Reward: Solitoid Terror perk (you deal 10% more damage to solitoids).
Awoken clan level increased: +2! Current level: 6.
Rewards:
—
Gold Flow
(when any member of the clan picks up money from a corpse, an extra one percent of it is created and goes to the clan treasury).
—
Experience Stream
(increases experience gained for killing monsters and completing quests by 10%).
The chat exploded with screams of excitement while I waited for my legs and arms to regrow. Aid of the Sleepers helped with my regeneration, but my limbs still didn’t grow back instantly. I even had time to get bored. By the time a barakata approached me, I was glad of the company. Shame it killed itself quick, trying to gnaw on my blackened bones.
The cockroach helped me finish off Path of Equanimity, and Resilience hit rank four! I didn’t hesitate to choose my next path:
Path of Sacrifice
At the start of each battle, you absorb the total health of all your group members, plus a bonus 1% of that total, in order to take all the damage dealt to any ally throughout the battle. However, if you die, the entire group dies.
The one-percent bonus would be multiplied by a hundred when I finished the rank-four path. The important thing was that now I didn’t have to worry about my friends as long as I was still alive. In addition, synchronizing Sleeping Invulnerability and Path of Sacrifice could be promising. I didn’t know how the mechanic would behave.
When I returned to the group, Yemi came out to meet me, congratulated me on my victory over the boss.
“Initial, none have any doubt that the egg belongs to you. It is only fair.”
I looked across them all, smiled, pulled out the loot.
“A temple to the Sleeping Gods will one day be built here. It’s going to need a defender, and I suggest we hatch this pet right here. But I won’t be the one to do it…” I offered the trophy to Infect. “Take it, Malik. You’ll be the first player with a pet from Terrastera!”
The others shouted encouragement and the bard took the pet shyly.
“We’ll just take out a barakata and it’ll hatch,” I said, activating Sleeping Vindication to aggro some mobs.
Yemi, Babangida, Francesca, Crawler, Infect and Bomber passed level four hundred and sixty. Gyula was approaching four hundred. Irita, fresh from the sandbox, and Patrick, were both above three hundred. The top seven players of Disgardium were now on Terrastera. It was a shame I didn’t quite reach six hundred, but there was still time left before Mogwai revived. I might make it.
But I didn’t. We put down a small pack of cockroaches and hatches the dalezma—which started a little smaller than a kitten—and stopped farming. Nega contacted me through the comm amulet.
“We got trouble, boss. Crash is dead.”
“On my way!”
Friends and allies surrounded me, listening tensely to the conversation. Yemi showed Kusalarix’s coin.
“I’ve declared a clan-wide assembly. Yoruba and the ores of the Broken Axe will be assembled within half an hour.
“Bomber and I will drop these guys off at their castle and then head straight to Kharinza,” Crawler said. “Can you give us a portal coin? I’ll pick up the troggs and cultists.”
“I can’t just stand aside and watch!” Patrick declared. “I’m going with you to the desert, boy.”
“Me too! Tomorrow is a day off, I can play all night!” Irita exclaimed, skipping.
I shook my head. “You can’t be seen with me. We’re relying on you for our trade operations, and that means…”
“I’ll use a Transformation Potion!” the girl insisted stubbornly. “May the Sleepers never wake!”
“And may their sleep be eternal,” the others chanted back, with Gyula adding:
“I’ll fight too!”
“Those who aren’t undead may not survive,” I said doubtfully. “Infect, take Patrick and Irita to Kharinza. Gyula, with me. I’ll check what’s going on and report back. That’s all. See you at the temple!”
* * *
Tiamat kept her promise—the whole area for half a mile around transformed into a flourishing oasis. The desert turned green. Grass broke through the suddenly fertile soil, and streams ran in all directions. Clouds darkened the sky above the temple and a rainbow shimmered in the drizzling rain.
I wrote to the clan chat that anyone living could go there, and drove the gold baton-beacon for Great Portals into the earth. A few long minutes later, a portal opened and the workers from Kharinza who turned undead began to emerge. Manny was one of the first. He walked over, greeted me.
Tens of thousands of players surrounded the temple beyond the edge of the oasis. Raid buffs flashed constantly, but the brightest, most blinding and most constant light shone from a faraway dune opposite the temple entrance. Columns of light beat down from the sky on that point—I’d seen something like it from the High Priest of Nergal when Harnathea attacked. Tiamat stood next to me, placed a hand on my head and frowned.
Soon all our people were gathered, including the guardians, Crawler and Bomber. According to the mage, Yemi had decided to open a portal in Broken Axe territory, and now the whole clan was flying there. Under the command of Movarak and Dekotra, the troggs and cultists advanced to their positions from the portal.
Irita stuck by me, disguised as the elf girl Iriel. Patrick spoke to Flaygray about something.
“Shining Tiamat!” I said. “We are ready to live again.”
“May it be so,” she answered.
The Sleeper disappeared, and an instant later came the roar of a huge red dragon from the sky. The invisible strings connecting us to the Destroying Plague stretched, then broke—everyone’s legs went out from under them, but something kept us from falling. Our health bars rushed down to zero, stopped, hovered a moment, then returned to full health.
My nameplate blinked, and ’undead’ changed to ‘human.’ I stared at my hands, unable to tear my eyes away as the rotting flesh was replaced with healthy pink skin. We were alive again.
