Frozen Stars Over Wonderland - Chapter 8 (Patreon)

News of what was being called the Conference of Spade spread like wild fire. Within a week, the Guild Council as well as the Market Council, Public Works Commission, and City Guard had been founded and staffed. Patrols began immediately after the founding of the Guard. Each of the three founding guilds held a spot on one of the secondary councils. June’s second in command Doremi headed the Market Council, Atticus held seats on both the Guild Council and the Public Works Commission, Ran took up Crystal Moon Kingdom’s seat on the Guild Council while Silver represented them at the City Guard. Declarations were posted on the corner of every street and in windows of every Fell owned building, letting all citizens know about the new system that they were building. 

Soon after, players that had rushed to join guilds left them just as quickly. Now that patrols had been set up around the city and its surrounding area, people felt safer leaving for the Wilds, which many did each day to train and grind and get stronger. 

The first batch of taxes was collected at the end of the month. Even those from outside the guilds handed over their gold coin when the Market council took to the streets to collect them. (Though it was decided that perhaps it would be easier to set up an office for the Market Council and have everyone go there to pay their taxes instead of going door to door.) It ended up being a good sum of money, nearly twenty seven thousand gold. Alfre was amazed that that many people resided in the city. The place didn’t seem big enough for that many people. And that didn’t even count the Wonderlanders that lived there. There had been talk about taxing the Wonderlanders as well, but no decision had come about. 

The gold gathered was enough to buy a fair sized, abandoned building that looked to Alfre a lot like a public elementary school. This was to be the location of the public training ground, though there wasn’t enough money to formally begin construction. But the next tax collection would certainly fund it. Atticus was very excited about the whole thing, and he talked about it near constantly to anyone who would listen. He reminded Alfre of an excitable puppy…a Great Dane puppy, but a puppy nonetheless.

“The tax rate seems to be pretty well received,” Elias noted to Ren one night during dinner in the pub. 

“Because most guilds earn five times that money in two weeks,” Ren explained. “A guild earns half the amount of gold each member does when they go on quests or raids. For guilds like Knights of the Burning Oak, who are all about that sort of stuff, they could easily pay the tax every time they left the city. It’s nothing to them.” 

“What about the other kinds of guilds, though?” Alfre asked. “It’s probably a bigger deal for them, yeah?” 

“Other guilds don’t have the member count raid guilds do,” Ren said, taking a sip of her sake. “Specialist guilds like Ouroboros have twenty members at the most. And they make their money in other ways, like consultation fees. Merchant guilds make plenty of money without even leaving the city or the farmland around it. General guilds like us have our hands in everything and therefore can make plenty of money. Believe me, money is not something guilds worry about…not unless they’re aiming for something big.”

“Something big?” Alfre echoed.

Spica’s eyes lit up in understanding, a knowing smile spreading across her lips. “You’re trying to become a kingdom, aren’t you?”

Ren smirked. “’S in the damn name, isn’t it?” 

Alfre looked back and forth between the two women, confusion evident on her face. Ran laughed heartily at her expression. 

“Guilds, if they’re big enough and have met certain qualifications, can apply to become a kingdom,” he explained. “Most guilds don’t bother, cause it’s kind of a hassle and doesn’t come with enough benefit to outweigh the work put into it, but Ren’s set on it. Been set on it since she found out it was a thing.”

“We’ll be the first Fell kingdom on the continent,” Ren added, pride in her voice. “The only ones who could feasibly do it before us are the Knights of the Burning Oak, and Atticus isn’t all that interested in doing so.” 

“Why do you want to?” Spica inquired.

Ren’s smile turned nostalgic. “I’ve always wanted to be a queen.”

“Will you be giving up your spot on the council once that happens?” Alfre asked.

Ren looked thoughtful. “Depends on if there’s someone I trust to take it over for me.”

“I think I should take you and Izo out for some training,” Elias said one day apropos of nothing. 

Alfre looked up from the selection of melons she had been perusing, a small, confused frown on her face. “Where’d this come from?”

