Lord Ghost walked into his meeting room, he was covered in dirt and blood and really just wanted to get cleaned up and sleep for a while. He had been out hunting monsters in the north so he didn't fall behind on leveling, but having been the son of a certain world leader, he still couldn't shake his longing for luxury and relaxation. None of his friends knew that he was a gamer and would often stay up late playing online games instead of partying and hooking up with women. However, those games are what gave him a good head start in this new world everyone found themselves in. When looking for people to serve him he specifically asked if they had been a gamer, he would then use his strength and conversations about how game-like the system was to bond with people enough so that the system would recognize them as servant candidates.
The longing to be clean and resting was pushed aside since there were three people in his meeting room waiting to give him updates. The first one filled him in on the progress of his army, but to save face with the people, he called them hunter squads and was sure to keep half of them hunting in the wilds so the people didn't feel pressure. He was warned against this due to some old world novels and movies but he stuck to it and had not had any trouble so far. After that, the next person filled him in on intelligence gathering from the smaller towns in the safe zone. There wasn't anything out there to threaten his control yet and after the next monster horde he would be announcing that it was official and start a small tax to fund the hunter squads. His people assured him that as long as it starts small he can increase it as the monster hordes get more difficult.
The third person was there to inform him of the status of Lord Ash and his camp so he sent the others away since he didn't want any of this information to get out. It was mid morning so they sat and drank tea with some bread and butter while he was being briefed. The guy started out going over what they already knew, but Ghost wasn't paying attention, for some reason he could not remember this guy's name. He definitely remembered him being one of his people but the name just wasn't coming to him, then he started talking about new developments and Ghost started actually listening.
"Early this morning, the volcano stopped erupting. Well it was more like it had been turned off, it stopped so abruptly that it is making people tense. The remainder of the ash cloud was drawn into Crater Town and there is nothing left behind to show that it was ever there. We think that…"
"Wait, is Crater Town the actual name of the place? Like, is that what they call it?" Ghost asked.
"Yes."
"How do we know this?
"We have a woman here who trained with them for a few days as a prospective member, but she left."
"Why did she leave?"
"She says that it was because the women running the training wanted to steal her boyfriend who was also in the training so they never meant to allow her to join."
"You make it sound like you have a different theory."
"She has a rather abrasive personality, I wouldn't see her fitting into a team."
"I can see that, besides the women there are exceedingly beautiful from what I've been told." Ghost said with a slight twinge of jealousy on his face. He had not thought about finding a girlfriend while setting all of this up and trying to start a kingdom. Ghost decided that a girlfriend should be higher on his priority list, then focused back to the conversation.
"That is true, do you want to meet this woman? She said she is saving important details that she will only give you."
"I probably should, also, make a point to find some beautiful women to join us as well. I can't run my kingdom without a queen after all."
"Understood, my lord."
The man left and Ghost quickly went to clean himself up in his living space which could be accessed from a door in the back behind his big chair. Returning to the room, the woman and an attendant were seated and waiting for him. Sitting down he gave the woman a quick glance, she wasn't anything special but not bad looking by any means. However, she had this look on her face that broadcasted that she was a difficult person, not wanting to judge before talking to her Ghost kept his tone even and polite.
"Thank you for waiting, I hear you have some information for me, but first I'll introduce myself. I am Lord Ghost and this whole safe zone belongs to me."
"My name is Chris and I do have information, but it isn't free."
"Before we get to that, I need to know I can trust this information, tell me how you came to be training with lord Ash's people." Ghost said and then sent the attendant away so he would be the only one to hear. He did this for two reasons, one was so that she would feel more at ease in the room, and two, If something wild was said, he didn't want his people knowing it without him being able to put a spin on it that played to his favor.
