Chương 132: B2 Chapter 37 - Guild War Part One

Just a week ago, we were playing together every day at this time… I sat by the tree and watched the misty ceiling and the butterflies within. My health and stamina slowly regenerated. I'd be ready to fight again in around ten minutes. If what CinderLight had said was true, the top guilds would be attacking in less than twenty minutes. Why today? Of all days, the big guilds had to coordinate when Veyra wasn't here and not checking her phone.

Without her, I could have maybe sneaked a few kills if the fight got chaotic, but it really felt like our guild operated at just 20% efficiency if one of us was offline. I sighed, staring at the ceiling. A notification came. I flinched, and my thoughts were interrupted. Veyra:" What's up?" I leaned forward, all previous thoughts forgotten in an instant. Her status had a phone icon, meaning she wasn't logged in, but saw the text from the real world. Assassin:" There's a huge war about to start at the castle.

Syntrix, Eon Covenant and Celestial Order are ganging up on Zenith Protocol. I'm pretty sure it'll be chaos." Veyra:": o" My chest felt heavy, while the chat read Veyra is typing… I felt the same as I had when I was first crushing on her, nervously waiting for every message. Hell, I was still crushing on her. Veyra was my girlfriend, and still felt the urge to somehow impress her to make myself worthy. I hated how awkward things had felt between us lately. Veyra:" I'll see if the pod will let me log in.

Give me a minute." Yes! I thought, pumping my fist. The minute turned to five, while I anxiously waited, but her icon finally turned green, fully online and logged into Wonderwind. [Player Veyra has requested to teleport to your location. Accept? y/n] I accepted immediately, and her figure materialized, starting with purple particles. The color took me by surprise. Veyra was usually a mix of blue and red. Her robe had changed color to black and purple. A cosmetic change.

The stats were still the same; she'd just changed its colors. Atop her head sat a new witch's hat—black and purple, and presumably the reason why she'd switched her appearance to match. Runes were inscribed around its brim, and a large amethyst shone on its band. Her hair and eyes remained red, but the contrast fit surprisingly well.

"Helloo," she said, hands awkwardly on her staff.

"Here's Veyra, the dark mage, who still actually has more points placed into frost and time magic." I trapped her in a hug. She flinched a little, then laughed.

"What, we haven't been apart for that long, have we?"

"I'm so glad you came," I said, letting her free.

"I'm not kidding when I said this might be the biggest guild wipe opportunity ever." She rubbed her cheek awkwardly.

"Bad timing. I'm still practicing. But I guess I can just about cast two spells at once now." I nodded with a wide smile.

"Knowing you, you're way further than you think."

"Meh, I'm not even used to the cosmetic change. Black is too weird on me, isn't it? The hat was just too good to pass up, and it sadly doesn't have any cosmetic options. What do you think?"

"You are," I said, "absolutely gorgeous. Like… Holy shit." She flushed with a cute little smile.

"What about you? Has practice gone well? The forums seem to be gawking at you, at least."

"I won't lose to him again," I said.

"My build is still garbage, though. I'm missing a headpiece. It'll have to do. There isn't much time right now." She smirked at me.

"I might have something to help you a bit. I was looking at the auction and found this yesterday." My head perked up as she sent me a trade offer. Or rather, just a gift. I accepted it Arcana Mimic Dagger This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Item Type: Legendary Dagger (Unique Event Item) Required Character Level: 221 Stats: +1100 Attack Power Abilities: Stat Mimic (Passive): When dual wielding weapons, Arcana Mimic Dagger copies 5% of the stats from the primary weapon. Arcana Mimic (Passive): When dual wielding weapons, Arcana Mimic Dagger copies all abilities from the primary weapon at 75% efficiency. Copied abilities: Haunt, Harvester Of Souls.

"I'm not sure if that fits your build right now," Veyra said nervously, "and it was a bit expensive. But those abilities sound completely broken to me. It's probably a good item to keep for the future." I gaped at it with my mouth open. I lifted my head to Veyra.

"How did you find this?"

"Eh," she said with a shrug.

"Lucky catch."

"It's amazing, holy shit!" That was an understatement. This dagger might have just fixed the core problem I'd had with my build. I'd started to like sickles as utility tools, despite my sickle in Wonderwind having some of the best offensive abilities in the game. Ideally, I would have liked to have those in my damage dealing dagger instead. Now that was possible. The offensive abilities of Sickle Of The Soul Harvester were transferred to Arcana Mimic Dagger.

