ã€ŠInfinite Realmã€‹


 Chapter 1 - 1 Part 1 : Starting Over 1

    High up in the sky was the summer golden sun, glorifying thend with its presence, with the clouds adorning the sky like a painting on a canvas. Endowed with the lights of nature''s giant zing fireball was the city of Salom¨¦, formerly known as Paris before the Great Reparation, a home to individuals of various statures. Capital to the great state of France with skyscrapers of various heights and buildings of various widths, the city is home to various denizens ranging from tycoons and up-to-date individuals to plenty middle ss and low ss citizens.

    Before the Great Reparation which had forever changed the world, this very city was renowned as the city of love while being home to a well-known steel infrastructure, famous for artistic touch and beauty. Currently, it''s home to a lot of ancient relics all stacked up in the museum with the former steel giant left in shambles with only ruins remaining to testify its greatest.

    The most popr of the museums was the Sanctuaire National de l''ancienne g¨¦n¨¦ration[1] also known as Sanctuaire national d''antan[2] which happens to also be one of the biggest museums around. Home to most of the relics of the previous generation including theuded Mona Lisa and a few other products and artworks of that century with spected prices ranging from about 10 million to even 3 billion Alliance Dors (ALD) . As such, the Sanctuaire National d''antan is revered as one of the most glorious and famous museum

    Strolling through this very museum while admiring the artworks and relics was a family of four; a couple, a son and a daughter.

    A middle aged man, dressed in a navy blue summer suit with a white coloured trousers and an exquisite beige coloured belt, walked hand in hand with a little boy of no more than the age of nine and by his left was a ck-haireddy with rosy red lips and an aquiline nose. Coupled with her floral patterned pleated maxi gown and the aura she gave off, thedy was an utter depiction of the fusion of maturity and determination with beauty and youth despite being in her early 30s. Propped up in her arms was a young girl of no more than 4 years of age who had a some semnces in her facial features with her.

    As a general museum, the Sanctuaire National d''antan consisted of both a history exhibition station, an art exhibit and a lot more exhibits; all mainly focused on products and creations of the Old era.

    "Dad, dad."

    "What''s it son?"

    "Look over there, look." The little boy pointed at a skeletal frame of an animal that was previously existing in the Old era.

    "Oh, let me have a look then. Hmm, if I''m correct, that should be what they call a Rhinoceros, a Rhino for short."

    Right beside this family was another family with an almost identical lineup, except with the few differences in dressing and their children being fraternal twins of nine years.

    Overhearing the conversation, the little boy went over and looked at the skeletal mass.

    "Uwaaaa. It looks cool. Dad, can I get one?"

    "Don''t be silly Ichiro, didn''t you hear him. They are extinct." A man beside the little boy who also happened to be dressed in the exact same colour summer suit but looked a little older reprimanded his child though he did so with a soft voice.

    "But I really want one¡­"

    "Haha, your little boy reminds me a lot of the younger you. As they say like father like son, don''t you think Jiro san?" The man who spoke initially with his kidughed.

    "Old Shin, you really know how to stick your head in the wrong ce don''t you" Jiro replied.

    "Hmph, though you say I''m old, I look far younger than you, don''t I?" Kenshin struck back.

    "Hahaha, it''s really you fat ass. Looks you still got that wild mouth of yours." Jiro smiled as if he hadn''t heard a word from Kenshin and extended a hand to him.

    Grabbing his hand and shaking it, Kenshin replied "And you still have that iconic annoying smile of yours."

    *sigh* "Even till now, I still don''t get your rtionship, am I right, Izumi san?" Thedy beside Jiro, whose looks were as stunning as the early morning rays in Spring, asked before staring at thedy beside Kenshin halfway through her sentence.

    "Indeed you are, Miko san. But despite them being children, we still love them." Izumi who was a beauty in her own way neithercking in looks nor aura aspared to Kimiko, replied her.

    If Kimiko in her fit and re brightly coloured maxi, was said to be a jovial heaven blessed beauty with a sultry figure not one less than that of Aphrodite[3], then Izumi would be the innocent but matured beauty, in all sense, who brings shame to the goddess of beauty.

    "So can we get going?" asked Kimiko.

    "We are pretty much done browsing the exhibits, this is thest one. We were just waiting for you guys." Izumi replied.

    "Alright. We have a lot of catching up to do. Kurosaki san, I''ll be heading this way with Izumi. Hope you don''t mind?."

    "No problem. You guys go with the kids; I have something I''d like to say to Jiro san." Kenshin said while eyeing Jiro.

    "Okay."

    "Mom, let''s go to the aquarium."

    "Silly Ichiro, there''s no aquarium in a museum. Daddy said so before."

    Once thedies and the children were gone, Jiro stared at Kenshin for awhile. Knowing that Kenshin would never outrightly ask for him to stay behind without a reason, he was quite surprised and wondered what it could be.

    Eventually, he''s patience wore out as he questioned "What''s wrong?"

    *sighs* "News came out¡­my elder brother joined the other side and leaked some of our details. Now the Ajita group has been facing pressure in the stock market." Kenshin replied with a slightly disheartened expression on his face.

    "I never expected him to stab the family in the back over me."

    The Ajita Group is a high ss conglomerate ranked 146th in Amazon''s[4] Top 200 in the entire world. Considering the fact that at least 70% of the list is upied bypanies in the Energy, Space transport and research, and Technology (particrly weaponry and robotics), it is quite an achievement for the Ajita Group to be ranked in the list. Focused on automobiles and hovercrafts with quite a firm foundation in the household electronics sector in the East, the Ajita Group has an annual revenue of 300 billion alliance dors and a total-worth approaching 700 billion alliance dors. This very tech giant is precisely owned by this family, to be specific, the Kurosakis.

    The Kurosaki n, a family with it''s influence stretched in various technological industries and even in politics and the military with the Ajita Group being one of theirpanies. The Kurosaki n is revered as one of the major families in control of the Independent State of Japan (ISJ)[5].

    *sighs* "It wasn''t your fault. Your grandfather chose you and not him. The Shin I knew would never get so down over this. You aren''t alone. You have me, Maeda and the others." Jiroforted him. After all the Fujiharas who tagged along on this vacation ,though weren''t as powerful as the Kurosakis, weren''t socking whenpared to them.

    "You''re right. Ha, thanks for that Jiro. You''re so good atforting someone. You really are an old folk aren''t you?"

    "Looks like you''re back, fat ass."

    "I really wonder where you get that nickname from¡­"

    Heading out of the museum, Jiro and Kenshin encountered Kimiko, Izumi and the children facing them. Behind them were two exquisite sedans cars marked with a 3d sculpture of cube with 4 eastern styled dragons carved on it and a 5thrger dragon coiled around the cube. (AN : Just like the Rolls Royce Spirit of Ecstasy, that''s in 3d form, but it''s a cube with 4 dragon drawings and one sculpted dragon coiled around it)

    The Kuzen X3224 was thetest version of the Kuzen series yet to be officially released and priced at 1.5 million ALD. Produced by the automobilepany, Ryugo[6], which happens to be the automobilepany under Ajita Group, the vehicle is actually an all purpose multi-terrain vehicle, capable of flight at a height of 30 metres from sea level, sailing and evennd movement, with a manual and AI mode all with a nice moderate official look.

    "You guys sure took your time."

    "Haha. Can''t you let us men enjoy our youth before we be old?" Jiro replied to his wife.

    "Hmph, let''s hurry up. You know we have somewhere else to be right?"

    "Fine, fine. Alright, till we see next, Shin san." Once again, Jiro extended his arm towards Kenshin.

    "Same here old Jiro." Kenshin shook hands with him, after which he pulled him to a hug.

    "And thank you, I really appreciate it."

    "I told you not to worry didn''t I." Jiro chuckled.

    "Hooo, what''s this? Did you guys do some spicy, kinky stuffs in the museum? In the museum?!" Seeing the men hug, Kimiko opened her mouth in shock while covering it with her left hand.

    "You really should keep your wife in check." Kenshin''s lips twitched.

    Chuckling awkwardly, Jiro said "Alright, that''s enough Miko."

    Getting into their ride, Jiro said to Kenshin "You have to be careful. If he''s really back, I doubt this is all he''s nned."

    "I know."

    After they drove off, Izumi stared at Kenshin but before she could ask, Sato beat her to it "Dad, is everything ok?"

    Smiling, he replied "Yeah, you don''t need to worry about it. Nothing can trouble daddy, am I right?"

    "Hmm, Dad is the best." Nodded little Sato with Hayami following suite.

    "Alright let''s be off."

    Getting into the vehicle with Kenshin behind the wheels, the family headed over to their hotel in Salom¨¦ which was a 10 minute drive from the Museum.

    Due to the fact that this was meant to be a family vacation, the family didn''t bring their driver nor bodyguards, same with the Fujiharas.

    Despite the invention of hover cars and flying cars, most of them aren''t allowed to hover above a height of 3m metres in some cities, with even Capitals banning hover cars in their airspace for the general popce. This is simply to be able to restrict air traffic for important personnels(particrly the police and paramedics) and to maintain the aesthetic beauty of their city.

    *Wee-woo, wee-woo* (AN : my impression of siren sounds¡­)

    "Sir, there seems to be an issue at the 17th avenue closeby." reported the vehicles Artificial Intelligence,Spectra. (AN : The avenue is actually called 17th.)

    "Oh? I see. Draw up the safest route I could use to avoid it." Kenshin replied.

    "Already done. By taking your right and heading towards the Armelle Boulevard, you should be separated from by at least 1km."

    The Armelle boulevard was an economic street in Salom¨¦, home to a lot of fashion and textile stores andpanies.

    "Alright."

    2 minutester

    *Boom, Boom*

    *Wee-woo, wee-woo*

    "Honey, what''s going on? I thought we avoided themotion earlier?" Izumi asked worriedly.

    "Neither do I. Spectra, update me."

    "Sir, it seems that the cops are chasing after a bunch of armed robbers. Apparently in order to escape, the criminals are destroying vehicles and causing explosions to hold the cops back. It seems the criminals vited the Flight rules and are heading this way."

    "Armed robbers in Salom¨¦?! Izumi shouted in surprise.

    One has to know that Salom¨¦ is actually the Capital of the French Republic. After the Old era, technology had experienced a massive change. This include security and weapons technology. As a result, most of the defensive measure are automatic with strict regtory measures being implemented in public transports and environments. Simply put, it is almost impossible, approximately 99.9% impossible, to smuggle weapons into a Capital.

    "Don''t worry, I''ll get us out of here. Spectra, get me a new route to avoid this area."

    "Apologies Sir, but it seems a signal disruptor has just been activated. I can''t get thetest info on their whereabouts. I can only make use of the previous data."

    "Shit!" Kenshin cursed.

    "Signal disruptor?! It has to be thetest military grade to be able to affect Spectra right?" Izumi questioned worriedly, though her question felt rhetorical with a tone of disbelief.

    *Wee-woo, wee-woo*

    "Honey, they are close."

    *Waaa, waaa* (AN : my impression of a child''s cries)

    As if sensing the dread-filled atmosphere, little Hayami began crying.

    "Dad, is everything gonna be ok?" Sato asked with a nervous expression.

    "Everything will be fine, daddy''s gonna handle it." Izumi tried her best tofort the children.

    "Alert, alert. High energy sequence detected. Alert, aler-"

    "Everybody get down!" Kenshin yelled.

    *Phew, phew, phew* ( AN : my impression ofser shots being fired)

    *boom, boom*

    AN : Please alert me for any grammatical errors. Thank you. Please support me, thank you very much.

    As you might have noticed, Alliance dors is one of the general currencies being used and yes, it''s just one of them.

    1 ALD = 15 USD

 Chapter 2 - 1 Part 2 : Starting Over 2

    ( Apologies for thete upload. This chapter was written with a lot of side notes from me cause I felt like doing so. Worry not, for this is the only and probably, I said probably, thest one I would do)

    "Ha, ha, ha."

    Seated on the bed by the edge of the room was a well grown 180cm tall ck haired, brown eyed young man of about 20 or 21 years of age. Dressed in dark coloured pajamas fitting of a man his age. With thin lips and other facial features worthy of a modern day male model, everything would have been alright if not for his state and appearance, which at this point in time was quite messy and worn out with sweat drops stuck on his shirt. Looking at him, one might think he had encountered a fearsome demon or an incubus that sat on his chest[1].

    "Can''t believe I''m still having this dream." *sigh*

    Turning his head over to his side, the ck haired man tapped a small ck cubic object. Upon contact, it projected a light screen that disyed the time and date in a digital form.

    6:57 am Friday 21 July 21**

    "Since I''m already awake I might as well get ready." Leaving his room, the young man headed over to the bathroom to freshen up after which he had a change of clothes.

    By the time he was all done, he heard amotion downstairs. Heading over to the stairs, he encountered a simr looking teenage girl of between 15-16 years of age walking up the stairs who also happened to notice him.

    With exquisite brown colored eyes, thin lips and facial features that makes one wonder whether she''s a goddess or a model, one could only wish she was theirs. (AN : I still believe 2d is better)

    "Hmm, onii-san. I was just about to look for you."

    "Is there a problem?" The young man asked with a look of enquiry.

    "No. Grandma was just worried that you might oversleep like yesterday and skip school again."

    "..." The young man sighed and said, " Don''t worry about it, I just overworked a littlest time. As can see, I''m awake and healthy."

    The teenager stared at him and said with a soft voice "Onii-san, please try not to stress yourself too much okay. We still need you."

    "Aww, is my little Hayami worried about big bro? Don''t worry, no harm wille to big bro." The young man assured her while flexing his muscles.

    "Mmm, okay." Hayami smiled beautifully like the cherry blossoms in Spring.

    "Huh, Ojii-san. You''re up already?"

    Going down the stairs, the young man saw an elderly man sitting on the couch in the Living room with a tablet in hand browsing through the daily news(AN : Yes, newspapers are obsolete, far obsolete). A look at him and one might think he was actually a middle aged man of about 40 years of age but the adjective "elderly" written by the author wasn''t for show. A closer look at the man and a couple of wrinkles would be seen together with the vibe his eyes give off as one who has seen a lot; a testament to the years spent aging. Despite that, he looked as healthy and energy-filled as your average middle aged man, so much so that he might not have a problem running a marathon. (AN : Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the future).

    The old man chuckled "Haha, don''tpare me to your sorry ass bum, Sato-kun."

    "Ojii-san, you really should stop addressing onii-san as -chan. He''s already a man, he might get angry." Hayami chuckled softly with with her left hand against her lips, looking like an angel whose every move knows no bounds.

    "Haha, that''s why you''re my favorite, Hayami-chan. Come over and sit with little old me let''s talk about school. Uh, on second thought head over to the kitchen and go help you''re grandma out."

    "Okay." Hayami nodded and headed over to the kitchen.

    After she was gone, the old man stood up and walked to the door while saying "Sato,e walk with me."

    "Okay."

    "Alice-chan, keep our meals hot for us. We are gonna go take a walk."

    A sweet voice then came out from the kitchen, "Okay honey. Be back before 8."

    "Alright." The old man replied.

    The family resided in a 2 story bungalow located in themon area located in Shinjuku City of Shinano subprefecture[2]. The Shinano subprefecture of Okanawa Prefecture is a slightly above average subprefectureprising of 2 cities and 3 towns which includes Shinjuku and Jin cities. Though not home to a lot of big businesses andpanies, Shinjuku city is quite a sessful city with various mid sspanies taking home there and a few high sspanies having branches there. ording to the Alliancews pertaining to city standards and ssifications, the Shinjuku city is a 2nd ss city together with its sister city in Shinano subprefecture, Jin city.

    Themon area of Shinjuku city, consisting of about 60% of the city mostly at the city''s perimeters, is quite a nice ce to be. One shouldn''t be fooled by the termmon area as that is just a nickname given to it. It consists of the residential areas of most of its denizens, school buildings and health care centers with less than 1% belonging to the Garuba district, the red light district of Shinjuku. Of the remaining 40% of Shinjuku, 36% belongs to the industrial, governmental and economic sector housing bothpany buildings and a few industries together with most important government buildings including the mayor''s office and has been nicknamed the city center. The remaining 4% of the city is nicknamed the Yanai district[3] which houses most of the wealthy people and officials in Shinjuku.

    Walking along the street of block 27[4], Sato admired the buildings and houses that had apanied him for the past 10 years in silence, walking side by side with his grandfather.

    2 minutes, Old Juro spoke, "Sato-kun, you know your grandmother isn''t so happy about your current behaviour of skipping school and stressing yourself over games right?"

    "...yes"

    Old Juro nodded, "For some reason she''s still stuck with that idea of hers that anything that isn''t achieved through education and hard work is futile, but you should know she''s still proud of you no matter what you do. We know you got framed and lost your previous job but you shouldn''t let that get the best of you. It''s already been a year since that happened. What I''m trying to say is, you shouldn''t tire yourself out. You''re still young and still have lots of opportunities. Leave it to your grandma and I to take care of you guys now. You are pretty much done with your education and all you need is a job. You could either go Pro with gaming or be a programmer or work for somepany, just don''t overdo it you hear me?"

    Sato replied, " Ojii-san, don''t worry about me. I''ve already forgotten about all that, after all they still paid me. You don''t need to worry about work, you''re old already just leave it to me."

    "Haha, what are you saying kid, I''m as healthy as a man your age." Old Juroughed and patted his biceps after which he continued, "By the way, I''ve noticed that you have been saving up for something. If I am correct, it should be for a new game right?"

    Sato asked with a surprised look "How did you know?"

    "It doesn''t matter how I knew. Check your ount, I sent you a little something. Don''t worry, I just got paid recently for my new program. I told you not to underestimate this old man." Old juro chuckled.

    "Ojii-san, thank you. I won''t let you guys down." Sato said sincerely.

    Old Juro nodded. "By the way, a word of advice, I know you have suffered recently but remember, you can''t do everything alone. Now let''s head back; I''m starving for breakfast."

    "Alright."

    After breakfast, Sato and Hayami left the house for school. Sato studied at the

    Shinjuku School of Engineering and mechanics (which is a college) while Hayami, who was still in highschool, studied at Saitama Kokusai Public High school.

    Both institutions were located in themon area and are quite close to one another, hence Sato and Hayami often walk together to school since the distance is about a 15 minutes walk from home. Sometimes doing their journey, people mistake them for a couple fit for one another due to their good looks.(AN : Nope, I''m not hinting to any incest ideas..)

    After escorting Hayami to her school, Sato didn''t go straight to school but headed a little deeper into the city only stopping when he approached a store with the title, ''The Gamebox Guide''.

    The Gamebox Guide was actually apany that deals in retail sale, distribution and delivery of Gaming consoles and headsets or plugs, drives, VR headsets and cabs alongside gaming cells (AN : Think of it as gaming CDs but more advanced) for those who prefer hard copies. Thepany also deals in the sale and auctioning of gaming CDs and sh-drives from the Old Era. Simply put, anything pertaining to games and gaming can be found here.

    '' It''s been released since earlier this week. I hope they still have more.'' As it stands, it turned out that Sato''s grandfather was right and he was saving for a new game. Infinite Realm, an uing VR game that ims to redefine all present beliefs of VR was scheduled tounch on the 22 July previously released their VR helmets together with their Universal AdapterA for sale on 17th July Monday.

    Stepping into the store, Sato walked around until he discovered the isle that held the stands for the IR (Infinite Realm) VR headsets which had only 7 sets remaining.

    ''At least they still have it'' Sato let out a sigh of relief and walked towards it.

    "Yi*, don''t you think the price is a little bit high for a VR headset?" (AN : Not a name but more of an exmation like hey)

    "I know right. Thepany''s gotta be kidding me. Let''s check out another one"

    Upon approaching the stand, Sato overheard two guys who happened to be close by eximing at the price of the sets.

    ''If I hadn''t checked the price spections online I might have ended up like these guys. Even still, it costs a lot. If not for selling my previous gaming sets and the money grandfather gave me, it would have taken me a week more to buy it'' Sato sighed internally while staring at the price tag with the figures 749.99 ALD.

    The average sry of most people is between 1500-6800 ALD. For a gaming VR headset to be priced at 750 ALD more than triple the 225 ALD for other sets, it is not surprising that most people would ignore it.

    Despite that, the Company Dreand Studios and Corporation, that designed the set, refused to reduce the price iming that the price is already economical and affordable as it is, specting that with the various softwares and resources used, it was supposed to be priced at 1050 ALD. Hence a price of 749.99 ALD is already quite cheap and considerate.

    Even knowing that all the words spewed by thepany''s representative was total rubbish and business propaganda, Sato still purchased the set alongside a few essories, spending his hard saved 1000 ALD with little change left to spare.

    Once he was done, he requested for a delivery, as going to school with a VR gaming set and essories is quite weird.

    Leaving the store, Sato headed over to college. However, upon taking a few steps away, he seemed to hear a voice calling him.

    "Hey Sato-san, Sato-san !"

    Author''s note :

    I really have to apologize that my release rate is slow and that chapter 1 is really really long. I actually nned on making it chapter 2 rather than chapter 1 part 2 and so on but because I had an original idea for 2 and also chapter 1 was a hell lot longer than I expected, here we are¡­

    I might drop the honorificster.

    Why does MC have to go to a store and not order online? Cause he wants to! Deal with it !

    A) You know how Xbox and yStation both have their own consoles well you see here, every game has it''s own VR helmet. However, a universal VR helmet was recently introduced, that allows you to y any game as long as you install the certified app( that is thepany''s corresponding Universal Adapter) that enables you to connect to the game''s server. Think of it as how you use Facebook app to connect to Facebook and not YouTube to connect to Facebook, on your phone. The Universal VR helmet is the phone while the certified app is like the Facebook app which you use to connect to the game''s server.

    1)A legend that revolves around sleep paralysis used to describe the origin of sleep paralysis though science says otherwise¡­

 Chapter 3 - 1 Part 3 : Starting Over 3

    ( AN : Officially dropped honorifics for most characters.)

    "Sato! Sato! "

    Turning back, Sato saw a ck haired beauty running up to him¡­is what you would think. It was actually a plump and slightly short man who jogged towards him.

    Garbed in a green T-shirt with ck colored jeans with a ssic dark coloured trainer(sneakers), Iwata Fudo is the illegitimate child of a millionaire. Though his father doesn''t totally ignore him, often sending money once in awhile to his family for their upkeep, the identity of a bastard son prevents Fudo from approaching him.

    Due to this sensitive and somewhat special identity of his, Fudo has very few friends enough to be counted with the fingers on a hand. The most important and closest of his happens to be Sato. With a somewhat simr history, both men ended up being extremely close friends.

    Upon approaching Sato, Fudo questioned "What are you doing here by the way? Here to get a new game?"

    "You could say so. With graduation in a couple of weeks, I would be able to focus more on gaming and E-sports tournament. So what better time to get ready than now." Sato replied after which he took off with Fudo by his side.

    "That''s true but I thought you would have dropped gaming after that incident. Don''t tell me you n on joining another guild?" Walking beside Sato, Fudo asked with a hint of surprise in his tone.

    " Nah. I n on ying solo a little bit and probably start an official party. Don''t forget, before I went pro I started out as a solo yer."

    "That''s true. Oh yeah, so what''s the game you n on ying this time around ? I wanna know so that I could start ying with you. That way the name of the Party would be Sato and Fudo''s gaming club or maybe the Invincibles or even the Avengers. I could even be your deputy." (AN : ¡­Wasn''t my idea trust me¡­I think)

    " ¡­No thanks. Nobody would like a fat pig as a vice but if it were for a mascot, I might consider." Sato chuckled.

    Fudo''s lips twitched "Tch,e on. Even though going solo ain''t bad there''s no harm in having a teammate and don''t forget my skills aren''t just for show."

    "...You do have a point. Alright, you know that new game that has been advertising around?"

    "Rip-off Realm?" (AN : a y on the game title, since a lot of people see it as a rip-off with the price being high)

    Sato''s lips twitched "Yeah, let''s go with that. By the way, go get yours now, the sets are almost sold out and go with a Mage-type ss when creating your ount. Considering your physique, a rogue ss-type isn''t really your type. Unless you wanna be a meat-shield, then I advice you to pick a Mage ss."

    "Aye, aye boss. Either way I already got the game. All that remains is to wait for the server''sunch." Fudo replied.

    " I thought you called it a rip-off¡­"

    " Haha, it couldn''t be helped. Even if it is, you have to admit, the stats and features are quite awesome and impressive." Fudo smiled. He then continued, " You''re heading to school now right? Ha, I can''t wait to see Miss Stalingrad. Her Russian ent never ceases to amaze me. It''s quite disappointing that I wouldn''t get to see her again in a few weeks time" (AN : Uhmmm¡­Wasn''t my idea too¡­?)

    Sato''s eyebrows twitched as he said " I''m pretty sure you aren''t the only one and seriously, her Russian ent amazes you? Why don''t you just say it''s her hair that amazes you, you lecherous lying pig."

    Fudo stopped walking and was about to take a fighting stance while saying, "Ok now, you wanna go huh? do you wanna g-"

    "Sato." The voice who interrupted Fudo came from the sweet lips of a beautiful youngdy with pink colored hair tied in twin pigtails.

    "Miyuki." Sato stood surprised facing the prettydy who just showed up.

    "Is that all you can say to me after all this time?" The pink haired beauty, Miyuki questioned with a smile.

    Anase Miyuki was a friend of Sato back when they were 15. In actuality, they were more than friends but less than lovers. Sato actually had a crush on Miyuki and so did she but neither were aware. Their rtionship was more on who would confess to the other first. Sato tried to make Miyuki fall for him and Miyuki tried to be caring andpassionate towards him. However, doing that time, Sato took to gaming in order to earn a few bucks and as a result, hardly had time to spend with Miyuki. In the end, Miyuki got fed up with theck of attention she received from Sato and opened her heart to another guy, leading to a rift forming in her rtionship or rather ''friendship'' with Sato. In the end, she applied for a separate College finally putting the dent in their rtionship.

    "Sorry, I just got surprised. It''s been awhile Miyuki, I hope you been doing well right?" Sato asked.

    "Hm." Miyuki nodded, "Uni''s been stressful and all but I''ve managed. How about you?"

    "I''ve be-"

    "Excuse fair maiden, may I get the permission of knowing your exquisite name?" Interrupting Sato while ignoring his reaction, Fudo outstretched his hand towards Miyuki.

    "You say that but you just heard me calling her Miyuki." Sato twitched his lips.

    "Haha, it''s alright. I''m Anase Miyuki, but my friends call me Yuki." Miyuki chuckled and ced her hand on Fudo''s.

    "A beautiful name for a beautifuldy." (AN : y on words, one of the possible meaning of Miyuki is beautiful snow.) Fudo pecked her hand.

    "Oh, so you are a flirt huh? I didn''t think Sato could hang with someone like you?"

    "Don''t misunderstand miss. As they say, a man with no tea is incapable of understanding truth and beauty. Satocks tea." Fudo smiled (AN : Japanese quote about tea, but here Fudo rece the meaning of tea as something else)

    Sato sighed "My grandfather was right when he said that wisdom is lost in a fat man''s body. You really are a dumb ass." (AN : Another Japanese quote.)

    "Haha." Miyukiughed at the duo. "So what are guys doing here?"

    "Just came looking for something." Sato answered before Fudo could speak.

    "Really?" Miyuki enquired. (An : Enquire is preferred over Inquire in BrE)

    "Yea-"

    *Honk* *Honk*

    " Hey Yuki-chan, what are you doing over there? We would soon bete for ss." A guy pulled over in a Sedan styled hover car that looked quite expensive and called out to Miyuki.

    Walking out of his ride, the man asked "He is ?"

    "Oh, just a friend." Miyuki hurriedly responded.

    "Ok. Come on, let''s go to ss. You know how the professor always acts like." Totally ignoring the duo, the man faced Miyuki and spoke to her after which he headed back to his ride.

    "...Alright. See youter Sato." Miyuki was initially stunned at his act but quickly said her goodbye to Sato and entered the car with the obnoxious profligate.

    "She''s the high school chick right?" After the vehicle drove of Fudo asked Sato.

    "Yep."

    "Have you gotten over her? Cause it seems she has gotten over you."

    "...I don''t know" Sato sighed. After of moment of reminiscence, they both headed over the college.

    The Shinjuku School of Engineering and Mechanics was a slightly above average college being nominated as one of the best public schools in Shinano subprefecture. Despite being a college, it offered quality education second only to top ss universities, as such, it is mostly a preferred choice for the masses.

    Sato, being 21, was in hisst year of college and it happened to be that their graduation ceremony would be held in a few weeks time with their exams already concluded. As such, most of his set mates hardly attend sses anymore, with the very few who do ending upingte for sses like Sato and Fudo right now.

    "Hey guys have you heard of that game Infinite Realm? I hear their servers are going online at midnight."

    "Oh, you mean Rip-off Realm? My friend already bought the set but I still don''t see what''s good in it."

    "You can''t be med Old fox. Even if you knew, you still can''t afford it."

    "Tch. Say that straight to my face again."

    In Room 205 for the Foreign Language ss which was being dyed for an unknown reason, the students in there all chatted about various topics with the dominant topic being about the soon-to-be released VRMMORPG, Infinite Realm or as the masses call it, Rip-off Realm.

    One such conversations was between a group of 3 young men.

    "Forget about that. I heard today''s gonna be thest ss of Miss Stalingrad."

    "Ha. It can''t be helped after all she is a foreign exchange student. Either way she will forever remain in our hearts." A young man in the groupmented.

    "More like your d**k. Bunch of perverts." said a four eyed man.

    One of the guys in the group happened to notice Sato and Fudoing so he said "Hey Fudo what do you have to say about Miss Stalingrad returning back to Russiater on?"

    Fudo sighed "A beauty ought to be loved from afar and owned by no one. It is nothing more than thew of nature."

    "Keep spewing crap and you might end up god knows where." Sato said.

    "By the way Sato, what do you have to say about Infinite Realm? We all know you have a blog and you were a former pro-gamer. So do you think it''s a rip-off?" The four eyed man asked.

    "I haven''t yed it so I can''t be sure but I feel it has a lot of potential. There has been a lot of news on uing E-sport tournaments based in the game and a lot of hefty rewards. Considering it''s new and everyone''s gonna be starting at the same time and space with no premium ounts, I feel it has a whole lot of potential." Sato stated

    "I see." The four eyed man nudged his sses.

    " If you say so, then I might as well start saving though I will have to beginte." the young man who spoke initially, Katsuo, said.

    "Haha, you dimwits actually take the advice of a fired gamer? Well I can''t me you since you''re all dimwits."A dude in a white T-shirt with a ck windbreaker walked up to them and said.

    "Oi, Hideki why don''t you mind your business." Thest guy in Sato''s group of 5, Yato, fired back at the young man.

    "Oh? Correct me if I am wrong but wasn''t Sato fired from hisst guild? And yet here you are asking him for gaming advice when there''s a real yer in your presence." Hideki cockily spoke up.

    "Oh really? Last I remembered, you were just a regr member of your guild. What makes you feel better than Sato who was a core member?" Fudo sneered.

    "Hehe, you know nothing. I just got promoted recently. It''s only a matter of time before I be a core member and Infinite Realm will make it so. But you will still remain the same." Hideki chuckled. "If you doubt me, I can prove it to you at midnight." (AN : That sounds too spicy for the ear¡­)

    "A dog that barks can''t bite. Let''s settle this online. I would like to see what gives you the courage to face me." Sato chuckled though it had a chill to it.

    "No problem. Just don''t regret it. I''ll be spawning at Riverdale Town by the way." Hideki replied after which he walked away.

    "Hehehe, I think I''ll also spawn there. I would like to see that smug wiped off his face. Make me proud Sato boy." Fudo stated.

    "Who''s your boy?"

    After sses Sato headed back home and had his meal. After which he set up and connected the recently delivered VR Helmet and essories to the server''s address and waited for it''sunch.

    "3 more hours to go.. This time I will make things right."

 Chapter 4 - 2 : A New World

    "Wee Adventurer, please select your Job and ss."

    ''Oh, so this is the interface¡­''

    In a clear-white room, Sato stood in front of a tform that held 12 lifelike avatars, representing the 12 main sses of Infinite Realm, which are categorized into five (5) jobs;

    Warriors: Guardians, Berserkers, Pdins

    Specialists: Swordsman, Assassins, Rangers

    Healers: Clerics, Druids

    Mages: Elementalists, Summoners.

    Dark Mages: Cursemancers, Necromancers.

    The Warrior Jobs focus best in defending but also possess a ridiculous amount of strength. Specialists as their name implies, it focuses on specific weapon types enabling them to fully utilize their weapons leading to them possessing high damage.

    Healers focus on healing and buffs with the clerics using light/divine/holy magic and Druids utilize nature/wood/life magic. Mages focus on magical output and damage, with the Elementalists having control of various elements (except Light, Nature and Dark) and the Summoners having the capabilities of having their Summoning fight in their ce.

    Dark Mages, like their counterparts, mages, focus on magical damage but with control over dark elements. The Cursemancers cast debuffs of various forms while the Necromancers are the dark version of Summoners, possessing control over the dead and the undead.

    After taking his time to go through the information of each and every Job, Sato decided on the Swordsman ss, due to his familiarity with melee sses in other VR games he had yed.

    Once he was done selecting his ss and assigning the twenty (20) free attribute points, from the Beginners package, and adjusting his appearance by 15%, Sato confirmed his ss and the room changed form to another scene.

    In front of him stood a ck haired six-winged human who had an air of haughtiness with a touch of coldness to his facial features. His beauty could even be said to rival some male models.

    "Pay attention Adventurer and behold the great history of our beloved home, Infinite Realm??. Apanied by the voice of the being, which was in no way as pleasing to the ears as the former, the scene around Sato changed to a disy of an unknown ce at an unknown period.

    "Long ago, there existed an era of clear peace. There was peace between man and beast, gods and demons, good and evil. No hatred, no sorrow, no suffering. A period where dreams were made possible. However, everything always has an end attached to it."

    As he got to this point, Sato noticed a tinge of sadness, sorrow and regret in the voice of the six-winged human following which the scene which was earlier disying a view of the past peace between races changed to one of chaos.

    A treasure surpassing all creations and realms, such that it was even desired by the gods, appeared. This led to a war that ravaged thends and souls a many, ''The Chaos War''. nts, animals, beasts, elves, dwarves, man, dragons, demons and even gods, lives were lost regardless of race or tribe or standing, by those who desired the treasure. Such a treasureter became known as the ''*%[emailprotected]</a>#''.

    ''''But then, He arrived. The One who stands above all, The All-Father, lead a Legion of gods against the demons and the other races. He seeded and seized the *%[emailprotected]</a>#." Looking like a fanatic, the six-winged human said with his arms stretched apart.

    "With the power of the *%[emailprotected]</a>#, he put an end to all wars, sealed the Demons and ushered in a new era. In order not to abuse its power, he sealed the *%[emailprotected]</a># away from the eyes of all, including himself, while eliminating the memory of its location. After which the gods entered a hibernation period.

    "This is a history not known to many, but as you are chosen by the gods, you have been granted the privilege to know this. You have been summoned to help maintain peace in this realm."

    "Select the Kingdom/Empire you would like to spawn in", after the disy, a light panel appeared in front of Sato.

    "Lets just go for a random selection."

    "Since you have selected, prepare yourself.", as if on cue, a bright resplendent sh of light appeared once the angel was done speaking.

    System:"Wee to ck Mountain Town,"

    Standing in the middle of a circr tform, surrounded by tons of people, Sato took in the view of his location while taking note of system notification. "Seems like I took my time eh?"

    Looking around, and noting that at least 2/3 of everyone around him was a yer, he realized that he might have spent quite some time customizing his avatar.

    "So this is ck Mountain Town." In a town surrounded on its three sides by a chain of mountains, seeming to upy a poption of 350,000 people, Sato stood on top of arge circr tform while admiring the scenery before him.

    In Infinite Realm every city or town was ssified into 3 major categories; Primary, Secondary or tertiary. This categorization defines the amount ofnd, connections and resources avable to a town or city. With the distance between each town and the fact that most average yers don''t have a lot of info on the towns together with being penniless upon spawning, most yers are always concerned about their spawning point cing their hopes in the rabbit foots they have prepared or thedybugs by their bedside with the dream of getting generated in a ce with sufficient resources for development.

    ck Mountain Town happens to be a primary town mostly rich in ores with a good trade route and a strategic location. As such, one could say thatdy luck fancies Sato.

    "From the looks of it, seems like I took my time eh?" Taking a look at his surroundings, Sato noticed that 2/3 of the poption around him were actually yers. Most of which were having conversation with in hopes of obtaining quests.

    Once he was done taking in his surroundings, he decided to head to the Town Centre.

    In cities Infinite Realm, the Adventurers guild is a ce where NPC''s submit quests and mission for yers to fulfill, as such it can easily be found in any city in a kingdom or an Empire. However, it can''t be found in towns. Hence, most NPC''s submit their missions in the Town Administrative Centre located in the town''s centre, where yers can ept them. The town''s centre1 was more of a square area in the town and as it''s name implies, it is the center of ck Mountain Town''smerce and administrations, housing both the Town Administrative Centre also known as Town Centre2, where missions can be received and the public market.

    On his way to the Town Centre, Sato opened up his status window, appearing in the form of an opaque light tablet before him.

    [[ Name : Sky de

    Race : Human

    Bloodline : Chosen Ones

    Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Level : 0

    HP : 100

    Heritage/Legacy :

    ss (Job) : Swordsman (Specialist)

    Subss : N/A

    Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Current location : ck Mountain Town, ck Rock City

    Attributes

    Strength : 2

    Endurance : 4

    Vitality : 10

    Agility : 2

    Dexterity : 1

    Intelligence : 1

    Willpower : 2

    Physical Attack Power : 6

    Magical Attack Power : 3

    Physical Defence : 4

    Magical Defence : 2

    Attack Speed : 3

    Movement Speed : 4

    Free Attribute Point : 0

    Skills :

    Chop : Active Skill : Launch a heavy strike with full force, causing additional 20% damage. Cool-down : 10 seconds

    Horizontal Swipe : Active Skill : Release a horizontal positioned attack wielding an additional 40% attack power. Cool-down : 15 seconds. ]]

    In the [[Bloodline]] section, the Chosen Ones referred to the fact that yers are not a part of the original world and were summoned over. As such, they were referred to as Chosen Ones.

    In Infinite Realm, the main attributes are in line with the Side attributes. The [[Strength]] attribute point is equivalent to 3 [[Physical Attack Power]] points. The [[Endurance]] attribute point is equivalent to 1 [[Physical Defence]] point. The [[Vitality]] attribute point is equivalent to 10 HP. The [[Agility]] attribute point is equivalent to 2 [[Movement speed]] points. The [[Dexterity]] attribute point is equivalent to 3 points in [[Attack Speed]]. 1 [[Intelligence]] is the same as 3 points in [[Magical Attack]]. The [[Willpower]] attribute points equivalent to 1 point in [[Magical Defence]].

    The Main attributes also affect certain Hidden attributes, for example the [[Endurance]] attribute affects Stamina and the [[Intelligence]] affects wisdom and craftiness of an NPC and monsters whereas for yer, it improves Concentration. Willpower also increases Defence against soul or mental attacks and/or influences.

    "It seems I waste, doesn''t matter much though. Let''s just level up." Arriving here, Sato discovered that there was arge crowd lined in front of the Town Centre, deciding to leave the town.

    [[ System : Iing video call ]]

    [[ Caller ID : Emperor Wolf ]]

    "Ah, looks like he''s finally done."

    "ept call."

    Upon saying so, the system panel disyed a man with a slightly chubby face, wellbed hair and brown eyes. If Sato didn''t really know him well, he might have thought it was someone else. Even though the system only allowed a total of 15% adjustment on avatars, if used properly one could look like a totally different person.

    "Looks like someone made good use of the 15% character adjustment."

    "Yo bro, what''s with that shitty look on your face. You jealous?"

    "Says the dude named Emperor Wolf."

    "Haha, its cool right, a worthy name for a wolf like myself."

    "Yeah yeah, whatever fancies you fat pig."

    "Whad''ya say?"

    "Nothing..."

    "Hmm...Either way, I got sent to a town called Riverdale under ck Rock City, and the NPC''s are quite realistic, you can even engage in a conversation with them, I''m even thinking of spending my lifetime here, get married and have kids."

    "Of course, if the game wasn''t any better than the others, then there would have been no way it would be this popr. And about you getting married, I don''t see that happening. I hope you don''t go ahead with that silly idea of yours. After all, if you can''t get a girlfriend in reality, you might as well not try it."

    "Hmph, who said I can''t? I just prefer 2-D girls over 3-D girls. 2-D! You hear me. Even Miss Stalingrad can''t change my thoughts."

    "Stop throwing a tantrum fat pig. Say what you like, doesn''t bother me, just head over to the level 0 map, Stone Creek Forest, Let''s meet up in the next three hours."

    "Alright. Wolf out, Awoo!!!"

    "..."

    [[ System : Video call terminated ]]

    "Since there''s nothing to do here, I might as well begin leaving. It should take me a little more than 30 minutes to make it up to the map but with a horse, it should take half of that."

    "ording to the Novice map, it should take 2 hours by foot from Riverdale Town but 45 minutes by a horse, and that should cost 7 copper coins. I might as well just walk it, I''d pretty much make it before him."

    In the game, Infinite Realm is at least three (3) times the size of Earth so as to support yer and NPC poption. As a result, the scale of the cities are muchrger, making it far harder to trek to the map and earn money while levelling up. Hence, the yers receive a [[yer beginner pack]] which contains 25 copper coins, a piece of bread, a jar of sour wine, a jar of water, the Novice map and a low tier mortal rank weapon and equipment as a form of starting ''funds'' for their adventure.

    "Well, since I''m closer to the location, I might as well walk it, but I should check the store first for any consumables that I might need."

    Being based on the concept of reality, yers can get tired in the game. Hence, they require food and drinks.

    Heading to the convenience store, Sato bought 2 loaves of bread at 6 copper coins and a Simple Health Potion together with another consumable spending altogether 22 copper coins.

    ''Being broke is a blessing few can understand...''

    [[ System : Simple Health Potion : Regenerate 10 HP each 10 seconds ]]

    ...

    "Seems like I was right, it took me just 40 minutes(AN; In-game timing). The scenery is quite pleasing to the eye."

    Right in front of Sato was a in, bedazzled with flowers of various species. Ranging from Rose lookalikes to Tulips and Lilies, the in was more like a scenic environment of natures beauty than a home to wild animals and monsters. At the edge of the ins was a forest with tall evergreen trees and a couple deciduous trees, ranging from 5 meters to 12 meters with the asional appearance of 15 meter tall trees and even 20 meters.

    "Hmm, that''s ..."

    [[ System : Wild Saber (Common, Level 2)

    Name : Wild Sabers (Common)

    Level : 2

    HP : 240

    Physical Attack Power : 12

    Magical Attack Power : 0

    Physical Defence : 8

    Magical Defence : 2

    Attack Speed : 9

    Movement Speed : 12

    Attributes

    Strength : 9

    Agility : 6

    Dexterity : 3

    Endurance : 8

    Intelligence : 0

    Willpower : 2

    Vitality : 24

    Skills

    w Swipe : Active: Causes additional +5 damage.

    Intimidating Roar : Active : Causes "fear" effect for 4 seconds, depending on prey''s willpower.]]

    " A level 2 monster... quite strong but I still have a chance, if I lure it to the woods ,"

    " Now !!!"

    Picking up a stone, Sato waited till the Wild Saber had fully dropped it''s guard, throwing the stone with full force right at its right eye.

    "Roar": -20 [[Critical]]

    Incensed, the wild saber released a roar and chased after Sato when it noticed Sato''s silhouette at the peripheral of it''s eye.

    "Shit, I underestimated it''s speed."

    The wild saber leaped into the air while performing a "w Swipe" with it''s right w, at Sato. Unsheathing his mortal rank Beginner Sword, he turned around andunched an attack at the w in a bid to defend himself.

    *Peng*

    The wnded on his sword, leading Sato to take four steps backwards with his HP decreasing by 9 points, with his right hand wielding the mortal rank sword trembling and feeling numb.

    " I have to make sure that skill doesn''tnd on me. With my defence, I can survive once but thrice, I might be a goner."

    "Roar"

    Seeing it''s attack blocked, the saber got infuriated andunched a normal w attack with it''s left w, jumping to his left, which was the beast''s blindspot, Sato dodged the attack ,turned around and began running into the forest.

    Seeing it''s adversary and disturber retreating, the beast ran after him. Closing up to Sato, the wild saber leaped once more towards him, but this time Sato moved to his right dodging the attack. This lead to the saber crashing onto a tree right front. Entering a stun.

    [[Chop]] -8

    [[Critical : Horizontal sh ]] -17

    -4

    -3

    -6

    Arriving at the saber''s right, Satounched a flurry of attacks resulting to a total damage of 38.

    Exiting its "stun" state the beast got annoyed once more over its injuries and thenunched its attack against Sato. Continuously making use of the terrain for dodging and whipping attacks at its right side, Sato whittled down its HP.

    With its HP approaching the 10% mark, the wild saber entered an enraged stage and released an "Intimidating Roar" with an enhanced "w".

    [[System : Enraged state: all attacks +20% increase in damage, +10% increase in Basic attributes.

    Enhanced "Intimidating Roar" : You have gained "Fear" effect, basic attributes have been reduced by 20%, due to "Willpower" stat]]

    "So this is your trump card eh? looks like I''ll have to use it then"

    Retreating with a back flip, Sato took out an item from his bag which he tossed at the wild saber

    [[Simple explosive : Causes +50 damage]]

    "Here you go"

    *Boom!!!*

    -40

    "Now for the finishing strike"

    Leaping towards the wild saber, Satonded a "chop" eliminating thest HP of the beast.

    *Huff* ,*huff*

    " That was tough, but at least I''m quite close to levelling up."

    ''Now time for the loot''

    Walking towards the corpse, Sato clicked on the [[Loot]] icon that appeared beside it. After which light particles scattered with the corpse disappearing.

    "This is ¡­"

 Chapter 5 - 3 : Divine Sword Princess

    "This is crap, all that stress for total but eptable crap!"

    [[Bandit''s Sword : Mid tier Mortal ss : Additional +5 damage, Durability : 11]]

    In Infinite Realm, weapons and equipment have ranks due to their separate capabilities, potential and power. Some of these weapons are even capable of making an average yer be a peak level expert.

    As such, the existence of the major ranking system came to be; [Mortal], [Rare steel], [Dark Silver], [Legendary], [Mythic], [Saint], [Divine], with [Mortal] rank being the weakest and [Divine] rank being the strongest. Also, due to the differences in abilities, a weapon in the same rank can be weaker than another; as such, there are 3 further sub-divisions in each rank, namely : Low Tier, Normal/Mid tier and Upper tier.

    Sato unequipped his Novice Sword and reced it with the [Bandit''s Sword]

    ''Just a little bit better than the Novice Sword in my sheath. I really need to learn dual wielding.''

    "Let''s see what else is here"

    [[Simple Health Potion x2]]

    [[ Wild Saber Skin : 0 Star]]

    [[Wild Saber Tooth x2 : 0 Star]]

    [[ 5 Copper Coins ]]

    "Hmm, what''s this..."

    [[ Savir''s Card : Unknown : can be used to unlock Savir''s Mansion]]

    [[ System : With this, you might get something good ]]

    " Savir''s Mansion, I don''t recall seeing such a ce on the system map, it''s probably elsewhere.

    "Time to get going."

    Leaving behind him the scenes of a battle, Sato headed deeper into the forest.

    "The graphic imagery and realism of the game is is quite impressive. So this should be the supposed 4 UHDR graphics."

    *[4 UHDR = 4th Gen Ultra High Definition Realism) Since it''s VR we are talking about, I created a new resolution form, ''R'' which stands for Realism. Just imagine it as a view from a 6k TV¡­uwu¡­] *

    Despite the multitudes of VR games, some are quite popr than the others due to various differences, the most important being Virtual Resolution. Some VR games have more realistic imagery while others look pixted like a bunch of stacked sugar cubes. Infinite Realm being one of thetest, boasted of better realism, with the release of the much anticipated 4 UHDR resolution, thereby proiming themselves as the best game of the year.

    *Rustles*

    "Hmm, that''s a ..."

    [[ System : ck Striped Wild Boar(Common)

    Level : 1

    HP : 160

    Physical Attack Power : 9

    Magical Attack Power : 0

    Physical Defence : 8

    Magical Defence : 4

    Attack Speed : 3

    Movement Speed : 2

    Attributes

    Strength : 3

    Endurance : 8

    Vitality : 14

    Agility : 1

    Dexterity : 1

    Intelligence : 0

    Willpower : 4

    Skills

    Charge : Active : Generates a 50% increase in Movement Speed with a 30% increase in Physical Attack Power.

    Steel Skin : Passive : Possesses a skin almost as tough as steel, leading to quite a high defence against Physical and Magical Attack Power.

    System Description : quite a tough beast with high end and adrenaline, better watch out]] .

    "Steel skin, well that exins the points in Magical defence for a physical creature as yourself."

    "But the heavens are indeed fair, your speed and agility is quite terrible. Let''s begin"

    "Grunts". Noticing a foreigner in it''s area, the boar charges at Sato with it''s horns,unching the first attack, as such the battle begins.

    *****

    The Fallen Heart Kingdom, located South East within the main continent has 13 major cities and is bordered by 2 Kingdoms and 1 Empire. West of Fallen Heart Kingdom is the Reiss Kingdom, headed by the Brahman Empire and located within this Kingdom is Lavissen Town, one of the Novice Towns where yers are initially spawned.

    Of the Level 1-5 maps close to Lavissen Town is the Arken Greenwoods, named after the indigenous Arken Greenwood trees which has a variety of uses, due to it''s natural green colour shade and the medicinal scent and qualities of it''s leaves and bark. As a result, a lot of wild animals and monsters dwell within the woods, *[ AN : referring to the location not the tree''s wood].

    *Awoo!!*

    Within the Arken Greenwoods, a party of 5 level 2 yers were battling against a pack of 8 wolves, one of which was a 2 meter tall Level 3 special Elite with 2 Level 3 Elite wolves and the rest were Level 3 Common monsters.

    [[Arken Greenwolf (Common)

    Level : 3

    HP : 260

    Physical Attack Power : 15

    Magical Attack Power : 6

    Physical Defence : 8

    Magical Defence : 3

    Attack Speed : 15

    Movement Speed : 14

    Attributes :

    Strength : 5

    Endurance : 8

    Vitality : 26

    Agility : 7

    Dexterity : 5

    Intelligence : 2

    Willpower : 3

    Skills :

    Greengale howl : Active Skill : Release a charged up roar with wind element type mana, causing 30% additional damage and 20% Physical Damage. Cool-down : 7 seconds.

    Imbue Wind : Passive Skill : 40% chance for a physical attack to be imbued with wind element increasing damage by 20% and causing magical damage.

    Quick Step : Active Skill : Increase movement speed by 20% for 4secs. Cool-down : 7 seconds.]]

    [[ Arken Elite Greenwolf ( Elite)

    Level : 3

    HP : 290

    Physical Attack Power : 18

    Magical Attack Power : 9

    Physical Defence : 8

    Magical Defence : 4

    Attack Speed : 15

    Movement Speed : 18

    Attributes

    Strength : 6

    Endurance : 9

    Vitality : 29

    Agility : 9

    Dexterity : 5

    Intelligence : 3

    Willpower : 4

    Skills

    Imbue Wind : Passive skill : 45% chance for physical attacks to be imbued with wind element increasing damage by 25% and causing magical damage.

    Green Gale Howl : Active skill : release a charged up roar with wind element type mana, causing 35% additional magical damage and 20% physical damage. Cool-down : 6 seconds

    Quick Step : Active skill : Increase movement speed by 22% for 4 seconds. Cool-down : 6 seconds]]

    [[ Arken Alpha Greenwolf (Special Elite)

    Level : 3

    HP : 320

    Physical Attack Power : 24

    Magical Defence Power

    Physical Defence : 10

    Magical Defence : 5

    Attack Speed : 18

    Movement Speed : 20

    Attributes

    Strength : 8

    Endurance : 10

    Vitality : 32

    Agility : 10

    Dexterity : 6

    Intelligence : 4

    Willpower : 5

    Skills

    Wind Enhancement : Passive : Physical attacks have a 50% chance to contain wind element, causing additional 35% damage and magical damage.

    Green Gale Howl : Active skill : Release a charged up roar with wind element type mana, causing 45% magical damage and 30% physical damage. Cool-down : 6 seconds

    Swift Steps : Active skill : Increase movement speed by 25%, Attack speed by 5% for 5 seconds. Cool-down : 6 seconds.

    Crushing Gale w : Imbue wind element in a w/paw attack leading to a 40% increase in damage and 15% increase in attack speed for 3 seconds. Cool-down : 7 seconds ]]

    ( AN : Magical damage is damage as a result of the magical elements or attacks, whereas physical damage is damage due to physical force behind the attack e.g when someoneunches a fireball attack at you, the fireball possesses momentum which when it hits you, you experience a force that causes damage, but the mes still burn you , that is Elemental damage. I know the physics terms are quite confusing, just re-read it and try to understand. )

    Such a line-up of yers was quite impressive at this stage of the game, since the game has only been opened for 2 hours. Most yers however, were still struggling to get their first level up, with only guild elites and expert yers looking forward to their second level-up.

    Despite being both outranked and outnumbered 5 to 8, the yers were not at a disadvantage, easily taking down Arken Greenwolves leaving behind the Elites and Alpha. One has to know that of the monsters and creatures currently inhabiting Arken Greenwoods, the Arken Greenwolves are on the higher scale of power due to their high agility and dexterity.

    "Finally, those trash weaklings are dead"

    "Gotze, focus!! " cautioned the ck haired swordswoman.

    "Alright captain"

    "Panda, pin the boss down, Herald, Gotze, handle the Elite Greenwolf by the left, I''ll handle the other. Try your best not to stress Purple out."

    "Got it captain."

    "Okay ! "

    "Hmm ! "

    Taking a step forward with his right leg and applying force, the Pdin lifted his Greatsword above his head and shed with the lifted paw of the Arken Alpha Greenwolf. Despite the gap in the level and strength, the Pdin only took a step back with a minuscule loss of HP, with the boss''s aggro focused on him, Panda moved away from the rest with the boss chasing after him. While he tanked the boss, the rest took on their roles against the elites. The ranger Herald, and assassin Gotze, attacked one Elite Greenwolf whilst the captain Ink Snow took on the other, with the Cleric, Purple Winter healed them in addition to giving them buffs.

    " Finally, that beast is done." Rejoiced Gotze " Hey Herald, do you think we killed ours before Ink? "

    " Why don''t you take a look" Looking in the direction Herald pointed at, Gotze saw Ink attacking the Alpha Greenwolf together with Panda.

    " Damn, why is she so quick? "

    " Don''tpare yourself to her, there''s a reason she''s known as the Divine Sword Princess..."

    "Hey you two, join up with Ink and stop ogling at her ! " Reprimanded by Purple winter, after which Gotze and Herald joined up with Ink Snow and Panda to finish up the boss.

    "Watch out! The boss is about to go berserk..."

    *Awoo!*

    Coated in a red aura, which signifies the [[Enraged]] state ( Berserk state ) the Alpha Arken Greenwolf used [[Swift steps]] to lose Panda, leaped up andunched a [[Green-gale Howl]] at him whilst lifting it''s paw to attack Herald who happened to have attracted it''s aggro.

    "Herald watch out"

    ''Shit, it''s toote''

    Activating [[Sprint]] while being buffed by Purple Winter''s [[Blessing]], Ink Snow appeared in front of Herald, shing her Great-sword at the Alpha Greenwolf.

    *ng*

    Despite blocking the attack with her''s with the buff, she still took one step back seeing it''s attack being blocked, and it''s prey escaping, the wolf further frustrated whipped out a tail attack at Ink.

    *ng*

    "Don''t forget about me." Taking the chance after the beast''s initial attack was blocked, Panda rushed in and blocked it''s follow-up attack with his shield.

    Seeing room for an attack, Gotze stepped out Stealth mode and shed a multitude of attacks behind.

    *Awoo!*

    "Now!"

    Retreating seven steps back, Gotze dodged a w attack and Herald followed up with a [[Spiral shot]]nding directly at it''s left eye.

    *Awoo!*

    "Finish it " yelled Ink Snow.

    "[[Shadow Strike]]"

    "[[Horizontal sh]]"

    "[[Triple Shot]]"

    "[[Divine sh]]"

    *Awoo!*

    Facing a quadruple high-powered attack, the Alpha Greenwolf couldn''t resist and fell to it''s death.

    "That was tough, I almost died."

    "No kidding, if not for Captain you would''ve lost a level."

    "Who else would we have med for it, if not you, Panda. You ended up making such a rookie mistake and attracting the entire pack."

    "Hehe, I thought we could take them all on at once and we did, plus we levelled up, huh, ouch." In the middle of his reply, Panda got hit by Purple Winter''s staff on the head.

    Chuckling at the scene, Gotze said, "Hehe, you still had the guts to talk back to the ''Demonic Angel''..."

    "Whad''ya say ? !"

    "Nothing"

    Watching the bustle in front, Ink Snow smiled at them while she went to loot the corpses.

    Panda asked "So how''s our harvest, Captain ? "

    "It''s nice, at least we can update our gears." replied Ink Snow.

    "Yeah, we need better equipment if we are to be ahead of everyone else. We have to gain levels faster than others before ''they'' announce the reason behind Infinite Realm" With a serious face, Purple Winter stepped up and stated.

    "Yeah"

    ''I wonder how he''s doing'' Staring up into the sky, Ink Snow thought of the image of that man who rejected her help despite being former childhood friends.

    AN :

    General Skill [[Sprint]] : Increase movement speed by 12% for 5 seconds. Cool-down : 20 seconds.

    Cleric : [[Blessing]] : Increase Basic attributes of selected target by 10% for 4 seconds. Cool-down : 20 seconds.

    Ranger : [[Spiral Shot]] : Fire an arrow moving with a spiral motion within a curved path. Damage of projectile increased by 15%, +10% Attack power. Cool-down : 7 seconds.

    Assassin : [[Shadow Strike]] : Increase damage by 30% and attack speed by 15% for 3 seconds. Cool-down : 20 seconds.

    Ranger : [[Triple Shot]] : For 3 arrows with +15% Attack speed and a 30% increase in Attack power. Cool-down : 20 seconds.

    Pdin : [[Divine sh]] : Attack contains Divine power increasing Attack power by 30% and damage dealt by 15%. Cool-down : 20 seconds.

    1 metre : 1.09 yards.. Approximately 1 yard.

 Chapter 6 - 4 : Trouble In Fortune

    *Achoo*

    *Sniffs*

    ''Cold ?, it can''t be.

    '' It''s been a little bit above an hour since I''ve been here and Fudo hasn''t called, I wonder what happened.''

    While heading deeper into the Stone Creek Forest, Sato recounted his battles and winnings so far.

    "I''ve defeated 3 monsters of which two were level 2 monsters, levelled up once, got 5 free attribute points, 7 copper coins, gained 2 potions, 5 random materials and a new de. So far my journey has been good, at least I''ve gained a little."

    In Infinite Realm, for each level up, a yer gets 5 attribute points. Attribute points allow a yer to increase their main attributes directly. Apart from attribute points, yers can also receive skill points (SP) and potential points. Skill points allow a yer to increase the effects of a skill thereby making it stronger, while potential points are used to learn new skills and increase weapon mastery. Skill points are gained from the continuous use of a skill whereas potential points are gained each 3 levels.

    After adding 3 points to his [[Strength]] attribute and 1 point each to both [[Agility]] and [[Dexterity]], Sato thought ''it''s about time I contact Fudo, hmm, what''s that?''.

    From the peripheral of his eyes about 10m away, Sato noticed a dull brown glow in a cave.

    ''Lemme check it out first¡­''

    ''This is !! ''. Heading into the cave, Sato noticed that the source of the glow was a little chest.

    [[Mortal Rank Chest, Status : Locked]]

    "It''s a treasure chest !" Moving closer to the source of the glow, Sato noticed it was a treasure chest. Treasure chests are ssified into 6 main kinds, Mortal rank treasure, with a dull brown colour, Rare steel with a silver colour, Dark silver with a ck silver, Legendary with an orange colour, Saint rank chests with a myriad of colours andstly Divine rank treasure chests which has no specific colour.

    "With this, I can finally offset my earlier expenses."

    Approaching the chest, Sato clicked on the [[unlock]] icon and a loading bar with 20 seconds appeared.

    "At least its a simple lock, otherwise I wouldn''t have known what to do."

    Some treasure chests tend to be locked needing the assistance of one who possesses the thief or fraudster subss to break. Magic locks however need both thief subss and a scribe''s abilities to unlock.

    "Hey guys, over there."

    "This is bad,e on hurry up"

    Hearing approaching footsteps, Sato got nervous at the countdown which still had 14 seconds left, and tried to rush the countdown with his words which was pointless, knowing he couldn''t move from his position to face his adversaries.

    "Hahaha, it''s a freaking treasure chest, we''re rich"

    "Dumb ass, we aren''t the only ones here."

    "Huh? Who are you and what are you doing with my treasure chest?"

    Standing at the mouth of the cave was a party of 4 yers, with the Berserker who looked like their leader speaking with an arrogant tone.

    "Hmph ! Your treasure chest, you say !"

    "You¡­"

    "What an arrogant brat. Leader, let me have a go at him" licking his lips the assassin suggested.

    Meanwhile, Sato who was scanning the group noticed the orange markers on their heads.

    "PKers ?" (AN : yerKillers)

    "What about it, you scared ?" With a smile full of derision, the assassin responded.

    Frowning at the reply, Sato took a look at the timer,(AN : since he''s the one unlocking the Mortal Rank Chest only Sato can see the timer), noticing it had 5 seconds left.

    "Enough, Fiko take him down"

    "Got it", taking a step forward, the Pdin who had the biggest frame of them all, lifted the shield in his left hand and took a stance.

    "Tsk, a pdin who''s a killer, oh ! how nice."

    "Keep being sarcastic all you want, just know you''re gonna die before you know it. At least I would have yed with you a little."

    Pouting over the fact that he wasn''t chosen to do the job, the assassin responded with a slightly murky tone.

    *Inhales*

    "Hah !!" pushing his right foot against the floor, the pdin used [[Charge]]

    *Ting*

    "Hmm ?"

    ''Finally, it''s done''. Storing all 4 items in his beginner storage pack, Sato took to his feet and dodged the pdin''s [[Charge]] at thest moment. As if expecting that, the pdin smashed his shield over to his left, which happened to be where Sato dodged over to.

    "Hmph." Landing on his left foot, Sato spun counter-clockwise dodging the shield and arrived right behind the pdin.

    As his de was about tond, he noticed a shadow on his right side inching closer towards him. Taking 2 steps back, Sato dodged a dagger that struck right at his former position.

    "Tch, seems like you''ve got some skills", the assassin who had earlier stepped out of stealth said, " A little more and Fiko over here might have been a goner."

    While he was talking, the pdin wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead while being impressed at his foe''s footwork and then took a stance, while the remaining two, the berserker and the cursemancer, took their positions sealing off Sato''s escape route.

    "Just give up and hand over the goodies and we might consider letting you off." Seeing the frown on Sato''s face the cursemancer smirked.

    *Exhales*

    ''There are 4 opponents, and the cave''s mouth is blocked by both cursemancers and berserker. Logically, I should attack the cursemancer''s post since cursemancers tend to have weaker attack power. However, if I make a little error or get distracted, that berserker would attack me and I would end up with a really shitty curse from that cursemancer and that would make things harder.

    *Sighs*

    "Finally ready to give up ?" noticing Sato''s mode going down, the assassin asked with a wide grin that makes one really want to smack him.

    "Hahaha" while keeping his head low, Sato chuckled.

    "Is he going crazy ?"

    "Watch out !"

    Taking a step forward, Sato dashed towards the cursemancer, with the pdin yelling out.

    ''He took the bait.'' Smiling, the berserker who was already in position dashed towards the cursemancer.

    ''And here, I was thinking he wasn''t a noob'' smirking, the assassin used [[Fade]], entering stealth while dashing over the cursemancer.

    When Sato was just 3 meters away from the cursemancer, he lifted up his sword as if to sh at the cursemancer. Meanwhile, the yer in question was in the process of casting a spell. A meter and half away from the cursemancer, Sato threw a vial at him while lunging towards his right where the berserker was with a heavy left stomp, with his sword shing down. Due to the berserker being in close proximity to Sato, and the instant change in direction by Sato, the berserker couldn''t dodge, hence, he tried to block the attack with an attack of his own. As if he had expected that, Sato bent forward and shed at the berserker''s abdomen with full force.

    [[Horizontal sh]] -30

    Not expecting that, the berserker was struck and got hinged 4 meters away. As a result of the bottle earlier thrown at the cursemancer, his spell which was originally aimed at Sato broke the bottle, releasing it''s constituent, which was a dark green gas. The assassin who originally tried attacking Sato from behind lost him, when Sato abruptly charged at the berserker, hence when the gas was released, he also got caught in it.

    *Coughs*

    "What the heck is this ?" Holding his throat while coughing loudly, the cursemancer questioned.

    *Cough*

    [[System : you have been poisoned by [Green Scaled Python Venom(Weak)] -10% Basic attributes, +5% in stamina consumption, lose 5HP each second for 5 seconds]]. Ignoring them, Sato charged forward to the berserker who was getting up to his feet.

    "You bastard !" Enraged over the stunt Sato pulled, the berserker lifted up his great sword and shed forward towards Sato.

    [[Cleave]]

    "Hmph" Bringing himself to a stop, Sato took a side step towards his right dodging the greatsword after which he shed his sword towards the berserker.

    "Blood, duck!", hearing the call, the berserker, Blood Sword ducked whereas Sato turned around to face the voice which happened to be close by.

    *ng*

    Narrowly making it in time, Sato blocked the surprise attack from the pdin, Fiko who finally made his move, but had to take two steps backward with his HP 5 points less.

    ''His strength is higher than mine.'' With a frown, Sato deducted while retreating backwards.

    In Infinite Realm, once the strength of an attack on a yer is greater than that of said yer, he/she would receive damage. The logic is the same as when an average adult shes fist with a body builder, he/she would receive damage and experience pain.

    "How about we all settle down and let bygones be bygones eh?" Seeing that his attackers had given him space, Sato suggested with a smile.

    "Hmph, still trying to walk away after all you''ve done. You had the chance before but you tried to kill me just now and you think I''ll let you go?" Blood Sword responded with an angered tone clearly showing his hatred.

    "Same here." With a weird smile, Sato suddenly dashed towards the assassin and cursemancer duo, who stood close together and happened to have the lowest HP in the group.

    "Shit you bastard !!" Enraged, the cursemancer casted a [[Slow]] at Sato, while the assassin stood guard with the berserker and the pdin heading over.

    Tossing another vial containing a red liquid over while dashing over, Sato said "If you think you can stop me, dream on ."

    "Shit this trick again" Incensed, the assassin ced his left hand over the lower part of his face, while the cursemancer did the same. As for the pdin and the berserker, they both slowed down their steps. Exactly as before, the spell shed with the vial slowing it down. However, due to the dark mana bombarding it, it shattered leaving behind fragments of broken sses together with a red liquid bursting forth.

    "Huh, this is¡­" Noticing the familiarity of the liquid, the assassin was shocked and was about to alert the others, however it was toote as thest thing he saw was Sato swinging his de at him.

    [[Chop]] Critical -25

    -12

    -13¡­

    When his HP remained just 15%, the assassin retreated and tried to flee, using [[Silent Steps]] to increase his speed, however Sato wouldn''t let him go that easily, activating [[Sprint]]. Counting that with the fact the assassin was poisoned with his main attributes down by 10%, Sato easily caught up before he could move 2 meters away, delivering the finishing blow.

    Saying it might sound slow, however everything urred within the space of less than 5 seconds. By the time his other teammates realized what happened, the assassin was already dead. Seeing this, the cursemancer moved further away from Sato in fear of death. However rather than chasing after him, Sato ran towards the cave''s entrance and escaped, shocking the other yers who thought he would fight to thest man.

    "Shit, that bastard''s been toying with us ever since. He could have easily escaped but he had to kill one of us." Blood Sword, the berserker responded with clear hatred and anger written all over his face.

    "That vial, it was actually a [[Simple Health Potion]]. He tricked us with it and got Crimson." Recalling what took ce and what the red liquid in the vial was, Fiko, the bear sized pdin stated with both a mixture of shock and fear written on his face. ''Someone with such crafty mind is really the worst.'' (AN : Might be toote but double quotation marks are for speech and conversations while single quotation marks are for thoughts :) )

    "Captain, are we really going to chase after him ?" with hesitation and apprehension written all over his face, the cursemancer stared at Blood sword.

    "...*sigh* even if we want to, we have to wait for Crimson Scar to revive. He''s killed quite a lot so I doubt he was so dumb as to set his resurrection point in the town. Let''s wait for him."

    In Infinite Realm, some yers tend to follow the dark path, killing yers for equipment and goods or just for fun, as a result, they are termed as PKers (yer Killers), or Dark yers (AN : LOL this is so me) . These yers, if seen by most NPC ''s, are shamed and will be arrested by the City guards or Town guards. Being jailed in a town or city results in quite some serious penalties with 30% deduction in main attributes, 20% reduction in experience points gained for a week, together with all equipment, weapons and goods in storage or sack confiscated by the NPC local authorities and also 2 levels deducted. So yeah, it''s really serious. The penalties however, vary depending on the yer''s status. A dark yer''s status varies from light orange, deep orange, light red, blood red, blood red with aura and ck.

    Due to the penalties gotten from being jailed, Dark yers tend to set their resurrection points either in Devil towns or cities or elsewhere.

    "When we get back, mobilize the entire group to hunt that asshole down. ce a bounty if you must, 1 Silver coin, Dead or Alive."

    "Got it captain." The cursemancer nodded.

    ''He''s really angry now, I kinda pity that swordsman.''

    ¡­

    "This should be enough, now time to call Fudo."

 Chapter 7 - 5 : Incoming Storm

    [[System : Audio call epted]]

    "Fudo, where are you ?"

    "Haha, I''m awesome, I''m freaking awesome."

    "What''s with the noise?"

    "Hahaha, Sato , you wouldn''t believe what happened."

    "Alright, let me guess, you got a mission."

    "..."

    "Fudo ?"

    "Leave me alone, let me cry out my sorrow first."

    "Stop joking around man."

    "Alright, alright. So as I was heading over to Stone Creek Forest, I met a wretched NPC begging on the road; smelling a mission closeby, I gave him 5 copper coins, however he rejected and asked me for wine, so I gave him a sour wine. After he was done drinking it all, the bastard asked for more. Then I gambled on him and bought more. After that asshole had made me spend 20 copper coins on wine he finally revealed to me a mission, here take a look."

    [[The Ghost Mansion :

    Mission Rank : ?

    Intro : Around 3 years ago, a wealthy merchant came to Riverdale Town to build his mansion. Eventually, he settled outside the town close to ake and beside a mountain and hired a couple of guards. A weekter, the maids and guards started hearing hoarse screams every 2 nights, and whenever they try to investigate, it stops. Creeped out, the merchant hired mercenaries to find out the source of the screams. They eventually found a hole close by that appeared out of nowhere, exploring it, they saw a monster deep inside which killed them with only 3 mercenaries escaping. Later on, the merchant relocated.

    Description : Levi was one of the mercenaries who survived, but his brother and best friend both died, as such, he bears hatred against the creature but can''t y it. Fulfill his wish and y the creature¡­

    Basic Reward : Void Silver

    Time Limit : 3 days]]

    "Hey what''s with this long mission detail ? it''s quite detailed." (AN : PUN intended)

    "I guess it''s because the NPC was narrating his experience seeing as the mission is based on it. Either way, it''s better since we don''t need to stress ourselves much."

    "Hmm, the reward¡­" Noticing the words in the Basic Reward section, Sato''s breathing pace increased.

    "I know right, [[Void Silver]]. A freaking 4 Star material. Even if the mainstream level bes Level 30, it''s still gonna be rare. With such a reward, you can''t possibly reject the mission. And that''s just the Basic Reward."

    Being a Virtual reality, just like reality, infinite possibilities exist. Take for example, a mission to y a dragon. A yer can sessfully kill the dragon but with low health left, whereas another can seed with his/her HP above 50% or even 70% and so on. As such, there are different rewards given by the system based on performance, whereas the Basic Reward is given by the mission. The System''s personal reward could be given in the form of an increase in loot rewards or increase in Basic Mission reward depending on the sort of mission.(AN : all these infos are stated on the forum by the producers and some info guilds, to be knownter).

    "So where are you Fudo ?"

    "Right, I''ll send you , my location now."

    *Ding*

    Taking a nce at the location in the new message on his System panel, Sato referenced it with the System map.

    "Hmm¡­I''m quite close. I''ll be there in 15 minutes."

    "OK, I can wait."

    [[System : Audio call terminated]]

    Staring at a mountain quite a bit far, Sato sheathed his sword once again running but this time without the fear of being hunted down.

    ''Need to hurry up.''

    ¡­

    Meanwhile, in Riverdale Town¡­

    In the Fallen Heart Kingdom, the power is mostly centralized at the capital city with the other cities having towns under them. Further down are the rural viges and tribes but these are mostly rare and hardly seen since most natives tend to move to towns or even cities in search of opportunities and a better sense of security.

    Every city or town are ssified into 3 major types; Primary, Secondary or tertiary, based on various factors. This categorisation enables a city or town to gain morend, connections and resources, increasing their financial power.

    Just like ck Mountain Town, Riverdale Town is one of the 12 subsidiary towns under the secondary city, ck Rock City. Simrly, Riverdale is also a primary town flourishing in such wealth and culture that one might not realise that it is actually just a town. Home to merchants, lesser nobles, artisans and people from variousmunities, it also happens to be one of the towns yers can be spawned into upon initial entering into Infinite Realm.

    Located in this culture joint is the Green Relish Pub. A medium sized pub with quality drinks, food and amodation at a cheap price, the Green Relish Pub ended up being a gathering ce for most yers.

    "Hey, did you hear?" A level 1 assassin suddenly spoke up as he into stepped the Green Relish Pub, ignoring the NPCs while focusing on the yers.

    "What?" someone asked.

    "Someone discovered a way to get [[Void Silver]]." the assassin replied

    "What''s that?" A level 1 berserker questioned.

    "You don''t know?! That''s a 4 Star material, they don''t even sell that in NPC stores."

    "Whoa, quick, where do I get it?" Another yer asked the question in all the yers'' minds.

    With a smile that showed he was satisfied with the attention he got, the assassin replied "Someone released in the forums about a few minutes ago that as long as you give the beggar named Levi who''s outside the city wine worth 30 copper coins, he will give you a mission with the Basic Reward [[Void Silver]]"

    (AN :

    1) Remember when we talked about rewards based on performance¡­, well if a yerpletes this mission better, they get more [[Void Silver]] ingots.

    2) Yeah, Fudo spent 20 copper coins plus his beginner''s sour wine (5 copper coins worth) to get Levi to talk while others spent 30 copper coins. That is because the NPC has initially felt that he shouldn''t give anyone else the mission but more wine made him talk, and yeah the NPC ''s have feelings.The game producers made them more realistic.)

    "Why should we trust you?" A yer asked the question in all their minds.

    "Right? He''s probably a pyscho looking to send us on a wild goose-chase." Another yer said.

    "Because the yer who found the mission couldn''t monopolise the rewards due to a group of people interfering and that said yer is me. Also, you could simply check the forums and confirm." The assassin replied with a smile that didn''t look like one.

    "What am I waiting for then? " Standing up quickly, the berserker who had spoken earlier ran out of the pub together with some yers.

    "Boss, should we?" Looking at the bearded middle aged man sipping beer, a level 2 cleric asked.

    "Don''t bother. The fact that the news has already reached here means it''s either fake or it has been poprised. If it''s the first, no problem but the second simply means we can''t monopolise it." The one who answered was a middle aged swordsman who sat at the same table with him.

    "We might as well spend our time levelling up."

    "Even so, we should try." Still persisting, the cleric spoke worriedly.

    "Can you two just be quiet and let''s see what the leader says." This time, it was thest man on the table, an elementalist who spoke up.

    "Swift de."

    "Yes Boss." The swordsman faced the bearded man with a look of inquiry.

    "Since when do we ever worry about anything?" Speaking with a deep tone, the bearded man stared at Swift de.

    "..."

    "It might be too early to mobilise everyone but good opportunities like this don''te plenty. Zero!"

    "Yes Boss!" Responding with expectations, the cleric looked at the man.

    "The main legion hasn''t yet migrated over to Infinite Realm, so head over there with Little Song''s squad. Also take with you Dream Tiger."

    Immediately, silence reigned upon the table as the three men stared with wide eyes at their boss.

    "Boss, do I really have to?" Recovering from his shocked state, the cleric, though still retaining signs of shock on his face, asked with a surprised tone.

    "With him on board, unless those freaks are participating, you should be able toplete the mission." the man answered White Zero with a nonchnt face while sipping his beer.

    "Sure Boss, with Dream Tiger on the job you can count on me." Recovering fully from his shocked state, White Zero stated with full confidence after which he stood up and left the pub.

    "Swift de, our levels are still low so I want you to head over with our current main force and reach level 5 at the very least before you take on any mission. Understood?"

    "Yes Boss." With a wry smile, the swordsman left the pub leaving behind only their boss and the elementalist.

    "Are you sure about revealing Dream Tiger this early?" Seeing as there was only the two of them, the elementalist addressed the man with familiarity.

    "I thought you were keeping him as a trump card against the other guilds?" One has to know that in their guild, Dream Tiger is the third strongest in their guildcking behind the elementalist and the middle aged man, who happened to be their guild leader.

    Apart from that, he was currently one of the youngest experts in the guild, showing the massive potential he has. As such, Dream Tiger had been kept hidden from public eye, improving his martial arts andbat standard. That was until 2 years ago when he made his massive debut for the guild in another VR game, taking on 5 expert ss yers from a rival 2nd tier guild, Great Ark, anding out on top with his opponents all dead. Apart from that, he also had other battle records which was enough to show his strength, after which he was kept away from public eye to undergo special training for a year. Now no one knows what level he has reached, with some suspecting he might be only weaker than their guild leader.

    "I know an opportunity when I see one, Uncle Jiro, and this is one we shouldn''t miss."

    "Whatever you say" Jiro responded, "But you should keep in mind that we ought prepare. From the info I got, at Level 10, we all move to the city. At that point in time, guild wars would end up amon event."

    "Don''t worry about it, you have recently had a break through, haven''t you ?"

    "How did you know ?" Surprise stered all over his face as Jiro stared at the man.

    "Cause I too have recently had a breakthrough." the middle aged man responded with a grin.

    *Sighs*

    "I actually forgot, you''re named Daichi" (AN : Daichi with the Kanji (Dai) meaning "big or great" and (Chi) meaning "wisdom or intellect". )

    If the surrounding yers had heard that, they would have been shocked. Hiroshi Daichi, the guild leader of East Crow and one of the top 400 of the Hermes Guild''s ''Gamer Expert List''.

    The "Gamer Expert List" is one of the listsposed by the Super Guild, Hermes, together with the "Greatest Of All Time", Neer List, etc. But what makes it special is that it ranks yers based onbat standard and notbat records which the "Greatest Of All Time" uses. The top 200 in the list are normally referred to as "Kings" of which some are monster ss experts. Whereas the top 400 are the top-of-the-ss experts capable of handling 2 or more average experts and dozens of elites on their own.

    (AN : Just gonna spoil it here; gamer ranks, I repeat gamer ranks not yer ranks are ssified as follows : god-level or god-ranked expert or destroyer, monster-ss expert, pinnacle or apex expert, average expert, elites, veterans, noobs).

    For Daichi to rank in top 400 is a testimony of his top tier gaming skills andbat standards. Once upon a time, 1st tier guild, Achilles Bow, once tried to recruit him, however he rejected them. Out of anger, the guild tried to destroy his career and his guild. Vexed, Hiroshi Daichi (IGN : Troubled Sword) (AN :IGN : In-Game-Name) led a legion against Achilles Bow, conquering all their sub-bases in the VR game, after which he headed to their headquarters, destroying it to rumbles. After that, East Crow guild, despite being a low 2nd tier guild, became popr and rose through the ranks to be one of the pinnacle 2nd tier guilds with Troubled Sword''s poprity and danger level rising. In the end, Daichi became 378th on the "Gamer Expert List" with his battle against Achilles Bow at their HQ in the VR game, taking the 217th spot on the "Greatest Of All Time". One shouldn''t look down on his position as the top 200 are peak ss experts who rival monster ss experts, with some being monster ss experts. So those yers are normally beyond reach, leaving behind those below 200. In others, apart from monster ss experts and their rivals, Daichi''s ranks as the 170 strongest ever.

    "With both our recent breakthrough, we no longer need to hide some of our trump cards. We might as well use them to gain an advantage."

    "You''re right." Jiro nodded (IGN : Drunken Hog) picked up his cup and took a sip from it.

    Unbeknownst to Sato and Fudo, East Crow Guild along with some other mid-tier guilds and countless other yers had set their eyes on the [[Ghost Mansion]] mission.

 Chapter 8 - 6 : Ghost Mansion Part 1

    "So this is the mansion location¡­"

    "Apparently so¡­"

    Right in front of Sato and Fudo was a mansion built with an exquisite architectural design resembling a Victorian architecture with a touch of renaissance art. Right in front of the building was a little garden filled with flowers of various species neatly nted and arranged with a small pond in the centre and a beach bordering the pond. All in all, the building with the garden was fenced round with a ck gate in front.

    "Apparently?" Sato faced Fudo with an inquiring look.

    "What''s with the look?"

    "Nothing"

    "..."

    "Alright, let''s go in" Taking a step forward, Sato left behind a stunned Fudo.

    "Hey, did you actually think that I misled us?"

    "Didn''t say that".

    "But your face did."

    "Fudo, do you notice anything weird." Upon approaching the gate, Sato paused and began to study his surroundings.

    "Yeah, I also get a weird feeling too. Look at the building, the walls and even the garden. They all look clean and organized. ording to the mission info, this building has been abandoned for 3 years yet it has no wears and the nts height look okay, showing it''s been properly groomed. For an abandoned mansion, this doesn''t add up." Scanning the building and it''s environment, Fudo stated his thoughts.

    "Yeah, plus¡­" Walking closer to the gate, Sato pushed it and the gate opened up

    "¡­as an abandoned house it should have been locked but it isn''t."

    "I guess someone has been using this house." Together with Sato, Fudo walked in.

    Just as Fudo had stated, the building looked neat and clean as if it had recently been painted or built. The grasses were at carpet height while the nts in the garden looked as if they had recently been pruned. The pond looked crystal clear and still. Looking at the exquisite mansion, one might even think it was recently built with an active owner.

    " Fudo, look over here. There are tracks."

    " Hmm"

    " I think someone was here before us. The question is, yers or NPC ''s?"

    Looking at the footprints that looked human, Sato wondered whom it might belong to.

    " We might as well explore it ourselves."

    Heading into the mansion, Sato and Fudo swept through the rooms in search of valuables or clues.

    " I can''t find anything, this is far too weird."

    Going through the rooms on the first floor, Sato hadn''t discovered a dime or clue to the mission. The entire furniture were all clean with no tears or wears, not even signs of attacks or the sorts.

    " Sato head over here now! "

    Rushing towards the courtyard located right at the centre of the building, Sato was greeted with the hind view of a humanoid creature averaging around 2 metres in height.

    "Hey Sato, over here" Fudo whispered while signaling towards him.

    Heading over, Sato asked "Is that it?"

    " No, the monster wasn''t actually stated but due to the NPC ''s detailed description of it, it should be the mission target symbol. But that''s not why I called, look beside it."

    Upon hearing Fudo''s words, Sato was initially disappointed but immediately after looking where Fudo pointed over to, his eyes shone brightly.

    "That''s a-"

    "A treasure chest and from the glow, it''s a Rare Steel Rank Chest." With an excited expression, Fudo interrupted Sato.

    One should know that this happens to be the early stage of the game, as such Treasure chests and the like should be quite rare. Discovering a treasure chest as a result of a mission and this happens to not be counted as the mission reward, is probably enough for one to be intoxicated.

    "However, that monster¡­"

    [[Cursed Servant (Elite)

    Level : 5

    HP : 310

    Physical Attack Power : 12

    Magical Attack Power : 45

    Physical Defence : 8

    Magical Defence : 12

    Attack Speed : 30

    Movement Speed : 20

    Attributes

    Strength : 4

    Endurance : 8

    Vitality : 31

    Agility : 10

    Dexterity : 10

    Intelligence : 15

    Willpower : 12

    Skills :

    Dark summon : Passive Skill : Calls forth a low level demonic half blood beast once it''s HP reaches a certain mark.

    Dark Neb : Active Skill : Releases a dark coloured gas with a 2 meter distance in fan-shaped direction but a 1 meter radius if utilised as a circr attack. Contains curses causing a 10% reduction in Main Attributes as well as [Slow], [Hallucinations], [Weakened Willpower] status effects. Lasts for 10 seconds once infected. Gassts 20 seconds before diffusing.

    Cool-down : 2 minutes

    Pitch-ball : Active Skill : Fires a ball containing dark elements at the target with 120% of attack power as base damage.

    Cool-down : 2 seconds

    Pitch Crepuscr Rays: Active Skill: Fires a crepuscr dark coloured rays at the target with 150% attack power and the [Weakened: -3% Main Attributes] status effect for 7 seconds.

    Cool-down: 7 seconds.

    (AN: Normal attacks deal base damage which is either the [Physical Attack Power] or [Magical Attack Power] point depending on the ss but skills give additional damage. Hope you understand :) )

    System description: A fallen soul who has been corrupted by the nature of Darkness. Where there''s light, there will be darkness. ]]

    "Why is it here?" Sato stared wide at the system result of the scan.

    This was because anything rted with the Dark element had to either be a demon or was contaminated by the power of Darkness or the Darkness aura. Even the Dark Mage jobs came to be as a result of humanity practicing Dark arts and Demonic arts.

    A [Cursed servant] was actually a human mage who ended up being corrupted. However, for that to happen, a Source of Darkness has to be avable; either an animate or an inanimate one. If it is an inanimate source, then there isn''t much problem, but if it is animate, for one to appear this early in the game, spells bad news for all yers. This is because an animate Source of Darkness has to be a living demon normally a Boss ss demon, which is far more powerful than any yer or even NPC guards in Town.

    Demons are a race far above humans, as such, normal demons are around level 40-50 with the weaker ones being level 35 and this is just considering your average demon with no battle experience whatsoever. Be it weak or normal demons, none are of good news for current level yers.

    "A [Cursed Servant] and a level 5 Elite at that. Haa1, This will be tough." Fudo sighed at the sight of the monster.

    "It hasn''t noticed us yet so we have the upper hand. If we approach it properly, we should be able to control the flow of the battle and might possibly pull this of. Alright get ready, I''ve got a n."

    . . . . . . .

    " Hey, you. Yeah you." Waving frantically at the [Cursed servant], Fudo yelled at it with a disdaining smile on his lips.

    "You''re so ugly your mom let you get raised by demons."

    "..."

    The [Cursed servant] stared confusedly at Fudo.

    " I mean just look at you. What''s with that weird smudge allover your face. Are you a demon or a monster or even a wardrobe creep? And what''s with that name, [Cursed servant]. Are you a mage or a servant? If I were your dad, I would be pretty disappointed. Oh wait I get it now. Your mom must have been pregnant with you but ended up passing a green hat to your father and slept with a demon. That makes sense. No wonder you are so ugly and disgusting." (AN : Wearing a green hat shows that your wife is cheating on you. Chinese y on words.)

    Initially, the [cursed servant] didn''t understand him but looking at that condescending smile of his, it got enraged and lifted its hand with dark mana gathering by, ready to cast a spell.

    Upon seeing this, Fudo raised his right hand and pointed his index finger right by it chuckling " Hehehe. You so dumb you didn''t know when you got scammed."

    Even though it was upied with the thought of eliminating this psychotic nitwit that keeps mocking it, the creature was still a level 5 being that formerly had intellect. As such, it got attracted to the direction it''s prey was pointing, wondering why rather than crying and pleading for his life, it''s prey was pointing fingers elsewhere. It wasn''t worried that Fudo might escape because it surpassed him in every attribute.

    Immediately after turning behind, the [Cursed servant] was greeted by a not so loud bang apanied with an intense burst of bright white light.

    [[ Simple sh Grenade : Causes [Temporary Blindness] effect for 4 seconds. ]]

    [Chop] -11

    Once the sh was over, Sato appeared right in front of the creature and swung his sword at it causing damage.

    '' Shit! My attack power is weak against it.''

    " Fudo! "

    During the time the sh grenade detonated and Sato attacked, Fudo had already begun chanting a spell, gathering mana onto his crooked staff. At this moment, he was reciting thest stanza.

    " O Heavenly King of mes grant thy humble one a view of thy re. Embody in mes, from flesh to ashes, grant my my enemy a touch of thy grace. Explosion !!! "

    (An : Bakuretsu, bakuretsul¡­ )

 Chapter 9 - 7 : Ghost Mansion Part 2 ; Battle With A Boss 1

    -27

    *Roar*

    "What spell was that?" Staring incredulously at the ming [Cursed servant], Sato was impressed at the visual impact and attack power of the skill.

    "Haha, that wasn''t a skill, it was just a spell I got from an essory I found earlier on while waiting for you."

    [[ Igneel''s guidance lower replica (Ne) : Upper Tier Mortal ss

    +3 Luck

    +30% increase in Attack power of fire type spells

    +10% decrease in casting time for fire type spells

    +15% affinity to fire elements

    Explosion : Cause an explosion on the target leading to an instant damage of 200% of caster''s attack power together with the [Burn] effect; deducting 10 Hp each 3 seconds for 7 seconds.

    Cool-down : 30 seconds. ]]

    "Try to hold it off for as long as you can." Even though he had been speaking with Fudo, Sato was actually running over to the little tform that held the chest.

    *Roar*

    Frustrated at the fact that it was sneak attacked, the [Cursed servant] roared in anger. Despite being blinded temporary, it headed straight towards the tform as it''s instinct was to protect the chest.

    "Don''t you dare!" After taking note of the high damage he had inflicted onto it, Fudo theorized that fire type spells would cause higher damage to it than regr mana-based attacks and so he attacked it with the [Fireball] spell which had an almost instant casting time, thanks to the ne''s properties, and a fast cool-down to attract its aggro.

    -17 [Fireball]

    -20 [Fireball]

    -10 [Burn]

    Right after thest [Fireball] spell, the [Temporary Blindness] effect went off and almost immediately, the [Burn ] effect took ce .

    ''I might actually solo it.'' Being conceited with his current progress against the creature, Fudo entertained the thought ofpletely finishing off the creature with minimal damage and was prepared to use a stronger spell.

    All of a sudden, the [Cursed servant] that was previously within his sights disappeared as if it were never there, appearing almost instantaneously in front of Fudo with a ck book opened atop its left palm and it''s right hand lifted right in front of him. At the same time, a human-like sneer took shape on its face with dark mana gathering atop its right palm.

    ''Shit !'' Fudo was startled by the instant discement of the creature and tried to escape. However before he could react, he got sted 3 metres away crashing into a nearby wall and copsing within the recently formed rubble.

    -52 [Pitch ball] (48/100 Fudo) (AN : Considering writing who gets injured together with their Hp in order to avoid confusion of numbers.)

    Rather than finishing off Fudo, the [ Cursed servant] turned towards Sato and once again lifted up its right hand, aiming at Sato with the intent to finish him off in one strike despite his close proximity to the chest.

    Meanwhile Sato, who had earlier reached the tform and had begun the procedure of unlocking the chest, watched everything as it transpired but couldn''t make a move (AN : Mentioned in Chapter 4 about how a yer who doesn''t possess the thief of [Fraudster] subss has to remain motionless while unlocking a chest but can turn their heads or talk.). However, once he saw the [Cursed servant] lifting its hand towards him, he unhesitantly dodged it, thereby cancelling the unlocking procedure.

    [Pitch crepuscr ray]

    *ng*

    Upon dodging, Sato saw a dark ray passing through his former position, eventually sting the courtyard wall into rumbles (An : Imagine that the battle between it and Fudo was going on by Sato''s left.). On the contrary, the slight part that collided with the chest got deflected by a magic barrier that came up and produced a sound akin to that of metals shing.

    ''A little slower and I would have been a goner.'' Exhaling, Sato began studying his opponent. Meanwhile, the said creature didn''t seem annoyed or disappointed that its prey had dodged its attack. On the other hand, its condescending smile seemed to be satisfied at such as if saying ''It''s good you didn''t die so quickly''.

    ''Even though I knew it was strong experiencing it is a different story.'' Unsheathing his sword, Sato studied the[Cursed servant]''s expression and recalled its previous moves.

    ''Initially when it was blinded, its speed was quite slow roughly matching mine. Compared to now, that''s nothing. Also Fudo had initially attracted its aggro but it still headed my way. That could be excused with the fact that it was assigned to protect the chest. However, it instantaneously moved towards Fudo once it regained its sight, as if its previous actions of hurriedly rushing towards the chest was a trick to drop his guard. That movement didn''t seem so much like a kill so it''s probably its regr speed. Couple these facts with that smug look on its face¡­This creature has intellect.'' Upon reaching that conclusion, Sato''s face became grave.

    A monster with intellect and a monster without any. A lot of people might not know the difference but it still remains the dread of every yer to encounter such. Even in the past VRMMORPG games, intellectual monsters have been rated extremely dangerous more so for Infinite Realm. Such monsters are capable of setting traps or even scheming against yers, either by ying weak and all of a sudden bursting with overpowered strength just like the [Cursed servant]. These monsters are also able to fight yers, possessingbat standards and movements like yers. All in all, it is the wish of every yer to never meet one.

    However, some say otherwise ''As the Heavens are fair so is the system''. This has been a popr saying among yers. It simply means that the harder a mission is or the more difficult a monster is to kill, the greater the reward. As such, despite knowing the danger, some yers are always ready to take on a monster with intellect.

    ''This will be tough, I need something to bnce out our attribute differences.'' While Sato was in thought, the [Cursed servant] finally got bored of waiting and made it''s move, closing the distance between it and Sato. At this point, the [Burn] effect was over, giving the creature a total damage of 23.

    Without wasting time, Sato used [Sprint] and retreated backwards in a bid to create space between him and the [Cursed servant].Looking afar one might find this funny, since the key to beating a mage is to close up the gap however Sato was doing the direct opposite.

    Despite activating [Sprint], the [Cursed servant]''s speed far outstripped Sato''s. As such, the estimated 7 meter gap between them lessened. Within a second, the initial 7 meter gap became a 1 meter gap.

    Sensing the creature behind him, Sato spun around while shing at it. Seeing this, the [Cursed servant] gave up chasing and instead released dark coloured eerie gas from it''s sleeves.

    [Dark Neb]

    Due to the close proximity to the creature, together with the skill''s range, Sato got caught in the gas. Immediately, a flurry of system alerts shone on his interface.

    [[System : yer has been infected by a dark curse.

    [Main attribute reduction] : 10% reduction in main attributes.

    [Slow] : movement speed and attack speed reduced by 10%.

    [Light Hallucinations] : yer would experience hallucinations once in a while. ]]

    ''''This is bad.''''

    Being affected by multiple curses, Sato''s confidence began wavering. The first three status effects are self exnatory however thest one happens to be horrible if not the worst.

    [Light Hallucinations] may sound less intimidating than the rest but it happens to be a top feared curse. This is because the [Light Hallucination] status effect sporadically creates illusions at irregr frequencies and times, from hindering yers from knowing what is real or not.

    Moving out of the 2 meter radius gas-enveloped field, Sato headed to a nearby pir trying to lose the [Cursed servant], while it didn''t even move a single step, as if it wasn''t worried Sato would escape.

    ''It has only 212HP, however with the rate things are going, Fudo and I will both end up dead. I need a game changer.'' Going through his bags, Sato began looking for anything that could help.

    ''Hmm¡­this is¡­'' Looking through the System interface that showed his beginner''s bag''s contents, he raised an eyebrow but recalling that the [Cursed servant] was an intellectual creature, he recovered quickly.

    ''Luckily he didn''t see me. I don''t know its intelligence level so its best not too reveal anything especially a hopeful expression.'' Hiding behind a pir, Sato rejoiced.

    ''But something feels off, even if he looks down on us, it should have eliminated us long ago. Why then does it not do so?¡­ Well whatever, it doesn''t matter.

    ''That attack on Fudo shouldn''t have taken him down so quickly. I reckon he''s bidding time to get a clear hit on the [Cursed servant] once it drops its guard. I might as well make that possible.''

    With a heavy sigh, Sato prepared once more to face the [Cursed servant], however what he saw next left he stunned.

 Chapter 10 - 8 : Ghost Mansion 2 : Battle With A Boss Part 2

    (AN : Weapons and equipment are now ssified into ranks, no longer ss. E.g. : Upper Tier Mortal ss bes Upper Tier Mortal Rank.)

    *Screech*

    "Hahaha, you thought you could get rid of the great Lord Fudo that easily."

    Apanied with the weird machine screeching sound from the [Cursed servant] was Fudo''s cheeky voice.

    "What took you so long?"

    "Sorry, the great Emperor was bidding his time for the perfect opportunity to wipe off that smug off that shit''s face." Even as he was talking, Fudo fired a [Fireball] before drawing incantations for a spell his.

    "This shit got this great Emperor so bad, if there was anyone else here, I might as well quit this game."

    Looking at the [Cursed servant], one would notice a chain of light binding it in ce with grey coloured gas oozing continuously from it''s body. Apanied with it''s continuous screeching, that would give an average human chills, together with the asional damage numbers ranging from 20-35, one can only imagine how much pain it must be going through.

    "I was actually saving this for a King ss boss but you forced my hand."

    [[ Holy Light Seal (Scroll) : Low Tier Mortal ss :

    Binds target with chains of light while causing damage equivalent to between 100% to 110% of caster''s magical attack power each 2 seconds for 5 seconds. Once the spell''s duration ends, Target''s main attributes reduce by 10% for 7 seconds.

    NB : if used against Dark element users, damage doubles with main attribute reduction increased to 15% for 9 seconds.

    ]]

    Scrolls, like weapons are external sources of strength. In Infinite Realm, scrolls are container''s of a mage''s powers or spells or devices used to control the natural elements, so as to unleash great power. Just like weapons and equipment, scrolls are also graded. With Divine Grade scrolls being the strongest, followed by Saint Grade. These two grades are the most powerful, wielding such devastating might capable of changing thendscapes and even deciding one''s fate, such that turning the tides of a battle is as easy as breathing, with these scrolls. They are collectively called Heavenly Grade scrolls. Below them are the Earth grade scrollsprising of Mortal grade( being the weakest), Master grade, King grade and Emperor grade scrolls which is the strongest of the Earth grades with enough might to easily demolish a city and more.

    Like weapons and equipment, Earth grade scrolls each have three (3) further subdivisions. They are Low tier, Mid/Average tier and finally Upper/High tier. However, these subdivisions are only avable to Earth grade scrolls and not Heavenly grade scrolls.

    The [Holy Light seal],though recorded as a low tier Mortal grade scroll actually has prowess equivalent to some of the weaker Mid tier Mortal grade scrolls. But due to its ease of avability and procurement of the materials needed coupled with the ease of drawing the sigils and runes, it eventually became ssed as a Low tier Mortal grade scroll though it ranked among the top.

    Meanwhile, 4 seconds had passed by since the [Cursed Servant] was screeching in pain. During this time, Fudo had been charging up a bigger spell while Sato had been making utmost use of the opportunity dealing continuous damage to the creature. Noticing that the spell''s effect was waning with ts duration approaching, Sato retreated 6 steps backwards while preparing himself for an attack.

    At the same time, Fudo, who had earlier been chanting and gathering mana, was done. Within a metre radius of him the surrounding temperature began to rise, with the nearby fire elemental mana gathering towards him at an increasing pace. With his crooked staff, Fudo drew a somewhat but not soplicated magic circle on which the fire elemental mana gathered onto, forming an almost 2 metre tall fireball that could easily dwarf the previous Elementalist [Fireball].

    "Feel my wrath, you disgusting freak from the unknown realm. [zing Ray] !!"

    (AN : [zing Ray] : Fire a ming red ray with 220% of Caster''s Magical Attack Power. Upon contact, [Burn] status effect is received by target, deducting 15HP each 3 seconds for 6 seconds. However, due to Igneel''s guidance, 220% bes 250%.

    Cool-down : 30 minutes.)

    *screech*

    With Fudonding a bullseye on the [Cursed servant] with the [zing Ray] and high pitch screech sounded from the creature.

    "*sigh* That should do it." heaving a heavy sigh, Fudo plopped down on his butt due to exhaustion from his tense nerves and low mana.

    "Don''t get your hopes up yet. Look." Saying so, Sato pointed over to the burning creature.

    "What the hell?! "

    The [Cursed servant] was releasing huffs an puffs as if it were a wolf after 3 little piggies or a beast that just engaged in intense activities but without the pleasure. The previous smirk was no way to be seen, already long gone. It''s pale disfigured face was almost covered in ck burns with its ck cloak burnt up in separate ces with patches here and there though it''s grimoire was still roughly intact. Together with its eyes that had gone full red like a pair of red beads, the [Cursed servant] looked like an abhorred figure from hell.

    A dark portal that looked like it lead to a world of endless darkness appeared beside it, with two level 3 Dark Ravers walking out of it.

    "Sato. I think he''s angry now." Fudo, who had already scurried over to a safe position, said to Sato, while looking nothing like the brave yer who faced the creature earlier.

    "Don''t worry. It''s my turn now or else the readers might think you''re the MC instead. Just keep the summons away from us ok?"

    "Whatever you say." Lifting his staff once again despite his already low mana, Fudo cast a [Fireball] spell in a timely manner, such that it sted the two summons who were in close proximity to each other, attracting their aggro towards himself.

    "Good luck."

    Immediately, Fudo turned around and left the courtyard leaving behind Sato and the [Cursed servant].

    ''It''s got 73HP left. Compared to its previous HP of 310, its pretty much at itsst leg. However the 15% Main Attribute reduction has been limited to 5% due to it''s [Enraged] state. Once the 8 second duration is over, I doubt whether we could beat it¡­A race against time, this should be fun.'' (AN : [Enraged] state increases Main attributes by 10%. 9 seconds but 1 second has already passed by.)

    Taking out a vial from his bag, Sato opened it and lifted it up to empty the contents into his mouth. Uponing into contact with the vial, his nose wrinkled as the stench wasn''t so pleasing. Once the liquid slid down his throat, his veins bulged with a red sheen as his throat felt a burning sensation. Sato felt so invigorated that he believed he could break a boulder with his bare hands.(AN : Though this author doubts so.)

    [ Diluted Simple Berserk Potion : Simple Grade : 60% Concentration

    Strength +7

    Agility +10

    Dexterity +7

    Vitality +10

    Duration : 10 seconds

    Cool-down : 4 hours]]

    *Pew*

    Taking a step forward, the [Cursed servant] fired a [Pitch crepuscr ray] through its mouth. Unlike the previous one, this [Pitch crepuscr ray] had a dull touch to it with a few white streaks on it. As it moved, all the nts and lifeforms close by began to wither and die at a fast rate.

    Despite witnessing all these fast changes, Sato stood still like an immovable iron wall as he grabbed the hilt of his sword.

    "[Parry]."

    Swinging his sword at full power, Sato shed head on with the ray while executing the Swordsman ss'' signature defensive move.

    *Boom*

    Upon contact, a loud explosive sound was produced but even at that Sato still held his ground, sessfully blocking the attack after which he threw himself at the [Cursed servant] intending to go head to head with it.

    Seeing the human who had initially been running away from it, blocking its attack and rushing towards it, the [Cursed servant] became further infuriated and decided not to go easy on the human any longer.

    Lifting its hands up with the grimoire now floating behind it, the [Cursed servant] almost instantaneously gathered dark mana from it and transformed the mana into a ball in front of it and fired at Sato. At the same time, being a monster with intellect, it noticed that Sato had be stronger than before and concluded to retreat away from him while kiting him, as the weakness of every mage is closebat. (AN: Kite; to attack from a distance, quitemon for archers and mages. Gaming terminology)

    However, thanks to the [ Diluted Simple Berserk potion ], Sato''s agility had outstripped that of the [Cursed servant] and he easily dodged its attacks while steadily closing up the gap between them. And so began a game of cat and mouse.

    With his agility already surpassing that of the [Cursed servant], it only took Sato less than awhile to close up the gap between them. Once he approached a suitable distance, heunched a flurry of attacks at the creature, making its HP drop like water dripping through a tap.

    Making use of the slight interval between his attacks, the [Cursed servant] fired a [Pitch ball] as ast resort. Despite seeing it, Sato bore the brunt of its attack with a grunt after calcting that the damage of the attack would be within an epted range thanks to his increased HP.

    Sato immediately followed up with a sh containing the force of the swordsman signature finisher [Horizontal sh].

    "Arghh!" With a horrified and unwilling scream, the [ Cursed servant] breathed itsst.

    *Huff* *Huff*

    ''A little mistake and I might have been a goner.''

    In the eyes of a third person or possibly a reader, the battle might have seemed easy but to Sato it wasn''t.

    One should remember that the battle was a race against time with 10 seconds on the Potion''s effects and 8 seconds left on the clock after which the [Cursed servant]''s Main attributes would experience a 10% increase. Also the [Cursed servant]''sst ditch effort wasn''t just one to relieve its anger. As a monster with intellect, it noticed that Sato''s increase in strength was temporary otherwise he would have done so before. It also sensed that it''s decrease in attributes was a wearing out slowly. So rather than ast ditch effort, it wanted to create distance between itself and Sato and wait out the Potion and reduction duration. In other words, its n or retreating was actually just to buy time not out of fear.

    But after all said and done, the victor still remains Sato or rather Sky-de.

    ''However, the loot was worth.'' taking a look at his experience bar going beyond the level 2 checkpoint and even passed the level 3 checkpoint, Sato rejoiced. Eventually, it stopped at the 50% mark away from the level 4 checkpoint.

    '' A total of 2 level ups.''

    "Haha, that was a whole lot of exp." Fudo chuckled while walking into the courtyard. Since the [Cursed servant] was dead, it was only right for the summons to disappear, giving Fudo a peace of mind and heart.

    "Why don''t we go look for another but maybe this time, a much higher levelled one?" Fudo enquired even though Sato paid him no heed. This was because his eyes were focused on something more precious and important that also can''t drool over NPC characters.

    "Let''s finally see how bountiful a Rare-Steel chest could be."

    "Hey pay attention. Yeah, yeah. This time this chapter ends with me, Fud- oh... Emperor Wolf."

 Chapter 11 - 9 : Bountiful Booty

    (AN : Great deity just couldn''t help it. I lost to my perverted side¡­There might be a few errors here, specifically punctuation errors. I used a little special app that kinda messed it up)

    "Let''s see how generous a Rare-Steel chest could be ."

    Upon approaching the tform the magic shield automatically deactivated leaving behind the Rare-Steel chest. The chest was coated with a silver colour with strange images depicting ancient heroes and godly weapons carved on it. The surrounding mana naturally gathered towards it, leading to the 2 metre radius around the chest having a high mana density .

    Mana is an essentialponent of the world. Without the existence of Mana, magic spells and incantations are nothing more than gibberish. Even the Ancientnguage which sounds a lot like crap and is normally used in high tier spells depends on Mana otherwise some might think of the Ancients as nothing more than 1 year old kids .

    However mana also has the function of alleviating mental stress depending on its density. As such, a ce with high mana density is always seen as a holynd for yers since learning high-tierbat techniques and spells are easier there. In such ces, casting high tier spells are usually easier since with the presence of a high mana density it bes easier to channel the required mana and needed for such spells.

    '' If I wasn''t in a hurry, I would have taken a break here but this ce isn''t so safe.'' Moving closer to the chest, Sato clicked on the [Unlock] icon, with that a 1 minute timer appeared.

    "I really need to get a subss that can help me with this or I might as well buy unlocking scrolls."

    Even though simple locks don''t require a key or such, with an increase in the chest''s rank the time taken to open such chests increase possibly reaching even two days. Even in chests of simr ranks the unlocking time could vary. However this can be curtailed with certain skills normally avable in sub-sses like [Thief], [Fraudster] or even [Scribe].

    " Fudo, the mana density here is quite high. Come sit over here. Your HP and MP recovery speed should be quite high."

    1 minuteter¡­ (AN : In the voice of that Spongebob narrator..)

    *Ding*

    " Finally it''s done. Let''s see what we''ve got here." Opening the chest, Sato and Fudo were greeted by a bright silver-coloured light. (AN : Dunno whether there''s such but I went ahead with it. Didn''t wanna use a white light.) 3 secondster the light dimmed the down finally letting them see its content.

    " Haha we''re rich. we''re rich !" Looking into the chest and seeing a couple of silver coins, Fudo rejoiced.

    "Take a chill pill first. Money is all that''s in your head."

    Sato began emptying the chest while appraising any equipment or material he saw.

    "Silver Core, Thunder-wood, ck Dawn Steel, Limber steel. This sure isvish. Every single one of these could sell for at least 10 silver coins."

    Of the materials named ck Dawn Steel and Thunder-wood are both 3 star materials.

    At this point in the game, 2 star materials are quite rare though with some luck at the right ce and time, a yer could easily get such. However, 3 star materials and above are of a different case. This is due to the fact that as from the 3 star mark and above, such materials are formed with the aid of mana and other arcane forces as such, they are quite rare. A good example is the 4 star material Void Silver, which can only be found and formed in spacial pockets and void spaces with the aid of a little bit of Nihility energy, Void energy or Void type mana. A simpler example would be the 3 star material ck Dawn Steel, which is formed when metal type and dark type mana flow through the 2 star Dawn Steel ore in a specific flow and ratio. As a result of theplex formation of this materials, they are quite expensive with some being rarer than Rhodium ( AN : One of Earth''s rarest metals) and more expensive than diamond.

    Gaining two such materials together with a couple other 2 star materials at this point in the game, is more than enough reason to celebrate. Apart from that, there was also a piece of cloth armor, te armor, a magic staff, a skill book, 10 silver coins and a weird dark orb.

    "The rewards are a lot, far more than that of a Mortal rank chest."

    " How do you know that?"

    " Earlier on, I found a Mortal rank chest." Sato replied nonchntly.

    "And you didn''t tell me? Tch, and here I was thinking we were friends.So what did you get?"

    "Two of that portion used earlier, the [Diluted Simple Berserk Potion], 3 silver coins and three 2 star materials. Compared to this it was all trash apart from the Berserk potion."

    " And here I was thinking my title as the god of luck was stolen from me " Fudo grinned wide while chuckling.

    "I thought you are the great Emperor pig. "

    "Whad''ya say?"

    "Nothing..."

    Grabbing hold of the equipment, Sato appraised them and sent the details to Fudo.

    [[ck Alder Staff : Upper tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 25

    Forged from the 2 star material, ck Alder wood and enchanted by the Master Scribe Aldeweild as a cheap essory. It is a top ss staff close to rivalling Rare-steel rank weapons despite being a cheap work.

    Requirement : Level 5 || 12 [Intelligence]

    [Magical Attack Power] +20

    [Intelligence] +10

    [Willpower] +3

    Skills :

    Lesser Strengthening : Passive : 5% chance to increase the damage of an attack.

    System description : In the words of Master Scribe Aldeweild, "I am disappointed at my creation." ]]

    [[ Light Mage Garb (Cloth Armor) : Mid Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 33

    Requirement : Level 5 || 5 [Intelligence]

    [Physical Defence] +9

    [Magical Defence] +11

    ]]

    [[ Dawn Steel Armor (te Armor) : Upper Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 40

    Forged by the Hanzou Vignte''s official Forge for its elite guard squadrons.

    Requirements : Level 5 || 12 [Strength]

    [Physical Defence] +22

    [Magical Defence] + 15

    [Endurance] + 2

    [Strength] +4

    System description : The Hanzou guard squadron were really scary in these. ]]

    (AN : Please note, [Willpower] * 1 = [Magical Defence] but [Magical Defence] / 1 [Willpower] Same with the others. Main attributes increase secondary attributes but not the other way around. So secondary attributes can increase irrespective of Main attributes.)

    " A cheap essory made by a master Scribe is this absurd and he''s even disappointed at that?! I wonder what a real weapon would be like then." Fudo was shocked at the appraisal results and details of the equipment.

    "After this we should go get our subss. " Even Sato couldn''t help getting shocked, deciding to get a sub-ss when next he gets to a town.

    " Hey, Sato. Did you get any loot from that monster?"

    "Apart 30 copper coins, a spell book for mages, a little weird chain and the experience, nothing more. I will hand the spell book over to youter, together with 15 copper coins. you should be quite satisfied with what we''ve got already."

    "Yeah yeah I know that."

    After packing up the loot, Sato handed Fudo 6 silver and 50 copper coins together with the ck Alder staff, Light mage garb, the spell book and half of the materials sharing up the rewards from both the Mortal rank chest and Rare-Steel chest.

    Looking at thest remaining [Diluted Simple Berserk Potion], Sato said " It''s best I keep the potion. It has more use for a melee ss than mage ss."

    "I wasn''t going to argue with you there. What do you take me for? Plus I''ve gained more than you have."

    "Alright, you said so yourself." Sato began packing up.

    "What about that chain?" Fudo asked.

    "Don''t get your hopes high, greedy pig. It''s not an essory. Look." After which he sent him the appraisal result.

    [[ Dedicated choker : Mortal Rank

    A choker dedicated in the image of a deity.

    Durability : 12 ]]

    "Garbage. I don''t want it."

    "Wasn''t going to give it to you."

    "Come on, I can get it sold for at least 5 copper coins."

    "Hmph, greedy pig."

    "10 coins, that''s myst."

    "Let''s get going. Pack up quickly."

    "Tch."

    Once they were done they both left the Courtyard and continued to explore the mansion .

    ¡­

    Deep in the forest, a team of eight yers were hurrying forward.

    "Faded, how far are we from the mission site?" A middle-aged man with a deep voice that sounded more like the growl from a beast asked.

    "A little bit, Captain. About 30 more minutes." Unlike the deep dull voice earlier, a pleasant voice like the chirping of a canary in Springtimeing from a young Caucasiandy who looked as beautiful like a snow in winter, unblemished with no ws. Coupled with her ink ck hair, one might find themselvescking in her presence.

    "Captain, you gotta chill. I doubt anyone is there right now." This time it was a young man who seemed easy going that spoke up.

    " We wouldn''t be in such a hurry if you had done your job properly and captured that assassin or at the very least finished him off." The beauty frowned.

    Laughing awkwardly the young man retorted "You can''t me me. Who would have known that the kid was an expert? "

    "Hmph."

    "That''s enough. Even if Manny killed him, there wouldn''t be much of a difference. All we have to do now is to increase our pace as fast as possible before those Guild freaks make it."

    "Yes Captain."

    " Captain, we''ve got a problem. " One of the assassins in the party rushed forward and reported to the middle-aged man. "ording to our informants in town, the guilds have been gone taking the mission with East crow Guild and a couple other third-tier guilds already making moves."

    Frowning the middle-aged man said in the team chat "Everyone speed up. Call the others and order them to slow those guilds down as much as possible.. This mission belongs to us, Sind and no one else."

 Chapter 12 - 10 : A Hole And A Sculpture

    Sind, a high ranking adventurer team for dark yers, rivalling even 2nd tier guilds. Rumors have it that most of their members are real-life criminals and delinquents who are on parole or have recently been released from jail. Despite having such a line-up, Sind has quite a track record in past VR games.

    One such record was their attack on the pinnacle 2nd tier guild Halo''s Dawn, where they sessfully assassinated one of their branch guild leaders. Even though they were eventually tracked and trapped by Halo''s Dawn, they sessfully escaped, making VR gaming history.

    Another of their achievements was the elimination of a pinnacle 3rd tier guild in their VR game Conquest. Even though it''s a known fact that 3rd tier guilds are far weaker than 2nd tier guilds, pinnacle 3rd tier guilds are slightly different story. Most of them are capable of rivalling average 2nd tier guilds having real life sponsors, as such, it is quite difficult to totally eliminate and cripple them in a VR game unless the gap in power is huge. However, Sind had achieved this with their little numbers and seeded. Ever since then, most 2nnd tier guilds steer clear away form them, avoiding confrontations of any sorts unless when imperative.

    Meanwhile¡­

    "Sato, get over here. I''ve found something."

    "Don''t tell me it''s another chest. I know your luck is great but this is absurd."

    "Haha, I wish. Just head over here."

    This time, Fudo was behind the mansion close to were it bordered the mountain range behind it. From a top view, the ghost mansion was featured on a rectangr plot ofnd, mirroring a Victorian styled architecture. Right in front of it was a garden with an open courtyard in between them. Diagonally beside the mansion was a blue coloredke and behind it was a mountain range; Kiro Mountains to be specific.

    "So what did you find this time?"

    "Look over there." Fudo squatted down and pointed his finger at a spot on the ground.

    "Footprints. Monster footprints."

    Squatting down while studying and stroking the footprints, Sato found it familiar.

    "They look familiar, kinda like that of the [Cursed servant]."

    "Exactly, that''s why I called you over."

    Picking himself up, Sato inquired "Did you find where it leads to?"

    "Hehe. Bro do you love me?"

    "..." Sato was taken aback by such a strange question.

    "I''ll take that as a yes. So if you really do, you won''t let me meet a monster like that previous creep, would you?"

    "..."

    "Well I don''t know where it leads. I''d rather die in your arms than die a loner." Fudo stated with an amiable smile like that of Buddha.

    Exasperated, Sato followed the trail while saying "Fine, let''s go."

    Even though Fudo had given a stupid reason he did have a point. If a yer were to die, they would lose 15% of their experience together with a random amount of weapon or equipment. Such a loss if possible to be avoided would be avoided by all means.

    After two minutes of walking, Sato and Fudo discovered a hole barely wide enough to fit 2 people at once.

    Fudo then chuckled evilly "Hehe, you can take the first step, I''ll be right behind you."

    Ignoring Fudo''s silly remarks, Sato stared at the hole in thought.

    "Hey Fudo, are you by any chance with a match stick on you?"

    "..."

    "We need to make your fire, hand it over."

    "Aiya, you really do know me. Here take." Grabbing a matchbox from his pouch, Fudo then gave it to Sato.

    "Of course only a fat pig like you would buy a matchbox to roast monsters." Fudo always had the thought that the greatest VRMMORPG would be one that allows certain features for example eating monsters. As such, he always buys a box of matchsticks or lighters to try and roast and monster he finds.

    Taking the matchbox, Sato gathered some dry branches and tied them together making a torch. Once he lit it, Sato dived into the hole and saw a passage way heading forward.

    Unlike the opening on the surface, the passage way was much wider, about 3 metres in breadth. Due to poor lighting, Sato didn''t know how long the tunnel went. Squatting down to inspect the floor, he discovered that the previous footprints above were nowhere to be seen. However, there were tons of other footprints mixed up. Some resembling human boot-prints and others having only 4 toes.

    "Sato, are you there?"

    Sato replied "Where else would I be? Hurry up and get down here."

    Once he came down, Fudo curiously walked over to a squatting Sato.

    "What did you find?"

    "Look. If I''m right, these boot-prints belong to the mercenaries. So this proves that this tunnel should be the hole the mission introduction mentioned, but this is weird. The original prints we were tracking are gone and reced with these creepy 4-toed footprints. From the number here, I guess there were a lot of them."

    "You''re right, but from the looks of things there was no battle here. So that leaves us with three options; either these footprints were made at different time intervals or whatever creature that''s here is harmless and finally, the mercenaries surrendered without a battle. But I''m more inclined to believe the first one. As for a much stronger creature, the Kingdom''s defenses aren''t sox to let that be."

    Normally, a kingdom''s military divisions go on a yearly or so clean-up operation round the kingdom, reducing the poption of monsters and eliminating any dangerous entities they might encounter. ( AN : Apparently, it seems Fudo might have read this in the library.)

    Nodding, Sato acquiesced " Indeed. There are no blood trails or battle marks here and even if the monsters are harmless, I doubt the mercenaries won''t attack."

    Monsters in Infinite Realm are actually the evolution of certain species with the interaction of mana involved. As such, almost every monster has a use. Be it monster fangs, teeth, fur or even blood, they are all quite valuable and useful. Coupled that with a mercenary''s greedy personality, even a harmless monster would be captured or killed for profit. As such, most monsters dwell away from human settlements.

    "Let''s move on." standing up, Sato moved towards the passage way, trailing the boot-prints earlier sited.

