“The game gets into your head. Even if you only play while you sleep, 8 hours in the game is the same as 48 hours in your head. That’s spending three quarters of your life inside the game. The real world doesn’t seem as important. Part of it is that you have more agency, more control of your own life. It’s addictive.”

  Excerpt from new player experience interviews.

  Year 1, Month 1, Day 11, 06:30

  “City Announcement: The mayor of Miller’s Crossing, Baron James Abernathy, has declared war mode. All players actively defending, repairing, serving or questing for the city will now earn one free experience point per minute spent on those tasks for the duration of the war. Regeneration rates inside the city walls have been increased by 10%.”

  Torgon brushed away the announcement and looked out from the outermost remaining line of defenses. The monster army was in no hurry. They built steadily and showed the guiding hand of a strong leader. Stones flew from the city towards key locations in the monster lines, but an increasing number of stones and ballista bolts fired back at the defenders. Guardsmen and militia filtered back into the city proper and now manned the walls, ready in case the outer works were breached.

  The leadership squad left the walls to take a rotation inside the city. Allestor asked, “Do you think they’ll start a big assault soon?”

  Ovarrix shook his head. “I don’t. We haven’t seen any sign of the magical formations to lower the level of the guards yet. They have no chance of taking the city without it. I think we’ll be in for several days of softening up while they peel away the outer defenses.”

  “That gives us more time to prepare and grow stronger.” Hyperia turned her head back to the gates. “They’re going to try infiltration and sabotage while they occupy the attention outside. I agree with Ovarrix that we won’t see an assault on the city walls until they put their magical formation in action. They’re going to bleed us and work on lowering morale.”

  Torgon shrugged, “It’s our job to keep everything on the up and up. One bright spot, double shot works with my crossbow too. Since I don’t have the crossbow skill it even funnels more experience into the double shot skill. I need more skill slots. I should have waited to pick up the mining and stonecutting. I want the heavy crossbow skill if we’re going to keep doing all these sieges and fighting from castle walls.”

  “I’m picking up artillery skills.” Allestor gestured at the towers, “I want to fire those, and I want my own portable ballista. I will rain down mighty torrents of pain until I force the enemy into range of my sword.”

  Hyperia grunted, “You would, but yeah, I can see the appeal too. I’m surprised that the village and the mine we have access to with our control points haven’t been overrun.”

  Ovarrix considered it briefly, “I don’t think they’re spreading their forces out. I think they’ve concentrated around the city, and their resupply and reinforcements all come from the hills to the east. They just don’t have the troops to spare to attack them. They’re also going to have a blocking force to the north to watch for any kingdom reinforcements.”

  “We’ll pretend like those outposts don’t exist right now.” Torgon turned the situation over in his head before continuing, “When the fighting around the walls starts, we might be able to sneak a raiding force out to play hell with the enemy backlines. We’ll only get one shot at that though before they catch on and destroy our links. For now, let’s go do our own things and pay attention to what’s going on. We can’t be completely focused the entire time. I’m going to head back to the base, do some gathering and then tour the city and check out the support quests. If I get enough information, I’ll put together a guide for our people and the newcomers to the city.”

  “Sounds good Torg. I’m just glad that new players are still showing up to bolster our numbers.” Hyperia waved before heading off in a different direction.

  The group split up, each pursuing their individual goals. Torgon arrived at the guild base after a short run. He grabbed a pick and moved to the stone, intent on shortening the time to free up more skill slots. Scattered reports of probes from the monster armies and short incursions filtered in. The duel between siege engines kept expanding with heavy rocks now regularly hitting clusters of defenders or firing away at the city walls. The hastily built fortifications outside the city were being pounded back to dust.

  Sir Malik made the call to pull everyone inside the walls of the city and set fire to the outworks. The operation went off without a hitch and now everyone sheltered inside the city and waited for the next phase of the siege. The monsters continued to carefully and deliberately expand their approaches to the city with defensive works. The towers defending Miller’s Crossing had a range advantage, but the numbers advantage lay with the engines of the enemy.

  Torgon spent nearly nine hours gathering stone then hauled it into the city to turn in for repairs to the walls. He looked over the quests available and selected a few courier quests to let him travel around the city and see how the NPC population was faring. Torgon spent the next three hours fetching water for an orphanage, bringing food to elderly craftsmen in the trade district and patching roof tiles on run down tenements. He earned a few coins, gained some more reputation and a newfound appreciation for how much running the fresh players needed to endure to grow stronger.

  He traveled to the market and was pleasantly surprised to see steady business being conducted by multiple guilds. Coins and goods exchanged hands in a constant flow of commerce. The market stands being managed by his own guild had small lines waiting to trade. Torgon ambled over to the Silver Heart Trading Company stand, happy to see Markus still in Miller’s Crossing.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  The two old friends clasped wrists before Markus spoke, “War is always good for business. New players are dropping cash on game coins so they can catch up so to speak. The basic gear is cheap but the consumables, that’s where the money is at right now. I’m a bit envious of all the potions that your guild is managing to sell in these trying times my friend.”

  Torgon looked over with fondness at the children handing out potions and taking coins before replying. “We have a few writs and other items right now, but mostly I wanted to check in with you. Hyperia and I are going to the Deep Harbor auction tomorrow. Should I be on the lookout for anything that you or your guild might be interested in?”

