"That was too close,

" Elizabeth said as the others joined her in her virtual home. She had immediately started watching the match after her death. As such she clearly understood that Eldrian had given them the win, but he had also exposed most of his tricks. Or so she and the others believed.

'True, I don't have any other tricks up my sleeve. But, my tricks aren't just tricks.' Eldrian thought as he realized the concern of the others. It wasn't like knowing what he was capable of made him incapable of executing it again. It would just make it harder to do.

After discussing with the others, everyone was relieved that the semi-finals were not immediately after the quarter-finals. The finalist first had to be flown to Miracle, where they would stay in the luxury on-site housing. There was also time allowed for people to come if they wanted to spectate in person and try out some of the soon-to-be new releases.

Curious, after they discussed their plans, Eldrian went to ask Joren if he was going to be moved there too. Since if he wasn't, wouldn't that raise questions?

"Of course, each room is also going to have an immersion chair for the finalists to test out and experience. You can move over tomorrow, you are all actually going to be housed on the 6th floor.

" Joren said, himself having been surprised that the higher-ups decided to give access to those luxury rooms to the finalists.

...

Through the next days, Eldrian went hard in clearing the final bits of the first area, while also trying to master the last bits of things he felt he was missing. He knew he could easily try and achieve Tier 4, and while it would be best, he needed to remain Tie 3 if he planned to still bond with Cephaphyr. Which he wasn't too certain about.

What Ziraili had shared about what would happen made him uncertain, but he wasn't decided either way and planned to keep his options open. In any case, while he knew what he needed to do to reach Tier 4. He had no idea if that would remain all that he needed to focus on for Tier 5 and onwards. Hence, he felt there was no need to rush.

It wasn't like the 1 Tier difference would make a massive difference. That was only the case from Tier 5 onwards.

Over the next few days he managed to clear another 34 areas, with it finally becoming possible to see the progress they were making just by looking out from the camp. Nature slowly coming back, though the arrival of winter did make it less clear.

Naturally, the army could have pushed far harder if they felt like it. But that would have meant more casualties. Instead, they had each group retreat if they came to face a group of undead that might pose a threat.

Forcing that undead group to move to another area if they wanted to be effective, or leave the corruption and be weakened. Allowing the group who had retreated to either fight them without as much danger, or to move ahead again without fighting. The constant back and forth had massively frustrated the undead but they didn't know what to do.

They realized that they lacked the strength and numbers to fight everywhere. And with their enemies avoiding the fights there was little they could do.

Finally, the undead had enough and sent their strongest to the front. Leaving only a few to protect the core area.

"What now?

" Elizabeth asked, in the end, they (as a guild) had managed to clear 37 areas. This was a massive haul for them and everyone was happy, and Eldrian wasn't going to spoil their joy by mentioning how much he had cleared.

"You all saw how strong the undead in the next part will be, haven't you?

" Eldrian replied, three massive battles had already happened even before Part 1 of the quest was completed.

One of the fights had been a ghoul devastating a few unprepared groups, a massive loss to the army and making them more cautious. Especially since none of the victims had managed to survive.

The other one had been a revenant and a horde of minions pushing back many groups, until the commanders of the armies had arrived and forced them back again. Yet they had failed to kill the Tier 7 Revenant.

The last had been a lich, who had turned almost an entire squad into undead. 12 people, just like that joining the undead's side. This fight was certainly the least seemingly massive, but the scariest thing was that out of the 12, 7 had become Unwilling undead. Making the loss much more dear.

Eldrian had witnessed the ghoul and immediately retreated after recalling how fast and strong they were. He dared not place his life in danger, even though it hurt leaving the NPCs to their fate. He had done his best to get help, as was expected from someone of his level.

Phoenix had been one of the groups pushed back by the revenant, and more than half their players had died that day. While regarding the lich, they had only heard stories about it, making it seem the scariest of the three events.

"Then, you think we should just stay back and give up?

" Elizabeth asked and Eldrian quickly shook his head.

"No, of course not. You just need to figure out if it is worth the risk, and my advice is to try and be as fast and nimble as possible. You can even forgo trying to clear entire areas.

"

"What, but then-

"

"You all know how the system tracks our achievements and how we can prove our words by stating it through that oath recognition system.

" Eldrian said, recalling long ago when he had done that for bounties,

"Your rewards might not be as good as those stated in the quest, but you certainly won't be ignored.

"

Eldrian felt certain of this after the past few weeks. Not only had most of the NPCs started to help the players when they could, all of them now looked at them in hope. For, the players had proven themselves to be of help, even when they were still weak.

It was not hard to realize from there how much they would be capable of accomplishing if they grew strong. So many now took it upon themselves to help the players where they could. To give them access to spells and skills and also offer their secondhand old weapons and armor.

This, along with the forum where players were sharing skills and spells, players now had nearly all they could ever need at a mere click of a button or thought. At least this was true in this part of ANW.

Eldrian had even made use of the plethora of spells in the forum to add to his compendium. Most of them were useless, but learning the extra spells gave Eldrian more insights into magic and mana. Allowing him to inch closer to the last piece.

'Wait, that's it!' Eldrian nearly shouted out loud as he cast Floga and moved the spell around, then cast Frost Needle at the same time. The two seemed to move in entirely different manners, but they didn't.

'No, that isn't it.' He mumbled disappointedly after a second or two. He had gotten plenty of false hopes which were soon shot down. But he kept at it, for even if he failed. He was growing his mastery over the spells.

Eldrian was even at the point where Forst Needle nearly didn't need more than a thought. He no longer envisioned the spell module, instead, now he envisioned the icicle.. A massive decrease in required focus which allowed him to triple cast the spell.