“Do it,” I said without so much as a moment’s hesitation and not needing to be told twice, Quintus gestured to his fellow elves and they all raised their hands in the air as one.
The Veil fell as a huge translucent blue dome over the entirety of Coyote Creek and some way beyond and once its edges met the ground, it disappeared entirely but not before in its centre shone a huge letter ‘W’ with its centre connected by a single horizontal bar to make an ‘A’ beneath the ‘W’. I had to admit that I was shocked there wasn’t a little more ceremony to the whole ordeal.
“It is done, and now we must leave you,” Quintus said but before he had another chance to disappear I managed to ask my final question.
“But what happens now? What about the alliance? And can I learn magic like that?”
“We will return once you have had time to rebuild and recover from this battle, for now, continue on your path and we shall meet again soon, paladin,” Quintus replied as he turned and started to walk away with his party and within a moment they had vanished into the air.
Epilogue
Notification
The player Rachel is a wanted criminal and should be killed on sight. For your service in this matter the following bonuses are available:
1. Any kills Any kills of the player will result in double experience gains for the attacker(s)
2. The player will be unable to bind any equipment. Soulbound items will be treated as any other items. Please feel free to ensure that this criminal player is unable to amass any wealth through items or belongings.
Thank you, Rapture.
R
achel didn’t seem at all surprised at the in-game notification that referred to her specifically, and after she’d told me how she had made her way into freedom Online I could hardly blame her – I was just surprised that the punishment wasn’t more severe.
I discovered that during the battle she had taken a few hits from the enemy and was sent to the graveyard until it was all over – like me her low level meant that the visit was annoying but not particularly damaging.
The clean-up operation was pretty straightforward too, with the only damage done structurally was to the berm, and all of the weapons, armour and items dropped by friend and foe alike having to be collected and stored in their proper places. To my absolute delight, most of my goblins had made it, having been the smallest of the fighters and therefore relegated to the back of the pack. Only Grish who I hadn’t seen perish, and Ushuk who of course I had, had actually fallen and I couldn’t be more conflicted about that fact.
I opened the settlement interface and had a look at the new settings, and just as I thought, the option to allow individuals or groups access to my City was available and currently allowing access to only the inhabitants of Coyote Creek and the Woodland Alliance – which was exactly how I would leave them for now at least.
Finally I scrolled my way to the graveyard in the hope that there was something I could do to resurrect my fallen friends and I let out a sigh of relief when I saw that I could spend what happened to be most of my stored SP to revive them both with no penalties, which is of course what I did without hesitation.
I cannot describe the feelings of relief and happiness that washed over me and caused me to fall to my knees, arms wide ready to embrace Ushuk as he strolled out of the graveyard in my direction.
“Get up!” He said as he was within a few feet of my open embrace. “We have work to do.”
And with that, I stood up, turned back towards my settlement and smiled.
~ The End ~
The Copper Rose Page 35
