The council met on the top floor of the new castle, although the conference room looked pretty similar to before, with the long, fancy wood table surrounded by executive chairs. Although the exterior of the castle looked like it only had tiny arrow-slit openings, one entire wall of the conference room was a giant window.

  “A spell that came with the castle,” Burns said when he saw the direction of my gaze.

  “So, you’ve racked up another legend to your name, and you acquired golden eyes somewhere?” Crystal Bonney said. Unlike the first time we met, she smiled as she spoke. The shapely, middle-aged strawberry blonde looked more at ease than last time. Maybe because I’d saved her sister from the Lifebane Phantoms.

  I shrugged. “Someone had to do it.”

  The mayor, Paul MacDonald, waved from his seat at the head of the table, and Tony Waldau said, “Good work.”

  As annoying as he often was to me, I still found his approval motivating. That was a good reminder to ask him if he got the basic CHA stat first before he unlocked Charisma, and if he saw any benefits from it before it evolved.

  “I don’t understand why a level-15 man has been invited to our council meeting,” said the newest council woman, Elizabeth Maberly.

  “His levels are deceiving. Trust me,” Tony said.

  I nearly fell out of my seat. Had Tony just given me a compliment? Huh. Miracles did happen on Arasha.

  “Indeed?” Elizabeth asked, considering me again. “Your eyes are fantastic. Pure gold. Not the cheap gold rings everyone else has to settle with.”

  “I got a loot box.”

  Ruby had mentioned Elizabeth was blonde, but the woman sitting on Paul’s left side wore her long, black hair in an intricate braid that ringed her head and fell down her back. She was tall, graceful, with brilliant emerald eyes. Like literally glowing. She wore an elegant blue dress with a fitted bodice that accentuated her full figure.

  “Elizabeth Maberly. Baby human level 26. Team Pride & Prejudice. Class: Inspirational Heartbreaker.”

  “I’m Lucas.”

  “And I’m Elizabeth Maberly,” she said with a wide smile, clearly expecting to be recognized.

  I frowned in pretend confusion for a minute, then snapped my fingers. “Oh, yeah. Ruby says good things about you, so it’s a pleasure.”

  “Ruby is here?” she exclaimed.

  I nodded. “I’m surprised you two haven’t reconnected. I’ll make sure to tell her you’re in town.”

  “Yes, please send her to me.”

  Unlikely. Despite the dramatic initial exclamation, she didn’t seem interested in Ruby at all. Hadn’t asked how she was doing, or anything. My initial assessment was quickly being revised downward.

  So I turned to Paul. “I’ve got important news to share with the council. It cost me a couple good donuts.”

  Paul grinned and a box full of Boston creams appeared on the table in front of him. “If the intel is good, I’ll cover the donuts with interest.”

  “You get my vote next time there’s an election,” I said, snagging a donut and taking an enormous bite.

  While the others grabbed donuts, Tony said, “Your diversion of the Alpha worked well, even though we didn’t kill him. When you disappeared, he took the pack to hunt you.”

  “That was you?” Elizabeth exclaimed, nearly choking on her donut, even though she’d only been nibbling on the bottom of it, like she was still worrying about counting carbs.

  “I can’t believe you survived even that long against the Alpha,” Crystal added. “Inspired the entire town.”

  “What happened next?” Burns asked.

  “I got teleported to the north side of the stage, all the way to the zombie castle to meet the level-59 necromancer who’s the other second stage boss.”

  That generated a wave of questions, and the tumult only grew worse once I told them about Noctarus and his insane proposal. They peppered me with questions about the necromancer and had me repeat the conversation as close to word for word as possible.

  I could, actually. With my effective Intelligence stat at 22, I discovered I had perfect recall. That would come in handy. Eventually they started arguing among themselves about Noctarus’s offer.

  Elizabeth, and to a lesser degree, both Paul and Crystal, leaned toward accepting it and leveraging all possible benefits from the zombies. Tony and Burns were more skeptical, worried we could lose a lot of people in a surprise attack if we all spread out across their ships.

