A smooth, purplish head with three eye-stalks looked up from a desk as the connection was made. “Mayor Nitrin, I trust you aren’t wasting my time again. As I’ve told you before, the Adventurer’s Guild can’t get involved in corporate affairs.”

  “Greetings to you too, Vice Regional Leader Selmac. I don’t know what time it is wherever you are, but I have a different request.”

  All three eyes rolled at the same time. “What now?”

  “An off-worlder adventurer has agreed to become the champion of Anwich. As the system representative of this planetary district, I am invoking our right to have a guild representative and a jobs board posted in our location.”

  “Finally hooked one, did you? Well, good for you.” She then looked back down at something on her desk. She leafed through what a human of a certain age would have recognized as a day planner. The precursor, before the existence of smartphones, blackberries and such, made them obsolete.

  “I think I can get someone out to you in about a month.”

  “Does it change your calculation if the off-worlder is a Forerunner?” Grazo asked. He did his best to hold in his excitement, since he already knew the answer to the question.

  Suddenly any reading of documents or distracted attention was gone. In its place was the image of Selmac—projected through the system screen as nothing but attentive. “From which world?”

  “I didn’t ask him that. I don’t even know how many worlds are undergoing the induction competition now.”

  Selmac patted the space right beneath her mouth. It almost looked like she was rubbing her chin in thought… except her species didn’t have chins. “Well, what does he look like, unless you were able to assess his species?”

  “You know that the system won’t let me do that for non-inducted worlds. Maybe if I was a higher ranked administrator, I’d have a way around that. As for what he looked like, he was very humanoid. Close to a Galenian. Although his ears had a different shape, his skin was more pale, without any of our bluish tint, and his head was more of an oval in shape. He was quite tall, over six feet, but he was both similar enough to feel like one of us and different enough to stand out.”

  Her eyes widened. “The only species that fits is homo sapiens from a world named Earth. They are only a little more than a year away from completing their induction challenge, although I’m not sure where they are currently ranked.”

  Grazo replied, “I don’t know anything about their induction, but he is a brand new Forerunner. He was only level 12. Even so, he soloed our irregular dungeon except for the boss, which he fought with a trio of local adventurers. I suspect they are going to form a team.”

  “Oh no, we can’t have that. No offense to your locals, but if there is a Forerunner willing to help others, then we need to get him proper training. I’ll be dispatching a guild administrator and putting out a couple of quests related to this new Forerunner. What’s his name?”

  “Silas Renner, but whatever you do, you need to treat him carefully. He puts off this aura of harmlessness. It makes people want to hug him rather than fight him. I think he’s a complete innocent. I don’t want to see the guild chew him up and spit him out.”

  “That isn’t how we operated.”

  The cynical expression on Grazo’s face said what he thought about that statement.

  “Okay, so sometimes we push too hard, but a Forerunner is a great opportunity. If we can nurture him now, he’ll be loyal later and when they survive induction they almost always go on to become powerful influencers in the Multiverse. I don’t suppose he told you anything about any of his titles or Forerunner abilities?”

  “I didn’t ask. I’m not trying to exploit the boy. I already feel bad enough that I needed him to break up Transhek’s monopoly here. Speaking of which, can I trust that you’ll be sending out word so some of the other corporations to take an interest?”

  Selmac sighed. “Of course, I just finished posting the quests. You should get them just about… now.”

  Rare Rank Adventurer’s Guild Quest

  Eligibility: Any adventurers in good standing with a rare or lower rank class.

  Goal: Form a party with the Forerunner, Silas Renner on the dungeon world, Galen.

  Deadline: 3 months

  Reward: 100,000 credits, 1 epic class shard per member of the team as available in the guild store at the time of completion, 1000 guild contribution points.

  Epic Rank Adventurer’s Guild Quest

  Eligibility: Any adventurers in good standing with an epic or lower rank class.

  Goal: Mentor the Forerunner, Silas Renner, until he reaches a minimum of level 125 and is able to pass the Epic Rank Guild Test.

  Deadline: 5 years.

  Reward: 100,000 credits, 1 legendary class shard as available in the guild store, 2 evolution stones, 2000 guild contribution points.

  Supplement Adventurer’s Guild Quest

  Eligibility: Any organization, family, or ally in good standing with the guild.

  Goal: Sponsor the Forerunner, Silas Renner

  Reward: Priority assignment regarding his world upon completion of its induction.

  Deadline: 1 year.

  Grazo read the quests. He immediately felt guilty. Sure, there was a great deal of potential help for Silas here, but there would also be vultures trying to take advantage of him. There was something about the boy that he just couldn’t help liking. He was so innocent or at least that was how he seemed. Well, that was going to change one way or the other. The system had little use for innocence. All of Galen had discovered that the hard way.

