” Wayne said. Keera sat quietly next to him, he hoped she was taking Tosh leaving ok.
“The doors are now closed,” the high human announced. “What will you vote on first?”
“The most important, sponsor,” Asher said.
“Hey, who put you in charge?” Someone yelled.
“All of you have been ranked by those you brought with you,” the high human announced. “You were graded on experience gained and Syscos earned since your Initialization. The Lawful Good himself far outweighs the majority of the groups. This does not include those he brought with him. The Conference recognizes him as the leader.” The screen had appeared and was showing the high human’s beautiful punchable face.
“Thank you,” Asher said. His face appeared on the screen, but he stood and leaned over the edge to stare at people. “I am not sure who among you has been sponsored by those listed. But I for one would not give this planet to any of them. There are resources that we need to identify and gain our own profit from. If I am wrong there is always next time. Is there any more need for discussion?” He looked around, no one spoke. “Good, what means a win for the vote?”
“If over half of those participating vote for it?”
“And if someone wins that I don’t agree with?”
“We vote on something else. When the others have been taken we move back to this. As the current leader you can call for more votes.”
“Cool,” Asher said. “Let’s vote.”
The dome around them closed, as did everyone else’s. A screen appeared showing 23 names. Aartiliak Empire was at the top. Asher scrolled down to the bottom and clicked ‘No Sponsor’, he assumed that wasn’t the name of a sponsor.
“We all good?” Asher asked. “I assume no one has an issue without a sponsor.”
“You convinced me to skip it,” Amanda said.
“Same,” a few others said.
“Good. Sorry, I don’t mean to make this all move so quickly. I’m hoping we can get the votes done and start talking to the guilds about Portals.”
“Oh right, you missed the Trial options,” Joan said, but was stopped as their dome disappeared.
“The votes have been cast, here are the results,” the moderator said. “ The Aartiliak Empire was at the top of the list at 20%. This does not pass.”
Asher spoke up. “For anyone that was approached by a guild on our planet for the Aartiliak Empire,” he announced. “I will pay you handsomely if you tell me who approached you.”
“Moderator!” Someone yelled. “This is practically threatening other guilds.”
Asher cut off the moderator. “The League doesn’t give a fuck about fair or threats!” He barked. “They only care about strength. I could kill everyone here and they would turn the other cheek,” he said. That quieted everyone. “We are in the fight for our planet,people,” he reminded them. “I will not sell it out to anyone. Again, if you were approached, see me. Many of the people have my Comm numbers. I will be discreet. A thousand Syscos to the first person that tells me.” That number got a few talking. No one said anything, but Asher knew it wouldn’t be long.
The room was silent for a little bit. “Holy fuck you’re intense now,” Amanda said.
“There’s a reason for it. I’ll tell you all later. I was almost killed so many times it’s not funny. Even these fuckers tried,” he said pointing at the moderator. The man locked eyes with him, Asher blew him a kiss.
“The vote for sponsor has not passed,” the moderator said. “What next?”
“Currency,” Asher said.
“Very good. This vote is simple. Every one of your countries had it’s own currency. None may be used as a future currency. The major 6 were analyzed and compiled together by the System. 3 designs have been generated. This vote will be about which design you will go with.”
The domes closed and an image appeared in front of Asher. They were rectangular like the almighty dollar. At the center was a pyramid on all 3. After that they varied to symbols or monuments on the Russian Ruble, a rose sigil from the Chinese yuan, some flowers that Asher remembered from Japanese coins, but he didn’t recognize anything else. There were more flowers and leaves. 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000 were the number values. The money was colored. The three options were green, gray, and gold. Asher picked green.
“Is this really needed?” Anthony asked.
“It is. Water still 1 Sysco on your store? Then we need a currency. Heck I have like 3 different kinds on me,” Asher said. He pulled some out from Prime, Elantontrin, and Endorval. “Most people can survive on 1 Sysco a month. We are wasting it.”
“Good to know,” Anthony said. Ever the merchant Asher was curious how much the old man had.
The dome retracted. On the screen the green money won by 5% of the votes. “Good,” the moderator said. “This will now be known as Earth Standard and will be added to the System Store.”
“Lastly, we have to vote on your first Trial. The Lawful Good was not here for this explanation. You will be given 3 trials during the next 1,340 days. After this trial another Guild Conference will be called. Then another trial, another conference, and finally a last trial. Your current choices are…” The center screen showed:
| EARTH TRIAL #1 |
| Dungeon Race |
| Treasure Hunt |
| Mana Storm |
“My vote’s on Dungeon Race,” Asher said without hesitation.
“Why’s that?” Joony asked from below.
“I don’t know what the hell a Mana Storm is,” he admitted. “But it does not sound fun. Mana is volatile. If you don’t have an affinity with certain types it could kill you easily. I wouldn’t recommend that. And well, Treasure Hunt is too cliche. I mean they did it in Primal Hunter and The First Defier. No, my money is on Dungeon Race.” Joon laughed and nodded.
Some people spoke, when they were quiet the moderator asked for a vote. Dungeon Race won with 65% of the votes. Asher was pleased with the result. He received a notification.
| EARTH GUILD CONFERENCE RESULTS |
| The System's protection of your planet will end in: |
| 1,340:11:25:43 |
| During this conference the following items were chosen: |
| 1. Your Planet's first trial will be a DUNGEON RACE |
| 2. An Earth currency has been chosen and added in the System Store |
| 3. No sponsor was chosen for your planet |
| Dungeon Race Timer: |
| 200:14:25:43 |
| Note: |
| All guilds will be entered in the race. |
| Every Guild below the top 50 spots of the race will be forcefully disbanded. |
| Individuals may join the race if they meet a level threshold and pay an |
| Entry Fee at the time of the race. |
“I hope everyone on Earth got this too,” Wayne said. “Would save some explaining.” Asher agreed.
