Ashes of the Fallen

Friends, as I called them, even though they were only NPCs with Artificial Intelligences. They weren't even real. Selene… wasn't real. Yet, after months of time being spent with them on a daily basis, they were a part of my life.

Now, they were no longer there.

She was no longer around.

And I was at fault.

No.

No, I wasn't at fault here.

The ones that wronged me were Milly and her guild. They were the ones that started this. In my anger, I researched the unknown, hoping to find answers as to why they did it. Why would someone randomly attack me, all the way up north?

I had my ideas, my suspicions.

It was common to attack rival guilds, to eliminate competition; I knew that was the case. When Emily put the target on my back, I knew this day would come.

But, for a guild to travel to such great lengths to attack me… that bothered me, deep down. They were a small guild, filled with a handful of Alpha and Beta testers, some that were even from my area, which I found out, after a little internet stalking turned up some pertinent information.

Milly, was a local.

I had probably met her once or twice at the Meetings.

A small world, as they say.

They were connected with other guilds, primarily filled with players of the same ilk, and had struggled in the Central Kingdoms and thus decided to try their luck in the North. That wasn't anything new, nor was it news to me.

Their territory was actually a very small one though.

Two-hundred miles south of Andal, down near the very border of the Northern territories, and about five miles off the coast. They were situated on a river that drained out to the ocean. It was a small river at that, one only ten feet wide and two to three feet deep. They had a few buildings and a couple of NPCs too, as they were starting to build up their infrastructure.

They weren't powerful, not in the least.

Their seventy or so active guild members were of average level, in the high twenties and low thirties, with a couple in the forties. By comparison, I was in mid-fifties with boosted stats from the Ultra-Realism program.

I was basically nearing two-hundred in effective level.

As a jack of all trades, a red mage, a hybrid… my power spike was the early mid-game and the very late-game. I was in the middle of that first power trip, where skills and proficiency came easy and having two or three from different paths let me create effective combinations beyond the normal scope.

They didn't stand a chance alone… they didn't even hold a candle to me.

Yet, they picked a fight.

They had sealed their fate.

I was coming for them… and their allies too.

Their homes would burn, their NPCs would be slaughtered, and they will be hunted wherever they go. There is no place on this continent I can't reach, that I can't raid.

They would pay.

This was personal.

This was the Viking way, after all.

Chapter 66: Restart

(Tuesday, September 24th Game Day / Tuesday, March 30th Real Day)

It was a long night, and an even longer day when we finally laid the ashes of the fallen to rest. There was nothing left of Selene but dust and the two items that we had kept. There was nothing left of our pet, the loyal wolf Barkley, nor was there anything left of the warriors that gave it their all.

Of course, none of it was real.

But that didn't change the feeling, of it all.

I was still angry, but a certain type of numbness had pervaded my mind.

It was hard to care.

A funny thing happened at the end though, a strange thing, really.

I received a system message, after the funeral procession had completed. Details therein, explaining that, due to my honoring the customs of the past, of the land, that my Reputation had increased slightly and there was a boost to morale.

A boost to morale it said, well, not my morale.

There was also an accompanying boost to production, for seventy-two hours. Three days of accelerated NPCs, at my disposal. Maybe, this was the game's way of allowing players to rebuild or restart their infrastructure after large battles and during times of war. War was good for production after all, and a motivated populace with a goal did work harder. There was some historical relevance there.

Standing on the mountain overlooking my burnt-down village, my mind was scrambling to put together ideas. I had been standing up on the ledge for nearly an hour, trying to figure out what to do.

Going forward, the things I lacked, the areas where I was weak, those all needed to be fixed, to be improved upon. My warriors held their own, but they weren't strong enough by themselves. We were outnumbered and won, but we had the advantage behind our walls.

We had the advantage, of me.

Without me, it would have been a slaughter, and the likelihood of every NPC being killed or captured was high. If I was away from the village and a guild decided to attack, everything would be lost.

My village, Dragon's Breach, needed to be upgraded.

What I needed, was a fort.

Maybe, even a castle.