New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

They had gained a few levels from the massacre on the plateau, but not as much as Astaroth would have thought. A group of level thirty-five to level forty players, even in big numbers, were still not enough once divided into four ways to level up their high-level party.

The exponential Exp needed to level up slowed down the process massively. But he was determined to fix the issue soon.

As they walked back to Sunpeak, no one dared attack them. Some players had seen the action happening on the plateau, others even filming it with the streamer services available, and had warned the parties below.

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Even though it was impolite and a mark of hostility to most, the party had no time to waste with these bugs. They kept running forward.

Astaroth looked at the level rankings many times as they travelled, seeing a very noticeable fluctuation in rankings. Some of the higher-ranked players were suddenly dropping in levels, as others replaced them.

Many unfamiliar names appeared in the rankings, as they pushed the more popular powerful players down. It was easy to understand the PVP war Azamus had started, caused this.

Astaroth knew he had to do something about this fast. If he didn’t, Aces High would have many players reach level fifty at the expense of other guilds, and it would affect the upcoming event.

Khalor had not been very insightful about what the event was, but he had stressed the fact that they would need the most level fifty and up players they could get.

As they kept running through the mountains, toward Sunpeak, Astaroth opened up the forums. He was looking for articles on guild wars.

He soon found what he wanted. Since many guilds were being attacked by Aces High, the information on guild wars was already flooding the net.

In one article, he found out how to end it. But it wouldn’t be a minor feat.

The article stated that once a guild war was started, the guild base of both guilds would become flag points for the other. If one base was captured or destroyed by the other, the guild war ended for the losing party.

Many rewards came for the winning party; some materials from the losing guild’s vault, all the gold stored in it, Exp rewards for the MVP players, and much more.

But one reward, in particular, explained why Azamus was so adamant about attacking as many guilds as he did. The losing guild had much to lose.

The system marked every player from the losing guild at the moment of loss. The mark taxed their Exp by ten percent for a week, sending it to the winning guild, to be stored in the vault.

The winners could take the Exp from the vault, at any given moment, given they had access to it, and use it to level up. And knowing Azamus, he would have locked the vault for anyone but him.

He was doing this to boost himself to the top of the rankings.

‘Such a brutish method to become stronger.’

A good guild leader would use those points to boost their core members, making the guild stronger as a whole. But Astaroth knew Azamus was that kind of guild leader.

‘ToB’ had already proven that.

This gave an even greater reason to Astaroth to stop this madness. Khalor had once spoken to him about Azamus and how he had supposedly been in the past.

And the picture was not a pretty one. The man had used this same method, albeit after the event, to launch himself even higher and stomp other guilds into the ground.

Once his guild was head and shoulders above the others, he had oppressed every player not under his banner. It hadn’t been good for the overall result.

Astaroth could understand why Khalor didn’t want the same to happen. And he was willing to put himself into the line of fire to help prevent it.

Soon after seeing the posts that explained guild wars, Astaroth and his friends came out of the mountain range. They could now see Sunpeak in the distance.

Astaroth started reaching out to all his other friends, making sure they were safe on their end. I’die and Athena said they had a group of players approach them, but they intimidated them into backing off.

Silent Light said no one had approached him yet, but he was staying safely inside a city, just in case. Gulnur was playing with a bunch of new friends, and the group was large enough to scare away most undesired company.

Astaroth didn’t bother asking Khalor, since he didn’t think anyone was crazy enough to attack him. The safety of his friends reassured him, for now.

He explained to them what he was about to do and asked if they would like to join the guild once it was established. They all agreed.

Astaroth smiled as he closed his friend list. At least they would have some clout as a guild to start his plan.

He discussed his idea with Phoenix, since she was a better planner than him, and they bounced back and forth, coming up with different strategies. By the time they had the start of a plan, they reached the gates to Sunpeak.

Astaroth stopped in line, expecting to wait. But a guard soon walked toward him.

“Sire. Why are you waiting in line?”

“Huh? Don’t I have to get identified?”

The guard looked at him in confusion.

“You are an honorary Knight of Sunpeak, sire. You need not wait with the masses to enter the city. And anyone accompanying you can enter alongside you.”

Astaroth looked at him wide-eyed for a second before Phoenix elbowed him in the ribs.

Astaroth coughed lightly, stepping out of the line to walk toward the gates. Not a single guard stopped him, even saluting him as he passed.

‘Huh. I guess this rank has some benefits, after all.’

They entered the city swiftly, heading to the guild registration building. It was time to get things into motion.