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nElizabeth did not manage to come to an answer to Eldrian's question. She had no idea how worthwhile the benefits would be with a bit of perseverance. Even if they would make a profit in the long run, she was forced to admit that they were currently making a loss when it was still hard to maintain themselves in the game.

n

"When is your upkeep fee due?

" Eldrian asked, bringing Elizabeth out of her thoughts.

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"A little over a week.

"

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"That is not long,

" Eldrian commented, deciding to not give any suggestions. He had no idea what establishing guilds would have instore in time. Maybe establishing one from the start will have clear advantages later on.

nWhen their conversation reached this point they had already started setting out with the army. Two hours had passed since Eldrian signed up for the mission. Elizabeth had taken Eldrian to the keep where they could set their spawn points. A small temple having been created next to the keep to allow just this specific action for the players.

nJoining the division they had been assigned to, Eldrian felt that they were simply a drop in the ocean. The division which players were traveling with was responsible for the transportation of resources. Due to how little the player could actually help they were simply placed here as a means to not have them all die and spawn far away.

nThe army had found this problem after the first few players had run into a small group of beasts. The commanders of the army were naturally not too worried about the loss of a few Tier 1 Chosen, but they did decide to place some countermeasures after that.

nThe players, less than a thousand, had thus joined this division. Quickly becoming lost in the mass of people moving around. This single division consisted of over a hundred thousand NPCs and was only one of fifteen divisions that the army consisted out off.

nThe army as a whole was split into divisions, which was then further split into units, regiments, companies and squads. This was to allow them to react better to sudden situations while also allowing travel to be easier. With the divisions able to split into their units when needed.

nPlayers were added as a wonky company inside the division. Their size was too large, but since they were not being treated as a true military force this was no problem.

nThe reason for this treatment was due to how little training most of the players had, together with their lack of discipline and general order. The players all knew what they had signed up for, even so this did not make them automatically know how to act in an army.

nThe army had also split as a whole, half of the division had gone to the other river to set up another castle. Knowing this astonished Eldrian even more as he tried to imagine just what two million soldiers marching together looked like. His imagination ultimately failing him.

nPhallos's border did not have many mountains making this not nearly as effective as in Vruntis where Erik was. Even so the kingdom had started to massively move to protect its borders, having also called for help from the empire and nearby kingdoms.

nThis naturally was met with no interest since all kingdoms were in need of support and Phallos's condition was still one of the best. Many kingdoms did not want to support others, wanting to rather strengthen themselves. Believing that this would be far better for them.

nThis made everyone else actually weaker since this was a strong mindset of Tier 1 and 2 kingdoms.

nWhen Eldrian had first set out with the other players, the sound of so many people in armor traveling had left him astonished. While he was staying in a city of over 10 million people, in reality, this number of people never traveled together.

nThe largest grouping Eldrian had ever been part of was on campus when all the freshmen had come together. At that time the total amount of people had been just under ten thousand people. Now was more than ten times that number and all the NPCs were in armor, clinking and clanging with each step.

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"How long does it take to get used to this?

" Eldrian asked, his ears feeling deafened by the sound.

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"Just consider it background noise, like rain or wind blowing in the leaves.

" Zyviss, one of the captains of Flaming Heart Phoenix Division joked, laughing at his own banter.

"Nah, truthfully... I still find it unusual. But that is the best advice I can give.

"

nZyviss was currently wearing plain clothing same as Eldrian, having no armor. A bow was slung over his shoulder and a quiver hung at his side.

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"Thanks, I guess.

" Eldrian replied, finding that the noise was to such a degree that he could not practice Velona Pa while walking. He could still practice those he had already learned, but he found himself unable to concentrate and follow the changes in his mana when he was still trying to figure out what he needed to find.

nAfter a few hours of walking and getting to know all the core members of the Flaming Heart's Phoenix Division, the entire division stopped, causing Eldrian's ears to suddenly complain again. After around an hour he had gotten used to the sound, though it still made him unable to practice. Now the sudden silence left a ringing in his ears.

