__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When Anubis agreed to join the group on their venture to thing the monsters ranks. She had been truth for in her intent. She would offer her cleric skills in service. The added information she would gain on this little adventure was just a added bonus. However she cared not how much anyone of the guild masters blustered. She would not work for free. It was that simple. Anubis watched as Ragar left with his prisoner, he said the Fox Tale would spend in few days in jail. Seem fitting considering the crime. The know as Chopper then reentered the conversation. He was going to check out the PK situation that definitely pique Anubis's interest. She had intend to look into the Pk situation once the mission with the monsters were dealt with. That guy who had used those low level players to gain a meeting with her still rubbed Anubis the wrong way.

She made a mental not to check in with Chopper once they returned. She was pretty sure she could find someone around the city in contact with him. If he gained any new information on the Pk situation it was worth picking his brain. She was certain he would part with information for the right price. Mama Fang's voice dominated the conversation once more as a back and forth continued between she and the assassin Relka. Anubis understood the guidmasters of the fang family point of view. No this was not a game any longer and the situation they found themselves in was both a puzzling and pressing one. However until they found answers on how the apocalypse happened and who brought them here and how to get home. People had to live, eat and maintain their gear. That cost money. So a reward would not do. She worked for gold. "Unfortunately I agree with Ms. Relka." Anubis was polite but firm in her tone. "I work for a fee. We can negotiate but my price is steep." She continue, opening her inventory through the interface. She had something that may interest the group.

"I know your concern Mama Fang is that there maybe inexperienced players trying to make a bit of coin on the expedition." Anubis pulled out a scroll. "I can assure I am not." Which was true. Anibis was far inexperienced played. Before the apocalypse and the Novasphere Pioneers (Homesteading the Noosphere) expansion dropped Anubis had participated in static group for a good number of high tier raids. After the expansion dropped and the apocalypse happened most of the static group had been online. Once things settle down the group tests out a high tier endeavors. Though after the Noth Wen Alliance had taken over here they left for another city on the server. Anubis elected to stay. So yeah Anubis knew how to handle herself in this world. She had learned the secret to combat and healing in the world a while back.

"However I will sweeten the deal to convince you." This time Anubis looked at both Mama Fang as well as Parks. "This is a map of terrain between the city Arokan and a few of the other city states on the server." Anubis had had this map commissioned by a scribed she knew a while back. When she had decided to hold back on her alchemy business and focus on brokering information. Anubis had felt a map navigating territories of the landers, players, monster spawn and of the majors cities held significant value. The map didn't cover every territory yet but it covered the bases of the monster spawns in the area and the best routes for less time. It had taken a lot of reading and traveling outside of the city to get this information. "The map and my services are yours. However this is my price." She continue placing the scroll on the table. "I want seven thousands in gold. Half now and the other when the job is complete." Anubis also wanted something else. "Also any information gain on the expedition. I keep." Mainly she wanted information on the apocalypse, landers or anything that helped her gain new info to sell or direction on the mystery that had lead them to be placed in the game.

"I will take my leave." Anubis stood up, placing the contents she carried back in her inventory. "If of you like to discuss this further fill free to contact me." The interface opened as Anubis sent both guild masters a friend request. She sent one to Relka as well. She had a feeling the assassin would make a beneficial contact. Anubis was also aware they would want to study the contents of the scroll to see if she was telling the truth. She was more than willing to do so, but hope they had a navigator in the group because Anubis had a horrible sense of direction.

@Cerces22@ilovepapa@Experiment 249

Chopper's smirk faded as Mamafang entered the conversation screaming, berating everyone as if they were insolent children. This just made Chopper angry and insulted that she thinks that just because Chopper wanted to negotiate a price that she somehow doesn't take any of this seriously, and especially didn't take kindly to being insulted with the sort of words you'd expect from an internet tough-guy, and not a levelheaded or responsible guild leader. Chopper made this much known. "Hah! And here I thought only Relka really beleived in that whole "might makes right" nonsense. But I guess it's only natural that power corrupts, isn't it Mamafang?" Chopper gave her a dismissive snort and hopped off the King's chair. "That sort of attitude is exactly why we have so many PKer's and players who don't care of listen to you or these other guilds. You want to talk shit to us and then claim the high horse by thinking you're so much wiser and experienced, expecting us to be thankful that you're even listening to us, that's how you get a rebellion started."

