Caliban froze amidst the sharp clatter of crystalline keyboards and hurried conversations, the sense of panicked urgency in the Blue Corp command center having only heightened when wonders following unexpected peril were replaced by yet more unexpected developments.

  “Caliban?”

  Caliban blinked, collecting his racing thoughts as he peered into his cousins’ thoughtful gaze. “Lord Caerulus?”

  This earned a tired sigh. “Don’t be coy, cousin. You’ve read the sector reports, same as I. If things are as bad as the IP Counsel fears… I’ll be out of your hair with a zero cost Imperial Portal and reporting for sector duty within days, if not sooner.”

  Caliban stiffened. “You’re a Deep Silver and the backbone of Blue Corp’s defensive division. Not even imperial—”

  His words cut off when his cousin clenched his raised fist, voice speaking with a quiet intensity, no matter the crackling hum in the air from the triple wards already surrounding the pair of them.

  “You know the levies we can summon. Every Bronze-Tier warrior making up the backbone of our iron-clad promise to protect and defend our economic interests. And you know damn well just how large a force that is, if they were to be summoned ‘en masse’.

  Caliban blanched. “But that would be a direct violation of seven different treaties and our founding principles! There’s absolutely no pretext that would account for…” Caliban’s words died off. He groaned and rubbed his face. “Is the hour really that late?”

  This earned a snort. “Altogether, we have well over ten thousand Bronze-Tier soldiers serving to protect our interests upon a hundred different worlds. Which, by definition, makes me a Dread Lord, archaic as the term might be. And Imperal Edict, dear cousin, trumps all other decrees and retroactively forgives all breaches.”

  “And if we pull all our troops at once… we’re a house of cards doomed to topple, no matter our vaunted reputation or guarantees, no matter the emperor’s commitment to ‘make things right’ which doesn’t hold in ascending worlds where the natives are both naive, stupid, and protected. If we pull out… the orcs, gnolls, and hostile natives will sense weakness and strike fast and hard.”

  This earned a pitiless smile. “True. And you’re no fool, cousin. You know the real reason why I was summoned here.”

  Caliban blanched. “The emperor thought Terra was the rift source? So he wasn’t here to save Terra…”

  “That’s right. He was preparing to destroy it and Malice before the bastard could ascend fully in one fell strike. Why do you think so many emergency gates were opening? Chosen scions were already being ported out.”

  “But Malice is no more. Because…”

  “Yes. Slain by his own son. Fitting. And quite amusing in certain circles, it seems. Amusing enough that the empress herself has claimed an interest, staying multiple kill contracts and intergalactic bounties on the boy’s head, despite how shockingly powerful he has become in far too short a period of time.”

  Yet far from reassurance, his cousin’s words caused Caliban to blanch. “Cousin, for you to know this so intimately!”

  “That’s right.” The Silver enforcer sighed. “My status has already been declared. I’m permitted to share what little I can as a courtesy before I need to depart.” His cousin held Caliban’s despairing gaze for long moments. “With all our elite troops.”

  “You’ll doom our operations here on Earth!” Caliban immediately stiffened under his cousin’s pointed look, dipping his head. “Apologies. You’re under imperial decree. My rebuttal was...unworthy.”

  “Damn right it was,” his cousin hissed. “Incursion rifts are opening, Caliban. Three have been reported since Malice nearly ruptured the sector barriers with his piss-poor timed ascension!”

  Lord Caerulus’s shout overwhelmed his own countermeasures and brought the entire command center to a grinding halt, the newly raised Dread Lord now cursing under his breath before meeting dozens of wide, frightened eyes with a glare.

  “Get back to work. You all heard nothing.”

  His words earned instant compliance, features now pale with the thought of both hostile invaders and the emperor’s wrath.

  Caliban’s cousin flashed a bleak smile. “Now please tell me some good news before I’m forced to leave with all our troops. Did our anomaly perform another—”

  Caliban solemnly held up his tablet, boldly projecting his personal message for the Silver’s edification.

  Though it was scant comfort in light of their sudden vulnerability and peril, the other man gave a disbelieving chuckle. “A territory filled with… not with a handful of delves, but over three score active mines? With ore that actually replenishes itself?”

  Caliban nodded. “Ore that requires no blasting, smelting, or refining. Comes out of the ground as soft as clay, hard as that is to believe, that can be readily shaped into whatever form we desire before transport, whereupon it takes the characteristics of the metal in its pristine state, the moment it leaves the territory.”

  Lord Caerulus smirked. “Nothing short of incredible. More than that, the stuff of outright fantasy, anywhere save on a wildly ascending world.”

