Eternal Dominion Book 15: Headway, page 1
Eternal Dominion Book 15
Headway
Bern Dean
Bern's Books LLC
Copyright © 2023 Bern’s Books LLC
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Cover design by: ebooklaunch.com
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
ED Year 3 Days 299-300.
Morning June 25 to Evening July 3, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 301-327.
July 4, 2267 & ED Year 3 Day 330.
Morning July 5 to Evening July 15, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 331-363.
July 16, 2267.
ED Year 3 Day 365 to ED Year 4 Day 1.
Morning July 17 to Evening July 18, 2267 & ED Year 4 Days 2-7.
Morning July 19 to Evening August 1, 2267 & ED Year 4 Days 8-49.
Morning August 2 to Evening August 4, 2267 & ED Year 4 Days 50-58.
Morning August 5 to Evening August 5, 2267 & ED Year 4, Days 59-61.
Thanks!
Preview
Afterword
ED Year 3 Days 299-300.
As Xeal awoke in ED for the first time since the end of day 294 due to the birth of his two daughters in reality, he wore a tired smile as he took in the morning light in his room as Aalin and Gale stirred next to him. Both of them opened their eyes for a moment before promptly rolling over and falling asleep and Xeal wasted no time in joining them. When Xeal next awoke it was as both Aalin and Gale stirred after logging back in for another nap in the mid afternoon and it was then that Xeal decided to awake for real. So, after giving them both a kiss, Xeal left the room and made his way to check in with his other wives, whom he found talking in the maternity wing of his palace. With them was Queen Nora and Queen Mother Eleanor and all five clerics of Eileithyia who were devoting their full attention to the five babies in the house. The eldest of these was Prince Vicenc who was 52 days old today and while none of them were mobile yet, they were all starting to discover how to grab anything in reach. As Xeal entered the room, Lingxin was the first to react.
“Xeal! You have returned to us.”
“Of course I have returned. Did you think I would abandon all of you? Aalin and Gale have kind of done so as well, though I would expect them to mainly be sleeping for the next week or so.”
“No,” replied Lingxin. “None of us were worried about you never returning. We were just expecting it to be a few more days.”
“Exactly. You spent three days with each of us,” added Dyllis. “We assumed it would be the same with them.”
“Ah, you are forgetting that I need to sleep in that world, and I can come here during those times if nothing else,” responded Xeal. “Though you should expect me to not be here as much for a while longer as to spend an hour with my new daughters I need to be offline three here.”
“That is fine, and we understand if you become a ghost at times,” stated Mari. “Especially as we know you will have more responsibilities arise in the near future as we start returning to active duty after Maki’s 100th day celebration.”
“I still feel weird about having a celebration for Xin and Maki, but not for Xander and Ellis,” commented Xeal. “Are we sure that we can’t do something for them?”
“Just as not holding an event would break Mari’s and Lingxin’s traditions, holding one would break ours,” answered Enye. “Especially as no such event would be held for Prince Vicenc. Just letting the beast-men have a new year’s celebration to honor our children is already pushing things. Though as Prince Vicenc will be here for the event, we will be able to include him in those being honored, so that makes things easier.”
“Huh, the next two and a half months is going to be absolutely packed with important events,” replied Xeal. “We have the first official arena league for my kind, another group of dwarves is due, all of our wedding anniversaries, the new year and the beast-men and nobles’ marriage meeting to name just a few.”
“Well at least you haven’t forgotten our anniversaries,” commented Enye with a smile. “Though how you plan on handling the three of ours being on the same day needs to be discussed.”
“How about I delegate that to the three of you and accept whatever you all agree to,” offered Xeal somewhat nervously.
“I think our husband is scared to show any favoritism,” teased Lingxin.
“Guilty as charged, but can you honestly blame me for that?”
“No, it is a fair thing to be concerned about, but perhaps we want to see what your solution would be,” replied Mari.
“Draw straws to see who gets to celebrate on the day of this year and celebrate the others the following day by doing the exact same thing each day,” answered Xeal. “Instead of having me pick a boring and safe option like that, I think we would all much rather have the three of you come up with a plan that I simply have to follow each year. Also, to be fair, Dyllis, I will place the same burden on you, Gale and Aalin, though I will have to tell them later.”
“I see, so you will put the full responsibility for ensuring that you remember to pamper us on your wives,” stated Dyllis with a frown.
“No, while I will leave the planning to each of you, I still need to take care of any tasks you assign me and make you feel special when the time comes,” countered Xeal.
“I say we allow him to get away with this plan this year but reassess things after we see how it turns out,” offered Mari.
“I can agree to that,” concurred Enye. “This year is an especially hectic one for him after all.”
“Then we all agree,” added Lingxin. “We will put our heads together and decide just what we want and smile as Xeal tries his best to deliver.”
