With the appearance of the demigod, now god, John managed to delay his departure for a bunch of days. But unfortunately that time had now run out.
Well, normally the involvement of gods was good, as it meant that someone with a more appropriate level would handle related tasks, if it was then even still necessary in the first place. However, this time not only was the ascended some hidden power, which had even escaped their companies information network, for some reason they also chose to not connect the overtaken realm to more fitting other realms. In conclusion, one could only enter it through a bunch of low level realms or with the help of a high level space mage who didn't care about getting on the bad side of a god. As the latter were unsurprisingly rare, they had rather short life expectancies, the task of getting into the Spring of Destiny was still on John's shoulders.
If he just hadn't played out the incompetent role to such an extent and ended up below level 111.
But it was too late now.
Crossing the realms between his former and future residency wasn't much of an issue. He had already outgrown such areas, so even if he didn't pay much attention there was basically nothing which could become dangerous for him. Though it was still annoying that he was forced to walk through the low level realms. If they weren't part of the buffer zone between the different factions, he could have directly reached his target, but that wasn't possible, as then the buffer zone also wouldn't be able to decelerate aggressions from enemy factions.
At least it allowed him to waste a bit more time, before arriving at the divine realm.
It wasn't quite what a good employee would do, but he had fostered the picture of a bad one over the past years for a reason.
Everything was going according to his traveling planes, until he reached the Flame Sea Shore, a place he had also visited in his past to train. Back then he had been still naive and liked to put his nose where it didn't belong. Something which nearly cost him his life, though in the end he was "scouted" by the company. It wasn't exactly the outcome he had expected, but at least he wasn't dead. And he had learned that it was sometimes better to not go after every secret or get the attention of the greater powers.
Thinking about that part of his past, his mood, which had improved over the journey, soured again. Wasn't he about to get into contact with a god? What wouldn't he give to delay that further or push it onto someone else.
[An unnamed faction has declared war against the Flame Sea Shore!]
Apparently for once his prayers had been heard. A realm-wide war was definitely a good excuse for coming late. Also if he managed to reach level 111 during the event...
So he quickly opened his quest menu and looked at the war quest.
[War Quest: Unnamed vs Flame Sea Shore
Description:
An unnamed faction has chosen the Flame Sea Shore as the target of an unknown realm-scale spell. By the nature of the war anyone at level 110 and below is able to participate in it.
To gain additional benefits a side has to be chosen.
Benefits may change and diminish over time but are locked once a side is chosen.
Once chosen, the side can not be changed.
Furthermore it is advised to evacuate the Realm before the spell is ready.
Objectives:
- Unnamed side: Defend the spell currently cast by the initiator of the war. (location Flame Sea Shore, unknown; about 32 days remaining)
OR
- Flame Sea Shore side: Stop the spell currently cast by the initiator of the war. (location Flame Sea Shore, unknown; about 32 days remaining)
Rewards (Unnamed):
- The title "Advocate of Change"
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
(Eases skill, affinity as well as class acquisition, derivation and evolution. Reduces requirements for Species evolution slightly.)
- 15 levels
Failure Penalties (Unnamed):
- Your entrance rights to the Flame Sea Shore will be revoked.
- All creatures of the Flame Sea Shore will become aggressive towards you.
- Unknown
Rewards (Flame Sea Shore):
- All creatures of the Flame Sea Shore will become passive towards you.
- The title "Guardian of the Flame Sea Shore"
(Eases leveling of fire and earth related affinities, skills and classes)
- Fire OR Earth affinity
(If the chosen affinity is the same as one already possessed, the requirements for the next affinity advancement quest will be significantly reduced.)
- 1 level
Failure Penalties (Flame Sea Shore):
- Unknown
]
An easy choice for John. Even the penalty of being unable to enter the realm was an upside for him, with his recent task. Not that the result of the war would change anything in that regard, as being level 122 had the same effect.
It was actually surprising to see that huge reward difference, even though the spell searching side had a disadvantage. 15 levels had to mean that the attackers only consisted of a small force... Well, maybe that was an advantage now with the whole realm searching for the spell. Not that it mattered, he had to relax for 32 days and perhaps misguide a few would be disrupters.
Well, as easy as it would be to misguide anyone of the opposite faction, with his faction now being displayed in his status.
[Human Lv 107 (Unnamed)]
Or he could be searching for the ritual by himself as a pastime. Compared to normal war quests, not that they happened all that often, this one had quite the number of unknowns, so figuring out what was going on had a certain allure.
Well, normally that wouldn't be anything he would do in other realms, but here the worst he could find were a bunch of people around level 110, something he was pretty sure he could flee from, if he had to.
----------------------------------------
Though the employee wasn't the only one who noticed the war quest.
Parties which simply wanted to level or traveled for some other reasons through the Shores also received the message and while some stayed, a lot more, especially those still in the lower levels, left. With them serving as messengers, the news quickly made the round and soon most factions which had any interest in the current events knew of it.
The excitement about the rewards was high, but so was also the disappointment about the level restrictions. Aside from bigger factions with low level members, the more elitist ones were usually out of luck.
Though, in the end thousands of people still streamed to the Flame Sea Shore to participate in the war on either side.
The spell searching side got mainly assistance from the Church of Fire and Earth, with the rewards not really a surprise and they had also the opportunity to draw in new blood to their factions.
While their opposition was composed mainly out of smaller groups of independent parties and parts of the younger generation of larger organizations. It was quite a chaotic mob, which probably wouldn't be able to win wars or even pass as an army in any other world, but Eas was different.
In this war you could technically even win without a single casualty.
Would that happen? No. Everyone wanted to increase their levels, but it was technically still possible.
Level restrictions also evened the playing field to some extent. Though while weapons of mass destruction were missing, magic made more than up for that. Poisons, magma, weather, space and other elements which would be impossible or outlawed in other worlds were fair game here and would be weaponized.
Two armies clashing against each other? Not here! They were about to begin a thirtytwo day long game of tag. A very bloody one at that. Or not, if you could evaporate your opponents.