That night, sleep was a luxury few could afford.
Darkness had fallen, but the fields and forests around Starlight Village glowed with an unusual intensity. The swarms of fireflies and abundance of phosphorescent flora were greater than ever, bathing the entire area in an ethereal, brilliant light.
Players gathered on the streets and ramparts, their eyes glued to the system clock, waiting for the stroke of midnight.
Lila stood with her guildmates, a hundred members of Crimson Bloom, holding her breath as she stared into the luminous distance.
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
The countdown hit zero. The world remained silent.
No one spoke. No sound came from the world outside the village walls. A quiet murmur of confusion began to ripple through the crowd.
“What’s going on?”
“I thought The WarChief was supposed to be invading? Where’s the army?”
“Did the system glitch out on us?”
Just then, new messages began to pop up in the Starlight Village channel.
“Quest NPCs just spawned! They’re on every street!”
“Confirmed, I just got a quest to gather lumber.”
“I got one for collecting stone.”
“Mine is for fishing.”
“Haha, I’m helping out at the forge, crafting weapons!”
It dawned on Lila. The WarChief Invasion wasn’t just a passive defense event. It started with a preparation phase. In the past battles for the Blackwind Brotherhood’s fortress and Starlight Village itself, defensive structures like arrow towers and barricades had been erected instantly by the system. This time, the players had to build everything from scratch.
Just as Lila was about to find a quest giver, Malcolm approached her.
“Lila, a moment. I have an important task for you.”
“What is it?” she replied quickly.
“The mine has been overrun by The WarChief’s minions,” Malcolm said, his face grim. “We need you to retake it. If you fail, our soldiers will have no weapons to fight with.”
A mission prompt immediately appeared in her interface.
[System]: Retake control of the mine and defend it for 2 hours. Mission Roster Cap: 100 players.
[Crimson Bloom] had 500 members stationed in the village. Lila quickly selected a hundred of them and led the party out.
There were two paths to the mine. One cut through the forest east of the village before turning south. The other was a longer, more open road that went south from the east gate before bending east. Lila chose the latter. The forest was too dense, the visibility too poor; it was a perfect place for an ambush.
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Not long after leaving the village, the party encountered a pack of twenty monsters, with two elites mixed in.
[Scaleback Warrior] - Level 25
HP: 110,000
Physical Attack: 3,200
Physical Defense: 2,100
...
[Scaleback Mage] - Level 25
HP: 80,200
Magic Attack: 3,090
Physical Defense: 1,060
Magic Defense: 2,080
...
[Scaleback Elite] - Level 25
HP: 510,000
Physical Attack: 6,200
Magic Attack: 5,200
Physical Defense: 3,300
Magic Defense: 2,400
...
A collective sigh of relief went through the raid party. The mobs were on par with what they’d seen in the Verdant Pool Dungeons. After a full day of grinding the blacksmithing prep quests, everyone in this hundred-player squad had hit level 30, placing them among the highest-leveled players not just in the village, but on the entire server. This was going to be a walk in the park.
Lila stood at the front, her greatsword resting on her shoulder. “I’ll take the two elites,” she announced. “The rest are yours.”
She was about to charge, but a chorus of protests stopped her.
“Hey, that’s not fair!”
“Yeah, you always get the big ones!”
“Take a break! Stop hogging all the fun!”
“Yeah, totally!”
Lila shook her head with a helpless smile. “Fine, fine. They’re all yours. Just be careful not to pull any extra packs.”
“Yay! My Guild Leader’s the best!” a few of the girls cheered.
True to her word, Lila stepped back, pulled Hazel and Rena aside, and produced a deck of cards from her inventory. Soon, the three were engrossed in a popular in-game tavern game.
The rest of the squad made short work of the twenty monsters. When they checked the loot, however, the cheering turned to grumbling.
“Stingy bastards! Two elites and not a single piece of gear dropped!”
“Seriously, just a few crafting mats.”
“The drop rate in this game is garbage. I have gear that adds +1 Luck and I still get nothing.”
“We still got points, right?”
“Barely. 0.01 points for a trash mob, 0.1 for an elite.”
“That’s because there are a hundred of us. It’s basically 1 point per mob, 10 for an elite.”
“Quit complaining. The mobs will get tougher later, and the points will probably go up.”
“This is too slow. We need to pull more at once.”
“I agree. My AoE talents are going to waste. I’m built for crowd control.”
“Let’s pull forty next time!”
While playing cards, Lila had kept an eye on the battle. Her guildmates were so over-leveled for this area that the mobs couldn’t even break through the tanks’ defenses. She didn't object to their plan and went back to her game.
It turned out that when the girls felt they had an advantage, they were far more reckless than the men. Their next pull wasn’t forty mobs. Instead, they pulled a train of hundreds of them, dragging a massive horde into a single kill zone.
Blizzard, Firewall, Hellfire, Arrow Rain, Whirlwind, Bladestorm, Pitfall Trap… a dazzling, chaotic display of area-of-effect skills erupted, and the party’s contribution points began to skyrocket.
After nearly an hour of this, they noticed the monster composition changing. The Level 25 Scalebacks gave way to Level 26 Ironhide Rollers, beasts with significantly higher health, attack, and defense. They still posed no real threat, but they slowed the clearing speed. Fortunately, they also awarded more points, so the rate of gain remained steady.
Another thirty minutes passed, and the entrance to the mine finally came into view. Lila put her cards away and moved to the front of the formation to scout.
Guarding the entrance was a formidable mob of three hundred monsters—a mix of Scalebacks, Ironhide Rollers, and Level 27 Plated Serpents. Sprinkled among them were several elites. And coiled right before the mine’s entrance was a colossal, three-headed beast. That had to be their target.
Lila relayed her orders to the party. “Clear the trash mobs first. Leave the boss for last. And be on your guard. Malcolm assigned this to us personally, which means it’s not going to be easy. Stay sharp, understood?”
“Understood!” the party replied in unison.
This time, no one rushed forward. Only Hazel moved, cautiously approaching the edge of the mob. The moment she entered their aggro range, something unexpected happened.
Every single monster snapped to attention simultaneously—including the three-headed boss.
ROOOAR!
With a deafening shriek from the boss, the entire horde charged.
