Game of the World Tree

“Immortal Elves? The Goddess of Life?”

In a certain grand temple, a tall figure clad in black armor and wearing a demon mask held a parchment letter, deep in thought.

His eyes glowed a ghostly blue and his presence was so profound that the dim lights in the temple flickered along with each of his breath.

This was Perone, the Lich King.

He is the acting ruler of the Dark Alliance, a Godwarden of the Dark Lord Hödur, and the main instigator of the ongoing war happening underground.

“Heh, what an interesting piece of information.”

After reading the letter, the Lich King chuckled and turned toward the ten-meter-tall statue at the center of the temple.

It’s a statue depicting an elderly figure with a hunched back, dressed in black robes, holding a skeletal staff in one hand and a heavy book in the other.

Perone knelt respectfully before the statue and prayed in a hoarse, deep voice,

“Praise be to the Dark Lord! Guardian of darkness, and ruler of shadows, the true master of the Netherworld—the Great Hödur!”

“Your humble believer, this lich king Perone, has important matters to report…”

As he spoke, a dark glow began to gather around the statue, before a potent, malevolent power descended upon the whole temple.

Netherworld, in a certain vast region shrouded in shadows.

This region, which is closest to the Abyss, was filled with chaotic laws and monsters with corrupted minds.

Yet, unlike the Abyss below it, this region, although chaotic, still holds some semblance of order, presenting a bizarre form of distortion.

This is the land of darkness, also known as the shadow region, which was created by the primordial Death God to combat the corruption of the Abyss.

As such, it is also the homeland of many shadow monsters.

At the center of this region lay a kingdom entirely enshrouded in shadows.

A thick layer of divine power protected this place, warding off countless shadow beings that dared not draw near, gripped by an instinctual dread and reverence.

This was the Divine Kingdom of the Dark Lord, the realm of Hödur, the God of Darkness and Shadows.

At this moment, this Ancient Deity, who had once been the right-hand man of the Goddess of Death, sat on top of a terrifying shadow dragon, stroking its head like a pet while listening to the report from one of his Godwardens.

“Immortal Elves? The Goddess of Life?”

Hödur spoke with a trace of curiosity in his weathered voice.

“Hela, is it…”

He murmured to himself.

After a moment’s thought, Hödur patted the shadow dragon beneath him, his authoritative voice echoing all throughout his divine kingdom, as he uttered:

“Darkness, go visit Underdark and meet those old friends of mine and ask them if they’re interested in regaining their power…”

“Tell those friends of mine that I’ve found a good opportunity for them on the surface of Seigües…”

After saying that, the shadow dragon beneath him growled obediently, then left the Dark Lord’s side, flapping its bat-like wings as it emitted black mist before departing Hödur’s divine kingdom.

After the shadow dragon left, Hödur took out a scroll made of animal hide and gently tore it apart.

“Uller, I accept your proposal for an alliance. However, before we proceed further, I first want to see more sincerity from you.”

“I believe I’ve found some certain ‘things’ you would enjoy doing…”

The Land Underground.

A month had passed since the battle to protect Blade City, but the war still raged on elsewhere as more intense sieges, like the initial battle for Blade City, unfolds in other areas of the underground.

By now, both sides had reached a peculiar state similar to a stalemate, seemingly waiting for a better opportunity to break the deadlock.

Although the dark army besieging Shanathar still hadn’t retreated, by this point its local residents had grown more or less accustomed to the tense atmosphere surrounding their city.

The same sentiment went for the players.

Currently, only a few players are stationed on the city walls, gathering only when the dark army sends out some small groups of undead for their routine attacks.

Most of the time, the players either focused on doing business with the locals or exploring the surroundings, and occasionally clearing out the shadow creatures and other powerful underground beasts released by the Dark Alliance outside the city.

Outside the City of Blades, approximately thirty kilometers southeast.

In this particular area, the World Tree’s location on the surface is nearly 500 kilometers away in a straight line, which is almost the limit of the players’ permissible activity area.

Currently, five elves, adorned in various kinds of equipment, stood before a giant dead monster lying on the ground, chatting enthusiastically as they dismembered its body.

“Phew…finally, I’ve reached the max level cap once more. I didn’t expect these monsters here in the underground to be so tough, but it’s all worth it since their drops are all great materials.”

The tank of the team with the username ‘Optimist’ stood by the crocodile-like mob, wiping his broadsword with satisfaction.

“Bah! If you hadn’t gone too crazy during the city defense quest and wasted all your revival coins, then would we need to help you level up here? Geez, despite being one to the veterans, you always forget to save enough resurrection coins for emergencies!”

