It had been half a day since Arthe had defeated the demon, during that time the freed slaves had been preparing a feast using the stores left in the tower. They had decided that in order to celebrate their freedom, and show their gratitude to the two heroes who rescued them, that they would have a party that night and then in the morning those who wished to make the journey back to where they came from would do so.

Arthe and Frith spent the majority of the evening sat at a table being plied with copious amounts of food, Frith of course wolfed it down as fast as she could whereas Arthe ate until his satiety bar was full then just relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere. When it got later both of them were made to dance with many of the slaves, in fact they danced so much that their stamina ran out and they had to sit down and recuperate. Whilst they were Arthe decided to have another look at the loot he had received for killing the demon, he had gained quite a lot from the battle as well. His holy mastery skill had gone up to Intermediate 9 and his other holy skills had either leveled or were about to as well, not only that his sword mastery had hit Advanced 1 after both the fight in the mines and the demon battle. His use of the Numenorian Sword skills in the mine battles had helped them level as well. Although the Kuaknomi had dropped pretty rubbish loot in general that was more than made up for with the Runite ore and the items that the demon had dropped.

Demon Horn:

This item can be used by alchemists to brew potions that greatly enhance vitality and fire resistance permanently, when attached to mage staffs or used to channel spells it boosts the damage of all fire type magic by 30%

Demon Hide:

A High tier crafting ingredient used by tailors, although extremely high skill levels are required to work with this material the results are more than worth it. Clothing made from this material will boast high defense and incredible fire resistance, if used in blacksmithing the hide will vastly increase resistance to ranged attacks.

Demons Blood:

Although not recommended this blood is drinkable, if drank it will provide permanent boosts to vitality, stamina and strength. However infamy will be increased by 500 and the drinker will gain some unusual darkness related effects.

Heart of the Lesser Demon:

The heart of a fiend from hell can be used in blacksmithing to apply various effects to armor. To use this material the blacksmith must have at least Intermediate 5 skill and be able to smelt ores of the highest tier with little impurities. Due to the hearts high heat resistance a Dwarven Forge is necessary to smelt this item.

Bones of the Minor Fiend:

These bones are so hard that they can shatter iron, when made into weaponry the resulting item will have special bonuses to fire damage or shadow damage. If turned into a bow all arrows fired from it will deal fire damage or cause an application of Leech life.

Boots of Samael's Servitor:

Durability: 150/150

Defense: 50

These boots were forged from some unknown material in the depths of hell; distributed to all those who serve Samuel the Vengeful, Overlord of the Pit.

Equip:

+33% Fire Resistance

+33% Dark Resistance

+20 STR

+20 VIT

+20 STAM

Requirements:

Level 200

Cannot be worn by those with a Good Alignment

STR+100

AGI+80

Although most of the items were useless to Arthe they could be sold for exorbitant sums due to the many bonuses and effects they provided. Frith had already laid claim to the boots despite only being level 171, she said she wanted to have some gear ready to change into straight away as soon as she hit level 200. Arthe could see the sense in that and so gave her the boots, but he did claim a promise from her that she would let him be the one to own the tower and the mine. This made her crumble a bit but Arthe swore to let her have a third of the profits from the mine and he also reminded her that it wasn't like she was poor, she was a princess after all so its not like she was needed another home or a new source of income.

After she had agreed the two of them went to find the slave that had given them the quest so that they could hand it in, they hadn't had the chance to earlier as the other ex-slaves had carried them off to celebrate. The man was sat at the edge of the group of the partying crowd staring off into space, he looked slightly sad and it was obvious that he was thinking about something.

"Excuse us sir, is something bothering you?" Arthe asked him quietly.

"Hmm? Oh no it's nothing, I was just thinking that my wife would have loved this. She always did enjoy a party." the man replied after breaking from his reverie.

Frith and Arthe had heard from one of the other slaves that the mans wife had been among the first to be killed when the slaves fought back as they were being kidnapped.

"I'm sorry for your loss, I wish we had gotten here sooner so that we could have done something to help."

