Game of the World Tree

Players erupted in excitement when Demacia took a screenshot of the approaching Orc army from the watchtower and posted it on the forum.

-Let’s go! Is it finally here? I’ve been grinding for over half a month already and I’m getting sick of it.

-Thirty thousand Orcs! That’s equivalent to 30K lottery tickets! Owning a full set of legendary gear is no longer a dream!

-That caught me off guard… I thought the devs would send out a notification about the Orc invasion or something. But they just appeared on the map just like that without any prior notice.

-Well, ElvKing always follows this pattern, setting up a prelude event in advance, and only when players triggered it will the system prompt finally appears. It’s quite surprising, actually.

-Surprising, my ass. Triggering the main quest is all about luck…it’s just a game for the lucky and hardcore players.

-Well, isn’t this better than the devs catering to whales?

-Pfft…This game isn’t for whales? Dude, just look at Salty Cat, money matters even in here.

-But she’s not just your typical whale; Salty Cat’s also a semi-hardcore player who’s pretty cool and generous too. Being both a whale and a hardcore player, that’s what makes someone a real badass!

-That’s right, if you hate it then just quit the game lol! There are still twenty million people waiting to take your place. #Funny

The forum buzzed with joy and excitement, devoid of any hints of tension or fear normally associated with an impending war.

Nevertheless, a few lingering concerns still persisted.

-Speaking of which, isn’t the number of Orcs this time too exaggerated? 30k? Damn can we even win?

Of course, such voices were quickly drowned out by others.

-C’mon now… Do you think the developers would set up an impossible quest that we can’t win? Lmao that would totally break the game and get the lead designer fired, right?

-Exactly! If the enemy has this many troops, then it’s definitely calculated by the devs according to our strength. It might be a bit challenging, but if we stick to the quest prompts, I think we’ll be just fine!

-I agree. Just think about it… we’ve got over ten thousand players, and nearly five thousand users are currently online right now. Plus, thanks to the summer event, most folks have hit level 11 in the past few days. With thirty thousand Orcs, that means we only need to handle six enemies for each of us!”

-Right! And if we face any real difficulties, then we can always just summon the Goddess. It’ll be fine since she’s the most powerful NPC in terms of combat strength.

However, there are also players whose looking at the current situation with a calm and rational mindset.

-Don’t get too complacent. Orcs are different from Shadow Monsters. I’m a 2nd beta-tester and I’ve faced them in combat before, these Orcs are definitely formidable enemies.

-True, these Orcs might seem crude, but their combat skills are actually quite impressive. However, our own combat capabilities have also improved significantly compared to our first battle with them, so it could be a close match this time, don’t you think?

-Guys don’t rely too much on the Goddess. Alice mentioned that Gods can’t personally intervene in wars of faith, right? The Goddess can only be summoned in specific situations, and I doubt we’ll be able to summon her this time. That means we’ll have to rely on ourselves to fight off the Orc invasion.

-Yeah, the Goddess is so powerful that there wouldn’t be any challenge at all if we just summoned her every time.

“Has it finally came?”

When Demacia and a handful of players assigned to surveillance finally spotted the Orc army in the distance, Evé, who had marked these players, also received the news instantly.

With a simple thought, she connected her consciousness into the perspective of Demacia and the others, and immediately saw the army of orcs marching all over the mountains and plains in the distance.

A true god’s perception is extremely powerful and sharp.

Even if she only briefly looked into each player’s field of vision, Evé in an instant already determined the exact numbers and composition of the Orc army.

“Indeed, it’s a thirty-thousand army, and they seem quite formidable as well. Almost half of them have peak or intermediate Iron-rank strength. Fortunately, their equipment seems worse than ours.”

Equipment plays a significant role in determining an individual’s overall combat capabilities especially in large-scale battles.

Most players have rare blue-class or higher quality equipment they obtained from the exchange store, and this equipment has been reconstructed using Eve’s very own divine power, which ensures its quality.

While players might be weaker in strength compared to Orcs, the quality of their equipment considerably closes the gap between the two.

“There are around twenty individuals with silver auras, but the most eye-catching ones are definitely those ten giant beasts!”

“Although the most powerful among these beasts has intermediate silver-rank strength, if I’m not mistaken, those should be the Behemoths mentioned in the ancient records! They are descendants of the Titans from the Primordial Era!”