“You are free to wander for the next 5 hours and 25 minutes,” the moderator announced. “You will be teleported when the time is up.” The doors behind them opened. Asher had been worried they would be kicked out, but they finished the votes in half an hour.
“What now?” Asher asked.
“Which guild masters did you meet with?” Wayne asked.
“I spoke to the Northern guild, Wigan, Old Glory, Lyudi, and I think the Songoku. Turns out the guild master for Songoku is Tosh’s kid,” Asher said.
“He is?” Keera asked.
“Yep,” Asher said. “He was gonna go back to Japan with them. You going with?”
“I uh, don’t know,” she said. “We have a lot of work.”
“Forget the work,” he said. “And stop with the nervousness. You guys are dating. Go confront him. I will work with Joon on getting portals up and going. I hope to make the other side of the world 1 step away. Distance won’t matter soon.” Keera bit her lip but nodded. The dark skinned goth left in a huff. Ready to yell at an elf.
“I spoke to the Akhar Guild master. He wants to meet you,” Wayne said.
“Lead the way.” They left as a group. Wayne called the guildmaster on his Comm and they agreed to meet at a private room. Following the red arrows they came to a long wall with doors. Wayne stopped in front of a specific door and it opened. Inside was seated a Middle Eastern man. Behind him stood 4 large men and a woman. Their levels ranged from 35 to 39. The Guild Master was level 40.
“Asher Whitmore,” the man said. He was younger than Asher expected, maybe late 20s. He wore a business suit. “It is good to finally meet you. I am Ibrahim Saad.”
He was quite handsome, Ibrahim obviously put some points into Charm. He looked about 30 years old with dark hair and skin. He wore a white Middle Eastern robe. Asher thought the robe was called a kandora. There were plenty of rings and bracelets visible on him. He could tell the guild master knew what he was doing.
“Nice to meet you.” He and the others sat across from them. “What can I help you with?”
“First, I would like to clear the air. I am the one who requested people vote for the Aariliak Empire.”
“Really?” Asher asked. “And why may I ask, did you do that?”
“I have a System that lets me see into the future a little. I was able to recognize that a Sponsor would be needed to protect our planet,” he admitted. “The Aartiliak contacted me soon afterward. Offering much for our planet.”
“Convenient that they would contact you soon after you understand the need for them,” Asher said, thinking out loud. “Planets cannot come to us, but psychic control isn’t out of the question. Unless… did they run your tutorial?”
“Perhaps,” Ibrahim said. He appeared unworried about being controlled psychically.
“What did they offer?”
“Protection for one. Training. Transportation.”
“And they wanted?”
“They wanted the first mining rights on our planet,” he said.
“And you wanted to give it to them without question?”
“There are many planets out there,” Ibrahim said. “But Earthlings? There is only us. I’d rather have the people than the resources.”
Asher let out a sigh. “I can see that. I still think it is too early to sell us out. I won a planet during my trials, did you know that?”
Ibrahim looked surprised. “And you did not say because?”
“I won it, no one else,” he said. “I want to leave it alone for now. It was hit with a calamity recently and needs time to heal, but there is great potential. My wife on another planet is currently in the process of having the planet’s resources analyzed. We have come back with schematics on a far reaching Portal platform. I expect to be able to make a portal there before our years are up. If something does happen to Earth, then everyone on the planet will have an open invitation to another planet. But I expect to have enough alliances and sponsors to make this unnecessary.”
“This does change things a little, but from where I sit, you have all the rewards,” Ibrahim said. “You have the planet and the sponsors, you have the backup plans. What do we have?”
Asher thought on his words. Ibrahim was right. “I have purchased a long range Ethership,” Asher admitted. “There are many Systems on this planet. All of them are resources. I want to reverse engineer the ship if possible. Make our own. If not that, I will be leaving planet in about 6 months.”
“You will be missing the Dungeon Race?” Ibrahim asked.
Asher did the math. Crap, he thought. Lyola and Tillie were giving birth right around the first guild trial. He would have to worry on that later. “No, I may have to change my plans a little, but we will plan to leave after the Guild Trial. I would be more than willing to purchase more ships for other guilds that can provide the money at this time.”
Ibrahim closed his eyes. Asher noticed mana surrounding his head. There were no attacks, it appeared to be Mind Mana. Asher waited. After a few minutes Ibrahim opened his eyes again. “Would you be against me going with you?”
“I don’t think that's out of the question,” Asher said. “Can I ask why?”
“My System is the Omniscient System. The more I learn, the more I can see around me.”
“Interesting,” Asher said. He assumed that meant he could see a lot. He might have Fate Mana like Ely. “With your Omniscient System did you see that I would offer these things, and you used the Aartiliak as a threat to make me offer this opportunity?”
Ibrahim barked a laugh. “No, I wish. I tried to see once if you would be at the conference. My skill told me you would be late by 1 day.”
“Wasn’t far off,” Asher said. He pulled out a Medal. Flicking it across that table Ibrahim caught it. “This is a Medal. It stores Syscos. Pour mana into it.” Ibrahim did. “I offered 1,000 Syscos to whoever told me who was pushing for the Aartiliak.” Ibrahim smiled and accepted the money. “I’ll need the Medal back. But there’s some more information for you. Status screens aren’t the only thing that can hold Syscos.” Ibrahim flicked it back. Asher let out a long sigh.
“I will choose to believe that the Aartiliaks aren’t manipulating you. The only thing I know about them is they start wars for resources. And they like when they have all of the monopolies. If we find some great mana deposits here I worry they will attack us when everything is over. I hope you will understand to not leak if anything valuable has been found.”