"No, no it's not your fault. There are some things that cannot be changed, and anyway you have done something incredible today. You have given hope back to all these people and rid the world of what could have been a great evil, you more than deserve the reward for this action."

"Ding"

Quest Completed!

The Slaves Request:

You have freed all the slaves and slain all the villains, it was a hard battle but victory was yours in the end. You are now the Proud owner of your very own Mountain top Tower as well as a very profitable Runite mine.

Level Up!

Level Up!

New Title awarded: The Demon-Slayer!

You are now the owner of the Nameless Tower.

Do you wish to name the Tower? Yes/no?

"Yes."

State new name now

"The Guardians Retreat."

"Ding"

Tower renamed to 'The Guardians Retreat'. Do you wish to see Property Status now?

"Yes."

Property Name: The Guardians Retreat

Inhabitants: 1

Armaments: 100- mix of spears, swords and staffs

Facilities: 1 Forge, 1 Kitchen, 1 Armory, 1 Storeroom, 1 Library and 1 Barracks

Attached Land: 1 Runite Mine and 1 Small Mountain

Available Building Space: 3 plots

Monthly Income: 0 gold

Monthly Expenditures: 10 Gold

Security: 0

Arthe had a good look at his new property and was astonished at the amount of land he had to expand his property, initially he had thought that he could use the tower as a place to store items and work on his crafting skills. Now that he had seen his available space he had a vision of him building a small fort much like the border fort he had been to earlier, it would have a small stables, an outer wall and a training center so he could try out his new skills. With the mine enclosed within the wall, and presuming he could hire some full time staff, he wouldn't have to worry about thieves. As he was thinking this he had another brainwave; he could let the Order of Freya use the tower as a base for traveling paladins, that would mean that he could have free guards and the only staff he would have to pay up keep for would be the miners. Even better he may even receive some rent from the Order of Freya, on top of this if he could somehow get a message to the other Guardians of Freya then they could use the tower as a meeting place to trade information and skills.

By this point Arthe may have been getting carried away with his delusions, as it was the tower was still a dilapidated mess in need of some serious work. Arthe returned to the festivities and began to think of a speech to persuade some of the ex-slaves to stay and work for him. The next morning he went around all of the ex-slaves and asked them to delay heading back home so he could speak to them, when they had all gathered he began to talk.

"Before we begin I want all of you to know that you are free to come and go as you please, there is no obligation on any of you to do what I'm about to ask you so don't feel pressured into doing it if you do not want to. My request is this, I wish to know if there are any among you willing to stay here and work for me to continue building this tower and working this mine. I swear to pay you a fair wage for your work and you are of course not going to be worked to the bone if you do decide to stay. My vision for the finished tower is to have it as a way-station for the Paladins of Freya, a place they can use to rest when they are journeying or somewhere for them to have meetings and trade information. To achieve this vision I need workers to help finish the construction and to continue with the mining, for all those willing to work the mines I will not only pay them a wage but I will give the group as a whole 10% of the mines profits every month. Now I estimate that the mine needs at least 20 miners to operate at peak efficiency, so that means that each miner will receive 0.5% of the monthly profits. Judging by the quality of the ore a single piece should sell for around 2-400 gold if not more, I propose to pay each miner 5 silver per day with 2 extra silver if they work on weekends. I also need at least 15 people to continue the construction of the tower and to expand the property by building an exterior wall as well as for general maintenance. Each of them will be paid the same as the miners. Are there any amongst you willing to take me up on my offer, I will pay every person one days wages in advance."

There was a quiet murmuring among the crowd as they discussed it between themselves, this continued for quite a while before a consensus was reached. Eventually 3 people stepped forward as spokespersons, the man and woman who had guided Arthe and Frith around the tower and the man who had given them the quest in the first place. They each looked at each other before the quest giver spoke.

"Your offer is extremely generous and we have discussed it thoroughly. Some of us, mainly those with children, wish to return home but there are roughly 30 people who are willing to stay. If possible we would like the entire group to escort the ones who wish to leave home and then the ones who wish to work here will return. Is this acceptable to you?"

