We all sat watching as Ken Masters thanked everyone in attendance, both at the press conference and viewing from home. Mia turned to me and whispered, “You knew something big was coming.”

Not a question, but a statement. I just shrugged, “As I said I heard rumours. Now pay attention.”

On the screen, I watched as Masters began the press conference in earnest, “The reason for it being me and not anyone else much junior who’s holding this press conference will become clear in a moment. First I would like to address my fellow members of the Corporate Congress.”

The look he gave the cameras was pure contempt. “It’s now been a month with the most heinous law that you have ever passed. Families have been torn apart, people forced to go to sleep, possibly to never wake up again. You’re monsters of the worst kind for allowing this to happen. I tried to stop you, alas I failed. Which brings me to the main reason that I stand before you all at this moment.

“Blocking this law was my last battle in an effort to ensure a brighter future for mankind. I failed, just like I’m failing the war against old age. I’ve lived for well over a hundred and fifty years, but have now reached a point where modern medicine can no longer extend my lifespan. The doctors give me a year or two at most.”

The reporters all squirmed in their seats, clearly wanting to ask questions, but they were not allowed to yet. The great thing about holding a press conference in the virtual world was that the reporters could not speak before given permission.

“As most of you know, I’ve no living heirs,” Masters continued. “So that brings to mind what happens with Perennial, the single largest corporate entity in the world? Well, as it happens, I’m the sole owner of all one hundred percent of the shares in the company. And I’ll be giving them all away.

“You heard me right. I’ll be giving away all my shares. But they won’t be easy to get your hands on. Most people have by now heard of Carn Online, my latest game. It’s a mediocre success with a bit over forty million active players. The number one complaint is that the game is too difficult.”

He took a deep breath before continuing, “There’s a reason for that. Whoever, or maybe more accurate, whichever guild completes the main quest of the game will receive fifteen percent of my company’s shares.”

The reporters sat stunned for a moment, so did most of my guild, as they absorbed that particular piece of news. I tried to look astonished, but I was never a good liar or actor, so I settled into an emotionless mask instead. That did not prevent Mia and Phil from looking sharply at me.

I just indicated the screen where Masters ignored the reporters waving at him to get his attention. “Carn Online is just the first of three games that will each give fifteen percent. The two other games have already been designed and the next one will be released in a year, while the third will be released in two.

“Some of you, who are not completely stumped by this announcement will probably be able to figure out that three times fifteen is only forty-five. That leaves fifty-five percent unaccounted for.”

He stopped for a moment to let everyone catch up. “Simultaneous with the release of Carn Online we released a hundred smaller games. Casual games to hardcore shooters. Each January, for the next two years, we’ll release another hundred games. Fifty-five of these three hundred games have a hidden victory condition, which will give the winner one percent of the shares.

“To ensure that no one gets fifty-one percent, and cancels the rest of the contest or something like that, the shares are not given to the winner until all of the shares have found a new owner. That’s all I’ve to say. Thank you and good night. May the best people out there win.”

With that, he just winked out of existence leaving the baffled and frustrated reporters behind, unable to ask the questions they wanted. The screen switched back to a news studio where the anchor was trying to gather his wits. Before he was able to speak, I turned the noise filter back on.

“Holy crap,” Kira said, looking a little shocked. She had already known it would happen, but one thing was believing some crazy story about dying and waking up in the past, another was to see proof that it was true.

“The other large companies are going to want those shares,” Mia said, her face blank.

“There’s going to be a frenzy to join,” Denise added.

Phil looked at me like I had grown an extra head. “Meaning that they’re going to want as many credits as possible. The next auction will be crazy.”

I tried to hide a smile and pulled up something from Carn’s website. It was a notification that the next credit to coin auction would be held in one hour. With a click of a button on my wrist device, I made it into a hologram that was displayed on the table for the others to see.

Phil stared at it, then back at me. This time like I had grown two extra heads. “You knew this was coming.”

It was not a question, but a statement. I gave him a smile, and lied, “I had heard a rumour. The employees of Perennial have been very accommodating since the whole snafu with BIS.”

“And they let this slip?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Just that something big was happening. However, this means competition will be fierce in the game, and it’s time that we solidify our position in the game. And that means I’m going to share something I acquired a while ago.