    "Hmm?, What''s that?" Fudo walked curiously at the passage walls. Surprisingly, there were scribbles on the wall looking quite like hieroglyphics and more like a 3 year old''s artwork.

    "Hehe, it''s at times like this I recall how good of an artist Hayami is." Fudo chuckled.

    "One more word and we might find out whether you could go tongue-less in the game." Sato stared grimly at Fudo.

    Lifting his hands in capittion, Fudo acquiesced "Alright, alright. I give up, you know I was just joking. Geez!"

    ''What a siscon''

    "I doubt we''d find any clues with these doodle works. We might as well move forward, right?" Fudo asked.

    Sato nodded "You''re right."

    As they were moving forward, Fudo opened up the forums through the system panel. After scrolling through for a while, he sighed "It''s been 4 hours since the game started and we''re still level 3 while most yers are closing in on level 4 with the experts aiming for level 5."

    "What are you worrying for?" Sato said "After we''re done here, it isn''t toote to go levelling up and I have a feeling we''re gonna see a lot of monsters very soon."

    "Yeah, you might be right. Hmm, light?!" Fudo was initially nodding but ended up surprised by what he saw. A stone-throw away from their position was a hall brightened up by a light source.

    "Looks like we''ve finally made it to the end. We have to be careful as from here on."

    Walking steadily and quietly, Sato and Fudo made it to the light source.

    "Hmm, this is..."

    Rather than the blue sky and lush green forestry one would expect, what stood in front of them was actually a huge wall with many openings looking quite like a bee hive.

    The source of the light was a white huge hexagonal gem centered on the wall and held in ce at it''s vertices by a y like substance.

    "Uwaa!! Another tunnel?!" Looking at the beehive wall, Fudo cried in a low voice.

    "If I''m correct then that should be the monster the mercenaries encountered." Sato pointed over to the side.

    "Huh?" Tracing his finger, Fudo saw a 5 metre tall statue close to the beehive wall.

    The statue pictured the image of a weird looking creature with two 4-toed feet. With an angr head, wrinkled face, a grotesque physique and a barbarian styled skirt, the statue really couldn''t be described as ''pretty''. However, a notable fact was that the sculptmanship used on the statue was quite impressive though it was still rigid at certain ces making it look like a being in a PS2. (AN : ...)

    "Is that a green goblin?"

 Chapter 13 - 11 : What Lies Underneath

    " Captain, our scouts reported getting ambushed a couple of yards away from us." A level 4 Pdin garbed in ck colored Mid tier Mortal ss full body equipment while unconsciously releasing a mighty aura like a mountain, disclosed to a Level 4 Berserker.

    Looking carefully at him, one would notice that the armorpliments his boots, gauntlets and helmet, seeming as if they were all forged from the same material. The armor was graced with red stripes, entwining at certain points giving it an artistic touch and an impressive design. It was actually the custom set equipment for Pdins, easily essible in high ss NPC stores in Towns at ck Rock city. (AN : Riverdale and ck Rock Town are both under ck Rock City).

    Even though the set equipment is said to be easily essible, that however is on the condition that a yer has the required funds. At a whooping 15 silver coins, the set equipment has only been seen in the hands of big guilds, adventurer groups and few highly skilled solo yers.

    Despite it''s high price, the armor was well worth it''s weight in silver as it also came with a weapon of the yer''s choice, though it was the same rank as the set equipment. But even so, Mid tier Mortal ss equipment are not somon with most yers still using Low tier Mortal ss weapons or even their novice weapons such, the ck Crimson Set equipment was the dream of every Pdin at this stage of the game.

    "Who were the ambushers?" The Berserker furrowed his brows.

    "From their offline messages, they imed it was Sind."

    "Hehe." All of a sudden, the surrounding temperature dropped a notch with all the yers close-by feeling a creepy chill crawling in their bones with a hint of blood aura in the air.

    "Those little kids think they can y with me, hehe."

    "Oi, Little Song, what''s wrong?" A Level 5 Ranger walked over. Ignoring his high level and awesome equipment, one would notice that he didn''t exude any aura whatsoever. Apart from his slightly above average looks, if you were to dump him in a crowd of people, you might not even notice him.

    "Hmmph. It''s nothing; just a bunch of little kids who are eager to meet their grandfather." Upon seeing the youth, fear shed by his eyes but Little Song managed to hide it while he reined in his aura.

    "A bunch of kids you say? Send me their approximate locations, I''ll handle it." The youth replied as if the tribtion being faced by his guild-mates was a walk in the park for him a problem.

    Licking his lips while walking away, he continued "It''s been a while since I''ve had some fun."

    Despite his carefree manner, none of the members of East Crow guild dared chastise him. This was because he was Dream Tiger, the current 3rd strongest and the yer with the most potential in entire East Crow Guild.

    "A storm ising¡­"

    ¡­

    "So the monster we really ought to kill is a goblin?" Staring at the 5 meter goblin statue, Fudo asked with a weird look on his face.

    Despite having a high reproduction rate, most goblins are known to be weak in nature. With a short stature, a little above average vitality and a physique not so better than an average adult, goblins are one of the creatures hunted even by the local hunting squads as practice targets. But that is simply on the condition that it''s a single one. In a group of 5, it isn''t impossible for a Level 3 goblin to take down a Level 4 yer.

    Looking at the beehive like structure, Sato said "Looking at this structure, I''m pretty sure that it''s a horde. If that''s the case then the mission goal should most likely be a boss type monster."

    "Supposing you''re right, that means we would have to battle a horde of at least 50 goblins between Level 3-4, consisting of a bunch of closebat and possibly long range goblins and finally face a boss with a possible Level of 5 or 6. Why does this feel more like dungeon than a mission? And here I was thinking my luck was awesome. This feels more like suicide mission than an adventure. Uwaaaa! I wantpensation,this isn''t the adventure I was expecting. Dreand!!! " (An: Dreand Corporation are the makers of Infinite Realm.)

    Ignoring Fudo''s ludicrous conducts, Sato began heading towards the closest tunnel in the beehive structure. Due to the poor lighting in the area, the depths of the tunnel couldn''t be made out; only a grim atmosphere with an eerie silence could be seen.

    "Where are you going?" Fudo walked up to Sato.

    With his back facing Fudo, Sato replied "Rather than standing here without a goal, we might as well explore the area and scout the structures for our next visit."

    "Next visit?" Puzzled, Fudo inquired.

    "You don''t actually think we canplete this mission now do you?" This time, Sato faced Fudo. "There''s most likely a mob down there. Recalling the fact that we have neither a healer ss yer with us nor an ample amount of potions or consumables for a mob, we pretty much can''tplete the mission any time soon, but that doesn''t mean we should just leave empty handed. Next best thing left to do is to scout the area. Who knows, we might find a duck carrying a leek." (AN : Japanese proverb on being lucky)

    "Alright. So which tunnel do we start with?" Fudo stared at the dozens of tunnel entrances excavated on the wall. "Rock-paper-scissors, musical chairs or we pick a number?"

    " Whatever pleases you." Sato sighed while trying to recall how he ended up with such a guy as a friend.

    Eventually, Fudo decided on tunnel entrance at the right side of the lowest level of the wall which was also the tunnel Sato initially headed to. Walking towards the tunnel, they noticed that at the lower center of the wall was a terribly drawn mural. Due to it''s not so big size and the the thickness of the drawing being light, they didn''t notice it initially. The mural was painted on the wall with a dark theme and there were some irregr patterns also sketched besides it looking like a weirdnguage of sorts.

    One of the figures painted on the mural was a hooded creep who held a grimoire with a huge dark coloured ball, that seemed like the darker version of the sun, behind him. In the ''dark sun'', a figure could be faintly seen, however none of its features could be made out.

    Fudo pointed at the figure on the mural and asked, "Hey Sato, don''t you think this dude looks a lot like the cursed servant we saw?"

    "Kinda, however that guy didn''t have any hood on. They might be the same but they might be different." Sato replied.

    "Doesn''t that mean that if we keep exploring we might encounter another one?" Fudo asked nervously.

    " Nope." Sato smiled, " This one might be way stronger."

    Fudo''s face twitched.

    Sato then said, "Looking at the style of the mural, I''m guessing that whoever made this was trying to say that the figure in the ''dark sun'' is an extremely powerful being probably even a god and that hooded figure is most likely an emissary of his or even his incarnation."

    " It doesn''t make sense for a god''s incarnation to be dealing with weak goblins so it''s most likely an emissary or something." Fudo pointed out.

    " Precisely, but even so, the emissary shouldn''t be so weak. Probably between level 10-15 or maybe more. It''s even possible for the [Cursed servant] to have been an assistant or even a rtion to it. "

    " For such a high levelled creature to be here, this is so unfair." Fudo cried out.

    "Is it possible for that choker we got earlier to be rted to this ''dark sun''?"

    "I''ve already considered that however the difference is quiterge." After which Sato brought out the choker once again from his inventory.

    [[ Dedicated choker : Low Tier Mortal Rank

    A choker with dedicated in the image of a deity.

    Durability : 12 ]]

    Sato then said "Apart from being a ranked essory, there''s nothing special about it."

    "I think it''s better we find an appraiser back in town. I get the feeling this stuff ain''t simple." Fudo suggested.

    "I also get that feeling but before we can do that, we have to be done here first." Sato then sighed, " This mission''s waters run quite deep. I doubt it''s as simple as it stated. Most likely once we investigate deeper we might receive a new mission or even a quest."

    In Infinite Realm, yers can receive missions or quests. The difference being that most quests are usually difficult and time-bound and take a lot of time and energy toplete. But that doesn''t mean that a time-bound and difficult mission doesn''t exist. Even with that, quests are dly epted since they give a considerable amount of rewards even better than most missions.

    " I hope not. I''ve just started and haven''t explored enough yet. I don''t have the time to be running around looking for clues."

    While they were studying the murals, Sato heard light and indistinct footsteps.

    *tap, tap*

    " Hmm, someone''sing."

 Chapter 14 - 12 : Escape

    *Tap, tap*

    " Hmm, someone''sing."

    " Let''s hide." Almost immediately, Fudo dashed towards the 5 meter statue but was held back by Sato.

    " What? I thought you said someone''sing?"

    " Indeed, but I think it''s best we confront it. It''s most likely the guard of this ce so we might as well deal with it and try to get more information. Both of us hiding won''t do good, because we''ve already left behind footprints and trails. I''ll get it''s attention while you get a good spot for an ambush okay?"

    "Alright." After that, Sato let go of Fudo and kept his attention back on the mural as if he never noticed anything while Fudo got into position at spot blocked off from the gem''s light.

    A few secondster, as Sato predicted, a 3 foot creature appeared out from the tunnel Sato and Fudo came from. It had a lithe figure and was garbed in animal skin clothing with pouch by its side with a slingshot sticking out from it. With green coloured skin andrge bulging eyes It held a crude looking dagger of sorts, sized perfectly for it''s use.

    [[ Goblin Scout ( Elite)

    Level : 3

    HP : 250

    Physical Attack Power : 12

    Magical Attack Power : 0 [1]

    Physical Defence : 7

    Magical Defence : 1

    Attack Speed : 18

    Movement Speed : 14

    Attributes

    Strength : 4

    Endurance : 7

    Vitality : 25

    Agility : 7

    Dexterity : 6

    Intelligence : 3

    Willpower : 1

    Skills

    Greater Vision : Passive skill : Eye prowess increased in bright areas. Capable of seeing objects in the dark.

    Quick shots : Active skill : Increase attack speed by 15%.

    Cool-down : 4 seconds

    Cowardly steps : Active skill : Quickly retreats upon encountering a stronger foe increasing movement speed by 20% for 6 seconds.

    Cool-down : 15 seconds]]

    It approached Sato as steadily and silently as possible as if it already knew there was an outsider in it''s base however it wasn''t aware that despite it''s movement Sato could easily notice it a 100 metres away. While walking, it grinned widely as if mocking it''s target for his stupidity of dropping his guard in a foreign environment.

    Once it was 3 meters away from Sato, the goblin lifted it''s club up and took on a dashing posture, sprinting towards Sato with full force. However, Fudo who had long been charging his attack, quicklyunched a fireball towards the goblin.

    *Arghhh* (AN : Scream it in an inhuman fashion¡­)

    -27 [Greater Fireball] (Goblin Scout 223/250 HP)

    The [Goblin scout]''s charge was disrupted by the attack from Fudo,unching it into the air and spacing it from Sato. Seizing the opportunity, Sato unsheathed his sword and rushed towards the lithe creature, shing his sword at it.

    Because of the interruption from Fudo, the goblin who couldn''tplete its attack, being in air, couldn''t dodge Sato''s attack and got hit.

    -19 (204/250)

    "Haa !" Afternding a strike, Sato didn''t give any chance for the goblin as hended sh after sh on it trying his best to finish it off quickly.

    -22 [Chop]

    -18

    -19 (145/250)

    Even though his movements seemed wless, Sato couldn''t keep it up as the goblin, who had alreadynded, realised that it couldn''t escape its doom and as such, dropped all pretenses and lurched itself towards Sato intending to trade blow for blow.

    Seeing this, Sato took a step back separating himself from the goblin scout. The goblin scout seeing hope, tried to dash away from Sato. After experiencing his strength and knowing it can''t win against him even more so in a 2-on-1, the goblin evidently went for a retreat without hesitation after all it was only a scout. However, that hope got crushed by Fudo''s [Fireball] spell like the love confession of a 15 year old nerd to the most popr girl in high-school.

    -23 [Fireball] (122/250 Goblin''s HP)

    With Igneel''s guidance, Fudo was capable of standing up to the level 5 [Cursed servant] and delivering a considerable amount of damage while he was still a level 1 Elementalist (AN : Even though the[Cursed servant] was weak against fire type spells) talk less of a level 3 [Goblin scout] who he happens to be in the same level with. The end result was the goblin and its weapon sted to two separate positions.

    With the distraction from the [Fireball] spell, Sato rushed forward to close up the gap and finish of the [Goblin scout] who couldn''t respond to his attack. By the time the [Goblin scout] noticed Sato approaching, it couldn''t dodge his attack neither could it block it since it''s weapon was long gone.

    "Grawr !!! "

    Finally realising that it can''t escape the loop set up by its opponents, the [Goblin scout] gave up retreating and released a hoarse scream from it''s mouth, that held a tinge of desperation and anxiety while charging forward towards Sato.

    "Hmph." Even though Sato was slightly taken aback, he still went on with his actions. They say a rabbit once pushed to a corner would end up biting back, but in the end, a rabbit is still a rabbit. Despite the [Goblin scout]''s attempt at fighting back, it still ended up dead in the hands of the precise teamwork and timing from Sato and Fudo before it could say itsst words.

    "That was easy." Fudo said while waiting for Sato to finish packing up the loot.

    "What would you expect, considering we were at a numbers advantage?"

    "Even still it was quite weak." Fudo grumbled.

    Sato sighed "You''re right. But that''s how a low level monsters ought to be. Remember the game has just begun. You shouldn''t be expecting high levelled monsters of intellect this soon. The [ Cursed servant] might have just been our luck."

    Being recentlyunched with all 100% of its users low levelled, the Heaven system (AN : AI that serves as the Game master/manager, controlling every system and feature in the background) spawned all yers into beginner towns that hardly experiences attacks from high levelled creatures. This gives the yers space and time for growth, stably increasing their levels till they are strong enough to stay on their own and explore the vast world. As a world on its own, Infinite realm possesses both a past, present and also a future that functions even in the absence of yers and can also deviate in the presence of yers.[2]

    "Grwar !! " "Grawr !!" (An : They aren''t spelt wrongly. Inhuman pronunciations¡­)

    Apanied with the weird loud screams and roars were loud footstepsing from the ''bee-hive''.

    "...So that''s why it screamed." Sato gained enlightenment on the [Goblin scout]''sst words.

    "Can we run now?" Fudo asked worriedly almost unable to keep his cool.

    "Run !"

    They both dashed at top speed with Fudo casting spells intermittently at close range tounch himself into the air and surprisingly, despite his quite fat physique, he actuallynded perfectly almost worthy of a medal in the Olympics Gymnastics

    Eventually, the footsteps began to sound closer as they approached the entrance hole. The hole was at a height of 2 metres. Due to his higher [Agility] stat, Sato arrived before Fudo and took a huge leap towards the top while jumping side by side on the walls of the hole like a pro Traceur (AN : Parkour practitioner.)

    Fudo on the other hand, had earlier been gathering mana and upon approaching directly beneath the entrance, he cast a [Greater Fireball] underneath himself, propelling his body upwards. Sato seeing the propelled Fudo, kicked him sideways, deviating his body fromnding back into the hole.

    "You could have done that easier."

    Comining, Fudo stood up and was about to keep running but Sato stopped him, saying "Someone''sing."

    "F**cking hell, why does someone always keeping."

    Author'' extra notes : Really important

    [1] I think I''ve mentioned that it''s possible for monster to possess stats in the [Intelligence] section but can''t use magic. If I haven''t, well I have now. Think of it like how a physical ss yer, like a berserker for example, would put his attribute points in [Intelligence]. That doesn''t mean he can now cast spells. It''s only possible if he learns a spell,the same with monsters. In summary, a creature could have stats in [Intelligence] but because they can''t use magic, [Magical Attack power] bes nil though not in all cases.

    The [Intelligence] stats mostly increases the intelligence of a creature. So the higher the [Intelligence] the smarter a monster is meant to be but that doesn''t apply everywhere. It''s still possible for a high levelled goblin mage to still be dumber than a low levelled creature with intellect. Kinda like how some old people could still be foolish despite their age, no offense to anyone...In other words, there''s a limit to the rate of increase in intelligence or smarts and this is dependent on the creature''s race and the creature itself.

    Note : Even if a physical ss learns spells that aren''t meant for his/her ss, his/her attack power, casting speed and affinity with the required mana would be drastically lowpared to a bona fide mage. How drastic you ask? Like -90% drastic. So putting your attribute points in {Intelligence] when you''re a physical ss is quite dumb unless you are a higher levelled yer. At that point, you can ess spells for physical sses like a ming sh or something. So be wise, don''t be a nk.

    [2] Let''s say originally the storyline was for the hero to kill the demon king and after which, world peace but a yer steps in and then boom, he murders the hero, the storyline would now experience a change of the demon king conquering the world unless someone else stops him.. The Heaven System doesn''t force it''s storyline into the world, yers can change it if they want to.

 Chapter 15 - 13 : Encountering Sinland

    "Captain, it seems like someone else has been here before us." The assassin who previously reported about the other guilds making moves on the mission once again reported to the middle aged man after he had scouted the ce out.

    It had been a little bit above 30 minutes since Sato and Fudo had defeated the [Cursed servant]. During this time, Sind had moved over at quite a high speed, reaching the Ghost mansion before any other guild.

    Same as Sato and Fudo, they were suspicious of the clean and organized environment, wondering whether this building was actually abandoned or not. Before entering, their captain had ordered them to scout the area after which the assassin had discovered the battle scene between Sato and Fudo and the [Cursed servant]. The entire party then headed over to the site.

    Upon approaching the courtyard, the party''s druid, Riddled Tree, said "This ce reeks of a stifling and eerie kind of mana. It gives me a purging feeling."

    Being a mage, Riddled Tree had quite a high affinity to mana whenpared to Physical sses and being a druid, he had an even higher sensitivity to mana whenpared to other mages apart from Elementalists.

    In Infinite Realm, all mage type sses are capable of sensing mana but their sensitivity to mana differs. Elementalists, since they possess the ability to harness a particr form of mana, actually have high mana-sensitive senses as this allows them to be able to freely control the mana of their choice. As such, there are various types of elementalists.

    Next in line are Druids, who possess a very high affinity towards nature type mana and as such are able to notice changes made by foreign mana, in an area''s mana density and form. It is believed that at a very high level, druid can be awesome trackers having the ability to notice where their prey has been by tracking the dissociation of mana that their prey causes in a still environment.[1] This was a specialty of theirs that not even the elementalists could copy apart from some special cases.

    "...Dark mana or is it demonic energy?" Manny, the swordsman who had a little argument with Faded wings before, asked.

    "I don''t know. I haven''t experienced any of them before in Infinite Realm. But it feels a little simr to Eye''s mana" Riddled Tree shook his head. Cursed Eye was the team''s cursemancer who was also with them at the moment.

    Due to the various productions of VRMMORPGs, their elements and features also differ. For example, in Conquest, a previous most popr VRMMORPG, dark mana has a gloomy feeling while demonic energy has a stifling and muddy feeling to it. But since Infinite Realm has recently begun, Riddled Tree hasn''t been able to experience any of the various forms of mana except the major ones.(AN : Water, Fire, Earth, Wood, Light¡­ I hope there''s no book that has a VRMMORPG named Conquest. I don''t want any trouble¡­)

    "Everyone, prepare forbat. Riddled, what other mana can you sense?" The middle aged Captain asked.

    "I was only able to sense that energy previously because it was my first time experiencing it and I can feel some of it''s remnants in those rubble." Riddled Tree pointed over to the rubble that was formed from the [Cursed servant]''s [Pitch crepuscr ray]. " However, I feel a slight trace of fire element though I''m not so sure as to whether it was originally here or not."

    Normally, Riddled Tree wouldn''t have been able to sense Fudo''s fire elements since it had been quite sometime since he used it. However, the attack power and momentum of his attacks were so great for a level 1 yer that little remnants were left behind, enough for an elite level 4 druid like Riddled Tree to barely sense it. But even at that, due to the 15% increase in Fire element affinity Riddled Tree''s sense were quite distorted leading to him not being sure if the Fire elements he sensed were originally present or foreign.( AN : So apart from increasing attack power, now you know what affinity does for a yer.)

    "It''s better safe than sorry. Can you track it?" The captain asked.

    Riddled Tree smiled wryly "Captain, I just said that I can barely sense it such that I''m not even sure it exists. Tracking it would literally be as impossible as tracking an ant''s tracks."

    " Everyone keep your guards up. Whether he''s right or wrong, it doesn''t deny the fact that there was a battle here. Faded."

    "Yes, captain." The ck haired Caucasian beauty answered.

    "Take Rock with you and check behind the mansion. Devis, you head over to the entrance and stop anyone from leaving. The rest of with you are with me. Let''s go."

    Rock was the party''s Pdin, second only to their main MT (Main Tank), Guardian Block (AN : Guardian is his ss, Block is his name. Yeah, I ran out of names¡­haha¡­). Devis was the assassin who reported earlier to the captain.

    ¡­

    It happened to be when Faded wings and Rock approached the backyard of the mansion that they encountered Sato and Fudo escaping.

    "Who are you?" Rock asked them with a deep voice and a serious face.

    "Who are you?" Fudo jokingly mimicked him.

    "...I asked first." Rock replied.

    "I asked second."

    "..."

    Meanwhile, Faded wings, who happened to be in stealth the entire time was about to contact the others when she heard Sato say "Come out. I know you''re here."

    ''Impossible. I used [Fade]. He shouldn''t be able to sense my aura.''

    [[ Fade : Disappear from sight and erase aura for 30 seconds.

    Cool-down: 10 seconds]]

    ''Looks like I was right.'' Seeing the reaction on the Pdin''s face, Sato smiled and stared at a spot while saying out loud as if addressing an invisible creature " You really should learn manners and stop hiding when facing a guest."

    A few secondster, Faded wings deactivated her skill appearing right infront of Sato.

    "How did you find me?" Faded wings asked.

    "I''m sorry. Fudo !!" Sato dashed towards the Kiro mountain range while throwing hisst [sh grenade]. ( AN : Might bete but the [sh grenades] they have been using was provided by Fudo)

    "Right behind you." Exactly as he stated, Fudo was running right behind him. Immediately after the sh went off, he turned back and fired a [Fireball] at Faded wings due to the fact that she being an assassin was the only one capable of catching up to them.

    Initially surprised at their actions, Faded wings was actually able to shut her eyes before the [sh grenade[ erupted however, since Fudo''s [Fireball] made timely use of the abrupt sh, she wasn''t able to dodge it and tried to block it. But since she did so in an untimely manner, she ended up be pushed back and received damage.

    Recovering from the attack, she faced her assants who happened to have already gone quite a distance away. With that she gave up pursuing them and reported what had urred to her captain, retaining the fact that she had seen them escape and recing it with being affected by the sh and attacked immediately by an elementalist.

    "Captain, why do you think they were running?" Faded asked in the audiomunication.

    "Considering the strategy and tactic they just applied, I''d say they were experts. They most likely guessed you were with a group and so retreated. If I''m correct they must have gained something already. It''s also possible they might be running from something, so be careful ok?¡­Faded, Faded do you hear me?"

    "Yeah, I do. I think I might know what they were running from."

    "What is it?" The captain asked worriedly.

    " A horde¡­"

    After that the call got caught and Faded wings'' together with Rock, the Pdin''s life signatures went gray in the Party interface, signifying their deaths.

    AN :

    [1] This would be very hard to exin. When you ce a drop of oil into a bucket of water, the oil is easily noticed (won''t exin why). Now the bucket of water without the oil is equivalent to an area of field, the oil is a foreign mana. Once foreign mana steps into an area, it doesn''t blend in since it never belonged there. High levelled Druids are able to sense foreign mana in an environment due to their affinity with Life, Nature/wood type mana, the same way you can see an oil droplet in water. It is obviously clear to them since it never belonged there and yers especially mages are containers of mana but due to their low level, the mana leaks off , discing the environment and leaving behind foreign mana but because it is so minute they hardly notice it.. This is what Druids use to track a person.

 Chapter 16 - 14 : Back To Town

    "Hahaha. That was fun. Let''s try that again."

    "Unless, you really wanna die this time then be my guest." With that, Fudo got silenced while Sato recalled the events that had earlier yed out.

    Once Sato and Fudo had distracted Faded wings and Rock, and escaped to a not so far distance, they heard a somewhat loud explosion as the initial less than a meter wide hole erged up to be a crater of 8 meters width ( AN : Because the explosion wasn''t so loud coupled with the grandness of the mansion, the other Sind members didn''t hear themotion.). Immediately after, a horde of goblins numbering between 40-55 goblins emerged from the crater, with more even appearing, and rushed towards Faded wings and Rock who happened to be the first group they sighted.

    Once they saw the horde, they both received a System notification;

    [[ The Goblins'' Invasion (Series)

    Quest rating : S

    Intro : The goblins have always been waging war against humans, slowly trying to acquire more territory from them. As a result of the greed from both sides for morend and resources, the mes of war has been ever-burning, reeking havoc to both sides with no final victor decided.

    1st Chapter :

    You have discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. Report to the City Lord, Patrol General, Town Chief or anyone of suitable/equivalent rank about this. Once epted, further missions pertaining to this quest can''t be rejected.

    Reward : 3 bars of Star Gold, 1 Silver Core and 20 Silver coins.

    Time Limit : 3 hours

    Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

    Loss of 5 levels with reduction of experience gained by 50% for 2 months

    Rtionship level with human forces at [Unforgivable]

    System : ept/Decline

    ]]

    For a simple quest, the rewards of the first stage were a little too surplus but who would reject good things but the penalties were quite severe.

    Rtionship levels in Infinite Realm are divided into; [Unforgivable, hatred/Enemy, Dislike, Neutral, Acquaintance, Friends, Trusted and Revered] and each level requires a lot of rtionship points to reach. These can be gained by associating friendly with the various characters.

    To be rated at [Unforgivable] with all human forces typically means that there is almost no where to go to and that such an ount is messed up. Add that to the 50% deduction in experience gained penalty and you get a totally useless gaming ount. As such, the decision to take such quest has to be properly thought out considering that as an ''S'' rated Quest, further levels would end up quite difficult.

    Sato and Fudo were indeed shocked to discover they had received a mission just from seeing such a sight but they none the less epted it. After all, if they seed, the rewards are amazing. But this doesn''t mean that they were conquered by their greed because they both thought it out and agreed since the point of their ying games is to improve at any possible rate and opportunity.

    The assassin, Faded wings, and the Pdin, Rock, were both surprised by the midget sized creatures that rushed towards them, failing to react in time. Due to the sheer intensity of the goblins'' charge and numbers, that very tiny dy in reacting enabled the goblins to catch up to them, as the distance between the two groups wasn''t more than 7 metres. This ended up leading to their inevitable death as no matter how much they tried to retaliate, there were more goblins to fill in the gap.

    While most of the goblins faced Faded wings and Rock, a few of them particrly the scouts, due to their passive skill [Greater vision]. Then about 10 of them headed their way with the remaining others invading the mansion.

    Initially, Sato and Fudo had nned to kite these monsters however, Fudo sensed an huge amount of gloomy mana far more than that of the [Cursed servant] by probably a 100 times or more, brewing in the crater and steadilying up.

    Alerting Sato, they both ran further away without turning back, until they were at least 2km away from the site. But because they had been kiting some of the goblins they were able to level up once more, now rivalling most mainstream yers.

    "So what do we do now?" Fudo asked while distributing his free attribute points. Earlier while they were resting after their battle with the [Cursed servant], Fudo and Sato had also distributed their attribute points and now they have levelled up, they both distributed it once more.

    "Of course we go to town." Pulling up the System map, Sato said " Riverdale Town is closer and considering it''s also a Primary town, that''s our target."

    As a primary town, Riverdale town had all the features ck Rock town possessed, including a smithy and a medium sized merchant shop.

    "Do you think it''s possible those guys survived down there." Fudo was referring to Faded wings and Rock. " I mean if they really came with a group as we suspected, if their numbers wererge enough they might actually pull it off and probably y whatever was down there. Just imagine the rewards they could get."

    Sato sighed "Our levels are still low and whatever it was that revealed itself has to be at least level 20. No yer can survive that now no matter what. Even if they came in a group as we earlier suspected or even arger one, they would all still die. The producers did mention that every ten levels is a qualitative change in strength especially for monsters and that''s at least two whole improvements.

    Forget about that for now. We might have escaped this time with luck but who knows what would happen next time if we dare head back there. We will eventually go back but before that we need to stock up on consumables and at least sell or convert these materials we''ve gained into something usable before we can consider exploring whatever it was down there."

    "Alright." Fudo nodded.

    "Hmm, it sems that it would still take us sometime, about 20 minutes, back to town. Let''s hurry up. The game has been up for at least 4 hours and 10 minutes (In-Game-Time). That leaves us with around 8 more hours."

    "From what I know, getting a sub-ss won''t be easy more so improving it and we still have to level up." Fudo sighed exasperatedly.

    "That''s why we have to hurry up."

    . . .

    Back at the Ghost mansion, right when Faded wings wasmunicating with the Captain of Sind.

    The Captain of Sind together with druid, Riddled Tree, cursemancer Cursed Eye, swordsman Manny and guardian Block were moving together and exploring the Mansion when the captain received an audio call from Faded wings.

    "Faded, what''s wrong? Did you find anything?" The deep pitched voice resounded once again from the vocal cords of the Captain.

    "Yes Captain. We encountered two yers, an elementalist and a swordsman. However as Rock was interrogating them to make an opening for me, one of them noticed me and I was forced out of stealth."

    "...and?" the Captain asked anxiously.

    "Before we could react, they ambushed us with a sh grenade and retreated." Faded wings answered with a small voice knowing that the Captain would already angry.

    "...HOW DID A BUNCH OF LOSERS GET THE BEST OUT OF YOU EH? ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS HANDLE A SWORDSMAN AND AN ELEMENTALIST AND YOU TELLING ME THEY GOT THE BEST OUT OF YOU BOTH?¡­"

    Because the Captain set the audio receival mode to public, everyone was able to hear him screaming[1].

    "Captain''s angry." Manny chuckled softly and silently.

    "Shut up." Riddled Tree snapped back.

    "*sigh* Forget about it. Once you''re back, you will receive your punishment. What''s done is done. As long as you remember how they look like then there''s not much of a problem. They can''t escape us forever." Eventually the Captain lowered his voice realising that the event couldn''t be undone.

    "...Captain, why do you think they were running?" After hesitating for awhile Faded wings asked in the audiomunication.

    "Considering the strategy and tactic they just applied, I''d say they were experts. They most likely guessed you were with a group and so retreated. If I''m correct they must have gained something already. It''s also possible they might be running from something, so be careful ok?¡­Faded, Faded do you hear me?" Expecting a response after his statement, the Captain was perplexed as to why he didn''t receive a response, unable to grasp what had happened.

    On the other side, Faded wings was staring at a newly formed crater from which tons of goblins emerged, rushing towards them ignoring the System notification she had just received. Because she had set the call receival mode to public, their captain couldn''t hear themotion.

    "Yeah, I do." She said while taking a battling stance "I think I might know what they were running from."

    "What is it?" The Captain was surprised¡­

    " A horde¡­" After saying so, she, together with rock were drowned in the somewhat unending wave of goblins.

    A few secondster, Riddled Tree sensed something and said "Captain, I sense that mana from a earlier but this one seems darker and maybe more stronger." He hesitated before putting in "I think this one is far stronger than we can handle."

    "*sigh* Prepare to head out. We wille back when we are prep-" Before the Captain could finish his words, he was interrupted by a loud noise.

    "Kraa"

    "What was that?"

    AN :

    [[ Name : Emperor Wolf

    Race : Human

    Bloodline : Chosen Ones

    Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Level : 4

    HP : 110

    Heritage/Legacy :

    ss (Job) : Elementalist (Mage)

    Subss : N/A

    Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Current location : Kiro Mountains, ck Rock City

    Attributes

    Strength : 3

    Endurance : 7

    Vitality : 11

    Agility : 4

    Dexterity : 5

    Intelligence : 9

    Willpower : 3

    Physical Attack Power : 9

    Magical Attack Power : 27

    Physical Defence : 7

    Magical Defence : 3

    Attack Speed : 15

    Movement Speed : 8

    Free Attribute Point : 0

    Free Potential point : 1

    Skills :

    Mana ball : Fire a mana ball with 100% damage.

    Cool-down : 3 seconds

    Fireball : Active Skill : Cast a fireball with 100% damage.

    Cool-down : 1 seconds

    Greater Fireball : Active Skill : Use 5 seconds to increase the Fireball spell by an additional 20% damage

    Cool-down : 15 seconds. ]]

    [[ Name : Sky de

    Race : Human

    Bloodline : Chosen Ones

    Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Level : 4

    HP : 110

    Heritage/Legacy :

    ss (Job) : Swordsman (Warrior)

    Subss : N/A

    Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Current location : Kiro Mountains, ck Rock City

    Attributes

    Strength : 9

    Endurance : 7

    Vitality : 11

    Agility : 6

    Dexterity : 5

    Intelligence : 1

    Willpower : 3

    Physical Attack Power : 27

    Magical Attack Power : 3

    Physical Defence : 7

    Magical Defence : 3

    Attack Speed : 15

    Movement Speed : 12

    Free Attribute Point : 0

    Free Potential point : 1

    Skills :

    Chop : Active Skill : Launch a heavy strike with full force, causing additional 20% damage. Cool-down : 10 seconds

    Horizontal Swipe : Active Skill : Release a horizontal positioned attack wielding an additional 40% attack power.. Cool-down : 15 seconds. ]]

 Chapter 17 - 15 : An Encounter In Riverdale Town

    AN : It''s been awhile people. Sorry for thete upload.)

    "Looking for an MT ss to go levelling at Letion ins. Level 2 MTs are eptable but Level 3 yers are more than weed."

    "Party with a level 3 assassin, level 2 cleric and level 3 berserker. All we need are an elementalist and an MT ss. Level 2 yers are weed but level 3 yers would have priority in loots with level 4 yers getting a higher share."

    "Purchasing materials at a fair price. 1 star materials at 15 coppers a piece, 2 star materials at 1 silver 30 copper a piece."

    Walking into the town, Sato and Fudo were greeted by the bustling atmosphere in Riverdale. Unlike ck Mountain town which had it''s economic and trade centres right at the town''s centre, Riverdale''s shops and stores were located at the west side of the town which was close to the Blue mist saltke. The littleke close to the Ghost mansion was actually formed from the Blue Mist saltke showing how massive Blue Mist Saltke is (AN : Refer to chapter 10).

    As a Primary town, Riverdale was huge and lively. Don''t be fooled by the term ''town''. Despite answering such, the scale of Riverdale town is on par to some of the cities in reality. As a town that houses both yers and NPC, it has to berge enough for both parties.

    Riverdale Town has 4 major points of entry and 5 major districts. The North district that houses the North gate, is the location of the town''s barracks. The East district together with the South district, are the residential areas housing both the civilians'' homes and some of the public building like the hospital, school etc. The West District housed the town''s entire economic and trade buildings including but not limited to the public market and merchant stores.

    As a Primary town, the West district of Riverdale town has a Bank Of Hearts which is the official bank of the Fallen Heart Kingdom. Apart from this, there are a few other banks owned by Wealthy, powerful families and individuals or groups.

    The Central district, which happens to be the smallest district, houses the Town Hall, a few administrative offices and the homes of the few wealthy noble and merchant families residing in Riverdale Town.

    Because they arrived from the west side of the town, they were able to witness the city''s liveliness together with the yers enthusiasm.

    "The prices here are quite convenient. If I wasn''t nning on getting a sub-ss now, I would have sold my materials." Looking at the somewhat reasonable prices yers hawked and bought goods Fudo was tempted to sell his goods.

    "Indeed. Normally, you could sell a 1 star material at a price between 10-12 copper coins at most NPC stores. If you find the right dealer who might need it urgently, you could even sell it 20 copper coins but buyers like these are quite rare. So a price of 15 copper coins is fairly eptable. However, once these goods are processed and used to forge a weapon or an equipment, the products could be sold at 2 times the initial price. If the quality gets any better, you might go for 3 times the initial price. To be able to purchase a lot of materials at this price, I''m pretty sure these buyers are either guild yers or experts otherwise they wouldn''t be able to afford doing such a business at this stage in the game. " (AN : Initial price here refers to the materials price before it bes processed)

    "Yeah. I can''t wait to get my sub-ss now. I see silver coins waiting to be in my embrace."

    "By the way, I thought you said most yers are closing in on level 4? What I see are mostly a bunch of level 2 and a few level 3 yers."

    Hearing the statements of the various advertising yers and taking a look at the levels of the different yers, Sato was surprised since this differed from what Fudo had earlier told him.

    "I said most yers and by most yers, I meant most guild yers. Since when did I ever care about noobs?"

    "...so that means we are among the group of high levelled yers eh?" Sato asked with a weird face neither knowing whether to cry or tough. Since he was nning to develop in Infinite Realm steadily and silently, he wasn''t nning to garner attention any time soon especially this early into the game.

    "Whoa. Are my eyes deceiving me? Level 4 yers?!"

    "Damn. I have been seeing a few of them recently. It seems like it''s true, the guilds are indeed going to make a move."

    "If I could be this skilled, I wouldn''t have to worry about picking up girls in a dungeon." (AN : y on words with the anime "How to pick up girls in a dungeon". One of my favorites¡­)

    As Sato had said, they were indeed one of the highest levelled yers in the game. Where ever they went past, the yers nearby would stare at them in awe for awhile, wondering which guild experts they were. However their reactions weren''t so absurd as to keep staring at them. Most of the yers just gave them a 5 second nce before resuming to their activities. Even so, for a guy who doesn''t like attracting attention, this would be bad if he were further noticed and as expected, they were.

    "Hey." A voice sounded out.

    "Hmm." Sato turned his head backwards to see who spoke.

    "You guys aren''t guild yers are you?" The man who asked, was a level 4 Guardian with a burly body and huge height reaching almost 2.2 metres. He walking up towards them and beside him were 3 other yers; a level 3 cleric, a level 4 assassin and a level 3 ranger. Such a line up is capable of ranking among the top at this stage in the game.

    "No." Sato narrowed his eyes.

    Hearing his response, the man smiled and said "That''s good. I''m One Sword and these are my crew members. How may I address you?"

    "Sky de."

    "Emperor Wolf."

    "... I see." For a second, One sword didn''t really know what to say in regards to Fudo''s naming sense but he still reacted in time since as a professional gamer, he has definitely seen worse. "I''m a captain of Mountain Rift and I''d like to invite you to join us. What do you think?"

    "Sorry. Not interested." Sato answered.

    "What about you?" The man faced Fudo with a smile still on his lips.

    "Same thing."

    "Are you guys sure? As solo yers, it might be easy to level up now but in theter stages things would get quite difficult. You sure you won''t consider it again?"

    "Captain !" The assassin called out.

    Rather than answering, One Sword lifted his right hand to silence him.

    Facing Sato and Fudo, he continued "Mountain Rift isn''t actually an official guild. We are more of an adventurer''s guild or group so our regtions aren''t so strict. I''ve sent you a friend request. In case you change your mind you can contact me anytime or leave behind a mail at Shed 47 at the Public market. We won''t keep you guys anymore, so let us take our leave." Saying so, One Sword began to walk away with the other yers sticking close to him.

    "Do you n on epting the friend request?" Fudo faced Sato.

    "That guy is quite smart don''t you think so?" Sato asked while still staring at One Sword''s group as they left.

    "Yeah but you did say you''re gonna y solo didn''t you?"

    "That was the n but what my grandpa told me has got me thinking. Either way, if I was really gonna y solo, you wouldn''t be here."

    "Hehehe."

    "Let''s be going, we still have to get our sub-sses and get used to them before going to level up."

    "Aight." (AN : All right = Aight. One of my favorite made up words.)

    Taking onest nce at them, Sato thought ''Mountain Rift eh? I think I''ve heard of them but I don''t remember a captain named One Sword. Never would I have ever thought a peak tier guild would scout me.''

    Meanwhile¡­

    "Captain, why did you still bother to invite them after they rejected us?" The level 4 assassin asked. "Even if they are level 4 yers, that''s just for now. Who knows, maybeter on they might be even worse."

    "You really don''t understand, Silver. Is that what you all have on your minds?"

    The remaining yers nodded.

    "Haha." One Sword chuckled, " Then I''ll let you all in on a secret. How long has it been since Infinite Realm went online?"

    "A little bit above 4 hours and a half." The assassin, Silver Sky, replied.

    " In thest captains'' meeting, the Head revealed that we should all try our best to bring in new members especially those high level yers in the first 6 in-game hours ."(AN : 3 hours real time)

    "And why is that so?" Seeing their captain stop right there, the level 3 cleric, Ao, asked perplexedly(AN : Ao; The Maori''s personification light. If you live in New Zend, then you should probably know this.).

    "That''s because from the information he got, it will supposedly be harder to level up from level 0 to 5 for the very first 6 in-game hours. That''s why despite it being almost 5 hours, mainstream yers are still at level 2 with a couple of them at level 3 and quite a few of them at level 4. Apparently, this is just one of the edge the upper ss has been given, to enable them spot talents and pros in the open to recruit.. From what I know, this game hides a lot of secrets."

 Chapter 18 - 16 : Picking A Sub-class 1

    "So which sub-ss do you n on getting?" Fudo asked Sato while they were at a pub having lunch with their hard earned money.

    Even though Infinite Realm is a VR world, the producers were so obsessed in pursuing reality in a digital world that they made it so that if one didn''t have a good rest and a good meal in-game, their avatars may end upgging due to a reduction in some hidden stats, particrly stamina. As such, yers usually either have a meal or take a break or even do both whenever they are free to avoid a reduction in their [Stamina] points.

    Still going forward with their idea of pursuing reality in a digital world, the drinks and food in Infinite Realm all gave a different taste and feelingpared to that of other VR games. This was made possible by collecting data on the various kinds of edible and inedible meals avable and even theorising the tastes and feelings of food that might not even exist. The end result; various assortments of food and drinks in Infinite Realm, almost infinite in numbers, boasting different tastes, looks, feeling and smell to the extent of some being literally non-existent in reality.

    As such, some yers decided to engage themselves in the activity of tasting the various different meals avable in a VR world unofficially nicknamed as the ''digital gourmets''. Fudo happens to be one of them. (AN : Precisely why he hopes to roast monsters)

    "Probably the cksmith ss or the alchemy ss." Sato said while staring at the table filled with food of which 90% of them belonged to Fudo. " Are you sure you can finish this?"

    "Haha, you underestimate me." Fudo chuckled. " This is a VR world not the real world. So no matter how much I eat, I can''t get any fatter." Fudo smiled while munching on a big piece of meat.

    "At least you know you''re fat."

    "..."

    Fudo did have a point in what he said. In a VR world, no matter how much you eat, you don''t get any fatter because all that is just a bunch of numbers and strings. However, he made a mistake. This was Infinite Realm, a world that pursued reality by all means. Even though your avatar can''t have a permanent change in appearance without an equipment or such hence it can''t get fat through eating, you will still get cramps from over-eating.

    In the end, Fudo spent 15 minutes in the toilet and paid for the rest as take-outs with Sato heading towards the cksmith guild to register as one.

    Being the economic centre of Riverdale, the West district also housed most of the Sub-ss guilds'' branch offices. This enables them to be able to purchase their materials directly from the stores and markets close-by. Sub-ss guilds like the School of Cookery normally build their branches in popted areas, in this case, it was in the South district.

    The cksmith guild was located in the Sira avenue, which amodated the various sub-ss guilds including but not limited to the Alchemist guild, Engineeringb, etc. The infrastructure wasn''t so awe inspiring as this was a town branch. Nheless, it was still pretty impressive. Reaching a height of about 3 storeys (AN : It might look wrong but its BrE), it had a 3 metre high arch styled door at its entrance. The entire building was built with a metal theme with ss windows(AN : Of course the windows are made of ss *facepalms* wait¡­I wrote this¡­) of which one of them was a French styled floor-to-ceiling window, specifically the one on the 3rd floor. Beside the building was a Smithy that tended to the public.

    Entering the building, Sato was greeted with the sight of an almost empty reception hall with only a couple of yers, number around 7 or so, and a few other NPCs.

    ''It seems like not a lot of people are interested in cksmithing.''

    Walking forward, Sato joined the little queue of yers and NPCs at the counter and waited until it was his turn. Since it was a primary town, the employees avable were enough to be counted on one''s hands, As a result, despite the small number of yers and NPCs present, a queue had ended up forming.

    "Next." The NPC receptionist called out.

    "Here." Steeping forward, Sato finally had a good view of the receptionist. The NPC receptionist was a blonde haired pretty youngdy probably between the age of 19-21. If Fudo were here, he would pretty much start flirting with her or even scream ''Gorgeous''. On the left side of her chest was a name tag with the words ''Amelia''.

    "Intentions foring?" the NPC receptionist, Amelia, asked with a corporate smile on her face.

    "I would like to register as a cksmith." Sato stated firmly.

    "Another one.." Amelia bent her head down mumbled quietly. Even still Sato heard her clearly.

    "Name."

    "Sky-de."

    Amelia''s face twitched while she thought ''All these peopleing to register today really have weird names. Gate of hell, Pumpkin peach, Catastrophe now this cute guy is called Sky de. Why isn''t there anyone normal?!'' (AN : Yes, NPCs have thoughts.)

    Picking up a circr token with the number ''23'' written on it, Amelia passed it to Sato and said "This will be your tag of identity. Hold the insignia at the top with your finger for at least 3 seconds and it will be yours."

    Following her words, Sato pressed his thumb at the insignia at the top for 3 seconds. Once he removed his thumb, he noticed a red liquid slowly seeping into the token.

    Seeing the look on Sato''s face, Amelia said "The token absorbs a drop of blood from your finger to sync itself with you. That way, only you can make use of it. It expires after a month so you have to have done the exams and be an official cksmith. AS of now, congrattions, you are now an apprentice cksmith."

    Immediately following her words was the sound of the System notification ;

    [[ System Notification :

    Congrattions on bing an apprentice cksmith.

    +10 Rtionship points with the cksmith guild.

    2% discount on any product or material bought at a cksmith guild. ]]

    [[ System Notification :

    Congrattions on getting your first sub-ss.

    +1 Potential Point

    +5 attribute points ]]

    ''Impressive, I get 1 level''s worth attribute points just from this?!''

    Interrupting Sato''s fantasies, Amelia pointed to the side "Take a seat over there and wait awhile for Master cksmith Owen toe over and address you all."

    Nodding in acquisition, Sato walked over to a waiting room, which had two long couch and a centre table on which a pile of books were atop, and sat down together with the other yers from earlier on a couch.

    Studying each other, Sato noticed that of the 8 yers present, only 2 were females. One of them wore a ck cloak shielding her face from the view of others but the especially bulging parts of her body revealed her gender. The other one was a green haired girl (AN : The future has natural hair colors and a lot of them.) who acted all fidgety. One look at her and one would know that it was her first time either in a VR game or in a group.

    As Sato was about to inspect her level and name, the door to the room was opened and a white bearded old man walked in. Despite being old, his eyes were filled with such sharpness akin to that of a beast and his muscles bulging through his garments. He radiated an intense aura analogous to the feeling one would get at looking at a tall mountain from its foot.

    "Hmm? I see. Chosen ones eh?"

    "..." every yer there were quite surprised by the fact that the man had realised one of their identities but they weren''t so shocked apart from the green haired girl. This was due to the fact that some previous games had marketed themselves by making certain NPCs know their identities or even act like a yer.

    "Whether you are Chosen ones or not, I don''t give a shit. This is the cksmith guild and not a battle ss'' guildpound so you abide by my rules. Starting today, you are all apprentice cksmiths hoping to truly realise that title. You have a month ahead of you to prepare for the exams however way you see fit. You can borrow books from the libraries and meet other cksmiths for tutorial lessons nheless, this might cost you a bit. Because of that, you will be receiving a free 1-hour lesson from our cksmiths so you won''t end up a total dimwit."

    Pointing at the table, the old man continued, "I heard you Chosen ones are supposed to have a good memory and a fast learning speed. So you all have 15 minutes to read the books in front of you. After that, head over to the auditorium by your right and find your assigned cksmith. I hope before next month, you all would end up as liable cksmiths."

    After saying so, he turned around and walked off. Upon approaching the door, he stopped, turned back facing the yers and said ??Oh yeah, since you all are Chosen ones why don''t we make this more fun? Be an official cksmith in a weeks time and get rewarded, fail and get punished. Do you agree?"

    Once he was done, Sato saw a System notification;

    [[System Notification :

    Master Owen''s trial

    Mission Rating : B

    Be an official cksmith in 1 week time(In-game).

    Rewards : Unknown

    Penalty : Banned from ever bing a cksmith

    +30% increase in price when purchasing from cksmith guild

    Rtionship points with cksmith guild bes [Hatred]

    System Description : Go big or go home.

    System : ept/Decline (Please reply to the NPC.) ]]

    "I ept." Almost at the same time, two yers answered. One of them was the cloakeddy and the other was a burly young man.

    "Same here. I ept."

    Eventually, almost everybody epted including Sato with only one of them, the green haired girl, rejecting it. When she did, some of the yers shook their head at her decision feeling it was stupid not to try but even so, the green haired girl still stuck to her decision.

    "Good." Saying so, the old man finally left the room.

    As he was doing so, Sato finally recalled that he hadn''t checked the man''s stats so he did so.

    ''Inspect''

    [[ Name : Owen Triastis

    Race : Human

    Bloodline : Triastis, ???

    Title : Master cksmith, Head of Riverdale Town''s cksmith guild, Son of Royalty, Master Scribe.

    Level : ???

    HP : ???

    Heritage/Legacy : ???

    ss (Job) : Swordsman (Warrior)

    Subss : cksmith, Scribe

    Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom

    ??????????????????????????????????????????

    ??????????????????????????????????????????

    ?????????????????????????????????????????? ]]

 Chapter 19 - 17 : Picking A Sub-class 2 : The Snow Goddess

    ''Is he a royalty of the fallen Heart Kingdom or another kingdom? No that can''t be. No kingdom would easily allow foreign royalty to take root in theirnds like this. If he is a local royalty then what the hell is he doing here?''

    Sato was stunned at the result of the inspection. Even though he never knew that the Triastis was the royal family of the Fallen Heart Kingdom, seeing the title addressed to cksmith master Owen he concluded that this should be so.

    ''I really need to take time out to visit the library otherwise I mighte across an evil god and die without knowing why.'' Sato sighed inwardly.

    Picking up the slightly huge upturned book on the table together with the other yers in the room, Sato took a look at the front which had written on it, in bold form, the words ''cksmith beginner''s guide for total dummies''. Slightly below those words was another text written in a smaller font ; ''I mean utter dimwits in cksmithing''. It seemed like at that very second, all the faces of the yers twitched with silence reigning over the entire room.

    *sigh*

    Eventually, the silence was broken by the sigh pf a yer. With that, the remaining yers including Sato regained themselves and begun browsing through the book until a System notification appeared;

    [[ System Notification :

    Do you wish to learn ''cksmith beginner''s guide for total dummies'', ''I mean utter dimwits in cksmithing'' Edition?

    System : Yes/No ]]

    ''So that was the edition''s title?'' Inwardly sighing at the ability of the book''s author to frustrate his readers, Sato agreed to the notification.

    Instantly, he felt a gush of information, filled with basic knowledge on cksmithing, materials, metals and alloys, rushing towards his brain. Considering the size of the book, it took him about 15 seconds to recover from the head-pounding ache. Apparently, he was among the first group of people to recover together with the cloaked girl, the burly young man and surprisingly, the green haired girl. They had recovered at almost the same time with each other with the rest of the yers recovering within a gap of a few mini-seconds to 2 seconds from them.

    '' If I''m correct, then the speed at which we absorb the knowledge depends on one''s mental capacity and processing speed. Those two are most likely experts so it''s understandable, but this girl...'' Sato stared at the green haired girl with a little bit of shock in his eyes. ''A ck horse?''

    It seemed like the other two had reached the same conclusion as Sato as they both stared at the green haired girl in surprise. Sensing their gaze, the green haired girl bent her head down bashfully.

    As most of the yers had recovered, they began to take their leave, moving towards the auditorium. As they were walking, Sato tried to use the [Inspect] general skill on the green haired girl however, he got a System response telling him that he can''t use it on yers.

    ''Well that''s disappointing.''

    The cksmith guild''s auditorium was located on the first floor[1] of the main building. Considering that it was made to be able to address a lot of people, it was quite huge, taking up at least 40% of the entire floor.

    Once they went through the doors, they were greeted by the sight of a huge hall with a stage at the other end, on which stood five people, one of whom was the Master cksmith, Owen Triastis. At the audience''s position sat a couple of NPCs numbering around 17 or so.

    "Oh? You''re finally here eh? That was quick. Alright, everybody take your seats and get ready to be assigned a teacher. These gentlemen and miss beside me are the majority of the cksmiths currently avable here in Riverdale Town. As you can see, there aren''t a lot of us. That just goes to show you how tough it is to be one, a professional at that.

    "Today, you will all be assigned an instructor and would have your free 1-hour sses today. This is because most of our staff are all busy with their various practices and experiments in pursuit for a higher level. Once the sses are over, you can visit your assigned instructors whenever they are free and pay for a lesson or ask questions you don''t understand. I advise you though, not to abuse this privilege by troubling your instructors all the time as this might exasperate them.

    "Alright let''s begin. Numbers 1-7 pleasee forward. Your instructor will be cksmith Chris. 8-14, your instructor would be¡­"

    As Master Owen called out, the individuals, be they NPC or yer, with the assigned number walked forward where they met their instructor and immediately left the auditorium heading to a suitable room to hold the ss.

    "Numbers 22-28. You guys are thest group today and your instructor is Miss Trevale. Try your best not to incur her ire. As beautiful as she is, she''s a thorn in the bush."

    "Hmph. If they can''t handle my attitude, they might as well quit right now. Let''s go." Miss Trevale was a blue haired beauty with smooth skin and the only female cksmith in Riverdale Town. Despite being a cksmith, she wasn''t burly, having a physique and stature befitting of a model.

    Sato''s group consisted of only two yers, Sato and the cloakeddy, together with 5 other NPCs. As they left the auditorium, they walked over to a room at the second floor. Their instructor, Miss Trevale, pulled out a token but unlike that of the apprentices, her''s was in the form of a rectangle with weird markings, moreplicated than that of the apprentice token.

    cing it on a depression identical to the token, she injected mana into the token for 3 seconds and then removed the token. As soon as she did so, the door opened and she stepped in while saying "Come in and don''t touch anything. Just find a spot to stand. As for the youngdy, cloaks aren''t allowed here. I still don''t know how you made it past the reception but I personally am not a fan of disguises."

    When she heard that, the cloakeddy stopped and hesitated for a second after which she took off her cloak and ced it in her beginner''s pouch.

    As expected, she was ady but even more so, a beautiful one. Once she took off the cloak, even the male NPCs in their group couldn''t get their eyes off of her. The very sight of her can be said to be nothing more than a visual feast for the men.

    A rare white colored hair, a nice oval face, aquiline nose, thin red lips, brown coloured eyes and a pale coloured smooth skin rivalling that of a new born baby. ''Beauty'' might even be an understatement when used to address her. With a perfect proportioned body, the word ''Goddess'' might be the onlypliment that wouldn''t shame her existence.

    While the males were staring at her, with the few females finding themselvescking in appearance, Sato wasn''t lost in her magnificence or beauty. Rather upon noticing the white hair, he recalled a certain professional yer that had a poem addressed to her made by a yer that had been defeated by her.

    ''As beautiful as the moon in the dark night sky,

    As chilling as the cold in the dark winter nights.

    Hair as white as the snow,

    With skills that aren''t for show.

    She''s the witch who has no limits,

    The Queen who knows no fear,

    The Goddess who stands above all,

    The Snow Goddess.''

    (AN : Impressive right. Well, I just made it up, not joking.)

    The Snow Goddess. As long as one isn''t new to gaming, they would have heard of that name. Even if you aren''t a gamer yourself, she had appeared in quite a lot ofmercials, s its'' highly possible to have seen her. Previously ranked 3rd in the Neer''s list a few years ago with a fight ranked 312th in the ''Greatest of all Time'', she''s a bona-fide pinnacle ss expert, a ''Queen'' ranked 178th in the Hermes'' Guild''s ''Gamer Expert List''. A true big figure, hegemon even, in the gaming sector.

    Don''t despise the rating of 178th. If you would recall, all those ranked as from 200 and above are assigned the title ''King'' or ''Queen'' depending on their genders. These people are or capable of rivalling monster ss experts. Monster ss experts are the second strongest ss of experts and yers just below god level yers. God level yers are quite rare and every one of them are valuable assets to a guild as such, they are hardly seen unless such a guild ns to make a big move. As such, monster ss experts, since they aren''t so rare and can easily be seen, are the strongest ss of yers for the general public. To be able to rival such a being speaks much of the strength and capability of the individual.

    ''What is she doing here? Don''t tell me Emperor''s Might has set its sights on Fallen Heart Kingdom? Damn it. ''

    Currently, Snow Goddess serves as core member, and not an ordinary one at that, of Emperor''s Might, a Super guild that stands below no one. Such an important individual wouldn''t go their way to develop in a city or kingdom out of the jurisdiction of the guild. So for Snow Goddess to be here, it meant that Emperor''s guild might have already set its sights on the Fallen Heart Kingdom as a region of development.

    As for whether it is the only ce they have in mind or their desired headquarters in Infinite Realm, Sato didn''t know and didn''t n on finding out.

    He acted as if he was surprised both by her looks and identity just like any normal yer would. But it seemed he was over reacting as she didn''t even spare him a nce.

    "Alright everybody. Today we would be learning about the basics of cksmithing and watching them being applied in live practical session." said Miss Trevale, who wasn''t affected by the Snow Goddess'' beauty as she was a beauty of her own category. "If you can understand these principles in practice, then the test won''t be anything for you. Let''s begin."

    AN : Important Ranks for Chapter reference

    yer Ranks :

    God-level or god-ranked expert or Destroyer

    Monster-ss expert

    Pinnacle or Apex expert,

    Average expert

    Elites

    Veterans

    Noobs

    Guild Ranks :

    Super Guild

    1st Tier Guilds

    2nd Tier Guilds

    3rd Tier Guilds

    4th Tier Guilds

    Unassigned Guilds

 Chapter 20 - 18 : Picking A Sub-class 3 : Fudoâ€™s Experience

    "Damn it. Here I was rejoicing that I can''t get any fatter in a VR game but no the producers had to give me stomach ache from over-feeding."

    Walking out a pub was a slightly fat or rather plump young man who was grumbling probably because of his recent experience . Garbed in beginner mage robes with a brown crooked staff that goes with the robes he looked like the average mage yers but what set him apart was the ''level 4'' text that was disyed beside the green coloured yer marker atop his head.[1]

    "*sighs* I wonder how Sato''s been doing. It''s about time I head over to the Alchemy guild. Sato said he ns on spending 4 hours at the cksmith guild right? I might as well do the same."

    While walking Fudo heard someone shouting "Oi! Pig head is that you? Oi! I''m talking to you."

    Initially, he was ignoring the voice, until the speaker walked up to him and banged his head.

    "Which shithead wants to encounter his grandfather eh?" Turning around, Fudo saw the trouble maker and was immediately stunned.

    "Haha, I knew it was you. Nobody else walks with that same gait as you pig head." The speaker sounded out again. It was a young man with brown hair dressed in rough leather wear. He had a bow hung behind him and had two other men apanying him by his sides.

    "Brother¡­"

    "Don''t brother me you bastard. You''re nothing more than a useless piece of shit my dad made by mistake." The young man said without hiding the irritation on his face.

    Hearing that, Fudo''s face went dark but he didn''t talk back.

    Nishida Kotaro, the son of Nishida Aoi and step-brother to Iwata Fudo. Being born as the first son to formerly poor but now business mogul, Kotaro was raised with all he could desire in life packaged in front of his doorsteps. Cars, houses, assets, models, you name it. A life an average human being could call heaven. So much valuables that you could say he was satisfied in life. If there was one thing that he hated however, it would be the existence of his little step-brother, Fudo.

    Born as an illegitimate son, Fudo was despised by his step-brothers and sisters. His birth father, Nishida Aoi had an entanglement[2] with Iwata Fumiko despite being engaged. Due to certain reasons, he left her behind without being aware of the child that resulted from their rtionship. When he found out, he made an agreement with Fumiko that he will be paying for the child''s bills whatsoever they may be in exchange for her silence on the true parent of the child. Even though this didn''t exactly workout as nned with the information being released that Aoi had a bastard son, he still kept paying for the fees while denying all issues rted to that.

    Originally, Aoi''s family had nned on eliminating the mother together with her child but because of the Alliance''s stringent rules that bans murder, because of the world poption being far lower than it was initially in the Old Era, the family rejected that proposal as there weren''t sure whether they could pull it off sessfully because if they didn''t, the end result wouldn''t be pretty.

    "You should be lucky that you''re still alive. Either way, I noticed you got a pretty high level eh? You must have gotten some good stuffs while levelling up right? Come on, hand it over." Kotaro grinned ugly.

    "Brother, no, Kotaro, why are you doing this?" Fudo asked while still trying to keep his cool.

    "Why? Simple. Cause you''re a bastard. Do you know how much shame dad had to suffer after the media made your existence known? Do you know how much shame I had to swallow while my friends mocked me? But even still that old man didn''t finish you off. No. Instead he still gave you money and now, I think it''s time you pay us back." When Kotaro began speaking, his voice was still at a moderate level enough for the both of them together with Kotaro''s teammates to hear. But as he went on, his volume had increased so much that it attracted the attention of the surrounding yers.

    Fudo gripped his staff tightly and said "Kotaro. Do you think you''re the only one who suffered? Do you think you''re the only one who got mocked in school? Ever since then, have you ever wondered how I felt?"

    "Why would I? Don''t make me wait too long or else¡­" As he finished, the two men behind him stepped forward and widen their mouth with a creepy-gangster like smile stered on their face.

    " It has always been about you Kotaro and it always will be. However, you still don''t understand do you? My mom and I no longer live under you. We have our lives and actions. Even more so, this isn''t the real world. Hmph, trying to bully me with a bunch of noobs won''t work here. You''re really lucky we''re in town or else, there might not be a ''you'' any longer." Fudo harrumphed.

    "You dare? You little pig. I will-"

    "Kotaro." A deep voice resounded behind him, interrupting Kotaro from finishing his sentence.

    As soon as he heard that voice, Kotaro shivered a little but quickly recovered.

    Turning back, he said while bowing low "Azure-sama."

    The man behind Kotaro was about 26-28 years of age. Though he was young, he emanated a sense of maturity and authority. He was dressed in exquisite mage gown with a blue and white patterned design and held a crooked staff with a fist sized blue orb attached t the top giving off an aura of vastness and epassing. A good look and one would know that he was a water type elementalist and most likely an expert as his level was at level 4.

    "What did I warn you of earlier on? This is Infinite Realm not that silly sheltered part of the world you live in. You''re attitude might just offend a bigwig without knowing it and your family could easily be done in." Azure Dragon then said "Let this be thest time or else.."

    "Yes. I understand." Kotaro bowed once more as an apology.

    "Go wait for me at the usual spot."

    "Alright."

    Even though Kotaro was too reluctant to leave after threatening Fudo, he couldn''t outrightly disobey Azure Dragon as that will not only mark the end of his gaming career but possibly even affect his father''s business. But even still, while leaving, he red at Fudo as if saying ''Next time, you won''t be so lucky.''

    After he was gone by at least 50 metres, Azure Dragon then said "I apologise for my teammate''s impertinent behaviour. I hope you would forgive him." Saying so, Azure Dragon gave a slight bow as an apology even though it felt more formal than sincere.

    "No worries." replied Fudo but deep down, he was trying to decipher the identity of the man before him. One should know that Kotaro was raised as a spoilt brat by his mother. This ended up causing a lot of trouble for his father as he went around offending even the people than were more powerful than his father. So for Kotaro to be able to show such respect, or rather fear, towards Azure Dragon, implies the heftiness of his real identity.

    Raising his right hand towards Fudo, Azure Dragon "You might already know but I''m Azure Dragon, a member of the Super guild Emperor''s Might."

    Fudo lifted an eyebrow in shock but still kept his cool, shaking the extended hand while replying, "Emperor Wolf. A pleasure meeting you."

    Azure Dragon smiled. "I''d like to invite you to our guild. What do you think about it?"

    This time, Fudo couldn''t remain calm. Emperor''s Might, a Super guild and not an average one at that, had just invited him to join them. Even though he was surprised, he knew he shouldn''t keep Azure Dragon waiting so he responded "As much as I would like too, I can''t. I''ve already promised a friend that I would y with him, so I apologise." Saying so, Fudo bowed his head slightly, mimicking the exact same movement and pattern of insincerity Azure Dragon had used with him.

    "...alright." It was unknown whether if Azure dragon was stunned at the fact that Fudo rejected his proposal or that he had the guts to mock him, but he still managed to give a timely reply.

    "If there''s nothing else, then I will take my leave." saying so, Fudo left without waiting for a reply.

    A few seconds after he was gone, another man deactivated his stealth skill, appearing beside Azure Dragon while saying "That guy is quite interesting."

    "Why do you say so?" Azure Dragon queried.

    "I felt like he had noticed me plus he was also taking glimpses at my position." The cloaked man seriously said.

    "I know. I felt he was kinda special so I tried to invite him. Who knew he would have outrightly denied us like that. What an interesting young man." Azure Dragon chuckled softly.

    "Do you need me to teach him a lesson?" The cloaked man looked towards the direction Fudo departed to.

    "No need. We have other things to focus on. Remember, we aren''t the only ones here so we might as well stay low for now. Let''s go. We have to make it to level 10 before the others."

    "Okay." With that said, the cloaked man once again re-entered stealth and vanished.

    "What an interesting guy." Azure Dragon chuckled once more.

    AN :

    [1] I never mentioned this directly but there''s a diamond shaped marker atop each individual''s head NPCs included. The difference is that NPCs have a blue coloured one. yers generally have a green coloured one but there are variations once a yer kills an NPC or a fellow yer. They include; Yellow, Orange, Red, Deep crimson, grey, ck and onyx. The more you kill, the darker your marker bes until it experiences a colour change and the cycle continues till you reach onyx.

    [2] If you were following up on the Will, Jada and August stuff, then you will get this.

 Chapter 21 - 19 : Picking A Sub-class 4

    The Alchemy guild was located in the Sira avenue, the same with the cksmith guild. In fact, both buildings were actually adjacent to one another. The Alchemy guild''s building, like that of the cksmith guild, was 3 storeys tall but unlike it''s counterpart, it used was a little bit more impressive. With an emerald coloured buildings, intricate master carvings on it''s walls and Jade styled doors, it seemed like the Alchemy guild was built with the them ''Luxuriously Green'' in mind.

    Apart from the main building, there were two side buildings of which one of them was at a height of 2 storeys while the other was on par with the main building. The first side building was actually a clinic for the general public located at the West District.

    Even though Alchemists technically aren''t doctors or pharmacists, about 90% of them started out that way while thee remaining 10% still encounter pharmaceutical and medical terms in their jobs. As such, some Alchemists are capable of filling in as pharmacists. Originally, alchemist were known as apothecarist, however, one of them had branched off and decided to do an in depth study of the origin of matter and materials resulting in the founding of Alchemy. Eventually, Alchemy had fully split off from Apothecary bing an upation of its own though they still share some simrities. The major difference in Infinite Realm however, is that yers who study Apothecary tend to work in clinics and hospitals and are almost incapable of designing an entirely new form and attribute increasing drug but Alchemy goes beyond drug making even going as far as poison refining (AN : Will be exined eventually.). As such, Alchemy is normally performed by yers with Apothecary by NPCs.

    The second side building served as the residence of the Alchemists and doctors enabling them to be able to quickly make it over to the other side building in cases of emergencies.

    The main building serves as a research facility and gathering point for the alchemists. It also works as a simple reception point in case anyone desires to see an alchemist.

    Walking into the building, Fudo met with the receptionist, who unlike that of the cksmith guild, was a middle aged man with a beard, sprawling atop the counter. Unlike the cksmith guild, the Alchemist guild was entirely empty apart from the receptionistying on the counter.

    Knocking on the counter, Fudo said "Uhm, excuse me. I would like to register to be an alchemist."

    *yawns* The middle aged man woke up sloppily before stretching his arms wide.

    "Oh?" The man stared interestingly at Fudo. "It''s my first time see a fatsy desiring to be an alchemist. Lemme guess, is it for the wealth or the drugs?"

    Biting his lips, Fudo tried to keep his cool and expressed himself, "First of all, I''m not fat; just plump. Secondly, I didn''te here mainly for the wealth neither did Ie for the drug. I don''t even know what the freaking drugs are!"

    "Haha. At least you mentioned that you didn''te ''mainly'' for the money bute on, how could you say you don''t know about the drugs. You say that but we all know the truth." The middle aged man snickered.

    "I really don''t, old man." Fudo expounded.

    The man ignored the fact that Fudo called him ''old'' and stared at Fudo with his chin propped against his right hand. "Oh? You don''t seem like you''re lying. In that case, the ''drugs'' I''m speaking of are those one that make you stronger in hehehe." The old man chuckled creepily.

    "Those drugs¡­Oh! Hmph. Old man, enough. This one is a professional in that department. There''s no possible chance or reason for me to result to drugs." Fudo harrumphed.

    "Haha. Don''t be so upset young man. Even monkeys fall from trees. Who knows, you might lose that ability." The middle aged man smiled. [1]

    *Bang*

    Fudo eventually lost his cool and banged his hands on the counter.

    "AH!!! Old man, I just came to get registered."

    "Oh? Registration? Here." Despite Fudo banging his hands loudly on the counter, the man ignored it. Putting his hands beneath the counter, the man brought out a thick book and said "Our Alchemy guilds tests are quite special. You have to be done reading this in a few hours; give or take 4-7 hours. After that, you can make it back here to take the apprenticeship tests. Some people though, tend to research everything and take the tests straight. But looking at you, I doubt you even know how to spell Poly-triryclic-synclimatic-Magierus."

    "..."

    "Exactly. So, you have to read this first. However, since as an Alchemist you''d have to keep or the different materials andpound in mind, the time exists to ensure that your memory capacity and memorization speed is adequate even though some people bypass this by learning the terms elsewhere first. Sadly, even if you do that, you''d still encounter a simr testter on.

    "In summary, read this book ande back for your test in at most, 7 hours. Now shoosh, lemme get some sleep." The middle aged man hurried with his words and sent Fudo away whileying his head back on the counter.

    "Damn. What azy old fart."

    Saying so, Fudo left the building and looked for a ce to stay and read the book. As he was going, the middle aged man lifted his head and looked at him while thinking ''What an interesting young man. He actually dared to call me an old man. Fufufu. A Chosen one right? Seems like things would start to get busy around here soon. *yawns* I need to get some sleep before then.''

    . . . . .

    "In summary, the purpose of striking the unfinished work with a hammer isn''t just to give it form but also to instill mana upon it giving, it greater durability and strength far more than that of those regr cksmiths. This happens to be one of the differences between us and the other regr everyday cksmiths or as I like to call them, metal-smiths. Also, when casting, it''s best to use a mana-infused mold than regr ones same with the crucibles. But of course as a professional, all of your equipment should be mana-infused and rune-crusted."

    Miss Trevale, dressed in her cksmith work clothes which she had underneath the robe from earlier, dropped the hammer and wiped the sweat off her forehead. Despite being sweaty, she seemed even more beautiful giving off a unique fragrance that was pleasing to the senses. If the previous description given to her was that of a cold-hearted beauty, then her current condition would be like that of a focused and hardworkingdy whose every move is a sight to behold. It seemed like the sweat drops on her body were perverted liquid creatures with consciences as they stuck closely to her clothing, entuating her curves in all the right ces thereby giving a glorious view of the body of an angel to all the avable males present. Her body was so perfect that so of the females began to question their own even the Snow Goddess was a little stunned when she had removed her robe earlier on.

    In front of her was a simple sword that had recently just cooled off. Despiteckingplicated designs and embroideries, the sword gave off a feeling of being able to cut through anything as its tip was still glistening as a result of the exquisite workmanship applied to it. It was marked at the sides with special runes that initially lookedplicated but on focusing more carefully on them, one would feel that they can understand it despite not knowing what it actually is.

    "Excuse. Miss Trevale, what are those scribbles on the sword?" An NPC male who happened dressed in rugged outfits asked while pointing at the writings.

    "Oh? Those?" Miss Trevale then leaned against a table and folded her arms in front of her chest, propping up the bunnies underneath her outfit. "Well you see, normally we cksmiths have to grasp a couple of runes. The more the better. So we have a close rtionship with the Rune guild. Even though you''re just apprentices in training right so you wouldn''t really need to learn about the runes, I don''t mind letting you know them.

    "As of now, all you need to know is that there are 2 major types of runes. Racial and Ancients. Under the racial, we have Elvish for the Elves, Draconic for the Dragon-kin and the like. For us humans, we have man, which is what I just used, and Gregorian. man runes are quite easy to use and also very flexible. Plus they trante their meanings directly to our minds. As you can see, if you stare closely at this rune, you will get the feeling that it means ''Sharpness'' or the like. That''s because the runes'' ability is to increase sharpness and pration. Being written in man, it was directly tranted in your minds."

    Standing up, she continued, "For any more questions rting to runes, go check it yourself at the Runes'' guild library or something. For any other cksmith rted questions, try the library or an official cksmith otherwise ask that to yourself. Time''s up so ss is dismissed."

    With that, all of the apprentices-in-training begun to take their leave.

    "Oh yeah." Miss Trevale called out. "One of the major differences between us and the metal-smiths is that their limit is at the Middle Tier Mortal Rank. Even the best of them would likely only be able to achieve a weapon at the Higher Tier though it wouldck certain boosts like the skills attached to the regr High Tier ones. Now you can go."

    ''Ahhh, cksmithing was far easier in Conquest.'' Leaving the room, Sato recalled all that was taught and shown in thest one hour, sighing at the difficulty of things. ''I guess that''s why they boast to be the most realistic game ever.'' Sato chuckled inwardly.

    "Hey."

    ''Hmm?''

    [1] Proverb on how even a professional can still lose in his profession.

 Chapter 22 - 20 : A Bully Only Bullies

    (AN : I sincerely didn''t know what to name this chapter.)

    Turning around, Sato looked at the person who called out to him. ''Why does it have to be her''. Yes, it was the Snow Goddess, Yukino Akihira

    "Is there a problem?" Sato asked while trying to act nice, happy and shy to her as if he was a fan that was d she called him.

    Narrowing her eyes, Yukino asked "Do we know each other?"

    "Well I do know you. But I don''t think you''ve heard of me before. I''m just a casual yer. Haha" Sato chuckled awkwardly.

    Yukino stared deeply at him for awhile before she turned around and left. "Apologies. I mistook you for someone else."

    "No worries." Sato smiled cheekily and began to walk away in another direction normally. After he had made off quite a distance from her, he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.'' After the cksmith test, I have to leave this town or else who knows which big figure I might encounter next.''

    ''Oh that''s right. I need to gather a few materials to practice cksmithing or else who knows when I''dplete that mission plus I''d still have to visit the Rune guild. *sigh* This is quite a stressful life.

    Walking out of the building, Sato headed over to the public market which wasn''t so far from the cksmith guild as they were both in the West district. On his there, he called Fudo.

    [[System : Audio call epted]]

    "Hey Fudo. Are you done with your registration?"

    On the other end, Fudo''s energetic voice sounded out, "Yeah. This world''s mechanics are quite impressive. The receptionist at my guild was a total pervert. Old guy really frustrated me; I almost gave him a fireball."

    "Of course. For them to boast about their product, it has to live up to their words or else it might end up flop like that other one, uh, Syncral or something."

    Syncral was a VRMMOPG game that was based on the fusion of futuristic elements and fantasy. Thepany charged with producing and marketing it imed it to be the game that will re-envision the VR sector, giving it yers a sneak peek at a couple of the next age technologiesbined with the view of some of the colonizeds. However it ended up backfiring a day after its release after the yers had already experienced the lousy mechanics, imagery and creativity used in it. As a result, Syncral was often used to define an over-hyped product that failed to live up to its promotions and advertisements.

    "Oh right. Where are you? Are you done with the cksmith registration?"

    "Yeah and guess who I saw?" Sato asked mysteriously.

    "Same here. Guess who I saw? Kotaro and apparently he''s in emperor''s Might!"

    "Wait, you saw Kotaro! And he''s in Emperor''s Might?! " Sato was shocked at Fudo''s reveal. He even thought the world was over. "Wait, how the hell did he get into Emperor''s Might and where did you get this info from?"

    ??I saw him obeying a guy named Azure Dragon or Azure pig. The dude told me that he''s a member of Emperor''s Might and he invited me join them. If it wasn''t for the aura he was unconsciously releasing together with that of an assassin in stealth beside him, I would have thought he was a scammer. I mean since when do Super guilds just go around recruiting people like that. If they did so, they would get bankrupt from having too many employees."

    "Whoa, whoa. Wait a second. They even tried to recruit you?" Sato was shocked for the third time. Walking over to an alley, Sato said with an exaggerated surprised tone "What did they see in you fat pig?"

    "Hmph. Another word an I would go back to them and agree. If it wasn''t for you and also that shithead Kotaro already with them, I would have joined already." Fudo harrumphed.

    "Alright, alright. I''m sorry. Now back to the main issue at hand." Sato pondered for awhile beforementing "Kotaro joining Emperor''s Might may not be as you thought. He might actually be part of a subsidiary guild of theirs or something. Last I remembered, Kotaro was at the level of a Veteran at most. Also, Azure Dragon¡­I haven''t heard of him yet but I don''t think anyone is so foolish as to go around parading as a member of a Super guild when they aren''t. The consequences are far too great. I reckon that he might be a new face but not an ordinary figure if he had a guard by his side and imed to be able to recruit you. This feels exactly like the first time we came here."

    "I feel this same too. Oh yeah, who was it you saw?"

    "Yukino Akihira , the Snow Goddess."

    "Wow. Really?! damn it. Why didn''t I go to the cksmith''s guild? I ended up missing the Snow Goddess for an old pervert." Fudo cried out. As if a bulb just light up in his brain, Fudo eximed "Oh wait? Isn''t she a member of Emperor'' Might?"

    "Precisely." Sato affirmed.

    "From the looks of things, Emperor''s Might has set their sights to develop here. Shouldn''t we be moving out and find somewhere else?" Fudo opined.

    "No worries yet. We are still in the early phase of the game plus I don''t n on starting a guild but you still have a point. I previously read on the forums that at level 10, we get to go to cities and other kingdoms. Let''s wait till then. Infinite Realm is so massive, I doubt everyce would be upied by a guild." Sato disclosed.

    "Yeah. You''re right."

    Super guilds. Anyone who has been gaming for awhile would be able to known what those words mean and who they can be identified with. Every Super guild in a game is a behemoth, a creature beyondprehension, a power above control. Every one of them have their own pride and wants. As such, they tend to try and seize full control off anynd they wish. With the power wielded by them, it but at the snap of a finger that they can establish dominance and wield absolute power in any area once their full force have been mobilized. Because of this, adventurer groups and guild seeking to develop, tend to steer clear of their way hoping to never cross paths with these hegemons.

    "I''ll call you back. I just saw someone I need to teach a lesson to." Sato suddenly said.

    "Who''s it? And where are you?" Fudo hurriedly questioned.

    "It''s that old bully Hideki. I''m quite close to the public market around an alleyway beside a shop named¡­Grynx Merchandise. Talkter."

    . . . . .

    "So where''s it?" Hideki barked at a level 2 yer and kicked him towards the ground.

    "I''ve already told you all. The team leader took it with him." The cursemancer said miserably.

    "Don''t y that silly trick with me. Do you even know who told us about it? Come on out."

    As Hideki concluded, a ranger stepped out from the darkness and snickered at the cursemancer.

    "It''s best if you don''t lie to boss Grey. Just hand it over and you might be saved."

    "You bastard¡­" the cursemancer stood up and tried to attack the ranger.

    "Hmph" Following that, one of the men beside Hideki, specifically, a Level 3 Berserker, punched the cursemancer in his guts.

    "Ah.."

    "Trying to make a move in the presence of boss Grey is just foolish. Give up." The ranger smirked.

    "Enough. If you don''t want to die then just hand it over." Hideki unsheathed his dagger.

    "Don''t you know that if the guards catch you doing this, you will be in trouble?" the cursemancer who was originally nning to y it tough was shocked at Hideki''s decisiveness.

    "Foolish idiot. Infinite Realm pursues reality. In other words, as long as the guards don''t see me nor find any evidence that''s points out a murder, I can kill you and get away with it scot-free. I just have to wait out for my marker to turn green again." Hideki grinned.

    "Come on, you don''t have to do this." The cursemancer pleaded.

    "You''re right. So, where is it?"

    "The truth is I no longer have it. I sold it at an NPC''s store." The cursemancer hurriedly stated.

    "You think I''m an idiot? I already gave you a chance now die-"

    "Oi, Hideki. Long time no see eh? Bullying low leveled yers again are we? Ah! I forgot.. A bully only bullies, nothing more."

 Chapter 23 - 21 : Hideki Vs Sato 1

    "Oi, Hideki. Long time no see eh? Bullying low leveled yers again are we? Ah! I forgot. A bully only bullies, nothing more."

    A look at both yers'' level and one would notice that they were both level 4. A confrontation between two level 4 yers would be quiet shocking and at the same time interesting to the current mainstream yers.

    "I see you haven''t wiped that ugly smug off our face yet. Are you looking to get beaten or what?" Hideki grinned. "Oh yeah. I remember now. You owe me a match and I owe you a beating right?"

    Sato shrugged "What ever makes you happy. But it seems like you''re quite busy eh?"

    Chuckling creepily, Hideki said "You don''t need to worry about this one. Once I''m done with him, it would be your turn."

    "I don''t think so. As you said, Infinite Realm pursues reality. What do you think will happen if someone screams for the city guards. You can probably kill that dude over there before he screams but can you do the same to me? If you can''t, they I hope you are prepared for the consequences."

    Hideki narrowed his eyes slowly. "What do you want?"

    "Nothing."

    "And you think I''d believe that." While speaking, Hideki signaled for the two men together with the ranger from earlier to circle Sato.

    Ignoring their movements, Sato spread his arms out nonchntly "I don''t really care what you think. I just happened to have noticed you from across the street and recalling our previous bet, I came over." He then smiled tauntingly "Don''t tell me that the great Grey Night Hideki is scared of me?"

    Hideki frowned. Lifting up an arm, Hideki addressed his teammates "Stop! This idiot actually takes me as a joke. It wouldn''t do my name any good if I don''t murder this bastard." Facing Sato, he continued "You want a fight? Fine, let''s head out to the fields. I''d like to see how long you afford can keep smiling."

    Saying so, Hideki left the alley with the two men propping up the cursemancer to follow them while the ranger followed behind. Sato, being cautious, stayed behind the team.

    Since the Public market wasn''t so far from the West gate, it took them only a few minutes to reach it. Stepping out of the gate, the group walked off for about 300 metres away from the gate so as to avoid the guards noticing themotion caused from their fight.

    Finding a clearing, Sato and Hideki took their stances with the others acting as spectators.

    Unsheathing his pair of twin des and pointing one of them, Hideki grinned widely "Hehe, remember to record this moment as the day you lost to Grey Night Hideki."

    "It''s a good thing this game has a record function just in case you n to give silly excuses for your loss." Sato smiled.

    "Hmph. [Fade]" Saying so, Hideki used the assassin ss'' signature stealth skill and disappeared from view.

    "Going into stealth in the presence of your enemy. You still haven''t learnt enough, Hideki." Sato shook his head.

    ''Right.''

    Sato skillfully unsheathed his sword and it sword towards his right and felt his de shing with an object with less resistance than he had expected.

    *ng*

    ''Shit!'' Noticing that what he had shed with wasn''t Hideki''s dagger but a round object, Sato cursed his luck and tried to retreat backwards.

    *boom*

    A loud explosion followed the sound of metal striking upon metal like the apaniment of the vocals in Mozart''s Lacrimosa.

    -27 (83/110 Sato''s HP)

    Upon shing with the object, a somewhat huge explosion sounded, sting Sato a few metres away from his original position. The ground where he originally stood was scorched ck with his outfit having burnt patches in a few ces.

    "One move and you''re already beat. Just die!" Appearing behind Sato, Hideki stabbed his right dagger towards his back. However, Sato reacted quickly, abruptly shifting to his side. After which he hacked his sword towards his back unleashing a deadly assault right at Hideki.

    *ng*

    Hideki, reading Sato''s moves, lifted the dagger in his left hand and managed to block the attack due to his superior [Dexterity]. Borrowing from the remnant force of the sh, he retreated a few steps backwards attaining enough distance to orient himself.

    Sato, despite just making a move, rushed towards Hideki shing his sword out for another strike in an attempt to prevent Hideki from entering stealth once more and pulling such a trick again.

    "If you think that every assassin is only good for stealthbats then think again."

    Rather than bracing himself for the attack, Hideki ran towards it intending to go head to head with Sato. Heunched a jab-like strike with his right dagger that looked quite ordinary to themon eye but gave off a feeling of being dangerous.

    ''Hmm?'' Seeing this attack, Sato was surprised as the attack performed by Hideki, despite alerting his senses, was not a skill but a martial technique.

    VR games aimed to pursue reality in all aspects.This sentence might seem simple to most people but it has an underlying effect to yers. In the same way Hideki nned to murder the cursemancer in town since it is possible to do the same in reality, yers can make use of the above sentence to find loopholes in VR games.

    When two yers of the same ss possess the same level, same in-game skills, same amount of attribute points in the same attribute, an inevitable draw should be expected. However this is not so. Why? Because their gaming skills, reasoning and pattern of behaviour varies. Now supposing all the above mentioned features are the exact same for both yers, what can one of them use to triumph the other? Martial techniques.

    VR games aim to pursue reality. This implies that whatever that can be performed in real life can be performed in the right VR game. If one of aforementionedbatants is aware of a martial art skill or technique that the other isn''t, he stands a chance of attaining victory. Because of this, most professional gamers tend to take martial arts sses in renowned dojos, hire a personal trainer or, especially in the cases of big guilds and clubs, start a dojo of their own with reputable martial artists as teachers. The aim; to be able to master as much martial techniques and arts that will help them triumph over their opponents easily especially in a case here there''s a no or a negligible difference in attribute points or in scenarios where in-game skills can''t be used.

    The very attack performed by Hideki was a martial technique that was aimed at coping with many different scenarios and responses from its target despite seeming like a simple jab strike.

    Normally, this attack is good and suitable to use against any other yer but it happened to be that the target was Sato, not any other yer.

    "[Horizontal sh]"

    Realising that Sato had grasped the weakness of his martial technique, Hideki decisively struck against his sword as it was toote to retreat.

    *ng*

    Once more, he borrowed from the force of the attack to retreat but this time, he received a damage value of -2.

    ''His [Strength] is higher than mine though not by much.''

    As an assassin ss yer, Hideki focused most of his attribute points on [Dexterity], [Agility] and [Strength] but whenpared to that of a strength based yer like a berserker or guardian, Hideki''s [Strength] would be on the losing edge.

    Rather than rushing forward like before, Sato stood up straight and smiled at Hideki.

    Hideki frowned "You just got lucky with your skill."

    Sato chuckled and then said in the same tone as Hideki did before "If you think that every swordsman is only good with in-game skills then think again."

    Immediately, he rushed towards Hideki but this time, he held his sword in a reverse grip.

    Hideki frowned and prepared to face the attack when Sato abruptly shed downwards. Dodging it by a hair''s width, Hideki was about to counter when Sato changed his sword grip with the momentum of his previous attack, and hacked forward this time but in a horizontal form.

    Hideki was surprised but still managed to react barely in time due to his superior [Agility] but even so, Sato borrowed the momentum and once again changed to a reverse grip and shed forward.

    ''A martial skill?'' thought Hideki but he didn''t have the luxury of time to confirm his thoughts as he tried to dodge.

    Seeding at that again, Hideki was prepared this time for Sato''s changing of grip style but what he didn''t expect was that Sato held his sword in a reverse grip an executed a sword art finallynding a blow on him.

    -9 (99/110 Hideki''s HP)

    Hideki tried to retreat safely but Sato didn''t let him off easily. In the end, Hideki had separated himself from Sato but that wasn''t until he lost 23 more HP.

    "In the end, you still are weak Hideki."

 Chapter 24 - 22 : Hidekiâ€™s Reverie : Where It All Began 1

    "In the end, you still are weak Hideki."

    . . . . . .

    3 and a half years ago at a bar in the Garuba district, Shinjuku city.

    A group of young men and women averaging between 18-19 years of age were having a small celebration for their sessful term exams.

    "Haha. After today brothers, we would no longer be identified as the weak freshmen we previously were but we would shine bright against our seniors. Now, cheers people!"

    "Cheers!"

    With that, all the people present downed their drinks in a hurry. Euphoria was all stered in the faces of most of them with few already disying a ruddyplexion as a result of the high alcohol contents of the drinks.

    "Damn. This is why I hate bars in Garuba. They just fill their drinks with bitter alcohol; no quality taste at all." a young man with ck hair and tall height enough for him to be a basketball yerined while trying to withstand the taste of the drink.

    "Haha, what would you know eh, Katsuo? Alcohol ought to taste like this. Such that only worthy men can tolerate it. Look even thedies aren''tining." Another young man but with a brown hairughed out while mockingly smiling at his partner opposite him.

    "I don''t know whether you areplimenting the us or insulting us?" A youngdy who was refilling her ss said absentmindedly though she was staring at the brown haired man as if ready to pounce at him the very second he makes the wrongment.

    Awkwardlyughing, the brown haired young man replied "Don''t misunderstand me Ema. It was apliment really. Ehn. It isn''t a bad thing for women to be stronger than men in alcohol tolerance. You''re a feminist; shouldn''t you be supporting me?"

    The ck haired young man, Katsuo harrumphed "Hmph. Only a fool would trust the words of a man who thinks with his lower body."

    "What did you say?" The brown haired man turned aggressive though it looked like he was putting on an act. Truth be told, he shouldn''t be med after all, his opponent was a man capable of going pro in basketball if he wished.

    "You think we''re all stupid? Everyone knows you brought us here so you could try your luck with any girl that would get drunk. For crying out loud Yato, this is a red light district. Now onees here without having a secondary objective." Katsuo pointed out.

    "Don''t offend us men. My ns may have been spoiled but don''t think it''s impossible for someone toe to a red light district just for fun." Yato yelled.

    "So you admit it?"

    "You¡­"

    "Hey, hey. Enough is enough okay. It''s already been quite a hectic day for us all. Can''t you guys just rx and enjoy the food and drinks? Remember, today''s a day of celebration not one of marriage quarrels." A silver haired man spoke.

    "Hahaha." Everyoneughed.

    "You¡­" Both Yato and Katsuo pointed their fingers at the silver haired man but in the end none of them made a move.

    "Haha." the silver haired man chuckled.

    Like that, conversations were going on among the group with a couple of themughing, some flirting, others challenging their body''s bottom-line on alcohol intake. All in all, the entire atmosphere was upbeat and cheerful.

    "So did you hear? Conquest ising online tomorrow." A student spoke up.

    "Oh? That new VR game?" Another side character asked.

    "Yeah. I heard it was made with the newest features in the VR sector. I even watched the ad. They were all like ''Conquest, envision your imaginations'' or something." A pink haired dude who we might never see ever againmented.

    "Hehe. Isn''t that what they all say? I bet it''s going to be just lousy." Yato guffawed.

    "Hideki, what''s your take on this?" Ema faced the well built young man beside her.

    "I don''t know yet. After Syncral had you know, ''Syncralled???, nopany would dare to bite off more than they can chew. So it should be worth it." Hidekimented.

    "But it''s best we ask the real pro, Sato. Compared to him, I''m just a small figure." Hideki smiled humbly while he looked towards a ck haired young man opposite. Even though it seemed like he was just focused on his meal and drinks, he still payed attention to their conversation.

    Lifting his head up, Sato said in a somewhat ethereal voice "Conquest eh? It''s worth it. I have this feeling inside me that tells me despite not being exactly as they advertised, the game should to be good; probably being the best we currently have."

    "And so the expert has spoken." Yato bowed exaggeratedly.

    With that everyoneughed and resumed their various discussions but Hideki still looked at Sato. What he was thinking, no one knew.

    "Haha. You lost Yato. Now hand me 3 ALDs." a slightly fat guy yelled.

    "Bullshit. You cheated."

    . . . . . .

    The next day at the Shinjuku School of Engineering and mechanics.

    Even though their exams were over, the students of the mechanical engineering department, 017 ss series, still had some obligatory sses to attend but it wasn''t like they would all seriously pay attention in ss.

    "So are guys in or what?" A tanned skin man who looked like he had a mix of African heritage in his Asian blood asked the ss members around him.

    "In for what?" Yato asked curiously as he was close enough to overhear him.

    "In Conquest of cour-" An enthusiastic young man suddenly yelled forgetting his location but that was until his mouth got closed by his seat neighbour.

    "Keep it low you moron. Professor Stales might hear you."

    "We n on making a guild of ours rather than joining those pros. That way we get to keep what we get and stay together and united. Most of the ss members who are nning on ying Conquest have already agreed with me; it''s just you guys left." The tanned man continued from where the other young man stopped off.

    "Nice. I''m in." Yato agreed to the arrangements.

    "Do you think you would be able to go against the other guilds just with you guys? That''s just stupid." The silver haired guy from beforemented.

    "Don''t worry about it. I got a couple other experts[1] to hep us. With their help, we would be able to rival 4th tier guilds already and if we all train with them we might be able to stand up to some of the weaker 3rd tier guilds." (AN : Experts here doesn''t refer to the type of yers but rather experienced and adept yers.)

    "...looks like you''ve got this all nned out. Count me in then."

    "Hideki what about you?" The tanned guy asked.

    "Considering it''s made up of us close friends, I''m in." Hideki nodded.

    "Wait wait wait. Take, do you mean it''s only us guys? What about Ema and the girls?"(AN : Not the verb ''take'' but ''Take'' in ''Takehashi''.)

    "Well Ema said she''s already in a guild." The tanned guy, Takehashi replied.

    "When did that happen?!"

    Takeshi spread his arms freely while saying "I don''t know. AS for the other girls, most of them aren''t interested with only Mia, Junko, Asami and Asuka giving the ''go ahead''."

    "What about Sato?" Hideki asked.

    "He said he prefers going solo but whenever we need him, he woulde." Takehashi replied.

    "So he was to y the role of a trump card eh? What a show-off." Yato humphed.

    "At least we still have him on our side and that''s better than nothing." Silver haired dude expounded.

    "Dear students at the back. It seems you''re not that interested in my ss. If that is the case, why don''t you just leave and wait for your results toe out" Professor Stales shouted from the stage in front of the ss, with his eyes focused on Takehashi''s bunch and a smile that wasn''t one.

    "Don''t misunderstand professor. Haha, we are just exchanging thoughts on the topic.." Takehashi stated with the rest of the group alsoughing awkwardly.

 Chapter 25 - 23 : Hideki Vs Sato 2

    "In the end, you still are weak Hideki."

    Hearing that sentence once again, the very sentence that started all this. The very sentence that breed hatred within him, Hideki lost it, growling and charging forward at Sato.

    *ng*

    Sato met his attack head on as he was a true physical ss yer that had the capability for head-to-headbat.

    Sword against dagger, swordsman vs assassin, both parties wielded their weapons and struck back against each other trying to get the better of their opponent. Despite being on the lower hand in the number of attribute points in [Agility] and [Dexterity] even though it wasn''t so much, Sato was able to bridge the gap with his gaming experience and skill.

    Hideki on the other hand, was a victim to Sato''s wless attacks. Even when it seemed like he was about to get the upper hand with his higher attributes, Sato would turn the tables around by executing a different martial technique at thest moment thereby not only escaping the danger but also dealing significant damage to Hideki.

    *ng*

    *ng*

    Even though their speed wasn''t above that of what a human can see they were still quite fast; attacking about 3-4 times within a second. With his higher [Dexterity], Hideki was able to sh out more times than Sato but even so, Satofortably received his attacks and still had the luxury to counter.

    Snake''s jaw, Seven flower kills, Myriad shes and more. Hideki used martial technique after martial technique trying to best Sato in their duel but despite all that, he seemed to still be at the the receiving end.

    ''Why? Why? I have trained to the best I can. I even got assigned to a special training program by the guild. I learnt all I could but why, why can''t I still win? Sato, why can''t I reach you?'' Hideki inwardly yelled as he felt a tinge of desperation from not being able to make any reasonable advancement in their battle. ''What can I do? Do I really have no choice left?''

    Their fight went on for around 3 minutes. At this point, Hideki only had 32 HP left while Sato still had about 69 HP. This was mostly because of Hidekinding a lucky shot or trading blow for blow. Even so, with a single look at their current state, the winner could easily be determined as Sato seemed to still have a lot more fighting spirit in himself while Hideki was quite worn out with his breathing seemingly haggard.

    "Have you had enough, Hideki? Or do you want me to finish it?" Sato stared at Hideki who had just retreated while grabbing at a recently formed injury.

    In Infinite Realm, even though yers tend to not experience major injuries, the Heaven System simtes these injuries once a critical attack has beennded at the same ce twice. This leads to the opponent bleeding and constantly losing HP and stamina, though at a miniscule amount.

    "Hahaha." Suddenly, Hideki startedughing wildly without a care for his current appearance. He then shouted out "You fool. Haha, you think I would just give up after going this far? What do you take me for? Can''t you already see? You''re surrounded."

    As he said so, a few other yers stepped out from their hiding ces, numbering at least 8. Counting in the other 3 spectators (Hideki''s two followers and the ranger) together with the mastermind, there were about 12 yers on Hideki''s side.

    "I never nned to go this far but you have forced my hand, Sato." Hideki grinned in a vile manner.

    "Enough with thements. Trying to portray yourself as a good guy really isn''t like you Hideki. If you had never nned this from the start you wouldn''t have ever had the thought of ganging up on me." Sato held his sword pointing downwards while scanning the new arrivals.

    "Hmph. It doesn''t matter what you say. You''re still going to die today. Attack him!"

    Apart from one of the followers who was charged with watching over the cursemancer, the remaining 10 yers rushed after Sato. It looked as if a group of hunters had ganged up on a pitiful prey. Of the 10 yers, 5 of them, including the ranger from earlier, were long range fighters. 3 mages; 2 elementalist and 1 necromancer, 2 rangers, 2 guardians, 2 berserkers and 1 swordsman. If the assassin Hideki who was lurking in the background was included then such a force was even capable of taking on an expert ss yer.

    Arrows and spells from the long range squad covered the sky making it so that Sato couldn''t even retreat backwards. The 2 guardians rushed forward ignoring the attack as if it wouldn''t strike them with the aim of forcing Sato to focus on them as they were right in front of him. The 2 berserkers together with the swordsman, attacked from the nks cornering him right in the middle. Hideki entered stealth mode and waited for the perfect opportunity tond a devastating blow on Sato.

    Despite so, Sato wasn''t frightened. Instead, he took in a deep breath and took a stance preparing to sh with them.

    "Prepare yourself for today, I shall show you a glimpse of my true strength."

    ''How foolish of you Sato.'' Hideki thought.

    The arrows and spells were the first to arrive and as they about to hit him, everyone heard Sato seemed to turn into another person as they heard him say in a low voice " Lotus sword art : 2nd form : 3 leaf block."

    An unimaginable thing took ce as Sato shed his sword. The yers seemed to see his de split to form a lotus that blocked of all the spells and cut through all the arrows.

    "IMPOSSIBLE ! Those arrows are made of high grade 1 star materials. No yer should have such strength." A ranger at the back lines eximed.

    "What do you know?" Sato calmly said.

    Despite his shocking performance, the physical ss yers still rushed towards him as this was a mission handed to them by their superior. The Guardians were the first to encounter Sato with the berserkers and the swordsman perfecting timing their approach in a way that Sato wouldn''t be able to react properly against them.

    "Lotus sword art: 1st form : Swift kill."

    Following that, the two guardians felt a stinging pain before they copsed not knowing what had just urred. The berserkers and the swordsman on the other hand were able to see when Sato attacked as there was still a little distance between the two parties but even so they didn''t get away totally intact with one of them falling to Sato''s strike and the other two withdrawing backwards but with less than 50% HP left.

    ''It seems I''m still weak to use it. If I had a little more in my attributes they would have already been dead.'' Sato was slightly disappointed at the result but that didn''t stop him from pursuing the other two.

    As he was about to chase after them, he felt something behind him and spun to hit the target but was stopped halfway.

    *ng*

    Hideki appeared out of stealth mode as his attack had just failed and retreated quickly. Turning to the other yers he screamed "What are you waiting for?"

    The long range yers were initially awed by Sato''s performance but after hearing their captain''s orders they regained themselves and cast spell after spell, fired arrow after arrow hoping that just one of their attacks wouldnd.

    "Just give up Sato!"

    Sato replied "Inevitable struggles for a bunch of dead men." With that, he rushed towards the long range squad because he realised that if he let them be, they would continue to interrupt him.

    As he was rushing towards them, it was unavoidable that he would run into their attacks but even so, there wasn''t a hint of hesitation on his face. Running side by side in an erratic manner, Sato was able to avoid most of the attacks and throw off his attackers aim. For the attacks he couldn''t avoid, he expertly deflected it to sh with another minimising the barrage of spells and arrows he had to face.

    Since the closebat attackers couldn''t approach him due to the multitude of long range attacks, they decided to guard the long range squad which was Sato''s target. Initially, they came ready to kill Sato but after they had lost 3 of their men, the berserker and the swordsman were nervous with sweat secreting from their palms.

    It didn''t take long for Sato to arrive in front of them and once he did, thest berserker rushed towards him in a bid to take him out as Sato had just dodged a projectile and was in an awkward position. But to his surprise, Sato made a startling movement that was seemingly impossible,nding a surprise attack on the berserker. An elementalist tried to fire a spell at Sato to make him retreat but instead, Sato pushed the berserker towards it thereby eliminating thest remaining inch of HP he had.

    The swordsman seeing how his partner had died lost all resistance and ran away. That seemed to be the sword that struck the camel''s back as the remaining yers, who were obviously terrible at closebat battles, lost their back bones and retreated too.

    But Sato wouldn''t let them go so easily. Once blood has been spilled more would be spilt. He chased after them one by one and seeded in killing the entire mages. However, the rangers and the swordsman, due to their superior mobility, were able to use the time Sato spent killing the mages, to escape quite some distance away.

    Sato returned back to the original field and realised that the other follower, the cursemancer and Hideki had all disappeared.

    ''That should teach him a lesson.''

    Indeed, after this experience, Hideki would be haunted by Sato.. He came with a group 12 men strong but only 5 men escaped but with a history to haunt them all.

 Chapter 26 - 24 : Trending News

    [[System : 5 missed Audio calls

    Details : Emperor Wolf (5) ]]

    ''Oh, he called.''

    During the battle between Hideki and his gang, Sato had muted his System notification alert and status so as not to get distracted. It then became unavoidable that he would miss a lot of calls and messages but even so, it''s better to be safe than sorry.

    [[System : Iing Audio call.

    Caller ID : Emperor Wolf

    ept/Decline ]]

    ''Speak of the devil.''

    [[System : Audio call epted]]

    "Hey. Where have you been? I''ve been standing here for a couple of minutes now."

    "Oh? You''re already at Grnyx? Give me a few minutes; give or take 5 minutes. I''ll be there soon."

    "What about Hideki? Are you guys already done?" Fudo asked, a little surprised at Sato''s nonchnt behaviour.

    "Oh him? Don''t worry about it. Hideki won''t be bothering us for awhile now."

    "Haha. I knew you could handle it. But you should have dyed a bit. I wanted to get a piece of him."

    "Enough. All you know how to do is to hang a bell around a cat''s neck[1]. We talk when I get there. Later."

    [[System : Audio call terminated]]

    With that, Sato began hurrying back to Town.

    Due to the fact that they wanted to find a spot that would be quite far from the guards, Hideki and Sato had gone about 300 metres away from the West gate, into the forest bordering it. As Sato was running back to town, he recollected his experience and earnings from the battle.

    ''It seems that using the Lotus sword art at this point of the game is quite difficult. My stamina can onlyst for 3 strikes. Lotus sword art is actually my weakest sword art. With that in mind, performing a single strike of the other sword arts might leave me finished. I guess I''d leave them for myst minute trump cards. *sigh* I really need to level up quickly that way I should be able to use the other techniques.''

    The Lotus sword art was a sword art made by a sword sage who had secluded himself from civilization. Rumour had it that he created the technique after staring at blooming in a pond. The sword art consisted of 15 moves, reminiscent of the 15 petals of a lotus flower[2]. It had 4 defensive maneuvers, 9 direct attacking strikes and 2 counter-attacking moves.

    It didn''t take long for Sato arrive back inside town. Seeing Fudo''s pudgy figure waving at him from a distance, Sato approached him.

    "Why did you call me here?" Fudo asked while staring at the building with the title ''Grynx Merchandise''.

    "Are you blind or what? We came here for shopping." Sato inly stated.

    "...shopping?" Fudo asked in bewilderment. "Are you taking me out?"

    Sato''s face twitched "...One more word and you might take a trip to your respawn point?"

    "Hahaha." Fudoughed awkwardly while scratching his head.

    "In case you don''t know we need supplies if we aim on exploring that tunnel plus I n on getting used to my subss for now so I need materials. It would be dumb to have a subss and not familiarise yourself with it. It''s best we do it now we have the money before we forget. Once we are done, we would head over to the city Town Centre andplete that mission." Sato rified.

    "That''s true. I also need materials."

    "By the way, what''s up with everybody? On my way here, every yer seemed to be talking about something. I didn''t here them clearly but it seems to be rted with the forums or so. I didn''t check it cause I was in a hurry." Sato added.

    "Oh? You didn''t get the System notification?" Fudo faced Sato with confusion.

    "Nope. I muted all my alerts. Lemme chec-"

    "Don''t stress yourself; just check the forums." Fudo interrupted.

    "Okay."

    In Infinite Realm, the official forum tform is divided into 2 slides; the editor''s and the yers'' forums[3]. The editor''s forum serves to inform yers of any new additions, features and releases into the game. In other words, it works as a bulletin board for official announcements made by the game''s producers. The yers'' forum serves a s amunication tform for Infinite Realm gamers. Here they can post their achievements, advertisements and info on any event be it a mission, quest or even a battle.

    Moving his focus towards the System panel, Sato erged it[4] and clicked on the forums icon. What appeared in front of him was a site that was filled with various topics and discussions with the headline news in bold; "SHOCKING DISCOVERY AT A MANSION !". Below it were a bunch of other write-ups and posts all simr or rted to it all with exhrating and rousing headers like "IMPORTANT : MISSION GOES WRONG WITH MULTITUDES SLAUGHTERED !" or "RIVERDALE IN CRISIS : CLICK TO FIND OUT WHY". Clicking on the topmost post which was the initial one, Sato read it and as he went on, his eyebrows kept rising and rising.

    "Hehehe. With that, we might not need to go to the tunnel again." Fudo looked at Sato.

    Sato sighed "Better them than us. Who would have known that such a crisis was looming underneath that mansion."

    The supposed shocking discovery was actually about the aftermath of the ghost mansion mission Sato and Fudo had encountered. Apparently, Sato and Fudo weren''t the only one who epted the mission. Even though they found outter with the arrival of Sind, they were still shocked to find out that a total of 7 guilds and 12 adventurer guilds did the same, with even a top 2nd tier guild like East Crow doing the same.

    From the information Sato gathered from the forums, he learnt that the various guilds and parties had arrived at the Ghost mansion in time to witness a startling change ur. A multitude of wild goblins had already upied the ce, turning it into a levelling map. The various powers not willing to go back empty handed began to start levelling, exterminating the masses of monsters close-by.

    All seemed to be going quite well for them until they sensed a huge amount of dark mana sprout forth from the ground, eradicating most of the yers. Even the goblins weren''t spared as the dark mana was unable to differentiate between friend or foe but this was just the beginning. Later on, the surviving yers who were just about to retreat, imed that the dark mana coagted and formed a humanoid creature who went on to lead the entire goblin horde. That was when the true bloodbath began, despite their numbers, the yer army was outnumbered 1 to 15. They stood no chance against the army and even if they did, the creature of dark mana was on another league; ughtering at least 5 yers with each step he took. Bloodshed, carnage, decimation, genocide; none of these words were an understatement of what had urred.

    Such carnage and destruction was unanticipated for current yers as the game had just begun. As a result, the Heaven system paid them no attention even though some of them were frustrated at their ''unfair'' death,.

    Sato spected that the various guilds and parties had arrived at the Ghost Mansion around a few minutes after he and Fudo had left. As such, the yer army had encountered arge mob of unearthed goblins.

    However, that wasn''t the only trending news. Another post had described the previous event but it also added an alert given to all resident yers in towns under ck Rock city''s jurisdiction .

    [[ System Notification :

    The Goblin''s Invasive Retribution : Mission Package

    A yer has just discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. Hold down the fort and stop the goblin''s from further conquering morends.

    The mission begins in X hour(s).

    Rewards : Based on performance.

    Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

    Loss of 2 levels with reduction of experience gained by 30% for 2 weeks

    Rtionship level with human forces at [Dislike] ]]

    AN :

    [1] Discussing something that''s impossible.

    [2] Lotus flowers may have more or less but this is my world. So we go with 15.

    [3] Think of it like how the official webnovel app has different pages like the library, featured, e.t.c. But in this case, there are 2 such pages.

    [4] The system panel is usually small; around 7 * 7 inches.. By the way, only Fudo can see his System panel unless he wills it.

 Chapter 27 - 25 : Aftermath At The Ghost Mansion 1

    "Sir, it looks like we aren''t the first one here." A level 4 Pdin garbed in ck colored Mid tier Mortal ss full body equipment.

    "What do you take me for, Banta? I can already see that." The berserker that exuded a little bit of bloodlust around him, frowned at the Pdin.

    Indeed, this team was that of the East Crow guild charged withpleting the Ghost Mansion mission. Originally, they were being held back by other members of Sind but after Dream Tiger decided to handle it, they hurried over to the Ghost Mansion in fear of Sind taking the goods. To their shock though, they weren''t the first nor the second to make it there.

    "It doesn''t matter. Since we are here we might as well find out what''s going on." White Zero walked out from behind and uttered.

    "Oh? Little Song, what are you doing over there? Can''t youe say hi to me ?" A Caucasian man d in blue iron armor with a greatsword hung behind waved at the East Crow party or rather yet, Little Song.

    The berserker had an artistic touch to his facial features and was worthparing to a model. With silk blond hair, light pink lips, caramel coloured eyes and a slightly pale coloured skin, he was indeed worthy of being an ambassador for a clothing line or even a cosmeticpany. Despite looking so fragile, none of the members of East Crow looked down on the man. If anything, some of them even got their guards up while staring at him, waiting for him to make any unnecessary moves during which they would attack him.

    "Pte. Never thought I would see you here." Little Song was quite surprised since Pte was not Asian.

    "Well then surprise, I''m here." Pte smiled coquettishly.

    ''Is it me or did the weather get cold?'' thought Little Song while he felt a chill from Pte''s feminine smile.

    Lavelle Mason, aka Pte, is a professional French gamer for the foreign 2nd tier guild, Halo''s Dawn. Pte was not an average figure but a core member of Halo''s Dawn, just as White Zero is to East Crow. One shouldn''t judge him by his looks as his lean muscles were actually the product of the zenith of gics study and physical training. That''s why despite their weak appearance, they enable Pte to lift his huge greatsword and swing it easily as if it''s nothing.

    "I thought you would be with your people. Don''t tell me Halo thinks it has a shot at ck Rock?" White Zero asked surprised.

    Most VR games was made to support people from all races and locations as such, there aren''t only Asian yers. However, even though they are meant for the entire world''s poption, the producers tend to subtly influence their works such that the indigenes of a particr region be moved to one region in the game at the early stages. This allows them to first interact with the people in their surroundings before meeting foreign people. However, this feature can be bypassed by actively choosing your point of initial spawning.(AN : Which in the case of our MC, he set at random.) [1] Due to this bypassing, some guilds spread their powers to foreign sites.

    "We aren''t so optimistic. I''m just here as a representative." Pte smiled kindly.

    "So Halo has it''s eye on ck Rock?" White Zero frowned.

    "It''s not like we are the only ones plus East Crow must have already thought of the same thing or even more, begun your ''invasion''. " Pte replied, still smiling.

    Normally, big guilds tend to focus most of their power at certain spots(either one or two cities), which is normally their local region, with the remaining spread apart in various ces. The bigger the guild, the more ces they can ce their attention on. Because of this, it is possible to find foreign guilds in ces upied by native guilds.

    ''Seems like I"ll have to tell Boss.'' White Zero inwardly noted.

    Halo''s Dawn, despite being a 2nd tier guild was feared by many including it''s fellow rankers. The reason; they had a very close alliance with a 1st tier guild, Achilles Bow. Their partnership was said to be so tight that they would help each other even at the risk of themselves. Since Daichi together with his guild, East Crow, had had an encounter previously with Achilles Bow and a very serious one at that, the rtionship between them and Halo''s Dawn became unfriendly though not to the point of attacking each other on sight.

    "So why haven''t you guys gone in yet?" White Zero said while staring at all the other guilds waiting by the gate.

    "Apparently, there''s been a weird change to the mission." Pte pondered before answering.

    "A weird change? Howe we weren''t notified?" White Zero was confused.

    "Rather than a change in the mission, it''s more like an unexpected progress here leading to a rise in the mission''s difficulty. However, the System doesn''t identify this as a real change in the mission''s difficulty or rather this should have been the real difficulty, just that we never expected it." Another man exined. He had a red hair styled with a ruffian trait to it.

    "Kodak, You''re also here?" (AN : No rtion) White Zero was fairly surprised at the presence of the vice guild leader of Warmongers, a 3rd tier guild. Despite being a 3rd tier, Warmongers were capable of rivalling the weaker 2nd tier guilds and even some of the average ones. It would even take a guild like East Crow a lot of manpower and determination to wipe them out. To have be the vice guild leader speaks loudly of his ability, as such, Kodak was capable of having a conversation with them.

    Kodak nodded.

    "So what''s the change you were talking about?"

    "From the info our scouts got, they spotted a goblin horde, numbering around 35-100, in the mansion''s location. We don''t know why there''s such a mob out in the open like that and from our investigations so far, they had just recently appeared." Kodak disclosed.

    "And Sind?"

    "Apparently, they met an unfortunate end at the hands of the monsters. Only one of them was found; the assassin Devis."

    "Oh? Devis? That then means that the group that died was probably their main force." White Zero spected.

    "That''s what he told us." Kodak nodded before continuing "He also said that there seemed to be another group that arrived before them; as for who they are, he doesn''t seem to know."

    ''Another group¡­?'' White Zero sighed inwardly. "Did he say anything else?"

    Kodak frowned contemtively before shaking his head.

    "So what do you guys n on doing?" White Zero asked even though he had an inkling as to their next objective.

    This time, Pte answered "Well we can''t go back empty handed so we might as well level up. The problem however is that Devis imed that there seems to be a boss level monster down there; one far beyond the currentpetence of us yers. This was confirmed by the druids. However we can''t just leave it be neither can we handle it alone."

    "So you n on teaming up with all the guilds present?" White Zero gave Pte and Kodak a strange look.

    "We really have no choice; it''s either we team up to defeat it or the heavyweights do." Pte spread his arms out nonchntly.

    "Word around is that the message has already reached the ears of other towns. Originally, the distance dissuaded them from doing so but if they find out about the current progression on this matter, they might start taking actions. Worst of all, Emperor''s Might has been spotted in Riverdale. I don''t know why they aren''t here yet but there''s no way they would want to miss an opportunity to earn [Void Silver]."

    "In other words, better us than them?" White Zero didn''t know whether tough or cry but they both made some sense. Rather than empowering a greater foe without receiving benefits, they decided to risk losing the opportunity to their fellow opponents. At the very least, they would still get something out of it and who knows, they mightnd thest blow, iming all the rewards.

    Taking a deep breath, he said "Okay, we''re in."

 Chapter 28 - 26 : Aftermath At The Ghost Mansion 2

    (AN : Sorry itste. There might be some errors present. Alert me if any.)

    " Including you guys, there are a total of 7 official guilds and 12 adventurer guilds or groups. " Kodak disclosed.

    "That many?!" Little Song was shocked. ''About 19 guilds just for a mission and that doesn''t even include the free yers !''

    "Well sadly, we might not be enough." Pte said smiling seductively at Little Song.

    ''Please stop it!''

    Ignoring his behaviour, White Zero questioned"Why do you say so?"

    "From the data and info we got from the druids present, we analyzed that it is highly possible for the boss monster to be at level 15 or even level 20. At Level 10, we experience a qualitative change and this applies to the monsters too. Considering that we aren''t even Level 10, it would be hard to take down a level 15 boss much less a level 20 boss."

    "But you already have a n." White Zero smiled.

    Kodak nodded " It''s possible that the difference might not be so drastic. In other words, we still have a chance if we have a proper n that amodates various contingencies.We just need to clear the mobs first. For this, we would need everyone''s help including the free yers."

    "Okay."

    . . . . .

    Underneath the ground, deep inside one of the tunnels in the bee-hive structure Sato and Fudo had previously visited.

    At the end of this tunnel was a spacious hall decorated with silver and golden candle-stands at the two sides. The entire atmosphere in the hall was bleak and dreary. At one end of the wall directly opposite the entrance, was a huge wall painting of a mummy wrapped up in chains that were extended in the four major directions. Beneath it was a stone altar decorated with golden and silver candle-stands. The stone altar was carved with various figures and illustrations depicting a heinous scene with barbaric acts beingmitted. All in all, the carvings were more like the depiction of the deeds of vicious men and creatures.

    On the altar was a bowl filled with a red coloured liquid. The liquid itself wasn''t so special but the bowl seemed to be a high grade material. It continuously oozed out a bizarre and mysterious aura. The bowl, just like the altar, was modelled with grooves and gashes. But unlike that of the altar, the carvings were more of an abstract feature depicting neither creature nor scene but rather scribbles and curves.

    In front of the altar, a weird humanoid creature with a single horn on its head and a ck robe with white stripes at certain intervals knelt down with its face bowed low. It was uttering a couple of nonsensical words with an exaggeratedly fervent expression and tone. The air and space around the creature seemed to be twisted as quirky wave patterns took form around the creature.

    Out of the blue, the creature abruptly stopped speaking and swiftly turned backwards, lifting it''s head and staring at the position where White Zero, Pte and Kodak were. It''s face was hidden within a hood with only darkness being noticeable however its blood red eyes could still be seen. It was unknown whether if it was smiling or seriously thinking as its blood beads squinted.

    . . . . .

