Chương 115: Chapter 114: First Come, First Serve

I logged in twenty minutes before the estimated respawn window and went straight to the Greenveil's northern edge, where Alice had told me to meet. King's Glade was already there. They'd set up a staging area in the clearing south of the sealed ruin, about fifty meters from where the Spriggan had been killed four days ago by Vanguard. The spot was unmistakable: a circle of scorched earth and splintered wood could still be seen around, proof of the battle that had been fought there.

Alice stood at the center of the group, talking to two players. She waved me over when she spotted me.

"Orion. Good, you're early."

"You said it; first come, first serve. Didn't feel like being second." She gestured to the two players beside her.

"You haven't met my officers. Denxy, main tank and our best crafter, and Desirae, head healer and the reason most of us are still alive." I shook both their hands. The Guardian was broad shouldered and tall, and his posture alone made me see how valuable of a member he must have been to the Second Division. He looked like he was ready to stand between danger and anyone behind him at a moment's notice. His shield was particularly impressive.

It was silver, almost glassy at parts, with ornate edges and a faint aura around it that made me think there was more to it than met the eye.

"Black Ranger," he said, "I've seen the tournament footage. That finals match against Athos was something else."

"Closest fight to date," I said.

"It was a sight to behold." He tapped his shield and turned to Desirae.

"Hopefully this thing holds up better today than the last one did against the Automaton."

"Forging it would have been a waste of time if it couldn't handle a level 25 Field Boss." He grinned.

"Mythril Alloy is incredible to work with. Lighter than iron, harder than steel. Even though the Automaton's alloys weren't pure mythril — that is probably reserved for level 40+ stuff — it will definitely work like a charm." A crafter who got excited about materials the way I got excited about a clean shot. I liked him immediately. Desirae was different. Where Denxy was warm and open, she was composed, measured, watching me with evaluation.

I understood her concern: her job was keeping people alive and therefore she needed to know exactly what everyone around her was capable of.

"So you're the sniper," she said. Clearly, Alice had talked about me.

"You could say that."

"Alice says you two-manned the Broodmother."

"We did."

"Captain carries this bunch quite a lot, so it's not surprising she helped a stray out." I grinned.

"She is quite something." Desirae raised an eyebrow. She clearly expected a different reaction to her harsh words, but she reminded me of my old self. She might have talked big, but it was obviously out of love for her leader, and her strictness came from wanting those around her to improve. I understood her well. Alice watched the exchange with the faint amusement of someone who'd expected exactly this.

"Come now," she said, "Let's pretend to be nice for a sec. Orion's a friend, treat him like one."

"Understood, Commander," Desirae said, though the look she gave me said, 'We'll see about that'."

King's Glade's Serendine division had brought forty-eight players. I spent the next fifteen minutes walking through the staging area, getting a sense of the roster. The composition was solid: Eight tanks, split between Guardians and Paladins. A dozen ranged DPS, mostly Arcanists and Rangers with a couple of Conjurers. Ten melee fighters, Swordsmen, Lancers, Brawlers and Berserkers. Six healers, with Desirae directing them from a slight rise where she could see the entire group.

Eight flankers, Rogues and Swashbucklers, two Druids for offheals and buffs, a Bard and an Acolyte. They were organized. People knew where to stand, who to listen to, and when to shut up. That was Alice's influence. She'd built something here that went beyond just having powerful players. I noticed a few of them glancing at me as I passed; some with curiosity, some with recognition, and a couple with the guarded look of people who weren't sure what a random Ranger was doing in their formation. Fair enough.

I'd have the same look if some stranger walked into my raid group. I found a comfortable spot on a rock at the eastern edge of the clearing, within earshot of Alice's command position but outside the formation itself. Lune curled up beside me and immediately started grooming her tail, as though the prospect of fighting a forest spirit was beneath her concern. We waited.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Vanguard arrived thirty minutes later, just as Alice had predicted. Gaul led from the front. He was hard to miss: taller than most players, built like a stone wall, wearing full plate armor that looked like it had been forged from the same mountain it was probably mined from. His warhammer rested across his shoulders, and he walked with the authority of a man who considered the Greenveil his personal territory.

This is the first time I see a high-profile Paladin using a two-handed weapon, I thought. Of course, there were loads of them, but their levels were mostly in the mid-10s still. The consensus on the forums was that Paladins needed a shield in order to keep up with Guardians in tanking the early content. Behind him marched roughly fifty players. Their formation was looser than King's Glade's, more of a crowd with direction than a disciplined unit, but the players themselves looked capable.

Several of them must have been over level 20, judging by the equipment they were wearing. Gaul stopped about thirty meters from King's Glade's staging area and scanned the clearing. His eyes found Alice, and something tightened in his expression.

"Came to wish good luck?" he asked.

"Came to claim the Spriggan," Alice replied, without moving from her position.

"Thanks for seeing us off." Gaul laughed. He planted the butt of his hammer in the dirt and looked at the scorched circle where the Spriggan had died four days ago.

"We killed it last time. Our spot."

"Open world," Alice said evenly.