  “And that’s not all,” Caliban quietly continued. “Note what was stated as an aside.”

  The Silver’s smirk turned to wide-eyed disbelief. “Alutopaz? Deposits of self-replenishing Alutopaz? Impossible!”

  Caliban chuckled softly. “Apparently, since New York has a history of bauxite mining and at least one very small venture involving a vein of topaz, it was enough, more than enough for our young Contender to declare the two ores having naturally fused and blended together in this territory he forged by will and the world’s potency alone.”

  “Absurd.”

  “No more absurd than the docile ten ton prehistoric beasts that appear to be as intelligent and amenable to orders as the best trained work horses. And giving the miners a full 20% share of whatever ores they claim… or allowing us to pay standard galactic rates for pristine ore of whatever tier is a shockingly generous generous offer, but understandable if seen from a delver’s perspective and not a miner’s. That profession is normally content for generous wages alone, whether they mine gold or lead.”

  The newly forged Dread Lord stared at the screen for long moments, before cracking a humorless grin. “I think you’ll have your hands full, this time around, cousin.” He flashed an apologetic smile as he gently clapped Caliban’s shoulder. “You’re hereby authorized to hire all the willing adventurers you like, in defense of our resources. Hell, you might even use the Harriman Mines as incentive. Offer that absurdly generous 20% profit share. But only to those who commit to at least part time work, guarding our territories.”

  Caliban’s brow furrowed. “We’ll have to be exceedingly careful and be making use of contract tiers normally reserved for goblins.”

  “You’re authorized to do whatever you must,” his cousin assured, before his eyes widened in genuine surprise. “So soon!” he hissed, before bowing to Caliban. “I fear I have no more time. Farewell.”

  With those words, a rift opened behind the Silver and he stepped through.

  Caliban cursed softly under his breath. He didn’t need the sudden alarmed reports coming through his interface to know that every other Bronze Tier and even the elite White-tier soldiers had just left the Terran Branch of Blue Corp, meaning that, as of that moment, they were basically naked before an entire world of ravenous predators eager to taste all the treasures Caliban and his favorite young partner had worked so hard to accrue.

  Nikita flashed a bleak smile from the monitor nearby as the more distant technicians were flooded by alarmed calls. “Well, isn’t the timing just scrumptious? As if things weren’t bad enough already.”

  ****

  Bunbun gazed intently at the meditating youth before her who was gazing at the sunset with a serene smile on his face as a certain disk of bone and sinew and panic and desperate hope carefully settled before all its inhabitants quickly began making their way to New York with looks of apprehension, gratitude, or outright fear being sent their savior’s way.

  “How you doin,’ Fearless Leader?”

  Eric’s serene smile faltered. His gently cupped fists clenched.

  “I thought it was going so well.”

  His rabbit solemnly nodded, the shadows of her flopping ears kissing the verdant green hillock they sat upon as distant behemoths trumpeted their mating calls in between devouring the oversized fruits dropping from bowers overflowing with their perfectly ripened bounty.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Eric’s lips stretched into a bitter smile. “I trusted my instincts, embraced them fully. Both in the hunts and in letting it flow. Letting it all flow. The entire territory! I was just…” he swallowed, shaking his head. “I was really, really listening to what it wanted, doing my best to let it happen.”

  Bunbun nodded. “And we now have a new Underlord addition to our gang that cost us absolutely nothing, and you only suffered minimal plaque! Most of it reclaimed by the world around us, like good dung reinvigorating what’s now most definitely grade A, top tier magically nutritious and fertile soil. Pretty much New Arcadia Tier!”

  Eric sighed. “I know, Bun. I know.”

  His rabbit tilted her head. “Talk to me, hero.”

  Eric groaned and rubbed his temples. “I thought we had the perfect solution. I thought we had figured it out! Tear into new territory, find and cut down every nasty fuck even a little bit different from what we faced before, and we rip out cultivation levels like no one’s business, balancing that fucked up curse.”

  “The curse we can’t break because it’s actually helping you, and might just be Gold tier? Which means it’s actually outside the System’s purview and doesn’t even show up on your character sheet?”

  Eric closed his eyes and flopped back onto the soft, springy grass with a defeated sigh. “I like to tell myself it’s just because it’s useful. And if I could just convince myself that it wasn’t…”

  Bunbun gave him a deadpan look. “But it is.”

  Eric nodded, solemnly drawing his razor sharp mithril blade, then summoned forth one of the many many weapons he had in storage before cleaving his mithril blade right through it in an explosion of shattered steel.