Ibrahim slowly nodded. “Good. If our guilds can work together I have no problem saving a spot for you on the next ship out of here. My ship has 30 rooms. So I will be offering spots to others. The guilds Community has alliances with will be taking first priority. Here’s hoping we don’t piss each other off at the Guild Trial.”
“Yes,” Ibrahim said. Wayne talked about opening Portals, no commitment was made, but they left on a good note.
Asher stepped out of the room to see Keera and Tosh walking hand in hand. “Hey lovebirds,” he said with a smile. “Kiss and make up?” The others from Community had stayed to talk with Ibrahim.
They both blushed. “Hey Ash,” Keera said with a wide smile. “I’m gonna go with Tosh to Japan for a while.”
“Great. By the way, how are we going to sell your vids?”
“I can buy DVDs from my custom store. Electricity doesn’t work from power plants, but plenty of the guilds have generators,” she said.
“Right, I’m gonna have to talk to Joon about how to fix that. I think she mentioned a way to get it up and running. I know when the world expanded it broke a lot of the underground wiring. We have mana generators, but they’ll take time to build,” he said. “When will the movies be ready?”
“Whenever. You’ll have to watch them, and let me know if I need to cut anything,” Keera said.
“Let’s do that when we’re back. Again, I’m so glad you went with us. I don’t know how we’d explain everything if you hadn’t,” he said.
“Yes, I am glad you went as well,” Tosh said. Keera blushed. Ash rolled his eyes.
“Now where is my-” Asher was tackled by a white-blonde haired beauty. “There she is,” Asher said, picking up Zora. “I see you’re awake.”
“What can I say? I needed a nap,” Zora said. She jumped on his back and they headed to the courtyard. “When are you picking me up in Denver?”
“Why don’t you come to me?” He asked. “You have a sweet Glider now.”
“I don’t know how to drive,” she whispered in his ear. “And I need to take care of some things.”
“Give me a few days to get settled. I’ll come out to get you. I’m sure Tiff will want to see you, she keeps talking about how much she misses you.”
“I miss her,” she pouted. “Why didn’t she come?”
“She was tired. Besides, she has a little brother now. Couldn’t get her off the kid.”
Zora laughed but stopped as they heard the yelling. Asher cursed and started running to the courtyard. There was a mass of people in front of him, all staring at the center. “What’s happening?” He asked an older woman at the side.
“Fight between the vampire and the spider,” she said.
“Spar?”
“Fight. Vampire guy used some mind tricks on someone, the spider girl got pissed.”
“Shit,” Asher said. Cycling mana he jumped to the crowd. With another leap he stopped above them. Using Mana Manifestation he made a pole of Physical to keep him in the air.
“Whatcha doing?” Zora asked in his ear.
“Crap sorry, want down?” She shook her head. Asher studied the fight below. There was a very pale Asian man. He was tall, Asher’s height. He work long robes like Dracula. Blood was around his mouth as he attacked a shorter girl. She had curly red hair and wore the Ghost Spider costume of Gwen Stacy, everything but the mask.
Asher dropped to the side at the center of the makeshift rink of people. Casting a Physical heavy Sex Bomb he let it out with a, “Hey!” Everyone in front of him fell off their feet a good 20 feet in front of him. Including the 2 fighting. “What the hell are you 2 doing?”
“Fighting, what’s it look like?” The Ghost Spider asked as she got up.
“Why the hell are you fighting?”
“He touched my friend,” she said, pointing at the vampire.
“I did no such thing,” the vampire said. Asher’s skin couldn’t help but crawl from the very dracula inspired voice.
“I saw you using mana,” she said. “Don’t deny it.” The vampire didn’t deny it. They stared at one another angrily.
“Great to meet both of you,” Asher said. He pulled out 2 Comms. Tossing them both one they grabbed them out of the air. “Really glad we can all work together. These are Comms. If you are interested we can all link up and chat. In fact, I have enough for everyone.”
Asher pulled out a huge pile of Comms. Zora fell off of his back. They pulled up chairs at the center of the crowd. “If you are a guild master I will give them to you for free. If you are not, then it will be 5 whole Syscos.”
“Only 5?” Someone asked. “In the store they’re 200.” Asher wondered if that was a voice he knew. That was too perfectly planned to be an accident, was someone trying to help him sell Comms? He paid less than 1 Sysco for each anyway, and all of them had his brand.
“5 Syscos each,” Asher said. “Guaranteed to work planet-wide. Never have to charge it. Texting is free. Come on, who wants one?”
He and Zora started selling a few at a time. By the end, the crowd had dispersed and everyone had a couple. The Ghost Spider eventually walked up.
“Sorry about that,” she said. She was out of her costume now. Her lithe figure was quite eye-catching.
“No problem,” Asher said. “The high human overlords would have probably stepped in if it got bad. Gotta thank you, you gathered everyone up for me. Wanna share Comm IDs?” He asked.
“For what?”
“A booty call,” he said without hesitation. She looked at him and blushed so hard she matched her hair color. “Seriously though, do you have the Ghost Spider System?”
“Just says Ghost, but yeah,” she said. She brought her Comm over and they linked.
“Thank god,” Asher said. “I was worried a Ghost System would be a real ghost.”
She giggled, Asher was doing quite well. He eyed Zora, his little wife shrugged. “Where are you out of?”
“We moved the guild to Paris after we broke off from the old guild master,” she noticed the stares. “Don’t ask.”
“Rouge, right?” Asher asked. “You guys name the guild after your hair color?”
She laughed again, her face still red. “No, um our old guild master was from a town called Rouge. Kind of stuck.”
“My wives and I went to Paris last year,” Asher said. “She liked it. I was stuck in a raid for most of it.”
“How many wives do you have?” The cute guild master asked. She looked over to Zora, who was eyeing the Ghost girl up and down.
