Vol. 3: Chapter 12
[Faerie Wings]
Effect: Grants flight.
Max Speed: 100 yards/second.
That was it. Those were the wings Kael had received. They offered no stat bonuses, and their flight speed was mediocre at best.
Worse, Kael didn't have any skills like [Aimed Shot] or [Aerial Assault], making it impossible for him to deal damage while airborne. They were, for all intents and purposes, purely a travel tool.
But here, just one month after the game's launch, the server's only flying item was a priceless artifact. It was the perfect tool for bypassing the perilous landscape, which was teeming with monsters fifty or sixty levels higher than him.
A journey that should have taken Kael twenty to thirty hours on foot was cut down to just eight by air.
When he was still ten miles out, however, he saw that Elderbloom Valley was shrouded in a dense, impenetrable mist. From the sky, it was impossible to get a clear view of the [Elderbloom Sanctuary]. To be safe, he landed immediately. He knew from his past life that the area was home to ferocious flying beasts; soaring blindly into their territory was a death sentence.
Due to the remote location, Kael had only visited the Elderbloom Sanctuary a few times to complete a handful of quests. His knowledge of the place was limited. He recalled that its Valekeeper was a mysterious young woman named [Aurelia], but not much else.
Noticing the sun was beginning to set, Kael hurried to find the entrance to the valley. It was notoriously well-hidden, difficult to locate even with a map.
Finally, nestled within a thicket of overgrown grass, he found two colossal stones. A narrow fissure separated them, just wide enough for him to squeeze through sideways. After ten minutes of shuffling through the tight passage, the path opened up, and he stepped into the valley proper.
Between the mountain trails and the long flight, Kael had been traveling for sixteen straight hours since dawn. He was exhausted. With darkness already falling within the sheltered valley, he pitched a simple tent and logged out for the night. Day one had been spent entirely on the move, with nothing else to show for it.
***
Back in Starlight Village, after claiming her rewards, Lila went to see Malcolm again to ask about new assignments. The reply was disheartening: "There are no special arrangements at this time."
It made sense. With their supply depot destroyed and their morale shattered, the Burning Horde likely wouldn't launch another major offensive right away. Her team had two days to rest and recover, preparing themselves for the even more intense battles to come. Lila gave the order for her core team to log off and get some real rest.
While the guild's main raid team was offline, the rest of the village was bustling with activity. The Horde’s earlier assault had destroyed a large portion of the eastern defenses, and players were now eagerly taking on quests to repair and rebuild them. A full day of R&D had also yielded significant upgrades.
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The simple wooden barricades were now being upgraded to iron-reinforced ones. The fields of caltrops were replaced with deadlier steel versions. Even the simple pit traps were being imbued with magic, transformed into [Blazing Traps] and [Frost Traps].
The miners were working with renewed vigor. New quarrying techniques had boosted their efficiency and the quality of their ore. A task that previously yielded thirty points per hour now brought in eighty. Even the players just hanging out and keeping watch in the towers saw their passive point gain increase.
As night fell, a quiet settled over the land.
Midnight. The second day of the WarChief's invasion began.
West of the village.
A full day of concerted effort had cleared out all the WarChief’s minions that had been camped in the area. Aside from a few players still grinding quests in the wild, only a handful of patrol teams remained on duty.
One such team, a squad of twenty, was taking it easy by the river at the foot of the Shadowcrag Mountains. They even spotted a few other players peacefully fishing nearby.
"This patrol quest is awesome," one of them said. "120 points an hour to do absolutely nothing."
"Yeah, for real. The quest to clear the mobs here earlier was only worth 150 points, and we actually had to fight for that."
"I don't get the point of this patrol, though. The entire western approach is blocked by the Shadowcrag Mountains. What are we even guarding against?"
"Who knows? Maybe to stop the Horde from spawning here."
"No way. This isn't a normal leveling zone where mobs just pop up randomly. This is a proper war between two armies. The spawns have to make logical sense."
"I agree," another player chimed in. "Otherwise, the system could just drop a few level 60 world bosses in the safe zone and wipe us all out. Why go through all this trouble?"
"Then what's the reason? This cliff is so steep, there's no way the enemy can invade from here…"
The player laughed, gesturing up at the sheer rock face of the Shadowcrag Mountains.
Suddenly, he froze.
His teammates noticed his stunned expression and followed his gaze upward. They froze, too. A moment later, their panicked shouts cut through the night.
"Contact! We've got contact!"
At the same time, they fumbled in their bags for their magic flare crystals. A bright projectile shot into the sky.
The flare bathed the cliffside in a stark, white light, revealing a gruesome sight: the cliff face was teeming with goblins. They were either sliding down steep inclines on all fours or leaping between the gnarled trees that jutted out from the cliff.
The patrol team was utterly stupefied. They looked at each other, and a single word escaped their lips:
"Run!"
But it was too late. When they turned to flee, they found their path blocked by hundreds of goblin warriors that had already descended the mountain.
They were impossibly fast. A towering goblin leaped from the pack, landing in front of the players with a ground-shaking thud. It let out a deafening roar, and a debuff icon appeared above their heads: movement speed reduced by 30%.
Just then, two system messages broadcast to every player online in the village.
[System Warning]: The Western Flank is under siege! Reinforcement Request: 5,500 units. Proceed to the west immediately!
System: Quest points for defending the eastern wall have been doubled. The eastern defenses must not be allowed to fall!
Seeing a new frontline quest, a huge swarm of players immediately started heading west. Only the more experienced guilds kept their main forces stationed in the east.
They knew this western assault, however shocking, was likely just a diversion—the tip of the iceberg. If they weakened the eastern garrison, the Horde could punch straight through and shatter the main gate.
Deep in the eastern forests, their suspicions were confirmed. A platoon of elite Orcs, dozens strong, crept silently toward the outskirts of Starlight Village. Malice gleamed in their eyes as they watched the movements of the human defenders, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.