Djin was reading, sometimes he nibbled on the bread and sipped some water, he didn't need to but the small distraction kept his mind from wandering. It had been roughly two hours already and he felt as though he'd made no progress. Sure, he learned a lot about Freemont, it had a very fleshed out history for a game less than two weeks old. It appeared that this town used to be a bandit camp in the woods, they would raid nearby caravans that transported goods from the coast. The mad king Julius hunted them but never found this camp. When a rebellion formed against the king's tyranny, Freemont was a staging ground for intercepting a lot of supplies that the king's army needed at the front. Forced to withdrawl, other nations managed to gain a foothold on the continent, this victory began a domino effect that ended with the mad king's death.

Freemont was established in the aftermath of the war, the bandits forgiven of their sins and the bandit leader established as the mayor. All of this was well and good, truly a fascinating history, but it gave no mention of Marland the Fierce. Djin skimmed through another section of births and deaths for the town, no mention of Marland here either. Was he even a citizen of the town? Maybe he just passed through? Djin struggled to find any connection that Freemont had to Marland.

"Ugh... it's been 4 hours already and I'm not even halfway through this book. Who the hell even is Marland the Fierce?"

Djin was just venting his frustrations but the priest overheard him and took it as a question.

"Marland the Fierce was a great leader for our town, I'll admit I don't know much of him except for the fable."

This pricked Djin's attention.

"Fable? What fable would that be?"

The priest smiled as he told Djin the story.

It was Freemont, around 100 years ago. The city was doing well after decades of peace, the mad king's legacy nearly erased from the land. But as time had passed, the bill for his death came due. Other nations called upon Freemont and it's nation Lovos to recompense them for killing their tyrant. The cities within Lovos did not have strong objections to this at first, the price was fair and they had prospered in the time after his death. So they sent tributes to those who aided them in their rebellion, judging it as a fair deal.

But though Lovos did pay, the nations did not relent. The next year they asked for a larger tribute, citing that they had to replenish their forces after losses suffered from the campaign. The cities of Lovos were worried, and they gathered a counsel of their strongest cities. Lagu, Myria, Mosspit, Freemont, and Steeton. A representative of each town gathered in Freemont, they discussed the demands the other nations had imposed upon them. While they expressed their ire, it was Freemont's representative, Marland, who pushed for a new strategy.

Marland insisted they pay most of the tribute, but Freemont would fall short of their due. When pressed on this issue, Freemont would insist they could do no more. The foreign powers would keep an eye on this town and Freemont would not feign poverty to fool them. In time there would be an invasion, at least one of the foreign nations would feel confident in taking Freemont's holdings by force, justifying it with a lack of compensation.

It would be at this time where the combined cities of Lovos would come together to fight off the attack and show the strength of a new coalition in Lovos. By repeling one force, they would demonstrate that they were a force to be reckoned with. The other cities agreed to Marland's plan and they all set out to fulfill it.

Nearly all aspects of Marland's plan went perfectly, up until the foreign nation of Aperos landed upon Lovos' shores. Marland called for the other cities to send reinforcements, so that they might crush the Aperians who invaded their home. However none of the other cities responded to his call, they stayed neutral in the conflict and it led to Freemont being nearly destroyed.

It had been a long siege, none of Freemont's citizens would surrender though. Aperos was known for engaging in slavery and the people knew their futures would be bleak if they lost this war. Marland was furious with the actions of the other Lovos cities, they had abandoned Freemont to face Aperos alone. It was only Marland's aggressive and cruel tactics that kept the Aperians at bay. He harassed the Aperians at all times, leading night ambushes on the camping forces, burning their tents and poisoning their supplies. The Aperos forces lacked any motivation to fight, they were hungry, frightened, and sleep-deprived. The Aperos commanders were bewildered, no matter how many sentries they posted at night, Marland found a way in. The Aperians began to attribute every instance of misfortune to Marland's actions. When a hundred wolves striked the camp, they blamed Marland. When disease ran amok between the soldiers, they blamed Marland.

They feared the man, he was always among them, they could never injure him, never stop him. Aperos saw it's first dissenters only a month after arriving on Lovos shores. The Aperian tacticians grew desperate, without being able to keep Marland from harassing their camp, defeat would be inevitable. They devised one big gambit to take the town. The next night, they crept soldiers towards the town under the cover of night, Marland was in their camp causing chaos, but he didn't realize what had happened. Aperian soldiers infiltrated the city and were fighting at the gatehouse. Marland rushed to aid his soldiers but he was too slow to stop it. The gate opened and the Aperian forces flooded into the city. The slaughter was immense and Marland was helpless. He had but one goal left, to help his family escape the town before it burned to the ground.

