It must be tough to be attacked by an undead army and unable to retaliate. To make matters worse, even Helas own believers were unable to use the undead for a counterattack. In a sense, Helas situation is quite miserable

Ev sighed whilst seated upon her throne within the World Trees divine kingdom.

At this moment, Ev could somewhat understand why Hela, a deity with intermediate divine power, would choose to ally with her.

Beyond the fact that Hela had a close relationship with the former World Tree, the Goddess of Death did indeed need a strong ally that can operate outside the Netherworld, especially one thats active within the realm of Seiges.

In the recent battle, I felt that Helas power was being suppressed by something. Could it be the effect of a divine artifact? Hmm, it appears Hela has deeper motivations for continuing this war

From the look of it, this war in the underground is likely to last a long time. WellIll just think of it as a training ground for the players, just like a war scenario within a game!

Ev shook her head, swinging her long legs gently.

She was in a fairly good mood.

It was fun to watch all this unfold without worrying about the big things.

At this moment, the great new Goddess of Life was holding a fruit similar to a watermelon from earth, as she enjoyed its sweet, juicy pulp while watching the gigantic sand table in front of her with great interest.

After ascending to a meager divine power, Ev had conjured this three-dimensional sand table through the use of her divine powers.

Its main purpose was to better spcough track the movements of the players.

Inspecting it more closely, this sand table showed all the areas currently explored by the players, with the World Tree at its center.

It was like a miniature three-dimensional map of Seiges, and scattered around it, one could also see numerous tiny blue lights moving about ever so slowly across the sand table, representing each player.

Conviniently, whenever Ev wanted to view a specific players perspective, she only needed a mere thought to bring up the corresponding blue light and focus into it.

Through the use of this sand table, Ev could effortlessly monitor all player activities and could monitor on anyone of interest at any given time.

If she desired, she could even project her avatar to the players precise location via the game system linked onto them.

However, doing so would consume a significant amount of divine energy.

All of this was possible due to her improved precision in controlling divine power after ascending to a meager divine status.

Overall, this god-like overview feels quite entertaining, reminding Ev of her time playing real-time strategy games, wherein the players act as her villagers and soldiers.

Currently, among the 60,000 tiny blue specks of lights, nearly a third of them congregated around the world underground.

These were the players that had taken on the underground war quest.

The vast majority of them consisted of veteran players from the first three beta-tests, but some fast-progressing new players from the fourth beta-test have also joined.

At the start, they mainly operated within the vicinity of Blade City.

However, nowadays, except for some life-oriented players interested in trading with the dark-dwarves or exploration-focused players fond of uncovering new unknown locations, most of the players have moved onto the nearby city-state, Shanathar.

Ev had already observed their perspectives and knew that the players were once again battling the Dark Alliances forces attacking Shanathar.

However, unlike the previous battle, it was evident that after the three-day battle in Blade City, most participating players had almost exhausted their stock of resurrection coins.

Therefore, apart from the newly joined fourth-beta players, the older players were now much more cautious in combat.

Furthermore, after learning what these elves are capable of from their unsuccessful invasion of Blade City, the Dark Alliance this time around grew more increasingly cautious.

They have shifted their strategy away from relying solely on direct assaults and have instead opted to employ long-range tactics aimed at weakening the forces of the Hermetic Alliance at a distance.

As a result, the casualties on the Dark Alliances side significantly decreased.

Alas, this shift in the enemys strategy increased the likelihood of the war becoming more and more of a long drawn-out prolonged conflict.

On the players side, while the veteran players were being overly cautious, striving to stay alive, knowing that even a single mistake could lead to a level drop. In contrast, the newbies from the fourth beta persisted on using their initial reckless strategy.

Reviving without a resurrection coin doesnt incur severe penalties for them and by maintaining their level at lvl 11, they usually accumulate just enough resurrection coins within a day.

Thus, these newcomers continued merrily abusing the resurrection exploit to farm equipment promised by the Shanathar officials.

However, unlike before, they now mostly do it only once a day to avoid being discovered.

If this trend continued, Ev seriously doubted whether this particular city-state would go bankrupt from the players relentless farming once the remaining thousands of fourth-beta players all reached the Iron-rank.

Nevertheless, Ev decided to let the players keep the equipment they had farmed from Shanathar, unlike what she had done when they exploited the binding function in Maple Leaf City to ripped off the Blackmarket Companies.

The reason is that on one hand, the players this time were only acquiring good-quality equipment, which didnt disrupt the games balance as much as the high-tier items theyve got from Maple Leaf Citys Blackmarket.

Secondly, the tens of thousands of newly joined players did indeed need substantial equipment to fully arm themselves.

Moreover, when these additional pieces of equipment eventually got damaged, most players would choose to send them to Ev as an offering in exchange for contribution points.

And after the players sent over these damaged equipment as offerings, Ev would then repair it and add some special properties or upgrade it to a higher-leveled gear before selling it back in the exchange store.

Hence, a perfect cycle wherein both she and the players would mutually benefit!

Regarding the divine power consumed during the players resurrection, Ev had amassed an abundance of divine power by now, so she really didnt mind it.

Not to mention, in theory, each revival consumed resurrection coins that players earned through their own efforts, effectively working for Ev in the process.

In summary, while the players might profit significantly, Ev herself never loses any profit whilst doing the bare minimum.

Of course, this applied only to players up to level 40 and below.

The Silver-rank marked the first significant threshold of extraordinary power.

So once a player became a Silver-ranker, they transitioned from a mere low-ranker to mid-rank experts.

Although the gap between mid-rank and low-rank experts wasnt as vast as that between mid-rank and high-rank experts, the lifeforce within their bodies was no longer on the same level.

Therefore, once a player ascended into the Silver-rank, the cost of resurrecting them would multiply several times over.

Its precisely because of this that Ev wasnt planning to raise the level cap higher than 40 for players yet.

She intended to wait until her divine power was more ample enough or until she found a way to fully repair the Scepter of Life before raising the maximum levels for the players.

Anyway, with the current exaggerated number of players, once everyone became an Iron-ranker, merely resorting to human wave tactics alone will be enough to eliminate any threats below the Golden-rank

And any enemies above the Golden-rank will be handled by Eves Godwardens.

Of course, nothing in life is absolute.

Before then, Ev might set specific promotion slots to allow some outstanding players to advance to Silver-rank sooner, to compensate for her factions lack of intermediate-ranked experts.

Hmm, this could be another excellent incentive for the players to work more harder

Ev inwardly mused happily.

Time continues on and as the war underground progresses further, the players strength, as well as the number and type of participants in the war, begin to subtly shift

367

WHILE YOU PROFIT SIGNIFICANTLY, I, EV NEVER LOSES!