Everyone that were playing vita-nova were quite shocked on hearing the announcement for the hell mode first clear. Though the names that were seen in the announcement were all quite famous it was still a shock to most of the players and was something unexpected.
It had the greatest impact on the guilds as they realized that most of them lost the chance. But the most shocking thing form most of the players who knew about the players was the fact that apart from the first two names, none were previously known to be members of the Celestial Warriors.
Fire Star was known to be a very old and powerful mage player in the games. He had been scouted by many guilds and teams, but none had ever managed to recruit him. He had always been an independent soldier of fortune who found players in need of his services and offered them in return for money.
There were quite a few rumors about him having a large team on agents who sell information due to his capability to find clients in need of his services, but none ever found proof. He was a mystery to everyone including the largest guilds and he had always chosen to keep his information secret and the none of the gaming organizations cared as he never registered for any competitions and the game companies which were sworn to keep the identities of players undisclosed couldn't risk a lawsuit for something that trivial.
Aegis Guard and Raven Witch were quite famous players and were known members of an adventurer team called Universal Legionnaires who were known to be providing in game services to capture field bosses and any other achievements as long as they were paid.
They also formed collaborations with guilds in many games to secure achievements and resources, but they don't usually do such things early in a game without observing who could provide them with more advantages. Especially for achievements like this, they would tend to contact other guilds and try to get the best amount in return for their help. This was the part that shocked most of the guilds as they began to suspect that Universal Legionnaires already allied themselves with Celestial Warriors.
The forums immediately got filled up with discussion regarding the same from the players who knew about them. Most of the fans of Celestial Warriors guild were already starting to talk about the collaboration between the guild and Universal Legionnaires.
But a lot were denying it as the major forces of the guild and the team were at different locations and that it might just be a small joint effort between them. The team managed to complete it in the Sand Forest empire in human territories which weren't were their main forces were at.
Apart from this, the top members of Posiedon's champions and Merlin were extremely concerned about this achievement. They knew that all the guilds would soon need to recruit new players for the competitive stage and were worried that the Celestial Warriors which was already considered to be one of the topmost already managed to convince the Universal Legionnaires to join their guild or at least were already considering cooperation for vita-nova.
This was a very troubling scenario for them as they were worried that the adventurer team might be recruited by Star Lord to join the guild. The Celestial Warriors were already considered quite powerful and if these players joined them, it would be quite akin to adding wings to a tiger.
Merlin couldn't contact Fire Star but could contact members of the Universal Legionnaires. This was a very important time for him to be up to date on all happenings. He had previous dealings with them and had a good friend among the four heads of the group. He went off to a side and made a video call to his friend and a few rings later, a pale faced man appeared on the screen.
"Brother Niji, how are you?" asked Merlin.
"Maddy Bro. Long time."
"What could I say. Have been busy the past few months. I doubt you don't know the details."
"Hah, heard of it. Azreal had it in for you for quite some time. But I am quite disappointed in you too," said Niji.
"Disappointed? What did I do?"
"You started an adventurer team. You know that you could have joined us, right? You would have been directly under me or the boss. Your scheming brain is wasted there. You need a bigger stage," said Niji.
"You were always good at flattering, dude. You guys are soldiers for hire and I don't want to do that. I still want to try to create a team and continue at the competitive stage," said Merlin. "Your group would never support that."
"Hah, that's true. We prefer to earn money in the games itself. Lots of options here and competitions isn't our forte. If we show off our skills, it is the same as crippling ourselves," said Niji. "I hope that answers your doubts."
"Hmm. That does answer my suspicions. How did you know?"
"Though the first clear is a minor thing, quite a few wanted to know about it. Even Oceanis had called one of the brothers a few seconds ago," answered Niji. "What happened to the Celestials that both you and Oceanis are concerned about? Why do you think that our members joined their guild?"
"Hehehe, you really want to know," teased Merlin with a smile.
"Don't leave your brother out like that? Did something happen to them? You can't keep a secret like that to yourself. You know these things are worth their value if we can sell it to the right person," said Niji. His team not only had sold their services but also sold information. Haijasho Niji always loved to collect information, not only to gather more money or favours, but also just to satisfy his curiosity.
"You can't tell other without my approval. Would lose my own advantage, if others know."
"Of course, Maddy. I wouldn't harm my own clients or sources for a small amount of money. We look stupid?" asked Niji as he rolled his eyes.
"The play format for the competitions is going to change for the upcoming competitions," said Merlin.
"Minor changes are expected with every new game brother. Is that really a secret?" asked Niji as put on a discontented expression.
"That is expected, but there is a leak of information from gaming commission. The number of players in the main roster would need to be increased atleast by 3 or 4 members. It is bound to start with the Magic cup," continued Merlin with a wave of his hand.
"You sure about that?" asked Niji with a sudden change of expression. He began to consider the implications of it and there was a high chance of quite a few star teams fragmenting or merging due to this.
"Yes, heard from Oceanis who wanted to recruit me."