“We’ve talked about starting a guild village before. What I never shared with you was that I already have the permission and token to start one. We need to recruit and settle those recruits first, but I hope to begin construction of a village in two weeks in-game.”

Just like that, the meeting was back on. We did not log in to the game with the rest of the guild, as we continued to hash out plans, and go over the potential recruits. It felt like no time had passed when I received a message I had waited for.

It was from Perennial Entertainment, informing me that the auction had finished. Five million copper coins were the same as a quarter-million silver coins. Normally a silver coin sold on auction would fetch upwards of two credits on a very good day.

This was not a very good day. It was an extraordinary day. The email informed me that the average sales price on my coins were seven point six credits per silver coin. Meaning that the guild had just earned one point nine million credits before fees and taxes.

With the company taking thirty percent in auction fees, and after the fees we paid the company tax rate of five percent, which left us with only a bit over one and a quarter million credits. Enough to pay our current expenses for the next six months, if we stayed at the same size.

“Excuse me a moment,” I said and walked away from the table. This was a lot of credits, and I needed to decide what to do with this windfall. Sure almost half of all the coins we had collected had been from my efforts, but the others had put in a lot of time and effort as well.

I decided to do something to boost morale. I earmarked a quarter of a million as bonus payments. Ten thousand for each of the ordinary members, and twenty thousand for the four with officer rank. According to the agreements and corporate charter, I was also entitled to twenty thousand, but I chose to forgo this. Then I sent off a request to the hotel and was told that it would cost me ten thousand credits to make that happen. I quickly accepted it, smiling about how people would react when they found out.

I sat back down at the table, where the discussion was still on the village layout, which we were going over for the tenth time or so. I addressed my people, “We just got paid for the auction.”

“How did it go?” Ainsley and Mia asked simultaneously.

“After fees, taxes, and so on, there’s one million credits plus change in the guild’s bank account,” I told them. The shocked look on their faces was priceless.

“Holy crap,” Kira muttered.

“Unbelievable,” Edward gasped, having stopped breathing for a moment.

“That’s a lot of credits,” Mia added thoughtfully.

I nodded. “It’s a lot of credits, which is why we’re holding a guild meeting tonight when we log out. Training is cancelled tonight, Kira.”

“Sure, whatever,” she answered, clearly still coming to grasp with the number of credits.

Ainsley looked at me, then took a deep breath before asking, “How many should we hire?”

“Well, if we wanted we could hire one hundred and twenty-five people right now with that kind of money. However, we only have enough guild points right now to support sixty more people without delevelling,” I said, knowing full well that would be a bad idea. The look on the others’ faces told me they thought the same.

I continued, “So let’s do them in batches of twenty-five. Five crafters, twenty fighters. We’ll take four batches during February, one each week. That way we don’t get overwhelmed and get to build the infrastructure and guild points needed to take on that many new members right now. And in the future we’ll be better equipped to get more.”

“Do we hire exclusively from the files you compiled? We still have a list of people who are interested in joining,” Ainsley pointed out.

“I’m not sure,” I said but decided to throw it to the others in the group. “What do you guys think?”

Edward spoke out first, “I think we should limit exposure, we had someone try to infiltrate us once already. The way Dawnguard has been making trouble for us, I bet at least some of those interested are spies of some kind.”

Mia just shrugged. Kira nodded her agreement. Phil, on the other hand, shook his head. “I don’t agree with that. Sure there might be spies amongst them, but they could also be people like me, trying to look for a way to support their family. You took me in, and I believe it turned out to be a good match.”

“I agree with Phil,” Ainsley said, and Denise nodded her head. “I think we should be careful, maybe have them pay for the first month themselves and have them save two platinum of the starting coin to pay for a magical contract.”

I added my thoughts on that, “That’s not a bad idea Ainsley. Warn them that it’s required. If they already have a character which isn’t in Blackport, redirect them to some of the other guilds that have been cropping up with similar goals as us. If they haven’t joined yet, then we’ll give them a chance.”

“Okay, I’ll send out the messages, though I think most people will baulk at the requirements you are proposing,” she said.

Phil was quick to say, “If they don’t wish to sacrifice that for the guild, they aren’t worth it in the end and we’d be better off without them.”

