Orbic and I left first, followed by Subudai and Jhang Gho a couple of steps behind. I hated that. It was always that way with Subudai. His people were followers, so they had to follow. He always had to be in front. They said it was a sign of respect. I didn’t buy it. All it did was stroke Subudai’s already inflated ego.

  But it wasn’t my Faction, not my place to say anything.

  “That was interesting,” I said as we stepped into the waiting room, the door on the other side opening.

  “I’ve been to a couple of these,” Orbic said, shrugging. “They’re all about the same. Waste of time really. They already made their decision before we even got here, so it’s all just posturing and making sure we remember who is in charge.”

  “Been to a couple huh? Get in trouble often.”

  “Hah,” Orbic laughed. “I tend to. I have a feeling you’ll be here a lot too.”

  It was my turn to shrug.

  I stopped at the door, turning to face Subudai, not moving out of the way and making him stop. He glared down at me, being a couple inches taller. It was an imperious glare, like everything Subudai did.

  “Yes?” he asked.

  “You’re welcome for the free credits,” I said. “But next time, keep your people away from my shop.”

  “If you had not already angered the Anura already this would not have happened,” Subudai said.

  He did have a point but I wasn’t going to let him know that.

  “If your buddy hadn’t been spying this wouldn’t have happened,” I said. “Besides, what’s the point of spying on me? You’d get better results watching Fred.”

  Subudai didn’t move or give any reaction but Jhang Gho did. I smiled. They were spying on Fred’s Alliance. I figured they were, but now I had proof.

  “As if you would not be spying on the Bounding Dragons,” Subudai said but then sneered. “But you cannot can you? You don’t have anyone else that is Level 100 yet.”

  I shrugged. He was right. It was pretty common knowledge on Earth who was Level 100 and who was getting close. We all kept pretty good track of that. It was an area the Solace Fellowship had lagged behind in compared to the United American Alliance and Bounding Dragons Sect. That didn’t mean the Fellowship was weaker.

  Not by a long shot.

  It was an area where Subudai and I differed, greatly. I was all about quality. He was about quantity. Fred was somewhere in the middle, more toward my side. Subudai just fed his people into the advancement grinder, getting them to Level 100 as fast as they could.

  Which is how they got Adventurers like Jhang Gho, who may have been Level 100 but any of my Level 90s could easily take him. It wouldn’t even be close. I knew nothing about the guy, just had experience with Subudai’s upper echelon of Adventurers.

  He still had his few Elites, but most were worthless. He was probably throwing as many as he could into the Tower Floors to get as many resources, credits and points as he could. Not really caring about the actual progress of his people and if they were accomplishing what they wanted to do. To Subudai, they were just followers.

  “Quality over quantity,” I said.

  And that did get a reaction from him. It was small. A quick flash of anger.

  Subudai hated that saying.

  Which is why I used it every chance I got.

  “You should be careful Nicholas,” Subudai said. For some reason he thought my full name annoyed me. I didn’t like going by it, but didn’t care if it was used. “It will not be long before the Bounding Dragons are the strongest Faction on Earth.”

  “Terra,” Orbic interrupted. “I think that word you just said was meant to be Terra. That is what your world is called afterall.”

  The orc was smiling. I saw the tightening around Subudai’s eyes as he worked to ignore the orc.

  “And when that day happens, your little Fellowship will be destroyed and your people made part of the Sect,” Subudai finished.

  “That won’t ever happen,” I said, keeping my tone casual.

  “We shall see,” he said, then looked at the door and back to me.

  I stepped to the side and let him walk by. Just as Jhang Gho reached me I spoke again. Subudai was already on the other side, being forced to stop and turn.

  “Whenever you get tired of that guy,” I said, hooking a thumb at Subudai. “You can always come to the Fellowship.”

  Jhang Gho had stopped but didn’t say anything. He started walking again, and I could feel the glare Subudai was sending my way. I felt a little bad because Subudai would take more of his anger out on Jhang Gho, but the offer was genuine. He wouldn’t be the first of Subudai’s people to defect.

  None of mine had ever gone to the Bounding Dragons.

  “That guy have a stick up his arse or what?” Orbic asked. “He always like that?”

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  “Yep.”

  We let Subudai and Jhang Gho get further ahead before we followed, walking out into a long hallway that led to the entrance and then out the building. We didn’t pass anyone else. That just felt odd. There should have been more people wandering around, either going to tribunals or just leaving like we were.

  Did the Haric really have it that well timed?

  Probably.

  “Must be fun to deal with.”

  I sighed.

