Chapter 1967: Storm Spirits
"Master! A weather anomaly is coming towards us." Saena told Adrian via telepathy as she can tap into the power of the Tree of Life and Death to detect abnormal things coming to the territory.
"To think that the storm that the Goddess of Life Demeter told me is literally a supernatural storm." Adrian stated as he immediately requested a territory quest using his powers as a territory lord.
[The Territory Lord of Avalon has issued a Territory Defense Decree.]
[All players that participate in the Territory Defense Decree will get rewards based on their contributions.]
"Huh!?"
"What is this?!"
Players that were in Avalon were all shocked upon learning that a sudden quest was issued by the Territory Lord and that was none other then Equinox. The players knew that Avalon is different compared to other player owned territories. In Avalon, the territory lord does not control everything as he would leave it to the elders of the Daemos or some of his guild members.
In fact, Avalon is one of the rare players owned territories that have great freedom and also top-notch security. No one would or rather no one attempts to even make trouble in the territory unless you want to experience getting chucked to an unknown dimension. It is also a territory where they are not heavily extorted unlike some territories controlled by larger guilds.
Quest Name: Territory Defense Decree
Quest Difficulty: A
Quest Description: The Lord of Avalon has issued a defense decree as his territory is under attack by a supernatural force. Defend the territory and make sure that it does not get destroyed.
Clear Condition: Destroy the waves of incoming enemies.
Clear Reward: Contribution Points
Failure Condition: 40% of the Avalon territory is destroyed.
Failure: Avalon's territory will decrease, and the blessings of the Tree of Life and Death will decrease by 10%.
Duration: Until the enemies are wiped out.
Restriction: Only those that are inside the Avalon Territory can accept the quest.
[The Supernatural Storm will arrive in two hours.]
The players all read the description of the quest and immediately accepted as this would be the best way to get contribution points in the territory as of now. The fact that contribution points are the reward made all the players go ballistic and accept the quest as soon as they saw the thing they will get in return.
[A total of 23, 124 players have accepted your Territory Defense Decree.]
"Huh? That much already?" Adrian exclaimed in shock as he did not think that he would get a large number of players. Still, he was not that relieved as the quest difficulty was fixed at A rank which mean that it is now relative to the number of players that accepted. As he expected, the supernatural storm suddenly grew larger in size compared to before.
[The Supernatural Storm has increased in power and size while it is getting near your territory.]
[Time left before the Supernatural Storm hits is an hour and fifty minutes.]
"Should I take out the holy relic?" Adrian thought but he actually cannot do so.
[You cannot take the item out of your inventory. You have no permission to handle or use the Holy Relic of the Goddess Demeter.]
Adrian is shocked that such a thing could actually happen since it was inside his own inventory. He would have expected that he can take out the item but not use it. He did not expect to not even be able to touch the item entirely. He really thought about not getting any holy relics for fear of it just being inside his inventory forever.
"If the holy relic is not responding then that means that the danger that she expects is not yet coming. I should check up on Saena to see what kind of enemies we will be having." Adrian muttered as he vanished from his current area.
"Master! You are here." Saena stated as she used her wings to hug Adrian.
"It seems that everyone is here as well." Adrian stated as all of his soulbounds were below the Tree of Life and Death where Saena is currently perched.
Adrian would always let his soulbounds freely go around his territory as it is the only time where they can see one another without any restrictions. Kenos was still a cocoon which is why Adrian did not summon it. Adrian looked happy that his soulbounds were actually very close to one another.
"Do you know what our enemies are, Saena?" Adrian asked.
"From the knowledge that the Tree of Life and Death has given me, we would be fighting numerous Storm Spirits. They are malevolent wind spirits that always wreak havoc whenever they pass through and area. They often take the forms of birds, but they can also take the forms of horses." Saena stated as she used the knowledge of the Tree of Life and Death to know more about the enemy.
"So, they are more magical in nature. I guess I should prepare the spell that the elders have prepared when there is an aerial raid in our territory." Adrian stated as he took out his Scribe book and turned the page to a particular spell.
"The duration will be a day but one must use five Mythical Tier beast cores as a catalyst. Such an expensive spell... my bank account." Adrian stated as he was told to not sell powerful beast cores since it can be used for powerful spells that require lots of mana.
Adrian sighed and started to work as he needs the melee players in the territory to also have a fighting chance. If only the long range and magical players would get contribution points, then a riot might happen. Adrian went to all floating islands and drew a magic circle at the center of each before heading back to the location of the Tree of Life and Death.
"Let us start. I, Equinox an Arch Demon and Champion of the Twin Gods, invoke space!" Adrian stated as a powerful energy suddenly activated simultaneously.
Adrian suddenly floated in the sky and unfurled his wings which showed his splendor to all of the people the in territory. He suddenly started to say an archaic language that those that heard it made it difficult to comprehend. The entire territory of Avalon suddenly vibrated for a split second before suddenly experiencing the phenomenon of Mana Concentration.
Mana that can be said to be invisible to the naked eye unless one is talented in feeling it is now seen by every living being in Avalon. Adrian muttered his last sentence in the ancient language before the visible waves of mana suddenly hardened and created a footing network that connected all floating islands.
The mana that prevented players from falling from their doom if they mistakenly walk past a cliff is now used to create visible mana roads. The mana roads extended to about fifty meters from the edges of the floating islands. The players saw this and exclaimed in shock as one could actually step on air even if they are really standing on compressed mana.
"Citizens of Avalon, I have created mana roads for those that are in need of a footing for the fight that is to come to my humble territory. To those that are not skilled in combat, I urge everyone to evacuate to the specified pocket dimension. Please talk to a kind demon near you. Thank you!" Adrian stated with a voice like a mall announcer.
A lot of the people in Avalon are actually combatants and only the children are the ones that cannot fight. A lot of the NPCs in Adrian's territory do not skip out in training as they know the horrors of being weak. After all, a majority of the NPCs that are in Avalon are those that were driven out of their original homes because they were weak.
[The Supernatural Storm has increased in power and size while it is getting near your territory.]
[Time left before the Supernatural Storm hits is 30 minutes.]
"It is coming. Everyone, prepare for the initial assault!" Adrian stated as he also went to his position.
The Supernatural Storm is indeed a storm as it is basically a mass of dark clouds with lightning crackling inside of it. Unlike normal lightning though, the lightning inside are actually the storm spirits being erratic and unpredictable. The sky was actually covered in dark clouds as the number of storm spirits could be seen to be at least a hundred thousand.
The Storm Spirits came in different forms as they either looked like human phantoms, winged creatures of deformed body, or pale lightning horses. The Supernatural Storm also looked like it is alive, and Adrian is no stranger to a storm that is alive. He has defeated a Living Storm back then and he would do so again. Unlike that fight, Adrian did not have to hold back as all of his soulbounds are summoned to help him defend his territory.