He made it to his house, but he couldn't find his family. They had left without him, fearing death or slavery. Marland searched the refugees who fled from the violence, he cut down the Aperians whereever he found them. But he still couldn't find his family. He had failed Freemont, the city burned. Marland fled that night, vowing vengance on the Aperians, and on the cities who never answered his call.

The priest finished the story and left Djin with a puzzle look.

"Freemont was destroyed? We're in Freemont though."

The priest smiled and shook his head.

"This Freemont does not do the old one justice, we are but an homage to the grand city Freemont once was. The old Freemont lies far north of here, closer the coastline. The ruins still exist, but they are plagued with undead. The ground was stained with blood that night and we haven't been able to do anything to recover the city."

Djin pondered all of this.

"So if this isn't the real Freemont, why would Marland be buried here? What ties does he have to this Freemont?"

"Ah, I suppose that would be a curious thing. You see, Marland founded this Freemont. After losing the Old Freemont, he wandered the lands, he found powerful friends and rallied strong forces. He punished the cities that did not send the aid they promised him. Lagu, once famous for it's vineyards, found their soil blighted and fouled. Myria lost their magical leyline that fed into their Magic Academy. Mosspit had their swamps invaded by dangerous beasts, leaving them struggling to keep their town safe. Steeton's mines all collapsed, ruining their industry and leaving them destitute. Marland took credit for all these actions, before he sailed across the sea to Aperos."

"He left to fight the invaders? Then what?"

The priest shrugged.

"We don't know what happened there, Marland returned in five years but he was never the same. He became reclusive and his forces let him be. His friends stayed by his side for a while but they too soon left. Then one day, Marland was gone. Nobody knows when he left or where he went."

Djin thought of this but he couldn't accept it.

"How could such a powerful man just vanish, it makes no sense! Someone must know where he went, what he had done."

"Alas, we do not know. If someone did, they never told. In truth, only Freemont holds any affection for the man, the other cities still scorn his actions. They wouldn't dare attempt revenge while Marland's band lived. Now the grudge is near forgotten. If Marland had died in one of the other cities, we might never know where he was buried, for they would not honor his death."

Story Quest - Marland's Rest

You have learned the legacy of Marland the Fierce. A man hated by many, he disappeared one day and no one knows where he went. Follow his trail and find out what happened to Marland.

Reward: Inherit Marland's skill - Phantom Walk

Note: This quest may only be completed by one person.

Djin read the prompt and dismissed it. This was a big deal, how many people knew about the Marland quest already? Could Djin complete it before all others? More importantly... why did he waste all this time reading that stupid book?

"Thank you for the story father, however I now believe that Marland wouldn't be buried anywhere near Freemont. If this town loved him so, they would never of allowed his grave to go uncared for."

The priest nodded an affirmation.

"I suppose so, I guess I just hoped that he might've found peace in this town in his final days. The man suffered a loss his entire life, I don't suppose he ever found what happened to his wife and child."

Djin bid the priest farewell and left the church, there he saw a commotion happening in the square.

Silima was fed up with waiting. She started pestering every person she saw, asking if they knew about a cleric or priest adventuring in the area. Everytime they answered her with no, nope, no way, and is that even a class? It wore her down, now she was just running around asking if anyone knew any Holy magic, desperate for anything at all.

So when she saw Djin leaving the church, the one that she had been camping at for nearly a full day, she could hardly keep from barreling him over and launching a full inquisition on him.

Well she did tackle him, but there was not a bit of composure to her as she interrogated him.

"Wait just a minute, when did you get here? Were you in the church? Are you a cleric? I've been looking for someone who knows holy magic! Do you know holy magic? What's your name? What's your class? How long have you been playing? What level are you?"

Djin was a bit more composed, but Silima was straddling his hips and jostling quite a bit. Did Endless have sex? He didn't plan on asking Kreo about it, the mockery would only continue. Instead he moved towards getting the overly excited half-elf off of him.

"Well first off, nice to meet you. I could do without the tackling and straddling but I won't complain."

Silima blushed and hopped off Djin.

"SORRY! I've just been waiting outside FOREVER and you're the first person to even touch the church's door. My name's Silima, what's yours?"

"Djin, and what are you waiting out here for?"

Silima huffed out her frustration.

"Well, I died a few days ago, and I got this notice afterwards that someone attempted to resurrect me but failed. I figured that whoever tried to do it would have to have some holy magic and I camped out the church to meet them."

Djin looked over the girl, indeed she did resemble the corpse he and Kreo had found at the graveyard, albeit a bit more animated now. Resurrection though? The game must have interpreted his efforts but found them lacking, he hadn't received any feedback from his attempt. The question now though is... should he reveal himself?

"Oh yeah, that was me."

Djin just wanted her to stroke his... ego.

"YOU KNOW RESURRECTION? HOW?"

Djin hesitated, it's one thing to gloat, it's another to give away your secrets.