“I have 3 at least,” he said. “I use Sex Mana. It is very demanding. I have to keep getting wives or it will eat me away.” She looked at him surprised but slowly realized he was joking. Asher belly laughed at her reaction.
“What kind of mana do I use?” She asked, the shy girl didn’t seem put off by the fact that he was with other women.
“If you use a skill,” he said. “I can tell.”
Mana appeared in her hand and a web shot from her palm. Asher gasped running over. He touched the web. It was just like the comic hero. A little sticky, with intertwining threads. “You must have worked hard to replicate it,” he said as his finger ran along it’s length. The web stuck to the floor and her hand. “Is that Materialization?” he asked. She nodded, pushing her hair behind her ears. “So cool, I have manifestation. But to make something from mana. Very interesting. I’ve been trying to replicate the manifestation. It looks like yours is Creation Mana. What other things can you do? You don’t have to use them, just think about it and the mana should show.” He watched colors swirl around her. “Looks like Physical and Energy Mana.”
Asher pulled out 2 skill books. “You should be able to learn these,” he said. “One is Powerstrike. It lets you focus mana into attacks. It would be cool if you could charge your webs with mana. Then you could use them like an attack. Like web bullets or something.” He was nerding out a little, but from the girl’s reaction she seemed excited too.
“The other book is Ki Beam. It lets you turn mana into energy. Then you can use it like an attack.” Asher had taken the books back after the others learned them. He wanted to make a big library. Kytor also gave him a big selection of books, but he hasn’t sorted through them all yet. Most people that awaken their systems learn their affinities and learn a few select books, so then skills they received weren’t wasted on common rarity skills.
“If you promise to give them back, I’ll let you borrow them.”
“Really?” She asked, awe in her eyes as she stared at the books. “Won’t they disappear if I learn them?”
“Of course not, this isn’t a game,” he said.
“But you don’t know me, why would you give them to me?”
Asher slapped her in the forehead with a book. “I’m not giving, I’m lending.” He corrected. She blushed while rubbing her head. He handed them to her. “Don’t get me wrong. You’re very beautiful. I saw you and the vampire fighting and I was tempted to lend them to him, but you’re way hotter.” She blushed more. Taking the books she ran off.
“Why must you never stop with the flirting?” Zora asked.
“I can’t help it,” he said. “Besides, don’t pretend you didn’t think she was hot.” Zora blushed. “Damn I love you,” he said, kissing her. “What the hell. Zora what type of mana do you use?” He asked.
“Holy,” she said.
“That’s it?”
She cast mana around her. “Crap, Holy and Physical, and what is that? Space?. Think I should get that Powerstrike skill book back?”
Laughing she said, “Maybe later.”
Asher remembered one of the last things he had bought at the Contribution Board. He had received 3. He gave 1 to his mom, 1 to his dad, and kept the last.
| Holy Holy Holy | |
| Cost | 75,000 Cont Points |
| Quantity | x 1 |
| Enchant | Holy Affinity +1% |
Asher pulled it out of his ring. Going on a knee he held it up to her. “Zora, my love. Will you marry me?”
“I already have an engagement ring,” she said, showing him the original white gem ring.
“Oh, right. Did you ever use it?”
“Twice. Saved my life for one of them,” she said.
“Good. Use ID on this, I think you’ll like it.”
“Woah, what’s affinity?”
“Good question,” he said thinking on how to explain it. “How I understand it, everyone has an affinity percentage to what they use. Usually your highest affinity will guide the majority of your skills. My System skills are mainly Sex Mana, so it’s a good chance I have 100% affinity to Sex Mana. I use Physical, Holy, and some Dragon too. I could have like a 50% affinity in any of those. These would make them very inefficient to use. It looks like your main affinity is Holy, like my parents. Everything over 100% affinity is exponentially better, so you should see a drop in MP cost.”
“Thank’s science guy,” she said with a big yawn.
“You want it or not?” He asked, squinting his eyes. She grabbed it from his hand and found a spot for it among all of her other rings.
“Hey, lovebirds,” Joon said, stepping out of a portal. “We still have a few hours. Wanna do it?”
“Of course,” Zora said.
“Duh,” Asher did. Asher looked around to all the other people in the courtyard. They still hadn’t talked to all of them. “I’m sorry babe,” Asher said. “I think we need to talk to these guys about making portals.”
“Portals? Already?” Joon asked.
“Well, yeah. I brought back plans for portal platforms,” he said.
“And you have someone that can make them?” Joon asked as she pulled the front of her shirt lower to show more cleavage.
“Not exactly,” he said, staring at the valley. Zora walked around him and hugged Joon, kissing her neck. They both had big smiles on their faces as they stared at him.
“Trust me, that’s the hard part,” Joon said. “Once they’re made, my part is easy. Besides, I can literally travel around the world in a couple of portals. Won’t take any time at all to connect everyone.” Joon gave him a wink as she and Zora stepped through the open portal window. Asher sighed and followed.
Asher carried Zora as they jumped out of the portal onto the platform. “We didn’t think you’d make it,” Jin said, eyeing them up. Their clothes were fine, but he was sure their hair was messed up and they reeked of sex.
“Good to see you Jin,” Asher said. He was the leader for the raid they did in Korea a year ago.
“You too,” Jin said. “You married yet?” He asked Joon.
Joon lifted her hand to show her ring. “I said it was only a matter of time.”
Asher leaned over and kissed her. Moving to the front of the platform most everyone was already there. “Where is the Junak Guild?” Asher yelled.
“Over here,” a woman’s voice said. Asher saw it almost straight ahead. Zora had been underneath his platform, no wonder he hadn’t seen her. He jumped over and landed. “Wore her out, sorry.”
“Fine with me,” the woman said. “She works too hard. I see she wasn’t joking. You are a horse of a man,” she said. “I’m Lenette the guild master.”
