The convoy of carts rattled down the dirt road that lead across Brethren Plains. It was clear and cold, the normal weather for the zone but that didn’t bother Winston, he was too excited. He was finally leaving this Runa-forsaken wasteland. He was not going to miss it at all. He might concede the land had a sort of stark beauty, maybe like the Mongolian steppes, or a colder serengeti, but other than the open plains and wild grass there wasn’t much to recommend it, just a few twisted trees and poor farmers trying to turn rocks into grain.

“You gonna miss it?” Tollogistics asked, mirroring Winston’s own thoughts. The halfing was lounging in the driver's seat of the wagon and seemed to give off an aura of serenity as he held the reigns loosely in one hand. It was a rather interesting impression and Winston wandered if it was because of his high wagon-driver level. Winston hoped he looked as cool while farming.

It had been a busy few days for Winston. Digging up that source of Earth mana had taken nearly two entire days. He’d gotten a large gemstone and three skill ranks in mining out of the deal but he wasn’t sure it had been worth it. Then again, he hadn’t done any farming either, so it wasn’t as if his plate had been overflowing.

Finishing up Runa’s quest for the shrine had been more straightforward. He’d just tossed in the divinite and the shrine had shrunk down to the size of a large paperweight. He now wore it around his neck as a rather odd looking amulet.

“Not at all. What about you? You were here before I was.” Winston returned.

“Hell no, I was only here because I couldn’t get any real work and wanted the high-value quests. I’ve got real work now, so leaving makes the most sense anyway.” Troll said.

“You wanna come with me? I’ll likely spend a week or two in the 10 kingdoms tooling around the cities and looking for some business before I head to Kishik near my girlfriends guild. After that I’ll be needing a lot of product moved.” Winston said. He didn’t doubt he could find another driver to haul his crops but he liked Troll and a long term agreement would likely be beneficial to both parties.

Troll stayed silent for a while while he pondered the question. “I don’t see why not. I’ll sniff around a bit once I get into the city but unless something really lucrative comes up I’ll likely come with you.” He said finally. “I mean, you’ll likely need at least one massive loads of goods moved every week right?”

“Most likely. I’ve got some ideas for long-term storage but at the end of the day everything will need moved eventually. The problem is dealing with the market. I’ve got no doubt I can find buyers but I’ll flood the markets anywhere I go eventually. We’ll need portal access.” Winston said thoughtfully.

He’d put quite a bit of thought into what to grow and do once he moved but the problem was he was honestly a bit too good at his job. Anywhere he went he’d destroy the markets for whatever he was growing. His best idea had been to come up with a way to store huge amounts of grain then pay to open his own portals. It would be expensive but money shouldn’t really be too much of a problem once he got going.

His other option would be to find a group of merchants working out of whatever the closest city to his was and try to work with them to open portals. That would be a mess of politics and one-upmanship but if he kept making money at the rate he was he was going to have to get involved in that sort of thing eventually.

That was a problem for down the road though. He still needed to get his farm built and that alone would take a lot of time and money. Luckily he had plenty of both. He smiled at the memory of Troll’s face when Winston had dug up his gold and started loading it into the wagon.

No, money wasn’t really a problem for Winston at the moment but he’d have to buy a lot of supplies when he moved. He’d need stone, lumber, nails, mortar, and a lot of other basic supplies. He also needed to buy some real gear now that he had money. Maybe a plow and wagon for Bog to pull? She wouldn’t be happy being used as a tractor but he could probably bribe her with food.

Winston lost himself in plans and idle small-talk as the Wagon’s rolled onward. They’d been running all day and Winston had only logged in a few hours ago so he’d be there when they reached the city. It wasn’t until the horses pulling the other wagon’s started to spook that Winston realized something was wrong.

The guards that were escorting the little convoy sat up in their saddles and although the wagon’s didn’t stop, everyone got a good deal more nervous. Then Wiston heard it. The dull beating of hundreds of drums in the distance.

Winston got a very bad feeling. He was pretty sure he knew what was happening but he’d honestly thought things wouldn’t progress this far quite so quickly. Then they came up over a small rise in the road and saw the thousands of orcs camped out and surrounding the city of Verith.

The camps surrounded the city in a wide arc and Winston saw at least four different tribes of orcs as well as camps of goblins and even some hobgoblins. The last surprised him since usually hobgoblins and orcs would fight to the death as soon as they saw each other. The more immediate problem was right in front of the caravan. A platoon of orc fighters was blocking the road. There were at least three dozen and they didn’t look very friendly.

