Thousands of miles away from Avalon, in the middle of Korthilde, the capital city of Nelam, sat a massive golden castle. Made of a golden-hued stone and massive amounts of actual gold, the castle was the highest building in the capital by leaps and bounds. The massive shining edifice dominated the landscape and the skyline, forcing everyone who saw it to feel the oppressive presence of its owner, their ruler.

His Majesty King Baldrik Glowl, King of Nelam, Duke of Somox, Duke of Locklila, Lord of Roinad, Lord of Vulez, and Lord of Korthilde, [The Shining Golden King], glared at the doorway to the eating chamber he’d selected for his breakfast. His spymaster was supposed to have been there to report to him seven minutes ago, and King Glowl was growing annoyed. Glowl changed where he was going to be for each meeting with his spymaster without notice, giving his subordinate a small test each time there was something to be reported. He’d thought his current spymaster was possibly the second-best spymaster he’d ever had, but if such an easy task as finding out where he was going to have breakfast was beyond the man, then maybe it was time for Glowl to begin looking for his eleventh spymaster.

There was a knock on the door.

“Enter!” Glowl growled.

Glolw’s spymaster stepped into the room, bowing as he did so. “Apologies for my tardiness, your majesty. There was a sudden report that came in, and I felt it best to double-check all of the details at once.”

Glowl, who had been about to start on a profanity-ridden tirade on the man’s incompetence, sat back in his chair, his snarl turning into a frown. “What report?”

“Well, to be specific, the report I just got opened up a number of mysteries I’ve been digging into, and the thing I thought you’d best be informed about is the final conclusion I’d reached about the whole mess.”

“Stop talking around the point!” Glowl slammed down a mailed fist, scattering his pate and silverware around the table. “What’s happened!?”

“You remember the reports of a Class Line Progenitor popping up to the northwest and founding a new town?”

“Yes, I remember,” Glowl scoffed, “Have they actually done something worth paying attention to?”

The spymaster, a dour-faced man with a neatly kept beard, nodded, “Yes. There have been reports of a golden dragon arriving in their town.”

Glowl stiffened in place, then forced himself to relax. There was no way that that could be related to his secret. No, this was an opportunity! His first attempt had to be put on hold, but with another target…!

“Additionally,” The spymaster continued, “Baron Cormath has reported that the box you entrusted to his father was found empty during their last routine check.”

Glowl froze in place, staring at his spymaster. For several seconds, he just sat there, his eyes growing red with pulsing veins as he glared. Then, with a furious roar, he grabbed the table and flipped it over. He snatched up his chair by one of the legs and started bashing both pieces of furniture into fragments, yelling and cursing incoherently as he did.

The spymaster just sat there quietly. A time or two, he deflected bits of debris that went flying in his direction, but otherwise, he waited for his king’s rage to run itself out.

Eventually, when every piece of furniture except the one the spymaster sat in was destroyed, Glowl stood in the middle of the wrecked dining room, his rapid breathing slowly calming as he turned his bloodshot eyes back to his spymaster.

Without a word, the man stood from his chair and placed it where Glowl had been sitting before returning to where he’d been, standing now.

Glowl sat, his gaze never leaving the spymaster’s eyes. “What happened?”

“I don’t have any absolute answers, your majesty, but I have enough information to draw a general picture for you.”

Glowl motioned for him to continue.

“After Baron Cormath’s people discovered your box was empty, they immediately began both searching for it and interrogating anyone that might know what happened. They found that Baron Cormath’s fifth son, Chesning, was the one to have opened the box and taken the contents.”

“Are you sure?” The question was a thick growl that barely sounded human.

“He was the only person to access the vault that the box was in since the last check of its contents. He was supposedly gathering some valuables the Cormath family had collected but had no use for trade purposes.”

“Then where is this ‘Chesning’ now?”

“He’s dead, my liege. He was traveling to Tumbling Rapids on a trade mission for his family and was attacked by bandits on the way there. He and all his guards were killed, and the valuables he was transporting taken.”

Glowl’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Indeed, my liege, an entire group of guards of the caliber that Baron Cormath employs being killed by bandits is quite unlikely, so I began digging further, which is what led to my initial tardiness.” At this, the spymaster pulled out a few papers from inside his coat. “We had, and to some extent still have, a greater number of agents in the Tumbling Rapids area due to our current objective for the city. Our main agent there is one Kurtis Nel, who attached himself to the diplomatic delegation in order to better prosecute the less open part of our planning. Some of his reports are… fascinating.”

“What do you mean?” One of the things that Glowl didn’t like about this spymaster was how he liked to draw things out too damn long every time. He never got to the point! But Glowl could put up with it since he got the man’s competence as part of the deal.

