Phantasm Deliverance

A New Life III

After retrieving the two girls, Lumière and Albedo met up with Momonga and Jack in the village at the largest house in town.

The Village Chief had a house near the village square. Upon entering, one would be greeted by a large living room, with a kitchen off to one side. A rickety old table and several chairs occupied the center of the room.

As soon as the humans felt Lumière's passive, plain relief and tentative hope filled their gazes. Their eyes were glued to the angel whose face was hidden behind a crystal mask.

Lumière entered the house with Momonga.

"Good day," Lumière said, her voice coming out soft and gentle like someone brushing their ears with a feather. The humans shivered at the inhuman sensation, but their hearts continued to swell with hope as they gazed upon her.

"G-Good day," stumbled the Village Chief. "Th-Thank you very much. Without your aid, we would all be dead. You have our deepest thanks."

The Village Chief and his wife bowed so low they might as well have prostrated themselves.

Lumière's wings quivered from discomfort. She and Momonga were still unused to having people bow to them, and seeing humans she perceived as elderly did so perturbed her. She resisted the urge to look at Momonga and defer the rest of the conversation to him.

Her passive made her ideal to charm the frightened villages. If they were intimidated by Momonga because of how easily his Death Knight dispatched their enemies, then Lumière ought to soothe them.

Lumière tried to keep her voice as warm and amicable as possible. "It is common sense to help those in need when you are able to, no?"

"You speak the words of a saintess," the Village Chief demurred.

Lumière placed a hand over her heart. "I am the High Priestess of the Silverlight faction. Helping those in need is one of our creeds."

"Forgive us, High Priestess, f-for we have not heard of that religion," the man stumbled over his words.

Religion? It's a faction, not a religion—Wait, they don't know about it?

All NPCs in YGGDRASIL recognized all factions, regardless of their geographical location. The fact that the villager did not—

We're definitely not in YGGDRASIL, and... it looks like the Silverlight faction does not exist.

That was... troubling. On a number of levels.

In YGGDRASIL there were over a hundred different factions.

Factions were groups formed based on beliefs. A player could only join one faction, but they could raise their reputation with any of them. Many of the factions had prerequisites that limited a player's ability to join—for example, there were numerous paladin factions although they ranged in karmic value and beliefs. At a high enough reputation with that faction the player could purchase unique items from that faction's vendor. However, if a player joined the faction they could rise through the ranks and obtain specific rewards. The rewards ranged from permanent buffs, re-worked passives, mounts, titles, an extra ability, and so on.

Momonga, a collector by nature, had refrained from joining any faction and instead grinded reputation with as many as he could find. He had managed to reach max reputation with over fifty factions before the game was scheduled to shut down.

Lumière had joined a faction.

Specifically, the Silverlight faction.

The Silverlight faction had one prerequisite—the player must have the most points in a healer class. Ergo someone who was mostly a warrior with one or two healer talents could not join the Silverlight faction.