After the meeting ended, they gave me a quick tour of what the Army and university had set up in the convention center. In the main room, most of the soldiers specialized in intelligence, communications, or logistics. The only ones with weapons visible were a few guards, like the one outside, and a lieutenant with a pistol holstered on his right hip.

  From the soft murmur of conversations around me, they sounded like pretty smart people. Smarter than me, in some cases. A few were gamers helping integrate game mechanics into Army operations. From what I overheard and was told, they came from various parts of their headquarters company.

  Most of their questions for me, were about how to think like a gamer. I mentally filed that under know your enemy. Like I said, some of them were sharp. They’d already started their own guilds. CnCE, short for Command and Control Eddington. They had three so far: CnCE-1, -2, and -3. That might be for three work shifts.

  When I talked to some of the soldiers who’d gone after spawn groups, they described it like any regular Army operation. Their biggest surprise? The Goblins and Kobolds didn’t drop as fast as expected when hit with standard rifle rounds.

  Explosives, though? Those worked just fine. One group used a Claymore and took out the whole spawn at once. Problem was, it left so many metal bits behind that their sergeants made them clean up the mess. They weren’t in a rush to try that again.

  Thinking it over, I pointed out that blowing up monsters with Claymores was an expensive way to handle things; and sooner or later, some would survive. They’d already figured that out. Now they were looking for options that didn’t scatter debris everywhere. No one wanted to be cleaning up scrap metal in the woods every day like their sergeant made them do.

  On the university side of the room, I spoke with both students and faculty. That turned out to be extremely useful. They showed me graphs which charted spawn power and defense scaling as monsters got tougher. The equations behind the graphs were far beyond the math I remembered from thirty-plus years ago.

  Proofreading equations isn’t in my job description. I don’t even try when editing books. I leave that to the authors and experts in the field.

  A separate team was working on the numbers behind powers and skills. My own quick estimates from when I created my game self were off by a bit. I’m no math guy. Still, I helped by checking the rule structures for spell levels and other information they hadn’t unlocked yet.

  Honestly, it was a happy time. I enjoyed geeking out with them. Some were gamers, too, and when I told them about the WoW number crunchers from back when I first started playing, they named their math nerds’ guild the E-Jerks. Short for Elitist Jerks. The old WoW theory crafting group. They even found their archived website and formed a team to study their methods. Most of them were working on Master’s degrees, though one was a PhD candidate.

  I could’ve stayed longer, but I had other things to take care of before the day ended. And I still had my paid editing job waiting on me. So, I headed home to put in a couple hours of work.

  Earlier, I’d set my phone alarms to go off ten minutes before each spawn, with the final alarm set for 10 p.m. I still needed to sleep. Us old guys need our beauty rest…and I felt like I needed more than most.

  Even so, I managed to get some work done before the beeping started. The high-pitched alarm on my phone cuts through everything else. It’s hard to ignore. A good time for a break. A late lunch sounded pretty good, too.

  While I was figuring out what to have for lunch; Ryan sent me a chat saying there was a spawn happening, and they wanted backup. And someone wanted to talk to me.

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  I didn’t bother with my sword this time. Just grabbed my hat and cane. Each gave me +1 INTELLIGENCE, which helped if I needed to cast. The local guild had enough people now to field two full parties. James had it under control, so I watched from my porch.

  Their new Mana Mage and her wife were there. James split them into separate parties. I just shrugged. His call, not mine. His mom was one of the healers, still looking out for her kids. I figured she’d be doing a lot of that. Protective mothers do that no matter what age they are.

  When the spawn hit, the mages created a tunnel of SHIELDs from the door almost all the way to the sidewalk. James and the other mele types waited at the end. Interesting…funneling instead of boxing. More variation means more options. Keeps the fighters engaged. Smart move.

  The Goblins sent their Kobolds charging into the melee meat grinder, while the Goblins themselves focused on breaking through one of the ICE SHIELDs. They succeeded; just barely, before running into a new MANA SHIELD in the same spot. That came right after the last Kobold went down.

  I heard James shout, “Blast them!” and five elemental BALLs slammed into the Goblins before they could advance. Nice work. One more tactic that leveled more people and finished the fight fast. I saw one golden glow. Someone had leveled up.

  With that many players, nobody gained much individually, but everybody got something. I cast REVEAL STATS on their Mana Mage. SandB was level two. Good for her.

  I was about to head back inside when someone yelled, “Hey! Wait!” I turned. SandB was running toward me from behind a car that had been parked, watching them. BandS followed close behind. At least their names were easy to remember. I paused and waited.

  “Yes?” I asked.

  “I, I…” She stopped, slightly bent over and catching her breath. Her face was flushed from the run. “I wanted to say…” She gasped again. “I’m sorry for yesterday.” Her gaze dropped to the ground before lifting to meet mine. “Everyone in the guild got on my ass for how I acted. And when I heard how you helped Megan and Ryan today…I don’t know how I feel. It isn’t good.”

  “Sara was so embarrassed yesterday when she found out who you were,” Bailey added.

  BandS caught up and gently wrapped her arm around Sara’s shoulders, pulling her close. “She’s had some awful experiences with men. Especially older men. She’s…not as bad as she used to be.”

  “Will you forgive me? Please?” Sara asked, her voice shaking as she leaned further into Bailey’s embrace. “Bailey keeps telling me I can’t take everything out on everyone. Everyone didn’t hurt me.”

  “Forgiveness is easy. You have it.” I paused. “I’m a little to blame, too. I teased you a bit once I realized you didn’t know who I was. I’m sorry for that. I was only trying to help someone new get stronger faster. To help them avoid the mistakes I made.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Bannister,” Bailey said. “I understood that. Sara does, too. Don’t you, Sara?”

  “Thank you,” Sara said softly, her voice muffled against Bailey’s shoulder. But I could hear the emotion behind her words. I believed her.

  “You’re welcome. My offer still stands. If you want help becoming a Mana Mage, just ask. That’s it. That’s all it takes.”

  Then, a whisper. “Please,” Sara said, her face turning bright red as she buried it deeper into Bailey’s shoulder.

  Bailey’s earlier comment had given me a clue about where some of Sara’s pain came from. I hoped I was wrong. She wouldn’t be the first person I’d known with trauma from men. The best way I could help was to make sure I wasn’t one of them.

  “What can I help you with, Sara?” I asked gently. Silence followed.

  “Come on. You can do it,” Bailey whispered. “He’s a friend.”

  “With…with being a…a…” Sara’s voice barely made it through Bailey’s shoulder. “A Mana Mage.”

  Bailey’s face lit up. “You did it. You did it! I knew you could!” she said, running her hand lovingly through Sara’s hair.

  Using my calmest tone, I said, “I’ll help. I won’t ask for anything in return. But…an occasional thank you would be nice.”

  I thought I saw the faintest flicker of a smile.

  For the first time since she’d run up to me, Sara looked me in the eye. She didn’t say anything, but she gave me a small nod. That was more than enough. Better than yelling, for sure.

  A light breeze stirred, carrying the sweet scent of blooming flowers from Megan’s backyard. It felt like the world itself was marking the moment. Like something knew it mattered.

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