It would have been great if there were stronger monsters between the kingdom and Ghazban Village, but it was what it was. The upside was that powerful adventurers would not be very common in Belchor. Given the obstacles we were facing with leveling this could be a tremendous boon.

  That still didn’t save us from that monster of an archmage who had almost single-handedly wiped out our village before. I was much stronger now, but I knew he would still kill me easily. Maybe just not with one shot. Which, of course, was the entire point of this diplomatic mission. We didn’t really want peace; we just wanted enough time to overcome our hurdles.

  The first actual problem we encountered was when we tried to pass through a village. I was immediately attacked by the guards. My HP was high enough that even a group of level thirty village guards couldn’t kill me before I escaped. Elgar speaking up on my behalf didn’t seem to be enough.

  It was pretty obvious that I was still set to kill on sight with the NPCs of Belchor. And there was no way that I was going to get that changed quickly enough. So, we had to do some quick thinking. I cursed myself for not having thought about this before.

  I had assumed that having positive faction with the players would be enough. LoS was again too complex and so each NPC nation had its own primary faction, along with dozens of lesser factions. Some would rise when the generic faction score went up, but others I would have to farm for myself.

  This system had existed when I was playing the closed beta, but had obviously evolved since then. My frustration with it grew accordingly. Stealth was not my forte and so what should have been a journey of three days to the capital ended up taking more than a week.

  We were forced to weave our way around the towns and avoid any patrols of guards. Worse, I had to stop each time the others wanted to log out for their “real” lives. More than once I wanted to snap that I used to have a real life, but this was all I had left now. I contained myself, but only just.

  I caught a lucky break the last night before reaching the capital. We had to take a back trail that led through the edge of a higher-level zone. The monsters were mostly level 30-36, so they would have been good hunting, but I promised to stay inside a thicket we had found.

  It was far from comfortable, but I crawled in between the thorny bushes. The foliage was thick enough that I couldn’t see out. Presumably that meant no one could see inside. Death would have been catastrophic at this point. I had reached level 33 following the defeat of Dark Kitty.

  There were too many things I didn’t understand about that entire scenario, but I was intentionally not thinking about it too much. I needed to create some stability for myself here. After that I would worry about if this was a real world or a game. Heck, it didn’t make much difference for me. I simply had to decide if I was going to support the system if it was being attacked from the outside.

  Somewhere in the middle of the night, I was awoken by the sounds of battle outside. The grunts of men in pain sounded very much like players. Their reduced pain settings made wounds that would have made them scream on Earth, just a painful annoyance, like really sore muscles. Mixed in, there were also screams of genuine pain, like you might expect from NPC humans.

  There was also a coughing squawk, which sounded like a lion choking on something. I didn’t know what monster they were fighting as this zone hadn’t been open during the closed beta, but I really wanted to know. I felt hypocritical after arguing with the other elders about the need for discretion, but I wanted to see this.

  So, I crawled out from the thicket and saw a full-on battle going on. I expected it to be a group of players fighting some combination of monsters. Instead, the ground was littered with the bodies of knights wearing the colors of Belchor. Their armor was torn up as though by great claws, and their weapons strewn all about.

  Only two knights were still standing up to their opponent. And what an opponent it was. It had to be twenty feet long, from the tip of its beak to the end of its tail and at least as wide as a wagon. Four powerful lion legs held up a feline shaped body, covered in scales on its back half and feathers across its broad chest. Its head was that of an eagle but overly broad and with a forked, reptilian tongue. On its back were two leathery wings, but one had a spear through it. The wound seemed to impair its movement.

  One knight appeared close to collapse from his wounds, but a glowing aura appeared around him as he continued to fight. I could recognize the familiar signs of healing magic. Then, when I looked thirty feet or so behind the knights, there was a heavily armored dwarf. He had a shield on one arm and a war hammer in the other, but it was the glow of magic that caught my interest more.

  I Assessed them all, starting with the dwarf

  Gregor, Cleric of Halstead Level: 30

  HP: 810/1125

  He read just like a player.

  Knight of Belchor Level: 25

  HP: 304/875

  The knights appeared to be nothing more than slightly stronger versions of the knights who had attacked our village. They weren’t as powerful as even the town guards. I was left to presume that they were sent out to hunt down monsters which threaten the farms of Belchor in the absence of enough players to accomplish it. More evidence of the intricate inner workings of LoS.

  The creature, now it was a real thing of beauty.

  Draco-Griffin Level: 38

  HP: 729/2820 Debuff: Grounded

  I found myself cheering for the monster against the knights. They were my enemies. They would always be my enemies. Belchor had slaughtered us, and I wasn’t going to forget that. But there was also a player here. Sure, he was working with the military of Belchor, but players did all kinds of quests. I wouldn’t hold that against him.

