Lu Xiu and the Nine Provinces' core players had defeated the Sanctuary Guardian.
They had also found the first Core Bonfire.
It stood not far from the boss arena, inside Oolacile Sanctuary.
All they had to do was leave the Sanctuary Guardian's arena.
Lu Xiu reached out with her fair-skinned hand and lit the Bonfire.
[Congratulations! Nine Provinces player Lu Xiu has lit Oolacile's first Core Bonfire!] [You have earned 5,000 battle merit points!]
She had barely lit it when—
A system announcement rang out.
Every player taking part in the collective battle heard it.
Prison Rock's core players had gone to all the trouble of splitting their forces and fighting on two fronts, only for the Nine Provinces to light the first Core Bonfire. No one had expected that—
Prison Rock's players were even more crushed.
The Nine Provinces' players were jubilant, of course. But amid the celebration, they could not help comparing the difficulty of the bosses guarding the three Core Bonfires.
After all, every player had seen what Prison Rock's players had just been through.
One side had an Ancient Dragon.
Another had a nun and a priest.
Oolacile had the Sanctuary Guardian.
[...Oolacile's boss looks like the easiest one.]
[Now that you mention it, yeah! Compared to the laser-spitting Ancient Dragon at Firelink Shrine and those two ice-and-fire monsters in the Painted World who come back at full health after dying, the Sanctuary Guardian is nothing!]
[It fights like a rabid dog, sure, but at least it only has one health bar! No laser attacks, and no freakish second phase where it powers up out of nowhere!]
[Exactly! And it's still the size of a normal monster. That giant dragon is just hopeless!]
[We've cracked the case, guys! This was a conspiracy! Lu Xiu