"Of course I would not expect any of you to abandon those in need of your aid. In fact I insist that you take enough weapons and provisions from the tower so that your journey goes smoothly." Arthe responded, inwardly elated that his speech had worked.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You are more than generous my lord, we shall leave immediately and those of us returning shall be back within the week." After saying this the group of people began to disperse and gather whatever belongings and provisions they would need.

Arthe turned to Frith and asked her to accompany them so that they managed to get home okay.

"What are you going to do whilst I'm gone?"

"I'm going to find some way of getting a message to Vanaheim fortress so that they can send someone out here to guard this place, also I'm going to start clearing the tower of all that demon scent and evil paraphernalia. So rest easy I'm not going to run off without you don't worry."

Frith looked at him for a while then nodded and went to gather her belongings ready for her trip. When she and the others had left Arthe went into the tower and began to purify everything that the monsters and the demon had touched, it took him all day but eventually he had cleansed everything and it was time for him to begin his next task.

Over the next couple of days Arthe burnt everything that he hadn't been able to cleanse and even melted down most of the crude weaponry used by the Kuaknomi, he gathered all the materials into one area near the forge and put all of the remaining provisions away in the storeroom properly. He then started to clean the tower from top to bottom, the grime was stubborn at first but he discovered that his purify nature skill let him turn most of the filth into either dust or dirt. After the inside of the tower was completely clean Arthe then got ready to tackle his biggest job, cleansing the outside. He had to cast purify nature 3 times as well as cast holy light and purify twice each before the stones became clean, but when he was done the stones themselves glowed dimly with white light. After he was done with this Arthe tried to think of a way to get a message to Marshal Sif, he eventually decided that the quickest way was to pm Steve and have him ask Mathis to send the message along to Knight-captain Heimdall. So that was what he did, a day later he got a response from Steve telling him that the Knight-captain was coming himself and that he would be there in 3 days. Arthe couldn't believe his ears, how was Heimdall going to make a journey that had taken him almost 10 weeks! It was then that he remembered that the church of Freya had teleport facilities in most if not all of their churches, there must be a teleport destination fairly close to Arthe if Heimdall could get here in 3 days.

A day before Frith was due to return Arthe began to cleanse the scars and the mess that was scattered all over the mountain, he started with the discarded materials. First he stacked all the wood and metal in separate piles in front of the tower and cast purify nature on them to restore them to good condition, then he turned each of the craters into guard posts by using some of the cleansed materials to build palisades. It took him almost 18 hours to finish but when he had each crater had been changed into flat alcoves set into the mountain, and they all had small palisades and makeshift roofs.

The next morning Arthe decided to start work on organizing a place for the workers to sleep, he went into the mines and in one of the caverns near the entrance he began to clear the floors and lay down some wooden planking. On top of this he placed the pallets and bedding he had retrieved from the tower and had even brought some of the furniture down as well, his final act was to dig out a fire pit near the entrance. He realized that before he could light the fire he needed some way to extract the smoke so he began tinkering with some pieces of metal at the forge, after about 2 hours he had created a large funnel shaped chimney that attached to numerous lengths of hollow pipe. As he was fixing the pipes to the roof he heard a commotion outside and thinking it was Frith returning he went outside.

As he emerged from the mine he saw a small group of 4 individuals gaping in surprise at the tower, there was a man with a two handed sword as well as a mage, a priest and a female archer.

He called over to them which made them all jump and take up combat positions.

"Excuse me, may I inquire as to who you are and what you are doing on my land?"

After seeing a normal unarmed human talking to them the group relaxed and they all looked at the sword user for guidance.

"Umm, we are a group of adventurers who came here to slay the evil wizard and free the slaves. Forgive me but who are you and what are you doing here?" The sword user asked.

