After killing Zhang s.h.i.+, the death throes of Wan Yi were all that could be heard from around Dave. Dortha"s enraged rampage knew no bounds, his viciousness surpa.s.sed the pace of combat Wan Yi had been used to.
Seconds after Wan Yi died, Dortha turned to Dave, rage, and wrath unsated. Dave had felt that if he didn"t do something, the beast would be responsible for failing the task he had gone out to accomplish
Yet just as Dortha saw the sword in Dave"s hand, his eyes glazed over and reverted to their serene appearance. Dortha"s fur and claws retreated back and he regained his nice grandpa look.
"What now? Kis"Shtiengbrah? Some of those humans have already run away. Should we give chase?" Samael spoke as he was licking the blood out of his dagger.
"Nah, it"s time to lock this place down again. Onixya, come here," Dave called.
In seconds, the winds howled and a deafening dragon roar sounded through the skies.
Dave looked above him and grinned.
Onixya was currently only a bit smaller than her late parent. But she was no less imposing.
After the Kraken had accompanied her to feast, she had reaches her current appearance to match her actual level.
"Onixya," Dave spoke, "Hunt them down. Kill anyone you find, and reclaim the Wilds as yours. If you think you"re in trouble, come back and I"ll help you."
The dragon, magnificent in size and great in strength, roared in agreement and flew forward to hunt any wandering or straggling prey.
"Dave, is it over?" Lone asked.
"Yep, pretty much. I only need to go back and resume staying in the palace courtyard for a couple of minutes." Dave answered with a tired smile.
"It seems like it would have been best if I came to hire you directly for this Conquest. It would have been much easier," Demetri lamented.
"Even if you did, I"d have refused. Fortunately for you the circ.u.mstances have changed now," Dave replied.
"Indeed they have. My job is about to start. Once the situation is clear and all the players are either killed or chased off to h.e.l.l itself, I"ll begin renovating this place. Man, I just kinda wish you would have left behind a little less of a mess. I was kinda hoping to get a functional city to start with, now all I have is rubble." Demetri teased his partner.
"Your complaints should go to Jeffery, he was the one who nuked the place. I"ll get my Undead to start working the streets and buildings and have the NPCs return to their cities. Many have died here. For them to get back to their former lives is gonna be tough," Dave sighed.
"NPCs are useless, we need players here," Demetri stated decisively.
However, this kind of reaction made Dave frown. "I could pretend I didn"t hear that, but listen up man. A game like this, without NPCs, is nothing. They are the ones to give it life. The mere conversation you can have with them, their background, their quests, their stories, and their lives, all of it matters. Sure, players are important, but NPCs are Conquest"s soul. Just take a look at the Undead Legion. Do you honestly think they would be the same if you replace them all with players? Instead of unity, it would already be a wonder if it would function equal to one of the super guild."
Dave quieted down for a bit, then added, "Many lives have been lost because of this war. This country will never be the same. So we"re going to make it better than it was. Undead, and living working together. I"ll have my underlings working hard to secure safety for everyone here. As for Demetri, I expect you to ensure that they live well."
"We need the money man, you know how much time I"ll have to spend to get their jobs jumpstarted. They can take care of themselves," Demetri argued.
Dave shook his head, "You gotta trust me on this one. I"ve seen how every kingdom leader works, they use the majority of their tax income to fill their own pockets. It"s good, quick and the best way to secure financial stability to players, but have you ever noticed the slums in Icathia? They"re right outside the city, poor impoverished NPCs, who don"t have much to give, no quests to handle. A kingdom must treat all its citizens as equals. I don"t want to have a single poor person in this kingdom."
"It"s can"t remove poverty from a country. This might be a game but some things are simply impossible to accomplish," Demetri a.s.serted.
"If it"s "impossible", then Dave is just the man for it," Lone boasted.
"Yeah, that guy"s been beating the "impossible"s" a.s.s many times over," Ralph added.
"I don"t know. It"s a huge risk, and I don"t see how you can do it. It would already be hard to try such a concept in a good and functioning kingdom, but we are going to start from nothing. To alleviate poverty and increase a city"s wellbeing and welfare, a lot of natural resources need to be harvested. We don"t have enough men to do that, not to mention this needs specialization. You need people who know how to harvest, how to mine for ores, how to forge and tons and tons of laborers. Then we"ll need to have secure trading routes going through all the corners of the world. That"s the only way I can see this sort of thing happening. And even with all the power the super guilds have shown, they couldn"t do that. It" just is not possible."
Dave grinned, "You really underestimate the legion! If there"s one thing we won"t lack it will be laborers! We"ll start work in two hours; everyone should show up at the palace." Dave left the area and headed back into the city.