    The gang of White Zero, Pte and Kodak, together with their guilds, had seeded in persuading the solo yers present to side with them. Truth be told, it wasn''t so had as the yers present were all set on levelling up and with a mob in front of them together with the big guilds'' support, it was only normal fr them to agree. As for the other smaller guilds and adventurer guilds, they eventually decided to go with the flow as the solo yers had already been persuaded. Coupled with the big guilds assisting them and the exact same reason as Pte and White Zero; which being that they believed the difference between them and the boss monster could easily be covered up by their numbers plus they may have a shot atnding thest kill, gaining unimaginable rewards, they began to gather their forces with that of the 2nd tier guilds present.

    "So far we have a total of about 126 yers present. The scouts reported there being about 100 goblins onnd with many more possibly underground. We don''t n on attracting the boss too early so we eliminate the horde slowly. We use n B if things don''t go as nned. As for the boss, the majority of the yers are tagged with damage with most of the MTs attracting aggro in teams. The mages are to interrupt his moves and the rangers to work in sync with them. Most of the damage dealt will be dependent on them As for us, we will serve as the core of each division. That''s all. For any unexpected events we handle it as we go." White Zero addressed the entire crowd of yers. "Now, let''s go!"

    With that, the yers headed into the mansion in groups. The assassins and a few of the rangers were charged with herding some of the goblins their way. Due to the multitude of yers in each group, they were able to quickly eliminate each goblin team sent their way in less than 3 minutes.

    "Haha, this is easy and fun. I"ll be able to reach level 5 in a few hours if things go like this." An unimportant character stated.

    "Infinite realm? More like Rip-off realm." Anotherughed.

    "Haha, let''s call it Syncral realm instead."

    "This is a god-tier levelling hack."

    "It seems like things are going as nned." Pte approached White Zero and Kodak.

    "Yeah. It''s what happens when you n properly; something I doubt you do." Little Songmented. Because the goblins were easily killed and were about the same level as him, Little Song left them to the other party members while aiding them at intervals and keeping his guard up for the boss'' appearance.

    "Even still, I keep getting the feeling everything is going too smoothly." White Zero frowned.

    "And why''s that?" asked a surprised Kodak.

    "I don''t know; I just have that feeling."

    "Well then it might be your imagination or probably anxiety." Pte snickered.

    White Zero frowned, visibly annoyed at his statement after all, as a pro yer, anxiety and nervousness are emotions they are trained to avoid.

    "If you want, we can bump up our grinding speed that way we would be ready for any idents. However, that might attract the boss. I heard bosses in Infinite Realm have a higher reaction time and detection radius than other games." Kodak pointed out.

    "Let''s do it. If they do have such then it shouldn''t be so absurd or else the boss would have already noticed us." Ptemented.

    As White Zero was about to reply, alert bells rang in his mind as he sensed arge surge of a gloomy, dark mana rise from beneath them.

    "Everyone be careful !"

    *Boom*

    The ground beneath some of the yers tore apart as a huge surge of dark coloured gas exploded outwards. The ground sunk down as cracks began to form around the newly formed pit. The goblins began to scream in unison as if weing the arrival of a god.

    "What was that?" Pte asked while trying to keep his bnce.

    "I think that was the boss.." White Zero stared grimly at the dark fumes that had gathered to form a humanoid figure.

 Chapter 29 - 27 : Aftermath At The Ghost Mansion 3

    Draped in a oversized ck cloak with white stripes, the levitating anthropomorphous creature stared at the yers. Its arms were concealed within the cloaks sleeves with its facial features were hidden underneath the hoodie; only a patch of darkness together with two deep red beads could be made out . Due to his mana''s attribute and quality, the space around him warped with his body oozing out an eerie aura. As it took form, a system notification appeared on every yer''s interface.

    [[ System Notification :

    The Goblin''s Invasive Retribution : Mission Package

    A yer has just discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. Hold down the fort and stop the goblin''s from further conquering morends.

    The mission begins in X hour(s).

    Rewards : Based on performance.

    Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

    Loss of 2 levels with reduction of experience gained by 30% for 2 weeks

    Rtionship level with human forces at [Dislike] ]]

    Even so, most of the yers ignored it, still staring at the humanoid monster. When the creature faced the yers, a slit formed within the darkness that reced its face. Slowly, a white colored material was revealed until it turned out to be its teeth. Looking at it with an overall view, the creature seemed to be grinning wildly as if mocking the yers'' phony intelligence that made them think they could challenge it.

    "He''s mocking us.." Kodak frowned while staring at the bipedal fiend.

    "...intelligence?" Little Song hesitated before asking.

    "Probably." Even Pte took the fellow seriously as he had stopped smiling, frowning at the feeling the creature gave him. "Is this the result of that feeling you got?" Pte asked White Zero.

    On the other hand, White Zero frowned before shouting "Mage Unit !" while casting a wide range [cate].[1]

    With that, some of the yers recovered their senses with Kodak and Pte quickly takingmand of the other squads.

    "MTs, divide yourselves into 3 groups. Group 1 handle the goblin horde. Group 2 and 3 interchange with the boss'' aggro. Damage dealers, divide into two groups; the first group would be made up of the closebat yers and the second, of ranged yers. First group, focus on the goblin horde while the ranged yers focus on the boss. Cursemancers and druids, try to hold the boss in ce and keeping casting control spells at him. Now go!" Kodak yelled.

    Even though the pro yers were initially intimidated and awe-struck by the monster''s initial move, they were still worthy of their titles as pro yers as they recovered quickly.

    Kodak took control of the second and third MT squads while Ptemandeered the closebat damage dealers to handle the horde. The 1st MT squad was headed by the vice guild leader of a 3rd tier guild. White Zero took charge of the ranged yers to handle the boss. In less than 30 seconds, they were already in formation. This was the n B Kodak, Pte and White Zero had orchestrated in case the boss responds before they had wiped out the goblin horde. The were hoping that they wouldn''t have to use it but as it turned out, fate had a different n for them.

    During the time they were arranging themselves, the boss ignored them and stared at a patch ofnd on the ground. It had stopped grinning and stared deeply at the area, ignoring themotion caused by the yers. The ce it stared at happened to be the courtyard where Sato and Fudo battled the [Cursed servant]. The fiend still kept staring there even after the yers had taken their posts and started attacking the goblin horde.

    Seeing an opportunity with the boss being distracted, White Zero yelled "Fire!"

    Immediately, the sky was assaulted by a multitude of colours and arrows. It looked awfully like a distorted rainbow as there was no arrangement to it. The myriad of spells, arrows and colours gave off an imposing and overwhelming feeling to the spectators which included the yers and monsters. In a sense, it was quite alluring and pleasing to the eyes. The mana brewing from the attacks was somewhat tremendous as even the clerics were able to sense it.

    It took less than 4 seconds for the varying myriad of attacks to hit the creature. Even as they approached it, the creature seemed to ignore them, with its eyes still fixed on the same spot. Since they were a lot of them, most of them had collided with each other causing explosions halfway. Despite that, at least 60% of the attacks had sessfullynded on their target.

    The end result was a devastating explosion that clouded a part of the sky. Even the very few goblin mages had clearly sensed it as they had reflexively stopped their attacks in shock. The mana resulting from the explosion was far more than that felt when the spells were still moving towards their targets.

    "There''s no way the boss coulde out unscathed from this." A druid, who had clearly sensed the mana the attacks wielded, stated with full conviction still clearly stunned at the explosion.

    Even White Zero didn''t deny it but still kept his guard up.

    However, reality still wasn''t satisfied with pping their faces once. The smokescreen that resulted from the explosion cleared within 15 seconds and the creature was still floating in mid air, ignoring the masses of yers who were staring with their jaws open wide at the it.

    "Impossible, impossible, impossible. How are we supposed to defeat that?" An elementalist eximed.

    "There''s no way he withstood that easily. He had to have used a barrier or something." Another shocked yer who happened to try to keep his coolmented.

    "No, he did. I didn''t see any barrier taking form or disintegrating." White Zero rified. ''I thought the difference wouldn''t be much but why did it have to be?''

    "Did anyone use an [Inspect] on it?" Driar, an elementalist from Halo''s Dawn asked out loud.

    "No. He''s too far."

    "Everyone. Don''t give up yet. Fire another round while the boss is still distracted. He should have a limit." ''I just hope so.'' White Zero tried to keep the morale stable even though he himself doubted his own words.

    "Indeed. So let''s not give up yet;e on." Driar who noticed what White Zero was trying to do supported him.

    Suddenly¡­.

    "Foolish mortals."

    The creature spoke.

    As he did, the entire yer army, including those battling with the goblin horde, shuddered.

    ''With just two words, he has already cast a spell; no signals whatsoever.'' Driar thought, with fear in his eyes as he stared at the System notification on his interface.

    [[ System notification :

    You have been inflicted with [Fear] status effect. Main attributes reduced by 10% as long as effect is still active. ]]

    ''How do we beat this?''

    It then red at the yers and said "Today, you shall know pain."[1]

    The creature spoke in a weirdnguage that none of the yers knew. Despite that, the yers were able to understand his[2] words.

    Following that, the fiend lifted on arm and pointed it straight towards the yers. Immediately, a huge amount of dense dark mana, capable of rivalling a 5 storey building, took form. It oozed off a grim creepy aura and before anyone of them were able to react, the ball took off,nding right in the midst of the yers and goblins, eliminating them both.

    "Shit!" White Zero screamed. Since the attack was aimed towards the physical ssbat yers, the ranged yers were still alive.

    "Everyone retreat!" No one knew who shouted it, but no one cared to know. All the yers took to their feet and ran towards the exit hoping they might survive this trial.

    "Kra!" The creature yelled. With that, more goblin troops came up from the pit and ran towards the escaping yers, massacring them with little resistance.

    The monster on the other hand, focused on pursuing the clerics though at times, it would kill whoever stood in it''s path.

    Mass ughter with almost no resistance, extermination, genocide, annihtion. None of these words are an understatement of the current event. Even pro yers who were well known for their skills and had plenty of battle records couldn''t evenst a mini-second against it.

    ''Why were we so stupid?'' Little Song, who happened to still be struggling in the midst of the goblin horde, questioned inwardly. ''It''s a good thing Dream Tiger didn''te with us otherwise..'' Little Song recalled Dream tiger who had earlier departed in search of more Sind yers to ughter.

    ''It''s not a bad thing to die this early. Better now thanter..'' Those were hisst thoughts as he got drowned in the wave, falling prey to the numerous goblins around him.

 Chapter 30 - 28 : Grynx Merchandise

    The entire battlefield was in silence. Since the yers weren''t so much to start with, it didn''t take the goblin army much time to eliminate them. In the end, there were only bodies scattered allover with blood spilled on the battlefield. For a hemophobic [1] individual, this scene would be enough to knock them out or cause an irreparable trauma. The mixture of goblin blood and flesh together with human flesh and human blood was quite a grisly and nauseating sight.

    The cloaked creature stared at this sight and it''s bloodlust intensified. It took a while for it to restrain itself before it floated to the centre of the battlefield, where it spread its arms apart, as if hugging a humongous tree, and then sucked in a huge amount of air. Within a second, the blood in the entire in gathered together towards it andpressed together, forming a huge ball of about a diameter of 4 metres.

    Once the blood ball waspleted, ck gas oozed out from the creature''s peritoneum region. The gas dissolved into the blood ball and formed ck runes on it''s surface. The runes forcefullypressed and purified the blood ball till it was slightly bigger than a basketball. After that, the creature stored the blood ball away and stared in the direction of Riverdale looking at thevish primary town of ck Rock city. However it didn''t make that move as if something was holding it back.

    . . . . .

    [[ The Goblins'' Invasion (Series)

    Quest rating : S

    Intro : The goblins have always been waging war against humans, slowly trying to acquire more territory from them. As a result of the greed from both sides for morend and resources, the mes of war has been ever-burning, reeking havoc to both sides with no final victor decided.

    1st Chapter :

    You have discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. Report to the City Lord, Patrol General, Town Chief or anyone of suitable/equivalent rank about this. Once epted, further missions pertaining to this quest can''t be rejected.

    Reward : 3 bars of Star Gold, 1 Silver Core and 20 Silver coins.

    Time Remaining : 1 hour 15 minutes left.

    Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

    Loss of 5 levels with reduction of experience gained by 50% for 2 months

    Rtionship level with human forces at [Unforgivable]

    Mission status : epted; not yetpleted.

    ]]

    "Let''s hurry up here and then head to the Town centre." Sato said while ncing at his System Interface before opening the door into the store.

    "I''ve been wondering, why did you pick this store over all the others?" Fudo asked while passing through the door.

    "It looked stylish and trustworthy plus I asked around earlier on." Sato expressed.

    The producers had informed the general public of some of the simrities between Infinite Realm and reality in the editor''s forum tform. One of this happened to be scams. Just like reality, yers can be scammed in the game. There''s even a subss for that! You might see an NPC store and decide to sell your earnings there, but you might end up getting scammed either selling your materials for fake coins or buying fake materials. As such, it is important to be careful when trading in-game. However such urrences aren''t soe on.

    "Apparently, Grynx has a branch in the city so I doubt they''re scammers."

    Grnyx Merchandise was one of the very few city scale NPC merchant stores that had a branch in towns. The building was 4 storey building that was quite wide. It was built with quality stones capable of surviving a monster attack[2]. Even the que that held the store''s name wasn''t ordinary as it was made with a high quality 3 star material, Great Dawn wood and the ink used to write on it was actually a 4 star material, Jirel Ink. In front of the door stood 2 guards in high quality Pdin armour who both held a spear in their hands.

    The interior was properly designed with a white coloured background that perfectly outlined the interior and ced focus on the goods. There was some distance between the doors and the shelves.

    The store was packed with tons of disy shelves and cases that held various weapons, equipment and materials. The equipment and weapons were mostly within the rank of Mid tier Mortal rank to Upper tier Mortal rank. The materials on the other hand were between 1 star to 2 star materials. Most of the customers present were high levelled NPC characters(level 12-20) and wealthy NPCs.

    "Can I help you?"

    As Sato and Fudo walked in, they were stopped by a smiling blond haired female NPC who was dressed in a uniform. Her clothing was a brown and beige styled uniform with a grey badge made up of a single chevron with a carriage beneath it. Despite smiling, they could still see a tinge of disdain in her eyes.

    [[ Name : Sophia

    Race : Human

    Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Level : 17

    HP : 340

    ss (Job) : Elementalist (Mage)

    Subss : Sales Clerk (Merchant)

    Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom ]]

    ''Damn. For a town branch''s clerk, she''s quite high levelled and pretty too.'' Fudo inwardly eximed.

    Ignoring the look she was giving them, Sato replied "We are here to buy some equipment and if the price is good, we would sell some materials."

    "Hmph, I wonder what you can sell if your equipment are these bad. Get out before I call the security on you guys."

    "Hey missie, we just wanna buy something. Haven''t you heard of customer rights before?" Fudoined.

    "Hmph! Customer rights are only for customer''s who actually have money. Looking at you guys, I''m pretty sure you''re like thest bunch that came in here ogling at the cases. You''re just here to walk around and stare at items you''d never buy; just go back to the fields or wherever you came from." Sophiashed back.

    "You..."

    "Sophia. What''s going on here?" A tall man walked over. He was dressed in a simr clothing as Sophia the only difference being that his badge had two more chevrons.

    "Uh. Brother Aaron, this guys are loitering around here without any intention to buy anything." Sophia answered the man.

    "That''s it bitch. First you try to chase us away and now you lie against us. One more word and I will toast you here." Fudo yelled, clearly outraged at her words.

    "Bring it on fatso."

    "That''s enough; both of you." Sato and Aaron said at the same time.

    Aaron they faced the other customers behind him and bowed slightly while saying "Apologies for the disturbance; the store would add a 3% discount on whatever good you would be purchasing in the next 15 minutes."

    Clearly, Aaron knew how to run a business as the customers were clearly pleased with the offer and went o with their purchases with none of them bad-mouthing the store for itsck of control.

    Aaron then turned towards Sophia and said " First of all, in work I''m your boss. Second, I know you''re lying. "

    "But-"

    "Don''t interrupt your boss, Sophia. Go back to the locker room and meditate on you wrongdoings. Now !" Aaronmanded.

    "Okay broth- I mean boss." Sophia said somberly and walked away.

    After she was gone, Aaron faced Sato and Fudo and bowed slightly at them while saying "Apologies for my younger sister''s behavior. Earlier on, there were a bunch of neers who walked into the store and kept touching everything without buying any. Even worse, some of them tried to rob the store and the que in front; some even tried to chip off some of the buildings blocks. Most of them were dressed like you guys, as a result, Sophia was harsh on you. I hope you understand."

    As he said so, Sato and Fudo were stunned; not knowing whether to cry or tough.

    It''s true that most of the yers were rugged andwless so it was not so much of a surprise to hear that they had tried to rob the store of it''s 3 star que and blocks. Despite being warned that they couldn''t do as they pleased in Infinite Realm, since it is different from the others, some of the yers refused to listen and reacted as a did in other games. Hell, even East Crow guild, Halo''s Dawn and Warmongers underestimated the game and reacted as usual. As a result, they experienced a massacre that became a warning to the various yers.

    "No problem. I would react the same way as her even." Sato smiled and brushed the event behind.

    "So what are you here for?" Aaron questioned.

    "Originally, we were here to purchase some materials but seeing as how you guys cater to the rich, I feel that your prices may be a little too much for us. So we would just like to sell some of ours." Sato stated inly.

    Aaron frowned before asking "And what might they be?"

    "Can we get a room first?"

    "This way please."

    Walking into the deeper parts of the store, Sato and Fudo finally got a view of things. Most of the weapons and equipment were Mid tier Mortal rank to Upper tier Mortal rank with the materials being 1 star and 2 star ones as such, Fudo asked "Are these all you guys have?"

    Aaron answered "No. The first level are just meant for this sses." (AN : By level, I mean storey)

    "What about the other levels?"

    "The 2nd level houses Low tier to Mid tier Rare-Steel rank weapons. As for the materials, they are capped at 3 stars. The 3rd level serves as the administrative sector. The 4th level serves as a restricted level for higher materials and weapons while the basement is the storage facility." Aaron answered. "We aren''t scared of anyone robbing us, so telling you all these doesn''t matter."

    "Haha." Fudo chuckled awkwardly.

    "We are here. After you." Aaron stopped at a room on the 2nd level and gave way for them to Sato and Fudo to enter.

    The room wasn''t so luxurious but looked simple as it only had 2 windows, a small book shelf, 1 couch, 2 sofas and a single coffee table ced at the centre of the seats. However, if ''Simple'' is what you would think upon entering then you are definitely wrong. Despite looking so simple, the price tag of the furniture here weren''t so cheap as they were all made with high quality 2 star materials at the very least. Even the coffee table at the centre was made with ck Alder wood, the same wood as Fudo''s ck Alder staff. Rather than being described inly as ''simple'' the room would better be described as ''expensively simple''.

    After taking their seats, Aaron asked them "So what do you have to offer us?"

 Chapter 31 - 29 : Fudo Bargains

    (AN : Quite possible for errors to be present in both works, 28 and 29)

    Sato took out a piece of metal and ced it on the table.

    "Is that..."

    Aaron was visibly shocked though not so much.

    "3 star material ck Dawn steel." Sato disclosed.

    "I guessed as much." Aaron sighed. Even though the Grynx Merchandise branch here in Riverdale was made up of 3 star materials, this were the cheaper and moremon ones priced around 5 silver per bar/ingot. Compared to the 10 silver per bar/ingot price for a high quality 3 star material like ck Dawn steel, this isn''t so valuable.

    Even though materials whether, metallic or non metallic, are categorised ording to the number of stars, there are still differences between materials in the same rank. A good example is the 4 star metallic material Mithril steel against another 4 star metallic material Titan Silver. Despite both being 4 star metallic materials, Titan Silver is far stronger than Mithril Steel. This difference in ability is more obvious in the 4 star rank materials and above but it is still obvious in 3 star materials. Take for example ck Dawn steel and Jigsaw metal, where ck Dawn steel is more stronger ranking slightly above average among 3 star materials.

    "So how much?" Fudo cut straight to the chase.

    Aaron stared at the both of them for awhile before he asked "How much do you have? If you have more than 5 ingots, 10 ingots and so on then the price would differ." Seeing Sato frown, he continued "You don''t need to worry. We''re a trustworthy organization otherwise we wouldn''t be some warm-weed among the noble sses."

    Sato frowned in contemtion before saying "3 ingots."

    Aaron looked a little relieved as he said "8 silver coins per ingot."

    "12." Fudo responded as Sato hadid back to enjoy the view.

    "You should be aware that even if it is a high quality material, it is still a three star material, 8 silver coins and 20 copper coins. How''s that?"

    "Don''t y with me here. We both know that in the ck market, this stuff sells for more than that. However as thew-abiding citizens that we are, we came over here. 11 silver coins and 35 copper coin."

    ''Shameless brat.'' Aaron cursed inwardly while frowning.

    It was indeed true that in the ck market, ck Dawn steel can be sold for more than 10 silver coins, far more than Aaron''s proposed 8 silver coins and 20 copper coins however, Aaron knew that he was shameless calling himself a w-abiding citizen''. Truth be told, even Fudo himself didn''t buy his own words. Law-abiding citizen, more like he was scared of getting robbed or even scammed at the ck market.

    "You should know that I''m a businessman. And I need to make profits. Considering that you don''t have a lot to sell I''ll take it at 9 silver per ingot otherwise go find somebody else." Aaron stated inly.

    On the other side, Fudo smiled calmly before he stood up with Sato and said "Well then Mr businessman, I might as well take my business elsewhere."

    With that, Aaron frowned indiscernibly but before he could speak up, Fudo continued "But before I go, permit me to ask you this. Do you think that this is the only one we have?"

    "What do you mean?" Aaron asked perplexedly.

    "It''s quite simple you see. I guess for a branch in such a small ce like Riverdale, you guys hardly purchase any valuable material and are used to troubling other branches for that, am I right?" Fudo smiled.

    Aaron frowned noticeably but deep inside, he was shocked at Fudo''s analysis. Indeed he was right. Even though Riverdale is a primary town and has a flourishing economy, 3 star materials are quite rare here. Once in a while, low quality 3 star materials could be found but the better ones aren''t easily spotted. The Grynx merchandise Riverdale branch had even gone 2 years without seeing any. That was why Aaron was shocked at the sight of one.

    Grynx Merchandise scores it''s branches not just by the amount of sales but also their innovative purchases and investments. The Riverdale branch has annually scored lower than the ck Mountain town branch despite having higher sale. This is due to the fact that ck Mountain Town is closer to various mines and mineral hotspots.

    Aaron, ever since taking the post as the new manager, has been looking forward to breaking that record. As such, he doesn''t n on missing any opportunity.

    "Well you see, who says we can''t get more 3 star materials eh?" Fudo, seeing the target take the bait, cut him off before he could speak. "11 silver coins and its a done deal."

    "Do you have ess to a mineral deposit?" Aaron asked hastily despite trying to keep his cool.

    "Please don''t jest mister. Most of the mineral deposits are already seized by the Kingdom."

    "Most but not all." Taking a deep breath, Aaron continued "10 silver 30 copper coins. If you can get me more 3 star,then I will purchase it at that price."

    Seeing that he finally got a good price, Fudo was hesitant to push for more but he finally bit the bullet and said "10 silver 40 copper coins or no deal."

    Aaron pondered for awhile before nodding "Deal."

    ''Hahaha. Screw you system!''

    "I"ll get my assistant to fill in the details in a contract then we will be done and you can go." Aaron expressed.

    "Who said we are done?" Sato, who had been leaning on the couch while listening to the conversation, finally spoke up. Putting his hand in his beginner''s bag, he pulled out another bar and ced it onto the table.

    "Thunder wood. 4 logs." Sato stated inly.

    Aaron took a deep breath at the sight of the material. Normally, starred materials are usually metallic in nature but the non metallic ones are quite rare. Most of them are gotten from monsters and species exquisitely adapted towards mana. The other ones like rocks and nts are quite rare since it is harder for these substances to bear the stress of mana passing through them at a specific flow and ratio. The ones that tend to endure the stress, hardly rival metallicpounds and elements however, very few do and it is this exact very few that end up as high quality materials. Thunderwood is a good example of such.

    "Now I see what your partner meant. Alright, I see you guys are worth doing business with. So we will skip the bargaining and I would purchase each log at 10 silver 70 copper coins. How''s that?"

    "Okay." Sato and Fudo both nodded. Even though they were equivalent in quality, the rarity of Thunderwood surpasses that of ck dawn steel as such, it was sold for 30 coppers more.

    "Anymore. Oh and before that, let me properly introduce myself. Aaron Schauks, Manager of Grynx Merchandise, Riverdale branch." Aaron extended his hand towards Sato.

    "Sky-de." Sato shook his hand.

    "Emperor Wolf." Fudo also shook his hand right after Sato.

    "Adventurers eh?" Aaron asked.

    "You can say so." Sato responded. As he spoke, a knock was heard from the door after which Aaron permitted the person to walk in. A blue haired girl, dressed in the same uniform as Sophia but with 2 chevrons, walked into the room with a tray on her hands containing some paper, brewed tea and biscuits. She ced it on the coffee table after which she took out the bunch of documents that were earlier atop the tray and ced it on the table, close to Aaron. After that, she exited the room daintily.

    "Okay, now back to business. I hope this is thest 3 star material you have but at the same time I hope not." Aaron spoke but this time, with an obvious smile on his lips.

    "Sadly it is, for now that is. However, this isn''t all we have to trade."

    Sato then pulled out the remaining materials; a total of 6 different kinds : 3 ingots of ck Dawn steel, 4 logs of Thunderwood, 5 ingots of silver core, 7 ingots of Limber steel, 6 pouches of White sand and 3 ingots of Dawn steel. Apart from the ck Dawn steel and Thunderwood, the rest were all 2 star materials. However, Silver core, Limber steel and Dawn steel were all high quality 2 star materials worth at least 3-5 silver coins a bar/ingot.

    "The 3 star materials have been settled. As for the high quality 2 star materials, I''d give you 3 silver and 35 copper coins and the White Sand would be 1 Silver 10 copper coins. How''s that?" Aaron asked while picking up a teacup filled with tea.

    "Let''s go with that." Even though he knew he could haggle for more, Fudo didn''t, as he felt this might sour the good mood. Plus they had already gained a lot. Sometimes it''s best not to let greed get the best of you.

    After taking a sip from his cup, Aaron stood up and walked towards the only bookshelf in the room. He took out a stamp together with a fountain pen that was ced on the bookshelf. He walked back to his seat and ced the stamp on the table.

    Picking up the document left behind by his assistant, he said "That should be a total of 1 gold 20 silver and 80 copper coins." As he spoke, he used the fountain pen to write down all the expenditures and materials. When he was done, Aaron used the stamp and fixed his seal on the document. He did this for two other copies and gave one to Sato.

    "That''s yours to hold. When you guys are ready to leave, you can collect the payment at the cashier''s counter."

    "Okay, but before that, I''d like to see the materials you guys have to improve forging rates." Sato expressed.

    "And I would like to see those for Alchemy." Fudo added.

    "Catalyst huh? We should still have some remaining but wouldn''t it be better to get those at the appropriate guilds?" Aaron ruminated before asking.

    "Yeah but since we are here, we might as well do it immediately. Plus there''s still the fact that I would need to contribute to the cksmith guild first before getting ess to higher level materials." Sato rified.

    "Same here."

    "Well okay then." Standing up, Aaron pointed at the door and continued "Shall we?"

 Chapter 32 - 30 : The Town Hall

    "Shopping is fun but it''s best with a lot of cash at hand. We still need money." A chubby ck haired elementalist sighed as he walked out of the popr store, Grynx Merchandise, alongside a ck haired swordsman.

    Fudo and Sato had just been shown around the store by the branch manager, Aaron Schauks. Fudo even snickered at the sight of Sophia''s stunned face when she saw her elder brother being nice to them.

    Originally, they had made 1 gold, 20 silvers and 80 copper coins but after going through the store, Sato and Fudo finally understood what it meant to be wealthy as even the weapons and equipment in the stores 2nd level were each worth 10-27 silver coins. Eventually, they bought a couple of materials only, since they already earned a few equips from the Rare-Steel rank chest at the Ghost Mansion. At the end, Fudo and Sato were left with abined amount of 80 silver coins. If not for Sato''s advice on prudent spending, they would have been left with less.

    "Since we are done here, left''s head over to the Town hall." Pulling up his System'' disy screen, Sato stared at the details on it.

    [[ The Goblins'' Invasion (Series)

    Quest rating : S

    Intro : The goblins have always been waging war against humans, slowly trying to acquire more territory from them. As a result of the greed from both sides for morend and resources, the mes of war has been ever-burning, reeking havoc to both sides with no final victor decided.

    1st Chapter :

    You have discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. Report to the City Lord, Patrol General, Town Chief or anyone of suitable/equivalent rank about this. Once epted, further missions pertaining to this quest can''t be rejected.

    Reward : 3 bars of Star Gold, 1 Silver Core and 20 Silver coins.

    Time Remaining : 55 minutes left.

    Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

    Loss of 5 levels with reduction of experience gained by 50% for 2 months

    Rtionship level with human forces at [Unforgivable]

    Mission status : epted; not yetpleted.

    ]]

    "Can''t believe we wasted a lot of time. *sigh* the rewards might just end up basic but that isn''t bad either." Hailing a carriage alongside the street, Sato and Fudo got in and headed for the Town Hall.

    The Town Hall was located at the Central district; a few miles away from Grynx Merchandise store. Walking there would take roughly them 20 minutes or so but with a carriage, they would be there in 9 minutes, at most 12 minutes.

    Inside Grynx Merchandise¡­

    "Brother, why were you being all nice to those scammers?" Sophia barged into the managerial office at the 3rd level of the Grynx Merchandise building.

    "In work, I''m your superior not your brother and also you can''t just barge in to my office like that." Aaron responded calmly even though there was slight frown on his lips.

    "To hell with that superior crap you''ve been spewing. If you don''t exin yourself now, I''ll report all this to dad." Sophia threatened with hers arms akimbo.

    "...*sighs* alright. I was just trying to get close to them. I have a feeling they know something we don''t and aren''t normal. They sold me a batch of high quality 3 star materials and 2 star ones and though it wasn''t much, they acted like they could still get more if they wished to. So I decided to keep a close contact with them in case they hope to trade more. At the same time, I had Jenny look up on their identities and but didn''t find anything; it''s like they just came out of thin air."

    "If they have a hidden valuable mine in their possession, while don''t you just force them to cough it up? Dad does that all the time." Sophia asked with a puzzled expression.

    "You still don''t get it do you? That doesn''t work all the time." Standing up and walking towards the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, Aaron exined "It maybe that they were lucky and just found some minerals or they robbed it from someone else. All in all, there are multiple various possibilities so just capturing them wouldn''t be the best. Otherwise, if news spread out, we might lose our posts. Hence, the best positive reaction would be to get on their good side and if it turns out that they have more goods to sell, they woulde to us."

    "And if they do have a mine wouldn''t we be losing out?" Sophia looked at Aaron as if facing a dummy.

    Aaron shook his head and said "Little Sophia, little Sophia. Don''t tell me that you still underestimate big brother? I had Jenny send someone to watch over them for a while. He''s a professional so he won''t get caught." Aaron smiled before picking up the ss filled with whiskey atop the table and sipping it.

    Facing the floor to ceiling window in his office and staring at the busy poption going about their activities, he took another sip from his ss before saying "Riverdale is about to get busy, no, not just Riverdale. The Fallen Heart Kingdom and possibly the entire world will soon change. We either ride with the wave of change or get drowned by them. Father''s ways might have worked in the past but now it might not work again. Get ready little sister, tales and legends are about to be reality."

    "...are you drunk?"

    "..."

    . . . . .

    It didn''t take long for our able heroes, eh, adventurers to arrive at the Central district''s Town Hall, the centre of Riverdale''s politics and governance.

    The Town Hall was quite beautiful and impressive. Thought it wasn''tvishly built with a mixture of 2 star and 3 star materials like Grynx Merchandise''s Riverdale branch,the Town Hall was still built with quality solid materials. It was painted white and had 4 columns erected in front, hoisting up the entature[1]. The entire infrastructure was fenced with an emerald coloured gate as the entrance.

    The emerald gate was guarded by two level 35 guardians with the building being patrolled by a two squads of level 30-35 town patrollers[2] with each squad having a 7 men; enough manpower to serve as deterrent to the current whimsical yers.

    Walking into the Town Hall, Sato and Fudo were greeted by the sight of a imposing and grandiose interior.

    "Sparkly¡­"

    A chandelier with gems of unrecognisable name and quality; possibly being 3 star rank, columns indented with sparkling emeralds and jades and gold ted walls, one could only wonder how a City Hall would now look like.

    "I was wondering how the Town Hall would be losing to a mere store; seems like I didn''t need to worry. The Town Head must be a man of simplicity in the outside and hedonism within." Sato sighed at the amazement and cost of the materials and building.

    "Now I get why their guards are so high levelled. Just one gem here would be priceless to themon people." Fudo said with a voice of realisation.

    "Let''s just be done with this mission first then you can ogleter."

    The receptionist counter wasn''t so far from the entrance. To avoid stalling and squandering the time of the guests due to queues, there were 4 counters with the fourth one meant for emergencies.

    "Good Afternoon. How may I help you."

    Arriving at one of them, Sato was greeted the receptionist with the tag ''Emma''.

    "Afternoon. I''m here to see the Town Head." Sato replied calmly.

    "..." Emma was a little surprised as she wondered what kind of individual woulde to see the Town Head is such clothing but even still, she kept a professional smile and asked "Do you have a reservation?"

    "No¡­but I have this. Will it work?"

    Initially, when Sato had said ''No'', Emma was prepared to reject him ess but when she heard theter part and saw what Sato had ced on the table, she hurriedly replied "Give me a second, just a second. Don''t go and wait here. I''ll get back to you soon."

    After which she picked the token and quickly ran deep into the building.

    "What was that all about?" Fudo whispered towards Sato as right now, most of the NPCs present were staring at them, wondering what they had showed the receptionist.

    "...I don''t know. I just gave her the token we got after after we received the mission."

    "Token we got? Howe I didn''t get any?"

    "You didn''t?¡­Probably because we are in a party system I guess" Sato said though not so sure of himself.

    "Probably."

    2 minutester, which was by far more than the second promised, Emma arrived at the counter but this time, someone else followed right beside her.

    "Apologies for taking so long. This is the secretary to the Town Head. She will take you to see him." Emma pointed at thedy beside her.

    "Good day gentlemen. My name is Alice Zhiastris. I''m the secretary to the Town Head. Please follow me this way; his excellency is waiting for you."

    ''Zhiastris¡­are they rted to the Triastis family? I really need to visit the library¡­''

    AN :

    Errors might be present as such, this chapter is susceptible to editing.

 Chapter 33 - 31 : Meeting The Town Head

    *knock* *knock*

    "Come in." A young and jovial voice sounded out from behind the brown door.

    Opening the door, Alice shifted over and pointed in saying "His excellency only wishes to meet the both of you."

    Even though they felt kinda strange ever since the receptionist Emma hurriedly ran to call Alice, Sato and Fudo still walked in to the room since they only had two options; either they walk in andplete the mission or escape and watch the town get destroyed, get hated by humanity and loss 5 levels.

    Once they were in, they first noticed that the room was quiterge and plush even more so than the hall from earlier. The entire room was coated in gold with some of the furniture being made from high quality 2 star materials.

    After getting a good look at the room, Sato and Fudo finally saw who they came looking for.

    The Town Head was actually 1.6 metres tall ''boy''. He had blond hair, blue eyes and a pale white skin. He was wearing a blue oversized coat with golden hems. Despite being the Town Head, the ''boy'' was acting all jovial and had an innocent butposed look in his eyes.

    "Wee, young adventurers." the ''boy'' greeted.

    "Pfft." Fudo had tried to hold in hisughter but ended up releasing it in a muffled tone.

    ''He calls us young, but this dude is even younger than Hayami.''

    "Is there a problem?" The ''boy'' asked. At the same time, Sato faced Fudo and gave him a look that seemed to say ''don''t blow this up''.

    Fudo organized himself before answering "No. No problem at all."

    The ''boy'' scrutinized Fudo for a while before replying "Uh. Okay but who is Hayami? Is she someone important to you?"

    When he had said the earlier part, Fudo had inwardly released a sigh of relief, but as he got to the part he mentioned Hayami, the atmosphere became awkward and strange. Sato, on the other hand, stared at the ''boy'' with narrowed eyes as if he was facing a beast, not daring to further underestimate the person in front of him.

    After a little while, Fudo hesitated before asking "¡­you read minds?"

    The ''boy'' shook his head whimsically with a smile and then said "Not reading minds as you perceive it but you can say it''s quite simr. However, I can''t use this ability for long; I only use it as a shock effect for scaring people."

    ''Tch. I''m really going to lose it with this brat.'' Fudo inwardly gritted his teeth.

    "So why did youe to see me? Oh wait, before that, let me introduce myself. I''m Arman Lagus, the Town Head of Riverdale primary town."

    ''[Inspect]'' While the town head introduced himself, Sato tried to use the inspect skill on him

    [[ System notification : Error. Skill has been blocked by the target. ]]

    "It''s quite rude to be spying on a host don''t you think so? I"ll forgive you this time, but the next, well let''s just hope there isn''t a next time." Arman nced at Sato. "So can you please report to me your reason for showing up here?"

    Sato eyed the ''boy'' for a little longer before recalling his purpose foring.

    "We discovered a goblin hideout, Gnorka, underneath a mansion close to Kira mountains. We believe it houses an army there; this we are sure of since we witnessed them. We also discovered traces of ambient dark mana alongside a creature of darkness, who we battled and defeated."

    Putting his right hand into his beginner''s bag, Sato pulled out two items and ced them on a table closeby.

    "We discovered these items after defeating it." Of the two items he ced on the table, one was the [Dedicated choker] he got from the [Cursed servant]''s corpse and the other was the dark orb he had gotten from the Rare-steel chest. Initially, he nned on getting it appraised at Grynx merchandise, but because he felt that he couldn''t trust them so easily, he decided to try it with the Town Head. Who knows, the item may be more of a curse than a blessing.

    Moving closer to the table, Arman picked up the choker first and stared at it for a while "Nothing much special; just an essory that grants a blessing to the wearer. However for you guys who had pretty much killed the rightful owner, it''s more like a curse. This would put you in the view of the god or powerful individual who blessed it."

    Hearing that, Sato was stunned while Fudo felt a cold breeze behind him. To have had a god or even an extremely powerful individual watch them from afar with hostility wasn''t so nice. Fudo even felt that it was quite a miracle for him to have survived thus far.

    "As for this dark orb. Hmm. It looks like a source of darkness; a high grade one at that. If you give this to a master cksmith or something, they could make for you a really awesome dark type weapon or armor. It might even be a High tier Rare-steel rank or even low tier Dark-silver rank. Looks like your luck was quite good." Arman said while inspecting the dark orb.

    As a source of darkness, the orb was closely rted to dark mana and one of high purity at that. As a result of this, it could be used as an energy source and can be ssified as forging material. However, whatever that has been produced from it, would be closely rted to dark mana possessing such an attribute together with spells associated with it.

    "You mentioned encountering a goblin army and creature of dark mana from which you got this correct?"

    "Yes."

    "Was it the only one of it''s kind present?" Arman asked seriously.

    "We aren''t sure but as we left, it seemed that a creature of some sorts had awoken beneath the mansion." Sato honestly replied.

    "...I see. Thank you for reporting this to me. You can go now. I assure you that you would be rewarded for this valuable info."

    As Arman concluded, Sato and Fudo received a System notification.

    [[ The Goblins'' Invasion (Series)

    Quest rating : S

    Intro : The goblins have always been waging war against humans, slowly trying to acquire more territory from them. As a result of the greed from both sides for morend and resources, the mes of war has been ever-burning, reeking havoc to both sides with no final victor decided.

    1st Chapter :

    You have discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. Report to the City Lord, Patrol General, Town Chief or anyone of suitable/equivalent rank about this. Once epted, further missions pertaining to this quest can''t be rejected.

    Reward : 3 bars of Star Gold, 1 Silver Core and 20 Silver coins.

    Time Remaining : 43 minutes left.

    Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

    Loss of 5 levels with reduction of experience gained by 50% for 2 months

    Rtionship level with human forces at [Unforgivable]

    Mission status : epted; Completed.

    Rewarding yer... ]]

    *ding* *ding*

    [[ System notification :

    Rewarding 3 bars of Star Gold, 1 Silver Core and 20 silver coins ]]

    Despite seeing the notifications, Sato and Fudo reined in their thoughts, scared that Arman might read them without their knowledge.

    "If there''s nothing else, you can take your leave then." Arman gestured towards the door.

    "Then excuse us, your excellency." Sato bowed towards him with Fudo doing the same; only a tad bit slower.

    Even after they both left the office, Sato and Fudo seemed to have tacitly decided to not speak nor think of any important factors until they had exited the building and hailed a carriage.

    As they left, Alice Zhiastris, the secretary to the ''young'' Town Head, walked into the office and ced a tray filled with teacups and chocte cookies with a couple other strange pastries, on the table.

    Gazing through the window in his office, Arman asked "So what was your impression of them, Alice-chan?"

    Alice pondered for awhile before she answered "They had a weird scent to them; as if they were neither citizens of the kingdom nor of neighbouring ces. However, I can''t be so sure as I still smell a little bit of the Kingdom on them, probably from their adventuring or so. I have recently be getting a whiff of that strange smell from some of the people. It began today."

    "I see. If I''m correct, then they must be the ''Chosen Ones'' spoken about. I sensed a bit of little couz''s aura on that ck haired one. It seems he should have already met him. I initially thought that this silly little town would be boring all through but it seems that soothsayer didn''t lie to me.

    "Prepare the troops for battle and send a letter to the city; just follow the usual protocols. It seems like I can finally have a bit of fun now..Things are about to get a little interesting."

 Chapter 34 - 32 : Sato Forges

    (An : I''m kinda feeling this two character titles. This chapter is susceptible to change.)

    After Sato and Fudo had hailed a carriage and got in, they both kept their silence till they were quite some distance away from the Town Hall.

    "*sigh* Remind me never to go there again. I haven''t had this much stress ever since Conquest." Fudo released a sigh of relief.

    "Don''t worry; you will soon get used to it." Sato nonchntlymented.

    "..." Fudo twitched his face. Eventually, he kept his cool and asked "So what are we doing next?"

    "Next?" Sato contemted a bit before saying "I n on practicing cksmithing a bit before levelling up. I want to get the hang of it here. Later on, I"ll go levelling; probably at ck Grill''s cave or somewhere else."

    ck Grill''s cave was a levelling map that spawned earth type monsters. Infinite Realm has already been online for about 3 or so hours(6 in game hours.). During this time, most of the yers had already explored the nearby surroundings of their Towns. As such, they were already aware of almost of all of the low level resource maps and their features, which includes the type of monsters they normally spawn.

    "Uh.. Okay. I guess I"ll do the same. Better that than levelling on my own. Who knows whether you might hit it big without me around." Fudo nodded with a light chuckle.

    It didn''t take them long to arrive at the West district''s Sira avenue and stopped right in front of the cksmith guild''s building since the Alchemy guild was just opposite it.

    "Alright. We"ll meet again in the next 4 hours at the West gate."

    "Aight." With that, our two heroes¡­yers departed to their various subss guild building.

    Facing the 3 storey building with a 3 metre high arched door once again, Sato walked into the building and met with the receptionist who had guided him earlier. This time, there was no queue so he easily approached her.

    "Good afternoon miss Amelia." Sato nicely greeted.

    "Oh? Good afternoon sir¡­Sky-King?" [1]

    "Sky-de."

    "Oh! Sir Sky-de. Apologies for getting the name wrong."Amelia hurriedly bowed. ''Please don''t get angry. It''s not my fault your name is weird.''

    "Don''t worry yourself about it." Sato kindly smiled.

    "Alright. Thank you sir." Amelia replied with a bow. ''I knew it. A cute guy doesn''t easily get angry.'' She then continued out loudly "May I know your reason foring sir?"

    "I need to practice with the forging rooms. Am I capable of doing so?"

    "Yes you can. Actually, anyone is capable of using the basic forging rooms. However, there''s a catch. Normally, only official members are allowed free entry, however, Master Owen granted permission to a few of you for free usage but that onlyst for a week." Amelia answered him.

    ''I see. So he gave free usage rights to those who epted the mission. It seems this might be harder than I thought.''

    "Alright; just give me any avable one." Sato expressed.

    "May I know for how long?"

    "4 hours tops."

    "Alright." Saying so, Amelia left for an office behind her counter. A few secondster, she came back with a token, somewhat simr to the one Miss Trevale had used earlier.

    "This token is for room 107 on the second floor. It''s a basic room that is fit with only a simple furnace and mana gathering array formation. There''s a time limit to it''s usage, which is 4 hours, as you requested. Once your time is up, you will be given a 10 minutes rounding up period. After that, if you don''t renew your usage, the faculties avable in the room would shut down irrespective of their present state of usage. Do you understand sir?" Amelia said as she handed Sato the key.

    "Ok and thanks for the exnations. See youter." Sato collected the key and began to walk away.

    " It''s my duty and see youter too." Amelia smiled him away. ''Such a nice guy. If he were a little stronger or more sessful, I would have gone for him¡­What are you saying Amelia? Get your head back into your head¡­ or is it back out of the clouds¡­''

    . . . . .

    Room 107

    ''Hmm, the mana here is a little dense though itcks whenpared to a Rare-steel rank chest.''

    The basic room 107 was somewhatrge. The entire room was filled with a higher concentration mana than the outside. It was furnished to look perfectly like a workshop.

    Room 107 had a little bookshelf that held blueprints alongside a table with tools arranged atop it. The was a forge at one corner, an anvil, a vice and a few other equipment. There were two hammers; a regr one and another with runes engraved atop it. The walls of the room had runes engraved on them, that subtly attracted mana in such a way that it wouldn''t influence the cksmith in the midst of his project.

    ''Alright. Time to get started.''

    With that, Sato walked towards the bookshelf and went through the blueprints and books, trying to decide which to use. In the end, he chose 2 blueprints; the first being a blueprint for a short sword and the other for a long sword. The ranks of both blueprints were at the low tier Mortal rank. The reason for Sato choosing them both was because the blueprints avable at the bookshelf were only at the Low tier Mortal rank with very few(about 3 or 4) at the Mid tier and also he was more inclined to using swords and they were far more easier to forge.[2]

    The materials needed for the blueprint''s product were avable to Sato, as he had earlier purchased somemon and valuable materials from Grynx merchandise. This was one of the criteria he used in choosing a blueprint otherwise, he would have had to be running about looking for to purchase theponents needed.

    ''Hmm. Juggard''s Short sword.''

    Spreading the first sheet wide open on the table, Sato decided to seriously study it.

    Juggard was the name of a cksmith from a long time ago who was obsessed with his work. He ended up creating a lot of beginner blueprints and books to encourage people into the cksmithing upation, resulting to him being one of the forefathers of modern cksmithing. Despite his death, most of his creations and designs were still being used by the official cksmith guild.[3] A good example is the blueprint in Sato''s hands.

    ''Materials needed : Cast Iron, Iron ore, regr mes¡­ Well I have everything so now time to begin. ording to Mrs Trevale, cksmithing is divided into 4 steps; Smelting, Hammering, quenching and tempering. Strong mes are well rmended however, it doesn''t always mean a good product. But for what I''m making here, a strong me should be good.''[4]

    ''The smelting process is the easiest. I just have to let the metal melt in a crucible and cast the molten form onto a mold. Since I''m just forging a regr weapon, I won''t need to use runes neither will I need mana infused but I will still use them to increase my sess rate.''

    Forging equipment in Infinite Realm are generally divided into mana-infused and regr ones. Regr ones are just the same as in real life; nothing special. On the other hand, mana-infused equipment have a mana gathering array inscribed on them. This makes the equipment to actively gather mana and imnt it into the unfinished product, thereby strengthening it and empowering it with special features. Simply put, they function as a simpler and easier-to-use rune.

    ''Let''s begin.''

    Sato heated up the furnace a bit and waited till it was at the right temperature before grabbing the ores and stuffing them inside an ordinary crucible, which he then ced into the furnace. When the metal had melted, Sato grabbed a pair of tongs and used it to ce a specialpound into the molten metal in the forge. Thepound was known as Vinrel and it served as a flux for most cksmiths and was also capable of separating the g from the metal.[5]

    After waiting for a few minutes more, Sato, once more, used the tongs to pull out the crucible filled with molten metal from the furnace. He then poured it onto the cast and dipped the cast it cold water that was made avable by an array.(AN : The array makes the water cold. It doesn''t make water) The water wasn''t just simple water as it was filled with mana from the same array. This granted it better quenching properties thereby hardening the cast metal even more.

    Once the metal was cooled to a certain degree, Sato brought it onto an anvil and selected an ordinary hammer which he used to hammer the unfinished product. Once it looked like it had cooled off, he would grab the iplete creation and heat it in the forge, melting it a bit. Once done, he would bring it back to the anvil and resume hammering the metal.

    At times, he would interchangeably use the mana-infused hammer with the ordinary one, thereby strengthening the product and infusing man into it. After he had got the desired shape, Sato trimmed off the excess metals and tempered his work once more in the mes. As he was quenching it for thest time, he heard a ding.

    *ding*

    [[ System notification :

    Juggard''s short swordpleted.

    Analysing product...

    Product has failed to reach the required rank ]]

    ''I failed? Looks like this would be a lot harder than I thought¡­'' Originally, Sato had thought that he was doing well but the System thought otherwise. In Infinite Realm, apart from the normal weapon ranks, there is one more and this one is below Low tier mortal rank. It is known asmon rank.

    Amon rank isn''t actually a failed product but it isn''t apleted one either. It is more like a creation that waspleted but couldn''t reach the desired rank. Even though it seems like a failure, it isn''t a total one. As such it was given the title mon rank''. However, this rank isn''t officially recognized by the cksmith guild and as such, isn''t poprized. It is only used by metalsmiths as most of their products are at this rank. A good example would be the regr kitchen knife for cooking and so on.

    ''It took me an hour plus, to be able to finish this¡­Looks like cksmithing won''t be so easy but a week right? This mission isn''t so hard.'' Sato smiled. Despite failing in producing an officially recognised work, he wasn''t bothered but rather impressed at his ability for not failing at his first try.

    ''Alright. Less than 3 more hours to go. Let''s give it a shot.''

    AN :

    [1] Amelia calls him ''sir'' since he is now an apprentice cksmith while she is a regr receptionist. Logically speaking he is higher than her in authority even though he isn''t officially one.

    [2] Correct me if I''m wrong, but I feel a sword is a weapon that is easier to forge apart from spears. But what do I know? I''m an engineering student not a cksmith¡­

 Chapter 35 - 33 : System Upgrade

    (AN : Errors maybe present.)

    *ding*

    [[ System notification :

    Juggard''s short swordpleted.

    Analysing product...

    Product has failed to reach the required rank ]]

    ''What am I missing? To make things worse, my time is almost up'' Sato wondered desperately.

    It had been 3 hours since Sato hadpleted his first work. During this time, he was able to reduce the amount of time it took him to finish forging a weapon however, that didn''t imply that he was improving. In the total allocated time of 4 hours, Sato had forged 5 swords. Despite that, only 2 were capable of reaching themon rank, apart from his first work, with the remaining being failed products.

    ''It seems like Master Owen had a reason to be so smug as to give a mission.''

    *Ding dong* *Ding dong* *Ding dong*

    ''Oh? I guess that should be the timer Amelia told me about¡­ten minutes left right? I guess I should be going. I doubt I can aplish anything in 10 minutes.''

    Sato stood up from the stool he sat and began arranging the ce. He returned the blueprints he used back to the bookshelf, gathered the remnant materials and stored them in his beginner bag. As for the scraps, he tossed them into a trash-bin in the workshop.

    Staring at his works;both the failed and themon ranks, he packed them all and tossed it into his beginner bag.

    ''If I have a chance, I can recycle them. Better that than tossing away good stuff.''

    Once he was done, Sato left the workshop and headed back to the reception hall on the first floor where he met Amelia once more.

    "Amelia-san. Here''s the key to room 107." Sato handed the key over to her.

    "Oh? You aren''t nning on renewing your stay?" Amelia asked with surprise while receiving the key.

    "Nah. I have an appointment with someone right now so I have to go." Sato casually said.

    "Oh? Ok. See youter, sir." Amelia waved him out.

    "Uhm. Bye."

    "*sigh* just when I wanted to chat with him after my shift, he left."

    "Amelia-san, are you crushing on him?" Ady who also worked as receptionist questioned her.

    "..."

    . . . . .

    "Hey Sato! Over here." Fudo called out beside the cksmith guild''s entrance.

    "You''re done already?"

    "Yeah. The test wasn''t so hard; all I had to do was read and write." Fudo calmly stated with a smile on his face. "As of now, I''m an official Apprentice Alchemist."

    "Good for you. With that, we should be one step closer to independence." Satomented while they began walking towards the West Gate.

    "By the way Sato, do you really don''t n on starting a guild?" asked Fudo.

    Sato looked at him with confusion "Why do you ask?"

    "Because, it would be quite simple for you to start up a guild. We''ve got our friends from school to use as the foundation plus there''s your old man with us. It might not be capable of rivalling powerhouses but it should be able to rival top 4th tier guilds and with time, it should be able to rival top 2nd tier guilds." Fudo said with a prideful tone.

    Starting a guild wasn''t easy, even more so achieving a high rank. The guild ranks are normally published by many separate gaming media channels however, the official and epted onees from thepany, Amazon corporation or to be more urate, their subsidiarypany, the Media and ranking Super guild, Hermes'' guild. Normally, it takes a year before a guild can be officially ranked by Hermes. This is due to the fact that many of such uing guilds aren''t able to stand the test of time or of their fellow mates, being eliminated probably for offending a greater power or so.

    Even so, due to Sato''s poprity of ying with a big guild together with his self-attestable skills, he could easily attract his close friends and some other people to team up with him and apart from funding, he would be all set. To be able to rival a ranked guild while being an unassigned one is quite impressive, especially when yours'' is just an upstart guild with no sponsorship or funding and that was how Fudo felt about a guild that would have Sato at its helm.

    "So why don''t you think about it?"

    "I"ll think about itter on but a guild isn''t my kind of thing. There''s a lot of issues and seriouspetitions. A stable party is more better."

    "Alright whatever you say."

    [[ World wide System notification :

    Dear yers, the world is about to undergo and update as such, you are required to go offline. This is to improve the efficiency of the world and yer controls.

    Kindly look for a suitable spot for your avatar to stay and go offline to avoid forced shut down. You have 30 minutes to do so. Please adhere to the instruction.

    The update would take approximately 4 hours in reality.

    I thank you for your understanding.

    Yours systematically,

    The Heaven System.

    ]]

    In the woods, the mountains, the towns and viges, every single possibly existing location in Infinite Realm, the yers were all alerted of the update.

    "An update? But the game just started today and I haven''t even gotten myself a waifu. What are they even updating?" Fudo cried out with a confused tone.

    "I don''t know but there''s nothing we can do about it. It''s a good thing we''re still in town. I think I''ll head over to a hotel and book a room." Sato said after which walked away.

    "Wait for me. Let''s share a room; it''s cheaper."

    "No. We''re guys. It''s weird for us to go to a hotel and share a room even if it''s just to go offline. What would the NPCs and readers think about us?" Sato sternly asked.

    Fudo then said with a look of realisation "You''re right. Fine. Looks like I''d have to spend¡­" (AN : With that, I hope I have destroyed any fangirl''s weird BL ideas¡­)

    It didn''t take them long to arrive at a hotel after all, they were at the West district, the town''s economical centre. Even though there was still a couple of minutes before the forced shut-down, most of the hotel rooms were being booked at an incredible pace. Luckily for them both, there were still a few left. With that, Fudo and Sato hurriedly got two separate rooms at the price of 15 coppers each at an average hotel.

    Laying on the somewhat ufortable bed, Sato logged out of the game.

    . . . . .

    Out in the woods, some distance away from Riverdale.

    "An update? Hmm, it seems they are nning to remove those underhanded cards." A young man in his mid 20s with a sense of authority filling the air around him lightly chuckled. He wore an exquisite mage gown with blue and white colours as its theme. The crooked staff he held had a fist sized blue orb attached to its tip.

    "Hehehe. It''s better that way. At least I can enjoy hunting." a weird guy with a ck cloak draped on his bodymented. He had painted stripes and lines on his ck face with white and ck paints, looking like a voodoo specialist or a tribesman from Africa.

    "You speak about hunting but you''re about to die at my hands." The young man smiled.

    The cloaked man replied with augh "Hahaha. Azure, it seems no one has taught you to rein in that pride of yours. Worry not, I shall fix it for you¡­but not today."

    Azure Dragon frowned and said "You want to escape? Dream on." He immediately brought out a scroll and tore it. As he did so, a water barrier with a radius of 6 metres took shape around them.

    Shaking his head, the cloaked man said "You''re still young, Azure. Even your master has never been confident of trapping me much less you. We shall meet again soon and at that time, I will let you experience the terror of the Nightmare."

    With that, the man disintegrated into bones of different sizes and kinds. There were skulls, femurs,ulnae, tibiae and spines all scattered around. They weighed differently and had different sizes though not surpassing the length of an average femur or the width of an average skull. They all had a gloomy feeling to them as if death was looming around them and if one stared closely, you would notice that there was an extremely faint gray gas around them, though it was dispersing into the atmosphere.

    ''I can''t believe the Savage Tribe are here too. Even the ''King'' Chike is with them. At this rate, we won''t be their match. No, I have to tell the guild leader before its toote.''

    Azure Dragon took in a deep breath and canceled the barrier before scanning his surrounding. On the ground were bodies, a lot of them with the ground stained in a deep red colour. They ranged from yers of the Warrior jobs to yers of the Specialist jobs. They were all dead with blood flowing beneath them. Even the assassin who earlier escorted Azure Dragon was dead.

    ''What a dreadful opponent. I was quite lucky to have survived him.''

    *sigh*

    AN :

    Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the future where you can date your waifus! Encourage me in the production of 4UHDR and let''s make our waifus real!!!

    I decided to introduce an African heritage cause I''m not racist¡­

    So far, there''s European, Caucasian, Asian and African.. I don''t think I''m missing any other right.

 Chapter 36 - 34 : Back In The Real World

    (AN : This chapter is susceptible to change.)

    [[ System notification :

    Logging out from Infinite Real¡­

    Disconnecting from the Heavenly System Universal server¡­

    Disconnecting Neurolink¡­

    Awakening process beginning...

    Prepare in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 ]]

    "Ha, ha, ha." Taking deep breaths, Sato managed to bring his blood pressure back to normal.

    The awakening process from Infinite Realm is quite special. Because it''s only the consciousness of the yer that is needed, the body is put in a stasis lock. During this period, apart from some unconscious activities like the heart pumping blood and digestion, the other functions of the body are shut down. This is why despite the yers controlling their hands to move, their actual body doesn''t move but instead, their avatar''s body does.

    In order to awaken the consciousness within the body and align it to suit perfectly without deteriorating (due to the difference in time), a special vibration frequency is applied to the yer''s brain and with a somewhat strong jolt, their consciousness awakens in their body. The process isn''t actually dangerous, as the technology has already been perfected over time, however, it is quite unpleasant. This can be avoided or reduced by buying a more advanced VR system like a VR cabin. Sadly, our MC can''t afford one, yet.

    "Haha. It''s been awhile since I have felt that shock." Laughing at his little predicament, Sato stood up from his bed and took off his VR helmet, cing it on the desk beside his bed.

    5 : 47 am Saturday 22 July 21**

    ''It''s still early¡­'' Looking at the holographic projection from his futuristic clock that disyed the time, Sato walked over to a corner of his room and began performing his morning exercise routine which consisted of press-ups(AN : But the Americans call it push-ups), Squats, Fist punches, jumping jacks and some others.

    He went on till a knock sounded at the door.

    *Knock* *Knock*

    "Brother it''s time to wake up." With that, Hayami opened door and walked in.

    "Oh! You''re awake?" She asked with surprise. She had actually performed her previous lines as a form of respect but in actual sense, she had expected her brother to still be ying Infinite Realm however Hayami was shocked by the sight in front of her.

    A half naked Sato, with only a pair of boxers on, was propelling himself up with a pull-up bar fixed at a corner of his room. Sweat was dripping on his back and his godly styled abs which appeared to be the result of extreme dedication to hardwork. His muscles were lean but packed with power. His body wasn''t extremely muscly nor were his muscles bursting out exaggeratedly. Rather, Sato''s body was like a miraculous sculpture that was designed with determination, dedication and proper care, even surpassing those of athletes.

    "It''s time already? Alright, give me a sec let me wash up ande down for breakfast." Dropping himself from the bars, Sato picked up a white towel close-by and wiped his sweat.

    "You really should stop running around naked in the house." Hayami said with a little blush on her cheeks and immediately left while banging the door behind her.

    "What''s up with her this morning? Plus this is my room..."

    Ignoring her little tantrum, Sato wore a pair of shorts before heading to the bathroom in the hallway, where he took his bath. Once he was done, he went downstairs for breakfast and met a slightly olddy.

    "Good morning Grandma."

    "Good morning. How was your night?" The ''olddy replied. Despite being a grandmother, she looked anything but old. She looked like ady that was in her mid 40s rather than a weak old granny. She had a kind smile on her lips that was simr to that of a mother looking at her son. With her mature looks, Alice would have looked nothing like a grandma if not for the light wrinkles underneath her eyes alongside the mature look in her eyes that one can only get after experiencing the vicissitudes of life.

    "Didn''t you know? I was ying Infinite Realm." Sato looked at her with puzzlement.

    "Oh look at me and my old self. I must have forgotten. But even so, don''t tell m you didn''t get any rest?"

    "Physically speaking, I''m alright but mentally, I need to take a break." Sato folded his arms above his head as he walked towards the kitchen. "So what''s for breakfast?"

    "Chicken toast." Mrs Noguchi smiled.

    "Really?"

    "You''d still have to wait for your grandfather to be up first."

    "He isn''t up yet?"

    Mrs Noguchi shook her head. Looking at Sato''s face, she said "don''t worry about it; Hayami has already gone to wake him up."

    "Wake who up? This old man is as healthy as a horse." A rough voice sounded from the stairs."

    "Morning love." Mrs Noguchi smiled even more brightly.

    "Morning Alice-chan." Old Juro smiled at her as he walked towards the sitting room. He sat on the couch then faced Sato and said with augh that wasn''t so funny "Oi little brat, get ready. After breakfast, there''s training. You got exempted yesterday ''cause we took a work but today, there''s no excuse, not even your game."

    "Don''t worry about it old man. Infinite Realm is undergoing an upgrade so it''s me and you today." Sato smiled back.

    "Huh, an upgrade already?" Old Juro looked a little bit surprised. "Didn''t it go online just this morning?"

    "Yeah. I don''t know why they decided to undergo an upgrade already but I don''t think there will be major changes to it."

    "Alright, let''s eat. You can talk about your gameter." Mrs Noguchi walked out from the kitchen with a tray filed with dishes. Apanying her was Hayami, who also had a tray filled with dishes on her hand.

    Breakfast in the Noguchi household was quite simple but wasn''t as formal as that of rich families. They all chatted about their various experiences, stories and updates on current events. In summary, it wasn''t only a sumptuous breakfast but also a jovial and rxed one.

    After the meal, Sato and his grandfather headed behind their home, where little private dojo in a little garden. Yes, a private dojo.

    Even though the Noguchi household isn''t a rich big family, Old Juro was actually a well-known experienced professional engineer in his days. With the money he had made in his youth, he retired from the public eye to the city of Shinjuku were he bought a nice plot ofnd and built a house alongside a little dojo.

    Despite being such a small family, the Noguchi family has its traits in martial arts with a lot of such geniuses being born from them. These geniuses had gone far, being able to actually create a bunch of martial arts techniques, of which the Lotus Sword art was one such technique made by a descendant of the Noguchi family.[1]

    "So what are we doing today?" Picking up a wooden long sword that was hanging on a rack in the dojo, Sato swung it a little bit to get his hand tuned to its weight.

    "Today? Well, you have already learnt most of the sword arts I can pass on to you, so we''re going to have a spar." Old Juro responded as he also picked up a wooden long sword.

    Sato''s face crumbled a bit "Tch. That''s so unfair; bullying the younger generation."

    "Hehehe. If I don''t bully my grandson once in awhile, then what is there to live for?" Old Juro smiled. "Get ready, I won''t go easy this time. Show me what you have learned so far."

    "This time I''ll surely win. So old man, get ready! "

    With that, Sato charged forward.

    AN :

    I just thought of something. Why the hell did I design futuristic doors to still require you to shut them yourself? Well, cause I felt like doing so. Shutting the door behind you is a ritual¡­

    Once again, no incest ideas. I men how would you feel when you see your elder bro exercising with only a pair of underwear with his stuff clearly visible from the tightening around the edge¡­

    I want to be a martial artist.

 Chapter 37 - 35 : A Spar With Grandfather

    (AN : This chapter is susceptible to change. Errors might exist.)

    "This time I''ll surely win. So old man, get ready! "

    Wielding his wooden sword in front of him, Sato took a deep breath and studied his grandfather who had a rxed smile on his face.

    ''Normally, it''s best to wait fro an attack, however if I do the same with the old man, the battle would be in his hands. His surpasses me in speed and technique but not strength and stamina. So to win, I have to keep the pace of the battle under control.''

    "Are you done scheming or what?" Old Juro mockingly grinned.

    Sato ignored hisment and began circling around him steadily with his sword held high, pointing towards his grandfather.

    "Oh? Trying to distract me with your movements and thenunch a surprise attack? But if I attack before you, your n would be ruined. Or is that what you want? You interrupt me immediately as I make my move and try to control the flow of the battle from there. Is that it?"

    Despite having his n revealed, Sato still remained calm. Instead, he stopped circling his grandfather and smiled.

    "Indeed. No matter what scheme Ie up with, you always seem to discover it in a nce."

    "That''s because I have lived with you for more than 10 years already. It should only be right for me to know your behaviour and thought patterns." Old Juro smiled nicely.

    "Then let''s see how much you know old man." Taking a step forward, Sato charged towards his grandfather while hacking his sword downwards for a heavy strike.

    "A full frontal assault? You''re full of openings. I thought I taught you better."

    Rather than taking a stance to receive the attack, Old Juro took a step and swiftly moved towards Sato. Looking at his movements, one wouldn''t notice a hint of old age or weakness. Old Juro fluidly wielded his shinai[1] and shed at Sato''s torso from the right.

    *cluck*

    Surprising, Sato was able to block the attack aimed it his torso as a weird sound was produced from the collision of the two shinais.

    "It seems you''ve forgotten something old man. I have also lived with you for more than 10 years." Sato smirked at his grandfather''s slightly surprised face.

    Old Juro retreated a few step backwards and chuckled a bit.

    "Good. Good. You faked a full frontal assault and managed to predict how I''d respond. If you were wrong you would have lost."

    "But I didn''t." Sato cut him short.

    "Yes, you didn''t. Now enough of the chat; warm-ups are over. Time for the real deal." As hepleted his statement, Old Juro released a somewhat illusory aura that was one with his surrounding. It made it almost impossible to notice his presence and for one to easily ignore his body''s movement despite staring at him.

    Taking one step forward, Old Juro shed down vertically while saying in a low voice "Illusory Butterfly sh."

    Despite the distance of about 3-4 metres, it meant nothing to Old Juro as his sword appeared almost instantly in front of Sato at an rming speed.

    ''Shit!'' Sato was surprised but that didn''t mean he wasn''t prepared for such an attack as he knew his grandfather was far faster than he was.

    Pushing his body to its limit, he narrowly dodged the attack and tried to dish out an attack of his one. However, Old Juro expected that and delivered attack after attack, forcing Sato to continuously be on the defensive.

    ''If this goes on, I will lose.''

    Despite knowing this, Sato couldn''t change it as each time he tried to counter after blocking an attack from his grandfather, Old Juro would deliver another attack at an insane speed, such that Sato can only block it, if he doesn''t want to lose.

    ''To make things worse, even as I retreat he keeps following me. I just need some space, no matter how little, as long as it''s enough.''

    "Little brat, you actually have the guts to be thinking while we''re battling? Hahaha. It seems I need to up my pace a little bit. Hup!"

    Old Juro then held his shinai with both hands and hacked with full force towards Sato. Even though the attack seemed heavy, it also seemed flexible and capable of retracting backwards quickly and easily while retaining its force.

    "Seven Dragon moves : Dragon''s w."

    Thebination of the force of w attack from a wild beast and the flexibility and deadliness of a snake. This was a martial art developed to be flexible and usable on various weapons; it could even be used as a fist art. One of the pinnacle martial techniques made by the Noguchi Family, the Seven Dragon moves consisted of 7 attacking patterns that can be applied in various situations with each of them having high attacking abilities and power. As a result, the criteria for learning this technique is quite demanding of the practitioner, but considering that the martial technique is ranked among the top in the Noguchi family, a family of genius martial artists, then it is pretty much worth it.

    ''Old man do you really want to kill me?'' Sensing the ferociousness of the attack, Sato was prepare to retreat even though he might not get away sessfully, however, the thought stopped as soon as it came.

    Ignoring whether he could really outrun his grandfather, the Dragon''s w move wasn''t a one-shot attack that could just be dodged and done with. It was designed to be carry-able, in other words, even if the target manages to dodge it, the user can still retain the force and might of the attack and carry it over to his next move or perform the technique once more. Though this carry-able function is hard to use, Sato knew this wasn''t so for his grandfather, who is a pro when ites to sword arts.

    So instead of retreating, Sato held his sword and shed back at a strange angle.

    The best defense is offense.

    Sato''s attack wasn''t a heavy one as one would only expect such an attack to block the might of the Dragon''s w. Rather, the attack looked simple and felt gentle in the eye.

    Once his shinai collided with Old Juro''s, the Dragon w attack mysteriously glided along the edge of Sato''s sword in a gentle manner. It looked more like the force of the attack was deflected downwards.

    "Hmm?" Seeing this, Old Juro was stunned. ''He''s already learnt the 3rd move of the Lotus Sword art?''

    Even though the Lotus sword art is ssified as a low level sword art, no technique is truly useless; it only depends on the user. The same applied with the Lotus sword art. Byparison, some of its techniques are weaker than that of the Seven Dragon moves despite so, if used properly, it could triumph over it.

    The move Sato had used to deflect the attack was the 3rd form: Water on Lotus. Ignoring itsckadaisical name, the technique was one of the 2 only counter attack movements in the sword art. Even thought it is called the 3rd form, that doesn''t mean it''s easier than the next few forms, take for instance the 4th form: Lotus sh.

    The forms in the Lotus sword art are of varying difficulty and the 3rd form is rated as one of the hardest, possibly rivalling the weakest of Seven Dragons moves in difficulty. Keep in mind that the Seven Dragon moves are all difficult for an average sword art practitioner. Even pros may find it difficult. So for the 3rd form of the Lotus sword arts to be able to rival one of it, even if it is the easiest move, is evident of its difficulty and for Sato to have learned such a move was quite surprising for Old Juro.

    As Sato deflected Old Juro''s attack, he followed up with another attack but even so, Old Juro still responded timely, retreating some steps away.

    Seizing the opportunity, Sato executed the 1st form of the Lotus sword, but Old Juro easily deflected it. As Sato was about to attack again, he noticed the tip of a wooden sword at his throat apanied with his grandfather''s voice.

    "Shadow art : Silent Kill. You''re done Sato."

    Sato then looked up to see his grandfather''''s gloating face.

    "Tch."

    "Hahaha. You should have already known that you are 30 years to early to face me. Enough now, time for practice."

    *Schaww*

    Hearing the sound of the bamboo slide door being open, Sato and Old Juro looked over and saw a worried Hayami.

    "Grandma''s ill !"

 Chapter 38 - 36 : Alice Noguchis Sickness

    "Grandma fainted! "

    Without asking for an exnation, Old Juro rushed out of the dojo, heading towards the house. Sato followed close though he was far slower than Old Juro. Hayami was thest, trailing behind Sato though the difference wasn''t that big.

    It took less than 9 seconds for Sato to arrive at the guest room that held a fainted Mrs Noguchi on a bed. Sato also saw his uncle who was sitting on the bed beside her while holding her hand. 4 secondster, Hayami arrived.

    "What happened?" Old Juro asked calmly though Sato could sense the tension in his voice.

    "We were chatting in the Sitting room and she just suddenly copsed. I brought her here and called the hospital. They said they would be here soon."

    *waaah* *waah* (AN : Siren imitations and yeah, it sounds weird.)

    As she concluded, a siren sounded out signifying the arrival of the Public hospital''s ambnce.

    Picking her up in a princess carry style, Old Juro took a step and shed out of the room at an incredible speed with only his voice sounding out.

    "Apologies Sato but practice would have to wait."

    "I understand." Sato replied despite Old Juro being nowhere to be seen. Facing Hayami, he said "I''m heading to the hospital with Grandpa. What about you?"

    "I''ming too." Hayami nodded cutely.

    . . . . .

    Shinjuku General Hospital was located in themon area of Shinjuku city. It was one of the 3 public hospitals in the entirety of Shinjuku city and was rated highly due to itspetent and professional staff together with it''s state-of-the-art equipment and scanners.

    Dr. Ranvir, who had been attending to the Noguchi household for years, walked out of Room 114 and was quickly approached by a middle aged man but Dr. Ranvir knew he was far older than he looked. Beside the middle aged man was a young man of about 21 years or thereabout and a young girl. All their facial features were above standard, even for a society currently ruled by science.

    "How is she?" Old Juro asked hurriedly.

    "Well, there''s good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?" Ranvir nudged his sses.

    "...the good news." After hesitating for awhile, Old Juro replied.

    "The good news is that she''s alright for now. It was nothing so serious, so she''s awake now. You can go see her."

    "For now?" While Hayami let out a sigh of relief, Old Juro and Sato caught onto those words.

    Taking a deep breath, Dr. Ranvir continued "That''s the bad news. From the scan, it seems Mrs. Noguchi is affected with a case of Milio-Schripolises. On the good side it''s still in the early stages but she has to begin receiving treatment within a month or else¡­"

    The damage the Great Reparation wasn''t just the loss of lives and properties, but also included an irreparable damage to the Earth. One of such was the almost total destruction of Antarctica. This ended up releasing a couple new viruses and disease, that mankind has never encountered, into the atmosphere.

    One of such diseases was Schripolises which was both a cardiovascr disease, meaning it had adverse effects on both the respiratory system and the heart. The Schripolises was caused by a strange virus known as Schripoliods, that couldn''t survive easily nor for long in the atmosphere as such, it wasn''t taken seriously initially. However, a research conducted a few years after it''s first appearance showed that the virus wasn''t your average one as some of them had actually mutated from the excess radiation it was exposed to. This gave a rise to a new version, the Milio-Schripolises. This specie was far worse than it''s ancestor. Even though it still wasn''t that contagious, it couldn''t easily be treated like the other one, needing expensive therapies and advance treatments to cure.

    "But she''s still fine for now?" Old Juro asked worriedly.

    "Yes, she is. We will administer her simple treatments today before we will discharge her."

    "The payment-"

    "Don''t worry about it; I got it covered." Dr. Ranvir smiled.

    "No, I refuse." Old Juro replied almost immediately.

    "Please don''t. If you feel like you''d owe me, you won''t. Instead I''m the one who owes your family, so let me do this." Dr. Ranvir said with with solemn face.

    "...fine but I will pay you back soon."

    "Don''t worry about it; just go meet your wife."

    Old Juro nodded and walked into the ward with Sato and Hayami.

    Opening the room, they saw Alice lying on a high tech futuristic bed with a few white patches ced on her body.

    "Alice-chan." Old Juro''s eyes watered, though he held himself from tearing at the spot, and hugged her.

    "Don''t worry, honey. The doctor said I''m fine." Alice smiled even though it looked like a sad one.

    "Grandma." Hayami walked forward and hugged her with tears in her eyes. Not being able to resist any longer, Sato joined in the hug.

    Sometimes, a hug is all it takes to transmit ones feelings and that''s what took ce here. Noguchi Alice, being hugged by all those she knew as family, felt their sorrow for her, their love for her and their determination for her.

    ''I promise you, you will get better.''

    . . . . .

    Akiyama Yato could be identified as your average human being. Apart from knowing a few handy martial arts, he wasn''t talented in any category be it sports, academics or business. Yato was the only child of his parents. To make things worse, his mother had left them earlier on, for a rich man while his dad had died due to an over-dose on his drugs. In other words, hemitted suicide due to his depression over his wife leaving him and the heavy debts he had.

    Yato eventually moved to Shinjuku to stay with his aunt however life wasn''t so easy as he always got harassed by the debt-collectors. Despite being aware of this, Yato''s aunt didn''t do much; only paying for a portion of the debts and charging Yato to handle the rest. Ever since then, Yato had taken up various part-time jobs, hoping to make up for the debts and take care of himself, after his aunt chased him away with the excuse that she couldn''t afford to take care of him and her family despite being quite wealthy.

    Even still, Yato never med them and he still lived a somewhat fulfilling life. A girlfriend, an ''okay'' apartment and with a spot in college, one could only say Yato was living a somewhat convenient life.

    Today happened to be the 3 year anniversary for his rtionship with Kazuki Mia. Yato had met her previously a couple years back at their after-exams celebration party (AN : Chapter 22). A couple of monthster and they became official. Being the day of their 3 year anniversary, Yato decided to push his shift onto a close friend of his at work, while he nned on surprising Mia. The gift he had decided on was a high tech expensive phone that Mia always wanted but never told him because she knew his current state. Yato had been saving for a while now so he spent it on the gadget.

    Walking through the streets of Block 17, Yato admired the view while thinking of Mia''s surprised but happy look if she were to see him. As he approached her home, his footsteps began to slow down.

    This wasn''t due to nervousness as he had visited her a couple other times. Rather this was because he just saw her making out with another guy in front of a car parked beside her home. The guy happened to be a rich 2nd generation that had different girls under his belt. Originally, the guy had eyes on Mia but didn''t seed as Yato got her first but now Yato was shocked to see the very girl who promised him ''together forever'' mashing lips with his rival.

    In the end, only tear drop and a bouquet of flowers, with a letter attached to it, was left behind.

    AN :

    I rushed it *sigh*

    I hope with this chapter, I have addressed the Indian part of naming, reminded you all about the aftereffects of global warming and showed you that love can be fragile sometimes. Truth be told, Yato''s story was slightly influenced by my feelings and experience.

    I also addressed the kindness of doctors or how I hope they could be. I''m not saying to pay for every patients treatment but once in a month wouldn''t hurt.. Let''s make the world a better ce or close to that.

 Chapter 39 - 37 : An Accident

    "Alright now, you can go. I havepleted the discharge papers and she should be alright thanks to the Preliminary treatments." Dr. Ranvir said while handing them a few sheets of paper.

    "Thank you Ranvir. We won''t forget this this. You cane by our ce anytime." epting it, Old Juro thanked him.

    "Thank you doctor." Hayami bowed alongside Sato.

    "Enough of the ''thank you''s. Now get going and enjoy your day. I still have a couple more patients to attend to so I''lle over at 7. How''s that?"

    "We will be looking forward to it." Mrs Noguchi smiled.

    As the Noguchi family left the hospital, Sato felt a vibration on his left arm. He lifted his left arm slightly above his wrist and tapped on the quantum mobile device, Acad XI, on his wrist.

    Even though phones are still being used, a lot of people prefer to use the advanced quantum devices, that take the appearance of a wristwatch. Also known as smart-watches, the quantum device is a somewhat advanced and sophisticated technology that enables banking transactions, long to ultra-long distancemunications.

    The Acad XI wasn''t a luxury model but rather was made suitable for the middle ss consumers, particrly lower-middle ss.

    "Excuse me, let me take this call." Sato said to his grandparents.

    "No problem."

    ''Fudo? Why would he be calling me now?''

    Seeing the caller''s ID disyed on his smartwatch, Sato was a little surprised but nheless he tapped on the receive button. Immediately, he felt a weird surge of electricity pass through his arm towards his ears and with that, he became synced with the system.

    "Hello Fudo. What''s wro-?"

    "Sato! Yato just had an ident ! Come quick, we are at the Shinjuku hospital."

    "Had an ident?¡­Alright I''ming." Initially, Sao wanted to ask more about the incident, but considering that they were in the same building, he decided against it.

    "Okay. We''re at Room 2X17." With that the call ended.

    ''2X17¡­That''s the emergency ward on the 2nd floor.''

    "Grandpa, grandma. You guys can go on without me. A friend of mine just had an ident and is still in the hospital. I''m going to go take a look."

    "An ident? Was it little pig?" Old Juro was rmed. Due to the fact that the smartwatch connects the brain directly to it, calls are down on a cerebral level so Old Juro couldn''t overhear the details of the conversation unless Sato had used a speaker mode.

    "No, its Yato. The brown headed psycho."

    "Oh my! Go on. Don''t worry about us. We''ll be fine." Mrs. Noguchi replied.

    "Our best wishes for him."

    Sato nodded and walked quickly over to the Hover system (AN : I present to you, hovering elevators, the Hovervator.) since running is banned in the hospital hallways.

    Despite walking, it didn''t take him long to reach the ward. There were quite a few rooms with individuals standing in front or beside the doors, all with a worried look on their faces.

    "Sato, over here."

    Hearing a somewhat mature but childish voice calling out to him, Sato turned over to a room by the side. In front of the room stood 4 guys, all of whom Sato was quite familiar with.

    "You came earlier than expected."

    "Fudo what happened?" Sato said as he approached them.

    "I don''t know; I just received a call from Katsuo telling me that Yato got involved in a car ident."

    "Is that true, Katsuo?" Sato stared at the tall and somewhat hunky guy dressed in sport clothing but with a grey windbreaker to wrap it up.

    "I was just heading back home from practice when I saw Yato walking by the streets. I called him out but he didn''t respond to me. As I ran over to him, he crossed the road absentmindedly and got hit by a vehicle. It looked more like he walked over intentionally than absentmindedly. Till now, I''m still surprised at what came over him."

    "*sighs* Is he alright?" Sato asked.

    "Yeah. Yato was quite lucky Katsuo rushed him over, otherwise he might have been doomed. Shinjuku General Hospital has state-of-the-art equipment so he should be fine. The main problem is the payment; 12,000 ALDs. I used my insurance to pay a part of the bill so it got rounded to 10,670 ALDs." Four eyed Seiichi spoke up.(AN : Chapter 1 part 3).

    "If Seiichi hadn''t paid a part of the bill they wouldn''t have begun advanced treatment." Fudo sighed.

    "Don''t praise me. What are friends for?" Seiichi said as he nudged his sses.

    "No, you deserve it, both you and Katsuo. Wait till that bastard wakes up and I will make him spit out why he decided to end his life. " Thest guy, Matsui Yoshi, who happened to a cousin of Yato''s, banged the wall in annoyance.

    Even though Yato''s aunt had abandoned him, not everyone in her family felt the same way. Yoshi was the only child of hers that still befriended Yato and even sent him money once in awhile, though Yato usually rejected it. Because of his kindness and care for Yato, he ended up bing good friends with the rest of the crew.

    "Don''t worry about the fees. We will settle thatter. Let''s just hope that dumb idiot wakes up." Sato said as he looked into the room. "How long has it been since he''s been in there?"

    "About 15 minutes or so." Katsuo replied.

    "Then it should be over soon."

    Ten minutester, as Sato had said, a slightly short doctor draped in a white coat with ck sses exited the room. Before he realised it, he was surrounded by a bunch of young men with one of them being so tall that he barely reached his chest.(AN : This line sounds weird¡­)

    "Doctor, how is he?" Katsuo beat Yoshi to the job and asked hurriedly.

    Regaining his senses after being astounded a bit, the doctor replied "You don''t need to worry about your friend, he''s already responding to treatment. It''s a good thing you brought him here early otherwise we might not have been able to save him."

    "Thank you doctor." Yoshi sighed with relief.

    Feeling awkward in the presence of a giant and his friends, the doctormented "You can visit him now. Don''t do anything serious to him as he''s still injured. He would be able to apply for a discharge by tomorrow afternoon or so."

    "Alright." With that, the doctor walked away while the gang went into the room.

    Even though it was called a room, it was actually an advanced operating theatre. Equipped with sophisticated and upgraded equipment ranging from MRI scanners to HLCR machines (AN : High level Cellr Regeneration. Made it up.). As a result, as long as the victim isn''t proimed dead, almost any injury , disease and ident could be healed; all that is needed is money.

    Yatoid on a bed surrounded with a few moveable and detachable machines attached to it. Even though he was recently involved in a serious car ident, he looked quite fine as he could still raise his head and move his body which apparently he was doing.

    "You bastard!" Yoshi ran forward about to punch him. He was however held down by Katsuo.

    "He just got treated. It''s best not to punch him yet; wait till he''s discharged."

    "Tch."

    Knowing that he wouldn''t be able to overpower Katsuo, Yoshi gave up the pointless struggle.

    "Talk." Sato walked forward and uttered.

    Yato dropped his head low and silence reined the entire room.

    After awhile, they heard some sniffing sounds apanied by Yato''s indistinct mutterings and somewhat glistening liquid flowing down his cheeks.

    "I''m sorry¡­*sniffs*¡­I''m sorry¡­*sniffs*¡­I''m sorry. "

    Sensing the depressing atmosphere around him, Fudo tried to walk over and hug Yato but he was stopped by Sato''s outstretched hand.

    "Exin yourself." Sato said while till facing Yato.

    *sniff*"she¡­*sniff*¡­ Mia broke up with me¡­ I just couldn''t handle it¡­I wanted to-"

    *pah*

    Following that, Yato entered a state of shock as he felt a burning pain on his cheeks.. In that instant, he only noticed a silhouette by his side, Sato''s silhouette.

 Chapter 40 - 38 : Your Friend Can Be Your Enemy (Flashback )

    (AN : This chapter is susceptible to change.)

    3 years ago . . .

    "We need backup. Where''s the reinforcements?"

    "They were ambushed. We are on our own."

    "Shit!"

    In a devastated city that would better be described as a bunch of ruins, a team of yers were having an encounter with another team. The difference between the two parties was their size, as the first team numbered 20 while the other was at least 70, more than triple of their opponents. Not only were they outnumbered, they were outssed in weapons and equipment, barely hanging on to their lives.

    Earlier on, the first team was actually made up of 50 yers, however they suffered an ambush from their adversaries, leading to them being on the defensive side throughout the battle. In other to avoid more losses, they went into hiding within the ruins and employed a guerri tactic to use and eliminate their opponents but due to the great disparity between them, their original tactic failed and it became a game of hide-and-seek.

    "Yato, get your head in the game. If we lose this battle, we might as well give up on conquest. A god-tier equipment like this can make us rise in ranks so keep a sharp mind ok? We aren''t dead yet, so we have to try." Takehasi yelled at the brown haired guy beside him.

    "There''s nothing we can do. I can''t believe Kara would betray us. I even helped that bastard level up. I can''t believe we trusted such a bastard." Yato gritted his teeth in frustration.[1]

    "Forget about Kara, for now we have to figure out how to escape. As long a we can get to the Capital, we would be safe." Silver haired Natsuomented.

    "But they''ve got us surrounded."

    "Then we just have to pierce through their formation." Natsuo smiled.

    "If it was that easy, then we would have done that since. They are more stronger than us so even if we attack from a direction, the team thee will hold us back till their reinforcements show up. Didn''t we learn this from Tamaki''s squad already?" Yato frowned at Natsuo.

    "Let him speak Yato. Natsuo might be yful at times but he often has a point." Takehasi reprimanded him.

    "Thank you, Takehasi. Now back to the main point. I''m not just talking about attacking from one direction but multiple. What is the advantage that the Hell-raiders have over us?" Natsuo asked them both.

    The Hell-raiders were arge group ofw-breaking yers. They often plundered fellow yers, and even guilds, and also killed them just for fun. Even so, they still lived on because their strength was worth it; being roughly on par with 2nd tier guilds.

    "Numbers, strength, greater equipment, you name it."

    "True, but the most important is their coordination and that''s what we need to break. Communication is key in battle and because of that, the Hell-raiders have been able to track our every move."

    "Are you saying that there''s another spy apart from Kara?" Yato said with surprise. Even Takehasi frowned at the opinion.

    "Probably. If what I''m saying is true, then there''s only a matter of time before we die. The Hell-raiders were able to know the location of our reinforcements, realise Tamaki''s n and wipe his squad quickly, plus they were able to respond perfectly to all our counterattacks. Unless they have a really smart yer or an all-seeing equipment, then there has to be a spy."

    "Shit!"

    "So what do we do?" Takehasi knit his brows.

    "A distraction. We order the remaining squads to attack from different points quite some distance from one another while we keep our own position a secret. That way even if Hell-raiders get any info from a spy, they wouldn''t know be able to stop us plus their forces will be spread out too thin from one another."

    "Impressive as always, Natsuo."

    "Hehe, scheming is my talent."

    . . . . .

    "Let''s go."

    As themand was given, the various squads, totalling at least 20 yers all rushed out from different points, with the idea of attacking the encirclement created by their enemies in order to escape.

    Some distance away from the ruins stood a party of 4 yers surrounding a single one who was seated cross-legged on the ground. The aura they all leaked out was varying in intensity, form and behaviour, even still, thebined result was an intimidating, formless pressure that easily broke the resolve to resist, from anyone who stared them in the eye. These were the true rulers and upper echelon of Hell-raiders. A word from them is enough to wipe out a 4th tier guild and if they all vote for it, even 3rd tier guilds won''t be safe.

    "They n on attacking from different points in order to break out eh? So if one squad seeds, the real figure would escape from that point. An impressive idea, I must say so." One of the yers, who hung a long bow on his back, spoke out with one hand on his chin and the other supporting it. He had a somewhat long beard, reminiscent of that of ancient Chinese schrs before the Old era. He was light skinned and seemed somewhat fragile.

    "Possibly, or the true figure might be attacking one such position or even trying to escape from a weaker link." The another yermented. He had a huge door-sized war axe beside him thatplimented his gigantic physique and stature. Together with the fiery red armor he wore, he looked like the reincarnation of a war god. Despite looking brawny and muscr, he was actually one of the great strategists of Hell-raiders alongside the old man who spoke earlier.

    The leader who sat cross-legged on the ground then uttered in an indifferent fashion akin to that of a godmunicating with mortals "Let''s y along then. Get ready to move, they will show themselves soon enough. Have our spy prepare for a sneak attack too. As for you Kara, you did well."

    "Thank you, leader." A man walked forward with a smile on his face as he sincerely bowed to the leader. Even though he looked like he was smiling, deep down, he was actually afraid of messing up in front of these bigwigs as any one of them could kill him more than a 100 times if they ever wished too, even if the reason is that they find him unpleasing to their eyes. The smile however, was still genuine as a goodment from the leader was enough to raise him up the ranks.

    Standing up, the leader dered "Now, let us show the world while we are the Hell-raiders. Today we shall drink the blood of Blue Diamond and let the world fear us."

    Standing at attention the yers all ced their right hands, that were already clenched to form a fist, on the left side of their chest as they shouted out;

    "Hail Lord Krishva, the 10th Yama. Honour to Diyu." (AN : Yama here is in reference to the 10 kings of hell. Finally used an Indian name. After Dr. Ranvir of course.)

    Meanwhile Takehasi, Yato, Natsuo and 2 other yers were bidding their time, waiting for an opening to form in the encircling formation of the Hell-raiders.

    "There." Pointing at the system map, Takehasi continued," The link at that point is weaker than the rest."

    "No, we take this one. Just in case they already know our ns. With our strength, it shouldn''t be so hard to break through their barricade."

    "Alright." Takehasi nodded. "Let''s move."

    It didn''t take long for the party to arrive at their destination however they were astounded to see someone waiting there, someone they didn''t expect to see.

    "Kara." Yato frowned while staring at the young man coated in leather dressing.

    "Did you miss me, Yato?" Kara smiled.

    "How did you find us?" Takehasi asked, knowing that it was quite impossible for Kara to be the only one there. There was also another reason he decided to converse with the traitor and that was to confirm the position of the hidden enemy and also to drop Kara''s guard and eliminate him quickly. That way even if there is a second enemy hidden in the dark, their team would be able to easily handle them.

    "Hahaha. Did you think your movements and schemes could be hidden from the Great Sage of Hell? Don''t make meugh." Kara smirked. "You should give up any resistance and just hand over the Orb of Namek that way you would be able to go scot-free."

    The Orb of Namek was a god-tier equipment Blue Diamond had excavated from a ruin close-by. It was this very equipment that cause the battle between them and Hell-raiders.

    "Do you really take me for a fool? I''m pretty sure once I do that they will still kill us all. I''d rather die a warrior than surrender to you bastards!" Takehasi yelled. Truth be told, Takehasi didn''t want to fight with the Hell-raiders. However knowing that they wouldn''t let them go scot-free, he refused to give it up as such an equipment could be able to change the fate of Blue Diamond in Conquest.

    "Fine. Lord Biyo, they have refused my offer." Kara said while bowing his head low.

    "Foolish."

    "Ahhh"

    A voice sounded out followed by a scream of Takehasi. What made things strange was that the voice had sounded from Takehasi''s group.

    "Katsumi, why?!" Takehasi yelled at the guy who just left a dagger in his chest.

    "Apologies but my name isn''t Katsumi. It''s Biyo." The young man smirked and quickly retreated towards Kara''s side. "Biyo of Hell."

    "I actually suspected Natsuo of being the spy but Katsumi..."

    "You actually suspected me?!"

    Katsumi was actually one of Takehasi''s confidants. They both knew each other in reality and he was one of the experts Takehasi recruited to join them. Katsumi had performed quite well and had attracted the trust of everyone in Blue Diamond so it was quite shocking to find out that he was a spy.

    "Rather than saying I am a spy it''s more like I actually joined Blue Diamond to have a little fun. Who would have known that you guys would discover a god-tier weapon and I would have to betray you.. Life is such a bitch."

 Chapter 41 - 39 : Your Enemy Can Be Your Friend (Flashback )

    "I see. Yato, Natsuo, Kurogane. I''m sorry for dragging you all together with the other members of Blue Diamond into this mess. I could have done better as a guild leader and known when to take a step back. I''m sorry." Takehasi said with a tone filled with guilt and regret as he pulled out the dagger from his chest.

    "No. Don''t take the me on yourself. It wasn''t your fault." Yatoforted.

    "Yato''s right. It''s not your fault. Every guild leader who would have been in your position would take your exact same steps. We just didn''t expect that two of our core members would end up being traitors." Natsuo sighed reluctantly.

    "Thank you all I really appreciate it." Takehasi smiled.

    "Alright enough of the gibberish talks. Hand over the Orb or die." Kara stated after noticing the bored look on Biyo''s face.

    "Kara, Katsumi. Ever since you have been in Blue Diamond, have you ever seen me taking a step back after being pushed around this much? What I despise most is betrayal and there''s no way I can live knowing that I had stepped down for a back-stabbing bastard. Prepare yourselves for you shall see the true strength of Blue Diamond." Takehasi pulled out his sword and took a step forward brimming with pride and honor despite being injured and bleeding.

    "I always knew you were a stubborn man and that''s why I didn''t poison you. Today I will show you the difference between us." Biyo said as he unsheathed his second de. Being a Thief ss yer, he usually had at least 3 daggers on him.

    "Only if Sato were here then I would be quite confident in our win. Sadly he''s being held back." Natsuo sighed.

    "Tch. Forget about that bastard. We are on our own now." Yatoined upon hearing Natsuo''s remark though he was actually hoping for the same thing.

    "Kara, handle Natsuo for me." Katsumi, or rather Biyo, stated as he walked slowly towards the group. "Prepare yourselves, Blue Diamond. Today you shall witness the full strength and glory of Hell-raider Biyo, the 3rd Lord." With that, he rushed into the group and unleashed a barrage of attacks upon them.

    The 5 lords of Hell-raiders were actually the 5 strongest yers right after the guild leader, Krishva. Each and everyone one of them was strong in a particr field ofbat, with some even mastering more. Their number represented the strength and rank with the 1st lord, who is the aged archer from earlier, the Great Sage of hell, ranked the strongest.

    As the 3rd lord, Biyo wasn''tcking in strength and expertise easily capable of taking on 3 elite ss yers without a problem. It was just a matter of time before they fell to him. Initially, Takehasi, Yato and Kurogane were able to hold on against Biyo but slowly and surely, Biyo proved himself to be a true expert yer as he eventually got the upper hand, taking advantage of a w in their formation and eliminating Kurogane.

    With the death of Kurogane, Yato and Takehasi were barely able to keep up. This was because they had both previously learnt martial arts and Yato was quite close to the level of an expert yer. Inspite of that, Biyo was still far stronger than them, factored in with Takehasi''s injury that held him back, the duo''s death was only a matter of time.

    On the other side, Natsuo was able to hold back Kara though it seemed more like Kara wasn''t taking the battle seriously but was keeping Natsuo in check from escaping or assisting the duo.

    "Argh!"

    A few secondster, Takehasi has slipped up and fell at the hands of Biyo. All that remained of him was a one equipment and a golden orb with silver patterns strewn atop it.

    "Takehasi¡­"

    "I was initially nning to finish himst but he exposed too many openings it was displeasing to my eyes." Biyo said in an unenthusiastic manner with a little bit of disgust while flicking off the blood from his dagger, as if killing Takehasi was the same as staining his hands with shit.

    "Haaaa!" Yelling with a ferocious look on his face, Yato charged towards Biyo, tossing away all form of caution and vignce towards him.

    However, Biyo easily dodged the attack and kicked away Yato''s sword from his hand.

    "Useless." Biyo stated with an ethereal voice. "Just die."

    At that moment Biyo swung his dagger at him, Yato looked to have given up on any idea of resistance as he just stood still waiting to receive his death. But reality happened to have another n for him.

    *ng*

    "I hope I''m notte."

    Yato heard the voice of a man he despised for very few reasons, one he never expected to arrive.

    "Sato¡­?"

    "Giving up so soon? This isn''t the Yato I knew."

    "Why are you here?"

    "What do you mean why? I''m a member of Blue Diamond and also your friend. So why can''t I be here?"

    . . . . .

    2 years and 8 months ago

    In a secluded alleyway in a street in Shinjuku city, 4 men had ganged up on your young man, dishing out various attacks on him. The weird fact was that the young man didn''t try to resist, only shielding his face from the attacks with his arms.

    *smack* *p*

    "You bastard!"

    *pound* *pound* *smack*

    "You think you could run away from us after your dad borrowed money from us?"

    "Shit. Shit. Shit."

    *bang* *thump* *thump* *punch*

    "You bastard, you think you can hide eh?"

    "Alright, that''s enough brothers. Pick him up." The leader who was 3 steps behind them said as he lit a cigarette and sucked on it.

    The remaining 3 gangsters lifted the young man up. Despite the various bleeding injuries on him, he''s facial features could be made out a bit with the moonlight sprinkling from above. The young man looked to be quite handsome and had brown hair.

    Grabbing the young man''s brown hair, the leader shook his head and said "Yato, you shitty bastard. First your old man killed himself to escape his debt but he left you behind to handle it. Then you think you could just change city and escape us eh? Haha. Who do you think you''re messing with? You don''t just do that with us now, no."

    The leader then used his free arm and sucker-punched him letting him collide with the walls.

    *bang*

    "Well, I doubt you can pay for the debts anyway so let me give you peace. Who knows, you might find your dad and then you can get your revenge. Itwas nice knowing you kid." Pulling an electromaic handgun from underneath his shirt, the leader pointed it at Yato.

    Even though murder is highly prohibited and very heavily punished, some red organisations still do such. This doesn''t mean that they aren''t afraid of the government but rather they have their ways to make sure that such an event isn''t discovered and even if it doese into the open, most of this organisations have big figures supporting them. As long as the victim isn''t of descent from a rich family nor do they have any power or importance, the government may shun the act as long as necessary fees and apologies are made in rtion to it.

    "I don''t think you would want to that."

    "Hmm?" Turning around, the gangster leader noticed a ck haired young man who happened to have just appeared quite close to him without him noticing, moving his handgun over to another direction.

    "Who are you?" The leader furrowed his brows while he raised his guard up and signaled for his minions. For someone to have appeared so close to him without him noticing, easily goes to show how dangerous such a character is.

    "I''m just a gamer who''s trying to make money." The young man smiled. "Don''t worry, I won''t bite. I''m just hoping that you would let my friend go."

    "...You do realise that he owes us a lot of money and we can''t just let him go?" the leader said carefully after realising the neer wasn''t nning on attacking them.

    "Oh? Ok. Let''s do this then. Send me your ount details and I will pay you a part of the fees. As for the rest, give my friend here 2 months at least. If he doesn''t pay you back, you are free to do as you please."

    After hesitating for awhile, the leader said "...my details are 9X78IUO79, West Shinzu services."

    "West Shizu services, Got it. Thank you." The young man let go of the leader''s arm.

    After the gangsters had gone a few metres away, one of them asked their leader "Boss, why didn''t we just finish them both. Even if he was a martial artist we had weapons, he wouldn''t have stood a chance."

    *p*

    "Shut up you dirty bastard! Do you take me for a fool? Did you think I didn''t consider that?." Taking a deep breath, he continued "It''s quite possible that that kid is from some influential force or something. Even if he isn''t, to have been a be to sneak up o me that easily shows he isn''t a simple fellow. It''s best just to do as he says. It just 2 more months nothing much. Migos, when w get back to HQ, investigate that kid, both of them. "

    "Yes boss."

    Back at the alleyway...

    "You alright?" The ck haired guy asked.

    "Why did you help me when I didn''t ask for it?" Yato asked while staring at the guy strangely.

    "Despite your stupid and mischievous behaviors, I know there''s good in you." The ck haired man said casually as he walked away from view. "I really don''t know why you hate me but I value everyone in our group as friends and that includes you."

    "....a friend huh?"

 Chapter 42 - 40 : Satoâ€™s Advice

    "Sato¡­" Everyone in the hospital ward were stunned at Sato''s actions especially

    "Are you done?" Sato stared at Yato.

    "..."

    "If you are really tired of your life then why don''t you end it. Go ahead! End it! Just know you would leave a lot of us disappointed. Because she cheated on you then you think your life is over?"

    "WHAT DO YOU KNOW?! What do you know?" Yato began to shed tears after his outcry.

    "What do I know? Yeah sure let''s go with that. You had your mom leave you with your dad dead. A lot of debts was ced on your head cause of that and you had to struggle in life. Your aunt left you and all your family members abandoned you."

    "Sato enough!" Katsuo yelled however Sato just gave him a look and turned back to Yato. Even so, that look was enough to shut him up as it made Katsuo feel like he was in the presence of a huge demonic beast in a blood-covered battlefield. All he could feel in that environment was sorrow, suffering and fear.

    "You suffered a lot and so what? Who was there when your family abandoned you? Who helped you pay up your father''s debt? Who supported you in all your endeavour? Who the hell even helped you get the girl that just broke your heart? It was us; EACH and EVERYone of us. And you just decide to end your life over a girl."

    As their voices were overarching the entire room, a nurse tried to step through the door and find out what was going on but she was encountered by Fudo who behind the door.

    "Isn''t the weather great nurse?" Fudo said through the ss window on the door with his iconic smile.

    "What''s happening in there?"

    "Oh nothing; just my dog having some fun."

    "Oh really?" The nurse said skeptically. "First of all animals aren''t allowed in the hospital. Secondly, a dog doesn''t sound like a human."

    "Oh¡­I''m really sorry but can you give us a minute? We''re having a serious bro-talk so¡­"

    "I''m sorry but I have to find out what''s happening in there." The nurse said as she tried to open the door. However when she tapped on the button to open the slide door, it refused to open implying that it was locked from the inside.

    "Apologies miss. I will treat you to a dateter but now you can''te in."

    Blushing a little bit the nurse replied "Who said I want to go on a date with you? Open up or I will call security." However, Fudopletely ignored her but pletely'' wouldn''t be the right word as he still checked to see if she reallly did call security.

    "How do you think we''d all feel? How do you think the friends who have cared for you would feel? It''s a good thing. If a woman betrays you that doesn''t mean you should end your life, no matter how much you loved her. If she isn''t worth your love then there are other things worth it. Life is a journey you shouldn''t end because of one mistake. Don''t ever let us get worried again or I swear I will kill you myself." (AN : That phrase, ''Life is a journey¡­'' was made by yours truly. Shamelessly advertising my brilliance.) With that said, Sato exited the room, leaving behind 4 awkward guys and a slightly depressed patient.

    "Guys, I think security ising. So let''s bounce." Fudo broke the awkwardness with a silly look on his face.

    After the had left the room, Seiichi nudged his sses and said "Well Sato was a little harsh."

    "True but Yato may have really needed it. All we could do is tofort him slowly and carefully but he might not get back up again. A mix of insults andfort might be better." Katsuo said while still recalling that feeling he felt from before. "Sato might have had a simr experience so he should have known what he was doing."

    Gritting his teeth, Yoshi vented "That bitch Mia. If I get my hands on her, not even the heavens can save her."

    Fudo then guffawed "Unless you want Yato on your tail, you better not make any moves yet. We have to wait for Yato to settle his emotions down before taking any form of revenge."

    "Indeed." Everyone else nodded.

    "By the way, where''s Sato?"

    At the Waiting hall on the second floor(AN : Remember, American standard for buildings.) Sato was watching a show on the Disy unit(An : which is obviously a futuristic TV). The show was a famous one and the episode being broadcasted was one that had had began earlier on. It was an interview on the spokesperson for thepany behind Infinite Realm, Dreand Studios.

    "So can you tell us more about Infinite Realm?" The interview asked.

    "No problem, Kelly. Well you see, we were looking to produce a virtual world that not only defined reality as it is but also incorporated other imaginary facts that we all desired in our childhoods. A world where you could be anything you''ve ever wanted; a cksmith, a chef, a scientist, a doctor, you name it. We now put all those features into a game with quality graphics surpassing all those currently avable. The result is the current leading VR game, or as we like to call it, VR world, Infinite Realm."

    "Really? That''s amazing!"

    "I know right."

    "So tell me more, is there like any side effect to it? Cause I heard that the 2x time speed has potential after-effects on people."

    The spokesperson smiled and said "Infinite Realm is our prized creation. The NPCs are flexible and are all defined by the various characters and personalities. Unlike those of previous games, ours are quite approachable and realistic. Even so, Infinite Realm isn''t perfect. I mean that''s why there was an update just this morning.

    "I admit that the 2xtime speed isn''t so safe. This doesn''t mean it has extreme adverse effects, no. It simply means that because of the increased time span, yers would experience slight mental headaches after long gaming periods. This is because your body and consciousness is used to a 24 hour system. So when your consciousness experiences a 48 hour long period while your body experiences a 24 hour period, your brain feels slightly worn out and confused but do not worry as the effect isn''t so serious. You can easily solve this with a nutrient drink for the brain or organize your ying time to be at least less than 14 hours in real time, with a 1-2 hour break.

    "You might feel that it''s wrong to use the increased time speed but this enables the yers to be able to achieve more in the game, giving you a somewhat longer life span than those who don''t."

    "Ok. So is there anything else we need to pay attention to?" The interview asked.

    "Apart from that, I would advice everyone else to please y the game. There are a lot of opportunities avable in Infinite Realm and a lot of dreams can be achieved. With enough hardwork, you can earn as much as an average worker. Who knows, you might get more lucky and earn more. So do try to get yourself a helmet."

    "Haha. Alright. Next question from a user; what is the point of an upgrade this early into the game?"

    "Well, most of the features of the game and controls are handled by the Heaven system but in order to achieve that, it needs more data. We took the first 6 hours as a Beta testing of sorts, gathering the info from the various yers and using it to improve the system and make the game better for all yers. That''s why there was an update."

    "Hmm. That''s an impressive idea. What about-"

    "Hey Sato." Fudo called out from the lobby, cutting off Sato''s attention from the show. "Some of the guys are feeling like you were too harsh on him."

    "Same here. But I rather be harsh on him than let him end up like I did." Sato sighed.

    "You still haven''t forgotten about her have you?"

    "Enough about that. I n on heading home. The update will soon be over." Sato pointed at the disy unit that showed the digits 9 : 35 am in a small sized font below the program.

    "Alright. Let''s go."

    . . . . .

    In a particr room in skyscraper located within the Yanai district, a young man was venting out his anger on the furniture and properties in the room. Most of the ss-wares and ceramic wares were broken into pieces, with the shards allying around on the floor.

    "FUCK THIS! Is it because of that little encounter that Azure dares to treat me like this? It''s all that bastard''s fault!" Kotaro yelled out in vexation.

    "I swear I will pay that shit back for the disgrace."

    Kotaro had just received a message from Azure Dragon, stating that he would be transferred to a branch at ck Mountain Town. Even though there was no difference in Town level, the branch in ck Mountain never actually existed rather, Kotaro was tasked to follow a group to set up one. This means that he now has to begin struggling with the local powers there for resource spots and levelling maps.

    "Rx young master. All will be okay." A middle aged man, who was dressed in a butler''s clothing and stood some distance away from the vtile Kotaro,forted him

    "How will all be ok?!" Kotaro shouted at him.

    "Remember young master, the lord paid a lot to get you into the 1st tier guild Glory. This is the closest he can get you to a super guild; the rest is up to you. If you can seed young master, then you will have enough opportunities to harvest benefits from Infinite Realm." The butler said as he dusted a table filled with broken shards of ss.

    "What benefit is there in a stupid game? Just making me waste my time for no reason." Kotaro retorted.

    "Not really. Young master, let me let you in on a secret. I don''t know a lot but recently, the lord has been focusing on this game, even your grandfather too." The butler said in a low tone.

    "Even the old man?" Kotaro sounded skeptical. One has to know that even though his father is a millionaire, his sphere of influence is nothingpared to his maternal grandfather.

    "Yes, young master. I don''t know the secrets this game hides but they seem to put a huge importance in it. If you, young master could get in to a super guild, not only will you know the secret, you can even make your father and grandfather proud by helping them achieve their goals."

    "Really?!" Kotaro sounded skeptical. "But wouldn''t that make me a pig for them to use?"

    "Not really young master. If you are able to perform well and please your grandfather, surpassing your father in the family wouldn''t be much of a problem much less killing." The butler smiled cunningly.

    "I see¡­Hahaha, you bastard, Fudo, just you wait."

 Chapter 43 - 41 : Back In Infinite Realm : Preparations Before War

    (AN : I tweaked some info in chapter 24 and 27. Nothing much.)

    [[ System notification :

    Locating server...

    Server located.

    Beginning Neurolink connection process¡­

    Connecting to server Heavenly System Universal server¡­

    Connection sessful.

    Verifying connection¡­

    Connection verification sessful.

    Beginning mind transit in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 ]]

    Flexing his body and getting used to it, Sato uttered "It''s good to be back."

    After doing a couple more stretches, he exited the room and headed over to the lobby downstairs, where he met up with Fudo.

    "What took you so long?" Fudo questioned.

    "I was trying to feel the changes of the update to our controls but it seems that wasn''t what they focused on."

    "Yeah. Now that you say it, I hardly feel a difference. So where are we off to this time?"

    "ck Grill''s cave. ording to the yers who have recorded all the nearby levelling spots, ck Grill''s cave has a high spawn rate with a high concentration of monsters." Sato said as they left the building.

    "Doesn''t that mean that it will be popted?" Fudo queried with confusion.

    "Normally, yes. However, the monsters there have an awfully high defence against physical attacks plus their huge numbers make them suitable for zerg tactics. That cancels out most of the solo yers. Since the distance is quite far from Riverdale, not a lot of guild yers or parties go there plus the loot isn''t so appealing. They would rather head over to Fog valley or the outskirts of Kiro Mountains were there are higher level monsters and better resources."

    "So we have ck Grill''s cave to ourselves?"

    "Not so much. If we could figure these facts and reach the conclusion that ck Grill''s cave is a suitable levelling spot, others might have done the same."

    "But they shouldn''t be so much right? Let''s just go."

    As they had just walked a few meters from the hotel building, they both received a system notification. Not just Sato and Fudo but the entire yer poption in Riverdale.

    [[ Town scale System Notification :

    The Town Head has just received the information and has prepared for battle.

    Update on "The Goblin''s Invasive Retribution."

    The Goblin''s Invasive Retribution : Mission Package

    A yer has just discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. Hold down the fort and stop the goblin''s from further conquering morends.

    The mission begins in 00 : 30 : 00 . (AN : Hour:Minute:Second. This will be the usual format.) Once the timer is done, gather at the Town''s West Gate and await further instructions.

    Rewards : Based on performance.

    Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

    Loss of 2 levels with reduction of experience gained by 30% for 2 weeks

    Rtionship level with human forces at [Dislike] ]]

    "So the mission has finally begun eh? Do we need to stock up more on consumables.?"

    "We spent more than 40 silver coins on consumables and materials but you still think it wasn''t enough?" Sato stared at Fudo with a weird face. "That''s more than 30 times an average yers gain since the game has started."

    "Hehehe, then the average yers are poor. What''s the use of having money if you don''t spend it?"

    "...It''s best we save for a rainy day." Sato said a she stared at the sky deep in thought. "Come on, let''s head over to the West gate since we have nothing else to do."

    Elsewhere¡­

    In a private room at a fancy restaurant in Riverdale.

    [[ Town scale System Notification :

    The Town Head has just received the information and has prepared for battle.

    Update on "The Goblin''s Invasive Retribution."

    The Goblin''s Invasive Retribution : Mission Package

    A yer has just discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. Hold down the fort and stop the goblin''s from further conquering morends.

    The mission begins in 00 : 30 : 00 . (AN : Hour:Minute:Second. This will be the usual format.) Once the timer is done, gather at the Town''s West Gate and await further instructions.

    Rewards : Based on performance.

    Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

    Loss of 2 levels with reduction of experience gained by 30% for 2 weeks

    Rtionship level with human forces at [Dislike] ]]

    "Therge scale mission has finally begun." A burly man with a height of almost 2.2 metres uttered out after reading the system notification.

    "Hmm, I doubt it would be that easy considering that the news was given to every yer. This is such a drag." A level ranger whoid on a couchzily remarked.

    "Maybe for you it is. I can finally use this event to reach level 5." A level 4 assassinmented.

    "Hehehe. Keep boasting while I wait to see it st back at you." The ranger snickered.

    "Enough you two. Acting like bunch of kids. Captain, do we need to purchase ore supplies just in case?" A cleric in white mage clothing asked the burly man.

    This team was actually that of Mountain Rift, that had previously bumped into Sato and Fudo and had tried to recruit them both. Apart from the previous 4(the Captain, assassin, ranger and cleric), there were 2 other yers, both mages; an elementalist and a summoner. After they had left met with Sato and Fudo, they went levelling up and managed to return back to town in time for the update. As such, their average levels were quite high, being level 4 with the only exception being their captain, One Sword, being level 5. Silver sky, who was previously ahead of the others together with the captain, was quite close to level 5.

    "Ao, you handle that. Silver, inform the other groups in neighbouring towns. From the info I have, Emperor''s Might and Savage Tribe already have their eyes on Riverdale so there''s no way they won''t participate in this mission. Even though it''s arge scale mission, there''s most likely a reward for the best performing yer or team. That''s our goal and to beat those Super guilds in this, we need numbers. The rest of you, make your preparations and meet me back here in 1o minutes. Then we leave."

    "Yes, Captain." Everyone nodded and those who had arrangements to make, left the room. In the end only One Sword and the ranger, Idle Archer, were left behind.

    "Ahh. This will be a drag wouldn''t it eh captain?" Idle archerzily asked.

    "More like a pain in the ass. But to surpass the other guilds, we have to do our best and get a better headstart than them. That means we have to make the bets of every opportunity."

    "Ahh. Being a vice-captain is such a pain."

    Simr arrangements were also happening in different gathering spots of various guilds and parties. And by simr arrangement, this author isn''t referring to Idle archer''s behaviour, but rather the preparations every guild was undertaking. Most guilds had reached the conclusion that the best performing yer or team would receive a reward much more than the average performers. As such, the big guilds began to gather their forces and trump cards for the uingrge scale mission, hoping to convert them all to potential rewards and aces that could give them an edge over their peers in future situations and encounters.

    The small guilds on the other hand, were making somewhat simr preparations except that they didn''t stake most of their forces in the uing battle as in this category, they can''tpete with big guilds.

    Of the 2 favorites with the greatest odds to take the win, Savage Tribe was a dark guild so most yers weren''t in support of them. Emperor''s might on the other hand was a bona fide super guild and not just an ordinary one but one of the big 5; the super guilds that had existed since the Old Era.

    "So you encountered Chike and lost?" Snow Goddess stared at Azure Dragon in the eye.

    "He ran away before we could conclude our match so I don''t think its my loss. However I have to admit, he''s strength is the real deal. Compared to him, I''d rather battle you." Azure Dragon said with a smile while he took a sip from his ss of wine.

    "Hmmph! Unless we fight, I won''t believe you." Snow Goddess refuted. "The next time you run into him, call me."

    "Yes ma''am." Azure Dragon chuckled.

    "So what ns do you have for therge scale mission?"

    "Oh that?" Azure Dragon picked up a piece of meat, dipped it in sauce and ced it in his mouth, chewing the piece gently . After savoring the taste a bit, he swallowed the meat in satisfaction and rinsed his mouth with the wine beside him.

    "The usual; you will lead 3 teams with you and hope for the best or rather achieve the best. Apart from the Savage Tribe, we don''t need to worry about anyone else. Mountain Rift could be considered a threat but not so much. The remaining others are a bunch of 2nd tier guilds that pretty much know their ces. With my attack on Chike, Savage Tribe should already be aware that we are hunting down their members so I doubt they would make an appearance. Unlike us, their numbers are lower so I doubt they would make any needless sacrifices. With them out of the way, 1st position should be ours."

    "It looks like you have thought this through?"

    "I am a ''King'' after all. I need to put in some effort to prove it otherwise what would others think of me?" Azure Dragon chuckled.

    "Correction; a false ''king''." Snow Goddess smirked.

    Azure Dragon twirled his ss. "Potato, potato. Same thing."(AN : You should be able notice the difference right?) "Also, keep an eye out for me for a fat kc haired guy."

    Yukino frowned "Why?"

    "I n on letting Chesces send him my regards." (AN : When you run out of names what do you do? You reward your number one supporter!!!)

    "Why are you sending Chesces?"

    "Because I don''t want us to lose that rank for any silly reason." Azure Dragon red at Yukino. "Last time was a mistake sure. But I don''t want any such mistakes like that this time around."

    AN :

    One shouldn''t underestimate Emperor''s Might because Azure Dragon had lost a lot of men to Chike.. It''s like this, the yers with Azure Dragon then wereparable to Kakashi and Chike is Madara. So it isn''t unusual for a bunch of Kakashis to lose to Madara, capisce?

 Chapter 44 - 42 : And We Move

    (AN : This chapter is susceptible to change.)

    "So it''s pretty much a war we are going to eh?"

    At a clearing close to the West gate, a unit of NPC soldiers stood by in formation awaiting orders. The unit numbered at least 200 NPCs and most of them had the ss [Town Guard] [1]. They were garbed with a mixture of leather and iron armour with the bulky men in front, who looked to be MTs, fully d in stylish ck and blue iron armour.

    "War might be outstretching it. I''d say a battle or a simple sh." Sato said as he walked over to a spot in the clearing and waited.

    Sato and Fudo weren''t the only yers who decided to arrive early. A few others had gathered close by. They were mostly solo yers and independent parties but there were a few guilds that were also present. Most of those guilds were the weaker ones, consisting of a couple of unassigned guilds, 4th tier and 3rd tier guilds. Most of them weren''t so high levelled, averaging around level 3 with some of them even being level 4.

    "We really need to go level up otherwise we end up bing irrelevant." Fudo sighed at the sight of the level 4 yers.

    "This mission can also count as levelling so it''s best you take it seriously." A ck haired guy walked over to the duo. Extending his right hand he said "Hello. My name is Matrix. You are?"

    "Sky-de." Sato warily shook hands with him.

    "Emperor Wolf."

    "Seeing as we are ck hairs, why don''t we form a team together? I got some of my guys to join with me but we still need a few more. So what do you say?" Matrix smiled. "And before you disagree, you should know that it would be hard to make any noticeable achievement in this event. Since the mission was disseminated round the whole town, most guilds have ced their main focus on it and we can''t be sure that the neighbouring yers and guilds don''t n to do the same. After all, who said that we are the only ones that know of it?"

    Upon hearing that, Fudo frowned slightly. Even though he had thought of the same thing hearing it from someone made him consider that possibility once more.

    Sato on the other hand, nonchntly replied "Thank you for your exnations and thoughts but we don''t n on achieving a noticeable deed today."

