Chapter 464 - Friendly Spar
"So, you also received the invitation?" Warlord asked.
"Yes, the Undead King sure is an idiot, for inviting his enemies to this. But it"s good, we"ll get to know more about his strategic positioning and have a better chance to take over his capital once the Ash King succeeds in the upcoming war." Zhang s.h.i.+ spoke.
The group of players were all the leaders of the Super Guilds and some other famous guilds of Conquest. They have all been personally invited by the Undead King to attend Dave"s coronation.
Right now, they were riding inside an enormous caravan led by dozens of black long maned horses.
There was no one guiding the caravan, it was as if the horses knew where to go, un-needing of guidance. The ground they galloped on was dark, where a broken moon hung low. The Underworld, it was one of the rarest opportunities where the players of the Overworld ever got the chance to get into the underworld.
The Undead King facilitated the task for them, and gave them rides to his home where the only condition was for them not to leave the caravan until told so, or it had stopped.
So far, the ride had gone smoothly, where players rested comfortably inside the caravan, discussing the happenings of the world of Conquest.
"I doubt the King will honestly be leading us to the heart of his kingdom and his capital. This could probably just be a proxy city where he"ll hold the ceremony." Wan Yi said, the Barbarian had a rare moment where he spoke weighted words. And this one was one of them.
The White Ghost sat next to Wan Yi, he didn"t object to his Guildmaster"s words, but at the same time, deep down, he didn"t approve fully of them. The Undead were creatures of confrontation, deceit was never a part of them. And honestly, right now there was no known force capable enough to contend with the Undead, so going to all the ha.s.sle to throw off the player"s game, and make them believe that they were being led to a "fake capital" was not very ��undead" natured.
"Warlord, you don"t look too optimistic about this, I guess that because you lost your temple, you"re feeling left out from the power race," spoke the green robed Archer that always accompanied Zhang s.h.i.+.
Warlord didn"t deign to respond to her, but Valentine smiled and said, "To each his own, if you believe the Ash King"s promise to power is that beneficial to you, then take it." He shrugged.
This clearly indicated that the Devastators have pulled themselves from the race to power and the seeking of the Ash King"s rewards.
"Oh, and here I thought that you"ll be willing to make a deal so you can get access to "our" temple." Zhang s.h.i.+ said.
"We don"t need it, we are strong as we are, and more so than your spies believe." Warlord replied.
Zhang s.h.i.+ shrugged, he believed Warlord to be bluffing, the Ash King was a level 900 ent.i.ty, something as close to a G.o.d in this game, and if it promised power, it meant it. There was no way that whatever upgrade the Ash King was going to give will be meager.
But White Ghost on the other hand was not that comfortable, seeing that David Ruster had destroyed the Temple in the East just yesterday. He was clear about his intention that he was going to break the remaining temples.
White Ghost had already tasked a group to guard the temple of the Southern Desert, they have located it and have abstained from using it on the order of the White Ghost. Barring some rogue guild-less players who the Super Guild did not wish to be overbearing towards and block their own right of choice, none of the Heaven Dawn guild members had made the deal with the Ash King.
Even those of the players that did have said that they didn"t feel that anything had changed besides gaining a new t.i.tle, Ash King"s Servant.
Some of the players that had Legacies had lost them, but on the other hand, they obtained an even higher tiered t.i.tle. As Demon Soldier, Demon n.o.ble, Demon Captain and some of such t.i.tles.
The t.i.tles changed depending on the level of the Legacy sacrificed. But so far nothing short of shortcomings has befallen the players that chose to take the Ash King"s offer, and no power had materialized to compensate the loss of the Legacy. This of course caused a lot of rioting in the forums; players have lost their hard-earned Legacies for naught.
Yet the answer from the game Devs came rapidly, they have a.s.sured the players that an event will start soon and all would be made clear.
"Your guild has been the one to abuse the temples the most, I hear that more than 70% of the Blood Ragers have become demon affiliated." Valentine said.
"Well, you didn"t hear wrong, afterall, you also have spies among us. And there is no need to hide this. I am betting on the Ash King, it"s a fair bet, a level 900 ent.i.ty is definitely stronger than the Undead King, and he has already killed the Undead King once. We all saw it. Power rules and the Ash King has a lot of it, I see no harm allying my force to his." Zhang s.h.i.+ said.
"But he is full of deceit, you saw how he colluded with the church to bring the Undead down, how he treated his allies and enemies, all was written in the old tomes of any major library of the game. The Ash King cannot be trusted," White Ghost said.
"Yes, but still, what can he do? The Ash King is a part of this game, and the developers will not ruin the player"s gaming experience, even if the Ash King is unfair I doubt he will harm us players, we are the ones making this game, not a bunch of pixels, so the Devs will surely have a contingency plan if s.h.i.+t hits the fan." Zhang s.h.i.+ shrugged.
"You"re trusting the Devs too much, who said that they will have it, and you"re betting a lot on the Ash King, anyone could see that it"s not safe to play it like this."
"Safe is boring, the same as you, White Ghost, you keep planning, strategizing and then by the end, you got killed first when Skelly fought us. Your plans didn"t save you there, he came in, without a plan and still got the upper hand, even if he is our enemy, we should learn from him."
"I could agree with the last part, but David Ruster is no ordinary man, it"s not that he didn"t come with a plan, he made one on the run that day. You underestimate his mental capabilities and clearly undervalue his wit and reaction, that man had played this game risking not a few coins, pixels and items of a defined value, when he first played this game, that man was risking his life."
White Ghost calmed down a bit then added with a low tone,
"Losing was no option for him, this defined him, honed him, made the hidden gem he was, the bright s.h.i.+ning diamond he is right now. The only difference between you and him, was that when he first started, it was not for the sake of gaining more fame and renown, it was actually to have a chance of surviving in the real world."
"What does that have to do with anything?" the right hand of Zhang s.h.i.+ spoke.
"It has to do with everything, look back at the days Skelly was first playing, it didn"t feel like much at first, a man in something far beyond his scope. And I would wager my entire gaming career, that if it was any one of us, it would have turned completely different. And look at him now, we are being invited to a coronation of his, the first in the game, a player adopted to be the next heir to a true King of the game.
"But we are kings," Zhang s.h.i.+ said in a scoff.
It was true, the guild-masters were all kings in the world of Conquests. They all ruled a kingdom and made NPCs bend the knee.
"We are not kings," White Ghost said. "We are Usurpers, we have taken what we didn"t earn. We have waged war against the owners of the lands, and killed their kings and took the mantle for ourselves. However, Skelly, no, Kis"Shtiengbrah, he started from nothing, a common Skeleton, then grinded his way up, ranked up, did quests that any would think impossible, broke the limit of what any man could believe themselves only capable of. And now, has earned kings.h.i.+p, the right way, his kings.h.i.+p is far truer than ours."
"You"re praising him so much one would think you"ve fallen for him," Zhang s.h.i.+ scoffed.
"One should know and respect his enemies, and if you keep underestimating Kis"Shtiengbrah more, your next encounter will be no different than your last."
"Humpf, the last time my Legacy didn"t work."
"Keep telling yourself that. You were bested, we all were. And we even outnumbered and trapped him. That guy is dangerous, and if you don"t fear danger, then you"re nothing short of a fool." White Ghost added the last line as the carriage came to a halt.
The players left the carriage and were utterly and completely stupefied.
"d.a.m.n, this is really the Dead Realm." Valentine said.
And it was as if the Pink Guardian had said, they were stopped in the area in front of the Dead Realm, where millions upon millions of Undead covered the land. From normal Skeletons and other low tier undead, all the way to Death Knights, Undead by numbers so many one would feel the need to spend ages to count them one by one.
There were so many of them that you couldn"t see s.p.a.ce between one and another. Yet, these undead have left a clear path forward for the players to move through.
The Undead didn"t speak, they stood tall, gazing upon the players, their hands on their swords, clearly a warning for the players not to do anything foolish.
A swirl of shadows materialized in front of the players, a lich in light blue robes hovered lightly in the air, in his hand was a skull scepter, and a cool air continuously poured out of his body.
"Welcome." Spoke the lich.
"That"s Du"Rhaza, wasn"t he a level 120 mob in the Ice Queen"s Palace Dungeon?" one of the Guild Masters of a powerful yet not a Super Guild Spoke.
"Didi, you"re right, that Dungeon was one of the first that Skelly brought down, he must have released this one from captivity." Valentine said.
"Oh, I see you speak of Prince Kis"Shtiengbrah, he really is a good friend of mine," Du"Rhaza said.
"Oh, is that so,"
"Yes, in fact not only do I owe him my life, I also owe him my allegiance and servitude," Du"Rhaza said.
"Well, he became a prince," Valentine said.
"We Undead honor others not by just their t.i.tles, but by the strength of one"s mettle. Did you know that he bested me in combat while he was still a young Death Knight? It was one of my proudest moments."
"Your sense of pride is messed up, how come you feel proud while losing? And isn"t it actually normal, he is a Knight, you"re a Lich, it"s already clear who will win, the moment he stepped in your close quarters you were dead." Zhang s.h.i.+ said.
"Oh, is that so, then would you like to spar? To fight someone who believes they have the ability to kill me will be a great honor."
"Don"t pull me in this political bulls.h.i.+t, you"ll just use this as a pretext to a.s.sault us." Valentine said.
Suddenly, the already dark world shuddered and turned darker. Samael, and Dagla both appeared behind Du"Rahza.
"We Undead do not thrive in deceit, if you truly wish to spar, none shall hold you in contempt after your victory. You have my word," Samael said.
"And mine," Dagla said.
It was a clear promise to the two, that once the Abyssal Knights promised their safety, that the spar would hold no disadvantage to them no matter the outcome.
Yet the thing that made all clear, and doubtless was once another sentence was spoken.
"And my promise…"
It was only three words, but when they were uttered, all Undead around the group of players knelt down, scaring the living souls out of the players.
It was the Undead King who spoke, and it meant that the players had no choice but battle.
"G-good," Zhang s.h.i.+ said.
"I"m a Sword Master" he thought, "I"m even better suited to fight against the lich than Skelly, h.e.l.l he said he fought him when he was a Death Knight that means that this guy isn"t much. Death Knights are just small fries for us Super Guild Masters. Doom Knights are the real ha.s.sle, like this one in front of me, but if Skelly won, I could also win.
Zhang s.h.i.+ looked up at the abyssal Knights, "At least I don"t get to fight one of those guys, their mere presence is making my skin crawl.
"Right then, let"s spar."