Chris told him about meeting Beau and right away Ghost could tell that this man was far more capable than she gave him credit for. Then she explained how they were recruited in one of the small towns and she only followed for a chance to make a name for herself. Again he knew she was lying and she had probably planned on screwing them over somehow right from the start. Finally, she explained the training and the entrance to Crater Town, which had Ghost on the edge of his seat. She didn't seem to have any idea how it worked but this was something he was going to want to see for himself.
"Ok, what do you want for the information?"
"I want you to kill one of his people, then I will tell you everything, they have to pay for how they treated me."
"No"
"What do you mean, no? You have to know that if you allow him to grow stronger, he will be a threat to you and you will need the information that I have."
"I have uncontested control of this safe zone, I'm not going to keep it by making enemies where there aren't any."
"Those people are bad news for you, letting an enemy grow on your doorstep is a bad idea."
"Unless you can take payment another way, I have no use for you and you can leave." Ghost said standing up as if to leave.
"Wait, I'll give you a sample, then we can talk about giving me a position in your group here."
"I'm listening"
"Tara is his wife, but Bethany is his mistress, and Audrey is young and the other women seem to be grooming her to be a mistress as well. So obviously women are a weakness for him." Chris said with confidence that this would bring Ghost over to her side.
Ghost rubbed his chin in thought for a few seconds, "Your information is shallow and incomplete, you may leave." Ghost had been getting reports for weeks on lord Ash's people and from everything he had gathered, the people there were there because they wanted to be. Ash wasn't even around that often, if women were a weakness then he would be paying more attention to them. Also, the spies said that they knew for a fact that Audrey was not being groomed because they had been able to overhear a conversation where the older women were explaining to her that she was too young and she should wait till she is old and try dating boys her age.
Nothing she said added up, she was either here to plant false information, or she was a self deluded narcissist that blamed everyone else for anything that goes wrong in her life. It was most likely the latter, so he couldn't trust anything she said, also after triggering the system inspection, he could see she was only level 43 and no one could be considered a good fighter if they weren't above level 50 by now. If she wasn't going to be honest about her own ability, then she wasn't going to be honest about anything else.
Chris was fuming mad, her face was red and her hands were tightened into fists. "You need my information, you need me," She managed to get out without yelling but she looked like she wanted to hit him.
Ghost was getting close to level 80 so couldn't help but smirk at the strength disparity between them. "You look like you want to do something stupid, I tell you what, you leave or I'll do something stupid for you."
"I'll tell everyone you raped me." She said and from the look on her face she clearly thought that would persuade him.
Ghost laughed so hard he actually slapped his knee a few times. "You think that would stop me somehow? There is no one to complain to, my people would probably kill you regardless of if they believe you, or out of loyalty to me. I'll give you one last chance, tell me the information and leave using your legs, or you can leave without your legs."
Fear flashed across Chris' face when she realized that there wasn't anyone to appeal to, no police, no media, no public, she was on her own. "Ok, I'll leave," she said and started to get up and walk towards the door. But as soon as she got up, faster than she could follow, Ghost was holding her up by the neck high enough that her feet weren't touching the ground.
"Tell me what you know or I will break you apart, have one of my people haul you outside the safe zone and kill you."
Before she could answer, someone knocked on the door.
"Enter" Ghost said and the same attendant came in and whispered something in his ear so softly that Chris couldn't hear it even while she was still being held up in the air by her neck.
Ghost threw her into the far wall and there was a crunch and crack sound from her breaking several bones. "Lock her up somewhere, I will go see this myself." he said to his attendant and walked out of the room. The attendant looked at the pile of flesh and broken bones and sighed while thinking to himself, "He's finally acting tough, good for him."
Running outside he grabbed the first person he saw and told them to get 8 more people as strong as they could find and to meet him a couple miles south of where they were. Ghost wanted a good look at this himself, instead of just second and third hand accounts. Too many things were pointing towards lord Ash and his people for him to just ignore what was happening. Ghost played the tough guy, but he really hoped to find a peer when he eventually met lord Ash. not a friend or ally, but someone on his level he could have a drink with and just be himself around.