Tom watched as the Apocalypse Force broke down and started to argue with each other before he let his [Far Seeing] drop. He ignored the levels he received as he turned to the major.

  "Yeah, I expect they're not going to be joining us," Tom announced as he exited his trance.

  “Pretty sure I told you that ten minutes ago.” Major Adams pointed out.

  “And while I agreed with you, I still wanted to confirm the direction they were going in. It turns out that it’s even worse than just ghosting us. They're planning on attacking whoever wins the fight."

  Major Adams frowned.

  "How bad of a position does this put us in?" the Major asked. "I don't think we can manage both the … Apocalypse Force."

  The Major seemed actually pained at saying the name.

  "and the goblins. We need to come up with a new plan." Major Adams said.

  "No, we don't," Tom said as he spotted Skippy coming towards them.

  "Skippy, I have a job for you," Tom said as he started to create some new quests for Skippy. One of them he really didn't want anyone to know about.

  "You want me to kill those guys?" Skippy offered.

  "No … I mean, if you have the chance, kill that Shade guy. [Plague Mages] are a bitch to deal with. But no, I had a different idea. I need you to lead a train directly into their camp." Tom said.

  Skippy's face split into a wide grin.

  "Got it."

  "What is a train in this case?" Major Adams asked, "Because I doubt you're referring to an actual train."

  "Tom wants me to get the goblins hopping mad and then lead them directly into the Apocalypse Forces base," Skippy explained.

  "Hey, major, do we have any explosives?" Tom asked.

  "What? No," Adams stated.

  "Not even a grenade?" Tom begged.

  "This is Canada; no one just has explosives lying around." Major Adams stated.

  "What about a fertilizer bomb?" Tom asked.

  "I mean … I guess we could." Major Adams admitted.

  "Great, We need fertilizer and gasoline, but I don't know the ratio---"

  "Hold on," the Major cuts in. "I'm not letting a bunch of kids run around making bombs. Sergeant Thorn can take one of the cars and grab everything we need to make bombs while we finish up with this Starkiller."

  "Well, more explosives to kill more goblins would be helpful. But in the meantime. Skippy takes these." Tom said, handing Skippy a stack of papers he pulled from his inventory.

  "What are those," the Major asked as Skippy stashed them in his own inventory.

  "Scrolls of explosion," Tom said. "Rip them for instant activation, tap them for a five-minute timer."

  "Was there even a point in trying to deny them fertilizer bombs?" Major Adam asked Serget Thorn.

  As Tom finished, he fired off the quests to Skippy. Skippy's eyes went wide as he looked over the notifications.

  "Think you can handle that quest for me?" Tom asked

  Skippy looked up at him, and Tom made sure to meet his eye. He knew what he was asking of his friend.

  "Sure, Tom. I can manage this." Skippy said in a serious tone. Then, in a more playful tone.

  "But in exchange, you assholes can bring all these corpses back. I might not get home until after the raid, and I'm not dragging all these dead people with me."

  Tom nodded and immediately regretted his decision as Skippy started to dump the dead bodies from his inventory. Hundreds and hundreds of dead bodies poured out of mid-air. Forcing Major Adams and the rest of the first responders to back up from the smell.

  "How many do you have in there?" Tom asked Skippy

  "Um, about ten thousand," Skippy said.

  There was a very long, very pregnant pause.

  "Skippy, none of us can store that many bodies. You're just going to have to hold onto them for now." Tom said, not noticing the horrified expression on Major Adam's face.

  "Where the hell did you even find thousands of people?" the Major asked.

  "Well, the goblins have a lot of pits where they throw the dead bodies into, so I just kinda cleared those out," Skippy said nonchalantly.

  Tom briefly wondered if they were becoming desensitized to death or corpses. The [Hand of Mercy] skill couldn't be helping. If he was being honest with himself, he was more annoyed at having to resurrect ten thousand people than saddened by their loss. Though he guessed it wasn't an actual loss if he was going to bring them back. Yeah, this was fine. Maybe.