“Asher, her husband,” he said, setting her in one of the chairs. Zora smacked her lips and puckered them toward him. He kissed her. “Love you,” he said. “Did Wayne Tyler give you a Comm?” Lenette nodded. “What about you 3?” He looked to the other 3 armored girls. He pulled 3 out and tossed them to the women. “Thanks for keeping her safe.” The girls were bathed in light revealing the other 3 girls they saved from the pornography ring. “Oh shit,” Asher said. “You’re all safe. I was worried.”
Asher walked up to the 3 girls and gave them a big hug. “Please go to your own platforms,” a very haughty self important voice announced.
“Ugh, we will catch up. I’ll be stopping by for Zora soon,” he promised. The 3 girls were quiet, but each gave him a kiss on the cheek. Asher waved and jumped out to the Community platform. Everyone but Nadir and Tosh were there. “Sorry,” Asher said.
“Don’t worry about it, we will catch you up,” Wayne said. Keera sat quietly next to him, he hoped she was taking Tosh leaving ok.
“The doors are now closed,” the high human announced. “What will you vote on first?”
“The most important, sponsor,” Asher said.
“Hey, who put you in charge?” Someone yelled.
“All of you have been ranked by those you brought with you,” the high human announced. “You were graded on experience gained and Syscos earned since your Initialization. The Lawful Good himself far outweighs the majority of the groups. This does not include those he brought with him. The Conference recognizes him as the leader.” The screen had appeared and was showing the high human’s beautiful punchable face.
“Thank you,” Asher said. His face appeared on the screen, but he stood and leaned over the edge to stare at people. “I am not sure who among you has been sponsored by those listed. But I for one would not give this planet to any of them. There are resources that we need to identify and gain our own profit from. If I am wrong there is always next time. Is there any more need for discussion?” He looked around, no one spoke. “Good, what means a win for the vote?”
“If over half of those participating vote for it?”
“And if someone wins that I don’t agree with?”
“We vote on something else. When the others have been taken we move back to this. As the current leader you can call for more votes.”
“Cool,” Asher said. “Let’s vote.”
The dome around them closed, as did everyone else’s. A screen appeared showing 23 names. Aartiliak Empire was at the top. Asher scrolled down to the bottom and clicked ‘No Sponsor’, he assumed that wasn’t the name of a sponsor.
“We all good?” Asher asked. “I assume no one has an issue without a sponsor.”
“You convinced me to skip it,” Amanda said.
“Same,” a few others said.
“Good. Sorry, I don’t mean to make this all move so quickly. I’m hoping we can get the votes done and start talking to the guilds about Portals.”
“Oh right, you missed the Trial options,” Joan said, but was stopped as their dome disappeared.
“The votes have been cast, here are the results,” the moderator said. “ The Aartiliak Empire was at the top of the list at 20%. This does not pass.”
Asher spoke up. “For anyone that was approached by a guild on our planet for the Aartiliak Empire,” he announced. “I will pay you handsomely if you tell me who approached you.”
“Moderator!” Someone yelled. “This is practically threatening other guilds.”
Asher cut off the moderator. “The League doesn’t give a fuck about fair or threats!” He barked. “They only care about strength. I could kill everyone here and they would turn the other cheek,” he said. That quieted everyone. “We are in the fight for our planet,people,” he reminded them. “I will not sell it out to anyone. Again, if you were approached, see me. Many of the people have my Comm numbers. I will be discreet. A thousand Syscos to the first person that tells me.” That number got a few talking. No one said anything, but Asher knew it wouldn’t be long.
The room was silent for a little bit. “Holy fuck you’re intense now,” Amanda said.
“There’s a reason for it. I’ll tell you all later. I was almost killed so many times it’s not funny. Even these fuckers tried,” he said pointing at the moderator. The man locked eyes with him, Asher blew him a kiss.
“The vote for sponsor has not passed,” the moderator said. “What next?”
“Currency,” Asher said.
“Very good. This vote is simple. Every one of your countries had it’s own currency. None may be used as a future currency. The major 6 were analyzed and compiled together by the System. 3 designs have been generated. This vote will be about which design you will go with.”
The domes closed and an image appeared in front of Asher. They were rectangular like the almighty dollar. At the center was a pyramid on all 3. After that they varied to symbols or monuments on the Russian Ruble, a rose sigil from the Chinese yuan, some flowers that Asher remembered from Japanese coins, but he didn’t recognize anything else. There were more flowers and leaves. 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000 were the number values. The money was colored. The three options were green, gray, and gold. Asher picked green.
“Is this really needed?” Anthony asked.
“It is. Water still 1 Sysco on your store? Then we need a currency. Heck I have like 3 different kinds on me,” Asher said. He pulled some out from Prime, Elantontrin, and Endorval. “Most people can survive on 1 Sysco a month. We are wasting it.”
“Good to know,” Anthony said. Ever the merchant Asher was curious how much the old man had.
The dome retracted. On the screen the green money won by 5% of the votes. “Good,” the moderator said. “This will now be known as Earth Standard and will be added to the System Store.”
“Lastly, we have to vote on your first Trial. The Lawful Good was not here for this explanation. You will be given 3 trials during the next 1,340 days. After this trial another Guild Conference will be called. Then another trial, another conference, and finally a last trial. Your current choices are…” The center screen showed:
| EARTH TRIAL #1 |
| Dungeon Race |
| Treasure Hunt |
| Mana Storm |
“My vote’s on Dungeon Race,” Asher said without hesitation.
“Why’s that?” Joony asked from below.
“I don’t know what the hell a Mana Storm is,” he admitted. “But it does not sound fun. Mana is volatile. If you don’t have an affinity with certain types it could kill you easily. I wouldn’t recommend that. And well, Treasure Hunt is too cliche. I mean they did it in Primal Hunter and The First Defier. No, my money is on Dungeon Race.” Joon laughed and nodded.
