The Frozen Curse

Quickly shutting the door behind him, Merlin found himself back in the sweet smelling room, but now he had several eyes locked on him. Walking through the room was a somewhat horrifying experience, it was like walking into a room of creepy dolls, as each of the servants were silently staring at him as he walked past.

He quickly walked out of the room without saying a word. He could feel people staring at the back of his head as he made his way outside.

Closing the door behind him, he was now outside, although still within the walls of the property. As he made his way down the stone brick stairs, the gate was swung open as he approached, letting him leave without any hassle, although he did get more staring from the two managing the door.

As Merlin left and the gate shut behind him, he received a message from Snowbunny.

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[12:20:02] Snowbunny: FLUFFERNUTTER IS MISSING!

[12:20:57] Merlin: What?

[12:21:40] Snowbunny: Me and Ty were making our way to the next town, but I wanted to say goodbye to Fluffernutter first, but when I went to his hangout, he wasn't there.

[12:22:04] Snowbunny: I asked the old lady who was there watering the plants, and she just said he disappears from time to time.

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Merlin didn't really give it any further thought. NPCs were known to move around of their own free will, and it wasn't uncommon for NPCs to travel to other towns, let alone completely different regions or territories.

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[12:22:56] Merlin: He's probably just walking around the village, don't worry.

[12:23:23] Merlin: You guys should make it to town before nightfall, and if you see a grave in the woods on the way there, don't approach it.

[12:23:33] Snowbunny: What happens if we do?

[12:23:55] Merlin: Well, I got cursed and attacked by a ghost monster.

[12:24:12] Merlin: If you're still curious, who knows, maybe you'll get a different result?

[12:24:36] Snowbunny: You know what, I'm fine actually. We'll just make our way over now.

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Merlin laughed as he waved the chat window away. He wasn't quite sure where he wanted to go next, but he figured he'd scout a large portion of the city in the time he had left.

Macedonia was much larger than Orchomenus, and several times larger than the beginner village Lycoa, so it took him a little while to get his bearings. Although he wasn't really going through the town in great detail, just mapping out the general regions, such as the noble area, slums, residential areas, markets and temple.

Merlin now found himself standing at the steps of a grand structure, it featured rows of marble pillars and chiselled marble decoration, but was otherwise simple in its design. What made the building stand out the most was that it was situated in the middle of what seemed to be a vibrant parkland, isolated from the rest of the city.

Where most of the city felt rather claustrophobic, this area was spacious and almost vacant. Featuring benches, lamp posts and various decorative foliage, such as potted plants and flowering trees.

Behind the Greek-styled temple was a connected graveyard, it seemed to be maintained by the temple.

Merlin started walking up the marble staircase and through the open doorway. The first room was open to the public, it featured lines of benches, and a large golden statue of Gaia was given the spotlight on a raised platform. The platform itself was decorated with various depictions of gods and goddesses.

There were a handful of visitors sitting around and praying, and a few more people walking around in some form of priest uniform, performing various tasks such as collecting tips and cleaning.

One of the priests approached him, but before the priest could speak up, Merlin exposed his cursed arm. "I'm going to need something strong to fix this."

The priest seemed almost frightened by the blight growing up Merlin's arm, he stammered around for a moment before telling Merlin to follow him into another room.

"Please, wait here, I'll get someone to help immediately." The priest stammered before rushing out of the room, leaving Merlin alone on a cold bench, in what seemed to be a waiting room.

Minutes passed before the priest came back, now being followed by another priest who looked more capable, and a priestess, who appeared to be a high ranking priestess just based on how the other two were acting with her.

"By Gaia's grace!" The priestess exclaimed in surprise upon first looking at the curse, it was understandable, the blight was quite grotesque and rather unpleasant to look at.

The priestess quickly recovered from her surprise and approached Merlin to examine it closer. She gently poked, prodded and caressed the afflicted area as some form of test that even confused Merlin, then followed up by pouring holy water on it and lastly casting various forms of healing and curse removal spells on it.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem as though anything had worked, the curse didn't even seem to move, unlike what it did with the rosewater.

The priestess sat back on a chair, she seemed genuinely confused as to why everything she did wasn't working. Several minutes later it appeared as though something had clicked in her mind, as she left her seat and attempted one more spell.

This time instead of the comfortably warm sensation from holy magic, this magic was cold. He sat there as he slowly lost all the feeling in his right arm, although he could still move it. There was absolutely nothing other than sight that confirmed that his arm was still attached and moving, and that sensation frightened him.

"I've frozen the curse's progression, unfortunately that seems to be all I can do for now." The priestess seemed genuinely apologetic, "Also, do not worry, you'll regain your arm's sense of touch in a matter of hours."

"This curse reminds me of a patient from a year ago." The priestess mumbled out loud. "I believe that he is still alive, perhaps speaking with him may help you with finding a permanent cure."

"Please find Sir Redmond in Orchomenus, It is possible he will be able to help you." The priestess explained before starting to leave. A quest window appeared before Merlin.

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[Uncommon Quest]

The Redmond's Curse.

It seems a prominent noble has been afflicted with a similar sounding curse, although his mental state has declined quite a bit, he is still a man to be reckoned with.

Perhaps he has found a possible cure to the affliction, or maybe he knows the curse's origin story, either way, a conversation with the man would benefit you greatly.

Speak with Sir Redmond about the undead monster.

• Warning: ???

• Reward: ???

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Although the warning and reward were hidden, he felt he could trust this one, especially because it didn't have a fail state. Merlin accepted the quest before waving the window away.

The mention of a Sir Redmond brought back recent memories, specifically of a woman who was dying in the bandit camp, Merlin remembered that she was mumbling something about getting fired and exiled for merely turning off the light.

The priestess bid farewell before she left the room, her two companions followed, leaving Merlin alone in the waiting room. He rid himself of the horrible thoughts and made his way out of the temple.

Merlin spent the last few minutes travelling towards the market area before a large red notification box appeared before him.

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[Message from the devs!]

The server will shut down in five minutes, please find a safe place and log out.

The server will forcibly disconnect those who do not log out in time.

Thank you.

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He grabbed a comfortable spot on the sidewalk before uttering the command, "System logout." When he received a prompt asking him if he would like to logout, he responded with yes.

As always. a familiar experience occurred once more. The world around him slowly started fading out, until he was floating in an endless black void. After a couple moments, a blinding white light flashed, causing Merlin to close his eyes, when he opened them the black void was replaced with the familiar endless white room, the virtual hub.

Not wasting any time, he brought his arm up and slapped the power symbol, causing a prompt asking him if he would like to logout to appear. He answered by pressing the yes button, and the white room instantly began fading back into an endless black void.

A jolt ran through his body, sparking his senses back into an active state. He felt groggy again, like he had just woken up from an unfulfilling nap. The various new noises only added to the unpleasant wake up procedure.

The capsule slowly shifted into an upright position before opening, now allowing Arthur to access the real world once more. Not even waiting for everyone else to awaken, he made his way into the briefing room and helped himself to some refreshments. Shortly after the group made their way over, out of the entire group, there were three who had particularly nasty glares aimed directly towards Arthur.

It appears as though LordKyle was still rather upset about getting murdered earlier in the session.