Author Frank Morin
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Ch 180 - Some Like it Hot
🕑 Added 2025-06-09 16:00:09 +0000 UTCTen points for a dramatic entrance.
Elizabeth Maberly marched into the room and her outfit changed. The Tomb Raider look vanished, and suddenly she looked like medieval British nobility. Fancy gown with way too much lace and brocade, curly brown hair woven in fancy braids, and even a glittering diamond tiara. A faint scent of flowery perfume floated into the room, making me want to sneeze.
She assumed a snotty British accent and extended one hand, fingers dripping with rings. “You may greet the new mayor.”
“Elizabeth Maberly, baby human level 50. Team Pride & Prejudice. Class: Kingpin Diva. This cunning plotter has bided her time while building a foundation on lust and debauchery before making her move to seize power. Some humans are born ready to join the multiverse.”
Uh, oh. That didn’t sound good, but I held my peace. I wasn’t officially part of the council, so this was something they had to figure out.
“You’ve been watching too many period dramas,” Tony growled.
Crystal snickered. “Queen Elizabeth. Why am I not surprised?”
Elizabeth scowled and with another flash of light, transformed into a pretty good imitation of Liz Taylor, complete with the famous hairdo, now wearing a fetching but nearly modest blue dress. Her special effects spells were really impressive. They could even be useful in battle, switching between entire ensembles even faster than most of us could swap items in and out of inventory.
“I had hoped you’d accept the change in leadership more gracefully,” Elizabeth said as she scanned the council with an imperious gaze.
“We don’t have time for games, Elizabeth,” Paul said, not hiding his annoyance. “Our work is far too important.”
“As is moving up to the 3rd stage. This is no time to mess around,” Tony added.
She smiled, her expression gloating instead of contrite. “Absolutely correct. That is why as the new mayor, I am choosing an all new town council.”
“What?” Paul erupted while Crystal leaped to her feet and shouted, “You can’t do that!”
Not bothering to hide how much she was enjoying the moment, Elizabeth said, “Coups are so much more satisfying than I imagined. I get the whole freedom fighter crusade vibe so much better now that I’ve stepped into this role.”
“What games are you playing at?” Burns demanded, folding his powerful arms across his chest and scowling. He had a great scowl.
“Games? No, my good Burns, I am leading our vital community in a new direction, one that will ensure greater success, access to more power, and our eventual domination of stage 4.”
“And what direction is that?” Paul growled.
The normally jovial guy looked more furious than I’d imagined he could. He’d worked so hard for the good of everyone, while gaining tons of benefits himself, of course, but he seemed to honestly want to help. Clearly no one had expected a coup.
Elizabeth’s smile widened. “And ruin the surprise? No, my friends. Enjoy your final moments of power here in Midmount Vale, but once you cross into stage 3, you will enter the new city of Port Royale and will have to abide by my rules.”
“Port Royale?” Tony asked.
“Of course. I always loved the Caribbean. So much better than the unimaginative names you’ve all come up with so far.”
What she didn’t say was that Port Royale had been a haven for pirates in the 17th century and was famous for lawlessness and vice.
Elizabeth added in a condescending tone, “Prove yourselves worthy and loyal to me and I will do my best to find positions fitting your unique skills.”
“We’ll see about that,” Paul said, his tone icy. “Here on stage 2, you’re fired. All privileges and bonuses rescinded.”
Elizabeth did not look surprised or worried. “Don’t make things harder for yourself.”
“I’ve had enough of this,” Burns growled, rising to his feet. “You want to talk about coups? Fine, I’ll give you a coup.”
Crystal’s arms swelled with impending violence and she lunged to her feet, but then they both staggered. Burns’s face turned white and he clutched the table, hard stare locked on Elizabeth. Crystal toppled over, writhing on the ground, screaming. Both Paul and Tony jumped to their feet, but they too staggered.
With my upgraded Mana Control, I clearly sensed the flow of mana around her, but did not interfere. I wouldn’t unless she caused serious harm. I’d rather not reveal my abilities until I had to, and when I did, I wouldn’t hold back.
Elizabeth’s eyes turned to me. I held her gaze and said simply, “Don’t. People who attack me don’t live long.”
She smiled, a radiant expression like she was seeing an old friend for the first time in years. Around the room, everyone sighed and relaxed as her spell wore off. What had she just done? Her old class Inspirational Heartbreaker, focused mostly on illusion and changing her appearance as far as I knew. She must have added a more offensive spell to the mix.
“Why would I attack you, my dear Lucas? You gave me the inspiration and the coaching to launch my coup in the first place.”
That drew some angry glares. I sighed as realization struck. She’d used me like a chump. That time she’d asked me about traversing the second stage and how to prepare for a journey, I’d let myself get sucked right in and told her everything she needed to know to put her little revolution together.
