“A well-developed guild base creates a foundation for groups to expand inside NEMO. The resources and opportunities provided by guilds drive the economic engine of player trading. Acquiring territory in the main game world is a requirement for relevancy. A guild that can’t control territory is an afterthought at best.”

  Taken from a forum post by Marco de Medici

  Year 1, Month 1, Day 6, 7:00

  Sir Boots pounced on the rat skulking near the guild farms. He wrapped his front paws around the beast and raked his hind claws, dispatching the filthy vermin. Since coming to this world Sir Boots hunted and stalked with the energy of a kitten instead of the tired dignity of a stately elder cat. He spent hours exterminating the mice, rats and rabbits that lurked in the forests and near the crops being tended by the children. He used his skills of pounce, claw, rake and bite thousands of times, ending countless foes. He enjoyed the meat from his kills and always deposited the hides in the guild bank.

  He didn’t fully understand why, but his awareness was expanding. He was growing physically as well. His weight had climbed to 45 pounds instead of the 25 pounds he entered the world with. Sir Boots knew he was faster, stronger, could jump higher and hunt longer. His stealth was unmatched, and he reveled in his position as the greatest predator in the guild. He guarded them from the shadows, ever vigilant. Some of the smaller ones showed him the proper respect, granting him offerings of fish and neck scratches. He would guide them and ensure that they grew into hunters almost as fearsome as himself.

  Torgon looked over the take from the hunting parties. Two more dungeon cores and another lair core had been found. They had 8.5 core units banked now, just 1.5 more to start the training yard. Dusty’s ability to tank the bosses of the dungeon increased with every run. Less than 3 days remained until the base raid, and they were going to attempt the hard mode of the dungeon for the guaranteed drop. Stabitha had excellent healing skills and was focused on her alchemy which gave her extra stats in intelligence to boost the effectiveness of her magic. Torgon trusted that she could keep running the dungeon with the group while he tended to other matters.

  He stopped by the library to learn the Running skill. The base movement speed was a walk of 3 miles an hour, a jog of 6 miles an hour and a full on run of 12 miles an hour. The running skill allowed you to gain a speed bonus of 1% per point in agility and a further 2% per level of the skill. The boost to the skill from high agility stacked, meaning that Torgon, even at running skill level 1, gained a 23% boost to his speed. He ran into Miller’s Crossing and took advantage of his standing as a knight to access information on villages in the area. He found three unclaimed settlements on the opposite side of Miller’s Crossing from the incoming monster force and marked them on his personal map. He noted the location of an abandoned mine near the settlements before heading to the western gate of the city. He slipped into stealth, fading from the awareness of the players in the area and took off at a healthy jog.

  Meanwhile, Dusty and the rest of the leadership party entered the hard mode of the Crypt of the Lost. Several other groups tried but failed the hard mode, their skills or gear not up to the task of dealing with the stronger monsters. Parties tackled the normal mode regularly and quite a few succeeded. Groups that purchased the guide showed markedly better results than those going in blindly. Pushing into the first combat, Dusty noted that the skeletons had higher health and hit harder in this mode, but it was manageable. They had grown a great deal since that first clear. The real test would be the first boss. If it didn’t add a new mechanic, they were certain that they could take down hard mode.

  They engaged the Ancient Skeletal Warrior, noting that it had two minions now. They held off on damaging the boss while they cleared away the minions and began the attack. At 75% they quickly moved away from the electrical blast, cursing slightly when the area was larger. It nearly caught Dusty and Allestor. Two more minions spawned as an added complication. This was going to be a headache, still doable, but less of a clean fight than they hoped.

