Chapter 25

Game of the World Tree

▪️ARE THESE PEOPLE EVEN RELIABLE?

As the system prompt reverberated within their minds, all the four players discovered that a purple title had been added just below their green usernames.

Protector of the World Tree.

It looked very fancy with its cool font, and it even had a somewhat flashing effect added to it.

“Whoa! An exclusive title!”

“Five perfect resurrections?”

“That’s awesome!”

Demacia and his party all felt extremely excited after receiving their rewards.

“Brave chosen ones, please take my blessings and embark upon your journey once more,” Evé said with a smile as she waved her hand, sending their consciousness back to the outside world of Saigües.

With the four players departure, only Alice and Berserker were left in the temple’s hall.

“Alice, Berserker, this matter concerns my revival. Both of you should assist them properly.” Evé instructed as she gave her two believers a profound look.

“Yes, Divine Matriarch.” The two native followers answered simultaneously in a respectful manner.

“Divine Matriarch, Your Majesty…” Berserker, the Oak Guardian, hesitated for a moment, seemingly to have something to say to her.

“Speak,” Evé nodded.

With the permission of their patron god, Berserker breathed a sigh of relief and respectfully asked,

“Actually… you could have just let me convey the instructions instead, and there was no need to personally direct and summon them here upon your sacred land, right?”

Evé didn’t answered right away but instead gave the oak treant an inquisitive look before chuckling in amusement.

“No need to direct and summon them here in person, was it?”

Berserker lowered his head and answered in a deep voice, “Indeed.”

Evé lightly tapped the armrest of the divine throne, and the only sound left within the temple was the echoing of her finger as it rhythmically hit the throne’s metallic surface.

“Tap…”

“Tap…”

“Tap…”

After a moment, she let out a soft laugh and said, “This is simply their way of entertainment, you will understand it in the future.”

With that, she waved her hand again and sent the two followers out of her mindscape.

Demacia and the rest of his party all felt dizzy as they found themselves back inside the natural temple in the novice town where they originally came from.

At this moment, they all had an exclusive title hovering above their heads, and the system bar showed an additional line;

“Perfect Resurrection Count: x05.”

The group exchanged a brief glance, before cheering out loud and rushing out of the temple with joyous steps.

“Hahaha! I have to share this news with everyone!”

“Exclusive title! Hehe, its just only us four that have this limited edition title!”

“I recorded the entire cutscene just now. It was just so exciting man. I will upload it to the video platform as soon as possible!”

As the group pushed open the door of the temple, they soon found out that the surrounding area was already jam packed with a lot of players.

Excitedly, Demacia shouted, “Brothers and sisters! We have triggered the main questline! We have a main quest!”

However, at this moment, the players within the small town were already in a frenzy and ignored their proclamation.

“Hey let’s team up to explore this new dungeon! It’s called holy city of Florence right? Anyways, we need a level 10 melee-based player, possibly also aren’t squeamish with blood and gore either!”

“We need a spellcaster proficient with CC (crowd control) magic! We are a party of four and only need one more member!”

“Does anyone have an experience with being a party leader? Our team needs a leader!”

Demacia: “…???”

The four players who just came out of the temple stared dumbfoundedly at the bustling crowd of players within the entire vicinity.

Hmm?

What’s going on?

How come it feels like everyone here already knows the matters regarding their conversation with the goddess in an instant?

At this moment, a player approached him and gave him a thumbs up.

“Demacia, you guys are amazing! You actually triggered the main questline!”

“It was so great! Dude, I also want to talk to the goddess!”

Hearing the other’s words, Demacia was slightly stunned.

“You all knew already?”

The players close to his vicinity nodded and explained,

“Yes! When you were summoned by the goddess, everyone also received a cutscene but it was from an observer’s perspective. I envy you guys so much…”

“Yeah! The cinematic effect of the cutscene were so great! Evé the goddess is just so gorgeous!”

“Haha, I even recorded it and uploaded the video online, let those who didn’t get the closed beta invitation envy us more, hehehe!”

Demacia: “……”

Of course, a big event like the opening act the questline would have been announced to the whole server.

Demacia smacked his forehead, feeling a bit annoyed at this outcome.

Dammit, he had wanted to personally tell everyone about their feats.

Wait…

Someone had already recorded and uploaded it way ahead of him?

F*ck…

At this moment, someone approached him, admiringly looking up at his exclusive title.

“How nice! Protector of the World Tree! Aw man, I don’t know if we’ll ever have a chance to get it as well.”

Upon hearing this, Demacia couldn’t help but curl up his lips. His previously downcast mood suddenly dissipated as he proudly stood up straight and put his hands upon his waist before stating,

“Haha, sorry dude but you can’t have this title. This is our exclusive title!”

After speaking, he then continued,

“Oh, by the way, the tip states that it’s best to have some perfect resurrection before doing this quest, so you should be careful when you team up and choose your own party members!”

As he spoke, Demacia moved over and proudly displayed his status bar with the ‘Perfect Revives: x5’ stats.

Upon hearing Demacia’s words, the other person simply smiled and also showed off their own status bar.

