Where there's a will.....

As Cyn walked away, the sounds of voices could be heard from the crowd outside the door.

"Who is he talking about?"

"If we have 'tied to them' what does he mean?"

As people continued to discuss his final statement, two people glanced at each other before fighting their way out of the crowd. As they finally got out of the crowd they looked around before heading into an ally.

"This could be harder to do than we originally thought. We need to contact Omega for orders."

As they continued to speak, a voice could be heard from deeper in the shadows. "Ah, a pair of little birds sent by Omega. Hmm, what to do with you both now."

The pair quickly looked around, their eyes falling on the cloaked and hooded figure that stepped out of the shadows without a sound further into the alley. "To be honest, you must be new to that group, otherwise you would have known to be smart and not speak a word about it. If that's the case, you could potentially be useful...." From under the cloak a small, light grey hand comes out, only to disappear under the hood, slight movements of the arm are the only things that are able to show that he's stroking his chin in thought.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As Cyn walked through the town, he smiles slightly as his eyes take in the quality to the architecture that was designed for the game. 'The nuances and differences between each building, you can tell each designer was trying to leave their mark in this world.' Reaching out to touch the walls, feeling the textures caused him to shake his head and grin. 'I know that it's signals sent to the brain through the pods, but the feel is so real. The company has truly gone above and beyond to give us players the feel of being fully involved in the world, even the backgrounds that get generated for our characters.'

Shaking his head of his thoughts he chuckles sheepishly. 'So, I need to figure out this list before the next batch is allowed to enter the game. Its been about for hours in game time, so about an hour out of game. We were given twelve hours real time for a start as the winners of the contest, so we need to take advantage of this, which means there are more things to get done than just recruiting new members into the mercenary company. We need to get them tested, I'm sure that the dwarves will be willing to do that, we have a job to do for the dwarves. We need to get the Runeguard members to come out of retirement and join.' Noticing a bench, he quickly sits down when he's interrupted.

[ System Notification to the Player:

An outside caller is trying to contact you.

Note: If you accept in your location, your character will look as if you are currently in thought and you will be sent to your personal workspace.

Do you accept? Yes/No |

'Interesting, the game can even connect with my workspace. That will be perfect for working with the VRC.' Giving a nod, to himself as he accepts, there's a slight flicker before he finds himself in his default space that appears like an old fashioned study.

---------------

Turning towards the 'door' he grins as he sees his dad walk in before becoming slightly puzzled as he's followed by his sister and older brother.

"What's going on dad?" His confusion is obvious on his face as he moves to sit down on one of for chairs that he swaps into the room for the for of them to sit down.

Taking a seat Mr. Phoenyx looks at his kids and chuckles. "All of you know me far too well. So here's the deal and it's the reason that I needed the permission of all of you. Shadow Land Games wants to partner with our company to have a new VR pod created for them. Before any of you interrupt the reason for the three of you being needed is because they want it based off our top of the line units," he shakes his head knowing that he might be in for a headache, "this means it would be based of your custom pods, at least technology and systems wise." Sitting back, he looks at the calm composed looks on his children's faces.

Jacyn, Ashley, and Drake all share a look before grinning widely. "Actually dad, we wouldn't mind if that happened." Drake grins as he chuckles. "I've had a chance to work with some of the industry's leading neuro-engineers, and we've figured out a way to better sync the pods with the neural connections of the brain. Using that, we got with Jacyn, Ashley and the rest of the team that created our Helix Core pods."

Ashley gives a laugh as she sees the look on their father's face. "All of us as a team came up with three variations of a new cabin/pod hybrid that we call the HELIX Core: Phantom. We haven't created even a test unit yet, we wanted to see what you think of it first."

Devin chuckles as hears his kids, then gives them an evil grin. "Well, that's good, because as of tomorrow the project that I've been working on is going to be finished and hiring will be starting. It's a game tech branch of PhoenyxTech, and with the approval of the board, you three have been named as the heads of three main sections. Jacyn, you're in charge of Design. Ashley, you're in charge of R&D. Last but not least, Drake, you're in charge of neural and medical systems." Not giving them a change for an outburst, he holds up a hand. "Don't worry, most of this is on paper, just submit the names of people you want for your divisions and HR will take care of the hiring. The patents for our game tech will be transferred over to the game division."