  Torgon sped towards the first village on his map, alternating between a jog and a run, using energy until it ran low then relying on his regeneration to replenish his stores. He earned experience in his stealth and running skills, combining them for a fast and safe travel experience. None of the monsters on the route noticed him, letting him make excellent time. The first city offered up a full 200 regular farming nodes but only 50 spots for animals. The desire for eggs, cheese and meat was too great to settle. He carefully made his way to the second marked village. It was 50 farming nodes and 100 animal nodes, better, but not as good as the one nearer the orc invasion. The last village he checked was larger, offering up 100 farming and 200 animal nodes. He spent the required faction standing and tied a control slot to the village, making it the first external part of the Risk of Injury empire.

  The outline of a portal arch appeared in the center of the village. Torgon moved to it and added the twenty stone it required to begin construction. He messaged the guild and discovered that an identical arch outline was at the base waiting to be built. When both were finished, guild members from the base came through the portal, marveling at their newly acquired village. They quickly got to work planting crop and bringing in new animals to fill the space. Torgon surmised that each control point allowed a portal to and from their base to any controlled location. As he thought about it more, he asked the system a question, “System, are we limited in locations we can claim by the amount of control points or does that only limit the amount of locations we can teleport to?”

  “Control Points allow the use of teleportation arches and the cloning of nodes at the guild base. Individual areas can be controlled without the use of a control slot, but they can only be farmed directly, and you must travel to the location via conventional means.”

  Torgon debated with himself briefly before discarding the notion of claiming territory without the control connections. The logistical difficulty would outweigh the benefits at the current time. He arranged for Chef Bridges and her assistants to manage 100 chickens and 30 cows producing eggs and dairy products at the guild base while the nodes in the village could be used for whatever the people manning it desired. Torgon was certain that bacon would start showing up with breakfasts soon and he salivated at the thought. He left the village and headed towards the mine, eager to see what it offered.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  The trees lost much of their height and the undergrowth thickened as he entered the hilly area near where the mine was indicated. Bare patches of earth and loose stone mixed in with the leaf covered forest floor. He hacked through scrub bush before discovering the old abandoned mine entrance set into the side of a hill. The timbers framing the entrance showed pits and cracks and an obvious state of disrepair, highlighting their age and lack of maintenance. As he approached, an announcement distracted him.

  “Regional Notification. A Party from the guild Risk of Injury has become the first to complete a Hard Mode Dungeon in Miller’s Crossing.”

  Torgon opened his blinking message from Hyperia, “Torg, we finished it, we have enough cores to start the training yard and the defensive upgrades with some left over. Do you want to do that first or hold off on the defenses and get the crafting structure building?”

  He quickly replied, “Go ahead and start the defensive structures. That base raid is concerning, and I want every advantage we can get. It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”

  “They’re all scheduled to build tonight. Our resource stockpile is low so we’re going to all get some gathering in unless you need us where you’re at,” she responded.

  Torgon eyed the entrance to the mine speculatively before answering, “I’m going to explore this mine first. If I can’t handle what’s inside, I’ll get the team out here. It’s not far from the newly claimed village. Wish me luck!”

  Hyperia laughed and messaged, “Good Luck Torgon. Get us more metals.”

  He dismissed the conversation, unsheathed his sword and slowly crept inside the mine. Torgon paused at the entrance, letting his eyes adjust to the lower light levels. The notification he hoped for appeared, “The Scrub Hills Mine is claimable. It contains 100 Basic Copper nodes, 20 Basic Tin Nodes and 3 Common Bronze nodes. The location is expandable. Required Guild Reputation to claim: 2,500. Required rank with Miller’s Crossing, Knight. May use one control slot. To stake your claim you must defeat the monsters inside the mine. When enough monsters have been defeated, a stronger mine boss will appear. Defeat the mine boss to take control of the location.”

  “Joy, let me see what I have to kill.” Torgon moved cautiously deeper into the mine, listening closely for any sound of movement. In the distance, a ringing could be heard, and he carefully pushed down the stone passageway towards it. The floor of the mineshaft was littered with loose stones and dust. Supports filled the shaft at regular intervals, thick wooden beams holding the weight of the hill above them. Torgon narrowed his eyes, movement flickered ahead in the darkness.