“You’re right,” Ainsley thoughtfully said. “Do you have anyone we should look at specifically, Damian?”

I had already skimmed the list of names, and those that had a previous gaming record had their nicknames and handles listed as well. I had actually found more than a dozen that I remembered.

“I’m sending you a list of names. Those in red are people we should not even consider,” I said, hoping she would understand why. “The ones with green names should be a high priority.”

“Okay, I’ll get on it.”

Giving her a thankful smile, I looked around the table. “I guess this concludes the meeting, let’s get into the game and do something productive while there’s still some daylight left.”

After logging in, I had arranged for everyone to meet up and sign a magical contract. The priest seemed happy to have some work to do, or maybe it was the forty-two platinum I had to fork over for the twenty-one contracts. It was rather expensive, but it was the best way to ensure loyalty to the guild and making sure members got what had been agreed upon.

I then found my way back to our guild house, greeting the people living in the poor district I met on the way. Not that they were that poor any longer, they had gotten a sizable catch and a lot of coin during the sea monster event. Which was also the reason why they greeted me so warmly.

Sure it was my guild who had done the event, but I had not participated. What I had done to earn their gratitude though was keeping them fed every day for a month. At the start, it had been a bit rocky, but as my skills had grown, it had become easier to take care of them. Which in the end had earned me a ridiculous amount of reputation points with them.

When I finally made it into the guild house I made my way to the basement, where the alchemy lab and underground growth room was. The growth room was for growing the magical cave moss that came in three variants: Red, blue, and green. They were used for health, mana, and stamina potions in that order.

The lab and kitchen was my unofficial office. If I was in the house, I could be found there, spending my time crafting, which was also the plan for the rest of the day. While I had been progressing a lot in most of my skills, there was one field I had neglected: Runesmithing. Sure I had gained levels there, but they came from free XP I had invested in it.

Not because I did not want to do it, but I had simply not had the resources. The main resource in Runesmithing was manastone. While I could create a lot of manastones without any problems, I needed rocks of a large enough size and quality to create the quality of manastone needed, and that was hard to get on the island we were on.

After an encounter with a ship captain that left me almost dying, I had managed to strike a deal for a large number of rocks to be brought to the island, free of charge, just had to pay for the rocks themselves. Had paid the man ten platinum.

Unfortunately, he had not been able to fit enough rocks on the ship after all his other cargo to spend all of the coins. So I had gotten half back, as well as a large shipment of rocks. In total, I now had 5,000 large rocks and 1,101 big rocks. Enough to keep me supplied with manastones for quite a while. The rocks took up a large amount of space, in fact, most of the lab was filled with stacked crates containing all those rocks.

As I set about turning ordinary rocks into manastones, a procedure I was so familiar with that I hardly had to pay attention, I pulled up my character sheet. Sure I had looked over it during the long period of grinding, but I had not really taken the time to study all the changes that had happened.

Name

Damian Heosphoros

Race

Human

Class

Pacifist (Tier 1)

Level

25

Skill Points

0/16

Upgrade Points

6

Skill Cap

15 | 3

Skills Learned

15 | 3

XP Penalty

0%

Health

300/300 (0)

Stamina

720/720

Mana

80/80 (0)

Satiety: 100/100

Hydration: 100/100

Unassigned Attribute Points: 1

Strength: 30

Agility: 10

Dexterity: 20

Endurance: 36

Vitality: 30

Spirit: 16

Resonance: 10

A lot had changed during our grinding period. I had gained eight levels, which meant a hell a lot of skill level-ups. The only reason I kept my Spirit attribute so low, and thus my mana, was because of my Meditation skill. I could regain all my Stamina during a ten minute break, but Mana was regenerated by the Meditation skill. And because of the level it was at it could only regenerate 80 mana in ten minutes. It would all be better when it reached the Apprentice tier.

I had also gained another skill slot at level 20, meaning I now had 15 normal skill slots and 3 class skills. Class skills enjoyed a 15% increase in XP gains, at least for me because of my class. Others only enjoyed a 10% increase. Well, to be truthful, because I was the first player to receive the class Pacifist, all my skills enjoyed a 5% increase in XP gain, meaning that class skills for me earned a total of 20% extra XP,

Speaking of skills, I decided to pull those up next to get a beat on which skills I should focus on besides Gem Cutting, Imbue, Meditation and Runesmithing, which all came from the simple fact that I wanted to create magic items. I studied the list with a frown, deciding it had become too long and unwieldy to look at, listing the skills in chronological order. With a few thoughts, I changed the layout.

