76. Preparation

A small clock in the corner of my vision counted down to the beginning of the battle.  I was back in Zhesa castle.  Or at least the fake version of it that had been created in the lobby for me.  My childhood home which I had accidentally destroyed.  I was returned exactly where I had been when I’d separated from my grandfather’s shade, but the throne room was empty for the moment.

Fifteen minutes.  That was how long I had to prepare.  But really, there wasn’t much for me to do, except to switch my [Ring of Holy Light] back to my [Turtle Shell Ring] for the better stats.  I spent a moment reviewing my status screen and my equipment as well, but there was really nothing else that I could change between now and then to prepare me for whatever was about to happen.

Grandfather had told me that battlegrounds would turn a potentially unfair contest into a fair one.  The system itself would balance the scales.  That was the reason Dungeon Cores were so valuable.  In a battle between nations, burning a dungeon core to create a battle ground could offset a nation’s massive army by forcing the battle to be between the nations elites, or giving the weaker party a tactical advantage to make up for their lesser numbers.  It could also be used as a call to arms, bringing in warriors from far and wide to fight on their nations behalf.

But the system itself was the one to set the scales, and the outcome of a battleground was binding.  My traveler friends would call them ‘canon.’  Whatever the outcome, I would have to live with it.  Even if I lost.

As I was waiting, trying to settle my nerves, Thomas appeared again.  He had a worried expression on his face.  “You know, I think you might have overreacted.  Your karmic warriors would have been enough to drive off the bandits without starting a battleground, Hail.  Probably.”

“We were outnumbered three to one,” I pointed out.

“Yes, but you had Tarisha and a handful of other elites from <Peasant’s Revenge>.” Thomas pointed out.  “The bandits had a bunch of scrubs.  The system hadto give them the numerical advantage.  Very few endgame players have ever even heard of the Northridge bandits, so it summoned pretty much everyone online who had any association with them just to give them half a chance.  They had quantity on their side, but they were completely outclassed in quality.  You would have won handily in a straight out confrontation.”

“Oh,” I said.  Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t really been paying attention to anyone’s levels once I had used [Summon Karmic Warrior].  “Wait, are you saying that I made my odds of winning worse by staring a battleground?”

“Yes.  Significantly,” Thomas said, sighing.  “Although it’s not the outcome of the battle that has me worried.  Hail, battlegrounds, they’re global events.  Everyone who’s currently online received a notification.  Millionsof travelers are in the queue to take part.  Any question of your importance to this world’s future has been answered, and every Traveler power that has any interest in the directing the future development of your world is going to be paying even closer attention to you than they already were.”

“What?” I asked.

“Every Traveler who was logged in when you used the core was given a choice of whether or not they wanted to participate in the battleground, Hail,” Thomas clarified.  “This is the first battleground since the game launched, and everyone is excited by the sudden reveal of a new feature.  Not everyone selected yes, but most of them did.  After that they were given three options.  They could choose to fight for you, they could choose to fight for the bandits, or they could choose to allow the system to assign them a role automatically.  Their decision isn’t locked in until the battleground actually starts, and not everyone who wants to fight for you is going to have the chance.  But everyone who is choosing to fight for the bandits or the mercenary option is going to be trying to kill or capture you.  It’s not going to be easy, Hail.  I can’t help you or predict the outcome.  Win or lose, there’s going to be consequences beyond your control.”

I swallowed nervously.  “I didn’t know it would be such a big thing,” I admitted.

“Yeah, I didn’t think you did,” Thomas sighed.  “There are only a few things I can tell you to prepare you.  First of all, the higher level travelers will be facing each other in separated instances from you.  That means that you won’t be facing any endgamers who can one-shot you, but it also means that Tarisha and your friends from <Peasant’s Revenge> won’t be able to help you.  Not directly, at least.  Your goal will be to stay alive and resist capture, while they’ll be on the offense trying to force the Native leaders of your enemies to retreat.  The lower level travelers will be tasked with protecting you against the bandits of equal levels.  Or at least that’s the way it looks like the system is setting things up.  Your entire role in this battle will be to stay alive.  You’ll lose if you die, or if you get captured.  You win once all of the bandit leaders are driven off.  Make sense?”

“I wasn’t planning on dying anyway,” I pointed out.  “The death penalty still applies, doesn’t it?”

“It does,” Thomas confirmed.  “That’s the main reason that most Travelers are abstaining from participating in this exercise.  If it makes you feel any better, your side has far more volunteers than the bandits, to the point where there are millions who will likely not be able to participate.  But that means that almost all of the mercenaries will be going to help your enemies.”

“How many enemies do I actually have?” I asked nervously.

Thomas hesitated, then shook his head.  “It’s not you personally.  They’re after the participation rewards, Hail.  Selecting to fight for you gains travelers a reputation bonus, and possibly a title.  [Veteran of Mooncrest Manor].  Mercenaries won’t have their reputations affected one way or the other.  But those who fight for the bandits, they’re after [Brand of Sin].  It’s the first large opportunity for Travelers to get it since it became widely known, and a lot of them are seizing it.  They most likely have no real animosity towards you directly, they’re just after the opportunity to join the dark side.”

