Divine Glitch: I Regressed With Endgame Knowledge

Ryan didn't allocate the Specialization Token right away. Instead, he slipped it into his inventory.

"This seems pretty rare, so I'll hold onto it for now," he said. "When we start running team dungeons and need a healer, we'll find someone who actually wants the role and let them use it."

He could have just stashed it without explanation, but Ryan preferred to keep things clear. A little transparency went a long way in maintaining harmony within the guild.

Most of the others lost interest quickly once they realized what the token actually did. All it offered was a change in specialization. It didn't take much time to level to where they were now, and since the token seemed both rare and expensive, using it just to shave off a few hours of grinding felt like a waste.

On the surface, Ryan appeared calm as he led the group back to monster hunting. Inwardly, though, his mind was far from settled.

A Specialization Token wasn't some ordinary trinket. Early in the game, its price stayed low, but once players hit the level 90 cap, things would change. Re-rolling a character at that stage meant grinding for at least half a year, and that was when the token's value would skyrocket.

Even so, this wasn't the kind of item that should have dropped here. Tokens weren't exceedingly rare, but they definitely didn't come from a wilderness boss under level 30. By all logic, only bosses level 60 and above had a chance of dropping one.

Unless, of course, there was something unusual about this boss.

Ryan's gaze drifted back to General Tiamoko, the Fire Elemental, whose smoldering corpse was still cooling nearby. The lore entry beneath its name caught his eye.

Lore: General Tiamoko, known for his fiery temper in the Elemental Planes, was once thought to have perished. It seems he has been reborn.

"Could this creature have been a high-level entity in its past life?" Ryan wondered silently. "And if that's true… are there other Elemental Generals scattered across different zones, resurrected after their deaths?"

The idea had merit, but after a moment's thought, he dismissed it. He wasn't in any position to test the theory yet. The Dreadful Mire alone was crawling with level 36 and 37 elementals, and the gap in strength would be crushing. As for the Land of Four Elements, with its level 40 Generals, stepping in there now would only mean an instant wipe.

Still, one token was already a stroke of luck. Once the guild leveled up, they could form a proper raid group and try their hand at bringing down another one.

That thought led him to something that had been nagging at the back of his mind: the shortage of healers.

A recent survey on the forums showed just how lopsided things had become. Seventy-five percent of players went damage-dealer, fifteen percent chose tanks, and a mere ten percent picked healing.

Out in the open world, damage dealers had no trouble finding people to fight alongside, but inside dungeons the situation flipped. If a tank and a healer queued up together, the three remaining slots were filled instantly—and usually by skilled, well-geared players eager to latch on.

The imbalance worried many veterans. Right now, damage dealers were reveling in fast questing and PvP dominance, laughing at the supposed weakness of tanks and healers. But once dungeon farming became essential for gear progression, they would realize just how badly they needed those roles.

Even within Ryan's own guild, the numbers reflected the same problem. Out of everyone, they only had four tanks—including himself—and five healers. Everyone else had picked damage. And that was after he had repeatedly lowered the requirements just to recruit more people willing to heal.

With the Specialization Token in hand, Ryan finally had some flexibility. When they ran team dungeons, he could re-spec a damage dealer into a healer, adding another support role to the roster and making dungeon clears far smoother for the guild.

By the time the clock neared ten at night, Ryan's group had been grinding for more than ten straight hours. They coordinated even their meal breaks, always leaving at least one person logged in to protect the others while they went AFK.

The endless cycle of monster hunting was exhausting, but it was worth it.

The haul was enormous. Ryan alone had gathered enough Elementium to outfit nearly a dozen guild members. They weren't quite ready to craft every piece needed for team dungeon runs, but they were closing in fast.

Corrupted Cores piled up as well. Instead of funneling them all to a single player to rush a reputation grind, the casters divided them evenly among themselves. They still had quests to clear in the zone, and saving the turn-ins for later would drastically cut down the number required.

Eventually, someone broke the monotony.

"Guild Leader, we're tired of grinding. The Flight Point Battle starts at ten. Why don't we go have some fun?"

It was Moonlight Beauty, the guild's resident thrill-seeker. She had charged into those battles alone before, but the outcome was always the same—outnumbered and overwhelmed.

"Didn't you love running off by yourself to take on entire enemy squads?" Smoking Gun teased with a laugh. "Why drag us along now?"

Moonlight Beauty snorted and shot him a glare, but her eyes quickly slid back to Ryan, hopeful and expectant.

Ryan hesitated for only a moment. "Alright. Let's take a break. We'll fight, kill a few enemies, and relax a bit."

That was all it took.

"Oh! Long live the Guild Leader!" Moonlight Beauty cheered, practically bouncing with excitement as she urged everyone to disengage from combat until they dropped out of battle status.

The group headed for the nearest Flight Point. A crowd of players was already gathered there, and the signs of battle were plain to see. Several Alliance of Light corpses littered the ground, victims of a Dark Horde ambush.

"Charge! Take them down!"

Before Ryan could so much as give a command, Moonlight Beauty was already rushing forward, blades flashing. He shouted after her, but she ignored him completely. In the end, he and the rest had no choice but to follow.

"Damn it, there's more than twenty of them," AJ muttered from the back, half-smiling at the hopelessness of it. Smoking Gun clapped him on the shoulder, offering nothing but a helpless grin. He knew exactly how Moonlight Beauty was.

The field settled into formation.

Nineteen players from Flowing Light Guild versus twenty-seven from the Dark Horde.

The Flight Point Battle had begun.