“What did you do to us?” Crystal gasped as she climbed back to her seat, face white.
“That was my new spell Excruciating Touch. As you so wonderfully demonstrated, it delivers pure pain straight into your brain.”
“Do that again, and no amount of pain will save you,” Burns growled.
She waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, stop being such a bore.”
All of a sudden, she started to glow, her entire being turning absolutely radiant. Most of the gathered council members visibly relaxed, although Tony’s face scrunched in concentration as sweat instantly beaded on his brow.
“Congratulations, Lucas! Mimic has captured Some Like It Hot, glamour influence. Time remaining to re-cast the spell: 15 seconds.”
“Note: You have not unlocked Charisma, so this spell’s effect will be reduced by 75%.”
Well, that was a first. The heavy weight of her spell settled over my mind as she pushed her glamour across the entire room. My mental resistances were way too high for her to get me so easily, and I triggered my Hercules title’s Indomitable aura.
I didn’t need the extra 50% to my mental resistances as much as the others needed the invisible aura that spread out and gave them the same benefit. With my aura’s help, they finally shrugged off the glamour’s influence.
“It’s illegal to use charms against unwilling people in Midmount Vale,” Paul stated coldly. “You know that better than anyone.”
Elizabeth shrugged. “I accept the fine, but it was necessary to help move past all that useless bickering.”
I spoke up for the first time. “Elizabeth, I don’t care about your political games as long as you don’t hinder everyone’s progression. However, if I ever discover you’re using your charm spells to force people to do things they don’t want to do, I will remove you.”
My calm tone seemed to intimidate her more than any amount of shouting from the others. She only hesitated for a second before flashing her smile again. “Wait till you see my grand plans for Port Royale. You’ll flock back to my side.”
“Play your games, if you want. The stage-3 town will only last a week. If you don’t hurt people’s progress, then I don’t care who serves as mayor.” I turned to Paul and added, “No offense.”
He scowled and Elizabeth blew him a little kiss. “Come on, stodgy old Paul! No one ever promised you could be mayor forever. Let’s have some fun with this.”
“Our work is too important to trivialize.”
“Trust me, there’s nothing trivial about my plans.”
I interjected, “You can adjust the makeup of the council as you wish, but I recommend you leave the city’s deal with me in place.”
“I wouldn’t risk losing your mighty fighting prowess, dear Lucas,” she responded, her smile laced with a hint of her glamour, but not enough to make me threaten her again.
“Why even bother with all these games?” Crystal demanded.
She shrugged and sat in an empty chair. “Several reasons, my dear. A desire for a bit of fun, a love of showmanship, oh, and of course, the fact that experience gains have been slowing in recent days. Paul, I’m afraid this council has been suffering under your sugar-addled leadership.”
“That’s stupid,” Crystal objected.
“And totally false,” Burns added coldly. “Basing your actions on a bed of easily-disproved lies is doing nothing for your cause.”
Paul nodded vigorously. “You never would have gained all those levels if experience was dwindling.”
Elizabeth made another dismissive gesture. “I don’t care what you think. This has happened, so I suggest you live with it.” She sighed grandly, clearly loving the attention. “So much to do as the ultimate political power on stage 3.”
“Get over yourself. This is not a game.”
“Ah, but it is. Like your AI buddy keeps saying, this is the greatest game and it's about to get wild and wet,” she exclaimed.
“You are such a deviant,” Crystal spat.
Elizabeth laughed. “Actually, this may amaze you, my dear prude, but that came out wrong. Stage 3 will be wild for sure, and also wet, as in literally soaked. The third stage is raining in a flood-the-world-in-40-days deluge.”
Hearing the deviant deva make a Bible reference seemed wrong.
“How did you even get up there?” Paul demanded. Thankfully, they all seemed willing to see what Elizabeth’s new government looked like before resorting to violence. No one had elected them either, but once someone had a bit of power, they never wanted to lose it.
Overall, they’d done a good job, but Elizabeth was right. Every stage was technically a new beginning. They’d projected the first-stage leadership up to stage 2, but that didn’t have to continue. As long as Elizabeth didn’t screw things up, she’d only get to play mayor for a few days. No doubt the rest of the council would quickly devise plans to send a raiding party up to stage 4 as soon as possible to secure the final town location.
I had bigger things to worry about, like making sure we survived stage 3 and getting strong enough to deal with Queen Marisara and her court, who would be ready and waiting to attack as soon as we stepped over the line onto the last stage.