Some people spoke, when they were quiet the moderator asked for a vote. Dungeon Race won with 65% of the votes. Asher was pleased with the result. He received a notification.
| EARTH GUILD CONFERENCE RESULTS |
| The System's protection of your planet will end in: |
| 1,340:11:25:43 |
| During this conference the following items were chosen: |
| 1. Your Planet's first trial will be a DUNGEON RACE |
| 2. An Earth currency has been chosen and added in the System Store |
| 3. No sponsor was chosen for your planet |
| Dungeon Race Timer: |
| 200:14:25:43 |
| Note: |
| All guilds will be entered in the race. |
| Every Guild below the top 50 spots of the race will be forcefully disbanded. |
| Individuals may join the race if they meet a level threshold and pay an |
| Entry Fee at the time of the race. |
“I hope everyone on Earth got this too,” Wayne said. “Would save some explaining.” Asher agreed.
“You are free to wander for the next 5 hours and 25 minutes,” the moderator announced. “You will be teleported when the time is up.” The doors behind them opened. Asher had been worried they would be kicked out, but they finished the votes in half an hour.
“What now?” Asher asked.
“Which guild masters did you meet with?” Wayne asked.
“I spoke to the Northern guild, Wigan, Old Glory, Lyudi, and I think the Songoku. Turns out the guild master for Songoku is Tosh’s kid,” Asher said.
“He is?” Keera asked.
“Yep,” Asher said. “He was gonna go back to Japan with them. You going with?”
“I uh, don’t know,” she said. “We have a lot of work.”
“Forget the work,” he said. “And stop with the nervousness. You guys are dating. Go confront him. I will work with Joon on getting portals up and going. I hope to make the other side of the world 1 step away. Distance won’t matter soon.” Keera bit her lip but nodded. The dark skinned goth left in a huff. Ready to yell at an elf.
“I spoke to the Akhar Guild master. He wants to meet you,” Wayne said.
“Lead the way.” They left as a group. Wayne called the guildmaster on his Comm and they agreed to meet at a private room. Following the red arrows they came to a long wall with doors. Wayne stopped in front of a specific door and it opened. Inside was seated a Middle Eastern man. Behind him stood 4 large men and a woman. Their levels ranged from 35 to 39. The Guild Master was level 40.
“Asher Whitmore,” the man said. He was younger than Asher expected, maybe late 20s. He wore a business suit. “It is good to finally meet you. I am Ibrahim Saad.”
He was quite handsome, Ibrahim obviously put some points into Charm. He looked about 30 years old with dark hair and skin. He wore a white Middle Eastern robe. Asher thought the robe was called a kandora. There were plenty of rings and bracelets visible on him. He could tell the guild master knew what he was doing.
“Nice to meet you.” He and the others sat across from them. “What can I help you with?”
“First, I would like to clear the air. I am the one who requested people vote for the Aariliak Empire.”
“Really?” Asher asked. “And why may I ask, did you do that?”
“I have a System that lets me see into the future a little. I was able to recognize that a Sponsor would be needed to protect our planet,” he admitted. “The Aartiliak contacted me soon afterward. Offering much for our planet.”
“Convenient that they would contact you soon after you understand the need for them,” Asher said, thinking out loud. “Planets cannot come to us, but psychic control isn’t out of the question. Unless… did they run your tutorial?”
“Perhaps,” Ibrahim said. He appeared unworried about being controlled psychically.
“What did they offer?”
“Protection for one. Training. Transportation.”
“And they wanted?”
“They wanted the first mining rights on our planet,” he said.
“And you wanted to give it to them without question?”
“There are many planets out there,” Ibrahim said. “But Earthlings? There is only us. I’d rather have the people than the resources.”
Asher let out a sigh. “I can see that. I still think it is too early to sell us out. I won a planet during my trials, did you know that?”
Ibrahim looked surprised. “And you did not say because?”
“I won it, no one else,” he said. “I want to leave it alone for now. It was hit with a calamity recently and needs time to heal, but there is great potential. My wife on another planet is currently in the process of having the planet’s resources analyzed. We have come back with schematics on a far reaching Portal platform. I expect to be able to make a portal there before our years are up. If something does happen to Earth, then everyone on the planet will have an open invitation to another planet. But I expect to have enough alliances and sponsors to make this unnecessary.”
“This does change things a little, but from where I sit, you have all the rewards,” Ibrahim said. “You have the planet and the sponsors, you have the backup plans. What do we have?”
Asher thought on his words. Ibrahim was right. “I have purchased a long range Ethership,” Asher admitted. “There are many Systems on this planet. All of them are resources. I want to reverse engineer the ship if possible. Make our own. If not that, I will be leaving planet in about 6 months.”
“You will be missing the Dungeon Race?” Ibrahim asked.
Asher did the math. Crap, he thought. Lyola and Tillie were giving birth right around the first guild trial. He would have to worry on that later. “No, I may have to change my plans a little, but we will plan to leave after the Guild Trial. I would be more than willing to purchase more ships for other guilds that can provide the money at this time.”
Ibrahim closed his eyes. Asher noticed mana surrounding his head. There were no attacks, it appeared to be Mind Mana. Asher waited. After a few minutes Ibrahim opened his eyes again. “Would you be against me going with you?”
“I don’t think that's out of the question,” Asher said. “Can I ask why?”
“My System is the Omniscient System. The more I learn, the more I can see around me.”
“Interesting,” Asher said. He assumed that meant he could see a lot. He might have Fate Mana like Ely. “With your Omniscient System did you see that I would offer these things, and you used the Aartiliak as a threat to make me offer this opportunity?”
Ibrahim barked a laugh. “No, I wish. I tried to see once if you would be at the conference. My skill told me you would be late by 1 day.”