All three of them sat there stunned as their father stands up with a grin. "By the way you three, get your people ready to move, including everyone that is part of the studio. I've gotten my hands on a surprise for all of you. I know your current headquarters is a bit packed so, when you get a chance meet me in Orlando at the docks, I have a surprise for you." Booming laughter can be heard in the space as he vanishes, leaving his three children puzzled. "We can talk more in game, but he better not have gone crazy."

Cyn glances over at his brother for a moment. "I know you haven't played games in a while, but I'm reforming the Runeguard and hope you'll come back."

As Drake looks at his brother, for a moment, he finally gives a nod. "Let me think about it, but if the old man is planning something big, you'll need a doctor around anyway so I'll at least take charge of the medical facilities."

-------------

Ending the chat environment, he returns back to his character to feel someone poking him in the arm and the sound of a gruff female voice. "Cyndrex me lad, you better not have died on me here." Opening his eyes he notices the female dwarf from earlier with for other dwarves with her. "Apologies, I was thinking and got caught up in my thoughts," Standing, he looks at the group, "what are you doing here?"

The dwarf looks at him, before punching him in the arm, "what do ya think, ya idiot, me King sent me to protect and guide ya when needed, but yerself left me without sayin' anything." Giving a nod, she looks around momentarily before turning her attention back to him. "Now, where's yerself goin' and where's yerself weapon."

Glancing around, he chuckles sheepishly, as he reaches into the bag of holding and pulls out his falchata in its sheathe. "This is the sword that the dragon let me have from her horde when she saw me touch it. She told me that it's a runeblade."

The eyes of all the dwarves almost bulge out as they look at him strangely before she reaches out a hand. "The dragon herself said this did she? Cannae I see it?" As he holds out, she reaches out and starts to draw it of the sheathe. Her eyes narrowing slightly narrowing as she nods to herself as she sees the black metal of the blade and the pair of runes that she sees. "Keep that blade safe and it'll keep yerself safe, lad, that's a true runeblade, that's all I can say. Yerself will understand. Have ya bonded with it yet?"

Giving her a curious look, he shakes his head. "Not yet, been busy. I'm on my way to the Adventurer's Guild and then going to the Mercenaries' Union when I'm finished there." All the dwarves look at each other before busting up laughing. "Lad, look in front of ya. That's Theranos' Adventurer's Guild headquarters. On the other side of the square is the compound for the Union."

Staring at the dwarf for a moment, Jacyn looks around at the places that were pointed out and gives a sigh. "Looks like I was distracted by my thoughts and not paying attention. Let me go get this stuff done." The deserves all nod and grin. "We'll be waitin' fer ya."

As Jacyn walks off, he looks puzzled for a moment as he hears the dwarves start talking behind him. "Who here remembers tha legend about the runeblades that Morin made?" "I do but only one was supposed to be a falchata, but it was supposed ta be..... wait yer sayin'?" "Aye, that be what I'm sayin'..."

Unable to hear any more as the voices grow quiet, he walks into the place, thinking about what he heard.

+++++++++++++++++++++

\\ So, a few notes for everyone, I'm not sure if it'll fit in the Author's Notes, so I'll put them here:

First, I'd like to apologize about it taking as long as it did to get this new chapter finished for all of you. I've been trying to decide how I want the next few chapters that will be pertaining to the memberships and the sword to go.

Second, this novel isn't part of any of the contests, since I started before any of them, but if you like it, please vote. It'll let me know that you're enjoying it. I don't write this for myself alone, but for all of you to enjoy as well, so please post reviews and comment on chapters and add the novel to your collections if you enjoy the novel.

Finally, I'd like to thank Eclipse Ranger for their help with building the server for this novel and potentially future novels that I may write, so come join the server and have some fun. You can find the discord info down below. On the server you'll be able to find information on characters, key locations, guild and organizations as they show up and many other things.

https://discord.gg/zM38eTsSAV

Let me end this by saying that with all of you readers, true novel can have Boundless possibilities.//