Elias laughed a little. “Well, now that everything has settled down and the patrols haven’t sighted any bandits within the past week or so, I figured things are safe enough that we could leave the city without worrying too much.”

It had been little over a month since the Conference of Spade had flipped the city on its head, for the better of course. Things were finally starting to settle down. The streets were livelier now, people were happier. Merchants were traveling from Spade to the Wonderlander cities that scattered over the continent, bringing in new goods, which stirred up business. The only people who weren’t happy were the bandits that kept getting their asses kicked.

“I guess I am getting kind of bored,” Alfre muttered. Despite Ren’s insistence that the three of them do chores to pay for their room and board, she hadn’t really had them do much of anything, save for small errands around the town. 

“Besides,” Elias said, “Keeping the two of you cooped up in the City will stagnate your growth. The training grounds won’t be ready for another several months, so the only real way to get you guys levels would be to go out in to the Wilds.”

Alfre nodded. She hadn’t gained any more levels since coming to the city. Sure, she was doing better than most newbies, but she wasn’t content sitting pretty at level eleven. Izo, even with all the work he was doing with healing the guild members, was only level five. He’d never even used the few combat skills he had. 

“I’ll ask Izo about it,” Elias said. “And see if Ren knows a good place we can go train. Preferably some place with decent shelter so we’re not camping out at night. I had enough of that when we were traveling to the city.”

Izo was very excited about the idea. He’d never seen combat before, only the aftermath of it. Going along on a training trip with Elias and Alfre sounded like fun to him. Once Spica caught wind of the trip, she insisted on tagging along herself. Couldn’t let Elias have all the fun with the newbies, now could she? 

Ren pointed out a small, forested region on her map, a good few days north east of Spade. They would find plenty of decent level monsters to fight there, plus, there was an abandoned farmhouse they could use for shelter once they got there. Siniy was littered with abandoned buildings, half of which were reminiscent of buildings one would have found in the real world, like the elementary school Atticus had bought to be the public training grounds. 

They packed light. Elias had invested in a single, large tent that could fit the four of them if they snuggled. Izo and Alfre were in charge of food and drink rations. Spica insisted they buy some kind of raw meat to satisfy her vampiric nature. Izo admitted to being fond of rare meat as well, being a dragonling and all. It was something he’d discovered not long after joining the guild, since there were chefs at the pub that actually asked how he liked his food. Alfre bought several loaves of bread along with butter and cheese and jam and even some dried meat (she couldn’t afford the fancy prosciutto, but she was informed the salami was just as good). She knew from experience that lots of different meals could be made with bread and a few other choice ingredients. Spica had offered to carry a few healing items, in case they were caught off guard while Izo’s healing spells were on cool down. 

Clothes weren’t really much of an issue. Izo and Alfre only had what they wore on their backs. Elias and Spica, given their level, had several changes of clothes, but decided not to take them along. Should anything get ripped or damaged, Spica could easily fix them given her tailor subclass. She probably could make them each a few changes of clothes as well, Alfre pointed out. Spica said nothing in reply. 

Ren and the others walked them to the gate, early one mid-August morning; sending them off with cheers and shouted advice that Alfre questioned the merit of. They traveled slowly those first few hours, passing through the farmland that surrounded the city. Alfre stopped at one point to pet a sweet tabby farm cat that proceeded to follow them a few meters down the road before getting bored and turning back to its farm. 

Once they reached the edge of the Wilds, they walked quicker, wanting to get as far into the Wilds as possibly before nightfall. Spica took to the trees, traveling silently along the branches. Elias explained that it was an assassin skill called Silent Footsteps. It allowed her to travel stealthily along any terrain, as long as she wasn’t within someone’s direct line of sight when she activated it, hence her taking to the trees. Alfre was reminded of that one anime with the ninja…the name of it escaped her. That was going to bother her all day.

The sun was just starting to set when they stopped for the evening, camping under the canopy of the largest oak tree Alfre had ever seen. She passed out the bread and meat and cheese she’d purchased as Elias built a small fire. They had settled around the crackling flame to eat when Spica stopped suddenly and glared into the darkening forest around them. 

