Livestreaming The Tournament

Further north of the arid and ridged planes surrounding the canyons of Talker Mountain, about two days of travel away, rested the Harshwood Citadel.

From Cobblestone, the travel length to Harshwood was about four days. Thus the teleportation fees were greater at this distance than teleporting to Sleeping Giant Crossing.

Even Mille cursed at the crazy teleportation fees this time around. But in order to make it to the tournament in time, although not exactly a gift horse, they had to take it or leave it.

"Forty coins! That's robbery!" She slammed her Aerth coins on a table, frightening other unsuspecting players nearby.

Evan became emotional. "Sigh, she's finally learning." Forcing out a prideful tear.

Harshwood Citadel was the main bulwark that protected the Edin Kingdom's northern borders. Its solid walls, at least 30 meters (98.4 feet) tall, remained impregnable and had survived hundreds of skirmishes and larger invasions coming from the bordering Roxell Kingdom, a tangled country of humans and greenskins.

Ever since the greenskin population in the Roxell Kingdom rose to prominence, the humans in the country had to play their diplomatic cards properly to keep its lands stable and orderly. As a result, they wouldn't be leading any large surprise attacks any time soon.

South of Edin Kingdom was the Lustril Archipelago and the vast seas. Thus, compared to Edin Kingdom's war-torn western and eastern borders, the northern border was the ideal place to hold the regional part of the tournament.

Keeping the tournament close to the border was perfect since it also attracted adventurers, wanderers, and peddlers that originated from other parts of Aerth's Eastern Kingdoms.

As long as pesky necromancers and undead didn't show up, the nobility of the Edin Kingdom was fine with increasing their population and getting visitors this way.

"So there'll be spectators and live matches, huh." Evan said.

Mille's eyes shone. She hadn't told anyone in her party that she would be one of the live streamers during the tournament.

She and her party were currently gathering info posted on Soulbound Online's official forums. Detailed tournament rules had recently been posted. In truth, it was posted just 24 hours before the opening ceremony.

With only a day's worth of preparations, most players would stand on equal footing. At least that was the initial consideration Bell Inc took into play and had stated.

The level cap, if any, was what interested most players. For the tournament to be 'reasonably fair,' the max level was capped at level 15. In reality, to lower leveled players, this was by no means a relief.

Luckily, to Evan and his team, this didn't matter much. It was actually in their favor. They'd been working their asses off these last two days, making sure to steadily progress in their levels. Thus the Edin Kingdom's rankings had once again shifted.

Sightseer had gone up a rank and was currently ranked second in the Edin Region! She had pushed through to level 16.

Evan had also steadily risen to sixth place in the region and was fairly close to reaching level 16.

Mille hadn't slacked off either and thus kept her original fifteenth placement and had reached level 15 ahead of time.

As for Facebasher, he'd pulled an all-nighter and was therefore showing signs of fatigue, but was on the brink of reaching level 15, only a few EXP away.

[+40 EXP]

A Grand Poisonous Spider Hatchling lay dead at his feet and swooshed into a streak of light. He tapped his status window and checked his ranking scores.

—

[Other:] [Rankings]

[Aerth Level ranking: 3950th place]

[Aerth Warrior ranking: 756th place]

[Aerth Shieldbreaker ranking: 100th place]

[Regional Level ranking: 19th place]

[Regional Warrior ranking: 4th place]

[Regional Shieldbreaker ranking: 1st place]

—

Since the Shieldbreaker class wasn't one of the most popular Warrior class choices, it made sense that Facebasher was the highest level Shieldbreaker in the not-so-densely populated Edin Kingdom.

However, a player's level only showed how fast a player progressed in levels. It was easy to get carried away, thinking only levels mattered and forgetting to consider other players' combat stat advantages through layers of Soulstones and a myriad of hidden proficiencies.

"Let's not focus too much on the rankings. We don't know who or what we're up against." Sightseer mentioned during their preparation.

Moreover, as the rankings shoved, gaining levels in Soulbound Online wasn't any easy feat. Choosing the right proficiencies, stats, party combinations, and combat builds were all essential when it came to adept and balanced gameplay.

