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There\'s no way the System gave everyone all this stuff. The Great Tide family is making a killing from their sales — either that or there\'s just some random Smith that has enough materials here to work with.

Now there\'s a thought. I wonder if people can get Classes that aren\'t focused on fighting. Could somebody get a Smithing Class? I would assume someone has to unless the System is literally just making every single piece of magical equipment in circulation — and that really wouldn\'t make much sense. Someone, somewhere, has to be making stuff.

"Let\'s go check out the Great Tide\'s store again," Alex said as they headed down the street. "See what they have for sale with Credits so we know the general scale of what they\'re worth. Then we can head back to Towntown and pay Finley a visit."

"So long as the prices back there aren\'t too expensive," Claire said. "We don\'t know what the fees for the portals will be… but even if they\'re small, imagine how much money the Great Tide family is going to make off them. Once more towns build up across the world, teleporting will be the fastest way to travel between them. Having portals is going to be like sitting on a gem mine."

Alex was midway through a nod when a scream split the air. He and Claire spun toward its source — along with everybody else in the square around them.

"There\'s a horde!" a man screamed, skidding to a stop and fighting to speak past desperate breaths. "The city is going to be attacked! Prepare yourselves!"

Then he took off running again, his calls echoing through the streets as he raced to spread the message throughout the rest of the city.

There was a brief moment of silence as everyone processed his words. Then they burst into motion as one. People ran in every direction — some racing for the walls to see what was approaching, others making for cover to wait out the event.

Alex and Claire didn\'t even have to say a word. They both joined the crowd of people racing toward the edge of the city to see what was going on. The System hadn\'t announced any sort of event, so Alex had absolutely no idea what to expect.

The throng of people pressed over to the walls. Guards already stood atop them, but none of them looked very nervous. They did nothing to stop the people rushing up the stairwells to the top of the walls ringing the huge city.

"Don\'t push!" one of the guards barked. "Remain orderly. Melee fighters, if you wish to prepare for a fight, please make your way to the exits of the city. We do not anticipate our defenses being breached, but preparation never hurts. Please note that any damage done to Valley Ford\'s interior will be charged to your accounts."

Alex bit back a laugh. Charging people that were preparing to defend your city was ludicrous, but it made sense in a twisted way. There would be a lot of people that wanted the chance to get the rewards from fighting off a monster horde.

Unless it was so big that it threatened the city itself, this was just an opportunity.

People milled all about Alex, all trying to push to the front of the wall to get a look at what was coming. He and Claire squeezed their way through the crowd and managed to push up to the front, stopping at the edge of the wall to peer down over the desert stretching out around the city.

It didn\'t take long to figure out what the crier had been warning everyone about. A large cloud of dust rose in the distance, heading toward the city at a rapid pace. Alex could just barely make out hundreds of figures within the twisting dust.

Are those a bunch of —

"It\'s a big ass herd of bulls!" a large, barrel-chested man beside Alex said through a roll of booming laughter. "Would you look at that!"

"Can anyone make out how strong they are?" someone else asked.

"From the size of that cloud, there have to be at least a hundred or so. No more than that, though," a woman observed. The adventurers stared at the stampede in a mixture of anticipation and excitement.

The guards, however, couldn\'t have looked more uninterested. Alex spotted one of them covering a yawn as he leaned on his halberd.

Are they that confident in the people here? No. That wouldn\'t make sense. Getting a whole town to Earth had to have been incredibly expensive. They wouldn\'t bet something like that on a risk as huge as trusting random people to defend them.

They\'ve got to have another form of security. But what is it?

Alex twisted around to look back at the town behind him. He couldn\'t see anything through the thick crowd around him and Claire on the walls, but he was certain there had to be something. Maybe the family had a powerful warrior that would defend them, or there were traps laid around the city.

"They\'re getting closer," the barrel-chested man said. "I can\'t see their damn levels through that dust cloud, though."

"Let\'s get to the ground. We aren\'t going to get shit standing around up here," a man said, and several others voiced their agreement. A portion of the crowd peeled away and hurried down the stairs, heading for the nearest city exit.