  “If we can find a way to ensure mutual benefit, they would have to honor the agreement,” Elizabeth argued. “It sounds like they cannot fix their own ships, so they need us. Our people need the experience their proposal offers, and we will struggle to win it any other way.”

  “We would win a lot by killing the zombies,” Burns responded. “Our elites especially could level up high enough to be ready to drive into the 3rd stage with a good chance at survival.”

  “But lesser fighters would likely die, and crafters might fall even farther behind,” Crystal responded.

  They both had valid points. I considered the options as I sat back and quietly polished off the rest of the donuts. Paul was so distracted by the conversation that when I tapped the empty box, he pulled another out of his inventory on pure reflex.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  I dumped most of those into my own inventory and finished off the rest. Then I remembered the quarts of milk I’d gotten from the cows and pulled one out. Not as good as hot chocolate or coffee with a donut, but very acceptable.

  Eventually, Burns turned to me. “Thoughts?”

  “As for the offer, it’s tough. I honestly feel like Noctarus is sincere.”

  “You don’t believe he’ll double-cross us,” Burns asked.

  “Of course I do. You’ve all made excellent points both for and against the deal, but perhaps a middle ground is even better. Yes, he will almost certainly betray us, but that doesn’t mean we might not be able to get some use out of the arrangement for the 3 days he needs our help.”

  I hadn’t told them about his additional offer to train me in mana manipulation, and I wouldn’t. I needed to see the benefits of my improved mana abilities first.

  That sparked another argument until Crystal interjected. “Even if we can figure out a way to treat with the zombies and this necromancer, how will that impact the issues the new store is creating for our people?”

  They all turned to Burns, who said, “As city council members, we can access a tier-1 preferred-access storefront. The proprietor assured me that we get slightly better pricing than average people.”

  “Can we leverage that to help everyone save some mana crystals?” Paul asked.

  “I’m not sure. Perhaps, if we did not tell the proprietor what we are buying things for. I got the sense the preferred access is limited, and if we abuse that access, we might lose it.”

  Tony leaned forward. “The store is both a boon and a headache. Many people have not been diligent in looting monsters or managing their mana crystals. Plus, we’ll need to catalog how the store pricing lines up with pricing of the local crafters. They may be able to sell wares to the store, but if it undercuts their pricing, it’ll make it harder for them to level up.”

  “All the more reason to utilize the easy leveling options the zombies offer by capturing monsters for our people to kill,” Elizabeth said.

  “Can they process enough monsters to make a difference?” Burns asked, which was the same point I’d considered.

  To level up to 500 humans by just one level, the zombies would probably have to capture between 500 and a couple thousand monsters, depending on their levels. That was in addition to our people working with them to fix their ships. It seemed a long shot.

  “The store does offer the potential to acquire higher-end gear for our best fighters,” Burns added. “Even if we can avoid the werewolves, within 3 days I have no doubt we’ll need to deal with the necromancer. Then we have to kill the Alpha and his pack, and then ascend to the third stage. We need our best fighters with the best gear to lead that fight.”

  Paul asked, “So what are you suggesting?”

  “I’m suggesting we petition folks to pool mana crystals to purchase better gear for our elites.”

  Tony shook his head. “I see your point, but wouldn’t it be better to pool resources to buy good-quality gear for a lot more people? With some key weapons or spells, we could help those who are lagging behind to catch up.”

  “We could end up with a larger pool of mid-ranged fighters,” Crystal agreed. “Get everyone to at least level 25. With all those additional classes, we’d end up vastly strengthened as a people.”

  Burns shook his head. “That won’t be enough to defeat the higher-leveled monsters we’ll have to fight. If we focus on getting everyone to the minimum level, we’ll just get slaughtered by the necromancer. Or even if we beat him, what will we be facing on stage 3?”

  “You’d put the safety of several hundred people at risk to push the advantage of the few?” Elizabeth demanded.

  Burns shrugged. “The fate of Earth takes priority. I refuse to put that at risk, even if that means a few laggards need to get to work.” He glanced at me and added, “No offense.”

  “None taken. I’m working. I get it. I just level up slower.”