Just to show that Chopper didn't care for Mamafang's attitude or authority, Chopper even stepped up towards her and looked her in the eye, face-to-face. "You want to talk real world, than you know that anyone who isn't your ally is your enemy. Because no one who's neutral wins; it's always been a dog-eat-dog world even before we all got stuck in the Elder Tales. You want to kick me out because I'm not your toady, than go for it! Thousands of other players out there already disagree with you and they're showing it by attacking caravans and not following your bullshit laws ran by bullshit leaders. If your only plans for dealing with them disrespecting and killing them, you're just contributing to the same cycle of revenge and violence that is our problem in the first place. Because here's the thing; death isn't permanent here." Just to show how little of a problem Chopper even has towards pain itself, she took her Bardiche and sliced her own neck, doing a critical amount of damage to herself without even flinching. She was just a solid hit away from dying right in front of everyone. Anyone, even a level 1 new, could kill her now, but despite that Chopper continues on talking.

"Can't just go all Mama Bonesaw and kill someone you don't like and expect that to be the end. No one fears the guild because the only threat that could have work in the real world, like permadeath, isn't a problem here. At best you do the American thing and imprison and enslave them and hope the rest of your lemmings doesn't think too much about institutionalized slavery, which I'm sure you and your family are A-Okay with, huh?" Chopper turns to leave with a grunt, not caring to listen to any rebuttals. She had work to do, and a conspiracy to now form. Perhaps it was petty, but if this was the organization that was suppose to bring peace to the realm, than Chopper wasn't going to side with it. As she walked away and towards the exit, she drank a low level healing potion and tossed it off to the side, restoring her health to full. "I don't trust anyone who expects me to work for them for free first. That's the sort of shit corporate motherfuckers use to screw over subcontractors. I was being nice by volunteering to do the monster job, but if that's how you're going to treat people who want to help, then fuck you and everyone who kisses your rotten fat ass. As for the rest of you, I hope you know what you're doing. It'd be terrible if you ended up shafted out of payment because someone thinks you did a shoddy job."

Kyoki

The dead of winter, surprisingly Kyoki's favorite season. At least back in the real world, but here, she felt herself slightly annoyed by having to walk through the snow with heels. She felt herself stumbling from time to time if she didn't watch her step, partially because her clothing was unsuitable to the conditions and partially because she was in a hurry to get to something she was late to, a meeting she had heard transpiring between the North Wen Alliance. Several minutes of awkward shuffling and stumbling through the snow finally led her to her destination, but she was unsure what to do as to when she got there.

Kyoki was guild-less, and in fact, had never been the member of a guild. She'd done raids before, filling in for people who had requested it on public forums, but she had zero experience being a member of a community, and now that she found herself alone in a world plagued by player killers, she found herself lacking a sense of mobility, yet severe social awkwardness and lack of experience made her experience very difficult. Therefore, she hoped that this meeting would prove a remedy for this problem of hers, and that it'd allow her to go on raids again, or at least do something other than sit in this boring city and wait on her own for what felt like an eternity. After all, she didn't even have her one place of solace anymore, a computer. Today would be the day she'd finally make some friends.

As she very slowly walked into the room, she was bumped into by a woman walking rather briskly, with dark hair and clothes. A moments glance and she recognised the face, she'd seen her around before. Kyoki had been part of a raid party with her before, but she couldn't remember the specifics, especially because her memory wasn't as crisp as it was pre-apocalypse. She gave her a small nod, hoping that maybe she'd recognise Kyoki's avatar and maybe remember their affiliation in greater detail, but after this motion, she went into the room only to find out she was arriving at a rather bad time.

There seemed to be an argument taking place, and Kyoki was too shy to approach so instead she sat on the floor and held her legs together, hoping that it'd end soon while listening to the conversation. It seemed to be getting quite intense, to the point where one of the arguing parties, a woman with a strange type of axe and dark hair. She took her own weapon and sliced her neck open, and a lot of blood began to pour out. Kyoki was fascinated by this, and even touched some that had dripped towards her, as she hadn't seen it in so long. It even felt warm, but shortly after this, she began shouting again. She wondered how this woman had so much energy to get rowdy over something as simple as what appeared to be an escort mission.