    "...ok. No problem." Matrix, who was slightly stunned at theck of enthusiasm from Sato looked at Fudo and asked "What about you?"

    Fudo beamed and said "You should have heard him clearly didn''t you? He said ''We'' not ''I''."

    "Alright but don''t regret your choiceter." Matrix scowled and left while muttering "Idiots."

    After he was gone quite a distance away, Fudo looked at Sato.

    "Do you really don''t want to aim for the leaderboards in this event?"

    "I told you, it''s too soon to struggle for any reward. There''s just the 2 of us against multiple guilds. This isn''t some freaking webnovel where you illogically surpass them all."

    "You''re right. You said it''s too soon to aim for a reward in scenarios like this plus you also emphasized that there''s just the 2 of us. Does that mean you n on starting a guild?" Fudo asked with glints in his eyes.

    "Not a guild. But starting a party or a club isn''t so bad."

    Normally, guilds are the most popr organizations in the gaming world. However, there exist other groups who tend to have a morex set of rules and regtions to abide by. This includes associations, unofficial clubs and parties. A simple party can consist of about 4 to, at most, 7 yers. Any more and it will be ssified as a club.

    An association, or adventurers guild, is arger club that has a set of rules guiding them, however, their rules are more free andx whenpared to guilds.

    Guilds, just like associations, are arge-sized clubs. However, they are guided by a very strict set of rules. On the good side though, most guilds are sponsored by a corporation and are usually fair in their control since their rules are strict. Due to these reasons, guilds tend to develop faster, smoother and betterpared to the other groups.[2]

    While Sato and Fudo talked about their future ns, more yers and guilds hurried over to the clearing, steadily increasing the yer poption present. Apart from the yers, NPC mercenaries and adventurer groups had gathered. Even some NPC guilds had gathered, of which the strongest was a small squad of adventurers. The Adjudicators of the Holy Light guild, who numbered around 20, were also worth noticing. Even with their small numbers, everyone of them were quite strong and well equipped. Their captain was even a Level 30 Knight of Light, which was a special ss only essible to those under the Church of Light. In the end, the NPC forces, including the Town Guards, numbered around 475 or so.

    "Such a force should be capable of seizing a tertiary town. If the formations aren''t counted, seizing a secondary town wouldn''t be bad."

    Towns are ssified into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary towns. Each of them are guarded by arrays and formations that serve as a shield for the towns however the difference in strength increases with an increase in rank. For this force to be capable of capturing a town, even if it is just a tertiary one, is quite impressive already.

    It didn''t take that long for the 30 minutes countdown to be up. As soon as that happened, not just the yers but also the NPCs noticed a small group of people walking over from the gate. The leader was d in a ck armour lined with scarlet patterns. Though he wasn''t so muscly, he exhibited an over-bearing aura with each step he took. The guards beside him were all d in full body ck coloured armour.

    As he walked towards them, some of the yers tried to use [Inspect] on him but they realised it didn''t work. Rather, they received a System notification.

    [[ System notification :

    [Inspect] isn''t currently avable due to a recent update patch. To use this skill, certain conditions need to be applied.

    Please address the System Interface''s Help centre for more info. ]]

    "So this is one of the update ''improvements''? What a joke. They are pretty much removing one of our advantages." A yer cursed out.

    Usually the [Inspect] skill helps yers scan a boss/monster and identify their skills and stats. With these information, they are able to n and arrange a proper tactic to apply on the boss/monster. With the ability now gone, most yers would be unable to easily adapt to battles as they have now lost a very useful ability that had previously granted them an upper hand in battles.

    "Pursuing reality eh? Looks like they meant it." Fudo giggled. (AN : It feels weird using that verb¡­)

    "Listen up!" At some point in time, the man in ck and scarlet armour had arrived at the center of the crowd, on a tform that previously wasn''t there.

    "Today, we battle a bunch of misfits who think we are easily bullied. Today we face a race that has no respect for mankind, the strongest of all. Today, we protect our mothers who gave birth to us, our wives who cared for us and our children, who look up to us. Today we battle, not just for our lives, but for our people and our race. Today, we remind these disgusting creatures who the real boss is. NOW. ARE YOU WITH ME? OR ARE YOU AGAINST US?!!!"

    "WITH!!!" The crowd responded with a dose of adrenaline.

    "Now, let us remind all those races out there who the boss is!!!"

    [[ System notification :

    The Goblin''s Invasive Retribution : Mission Package

    A yer has just discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka.

    You have been ordered by Town general, Lord Midel, to wage war against the invaders.

    Rewards : Based on performance.

    Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

    Loss of 2 levels with reduction of experience gained by 30% for 2 weeks

    Rtionship level with human forces at [Dislike]

    System description : Show them who''s boss.

    System : ept/Decline

    NB: Declining is the same as failure. ]]

    "So once we reach this ce, there''s no going back? Fine. I ept."

    AN :

    [1] [Town Guard] : a subss that grants the user better memory of their jurisdiction together with its surroundings. When they are battling in their posts(assigned towns), they receive a boost. The farther they are from the town, the weaker the boost till a radius of 500m away from the town. At this point, the boost is unavable.

    [2] An association or a simple club can also be sponsored by a corporation but normally, they end up turning into a guild since they have to have a strict control over their fund usage or increase their numbers or this might just be a suggestion from their sponsors.

 Chapter 45 - 43 : War 1

    (AN : This chapter is susceptible to change.)

    "Why did you let Lord Midel give the speech? As the Town Head, you should be motivating the people, even more so since you n on battling alongside them." A brte with a sense of maturity diffusing from her faced the little ''kid'' before her. Thy were both a few metres away from the crowd as such no one noticed them.

    "I''m letting the younger generation have experience in matters like this. What''s wrong with that?" Arman responded while munching on a bag of chips.

    "The young generation? Permit to say this but Lord Midel isn''t that young anymore plus he''s already had a few experiences in war time situations. If you wanted to lie, you could have given a less lousy reason. Don''t tell me you were shy approaching them because of your height?" Alice lightly smirked.

    Coughing awkwardly, Arman replied "That''s not it. I made myself like this so why would I be scared of meeting others? I just felt like giving a speech would be stressful."

    "I thought you wanted to let the younger generation gain experience in such matters?"

    "...uhh, it''s my turn now."

    At this time Lord Midel had just concluded his motivating ''speech''. Town Head Arman tossed his bag of chips away, possibly to an alternate dimension and lifted his hands towards the crowd.

    "[Great Void Movement]"

    Following that, a burst of light flooded out from beneath the crowd and in the next second, the clearing was empty. All the yers alongside the NPC soldiers and mercenaries were gone. Even Arman and Alice were gone.

    . . . . .

    Gnorka, Formerly Ghost Mansion

    The boss was nowhere to be seen but the damage he had caused on thend still remained. A huge portion of the ground was stained with a mix of red and green coloured blood. After the creature of darkness and devastated arge amount ofnd behind the mansion, most of the goblins had evacuated from the underground tunnels they hid in and set up camp behind the building.

    It turned out that the numbers the allied guild forces had earlier faced was nothing but a tip of the iceberg. There were at least 300 at the clearing with a few more upying the mansion and some others camping on the mountains. An estimate of the goblin forces on ground would be at least 530 goblins and there were even more underground.

    A couple of metres away, a barrier was set up and within it was a small army of humans. They consisted of the at least 480 NPC forces(AN : Once you include the General and his men that arrived exactly on time.) together with a yer force of more than 300 yers which included the ones from earlier who had faced the boss.

    When the yers had earlier arrived, they all received a System notification;

    [[ System notification :

    Update on "The Goblin''s Invasive Retribution."

    The Goblin''s Invasive Retribution : Mission Package

    A yer has just discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. y the goblins and prevent them from invading thends.

    The mission begins in 00 : 10 : 00 .

    Rewards : Based on performance.

    Kill 1 goblin : Experience reward + Basic reward

    Kill 10 goblins : Experience rewards increase by 0.5 + 1 Silver ore(2 star).

    Kill 50 goblins : 5 ingots of Dawn steel(2 star)

    Kill 100 goblins : 1 log of Iron Pear wood(3 star). (Ifpleted individually, the reward is as it stands. Ifpleted by a group, apart from the experience reward, only 1 set is given to the group)[1]

    Kill 1 troll : Experience reward + 1 silver core(2 star)

    Kill 5 trolls : Experience rewards increase by 2 + 5 ingots Dawn steel

    Kill 10 trolls : 1 log of Iron pear wood + 10 silver coins

    Kill the leader : 1 Soul crystal (4-star) + 10 gold coins

    Most Kills (individual) : 1 bar of Timber Crystal(3 star), 2 ingots of Star Gold(3 star), 5 silver coins, 1 level up, Rtionship level with human forces bes [Honoured], title [Humanity''s Friend].[2]

    Most Kills (group) : 1 ingot of Star Gold, 5 silver coins, 1 level up, Rtionship level with human forces bes [Honoured], title [Great Helper].[3]

    Basic reward : 2 ingots of Limber steel , 5 Dark pearls, 3 silver coins, 50% increase in experience.

    Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

    Loss of 2 levels with reduction of experience gained by 30% for 2 weeks

    Rtionship level with human forces at [Dislike] ]]

    (AN : Rtionship levels in Infinite Realm are divided into; [Unforgivable, Hatred, Dislike, Neutral, Acquaintance, Friends, Trusted and Revered] for people. For organisations, Rtionship levels in Infinite Realm are divided into; [Unforgivable, Enemy, Dislike, Neutral, Honoured, Respected, Trusted and Revered] )

    Even thought their numbers were huge, their levels were still low, averaging around level 3-4. In a battle consisting of level 4- level 7 goblins, the yers would undoubtedly lose. However with the assistance of the NPC forces, their chances of victory had risen by more than two-folds.

    In themand centre of the NPC forces, Lord Midel, Town Head Arman, Secretary Alice and a few other important figures had gathered round a table in a tent just recently set up.

    "ording to our scouts, there seems to be more goblins hidden beneath the mountain. We estimate a total of one thousand but it might be more or less but not so much." Midel said as he pointed at a spot on the map ced before them.

    "I can''t scan the mountain because as we all know, the Kiro mountain range is made up of Ghtes and they have a special feature of blocking out mana." A man dressed in a white and azure pellegrina and cassock with a crosier in his left handmented. He was the bishop of the Church of Light''s branch in Riverdale, Enzo Giovanni.

    "I would have peeked in with my void abilities but I doubt I could go unseen by the emissary." Arman casually uttered. "Since we don''t know the exact measure of his strength, any advantage we have shouldn''t be lost especially our advantage of surprise."

    "So the only option we have is to rush forward and adapt right?" Another man with a turban on his head and a white beard asked.

    "Indeed but not exactly." Midel replied. "Lord Arman, kindly tell them what you told me."

    "A few hours ago I felt a gaze on Riverdale. You all are quite strong so you should have pretty much sensed it."

    "You mean that gaze is¡­" The turban headed man, Deval, frowned.

    "Considering the current situation, then yes. The gaze was from it."

    Bishop Enzo frowned and said as if in thought "That gaze held a lot of darkness in it. Despite the wide distance I could still feel it. That means that it''s strength is around the 6th or possibly 7th tier." As a Bishop, he had oncee into contact with the Papal head. As a result of this, Enzo was already aware of the energy rank of such beings.

    "Normally I would agree with you but not this time. It isn''t easy to reach that level plus the kingdom isn''t sox as to let a 6th tier being in without regtion. Even though they failed in discovering this goblin army, a 6th tier being is different. It''s most likely a weaker clone or a projection so we should be able to handle it."

    A 6th tier being would be a Saint whereas a 7th tier being would be a Demigod. Such beings are capable of easily wiping out a city much less a simple town. Even the Emperor of an Empire or the King of a Kingdom would be at this level at most. Because of this, they tend to prevent any one of equal magnitude or ability to cross through their borders, in fear of their destructive abilities.

    Reaching this level is quite tough as such, everyone who does so often value their lives. Even though they are very few who can rival them, with the gods all in hibernation, some Empires and independent Kingdoms have secret treasures and weapons that are capable of ying them. With the right amount of quality and quantity of lesser figures, they could even eliminate a 6th tier being.

    Due to these factors, 6th tier beings often operate with clones or projections of themselves. Even though these clones and projections are far weaker than the main thing, wreaking havoc and eliminating a town isn''t a hard thing to do.

    "I will handle him first and get a feel of his power. After that, Deval and Enzo, you both find an opportunity and deal a significant blow on him. Keep in mind that I might not be able to hold him off for long. Midel, you work with the units and eliminate the goblin army as fast as possible. There''s most likely amander figure amongst them. Lead our troops to victory with as minimal loss as possible."

    "Yes, Lord Arman." Midel saluted.

    "My men would act as a shock troop, barging through the army and eliminating their elites." Bishop Enzo rified.

    "Alright. I know you church people aren''t a fan of being controlled but I hope you won''t get in the way?" Arman faced Bishop Enzo.

    "My teaming up with you and agreeing to your n is already a sign of us hoping to work together properly." Bishop Enzo smiled kindly.

    "If that is all then let''s begin."

    AN :

    [1] Take for instance 1 person ys 50 goblins, he receives all the reward for ying 50 goblins plus the reward for ying 10 goblins * 5. So his/her rewards are : 5 ingots of Dawn steel, 5 ingots of Silver ore and 5% increase in experience gained from ying goblins (for the event.)

    If a group of 5 yers y 50 goblins, only one set of the 50 goblins reward is given, in other words only 5 ingots of Dawn steel is given not 25. The same with the reward for 10 goblins * 5, only the experience is shared. In other words, their rewards collectively be : 5 ingots of Dawn steel, 5 ingots of silver ore. The 5% increase in experience gained is given to all the yers in the group but the rewards above are given collectively not individually. (Ask me questions in thement section if you still don''t understand.)

    This applies to all the rewards.

    [2] [Humanity''s friend] :

    5% discount when trading with human forces.

    NPCs tend to trust you more for missions.

    Rtionship level with human forces would always be capped at [Honoured] unless youmit a sacrilege.

    [3] [Great Helper] :

    2% discount when trading with human forces.

    NPCs tend to trust you more for missions.

 Chapter 46 - 44 : War 2 : Schemes And Ploys

    [[ System notification :

    Update on "The Goblin''s Invasive Retribution."

    The Goblin''s Invasive Retribution : Mission Package

    A yer has just discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. y the goblins and prevent them from invading thends.

    Rewards : Based on performance.

    Kill 1 goblin : Experience reward + Basic reward

    Kill 10 goblins : Experience rewards increase by 0.5 + 1 Silver ore(2 star).

    Kill 50 goblins : 5 ingots of Dawn steel(2 star)

    Kill 100 goblins : 1 log of Iron Pear wood(3 star). (Ifpleted individually, the reward is as it stands. Ifpleted by a group, apart from the experience reward, only 1 set is given to the group)[1]

    Kill 1 troll : Experience reward + 1 silver core(2 star)

    Kill 5 trolls : Experience rewards increase by 2 + 5 ingots Dawn steel

    Kill 10 trolls : 1 log of Iron pear wood + 10 silver coins

    Kill the leader : 1 Soul crystal (4-star) + 10 gold coins

    Most Kills (individual) : 1 bar of Timber Crystal(3 star), 2 ingots of Star Gold(3 star), 5 silver coins, 1 level up, Rtionship level with human forces bes [Honoured], title [Humanity''s Friend].[2]

    Most Kills (group) : 1 ingot of Star Gold, 5 silver coins, 1 level up, Rtionship level with human forces bes [Honoured], title [Great Helper].[3]

    Basic reward : 2 ingots of Limber steel , 5 Dark pearls, 3 silver coins, 50% increase in experience.

    Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

    Loss of 2 levels with reduction of experience gained by 30% for 2 weeks

    Rtionship level with human forces at [Dislike]

    The mission begins in 00 : 00 : 00 . ]]

    "Charge!"

    As soon as the barrier deactivated, a multitude of yers and NPCs ran towards the goblin army that was close-by. Because the barrier wasn''t moveable, the Command centre had cancelled the idea of a surprise attack as any movement close to the mansion would be noticed by the Emissary. Hence they adopted the final option of a full frontal charge by their men. As for the true powerhouses, apart from Midel and Arman, the rest hid themselves with their own abilities, effectively wiping out their auras and scents from being noticed.

    *grunts*

    The goblins were initially stunned by the arrival of a huge force of people and as such were incapable of responding properly. Before they could even react, an enormous and extensive amount of spells and arrows had enveloped the sky, screening out a portion of it from the view of the short green men. From below it looked like a myriad of colors, reminiscent of the northern lights visible from the northern hemisphere of Earth but only more colorful and dangerous.

    There were far more spells used here whenpared to the previous attempts by the other guilds. With the aid of the NPC forces, the potency and momentum of this batch was far more frightening and daunting than its predecessor. Such a stunning sight would have been amazing to appreciate, sadly it wasn''t meant for that.

    It only took awhile for the slew of attacks tond, unleashing an overwhelming force of destruction and decimation upon the goblin army. The attacks were aimed specifically for the horde located at the clearing behind the Mansion, closely bordering the mountain. Once itnded, a huge barrage of explosions resulted, temporarily silencing the battle cry of the approaching closebat fighters. Different varieties of coloured explosions went off, with a myriad of green, blue, red and orange colours particrly dominating the scene.

    Once the smoke cleared off, an incredibly gory scene was left behind of the former lively environment . Few goblins were seen breathing with most of the objects covering the scene being dug out soil, mashed body parts, ousted limbs and deep green liquid. The firepower had almost eliminated the entire goblin army on the clearing leaving behind only an estimated 140 goblins, of the previous above 300, breathing.

    "Kraww"

    Enraged, the other troops stationed at the mansion and the mountain released a disordered series of cries before charging towards the approaching army. From a distance, the goblin horde that came running down the mountain seemed like a huge wave with more still rushing forward.

    "It seems like the ones hidden underground have arrived. Alright men, we attack from the nks. Let''s show these people what we East Crow guild are made of!"

    "Yeah!"

    Earlier on, before the charge begun, most guilds had gathered their teammates to n out their attack sequence. Eventually they got grouped by the NPCs, with some of them handling the nks and the others dealing damage straight up. In order to increase their working efficiency, most of the yers formed teams, hoping to gain the team kills reward. Some had the idea of handing over thest hit opportunity to one of their members, though this tactic was used by the guilds.[1] However, the Heaven System is just and as such, if one is currently in a party system with other yers, whatever kill he/she makes won''t be counted individually but collectively.[2]

    For the guilds, they made their best yers y solo but often times, their party would aid the yer in eliminating a monster and this was the exact tactic every guild nned to utilize.

    As it stands, East Crow guild was the strongest guild among those selected to handle the left nk, hence they took the helm ofmand.

    Daichi personally led this crusade together with a few other high ranking yers though nominally, he was the leader as his strength surpassed all the others.

    Facing Swift de, Daichi spoke up.

    "You and Dream Tiger go solo and eliminate as much goblins as possible. Keep your mind up on levelling. Forget the top ce reward for now. Just aim on killing as much goblins as possible. Our goal is to get as much 3 star materials as we can. I doubt there would be another event that offers this much materials like this."

    "Ok Boss." With that, Swift de deviated from the squad and went away with Dream Tiger.

    "Uncle, I hope you could keep your eye out for the boss." Daichi said to the man beside him.

    "Oh?" Frowning, Drunken Hog continued. "You should know that the boss of this event should be far beyond our ability. Little White and Little Song already mentioned that, didn''t they?"

    White Zero and Little Song had both participated in the previous assault of the goblin horde however they both died in that battle. After reviving, they informed Daichi about everything, giving him more info on the boss''s prowess.

    "Indeed but I doubt that the Town didn''t prepare anyone to handle him. With that in kind, getting a clear shot at a golden opportunity wouldn''t be so hard as facing the boss entirely on your own would it?" Daichi replied casually.

    "Then I doubt you are the only one who might have figured this out too."

    "I never said I was. We just have to be faster than them. Can you do it, Uncle?" Daichi looked at Drunken Hog, Old Jiro.

    "My range isn''t that great. Dream Tiger would have been a better choice." Jiro looked at Daichi in a questioning manner.

    "I would have gone with him but considering your recent breakthrough, I have more faith in you."

    "*sighs* Alright. I would have to get closer though and I doubt that would be easy."

    "Don''t worry." Daichi replied. "I''d help you with that."

    Drunken Hog chuckled. "With the aid of the great Daichi, what do I need to fear?"

    Even though it seemed that they were having a nice and peaceful conversation, they were just 10 metres away from shing with the horde. Apparently both yers had beenmunicating while running at high speed.

    Simr conversations either went on or were previously concluded by the various guilds present. Even if ying the boss was far from their current abilities,nding thest hit is still eptable. Since a 4 star material was on the line, all the guilds wouldn''t just let it go so easily without trying. Considering the current development of things, most of them doubted that they could still get the initial [Void silver] with the very few who believe it is possible presuming that the boss might be the actual creature that they have to eliminate. In summary, killing the boss would grant them not only the high tier 4 star material, Soul Crystal with 10 gold coins, which is more than a hundred times the current earnings of most guilds, but possibly also another high tier 4 star material [Void Silver].

    Right before shing with the horde, Daichi looked forward and said silently with a smile on his lips,

    "May the best yer win."

    AN :

    [1] Can''t believe I forgot the official name of this strategy. It''s simr to power levelling but in this case, the entire team depletes the HP of the monsters with one particr member, usually the most important or most valued yer,nding thest blow on the monsters.

    [2] Normally in most games, even if you eliminate a monster, your kill count would be counted separately from your party members. But in this case it isn''t. So if you want to participate in the individual contest, you have to make sure that you aren''t in a party recognized by the system but guild members and friends that are in a party can still help you deplete the monster''s health for you tond thest hit.. Question me in thement section for more info.

 Chapter 47 - 45 : War 3 : The Battle

    In an open field close to the Kiro mountains and Blue Mist Saltke, only two types of sounds could be heard.

    "Kra!"

    "Argg!"

    The two different armies representing two different races were about to collide. The weird high pitched sound was produced by a horde of green skinned, possibly mammalian, creatures. They had somewhat long noses and huge eyes with sharp razor teeth glued to the top and bottom of their jaws. Their average height peaked at about 3 foot(AN : About 0.9m) with some being even shorter. They were all garbed in roughly made animal skin clothing and wielded weapons sculpted from rocks though there was an asional appearance of metal type weapons. The creatures streamed from the mountain surface in a single stunning and intimidating wave seeming as if they were a tsunami trying to drown the buildings by the coast.

    Their counterparts on the other hand, were are bunch of humans. Though they are described as a bunch, they numbered at least 800 men. However,pared to their adversary, they were indeed a ''bunch''. The human army was made up of both yers and NPCs and unlike their goblin counterparts who simply charged in a straight line, they attacked from 3 different directions; left, right and centre. If the asional spells and arrows fired from behind were to be counted, then it would be from 4 different directions.

    As the 2 troops were about to collide, one special unit of about 10 men from the human side charged ahead of the others. This unit were all d in full ck coloured metal armor with the leader''s own having red patterns on it. They all released a ferocious bloody aura that made one give up resistance and cower in fear, as if encountering executioners sent by death. This unit was the guard unit specifically lead by Lord Midel, General of the Town Guards.

    They charged far faster than the others and easily closed up to the goblin force. Despite so, their momentum didn''t take a dive but rather rose even more. They tore through the goblin army like hot knife through butter. Like a bull smashing through a wooden gate, they tossed and ughtered their foes without sympathy. Wherever they went, they only left behind a trail of blood and the cursed screams of the goblins.

    "Midel seems to be enjoying himself." Arman smiled while floating in the sky. His secretary, Alice Zhastris, nowhere to be seen.

    A few seconds after Midel''s squad had opened the curtains for the show, the yer + NPC army shed with the goblin army. Bodies flew everywhere, limbs scattered all around. It seemed as if all hell had been let loose. The yers steadily held their ground, ying goblins after goblins.

    "Die!"

    "Arghh!"

    "Disgusting maggots, die!"

    "Today I shall be a legend."

    "My mom will be proud of me."

    "For Narnia."

    "For Camelot."

    "Fuck Camelot. For my waifu, Rem. You deserve better!"

    "Emilia squad, prove that asshole he''s wrong."

    As the yers shed with the goblins, they all released different battle-cries that suited them with some just being idiotic. Even though they knew it was a serious battle, some of them couldn''t help but want to crack a joke at times.

    The nks attacked from the sides, effectively forcing the goblin horde to split into 3 and lessening the pressure on the centre line. Spells, swords and daggers flew round the ce. With a sh of a de and a swing of an axe, a scream of pain would be released with limbs and body parts soaring through the sky like confetti in the air.

    Despite their small number, thanks to the NPC forces, the yers were able to get the upper hand of the battle. This was because the NPCs were much higher levelled than the goblins, who were somewhat roughly the same level as the yers.

    *nk* *ng*

    The shing of swords and axes were all that could be heard, that is if you were to ignore the continuous screams of pain from both sides. Even though the human side was higher in quality, the goblin army had enough quantity to fill in the gaps in their straight line formation.

    Originally having the upper hand and pushing forward with great vigor, the human forces were steadily being grinded[1] down to a halt by the unending waves of green skins. Though they weren''t on the losing side, their momentum and vigor had dropped by far and they advanced far slower than they did with their initial charge.

    However, the NPCs and yers still held their lines with unwavering determination and bravery even as they watched their friends fall.

    "Hold the line. This is for Riverdale." An NPC in iron armor screamed from the frontlines.

    "1st squad, assist the NPCs at the centre. The rest of you, hold the line. Spell casters, prepare an AOE. We need breathing space." Daichi screamed consistently at the yers while holding up against 4 goblin warriors.

    Noticing the slowing motion of the main force, some of the yers from the nks dived towards the centre unit and attacked the goblins. Even Midel''s squad had made a turn back towards the main force ughtering the green shorties they encountered.

    "Oppai squading to reinforce you." A funnily dressed yer yelled as he moved through the battlefield smoothly,nding critical hits asionally at assisting the other yers timely.

    He wasn''t the only one though. Some other yers weaved through the battlefield to the best of their abilities, providing assistance to their colleagues. This was one of the strategies discussed by the yer union. Since their numbers werecking whenpared the goblins, the yers had agreed to aid one another if they are free to do so. Considering that they could still kill goblins and help maintain their numbers, there was no loss in doing so. But that didn''t mean that everyone agreed to this. Some yers felt that as more of their kind died, their chances of getting the most kills increased and so they ignored the yers in need and focused on their battles. No one would me them however, as you cant force everyone to be noble or altruistic.

    Even with all the selfless assists, the yers weren''t able to get huge advantage over the goblin army.

    "I think it''s time I made my move. I wonder if you''d still sit back and watch?" Arman smiled while staring at the mountain. After a few seconds, he looked at the goblin horde that was still approaching the human forces without rest and shed over directly above them. He then lifted his arms up at the goblins and said slowly;

    "[Void Collision]"

    All of a sudden, soundlessly, the body of a goblin at the direct centre of the wave began to copse. Rather than copsing, it seemed more like pixtion, as it''s body had broken down into little fragments without a single spige of blood. Even the blood had perfectly pixted with the various body parts resulting in an eerie and creepy scene. Just like that, all the goblins close to the first victim in a 50 metre radius began to pixte, dying weirdly without being able to block or dodge the attack.

    "Kraww!"

    They screamed in terror and fear, trying to outrun the attack but once their body had shown signs of pixtion, even if they went beyond the 50 metres mark, they would still die.

    "So this is the power of the Town Head." Sato stared ahead of the battlefield in awe.

    "It''s a good thing I didn''t get on his nerves that much." Fudo shivered a bit recalling how he was teasing the ''boy'' for his short stature.

    "Who''s that?"

    "Is he with us?"

    The other yers, on the other hand, were wondering who Arman was as they hadn''t seen him during the speech.

    "The Town Head is with us men. We cannot lose and for we are destined to win. Attack!" Lord Midel used the opprotunity of the Town Headnding a devastating attack to rally the people''s morale and courage once more, showing why he was the general.

    Most of the yers were surprised at the revtion that the Town Head of Riverdale was a small ''boy'' nheless, that didn''t stop them from fighting not did it reduce their evaluation of him, especially after his performance.

    As they pushed forward with more momentum than they earlier did, some of the mages soon sensed a huge amount of dark mana, rising steadily beneath them.

    "The BOSS ising!"

    "Lord Goku will save us."

    Many of the yers began their reckless cries though most of the began setting up precautions and barriers, hoping it could save them.

    "So you finally can''t sit back eh?" Arman smirked.

    "You provoke me, oh Child of the Void."

    AN :

    [1] Apparently, this is wrong. I know the correct form should be ground but for the purpose I''m using the verb, grinded sounded better¡­

    These few chapters were meant to focus more on the battle than the MC.

 Chapter 48 - 46 : War 4 : Arman Vs The Emissary 1

    "You provoke me, oh Child of the Void."

    As the emissary spoke[1], the ground rumbled and dark mana rose above the ground, threatening to destroy the entire battlefield. Chaos engulfed the battlefield as all ongoing fights had paused with some yers causing their luck for being here while others were wondering whether the System would save them.

    "Hmph. The same move again. You underestimate me."

    As therge amount of mana was about to implode beneath the ground, Arman spread forth his hands once more but this time, he looked more serious than before.

    "[Void discement]"

    The ground suddenly quietened recovering to its original state with the battlefield once again entering a state of silence but this time, there was a sense of relief in the air.

    What Arman had just done was to transfer the dark mana brewing underneath into a pocket dimension, the exact same one he stored his potato chips. Such a feat was quite impressive and had disyed his amazing control and affinity with spacial elements, despite the distance between him and the dark mana.

    A bit of dark mana and aura conglomerated and thenpressed together, slowly taking shape and forming a humanoid creature, exactly like the one the yers earlier encountered.

    Staring at Arman, the emissary opened what seemed to be its mouth and said "As expected of a child of the Void. You didn''t disappoint me."

    As it finished speaking, it''s body hadpleted its construction. After thest trace of dark mana and aura integrated into its body structure, a gloomily and fearful feeling spread through the battlefield. A hazy matte coloured mist surrounded the emissary, constantly giving off a feeling of chaos with a little bit of destruction and darkness. Even the bacteria in the air perished uponing in contact with the mist. Reality and space seemed to warp at times but this stopped after awhile.

    "It seems this is your limit. You''re a projection not a clone."

    "What about it?" The emissary eyed him.

    "It''s easier to smash. I was really hoping for a clone that way I could do some experiments with it once I''m done." Arman smirked.

    The emissary chuckled "How foolish."

    Even though it seemed like they were both having a hearty conversation, in actual reality, they were charging energy for their first attack, hoping to deal a heavy blow to the other.

    Suddenly, ck mist appeared round Arman and engulfed him, threatening to soundlessly end him like the millions of living organisms that had just died(AN : PS, its the bacteria.). The speed at which the ck mist surfaced and engulfed was really astonishing as it left Arman with no time to dodge.

    Even after he got caught in the mist, the emissary didn''t rx and still kept his guard up even though he looked unbothered. A very short whileter, his decision was proven to be correct as space broke a few metres away and another Arman walked out from the passage. It turned out that the ''Arman'' the emissary had killed was nothing more than a spacial reflection of the real one[2]. As such, even its aura was realistic.

    "You really are a dangerous one. This ce is quite crowded, let''s go over there." Arman pointed at the sky above the mountain and moved towards it.

    The emissary also followed by, as if not scared of an ambush. But in essence, he really has no reason to fear one after all he is a projection of the real thing.

    As the two bigwigs and heads left the battlefield for a better one, the skirmish on the ground began once more as the yers hurriedlyunched sneak attacks on the monsters, making good use of the time they were distracted. The NPCs also recovered themselves and continued the onught, pushing forward into the goblin army.

    "Do you n to face me alone or will you call the others?" The emissary asked Arman as soon as they had reached the mountain top.

    "What others?" Arman asked with a naive smile on his face.

    "...Humans, are failed creations. All you do is eat and sleep and live peaceful lives. But unbeknownst to you lies a threat far greater than you can imagine. The gods have failed you, yet, you still worship them."

    "My apologies but are we really going to do this viin speech thing? I don''t actually fancy any god so what you said doesn''t really apply to me." Arman picked his ear with his right pinky nonchntly.

    "Then that makes you worse. For great is your punishment when my lord returns."

    "Oh really? So then what now?are you going to tell me to praise him and I will be saved or something?" Arman looked at the emissary with an exaggerated look on his face.

    "Cause you should know that I wouldn''t. By the way, who is your lord? Demon King Malevus or is it the Revolter? No, I sense a bit of darkness, destruction and chaos in that mist around you. So I''m guessing the demon king or one other demonic lord or maybe even the god of war. I don''t think the god of war would really being doing something like this despite how brutish he is made to look. I''m guessing it''s a demonic god so Malevus it is."

    "Ignorant. My lord has lived for centuries, a minor character as yourself isn''t worthy of knowing his name." The emissary spoke as he swung his arm. With the movement of his arm, the ck mist rushed over to Arman wreaking havoc as it moved by.

    "Hmph" Arman smirked. Joining his hands together in a pping gesture, he yelled out in a low tone "[Void entanglement]".

    The space in front of him turned twisted as right became left and at the same time became up while left became right and at the same time down. Simply put, the 4 major directions became twisted, shing with one another thereby creating an unending loop.

    As the ck mist stepped into the distorted zone, it shed with itself in an unending loop, sealed in ce at the spot.

    "[Void discement]"

    After keeping the mist in ce, Arman teleported it to the pocket dimension he kept the previous attack.

    "If all you can do is defend, I wonder how long you can hold out." The emissary said as it conjured a dark mana orb on its right palm.

    "Who said I can''t attack." Saying so, Arman''s figure slowly faded like coloured gas diffusing in the atmosphere. In the blink of an eye, his figure couldn''t be seen again.

    The emissary, despite not being able to see him, stood still without any disy of uneasiness or fret. Suddenly, he stretched out his left arm and caught an object in air. It seemed like there was nothing there and in actual reality, there wasn''t, only space.

    A closer look with mana sensing and one would notice that the ''object'' he caught was space or rather spacial elements that were forcibly bent to take the form of a de. The space upied was slightly bent and warped. Apart from that, no other feature of the ''weapon'' could be made out with the naked eyes.

    "Space des? Party tricks."

    As he concluded, a couple more space des made their way towards the emissary, from multiple directions. Due to the difficulty in sensing them and their higher pration and slicing ability, the space des are ranked as one of the most powerful weapons. With a lot of them fired from different directions, dodging it bes harder even for the emissary.

    Lifting his left arm at chest height with his right palm still holding a dark orb, the emissary made the matte ck mist around him to solidify and form a spherical shield.

    *phew* *phew*

    As the space des collided with the mist, it produced a weird low pitched ethereal sound akin to the sound of an arrow flying through the air. At each collision point between the space des an ck mist, the space in that position seemed to be disturbed as it twisted a bit as if about to break, but quickly recovered. This was as a result of the intense power and mana capabilities demonstrated by the two fighters, showing that their levels was anything but low.

    "My turn." After the space des had all been blocked, the emissary threw the dark mana orb on his right palm at an empty spot in the air.

    *boom*

    *sh*

    As the orb flew, it eventually stopped at a point and exploded, producing the sound of not only an explosion but also that of a ss window being shattered. Once the smoke dispersed, the emissary couldn''t make out anyone there.

    As he decided to check again, he felt a ripple in space behind him followed by Arman''s figure. Arman had actually dared to teleport behind him and nned to deal a heavy blow. Not only was this idea dangerous, it was also reckless.

    "Surprise~"

    AN :

    [1] At this point, you should have realised that the fiend or creature of darkness is an emissary to a being. Refer to chapter 43.

    [2] I really want to be a space mage. You might get this ability,you might not but either way, I will still exin cause I really love it. A spacial reflection is kinda like how when you look at yourself in the mirror, you see a ''you'' that is exactly like you only difference being that its a fake and its reversed(left bes right). So what Arman does here is to hide in a pocket of space while he projects his image in the real world. This image has both his smell, aura, looks, and the best part, it can touch things. He can also channel his mana through it. So its kinda like a projection but its harder to see through it; very hard.

    So I have been describing the NPCs'' battles so far, making the book look like a fantasy genre rather than a LitRPG...but who cares. I feel like I or rather we, would be losing a lot not knowing how sh*t went down.. Considering that the battles would be interesting and I would be dropping a couple of spoilers and hints here and there, there''s no harm in describing them.

 Chapter 49 - 47 : Arman Vs The Emissary 2

    (AN :This chapter is susceptible to change.)

    "Surprise~"

    Arman appeared out of a ripple in space but this time, he was with a short sword in hand.

    The Voidmancer ss is a special ss that isn''t easily gained. Only through hardwork or sheer luck could one receive it. As a special ss, the Voidmancer is quite impressive and ostentatiously powerful. With its utility type skills, it was almost perfectly well-rounded in both attack and defense. Counting in the special supporting skills which when used properly can change the tide of a battle, the Voidmancer ss could as well be said to be a perverse ss. If used properly, one could not only be a powerful mage but also a master of assassination despite being a mage. Arman''s use of the ss'' abilities right now is a perfect example of the incredible fighting prowess of a Voidmancer.

    With the short sword in hand, Arman stabbed towards the emissary. The sword was about to hit him when the emissary moved abruptly in an unexpected and illogical way, twisting his upper body clockwise while bending towards the right. As he did so, the sword passed right through the previous spot his upper body was located.

    Arman was shocked at first but he followed up with a horizontal sh towards the emissary. As he did so, he noticed that at a point in time, a dark orb had taken form in front of the emissary''s mouth, aimed at him. This resulted in a situation whereby if Arman continued with his follow-up attack, he would get hit by the orb. Considering that he was battling the emissary with his real body whereas his opponent was a projection, Arman went against the decision of going through with his attack and retreated at an incredible speed, narrowly dodging the mana orb that flew past his original spot. The orb flew forth with great speed and vigor, shing into the current battlefield of the yers and wiping out a lot of men from both sides.

    "You really are a tough one." Arman appeared a few metres away from the emissary with a frown on his lips.

    "And so are you." The emissary formed a smirk that was somehow visible underneath its hooded figure.

    Arman faced the emissary in deep thought, trying to think of a way to bypass its defense and reaction. cing his short sword in a horizontal position, he slid his left hand above the de. As he did so, a rather translucent undting cover appeared above the sword, coating it like paint on a wall.

    "Abandoning your mage type fighting patterns in for closebat against me? Normally that would have been smart, but there''s only one of you." The emissary raised his hands and fired a ck ray at Arman.

    Dodging the attack, Arman replied "Who said there is?"

    As he finished, 4 other ''Arman'' s appeared, all wielding a simr sword as the original Arman did. They were positioned at different spots, effectively surrounding the emissary.

    "Void clones?" The emissary chuckled. "Enough y, its time to die."

    The emissary then lifted up its right hand, as a spear formed from ck mes slowly took form. As he took a stance, the Armans all rushed towards him, shing their short swords at the same time with the intention of minimizing his movements and the avable space he could use. Even though the emissary looked rx, he took this wave of attack seriously.

    The attack of the Armans looked quite simple and really wasn''t as shy as the previous ones however, underestimating a Voidmancer is one of the worst things to ever do as they are well known for their silent but deadly kills.

    Each Arman had hacked at a particr point with some even seeming as if they really weren''t nning on attacking the emissary. From an outside view, it really looked like their swordmanship was really lousy but it was anything but that. The spots that some of them attacked were points that sealed off the emissary''s escape route while the others all aimed for specific points that were either weak points or awkward positions for the emissary to block.

    The sinuous coating that the Armans had applied on their short swords, was a special void coating that makes it difficult to truly discover the target of their strikes. The coating bent light at a specific angle in such a way that even though it might seem like the sword''s tip would be pointing at a spot, it was actually a few angles away from what you would see.[1]

    The coating also served to increase the pration and slicing ability of their swords while at the same time, increasing its speed and decreasing its weight. In essence, even though it looked like a simple act of sliding his left hand over his de, Arman had actually increased his fighting prowess.

    "It would take a lot more than this to defeat me."

    Lifting his ming spear, the emissary swung it at high speed, at an amazing trajectory that managed to effectively block out the iing attacks.

    "One is only limited by the limits they set. If once doesn''t work then another will." Even though his attack was blocked, Arman or rather the Armans weren''t dazed nor surprised, as if expecting that to happen. They followed up with more synchronized attacks, continuously applying pressure to the emissary in a bid to find an opening.

    The emissary on the other hand, entertained ''their'' idea of a closebat match as he fought only using his ming spear. Even at that, he still had a slight upper hand in the battle as it seemed that every move he made was done so in a rxed manner.

    The fight went on like this for awhile until the emissary got bored.

    "Is this all you are worth? You disappoint me, Child of the Void."

    He then dodged all the attacks that approached him and swiped his spear with the intention of killing the Armans.

    ""Hmph." ''They'' smirked. "Took you long enough."

    As ''they'' concluded, their des shimmered a bit before the space around them twisted a bit and formed a wave that spread for at least a radius of 30 metres beforeing to a halt and forming a weird sphere with the Armans and the emissary stuck within it.

    The space felt viscous and boggy, slowing down all the people within, including the Armans.

    "The benevolent see benevolence and the wise see wisdom. Even till this point, you have fallen from grace proving you don''t deserve salvation. Please die." Bishop Enzo appeared out of nowhere and pointed his crosier at the emissary boggled down in the sphere.

    "[Grand Heavenly light]"

    AN :

    This chapter is quite short, I think... Sorry it''ste. Next release is only one chapter.

    [1] When you think the tip is pointing at your lungs, the coating had actually made it seem so when in actual reality, the sword tip is a few centimetres away.

 Chapter 50 - Excuses, Suggestions And A Whole Lot Of Boring Stuff But Just Read It.

    Really really really sorry for not uploading recently my data had actually finished...yeah I know it''s weird...

    It was the weekend and so I couldn''t renew it because most stores would be closed.so here we are.

    I will surely upload today(GMT +1) and to make it up, there would be a bonus chapter (I might even do this for most of the week or not).

    For now though I would like to hear your suggestions on my work Infinite Realm. Is there anything you want me to change or add? Any reasonable suggestion(s)?

    By the way, I ept criticism of all sorts be it constructive or destructive but how I respond would surely differ after all I''m an emotional human being (that''s why my rtionships always ends with me getting hurt.) So criticize, review andment. I won''t go so far as to insult you or make you feel bad so it doesn''t hurt to try.

    As of now, help me decide:

    I feel like making this a harem and at the same time I don''t want to...

    Overpowered MC, not so overpowered, underpowered?

    Does he need a girl in his life now orter?

    Someone has to die, so who will it be...just kidding...or am I?

    Do I need to keep focusing on NPC lives or just the yers alone?

    Other suggestions would be considered appropriately.

    BTW, try to read all the Author''s notes I leave behind especially the Infinite Facts. I don''t want to answer questions I have already answered before...

    Support me with power stones andments. To an up-anding author, yourments are a form of motivation for us. At least it makes us know that you guys are following the book and appreciate the work and possibly the author.

    For now I will try to increase and stabilize my uploads so please continue to support me.

    ADs:

    Try Mother-stream by a friend of mine. It''s quite nice so I sincerely rmend it.

 Chapter 51 - 48 : Where Could It Be?

    (AN : This chapter is susceptible to change due to possible avable errors.)

    "It looks like we''ve lost our opportunity." Daichi stated as he stared at the Emissary departing with Arman.

    With the Emissary gone together with Arman, the yers who were at the battlefield couldn''t just leave their posts and head over to the mountain peak. If they did so, chances are that they will lose the battle.

    "Come on!" Lord Midel urged the yers and NPCs.

    *ng* *ng*

    The yers and the NPC army fought against the goblin horde. They originally held the momentum but were being slowed down by the unending numbers of the goblins. Even so, the goblin army had the higher casualty rate, losing at least 40% of their forces.

    Blood and body parts were spilled all around, turning the battlefield into hell. Some of the yers who couldn''t handle the scene had to switch of the gore and blood option on the interface. Once the option is turned off, the yers wouldn''t be able to see any bloody scenes, rather they would just see simple body parts with no bloods or insides.

    As they fought, some of the yers tried to pay attention to the battle on the mountain, hoping to see the oue of the battle or the level of the battle. Even though the two main characters of the fight had disyed a bit of their power before leaving, some of the yers still held hope that they would be able to interfere in the fight after all a reward of a 4 star material might note again.

    *Phew*

    As they did so, they heard a sound akin to that of a high speed projectile soaring through the sky.

    *Boom*

    Before they could react to it, an explosion urred, wiping out quite arge portion of the goblin army. A crater had formed at the crash site with burnt marks all over.

    "Sssss."

    "This is insane."

    "Thank God we aren''t facing that."

    The yers took in a deep breath after they realised that that was actually an attack that had misfired from the mountain top.

    In battle, one would always try to make sure that their special attack wouldnd on their target(s), as such, it is usually a regr attack that misfires. If a regr attack was that powerful far more than what any yer can currently achieve, what can the yers do against such a creature? If it even took them seriously, would they even live? Reaching that conclusion, most of the yers and guilds gave up on trying to sneak over to the mountain and participate in that duel.

    "Move!" Midel urged.

    Since the misfire hadnded on the side of the goblins, it gave the human forces a little space to breathe. Using that opportunity, they decided to push forward even more.

    At this point in the battle, the yers were already in the ins, closely approaching the mountains where the goblin army surfaced from. As they approached, they discovered that all the goblins were already onnd and the unending wave finally had an end. But that wasn''t the only thing they found out.

    "The goblins have amander." Sato told Fudo after sending a goblin warrior to meet it''s maker.

    "Why do you say so?" Fudo queried as he wasn''t really paying attention to the battle, only spamming fire type spells everywhere.

    "Even though the goblins have arger number than us, we would have normally gone farther than this since theyck a chain ofmand however that isn''t happening is it?"

    "... you''re right." Fudo replied as he recalled their current progress together with the steps involved.

    "Yeah. This means that There most likely a guy in the background organizing the goblin army. That''s why despite their rash like actions and battle style, they are still able to hold us back." Sato continued as he scanned through the battlefield. "Though themander is still a novice, leaving him be would just make things worse and we might lose more of our forces."

    The yers were able to hold the goblin army back alright, but they still suffered casualties. Those who died would have to wait awhile before being re-spawned back at Riverdale or wherever they set their respawn point. If it were set at Riverdale, things would be worse as the distance of Riverdale from the Ghost mansion was quite far, taking at least 20 minutes to get there.

    As for the NPCs, the ones who died couldn''t be resurrected. Due to this two factors, as the battle goes on, the human faction would slowly lose out to the goblins both as a result of the death of a few NPCs and also the dy in re-spawning of yers plus the transportation distance.

    " We have to find themander and eliminate him quickly."

    Sato wasn''t the only one who figured this out as all themanding figures for the yers also did. Even Midel had realised the same.

    "Find him." Midel yelled out.

    As soon as he did so, all the yers in the battlefield received a system notification.

    [[ System notification :

    Emergency : Lord Midel has just discovered that the goblin forces has amander figure apart from the Emissary. Find and eliminate this figure before the army suffers more casualties.

    Reward : 1000 experience points, 10 silver coins, Loot, 10 kill points.[1]

    Failure Penalty : Potential defeat in battle. ]]

    The loot referred to the gains that could be gotten from the victim''s remains. This includes skin, bones, blood and so on.

    Infinite Realm pursues reality and reality changes constant. An emergency mission is a mission that coulde up in a current mission or event due an unforeseen circumstance. In the original mission, there was no mention of amander figure but now the deal had changed. The yers were now required to eliminate this figure before their forces ended up in the losing side of the battle.

    "10 kill points for the general...Uncle, since the boss is gone, can you go assist Dream Tiger and Swift de? If one of them could get the kill, that will give us a much better edge over the other yers." Daichi pointed out as he held his own against 3 goblin warriors.

    "Alright." Old Jiro responded before sting out a small path in the goblin horse and running through it.

    "Chesces, you got that right?" Yukinomunicated over the interface in an audio call.

    "Check. I''m already scouting for him." A voice replied back.

    "Good." Yukino ended the call.

    All around the battlefield, each guild that was interested in ranking high or gaining better rewards sent their Trump units or yers to find themander whilst the solo yers who were also interested, tried to force their way through the goblin army.

    "So are we gonna go find him?" Fudo asked Sato as he noticed that most of the yers had set their sights onpleting the emergency mission.

    "The fact that I said I don''t n on achieving a noticeable fact doesn''t mean that I don''t n on achieving something. The earlier we gain good stuffs , the better our foundation would be."

    "So you mean¡­"

    "Yes. Now let''s move, I think I''ve got a hit on themander''s location." Sato said as he started weaving through the warriors.

    "That quick?!"

    "I have been eliminating the potential ces that could serve as a perfectmand centre for the boss immediately the battle had begun. Even though the boss wasn''t actually there, it''s quite possible for themander to be in one of those ces.

    "As the battle went on, I eliminated some of these ces. There are only 3 such spots that remained after my analysis. One is at the mountains, another would be underground and the 3rd is the mansion.The mansion is marked out since we have just gone past it and some of the yers must have scouted the buildings. The mountain is a potentially suitable hiding ce but with the battle going on there, I''m not so sure. As for an underground base, themander would need a figure or equipment that would help it overlook the battlefield. When you consider this option, it sounds very logical." Sato spected.

    " So which do we go for?"

    "Underground."

    . . . . .

    "Boss, where do you think he might be hiding?"

    "Considering that the goblins alle from beneath the mountain, they should have a way to surveil the area. So we head underground."

    AN :

    [1] Was supposed to have added this previously. 1 goblin kill = 1 kill point. 1 troll kill = 3 kill point. The one with the highest kill points is the winner for the Most kills award.. In other words, kill points are used to rank the yers for this event.

 Chapter 52 - 49 : Going Underground

    (AN : I typed this with my phone and the auto-correct function is really bad so errors would most likely be present. Please alert me for any.)

    "So how do we get there?" Fudo asked the question that had been on his mind ever since the two have been progressing forward, through the goblin horde.

    "All those craters formed from the boss'' devastating attacks. They most likely broke through the surface reaching deep and creating entrances into the main tunnel. If we can find the right crater that connects to the main tunnel then the problem would be solved."

    The main tunnel here refers to the tunnel Sato and Fudo had earlier explored when they were trying toplete the Ghost Mansion mission.

    "I see. If that is the case, then we have an upper handpared to the other yers." Fudo smirked.

    "Correct. Unlike the others, we are the only ones who had actually explored the main tunnel as such, we are the only ones who know where it''s actually located. Even if the other yers figure out that themander could be underground, they wouldn''t know where exactly."

    And this was exactly true. Apart from them and Sind, no one else had explored the Ghost Mansion before the goblins took over and even among the members of Sind, only 2 yers had seen them exit the main tunnel. So even if most yers realise that themander could be hidden underground, they wouldn''t know where exactly; only having to rely on their luck and explore all the craters formed. This itself is quite difficult as there are a couple of such craters, with some even formed on the mountains surface. (AN : Remember that the entrance to the main tunnel began from the clearing in between the Ghost Mansion and the unnamed mountain that belonged to the Kiro mountains.

    "Aight."

    Rushing through the horde, Sato and Fudo ughtered the goblins they could and bashed the rest away, clearing a small path through the army.

    Due to the fact that there was just the two of them, the goblin army didn''t pay much attention to them. But due to this very same fact, it wasn''t so hard for Sato and Fudo to progress through the battlefield.

    With that in mind, it didn''t take them that long to find what they were looking for.

    "Over there."

    Pointing at a crater he had managed to spot from the edge of his eyes, Fudo rushed towards it with Sato following closely.

    Once they reached the crater''s edge, they both jumped in and began expressing the weird sensation of freefall.

    Approximately 2 secondster, they bothnded at the same time as their feet finally experienced the sensation of hard ground.

    The tunnel was quite dark with bare lighting supporting their vision from the open ''roof'' above their heads.

    "So where do we go?" Fudo asked as he looked ahead of and behind himself, the environment looking quite different from what he had previously experienced.

    "Towards the mountain."

    "I have a feeling you just decided that at sput of the moment." Fudo said with a suspicious look on his face.

    "What about it?"

    "..."

    Even though it seemed like Sato had just made a random decision, upon pondering on it more, Fudo felt it was the best choice. Most of the goblins flooded out from the mountain. If there was amand centre of such for them, it should be quite close to the mountain.

    It didn''t take long for Sato''s decision to turn out correct as they had arrived at a hallway patrolled by a couple of goblins scouts.

    The hallway wasn''t quiterge and was only furnished with tallmpstands and lit candles. Apart from these, there was only a closed door at the other end of the hallway.

    Like the others, the goblin scouts were garbed in animal skin clothing with some of them holding bows while the rest wielded short crude daggers. If not for the mes that had been light up in the hallway, Sato and Fudo wouldn''t have noticed them.

    "We don''t have much time to deal with these guys. I''ll grab their attention while you prepare an AOE spell." Sato said as he scanned the entire hallway alongside the 10 goblin scouts present.

    At this point, they had levelled up once. Together with the 5 attribute points gained earlier from their subsses and the recently gained ones from levelling up, their strength had increased far more than when they previously faced their first goblin.

    For the current Sato, handling 10 goblins would just be a bit stressful, nothing more.

    Sato rushed into the group of goblins with a shout, effectively drawing their attention and focus towards himself. Once he approached them, he easily dodged their attacks and at the same time countered back. In under 3 seconds, he had sessfully stabilized their agro giving Fudo an opportunity to begin casting his power.

    Lifting his sword, Sato shed at a goblin scout while kicking another with his response get foot. At the same time, one of the goblin archers had tried to nail him down with an arrow. Sadly, Sato was prepared and easily dodged the attack, letting a random goblin scout experience the pain in exchange for himself.

    He easily reacted to all their movements and actions, either dodging it or being so nice as to let another goblin trade ces with himself. For that, the goblins were well rewarded, either receiving a one-way ''guidance'' in battle techniques from their kin or being able to experience the art of the sword with Sato. The more unluckier ones or rather ''lucky'' ones, were given a free trip to their maker.

    While Sato kept the goblins busy and focused on him, Fudo chanted the incantation of arge scale spell.

    me type mana gathered around him with burning red particles floating. With his crooked staff pointed at the goblins and Sato, Fudo yelled out "[me shower]".

    Even before Fudo hadpleted his chant, Sato timely separated himself from the goblin scouts.

    Suddenly, a magic circle formed above them as acurtain of red mes poured down from the circle.

    Apanying the mes were the horrifying screeching and wails of the goblins which had a little bit of a skin crawling feature in it.

    Such painful screams as a result of the pangs from the burning mes was really creepy and it actually made one pity the goblins a bit as their suffering was one no one would like to experience.

    Despite their incessant shrieks and burning skin, th goblins didn''t die that easily but they still lost quite an amount of HP.

    Once the mes had slowly died out, Sato rushed in to deliver the finishing blow to the scouts, shing his sword at either critical points, like the eye or the brain, or he hacked towards the injuries formed on their bodies by the deadly mes.

    With Fudo supplying reinforcement attacks from behind, the goblins'' death was inevitable and slowly but surely they eventually fell to either Sato''s de or Fudo''s fireball.

    "Kra!" With an unwilling cry, a goblin Archer died with a sword through it''s heart.

    "That''s thest one." Sato said as he swung his sword, getting rid of the blood left on it.

    "All that remains is the door..." Fudo stared warily at the door as he approached it.

    The door was extremely thick and heavy as such, they couldn''t hear anything from the other side of it no matter how hard they tried.

    "There should be a key somewhere." Sato walked over to the goblins corpses that had yet to disappear and began looting it.

    At the 3rd body, he finally found what he was looking for; a grey key that looked quite simple.

    Taking it with him, he walked over to the door and shoved it into a keyhole Fudo had found. With a twist of his wrist, he turned the key.

    *nk*

    *nk, nk*

    Gears sounded out as Sato turned the key to form aplete circle. Eventually it budged and couldn''t turn any further.

    "Get ready."

    "Aight."

 Chapter 53 - 50 : Emperorâ€™s Might In Trouble

    "Have you found it?"

    "Not yet Princess. It''s possibly one of these craters but we aren''t sure which one." A male voice replied.

    In the midst of the battlefield, a team of yers had formed a wall of sorts, blocking out the goblins from approaching those behind the ''wall''. Normally this would be a difficult tactic to apply for most yers but as the guild members of a Super guild, the yers didn''t have much trouble coordinating properly with each other and holding back the goblins.

    The MTs formed a wall while the ranged yers attacked from behind with the other closebat sses going on a charge once in awhile.

    Among the people behind the ''wall'' were 2 yers, one being the ''Queen'' Snow Goddess, Yukino Akihira while the other was ''false king'' Chesces.

    In the official yer rankings, a ''King'' or a ''Queen'' is a monster ss expert or a pinnacle/Apex expert capable of rivalling a monster ss expert. The second kind of yers are usually quite close to bing a true monster ss expert that''s why they are permitted to hold the title ''King'' or ''Queen''.

    However there are special cases of Pinnacle/Apex experts being far stronger than their average mates but weaker than a ''King''. This is normally because despite their strength, they are still some distance away from reaching the monster rank. Such yers, because of their ability to be above their mates but still be weaker than bona fide ''Kings'' and ''Queens'', have been nicknamed ''False Kings'' or ''False Queens''.[1]

    Chesces was one such ''false King''. Nicknamed the ''Sly devil'', he was well-known for his scheming ability and cunning mind. Together with his superior fighting prowess, most pro yers tend to stay clear of him as he doesn''t just fight with his muscles but his head.

    "You aren''t sure? Is it me or are you bringing disgrace to the title Sly devil?" Another yer, a ranger particrly, who was with the two spoke out.

    "I said I''m not sure and by sure, I mean my confirmation rate is less than 100%." Chesces smirked. " If you were to ask me which it is, I would decide on a crater closer to the mountain. Even though it''s highly possible for themand centre to be located underground, it''s more possible for it to be closer to the mountain if not beneath it.

    "With that in mind, I have selected a couple possible locations for it to be. Among them all, there are only 2 craters that actually lead to 2 of those locations. All that remains is to choose one."

    "I see. Latte, you take 5 men with you and check out one of those craters. The rest are with me."

    "Yes ma''am."

    The ranger Latte then separated from the group with his team as they all headed to one of the holes that formed an entrance underground. The Snow goddess on the other hand, left with Chesces and 2 other yers.

    "Over there."

    "Let''s go."

    With that, the team of Yukino and Chesces dived into a hole formed by the emergence of the goblins.

    As they headed down, they didn''t seem to notice a bunch of other yers following right behind.

    After a free-fall of 3 seconds, they finallynded on hard ground. Looking around the ce, they began studying their location.

    Theirnding location, unlike that of Sato and Fudo, was in a hallway of sorts that was artificially dug out underneath the surface. There was little lighting due to some of the candlesticks. Noticing to this, one of the 2 yers that apanied the duo, a cleric precisely, cast the spell [Illuminate], forming a ball of light in his hand that lit the area hence increasing the visibility of the people present.

    The hallway was quite empty with only terribly drawn murals seen all over the walls with a couple of candle-stands for holding the candles. Some torches were hanged at the sides of the walls but not all of them hem were lit.

    The hallway had about 3 different doors all located at the different ends of the room.

    Yukino asked "So where do we go?"

    "Apologies Princess but you yourself should be away that I know nothing of this ce."

    Taking a pause for a little while, he continued "But I''d suggest that we go through that gate." Chesces said while pointing at a door ahead of him. "That door faces the mountain so it''s my only best bet."

    "... alright. Let''s move."

    *Thump*

    *Thump*

    *Thump*

    As the team walked towards the door, they heard a couple of muffled sounds akin to that of heavy footsteps.

    Turning back, they saw a bunch of cloaked yersnding at their original spot.

    "Looks like we rushed in too early." A yer from the opposing team who seemed like the leadermented.

    The two sides stared at each other warily for awhile before Snow, who already had her hand on her sword''s hilt, asked "State your purpose for following us."

    "State our purpose?" The leader of the opposing yers chuckled before lifting up his hood, revealing a demonic smile.

    "Your ass of a Captain dared to hunt our boss! He''s lucky we didn''t find him but that doesn''t mean we will let you go."

    "Savage Tribe''s Maniac Chief?" Chesces frowned at the sight of the man''s face.

    "What about it?" The young man snickered.

    The Savage Tribe was one of the few Dark guilds capable of rivalling a Super guild. With a bunch of experts in their ranks, they neither feared nor retreated in the presence of anyone. Even though ''King'' Chike had managed to defeat the team sent after him, even pushing Azure Dragon to use a trump card scroll, the fact that he was hunted by Emperor''s Might left a scar to the Savage Tribe. They felt as if they had to pay Emperor''s Might for the humiliation and decision of hunting one of their ''Kings'' even though he actually won.

    Despite so, not all the upper echelons of Savage Tribe were in support of this decision. Since Chike had sessfully held out against them, even making them going as far as losing most of their forces sent in the assault, they felt that there was no need for a retaliation.

    But still, some of the other upper echelons disagreed and so they sent the Maniac Chief, Goro, after Emperor''s Might yers.

    Goro had originally nned to attack them during the battle, but he realized that if he did so, the NPCs would have attacked him too. He, of course, discovered this after a team member tried it out. So rather than dying a pointless death, he bid his time for the opportune moment.

    Therge scale goblin event even made it easier to trace their movements and so, they finally found a chance to make a move now Snow Goddess and her team were separated from the public.

    Now that the opportunity was made possible with Yukino and Chesces looking for the goblinmander, he nned to make good sure of it.

    "Today, none of you are leaving here that easily."

    AN :

    Sorry for thete release. Moreing up soon.

    Was initially nning on releasing more but I noticed that this was actually the 50th chapter. With that I said to myself "Why don''t you take a break man? 50 chapters ain''t easy." Plus, building up the suspense for the next battle makes me feel good...So I decided to release only one chapter today but be expecting 3-4 chapters tomorrow or this weekend.

    Notice: There might not be any updates this Friday and Saturday (GMT). This is because I will be having a football match on Friday whereas Saturday is actually an Anniversary for one of my organizations. But I will try to do at least 1 chapter for those days.

    By the way, Happy 50th chapter to my first work, Infinite Realm.

    [1] To better understand this, think of Pinnacle/Apex experts being divided into 3; those who can rival Monster ss experts, above-average Pinnacle/Apex experts and Average Pinnacle/Apex experts.. Snow Goddess is the first kind while Azure Dragon and Chesces are under the 2nd kind.

 Chapter 54 - 51 : Head, Bishop And Mercenary Vs Emissary

    "Huff, Huff, Huff"

    "Is this all you can do?" A somewhat dull voice sounded out.

    It had a feeling to it that made it weaken the will of an enemy. As if it came from the bottom of hell, the voice had an eerie touch to it and if one''s will were weak, such a person would be drowned in darkness and madness, forever lost from reality.

    Bishop Enzo Giovanni stared at the speaker with a little bit of dejection and frustration in his eyes.

    His current appearance was far different from when he made his first move. Right now his hair was disheveled with his pellegrina and cassock was also damaged at some parts. If not for it''s high quality, the damage would have been worse.

    Deval, on the other hand, wasn''t as lucky as Bishop Enzo. Not only was his hair messed up, his body was also covered in injuries here and there.

    As a closebat ss, Deval had to approach the Emissary and fight him toe-to-toe. As such he didn''t have the luxury of attacking from a distance like Bishop Enzo and this factor made him the most likelybatant to be injured. His turban was no where to be seen, possibly destroyed, as blood was dripping from his forehead. He was taking deep breaths to keep himself steady but even at that, they could all see that he wouldn''tst for long.

    If it wasn''t for Bishop Enzo and Arman interrupting the Emissary, Deval might have lost his life.

    Arman, thanks to his special ss, was the least injured but even at that, he was quickly running out of mana and stamina.

    All three of them had been walking on the edge of a cliff once they began fighting the Emissary. They all had to boost their perception to it''s limits and doing such would consume their stamina at a faster rate.

    ''Deval is almost done. Enzo can still go on but we wouldn''t be able to finish this battle quickly.'' Arman stared at his partners as he assessed the battlefield in thought.

    Even though their team was injured and weary, the Emissary looked unwinded and reposed. Arman though, was aware that this was due to the fact that it is a projection before but even still, the fact that it remained stable should that the main body didn''t have a hard time keeping up.

    A projection is the solidification of an individual''s energy and presence to take form. Simply put, the individual send stheir consciousness alongside their energy, which would house the consciousness, to any location with a specific radius.

    You can take it like a video call, where your imagery and audio sounds are sent to another person elsewhere. Here however, energy is sent over with part of or the entire consciousness being sent over to control the energy.

    To defeat a projection, you either iste it from the real world, preventing energy from being supplied to it and destroy it''s current form or you destroy the projection faster than energy is supplied to it from the main body.

    Arman and co, not being able to perfectly iste the Emissary''s projection, decided to try and destroy it faster than it can repair itself.

    They would have tried to seal it but it was too strong for any seal in their possession.

    They theorized that the main body must be at the maximum distance away from the projection. With that, the energy supply rate would be far slower than usual. As such they applied the idea of destroying the projection before it can recover however,they didn''t know that they were in for a surprise.

    ''We could''ve won but he just powered up quickly. What was that sensation?''

    Earlier on, when Bishop Enzo and Deval had joined the brawl, the team of Arman, Enzo and Deval had gotten the upper hand in their fight, easily forcing the Emissary to be on the defensive while getting a few attacks past his defense once in awhile.

    But things took a sudden change 5 minutes into the bout. The Emissary had brought out a blood colored orb and smashed it, with red liquid spilling through the cracks and flowing into his body like mercury.

    As the crimson liquid entered his body, the Emissary''s aura took a sudden dive before bursting out with full force and new life.

    The hazy matte mist around him even experienced a new change to it as apart from the feeling of chaos, destruction and darkness that permeated through being strengthened, it also gave a feeling of madness and suffering to anyone who stared too long or got in contact with it.

    But of course, for people at the level of Arman, Enzo and Deval, they wouldn''t simply be affected by just staring at it but each time they came in contact with the gas, the effects slowly strengthened. With the injuries they currently suffered, the effects of the mist further strengthened on them especially on Deval whose eyes exhibited a tinge of red due to the madness effect.

    "Who the hell do you serve? The demon king doesn''t have any authority over madness. Speak!" Bishop Enzo yelled at the Emissary.

    "Foolish. As I said before, minor characters like yourselves aren''t worthy of his name."

    "Hmph." Frustrated at the reply, Bishop Enzo fired a light ray at the Emissary. "A weak god is indeed not worth my attention."

    Maybe it was due to the madness also slight affecting or maybe he wanted to catch his breath by engaging in a conversation, Bishop Enzo seemed like he wouldn''t stop till he got an answer.

    He spammed low level spells while bad-mouthing the Emissary''s god, in an attempt to make him lose his focus and reveal either an opening or his master''s identity.

    "Let me tell you something interesting. Haven''t you wondered why the battle over there isn''t over yet?" The Emissary chuckled abruptly.

    Arman frowned at his words and also wondered the same.

    Though their team was outnumbered 1:8, the NPCs were far stronger than the regr goblins so normally they should have won the battle. With the yers on their side, their numbers got boosted even more, so for them to still haven''t defeated the goblins either means that there are far more goblins than they thought or that something is going wrong.

    ''An elite unit? But even if they still had one, our men would be able to defeat them easily. Unless they are hiding and assassinating in the dark...but goblins aren''t that smart. As time goes on they should be making errors except if there is someone controlling behind the scenes''

    "You have amander?" Arman stated exactly what was in his mind.

    "Not just that. They should have arrived by now." The Emissary smirked as he stood still.

    "They?" Seeing the Emissary not responding, Arman linked his vision with that of a mirror image he had nted earlier at the main battlefield.

    Staring at the in, he noticed a bunch of huge figures battling the human forces. Rather than battling, they seemed to just be throwing rocks or smashing their huge clubs all around.

    Apart from them, there were a few elite goblins that actually used magic. Unlike the other goblins, these ones seemed more civilized as they aimed their attacks at the weak points of the human forces and while scurrying through the battlefield reeking havoc.

    These two groups were actually Trolls and Goblin mages. Something the human troops from Riverdale never expected to encounter.

    With his eyes fixed at the scene, Arman frowned even more. Bishop Enzo, who obviously had his own way ofmunicating with the team at the ins also frowned. Deval looked perplexed but seeing their faces, he realized that something must have gone wrong.

    "Impressive right? It''s only a matter of time before you end up wiped out. Give up."

    A few secondster, Arman smirked.

    "I wonder, how long can you keep this form of yours? You should have been able to smuggle yourselves in somehow, but with the power level you have disyed right now, the Kingdom should be alerted.

    Trying to make us quit so easily? I have one word for you. Foolish."

    AN :

    Mirror image is the same as a spacial reflection.

    Well I have been busy for awhile now but after this Sunday, I will be free. So that means more chapters to make up for this week''s mess. Remember, I am an author for fun(inspired by Saitama..) so my release rate might take a dive at times depending on real life private issues.

 Chapter 55 - 52 : The King Is Aware

    (AN : I know. Such ackluster title. I really am bad at naming things¡­)

    "I wonder, how long can you keep this form of yours? You should have been able to smuggle yourselves in somehow, but with the power level you have disyed right now, the Kingdom should be alerted.

    "Trying to make us quit so easily? I have one word for you. Foolish." Arman smirked.

    The Emissary frowned at his words not because Arman was smiling at him in an irritating fashion but rather because what Arman said was true.

    The Fallen Heart Kingdom uses a special array and formation that was designed to sense and scan for High levelled beings within the Kingdom. It is due to this very array that invading Fallen Heart Kingdom was quite difficult and so, it has stood still despite not being subservient to an Empire.

    The array only has one loophole and that is that it ignores the movements of low levelled creatures. This is to allow Adventurers a resource spot to make an ie while still residing in the Kingdom and as such, paying tax in the Kingdom.

    Even though the array allows the movement of low levelled creatures, a huge amount of them would easily be identified. This is due to the amount of mana that they give off being huge in quantity.

    Monsters, as we all know, evolved to be due to the presence of mana. The array detects this exact kind of mana.

    Normally low levelled creatures have little Mana present in them whilst higher levelled creatures have arger mana density and capacity. If a huge horde of low levelled monsters move together, the array would easily notice them because the Mana they give off together would rival a higher level monster.

    For the goblin horde to have sessfully infiltrated the Kingdom, together with their trolls and the Emissary, they either needed inside help or a power far above the array''s detection capabilities. Even at that, there is still a limit to the amount of Mana they can disy otherwise even an insider could not stop the array from detecting them.

    As the Emissary had powered up further to be able to handle the trio of Arman, Enzo and Deval, the array might have most possibly detected them(goblins and Emissary) with the Kingdom beginning to make necessary preparations to handle them.

    With that in mind, the Emissary was in a race against time to wipe out a human settlement, as this was one of his goals, or at the very least, the army that encountered them together with itsmanders.

    "It doesn''t really matter. You''d still be dead before reinforcements arrive." The Emissary spread his hands and the mist beside him gushed forward with vigor.

    And so the battle continued, but this time, the Emissary fought with his full strength so as to eliminate the trio whereas the people in question were continuously pushed backwards, with all their moves made on the defensive side in an effort to survive long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

    . . . . .

    Back at the underground hall¡­

    "Do you really want to do this?" Chesces stared at the yers in front of him as they took their various battle stance.

    "Enough of your silly chit-chat. Savage Tribe doesn''t shy away once we''ve made our decision. Get them!" The Maniac Chief Goro yelled.

    "Chesces you go on with the others. I''ll hold them back." Yukino stepped forward and with her great-sword.

    "Alright. Let''s go." Chesces nodded and headed to one of the doors by the end together with the 2 other yers.

    In scenarios like this, one would usually team up with their partners or party members to face their adversaries as such Chesces decision of retreating would make him look as if he was actually scared of fighting back and so decided to retreat, but that isn''t true. Emperor''s Might, as a Super guild, values obedience andpliance towards orders and superiors above all else.

    As his superior, Chesces is required to obey every word thates out from Yukino''s lips even if it requires him to sacrifice his life(AN : Of course I mean In-game life¡­). With her giving the order to retreat, Chesces eitherplies with it or gets punished by the guild.

    Even at that, the main reason he actually followed her order was because as a ''Queen'' trained by Emperor''s Might, Yukino was more than capable of handling Goro, who is a ''false king'', alongside his minions. Rather than distracting her in battle, it was better for them to focus on their main goal at hand.

    "Where do you think you''re going?" Goro threw a flying dagger at Chesces.

    *ng*

    "Don''t lose focus; I''m your opponent." Yukino said as she brought her great-sword down.

    "Hehehe. It seems like someone needs to teach you a lesson, dear goddess. Even though you''re a ''Queen'', with this much people you will surely die. Or do you think that you are on par with our ''King''?" Goro grinned mockingly.

    It is indeed true that a ''King'' or ''Queen'' is more than capable of handlingrge numbers of weaker yers but this is only so for a veteran of such rank, specifically Monster rank yers.

    ''King'' and ''Queen'' are titles given to monster ss experts or Pinnacle ss experts with one foot in the monster ss. In the case of monster ss ''King'' or ''Queen'', they are more than capable of handling the line-up of a ''false king'' and 5 other expert yers but for someone like Yukino, who got the title by having one foot in the monster rank, handling such abination wouldn''t be so easy.

    "Why don''t we find out?" Yukino stared at the yers with unwavering confidence oozing from her as she took off her cloak. (AN : She was fighting with a cloak but didn''t put on the hoodie.)

    As the cloak floated down, a Snow Goddess was revealed to the world. d in white leather armor with a metal breastte, she looked like a war goddess ready for battle. Her great-sword glistened a silvery-white light, despite the low lighting present in the hall. She was fully armored with a bracelet hanging from her smooth silky white wrist.

    "As you wish mdy." Goro bowed exaggeratedly as he entered stealth mode while 3 yers rushed towards Yukino with the other 3 firing their long-range arsenal.

    . . . . .

    "I know it''s the rules but is it really alright to let her be on her own? If the Savage Tribe really want to get rid of us, they wouldn''t just send a ''false king''." One of the 2 yers apanying Chesces spoke up.

    "I also feel the same way, however princess should be able to hold them back for a while but as for how long, even I don''t know. What we just have to do is to find themander and eliminate him that way no matter the loss we suffer, we won''t lose out that badly." Chesces said with a calm tone.

    "Let''s hurry up."

    . . . . .

    At the Capital city of Fallen Heart Kingdom, a huge pce was ced at the centre of the city. The reason why the word ''ced'' is used is because the pce is actually a moveable fortress the previous King had used in the great war of nations.

    Equipped with almost catastrophe level weapons, the moveable Pce is one of the greatest equipment ever designed and so is used as a family heirloom for the Royal family of Fallen Heart Kingdom.

    At the centre of this pce was a meeting room used for, well, meetings. Presently, all the really important and high-ranking nobles and officials were at the room, seated around a round table.

    In the meeting room in the pce stood a somewhat huge throne capable of sizing a small giant; small as in 3 metres tall. Sitting on this throne was a human sized individual who exuded a regal aura that filled the entire room. It made it such that despite the number of people present around the table, they all held their breaths not uttering even a single word.

    Beside the throne was a gigantic golden sword with a height of 4 metres, towering everyone present in the room. Gems of varying colors were embedded in the sword''s de in a straight line, running from its tip through the middle and ending at the hilt. The sword itself exuded a righteous aura, one that despised evil greatly and prevents one from deviating from the path of good. However, even with the aura of good and light it exuded couldn''t prate the weird ck shadow that loomed over the man on the throne.

    "Repeat your words."

    Right now, the meeting room was quiet with a man standing by the side of the table shuddering in fear at the re of the individual seated on the throne. Apparently, the previous words were aimed at him.

    Not wanting to keep the speaker waiting, the man replied "We, we, we just received news. The barrier was somehow breached and a goblin army led by an emissary of darkness went through this breach. Right now, they are at Riverdale Town."

    Ignoring his earlier stammering and disrespect, the man on the throne asked "An emissary of darkness?" (AN : The disrespect was speaking to him without greeting him by addressing his title as King. Like how you say to the president, "your excellency" or the queen "your majesty".)

    "Yes, your Majesty." The man bowed in fear and replied hurriedly after realizing he forgot his manners.

    "Your Majesty, permit me to send an elite troop and capture this fiend that dares disrespect you and our nation." A middle-aged man that looked raw and boorish spoke up as he stood up from his seat.

    "No need. Riverdale was it? Little Owen and that hermit both reside there. Things wouldn''t get out of hand anytime soon. What you should focus on is to find his real body. No one is foolish enough to trespass our grounds with their main body." The man on the throne spoke.

    Though he was a little disappointed at not having to y a bunch of cannon-fodders, the boorish man replied "Yes, your Majesty."

    "Use the Knights of Fallen Silver. Handling such a fiend shouldn''t be so much of a problem for them.

    "I wonder, which demonic god actually dared to make a move at this time."

    AN :

    Finally, the King has had a cameo. It might seem like I''m dumping high levelled men everywhere but not really. Our MC isn''t your usual weak-to-strong MC. He was strong initially and he still is, plus this is reality.. You won''t always be dealing with cannon-fodders all the time.

 Chapter 56 - 53 : The Snow Goddess Vs The Maniac Chief

    (AN : Using my phone so error might be present. Please notify me of any.)

    *ng* *ng*

    Take a quick step forward and utilizing the opportunity made from the opponent''s negligent moves, Yukino shed downwards with her great-sword before Goro or the mages at the back could interrupt her.

    "Ahhh!"

    With a cry, the 3rd yer fell leaving only 4 men left.

    "Are you ready to give up?"

    Yukino swung her sword, leaving behind a trail of blood.

    *p* *p* *p*

    Goro deactivated his stealth mode while pping his hands.

    "I have to say, I''m impressed dear goddess. Despite being outnumbered 1:7 you were still able to take down 3 of my men. Worthy of a goddess indeed." Goro ended his words with a smile that didn''t seem so nice.

    "You don''t n on giving up?" Yukino frowned.

    "Why would we? I did say that you aren''t leaving here alive and I meant it."

    "You Savage Tribe bastards have always been so dumb. Even when you are given a chance of freedom you refuse and prefer to stay in your cage."

    "Hahaha. Freedom you say? Even if we let you go, would that change anything? Your guild would still hunt us down and that''s how it''s meant to be. We are total pr opposites that strike at bone another. Like fire and water, no ice, after all you are the Snow Goddess." Goroughed while tossing and catching his dagger repeatedly.

    "This would only end with you all dying." Yukino said to him.

    "Our goddess has never been this chatty before. What happened? Are you tired? Hahaha. You might have taken down 3 of us but so what? Since we came to eliminate Emperor''s Might''s yers, we obviously had toe prepared."

    Once Goro finished talking, the two mage yers in the group spread themselves apart and each brought out an animal skin scroll. Yukino tried to interrupt one of them but was held back by Goro and thest physical ss yer, a Berserker who used a spear. The two mages then used that time toplete the incantations and then tore the scrolls in two.

    The scroll then disintegrated into bronze coloured particles that floated around the entire hall. They seemed like fireflies as they scattered around the slightly dark hall.

    Slowly but surely, the particles upied most of the hall lighting it up.

    "Light show? Is that all you can do?" Yukino scoffed at the result of the previously performed actions.

    "Heh."

    As soon as Goro smiled, the ''fireflies'' further brightened up turning from fireflies to little star dots.

    *Timmmmm*

    As they did so, they produced a weird chime after which they yers present all felt a weird feeling pass over them, simr to the feeling you get when you dive inside water.

    [[ System notification :

    You have been afflicted with the [Curse of Zamatrian]

    [Slow] : Movement speed and Attack speed reduced by 10%.

    [Light Hallucinations] : yer would experience hallucinations once in a while at a random pace.

    [Mana lock] : Mana in the surrounding area is locked as such, yer can''t recover lost Mana except through potions.

    ]]

    The [Curse of Zamatrian] was a low level scroll, around the Low Tier Mortal ss, made by a crazy alchemist who studied runes. Due to hisck of the adequate and appropriate corresponding knowledge of runes, the scroll ended up as Low tier Mortal rank. It''s one of the few scrolls essible to yers in various NPC stores at this stage.

    Unlike the [Holy Light seal], this is a true Low Tier Mortal ss scroll, only having a few low level effects and not capable of causing damage. Even so, this low level effects, if used properly, could easily change the tide of the battle especially for the [Light Hallucinations] effect.

    Apart from its weak effects, the [Curse of Zamatrian] only has one other shoring and that is that it works only within a certain range. In other words, if the targeted prey were to evacuate from the affected area, the spell wouldn''t have any effect on them.

    Nheless, the scroll still has a very handy feature that especially makes it useful. This is the ability of enabling the user to easily decide on who would be affected and who wouldn''t within the spells range.

    With this ability in the way, the user would have the upper hand in the battle and could easily keep the target within the radius of the scroll''s effect.

    "You''re done." Goroughed maniacally in such a way that he didn''t bring shame to his title as the Maniac Chief.

    Goro stabbed forward with his dagger while the Berserkershed out with his spear from another direction.

    Normally Yukino would easily handle their attacks and maybe even counter but thanks to the [Slow] effect, she barely held her ground against their joint assault. When the two mages (AN : Just so you know, they''re an elementalist and cursemancer) joined in, things got harder for her.

    As an expert yer, the cursemancer was able to realize this and so he bide his time carefully before casting a curse.

    "[Paralysis]"

    Noticing that she can''t dodge the attack neither can she ignore it as the [Paralysis] would make things worse for her, Yukino blocked the attack with her great-sword leading to a small explosion of the eerie ck elliptical object.

    *Boom*

    Using the ck weird aura that resulted from the explosion as a smokescreen, Goro rushed forward and plunged his dagger towards Yukino''s side.

    Yukino didn''t sully her title as ''Queen'' as she noticed the attack and bent towards her right but even so, she still got hurt a bit as the dagger brushed through her waist.

    *Slit*

    Yukino then tried to counter but the spear-wielding berserker swung his spear at her, interrupting her move and forcing her to retreat backwards.

    The elementalist then followed up by firing a

    [Mana ball] as it was the quickest and most effective spell in his arsenal. Yukino spotted this and swiftly dodged but she was immediately met by Goro''s follow-up attack.

    Vexed at being forced on the defensive continuously, the hacked at him but at this time, the Berserker and cursemancer had already performed their own attacks aimed towards her as if expecting her move.

    They were disappointed this time as once again, Yukino didn''t tarnish her image. Her attack was actually a feint which she made use of to retreat. Goro and the berserker chased after her as they couldn''t let her leave the hall since the scroll''s ability only barely covered it.

    "Hahaha. Dear goddess why are you running? Come back alright? I won''t bite." Goro mocked as he ran after her.

    Ignoring his irritating jeers and derision, Yukino began pondering on her current circumstance.

    ''This can''t keep going on. My speed is lower than theirs so it''s inevitable for me to be forced back. Looks like I might have to use it.''

    Yukino abruptly stopped and turned around. Seizing this chance, the two mages fired their various attacks at her while Goro smirked inwardly.

    ''All you big guys are always prideful. Meanwhile your shitty pride will be your doom.''

    Goro and the berserker attacked from the sides while the attacks of the mages came from the front.

    Taking a deep breath, Yukino held her great-sword with both hands.

    ''I haven''t tried this with a great-sword before but oh well.''

    "Lotus Sword art : 2nd form : 3 leaf block."

    . . . . .

    "Where are we exactly...?" The yer beside Chesces, who was earlier against leaving Yukino behind, eximed.

    The group had earlier departed the hall through the biggest door present among the 3 options. After going through the door, they entered a hallway and rushed through it encountering goblin scouts at a few intervals, which they killed swiftly proving that they were indeed experts.

    Normally, this would have been impossible but since they had levelled up in the battlefield above, their levels were at least 1 above that of the goblin scouts. Combine that with their adept and resourceful skills, tactics and cooperation, the goblin scouts were nothing but cannon-fodders in their eyes.

    After they had gone far, a distance that took them 3 minutes of running and turning excluding the time they took for their battles, they had entered a chamber, one far bigger than the previous hall.

    The chamber was dark but as they walked deeper, blue mes lit up by the walls, lighting the entire chamber. It went on till it reached the end of the chamber.

    *Bang*

    Once the entire torches were lit, they heard a bang as the doors behind them, which they didn''t notice when they walked in, closed.

    "So there were doors?" That yer spoke again.

    "This should be themander''s chambers. Look around and see if you can find anything." Chesces stated.

    "You don''t need to worry about that captain. Look." Thest yer in the group pointed at the end of the hall.

    There was a huge wall painting there simr to the one Fudo and Sato had seen before. The only difference was that apart from the 2 figures on the painting and the ''dark sun'', there was a river of blood beneath the figure with the grimoire.

    Beneath this painting, a figure bent head down, and prayed with muffled sounds. Beside him stood 4 huge armored figures, reverently standing guard beside the figure with their enormous sized weapons. The auras they exuded made the chamber feel like a sea of blood as the atmosphere felt like an abattoir. It was quite creepy and out-of-ce when contrasted with the blue colored mes.

    The figure that was bent low, on the contrary, didn''t exude any aura whatsoever seeming like an average monster or human. But somehow, it seemed to blend perfectly in the atmosphere feeling like it truly belonged here.

    "So that''s the boss¡­"

 Chapter 57 - 54 : In The Bossâ€™ Lair

    "So that''s the boss..." Griffin stared in apprehension and awe at the figure in between the 4 huge creatures.

    As an internal member of a super guild, Griffin was taught to not judge simply by looks. The boss [1] looked simple, radiating not even a single ounce of aura but that is just to a normal yer.

    As an expert yer, Griffin was able to identify that it wasn''t the boss not having any aura but rather its aura had perfectly blended with the environment causing one to believe it didn''t have any. A creature or monster capable of doing such wouldn''t be an ordinary one.

    "Forget about him for now; focus on his bodyguards."

    As the other member of the team said, Griffin focused on the 4 giants beside the boss.

    ''No, not giants. Trolls.''

    Indeed, they were trolls but unlike those above, these trolls were d in iron armor. The armor was barely at the mortal rank but even so, it boosted their defensive capabilities even more. The fact that they made use of metallic weapons increased their lethality and attacking prowess.

    Apart from the fact that they wore iron armor, the trolls present here were also different from the ones above by looks. Despite looking pretty much the same with their kin above, the 4 guardians looked more boorish and civilized. Well, ''civilized'' doesn''t mean civilized like humans but ''civilized'' in terms ofparison to other trolls.

    "So how do we handle them?" The yer asked Chesces.

    "Now that the [Inspect] feature has been taken down, we don''t know their levels and we don''t know whether we can handle them. Even so, I doubt these ''bodyguards'' would be low levelled. So if we want to win, we have to defeat them separately. Let''s aim for the big guy at the left edge. We grab his attention towards a different position; at least 30 metres away from the rest."

    The chamber was about 100m2 in size so it was quite big. By the sides, there were two rows of pirs that held up the ceiling. The setting itself seemed to be an advantage to yers as they can easily hold a battle in one area without being noticed. It was due to this very setting that despite the moring of the door, the monsters never discovered the yers.

    Moving towards one of the columns closest to the farthest troll, Chesces hid behind it and studied the troll''s features.

    From a distance, it didn''t look so special but as he was now close to it, Chesces observed that the troll seemed to be meditating or possibly even sleeping.

    Realising that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, he took out a discarded weapon he had left in his bag and threw it close to the troll before hiding behind the column.

    *ng*

    The weapon, which was an axe,nded loudly on the ground, attracting the attention of the nearby troll. Whether the boss heard it or not wasn''t known as it was still bowing head low and muttering inaudible sounds.

    The troll that got captivated by the sound, walked over to the axe and picked it with its fingers.

    Upon studying it for a while, it seemed to have realised that the weapon wasn''t originally present before neither was it used by its lesser nsmen (AN : In other words the goblins.).

    Getting suspicious, the troll walked away from the group and began patrolling the entire hall on its own. The other trolls, just like this one was previously, were also in a weird state of meditation and it didn''t look like they heard the sound of the axe crashing down.

    "Get ready."

    As the troll walked farther away from its brothers and closer to the designated ambush spot, Chesces and co took their positions, raising their guards and alertness levels, and preparing to make their move.

    "Now."

    Following hismand, Kylian, the only mage present in the group, took a scroll and cast a powerful spell that he had timed properly with the troll''s arrival, directly at the troll''s right eye.

    "[Fire spear]"

    "Arghh."

    The attack perfectlynded on its eye, blinding the troll''s right eye.

    Normally, the scream might have alerted the others but at an unknown point in time, a weird semi-spherical barrier with continuous undting waves took form around them.

    [Ligas'' Barrier]

    It trapped any leftover sound or Mana and used it to strengthen itself. It also deflected external light in an inconceivable pattern that made it look invisible to the naked eye, as such, outsiders wouldn''t be able to see anything inside of it. Apart from this ability, the barrier was totally useless but despite so, the barrier was ranked as a mid tier Mortal rank scroll. It couldn''t be destroyed because it had no true physical form and recharges itself from the energy absorbedsting up to 2-3 hours with 6 avable usage spots.

    This was one of the trump cards Emperor''s Might had prepared for facing the main boss as it would allow them to do such in secret.

    Since they couldn''t do that anymore, Chesces decided to use it here as he didn''t want to bet whether the other trolls would really not be able to hear the sound of their battle.

    After the ming spear hadnded, Griffin followed up with a powerful sword sh, attracting the troll''s aggro towards himself.

    With a shield in hand and a sword in the other, he dodged the troll''s counter attack as he didn''t really want to bet whether he would be able to easily tank the monster''s damage. Rather than spending his HP to find out, he would rather keep his senses on full alert and exert himself the utmost. But it was inevitable that he would be forced to block a few hence receiving damage due to therge difference in strength.

    Chesces, on the other hand, ran towards the troll with a saber in hand. While Griffin held its attention, he sneaked up behind it andnded a blow behind its knee caps, hoping to destabilize the close to 4 metres tall troll.

    "Arggggh." Releasing a hoarse scream which ended up absorbed by the barrier for recycling, the troll turned backwards to face Chesces.

    Using this time, Kylian, the group''s druid, healed Griffin for the HP he had lost when he blocked an attack, and at the same time, hurled a few spells at the troll.

    The coordination and chemistry was really on point as they easily cut down the HP of the troll without suffering any losses.

    During this time, Chesces had checked his system interface and noticed that the [Inspect] skill was active.

    ''As expected.'' Chesces inwardly smirked.

    Using it on the troll, he discovered that its level was actually Level 6! If not for its reckless movements and being outnumbered, having to face a pro team like theirs, the troll would have easily dealt with any other yer or team.

    "Arggggh."

    When the troll''s HP went below the 50% mark, it suddenly stopped and screamed at the top of its voice before stabbing itself in the arm with its machete.

    Chesces, Griffin and Kylian were all stunned for a moment as their movements took a pause. As they began wondering why it did such, they began to feel the ground beneath them vibrating.

    This vibration wasn''t due to an explosive or the sorts, no. It was actually as a result of the joint running of the other 3 trolls towards them.

    Yes! Somehow, the other trolls realised that theirrade was in trouble and quickly ran to assist him.

    As they were stunned, hoping that the [Ligas'' Barrier] would hide them from the other trolls, the one who caused all this suddenly smirked and rushed wildly towards the yers, particrly Griffin, as if without fear of death.

    bbergasted by its move, Griffin still managed to retain his senses and prepared to intercept the creature. During this time, the other trolls were still running towards them.

    "Hold him back and prepare to retreat." Chesces yelled out to Griffin.

    As they were about to make their moves, Kylian happened to hear something on the other side. Turning towards the source of the sound, he was surprised and as such eximed.

    "Look over there."

    Chesces turned to look at where his finger pointed at and he saw a stone door opening on the wall.

    "Move !" Urging his teammates to retreat towards the newly formed door, Chesces canceled the [Ligas'' Barrier] and took the scroll with him, running towards the door.

    As they approached, they happened to see 2 silhouettes approaching. As the figurespletely exited the entrance, the stone door quickly shut behind them.

    "Shit!" Griffin cursed out loud.

    "Are we really going to die here?" Kylian said with slight worry and disappointment in his voice.

    ''All the major trump cards are with Snow. Damn it!'' Chesces cursed inwardly.

    They all ignored the 2 silhouettes who had just arrived as they believed that just 2 people wouldn''t be enough to save them from the 4 trolls and their boss.

    That was until one of them spoke.

    "Hey Sato, I think that we are in the wrong room."

 Chapter 58 - 55 : To Help Or Not To

    (AN: PS, my little bro told me to capitalise all the words in the title so I decided to do that from now on¡­BTW sorry the chapter iste...)

    "Hey Sato, I think that we''re in the wrong room."

    Chesces turned over to look at the two individuals. One of them was a plump guy while the other was a guy of average physique. He couldn''t identify their facial expressions or looks because they both wore ck cloaks [1]. Despite that, they both looked like your everyday average yer as none of them radiated any aura.

    Nheless Chesces didn''t underestimate them as anyone who had been able to reach the boss'' room must have encountered an obstacle in the form of goblin scouts. As they were 3 of them and they were all experts, it was easy for Chesces'' group to make it here however, the other side were only 2 and none of them looked to be an MT ss.

    To have reached this far is nothing more than a testament of their strength that is unless they found a shortcut.

    While Chesces was studying Sato and Fudo, they were also studying their group.

    "So it turns out we were still too slow eh? Do you know who they are?" Fudo asked Sato.

    "Not really but that dude looks familiar. He''s quite strong." Sato frowned.

    "So killing them is out of the option?"

    Even though Fudo said it in a low voice, Chesces and co heard him and raised their guards up against the neers.

    The trolls were already closing up to them but due to the fact that Sato and Fudo wore a ck cloak and where at the edge of the room where the lighting was extremely poor, the trolls didn''t notice them and still focused on Chesces'' team.

    Initially Sato and Fudo weren''t wearing a ck cloak. When they passed through the thick door earlier, they entered a weirdboratory filled with body parts, bloodand dead experimental test subjects.

    After exploring for a few minutes, they found a hidden door and entered it arriving at a straight passage. As they walked along the passage, they overheard the sounds of battle and thus decided to wear ck cloaks to hide their identities from thebatants. A little whileter, they left the passage through a stone door and were greeted by the current scene.

    It didn''t take long for the trolls to reach Chesces, Griffin and Kylian with them being forced to fight back. Griffin tried to tank them all but it was proving much of a task for him to do so. He was quite lucky that Chesces assisted him once in a while.

    While Chesces'' team were facing an unrealistic task which was like finding ms in a field, Sato and Fudo made use of their cloaks to blend into the darkness and hide from the trolls.

    "Do we help them?" Fudo stared at the group that were currently being pushed back by the trolls. It was only a matter of time before they died leaving behind Sato and Fudo.

    "If we don''t help them the trolls will eliminate us when they are done with them. But what''s in it for us? Right now, the trolls haven''t spotted us yet. So we have two choices; either we wait a little while and they offer us something to assist them or we help them." Sato narrowed his eyes while staring at the ongoing battle.

    "Hehe. If you were to ask me, I''d say let''s wait. We-"

    "*Sigh* You really are stupid. These guys are most likely from a big club. If we help them, they will owe us one. On the other hand, if we don''t, then they would reveal our location before they die. In the end, we will not only gaintheir hatred but we would also have to face the trolls alone. Get ready, we will help them."

    While Sato and Fudo were discussing on whether to help or not, Chesces was thinking the same.

    ''Those guys don''t n to help? Don''t they know that after us, they are next? They can''t be that stupid right? Or are they waiting for us to offer an incentive?... It''s better that than losing our levels here.''

    As he was about to ask for help, Chesces saw that the two strangers had already joined the battle.

    Sato took on 2 trolls while Fudo assisted him. With that, Griffin had enough breathing space and easily took on the other 2 trolls. Though the word ''easily'' is used here, it was only inparison to his previous performance. Even so, Griffin didn''t seem like he would die anytime soon as Chesces got back to his sense and assisted him with Kylian.

    "Hey. At this rate, we won''t achieve much before others arrive. The one with the saber,e assist me here while the druid helps that tank." Sato yelled at them. "If he can''t handle the two of them, drag the other one over here. The one with the lowest health."

    ''Is he crazy?!'' Chesces wondered.

    Handling one troll is already quite difficult for average yers. One should remember that apart from Chesces, the other members of his team were at Level 5. Even still, they had a hard time facing two trolls.

    Ignoring how Sato was able to keep up with 2 trolls, Chesces belief that if there were a third one, even if he helped him, they had a high chance of losing especially since they don''t have a healer backing them nor an MT ss yer.

    "What are you waiting for?! Come on already." Fudo shouted while sting a [Greater Fireball] at one troll. ''And they call themselves pro gamers.''

    Unbeknownst to Chesces and his teammates, Sato and Fudo were at Level 5 but even that wasn''t enough to make them handle two trolls, much less 3, on their own. The secret was actually the extra attribute points they received from their sub-sses, which could be said to be equivalent to a single level up, but that wasn''t all.

    After Sato and Fudo had levelled up and entered theboratory, they equipped their new equipment (AN: Chapter 9) and got a boost in power. This was even more so for Fudo who had a new equipment and weapon. With the increase in strength, the trolls which would usually be hard for yers to handle would be easier for them.

    This didn''t mean that Emperor''s Might''s yers didn''t have good equipment but whenpared to that of Fudo and Sato, theirs was like factory-made brand whereas the duo''s one were premium factory-made merchandise.(AN: Still the same sh*t, lol.)

    With thebined effect of the extra attribute points and quality equipment, Sato and Fudo were stronger than ever.

    "Alright."

    After Fudoshed out on him, Chesces decided to trust them and pulled one of the trolls away from his teammates. This wasn''t so difficult as all he needed to do was to strike it at its joint or any other critical point and it would run after him.

    As the 3rd one approached, Sato put his hand in his bag and brought out a vial which he downed the contents into his throat. Sato''s facial muscles tightened a bit as he gulped down the liquid that left behind a ming sensation in his throat. His muscles bulged a bit while his veins released looked to be coated in a red sheen.

    [[ Diluted Simple Berserk Potion : Simple Grade : 60% concentration

    [Strength] +7

    [Agility] + 10

    [Dexterity] +7

    [Vitality] +10

    Duration : 10 seconds

    Cool-down : 4 hours ]]

    Even though handling a 3rd troll would still barely be in the range of his current capabilities, Sato didn''t want to take any chances as the boss was still there. The fact that the boss still hadn''t noticed them even after all his bodyguards had left made Sato feel uneasy so he decided to wrap up the battle on this side quickly.

    "Was that a Berserk Potion?!" Chesces was shocked.

    Berserk potions are quite rare, no, extremely rare. Even till now, Emperor''s Might''s branch in Riverdale Town only has 2 such potions. With the resources of a super guild, getting equipment and weapons aren''t difficult but the same couldn''t be said about potions. Even though Berserk potions could be purchased in NPC stores, it came at a very high price.

    Chesces was visibly shocked and at the same time, uneasy.

    ''Why would he use such it now? We haven''t even fought the boss yet. Or does he have more? Is that it? He''s showing his resources now to scare us from thinking twice against them...''

    Caught with apprehension towards Sato''s decision of using a Berserk potion without hesitating, Chesces began jumping to conclusions before recalling where he was.

    ''Doesn''t matter. Let''s just get over this first.''

    AN :

    When the MC was about to make the decision whether to help or not, I wanted to make his decision more realistic and not like all those good guys you see and read all the time. But in the end, I made it work. I think...

    [1] I''d like to remind you guys of something.. Whenever a yer uses the hood of a ck cloak to shield their faces, it projects a dark shadow over their face so you won''t see anything.

 Chapter 59 - 56 : Whereâ€™s He?

    Sato took a step forward and shot forward, almost like a bullet, towards the trolls. Previously, the increase in ability, through the increase in attributes brought about by the Berserk potion, wasn''t so absurd. However, as Sato''s current attributes had increased quite a lot, thanks to the recent level up and extra points, the ability increase brought about by the Berserk potion became even more obvious.

    Sato''s speed was far ahead of that of the trolls as he barged into their defense and took them on. He easily dodged their attacks and countered with his. Thanks to the increased strength of about a level upand a half''s worth of [Strength] from the potion.

    The 3 trolls were annoyed at his fast movements and so decided to surround him and attack at the same time.

    One of them lifted it''s axe and brought it down at Sato, from the left. The other held it''s spear and stabbed forward directly at him. As for thest one, which was low in health whenpared to the others, it attacked from the right.(AN: All alignments are done from Sato''s PV)

    "Mountain sh."

    Sato sliced out a heavy strike towards the front-most troll, whose attack was the closest to him.

    Sato''s sword strike carried a lot of power and force in it, as if it were aimed to slice a mountain in half. Normally, Sato would have used the Lotus Sword art to battle, however he decided to use strength based sword arts to battle the trolls since their sizes make them easy targets and also the Berserk potion had increased his [Strength] even more.

    As such, it would be better to use strength based attacks that deal heavy damage that way he could easily end the battle faster. The Mountain sh technique was one that perfectly suited his predicament.

    As his sword came into contact with the troll''s spear, Sato felt a bit of resistance and force passing through his sword. He grunted and resisted the force, applying more strength to his attack, effectively deflecting the spear aimed towards him.

    Sato didn''t have any time to breath as the next attack arrived from his left.

    *Bang*

    A heavy axe came crashing down as Sato moved away from it''s path, smashing apart the floor where itnded.

    Sato was about to counter when thest attack arrived. Sato easily deflected the weapon but was interrupted once again by the first troll.

    All this had happened within a second but even so, Sato realised that if things went on this way, the Berserk potion that he had downed would end up as a waste.

    "What are you guys waiting for?" Sato yelled.

    "An opportunity and I see it!" Fudo screamed back.

    Since Sato had been battling the trolls, he had attracted their aggro and attention towards himself. This gave both Fudo and Chesces the opportunity tond their own special attacks.

    Fudo used [Explosion] from [Igneel''s guidance] on the weaker troll while Chesces used the Swordsman''s [Horizontal sh] at one troll followed by tossing a grenade at the weaker troll. With the addition of the after effects of the [Explosion] skill and the grenade''s explosion, the troll that was low in HP, was even closer to itsst leg.

    On the side of Griffin and Kylian, they both held on against their own troll. Griffin, as an MT, wasn''t equipped with a lot of high damage dealing attacks though he had a few, while Kylian was a druid which was more of a support ss than a damage ss. As a result of this, their grinding rate was far slower whenpared to the other 3 but even so, they easily held on against the troll and managed to eliminate almost 30% of its HP.

    Sato went on to tank the other two while Chesces handled thest one with Fudo aiding them both though he focused more on Chesces, who obviously had a harder time tanking a troll. If it weren''t for the intermittent healing he received from Kylian, Chesces would have been a goner. The same could be said with Sato though thanks to the Berserk potion, he had a muchrger HP bar than Chesces. Even with all these issues, the formation of Sato, Chesces and Fudo, gave the trolls a good run for their money.

    3 secondster, the troll with the lowest Hp, which was earlier dealt with by Chesces, Kylian and Griffin, was on itsst leg. Fudo, seeing this, fired a [Greater Fireball] at it, finishing off its pitiful life.

    "You bastard." Chesces smirked "Stealing my Target."

    "Hehe. We''re helping. The least you could do is hand is thest kill." Fudo chuckled.

    "Come on. Handle the other one. Sato shouted and rushed at one troll hoping to use thest few seconds to finish it.

    "On it." Chesces replied.

    Fudo fired [Fireball] after [Fireball] at one troll, sessfully gaining its attention while Chesces rushed in to try and tank it though he wasn''t doing much of a good job whenpared to Sato much less a real MT.

    Sato took on a single troll and dished out sh after sh, hacks after hacks, not giving it a chance to breath or retreat. Whenever it tried to counter, Sato would strike at its joints, interrupting the attack. Such a troll could only be said to be pitiable in its battle with Sato who was slightly above it in terms of [Strength].

    "Mountain sh." Rushing with vigor once more, Satonded hisst attack before the potion''s duration ended. Hebined both the martial skill, Mountain sh, and the ss skill, [Horizontal sh], to finish off the troll.

    After that, he joined up with Chesces and Fudo to finish off the 3rd one. With thebined assault of Chesces, Fudo and Sato, the troll didn''t stand a chance and it''s HP was slowly reduced to a low figure before it fell at the hands of the three.

    They then joined up with Griffin and Kylian, who were almost done with their own troll, and finished the job.

    "That was stressful." Griffin sighed.

    "Thank you." Chesces told Sato.

    If it weren''t for his timely use of the Berserk potion, it would have taken them longer to have dealt with the trolls. At a time like this, anytime spent is time wasted as more people would soon arrive at the hall. At that time, beating the boss would be just one of their concerns as not everyone would be as nice as Sato and Fudo and agree to work together.

    "No problem." Sato stated simply.

    "All that''s left now is the boss." Kylian spoke as he gazed in the direction of the boss. But what greeted his eyes wasn''t the boss in his previous position but an empty spot.

    "Where''s he?"

    AN :

    [[ Name : Emperor Wolf

    Race : Human

    Bloodline : Chosen Ones

    Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Level : 5

    HP : 120

    MP : 130

    Heritage/Legacy :

    ss (Job) : Elementalist (Mage)

    Subss : N/A

    Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Current location : Kiro Mountains'' in

    Attributes

    Strength : 3

    Endurance : 7

    Vitality : 12

    Agility : 6

    Dexterity : 8

    Intelligence : 13

    Willpower : 3

    Physical Attack Power : 9

    Magical Attack Power : 39

    Physical Defence : 7

    Magical Defence : 3

    Attack Speed : 24

    Movement Speed : 12

    Free Attribute Point : 0

    Free Potential point : 2

    Equipment and weapons

    Igneel''s guidance lower replica (Ne) : Upper Tier Mortal ss

    ck Alder Staff : Upper tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 25

    Light Mage Garb (Cloth Armor) : Mid Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 33

    Skills :

    Mana ball : Fire a mana ball with 100% damage.

    Cool-down : 3 seconds

    Fireball : Active Skill : Cast a fireball with 100% damage.

    Cool-down : 1 seconds

    Greater Fireball : Active Skill : Use 5 seconds to increase the Fireball spell by an additional 20% damage

    Cool-down : 15 seconds. ]]

    [[ Name : Sky de

    Race : Human

    Bloodline : Chosen Ones

    Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Level : 5

    HP : 120

    Heritage/Legacy :

    ss (Job) : Swordsman (Specialist)

    Subss : N/A

    Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Current location : Kiro Mountains'' in

    Attributes

    Strength : 13

    Endurance : 8

    Vitality : 12

    Agility : 8

    Dexterity : 7

    Intelligence : 1

    Willpower : 3

    Physical Attack Power : 39

    Magical Attack Power : 3

    Physical Defence : 8

    Magical Defence : 3

    Attack Speed : 21

    Movement Speed : 16

    Free Attribute Point : 0

    Free Potential point : 2

    Skills :

    Chop : Active Skill : Launch a heavy strike with full force, causing additional 20% damage. Cool-down : 10 seconds

    Horizontal Swipe : Active Skill : Release a horizontal positioned attack wielding an additional 40% attack power. Cool-down : 15 seconds. ]]

    Recall, [Attack Speed] = [Dexterity] x 3

    [Movement Speed] = [Agility] x 2

    [Physical Attack Power] = [Strength] x 3

    [Magical Attack Power] = [Intelligence] x 3

    [Physical Defence] = [Endurance] x 1

    [Magical Defence] = [Willpower] x 1

    [HP] = [Vitality] x 10

    [MP] = [Intelligence] x 10

    Sub-attributes( by the left) can increase irrespective of the main attribute(right).

    [Agility] governs both reaction(reflex) and [Movement speed].

 Chapter 60 - 57 : Whereâ€™s He? 2

    "Arggggh"

    "Die bastard!"

    "MTs, tank the trolls. Long-range yers, aim at critical points. Let''s go."

    "Haha. Bro look. That troll looks like you. Hahaha."

    "F**k yo- wait...it does look like me..."

    On the main battlefield above, the yers fought with their best against the monsters. Initially, they were shocked to see the trolls but this shock didn''tst much since they were already informed by the System interface previously.

    Rather than fear, the yers were actually, rejoicing even, at the appearance of the trolls. After all, killing a single troll awarded more experience and kill points than a goblin.

    With such an incentive, the yers rushed towards the trolls like moths to a me and even though some of them lost their lives to the trolls, more still targeted them.

    It initially proved to be difficult for the yers to be able to beat them but as time went on and more yers epted the challenge, they eventually found a way to handle the gargantuan creatures. Dividing themselves into groups, they each took on a troll and killed it before switching to another.

    On a big scale, it looked as if the human forces were prevailing and indeed they were. With time, the humans would be thest ones standing.

    "It''s over already. Give up." Arman stated after tossing a Space dagger and using [Void Mirroring] to deflect an attack.[1]

    "Is that what you think?" The Emissary smirked. "Let me ask you this, why did you think the little brat I left behind revealed himselfte into the battle?"

    "What do you mean demon?" Bishop Enzo frowned and stopped. Though he looked as if he was interested in finding out the answer behind the Emissary''s statement, he was actually nning to take a breather from the tense fight.

    "Foolish priest. Let me enlighten you then." The Emissary spoke without of worry of letting them recuperate. "If you n to defeat an army, what is the most important thing to address?"

    "A tactic?" Devas replied, unsure. However the Emissary ignored him.

    "Themander." Arman frowned.

    "Precisely. Once themander or rathermanders are dealt with, what else is there to worry about?"

    Realising the pattern he was going through, Bishop Enzo replied with a frown "The elites."

    "You finally have sense, foolish priest." The Emissary chuckled a bit. "Yes, it''s the elites. When they realise the existence of anothermander apart from myself, what would they do?"

    "They will look for him." Bishop Enzo replied once more.

    "So what you''re saying is that this is a trap?" Devas grimaced.

    "Yes. It''s a trap, aimed at your elites. From here on now, you''ve lost."

    . . . . .

    Back in the underground chamber...

    Scanning the entire hall with his eyes, Kylian asked "Wasn''t the boss here awhile ago? Where the hell is he?"

    "I don''t know..." Griffin replied. "What do we do?"

    "... Spread out but don''t be too far from each other." Chesces replied.

    Fudo faced Sato with a look that seemed to ask whether he should do as Chesces said.

    "Hmm." Sato nodded.

    As they were about to scatter, they all heard indistinct moring, akin to that of a battle,ing from the edge of one of the closer walls. They then decided to check it out.

    Heading over there, they listened carefully to the sounds. A few secondster, Fudo nced at Sato.

    "Don''t you find the voices familiar?"

    Sato contemted a bit before whispering back "It seems like it''s the sound from earlier."

    Previously, before Sato and Fudo had arrived in the boss'' chamber, they had both heard a couple of indistinct moring simr to that which they were hearing now. They had initially thought it wasing from this hall but now hearing it again, they discovered that they were both wrong.

    "They should be other yers." Chesces stated.

    "The sound ising closer."

    As Sato heard said, the initial low ttering became noisy as it approached closer to them.

    "What do we do now?" Kylian asked.

    "Long range yers hide in the dark. In case they aren''t friendly, you could easily take them down." Sato suggested

    "Do as he says." Chesces replied. "By the way, I haven''t introduced myself yet. I''m Chesces of Emperor''s Might." Chesces extended how arm towards Sato.

    "Ok." Sato shook hands with him.

    Chesces looked a bit stunned but not too much after all, it was dumb of him to believe that Sato would reveal his identity if he simply asked. If he did so, then what would be the use of the ck cloak. Chesces had asked that with hope that Sato would simply lose his guard and answer straight way, reflexively[2]. Though he didn''t have much hope of that happening, he still decided to try.

    ''This will be a tough nut to crack.''

    A few secondster, a door opened up as three figures jumped out of the entrance with thest one closing the door behind him.

    "Ha, ha, ha. We almost died back there. Is this really an event for low level yers?!" One of the figuresined while bending down and taking deep breaths.

    "Hmm?" One of them eventually lifted his head to the side and saw the opposite group standing close by. "Who are you?" He asked while keeping a hand on his sword''s hilt.

    Walking forward, Chesces replied "Chesces of Emperor''s Might."

    Hearing the name of the guild, the neers were driven into astonishment wondering how they got paired with the members of Emperor''s Might.

    "No, wait. Can you prove your Identity?" A deep voice sounded from one of the figures, who looked to be their leader.

    "Not really but you can trust us. Apart from us 2, the other one is a solo yer but you don''t need to worry about him." Chesces answered him while keeping the presence of Fudo and Kylian away from the neers.

    "And you are?"

    "Members of the tier 2 guild, East Crow." Old Jiro replied him.

    "East Crow..." Griffin uttered in a pondering tone. "Troubled Sword''s men right?" (AN : Daichi''s IGN)

    "Yes."

    After they were done with the introductions, Old Juro spoke a little about their earlier encounter with rogue yers and goblins which led to them running over here. Chesces, on the other hand, informed them of their current progress in the mission since having reached this point, fighting each other wouldn''t be so smart as the boss is still nowhere to be seen and could possibly ambush them. As for the rewards from the trolls, they hide it from them as there was no reason to mention it.

    "So the boss just disappeared?" Old Jiro asked.

    "Apparently so." Griffin replied.

    "Hmm...So the n is to scatter out and look for him right? No problem but what if it''s what it wants?"

    "As we are now, unless we move about in groups, there''s nothing else we can do." Chesces readily answered.

    "Then where are the others?" Dream Tiger spoke up. "Even if you are a Super Guild, that doesn''t give you the right to treat us as idiots. For only 2 of your guild members to make it here is pretty much impossible. The boss should have had a couple of guards or something so you can''t just say that the 3 of you defeated them. You also didn''t mention that they died so where are they?"

    Chesces smiled and said "Alright. You cane out now." While the first part of the statement was aimed at Dream Tiger, the other was for Fudo and Kylian.

    "As I expected." Dream Tiger frowned.

    "Alright that''s enough. It''s normal to be suspicious." Old Jiro stopped Dream Tiger from taking the matter too far. He had actually reached the same conclusion as Dream Tiger but because the other party was a Super guild, he didn''t force his way.

    "Alright. So what do we do ne-"

    "Kekekekekeke."

    Interrupted by a weirdugh, they all entered battle mode while keeping their guards up for any surprise.

    "What was that?" Swift de asked.

    However, before he could get an answer, the voice came back again.

    "Let the games begin."

    AN :

    [1] Creates a copy of an attack. Normally, this copy is fake but if more Mana is injected, a real copy could be produced but it will be far weaker than the original.

    [2] When someone usually asks for your name, you tend to reply in reflexively without much thought towards it.

 Chapter 61 - 58 : Sinland Again

    (AN: Sorry for the short chapters and for not uploading previously...)

    "Kekekeke. The great one...spe...speaks. Do you...hear him? Can you...hea..hear it?"

    The weird voice sounded again. What was weird about the voice was that just like the Emissary, it spoke in anguage that the yers didn''t understand but they could interpret the meaning behind the words. It was anguage that spoke directly towards the mind but unlike that of the Emissary, the speaker didn''t sound so used to thenguage as he had to take intermediate pauses between his speech.

    "A pyscho or what?" Swift de saidckadaisically though in reality, he was on full alert against any ambush.

    "It speaks like the other one." Dream Tiger said. By the other one, he referred the the main boss above, who was being dealt with by the trio of Arman, Bishop Enzo and Deval.

    As there was a video recording of the first contact of yers and the Emissary, most of them who watched it had realised that the Emissary didn''t actually speak in thenguage they understood, be it Chinese or English, but rather used a different one. While most of them ignored this as they felt it didn''t matter so much, since there was an inbuilt trantor in the game, there were some who thought differently.

    Those who were well aware of the different intonations and sybles of variousnguages, discovered that thenguage the Emissary spoke wasn''t a realnguage on Earth neither was it any of the popr ones spoken by NPC characters in the game. This lead to the conclusion that it was either a rune typenguage or a forgottennguage.

    Dream Tiger was actually implying that since this current boss spoke like the Emissary, they might be from the same heritage. Even Sato frowned at the thought of that as he had previously encountered another of the same heritage as the Emissary.

    "I don''t think so. Even though there was quite some distance between us both, his aura felt different than the other." Griffin objected.

    "He could have been hiding it." Swift sword dissented.

    "Focus. We just need to find him first." Chesces sternly warned.

    "He''s right." Drunken Hog supported as everyone once again kept their guards up.(AN: Old Juro''s IGN)

    Though it looked like they were cooperating, it was anything but that. Old Juro had already nned on getting the kill for the boss while Chesces nned the same. They both acted friendly and supportive of the other because first if all, their strength was equal and also, they didn''t know the true strength of the boss as such, they both needed someone who would take a beating for the team so as to enable them to find out the boss'' stats and location.

    A few secondster, the voice sounded again.

    "Death to th...th...those...who fail, to bow." The voice sounded from the end of the hallway as a figure walked from the darkness.

    Unlike the previous 3 feet tall creatures, this one was 1.5 metres tall or rather 5 foot tall. With a dark green skin and ck patterns painted on it, the creature looked more like a belligerent tribesman than an intelligent being who couldmunicate.

    It wasn''t burly like the trolls neither was it skinny like the regr goblins. It looked more like a normal human being but with a different skin color.

    It had green eyes, a small pointed nose and thin lips. The aura it leaked was just like before, perfectly blending with the environment, but this time, it had a little something different. There was a bit of madness in his presence, one that made the yers feel as if they want to lose control to their carnal thoughts and desires. But such effect wasn''t so serious on the yers as they could easily resist it by concentrating a bit more on control or chanting a catchy mantra or phrase. Even still, they all reached the conclusion that this might be so due to the distance between them and the boss. They believed that if they were anymore closer, things wouldn''t be so easy as internally chanting ''Om Mani Padme Hum'' or ''twinkle, twinkle little star''.

    "Since you havee he..here. Plea...please stay." The boss lifted his right hand at them as a jade-green brilliance shimmered through the hall.

    . . . . .

    In a specific location underneath the ground, two different groups of yers had encountered each other with one of themunching a surprise attack at the other. The battle didn''tst long as not only did the first group make good use of their advantage of a surprise attack but they were also stronger than the other group.

    "Arghh"

    *Schwang* [1]

    "That''s thest one right?" As the man spoke, he swung his sword, spilling the blood of his opponent allover the ce. Beneath him were a few bodies that had yet to disintegrate, probably due to the owners not turning the quick disintegration feature on.[2]

    "Yeah. All that remains now is the gate." Another yer spoke while staring at the gate a couple of metres in front of them.

    "Good. Recently, all this righteous and ''do good'' idiots think that everything is meant for them. They believe that they will win and triumph over the dark side. But we, Sind, are here to show them a different view. After we are done with the boss, East Crow guild is next."

    After Faded wings and rock unexpected encounter with the boss and the goblin army, the other members had actually reacted quickly, escaping the site. Devis was left behind to monitor the ce but he ended up being captured by the ''righteous'' yers.

    During his time in captivity, he imed that the other upper echelons of Sind had died and that he was the only one left. This was to make the ''righteous'' yers unconsciously ignore Sind''s activities as they believed that with their levels reduced thanks to their deaths, the Sind members would be forced to focus on levelling up and ignore the mission. But this was nothing more than a step forward in their n.

    When the wide scale mission was announced, they bid their time and waited till most of the yers were upied in their battles before stepping in and eliminating the goblins after all, no one can give up such a good grinding opportunity.

    After that, with the announcement of the emergency mission, they had easily reached the conclusion that the boss would be hiding underneath the ground and immediately headed for the closest tunnel. During their journey underground, they encountered other yers and killed them while piging their corpses for loots, bringing not shame but honour and glory to their titles as dark yers. Every other yer, be they guild or solo yers, fell at their hands. In this regard, Fudo and Sato''s journey could be said to be extremely smooth since all they met were a few goblin scouts.

    "Captain, our men who were after East Crow reported seeing them enter a different room. ording to them, it might be the boss'' chambers." Manny looked at the middle aged man that lead the team.

    "Riddled, have you found the room''s location?" The man looked at another yer, the druid, Riddled Tree.

    "There''s a lot of interference and since I don''t know the nature of this boss, it bes even harder to track him." Seeing his captain frown, Riddled Tree continued "However, there''s a different signature I''m picking up. It feels simr to that of the other goblins but its far stronger. If there were a boss, I can vouch that this guy is either it or a bodyguard at the very least. It is exactly this signature that I''m sensing from over there."

    "Alright then.. Let''s move."

 Chapter 62 - 59 : Yukino Vs Goro

    "Give up already." Yukino said as she pulled her sword out of the berserker who fought alongside Goro.

    Goro frowned and studied her expression and stance. Right now, only Goro and the previous elementalist were thest of their group standing.

