The newbies respawned right on schedule at midnight on the third day. More than 1,400 of them logged into the game in succession and ran around Blackflame Pass, making the camp noisy again after it had finally quieted down.
This time, though, they had a clear goal once they logged in: first, head to the quartermaster to exchange their honor for the armor and weapons they needed. They might as well pick up a fine steed while they were at it. Then they could get out of Blackflame Pass as fast as possible and head back to Wolf Fort or the Maginot Line to keep hauling bricks and building houses.
Originally, the newbies had no precise understanding of the Black Disaster. They only knew it was terrifying and that it was the "monster siege" portion of the story.
But after experiencing the "Battle of the Death Plateau" firsthand, they had finally learned a little of the truth. They also gained a clear understanding of their actual strength. The development team hadn't been lying: if you weren't Black Iron, don't come to the main battlefield looking for trouble.
They could hold their own against ordinary gnolls or kobolds, but the problem was that their opponents didn't fight fair. They wouldn't duel you one-on-one; monsters usually spawned in groups, and during a Black Disaster event, the number of randomly appearing elite monsters was downright frightening.
Every now and then, the game would even spawn a level 30 Silver monster just to spice things up.
It was terrifying!
This was absolutely not the place for newbies whose levels were generally stuck at 8–10.
At any rate, they'd already earned some excellent honor gear through their adventure. The development team had also hotfixed the "stat bug" that had caused honor to be awarded incorrectly.