  He edged closer and saw a short humanoid creature about four feet tall. It had reptilian features and sniffed at the air before tasting it with a long tongue. Its skin was a mottled mix of greens and browns covered loosely by ragged cloth. It carried a small mining pick that looked in such bad shape it might have been part of the original mining supplies brought to this location decades ago. He used analysis on the creature, and it helpfully informed him that the creature was a level 3 Corrupted Kobold Miner.

  He pulled his bow from his inventory and lined a shot up on the miner. He loosed the arrow and watched as it took the kobold in his chest. The kobold staggered before charging at him. Torgon stashed his bow back in the inventory and engaged the kobold with his enchanted sword. He knocked the monster’s pick aside and slashed across the chest, breaking his embedded arrow and adding a bloody gash to the beast. He kept nimbly dodging the kobold’s attacks while inflicting powerful strikes. It wasn’t long before the kobold collapsed, a small loot indicator hovering over the body.

  Torgon grabbed the loot, licking his lips at the copper ingots and coins that he acquired. Killing off these little pests might be quite profitable. He stealthily continued deeper into the mine, ambushing the kobolds when the opportunity arose. The higher-level monsters earned him better combat experience relative to the level 1 creatures he was used to killing. The kobolds weren’t terribly skilled opponents, but they were dangerous if you didn’t pay attention. Their attacks were telegraphed, letting you dodge out of the way or parry them without much trouble if you didn’t get distracted.

  After more than an hour of killing, he reached a wide-open area in the mine. On the walls, gleaming tin and bronze nodes could be seen. He tried not to think about the fact that bronze didn’t exist in nature, being purely man made. Magic didn’t exist either, so he just locked it away in his reality box and stuffed it into the back of his mind. In the center of the chamber, the largest kobold he had ever seen wandered. It stood nearly six feet tall and wore leather armor that seemed functional. Its skin was streaked with black, the corruption being far more advanced than in the others he had seen. He analyzed the creature and frowned, “Corrupted Kobold Mine Foreman, Level 5.” That was all the information he had to go on. It wasn’t technically a boss, but he knew it was the creature in charge.

  He crept behind a pile of rubble and waited until the foreman wandered to the far side of the chamber. He took his bow and fired off arrows as quickly as he could. He managed three strikes before he was forced to engage with his sword. The kobold foreman wasn’t agile but had incredible strength in every swing. Torgon was taking minor damage from the spray of rocks that erupted from every missed attack. The beast’s two-handed maul was ponderous and powerful, sure to crush bones if it connected. Torgon used every bit of his agility to land cuts and slashes on the monster while avoiding the hits. The foreman roared in anger and shoulder checked Torgon into the wall. He desperately rolled away, taking a glancing blow from the maul that sent waves of pain through his body. He noticed a debuff from the strike, his agility was reduced for the next minute.

  The fight stretched on, Torgon dodging the attacks of the foreman while trying to inflict as much damage as he could. He repeatedly applied his shield and healed himself when needed, the constant minor drain of health from the rock chips added up over time. Finally, the kobold stumbled after a desperate swing, giving Torgon the opening he needed. He drove his sword deep into the foreman’s chest and twisted, causing a desperate yowl of pain. The foreman slumped backwards, collapsed and died.

  He eagerly collected the loot from the beast, a solid 10 bronze ingots and a common mining pick. The pick could mine the common ores and stone without a time penalty and had boosted speed on the basic ores and stone. They would need more of them, but for now, they could give it to a single person dedicated to mining and help them push their skills up farther and faster than the general world population. Torgon pictured Digger shifting back and forth on his feet, trying to be polite but wanting to use the new pick immediately. Ah, the joy of giving.

  Torgon added the mine to the owned territories of his guild. The teleportation archway sprung up inside the bottom chamber. He quickly constructed his end and others at the guild connected it to this location. He dragged his weary body through the portal and made his way to his home. It was finally time to get some sleep.