Chapter 32: The flag pole match
Levon immediately equipped the Sword of Oblivion.
Almost instantly it felt as though his entire life force was being pulled straight out of him, and the voice he had been hearing in his head became even louder and more overwhelming.
He immediately unequipped the sword.
"Wow, wielding this right now is a death sentence," Levon whispered as sweat dripped down his forehead.
Luckily he had the appraise skill.
It was the first bloodline-related skill every player received upon awakening, and it upgraded on its own over time. The level of the skill upon awakening would match the player’s current level at the time.
Levon immediately used appraise on the Sword of Oblivion.
A basic interface appeared almost instantly, showing limited details about the sword along with a space to ask questions.
[Sword of Oblivion
Saint grade weapon.
Some of its many abilities include:
Can be used to wield dark essence during battles.
Can open a portal into the world of shadows.
Can strike at long range without needing to be close to the opponent.
Can cause illusions.
Can replicate into different shadow forms.
Ways to recharge:
By shadow crystals.
By feeding it the shadows of humans, creatures, entities, gods, etc.]
Levon looked at the information before him and couldn’t help but take a slow deep breath. What he was reading had his blood pumping, but there were still far too many unanswered questions.
What was the world of shadows?
How could one obtain shadow crystals?
How exactly could a sword produce illusions?
But every single time he asked, he received the exact same response from the skill.
[Your message cannot be processed. Level up and try again.]
The message was as clear as it could get. He simply wasn’t at the level yet to access more information.
’Oh come on, I’m almost level ten. What do you mean I can’t get more information?’ Levon muttered internally, but there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.
He immediately made up his mind. He would use the Sword of Oblivion to enter the shadow world and find out exactly what it was, but that would have to wait until after the events of the night were handled.
He closed his storage space.
The moment he was back in the standard system interface, a flood of messages hit him all at once.
[You have received 909,978 guild membership applications.]
The number was staggering, but Levon didn’t dwell on it. He cleared everything in one go and moved straight into the starter village forum, where he had been tagged more than 99 times.
"Shadow Monarch, we are getting challenges from a lot of villages. I think we shouldn’t rush into anything. Let’s see how these teams match up against other villages first and then we can decide."
"No, Shadow Monarch. I think we should strike now. If we wait any longer they will adapt and improve, and going in as newcomers later would just make us easy targets."
"The choice is yours, Shadow Monarch. I just really don’t want to lose, so please pick easy opponents."
"How is this even a thing, Shadow Monarch? I think we should sit this one out entirely. The event entry fee is in gold coins. If the system collects evenly from everyone like they said, some of us might end up owing coins we don’t have. Please consider the less fortunate among us."
The last comment had over 100,000 likes.
’Humans really can’t be this helpless,’ Levon thought as he read it.
The person who wrote it had already decided in their mind that there was no possible way they could win. And seeing over 10,000 other humans agreeing with that kind of thinking was genuinely a slap in the face.
There was no room for the weak in this game, and Levon knew that more than anyone. Even he, who was far from weak in his past life, had still not survived. So how could someone think like this and genuinely believe they could make it past the starter village?
It just kept getting more baffling.
Levon had already made up his mind. He didn’t need anyone telling him what to do or explaining themselves to him. And he owed no one an explanation in return.
He was going straight to the board of village challenges and picking the strongest opponent on the list. If they lost, it would never mean death. And if they won, it meant more rewards.
Without saying a single word in the forum, Levon immediately went to the actual list of challenges.
[Starter Village 000000389393 has challenged you to an all-out death combat last survival match.
Terms: Each team of 30 players battles in a system-chosen location. The last person standing wins.
Reward: Every member of the village receives a minor reward and a 10% increase across all stats.
Drawback: If you lose, significant items will be taken from every player’s system space and all stats will be reduced by 10%.]
Levon read the first one over, just to get a feel for how the challenges worked.
Using his appraise skill he could tell the village was of the human race, so he immediately moved on, scrolling through each request until he could spot a non-human race.
He finally zeroed in on a forest elf village and immediately checked the details of their challenge.
[Starter Village 000007909487 has challenged you to a flag pole match.
One member of the challenged village will be given a flag, while the opposing village sends a crew of 30 members.
The flag bearer must remain hidden and alive. Their crew of 30 will fight to keep them protected. If the flag bearer survives without being killed, their village automatically wins. If the flag bearer is killed at any point within the 90 minute time limit, the opposing village wins.
Your village has been given the choice of being either the flag bearer or the flag chaser.
Reward: All members of your village receive a 50% boost to all items in their storage space, an 80% discount on purchases for one day, and a 20% increase across all stats.
Drawback: If you lose, all members of your village lose 50% of all items in their system space and suffer a 20% reduction across all stats.]
Levon read through the details carefully, ready to make his choice.