“Wasn’t far off,” Asher said. He pulled out a Medal. Flicking it across that table Ibrahim caught it. “This is a Medal. It stores Syscos. Pour mana into it.” Ibrahim did. “I offered 1,000 Syscos to whoever told me who was pushing for the Aartiliak.” Ibrahim smiled and accepted the money. “I’ll need the Medal back. But there’s some more information for you. Status screens aren’t the only thing that can hold Syscos.” Ibrahim flicked it back. Asher let out a long sigh.
“I will choose to believe that the Aartiliaks aren’t manipulating you. The only thing I know about them is they start wars for resources. And they like when they have all of the monopolies. If we find some great mana deposits here I worry they will attack us when everything is over. I hope you will understand to not leak if anything valuable has been found.”
Ibrahim slowly nodded. “Good. If our guilds can work together I have no problem saving a spot for you on the next ship out of here. My ship has 30 rooms. So I will be offering spots to others. The guilds Community has alliances with will be taking first priority. Here’s hoping we don’t piss each other off at the Guild Trial.”
“Yes,” Ibrahim said. Wayne talked about opening Portals, no commitment was made, but they left on a good note.
Asher stepped out of the room to see Keera and Tosh walking hand in hand. “Hey lovebirds,” he said with a smile. “Kiss and make up?” The others from Community had stayed to talk with Ibrahim.
They both blushed. “Hey Ash,” Keera said with a wide smile. “I’m gonna go with Tosh to Japan for a while.”
“Great. By the way, how are we going to sell your vids?”
“I can buy DVDs from my custom store. Electricity doesn’t work from power plants, but plenty of the guilds have generators,” she said.
“Right, I’m gonna have to talk to Joon about how to fix that. I think she mentioned a way to get it up and running. I know when the world expanded it broke a lot of the underground wiring. We have mana generators, but they’ll take time to build,” he said. “When will the movies be ready?”
“Whenever. You’ll have to watch them, and let me know if I need to cut anything,” Keera said.
“Let’s do that when we’re back. Again, I’m so glad you went with us. I don’t know how we’d explain everything if you hadn’t,” he said.
“Yes, I am glad you went as well,” Tosh said. Keera blushed. Ash rolled his eyes.
“Now where is my-” Asher was tackled by a white-blonde haired beauty. “There she is,” Asher said, picking up Zora. “I see you’re awake.”
“What can I say? I needed a nap,” Zora said. She jumped on his back and they headed to the courtyard. “When are you picking me up in Denver?”
“Why don’t you come to me?” He asked. “You have a sweet Glider now.”
“I don’t know how to drive,” she whispered in his ear. “And I need to take care of some things.”
“Give me a few days to get settled. I’ll come out to get you. I’m sure Tiff will want to see you, she keeps talking about how much she misses you.”
“I miss her,” she pouted. “Why didn’t she come?”
“She was tired. Besides, she has a little brother now. Couldn’t get her off the kid.”
Zora laughed but stopped as they heard the yelling. Asher cursed and started running to the courtyard. There was a mass of people in front of him, all staring at the center. “What’s happening?” He asked an older woman at the side.
“Fight between the vampire and the spider,” she said.
“Spar?”
“Fight. Vampire guy used some mind tricks on someone, the spider girl got pissed.”
“Shit,” Asher said. Cycling mana he jumped to the crowd. With another leap he stopped above them. Using Mana Manifestation he made a pole of Physical to keep him in the air.
“Whatcha doing?” Zora asked in his ear.
“Crap sorry, want down?” She shook her head. Asher studied the fight below. There was a very pale Asian man. He was tall, Asher’s height. He work long robes like Dracula. Blood was around his mouth as he attacked a shorter girl. She had curly red hair and wore the Ghost Spider costume of Gwen Stacy, everything but the mask.
Asher dropped to the side at the center of the makeshift rink of people. Casting a Physical heavy Sex Bomb he let it out with a, “Hey!” Everyone in front of him fell off their feet a good 20 feet in front of him. Including the 2 fighting. “What the hell are you 2 doing?”
“Fighting, what’s it look like?” The Ghost Spider asked as she got up.
“Why the hell are you fighting?”
“He touched my friend,” she said, pointing at the vampire.
“I did no such thing,” the vampire said. Asher’s skin couldn’t help but crawl from the very dracula inspired voice.
“I saw you using mana,” she said. “Don’t deny it.” The vampire didn’t deny it. They stared at one another angrily.
“Great to meet both of you,” Asher said. He pulled out 2 Comms. Tossing them both one they grabbed them out of the air. “Really glad we can all work together. These are Comms. If you are interested we can all link up and chat. In fact, I have enough for everyone.”
Asher pulled out a huge pile of Comms. Zora fell off of his back. They pulled up chairs at the center of the crowd. “If you are a guild master I will give them to you for free. If you are not, then it will be 5 whole Syscos.”
“Only 5?” Someone asked. “In the store they’re 200.” Asher wondered if that was a voice he knew. That was too perfectly planned to be an accident, was someone trying to help him sell Comms? He paid less than 1 Sysco for each anyway, and all of them had his brand.
“5 Syscos each,” Asher said. “Guaranteed to work planet-wide. Never have to charge it. Texting is free. Come on, who wants one?”
He and Zora started selling a few at a time. By the end, the crowd had dispersed and everyone had a couple. The Ghost Spider eventually walked up.
“Sorry about that,” she said. She was out of her costume now. Her lithe figure was quite eye-catching.
“No problem,” Asher said. “The high human overlords would have probably stepped in if it got bad. Gotta thank you, you gathered everyone up for me. Wanna share Comm IDs?” He asked.
“For what?”
“A booty call,” he said without hesitation. She looked at him and blushed so hard she matched her hair color. “Seriously though, do you have the Ghost Spider System?”