She wanted to talk, but the atmosphere of the room was too heightened and frankly, she was too shy, so she just waited and hoped some things would cool down, so she could ask about the situation. She hoped it'd end soon, as she was getting stiff.

City of Arokan, Cleftland Kingdoms

---

As soon as Chopper's words were finished, Cassio slid back his seat and stood up, placing both hands on the table and leaning inward slightly. His eyes darted among the "mercenaries" that had chosen to stay thus far. He then gave a short glance to Parks, giving a short nod before his deep voice billowed out. "I suppose now would be a good time to clarify a few points, since pissing off the people we've invited in to aid in this issue isn't getting us anywhere. Bitching and moaning about payment, while reasonable, is also the same mental head-space that those 'corporate motherfuckers' live in. So before we finalize any decisions and start ordering people around like we're god-damn royalty, let's get a few things straight." Each word and point was aimed with precision at their targets, Cassio's eyes filled with a tempered rage as his words hung in the air.

Cassio's gaze shifted towards Mamafang, and any members of her guild that lingered in the room. "I do feel sorry for anyone in your guild if this is how you treat them. Speaking down to them with every word, bossing people around like you're a fucking messiah. You are just as bad as these guests of ours that you want to berate. This alliance was built while keeping in mind that people have rights and should be treated with dignity. You need to tone down your bullshit and leave the anger and aggression for monsters or PKers, not the people that you're trying to work with."

His eyes then glinted towards Chopper in particular as one of the most vocal of the "unorthodox" bunch. "First of all, you're not a mercenary. I hate to burst your role-playing bubble, but Mamafang has a point. This is a game, and we're all normal people. I'm a father of two working in advertising... or I guess was before this shit kicked off. Knowing the player base of this game, many of the people out there are minors. Hell, this guild is practically comprised of snot-nosed kids scared out of their minds, and my guess with the way most of the people have acted in this room is that most of you are in your 20's or younger. Death may have no permanent consequence, but the pain that they feel is real. My concern over these PKers isn't that they're breaking the rules that the more authoritarian members of the Alliance put in place, but that they're physically hurting people to get what they want. While our dear hostess may have gone too far in speech, I do stand with her in part on one factor: we need people who have some damn empathy to help us solve these issues."

"As for the matter of payment, I think it's been made clear that one of the main reasons I've been asked here is to help provide the gold to make our problems go away. There is no doubt that any of you 'independent contractors' will be compensated for your work. Unfortunately, I haven't worked with any of you before, so there is no chance I'm paying anyone up front when I can't be certain of the results. The up-front rewards I can provide are more in terms of ensuring anyone who aids us on these endeavors is compensated well. The Blades has a good working relationship with the other crafting guilds, so whatever is necessary within reason can be provided for, especially weapons. I believe I will be leaving Garkan behind here to ensure that the Blades run properly in my absence, and will do his best to fulfill your requests." At this, the enchanter gave a slight nod of his head in acknowledgement.

Finally, Cassio turned his gaze towards Parks. He paused a moment, a long-winded sigh escaping from his lips before speaking. "You called this meeting, and you're doing a terrible job of taking any of this seriously. I've trusted you in the past, but I'm not going to throw money around in situations like this with apathetic, under-leveled brats. So, I'll ask you just this once: are these people worth what I've offered?"

---

Parks was quick to pull his grimoire open, summoning a Selkie in it’s seal form to cushion his fall. It let out a small orp upon impact but he pat it’s head quickly and smooched it’s cheek as it dissipated. He stood back up to his feet and dusted himself off as the argument continued. Cassio pointing him out brought him back from his thoughts. He honestly was only brooding on Mamafang and Chopper being edgelords. He cleared his throat and cast a second summon, a small and thick fey, known as Spriggan. It had rocks all over it’s body but only stood about 3 feet tall. A wave of Parks’ hand and it dropped to a knee, allowing him to stand on it’s broad shoulders with ease. He smiled and nodded to Cassio, still keeping his lighthearted attitude.

