Chapter 469: Stronghold in Unknown Forest
[SourceOfDawn: Polio, Phoenix, and Frangipani... Hmm... They aren't big BOSSES, they are Sherlie's pet names ╭∩╮( ̄▽̄)╭∩╮]
[PeacefulPickaxeHandle: Yggdrasill has been targeted. Even Jesus can't save it now.]
[SlagNest: I suddenly thought of Mana replenishment (Manual Comedy).]
...
The content updates in version 0.39 were numerous. In the coming future, there would be more new content. In order to implement the Open Beta Testing, the gamers of Victoria City and Eternal Kingdom had to cooperate to take over Yggdrasill.
This was what the gamers speculated. If they had Yggdrasill, then the game could implement Open Beta. The Yggdrasill Plot had been triggered by Dragonborn's Strange Encounter Mission.
The gamers didn't know the location of Dragonborn, but they knew it was only a matter of time.
There were many updates, like a new map at Eternal Kingdom for the Unknown Forest. It didn't mean that the forest was called Unknown Forest. The lazy game officials were simply too lazy to give the forest a proper name. The gamers were used to the laziness of the game officials. Most of the names on the maps were given by the gamers, including the various areas in the Dungeon and the Sighing Wilderness, where the Ogre Fortress was located. After discussion, the gamers suggested using Moonlight Forest, but the name was already used by the forest at Victoria City.
The gamers couldn't come up with a good name.
All the Guilds had sent their members to the forest. As such, there were ten Beetlemons that serviced the route between Eternal Kingdom and the Unknown Forest.
If a Beetlemon could only carry 100 gamers, ten Beetlemons could only carry 1,000 gamers. However, there were 5,000 gamers in Eternal Kingdom. There was no consideration for the fact that an Orc's body was much larger than a Gnome. Perhaps a Beetlemon wasn't able to ferry 100 Orcs. Most of the Guild members organized their Darting Birds and formed groups to ferry their members to the entrance of the forest. However, this method wasn't feasible for non-affiliated gamers.
Marco Polo's post had stated clearly that the entrance was pitch dark. It wasn't suitable for Darting Birds to go in, as they would panic in the dark environment. Many gamers complained about the darkness phobia of Darting Birds when the birds were living in the Underworld. The gamers had no choice, as it was a game setting. The end was a steep cliff, and the gamers could climb down, but the Darting Birds were unable to do so. A lone non-affiliated gamer wouldn't know where to put his Darting Bird.
Marco Polo, who was a lone adventurer, lost his Darting Bird and equipment.
The gamers of Eternal Kingdom couldn't steal each other's rides. If a gamer had a Darting Bird and another gamer killed the owner, the second gamer was unable to take the Darting Bird. Of course, he could choose to kill the Darting Bird.
For opposing factions, the gamers could steal each other's rides. For example, gamers of Victoria City could kill the owners of the Darting Birds and take their rides.
This fact was confirmed at the Sighing Wilderness.
The Pioneer Alliance organized its members to explore the Unknown Forest. As a 500-member Guild, it organized a group with 300 members, each having a Darting Bird. They also arranged for extra tens of Darting Birds to carry loot and necessities such as tents, lamps, food, and water.
The gamers knew that there was hunger and exhaustion in the game. If the gamers didn't eat and rest sufficiently, their combat power would be greatly diminished. There was even some food that had a special BUFF that increased their agility. That was what the food description said. However, it wasn't clear whether the food was effective.
Most of the gamers believed the food to be effective, though there wasn't an attribute panel for confirmation. Could the description be used to deceive the gamers?
After the battle between the Pioneer Alliance and Changan City, the Pioneer Alliance was able to have a sizable force. One reason was that there were more rich gamers in the Pioneer Alliance. The other main reason was that after attacking the two Changan City Strongholds, they pillaged the enemy's resources and captured their high-ranking members.
Arthur didn't want to build a Stronghold in the wilderness to imprison the high-ranking members of Changan City. He found a convenient location to imprison them and got some Guild members to keep watch. He didn't care how long they were imprisoned. Arthur was nonchalant about whether Changan City was willing to spend money to rescue the prisoners.
The imprisonment was a method to tarnish the Guild's reputation and serve as a warning. It wasn't meant to keep them locked up for a long time.
There were 300 Pioneer Alliance members and other allied Guild members that made up the five to six hundred members that set off from Eternal Kingdom towards the Unknown Forest.
The contingent looked like a long Dragon. Under good management of the Guilds, the contingent traveled orderly towards the destination. There was no way unaffiliated gamers could have such an orderly contingent.
As it was a large contingent, the speed wasn't as fast as Marco Polo's traveling speed. The 600-member contingent traveled for half a day before it arrived at the entrance of the Unknown Forest. One hundred of the members went offline for various reasons, but they weren't abandoned. Instead, they were placed on the backs of the Darting Birds or tied to the carts. If they were left on the road, their equipment would be stolen.