Only 1 week to prepare. Despite all of our efforts so far, all of a sudden, time felt short. I had leveled up a ton on stage 2, but I had to basically double my levels in 1 week to reach level 75 and unlock my full tier-1 efficiency. Only then would I be ready to take the fight to Queen Marisara.
While I thought about that, Elizabeth regaled the council with her brilliant plan. After organizing a team from talented fighters loyal to her or happy to do her bidding in return for access passes to the Expanse, she’d slipped out of town while everyone else was recovering from the battle. With both bosses defeated, along with all the werewolves and zombies, the main plateau was relatively safe.
They’d ascended the slope on the north side of the stage and climbed the canyon leading up to stage 3. There they’d found a very different environment.
“It’s a ruin, like an ancient city from Rome. All rubble and bits of wall and broken-up streets. The ruins got more substantial as we moved farther north,” Elizabeth explained.
Despite their anger at her coup, they still listened raptly. Her team was the only one to have made it up there so far, so the information was vital.
“Like I said, as soon as we stepped onto the stage, the rain started. It poured non-stop the entire time and showed no signs of letting up. The entire stage, or at least all we could see, is covered by those ruins. Actually, the city might be more like a ruined Venice than Rome. It’s covered in criss-crossing canals.”
“Are there bridges?” Tony asked.
“Quite a few, thankfully. Others have collapsed, but we found our way through.”
“What of monsters?” Burns asked. I was thinking the same thing.
“We did not fight anything. I bought an item from the store that covered my entire team in stealth. It protected us, but also concealed living things from us in return.”
“That doesn’t sound like it’s worth it,” Crystal said.
Elizabeth shrugged. “That negative made it far cheaper. Our purpose was not fighting, but to find the town site and claim it, which we did. We explored only a small part of the ruin, but found only 1 place fitting for a settlement. In fact, it was clearly designated as such.”
“What do you mean?” Paul asked, forcing himself to remain civil with an effort. Elizabeth had upended his entire purpose, so he had to be reeling.
“There’s a single open plaza, paved in stone, and covered by a magical barrier that keeps the rain out. I doubt it will do much to stop monsters, but at least it was dry. As soon as we stepped into the plaza, I received the notification to claim the town.”
“How big is the space?” Tony asked.
“It should suffice, although folks might have to share tents more than they have in the past. The entire plaza is only about a third of the size of Midmount Vale.”
That was small. The current town was plenty big for everyone, with some open lots and tons of space for crafters. Cutting the space by two-thirds would definitely make things tight, but no one would want to set up camp away from the town and expose themselves to monsters.
“I was given a very interesting quest too,” Elizabeth added.
“What quest?” Tony asked before I could.
She shrugged, a teasing smile on her lips. “You’ll see.”
Crystal started asking another question, but Elizabeth held up a hand to forestall her, then rose gracefully. “I have shared all I can for now, unless you reinstate me as a town councilor.”
The gall of that gal! She’d launched a coup behind their backs, promised to kick them all out, and now dared request she remain on their council? No matter how much she loved her power play, she still couldn’t resist that ongoing flow of experience that would continue through Midmount Vale until everyone relocated.
Paul held her gaze and said, “You’ve chosen your course. You’re out. We expect full cooperation with you and whatever council you appoint in Port Royale for the movement of our people.”
“My team will be in touch.” With a final victorious smile, she spun, flaring her dress in the process, and sauntered out of the room.
“Well, Kraken,” Burns growled as Paul slumped back in his chair, wiping at his face.
“Should we just kill her?” Crystal wondered.
They exchanged looks, but Tony shrugged. “She’s an epic-tiered show-off, but as long as she doesn’t damage the town’s progression, it’s not like we had a law in place requiring us to remain in control.”
Paul sighed. “Elizabeth is a lot of things, but a mayor? I can’t imagine it will go well. Let’s do what damage control we can and make sure we own the town on stage 4. It’s too important to let her games wreck our victory.”
“We need to know more about stage 3,” Burns added. “She might have claimed the town, but her reconnaissance can’t be trusted.”
I rose. “I can help with that. I plan to head up there right now and take a look.”
“Thank you,” Paul said.
Tony added, “I’ll organize another hunting party of our remaining elites to head out soon too. Burns, you up for joining me?”
“Absolutely.”
“Let’s keep in touch, then,” I said and headed for the door, a spring in my step. Stage 3 sounded very different, so most likely the challenges would be too. I embraced the thrill of again exploring the unknown and hunting new, more powerful monsters.
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I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thoughts on the development of the town council, especially Elizabeth's big power play?
Comments
Kyle
Definitely interesting but I feel like the location may be more of a trap
NightOwl
Well, it certainly will be interesting and possibly kinda funny (and frustrating) with Elizabeth in power. I'm looking forward to see how (in)competent she is as mayor.