“Hehe, you don’t have to worry about that. After the main quest starts, all players who choose to participate in the opening act will be provided a three chances for perfect resurrection by the goddess.”

Demacia: “……”

“Ahem, w-well that’s good then.” He then coughed a few times while waving his hand and said, “Let’s end our conversation here. I’m going to look for Brother Mu!”

After speaking, Demacia left the other person behind, before shaking his head while dramatically sighing.

“Ah… my title as the ‘Protector of the World Tree’ is just too dazzling, oh soo dazzling…”

The main questline of Elven Kingdom has begun! The first opening act titled,【 Ancient Holy City 】has been released!

Completing the quest not only rewards players with a large amount of experience, but also a chance to obtain more perfect resurrections and some contribution points, which will only become unlocked after reaching level 11!

In addition, to provide the players with a better gaming experience, the great mother of nature, Evé Yggdrasill, has also gifted each participating players with free perfect resurrection up to three chances!

More pieces of news came one after another and all the higher leveled players above level 9 made a commotion after hearing this matters.

Except for a few reclusive players, the vast majority were eager to sign up and form various parties amongst one another.

Elven Kingdom actually does not limit the number of party members one can have, but to better utilize each person’s strength, most players almost automatically choose to form five person teams, which is the common team composition in most virtual reality games.

Moreover, in the latest strategy guide for Elven Kingdom, some experts analyzed that a five person team will be the most ideal and efficient formation for attacking mobs. For example, Boxlunch’s party who had collaborated to defeat a powerful Forest Python also structured their own party composition as a five-man cell.

In just a span of fifteen minutes, several players have already formed up to 21 teams consisting a total of 91 people as a whole. Furthermore, all participants at the very least had a strength of level 9 or above, and 37 of them had even reached level 10!

However not everything ironed out smoothly and the players had some disagreements amongst each other particularly in regards to establishing the teleportation circle…

“What? Lady Alice only have the adequate materials for a single teleportation circle?”

“Yeah, I heard that she didn’t have the magic materials needed to make more and finding the items she needs would be quite hard due to its scarcity…”

“So you’re telling me…that only one team can complete the first quest objective?”

“H-How is this possible… we can’t divide the rewards like this!”

“How should we decide then? Should we draw lots?”

“Drawing lots is not a good idea. There’s only one set of teleportation circle materials, and there’s only one chance to complete the quest. Besides, we must also ensure the stable operation of the circle after it is built because the enemy would surely come to destroy it and the players will have to even protect it afterwards.”

“This sucks man. I think we should just let strength speak for itself, and let all the teams compete with each other.”

“Then how should we compete? Do we have to fight in a battle royale or something!?”

“How can we divide the rewards fairly? Heck, is that even possible!?”

For a while, the players were stuck in a rut and constantly argued amongst one another.

Looking at the bickering chosen ones, Berserker who had been silently waiting for a long time, frowned in dismay.

When did the elves have become so disorganized and undisciplined? The mission had not even started yet, and they were already quarreling over a teleportation circle?

Do they not have the qualities of unity and modesty that elves are inherently supposed to have?

Can this group of undisciplined ruffians really complete the mission imposed by the Divine Matriarch?

Although those goblins are relatively weak, in comparison to these disorderly rookies, Berserker still thinks that the former is far more powerful in combat than the latter.

Although he was surprised by the chosen ones’ ability to swiftly build a town, the real test was going to be the upcoming battles!

A hammer and a chisel wouldn’t help them at all upon their next task, only knives and swords will!

The Oak Treant still remembers when he peeked at Demacia and his friends back in the forest, and their nonchalant behavior…

It is clear that this group of chosen ones have never once experienced real combat in their life, and some of them even faint at the mere sight of blood!

Not only that, but the goblins have already produced a priest, which means that they have a highly intelligent commander within their ranks.

Sadly, this group of chosen ones are simply unruly and chaotic. No one is willing to obey another person and there’s not even a volunteer that wants take the leadership position…

Not to mention that none of them have even been promoted to at very least, iron-rank.

Under these circumstances, can they really succeed?

Matriarch, is your choice… really correct?

Thinking of this concerning matters, Berserker’s frown deepened.

Looking at Berserker’s increasingly growing unpleasant expression, the saintess Alice gave him a sympathetic look.

Faintly, she had a feeling of finding a kindred spirit within him.

These ruffians…disguised as elves, don’t have an ounce of noble character that the elves are supposed to have. They are more like those profiteering money-hungry humans!

No—

They don’t even have the discipline of humans either! They’re merely just a bunch of extremely careless, happy-go-lucky hooligans!

“Ding! Ding! Ding–!”

“Silence!”

While Berserker was frowning and lost in thought, a loud shout accompanied by several knocking sounds interrupted the ongoing arguments. All eyes of the players around the vicinity were then instantly drawn to the source that boldly intruded upon this chaotic scene…

There stood Demacia, standing atop a pile of wood as he used a wooden sword to strike a rock while holding a giant leaf horn with his other hand.

“Stop it guys! Stop the noise! Brother Mu has something to say!”

Brother Mu? Li Mu?

Upon hearing Demacia’s proclamation, the crowd gradually quieted down.