"He wanted to recruit you?! The guy must be quite sure if he risked informing you. Everyone knows that you always wanted to be guild leader and with the things that happened in the past year, it is much less likely for you to join them," said Niji shaking his head. "The first clear was just a scenario of them meeting at the city luckily and joining hands for the first clear record. Those guys told us that they were actually trying to get some repute in the human region of the game with an elite mode first clear, but you guys beat them to it. They offered the entire first clear rewards apart from money just for the record. But I best make sure that it is so."
"So, you know whom you can sell this to, right? Don't make it hard for me," said Merlin.
"Let me take care of that. This bit of info is quite valuable and explains few things that I have heard," said Niji pondering over it. "Any advantage we get from this, you have 20% of the share. Same as before. This would cause quite a few changes. I definitely owe you for this. Our entire group owes you for this. Will keep you in the loop and don't hesitate to ask if you need anything," said Niji as he cut the call.
This information is quite valuable to few and it was bound to change few teams and probably even lead to joining of few teams. Timely information to the right persons would earn him some goodwill and also some resources if he played his cards right. He also needed to make sure that none of his group got poached by some guild. This information would have a large effect on the guilds who would tempt capable players and the first location most guilds would check were the various adventurer teams and workshops that are similar to them.
Merlin looked at the other as he got out of the call. "They didn't join the Celestials and Fire Star would never," he said looking at them. His team had lost the spirit they had as soon as they heard the announcement. In the state that they were, they didn't really care if the Celestials had joined hands with Universal Legionnaires.
"Cheer up! It is a freak occurrence. The Celestials are among the top three super guild. They collaborated with Fire Star and Legionnaires. Pooling their resources, it was quite expected of them them to clear the hell mode. It is actually unexpected that they weren't faster," said Merlin in an attempt to cheer them up.
"Come let us get back to the Blackrock Town. We have no point in exploring the dungeon anymore," said Grenadier disappointed. After he observed that Sultan and Shadow were quite good at physical combat and were moving faster than before, he had got high hopes on the first clear.
"It happens, bro. Even though, we had a good advantage, we lost the chance. It is just a freak unexpected occurrence. Let us finish the dungeon first. We can still attempt the mass quest and the first clear for the next dungeon. Either way, it is best to increase our level by going through the elite mode and hell mode of the dungeon," said Bitter Beast trying to cheer up Grenadier.
"Yes. He is right. Even though we lost the chance to get the first clear, this is a great chance to try out new techniques and work on our teamwork," said Shadow. "We can explore all the parts of the dungeon without any hurry."
"See that is what we need to do. Just continue with the dungeon," said Merlin ushering them to continue the dungeon. Though a bit disappointed, they continued through the dungeon in the same manner. Shadow had talked with Merlin and they decided to move together in a group.
The dungeon small and had little space to move around and Shadow believed that this would be an excellent place for all of them to try a few physical combat moves. As an assassin, he understood that ambushes were a vital part of most competitions and were quite common in the game. So, handling ambushes was also something he considered very important. The dark goblins hiding in the goblins provided one of the best places to practice this at the early stages of the game.
He specifically let them individually defend the goblins attacks and repel the attacks to provide proper practice for them. Grenadier was given a dagger as his secondary weapon and then he had the exchange the secondary weapons to shields and swords to have a little practice.
Soon, they went through all the six paths in the dungeon and finally got to the end of the dungeon. They repeated the same strategy as before. He initiated the attack on the mage goblins and tagged them like he did before. Once, the fight started Sultan also ran close to Shadow and began to fight in close combat while the others cast spell from a distance.
The effects of Sultans sword were quite useful in handling the dark goblins. This was the first time that Shadow and Sultan fought more than 6 long distance attackers in close combat.
When the number of monsters who can attack from a distance are more than one's own team, it gets harder to coordinate one's movements. Long distance attackers release attacks and try to blanket the players with attacks.
One could always block such attacks and take heals or potions, but it was not the best way. It is best if one could avoid the attacks and retaliate. Unlike the previous V.R. games where the attacks and evasion relied mostly on few fixed movements provided by the game, Vita-nova was very realistic and minute movements could be used to avoid and counter the monster's attacks.
The monsters at low levels tend to have a pattern when attacking which once examined would allow the players to exploit and counterattack. Unlike Shadow who had a lot of practice, Sultan was very new to the game. But he was still able to do it with some effort. He definitely missed a few times, but his skill was quite apparent, and Shadow could also notice that Sultan had already had a few mock group battles at least in real-life.
Once the troll escaped from the cage, Shadow decided to attack and take it down the same way as before. He went forward and kept close distance to it and attacked while the others three attacked from a distance with their spells. Sultan initially tried to help out Shadow to tank a few hits and attack physically, but a couple of hits later realized that his speed was much lower compared to Shadow and fell back to join the other three.
When the troll got to critical health, it began to swing at the players with his staff and attack physically. At this time, Shadow previously used dynamites to take care of it, but this time they tried to use Sultan as he had a unique equipment and thus had better attributes.
The attacks of the troll though fast and strong were easy to predict due to the large size of its staff. Even though he couldn't tank those hits head on, Sultan could deflect them at angles to gain aggro and make it focus on him. With both Shadow and Sultan attacking it from opposite sides, its movements were restricted to a smaller space and that helped the others to release more precise attacks to kill it faster this time.