Game of the World Tree

Whenever a player enters a new game, what’s the first thing they are likely to do before anything else?

It was to open the map.

Moreover, with each game update and subsequent release of new expansions, what’s the first thing players tend to do after logging in?

Why of course, it was still to open the map!

In summary, many players are accustomed to checking all the areas showed upon their mini-map. Otherwise they would experience some sort of discomfort should they fail to thoroughly explore or leave the game’s map uncharted.

Especially those gamers with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

And ElvKing’s players shared this very same sentiment.

However, compared to past virtual games, the map of Elven Kingdom is exceptionally vast.

Here, when they say one kilometer, they actually mean exactly one kilometer!

Moreover, the wilderness is rugged as well as difficult to traverse on and despite the elves’ agility and inherent affinity for forest navigation, exploring the Elven Kingdom’s map still remains a daunting task for most players.

In fact, apart from a handful of players who are particularly addicted to exploration, the majority of the playerbase, shift their focus to monster hunting and leveling up after familiarizing themselves with the essential locations on the map.

Those players who are addicted to exploring the map’s outer boundaries have spent nearly two months exploring the outer edge of the map.

The current area available for players to explore has a wide radius of three hundred kilometers…

A radius of such proportions signifies a very extensive region.

And to better conceptualize the sheer size of this map, it’s about the size of seven or eight provinces in Taiwan.

In this vast expanse, should ten thousand players be thrown in and spread out all across this massive map, everyone would inevitably feel that the map is truly deserted.

In fact, whenever a player leaves the confines of the cities and explore the wilderness, it would usually take them half a day before they encounter other players…

Conversely, they would be more likely to encounter monsters instead because there’s no shortage of mobs, especially in the wild deeper regions of the forest.

That is to say, the core area where Chosen City is located are the central hub for players’ activities, making it the safest and most bustling region on the map.

However, even though this region’s scope of activities is vastly large, it had already been more than two months since the server was launched back on the real world, and that equates to more than eight months within the game.

During this entire period, the players have finally explored all the areas they can explore within this region.

That left them nothing else to do but merely repeat activities such as completing quests, exploring dungeons, performing daily tasks, and enjoying some leisure time within Chosen City.

Occasionally, players used to tease the NPCs, but lately, no one dares to do that anymore, as it now affects a player’s reputation score…

Yet with the introduction of the latest update, the players now have some newer maps to explore!

However, calling it a new map isn’t really that accurate as it was more on simply expanding the players’ area of activities.

In fact, many players speculated that the developers of Elven Kingdom have already finished the entire map of Saigües but are only expanding it little by little to accommodate the progression of the main storyline.

There is some evidence to support this assumption, as during the War of Black Dragon Castle, some players who chased the fleeing orcs inadvertently reached the outer boundary limits on the edge of the map.

To their surprise, the orcs had easily go beyond the map, but the chasing players were left helpless as they immediately hit an invisible wall upon reaching the map’s boundary limit.

Although the pursuit failed, the sight of the orcs fleeing beyond the boundary clearly indicates that the Elven Kingdom’s map is much more larger and the players were only restricted from accessing it in the mean time…

Elves has an acute sense of eyesight that can see far beyond the distance and those standing at the edge of the map can perceived an even broader map on the horizon!

Previously, the players couldn’t explore these lands, but with the implementation of the latest update, they now they can access these previously restricted places!

Following the recent update, their maps boundary limits has been further expanded, and players are no longer confined to a range of three hundred kilometers but rather, they can now explore up to five hundred kilometers!

However, not everyone was immediately granted access to this new lands…

According to the requirements imposed by the system, the expanded map beyond three hundred kilometers zone can only be explored by players who are at the very least level 31.

The level wherein one could finally call themselves as Peak Iron-rank Experts.

Across the entire server, only a few players are currently above level 30 and most of these individuals are primarily composed of first-beta testers and some hardcore second-beta players.

In total, this group amounts to only two hundred people.

As for the third-beta players, even the most hardcore player within this group, Ji Gang, who went all out during the whole summer event, is still struggling at level 25.

Thus, only a few seasoned players can explore the new map.

This deliberate restriction was imposed by Evé with the intent of encouraging low-level players to work harder to level up while also safeguarding the stability and limiting the variables that might pose problems for her in the future.

Since easily allowing ten thousand players to rush into the lands of humanity all at once would definitely be a recipe for disaster!

And for most players, only through hard work and leveling up can they have the opportunity to explore a much broader horizons.

In short, unless someone is a big spender, players should at the very least experience the pains of being a liver emperor ¹ before they could experience the joys of exploring the new maps.

As for the new explorable maps that the devs have finally allowed players to explore, there are actually four regions:

The Western and Northern regions of the Elven Forest, the Dark Mountains, and a portion of territory that belong to humanity.