  “Thank you, Vice Sector Leader, I’m sure this will result in a great deal of assistance for Mr. Renner.”

  “Let’s just hope that he ends up being worth the investment. Most Forerunners end up with very short life expectancies, but every so often there is a gem that shines so brightly that it makes all the other investments worthwhile.”

  _________________________________

  Jiang Bai was the top Forerunner on Earth. He knew it and the others knew it too. He had a rare class and was already at the level cap of 125, but hadn’t yet been able to procure four epic shards for a class evolution that he wanted. His frustration had been growing.

  The competition should have been going better for Earth. It would have been going better, but for two factors. He cursed bitterly and with disdain. His fellow Forerunners were weaklings. Two of them were women, for goodness’ sake. They should have had the honor to just die and make way for a man who might have helped to save their world.

  Perhaps he should have killed them years ago, but with little more than a year to go it was too late. Both Anika and Nuri were around level 100 with rare classes. If they died now, whoever replaced them would be too weak to contribute. Yet, it still chaffed at him that the fate of the world was reliant upon two women.

  It wasn’t like his male counterparts were any better. Emil had gone crazy. He lost all face by trying to tell the secrets of the system to the normals. What had he gotten for his trouble? Locked up. That’s what. Jiang considered breaking him out, but he hated operating on Earth. The low mana concentration made him feel weak all the time, and it was almost impossible for him to use any spells or even his abilities.

  No, Emil would just have to suffer his fate. Maybe he’d finally give up this ruse about warning the world and get back to earning World Points before Earth fell below 3rd place.

  Third place. Jiang wanted to stab something with his spear when he thought about that. They should be competing for 1st place and a proper welcome into the multiverse, rather than struggling to just become a dungeon world. He’d been on enough quests, on enough worlds, to realize that life would be hard for most. Many would die if Earth became a dungeon world. He had even visited a mining world. There was nothing left of the original world, so this was definitely the lesser of two evils.

  Thinking of evil made him think about Daniel Becker. He wanted to curse the man’s name. He had been the most powerful of them at the time, the first to get a rare class, the first to pass level 100. Yet that wasn’t enough. He had tried to get all of them to hunt down Morvarg. Like that was going to work. So, what did he get for his trouble? He was killed and Earth was without one of their Forerunners for the past two years.

  Morvarg was that second factor which was holding Earth back. He was a monster. A being that even Jiang had no illusions about being able to defeat. The thing hunted other Forerunners and seemed to delight in killing them. Whatever it was though, no one could argue with the fact that it was single-handedly keeping its world in first place.

  There was nothing that Jiang could do about Morvarg for now. He forced out a sigh and then looked down from his perch atop Mt. Gongga. The bitter cold and cutting wind meant less than nothing to him now, but it helped him to clear his mind. That and the mana influx from the portal near his personal base. He looked down and with a glance could see vast sections of the Sichuan province and even beyond. It was the place of his birth, and he would not let it be destroyed.

  That was when he reached a decision. He needed to meet this new Forerunner. Their worthiness needed to be tested.

  He pulled upon his reserves of mana and conjured a veil of invisibility around him, and then braced himself as he activated another ability and leapt from the mountain. His body hurtled forward faster than the speed of sound. He’d need to take a plane to reach America. The mana was just too low on Earth to allow him to continuously use his abilities, but at least he could travel a few hundred miles under his own power.

  Yes, the more he thought about it, the more he decided, that it would be better to kill this new one if they were unworthy. It might be too late with the higher leveled Forerunners. It would take too much time to build others up to their level, but the loss of a newbie would be nothing and perhaps it would make room for a rare natural talent, like himself.

  Then he shook his head with a smile as he flew through the air. No, not like him. There were none on Earth as good as he was.

  Chapter 23- A Team or A-Team?

  Earth Countdown: 392 days, 6 hours, 2 minutes.

  Challenge Countdown: 17 hours, 54 minutes

  Dori led me back to the Rusty Nail. I was still thinking about the ramifications of what I had just agreed to. Apparently, it hadn’t been enough that Earth was going to end up depending on me, well me and the other Forerunners. Maybe I did have a hero complex after all.

  I mean I get that I liked Dori… not like anything other than as a friend. It wasn’t that she was an alien as much as that I thought she was about ten years older than me. That and she hadn’t given me even the slightest indication that I should think like that. Some girls seemed to think it’s impossible for a guy to like a girl without wanting something more from her, but I was a firm believer in equality of friendships. There were too few people in the world or now worlds, that I could unreservedly relate to for me to be picky.

