Each wore their starting clothing, but held a stone-tipped spear. Most were dwarves, but there were a few human, elves, and Jakarna as well.

Kyle lifted his flame to get a better view of the players. They looked practiced, but not disciplined. Their spears formed a barricade of a dozen wavering stone tips. Fear mixed with determination on their faces.

“Turn around and go back,” said a middle-aged dwarf woman at the center. “This is our tunnel. There’s nothing for you here.”

“Ooh, this’ll be fun,” Mia said. She dropped into a fighting stance, her axe in one hand and her goblin sword in the other. “Why spears, huh? Easy to craft, maybe?” She began to approach the group. “Too bad you’ve got no room to maneuver. Your poles are gonna get all tangled up.”

Her advance was stopped by a line of spearheads. She paused, unable to get past them, and unable to strike because of their long range. She took a step back.

“Spears because they’re easy to use,” the dwarf woman said. “And they’re effective in groups. And they work excellently in tunnels. Turn around. You can’t get past us. We’ve got nothing you want, anyway. We’re only trying to defend ourselves until this all blows over. MARCH!” she shouted, and the group began to walk down the hallway in a ragged line, forcing Mia back.

“Nothing we want? You’re sitting on the only stone deposit we’ve ever found,” Mia snapped. “We need this stone more than you do. And we’re going to take it.”

“How?” The dwarf asked, smiling as the line advanced.

“We’ve got a bow,” said Lumen, casually nocking an arrow and drawing. “Not to mention a guy who can throw fire around.”

Kyle played along, holding his fire up so it could be seen over Mason and pointing to it with his free hand.

The faces of the group changed. Some looked panicked. Some stopped marching, putting the line in disarray. As the line fell apart, a few others turned and ran.

Mia smiled. “Good try, but nope. We’re going to kill you and take your stone. And I’m going to enjoy it. There’s not enough PvP in this game. I’ve been itching for this.”

Her threat made even more of the players turn and dart into the darkness. The dwarf woman held her ground, spear raised, face twisted in disgust, flanked by only two other players, a human and a Jakarna. “You enjoy killing people,” she said. “What a sick and sadistic hellhole we’re trapped in. Do you have any morals? Any at all?”

“You signed up for this,” Mia said. “What the hell did you expect?” Mia abruptly dashed forward, ducking to the side of the woman’s poorly aimed spear-thrust and knocking the spear aside before whirling around and tripping the large Jakarna.

“Mia! Knock it off!” Kyle said.

“We’ve already won this fight,” Mason said.

“Don’t kill her!” Dvorak said, sounding panicked.

Mia turned back, sheer rage on her face. “Why the —- not? This is a game. People die. They respawn. You’re taking this way too seriously! Especially you, dwarf lady!” she said, pointing at the woman with her axe. “Trying to make me out to be a murderer when I just want to play the ——- game!”

“For some of us, this isn’t a game,” the woman said as the Jakarna next to her got to his feet. “Do you know how it feels to take an axe to the chest? Have you died yet?”

“Hundreds of times,” growled Mia, not lowering her weapons. Her reply confused Kyle.

“Mia, back off!” Kyle shouted at Mia. “Look, I’m sorry, ma’am. Mia’s kind of… confrontational. But we’re not here to hurt you. We’re just trying to get some stone to build our town. In fact… Come join us!” Kyle said. In retrospect, it was probably not the best time to extend such an invitation. He was sort of panicking, trying to show goodwill before things devolved further. “It looks like you’re building a community too. We should join up.”

“At sword point?” The woman asked, eyes still fixed on Mia.

“For crying out loud, Mia, put that away!” Kyle said. With a growl of frustration, Mia punched her crystal with her thumb and stowed her weapons before heading to the back of the group, arms crossed.

The woman looked warily at Kyle and the rest of the group. Kyle sighed and stepped forward with his hand out. “Hi, I’m Kyle. Sorry about this,” he said. “Normally we’re much more friendly when we introduce ourselves to people.”

“To be fair, normally we aren’t ambushed by spearmen,” Dvorak pointed out sardonically. “And spearwomen. I guess.”

“I get what you’re doing,” Kyle said. “This game is a scary place.” Lumen guffawed, and Kyle ignored him. “But if you want to get out of it as fast as possible, there’s a better way to do that than hiding in a cave.”

“Oh?” the woman asked.

“Yeah,” Kyle said. “Instead of fighting against the skilled players-”

“-and losing,” Mia said. Kyle ignored her, too.

“We can support them. The faster somebody, anybody, wins this competition, the faster we can all get home. Trying to keep them from a stone deposit is just going to make things take longer,”

“So what? You’re slave labor for the meritocracy?”

“No. I’m kinda organizing this push, actually.”

“And I’m the mayor!” said Dvorak. The woman looked back and forth between them in confusion.

“We’re setting a city up as a waystation. A place for people like Mia here to get equipment, information, that sort of thing,” Kyle said, motioning to Mia. “They don’t need to boss us around. They just need to stop by, get equipped, then go off and win the game.” Mia stared at Kyle, a thoughtful expression on her face, before nodding and turning away.

“A city, huh?” The woman looked thoughtful. “Aren’t you worried about being so exposed? Having a high level player just run through and kill everybody?”

“Early in the game, I figure a whole town of people can stand against a couple of renegades,” Kyle said. “And by the time players start getting powerful enough to take on an entire town, hopefully we’ll have proved its usefulness. I mean, what keeps people in real life from running around killing entire towns? It’s mostly a social agreement, right?”

“I’d say it’s mostly the presence of law enforcement that’s better trained and better armed than the average citizen,” said the woman, still obviously considering Kyle’s arguments. “And a fear of imprisonment. Neither of which exist here.”

“I guess. But I’d still think I’d be less likely to kill people in a town than if I randomly ran into them in a cave.”

“…especially if they point spears at you,” said Dvorak. “Just sayin’ is all.”

“And if I say no?” the woman asked.

“Well,” Kyle started, “I mean, we wouldn’t force you to come. But we’d need the stone from your mine so we can build walls for our city. So… We’d negotiate, I guess?”

“We’re in a really good negotiating position, though,” said Lumen. “I’m kinda on board with Adrianne on this one. It shouldn’t be a big deal for us to come in, grab some stone, and leave. If these guys really want to get in our way, then I mean… that’s their choice, right? Dying’s part of the game. We’re being pretty reasonable here, I think.”

“So, still bullies.” The dwarf woman sniffed. “At least you’re honest. And you’re trying to not kill me, which is more than I can say for most.” She went quiet for a moment, looking at the faces of each in the group in turn. “Okay. If I can talk the others into giving this a shot, we’ll come with you. You’d better pray you haven’t spooked them too badly.”

“Great.” Kyle reached out his hand. “Welcome to the team, Ms…?”

“Doctor Aubrey Taylor. From Stanford,” she said, reaching out and shaking Kyle’s hand.