After the sudden Main Story Quest prompt had appeared and her brief meeting about it with her friends, Maria decided to quickly return to her palace back in her nation's mainland to alert the rest of her subordinates.
When she and the others arrived back on Dreyra a few days later, Maria quickly returned to Transylvania, while Gerald and Lizzy, along with their respective groups of guild members, returned to their guild territories. The two of them needed to rally up their guild members and get ready for the assault on the Vanargand continent.
Since they had already accepted the quest, a guild-wide notification had been received by everyone in their respective guilds, so all of the guild members of the Fallen Angels Guild and the Citadel Guild knew that they were going to be participating in the planet’s elusive Main Story Quest.
Naturally, since all of the members had received the guild-wide notification and all of them accepted to take part in the Main Story Quest, the spies planted in each of the guilds and the ‘freelance informants’ that were part of them all knew about it as well. News about the Citadel Guild and Fallen Angels Guild receiving the Main Story Quest began to spread, and the player base had one of 2 different stances. The first stance of the players was feeling relief at the fact that the Main Story Quest was finally progressing and the other stance was one of envy and jealousy.
Threads regarding complaints about how Maria was abusing her authority as one of the main characters in Planet Vanhal’s Main Story was being circulated around the forums, but none of them gained any traction because it was just hyenas hollering at that point. Most people could understand that, as a person, she would definitely be giving her close friends and allies the benefits of being friends with her. Complaining was really useless because it was known that going to the forums and trying to get her attention through these complaints was literally impossible.
Maria had long since stopped caring about what others said about her and if she happened to get annoyed after seeing something directed at her, she would instead just hunt you down if she found out your identity inside the game. The threads were practically meaningless and only served to paint a target on the back of the person who started it, though they were interesting to read because of the people who joined in on the conversation.
Many of Maria’s white knight keyboard warriors were there defending their empress and trying to find out the in-game identities of the people who were talking crap about her. Tracking them down in-game and hunting them down personally was something these keyboard warriors loved to do in their spare time just because they wanted to defend Maria.
There were always going to be people out there that didn’t like Maria just because of the advantages she possessed, which many said were obtained through luck. Even more so than luck, there was a lot of hard work from Maria’s end, otherwise, she wouldn’t be where she was standing today. Being more successful than others would always paint a target on the back of your head, because humans were just inherently greedy and envious beings.
Though not everyone was like that, but there were certainly plenty who didn’t like seeing others being better than them despite not even personally knowing the person their envy and jealousy was directed towards. Through experience, Maria learned the best way for her to deal with these kinds of things and that was to just ignore them completely because nothing others said about her would affect her life. Those things were inconsequential as long as she conducted herself properly and honestly. Wasting her time and breath on those things would just unnecessarily weigh her down.
Many of the guilds and organizations who had spies planted in the Dire’s two allied guilds began to hastily prepare things for their end. Those that were on Maria’s side waited with bated breath to see when she would make her move and try to join her, while those that were standing opposite of her braced themselves for the coming conflict. No one knew the exact strength of the Dire Empire, but no one dared to underestimate it. It was the largest superpower on the planet that had an entire continent and a portion of another within its grasp. Underestimating them would be fatal for those that were opposing the Dire’s control and influence.
Some of the opposing guilds and organizations even began moving to help and side with the Lycans in hopes of staving off Maria’s assault for as long as they could–maybe even drive her back and out of the Vanargand continent if they were lucky. Nothing was absolute in the game, so the thought of driving Maria out of the Vanargand continent never escaped the minds of those guilds and organizations who wanted to establish power and a foothold for themselves on the planet, just as Maria had done.
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Previously, joining the Lycans was pretty hard because they were very distrustful of the players and only allowed those that were incredibly powerful and held a lot of merits to join them, but now that a crisis was on their hands, it became way easier. The precedent of Maria and the Dire encroaching on their citizens and territory made it easier for the opposing guilds and organizations on Vanargand to convince the Lycans to join hands with them, so soon enough, the Lycans acquired many powerful 'allies' within the span of the next few days.
After the Citadel Guild and Fallen Angels Guild had received their quests, it was quiet for the next few days inside and outside of the game as there were no movements being made from Maria and the Dire’s side. This was definitely the calm before the storm and this calm only lasted for about 5 days before a continent-wide recruitment order was issued by the Dire under an Imperial Edict from the Blood Empress, Maria.
Once any player or guild read through the Imperial Edict, a quest prompt would be given to them and they’d be able to participate in the Main Story Quest if they chose to accept it. Ships were prepared to send those that accepted the quest to the Vanargand Continent, but they would only set sail 15 days later as per the information provided on the edict. Those that accepted the quest could also charter or build their own ship to make the journey, but it was more reliable to just hop onto one of the ships the Dire had prepared for them.
Building a ship that could withstand the rough oceans between the Dreyra and Vanargand continents was easier said than done, and besides, it was definitely way cheaper and safer to just use the Dire’s ship than chartering one from one of the NPC merchant organizations or building your own.
The Imperial Edict had no precise time-limit, so a player could accept it any time they wanted as long as the war was still under way. Of course, it would expire or be deemed complete once the war ended, but that itself was still left to be determined since the war could last for a very long time, or on contrary, only last a few weeks or even days. It was impossible to know at this point in time since no one could accurately grasp how powerful the Dire was at the moment.
Everyone on the Dreyra Continent was excited because, for many, this was the first time they were participating in a Main Story Quest. Usually, it was the front-running players that were focused on the Main Story that would be participating in the Main Story Quest, but this time around, Maria had released an edict that recruited any and all players that wanted to join, regardless of their level or CP. As long as they were willing, they could accept the quest and participate in the Main Story.
Naturally, the quest that she gave to the public through the Imperial Edict was different from the quest that she personally handed out to her friends and family. It took her a while to recruit everyone on her friends list because they were scattered throughout the entire continent and it took them a few days to answer her summons to the Dire’s Imperial Capital, Transylvania. She wasn’t going to force anyone to join her, but thankfully, all of the friends she made in the game chose to accept the quest and participate in the Main Story Quest on her side which was a relief to her.
With the Dreyra continent boiling over with excitement, Maria and the people she personally recruited began boarding ships bound for the Vanargand Continent a week later. This was the advance fleet, while the main fleet that would bring the players that had agreed to participate in the Main Quest would move out another week later according to the schedule she made.
Many powerful NPCs began showing up and those within the Dire’s upper echelons finally made their appearances in the large port towns, showing that the Main Story Quest truly was progressing now. The war determining the fate of an entire continent was on the horizon and all the players waited with bated breath, excited to see how things would play out as the cogs on Vanhal's Main Story Quest were finally turning after a rather long period of wait.