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With the 250,000 experience points from the hidden quest, most of Emilia's team had already leveled up past level fourteen, and she was quite optimistic about them hitting the milestone level fifteen before the first dungeon came out.
If they could get their first 'profession' at level fifteen before anyone else even knew what it was, Emilia was sure that conquering the first dungeon before anyone else would be a breeze.
The very next day, however, an unexpected announcement made her realize that she was being a bit too optimistic.
[Attention all players! An Eternal Pillar has descended upon Arcadia, and you must now fulfill the duty of the << Champion >> and conquer it! Failure to do so within thirty days will result in a catastrophe being unleashed upon the world.]
As the server had just 'opened', it took a moment for most players to realize that several massive white pillars now extended from the ground into the sky, with their end nowhere in sight.
It didn't take a genius to guess that these might be related to the 'Eternal Pillar', though the players were momentarily confused by there being so many of them.
"Did they shoot out of the ground, or descend from the sky?"
"Who knows? It's just a game, so it could be either."
"Damn it, the game designer is so hateful for not even letting us see it!"
Given how 'realistic' everything in Arcadia was, they were sure that the 'cinematic' of hundreds of giant marble pillars shooting out from the ground, or massive 'spears' descending from the sky, would have been amazing, to say the least. After all, even just looking at the 'end result', many of them couldn't help but feel that all those real 'modern marvels' paled in comparison.
But the sight alone wasn't enough to leave the players stunned for too long, and they soon came back to their senses.
"Wait a minute… isn't this similar to one of those 'special events' in the other games?"
"Does that mean we'll get lots of rewards?"
"Finally! This has to be the stingiest game I've ever played!"
Had this kind of thing happened in the real world, probably very few would dare take the first step towards this unknown danger. But as Arcadia was a 'game', it was impossible for any sort of 'fear' to overwhelm the curiosity of the players.
"Let's go quickly!"
"We can't let the other teams get to it first!"
Some rushed directly to the closest 'pillar', but not everyone was quite as na?ve.
Everyone had already figured out that the monsters in the mainland weren't quite as easy as the ones in the beginner village, and were actually incredibly dangerous to hunt solo.
A 'danger map' of several areas of Arcadia had already been created by crowdsourcing information from 'unfortunate' players, and quite a few 'safe zones' had clearly been marked out by the community.
'Smarter 'players never ventured out of these safe zones, and naturally, the pillar they headed towards also had to be in that area.
Even if death didn't mean the 'end' in Arcadia, losing both level and resources was not a good feeling, and no one wanted to be left behind by everyone else.
Unfortunately, however, this confidence in their own assumptions and the 'map' soon sealed the fate of these players.
"AHHH!"
"What the hell is that?!"
"Help—!"
As it turned out, the pillars in these 'safe zones' with relatively 'easier' foes were now surrounded by incredibly deadly monsters, and most of the players could barely last a second against their 'ambush'.
Of course, even if Emilia felt like her team should be able to handle them, she would never be so stupid as to knowingly lead them there.
"Since there are so many of them… probably not many people can enter using one, right?"
Emilia's words caused Danielle to frown, but she soon nodded hesitantly. "That's true, but… while the ones in more dangerous areas are sure to have fewer players, they might also be too much for us right now."
Just because they were a couple levels higher than the 'known' highest-leveled players at the moment didn't mean that they could be conceited. Danielle had clearly realized this from the fact that their team struggled severely just to escape from monsters deeper in the outskirts of the forest around the capital.
And the closest pillar not in one of the 'safe zones' was definitely far deeper than they'd ever dared go so far.
Both their 'arguments' were sound, but none of their teammates dared to speak in either's favor.
After all, although they favored the crimson-haired girl quite a bit, Nico and Robin didn't dare to 'oppose' Danielle outright when it came to decisions related to their team's growth.
And Crystal chose to remain silent after feeling Sylvia's extremely high resistance against her. 'She would normally support Emilia… what's going on with this girl, anyway? It's not like I've done anything.'
Sylvia's strange thoughts aside, this meant that only Danielle, the 'leader', was left to be convinced.
Emilia grinned. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained. This is the first global announcement, so I'm sure this will be a 'big event'! If we don't make the most out of it, won't it be a big loss?"
Having encountered a level hundred enemy when they recklessly pursued a hidden quest, Danielle thought that she should make sure they were a bit more cautious and steady in their decisions.
After all, while things turned out more than well this time, it could all have gone very wrong as well, with them losing a lot of experience points and resources attempting a quest they had no hopes of completing. Clearly, not having a 'level requirement' might seem like a nice feature, but it also meant that the game didn't protect lower-level players from seeking their own death.
But when Emilia tempted her like that, Danielle realized that her resolve wasn't quite as strong as she first thought.
'If we can grab this opportunity to pull even further ahead, it may not be impossible to completely solidify our position as the world's 'number one' team in Arcadia!' Danielle's heart beat like a drum at such a previously inconceivable thought.
Could she really live with missing such a huge opportunity? Of course not!
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