”Yes! Yes of course why I invited who I did. I invited these few who arrived and a few others who didn’t seem to show up because I felt they were the best fitting and most in need of getting out of their minds. I’ve been friends with some of you for the past month and at least talked to you all. Relka, MF, Cassio, and Chopper were invited because you are failing to take this world seriously! There are problems in this world you’re seeing happen and treating as if the rules of our old lives mattered and we weren’t living by new laws of physics. This alliance is like a mega guild in Elder Tales, not the UN or something. We’re here in a game that became our lives.

And, as acting leader of this conference considering I did invite you all... Anubis and Relka, sit back down, Chopper, go take a walk and clear your head. I’ll be paying all of you, my guild is the largest and has done the most raids so I have no plans of forcing a burden I invited on others, but thank you Cassio. Second point, I WAS going to suggest we split up but I don’t trust any of you to not be, and pardon this language but this is not a Lander court, assholes to one another. We leave in, say, thirty minutes to the edge of town. Get your questions in, check your inboxes, and then be ready to move out. You two newcomers, Kiyoki and Valk, I think you should stay and watch! I didn’t invite you but I’m not going to exclude you! Oh, and eat up, Mamafang and her crew of very nice young and new players worked hard on this!”

The fairy king as gesturing and bowing as he talked, swaying his hips side to side and using minor spells to draw up magic flourishes to emphasize his hand motions. As he finished inviting the new players, it was revealed what those motions were really up to. Each person at the meeting had an incoming message in their inventory containing 3000 gold pieces, enough for a year of luxurious living without buying gear in the city of Arokan. Along with it was an EXP potion, a set of formal clothing designed by Neon Colossus so it was fairy flashy with at least three colors and jewlery, even for the men, and a map made by the scribe Bertilak of the surrounding area of the town, though it didn’t cover nearly as much as Anubis’ map and went into less detail to boot.

The fairy king spoke up once again, hoping to calm down his meeting. ”Sorry for being so casual, I just assumed we were all friends. I don’t want to treat you as employees or coworkers or parents or children. And if any of you want to try to treat others like how Mamafang or Chopper have been, well, leave now. I don’t want you in this alliance. There’s a brave new world to be saved, so let’s get to it, eh?” He let out a chuckle as he thought about something. He wiped the smile off of his face and looked directly at Relka, knowing she would react the best to it.

”We’re not here to complain, we’re here to make new lives until we can get back to our old. We’re here to rebuild, we’re here to homestead the noosphere.”

He winked at her and then closed his menu, dismissed the spriggan and made his way to the door behind Chopper, allowing her to get outside and take a breather from her edgefest. He was uncomfortable knowing a person actually thought that was an appropriate reaction and would be happy if she was so mad she never came back.

Chopper had missed most of what was said after she had left, and was already walking down the stairs when she heard Parks come following her out. When she received an alert that she was being offered payment, a potion, and other flashy gifts, she simply declined the offer. She stopped as she did so, speaking to Parks without facing him. "As I said, dealing with monsters was something I was going to do anyways. I'll shan't take charity for that. If you're here to berate me, you're better off writing a letter. If you want to talk, than you should start following. There's work to be done." Chopper needed to vent her frustration the only way she could in this world; violence. Unlike in the real world, it was easy to find something to kill that no one was going to feel too sentimental about. Those monsters were a fair bit of ways away, but being able to murder them with impunity was a perk of living in a video game world.

Traveling to the monster site was long but simple enough. She was actually already aware of the monster population problem; their numbers have effectively blocked an important travel route for some treasure she's been meaning to find. But with so many mobs about, it was impossible for her to safely get to the dungeon, set up a camp, and do raids without having to constantly be fighting or traveling from the local cathedral. She knows in advance that she's going to have difficulty dealing with the sheer number of mobs; normally not that much of an issue since hack-and-slash brawling is what she does best, aside from boss killing, but in this instance the numbers were just too concentrated for that to work out like it normally would. And so she'll need to be tactical.

Chopper might have the attitude of a raging barbarian type but she is capable of some level of thought. Perhaps not exactly the super genius that she wants to be, but enough to know when is or isn't the best time to do what she does best. Arriving near the monster infestation, Chopper took to the high ground, going slow and low. She needed to get an idea of what she was up against and mark hard targets and soft targets. Hard Targets were things that she knew were going to be a pain in the ass either due to their destructive abilities or how how it'd be to destroy them. Soft targets were easier to get to but also important to take out as well; if she can't utterly destroy a hard target she should finish off soft targets. Hard Targets were things like minibosses, magic users, and zone traps. Soft targets were enemy buffers, treasure mobs, and possible loot locations.

