As the day came to a close and the players of the village began to gather in The Pit, tension and stress quickly gave way to excitement and boastful laughter. Though the attack by the Demon Bear had been the first legitimate threat to the safety of the village since the game began, it had been driven off with no fatalities, and healing magic had kept casualties to a minimum. Even when the beast had earned a name and a powerful Skill to go with it, the players emerged victorious.

Today reminded the players of two very important facts about New Eden Online.

The first was that deadly threats existed everywhere, and weren’t going to wait for them. That Loran’s words from weeks past were true, that they needed to grow stronger to face the challenges the game would throw at them whether they were ready or not. That this game didn’t care if they survived, and would kill them all if given the chance.

But they were also reminded that defeat wasn’t guaranteed. The Monster had been unimaginably strong, so strong that it could have easily slaughtered most of the village with little effort, but it was still defeated. They had all the tools they needed to survive in this world, all that mattered was if they had the skill and will to use them.

When the Pit Meeting finally began, the usual procedures were skipped. No one cared about how well the hunting teams did that day, or any other normal updates. What they wanted to know about was the battle with The Monster, how it found them in the first place, and its rewards.

…They did let the Kitchen representative announce the menu for the next few days. That was also important.

When Soze took the center stage, the whole area fell silent.

“I’ll assume most of you know most of what happened today, so let’s skip to the interesting bits.”

He took a moment to describe the Demon Bear, how it fought, and the unique quirks of its biology. In particular, he put a lot of emphasis on just how fast the beast was, as while it was easy to tell that it was tough and powerful they weren’t expecting something so large to strike and move so quickly.

“After the Demon Bear was driven away from the village, Yin, Bates’ team, and I chased it down to finish it off. When we finally found it, it had become a named monster.”

Surprised murmurs rolled through the audience. Because most of the people who knew about the situation were still shellshocked from the effects of [FEAR] the majority of the players had no idea what had happened. All they knew for certain was that they all returned late with fearful expressions and minimal injuries.

“Although the Unique Skill it was given after being named was extremely troublesome, we did manage to kill it, and received several rewards for doing so.”

The Pit exploded with noise. Most groups began chattering amongst themselves, while several of those closest to the front began shouting questions at Soze. After a few moments, things quieted down enough for him to continue, listing off the rewards offered before stating what he chose. Several people were jealous and felt it was unfair that all the Skill Crystals went to people from the same team as Soze, but they remained silent as they knew they had no right to complain about what Soze did with his rewards.

“The last reward is this helmet,” Soze said as he pulled out the Monstrous Helm. As the first piece of equipment deliberately created by the system, many players were impressed just by the appearance and aura of the item. They were even more shocked when Soze explained the overpowered Passive Skill the item had.

“I want to use this item as an opportunity for everyone,” Soze said.

The audience was filled with confusion, excitement, and curiosity. It didn’t sound like he was giving the Helm away like he did with the Skill Crystals, but if it was supposed to be for the benefit of everyone then it would certainly be good for them, right?

“For the first time since the game began, the village was attacked by a powerful threat. We managed to repel it, but not without casualties, and while such an attack probably won’t happen again any time soon, we don’t know when the next one will be. We also don’t know just how much stronger the next threat will be.”

If the next threat to the players was just another Demon Bear, then they could certainly handle it. But what if it was a named monster or some new threat they didn’t yet know of? Receiving a name had turned a dying Demon Bear into a deadly threat, one that would have torn them apart had it been at full HP, or if Soze hadn’t received his own Unique Skill. The abilities of named monsters were just too unpredictable and overpowering.

They already knew that there were at least two named monsters running around the eastern woods, The Wise One and the Hell Pig that must have received a name by now. How long until one of them attacked the village?

“We’ve had to hold back due to the danger of overhunting, but now we have a chance to go all out. If the Monstrous Helm is as effective against Iron Ants as we think it will be, then even weaker players will be able to hunt Iron Ants without too much danger. This effect can be magnified when the ants gather in large numbers.”

The Pit became silent as everyone began to realize what Soze was suggesting.

“I propose a large-scale expedition to Ziege Basin, to fight with the Mountain Goats against the Iron Ant horde to grind for EXP.”

Soze stopped speaking as the players began discussing amongst themselves.

The rewards for such an expedition were obvious. Ignoring outliers like Alexx and Zed, the average Level in the village was around 17, with only a few reaching Level 20. Because of this, the Iron Ant Drones could each give thousands of EXP, and it would be even more for the lower Level players. As dangerous as the giant insects were, the Monstrous Helm would do a lot to limit their movements, and might even leave them unable to attack depending on a player’s positioning. Fighting at Ziege Basin would also mean getting support from the Mountain Goats and The Guardian Elder. As long as they put up with fighting in the cramped canyon, they could always fall back to a safe position.

However, having the Helm didn’t mean such an expedition would be easy. The Helm wouldn’t make the ants completely stationary, it could only prevent them from moving toward the equipped player. The Drones could still make use of their high Agility to dodge, and while they were individually unintelligent, they probably wouldn’t behave like Bates’ team did and flee from the [FEAR]. Move to the wrong position and a Drone that was previously unable to move might suddenly attack.

Furthermore, there wouldn’t just be Drones at the Basin. Most of the Iron Ant variants wouldn’t be affected by the Helm and could easily slaughter dozens of low-Level players. Their only chance there was to hope that the nearby goats or higher-Level players could distract them. The last hurdle was the Iron Ant’s signature Skill [COMPOSITE IRON CARAPACE] which gave them tons of Armor. Yang, Alexx, and Zed were able to effectively bypass their Armor thanks to their weapons or stats, but most players couldn’t do that without using active Skills.

Chatter in The Pit slowly began to die down as more players returned their attention to Soze. At first, even if his proposal seemed possible, it was still incredibly dangerous. In their current state, there was no way that such an expedition wouldn’t result in several deaths. However, Soze was a cautious player, and that went double when talking about the safety of others. If he was suggesting it, then there had to be more than just “we have this new item, so let’s go.”

“I understand that there are concerns about this,” Soze said once The Pit became quiet. “Most of us aren’t ready for such a large battle, but we won’t be setting out for that fight tomorrow, or any time soon. There is still time before the ants make their next attack, right Alvor?”

“Um, technically no,” the goat tamer said from the audience. “The next raid would probably be in the next few days, but we wouldn’t be able to get there in time anyway. The next raid we could participate in would be in about a month.”

“That gives us about three weeks to prepare, and one week to travel to the basin,” Soze continued. “I still need to check in with Rika on a more precise timetable, but in that time we should have a decent number of iron weapons for everyone, as well as Demon Bear leather and carapace armor.”

The mention of better equipment quickly improved the morale within The Pit. Most players hadn’t interacted with the Iron Ants yet, and those few who had mostly remembered how fast and seemingly indestructible they were. Better weapons and armor wouldn’t make the giant insects weak, but it could be enough to give more players a fighting chance.

“Those three weeks also gives us time to go hunt for wandering scouts. Alexx, Yang, Zed, Loran, and I all have the skills and equipment to reliably kill Drones. I’ll be asking them to take anyone that wants to join the expedition out hunting to gather EXP and experience for the raid.”

As Soze continued to speak, the mutterings in the audience grew more confident. Attempting to fight against the Iron Ant Army would be difficult no matter what, but between the Monstrous Helm, the new equipment, and a month of preparation, participating in the raid seemed less like suicide and more like a feasible project.

It was not yet determined who would be going on the expedition, after all they couldn’t leave the village unprotected and some still held their reservations, but everyone knew that it would happen.

For the next month, the players would prepare for war against the Iron Ant Army.