Divine Glitch: I Regressed With Endgame Knowledge

—

Druid Elite Scout

Elite

Level: 25

Health: 4500

Type: Humanoid

Druid Greensward Scout

Common

Level: 25

Health: 1398

Type: Humanoid

---

The pursuers were closing in, and Ryan felt unease gnawing at him. Facing four elites earlier had already drained him; five would be even worse.

"If only someone could help," he muttered, though he knew how pointless that hope was. The moment the Druidic Order's pursuers appeared, every other player saw him as no different from the monsters. Nobody could heal him, and attacking the pursuers themselves wasn't even possible. At best, other players might throw up a wall or lure enemies into obstacles to buy him a few seconds—but that was it.

And if the druids lingered too long without engaging in combat, they would simply shapeshift into flying forms and take to the air, raining spells down from above. This wasn't a quest anyone else could interfere with. Success or failure was his alone.

Ryan's hand brushed against the potions in his bag. He had already burned through one of the two Limited Invulnerability Potions he had painstakingly crafted. That left him with only a single one. The ingredients for it weren't something players could normally acquire at this stage of the game. Ryan had only managed it thanks to the Wandering Merchant in Astral City.

The key component, Goldstone Flower, was particularly troublesome—it only grew as a companion plant among other herbs in level 40 zones, and right now no player in the game had the skill to gather herbs that high-tier.

The Druidic Order scouts were still two minutes out. Ryan moved quickly, clearing away the surrounding mobs and then sitting to eat and drink, restoring his stats to full.

Before the fight began, he went over his kit in his head. Divine Shield had come off cooldown since the last battle, essentially giving him one extra life. He had Desperate Healing as well, a skill that could restore him to full health at the cost of all his mana, though it was a last resort. And then, of course, the last Invulnerability Potion, which would grant him a short burst of immunity to physical attacks. During that window he could cast two healing spells on himself, restoring about two thousand health.

Even with these options, Ryan exhaled heavily. The game had only just begun, and so many things were still locked behind later progression. If only he had access to more resources, his odds would look much better.

He thought back to players in his past life. Their buffs might not have been as powerful as his, but some could already afford rare-quality level 30 gear, and the wealthy ones even flaunted a piece or two of epic equipment—far beyond the mostly common-grade gear Ryan was wearing now.

And it wasn't just equipment. There were rare alchemy potions, profession-crafted trinkets, unique quest rewards from specific maps—all the kinds of things that could tilt the balance in a fight like this.

But daydreaming about what wasn't available to him now was pointless. Ryan's eyes fixed on the approaching scouts. He rose to his feet, tightened his grip on his weapon, and braced himself for the most dangerous fight he had faced yet.

---

The scouts weren't particularly bright. From a distance, they fired arrows; up close, they swung blades. If they had been capable of kiting him properly, Ryan would already have been finished. He had no choice but to close the distance fast, before multiple ranged attacks could pin him down.

He charged headlong into their formation, taking two arrows as he went, and then hurled his Avenger's Shield into a cluster of common scouts.

The hits stung. The common scouts dealt around sixty damage each, but the elites cut deeper, inflicting more than one hundred and fifty. On their own the numbers weren't terrifying, but together they chewed through over a thousand of his health in seconds. With only four thousand left, Ryan knew he couldn't afford to drag this fight out.

Fortunately, he had the skills to push back. Divine Storm, his ultimate Retribution talent, crashed down on all ten scouts at once, tearing through their ranks and flooding his health bar back to full. But the skill came with a cooldown, and until it reset he would need to rely on other ways to keep himself standing.

—

Enchant Weapon – Radiant Light: Infuses your weapon with the power of light. Each successful weapon hit restores 3% of your health. Using the Judgment skill restores 10% of your health.

—

This was a new ability Paladins unlocked at level 26. Without it, Ryan would have burned through his trump cards in his last battle against four elites. Now, with Radiant Light humming along his weapon, he pushed forward. The scouts struck him again, tearing away another thousand points of health, but the enchantment kept his lifeline within reach.

One crushing Hammer of Justice landed squarely on a scout, its force echoing through the fight. Combined with the earlier damage from Divine Storm and Avenger's Shield, the common scouts began to fall one after another. Each strike, bolstered by Radiant Light, also poured healing into Ryan, pulling back twelve hundred health and filling him to the brim once again.

If that were the end of it, he might have been able to simply grind them down. But things were never that simple. Four elites had already stretched him thin earlier, and now there were five. Their blades glowed with dazzling green light as they slashed in unison, layering him with five crippling debuffs.

—

Enemy of Nature: You have been marked as an Enemy of Nature. Damage taken from Druid scouts is increased by 50%. Your attack damage against Druid scouts is reduced by 20%. Your attack speed is reduced by 20%. All skill cooldowns are increased by 100%.

—

Ryan grimaced. At least the effect only stacked once; if it had piled up with every strike, he would have abandoned the quest right here. He could use Divine Shield to purge it, but the druids could reapply the curse at any time, making the cleanse little more than a temporary reprieve.

With the debuff dragging him down, every hit now carved fifteen hundred from his health. Ryan countered with Radiant Glory, pulling back nine hundred, and set about cutting through the remaining common scouts with ruthless precision. By the time the elites struck again, only they remained standing.

His Divine Storm came off cooldown just in time. Alongside Hammer of Justice, it tore through their formation, undoing most of the punishment he had taken.

As the green light of their attacks dimmed and the battlefield cleared, Ryan finally let himself draw a long, steady breath. The fight wasn't over yet, but the worst of the trial had passed. For the first time since the druids had appeared, he felt confident—he could finish this quest.