  Then he drew that same razor sharp mithril over his skin.

  Doing nothing.

  Not even cutting the soft down hairs on top.

  He flashed a bitter smile. “I guess I’d better be content with my hair style and the tiny bit of peach fuzz excuse I have for whiskers. Because it’s not like I’m shaving ever again, right?”

  His familiar frowned, hopping up to him and gently poking his skin and brushing his hair. “Well, that’s a relief.”

  “What’s a relief?”

  “You’re still soft enough that your future girlfriends won’t be in tears trying to hug you, fearless leader. Trust me, that’s a hell that would make you just as bitter as the bastard you put down.” She sighed at Eric’s look of dismay. “You’re bullet-proof, Eric. You’re fucking mithril-proof! Your curse is a boon as much as it’s a bane, so I don’t think you’re getting rid of it any time soon.”

  “I know,” Eric whispered. “Which is why I was counting on those level-ups.”

  Bunbun sighed. “Because without them…”

  Eric nodded. “Out of all the stegosauri and T-Rex looking theropods we took out, even the handful of alligator-looking bastards…” Eric squeezed his eyes tightly shut. “Nothing.”

  Bunbun’s eyes widened. “Eric! There were at least seven different kinds of predator we took on. I could see you glow, I could tell it was doing something, right? And the way you were using your spear… you looked like you were on the verge of a breakthrough!”

  Eric dipped his head, happy to concede the point. “Yup! Each kill filled me with a growing sense of understanding, of mastery over the battlefield, and I was so CLOSE to that next breakthrough. But after all that effort…”

  He shook his head. “Only that Boss-tier Deep Bronze beast that had no fucking business being in some docile orange territory, unless it was somehow feeding upon the territory entire, was exactly what I needed to bring down before I could ascend a single level. And that Rank 30 Spear Skill I’ve been busting my ass trying to obtain? I was on the cusp of it. Something wondrous! It was starting to come clear when I took out Spiky. I was so sure I had it!” He rubbed his eyes with his palms, sighed, and shook his head. “Nope. It’s still just the tiniest of revelations away.”

  Bunbun winced, tiny paw rubbing her face. “Ach. This is not good.” He then looked hopeful. “But communing with that girl… I could tell it was doing something, right?

  Here Eric’s tightly strung features eased into a joyful smile. “Yes, it was. Somehow communing with her opened her up to her own potential… and what’s so remarkable is that her boon perfectly mirrored my own. We both shared the same baseline attribute boon and ranked up our Endless Bounty by one full rank… which for her is Rank 1, ha ha, actually making her a Contender, and it was only another tiny drop out of the bucket. It didn’t detract from this territory’s glorious potential at all. Hell, it strengthened it somehow!”

  Bunbun gave him a pointed look. “And you just let her go?”

  “What can I do, Bun, that won’t draw even more attention to her? We already party-linked the cover story, and I could sense how important her own absolute independence is to her. Officially, I just asked her about mining rights and sent 100,000 credits to a fresh Blue Corp Bank account that’s now under her name, and I have no further interest in her whatsoever.”

  He sighed. “And she got my warning. She knows what I’m planning for New York. But this way, she can discretely warn her entire corp, and they can just as discretely start their own mining operation here, safely, making a fucking fortune selling Alutopaz to our friends for what Caliban assures me will be an extremely generous rate for the miners, even more if they’ll volunteer for guard duty! Hell, not only are miners going to be making a 20% cut, but 10% of the remainder that all the miners earn will be going to all classers level 30 and above willing to guard our interests here! At least temporarily, until elite battlemech troops can be brought here. But he said that might take some time for some reason? And you won’t believe how fucking eager he was to snatch up this prize in the blink of an eye!”

  The pair shared a chuckle at that.

  Bunbun nodded. “Good. And you gave Sammy Grim’s card, and since she’s like us, now, she can message you if she needs help or… maybe wants to join you?” Bunbun gave him a hard look as Eric’s cheeks flushed. “She is a cute mix of Scandinavian with something a bit exotic, isn’t she?”

  “That’s not what this is about, Bun.”

  Bunbun tilted her head. “Then what was that sigil I saw you put on her forehead? I got a headache even looking at it, when you were done.”

  Eric flushed. “I was maybe being an idiot. I don’t know. It was just a gut feeling I had, and I don’t know if it will amount to anything. I have no formalized spell defining what I was doing, and I probably shouldn’t be experimenting on people randomly, right?”

  Bunbun sighed. “Okay, so what exactly was your gut telling you to do?”