  Best of all, he was a cleric. If I could save him, maybe I could recruit him. The thing is I wanted to save him without letting the knights live. And more confusing, I wanted to do it without killing this monster. I felt a kindred spirit in him fighting against the tyranny of Belchor.

  I waited. Gregor must have been out of mana as he went to charge the beast when it downed another of the knights. I’ve known many clerics who liked to rush into battle. It was a problem if they did that instead of healing. It was also a problem if they were cowardly and would stay back even after expending all their mana.

  The draco-griffon’s sharp beak went out and drove through the top of the last knight’s helmet, killing him. Just at that moment, Gregor landed a blow with his warm hammer and shaved more HP off the beast, which in turn spun its body. The force of the creature’s good wing sent the stout dwarf stumbling backwards.

  I sent a party invite to Gregor as I shouted from behind him, “Join my party so I can save you.”

  He must have reflexively accepted it without checking. I fired off a Regeneration spell on the draco-griff. The sudden slow healing power made it hesitate rather than moving to finish off Gregor. A second later, I triggered Talisman of Arctic Force. The bonus HP would protect Gregor if the beast insisted on attacking still.

  I moved between them and held my hands up. “Whoa big boy. I don’t wanna hurt you. Just step back.”

  There was a spark of intelligence in the creature’s eye that gave me hope of a way to resolve this. I fired off a Moderate Heal, followed by another two Regenerations. I was hesitant to fully heal it. If I had to fight it, that might prove a fatal mistake.

  The healing I provided was enough to take it up over half health. Many various monsters would frenzy at various levels of HP loss. None that I knew of frenzied above 50% health, so I hoped that this would be enough to calm the beast.

  Taking an even bigger risk, I laid my spear on the ground slowly. The creature stared at me, even squawking with a confused tone.

  “Let me help you.”

  There was no response. Of course, I wasn’t sure what a suitable response would be.

  “I want to fix your wing,” I said as I pointed to where it was wounded. Even if I healed it, the heavy spear which looked more like a harpoon up close would have remained stuck.

  The beast continued to stare at me. I remained as still as I could be. The smell of blood was everywhere from the slain knights, but little by little the creature was calming down.

  I heard Gregor stirring. Without turning to look at him, I spoke softly saying, “Yes, I’m an ogre. Yes, I’m on your side. Now put your weapon on the ground and get behind me. Move very slowly. No sudden movements.”

  “Why aren’t you just killing the beast?” he asked.

  “Its health is back over 50% and it seems to be healing pretty quickly. I’d rather see if we can make friends with it so that both of us can live today.”

  He was doing as I had instructed, but I could hear the hesitation in his voice. He mumbled more to himself than me, I think. “Why am I even listening to an ogre?”

  “Because I’m your best bet at making it out of this in one piece. You travelers might respawn but I have some friends who are travelers. They say it still sucks to die.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Fair enough.”

  Now I took a slow step forward. The creature let out a high-pitched noise but didn’t move. Another step and still no reaction.

  So far, so good. That sharp beak looked like it could take off even my fat ogre fingers, but I would have to get close to it if I was going to do this. The harpoon head was metal, but the shaft was wood. If I got close enough, I was confident I could snap it in half. Once removed, it would be easy enough to heal the rest of the wounds.

  I breathed slowly, trying to stay as calm as I could. Even knowing that dying wasn’t really dying, it was still something I wanted to desperately avoid. I would lose those eighteen free stat points I assigned and a crap ton of experience. It was important that I stay the strongest if I was going to command Ghazban Village.

  Stupid or not, here I was, inches from a massive creature. But I wasn’t helpless. My buff gave me an enormous amount of HP and pushed my Strength off the chart. I just hoped that it wouldn’t try to peck my skull in when I broke the harpoon shaft. No matter how gently I did it, there was bound to be pain involved.

  “Shhh, big boy,” I whispered. Then I realized I didn’t know if he was actually a boy or a girl, but I wasn’t gonna peek under the hood to look at this moment.

  I inched up until my hands were on the harpoon’s shaft. “Easy… This is gonna hurt for just a minute.”

  He was staring at me, but I didn’t know if that was my signal to go ahead or if he was waiting for me to slip up. Hopefully, this all ended well. If not then, hopefully Gregor had regened enough mana that he could provide some healing.

  Then I snapped the shaft and pulled the two ends out. I figured it was like pulling off a bandage. Better to get it over with quickly. The creature squawked and rocked back on his hind legs. I thought for sure he was gonna lash out at me with his front paw. I gathered the power for Polluted Vines and was about to unleash it when he settled back down.

  His wings flapped. I assumed he felt that the injured wing wasn’t immobilized anymore, but it was bleeding pretty profusely. I fired off Moderate Healing and then started stacking Regeneration on him. At the same time, I called over my shoulder, “Help me heal him. Then maybe he won’t want to kill you.”