From her initial observations, it seems like most of the enemies are event mobs, or at least there were a notable amount of them. "Right, there was a Christmas event thing during the whole apocalypse stuff. Guess they haven't left yet." Things like goblins dressed as santa elves, polar bears out of their element, snow golems, all that christmasy stuff. Among other mobs of more mundane variety too. Their levels were low enough that Chopper could kill swaths of them easily, but their sheer numbers were going to be an issue. Being outnumbered was something of a weakness Chopper had, though she imagined many players are weak against being swarmed by massive amount of enemies. Still there was one benefit to a massive mob like this; no way they could hide all of them inside caves or dungeons. Some will be out and about which means they'll be open for big environmental attacks. Chopper just needed to find something that'll work. A mountain they're based out of, a river they're camped near, a forest they're foraging in. The Elder Tales may have been an MMO before with all the usual limits of an MMO, but now that it has a bit of realism in it, Chopper wasn't limited to just things she could have only done as a Youxia warrior.

"Still... That's a lot of mobs. I wonder if infecting them with a plague would be an effective tactic?"

MamaFang listened quietly, hindsight was always 20/20 was it not? At any rate MamaFang may have understood how she could have handled it better, but at least it was down to proper business. "Do not apologize for acting as you did Parks, neither should Chopper or anybody else here. We were supposed to be friends or at least allies here and I lost my temper, but at least my point has gotten across and we at least know what we are to do." It was really all she wanted, some real answers. But the stress of taking care of a surprising amount of preteens over the last month had gotten the better of her. She kept silent over the finish of the meeting, nodding as Parks finished and the message arrived. She was not exactly hurting for money seeing as many of the kids in her guild were content to go for production subclasses including cook and others, especially in the recent month. "At any rate, I need to ready myself but as Parks said, everybody should enjoy themselves be it food or otherwise." With that MF stood, disappearing into a side room and leaving TinyFang to stand beside her mother's chair, trying to figure out what exactly it was she should do.

"Uhh, well that could have gone better. I apologize on her behalf, she has had quite the month. I would imagine everybody here has though. Just, being the Leader of The Fang Family has kind of changed in meaning recently, as now she has to make sure her entire guild is fed and cared for... you know I had no idea how many kids actually played games like these." TinyFang sighed as she scooped up an apple and looked around. "I assume somebody here has some sort of plan when it comes to these monsters right? I mean excuse my ignorance but is this not similar to a, err, a 'raid'? I think I might be not understanding some of the problem but I was never big on these sorts of games, heck most of my level at the moment is from my mother's help." TinyFang slid backwards into her mother's seat, vaugely noting Relka's smile at her and responding with a sideways nod. She could have been doing anything else right now, but she was now having to deal with some huge issue alongside her mother.

@ilovepapa@Experiment 249

Relka listened as things quieted down for the most part and accepted Anubis's friend request. Know an other information broker to trade with would be beneficial. She listened to Park's as he tried to wrestle control of his meeting once again bringing everyone back to task. After Chopper's stormoff and MamaFang's apology and leave the girl TinyFang apologized again for her mother's outburst. Relka stared at the girl while she asked her questions and waited for her to be done. She was curious about her and decided to try and learn more about her on their travels. But since no one had spoken yet, Relka stood and cleared her throat.

"Before everyone leaves, you all know the ads we will be facing, many, if not all of us, has done this quest. But just in case, I specialize in the bestiary of Elder Tale, and had the foresight to get a scrib to make some copies on the types of monsters that were present during last year's events.Thats not to say that we will run into everyone of these creatures, or that there won't be new or unknown enemies that have emerged since the adventures let them fester. But to not be properly prepared is to invite a trip to the cathedral." She opened her menu and produced enough parchments for those at the table detailing monsters, attack patterns, stats, and drop rates. While still in her menu she passed a friend request to TinyFang and than closed her menu. She than popped a couple more of Mama's pitter patter potatoes in her mouth and walked to a window opening it up.

