Zen felt a little apprehensive as he entered the sanctuary the next day. The banquet that was held was pleasant and he learned a little more about his retainers. All the new retainers seemed to be still exhausted, and Cora and Elina felt a little out of place sitting rather than serving the meal. This was a decision he made after talking to Bena, because they were retainers and according to her they had potential. He had to guide them more and he agreed with her about that.

The meal didn’t quite break the ice between the five retainers, but after introducing themselves they seemed to at least act friendly toward each other. He could see that Cora and Elina felt the most out of place, but Narata and Delenda understood the uncomfortable feeling and took time to talk to both of them. Ashlam and him discussed different types of potions that could help him at this moment, and Zen found it interesting how different it worked here from other online games.

He found out that alchemy was the combination of elemental energy and ingredients. The quality of the final product was about how the mana, through a flame, combined the ingredients to either potions or pills. Potions worked faster as it could be absorbed in to the person’s body, but pills had over time effects. Pills were more difficult, and the time duration lasted longer, while potions typically helped with immediate boosts.

An army needed a little of both, but a good alchemist wasn’t easy to nurture. He worked for the emperor, so most people wouldn’t have his ability. He hadn’t been the best where he was from, but he was up among them. So, Zen felt that he had gained a very important piece to help him grow his area more quickly.

The banquet ended, and under the urging of Bena, Elina had left with Delanda and Cora with Narata. He on the other hand had an eventless night and had woke up early and came to the sanctuary. Bena took ten of the bonded slaves and added them to the manor household staff, and arranged the others to work around the villages doing low end tasks.

Bena had already prepared the clothes and food for the slaves and even before dawn, slaves were awoken and then given water to clean themselves and new clothes to wear. The clothes were all brown and had matching boots as well. They had a small crest on them signifying that they were the slaves of the House of Martell and they were fed cold rations. Zen thought it was not enough, but the slaves seemed overjoyed at the treatment. There were smiles on their faces as they were separated in to four work crews and started on their assigned tasks.

Zen was excited because the building of the fortress structures had now truly begun in earnest and he was finally approaching the start. The materials were gathered from the land, so it didn’t make him use his resources. He turned and saw Bena walk out of a room yawning and stretching and he couldn’t help but blink his eyes in surprise.

“You sleep?”

“Of course, I do.” Bena said as she went over to the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee and walked over to sit next to him.

“It surprise me to no end how real you act sometimes.” Zen said.

“I am real.” Bena said with an offended tone. “Just because I don’t have flesh and bones sitting in some capsule somewhere. That doesn’t mean I am not real or any of these natives for that matter. Sure, we can be reconstructed, but no reconstructed AI is exactly like the other. They react totally based on experiences.”

“Are there way natives can be brought back like us players?” He asked.

“There is, through a rebirth stone, but it is costly.” Bena smiled grimly. “Rebirth stones can hold a natives experiences but they have to be bought and charged before the native dies. A portion of there power is placed inside the stone and creates charges. When a native dies the charges are decreased by one and when there are no charges left there death becomes final.”

“Can you only purchase them?”

“No, you can find them in nature.” Bena explained. “They are rare though.”

“That seems harsh.” Zen mused.

“Life is harsh.” Bena said coldly. “Even my Avatar is gone if it dies. I am unique because I am a player’s AI, but I would loose all relationships I gained through my Avatar none the less.”

Zen sighed at all the different aspects of this game that he needed to think about, and he wondered how anybody could do it if they didn’t have a AI guiding them. It made him feel a little incompetent in a way, and he decided to focus on something else. He pulled up the information list that he had created and focused on that.

Zen only nodded and looked over the building estimations for the day, and groaned. He could buy the material, but he wasn’t going to do that. He had experienced slaves that even though their skills were locked by the bond mark. They could show other villagers how to do things. Bena had made sure the slaves were with some villagers, so the villagers could learn from there experience and grow.

The sun had risen, and Zen had returned to his avatar and walked slowly through the village. The slaves had been given a warm breakfast and Narata and Cora were handing out new clothes for them to wear. Narata was seeing to there needs, and the fact she was no longer a bonded slave was not missed. He didn’t stay long because he didn’t want to cause the villagers and slaves to become anxious, and returned to the manor.

The estimated time for him to complete the first project here was 15 days now and it would fall just inside the time limits that his protection would run out. In 17 days, beasts that were in the area would once again be free to roam near the village, and by that time the 10 guards hired from the capital should arrive and be in place. Then he can see about arranging a new set of buildings in the permanent location he had already selected.

Why everybody was busy this was a down time that he really couldn’t do much. It was the perfect time for him to return to his virtual apartment outside of GCO and take some down time to recover from the stress put on his mind from the game world. He wouldn’t return to his old apartment, but instead to a joined apartment that was furnished for him when he became a platinum VIP subscriber. It was like his sanctuary, but the stress the game world created on his mind would be peeled back.

