Elf Kingdom: Game of the World Tree

Once Eve confirmed she couldn't enter the Half-plane, she stopped trying.

She planned to assign the task of entering the Half-plane to the players.

At that time, she would directly switch to the players' perspective and command their exploration by releasing tasks.

Of course, considering the success rate of exploration, the candidate for this task must naturally be chosen from the silver players.

This Half-plane was of an intermediate level.

With silver strength, they could definitely be a formidable force inside, and the likelihood of successful exploration was the highest.

With this thought, Eve began to consider her plan to let players explore the Half-plane:

"We don't need many explorers, after all, I don't know what the situation is like inside. Just send a few people to figure things out and find a way to get the fragments of the Life Scepter."

"This can be issued as a hidden task to a squad of silver-level players..."

"Hmm... looking at it this way, it feels like the Lunchbox Squad is quite suitable, strong and reliable, and conveniently closest to here."

Indeed, the Lunchbox Squad was very close to Cenolan.

Currently, they were exploring less than thirty kilometers away.

It could be said that even if Eve hadn't sensed the fragments of the Life Scepter, the Lunchbox Squad would have explored the Cenolan Ruins sooner or later in a few days.

In fact, the Lunchbox Squad had planned to explore the western part of the Elf Forest since the fourth beta test.

However, due to previous underground wars and Demon Palace instances, their actions had been delayed until now.

Now it seemed that to figure out what's inside the Half-plane sooner, they were indeed the most suitable, being the strongest and closest.

"Uh, it's just... does this come off as a bit predetermined?"

Eve joked to herself.

"Predetermined or not, it's my game, I'm the boss, and it's not the first time. Who asked them to be so capable?"

"As for the reward, let's make it a dragon contract right."

Eve thought.

Speaking of which, when she made the True God Oath with Platinum Dragon King Reinhardt, he promised that the dragons would freely choose the players they wanted to form a partner contract with.

As for why, that involves the special nature of the dragon partner contract.

Generally speaking, when a dragon signs a partner contract, it subconsciously chooses someone it finds agreeable.

This way, the chosen contract partner generally has a high compatibility, greatly shortening the run-in period, allowing both parties to achieve a synergy where one plus one is greater than two.

However, it's not absolute.

Reinhardt also said that if Eve had someone in mind, she could directly specify the contract partner.

This was out of trust in Eve.

In Reinhardt's view, someone whom a True God directly designated as a contract partner was inherently someone possessing potential that even a True God couldn't help but pay attention to.

Even if the run-in period was longer, the potential would make up for it.

However, Eve didn't plan to take over specifying all dragon contract partners in the future.

Reinhardt didn't know, but she understood that players' potentials were all the same; these bodies were all top-notch, it didn't matter who was chosen.

The real difference between players might be their online time and individual personalities and preferences.

In a situation where player potential was nearly the same, letting dragons choose someone with similar compatibility was the way for them to go further...

Of course, Eve wasn't entirely giving up on specifying.

She had already decided that among the five dragons each month, she would designate one or two of them, issuing the contract rights as task rewards, while the rest would no longer be intervened, letting the dragons choose suitable players themselves.

After planning everything, Eve closed her eyes and sensed the location of the Lunchbox Squad members.

"About thirty kilometers northeast..."

After pondering for a moment, Eve moved, transforming into a stream of light and flying northeast.

...

In the western part of the Elf Forest, thirty kilometers northeast of the Cenolan Ruins.

Five fully armed elves were cautiously exploring.

It was the Lunchbox Squad.

After perfectly clearing the Demon Palace instance, they didn't continue grinding monsters in the maze, but began their originally planned, but frequently aborted due to large tasks, map exploration plan.

The direction of their exploration was the western part of the Elf Forest.

"Captain, we've been walking for many days, and it feels like there's nothing strong in this direction, and... is the city ruin Gugu mentioned real or not?"

In the team, the player acting as the tank warrior, with the ID Optimist, said.

"Yeah, the monsters in this direction aren't very strong. I heard that going north this far, you'd have encountered silver-strength wild monsters long ago, yet we've hardly seen a Black Iron Upper demon beast in half a day."

Hu Lu chimed in from the side.

He was idly playing with his Purple Epic Silver Lower Magic Wand, which he had just exchanged not long ago, almost treating it like a walking stick.

Indeed, it was boring.

Before setting off, the group had imagined encountering even more powerful demon beasts and successfully finding the Elf City that Gugu had read about in ancient books.

However, as they went along, the distance was getting longer, but the number and level of demon beasts were decreasing, and there wasn't the slightest sign of ruins.

If it weren't for Lunchbox's insistence, they would have given up long ago.

"Don't worry, it should be soon."

Comforting his teammates with a word, Lunchbox glanced at the top right corner of his field of view's mini-map.

The mini-map showed they had left the core area for over four hundred seventy kilometers.

"Oh, then let's stick it out a bit longer. I hope Gugu's deduction is right because if the game's ancient books are just background settings, then all these days would be for nothing."

The Druid player Chopin said.

Listening to his words, Lunchbox shook his head:

"No, the scenery is changing."

"The scenery is changing?"

Hearing Lunchbox's words, the group was slightly taken aback.

They looked to their sides and suddenly realized:

"Indeed... it feels like the trees have thinned considerably, while the number of shrubs is increasing."

"Let's keep going."

The players cheered up and continued forward.

However, after only a few steps, the leader and front scout Lunchbox suddenly stopped.

His expression immediately turned serious and vigilant.

"What's wrong, Captain?"

The other players asked.

Lunchbox drew his weapon and looked towards a certain direction diagonally ahead, whispering, "There's something up ahead."

Hearing his words, their spirits lifted, and they immediately emerged from their earlier lethargic state, becoming alert and vigilant.

During scouting, Lunchbox kept his Keen Ear spell active the whole time. Any sound or movement, he'd be the first to know.

The other players also drew their weapons, watchfully looking towards the diagonal direction ahead.

Lunchbox gripped his weapon's handle tightly before stepping forward softly and silently.

The others cautiously followed.

All five players were on high alert, quietly moving forward.

Soon, they reached a dense thicket.

Gently parting the shrubs, they peered to the other side.

What met their eyes was a small green figure.

"Goblin! It's a Goblin!"

The players' expressions were filled with delight.

After playing the game for so long, they were all too familiar with these green-skinned creatures.

This weak being with low intelligence preferred to live in groups in ruins.

And whenever a Goblin was found in the Elf Forest, it always meant one thing—

Nearby, there must be ruins!

When the players saw the Goblin, the Goblin also saw the players.

The little creature was taken aback, then let out a panicked shriek before turning to run.

At this sight, the players' eyes brightened.

"Chase it! It must be fleeing towards the ruins! There must be ruins ahead!"

They cheered and excitedly gave chase.

The Goblin's fleeing speed wasn't fast.

At least, it was much slower than the players when they sprinted.

However, the group restrained their speed, only trailing closely behind the creature.

They weren't looking to kill it, rather they wanted it to lead the way.

In a pursuit-chase dynamic, they ran for an hour.

When the system's mini-map indicated they were nearing the five-hundred-kilometer boundary, the Goblin finally stopped.

——————

Today's the only update, no need to wait any longer.