MMORPG: The Elementalist

There was always something big happening in the Mythical Continent.

A week after Winter Demesne was built, the next biggest thing that was happening was the downfall of Satan’s Salvation and the new, sixth League of the Angel Faction—”The Hall of the Exalted”.

The primary reason for Satan’s Salvation’s downfall was because Savior lost twenty billion gold coins and the gradual depletion of their members due to harsh competition with the Fallen Angels and Maverick Vatican. Succumbing to the overwhelming pressure and ridicule from the masses, Satan’s Salvation had now sunk to their lowest point.

As for the Hall of the Exalted, it had kicked up another storm in the Angel Faction too!

The League was formed by five clans—the Hall of the Exalted, the Hall of Soul Reaper, the Hall of Life Reaper, the Hall of Warring Soul, and the Hall of War Gods.

Rumors had it that these five Clans were actually formed by the remnants of the now defunct Clan—”The Prinz”. They had gained a lot of advantages over time since the introduction of the Currency Exchange System—allowing them to acquire a lot of high-end gears from the Grand Auction, including the Demigod Tier “Violet Ratterlyr Gauntlets”.

Yet, due to their overly arrogant attitudes when facing the other players in “Honor and Glory”, this Clan had been butting heads with all the Clans in the Angel Faction, including the five Leagues. In just a few days, there were all sorts of trouble whenever they go—scuffles, gang fights, bloodshed.

Eventually, they had gathered enough vendetta that they were hunted down by a combined force of several huge Clans. Over hundreds of these “princes” were sought out and killed wherever they went.

Thus, this once proud Clan that wanted to challenge the Leagues and become the top Clan in the Angel Faction had to be disbanded after being fiercely attacked by various Clans.

That was until the rise of the Hall of the Exalted…

These remaining players with a lot of Honor Points under their belts had now banded together, bringing in hundreds more of members each, under a different flag. The new Clan then turned into a League overnight, becoming the sixth League in the Angel Faction.

This time, the members of the Hall of the Exalted were not as haughty and conceited as the time when they were “The Prinz”. After growing strong enough, they also did not openly declare war with everyone—instead, they slowly and quietly defeated all their previous rivals and foes.

As soon as they had settled scores with their old enemies, they too quickly commenced Project Pioneer—setting foot in the Underworld.

***

The Underworld…

This was a huge realm that was infested with endless waves of Undead Hordes. The respawn speed of these specters were so unbelievably quick. The speed was probably over 1,000 times quicker than the specter infested areas in the Mythical Continent.

This, however, meant that the Five Leagues got to enjoy a superb spot for levelling in the are of ten kilometer-radius around Winter Demesne. And that was also why no one ever ventured farther than twenty meters away from the city, especially the little valley fifteen kilometers away.

And right now, there was an enormous Undead Horde flooding into the valley via air and land, like a huge shadow enveloping the entire area. It was apparent that something within the valley was attracting their attention—there were more specters were roaming toward the valley from afar, joining the immense crowd around the alley.

In the meantime, there were over two hundred Winged Champions, wearing their Insignias from the Four Leagues proudly, ferociously defending the entrances of the valley at all sides. Commanding their pets and hurling powerful magic spells at the oncoming specters, it seemed that they had no issue defending the five entrances at all.

As for the thing that they were protecting…

A small platform rose up in the middle of the valley, formed by Terra Element Manipulation. A dozen people, sitting together on the platform, were holding a meeting, ignoring the chaos outside.

***

“Hall of the Exalted?”

Stunned after hearing the League’s name, Qin Ruo turned to Majestic Hero and asked, “They are a newly risen League, right? So, Netherclaw couldn’t come because of them?”

This meeting was originally held by the Five Leagues to discuss the upcoming Project Pioneer that Majestic Hero was about to commence. There were only four League Masters present—Netherclaw was nowhere to be seen.

And the reason for him not being present was the “Hall of the Exalted” that Majestic Hero had mentioned earlier.

Black God, the League Master of Black Jail, spoke to Qin Ruo with a smile, “Clawy? Hehe, he is probably sulking at God knows where right now. Let’s just ignore him… he was too hasty when he was developing his League back then, recruiting only people who were high leveled and possessed top tier gears. He can’t possibly expect loyalty from these people—if they had everything sorted, that means there was nothing his League could offer them. So, it’s natural that when better opportunities turn up, they’d leave his ass. He can now go sulk all he wants. I don’t care.”

After hearing this, Qin Ruo couldn’t help but frown. He had been busy finding the best spot for leveling around Winter Demesne and grinding for more levels. It had felt like ages ago since he last went back to the Mythical Continent and it was apparent that something serious had happened back there.

Although he wanted to ask Black God further about what was going on, Qin Ruo knew that it was futile. Black God still held quite a strong grudge against Netherclaw—he was quite amused seeing Netherclaw experiencing a rut.

Thus, he quickly turned to Scarlet Bauhinia, the League Master of Scarlet Dynasty, for more information.

Scarlet Bauhinia shrugged and answered, “Look. All I know is this… Netherclaw’s top ranked lieutenants, Snowmelt and Dark Dragon, have left Netherspirit’s Claw.”

“What?”

Qin Ruo was shocked.

“Left? And this all had something to do with the Hall of the Exalted?”

So, Netherspirit’s Claw had lost two of its three Big Bad?

It was understandable now why Netherclaw was distraught…

“…”

Scarlet Bauhinia nodded and continued, “Bruvver, the leader of the Hall of the Exalted… he’s really something. After disbanding The Prinz, he had secretly pulled a huge amount of Tier 5 players over to his side and formed his new five Clans. Then, overnight, he had built his mighty League. The speed of his League’s growth was even faster than your Fallen Angels, man.”

