The morning light filtered into the building created by King, they were all seated in the common area.

Mr Eli showed Maya a new toy he’d made for her, a bird carved from dry wood. Meanwhile King opened his interface again and navigated to a new section.

[Guild Creation]

He tapped the option, and a prompt materialized.

[CREATE GUILD: 20,000 RUNES]

King confirmed the payment without hesitation. The runes deducted from his total, and a new screen appeared.

[NAME YOUR GUILD]

King thought for a moment, then typed.

K...

KI...

KING...

KINGSMEN.

The system accepted the name, and another prompt followed.

[ADD MEMBERS]

King added Eli, Vi, and Maya to the roster.

[SELECT GUILD BASE LOCATION]

King selected his claimed territory.

[NAME YOUR TERRITORY]

King typed again.

[King’s Land]

The system finalized the guild creation, and notifications appeared in front of all four members.

[YOU HAVE BEEN INVITED TO JOIN THE GUILD: KINGSMEN]

[ACCEPT? Y/N]

Eli, Vi, and Maya all accepted.

DING!

[GUILD CREATION SUCCESSFUL]

[DO YOU WANT TO MAKE YOUR ANNOUNCEMENT PUBLIC?]

King selected [NO], closed the interface and looked at his team.

"Welcome to Kingsmen," he said.

Eli nodded. Vi smiled. Maya gave a small wave.

"Well, now that’s official, if you’ll all excuse me" he said rising to his feet and returning to his quarters.

CREAK, SHUT

The sound of his door closing echoed through the common area.

King opened the World Chat interface, and the flood of messages hit him immediately.

Thousands of players were active, discussing the First Woe, sharing stories of survival, mourning losses, celebrating victories. King read through the messages he could, trying to gather as much information as he could.

________________

________________

[Did anyone else lose their entire starting zone? My town is just GONE]

[Did anyone notice?, Cain jumped to second place on BOTH rankings. How is that even possible?]

[ I met him in person. Cain. He was killing everything in sight near the Eastern Rift, had to run for my life. Dude’s a monster. Don’t engage unless you have a death wish.]

[Anyone still forming guilds? I need a group. I Can’t survive this alone.]

[These NPC invaders are passive now but I don’t trust it. How long before they start hunting again?]

King scrolled further, noting the recurring mentions of Cain. The military player had made an impression during the First Woe, and not a positive one. Players were scared. Some were angry. Others were speculating about what kind of rewards he’d earned to jump the rankings so dramatically.

DING!

[GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT: THE GUILD "HUNTERS ASSOCIATION" HAS BEEN CREATED. LEADER: HUNT_STARBUSTER]

The chat exploded.

[ Hunters Association? The streamer duo?]

[Hunt and Liz are forming a guild. That’s huge.]

[Finally some organization. I’m applying.]

[Do they accept randoms or is it invite-only?]

[If the Starbuster’s are leading it, they’re probably going to be top tier. Those two know what they’re doing.]

King read through the reactions, noting the shift in tone. The Hunters Association would be popular. Hunt and Liz Starbuster were famous before the game overlay, and their combined fanbase would flock to them now.

"So they chose to go public," King muttered.

Most top players would keep their guilds private, invite-only, selective. Going public this early was a bold move. It meant Hunt was confident in his ability to manage the chaos that came with open recruitment.

King closed the World Chat and dismissed the interface.

He leaned back against the construct wall, organizing his thoughts.

They had a few days before the Second Woe began. Maybe a week if the pattern held. That gave him a narrow window to accomplish everything he needed to do.

He mapped out a few tasks to accomplish before the second woe hit.

_______________

__________________

First priority: Ephelias’ Elemental Magic Scroll.

The scroll was locked at Ephelias Magi-Academy, a location that required significant travel to reach. The academy was located on the northern continent, far from King’s current position. Getting there on foot would take days, maybe longer with the reshaped terrain.

But there were shortcuts.

Fast-travel pools.

The game had never announced them. They weren’t tutorial, or explanation. They existed as unmarked mechanics, hidden features that only players who explored enough would discover. King had stumbled across one during his twenty-seventh playthrough, purely by accident, and once he’d learned the symbol to look for, he’d mapped every fast-travel pool in the game.

They appeared as small, circular glyphs on the map interface, easy to miss unless you knew what you were looking for. Standing in one pool would open a list of other pools across the world, allowing instant travel between them.

King opened his map and zoomed out, scanning the region.

There.

A fast-travel pool was located two miles west of King’s Land, hidden in a forested clearing near the base of a cliff. Another pool sat near Ephelias Magi-Academy, cutting the journey down from days to minutes.

King marked both locations and closed the map.

Second priority: the Red-Imp Talisman.

The talisman was a drop from a mini-boss in the Imp dungeon, the red imp, a creature that spawned at the end of the dungeon. King had always explored it early game, it held a lot of useful items and consumables.

Third priority: Eli’s quest path.

There was a mercenary NPC named Black-Zero who operated out of a hidden camp in the Eastern Lowlands. Black-Zero offered a unique questline that rewarded players with an explosive shot skill, perfect for Eli’s ranger build. The quest also granted access to several unique ranger tools, items that would give Eli a significant edge in multi-ranged combat.

King pulled up Eli’s profile and sent him the coordinates for Black-Zero’s camp.

"Mr Eli, I sent you something" He said to Eli as he walked back into the common area.

"Okay Master King." Eli handed the toy over to Maya and opened his interface.

[King: Check your map. I marked a location for you. An NPC named Black-Zero runs a mercenary operation there. He’s got a quest that’ll give you an explosive shot skill and some rare ranger gear. It’s a good fit for your build.]

[Eli: Understood. I’ll head out tomorrow morning.]

King closed the message and turned his attention to Vi, who was sitting nearby.

"Vi," King said. "I need to talk to you about something."

Vi looked up.

"What’s up?"

"I’m heading out tomorrow," King said. "There’s a quest I need to complete at Ephelias Magi-Academy. It’s on the northern continent, so I’ll be using a fast-travel pool to get there."

Vi frowned.

"How long will you be gone?"

"Not long," King assured her. "Just a few days. The fast-travel pools cut down the travel time significantly. I just need to grab the scroll and get back before the Second Woe starts."

Vi nodded slowly, though King could see the concern in her expression.

"I need you to stay here with Maya," King continued. "Keep her safe. Keep the bunker secure. Eli’s going to be out on a quest too, so it’ll just be the two of you for a bit."

Vi glanced at Maya, who was still playing with her toy, oblivious to the conversation.

"We’ll be fine," Vi said. "Just... be careful, okay?"

"I will," King said. "And when I get back, I’m going to find Maya a proper companion. Something to keep her safe when we’re not around."

Vi smiled faintly.

"She’ll like that."

King stood and was about to head toward his room when a notification appeared.

[The Almighty: 1 New Message]

King stopped, staring at the glowing text.

He opened the message.

_________________________

[The Almighty: Treat as urgent. I’ve got news.]

_________________________

King stared at the words, a look of worry clouding his face.

Urgent.

The Almighty had never used that tone before. Every previous message had been casual, playful, even teasing. This was different.

King closed the interface, entered his room, and shut the door.

Then he opened the message interface again and typed a response.

[King: I’m here. What’s the news?]