  Skippy ended up returning the dead to his inventory.

  "Do you need anything else to complete the quest?" Tom asked.

  "No. I don't think I'll make it home before you guys end up attacking Kwantlen, so I'll just try to cause as much mischief as possible while I wait for you guys. I'm hoping to get the cap for my new class. Skipp said.

  "Wait, you're staying out here?" Abaddon Asked.

  "Why not? I've got a Legendary stealth skill. I'll be fine." Skippy placated.

  "Are you sure?" Abaddon asked.

  "Ugh, I'll be fine, mom. Trust me. I've been feeling useless of late. Today was the first day I didn't feel like a fucking failure. Hell, I've got more skill levels today than the entire week. I'm not like you guys; I'm only good at being a rogue. So, I better start pulling my weight."

  "You have food, right?' Alex asked.

  "Yeah, I'll be fine. I've been stashing my leftovers in my inventory."

  "With the thousands of corpses?" Alex asked.

  "Well, now you made it weird. I'll just rob someone's fridge then." Skippy said.

  "Great idea," Tom said. "That's just one more person to visit."

  "Starkiller," Skippy grumbled. "Are you sure I don't have time to come over and hang out? I mean, it would just be a few hours."

  "Sorry, Skippy, but if the [Apocalypse Force] is hostile, then we need to get the goblins to waste their forces on each other."

  "But tooom," Skippy complained.

  "I'll make it so the jackass has to fight you in the arena as part of the contract." Tom offered.

  Skippy harrumphed. But nodded his acceptance.

  "Great. Skippy, I'll see you tomorrow, I guess." Tom said as Skippy gave them a salute before turning invisible.

  "Well then, let's go and meet our favourite Fixer." Tom quipped as he got into a truck.

  They were on the road

  "So what do we know about this Starkiller?" Major Adams asked.

  "He's a fixer," Abaddon said.

  "A what?"

  "It's like a mercenary," Tom said. "Fixers were those people who took real-world money as payment for their in-game activities. In his last job, he arranged for us to fail in our attempt to kill a raid boss."

  "And you think you can trust this man?" Lt Thorne asked.

  "Actually, he's pretty predictable. You pay him, and he does the job. He makes a bunch of inappropriate sexual comments." Alex muttered.

  "The important thing to remember is that he's one of … or was one of the top PVP players in the legend of Noralon. He and Skippy went head to head for a few years. Part of the reason I sent him away." Tom explained.

  When Tom arrived at the meeting place, Starkiller was already there. He was sitting on the roof of one of the buildings. His staff was buried into the roof next to him as he played on his phone. Starkiller looked different from his in-game avatar. Tom knew the guy had been from South Korea before the system, and he hadn't changed too much, except that he also looked like he was trying to cosplay as a gorilla.

  Immediately, Tom activated [Thirst for Knowledge] and [Visions of Akashic Records]. This time, he didn't want the summary; he went after everything.

  "Fuck" Tom swore.

  "Is it hard to bear Lance? My overwhelming power? Its weight? Its girth?" Starkiller called out.

  "Stop it," Tom said, throwing a blast of light magic at him.

  But Starkiller had already moved.

  "Now, now, Lance, there's no need to get your panties in a twist," Starkiller chuckled as he continued to play with his phone.

  "How about I shove that phone up your ass," Abaddon growled,

  "You're fast, but your low perception limits your response time." Tom noted.

  "More than fast enough to get you … Tom … that's your real name? Seriously, Tom? That's so lame. It's like being named Bob; it's so simple. You know what? I'm just going to keep calling you Lance. Lance is so much better."

  Tom rolled his eyes.

  "Enough with the sass. I have a job that requires your expertise."

  "Oh yes, tell me how I can help you, fine folk. Starkillers Fixer services are open for business, and much like Lance's mother, I take all comers," Starkiller winked.

  "Hay nice," Abaddon chuckled.

  "Not really. I hate my mom, so it's not like I care." Tom said.

  "I said it was good."