"I will see you guys in thirty minutes than, I need to get some supplies, toodles. Oh and Tingle, don't forget the other parts of my payment, I expect that you agreed to them since you are giving 3,000." With those words she stepped up on the window sill, looked back winked at TinyFang and with a laugh jumped out the window.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anubis generally was some who studied a situation, accessed and then made a course of action. So when she was about to make her exit she had thought it was best for the time being. The alliance at that moment clearly had needed to work out some details. What was that saying again. When Titans clash they made more than just waves. Having so many leaders from different guilds at one meeting definitely going to lead to butting heads. Even if some of those people were not necessarily in a guild. However Park's seem to be now taking control of the situation, which was fine with her. Anubis felt in situations like this there needed to be one person who took the leadership position to push things along. Park's seemed as good as anyone. She decided to stay and hear the details of the plan and the departure. Parks after all had already deposited three thousand gold pieces into her inventory. So it would look bad on a business standpoint if she behaved unreasonably.

Besides the guild master of the Neon Colossus had lived up to half his part in the deal. It was time for Anubis to do half of the same. She opened up her inventory and pulled out the map. Handing it over to Park's. "Unfortunately you will have to find a better navigator than I." She informed him. Anubis didn't like to admit her weakness but her sense of direction left much to be desired. " We leave in, say, thirty minutes to the edge of town." Anubis nodded at this information. That gave her plenty of time to gather a few things she need in the city for the journey. She rose to her feet an headed out. Anubis also notice Relka was leaving as well. However exit was far from the conventional exit. It made Anubis slightly giggle. She wonder how Mama fang or her guildies would react to that? Than again Mama had seem to calm down after Parks had take over the meeting once more.

Still Anubis would have stayed if her reaction had given quiet the show. She looked at the clock on her interface, than again she probably didn't have the time. Once Anubis was out of the guild hall she headed to the market area. She need herbs, material and some basic potions to help with the healing aspects of her job while she was out in the field. Anubis was not a person who like to waste healing spells on light damages outside of battle. That was one of the reasons she had taken up alchemy. The sub class had many potions that allowed Anubis to heal and help those in her care to gain back manna, tech points or heath. There were even positions that protected users if the alchemist level was high enough. So buy both potions and materials would allow to have a kit of healing positions already on had while in the field. Then when she ran out the mats would allow her to make news while they spotted in-between traveling. Anibis loved alchemy there were so many possibilities but sometimes she did wonder if she could take if further.

---

@Lucius Cypher@Milim@Nerdy Reference@caliban22@Cinderella Man@Cerces22@Euphemia@Denny@ilovepapa

---

Parks left the guild hall, though he was fairly uncertain about any assistance he may get from the guild of new players and an angry veteran who considers herself to be the mother of the group. He finished up his food and made his way to the edge of town, realizing a fatal flaw in his previous speech. He never informed anyone of where exactly they were going. Simply stating the edge of town was where they needed to go wasn't exactly a good direction, considering town was a circle with many exits and entrances, even more if you were Relka or Anubis and had access to the spiderweb of rumors that spread around the city.

He made his way to the southern-most exit, obviously getting there first and sent out another direct message to the remaining possible party members, as well as a party invite.

"Dear friends, meet at the southern gate at once. We set out immediately and I would love to not be standing here awkwardly. I have a treant summoned so you can see it over the crowds."

He did as he said, calling a treant out of his books. It had flowering petals on it's branches and creaked as it swayed slowly, back and forth. The summoner waved a hand and a giant bark covered hand was lowered for him. Climbing a tree at 4'7 isn't easy, but when the tree moves its own branches for you, you tend to get to the top rather quickly. He used his vantage point to scout for who may be arriving first.

---

Meanwhile, in the forest, the monsters didn't seem to be acting as normal monsters. Normally, they would come in waves and easily be taken out, but now that they were being left alone it became apparent a hierarchy was indeed forming. Snow golems, while large and powerful, were being worked like slaves as small forts of ice were being built as goblins and hobgoblins were bickering and eating. Some even had items from the treasures the quest normally gave adventurers, and a rare few had equipped armor. They were spread thin, though there was never more than 250 feet without a monster of some sort wandering. An occasional yell would be hollered and repeated as it echoed through the wood, though muffled slightly by the snowy ground. Chopper was unseen.