Once the words had completely sunk in, Victor continued, “Some of you have spent countless hours building this academy. You’ve forged spells, researched magic, created machines, and constructed homes. You’ve made this academy your second home. Will you let it be taken away?”
“No!” several players shouted, and others quickly echoed.
“Then prepare yourselves,” Victor declared. “Fortify the walls. Contribute to the Star Fortress Project, train in the Virtual Combat Chamber, and form strike teams. The mission list has been updated with critical tasks that must be completed during this emergency. These missions will guide you — give you purpose and direction in the coming war. This is your story — and I expect you to rise to the challenge.”
His gaze swept across the rows of acolytes, sharp and resolute.
“This is yet another trial for the academy’s survival. The enemies are coming, and the fate of the Sanctum lies in your hands. Let this be our stand — let them see that we are not to be trifled with, that we are not some fledgling group to be snuffed out. Let the Merlin family know that if they dare strike, we will strike back harder!”
“My only hope is that we emerge victorious in this time of emergency and tell the world that we are a powerful academy.”
Victor gave them a final look, emanating the charisma he had cultivated since the academy's inception. He knew this speech would ignite them and buy him the time he needed. Because after this, Victor would isolate himself to finally make his breakthrough… Whether it would take him to the threshold of becoming a Nexus Temporal Magus or just a minor breakthrough, he couldn’t say. But he had no doubt that he was on the brink of evolution.
Then, a thunderous roar erupted from the crowd.
“Long live Sir Astralium! Long live the academy!”
“Death to the Merlin dogs!”
“I will avenge Lillie and prove myself to be Lillie’s number one knight!”
“No! It will be me! I want Lillie to call me ‘dear big brother’!”
“What are you talking about?”
The cheers surged like a tidal wave, crashing against the walls of the grand auditorium, echoing with passion, unity, and righteous fury. At that moment, the players weren’t just gamers — they were soldiers preparing for war. Once again, their loyalty to Victor and the academy tripled as they united with a single purpose under one banner.
When the headmaster left the stage, the players erupted into motion.
Outside the grand auditorium, the once-calm academy grounds transformed into a hive of activity. Players spilled out in controlled chaos, forming parties, barking instructions, pulling up holographic maps, and rushing toward workshops or designated build sites. Even in the crisp winter air, steam and sweat rose together as everyone got to work.
At the heart of it all, William — known as Prominence in-game — activated his Shadowlink Mark to check the new available missions.
[Construction Project: Star Fortress – East Bastion]
- [Move the bricks from the kilns to the designated location.]
- Mission Difficulty: ★
- Requirement: None
- Reward: 1 merit point per ten bricks
- [Coordinate the required logistics.]
- Mission Difficulty: ★
- Requirement: None
- Reward: 50 merit points per delivery route completed
- Note: Report to the assistant fairy or the site supervisor for instructions
- [Reinforce the foundation with Geo-elemental spells.]
- Mission Difficulty: ★★
- Requirement: First-stage Initiate Attunement acolyte or above with high Geo elemental affinity
- Reward: 20 merit points per successful casting
- Note: Report to the assistant fairy or the site supervisor for instructions
- [Enchant anti-air traps around the bastion perimeter.]
- Mission Difficulty: ★★★
- Requirement: Second-stage Initiate Attunement acolyte or above with high Anemo or Electro elemental affinity
- Reward: 60 merit points per trap
- Note: Report to the assistant fairy or the site supervisor for instructions
- [Supervise and manage construction crews.]
- Mission Difficulty: ★★★
- Requirement: Second-stage Initiate Attunement acolyte or above with construction leadership experience
- Reward: 300 merit points per day + bonus for efficiency
- Note: Report to the assistant fairy if you have the qualification
- [Report enemy reconnaissance patterns near the eastern forest.]
- Mission Difficulty: ★★★
- Requirement: Second-stage Initiate Attunement acolyte or above with stealth-related spells
- Reward: 500 merit points per day + possible follow-up tactical mission
- Note: Report to the assistant fairy for instructions
…
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There were many more tasks and missions available in the grand project, which was divided into five bastions, although only three were accessible: the North Bastion, East Bastion, and Southeast Bastion. These three bastions were the most likely places that the enemy would invade, so they were prioritized over the other two.
Notably, the entire mission list had received a UI overhaul. Now, it got a cleaner layout and was far more polished and immersive than earlier versions.
“Guys, we should organize the guild members quickly and assign them efficiently to the tasks,” Zero suggested.
Since the last version update, they had officially formed a guild called “Gamer’s Empire,” named after their long-running Discord server. William, being the first among the five of the first batch of players to third-stage Initiate Attunement, created the guild and became the guild master at the time. However, Zero — who had the sharpest management skills — took over leadership as soon as he reached the same advancement.
Still, William became the vice guild master, while SuperNova, Mike, and Storm took up positions as guild officers.
“Mhm, these missions are pretty generous,” Storm noted. “Even brand-new players could rack up two to three times the usual merit points per in-game day. Obviously, this won’t last — it’s probably just to help build everything before the invasion hits.”
“What should we do?” asked SuperNova.