  "Abaddon, is that you? Well, I'm glad to see that someone is staying true to themselves. I didn't think your man tits could get any bigger. Though I'll admit, I'm willing to try being a furry for my favourite tank."

  "Touch me, and I'll pound your ass into the ground," Abaddon warned.

  "Ooh, kinky," Starkiller smiled.

  "Stop it," Tom said. "Have you heard of the goblins to the west?" Tom asked.

  "Wait a minute, there are goblins to the west?!" Starkiller asked.

  "I'll take that as a no."

  "Holy shit, this is great. I've been stuck with bitchslapping beasts and clearing settlements. Now you're telling me there's a whole sea of strapping goblins just ready for ravaging."

  "Stop it. The goblins have a bloodstone and have created a portal arch to bring in more troops."

  "And you want papa Starkiller to come in and wipe your ass for you?" Starkiller asked, trying to nudge Tom's shoulder.

  "We want you to eliminate the only person on the battlefield who's a hard counter to Abaddon," Tom said.

  "Oh, is it anyone interesting?" Starkiller asked as he pulled out a notepad.

  "It's an albino drow. Names Seraphel. He uses the standard [Cryo Immortal] and [Master Cryomancer] combo, with the other half of his build being some type of [Artic Ranger] build. Known classes are [Brother of the Wild Hunt] and [Harbinger of Fimblewinter]. Everything else is unknown. He's had a crippled soul, so his actual level was last recorded around 9. Though I expect he's managed to at least return to level 20 by now. He's a sniper. I'm sure he'll fight at long range with arrows made out of ice. When approached at close range, he switches to conjuring weapons made of ice. All of his ice constructs appear to be supported by his cyro skills."

  "Is any of this first-hand information?" Starkiller asked.

  "Coffee House and Lizard Wizard gave primary confirmation for his fighting style and general build, though the class names came from a different source, source utilized [Heir to Theseus] skills to verify," Tom said, mentioning Duncan and Travis's original screen names.

  "What do you want me to do to him?" Starkiller asked.

  "Kill him if you can, and if you can't, keep him off Abaddon until we can get the bloodstone," Tom said.

  "Well, it's a bit boring, but I suppose I could use something vanilla with all of the excitement going on. That just leaves the question of payment?" Starkiller said, a wicked gleam lighting up his eye.

  Tom signed. "What, a possible goblin invasion into your home isn't enough to get you off your ass?"

  "Not in your life." Starkiller chuckled. "Now, cash or cores?" Starkiller asked.

  "Cash," Tom said, pulling out the shoe box full of money and handing it over.

  "How much is in here?" Starkiller asked.

  "Ten thousand dollars, I'm hoping to start up a tab," Tom said.

  They had stolen the money directly from a bank vault. Although it was currently worthless, Starkiller apparently thought it wouldn't remain that way.

  "I'll take five thousand for the job," Starkiller said. "But as it happens, I have some merchandise you might be interested in." Starkiller smiled as he pulled settlement cores from his inventory.

  "I'll take them all." Tom offered.

  "I've got sixteen of these things, and they go for a grand each," Starkiller said. The special rooms are another five hundred apiece. For now, you're lucky I'm in need of some capital."

  "I'll take five settlement cores. I'm also willing to arrange payment for the rest of your inventory," Tom said.

  "Actually, I was hoping to take a peek at the magnificence of Alxandra's [Grimoire], particularly the lighting magic," Starkiller said with a sickly sweet smile.

  Tom considered it, looking over to Alex. She shrugged, suggesting she didn't care either way. Tom thought back to the spells in the grimoire. He was pretty sure they had most of the basics. Those spells would give Starkiller plenty of options for ranged and close-quarters combat. He wouldn't have any defensive options, but he didn't really need any with his class.

  Could Starkiller get these spells without them? Yeah, of course he could. So the real question is, are those settlement cores worth the immediate increase in danger from Starkiller?

  "I'll give up all the lighting magic in the grimoire in exchange for the rest of the cores," Tom said.

  "What?!" Starkiller asked. "You can not be serious. These cores are worth way more than a couple of spells."

