Cheers came from the wall as the last few survivors escaped. Liam and his group hunted down a few more for the EXP before slowly making their way towards the wall.
"Dream Avenue!"
"Dream Avenue!"
Chants reached Liam's ears. He watched as the players embraced each other, or even the NPCs. The harrowing territory war had brought everyone closer together.
When Liam reached the wall Serena finally deactivated the storm spell. The players didn't overthink it. They didn't consider the possibility that their sacrifices might have been unnecessary.
Serena stood there, looking at the carnage before her. She used her sleeve to wipe the tears from her eyes. Seeing her like this, Liam's heart melted. He sped up, jumped from his mount and tightly embraced his sister.
"You did great Serena! Thank you!"
The rest of the group caught up to the siblings and began to praise Serena as well. The movements of the prominent core members were naturally spotted by many players. Quickly a different set of cheers spread:
"Mirage Fan, you're our hero!"
"Exactly, she saved the guild!"
"You're the best!"
Liam let go off Serena and the young girl looked towards the players, unable to suppress a bright smile. Everyone was affected by her cute appearance. The players quickly fought to one-up each other, coming up with increasingly over-the-top praise, without caring if it made sense or not. From their words one would think Serena was the strongest player to ever grace the gaming world.
Eventually it all ended in bright laughter when even the players found themselves ridiculous. Slowly the topic changed, and the guild members discussed the other heroes.
"Without the revitalization effects I would have ran out of mana long ago. That's also Mirage Fan's merit, right?"
"Yes. But really, we should thank Silver Blade, Watchful Eye, and the others who fetched that lotus. Without it we wouldn't have had revitalization water for the potions and food."
"You're right. And don't forget Bloody Edge. Without him assassinating the original commander we wouldn't have had enough time to fortify the wall. It might have been breached earlier, giving us some real trouble."
"We also have to thank everyone who worked hard to take out the bosses. Quickstep, Final Fend, and Watchful Eye even gave their lives for that."
"Definitely! Just like all the others who gave their lives to defend the wall!"
The conversations went on for a while before a sudden voice caused everyone to shut up.
[Congratulations on emerging victorious in the territory war for the territory >Greypine Town<]
[Your accomplishment is worthy of being remembered.]
[Territory >Greypine Town< will from now on be under the jurisdiction of guild Dream Avenue!]
[You can choose to stay anonymous.]
[You can add the name of benefactors to the announcement.]
Getting the official recognition, a new round of cheers spread among the players. Cyclone and Balm felt all the stress leaving their bodies and a wave of exhaustion suddenly hit them. Yet they stood straight and smiled brightly, knowing that Dream Avenue had made another step forward.
There was not much to consider as the guild leaders communicated with C and an announcement suddenly rang through the entire world.
[Server Announcement:]
[Please congratulate Dream Avenue on emerging victorious in the territory war for the territory >Greypine Town<]
[>Greypine Town< will from now on fall under the jurisdiction of Dream Avenue.]
[Dream Avenue thanks Colville Constructions, St. Fabre, Dourand Electronics, Cider, Malney & Sons, Lucky Ten Malls Ltd., and Bellissio for their generous support.]
As the server announcement sounded out, the territory war was officially over. The territory was already the biggest reward imaginable, but C wasn't stingy and rewarded the guild with another wave of EXP. Watching as others advanced by a few levels Liam could only sigh as the EXP was barely enough to let him reach the peak of level 48.
As the war came to a closure the dead players were resurrected. The survivors came down from the walls, strolling back to the town and reuniting with their friends. However, about a hundred people were missing. The information quickly spread that those who had lost all three chances of resurrection were kicked out of the game for the day.
At that moment Liam revealed a shocking information to his friends. During territory wars the limit on daily deaths was not temporarily suspended! This meant that those one hundred players had lost one of their lives! As every player only had three lives this was frightening news.
Cyclone and Balm were shocked, arguing that Liam should have reminded the guild members before the war. However, the veteran didn't feel that way. At no point was it said that the limit would be suspended. The players simply didn't think of it.
This was not too surprising. For most players the limit on deaths didn't play a large role. If they were in danger of dying too often, they would simply go off for the day. So far only idiots, or people who didn't take the game seriously, had managed to lose all three of their lives.
But with the territory war a new threat suddenly emerged, which had the potential to cost the players some lives. It could be predicted that in future wars the players might hold back if they were in danger of dying.
Liam knew that the information would spread tomorrow in the guild when those dead players came back. It would surely cause some commotion but after the experience the players went through today, Liam predicted that the impact wouldn't be too big. The guild's cohesion was at a sufficiently strong level.
Secretly, Liam even had some sinister thoughts. As the information spread through Dream Avenue, it was bound to reach other guilds as well, like a virus. This would surely be a hit to the courage of all guild members.
Liam especially considered those who were possibly the culprits sending spies into the guild, like Galaxy or perhaps The Only Way. If their players were affected during future territory wars, it would be the best possible outcome.
Accepting that there was nothing they could have done even if they knew about the information earlier, the friends soon moved on. They talked about what it meant to have a territory while ruefully observing the town which had been deconstructed by about one quarter in order to gather resources for the wall.
The rest of the guild members also took in the sight and their joy was slowly replaced with exhaustion. It didn't take long for until most of the players decided to go offline for the day, relaxing at home.
Even the core members followed suit. But before Cyclone and Balm left the game, Liam hastily stopped them:
"Wait, guys. There is something you need to do as guild leaders."
"What? Can't it wait till tomorrow? I'm pretty tired.", asked Balm with a barely suppressed yawn.
"I'm afraid not. This is urgent."
"Ok, expert. What is it that we have to do?"
Liam nodded at Cyclone, signalling the guild leaders to follow him. They entered Greypine Tower together. At this point the guild's NPCs had already disappeared, going back to the guild hall. Only the town's NPCs remained. Seeing the players entering they immediately bowed.
"My lord!"
Cyclone and Balm were taken aback, immediately waving their hands.
"Stop, stop. There is no need to be like this!"
"I'm afraid I have to disagree.", responded Sephran as he straightened his old back as far as possible. "Proper decorum has to be maintained. You are now the lords of Greypine Town. Furthermore, without you the town might not exist anymore!"
The two young women glanced at each other before letting out sighs. They simply accepted, too tired to argue about it. Instead, they turned to Liam:
"Ok, expert. What is it that we have to do?"
"Take a look at this."
Liam led Cyclone and Balm to the table standing at the centre of the room. It was the map of the territory and also an interface providing all kinds of options. The guild leaders interacted with it while listening to Liam's instructions.
"Look at the very top."
"Where it says alignment?"
"Exactly."
"Hmm, it provides a list of forces we can align ourselves to. Do we need to choose one of those?"
"We don't need to, but it's highly recommended. After aligning ourselves to a certain force we have a price to pay, usually taxes, but will get protection in return."
"How does this help us?"
"The protection will make sure that no one messes around in the territory. This goes for strong monsters coming from the surrounding regions as well as for other players."
Cyclone and Balm looked at Liam in surprise.
"Other players can mess with the territory?"
"Of course. As long as they are strong enough, they could kill all the NPCs. Which is why we need powerful protection."
"Will this help us in territory wars?"
"Unfortunately not."
"Well, ok then. Who should we choose now? Some force with a good cost/benefit ratio?"