Farewell New Friend
Some time later at Frostholm..
"How you feeling now?" Said Adrian walking into the room with Rage and Sensei looking out the window at the town.
Rage let out a sigh taking a sip from the cup of tea in his hand as he sat down at the desk, "It's bothersome, back then Rivershade also mentioned that all powerful being that Durgrim also spoke about, but it can't be that Elven mage, if anything that mage was small fry compared to both of them" He said burying his head into the desk.
"Someone who can create pacts with archdemons and force a prideful dwarf into killing himself, that sure is bothersome" Sensei replied crossing his arm and leaning on the wall by the window.
"Any sign of Thaddeus?" Rage said looking up to Adrian.
Adrian paused for a second before looking the other way.
"Cedric will be devestated" Sensei said.
"He survived longer than expected but to be perfectly honest Cedric would be a better lord than his father" Rage replied taking another sip of tea.
"Do we have the body?" Sensei asked Adrian.
"Yes, we have wrapped it and cleaned it, it's ready for burial" Adrian replied.
"We'll take him back then, we've been here for long enough, Thraina should be done by the time we're back" Rage said standing up.
"Make sure to visit soon, we'll need to discuss a lot of stuff" Sensei said to Adrian before following Rage out.
"Wait, you still haven't received your rewards for helping us" Adrian called out quickly following them both out.
As they got out of the townhall, Thaddeus's body was wrapped on a carriage in a white silk shroud as Rage stood there for a second looking at him.
"I don't care much for the elder as much as I care for how Cedric is going to receive this, that boy has grown on me" Sensei said approaching Rage from behind.
"Adrian you said you would give us a reward right?" Rage called out to Adrian who was stood a bit to the back.
"Yes of course" Adrian replied.
"The gold and EXP we got from Durgrim was more than enough, so how about this, visit us in a couple of days with Frostholm's elder, First knight Robin of the eastern empire should be at Oakbrook as well, we'll make both cities enter an alliance, that way we can work together more efficiently" Rage said before summoning his shadowmare.
"We were going to do that anyways this isn't a rew-" Adrian tried to say before Rage grabbed Thaddeus's body and set it in front of him on the horse before taking off towards the tunnel.
Sensei shrugged at Adrian before quickly following suit.
After the same eight hours gallop through the tunnel back to Oakbrook, They finally made it out of the mine by sunset, Rage noticed the road leading to Oakbrook from the gate was now filled with players from earth, most of them recognized him and Sensei but noticed the body on the shadowmare so they minded their own business with only a couple whispers being heard between the crowd.
After a short while Oakbrook came into view.
"Daamn, Thraina has been hard at work" Sensei whisteled at the view.
A large stone wall surrounded the city with a proper checkpoint set at the gate, multiple towers decorated the battlements as a hill was raised at the middle of the city with a castle sitting on top, the garrison's gear was of much higher quality, Rage noticed the average level for the soldiers now was around 60 which is double the average level when he first arrived.
One of the guards noticed Rage and Sensei approaching the gate before he yelled "THE LORDS ARE BACK, ALERT SIR CEDRIC" To another Knight atop the gatehouse.
Rage could faintly hear him as after a minute Cedric and the knights accompanied by the Highthorn members and Eve came rushing out.
As Rage got closer Cedric and Eve's smiles suddenly dropped as they saw the wrapped body on Rage's mount before Rage locked eyes with Cedric's teary eyes as he got closer to the mount.
He cut a piece of the shroud revealing Thaddeus's face as Eve started sobbing in the background as she buried her face in Sensei's chest who lightly pat her on the back trying to comfort her.
Cedric gathered his strength to to maintain his composure as he walked in front of Rage's Mount that slowly followed suit.
Cedric called for a cart as two of the guards quickly went in coming out with a cart.
The cart was tied to a horse and Thaddeus's body was transported from Rage's shadowmare to the cart.
Cedric mounted the horse as he dragged his father's body slowly through the gate.
In a gesture of honoring Thaddeus the highthorn members all called their shadowmares following the cart in a silent procession as people started to gather on both sides of the street.
Eve rode behind Sensei gathering the strength to stay silent as soldiers took off their helmets and knights raised their swords in salute.
Hunter shot a huge flare arrow to the sky as it burnt for a couple of minutes before dying out.
Cedric looked straight forward before taking a deep breath, "The elder.. Is dead" he uttered before he started moving towards the the newly built church not making the effort to hide his tears.
Two guards brought a coffin as Cedric and Rage both carried Thaddeus's body into the coffin, Cedric slowly closed it before the guards carried the coffin inside the church.
As the priestess started praying, Cedric leaned in close to Rage, "Did you avenge him?" He asked, his voice still shaking.
"Rest assured" Rage replied without looking at him.
"Once again, I'm in your debt" Cedric said before the priestess finished praying.
"Are you sure you don't need time to prepare?" Rage said to Cedric.
"What's there to prepare? The dead should be buried, we're from the ground and to the ground we return, there is no need to disrespect him by delaying his burial" Cedric replied before a couple of soldiers carried the coffin out to the cemetery.
After the coffin was set down to the grave, the priestess came out with a red cape.
"Kneel" she said to Cedric as he kneeled down before her.
She tied the cape around his neck chanting a prayer "Rise elder Cedric Oakbrook, may your reign be peaceful and your judgement righteous to our beloved home"
After the ceremony Cedric and the rest went back to the newly built castle heading straight to the elder's office.
Sensei took Eve along as she wasn't in a state that would allow her to take care of herself at the time being.
Cedric sat down at the desk staring down for a minute before Rage called out to the rest "Let's give them some time, call for us if you need anything" as they headed out of the office leaving Eve and Cedric to mourn.
"Well that was awkward, I'm never good in these situations" Sensei said before Madeen let out a sigh.
"Yeah man, anyways look at this sexy castle" Madeen said looking around him.
"Yeah Thraina did a hella good job, should we check the town's development level now?" Rage said before opening his status window.
SIDE MISSION (DEVELOP OAKBROOK - SECURITY) HAS BEEN COMPLETED.
+2 DEVELOPMENT LEVELS
OAKBROOK WENT THROUGH DRASTIC IMPROVEMENTS.
GRADE: TOWN -> CITY
+3 DEVELOPMENT LEVELS
OAKBROOK NOW HAS A MORE CAPABLE GOVERNOR
+2 DEVELOPMENT LEVELS
CURRENT LEVEL: 9/10
"What 9? All of this for a 9?" Madeen snorted visibly annoyed.
"Well, there's still the mine, that's the most difficult part, right now Oakbrook is relaying on taxes and merchants for income which both are temporary, players will soon move to higher difficulty zones and the merchants will move shop so now you got ten times the expenses with no revenues, the mine will fix that since it acts as a fixed income" Jimmy explained.
"The mine will take a ton of work, we gotta clear it first, then re-establish the support beams then hire proper miners to work there" Rage replied.
"So where is the guest house? Since this is where we'll be staying now" Sensei asked Jimmy as they stood on the castle walls looking down at the city.
"Oh, it's right there" Jimmy pointed to a large mansion down at the city on the road leading to the castle, it was almost as big as the castle decorated with gardens, a small iron fence and a fountain in front of the entrance on the inside.
"Well then, shall we prepare for the first knight?" Rage smirked.