Fate's Reversal: The Divines Return

…

Answering the request, the beautiful yet slightly cold face of Snow Bunny appeared. However, her expression was light compared to the previous extent of her frigidity.

"Hi Key…! Race change?" said Snow Bunny. Her usual cold gaze melted when she gazed at Kaiden. But her eyes also became slightly shocked; how could he ȧssimilate with a bloodline so early?

"Yeah, my profession allowed my physique to strengthen early. How is the guild developing? Any notable recruits?" inquired Kaiden.

"As a matter of fact, yes! There is one and she is relatively skilled, perhaps almost reaching the realm of experts like us." estimated Snow Bunny.

"What's her name?"

"BattleSeraph." instantly responded Snow Bunny.

"Nice name. By the way, I purchased a building in Minence City. When it's open you should stop by sometime." smiled Kaiden.

Smiling back, a shred of happiness appeared in Snow Bunny's eyes. "I think I might."

As such, while the two chatted Kaiden pulled up a trade window. In a similar fashion, Kaiden sent Snow Bunny 20,000 Gold for guild operations. Now that he owned, 50% of these guilds. He would make sure they developed well.

Startled Snow Bunny received the money and released a content sigh. To others, she presented her cold demeanor but with Kaiden, she was melting.

"This will provide me breathing room to implement rewards to the members for their actions. Thank you so much Key!" exclaimed Snow Bunny completely out of character.

Nodding, after a short while the call disconnected. However, Kaiden gazed at Snow Bunny's level for a short period. In that short period he was gone she had already increased her level to 45. Perhaps those Lunala Blades and her class was more of a boon than he anticipated.

'Soon, we'll level together again. I would like to witness the extent of her capabilities now.'

…..

*SHWOOSH*

Exiting the dungeon portals, multiple teams dressed in black appeared. These were the Squads 1 - 6 of the Warhead Syndicate. Completing their task they snagged the first clears of the dungeons they were ordered to. However, it wasn't without the excessive use of consumables and even some unneeded deaths.

Nevertheless, they were deemed necessary to complete the dungeons in the most haste fashion.

"Grenade, relay the message to Pale Wind that the mission has been executed. Then follow up to see if there are any subsequent orders."

Nodding, one of the individuals separated from the bunch as they dashed into the horizon disappeared into a shadowy smoke. He had entered Stealth to boost his movement speed! .

Similar scenes to this took place in various other dungeon sites. However, this caused a wariness to take over Ethereal Conviction's dungeon clearing party. Their progress could be said to be phenomenal. Not only was their clear time rather quick, but there were also minimal deaths. As they became more familiar with each other's playstyle, the healing classes began to match their rhythm with heals.

However, the likes of healers such as Gentle Whisper was phenomenal. When it came to mana conservation and timing—she was at the absolute top of the guild members. It was to the point she was constantly complimented when her heals saved many members from imminent death multiple times.

As they completed their runs one after the other, messages were relayed through the guild. They received notifications about multiple parties of the same name—"Warhead Syndicate"—continuously clearing the dungeons they were on the road to completing.

"Something is...fishy. Why has this guild come out of nowhere and cleared the exact dungeons we are focusing on?" pondered Hollow Stance.

"Cuz they're jealous sums of bitches!" swore MagicsSlaves.

He was one to immediately speak his mind with no restraint. However, he wasn't wrong. The guilds were getting annoyed and jealous of the continuous and fluid advancement of Ethereal Conviction. However, they didn't know another name was soon to rock the server announcements.

"There is something definitely fishy about this situation. Look at their clear time and death ratio." squinted Gentle Whisper.

Their clear time was too quick—about an hour and 17 minutes. It was known that a typical Hard Mode would take upwards of 2 hours. But when they saw at least 15 deaths of the run. They understood they sacrificed players in order to clear the run as soon as possible.