Name

Tier

Level

XP

XP Needed

Meditation

Beginner

17 (+5)

4,585

18,000

Imbue

Beginner

15 (+9)

9,071

16,000

Runesmithing

Beginner

11 (+7)

6,039

12,000

Unassigned Class XP: 0

I had done it so that Class Skills was separated out from the rest of the skills, and the skills were sorted in descending order of level. Imbue was quickly overtaking Meditation, because it got a boost in XP gain every five levels, while Meditation would remain a slow levelling skill, mostly to curtail the power creep of magic users.

The tried and true meta from my timeline was to be a hybrid. Because of how the regeneration worked, it was best to have skills and spells that utilized all of the resource pools, not just one.

I turned my attention to my normal skills after looking over my class skills.

Name

Tier

Level

XP

XP Needed

Butchery

Apprentice

31 (+11)

12,676

32,000

Cooking

Apprentice

28 (+11)

11,661

29,000

Brewing

Beginner

18 (+14)

15,540

19,000

Herbalism

Beginner

15 (+1)

7,843

16,000

Harvest

Beginner

12 (+10)

4,892

13,000

Alchemy

Beginner

11 (+5)

4,205

12,000

Gem Cutting

Beginner

10 (+5)

4,986

11,000

Horticulture

Beginner

10 (+7)

8,025

11,000

Mentor

Beginner

8 (+6)

1,300

9,000

Greater Transmutation

Beginner

5 (+1)

1,413

6,000

Lesser Transmutation

Beginner

5 (+3)

4,542

6,000

Observe

Beginner

4 (+1)

2,079

5,000

Farming

Beginner

2 (+2)

1,043

3,000

Message

Beginner

2

2,346

3,000

Mining

Beginner

2 (+1)

0

3,000

Unassigned XP: 0

I had used the new skill slot on Farming for several reasons. I could use the produce that came from the skill, and it boosted Harvest because I would need to use that skill. Harvest was important for Horticulture so I could harvest better and more ingredients for making potions with Alchemy.

The other major reason for taking it was that once the first few levels had been gained, it would start picking up speed. With a higher skill level, you could plant more fields, which meant more XP. It would just start giving a steady stream of levels, at least one level every three days, and that was not counting Harvest. It was a skill that required little work, which was great for me. I had plenty of active skills that sat around unused or underutilized because I did not have enough time.

With the addition of good fertilizer made from Alchemy, I was almost guaranteed I would not get a fail on my rolls to determine the quality produced on the plots, meaning I would not lose money on planting the plots. At least not too much.

Brewing would soon hit level twenty, and then I could make it another Apprentice tier skill. The great thing about them was that I could level them up to level 50, and the new level-ups gave better benefits than the old skill levels. Furthermore, every time I levelled up an Apprentice skill, I would gain 2 skill points instead of 1. Meaning it would be faster to level up.

Of course, you needed upgrade points to tier up a skill as well as having it at level 20. I had plenty of upgrade points, because of my achievements, titles, and other lucky events. Most people would probably not have more than four or five at this point of the game, where I had gathered a total of eight.

Herbalism was starting to fall behind in levels, despite having been my highest levelled skill at one point. However, that was natural. Instead of going out into the wild, I most often just planted and harvested the plants I would need. Or bought them off the few members of the guild that had Herbalism.

Butchery would not gain a lot more levels for the time being. Even if I went back out to the ruins, most of the critters there were starting to give little to no XP when I butchered them. However, I intended to stay in Blackport for the foreseeable future, at least until we put down our village. I simply had too many things to do around town, which meant I would gain no Butchery XP.

My introspection was interrupted by Mia who came down the stairs. I smiled at the black-haired woman. “What can I help you with?”

“I’m not disturbing you, am I?” she asked a bit timidly.

“Not at all, just grinding manastones,” I said and finished another one. A look at my mana bar told me it was time to stop and regenerate mana, so I sat down on the floor in the lotus position that Meditation required. Fortunately, that was all it required, meaning you could have a conversation or even an argument if you wished, while still regenerating your mana.