"Ah, you don't have to worry about that quest. I'm afraid you're too late, I killed the demon in human form and freed the slaves a week ago. As such this tower and its surrounding areas are now mine and I'm going to have to ask you to either leave or remove your weapons before you enter. And as to who I am, I am a member of the Paladin order and my name is Arthe."

After saying that Arthe headed over to the tower entrance and grabbed his sword from by the door, he never left it too far away from him if he could help it. When he turned around he saw that the group were quietly arguing amongst themselves, it appeared as though the sword guy and the mage wanted to force Arthe to leave and the priest and the archer were refusing. Eventually the mage and the sword user made a gesture Arthe recognized as leaving a party and headed over to Arthe with looks of menace on their faces.

"Me and my friend here have decided that we don't want to leave, we think you should leave and we also think you should drop all of your equipment before you do or else."

Arthe sighed inwardly, bloody users and their stupidity.

"Or else what? You'll make me leave? if you think you can feel free."

Thus proceeded the shortest battle of Arthe's entire life, he sidestepped the warrior with his Numenorian footwork and used targeted thrust to stab the mage in the heart. After that he whirled around and pummeled the warrior repeatedly with Holy Bolt and Holy smite before hitting him round the head with the flat of his blade, with the warrior knocked out Arthe quickly turned and used healing hand to heal the mage before he died and then took their weapons away from them.

During this exchange the priest and the archer had looked on, worriedly at first and then incredulously. Arthe's display of skill had left them speechless and they promptly unequipped their weapons and stepped away from them, concerned that if they didn't comply with Arthe's earlier request then they would be next on his defeat list.

Just as the warrior was waking up Arthe spotted Frith and the workers coming up the mountain path, he waved at them and then went to speak to the Priest and the Archer.

"So what were you two nice people doing with a couple of grade a muppets like them," he nodded at the defeated duo, "let me guess they told you they had a quest with a guaranteed success and they would share the rewards with you for a small fee?"

The two players nodded at Arthe a bit sheepishly and then the priest told him that they were quite new players who hadn't really done a lot of questing before and had been looking for a party to join, the warrior and his companion had seemed a lot stronger than them and had asked them for 20 gold each for their services.

As they explained this Frith came over to Arthe and told him that the workers wished to speak to him, he told the naive players to wait there for a while and went with Frith.

"So friends what seems to be the trouble?"

"No trouble my lord, we were just wondering when you wanted us to start work and where we could put our belongings."

Arthe asked Frith to stand guard over the players and took the workers to the cavern he had set up earlier. He told them that this was a room they could use freely whenever they needed a rest and that breakfast and dinner would be served in the tower with a lunch provided for them in the mine. He also said that he would finish putting the chimney in place shortly and that for the time being it would be great if the workers could gather up as much useable building material as possible from the mine and the surrounding mountainside.

After the workers had stashed their things and gone out to gather stone and lumber Arthe went back to speak to the players.

The warrior was awake now and making threats about ending Arthe's life and punishing his 'traitorous' party members, who shook a little when he said that. Arthe went over to him so that he could explain exactly what would happen from now on.

"Listen closely because I'll say this once, my companion over there is a member of the Baldur royal family and I am a High ranking member of the Order of Freya. Between the two of us we could make your time playing this game extremely miserable, in a couple of days a Knight-captain of the Order of Freya is coming here. What's going to happen is I'm going to hand you over to him for judgement and he's going to have you watched by the church wherever you go, if in the future I hear that you've so much as stolen a single copper coin from a player or an NPC I'm going to have my companion order your immediate arrest. I'm also going to add those two over there to my friend list, should either of them have 'an unfortunate accident' of any kind I'm not going to have you arrested instead I'm going to hunt you down and kill you. I should mention that due to my class i am exempt from punishment by the church or the state so I would have no problem with earning the murderers mark. Now do we have an understanding?"

The warrior and the mage both gulped loudly and nodded profusely, fear was making them very compliant. Arthe then went over to the other players and reassured them that they would be fine and that they were welcome to enter the tower and have something to eat. He and Frith tied the other two up in one of the storerooms before taking the priest and his friend into the kitchen.