Guardians of the World Tree

The Guardians of the World Tree (世界樹の守護者) is the supposed first part of the first Grand Quest (グランド・クエスト) in ALfheim Online, rumored to transform the fairy race that beats the quest into Alfs, a race of fairies with unlimited flight.

Background
Every race in ALfheim Online is limited to 10 minutes of flight before the player must land and let their wings rest before they can fly again. However, the first fairy race to reach the Floating City atop the World Tree and meet with Fairy King Oberon is said to be granted unlimited flight by being reborn as a higher fairy race, called Alfs.

Quest Details
The players start the quest by arriving at the entrance to the World Tree and accepting the quest from the guardian statues. When the quest is accepted, the gate to the World Tree opens and players are temporarily granted unlimited flight for the duration of the raid attempt. The goal of the players is to reach the gate at the top of the quest area without getting killed by the infinitely spawning Guardian Knights, the number of which increases in proportion to the distance left to the gate, reaching a spawn rate of 12 guardians per second at the closest point to the gate. Although the individual guardians are easy to dispose of, their sheer number and re-spawn rate makes them more powerful than any boss monster.

In reality, the quest was rigged to be impossible to be completed, as even if the players reached the gate, a normal player would not be able to pass it, as it could only be opened with administrator powers.

Trivia

 * In the autumn of 2024, a well-known ALO information website launched a petition, aimed at making Recto Progress adjust the balance of the game because of this quest, however, the company responded that the game was well-balanced already.
 * In the original quest specifications, after beating the guardians in the first room, the players would have had to battle with a dekaboss in the second room, then a super giant boss in the third room, then a fourth room and so on.
 * After ALfheim Online was acquired by Ymir, all players were granted unlimited flight, except for flight being disabled in dungeons. A second Grand Quest to conquer New Aincrad replaced the infamous first Grand Quest.