Macchiato had actually visited the City of Glory many tis on her main Oath account during the preview test.
But no matter how much she wandered around back then, she could never bring herself to care much about the city.
The reason was simple. No matter how prosperous the City of Glory was, none of it had anything to do with her.
Macchiato could not leave any mark on the city, nor could she take any items away from it.
That sense of being detached from the world, with no real interaction to speak of, was sothing Macchiato had experienced in most Elysium series gas.
But because Oath was a single-player open-world ga, and she was the only player in the entire world, that boredom beca even more pronounced.
Now, after arriving in the City of Glory in Villager Mode, Macchiato felt like she could spend the entire day in this city and still not get bored.
Just as Macchiato was happily chipping away at the wall with her pickaxe, Vengeful Blood stopped her with a single sentence.
"Stop scraping plaster off the wall. We're heading straight to the Lower District Vault. That should be the richest location in the entire Lower District."
Carl could only say that they truly lived up to their reputation as a top-fifty Extre Abyss team.
Vengeful Blood and the others were obviously not going to waste ti staring at low-value resource nodes.
Players from the Do Alliance and the major guilds had already scouted the Lower District of the City of Glory long before entering the Trial of Glory.
The premise of the Trial of Glory was that the Lower District and the Bright Plains had been engulfed by a massive Calamity Plague.
Players had to venture deep into these plague zones, kill the plague monsters inside, collect usable supplies along the way, and turn them in to the Church in exchange for rewards.
Because of that, the locations of the comrcial streets, banks, and Vaults in the Lower District were already common knowledge among players entering the Trial of Glory.
It was just that in the base version of Oath, these places were nothing more than set dressing. Players could enter and look around, but they could not touch anything inside.
In the Trial of Glory, however, things were different.
Naturally, the first thing players did after entering the Lower District was "liberate" the supplies inside the banks and Vaults with everything they had.
"As expected of the Guild Leader! But won't the Vault be heavily guarded? Won't a big fight attract other players? I think the small shops on the street have plenty of good stuff too."
Macchiato looked longingly at the small shops around her.
When she explored the City of Glory on her main Oath account, she would not even glance at these small shops or residential houses. At most, she would go inside to open a Contract Stone chest.
But in Villager Mode, every shop was packed with potions, building materials, and all kinds of crafting resources she could actually use.
That was all money.
"If they co, we kill them. Saves us the trouble of searching the whole map for kill points. Let's move."
That was one of Vengeful Blood's objectives as well.
In Vengeful Blood's view, the first match of the Trial of Glory probably would not be too intense. After all, the ranked scores of all four people on their team were still zero, which placed them in Bronze.
Since they were already in Bronze, why not play a little more aggressively?
"Understood!"
Macchiato dragged her backpack along and followed the team, rushing all the way toward the Lower District Vault.
The ones guarding the Lower District Vault were, of course, elite Abyssal Knights.
At this point, Carl could see the general design philosophy behind the Trial of Glory.
Under normal circumstances, players were supposed to kill small mobs along the way first, raise their match level, scavenge equipnt to boost their temporary stats, and only then challenge this elite security force, which could basically be considered the final boss of the area.
Toyama had clearly done his best to give players that satisfying roguelite-style progression loop, where they rapidly grew stronger during the match, killed monsters to power up, and converted scavenged supplies directly into combat strength.
What Carl found hilarious, however, was that Vengeful Blood's elite whale team, with everyone running full 6 5 builds, could not experience that fun for the ti being.
What was this about needing to max out match talents and levels before their stats were high enough to challenge the guards?
Did these NPCs really think they could stand against a full squad of current-banner, max-dupe, max-signature, fully built limited units?
The elite Abyssal Knights guarding the Vault were all seasoned perforrs as well.
In any case, Carl saw through their strength at a glance. If they fought seriously, they could definitely put a lot of pressure on Vengeful Blood's team.
But they had likely received orders not to make things too difficult for the Saviors, or perhaps to make sure those big-spending Saviors had as much fun as possible.
So when Vengeful Blood led his elite squad into battle against the Abyssal Knights, the whole fight basically looked like the enemies were shouting, "Oh no! A top-tier whale! Guess I'll die!"
As for Vengeful Blood's experience, he had not even managed to use his ultimate before all the enemies were already down.
"Kind of boring."
A player on the team using Hasumi's persona, no, Hasumi's skill set, flicked the blood off his rapier and said.
"The main focus of this mode is PVP. Macchiato, open the Vault doors!"
"I rember the Lower District Vault chanic. While the doors are opening, there will be a map-wide announcent, and we have to defend against other players for five or six minutes."
Vengeful Blood looted the various items dropped by the Abyssal Knights.
Items like alchemy devices that added extra shield bars, as well as potions that temporarily increased defense, strength, and attack power, were all distributed to the other two team mbers.
"Captain, we're only in the beginner bracket. The players we match with shouldn't be that strong, right?" another team mber said, feeling that Vengeful Blood was making too big a deal out of it.
"I hope so. But I've got a bad feeling, because all the rewards from Oath's fourth Extre Abyss season have been moved into the Trial of Glory."
When Vengeful Blood revealed that fact, the other two team mbers exchanged glances. An ominous feeling began to spread through their hearts.
