36 Speculation Confirmed

As Astur is moving towards the location where Blaze was supposed to go, she is looking through the player forums through the System Interface. As she is scrolling through, Astur finds an interesting new post titled, "Explosive Power of the Forest Goddess." It goes without saying, the uploader is the same player who had been recording Astur's encounter with the Church of Light.

[I went to the Catherdral in the newbie town, I think it was called Dawn. There I got the get my Main Class, Priest. After some more players showed up for the same reason I did, a quest was handed out to us, to assist with an investigation of the nearby forest. Most of us in the area had already heard about this forest since one of the first NPCs we met gave out a similar quest. But there's something more important. As many of us know by now thanks to the streamer Blaze, there is a settlement in the deepest part of the forest, populated by a group called the Oulvgar, and that almost all the NPCs are significantly higher level than us. But the most important part is their leader, the one they call the Forest Goddess. From what we've seen, her quests have good rewards and aren't overly difficult. It's also speculated that she is the strongest NPC within the forest. But anyway, we went along with an Archbishop of the Church of Light to the forest and we actually encountered the beautiful Goddess. Unfortunately, a fight broke out. Below I have a clip I recorded of the fight, but I need to say something first. Fuck the Church! The Archbishop abandoned us once things looked bad and because of this stupid quest we came into conflict with the only NPC we know that gives good rewards. Link down below to the fight, like and subscribe for more content.]

"This guy actually had the nerve to not embed the video in the post and instead link to his own channel…" Astur thought as she is rushing towards her target location.

Not only did Astur have this thought, but so did many of the other people, both beta players and those waiting for the official release. But still, this didn't stop anyone from clicking the link to watch the video, with their curiosity overpowers the distaste for the shameless self-promotion.

The start of the video is from when the Archbishop first sent out his attack towards Astur and ends a few moments after she begins her counterattack. The ending portion is messy and difficult to see because of smoke caused by the explosions before it abruptly ends due to the recording player dying in the blast. But everyone was able to see the devastation caused by Astur's attacks.

At the same time, Blaze, along with the other players she managed to gather are watching the clip of Astur's fight.

"Damn! Blaze, you have the same Class as her, right? Do you know what she did to cause so much damage?" one of the players ask.

"From what I know, the Alchemist Class specialises in using items and gets bonuses for making and using them. Right now I have a base bonus of 50% when using or making items and I would assume she has more. And from what I heard from one of the other NPCs around her, Elizabeth, Astur seems to be fond of explosives," Blaze explains.

"A Class based on consumable items. Unfortunately, that isn't my cup of tea, I prefer toughing it out in a melee. But I can see the importance of having such a Class around for a Guild or Team," one of the other players say, a professional player know as Woden, the Captain of Team Vikingr, an Esports Team based in Denmark.

"I for one don't care if it's a frontline or backline Class, it looks cool. I want to see if I can be an Alchemist too. What are the important stats for the Class?" one of the other players ask.

"It seems to be Intelligence and Mind stats, those are the ones I get the most from when I got the Class to level 2. I do have to say, levelling the Class up is difficult. But thanks to the high rewards Astur gives for her quests, it isn't too much of a problem. If you want my recommendation, unless you can find another NPC that gives similar high EXP rewards, then you should stick around the Sea of Trees for Astur's quests or it will probably take some time to level the Alchemist Class," Blaze says.

"I know you have a quest to gather up a bunch of player for the Goddess. You sure you're not just saying that so you can complete your quest?" Another player asks.

"Haha, that is part of the reason. But I'm really not lying when I said it takes a lot of EXP to level this Class up. I saw some post of a couple of other Classes and their levelling requirement is almost half as much as my own. I actually sent a message to my brother about this and he said that my Class can probably gain EXP from crafting which is the reason why the devs gave it a higher requirement. But this doesn't matter with Astur's quests," Blaze says.

"Hey, I just looked at my map, and there is a yellow dot moving in our direction right now," says one of the other players.

Checking her map, Blaze also sees a dot moving towards their general direction, though it's a bit off course from their current position. However, for Blaze, the dot is green.

"I see it too, but it's green for me. In my case, this is a friendly moving towards where we were ealier. I saw a forum post about how Astur showed up and forced another group besides the Church out from the forest, so I think I might be her coming towards us. Since it's yellow for you meaning whoever it is, has a neutral attitude towards you and since the dot is green for me, they have a positive attitude towards me. Yeah, I think I can safely say it's either Astur or one of her subordinates," Blaze says.

"Should we go back to where we were?" another player asks.

"No need. Look at your map, they've changed course and are coming towards us now," Woden says.

"Yeah, we can just wait here for them to show up," Blaze says.

As Blaze and the other players expected, Astur showed up after a couple of minutes. Although she has some dirt on her clothes and leaves in her hair, she doesn't look exhausted in the slightest.

Upon her arrival, the conditions for Blaze's quest is met, to bring a large group of people to Astur to assist with the development of the Holy Oulvgar State.

"You work fast, I knew you had potential," Astur says to Blaze, giving her some generic NPC talk. "So these are the people you gathered. Are you all willing to help develop the city I am constructing?" she asks, giving the players a new quest.

[Quest: Rise of the Oulvgar - 2 (Rank C)]

[Description]: Astur Kojuuin has asked you to assist her in bringing her new nation up to a level where it can compete with its neighbours. You can choose to accept or decline her offer. Assist the Oulvgar in the construction of its basic facilities and turn it into a functioning living space for all types of people.

[Rewards]: +6,000 EXP, +20 Intimacy Points with Astur Kojuuin, a permanent 10% discount from any shop affiliated with Astur.

[Failure Penalty]: -40 Intimacy Points with Astur Kojuuin. (Applied upon quest rejection as well).

Blaze, however, received a slightly different quest. Although the basic description is the same, she has an additional line saying to assist Astur with other matters. She also has the additional reward of one of Astur's recipes.

The players, almost instantly after seeing that the speculation is now confirmed, that Astur gives out large EXP rewards, all accept the quest saying they would gladly help.

"Good, now follow me. I'll lead you all to the central area."