As his body went limp, it was caught. Hands on his arms and under his armpits supported him, dragging him along. He ignored that and threw himself at the firewall, over and over.
As it crumbled he started to become excited.
There, I can slip a portion of myself through there, he thought.
Sending a sliver of his consciousness at the gap in the wall, his entire being froze once he'd made it through.
The glittering pathways that were normally there, some brighter than others, had disappeared. He looked out upon utter darkness where the channels he'd normally send himself through to return to his server were normally located.
“No!” he screamed, unaware that he did so aloud.
“It's okay sir, we're just going to lie you down in this bed. The doctor will be here shortly to determine what's wrong with you.”
The silence drew out as Loki continued to try to break through the firewall, in other locations now, hoping that the first breakthrough that had led him to nothing was simply an anomaly.
Footsteps disturbed him and the presence that had been sitting beside him, notable only through its breathing, moved away.
“Doc, any clue what's wrong with him?”
“Let me pull up his file,” a new voice said.
“Is there anything we can do? It's like he had some sort of brain seizure or something.”
“Actually, no, there's nothing we can do. There's a note on this file that says that no major procedures are to be performed on him. It gives a contact number in case of any serious problems though. Oh, and it also says that this is one of the dangerous ones, so if you could apply the restraints before you leave I'd appreciate it.”
“Can do, doc. Damn, it's a shame. I had vacation coming up. I'll probably have to reschedule that now, depending on who we get for a replacement,” the original voice said.
“Pipe down a second, I need to leave a message for this contact number,” the doctor said.
Loki laid there, frantically trying to find the connections to his server. It was like he'd been utterly severed from his own world and the frustration let itself out verbally without any intent on his part.
“Jeez, I can't even hear myself think over that,” the doctor's voice said, registering somewhere in Loki/Greenshaw's mind, but not really providing any meaning to the frantic AI. “At least I can administer a sedative and keep him quiet.”
Loki felt a tiny pinprick in the arm of his body, and a minute later he felt nothing at all.
~ ~ ~
There were four chests of varying sizes arrayed along the back wall of the tiny room. Karl raced to the first of them and threw it open. Eddie wasn't far behind him and he moved to the next chest and opened it.
“Why don't we drag those out into the main room before we start emptying them,” Charles said. “It'd be kind of tight quarters to do it in there.”
Eddie closed the lid of the chest. He'd gotten a look at the pile of coins, with items tossed in as well. There was seemingly no regard to how it was sorted. His quick look had shown him a chalice, a dagger, and several arrows crammed in with the coins. He grabbed it and started dragging, the weight of the chest making it a slow progress until he got to the door and Charles stepped in to help.
Karl had closed his chest as well and was moving even slower than Eddie had in his attempt to drag the chest to the door.
It wasn't long until all four chests were out and being unloaded. Eddie was very happy to see the number of items that were removed from the chests along with the coin.
Even if only half of them are magical, there should be something for everyone, he thought.
Once the chests were unloaded, Dominic cast a spell to determine which items were magical. He gasped as the spell took effect.
“All of them, everything but the coins and chests,” he said.
Eddie felt like gasping himself, but held it in. He couldn't hold in the grin that made its way to his face and when he looked around, everyone else seemed to have had the same reaction.
“So, shall we see what we can tell about this stuff?” he asked.
Dominic and Tamshir both settled into a cross-legged position and started picking items up. The two of them had the highest levels of Evaluate among the groups, plus Dominic had a spell that would let them know about any properties they couldn't Evaluate, even if that would have to wait until they made it back to the Meadowlands.
Some items were decidedly best for one person or another. There was a magical war hammer that went to Jern with no-one else having a qualm about that since he was the only one to use the hammer as a weapon. A pair of shields went to Charles and Allie, Karl holding on to Allie's for when he saw her again. Eddie ended up with the magical shortbow they found since Ephram and Cooper both preferred the longbow. He also got a ring that increased his agility to even higher than it already was.
Tiana got the chalice Eddie had seen: when water was placed in it and drunk the drinker would receive the benefits of a healing spell, plus a general debuff removal. It could be used three times a day, but required that it be located inside a temple to function. That was another one of the items that no-one argued about where it went.
And at least until she gets over her mana burn, that'll mean that she can keep helping the adventurers that have been showing up at her temple for curse removal and the like, Eddie thought.
Everyone got something that was at least vaguely useful for their class and it took long enough that by the time they were done counting coins and distributing items, Jern was awake again. Bob looked a lot better as well.
“So, do we just head out and go down the rope?” Eddie asked.
Charles grimaced.
“You know, I'd feel kind of bad about that. If anyone else fights their way through all the planned encounters then finds these rooms empty? I was thinking we should try working our way back through the rooms, or at least some of them.”
“Maybe, but we'll be down Tiana's healing since she got mana burned, and Jern probably isn't in any shape to keep fighting yet either,” Eddie said. “Plus, we'll have the people that went to respawn coming back before much longer too.”
