"It's good to see you whole." Hellfire said sitting down beside Lucan and drink some water to help regain his mana. "Your new friends seem strong."

"They are the villages guard." Lucan said before telling the others about what he learned.

"It isn't surprising that there are others who have covens in the Eldritch Battlegrounds." Lisel said. "It sounds like Mentas had met some of them before."

"Maybe they are the ones who put him in charge." Will added. "The villagers said he showed up a year ago. That is only a couple months ago for us. He was put into power several years in game, after Evolution started."

"It's very possible. We should be even more warry of other players here." Lisel said. "I think we should look around before we go."

The group split up and went through all the rooms looking for goodies. They found a few things, but all the good items were found when Lord Mentas died. Everybody's bags were starting to fill up.

An hour later they left the manor and headed back towards the village. Brandt and the others were waiting.

"Lucan, everyone is willing to follow you back to help rebuild your city."

[The territory dungeon has been 'Conquered'.]

[Quest gained.]

[Escort the NPC villagers back to your Coven's city. Rewards will be determined by the degree of completion.]

[NPC Villagers: 2,843.]

The 10-man party received a quest to escort the villagers back to their city.

Since Brandt acknowledged Lucan, the villagers also looked to him. Lucan stepped forward. "I am Lord Lucan Quilldrake, Magical Sage and Sixth Hand of the Mighty Raze. This is Hellfire and Lisel Farwest. They also hold high positions under our Patron. The 3 of us created this coven. We will head out shortly. The journey should take under a day. If you follow our directions and the requests of our followers, we will do our utmost to make this a quick and safe transition."

Lord Mentas had tainted and defiled their home. As long as the villagers were together, they were ready to leave for a new home.

"Give us an hour and we will be ready to move out." Brandt said.

Lucan nodded with a smile. "Let me know if there is anything I can assist with."

The villagers smiled and told him to relax. They were already enjoying the change of having a helpful Lord compared to Mentas who killed anyone who went against him and even if you did everything right you would be plucked of the streets and taken to his manor if he desired you. Those people were never seen again.

***

The villagers carefully climbed down the chain to the smaller floating island. Brandt and his fellow guardsmen went down first and secured the land while the villagers descended. It was slow moving but there were no accidents. 2 hours later and the villagers had crossed the last rope bridge and stepped onto the Goblin Plains.

The Field Boss was nowhere in sight, but they weren't going to take any chances. Under Lisel direction Calder and Van lead the group while Brandt and his guards fanned out. The orders were to advance. They didn't stop to kill any goblins. But after the group of people trampled forward, by the time Lucan, at the back of the group saw the goblins. There were a good many barely hanging onto their lives. He unleashed a constant barrage of shadow bolts towards any goblin that was near death.

Another 4 hours and they passed through the plains.

"It's not much, but its what we got. And others cannot enter easily." Lucan said standing before the dilapidated city.

"It has good bones." Brandt said while looking over the city. "The city will be restored with time."

[Quest completed! You have gained 3 levels.]

[Congratulations! You have reached level 51.]

[Congratulations! You have reached level 52.]

[Congratulations! You have reached level 53.]

Lucan earned 3 levels. Silent was rewarded 2. And the high-level players were rewarded 1 level. But there 1 level was equal to over 10 times the experience Lucan earned. Everyone had made good gains on this trip.

The players spent another day helping the NPCs get settled in. Lisel encouraged Lucan to talk to Brandt. He was eventually able to convince the level 119 Elite NPC to take the position of City Guard Captain.

Lucan, Hellfire and Lisel agreed to add the other 7 members of the team to their Coven so they could come and go without an escort. Lucan made Silent Night a full member since she was one of his direct warlocks.

The sun rose on the next morning. The NPC's were working hard to restore the town. Hellfire and Lisel convinced a few NPCs to become their followers. That way they could stay informed about the city when they were away.

"You have all returned in one piece." Raze said as they filed through the door into his palace. "I presume your exploration was successful."

"You bet. And we have lots of things to sell." Lucan said cheerfully.

With a wave of his hand, Raze summoned 10 tables in the room that only contained a door standing in the center. "Set out what you want to sell, and I will give you a fair price."

Raze went from table to table. He started with Lisel and her followers before going to Hellfire and Calder. He made Lucan wait till the end.

Lucan cursed the old swindler. He suspected that his Patron bought everything else first because he assumed Lucan would haggle and he didn't want the others getting the same idea. It was best if they accepted his first price. It was within the ancient beings' expectations. They all accepted his price. Even Silent Night, he had thought that the follower who was always with Lucan wouldn't let him slide but she agreed to his price.

Raze looked at all the goods Lucan had set out on his table. "I can give you 300,000 for all of it."