As for combat and defense, those had absolutely nothing to do with Macchiato, the team's Backpack Spirit.
"Captain! I'm starting the lockpicking!"
Macchiato picked up an alchemy cutting torch placed beside the Vault door, put on a pair of Sunglasses produced in Netherworld Village, and began trying to lt through the Vault door's lock with the torch.
As for why there was a cutting torch sitting right next to the Vault door, the players could ask the designers who had placed it there.
Besides, opening a Vault door with a cutting torch was already ridiculous enough, but as long as the player believed it worked, that was good enough.
"It's starting."
Vengeful Blood stood outside the Vault door, gripping the Saintess's staff.
At that mont, the Vault's alarm instantly blared. Every player in the entire Lower District could hear that a team was attempting to open the most valuable resource point on the map.
The other two teammates from the Do Alliance were still fairly relaxed. After all, this was beginner matchmaking.
What kind of monsters could possibly appear in the beginner bracket?
Then they realized what last season's hidden MMR had carried over from.
To be precise, it was the hidden MMR from the previous Extre Abyss season.
"Incoming!"
Vengeful Blood instantly spotted a player team rushing toward them.
But the enemy arrived too quickly, and Vengeful Blood barely managed to block the attack with the staff in his hand.
"Well, if it isn't Vengeful Blood. We spawned in the Bright Plains and had to spend a ton of effort getting here. If I'd known you were waiting, I would've saved more stamina for this fight."
The newcor was none other than Ryan, who was using the skill set of the new limited character, Saintess ntor Milaitine.
Although Milaitine was a Support character, her weapon was a longsword. And once players pulled six Contract Souls for her, she could also function as a main DPS.
"Are you solo queuing?"
Vengeful Blood exerted force, and condensed magic particles exploded outward, instantly forcing Ryan back.
"Of course not."
Ryan jumped back, returned to his team, and spread his hands.
Vengeful Blood focused his gaze. Only then did he realize that all of the opponents were top players from the Crimson Sigil Guild. Ryan was also running with a top-tier premade team.
"Damn it!"
This scene undoubtedly proved Vengeful Blood's bad feeling right, but he did not lose heart. He imdiately directed the other two combatants on the team to engage.
During this battle, Vengeful Blood felt that he had completely surpassed his usual limits. His performance could definitely be considered among the very best.
While Vengeful Blood was fully focused and had nearly exhausted all his ntal energy, they barely managed to wipe out the entire Crimson Sigil Guild team in a three-against-four fight.
"What kind of cursed matchmaking is this? Is it calculating our rating based on last season's Extre Abyss?" another teammate said, sounding completely drained after the win.
Just as Vengeful Blood was about to breathe a sigh of relief, several IDs appeared in his field of vision and imdiately made him tense up again.
"Don't relax yet! The next wave is from Everlasting Guild and Navigator Guild!" Vengeful Blood imdiately shouted.
"Damn it! Even the top-tier battlegrounds in the last ga I played weren't this sweaty! What is this, an Extre Abyss top-one-hundred reunion?"
Although the other team mbers complained, the battle outside the Vault still turned into a chaotic brawl.
Most of the top fifty players on the Extre Abyss leaderboard had gathered together, "cheerfully and amicably" exchanging extrely intense opinions.
In the end, whether through luck or divine favor, Vengeful Blood and the others from the Do Alliance managed to survive until the very end.
"Ha! Say it now! Who's the number one guild in Oath?"
One of the team mbers looked at the debris and corpses scattered all over the ground. He was so excited that he collapsed onto the floor, unable to move.
"If the next match is this intense too, we might have to start stagger-queuing."
Vengeful Blood also slumped onto the ground, feeling more exhausted than he had ever felt since he started playing Oath.
But just then, a voice Vengeful Blood absolutely did not want to hear suddenly rang out in front of him.
"Are you guys still using all this junk on the ground?"
It was Kyo's voice.
Vengeful Blood instantly looked up, wanting to stand and grab his staff to fight.
But he found that he had no strength left. All he could do was look up at Kyo, who was standing in front of him with a large backpack.
"If you're going to kill us, just do it. Why bother asking?" Vengeful Blood had already entered full give-up mode. At this point, even lifting a finger felt difficult.
"I'm just here to scavenge supplies. And with the shovel I have right now, I probably couldn't even break your defense," Kyo said.
Only then did Vengeful Blood notice that Kyo did not have the terrifying aura of a gacha-pool character on him.
He was currently exploring in Villager Mode, just like Macchiato.
With Villager Mode's damage output, he probably could not even break the shields of a base-ga Oath character.
"Do what you want. But what's so fun about this mode? Sneaking around like a rat and stealing things?" Vengeful Blood asked Kyo, sowhat puzzled.
"Probably because everything I steal actually belongs to afterward. More importantly, I can put all of it to use. Thanks."
Kyo did not take much, only one or two items he urgently needed to upgrade his Hideout, then left.
"Can put all of it to use..."
As that sentence echoed in Vengeful Blood's mind, Macchiato's excited voice finally ca from inside the Vault.
"Guild Leader! The Vault door is open! We hit the jackpot! Co quick!"
(To be continued.)
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