“What?” Izo asked, his voice quiet. 

There was a chorus of howls and the sound of paws running along the ground. The group jumped to their feet, reaching for their weapons and flickers of fur and glowing eyes ran circles around their camp before coming to a sudden stop. Footsteps caught Alfre’s attention and she whipped around, pulling her rapier from its sheath. 

A hand gripped her wrist, a rough palm against the beating of her pulse. A young man with shaggy looking brown hair and brilliant green eyes stared at her, his head tilted curiously to the side, a set of large, brown wolf ears twitching atop his head. He leaned closer to her face, sniffing at her. A slow, wide grin spread across his face.

“It’s been a while since I’ve smelled a Fell this fresh,” the man whispered, his voice low and rough. “There’s hardly any scent of Wonderland on you. You can’t have been here more than a month, maybe two.”

“Let her be, Canus,” Elias snapped. 

The wolf man, Canus, raised his head to look towards Elias, his smile falling into a scowl. “You’ve got a lot of nerve ordering me around, bunny. You’re in my domain, after all.”

“W-who are you?” Alfre demanded, flinching at the stutter in her voice.

Canus’ too green, too wild eyes were back on her. He smiled once again, and Alfre could see his wickedly sharp canines glinting in the firelight. “I guess fresh meat like you wouldn’t know. You Fell never did worship me like the Wonderlanders do. I am Canus, Wolf’s Blood, god of the Wilds.”

“God?!” Izo whimpered from where he was hiding behind Spica. 

“What, don’t you Fell have any?” Canus asked with a harsh laugh. “Or are you fresh meat too?”

“Leave him alone,” Alfre hissed, tugging at the grip Canus had on her wrist.

Canus laughed again. “Fresh meat has some spunk to her.” He leaned close again, his nose right up against hers. “Good. Keep that fire, lass. It’ll do you well out here.”

He pulled back, releasing her wrist as he did. “Maybe, if you lot are brave enough, you could even take on one of my dungeons. My friends would be happy to test you.”

The mood seemed to lift, Elias’ stiff posture loosening and Izo stepping out from behind Spica. Alfre looked towards Elias. This was his expedition, he knew this world better than Alfre or Izo did. 

Elias shrugged. “Maybe on the way back.”

Canus grinned, less feral and more excited. “I look forward to it. See you around, fresh meat.”

Alfre gasped as he shifted, falling forward onto his hands before transforming into a large, brown and grey wolf. He woofed at them before loping off into the forest, followed swiftly by his wolf companions. 

“What was that?!” Alfre yelped, whirling on Elias and Spica.

Elias looked sheepish. “That was Canus, one of the four Wonderlander gods. If you stick around long enough, you’ll probably learn about the rest, if not run into them.”

“No, I mean the turning into a wolf thing!” Alfre corrected.

“Oh, well, that’s just a Familiar thing,” Elias explained. “That’s one of the races of Wonderland. I’m a rabbit Familiar. See, watch.” He seemed to think hard about something for a moment and Alfre watched wide-eyed as he shrunk and shifted and transformed into a small white rabbit.   

“Did you not know we could do that?” the rabbit asked, nose twitching adorably.

“No!” Alfre shouted, feeling very, very stupid in that moment.

“Oh, well, it’s a thing,” Elias said, shifting back into his human form. Or…more human form. The bunny ears remained, and Alfre wondered if all people with animal ears were Familiars. 

“Can Izo turn into a dragon, then?” she asked more forcefully then she meant to.

“Oh, no, I can’t,” Izo replied. “Dragonlings are a subspecies of the Demon race. We get special bonuses depending on the terrain we’re fighting in, but we don’t have any transformative abilities. That would be pretty cool though.” 

“Well, at least I don’t have to worry about shitting my pants when a giant dragon appears out of no where when we’re training, then,” Alfre grumbled. 

“Well, you might still see a dragon, they’re pretty common in Wonderland. But it just won’t be me.”

Alfre groaned.