  I saw the glow of another healing spell hit and the draco-griffin’s HP soared up. Dang cleric must have far better healing abilities than I do. The beast’s wounds closed before my eyes. It flexed both wings until seeming satisfied. Then it stared into my eyes again. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I felt like we made a connection in that moment.

  Then it leaped into the air and flew off, away from the capital. If he kept going, he was going to leave this zone. I also noted that he was flying in the general direction of Ghazban Village.

  Before I could think about it anymore, Gregor said, “Now, can you explain what just happened?”

  A notification popped up, but I ignored it.

  “To get the obvious out of the way, yes, I’m an ogre. I have three traveler friends that disappeared. They do that for a few hours every day. I heard the fighting and wanted to help you.”

  The dwarf scratched his long reddish beard. “I should be sleeping now by all rights too, but I’m getting too close to my next quest. I’ve been grinding faction with Belchor so that I can get access to some new quests.”

  Playing my role, I replied, “I don’t know what you mean exactly. Do you mean that you have been trying to become friends with these humans?”

  He stared at me for a moment before answering. Then shook his head as he said, “Not friends, just enough to be able to do quests here and not have the guards looking over my shoulder every minute. I filled my entire quest page with faction quests. Honestly, I was gonna be mad at you for not killing that thing, but I still got the quest reward for driving it away.”

  That made me check my own notification.

  You have joined a party and provided essential assistance for the completion of an ongoing quest. You will receive full faction rewards and 50% XP rewards.

  XP: +75 Faction: +200 with Belchor, +300 with Knights of Belchor

  I immediately grinned. “So, you said you have more quests like that?”

  “Yeah why?”

  “I was thinking I could help you with them. I got faction rewards for that too,” I replied.

  “Hmm… I don’t have a regular party or anything. But not sure if you will want to do this. Most of the rest are noob quests. You know, killing some wolves, killing some boars. Oh, and gathering some fungus. You know that sort of thing. I did this one first because it was the longest but also had the best rewards,” Gregor said.

  I shrugged. “Up to you.”

  “Sure, why not. Most of the rest are easy, but I owe you one. Come to think of it, you are probably the ogre I’ve been hearing rumors about. Some of the message boards are lit up about an ogre traveling around with three players.”

  There was so much I wanted to say, but I refrained. “I don’t understand half of what you just said, but if you will let me tag along, then I will do so. I just have to stay away from the guards as they don’t like me very much.”

  “No worries, they don’t care for me either. They are just worried that we know the reason humans are so tall is that they are overcompensating for other shortages.”

  I laughed at the gesture he made along with those words. It reminded me of old-time athletes I had watched on holo discs. But more than that, it made me feel the camaraderie of playing with other real people. This is what I wanted. So noobie quests or not, I was definitely in for this.

  We spent most of the night farming the rest of the faction that he needed to get from tolerated to neutral. The same quests managed to get me to despised with Belchor. While that wasn’t exactly the same as neutral, it at least meant that not every single guard would attack me.

  They might still look for any excuse to attack me, but it wouldn’t be automatic. At least there was a way into the city now. I hoped that returning the gems and other loot would earn me enough favor to buy peace for a while. Ghazban Village needed time to grow. Time when we weren’t looking over our shoulder waiting for some high mage to appear and blast us all to smithereens.

  I built a good connection with Gregor and by the time morning came around, we were sitting in my thicket waiting for the others to arrive. He liked the bacon I cooked, because, well, who doesn’t like bacon. And the cherry scent of his pipe was actually pleasant. This was a guy I wouldn’t mind hanging out with.

  Elgar and the others were shocked to find him there when they logged back in, but they got very excited when they learned about the faction I gained. They discussed ways to get me a sponsor into the town.

  Sadly, the thicket ended up being my home for two more days. But at the end of that time, Gregor and the others met up with me. The dwarf was beaming as he told me his news.

  “I’ve done it. I finished enough quests that I get a hearing before the king. So, I can bring my party with me. The human king is interested in dwarven engineering and smithing. I happen to be an engineer, so the church of Halstead, Dwarven God of Crafting, got me a brief interview.

  Even better, when I mentioned to the king’s steward that a member of my party was the ogre everyone has been talking about, he got very interested. When I told him you were here to return some of the kingdom’s property, he arranged for an introduction before the king. You will be a representative of all ogre kind,” Gregor said.

  I thanked him, but inside I felt sick to my stomach. It felt like the system gave with one hand and took away with another. The addition of Gregor to our group had made me very happy. He liked the team enough that he changed his play schedule to match theirs and I had hoped to turn him into my next convert for POP. Then, after showing me what I was missing in terms of human interaction, it tries to tie me even more tightly to the ogres.