“You know you made an enemy of that Goritoihic Pride?” Tammy asked, writing notes in a notebook.

  We sat at the table in the long house. Fields was already back on Earth. He had a long list of stuff to do and purchase, some trade deals to do on our end. He’d gone back with some products and Resources from the Sunrise Formation, stuff to have our crafters play with. Tammy had waited for me. She was planning on staying on the Nexus for awhile.

  She had taken a seat to the left of the end, where a not-quite-a-throne-but-too-close-for-my-liking chair sat. Had she ordered that? I hadn’t picked it. Instead of sitting in that chair, I sat across from her.

  Stylo stood off to the side, floating a bit off the floor, hands crossed behind his back. He only had two arms, but otherwise he looked pretty close to that Haric from the Arena.

  “No matter what I did, the Pride was always going to end up our enemies.”

  “You could have lost,” Tammy said, glancing up at me. She smiled seeing my expression. “Just kidding. That would have been the worst result for the Clan.”

  She had some papers scattered around the table. Reaching over, she brought one over, reading it and made another mark in the notebook. She and Kat had a system. I had no idea how they did it, what anything meant, but it worked great so I left it alone.

  “I feel bad for that Anura,” I muttered.

  “You did what you had to,” Tammy said. “Whoever bought him is at fault, not you.”

  “Yeah, I still feel bad.”

  “I like that stall idea,” Tammy said. “Burgers and fries. Then we work on opening a pub.”

  She looked over her shoulder at Stylo.

  “How many MP to get a building in the Entertainment District?”

  “We don’t have one already?” I asked.

  “No,” Stylo answered me first. “When your Faction becomes eligible to enter the Multiversal Nexus, you are given a Compound and a spot in the Market District. It is up to your Faction to earn the required Multiversal Points to upgrade both. You will need to purchase a spot in the Entertainment District.” He turned his focus to Tammy. “There are numerous options Ms O’Neil,” he started but I interrupted him.

  “Ms O’Neil?” I asked. “How come she gets the Ms and I just get Nick?”

  Stylo glanced at me, his face impassive.

  “You asked me to call you Nick.”

  “Fair enough,” I said, smiling, Tammy just shaking her head.

  “The smallest available option in the Entertainment District starts at 300,000 Multiversal Credits and a rent of 20,000 Credits a Nexus Month,” Stylo said.

  I whistled. That was a lot.

  Tammy looked at me.

  “I have just over 25,000 right now,” I told her.

  She made some marks in her notebook.

  “How big of a space is that?” she asked Stylo

  “It is two thousand five hundred square feet,” he answered. “You can customize that into any footprint you desire.”

  “I’m assuming it’s 2500 total and not per floor?”

  “Correct.”

  “2500 is workable,” she said.

  “Pre-System, there were craft beer places smaller than that,” I said.

  “I wouldn’t know,” Tammy remarked.

  She was a true twenty-four years old, born a year after the Challenge System integrated Earth.

  “How much is a stall?” she asked.

  “50,000 to purchase a spot,” Stylo answered. “2,000 a month in rent.”

  She looked at me again.

  “I can probably get that with a couple more Tower runs,” I said. “But is a stall the best use of the credits?”

  “We have rent at the Market and don’t know what kind of credit we’ll generate there,” Tammy said, tapping her pencil on the table. “We’ll probably get a lot of interest in the first couple of days. Shoppers, competitors, all interested in what the newbies have to offer. But that bump will fade unless we have product that brings in a continuous business.” She made some notes, crossed out some numbers, worked out some new numbers. “It’ll be a while before we get another team running the Tower. Once we do, they’ll be bringing in some MC but the costs going out will increase as well.” The pencil tapped on the table some more. “Yeah, I think the stall is a great idea. If the burgers take off, it’ll be a consistent stream of credits. I think your friend T’Slask is wrong,” she said.

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah, I think if done right, the stall can be an income machine. He runs it for fun with no support from his Faction, but we’d use it to funnel people into our other ventures. Eventually it’ll probably become a loss leader, but for a Clan just starting out? It could be a steady supply of Credits. It won’t make us rich but…”

  “Steady is good,” I said.

  “But who would we get to run it?”

  “I have an idea.”

  ***

  Back on Earth, I was walking the streets of Solacetown with Jack. People waved, I waved back, no one bothered me. They all knew how well that would go over. I didn’t mind being bothered with legit problems but I hated being bothered for minor stuff. Chitchat? Bring it on. Rant to me about crap? Go away.

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  “But he was going to try and kill you,” Jack said.

  “Try,” I said.

  “So why not try and kill him?”

  “It was against the rules,” I pointed out.

  “But…”

  “I could have killed him easily,” I said, pointing up a street, making Jack turn. “Even made it look accidental. That part was easy. But that’s not who I am, who we are,” I said, pointing at Jack. “And it also sent a message.”

  “What was the message?”

  “We’re not going to play their game.”

  Jack was silent for a bit as we climbed up a hill. The buildings were built on the slope, and into it in some cases. Their lower floors smaller than the upper. The road was made of square stones, neatly laid. This part of town, the roads weren’t wide enough for carriages, walking or carts only.