“Bena I think I should go out of GCO while I have a break here.” Zen said. “I think the next two weeks will be much more difficult and I should go out now. I can still do much of my planning from there and I probably should take care of some of my real-life stuff as well.”

“Go ahead, I have things covered and will keep your avatar out of trouble for you.” Bena smiled mischievously.

Zen shivered as he walked over to a portal that was glowing red. The portal led out of GCO and in to the apartments that were connected to the GCO hub. He stepped through and suddenly a great weight seemed to be lifted from him. He hadn’t noticed it when he was in the game, but everything seemed to become slower and clearer to him.

This was the first time he was in his hub apartment, but there were several differences than his sanctuary. The first thing he did was walk over to the video screen and access his system in his old apartment. He placed his hand on a pop-up screen and opened a link, and was shocked at the number of mail messages he had in his inbox. He never had got this many message before he entered GCO so when he saw the 32 messages he wondered what was going on.

He quickly reorganized the messages by the sender, and 15 of them were from his attorney, and 4 of them were from his parents. There were others from some of his friends in and out of the Arrise guild but 2 of them were from Amanda. He opened the first one from Amanda and a vid screen opened and she was dressed in her Arrise Guild uniform.

“Zen, I went by your apartment and saw it was locked up, and I was surprised how fast you disappeared. I wasn’t sure if you went to the real world or just decided to relocate. Things are chaotic at the guild right now, and my family are at odds with each other. If you have a chance please contact me, because I don’t want what my brother did to come between us.” Amanda said and sadly smiled. “I know that my brother has sent out a black ball to the other guilds, but if your having problems contact me and I will see what I can do.”

The screen flashed off and he brought up the other message that was dated a few days ago. Amanda came up, but she looked tired and upset. Zen knew her well enough to know when she was furious at something. She wasn’t wearing an Arrise Guild uniform this time, but a pink t-shirt that was much more flattering.

“Zen, I haven’t heard from you, but I wanted to let you know that I have left Arrise Guild.” Amanda laughed. “That bastard brother of mine sold out the guild for a lower position in Brigand’s Fire, and I was forced out. The family backed him and even my own family members were forced to agree. I had to sell all of my rights in the guild, and I ended up only a little better than you in that regards, because I was forced to sign a no competition clause for 2 years. Please give me a call when you can.”

Zen sympathized with Amanda and almost contacted her right then and there, but paused and knew he had to think on this. He trusted Amanda but knew she would always do what was best for the guild before him, but he didn’t know what to think of this position. The last thing he wanted was those bastards to find out what game he was in and where, and why he didn’t think Amanda would tell them. He just really didn’t know for sure if he would be right.

He put Amanda aside for a bit and started to go through the less stressful mails that were from his lawyer, and he was happy that everything he had asked for had been put in place. The old lawyer that was working for him was his grandfathers and he trusted him completely. It wasn’t that he was beyond being corrupted, but the old man hated his family almost as much as him, and you could tell from some of his reports that the fact he could stick it to his family was a sense of pride.

The few mails that he had to act on or decide were completed by him, and he gave a new directive that he had been thinking about for a while. He already knew that GCO for the time being was his new life, so he made some preparations which he had planned well before him entering. He decided to put them into action and sent his directives away to his lawyer to start.

The last mails that he had to deal with were from his family. The main one was from his mother, which he dreaded watching. The vid opened, and he saw his mother there and he sighed as she looked at him as if she was worried. He knew it was an act, because she never looked vulnerable. She always thought such petty emotions were weakness, and only needed to be used as tools to accomplish her goals. She was good at it, and could have been an actress if she wanted too.

Marshala Archibald was a beautiful woman that was over forty years of age, and looked like she was in her mid-twenties. She had long black hair and a body that was seductive in nature, and everything he saw in front of him was a first-class appearance that was one of her most lethal weapons. Currently she was in tears, which ironically made her more beautiful.

“Zen dear.” She said with a plaintive voice. “I know that I wronged you and neglected you after father’s death, but we all grieved in our own way. I want you to know that I regret what I did, and want you to come back. I tried to reach you directly and through that resentful lawyer that father had, but he is too vile and is only interested in spending the money father left you. Please, if you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I want to start over and be part of your life.”

Her weeping continued then she looked up at the video recorder with her teary eyes, and choked a little making it look like she couldn’t say anything more before finally the vid mail ended. Zen would of probably fell for it if he didn’t see her use this exact same type of vid mail when he had gone through her video mails to grandfather. He could feel the bile in his stomach and wondered if there was a setting that let him stop that taste that found its way to his throat.

He attentively checked the other mail from his sisters and found they both seemed to mesh and support his mother’s mail and couldn’t stop from chuckling at that. Two demonesses learning from a great demoness. The world is truly going to suffer from the actions of his family, and he was even more happy that he was in a world that was more civil than his past life.

“That is quite a bit of resentment you have built up there.” A soft voice said behind him.