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Chapter 1

"Does the Prophet desire anything else?"

As he looked at the bowed maid, Talik felt his irritation grow again.

"No. I'll let you know if I need anything. Go ahead."

The pretty girl in the cassock bowed even more deeply and ducked behind the tall, austere door, shutting it behind her. Talik leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head. He felt like dragging his feet over the desk, but he couldn't quite do it. The furniture looked too expensive.

In fact, he drew this office himself. So did the entire Temple facility. Formally part of the Royal Palace, the Temple was nevertheless a separate 'floor', the smallest of all. To enter it was possible only from two places, and how to say enter - to be transferred. Whoever entered the gate was transported to a separate location. At least, that's how it was supposed to be.

Yesterday it became clear that all mini-locations of the Dawn City had become one. The temple was no longer a separate 'floor' and became just a fortress inside the fortress. From the open windows he could get out on his own, throw an object, follow the movement in the inner courtyard of the Palace.

It is not known whether things are the same with the other floors. It would not be very good, in fact, in terms of defense, it would be a huge disadvantage. Almost the entire defense system was tied to the limitations of crossing floor boundaries.

Experiments and research were required. Not only that aspect, there were so many details to figure out. And it was impossible to say what was more important and what was less important.

"Yeah." Talik exhaled and looked at his surroundings.

Of course, everything here was familiar to him. But this was only the second time he really looked at his office. He'd only been in here once since he'd started the floor; there was no need for it anymore.The guild's console functionality was still accessible from the throne room, the balcony room, and the meeting room, and it was far more convenient than having to move here and do the same thing alone. Decisions requiring the use of administrative functions were still made collectively, by the entire guild.

The console, by the way, didn't work. 'Processing the interface...'. Well, at least the display was on. The game menu, for example, was not displayed at all.

And now he came here, at really, to get some privacy. To try, as in books and movies, to gather his spirit in solitude and appropriate surroundings. An octagonal room, twenty paces across, racks full of unique books and scrolls by the walls. A high vaulted ceiling with abstract frescoes. An exquisite stained-glass window scatters rays of light from outside, drawing subtle fairy-tale paintings in the air. A crimson carpet with gold pentagrams over lacquered parquet. Arching doors to the preaching hall, the bedroom, and the laboratory.

It seemed impossible to find a better place for seclusion.

Yep. Right.

The temple servants, originally just mid-level support units, also 'came' to live. They were indescribably delighted that the Prophet himself had come to visit his chambers. Yes, he didn't come around here very often. It was, by and large, just the last line of defense, the place destined for the final battle. Now these fanatically happy creatures - humans, elves, draconians - were obsessively eager to be helpful.

How did this happen? What happened, what caused this objectification and animatement? These questions kept Talik busy.

Yesterday he sincerely thought he had lost his mind and decided to have one last entertainment. Now he wasn't so sure. Everything was too real, too tangible, and too detailed to be a hallucination. His memory worked perfectly and his consciousness did not feel the inaccuracies typical of a dream. It was unlikely that insanity could be so vivid, consistent, and detailed.

Everything around me was alive. It was real. Common sense protested, but the facts were stubborn.

Draga. I wonder how she feels now? Yesterday he literally felt her heartache, and he blamed himself.

They had a great night last night. Talik didn't know much about wine, but it tasted very good, though it was only tipsy for a few seconds. Berries and cheese caressed the tongue with previously unfamiliar natural flavors. A pushy, confident beauty. A short conversation about insignificant things turned into flirting, and a little later into an indescribably pleasant kiss.

And from that moment on, he... Lost interest in what was going on. No, of course he finished the job. Or rather, he let her finish the job, because as a man he was very... inexperienced in the matter. But he felt sex was simply a mechanical sexual act. The pleasure was purely physiological. Emotionally, he felt nothing at all. Like with a doll, an inanimate object.

Oh, sure, Draga was trying very hard. And of course, she felt something was wrong. When it was over, she looked crushed and kept asking for forgiveness. The evening was hopelessly ruined, and Talik's attempts to recapture its charms were frankly pathetic.

It was a terrible situation. Talik kept chasing those thoughts away, but they kept coming back, bringing back the smallest details of the fiasco. Something had to be done, but what?

"Yep."

Talik decided to finally get down to the business at last. At least look at the reports provided.

The pages of papers with numbers, neatly bound in folders, were quite easy to read. Nice large handwriting, with symbolic monograms on the titles of the paragraphs. I wonder if Wilhelm wrote it himself, or dictated it.

He ran his eyes over the first folder, relieving his nagging anxiety. All morning, along with his worries about Drag, he'd been gnawing at his doubts about how things were going in this now-real world.

In Yggdrasil, you could describe such details as farming, cattle breeding, and so on. But no one really bothered with it - too boring and non-fantasy. Talik has not gone far from the general mass of players in this matter. The guild system simply consumed gold and crystal resource, deriving an abstract balance between the expense of general maintenance of the guild and its individual enclaves, and income. Income was passive, from 'household plots' and 'mines', and active - actually injections into the expenditure side of the treasury.

It was preferable to maintain a positive balance. Not necessarily, but preferably - who would be happy to quit for some reason for a month and come back to find services disabled and no NPCs, for which there was no money to support any more. In the worst cases, the system also deleted floors that had passed a certain loss mark. With everything that was on them.

Now, judging by the documents provided, the unknown event had filled in the logical holes in the supply. There were fields and cattle farms outside the city, iron and silver mines nearby, and even a few small fisheries were present. Grocery stores contained enough supplies that even in the event of an apocalypse, the city would last a couple of months without a problem.

Talik took note - make sure to check it out in person.

Next, there was a folder with a condensed report from Illadria. The sorceress reported that the current position of Dawn City was a valley deep in the mountain range. A reconnaissance of the area showed three possible paths beyond this mountain range. Deep canyons and clefts, difficult to pass, but quite suitable for road construction.

No further reconnaissance was conducted from this mountain valley, according to the order received. No living, sentient beings were found, but there are unambiguous traces of civilization. Destroyed structures of unknown purpose in the nearby mountains, and collapsed tunnels going into their depths. Abandoned, tentatively, four or five centuries ago. The nature of the damage indicates signs of war, with the use of explosives and war machines.

Animals are common, not magical, assumed to be level zero ('creeps', one-hit entourage) to level eight. Higher levels have local predators.

Animal habitats, ruins, and paths through the mountains are marked on the attached map.

Well done, Illadria. It's impossible not to understand, just like you did for an idiot.

A report from Warboss. Oh yes, it's impossible to assign this handwriting to anyone else. Little sloppy letters, uneven lines, savage entourage just oozes.

How many?! Eleven thousand ready for immediate combat, seventeen can be deployed in half a day, twenty-five in 24 hours with full mobilization? What the fuck? From where? And where are these hordes physically located right now? What are they eating?

Talik returned his attention to the documents from Wilhelm.

Yes, the king included the orcs in the expenditure part. I wonder how many 'royal' troops there are? The 'backbone' that started the idea itself.

Initially, low-level NPCs were simply automatically generated in numbers as the guild infrastructure allowed. Any losses among them were replenished by default after a few hours. Convenient and fast. So, how's everything going now? And what's the deal with higher-level NPCs requiring 'manual' generation?

There's so much to figure out. And I have to go to Marius to see how he's doing.

Talk to the undead of the highest rank, yeah.

It's kind of creepy, man. I wrote him a long time ago, I've already forgotten half of his story...

Okay, there's a lot to do, no time to complain.

Talik stepped out from the table with determination.

Draga, I hope you can find it in yourself to forgive me.

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Переводчики: Camrad_RIP