  “I’m wounded, I almost thought this was a purely social visit,” Markus laughed. “The main guild branch will be attending so they’ll do their own shopping. They would like to meet with you after the resolution of the siege though. I don’t know what business they have but I doubt they’ll waste your time. You have a long history with our guild and it’s an amicable one. As for the writs, I can exchange cores with you 1 to 1. The buyers are paying a bit of a premium for them, and I know you need the cores for your guild base. Everything else has cooled off. We’re making basic goods and buying items from the point exchange lists.”

  Torgon swapped the writs for cores and grinned, “This is going to let us finally fill our last two building slots. Keeping up with the demands of the siege have strained us and poor Mark hasn’t been able to leave the guild base for more than a day.”

  “Glad to be of service,” Markus snorted. “Don’t let me down Torg, defend this city so I don’t have to start over in a new town and waste the effort.”

  “You can count on Risk of Injury, we might bleed but we’ll always lead,” Torgon deadpanned.

  Markus groaned, “You made that up right now didn’t you.”

  “Guilty” Torgon chuckled. “May your business be steady and your profits mighty. I’m off to the base to start some fresh construction.”

  Torgon took off to the portal area at a run, taking advantage of the chance to earn more experience for a skill that would always be useful. When he arrived, he spent the basic core units and resources to build the Tamer’s Hall and two floors for the Crafting Hall. Each would finish in the morning and be available for the guild to use.

  Mark X joined him, excitement causing him to practically vibrate in place. “Torg, these portable ballistae take me about an hour each to craft and I’m over a 50% success rate. I’ve stacked up over a dozen since I started making them. No new mantlets so our base defense on the fourteenth might need new tactics.”

  Torgon eyed the man, observing the rumpled clothes and stained hands. He kept silent with his thoughts that Mark appeared like he really hadn’t done anything but craft since he started on the ballistae. “How good are the portable ballistae?”

  Mark’s hands gestured wildly as he filled Torgon in, “They’re very high damage for being usable by anyone. The accuracy isn’t the best, but they fire faster, fire farther and hit harder than a heavy crossbow. They require a two-person crew and can be set up anywhere.”

  Torgon rubbed his chin in thought, “Mark, we’re going to need at least fifty of them for the siege. We’ll test them in our little base defense to make sure there aren’t any nasty surprises. They should give us a huge advantage there and if they work as advertised, they’ll be a trump card we can deploy when the monster army makes their real push to take the city.”

  “Roger that boss, back to work. I appreciate the crafting center, it will help.” Mark saluted and skipped back to his station to resume his crafting grind.

  He visited Stabitha and her coven of alchemy apprentices next. They were churning out potions of all types, healing, mana, energy, and the coveted disease resistance potion. A dozen children stood in front of miniature cauldrons, stirring ingredients over open flames. Stabitha was managing two cauldrons at once. “Any new recipes for me?”

  “Not yet Stabitha, what are you looking for?” Torgon inquired.

  “I’ll take what I can get. I need higher level potions though. There should be new recipes every 5 levels plus the infinite variety of potions we have yet to discover. Think you could buy me some at that auction tomorrow? Pretty please?” Stabitha leaned over the table and fluttered her eyelashes at Torgon.

  Torgon facepalmed, “Ugh, Stabitha, I’ll get you recipes if we can find them at reasonable prices. Everybody wants whatever they can get and we’re prioritizing surviving this siege. You’re our best alchemist and the best alchemist in this entire starting zone. We’ll dump whatever resources we can into you and your assistants.”

  She laughed brightly, “Got it. It’s nice to be appreciated. This is fun but I also want to make some time to run a few more dungeons after the siege is lifted. We have stacked up several crates of oil flasks to hose down trolls and we picked up three new flavors for mana potions, peppermint, black licorice and cherry.”

  “Stabitha, if I find myself drinking a mana potion that tastes like black licorice, I’m banning you from the base for a week.” Torgon shuddered, thinking of the terrible taste. “The crafting hall will be up and running in the morning. You and your staff have permanent slots there when you want them.”

  “Thanks boss. We’ll keep doing our best to supply everyone. Keep bringing in new people to farm herbs for us.” She returned to her brewing with a dismissive wave.

  Torgon spent the rest of the night harvesting stone for siege supplies. It was a quiet night with little activity in the siege. People crafted, rested and the tourist players logged out to reduce the mental strain caused by the time dilation. The guild base glittered with dancing motes of light spreading from the Faerie Hearth Tree. The air felt cool, and the stars twinkled, joined by iridescent faeries flitting about. He drank the delightful root beer that they brewed as he worked. He was content with the world and at peace. It was ironic perhaps that he felt so peaceful and relaxed while Miller’s Crossing was under siege. He recognized why though, he had a purpose, and he was able to pursue that purpose knowing that it was right and good. He smiled then, knowing that he was healing in more ways than just the physical.

  The dawn brought with it the completion of the new buildings. Crafters moved into the crafting hall to continue their pursuits. The Tamer’s Hall stood empty, waiting for players to capture creatures to fill its pens. The guild coffers had swelled to just over 500 gold with the influx of money from the Baron. Torgon knew that every single copper might be gone by the time the auction was finished.

  He spoke briefly with Ovarrix, Allestor and Dusty and they assured him that they would manage the guild’s efforts in the siege today. “Take the day off old man. Enjoy the sights of Deep Harbor and try not to start any new wars.” Allestor patted him on the back while Hyperia rolled her eyes.

  Torgon held out his arm, crooked to accept Hyperia’s. “Shall we?”

  She laughed and took his arm with hers and replied, “Yes, adventure awaits.”

  They activated their invitations and their forms dissolved in a cascade of light.