“…”

“Actually, it is not just the Netherspirit’s Claw, the Hall of the Exalted had tried to recruit people from all the Five Leagues. Of course, the Fallen Angels had just recently acquired Winter Demesne. This means that your League is in its golden age. So, naturally no one has left your League. However, each of us here has had a few members jump ships. As for Netherclaw, his League is the unluckiest one. Not only did he lose Snowmelt and Dark Dragon, around 1,000 men left his League in just one day. Netherspirit’s Claw has now lost most of its formidable fighters.”

Scarlet Bauhinia’s answer shocked Qin Ruo yet again.

Luring talents away from the Four Leagues… pulling away the top players from the Leagues… it was quite obvious that this was a huge sabotage on the four Leagues.

The Prinz… they hadn’t changed one bit—still the old slimy conceited arseholes as they were.

As for Netherclaw…

Losing two of his best lieutenants and over a thousand men at one go… this had shaken the very foundation of the entire League. Even if Netherclaw hadn’t declared war with The Prinz, these pay-for-win twats had stirred bad blood between them and Netherspirit’s Claw.

No one could stand by and watch after being sabotaged so openly.

“How many people have you lost?”

Although this question was a rather sensitive one, the three League Masters there didn’t mind at all. Majestic Hero was an earnest close friend to Qin Ruo by now while Black God was always the straight-forward idiot. As for Scarlet Bauhinia, he didn’t mind because he had now regarded the Fallen Angels as his closest ally since the Grand Tournament.

“I’ve probably lost a few dozen men…” Scarlet Bauhinia rubbed his nose as he answered Qin Ruo’s question. Losing a few dozen members wasn’t much of a crisis to the Scarlet Dynasty. So, he didn’t want to draw much attention to this.

“I don’t really know what’s going on in the other Clans in my League. But! There were only four stinking traitors from my Black Jail Clan,” Black God proudly declared.

To him, the less traitors the League had, the more loyal League members that were left. So, it made quite a bragging rights to show that he had so few traitors.

Majestic Hero shook his head and replied with a smile, “I don’t really look so much into this matter. Whoever wants to leave, let them. There’s no point in keeping people who had no intention of staying anyway.”

Qin Ruo nodded in agreement after hearing this.

Majestic Hero was right. There were always a few ship-jumpers in an organization. It was in the League’s interest that these people would jump ships sooner than later…

Yet…

The Hall of the Exalted had indeed crossed the line this time.

And to make matters worse, they did it with an ill intention.

“Qin Ruo, I would be careful if I were you. After the Hall of the Exalted gotten a base of operations in the Underworld and strengthen itself further, they would definitely pick a fight with the Fallen Angels next.”

Scarlet Bauhinia’s warning was no news to everyone in the scene. The Prinz had once proclaimed that they wanted to take on the existing Leagues and rise up to be the Top One Clan. No one had forgotten just how haughty they were back then. Thus, they too could see just why the Hall of the Exalted was expanding rapidly using one of the dirtiest tricks in the book!

Qin Ruo, however, didn’t mind at all.

Snowmelt and Dark Dragon were two Veteran Champions, sure. However, that was all the threat the Hall of the Exalted had. He wasn’t worried about the other nameless spineless morons that flocked to the Hall of the Exalted at all.

He was quite confident with his Fallen Angels’ capabilities and strength. And on the other hand, his mighty monster cavalry troop was almost completely assembled. All the eggs had been hatched and trainings had been done over the last few weeks…

In no time, the Fallen Angels would be able to launch powerful strikes with their three different legions of monster cavalry via land and air.

Besides…

He had already reached Level 59. Homme Fatale and a few others had also reached this Level. In just three days, they would have advanced to Demigod Tier.

And when that happened…

He could utilize his Golden Battle Flag and assemble his troops to expand quickly in the Underworld…

This Hall of the Exalted had just started with small steps in the Underworld. They didn’t know that the Fallen Angels had already started their plans of developing and expanding in the Underworld way before the construction of Winter Demesne. The gap in power and strength between the two Leagues would only grow larger by the day.

There was no way the Hall of the Exalted could surpass the Fallen Angels through sabotaging.

Thus, not only Qin Ruo, even Black Rock and Judge, who were sitting behind Qin Ruo, didn’t show any sign of distraught at all. Their calm smiles radiated confidence that was so strong that even the other three League Masters were surprised when they saw them.

Majestic Hero turned to Qin Ruo, wanting to express something, then suddenly lowered his head as his ears perked up—there was a private message barging in.

Then, his face turned grim.

In the next few seconds, Majestic Hero quietly spoke to his informant in a serious tone. Then, he looked up at spoke to his allies, “We’ve got a problem.”

“What’s up?”

“Netherclaw had led his men in Netherspirit’s Claw and a dozen Clans to wage a war at the Hall of the Exalted! They have now reached the walls of Moonrise City.”

“What?”

War? How?

“League War. This is another system that went online alongside the Currency Exchange System. The League Masters could submit their application to wage a war against another League. This would last for twelve hours. There would be no penalties for player-killing between the two Leagues. And there would be no penalties of Level or Experience Points during the war too. However, the ones who were killed during the war would still drop their equipment.”

After telling everyone this, Majestic Hero stood up to excuse himself.

“Qin Ruo, I’ll need to head back to the Mythical Continent…”

“I’ll go with you!”

Qin Ruo took out his Return Scroll from his backpack as he spoke to Majestic Hero.

“Let’s meet this Bruvver ass hat, shall we?”