While Neffie was not having much luck in persuading anyone to let her go to the Southern Continent, most of the other skilled fighters in the area were having no such issues. They all understood that they would need to be Mythic Awakened to fight, and a few dozen of them were already, but the others had devised a plan.
Ironically, it was exactly the same plan that Neffie had come up with, but for a different request. They wanted the Watchers to grant them a Mythic Skill so that they would gain the awakened status and be able to join the upcoming fight.
Victor had moved up to the tower for the time being, so that their experimental area wasn't invaded by a mass of transfers. Now that he was in clear sight, nobody came to the basement levels to bother their work. Instead, they all crowded around to see what he had to say about their proposal that he should bolster the Guild members with Mythic skills.
[Everyone listen up, I will only say this once. I will offer one single contestant a Mythic reward at the end of the day. Everyone who manages two levels better than their previous record today will be entered in the contest. I have a record of those who did so before I came upstairs, so don't worry if you got a good spot in line today.
Now, everyone get to work and prove that you really are hard-working and deserving of a Mythic treat from the Watchers.]
That got everyone suitably motivated, and the transfers in line were already discussing strategies to deal with the most difficult of their opponents. Every class had different strengths and weaknesses, so the ones they had issues with covered almost everything, but that also meant that there was almost guaranteed to be someone in line who had already found a solution to their issues.
For example, the Berserkers had found a tell in a number of spell activations that would allow them to dodge at the last second to close the distance with various spell casters.
The Crusaders had found different weapon combinations that worked better on certain opponents, while the mages had found ways for casters to deal with close combatants without burning through all their mana in the process.
In a long tower fight, mana conservation was essential to every class, not just the spell casting ones. so any advice that let you survive without using spells was valuable today.
Even for the lone Elven Puppet Master, who had come to visit Port Nefheim today, looking for fresh seafood and a trip to the now famous trial tower, had a lot to learn from these conversations. She learned what to summon, what she would be best off directing them to try, and how to best support them inside the trials.
The tower adjusted the difficulty by class. Not much, and within their own level, but it meant that the strongest and weakest classes would still find a challenge on every floor.
For example, where a warrior often found low counts of strong enemies in the lower levels, a summoner found higher enemy counts, as the tower worked to offset their advantages.
"Couldn't you open it up to more than just the one winner? If someone is going to attack the guild and the cities we protect, it's best if we have the largest possible force, right?" One of the warriors asked Victor as he reached the front of the line.
"That is a very good way to get a lot of Guild Members killed. Fighting as an awakened transfer isn't the same as when you are working your way up through the levels to gain power. The strategy is different because of the limited number of damaging skills that you can use to damage your enemies. So instead, a lot of focus is on draining, exhausting, and controlling them." Victor explained.
That made sense to the people in line. If they could only use one or two abilities to actually hurt their target, they would need to take a very different approach than they would against a nonawakened target.
Most of them couldn't even imagine what the combat in the Southern Continent looked like, but they also didn't understand that one Mythic skill was the very minimum, not where most of the Awakened area transfers stayed.
Here, Mythic Skills were just that, a Myth. There, they were more common, and essential to survival if you wanted to hunt the beasts that roamed the wilderness or protect a city.
Victor was finally starting to feel like the pet sitter that his Spell had been designed to be. Everyone wanted something, they were all whiny and demanding, or in a big hurry for no reason. Normally he was treated as more of an advisor.
He liked the old treatment better.
"I will be staying with the one winner for today. If there is a particularly outstanding entry, I may grant them an extra bonus on top of the daily reward, so everyone, continue to work hard. Even if you don't win today, if you show up tomorrow, your entries from today will be put back into consideration."
Victor smiled in satisfaction as his words calmed and focused the transfers. One or two winners a day made little difference to the number of people in line, but telling them that they would have a chance every day until the battle if they just kept trying was enough to calm them down.
Mortals really were simple creatures.
In Blood Sands Castle the situation was much the same, only they had what looked like half the Landis army in line today, eager to try to get a reward that would benefit their nation long after the battle to assist their Darklight Host allies ended.
If even one of them could get a Mythic Skill, either from the tower itself, or a reward from the Watchers, the Kingdom of Landis would have a new champion and a much more secure position in the region.
They still faced a lot of rebels, Pirates, and other nuisances, though the conflict with the Orcs was in a ceasefire. That was the closest that the Orcs usually came to a peace treaty because they never knew when it could be fun or important to attack someone again.
The orcish territories were suspiciously quiet today, lacking the usual armies and ongoing contests that were a central part of the Orcish Culture.
The elite warriors of every Clan had gone to Long Fang Valley for a grand contest in the Training Tower. They would compete with each other both in pure power, and level-adjusted accomplishments for their up-and-coming youths. They weren't as worried about getting the one spot that every tower's Watchers had agreed to reward, but proving themselves to their Clan was more important than everything else, so losing was not an option.
At the forefront of their force were the Yellow Tusk Clan, now led by Clan Champion Morgan, who had bested every warrior of the Clan to take over the position only two weeks ago, after getting a Quest Reward from the Training Tower on a personal visit.
She was one of the three Mythic Awakened Orcs in her Clan, and the only one that was a direct combat class. The others were a Seer and a Healer.
The Clan viewed this as proof of the Laughing God's favor. They had more than warriors, they had the mightiest healer, and an excellent seer that could predict the best battle strategies for their Clan. A few of the other Clans had powerful Champions, including one that had returned from the Southern Continent to his Clan when he heard of the war against Landis after the changes began.
That had initially given them a great advantage, but the warriors of the Yellow Tusk Clan were much stronger on average, so they had maintained the leading position among the Clans that guided the Orcish people of the Central Continent.
What he did have was a much better understanding of group battles as an Awakened fighter than Morgan. She hadn't gone to war or even faced a real challenge since awakening, but her outright combat power was incredible.
Everyone knew that she had awakened, but Morgan herself was very quiet about what her Mythic ability was. Only Tuk, the Seer, knew that her ability was [Mythic Body] that let her attacks that didn't use a Skill count as Mythic Awakened damage, as well as greatly strengthening her body.
It was similar to the attacks of a Mythic Beast. Not particularly powerful, but unaffected by the damage reduction of the awakened.
With a Legendary ax in either hand, that made her a menace in Combat, and every day she trained her combat abilities even more to decrease her need for Skill usage to deal with even the strongest enemies. Now, she only used her skills to slow or control her enemies, and all her attacks were from her own power.
"Yellow Tusk Clan, we are up next. When two more leave, there will be fifty spots in the tower for the Fifty of us. All the other Clans will be watching, and I expect great things from you. Don't let down your Clan or our Great Mother. Now, FIGHT." Morgan's speech sent all the Yellow Tusk Orcs rushing into the tower at once, lighting up all the statues that had been slowly fading as the Clans waited for enough others to leave that they could all challenge the towers at once.
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