"If that's what you are offering, no thanks. Let's talk about something else." Lucan pulled a man's head out of his bag. "I want you to replace one of my eyes with one of these. Or are your powers unable to do such a thing?"

Raze ignore the blatant provocation and inspected the eyes of the man without a body. "These are impressive. Such a thing is possible, but it will cost you."

"Yeah, yeah, what do you want?"

"You can give me what you have on the table."

Lucan waved away his nonsense. "Pff. I will give you the other eye and you will implant one in me and give me a million experience."

"Why would you want to treat this old man so badly." Raze said in a kind and shaky voice, he took a deep breath that looked as if it pained him. "The best I can do is an implant, take the other eye and give you 500,000."

"Ha, ha, ha. You want me to feel sorry for you? Ha, ha, get real. I will throw in the contents of the table for 1 million, an implant, and you can keep the extra eye."

Raze stopped his old feeble man act. "Fine, it is a deal." A grin flashed across his face. "But I noticed you used your soul stone. Don't forget to pay that down or you will suffer when you die without it."

"What, I died with no penalty, so that's not how it works."

Raze wagged his finger. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, there is always a price for resurrection. The minimum is the standard death penalty."

Lucan opened his interface and checked to find Raze was right. There was small little asterisk that informed him that 40,000 experience would be added to his next unprotected death unless he paid it off. Lucan started to scowl. Seeing his face, Raze started laughing.

"You want to play like that, fine." Lucan said stamping his foot on the ground. "Give me a gift damn it."

"You little shit." Raze cursed.

"That's right. You said that you will give me a gift every time I advance 50 levels as your Hand. And you even knew I planned to go back to 0 when you agreed. So give me a gift, unless you are the type of guy whose word is meaningless." Lucan said smugly.

"Hmph, my word is law." Raze said angrily. Then his face calmed. "Fine, take this. It is a strong ability worthy of a Hand."

[You have gained 'Self-destruct'.]

"What trash is this?!" Lucan asked annoyed.

"How can an ability that does 5 times your magic damage 50 feet in every direction be called trash. It is even an instant ability with no cooldown whatsoever."

The others heard and started nodding. "That actually sounds incredible." Hellfire said.

"It's a Self-destruct." Lucan snapped. Silent enjoyed a good laugh.

"A gift is a gift. It is powerful enough for my Hand. You shouldn't even get a gift so be happy." Raze said.

Before Lucan could say anything more Razes hand moved out like a hawk's talons. 2 fingers and a thumb dove towards Lucan face. He screamed as his right eye was pulled out. When Raze touched the flesh around his eye, Lucan's skin started to burn. The dense and chaotic magic seared his flesh while his eye was pulled from his socket. In a flash, Lucan's eye was in a small jar. Raze took an eye from the head Lucan had dropped to the table when he started clutching his face.

With a few quick motions Raze had one of Mentas's eyes in his hand and was holding Lucan still while he put it into the empty socket.

Lucan struggle to calm himself, but he didn't lose control. Raze spent the next five minutes channeling purple energy into Lucan's eye. When he was done, Silent used a bandage to cover Lucan's eye as it healed.

"Keep it closed for a couple of days, probably. If in doubt, keep your eye shut longer." Raze said, referring to his eye. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

Lucan sat up. "Where are you taking that head? If I remembered right, I said you could have his other eye. If you want the secrets in his head, you will have to pay for them."

"Ha, with your followers and your recent boon, you have a million and half banked experience. Do you want more or something else?"

"Build me a transfer point in Shadowsweep. Don't give me any crap about how its not worth it. That is the head of a level 120 Elite Warlock who devoted himself to mental magic. It's worth the cost even if he only has 1 or 2 secrets."

"Done." Raze said taking the head with him. "I will send a team back to Shadowsweep with you when you decide to return."

After Raze left the others started to realize Raze really was a bit of a swindler. They realized they lost out on experience by not haggling. But at the same time, they wandered if Raze could have performed Lucan's operation without causing so much pain to him. Regardless, they would 'politely' negotiate in the future.

Lisel and Hellfire approached Lucan as Silent helped him back to his feet.

"Calder and I are going to be returning to our leveling grounds." Hellfire said. "If you guys find anything exciting in the battlegrounds let me know, or if you need a hand."

"I will head back soon. Will, Cheese and I want to explore the uncharted regions of Raze's map, I will be bringing more followers once we train up a bit." Lisel said.

"I will be spending some time elsewhere." Was all that Lucan was willing to say. "Keep gathering followers and bring the people you trust into the coven. Until next time." Lucan said while leaving with Silent, Madlad, Lucy, and Van. They returned to his manor and waited for Raze to arrange them transportation back to Shadowsweep. They had to wait a bit for him to collect the appropriate materials and craftsmen to build a transfer point.