New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Ad Astra (Shortsword form):

Grade: Artifact

Attack Power: (Level 47) 1880 (All stats)

Durability: ∞

Special Ability: This weapon doesn’t have a fixed form. It can be infused with mana to change shape. Mana Cost: 1000 MP. No cooldown.

Description: This weapon originates from the start of the Ash Elf rebellion. It was used to fight for the freedom of future generations. Its power is enough to make even the strongest of people greedy for it.

Attuned.

The damage this weapon would give him was immense compared to any other weapon he had seen yet. And if he read correctly, the weapon would only get stronger as he did.

‘Artifacts are way too powerful!’

Now he understood why the guild master was eying it like that. Then again, he didn’t think the man could attune to it.

While he stared at his new weapon in adoration, his missed notification icon started blinking. He assumed they were messages and tapped on the icon to see who it was.

A series of notifications assaulted his eyes and ears, as he saw belatedly what every other player had already seen in the sky. His eyes widened.

“What the fuck! So that’s what reputation is used for.”

He knew there would be a race for any quests that gave reputation as a reward from now on. But as he continued to read the notifications, his eyes darkened.

The second world notification sent chills down his spine. He knew many players in all online games ever liked to play the evil side. This notification gave them a reason to start wantonly killing NPCs.

But Astaroth always felt like NPCs weren’t just bars of code. And now, with mana leaking into their world, he was even more certain this wasn’t simply a game.

Khalor had been vague, saying the worlds weren’t worlds but a single world. But that meant nothing to Astaroth.

The only way it could make sense was if something connected their worlds in some way. But then he realized something.

Mana! If mana was leaking into their world, didn’t that mean they were slowly connecting?

It couldn’t be a coincidence that there was suddenly mana appearing in their world. It had to hold some significance.

If he took Khalor’s words literally, then that meant that whatever was separating their worlds was slowly dissolving. But that didn’t explain the demon invasion Khalor was so scared about.

‘I guess only time will tell. In the meantime, I better be careful of evil players that start to roam New Eden.’

He finally came upon another notification that angered him.

*Guild ‘Aces High’ has started ‘Guild War’ mode. Starting now, the guild may attack any opposing guild and claim resources from them. Any guild they attack and their allies can also attack their guild base. Good luck, Aces High!*

‘That fucking moron!’

Even though Astaroth wasn’t too keen on holding back his levelling, he had agreed with Khalor to hold out on reaching level fifty, so that more players could reach it or close to it.

But with what Azamus had just done, the levels of many players would grow, at the expense of many other players. This could mean a premature reaching of the first level fifty player.

As he silently cursed the stupid gnome player, his message notification pinged. He opened it and saw a new message from Phoenix, alongside a slew of others.

The most recent one read this.

‘Astaroth! You need to respond! Violette and I are being chased down by players!’

His heart dropped.

He hurriedly responded.

‘Where are you? I’m coming to you.’

‘Finally, I reached you! We are running around in the mountains outside the eastern gate. About twenty players are chasing us, and they aren’t average players.’

‘Did you scan them?’

‘Yes. We scanned them when they first approached us. Violette and I were doing a hunting quest in the mountains, and they surrounded us while we were busy fighting.’

‘Who are they and what do they want?’

Astaroth was already running towards the east gate as soon as she told him their direction. There was no time to lose.

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‘I scanned one of them when he approached us. They ordered us to join their guild. When we refused, they started attacking. I barely torched us a path through their encirclement.’

Astaroth had a bad feeling about this already.

‘What guild?’

‘Aces High.’

Anger clouded his face. Azamus had gone too far now.

He could guess that this forced recruitment was to bolster his troops now that they were in ‘Guild War’ mode. But to attack his friends?

That was a limit the man should never have crossed. Astaroth kicked himself into gear.

He melded with Morpheus, sprouting wings on his back, and launched into the sky. The guards that saw him pass over the gate as a winged missile jumped in fright.

They almost opened fire on him with crossbows, but a guard recognized his armour and told them to hold fire. Astaroth was gone from their sights faster than he appeared, disappearing into the mountains ahead.

He flew incredibly fast, creating a wind funnel behind himself, as players farming the mountain monsters saw him pass overhead. Some players were stupid enough to attack him, but no one hit him.

Astaroth didn’t know how far into the mountains Phoenix and Violette were, but with how strong they were, he could guess they had pushed further than most.

That also told him that the players following them were skilled enough to fight their way into the same zones. As he zigzagged through the mountains, he crossed paths with a group of stone apes.

They tried throwing rocks at him, but he didn’t have time to play with them.

“Out of my way, stupid monkeys!”

Astaroth pulled out Ad Astra, pushing a thousand mana points into it, and morphing it into the sword whip he had seen Kela’ra use. Although he wasn’t used to such a weapon, he was using it so crudely that it wouldn’t matter.

He spun it in front of him, sending the blade shards pushing through the stone apes’ bodies as they splattered apart. His damage was high enough to one-shot them with normal attacks right now.

When he flew out of that canyon, all that was left were bloody walls and pieces of apes strewn about.

He flew upwards, trying to catch sight of his friends. He sighted them three mountains further, climbing up a plateau, as five other players chased them.

‘Where are the others?’

As the girls reached the plateau, the other fifteen players Phoenix had talked about popped up from the other side of it. They were now surrounded.

“Not on my watch!”