"Well, I don't know the spell exactly... and it didn't work anyway did it? You just got a little bit of time shaved off your penalty."

Silima shook her head.

"Don't you get it? Even though it was just twenty minutes, it matters! We can figure out how to make it work!"

Silima shook with glee. This is it! This is how she'll get back to the main raid group! If she brings back a way for the guild to raid with no drawback, no risk to fighting, then she'll be a hero! Well Djin will be the star, but Leon won't forget her efforts. She'll be on the leaderboard in no time!

Djin eyed the half-elf girl who was staring off starry eyed. After about a minute of waiting though he got fed up.

"Okay... well my friend is waiting for me, bye Silima."

Djin turned to go but not quick enough. Silima snapped out of her daydreaming just in time to snag Djin's shirt.

"Oh no you don't! I didn't camp on the church steps for three days just to chit chat. I need you to meet our guild master, he'll be very interested in you."

"That's great, but I don't have time for it right now. I have to level up to ten in the next... 30 hours! Bye!"

Djin hustled off towards the quest hall, hoping to find a few easy missions to undertake. Kreo had been out of reach since he left the church and he didn't want to sit around and wait for a response. Djin did notice that Silima had not given up on him so easily, she followed him and continued to make demands, promises, pleas, and even do some begging that Djin would just come with her. Eventually she relent on voicing her insistence and instead just kept Djin within ten feet of her at all time.

Oh well, she wasn't in his party and he would still get full xp for kills so long as she didn't interfere in his combat. He could always just seek out a personal room at the hall, but she could just wait for him to come out. Shaking his head in frustration, he chose four different monster culling quests and set off towards the first one. Silima followed him, sending a message to Aeleo as they left Freemont.

Aeleo read the message from Silima and sighed. He and Kreo had just gotten to the section of the forest infested with spiders. It wouldn't sit right with Aeleo to ditch Kreo to go back to town and try and talk to someone who might not even be the right person. He closed the status window as Kreo got back from a quick scouting of the area.

"Alright Aeleo, it doesn't look too bad. None of the spiders are bigger than a dog and there doesn't seem to be many of them at that size anyway. We should be able to clear out a nest, kill one or two big spiders, and get out of here before it gets too messy."

He nodded, Kreo's plan would work fine, the quest might seem absurd to most players, to kill 500 spiders, but if you burned one nest, you'd be practically done. It might not seem easy, but so long as you picked a sufficiently large nest, you could get it done in less than five minutes. The only problem was the broodmothers, they would viciously attack anyone who threatened their young.

The two of them crept up to a nest surrounded by bushes. Kreo had a torch ready to set the webbing ablaze, while Aeleo would keep the spiders contained to kill as many as possible. Kreo continued creeping toward the nest, getting within only a few feet of the big fluffy ball of skittering madness, then he tossed the torch. Before the flames met the nest, Kreo turned to run but tripped only two steps away. The nest had caught fire and heaps of small spiders started to pour out, they scattered in every direction including towards Kreo.

He paniced and began to flay about, Aeleo worked to keep spiders near the fire and away from Kreo. His cast of Plant Manipulation let him turn the grass into green tentacles that flung spiders back towards the flames. Aeleo tried to do what he could for Kreo, but it took most of his focus just to keep the spiders from escaping. Next time they'd dig the fire trench before going for the next, but hindsight would do him no good right now. Kreo was still down but he managed to start rolling away from the flaming nest, squashing spiders as he went. His health had dipped quite a lot from bites and he had a minor poison debuff on him, but he was alive.

"KREO! IF YOU AREN'T BUSY BEING CRAP, COULD YOU GET OVER HERE?!"

Kreo stumbled to his feet and saw a broodmother rushing Aeleo, he couldn't keep up his containment of the nest and also fend off the giant spider. Just as Aeleo was about to shift to the new threat, Kreo managed to intercept it in time. The spider leapt back from Kreo's thrust and bared it's fangs at him. He sliced at the spider, fight to keep Aeleo safe while the fire finished off the rest of the babies. He struggled to do any real damage though and he didn't understand why. Left slice, right thrust, the blade slid off the spider's carapace and the spider fought back with crazy ferocity.

"AELEO, I can't do anything to this one!"

Aeleo dropped his concentration on Plant Manipulation, he turned to Kreo and realized what was going on.

"Kreo, that's an elite mob! It's regenerating damage! We have to hit it hard or run!"

"Well shit, I choose run!"

Kreo broke off from the broodmother and sprinted, Aeleo didn't hesitate and was right behind Kreo. However even after a minute of hard sprinting, they hand't lost the broodmother.

"Why... Huff is it... Huff still following... Huff us?!"

Kreo panted his complaint, but he kept pumping his legs. Aeleo wasn't much better off, he cursed the spider as he wracked his brain for a reason. Then he thought of something. Aeleo veered off to the side and the spider kept after Kreo. Seeing he was out of harm's way for a moment, he sent Kreo a message.