The speaker, Calabash, glared at his teammate disdainfully while cutting up the monster.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already saved up plenty of coins in the past few days.”

Optimist replied.

This was Boxlunch’s combat squad.

After participating in the defense of Blade City, they didn’t immediately return back to the surface to continue exploring the western part of the Elven Forest.

Instead, their team roamed around the underground and hunted monsters.

The reason?

Their tank, Optimist, had gotten too carried away during the quest and failed to notice that he ran out of resurrection coins.

As a result, his level, which had already been maxed out, dropped seven levels below because he lacked the seven resurrection coins needed to revive without penalty when he died.

So, after the battle, their team had decided to stay here in the underground to help Optimist regain his levels.

Being hardcore players themselves who had similarly already maxed out their levels, the whole squad didn’t mind helping a fellow teammate.

With them having played this game together for so long, everyone on the team had become good friends both in-game and outside of it.

They had even met up in real life several times, except for their captain, Boxlunch.

Naturally, when one of them is in trouble, everyone in the squad will come to their aid.

In addition, they were also curious about the area surrounding Blade City.

Currently, Optimist had finally reached level 40 once more.

After finishing their last fight, the squad then decided to return to the surface and resume their previous exploration.

“Guys, hurry up and only collect the important drops. I can’t wait to head back to the surface. I miss Nightingale’s breakfasts,” said the mage whose username is ‘IamInvincible’, whilst winking at Boxlunch.

Boxlunch: “…”

“Isn’t that right, captain~?”

“Get back to work.”

Their stoic captain replied, kicking the mage in his butt as the latter stumbled and face planted into the dead monster, which ended up him being covered in blood.

IAmInvincible: “…”

“Hahahaha…” His other teammates immediately burst out laughing at the mage’s bewildered expression.

After a while, Calabash seemed to remember something and said,

“By the way, I heard from Salty Cat that a few guilds are planning an offline ‘ElvKing’ meetup in Yaodu during the October holiday. Hooty, Tomato, Mu Bro, Dema, and the Guildmaster of Autobots are all going. Are you guys up for it as well?”

IAmInvincible pondered for a moment, stroking his chin.

“Hmm, I might consider it. Well, I don’t have anything important to do on October 1st anyway.”

The squad’s druid, Chopin, shook his head.

“I’ll pass. Yaodu is too far from my home, but I’ll video call you guys in the venue.”

Calabash sighed, shaking his head with a dramatic flair.

“Too bad. The host will be Salty Cat this time and she said that she’ll cover the food and lodging expenses for all the high-level members of Moe Moe that will attend.”

“Fuck! Really? That’s quite generous of her… even if she’s filthy rich, shouldering all that expenses must have cost a lot, right?”

Optimist widened his eyes.

“…It seems her family owns the hotel that’s being used for the venue.”

Calabash replied with a hint of incredulity in his tone.

The whole squad: “…”

“….Poverty limits my imagination.” ¹

“Me too.”

“Me too as well.”

“Captain, are you going?” Calabash turned to Boxlunch.

Their captain shook his head.

Seeing his response, Calabash showed a look of disappointment.

“Aw…I was hoping to get a photo with you. It’s a shame you never come to these events.”

Chopin chimed in, “Yeah, if you were to go captain, then I’d definitely make the trip no matter the distance.”

Boxlunch remained silent.

“I bet our captain is a total introvert in real life,”

IAmInvincible said, shrugging.

Yet Boxlunch remained quiet.

Seeing their captain’s firm refusal, the others didn’t push further.

Instead, they continued chatting, moving from the topic of ElvKing to other games, then from games to topics relating to their real life, while sharing various jokes and silly stories.

Their conversation flowed effortlessly, punctuated by laughter and animated gestures, illustrating their genuine enjoyment.

However, amidst their cheerful banter, Boxlunch, whose standing on the outer edge, suddenly furrowed his brows.

He then made a gesture for silence and whispered, “Quiet…”

The other four players instinctively stopped talking and looked at their captain, as each of them promptly reached for their respective weapons.

As a hunter, their captain, Boxlunch had the highest perception among them.

Silence prevailed for a couple of seconds as Boxlunch gazed into the distance, his expression growing serious.

“Something… is coming.”

— 372 —

【 BOXLUNCH’S TEAM 】

¹ 贫穷限制了我的想象力 – A chinese internet catchphrase that basically means, the lives of wealthy people are beyond the imagination of ordinary citizens. It mostly used in a self-deprecating manner.

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