  Crag was cool too. A bit of a fan boy, but if I was honest, I needed the morale boost. As for Nevin, the dude didn’t talk much, but I got the feeling he was a treasure trove of knowledge, especially about magic. I was going to need any guidance there that I could. The life mage shard had me already thinking about the direction I was going to take with my build and magic was going to play a big part of it.

  When we were finally seated at a table with the others, Crag asked, “Well?”

  Dori looked at me and must have assumed I was lost in thought, which was fair, so she answered for me. “He did.”

  Crag slammed two hands down on the table hard enough that all the drinks and plates rose up off the surface. A zig zagging crack appeared on the table. Fortunately for Crag it wasn’t enough to break the table entirely. Water and something that looked like milk spilled over the surface.

  “What have I said before, Mr. Nilhorn?”

  The slender, middle-aged woman who owned the inn asked.

  Crag’s complexion darkened which I took to be him blushing.

  “Sorry about that, Miss Morget. It won’t happen again.”

  “I’ll believe that when I see it,” she mumbled before walking into the back of the inn.

  Nevin said, “I believe that we’re on a timetable so we need to keep things moving.” Then he turned to look directly at me. “Do you intend to leave for your own world now that you have completed the challenge?”

  “Actually, I was hoping to fight some monsters and level up. I got a perk for making this my home away from home.”

  They were all ears then, Dori especially. “He chose bonus XP.”

  Everyone at the table got quiet.

  Finally Dori said, “I might as well just get it out. You get to pick your own team now that you are officially an adventurer operating on Galen. Whatever bonus you got will apply to all of us whenever we are working together. Crag over there is holding his breath hoping that you’ll pick us to be your team.”

  “A team huh? Does that only apply while I’m on Galen?”

  “It’s my understanding from the data that I purchased that you will be able to bring us to other worlds on missions but never to your own since it is an uninducted world. As of yet, there is something about certain missions that are considered Forerunner only,” she shrugged apologetically, “I don’t have any more information to share.”

  I drummed my fingers on the table, the water vibrating with each tap of my fingers, “And if I invite you to my team is it like a ‘to death do us part’ sorta thing?”

  “Not sure about your choice of words, but yes obviously if one of us died you would be able to pick new team members. A full team is five members so you have four slots to fill.”

  “Uh, no, I meant… uh… how do I say this…”

  Nevin said, “I think what Mr. Renner is trying to say is that he is worried about whether he can kick us off the team if we don’t perform up to his expectations.”

  I gave him a weak smile. “Not sure I would have put it quite like that but, yeah, you all seem cool so far, but what if we don’t mesh well?”

  “You are the person with the XP bonus, so you sorta make the rules.”

  “Oh, we have a saying back home. Some people call it the golden rule. ‘He who has the gold makes the rules’.”

  “Is gold valuable where you come from? Here it is only detrimental.”

  “Yeah, wars have been fought over it. We don’t have credits or anything like that.”

  Crag said, “It’s like the history books talked about how diamonds used to be super valuable, and cities fought over them.”

  Nevin said, “The coming of the system wiped away that problem at the cost of more than half of the life on Galen.” He steepled his fingers under his chin. It was an oddly human gesture, perhaps there were parallels between my world and Galen. “Of course, it created a whole new set of problems.” he finished.

  The mood was somber for a moment. I wondered if I was rushing into things, but I knew I didn’t know enough to be out there on my own.”

  “Okay, I’ve only got a little more than seventeen hours. I’d like to invite you all to my team but then we need to get to some monster hunting. I have an idea for trying to complete one of my other challenges.”

  Nevin leaned forward. “I’d like to learn more about how your challenges work. They seem to operate like quests, but from what you told us, you didn’t get any XP from completing it.”

  “Yeah, now that you mention quests, I need to select my reward. Besides,” I turned to look at the three of them, my smile wide and excited, “I would like you to accept my invitation and join the team. Maybe show me the best places to hunt monsters, their weaknesses if they have any, and how you would take them out efficiently. As Nevin mentioned earlier, I’m on a timeline.”

  They all quickly agreed. Dori had to warn Crag not to slam the table in his excitement, while trying to hide her own. Nevin merely nodded, but his eyes gleamed all the same. I was expecting horns or harps or… something from the system to commemorate this occasion. I was sadly disappointed. The only notification I got was that we were still partied up, so we shared the same interface. I could see their health, stamina, and mana levels as well as knowing their general direction and location from me. That was about all there was to it.

  “Wow, that was underwhelming, I was hoping for more…”

  Crag said, “Like what?”

  I shrugged. “A grand orchestra? Maybe a title?”

  Crag stared at me deadpan.

  I smiled weakly, my inner loot goblin was definitely showing. “I just need a second to look at the notification about my options.”