“How many options did you have?” Tammy asked as we stood in front of the gate to the Howell Compound.

  “I don’t know. Hundreds.”

  “And this is what you chose?”

  “I think it's…,” Fields paused, searching for the right word. “Quaint.”

  I’d seen his house in Aegis. His main house. He kept a residence in every town. I did too, but I was the guy in charge, that was expected. He did it just because he could. His place in Aegis was opulent. I hated it. Huge, bigger than any of my places, probably bigger than two of mine combined.

  “Come on in,” I said, leading them inside, hoping what I wanted to happen would.

  It did.

  “Good morning,” Stylo said, appearing next to Tammy as she stepped through the gate.

  “AAHH!!,” she yelped, jumping a couple feet away.

  Fields looked at Stylo and then back to me.

  “The guide?”

  “Tammy O’Neil and Michael Fields, meet Stylo.”

  “Hello. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Does he do that often?” Tammy asked, glaring at me, like it was my fault.

  “Yep.”

  “Can he not just appear out of nowhere?” She asked.

  “I do not appear out of nowhere,” Stylo said, hands clasped behind his back. “I am always here.”

  Tammy looked at me. I just shrugged.

  “You have a couple of messages awaiting you,” Stylo said, turning to me.

  “Great. I’ll check them out in a bit after getting these two settled.”

  I showed Tammy and Fields around the compound, not that there was much to see. The tour didn’t take long.

  “The compound grows as you grow?”

  “Essentially. I can use the Multiversal Credits to buy more space and grow the compound. It’ll also naturally grow as more Adventurers come to Crossroads.”

  “Interesting.”

  I knew Fields was wondering how he could get a branch of his business here. He wasn’t an Adventurer, so his access to Crossroads was going to be through me.

  “What’s the place called?” Tammy asked, as we crossed the bridge to the Crafting Hall, which I still wasn’t sure if I was going to keep or not.

  “The Clan Howell Compound,” I said. “At least I think.”

  I glanced behind me at Stylo.

  “Yes, that is the current official name,” the guide replied.

  “We need to change that,” Tammy said. “That name is horrible. I should have suspected it would be.”

  “Any suggestions?” I asked.

  “Howell Compound but we can do better. I’ll come up with something.”

  “Stylo, when Tammy has a new name, change it please.”

  “Of course,” the guide replied.

  “You don’t want to hear it first?” Tammy asked.

  “Naw.”

  ***

  “How do I access the messages?” I asked Stylo.

  I was outside on the steps. Tammy and Fields were inside, going over how they wanted to approach the upcoming meeting with the Sunrise Formation. I should have been sitting in, but the two knew what they were doing. I’d just get in the way. I was itching to get back into the Tower.

  “Access your Multiversal Nexus interface,” Stylo explained.

  So I did.

  There was a menu for the Compound, another one to access my Tower Points and Quests, another one for other buildings in the Nexus and a final one for Messages. I opened that one to see I had two messages. Both from Jeriyan.

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  I wasn’t sure what to expect for Nexus Messages, so it was a bit of a surprise when I heard Jeriyan’s voice in my head.

  “Hello Nick. I hope this message finds you well. As we never know when these messages will find us, it is habit in the Multiverse to not add a time greeting, so I hope you do not take offense at the lack of one.”

  It was weird hearing his voice in my head. I was used to telepathic communications, that was how the Lexicons worked. But those were live communications. No messages. This was a recorded voice.

  Also was really nice of him to give me that little tidbit about manners in the Nexus.

  “Our time to meet is confirmed for the 11th hour local Nexus time at the Rising Sun Falls On The Tranquil Ocean restaurant. I have taken the liberty and have a room set aside for our meeting. I look forward to meeting with you and your people.”

  I glanced at the interface, seeing that it was just the 4th hour local Nexus time. Plenty of time before the meeting. Maybe I could squeeze in a Tower run? Probably not.

  “Greetings Nick. I have found three possible members of the Sunrise Formation that you might be interested in having join your Tower Climbing team. I have taken the liberty of having them scheduled to meet with us after the business meeting at the 11th hour. They are a Level 102 Melee DPS, a Level 101 Ranged Controller and a Level 100 Ranged Support. I am still looking to see if there is a Healer available but sadly, as I am sure it will be for your Clan, the healers are usually assigned a team as soon as they reach Level 100 or before. The three are eager to meet with you.”

  Melee DPS wouldn’t be something I’d be looking for right now. But Ranged Controller or Ranged Support would be good. If they were the roles I was thinking of.

  “Hey Stylo.”

  “Yes sir?”

  “Is there a listing of the typical team roles?”

  “Do you not have those on your world?”

  “We do, but I want to make sure they’re similar.”

  “Ah, I understand,” Stylo said, floating closer. “There are many roles in a party but the typical designations are: Defender, Healer, Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, Stealth DPS, Ranged Controller, Melee Controller, Ranged Support.”

  “Basically the same as we use.”

  “As expected, the Celestial Challenge System does try to make things easier for the various races of the multiverse to interact.”

  “Makes sense,” I said but wondered why the System didn’t make it harder for us to interact.

  Wouldn’t that be a challenge? Or was our life under the System already challenge enough?

  Probably best to not pursue that thinking. Leave well enough alone.

  I looked up as the door to the hall opened, Tammy and Fields walking out. At the bottom of the steps, Fields stopped and turned to look at me, Tammy kept walking, exploring the rest of the compound.

  “Can we get into this Market District?” he asked. “Before the meeting.”

  I glanced up at Stylo. The guide nodded his head.

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “I’d like to get an idea on prices before meeting with the Sunrise Formation,” Fields answered, not quite looking at me so I couldn’t see him roll his eyes. I saw it anyway. “I want to make sure we are getting good prices.”

  “Makes sense.”

  I stood up, motioning at Fields to follow me. We met Tammy around the backside of the long hall, she was staring at the portal.

  “A mine shaft?” she asked, shaking her head as I walked up. “Really?”

  “I like it,” I replied. “Come on, let’s go visit the Market DIstrict.”

  ***

  Both Tammy and Fields were vets at going through portals, so the transition didn’t bother them. Arriving in the Crossroads Market District didn’t bother them, but it did wow them. Even Fields, who had probably traveled more of the world than even me, got that tourist look as he took it all in. I’d seen the buildings before but the people were different.

  Lots of races I hadn’t noticed the first time I’d been there.

  A bunch of different beastkin. Beastmen? Was there an official term for them? I’d have to check in with Stylo to make sure before accidentally offending anyone. Frogmen, monkey and ape people. Different types of lizardmen. Wolfmen, bear people. A couple more Felitans. I even saw some dwarves. Short, stocky, looked like they were carved from stone.

  Just like the stories.

  Lots of different humans. Some that looked just like us, but different styles of clothing. Some with green and blue skin. Even a couple with skin so purple that it looked almost black.

  “Wow,” Tammy said finally.

  “Yep.”

  “This is amazing,” Fields said, a huge smile on his face. “So many potential opportunities.”

  I chuckled. Figured he’d be in his element.

  “Where to first?”

  “You said the Sunrise Formation are elves?” Fields asked, looking at a shop about five down where a couple elves walked out of. “Let us start there,” he said, leading the way.

  Tammy and I followed.