Edward Rosewill exited the Bazaar. It had taken time and effort but he had located suitable individuals for his purpose. They would arrive within the month and do what they had been paid to do. The cost had been exorbitant but worth all of the credits he had spent on it. No amount of money would bring back his precious Fayline but this would give him some measure of peace.

At first, his rage had been blinding and he wanted to strike out and kill the people responsible. With the help of his wife, he had gotten his anger back under control. Besides, when he asked around it was clear that an attempt on their lives would end badly for all involved. Instead, he had watched and waited, paying informants for information. Nothing obvious but important nonetheless.

His hard work paid off after the group had left town for places unknown. He was approached by an unknown woman, who handed him an envelope and walked away. When he read the contents he wasn’t even surprised. To think the Marshall and the Mayor had gotten into bed with someone like that.

He couldn’t rely on the local government to deal with the issue, for all he knew they were lapdogs to this Paul and his pet. Instead, he had located a dwarf from this clan mentioned in the letter. When he told the dwarf what he knew the man hadn’t stopped spewing curses for a full minute.

The dwarf said his whole clan would arrive to bring vengeance down on the human and any allies. That had been when some of the money came into play. Edward didn’t want the town of Houston damaged. The credits had gone to securing their bonded oath to not cause unnecessary damage to the area.

With that Edward's role was done. Now he only needed to wait for the dwarves to make their move before he could implement his plan.

***

King Formus slammed his meaty fist down on the thick stone table causing cracks to spread. “You’re sure this information is accurate!” he roared at the communication mirror.

“Yes, you’re excellency. The man possessed details that nobody else could know.”

“And what if he is working with this other group? Perhaps this is a trap, have you thought of that?”

“But then why bother searching us out my King? I spoke with some of the other dwarven merchants and it seemed he had been looking for our clan for a few days. Why take the risk?”

“Perhaps, still we will be cautious in our approach. Have the spies gather information in the town and about our target and the man that approached you. We will make it look like we have pulled out of the caves and head your way. I want an update daily.”

“Yes, my liege.”

The communication mirror went blank and slid back into its protective pouch. The item was a priceless heirloom and only his most trusted agents had a fragment of the other end. If what his men had learned was true it meant he finally had a direction to aim his rage toward.

When he had finally arrived in this new world the trip had been quite arduous. They followed the massive chain of mountains south and when they arrived they were met by death. Whoever had done it had left only the bodies and other sundry items. They had stripped the dead of all gear, an affront to the dead that would be paid back in full, but they had also stolen everything in the vault.

The sub-clan that had been transported here had become sloppy and hedonistic but that was no excuse for the wholesale slaughter. It had taken his court wizard a full day to determine a powerful poison had been used. So the attackers had both profaned the dead as well as denying them the right to die in battle. If it turned out these humans did have his mana cannons the evidence against them would be irrefutable. He would burn their city to the ground and slaughter every last man woman and child in revenge. Despite what the foolish human thought of the binding oath he made with a subordinate.

***

Stone had timed her arrival in Houston with great care. She quickly delivered the evidence of what Paul and his companions had done to the dwarves and was gone within two minutes. It had been a risky play but the timelines were becoming harder for the seer to read the longer Mr. Fuller remained alive.

The decision hadn’t come easy as the council had been equally split, leaving the deciding vote up to the toss of a coin. Anyone who had watched the decision might think it was a silly choice but a coin could not be swayed one way or another. Fate would decide the outcome and so it did.

When the coin landed, a choice was made and events were set in motion to deal with Mr. Fuller and his allies. Even the outcome of this choice was uncertain with only a seventy percent chance of the dwarves gaining victory. It was more probable than the forty percent chance of Mr. Fuller agreeing to join with the Stygian Order as that had been the other option in debate.

Both decisions carried consequences but they were far less severe than leaving the man to his own devices.

“He should have done the smart thing and died along with Mr. Cotton in Chicago,” she grumbled as she walked down the corridor of one of their outposts.

Stone had voted for his death, the future needed to be secured. While it wasn’t an ideal scenario a direct confrontation had only a five percent chance of succeeding now that the Black Dragon was out of the picture. She had no hard feelings against the man or his friends but the future needed to be maintained.

Magic and mana had only exacerbated issues that had been around since before the Order was founded. If it wasn’t for the Order the world would have died to any number of magical and non-magical misfortunes by now. But they endured and would continue to do so long after she was gone, as they had since the dark ages.

Their order had come under many names and monikers over the centuries, starting with the Knights Templar, most nowadays knew them as the Illuminati but they hadn’t used that name since the fifties. Still, people had deduced quite a bit about their organization over the last hundred years. They did have a modicum of control over governments. Only enough to avert major disasters.

Originally their goal was to keep humanity alive long enough for the nodes of the System to activate. But time and other organizations with more sinister goals had changed that. Those organizations had put their own plans in motion when they too discovered the nodes. Eventually, the Order was forced to act ahead of schedule to try and mitigate the damage that the Black Dragon had perpetrated on the nodes. The damage from one node had spread to adjacent nodes quickly.

Only the swift actions of the Order had stopped it from spreading across the globe. If it had the Black Dragon would have been nearly unopposed as people were prevented from choosing classes. The system would have stuck them with a generic class that closely resembled their skillset before integration. This error wouldn’t have affected the Black Dragon as they had chosen their paths long ago. Anyone that had access to a node could do the same, along with other features that these entities took advantage of.

