New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Inside the Bastion, Players were running around, trying to reach the palace. A message had appeared in the guild chat that had put all of them into a frenzy.

‘Every combat-class player is to rendezvous at the tree palace’s entrance. We will refund their levels right away. If the accumulated Exp permits it, we will also give extra levels.’

The prospect of maybe getting extra levels enticed every player to rush to the rendezvous point. The higher their level got, the harder it became to level up.

So no one would pass on possible free levels.

Inside the palace, the officers, along with the core members, of which Declan now was a part, were already gathered together. Astaroth had regained consciousness, and he was the one to order this.

He figured that getting his troops back up to peak strength was a good move to make, regardless of if they could level to level fifty after this fight. Khalor had grumbled a bit, insisting it was better for them to reach level fifty, first.

But Astaroth had brushed him off, saying the decision wasn’t his to make.

“You don’t get to complain here, since you were the one that put us in this mess. I would have preferred grinding my way to level fifty, instead of having to risk losing everything we got, just to take a shortcut,” Astaroth responded to his complaints sternly.

Even if Khalor was obviously pissed at getting reprimanded, he knew he was partly to blame here, and kept his mouth shut.

Alienating the most powerful players in the game, and his allies, was not in his best interest. He needed them at the top of their game, yes, but he also needed them on his side.

Everyone present was given enough Exp to reach level forty-nine, as a preventive measure to keep the power balance on the core members’ side.

Khalor grumbled a bit, saying he had already been at that level, and that this was only fair. But Astaroth and Phoenix ignored his complaints.

Once they were done, they exited the palace, heading to the main entrance. Outside the massive double doors, which Violette had to unfreeze so they could enter, every combat player was present.

The excitement they felt was palpable in the air. Phoenix started by asking everyone that had suffered a death to take a step forward.

Surprisingly, not as many of them walked forward as she thought would. Then, she noticed that most of them were either melee classes or the ranged players they had set on the walls on the eastern side.

It made sense, in a certain way, that the ones on the ground would have died more often. They were taking the brunt of the attacks, after all.

Even if they were assigned a healer, to keep them alive as long as possible, that didn’t guarantee their survival. But all in all, she was satisfied.

Once this had been done, she looked at her interface. There were still hundreds of millions of Exp points left.

The carnage Astaroth, her, and Khalor had sown across multiple fronts, coupled with the average level of the assailants, made for a massive reaping of Exp.

She figured a reward for their members was in order.

“Alright. We still have quite a lot of remaining Exp. I want all the members under level forty to step forward.”

Ninety percent of the players present step forward. Phoenix lightly chuckled.

She distributed Exp to every one of them, making them level up to level forty. This would allow them to have a better chance of survival.

Athena was not present during this, having already returned to the top branches of the tree, trying to scout out the enemy’s movements. When she saw the carnage happening outside, she almost burst out in laughter.

She wrote a report to Phoenix, stating that many guilds had left, and that what remained were trying to plunder the ones still trying to leave.

Phoenix was still giving out Exp when she saw the message, and she grinned. After leveling every single player to level forty, she looked at the Exp reserves.

There was still over fifty million Exp left. She could have granted an extra level to a few of the players that were already level forty, but she held on to it instead.

Looking at the timer left to the barrier, another plan sprouted in her mind. There were about fifteen minutes left, and that would give her more than enough time to execute it.

The players that received the Exp walked back into a messy rank, awaiting their next reward or orders. Which Phoenix didn’t make them wait long for.

“Alright, people. I want you all to send screenshots of your updated levels into the guild chat, so we can keep track of them. There will be additional rewards at the end of this, if we win, but for now, that’s it.”

Some of them looked slightly disappointed, but they mostly kept it for themselves, not wanting to lose any chance at a reward at all. They did as ordered, sending the new screenshots.

Seeing everyone sending their updated levels, and awaiting the next instruction, Phoenix completed the plan forming in her mind. She cleared her throat before explaining the situation outside first.

“I received a report from Athena that the guilds outside had a falling out, and are currently either fleeing the scene or fighting over resources. That means the next bout of this siege will have fewer enemies to worry about.”

The players before her beamed with joy. Fewer attackers meant less pressure on them, which in turn meant higher survivability.

Of course, most of them didn’t take into consideration that the next wave would have many more high-level and experienced players in it.

But Phoenix didn’t forget that detail. She had noticed how most top guilds had hung back most of their power pillars.

The numbers advantage might have suddenly shrunk, but the quality of their adversaries would jump. But her plan would level the playing field again.

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She let the info sink in, tempering their excitement a bit. She needed all of them to remain on edge.

Carelessness would only result in mistakes.

“The good news is that I have a way to counter this issue to a certain extent.”

Seeing hope light up in their eyes, Phoenix knew she had their undivided attention. She explained her plan to them, getting many looks of admiration from even Declan’s ex-military pals.

‘This is going to work!’ they all thought.