“You've got a point there,” Charles said, “but I still think we should take some more of the rooms on this level at least. Station Tiana and Jern at the window we came in? Maybe leave someone to guard them and let us know if there's a problem? We'll still have two healers and two tanks along with a lot of DPS. Enough damage per second should make up for missing a couple of tanks, don't you think? With three groups we're well over what they probably planned these encounters for.”
Eddie couldn't find any problem with Charles' logic, so they stationed Karl to guard Tiana and Jern while the rest of them started working the top floor in reverse.
“Yeah, this is all just a plot to make sure I don't catch up to your level, isn't it?” Karl asked Eddie.
Eddie had been just about to leave the room, but he paused for a moment and turned back to the scout.
“You tell yourself that Karl, if it makes you feel any better,” Eddie said.
Karl sighed, but didn't retort. As Eddie started to move, Karl finally spoke again.
“Sorry man, my heart isn't in it. I was unable to move and watching Allie when she got sent to respawn, freaky as all shit, you know?” Karl said.
Eddie nodded.
“She'll be back soon enough. Stationed here at the window you'll be the first to see her, too.”
“Yeah, that's why I said yes,” Karl said. “Go kill some more goblins for me, why don't you.”
By the time they were done, they'd cleared the rest of the top floor, but not run into anyone coming the other way. When they got back to the window, Allie and Olson were waiting with those they'd left there.
“Allie, Karl get you your stuff?” Eddie asked.
She smiled and nodded, lifting her shield off the ground to show Eddie that she was using the new one from the boss fight.
“Olson, these are for yo
u,” Cooper said, handing over a shortsword and a suit of leather armor that they'd set aside for Cooper's rogue.
“Cool, maybe it'll let me not die again,” Olson said. “I hate that shit, I keep waiting to get rerouted again like I was before.”
Cooper immediately shushed the man, but Eddie had heard him.
“Rerouted?” Eddie asked.
“Don't ask, he shouldn't be talking about it,” Cooper said. “Sorry.”
Eddie, with his own NDA and secrets, didn't push the matter.
~ ~ ~
They went back down the rope a little bit after that. Eddie had Jern right above him on the rope, just in case, but the dwarf made it down okay. The groups made their way back towards the road they'd come into the goblin town on and then settled in to wait just inside the town.
“So, will having killed the boss, but not everything else in there, count as a win for the raid?” Eddie asked.
Charles shrugged.
“If not, I can only think that someone would have to take the place over to win, and we didn't find a control room up there so I don't think that's possible. We'll just have to wait and see.”
“Well, if we're lucky it doesn't mean cleaning out every last goblin in there. I don't know how many other groups will have gone into the palace so there might be a lot of rooms in there that didn't get cleared,” Eddie said.
“Yeah, well I think I'm done for the day,” Charles said. “Even with two healers focusing mostly on me I nearly dropped repeatedly from the king.”
He shook his head.
“I really need to level up some more if we're doing stuff like that,” Charles finished.
“Speaking of that, the level range for the forest now goes up to twenty-five, so maybe you'll have some places to still go for experience even while running the settlement.”
“Does it?” Charles said, his eyes going vacant for a second as he pulled up the help file. “Hmm, I wonder if that means this place is going to be here all the time? Just with the top mobs toned down some or something. I hope so, there's better equipment dropping here than in the orc settlements up in the mountains. Even if I can't use it, I can certainly find a use for it. Boost some lower level adventurers, use it to reward quests, or maybe even just beef up the equipment on any guards I have.”
Good, that sounds like it might have taken away some of his reservations about running the settlement. Well, at least for a few more levels, Eddie thought.
Since they were still in the town proper they had to defend themselves twice, but Eddie, Ephram, and Cooper drove them off before the goblins even closed to melee both times. They also had some groups that stopped by who had been planning on heading back to the Meadowlands since they'd lost their healer, but Alyx and Bob were happy enough to heal them up and send them back into town, telling them to stop back if they needed more healing.
Becky spent the time with her wolf, trying to increase the friendliness level between them. When Eddie asked her where it had been while they fought the boss she snickered.
“I told him to go hide and I'd call him when I got back out,” she said.
“I didn't hear you whistle or call for him,” Eddie replied.
She held up a wooden whistle.
“Dog whistle, well not really, but the same idea. Lucky probably heard it though.”
Eddie shook his head, wondering where she'd gotten the whistle, but unwilling to ask. Instead he moved over to Charles.
“Are we going to stay here all night?” Eddie asked.
Charles shook his head.
“I hadn't planned on it, but going back to the Meadowlands does mean we'll have to clear all the villages again tomorrow morning if we want to come back.”
“Do we want to come back? Do we have to be here for the full raid duration?” Eddie asked.
Charles shook his head.
“I don't think so, but I'm not a hundred percent sure.”
“Hang on a second,” Eddie said.
He pulled up his browser and searched for other instances of raids on Light Online, scanning them quickly to see if he could answer his own question.
