At first, Jom had only sought out Christina to get information about the high elves' undead.
After all, it was very important to their current quest.
But the event notice that popped up later gave him another idea.
Jom would never believe that the Lord of the Peaks' believers could defeat the Players.
After all, every first-rate Player was an extraordinary individual, and one against ten would be child's play. Moreover, they had a flying city behind them, and most of the Lord of the Peaks' believers' divine arts were related to earth elementals. They simply couldn't reach the Sky Horizon, and the Sky Horizon, on the other hand, could launch dimensional strikes from above.
How was he supposed to fight them?!
Be that as it may, Jom did not believe that the Players could easily defeat the Lord of the Peaks' believers.
The reason was simple: there were too few Players.
Even if the Church of Games had Lancaster, Tunaya, and the Crookes survivor camp to recruit new blood, there weren't many who could reach the standard of the Players. At the very most, there were only around fifteen hundred Players.
As for places like the Unnamed Town, it was completely a Player's private plot, which in turn didn't have much use in recruiting new blood.
Moreover, sixty percent of those fifteen hundred Players were newbies who could not fight at all.
After all, the Players' ability wasn't built overnight. They needed to accumulate EXP, and at the moment, there were only a handful of dungeons that the newbies could farm repeatedly. They had almost explored the core zone of the Valley of the Tragic Dead, but the EXP provided was limited, and it would take some time before they could become fighting force.
On the other hand, the Lord of the Peaks, being a veteran deity, had a sizable number of believers. He could muster an army of fifty to eighty thousand at once if he were to organize them, with more than a hundred thousand reinforcements from across the continent. That would be enough to cause a huge problem for the Players who lacked manpower in the early stages of the event.
Fortunately, the newbie third-rate players led by Simba had finally matured after a few major incidents and became the new mainstay of the players.
Meanwhile, first-rate Players like Edward were gradually breaking through Level 50 and heading towards the Level Cap of Level 60. As long as they could endure the most difficult early stages of the event, graduating wouldn't be a problem.
From Jom's perspective, the God of Games might be testing the Players since he would notify them of the event beforehand.
In the past events, the enemies they encountered were not weak, but every event had started immediately. Only this time was different.
Didn't that mean that the God of Games had informed the Players about the event beforehand so that they could prepare for it, perhaps even lowering the difficulty of the event to increase the chances of success?
For example —
Think of a way to deceive factions such as the Temple of Glory to stop the believers of the Lord of the Peaks who were gathering towards the Valla Empire (or Gaim in the Sky Horizon)!
Therefore, after saving Christina and the others, Jom described his' theory 'vividly.
"You're saying that the aberrations that suddenly appeared were driven here by the Lord of the Peaks' believers?" Christina looked at Jom suspiciously.
"Yes," answered Jem frankly.
"That's impossible. The Lord of the Peaks is no malevolent god. Why would he allow his believers to commit such atrocities!" Christina suddenly yelled, pointing her Chaos Staff at Jom. "Where did you come from, villain? What are you trying to do by framing the Lord of the Peaks' believers?!"
Terry, who was sipping on his cola reflexively drew his sword and held it in front of his best friend, just as the Temple of Glory cultists behind Christina drew their weapons as well, glaring at Terry and Jom.
At first, Jom thought that he had been exposed, but he did not find any loopholes when he recalled his words and actions.
"Wouldn't you know if I'm framing you just have to check if the Lord of the Peaks' believers are no longer gathering in the Valla Empire?" Hence, Jom did his best to hold back his panic, and continued with an unperturbed expression. "We're not villains, but missionaries from Valla."
"What church?" The girl lifted her chin.
"The Church of Games."
Jom had wanted to make up a random church, but when he remembered that she might ask about their creed, he answered honestly since he would be framed if he couldn't tell her about it.
It was only then that the girl put away her Chaos Staff. "Looks like it's true. I've been rude just now."
It seems that she was just trying to intimidate Jom to see if she could get some truth out of him.
Jom breathed a sigh of relief, praising himself for his composure. At the same time, he was a little curious as to why Christina's attitude changed so quickly after she believed that he was a believer of the Church of Games.
"I'm acquainted with Isaac, commander of the wyvern knights, and he admires you believers of the Church of Games," Christina replied. "Well then, tell me more about the Lord of the Peaks' believers."
"I've already told you most of the information." Jom thought for a moment before continuing, "There are many magical creatures around Valla, such as the goblin nests. They can only be found in the mountains, but now that they've appeared here out of nowhere, it's an 'anomaly' in itself, as if they were driven here by someone. At the same time, we've also heard that the Lord of the Peaks' believers are heading towards this area. They look so murderous, but I don't think they're here to preach … "
Christina was a little hesitant at Jom's words.
To tell the truth, even though the Lord of the Peaks was a righteous deity of Order, he did not have a good reputation, since most of his believers were hill-folk.
Hill-Folk were humans too, and as the name suggests, they were people who lived deep within the mountains since ancient times.
Most people in the country thought that the mountain people were uncivilized, just like the natives or savages. The mountain people also had a stronger physique and slender arms than ordinary people. At first glance, they looked a little like oversized monkeys.
Their lives were very simple, and they lived off the mountains.
When the wild beasts in the mountains had eaten most of their wild vegetables and fruits, they would descend the mountains to plunder food and daily necessities, as well as the occasional woman.
Thanks to their faith in the Lord of the Peaks, the mountains were their best fortress. Small armies would never win against hill-folk in the mountains, let alone adventurers.
Be that as it may, if they went too far, the mainstream churches in the cities they pillaged would summon the Sacred Corps to attack the hill-folk.
Every time the hill-folk came into contact with the enemy and determined that they could not win, they would immediately surrender and hand over part of their looted treasures to the Sacred Corps, before saying that they worshipped the Lord of the Peaks, that their boss' boss was the Earthweaver, one of the Seven Divine Fathers, and that they would be spared for the sake of the Divine Fathers, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Most of the time, the Sacred Corps who attacked them would give them some face and leave with a few heads as an explanation to the citizens and their liege.
The Sacred Corps would gain face and a certain amount of wealth, while the hill-folk would gain food and other living resources, a win-win situation for both sides.
Over time, this kind of behavior became a routine that happened almost every year.
Be that as it may, the hill-folk would always be very careful when choosing their targets and would never touch the cities under the protection of the Temple of Glory. After all, believers of the God of War were fanatics of battle, and who would they blame if they were killed before they could surrender?
On the other hand, when the higher-ups of the Temple of Glory learned that the Sacred Corps was plotting against the hill-folk, they had been waiting for the hill-folk to come and pillage them so that they could make a killing. But when they did not show up, they were immediately infuriated — we told you to come and rob us, but you didn't! How dare you monkeys look down on the cities we protect!
Hence, the hill-folk and the Lord of the Peaks whom they worshipped had a poor reputation in the Temple of Glory.
Being a scepter, Christina was not one of the higher-ups and therefore did not know the reason behind it. Still, she certainly did not like the Lord of the Peaks' believers after years of being influenced by what she saw and heard, and with Jom's incitement, she actually believed that the Lord of the Peaks' believers were repelling monsters …
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