Sure, the dagger was only 75% effective, but that was still way better than anything else I had.

"This just fixed my build, I think," I said.

"Honestly, ninety percent of the problems I had are gone. I'm just squishy now."

"Squishy, as in you get one-shot by any attack at all?" Veyra asked.

"Yeah. I've always played that way, though."

"Fair enough," she said with an amused smile.

"Have you fought large-scale fights before? You might just burn to some AoE."

"I'll figure it out," I said.

"What about you? Are there any changes to your style?"

"I made a small respec," Veyra said.

"I'm doubling down on the hexes for now. I replaced Chronorift with Frost Storm, and I maxed out Hex Of Dawnbreak."

"Frost Storm, huh?" I said.

"I'm surprised you prefer that one over Chronorift." Frost Storm: Summon a violent snow storm in a globe at the target location, dealing 50 (+5% of Spell Power) Frost Damage per second. The movement of targets inside is hindered by the storm. Running inside the storm increases the damage to 75 (+7% of Spell Power) damage per second. Frost Storm was generally considered a decent utility spell. It soft slowed opponents—meaning it didn't outright take a percentage of movement speed.

The storm was just, well, a storm, and moving inside was awkward, just like moving in a snow storm in real life. The damage per second wasn't fantastic even at max level, though, which was why most mages used it for utility only.

"Frost Storm can be double cast with the hex," Veyra said.

"And the reason why Frost Storm's DPS is low is because it doesn't scale well against frost resistance. Hex Of Dawnbreak fixed that. Not to mention, the hex is way easier to land if opponents are also stuck inside a snow storm." I grinned at the thought.

"Okay, that might be overpowered."

"It's OP for sure," Veyra said.

"If I use it correctly, at least. I should be able to follow up with a Time Freeze nuke right after." I felt chills already.

"Sounds like I should focus on protecting you. I'll get caught in AoE if I jump in."

"You can finish off targets that try to escape," Veyra said.

"And protect me, of course. We'll have to be smart this time. We can't just power through three guilds at once. Trust me, I've been in guild wars before. They're way different from the guild wipes we've had so far." I nodded, and we discussed for a moment longer, but time was running out. The attack was about to start. As one final thing, I asked, "What about Zenith Protocol? Are you friends with them? Am I allowed to assassinate their members as well?"

"Feel free," Veyra said.

"We agreed with FireBrand that we're enemies in the Wilderness. I'm friends with them for sure, but there won't be hard feelings if we have to fight for a quest."

"Alright," I said.

"I think that's everything. Are we ready?"

"Ready." I held her hand, and I teleported to the only teleportation stone I still had near the castle that hadn't yet been destroyed.

We spawned on the same cliff where we'd first discovered Shaltar's Castle. The grand sight of the castle and the green necromantic energy flowing within was just as beautiful as it had been back then. A crash resounded with the battle already underway. Arrows flew to both sides with spells splashing loudly enough to hear all the way here. The three guilds were all present in their own squadrons. A battering ram, massive and made of black steel, was on its way to break the walls with Eon Covenant protecting it.

Syntrix was firing at the walls with catapults. The Celestial Order stood back with Annath ready to infiltrate once an opening came. The battlements were full of demon NPCs with bows, supported by Zenith Protocol's mages. I didn't spot FireBrand himself, but Dazzarth and CrazyPizzaMan were pumping damage from the battlements at Eon Covenant's battering ram. CinderLight protected them with flame walls.

"Aiden?" Veyra asked, tapping me in the shoulder, voice awed.

"Look at the quest." I batted my eye, until I realized what she was talking about. For the first time in a long while, Caverns Of Creation offered us a quest. Quest: Sovereign Of Aetherdale (SS+ Tier Event Quest) (Recommended Level: 330+) Quest Details: Aetherdale, the ancient city of the creator's spirits, is the capital of the underworld. Its long line of kings and queens are eternally written down in history. Completion Conditions: Dethrone the sovereign of Aetherdale and claim the crown.

Quest Reward: +30000 gold. +500 million experience. Obtain a castle, becoming the sovereign of Aetherdale. Bonus reward: 5x Invitations to Worlds 2027 (Competitor), Seoul, South Korea, with flights and accommodation. Veyra was grinning at me.

"Five invitations?" she asked, laughing. I glanced back at the battlefield. A loud crash of stone being battered echoed in the cavern as the largest faction war Wonderwind had seen in years raged on below us. And we were in the perfect position to make profit out of it.