“Just says Ghost, but yeah,” she said. She brought her Comm over and they linked.
“Thank god,” Asher said. “I was worried a Ghost System would be a real ghost.”
She giggled, Asher was doing quite well. He eyed Zora, his little wife shrugged. “Where are you out of?”
“We moved the guild to Paris after we broke off from the old guild master,” she noticed the stares. “Don’t ask.”
“Rouge, right?” Asher asked. “You guys name the guild after your hair color?”
She laughed again, her face still red. “No, um our old guild master was from a town called Rouge. Kind of stuck.”
“My wives and I went to Paris last year,” Asher said. “She liked it. I was stuck in a raid for most of it.”
“How many wives do you have?” The cute guild master asked. She looked over to Zora, who was eyeing the Ghost girl up and down.
“I have 3 at least,” he said. “I use Sex Mana. It is very demanding. I have to keep getting wives or it will eat me away.” She looked at him surprised but slowly realized he was joking. Asher belly laughed at her reaction.
“What kind of mana do I use?” She asked, the shy girl didn’t seem put off by the fact that he was with other women.
“If you use a skill,” he said. “I can tell.”
Mana appeared in her hand and a web shot from her palm. Asher gasped running over. He touched the web. It was just like the comic hero. A little sticky, with intertwining threads. “You must have worked hard to replicate it,” he said as his finger ran along it’s length. The web stuck to the floor and her hand. “Is that Materialization?” he asked. She nodded, pushing her hair behind her ears. “So cool, I have manifestation. But to make something from mana. Very interesting. I’ve been trying to replicate the manifestation. It looks like yours is Creation Mana. What other things can you do? You don’t have to use them, just think about it and the mana should show.” He watched colors swirl around her. “Looks like Physical and Energy Mana.”
Asher pulled out 2 skill books. “You should be able to learn these,” he said. “One is Powerstrike. It lets you focus mana into attacks. It would be cool if you could charge your webs with mana. Then you could use them like an attack. Like web bullets or something.” He was nerding out a little, but from the girl’s reaction she seemed excited too.
“The other book is Ki Beam. It lets you turn mana into energy. Then you can use it like an attack.” Asher had taken the books back after the others learned them. He wanted to make a big library. Kytor also gave him a big selection of books, but he hasn’t sorted through them all yet. Most people that awaken their systems learn their affinities and learn a few select books, so then skills they received weren’t wasted on common rarity skills.
“If you promise to give them back, I’ll let you borrow them.”
“Really?” She asked, awe in her eyes as she stared at the books. “Won’t they disappear if I learn them?”
“Of course not, this isn’t a game,” he said.
“But you don’t know me, why would you give them to me?”
Asher slapped her in the forehead with a book. “I’m not giving, I’m lending.” He corrected. She blushed while rubbing her head. He handed them to her. “Don’t get me wrong. You’re very beautiful. I saw you and the vampire fighting and I was tempted to lend them to him, but you’re way hotter.” She blushed more. Taking the books she ran off.
“Why must you never stop with the flirting?” Zora asked.
“I can’t help it,” he said. “Besides, don’t pretend you didn’t think she was hot.” Zora blushed. “Damn I love you,” he said, kissing her. “What the hell. Zora what type of mana do you use?” He asked.
“Holy,” she said.
“That’s it?”
She cast mana around her. “Crap, Holy and Physical, and what is that? Space?. Think I should get that Powerstrike skill book back?”
Laughing she said, “Maybe later.”
Asher remembered one of the last things he had bought at the Contribution Board. He had received 3. He gave 1 to his mom, 1 to his dad, and kept the last.
| Holy Holy Holy | |
| Cost | 75,000 Cont Points |
| Quantity | x 1 |
| Enchant | Holy Affinity +1% |
Asher pulled it out of his ring. Going on a knee he held it up to her. “Zora, my love. Will you marry me?”
“I already have an engagement ring,” she said, showing him the original white gem ring.
“Oh, right. Did you ever use it?”
“Twice. Saved my life for one of them,” she said.
“Good. Use ID on this, I think you’ll like it.”
“Woah, what’s affinity?”
“Good question,” he said thinking on how to explain it. “How I understand it, everyone has an affinity percentage to what they use. Usually your highest affinity will guide the majority of your skills. My System skills are mainly Sex Mana, so it’s a good chance I have 100% affinity to Sex Mana. I use Physical, Holy, and some Dragon too. I could have like a 50% affinity in any of those. These would make them very inefficient to use. It looks like your main affinity is Holy, like my parents. Everything over 100% affinity is exponentially better, so you should see a drop in MP cost.”
“Thank’s science guy,” she said with a big yawn.
“You want it or not?” He asked, squinting his eyes. She grabbed it from his hand and found a spot for it among all of her other rings.
“Hey, lovebirds,” Joon said, stepping out of a portal. “We still have a few hours. Wanna do it?”
“Of course,” Zora said.
“Duh,” Asher did. Asher looked around to all the other people in the courtyard. They still hadn’t talked to all of them. “I’m sorry babe,” Asher said. “I think we need to talk to these guys about making portals.”
“Portals? Already?” Joon asked.
“Well, yeah. I brought back plans for portal platforms,” he said.
“And you have someone that can make them?” Joon asked as she pulled the front of her shirt lower to show more cleavage.
“Not exactly,” he said, staring at the valley. Zora walked around him and hugged Joon, kissing her neck. They both had big smiles on their faces as they stared at him.
“Trust me, that’s the hard part,” Joon said. “Once they’re made, my part is easy. Besides, I can literally travel around the world in a couple of portals. Won’t take any time at all to connect everyone.” Joon gave him a wink as she and Zora stepped through the open portal window. Asher sighed and followed.
