Exile sighed as he glanced around at the gathered leaders. With their failure in the ruins and Noslin and his sacrifice, everyone felt a little closer. They had shared that experience, fought side by side, and these two had sacrificed themselves to save as many as possible. The alliance happily voted to turn over a share of stored orbs to help these two recover.

Exile let out a soft smile as he grabbed one of the orbs that had been offered to him. 'At least they have the decency to compensate us. Exile quickly agreed to absorb the Divinity held in the orb, but something unexpected happened that caused him to frown.

​​

[The Divinity held in this orb is of a lower purity to your own. Refining Divine power. You have received +2 Strength, +5 Speed.]

[Divinity absorbed from players below Tier 1 will cost half of the held stats to refine. You have absorbed 25% of Kalus's Divinity...]

Exile struggled to keep a straight face as he read the messages. A quick glance towards Noslin told him that she was as surprised as he was. 'Damn! Orbs from lower-tiered players won't be as effective for us!' He wanted to groan at that revelation. In a way, it made sense. It would force higher-tiered players to go after those on their own level.

'They've really thought this through. There's no way to exploit this system as a higher levelled player.' He had initially wondered if it would be possible to slaughter players and quickly boost his stats with his superior power. But that was obviously not the case. It was going to cost the two of them twice as many orbs now to get similar results as before.

The other leaders frowned when they saw the two of them going through more orbs than they predicted. Naturally, this scene baffled them. The only reason that came to mind was that they had lost a huge chunk of power for their deaths. Eventually, Exile let out a sigh as he absorbed the last orb he needed to fully recover and even become slightly stronger than before.

'I gained another 7 Strength, 12 Endurance, 10 Speed and 13 Authority...' These stats weren't much above his original standard before his death. He did not want the other leaders to feel like he was going overboard as orbs kept disappearing from the stockpile.

[Congratulations! More than 80 points of Divine Power detected.]

[You have reached Tier 1 Level 2]

Exile nodded happily at the message, but he still felt weaker overall from when he was at the pinnacle of Tier 0. 'we need a new game plan...' Exile let out a sigh when he realised just how far away they were from being able to truly survive in the game. 'We may be at the top when it comes to players but we're still at the lower levels overall...'

Exile now had the impression that it would be some time before they could really, truly explore these lands. Especially with stronger mobs hanging around right now. His mind could not help but wander to what he knew of the journey ahead. 'Is this what they meant by being considered a true god at Tier 2...'

Exile had the thought that Tier 2 was probably the minimum requirement needed to begin any exploration into the areas beyond Valheim. 'I see... It will take time for the others to realise this. We need to focus on the Mortal Realms...' Exile gained a glint in his eyes. A plan formed in his mind, and he knew he had to take advantage of it as soon as possible. 'I'll have to tell the other leaders. The faster we move on this, the quicker we can gain the upper hand.'

Noslin and the others frowned as they listened to Exile explain his thoughts. Many of them disagreed and thought that they had to find as many treasures as possible before Valheim became overpopulated with players. But Noslin seemed to take it to heart. A deep frown crossed her face as she nodded at him.

"I think Exile is right..." Noslin said slowly. "We've already seen how hard it is for the other side to make any progress against the wolves. They're all desperate to search for anything of use. But how many deaths are they suffering just to hold the line against those mobs? While they're wasting time and energy against them, we should use this opportunity to push the NPC's battlefront."

A few of the leaders understood where they were coming from, but most of them were reluctant to give up on any benefits they could gain outside of Valheim. The conversation went back and forth as Noslin and Exile worked together to convince them that they doubted anyone could gain anything with the way things were right now.

"So, you want to try and push them out of Skardia while they're too focused on trying to power themselves up here?" Beartooth grinned as he thought about it.

"Right... I think we've been underestimating where the real power is for us right now. The NPC's give us offerings that we can use here. We also gain power as our influence spreads amongst them." Exile sighed. All of them had been blinded by trying to play the game since they ascended. They took the ascension as the start of the real game. But Exile was now switching their focus. Making them realise this was something like a trap laid by the developers.

'This is probably how Camelot is managing to stay ahead. Between Arthur and what I know of Merlin they probably figured it out long ago...' Exile let out a long sigh at how blind he had been. It took his failure with Nar'Kozz to realise how weak they actually were in the realm of gods. 'We have to look at the game as a whole and not at our current position compared to each other.'

Exile silently cursed the developers. By now he should have realised that this game was far different from anything else he had played so far. Most games would have areas that fitted the different levels that a player reached for them to grind. However, Exile was now realising this game would not be so gentle on them.

He guessed there were still regions that fitted certain levels, but they would likely hide things similar to Nar'Kozz. Things that would need a greater power to overcome. Every zone would likely hold challenges suited to any level they could reach. 'It's like a real world. Everything will be spread out and we can't lower our guard anywhere.'

"Ok, we all know what to do now. Alert your oracles. It's time we were more active with the NPC's. We have to give them a reason to spread our influence as quickly as possible. Make them feel like we are watching over them. Hopefully, we can blitz our enemies' side down there before they realise what we are up to." Noslin announced as the various leaders nodded their heads. It was time to use their followers to build a greater war chest.

Exile nodded to her as the different leaders began to file out with their own people. Exile was no different. He had already lefty orders for Ania with his last visit, so things should already be moving on their end. 'I wonder if we can make all of our oracles come together to form a proper army.' He was, of course, thinking about the oracles that supported Ragnarok and not the alliance as a whole. Doing something like this would allow them to consolidate their power instead of it being spread out.

'It will take some effort on our side to push them together... It would make taking Stormcrown a lot easier.' Exile frowned as Clay and the others walked silently behind him. They could see that he was lost in thought. Midas was the most thrilled with this development. After all, his authority was especially useful when dealing with NPC's.

Exile chose that moment to glance over his shoulder and his eyes landed on Winter. A grin slowly spread across his face as he thought of something. "Winter, you mentioned before that you basically caused nightmares to destabilise your enemies in Korden, right? Do you think you can do it on a larger scale?"

A savage grin spread across Winter's face with that question. "What do you have in mind exactly?"

"I want you to invade the dreams of our enemies' NPC's and make them see images of their deaths if they oppose us. Of their gods laying broken and defeated at our feet. With some luck, they may be superstitious enough to believe that it is a warning of the future to come. Making them become the source of it coming true." Exile could not help but let out a loud laugh at his own plan. 'That's right... The NPC's are our greatest strength... But they're also our greatest weakness...'