  “Um… I maybe covered up the sense of a Contender’s aura from her character sheet?”

  Lilly stared at him for long moments, before taking a nibble of the lush succulents all around her.

  “You can do that?”

  Eric shrugged. “No idea. But she’s only Level 36 with all her chief attributes in the 40 to 60 range. If any true-blooded Contender sniffs her out…”

  His familiar winced. “Good point. Maybe you should have wined and dined her and set her up in a nice Freetown condo.”

  Eric smirked. “If only it were really that easy. But since my Social Perception doesn’t actually inspire me to say the perfect pickup lines or convey the most convincing arguments, only spot all the ways I fuck up in painfully exquisite detail… I’m perceptive enough to see that she’s been hurt, somehow… just like all of us have, right? And I’m pretty sure that I’ll lose any shot at even forming a friendship with her, if I try to force her hand now.” He winced. “I already radiate a bit of an intense...aura. The only way I can balance it is by being super chill on a personal level, so people aren’t automatically seeing me as a power-mad tyrant.”

  “Fair point.” Bunbun acknowledged, taking in the brilliant ocher sunset by Eric’s side. “Okay, fess up. How bad is it. What’s our Spiritual Energy now?”

  “Two eighty four,” Eric admitted.

  Bunbun blinked, then nodded. “Okay, that’s not too bad… right? It seems like all the sweet modifiers you get means that the Spiritual Energy you earn with a level-up is almost enough to balance what you lose when you gain all that juicy resistance-boosting Vitality and Soul Reserves along with your Strength with your territory gains.”

  Eric sighed. “Yup. Not great, but it could be worse.”

  “Good.” Bunbun stared at the fiery heavens for long moments before turning back to a contemplative looking elf. “So, are we really going to let them completely out of our sight?”

  The beautiful young Sylvan huntress calmly adjusting her recurved horn bow on its back sheath and the blade at her hip snorted at that. “Not a chance in hell. Come on, Bunz,” she said, brown eyes twinkling. “Let’s go see what exciting delicious secrets New York has in store for us.”

  Bunbun squealed, hopping onto the broad-shouldered young woman’s shoulder. “Ooh, we're going the method acting route, right? Truly live your character! Which means it’s time for the cloak and dagger part of our mission.”

  “You better believe it!” The huntress enthused. “We got a dragon quest to finish, which will hopefully net us a title or other boon, and if nothing else make that territory free to clear without any ethical headaches, and then it’s a straight shot from Sylvan and Blue Corp territory all the way to New York!”

  Bunbun nodded. “And we can get a measure of just how strong any resistance here might be. We might be kicking butt on the plains of New York state, but what kind of fat cat bureaucrats actually sit on the counsel or throne of the city? How many high-powered badasses are living the life of luxury who would strenuously object to us calling dibs on absolutely everything!?”

  The girl nodded. “Precisely my point.”

  Bunbun shrugged. “I mean, we could just grab Spiky, summon a hundred thousand of our best and brightest, and FUCKING SMASH THE CITY TO SPLINTERS!”

  The girl serving as Bunz’ perch blanched, before glaring at her snickering bunny. “Don’t even joke about that, Bunz. How the fuck could I ever justify my own worth, my own existence, my own right to a happy ending, if I’m butchering half a million struggling souls desperate just to live their lives and take care of their families?”

  Bunbun patted her shoulder. “Exactly my point. You’re one of the good ones, Fearless Leader. So don’t ever sell yourself short.”

  The beautiful woman smiled, her scowl softening to something gentle and sweet. “Thank you, Bunbun. And don’t worry, it’s only temporary.”

  Bun gave her mistress a hard look. “Good. But are you sure about your current guise? You don’t exactly um…”

  Graceful features blushed. “Yeah, look. Unless I want to manually twist my features like a Skydragon nightmare character creation engine where all us non artistically-inclined folk just download cute mods… I have to go with presets that naturally fit my Appearance stat.”

  Bunbun nodded. “Like a Korean MMO. Take your pick of any number of strikingly hot babes who all look like they just stepped out of a fashion shoot.”

  The huntress winced. “I’m wearing practical leathers.”

  “Yeah but you’re giving off certain vibes, sorry to say, Fearless Leader.”

  The girl sighed. “Let’s just go, Bun. If people get annoying, I can flip back once I cross city lines without alerting the entire city counsel that Ernest Edgelord or Eric Silver is coming for their heads.”

  "Good idea. People are going to begin seeing connections between those two boys if we're not careful. Throwing a cute girl into the mix is definitely the way to go!"