Aeleo: Looks like you're tagged by the monster, I think it's because you lit the fire that killed it's children.

Kreo panted out his irritation but he understood. He wanted to complain but he barely had the wind to run, instead he swung about in a wide turn and came back to Aeleo.

"Do... Huff something!"

Aeleo glanced about and saw what he needed.

"Bring it to that bush over there."

Then he cast Plant Manipulation again, the bush came alive and as Kreo baited the broodmother near it, the bush lashed out and bound the broodmother in place. Kreo slowed his jog and came up beside Aeleo, catching his breath.

"How... huff long?"

Aeleo shrugged.

"As long as nothing happens, I can keep this up for about five minutes. Then I'd need another few minutes to get my mana high enough to do it again."

Kreo groaned.

"Then I'll have to run again? How hard do we have to hit the damn spider to kill it?"

"Fairly hard, I believe the current estimation is that an elite monster can heal up to 20% of it's HP per minute, but there are some factors to consider. This one is enraged, it might take more damage than normal and it seems to be quite punishing in it's assault. I wonder if this would've been easier by killing the broodmother before her young."

Aeleo pondered the situation while Kreo sent a message to Djin.

Kreo: Any way you can help me out? Got an angry mob and can't hurt it enough.

Djin: Where are you at? I'm just a few minutes south of town.

Kreo: Perfect! I'll send you a marker. Hurry, I don't want to run more.

Djin closed the message and saw the marker come up, it was closeby and he could get there in just a few minutes. He turned to address his tag along.

"My friend needs help, so I'll be going."

Djin didn't really mind Silima tagging along, but he also didn't mind having an excuse to try and ditch her. He turned and started running toward the marker, but he wasn't losing Silima at all.

"You run really slow, is your agility still at 5?"

Djin glanced at her and saw that she was barely doing a jog to keep up, while Djin felt like he was in a full sprint. He paused for a moment and invested 2 points into agility then picked up his pace again. He could immediately tell the difference, the landscape wasn't blurring by, but Silima was in a modest jog to keep up now.

"I knew it! It's a big deal to invest 1 point above the base amount, didn't you know that?"

Djin grumbled back at her, but he kept moving. Silima had a knowing grin on her face though.

"You know, if you joined my guild, we could help you with a whole bunch of stuff like that. There's a lot of good information that can be shared between friends! Not too mention we are one of the top guilds out there so far."

Djin rolled his eyes, he couldn't talk right now even if he wanted do. Damn, was there any way to make running less realistic? He made a note to check on that later. He checked the marker and realized he was much closer than he anticipated. Djin kept pumping his legs and focused on his breathing. In... out... in... out. Silima continued to drone on and on about why he should join her guild, she was so unphased by running that she may as well have been sitting in a chair, chatting over lunch.

Something caught Silima's eye that made her stop. She sprinted ahead of Djin in a flash and disappeared only a moment later. Djin whimpered a bit, that kind of speed could make anyone jealous. He caught up to her in another 10 seconds, she was talking to Kreo and someone else. Kreo waved at Djin as he caught up to the group, panting for breath.

"Djin, wow, you ran all the way here? That must've sucked."

Djin flipped off Kreo while he continued to try and catch his breath. Next on his list was either a stamina potion or some kind of recovery spell, maybe wind magic mixed with holy?

"Aeleo! I thought that was you! Guess what? I brought the guy who knows ressurection!"

"Terrific, but we kind of have a situation on our hands right now, can you kill an elite?"

Silima saw the broodmother still struggling against the bush, she drew her bow up and nocked an arrow. She released and the arrow struck the broodmother but failed to pierce the chitin.

"Hmm, I don't have any skills to increase my shot power yet. As long as that carapace holds, we won't be able to do anything."

Aeleo frowned but shrugged.

"Well worst case scenario, we run while the spider mauls Kreo here. He's got the tag."

Kreo scoffed.

"What? You'd just ditch me like that? And then after it kills me, then what? You'll be next!"

Aeleo pinched his nose and considered it.

"Alright well, what if we lure it to a trap? Maybe a pitfall?"

Kreo sighed and explained why a pit wouldn't work to hold a spider to Aeleo, who insisted that it might still work. Djin, having finally caught his breath, figured out what had happened. He saw the large broodmother bound up tight and decided to make it quick. Without even muttering a spell, he raised his hand and spent half of his mana on a Magic Barrage aimed directly at the spider. The arcane bolts whizzed through the air and tore the spider apart, leaving a broken husk behind.

Kreo and Aeleo were still arguing, and Silima was speechless. She tapped Aeleo more than a few times before he finally broke off.

"What! What is it?"

She pointed at where the spider once was, and Aeleo understood.

"Oh..."