Of course, what made the players most curious and concerned about is the human territory.

The sole reason for players’ curiosity about the humans is simply because the NPCs in Elven Kingdom is too realistic.

Interacting with these NPCs proves to be really interesting, and with the players being internally humans themselves, it’s quite natural for them to wonder about their otherworldly counterparts.

Are the humans of this world the same as those back on Earth?

Are they greedy or perhaps more peaceful?

Do they even look the same?

It’s like seeing a fellow countrymen living overseas while visiting abroad as a tourist. One couldn’t really help but be naturally curious about the other person’s way of life.

But of course, from a leveling perspective, the Dark Mountains and the northern regions of Elven Forest might be better choices.

Moreover, there were also rumors that some players had heard from Lady Zero that these areas might hide some hidden ruins, special monsters, and possibly even cultists of evil gods lurking within it, making it a very worthwhile region to explore.

Nonetheless, exploring new uncharted maps and adventuring for the sake of leveling are two different things.

Even if they wanted explore these newer regions, players must first and foremost become familiar with them…

And among the them, the human territory which everyone is looking forward to, stood out the most.

Even Evé herself did not expect the players to show such enthusiasm for visiting the territory of mankind.

Nevertheless, she also strongly anticipates that some players will inevitably cause some trouble sooner or later.

After all, their previous encounter with the Dark Dwarves have already proven enough that these unruly cheeky little rascals have a propensity for trouble!

Just remembering that whole fiasco, wherein Demacia set up a pyramid scheme and almost scammed half of the Blackrock City’s residents still gives Evé a headache every now and then.

What will these players do when faced with their indigenous counterparts in this world?

Evé can’t help but shudder just by thinking about it.

Only a few hours had passed since Elven Kingdom went back online following its recent update but the players’ curiosity about the human lands is already growing more and more intense as time passes by…

And this curiosity and longing for the human lands have been further exacerbated after another explosive piece of explosive news came out.

Among the newly released maps, a certain city located in the human lands was originally the royal capital of the Elven race!

It was a bombshell of a news that shocked everyone!

Furthermore this news held a strong credibility since its source actually came from a high-ranking player named HootyBird who is also considered a pioneer and the top researcher in regards to Elven Kingdom’s academic lore and history.

Based on her findings for which she obtained from studying ancient elven scriptures and further verified by the Saintess Alice, the human city now known as Maple Leaf was originally the elven capital back in the olden days!

“No way! Is this true?”

“So the old elven royal capital is now actually occupied by the humans?”

“As the Chosen Ones and Brave Warriors of Elvenkind, as well as for the glory of elves and the goddess, we can’t just sit back and do nothing, right?”

“The royal capital… just think about it guys, this place surely must be full of hidden quests that can be triggered!”

“Hmm… as the embodiment of love and justice, we great Chosen warriors need to sneak into this occupied city and stir things up!”

After the news spread, many seasoned Iron-rank players who had initially planned to explore the newer regions of the Elven Forest or the Dark Mountains subsequently altered their intended destination upon learning about HootyBird’s findings.

And those players who had already decided to visit the human lands even before the news came out became even more excited.

Of course, considering the harsher death penalties that came with higher levels, the players still need do their due diligence and gather some preliminary intelligence in advance regarding their destination before venturing out.

As a result, the natives that escaped from Holy Maniya Empire became the best sources of information for these players…

In no time at all, hundreds of Chosen Ones flooded into Florence and surrounded the native elves who were at that moment busy working and starled them.

“Huh? Tips before entering a human city? What should you pay most attention to?”

Listening to the Chosen’s One’s inquiries, the elves that escaped from the empire showed a serious look of contemplation before answering.

“Hmm, If I may, I think the most important factor to consider is to discreetly conceal your identity and endeavor not to arouse any suspicion from the human guards…”

“Besides, those humans are so cunning; you must be very careful not to be deceived by their lies.”

“Don’t do any kind of business with humans at all! Their hearts are utterly black to the extent that they’ll even deceive their own kind!”

Listening to the words of the natives with plenty of experience regarding how human society works, the Chosen Ones nodded enthusiastically.

And after spending a few hours gathering information in Florence, the players concluded that they had now sufficient intel and finally decided to set off.

Over two hundred Iron-rank players from the three major guilds formed several teams and, at last, began their journey towards the newly expanded maps.

Their Objective—The Human Lands!

— 269 —

【 OBJECTIVE—HUMAN LANDS! 】

¹ 肝帝 – Gan Di/Liver Emperor is a chinese gaming slang who refers to players who invest time and effort in games and are passionate about crafting strategies and accumulating resources without using real money.

— —