Divine Glitch: I Regressed With Endgame Knowledge

Since Ryan, the guild leader, had spoken, the rest of the party members lit up, eager to roll for the cloak. By some bizarre twist of fate, Ryan's casual throw landed on a 14, the highest roll among them.

The dice could roll up to 100. A 14 was shockingly low. The only reason it stood out was because everyone else had somehow rolled even worse.

"One point? Seriously? That's just tragic," Moonlight Beauty muttered, her voice dripping with despair.

She shook the dice in trembling hands and rolled again out of frustration. This time, a 98 flashed across the team chat. Her eyes widened in disbelief. "Why is it 98 now? This is cruel!"

"Ha! Moonlight, I got a 5!" Nightwalker laughed, already giving up on the cloak. He turned to Riverbank Grass and said, "Riverbank, you rolled a 10. Guess it's yours."

Archress Mageress rolled next and fared no better—just a 9, barely below Riverbank Grass.

Ryan grinned so wide it nearly split his face. He knew he wasn't taking the cloak—he already had a better one, but casually beating the entire team with just a 14 still felt like a win.

Moonlight Beauty, clearly frustrated, kept rolling the dice over and over. A wave of numbers in the 90s flooded the party chat as if taunting her with useless luck now that it was too late.

"Damn it… so her luck really is that good," Ryan grumbled. His earlier triumph soured instantly. He stopped trying to redeem his own pathetic roll and instead reached into the BOSS's corpse for the remaining loot.

He pulled out a handful of Shadow Crystals. Outside of the small quantity needed for Forging, these were mostly used for Engineering, so he casually pocketed them. He could craft gems himself, but elemental crystals like these usually required farming elemental monsters to obtain.

As he sifted through the drops, Ryan found something far more interesting: a quest item.

It was a trigger-based quest item—just using it would start a quest, and completing it would grant a reward from a specific NPC. It was the same type of item as the Dungeon Scrolls dropped by Guardians.

—

Despairer's Shadow Shard

Bind on Pickup

Level: 16

Use: Grants the quest [Corrupted Crisis]

—

Ryan broadcasted the Shadow Shard in the party chat, urging everyone to grab theirs from the BOSS.

"Holy crap! This quest gives you a rare-quality gear piece straight up!" Nightwalker exclaimed. His jaw practically hit the ground as he scrolled through the quest details, a curse slipping out under his breath.

---

Corrupted Crisis:

The Corrupted Forest, once the source of Shadow Crystals in the Blood Gorge, has been thrown into chaos by the conflict between the Alliance of Light and the Dark Horde. The lingering resentment of countless dead creatures has tainted the once-pristine woods, corrupting wildlife and driving elemental beings mad with bloodlust.

Despairer Hughesman, leader of the frenzied Shadow Elementals, has fallen. With his death, some of the elementals he commanded have begun to awaken and regain their senses, and the forest's outer regions are slowly recovering.

Return to General Gantai. Your efforts will be rewarded.

Quest Objective: Speak with General Gantai (0/1)

Quest Rewards:

Elemental Plate Gauntlets or

Elemental Scale Gauntlets or

Elemental Leather Gauntlets or

Elemental Silk Gauntlets (choose one)

Experience: 5,500

Silver: 20

Reputation: 300 (Stormhold Fortress)

—

The reward gauntlets were a mixed blessing, offering boosts across multiple attributes. For example, the Elemental Plate Gauntlets Ryan could claim provided solid Stamina and Strength—along with an unexpected Intellect bonus. For a Paladin, that was mildly useful, but for a Warrior, the Intellect was completely wasted. Even Protection Paladins like Ryan had to admit it felt a little inefficient.

Still, this was the first rare-quality equipment players could earn through a quest. Its stats easily outclassed any green-quality gear of the same level. No matter how awkwardly the points were distributed, these gauntlets were a prize no one would dare refuse.

The party members tried to hide their annoyance at the "wasted" stats, but their excitement was plain to see. Rare-quality gear didn't come cheap—or easy. While some pieces occasionally appeared on the Stormhold Fortress auction house, they were priced like luxury items, and most weren't even ideal for their classes.

Ryan, as a crafter, could make some rare gear himself, but his skill level wasn't high enough yet to produce them reliably. And mass-producing rare items this early in the game would only draw unwanted attention. Since early-game equipment would be replaced soon anyway, he decided not to overthink it.

---

News of Ryan's dungeon clear spread quickly through the guild, stirring a minor buzz—though nowhere near the chaos of earlier events.

Right now, the spotlight in Stormhold Fortress was fixed on the creation of the Sky Dragon Family guild. Their recruitment posts were being spammed across the forums, attracting curious players and casual wanderers alike. Estimates suggested they had already recruited hundreds of players in a very short time.

In contrast, the larger guilds were laser-focused on claiming the first world dungeon clears. To them, these new casual guilds weren't even on the radar. Their rosters were already massive, and when they eventually formed guilds in-game, they couldn't just let anyone in—they didn't have the slots to spare.

Guilds were structured in four tiers, with each tier expanding the member cap tenfold. A newly formed Tier 1 guild could hold up to 500 members, while a max-tier Tier 4 guild could accommodate an overwhelming 500,000.

In later stages of the game, overpopulated mega-guilds would often spawn sub-guilds, using them as funnels to recruit and promote elite players to the main branch.

Ryan even recalled the fate of the once-mighty Oceanic Dominion, a colossal guild that had swelled to over eleven million members. Its sheer size proved its downfall. Internal conflicts and disorganization eventually caused it to shatter into seven splinter guilds that never reunited.

---

Just as Ryan and his team stepped out of the dungeon, a notification popped up in the guild chat.

"Guild Leader, there's news on the forums! An Orc faction player found another Guardian in the central region! The posts are blowing up, and a bunch of people are heading over to check it out!"

The follow-up message came almost immediately:

"The Guardian's name is Fallen Illyria, a Dryad!"

Ryan paused, processing the information, then shook his head. "If you want to take a look, go ahead. But don't get any ideas. We're not taking that fight."

Fallen Illyria was Level 20—a nightmare in the early game. Ryan vividly remembered how many players had died to her during his past life. Even at his current Level 15, he didn't stand a chance.

A Level 20 Guardian was in a completely different league. Anyone who tried to challenge her now would be walking straight into a death trap.