Divine Glitch: I Regressed With Endgame Knowledge

Just as Ryan was repairing his gear in Astral City, trouble broke out elsewhere.

A surge of Dark Horde players, led by several major guilds, swept toward the Eastern Summoning Tower. The Alliance of Light, still basking in the glow of their recent victory and busy corpse-camping their beaten foes, never saw it coming. The ambush cut through them like a scythe through dry grass. Bodies littered the ground, and only a handful of players managed to escape.

The raid sent shockwaves through the Alliance ranks. The leaders of their top guilds could no longer rein in their members, and the all-out, chaotic war Ryan had been expecting finally erupted.

With both factions' main forces now dragged into the fight, Ryan sent word to those still grinding in Blood Gorge to pick up the pace. As soon as they hit level twenty, they could move on to the Deep Corrupted Forest dungeon for faster experience gains.

Far away on the Arid Plains, once a quiet stretch of neutral territory, the air now boiled with violence. Skirmishes broke out at every corner, and the steady progress of players there ground to a crawl.

Ryan, for his part, stayed well clear of the Plains during the bloodiest stretch. Instead, he logged off for dinner with his sister. By the time he returned, the game's rumor mill was in overdrive. Some of the chatter was genuine, some of it clearly designed to stoke the flames between the two factions.

Guilds that had focused on quests deep within their own faction's lands now found themselves falling behind. Rewards from the neutral territories far outstripped anything available at home, but seeing those zones still relatively peaceful—players from both sides completing quests without incident—left them restless. They had chosen the safety of their heartlands to avoid direct competition, but if neutral zone players weren't wasting time on constant fighting, the gap would only widen.

So the whispers grew sharper, the stories more exaggerated. Tension built, and soon another brutal clash exploded across the Arid Plains. For hours, players tore each other apart until the fighting burned itself down to scattered skirmishes.

By the time Ryan finally made his way back to the neutral-town hub of Verdant Spire, the main battles had ended. But in some ways, the smaller fights were worse.

Players who had survived the larger war no longer trusted anyone from the other side. If one faction held the numbers at a quest site, they'd drive off or kill the smaller group. Soon enough, reinforcements would arrive for the outnumbered side, forcing the previous victors to retreat or die in turn. The cycle repeated endlessly, and the Arid Plains reeked of virtual blood.

As tempers cooled, the major guilds began reining in their members, focusing again on the quests that had brought them here in the first place. Ryan, however, wasn't entirely happy with the lull. He decided to toss a little bait to the guild leaders.

—

Fallen's Ring of Remembrance (Accessory)

Binds on Pickup

Level: 20

Quality: Epic (Purple)

Effect: When taking damage, you have a chance to gain "Cherished Memories," reducing damage taken by 120 for 10 seconds.

Use: Activate this ability to convert 20% of your damage dealt into health for 15 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes.

—

The ring had dropped when Ryan defeated an Overcharged Guardian. Paired with the other epic gear he'd pulled from the newly unlocked dungeon, it was the kind of loot that could make even the most disciplined guild leader start to drool.

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Shield of Terror (Shield)

Binds on Pickup

Level: 22

Quality: Epic

Armor: 1328

Stats: +7 Stamina

Effect: Enemies attacking you also take 20% of their own damage.

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Ryan couldn't use the shield yet—he was still one level short—but that didn't stop him from posting it on the forums, right alongside the Fallen's Ring of Remembrance. He made sure to emphasize that both items were drops from Guardians. It was a hook too tempting for any competitive guild to ignore, and he knew it.

Once word got out that Guardians could appear in the Arid Plains, high-ranking guild members would be watching closely.

"Guild Master, you posted your findings on the forums?" Moonlight Beauty asked, curiosity in her voice. A moment later, she received Ryan's reply in a private message.

"With all due respect," she said with a faint smile, "Guardians aren't exactly common. No one's found one yet. Isn't it a little early to start talking about them? Anyway, the whole Arid Plains is a mess right now. Step outside and you're likely to get jumped by the other faction. Most players are holed up in Verdant Spire, and the place is getting… crowded."

"No rush," Ryan replied. "I've found a special location. Take a few people and head there later."

He had already stirred up enough faction-wide tension, and now with a Guardian lure dangling in plain sight, he saw no reason to reveal the anomaly zone he'd originally planned to share. Better to keep it in the guild's hands for now.

Leaving the bustling streets of Verdant Spire behind, Ryan set out for Bloodfang Stone Forest. The trip was anything but quiet—skirmishes between Alliance of Light and Dark Horde players erupted constantly along the way. He kept his real-time ID turned off; in the current climate, he was far more of a prize for the Dark Horde than any Guardian could be.

Two overconfident rogues tried their luck and were promptly dispatched before he crossed the border into the forest. Bloodfang Stone Forest was meant for level 23 to 25 players, doubling as both a grinding and quest zone for that tier. At the moment, it was empty—the highest-level player in the game was only level 22.

That level jump was brutal. Reaching 23 now required over 280,000 experience points, and a level 22 monster only yielded 220. Worse, monsters past level 20 hit harder and had thicker defenses. Poorly geared warriors often found themselves outmatched even against a same-level opponent. Killing a thousand monsters just to ding once was soul-crushing work.

Bloodfang's enemies didn't make it any easier. The place crawled with Gnoll Warriors, Gnoll Priests, and lumbering Earth Elementals. They roamed in groups, mixing melee brutes, healers, and tanky beasts. For a solo player, it was a recipe for disaster.

Ryan, however, wasn't most players. His combination of raw damage, heavy health pool, and layered damage reduction effects made short work of Gnoll Warriors and Earth Elementals—once he eliminated their ever-annoying Priests first.

The deeper he pushed, the more signs of the Gnolls' presence he saw: crude earthen huts, crude totems, and smoke from small campfires curling up through the forest canopy. Eventually, the ground rose sharply, and he climbed onto a broad stone platform. From there, his eyes locked on the very target he'd come for—exactly where he expected it to be.

—

Summoned Sindanai

Guardian

Level: 25

Health: 24,300

Type: Humanoid

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