The Darting Birds couldn't be stolen, but if a piece of equipment wasn't Soulbound, it could be stolen.
It was almost night time when they arrived at the entrance of the Unknown Forest. It was also the time when most of the gamers were online. Most of the unaffiliated gamers would choose to take the Beetlemons and go offline to do other stuff. When they got online again, they would have arrived at a Beetlemon stop. Even if the Beetlemon arrived early, their friends would inform them via messaging. Then they would go online immediately and dismount from the Beetlemon. The gamers were safe from attacks and stealing when they were on the Beetlemon.
More gamers were online at night. When Arthur and his members arrived at the Unknown Forest, there was a vast crowd at the narrow tunnel.
It wasn't a good choice to set up camp at the tunnel entrance. Arthur ordered half the members to stay, while the rest of the members escorted the Darting Birds back. They could then return to the Unknown Forest via the Teleport Portal, which would be built shortly.
Arthur and half of his members proceeded into the tunnel to explore the Unknown Forest.
Arthur wasn't worried that the Changan City members would take revenge. As there were many gamers, if the Changan City members attacked, there would be accidental damage to other gamers, who would retaliate immediately. Changan City would have antagonized other Guilds and unaffiliated gamers besides the Pioneer Alliance and its allies. Changan City wouldn't be so foolish as to do that.
Arthur and his 300 members brought along their essential equipment and entered the tunnel of the Unknown Forest.
Almost a thousand gamers were jostling in the tunnel. After 30 minutes, they exited the tunnel and arrived at the spacious top of the cliff.
The gamers had to find a way to climb down the cliff, like what Marco Polo encountered.
They walked around but didn't find any tunnels that went down. They could only scale down the steep cliff. Though the constitution of Orcs, Gnomes, and Goblins was pretty good, without proper training and safeguards, it was as good as suicide.
The gamers were multi-talented. They chose a few expert rock-climbers from the 5000 gamers of Eternal Kingdom to scale down the cliff.
Many gamers came forward and revealed their professional rock-climbing experience. They also requested Spider Silk and ropes to create a ladder. It wasn't difficult to overcome this cliff.
The gamers were familiar with the tensile strength of the Spider Silk. Even if tens of Orcs bore weight on the Spider Silk, it would be able to support them.
Once the gamers were united, their efficiency skyrocketed. Before long, they created tens of meters of rope ladder using the contributed Spider Silk.
Then they used wooden stakes and rocks to fix one end of the rope ladder before throwing it down the cliff.
They climbed the rope ladder down in an orderly fashion.
This took quite some time, but there were no other choices. The impatient gamers could choose to climb down by themselves, but those without proper training met with a grotesque end.
Arthur and his members contributed the most Spider Silk, so they had priority in using the ladder. The 300 members spent more than an hour to gather in the forest.
The forest was lit up by faint light, and it looked like a fantasy scene.
The gamers' mission was to make a clearing in the forest so that they could build a Stronghold and a Teleport Portal. Then, Brainiac would activate the Teleport Portal.
When the gamers were scaling the ladder, Brainiac used Mana to float down the cliff. He chose a good location for the teleportation of the Rune Mana Formation's materials. The learned gamers started logging the trees while the other gamers explored the area.
Learning couldn't be forced on the gamers.
Though Arthur was good in his studies, he didn't stay at the Stronghold and log trees. He didn't require any wood, and his improved equipment was at the maximum level.
Arthur didn't want any furniture or need to make Bows or Arrows.
He led 100 members to explore other parts of the Unknown Forest. According to Marco Polo, there were other Orcs. Perhaps, there might be other Strongholds at the far end of the map. Arthur was going for the equipment of those Orcs.
Compared to logging wood, they preferred to obtain the NPCs' equipment.
The size of the Unknown Forest went beyond Arthur's imagination. After exploring for more than two hours, they didn't reach the forest boundary. They didn't find any Strongholds or traces of the Orcs either.
On the other side of the map, other gamers discovered something and shared their findings on the discussion forum.
It was a Stronghold with a campfire! From the Stronghold size, there were a lot of creatures!
There were hundreds of Orcs and Gnomes patrolling the perimeter. They cleared a large area for defense purposes.
It wasn't clear where they came from. After all, the Underground Forest was so huge that it could be connected to other tunnels. So, they could have come in from other tunnels.
To the gamers of Eternal Kingdom, they were enemies. Even without being antagonized, the gamers saw them as enemies with red names.
The gamers who discovered the Stronghold were small in number. They didn't have the courage to dash in and take a look. They would lose all of their equipment if they died.
They retreated immediately after discovering the Stronghold and shared the information on the discussion forum. The other Guilds learned about this and deployed a group to the enemy Stronghold location.
The Orcs in the enemy Stronghold weren't aware of an impending attack.