The faraway sounds of players screaming and a dragon roaring filled the Wilds. The Undead had begun retreating back to the city, waiting until Dave"s Kings.h.i.+p was safely established.
-------------------
Meanwhile, the whole world outside the game was turned upside down.
On the Conquest forums, players were raging about how unfair the situation was. Accusing the player Death Stroke of cheating and using overpowered skills and unfair methods and hacks to secure a victory against all three of the super guilds. Not only that, but they also accused David Ruster, the undead player behind the infamous Mr. Skeletal to of having struck a low blow against the hard work of the Devastators. They had apparently "worked hard" in securing a footing in the East, only to have him and his undead companions swoop in at the last minute to steal all of their earnest work. Skeletal was portrayed as an opportunist and schemer. Undeserving of his achievements, the ones of today and some even tried discrediting his earlier adventures.
Of course, these comments were supported only by the super guilds and their players.
The majority of players had successfully shut down these comments with facts and even praised that Dave as a single player for being able to fight against Warlord and three other S-cla.s.s legacy holders on his own, without the need of any of the other Undead.
The might of Skeletal showed that he was not just a man with empowered skills, but he was a leader of great wits and outstanding leaders.h.i.+p.
And to confirm the fact that Dave had not been a "thief" CCN had released small clips of Dave"s first a.s.sault on the East. The appearance of Jeffery in his video hadn"t been regarded as much conversation material at first, but once the players realized that Jeffery was the reason how the Devastators had been able to teleport to the East, they understood that it was because Jeffery had gone against his verbal agreement with Dave. He had taken the chance that Dave had given him and used it to aid the Devastators to benefit from the undead player"s attempt to raiding the East.
Soon another teaser video came out. It was the fight in the Underworld, where Skeletal had invited the Devastators to join him in the hunt. Most importantly, the video showed Warlord"s betrayal as well as the use of the Forbidden Chapter [Lock Down] on him. It didn"t take a genius to figure out it was done so that they could ensure the capture of the East could proceed without Skeletal"s intervention. All clues had come to light and the Devi supporters could speak no more on how Skeletal had stolen their chance. It was clear to the world that in fact it was Skeletal who was the victim and he himself fought back to regain what was rightfully his.
All matters had come to a resolution besides the small fact that no one knew how Skeletal had obtained a second Right of Conquest. CCN refused to give any more information stating that they were in no way responsible for revealing all of a player"s secrets, so the matter remained a mystery, leading to the most obscure conspiracy theories.
On the same day, Demetri Rospatcho had come out to give a conference meeting with all of his supporters. The shock was apparent when people learned that Demetri and his guild European Might were granted full control of the new kingdom"s financial prows. With it, they had earned a footing in the world of Conquest to become the fourth super guild.
Statistically speaking, it should be the weakest guild so far. It would take time for them to see returns on the East and most of the players were not that famous. Still, thanks to the support from Skeletal, its military power was not to be underestimated.
Warlord received a lot of criticism and heat from his fanbase. The only silver lining for him was that the other super guilds from the same defeat. His defeat could at least be excused by him using up his Legacy in the fight with Qin, but Zhang s.h.i.+, White Ghost, and Wan Yi should have succeeded. They had the perfect chance to defeat Skeletal when they caught him alone but they had still failed.
When the tactician had been pestered by numerous news outlets about how this came to be and why they lost, he provided one simple statement, "I underestimated him, I won"t do that a second time."
Zhang s.h.i.+, on the other hand, gave a lot of excuses, the most vocal one being how his legacy hadn"t worked due to a certain Vampire.
Wan Yi had nothing to say to defend himself. White Ghost had told him to show the players how he had used his Barbarian Legacy to help the players trapped in Nora to head to the East, and without a legacy to use against Skeletal, it was no wonder he lost.
The Undead Legion had revealed a great amount of strength, enough to threaten any of the world"s corners. If the Undead Expansion went live, the players had already gotten a preview of what was to come so they needed to band together if they wanted to fight against such dangers. And there it came back again, the promise of the so-called Ash King. Offering players enormous powers if they joined his cause to fight against the Undead King.
The world had come to learn of the faction that planned to fight against the Undead King, and the burnt players had begun the search for the Demon Temples so they could secure the aid from such a mysterious ent.i.ty.
Everyone felt that the game of Conquest was about to enter its next phase. Supremacy over the world would be decided by the steps each super guild was about to take…
[This marks the end of The Eastern Kingdom Arc, next Arc will be filled with quite the action, stay tuned boyz]