I looked up at her, and asked, “What’s up?”

“You knew this was coming right?”

“What was coming?” I asked though I had a good idea of what she meant.

“You’re too cautious to wager all the coins we had earned on a whim, you had to know that this was going to happen,” she insisted.

Sighing, I gave the only answer I was ready to give her. I was not sure telling more people my secret would be the best course of action, there had been plenty of trouble from just telling those that I did. “I had an inkling. Heard some rumours from sources that I trust, so I took a very calculated risk.”

She seemed to study me for a minute. “You know you could just have retired and lived on that money for the rest of your life? Told us you sold it for the same amount as the other credits.”

I cocked my head. “Is that what you would’ve done?”

“Shit,” she mumbled, looking conflicted. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s terribly tempting. Not having to worry about MWT, only work if you wanted.”

“It’s tempting, but a far more important question is, could you live with yourself if you stole that money?”

Again she looked uncertain. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“If I had done it, and you found out, would you hate me?”

“Yes, I would like to rip your heart out,” she answered immediately.

I smiled. “There’s the answer. I would feel the same if someone had done that to me. So I’m not going to do it. Maybe a bit simple, but I try to live by that rule, most of the time.”

“So you’re fine with just letting all that money go?”

I shook my head. “I’m not letting it go, I’m investing it in the future. The money would be nice, no doubt about it, but I can choose to improve my own life immensely or try to improve the lives of many a little. And by improving the lives of the few I can now, I got a chance to do it for many down the road.”

“Are you trying to be a saint?” she asked, sounding a bit frustrated. We had some intense discussions about profitability etcetera. She had been a firm believer in the capitalistic dream of gouging the customers for as much money as possible at one time, instead of taking just a little profit, ensuring happy customers, and quality products.

“No, I’m definitely not. I just dream about a better future for all, or at least as many as I can possibly pull up alongside me,” I replied, and cocked my head. “I do intend to retire at some point and live hopefully happily ever after with a wife, kids, and enough credits not to have to worry about anything again.

“You heard the same press conference I just heard. For the next three years, it’ll be a bloodbath in these games. Credits will pour into these games, and if we’re smart about it we can earn ourselves a very nice retirement. Not just for us, but for many others as well.”

She seemed to be thinking it over for a moment, before finally saying, “You’re a better person than I could ever be.”

“That’s not true,” I responded with a smile. “You could easily become as good or even a better person than me. You just have to think about how you can help others by helping yourself. There’s nothing wrong with helping yourself, as long as you remember to help others at the same time.”

She had crossed her arms during my latest answer. “What’s so bad about being selfish?”

“Everyone is selfish, It was what I just said. It’s only bad if you don’t try to include others. The reason I hired any of you is for entirely selfish reasons.”

“Doesn’t seem like that to me,” she countered.

“Oh but it is. I want, no I need to help other people, not because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes me feel good about myself. And I’ve a higher chance of getting rich if we work together than if I did it alone,” I said.

“That—I can see how that makes sense. I think your pedestal just got a bit shorter,” she said, with confusion clear in her voice.

I laughed at that. “I don’t want to be on a pedestal. That’s too much responsibility,” I said. “Anyway, I feel like we’ve discussed some variation of this many times.”

“I guess,” she mumbled. “I just don’t completely understand.”

“That’s okay. By admitting that, you’re open to trying to learn and understand, which is a good thing,” I said as I got back on the stool, my mana completely regenerated.

“I guess you’re right,” she muttered. “Oh, one last thing. Do you want me to pick up one of the crafters to mentor?”

I grimaced at that. “To be honest, I want to be selfish here and hope you’ll keep mentoring me in Farming. That extra ten percent XP will help a lot in the long run.”

She gave a laugh at that. “I’m glad to see you make a decision I actually understand for once.”

I smiled as she retreated up the stairs. She had been a more or less constant companion since she joined, and despite our difference in opinions, I liked her. Well to be completely honest, I did like her, but I absolutely adored her daughter, which probably skewed my opinion of her a little bit.

As I got back to work, I wondered if I would ever have a kid of my own. I had not had one in the previous timeline. However, it was something I wished for dearly to have one day.