At first, Jom had sought out Kristina only to trick her so that she would leak information about the undead high elf, since that was very important to their current quest.
Soon, however, he had another idea once the even announcement popped up.
That being said, Jom would never believe that the believers of the Lord of the Peaks could defeat the Players.
After all, the first-rate Players were all superhumans who could single-handedly defeat ten opponents at once. With a flying turf supporting them and the Lord of the Peaks’ believers mostly likely linked to the earth-element, they would never reach the Sky Horizon, whereas the Sky Horizon could bombard them from above without missing.
How would that even be a fight!
That being said, Jom would not believe that the Players could easily best the Lord of the Peaks’ believers.
Even though the Church of Games were recruiting new blood from Lancaster, Tunaya, and the refugee encampment of Crookes, there were not many of them whose faith reaches the standard required to become a Player. After rounding off things, the total number of Players was around fifteen hundred.
As for the Unnamed Town and other spots, those were all basically the Players’ private property, and there are no prospects of recruitment there.
Moreover, sixty percent of the fifteen hundred Players were still non-combatant newbies.
In the end, the Players’ competence was not developed from a single stroke but from an accumulation of EXP, and right now, Xi Wei had only a handful of dungeons to offer the Players for repetitive farming—they had almost reached the heart of the Valley of the Tragic Dead, and since there was a limit to EXP provided, time was needed to mold the Players into a fighting force.
On the other hand, the Lord of the Peaks would have a considerable number of believers as one of the older divine beings. He could raise an army of up to eighty thousand with a single stroke if he wanted to, with over a hundred thousand more ready as reinforcements from various corners of the continent, and that would be quite a problem for the Players who would still be understaffed when the event begins.
That said, it was worth rejoicing that the third-rate players led by Simba had finally grown after several major events, becoming a new pillar for intermediate Players.
At the same time, first-rate Players such as Edward had risen past Level 50 and was heading toward 60, and it wouldn’t be an issue for them to graduate through the event if they could survive through the difficult initial period of the event.
On another note, in Jom’s perspective, it was perhaps a test which led to the God of Games had informed the Players about the event early on.
The enemies in past events were not weak, but usually most events would start immediately.
Only this event was an exception.
Does that mean the God of Games’ revealing the event details beforehand was so that the Players would prepare, even taking certain actions to lower the event difficulty while increasing the event’s chance of success?
For example, coming up with some way to deceive factions such as the Temple of Glory to obstruct the Lord of the Peaks’ believers from gathering at the Valla Empire (or Gaim)!
Therefore, after rescuing Kristina’s group, Jom went on a lively description of his ‘hunch’.
“Are you saying that the monsters that are suddenly appearing might have been chased her by the Lord of the Peaks’ believers?” Kristina stared at Jom rather suspiciously.
“Yes,” Jom answered with assurance.
“That’s impossible!” Kristina suddenly cried and aimed her Chaos Staff straight at Jom. “The Lord of the Peaks is no vile god, how could he abide with his believers in such behavior?! Which hole had you come out of, villain?! What are you trying to achieve by slandering the Lord of the Peaks’ believers?!”
Terry, who was having a bottle of cola promptly drew his sword and held it in front of his friend by reflex. Likewise, the other Kratos believers behind Kristina also drew their weapons and glared at the pair of youths.
At first, Jom thought that he had been exposed, but then recalled that he was flawless in both action and words. Hence, he tried his best to control his panic, keeping a straight face as he continued talking unaffectedly.
“I’m not slandering. Won’t you know if you check whether the Lord of the Peaks’ believers are gathering at Valla? And we are no villains, but preachers from Valla.”
“Which church?” The girl lifted her chin slightly. “The Church of Games.”
Jom had wanted to simply offer the name of some random church, but he answered honestly once he remembered that Kristina might ask him about their creed, which might lead to his slandering accusation proved true.
Nonetheless, Kristina lowered her staff. “It seems that you speak the truth. Forgive my manners.”
It appeared that she was just intimidating Jom to get some truth out of him.
Inwardly breathing a sigh of relief while praising his own composure, Jom became rather curious why Kristina would change her stance once she learned that he was a member of the Church of Games.
“I am acquainted with Isaac, captain of the wyvern knights. He holds the Church of Games in high regard.” Kristina replied. “Well, do tell me more about the Lord of the Peaks’ believers.”
“I’ve already told you most of what I know,” Jom said, taking a moment to think before adding, “There are many monsters around Valla such as Goblin Nests that usually appear in the mountains. It is abnormal that they would show up here as if they were chased here. At the same time, I have heard that the Lord of the Peaks’ believers were advancing here, and I don’t think they are here to preach when they look like they are out for blood…”
Kristina hesitated at Jom’s words.
As a matter of fact, while the Lord of the Peaks was a god on the side of Order, his reputation was not ideal because his believers were mostly hill-folk.
Hill-folk were humans, and as the name suggests, they were a people who lived in the mountains since ancient times.
Most nations are convinced that the hill-folk had yet to become civilized, and were no different from aborigines or wildlings. Indeed, hill-folk had more robust bodies and relatively long arms, which made them resemble oversized monkeys on first glance.
As their kind lived off the mountains, once most of the wild herbs, fruits and beasts in one region had been mostly consumed, they would leave the mountain to steal food or daily necessities—and the occasional woman.
Thanks to their faith in the Lord of the Peaks, the mountains were their finest fortress. Moreover, a small army would never win against them, let alone adventurers.
But if they did get out of line, the main religion of the affect cities would send in their Sacred Corps to the mountains to handle them.
Still, once the hill-folk made the briefest of contacts with the opposing side and determined that they would not win, they would always surrender immediately and hand over their loot and treasures to the Sacred Corp. They would then mention that their god was the Lord of the Peaks whose boss was Earthweaver, one of the Seven Divine Fathers… and proceed to plead mercy for the Divine Father’s sake, blah, blah, blah.
Most of the time, the Sacred Corps entrusted with handling them would give face and bring several heads with them to appease the citizens or their liege.
Hence, the Sacred Corps would save face and earn some riches, the hill-folk would obtain food and other living resources, with both sides getting what they want for a win-win situation.
That behavior slowly became the norm and an annual thing
However, the hill-folk would always be careful when choosing their targets and avoid touching cities protected by the Temple of Glory. After all, Kratos believers were all war junkies—who could they reason with if they were killed before they could surrender?
For their part, once the hierarchs of the Temple of Glory learned about the Sacred Corps and their ongoing schemes with the hill-folk, they waited for the hill-folk so that they would get a piece of the cake as well, so that everyone got their just rewards. However, they became exceedingly furious when the hill-folk never showed up-how dare you not come out to plunder when we let you?! It’s like you monkeys have the gall to belittle the cities we protect!
Hence, the reputation of the hill-folk and the Lord of the Peaks only worsened in the Temple of Glory.
Though a Scepter, Kristina was not high-ranked enough to know such inner workings, and years of being influenced by her own church meant that she certainly did not like the Lord of the Peaks’ believers. Therefore, thanks to Jom’s pushing her further in that direction, she really believed his explanation that the Lord of the Peaks’ believers had been chasing the monsters away from the mountains…