    They originally held the upper hand in their battle especially once the [Curse of Zamatrian] had taken effect. It was only a matter of time before they won but the Snow Goddess took a different approach such that rather than being on the defensive and waiting for the curse''s duration toe to an end, she went on the attack against them. She began using Martial skills and techniques and easily took the life of the Cursemancer, who had been harassing her continuously with his curses, before finally eliminating the berserker. But it wasn''t without a cost.

    As the [Curse of Zamatrian] implemented a [Light Hallucinations] effect on the victim, Yukino had made a couple of errors in her attacks, leading to her getting injured. As things were now, her HP was already below the 50% mark. A few more hit would be all it takes to finish her.

    Now all that was left was defeating Goro and the elementalist.

    Goro, as an assassin, had a very high evasive rate, [Agility] and [Dexterity] so he had easily retreated whenever Yukino tried to make a move on him. Count in his stealth ability and skill as a ''False King'', it would be even more difficult to kill him that easily.

    Initially, Yukino had tried to escape the hall and head into one of the other doors but she was always held back by one of them. It would either be Goro or the elementalist or sometimes both. Such continuous interruptions had forced her to focus on the battle first before finding Chesces and co.

    ''She should be getting weary. All those Martial skills she''s used will surely take a toll on her. I have to finish this before the spell goes off.'' Goro stared at Yukino in thought.

    "Stop running around like an endangered rabbit and get over here." Yukino smirked.

    "Oh, it seems our goddess is running out of stamina!" Goro eximed with an overly exaggerated tone.

    Yukino frowned.

    Indeed, she was running out of stamina. After spamming martial skills after martial skills, it was inevitable she would run out of stamina after all, this body wasn''t her real own; it was only an avatar. To make things worse, the attributes attached to it are far less than her real life attributes so even though she couldst far longer after using 5 martial skills, the same wouldn''t happen here.

    "But that doesn''t matter. Why? Because I n to defeat goddess myself." Goro said with an irritating smug on his face.

    Normally, Goro could just draw out the battle till Yukino gassed out but he didn''t want to. He wanted to defeat Yukino with his own hands. Even though he had previouslyined of the pride of too yers, Goro himself even had his own pride and that was what made him want to take this decision.

    However, Goro didn''t hurt decide this on a whim. Since Yukino was already tired as she is, coupled with the effects of the [Curse of Zamatrian], Goro had a the advantage and so, a much higher chance ofing out victorious even though Yukino was a ''Queen''.

    Looking at the elementalist behind him, Goro said "Stay away from the battle. Just stop her from escaping the range."

    "Permit me to give you a view of the Savage Tribe''s prowess, dear goddess." Goro grinned before rushing straight forward towards her. This time he didn''t go into stealth as he felt there was no need for it plus the skill was in cool-down.

    Grabbing her sword with both hands on the hilt, Yukino ran forward to meet Goro''s attack. Despite overhearing Goro ordering the elementalist not to interrupt the battle, Yukino still kept her guard up against him. After all, dark yers aren''t well known for telling the truth but rather for deceptions.

    When he was about 2 metres away from her, Goro threw a few hidden weapons towards her. Yukino''s great sword had a length of almost 1.6 metres. This gave her the distance advantage in the battle. To cancel out this advantage, Goro decided to distract her with a bunch of hidden weapons once he was close to the sword''s active range. This way, Yukino would be forced to either block or dodge the attack and during this time, Goro could easily close up the distance of less than 3 metres.

    As expected, Yukino frowned upon seeing Goro''s movements but she didn''t look so displeased. Rather than dodging, she swung the side of her great sword with an exaggerated movement, as if trying to swat a fly. With the wide side of her sword, she rebounded Goro''s attack towards him.

    As if expecting that, Goro used the cover of her sword to squat down and rushed towards Yukino. By the time Yukino hadpleted her full swing, he was only 2 metres away from and still closing in.

    As he was about tond a hit at her umbilical region, Goro felt the air above his head still as a heavy force was descending from atop him.

    Looking up, Goro was greeted by the sight of Yukino''s de that came crashing down.

    Yukino had reacted very quickly to his movements by abruptly stopping her sword''s motion and swiftly bringing it downwards towards Goro.

    When the sword came shing down, cutting Goro into two without resistance. However, the ''Goro'' it cut, turned out to be an apparition as the real Goro appeared behind Yukino with his dagger inches away from her heart.

    Yukino, once again, reminded Goro the difference between a ''false King'' and a true ''Queen'' as she managed to narrowly move away but not without harm being caught. The dagger had pierced her left shoulder, leaving behind a pretty bad wound.

    In Infinite Realm, if the damage dealt to a particr spot of a target is great, there can be serious casualties. The lesser effect could be the resulting damage bing a [Critical hit] or the targeted body part bing seriously injured. In worse cases, the targeted body part could be chopped off. In even more serious cases, there could be a resulting sequ like pains in chopped off region, even after it is healed.

    Also, attacks dealt in typical critical points are normally cause more damage than those done on regr spots.

    In Yukino''s case, her left shoulder was seriously injured since Goro had used a sure-kill skill on her. Because she had barely dodged it and her shoulder wasn''t a critical spot, the damage she received wasn''t so much but her HP bar still took a hit. As she was now, Yukino had less than 40% of her HP left. If not for her Mid Tier Mortal rank armor, it would only take one hit for her to be done with. But even at that, Yukino could only handle 2 more hits; anymore and she would be a goner.

    After his dagger had prated her shoulder, Goro wanted to follow up with his attack but seeing Yukino lifting her great sword despite the pain of being injured, Goro retreated a couple feet backwards.

    ''One in front and the other behind'' Yukino grimaced upon recalling her situation.

    With the injury on her left shoulder, Yukino had to use more energy than before to swing her great sword. Using martial skills and techniques became even more difficult her as most of them required the usage of both hands.

    "You see dear goddess, it doesn''t matter whether I''m a ''false'' and you are a ''true''. As long as the environment is made to suit me, even Azure Dragon would fall at my feet." The Maniac Chief, Goro, grinned smugly.

    "Just because you managed tond a blow, you think you''ve won?" Yukino smiled derisively at him. "Looks like I need to truly remind you of the difference between a ''false King'' and a true one."

    Holding her great sword with both hand and ignoring the pain, Yukino continued "Today, you shall witness the terror and might of a true ''Queen''."

    AN :

    Apologies but not so sincerely. I don''t post on Saturdays and Sundays which I had earlier stated in the auxiliary chapter. So to those who had asked me previously, it wasn''t that I couldn''t post but I didn''t. Saturdays and Sundays are my free days from both writing and work; simply put, its my day to catch up with my private life and friends. I only post on Saturdays and Sundays if I feel like it.

    Meanwhile, I will try and make up for any forgotten uploads with bonus chapters this week or maybe mass release on Sunday.  in a couple of hours¡­

    BTW, Author''s note isn''t to increase word count.. The allocated character count for the author''s section is just too little to contain all these.

 Chapter 63 - 60 : Yukino Vs Goro 2

    With a bleeding left shoulder and a slowly draining HP, Yukino stared at Goro while keeping her defense up against the elementalist behind her.

    Even though her HP was slowly draining, Yukino didn''t take any health potion because she knew that they wouldn''t let her as Goro would most likely use that opportunity to attack. The good thing was that unlike the other dark yers, Goro didn''t use poison in his des.

    4 seconds. This was the least amount of time she would need to retrieve and ingest the entire vial.

    Goro grinned while seeing her in thought before taking a stance and rushing towards her again.

    "Get ready goddess. This time, I won''t go easy on you."

    As Goro closed in, he didn''t use his previous tactic of tossing out a bunch of hidden weapons. Rather, he shed out a deftly flurry of attacks, with every swing of his dagger seeded by another, all in quick session.

    Goro''s control of his des together with his skill at shing out in quick session, made him worthy of his title as an expert. In a wide view, it looked like he was carving out a flower in the air as all that could be seen was a flower-like pattern made up of a bunch of shing white marks. Goro''s dagger skills and uracy were deadly with each strike containing a hint of decisiveness and hunger to take a life.

    Despite the overbearing form of Goro''s dagger skills, Yukino stood calm with her great sword in both hands. She shed out with full force, totally ignoring the sensation of pain that her body feed back to her brain.

    She had earlier analysed Goro''s strike long before it came to her, even though Goro had struck out as quickly as possible. With the aid of her high level analytical ability, which every expert has trained to a different level, Yukino easily spotted the weak link in Goro''s attack and hacked towards it.

    Goro, on the other hand, wasn''t surprised by this development as he believed that such a simple skill shouldn''t prove too difficult for a true ''Queen'' to handle. He quickly stopped his attack and changed to a different one, a single strike attack.

    Compared to his previous assault filled with decisiveness and destruction, this one looked so graceful and elegant, free-flowing like a stream on a mountain. Nheless, it wasn''t weak as Yukino felt that if itnded on her, she might not survive it.

    ''Martial technique : Flowing River.''

    The martial technique, Flowing River, was just one move unlike the Lotus sword art or the Seven Dragon moves. To make things worse, the technique was far below the level of the aforementioned two. Even so, this one move was still quite impressive as just like the Dragon''s w of the Seven Dragon Moves, it was also flexible and had a high striking power.

    As Goro''s attack was about tond, Yukino used a foot technique to retreat from him. In her current state, facing such an attack from wouldn''t be wise especially with the pains from her left shoulder together with the hallucinations effect that could take ce at any time. Truth be told, Yukino instinctively retreated because she felt that it would be very dangerous to continue a head-on battle with Goro since the [Light Hallucinations] could trigger at any moment like it did previously.

    Even though she retreated quite some distance away from him, Goro wouldn''t let her go so easily neither would the elementalist let her get behind the [Curse of Zamatrian]''s range.

    While Goro dived in for a head-on assault, the elementalist began chanting a spell.

    *boom*

    Suddenly, a huge explosion out as the entire hall began to vibrate with the ceiling letting off dust particles as if it was about toe crashing down.

    The ''earthquake'' had set the elementalist off his bnce as he nearly tripped and as a result, had his spell canceled. On Goro''s side, he was luckily able to keep his stance though, due to being caught by surprise, he almost fell face t on the ground.

    Yukino, on the other hand, was the luckiest of the 3 as she swiftly held her bnce despite the continuous rocking. But keeping her bnce wasn''t the only thing she did. She shrewdly used the opportunity, brought about by the explosion, to dip her hand into her beginner''s bag and withdraw a vial. Using the pause in the battle, brought about by the same explosion, Yukino downed the contents of the vial into her body.

    Once the contents werepletely ingested into her system, Yukino felt an itchy and ming sensation in her throat, all the way down to her chest. Her face had a little sheen of ck disyed underneath her skin, like a blush but upying arge portion of her face and also ck in color. Yukino felt energy coursing through her veins and muscles. Despite the [Curse of Zamatrian]''s [Slow] effect, Yukino felt like she was far faster and stronger than her peak state. This wasn''t an imagination nor a fleeting feeling due to desperation. This was real.

    Rather than a health potion, Yukino had made a different decision and had used the berserk potion meant for the boss'' raid. Why? Because she realised that even if she used that moment to down a health potion, she couldn''t change the end result of the battle. At best she would only dy the results, but what good would that do for her? In the end, Yukino made a decision that would surely get her punished. She took the berserk potion for herself as with its help, not only would her HP bar increase but also her [Strength] and [Agility] too.

    [[ Temporary Body Enhancing Fluid : Simple Grade

    [Strength] +5

    [Agility] +7

    [Vitality] +7

    Duration : 12 seconds

    Cool-down : 3 hours. ]]

    Compared to the [Diluted Simple Berserk Potion], the [Temporary Body Enhancing Fluid] was far weaker. Not only were its attributes lower, it alsocked an effect on the [Dexterity] attribute. The only advantage it had was the lesser cool-down time and longer duration. But that should be expected as one was gotten from a Mortal rank chest while the other was bought in an NPC store.

    Emperor''s Might had spent quite a lot of silver to get their hands on this potion as it was sold in limited quantities. It was supposed to be a trump card in their boss raid but seeing as she would soon lose her lives in the hands of the Maniac Chief of Savage Tribe, who would most likely boast of this achievement, Yukino decided to use it to save not only herself but also the guild''s honor.

    "A berserk potion?" Goro frowned while studying her expression. As a dark guild capable of rivalling super guilds, Savage Tribe also had a few berserk potions in hand, but for this mission, Goro didn''t receive any because this mission was organised by a part of the upper echelons of Savage Tribe and not the entire guild. Since it wasn''t the entire guild, Goro wasn''t given ess to strategic goods apart from the [Curse of Zamatrian].

    "I would like to know whether you still think of me as a push-over, Goro?"

    Goro frowned and took a stance preparing to face the Snow Goddess head on but he was surprised to see her just standing still.

    ''Wait, something''s wrong¡­'' Goro thought. "Tinklefish!" Goro turned and screamed at the elementalist but what greeted his eyes was Tinklefish being ruthlessly shed continuously by Yukino.

    Before Goro could rush towards him, Tinklefish''s HP fell to zero as he copsed on the ground with various sword marks on his chest.

    ''How did she do it?'' Goro stared in fear at the woman in front of him. If before he could easily tease the Snow Goddess because of his faith in the [Curse of Zamatrian], right now, Goro wasn''t sure he could handle her by himself. She seemed to have change from that cold and pridefuldy to a demoness that killed without hesitation while ying with your mind.

    Throughout the battle, Goro had thought that everything was in his hands. He had even let the other Emperor''s Might yers purposefully escape because he believed he had more chances of taking down the Snow Goddess and also the aftermath of such a defeat would be catastrophic to Emperor''s Might''s prestige as a super guild.

    The only unountable mistake he made was letting the berserker die but nheless, Goro thought that, no, he believed that he could still handle Yukino all alone and even if he couldn''t, Tinklefish was still there. But with his death now, the [Curse of Zamatrian]''s duration slowlying to an end, Yukino''s berserk potion and the mysterious skill she used just now, Goro had totally lost faith inpleting the mission, feeling that the difficulty had taken an unexpected turn for the worse. All he had in his mind now was how to retreat.

    "You''re next." Yukino said as she stared at Goro like a tiger spying on its prey. She took out the elementalist first because she didn''t want any variable in her one-on-one against Goro. Even with the berserk potion, Yukino felt like she wouldn''t be able to handle Goro on her own. She believed that since Savage Tribe wanted her dead, the [Curse of Zamatrian] shouldn''t be the only trump card they brought against her. Sadly, she was wrong without even knowing.

    Normally, Goro wouldn''t have felt anything but now, he suddenly felt cold sweat behind him. Taking a deep breath, he said "My apologies goddess but it seems I might not be able to entertain you any longer."

    As hepleted his statement, he hurriedly detonated a smoke bomb, activating stealth and escaping from the hall. Because of his speed and decisiveness in retreating, Yukino wasn''t able to find him even though she had a much higher attribute in [Agility] as of now.

    "Goro. I will deal with youter and by that time, you wouldn''t be able to escape again." Yukino said in a low voice before staring at the door Chesces and co.. had passed through and then taking a step forward.

 Chapter 64 - 61 : So How Strong Is The Boss?

    "Pre¡­prepare yourselves you low-lives, for your end...your end is near. But worry not and celebrate, for you shall die in the hands of the servant of god."

    The mutated goblin spoke as it stared at the yers. Unlike before, it seemed to make less errors in its speech as it was getting ustomed to thenguage.

    "I wonder who the real low life is, the stammering goblin or the elite humans?" Fudo teased the boss with a chuckle.

    The boss looked like it understood Fudo as he grimaced at his words, lifting a hand and aiming his palm at Fudo as a small magic circle took form around it. A pir of green mes burst forth with vigor from the palm, ignoring the 100m distance between the two and rushing towards Fudo with the determination to burn him to ashes.

    Once it was close to the yers, about 7 metres away from them, they all felt the scorching heat from it. Without a doubt, the mes could easily vaporize a ss of water instantly and this includes the ss. No need to talk of the result on the yers as they all doubted that they would survive it and even if they did, they would be left with but a string of their HP left.

    "Griffin!" Chesces yelled to the only guardian ss yer in the group.

    "On it." Griffin ran towards the fire pir.

    During the time they were waiting or rather looking for the boss, Griffin had recuperated a little bit of his stamina and health by using potions. In Infinite Realm, there were no stamina potions as the [Stamina] stat was a hidden secondary attribute affected by both [Endurance], [Willpower] and [Vitality]. yers could only recharge their [Stamina] through rest and breaks. But there was a simple hack or cheat to recover [Stamina]. This was by taking health potions.

    Health potions had a subtle effect on yers. Apart from recovering their HP, it could also recover their stamina point but at a very slow rate. However, as long as arge amount of health potions is avable and your taste buds can bear the continuous intake of them, recovering one''s [Stamina] would be as easy as drinking.

    Griffin had taken a few vials of health potions with Kylian casting a few strength recovery type spells on him. With all of that taking effect, Griffin had rapidly recovered his HP and [Stamina].

    Lifting his shield in front of his body while stabilizing his body and feet to the ground, Griffin prepared to wee the green me pir that could kill him over and over if it were a direct shot.

    "[Minor Bulwark]!" [1]

    As the ming pir was about to hit his shield, Griffin yelled out and strengthened his hold on his shield. A faint yellow barrier took form on his shield, increasing his tanking abilities by a percentage.

    *Fwoosh*

    The attack finally hit but rather than sting Griffin away, it was parted to the sides by the shield, with the faint barrier protecting it from the heat. The attacksted for a while before it vaporized away. Griffin was left standing with only a bit of his HP shaved off by the heat of the attack.

    Before he could take a breath, he saw the mutated goblin boss drawing some incantations in the air, as a massive flow of mana was directed towards him.

    "What are you guys waiting for?" Griffin yelled in fright.

    Meanwhile, Fudo was already casting a spell while Drunken Hog was one step ahead of him.

    Old Jiro, who wore fiery vermilion colored mage gown, had already began casting a spell the very second the boss made his first move. While griffin had tanked the attack, he ran alongside his East Crow teammates from the left side of the boss with Swift de moving in front. They were trying to close the gap between them and the boss. Once he was about 40 metres away from the boss, Old Jiro released his spell that he had kept on hold.

    "[Greater Fireball]" Old Jiro pushed the fireball, the size of a coffee table, towards the boss. Since he had been charging the spell for awhile, it was already bigger than normal.

    "Weak."

    The boss looked displeased at the attack as it was interrupting him. It used its free hand and waved at the fireball, sending a green wave towards it. The wave easily dispersed the fireball into swathes of mes, turning Old Jiro''s attack into a pointless move.

    However, Old Jiro never intended for the fireball to hit the boss. If it did, then there would be no need of them teaming up with the other yers. The attack was meant to either interrupt the boss'' casting or create a distraction for him. Though it didn''t stop the boss'' casting, it did seed in creating a distraction as the swathe of mes worked well to temporary block the boss'' view on them for at least 2 seconds. This might seem small but for a pro long-ranged expert, this was more than enough and luckily for them, they had one.

    Using the window of opportunity that the mes had created, Dream Tiger ced an arrow on his bow, drew it and quickly released it at the boss'' barely visible figure.

    "[Drill Shot]"

    Swift de, on the other hand, used [Sprint] to increase his movement speed and rushed over to the boss from another direction, making the boss focus on him while ignoring the others behind the mes.

    "Impressive." Chesces was caught in awe at their fluent teamwork but he wasn''t so shocked as he had seen better, both in his guild and in rival super guild. He was just impressed to see such a team tactic performed by a 2nd tier guild.

    Emperor''s Might wasn''t cking either. Chesces, alongside Griffin and Kylian where closing up the gap between them and the boss. Kylian cast [Entangling Vines] to hold the boss down and interrupt his casting.

    Fudo fired a regr fireball when he was at the maximum casting range while Sato attacked from the right.

    From a spectator view, their teamwork seemed wless despite them not practicing together or even setting up a strategy. This was because they were all experts and as such, easily understood one another, though not perfectly. But that was enough as they had torn the boss'' attention to 3 different positions; East Crow from the left, Emperor''s Might from the centre and Sato and Fudo from the right. Each with their own position.

    If they were battling an average boss or even an elite troll this setup would be more than enough to end it. But that was the problem they faced; they were not facing an ordinary boss.

    "Great call of Old."

 Chapter 65 - 62 : The Boss Has His Cards

    With Dream Tiger''s [Drill Shot] and Swift de''s melee attacking from the left, Chesces'' squad charge from the centre, Fudo''s [Fireball] and Sato''s assault from the right and finally, Kylian''s [Entangling vines] holding it temporarily in ce, the boss wasn''t nervous or anxious. Staring at them all, it stated in a somewhat low voice,

    "[Great Call of Old]".

    With the conclusion of its statement, the yers heard a rumbling sound despite the fact that the entire hall was still calm. ck vortexes took shape in all three directions with a hand appearing from one and a leg from another. They all had two things thing inmon and one of them was the colour of their skin; green was the theme. The other factor was that their sizes were far bigger than that of a human being.

    Normally, the yers wouldn''t have known the features or species of the creature behind the vortexes who owned the parts as such, they wondered what it was. However, when they took a look at the third vortex, which was facing Chesces and Griffin, their question was answered.

    A head was sticking out from the third vortex; a big one at that and it was staring at Chesces and Griffin with a sick look. Ignoring the size, the most noticeable fact about the head was its ugly and rather nauseating facial features. Apart from that, there was a single short horn on its head, pointing out like the censored part of a male in heat.

    It brought out its left hand and hurriedly pulled itself out entirely, exposing its bulky and muscly body.

    A one-horned troll! And one of 5 metres at that. The other trolls seen so far were all of a height of between 3-4 metres. This one was at least 50% taller. The Heaven System doesn''t make pointless adjustments. Since this troll was far taller than the others, the yers spected that it might as well be more stronger too. To make things worse, the short horn seemed to imply that this troll was of a different species and might as well have differentbat skill and ability than its distant cousin.

    After seeing this troll, they all focused on their individual portals, wondering whether the ones that woulde would be of the same height and power. Even though all these were taking ce, none of the three teams never actually stopped their advances nor slowed down. They were all experts at the least after all.

    Meanwhile, Dream Tiger''s [Drill Shot] had already made its way towards the boss but with the appearance of the ck vortex, it looked like it would end up hitting the figure within.

    At the edge of the vortex was a hand that pulled the weight behind it. A head slowly came out and just like the other one, it was one-horned troll. As it was merging, the arrow was closing in to it.

    ''At least my shot wouldn''t go to waste.'' Dream Tiger inwardly smiled as he loaded his bow with another arrow, getting ready to deliver a fatal hit to the one-horned troll.

    Suddenly, another hand left the portal, at a much faster pace than the head. Unlike the other hand, this one wasn''t empty. It hacked out with an oversized axe, skillfully smashing the arrow to splinters.

    "Damn! How did it react so quickly?!" Dream Tiger yelled.

    "Focus!" Old Jiro snapped at him. Staring at the giant they were about to sh with, Old Jiro, the Drunken Hogmanded "Retreat."

    "Huh?" Dream Tiger was surprised.

    "I said retreat!" Old Jiro shouted while quickly turning around.

    "We know nothing about these creatures. Rather than losing our lives, let''s see how the others fare against them." Old Jiro eyed Chesces'' crew.

    On Chesces'' side . . . . .

    As the troll on their side was the first to exit the vortex, Chesces and Griffin were the first to encounter it in a melee battle. Griffin stood in front with Chesces diagonally behind him while Kylian followed behind, sessfully maintaining the maximum distance required for spell-casting away from Griffin.

    "[Justice sh]" [1]

    Griffin, without hesitation, hacked out with his sword. His sword had a weird yellow glow that had a strange allure to it, mesmerizing the eyes of any who got captivated by its tantalizing beauty.

    The one-horned troll ended up trapped by this beguilement, staring at Griffin''s sword in fascination. It wasn''t until 2 secondster did it awake from its predicament however, it was already toote. Griffin had already closed the gap between him and the troll, sessfullynding his attack on the troll''s right knee with the intent of immobilising it.

    "Grawrr!" The troll screamed.

    "That skill, I don''t remember any of our Guardian ss yers having it together with the other one." Swift de said with a low voice.

    "They should both be active skills Emperor''s Might must have gotten during their field battles. It seems that their luck in the field has been quite nice." Old Jiro sighed with envy. Even though he wasn''t a guardian, their guild had other guardians, one of which was Daichi. The MT was always the most important figure for a raid as he/she would be tasked with handling the monster(s)''s aggro. With a better variety of powerful skills, their guardians could be better MTs as such, they could easily raid dungeons and seed in boss battles.

    Rapidly taking use of the opportunity made by Griffin, Chesces attacked from the left nk, aiming for the left knee too.

    This time, the one-horned troll didn''t stand idle. It grabbed behind its back and drew therge zanbat¨­[2] shing right in front, that way, Chesces and Griffin would be caught in the attack.

    ''Shit.'' Chesces inwardly cursed. Griffin was a guardian, an MT ss, so he would be able to survive the attack but Chesces was a swordsman, a ss specialized in damage dealing. His chances of survival were far less than that of Griffin.

    ''Looks like I have no choice.'' Chesces thought before retrieving a round object from his bag and tossing it towards the de.

    *Boom*

    As the object came in contact with the sword, an explosion urred, stopping the de for a little while before the one-horned troll pushed forward with more momentum. However, during this time, Chesces had used a movement skill to escape the range of the zanbat¨­ with Griffin following close.

    While the two teams weren''t so sessful with their first encounter against the one-horned trolls, Sato and Fudo also weren''t. The very second their opponent had exited the ck vortex, they both performed a tactical retreat and monitored the progress of the Emperor''s Might yers just like the East Crow party.

    Seeing that the strongest party hadn''t seeded either, the entire group began to fall into despair though not so much. As they were all expert yers at the least, they quickly regained themselves and retreated even further in other tomunicate with each another on how to defeat the one-horned trolls.

    During the entire time, from their uniform charge to their tactical retreat, the boss had just stared at them, not making a single move. Maybe it was because it was out of mana or that the spell it used to summon the trolls took a toll on it. Maybe it was just looking down on them, abstaining from battle as it might have believed that the yers aren''t worthy of challenging it if they can''t beat it''s 3 horsemen. No matter the reason, the fact that it hadn''t yet joined the battle made the yers feel a little rxed since things would''ve be a whole lot harder if it did. But as for how long it would keep its neutral stance, none of them could answer this.

    ''We don''t have much time. We need to find a way to defeat them.''

    AN :

    [Justice sh] : Active skill : Attack with a sh that temporary stuns the target for 1 seconds( Level difference affects the sess rate and duration of stun) when the target faces the attacker. If stun is sessful, damage bes 180% of user''s attack power. If stun isn''t sessful, damage bes 160% of user''s attack power.

    Cool-down : 7 seconds. (Keep in mind that if the attack performed with a skill is a physical attack, attack power bes [Physical Attack Power]. If it is a spell, it bes [Magical Attack Power]

    [2] Chinese equivalent should be Zhanmadao.. A better name would have been a buster sword but I went with the traditional variant.

 Chapter 66 - 63 : The Plan

    "We don''t have much time. We need to find a way to defeat them." Chesces told the teams.

    They were all able to retreat away smoothly, without a hitch, due to the fact that the one-horned trolls hadn''t fully surfaced from the ck vortexes. Apart from the one in the centre, the one Chesces'' team encountered, the others still had a body part or two slowly being ousted out from the other side. For the one on the left side, only it''s two hands and half if it''s upper body had left the portal. The one on the right had only it''s right side had appeared with the left leg slowly stepping out. Apparently, it took the one-horned troll on the left side a lot of energy to withdraw it''s right hand and attack East Crow.

    The troll at the centre didn''t make any move after repelling Chesces'' group, possibly being cautious and waiting for it''s brethren after it was injured.

    "So does anyone have a n?" Chesces looked at all the yers present.

    Using the time the trolls were still busy escaping the vortex, they wanted to n on how they will take down the trolls.

    "Thanks to my MT we were able to get some details on their strength. Here, take a look." Chesces stated before making his System Interface to be visible for all to see. Of course he hid his level and other confidential info, disying only the reconnaissance information from the [Inspect] skill.

    [[ One-horned Troll

    Level 7

    HP : 500

    Physical Attack Power : 51

    Magical Attack Power : 0 (21) (AN : Can''t use magic.)

    Physical Defense : 10

    Magical Defense : 10

    Attack Speed : 24

    Movement Speed :16

    Attributes

    Strength : 17

    Endurance : 10

    Vitality : 500

    Agility : 8

    Dexterity : 8

    Intelligence : 7

    Willpower : 10

    ]]

    "We divide and conquer. We each take a troll and handle. That''s the only way." Old Jiro responded quickly.

    "Can you handle it?" Griffin looked at Sato and Fudo. Since they didn''t have a healer and unlike East Crow''s side they were only two, things would be harder for them than the others.

    "If you aren''t sure, you could team up with us." Chesces added. He had noticed that even though Fudo and Sato weren''t guild yers, they weren''t ordinary yers either. Chesces hoped to use this battle to bridge the gap between them and possibly invite them to Emperor''s Might.

    As for the increased difficulty, Chesces didn''t mind it. After all if Sato could use a Berserk potion without hesitation, it meant that he might have something way more precious or might even have a couple more potions.

    ''What''s so special about these guys?'' Old Jiro stared at the duo in thought. Emperor''s Might was a super guild and super guilds hardly go out of theirnes just to invite other yers. If it weren''t because they can''t eliminate the boss on their own, East Crow might not be here again. If not for this event even, Old Jiro wouldn''t havee in contact with their members.

    "Don''t worry about it." Sato spoke up before Fudo would say something stupid.

    Despite having a super guild offer them help, Sato had rejected it nonchntly. To him, handling one troll wasn''t much of a problem even if it was a level 7 elite one-horned troll. The only reason he had retreated with Fudo was because he didn''t want to use his full strength so he decided to wait till a n was made. Even though none was really made now, with the data on the trolls'' strength avable, Sato could handle them without using his full strength but not as smoothly as he will with it.

    "Get ready, they are about toe." Swift de announced.

    The teams then looked over to the other side housing the boss and the trolls. Right now, the one-horned troll by the right of the boss had alreadypleted it''s exit while the troll on the left would be done in awhile, give or take 5-7 seconds.

    Seeing this, Old Jiro said " We will begin our assault now." After which he left the other two teams and began chanting a spell while running towards the slightly stuck troll.

    "That shameless old fogey..." Kylian was speechless at Old Jiro''s actions.

    "Forget about him. Let''s go." Chescesmanded.

    "Alright."

    As the team of Emperor''s Might guild left the temporary meeting spot, Sato and Fudo were left behind as the only ones remaining.

    "I''ll tank while you deal damage." Sato inly stated while staring at the one-horned troll by the left[1].

    "You should be out of berserk potions right? You sure you can handle it?" Fudo asked Sato.

    "Yeah. Just remember, we do it just like Camara." Sato smiled mysteriously.

    "Camara...?" Fudo pondered before he revealed a look of realisation.

    "Oh! Camara! Hehehehehe." Fudo chuckled knowingly.

    Camara was a map in Conquest where Sato and Fudo had once battled a high-level boss on their own. That fight was a memorable one for the both of them because the boss was far stronger than them but they managed to stand their ground and fight back, sessfully winning what one would call a search for a m in a field; in summary, a futile attempt.

    "Get ready!" Old Jiro yelled as his team was about to sh first with the one-horned troll.

    ''This time, you''re going down.''

    AN :

    [1] Their left is the boss'' right. Previously I was describing the position of the one-horned trolls based on the boss''view but at this point, I used Sato''s view. So right bes left.

    So you might noticed that despite being a super guild, Emperor''s Might yers so far aren''t so arrogant. Well, you haven''t met them all plus not every super power is recklessly arrogant.. Some know when to chill and when to blow.

 Chapter 67 - 64 : Team East Crow Vs One-Horned Troll

    (AN : I discovered that I had previously fucked up. Old Jiro is of East Crow while Old Juro is Sato''s grandfather. Sorry for the misunderstanding...)

    "Dream!!!" Old Jiro roared as the one-horned troll was almost about toplete it''s exit.

    Dream Tiger was already prepared as he had an arrow drawn on his bow. Taking aim at the one-horned troll''s right eye, Dream Tiger released his hold on the arrow.

    *Twang* [1]

    ''Martial technique : Bold Shot.''

    In other to avoid unseen circumstances like thest one, Dream Tiger had used a regr arrow attack. Despite being a regr attack, the force behind the arrow was quite impressive since he applied a martial technique to it.

    As a treasured yer of a tier 2 guild, it was only right for Dream Tiger to have learnt at least 1 martial technique. When you consider that his upation appreciates martial arts even more, it is highly possible for Dream Tiger to have learnt 3 martial techniques.

    The arrow had enough power behind it to possibly fully prate and pass through a block of steel with 2 inches thickness (AN: 5.08cm). With such lethality behind it, one could only imagine how much powerful it would be when performed with a skill. Without a doubt, Dream Tiger proved himself worthy of being East Crow''s hidden piece with this attack.

    "Kylian!" In other to prevent the other one-horned trolls from interrupting, Chesces signaled the only long-rangebatant in his team.

    "On it." Kylian hastily replied. Pointing his staff at the one-horned troll assigned to their team(the one at the centre), Kylian said in a low voice " [Nature''s enticement]."

    Suddenly, the one-horned troll in the centre froze and blindly stared ahead in a muddled state. It looked like a baby that was sin awe of bright lights except it was ugly.

    Despite the druid ss being a support ss like the cleric and cursemancer ss, it wasn''t a simple ss. You might even say it''s stronger than the other two. Apart from their healing abilities and high Mana sensitivity, druids have a plethora of control and damage dealing skills that grant them better flexibility in battles but as they say, the System is just. If not for their weak natural defense and health, they would have been an OP ss. Also at the early stage they don''t have a lot of spells essible to them.

    The skill [Nature''s enticement] was a control skill that could temporary stop the thinking of any living being or attract them towards the user. Even though it sounded like an MT skill, it had its roots from nature. As the priests of nature, it is only right for druids to possess such an ability that gives them an upper hand against living creatures after all, every living being is nature. (AN : What about robots?).

    Using the time the one-horned troll was puzzled, Griffin closed in and swung his sword at it, using [Justice sh] which was already off its cool-down, effectively dealing damage and gaining it''s aggro.

    . . . . .

    On the other side, the arrow had long arrived when Kylian had distracted the other one-horned troll. As it made it''s way towards the target, the one-horned troll saw the arrow approach but because it saw it toote, it couldn''t stop the attack so it ced its left hand over the right eye. The arrow ended up partly-embedded in it''s left hand even still, the troll didn''t release any sound of pain, only staring at the yers as it garnered strength and pulled itselfpletely out of the portal.

    "Swift de, tank. Dream, spread." As Old Jiro tossed out instructions, the team arranged themselves ording to the drill. Swift de stood in front while Dream Tiger moved towards his left while Old Jiro moved towards his right. This formation would help them interchange the monster''s aggro target role amongst themselves sparing the monster no opportunity to retaliate against anyone of them.

    The way it worked was that while, for instance, Swift de attacks the troll, it''s aggro bes focused on him and it rushes towards him. During this time, Dream Tiger and Old Jiro would continuously, attack dealingrge damage to the troll. Then Dream Tiger would stop while Old Jiro would continue attacking. This would shift the troll''s attention towards him and it would begin rushing to him. Of course the precondition is that Swift de doesn''t attack it.

    By constantly changing the role of the false MT, the troll''s concentration would be split in three, effectively dividing it''s attention and confusing it, giving the yers more time to attack and slowly grind it''s HP down.

    While moving, Old Jiro was chanting a spell with Dream Tiger loading an arrow.

    The one-horned troll swung it''s axe at Swift de who happened to be the closest to it.

    "You''re fast but I''m faster." Swift de chuckled before rolling on the ground as the axe swept above him, till he had gone past the troll.

    The one-horned troll quickly reacted, bringing the axe to a halt and turning back to hack at Swift de simply because it was annoyed that he had dodged its attack. However neither Dream Tiger nor Old Jiro would let it be.

    Dream Tiger shot an arrow towards it right eye again. The troll found this annoying even though it had reacted swiftly and dodged the attack. But by doing so, Old Jiro''s [Fire ray] struck its chest. Swift de ced the icing on the cake with a sh at it''s left leg biceps femoris.[2]

    [Critical hit]

    "Arggggh" (One-horned Troll 412/500)

    "Come on! Let''s go. We can do this!" Seeing as their 3 attacks had taken a somewhat sizeable chunk out of the one-horned troll''s HP, Old Jiro encouraged his teammates.

    "Graww!" The one-horned troll got infuriated by the continuous damage it received without having sessfully retaliated once. It''s eye glowed with a little tinge of red and though it wasn''t a berserk state, the troll''s fighting prowess changed a bit.

    It picked up its axe and rushed at Swift de whonded the critical hit. Old Jiro tried to gain it''s aggro by casting spell after spell on it, same with Dream Tiger who used his arrows, but the troll was quite fast and easily reached Swift de, who hadn''t retreated far enough, with two steps.

    When it closed in on him, the one-horned troll lifted it''s axe and brought it down on Swift de, with a very powerful momentum.

    ''Shit.'' This was Swift de''sst thought before he used [Parry] against the attack. Even though [Parry] was a defensive move that existed for both the Swordsman ss and the Guardian ss, the Swordsman version was slightly weaker than the Guardian one. Adding in the fact that Guardian yers have a better physique suited to handle attacks and assaults whenpared to a Swordsman, the end result forSwift de could only be spelled in one way;

    D O O M.

    AN :

    [1] onomatopoeia for the sound of an arrow being fired.

    [2] The muscles slightly beneath the hamstring. Behind the knee joint. But what do I know, I ain''t a medical student...

    So I''ve been thinking, why the hell does Chesces use a saber instead of a sword even though he''s a swordsman?!

    Also, I identally ended up making Chesces an important character. Well to the real Chesces, it seems that your luck is good.

    I think I should kill him off....

 Chapter 68 - 65 : Team Emperorâ€™s Might Vs One-Horned Troll

    D O O M.

    Is what you expected right? Well, even though Swift de wasn''t a hidden piece of East Crow guild, he was without a doubt among the top 10 among the guild members. In fact, he was actually among the top 5 East Crow members with the fastest reflexes and reaction time.

    Even though the one-horned troll''s attack got him by surprise, Swift de still managed to react quickly, using the [Parry] skill to slow down the attack, applying resistance to it, and finally rxing his resistance. This made it so that rather than slicing him apart, the force behind the axeunched Swift de into the air.

    Nheless, Swift de didn''t get away safely as part of the force of the attack had been transferred into his body through his sword. He also didn''t have a nicending after being flung away. In total, Swift de lost 62 HP; more than half of his total HP.

    Unlike Sato and Fudo, Swift de didn''t have a subss so he didn''t get any extra attribute points. His HP totalled 110 points and having 53 points deducted left him with a mere 57 HP. That was just a regr strike which he had luckily parried. If he had received a direct strike who knows what would have happened. Right now, Swift de can''t handle one more, be it direct or parried, otherwise Swift de would truly be a goner. Despite his lucky survival though, he was temporary incapacitated as that attack took a toll on him.

    "Shit. How do we beat this thing?!" Dream Tiger began to panic.

    Normally defeating the one-horned troll wouldn''t be a problem but that was if they had an MT. Now however, they didn''t have one. Their false MT was even taken out, making things all the more harder for them. Both Dream Tiger and Drunken Hog were long-range yers and non physicalbat sses so none of them could act as a false MT. With no one to handle the one-horned troll''s aggro, death was all that was left for them.

    . . . . .

    Griffin had hacked once more at it''s right knee which was the exact same ce he previously hit. He did this so as to try and immobilise the one-horned troll.

    "Argghh." (AN: It should sound like a roar.) -51

    After Griffin had attacked with [Justice sh] , the one-horned troll screamed out painfully and reflexively responded by kicking out it''s right leg.

    Griffin, who was ready for this, used shield bash against the leg, partially negating some of the force behind the kick. In the end, he only took 4 steps backwards with only 3 HP lost with the troll losing 2 HP. He would have taken less steps backwards but Griffin decided to borrow some of the force to retreat to a suitable distance.

    As a member of a super guild, it was only right that they would have already discovered the advantage of getting a subss. As such , everyone of Emperor''s Might yers in this exploration had a subss and we''re also one level, in terms of attributes, ahead of those who don''t have a subss. With the extra attribute points, Griffin''s defense skill had an extra boost.

    The one-horned troll wielded its Zanbat¨­ and sliced at Griffin. But how could the captain of the team stand by why this took ce. Chesces had taken the opportunity when the one-horned troll was distracted by Griffin''s attack to scurry behind it. As it was about to attack Griffin, Chesces used his saber and shed out towards the right knee but from behind.

    "[Hack]!" [1]

    "Arghh" [2]

    [-27 critical hit!] (One-horned Troll 370/500)

    With just 3 moves, Emperor''s Might had dropped the troll''s HP by arge chunk. This wasn''t just a show of their skills or strength. Rather this proved that they had not only coordination but also tactics. They had continuously distracted the troll while aiming for the exact same spot that caused a critical hit almost every time.

    Thanks to the continuous damage dealing, the one-horned troll began experiencing slight difficulties in walking. As they were about to go on and finish it quicker, Kylian noticed East Crow''s predicament and called out.

    "Captain, those guys are experiencing some problems. It wouldn''t be too our advantage if they die now. We need as much men as possible to handle the boss."

    Chesces spaced himself from the one-horned troll and looked over at their direction. Seeing as they were indeed having difficulties he frowned but that didn''t stop him from making a decision.

    "You guys. Bring it over here. We''ll help you but there''s a cost."

    Hearing Chesces'' words, Old Jiro grimaced a bit but still agreed.

    "Alright."

    After that, he, alongside Dream Tiger, kited[3] the troll over to Chesces'' side.

    Seeing another one-horned trolling close, Griffin cried out "Captain, can I really handle it?"

    "Believe in yourself." Chesces said seriously.

    Of course he knew that Griffin could handle it otherwise he wouldn''t risk sending another his way. Griffin himself was aware of his own limit. As he didn''t have any issue tanking one troll, he could handle another one, though he would have to bemitted and focused.

    After that, Chesces nced over at where the boss was and saw it was still motionless with a formation beneath it gathering mana. ''As expected.'' Chesces smirked.

    As a super guild, Emperor''s Might had a lot of manpower to spare. When the game had earlierunched, they had assigned a few yers to collecting information about the world from the library. From the summarised version, Chesces learnt that apart from the 5 major element (Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, Air), there existed another 4 groups. One of those groups was the Superior elements; Space, Time and Reality and Illusion. (AN: Thest two are one.) ording to the summary, unless the user is born with the ability to manipte the elements any spell involving superior elements requires a massive amount of mana. Chesces doubted whether the goblin boss could manipte the elements since the summary stated that such users were rare and usually protected and treated as trump cards.

    Chesces reached the conclusion that the spell, [Great Call of Old] should have been either a teleportation spell or a summoning. If it was a teleportation spell, then the boss'' mana should be drained by a lot. Even if it wasn''t a teleportation spell but a summoning spell, Chesces also suspected the boss to be a level 7 creature and for it to have summoned other level 7, it had to have taken a toll on its mana gauge as low level monsters tend to be too weak even to summon other monsters of the same level.

    "I wonder how they are doing?" Chesces said and turned to look at Sato''s side. Since they were only two plus they didn''t have an MT, Chesces doubted whether they couldst but he still didn''t call them over as Griffin could only handle tanking 2 trolls; anymore and that would be too risky.

    "!!!" ncing at Sato and Fudo''s battle with thest one-horned troll, he was shocked.

    Let''s recap a few seconds back.

    The strategy behind the battle at Camara was abination of kiting and luxury. Even though the word ''luxury'' is used, one can simply rece the necessary elements with cheaper products.

    The true meaning behind the two words kiting and luxury was quite simple. Kiting as in the strategy of attacking from a distance and luxury as in using pay-to-win strategies. The pay-to-win here doesn''t imply using real money though, but in-game currency. Here, the yer buys a whole lot of OP or at least powerful equipment or consumables and by a lot, I mean a lot. Once the said yer enters a battle, they begin spamming the powerful equipment or skill, mostly from a distance. Abination of kiting + PTW, makes one a pro.

    Sato and Fudo had earlier made a lot from their ''treasure hunting''. Using that money, they had bought a few consumables and right now, theybined it with Sato''s exquisite martial skills and Fudo''s elemental advantage to give the one-horned troll one hell of a ride; one that it surely won''t forget.

    AN :

    [1] [Hack] (skill, not to be confused with verb Hack) : Active Skill : Hack out with 110% of Physical Attack Power. Cool-down : 5 seconds.

    PS: I ran out of what to name low level attacks. It really feels weird shouting "Hack" before an attack butpared to wuxia where they go "break"... same energy.

    [2] Once again, it''s a roar.

    [3] One of my favorite gaming style. Browse it.

    [4] Pay-to-win

 Chapter 69 - 66 : Team Sato And Fudo Vs One-Horned Troll

    (AN: I discovered that I hadn''t reallypleted 65. Its nowplete. Sorry for that...)

    What do you do when you encounter a boss level monster far stronger than you? Retreat.

    What do you do then if retreating is out of the option? Fight? Against a high-level monster? No. Simple. You shower the boss with a lot of friendly explosives...

    This has been Fudo''s motto in most of the PTW games and in games where real money can''t be use to buy resources, he spends his in-game money the same way.

    Back at Grynx Merchandise store, Sato and Fudo had spent abined 40 silver coins and 80 copper coins not just on materials but also consumables. They had originally nned to buy equipment but thanks to their gains from the Rare-Steel chest back at the Mansion, they didn''t need to.

    Supposing they spent half of their money on materials, that leaves them with 20 silver coins and 40 copper coins. If they were to purchase a few edible consumables for food for example a loaf of bread which costs 3 copper coins, 1 Silver coin would be more than enough for them. That means that a staggering amount of 19 silver coins and 40 copper coins were spent on just health potions, Mana potions, scrolls and explosives. If we once again presume that they used half of the money on potions, that left behind at least 9 silver coins and 70 copper coins. A [Simple explosive] that deals an urate 50 damage points costs only 10 copper coins. With just 5 silver coins, one could buy enough [Simple explosives] to wipe out the entirety of the one-horned troll''s HP bar.

    Even though Sato and Fudo didn''t spend that much only on [Simple Explosives], they did spend it on various other consumables that all produced a simr result, that is dealing damage.

    Sato and Fudo spaced themselves apart. Since Fudo was a long-range yer and he also experienced a boost when using fire-type spells, he attacked with a mix of his spells and consumables. Sato in the other hand wasn''t a long-range yer. In other to make up for this, he relied on certain control scrolls and consumables to make you for his weakness.

    If they had just relied on their consumables though, they would eventually expend them pointlessly so most of the times, Fudo was tasked with the major role of damage dealing while Sato would sometimes act as a false MT to keep the troll away from Fudo.

    Even without the explosives, Fudo''s damage dealing ability was very high and might as well be the among the top 10 for Riverdale Town''s yers. With an Upper tier Mortal rank equipment that granted him +10 [Intelligence] and +20 [Magical Attack Power], Fudo could easily solo the one-horned troll however he didn''t risk it. Due to the fact that they had no MT together with the one-horned troll''s superior stats in the physical area, Fudo would be dead the very second it recahed him. Nheless, using consumables on it was still an overkill, one which Fudo found refreshing.

    Of course, part of the reason why they didn''t use their superior attributes to battle was because Sato intended for them to hide it from the other yers. When in the presence of unfamiliar possible enemies, any hidden card is a trump card.

    Because of their tactic of moving the one-horned troll away from the others, they were already at least 20 metres from their initial starting point.

    "They seem to be doing well." Kylian smiled bitterly.

    He had seen Chesces somewhat shocked while staring at another direction.

    Kylian was initially surprised to see their captain stunned in mid battle and so he did the same. Upon looking over to where his captain was staring, Kylian understood why. While they were still suffering with their own one-horned troll, even before East Crow teamed up with them, Sato and Fudo were almost done with their''s.

    "It''s better that way." Chesces replied before focusing back at the battle in front.

    ''We just have to be done with ours.''

    . . . . .

    "Fudo, shield." Sato yelled a she ran towards the one-horned troll.

    "[Fireball]" Fudo pointed his staff at the one-horned troll and quickly fired a shot at it.

    [-41 ] (One-horned troll 127/500)

    33 damage points for a single [Fireball]. Such figures were ok for an ordinary yer as the [Fireball] spell only had 100% of one''s [Magical Attack Power] as damage. If you consider that it was Fudo who had used the skill then it was pitifully low. Fudo had an [Intelligence] count of 13 points plus an extra 10 points and 20 points in [Magical Attack Power]. In total, Fudo''s average [Magical Attack Power] was capped at 89 points. If he were to use a Fire-type spell, an increase of 30% would ur, making the total [Magical Attack Power] be 116 points[1]. If Fudowere to use skills like [Greater Fireball] or even [Fire Ray], everything would be over in 4-5 moves at most.

    Infinite Realm pursued perfection. Because of this, it was possible for a yer to hold back in their attack in such a way that the spell would still seed but it would be weaker than normal. Fudo had discovered this feature when he was out practicing on his own. He used it to perfectly hide his OP damage skill from the others excluding Sato, who already knew about it.

    "Let''s finish this."

    As the one-horned troll was on it''sst leg, Sato ran towards it, this time with the intent to finish it off before it can go berserk. If Rome could lose against the Carthaginians despite having the numbers advantage, then things might as well not go as Sato nned.

    As Sato was running, he sensed a malicious gaze focused on him. He didn''t know what or who it was, but the gaze made him freeze. In the presence of this gaze, Sato flt as if all his is secrets were made open for view, with his thoughts being essible to it. Sato felt like feeble andcking in its presence. Like an ant before a dragon, he felt that the difference between them was insurmountable.

    [Gaze of a god]¡­

    Sato felt like he was in a quagmire as he couldn''t take a single step forward. He felt his brain slowly be muddled as his thinking slowed down. Sato felt weary and slowly but surely, he was being drained of his strength. As if he had experienced a thousand years in solitude, Sato felt that life was boring and tiring, and so wanted to close his eyes and take a rest.

    "Sa...Sat...Sato. Sato! Sato!"

    Suddenly he heard someone calling his name. It was initially faint but Sato hanged on to that voice. As he did so, it became louder and using it, Sato quickly recovered only to see a green ming ball heading his way. He didn''t even have enough time to ponder about the prior event before being forced to a corner.

    "Sato, Dodge!" Fudo yelled as he tried to keep the one-horned troll away from him. Fudo was shocked when he saw Sato suddenly freeze for no reason but he was still filled with relief when he saw Sato awaken from his trance.

    Even if Fudo didn''t yell, Sato wouldn''t have stood still, idle and waiting for death. Relying on his expert skills, Sato rapidly reacted and jumped away from the green ming ball''s trajectory.

    Once hended, Sato swiftly stood up and stared at the direction the green fireball came from. Right there, about 20 metres away from him, was a 5 foot creature with its green eyes staring back at him.

    "You are not allowed to kill my pets in my presence."

    AN :

    [1] The Heaven System approximates once the decimal is at 7. So 1.7 bes 2 but 1.6 remains 1. Yes, it doesn''t coincide with what they taught you in Maths...

    [2] Croesus : Rich man. You can browse the history of the real Croesus. I used the word Croesus'' here to imply a gaming style of ying by paying.. You just buy the OP stuffs and beat everyone without any real effort.

 Chapter 70 - 67 : One Down

    "You are not allowed to kill my pets in my presence."

    The ck-and-green striped goblin stared at Sato and emanated its presence. Chesces and the other yers had also noticed that it had awoken, possibly havingpleted its recovery, and was in battle mode.

    "This is bad¡­" Old Jiro frowned.

    "Don''t worry about it. Focus on the two trolls first. Let them handle it." Chesces said calmly.

    Old Jiro grimaced. From the way Chesces had talked, it looked like he was ready to sacrifice the other two yers(Sato and Fudo). If he could do that with them, he could pretty much do the same with East Crow.

    "Don''t worry about it; just trust the captain."Kylianmented. "Those guys could pretty much handle it themselves for awhile plus the one-horned troll they are tasked with is almost dead. |even with the boss'' interruption, they should be able to still pull it off. What we need to do is to be done here as quickly as a possible."

    "Alright." Old Jiro nodded. With Kylian''s exnation, even though he wasn''t satisfied, Drunken Hog decided to focus on the battle in front of himself before worrying about others.

    "Thank you." Chesces faced Kylian.

    "You''re wee." Kylian smiled.

    What Kylian had earlier said about Sato and Fudo being capable of handling the troll and the boss on their own, was nothing more than a excuse he made up for Old Jiro to focus and not be suspicious of them. Previously, the 3 teams couldn''t handle the boss on their own. This time, it as a team of 2 yers and to make things worse,m there was a one-horned troll among their adversaries, though it was badly injured. When you consider all this, you would realise that it is indeed impossible for Sato and Fudo to survive the assault. In order not to bring suspicion to their team, Kylian had given a somewhat reasonable excuse to distract Old Jiro. Chesces wasn''t suite to do so as Old Jiro might not take it seriously but as it came from Kylian, Drunken Hog had slightly epted it.

    . . . . .

    "Damn." Sato cursed out. Even though they were holding back in their battle against the one-horned troll, Sato doubted whether they could beat the boss even if they didn''t.

    While he was staring at the boss, the one-horned troll he was previously dealing with, walked over to the boss. Sato frowned in thought upon seeing this before a sense of realisation had dawned on him.

    "Don''t let it get close to the boss! I think it wants to heal itself." Sato roared at Fudo before running towards the troll. The distinctive formation that was earlier beneath the boss was still active, as such the boss couldn''t leave the area yet. But if the one-horned troll were to arrive there, not only would it possibly recover its health, it would also be under the protection of the boss; acting as one final obstacle in their sh with the boss.

    As the troll''s HP was low together with its grievous injuries it had received from the disastrous beating Sato and Fudo had given it, walking became somewhat difficult for it as its attacking speed and reaction time had a taken a dive for the worse. Due to this fact, it still had a few metres to go before it reached the boss.

    Fudo pointed his staff at the troll this time not nning to hold back by much.

    "Ignorant!" The boss hollered in vexation before casting another green coloured fireball and firing it towards Fudo.

    "Damn." Fudo cursed before stopping his actions and getting away from the fireball''s trajectory.

    "Hmph." Seeing as Fudo was forced back, Sato harrumphed before dashing over to the one-horned troll. The boss noticed this and raised its hand towards him but Fudo never nned on letting it go scot-free for interrupting him.

    "[Fireball]!"

    A basketball sized zing fireball darted over to the boss with an impressive speed, one far greater than the previous ones. This time, Fudo had gotten a little more serious.

    As if sensing the lethality behind the attack, the boss stopped its antecedent attack and conjured a green wall beside in front, shielding itself from the fireball. But Fudo didn''t just stop at one. As the [Fireball] skill had a cool-down of less than 2 seconds, Fudo spammed it whenever it became active and during the time he waited, he used the general elementalist skill, one which he hadn''t used in quite awhile, the [Mana ball] spell and harassed the boss.

    While this was going on, Sato had already approached the one-horned troll. Closing up to it, Sato used [Sprint] and hurriedly closed the gap between them, afraid that Fudo wouldn''t be able to hold the boss back for long.

    As he arrived behind it, Sato jumped and struck out with his sword, intent on dealing heavy damage to it.

    "Mountain sh [Chop]."

    The one-horned troll seemed to sense someone behind it as it abruptly turned to with a buster sword in its hand shing towards Sato. Sato, of course expecting it, directed his sword to greet the attack. Sato''s [Strength] stat was at 13 points but thanks to his equipment, the Dawn Steel Armor, he received an extra 4 points in [Strength] cing him slightly above the one-horned troll''s 17 [Strength]. However, if one were to count in the burst damage due to despair in the one-horned troll''s attack, it would likely surpass its average [Strength] count. Nheless though, Sato had applied both a martial art and a skill together in this attack. Calcted with the forward momentum he had applied from his run, the resulting prowess of this attack was even more frightening than that of the one-horned troll. Sato seemed to have forgotten his initial nning of withholding part of their strength but even still, he had other cards hidden. He would rather show his current in-game strength in terms of attributes in exchange to take out this troll than to keep it hidden and leave behind a potential threat and obstacle to their goal.

    As the two weapons collided, Sato, who had the higher stand both geographically and strength-wise, forced back the buster sword to the one-horned troll as his sword still came falling down. The one-horned troll, who had already lost the short confrontation, got sliced from head to toe. Even though the attack didn''t kill it, it brought an even more painful and heavy injury to it.

    [-51 Critical hit] (76/500)

    Even though the one-horned troll''s HP hadn''t reached 15%, the pain and embarrassment it had continued experiencing at the hands of both Sato and Fudo had finally made it break through its limit as its eyes lightened up with a red touch to them and its muscles slowly bulged out.

    Sato however never intended to just watch this happen. He retreated a few steps backwards while hurriedly cing his hands in his bag and drawing out a scroll. Swiftly, he unfurled it and faced the written side towards the one-horned troll. As he had previously used a simr scroll before, Sato had already memorized the chants and quickly read it out loud.

    During this time Kylian the druid, who somehow had enough time on his hands, had been keeping tabs on their battle. Seeing the one-horned troll about to go berserk, he used [nature''s enticement], which was already off its cool-down, and sessfully halted its transformation just for a few seconds. This few seconds however, were more than enough for Sato who was prepared to face a berserk troll.

    Sato sessfullypleted the chants and from the scroll, an aqua coloured spear slowly came out. Once 1/3 of it came out, it darted out with a very frightening speed, reaching the one-horned troll in less than 1/6 of a second as the distance between Sato and the one-horned troll wasn''t so much.

    [Sedna''s spear] [1]

    [-100 Critical hit] (0/500)

    The spear hadpletely pierced through the one-horned troll''s heart, rupturing it apart and leaving behind a bloody hole before ending its journey across the hall on the wall, causing a massive boom that shook the ce a bit.

    The one-horned troll lifelessly dropped to its knees before falling face first on the ground. The boss watched with hatred in its eyes but still didn''t leave its spot as the formation was still active.

    On the other side, the death of one of their own had rmed the other one-horned trolls and though they didn''t retreat, the anger seemed to power them up a little bit and the frequency and power of their attacks increased a bit, bing more difficult for Griffin to handle.

    Meanwhile, with the death of the troll, Sato and Fudo had leveled up once more, bing even more stronger.

    AN :

    From a previous rmendation from a reader earlier, I used a North American god, particrly Inuit, to create a spell.

 Chapter 71 - 68 : Getting The Upper Hand

    "You foul vermin." The boss red at Sato hatefully. If looks could kill, then Sato would have died a 100 times over. It looked as if it were a male lion cuckblocked without having the ability to do anything about it.

    "Uhmm, sorry? It was either us or him so we went with the weaker one. Don''t worry though, you will soon meet him." Fudo teased the boss since it couldn''t do anything.

    The amount of hatred and anger the boss disyed through his eyes was enough to tell one that this couldn''t be solved with a simple ''I''m sorry'' but Fudo didn''t really care.

    Running over to Sato, Fudo said seriously "Sato, we have to deal with the boss before its toote."

    It might seem like his earlierment was just to tease the boss but it also served a s a test of sorts. It was already known to the yers present that the boss was a monster with intellect but the degree of intelligence was unknown. Just like a human being is normally smarter than a monkey despite both creatures being intelligent, monsters with intellect had various intelligence levels or IQ. The level of intelligence is a very important factor for pro yers as it gives them a hint of how they should handle such a creature.

    Fudo had made that statement to see how the boss would react. Since they formation beneath it was possibly rejuvenating it mana, the boss would logically remain there until it had achieved its peak level. If it had lost its temper to the statement Fudo had made, abandoning it power supply, unless it had recovered to its peak state this would show that even though it was intelligent, it could still be manipted with its emotions. However, in the case that the boss ignores the statement or just reacts with an aggressive facial expression without leaving the formation like it just did, this would show that the boss was one that strictly adhered to the most logical calctions. That would mean that the boss would have to be handled in a more careful and cautious manner than usual.

    The good news though was that if the boss had reacted and left its area, the entire team might suffer a team wipe since they were still busy with two other one-horned trolls.

    Seeing where Fudo had arrived from to make such a request, Sato pondered before replying "There''s nothing we can do about it now. Try and destroy the formation while I grab its attention. Apart from this, all we can do is wait for the others. The faster they deal with the other one-horned trolls, the faster we get to dealing with the boss." Once he was done, he ran over to the other side where the boss was.

    "That''s a nice n but how the hell am I supposed to do that?" Fudo cried.

    "Figure it out."

    . . . . .

    When Sato had dealt the final blow to the one-horned troll, the other yers were shocked. They weren''t shocked at the fact that he had defeated a one-horned troll faster than they could but they shocked at the destructive ability of the scroll Sato had used. It dealt such a huge amount of damage in one shot and seeing as it had crashed into the wall with a loud boom, they believed it could have done more damage than it dead to the heavily injured one-horned troll.

    "Damn." Swift de sucked in arge amount of cold air. He had earlier recovered from the beating the troll gave him and joined up with the others.

    As it stood, Old Jiro and Dream Tiger acted as the main damage dealers from the back. Griffin tanked both one-horned trolls and thanks to the timely assistance of the above to alongside the saber-wielding swordsman Chesces and the true swordsman Swift de, Griffin was able to hold against the trolls. Kylian acted as both a healer and support, using his control-type skills to interrupt the one-horned trolls once in awhile especially in key moments, thereby giving the others a sublime opportune juncture to make massive changes to the one-horned trolls'' HP and at the same time granting a short respite to Griffin.

    At the rate they were handling things, it would''ve have taken them less than 2 minutes to finish off the two one-horned trolls but with the death of one of their brethren, the trolls got enraged and even though it wasn''t a true berserk state, their strength had increased a bit. This made things a little bit harder for the yers especially their MT, Griffin, who had to bear most of the attacks. Though things became harder for them, it was only by a little bit; at worst, it would take them a little longer to defeat the one-horned trolls but time was of the essence to these yers.

    "Come on. We have to finish this fodders soon and defeat the boss before another set of yerse in." Chesces tried to motivate the team. In other to finish the trolls even faster, Chsces had ordered griffin to handle the one with the higher HP, alongside Swift de while the rest focused on the other one.

    "Haa!" Griffin lifted his shield and roared, preparing to meet the one-horned troll''s axe.

    [Block]

    [-3] (Griffin 117/130)

    Thanks to Kylian''s timely heals and his own personal amazing tanking skills, Griffin''s HP was at the 90 % mark.

    Once the attack was blocked, the one-horned troll didn''t give up as it followed up with another attack.

    *ng*

    *ng*

    Within 2 seconds, the troll had made 3 different moves forcing Griffin to use 2 different skills to block them. As for the third attack, Griffin, relying on his expert senses and ability, narrowly dodged it.

    "[Horizontal sh]"

    "Arghhh"

    [-44] (One-Horned troll 326/500)

    Swift de had used the period the one-horned troll was attacking Griffin to circle behind it andnd a blow on it before quickly retreating.

    [-31] (One-horned troll 295/500)

    Using the minor distraction the one-horned troll had received due to the pain inflicted on it, Griffin moved forward and shed out with his sword, sessfully gaining its aggro and keeping its attention on himself.

    After having battled together for awhile now, the two yers gave the feeling of being tandem with one another as one attacked while the other retreated. From an outside view, one would think that they had been working together for a few months at the very least, without knowing that this synchrony of theirs was developed mid battle.

    While they slowly pegged down the one-horned troll''s HP, the other group did things a bit differently¡­

    "[Entangling Vines]"

    "[Spiral Shot]"

    "[Greater Fireball]"

    "[Horizontal sh]"

    A flurry of skills and attacks were aimed at the one-horned troll here. If Sato and Fudo''s approach was to use consumables, Chesces'' team''s approach was to bombard the one-horned troll with skills. One control-type skill holding it down, while the other 3 yers used attack after attack to quickly drop it''s HP to the red before it officially went berserk.

    Whether it went berserk or not didn''t make much of a difference. Drunken Hog and Dream Tiger still attacked from a distance while Chesces confronted the monster with Kylian''s assistance and the other two''s support.

    During this time, Kylian sneaked a nce at Sato and Fudo to see what they were doing.

 Chapter 72 - 69 : Unexpected Event

    Sato dashed full speed towards the boss with a sword in hand. Rather than dashing, it looked more like he was doing a ''naruto run'' with his sword pointing downwards.

    The distance between him and the boss was but a mere 25 metres. The word ''mere'' is used here in reference to the boss as at this distance it was more than capable of casting spells at a target. As Sato was running towards it, the boss was annoyed for Sato''s disrespect in the sense that it believed he thought he could defeat it after having just done away with its minion.

    Rather than lifting its hand, it formed a hand seal and pointed it at Sato. But why would Fudo just let it have its way? While Sato had begun running, Fudo had already cast a [Fireball] but he held it in ce, constantly pumping mana to it till a [Greater Fireball] took ce. When the boss pointed its hand seal at Sato, Fudo released the [Greater Fireball] towards it.

    The boss, being a mage ss specialist, easily sensed the mana arriving its way. Normally it might even ignore the attack but after the previous spell Fudo had used on it the boss discovered that he had been holding back and it felt a bit threatened by his spells. However it never intended to end its spell that easily.

    Turning to face the fireball arriving its way, the goblin boss'' eyes glowed a faint green as a green translucent wall materialised ahead of it. With the wall acting as a blockade between it and the fireball, the boss went on toplete its hand seal.

    "So simple." Fudo smirked.

    The [Greater Fireball]nded on the green wall and rather than exploding, the mes spread wide, blocking the view of the boss.

    [Mana Maniption]

    Rather than calling it a skill, it was a more like an in-game talent that is birthed due to high affinity with mana. In Fudo''s case, thanks to the ne Igneel''s guidance, his affinity with the Fire element received a 15% boost. Regr elementalist all have a 5% boost in affinity towards all elemental mana. This serves as a rudimentary factor to the title ''Elementalist''.

    Once mana affinity to a certain element reaches 20%, the yer would unlock the [Mana Maniption] feature that gives them better control over their mana. Fudo had used this ''talent'' to make the [Greater Fireball] re up rather than exploding. It was also this very same talent that helped him hold back in his previous attacks.

    With the mes blocking the boss'' view, Sato made use of this special cover to hurriedly try and close the distance.

    The boss, being worthy of the title of an intelligent monster, quickly responded by using the green coloured barrier to push the mes away. Due to it''s quick reaction, Sato hadn''t closed the gap in time yet before the boss had already printed a finger at him. A dark green ray shot out from the finger, flitting rapidly towards Sato.

    Sato, who was prepared for an attack, bent down by a few degrees to his right sessfully dodging the attack by a little more than a hair''s breadth.

    Sato was now about 10 metres away from the formation.

    Seeing that his previous attack didn''t work so well, Fudo changed his approach and used a much simpler spell with a shorter cool-down, the regr [Fireball]. He fired [Fireball] after [Fireball] and if the spell was under cool-down, Fudo used the average [Mana ball] attack. The reason he did so was to constantly pester the boss and keep it''s focus on himself. However the boss barely spared him a nce, creating another barrier to withstand the attacks.

    Looking at Sato who was still moving forward, the boss lifted a hand up and suddenly, multiple dark greenser lights sted out in a wide fashion, looking like a bunch of disarrayedser lights. This went on till they all suddenly converged towards Sato from multiple directions, making it very difficult to dodge.

    Sato however didn''t grow nervous though his face showed a little bit of annoyance before returning back to normal.

    "Lotus sword art : 3 leaf block." Sato said in a low voice.

    As he swung his sword, he managed to deflect most of the attack while dodging the rest. Due to the fact that he wasn''t an MT plus he wascking in attributes whenpared to the boss, Sato retreated three steps backwards while losing between 2-3 HP for each attack he blocked. But the boss didn''t let him rest as it conjured up a small green me cloud, pushing it towards Sato. As the cloud moved on, it rapidly expanded in size till it attained a height of at least 4 metres with a width of 30 metres.

    With no move to use against it, Sato retreated back a couple of metres. When he noticed that he couldn''t out run the spell any longer, Sato turned to face it. With a sword in hand, held up high,Sato struck out at the me.

    [Mountain sh]

    The me was torn apart into two as Sato received another set of damage figures. Since he wasn''t a real MT, there was no way for him to sessfully go through that attack without receiving any damage unless he had an absurdlyrge amount of stats.

    The boss didn''t let him rest as it fired another barrage of attacks. Fudo had tried to interrupt and block a few of them using spells but he couldn''t keep up with the boss.

    ''I can''t get any close.'' Sato began to feel a little anxious.

    On the other side, they other yers were already wrapping up their battles with the one-horned troll. Dream tiger hadnded thest blow on the zanpat¨­-wielding one-horned troll. Swift de and Griffin had finally brought the HP of theirs to below 50% as Old Jiro, Kylian, Chesces and Dream Tiger changed their focus towards it. Under the control of the Main tank Griffin together with the bombardment of the two expert long-range yers, the controller druid and the two melee opportunists, Chesces and Swift de, the second one-horned troll fell even faster.

    With the side figures out of the way, they had finally had time for a brief respite.

    Chesces stared at Sato and Fudo before announcing to the team, "Get ready. We only have 2 minutes of rest after which we join with them."

    The reason why Chesces had given the yers 2 minutes of respite was because he believed that the boss wouldn''t be able to make any threatening move for Sato and Fudo and also, the team.s mages had been spell-casting nonstop. If they were to perform again, they would need time to naturally regain their mana otherwise it would be pointless to rush into the battle.

    "Captain, I sense something weird." Kylian walked over to Chesces.

    "And what would that be?" Chesces asked curiously. He had hardly ever seen Kylian this serious unless it was for a very important reason.

    "yers."

 Chapter 73 - 70 : Chescesâ€™ Plan

    (AN : I have been using my phone to write for awhile so as usual, you might have noticed a few errors here and there. Notify me of any please..)

    Earlier on after Sind had wiped out thest yer group they encountered and were about to open the door-like gate, they discovered that the gate was closed. There was a little keyhole on the door and apart from that, there was nothing else, not even a handle.

    Seeing as they couldn''t go any further without unlocking the door, the captain of Sind ordered the team to begin searching for the key. After quite sometime of continuous searching and scouring, Faded Wings found the key in a small chest that was stored in a hiddenpartment.

    As an Assassin ss yer, she had greater visibility and perception than the other yers. Also, Faded Wings was a meticulous person in nature. With all these featuresbined, it was reasonable to understand why she discovered the secretpartment.

    "Captain, here it is." Faded Wings handed the key to their guild captain.

    The key was bronze in colour with a streamline design. There were a few indentations on the key forming a weird fissure-like pattern on it. It flowed from the key''s head to it''s tip. The indentations were painted a bright yellow colour. At the head of the key, a very small red gem was engraved on it.

    Taking the key, the captain plugged it into the keyhole and twisted it for one full clockwise rotation.

    *Cluck*

    Once hepleted it, a mechanical cluck sounded out as the red gem on the key''s head glowed brilliantly. Suddenly, the gem began to melt to form a viscous liquid simr moltenva. The molten liquid gem flowed through the indented ridges going past the key''s tip and entering the locking mechanism of the door. Despite being hidden within the door, a faint red glow was still visible as the entire door slowly lit up like a Christmas tree before abruptly turning dark.

    "Isn''t it weird how wild goblins possess such advanced technology?" Riddled Tree asked though his question wasn''t aimed at anyone. Even more so, he wasn''t expecting an answer.

    Pondering on his words, the captain grimaced a bit before his thoughts were interrupted by a loud ''clink''.

    "Prepare yourselves." The captain mouthed out two words before staring at the door. Taking a step forward, he ced his two hands on the door before slowly applying force on it, pushing the door open.

    As the door slowly opened, the team tightened their grip on their various weapons, raising their alertness level to the highest. But this action of their was for naught as when the door fully opened, they were greeted with the sight ofrge hall with no living being present. No, that was wrong. There were a few living beings there but they were engaged in a battle.

    "Looks like we''rete." Riddled Tree smiled bitterly.

    The two parties currently battling with each other were both bipedal anthropoids. However one of them was a bunch of true humans while the other party was a bunch of big and ugly looking creatures. Simr to the trolls Sind saw above, these ones were muscr but they were differentiated from the ones above by one feature, a lone short horn. Though the horn is said to be short,that is just in consideration to the overall size of the trolls. It was at least 1 meter in length if measured.

    The yers were battling 3 of these creatures or rather, 3 of these one-horned trolls and though they were having a somewhat hard time keeping up, they still held a slight advantage over them. Even more so for the team of two yers who totally decimated one of the trolls on their own.

    "So what do we do now captain?" Faded Wings looked at the man who led them through thick and thin and always had a solution.

    "Participating now would be pointless. As there''s already a team here, why don''t we let them deal with the obstacles for us. Riddled, block our signals from them.

    "For now, we wait."

    . . . . .

    "yers?" Chesces asked with a frown.

    "Yes." Kylian replied in a concise manner.

    "How many are they and how long do you think they have been there?" Chesces asked again.

    "I didn''t get a proper lock on their signatures just in case there was a druid with them so I don''t know. But I''d guess around 5-7 yers. As for how long they have been there, I don''t know."

    Druids not only have an extremely keen intuitive to mana but they are also sensitive to mana tracking. In other words, once a druid, druid A, is trying to use the nature element present to sense for another druid, druid B''s location, druid B would be able to perceive the act due to his/her high awareness to mana especially nature-type mana.

    So if Kylian tried to probe the other party, their druid (who unknown to him was present in the form of Riddled Tree) would be able to pick up his probing actions and notify theirmander. So rather than alerting the group, Kylian felt it was best to inform his leader, Chesces.

    The only reason why he was able to get a reading on their mana signals was because sometime ago, Sind had approached closer to the group and Riddled Tree had experienced a rpse in concentration when blocking out their(Sind) mana signals. The escaped mana eventually reached Kylian''s active range and because he was on high alert the entire period of the battle, Kylian was able to interpret the readings as a yer''s mana signal.

    "Did you tell anyone else about this?"

    "No captain." Kylian answered right away.

    "Good." Chesces nodded. "For now don''t let anyone know, I''ll handle it."

    "Okay." Although he was confused as to why Chesces decided to keep it a secret, it didn''t stop Kylian from doing as ordered. After all, Chesces was often regarded as the guild''s pride in tactics and strategy.

    After the team had taken their break, which Chesces had shortened from the initial 2 minute mark, and were about to join up with Sato and Fudo, they all received a message from Chesces, who already being aware of their identities, easily sent them the message. The only exception to this was Sato and Fudo but Chesces treated it as if they were to me as they had kept their identities a secret even till now.

    [[ System notification :

    Message from Chesces : We are being monitored by some other yers. Act natural and ignore them. Await my signalter on.

    ]]

    "We''re being monitored?" Swift de frowned. "What do we do?"

    "Of course we have to find them and eliminate them fast. Just staying put would give them the upper hand right? Now that those guys are keeping the boss busy why don''t we go for their heads?" Dream Tiger sounded annoyed but he was still smart enough to keep his head cool and lower his voice in order to avoid alerting the hidden figures.

    Old Jiro frowned too. From the way he saw it, it was better to handle the pests now before things got out of hand. He really didn''t understand why Chesces had put it off forter. Even if Sato and Fudo couldn''t handle the boss for long, they could send them reinforcements while the rest would attack the ambushers. To him, anything would be better than leaving behind a potential threat.

    "It doesn''t matter. He''s the leader for this raid and he shouldn''t be so stupid as not to realise this. Maybe he has a better n. After all he is known as the Emperor''s 5th hand."

    ''The Hands of the Emperor''. These are all important positions held by certain yers of Emperor''s Might. Unlike the elder rank, the hands of the Emperor can be given to a non-elder yer. If anything, elder rank yers aren''t allowed to hold the title as a ''Hand''.

    Chesces is one of the very few individuals to hold the rank as a ''Hand of the Emperor'', having the 5th rank. Even though it is just the 5th rank, one shouldn''t take it lightly as apart from the guild leader, vice guild leaders and elder figures, Chesces is the 7th most valued yer of the guild. What even makes him even more important is that he got this title not just with his strength as a ''false King'' but also with his brain as a tactician.

    The reason why he is 7th rank rather than 5th is because before the numbered ranks, there exists the ''Left and Right Hands of the Emperor.''

    "I have a feeling that this mission would take longer than expected."

 Chapter 74 - 71 : The Barrier Cracks

    *Boom*

    "This sh*t head really wants to kill me!" Fudo eximed after dodging a ray that fired towards him.

    Slightly before the teams of Emperor''s Might and East Crow would take a very short break, the boss had erected a transparent barrier, simr to the one he had used to block Fudo''s attack but a muchrger one. It did so after realising Fudo and Sato''s goal. The barrier surrounded the boss, enclosing both him and the formation beneath, within it. Since the formation beneath it was constantly replenishing it''s mana, the boss didn''t have much of a problem keeping the shield active.

    "Tch. Where the hell are these guys eh? Did they forget that we''re handling the boss alone or do they want us to die first?" Fudo grumbled.

    "If you''re that free then stop kicking up a fuss and pay attention." Sato retorted.

    Since Sato wasn''t an MT ss, he couldn''t easily approach the boss, least he dies an unreasonable death. The only thing he could do was run around the boss making it seem as if he was trying to find an opportunity thereby drawing the boss'' focus on himself. With the boss''focus on him, Fudo would be able to freely attack the barrier. However, in the scenario where the boss paid more attention to Fudo than Sato, he would try to find an opportunity to strike at the barrier.

    "Lemme handle it! [Taunt]" Griffin roared while running towards the boss.

    "Took you a while." Fudo said in a displeased tone.

    On the other side, Old Jiro, Chesces, Kylian, Swift de and Dream Tiger had also joined up though they were a little behind of Griffin.

    The long-range yers were slightly behind the closebat yers. They prepared their various attacks and aimed it right at the boss. Instead of skills, they used regr attacks, constantly bombarding the barrier with their attacks.

    Though the regr attacks were far more weaker than their skills, the advantage it had was that it could be continuously used without much of a pause. In this very scenario where they have to keep the boss busy for the closebat yers to close the gap, using regr skills and attacks proved to be the best solution.

    While Drunken Hog and Dream Tiger attacked together, Swift de and Chesces moved from the sides towards the boss.

    "Hey mage! Keep the boss upied!" Chesces yelled at Fudo.

    "Tch. That''s what I''ve been doing ever since." Fudo silently muttered before focusing his attention back at the boss.

    *Phew*

    *Boom*

    *Bam*

    Despite having not approached the barrier, their attacks had already did so, crashing into the barrier and causing mini explosions to set off all around it.

    While the attacksnded, the closebat yers took the opportunity to close up the gap and approach the barrier, attacking it with even more attacks at a much faster frequency than the long-range yers.

    Due to the constant never-ending attacks aimed at the barrier, the barrier began to crack as fissures began to form on it, extending like tributaries of a river.

    The goblin boss stared at the team and frowned at their actions before spreading it''s arms out wide.

    As it did so, swathes of mes appeared and spread out towards the yers, burning with fierce vigor and intensity. The mes were quite huge that they not only rushed towards the yers with great speed but they also blocked the boss from their sights.

    "Dodge!" Chesces yelled while retreating away from the mes.

    Swift de, Sato and Griffin retreated back a bit, escaping the mes which had a short life.

    Once the mes ended with the yers already at a suitable distance away, the yers were greeted by the sight of a few fire spears rushing towards them.

    "Damn. It isn''t giving us any chance!''" Swift de cursed as he ran backwards even more.

    "Hup!" Griffin lifted his shield to meet with the attack.

    *Bang*

    A resounding bang sounded out as the fire spearnded on Griffin''s shield, pushing him a few steps back.

    Chesces dodged the spear while Sato did the same, though he made it look like he was having a bit of trouble while dodging. Even in the battle, Sato didn''t forget to make it look like he was a lot weaker than his teammates.

    After the boss'' counter attack, the yers once again fixated their attention towards the boss in the barrier. As they did so, they noticed that the fissures on the barrier were closing up, a sign of the barrier fixing itself.

    "It''s the boss!" Fudo eximed.

    Upon further scrutiny after Fudo''s remark, they discovered that it wasn''t an auto-healinh function but weather it was the goblin boss that was patching up the barrier thanks yo the constant supply of Mana he received from the formation.

    "Hmph. You think a tortoise shell would save you?" Old Jiro humphed before chanting a few words with his speech apanied with the action of lifting his staff up.

    ''We''ve wasted too much time.'' Sato and Chesces thought at the same time.

    Sato rushed from the left, but this time, he didn''t hold back by much. Chesces also did the same, in other words, he was also holding back.

    ''...so we all had our secrets.''

    They both ran at high speed towards the barrier.

    Meanwhile, Old Jiro had finally finished his chanting as a ming arrow took shape. Once it was about to bepleted, Drunken Hog took out a scroll made out of animal skin. The scroll still looked a bit new as it was devoid of patched parts or wrinkled edges. He then struck his staff on the ground and took his hand off of it. The staff, despite the absence of support, stood still on its own. Grabbing the scroll with both hands, Drunken Hog tore it apart before flinging the torn parts towards the ming arrow.

    "Go, [Kojin''s Arrow]" [1]

    Infinite Facts (1) :

    When battling a monster in a party system, the experience isn''t shared equally.

    50% of the experience is first shared based on damage dealt and role in the battle. The remaining 50% would then be awarded based on this:

    The yer who deals the final blow receives at least 5% of this experience(50%), if the party is at or above a total of 4 yers. If it is less(3 yers) the final hit dealer receives more.

    The next to receive more experience is the highest damage dealer receiving at least 20% of the entire experience. In the scenario where the healer performs more than the highest damage dealer, he or she receives this reward with the highest damage dealer receiving slightly less(about 15%)

    The remaining experience is given to the MT as

    Example: a team of 5(2 mages A and B, 1 healer C, 1 MT D and 1 physical ss E). The highest damage dealer, supposing it''s E, will receive 20% of the remaining 50% exp. Final blow dealer, let''s say it''s D, receives 5%. That would total to 25% exp(5%-st hit, 20%highest damage) of their original 50%. The remaining 25% is then shared ording to how well they y their roles as Damage dealers, Healer or MT.

    Now supposing the healer, C, performs better than the highest damage dealer (this is calcted in special way), C would receive the 20% meant for highest damage dealer while E, the highest damage dealer, receives 10%. That would now be 35% of the 50% shared(5%-st hit, 20%- healer performed better, 10%- highest damage).. The remaining 15% is then shared ording to how well a yer ys their role.

 Chapter 75 - 72 : Sygrart

    (AN: Due to the slight shing of names; Jiro and Juro, I have decided to start using Old Jiro''s In-Game Name, Drunken Hog)

    "That''s the wrong history boy." Drunken Hog smirked.

    [K¨­jin''s Arrow] was a high level mage spell essible only to Fire elementalists. The spell was said to be created with the fire god''s attack as a temte. It wielded such a destructive force that in it''splete true form, the spell was capable of destroying an entire secondary town. Some might even say it wasparable to a real arrow fired by the fire god K¨­jin. Of course this was nothing more than baseless and pointless rumors as the attack of a god was something that could cause damage at a catastrophical scale, more than the size of a primary town even.

    Sadly, the version Drunken Hog had used was a lesser one not even worthy of beingpared to the original spell.

    Though weaker than the original spell, the [K¨­jin''s Arrow] used by Drunken Hog was still powerful and fast. It rushed before the yers could react properly while leaving behind a fiery red trail which didn''tst so long in air.

    *Boom*

    *crack*

    *Shatter*

    The fiery arrow hit the barrier. The barrier held on a bit thanks to the constant act of regeneration performed by the boss. But even it''s actions were futile against such a devastating attack as the barrier only held on for a very short while before giving way to the attack which not just cracked it but directly shattered it to pieces.

    The remnants and transparent green shards of the barrier were all lit up by the zing trail left behind by the arrow as it continued over to the goblin boss.

    Seeing as if things keep going like this, it would die, the boss was frustrated but it still felt it could handle it.

    Lifting one of it''s 4-fingered hand up, it pointed at the ming arrow as another barrier was conjured in front of it. This time however, this barrier looked to be even more sturdier having a thickness of about 40 cm. It was hexagonal in shape with lines carved on it. Looking at it one would feel that despite it''s small size, it was probably capable of withstanding an armored shell.

    [Rivet Shield] !

    Even still, the [Rivet Shield] couldn''t handle the arrow as it onlysted for just 2 seconds before exploding to bits.

    The arrow on the other hand, was still on it''s way to the goblin boss and since the person in question wasn''t expecting the arrow to break the [Rivet Shield] spell, it was caught off guard.

    *Boom*

    "Kraaaaaghhhhhhh !!!"

    Like iron to a ma, the arrow was on mark as it hit the boss and exploded on its body with thest remnant energy.

    The explosion sted the boss off of the formation, flinging it a few meters back like stone thrown out. Because the power of the explosion was still quite strong, the force had spread even to the formation below, creating a fracture at the centre where the boss previously stood, spreading outwards with parts of it touching the formation''s edge.

    Sato and Chesces immediately appeared on the formation, with their weapons pointing directly at it as they shed out.

    "Break."

    *Shatter*

    With the full fledged strikes from the two professional yers, the magic array stood no chance especially in it''s damaged form. With the sound akin to the breaking of ss, it broke into bits which eventually dissolved to form mana that dispersed into the atmosphere. Thanks to the timely move from the two, the boss had officially lost it''s ''unlimited mana'' boost.

    "Is it dead?" Swift de asked.

    Subjectively speaking, he was awe-struck at the ability and prowess of Drunken Hog''s attack. If the spell was used against a full HP one-horned troll, this shot would have most likely killed it immediately or at the very least, dropped it''s HP to the red zone with half of it''s body destroyed, leaving it in a critical state.

    "If it was that easy then this game would be a joke." Chesces smirked.

    Even though he was personally intimidated by the might of the spell, Chesces still managed to keep his cool while he faced the ming object a few metres forward.

    "Even though the [K¨­jin''s Arrow] is very potent, it lost most of it''s force when breaking the barrier and that shield from earlier. I doubt it would leave the boss that heavily injured much less dead." Drunken Hog said with a bitter smile. " On the good side however, the boss should have lost a lot of HP from that attack and it should be injured a bit too."

    "Here hees." Dream Tiger reminded. As he was a ranger, he had the best sight of them all in the group thanks to the advantage of his ss. As a result of this, Dream Tiger was able to easily glimpse the slightest movement from the boss despite the brightness of the mes.

    As he spoke, the zing object on the floor slowly stood up. Engulfed in mes, it was quite a pretty sight to behold but none of the yers in this team were rxed.

    "Get ready everyone. Drunken, use [Inspect] now. Everyone else, keep your guard up; not just against the boss but also the side." Chesces had added thatst part not just to remind the yers but as a hint for Fudo and Sato after all he would need all the help he can get since Yukino had all their resources.

    Thanks to Chesces'' reminder, the entire team remembered that there were a few nosy figures hiding in the dark. Fudo and Sato on the other hand were surprised but that didn''t stop them from easily filling the gap due to theck of information. They easily reached the conclusion that there were a few busybodies in the dark. As for their locations, they were unaware of it but that didn''t stop them from raising their guards up.

    ''This mission just keeps getting more stressful.'' Sato sighed internally.

    "Griffin!"

    "[Thunder Roar]"

    [Thunder Roar], an advance MT skill that not only deals damage but is also very suitable for attracting aggro. Unlike the other skills, this one doesn''te with the ss but has to be obtained by yers. Emperor''s Might was really lucky in theirst few field battles as they had gained quite a few skill books while the rest where purchased in town stores. The [Thunder Roar] was one of the skills they had gained after defeating a level 5 creature before.

    As soon as Griffin roared, a visible sound wave broke out from his mouth shaking the entire hall. The sound wave formed an undting pattern in space as it flowed outwards monotonously and smoothly.

    "What the hell?!" Dream Tiger cried out in shock.

    The sound wave spread out to arrive in front of the ming goblin boss but it didn''t flinch despite so. The goblin boss raised an arm and spread it outwards hurriedly. With the motion of the arm, the mes that were set aze on it dissipated and the approaching sound wave copsed. Nheless, part of the sound wave, which wasn''t aimed at the boss,nded on the ground and walls creating cracks on them.

    "Everyone, here''s the info on the boss'' stats." Drunken Hog replied as he sent them all the data. Well, that was excluding Fudo and Sato as once again, he didn''t know their identities.

    "Sky de is the name." Sato stated inly.

    "Ok." With the avable name, Drunken Hog sent the data to him after which Sato did the same for Fudo.

    Opening the message, Sato read what was disyed.

    [[ Half-blood Sygrart (Special Elite)

    Level : 8

    HP : 600/700

    Physical Attack Power : 30

    Magical attack power : 90

    Physical Defense : 9

    Magical Defense :13

    Attack Speed : 45

    Movement Speed : 26

    Attributes

    Strength : 10

    Endurance : 9

    Vitality :70

    Agility : 13

    Dexterity : 15

    Intelligence : 30

    Willpower : 13

    Skills :

    . . . ]]

    (AN : The previous one-horned trolls were level 7mon. I should have already corrected it by now.)

    "A special-elite? As expected, this would be a tough one."

    AN :

    [1] ording to the ancient Japanese history, Ama no Hobari is the sword that was used to y the original fire deity, Kagutsuchi better yet known as Hinokagatsuchi. I presume that being tainted with the blood of the fire god, it would end up being engulfed in mes. Here Fudo takes the arrow as a sword and thinks it''s the same with the traditional tale.

    [2] K¨­jin is the fire god of Japanese mythology, though not the original one. He uses a bow and an arrow hence the skill''s name [K¨­jin''s Arrow]

 Chapter 76 - 73 : Fight !

    "I will kill you, capture your soul, and torture it for three hundred years. Your screams will be all that you would hear, so much so that you would wish you were at the bottom of the abyss."

    After the boss had quelled Griffin''s roar, it bawled at the team with pure devastating anger disyed in its eyes.

    While the goblin boss, Sygrart, roared at the yers, their visions seemed to fluctuate as they saw a little goblin. Unlike the regr goblins, this one looked a bit different, having more simrities with an average human than a regr goblin should. It was as tall as a regr goblin but had pale skin like an Asian human. Nheless, it wasn''t its looks that kept their eyes fixed at the half-blood but rather the fact that it was crying in the midst of other goblins. Despite being of the average height for a goblin adult, it acted more like a child and slowly squatted down with glistening teardrops streaming down its eyes.

    The vision suddenly cut as the yers returned to their senses with Sygrart having justpleted its ''speech''.

    "What the hell was that?" Dream Tiger said with a voice filled with confusion and surprise.

    "Focus!" Drunken Hog snapped. Even though it looked like he had also recovered, he was also befuddled at the development that had just urred. Anyone would be surprised if their scene and location suddenly change without any sign of a spell or a formation whatsoever.

    "Petty tricks," Griffin stated while charging towards the boss.

    Sygrart, who had most of the visible parts of his body together with a part of his cloak burnt, stared at Griffin with anger. Even though he wasn''t the one to injure him with [K¨­jin''s Arrow], Sygrart was enraged at both Griffin''s [Lion Roar] and his audacity at taking it lightly and charging towards it.[1]

    A magic array quickly took form in front as Sygrart raised its right hand towards Griffin. A green ray swiftly departed from the array and dashed towards Griffin at a very high speed.

    Griffin lifted his shield up in front of his body, effectively sheltering himself and eliminating any possible weak-point but weak points weren''t the only thing he had to fear.

    *BOOM*

    The beam quickly arrived and shed with the shield that stood in its path, producing a loud boom as a result of the ruthless collision.

    Not giving Griffin any time, Sygrart quickly made its move, rapidly appearing before Griffin with a ming green ball in its hand.

    ''He''s fast!'' Griffin stared in shock at Sygrart.

    "Don''t even think about it!" Drunken Hog and the other long-range yers who were on standby,unched their attacks while sealing the boss'' possible escape paths.

    Dream Tiger''s arrows handled the left, Drunken Hog''s spell moved from the left, and finally, Kylian had cast a wide-range control-type skill.

    Despite witnessing the vigorous attacks of its prideful opponents, Sygrart remained calm. Without showing any time of being flustered, it mmed its palm against the attacks, creating a transparent green barrier between it and the offense.

    While it was temporarily upied by the attack, Griffin managed to space a bit away from Sygrart while Chesces and Sato had closed up the gap, quickly arriving at the scene.

    Sato lifted his sword and shed at the barrier, hacking it to pieces as he wasn''t holding back, and also the other attacks had weakened the barrier. Chesces followed up with a horizontal strike at the goblin boss but relying on its high [Agility] stat, Sygrart narrowly dodged the attack by a hair''s breadth but Chesces wasn''t done.

    It was unknown whether he knew that the first attack might not work but Chesces had already shed out again with his de after missing the first time.

    Realising that it would be stuck in a pinch where it would have to depend on it''s somewhat terrible closebat ability, Sygrart took a step back and propelled itself backwards, trying to retreat away from Chesces.

    Seeing this, the long-range squad on standby (Fudo, Drunken Hog, Dream Tiger)unched another vollye of attacks this time around giving the goblin boss a run for it''s money. Griffin used the volley of attacks as a cover to charge towards the boss.

    "[Justice sh]"

    Even though Sygrart had a much higher [Agility] stat, with the continuous bombarding of attacks distracting it, Griffin was able to sessfullynd a hit on the boss, gaining it''s aggro towards himself.

    "Arggggh."

    As the sword shed Sygrart, it tried to hold the pain in and extended an arm towards Griffin''s face.

    "[Entangling Vines]"

    At thest minute, the team''s druid, Kylian, sessfully interrupted the attack and Sato rushed in to dish out a variety of hacks and shes on the boss'' body.

    And so the battle went on. While the closebatants tried to engage in closebat with the boss, the long-range squad would interrupt it at specific moments or force Sygrart to make an error in an attack, creating an opportunity for the damage dealers to shine best.

    [Sygrart (470/700)]

    Of Sygrart''s HP, 100 points were depleted after [K¨­jin''s Arrow] had struck it

    "Let''s go guys. We can do this." Chesces cheered on his teammates.

    "How dare you vermins!" Sygrart roared.

    Suddenly, the aura around him[2] intensified as Sygrart''s muscles shriveled a bit. The floor beneath him sunk a bit as cracks began to form in a web-like fashion.

    "Is that its berserk mode?" Fudo frowned on seeing this.

    "No. It shouldn''t be." Drunken Hog said with an iffy tone. "The berserk mode or rather [Enraged] state begins once a monster''s HP reaches the 15% mark at the very least. So I''m guessing this is a skill or a talent."

    In Infinite Realm, the berserk mode of a monster is known as its [Enraged ] state. This special state was made to replicate the exact same in most living creatures, were they go beyond their limit, breaking the natural bar set by their body, in hope of living or escaping a deadly predicament. Simr to how a rabbit bes aggressive when cornered, the monsters would burst out with greater strength when cornered. Of course this ability isn''tmon to all monsters. During this state, a monster''s regr attributes and strength increases by at least 10%.

    Even though the [Enraged] state isn''tmon to all monsters, to those who possess this special ability, it generally activates once their HP is at least below the 15% mark. In the case of Sygrart, he''s HP hadn''t even gone below the 50% mark, much less the 15% mark.

    "I think I saw this earlier. It was under the talent section of his HP." Dream Tigermented on their conversation.

    "He?"

    "Well it is a living being right? Even more so, it''s an intelligent one." dream Tiger smirked.

    Even though they were talking, their hands were still busy either firing arrows or casting spells.

    "So this should be that talent I saw right?" Chesces grimaced.

    [[ Limit Breaker (Advanced Talent) : Active Talent :

    Breakthrough the body''s natural limits at a cost, temporary increasing basic attributes by 5% as long as talent is still active. Duration is dependent on the individual. ]]

    Talents are somewhat simr to skills but they are mostly passive though some active ones could be found. What makes talents especially different from skills is that unlike a skill that could just be learnt, a talent has to be developed and acknowledged by the System. Take for example, if a yer wants to get the [[ Limit Breaker]] talent, which is an active talent, he/she has to find a way to be able to temporary increase their fighting prowess and attributes without an potion, pellet, drug, skill or equipment whatsoever. They have to perform this act a couple of times after which the Heaven System, which governs the game, would officially grant the ability to them as talent. Hard right? That''s what makes talents especially rare. But there are other ways of gaining a talent which you would discoverter.

    Talents, like equipment, are ssified into types and also have ranks(the same goes for skills). The type of talents and skills are as follows:

    Basic

    Advanced

    Peak

    Divine; of which Divine is the strongest while Basic are the weakest and also the mostmon.

    The talent [Limit Breaker] is an advanced talent, a very rare one at that. As an advanced talent, it didn''tck in strength or ability. At the cost of the destruction of one''s body, the user''s strength is increased and this is dependent on the level to which the talent has been practiced(Infinite Facts). As a talent, it isn''t easily gotten as luck is a very important factor for it. If trained to the highest level, it is believed that the side effects could be eliminated and one''s strength and attributes would be raised by more than two folds.

    "So what? Even if you have an Advanced talent, you will still die." Chesces dered confidently. ''It''s about time we handle the snoopers. She should be here already.''

    AN :

    You might have noticed me addressing Sygrart as ''It'' rather than ''He''. This isn''t due to racial hate or species hate but rather it serves to easily enable you the readers to understand who I''m addressing. You can easily notice this in the tagged paragraph.

    [2] So I decided to use ''He'' rather than ''It''¡­I''m really a confused human being¡­

 Chapter 77 - 74 : Ambushed

    "When do we move in boss?" Block, the team''s only Guardian, stared at the man who was leading them on this campaign. The middle aged man emanated a fearless aura around him even though his targets were the members of a super guild.

    When Sind had arrived, thebined team of East Crow, Emperor''s Might and Sato and Fudo were already battling the one-horned trolls. They originally wanted to interfere in the battle after seeing the two teams of Each Crow and Emperor''s Might having a little bit of difficulty against the one-horned trolls. However things took a different turn upon seeing how Sato and Fudo had handled their own target.

    The leader of Sind then decided to take a different approach as he suspected that Sato and Fudo had a lot more abilities hidden away. He also believed that Emperor''s Might was holding back while battling the one-horned trolls. This gave him the impression that they had yet to face the boss so rather than risking things, he decided that they bid their time and wait, at least for the boss battle.

    His decision proved correct as the three teams eventually defeated the one-horned trolls and faced the boss. Even then, the captain of Sind refused to make any move as he wanted them to deal a reasonable amount of damage to the boss after which his team would swoop in and reap the harvest.

    The only disadvantage with this n was that since the three teams would have dealt most of the damage to the boss, they would gain a considerable amount of Exp even whenpared to the final damage dealers.

    ''The boss should be at least a Special Elite. Considering it''s status, it would be more than enoughpensation to just receive the loot.''

    He calmly analysed the battle in front before replying "Don''t worry about it and don''t be too impatient; we will get our time. Let''s just leave the boss to them; at the very least they could make it a little bit more weaker for us to face.

    "Riddled, has there been any other yer approaching here recently?" The man faced the druid, Riddled Tree.

    "No, none that I''m aware of." Seeing their captain frown, he exined "Even though as a druid I possess the ability to sense energy fluctuations, this is just a bonus ability from my ss, not a main ability."

    Smiling bitterly, Riddled Tree continued " As such, you shouldn''t trust in me that much, Boss."

    "Having you in the team is better than nothing. Stop downgrading yourself and pay attention." The man faced Riddle before looking at the team ahead with his eyes squinted. "It''s best if you pay attention to them. I doubt they haven''t noticed us till now."

    "How? Didn''t Riddle eliminate our men''s signatures?" Devis asked with surprise.

    Yes, Devis. Even though he was earlier captured by the Warmongers, they had killed him once they were done questioning him.Originally Devis was supposed to be with Faded Wings and Rock, levelling up at the main battlefield, but the captain needed an Assassin ss yer in their squad so after much deliberation, Devis was selected. Even though both he and Faded Wings were experts, Devis was slightly stronger than Faded plus he was more prudent, smarter and careful than her. These qualities of his had earned him the appreciation and acknowledgement of the head of Sind[1]

    "I don''t know neither am I sure but we have to keep in mind that we aren''t only dealing with the 2nd tier guild East Crow, but also at least a first tier guild. Their druid shouldn''t be an ordinary character. If our luck is that bad, it would be a super guild we are facing." The captain said with a serious face.

    A Super guild, a superpower that most yers and guilds could only look up to. Even though their prowess hasn''t been disyed properly in recent times, this was only because Infinite Realm was still at the early stages. At this point, excluding their funding and resources, there''s almost no difference between clubs and regr guilds with super guilds except for two factors. It were these very factors that the Super guilds had capitalised on.

    The first was their manpower or in simpler terms, numbers. As the peak of gaming powers, Super guilds were the most admired and aspired goals of almost all professional yers. Because of this, Super guilds always receive a heavy pile of applications and recruitment requests. If there''s anything theyck, numbers wouldn''t be among.

    The second factor would be strength; individual strength and super guilds don''tck yers with such strength. It was because of this that most guilds still steered clear away from super guilds; because of the strength of their yers.

    The number of yers in front of them might seem few but the captain of Sind didn''t dare to underestimate them as they would surely be top ss experts with ''King'' ss or a ''false King'' being present among them. Indeed, he was right, but because of the distance between them and the three teams, they could hardly distinguish their features; only relying on their outfits to make out their sses.

    "Eh. I noticed that one of them has been acting weirdly. Rather than battling the boss with the others, he has retracted his aura and been hiding for awhile now." Riddled Tree revealed.

    "Is he an assassin?"

    "No, a swordsman. He hasn''t been closing up to us but his movements have been weird now." Riddled Tree continued.

    "Keep watching him. He might be trying to lose our attention and sneak up on us."

    A few secondster, Riddled Tree''s expression had a sudden change.

    "Everyone, scatter!" Riddled Tree yelled before running away, as fast as lion after its prey.

    None of the yers asked before running away as they all trusted in Riddled Tree''s judgement. However at least one person would be destined to be a tad slower than the rest.

    *Boom*

    "Arghh." A yer, whom you obviously don''t need to know his name, howled as his scream acted as a background tune to the beat of the explosion.

    "What the hell happened?" Manny asked with shock as he stared at their previous position. It was all covered in smoke from the explosion as debris was raining down.

    Rather than a reply, what greeted him was a silver glistening light approaching from the smoke apanied by the sh of a sword slicing apart air.

    *Puhh.*

    A sword and not just any kind but a great sword suddenly arrived before him and aimed at his chest. The sword was too quick leaving Manny no opportunity to dodge it. As it had made its move with the cover of the smoke, Manny wasn''t ready to face the attack and so got hit.

    "Argh."

    Before he could further react, the hand behind the sword drew it back and shed again, at quick rates, eliminating his HP before he could realise who had attacked.

    "It''s you¡­" Manny eximed with shock, though thanks to the attack, his voice wasn''t that loud. Those were hisst words before Manny''s vision went ck as his body fell to the floor.

    The snow white hand that held the sword drew it back and swung it to the side, spilling off the remnant blood on it.

    "The Sno, Snow goddess!" Devis yelled in shock.

    AN :

    [1] I think I have mentioned it before but Sind isn''t a guild; they are too small. Don''t look down on them though, as they have more members than have been introduced.

    Notes :

    No Infinite Facts today cause I wanna set some things straight. Yes, I know that my release rate has taken a serious dive but let''s take a recap of my past week. First was the hamstring injury from myst football game(ser), next is my dad who finally came back. If you may or may not know, my dad doesn''t live with us and he doesn''te home often so I try to at least enjoy every time he does with him. Next in the week''s encounter is my uncle''s death and yes, my uncle died. The funeral is expected to be this Saturday and as a close family of his, we are expected to participate in everything.(Funeral rites for my family isn''t so simple as to go to the cemetery, have Mass and all). Last but not least is the fact that my school(or rather Uni) is about to resume and once it does, exams all the way. So I have to start studying after all my major is Engineering¡­(pray for me UwU)

    No worries though. I will still try to improve my speed. In fact, there was supposed to be a second chapter but I fell asleep while working on itst night(Stress man.).. the second chapter would being today so expect 3 chapters today or 2.

 Chapter 78 - 75 : Eliminate The Intruders

    (AN: I made some tiny changes to the previous chapter...)

    "The Snow Goddess!"

    Yes, the Snow Goddess. The very samedy who brings fear to the hearts of foes and admiration in the hearts of men. With a temperament as cold as ice and strength on par with a lioness. A true ''Queen'' with great strength.

    Though she had just recently received the title, none of the members of Sind dared to underestimate her. Be they a newborn or a veteran, every titled yer was never to be underestimated as the difference between them and a non-titled yer wasparable to the depth of a chasm.

    None of the yers of Sind was that strong so it was pretty much very understandable as to why they were afraid.

    "The Snow Goddess eh? So if I''m correct then the other team should be Emperor''s Might." The captain of Sind smirked.

    Even though the distance between them and the others was quite far, by focusing on theirbat standards and style of battle, he had reached the conclusion that the team that battled alongside East Crow Guild had abat standardparable to that of First Tier guilds and Super Guilds. Even though he had suspected them to be a Super Guild, Sind''s captain never really wanted it to be so. Handling a First Tier guild might be difficult but with proper nning,they could seed but a Super guild was a different story.

    Nheless, even if it was a Super guild, Sind wasn''t going to surrender.

    "So what if you are the Snow Goddess? Even if you are a member of Emperor''s Might or the incarnate of a gaming god, you would still die today." The captain yelled fiercely.

    A Super guild might scare others but Sind was filled with ex-convicts andwless yers. Unlike the ''righteous'' guilds, they didn''t have an official base so they had nothing to fear about.

    "You really are persistent. Fine, let me educate you a bit."

    "Arggggh." As Yukino had concluded her speech, a scream immediately sounded out from the Sind camp but it wasn''t caused by Yukino as she had yet to attack.

    "When did you...?" Cursed Eye*****, the one who was on the receiving end of the attack questioned his attacker with surprise.

    "Just die." Swift de said before delivering the finishing strike, eliminating thatst chunk of HP that remained.

    Earlier on, Riddled Tree had stated that he had noticed one of the yers snooping around with their aura at its lowest. That very yer was Swift de, who was ordered by Chesces to attack the group the very second Yukino creates a distraction.

    The n turned out to be very effective as not only did Yukino seed by far, eliminating one of the yers, but Swift de also made good use of the distraction brought about by her appearance, finishing off one more figure. He had originally aimed for Riddled Tree as he was a support ss yer with healing abilities but Swift de changed his target when he got a weird feeling from his instincts. This proved to be a wise choice as despite Riddled Tree acting fragile with tons of open points, he was actually guarding against an attack. With the appearance of Yukino, Riddled Tree was quick to suspect that if there was more ambushers, they would likely aim for him, the group''s healer.

    "Shit." The captain of Sind cursed after seeing one more of his men falling before him again. He then rushed towards Swift de with the intent to kill him quickly after all, there was still the ''Queen'' there.

    "Your opponent is me." Yukino interrupted him halfway.

    "You guys handle him and keep your eye out for the rest."

    Facing Yukino, he continued

    "Come. Let me y with you a bit."

    Yukino frowned at the middle aged man before her. This wasn''t only because she was disgusted at his supercilious tone but she was also surprised by the fact that the man dared to take her on alone. After all, anyone who had her aw an opponent would immediately take to their heels much less an unknown figure from a low ranking power.

    "Good. It''s been awhile since anyone dared to face me with that attitude." (AN : Goro just fucking did!)

    One should remember that Yukino is a true ''Queen'', in other words, her fighting prowess is far more superior than any average peak expert much less an average expert. Despite being aware of this, the captain of Sind still dared to face her. Unless he was either foolish or arrogant, he should have some thing or some skill that he depends on.

    Taking an arrow from his quiver, the middle aged man set it on his bow and aimed at the Snow Goddess.

    "[Tracer]"

    *Phew*

    With a sound akin to that of a high speed missile, the arrow flew towards Yukino with the intent to kill.

    Even though the arrow was quite fast, for an expert at the level of Yukino, dodging it isn''t so much of a problem; especially with the wide gap between them.

    "Hmph." Disappointed at her opponent''sck of enthusiasm and strength when facing her, Yukino harrumphed before jumping towards her right while dashing towards the man.

    As the arrow flitted past her, it suddenly took a 180 degree turn, aiming right at her back with double the speed it had earlier, leaving a light red tail right behind it.

    With a shocked expression, Yukino was about to turn and deflect the arrow but the middle aged captain would let her be. Before the first arrow had made a sharp turn back towards Yukino, the man had quickly drawn two more arrows and fired them at a speed far greater than the first one he fired with the arrows attacking at different angles.

    The result of this action of his was that Yukino now had to face three different arrows; one from behind with two in front but at different angles, at almost the same time.

    *ng*

    *ng* *ng*

    Almost will forever remain almost. As a Peak expert, Yukino was able to use that minuscule dy in time between the three different arrows to dodge the first one and use her great sword as a shield against the other two.

    However, no matter how strong Yukino was, this was the early stage of the game and so the yers were still weak. The first arrow had caught her by surprise and even though she had dodged it, she didn''t do a perfect work at that as the arrow had managed to graze her.

    "I told you." The middle aged man smirked. "You are dying today."

    . . . . .

    "Griffin, keep the boss down. Mages assist him. The rest with me."

    After Yukino had made her entry, the team was initially shocked but still kept their focus on the boss. When Swift de had finished off Cursed Eye, Chesces gave the abovemand before leaving with the selected yers. His intention was to eliminate the intruders before finishing the boss. Chesces had purposefully taken his time because he had received a message from Yukino asking about his current status.

    As the man hailed as the ''5th Hand of the Emperor'', Chesces had seen a perfect n taking shape. He had requested[1] the Snow Goddess'' aid tounch a sneak attack on the opposing team and grab their attention. With that in mind, Chesces had made Swift de idle while the rest faced the boss[2]. In actuality, he had secretly informed Swift de to slowly hide his aura and sneak up to their enemies once Yukino had their attention, eliminating at least one of their yers.

    ''Now that the first phase has seeded, its time for the second phase.'' Chesces inwardly prepared himself.

    The second phase was for the team to divide into two groups; one group would handle the boss and keep it busy while the other would hurry over to assist Yukino and Swift de to quickly eliminate their adversaries before the first group would fall to the boss.

    The major difficulty Chesces had in this n was whom to select for each group. Apart from the MT, there needed to be one more physical ss yer to assist the MT. He had initially nned to let Sato and Fudo hold the boss down as they had done so previously.

    But of course, Chesces was aware that the state of things was different as when Sato and Fudo kept the boss busy, it was mostly due to the fact that the boss refused to abandon its formation which in this case, it was free to move about. He had nned to send them assistance in the form of Griffin and Kylian but even so, Chesces revised this n once more before cancelling it out.

    He eventually decided to have Griffin tank the boss while Kylian supplies him with the heals and the mages interrupt the boss'' moves. Chesces decided to let Sato go after he had witnessed his prowess while the both of them fought the boss. He also decided on Dream Tiger to follow Sato and help attack their enemies from afar, fulfilling the conditions of close and long rangebat yers and a powerful team to quickly eliminate their foes.

    "Sky de was it? I hope you won''t disappoint me." Dream Tiger said seriously as they ran towards the other team. The distance between them both was quite big so it would take them at least 6 seconds to reach. This was enough time for Dream Tiger to have a very short conversation with Sato as it was only the two of them who would assist Swift de and Yukino against .

    "Just don''t hold me back."

    AN :

    [1] Yes, ''requested'' not ''ordered''. Despite holding the title of a ''Hand of the Emperor'', Chesces'' rank is slightly below Yukino because, just like every other super guild, individual power is valued more. Yukino is seen as a genius in the guild and so her rank is quite special such that there are only very few people who can order her around.

    [2] If you were reading carefully, then you would have noticed that those who helmed the front in the battle with Sygrart were Griffin, Sato and Chesces.

 Chapter 79 - 76 : Three Kills

    (AN : So I''mma start feeding my MC with ''Arrogance Pills'' but not a lot. So get ready to witness the rise of a strong and arrogant cultivato¡­uh, gamer. Yep, gamer.)

    "Just don''t hold me back."

    Dream Tiger smiled lightly.

    It was the first time someone, who wasn''t even a titled yer, had talked to him about holding them back. Even his guild leader, Troubled Sword Daichi, wouldn''t so easily make such a boastful statement. Despite so, Dream Tiger didn''t talk back; not that he didn''t want to rather, he believed that Sato might be qualified to say such. Even though he hadn''t seen much of his fighting skill or martial arts, Sato''s control and usage of his strength made him wonder whether the face beneath the hood belonged to a ''False King'' or a great expert.

    As expected, after Sato had replied they had already closed up the gap between them and Sind.

    As soon as they saw each other, Sato ran towards the assassin, Devis, as the other two; Sind''s captain and the guardian, Rock, were both being held back by Yukino and Swift de respectively. Also, it would be easier for him to face a closebat ss yer than a long range one.

    On the other side, Dream Tiger targeted Riddled Tree as battling a mage would be easier for him than facing an assassin. This had lead to the reinforcement unknowingly selecting different opponents and not interfering with one another.

    Because of their timely arrival, they had seeded in lessening the load of Swift de, who had to face three opponents since the captain of Sind had taken Yukino all for himself [1]. A few secondster and Swift de would have been a goner as he could hardly hold up against the assault of the three, having less than 40% HP remaining.

    Seeing this, Swift de temporarily retreated from the battle while facing Sato.

    "Kuro! [2] Would you mind helping me a bit with that Guardian okay? I''ll owe you. Thanks."

    Without waiting for reply, Swift de moved away to find a safe spot where he could take in HP potions before it''s toote.

    "Hehe. Die!" Devis sprung forth and stabbed towards Sato when he saw that he was focused on Swift de.

    "[Charge]"

    Rock, the team''s guardian, dashed towards Sato with the idea of working alongside Devis to get rid of him.

    One in front with another on the side. Despite being somewhat surrounded, Sato remained calm and faced his enemies.

    "Confronting me was your worst mistake."

    Sato darted towards Devis as he felt that he was the most dangerous figure between the two. With his sword held high, Sato shed towards Devis.

    *ng*

    The sound of two metals colliding, rang out after the attempt.

    "I''m also your opponent." Rock stated with his shield in between him and Sato. The sound earlier was a result of his act of blocking Sato''s attack with his shield.

    Normally, Sato''s speed is far ahead of Rock but since he had used the Guardian ss'' [Charge] skill which grants a speed boost, he had made it in time before Sato could reach Devis.

    "Die!" Using the chance Sato was focused on Rock, Devis followed from the side and hacked his short sword at Sato.

    "Hmph." Sato retreated back by a few steps.

    Seeing their prey retreat, Devis and Rock took it as his weakness and chased after him with Rock making the first move while Devis followed up.

    "Reinforcements?"

    When he had seen Sato and Dream Tiger arrive, the middle aged man who was entangled with Yukino in a fight, frowned a bit. However he soon rxed after seeing that they were only two yers with the others focused on the boss.

    "Only two? You underestimate us a lot. Doesn''t matter though as it''s to our advantage. You will all die in a bit and the boss kill would go to us."

    Even though there were only 4 Sind yers left which was pretty much the same number as their attackers, the man was quite confident that they will win. After all he was quite confident that in the main battle, which is between him and Yukino, he woulde through as he victor.

    "Enough y, just die."

    The Snow Goddess, Yukino, charged at him with a great sword in hand.

    "That was what I was about to say to you."

    The middle aged man took three arrows from his quiver and swiftly arranged them on his bow before aiming at his opponent like a hunter would target a prey.

    The arrows he used this time around were different from the regr ones a s they were painted with yellow stripes on a brown background. Looking at the brown colouring, one would think that the arrow was made of wood and in fact, it actually was. However the wood wasn''t your everyday tree branch.

    In Infinite Realm, yers are given a weapons and equipment together with a few necessities and local products. In the case of those in the vicinity of Riverdale an ck Mountain[3] towns, they received basic low-tier mortal rank equipment and weapons, 25 copper coins, a jar of water, a loaf of bread, a novice map and a jar of sour wine. The jar of sour wine served as the local product, which was actually a key to an impressive mission(AN: Which we already know).

    In the case of Rangers, whose arrows had to be constantly reced at times, their arrows weren''t actually at the low-tier mortal rank but at themon rank[4]. However, these arrows the middle aged man had pulled out were at the low tier Mortal rank.

    Even though there was the difference of one rank between the arrows, this difference was insurmountable after all, at the low tier mortal rank, weapons and equipment encounter a qualitative change as a result of the instition of mana.

    Mumbling in a low voice, he said

    "Martial Technique, Drifting shot."

    As he spoke, he let go of the arrows, which sped towards Yukino. Unlike the previous arrows he had fired earlier, these ones were far more quicker. Not only did they have a zing red trail behind them, the red trails had a bit of yellow in them and their tips glistened a bit in this somewhat dark environment.[5]

    The zing tails of the arrows wasn''t only as a result of the friction between the arrows and the air but rather they were the signs of vigorous mana being used to increase the speed of the arrows. Even though non-mage sses aren''t able to use mana like mages, some of them still can use mana, though only with the help of special skills. In the case of a Ranger, their arrows, especially ranked arrows[6], possess the ability to use mana and might have some skills engraved on them.

    The arrows moved with an amazing speed and a really pretty view behind but Yukino didn''t have the time to admire them.

    Even though the middle aged man had let go of the three arrows at the same time and at the same direction, the arrows had actually spread far apart with oneing from the right, the other from the left and thest was directly in front of Yukino.

    Unlike the previous attack, these arrows were all arriving at the same time, leaving Yukino no chance to face them one at a time. Three arrows from three directions, moving at an impressive speed making it difficult to dodge. Yukino only had the option of blocking them as she had almost no time to escape.

    Frowning, Yukino held her great sword with both hands before using the Lotus sword art''s 2nd form, 3 leaf block.

    *ng* *ng* *ng*

    *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

    Once again, Yukino stood still in the face and blocked the attacks but because they weren''t regr arrows, with a special effect granted thanks to the mana bonus, the arrows exploded upon contact with her sword forcing her three steps backwards before she regained her stance. She also received a slight loss in HP due to the force of the explosion of the arrows.

    A regr human being can''t withstand a close range explosion such as this one even if they responded exactly as Yukino did. Thanks to the physique and strength of yers however, they can survive such an attack and only receive minor damage.

    Not nning on giving her breathing space, the middle aged man followed up his attacks with a few more arrows, but unlike the previous three, these ones were regr arrows; in other wordsmon ranked.

    "[Parry]!"

    With a swing of her sword, Yukino deflected the other arrows and stood still facing the man.

    "Impressive, I must say." The middle aged man apuded.

    "If I''m correct, you are Three Kills." Yukino frowned as she stared at Sind''s captain.

    "Oh? Looks like I''m still remembered. Indeed, I''m Three Kills. So what then eh? What about it?" Three Kills smirked evilly.

    Three Kills, a forgotten name that had once brought terror to the hearts of yers. A lot of people may not know what this name meant but as a member of a Super guild, Yukino had more than enough faculties to know.

    Three Kills was a former famous VR gamer 5 years ago. He was deemed as the next one to step into the titled realm of yers and possibly be a monster ranked expert. A monster rank expert, a pir ss individual for Super guilds and peak first tier guilds. The difficulty in reaching this realm was unimaginable but the benefits and gains were more than enough satisfaction.

    For Three Kills to have been predicted to reach this realm this proved to show how strong he was. In other words, Three Kills was a ''false King'' and not an ordinary one at that.

    He had gotten the name Three Kills after battling two other ''False Kings'' and one true ''King''ing out on top as thest one standing. Yes, he had killed a true ''King'' while still being a ''False King''. It had always been believed that no matter what, a ''false King'' can never beat a true ''King'' in a fair match. But Three Kills had overturned this belief, breaking this unwritten rule and smashing it into pieces, bing a man who''s name should have been forever remembered as a pioneer of great deeds.

    Nheless, Three Kills'' gaming future had ended after he was charged with a few crimes on his head a few of which were sexual assault, corruption, tax evasion and also attempted murder. Such crimes are normally shunned and it became even worse in this era, especially for murder even if it''s just attempted. He was trialed guilty and went to jail with an judgement sentence of 3 years in imprisonment. The reason why his sentence was only 3 years was because he had a few powerful friends and also the attempted murder was eventually ruled as self defence otherwise, Three Kills would have been in jail for 85 years.

    With such an amount of time, everyone believed that his gaming career was over as even if he were to leave prison, no big guild would want an ex-convict in their line-up.

    "Even if you know who I am, what difference does it make? Entertain me better this time around or else you will die."

    AN :

    [1] This line sounds weird...

    [2] Japanese for ck. Swift de doesn''t know Sato''s name so he calls him ck since he was wearing a ck cloak. Rather than shouting ''ck'', I felt that using the Japanese trantion would be better.