  "Alright, then you can just head off and buy your spells from someone else," Tom said.

  "What spells do you have?" Starkiller asked.

  "We have Shocking touch, Sparks, Shock, Taser, lighting bolt, Thunderbolt, kugelblitz, Lighting blossom, Thunder Lance, and Lighting spear. Ten spells for elven cores." Tom offered.

  "Just bend me over and fuck me in the ass. Why don't you." Starkiller rolled his eyes.

  "You're not interested then?" Tom asked.

  "One hundred Elemental spells for eleven cores," Starkiller counter offered.

  "I'll give you fifty," Tom countered

  "Deal," Starkiller said, giving a fake bow as he offered up the cores regardless.

  "Can we use these to build new settlements?" The Major asked.

  "Sure, but I'm not going to," Tom stated.

  "Why not our deal --"

  "Our deal only covers settlements we clear together. This doesn't qualify." Tom stated.

  The Major moved to say something more, but both of them felt the [Contract] flex. Tom could feel the magic of his skill, warning the Major that not only were the cores not covered in the contract, but he would be in breach if he tried to force the issue.

  Tom just smiled at the Major before turning back to Starkiller.

  "Is the [contract] acceptable?" Tom asked.

  "Almost," Starkiller stated. "I want three favours."

  Tom narrowed his eyes.

  "You've been paid, you've got a boatload of spells, and now you want favours on top of that?" Tom asked.

  Abaddon hovered over Tom's shoulder, a low growl making it through his throat.

  "Well, if you guys think you can do it without me, I'll be more than willing to refund your ten grand," Starkiller offered.

  "I thought it was five," Tom asked.

  "I changed my mind," Starkiller said. "We signed no contract, so I can renegotiate as I please."

  Tom honestly considered it. Skippy might be able to manage Starkiller's role in the coming battle. They were equal in pvp skills. But at the moment, Skippy didn't have a lot of staying power. As opposed to Starkillers, whose class was so utterly broken, it ranked in the top ten. It was the closest thing to a guarantee Tom could come up with on short notice.

  "You get one favour, not three," Tom stated.

  "Fine," Starkiller said with a shrug as he looked at him smugly, and Tom knew he had been played.

  "One favour of my choosing from you, Thomas Bruner, not the Guild Leader of Awoken Myths, you," Starkiller stated.

  Tom wanted to grind his teeth.

  "Why?" he asked.

  "Well, Tom, I'm not sure if you noticed, but the world has gone up the shitter."

  "That's not the saying," Tom said.

  "I don't care," Starkiller said. "The point is, things are a little chaotic right now. I have plans, sure. But I want to know that if something happens, I can count on my old friends."

  "Well, doesn't that make me feel all warm and cuddly on the inside?" Tom said as he considered it. "No sex stuff."

  Starkiller smiled

  "Oh, Tom, you don't like me?! I'm hurt. But fine, no sex stuff … unless you ask." he said as he held out his hand.

  Tom took his hand as the contract was solidified, and the notifications stated he had gained another six levels of his [Contract] skill. Starkiller would give them the cores and help with their battle against the goblins. In exchange for spells, ten grand and a favour.

  DING!!!

  "Oh, come on." Tom groaned.

  You may skip to the next chapter.

  Base

  Personal: +4 CON, +3 STR +3 SPIRIT, +2 DEX +2 PER

  Racial: +3 STR +2 CON +2 INT +1 SPIRIT

  Monkey King Skills: +1 STR, +1 AGIL, +1 DEX, +1 CON, +1 END +1 PER +1 SPIRIT +1 EGO, +1 CHA +1 LCK

  Level Bonus: +2 to all Stats

  Mini-Character List

  Thomas Bruner: Settlement Leader, Party healer, Protagonist

  Alexandra Ling: Tom's best friend, Vice leader, Wizardess

  Abaddon: Tom's friend, the Autstic Lizardman Tank

  Major Baily Adams: Ex-military

  Starkiller: The Mercany and [Heir to Sun Wukong]

  AN: