"Welcome, players, to the battlefield!"
"Get ready to face your first major guild war! Dream Avenue, Infinito, Beast Den, TwinThieves!"
Almost one thousand members of Dream Avenue stood on top of a sprawling hill, sticking out their chests proudly. Most people enjoyed the solemn looks others were giving them.
After Hotpot had finished Meyhran's quest, there was not much time left of the day. Eager to have their equipment upgraded Liam's friends had sent the veteran into the smithy. Meanwhile Cyclone urged the rest of the friends, except for Fortune and Quickstep, to farm the spy-hunting quest they had used previously to level up.
Within a few hours everyone had reached level 49 and had received at least one equipment on rank 2, experiencing an all-around boost to their strength. After that, the day had been over and the friends had gone to rest early, preparing for the upcoming guild war.
Today Dream Avenue had gathered with high expectations. This was the fifth guild war in total, which made it a major war. Today only guilds of similar strength would face off. After drawing a difficult enemy like Force of Nature in the first guild war, Dream Avenue had had more luck afterwards. Their other enemies didn't cause them much trouble and the guild achieved a record of four wins and zero losses.
Now that the major war approached only guilds with a similar record would be matched against each other. It was obvious that there would be no weak opponents.
And yet Dream Avenue was still seen as the favourite. So far, they were the only guild among the top guilds of Falva Star to successfully win a territory war. Thus, their top players held a daunting level lead, intimidating all the other guilds.
Even Mountain Lord wore a solemn expression as he looked at Liam and his friends. Originally his guild Infinito was quite optimistic for the upcoming guild war. Their plan was to earn lots of points to buy powerful magic scrolls and then tackle a territory war. However, now that Dream Avenue was present, he knew that not everything might go as planned. They could only hope that the war's format was in their favour.
Thinking of the format the red-haired dwarf scanned his surroundings. Like the other three guilds, Infinito was placed on a large, flat-topped, grassy hill. The four hills were facing each other and were separated by a rippling, transparent barrier.
In the valley at the centre of the four hills were four large arenas, the dusty ground not showing any signs of enemies. And above their heads was a cloudy sky creating a gloomy atmosphere. The cold breeze blowing against everyone's bodies didn't do anything to loosen the mood.
Mountain Lord took a deep breath and swiped his eyes over the other guilds. He had heard of Beast Den and TwinThieves before. Both of them were solid guilds but not among the top. Mountain Lord didn't consider them a serious competitor. However, he couldn't completely disregard them either. Perhaps the chosen format just so happened to suit them. But they would only know after C's introduction, which finally continued:
"The rules of this war will be as follows:
Each guild is based atop one of four hills. These hills are separated by a barrier which can not be crossed.
You will be given a preparation time of 30 minutes to fortify your base in whichever form you like using the 1000 points you are granted at the start.
After thirty minutes hordes of enemies will begin to attack the four bases. Killing one enemy grants 0,5 points.
During the guild war you will not have access to any of your consumables. You can only redeem consumables or their materials by spending points. Consumables can be used to aid yourself or slow down the enemy.
As the war progresses each guild will have to complete a set of challenges in their arena. Challenges can be of both PvP or PvE. The players participating in the challenges will be chosen by the guild leader. No player can compete twice. Each successfully accomplished challenge rewards you with points. The amount increases with each subsequent challenge.
The guild which first completes all 15 challenges wins the guild war, earning an additional 10.000 points.
If a player dies, they will have to leave the guild war.
If no guild can complete all 15 challenges within six hours the guild war ends without determining a victor!"
After C explained everything, the scene fell silent. All the players went through the rules, committing them to memory. Everyone quickly figured out the key part. This guild war was a race and whoever finished first would win a grand prize of 10.000 points!
This large number of points was enough to buy the second territory war order at 5000 points and still have enough left to splurge. Such a generous reward could only be claimed during a major guild war. Subtly all eyes shifted to Dream Avenue again.
Fat Tiger frowned heavily. After the last time they faced Dream Avenue in the Norther Desert, there have been some changes to his guild. His comrade Glorious Sunrise had given up his own guild and merged it into Beast Den, quickly filling up the 1000 available spots with high quality players.
But although this move gave Beast Den a solid foundation they never bothered to cross Dream Avenue again. Even when offered money they remained steadfast and instead focused on legitimately growing their own guild. It was a cruel twist of fate that they now had to face Dream Avenue in the major guild war.
On the last hill was a guild which had only made a name for them recently. TwinThieves was also a merger of two organizations similar to Beast Den. At its front stood a pale-faced man with sharp eyes. He wore black leather clothes, giving him the look of someone who knew what it meant to do everything for a chance at survival. He was called Sevrance, the original founder of TwinThieves.
The guild mainly consisted of those who worked in the shadows in real life. Gangsters and mercenaries who saw the potential of the game or used it to vent their aggressive tendencies flocked towards TwinThieves. Surprisingly Sevrance managed to integrate them all into the guild, leading with skills, charisma, and ruthlessness.
But even Sevrance knew that the unruly mob was difficult to control alone. Judging from the guild's name perhaps it had always been his goal to invite someone else to become his vice leader. Nevertheless, it was quite a surprise to many when Miss I never Miss joined the guild together with her Sharpshooter Mercenaries. The powerful team was a perfect addition to the guild, alleviating their lack of top players, sparking the sudden rise of TwinThieves.
"Hmpf. Still not our enemies!"
Cyclone and Balm raised their heads arrogantly as they received all this information from Sun's Knight. They stood around a small table at the centre of the hill which was used to plan their base. Surrounding this place were the guild's core members and their NPCs.
Liam glanced at the two guild leaders. Cyclone and Balm weren't entirely wrong but it was never good to be arrogant. He told himself not to underestimate the enemy, voicing his own opinion:
"In this war we clearly are the favourites. But the other guilds also know this. Even without communicating beforehand it is highly likely that they will all target us. In my opinion we should focus on defence and not waste points on attacking other guilds. With our strength we will be the first to complete all the challenges if we don't waste time."
A few of the friends nodded in agreement. Seeing this, Quickstep could only sigh:
"A pity. I was looking forward to some PvP action. Wouldn't it be awesome if we alone could kick out all the other guilds?"
"Yeah, babe! I think we should try it. Afterwards we can win the war in peace."
The suggestion of the couple wasn't unpopular among the core members. But Bleary Mirage unfortunately had to shatter their fantasies:
"Don't you see that barrier? We can't even reach the enemies. Only by using our points can we buy items which allow us to cross the barriers. But in my opinion, that's a waste of time and resources for us. We should honestly focus on the challenges."
"Hmm, ok…", agreed Quickstep reluctantly.
"Don't worry. You heard what C said. There will be some PvP challenges. You won't be without action."
Hearing this, Quickstep and Silent Acacia were satisfied, looking forward to it. Liam couldn't bring himself to tell them that they might be needed in a PvE challenge, thus barring them from other challenges.
Afterwards the friends ignored the topic of challenges and discussed how to build their base. They decided on a circular stronghold which was just enough to comfortably hold all the guild members.
Thanks to Fonor's ability to decrease the cost of buildings by 20% the guild could splurge a bit extra. Although Liam had never participated in a war of exactly this format, he had experienced similar ones, giving his friends some clues, upon which they adjusted the layout some more.