“These Titan descendants can’t be underestimated… Although their strength is only at the Silver-rank, for players at the Iron-rank, their destructive power could match Gold-ranked creatures.”

Titans, like Dragons, belonged to the Golden Lineage.

And creatures with Golden lineage tended to be stronger than their counterparts of the same rank. While they couldn’t defeat beings above their ranks, they could still unleash terrifying damage against those weaker than them.

“There’s only two individuals with golden aura…could it be the Orc Shaman and their leader, the Lionheart King, like those dwarves were talking about in their news?”

Eve’s interest was piqued.

“This is probably the Orcs’ overall strength. In a conventional war, this would be more than sufficient enough.”

“But since it’s a war of faith… the power of a true god won’t be absent. Although divine beings won’t participate, Uller will definitely send some of his legendary-ranked servants!”

Evé contemplated for a moment and partially strengthened her divine perception to observe the Orc army more closely, in order to give more accurate instructions to the players.

However, at that moment, the owner of the “perspective” she had tapped into unexpectedly climbed down from the watchtower.

“Hmm? What is Demacia doing? Is he gonna retreat?”

Evé raised an eyebrow in surprise.

However, what surprised her even more was that Demacia didn’t retreat but instead removed his equipment, dug a hole to bury it underground, and involuntary shivered as a cold wind suddenly blew into him.

He then turned towards the other two players and said,

“Those Orcs are way too slow! And check out where they’re going… Tch, they might not even be comin’ our way. You two, hurry up and bury your gear too. We’ll head over there on our own.”

“Uh…let’s hang on to our weapons, though. We’ll charge over with our weapons raised—Oh, you got a spare knife? Can you sell it to me? Mine’s an epic-class, you know, so I can’t risk losin’ it.”

“Ugh man… It’s too cold. I’m turning off my temperature sensitivity so I won’t freeze to death.”

After saying this, Demacia paused for a moment to open his in-game settings and then finally stopped shivering.

“Hurry up, you two. If we run faster, we can reach those orcs in a quarter of an hour at most. If we’re lucky, we’ll be done before dinner.”

“Today, I’ll show you how I’ve fooled the Orcs just like back in the day!”

Demacia proudly declared.

The two newbies: “…”

Evé was dumbfounded.

Is he going undercover again?

Demacia, on the other hand, was brimming with excitement.

After also burying their equipment he led the two newbies, who were now also shivering from the cold, but equally just as excited, towards the direction of the Orc army.

As they ran, Demacia even started a livestream, naming the stream “Demacia Takes You to the Orc Camp” and quickly posted the link on the forum.

Soon, players who were already paying close attention to any news regarding the Orcs began to enter the livestream one after another, driven by curiosity.

-Lol…is Demacia playing Infenal Affairs again?

-Don’t say that; he’s good at going undercover. Remember how he cross-dressed as a honeypot before?

-Lmao!

Demacia’s actions were swift.

He made no attempt to conceal himself, waving his arms high with a single knife and almost naked, as if he were afraid the orcs wouldn’t see him.

He shouted and screamed loudly as he ran towards the marching army.

Naturally, the Orcs eventually ended up noticing the trio.

“…Elves?”

Seeing three elves, almost naked and with their faces turning blue from the cold, running towards them and waving their weapons in a crude manner, Lionheart King Imsh and the Chief Shaman looked at each other, utterly baffled.

“Capture them.”

King Imsh said in a deep voice.

Soon, a group of orcs swarmed up and tied up these almost naked three elves who seemed to be in a panic and completely out of their minds.

They easily disarmed the trio and bound them, before bringing them in front of the Orc King and the Chief Shaman.

Looking at the equipment worn by the two, obviously of higher quality than the surrounding Orcs and the pressure emanating from the two regal-looking Orcs made Demacia excited.

These two Orcs… are definitely the main bosses of this questline!

Looking at Demacia’s excitement, the chief shaman frowned slightly.

Meanwhile, Lionheart King Imsh glanced at the three elves with interest before silently turning his gaze at the Chief Shaman, as if asking her what she wanted to do with the trio.

“Your Liege, these three elves—”

The chief shaman stated in a cold voice,

“Kill them as sacrifices.”

Demacia’s excited smile immediately froze upon hearing it.

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