The Lost Divinity

Coming to a stop at the edge of the depression where the bee already had the fight the differentiation of air pressure and altitude, I finally had a much clearer view of what was taking place inside the depression.

Not only did each of the three camps sport banners of different colors and icons to show they belonged to different groups but it seemed that the groups were also players. After having studied the forums for information regarding crafting and then some, I had become somewhat familiar with the different clans and groups advertised by many of the forum posters who belonged to those groups. These were players belonging to some of the larger clans in our continental server.

The largest clan camp was still in the process of fighting a bloody siege battle. Despite my original thoughts, though, it turned out that the creatures they were fighting were not undead or demons but instead mass numbers of ice trolls. The loot and gold being farmed by that giant camp was probably enough to make a small party of players rich in reality.

Yet, here these people were seemingly hogging it all to themselves while I had yet to see or hear anything about any of this on the forums. These greedy bastards really were hogging all the glory! Here I was hoping we might be able to collect enough wolf and troll parts just for our next generation of armor and here they were getting enough supplies for an army!

[Like some people, they simply never broadcast their discovery]

"Yeah, well, I'm here now," I reply grumpily to Melpomene. "Since this is our quest area, couldn't you have given me a warning about these guys? You know, just to be fair."

[I do not want to hear complaints about fairness or balance from the only current Plaguedman]

"Point taken," I sigh tiredly, lightly spurring the bee forward and down into the depression. However, we were quickly stopped as if by an invisible wall as soon as the harvester tried to dip down over the edge.

[You are about to enter: The Lost Divinity Raid Territory]

[The Lost Divinity Raid Territory has yet to be cleared, exiting the territory without dying is not allowed. Do you wish to proceed?]

[YES/NO]

Raid territory? One of those giant battlegrounds where you can kill everything and everyone between you and a super boss monster? THIS was where my quest was leading me to?!

[There are actually two parts to this territory, Little Hack. The first part is claiming the topside from the trolls who took up residence here to protect the rest of the world from an ancient evil buried deep below. Why do you think it was not until you were nearing the original mission circle on the map that you finally faced trolls and wolves? Inside that pit is the raid dungeon where everybody's favorite nightmares can be found!]

"Okay, so down there is where I'll find the undead and demons," I realize after reading my goddess' short and teasing explanation. Thinking of Hauntings which had grown over level ten throughout my journey up til now, I cannot help but to smile devilishly at the prospect of how powerful the sword might continue to grow from enemies at the level of a raid dungeon.

Now, the only question was whether or not I run in and make a scene or wait on the rest of my team to be able to back me up. From here, I could not tell much information besides vaguely familiar clan emblems and once I entered I would not be able to leave- alive- until the raid was actually finished.

Plus, from their numbers and activity it did not seem like they were actually going through with the raid. Currently, it looked like they were doing what I would do which was just sitting and feeding on all of the mobs the territory spits out perpetually toward the 'invaders'. Those endless waves of trolls alone were enough to fund the raid itself.

Then again, I knew that this passive play would only last for as long as it took for the rest of their clansmen to gather up. In the last raid I had been a part of, which was actually near the end game level from how late I started in the game itself, there had been thousand of people from numerous organizations all waging war either against or with demonic forces seeking to take over that game's world.

You know, the same basic story and setting used by many fantasy games and stories.

It had taken almost a week in reality time and tens of thousands of players exchanging in and out of the raids in order to reach the actual end of the mission. The demon side lost, of course, but only after nearly winning three different times after wiping out entire guilds of people. The guild I was in was one of those guilds that got wiped and I would have lost by default as well if I did not leave the guild to continue in the raid solo.

Now, there was roughly three hundred people just on this side of the territory with some signs of more on the opposite side of the depression. Overall, there could not be more than a thousand players currently involved so they were probably just farming up materials and any other rare loot offered by the raid territory while waiting.

Normally I would not give two shits about what these people were doing and would just carry on to my destination in the middle. It was obviously the raid dungeon was where I would find the mantle, but this meant other people might know of the mantle and be here to get in my way. I could not simply let that slide.

How would they know about the mantle or the first raid territory in the game? I had no clue, but if the Mara family had access to the information then it was obviously possible that others did as well. Hell, the story about Sir Pence itself was widely known flavor text in this world.

Anyone who could connect the dots between past events and geography with current events and geography would have some idea of where to start searching. As well, this was one of the few regions with a direct elemental affinity for early players. Anyone who came here before my party and I could have easily stumbled across this locations.

Hell, they could have even kept the location itself a secret and privately sold the information to top gaming groups in reality.

One of the people in my party had already suggested similar when it came to dealing with paving the road and a possible future settlement in the area. Now, there was a raid territory that would certainly give ownership of the plateau depression and the raid dungeon within to whoever cleared the territory above the dungeon. I could not let this happen.