The damage was done and billions of people died, but humanity survived and the plans of the Black Dragon were thrown into chaos, forcing some to choose alternate classes.

While the name of their order and their tactics may have changed over the centuries their overriding goals had not. Humanity needed someone powerful in their corner, whether they liked it or not.

***

The barge set down in the parking lot with a grinding shake. “Sorry, Mr. Paul” Maria squeaked out.

I had given up trying to get them to just call me Paul.

“Next time go a bit slower, you’ll get the hang of it eventually. You two top off the crystal while I go extend the ramp. Then we can find a place for you to stay until the next trip.”

They both nodded, Javier a bit more enthusiastically than Maria. Both seemed to be getting more comfortable with the ship controls and around me.

After extending the ramp I was the first to step off, “home sweet home,” I said to Fiona as she appeared next to me.

She gave me a squeeze on the shoulder, “I’m off to see Martin, if you see Ska tell him I said hi.”

“You should tell him yourself, why don’t you and Martin come over he owes me a good meal anyway,” I added with a smile.

“I’ll see if I can drag him away,” she replied with a wave.

Representative Castillo was the next off the barge. “Thank you for the transportation. I will head toward the city and get in contact with the Mayor.”

I pointed the man in the right direction. The Merchants were quick to depart as well, I assumed they wanted to restock for the next trip as all of them had made a ton of money. Profits would slow eventually, but by then we should have new stops opened up or I suspected Merchants would be willing to make their own way and the barges would become little more than shuttles to take them to their closest destinations. Either way, money would flow in.

“Mr. Paul we have finished recharging the barge and powering it down,” Javier said.

I looked at my watch, it had taken them a little over an hour, not too bad.

“Alright, let's get you two some rooms and a good meal. Tomorrow I’m going to take you out to level.”

“Won’t that be dangerous, Mr. Paul?” Maria asked.

“Not too much. The dungeon is only level twelve. With me there you shouldn’t have any trouble. The biggest issue is watching out for traps but I’ll be there to assist.”

Neither looked entirely convinced but I ignored their hesitation. If they wanted to captain the barges they needed to level a bit. Getting them to level fifteen would be ideal but I wasn’t sure I had the time to do that.

I had run the dungeon about ten times and there were no new mysteries to be had. Dungeons didn’t change unless some other monster took up residence. That was unlikely with this one as the Marshall had it guarded around the clock. His men used it to grind out a few levels and give their weaker members a boost.

I now understood why people were not fighting over the dungeons in other worlds. Other than horde dungeons, there weren’t any glorious treasures to be had. At most you could gain crafting supplies or a few items of worth. Oh and the titles. Still, most of the dungeons I had been in were downright awful experiences making it not worth the effort for most people. It was a good thing I wasn’t most people.

I was able to find a hotel that had running power – a newer development – and booked a room for the two kids. We ate a quick meal together and they headed off to sleep.

I made my way to the warehouse to see how work was progressing on the second barge. I had hired a skilled welder and all the plates were laid out on the blueprint. That left only the work of connecting everything together for me.

I could see the barge in the drydock and the glow of the welder working away below it. One of the mages spotted me as I approached and gave a wave.

“How is the work coming along?”

“Good, it should be complete in another week. Timothy, the welder, suggested you bring the other barge back so he can inspect your welds.”

“That’s probably a good idea. Since I’m here I might as well get started on the power systems. Any issues while I was away?”

“No, although that angry gentleman came around a few times. He didn’t harass anyone though.”

“Ok, I think, I will hire a few guards just in case. It seems like that man didn’t get the hint the first time.”

The mage nodded. After our conversation, I flew to the barge and got to work.

I worked for a few hours uninterrupted, making good progress on laying out the control lines.

“Oh, hey boss, didn’t know you were back,” the welder said, wiping his face with a towel.

“How's the work going?”

“Good, I might need some more welding rod if you have time to look.”

“Is it an urgent need?”

“No, but I will need it to work on any more barges, and that includes the one you worked on.”

“Alright, I'll see if I can’t scrounge some up. Any issues with the welding?” I inquired.

“A few, but a quick blast of sand scoured away the area enough for me to weld.”

I nodded, Timothy was a mage with sand powers. They weren’t all that strong but the way he utilized them with his pre-system skills made him a true asset.

“You heading out for the day?” I asked.

“Yeah, it's getting dark and my wife will be worried about me getting home. Since you are here I will leave the lights on below the barge, I assume you are going to work late?”

“You assume correctly, Tim. I think the mages all left in the van but feel free to take the truck,” I said, tossing him the control plate.

“Thanks. By the way, my wife wanted me to invite you over to dinner sometime… if you’re interested of course.”

“I’m not really good around a bunch of people… but I will think about it. Tell your wife thanks for me.”

“Will do, boss, don’t work yourself too hard.”

I waved off his concern. With my endurance at the peak of human potential, I didn’t need more than four or five hours of sleep anymore. I looked forward to when I added points to see what tier two Strength and Endurance brought me. I knew from previous fights that tier two strength could shatter weaker shields. Getting more stat points was quite a ways off though unless I located another horde dungeon.

I worked until the wee hours of the morning and managed to lay down all of the mithril power lines to the plates on the bottom of the barge. It was time-consuming work to meld the lines into the structure of the barge but nobody was the wiser after the camouflage runes took effect. I could see them thanks to the runes being carved by myself, along with my eye tattoo. Otherwise, they would just glow slightly in my normal vision.

I dusted my hands off and got to my feet, I decided to head back to the fortress and get some rest. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.