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"Why did we stop?

" Eldrian asked into the air, not minding who would answer,

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"We normally have an hour break each day during travel. Other than that we walk from sunrise to sunset... This quest truly sucks so far!

" Judith complained, she was the classic depiction of a barbarian woman and was looking for a fight. She hated all this boring traveling without action.

nElizabeth had made sure to prevent Judith from joining the random quests the army had provided. Having felt that the rewards were too good to be true, which had been proven with time. When Judith heard of the fight other players had had, she had been really mad at Elizabeth for a time. The others having calmed her by using logic, which had taken some time to sink in.

nJudith as a barbarian warrior was wearing a short skirt-like armor and metal bra as chest armor, Eldrian knew that it was not normal. Working at Boran's had taught him that it was in fact really hard to find such armor, it was not something any blacksmith made in normal circumstances.

nThe reason for Judith's strange apparel was her obsession with barbarians. She always played as a barbarian in other games, normally taking the male character. Her first plans had been ruined with the game's affinity score setting, forcing her to play as a female. Her next plans had been ruined by the realism in the game and how skills and spells worked.

nEven so she still wanted to play as a barbarian and had gone through special effort to get herself the right outfit. Which was why her armor was far lesser than Eldrian thought anyone would wear. He could certainly not understand her mindset, having kept his opinion to himself as he did not want to ruffle any feathers.

nANW had no set classes players could choose to be, rather the choice of skills and spells they learned was totally dependant on themselves.

nTheir mindset still leaning towards what other games had many tried to make balanced parties in that sense. Soon finding that making a balanced party was actually not as good as simply a full melee team, at least this was true at this stage.

nThe reason for this was mostly due to the realism of the game. Archers had to aim to hit something unless they used a few certain skills, all of which had a relatively high cooldown.

nOther typical classes were also largely influenced by the realism in the game. Healers were extremely weak with them only being able to heal 10 or 20 damage at most. This was less than one direct hit's damage, meaning that healers could not be used as in other games. They could save your life after or right at the moment, they could not keep you fighting for hours.

nMelee fighters had it the hardest, the skills they learned only enhanced them a little or caused them to move in a certain way to perform an attack or dodge. It did not make them good at fighting.

nThey had to learn how to fight, dodge attacks and keep an eye out for if the monsters wanted to get past them. They had no taunt skills or regeneration skills currently, they did not even know if such things existed.

nMages were funnily enough the class closest to its representation in other games. They were able to learn spells quite easily thanks to the system, only needing to take care of their mana and cd's when casting. Which was not too hard since they were being protected by the melee fighters. Or at least that was the plan players had had.

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"We can do some side quests at night when setting up camp.

" Nikki added trying to appease Judith, only to be shot down as soon as she said this.

n

"Yeah, and how has that gone for everyone who had tried. We are not dying for some petty cash like those other idiots! Elizabeth had been smart to tell us to wait, saying the rewards were too good to be without a catch.

" Therdul, a dwarf player, countered.

nTherdul had struggled in choosing which dwarf race he had wanted to be, having shared his great burden with Eldrian after Eldrian and Elizabeth had reached the end of their conversation.

nFrom the dwarf race choices; Vathys, Vouno, Spilaio and Lofos, Therdul had chosen Vouno. Believing that this was the standard dwarf type often depicted in fantasy.

nVouno dwarves were also called mountain dwarves. They could use almost no spells but in return they had a boost in close combat skills. This along with how sturdy all dwarves were had satisfied Therdul's hope of being a shield warrior.

nThough he soon found himself struggling with how skills and spells worked, finding it hard to do his job since some monsters would simply run from him and go for those behind him. Finding himself too slow to stop, his items weighing him down instead of helping him perform better.

nHe had taken quite a bit of Eldrian's time to try and convince Eldrian of how he was wronged, giving up after seeing that Eldrian had no interest in his complaints.

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