Although some deaths in a dungeon were inevitable—it wasn't to the extent of a 10 man party having 15 deaths. This meant they possibly sacrificed a level to immediately revive. However, they would have to have stayed wary of their 3rd death because the 3rd death in a dungeon resulted in immediate expulsion from the dungeon.

"Yeah...why would they sacrifice levels just to clear a dungeon? That's redundant. Are they fools? Or...is there a deeper purpose for the actions? What are their motives?" questioned Symbolic Soul.

He was unable to comprehend why something would sacrifice levels for a first clear purposely at this point. These weren't even main dungeons. They were more of the auxiliary category. The first main dungeon was the Lv.50 50-man Squad Dungeon—Castellan's Labyrinth.

"Hmm, let them be. They'll just hurt themselves in the long run." shrugged Gentle Whisper.

In a typical situation, she wouldn't be wrong. However, in this situation the parties were stronger than them; they could recover their levels much quicker. Moreover, the higher-ups of the Warhead Syndicate who held the real strength had yet to move. Once they did, it would be a completely different situation in the dungeons.

Within a few hours, new orders came back to the squads of Warhead Syndicate. "Continuously hinder them. Although they can still receive clearance rewards, rob them of the first clear rewards. In fact, locate other dungeons and clear those. We are in need of materials to operate the guild." ordered WarCry.

Even though the prominence of the dungeons was being highlighted—people still leveled in the field just as much. Why? Simple, because dungeons had cooldown periods. To limit the saturation of the economy—different levels of a dungeon had a different cooldown duration. Hence, people retired to the fields when unable to continue dungeon diving.

Venturing back to town to offload materials into the Guild Warehouse, Hollow and the others reconvened at the Guild Residence.

….

Gripping her blades, Snow Bunny's hɨps swayed powerfully as she walked with a squadron of women. This sight was captivating; her blueish silver hair flowing down her shoulders and her focused eyes were captivating.

About facing, Snow Bunny looked over her gathering of women. Her expression was slightly solemn as they were partaking in their first guild "expedition".

"We will be attempting the Elite Mode of Frigid Ghoul Chamber. This will be slightly difficult as Elite Mode monsters are a lot stronger when compared to their counterparts. However, we won't falter. We have sufficiently prepared for this." reassured Snow Bunny.

"Yes ma'am! We will surely clear this dungeon." reaffirmed BattleSeraph.

With Snow Bunny leading, 19 other women followed her into the Frigid Ghoul Chamber. There was purpose in their eyes, Snow Bunny had been training these women since the day they stepped into the guild. Although it was 2 days, in actuality it was more like 7 days. The background of these women wasn't weak, so Kassandra made sure all her recruits possessed a GRVIP for extended play.

A week wasn't an exceedingly long time but it was better than none. In this game, time waited for no one. Operating with this thought in mind, Snow Bunny deemed it was better to learn in the process.

Meanwhile in the Crescent Wake Town, more and more guilds and unofficial parties residing within complained. The deeds of properties were becoming more and more scarce. They were losing the opportunity to sustain themselves sufficiently. Not only were levels increasing; the cost of materials, gears, and items was increasing.

In fact, it was increasing to the point where the daily gains were slowly approaching the cost of daily needs. This meant players who were also depending on the daily profit were becoming stressed. But this was normal; inflation was an inevitability. The profit was dwindling—what they needed was a facility to promote more substantial gains.

That's where guilds stepped in. But, they are an investment...not everyone could afford to start one. However, even now guilds were beginning to stress. This game wasn't like other previous ones. They couldn't farm gold in the fields. Monsters had their respawn rates, WEPA made sure to tie off any loose ends when it came to monetary exploitation.

As a result, the second thing that came into play was talent. If you were to become a basic expert you could kill higher targets and receive better rewards. Whereafter those rewards translated into more income. The respawn rate would become a help instead as it provided a rest period to recollect yourself. The cup could be half empty or half full, it just depends on how you look at it.