  “Why is that, exactly?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Later,” Paul said with an apologetic smile. “Let’s not get distracted.”

  The debate got heated at that point. Both arguments for using the pooled resources of the town had valid points. Finally, Tony insisted that they should at least get some materials for the crafters to use to elevate their classes and produce better gear for folks to buy. That would help on multiple levels.

  “I think I can assist with that,” I interjected. “Could you use things like monster parts good for crafting, maybe some silver to make weapons and gear to help fight the werewolves, and even wolfsbane to make it harder for the werewolves to target our scouts and advanced groups?”

  “Of course,” Tony said with a chuckle.

  “Great.” I produced the 50 silver daggers, 19 quivers of silver arrows, and 80 of the wolfsbane potions. While they marveled at those, I began pulling out most of the remaining random monster parts I hadn’t sold to Sythrak. I ended up covering most of the huge conference table with loot piled high.

  “Some of this material is extremely high quality,” Crystal exclaimed.

  “How did you get all this?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Not slacking. I visited the store this morning and sold some more. I got a higher-tier access too, and the sales reptile confirmed silver affects werewolves. Figured I’d snag some gear to help.”

  As they stared at the pile in wonder, Tony laughed and fingered one of the silver ingots. “I can use some of these myself.”

  “Oh?”

  “I got a fast-crafting weapons skill with my Paladin Savant class. I may be able to meld that with my Metal Hands ability or even my Mark III sword.”

  Tony Stark build indeed. He was shaping up to be extremely powerful. “Sure, adding a bit of silver to your weapons would be perfect.”

  He smiled. “Lucas, I have to admit, I’m impressed. I’ve underestimated you. Well done for proving me wrong.”

  His praise, although short of a full apology, still filled me with pride. How did he do that? “I accept your apology. Can you get the rest of this into the hands of people who can use it?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “What do you want for it?” Paul asked. “Today’s discussion highlighted the lack of available mana crystals.”

  “As many donuts as you can spare, along with some of Sam’s finest foods and ales. And have the crafters who accept all this each produce one item of their choice for me as payment for what they get.”

  “That’s remarkably fair,” Crystal said, giving me an approving smile.

  “I have enough mana crystals for my needs. The way I see it, our primary goal is to get as many people as possible to stage 4 strong enough to take on Queen Marisara. All of this stuff was cluttering my inventory. If using it can help us reach our goals, I’d be an idiot not to use it.”

  “Well said,” Paul said and a dozen boxes of donuts appeared in front of him. He slid them all across the table, and I dumped them into my inventory. The space was a lot emptier, but that many donuts confirmed I’d made the right choice.

  Besides, if that drunk woman’s words had been true, and I suspected they were, I needed a bit more goodwill. Hopefully this huge generous donation would help.

  Paul then added, “While we’re exchanging donuts, do you by chance happen to have another mug of milk? I love milk with donuts but haven’t been able to get any for a couple days.”

  I slid a mug of creamy milk over to Paul. Burns gestured to himself, so I slid another to him. Paul wordlessly produced another dozen assorted donuts and slid them back to me. I dumped them into my inventory with the rest and slid 4 more quarts of milk to him.

  “How long can you keep this up?” Paul asked.

  “How many donuts do you have?”

  “Can’t you barter milk some other time?” Elizabeth demanded. She sounded annoyed, but I wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t like the interruption, or she was just miffed that I hadn’t assumed she wanted a glass of milk too.

  “We like to prioritize critical items,” I said. She scowled, but Burns snorted a laugh.

  I added, “Let’s chat later, Paul. I found an ingredient I think you’re going to love.”

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “A distraction,” Elizabeth interjected. “We must decide how to respond when Noctarus’s emissary arrives today.”

  After more argument, they finally agreed to respond positively. Crystal and Tony would chair a committee to iron out specifics with the zombies. If the final agreement looked good, they’d tentatively approve it and ask for volunteers to head up to the lake, protected by a team of the town’s strongest fighters. If all went well, they could approve more people for the second day.

  Sounded like a good plan to me. I was happy to leave them to it. I’d done what I could to help. Now I needed to focus on leveling and getting my teams leveled too.