“Well, his reports are really fascinating in what they’re lacking.” The spymaster was going to keep going, but he saw Glowl’s scowl growing. “Ah, to summarize, my liege, I had to sort through multiple reports from other agents to find many things that Kurtis never reported, including that a Nelamian noble, who we now know to be Chesning Cormath, was killed on the road near Tumbling Rapids. He also failed to report that he himself submitted a job posting to the Adventurer’s Guild for someone to locate the ‘beast, person, monster, or otherwise that killed a noble of Nelam and recover their effects’.”

Glowl’s muscles visibly and audibly creaked as he clenched his body in rage.

The spymaster continued, pretending nothing was happening as he’d been trained to do, “With some digging and few messages to other resources, I found out that Kurtis, as the poster of the job, listed what items had to be sent back to the family and what the adventurers who completed the job could keep as spoils.” He glanced down at his papers, schooling his face to hide the apprehension he faced, “One such item that was kept by the adventurer was a small glass globe that contained an illusion of a golden dragon.”

The last remaining chair from a dining set whose cost was more than a large portion of the city’s families could make in a year, smashed against the reinforced glass windows and splintered. King Glowl let out a ferocious rage-driven scream that rattled the doors and windows.

Eventually, his rage ended, with several of the windows cracked and large holes left in the stone walls. He turned to look back at the spymaster, who’d remained perfectly still during the several minute-long outburst. “Have Kurtis Nel killed.”

“I’ve already dispatched several assets to detain him and have him brought to you, your majesty. I thought you might like to issue his punishment yourself.”

Glowl’s grin was savage and contained dark violence in its mirth. “Yes, perfect. I’ll feed him to the crucible!”

“There is more, my liege.”

“What?” He snapped.

“The adventurer who took the sphere, his name was Kay.” He looked at his king expectantly.

“And?” Glowl demanded.

“And, my liege, that is the same name as the Class Line Progenitor to the northwest, where a golden dragon was reported.”

“Damn him!” Glowl barked, “He freed my dragon! Send someone to kill him!”

“I’ve also tasked several of our agents to begin investigating the Class Line Progenitor and his town in order to find points of weakness and how to best inflict the punishment you desire your majesty.”

“Good! Good!” His thoughts were now consumed with wreaking vengeance on his enemies; his previous anger was almost entirely forgotten. Glowl glanced around the mess of a room as if unaware of how it had gotten to this point. “And send someone in to clean up this mess!”

“Your will, majesty.” The spymaster’s silver arm flashed as he bowed and backed out of the room.

The King of Nelam stormed out of the room a moment later, letting his spymaster disappear into the secret passages that littered the castle before he exited into the hallway. He made his way into one of his private rooms and stalked to the edge of the balcony that soared over his castle. He stared down at his city and scowled.

That damned dragon had dared resist his power! He’d used the power of his Class and Skill to ascend higher ad higher since the day he’d become an adult! He’d shown the lowly people he’d grown up among how he was above them, then more and more people were shown his glory until he ruled over a massive kingdom!

But that fucking dragon had dared resist his Dominate Skill! Very few people who’d managed to do that had lived for very long, but the dragon was one of the few beings that he couldn’t afford to kill, even with the insult she’d given. He needed her! Bending her to his will and gaining her as a mount would unlock the next step of power for him on more than one level! A golden king riding a golden dragon would be even more awe-inspiring and overwhelming to those below him, furthering the power gained from his Golden Ruler’s Grasp skill. The beastkin slaves already knew their place, but a dragon as a mount and weapon would cow even the upstart nobles who thought they had any real power in his kingdom!

From his viewpoint, near the top of the tallest building for hundreds, possibly thousands, of miles, King Baldrik Glowl could see the fields and shantytown that the local slaves worked and lived in. He knew that there was no real economic reason to keep the slaves in the conditions they were in, or even as slaves in the first place. But it wasn’t about economic considerations; it was about power!

Each person shown their true place beneath him, groveling at his feet, made him even stronger through his Skill! Even before he’d reached tier five and gained Golden Ruler’s Grasp, he’d known that the true route to the top was through climbing on the backs of those beneath him, which was why he’d engineered the cultural hatred for beastkin and other “unclean” races in the first place. Back when the nation he’d started had been much smaller and weaker, he’d wanted to start conquering. He hadn’t been in a position to just trample those that opposed him in his followers at that point, so he’d needed an excuse. The nearby country of mostly beastkin had been an easy target, and a cultural hatred for something that was other was a perfect excuse to start a war.

That was the past, though, and he was focused on the future! The other reason that he wanted that dragon, no, needed that dragon, was to advance! With a Dragon Rider Class, or something similar, maybe something more worthy of his statue, he could finally start moving towards tier six! He could feel it, just out of his grasp, he just needed a few more powerful Classes to fuse, and then he would finally tier up after all this time!

Lost in his own thoughts of glory and domination and totally unaware that such a thing even existed in his private room, Baldrik Glowl had no idea that his spymaster was staring at him through a concealed peephole and a pensive expression on his face. After a moment of looking at his king, the spymaster vanished deeper into the passages that crossed through Castle Goldspire in a silent swish of cloth and intrigue.