"No one's spot." The two groups stared at each other across thirty meters of wildflowers and charred earth. It wasn't hostile, per se, but the tension was thick enough that even Lune stopped grooming and lifted her head. A Vanguard Ranger near the front muttered something to the player beside him, and a King's Glade Brawler cracked his knuckles in response. Nobody drew a weapon, but nobody relaxed either. Gaul looked at me and instantly raised an eyebrow. Good eyes.

"So KG needs outsider help to take down a field boss?"

"We need no help in taking down anyone," Alice said, putting heavy weight on the last word.

"But there's no law against a friend joining us."

"Since when does the mighty Second Division have friends? You have members and everyone else, as far as I know."

"Then consider him everyone else who happens to be very good with a bow." The Paladin squinted.

"That a threat?" Gaul studied me for a moment. I held his gaze without reacting. After a few seconds, he dismissed me with a shrug and turned back to his officers, arranging his own formation on the western side of the clearing. Denxy appeared at my side.

"Don't take it personally. Gaul's like that with everyone who isn't Vanguard."

"I don't mind."

"Good. Because the real fun starts when the boss spawns." He leaned against the rock.

"Last time, Vanguard took it with sixty players, and it cost them nine wipes and every potion they had. That alone makes them think they own the Greenveil."

"Why would barely being victorious warrant that?"

"Too much investment to just give up the chance to keep farming the Spriggan. If they pull first, Alice might order us to help them or pull out completely."

"And if Alice pulls first?" Denxy smiled.

"Then Gaul has to decide how much his pride is worth, because he's not going to stand there and watch us take his kill without getting involved."

The next hour was full of tension. Both raids were fully assembled, buffed, potioned, and positioned. Nearly a hundred players spread across the clearing in two distinct camps, with the scorched circle of the Spriggan's last death between them like no-man's-land. And nothing was happening. Players on both sides were eating, chatting, checking their interfaces, sharpening weapons, and occasionally shooting looks at the other group.

A Vanguard Bard started playing a tune, and three King's Glade members started humming along before catching themselves and stopping. They're not enemies, I thought. Just healthy rivals. That was sort of reassuring after all my knowledge about Guild politics was based on Crimson Court and Avalon. Alice was pacing around, encouraging her members, giving tips and checking formations. She was like a general walking the line before an engagement, making sure every piece was where it needed to be.

She exchanged words with each of her squad leaders, adjusted a healer's position, and reminded two Rangers to spread further apart so they wouldn't be caught in the same attack. Gaul, by contrast, started dueling anyone who wanted to try, giving pointers, having fun; his laugh was audible across the clearing. His officers handled the formation, and he finally found a boulder to sit on, overseeing the camp. Desirae settled next to me during a lull, her staff resting across her knees.

"You've fought a Field Boss before?"

"The Woe of Riverhear. Level 15. Different animal from this."

"Smaller scale. But the mechanics are always the same at the core. A big health pool, phase transitions, some kind of add mechanic maybe, and a moment near the end where everything goes sideways and you either win or you don't."

"Sounds about right."

"My job is making sure the 'or you don't' part doesn't happen." She looked out at the clearing.

"The Automaton nearly broke us in the enrage phase yesterday. Denxy's shield literally cracked. If I'd been half a second late with a heal on the off-tank, we'd have wiped."

"But you weren't late."

"I'm never late." She said it without arrogance. It was just a fact, the way a surgeon might say they don't miss a cut.

"I might not be as good as Lux back at HQ, but I have been doing this for over ten years."

"I looked forward to seeing that in action." She smiled.

"Sorry for being so harsh on you. I'm working on being more… approachable, but it's a steep hill to climb." Before I could respond, Lune stood up. Her ears went flat against her head, and her tail dropped. She wasn't looking at Vanguard or King's Glade. She was looking at the scorched circle. The ground was shaking. It was subtle at first, a vibration I felt through the rock more than I heard. But it was growing. The wildflowers in the meadow trembled, and stones started jumping around.

Every player in the clearing felt it at the same time. Conversations died and weapons were drawn. Both formations tightened. The scorched earth at the center of the clearing cracked. A root, thick as a man, punched through the soil and reached skyward like a grasping hand. Then another. And another. The ground buckled and split as an immense creature pulled itself out of the earth, soil falling from its body, the roots interweaving as they formed into a morphed humanoid shape.

"Why is it so huge?" Desirae asked from no one in particular.

"It wasn't like this before?"

"According to the raid VOD it was at least two meters shorter, thinner and lighter. And had none of those pale green, pulsating veins around, either." The creature finished forming and stood to its full height, maybe ten meters tall, its root-feet sinking into the ground, its emerald eyes sweeping the clearing full of adventurers with worrying intelligence. Greenveil Spriggan Level 25 Field Boss Enhanced Nobody moved. Enhanced? I'd never seen that word beneath a boss's name before.

It was written in a deep gold font, a modifier that the game had never displayed in any content I'd encountered or read about. This was new. And new things in Godsrealm made my blood boil with excitement. A hundred players stared at the Greenveil Spriggan, and it stared back. Alice broke the silence.

"Well," she said, loud enough for both raids to hear.

"That's different." Gaul said nothing at first, but then he stood up from his boulder, picked up his hammer, and for the first time since he'd arrived, he looked at Alice without rivalry.

"Wanna team up?"