Winston had no doubt his group could win. While the orcs had the numbers most orcs were only around level 20 or thirty. Their group on the other hand had a bunch of high-level and well geared fighters. Winning wouldn’t save them though. There’d be no way they could escape the rest of the army with the wagons.

Winston decided he better do something before that moron Herston got them all killed. Winston hopped off the wagon and hurried forward as both sides drew their weapons.

“Stop! hell, how many times do we have to do this?” Winston shouted as he rushed to the front of the wagon train. Troll’s wagon was in the back and he had a good ways to run as both sides prepared for the slaughter.

It was Therion who saw him and got the guards calmed down. He and Herston were arguing when Winston finally got close enough to participate in the conversation.

“Yes, and he’s exactly the one that caused the problem. We should just killed him and be done with it.” Herston snapped.

“I know I left the guild already but that’s a bit rude.” Winston said as he moved into the middle of the group.

“You…. This is what happens when people do quests for monsters. You’ve doomed this entire city!” Herston shouted.

Winston shrugged. “What do you care? If the sword’s hadn’t been trying to save a few bucks you’d have just popped the portal in the keep and saved everyone the trip. Then it wouldn’t matter if the city was here or not.” He hadn’t actually meant to get the city destroyed and it was a bit callos of him but there was no use crying over spilt milk. It was just a game.

The orcs started to get a bit restless but Winston walked towards them and held up his hand with Ol’gar’s ring on it. That calmed them down instantly and one ran off, apparently to go get someone higher up the chain of command.

“That’s not the point!” Herston yelled and Winston really thought the man was going to attack him.

“Calm down Herston.” Therion said with a sigh. Then he turned to Winston. “Can you have them let us into the city?”

“I don’t think it’ll be too much of a problem. I’ve got like 10,000 fame with them. They might decide to burn the city down once we’re inside but as long as long as everyone portals out it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” Winston said.

Therion laughed. “Why would we leave? Once the orcs attack the city the entire zone will turn into contested territory. High-level monsters and dungeons will start spawning like crazy and the Swords will be the only group with any strength left in the area. The guild will be ecstatic. It might even be enough to get me off their shit-list.” Thertion explained happily.

Herstion looked like he was going to burst a blood-vessel, but he turned and stomped back to his men.

*************************************************************************************

It took a bit to get everything worked out with the orcs. Ol’gar was apparently too busy to come see him personally but the orc commander that lead the village warriors did. Once we explained that we wanted inside but that we were just going to teleport away he seemed more than happy to get rid of us. He ordered some of the orcs to escort the caravan into the city.

That got things moving and things went well until they got to the city gate. The orcs had stayed back but it was obvious to the guards that we had made some sort of deal with them.

“Ahoy the gate!” Therion called as the caravan stopped outside.

“Go die orc lovers!” The guard called back.

[You Have Lost -1000 reputation with the City of Verith]

“Is there really a need for that?” Therion asked. “It’s not like letting us in is gonna make things worse.”

This time the reply came as an arrow and the missile pinged off Therion’s shining silver armor. He frowned and Winston winced. He could understand the guard’s outrage but pissing off Silver Sword Therion was a great way to get killed.Therion reached into the pack on his back and pulled out his massive sword. The motion looked ridiculous since his sword was nearly as large as his body and there was no way it would fit into the pack normally.

“Look, I’m not trying to make things difficult for you here. Just let us in and we’ll be out of you’re hair and someone else's problem.” Therion said, his voice now more firm but still reasonable.

This time there were more arrows but Therion knocked them all away with a flick of his massive sword.

“Now that was just rude.” He said with a scowl. “Fine then…. You’ve made your bed. You can lie in it.” Therion raised his sword and swung, a crescent of silver energy shot forward and the gate blew into pieces as it struck. The guards screamed in terror and the orcs behind them let out a war cry as they charged forward.

The tempo of the drums changed and thousands of orcs started steaming towards the now open gates. Winston looked at Therion with his mouth hanging open. Did he really just blast down the gates?

“Welp, looks like we’re gonna have to hurry.” Therion said cheerfully as he jogged back to his wagon and hopped in. The wagon drivers gave the horses their heads and the carts rumbled forward as the angry guards started firing arrows and the occasional spell at them.

