Book 5. Chapter 26: Raid Preparations

Book 5. Chapter 26: Raid Preparations

Valtor floated in front of the conquest table, his large armor and flowing robes looming over it. Amara was beside him, the magical tome looking over her allies fondly.

The various Hearthtribe leaders were present, Morwen and Bedwyr, Seamus, Rookard, and Vesuvius.

Timone and Dahlia were present, and so were Takoda and Grayson. Then, Nadessa sat proudly in the corner with her larger father, Drysander.

Berri was talking to him, and Rhia was asking questions as well. They hadnt had much time to meet with the various Elysians as they were taken away from the previous victory party so rapidly.

Yiming and Longwei were at the Conquest Table, looking over the map.

If Valtor could smile, Jake knew he would be. The scholarly armor looked over the liveliness of the room, and finally spoke.

If I can have everyones attention. I understand for many of you, this will not be your first Raid. However, I think its important to go over everything, so we can make the proper plans for the best possible outcome.

While the air was festive and positive before, everyone nodded gravely. The Dungeon Raid was vital for the worlds Trial.

Valtor continued, We are now at 90% Conquest. What this means is, even if we do almost nothing, we shall winits a near certainty. The number of Rifts the enemy may spawn is minimal. With the number of Adventurers we have and can have, we can take them out as quickly as they are created with ease.

Amara bobbed in the air. Thats right. In a sense, weve already won. By taking on the Dungeon Raid, we open ourselves to risk. Just why would we do this?

Valtors voice was solemn. While those of the Framework can be revived, hundreds of thousands of lives were ruined or ended due to the enemys evil. We can never get them back. However, we can take back some of what was lostby taking potential from the great enemy. Both for ourselves, but also for the future generations of those that live on Highlands.

Rookards expression showed he was particularly interested in this, an almost wicked look on his face. Jake thought if he had the option, hed run out of the room to take the fight to the enemy right away. Rookard asked, How does it do that?

Amaras body opened and the pages flipped, showing a page with a picture of a warrior. It showed a list of parameters that looked a lot like Jakes status sheet and a list of skills, with many of them going up or evolving.

She answered, The Dungeon Raid functions much like the personal Trials. Depending on your performance, the Framework helps by boosting your potential. A boost to your class results, your skills evolving or improving all at once. As an example, for many, evolving or advancing a skill from Advanced Level 5 to Expert Level 1 could take years of study and practice, but a good performance here will see your skill advancing to the next Tier immediately, the Framework rewarding you at your Tier Up.

Jake realized that this was essentially what happened to him and Ophelia back when they completed their Trial. Their skills evolved and he improved to the next Tier in many aspects. It likely saved him an entire year worth of training to actually progress those skills.

Amaras pages flipped once more, showing a planet, with various energies wafting over it from the Yggdrasil. In particular, it showed the core being enhanced or absorbing these.

Valtor added, Then, depending on the Worlds overall performance in the Dungeon Raid, it will claim potential for the entire world. Energy will be supplied by Tartarus and the Framework itself, to enhance the World Core. Normally, it would take tens of thousands of years for a world core to increase in quantity and quality to reach the next Tier. Some of the Tier 1 worlds that perform well enough when they win the Raid, gain enough to move immediately to the 2nd.

Nadessa sighed. Our people had done well, but we hadnt quite managed that. It was a close thing. Even if we did, the world was to be lost. It was beyond the point of no return.

Morwen noted, Our world was close as well, though we were held back a little bydisharmony, as you may call it. The elites in the Prime Instance were not only filled with the Emberborn, and there were many areas we did not work well together.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

Jake and his wives were already familiar with this to an extent, but Berri as always low on attention span. She asked, Prime whatsit?

Valtor answered, The Prime Instance. The way the Dungeon Raid is set up, any number of Battlegroups can take on the Dungeon Raid. Each Battlegroup will have its own instance, completely separate and balanced based on those that enter.

Amara continued, However, success or failure is primarily decided by the Prime Instance. The rest can be taken on for their personal potential, as well as winning more for their world. It counts for and acts similar to a personal Trial.

