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working for nearly eight hours in total but would have the next day off as I started the next stage of my construction plans. I figured they had plenty of time to recuperate… the real loser anyhow was me.
    Eight hours spent explaining spells to six NPCs.
    That was far too much time. If this were to happen again as it undoubtedly would, there would have to be some changes made to streamline the process. Time is a precious thing after all. To use so much of it on one small task was a bit insane.
    Yeah, these designers really knew how to limit one’s growth.
    Ah well.

 
    Chapter 78: Hard Cap, Soft Cap
    (Tuesday, November 23rd Game Day / Tuesday, April 20th Real Day)
     
    There were three real days or roughly nine in-game days left before the next mission. One week out from the original raid was when I decided to conduct the second. A short reprieve for FWB. Enough time to build something of substance so that I could burn it down but not so much time for them to actually shore up their defenses… just enough, to make it hurt. Revenge was more than hitting a target hard.
    There was the psychological element too. A lingering fear, a taste of what could lurk around any and every corner. The message would be hammered down, instilled into their very beings until they couldn’t take it anymore.
    And then at that point, the mocking would begin.
    I had been continually monitoring FWBs progress through various blogs, forums, and at times even streams. It had only been four days since I hit them but they were increasingly spouting off rhetoric about what they were going to do me.
    Damage control at its finest.
    The whole situation was almost comical… a small-to-medium sized guild of casuals mixed with a few hardcore players numbering maybe in the fifties attempting to challenge an unemployed hardcore game addict with a standing NPC population well over a hundred and with unlimited resources. Laughable, really.
    They worked for a few hours a day to rebuild their village while I put in fourteen hours a day. They grouped up to get things done while I had dozens of NPCs do the same. They also thought the number and level advantage was on their side too.
    They were mistaken.
    Though a few random players had wandered by to check the place out as pictures of Dragon’s Breach were uploaded on the web as well. Anonymous sources for the most part but there was another post that looked suspiciously like another breach of confidentiality from the A&B Meetings. Details that shouldn’t be out there.
    I didn’t know who was responsible for all of the details but I couldn’t stop it. Players were free to come and go on the outskirts of my territory and I couldn’t stop every random person in the forest. Some people were genuinely trying to level, explore, and set up camp. Even a few player houses had been created near Andal as of two days ago.
    Those things were out of my control.
    As far as the Alpha and Beta Meetings though, I couldn’t help but wonder if Emily was the one giving me away. She was the host, she had the data, she shared it with the testers… and in turn those testers leaked it out to the world. Sure, she talked about all sorts of information so it wasn’t as if she had singled me out on purpose.
    The land itself singled me out, seeing as I was the only one here.
    Maybe it wasn’t her fault either, maybe she was just the messenger. Whatever the case was, she was the figurehead and the symbolic face of the meetings. She might only be a messenger but I wasn’t happy with her or her cohorts. I was fighting on two fronts now and one enemy couldn’t be fought. That left FWB to be the demonstrative guinea pig.
    They weren’t ready for what was to come.
     
    “Status report!” I yelled out into the forest.
    “All clear!” came back a shout from a male.
    “All clear!” came back a shout from a female.
    “All cleeear!” came an oddly high-pitched squeal from someone.
    Shaking my head at the last reply, I tried my best