The fire was mostly desaltery as most were focused on the horde of green warriors charging at the city. The battle was already over. There was no way the few guards could hold against all the orcs and Winston felt a pang of guilt. He hadn’t really done anything wrong but he still felt responsible. The wagons and horseman rushed through the city to the sound of war drums, screams, and the roar of flames.

They passed the last block and made it to the middle of the city where five more wagons and a middle aged woman in mage robes was waiting for them. The merchants and the portal mage looked a bit panicked as dark smoke billowed into the sky and orcs poured into the streets cutting down anyone they saw.

“What’s happening!” The mage screamed as Therion hopped off his wagon and ran over to her. Winston jumped off his wagon as well, although he was much less graceful than the swordsman. He ran passed one wagon after another looking for the old merchant he was supposed to give Ruger’s stupid berries to.

He found the man looking around with wide eyes as he tried to keep his mount from bolting. Winston didn’t bother to say anything. He just went to the back of the wagon, pulled open the first box and dumped all of his berries in before slamming the lid shut again.

“Hey what are you doing?” The merchant cried but Winston ignored him and ran back to Troll’s wagon. Winston was pretty sure the orcs wouldn’t kill him, but they would probably kill everyone else. That would leave him stuck here for god knew how long. He’d likely have to walk all the way to Grenville and take a boat to Kishik. That would take a month at least.

Troll was at the back of the line and Winston got more nervous as the situation in the city fell apart. Therion was waving his arms wildly in the air and shouting at the mage but she seemed too scared to do anything. Winston watched the argument and grew more and more convinced that they were screwed. Finally the woman seemed to get ahold of herself and waves of mana poured out of her and into the air, forming into complicated runes that Winston couldn’t make any sense of.

Then the portal was open and the wagons started to pour through with more panic than order. Troll’s wagon finally started forward as a blue message appeared in front of Winston.

[Zone Alert]

[Verith Has Fallen]

[Brethren Plains is now Contested Territory]

[Monster Spawns Increased by 100%]

[Monster Levels Increased]

[Quests will be issued in neighboring zones to reclaim the territory]

[All spawn-points have been removed from zone]

Winston waved the message away as Troll’s wagon moved through the portal and into a new world.

The game lagged for just a moment when Winston crossed the event horizon of the portal. Winston flopped in his seat as his perception of his body and the world was put out of sync for a fraction of a second. Most of the time everything in Otherworld was so real Winston forgot he was in a game at all, but not even Nexus could make things 100% perfect, or maybe it was just a consequence of his older machine, the new ones had more processing power and that would make similar transitions more smooth.

[Valor’s Crossing]

[Northwind Dutchy]

[Ten Kingdoms]

The first thing Winston really noticed about his new surrounding was that it was F-ing cold. His breath came out in puffs of mist and he shivered even though his fur. Winston looked around in wide-eyed astonishment even as he breathed on his hands to try and stay warm. There were players everywhere. The square they’d dropped out in was huge and there were at least three active portals open as lines of players streamed into and out of the city.

Tall mountains loomed above the buildings around him in three directions and a light snow fell from an iron sky. Valor’s crossing sat in the North of the Ten Kingdoms continent at the intersection of two mountain ranges. The mountains were full of monster lairs and mines which had made the area popular for players. It was also one of the starting capitals which had swelled the population even more.

It was likely the fifteenth or so most populated city in the game but in a game as huge as Otherworld that meant hundreds of thousands of players. Players in rags sprinted from building to building alongside players wearing armor glowing with so many enchantments it was hard to look at them.

Winston realized he’d finally made it to civilization. He wanted a hot bath, a warm meal, and some heavy clothes in that order. He turned to Troll as the wagon moved forward behind the others towards the town’s warehouse district.

“You mind dropping off my gold in the bank when you finish up?” He asked.

“Oh course I don’t…. For a small fee.” Troll said with a grin.

“Whatever.” Winston said with a laugh as he leaned into the back of the wagon and pulled out a few hundred gold coins. Winston stuffed the gold into his pack and hopped down from the wagon to go find himself some clothes and an inn. Bog jumped down next to him and the two wandered the streets for a while before he found a decent little inn on a street in the craftsman district with a stable for Bog. Winston bought himself a room and a meal at the Kunning Kobold before he logged out for the night. It had been a long day.

{End Of Arc One}