Kael’s words instantly set Nyria on edge.
She clenched her jaw, glaring daggers at him.
Then, unexpectedly, she laughed.
"Heh, not bad. That's the kind of backbone I expect from an Earth-born. You've got more guts than your spineless friend there."
She turned, her gaze lingering on Lila for a beat. "We'll be seeing each other again."
With a dismissive wave to her crew, Nyria turned to leave.
One of her teammates nodded, then barked at the onlookers, "What are you all staring at? Find sothing else to do!"
The crowd quickly lted away. A few still shot curious glances at Kael and Lila, but no one dared to form a mob again.
Kael watched Nyria’s retreating figure and let out a soft chuckle.
This woman's interesting, he thought. I wonder if she's as tough as she was in the last tiline.
Without a second glance at EpicFailGuy, he walked off with Lila. He was thoroughly disappointed in his so-called guild leader.
EpicFailGuy, realizing just how cowardly he must have looked, stared blankly after them, hesitating on whether to follow.
Kael and Lila strolled through the streets, browsing the wares sold by both NPCs and players. It gave them a good read on the server's general progression. The average player level here was around 25, with the elites just shy of 30. Only a handful of top-tier players had broken past that mark.
Overall, they were several levels behind the players on the Earth server. This was largely due to the massive EXP boosts from events Kael had orchestrated, like the founding of Starlight Village, the Beryl Creek defense, and the Burning Horde invasion.
However, the Thaloria server had its own unique advantage: an abundance of mines and gemstones.
Here, gems for socketing were plentiful. As a result, socketing gear was far more developed in the Thaloria Empire than in Mythrosia. This specialization was reflected in everything from the focus of their blacksmiths to the gear choices of the player base. In Thaloria, it wasn't uncommon to see a level 25 player with one or two gems socketed into a simple piece of epic gear.
Back in the Mythrosia Empire(Earth Server), where gems were incredibly rare, no one would dream of wasting them on such low-level equipnt.
The Socketing system, much like Awakening, served to enhance gear stats. Of course, the effects of the two were worlds apart. Awakening required the rare Sunfire Distillate and amplified an item's attributes exponentially. Socketing simply required creating slots on a piece of gear and inserting gems for minor stat boosts.
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Still, at the current stage of the ga, if you pitted a level 25 player from Mythrosia against one from Thaloria, the Mythrosian player wouldn't necessarily win. As a result, the Thaloria forums were filled with threads titled "How Thaloria Empire Wrecks Mythrosia Scrubs."
Lila glanced over her shoulder at EpicFailGuy, who was trailing them from a distance. She lowered her voice and said to Kael, "Aren't we here in Thaloria to pick up Zoe? You don't seem to be in any hurry."
They had been walking for over ten minutes when a voice called out from behind them.
"Dawnbreaker!"
Kael and Lila turned to see a female warlock nad "SugarRush" approaching with six others in tow.
Kael knew it was Zoe. He raised a hand in greeting. "Hey, Zoe."
Zoe’s face lit up, and she looked ready to leap into his arms, but Lila took half a step forward, cutting her off.
"SugarRush," Lila said, her expression as serious as the first ti they'd t. "I'm Lila."
Zoe stopped short, eting Lila's intense gaze.
Fearing things would get awkward again, Kael quickly interjected, "Zoe, who are your friends?"
Zoe snapped out of it and stepped aside to make the introductions. "This is Draco, the leader of the Ensidia guild. He's also the head of the Earth-born player council here on Thaloria."
"A pleasure," Kael said.
"This is Serinelle, leader of the Everbloom Haven guild, which is my guild," Zoe continued.
"Hello."
"And this is Torren Greymaw, leader of the Wildfang Pact."
Zoe introduced each of them, and Kael greeted them one by one.
The group of ten soon found themselves seated in a tavern owned by Draco. After so initial pleasantries, Kael got straight to the point.
"Zoe told there are ten Earth-born guilds on Thaloria. Why are there only seven of you here today?"
The mont the words left his mouth, expressions of resentnt appeared on the guild leaders' faces.
Draco sighed. "Dawnbreaker, to be honest with you, not all the guilds founded by Earth-born players see eye to eye. The seven of us believe we need to stick together, to build our strength and fight for more resources. But… others have different ideas."
Torren Greymaw, the Wildfang Pact leader, slamd his fist on the table. "Goddamn cowards. So people are just spineless, always thinking they have to kneel and beg for scraps from the locals' table. I can't stand people like that."
Serinelle from Everbloom Haven chid in, "Those backstabbing assholes are the worst. I was ambushed by them and a group of local players on my way back from a Dungeons run this afternoon. They killed SugarRush and looted her Epic gear."
Kael already knew Zoe had been attacked, but he hadn't realized it was an inside job.
Lila bristled at the news. She shot a sharp look at Kael, her eyes urging him to step up and help them get even.
But then, a dissenting voice piped up. "Um, I'm not saying you're all wrong, but… we are on their turf, after all. Maybe we should just…"
The speaker was EpicFailGuy.
"That's bullshit!" Torren Greymaw cut him off, turning to Draco. "Draco, I told you not to bring this coward. Look at him, he's useless."
Before Draco could respond, EpicFailGuy stood up, his voice surprisingly firm. "I believe in Dawnbreaker's power. I'm sure he could crush the entire Thaloria server. He could probably kill every last player and NPC if he wanted to. But then what? He goes back to Mythrosia, and we're the ones left here to deal with the fallout. What happens to us then?"
His words hung in the air, silencing the table.
Even Torren Greymaw could only glare, unable to find a flaw in the logic. He was right. What good would it do if Dawnbreaker avenged them? He couldn't stay forever.
Every head turned to Kael, their eyes filled with a desperate hope for a solution.
Lila listened to the debate, seeing it as an impossible problem. She, too, looked back at Kael.
But when she saw the calm, confident expression on his face, her worries lted away.
He had a plan. He always did.
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