“Let’s split up and lead our guild members based on the squads we’ve already divided from before,” Zero suggested.
The Gamer’s Empire guild operated with impressive efficiency, thanks to the fact that nearly all its members were seasoned gamers with years of experience in MMORPGs. Most of them had known each other from their old server and had long histories of running guilds together. Drawing from that experience, they had divided the guild into specialized squads based on each member’s strengths and expertise.
“Great idea. That way, we can stay efficient and rake in the most benefits from this update,” Storm said with a gleeful grin.
William nodded in agreement. “Yup! We can’t afford to lose to the Spinula guild. Our pride as first-batch players is on the line here.”
“Indeed,” Mike chimed in.
The Spinula guild, the one being led by MissRichLadyAuralise, was widely considered the number one guild in the server. While the game limited each guild to fifty members, they had cleverly created several subsidiary guilds, each managed by key officers. Altogether, the Spinula guild effectively commanded over two hundred players — becoming the biggest force in the academy.
While heading back to the Headmaster’s Office and into his meditation chamber, Victor glanced at the holographic screen projected from his Master Shadowlink Mark to monitor the players’ activity.
Everyone was hard at work. Dozens of squads had split based on their guilds, professions, and specialties. Players who were engineers and crafters in the real world had flocked to the industrial zone, where resources were being processed at breakneck speed. Elemental marbles, ironwood planks, rune-reinforced panels — all loaded onto golem-pulled carts and shipped toward the outer perimeter.
Nearby, a group of player architects huddled around a massive holographic blueprint of the Star Fortress, engaged in a heated discussion over its next phase.
“Move the northern flank! We need room for the siege guards!”
“No, the anti-air formations won’t have line of sight if you do that!”
“I’ve calculated the radius. If we build another tower here, we’ll cover 75 percent of the airspace!”
At the same time, some players used Geo-elemental constructs to excavate deep trenches, while others assembled scaffolding with magically-grown bamboo. All around, squads launched prefab walls with Geo spells or shaped molten steel into defensive spikes using Pyro magic.
Further east, near the treeline, a small unit of elite acolytes was inscribing layered runes into the soil, transforming a shallow ditch into a fortified trench lined with elemental mines and detection spells.
Meanwhile, inside the Virtual Combat Chamber, all twenty-five simulation rooms were booked solid. Veteran players were running simulations of past invasions. Guilds were coordinating mock battles against similarly powerful or even stronger mages to test new formations and tactics.
The entire academy had transformed into a bastion of war overnight. As Victor stepped inside the meditation chamber and sealed the door behind him, he smiled in satisfaction — for once, everything was proceeding exactly as he had envisioned.
The Gamer’s Empire guild was not the only one that had recently emerged and was gaining momentum. Another equally promising guild had formed among the life-skill focused players — a guild led by none other than Aphrodite, the renowned player who had invented black powder, dynamite, and magic cannons within the game. His new guild was called “Philosopher’s Stone” and had quickly become the central hub for Alchemists, Artificers, and other life-skill players.
Unlike combat guilds that emphasized exploration and battle prowess, Philosopher’s Stone had a singular purpose: to craft wonders within the game and dominate its economy through innovation and production. Their internal structure revolved around a network of specialized workshops — each responsible for a different pillar of support. From raw material processing and potion brewing to mechanical golem construction and magic weapon manufacturing, they covered all the bases that kept the academy running smoothly.
Aphrodite himself spearheaded the development of the largest alchemical weapons factory in the game — the Pandora Pyre. Under his leadership, his workshop produced a vast array of magic cannons and was even in the process of developing prototype magic guns — a technological leap no other workshop had even dared to attempt.
Beneath him, his officers oversaw production lines churning out everything from golems to all sorts of magic tools. Among them, an Artificer player with the username PrimoDos was the creator of SPARK — short for Suicidal Payload Assault with a Risky Knight. This innovative design was essentially a self-destructing magical knight unit capable of obliterating entire enemy formations. PrimoDos was already mass-producing an upgraded line of these units, equipping them with stronger explosive payloads, like C4, that even ordinary players could deploy with devastating effect.
This level of production was one of the main reasons Philosopher’s Stone established their headquarters near the industrial zone, adjacent to the Alchemical Hall and Artificer Hall. It was a place constantly bustling with activity.
“Our role isn’t to fight on the frontlines,” Aphrodite had declared during the guild’s founding. “Our role is to make sure everyone else can.”
It was thanks to the Philosopher’s Stone guild that the academy was able to mass-produce and stockpile potions, siege-grade alchemical weapons, magic tools, and construction materials for the Star Fortress Project. Even guilds like Gamer’s Empire relied on their supply chains for all sorts of points, magic boosters, and elemental reagents.
More than one guild had attempted to poach Philosopher’s Stone members, including the Spinula guild, with tempting offers — but to no avail. Aphrodite hadn’t just created a guild. He had created a backbone that the entire academy now quietly leaned on.
Lizbeth, who was watching everything transpire and perched atop the main building, shivered — not from the cold, but from a creeping sense of unease.
The storm was coming.
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