    [3] It''s highly possible that in previous chapters, I had called it ''ck Rock Town''. This is an error. The town ought to be ''ck Mountain Town'' but the city is called ''ck Rock City''.

    [4] Refer to chapter 32.

    [5] I think I had previously mentioned that the boss'' chamber only has a couple candles as lightning, right¡­?

    [6] Ranking starts from the Low tier Mortal rank. Common rank isn''t an official rank.. Refer to chapter 32 again.

 Chapter 80 - 77 : Sato Gets Serious

    (AN: As I rushed this, errors might be present. Please do notify me of any )

    "Hehehe. That little princess will die under boss three Kills'' onught and you will soon follow her. At that time, you will finally test grandma Meng Po''s soup.[1]" Riddled Tree taunted his opponent even while dodging the flitting arrows.

    "Hmph. Don''t feel so smug yet; the battle isn''t over." Dream Tiger harrumphed before shooting 2 more arrows at him.

    As they were both long range yers, and expert yers at that, it would take quite some time for a victor to be decided between the two of them. Despite having not defeated his opponent, Dream Tiger had still seeded in getting the upper hand of the battle, forcing Riddled Tree to be on the defensive, only having the option of dodging his attacks and counter attacking once in awhile.

    Nheless Riddled Tree was still alive and well. Even though he a druid, which was more of a support ss than abat ss, Riddled Tree was still able to hold out against Dream Tiger, going far as even taunting him mid battle. This proved to show that he wasn''t an ordinary character whatsoever.

    "Hehe. No worries, you will soon be dead. Till then though, I don''t mind ying with you a bit."

    . . . . .

    On the other side, Devis and Rock were still having a somewhat difficult time defeating Sato. Sato, despite facing two opponents, had a calm look on his face but a calm look isn''t all it takes to winning a battle. Faced with two expert yers, Sato was forced to constantly be on the defensive with no chance to counter. Even when he tried to counter-attack, one of the yers would interrupt him, forcing Sato back on the defense. This lead to Sato being on the receiving end and he inevitably got injured in the battle. To an outside figure, it was already a miracle that he still held out against the onught but only Sato knew that he was still holding back against them.

    *ng* *ng*

    "Die!" Devis yelled as he saw an opportunity to attack.

    *ng*

    Sato was quick to respond, cing his sword in between himself and Devis'' short sword.

    "You''ve been screaming ''Die, Die'' but I''m still standing in front of you. Do you still have any bit of pride and dignity left eh?" Sato taunted his opponent.

    Normally, this wasn''t his style but rather Fudo''s but as the saying goes, if a child ys with ink, his hands will also be colored ck[2]. After spending quite some time with Fudo, he had learned Fudo''s annoying behaviour but that wasn''t all. Sato decided to taunt Devis to try and destabilise his mind.

    "Hmph. You will still die no matter what you say." Devis angrilyshed back.

    ''That guy has been off to the side for awhile now. If I''m correct, he should take about 10 more seconds before he returns to the battle again.'' Sato inwardly grumbled.

    Swift de had not only gone off to drink a few health potions but to also wait out the cool-down of some of his skills, with the intention of returning to battle at an almost peak state.

    Since Sato and Dream Tiger had joined the battle now, only 4-5 seconds had passed by. For swift de''s health to restore back to full and also for his skills to be off cool-down, Sato estimated at least 10 seconds for this to be achieved.

    "Mountain Cleaver!" Rock yelled before using a martial skill against Sato.

    Normally, high level martial techniques and arts are quite rare and difficult to practice unless one starts from young. Mountain Cleaver was a verymon martial skill taught in quite a lot of dojos in real life as such, even Rock knew it. Despite being somon, it didn''t be famous just for its poprity or rather, it gained it poprity due to a certain factor and that was that it strength was undeniable.

    Sato easily saw the attacking and being the pro swordsman he was, Sato easily saw through the attack. Despite so, Sato didn''t counter-attack nor did he try to break the technique instead, he dodged the attack. This was because Devis had also struck at almost the same time and if Sato had focused on Rock''s attack, he would have been caught in Devis'' assault.

    ''I can''t keep being forced back otherwise I might actually die.''

    Taking a step forward, Sato hacked out with his sword. From a third person view, it didn''t seem like there was any sword skill or martial art attached to it; just a simple sword sh.

    Rock, who happened to be the closest to the attack, reacted quickly and ced his shield on front of himself. However he misunderstood Sato''s intentions. The sword took a turn at thest minute and headed for Devis who was preparing tounch another assault on Sato. This was possible because both Devis and Rock were quite close to each other after their previous assault against Sato had failed.

    "Thinking you could get rid of me that easily? Dream on!"

    Despite being surprised at Sato''s advance, Devis still reacted well, moving towards the strike rather than retreating.

    ''It''s a good thing this punk decided to attack otherwise the other one would have joined up.''

    Indeed, Devis and Rock truly wanted Sato dead. They were already upset at the fact that despite the both of them teaming up against 1 yer, they still couldn''t end him quickly. Even worse, their target had been somehow able to avoid their attacks at the veryst minute as if he had predicted it or had eyes behind his head. If the battle had went on as it previously had, Devis and Rock wouldn''t be able to eliminate Sato before Swift de arrived. They then decided to keep forcing him on the edge and sooner orter, Sato would decide to counter. At that point, Rock would hold his attention while Devis wouldnd the finishing strike.

    Though things didn''t go as nned, as Sato had aimed for Devis instead of Rock, they still believed that they had this in the bag. Why? Because Devis was an assassin. As an assassin, it was verymon for his [Agility] and [Dexterity] stats to be higher than the other sses. Plus the natural physique bonus granted to assassins together with his expert skills, it was undeniable that Sato would lose out in a one-on-one against Devis. Well, this was what they thought anyway.

    *ng*

    As Sato''s sword closed up to him, Devis struck out with his short sword and shed with Sato however he felt something different, something that shocked him.

    ''He''s stronger?''

    Devis felt like the power contained in this sh was a few time stronger than Sato''s previous attacks. So powerful was the sh that it sent him two steps backwards.

    ''Shit!''

    This discement in his footing was more than enough of an opportunity for Sato to attack again.

    "Hold it!" Rock roared as he swung his weapon at Sato.

    "I''ve been waiting."

    Sato abruptly turned and shed at Rock.

    Because he was rushing towards Sato to attack him plus he believed that Sato was fully focused on attacking Devis, Rock never actually thought that he was Sato''s real target.

    The assault on Devis was nothing more than bait for Rock to drop his guard. Sato already expected that the duo would try to force him to bite back under their continuous onught. Even though he knew that making such an action would be no different from stepping into their trap, Sato decided to do it. Heck, he even had a gorgeous idea in mind and that was to use their own trap against them; turning it into his own trap.

    Sato first made it look like he was attacking Rock before abruptly changing his target to Devis. This would make it seem to his opponents as if he was confusing them and his main target was actually the assassin. With that in mind, Devis would hold him down while Rock tried to strike him down. But even at that, the duo wouldn''t easily drop their guard.

    In other for that to happen, Devis had to be in an actual perilous situation that was extremely favorable to Sato. This would force Rock to swiftly react, forgetting to keep his guard up against his foe because he would be preupied with the thought of saving his partner and he would believe that Sato wouldn''t n on hesitating with such an opportunity presented before him.

    That was exactly where he made a mistake as to Sato, handling Devis was never his intention at all; even if he had a good chance to do so, he would rather use it as a trap for Rock. Once Rock had now focused his attention on saving Devis, he had already stepped into the ntedndmine.

    For this to seed, Sato had to overpower an assassin who had a natural advantage in [Agility] and [Dexterity]. To do this, he had relied on his power weapons that provided amazing attributes for him, together with the extra attribute points he had received from his sub-ss. Even though Sind wasparable to a 2nd tier guild, due to their low numbers andckadaisical attitude to the other elements of the game, none of them had actually discovered that sub-sses give an extra level''s worth of attribute points. Thatbined with Sato''s recent level after battling the trolls, he was far ahead of Devis in terms of attributes but he never used his full power against them.

    Sato only decided to do so now, after making them drop their guard against him and taking him as a push-over. This would enable him to cause more damage as they would believe that he is actually below their ability after gaining the upper hand against him.

    Sato didn''t stop at one strike as he released sh after sh on Rock''s body. Even with the armor and high [Defense], Rock''s HP was dropping at a very fast rate.

    "Bastard!"

    Regaining his senses after feeling the pain from the attacks, Rock lifted his weapon to strike at Sato. Devis, on the other hand, had already regained his bnce and hadunched himself towards Sato.

    One in front and one by the side, Sato finally understood a bit of what it meant to be surrounded but he didn''t waver at all neither did he retreat.

    Facing Rock who was the closest to him, he blocked his axe strike[3] and repelled it with the [Parry] skill. Next was Devis'' strike which was quite close to his chest already as Sato was focused on Rock. Nheless, Sato didn''t dither as he swung his sword and pushed away Devis'' de while sending Rock flying a few metres away with a kick.

    "You will need more than that to stop me!" Devis yelled fearlessly before striking out again but this time, with a martial skill and abat skill.

    "Three Fang strike [Shadow Strike]"

    Immediately, two different phantoms of Devis sword took shape beside the original. One shouldn''t underestimate it as they weren''t illusions but actual strikes. Devis had attacked so quickly that it looked like he had produced illusions.

    The Three Fang Strike was a special martial art where one had to attack three times at the same time in a particr pattern and angle. Normally, Devis couldn''t use the Three Fang Strike on his own but with the help of the skill [Shadow Strike], which boosts his [Attack Speed] by 15%, he was able to pull it off.

    "Now die!"

    *ng* *ng* *ng*

    Three ''ngs'' rang out as Sato easily blocked the attack without breaking a sweat.

    "What? How?! Impossible!" Devis began shivering.

    The Three Fang Strike was his finishing martial technique, a high level one at that. His strong suit, the pi¨¨ce de r¨¦sistance associated with him. It was the very skill that had brought him glory in Sind and Sato easily blocked it. Not even those high figure in 2nd tier guilds would do it as easily and as smoothly as Sato did.

    "Is that it? Is that all there is to you? Showing such a flowery move is so dumb. Let me show you how a sword should be used."

    Sato shed out again and like previously, he didn''t use any martial art of skill, just his brute strength and force as a yer.

    Because Devis was stunned at Sato blocking his attack, he couldn''t react on time and even if he could, Sato''s attributes far surpassed his so he could easily catch up to Devis.

    "Arghh."

    The sword came crashing down and apanied by its fall was the sound of Devis'' scream. With fear in his eyes, Devis tried to retreat.

    "A sword is meant to kill¡­" Sato''s voice sounded out.

    As Devis was about to retreat, Sato shed out again, injuring him and diminishing his HP even more. Nheless, Devis didn''t want to give up retreating.

    "If the sword cannot kill it''s target, then what is the point of sword skills."

    Sato shed out again at Devis, who was trying to escape, and this time he finally used a skill, the signature skill of all current swordsmen, [Horizontal sh].

    "No¡­"

    With Devis'' unwilling cries, his body fell down as blood sttered all over the ce.

    "I hope you haveprehended the art of swords."

    AN :

    [1] Chinese Mythology. Grandma Meng Po is the goddess of forgetfulness that serves a special soup to dead souls that are about to reincarnate. The soup is a brainwashing liquid, like literally. It wipes your memory clean.

    [2] Can''t remember where exactly I learnt this proverb(or idiom?) from. The same as ying in muddy waters, it simply means that when someone associates with something for awhile, they tend to learn or copy a few things from it.

    [3] I don''t know whether I had given Rock a weapon but it''s now an axe.

 Chapter 81 - 78 : Silver Fury

    "Devis is dead? Just like that?" Rock stared in utter astonishment at the body of hisrade thatid on the floor.

    Devis was an expert yer and even though he wasn''t the strongest of his rank[1], he was an undeniable expert yer. Yet still, he couldn''tst against Sato; even worse, he perished under 3 moves.

    Even though this could be attributed to Devis cing most of his attribute points in [Agility] and [Dexterity], he still had at least 100 HP. Adding in the attributes gotten from his defensive equipment and the rest, among which his short sword was a level 5 Upper tier Mortal rank weapon, Devis should havested more than 3 strikes. Even a level 5 elite monster or a level 6mon monster couldn''t achieve what Sato had done.

    ''Is he a demon?!'' Rock stared at him with fear in his eyes.

    In fact, Sato wasn''t really a demon but it was due to the extra attributes and higher level he had that gave him the upper hand. But even that wouldn''t have been enough to overpower Devis and end him in 3 moves. A major part to Sato''s sess was his exquisite control over his ability and strength together with his wise nning. It might have looked like Sato had struck randomly but in actual fact, he hacked at Devis'' open and weak points.

    Earlier on, Sato had reached the conclusion that if one strikes at an obvious critical point for example the knee, their chances ofnding a critical hit increases and even if the critical hit didn''t appear, the damage they would deal would be slightly higher than other parts. Sato confirmed this fact while battling the one-horned trolls and so he decided to try it against a yer after all, yers and monsters were two different creatures. The end result was Devis'' death.

    "I can''t believe that kid seeded¡­" Swift de stared at Sato in awe.

    Initially, he didn''t have much faith in Sato being able to hold back those two despite so, he still retreated to recuperate from the damages he had sustained. Swift de only hoped that Sato held on for just a few seconds after which he would make his second appearance. However Sato had brought him shock, and of the good kind, as he not only held on against the two but he had also eliminated one of them, giving the team the numbers advantage against their adversaries.

    . . . . .

    Three Kills frowned in vexation, upon seeing the result of the confrontation between Sato and Devis and Rock. Even though he was faced with the strongest yer present, Three Kills still held on, having enough time to even survey the other battles that were going on.

    When he saw that Sato was still holding his one against the onught of two of his expert ss yers, Three Kills was slightly surprised but he still believed that Devis and Rock knew what was best and would finish him off before Swift de returned to the fight. Never in his wildest dreams did he think that Sato would actually end the life of one his men.

    Nheless, Three Kills didn''t overreact but kept his cool. This was because the deciding factor of the battle would be his and Yukino''s fight. As long as he quickly finished off Yukino, no one present here will be able to hold him off.

    For this part, Three Kills had a lot of faith in himself even though the one before him was a ''Queen''. The reason why? Because the way he saw it, Yukino was just recently rewarded the title plus despite having the title, she was still in essence, a Pinnacle expert; the exact same rank as he was. Three Kills believed that no matter what, Yukino couldn''t defeat him. To even prove this, he was battling her but still had the time and opportunity to pay attention to the other fights going on.

    . . . . .

    "Good." Chesces smirked after he caught a nce of Sato killing Devis.

    Chesces had originally decided to let Sato work with Dream Tiger as reinforcement and he didn''t have so much faith in this decision of his. It even became worse once he saw Sato being pushed back by Devis and Rock. In Chesces'' won opinion, he would have handled things a lot better than Sato. Nheless, he could only regret as the decision had already been made.

    Now seeing Sato end devis so easily, Chesces became happy and thought maybe leaving Sato to handle things wasn''t a bad decision.

    "Kra!"

    "Captain, pay attention."

    "Oh! My bad."

    . . . . .

    After killing Devis, Sato didn''t hurry off to finish Rock rather he went to Devis'' lifeless body. Once he was close to the body, a [Loot] icon appeared on top, visible to only him. Clicking on the icon, Sato waited for just a millisecond before a bright sh appeared apanied by the appearance of a weapon; the short sword Devis had wielded.

    [[ Silver Fury : Upper Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 30

    Requirement : Level 5 || 12 [Agility]

    [Attack Speed] +10

    [Attack Power] +15

    Skills :

    Silver Fury : Active : sh out 3 silver shes with 140% [Attack Power] as base damage. Cool-down : 7 seconds. ]]

    "An upper tier mortal weapon? It''s stats are quite impressive but itcks whenpared to Fudo''s ck Alder Staff."

    If Devis was alive to see this, he would pretty much spit blood and a huge amount of it at that.

    The short sword was his precious weapon which had gotten from a field hunt earlier on. It was the only piece of upper tier mortal weapon he had. Devis couldn''t be med for this as weapons were quite rare and unless one had a lot of money to spare(AN: In-Game money of course), one could only depend on their luck to get a good weapon like this.

    To make things worse, Sato was actually looking down on the weapon. However, he shouldn''t be med. Fudo''s ck Alder Staff was made with a 2 star material by a Master Scribe so of course it would be stronger. Even for weapons of the same rank and tier, there would still be a few obvious differences in strength between them and this was mostly due to the material and the maker.

    "Alright. Now, who''s next?" Sato said as he stared at Rock the guardian.

    When his eyes met with Sato''s, Rock felt a slight shiver run through his spine as cold sweat drenched his back. Even still, he stood firm and held his axe and shield because there was no path to retreat once he had stepped into this chamber.

    At that time, Rock had thought that if he were to die, it would be at the hands of the boss at most. Never did he know that there was another demon in there but it was now toote for regrets.

    AN :

    Might as well spoil it here; even though I have given the general categorisation of yer skills(Check in Infinite Facts), there are still slight differences in skill. For example, not every expert yer is equally ranked. A perfect example would be the ''title level''. Though not an officially ranking, as it contains both Monster ranks and peak experts, it clearly differentiates between regr peak experts and the more stronger ones who end up receiving a ''King/Queen'' title. You can take it as the individual ranks further being divided into 3, example: peak, mid and early experts.. Devis is in between early and mid.

 Chapter 82 - 79 : Overview

    "Haha. Leave him be, let me handle him." Swift de chuckled as he ran towards Rock.

    Sato stared at him with a visible frown on his face but in the end, he left Rock to the hands of Swift de to do as he pleased.

    It wasn''t that Sato was scared of Swift de neither was it because he didn''t have enough strength to beat Rock, on the contrary he had more than enough strength to do so.

    Sato chose to take a step back and let his ally handle the the opponent because he felt that there was no reason for him to struggle for the kill. As a ''righteous yer'', he couldn''t receive experience from killing a yer and since he already got a valuable loot from Devis'' death, he felt that there was no need for him to struggle for Rock''s life. Rather than sow a potential seed of hatred in his ally, that could possible tear the team further apart,Sato decided to retreat.

    On the good side Sato could make this ally of his see him a brighter light plus he could also use this period to recover his HP and also wait out his skill''s cool-down. On the bad side, he would lose out on a possible loot which the value and rank is unknown and possibly offend the man. With his opponent''s strength and support, it would be better for Sato not to get in a conflict with him unnecessarily. Any sensible man would see the right choice and take it.

    Rather than chase after an unknown prize, Sato obviously chose to settle for the best viable option. Of course, this didn''t mean that he would he take a step back when a great treasure is presented before him.

    Putting his hand into his bag, Sato took out a health vial and downed its contents into his throat. At the same time, he set his sights on the battle in front between the yers and the boss.

    Sato didn''t worry much about Yukino facing off Three Kills after all she was a titled Pinnacle expert. To have gotten her title as a ''Queen'' Yukino must have had the strength to back it up. Also, Sato was trying his best to avoid any big figure so the idea of helping Yukino was quickly banished from his thoughts.

    . . . . .

    "Kra !"

    With the improvements he[1] had received from the talent [Limit Breaker], Sygrart''s strength had increased a bit. Normally the yers would have been able to handle it but since they had divided, with most of the physical ss yers busying themselves with Sind, it became quite a difficult chore for them to handle Sygrart by themselves alone. Despite that, they still held on, thanks to thebined effort of Chesces''mands, Griffin''s MT abilities and the timely assists from the mages.

    "You humans have humiliated me far enough. Die!"

    Sygrart roared as he used both hands and conjured a spear of mes that took form in front of him while a shield enveloped around him.

    It seemed that Sygrart was vexed at the fact that despite the reduction in their numbers, his foes were still able to hold him back.Thanks to the games engine and mechanics, this anger resulted in a further slight increase in Sygrart''s strength on top of the effects of the [Limit Breaker] talent. This was reflected in the spear that just took form.

    Unlike the previous green mes Sygrart had been using, this one had a bit of blue mixed within it, giving it an ethereal and alluring look. Despite looking fascinating and exceptional to the eye, this attack was extremely deadly. Like the saying, all that glitters isn''t necessarily gold, this attack was in no way ''gold'' to the yers despite its dazzling appearance. The ming spear was an utter confirmation of the saying ''danger hides in beauty''.

    Even with the distance between them and the attack, the yers'' rm senses were not just tingling but ringing, you could even say it was roaring. The air around the spear had even heated up and became somewhat twisted and wavy due to the high temperature.

    "If that hits me, then I''m gone¡­" Griffin said in shock.

    "Then don''t let it!" Chesces yelled. "Mages, interrupt him!"

    The mages began casting spells andunching it at Sygrart but because of the shield around him, their attacks didn''t affect him. The melee yers didn''t dare to get close because they were afraid that the spear would suddenlyunch at them.

    "Hehehe." Sygrart grinned before pointing both his hands that formed the spear towards Griffin. As he did so, the ming spear that took form a bit ahead of him, also pointed over to Griffin.

    "[Minor Bulwark] !" Griffin roared as he raised his shield to an appropriate height to properly intercept the attack.

    Seeing that this attack was even stronger than the previous ones, Kylian decided to stop holding back and yelled

    "[Nature''s Buff] !" [2]

    The [Nature''s Buff] spell was a high level spell that he had found in a field hunt. Though it couldn''t be described as an OP buff spell, its effect were still alright for current yers but it is even more useful for MT sses.

    Despite seeing all their actions, Sygrart still kept his grin on. Pushing his hands forward a bit, Sygrart propelled the ming spear and with a ''boom'', it set off towards Griffin.

    ''Impressive'' Chesces was inwardly awe-struck by the speed of the attack.

    If even Chesces was impressed by the speed, less should be said of Griffin, who was the spear''s target.

    ''Shit!'' Griffin inwardly cursed.

    Of course, as the target of the attack, Griffin wasn''t in the position to admire the attack.

    *Boom*!

    A loud explosion sounded out as the spear collided with Griffin''s shield.

    "Did he survive?" Even as Kylian wanted tiplete his statement, they saw a figure fly out from the smoke beforending 5 metres away.

    "Griffin!"

    Indeed, the body that flew out belonged to Griffin however, he wasn''t quite dead yet.

    "Where''s the boss?" Fudo suddenly asked.

    "!!!" Everyone turned towards where the boss originally stood with shock in their eyes.

    "Arghhh!!!" A scream sounded out.

    "That''s¡­" Chesces abruptly turned towards where the mages stood.

    What awaited his sight was the boss standing close to Drunken Hog. No, not just standing close to, more like Sygrart held Drunken Hog by the neck like a chicken awaiting to be ughtered.

    "Damn, how did he get behind us so quickly?" Chesces cursed.

    Even though he asked this, Chesces already knew part of it, he was still surprised. The idea behind the boss''s move was that the boss had made use of the explosion, which resulted from the collision of the ming arrow and Griffin, to form a distraction. Rather than finishing off Griffin as one would normally expect, Sygrart used him as a distraction and then sneaked over to the mages'' side. With everyone''s focus on griffin, they had temporarily forgotten about Sygrart as they wanted to know whether their MT was still safe and sound. This easily gave Sygrart the chance to go behind them and capture one of the yers and the yers, who were still stuck in their old-fashioned thoughts and ideas about monsters, never expected this to happen.

    From this, it could be seen that they still hadn''tpletely adjusted to facing a monster with true intellect, unlike those puppets that only pay attention to the MT or the highest damage dealer.

    "Die."

    *Crack*

    *Boom* *boom* *boom*

    Sygrart continuously applied pressure to Drunken Hog''s neck till it broke while also bombarding his body with fireballs, using his free hand. Under such continuous onught and with a very serious critical damage, Drunken Hog''s body had given up his ghost.

    "Damn." Chesces cursed but he didn''t dare to rush towards Sygrart. He was but a false MT, if he actually dashed towards the boss, he would be doing nothing more than jumping into the mouth of a tiger. Only with Griffin by his side could he manage to hold the boss back.

    . . . . .

    ''It looks like they won''tst that long¡­''

    AN :

    Once again, the boss is described with ''he'' rather than ''it''. Its official, unless I''m addressing an inanimate creature.

    [2] [Nature''s Buff] : Active : Increase basic attributes by 5% with a 7% increase in [Endurance] and [Vitality]. There''s also a +5% buff in [Mana Affinity] for mages.

    Cool-down : 30 seconds.

    [3] Emperor''s Might gained a lot from their field battles so don''t be surprised anymore.. The forces they can mobilize is far beyond the other guilds.

 Chapter 83 - 80 : Fighting Riddled Tree

    *Thud*

    A body dripping with a dark red liquid, dropped in a puddle of the exact same liquid. Looking closer, as one would expect, it was actually blood that stained both the body and the floor. There was the smell of burnt flesh and blood circting around the body.

    The body had a lot of burnt holes on it with the head twisted to the left side. There was still an expression of horror and unwillingness disyed on the face. Upon further inspection, the owner of the body looked like a middle aged man though he was actually older.

    Beside the body stood a 5 foot dark green creature with ck patterns painted on it. Apart from the mana that actively gather around the creature, another noticeable fact was the irritating grin stered on its face. The monster was outrightly mocking its opponent after it had ended the life of one of them and let off some steam from the beating it had earlier received.

    As the bodynded on the ground, it began to disintegrate at a quick pace. Not just the body, but the blood too.

    After the first battle the yers had with the Emissary, all of those who died at its hands discovered that they couldn''t log back into the game. All they got was that their ''true essence'' had been stolen with their immortal soul slightly hurt.

    Notprehending the weird jargon being disyed, one yer finally decided to report to the Heaven System[1] after which he received a reply. ording to the Heaven System, the Emissary had taken the essence but in simpler terms, a part of the souls, in the blood of the deceased . Because of this, the yers would be temporary blocked from being logged into the game, for at least 10 hours; in other words, 20 in-game hours. Of course this was only for the yers who died specifically at the hands of the Emissary and those whose blood were obtained by the Emissary.

    After much deliberation, investigation and inspection, the yers finally discovered the ''quick disintegration'' feature which eliminates any trace of their remains after death. Using those who had lost their essence to the Emissary as an example and a warning, most of the yers had turned on this feature for themselves with only the daring, and probably foolish, of men doing the opposite.

    "What a loss¡­"

    ncing at the body and blood that had rapidly begun disintegrating, the goblin felt unsettled.

    Sygrart was informed, prior to his departure, by the Emissary that those who will aim for it would mostly be the ''chosen ones'' as such, he should try to take a bit of their essence. He had even taught Sygrart a soul stealing technique to do so. However, with the death of Drunken Hog, Sygrart discovered that the technique didn''t work. He was initially shocked but after seeing Drunken Hog''s body disintegrate before him, he understood what had happened.

    "Hehe. Are you talking about the body? Don''t worry, you will follow him to." Fudo chuckled. Even though one of them had died, he realized that he had to raise their morale a bit and lighten the mood up otherwise they will surely perish.

    "No, I''m pretty sure he would be going to monster hell." Chescesmented.

    As a tactician, it didn''t take him long to realize what Fudo was trying to do and so he supported him.

    "Kylian, heal Griffin and get him up to shape. Also, give me a few boost and tell the mage beside you to cooperate with me." Chesces sent a voice message to Kylian. This was a special feature in Infinite Realm where yers who have added each other as friends and are in the same party system can send mental voice messages. In other words, they said messages with their minds. A handy way of sending information. Though it seems simple, if used properly, it can be the turning feature for a battle. However, this feature still has a few limitations which includes distance between recipient and sender and also word count.

    "Alright."

    . . . . .

    ''They should be able to hold on for at least 30 seconds.'' Sato inwardly sighed before surveying all the other battles going on.

    ''That swordsman should be able to beat that Guardian. As for Yukino''s fight, she should be to win.'' Sato looked at all the fights. By ''that swordsman'', he was referring to Swift de who had somewhat taken his ''kill'' away from him. For Yukino''s battle, Sato had a lot of faith in her and considering that he didn''t want to meet any big figures, he never nned to interfere in that battle of her''s.

    ''Then that leaves...'' Sato narrowed his eyes.

    . . . . .

    "Hahaha, give up already; you won''t beat me anytime soon." Riddled Treeughed while running around the ce.

    "You talk too much." Dream Tiger said with a lot of annoyance in his voice.

    He, the most treasured yer of East Crow Guild, had actually fought a one-on-one battle withan unknown dark yer and still couldn''t get the upper hand. To make things worse, the other parties identity was that of a druid, a supporting ss. If this were to be known by others, Dream Tiger might end up as aughing stock.

    "Die!"

    "Hahaha, aren''t you tired of screaming that already?" Riddled Tree mocked his opponent.

    "Then I guess it''s your turn to start screaming." A voice sounded out behind him.

    "Who the hell?!" Riddled Tree yelled out in surprise as he tried to move away from the voice.

    *Puchi*

    Even though he tried, Riddled Tree still didn''t try enough as a steel sword prated him from behind with its glistening tip appearing from his abdomen.

    "Damn."

    Riddled Tree cursed as he budged his body from the sword.

    Seeing this, Dream Tiger wouldn''t let him go that easily. He nocked an arrow onto his bow and quickly fired at Riddled Tree, not giving him the time to breathe.

    "Shit." Riddled Tree was stunned but he still reacted swiftly, using his stafff to deflect the arrow.

    While he did so, the previous attacker appeared once more shing his sword at him. With his face now turned to the attacker, Riddled Tree finally saw the face of his ambusher.

    "It''s you?!"

    "Of course it''s me,. Who else would it be?"

    Yes, the attacker was Sato. Of all the battles he could participate in, Sato settled on Dream Tiger''s fight as he noticed that it would take him quite a lot of time to finish Riddled Tree. However with Sato there, they could easily finish him and join back with the main team. If he seeded, the addition of Sato and Dream Tiger would be enough assistance to help the team against the boss since it would be one long rang yer and another short range yer.

    "Tch. You''ve made a terrible mistake, now die." Riddled Tree pointed his staff towards Sato.

    *Twang*(AN: This should be the sound of an arrow being fired)

    *Phew*

    ''Shit.'' Riddled cursed before narrowly dodging the arrow that just came his way.

    "It seems you have forgotten about me." Dream Tiger smirked. He was quite angry that Sato hade to assist after all as a man hailed to be a genius, Dream Tiger had his own pride. However after recalling that they were supposed to finish their opponents quickly so as to go back and handle the boss before any other yer would make their way over, Dream Tiger didn''tin. Since he couldn''t beat his opponent anytime soon, he might as well ept the help offered to him. Even though he had his pride, Dream Tiger didn''t allow it to blind him from the main task ahead.

    Using the period Riddled Tree had his concentration tied up dodging the arrow, Sato dashed forward with his sword in hand and shed at Riddled Tree. At the same time, Dream Tiger had fired three more arrows at Riddled Tree. His follow-up attack was well timed that almost at the same time Sato''s sword was closing up on Riddled Tree, the arrows were less than 2 metres away.

    ''So Devis is dead and it looks like I''m gonna join him too...'' Riddled Tree sighed inwardly.

    Recalling that Sato was initially tied up with Devis and Rock, Riddled Tree had nced around and only noticed Rock battling a swordsman. With that in mind, he concluded that Devis must have already been killed and to make things faster, the killer had decided to help his teammates.

    ''I''m seriously doomed...''

    With the way things are now, Riddled Tree only had three options; escape from here, die at his enemies hand ormit suicide. Escaping wasn''t so much of an option because Riddled Tree doubted whether there was even an escape route after all the very door that they had used to show up here had closed behind them. Even so, unless he can escape his current predicament, Riddled Tree wouldn''t have the luxury of considering an escape from the boss'' chamber. With that, he was left with the two options of death but no man would like to die even if it wasn''t a true death.

    "Now die!"

 Chapter 84 - 81 : Riddled Dies

    Even though he was outnumbered and surrounded with his life definitely on the line, Riddled Tree wasn''t that worried at his predicament. Sato''s earlier strike was just a regr one and it had only taken out a little above 30 HP from his total Health.

    As for the encirclement that he was caught in between, Riddled Tree didn''t feel much about it instead, his worries were based on the future results. In other words, to Riddled Tree, even if he were to somehow escape this predicament he still wouldn''t be able to escape his death unless he somehow turned the battle around.

    Realising that the attacks were already closing up on him, Riddled tree made the decision to face the attack head on.

    "[Nature''s Enticement]''

    As Sato''s attack was about tond, Riddled Tree gently knocked the edge of his staff against the floor before yelling out.

    Due to the disturbance brought about by [Nature''s Enticement], Sato''s sword went off mark at the veryst moment, giving the druid breathing space and chance. Using this period, Riddled Tree dodged the two arrows from behind however, he still got grazed by one of them. Riddled Tree then retreated a few metres a way to get rid of Sato.

    "Impressive." Sato sincerelymented. From an outside person''s point of view, Riddled Tree was over, done even. Even though he was surrounded, he didn''t give up but simply bid his time for the perfect opportunity. Despite so , he came out from such an encirclement and he only did so was the one move. Anyone would be impressed at that and Sato was genuinely surprised at his opponent''s calm and urate reaction and calction.

    ''It looks like this will be more difficult than I expected...''

    It was indeed true that Riddled Tree''s reaction wasn''t totally expected but it would be wrong to say that Sato cowered back because of that. Even though his opponent had dodged their attack, Sato still remained standing, confidently. Dodging and Escaping were two different facts as dodging would only extend Riddled Tree''s life a bit where as escaping would definitely save him. However, would Sato give him the chance to do so? Not a chance.

    "Take this." Sato struck once again.

    The druid ss was a supporting with almost next to nothing when considering offensive skills. Being an all-rounder for healing, buffs and control skills, the druid ss was one of the most difficult sses to y. The fact that Riddled Tree had dodged the other assault could be attributed to his special ss skill. As for whether he could replicate such an deed once more, Sato doubted that. Even if he could, Sato was extremely confident in his attacknding and even if that didn''t work out as nned, one would have to remember that Sato wasn''t working alone.

    "[Entangling Vines]" Riddled Tree turned around and swung his staff towards Sato.

    Sato had somewhat expected this as during the raid with Kylian, he had witnessed a few of the druid ss'' skills. Rather than worrying, Sati actually kept a smile on his face.

    Taking the time before he got caught in the vines, Sato leaped from his position towards his right.

    *Phew*

    Before Riddled Tree could rx and heal himself, a glistening arrowhead greeted his sights at Sato''s previous position. Due to the fact that he wasn''t expecting anything, Riddled Tree couldn''t react and in the end he got hit by the arrow.

    "Ack." -27 (Riddled Tree 51/110)

    But that wasn''t all. Sato, who had previous dodged Riddled Tree''s binding, suddenly appeared by his left and hacked at his head but this time, he used a skill.

    "[Chop]" Critical Hit -46 (Riddled Tree 5/110)

    At this point, Riddled Tree had bore through the pain and regained his focus to realise that he was already in a disadvantageous spot. Nheless, regaining his focus wouldn''t save him neither would it stop Sato''s follow-up attack.

    "Please st-" Despite voicing out his pleas, Riddled Tree couldn''t stop what was toe.. Sato wasn''t a man who would just stop nor hesitate on a decision so easily, just because his opponent had requested it.

    The sword sliced through the same spot on his head and due to the previous hit being a critical one coupled with the fact that Riddled Tree''s HP was very low, Sato had unknowingly fulfilled the requirements for a gore attribute . What did that entail? Simple, Riddled Tree''s head flew off. Oh, blood also spurted off his neck like a fountain.

    (Riddled tree 0/110)

    With that the yer, Riddled Tree was no more as his body began to disintegrate into specks of light with an equipment being left behind.

    "You know, I could have died back then?" Sato turned back and nced at Dream Tiger.

    "Hehe. You should be an expert right? If my arrow had hit you, you would only have yourself to me. After all it was a regr arrow not a skill; it was slightly slower than you." Dream Tiger chuckled.

    The turning point in the battle was Dream Tiger''s surprise attack which threw Riddled Tree off-course giving Sato the chance to finish him with 2 consecutive attacks. However, Dream Tiger had never actually alerted Sato of his n. Of course, Dream Tiger''s excuse sounded very reasonable but Sato had a gut feeling that the attack was actually meant for him and not Riddled Tree. If not for his quick thinking and quick reflexes, Sato didn''t doubt that he would have died back there and with everyone else'' attention focused on their various battles, no one would have known that Dream Tiger had a hand in his death. Even if Riddled Tree were to tell the others, Dream Tiger could easily im that the opponent was trying to lie by ying silly mind games.

    ''I have to be careful around this guy otherwise, I might die without knowing how.'' Deciding on his next course of action, Sato began to walk towards the main battle between the boss and the yers.

    "What about the loot?" Dream Tiger asked curiously.

    "You can keep it yourself." Sato replied sharply. At this point, Sato didn''t bring back the topic of the arrow because his ''ally'' would still deny it and it would seem like he was making baseless usations, which of course he was.

    Sato also left the loot from Riddled Tree''s body to Dream Tiger. Since he had already profited from Devis, Sato didn''t bother about Riddled Tree''s leftovers but that wasn''t the only reason why he did so. Since he didn''t know of Dream Tiger''s real objective, Sato felt it was better to avoid any form of infighting between him and Dream otherwise, who knows what plot he(Dream Tiger) might have against him.

    "What next?" Dream Tiger, who was obviously in a good mood thanks to what he just gained, asked.

    Sato stood still for awhile before replying

    "What next? We beat the boss."

    . . . . .

    A few kilometres away from Gnorka was a small dested mountain range. The mountain range was originally believed to have existed from the Kiro mountains but ording to an old tale, the unnamed mountain range was cut off from the Kiro mountains with more than 50 mile gap between them; as for the remains between the gap, it was said to have been brought to oblivion in the process .

    The act of dividing the two ranges was acimed to a sword-saint who is believed to have lived ages ago, during the Chaos War, but the creation of the unnamed mountain range is most likely to have dated slightly after the Chaos War[1].

    Due to the fact that the mountain range was devoid of any resources; be it mineral or even nt life, there was no settlement close to it and it eventually became forgotten. Not even animals or monsters lived on or near it due to the absence of sustainable resources for life.

    In a cave in one of the mountains in this unnamed mountain range, a being sat crossed legged with its eyes shut closed. Well, they were a few seconds ago, but for some reason, the owner of the eyes had opened them and stared at the entrance of the cave. There was nothing there, but a few secondster, a ripple had formed in space and it slowly began spreading out.

    "You have finally found me eh?"

    AN :

    Infinite Facts :

    Remember when Bishop Enzo mentioned the Emissary possibly being a 6th or 7th tier being?(Hint: Chpt 43)

    Well this is the ssification:

    1 st tier; Beginner/Apprentice e.g sword-apprentice

    2nd tier; Normal e.g swordsman

    3rd tier; Master e.g sword-master

    4th tier; King e.g sword-king

    5th tier; Grand-master e.g sword-grandmaster

    6th tier; Saint e.g sword-saint

    7th tier; Demigod/Infinite Mortal e.g sword-mortal, sword-demigod, sword-infinite

    8th tier; God e.g sword-god

    Currently, yers are still at the 1st tier.

 Chapter 85 - 82 : Boss Battle

    "Kraw!!!"

    As an intelligent creature, Sygrart didn''t try to do a surprise attack like it previously did as it estimated that it would be easily predicted since the yers had already seen it before. Even though it could rest, it knew that there was no time for that now.

    "Haha. Is this all you can do? Show daddy some love!"

    Chesces yelled like a mad man as he was entangled in a fierce fight with Sygrart together with Fudo assisting him from the side.

    Previously, they were forced back by Sygrart with Drunken Hog killed in the process but even with the boss'' power-up, Chesces didn''t give up. Why exactly? Because it was due to the very skill they dreaded, [Limit Breaker][1].

    ording to the skills or rather talent''s description, [Limit Breaker] had the ability to increase an individual''s main/basic attributes by 5%. This 5% might seem little but when used on big figures, the change is very obvious however this isn''t what we are supposed to talk about.

    Despite granting a strength increase to the user, the talent [limit Breaker] is a double edged sword. To know why, we have to understand why the body has limiters. It is a well known fact that the body has limiters ced on it. This is to prevent the owner from self-destructing due to carrying out an action beyond the body''s strength and limit. This issue however is that the limit set by the body on itself isn''t truly the body''s limit but just a safe point for the body.

    The [Limit Breaker] talent helps the user to temporary remove this limit or seal ced on the body by itself. This results in the user bursting out with strength greater than their average value. This is because in exchange for this power, the user''s cells generate more power than the average value set by the body. This slowly leads to death by over-exhaustion. This was the bacsh stated in the talent[1]. In summary, the longer the user keeps the technique on, the more the bacsh bes.

    Chesces had already noticed that Sygrart''s strength was waning. He decided that they should then hold on rather than retreating. The longer theyst, the more the bacsh on Sygrart. If it umtes to a specific amount, the talent would deactivate itself and there would be a weakened boss left for ughter. If things could get any worse for Sygrart, he would actually die immediately.

    It had been almost a minute since Drunken Hog had died and during this time, Chesces, geared in Kylian''s spells and buffs, had managed to y the role of an MT and with Fudo''s assistance which helped him a lot. A lot of injuries here and there but Chesces didn''t mind that much. As a ''false Mt'', it was already amazing that he could still stand.

    Due to the fact that he had to keep his total focus on his battle, he wasn''t able to spare a nce at the other ongoing battles and hence didn''t see Sato finish off Riddled Tree.

    "Damn. You. This daddy will make you pay." Chesces didn''t bring shame to his nickname as the ''Sly devil'' as he tried using words to destabilise the boss'' mental state. Sometimes having intellect isn''t so good. Even though Sygrart had intelligence, in the eyes o f Chesces, he was just a 7 year old with a little more smarts. Knowing that Sygrart would be pressing for time due to the after-effects of his talent, Chesces decided to use his words to through Sygrart''s caution away and force him to make more mistakes.

    " Daddy wants you roasted [Greater Fireball]" Fudo yelled as he pushed his hands forward, propelling the fireball towards Sygrart.

    *Boom*

    Conjuring a barrier, Sygrart used it to block the attack causing a small explosion. After the debris had settled, Sygrart was spotless as usual however, the shield had already began to show cracks. This hadn''t happened before and it stood to prove that Sygrart was indeed getting weaker.

    ''We still have a chance.''

    "[Triple Shot]"

    A voice sounded out from behind them.

    Before Sygrart could deactivate the barrier, 3 arrows had already made their way towards him. The first arrow moved a little bit ahead of the rest while the other two were pretty much at the same speed. It didn''t take long for the two sides to collide with one another but this time around, the barrier broke upon contact with the first arrow. That arrow had also ended up in a bad shape but it didn''t matter as they were 2 more left.

    Sygrart was still stunned at the destruction of the barrier that by the time he regained his senses, the 2nd and 3rd arrow were literally right in front of him.

    "Hmph." With a harrumph, a fewyers of shields formed between him and the arrows.

    While Sygrart''s attention was focused on the arrows, he didn''t seem to notice the rogue figure running towards him. Dream Tiger and Fudo also kept him busy with their long range attacks that by the time Sygrart got infuriated, the sneaky figure behind had struck out.

    "Mountain sh." Sato muttered softly as he swung his de right at Sygrart''s back. With the advantage of a surprise attack and Sygrart letting its guard down and focusing on the other yers, Sato''s sword was able to deliver a clean hit on him, bringing a change to its HP.

    "Kra!!!" -32 (473/735¡­5% increase to attributes.)

    As Sygrart turned to face Sato, Chesces had suddenly appeared behind it again(which was it''s initial front). Sato, on the other hand, had retreated quite some distance.

    "Die!" Chesces hacked with the [Chop] skill activated.

    "Kra!!!" -40 (433/735)

    This time, the hit was also sessful since the pain from Sato''s attack had sessfully attracted its attention and his concentration was focused on finding for Sato.

    This time around, Sygrart didn''t turn around instinctively but swept its hand towards Chesces'' spot before retreating away.

    "Hehe. So you''ve finally realised how to y a mage ss." Fudo mocked from the distance before using a regr fireball spell to attack. Dream tiger, who didn''t want to be left out, also attacked the boss.

    Under the onught of two pro yers, Sygrart was forced to be on the defensive, using its barrier''s to block the attack and only retaliating once in awhile.

    At times, Chesces and Sato would try and close up the gap or sneak up to Sygrart and deliver attacks to its barrier which stood in the way and when they are lucky, their attacks would break through the barrier, thanks to the constant bombardment by the two long range yers. Once their weapons had passed through the broken barrier, Sygrart would have no option than to engage in a melee battle with them.

    Overall, Sygrart was truly terrible at melee battles despite his close range endeavors and so once the duo assaulted him at the same time, he was constantly forced backwards.

    Normally the team wouldn''t have been so sessful but as Sygrart fought with them, the bacsh increased and it began slightly affecting him, already reducing its ability beyond its original form and dropping it down from the grade of a level 7 elite to a level 7mon. For this team of pro experts, a level 7mon isn''t so much of a big deal.

    . . . .

    In the main battlefield above, on which stood Arman Lagus of Riverdale Town, Bishop Enzo Giovanni, the Head Bishop of Riverdale''s Cathedral, Deval, the strongest adventurer of Riverdale Town and their opponent, the Emissary.

    Right now, the mountain could barely be recognized as thanks to their constant attacks and skills, there were tons of holes and craters. Part of the mountain had even been blown to bits with only rubble and gravel left behind.

    Apart from the state of the mountain, the state of the warriors were also not looking too good. Although their men were already prevailing against the goblins, these three heavy hitters were having a very tough time with their opponent but they still held on as they were the only ones present who could hold him back. Arman and Bishop Enzo were looking in a much better state than Deval, who only held on thanks to the blessings from the priest.

    Suddenly, Arman''s eyes light up as he stared at the Emissary.

    "It seems like you have nowhere to run to any longer. Am I right?"

 Chapter 86 - 83 : Shadow Guards

    "It seems like you have nowhere to run to any longer. Am I right?" Arman Lagus, the town head of Riverdale Town, stared at his foe with a yful look in his eyes.

    "Oh? And what makes you think so? Do you really believe that I will die today?" The Emissary nced at Arman with interest. The matte haze around him, thanks to the undying efforts of the trio, had slightly reduced in size whenpared to its original form. Even so, the Emissary still had that unbridled feeling that seemed to show that he could keep on fighting without pause.

    Seeing hisx attitude and his not so weakened strength, a frown appeared on Arman''s little face but he quickly wiped it off.

    "Town Head Arman, What did you mean by that?" Deval asked with a curious look.

    Deval was currently injured and his injuries looked quite serious, some much so that if someone else stood in his position, they would have already been dead due to excess blood loss. His turban was long destroyed, revealing a white coloured hair. His clothes, which were previously tattered and damaged, was reced with a metallic armour. At a point in the battle, Deval no longer held back on his equipment as he needed them to hold on against the ''enhanced'' Emissary since he yed the role of an MT in this fight. Even so, the armour was slightly damaged and though it wasn''t at the level of having holes, it was still dented at some parts, so much so that the dented points had even prated his body.

    Despite all this, Deval still held on, showing how tenacious his will was and also how great his stamina and endurance were. It was thanks to these attributes of his that Deval had managed to clutch the title as Riverdale''s strongest, excluding the Bishop and the town head of course.

    "...have they already arrived?" Unlike Deval, Bishop Enzo Giovanni had an inkling as to what Arman was referring to. With his crosier in hand and his vitiated cassock and pellegrina, Bishop Enzo, who still looked slightly better off whenpared to Deval, recalled their 2nd n in the scenario where they couldn''t finish off the Emissary. That was to wait for reinforcements!

    ''They must have arrived!''

    . . . . .

    Back at the cave in the unnamed mountain range¡­

    The ripple that had formed at the mouth of the cave was still expanding at a rate that was neither slow nor fast. Within a few seconds, it had erged to upy a height of 4 metres and a width of 7 metres. It looked to be a portal that lead to elsewhere.

    A leg slowly stepped out from the other side of this ''ripple portal''. On the leg was a ck coloured special kind of boots that looked like a triplebination of Chelsea shoes, in toe shoes and military boots.

    As the leg nted itself on the ground, the owner slowly appeared from the ''ripple portal''. It was a ''person'' in ck and gold coloured military coat with gold coloured buttons. Due to the fact that the outfit was somewhat loose, it was next to impossible to be able to determine the gender of the wearer. His/Her face was hidden behind a fox type Kabuki mask painted with ck and red colours on a white background.

    What was quite amazing was that despite wearing a clothing lineup with a dazzling color like gold and a white Kabuki mask, not much light was reflected off this individual. If one didn''t focus well, they would barely sense that there was someone standing there. If not due to the fact that the individual arrived at the mouth of the cave thereby letting the light bounce of him/her, it would have been quite difficult to see him/her. However for the targeted being who sat within the cave, this difference didn''t really flinch it as no matter where the maker individual arrived from, it would have sensed him/her.

    As the masked individual stepped out of the ''ripple portal'', two other legs left the portal; one from the left side of the masked individual and another from the right. The owners of the legs exited the portal and just like the first ''outsider'', they both wore Kabuki masks but with different representations. One wore a tiger mask while the other had an eagle mask on. Despite reeling back their auras, one would feel that these three weren''t so simple.

    "The 3rd department of the Monarch Guards, also known as the Hidden department, the Shadow Guards. Am I right?" The seated individual spoke up.

    The Monarch Guards was a regiment that was under the Monarch family, that is the King''s family. As far as the public knows, the Monarch Guards are divided into two departments; the Pce guards and the King''s guards.

    The Pce guards, as their name states, are in charge of not only the Pce''s safety but also the Kingdom''s capital city which houses the Royal Pce. The King''s guards are a set of strong individuals who answer only to the King and the Royal family. They are tasked with protecting him and his family.

    These are the two departments that are known to the general public but there actually exists a third one and this one is known only by a handful of individuals, usually those in the upper echelons of the Kingdom and the Royal family. This department has been nicknamed the Hidden department due to their extreme secretiveness. Their real name however is the Shadow Guards.

    They are usually tasked with handling all the underhand missions and assignments that can''t be assigned to any of the public guards as such missions shouldn''t be tracked to the Royal family or the King. Missions like assassinating a public figure or some other figure is usually given to the Shadow Guards.

    Whenever the Shadow Guards undertake any mission or assignment, they usuallyplete it without leaving a single trace behind. They strike silently and at the moment one wouldn''t expect. A good example is their entrance just now as the ''ripple portal'' despite affecting space, it isn''t easily noticed due to the absence of Mana being sensed in the portal. With this ability, they can easily assassinate a target and leave without being caught by a druid figure.

    What makes them special is that they answer solely to the King of the Fallen Heart Kingdom and no one else, not even the Prince or the General.

    Seeing that they weren''t answering him, the figure continued

    "For the Shadow Guards to visit me, I guess it isn''t for a cup of tea?"

    Finally, the one in the middle, who seemed to be their leader, spoke up.

    "By the King''s decree, you, Emissary of darkness, are required toe with us. Failure to do so in a peaceful fashion would result to our using forceful methods."

    The voice of the speaker had a weird touch to it, making it seem neither feminine nor masculine but rather ambiguous in nature.

    From the short speech of the fox masked individual, then being hidden in this cave was actually the true body of the Emissary. You should remember that the one confronting the trio of Arman, Enzo and Devis was actually a projection. Due to its high level strength, it couldn''t actively participate in the battle with its main body or else it might draw serious attention so it decided to hide in this forsaken area that was along the boundary of the Fallen Heart Kingdom.

    Despite all that, the King still discovered him but due to the fact that the area was along the boundary, the King couldn''t head over there because his movements where monitored by foreign powers. Hence the decision of sending the Shadow Guards.

    "Oh? Even after all I''ve done, he only wants an audience?" The Emissary spoke.

    "What is your decision?"

    "You should of course be aware of it. I bow to none other than ''Him''." The Emissary grinned before releasing arge burst of aura that seemed overwhelming and all epassing. So powerful was his aura alone, that it burst a hole in the roof of the cave.

    "If that is your decision then prepare for the consequences." The fox masked guard replied. At the same time, he/she also released their aura and surprisingly, though it wasn''t as strong as the Emissary''s, it wasn''t so weak whenpared with it.

    The two by the side also released their aura and though theirs was weaker by a level whenpared to the two main focus, they still weren''t to be taken for granted.

    "Those three barely let me warm-up. Now show me, Shadow Guards of Fallen Heart Kingdom, show me what you are capable of."

 Chapter 87 - 84 : Final Fight 1

    "Damn vagabonds." Sygrart said with a heavy voice.

    It had been almost 6 minutes since Drunken Hog had died. Rock had died at the hands of Swift de. When he saw this, Three Kills had already escaped. It turned out that he had earlier made an escape n in case things went wrong.

    The entrance Sind had used to arrive was still present unlike the door East Crow members used that had disappeared right after they passed through it. Three Kills had used this door and ran away and even though Yukino tried to stop him, the ranger was able to showcase his high level skills easily leaving her behind the dust and escaping.

    Yukino could have actually chased after him but she didn''t bother as the main priority was defeating the boss.

    During this 5 minutes, it was a 5-minutes journey to hell for Sygrart. Under the constant assault of the yers who utilized the fact that it was suffering a bacsh to beat it up, Sygrart had sustained multiple injuries and damage. Also, Sygrart''s talent, [Limit Breaker], had deactivated as he couldn''t keep it active anymore.

    Half-blood Sygrart (Special Elite) (207/700 HP)

    As a result of all this plus the constant assault he received from a total of 7 yers, Sygrart''s HP couldn''t remain stable and was down to only 30% left. But this already was quite impressive as any level 7 creature would have fallen long ago to the attacks of the 7 yers. Sygrart however, was still standing; a testament to his role as a boss figure.

    "You all deserve to die. To be in the way of ''His'' n, you deserve a thousand deaths. Don''t you know what you are doing?!" Sygrart hollered.[1]

    "Does it really matter? What''s the point in talking with someone who''s about to die." Chesces replied as he shed at Sygrart.

    "ENOUGH!" Sygrart yelled. As he did so, his energy levels, which were previously low, spiked up rapidly.

    "What the hell?! I thought the talent had deactivated?!" Griffin, who had earlier recovered from his almost tragic dismissal, asked in shock.

    The energy signals the yers felt from Sygrart was quite high, almost as high as when he had used his talent. This made the yers danger sense tingle, alerting them of the uing threat.

    "Damn it. Everyone, finish him before he finishes powering up." Chesces ordered.

    As he was quite close to Sygrart, he had noticed that his energy was slowly increasing and had not yet achieved a bnce. If they let it do so, no one knows how strong Sygrart would be. But one thing is certain and that is that Sygrart would be far stronger than he previously was when he activated his talent.

    ''Is it his berserk mode? But his HP hasn''t reached the 15% mark so why now?'' Sato wondered as he stared at the figure.

    Using the time that the yers were still in shock, Sygrart used his fingers to quickly form a few hands seals before sping them together. As he did so, a sigil in a circr shape with a triangle inscribed within it took form in front of his chest.

    The circle was green in colour and had a few streaks of ck flowing about it. The aura the seal was released had an uncanny resemnce to that of the Emissary. There was a feeling of chaos and madness within the sigil.

    The floor beneath Sygrart''s feet had begun to crack as ck miasma slowly seeped out from the floor. Sygrart''s face slowly began to twist in pain as the miasma seeped into his body.

    "What the hell?"

    "Stop staring and ATTACK!" Chesces yelled while he rushed at Sygrart.

    Thanks to Chesces'' yelling the yers had regained their sense and rushed at Sygrart. Griffin took the lead as he was the main Mt and the one with the highest defence. Dream Tiger nocked three arrows onto his bow and fired at the transforming boss. Fudo used a [Fire Ray] spell to attack as it had a faster movement speed whenpared to his other spells. Kylian didn''t make any attack as he intended to save his control spells for a more crucial time. Yukino, who happened to be behind Sygrart, held her great sword and attacked from there. Yukino however, wasn''t the only one behind; Swift de also stood behind Sygrart and he also attacked from behind. Sato lunged at Sygrart from the right while Chesces dashed from the left.

    Such a line-up was more than enough to bring down any level 7 Boss and even the previous Sygrart wouldn''t be able toe out unscathed from this. Well, that was the previous Sygrart.

    "Ahhhh!" Sygrart let out a scream but this one sounded more human than his previous ones but that wasn''t the most shocking fact. The surprising thing about the scream was that it didn''t even need to be tranted in their minds. Whenever Sygrart spoke, his words were usually tranted in the minds of the yers. This was the effect of thenguage he used because just like the famous man runes, thenguage Sygrartmunicated with had the ability to self-trante within the minds if listeners. When he also screams, the meaning of the sound of the scream is also tranted to match the sybles and tones of thenguage of the listeners but in this case it didn''t go the same path. That only meant one thing, Sygrart wasn''t speaking with that specialnguage anymore; he was speaking in thenguage of the yers.[2]

    This was quite a shocking discovery but as experts yers, the yers all managed to keep their head in the game.

    Suddenly, an air-wave sted out wards with Sygrart as the centre. The wave was very powerful as it managed to force all the yers back by a few metres but that wasn''t the end yet. Sygrart had disappeared and reappeared beside Chesces. Chesces, even though he was forced back just recently, sensed Sygrart''s presence. As the ''false King'' he is, it wasn''t difficult to do so since Sygrart''s energy levels were so high that even an ordinary human being would be able to sense danger for him much less a ''false King''. however, sensing and reacting are two different things. Before Chesces could make a move, Sygrart grabbed him by his left arm and twisted it in a horrible fashion. The next thing that happened would be the only thing one would do after experiencing such a thing.

    Yes, a scream.

    "Ahhhhhhh!!!" Chesces screamed loudly in pain.

    But not just any scream rather a blood-curdling one. Such a scream could arouse the darkest of scares in one''s mind and it made goosebumps rise in the minds of all the yers present as they felt a chill pass through them while seeing the posture of Chesces'' mangled arm. The arm was bent backwards to form a ''V''. Seeing such a disturbing view was, well, really disturbing. A hazy ck mist slowly drifted from the spot Sygrart held and it was due to this mist that Chesces

    "Captain!" Kylian yelled.

    "Damn. This game is really mean." Fudo stared in awe at the mind-blowing scene. While others looked worried, Sato and Fudo were still calm after all it didn''t really concern them that much. Even the death of all the yers present wouldn''t shake them. Even if they really had to face the boss alone, they still had a 30% chance of sess. To Sato, a 30% chance is still a chance so their deaths weren''t really a sure thing.

    "Damn it." Yukino cursed before rushing towards Sygrart. She was destined however to not reach him as Sygrart instantly disappeared once more to reappear a 10 metres away.

    "[Nature''s Comfort]" Kylian cast a spell as soon as Sygrart had left Chesces. [Nature''s Comfort] was one of the few healing spells possessed by the druid ss but it had a special hidden effect. Due to the fact that it was of the Nature element category, it had a quite a powerful effect in restoring an individual back to their original state. Thanks to the effort of [Nature''s Comfort], Chesces'' arm had recovered to its original state.

    "Ha!" Griffin charged at Sygrart with his shield held up high. He also applied the skill [Taunt] to draw Sygrart''s attention towards himself and prevent him from escaping.

    Yukino followed close behind him while Dream tiger and Fudounched their attacks from a suitable distance as usual. Normally, Sygrart would have either attacked Griffin while dodging, deflecting or blocking the long range attacks but something¡­different happened.

    "Arggh!!!" Sygrart crouched low and held his head as the sigil in front of him was overreacting and sparking off little bolts of ck coloured lightning.

    "What''s going on?" Fudo looked confused.

    "...don''t let this opportunity go by so easily!" Chesces, who had just recovered, suddenly yelled.

    Normally, one would be shocked at the boss'' current reaction but those who belong to this ''one'' are just your average human beings. Chesces however, isn''t your average human being but a master tactician and also a pro-gamer. This phenomenon that had just urred would make one wonder why but not a pro-gamer. This was the legendary ''zero-retaliation period''[3].

    The ''retaliation period'' usually urs after a boss had undergone a serious power-up that doesn''t count as the berserk mode. Once the power-up is gone, the boss experiences a bacsh and during this bacsh, yers can attack the boss non-stop without receiving any damage. This can also ur when a boss uses a high level skill or spell.

    Right now, Sygrart was in pain as the little ck bolts swam through his body. A blood-curdling scream and a tearful roar was enough to make everyone have different fantasies about the degree of pain he suffered.

    Nheless, the yers didn''t pity him as they attacked him during this time. Of course, Sygrart wasn''t so dumb as to just stand and get attacked; he erected a barrier around himself but due to the constant subjection under pain, the barrier couldn''tst long and was eventually broken. Within 5 seconds of its destruction, Sygrart''s HP had be less than 15% of its original value.

    ''Did his defence increase or what?!'' Sato inwardlyined. Normally, with Sygrart in a ''no-retaliating'' state and 30% HP remaining, 5 seconds was more than enough for thebined force of 7 yers to finish him off. However, they had been attacking continuously and vigorously but Sygrart had only lost a chunk of HP with 15% of his original HP left.

    "What the hell?!" Sato wasn''t the only one who noticed this as even Griffin cursed at such an absurd defence that made his own pale by far inparison.

    ''Hmm?''

    "Kraaaw!" Once again, the familiar and iprehensible roar which the yers never expected to hear again sounded out. Apanying the roar was an intense air-wave that pushed the yers back. Sato had immediately retreated before it could reach him. Yukino and Chesces had also managed to do the same but Swift de and Griffin were a tad slower and got sted away by the counter. Kylian''s healing spells quickly reached them and brought their HP back to the top.

    "Looks like the zero-retaliation period is over. Too bad we couldn''t finish him." Chesces smirked bitterly.

    Meanwhile, Sato stared at the System log for the battle and noticed something really surprising.

    ''My damage¡­''

    [[ System Battle Log :

    -3 Sygrart (193/700)

    -4 Sygrart (182/700)

    -2 Sygrart (163/700)

    -4 Sygrart (147/700)

    ¡­ ]]

    As Sato had been attacking with 6 other yers, it was inevitable that when he hadnded a hit, Sygrart''s HP must have already depleted at the hands of another and so the HP value differed but that wasn''t the point. The point was his damage figures; they were absurdly low! As they were in a rush, Sato didn''t pay attention to the damage value of his attack but he just attacked. Now seeing this, Sato felt like dashing to the game''s programmers and giving them a heartfelt speech about granting bosses a cheat level damage reduction ability. Of course the speech would be done with his fist otherwise how will it be heartfelt?

    ''Did his defence increase? But this much is insane! ''

    "It looks like this dude wore advanced mark-ker[4]."

    "Damn. This is a fucking cheat! A bug!"

    It looked like the others had finally realised it and checked their battle logs as some of them, especially Dream Tiger and Fudo, began cursing out loud.

    "Prepare. It isn''t over yet." Chesces shouted.

    "Kraww!" Sygrart roared but this time much louder than ever. A burst of green aura intertwined with ck lightning burst forth from his head but stopped at the ceiling, not daring to pass nor smash through it.

    "This battle should really end in the next chapter or the readers might get annoyed¡­"

    "Fatso, what did you say?" Dream Tiger asked Fudo.

    "Nothing and don''t call me fatso!"

    . . . . .

    At the battle between the three horsem-,uh, strongmen and the Emissary''s projection.

    The Emissary''s projection suddenly separated himself from the battle and stared at a spot in the ins below the mountain. The trio didn''t stop him as they all stared at the same spot.

    "What was that?" Deval asked with a mixture of confusion and shock.

    "So you have finally epted to awaken him?" The Emissary''s projection smiled while staring at the spot as if he could look through the ground.

    . . . . .

    Meanwhile, for Sato and the other yers, they all suddenly received a mission.

    [[ System Notification :

    Emergency mission

    Mission Rank : B

    Description : Prevent the descent of a dark force.

    Systemment : Either he goes boom or you go boom. Choose. Wait a sec, this mission doesn''t even need your permission. To war!!!

    Basic reward : Special Title [Savior of Races]. Others; 50 silver coins and one Upper tier Mortal rank weapon or equipment of choice.

    Time Limit : 5 minutes ]]

    AN :

    [1] Please do keep in mind that thenguage Sygrart speaks differs with that of the yers. The words are automatically tranted in their heads.

    [2] I used the term nguage of the yers'' because all the yerse from different nationalities like France, Japan, China and so on.The game usually automatically trantes things to suit them all. So for an English-speaking yer, a NPC would look like he is speaking English and even his lips would move the same way. But for a Chinese-speaking yer, the NPC would be speaking Chinese and his lips would be moving the same way. Awesome right?

    [3] Made it up or rather, I coined the situation with a name.

    [4] Made up crap¡­

 Chapter 88 - 85 : Final Fight 2

    [[ System Notification :

    Emergency mission

    Mission Rank : B

    Description : Prevent the descent of a dark force.

    Systemment : Either he goes boom or you go boom. Choose. Wait a sec, this mission doesn''t even need your permission. To war!!!

    Basic reward : Special Title [Savior of Races]. Others; 50 silver coins and one Upper tier Mortal rank weapon or equipment of choice.

    Time Limit : 5 minutes ]]

    "One emergency mission after another. This game is really trying to overwork me to death. " Fudo cried out. Only Fudo would really get tired ofpleting missions when others are actually looking forward to them.

    "A title reward? That''s a first." Kylian stared with a slightly surprised look.

    So far for the yers, none of the missions they havepleted or taken up so far had a title as a reward. This reality was however shattered when the System notification for the ''Goblin''s Invasive Retribution'' package arrived. Even at that, this was a mission package not a simple mission. So in the end, there has not been a single ''straight-to-the-point'' mission that rewarded them a title. For the yers who thought they knew everything and went aboutpleting missions of the exact same activity, say for instance finding lost cats, they were also destined to be disappointed as even finding a thousand lost cats wouldn''t give them a title like [Finder of cats][1]. There were special measures and requirements for one to receive a title from a mission as a reward.

    "What does that ''others'' mean by the way?" Fudo asked in a contemtion.

    "Focus first. We still have our hands tied up with him." Sato drew back their attention to the boss ahead.

    After their experience with Sygrart where their attacks, individually, almost had no effect on him and with his overreacting weird behaviour, the yers had decided to wait out whatever transformation he might be undergoing. This was mostly because they felt that attacking might be far more riskier than waiting it out. After Griffin and Swift de were sent flying by the roar, there was a bit of ck miasma seeping out from their chest and spreading throughout their body. The miasma had slowed them down considerably that if they were to participate in this battle, they would end up as nothing more than cannon-fodder.

    Kylian could only use regr healing spells on them since [Nature''s Comfort] was on cool-down and even if it weren''t, he could only use it on one of them with the other still having to wait for it to go off cool-down. No need to be said that Kylian would dly use it on his teammate, Griffin, before helping the other ally.

    "For now, you guys are on your own." Kylian said to them both though it felt more like he was talking to Swift de.

    Swift de frowned as he realised what he meant but there was nothing he could do about it after all the other was a member of a super guild. Even though Daichi had once taken on a 1st tier guild with East Crow guild by his side, a super guild was a different story . No matter how much effort and determination they put into it, just a single legion from any super guild would be more than capable of taking them on; much less the entire guild. So rather than offending them, Swift de could only suck it up and ignore the biased treatment after all, if the druid were from east Crow, they would pretty much do the same.

    "[Nature''s Comfort]" Once the cool-down was off, Kylian quickly used the spell on Griffin. With the effects of the previous healing spells apanied with [Nature''s Comfort], Griffin was purified of the ck miasma. Swift de, on the other hand, had to depend on his health potions and his [Endurance] stat to battle the spread of the miasma in his body.

    "We can''t just keep waiting. We have to make a move." Yukino said while staring at her System interface that disyed a timer with 4 minutes and 53 seconds left.

    Chesces frowned but still replied "We can''t just rush in. We need a -"

    "Hahaha."

    Interrupted by a hystericalugh, Chesces, well not just him alone but also everyone else, stared at the Sygrart who was the oneughing. This time, they all had a grim look on their faces not because Sygrart had recovered from torturous experience but because theugh wasn''t tranted as usual; he spoke once more in their tongue.

    "Can you feel it? His descent, can you feel it?" Sygrart stared at them with a fanatic look and smile.

    Right now, the sigil that had previously stood in front of him had dissolved into the ground and birthed a formation beneath him. The formation looked more of a circle with a hexagon within it and within the hexagon was diamond that was hardly noticeable so much so that none of the yers had paid any attention to it.

    " ''He'' desires to descend and now, I have granted my body to ''Him'' as a vessel. Be d puny humans, for you shall be the first to witness ''His'' descent. But I don''t think you would be pleased about that right? Hahahahahaha"

    "Creepy¡­"

    "No more wasting time; Attack!" Yukino yelled before rushing forward.

    Chesces didn''t disagree with her this time as he also rushed forward with Sato beside him. The reason why? Because when Sygrart spoke, the three of them happened to sense an extremely dangerous force brewing within Sygrart. This ''force'' rang rm bells in their heads. They felt that if they let itplete its descent in Sygrart''s body, all their achievements so far would be for naught. With that mind, they might as well try their best to finish him off.

    ''No more holding back.'' Yukino thought. Putting her free hand into her beginner bag, she retrieved two vials.

    "Chesces, here." Yukino tossed two backwards to him without turning back.

    Chesces luckily caught them both and before he could begin asking questions, Yukino added,

    "Use one and hand the over to Griffin."

    Chesces didn''t bother to question about her own portion as he believed that Yukino must have had her reasons for doing so. He had to stop running and opened one vial and ingest its contents before tossing thest one to Griffin.

    The vials were thest two sets of [Temporary Body Enhancing Fluid]. The guild had given them three for this operation and it costed quite arge sum. Yukino had used one when she earlier fought with Goro and the other members of Savage Tribe as such, only two were left. She handed them over to Griffin and Chesces because Griffin was the MT and he would really need it while Chesces was slightly weaker than her so she needed him to bridge that gap with the potion. Yukino believed that she didn''t need the potion as much whenpared to this two and since the others weren''t part of their guild, spending guild resources on them wasn''t really worth it even if it had a temporary effect.

    When they were a few metres away from Sygrart, Yukino lifted her great sword to greet the boss that had caused them a lot of problems.

    "You can''t stop destiny." Sygrart said before lifting his hand and conjuring up a transparent green barrier.

    "Break!"

    The Snow Goddess, Yukino, known for both strength and beauty, brought down her great sword at the head of the goblin boss Sygrart.

    *Bang*

    With the barrier in between them, Yukino''s strike shed at it with a resounding bang sounding out. Even with the +5 [Strength] points, Yukino was not able to destroy the barrier but she never really nned to do so in one hit. Thanks to the +7 increase in her [Agility], Yukino was a lot faster than usual. Even though this attribute didn''t have a major effect on her [Attack Speed] like the [Dexterity] stat did, it still increased her speed and the fluidity of her body''s movements.

    Yukino quickly drew back her great sword an hacked once more with greater effort and this time, with the skill [Chop].

    "Futile."

    *Bang*

    Once again, a resounding bang sounded out with the barrier but this time, something special happened.

    "Hmm?" Sygrart stared with a slight look of amazement.

    *Crack*

    A crack formed on the barrier and though it wasn''t so big, it proved to show that the barrier wasn''t invincible. But Yukino''s n was never to break the shield, no. Her n was to grab Sygrart''s attention and she had seeded wonderfully with that.

    Chesces and Sato had both arrived had arrived behind Sygrart. Even though Chesces had initially paused before to drink the potion, thanks to his improved [Agility], he managed to catch up with Sato and they both attacked from behind. Sato attacked with a pierce while Chesces with a sh. Chesces used [Horizontal sh] while Sato used the 1st form of the Lotus Sword art; Swift Kill.

    Sato timed his attack to be slightly slower than Chesces'' but aimed at the same spot Chesces would sh at. In other words, Chesces'' attack would serve to weaken the barrier while Sato would deliver the finishing blow to it. Chesces was more than capable of weakening the barrier thanks to his increased stats while Sato, despite not using any berserk potion, should be able to ce the straw that breaks the camel''s back thanks to his exquisite and powerful martial arts moves.

    Sato used the 1st form of the Lotus sword art instead of Mountain sh because even though Mountain sh possessed more force, it utilized strength in a wild manner such that it isn''t targeted at a specific spot. Even though Swift Kill didn''t really deal with focusing strength at a particr spot, it was able to fulfill this condition better than Mountain sh.

    Within milliseconds, Chesces'' attack hadnded on the barrier and as expected,

    *Crack*

    It cracked under the force. Though it was just a crack, this crack was morerger in size whenpared to that which Yukino formed plus it was formed with one move where Yukino had to make two moves. The reason for this was quite simple. Sygrart had his attention focused on Yukino and so the barrier positioned in her direction was further strengthened to prevent her from easily destroying it. This meant that at other angles, the barrier was weaker than it was where Yukino faced. So it was inevitable that under the strength of Chesces'' attack, the barrier would crack wildly. Even if it had outrightly shattered, it wouldn''t be unbelievable.

    ''Too bad it didn''t shatter.'' Chesces sighed. ''I leave the rest to you.''

    Almost immediately after Chesces'' attack hadnded, Sato''s strike followed up and pierced a the heart of the fissure.

    *Creak* *Crack* *Bang*

    With three different sounds sounding at almost the same time, the barrier shattered with bang with Sato''s sword still moving forward. Even though he had justnded thest blow on the barrier, Sato''s attack still had enough force to got through it and aim for the boss.

    "Die!"

    "Vermin!" Sygrart roared.

    However, roaring now wouldn''t change much.

    *Puchii* -25 (Sygrart 80/700)

    ''It seems like our attacks are almost back to normal. His defense isn''t that absurd anymore but its still far stronger than initially.''

    Sato''s attack seeded in hitting the boss but there was one minor problem; Sygrart had managed to move by a little bit at that moment so in the end, the sword had only pierced through his right shoulder. But to Sato, this was more than enough after all, he wasn''t the only one fighting.

    With the pain from the sword acting up on his right shoulder, Sygrart forgot that he still had someone in front of him; the Snow Goddess Yukino!

    Yukino, as a pro yer, would by no means miss such a golden opportunity tond a free hit on the boss. Using the swordsman trademark skill, [Horizontal sh], Yukino shed at Sygrart with an exposed intent to kill.

    Sensing such fierce and wild killing intent, Sygrart managed to recall that there was someone else but it was toote.

    "Arggh" -29 (Sygrart 51/700)

    Sygrart ignored the pain and once more released an air-wave that pushed them all back. By doing so however, Sygrart had given the long ranged attackers the opportunity to make their moves as they couldn''t attack while the trio were having a close-up with him.

    "[Spiral Shot]"

    "[Fire Ray]"

    "[Entangling Vines]"

    All the back-men attacked and even Kylian, who yed the role of healer, made his move too.

    However, it seemed like they ran out of luck as not only was Sygrart truly enraged but he became more careful. A shield quickly took form in front of him and this very shield blocked out all their attacks. The shield looked a lot like the [River Shield] which Sygrart had earlier tried to use and block Drunken Hog''s [K¨­jin''s Arrow]. As for the [Entangling Vines], they were destroyed by Sygrart''s aura before they even grew up from the ground. This was inevitable as Sygrart was far stronger mage than Kylian and was well-prepared.

    "I can''t and I won''t die!"

 Chapter 89 - 86 : Final Fight 3; Gratitude

    "I can''t and I won''t die!" Sygrart roared out.

    cing his palms together, a bit off ck lightning and ck miasma alongside green coloured spooky mana, flowed together and gathered at the space between his palms. Separating the two hands apart, a green coloured rod began to take shape until Sygrart''s hands had parted for at least a metre wide. Grabbing the rod by the centre, Sygrart spun it a bit and as he did so, the rod elongated to a length of 2 metres before he stopped.

    "Changing your fighting style won''t change a thing. [Justice sh]!"

    Though surprised at the weird change in fighting style of the boss monster, Griffin still kept his head in the game as he used his signature skill to attack.

    "Vile creature, perish." Sygrart stated before taking a stance and receiving Griffin''s attack with a strike of his own.

    Griffin, who expected this, remained calm as he believed that he had the upper hand in this fight after all, the boss is a mage not a closebat fighter ss. But oh, who wrong was he. The two figures shed with one another and Griffin was surprised to see that Sygrart could still hold him off. Annoyed by this, Griffin followed up on his attack with one sh after another. Sygrart however, was destined to keep surprising him as they both exchanged t least 12 hits with one another but Griffin couldn''t force him back nor could hend a clear hit.

    "[Drill Shot]"

    Frustrated at the fact that his previous shot didn''t really do anything to the boss, Dream Tiger utilised the opportunity where Griffin distanced himself away from Sygrart to fire an arrow. The skill he used was the ranger''s ssic [Drill shot] that increased the [Movement speed] of his arrow by x2 its regr speed with a 140% Attack power. Using this skill in this well timed moment was more than enough to show Dream Tiger''s expertise inbat.

    Sygrart, who had already gone berserk, used his rod to swathe the arrow away but took a step back. This didn''t mean that Dream Tiger''s [Strength] was higher than Griffin (who couldn''t achieve this), instead it was because Sygrart was taken by surprise and hadn''t properly blocked the attack.

    Chesces hastily appeared and shed at Sygrart but he actually smirked and tapped his rod. A thin ck bolt shot out from the staff and because he never really expected that, it struck Chesces directly. In less than a second, Chesces'' HP had gone below the zero mark indicating his death.

    The yers froze for a few seconds before a shout broke the silence.

    "Captain!" That was a sudden kill and even Kylian wasn''t expecting it as before he could respond to Chesces being hit, he was already dead.

    "So he still has a few cards hidden." Dream Tiger smiled bitterly.

    "If we can''t approach him, how do we beat him?" Griffin, who had quickly made a gap between himself and Sygrart after seeing him one-shot Chesces, spoke out. With the death of Chesces, everyone suddenly became a lot more wary of Sygrart but they couldn''t keep this passive measure up for long as there was timer. If they couldn''t figure out how to beat the boss, all their current achievements would have been for naught.

    "Have you noticed? Just like thest time, he doesn''t dare to exit the formation. I think it has something to do with the descent of that being." Sato suddenly said.

    "I think you''re right. So then what do we do?" Yukino stared at this cloaked individual who had so far performed alright without making any errors. Yukino was slightly impressed by that as based on the fact that he hid himself, she suspected that he should be a solo yer. A solo yer with such skills capable of almost rivalling a ''false king'', would be valued anywhere.

    "He can''t use that attack continuously or else he would have done so before. The System isn''t so twisted as to make such an OP boss for yers like ourselves. We just have to be more cautious." Sato said.

    "MT, coordinate with me. I will make an opportunity for you guys tond a hit. The boss only has 50 HP so two or three hits should do it. Get ready."

    "Okay." Griffin replied.

    Sato dashed forward with Griffin and while doing so, he said to his neighbor "Grab his attention for awhile let me close up the gap."

    Griffin nodded before roaring out loud with the skill [Thunder Roar]. Sygrart pointed his rod at the direction of the roar and released an air-wave that collided with the sound attack, neutralizing it. Of course, Griffin wasn''t done a she used the iconic [Taunt] skill and made himself the target of hate for Sygrart. That wasn''t enough for him however as Griffin used [justice sh] which was off its cool-down during their period of shock and hesitation after Chesces'' death.

    A glowing sword was lifted high up and it seemed like the centre of everything. Kylian also decided to participate even more actively as he used the druid''s [Nature''s Enticement]on Sygrart, stunning him for a very short while. This very short while was however, extremely useful to Sato and co who made their attacks during this period. Fudo and Dream Tiger attacked from the back and Sato and Yukino, who was no longer under the effects of the berserk potion, attacked Sygrart.

    As Sato was a lot closer first, his attack reached faster but by then, Sygrart had recovered from the effects of [Nature''s Enticement] but due to the effects of [Taunt] he was forced to focus on Griffin who was also close by. With two attacksing in hot, Sygrart decided to use a barrier to block them but Sato read this as he attacked at a different spot. Why you ask? Because the effects of Griffin''s [Justice sh] hadn''t been used yet and it would pretty much take a toll on the boss if he tried to block both attacks. In other words, the boss would have to focus the strength of his barrier on one of two points.

    This idea was quite effective as Sygrart decided to strengthen the barrier on Griffin''s end as he felt that his attack was more deadly. Of course this didn''t bother Sato as that was his n all along.

    "Break, Seven Dragon Moves, Dragon w."

    Sato executed the Seven Dragon Moves'' Dragon w and because he hadn''t truly mastered it, his was farcking whenpared to Old Juro(his grandfather). If both were to bepared side by side, Sato''s own would look like a doodle drawing while Old Juro''s would look like a masterpiece by a renowned artist or mangaka[1] but it was still suitable to do the job.

    Sato struck the barrier and as expected, it didn''t break with his sword bouncing back but he wasn''t disappointed by this but rather pleased. Using the principles of the Dragon w move, he used the rebound force that was applied on his sword and redirected it to sh once more at the same spot swiftly. This time however, he used a skill.

    "[Horizontal sh]"

    With the second strike, not only did the barrier crack but it actually shattered. Sygrart was stunned as he was currently entangled with Griffin who was in front of him. Yukino suddenly appeared into the picture, using the moment Sygrart was stunned, and hacked at him. Sygrart, of course, had learnt from his previous mistakes of being taken by surprise from his barrier breaking and so narrowly dodged the attack. However, that was the worst mistake he made.

    *Phew*

    An arrow flew by with Yukino as the cover and once Sygrart dodged her attack, he was greeted by the sight of an arrowhead. As he had just dodged and attack and hadn''t gotten the chance to bnce himself, he couldn''t dodge again and was forced to block with his rod. The force from the arrow destabilized hims, almost pushing him to the floor but Sygrart somehow stood back still. Yukino shed out again and this time, Sygrart could neither block nor dodge.

    *Crackle*

    Little ck lightning bolts swam around the rod and this seeded in scaring Yukino to a retreat but not Sato who attacked from behind.

    "Die." Sato hacked out the first time with [Chop] plus Swift Kill and the second time with [horizontal sh] ending the life of the monster that had eliminated two of their allies.

    As Sygrart fell, unwillingness was written on his face but for some reason, his eyes seemed to be rxed, as if finally being set free from a bondage.

    As the body slowly fell, Sato seemed to have entered another illusion.

    A long time ago...

    In an unnamed forest in ...there was a small goblin settlement that dwelled there. Numbering between 50-70goblins, they all knew each other and were extremely close. Unlike the regr wild goblins adventurers usually encountered, these ones seemed to be a bit civilized and cultured. They had houses made out of straws and branches, special wooden pots with a few being metallic. They had metallic weapons and a specific organization and development pattern with jobs being assigned to one another. Of course, the jobs weren''t advanced ones like one would see in modern day society but rather hunting, farming, build and the rest.

    In this settlement, an event was currently being held. A man in a dark cloak had earlier walked into the settlement in search of someone. ording to the vige chief, the man was an emissary of their god who hade to look for a young goblin chosen to serve their god.

    Right now, the vige chief''s house was crowded with most of the goblin vigers as they stared in curiosity and wonderment at the cloaked man. Some of them even had expectations and hopes to be the chosen one. After discussing with the vige head, he met with a young goblin that was a little bit different from the others. This little goblin had more simrities with human beings than goblins and despite being ''little'', he was taller than his peers at his age.

    "Little one,e with me and I shall grant you a path to salvation."

    The man extended his hand to the little goblin with a smile on his lips.

    "You should be lucky, child. You would have a better life following him." The vige chief smiled kindly.

    While all this took ce, the other vigers had stared at the little goblin with envy in their faces. At this same time they were also puzzled and confused as to how a half-blood would receive the favor of their god. Indeed, this little goblin was the half-blood goblin boss, Sygrart.

    "...okay." After hesitating a bit, little Sygrart agreed to go with the cloaked man.

    Later in the day, the other goblins gathered at the gate to send the duo off and while some were still envious, they had no choice other than to suck it up. A few others even went to little Sygrart and tried to make themselves look good by being nice to him and wishing him well, with the desire of course to be remembered by this chosend.

    Little Sygrart, on the other hand, was feeling weird about all this friendliness. The people that had previously mocked and taunted him suddenly started smiling and ttering him. Some of them had bullied him and made him run dumb and dangerous errands despite his young age andck of survival knowledge.

    Nheless, he smiled back at them absentmindedly and focused only on one person, a little female goblin like himself, who also happened to be a half-blood.They had grown up together almost like siblings and were the only half-bloods left. He cared for her as his little sister and shouldered all the burden and hate of being a half-blood on behalf of her. Despite not being rted, their bond was thicker than blood and Sygrart had nned to take her as his once he grew up but now fate had separated them.

    Little Sygrart stared at her with eyes that seemed to say ''I promise I will see you again soon'' while she nodded back frenziedly while trying to hold back her tears but she apparently wasn''t doing a good job at that. With the memory of her in mind and a sharp pain in his heart, little Sygrart left the vige alongside the cloaked man and swore to return back stronger to meet the love of his life and give her the best of what she never got. Unbeknownst to him, that was thest time he would have ever seen her as a few yearster, news reached him that the goblin settlement was wiped out by human adventurers.

    When such news reached him, little Sygrart hated himself for abandoning her and not being by her side and so he separated himself from his emotions and fanatically served ''Him'' in hopes of bringing her back to life. But all the years he spent without her was like torture to him such that Sygrart wished it would alle to an end and he would meet her once again. But fate had a different n for him¡­until now.

    Finally Sato left the illusion and as he did so, a voice sounded in his ears.

    "Thank you."

    Infinite Facts :

    Goblins, like every other monsters, feast on human flesh. However, there are certain cases where they mate with a human female. Normally, due to the difference in species and also since most goblins end up eating the female, the possibility of a sessful childbirth is low. In the situation where childbirth is sessful, the child born is a half-blood despised by both goblins and humans.

    As a half monster and one of a man-eating creature, humans would detest such a creature like an abomination. Since humans are food for goblins, a half-blood is seen as a more exquisite dessert but they are not always eaten and in most cases, are treated as ves or just ughtered as a form of entertainment. In more lucky scenarios, especially in a more civilized goblin society, half-bloods are usually banished or treated as the members of the lower rung of society.. Simply put, life for a half-goblin is tough.

 Chapter 90 - 87 : The Feast After The Fight 1

    "Thank you."

    The two words resounded in the ears of Sato even after the body of the goblin boss, Sygrart, had fallen down. Initially, Sato was confused as to why a monster whom he had just in would thank him but after witnessing the illusion that held the memories of the fallen opposition''smander, Sato felt he had understood a bit as to why so.

    Sygrart must have felt lonely and torn apart over not being able to keep the one closest to him alive. For such a love-struck individual, losing the one they love and having to live felt more like torture thanfort. Stuck in a continuous cycle of torment and anguish with the harrowing regret of having left his loved one behind and not even bothering about how she had been doing, Sygrart most likely med himself for everything and buried himself in ultic and hermitic practices to try and find a way to revive her. Despite so, he hadn''t found anything so far rting to resuscitation and revival as such, his mind leaned more to ending it or and joining her in thend of the dead. However, as the chosen one of their tribe''s god, he couldn''tmit such an atrocity.

    Sygrart then lived his life on the surface as a devote worshipper and leader of another goblin tribe but beneath this fa?ade he was in agony and loneliness. As he couldn''t revive his beloved, he turned to his hatred against the people that ended her life and that led to here. Though he had somewhat seeded by ending the lives of a few adventurers, he had fallen at the hands of the very humans he despised. Despite this, Sygrart was grateful, as his long life of anguish and torment had finallye to an end and perhaps, he might once again see the love of his life.

    ''Rest in peace then.'' Sato prayed for his foe. Even though it was just a game, Sato was pleased with the character build and background, as such he felt sympathy towards Sygrart. However, if they were still to battle one another again, Sato wouldn''t go easy on him after all, their interests shed.

    "I''ll share the loot."

    Yukino stepped closer to the body and began looting it. Sato narrowed his eyes but he didn''t say anything. Emperor''s Might was a super guild and though Sato wasn''t scared of them, he wasn''t willing to offend them unless their interests shed. Either way, Yukino did have the right to share the loot because not only was she the strongest yer present, but her forces had the highest numbers here. If that wasn''t enough, Emperor''s Might was actually the first to arrive in the boss'' hall plus they yed a crucial part in this battle because both the MT and healer were part of the guild.

    While she was organising the loot, Sato grouped up with Fudo some distance away from everyone else and they began discussing.

    "I don''t trust this guy." Fudo whispered while ncing at Dream Tiger before he turned his face to another direction. Fudo never really liked to underestimate his opponents as such, he had only nced at Dream Tiger for a very short while to prevent him from noticing that he was being spied on. But that short motion was enough for Sato to realise who he was talking about.

    "You too?" Sato lifted his eyebrows at Fudo''s statement. Ever since he felt a slight bit of hostility from Dream Tiger while they fought Riddled Tree, Sato had been keeping his distance and being alert around.

    "Oh? You also feel strange about him?"

    "Yeah. When we were handling the other yers, I always got the feeling that he was trying to eliminate me but so far, he hasn''t really made much of a daring move apart from when he tried to attack me." Sato recounted his experience with Dream Tiger.

    "That bastard really dare?!" Fudo almost lost hisposure.

    "Rx fat pig."

    "I''m rxed. I just can''t believe he did something like that." Fudo replied.

    Ever since his father had left him, Fudo only had a few people he could call friends, much less family. To him, Sato was his brother though not by blood but by bonds possibly stronger than that. Like the proverb ''a close neighbor is better than a distant cousin''[1], Fudo cherished the rtionship he had with this ''brother'' as they had walked through thick and thin together. Anyone who would try to harm those close to him would have to face his ire, even if it was in a VR game.

    "We can''t do anything about it yet plus I might just be thinking too much. Whatever, let''s just get our own share and leave here quickly. Being with all these guild yers has been making me feel ufortable." Sato sighed.

    Fudo kept quite as he realised that Sato was a bit down and as his best-friend, he obviously knew the reason why but there was nothing he could do. As Sato had said, it would be better than they just get their share of the loot and leave quickly.

    "I''m done." After 5 minutes had gone by, Yukino called out to all the yers present.

    "For the sake of fairness, I will send the loot info to everyone here."

    Yukino then opened her system interface and sent the information to the yers one by one. As they had fought in an individual format, except for the guild yers who had obviously made a party system for themselves,[2] Yukino would have to send any information to them via the in-game mail system.

    [[ System Notification :

    [[ Rackow''s Guard : Low Tier Rare-Steel Rank : Level 10 : Durability 70

    Adventurer Rackow was an amazing Guardian ss human well known for his bravery in facing an opponent whether big or small. This was his shield which he had used in his early days. Forged with 2 star high quality material Dawn Steel, to the extreme by a high ranking cksmith.

    Requirements : Level 10 || 25 [Strength]

    [Physical Defence] +65

    [Magical Defence] + 55

    [Strength] +10

    Blue Aegis : Create a blue transparent shield with 150% of defensive properties[3] and 200% of User''s HP as Shield HP

    Cool-down : 30 seconds.

    Systemment : Apparently, Rackow''s Guard was previously bought by an adventurer who admired Rackow. This adventurer was said to have went missing awhile back leading to the priced treasure going missing. Now you should have guessed what became of him. Just hope you don''t end in the same path. Teeheehee. ]]

    [[ Blue Jade Ne : Low Tier Rare-Steel Rank

    +5 Luck

    +10% affinity to Mana

    +5 [Vitality]

    +5 [Willpower]

    Soothing Touch : Passive : Wearer''s mind would usually be calm and rxed but this has a limit especially in serious situations that may overburden them or special locations.

    Clear Mind and Heart : Active : Instantly clear the thoughts and heart of the wearer granting them release from any mental status effects.

    Cool-down : 45 seconds. ]]

    "Rare-steel rank!"

    "Not just one but two!"

    Everyone''s eyes lightened up upon seeing the level of the shield and ne. So far yet, yers have only encountered Mortal rank weapons and even if they had seen Rare-steel rank weapons, it would only be in NPC high establishments like Grynx Merchandise. Even still, the price tags on these products were more than enough to scare the living hell out of them; even the big guilds didn''t dare to spend their liquid funds so extravagantly as the returns wasn''t really worth the investment. Because of this, they could afford the next best thing, Upper Tier Mortal Rank equipment.

    "If anyone knew of this, they would die of envy or worse, try to rob it." Fudo sighed.

    Currently, most yers still used Low Tier to Mid Tier Mortal Rank equipment. Even the expert[4] solo yers and core members of the big guilds could only have a few pieces of Upper Tier Mortal Rank but never a full body equip. If the rarity of Upper Tier Mortal Rank is this serious, one could only imagine how scarce Rare-steel ranks are. They are so scarce that Rare-steel ranks haven''t been seen or heard of. Because of this, a rumor had recently spread out that the game developers had added the feature that no Rare-steel rank weapon would be gotten while the yers were still at the Town stage. Whether this rumour is true or not has yet to be proven but a few yers had spected that it might be true despite the ims by thepany that the game is entirely supervised and monitored by an AI.

    However, it might be possible that someone must have gotten one since they are made avable in stores, and not show it off. Like the saying goes, if a treasure is in the hands of an ordinary man, it would attract trouble, some might actually wield Rare-Steel weapons and equipment but do not desire to let anyone know lest they get robbed of their treasure. Most people however, doubt this as the price isn''t necessarily something a solo yer can easily afford, neither would a guild in their right mind spend a lot for just a little advantage.

    This umonness of Rare-steel ranks have made them a preciousmodity in the eyes of yers. As the saying above still applies here, it is highly undeniable that if the outside world were to know of this, unless one has the backing of a guild, he or she would must likely be robbed of this treasure and all their belongings.

    "The difference is indeed clear." Sato sighed.

    Even though they were of two different functions, Sato couldn''t help butpare it with his Dawn Steel Armor after all, they were both made with the same 2 star material, Dawn Steel. As hepared them, Sato couldn''t help but raise an eyebrow at the difference. He couldn''t help but feel scammed at therge difference in strength.

    ''Even though the Dawn Steel Armor has attributes in all forms of defense alongside [Endurance] and [Strength], Rackow''s Guard has more attributes and doesn''t seem to be weaker. Rather it''s actually more stronger. Damn.''

    "That systemment does sound quite ominous and what'' with the teeheehee? Is the system acting like a little kid?!" Fudo aimlesslyined.

    Apart from Rackow''s Guard, the Blue Jade Ne was also quite impressive. In fact, if not for the appearance of Rackow''s Guard, it might have be the second most precious item obtained in today''s harvest. Why?Because it was an essory. essories were really rare and quite precious. So much so that when Sato and Fudo had gone to Grynx Merchandise, their essories were all stored at the second and fourth floor! The second floor held the Rare-steel rank items whereas the 4th floor held anything above that rank. For the essories to be there surely showed their worth.

    ording Aaron, essories are a lot harder to obtain as unlike equipment and weapons which only need the hands of a skilled cksmith, essories require both a cksmith and a Jeweller to team up. For the better ones, not only are a Jeweller and cksmith required but also a scribe. Such a lineup having to team up just to make a ne, ring or bracelet should be more than enough to tell that the end product would surely cost a lot. Even though sometimes a cksmith or a Jeweller could easily make them as long as they have some already made parts avable, the end product is usually weaker than an original work.

    Though Blue Jade Ne seemedcking whenpared to Fudo''s Igneel guidance, especially in terms of attacking prowess, the Blue Jade Ne wasn''t weaker than it. Apart from the impressive 10% affinity to Mana alongside the amazing +5 to Luck, the yers were stunned at the skills. To be able to undo any influence on their mental states, this feature already lifted the Blue Jade ne to another level. If they had this ne, they could easily eliminate the effects of a [Fear] status when they encounter a boss much higher levelled than they were. Even though the Blue Jade Diamond wasn''t so good in attacking, its +5 to [Willpower] and [Vitality] together with those two skills easily made it a top notch supportive equipment.

    "This is...!"

    AN :

    Infinite Facts :

    The Jeweller ss are capable of enchanting gems, carving sigils and incantations on gems and also appraising gems.

    I''m not sure whether that''s exactly how it goes but it''s quite simr. I don''t think I need to exin it right?

    To understand this better, East Crow made a party with Drunken Hog, Swift de and Dream Tiger. Emperor''s Might made a party with Yukino, Chesces and the other two.

    Defensive properties refers to both [Physical Defense] and [Magical Defense]. Summary of this shield ability is that it has both high defensive capabilities plus its own HP.

    [4] From now on, the ''Expert'' rank of yers would be written with the ''E'' in capital. As for the ''experts'' with a small ''e'', this would be used to refer to strong yers. Simply put, it is a vague reference to a yers strength and can be used to refer to god level, monster ss, pinnacle and average experts and possibly even Veteran rank yers.. I will eventually exin how the ranking is calcted.

 Chapter 91 - 88 : Retreat

    (AN : I edited the stats for Rackow''s Guard cause I felt it was still weak¡­Please remember to notify me about any grammatical error)

    Back at the main battlefield¡­

    With theck ofmand orders and the constant massacre of their fellowrades, the goblin army was almost decimated with only less than 50 of them left. Some of the yers hurried over to get the kill on these guys while the rest decided to take a break from the constant murders and spilling of blood.

    One noticeable fact in this war, for the yers of course, was that they couldn''t loot the bodies of the goblins. Usually when a monster is killed, yers are able to loot the body, through the aid of the [Loot] icon, for equipment, weapons or any other valuables. However, they had earlier discovered that the case wasn''t so here. There was no [Loot] icon and even if the yers personally searched the dead bodies, they couldn''t find any treasures. If they tried to use the weapons previously wielded by the goblins, they would receive a System notification that such equipment or weapon was totally useless in their hands. For the metal ones, they would receive a notification stating that every loot was under the custody of the Town government and any attempted hiding or any weapon could lead to being jailed or executed on the spot.

    As frustrating as these notifications were, none of the yers dared to defy the Town''s government especially after witnessing the ability of the Town Head Arman Lagus in battle. The mountain was already badly demolished with the peak turned to rubble.

    "Death to the system!!!"

    "We want our loot! We want our loot!"

    "Shitty game. Rip-off Realm!!!"

    With no extra rewards apart from the mission reward, some of the yers became dissatisfied and started cursing while some just did so for the fun of it. However, this was only a few of the crowd of yers that arrived. Most were already satisfied with the kill rewards and only waited for the mission to be over.

    Some of them came up with a few reasonable exnations such as the AI in charge(Heaven System) eliminating the ability of looting dead bodies otherwise all of the yers who participated in this war would have ended up as millionaires even if its just in copper coins. Some believed that it was in plot with the story after all the monsters were poor to begin with and also since the Town government lead them to this battle and was already intent on rewarding them, there was no reason for the yers to have a share in the goblin army loot.

    All that remained now for the yers was for thest less than 50 goblins to be yed, the main boss to be defeated and for the goblinmander to be caught. Two of this requirements could be said to beplete as not only would the less than 50 goblins be decimated within a few seconds but also the explosions that had been going on for awhile at the mountain''s top hade to an end. This obviously signified the end of the battle as Lord Midel took a few troops with him alongside the Church''s people, as they rushed over to the mountain peak or rather, what was left of it.

    As for the death of the goblinmander figure, some of the yers were about to head underground to search while others wanted to look for it in the mountain but were stopped by a system notification.

    [[ System notification :

    Emergency : Lord Midel has just discovered that the goblin forces has amander figure apart from the Emissary. Find and eliminate this figure before the army suffers more casualties.

    Reward : 1000 experience points, 10 silver coins, Loot, 10 kill points.[1]

    Failure Penalty : Potential defeat in battle.

    Emergency Missionpleted by : Team Emperor''s Might

    Team East Crow

    *****

    ***** ]]

    "Whoa! Emperor''s Might had actually participated?"

    "I know right. I had previously seen the Snow Goddess in battle. She was a strong as she was beautiful."

    "Isn''t East Crow a second tier guild? Who would have imagined that they will team up with Emperor''s Might to take on themander."

    "Indeed. For them to have done so, themander should have been really strong."

    "With this coboration, East Crow should have risen by a few points in rank. Who knows, they might team upter and this might be the first alliance between two guilds."

    "Stop joking around. A super guild wouldn''t bother to team up with a 2nd tier guild either way."

    "You''re right. Seems like I was thinking too much."

    "Does anyone know who those censored parts represent? It seems to be two parties or two yers?"

    Different conversations burst out after the yers had gotten a quick nce at the System notification. Although a couple of them were disappointed to have not gotten the kill for themselves, upon seeing those who did, they felt it was better that they actually never looked for themander.

    Unless they had power to show and contend with a super guild, going there might have led to them either getting killed by monsters or fellow yers even. After all, the NPCs only aided the yers from getting killed by other yers in the main battlefield not somewhere underground where no NPC headed. In such a case, they wouldpletely be at the hands of their adversaries unless they wielded the strength to turn the tables or the resources to buy their lives. Despite the ability to revive after death, every yer still treasured their lives as a chunk of experience points would be deducted with each death alongside the potential threat of losing a valuable weapon, equipment or even material.

    "Good. With this missionpleted, we can raise our poprity and higher new members." Troubled Sword, Hiroshi Daichi, smiled.

    . . . . .

    "It''s over now, give up." Arman stared at the cloaked man who stood in front of him in silence.

    Right now, the Emissary''s projection was wrapped in golden chains that were formed from inscriptions of Holy words. The haze mist around him had dissipated by 80% and the energy fluctuating from his body had a drastic changepared to previously as it was a lot lower.

    Since the main body was currently battling the third department of the Monarch Guards, he had to focus most of his energy on himself. As a result of this, the projection''s energy supply took a nose-dive for the worst and so, despite being injured, the Riverdale Trio managed to gain the upper hand in the battle and sessfully captured it.

    Even though they had captured it, Arman, Bishop Enzo and Deval didn''t let their guards down. They stared with their full focus and attention on it, not letting themselves get full of their achievement.

    "I have to say that I am disappointed. I was truly looking forward to his revival." The Emissary''s projection ignored the trio and stared at the spot directly atop where Sato and the others were.

    "It seems this is fate then."

    "What the hell are you babbling about?" Arman yelled.

    "The bnce of the world will soon be overturned. Chaos will rise once again, so will the gods. Lives shall be lost and worlds destroyed. You should have heard about the prophecy right? Foolish priest and leader?" The Emissary replied.

    Arman knitted his brows while Bishop Enzo frowned a bit. Deval on the other hand didn''t know a lot as he had no actual power nor background like the other two but upon pondering a bit, a look of enlightenment appeared on his face.

    "What about it?"

    The Emissary then smiled. "You have heard about the future but how much do you know about the past?"

    "Would you stop speaking in parables wretched creature!" Bishop Enzo yelled in vexation.

    Arman on the other hand frowned a bit. Even though he felt that the Bishop''s words were a bit too crude, he was still frustrated at the way the Emissary spoke.

    "As expected, you know nothing. Since that is the case, I shall speak nothing." The Emissary smirked. Despite losing and having his projection captured, he didn''t seem like he cared neither was he bothered about it. Rather, looking at Bishop Enzo''s frustrated look made him chuckle.

    "For the somewhat entertaining bout you have given me, I will however, tell you a little something. Take it as a hint from an enemy in arms."

    "An enemy in arms?" Deval questioned in a confused tone.

    Smiling, the Emissary continued in a chatan tone "Your enemies are neither demons nor gods but something far greater. By revealing this to you, I''m pretty sure that I will be punished a lot but the better you learn that, the easier it will be to cooperate."

    "Cooperate? The Church has no reason to cooperate with a vile creature such as yourself." Bishop Enzo harrumphed.

    Ignoring his remark, the Emissary stared at Arman before saying "Child of the void, remember. The name given to me by my Lord is Yan and we shall meet again soon."

    As hepleted his statement, his body began to crack like y, bit by bit until eventually, his entire being cracked apart and disintegrated into molecr ashes swept away by the wind.

    . . . . .

    At the same time, the main body of the Emissary, Yan, suddenly disappeared from the sights of the Shadow Guards.

    "He escaped." The eagle masked individual spoke.

    "His Highness won''t be so happy about this."The tiger masked guard spoke with a vexed mood.

    "There''s nothing we can do about it. Even when we fought with him, we could barely keep this ce intact to prevent the neighbouring countries from finding out. Plus our main mission was to drive him out and learn of his origins; capturing him was but a side mission. Let''s leave." Their leader, who wore the fox mask stated before taking a step forward and suddenly disappearing.

    The other two did the same and also disappeared. As they left, the power keeping the ce intact was lifted up and immediately, the mountain crumbled to dust. Yes, dust and not rumble. It seemed like the two parties had a very serious battle but thanks to the efforts of the trio, they managed to limit the damage to the ce. But as they left, the remaining devastating energy from their show of strength earlier alongside their short battle, spread outwards devastating the mountain. This was but the remnant of their powers.. One could only imagine what would have happened to the mountain range if they didn''t hold back a bit.

 Chapter 92 - 89 : The Feast After The Fight 2

    (AN: This chapter is susceptible to change.)

    "This is...!"

    Staring at the parchment on disy on his system interface panel, Sato was utterly astonished and surprised. Not just him though but also everyone else that were currently going through the loot report.

    [[ Forging Blueprint :

    Mountain Army Armour Series : Mountain Soldier (Level 10 Upper Tier Mortal Rank) :

    Requirements : Level 10 || 25 [Strength]

    [Physical Defence] +35

    [Magical Defence] + 30

    [Strength] +15

    [Endurance] +10

    Forging requirements : Apprentice cksmith rank at the very least with the required necessary knowledge.

    Forging elements : Limber Steel, Silver ore, silver core, Iron ¡­

    System Comments : You might not be as tough as a turtle shell in this but bing an amazing punching ba-¡­ MT, in this won''t be impossible. Nheless, you would still need a good cksmith to make your masochist dreams a reality.

    ]]

    The Mountain Soldier armor was really impressive and though it was slightlycking in defensive properties whenpared to Rackow''s Guard, one should remember that thetter was higher in rank. As a Rare-steel ranked equipment, Rackow''s Guard was qualified to possess a skill unlike the Mountain soldier armour.

    Despite being a bit worse whenpared to Rackow''s Guard, in the eyes of all the yers present, the Mountain Soldier armour blueprint had the most value whenpared with the other loot even the Rare-steel rank ones. Why? Well the key to the reason why wasn''t in the armour itself but the form it appeared. A blueprint.

    Machine or forging Blueprints, designs, drafts or even alchemy forme are important resources that can change the future of any gamer, even more so for guilds. The reason why is that with the aid of a blueprint, the yer, who of course should already have the required subss(in this case, cksmith ss), could create tons of sets and market it out to the public in exchange for resources or money. Simply put, the blueprint was a money-making machine in the truest sense. As long as one can afford the initial investment for the plethora of materials needed in forging and also possess the required ss and knowledge, it wouldn''t be an understatement to say that that person would eventually be swimming in riches.

    This was obviously because most or rather all of the yers are yet to reach the level 10 mark. As this is the early stage of the game, it is inevitable that the requirement to do so wouldn''t be so difficult. In other words, every physical ss yers are currently potential customers for the Mountain Soldier armour. Even after current yers had gone beyond the level 10 mark, there would still be new batches of yers logging in. As it is also an Upper Tier Mortal rank equipment, the allure of the armour was on a whole different level.

    Due to certain limitations in strength and forging needs, level 5 weapons have been capped to be of the Upper Tier Mortal rank at most. With that said, an Upper Tier Mortal rank level 5 weapon would only be barely on par to a Mid Tier Mortal rank. With that in mind, the strength of an Upper Tier Mortal rank could only be imagined. Seeing it in person, all the yers present were tempted to have one in their hands and so desired this blueprint greatly even more so for the guild yers as this would increase their value to their guild.

    "If we can get this blueprint then I''m pretty sure we wouldn''t have to worry about money again for awhile." Fudo''s eyes brightened.

    "And who''s gonna do all the work? Me?" Sato replied. Even though he sounded dissatisfied, Sato was somewhat hoping that they could get the blueprint. But of course, he knew this dream of his was unrealistic as there were two strong guilds before them and none would want to lose such a treasured to a duo of not even official club members but solo yers.

    "Dream, no matter the cost, we have to get this blueprint." Swift de whispered to Dream Tiger.

    "I know. But do you think those super guild guys will let it be?" Dream Tiger grumbled.

    "Then at the most we make a few concessions. For a super guild I doubt this blueprint is extremely precious to them. As long as we offer them a few deals and benefits, they should give it to us." Swift de stated.

    "...I will have to talk with boss first."

    Apart from the two Low tier Rare-steel rank equipment and the forging blueprint, there were also a couple other materials, specifically 2 star and a few 3 star materials. There was also the mission reward for ying the boss and the reward from the emergency mission.

    "Huh? What''s this?"

    [[ System notification :

    Do you desire to make your name known for the marvelous achievement of ying the enemymander andpleting the emergency mission?

    System : ept/Decline

    15 seconds left to respond.

    ]]

    "Oh? An announcement eh?" Fudo narrowed his eyes.

    After they had defeated the boss, they had received a system notification on whether they should reveal their names alongside the achievement announcement but since they weren''t paying attention, they only noticed it now. There was actually a 3 minute wait to reply but Sato and Fudo had actually forgotten about the notification and only recalled it after opening their system interface.

    Whenever an important boss figure was in in the game, yer(s) involved are usually given the opportunity to disy their deeds to the public, thereby gaining praise and appreciation. Since Sygrart was the mini boss of the opposing goblin faction, but in a way, he was the main boss for the yer faction to handle in thisrge scale event. With such appraisals and titles attached to his image, it was pretty understandable as to why a wide range announcement would be given after his death.

    This was more of an opportunity for yers to be famous and gain recognition from big guilds or sponsors. Of course, it can also be used by guilds to rake in good publicity and improve their image as gaming guilds so that they could draw more yers easily to themselves.

    VR games have developed so much that the expanse of space is far greater than one could explore. Hence the need of manpower to hold more strategic locations is seen as the number one priority of most guilds.

    The two guild parties had volunteered to reveal their names whereas Sato and Fudo''s names didn''t do so. Even if they didn''t reply the message before the countdown was over, with their ck cloaks on, their names wouldn''t appear on the announcement. This was a hidden feature attached to the ck cloaks.

    [[ System notification :

    Emergency : Lord Midel has just discovered that the goblin forces has amander figure apart from the Emissary. Find and eliminate this figure before the army suffers more casualties.

    Reward : 1000 experience points, 10 silver coins, Loot, 10 kill points.[1]

    Failure Penalty : Potential defeat in battle.

    Emergency Missionpleted by : Team Emperor''s Might

    Team East Crow

    *****

    ***** ]]

    "So, how do we share the loot?" Dream Tiger stepped forward and asked the question that was on everyone''s mind.

    Yukino frowned while she stared at Dream Tiger. Despite her Emperor''s Might squad having the highest number and greatest clout, she couldn''t afford to dash a way with the loot and offend anyone right now. Even though she was a ''Queen'', Yukino doubted whether she would be able to escape with only 1 actualbatant in her teampared to the 4 qualified fighters before her. However she still needed to get her guild the more precious treasures while also satisfying the rest a bit. After all, if they were to leave here while smearing the name of her guild, it might not do much but it will affect their recruitment rate of yers to their guild. What these big guilds fear most isn''t a loss in resources but a taint in their public image.

    Facing the elegant but cold beauty, Dream Tiger stood his ground without a hint of fear in his eyes. His pride as an expert was deeply embedded in his bones and so Dream Tiger believed that he was equivalent to Yukino with the difference just being the resources and training she received.

    "The two Rare-steel ranked equipment would go to us guild yers with my Emperor''s Might taking the essory. My guild would also take the blueprint while you guys can share the silver and the materials." Yukino said inly. It might have looked like she had lost out in the deal, but Yukino had directly taken the best part of the food while handing the leftovers over to them.

    Though Dream Tiger looked a bit displeased, he knew this was already the best he could get right now. Plus an equipment, especially an armour, would be the best thing they needed.

    "What about us?" Sato grimly spoke up.

    Yukino replied coldly, "No offense but you guys are solo yers so that''s all you get. What else were you expecting? Thank you for the help and all but that''s all you get. You already leveled up quite a bit so be satisfied; at least you didn''t lose your partner."

    It was indeed true that without Fudo and Sato, Chesces and his teammates would have died earlier but Yukino already felt that giving them the mary reward was enough. After they had finished Sygrart, everybody present had received a single increment in their level despite its quantity. In their words, their levels had all increased by one.

    "Don''t argue anymore. This is just the status quo. In the presence of us guild yers, you solo yers don''t have a voice." Dream Tiger grinned. Disappointed he was about not getting the blueprint but as Yukino had taken a step back and left the mary rewards to them, Dream Tiger felt a bit satisfied with that. However he still decided to jab at Sato to relieve himself of his frustrations.

    Sato frowned at this as he saw he had no way to change their minds after all, it was 5 against 2.

    ''Then let it be. It seems I have no fate with the blueprint.'' Sato inwardly sighed.

    As a cksmith, though an apprentice-in-training, it would be a lie to say that Sato wasn''t interested in the blueprint. A money making path had just been presented before him but he couldn''t grab it so he felt quite dissatisfied but there was nothing he could do about it.

    Of course, due to the fact that a ton of resources andponents would be needed to produce the armour together with the fact that to satisfy public demand it would be a lot better to have a lot of dedicated cksmiths, the value of the blueprint would be better actualized in the hands of guilds than solo yers.

    Since he still got a share of the wealth, Sato didn''t pursue the matter anymore.

    After receiving his share of wealth, Sato was prepared to leave with Fudo till a voice sounded out.

    "Wait. Would you like to be a part of my guild?"

 Chapter 93 - 90 : Flat Rejection

    "Wait. Would you like to be a part of my guild?"

    Sato turned to face the speaker with a incredulity stered all over his face.

    "What did you say?"

    Presuming that he was pleasantly surprised by the offer, Yukino repeated herself, "As a valued core member of the guild, my words are appreciated and rmended by the upper echelons. Thanks to my achievements to the guild, I''m granted to quotas to directly recruit any yer of my choice into the guild. Videlicet, the rmended yer wouldn''t need to buy a recruitment form nor participate in the recruitment test. So once again, would you like to join Emperor''s Might?"

    Sato''s eyes widened as he was sincerely surprise since he never expected an invitation toe out of the blue like that.

    ''What did I do? Did I mistakenly reveal anything? But I still held back right? And since when was getting scouted for a super guild that easy?!'' Sato''s mind was at a mess right now and less should be said about Fudo who was trying toprehend what was going on.

    At first Kylian, Dream Tiger and everyone else didn''t believe their ears but as Yukino repeated the same question, going further to even give exnations, they were truly surprised and wondered why the acimed Snow Goddess would set her eyes on Sato. Even if he was strong, from his performance, Sato was barely able to match up with their guild leader but yet Yukino seemed to think highly of him.

    In recent times, the VR gaming sector has been thriving at an absurd rate with more people seeing it as a window of opportunity to sess. After the Great Reparation,the world poption had plummeted by more than 60%. As time went on the poption had recovered a bit, currently peaking at 5-6 billion humans or thereabout thanks to the efforts of humanity. ording to analysts, at least 2 billion, that is at least 30% of the world''s current poption, are gamers. Some of them are professional gamers, a few are part timers[1] while a few are leisure yers or rather people who use VR games as an escape from the solitude and sufferings of life.

    For the more focused and serious professional gamers, strength and skill are what they need to conquer the gaming world and leave behind their mark in gaming history. Most times, one can''t achieve this on their own and hence require external support and this is were guildse in.

    A super guild, for decades, has been seen as the peak form of any gaming guild; the end level and number one goal of guilds and also the aspiration of at least 90% of yers. If a yer desires to achieve the peak of gaming skill and leave behind their mark in gaming history, being a member of a behemoth like a super guild is a necessary factor that makes such a goal easier. Why? Because super guilds have better special training services and better resources that can increase the strength of VR gamer at a very impressive rate whenpared to the services of lesser guilds or solo training. There''s a famous saying in the gaming world tat goes ''behind every world ss yer is super guild foundation''[2].Though this saying doesn''t really apply to every legendary yer, at least 70% of them went through this route.

    ''This bastard¡­'' Dream Tiger gritted his teeth.

    Dream Tiger had always dreamt of going to a super guild. In his own opinion, East Crow guild is but a spring board for him; a junction to sharpen his skills and improve himself a bit more. Despite all the support and the training the guild had given to him, Dream Tiger wasn''t attached to it in whatsoever way. He had earnestly tried his best to show off his skills to Yukino in hopes of getting picked up by Emperor''s Might but he never expected a solo yer, who cowardly hid behind a cloak, to be the one to get her attention. Saying that he really wanted Sato die right now isn''t an understatement.

    With a prideful expression, Yukino stared waiting for his reply. She had full confidence that he would agree to her proposal after all Emperor''s Might wasn''t a weak super guild as it was in the top 10 rankings. Also, a lot of yers had always tried to please her and get closer to her and Yukino believed that Sato was the same as he would try anything to get closer to her. Though she really hated people for this since they usually had lecherous thoughts behind them, Yukino still used this vile traits of theirs to tie them to the ship known as Emperor''s Might.

    Sato scrutinized her a bit before replying,

    "Sorry but my answer is no."

    "...excuse me?" Yukino stared incredulously at him.

    "Didn''t you hear me? NO." Sato felt a bit annoyed as he strongly conveyed his thoughts.

    The Snow Goddess Yukino was bewildered. Never had she expected a yer, even more so a man, to reject her invitation to join a super guild. One has to know that an opportunity to be invited into a super guild was like an opportunity for a carp to leap through the dragon gate; a window of opportunity that would lead to a qualitative change for them but Sato had outrightly denied it. If some die-hard fans of hers and gamers were to see this scene, they would earnestly pound Sato to death with their fist. Even if he was vexed about the fact that his and Fudo''s rewards were less valuable than the rest, it was still dumb of him to refuse this opportunity.

    The Snow Goddess! A true ''Queen'' ranked 178th in the ''Gaming Experts List''[3] had earnestly invited a stranger to her guild but yet he refused. Even more so with an annoyed tone as if she were pestering him.

    Yukino knitted her brows before replying, "If you are worried about your friend, you need not worry as I can also help him skip the first test and as long as he passes the practical trials then he would join up with you."

    "No. It''s not that. I just don''t wish to be in the same guild as the likes of yourself." Sato grinned.

    "Are you stupid?! Do you know what you have just missed?!" Dream Tiger shouted at Sato with anger in his eyes. There was even a bit of killing intent but he rolled it back in. He knew that Sato had said that just to irritate Yukino but he couldn''t keep watching him do so.

    Before he could evenment on it, Fudo retorted at Dream Tiger.

    "Who the hell are you huh? Did you see thedy or her teammatesin? But hell, you decided to stick your nose where it shouldn''t be. Why don''t you mind your business little kid."

    ''Little kid?!'' Dream Tiger was slowly losing it but he didn''t retort after all, Fudo was right. What right did he have to criticize Sato for his decision or behaviour? None.

    Dream Tiger had been dissatisfied with Sato continuously. First with his amazing performance in handling the one-horned trolls, creating a crack in Dream Tiger''s pride as an expert. Secondly with his battle against Devis and Rock, the experts of Sind, where Sato not only defeated them both but managed to kill one of them. Thest nail that shattered his pride wasn''t the invitation to join a super guild but the fact that Sato had rejected it.

    Dream Tiger had a crush on Yukino, but it wasn''t your average crush. He always felt that Yukino was suited for him and they both deserved each other. Dream Tiger believed that if he had been part of a super guild, with the resources and training they give, he would have been on par with Yukino. He believed that his talent was simr with hers and as such, they deserved to be together. That is why Emperor''s Might had been his dream super guild. But now, a stranger he neither knows nor heard about suddenly appeared and like a pie falling from the sky, he was granted the chance to be a part of the guild Dream Tiger had always hoped for. Rather than epting however, the stranger rejected, going so far as to do so with a frustrated tone, making light of Dream Tiger''s dream guild. If that wasn''t enough, the unknown yer decided to irk his crush and ''destined partner''. Why wouldn''t he be annoyed?

    "I see." Yukino expressed after ruminating a bit. "Hmph ! Don''t expect to ever get into my guild as long as I''m still around." Ending at that, she left in with rapid footsteps, thoroughly ignoring the fact that she came with other yers.

    "I sincerely apologize for that." Kylian awkwardlyughed. The reason he did so was because, although Sato rejected the invitation, he still saved their lives earlier on.

    After that Kylian and Griffin, who had taken the loot from Chesces remains, chased after her and exited the chamber. Sato and Fudp decided to stop waiting and also did the same but Dream Tiger stared at Sato with red eyes as if he wanted to tear him apart.

    ''This feud will be settledter on with your head.''