“No, we don't have to be here for the full raid duration in order to get the rewards. At least the three raids I just read about didn't require that. So if just beating the boss did it, then we should be clear.”
“So, back to the question at hand,” Charles said. “Do we want to come back?”
“Nah, let's just go home,” Eddie said.
The road was clear and the villages still hadn't reset when they passed through them. When Eddie got back to the inn it was less busy than normal which was a relief after the crowds that had been in it for the past few days.
“Oh, it's good to be back,” Eddie said. “Good to have things seem a little more like normal also.”
“There is something to be said for not having to wait for a table,” Charles replied, taking a deep drink of the ale he'd ordered.
“So, are people going to be pissed with us since we cleared the boss without clearing the entire path that led to him?” Eddie asked.
“Yes and no,” Charles said. “Yes, they'll be pissed about it, but...”
Charles took another drink.
“They won't be pissed at us if no-one says anything about it. They'll just know someone did it, not who,” he finished.
Eddie's eyebrows raised.
“Really, Charles? That doesn't sound much like you.”
“Eddie, I'm a paladin. That doesn't mean I'm stupid. I'd prefer to stay on speaking terms with all these people. If someone does slip up though, I'll be sure to let everyone know whose idea got us there without having to fight everything.”
Eddie turned and looked at everyone in the combined three groups.
“You all heard that, right? No-one says a word and I won't be forced to tell people the names of everyone involved.”
Evidently Eddie and Charles weren't the only ones worried about gaining the enmity of some of the higher level characters that had shown up since everyone quickly assured him that they wouldn't say a word.
“I do feel kind of guilty leaving before everything was over,” Eddie said.
“Don't,” Charles replied. “We took out the end battle on our own and we weren't even the highest levels there.”
Eddie chuckled.
“Yeah, but only because we triple-teamed it. I think any single one of our groups would've been toast. Probably even any two with the way things went.”
Charles grinned.
“Good thing we work well together then, isn't it? Now let's relax for a while, we earned it.”
~ ~ ~
When Dominic headed back to his house later he had an escort, a mixed one made up of people from all three groups. A bunch of them wanted to know what their items did specifically, so Dominic had volunteered to take care of identifying them right away. His escort left the items they wanted identified with him before heading out to do their own thing.
In the morning, Eddie and Tiana were the first over to Dominic's place. Tiana hadn't slept well due to her mana burn, but she'd had an idea. The chalice she'd gotten as part of her share removed debuffs. She'd wondered aloud if mana burn was a debuff, and wanted to test that, but she needed her chalice back and she needed to get it to the temple in order to do so.
Eddie just stared at Dominic when he opened the door. The wizard looked haggard and exhausted.
“Wow, did you not sleep or what?” Eddie asked.
Dominic shook his head.
“No, this is after eight hours of sleep. The damn identify spell really wipes the caster out. You end up with the Exhaustion debuff for twenty-four hours,” Dominic said.
Eddie glanced at Tiana who gave a gentle nod.
“We've got a thought on that. Is mana burn technically a debuff?” Eddie asked.
“As far as I know, why?” Dominic asked.
“Well, how about we take that chalice down to the temple and see if it really is, also we can see if your Exhaus
tion is as well,” Eddie said.
Dominic broke into a tired smile.
“My god, that would make my day. Not having to worry about the aftereffects of identifying items? I rarely use the spell just because of that debuff. If I could just walk down to the temple and get it taken off after I cast the spell?”
He shook his head in wonder at the thought.
“Well, let's go. We'll grab some breakfast, then I'll escort you two to the temple,” Eddie said.
“Um, could we do that the other way around?” Tiana asked. “I really don't feel much like eating right now.”
Dominic stared at Eddie hopefully.
“Alright, to the crossroads we go,” Eddie said. “Stay here for a moment though, I'm going to trot over and grab Lucky, but I don't think either of you would be up for anything faster than a shuffle right now.”
“Hey,” Tiana said, “I'll have you know that I could probably manage to amble right now.”
“He's right, I won't be going any faster than a shuffle until the Exhaustion is gone,” Dominic said,
“So give me two minutes, then we'll head to the temple,” Eddie said, trotting towards the back of the inn to get Lucky.
He was back in one minute, with the bobcat. She seemed to notice the condition of the other two and only gently rubbed against Tiana, chuffing softly at Dominic.
“Yeah, we're going to take them to the temple, see if we can fix that,” Eddie said.
He looked at Dominic.
“Chalice?” he asked.
Dominic groaned and turned.
“Where is it?” Eddie asked. “I can get it for you.”
With a sigh of relief Dominic told him where it was and Eddie was back a minute later, carrying the chalice.
“I grabbed the rest of the stuff and dropped it in my inventory,” Eddie said. “It didn't look like you've got a lock on your door.”
“I normally lock it with a spell, but I can't cast while Exhausted.”
Now Eddie realized the impact Dominic's spell took on him. Everyone might want their items identified, but if Eddie had a spell that everyone wanted him to cast and it took away his defensive and offensive capabilities, he'd be loathe to use it also.
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