With the sun setting, the players began settling down for the night. Meanwhile, Soze was speaking with a handful of other players to discuss whether they should still go through with the raid now that they knew the Mountian Goats were losing.

“I don’t get why we’re even discussing this,” Loran said. “The whole thing with the Helm not being as good as we thought is still a problem, but the goats losing the advantage shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Even though we’ll have less backup than expected?” Bates asked sarcastically.

“They’ve only lost between 5% and 10% of their population at most,” Jorda said. Jorda was the leader of the builder team, and was the living definition of “no-nonsense.” She didn’t crack jokes, didn’t tolerate laziness from her crew, and rarely expressed an opinion unless it involved getting something done. She also never seemed to get angry and was quite kind once you moved past her brusque demeanor, leading many players to like her once they stopped feeling so intimidated.

Her character model certainly didn’t help. She had pushed the height setting to the maximum during character creation, making her an intimidating 7 feet tall. Her ash-grey skin was pulled taut over enough bulging muscles to embarrass the average bodybuilder. A pair of tusk-like lower fangs jutted out from her jaw, slightly pointed ears, and shaved head helped her complete the look of a stylized ork, offset by the almost comedically small pair of spectacles resting on her nose.

“Those losses would be significant in the long term, but overall they didn’t lose that much of their fighting force,” Loran said. “We should fight.”

“I’m not that worried about their losses,” Soze said. “The problem is how much the Iron Ants have gained. My guess about them responding quickly to the version update was right, so that means we’re potentially going up against double the size of what Yang and the others fought.”

“And we have over twenty times more people than before,” Loran said slowly. “Even if we account for the fact that most of us aren’t as good as Alexx and Zed,” he paused to turn to the others. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Jorda said.

“As long as you include yourself on that list,” Bates said jokingly.

“Right, anyway, we still have more people and better equipment. As long as we play it safe we can get through this.”

“Look,” Soze said while rubbing his temples. “I’m not about to stop you or anyone else who wants to fight. But with this many people we need to have a better strategy than bum rushing the army of killer ants!”

“But-”

“But nothing!” Yang shouted, cutting him off. “We need something better than fucking Leroy Jenkins!”

Loran sighed, knowing they were right. Some of the more skilled players can handle themselves, and others can make it through with some support, but the majority of the players here just won’t be able to handle this many Drones. The ants will easily outnumber them 100 to 1, and a brute force battle of attrition is just suicide. They need some kind of strategy. “I’ll think of something.”

“Why?” Jorda asked.

“Hm?” Loran wasn’t sure what she was referring to.

“Why are you trying so hard for this?” Soze asked, and Jorda nodded. “I already said I won’t stop you, so it’s not about EXP. Why are you so insistent we go through with the raid?”

“Because I think things will get worse for us if we let the goats die out.”

There was silence for a moment as the others processed his words. Then Jorda’s eyes widened as she understood his reasoning. “The ants will expand massively without the goats.”

Yang, Soze, and Bates’ faces paled as the realization dawned on them.

The presence of the Mountain Goats was a massive threat to the Iron Ants. Even if they aren't an active threat, the ants consistently devote massive amounts of resources to the raids every month. If the goats die and the raids stop, the ant population will skyrocket just by virtue of the death rate going down. It would be a matter of months for the ants to finish off the Mountain Goats, and a few months after that they will push their borders south toward the village and beyond.

The ants had to have a limit they wouldn’t expand past, but there was no reason the think the village was outside those limits.

“We need to help the goats survive the siege,” Yang said numbly.

“But the waves will keep coming,” Bates said. “How many times can we do this?”

“It does take a long time to get here and back to the village,” Soze notes. “But it is just a week and a half, give or take a day. Making that trip once a month wouldn’t be excessively difficult and we would be able to harvest massive amounts of iron with every trip.”

“We also don’t need to do it forever,” Loran reminded them. “The ants have the advantage because they adapted to the update quickly. Once the goats have time to build up their new population, the stalemate would return.”

“Okay, we definitely have more reason to fight than I thought, but that doesn’t change the fact that we still don’t have a plan.”