    Swift de had obviously seen Dream Tiger''s behaviour but he only shook his head. Despite having a higher rank in the guild than him, Dream Tiger was stronger than him and strength speaks best as such, he couldn''t reprimand Dream Tiger for his attitude just now. He could only hope that that yer never encounters him elsewhere.

    ''Sky de was it? I wish you the best of luck.''

    AN :

    By part timers, they actually have real life jobs but still make a few bucks from gaming. However, they aren''t as dedicated as the professionals neither do they have sponsors. They earn from selling what they make in-game. It can be information, in-game money, materials or equipment and weapons.

    Adapted from the saying ''Behind every great man is a great woman'' or ''Behind every sessful man is a strong woman''.

    Changed from Gamer Experts List to Gaming Expert List.. I believe the second should be correct.

 Chapter 94 - 91 : The Heart Of A Man Is Vile 1[1]

    A team of three yers were running across a hallway. They were geared in equipment of

    "Stop. Let''s search here for any valuables." The only female in the group who seemed to be the leader spoke up. The team then went into a room and started searching around but after they didn''t discover anything, they left the room.

    "Permit me to speak captain." Griffin suddenly asked.

    Yukino knitted her brows.

    "Go on."

    "Why did you try to invite him? I know that his skills are okay but they are just that, okay. There are a lot more pro yers out there that are far stronger than him and even more in the guild."

    "True."

    Seeing that she didn''t continue, Griffin pressed on.

    "Then why?"

    "I felt he was familiar plus that skill he used during the raid...it looked like the 1st form of the Lotus Sword art." Yukino recalled when they were trying to break Sygrart''s barrier alongside Chesces.[2]

    "The sword art of the Noguchi n?!" Kylian and Griffin both eximed.

    Yukino nodded. Even though she uses the sword art itself, she had actuallyprehended parts of it after seeing it in y. So far Yukino only knew one of them; the 2nd form: 3 leaf block. However, that was enough to solidify her status as a genius as she had learnt these two skills from seeing them in action. But of course, the power she could draw out from them was less than 2/3 of the original.

    "Then that means that he might be a big figure." Kylian stated with a hint of disbelief.

    The Noguchi n. A huge n dedicated to Martial arts and techniques. A lot of modern day martial arts skills and techniques have been created by the descendants and members of this n. Apart from martial arts, they also possessed political clout and had big enterprises under their name. Some of their members even have high ranks in the army. Though they weren''t the number one family in Independent State of Japan, they were still part of the top 5. Their influence was said to have spread wide and far that they were dreaded by the other Top 4 families.

    Of course as a big n with wings spread wide and far, the Noguchi n even had a super guild under them. Though the super guild isn''t strictly controlled by them, they have at least 40% of it''s shares, thereby bing a major shareholder. They also had a 1st tier guild thatprised mostly of their family members and close friends. The name of the guild was derived from their name and hence given the title "The Gatekeepers".

    "I doubt that. The Noguchis care a lot about their face and blood so unless he waspletely abandoned by them, there''s no way that he would be here on his own without more aid. Plus the information I have suggests that none of their forces are stationed in Fallen Heart Kingdom much less Riverdale Town."

    As a few hours had already gone by since the gameunched, coupled with the break time as a result of the update, most guilds had used that period tounch investigations on their rivals. As a result, the locations and status of pretty much every super power was known to each other. A behemoth like the Noguchi n''s Gatekeepers or the super guild under them, would of course be monitored by others.

    "As I had said before, I''m not sure whether it was actually the sword art he had used. It might be it or it might have been something simr. If it were really it then he might have learnt it somewhere, I don''t know. I just wanted to bring him to outside to be sure."

    ''So you just wanted to make a gamble?!'' Griffin helplessly cried inwardly.

    "Kylian, do you know the name of that yer?" Yukino asked while moving forward.

    "No. He didn''t tell us his name so I''m not aware." Kylian shook his head. He indeed didn''t know Sato''s name since Sato wore a ck cloak but he still hid the fact that Sato had told Drunken Hog his name.

    Kylian didn''t see this happen but simply guessed that since Drunken Hog had shared the data on Sygrart''s stats to everyone, he must have gotten Sato''s name and sent it to him too.

    The reason why he didn''t tell Yukino this detail was to protect him. Kylian was pretty sure that Yukino was currently incensed by Sato''s rejection and would try to get back at him. He was very aware of the strength wielded by super guilds and if Yukino was dead set on getting Sato''s head, it wouldn''t much difficult. Since Sato had saved their lives earlier from the trolls, Kylian decided to repay him back with this little action.

    ''I have done my best for you guys. As for whether she will still pursue this, I leave that to your luck.'' Kylian bitterly smiled.

    . . . . .

    "Sato, do you think that guy will let us off so easily? He seems like one of those prideful experts plus I think he has a thing for Yukino." Fudo suddenly spoke up as they were moving underground in search of an exit. Being a sanguine in nature, Fudo could hardly keep quiet even for awhile so he decided to strike up a conversation but of course, it had to be a meaningful one otherwise Sato would simply ignore him.

    "True. His character is quite difficult to deal with. I kinda feel like it won''t end here but I hope it does. I honestly don''t want to get in any guild confrontation for now." Sato sighed before smiling bitterly.

    "Oh? So you have finally decided to start a guild?"

    "How many times must I remind you, we are starting with a club." Sato refuted.

    A gaming club is a smaller organization whenpared to a guild as their number count is at about 12-30 or there about. This might seem big but whenpared to a guild that usually has at least 50 members but with an average of 120 members and above, a club is indeed smaller. The advantage of a club was that it was far more easier to manage whenpared to a guild but it''s disadvantage was the obviousck of manpower.

    "Alright alright." Fudo grinned shamelessly. "So where are we heading next? If I''m correct, the battle above should be wrapping up now so we would be going back to town soon right? Our original intention before all this was to level up but with this battle that we''ve gone through, we have pretty muchpleted our original goal."

    "True but that doesn''t mean we should just sit down. We gained two level ups from the battle back there but we are still quite some distance away from the level 10 mark." Sato replied while looking forward.

    "So we''re still going to fight again?" Fudo''s face scrunched.

    "Yeah. Don''t forget the reason why we are ying this game. We aren''t leisure yers Fudo." Sato lectured him. Suddenly, Sato''s face steeled as he put on a serious expression.

    "Stop. Someone''s following us."

    "Could it be that guy? Can''t he just mind his business. He really is too impatient to meet his death." Fudo sneered.

    There was a saying that the more you try to avoid something, the closer it gets to you. A few secondster, Fudo''s guess turned out correct as the one who appeared was Dream Tiger apanied by the swordsman Swift de.

    When he saw them standing still and staring at him, Dream Tiger stopped running and faced the duo with a distance of at least 4 metres separating the two parties.

    "Hmph. What are you doing here?" Dream Tiger said with clear contempt in his voice.

    "I should be asking you the same thing." Sato frowned at him.

    "What else would I be doing? I''m looking for a way out." Dream Tiger inly stated. However Sato didn''t buy his excuse.

    After they had defeated the boss, two major entrances had shown up. While Yukino and her team took one of them, Sato and Fudo took the other. This meant that Swift de and Dream Tiger could pick any of the two. Even if he were still to follow Sato and Fudo''s choice, the hallway they passed through had many different passages that led elsewhere. Logically, Dream Tiger and Swift de should be interested in searching around for more treasures. Even if they were in a hurry to escape, there were other pathways to go through but they happened to tag along with Sato and Fudo right behind them. If anything, rather than a coincidence this seemed more like they were purposely tracking them.

    Recalling that they both had a heated argument earlier together with the behaviour he had shown to them, Sato was pretty sure that Dream Tiger wasn''t here to apologise neither did he arrive by coincidence.

    ''I gave you an inch but you decided to take a mile. Whether you are guild member or not, I will still kill you if you offend me, even if you are from super guild.''

    "Let''s go." Sato said before turning around. In actuality however, he was talking to Fudo.

    "Hold up." Dream Tiger abruptly yelled. "Don''t you think you ought to apologise?"

    "Apologise for what?" Fudo, who was about to walk away turned around and asked Dream Tiger. He had been incensed with Dream Tiger''s behavior especially how he looks down on others as if they are nothing more than puny ants. Dream Tiger''s behaviour even made Fudo hate him more than Hideki.

    "For what you ask? For the disrespect you had shown me."

    Disrespect? You sh***y **s think that was disrespect?! What the hell do you feel like?!" Fudo was annoyed greatly and was even about to cast a spell at him. But he stopped upon noticing Sato''s motion.

    Sato turned back and stared at Dream Tiger in the eyes. He slightly reduced the effect of the ck cloak making it such that his eyes would show as he red at Dream Tiger. Sato''s aura suddenly soared as his eyes were filled with indifference and arrogance.

    "Let me ask you something. Who do you think you are?"

 Chapter 95 - 92 : The Heart Of A Man Is Vile 2

    "Hahaha. No one has dared to be that haughty in front of me. Who am I? Who am I?!" Dream Tiger bellowed madly.

    Swift de, who stood beside him, but shook his head in disappointment. Back in the boss'' chamber, Swift de had requested Dream Tiger to let go of his pointless hatred and let bygones be bygones. However, Dream Tiger refused to acknowledge his agreement.

    As a matter of fact, Swift de was actually higher in rank whenpared to Dream Tiger. Due to their difference in strength however, Dream Tiger had thrown away all esteem for him and tried to hunt down Sato. In VR games and even more so in gaming guilds, strength talks best. Even if Swift de was higher ranked than Dream Tiger, Dream Tiger had both the role as the guild''s secret weapon and also the title as the guild''s 3rd best, one rank above Swift de. Unless it was a matter of extreme urgency and rted to the guild''s future, Swift de wouldn''t forcibly interrupt in Dream Tiger''s matters as this was the least level of respect experts are given.

    ''I just hope all this ends quickly...''Swift de inwardly sighed.

    "You really are mad." Sato''s face right now was a mixture of the different emotions of confusion, surprise and bewilderment. He couldn''t get why Dream Tiger was crazily reacting to his question.

    "That''s it little man. Let''s settle this. Me and you, one-on-one. If you lose them you hand over all your earnings today." Dream Tiger pointed at Sato before pointing at himself.

    "I refuse."

    "Huh?" Dream Tiger was temporarily stunned. Even Swift de too wasn''t left out of the equation.

    "Don''t tell me that you are afraid."

    "Of who precisely? you? Please. You want to fight me but I''m not interested. I lose and you get all the loot I got but what is in it for me?" Sato stared at him.

    "Oh? Fine." Dream Tiger replied before pulling out a piece of armor. Specifically, the very same Low Tier Rare-steel rank armour they just won.

    "Dream Tiger are you stupid?! What the hell is wrong with you?! Drop that back!" Swift de frantically yelled. He was full of disbelief at Dream Tiger''s actions.

    "Uncle[1], don''t worry about it. Don''t you trust me?"

    "Trust your shithead! Drop that back and don''t gamble with the guild''s resources otherwise I will make sure your days in East Crow would be as terrible as hell." Swift de scowled.

    Dream Tiger frowned. He had hardly ever seen Swift de this angry apart from when he went to rescue a good friend of his that was surrounded by enemies.

    "Fine." Dream Tiger tossed to the chest te over to Swift de.

    Even though Dream Tiger was aware that he was stronger, he knew better than to really provoke Swift de as he still had a higher authority than he did in the guild and could truly make things difficult for him. East Crow might be a springboard for him but Dream Tiger wasn''t yet ready to lose this springboard. With that in mind, it was obviously better to take a step back than to irk his superior.

    ''It looks like they aren''t genuinely in the same boat.'' Looking at Dream Tiger''s dissatisfied expression and Swift de''s displeased face, Sato guessed tat this confrontation must have been a plot of Dream Tiger and not the two individuals.

    "It seems you don''t have anything to interest me so there''s no need for a fight." Sato turned around and was about to walk away.

    Dream Tiger sneered, "Who the hell says so?"

    Putting his hand in the pouch hung by his waist, Dream Tiger brought out an exquisite looking bow. The bow was engraved with a few markings here and there and a couple of emerald gems embedded on it.

    Fudo sucked in cold air once a saw the bow.

    "That''s..."

    "An Upper tier Mortal rank bow."

    Even though Swift de had managed to retrieve the Low tier Rare-steel rank chest te, he still frowned at Dream Tiger''s actions. However, as the weapon he had taken out belonged to him individually, Swift de didn''t interrupt Dream Tiger''s actions.

    ''His current weapon is also an Upper tier. So that weapon should be his reward huh?''

    [[ System Notification :

    Emergency mission

    Mission Rank : B

    Description : Prevent the descent of a dark force.

    Systemment : Either he goes boom or you go boom. Choose. Wait a sec, this mission doesn''t even need your permission. To war!!!

    Basic reward : Special Title [Savior of Races]. Others; 50 silver coins and one Upper tier Mortal rank weapon or equipment of choice.

    Mission status : Completed. ]]

    The reward for the emergency mission had entailed an Upper tier Mortal rank weapon. While Sato had yet to cash out his rewards, Dream Tiger had already taken a step forward and was cing it for a bet.

    "Do you still dare?" Dream Tiger taunted.

    "Alright. Let''s sign a contract then." Sato nodded. ''Only a fool would refuse free gifts.''

    In order to ensure fairness of deals and promises, yers could make bets and deals under the system. By making bets with the deals, the yers can be sure that the deal would go through and in the case that one party decides to renege, the system will not only deal punishment on them, but would still reward the winning party. The punishment can either be set by the yer or the system itself depending on the choice of the parties involved. In the case where it is set by the system, the reneging party would be suspended for a period of time from logging into the game. Even if they were to get a new set, the suspension would still roll over or even worse, increase. This is because the Infinite Realm has a DNA record of every yer once they log in newly plus it reads and records their Brainwave Pattern and Consciousness Form(BPAC)[2]. So no matter what, one can''t evade the tracks of the game''s governing system.

    "We are using system default rules." Sato smiled.

    Dream Tiger hesitated a bit before nodding. Dream Tiger didn''t be an expert yer by being a blockhead; he was smart. He had been drowning in anger because Sato disrespected his crush. But as time went by, Dream tiger regained his cool but still persisted as his pride as on the line. The cause of his hesitation was that he had recalled that Sato might not be his match. Sato had easily handled Devis and Rock at the same time and also killed one of them. This was a feat that Dream Tiger doubted he could pull off.

    ''It doesn''t matter. I have alreadye this far, might as well finish it. Hmph. I doubt he could handle me that easily even.''

    A system clock counting down from 10 seconds appeared above the space in between them. Fudo and Swift de retreated a couple of steps away, giving the twobatants enough space for mobility.

    "Hey scarf guy! This kid has always been so full of himself. Do your best and whoop his ass ok?" Swift de suddenly yelled when the timer had only 5 seconds left.

    "What''s up with this guy?" Fudo murmured with disbelief.

    "Tch. Mind your business old man." Dream Tiger scowled at Swift de.

    "Oh? From Uncle to Old man eh?" Swift de chuckled strangely. "Better focus on your fight."

    *Beep*

    The countdown clocked zero.

 Chapter 96 - 93 : The Heart Of A Man Is Vile 3

    *Beep*

    Sato took a step with his right leg and was about to dash towards when he abruptly moved his body towards his left.

    *Phew*

    An arrow fleeted past Sato at high speed. If Sato was but a millisecond slower, he would have had an arrow sticking through his face.

    ''He''s fast, much faster than before.'' Sato was rmed butter on he understood the reason why. They had just defeated the boss and everyone had levelled up recently. As a ranger, Dream Tiger would focus most of his attribute points on [Agility] and [Dexterity], with a bit of it in [Strength]. This would not only increase his attacking speed but also his shooting uracy.

    ''I haven''t even made use of mine yet...'' Sato smiled wryly but still kept his attention on his opponent.

    After Sato had dodged his first attack, Dream Tiger wasn''t disappointed but actually surprised.

    ''He only reacted at thest moment. It seems that his [Agility] is lower than mine'' Dream Tiger grinned inwardly.

    Even though he was in thought, his hands didn''t stop working as they drew and fired arrow after arrow at Sato.

    They say in a battle of experts, one wrong move is enough to decide a battle. In this case, Sato made the wrong move by not properly anticipating Dream Tiger''s opening strike. As a result of this, he was continuously on the edge, being forced to only defend while Dream Tiger constantly bombarded him with his attacks.

    *ng*

    Sato hacked at an arrow that came his way, deflecting it to his side.

    ''I underestimated him. His attributes are a bit higher than mine especially his [Agility] stats.''

    Even though Sato was able to hold out against him, due to the fact that his attributes were lower, Sato still received damage mostly due his slower reactions, though they were minor damages. However as the damage kept piling up, Sato''s health diminished further.

    "Hehe. Is this all you amount to?" Dream Tiger chuckled. He drew his bow and used a skill against Sato who blocked the attack but was forced back by one step.

    Dream Tiger then made use of that mishap and shot two more arrows at him. Sato managed to block one while the other passed through his defense and pierced him, dropping his HP by 27. If not for the Dawn steel armour he wore, his HP would have dropped further.

    Fudo looked worried as he saw Sato having the lower hand of the battle but he didn''t interfere. Fudo had faith that Sato would win but the problem was at what cost.

    "If you don''t win this, I''m asking Miyuki out on a date." Fudo gripped his fingers tightly.

    "..." Sato almost puked out blood from Fudo''s ridiculous statement but he still kept his focus on the fight.

    ''I have to bnce things out.''

    Realising that if he went on with this fight, he would lose as things stood, Sato sent a mentalmand to open his interface.

    In order to give yers a slight advantage in a non-conducive environment, the System interface can also be activated via thought. Usually, there is an icon by the upper left of the yers that they can click via thought and then a panel appears in front of them. The system interface panel is then usually controlled by contact. However, there can be certain scenarios where yers aren''t able to operate the system through contact. In such cases, the mental control would prove to be handy.

    Sato nced at the system interface and noticed that he had 10 attribute points free. He had levelled up twice throughout the entire raid but forgot to put his free attribute points to use.

    ''Let''s do it like this then.''

    While dodging, blocking and deflecting Dream Tiger''s attacks, Sato decided to ce the free attributes to his desired stats. This still proved quite difficult as Dream Tiger wasn''t a pushover but an expert yer. But Sato himself wasn''t a pushover either. Sato didn''t rush to make the changes but waited for an opportune moment where Dream Tiger would fully drop his guard.

    "Hahaha. I thought you were something but it looks like you''re only good with fighting dumb monsters or useless yers. Hahaha."

    Dream Tiger was caught in the joy of ying with Sato. Normally other rangers would be worried about their arrows depleting and so would try to finish a fight as quickly as possible. Dream Tiger, however, didn''t have this worry cause as a guild expert, part of his arrows were funded by the guild and this was a veryrge amount.

    Dream Tiger felt that if he took this more seriously, he would win but he didn''t because he wanted to y with Sato. Since the battle began, Sato hadn''t been able tond a hit on him. Though there were times Sato had managed to close the gap, Dream Tiger would quickly retreat backwards while still attacking. He believed that Sato was the kind of yer who focused more on putting all their attribute points on one feature, like [Strength]. That might barely work for them when facing monsters but against fellow yers especially expert level yers, it was a taboo to do such a thing as one would surely be doomed to lose.

    Swift de was currently frowning. Though what he said earlier was a joke as he had to obviously support his guild-mate plus he knew Dream Tiger''s strength, he was still indeed hoping that Sato would give Dream Tiger a tough fight. At the very least that would reduce Dream Tiger''s pride. But if Dream Tiger won now, especially in such an easy way, his pride would even increase all the more.

    ''*sighs* looks like I have to tell boss to send this kid back to the moral training centre.''

    Sato, on the other hand, was still focused in the fight that seemed to be a losing game from a 3rd person view. sh after sh, arrow after arrow. Sato held on till he once again managed to close the gap between them both. This time however, Dream Tiger wasn''t in a hurry to create space between them but decided to take his time.

    There was a space of 4 metres or less between the two. Sato shed at an arrow and dodged the other but advanced forward in the process.

    Using the space between Dream Tiger''s attacks, Sato, who had already decided where to ce his free attributes, quickly made the changes.

    [[ [Strength] : 13 >> 15

    [Endurance] 8 >> 10

    [Vitality] 12 >> 14

    [Agility] 8 >> 10

    [Dexterity] 7 >> 9

    [Intelligence] 1

    [Willpower] 3

    A total of 10 free attributes from the two level ups (from level 5 to 7) was enough to raise Sato''s strength by more than one level. Dream Tiger, who was unaware of Sato''s changes, was about to retreat when Sato suddenly closed the gap at a rapid pace. Because Dream Tiger was already used to his previous speed, he couldn''t react in time and Sato''s attack was only a few centimetres away from him. Dream Tiger was indeed worthy to be hailed as an expert as he reacted quickly by cing his bow in front of the strike but he underestimated Sato''s sh.

    -37 (Dream Tiger 83/120 )

    The force of the sh was quite impressive that not only did it transmit to harm Dream Tiger but also because Dream Tiger had blocked in a hurry, his movements weren''t fluid, so he didn''t properly block the sword sh; part of it still got to him.

    Sato didn''t stop there though. The force from his attack had interrupted Dream Tiger''s motions, propelling him forward. Sato, with better improvement to his movement speed, dashed at Dream Tiger and shed out again. Dream Tiger tried to dash away and retreat but Sato chased after him. Normally Sato still wouldn''t reach him but because Dream Tiger had earlier lost his bnce, Sato caught up quickly and hacked out again. Disinclined to lose the battle, Dream Tiger tried to use his bow and fend off the attack but how would a bow bepared to a sword?

    Dream Tiger was destined to be loss the match and he made things even worse. There was no long story in this matter as Sato ended him quickly. Of course as the battle was recorded under a bet with the system, Dream Tiger revived almost instantaneously about 20 metres away. He also didn''t lose any experience or equipment.

    Swift de stared at Sato with a hint of shock and he was quite impressed at his strength that he was tempted to invite him to their guild. But upon recalling that Sato not only rejected a super guild but also had a heated encounter with his guild-mate, he left out the idea.

    "Satisfied?" Sato smirked at him. "I hope you fulfill your own part of the deal."

    "Hmph. You don''t need to worry. I may have lost but it''s just a mortal rank weapon." Dream Tiger harrumphed.

    "Upper tier Mortal rank." Fudo walked towards Sato while grinning wildly. He didn''t forget to nce at Dream Tiger with unrestrained gloating written all over his face.

    "Hmph."

    Dream Tiger retrieved the bow from his bag and threw it over to Sato. After that he turned around and headed back in search of another entrance. He was truly incensed and didn''t want to stay with the duo any longer or else he might not handle Fudo''s mocking look.

    "A free Upper tier Mortal rank weapon. I see a good business opportunity here bro." Fudo''s eyes glistened as he stared at the exquisite handcrafted bow.

    "Not listening. Either way, let''s go. We still have a lot to do."

    "Ok."

    On the other side...

    After they had walked for awhile, Swift de stared at Dream Tiger who looked really vexed and shook his head.

    ''At least this should damage that his pride a bit. He has to know that he isn''t the best around.''

    Dream Tiger, on the other hand, was thinking of how to get revenge back on Sato when suddenly his eyes shed with a strange light of realisation and he smiled strangely.

    ''Just you wait.. Even if I can''t defeat, I doubt that you can handle the whole town''s yers.''

 Chapter 97 - 94 : Yatoâ€™s Decision

    Block 7 right in front of an average duplex, the Kazuki household''s house. Though the name ''Kazuki'' isn''t really a popr surname neither were they a powerful n, the Kazuki family seemed ok with that. But if an opportunity was to present itself, there was no way they would refuse it.

    Kazuki Hirato was a man filled with ambition but due to his humble background, he wasn''t able to achieve much. Though having a duplex in a city like Shinjuku already goes to show that he has a little bit of wealth, for an ambitious man, a little bit can never be enough. Previously, Hirato was displeased at his daughter''s actions for being involved in a rtionship with a worthless bum, which was what he called his daughter''s supposed boyfriend. However that was all that he could do as because his wife stood on his daughter''s side, Hirato didn''t force his ideas into her but he didn''t give up so easily.

    Mia still held her love for Yato despite the fact that he didn''t have much to give to her. She refused the advances of other boys, rejecting even the rich second generation, Ichiro. This ended up riling the fury of her father after he had discovered that Ichiro was the first son of a rich magnate. However Mia wasn''t scared of her father since she still had the protection of her mother what supported her decision.

    Mia had faith that Yato, with his honest behavior and outstanding determination, would be able to achieve great things in the future.

    Despite all the rejection, Ichiro never gave up and continuously pursued her. He believed that no woman, no matter who they are, could truly reject him. Ichiro even went so far as to use his connections to increase the level of her father in his work. This not only served to gain her father''s support but also subtly instilled fear into the family. After all if he could increase the man''s rank, he might as well be able to decrease it or even worse, get him fired.

    It is said as society improves technologically, the world would be more materialistic [1]. Coupled with the the extravagant gifts he gave to the family and showered upon her, Mia''s heart had unknowingly made way for him, forgetting the man who stood firm beside her for almost 3 years. Eventually, Mia got into a secret rtionship with Ichiro for almost a month now.

    Her father heard of this and was pleased that she "came to her senses" whereas mother wasn''t so happy about it and was quite disappointed. She only left behind a sentence for Mia.

    "If you love him let the other go. If you don''t love him, let him go."

    Today was supposed to be her 3 year anniversary with Yato but Ichiro had made a visit to her ce. After much persuasion, she had managed to send him off before the appointed time that Yato would arrive but unknown to her, her lover had shown up earlier than expected and spotted all this from afar.

    Two hours went bye and Mia still didn''t hear from Yato. At first she thought he would bete but as time went on, she realised that something was wrong. It wasn''t until a friend of hers, who happened to work at Shinjuku General Hospital, called her and informed her of Yato''s ident which she responded with a dazed look before asking for the room number.

    Despite the fact that she was cheating on Yato, she still cared for him after all she had previously fallen in love with him and he had loved her back and cared for her. Howeverpared to before, the care and love she had was at an all-time low.

    Hurriedly, Mia left for the hospital to see how he was doing. Today was supposed to be a fun day to celebrate their 3 year anniversary and though she was indeed cheating on him, she still felt that she owed him and hence stayed with him.

    . . . . .

    Themon area of Shinjuku isn''t really known for housing prominent and wealthy individuals but it till boasts of being the most popted area of the 2nd ss city, Shinjuku city. Home to most of the citizens of this prominent city, it had most of the social facilities of the city located here of which the Garuba district, which happens to be the red light district, is the most popr area. Of course apart from entertainment centers and arenas, there were also a few indispensable structures built in this ce varying from malls and police station to schools and hospitals.

    Shinjuku General Hospital, as one of the only three public hospitals in the entirety of Shinjuku city, had an above average interior and exterior design. Though it wasn''t worthy of being called the best hospital in Okanawa prefecture, it still held the rank as one of the top 5 hospitals and held the title of the best hospital in the city.

    Located in Room 2B13 was Akiyama Yato. He had just been transferred from the ICU Room 2X17 after he had been judged to be safe by the doctors. Staring at the white ceiling, Yato thought of what he should do now.

    Today was supposed to be a joyful day for him. He would take his girlfriend out on a date. They would have lunch in a nice cafe, take a stroll, go to the park or go to a virtual park. At the end of the day, they would head to his apartment, watch a movie, experience the thrill of romance and finally end the day cuddled in each other''s arms. Never did he expect that he would be have his heart shattered into pieces and spend the day in a hospital.

    "Is there still any meaning for living?"

    "Dear patient, you have a visitor." A branch of the governing AI for the hospital sounded out.

    After the short altercation in the hospital, the nurses had activated a security lock for Yato''s new room to prevent the same incident from happening again. There patients were to be recuperating from stress and problems not being pped in the hospital. That would bring about negative publicity for them so they let the governing AI take in security measures for his room.

    "A visitor? Let them in."

    As Yato''s voice ended, the door opened for him to see a ck haired beauty in a flower pattern gown. She looked exquisite and pleasing to the eyes, like cherry blossoms in spring.

    "What happened Yato dear? I was waiting for you and just got a call from Ming Ming." Mia said with care andpassion in her crystal eyes.

    Staring at those eyes that seemed to care, Yato felt his heart tear into smaller pieces as tears had already begun to gather in his eyes but he held it back and dropped his head down.

    Mia thought he was sad that he couldn''t give her a nice celebration so she came closer while trying tofort him.

    "It''s okay. You can''t be med for it. Who would have expected the driver to have hit you. He paid for your medical fees right?"

    Seeing Yato not responding, Mia felt that something was wrong.

    "What''s wrong?"

    "...why?"

    "Huh? I don''t get you exactly Yato. What are you trying to say?" Mia looked confused.

    Yato lifted his head and looked her in the eye.

    "Why did you cheat on me?"

    A rumble sounded in Mia''s head as she stared at Yato''s pitiful look.

    "I, I...I..."

    She wanted to say something but she didn''t know what to say. In the end, she just turned her head to the side and kept quiet.

    Unbeknownst to her, this behaviour only made Yato feel much worse. Yato stared into the open space as if looking into his memories.

    "You know, my family was happy back then. Dad would go to work and mom would take care of the house. At night, we would have dinner like a family. Sitting by the table and discussing our day''s experiences. My parents looked quite happy with each other. I always thought they would live and die together but it seemed that I was naive back then. " Yato let out a bitter smile.

    "My dad lost his job and the things became a lot difficult for the family. He borrowed money from friends to take care of us and went from office to office,pany topany, in search of a job. But all was for naught. In the end, he went into gambling for quick cash but ended up scammed. Dissatisfied about things, he became an alcoholic. That was when things took a darker turn.

    "Everyday I woulde back to see my mother striving for our daily meal. My dad would be out drinking and when hees back, he would vent his anger on my mom. He would beat her, **** her, do all sorts of things to her. In the end, she got tired of it all and left. My dad came to his senses after that but it was toote. Burdened by grief, he took his own life." A colourless liquid began to stream down from Yato''s eyes.

    "I came over to Shinjuku to stay with my aunt but she wasn''t so friendly and I had to use my savings from my part time job to rent an apartment. I always felt that my luck was terrible, extremely shitty if I may. That was until I met you." Yato smiled.

    "You could be said to have been the greatest thing that ever happened to me after my family''s downfall. I had put all my faith and trust in you and I worked for us; for a better future for me and you. I knew that I couldn''t give you the best in life but I still wanted to try. I wanted to make you happy Mia... I loved you."

    At this point, Mia was heartbroken but she didn''t say anything because she knew she was in the wrong.

    "If you feel he is the one for you, then go on ahead without me. I don''t care, as long as you are happy. So please...go..." Yato couldn''t hold back anymore and started to breakdown.

    "Yato..."

    "Stop Mia, stop. Just go and let me be."

    Mia stared at him anxious to speak but nothing to say. She then left after a few seconds with slow but heavy footsteps.

    Once she was gone, only the sobbing of a heartbroken man could be heard from Room 2B13.

 Chapter 98 - 95 : Rewarding Players

    The Kiro mountains was a mountain range filled with precipitous rocks and a steep forest. The deeper one heads into the forest, the sparse the vegetation bes.

    Hailed to be an uncoverednd filled with treasures and ores, adventurers take there time to slowly explore this mountain range. But as time went by, few adventurers frequented this ce and slowly it became an almost forgottennd. However on this day, the almost discarded range was popted with warriors but this was obviously for another reason.

    Beside the mountain range filled with undting peaks was and. Thetwo colours; red and green, were smeared on thend making it look like a newly made abstract painting done by either a professional painter or a 7-year old, on a brown coloured canvas [1].

    Apart from the out-of-ce colouring, another prevailing feature would be the appalling stench that drifted with the brushing of the wind. The fresh smell of blood that had a slight touch of metallicponents along side the bizarre and uncanny painting made a dreaded atmosphere out of thends. But of course this would have been even more so if not for the lively gathering on this verynd.

    Two different races, withmendable intelligence, had just battled one another, giving im to the statement that two tigers can''t share a mountain. Of course, tons of lives were lost from both ends but they still fought for their pride nheless.

    Thest sound produced by the vocal cords a non human cried out. With that, thest non-human that existed in the battle fell to de of it''s foes.

    A shout then broke out.

    "Finally. We''ve won!!!"

    [[ System notification :

    Update on "The Goblins'' Invasive Retribution."

    The Goblins'' Invasive Retribution : Mission Package

    A yer has just discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. y the goblins and prevent them from invading thends.

    Rewards : Based on performance.

    Kill 1 goblin : Experience reward + Basic reward + 1 kill point

    Kill 10 goblins : Experience rewards increase by 0.5 + 1 Silver ore(2 star) + 10 kill points

    Kill 50 goblins : 5 ingots of Dawn steel(2 star) + 50 kill points

    Kill 100 goblins : 1 log of Iron Pear wood(3 star). (Ifpleted individually, the reward is as it stands. Ifpleted by a group, apart from the experience reward, only 1 set is given to the group)[1] + 100 kill points

    Kill 1 troll : Experience reward + 1 silver core(2 star) + 3 kill points

    Kill 5 trolls : Experience rewards increase by 2 + 5 ingots Dawn steel + 15 kill points

    Kill 10 trolls : 1 log of Iron pear wood + 10 silver coins + 30 kill points

    Kill the leader : 1 Soul crystal (4-star) + 10 gold coins + 1000 kill points

    Most Kills (individual) : 1 bar of Timber Crystal(3 star), 2 ingots of Star Gold(3 star), 5 silver coins, 1 level up, Rtionship level with human forces bes [Honoured], title [Humanity''s Friend].[2]

    Most Kills (group) : 1 ingot of Star Gold, 5 silver coins, 1 level up, Rtionship level with human forces bes [Honoured], title [Great Helper].[3]

    Basic reward : 2 ingots of Limber steel , 5 Dark pearls, 3 silver coins, 50% increase in experience.

    Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

    Loss of 2 levels with reduction of experience gained by 30% for 2 weeks

    Rtionship level with human forces at [Dislike]

    The mission has beenpleted. ]]

    "Finally done with that shitty mission."

    "Haa. This mission was stressful but the experience was worth it."

    "I know right. If there was loot from the monsters then this would have been way much better."

    "Yo. Be satisfied with what you have got."

    "Alright alright."

    The yers all rejoiced after the battle was won. An army of at least800goblins, had lost their lives on thisnd, with the only reminder of their existence being the blood and flesh scattered all around the ground.

    Such a sight would be appalling, of course, for some yers. As such, most of these yers had deactivated the blood-and-gore function in the game leaving only little blood stains on the floor to remind them of the substantial battle than had just gone by. Some of these yers, especially those who saw themselves as real men who had seen the world, left this feature intact with the view of dead bodies all over and the revolting smell of goblin blood swimming through the air.

    Different conversations went on, with the most centered one being about the level 10 changes. It had been realised on the forum''s bulletin board that yers would be able to go to cities at level 10. This of course, drew the attention of a lot of yers and worked as a form of motivation for them to level up faster after all, it was likely that the first to do so wouldplete a milestone agenda and reap some hidden rewards.

    "With this experience, we are much closer to level 10. I heard there will be changes and we could finally go to cities?"

    "Yeah. More yers would be ced together and it will be quite tougher to get resource than it is now." One yer sighed.

    "Hehe. I don''t care about that. I''m a leisure yer. It''s you pros who will be bothered."

    "I wonder who the top rankers in this event are."

    "Hehe. I heard that the super guild, Emperor''s Might, participated so they are most likely to win it plus they were also involved in ying the mini boss. If anything, they should have been the main force."

    "Yes."

    "That''s true."

    -------

    As different conversations went on, the 2 campaign leaders arrived from the mountain peak to reunite with the army after fixing their appearances. Deval was taken elsewhere because he had fainted due to exhaustion. He was currently being treated and recovering his energy.

    "My Lord. His Eminence."

    Lord Midel bowed towards Town head Arman before greeting Bishop Enzo who was right beside him.

    "Casualty reports."

    "Yes My Lord. Of the300men from our side who participated in the war,162were killed in action with at least 20 men having serious injuries, denying the any chance of making aeback to the force. The other100people are a force to remember. I don''t think any one would outrightly deny your words, Lord."

    "True. Go ahead and solve everything and be quick about it. I might as well solve the issue of the people." Arman smiled.

    Under the gazes of everyone present, Arman, who still looked like a 9 year old, arrived close to the yers; a few feet from where the gathered. While floating about 7-10 metres in the air, he opened his lips and spoke.

    "Today, I have to say that I''m pleased with put achievements as we finally drove the foreign race away from our area. Alongside the members of the Church, we stood firm and supported one another. On that ount, I have to say thank you to everybody involved in this skirmish.

    "For those with startling performances and so on, the Town is pleased to offer you a few rewards as a way of showing our goodwill. With that said, I say ''Thank you'' to those who helped us so far."

    With the end of the Arman''s speech, the yers all received a notification.

    [[ System notification :

    The Goblins'' Invasive Retribution : 1st package has been concluded.

    Rewarding yers¡­

    Most Kills (Group) :

    East Crow 103 points

    Emperor''s Might 86 points

    Mountain Rift 78 points

    Team Matrix 39 points

    . . .

    ---------------

    Top Rankers :

    Most Kills (Individual) :

    ***** 62 points ----

    Chesces 57 points Emperor''s Might

    ***** 55 points ----

    Griffin 51 points Emperor''s Might

    Snow Goddess 29 points Emperor''s Might

    Swift de 28 points East Crow

    Kylian 28 points Emperor''s Might

    One Sword 28 points Mountain Rift

    Dream Tiger 27 points East Crow

    Lu Zhen 21 points ----

    . . .

    ]]

    "A bunch of guilds really made their appearance today huh?"

    "It''s too bad though. I heard Emperor''s Might also participated so I''m pretty sure they should have taken the 1st ce position."

    "No, it actually didn''t go them. They took second ce; first ce is East Crow."

    "East Crow? Oh yeah I remember. Most of Emperor''s Might experts headed over to look for the mini boss. I think they all went for the singles section. Daichi lead the East Crow legion so its pretty reasonable for them to take 1st ce. Emperor''s Might should be first in the singles however."

    "No wait. Hold on, the first position in the singles category didn''t actually go to Emperor''s Might nor East Crow..."

    "What the heck? Stop ying around!"

    "No! He''s telling the truth."

    "Huh¡­Now that you say, 1st ce is¡­unknown?"

    Initially after the list was released, everyone''s focus was on the group category but they weren''t really expecting much . If there was one shocking factor, it would have been the fact that East Crow yed the role of a dark horse by snatching the 1st position in the group category from Emperor''s Might. Upon further enquiries, the yers understood the reason why and didn''t find it hard to ept. After all, Daichi was a talent even super guilds had wanted to recruit before.

    It was as they focused on the singles department that their eyes went wide like saucers, stunned speechless with nothing to say. The yers found it had to believe that an unknown yer had taken the first ce spot. Even if the Sly devil, Chesces, had taken the second position, it still didn''t change the fact that this mysterious number one figure had surpassed all the yers to get the most single kills.

    "Damn. All those big guilds must be really frustrated eh?"

    "if my guess is correct then this mysterious figure should likely be the same person that participated in the mini boss raid."

    "That''s a reasonable conclusion but damn, Emperor''s Might is still truly amazing! They upied 4 spots in the singles division and still managed to get 2nd ce in the group."

    "Indeed. Truly worthy of being called a super guild. East Crow even, made an impressive performance snatching not only the 1st ce in the group category but also 2 spots in the singles Top 10. "

    "Worthy of being a peak 2nd tier guild. This is like a contest between a local snake and an overbearing Dragon."

    "But you guys are missing the big deal here. It''s possible that this mysterious expert is a solo yer hence the reason he hid his identity. In other words he might be a new expert or even worse, they[3] are actually threatening the hegemony of the guilds!!!"

    Originally, it was supposed to be a simple issue of just being awe-struck and fascinated at this mysterious dark horse, but as someone made a wild conjecture, some of the yers analysed it to be quite reasonable. And so the legend of a solo yer on the rise, challenging the authority of the big guilds and seeking to take all the rewards away from their grasp, began to spread.

    Meanwhile the person in question had quietly exited a tunnel and appeared at the back-lines of the forces.

    AN :

    [1] No hard feelings to painter. Probably cause I don''t understand art but a bunch of modern day abstract paintings look messy and childish... sorry if you got offended.

    [2] Once they record under the Individual category, their scores aren''t tabted in the group category and vice versa. For example, even though Kylian, Griffin and Chesces were part of a party, they registered their kills under individual section so all their kill points gained would be calcted under the individual section and not the group section.

    [3] Using ''they '' here because the identity of the ''mysterious expert'' is unknown to the yers.

 Chapter 99 - 96 : Going Back To Town

    Taking a look at the system notification, Sato was a bit surprised at first but after thinking it true, he realized that he really deserved it. It wasn''t him being narcissistic or anything but rather the facts that added up.

    Before Sato and Fudo had went looking for the boss, they had dealt with at least 10 goblins of which Sato had ended the life of at least 7 of them. They had also kill-stealed[1] some goblins in the process of helping the yers close by. Add that to the minority goblins they faced underground alongside the troll kills, which had more kill- points than regr trolls, and also the boss kill(since Sato was the one tond thest hit on the boss), his kill-points should be logically far ahead of the other yers.

    "It''s a good thing your name was censored since we need to keep a low profile for now. But, that dude should still remember your name right? " Fudo looked at Sato and whispered to him.

    "He should. We have to worry and increase our power or else we would experience trouble from all sides." Sato sighed bitterly.

    If anyone would hear him right now, some of them would be annoyed. They would be yelling ''Its indeed true that troublees with fame but what trouble could possiblye from gaining fame like this? More like riches and more fame!!!'' As a matter of fact, they are quite right.

    Once a yer gains fame, as a result of their performance of course, they would be scouted by a bunch of guilds. The rank of guilds that scout them is usually directly proportional to the difficulty and degree of their achievement. Strictly speaking with an an achievement such as Sato''s, ranking 1st in a kill quest, on would expect 2nd tier guilds to even pick them up. Like a carp leaping through a dragon gate, they would experience a qualitative change under the training of a 2nd tier guild. Even if they didn''t want to join a guild, they could easily sell all their loot to other guilds for better prices than they would get in NPC stores. Sato however, did the opposite all for staying low-key. If those yers who always wanted fame and fortune they would surely yell to the heavens for being unfair.

    Sato''s decision for staying low-key was because being popr would set people''s eyes on him making it so that his movements would be seen in the open. Considering the fact that Sato doesn''t n on joining any guild but rather wanted to found a club, having his moves visible for all to monitor wouldn''t make him feel safe.

    The power structure of guilds was an intricate system that these very guilds have been trying to preserve. Starting from the top to the bottom, each of the Guilds in each category teamed up to stop the rising of another. Super guilds kept each other in check while preventing peak 1st tier guilds from reaching their ranks, 1st tier guilds kept each other in check while holding down the 2nd tier guilds. This continuous act of keeping each other in check while collectively hindering their weaker counterparts from reaching their ranks, went on till the 4th tier guild rank. This was to reduce the amount ofpetitors in the struggle for resources.

    If Sato were to create a guild, logically it would be below the 4th tier guild rank. If the other 4th tier guilds or even some 3rd tier guilds were to know of this, they would inhibit the progress and development of the guild. Luckily for Sato, what he wanted was a club, which was far more loose than a guild and was smaller than an association. Nheless, these guilds would be spying on the progress of his club and once they discover that it can potentially harm their interest, they wouldn''t hesitate to strike him down. Some 4th tier guilds wouldn''t even bother whether it was a guild or a club he was making and would directly thwart his ns without a care for their dignity. As such it was better to stay low-key than to take the risk.

    "When do we even recruit members?" Fudo asked.

    "Once we''re level 10, we can figure that out. We need to hurry and level up quickly so that we can be among the first batch to the city." Sato rified.

    "Ok."

    While they were talking, the other NPCs had gathered together with the yers leading to all of them being in the same area.

    "Alright. Let''s go."

    Arman looked at the crowd before him and lifted his arms up. An intense mana surge burst out from him as the void showed signs of copsing.

    ''Tch. It seems like I got injured far more than I thought.'' Arman bitterly smiled.

    *p*

    He suddenly sped his hands together and stared at the crowd before taking in a deep breath.

    "[Great Void movement]"

    A brilliant sh suddenly burst forth beneath the yers as the yers themselves were swallowed by a myriad of colours.

    "Beautiful."

    This was the very thought that passed through everyone''s mind.

    In the midst of the myriad of colours, the yers felt that they were inside a rainbow experiencing the scenario of being caught in such. They were surrounded by a wall of colourful lights. Rather than a wall, it was more urate to say that they had entered a world of bright light. They saw streaking shes of scintiting lights darting through the dazzling world of colours. It was truly a mystical and captivating sight to behold.

    In short while, they had arrived back right outside of Riverdale Town. The journey was, howbeit, a bit longer than the prior one. Considering the fact that they did get a nice view on the way back and it didn''t exceed a minute, this small dtion in time span wasn''t much of a loss to the yers.

    *Puack*

    Arman suddenly squatted down and puked out blood.

    The initial [Great Void movement] which Arman had used before was aided by a formation earlier prepared at the spot. Because of that, the spell progressed too quickly that the yers couldn''t sense it and so they never encountered the world of myriad colours. This time however, Arman had performed the spell by himself, taking on the toll of spell. As such, the spell wascking whenpared to the initial one supported by a formation. Adding up with the injuries he had sustained in his battle against Yan''s projection, Arman''s injuries had worsened with the activation of the spell.

    "Damn. Recovering from this would be quite difficult."

    "Are you alright?" Bishop Enzo hurriedly asked.

    "Yeah. At least better than Deval." Arman smirked. "I will be recuperating for who knows how long. If you need to deal with any issue during this time, Alice-chan would be acting as my proxy."

    Without waiting for Bishop Enzo to reply, Arman quickly teleported away.

    "It seems he still doesn''t fully trust us." Bishop Enzo awkwardlyughed.

    [[System : Iing Audio call from the outside world

    Caller ID : Yato

    ept/Decline ]]

    "Yato is calling?" Sato was surprised.

    Since most yers, specifically the pro yers, tend to y all day long, it would be a problem if they end up missing an event all because they couldn''t answer calls from the outside world. So, the Infinite Realm capsule and headgear had in-built connective features that linked an individual''s quantum watch with the system interface. In other words, once someone has a call on their quantum watch ormunicator, they can receive it with the headgear or capsule while still in the game. Also, they canmunicate with someone in the outside world as long as the person triple knocks on their device. This act was a kind of code to send amunication request to the gamer. These two features were really handy to yers and it was one of the appeals that lead to Infinite Realm being a huge hit. Of course, their game details are still kept hidden from the other end of the call. This was in line with Infinite Realm''s privacy protocols.

    "What''s up?" Sato answered the call.

    "...I have thought about what you said." After a short period of silence, a weary voice sounded out.

    "And? Don''t keep me waiting cause I''m already online." Sato with a harsh tone.

    "I thought about what you said and I decided that I can''t just waste my life over one failure or brood over it. I have resolved myself to follow you in pursuing a gaming career." Yato, who was still in Room 2B13 lying on abed, spoke through themunicator he held with his right hand.

    "You sure about it?" Sato felt surprised.

    "Yeah. I figured that Mia wouldn''t have left me if I had money and also I can''t get enough money with my part-time job. My grades are low so I doubt there''s any business orpany that would ept me. I might as well give this a shot." Yato sighed.

    "If it''s about giving it a shot then don''t bother me. All I need are men with determination and devotion who would put in the required effort at the required time. If you can do that then I can help you." Sato seriously stated.

    "...I will." After a brief hesitation, Yato replied with a nod.

    "Ok. I will send you some money. Complete the money yourself and go get an official VR headset. Once you''ve logged in, select Riverdale Town and give me a call. My ID is Sky de. Later."

    "Ok."

    [[System : Audio call terminated]]

    "Who was it?" Fudo curiously asked.

    "Yato."

    "Does he want to join us?" Fudo pleasantly asked with wide eyes.

    "You should have already predicted this am I right?" Sato looked at him.

    "Oh no please. You jest." Though it looked like Fudo was humbling himself with his words, his expression was anything but humble.

    "So where to now? Grynx Merchandise or another store?" Fudo questioned. While he was waiting for Sato to be done with the call, most of the other yers had already began to scatter. Only a few remained behind, either waiting for someone else or calcting their rewards.

    "Anywhere is fine. Let''s go." Sato began to work towards the town.

    As the two were walking, they didn''t notice two yers behind them that looked their way.

    "Hey, isn''t that the yer boss Blood Sword is looking for?" One of them pointed at Sato.

    "Now that you mention it, he is. No wonder I felt he was familiar. Quick, alert boss Blood Sword about his location." The other yer replied.

    "Got it. But we still need to keep an eye out on their location." The yer, who spoke first, responded.

    "No worries. I might not be an expert ss yer but I''m still a legit assassin. Spying on them shouldn''t be a problem." The second yer smirked.

    "What are you waiting for then?! Go!"

    "Oh! That''s true.." The second yer, the assassin, chuckled awkwardly before chasing after Sato but still kept his distance from the two.

 Chapter 100 - 97 : Movements In The Dark

    Sato and Fudo, who had previously taken off their cloaks back at the battlefield in other not to be suspected as the mysterious characters, had once again gone to Grynx Merchandise. It didn''t take them too long as they used the money they had to re-stock their supplies, both edibles and consumables. They had made a lot from this event that took ce and thanks to it, Sato and Fudo felt that they wouldn''t becking in cash for awhile at least. Despite having a lot of cash, they didn''t spend it all but saved some as they believed it would be very necessary when they get to the city. The two then walked off towards the gate while reminiscing on their wins.

    One of the top sources of their gains today was from the goblin boss loot which they had raked in 7 silver and 50 copper coins and couple of other materials from. Just this alone would make the other yers'' eyes go green with envy much less their other winnings. 10 silver coins were also gotten from the emergency mission from Lord Midel alongside 1000 experience points that made it so that their Experience bar was 99% filled up; they just had to flex their muscles a bit and kill one more monster without regards to it''s level and they would be level 8 [1]. They also got 50 silver coins from the B rank emergency mission [2] which they shared equally between themselves. Finally, on the mary aspect of their reward, was the kill reward which totalled about 5 silver coins. This was the reward for the 1st position of most kills done by an individual.

    They also got a bunch of resources ranging from 2 star silver or to 3 star Timber crystal. Sato however, was against selling them as they both now had their sub-sses and a few coins in hand, they might as well make better use of the materials rather than selling it. Fudo didn''t disagree with this as it was quite reasonable.

    Last on their gains were the titles. Sato got two of them being [Humanity''s friend] from the individual category reward and [Savior of Races] from the emergency mission during the boss fight. Clicking on them, Sato wanted to study the effects of the skills.

    [[ System interface :

    [Humanity''s friend] :

    By saving humanity from a crisis affecting (or about to affect) the race, you have gained their recognition and thanks.

    5% discount when trading with human forces.

    Human NPCs tend to trust you more often with missions.

    Rtionship level with human forces would always be capped at [Honoured] unless youmit a sacrilege.

    __________________________________

    [Savior of Races] :

    By preventing the descent of an almost almighty being who desires chaos and destruction, you have sessfully saved a lot of lives from being lost and races from being extinct. Receive the joy of the people and races and ept the honour that is due to you.

    5% discount when trading with races their dwell in the light.

    NPCs tend to trust you more often with missions.

    Rtionship level with all races that dwell in the light capped at [Honoured] unless youmit a sacrilege.

    Unique skill :

    Gratitude of Races : Active Skill :

    Receive a temporary boost to abilities and skills +1

    All attributes +5

    Defence increases by 10

    Attack speed increases by 10

    Damage dealt multiplies x1.5

    Healing speed x1.5

    Cool-down : 3 days.

    System : The gratitude of a race shouldn''t be taken lightly much less that of multiple races.

    Note : This skill is upgrade-able.

    ]]

    "Such amazing effects.." Sato was overwhelmed by the bonuses of the titles.

    One shouldn''t look down on the 5% discount. As it stands now, the financial power of the majority of yers is quite weak as such, most of their deals and purchases are at most in silver, with that of therge guilds barely reaching the gold mark. To these yers who have little to spend, the 5% discount could help them save a lot. It''s effect would even be more impressive when yers participate inrge deals as the amount they could save would be sizeable. A good example is when a yer would want to buy a weapon of 100 silvers(1 gold coin). With a 5% discount, they could save 5 silver coins which could be used to buy consumables and food items or even for travel. For someone like Sato, who doesn''t like spending a lot, money saved should be treasured no matter how small it is. Because of this quirk of his, one might take him to be petty with his money.

    "Better yet, is this unique skill from the [Savior of Races] title."

    "Savior of Races? Why didn''t I get such a title?" Fudo was surprised and so stopped walking. He opened up his system interface and went through his mission rewards but still didn''t see it.

    "Huh? You didn''t? But it was supposed to be the prize for that emergency mission that came upst." Sato stared at him in confusion as he wondered what was going on. The title was supposed to be part of the reward as it was also disyed on the rewards section of the mission page.

    "Ah! I get it now. I think it was meant for thest hit." Fudo said with a look of realisation.

    "Thest hit? Makes sense." Sato nodded in ordance.

    During the battle, Sato was the one who made thest hit and finished off the boss. While the others had assisted in depleting the boss'' HP, they didn''t eliminate him thoroughly. Hence the conjecture that Sato was the only one who had this title was quite reasonable but they would still have to consult the others to confirm. However, the chances of that happening was close to nil, considering Sato''s behaviour.

    "A unique skill from a unique title... what''s it about?"

    "Here take a look." Sato sent him the info on the skill.

    "Holy macaroni! It''s even better than the other one and this skill, it''s freaking OP. Hehe. With this, levelling would be a lot easier for you eh?" Fudo grinned.

    What he said was true as the skill was a lot simr to berserk skills. One should remember that berserk potions are really rare much less berserk skills. Even though the [Gratitude of Races] skill had a long cool-down, specifically 3 natural days[3], the skill was quite OP. It wouldn''t be an understatement to say that one could turn the tide of a battle in their favor with the aid of this skill.

    "One still has to depend on his abilities not just his ss skills. Alright, let''s be off. We should arrive at ck Grill''s cave within 2 hours."

    "...can we use a carriage? It would save time and what we need is time." Fudo pleaded.

    Sato looked at him with a smile on his face. As his best friend,how could he not know that Fudo was toozy to walk the distance and so wanted to use a carriage. In their current era, transportation was far more easier and advanced than during the Old era. As such, a lot of people weren''t used to long distance trekking apart from those who exercised regrly. The developers of Infinite Realm weren''t bothered about this but still, to attend the poption who weren''t used to this, they made it so that yers could still use carriages to get to their destinations.

    Despite his best friend''szy attribute, Sato still agreed after all Fudo did have a point.

    . . . . .

    In a pub located at the South district in Riverdale Town.

    As the residential area of Riverdale, the South district was home to a lot of yers and guilds. Some of them had decided to make their temporary headquarters there, renting a building to stay in or a hotel room to recuperate at.

    After the battle at the Gnorka, some of the yers had gone levelling while the others decided to recuperate and celebrate a bit. Even though they weren''t really tired physically, the almost 3 hours long battle had a toll on them mentally. As such, most of the yers either returned to their rental houses or rooms and went offline or they decided to go drinking and partying at a pub.

    The Red boar pub was one such location that was currently crowded by yers. It had two floors which was mostly being upied by the yers right now. The pub was but a simple one and didn''t have any sex workers. Even though in Infinite Realm yers can''t go naked, in other to achieve their belief of another reality, the developers made it possible that yers can still go naked and even engage in sexual activities but only at specific locations. Needless to say, the studio behind the game capitalized a lot on this by cing a huge figure on the feature and so, it wasn''t really popr among the yers. The ces that were limited to this feature included a few open pubs and love hotels[4]. The Red Boar pub was however, not one of such ces.

    Drinks and food were being passed around while the yers were discussing their experience with the others. Some even decided to make a video of their celebration and boasting and then uploaded it to the forum''s for all to see.

    In one corner of the pub was a party of 7 that were drinking andughing merrily. Everyone one of them was at least a level 5 with the berserker at the helm of the celebration being a level 6.

    "Boss Blood is so amazing. While we all levelled once, he went so far as to level up twice."

    "Oh stop it. I was already close to level 5 so reaching level 6 was to be expected." The man replied a humbly though his tone and look was filled with pride. If Sato was here, he would definitely know who he was. This was Blood Sword, the berserker he had met earlier together with his teammates when Sato had discovered the mortal rank chest (AN: Chpt 4).

    "Boss! Boss!" A yer ran in. He was dressed as a ranger and had a bow behind his back.

    "Old Hao, what''s up?"

    "Yeah, you know better than to interrupt boss Blood''s party for no good reason. If you don''t have one then prepare to guard the door for the next week."

    Of the two while spoke, the first was the Pdin, Fiko, and the other was the assassin, Crimson Scar.

    The ranger named Old Hao was a bit scared upon hearing Crimson Scar''s words but he still didn''t back away.

    "Boss, I have news that you might like."

    "Hmm? Speak then."

    Blood Sword replied while putting down his jar of beer.

    "I received news from one of our men. The man whom you have been looking for was spotted recently." Old Hao said with a shaky voice.

    *Bang*

    Blood Sword abruptly stood up on his feet and pushed the table down.

    "Where?!"

    "He was previously at the West District but he just left town. My men are currently monitoring him though." Old Hao shivered before replying.

    "Gather the men. We are going after that bastard!" Blood Sword said before leaving the pub.

    Ever since he had stepped into the VR gaming world, no one had disgraced him that badly. Despite being surrounded by his men, Sato had not only taken the stash in the chest but also killed one of them and still escaped unscathed. Blood Sword was thoroughly annoyed because of this and vowed to pay him back tenfold. He had mobilised all his informants in Riverdale Town to search for him and it was only until now that he finally got some news. Blood Sword was determined to teach Sato a lesson and strip him off all his equipment.

    ''No one has ever disgraced me like that. You, unknown Swordsman, would pay dearly for it.''

    AN :

    [1] The kill rewards multiplied the experience they got in the event by 0.5 (for killing at least 10 goblins. Check chapter 95.)

    [2] Chapter 85

    [3] Natural days refers to real-life time and not in-game time.

    It''s a filler chapter but fillers are still chapters. xD

    [4] To better understand this, you pay money and you can go naked and have *** in this ces but not elsewhere.. This is of course to prevent some shitheads from going naked in public or r*ping female yers.

 Chapter 101 - 98 : Black Grillâ€™s Cave

    Less than 2 hourster. Naturally, it''s In-game hours.

    West of Riverdale Town and South East of ck Mountain Town was the the level 0 map Stone Creek forest. Though it was called a level 0 map, it didn''t mean that all the monsters here were level 0. The rating of a resource map was based on the weakest monsters present and also the rmended level for yers. A level 0 map would now mean a map where the lowest level of a monster would be 0 and also yers at level 0 would have a chance to live. If it was a level 5 map, it would mean that the lowest level of a monster would be level 5 and yers aren''t rmended to go there unless they are at least level 5.

    As a level 0 map, the Stone Creek forest was the previous number one levelling zone and resource map for yers. It was estimated that the highest level of a monster there would be level 5. After the event at Gnorka, most yers had already levelled up a lot; with the average of Riverdale Town yers being level 4 and 5 while the experts were at level 6. Because of this, Stone Creek forest barely had any appeal to them but they still went there or rather went through it. The reason? Because the entrance to the level 5 map, ck Grill''s Cave, was located within Stone Creek forest.

    ck Grill''s Cave could be said to be a map within a map. At the South West end of Stone Creek forest was a huge mountain. The entrance to ck Grill''s Cave was specifically within this mountain. Previously, only a few yers ventured into this cave but with the sudden surge in levels for the Riverdale Town yers, most of them headed this way. Some yers from ck Mountain Town also came here but this was limited to a few; after all not every Town was like Riverdale Town that suddenly had arge scale even that led to it''s yers levelling up quickly.

    Even though ck Grill''s Cave was located on the body of the mountain, the trip isn''t such an easy one as some might think it''s a stroll in the garden. It should be recalled that this mountain was within Stone Creek Forest and this very forest is home to various monsters. Sato and Fudo had to battle monsters on their way to the mountain, and also raised their guards against yer-killers. As a result of this, the two who were both infinitesimally close to level 8, finally reached it after a short period of ying monsters.

    "In under 24 hours ofunch, we are almost at level 10. We should be the highest levelled yers already right?" Fudo had a smile hung on his lips.

    "Wipe that smug off your face. We are still low levelled beings so we aren''t really strong." Sato replied. He could still remember the scene of the battle between the Riverdale Trio and that Emissary. The power they had could easily destroy mountains much less yers at their level.

    Sato continued "It''s quite easy to gain levels now but it will be a lot harderter. If you like, you can keep on enjoying the feeling of being a level 8."

    "Tch. You always know how to ruin someone''s mood." Fudo was replied grumpily.

    "By the way, we should be high levelled already. You sure we would find any good monsters at ck Grill''s cave? It should be a level 5 map but I doubt we could easily find a level 8 or above monsters."

    Sato then replied "ck Grill''s Cave is a level 5 resource map. ording to the pattern of things, the highest levelled creature there should be a level 8 or maybe a 9. It''s true that there wouldn''t be a lot of those but there will still be a few level 6s and 7s. We can still level up with those."

    To level up, one needs to defeat monsters and gain the required amount of experience. But if a level 5 yer was to grind level 1 monsters that wouldn''t be fair. In other to prevent yers from preying on the weak, Infinite Realm had a special feature added. yers couldn''t gain experience from monsters that are far weaker than them. The level difference was set to two. In other words, yers can still gain experience from monsters two levels weaker than them. The developers however, announced that this will only be so for yers under level 10. After level 10, the level difference would be set at 1 because a qualitative change urs at that level; both for yers and monsters. Otherwise, level 10 yers would have been beating the hell out of every level 8 monster. Even with this, the experience points gained differs. If a level 5 yer were to fight a level 5 monster, he would gain more experience points than a level 6 yer would. A level 6 yer would also gain more experience than when a level 7 yer fights the exact same level 5 monster. The good thing however is that if a level 4 yer fights the same monster, he would gain more experience points than the other 3.

    "If the experience isn''t good enough, we will go elsewhere then. There aren''t only two resource map avable."

    Sato and Fudo were currently in front of the mountain that held the entrance to the cave. The cave was a few metres up the mountain but it wasn''t so difficult climb the mountain as it wasn''t that steep. A few steps ahead of them were a few yers who had the same idea as them and wanted to level up here rather than celebrating back in town like the others.

    "Damn. At this rate most of Riverdale''s yers would get to the city before others." Fudo sighed.

    "Yeah but is there a problem with it? "

    "Yes. I wanted to meet new people from other towns, you know, and possibly find a soulmate. That +18 feature is godly and I n on getting it soon." Fudo said seriously.

    Sato simply smiled at Fudo''s reply andmented "First all, I''m pretty sure you don''t know everyone in Riverdale yet and I doubt anyone would want to mate with you fat pig."

    Fudo suddenly stopped walking and tightened his fists. He red at Sato and looked as if he would explode soon.

    "You want to fight huh? You wanna get beat by this Lord eh?!"

    While Fudo was kicking up a fuss, amotion took ce a few metres in front, right at the entrance of the cave.

    "Move out. Get out of the way!"

    A yer ran out from the cave while screaming at the others in front of him. Part of his armour was damaged and he only had a sword in hand and it looked like he would have at anyone who blocked his path.

    "What''s up with him?"

    "Don''t you know? High level maps like this are ces for children. He pretty much got scared and shit his pants. Hahaha."

    " I don''t think that''s all though. From his reaction, I think he''s at least a level 4."

    "Oh? Then he might have either encountered a high level monster or some dark yers."

    "Dark yers huh? I guess you''re right."

    Some of the yers discussed about the guy''s miserable appearance and his reaction before putting it all behind and still heading to their destination.

    "Dark yers? Why would they be here?"

    Sato and Fudo were confused about the result of some of the discussions they overheard.

    "If it was a high level monster that dealt with him that badly, it would have made more sense than dark yers."

    "Let''s go. We''ll ask the others at the top."

    Ignoring the unprecedented event for now, the duo walked up the mountain to reach the cave. The journey wasn''t so difficult as there weren''t a lot of monsters on the mountain. Even the few that they encountered were easily defeated was both Sato and Fudo were already level 8, surpassing all the monsters in Stone Creek Forest.

    In under 2 minutes, they both reached the Cave entrance. The mouth of the cave was quite big reaching a height of up to 12 metres and a width of at least 9 metres. By the side of the entrance, a few yers stood by waiting for yers to partner up with them. Each yer valued their lives and although most of them were at least level 5, they didn''t n on charging recklessly into the cave; after all, ck Grill''s Cave was a level 5 map and this meant that it was crawling with a tons of level 5 monsters and even a few level 6s.

    "Looking for a mage, he must be at least level 6 and not have any association with the water element."

    "Looking for a level 6 MT. He must be very good at attracting aggro and have a high amount of HP and Defense."

    "Looking for a mage. He or she must be an elementalist and not of the water branch. Fire type elementalists are well favored."

    Looking at the somewhat gingerly atmosphere, Sato and Fudo were quite impressed after all they never expected to see a lot of level 5 yers here.

    "It looked like a lot of people benefited from that event."

    "Yeah. By the way, what''s with all the prejudice against water ss elementalists?" Fudo asked. Mages were well favored in any party irrespective of the element they pledged to but here in ck Grill''s Cave, this motion didn''t seem to be so true.

    "Seems like you''re new here?" A lone yer walked up to the duo. He had ck hair and ck eyes and seemed like an easy-going andid-back person.

    "Yeah." Fudo replied.

    "I see. Then let me break it down for you. ck Grill''s Cave is home to a lot of earthen ss monsters of which the rock golems have the highest poption here. The water element could barely damage this folks after all, Earth beats water[1]. The golems have high defense especially against physical attack so mages are the main damage dealers. Because of that, water type elementalists are usually left out and give the cold shoulder. As for fire elementalists," He then looked at Fudo. "They are weed with open arms."

    "Hehe." Fudo simply chuckled in response.

    "By the way, a few minutes ago a guy ran out in fear. Do you know what that was about?" Sato decided to ask.

    "Hmm? A few minutes ago? Ah, yes. He should have been hunted by dark yers."

    Seeing that he didn''t continue, Fudo asked "Why?"

    "You don''t know...oh, look at me, I forgot you guys are new. Well, monsters aren''t the only thing one should be careful about. To tell you the truth, they aren''t the most dangerous factor here but rather yers. To be specific, dark yers. Dark yers make their living through hunting other yers but recently some of the big guilds from the neighbouring towns decided to team up and hunt them back. Subsequently, the dark yers had to retreat and their destination became ck Grill''s Cave.

    "The cave system is quiteplex so it makes for a good hideout. Also the monsters are quite high levelled for yers and so yers have to be cautious and can''t rampage around. This gives the dark yers the opportunity to not only hide from their enemies but also harass other yers."

    The nature of dark yers made it such that they found joy in harassing and attacking other yers. In the end, they made a blunder and attacked a yer they shouldn''t have. Though it was just a party of dark yers that did this, the power behind the yer they attacked retaliated aggressively, gathering a few other forces to team up with them and wipe out the dark yers. Other guilds saw this as an opportunity to "purify" the towns under them and so joined up in the fun. The dark yers were both few in number and weak in power and so, only had the option to withdraw from the fight and retreat to a ''safe zone''. They chose a few high level maps, where yers can''t move around easily, as their base of operations. ck Grill''s Cave was one such base thanks to it''splex nature and powerful monsters.

    Nheless, the fact that the dark yers retreated didn''t mean that they stopped their harassment. They only limited it to the surroundings of the map and killed most of the yers that dared to venture in. Despite knowing the risk, yers still visited these ces as they were the only possible locations to level up at their levels.

    "Wow. Who knew the dark yers had it rough?" Fudo sighed though it was a fake one.

    "Everyone has it rough. At the end of the day, it''s thew of the jungle that matters most." The yer replied.

    "Ok then. Thank you for your help." Sato replied before he moved away with Fudo towards the gate.

    "...hey wait a minute!"

    "What?" Sato looked at him with a nk face.

    "It''s just the two of you guys that are heading in right? Why don''t I follow you in?" The lone yer said with a timid voice.

    "No thanks." Sato replied and turned around.

    "Come on! I have been in there a couple of times. I can help you to find your way in and out. ck Grill''s Cave is somewhat simr to abyrinth. Getting lost won''t be fun. Who knows even, me following you could be like a duck carrying a leek?"[2]

    Sato stopped after hearing what he had said. Though hisst statement was kinda shameless, this yer had a point in his words. In all honesty, Sato barely knew a thing about ck Grill''s Cave and going in just like that could cost him. A wise man once said that Information is power. In the scenario where Sato and Fudo were to go in there without knowing a thing, they could either get lost or step into a high level monster''s zone. Even though there''s a saying that goes "If you eat poison, you have to swallow the whole te"[3], Sato wasn''t inclined to eating poison if he can avoid it.

    "...fine." After hesitating for awhile andparing the advantages and disadvantages, Sato decided to let him join them.

    "Alrighty then. You guys should have a party system set up already right? Add me in.. My name is Lu Zhen."

 Chapter 102 - 99 : Hidden Dangers In Black Grillâ€™s Cave

    "Lu Zhen?" Fudo said the name out. He felt it was quite familiar but he recalled that he barely associated with anyone from the Chinese Independent State [1] much less someone with the name Lu Zhen.

    [[ System notification :

    yer ID : Sky de invites you join his party.

    Agree/Decline ]]

    "Let''s go then." Sato sent the party invitation to Lu Zhen before walking ahead, not bothering to wait for him to reply.

    "...tch. Can''t you wait for your teammate, brother?" Lu Zhen quickly agreed to the request and then shamelessly shouted at the duo while chasing after them.

    "How the heck did we be brothers?" While Sato was inclined to keep ignoring Lu Zhen''s nonsensical behaviour, Fudo felt that Lu Zhen had the potential to be his chatting buddy.

    "How you ask? Well, back in the days, there was the belief that once two people fight together in a life-and-death battle, they develop a bond. Going to ck Grill''s Cave, with just the three of us, is the same as sending ourselves into the jaws of death." Lu Zhen then puffed his chest up before continuing "Thanks to my presence, we will survive this predicament. Surviving it will therefore make us trio, brothers."

    "Whoa. I admit I''m shameless but you''re on another level." Fudo eximed.

    Sato, on the other hand, felt that he might have made a mistake picking Lu Zhen but he quickly wiped the thought out of his head. If Lu Zhen was true to his character, then picking him would be the right thing to do as a straightforward person like him would be much better than a calctive and scheming yer. But this was only on the condition that Lu Zhen''s attitude now was his real character. Since Sato couldn''t verify that yet, he still kept his guard up. Unless an opportunity showed itself, this was the only thing he could do. As for Fudo, Sato wasn''t worried about him as he believed that Fudo must have thought of the same thing as he did and is probably trying to find a loophole in Lu Zhen''s disguise, if he is indeed faking his behaviour.

    Upon passing through the mouth of the cave that resembled the mouth of a monster, the trio ventured in a little deeper. Though they were inside the cave, it wasn''t as dark as they had expected as a few green light gems were lodged on the walls of the cave.

    ck Grill''s Cave was a cave filled with earthen ss monsters and a few species that prefer to dwell underground. The cave extended all the way from the middle part of the mountain, down below going as far as at least a 50 metres or so beneath sea level. It was quite huge as even though plenty different yers had entered in, they still hadn''t explored everywhere. Based on estimation with the distance travelled so far, the yers believed that ck Grill''s Cave should berger than even a Primary Town! One has to remember that Primary Towns are very huge. Ifparing with reality, they are capable of rivalling some of the big cities.

    ording to Lu Zhen, the first people who discovered the cave had a found a map about it; though it wasn''t aplete one. They had went in thinking they had found an ancient civilization''s abandoned grounds with hidden treasures. Sadly, most of them died in the trip with only two remaining. One of them, who was a business-minded kinda fellow, decided to copy the map and sell it to other yers rather than keeping it to themselves. When a few big guilds caught a whiff of this, they tracked down the yer and silenced him because they wanted to seize the ce for themselves. Sadly for these guilds, the map had proliferated a bit and it eventually became know to a lot of yers. The guilds inmand then blocked the ce off and tried to explore it first before other yers. To their surprise, it turned out not to be an forgotten grounds but a resource map. Of course they found this out the hard way after losing a bunch of their yers. In the end the ce was opened to the public, as the guilds themselves couldn''t really horde it for themselves, but very few yers dared to venture here as it was high levelled for them back then. Now however, most of those who participated in therge scale goblin battle event and a few other pro yers from other towns, use this ce as a levelling holy ground. This was even more so for the mages, as they were the most important factor in defeating the Rock Golems, which were the monsters with the highest poption down here.

    They had walked for about 2 minutes without discovering any living creature and as Fudo was about toin, they heard a sound.

    *Growl*

    "What was that?" Fudo asked hurriedly.

    "Should be a golem. You know, big guys with rocky bodies..."

    "Let''s hide." Sato suddenly spoke.

    "Ok." Fudo replied.

    "... alright." Though Lu Zhen hesitated a bit, he still did as he was told.

    *Dong* *Ding* *Dong*

    Heavy footsteps sounded as a huge ''rock'' appeared from another path. It was coloured caramel, seemingly looking like an average Boulder. Upon closer inspection however, one would discover that it had red colored gems where it''s eyes were supposed to be. Apart from this, there was no other facial features this ''rock'' had. It''s arms were actually a conglomeration of rocks and small boulders to form arms. The abomination was 2.3 metres in height at least and looked to be able to bulldozer through an human being.

    "So that''s a Rock Golem?" Fudo studied the creature.

    "Yes. From what I know, Rock Golems are a lesser version of Earth golem. They have very good defensive capabilities and high strength though their only weak-points is their speed; they are very slow and also have slow reaction time." Lu When stated. He had been to ck Grill''s Cave a couple of times before. As such, he knew most of the mobs that dwelt[2] here, together with their strengths and weaknesses.

    "Looking at it''s height, I guess it''s a level 5; probably amon rank. A good bombardment of explosive spells would be more than enough to handle it. Here is the stats it has." Lu Zhen had a copy of the monster''s stats from his previous battles and so sent it to the duo in the party.

    "Huh? You guys are level 8?!" Lu Zhen suddenly yelled but with a low voice, so as not to attract the Rock Golem.

    When yers join up in a party system, their levels and rank are usually shown to everyone in the party through the party system on the system interface. When Lu Zhen was about to send the data on the Rock Golem''s stat to them, he noticed that their levels were level 8. He didn''t see this earlier before when he epted their party invite because he didn''t bother to. But now he did, Lu Zhen was quite surprised since most yers were still at level 5 or 6 and only the best of the best were level 7.

    "Yeah, what about it?" Fudo said with a smug smile. "I tell you this, call me ''Ancestor Emperor'' and if you ever get into any mess, I will help you."

    "Tch. I thought I was shameless but you''re on a whole different level." Lu Zhen twitched his lips.

    "Hehe. What''s your level even? 5? No. You see to be a bit better than that so 6?" Fudo asked with a smug smile as if mocking Lu Zhen.

    "Hehe. 7."

    "..." Fudo was stunned.

    "..." Sato was also stunned.

    One should remember that the reason why the two were level 8 was because they not only beat a few trolls but also the elite rank One-Horned Trolls and finally the mini boss of the event, Sygrart. As the two were in a party system then, the experience points they gained was shared amongst themselves but it was still quiterge and gave them a huge boost ahead of the mainstream yers.

    Lu Zhen, on the other hand, didn''t have the liberties to enjoy all these. Even if he participated in the goblin raid, to achieve a level of 7, he had to have defeated not only a lot of goblins but also a few trolls too. It should be recalled that Yukino and the other members of Emperor''s Might who participated in the boss raid were still level 7. This stranger they just met was actually on par with them, if measuring by level of course.

    "It isn''tparable to you guys but I''m still proud of it." Lu Zhen puffed his chest and chuckled.

    "Tch. You''re still lower than us. Go kill that golem." Fudo pointed at the golem.

    "Huh? Why?" Lu Zhen asked with surprise. It wasn''t that he couldn''t defeat the monster but it will still be difficult after all Rock Golems had high resistance to physical attacks.

    "We''re both level 8. We wouldn''t gain any but of experience points from bullying a little rock. You''re still level 7 so you can gain a bit." Sato exined with a sigh.

    "Oh. You guys will still help me right?"

    "Help you? Unless you want to gain less experience points, you should go handle that on your own." Fudo said with a wicked smile.

    "...fine."

    Truth be told, the reason why they sent Lu Zhen to battle the Rock golem wasn''t because they couldn''t gain any experience points but because they wanted to see his ability. There''s a popr saying in the gaming industry that goes "Fear not a god-like opponent but a pig-like teammate". Even though Lu Zhen was a level 7, they wanted to be sure that he got that level through his own ability and not kill-stealing monsters during the raid.

    Also they hadn''t really discovered his ss yet. Lu Zhen only wore a leather type equipment with no visible weapon or sheath. Basing things on his dressing, his ss would either be an assassin or a ranger. Sato and Fudo wanted to verify both his ss and his fighting prowess as this would aid them in their raid since they don''t want to be held back or perhaps, lose their lives because of misinformation or ignorance of their partner''s abilities.

    . . . . .

    Deep in ck Grill''s Cave a battle was going on between two different parties.

    *ng*

    *ng*

    *Puchii* (AN : Piercing sound)

    "Arghh." One yer was suddenly stabbed from behind by an assassin who just exited stealth mode.

    "Rhino!" A teammate noticed this and yelled before rushing over to the injured yer. The assassin had however, retreated away from the man.

    "Fall back. These dark yers are too strong." The injured man replied to his colleague and the other two in their team. They were actually a party of 7 but in the end, 3 of them died at the hands of their opponents due to an ambush. Though their opponents also numbered 4, they were running low on HP and stamina, since they were previously fighting a few Rock Golems, but their opponents were still in form. To make things worse, the injury that the man had sustained wasn''t a simple one as he was constantly bleeding and losing HP.

    "Retreat? Hahaha. What do you take us for? You think you can retreat once we''ve marked you as our targets? Just empty your bags and give us all you have and we can let a few of you go." The leader of the opposing team, who happened to be the assassin that attacked earlier, grinned at the group in front of him.

    "Hmph. What do you take us for Rolo? You think we''re stupid? We''d rather die here than give you out belongings. At the very least, killing us would only make us lose one equipment or so and a few experience points. But surrendering our resources and expecting you to let us go isn''t the style of the Rhino Squad." The injured yer spoke.

    "You can''t keep hiding in here. You will eventually have to leave and when you do, the big guilds will still hunt you down someday."

    "Hahaha. You really are a stubborn fool old Rhino. Fine then, let me end your miserable suffering. Kill them all."

    "Kill."

    Another round of hacking and shing began again but this time, things were destined to end differently. With most of them injured and tired, the members of the Rhino Squad couldn''t keep up with Rolo and his gang. In the end, they all died and dropped at least one equipment it weapon behind.

    "Tch. They could have made things a little easier from us but that old Rhino really is a muscle head." Roloined. During the battle, Rhino and his teammates had sacrificed themselves yo take down one of his teammates. They were sessful in their attack and hence brought down the initial 4 opponents to 3. They however still died.

    "What now boss?" One of the yers in Rolo''s team asked.

    "We wait for Drake. After that, we look for a new target. This time around you guys should try and eliminate more yers during the ambush."

    "Okay boss."

    "It would be better if we can find a team with 4-5 yers at most."

    AN :

    [1] I had quite a problem trying to figure out a name. I originally came up with the Republic of China but I recalled that a ROC already existed and using it here might make people misunderstand me. So I decided to go almost the same path as the ISJ but made it CIS rather than ISC. Same thing though ISC sounds way cooler right?

    [2] Dwelled and dwelt. I usually went with ''dwelled''(thanks to watching too many America movies) but I recently discovered that the British version should be ''dwelt''.. In order to make my work flow, I went with ''dwelt'' since everything I should have written was done in British English.

 Chapter 103 - 100 : [Thief]

    "Yo. Stonehead!" Lu Zhen yelled at the Rock Golem.

    *Grruuuum.* [1]

    The Rock Golem was actually a creature made up of rocks of different sizes, clustered together to take on a humanoid shape. Due to the different sizes of rocks attached to one another, each time a golem moves it''s body or takes a turn, it''s movement is not only impeded but also sounds are generated from the impact between the rocks.

    The Rock Golem stared at Lu Zhen with it''s expressionless glowing red eyes.

    "Huh? What are you looking at? You''ve never seen a guy as handsome as myself before? In that case, admire me more." Lu Zhen pasted a wide and annoying smug on his face.

    "What the hell is he doing?" Sato frowned.

    "Beats me. I think he just ns on enjoying himself a little bit after all, he is a level 7 yer facing a level 5mon; the difference is as clear as night and day. He doesn''t need to worry or be cautious when dealing with it." Fudo replied. It was quite easy for him to figure out why fatuous as even he would do the same when facing a monster far weaker than he is.

    The Rock Golem couldn''t really understand Lu Zhen''s words but as a monster with a little amount of intelligence, it obviously knew that Lu Zhen wasn''t like it so it walked towards him. ''Walk'' isn''t really the correct term as it was actually running towards him but since it''s movement speed and reaction speed was terribly slow whenpared to Lu Zhen''s, it looked like it was walking or maybe even jogging from Lu Zhen''s point of view.

    "Oh? You want to witness my amazing up close? Come on then. Let me give you a free view. Get a load of my awesomeness right here and right now. Hahaha." Lu Zhenughed though he still didn''t make a move yet.

    The Rock Golem was about 5 metres away from him when suddenly it froze as it took a step forward.

    "A trap?" Sato narrowed his eyes. With this short disy, he had already guessed Lu Zhen''s ss.

    "Hehe. You fell for it." Lu Zhen chuckled before putting his right hand forward and grasping at the air.

    As he did so, a dagger took shape in his already enclosed fist, with it''s hilt held by his fist in a backhand style. Lu Zhen immediately propelled his body forward with one step and shed at the Rock Golem. One sh however, wasn''t enough to do the job as Rock Golems had very high resistance towards physical attack.

    As a regr of sorts, to ck Grill''s Cave, Lu Zhen was pretty much aware of this fact and that was why he didn''t stop at one attack but went on to unleash a flurry of strikes.

    Lu Zhen had the main ss [Assassin], which was focused on burst attacks and agility. In Infinite Realm, one could arrange their attributes points based on two ways; the first being by manually cing the points in their desired attributes and the second is by letting the System do it for one''s self. Lu Zhen had set his arrangement to be done automatically by the System. Not just him though but almost 70% of all yers did the same; only a very few like Sato, bothered to arrange their attributes manually. The path of an assassin is one based on speed and high burst damage. With the System''s automatic setting, his [Agility], [Dexterity] and [Strength] were his highest attributes.

    With most of his attribute points in his [Agility], [Dexterity] and [Strength], each attack of his that made contact with the Rock Golem''s body took a little bit of it''s HP. A little bit of HP in exchange for one attack didn''t sound so great but what if he attacked more than once in each second? With his almost absurd attack speed, Lu Zhen was able tond 3-5 strikes on the Rock Golem with each second that went by. He maintained his constant assault on the Rock Golem for at least 4 seconds before it''s resistance kicked off and it retaliated aggressively with a punch sent his way.

    This of course, wasn''t much of an issue to Lu Zhen, whose reaction speed and movement speed was quite high; higher than the Rock Golem''s at least. Lu Zhen easily dodged the fist attack and pierced his dagger at one of the Rock Golem''s eyes.

    Being an inanimate creature, the Rock Golem couldn''t feel pain but that didn''t mean that it feltfortable with a dagger stuck in it''s eye.

    The Rock Golem used it''s right hand to send a p towards Lu Zhen. Upon seeing this, Lu Zhen retreated a few steps backwards. He studied the Rock Golem and from his system interface, he knew it had only about 60% HP or so left.

    In 4 seconds, Lu Zhen had actually reduced it''s HP by almost 40%! And this was even with the high resistance to physical attacks! And Lu Zhen still achieved this, what''s more, with his regr attacks!

    From the data Lu Zhen had sent Fudo and Sato on level 5mon ranked Rock Golems, they usually had about 250 HP. To have reduced it''s HP by almost 40% in 4 seconds meant that the damage Lu Zhen could deal to this monster in each second was sizeable and shouldn''t be underestimated. If the somewhat high physical attack resistance and high defense weren''t there, Lu Zhen might have already killed off this monster.

    "Tch. You''re a tough one but today isn''t your day buddy."

    Slightly disappointed that he couldn''t finish it quickly, Lu Zhen decided to go at it again. He dashed at the Rock Golem and before it could react, Lu Zhen brandished his dagger rapidly. He made full use of his speed advantage and circled around the monster while attacking it from various angles making it difficult for the slow folk to retaliate at him.

    It didn''t take long for this battle to end as it was a total one sided massacre to begin with. When the Rock Golem was about to use a skill, Lu Zhen had ended it with a skill of his own, taking out thest chunk of HP it had in a hurry thereby preventing it from going berserk.

    "So, how did I do?" Lu Zhen looked at the duo while stretching his arms as if the short duel was but a warm-up.

    "That was a trap right?" Sato looked at him. He was referring to that instance the Rock Golem had suddenly froze, giving Lu Zhen the opportunity to hold the advantage of the battle for himself from the beginning.

    It is said that in a fight between experts or a closebat scuffle, one little mistake or an instance of slowing down, is more than enough to change the tide of a battle. The abrupt halting of the Rock Golem had given Lu Zhen the chance to have the upper hand in the fight otherwise, even if he defeated the Rock Golem, it wouldn''t be so easy like this.

    "Yep." Lu Zhen nodded.

    "Impressive. I didn''t even see youter a trap down." Fudo eximed a bit.

    "Hehe. Why would you? My subss is [Thief] after all." Lu Zhen smirked.

    "Thief huh?" Sato pondered on what he had read about this subss on the forums.

    Apart from the three major subss of [Alchemist], [cksmith] and [Scribe], there were a bunch of other different sub-sses. Infinite Realm focused on mimicking reality and so, a lot of different jobs that existed in reality also existed here as sub-sses. Like for instance, [Chef], [Engineer], [Architect], [Teacher], [Merchant] and so on and so forth. There were also a couple of jobs that were shunned in reality like the [Fraudster] and [Thief].

    These ''dark sses'' were usually taken up by dark yers as it aided them in living their life against thew. Very few orthodox yers actually chose any of this subss as the process of learning them is not only special but the sses aren''t as useful as the others like [cksmith] or even [Merchant]. However, everything has a time to shine on it''s own.

    The [Thief] subss was usually paired with the [Assassin] main ss. The reason for this is that the [Thief] subss focuses a lot on [Dexterity] and reaction speed. Regr sses, apart from a few special ones like [Ranger] and [Swordsman], don''t always have such a high reaction speed as [Assassin].

    The [Thief] subss of course had it''s own specialty. Apart from unlocking treasure chests without the need for a key or a scroll, they could also set traps, passively boost some skills of the [Assassin] ss and also had one special skill that was very good for escaping. Because of these features of it, especially the passive boost to [Assassin] skills and the escape skill, the [Thief] subss is mostly valued by [Assassin] yers.

    The trap Lu Zhen had set up was actually done with the aid of his subss. Usually, other sses could of course learn how to set a few simple traps butpared to the speed and proficiency of a [Thief], theirs is extremely disappointing and barely of any worth. While a regr yer would need time and perhaps materials to set up a freezing trap like Lu Zhen did, he didn''t actually need such, not even any material. Arranging such time traps for a [Thief] is akin to casting a low level spell for a mage; it could be done swiftly.

    "Let''s go. We need to level up and level 5 monsters like this aren''t necessary. We need higher levelled ones." Sato said.

    Lu Zhen then replied, "I know. That''s why we''re following this path. If we go in deeper for awhile, we would encounter a few level 6s or so. If we go past them, we should find a Rock Golem nest."

    "A Rock Golem nest?"

    "That''s what I coined it. Simply put, it''s theirir." Lu Zhen replied with a smug.

    "Oh? How did you find that out though?"

    Lu Zhen awkwardlyughed "Hehe. Back when I was level 4, I wandered in here and found it. Even though I was just by the perimeter, I almost died if not for my subss'' escaping skill. From what I saw then, there were at least 5 level 7s."

    Sato held his chin and replied "5 level 7s just along the perimeter...There should possibly be more then. Alright, lead the way."

    AN :

    [1] Welldies and gentlemen, this was my terrible but only feasible way of ''wording'' the sound produced by the movement of Rock Golems.

 Chapter 104 - 101 : A New Discovery

    *ng*

    *ng*

    The sound of metals shing, continuously reverberated in the cave.

    [[ Rock Golem (Common)

    Level : 6

    HP : 300

    Physical Attack Power : 51 + 10 (Elemental + weight effect)

    Magical Attack Power : 15 + 10 (Elemental effect)

    Physical Defence : 20 + 15 (Elemental effect)

    Magical Defence : 10 + 10 (Elemental effect)

    Movement Speed : 8

    Attack Speed : 12

    Attributes

    Strength : 17

    Endurance : 20

    Vitality : 30

    Agility : 4

    Dexterity : 4

    Intelligence : 5

    Willpower : 10

    Skills :

    Elemental effect : Passive skill : High affinity with Earth element and increases defensive and attacking abilities.

    Boulder punch : Passive skill : Weight of all physical attacks is multiplied by 1.6.

    System description : More weight = more damage

    Earth Spike : Active skill : Create an earthen spike and throw at target. Attack contains 150% of Physical attack power plus 70% of Magical Attack Power. Cool-down : 3 seconds.

    Rock Stamp : Active skill : Stamp heavily to release multiple earth spikes. 140% of Magical Attack Power as damage. Cool-down : 10 seconds.

    ________________________________

    Rock Golem (Elite)

    Level : 6

    HP : 350

    Physical Attack Power : 60 + 15 (Elemental + weight effect)

    Magical Attack Power : 21 + 13 (Elemental effect)

    Physical Defence : 20 + 15 (Elemental effect)

    Magical Defence : 10 + 13 (Elemental effect)

    Movement Speed : 8

    Attack Speed : 12

    Attributes

    Strength : 20

    Endurance : 20

    Vitality : 35

    Agility : 4

    Dexterity : 4

    Intelligence : 7

    Willpower : 10

    Skills :

    Elemental effect : Passive skill : High affinity with Earth element and increases defensive and attacking abilities.

    Boulder punch : Passive skill : Weight of all physical attacks is multiplied by 1.6.

    System description : More weight = more damage

    Earth Spike : Active skill : Create an earthen spike and throw at target. Attack contains 155% of Physical attack power plus 80% of Magical Attack Power. Cool-down : 3 seconds.

    Rock Stamp : Active skill : Stamp heavily to release multiple earth spikes. 145% of Magical Attack Power as damage. Cool-down : 10 seconds.

    ]]

    A group of level 6 Rock Golems were attacking a small party of yers. The Rock Golem force was a mixture of level 6 Commons and level 6 Elites. The three yers; a fire elementalist, a swordsman and an assassin, were holding up quite well against the Rock Golems even though they were outnumbered.

    The swordsman yed the role of an MT, holding back 4 Rock Golems. Despite being outnumbered 1-6, he still held on. This wasn''t just because his level was above that of the Rock Golems but also because he received timely assistance from hisrades.

    The fire elementalist attacked from the back-line, aiding the swordsman and relieving the stress on him. As a fire elementalist, his attacks were highly explosive and dealtrge amounts of damage to the Rock Golems. With a perfect mixture of well timed single target and AOE(Area Of Effect) skills, he was able to support the swordsman greatly and aid him in holding back the Rock Golems.

    Thest yer, an assassin, made astute attacks that lessened the burden on the swordsman. He also dealt extremely high burst damage to the Rock Golems even though these creatures were really resistant to physical attacks. Like a fish in clear water, with a de in hand, he danced through the Rock Golems brandishing his dagger on their Hardy rocky surface while dealing substantial damage to the monsters.

    The party of three had good synergy and coordination in their attacks as if they were a team that had been battling alongside each other for years. This team was that of Sato, Fudo and Lu Zhen.

    As a team made up of passable experts, it wasn''t so bad for them to have good coordination after battling alongside each other for awhile. Before this, they had fought a couple other level 5 and level 6 Rock Golems in order to get used to one other. The result of this "training" was Lu Zhen being able to synchronize with the duo.

    There were four level 6mon rank Rock Golems and two level 6 Elites. The trio were already higher levelled than the Golems. Adding in their impressive coordination, the Rock Golems couldn''t stand a chance against them but they were still able to harm them.

    Sato, who yed the role of an MT, might be 2 levels ahead of them but his defense wasn''t up to par to a true level 8 Guardian or Pdin, or even a level 6 one either. Even though Fudo and Lu Zhen tried to interrupt some of the attacks of the Rock Golems, some still managed to approach Sato. To those ones, he still blocked them but due to the substantial difference in [Strength], some of the force of the attack was transmitted to his body. Sato couldn''t do much about this and so steadily lost his HP. Some of the Rock Golems'' attacksnded on him but thanks to the Dawn Steel Armour he wore, the damage wasn''t that much.

    Each time the total damage had depleted 40% of his HP, Sato would down a HP potion before continuing his attacks. This period was the most peril for the team as Sato would need to retreat awhile to drink the potion and wait for it''s effect to begin. Normally, Fudo would be tasked with giving Sato this opportunity and he did so through the aid of AOE attacks like for instance, the skill of his essory, Igneel''s guidance; which despite seeming like a singe target skill had AOE features to it.

    The battle went on for at least 5 minutes before the team finally won. The reason for this long dy in time was due to theck of a real MT, otherwise, they would have seeded in less than 2 minutes. Still though, for a party of 3 to take on six level 6 monsters alone, it was really impressive.

    "Ha! All this stress for such little Exp." Fudoined. As he was level 8 yer, the amount of Exp he would gain from level 6 monsters was very little being almost negligible.

    "At least it''s better than nothing. Lu Zhen is most likely the one to have benefited the most." Sato sighed. Lu Zhen was still a level 7 yer so the amount of Exp he would gain from level 6 monsters was much more than that of Sato and Fudo''s.

    "Hehe." Lu Zhen awkwardly chuckled. Despite having a shameless behaviour, he didn''t argue nor boast about his luck. The reason was simply because he was aware that without Sato and Fudo''s help, he wouldn''t have profited this much.

    "Where next?" Fudo asked after seeing Lu Zhen''s awkward reaction. In front of the trio were 3 tunnels that went to three separate areas. The trio had seen so many different tunnels ever since they stepped into ck Grill''s Cave. Lu Zhen had lead through the ones he knew of and that was how they ended up here. If they hade by themselves, heavens knew where they would end up in.

    "Well..." Lu Zhen looked ahead. "If I remember correctly, the middle one leads to a dead zone or something like that. The left leads deeper underground to a magma channel; I didn''t get to fully explore that though. The one by the right is the only passage I''ve explored but I didn''t go in deep. There were too many monsters and a few of them were level 7."

    When Lu Zhen had explored the cave, he was still level 5. Usually, it is quite difficult for a yer to sneak past a monster one level higher than they are and at the Elite rank. It was already quite impressive that he was able to get past the level 6 Elites with his stealth skill but the same couldn''t be said for the level 7 Rock Golems. Because of his low level, he was forced to retreat and abandon the tunnel by the right. This time however, he was level 7 and came with two level 8 yers.

    "Ok then. Let''s go."

    The party then went into the tunnel by the right. They had walked about 30 metres in when Fudo suddenly asked,

    "Didn''t you say this ce was full of monsters, where are they?"

    "I don''t know..." Lu Zhen was confused. Thest time he came here, there were a few level 6 Elites monitoring the pathway. Now however, they hadn''t even spotted a level 5 Rock Golem much less a level 6 Elite.

    "Let''s go in deeper then." Sato frowned a bit. He didn''t think that Lu Zhen was wrong since he had been correct throughout most of their journey. He decided to think that maybe Lu Zhen had miscalcted a bit.

    One should recall that ck Grill''s Cave is really big; bigger than a secondary town. If Sato and Fudo had journeyed here on their own, they would most likely get lost; even with a map, they would be a little bit confused after all, they were going into ck Grill''s Cave for the first time and reading tunnel maps isn''t so easy. Considering the huge size of ck Grill''s Cave, Sato decided to believe that Lu Zhen might have made a slight mistake in his calction despite them being on the right road. Due to this miscalction, Lu Zhen might have thought that they would encounter monsters in a 30 metres radius when it might be a little bit more than that.

    "As of here on now, I don''t know anything about it." Lu Zhen sighed after they had walked a bit deeper. One reason he said so was to not only inform Sato and Fudo before they use him of misleading them but also to notify them to raise their guards up.

    "Ok." Sato replied as they continued moving forward.

    *ng*

    *ng*

    They had gone in a couple of metres deep when they overheard battle sounds. They slowed down their movements and walked slowly to the location of the sound. After a short while, the trio had reached a wide cave, about 2 football field in size[1].

    Looking deeper, they saw a party of 3 yers having a hard time facing another group of 4 yers. The special thing though was that the team of 4 yers had the usual yer icon above each yer''s head, shining red.

    They were dark yers!

 Chapter 105 - 102 : Damsel In Distress

    (AN : Notify me for any errors please.)

    If someone were to say that Xue Yan had expected the current development of things, well, they wouldn''t really be wrong neither are they right.

    Xue Yan had made it to ck Grill''s Cave all because of a quest she had received from a weird viger in ck Mountain Town. She had quite a meticulous and pedantic behaviour. Due to this quirk of hers, she had chanced upon on a quest just a few hours after the game went online. She went on toplete some of the missions on the quest while levelling up at the same time.The quest was quite strenuous. The current mission that was set on the quest was to collect a certain specimen. The only ce it could be found for now, was in ck Grill''s Cave.

    Xue Yan could obviously wait till she reached level 10 and got to the city but that would not be reasonable as there was a countdown attached to the mission. Even if there was none, the experience she would then gain would be minute to a level 10 yer and also, most of the locations for the missions in the quest would be based close to ck Mountain Town. It would be really dumb to be heading to a low level town when other yers are exploring city level maps. So leaving the mission behind till she became level 10 didn''t really make much sense.

    Xue Yan had thought that this would be a simple trip; in and out before anyone knew it. Though she had long heard about how ck Grill''s Cave became a camping ground for darkyers, she never expected to intercept some of them. ck Grill''s Cave was indeed a hideout for dark yers but one should remember that it is almost asrge as a Primary town. As a result, it wasn''t certain that yers would meet one another as long as they take on different paths. Though some paths and tunnels might intersect with one another, the chances of finding such tunnels isn''t so high; even more so the chances of spotting a dark yer. That''s why the dark yers have been able to survive in ck Grill''s Cave without suffering retribution from the big guilds..

    Xue Yan had teamed up with a party 4 other yers at the entrance of ck Grill''s Cave. As an elementalist type mage, even more so a level 6 fire type, she was a popr and very much needed modity'' for yers hoping to explore ck Grill''s Cave. Easily weed into the team, Xue Yan journeyed with them with the idea of heading deeper into ck Grill''s Cave.

    A boon attached to her mission was the fact that she had map that directed her towards the location of her mission''s goal. With the map in hand and her smart brain, she influenced the decision of her teammates and surreptitiously directed them towards her designated site.

    Everything had been going smoothly before. The team had dodged a few high levelled monsters and made it this far but they never expected to get ambushed. Having gone quite deep, which level monsters would fill this area. They never expected that a dark team would infiltrate this deep after all, the dark yers were hiding.

    ck Grill''s Cave was divided into 3 regions. The Outer region; which was from the entrance to a few metres down and filled with level 5 and a few level 6 creatures. The Middle region; which was from the boundary of the outer region till sea level[1] had level 5, level 6 and a few level 7 monsters. The Inner region, which is thest region, begins below sea level. As for the depth, no one knows as there is noplete map about this area. It is believed that level 8 and level 9 monsters live here. There might even be a level 10 monster but no one was sure about that.

    The Dark yers were believed to have camped at a spot in between the Outer region and the Middle region, that way, they can easily escape to the Middle region if the big guilds were to try and hunt them. Going deeper to a ce with high level monsters would be nice and all but the risk is much higher since they would have to hide from both monsters and yers. Usually, they would hang around boundary of the outer region and dispatch a few yers there. Xue Yan and her team were currently at the middle region and had gotten past the boundary point of the outer region. That point was the dark yers active area, so they thought they were safe already. They never expected to find some of them here.

    They got ambushed and lost 2 of their men immediately. Thanks to Xue Yan''s aid, the survivors were able to hold up against them but if things keep going the way it is, they would undoubtedly die.

    "We can''t go on like this." After setting off a st and creating space between themselves with an AOE skill, Xue Yan talked to her teammates.

    "Haha. What''s the matter, are you scared perhaps? Hahaha." Roloughed at the yers in front of him.

    After he and his squad had defeated thest group of yers, they had an unlucky encounter with some of the members of a big guild. Because of that, they had to retreat into the Middle region to get away. Rolo never expected to actually meet a group of wandering yers here since the Middle region was home to level 6 and above monsters. Regr yers couldn''t handle them and the group in front of him didn''t seem so special. Rolo decided to trail them for a while to confirm whether they were pro yers or regr yers. In the end, he found out that they weren''t that strong but just slightly above average yers.

    Using his knowledge of the environment to y, Rolo set up an ambush with his squad mates. Though they didn''t deal with their targets all at once thanks to Xue Yan''s quick reflexes, they still managed to take down 2 of the original 5 yers.

    A 4 on 3 showdown began and because Xue Yan''s team was initially caught by surprise, they had the lower hand in the battle. Xue Yan might not have been an expert yer but she was close to the rank. With her amazing control and timing, she was able to hold off 3 yers alongside one of her teammates while thest yer took on thest opponent. However, there was still a limit to what one can achieve. She was running out of Mana [2].

    "You might be able to hold us back now but for how long? This is the Middle region; no one wille to your aid. Even better, ck Grill''s Cave is so big and this ce is even somewhat isted. The chances of another yer reaching here is close to nil. Hahaha."

    Rolo licked the blood stained on his de as he stared at the trio that looked tattered and worried, with anxiety written all over their faces. Rolo always liked to y mental tricks on his prey as he felt that by looking at their worried faces that were filled with regret, he would experience such intense glee and tion, that he would even get intoxicated by it.

    "Hahaha. You know what? Why don''t you surrender all your weapons and items and I might let you go?" Rolo grinned at them. Right now, the two parties were at a standstill so he decided to weaken their will to fight so as to strike them when they least expect it.

    Xue Yan could guess that Rolo was just giving them false hopes but she didn''t say a word after all, everyone had the right to decide for themselves.

    "A bunch of dark yers looking down on us. You will pay for sure!" The Guardian who stood in front yelled at them but didn''t rush to attack.

    "Hahaha. Don''t say I didn''t give you a chance. Get them."

    With augh, Rolomanded his teammates and they all rushed towards the 3 in front.

    "Do we help them?" Fudo asked while looking at the fight going on below them. They were at an opening on the wall of the huge ''hall''. In order not to be noticed, they stealthily hide behind a huge stgmite and watched the ongoing fight.

    "What does it have to do with us?" Sato asked straightforwardly.

    "Uhhh." Fudo was tongue tied as to how to answer. This was a game not real life; dying here didn''t mean they would be gone forever. Also, Sato was right. Why should they bother to fight someone else''s battle when they wouldn''t gain anything and will possibly offend another power. Was it worth it?

    "Hey, can I ask for a favor?[3]" Lu Zhen who hadn''t spoken since they arrived here, suddenly asked.

    "What is it?" Sato looked at him.

    "Well you see, I kinda know that girl. To be precise, she''s my cousin. A distant one but still my cousin. I didn''t think that I would see her here so please grant me a favor and help me." Lu Zhen stared at Sato. He could have gone off on his own but Lu Zhen felt that he owed Sato and Fudo since they both had made it possible for him to reach here. Rushing out on his own would most likely incur their ire and that wasn''t what he wanted. Lu Zhen despite being shameless, was still a man of morals.

    Sato frowned a bit. Although he didn''t want to interfere in the battle, Lu Zhen had requested for his help. Of course this wasn''t just the reason. After battling alongside each other for awhile, as Lu Zhen had said before, they had be somewhat simr to brother figures. Also, Lu Zhen had skill, one which even Sato himself admired. He felt it wasn''t bad befriending him and since Lu Zhen had even requested a favor of him, doing so would make Lu Zhen owe him. The current target were Dark Ayers and it didn''t really matter whether they killed them or not. Killing red names would not make one a red name, so there wasn''t much harm in killing a dark yer. Adding in the fact that eliminating a yer would make them drop a loot, there wasn''t much loss or danger as long as they approached the matter carefully.

    "Alright then. Let''s go."

    AN :

    To those who don''t understand what "sea level" means, kindly ask Google cause I might not be able to exin it well for you. Simply put, sea level is the regr level fornd. It isn''t tall, it isn''t low; its regr. You can say it is the base form of earth.

    [2] I never added the Mana bar on their attributes panel because I felt it was stressful and not as important as HP...lol. It will appear in the next one though. Just know that MP is [Intelligence] x10. Let''s do it like that.

    [3] British spelling ought to be "Favour" but that''s my ex''s name. So I used the American spelling.. *Bows* Sorry for the irregrity.

 Chapter 106 - 103 : Ingratitude

    Located within Stone Creek Forest which was bordering Riverdale Town and ck Mountain Town, was a huge mountain that spanned the size of a town. Within this mountain was the current popr hotspot for yers; the Level 5 map, ck Grill''s Cave. At a certain location deep within this cave, two groups of yers faced off against each other.

    *ng*

    *ng*

    ''Damn! These guys are tough. Am I really going to die here, just like this?''

    Reeves, the Guardian yer from earlier, was unresigned to surrender neither would he relent without a fight. Together with his teammate, he retaliated against Rolo''s squad but they didn''t really stand much of a chance.

    Not only were they injured, with one of them even bleeding, there HP was low and their strength was iparable to that of the 4 adversaries who had fine coordination amongst themselves. If not for Xue Yan''s impressive timings and good judgement in battle, the two of them would have died since. However, there is still a limit to what one man, or in this case, woman, could do.

    With the factors of low HP, being outnumbered and terrible synergy whenpared to the opposing team, Reeves'' team was destined to lose within a minute.

    "Die!" Rolo abruptly increased the speed of his attacks and managed to get past Reeves'' defense.

    ''Shit!''

    The de was only a few centimetres away from him and if this attacknds, there''s no doubt that he would die. This isn''t because Reeves'' health is too low nor is it because the attack was too OP. Sure the attack was quite powerful but the key lied in the force within it.

    Rolo nned on using this strike to disorient Reeves for even of at least a second. A second might not seem like much but for an assassin yer whose highest attributes are [Agility] and [Dexterity], one second is more than enough to decide a battle. Once Reeves gets disoriented, Rolo nned on using abo on him and finishing off thatst bit of health.

    Reeves might not know this but even if he did, he couldn''t stop nor dodge the attack.

    ''Is this how it all ends...?''

    "Reeves!!!"

    The other yer screamed but he was interrupted by 2 other dark yers. Xue Yan, on the other hand, was upied with another dark yer, a ranger to be exact, who pursued after her with his attacks.

    ''It''s over.'' Xue Yan thought.

    She was kinda unwilling since she hadn''t died once, ever since the game started. The reason for this was her meticulousness in achieving her goals. She didn''t dare to face monsters far stronger than her and she didn''t try to take on more than one at a time unless it was two levels lower than her. For someone who had always prepared to avoid the worst, Xue Yan was a little bit down but she didn''t let her emotions get the best of her.

    ''At least I can prepare better next time.'' Recalling the mission that she and yet to fulfill, Xue Yan sighed bitterly inside but still kept a calm face on the outside.

    *Puchii*

    "Huh?" Rolo felt a cold feeling in his chest and so stopped his advance before bringing his head down to stare at his chest.

    "Arghh."

    Once he did so, Rolo saw a dagger sticking out from chest. He suddenly felt a stinging outburst of pain from his chest which led to his scream.

    [Shadow Strike]

    [Shadow Strike] was the assassin ss'' top skill just like [Horizontal sh] is for the swordsman. It increased damage by 30% while increasing Attack Speed by 15% for 3 seconds.

    The dagger had stabbed Rolo so quickly that his body couldn''t react in time. It only took a few short seconds for the sensation of pain to kick in leading to Rolo''s scream.

    Lu Zhen, who stood behind him with a dagger pierced through his back, pulled it out and shed multiply times at Rolo''s back while the effect of [Shadow Strike] was still on, ending his life before he could make a move.

    On the other side, Sato had taken on the Ranger while Fudo assisted thest guy who was facing two dark yers.

    Sato ambushed the Ranger quickly and because he never expected anyone else to be here, the Ranger had let his guard; only focusing on Xue Yan in front of him. It took only 2 seconds for Sato to have ended him. This was because Sato''s level was far ahead of him. The Ranger was just a level 5 yer. No matter how much attribute points he had, his [Endurance] stat was too weak in front of Sato''s sword.

    Fudo yed the role of a supporter, only elevating the pressure on the yer.

    With two of their men dead, one of which was even their leader, the remaining 2 dark yers had their morale at an all time low. It was just like the saying "The higher you climb, the harder you fall". The two of them had thought that the battle was all in the bag but who would have expected 3 strangers to step in and ruin their work.

    "Damn you. We will get you for this!!!" Incensed but still keeping a calm head, the 2 surviving dark yers cursed at the new trio and retreated. But they were stupid in the sense that, Sato wouldn''t just let them leave because they want to.

    Using the momentum to their full advantage, Sato and Lu Zhen dashed towards thest two while Fudo interrupted their escape.

    Aftering to their senses, Xue Yan, Reeves and thest guy, Blue Banana, also chased after the surviving yers. Under the onught of 6 yers, the 2 dark yers couldn''t survive for more than 5 seconds and so, they joined their fellows and had their bodies disperse into starlight.

    After the fight, Reeves and Blue Banana separated away from Sato, Fudo and Lu Zhen. Even though the trio had helped them, they still stared at them warily. This was ck Grill''s Cave, no one could easily be trusted.

    "Thank you for the help." Even though he felt suspicious about them, Reeves still thanked them because if not for their help, he would have surely died back then.

    "Don''t mention it." Sato replied.

    Sato didn''t mind their behaviour after all, if he were in their shoes, he would have done the same. He walked over to the ce where the two yers died and picked up the equipment they had left behind. Fudo also did the same thing for where Rolo and the Ranger had died.

    During this time, Reeves had already taken a health potion and he watched what they were doing. He was kind of annoyed at their actions, even more so when he saw that one of the equipment that dropped from the dark yers was one that belonged to their deceased teammates.

    "Hey. Can you hand that over?" Reeves pointed at the bow in Fudo''s hands.

    "Why?" Fudo asked curiously.

    "That dropped from my teammate who got killed by them. Since they took it, I thought it was gone but I never expected it to drop. I hope you can give it back." Reeves stated.

    "If you want it, you might as well pay for it." Fudo replied. He was slightly incensed at how Reeves expected him to hand over the bow in his hands; who knew whether he was lying or not. Even if he wasn''t, so what?

    Reeves frowned at his reply. "What do you mean pay for it? It belongs to my teammate."

    "Exactly what I said. It belongs to your teammate right? But he died and it got in the hands of those guys. After that, it no longer belonged to you guys. We killed them, so what they dropped belongs to us." Fudo exined.

    "What the hell are you saying?! If we said it belongs to out friend, it belongs to him! We already let you guys have those dark yers'' loot so hand this over!" Blue Banana yelled at Fudo.

    Seeing this, Sato frowned and realized that this duo were no good. Without a doubt, they had evidently lost to the dark yers but they still tried to im rights with their saviors. Even more, it is already visible that the bow no longer belonged to them after it was looted from their teammate by the dark yers. Now that they had killed the dark Ayers and gotten possession of it, this duo tried to im foolish rights.

    Since the existence and increased poprity of VRMMORPGs, a few unwritten rules were born into existence. One of them was the rule of possession of loot. In a scenario just like this, where a yer, A, loses an equipment to yer, B. The equipment now belongs to B. If another yer, C, loots the exact equipment from B, it belongs to B. If A wants it back, unless C was willing to offer it for free, A would have to pay for it.

    Obviously, the same thing just happened. Rather than paying for it, they wanted to force their way and get it back for free. Even though he understood Reeves reaction that didn''t mean that he would just do as he said. In VRMMORPGs, only strength speaks louder after money. If Reeves couldn''t buy it back, Sato wouldn''t give it back. Sato felt that he wasn''t a saint and he had no reason to be good to anyone hees across. The reason he even ys VR games is to make money and not lose it

    "It seems like your head is busted or something." Sato looked at Reeves.

    "What did you say?!" Reeves yelled. The reason for his asking for the bow back rather than paying for it was because he felt there was no reason to do so when he could collect it back.

    Reeves'' health was now full and he slowly got back to shape. They were 3 yers on the other team and he also had 3 on his team. Needless to say, Reeves didn''t see any reason to be scared of them. As for strength? Reeves believed that his party was stronger. He thought that Sato''s team was able to help them beat the dark yers only because they had ambushed them. If the two sides were to have gone toe-to-toe, Reeves believed that Sato''s team wouldn''t havested as long as theirs.

    With a 3-on-3 situation, Reeves not only believed that he would win but that he would also get the loot from the dark yers from them and also force them to hand over some of their goods; he didn''t wish to kill them or else he would get a red name and clearing that was stressful. That doesn''t mean that he would let them go if they refused though.

    "Are you stupid or something? Do you want to die?" Lu Zhen stared at him as if he were looking at an idiot. Arguing with your saviors over one equipment. Even for the shameless Lu Zhen, this dude''s shamelessness was on another level entirely.

    "Shall I take them on myself?" Fudo nced at Sato.

    Sato ignored Fudo and looked at ck haired Xue Yan before asking "Do you agree with them?"

    "..."

    Xue Yan didn''t know what to say. Truth be told, she felt that both Blue Banana and Reeves were both dumb but she couldn''t just deny them like that after all, they did help her get this far. She however, couldn''t support them as she didn''t like the idea of being stupid and shameless just for some equipment.

    Reeves took Xue Yan''s silence as a form of tacit admittance and yelled "You shitty bitch! We helped you reach this far and this is how you treat us huh?!"

    Xue Yan replied " I do thank you for what you have done so far but having such a pointless argument wouldn''t suffice. If the bow is that necessary, it would do better just to pay them for it."

    "You ..." Blue Banana wanted to attack her but he was stopped by Reeves.

    "Fine then. Let''s go." Reeves spoke to Blue Banana before leaving through one of the tunnels there. As he did so, he didn''t forget to kick Xue Yan out of the party since her attitude just now, went against his ns.

    ''I swear, I will find you both and make that bitch pay!''

 Chapter 107 - 104 : Lu Zhenâ€™s Actions

    "Thank you for your help." Xue Yan bowed at the trio.

    Xue Yan felt that Reeves was being insensible and that was why she didn''t agree with him. Sato and his teammates could have killed them and taken their equipment but he didn''t and onlyid his hands on the loot from the dark yers. He wasn''t obliged to save them but he still did. For Xue Yan, it really wasn''t worth it to fight with their rescuers over a measly bow.

    "Don''t thank me. Someone told me to save you." Sato replied.

    "Huh? Who?" Xue Yan asked with surprise. She didn''t recall telling anyone that she was here and it wasn''t like she had a lot of friends who were interested in gaming. To be honest, she didn''t have a lot of friends. Xue Yan was always cold to outsiders. Even when she joined up with Reeves'' teammates, she didn''t chat much with them. With such an attitude, Xue Yan barely about 3 people she could call ''friends'' in her life but she didn''t feel that bad about it

    Sato looked at Lu Zhen who was signalling him not to mention it. Seeing that he didn''t n on speaking, Sato replied "They said we shouldn''t mention them."

    He used ''they'' in other to prevent her from guessing the identity or gender of the person. Otherwise, if he used "he", Xue Yan might suspect one of them. Of course the chances of this was next to zero but it''s better to be safe than sorry.

    "So what will you do next?" Lu Zhen asked her.

    "Your friends are gone now and I doubt they would still want to team up with you. I reckon they have already kicked you out of their party right?" Fudomented.

    Xue Yan nodded. When he left, Reeves, who had the role of party captain, kicked her out of the party. Xue Yan didn''t feel much about it, only a bit disappointed because without a team she wouldn''t be able to reach the depths of ck Grill''s Cave andplete her mission.

    "In that case, why don''t you team up with is?" Lu Zhen asked.

    "..."

    Sato red at Lu Zhen.

    Seeing his look, Lu Zhen hesitated a bit but still didn''t step down. "If I''m correct, she should know her way around here. Otherwise they wouldn''t havee this far nor would they dream of doing so. I mean look at their levels. She''s still okay with a level 6 but those guys were level 5 and they didn''t have much skill. Unless they are stupid, they wouldn''te in this deep without a map."

    "True." Fudo nodded. "But what makes you so sure that she''s the one with the map and not the other guys?"

    Lu Zhen was stunned. "Uh? She''s pretty?"

    ''Seriously!!!'' Both Sato and Fudo cursed inwardly.

    "Hey, do you have a map with you?" Sato asked Xue Yan.

    "...no." Xue Yan lied. She didn''t know whether she could trust them and this map was an asset of hers that lead to her mission site. Losing it would be equivalent to failing the mission and giving it out might lead to unexpected events urring. As a meticulous individual, it would be best to avoid any idents and go with the n she had already made. She also didn''t want to team up with them as her personality wasn''t really one that would just join up with anyone.

    "Okay then. Since she doesn''t have a map, she isn''t of any use to us so there''s no reason for her to join us."

    "But..." Lu Zhen tried to argue.

    "No buts. Or else you can leave with her too." Sato narrowed his eyes. He had already acquiesced to Lu Zhen''s previous request and he didn''t n on doing so with another.

    "Alright. I won''t argue anymore." Lu Zhen gave up. Even though Xue Yan was rted to him, she was but a distant cousin. He had already tried his best for her. it didn''t seem like she was interested in joining the party as she didn''t even speak once regarding the decision.

    "Let''s go."

    Sato , Fudo and Lu Zhen left Xue Yan and headed their way.

    ''i now have two options; go back and try againter or move forward.'' Xue Yan thought of her next action

    ''Going back doesn''t ascertain whether I can manage and get this far once more after all, not a lot of people are enthusiastic toe to the Middle region like those guys. So there''s only one way then.''

    After a minute or so of deliberation, she walked towards a tunnel by the side.

    . . . . .

    "Lu Zhen. As long as you want to keep staying in this party, don''t do that again."

    After they had been walking for not more than 2 minutes, Sato nced at Lu Zhen.

    "... okay. I apologise." Lu Zhen bent his head a bit. "Also thank you for saving her. I owe you one."

    Though in honest sense, Lu Zhen would have been capable of handling those 4 dark yers alone, he chose to request for Sato''s help because he couldn''t assure that he could protect the others there. Sato had agreed to this and saved Xue Yan and at the same time, he still kept him in their party and even shared their gains equally with him despite Lu Zhen''s behaviour. It would be dumb to say that Lu Zhen didn''t genuinely appreciate this. One should remember that this was ck Grill''s Cave, non mage sses would find it difficult to survive here alone. Even if Lu Zhen was level 7, he would still die if he was assaulted by a bunch of level 6 Rock Golems.

    The party of three went deeper into the Middle region.

    ck Grill''s Cave is divided into 3 regions and each region has at least3-4floors. Of the 3 known regions, the outer region was actually the smallest, despite having 10 floors. To get from one floor to the other, the yers would have to go to specific designated points. In each floor, there were at least 6 exits to the next floor and each exit was scattered around the entire floor, separate from one another. It took the trio 4 hours to go through those 10 floors just to arrive at the Middle region and this was because they were avoiding most of the monsters there. With this, one can imagine how big the region was.

    The Middle region had 22 floors and it was at the 4th floor that the trio had encountered Xue Yan. As for the Inner region, no one really knew how many floors it had but from the few iplete maps, the yers knew it had at least 10 floors.

    A total of 42 floors with each floor having at least a height of 20 metres and some, like the natural hall they found Xue Yan at, had a height of 50 metres. One could only imagine how big the mountain was. Excluding the Inner region''s floors, which was located underground, the mountain had 32 floors. Using the estimate average value of 30 metres per floor, the mountain would then stand at a height of960metres! Thoughpared to some mountains in reality it was indeedcking, a height of960metres was still impressive. One should remember that this height is calcted as from where the Cave begins and that is at the belly of the mountain. In other words, the mountain was actually bigger than 960 metres; this was just the height of the cave from sea level.

    Sato never nned on getting to the Inner region. Just think about it. If the 4th floor, out of 22 floors of the Middle Region, had level 6 Elites what would the 10th floor have?

