Months inside an ice block severed me from the day-to-day goings on in the settlement. I’d been gone so long that people stopped waiting for my return and got on with their lives.

  Hawkhurst’s unchecked growth had everyone jockeying for better land, economic opportunities, and social positions. Despite the lofty title in my nameplate and my command over the settlement interface, everyone needed to adjust before I asserted myself into management.

  Backtracking from the construction site through the tower, gatehouse, and great hall, I passed no one on my way to my room except Ida and her clerks, who worked on the manor’s ground floor.

  Before entering the manor, I checked the mailbox. Fabulosa had opened my last letter, which I sent while fighting the goblins. When I wrote it, I hoped she might swoop in and save the day. Four letters waited for me, all from Fabulosa. The first dated months ago, and I read them in chronological order at the empty meeting table inside the manor.

  Dated letters had a certain time-travel charm. Revisiting past concerns reminded me how things weren’t always as bad as they seemed. Hindsight could be a comfort.

  Fabulosa had written this before the group chat feature unlocked when the game awarded bounties for knocking out opponents from The Book of Dungeons.

  The letter’s light tone cheered me up. I’m glad Fabulosa found what she wanted and was pleased to learn that she wasn’t power-leveling.

  Reading her letter broke the fantasy immersion, but her mention of fighting another player reminded me that my ticket to college went through this game. Without so many concerns involving the town and the relics, I had to remind myself that had to be my ultimate goal.

  I opened the second letter.

  It struck me as odd that Bircht volunteered so much information about cores. He candidly answered things in the group chat, too. Secrets of the game’s workings might be something a smart person would keep close to their chest. But some people had egos and couldn’t resist proving themselves. Or maybe he was nice. Perhaps he wants to build up a reputation to lure people into trusting him.

  Thoughts of alliances gave me a headache. With so many things in the air, I couldn’t juggle the prospects of choosing who to trust. Alliances complicated matters, not simplified them.

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  I opened the third letter.

  Fabulosa’s confidence worried me. The game’s social dynamics had proven me wrong in Belden, but that was when we were newbies, and it made sense to stay together. Things would get squirrely close to the wire, and I hated getting this far into the battle royale and getting rubbed out for trusting the wrong player. Grouping up with Bircht and Duchess seemed dubious, and I wasn’t even sure if I could trust the information about Toadkiller was correct.

  The last letter came from a new location.

  Fabulosa had sent her last message after we’d talked in group chat. She must have written it as I paddled home.

  After a salvo of so many unanswered letters, an immediate response seemed fitting. I wrote Fabulosa back, catching her up on the town’s losses against Rezan. News of Iris’s baby softened our losses, so I made sure to mention Ian. I told her how Darkstep insisted on spying on Hawkhurst with his relentless Improved Eyes and asked if she’d heard anything about him.

  I gave a brief account of my underwater adventure to explain my absence. Instead of lying about losing both relics and cores, I tactfully kept them out of the conversation.

  After stepping outside to send the letter, I went upstairs. My back ached from all the paddling. Kicking off my armor and boots, I sprawled out on my bed, indulging in the luxury of not having to share it with Beaker.

  I dozed until dinnertime. It wasn’t long enough to clear my Exhausted debuffs, but minor debuffs wouldn’t spoil me from enjoying this strange new town.

  Upon waking, I checked the group chat. While the feature didn’t stop time, it obstructed much of my field of vision—too much to keep it open. I couldn’t imagine using it during combat.

  HoosierDaddy Check it! We can link item descriptions.

  Duchess Nice! I knew we could do that through mail, but not the chat.

  Bircht I didn’t know linking items worked in mail.

  Duchess Yep!

  Flagboi Dude, why would you link your own equipment?

  HoosierDaddy That’s a very good question.

  Duchess Hmm. I smell something fishy.

  Pixielite I bet I know what he’s doing.

  Audigger What?

  Pixielite I’m not telling. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.

  Duchess Double-hmm. Does your shield look epic?

  HoosierDaddy It has a cool visual effect. It’s gonna look good on the show.

  I mulled over the possibility of hiring mercenaries. Fabulosa mentioned how cities hired warlords to do their fighting. I wouldn’t know where to begin with such an enterprise, but perhaps the soldiers from Fort Krek might know.

  I entertained the fantasy of luring the emperor into Hawkhurst and crushing him with a hidden army of hirelings. It seemed a dubious way to win a relic. How could I trust someone not to take it for themselves?

  Duchess He’s probably linking that to an NPC’s shield.

  Audigger I doubt that. NPCs rarely carry adventuring gear.

  Duchess I can’t blame them. If I only got a power point once every three or five levels, I wouldn’t risk it.

  Flagboi Wait. Not everyone gets the same number of power points?

  Duchess Nope. Players get more powers than the NPCs. That’s what makes us so mighty. A deep elf once explained they draw from a different menu of abilities. Orcs get power points every two levels.

  Bircht It explains why NPCs don’t venture into the wilderness.

  The discussion explained why I’d not seen as many powers on high-level NPCs. If it were true, it might limit the scope of what a relic-bearing orc may have in battle.

  Duchess mentioned different creatures had different menus of spells, but Rezan’s seemed remarkably familiar. Perhaps what distinguished them from mine was a lack of skills or slower acquisition. I hoped it to be as such. If warriors in other regions drew from wildly different options, it would make them unpredictable and impossible to plan against.

  I wanted to discuss this with Yula as soon as possible. If she could give me more insight into what to expect from the emperor, I might formulate a strategy for infiltrating their land and destroying the last relic.