A cacophony of sounds woke Ethan sometime later. The caravan had come to a halt once again, and the noises from outside were a mix of people and animals. Unlike before, the raised voices weren’t angry, just people trying to be heard over the roar of a crowd. 

Once again grabbing his axe, Ethan crawled out of the wagon. The artificial sunlight was brighter than before and he squinted to make out his surroundings in the midday light. 

Scores of carts and wagons, hundreds of people and animals were out in front of him. Small buildings and tents were erected in a random order and behind those the larger buildings that made up the city of Startesgarde towered over the smaller buildings. 

He couldn’t make out any single conversation in the constant stream of voices there were so many people. But he scanned the crowd to see if any of his guild mates had gotten there at the same time he had. 

There were so many NPCs and Adventurers that he couldn’t make out anyone specifically but he did see Halder close to the wagons. The caravan master had his clipboard back out and was waiting in a short line to talk to a small bald man in a dark vest and pants who was constantly wiping sweat from his brow. 

Ethan hopped out of the wagon and easily made his way to Halder. The crowd gave space to any wagons, not knowing when they’d suddenly start moving. 

Halder turned and looked up, catching sight of him as he approached. 

“I don’t know if you’ve been here before, but welcome to Startesgarde.” He continued with his professional, almost uptight demeanor from Grassmere. 

“I have, thank you.” Ethan nodded at him “and thanks for the ride.”

“You paid and we got you here.” Halder replied curtly. 

“Well.. yeah... thanks.” Ethan made to move past him, but the brusk master held his arm up to stop him. 

“Also, thank you... er.. for before. With the bandits.” The expression on Halder’s face looked painful, like the words weren’t something he had ever said before. “I thought that the bullywugs were the only problem we’d run into. But if you hadn’t been there, we might have all been killed.”

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Ethan was taken back by the bluntness of the statement, and from the man it had come from. 

“Umm.. yeah.. again, no problem.” He wondered how much Halder had understood about who the people who harassed them were or what Ethan had threatened them with. 

“I’m going to report them to the authorities, that road is supposed to be free from bandits such as those.” Ethan didn’t tell him that the issue was already taken care of. He hoped that Arianna would deal with it quickly, which knowing his sister, was most likely the case. 

“Right. Well. Good luck.” As Halder walked away, Ethan found himself suddenly missing the NPCs he’d met in Grassmere. Compared to Alera, Jerry and even Mihal, Halder had the personality of a block of wood. 

Walking into the city proper, Ethan felt the same welcoming feeling he always did entering after respawning. Startesgarde felt like home in the prison he was trapped in. 

He marveled at what the players had accomplished in what had once been a small village. Startesgarde originally had been part of the introductory quest experience, and most of the starting quests could still be found, but it’s central location was one of the reasons so many players had gathered here. Gradually, they had nearly completely taken over. More buildings had been erected or expanded, guild halls established, the market was exponentially bigger, even the raid and PvP clans had adopted it as their base of operations. 

The players had completely taken over the governing of the city. They’d established a council made up of players of different styles. The leader of the raid clan, one of the leaders of the largest PvP guild, a crafter and a few other people sat on the council. They made sure the city continued to function. 

NPCs continued to play a large part of life in Startesgarde, mostly in vendor and administrative functions, and the council had begun paying more NPCs to live in the city, but this was the only majority player town. A few of the non human residents of the world had started making their way there, but very very few. It was almost all humans in Startesgarde.

The other factor that had contributed to its growth loomed high in the distance in front of Ethan. 

The Tower itself. 

One hundred stories tall and perfectly round, the stone structure cast its shadow on the entire region. The game developers had purposefully placed it near where any respawning player could see it. A constant reminder that no matter what else they did in the game, The Tower was the true goal. He couldn’t see them from so many miles away, but Ethan knew that torches were lit up to the 26th level, the sign of how many floors had been conquered since they’d first arrived and been trapped here. 

Ethan couldn’t help but stare at it, feeling anger and hatred inside himself. This massive building, taller than any other in the game, was what kept everyone trapped. Until the last torches were lit, no one could truly go home.