  “So the whole thing was a message?” Jack asked a minute or so later.

  “Yep.”

  “Politics sucks,” he muttered.

  “Yep, why do you think I prefer to just punch things?”

  We walked a little further and I pointed at a door. It was almost a literal hole in the wall. Because of the slope, the first floor had just enough footprint for the door, the wall around it wood. The next floor was a little bigger, made of wood, with the third floor extending out onto the next level of the city. This was an odd part. The ground here had once been a cliff, the mountain only a hundred feet or so beyond. Instead of smoothing it out when the city had been built, they’d kept the cliff as a kind of demarcation. I wasn’t sure why. But now the road ended at the cliff, where steps had been carved.

  The building had carved into the cliff. The first floor looked small, but was the same as the third, which kind of overhung the edge of the cliff a couple of feet at the next level. It was weird, but looked cool.

  “That’s it,” I said.

  “I can’t go in there,” Jack said, looking at the sign over the door.

  It read Northtown Brewery with a picture of the cliff and a compass.

  “No one will care,” I said, opening the door and practically pushing Jack inside.

  He was right, technically he couldn’t go in. Northtown wasn’t a family friendly pub. Pets, yes. Kids, no. But it was early in the day so wouldn’t be packed, if any customers at all, and being the guy in charge had to have some perks.

  We entered a hallway, extending a couple feet before it became stairs. Crystal lights gave the place enough light to see by. Part of the walls were wood, the rest the stone of the mountain. We walked up the stairs to the second floor hallway. A couple doors led off to offices and storage rooms. They’d be locked. More of the outer walls were wood, less stone. Walking down the hallway, got to the end and started up the other staircase.

  We walked out onto the third floor, the main floor. The pub’s main entrance was on the upper part of the city, we’d come in the back way. And it was empty.

  The doors were in the center of the wall facing the street, large windows on either side. All wood with some stone in the corners and along the floor. Stone pilasters held up beams that held up the floors above. A two-sided bar sat in the far corner, doors at either end leading to the kitchen. The actual brewery was down on the first floor and extended under the street beyond. Round, square and long tables filled the rest of the space, a variety of chairs. Weapons, tapestries and paintings line the wall. A large stone fireplace was on the back wall, with the head of wyvern mounted above the mantle.

  I’d killed that wyvern.

  The only person was behind the bar. He glanced at us, shaking his head as he saw Jack.

  “Nick,” Sean Macauly said, setting down the bar rag and glasses that he’d been polishing. “How’s that Nexus?”

  “Fun, you want to come?”

  “Huh?” Sean asked. He walked over to one of the doors, pushed it open and yelled inside. “Two burgers.” He came back and got me a beer, pulling a cider, not a hard one, for Jack.

  Jack and I took seats at the bar, Sean putting the drinks down.

  I explained the plan with the stalls to Sean. As we talked, the burgers came out. I finished my beer, getting another one as Sean asked questions, going into details about Credits. What he could charge, earn, rent and all that. I had numbers from Tammy but the finals would be worked out by her later.

  Sean leaned against the back bar as Jack and I ate. He was a big man. Early in the System, he’d been a fighter, still was. I’d caught him out in the Dungeons a couple of times. Had a couple warrior-centric Essences and Abilities. But he’d run a pub before the System and had always wanted to do it again. Once we’d gotten to the right point, had access to the right materials, he’d opened one up. Northtown was one of the most popular in Solacetown and he regularly sent his brews to some of the other towns. Even had a deal to send some to Fred’s United American Alliance.

  He could have had a bigger place, made enough for it, but he liked keeping the pub small. His main business was exporting his brews.

  “You should have opened this up to all the others,” he said finally.

  “Yeah, but this early, only people I trust.”

  “You brought Fields on board didn’t you?”

  I laughed. Did everyone know that I wasn’t Fields biggest fan?

  “Yeah, but I trust him.”

  Sean chuckled.

  “People are going to be mad at you. Elysium Brews would have paid you for this opportunity.”

  “People are always mad at me,” I replied, taking another drink. “And I don’t really like Elysium’s folks.” Sean chuckled but shook his head. “But the main thing is,” I continued, pointing to the large double headed axe that hung over one of the doors to the back. “It’s not the friendliest place and whoever goes there needs to be able to take care of themselves.”

  “I’m only Level 80,” Sean said. “Isn’t everyone there over Level 100.”

  “You’ll be fine.”

  He laughed again, lapsing into silence as he thought. I finished off my burger and grabbed some fries from Jack’s plate, earning a glare from him. He shifted it further away from me, putting an arm around it protectively.

  “Wouldn’t be me though,” he said, finally. “I won’t leave here for that long. I could send Junior though.”

  “That’ll work,” I said, thinking of Sean’s son.

  Sean was big, Junior was bigger and a higher Level. He was also an Adventurer. If we could get the stall next to T’Slask that would be great. I could just imagine Junior and the lizardman together.