New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

***Meanwhile, inside New Eden***

Khalor had finished his dungeon, and grabbed most of what he wanted in it. His only regret was that he wasn’t able to get the corpse of the last boss.

After clearing up the place, and grabbing all the loot he could, he headed back outside. He went around the dungeon zone, killing more monsters, and adding as much as he could to his army.

When the world announcements appeared in the sky, he almost laughed himself to tears. He had joined the guild as a means to an end, and nothing more.

He hadn’t intended on joining any guilds at all in the beginning, since he wanted the world to know the name Khalor, not the name of the guild he was in. But, Astaroth, creating a guild, was already a swerve from his past actions.

When he saw they had conquered the Bastion for the guild, he was amazed. In the past, players had only found the Bastion after the next update, and by then, it was unconquerable.

Something had happened to the monsters inside it, and they had been demonized, along with the zone boss guarding it. It had eventually become an entry point for demons into the Elven kingdom.

‘The changes are becoming more and more drastic. This will either turn out well, or terribly bad.’

He was curious about what the Bastion’s interior looked like. Khalor had been too weak to help raid it when it was discovered last time, and when it turned into a base for demons, raiding it became an obsolete idea.

All he knew was that the walls guarding it were practically impregnable. The gates that entered the fortress were weaker, but they funnelled people in such a manner that it became a death trap.

Flying over the walls had also become problematic once the demons took over the place. The only upside to this was that Khalor had some good ideas about how to set up defences for the place.

And now that Paragons conquered and owned it, Khalor could see its location in the guild tab of the system. He ran to the nearest Undead city, heading to the teleporter.

Once he paid his fee, and walked through, he reappeared inside the Elven city nearest the coordinates. There would still be a long way to go from there, but that wasn’t an issue for him.

He now had three flying Undead he could mount to fly to his destination. Reappearing inside the Elven city, was accompanied by stares of disgust and horrified shrieks.

Even if the Undead were recognized as a civilized race, they were still shunned and treated as evil in most places. Though the treaties in place prevented on sight executions, mostly, the fear and hatred were still clear as day.

But Khalor didn’t care in the least. He hurriedly headed outside the city before taking off on the back of one of his new monsters.

When he opened his undeath portal, and a small drake popped out from it, the city guards almost pissed themselves. The alarm was sounded immediately, even though Khalor and his drake left almost instantly.

‘Tch! What a bunch of pussies. No wonder they were the first nation to fall.’

Flying upward for a while, to get a good altitude, Khalor looked at the passing trees below. Even if he felt bad for the Elves dying and losing this magnificent piece of land, he felt like they deserved it.

‘If they had listened to the other nations, they would have at least survived long enough to get help. What a waste.’

The Elven forests were great for stopping an invasion of any kind. Any decent ranger could fight in guerilla tactics for days and weeks on end in this vast forest.

But they had instead hidden inside their cities, believing them to be impregnable, and had watched the forest burn around them. Their lands had burned until nothing but their cities were left.

That allowed the demons to raze them to the ground with their numbers and war machines.

He erased these thoughts from his head, focusing on the present and how to fix this future.

As he looked ahead, he finally saw the humongous tree that was the centrepiece of the Bastion. His eyes narrowed.

‘This tree… It looks familiar somehow.’

He tried searching his memories, but some memories of his past life were still a blur. He put the thought aside for now.

Reaching the gigantic treetop, he sent his drake on a descent, making it slalom through the branches, before landing on the ground under it. Elves immediately surrounded him.

“Lower your weapons. I’m part of Paragons.”

The wild Elves looked at him with wariness, one of them scanning him. Once he confirmed the abnormal before them was indeed part of the guild called Paragons, weapons were lowered.

Something suddenly impacted the back of his shoulder, taking a chunk of his health. Khalor’s head snapped to the direction he got him from.

Athena was standing on the top of a ruined building, grinning madly.

“I could finally land an attack on you! Heh!”

Khalor looked at her incredulously before snorting.

“That was a cheap shot, at best. Had I known you were there, it wouldn’t have hit me.”

“Yeah, excuses excuses. Anyway, what brings you here?”

Khalor laughed.

“I’m part of the guild too, you know. Am I now allowed on our own base?”

“That’s not what I’m asking. You seem like the type that does nothing without reason. So what’s your reason for being here?”

“Woman—”

Athena pulled her bowstring back.

ƥαṇdα- ηθνε|·ƈθm

“Ahem. Sorry. Athena, I’m just here to see the place. I might have some ideas on how to make it a worthy fortress. Where is Astaroth?”

“Offline. You just missed him.”

“Unfortunate. What about our vice-guild leader, Phoenix?”

“Same place, same thing.”

*Sigh*

“Do you know if they will be back soon, or should I just call them outside?”

“Astaroth said something about coming back later tonight. Why? Is it urgent?”

“Not especially, no. I’m just very busy. I have little time to idle around.”

Athena had access to his basic info from the guild page, and she could see his level there, without having to scan him. Khalor’s level was already over Astaroth’s again, sitting at forty-nine.

“Well, I guess you could call him outside if you have his number. If not, well, you are welcome to wait for him here. I’ll be leaving you now. I’m also busy.”

Khalor waved her off, noticing the surrounding Elves dispersing too.

‘I guess I’ll wait here. I doubt calling him now would mean he picks up, anyway.’

Khalor went off to inspect the inside of the base, taking in every detail. He was already making mental notes and plans.