I swallowed.  “I didn’t mean to create that sort of opportunity for them.  Is there any way to change it?  I don’t want to give the Adversary so many new Travelers.”

“It’s for the best, Hail.  We were always going to put in new methods to earn the [Brand of Sin], and most of them were significantly more distasteful than taking part in a battleground.  This will take the pressure off of those options significantly.  Although it will also put a lot of additional pressure on you.  I’m afraid it’s somewhat likely that Travelers will be looking to manufacture ways to force you to trigger additional battlegrounds in the future.  I’d suggest that you begin using that disguise skill that Auroras taught you much more liberally.”

I nodded.  In fact, I tried to cast it right then, figuring that it would make me harder to find when the battleground began, but the spell failed and I received a notice that [Illusion Magic: Disguise] wasn’t available during battlegrounds.  I sighed in frustration.

“Any more advice before the timer counts down?” I asked Thomas.

“Sure.  Give them hell, Hail,” Thomas said, smiling.  “You can recover from a loss.  Even if you get reset to level one, you can come back from that.  But I know you won’t be satisfied either way unless you give it everything you’ve got.  So don’t hold back.”

“Right, thanks Thomas,” I said.  Then we waited in awkward silence for the timer to count the rest of the way down.

Eventually the timer hit zero, and the lobby vanished.  I experienced a slight disorientation, like what I usually felt when passing through portals or Fast Traveling, and then I was back in the world.  The battleground had kicked me out in the center of my throne room, and I was surrounded by Travelers.  I didn’t recognize anyone in my quick glance around the room, but presumably these were all Travelers who had chosen to fight for me.

I was aware, distantly, that the zone I was in was instanced.  Heavily.  There were thirty different instances stacked on top of the one I was inside, which from my conversation with Thomas I assumed to be the instance where the lower level Travelers were being shunted.  A notification popped up, not directly in front of me, but hovering in the air above the door to the throne room.

The Battle of Mooncrest Manor Begins!

Victory condition: Defend Hail Jeoran until your allies have driven off the leaders of the Northridge Bandits.

Loss condition: Hail Jeoran is killed or captured by the enemy.

House Jeoran Morale: 100

Remaining Leader: 1

Northridge Bandits Morale: 100

Remaining Leaders: 29

Good Luck!

The screen flashed several times, and I realized that everyone else could see it as well.  Everyone around me was talking very excitedly, eager for the battle to begin, although a very clear barrier was preventing anyone from leaving the throne room.  I realized from the snippets I’d overheard that very few people actually realized what they’d signed up for, and I knew I had to take charge of the situation.

“Hello everyone, I’m Hail Jeoran,” I said, raising my voice.  “Thank you all for choosing to fight for me.  I wasn’t expecting this to be such a big event, but--”

At that second, the barrier fell, and some jerk in near the entrance shouted out “Leeeeroy!” and ran out of the room.  Dozens of other Travelers rushed to follow him.

“Wait!  No, you guys, listen to me!” I called, but nobody did.  Within moments the room was empty except for a handful of Travelers.

“Those idiots,” one of the travelers muttered.  “Weren’t they paying attention?  We’re on defense!”

“You know the saying.  The best defense is a good offense,” someone else said.  “We need to kill the other leaders, right?”

“They’re not even in this instance!” I exclaimed.  “That’s the goal for the high level Travelers to accomplish!  If you don’t protect me until they accomplish their goals, then I lose!”

My allies exchanged looks.

“You mean this battleground is a multi-instance affair?” a young woman with a staff asked.

“Yes,” I said.  On top of Thomas’s explanation, I also had a somewhat instinctive understanding of what was going on.  “There are thirty instances stacked on top of each other, each with their own leader.  I’m the leader of this instance, every other instance has a bandit leader.  We need to hold out until the other instances drive their bandits off, or else everyone loses.”

The Travelers who had remained with me cursed.

“That complicates things.  Someone go after those idiots and try to get them to fall back, but we need to have at least a healer and a few guards to stay here with Hail,” a young rogue said.  “Hopefully the other side has as many idiots as we do and they get caught up dicking around midfield.”

“That’s probably for the best, actually,” the young woman said.  “If we were all focused in one area, our enemies would know where to look.  Nobody knows the map, right?  It will take everyone a while to figure out where this room is.”

“Unless they get waymarkers saying ‘hey, your target is over here,’” the rogue pointed out.  “We don’t know the rules here, and it definitely looks like the deck is stacked against us.”

One of the other Travelers was typing on an invisible keyboard.  “Looks like we have a chatroom dedicated to just us.  I’m going to try to coordinate the idiots who charged off into something resembling a plan.  If Hail’s right and we just need to hold the others off while the big boys win the game for us, then we need to prioritize slowing the enemy, hiding Hail’s location, and staying alive.”

“Right,” the rogue said.  “Let’s hope that the idiots who ran off the second the barrier dropped will actually pay attention.”