Then again, what could I even do? Altogether, my party was only eleven people and at least three times as many familiars. Compared to the immensity of just the one camp currently fighting, we were nothing but a drop of water in the ocean. Sure, I could create allies using the cordyceps, but that would be a huge reveal of Tragedy's Travelers' power.

As soon as they know I can do this or that, they'll set to work finding a way to counter that and this. While I did not even know of a way to deal with a corrupted creature besides death or Devour, they had a lot more brains and a thousand times more money than me to throw at the problem. They would surely find a way. Eventually.

Without pulling out all the stops and revealing our trump cards, Tragedy's Travelers would probably have to pick a group and cozy up to them in order to increase our chances of survival despite splitting the rewards. It was not exactly my first choice but it was probably a necessity. In the end, I could still corrupt and kill our support if needed.

Left to indecisively pace my harvest back and forth along the edge of the plateau depression, I quickly send out numerous messages to my friends seeking advice to formulate a game plan. Of course it was decided on the spot to finish the ramp to the plateau and then ditch the wagons anyway. However, that would still take time.

It would probably be days before the others could get here and there was no way to simply send our small group of bees back and forth as ferries. Even with the infection, they were not likely to survive traversing miles and miles of plateau alone. It would be a complete waste of our resources if even just one of them went down.

"This changes everything," Go tiredly sighs over the party chat after several minutes of heated back and forth debating among the others. "Leo, you're going to have to go in there and actually scout the enemy. We can't make any real decisions until we know the other parties involved. Even if we're not strong enough to take out a big group, we can make another small group strong enough to take control of the field by hiding behind them. Go find us someone to hide behind."

"You say that like I'll just walk up and recognize people," I argue quickly, finding myself somewhat irritable after listening to the others argue about how they thought we should proceed. "I barely remember that their banners look like top clans."

"Just fly around with your Social window open and check to see if any of the clans there are in the top ten and which clan it is," Oleander replies irritably in her own right.

"More than half of the top ten are monochrome clans, though," Go seems to warn me right after the top ten clans we mentioned. "We probably knocked some people out of the running when we started our clan, so don't get close enough that they can see your tags. Your name and level might be hidden, but we can still see your clan tags and your title. As the new guys, people probably won't take us seriously and even plan to stab us in the back for our clan placement."

"Big sigh," I report softly before finally cutting communication for myself in the voice chat. Grateful that the infected harvester was still in the air, I finally turned the bee into the depression and say, "Yes."

[Clan Tragedy's Travelers is entering the Raid]

Before I could even curse about the immediate involvement and reveal of my clan, the world went black for several seconds before I came to flying at a steep downward angle into the raid territory. I could tell almost immediately that I was, at least for the moment, not in combat because I was in a proper riding position and posture. However, we were diving at more than three times our usual flying speed for only a hundred feet.

Even before my body started pulling up at the bee they were pulling up on themselves to start breaking out of their dive at the very last second. If not for the quiet sound of someone's laughter in my head, I would have been completely freaking out in that short moment of diving. Luckily, though, I kept my shit together and at least managed not to scream or get thrown during the sharp shifting in gravity from down to up again.

Thankfully, the bee could only travel as fast as five miles per hour with me on its back so going around fifteen miles per hour straight tot he ground was not all that bad to begin with. That was a light roller coaster.

Once I was back at about twenty feet in the air and steadied out from the ordeal with a confidently stoic harvester, I found that the raid territory looked a good deal smaller from inside the territory. In fact, the clan camps which were more than a mile away were now half of that distance. Just as I was starting to ask myself 'what the hell' I was given an answer.

[The instance for this territory raid expands to accommodate the number of participants. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right? Keeps things spicy]

"Yeah, that totally makes sense," I say distractedly as I examine the camps from above. Even though I could not feel any wind in the air the banners and flags of the clan camps were now streaming perpetually as if by magic. Or video game logic.

Opening up my menus to search through Social and look up the current clan rankings, I quickly recognize the first and largest camp's flags. They were the current fifth place clan and actually had monochrome in their name. In monochrome, this had been the number one clan but now it was number five.

The fact that the name Fallen Monochrome was allowed to function in this game was nothing short of surprising but worse yet was the fact that they were the largest camp. From in the air, I could see through or over most of the troll structures that spanned the better part of a mile before reaching the central 'pit' area. On the exact opposite side were two large camps and they were the only other clans in the territory.

I could not make out their 'clan colors' from this distance without enhancing my sight and even then I could not see the full emblem. Their colors alone did not match any top ten clans, leading me to wonder more about their information than the others here.

The next clan on my side of the court that was literally the middle in both size and position was some completely random PVP clan that ranked in ninth place. Their name was literally 'Bygones WERE Bygones' which gave me some mixed feelings. I was a little envious of how well they worked the name of the game and managed to be a top guild as well but then the actual name itself left a bad taste in my mouth.

I liked this place! Simply because I finally got here early, all of my usual achievements actually come with the special or early edition benefits. Hell, I even got the very first race upgrade by pure luck!

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