  “Fun isn’t the word I’d use. His Faction has the most land on Terra, but out of the three top Factions, they’re the weakest.”

  “But he has more Level 100 and people in the Crossroads?”

  “Quantity over quality.”

  “One of those,” Orbic grunted.

  I glanced at him.

  “When a new world is opened to the Nexus, after knowing it was going to happen for twenty-five years, those Factions have either just thrown people in Advancement to get as many to Level 100 and into the Nexus or they’ve been selective. The first group? They normally crash and burn.” Orbic smiled wickedly. “Hard.”

  I thought about it, wondering why that would be. More Level 100 Adventurers meant more people running the Infinite Tower and grabbing the Resources, finishing quests for credits, and all that. It was a good way to amass a fortune quickly.

  But that also meant a lot of people to equip, grab Essences and Advance so they didn’t lag behind going to the later floors. It was possible to keep people at the Level 100 to Level 110 range and in the first floor or two of the Tower, but the System didn’t like that.

  It was called the Celestial Challenge System and stagnating like that to just farm Resources wasn’t much of a challenge.

  So just coming into Crossroads and throwing people at the Tower would be good in the short term but in the long term it would start to add up. Those people weren’t going to be the best Adventurers. They had been power leveled, not truly earning the Levels. They’d start to bog down when the Tower got tougher and that would slow the supply of Resources. They’d also start dying and all that investment in power leveling would be wasted.

  I could see what Orbic meant. It wouldn’t be long where having that many people would become a negative and not a positive. The Nexus was meant for the Elites, the people that had earned their Levels the hard way, which was the right way. The ones that could progress through the Tower for a long time.

  “Is that what happened to the Anura?”

  Orbic chuckled.

  “Yep.” He looked back over his shoulder. We could see the three Anura walking out of the Tribunal Hall. They saw us, and decided they had business in another direction. “I wasn’t here, but have heard the stories. They did great for a couple of years but then the toll of trying to keep that many members Leveled and Advancing, along with the new Level 100s that kept coming, it got to be too much and they started hiring themselves out as mercenaries.”

  He spit on the ground as we walked past the arena.

  “The average Anura is a chump, as you know,” he continued. “But there is a lot of them. Quantity can have its own quality.”

  “Yeah, when talking hordes or swarms.”

  “And that’s the Anura. They go to a newly integrated empty planet and just swarm the place, taking it over for whoever is paying them. They keep a presence in the Nexus and do have some actual Elites making their way up the Tower, but those are never involved in the dirty work.”

  I thought about what I knew of Subudai. He had no problem just throwing numbers at an issue. I’d seen it too often back on Earth. But he was smart about it. He didn’t just throw numbers to throw numbers. There was a method to his madness. Not that it was really madness but I liked that saying.

  “Subudai’s not like that,” I said. “He’s a prick but he’s smart and dangerous. His people are fanatics and I’ve seen him use them as fodder but only when there’s a long term gain. If he’s bringing a lot of people here, I don’t think it’s because he doesn’t understand how the place works.”

  “If that’s true,” Orbic grunted as we stopped in front of the obelisk at the end of the single street in the Training District. “He’s going to be very dangerous.” He turned toward me. “This guy wants to take over your entire planet?”

  “Yep.”

  Orbic grunted, shaking his head.

  “I like you, should get together for a drink sometime.”

  “Ever have a beer?”

  “Beer? What’s that?”

  I pulled a bottle out of my inventory and handed it to him. I had to show him how to open it. Orbic took a long drink, wiped the foam off his mouth and smiled.

  “This is good.”

  He drank the rest in two gulps and handed the bottle back. I stashed it in my inventory.

  “I’ll take more of that,” Orbic said, but then looked at me seriously. “If that guy is as dangerous as you say and he’s smartly approaching the Tower, I’d be afraid of what he does back home.”

  “Yeah,” I said, clasping hands with Orbic. “I am.”

  He nodded and touched the obelisk, disappearing.

  Even being smart about it, just throwing people at the Tower was going to end up being a loss in the long run, but not if Subudai’s goal wasn’t really advancing in the Tower, not yet anyways. He had the people to run himself and his Elites through the Tower and just make an army of Level 100 to 110 people that wouldn’t ever Advance further. He’d just take those folks and ship them back home where his army would be much stronger than anyone else's.

  Then he’d just steamroll Earth.

  Taking over Earth was Subudai’s goal, not gaining renown or power in the Nexus. Then once he had that army and had control of Earth, he could start looking at other planets. He’d turn the Bounding Dragons Sect into the Anura, just without having to be mercenaries.

  Maybe it was time to start spying on the Bounding Dragons.