Mature Content Warning: None

Authors Note: A very short little epilogue for you. It is mostly to recap the volume a little and to showcase the main arcs of the volume 4. After volume 4 is complete, 'Season One' will end and there will be a month long hiatus before Volume 5 and 'Season Two' starts. I need to take that much time to be sure that the system I am designing for the world is properly workable at high levels.

This is the end of volume 3, dear readers. This means that there will be a 10-14 days hiatus for this story while I work on cleaning it up, restructuring, and expanding a few ideas. (also making sure my numbers are right, or at least right enough, on status tables)

Basically, I will be getting it ready for publication. I will continue to update my other stories (Galataea and Blackthorne) during this time.

Chapter 24: Volume 3 Epilogue

Time was a fickle thing. Sometimes a person could have too much of it on their hands. At other times there was not enough time to be had. Yet, there were always the exact same number of hours in a day. Scott had both too much time on his hands and not nearly enough.

Crimson Shadow had yet to report a lead on the mermaids or the mermaid queen and their time was running out. Scott did not want to think about what would happen come the next full moon. The mermaids were quite innocent and overly friendly. The Shar-Shar were brutish monstrosities. It would not work out well for those poor girls.

Scott sat on the roof of the cabin and gazed up at the star filled sky above. He was not certain about what was to come. This world was but one of many, and would not be the version of ARS that the final battles would be fought upon.

The so-called ARS Classic, or Hardcore, server had his interest piqued. Yet, he had slowly begun to find a place in this world. He would have to learn a revamped and streamlined system. Many of the skills he had begun to learn would have to be discarded. Only a handful of custom crafted abilities would be transferred over.

Scott looked at the night-time sky and nodded. He was up for the challenge, but he already knew that things would be a lot different. The system for this world had been designed with casual play in mind. The fact that a low-level sorcerer was able to dish out thousands of points of damage with singular low-level spells, yet somehow that damage was greatly mitigated when fighting another player or someone from a playable race spoke volumes about that factor.

He had asked Rhea about that once. Her response still made him chuckle a little. “People like to see big numbers, but want a challenge.”

A lot had happened since he had first come to this world, and now a lot would happen when he left. However, before then he had three major goals to reach. He would rescue the mermaids. He would reach level one hundred and grind his stats till he reached a point where his transferred stats would be equal to the initial player cap for ARS classic. Most of all, however, he planned to crush Corpse Rat.

The guild had made an enemy of him. He could have let it go if they had just come after him. However, they had gone as far as to tie him up and make him watch while they gave Rhea a bleed effect. They had set him up to choke to death while he watched her bleed to death.

Even if this world was some sort of real life game, that sort of thing was unforgiveable. The people of the town that they had taken over must be dealing with a harsh and unforgiving lifestyle while Corpse Rat was in charge.

There was a lot to do, and little time to do it. He needed to transfer over to the ARS Classic server within the next few months to maximize his chances of developing his skills. He was not certain whether he would be able to defeat the so-called Lords of Destruction, but he had to try.

It was disconcerting; however, that a single death might cause him to start over at level one. That would not be a problem at low-levels, but one mistake, even one little mistake at higher levels and he would be forced to restart after years of work. There would be no time to try and make up for the loss. If that happened, the people of ARS were as good as dead.

In order to complete the mission and save the people he would have to become something that could only exist in fantasy. He had to become a truly invincible hero. All he could do is work hard and try to make the world a better place. It was a lot to take on, but the task fell to him and he would succeed. He had to succeed. The alternative was too horrible to imagine.