A silence fell over the group again.

Suddenly Bates’ brow furrowed. “Didn’t you say something about resting mid-fight on a ledge last time?” he asked Yang.

“Yeah,” she said, nodding slowly. “Why?”

“How many of those ledges are there?”

With one sentence, ideas began forming in their heads. If the ground was overcrowded with ants and goats, how much more mobility could they get by using the walls?

“I don’t remember, but we can find out easily enough.”

The five players ran for the entrance to the basin, feeling like they had once again lucked out with a perfect trump card.

~~~~~

“WHY THE FUCK IS THE GODDAMN LEDGE GONE!?!”

“Did learning Burning Rage also give you the ability to scream louder?” Loran asked, his hands rubbing his ears. “Because I think I just took damage from that.”

Despite Loran’s comment, he felt similarly to Yang at the moment. They had been concerned that there might be fewer ledges than they would need to enact a plan, but the idea that there would be no ledges never even occurred to them, for obvious reasons.

“How is that even possible?” Bates asked incredulously. “I know this is a video game, but I don’t think the version update said anything about randomly changing rock formations.”

The five stared at the wall before Jorda spoke up.

“It was The Guardian Elder.”

The others wondered what she meant until realization dawned on Yang.

“She jumps between the canyon walls to fight against the Soldier ants! With her stats and weight, she can easily shatter these stone walls. The terrain must shift every time she fights!”

New Eden Online was a highly dynamic game. While most games would simply use pre-rendered, indestructible environments to save on time and resources, this world was as breakable as reality. Depending on events, things could shift and change, and with enough force, even landscapes could be warped.

“Fuck!” Bates spat. “So not only do we have no ledges to use, but even if there were ledges they might get destroyed in the middle of the fight?! How the hell are we supposed to fight these damn ants?!”

Loran sighed as yet another hope for victory was dashed.

“...Jorda, can you break the stone with your Stregnth?” Soze asked.

Everyone perked up as they heard his question. If The Guardian Elder could reshape the walls, then what would stop them from doing the same?

Jorda laid a hand on the stone wall, examining it before raising a fist.

*CRACK*

Her fist struck the stone wall and a loud crack filled the canyon, drawing the attention of several passing goats and even the gaze of The Guardian Elder. When Jorda turned back to them, she was holding a jagged piece of stone.

Soze smiled. “Do you think you can make some ledges for us to stand on?”

“Not many.” They had no tools for shaping stone like this, and using their bare hands was going to be inefficient. Additionally, the ledges needed to be high in the air to be of any value, so tey needed a way to climb up in the first place.

“It’ll have to do. Gather the other builders and get started.” Soze turned to Bates and Yang. “Go tell everyone to learn the Leap Skill if they can. If they can’t tell them to be up on these ledges before the raid starts.”

“Won’t The Guardian Elder just break the ledges during the raid?” Bates asked.

“I have an idea for that, don’t worry. The ants could be here in less than a day so let's move!”

The three nodded and started running toward the player camp.

“So I guess we have a plan now?” Loran asked.

“Nothing too specific, but it’s enough that we can improvise the rest.”

Loran shrugged. “Isn’t that how most plans go? What was that old quote? ‘No plan survives first contact with the enemy?’ No reason to waste time on details.”

“I suppose so.” Soze shook his head. “But enough of that, I have a question for you.”

“Hm?”

“How long did it take for you guys to come up with fire magic?”

“After we found out about idea manipulation? A few days, maybe a week. Why?”

“Do you think you could come up with earth magic before the raid starts?”

Loran’s eyes widened as he considered Soze’s words. If they could develop earth magic, or more specifically a spell to reshape solid stone, it would increase the number of ledges they could make for the raid and even give them even more strategic options. The only problem was whether they could actually invent the spell in just a few hours. Loran picked up a broken piece of stone and turned it over in his hands. “I’ll have to speak with the other spell casters, but I can give you a definite maybe.”

“Make it happen.”

Loran rolled his eyes and ran back to the camp, grinning as ideas started to form in his mind. ‘This is getting interesting…’