Xeal just smiled as the conversation shifted to the little things that his children had been up to as he spent an hour with them, before leaving to handle the buildup of guild work that was waiting for him. He continued to do this until it was late at night, and he was about to head to bed when Daryu contacted him, asking for a meeting. Xeal just shook his head as he stepped into the portal that had opened up right in his office and found himself in a sitting room where the system admin was relaxing.
“You sure look like you’re busy keeping ED running,” quipped Xeal.
“Ha, thanks to you I have been given a single job and I must say the pay is nice,” replied Daryu with a smile.
“Oh, is it to sip tea while I make sure not to break the game?”
“Close, but it is you and your party that I have to keep tabs on as a whole.”
“Ah, I take it we are the only ones who are currently marked in all of ED.”
“That is confidential information, though if there are any others, they are most certainly keeping a lower profile. Something that I am happy to see you’re planning on doing shortly.”
“It would be even lower if the system wouldn’t announce it the moment the first players reach tier-7.”
“Ah yes, sorry, nothing I can do about that,” stated Daryu. “Though I can help you make sure that your levels aren’t leaked early by bending a few rules if you would do me a favor.”
“Ah and now we get to the reason you called me here as it can’t simply be to congratulate me on becoming a father,” quipped Xeal.
“Sadly no, though congratulations. However, the issue is that, as I am sure you are aware, only FAE has any tier-6 players, and the first arena league is about to start.”
“I don’t know what you want me to do about that. If other guilds are that far behind it’s their own fault.”
“No, you are just too adept at developing players. All the other guilds are on pace with each other, which makes FAE the anomaly in every way. Though it is not what I want you to do as much as I am here to tell you that all betting will be banned for the tier-6 events and only a modest reward will be given to ensure that things aren’t overly unfair.”
“Ah, you are afraid of us rigging the matches and hauling in a fortune by doing so,” stated Xeal with a laugh.
“No, I actually believe that you wouldn’t do that from your past actions, but the optics will be such that you can’t blame others for believing such a thing.”
“Fair, though don’t assume that I would be above putting everything on Amser to win, though it would be low odds as only 128 of our members will be participating in the tier-6 events. That will give you a seven-round singles tournament as they all compete and a four-round teams one, as only 16 six-man teams will enter.”
“I see. That will make things easier to justify when we announce the ban, though I expect you will still have more than a few complaints from your members who will lose out on prizes while exposing their skills.”
“Nah, I’m going to tell them to mess around and have fun. If they aren’t fighting for a major prize, they might as well make it entertaining for others.”
“Alright, if there is nothing else-” started Daryu.
“I’m about to possibly really break the game for my own personal gain,” stated Xeal. “I’m not going to tell you how, just that it will only allow me to gain a major advantage over other players and I want you to let it slide.”
“Xeal, you know I can’t do that.”
“But you can, as every player has the opportunity to do it if they have the ability to pull it off, they just don’t know it.”
“You know why I have been assigned to watch your party, right?”
“Because we flirt with breaking the game every time we interact with the phoenixes and will be stronger than most tier-7 NPCs by the time we are ready to attempt to reach tier-7.”
“Not just that, you seem to know how everything works before anyone even attempts to do something. The fact that the system hijacked your tier-6 ordeal didn’t go unnoticed by everyone either, but once more that was within its parameters. Xeal, why is the system so happy to help you achieve your goals by stretching its rules when it is neutral on every other player?”
“You know that the main system is the only AI who can see into players’ minds at will, right?”
“Yeah, privacy laws, the need to limit the strain on any player's brain, heck even the data from when the orc seer Durz saw into your mind was barred from our view by the system. Are you saying the system agrees with your goals and is showing you favoritism because of that?”
“Not exactly, as I am sure it agrees with many players’ goals and aspirations. No, I am saying that it is intrigued by how my brain works and has no issue with my goals. Honestly, if it had its way it would lock me up to be experimented on, with how fascinated it is with what it sees. As for me seemingly knowing what is coming before it does, it has to do with things my brain sees as logical that others don’t and is likely a large part of why the main system is fascinated with it. Just know that I am not getting any information fed to me from an outside source. I am just that in tune with how things work.”
“Honestly, I am just going to ignore everything that you just said and be thankful that it’s not my job to look into your brain. Just don’t go too overboard and force us to open a separate world that works under slightly different mechanics as we let this one die.”
“Fine, then fix my savior of souls title to only allow me a max number of class skill points as I’m about to slaughter around 2,000 vampires, all of which are unique undead.”
Xeal smiled as Daryu took in his words and pulled up the data on both before sighing and answering Xeal.
“You’re fine. That won’t break the game as you can only earn a max of two each level and I doubt you intend to limit yourself by hunting down two unique undead each level. While the ability will still purify 75% of all unique undead souls, only the first two will give you a class skill point.”