Yiming nodded. This is important for both a world and any guild. Personal, or individual Trials, have the largest success rate for most classes, and are the standard practice in the Alliance. Parties entering a Trial together are just more risky, even if they could earn more potential for themselves. However, the Dungeon Raid is the maximum balance of potential for reward and risk, and on a global scale. Should the Alliance win, it could gain thousands of major successes, almost as if the winning instances completed their Trial as a full party or better.

Ophelia looked over the CP total within her Menu. With how much CP the Guild has, we can upgrade all our training and crafting facilities to the maximum. These will continue to be useful well into the next Tier.

Amaras pages flipped to diagrams outlining the various arena facilities. The number of people that could fight like Ophelia and Jake did on their date at the same time would be increased, and there appeared to be other benefits as well.

Thats right. We will spend the majority of the Guilds funds on these for now, and for the future. Seamuss Arena is the perfect training ground, we shall expand the facilities. Us Eternum will provide additional instruction there, to help people and teams work on their skills and party cohesion.

Small benefits were gained thanks to the facilities, such as the Framework providing slightly larger nudges to improve their skills more rapidly. The increase was relatively small, but over a month it would certainly build up.

Then, there were areas for recovery like the Hearth in Jakes Refuge, where people would heal or restore their resources much more rapidly.

Seamus looked more than a little excited. Excellent! With this, our warriors can train much more effectively. With the amount of space we have, we can even practice against bosses. Timone, it has been a long time since we fought. I hope youll join us for the training.

Timone chuckled. You can count on it. We will sharpen our claws and the claws of our brethren. You wont be able to keep me and my mates away from there.

Dahlia smiled. Tell me youll be joining us, daughter? I would love to face Clan Hart in battle.

Tandas tail was wagging. Youre on, mother! We have much to practice.

Ophelia was excited about the challenge. You bet!

Longwei laughed boisterously. This will be great! I look forward to battling in this expanded arena. Our brothers and war maidens look forward to improving their strength in arms with these special facilities.

Yiming nodded. Do let us know if there is any way we can contribute to the facilities. The beastkin are excellent with their weapons, but our people represent a history of thousands of years of finesse with our blades, having trained with various masterseach of which passed on their skills from generation to generation. There is much to be learned from each other.

Jake had learned that Warrior Brotherhood was from one of the many worlds that Guan Yu and his brothers had liberated. They established a warrior culture, planting the seed of a strong warrior mindset centered around brotherhood, responsibility, and loyalty.

From what Jake understood, a Guild primarily operated within a single Tier. When the guild ascended as its members did, it could only directly operate on worlds of that Tier.

This affected how knowledge could be disseminated, from magical technology to special equipment. There was a relatively small grace period during the ascension, but subguilds would be established during this time.

A sort of snapshot of a Guilds knowledge and technology would spread to these lower guilds to allow them to influence the war across the multiverse, increasing technology and skills slowly over time within the Sector.

It was a minor passing of the torch that mostly focused the war effort on the worlds of higher Tiers. They were more valuable to the overall conflict, even if the lives on them should be equal.

Jake said to everyone, We all have our tasks, and we know the goal. We will prepare for the Dungeon Raid, both preparing ourselves and others. Just one major battle left, and Highlands will be free.

Blood added, And Hearthtribe will grow strong enough to face Tartarus all over this Sector. After being on Ariminum, I think its clear that dozens of beastkin and Elysians will be enough to turn the war aroundjust like we did.

Jake couldnt help but be a bit excited about the idea. With their auril javelins and arrows, skill at arms and their special auril energy, each auril hero represented a powerful, well-rounded combatant.

If his Battlegroup had just five or ten auril heroes for their Fortress Assault, the first two stages would have been a complete cakewalk. It was easy for him to imagine the auril heroes and their mates aiding a Battlegroup in fighting Rifts would have an amazing success rate.

With the thousands of Hearthtribe members, they could influence the war on perhaps a dozen worlds at once. Highlands would be their first world, but they could end up owning many others through Conquest.

Ariminum would be next, but they would send the beastkin to many other worlds to win them back from Tartaruss grip. Hearthtribe would expand across their Sector, and whether they won worlds back or not, they would be a positive change people needed.