Hardly ever would a player be able to round up a horde of mobs, then easily take them out by using a large-scale AoE attack. It was more complicated than that. Unless you were in a Dungeon or a larger skirmish scenario in the game, there weren't that many mobs stacked together, ready to be farmed.

In normal EXP farming scenarios, mobs were usually grouped into four to seven, meaning that having a larger party could potentially lead to less EXP earned.

Going solo was also an option, but since every class had its weaknesses, meeting the wrong types of mobs would definitely get you killed if you didn't have party members backing you up. This was especially the case when farming monsters at higher levels than one's own.

Although Evan possessed high burst DPS, put in a melee situation, he'd eventually have trouble fending off mobs if he ever got overwhelmed. Therefore, even most rankers never attempted to grind EXP alone in new and unfamiliar areas.

Plus, having someone next to you would let you recharge whatever depleting mental fatigue or in-game mana that needed to recharge, alleviating rising difficulties, which could potentially earn you EXP faster rather than slower. Finding the right amount of players in a party was therefore key.

Looking sneakily around herself, Mille activated her livestream. She put some distance between herself and her party while they slowly approached Harshwood Citadel.

The planes they trudged upon were no longer barren and were now replaced with cozy farms and lively villages along the way.

Viewers were now slowly entering Mille's livestream. She'd put up a rather clickbaity title and a cute picture of her in-game character, hoping to secure the most amount of views during her stream sessions.

Evan and the others paid her no mind as they went slightly ahead, continuing to take out Silent Cutthroat Bandits and Grand Poisonous Spider Hatchlings along the way.

"Welcome viewers! My name is Mille and we're about to reach Harshwood Citadel! Stay tuned if you want to see us in the New Braves tournament!"

In a matter of a few minutes, Mille already had 500 viewers on her channel. She decided to exhibit some details about her character coming from her status window, revealing that she was level 15!

Comments soon flooded the rapidly growing channel with the title: 'Epic Ranker Girl Priest Healer and Her Awesome Party! Owning The New Braves Tournament!'

[SkillzProMan: "Wow, she's level 15! Lolol. I'm still level 8…"]

[SimpLord22: "Damn, ur hot! How old are you?"]

[Anonymous: "She's a Priest Healer? How did she level up so fast with a support class?"

A few minutes later, the viewing numbers had grown past 3000 viewers.

"Who're my party members?" Mille replied to the chat. "I'll reveal them soon! Make sure to add this channel and share it with your friends. I'll be streaming the whole tournament every night! It's gonna have a lot of great content." She giggled.

Mille was used to speaking publicly. She had gained plenty of experience charming her audience during many of her public appearances. However, she had no intention of revealing her real identity as Camille Eversilver since it might breach the agreements of several of her fashion contracts.

5.000 viewers.

7.000 viewers.

10.000 viewers.

20.000 viewers.

The numbers kept rising.

"My friends don't know I'm streaming hehe. I'll reveal it to them later! So, I hope it's fine for you guys if I don't pay attention to the chat all the time!"

Mille screenshot herself and her character info, except her proficiencies, Soulstones, and other details that might disadvantage her chances of winning in the tournament, and pinned the info in the chatroom for new viewers to see, then caught up to her party.

Since muting the chat was an option, Mille could always do that if her party was talking about strategies, opponents, or other secretive matters that they shouldn't leak out.

"Hey guys, I think we made it!" Facebasher pointed down the hill. "That's the Citadel."

A large, fortified city came into view. Although its walls were high, many of the interior buildings loomed even higher toward the sky. They could even see the smaller houses within the Citadel from the hilltop.

"How are they gonna fit so many players into the city though?" Facebasher questioned. "It can't possibly room hundreds of fights at the same time, right?"

"Were not fighting within the Citadel." Sightseer explained. "Only the opening ceremony is supposed to happen there."

"Then where the heck are we supposed to fight?".

"We're already a registered four-man team thanks to Lord Brickwell. So we'll be up against other teams of the same size. We only need to sign up."

"That still doesn't answer the question though." Facebasher was baffled.

"I don't think they've mentioned anything about locations or matchmaking yet. So I guess we'll have to wait and see."