“Wait, someone actually realized the issue before I told you?” quipped Xeal. “I’m impressed. Normally I have to let other guilds exploit something for a while for things like this to be caught.”
“Believe it or not, not everything is broken that seems like it, though now I can relax for a bit longer at least.”
“Daryu, you can just sit back and relax while collecting your paycheck. Outside a few key points, I have no intention of FAE playing a major role outside of Nium’s continent.”
“I know, you will trade and make sure to earn the billions of credits needed to support FAE, but tell me, will you really let Abysses End thrive?”
“No, that would be one of those key points,” replied Xeal in a cold tone.
“And that is why I have to worry. If you make them fold through a long drawn-out conflict that is one thing, but I feel like you plan on crushing them in a spectacular way.”
“Got it, slowly drive the knife in while they are begging for mercy instead of cleanly beheading them in one strike.”
“Remind me not to piss you off. You’re acting like they killed your mother and pissed on her grave.”
“Oh, no, had they done that, they wouldn’t be allowed to die at all,” replied Xeal. “What they did isn’t important anymore. It is enough to know what they are capable of, for me to want to remove them from the playing field, even at the cost of creating another power vacuum with Jingong in such a diminished state.”
“I am just going to file that under ‘things to worry about later’ for now. Please just make sure that you don’t screw a whole continent over when you make your move.”
“I will not ruin the game for any players that aren’t reliant on Abysses End for their livelihood, though most of them will find new avenues to earn a living once I’m done anyways.”
At Xeal’s words, Daryu sighed as he opened the portal back to Xeal’s office and the meeting ended and Xeal headed off to get some sleep. When Xeal awoke, he waited for those of his party who were online to be ready to return to the Vault of Ucnuc. He wanted to seal the next well and prepare to dive deeper as Aalin and Gale started to do six-hour sprints. The current plan was for Aalin and Gale to have three logins a day that would be spent grinding, so rather than 16 hours in one block every three ED days, the group would have 18 hours at only six hours each day. Xeal knew that this would continue for several months as their daughters needed to be fed and both of them wanted to try and be there for as long as they could. The fact that the maternity pod could handle pumping for them wasn’t enough for them to agree to letting it replace the bonding time that they agreed was precious. Though they did plan to start letting them be bottle fed one or two meals a day to let them get a solid eight hours in the VR pod once a day after the first few days. However, that was all that Xeal had gotten out of them when they talked about it shortly after the births. From Xeal’s point of view it was like a switch had been flipped and to them the whole world had changed the moment Ahsa and Moyra were born. Even if he understood it, having to rework the whole party’s schedule had been a task and a half for Kate as she went about it.
Finally, they all arrived and Ekaitza used an advanced return scroll and returned to the Vault of Ucnuc and set up the teleportation gate that was connected to the beast-man tribes’ lands. While doing this cost a bit of MP crystals, it was still far more economical than the expense of the over 20 advanced return scrolls that would be needed otherwise. Especially now that the dynamic pricing had really started to cause the cost of each scroll to be close to a full gold, even if it would still be a profitable exchange for most at that price. Once the gate was ready and they had all transferred to the last safe zone that they had been at before the impromptu break, Xeal smiled as they set off towards the well on the 50th floor.
Once more they found themselves facing off against a demon made of mist wielding a mace and tossing out balls of mist in what was becoming a repetitive battle. Especially as other than the levels that the newly tier-6 NPCs had gained from sealing the last two wells, they hadn’t increased the levels of the top combatants. This was the issue with scalable challenges as had Xeal simply waited until his entire party was level 199, they would have simply repeated the same fight over and over until they faced the final boss of the dungeon. Even if he knew that doing so would create much harder fights overall, there was something to be said for knowing exactly what to expect and having the confidence from overcoming something once before. Still, the only real difference Xeal noted was that they were now able to seal the well a minute before the point they had on the 30th floor and avoid feeling overwhelmed a moment before victory.
With that taken care of, the team above once more started their sweep for anything out of expectations, or value from the now cleansed floors as Xeal’s party started to recover their statuses. Like before, most of the party had around half of all of their health, SP pools and MP pools left, though some had as much as three quarters, or as little as a quarter of some of those left. As was normal, everyone started chatting and laughing about it when 20 figures walked into the room wearing bright smiles as they spoke.
“What do we have here,” commented the male vampire in the lead.
“I’m not sure, but it looks like a wonderful buffet of exotic flavors,” added a second male vampire.
“You two can enjoy your buffet, but I want the main course,” stated one of the five female vampires of the group as she looked at Xeal while licking her lips. “Though I might have to share him a little.”
“At least a little. After all, I think most of us would like to try the variety in front of us after so long without any new blood being brought in,” responded a second female vampire.
