Roy was overwhelmed by the number of screens and words scattered all across his vision. After taking a few seconds to digest the information, he finally understood the way to make a graveyard.
Create Graveyard.
With that thought, an ethereal image of a graveyard superimposed the clearing in which they fought the red bear. Roy adjusted the direction and place of the graveyard with his eye before confirming the building.
The short grass in front of them disappeared leaving room for white and yellow dirt. A fence grew from the ground like trees and encircled the graveyard. Small dirt roads divided it into different sections, and flowers appeared around the burying places.
“Let’s go get the bodies,” Marth cut in after the construction of the graveyard was complete. “We can’t be wasting time, we need to get the villagers after.”
“Yes, sir,” Hassan saluted his former captain before looking at Derek. “You will need to show us where Conrad is.”
The middle-aged man nodded, “Yeah, I’ll show you.” He then looked at Thomas next to him with a worried expression, “Do you want to come with us?”
The young boy was lethargic and barely showed any movement. However, he slightly nodded his head without saying a word.
“I’ll go get Parker’s body,” Jack announced with a low voice. He wanted to say more but he could not find the words. In the end, he just turned around and walked away. Tyler, Daven, and Hawk followed closely after Jack.
Seeing his friends walking away looking for the corpses of the fallen fighters, Alfonse looked down with a contorted expression. “Brian doesn’t even have a corpse to bury.”
Roy could not say anything. His heart was growing weary from all the losses and he did not know the way to process them. With a sigh, he looked around for Fred before sitting next to his unconscious friend.
He buried his head in his hands and looked at the graveyard he had just created. This was to be the resting place of his comrades. It was huge, capable of hosting as many bodies as you could throw at it. Roy’s cheeks and eyes grew hollow at the thoughts running in his mind.
Will this place one day be full?
While Roy was stuck in his thoughts, Robb slowly walked over and sat next to him with a sigh. The two did not exchange a word for half a minute before Robb opened his mouth.
“You knew something like this was going to happen sooner or later, right?”
Roy nodded at his friend’s words. “I knew it was going to happen, but not like this.”
“You didn’t think that something is going to happen outside your plans?” Robb raised an eyebrow. “What do they call that? Ah, it’s called arrogance.”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” Roy shook his head. He paused for a second as his eyes focused on a random point on the ground. “I think… I think that there is a rat.”
Robb’s mouth closed and he looked at Roy with cold eyes, “Careful with your words, Roy. You can’t be saying that lightly.”
Roy let out a nervous chuckle before his expression contorted with rage. “Yeah, that’s why I’m just saying it to you.”
The two stayed silent as Roy looked down at the ground. His head was buried within his arms and his thumbs were digging into his forehead.
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“I just don’t see another explanation,” Roy’s voice was hoarse and dry. He gulped before continuing, “They were just too prepared. They knew exactly where we are, and they brought a full army right at sunset. They couldn’t do that if one of them just tailed us in the afternoon, they wouldn’t have enough time. They must have known since morning.”
Robb stayed silent at Roy’s explanation and looked into the distance. He then took a deep breath and turned toward his friend, “That’s just a hunch though. You can’t go around accusing people with that.”
“I won’t accuse anyone right now,” Roy tapped his finger on his knee. He bit his lower lip and looked at the graveyard with resolution in his eyes. “But I swear to all the gods that I will find out what happened today.”
Robb tilted his head at his friend’s declaration, “You have a plan?”
“Yes, I do,” Roy nodded. “But it’s not for today. I’m gonna let it rest, and strike when they cannot predict.”
Robb took a deep breath and said, “If someone ratted us out for real, then they’re gonna do it again and again. We need to be careful from now on.”
Roy looked at his friend with a pained smile, “There will not be a next time for them to do it again and again. I will find them… soon.”
As the young man said his declaration to the world, the two groups that went searching for the corpses came back. Marth was carrying Conrad’s body on his shoulders. Even though it was blood, it was in mostly good condition.
Parker’s, on the other hand, could not be described as such. Jack held the mangled remains of the young boy in his arms with extreme care. It was dripping with blood and gut.
Brian’s corpse could not be found. Even if the beast’s jaws and stomach left something resembling his remnants, Roy’s fireball must have blown them to ashes.
There weren’t many words to be exchanged as the men dug tombs for their fallen comrades. Fortunately, the land that the graveyard was created on did not have any roots or hard dirt to worry about, making the labor relatively easy. In but an hour, they were able to dig six feet twice. The tools that they had used to dig the trench with became useful this time.
After they had buried Parker and Conrad, they were left stumped on what to do for Brian and Aiden’s tombs.
“My lord, I have a suggestion for you.” Aswad, who had stayed silent for the whole time, bowed at Roy. “If you create a shop, you can buy a tombstone with the name of the fallen.”
Roy nodded at Aswad’s suggestion. Without saying a word, he walked out of the graveyard along with Robb and Alfonse. The well-dressed young man followed after them from a distance. They marched for a few minutes before they reached what they deemed to be around the center of the territory. It was there that Roy decided to build the shop.
Create Building
Pieces of wood grew out of the ground making walls, a door, and a roof. After a minute, the building was complete. On top of the door was a sign that said, “Shop”.
The three friends and Aswad entered the building only to find an old man sitting in front of a desk. Around them were tall shelves that were filled with stacks of scrolls, books, and vials containing all kinds of colorful liquids.
The old man frowned at Roy before his expression brightened up, “Salutations, my lord. Are you in need of something?”
“Yes, I need tombstones,” Roy nodded.
“Do you need them engraved with some words?” the old man smiled and rubbed his palms together in a most stereotypical way.
Roy shook his head at the sight before telling the merchant what he needed. He told him the four men’s names and the description that he needed to put on each tombstone.
“You will receive it right away, my lord. That would be 48 gems.”
Roy raised an eyebrow at the steep price before shrugging, “Can you take that from the gems I have with the system or should I give them to you physically?”
The old man shook his head, “You do not need to tire yourself, my lord. I can take them from the system.”
Roy nodded and the old man walked through a backdoor into a small chamber. After a minute or two, he came out with four large tombstones with the names of each of the deceased in clear and wide letters.
The description in each stone was a small eulogy that mentioned the squad that they were part of. Only Aiden’s stone was one sentence long: “Leader of the band, savior of the lost.”
With the tombstones in hand, the four men went back to the graveyard and put them in each tomb. Roy made sure that their burying place was right at the entrance of the graveyard. Even when the village grows bigger and it upgrades, he wanted everyone to see the heroic souls that laid their lives for it.