Alex was of half a mind to join them. There was no need to turn down free energy when it delivered itself right to his doorstep.

But, before he could mention his thoughts to Claire, he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. He craned his neck back and raised a hand to block out the sun as he squinted into the sky.

Then his eyes went wide.

"What the hell is that?"

Claire turned to follow his gaze, and her mouth dropped open.

A river had peeled away from the ocean of water that churned above Valley Ford. It twisted through the air like a snake, and standing upon its head was a lone man with his hands crossed behind his back in parade rest. He wore beautiful blue robes trimmed with golden streaks. Long gray hair flowed behind him in the wind.

The snake of water bore him through the air and stopped in the sky above the wall, allowing him to look down upon the approaching horde. His presence bore down on Alex\'s back. Invisible pressure rolled off him, pressing on Alex even though the old man was easily a hundred feet in the air above him.

Alex gritted his teeth. Claire muttered a curse and staggered. All around them, adventurers dropped to one knee. Almost all of the crowd had been forced down from his sheer presence alone. Other than them and the guards, who were all unaffected, only one or two others managed to remain standing.

What is this sensation?

The old man clapped his hands together, and the sound echoed through the air like rolling thunder.

"Be at ease. It is a little too early for you all to be engaging with roaming hordes. The casualties would be too great. We value each and every one of your lives far too much to let you perish today. After all, if you die, who will line our coffers?" the man let out a jolly laugh, but his expression quickly turned serious. "I jest, of course. The Great Tide family greatly appreciates your dedication to defending our city — but today, it is I who will defend you."

"What is this pressure?" Claire asked through clenched teeth. "It\'s not like what Zeal was using. How strong is that guy?"

Alex just shook his head. He had absolutely no idea.

"Bear witness to the strength of the Great Tide family," one of the guards along the wall thundered. "Invictus, the Ruler of Valley Ford, has arrived to grant us victory!"

"Do not put such praise upon me," Invictus said with a dry laugh. "Valley Ford defends itself. I am simply the director of its might."

Invictus looked down at the horde, which was only a few hundred feet away from the city\'s walls. A confident smile crawled across his weathered features and he swept his hands down.

A ripple passed through the water swirling above the city behind him. Alex\'s mouth dropped open as the huge ocean shifted. It rose up, thousands of tons of force suspended by sheer nothingness, and then crashed down with a roar.

The unfathomable might of the water slammed down upon the charging horde with an earthshaking crash. Alex\'s stomach leapt into his throat as the wall bucked beneath him. The magic had struck with such force that it had caused an earthquake big enough to hit the entire city.

People cried out all around him, but he and Claire both managed to remain standing, their eyes locked on the scene before them in disbelief.

Invictus lifted his hands. Where his features had previously been confident, there was now strain. A droplet of sweat rolled down the side of his temple.

Water rose up from the ground like rain falling in reverse, gathering back into a huge river. Of the monster horde, there was no trace. Every single attacking creature had been flattened in a single strike.

For a moment, the huge river of water hung in place. Then it twisted back on itself, flowing back to gather above the city.

Alex could barely believe his eyes. The display of might Invictus had just put on was incredible. A thought poked at the back of his head and a small frown flickered across his lips.

That was almost too incredible. Am I just a conspiracy theorist? Or is a horde showing up and getting crushed before anyone even gets a chance to see how strong it is a little convenient for the Great Tide\'s appearance?

Either way… fuck. No wonder Claire was so determined that I have to use the Town Token. Even if this was a show by the Great Tide just to flex their power, it was incredible.

Invictus turned away from the remains of the horde. "I apologize for the panic. Everything is handled now. You may all return to your normal plans. And as an apology for the panic, we will have a discount for the next twelve hours! You may all enjoy twenty percent off all consumable goods."

The elderly man glanced down at the wall of the city. Then he did a double take — and, in that moment, Alex realized it might not have been a good idea to remain standing when everyone around him and Claire had fallen to their knees.

Invictus was staring straight at them.