Vaile had, deep down in the bottom of his soul, hoped that the rising column of dark smoke was the result of some celebration or another and not the result of a brutal massacre. And to be frank, his hopes were proven true; at least from a certain point of view, that is. Yes, there was indeed celebration in the streets and roaring bonfires where meat and other things were cooked, but the people celebrating were not the natives and the things being cooked on the houses-turned-bonfires were members of the Races, not animal or even monster meat.

This immensely rustled Vaile’s jimmies, and he was not going to tolerate such actions so long as it wasn’t one of his Tamed Beings doing the deed. Although, even then, he had a line that, in his own mind, could never be crossed, and these vandals had certainly done so with reckless abandon. Upon closer inspection, the people partying over the broken and burning village were Desert Elves, also known as Sand Elves, also known as the ‘Worst Elves’. Upon acquiring this information, Vaile quickly realized that if they were willing to do this here, then there was a very good chance that they would, and quite possibly had, done this elsewhere.

Just as he started formulating a plan of attack, he heard a child cry out in terror and pain. Pulling up his minimap, he scanned the entire village for any sign of a neutral or allied NPC. With seconds to spare, he found a single green blip surrounded by five red ones. The green dot was slowly losing hit points, and if Vaile did nothing, he would lose not only someone partially connected with him, likely via one of his Tamed Beings, but also a source of information.

He was glad that his feet were no longer sinking into the sand as the ground was now more or less solid, and with a brisk jog by the standards of Max Level Players, he made his presence known to the trash that thought tormenting a small child was a fun game to play. Almost immediately, one of the five found that their attention spent towards the little girl was better spent focused on Vaile, and Vaile gave them further reason to do so by picking up a stone and tossing it like a fastball into the head of a Sand Elf. The rock connected and the Sand Elf’s head popped like a rotten orange shot with a .45 Magnum Hollow Point bullet.

The Desert Elf’s body fell backwards as the rock continued on its trajectory, flying dangerously close to the body of what Vaile assumed was a dead villager and rocketing off into the expansive sandbox that was just beyond the final boundary of the village. This caught the other four Sand Elves off guard, and they took a few steps back both due to shock and a bit of fear. However, they quickly reestablished their courage and raged with the knowledge that they had been intimidated by a being that was not a member of their own Sub-Race. Rushing forwards, they met Vaile’s walking stick head-on.

No, literally head-on.

As in Vaile hit each of them in the head with his stick.

And that went about as well as you might expect for the under-leveled (by Vaile’s standards) idiots. Their skulls caved in as a singular blow was dealt to each of them, and Vaile left them to die on the ground that they collapsed upon. The commotion caught the attention of the rest of the stragglers that had stayed around to revel in their darker, more destructive urges, and soon more lambs had come for the slaughter. Vaile, in typical Max Level fashion, completely trashed the fools who had thought that a Level between 30 and 40 was a mark of pride, and by the time the last Desert Elf either lay dead or had run off into the Sea of Glass there were over twenty bodies piled up in the ruined village square.

With that done, Vaile turned to the little girl he had saved, only to see her on her knees and praying. But, although it both confused and pleased him greatly, the girl was not praying to him. Said child was kneeling and giving thanks at the base of a statue that reminded him greatly of a famous poem, although the gender of said sculpture was obviously reversed. Still, said larger-than-life idol had obviously seen better days, as it was horribly defaced and had suffered more than a few blows dealt by hammers and the like.

Even though the busted bust was barely intact, Vaile still felt a sneaking suspicion that he had seen and perhaps even spent time with the person that the statue was based off of. He moved closer and noticed an inscription in hieroglyphics, which he could read due to the traces of the game that were etched upon his soul, that detailed the name of the ruler that the smashed statue was dedicated to.

“Glory Be to the incarnation of the Sun. Glory Be to those who bask in her power. Glory Be to the Divine Pharaoh, Zahra I, she whose light was eclipsed by darkness, only to shine even brighter when the shadows cleared. May Her reign never end, so that when the Chosen Husband of the Sun is finally sent, She may embrace Him as Her Divine Mate.”

Zahra I… Zahra I…

Where had Vaile heard that name before? On a hunch, Vaile popped open the active list of his Tamed Beings, a list he had not so much as glanced at in quite a while. He scrolled through the list of names, both those that were crossed through due to having died and those that were white, which meant they were still ‘alive’. After about forty seconds of non-stop scrolling, Vaile found the name he was looking for, and the memories came flooding back.

He was embarrassed with himself that he had forgotten that ‘heist’. He had watched the Raid Party’s live streams during his theft and their faces when they found that every single boss and even the named/unique mobs had been stolen right from under their noses gave him no small amount of satisfaction. Besides, their guild was a bunch of self-righteous assholes that nobody liked, so fucking them over was a good thing. But, yeah, seeing the name Zahra I, the Risen Pharaoh, was a trip down memory lane for him. Although, to be fair to them, naming your Guild after the infamous ‘Triple R’ of old W*rld of W*rcraft did come with some less than stellar connotations.

Vaile was so lost in his own little world, that he failed to notice the cloud of dust and sand particles kicked into the air a little bit away from the outskirts of the village. In fact, he also failed to notice that there were still a few Sand Elves left alive that had regrouped and were returning to the village to try and take him on. Some would say that he should have killed them all when he had the chance, but it would turn out that Vaile’s choice to allow some of the Desert Elves to flee was the right one, whether he knew it at the time or not.

Two opposing forces were converging on the unnamed village, with Vaile and the child caught in the middle; but would either side be prepared for what was to come? Probably not, but what else could you expect when seeing how things have gone so far?