    The majority of yers were currently at either level 5 or level 6. Few of them were level 7 and these were the pros. The cream of the crop of the pros were close to level 8 with only a handful of them at this level. At this point in time, it is but a mere dream for any yer to reach the Inner region. Some even spected that level 10 monsters would be cannon fodder at the 15th floor of the Middle region.

    Sato''s n for the team was to try and reach the 10th floor. He spected that once they reach there, chances are that a treasure might be there. You could say it''s a gut feeling but Sato instinctively felt that they would profit well if they make it there before other yers. The good thing though was that because they were much high levelled than mainstream yers, no one else should be capable of reaching there except for a few elites of the top guilds. But maybe even them don''t have such a lineup as Sato''s team does.

    Even knowing this, Sato still wanted to hurry. Seeing Xue Yan and her team here didn''t bid well for him. Though most people believed that the dark yers would only stay at the early floors of the Middle region, it is still possible that some of them would like to explore the lower floors. But no matter how much he worried, they could only take it slow because the monsters here where high levelled than the upper floors and also, they still needed the experience points. So unlike the Outer region, where they ran past the monsters, they would have to take it slowly in the Middle region.

    "Let''s try and reach the 5th floor in 2 hours time."

 Chapter 108 - 105 : Approaching Issues

    8th floor, Outer region.

    A team of yers numbering at least 15, were gathered at a particr spot at the 8th floor. They all exuded refined auras and had a sharp look in their eyes seeming like well trained soldiers. They all had Mid tier Mortal rank weapons with at least one Upper tier Mortal rank weapon or equipment. Some even had two or three.

    The yers had formed a circr formation with a diameter of 10 metres. At the centre of the formation was a table with arge map and 3 yers, all garbed in level 5 Upper tier Mortal rank weapons, were standing beside the table. One look and one would know that they were experts and not your average yers. If Sato or even Fudo were here, they would surely know who one of the yers was. This team was that of the super guild Emperor''s Might and one of themanders at the centre of the formation was the Sly devil, ''false king'' and the 5th ''Hand of the Emperor'', Chesces.

    "So ording to the information we received, there should be a Special Elite at the Middle region?" A mage dressed in blue clothings asked. Fudo would surely remember him as he was the one who made Nishida Kotaro take a step back. He was themander for the Emperor''s Might branch at Riverdale, the ''false king'' Azure Dragon.

    "Yes." The third yer present replied. For him to be present in the midst of two high ranking members of Emperor''s Might was more than enough to show that he too was of a high ranking.

    "Where exactly then?" Azure Dragon asked.

    "We aren''t so sure but the information indictates the 9th or 10th floor." The yer answered once more.

    "I guess it should be the 10th. Even though following such numbers is too clich¨¦, my gut tells me it is." Chesces replied with a wryly smile.

    "Doesn''t matter anyway. We would still have to pass through the 9th floor to get to the 10th." Azure Dragonmented.

    After a short period of deliberation, Chesces said "There are a lot of monsters here and with a party of 15, it is very difficult to just run past them; we always get tied down. At this rate it would take us a day or so to reach floor 9 of the Middle region or even floor 8. Each second that goes by increases the risk of out movements being found out by the other guilds."

    The yer who had been replying Azure Dragon retorted "So what if they know? Would they dare to disrupt our ns orpete with us? I doubt that they would even do so with the measly yers they have."

    "It''s better to prepare for the worst. We didn''t bring our full force here while most of them did. If we force them too much and take all the good stuffs, they would eventually lose it and retaliate." Chesces sighed.

    "Hmph. Let them bring it. It''s been awhile since I have participated in a guild war."

    "That ''while'' was justst month..." Chesces retorted.

    "...tch."

    "Enough you two. We''re here to achieve our mission and not bicker about facts." Azure Dragon stated. "ck Tempest, Chesces is still right in saying that we have to avoid shing with those guilds. Our yers might have quality but they have quantity. How many yers do you think you can handle on your own right now? 30? 50?100? Or is it 10?"

    With each number Azure Dragon called, ck Tempest became embarrassed.

    "Even if you can handle them, there are a lot more yers than that. For this mission, we have toplete it as soon as possible. Rather than arguing over nonsense, you might as well n a way forward for us to reach there quicker."

    "I apologise." ck Tempest lowered his head.

    " *Sighs* Don''t worry about it. I understand your reason forcency. Yukino is still back at the base. Most of the outside forces would focus on her movements and very few know that you are here. Those few as well, all belong to the guild but we still can''t blitzkrieg our way into the Middle region."

    Azure Dragon didn''t me ck Tempest any further because he knew how he was. If Chesces was like a calm headed guy that evaluated all possibilities, ck Tempest would be a hot-headed yer who only believes in brute strength. Though this was far outstretched whenpared to the real ck Tempest, it wasn''t that far from it. But one good thing about him is that he doesn''t argue with his superiors.

    "Prepare for departure. Our next stop would be at the 3rd level of the Middle region."

    "Yes." Chesces and ck Tempest replied.

    . . . . .

    "You said what?" A cloaked man asked the yer who kneeled in front of him.

    "We just received intel. Our spies nted in Emperor''s Might have noticed the absence of Azure Dragon and a few other special characters of the guild."

    "Hahaha. I wonder where that kid went to."

    For someone to call Azure Dragon, who was already a middle aged man, a kid, the man had to be older than him by far and not just by one or even five years.

    "The other chieftains request that you weaken them a lot." The yer, who dressed like a Ranger with a bow on his back,mented while still kneeling down.

    "Hmph. Request? More like a trap." The cloaked man harrumphed. "They are probably trying to set me up with this. Emperor''s Might guild here might be a branch but it still has some capable warriors. Having me handle them myself isn''t reasonable. Those old baldies probably want me to mess up and then they will hook the me on me."

    "So, are we rejecting it?" The Ranger asked carefully.

    "Hmph. If we do that, how will I preserve my face in the next meeting?! Track down where those children went to and inform me immediately."

    "Yes, my chief."

    With that, the Ranger abruptly departed. He did it so smoothly and soundlessly that one would think he was actually an assassin instead of a ranger. From his movements alone, it was enough to show that he was an expert ss yer and not a weak one.

    "Hehe. I told you before little Azure. Calling yourself ''Dragon'' when you''re nothing but a snake. You shall soone to witness that terror of the Nightmare." The cloaked man''s eyes glistened through the darkness of his hood.

    . . . . .

    "Boss! Boss!"

    "What''s it?" Blood Sword who stood close to the corpse of a monster questioned with anger. The two people he had sent after Sato had some how lost his trail so he was really angry. He went levelling at another grounds, Kiro mountains to be precise. The reason why he chose here was because most people would head to ck Grill''s Cave and it would be too risky to find a prey. But here in Kiro mountains, he could hunt as much yers as he could.

    Blood Sword was only able to enter Riverdale Town back then because he was still an orange name and clearing his record wasn''t so hard; he just had to die enough times. Now however, he wanted to dedicate himself to being a true dark yer and he decided to set his base of operations in Kiro mountains. It was safe because they had a feasible retreat path simr to ck Grill''s Cave; high levelled monsters dwelled deeper so regr yers wouldn''t chase them that far if they ran deeper.

    ''It''s too bad that I might not get the chance to meet that a*"ho*e.''

    "Boss. I just got news. They''ve found him!"

    "Eh? Found who?" Blood Sword asked with a confused expression.

    "Him! The yer you were looking for!" The yer who reported the news projected an image through his system interface. The image disyed was that of Sato''s figure.

    "Are you sure?!" Blood Sword gingerly asked while grabbing the shoulders of the messenger.

    "Yes, I am boss." The yer was surprised by his behaviour but he still hastily replied, worried that Blood Sword would get mad at him for dying.

    "Where then?!"

    "At, at ck Grill''s Cave." The yer hastily responded.

    "ck Grill''s Cave...Men, pack up. We''re heading to ck Grill''s Cave. It''s time to collect some debts."

    AN :

    Remember when I made Chesces from my number one supporter? Well I n on doing something simr but this time, it will be random from the top 10 voters....Good luck people and vote a lot.

 Chapter 109 - 106 : Intruder

    ck Grill''s Cave, Middle region, 4th floor.

    *Bang*

    *Rumble* *Rumble*

    Apanied with the fall of thest Rock Golem was a loud bang, as the Rock Golem shattered into rubble.

    "Ha. That''s thest of them right?" A young man stood close to the remains of the Rock Golem with a smile on his face and a dagger in his hand. He was the assassin, Lu Zhen.

    "Yeah,that should be it. Even though we are still at the 4th floor, we have already encountered a lot of these guys." The only mage in the party of 3, Fudo, replied Lu Zhen.

    "They sure are a lot of them though. If they gave better experience points as rewards, here would have been a true holy ground." Lu Zhen sighed. ck Grill''s Cave was preferred over Kiro mountains by most of the yers because the poption density of monsters here was by far more than that of Kiro mountains. For every300metres or so, one would surely encounter at least 5 monsters. The only setback of it was that the experience points rewarded by the Rock Golems was quite low such that despite therge numbers of Rock Golems team Sato had defeated, they still didn''t level up [1]. If this quirk had been fixed, ck Grill''s Cave would have be the yers'' true holy ground.

    "The system is just; it wouldn''t just give such a perfect ce out like this." Sato nodded.

    "If we need to level up then we really need to find where the level 7 and level 8 are. Ok, let''s move."

    "Alright." Fudo and Lu Zhen replied.

    "Hmm?"

    *Phew*

    ''It''s fast but not fast enough.''

    Out of the blue, Sato swiftly turned around and hacked his sword in mid air at a ck object that sped it''s way towards him.

    [Chop]

    *ng*

    The sound of two metals colliding, resounded through the ce. Sparks were emitted from the collision but they died out within a second.

    ''This is bad.'' Sato thought as he looked at his hand that was feeling a bit numb from the collision.

    Surprised at the sound, Fudo asked "What happened?"

    "I just felt that something was right behind me for a second and I turned to attack." Sato replied while he was scouring the area for the origin of the weird object but he didn''t see anything weird. Before the object had reached him, Sato had felt a weird gaze filled with bloodlust behind him and that was why he reacted like that.

    Lu Zhen walked over to the remains of the ck object and picked it.

    "Look at this."

    Sato and Fudo turned over to stare at the object in Lu Zhen''s hand.

    "An arrow?"

    It turned out to be an arrow that was broken in half, thanks to Sato. The arrow was a bit crude and whenpared to the ones used by Ranger ss yers, it was like a stick in front of steel. Calling it a stick wasn''t wrong though as the arrow was made with a stone arrowhead tied to a twig.

    *It doesn''t look like the ones used by Rangers..."

    "Rock Golems don''t use arrows." Lu Zhen added.

    With those two statements added together, there was only one conclusion.

    "In other words, it''s another monster and possibly an intelligent one." Sato said. By intelligent monster, Sato didn''t mean a monster with Intellect like the [Cursed Servant]. A monster with intelligence was just a monster capable of using human type weapons and living in a society for example, goblins. Monsters of intellect could think like a full grown adult and adapt to conditions. They were a lot more scarier than regr monsters.

    So far, everyone had the idea that ck Grill''s Cave was solely upied by Rock Golems. Some concluded that other forms of Rock golems like the Earth golems or Earth puppets may exist. No one had ever thought that an intelligent lifeform would actually dwell here. They shouldn''t be med though as the highest explored region up till date, was the 5th region and the yer who did so, had died before he could take a single step forward.

    "But others have been here before right? Howe they didn''t experience what we did?" Fudo asked with a confused tone.

    "Hehe. Each floor is as big as 2 or 3 stadiums and has multiple tunnels and halls. It''s quite possible that the previous floors haven''t even been fully explored much less this one." Lu Zhen chuckled. "Back then, no one bothered to go through the entire ce for fear of death. Even those dumb risk takers didn''t do so after dying twice."

    The so-called ''risk takers'' were a bunch of yers who are in it for the fun. They don''t actually hope to achieve much and just like exploring or doing the crazy things no one does. In the previous top VR game, Conquest, a few risk takers had actually tried to assassinate the Emperor of an Empire. Sure, there doesn''t seem to be much problem in that but the issue here was that they did so while they were level 10...

    Trying to assassinate a level100or so being guarded by a couple of other NPCs at the same level while still being level 10. To make things worse, it wasn''t a nned assassination; they just charged at the Emperor during a public event while screaming silly statements like "we die for the fun" or "you''re to handsome to live". If that isn''t utter stupidity then nothing else is.

    "There!" Sato shouted as he pointed his sword at a direction. Right there, a dark shadow had just fleeted past the ce and ran into a tunnel. They could barely identify it and only saw it''s movements.

    "What was that?!" Fudo questioned.

    "Let''s chase after it." Sato said before speeding off.

    "Alright." Lu Zhen replied while dashing towards the tunnel.

    "..." Fudo really wanted toin about their decision. This was the 4th floor and they were supposed to be cautious but instead of doing so, Sato and Lu Zhen just dashed towards an unknown creature.

    "Well, it''s just few experience points or at the worst, a level, that will would lose." Comforting himself with his words, Fudo ran after the two.

    Two yers were chasing an unknown creature. The reason why the creature is termed unknown is because it wore a worn-out cape-like clothing made of animal skin, to cover it''s body and this included it''s head. The only noticeable feature however, was a red tail that peeked out of the cloak.

    "Damn it. It''s fast." Sato cursed as he ran after the fleeting shadow. Despite being a level 8 yer with quite a high [Agility], it didn''t seem like he would reach the figure any soon.

    "Let me." Lu Zhen yelled as he dashed past Sato. As an [Assassin] it was understandable for his speed to be greater.

    Once he was less than 10 metres away from the creature, he brought a scroll out from his storage bag and unfurled it at the direction of the fleeing creature. The scroll had 7 stars arranged in a hexagon with the 7th star right in the middle. The 6 outer stars were connected by dots and by the side of the hexagon were mystifying scribbles that didn''t look like any known humannguage.

    This was a one-time use special grade scroll, which had the full powered attack of a level 10 [Assassin] sealed within it. It was quite cheap and affordable whenpared to other scrolls but even this "cheap" isn''t so affordable to average yers. The major issue regarding this scroll wasn''t it''s price but it''s avability. The scroll was quite rare as it wasn''t really appealing for NPCs to materials on such low level scroll.

    "[7 star shooting strike]!" [1]

    From the 7 stars, 7 daggers departed from the scroll and darted towards the figure, with a blue trail apanying them.

    The figure seemed to have noticed them as it moved in a weird fashion to dodge them.

    "Kraa!"

    In the end, only 3 of the daggers managed tond on the creature and this slowed down it''s speed greatly.

    "Now die!" Lu Zhen closed up the less than 10 metres gap and shed out with his dagger.

    *ng*

    At thest minute the creature had turned around and blocked his attack with a machete. Using the strength behind it''s arms, it pushed Lu Zhen away. During this time, Sato was but a metre away. He swung his sword at the monster, who was already distracted by Lu Zhen''s advance.

    -38 (???/???)

    "Kraa"

    The monster screamed wildly before swinging it''s machete at Sato forcing him to retreat.

    "-38 from a full frontal assault. It has quite a tough defense..." With his attack power of more than 60 points, Sato delivering only 38 points of damage was enough to show how high the monster''s defense stat was.

    Once he was a few steps back, Sato decided to get a good look at the monster he struck.

    The monster had lizard-type scales all over it''s body. Lizard-like head, two little horns with a skin tone bordering brown and red, looking kinda wine-red in colour. Buffed muscles and an overbearing outlook with a height of 2 metres, the creature had a long ga tail thaty quietly on the ground.

    "Lizard-like scales and skin. A Kobold? I should have guessed it..."

    Kobolds were Draconic creatures that had a humanoid form. Not a pure humanoid form though; they were more like humanoidlizards. Theywere called "Draconic" because their lineage could be traced back to Dragons. But unlike their ancestors, they were a lot smaller and anthropomorphic in nature. They were also far more weaker than them as the Draconic bloodline had already diluted a lot. It was so small and impure that it only had0.00009% trace in an average Kobold''s blood. Because of such negligible data in their DNA, Kobolds haven''t been hunted down to be used as potions or the likes but their scales and skin was still impressive and valuable.

    "A Kobold? Hehe. Exins why it retreated." Lu Zhen smirked.

    Kobolds were said to have been bullied by their Draconic cousins because of their thin bloodline to the extent that they departed the Dragonnds and settled elsewhere. As a result, the Kobold race had be quite meek and had a strange inferiorityplex together with a cautious behaviour towards other races.

    "Doesn''t matter what it is. Since it attacked me, it will die." Sato red at the Kobold as he tightened his hand on his sword''s hilt.

    Infinite Facts :

    I have a feeling a lot of people might mix things up so let me clear this mess.

    Monsters, so far, are divided into 3 :

    Monsters that are really monsters:(in other words, they are dumb and only like screaming h**k smash or something like that...). All they do is attack their targets. They don''t employ strategies or the likes. Eg Rock Golems.

    Monster with intelligence: These ones apply low level strategies like retreat and the rest. They don''t always attack blindly. Their IQ is at an animal''s level but not a dumb animal. E.g Goblins.

    Monsters with Intellect : These guys are worse. They think like an average human being, are capable of evolution and a lot more. The more terrible of them are even as smart as Einstein! Well, that''s a lie but you can get where I''m going right...

    Usually, all monsters of with Intellect are guaranteed to be100% crafty, 50% chance of being proud(because they feel they are better than the other kinds of monsters), and think at the very least, like an adult human being.

 Chapter 110 - 107 : Fighting A Kobold

    Kobolds were said to be descendants of Dragons. Though theycked the overwhelming power of their ancestors, they barely made up for that with their smaller stature and mobility. They were covered in tough scales and had great vision, capable of helping them see in the dark better than humans. Because of this(and also their inferiorityplex), they tend to live in dark areas like caves, where they can use their vision advantage to defeat preys. With that, it isn''t much of a surprise as to why one of them was found at the 4th level. The only problem was whether there was a horde there.

    Thebination of their strong defence, sleek movements and high strength made them dangerous monsters. Even for a level 10 yer to face a level 8 Wild Kobold, he/she had to be cautious.

    [[ System interface :

    Wild Kobold (Common)

    Level : 8

    HP : 762/800

    Physical Attack Power : 45

    Magical attack power : 0 (36) (AN : Can''t use magic.)

    Physical Defense : 15

    Magical Defense :12

    Attack Speed : 39

    Movement Speed : 26

    Attributes

    Strength : 15

    Endurance : 15

    Vitality :80

    Agility : 13

    Dexterity : 13

    Intelligence : 12

    Willpower : 12

    Skills :

    . . . ]]

    "Fudo, cover. Lu Zhen, ambush. I will take the front." Sato yelled once finally Fudo had arrived. He then stomped his right foot and dashed towards the Kobold with both hands gripping his sword.

    Sato arrived quite fast and swung his sword swiftly at the Kobold''s head. The Kobold, of course, didn''t just stand there and wait to be ughtered. It lifted it''s machete and hacked at Sato but he had already expected this.

    Sato tilted his body to his left at thest minute to dodge the attack and at the same time re-adjusted his sword''s trajectory to strike at the Kobold''s abdomen. As the sword was already approaching, the Kobold made ast ditch effort in a bid to stop Sato. It swung it''s ga tail right at him as the sword approached it''s abdomen.

    ''Shit!''

    Sato couldn''t avoid the strike and could only withdraw his attack to use his sword as a shield against the tail.

    *Boom*

    -61(89/150Sato)

    The long tailshed out and sent Sato flying till he was embraced by the wall with a small boom. Cracks formed on the wall as he git plunged into it.

    *Cough*

    ''That was dangerous...'' Sato thought as he coughed. One attack had reduced his HP by almost 50%. If he were to take that same attack again, it would be close to game over.

    ''What the heck were the programmers designing when they made us have such low HP...''

    After the Kobold had struck Sato and before it could even give off a sigh of relief, Lu Zhen, who had approached it secretly with stealth, suddenly appeared at the Kobold''s left and lunged towards the Kobold with his dagger aimed at it''s eyes.

    "Kraa!" (PS: I need new scream words for monster.)

    -50 (712/800 Wild Kobold)

    The attack had connected with the dagger stuck in it''s eye socket. The Kobold frustratingly swung it''s left hand at Lu Zhen, but the rascal was barely able to get out of the range of it''s arm. The Kobold still didn''t give up as it turned towards him and brandished the machete on it''s right arm.

    Seeing the impeding attack, Lu Zhen shouted "Fudo! Fire!"

    Due to Lu Zhen having attracted the majority of it''s aggro, the Kobold had already forgotten about Fudo, who had yet to make a move on it. The result was that it was fully open for Fudo.

    "Burn."

    *Boom*

    *Whoosh*

    "Kraw." -250(462/800Wild Kobold)

    Out of the blue, an explosion urred on the Kobold as it''s body was engulfed in mes leading to it halting it''s pursuit and screaming in agony. Fudo had used the special skill essible through [Igneel''s guidance], [Explosion].

    Lu Zhen had sent Fudo the details of the Kobold earlier and apanying the message was a text he wrote, which stated that Kobolds where weak against me. He had gotten this information from one of his trips at the Library. Using this knowledge, Fudo waited for an opportunity to make a big hit that would deal massive amounts of damage to it.

    Originally, as descendants of Dragons, Kobolds aren''t supposed to be weak against mes. But the wild Kobolds who ended up dwelling in caves and moist environment, had adapted to their environment and developed new strengths and weaknesses, one of which was their resistance against fire dropping to an all time low.

    "ck Grill''s Cave is indeed a haven for Fire [Elementalist] yers." Lu Zhen sighed after seeing the damage dealt. As long as Fudo could hit it 2 more times, this battle will be over. The skill he had gotten from the essory, [Igneel''s guidance] was really OP.

    "Sato! Are you alright?" Fudo asked.

    "Yep. Never been better." Sato tirelessly replied as he pulled himself off of the wall before taking a HP potion. ''I really am the worst MC...''

    "Is it dead?" Sato asked curiously.

    Fudo shook his head. "No. I still feel it''s life force through the mes. Get ready."

    "Roar!"

    The Kobold raised it''s head and roared like a behemoth. As it did so, the me on its body slowly disappeared even though the [Burn] effect was supposed to follow. A thin red light shield made up of fiery mana, also surrounded it''s body.

    "A magic shield?"

    Magic shields were shields created out of Mana through the aid of some special techniques or skills. Being formed from arge amount of Mana, they possessed the ability to block both Magical and Physical attacks despite seeming weak and thin. It was quite surprising seeing a monster use such technique.

    "Lu Zhen, you know how to switch right?" Sato suddenly asked as a he started walking towards the Wild Kobold.

    Lu Zhen nodded. "Yeah. Why wouldn''t I? It''s a necessary skill in gaming."

    "Good. I hope you can keep up with me then. Let''s send this lizard on a free trip to meet his ancestors."

    Saying so, Sato picked up the pace and ran towards the Wild Kobold. Lu Zhen followed right behind and gauged his speed to be slightly slower than Sato''s making it such that the distance between them both was nothing but a few centimetres.

    Sato arrived at the Kobold first and struck with his sword but all he did was create sparks with the magic shield. The Kobold made a move at this time as it raised it''s machete high to strike at Sato. With Swift movements, it shed at Sato but he had easily dodged it since he didn''t want to experience once more what it felt like to fly.

    The air whistled as Lu Zhen''s attack arrived. It was a direct stab aimed at the Kobold''s chest. The Kobold had justpleted an attack and it would be very hard for it to retreat now. But it wasn''t like the Kobold even nned on retreating. It moved it''s left hand towards Lu Zhen in an effort to grab him by the head. The hand cast a shadow on his face and even for Lu Zhen, it was quite difficult to dodge it normally.

    "[Silent Steps]"

    Lu Zhen activated the skill and abruptly appeared behind the Kobold. He thrust his dagger towards the Kobold''s back but the magic shield was still in the way.

    "[Backstab]" [1]

    Having fulfilled one of the conditions of the skill, Lu Zhen used a burst skill of the Assassin ss and thrust his dagger at the shield.

    *Bang*

    *Crack*

    The shield still stood but a small crack had formed.

    "I knew it. No magic shield can truly be invincible."

    With that said, Lu Zhen brandished his dagger multiple times at the crack of the magic shield, in a bid to take the shield apart.

    The Kobold had discovered his position after Lu Zhen had made that strike and it turned towards him with it''s machete following up.

    Lu Zhen quickly retreated and while that happened, Fudounched a [Fire Ray] that he had been preparing, directly at the spot of the crack as when the Kobold turned towards Lu Zhen, it''s back ended up facing Fudo.

    *Crack*

    *Crash*

    "Roar!" -78(384/800Wild Kobold)

    Almost instantaneously, the magic shield had shattered to particles as the remaining force behind the [Fire Ray] struck the Kobold dealing a high amount of damage. It would have even been much higher if it were a direct attack. The reason was because [Igneel''s guidance] increased Fudo''s damage when using Fire-type spells, which was his main forte. Also, the bonuses from his [ck Alder Staff] was really absurd; worthy of being called an Upper tier Mortal rank staff.

    We of course can''t leave out the MC even though his damage was lower.

    Sato abruptly appeared beside the Kobold while it was still upied in it''s agony of pain. He brandished his sword at the monster dealing multiple series of damages. Lu Zhen wasn''t left out as he also approached the monster swiftly, since effects of [Silent Steps] were still active, and attacked it alongside Sato.

    [Chop] -60 (324/800Wild Kobold)

    -47

    -51

    [Shadow Strike] -45

    [Shadow Strike] -48

    -51 (82/800Wild Kobold)

    "Roar!"

    Enraged, the Kobold swung it''s machete wildly in bid to shake off Sato and Lu Zhen. The two indeed retreated but that wasn''t a good thing for the Wild Kobold as it now gave Fudo an opportunity to attack without fear of friendly fire.

    "[Fireball]!"

    A zing orange ball of mes took shape at the tip of Fudo''s staff and darted towards the Wild Kobold. As it''s thoughts was upied with dealing with Sato and Lu Zhen, it didn''t see the zing ball until it was toote.

    -85 (0/800Wild Kobold).

    With a thud, the distant descendant of the revered Dragons, the very first Kobold to have been encountered by yers, had died at the hands of the trio.

 Chapter 111 - Information On Stats

    Due to some recent errors, I have decided to re-post the Status of all 3 yers to address concern rather than correcting them and telling you guys to go back and read it. Actually, its because I''m toozy to find the chapters they are in. Lol

    This was supposed to be a part of the previous chapter but because some readers may use me of increasing chapter word count, I made it a separate chapter¡­

    [[	Name : Emperor Wolf

    Race : Human

    Bloodline : Chosen Ones

    Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Level : 8

    HP : 140

    MP : 190 + 100 (ck Alder Staff)

    Heritage/Legacy :

    ss (Job) : Elementalist (Mage)

    Subss : Apprentice Alchemist

    Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Current location :ck Grill''s Cave, Middle region, 4th floor.

    Attributes

    Strength : 3

    Endurance : 8

    Vitality : 14

    Agility : 8

    Dexterity : 10

    Intelligence : 19 + 10 (ck Alder Staff)

    Willpower : 5 + 3 (ck Alder Staff)

    Physical Attack Power : 9

    Magical Attack Power : 57 + 20 + 30 (ck Alder Staff [Intelligence] boost)

    Physical Defence : 8 + 9 (Light Mage Garb (Cloth Armor) [Willpower] boost)

    Magical Defence : 5 + 11 (Light Mage Garb (Cloth Armor))

    Attack Speed : 30

    Movement Speed : 16

    Free Attribute Point : 0

    Free Potential point : 2

    Skills :

    Mana ball : Fire a mana ball with 100% damage.

    MP cost : 3 MP. Cool-down : 0 second

    Fireball : Active Skill : Cast a fireball with 100% damage.

    MP Cost : 5 MP Cool-down : 1 second

    Greater Fireball : Active Skill : Use 5 seconds to increase the Fireball spell by an additional 20% damage

    MP Cost : 7 MP Cool-down : 15 seconds

    Fire Ray : Active Skill : Fire a ming red ray with +20% to basic attack power and greater prative force.

    MP Cost : 15 MP Cool-down : 20 seconds.

    ??? : Active Skill : ??? [1]

    Equipment and weapons

    Igneel''s guidance lower replica (Ne) : Upper Tier Mortal ss : Durability 15

    ck Alder Staff : Upper tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 25

    Light Mage Garb (Cloth Armor) : Mid Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 33

    Novice Mage Leather Trousers

    Novice Mage Gloves

    Novice Mage Shoes

    . ]]

    [[	Name : Sky de

    Race : Human

    Bloodline : Chosen Ones

    Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Level : 8

    HP : 150

    Heritage/Legacy :

    ss (Job) : Swordsman (Specialist)

    Subss : Apprentice cksmith

    Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Current location : ck Grill''s Cave, Middle region, 4th floor.

    Attributes

    Strength : 17 + 4 (Dawn Steel Armour)

    Endurance : 10

    Vitality : 15

    Agility : 11

    Dexterity : 10

    Intelligence : 1

    Willpower : 3

    Physical Attack Power : 51 + 5 (Bandit''s Sword) + 12 (Dawn Steel Armour [Strength] boost)

    Magical Attack Power : 3

    Physical Defence : 10 + 22 (Dawn Steel Armor)

    Magical Defence : 3 + 15 (Dawn Steel Armor)

    Attack Speed : 30

    Movement Speed : 22

    Free Attribute Point : 0

    Free Potential point : 2

    Skills :

    Chop : Active Skill : Launch a heavy strike with full force, causing additional	20% damage. Cool-down : 5 seconds

    Parry : Active Skill : Use 110% of [Strength] to block a skill. Sess depends on [Strength] rating of both user and target. Cool-down : 5 seconds.

    Horizontal Swipe : Active Skill : Release a horizontal positioned attack	wielding an additional 40% attack power. Cool-down : 15 seconds.

    Equipment and weapons

    Bandit''s Sword : Mid tier Mortal ss : Level 0 : Durability : 11

    Dawn Steel Armor (te Armor) : Upper Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 40

    Silver Fury : Upper Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 30

    Novice Swordsman Leather Trousers

    Novice Swordsman Gloves

    Novice Swordsman Shoes

    ]]

    [[	Name : Lu Zhen

    Race : Human

    Bloodline : Chosen Ones

    Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Level : 7

    HP : 130

    Heritage/Legacy :

    ss (Job) : Assassin (Specialist)

    Subss : Apprentice Thief

    Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Current location : ck Grill''s Cave, Middle region, 4th floor.

    Attributes

    Strength : 13

    Endurance : 9

    Vitality : 13

    Agility : 12 + 2 (ck Squirrel Clothing)

    Dexterity : 12

    Intelligence : 0

    Willpower : 3

    Physical Attack Power : 39 + 10 (ck Dagger)

    Magical Attack Power : 0

    Physical Defence : 9 + 10 (ck Squirrel Clothing)

    Magical Defence : 3 + 8 (ck Squirrel Clothing)

    Attack Speed : 36 + 6 (ck Dagger)

    Movement Speed : 24 + 4 (ck Squirrel Clothing [Agility] Boost)

    Free Attribute Point : 0

    Free Potential point : 2

    Skills :

    Shadow Strike : Increase damage by 30% and attack speed by 15% for 3 seconds. Cool-down : 20 seconds.

    Backstab : Using a backhand grip, strike target with 120% Attack Power. Prative force is multiplied. Can also be used when attacking the back of a target without their knowledge. Attack Power would be 150% of base Attack Power. Cool-down : 5 seconds.

    Silent Steps : Instantly teleport to any spot within a 3 meter radius. Increase Movement speed by 30% while eliminating sound produced during motion for 5 seconds. Cool-down : 15 seconds

    Fade : Enter stealth mode, erasing user''s presence, aura, smell and outline. Proficiency increase skill ability. User will leave stealth once attacked or attacks a target. Cool-down : 10 seconds.

    Equipment and weapons

    ck Dagger : Mid tier Mortal ss : Level 5 : Durability : 23

    ck Squirrel Clothing (Leather Armor) : Mid Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 30

    Novice Assassin Leather Trousers

    Novice Assassin Gloves

    Novice Assassin Shoes

    ]]

    AN :

    [1] If you have been following up properly, you can guess it otherwise wait for the big reveal. So in summary¡­Fudo is far more OP than Sato. Lol. MC needs a new sword.

    [2] Novice Clothing are the original clothing given to yers when they initially start the game.

 Chapter 112 - 108 : The Damsel Is In Distress Once More

    "So close. Just a few more kill and I will be level 8." Lu Zhen smiled.

    "Howe? I know we have been killing Rock Golems for awhile but the Experience points still got shared between us. Even though each time younded thest blow on a monster and got a higher amount of Experience points than we would if we do the same, you still should be some distance away from level 8."

    As a level 7, the amount of Experience points Lu Zhen received would naturally be higher than Sato and Fudo but in the case of party, the distribution is quiteplex. Usually, experience points are shared between the members of the party and the Experience points would be based on the highest level of the yer present.

    For example, imagine a party that has two level 7s and one level 6 yers. Let''s also presume that they encountered a level 5 monster. Individually, the level 6 yer would receive more experience points, if he takes on the monster than any of the level 7 yers would if they do the same. Keep in mind that this is on the condition that they battle the monster alone. Let''s say the level 6 yer gains100exp while the level 7 yer gains 70 exp from the same monster.

    Now, when these yers face the level 5 monster in a group, the amount of experience points they would share would be based on the amount of experience points the highest levelled yer would gain + 20%. In other words, they will have to share 79 exp(70 + 20%) among themselves based on performance. In the case where the monster they battle is more than 2 levels lower than the highest levelled yer but only 2 levels lower than the lowest levelled yers( in this example, that would be level 4), they would not get any experience or rather, would only receive 5% of the original experience points the lowest levelled yer would gain from the monster.[1]

    Sato, Fudo and Lu Zhen had been grinding level 5 and level 6 Rock Golems for hours now. The amount of experience points they gained was calcted as what a level 8 ye would gain from a level 6 Rock Golem+20% of that. As for the level 5 Golems, Sato and Fudo left those to Lu Zhen to handle alone and before he did so each time, they removed him from the party so as to increase the amount of experience points he would gain.

    Despite so, the amount of experience points Lu Zhen had gained was still small after all, he didn''t battle monsters of equal level as he was. It was even worse for Fudo and Sato as the experience points they gained was very little. So it was surprising for Lu Zhen yo say that he was close to reaching level 8.

    "Hehe. I didn''t really mean I''m close but if we keep killing level 8 monsters like this guy, I would be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel." Lu Zhen smirked.

    "...Ha. I wonder when I will level up eventually." Fudo sighed bitterly. Apart from a few certain locations, one couldn''t easily find level 8 or above monsters so easily.

    "Since we found one here, then it''s better than nothing. There might be a few more if we explore further." Sato said as checked the loot.

    "True buting here is quite stressful. At least 1 hour from Town to ck Grill''s Cave and 5 hours from the entrance to this floor. What kind of evil producers made this stuff anyways." Fudoined.

    "...hey Fudo. Is your luck glow still on?" Sato asked with a weird expression.

    "My luck glow? What do you mean?"

    "Are you with a duck that''s carrying a leek then?" [2]

    Fudo yelled exasperatedly "No. Why the hell would I be with one and tell me what happened?!"

    "The very second youined...just take a look at it yourself." Sato sent the data on the Kobold''s loot to everyone. On the system interface was a weird rhombus shaped rock with runic symbols all over it.

    [[ System notification :

    You got x1 [Teleportation Rune]

    Teleportation Rune : Durability 10

    Record a location in ck Grill''s Cave and instantaneously teleport to the recorded destination upon activation in ck Grill''s Cave.

    ]]

    "A teleportation rune? That''s a first but it really helps."

    5 hours. This was the amount of time Sato, Fudo and Lu Zhen had spent reaching this far. To make things worse, they had spent 4/5 of that time at the Outer region despite avoiding a majority of the monsters present. With this one could imagine how huge the distance is from one point to another. When majority of yers finally reach as far as they did, these yers might consider dropping ck Grill''s Cave from their destination. It should be remembered that it takes at least1-2hours by feet from Riverdale to ck Grill''s Cave. Adding that up, it would be 6~7 hours from Riverdale Town to the 4th floor on the Middle region and this is on the condition that the yer is a level 8 or level 7 yer avoiding a majority if the monsters in the Outer region. No one would like to spend 7 hours just to reach their destination. Eventually yers would start avoiding ck Grill''s Cave and head to Kiro mountains.

    The discovery of [Teleportation runes] would solve the issue of distance and maintain the appeal the resource map had on yers. However, the condition of killing a level 8 Wild Kobold was really something.

    "This feels weird..."

    "Huh? What does?" Lu Zhen nced Sato.

    "Didn''t you notice it?" Sato then exined. "ck Grill''s Cave is supposed to be just a huge cave but now we''ve discover that it has a teleportation formation built within as most types of Teleportation runes require a bigger formation. And this isn''t the only strange thing. Earth Golems are nothing but puppets. In other to be here, someone or something must have made them and ced them here.

    "First is the Earth Golems and now this teleportation rune and formation. I feel like there should be some secret hidden here."

    "...now that you mention it, it sounds reasonable enough to be true." Fudo nodded seriously.

    "Even if you''re right, I doubt we can find that out." Lu Zhen suddenly said.

    "Why?" Fudo asked.

    "Simple. Where do you think the core of this whole facility would then be in?" Lu Zhen asked with a weird smile.

    "There can only be one ce and if it is, we can only forget about it for now." Sato smiled before shaking his head.

    Fudo thought for a bit before replying with a gleam in his eyes, "Thest floor?...*sigh* you''re right, let''s just forget about it."

    ck Grill''s Cave was segmented into 3 regions; the Outer region, the Middle region and the Inner region, with each region having at least 10 floors. The Outer region was exactly 10 floors and the Middle region was 22 floors. That''s a total of 32 floors!

    Thest floor would be at the Inner region and this region hasn''t even been fully explored by NPCs and no yer has even stepped foot in here. Floor 4 of the Middle region''s 22 floors already has level 6 Elites, with the group already encountering a level 8 Kobold. Supposing thest floor would be floor 10 of the Inner region, one could only imagine the strength of the monsters that would be there.

    "But it shouldn''t be like that though? Isn''t ck Grill''s Cave a level 5 resource map? Why the hell would there be something above level 10 here?" Fudo stated.

    "Who knows. But one thing I''m sure of is that we can''t reach the 15th floor of this region much less thest floor of the entire Cave." Sato replied.

    "Let''s be going. We only have one [Teleportation Rune] and there are 3 of us. We still need 2 more."

    "Alright."

    With that over, the trio walked deeper in search of the Exit point to the next floor.

    . . . . .

    Elsewhere at the 4th floor...

    "Damn. If I knew this would happen, I would have left backthen. Whoam I kidding? I had already guessed this would happen. No use cursing. I might as well try to take some of you down on my own."

    Xue Yan held her staff as she faced 2 reptilian creatures in front of her. They were level 7 Kobold, both equipped with machetes in their hands and leather clothes.

    "There was no information about Kobold''s whatsoever. Did that yer who reached the 5th floor not encounter them?" Xue Yan bit her lips. She was barely able to keep these foes at bay but that was all she could do. Their defenses were high for her and their movements were swift. Xue Yan could barely react in time to dodge some of them while the harder ones she blocked with her staff. This lead to the durability of her staff dropping down and also it''s efficiency doing the same.

    In Infinite Realm, as your weapon or equipment is damaged and it''s durability drops, the weapon/equipments abilities will also weaken till it is fixed.

    As a mage, Xue Yan''s [Agility] wasn''t worth talking about whenpared to an [Assassin] of the same level much less Kobolds that were one level ahead of her. So the option of retreat wasn''t really an option.

    "I can''t and I won''t go down without a fight. There has to be a way. I can''t just lose my experience points like this. Father and everyone else depends on me.." Xue Yan bit her lips even tighter as a tiny of blood became visible on them.

 Chapter 113 - 109 : Rescue Again

    "Roar!"

    One of the level 7 Kobolds charged directly towards Xue Yan while the other attacked from the side.

    ''I can''t fall back.''

    Xue Yan knew that the very second she focused on retreating, she would lose the battle as her speed was slower than the Kobolds''. Hence she decided to try and take one of them down. At the very least, the experience points she would gain from it would possibly offset the loss from her death.

    "[Fireball]!"

    Pointing her wooden staff at the monster that charged directly and happened to be the closest, Xue Yan cast the quickest spell in a Fire elementalist''s arsenal. As the zing fireball went forward to strike the Kobold, Xue Yan pointed her left hand to the other Kobold and used [Mana ball] against it.

    The [Mana ball] spell had a lot inmon with [Fireball] as both techniques had the same casting speed and also attack power. The only difference between them was that the [Fireball] spell was a skill known to Fire-type elementalists whereas the [Mana ball] spell could be used by all [Elementalists] regardless of elemental allegiance. Of course, the two spell weren''t really the exact same thing. Apart from the exclusiveness of the [Fireball] spell, unlike the [Mana ball] spell, it had a chance to cause the [Burn] effect on it''s target. However, this chance was drastically low. Even at that, most yers still preferred to use the [Fireball] spell over the [Mana ball] spell as a chance, no matter how little, is still better than none. Plus the [Fireball] looked way more cooler than a [Mana ball].

    The first Kobold weed the ming ball with a sh of it''s machete which led to a small explosion. The second Kobold had actually dodged the [Mana ball] and with it''s superior speed, it closed up the gap between Xue Yan and itself, leaving only a space that could be covered in3 steps in between them.

    Seeing that if she didn''t do anything soon, she would die at the hands of the Kobold, Xue Yan leaped backwards in order to create space between her and the Kobolds. Of course, it wasn''t like the Kobold would let her go so easily and Xue Knew this. That was why the very second her feet were about to leave the ground, she pointed her staff at the second Kobold, which happened to be within a meter distance away from.

    "[Fire Ray]"

    A ming ray sted off from the tip of the spear, darting towards the Kobold who was already within it''s range. Because the ray had appeared suddenly, the Kobold, who was already quite close to it, couldn''t dodge the attack and got sted back by it while receiving damage.

    -42 (658/700 Wild Kobold)

    Though she hadnded a sessful attack, this was but a sting to the Kobold''s HP. To make things worse, she had achieved this through the aid of her ss'' most powerful attack avable.

    Before she could perform a follow up attack, the first Kobold had abruptly appeared beside her and swung it''s machete at Xue Yan. She instinctively tried to block it with the aid of her staff but with her weak [Strength] and [Endurance], blocking it made no difference. The machete collided with the staff in front of it and the force behind the attack sent Xue Yan, alongside her staff, flying.

    -51 (59/110Xue Yan)

    Though the damage dealt was quite simr to to the one Xue Yan deal, the end result was anything but the same. With HP far smaller than that of the Kobold, Xue Yan would surely die if she got hit once more. The re

    ''Damn. At this rate, I doubt I can achieve anything. Do I really have to die just like this...?''

    The only thing Xue Yan could take note of was the approaching machete as it slowly grewrger the closer it got to her.

    ''So this is it...?''

    Xue Yan knew that once the machete shed her, the Kobold would follow up on its attack and not give her any opportunity to retreat. As a mage, she was only good at long rangebat and not melee battles. Without space between them, it would be impossible for her to cast any spells as she could be easily interrupted.

    ''Just a little more and i would have reached it. At least I know what to expect here...''

    Xue Yan had such thoughts as she let go of all resistance and decided to meet her end. However, Fate has a way of ying tricks on people.

    "[Greater Fireball]!"

    -154(546/700Level 7 Wild Kobold)

    "Roar!" The Kobold roared out loud. This time however, it wasn''t a roar of frustration nor anger but one of pain, pain that dealt heavy damage.

    "[Backstab]"

    A low voice sounded from behind the Kobold as it suddenly froze.

    -82 (464/700)

    -50

    -49

    -50 (315/700Wild Kobold)

    The attacker didn''t stop at one strike as he went on to deliver 4 more before retreating.

    He then stared at Xue Yan and yelled "Don''t just stand there! Work with me."

    Lu Zhen was feeling a bit grumpy about having to handle one Kobold on his own. Even though they were both level 7, monsters such as Kobolds, were innately stronger than yers. High Defense and Good Attacking Power, they were a force to be reckoned with if one decided to go easy on them and not take them serious. To prove this, the first strike Lu Zhen had made, which was abination of both [Shadow Strike] and [Backstab], wasn''t enough to finish it. Even the following attacks which were performed solely with the aid [Shadow Strike] didn''t harm it that badly. All it did was take out a chunk of the Kobold''s HP, butpared to Fudo''s attack, it was almost cute. It was at times like this that Lu Zhen truly rejoiced at his decision of joining them.

    ''With her help, I should be able to defeat this Kobold.''

    On the other side, after Fudo had attacked the Kobold once with his [Greater Fireball] spell, he turned his attention towards the other one since it charged over to him after noticing his interference.

    "Hehe. Challenging me is your worst mistake. [Fire Ray]! "

    A bright orange ray with a hint of red in it, darted over to the approaching Kobold. Compared to Xue Yan''s version, this one was a lot faster and stronger. This was the effect of the increased affinity towards Fire element. With that said, how can a level 7 monsters dodge such a powerful attack from a level 8 yer? The answer is, it can''t.

    "Roar!"

    -154(545/700)

    As the Kobold was drowned in it''s agony, Sato appeared beside it and brandished his sword at th Kobold, dealing multiple strikes and damages to it.

    [Horizontal sh]

    -85 (461/700)

    -57

    [Chop] -70

    -58 (276/700) Wild Kobold)

    Before the Kobold could retaliate, Sato had already retreated. Having brought down it''s HP to below 50%, Sato realised that it was obviously doable to fight the Kobold by himself but he still worked together with Fudo because they were in a hurry.

    Looking at the Kobold that stared at him with red eyes, Sato smirked.

    "Hehe. Don''t look at me like that. I''m not the one you should be focusing on."

    "[Fireball], [Mana ball] "

    Fudo cast the [Mana ball] spell right after the fireball had formed, sending two attacks at the Kobold.

    -129

    -128( 19/700Wild Kobold)

    The two attacks had obviously struck their target, since it was distracted, and as usual the attacks were followed by one noticeable factor. The Kobold''s cry.

    "Roar."

    "Sthhh. It doesn''t matter how many times I see it but your damage is really OP." Sato stated as he appeared beside the Kobold andnded thest blow, finishing it off.

    -61 ( 0/700Wild Kobold)

    "I really envy that ne of yours." Sato sighed.

    "Haha. When you get as lucky and awesome as I am, you wouldn''t need to worry about it." Fudo said with a wide smug.

    On the other side, Lu Zhen and Xue Yan were almost done with thest Kobold. After being rescued, Xue Yan was able to get back on her feet and battle the Kobold as Lu Zhen easily attracted it''s aggro and kept it''s attention focused on him.

    "[Greater Fireball]"

    After having charged up her spell, Xue Yan unleased a [Greater Fireball] on the Kobold, eliminating thatst bit of HP. Truth be told, Lu Zhen could have easily done so but he let Xue Yan get thest hit so as to receive more experience points than he would. That was the least he felt he could do for his cousin.

    "Hah." After having a chance to finally rx, Xue Yan exhaled as she let go of her stress and felt exhaustion with a mix of relief kicking in. She however, held it all in and still went forward to thank her helpers.

    "Thank you." Xue Yan bowed once at Lu Zhen and Fudo before facing Sato. She still kept a cold face while facing them and though it seemed like she was being insincere with her thanks, Sato didn''t haggle with her as he felt that was probably how she behaved; quite simr to his behaviour around others.

    Fudo picked up the [Teleportation Rune] that dropped from the Kobold he and Sato beat, while Lu Zhen obviously did the same thing.

    Once he was done, he came close to Sato and then whispered to him.

    "So....what do we do now?"

 Chapter 114 - 110 : A Deal

    Sato stared at the youngdy in front of him who had parts of her clothing damaged due to the unscrupulous attacks from the Kobolds. Though he kept a straight face, he was quite impressed at her perseverance in going deeper into the 4th floor without anyrades but at the same time, he felt she was foolish and filled with so much self-adtion otherwise, why would she think she would be able to go past this floor on her own? Even Sato himself never had such thoughts.

    "What do you mean ''what do we do?''. We will obviously do as nned and keep heading deeper. She''s of no use to us so why should we bother about her?" Sato said inly before turning around to walk away, ignoring Xue Yan''s brief shock.

    Once Sato had finished speaking, Xue Yan was a bit surprised as her body froze stiffly but she quickly recovered. Sato and his teammates didn''t have any responsibility towards her. ording to them, the reason they helped her thest time was because someone had requested. However, Xue Yan had thought about it and realized that not only did she not tell anyone if her current location but also, no one knew of her current predicament. She thought that they might have saved her on a whim or so, or maybe they had wanted something from her but it proved all wrong after they had let her go.

    They weren''t totally good Samaritans. Xue Yan didn''t have any advantage worth them keeping her so they left her. This fact, Xue Yan understood very well .

    "Wait."

    Sato turned around and looked at Lu Zhen who had just spoken.

    "I will stay back with her." Lu Zhen said.

    "..." Xue Yan stared at him with shock wondering what was going on.

    "...are you sure about it?" Sato asked. He didn''t really want to let go of Lu Zhen even if he had already served his role of acting as a guide. As an [Assassin], Lu Zhen had been a able to deal heavy damages to monsters with his ambush tactics and surprise attacks. Losing him would no doubt, surely reduce the team''s overall attack power. But if he was really inclined to leave, Sato wouldn''t force him back.

    Pulling up his system interface and clicking on the exit button in the party chat, Lu Zhen replied with a firm voice "Yes."

    The reason he had done so was as the saying would go, ''Blood is thicker than water'' even if that blood is thin. Lu Zhen guessed that for some reason, Xue Yan wasn''t willing to just leave like that. Even if she wanted to, she would still require the strength to do so. For a level 6 elementalist, this would be quite a daunting task. Because of that, Lu Zhen decided to help her.

    Seeing as Lu Zhen was being definitely serious, Sato left him to be. As he already surmised that he couldn''t call him back plus it wasn''t his style to just a call so someone back. Fudo too, felt it was a loss but he couldn''t say anything to Sato. He knew his attitude and that was that once Sato agreed on something, changing his thoughts over it would be very difficult.

    Xue Yan stared at Lu Zhen and asked "Why?"

    "Why? Well Uncle Xue wouldn''t really be happy with me if I let his only angel get lost and harmed now, would he?" Lu Zhen smiled.

    Xue Yan was stunned. Among her family''s rtives, few knew father and even fewer could call him ''Uncle Xue''. One of those few was a young man that her father had nicknamed ''Little rascal'', who aided the family sometimes and even gave her father some money once he had any.

    For the first time since she had started ying the game, even including the moment she was rescued by Sato and co., this was the only time Xue Yan felt truly touched.

    "Hold it " Xue Yan yelled at Sato and Fudo while holding back her tears. They were tears of joy after having found a lost one, and not that of sorrow.

    "What''s it this time?" Rather than Sato replying, Fudo did so as he was tired of being stopped and turning back. Sato too felt the same way as he had a small frown on his face.

    "You guys said before that as long as I''m useful to your crew, you will let me join?" Xue Yan asked. She had already decided on what to do and as for whether she would regret her decision, even she herself wouldn''t know.

    "Yes..."

    Xue Yan breathed in toport herself before saying "Well I have a map, and not just any ordinary one; a map from here to level 15."

    "Sttth...." Sato, Fudo and even Lu Zhen sucked in arge amount of air in shock.

    The roles of map were quite simple; to lead the way to the next floor. Most maps would also have shortcuts on the least ''monster busy zone'' but all in all, they all served to lead yers to the next floor otherwise they would have to express on their own. ck Grill''s Cave was a really huge facility. Each floor was also very big, so big that you could fit at least 2 stadiums in each! If yers were to spend their time looking for the exit individually, they would only depend on their luck to find it. This was obvious as Sato, Fudo and Lu Zhen had been looking for the exit point to the 5th floor but still hadn''t found it . However, the existence of maps changed this as they recorded down the exit points of each and every floor discussed on them. With a map in hand, yers could easily locate the exit.

    With Xue Yan saying that she had a map, and one even extending all the way to the 15th floor, there was indeed no reason not to get it. Most maps barely had any info on the Middle region. Even for those that did, they eventually ended at the 5th floor and only some big Guilds had them in their possession. There might even be some that went on till the 10th floor but no one would know as all the big guilds had tacitly agreed to prevent the distribution of such maps to the public. This was because they wanted to explore those regions first before any other yer(s) did so. Spreading such maps would be equivalent to treason as the person who did so would be collectively hunted down by the big guilds.

    Xue Yan decided to take the risk of not only being possibly hunted by other guilds but also to let her mission be known because she needed toplete it and also she trusted Lu Zhen. Lu Zhen seemed to trust Sato so Xue Yan felt that she could do the same.

    "How can we trust you?" Fudo quickly asked after noticing this problem.

    "What''s your username?" Xue Yan asked.

    Fudo smirked. "My ancestors were true born emperors so I decided to follow in their footsteps. You can call me Emperor Wolf."

    Xue Yan nodded before opening her system interface and sending an iplete copy of the map to Fudo.

    *Ding*

    Hearing the ding sound that was only limited to him and signified a mail, Fudo activated his system interface and browsed the mail column.

    Seeing his focus elsewhere, Xue Yan guessed that he had received the mail and said "This is just a part of the map. It shows the location of the exit channel to the 5th floor."

    Fudo couldn''t validate the map but he still kept it and sent it to Sato.

    Saying browsed through the map and realized that it may be real as the location of the exit point was a ce they had yet to have gone.

    He quickly collected himself before asking "What do you want in exchange?"

    Maps were very precious in ck Grill''s Cave and for Xue Yan to have brought such a precious map just to join them sounded stupid as one could sell it for a lot of money. Sato guessed that for her to mention this, her request might not be as simple as joining their party. After all, Xue Yan didn''t seem like the dumb kind who didn''t know the value of what they wielded, otherwise she would have told them before.

    Xue Yan took a deep breath and replied " I need you to help me defeat the world ss boss on the 10th floor."

 Chapter 115 - 111 : Contracts

    "I need you to help me defeat the world ss boss on the 10th floor."

    A world ss boss. These were one-of-a-kind monsters that only lived once. The title "World ss monster" isn''t only used to show that they don''t re-spawn but it is also used to show their strength. In previous VR games, world ss bosses would be equivalent to a level 30 or so King rank monster in Infinite Realm. A level 6 Mage asking two level 8 yers and one level 7 assassin for assistance to defeat a level 30 King is just utter stupidity. This kind of stupidity couldn''t even be just ssified as suicide.

    "No." Before even anyone could say anything, Sato hurriedly answered her.

    Forget about whether they could actually make it to floor 10, the world ss boss wouldn''t be a pushover that they could easily beat.

    "Wait. You misunderstood the task." Xue Yan quickly said before Sato could leave.

    "Hmm? Misunderstood the task? And how would that be?"

    "We all know that Infinite Realm is a different VR game and just as it is different, it''s systems and features are different." Xue Yan said.

    "Get to the point."

    "The term "world ss" is used here to refer to monsters that can only exist once and don''t re-spawn. Apart from that, defeating one gives a yer or a guild, the opportunity to be known world wide."

    Sato frowned seeing that she was still exining but he didn''t interrupt her this time around.

    "Of course, there''s a catch to this and this is usually the strength of the world boss. But it is different this time around. From the information that I got, the world ss boss isn''t that powerful; the world ss boss is just a level 10 monster! That gives us a chance at beating it!"

    "A level 10 monster as a world ss boss? Are you kidding me?" Fudo asked with disbelief painted all over his face. Even though it was stronger than current yers, it was still beatable with proper nning andrge numbers. Also, yers could just wait till they get past that level or reach level 9 and return to defeat it.

    Xue Yan nodded. "It''s true. That''s what my mission says and it can''t be a lie."

    " A level 10 monster...with our lineup, it should be doable." Lu Zhen said with a bit of yearning in his eyes. One should remember that once a world ss monster is defeated, not only is the loot eye catching but also, yers would be able to let there names be known around the world. This was very convenient for yers who hoped to be famous, get endorsed bypanies or get drafted by guilds.

    "Wait a minute. You said your mission? What do you mean by that?" Sato asked catching on to something.

    Xue Yan took a deep breath and replied, "As you most likely would have thought of it already, the map and the information about the monster were all obtained from a mission I got. The said mission only mentioned to kill the world ss monster down here."

    Xue Yan didn''t mention about the mission being part of a quest and she wasn''t nning on doing soeither. Shealso didn''t mention the mission rewards and Sato didn''t n on asking her. Both were sensible enough to act wisely.

    Truth be told, getting the map was already a good thing. Sato believed that Xue Yan wouldn''t expect much from them as trusting outsiders for such a mission was too risky. In other words, her reason for saying this was to actually perform a trial run on the boss and find out it''s strengths and weaknesses. If the team perhaps doesn''t really stand a chance of winning, she would then either look for a new team or wait till everyone levels up a bit.

    ''Of course there''s a problem with this'' Sato thought ''and that is the fact that we might spread the map if she looks for a new team or wants to wait. So how next move would now be...''

    "Of course if you agree to it, I will not treat you wrong. You get to advertise whosoever''s name you want to and also get 90% of all the loot but you have to sign a concealment contract." Xue Yan added.

    ''A contract.''

    Contracts in VR games were really powerful stuffs. Though they weren''t so strict in reality with most of them literally having no effect, they were strict as hell in-game. Punishments given after breaking a contract could range from being reduced to level 0 to having your entire existence terminated from the game forever, such that even buying a new cabin or creating a new avatar won''t even solve the problem. As once you are in-game, all actions are being supervised by the Heavenly system, which also happens to y the role of the contract supervisor. This means that every action and word spoken, would be monitored by the System and if one happens yo perhaps breach the contract, he)she would immediately face the penalties.

    "What are the conditions?" Sato asked.

    "No one else is to know of this deal or anything we discussed here." Xue Yan seriously said.

    Sato could obviously reject the contract and leave here and then but it obviously wasn''t worth it as he wouldn''t get the map. Xue Yan''s conditions were alright as not only would they receive the map but they would also get 90% of the loot in exchange for helping her. This would surely make them put more effort when raiding the world ss boss.

    ''She really knows her ways.'' Sato inwardly sighed.

    "There''s no problem with that but evidently speaking, we can''t beat the boss without help from other ss yers like a Cleric. What would happen to them? Would they not be in the know?" Sato asked.

    "If you would want to inform them of our agreement, you can ask me and I will permit it." Xue Yan lightly said. She had clearly thought this out and was aware that without a healer ss and an MT, it would be extremely difficult for the party tost again the world ss boss much less best it.

    "Alright." With a clear face, he agreed to her idea and signed the contract. After him, Fudo and Lu Zhen also did the same thing.

    "We can help you and bring you there but before that, we will need to find a few yers to fix up our weakness. So the mission would have to wait."

    "No problem."

    With Xue Yan agreeing, Sato now had to look for someone trustworthy, who could y the role of a healer and an MT.

    ''Luckily, I already have an idea for an MT. All that remains is a healer.''

    . . . . .

    Room 2B13.

    A young nurse dressed in white uniform walked into the room with a clipboard in hand. Looking at the patient in the bed who had been looking a bit lifeless with his head facing the window ever since a female walked in here, the nurse sighed internally while pitying the young man.

    ''He didn''t even notice when I walked in. Hai, what did such a handsome guy do to deserve this?'' These were her thoughts as she walked closer towards him.

    The young man was Akiyama Yato and indeed, he didn''t even notice when the young nurse had walked in as he was caught up in his own reality. Compared to before however, Yato seemed a bit more rxed as if he had been freed from a heavy burden. But this feature wasn''t so noticeable yet as only his close friends like Yoshi, Katsuo, Sato and the others, would notice it. For a third party, Yato would still seem to be as pitiful as he was before.

    "Sir, sir." A pleasant voice, like the chirping of the spring birds on a beautiful morning, called out vociferously.

    Just when the young nurse was about to get upset at Yato for not answering her, he regained his senses and turned towards the voice that called him.

    "...oh! Is there any problem, nurse?"

    Thedy stared at him a bit and sympathy could be seen in her eyes. A bit of moisture also formed in her pupils leading to a glint being produced by the light that reflected off of the liquid.

    "...nurse, is there a problem?" Yato was feeling weird being stared at like that.

    "Uh..." Finally realising what she had been doing, the nurse blushed a bit before quickly regaining herposure.

    "The doctor said that you can get discharged this evening if you wish to. Of course, you can stay till tomorrow morning and apply for follow-up treatments but this isn''t necessary."

    "Oh...I see." Yato replied before turning his head towards the window and staring out of the building. "I will like to be discharged today please."

    "... okay." The nurse nodded after a bit of hesitation and left the room.

    "...*sighs* He really is such a dummy." The nurse pouted once she left the room.

    Meanwhile, Yato looked out the window and stared at the road with all the moving vehicles and people. What he was thinking was unknown but a noticeable trait would be the clenched fists that was on the bed.

    ''One day....''

 Chapter 116 - 112 : Ink Snowâ€™s Goal

    "So where are we heading now?"

    The trio had originally spent an hour(in-game) moving around the 4th floor before they found Xue Yan. Now that they had a map that had the location of the exit point, Fudo wanted to know whether they should keep exploring or head to the next point.

    Sato opened up his system interface and stared at his level progress. He was a bit close to the 50% mark for level 8 despite all the monsters they had encountered in the past 6 in-game hours. This was because the experience points had been shared between the 3 of them and even though it was sizeable, for a level 8 yer it was only just okay.

    "We need to have at least two level 9s to take on that boss. Let''s level up a bit. Once we both reach level 9, we would raid the boss.

    "With that said, we will head to the 5th floor."

    From their experience so far, level 7 and 8 monsters could indeed be found within the 4th floor but their poption wasn''t much. It was so little that apart from the first level 8 Kobold they had fought, Sato''s group didn''t find any other one throughout their 1 hour long exploration. If not for the level 7 Kobolds they had killed while saving Xue Yan, they would have thought that Kobolds didn''t exist here. But still, Sato doubted they would find another and since their group had just increased in size again, they would need to battle higher leveled monsters rather than low levelled ones, for more Experience points. And higher levelled monsters here didn''t mean just level 8 monsters.

    Sato continued "We are still some distance away though so let''s move. We won''t be sleeping in this map so we need to get at least two [Teleportation Runes] per person."

    "Two each? Why?" Lu Zhen asked curiously.

    Sato answered him, "It''s a guess though but since [Teleportation Runes] are meant to save time by teleporting one to their saved location, it might be able to do the reverse. After all, it is quite stressful to head back to the main entrance and the programmers or even the System must have thought if it. In other words, it''s quite possible that the [Teleportation Runes] could bring us back to the main entrance."

    "?!"

    Fudo and Lu Zhen were surprised at Sato''s thinking but he still made some sense though.

    "What are [Teleportation Runes]?" Xue Yan picked up on the conversation topic. As Lu Zhen and Fudo had picked up the runes from thest batch of Kobolds while she was talking with Sato, she didn''t notice anything and she also didn''t bother to ask about the loot after all, they were her saviors and so, she felt that they deserved it.

    Lu Zhen quickly replied her, "They''re handy objects for getting in here. You should have experienced the stress and effort spent to reach here right? It would be even worse for us to experience that each time we want to reach the Middle Region''s 4th floor again. So the [Teleportation Runes] are useful consumables that save time by bringing us to the location we record in them. The disadvantage is that they only work in ck Grill''s Cave and can only be used by one person. Also, they''re one use items so we still need to grind for them each time wee here. Even so, they are still pretty neat and handy." (AN: Neat here doesn''t refer to the synonym of clean but the ng.)

    "Oh, okay." Xue Yan nodded once she got a good idea of the function of [Teleportation Runes].

    "Let''s go." Sato called out.

    . . . . .

    Lavissen Town, Reiss Kingdom, Brahman Empire.

    Unlike how Riverdale and ck Mountain Town had their Town Halls at the centre, the centre of this town was a boisterous area with recreation facilities, entertainment buildings and the likes all scattered around here and there with no sign of any administrative facility. One of the exotic buildings here was a fancy-looking restaurant which was only 3 stories tall. This was a very famous restaurant that catered to both rich scions, family patriarchs and matriarchs, merchants and government officials.

    The Shamrock Ville was a very famous chain restaurant in Reiss Kingdom and they only built there branches in high level ces eg Cities. The branches located in primary towns were the lowest and they weren''t in all of the primary towns; only in the top 5 of primary towns.

    The exterior of the building looked in and simple but when one appraises the value of the materials used, there would only be three words spilling from their mouths: "So much gold!". The Shamrock Ville always goes all out to design and decorate their buildings with each branch valued at the very least,100,000 gold coins. This amount was something current yers couldn''tprehend after all, an average yer would make less than 2 silver coin after a whole day''s worth of grinding.

    The restaurant here had 3 floors with each floor having it''s own uniqueness and criteria.

    The 1st floor was a regr zone for all kinds of people to mix in and interact with one another freely. But of course, as a famous restaurant, even these "all kinds of people" were actually wealthy merchants and the likes but their wealth could only be said to be at the Middle or Upper Middle ss. The reason was becausepared to the real backers and strongmen in town, their wealth was nothing. To get in here was quite simple as one would only have to pay a certain amount of money to be registered and then they can freely dine here. But of course, the meals weren''t free; the "freely" only referred to entry.

    The 2nd floor was a ''VIP membership only'' floor and those who had ess to this floor would have to be VIPs at the least or a VVIP. To be such an individual, one would have to either have high credibility and reputation in the city together with possessingrge amounts of wealth both in cash and assets. Of course, they would still have to buy a VIP membership form. For yers though, they could get here so far as they had enough money to buy a VIP membership form and also at least 20 Rtionship Points[1] with either the manager or another high level personnel. In the scenario where that can''t be so friendly with those staffs, they would have to get rmended by a VIP or higher and still pay the required fees.

    Of course, the spending would be worth it as not only were the food and drinks served here a lot better than that of the 1st floor, customers could also receive special services like exotic massages or a live concert of a professional musician or instrumentalist with a musical instrument like the zither or the violin. The 2nd floor was made with luxurious wood mostly of 1 star rating with the furniture made of low quality 2 star material. The walls were made with exquisite paints produced from certain beast blood and tree sap. The interior designer obviously didn''t consider wabi-sabi, unlike the exterior designer, but went all out for an exaggeratedly fancy restaurant. You wouldn''t need to know the real value of the materials used to know that it was expensive. Just like gold screams expensive, the entire furniture yelled the exact same words. As if that wasn''t enough, the sses used for drinking and the tes for that were used for serving guests eating, were made from low quality 3 star materials! Just by being here, one could feel that air of extravagance in every breath they breathe. One could indeed say that the expenditure was worth it.

    For some yers still, spending lots of coins just to get ess to this hall of spectacr opulence for just a short while of indulgence and leisure, was dumb. But of course, that would be on the minds of those who can''t afford it. For the rich yers who managed to pay that off, they felt it was worth it after all, the drinks and food here weren''t ordinary like the rest. They had a special type of Mana in them that not only made the meal taste great but also give a few special buffs. The mostmon buff of all was the 2% increase in experience points gained. This was one of the key secrets of yers in Lavissen Town and this was their key to sess. This of course was only for those who could afford it.

    The 3rd floor was a far more exotic and luxurious and only VVIPs could get ess to it. Itprised of a few private rooms each the size of a small lounge with one main hall. So far, only a few notable people have been seen going up here. They were either the Town''s Head or the Patriarch of a major family in the Lavissen.

    At a table close to the window on the 2nd floor, sat a youngdy in a light dress, who looked to be in her early twenties or thereabout. On the table before her was a champagne bottle with a touch of vicissitude to it. The bottle cap was loosely ced atop the opening of bottle as if to show that thedy had just uncorked it a while ago. There was a ss with red wine from the bottle. When twirled, the wine would give off a yellow sparkle with tiny yellow particles in the drink. This was as a result of the special mana contained within the drink which granted boosts to not only yers but so NPCs.

    "Captain."

    With the voice slowly fading out, Ink Snow, who had her attention elsewhere with her eyes gazing through the window, recalled herself and adjusted herposure before ncing at the owner of the voice that called out to her.

    It was the assassin of their party, Gotze, who had called her.

    "Any thing to report?" Ink Snow asked him.

    Gotze nodded. "We have confirmed the exact location of the ruin. Herald, Panda and Purple Winter are already there, waiting for us."

    "Hmm. They didn''t send any messages regarding supplies did they?"

    "No. Purple Winter already mentioned that the rations and supplies she has should be enough." Gotze replied.

    "I see. Alright then, still go ahead and still purchase a few more consumables and supplies. A little bit extra isn''t bad plus we don''t know much about there. When you''re done, call me and head over to the Main entrance alright?" Ink Snow asked.

    "Okay." Saying so, Gotze departed from the building. Ink Snow, on the other hand, stared into the distance. What was on her mind, no one would know.

    A couple of minutester, she received a notification from Gotze saying that he had finished and was heading for the Town''s entrance. Ink Snow quickly stood up and left the ce. On her way out of the 2nd floor, she used a ck cloak to hide her identity and optioned to use the second exit in the building so as to not be spotted by other yers. This was one of the special perks associated with being a VIP member.

    After a few minutes of walking, Ink Snow had finally reached the gate. She easily spotted Gotze and from there, the two took a carriage directly to their destination since it was quite far to walk to.

    Their destination, level 5 map Sahara Desert.

 Chapter 117 - 113 : Sahara Desert

    Ink Snow and Gotze got stopped by the carriage at the entrance of Sahara Desert which was actually a natural "gate" formed by two small hills. They were wearing only cloth armor and had a glowing green amulet on their necks. Even as they stood in front of the entrance, they both felt a heat wave stroking their faces and making them feel a bit ufortable.

    Sahara Desert was arge map that had a wide variety of desert creatures lurking within. As it was located at the Southern part of the main continent, it wasn''t the hottest desert but it''s temperature was still burning.

    The Sahara Desert was veryrge with it''s dimensions on a wide scale. Simply put, it was like prefecture of it''s own. With such a huge size, it was really strange how it was a level 5 map but in fact, it wasn''t. Sahara Desert''s true level was that of a level 45 and above map. It was only the outer region that was a level 5 map as most of the weaker creatures dwelled here, away from the stronger ones. The continuous gathering of low levelled monsters together with their constant breeding, resulted in the outer region of Sahara Desert that was facing Lavissen Town, to be a level 5 map[1]. Despite being such, the difficulty here was quite high as not only would yers have to face strong monsters but they would also risk the chance of a high level monster abruptly appearing but that wasn''t even the worst problem; it was the area''s climate.

    The entire ce was a desert and not the cold kind of desert. Because of that, yers had to cope with the harsh hot weather. Even though it wasn''t the hottest in Infinite Realm, it was still hotter than your average house. The result of this hot weather was that yers would get tired faster, losing Stamina and energy at a a rate that hasn''t been seen before. That wasn''t even the worst of it all. Mages experienced the worst part as the mana density here was very low that they couldn''t regenerate mana as quickly as they did in other ces. Though the fire type Mana here was one of the purest, meaning that fire type attacks would deal a bit more damage than usual while water type magic would be weakened a bit, having to suffer from slow regeneration in mana wasn''t a good thing for yers neither was losing Stamina at a much faster rate.

    As a result of thebined issues of unanticipated attacks by high level creatures plus hot climate and low Mana regeneration speed, most yers in Lavissen actually avoided Sahara Desert and headed to other level 5 maps close by.

    To be able to stay here, not only would yers have to lessen their clothing but they would also have to purchase a lot of supplies to prevent their body from losing moisture after all, the humidity in the air was at an all time low for most of these yers. They all lived in good environments so experiencing the sensation of a desert here in Infinite Realm, was definitely a first for most of them. The green amulets the two wore was to solve the issue of rapidly depleting stamina and moisture.

    After admiring the scenic view of the entrance to Sahara Desert, the duo then walked in deeper, past the gate and into the desert territory. Even though it was a level 5 map, there wasn''t a guarantee to spot monsters at every step so the two had an almost safe journey. The reason for the ''almost'' was because the hot sunny weather wasn''t really making things easy for them.

    "Hey. Over here."

    After having walked for more than 5 minutes, the two heard a voice reaching out to them. Turning their heads towards it origin, they saw a human figure waving at them.

    "That should be Panda." Ink Snow uttered. As the captain of their team, she obviously knew the shape and size of each and everyone of her teammates so recognizing one of them from a 1 km or so distance wasn''t so hard.

    "Yeah." Gotze nodded.

    The two then hurried over to the human figure that was supposedly Panda the Pdin.

    "Captain, little Gotze." Panda them once they arrived. He nodded at Ink Snow but smirked when he ''greeted'' Gotze.

    "Tch. Who''s little huh? Don''t you know you''re the one who''s huge?!" Gotze barked at him.

    "Still makes you little."

    Turning to the person who just spoke, Gotze whipped out a dagger and yelled "Do you think I won''t kill you here?! And what''s with your ''four eyes'' look?"

    Herald who was walking over nudged the eye protector he had on. It was colored ck and looked a lot like regr sses.

    "Hmph. I never expected less from someone as dumb as you."

    "Says the closet pervert. Don''t force me or else-"

    "Alright!! Alright!!" Herald frantically yelled, interrupting Gotze frompleting his speech.

    "Hmph. I always knew men were useless but you two are worse." Purple Winter also walked towards the group but slightly behind Herald. Just like her name, she wore a purple garment with white lines drawn around it. The energy the clothing actively released was on par with a Upper tier Mortal rank. The ck staff in her hand also exuded the same aura and if that wasn''t enough, the ne she wore also had the same energy. 3 Upper tier Mortal rank equipment! Not even some guild experts had such mboyant attire.

    "Ah...it''s the distinguished feminist." Gotze muttered under his breath, afraid that she would hear him.

    Even though he too, had an Upper tier Mortal rank weapons,pared to Purple Winter, he only had 1. Plus she was also ahead of him in terms of level. She was a level 7. Despite her being a Cleric, Gotze was still scared of Purple Winter both because of her personality and also her talent.

    The only reason Purple Winter became a Cleric was because the teamcked one. She was much more suited to be an attacking type mage and if she had actually chosen the [Elementalist] ss, Gotze knew that without a doubt, Purple Winter would be able to decimate him to ashes even if he was the one with 3 Upper tier Mortal rank weapons while she would have only one. After all, she had proved this before in Conquest.

    "You guys improved a bit in your levels."

    Seeing Purple Winter at level 7, Ink Snow guessed that they must have had some battles here and grind a few monster to gain some experience points and pass the time.

    "Yeah. At least with this much, we are a bit ahead of others." Purple Winter nodded with a smile.

    "Compared to the luck of those yers in 4-leaf clover towns, we are still weaker." Herald sighed.

    As a beginner town(AN: Towns where yers are spawned) with nothing so special about it, the average level of yers here in Lavissen was between level4-5. This was while that of Riverdale Town was level5-6. The me couldn''t be ced on the yers though, but rather their locations and the opportunities tied to it. Riverdale''s yers were able to experience the Goblin siege and that led to a rise in the average level of yers, making its yers the ones with the highest overall levels. Of course, some other Towns had fortuitous encounters but they were few and far in between and they became known as ''4- leaf clover towns''. Lavissen, sadly, wasn''t one of such towns and so, level 6 was already high and level 7 yers could be counted with one''s fingers and they were all below the 30% mark.

    "Let''s forget about them. So, where is it?" Ink Snow asked. She always had a direct personality and usually likes to get to the point rather than waste time in pointless chats.

    "Here." Purple Winter projected her map through her system interface and made it visible for all to see.

    "It''s a bit deep into the desert so it''s filled with perils and dangers. Herald had managed to spot the location 7 miles away but that was all he could do. Getting closer wasn''t an option."

    "Why?" Gotze asked.

    "Because the area was blocked off by a few high level monsters. There were Sand scorpions and because if the new upgrade to the [Inspect] skill, we couldn''t ascertain their level. But thanks to Herald''s [Sefiris'' eye], we discovered that the sand scorpions were between level 12 and level 15. If that wasn''t bad already, the two protectors at the temple were level 25."

    "Sthhh." Gotze inhaled loudly in shock.

    Mainstream yers were still level 6 at most! Even the top pros like Sato were level 8 at best. Against level 12 - level 15 monsters, they are toast. Against level 25 monsters? Let''s not even go there. Lasting a second against them would already be an achievement one could boast to their grandchildren about.

    Meanwhile, [Sefiris''eye] was the eye protector equipment Herald wore. It was an essory with the rating of Upper tier Mortal rank. He had gotten it from a Rare Steel chest the group had came across during one of their exploits. It''s most special feature was to gauge the level and ability if something from the mana it radiated silently. Purple Winter''s staff also came from the Rare Steel Chest and had very impressive features, akin to Fudo''s ck Alder Staff.

    "So...do we give up for now?" Gotze asked carefully. As the monsters guarding their target destination was far more powerful than they were, there didn''t seem to be any other option other than to leave the mission till they were much stronger. It would be nothing more than a pipe dream to think they could get past such monsters.

    "No, we can''t just stop like this. The least we need to do is to see it for ourselves. At the very least, we need to scout the ce and have an idea of what we would face. A clever rabbit digs three burrows. It''s possible that there isn''t only one entrance in. If we''re any lucky, we might find another entrance." Ink Snow replied. She obviously didn''t want to stop after justing this far. As every regr human would be, she preferred to see the problems ahead rather than fear it from afar.

    "Who knows, it might be easier to enter than we think."

    "Ah. Like the saying ''Giving birth to a baby is easier than worrying about it''[2] right?" Panda grinned.

    "...yeah, let''s go with that." Herald nudged his sses.

    "Let''s go." Ink Snow smiled as she shook her head.

    AN :

    [1] Please do remember that Level 5 maps have their upper limit at level 10 or so.

    [2] I think it''s a Chinese saying about fear.. Interpreted as: sometimes the fear we have would be greater than the actual problem at hand.

 Chapter 118 - 114 : Destination

    The party of 5 has been journeying into the deeper parts of the Sahara Desert for more than 30 minutes already (in-game). During this time, they had fought a bunch of monsters and defeated them as these monsters were only either level 5 or at the worst a level 6mon. Of course there were a few instances where they encountered level 7 Desert scorpions but even those still didn''t stand much of a chance against them. The team however, didn''t go so unscathed from the battles. The reason was because despite Desert Scorpions not really being a true social monster, a couple of them still moved around in groups of 2 or 3. They had even met one such group that actually managed to have 4 in their crew. It was a hectic and stressful battle but they managed to stand on top thanks to Purple Winter''s timely heals and Ink Snow''s impressive vanguard spirit and performance.

    Now, the party was facing a weird ancient building that looked like a dpidated temple. In fact, it didn''t just look like one, it was actually one.

    It was quite huge, far bigger than the size of a standard stadium with a seating capacity of 85,000. From a bird''s eye view, the temple was like a huge rectangr building with 4 smaller temples within it, each located far from each other.

    Due to the constant exposure to dust, the original colour of the building had faded away and be tawny brown. It was because of this mutation that despite being huge, the edifice hadn''t been discovered by yers. But the main reason was the fact that it was located deep past the level 5 area of Sahara Desert. Some parts of the building had fallen apart with stone blocks and rubble scattered all over the ce. Nheless, the structures outline could still be made out and also the building wasn''t so much on the dpidated side but on the abandoned side.

    The front part of the edifice looked exactly like the front part of Neo-ssical styled architecture. 9 tall Corinthian columns held up the Frieze and the Pediment[1] that had extended5.9metres away from the main building. The columns were very tall, reaching more than 30 metres in height with a spacing of 5 metres between each column. Over all, this front part was actually a building of it''s own that got attached to the major edifice.

    3 metres away in front of the building were two huge statues with a height of at least 19 metres. They both held a spear in hand and were carved with Qin dynasty style armour. At their waist was attached a sword in a scabbard. As they were stone statues, the sword and scabbard was expected to be stone-cut too.

    "Even though we are still quite far, this ce sure feels creepy. It gives me goosebumps just being here." Panda uttered. The group hid by a sand dune and observed the area ahead of them.

    "Yo, Herald, you said you saw a few level 12 or so monsters here. Where are there? I mean, I don''t see any monsters close." Gotze asked as he surveyed the entire ce with his eyes.

    Even though there was boundary or shield around the structure, the area within a radius of 29 metres round the edifice was devoid of monsters. Not even the mostmon Desert Scorpion or Sand Snakes could be found in this area. The zone had a weird metaphysical aura looming around it and this gave the entire ce a weird eerie atmosphere.

    "There are usually monsters here though but they always stay beyond the 30 metres mark. Most of them burrow themselves in the ground and wait for a prey to ambush. You won''t see them with your naked eyes and I only managed to spot them with [Sefiris'' eye]." Herald replied as he nudged his sses.

    "Like over there for example." Herald pointed at a spot in front of them; about 40 metres or so away from the superstructure. The ce his fingers happened to point at was an empty spot in the desert devoid of any life, be it nt or animal life.

    "What''s supposed to be there?" Ink Snow frowned.

    "You sure you''re seeing well? Lol. Even with sses you''re still blind." Gotze mocked Herald.

    "Hehe. What would you know? Underneath the soil over there is a level 13 Sand Snake. Once you step within 5 metres radius, you would be as good as dead before you even realize it."

    "Sttthhh."

    Everyone was surprised at the discovery. A level 13 creature, none of them had even seen any since the game begun and none actually wished to do so after all, meeting one would pretty much be equivalent to you losing a ton of experience points that it''s almost the same as losing a level. The scary thing however, was the fact that the Sand Snake could perfectly hide itself within the area.

    Sand Snakes typically had a colour on the darker side of brown, simr to caramel. As a result of this colouration on their skin, they were adept at camouge. To make things worse, like their fellow snake siblings, they were very quick and slippery even in this desert. Because the entire ce was covered in sand, running wasn''t that easy as one''s feet could easily be drowned by the sand and even that bit could slow them down, causing implications; even monsters like Desert Scorpions faced the same situation. Sand Snakes however, did not face this problem. Added with their quick agility and environmental advantage, they were one of the most dangerous monsters to ever face. Now, level 13 Sand Snakes have been discovered to be able to hide in the soil. Losing to them in speed was already bad enough but this was insane for yers. If not for Herald''s [Sefiris'' eye] they would have unknowingly walked to their doom already.

    "That''s not even the worst part." Herald spoke up again. "Those two statues over there are also monsters; golems rather and level 25 at that."

    "..."

    "...so what do we do now?" After regaining hisposure, Panda asked Ink Snow.

    "There should be a way to pass this test." Ink Snow said.

    "But is there really? I mean, forget about the lurking snakes, there''s still those statues. Can''t we just leave this mission till we''re high leveled. Let''s say level 20 or even 23?" Purple Winter rmended.

    The mission Purple Winter was referring to was the major reason that they went out of theirne and came into this ce. It was an A rated mission, the second highest rating known to yers. Usually, such missions were left till yers had enough strength toplete it but Ink Snow decided to give the mission a try now. In her exact words, it was actually "scouting out the mission ahead of time".

    [[ System interface :

    Intro : You happened to have chanced upon a weird relic. After further enquiries and investigation, you met a Priest of Light who told you that the relic seems to have originated from a forgotten Temple in Sahara Desert.

    Description : Deep in the Sahara Desert lies a forgotten Temple. You have been hired by a Priest of Light to investigate this ce and find whether there still exists any living creature or valuable with the same energy as the relic, within it.

    Basic Reward : +10 Rtionship points with Priest Nathel, 30 Silver coins, 1 drop of [Diluted Purified Holy Water Advanced Potion : 60% Concentration]

    ]]

    ''Do I really have to waitter on...''

    Staring at the mission her system interface''s mission panel, Ink Snow wondered whether she should leave it forter. The main reason she struggled to try andplete this mission early was for the rewards. At their current level, this reward was really valuable and it could help improve their over all strength.

    Nothing should be said about the 30 silver coins as right now, such amount of money was indeedrge for yers. Even the current liquid wealth of their party was slightly above that.

    The rtionship points was also quite important as having a good rtionship with a priest from the Holy Light Church[2] was good more so for a high ranking priest.

    Thest reward, the single drop of [Diluted Purified Holy Water : Advanced Grade : 60% concentration] was actually the most important reward. The potion had a bunch of uses, some of which were vanquishing evil spirits, causing greater damage to dark forces and even canceling out status ailments, depending on the level of the caster. There was however, one very amazing use it had on low level yers; it could reduce the amount of experience points one would lose once they died.

    Once a yer dies, he/she loses both a weapon/equipment and experience points; at least 70% of them. Yes, 70% and not any specific number. Because of this, most yers tried their best not to die so as to avoid losing so much hard work but this advanced potion could solve this problem. The [Diluted Purified Holy Water] could reduce the penalties one would receive upon death from either not losing an equipment/ a weapon or losing only 40% Experience points.

    Due to these few effects and also the tag as an Advanced grade potion, the price for a drop of [Diluted Purified Holy Water] was quite exaggerated; costing as much as 4~5 silver coins. If the price was the main problem, the potion wouldn''t be so special that Ink Snow would want to die for it. The main issue surrounding it was that only the Holy Light Church sold this potion; not even the regr ck market channels essible to yers, had this in their stores. This was of course due to fear of the Holy Light Church as they had ced a ban on selling their products through unofficial channels and if one dared to do so, they would have to face their ire. Ink Snow wanted to get a hold of this potion now that it still had use to them rather than when they would be much higher levelledpared to now.

    "There might be a way though." Herald kept a serious face as he said.

    "What?" Both Panda and Purple Winter were surprised and so asked immediately.

    "Is there really a way or are you ying us?" Gotze asked.

    Herald ignored Gotze and answered, "If you look carefully, this building is quite dpidated. Its walls are broken and there are damages and broken spots all over."

    "So?" Gotze had a puzzled look.

    "Are you really that dumb?" Herald twitched his lips.

    "So there might be a hole in the wall." Ink Snow replied with a look of realisation.

    "Perfecto. Broken walls like these should surely have a breach in them. We just have to find that hole and we could bypass the guards and head right in." Herald exined.

    "But who would be able to that? He or she has to be fast enough and sneaky to be able to avoid those monster down there." Panda questioned.

    "Hehe." Herald budged his sses as a glint appeared on them only for a while. "Isn''t it obvious? Our very own assassin, Gotze of course."

    AN

    I know that it was kinda abrupt bringing a side character''s experience into the work but that''s how I write. I don''t like ignoring other characters and I try to make them rte or connect with one another. This chapter might seem abrupt (and trust me, it is lol), but it would have appearedter on. I just brought it forward for some reasons. Just know this, everything in this book connects. I just spoilt a lot but who cares? You would pretty much forget this, lol.

    Oh yeah, my Deity Creed is to remember everyone. ''For what one gives, one receives'' and also, ''Everything rtes in the material world.'' For more greatprehension of the Dao from this deity, visit Ti¨¡n m¨®ji¨¨ ....

 Chapter 119 - 115 : Temple Of Chains

    (AN : Alert me of any errors)

    "Me?" Gotze pointed at himself.

    "Well, you are the fastest of us all here." Herald said while spreading his arms out.

    "But I can''t even spot the monsters!"

    "Don''t worry, I will lend you my [Sefiris'' eye]." Herald smirked. ''That''s what you get for calling me four eyes.''

    The group then agreed on Herald''s suggestion after all, Gotze was indeed the fastest and the skills of his [Assassin] ss made him suitable for stealth missions like this. With [Sefiris'' eye], he would also be able to avoid the monsters on the way.

    "Good luck then." Purple Winter cheered him up while Herald stered an over-exaggerated derisive grin on his face.

    . . . . .

    "How long is it taking him?" Panda kept staring around the entire ce in search of Gotze''s Silhouette.

    "Long. Even if his [Agility] is above 12, he would still take some time to scout the entire ce. Remember, he still has to be careful moving around even if he has [Sefiris'' eye] with him." Heraldmented.

    "Hmm?" Ink Snow felt a presence beside her.

    "I''m back." Gotze appeared out of nowhere.

    Ink Snow hurriedly asked, "Did you find any?"

    Gotze smiled mysteriously before saying "Yes."

    "Hah."

    Everyone immediately released a sigh of relief upon hearing that. Even though they were prepared to abandon the mission andplete it another day, the time and resources spent on this would go to waste. So it would be much better to try andplete the mission now rather thanter on when they are much stronger, far into the future.

    "How safe is it?" Ink Snow realized something and promptly inquired.

    "It''s okay. All we need to do is avoid the other monsters and we are good to go. I went through the breach and inspected the periphery and it seemed safe to me." Gotze replied.

    "Alright then. Let''s go."

    With that, Gotze lead the team over to the location of the hole on the wall. It was located on the east side of the edifice and as the structure was as big as a huge stadium, it took them at least 30 minutes of running before they reached it. The reason for the long time wasn''t only because of the size of the building but also due to the fact that they had to avoid monsters on their way there. Sometimes, they had to wait for the monster to pass and at other times, they had to circle round it.

    "Over there." Gotze pointed at a particr spot on the building''s wall.

    There was a crack there but not your average crack. It was better to call it a fissure on the wall. Part of the wall had copsed to form a breach through it. For an unknown reason, all they could see in there was total darkness. This was even with the brilliant light of the scorching sun beaming down on the entire ce.

    "It looks creepy." Purple Winter broke the silence while staring at the ''ck hole''.

    "Infinite Realm did good with this imagery. They just bumped my Nyctophobia[1] by one factor." Pandamented.

    On the other hand, Herald looked at Gotze skeptically and then asked "You sure you went it?"

    "You didn''t actually expect me to enter alone? What if there was a teleportation formation that would send me elsewhere? Or even a shield that would prevent me from exiting from the same ce?"

    "Then how did you..."

    "I used a handy too for the [Assassin] ss or rather, my subss [Hunter]. It enables me to be able to scout any ce without having to actually be there." Gotze replied with a smug smile.

    The [Hunter] subss was one of the few battle sub-sses and was mostly picked up by assassin yers or Rangers. It not only increased their damage output, attack power and attack speed but it also gave them a few useful skills, one of which was [Detect] that lets yers scout an area within a specific radius for any life-form.

    "Enough talking. Whether he did it personally or not doesn''t matter. Let''s go and remember, all we need to do is to find signs of a living creature; we don''t need to fight it."

    Ink Snow added thatst part because it was highly possible that whatever might dwell here wouldn''t be as simple as a level 10 monster. After all, the guards at the front door, though stone golems, were level 25. She was right to do so as their mission was just to find a relic or a monster that had the same energy as the relic she had before.

    Once they got close to the wall, Panda and Herald hesitated a bit to go in first so Ink Snow took the lead with Purple Winter and Gotze forcing them in.

    Inside the hole was a corridor with candle-stands hung on the wall. The strange thing however, was that these candle-stands didn''t have any candles on them. Strange blue stones were nted on the candle-stands and these were actually the source of light for the entire ce.

    With the aid of the faint blue light, the group looked around at their current location. ck stone walls with inscriptions carved on them, green coloured tiles thaty on the floor and the really high ceiling that was at least 20 meters away from them. All these were the most noticeable features of the creepy corridor.

    [[ System notification :

    Congrattions! You have discovered the [Temple of Chains]

    ]]

    "Temple of Chains? What the hell does that mean?!" Gotze looked at the notification with a bit of surprise.

    In Infinite Realm, as not all yers are truly enthusiastic about gaming for more than 6 hours in real time nor did they actually have such free time, they looked to make a few bucks via various means. Some of which were fully focusing on their money-making sub-sses like cksmithing, Alchemy, and the rest, with hope that they could advance faster and sell their goods. Some decided to search for materials and the rest before selling them to other yers. One other special job was the information gatherers and these guys sort and gathered numerous information, assorted in multiple ways.

    Ranging from information on forums like who the newest pro yer that joined the game was or what event was trending before to in game information like history lessons that could be found in libraries, where to grind to get 2 star materials or to profit the most and so on. Since some yers barely have enough time to visit the Town library or even to finish the books there, they usually buy information from these people. Snow''s team undoubtedly did the same thing.

    There were various religions and Temples in Infinite Realm and from the generalized information they got, there was no such Temple like this Temple of Chains ever recorded. There was not even a religion of Chains or any religion associated with chains. Though some demonic churches did have chains associated with them, this was in an inadvertent manner; their religion didn''t value chains so much as to name a temple after it.

    "The System says congrattions but doesn''t even bother to give us a little reward or something." Panda smiled wryly.

    "It''s quite cold here." Purple Winter said.

    In other to cope with the hot weather outside, the team had worn light clothes, ones far lighter than the usual leather armor worn by assassins and rangers.

    "This cold...it isn''t just from the air; it''s the ambience here. It reeks of an ominous aura." Herald said as he studied the ce with [Sefiris'' eye] on. He had gotten it back from Gotze right after they had reached the entrance of the breach.

    "Everyone, enter formation and raise your guards up. This is uncharted territory so expect anything. Also, switch to metal armour for those need to and the rest, switch to your best armour." Ink Snowmanded.

    "This might be a much more dangerous ce than we thought."

    . . . . .

    Within the building were 4 smaller temples arranged in 4 different directions when considering the entrance down South; one at the North, another two at the East and at the West with thest one being at the centre, a bit far away from the entrance.

    Within one of the temples, the one in the centre to be specific, was a passage underground. It lead to a dark room that barely had any lighting except the few ''stone-stands'' in there. There was no furniture here neither were there any noticeable object or feature here apart from one thing, a 19 metres diameter pool thaty at the centre of the room.

    The pool was bordered by 19 red stones that were indented at the boundaries of the pool. Though it was called a pool, it wasn''t one of water. It had an azure coloured liquid within it, together with the blue light that came off from the stones on the wall, the entire room was light in a faint azure colour.

    Everywhere was calm and quiet like a cemetery as if there was nothing here but suddenly, the already bad lighting dimmed even more as a creature''s silhouette was spotted in the pool. The shadow onlysted for less than 3 seconds before it disappeared and the entire ce brightened up once again.

    AN :

    Infinite Facts :

    To better imagine the building''syout.

    IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

    I O  I

    I I

    I I

    I O O I

    I  I

    I  O  I

    I  I

    IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

    I I

    IIIIIIIIIII

    Y Y

    The ''O''s are the smaller temples. The ''Y'' are the two golem guards.

    PS : It might look a bit ruined in some phones and different fonts.

 Chapter 120 - 116 : Run

    The group of 5 had been wandering along the corridor for a while now, looking for any object or life form that possessed the same energy as the one Ink Snow had handed the priest.

    In other to achieve this, Ink Snow was given a special orb by the Priest Nathel. It could detect that exact energy signal from an object or life form as long as one was within a radius of 10 metres to the object.

    Ink''s team had already walked more than300m but they had yet to encounter any living creature. This was even after finding 13 different rooms and exploring them. On the good note though, they managed to find one Mortal rank chest that awarded them a level 15 Mid tier Mortal rank shield and a two Alchemy recipes. The alchemy recipes went to Purple Winter, as she was the only one who registered for the ss, though she had yet to attain the title. Sadly, no one could Panda couldn''t equip the shield as it was, well level 15 and he was still level 6.

    "Are there really any monsters here?" Purple Winter asked after they had inspected another room. She was quite happy with her harvest. With these new recipes, she could test out the different procedures and possibly seed in finally concocting a potion and bing an Alchemist.

    As unfair as it seems, the way subss tests are taken could defer from one location to another, especially from one kingdom to another. The heads present, make their own separate rules so in ck Mountain Town, Riverdale Town and all the other towns of Fallen Heart Kingdom, it was easier to be an apprentice alchemist as you just have to read and take a test. But in Reiss Kingdom, you have to concoct a low level drug. This of course, would take time but you can pay for lectures from professionals who would then teach you. The very second a yer sessfully concocts a potion, he or she bes an alchemist, directly skipping the rank of Apprentice. There was of course an easier way and that was to register under a certified Alchemist who would then take you as an apprentice. But this method required farming for rtionship points and still paying a fee so it was quite tedious and only for the strong-willed and rich.

    "I don''t know but we haven''t gone far enough yet." Gotze answered.

    "If we keep spending so much time here without achieving anything, we would get behind of the top pros and even way more behind of those lucky guys." Panda sighed.

    Panda was a level 6 yer. In ces like Lavissen, that wasn''t exposed to any grand event, he would be admired by the major popce as a top ss yer but in those "clover towns", he would just be a bit better than regr yers and not as special as he was here. Though it didn''t sound so bad, Panda didn''t feel that way. He felt it was unfair, the treatment yers there got but there was nothing he could do about it except to work harder. So rather than exploring an empty building for a non existent goal, he would rather spend that time grinding monsters and levelling up.

    "*Sighs* Let''s check a couple more rooms. If we find nothing, then we leave."

    Ink Snow too felt the same as Panda but she still hoped toplete this mission.

    "Okay." Everyone nodded in ordance.

    After they had just taken there steps forward, Gotze suddenly froze.

    "What''s up?" Herald, who happened to be beside him asked.

    "... there''s something close." Gotze replied after a while.

    Seeing the two that had suddenly stopped moving, Ink Snow asked "What''s up?"

    "I''m not too sure but I think I spotted something with my [Detect]" Gotze answered her. Since his [Detect] skill could spot any moving object within a specific radius, he was tasked with navigating the path and alerting the team of any ambush. Since they had not yet encountered anything so far, he was a bitc in concentration but he still used the minimum amount of effort to perform his task.

    "!!!"

    Immediately, Gotze'' eyes widened as he roared " It''sing. Everyone, run! This way quick."

    After he alerted his teammates, Gotze dashed forward at high speed without waiting for anyone.

    The team was filled with professionals that knew to react first before asking why so they all ran after Gotze.

    *Boom*

    As Ink Snow got close and was about to ask him what was going on, she heard a loud boom and once she turned her head over to look, she saw the wall some distance away, copsing. A ck humanoid puppet[1] then walked out from the breach and turned to look at the team. It so happened that Ink Snow and the puppet met with their eyes. With a glint in it''s eyes, the puppet chased after the team that was way ahead of it.

    "What the hell is that?!!" Purple Winter yelled.

    "I don''t know but it''s strong. Very strong. Level 15 strong." Herald replied after he had scanned the puppet with [Sefiris'' eye].

    "Damn it." Gotze, who was in front, happened to hear this and he cursed. Using [Detect], he only discovered that a creature was heading their way. As for it''s strength and looks, he didn''t know that. Now finding out that the monster chasing them was a level 15 puppet, he couldn''t help but curse.

    Puppets were far worse than regr monsters because of one special thing about them; they weren''t alive. As objects or machines, theycked a few features that regr living creatures would have. A good example would be pain sensitivity and stamina. Puppets don''t feel pain and they don''t get tired. Just this single line had reduced their chances of survival to0.01%. If they were to have faced a regr monster, they could at least try to hold it back by using their trump cards, like scrolls and explosives, to deal concentrated damage to a weak spot like a joint, and weaken it hence slowing it down and out running the monster. But in the case of a puppet, that wasn''t possible as even if they were damaged, unless it was a serious one, they would still be at their peak form. As for dealing heavy damages to it, this wasn''t viable because the level difference was too big; not something that could easily be prevailed by just trying their best.

    "If we keep running in a straight line like this, it would soon catch up." Panda reminded.

    "There are two paths up ahead." Herald stated. As a Ranger, he had better eyesight than the other sses so being able to see a couple of metres ahead more clearly than normal, was a simple thing for him.

    "Right." Gotze yelled. Though [Detect] could be used to only spot moving objects, Gotze had managed to use it as a form of sonar radar to scan theyout of an environment. Of course, this method of his wasn''t perfect and had a very slim chance of being urate.

    The team of 5 immediately dived towards the right once they reached the junction. In the process of doing so, Ink Snow dropped a few round objects on the ground and threw some at the wall.

    2 seconds after they had passed by, the puppet had arrived at the same junction and also went right. As it did so, multiple explosions rang out as the entire area within a radius of 5 metres, was set aze.

    *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

    The walls also copsed and buried the puppet in, while blocking the path further ahead.

    What Ink Snow had used was an explosive device simr to the [Simple Explosives] Sato had used back when he was level 0 but this one was more powerful than that one. Despite being more powerful, Ink Snow knew it wouldn''t be able to kill that puppet but her intention wasn''t to do so but to slow it down. Normally, for a Temple as big as this, the walls would be a lot stronger and more resistant to explosions but due to the constant negligence the building had received together with it''s old age, the walls became a lot weaker and so, it was vulnerable to explosions.

    After the rumbling went on for 4 seconds, the ce became quiet. 10 secondster though...

    *Bang*

    A hand came out from the pile of rocks.

    Meanwhile, Ink''s team had been running for awhile now. They had already exited the building and where at the centre area, the ce where the 4 smaller temples where housed.

    "Where do we go?" Confused after seeing different buildings, Gotze asked Ink Snow.

    "This way!" Ink Snow ran to an edifice by her left. It so happened to be that this was the Temple located at the Northern area.

    Ink Snow hadn''t really randomly chosen a location. Not only where the other buildings far, but her instincts alerted her that going over there would be very dangerous. It felt like there was a very ominous and powerful creature or object there, that would unhesitatingly kill them the very second they got closer. The temple in front of her however, felt much saferpared to those 3 but that didn''t mean it was safe.

    ''I just hope I''m not wrong.''

    AN :

    Infinite Facts :

    IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

    I O I <<------ T

    I I

    I I

    I O O I

    I O I

    I I

    I I

    IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

    I I

    IIIIIIII

    Y Y

    T - where they exited from.

    PS : It might look a bit ruined in some phones and different f

 Chapter 121 - 117 : The Old Man

    [[ System notification :

    Congrattions! You have discovered the [Temple of Chains : Mazu''sir]

    ]]

    "Yeah~ . Another congrattions." Gotze sarcasticallymented.

    The team had already entered the Northern temple and before they could begin scrutinizing the entire ce, they all received a system notification.

    Ignoring Gotze''s sillyment, Ink Snow scanned the entire ce with her eyes.

    Mazu''sir was actually a simple building with not much decorations andplicated structures. There was only just one or two special features about the ce.

    First and foremost, Mazu''sir was just a huge corridor that led straight, with no branches or junctions or side doors and rooms. Secondly andstly, it only had one noticeable hallmark; a rather conspicuous one at that. The sides of the corridor was bordered by huge 19 metres tall statues of warriors in different armors and clothing, and beasts of different shapes and looks. The thing they had inmon was that both statues were colored ck and the material used to make them didn''t seem like regr stones or ores as it had a weird metallic sheen to it.

    "Creepy." Purple Wintermented on them.

    The human statues of course, weren''t the creepy ones instead, it were the beast ones. One of them looked like lions with the body of a bird and a snake''s tail, another looked like a disfigured human with arms sprouting not only from the shoulder but also from both the back and the original existing arms. One looked like a behemoth from the abyss, seeming as if it''s existence was meant only for destruction and devouring.

    "True. This ce is really creepy. I keep getting this sinister vibe from here." Herald nudged his sses.

    "Let''s just look around the ce first." Ink Snow said.

    Since there was only one path ahead of them, the team walked straight, in search of either another exit or their mission target.

    After a few minutes of walking, they finally reached the end of the road. Well, it wasn''t actually the real end of the road but more like the ''end'' on top; the path continued underground to an unknown location.

    "Wow." Panda eximed as he stared at the wall that stood in front.

    "Wow? More like very creepy and scary." Purple Wintermented.

    "What strange creature is this?" Gotze asked as he stared at the wall up ahead.

    As the road on the surface had gone underground, what stood before them was a wall. However, the wall wasn''t nk but had a mural painted on it with a few words scribbled on the side and beneath.

    The painting on the wall was that of a ''ck sun'' with a silhouette ingrained within it. No trait or attribute of the silhouette could be made out from the mural. It looked more like a gray shadow just drawn within the ''ck sun'' but at the same time looked to be portraying a hand figure.

    Depicted in front of the ''ck sun'', slightly below it, was a monster in a ck hood with a a ck staff in it''s right hand and an opened grimoire in it''s left. The contents of the grimoire couldn''t be seen due to the angle the monster held the book but the cover of the grimoire was wine red in colour; bordering brown in shade. The monster''s features couldn''t be made out due to a dark shadow that hovered on it''s face and the only reason the team called it a ''monster'' was because of two protruding horns that pierced it''s hood. Otherwise, when looking at it from an overview, it looked no different from the outline of a regr human being. A chain hung around it''s neck and this very chain connected it to the ''ck sun'' behind it.

    "I guess that''s Mazu. Right?" Gotze asked.

    "Who are you asking? I pretty much guessed the same but I don''t know a thing about here." Herald expressed hisck of knowledge.

    "If you guys are done admiring that, then let''s go. We don''t have all day." Ink Snow hurriedly the group.

    Upon hearing her words and recalling the mission, the team walked over to the stairs and began their descent down. When Herald, who was the one walking behind, had gone down the stairs, a red light burst from the location of the eyes of the ''monster'' in the painting as a white colour began to take form a bit below the eyes.

    3 secondster and the transformation waspleted, leaving behind a hooded twin-horned creature with two red eyes and a big grin.

    2 minutes of descent and the team finally arrived at the end of the stairs but what they encountered was the least of their expectations and the worst of it all.

    They got frozen immediately thest man, Herald, got down the staircase. The good news though, was that they hadpleted their objective as the special orb handed over to Ink Snow by the priest, Nathel, was glowing brilliantly. The bad news though was both the reason of the glowing and their abrupt paralysis and immobility. The ''object'' that possessed the energy wasn''t an object but a life form and it was staring at the group.

    "Shit!" Gotze cursed. The only effect that was ced on them was immobility so they could still talk and breathe but couldn''t move their arms, legs or body.

    "It''s powerful. Really powerful. Way more scarier than that puppet." Herald was sweating badly.

    [Sefiris'' eye] had the ability to gauge a person or an object''s prowess by scanning the energy value of the person or object. When Herald stared at the cloaked humanoid creature with his sses, he could see that it''s energy signal was off the roof. If it was to let it''s energy re up, they would just be crushed by the sensation of the energy. More so through [Sefiris'' eye], Herald discovered that the reason they couldn''t move wasn''t because of any spell or skill but simply because the energy of the creature was so viscous that it held back their mobility. After knowing this, he couldn''t help but sweat violently. He would have even shivered too but his body couldn''t move an inch.

    ''We are dead! We''re so f**king dead!''

    Thest time Herald had ever experienced this sort of fear was back in Conquest, when he was just a level 50 yer confronted by a level200NPC. Back then, he could at least move but he couldn''t do much. This time however, he couldn''t even move an inch much less escape.

    While Herald got cold feet, Gotze was slightly feeling better though he was still worried.

    ''[Detect] couldn''t spot it...What does this mean? Is it so powerful?''

    The team couldn''t be med for reacting this way. Though they were pro yers, they were only but a small party with most of them below the Top Expert rank and with not so much experience in gaming. Getting cold feet while facing such a creature was still understandable.

    "All trespassers must die..." The cloaked fiend pointed its right index finger at the team while uttering iprehensible words which seemed to be understood by the yers in their head.

    The next second, a dark beam darted out from the extended finger and collided on Panda. Almost instantly, his body disintegrated into atomic particles that disappeared from everyone''s sight. On their party channel, they noticed that the Panda''s name got grayed out meaning that he was dead.

    "Shit! Shit! Shit!" Gotze continuously cursed. "Move useless body, move!" He tried to force out every ounce of strength to move his body but all he couldn''t even manage to make his body quiver less than an inch.

    "Noisy." The creature pointed this time, towards Gotze and just as it happened before, a ck beam shot Gotze and killed him too.

    "So this is how we go huh? At least wepleted the mission." Herald smiled ruefully. Truth be told, he didn''t want to die, no one did, but he didn''t have a choice. He couldn''t defeat the monster so he just looked at the bright side of things before leaving things to fate.

    "Yeah. At least we did something..." Ink Snow sighed. "I''m sorry you guys."

    Ink Snow believed that if they had retreated earlier on, they wouldn''t be in this mess. Even though they had technically achieved the mission, the amount of experience points lost with this death might even surpass their gains. In other words, the investment might turn out to be greater than the profit.

    "No need for apologies Ink. It''s not your fault." Purple Winterforted her. As soon as shepleted her statement, a dark beam struck her and so, Purple Winter joined up with the other two in where ever the hell they were.

    Less than a secondter, Herald too had followed, leaving behind only Ink Snow. As the creature then pointed at Ink Snow to end her life, it suddenly froze and widened its eyes. Ink Snow noticed this anomaly but before she could guess what was going on, the creature blew up.

    *Boom*

    The explosion wasn''t so huge but the strange things about it was that there was no blood or insides spilled but rather something unexpected. Confetti.

    As the creature blew up, Ink Snow regained her movements but before she could decide whether to leave or not, another figure appeared by the spot the creature was. It was an old man with a friendly smile on his face.

    He looked to be around 50 years of age or so and from his facial features, one could imagine how handsome he was back in his youth. He was still handsome though and the big white beard also gave him a special sense of refinement and style.

    "Oh? What''s a youngdy like you doing in this dangerous ce?" The old man asked Ink Snow with a smile on his face.

    Ink Snow still kept her guard up as she wondered who he was, but she still replied "I was sent by a priest on a mission here."

    "A priest? Of what order and his name?"

    "Priest Nathel. Holy Light Church." Ink Snow replied.

    "Hmm? One of Az'' kids. Hmm. You seem to be telling the truth. I can sense an aura of light from you. It''s a good thing that we happened toe across each other so I ask you this, is there anything you need?" The old man asked Ink Snow.

    Ink Snow didn''t know whether she could still trust the man so all she did was try to fulfill her mission objective to a much higher rank.

    Ink Snow brought out the orb that hung by her waist. It was currently dull now whenpared to its previous glow with little signs of light here and there due to the remnant energy from the creature. She then answered the old man.

    "Just one thing. I need any object or relic that has the energy signal detectable by this orb. It would be nice if I can get a body part from a life form."

    Ink Snow requested for this because she wanted to know the limit of this man''s strength and from the way he timely appeared after the death of that creature, she beliihe was very strong and decided to use him toplete her quest greatly.

    "Hahaha. You''re one good kid. You didn''t even ask who I was or anything like that but just went straight to the point. I like you and for that, not only will I fulfill your request, I will also send you other of here for free." The old man guffawed as he stroked his beard.

    Ink Snow was surprised at his im but remembering that he might have been the one to defeat that creature plus his sudden appearance, she didn''t say a thing.

    "I might not be able to help you with a life form but here, have this." The old man took an object out of thin air and tossed it to her. "It should work right?"

    As soon as the object was brought out, the orb glowed brightly again, even more so than when the creature was alive. Ink Snow caught the object and it turned out to be a rusted key.

    "Yes, sir." Ink Snow bowed. After seeing the old man''s ability, she knew better than to annoy him.

    "Hmm, ''sir''. I kinda like the ring to that. Okay now, off you go." The old man waved his hand as if pursuing Ink Snow away and as he did so, she vanished from the spot.

    "Now....Why don''t you stop hiding ande out let''s y a bit eh? Dear Mazu~"

 Chapter 122 - 118 : Heading Back

    "That''s enough for today. Let''s stop here."

    With the fall of thest Kobold, which was a level 7 creature, Sato stared at his teammates.

    "It''s almost 5pm in real time. *Sighs* Can''t believe we''ve been at it for 4 in game hours." Fudo sighed.

    "Alright. So how many [Teleportation runes] do we have?" Sato asked the squad.

    "We alreadypleted for ourselves the double requirement and this includes Xue''er''s. Counting in the ones we got from thesest batch, I''d say we have 3 extra runes." Lu Zhen replied him after recounting their expedition.

    With Xue Yan''s map, they were able to reach the Middle region''s 5th floor in time about an hour ago or so; this was in real time of course so when calcted, it bes 2 hours in game time[1].

    Unlike the 4th floor and the other lower floors, the 5th floor monsters weren''t your regr Rock Golems. The new addition were simr but also different from their old counterparts. They were miniature Rock Golems, human sized Earth golems and so on. There were even a few totally new monster species down here; the Earth moles and a few Ground Rats which were based off a few creatures that existed in the Old era.

    The Earth moles and Ground Rats were human sized rodents that had quite a superb dexterity and fast reactions. During their first encounter with these creatures, Lu Zhen had almost died as he was caught off guard by a tail whip from a Ground Rat. If not for Fudo''s great timing, he could have been dead after all, these creatures were all level 7 at the very least. Yes. The monsters on the 5th floor were all level 7s though they sometimes spotted a few level 6s here and there.

    "Good. Hand me those ones." Sato outstretched his hand. Lu Zhen then dropped the remnants of their hunt into Sato''s hands before stepping back.

    "Okay. Let''s test it out then." Sato pulled out two [Teleportation rune] before dropping the rest into his storage bag. "Oh, right! Just in case it works, we meetter; possibly by 9PM real time or I might just call you all."

    "Okay."

    From the info about the [Teleportation rune] Sato got from the item''s details and also the beginner knowledge he had read in a cksmith guide book, runes usually worked by using mana. This sounded bias as Physical sses can''t use mana so the runes also had a secondary activation path. It could either be by using blood or expressing your intentions on the rune[2]. The [Teleportation runes] were equipped with all of the above named activation sequences and so, even if one wasn''t a mage ss, they could still use it.

    After receiving their replies, Sato used one of the [Teleportation runes] to save his current coordinates. Doing this wasn''t so bad as all one had to do was nce at their location while clenching the rune in their hand and then say "save location" or something simr, in their head. Using this method, Sato saved his current location''s coordinates before dropping the [Teleportation rune] that had the coordinate into his space bag. [Teleportation runes] they got all had a blue colour but after having saved his coordinates, the one Sato had held became red.

    ''Now, to try this.''

    [Teleportation runes] had two simple functions, first to store location coordinates in ck Grill''s Cave and the other to arrive at the stored location. Logically speaking from this angle, it is impossible for a [Teleportation rune] to send them to the entrance of ck Grill''s Cave unless the coordinates were stored in it but Sato had an instinctual feeling that it could do so. Why? Because not only was the [Teleportation rune] only practical in ck Grill''s Cave but also because he believed that it would be weird for the System to have made it possible to return to thest floor explored but not the entrance; but it being weird didn''t mean it was impossible for the System to act like that. Of course, this idea of his could only proven to be true if he could demonstrate it in action. If it where anyone else, they might not know how to do so but Sato had already thought it out and he did so with a question.

    If [Teleportation runes] could send you to the location stored in them, what would happen if you activate them without storing a location?

    Normally, one would answer "It wouldn''t work" or something like that but Sato thought otherwise.

    ''It has a chance of working, though a very small one, but if it does, it should send us to the exit or maybe a secret chamber. Either way, it''s a win-win.''

    Taking a deep breath, Sato squeezed the [Teleportation rune] in his hand as he yelled in his mind, ''Teleport''.

    The others then watched as a tons of tiny blue runic symbols appeared out of nowhere and clung to Sato''s body as he was engulfed in a dazzling blue light, turning into a human sized blue sun. In less than 2 seconds, this phenomenon was gone, together with Sato''s figure.

    "Did it work?" Xue Yan hesitated before asking.

    Xue Yan was actually against Sato''s idea as she thought that it wouldn''t work. The reason why she thought so was that most games were systematic; if they said that swords could only be used to stab then it could only be used to stab and not to sh. She thought that Infinite Realm would be exactly like that so she felt that Sato was just doing something that was no good to gundy[3]. Now however, seeing a reaction ur before her eyes with Sato going missing, Xue Yan was starting to think that maybe she was wrong.

    "Let me call him first." Fudo hurriedly opened up his system interface and seeing that Sato''s name was colored green, signifying that he was alive, he silently breathed a sigh of relief before clicking on the name and tapping the audio call button.

    [[System : Outgoing Audio call.

    Calling Sky de¡­ ]]

    [[System : Audio call epted]]

    "So what happened? Why didn''t you call back? Did it work?"

    "It surprisingly did work." Sato chuckled in response to Fudo''s questions. Even though it was his idea, Sato had actually felt that the chances of it seeding was less than 50%.

    "For real right? You didn''t get sucked to a void crack or something or even into a hidden chamber?" Fudo asked.

    "Nope, none of that."

    Fudo sighed. "Damn."

    "Oi. Fatso, don''t tell me you wanted to me to go missing or something?" Sato''s voice sounded in his ears.

    "Hehe. Not really but finding a hidden chamber would have been much better than just being sent to the exit." Fudo chuckled. That was indeed true. Though being able to return to the main entrance was already good enough, if they could enter a hidden chamber, they would have been the first to reach there, explore it and possibly find some good treasures.

    "Enough of your dreams, get over here with others too."

    "Roger."

    [[System : Audio call terminated]]

    After ending the call, Fudo turned to face the others.

    "So, how did it go?" Lu Zhen asked. Fudo had answered the call in a private mode[4] so Lu Zhen couldn''t hear anything. Though he could see his lips moving, he didn''t know how to read lips.

    "It worked...?" Xue Yan, unsure of her statement.

    "Yep. We can easily return now." Fudo grinned.

    ''To be able to see a feature like that without any direct hint...that Sato guy is smart.'' Xue Yan was in awe of Sato. She always prided herself of being smart but she never thought in that direction. While she looked at Infinite Realm as the usual other VR games, Sato had already epted it as another reality.

    ''I guess it might not be bad being in this team if he''s the one leading it.''

    After a short period of amazement together with admiration at Sato''s ingenuity, the team all proceeded to take their [Teleportation runes] out before saving their current coordinates on one of them and using the other to leave the ce. Multiple ''blue suns'' formed before disappearing within seconds with no sign of any living creature apart from the indications of a battle being all over the ce.

    However, even though there was no sign of any living creature, that didn''t mean that there wasn''t any...

    With a short sh of blue light, 3 figures appeared by a dark spot close to the main entrance of ck Grill''s Cave. These three were Fudo, Lu Zhen and Xue Yan. The [Teleportation rune] didn''t send them exactly at the entrance but rather at a hidden spot that was blocked off by a huge Boulder from the main road. There was a formation engraved at the spot they stood. This ce was just a few metres away from the entrance; give or take, 40 metres away.

    After regaining their senses, the three began looking around for Sato.

    "Over here." Sato waved at them. He had been standing guard by the boulder so they didn''t notice him immediately after they had arrived.

    "That was cool! Let''s go at it again." Fudo eximed. After he activated the rune, he only felt a strange feeling of weightlessness before his entire vision was upied by total darkness and the next thing he knew, he was here.

    "As long as you do mind having a way to return back, you can use yourst rune." Lu Zhen smirked.

    "Tch. It isn''t as if you don''t know that I was joking." Fudo twitched his lips. He might like yo y dumb but he wasn''t really dumb. Fudo obviously knew that using hisst rune just for fun would really be stupid; same as shooting himself in the ***, since he wouldn''t be able to return unless he hunted down a Kobold by himself.

    "Enough. The main road is this way. Once we leave, we go out separate paths till 7pm real time. 4 in game hours should be enough for everyone do prepare right? Then till we meet again."

    Once he was done with his short speech, Sato walked out towards the entrance with Fudo following close.

    Xue Yan and Lu Zhen walked out together but they didn''t talk to each other all through their amble till they were close to the "gate".

    "He was really telling the truth." Xue Yan broke the silence as she looked at the bustling entrance filed with yers and hawkers.

    "He might seem unreliable with his rude behavior and cold face but he''s a nice and honest guy." Lu Zhenmented.

    "You sound like you''ve fallen for him."

    "What the heck? No! I''m as straight as a ruler for godsake!" Lu Zhen quickly retorted.(AN: Don''t get offended here)

    "Pfft. You should really see yourself right now." Xue Yanughed prettily. She was already a goddess with her cold personality; a smile on her face just seemed to brighten the area and turn it into a day in a flower field at Springtime.

    Lu Zhen smiled seeing her like this.

    "Huh? What''s wrong with you? Why are you smiling?" Xue Yan stoppedughing.

    "Nothing. Just seeing you happy makes me happy too."[5]

    "...are you hitting on me?" Xue Yan stared at Lu Zhen strangely. Her cheeks had a light Rosy colour to them but Lu Zhen didn''t see this.

    *Coughs* "What the heck? I give up. Looks like your brain isn''t functioning as usual." Lu Zhen retorted while knocking in her head.

    "By the way, where will you go from here?"

    "Back to town I guess." Xue Yan replied slowly.

    Lu Zhen stared at the yers in front before saying "Okay then. Since I have nowhere to go now, I guess I will follow you. We have a lot of catching up to do after all."

    "Hmm." Xue Yan softly nodded.

    AN :

    I have sinned against you all. This was supposed to havee yesterday to tell you all of the premium stuff but I had a night shift and slept off.. So, today I will be skipping work¡­next chp will have my exnations and apologies.

 Chapter 123 - 119 : Suicide Isnâ€™t Good

    (AN ; Really, suicide isn''t good.)

    "So, we head to town first and get some supplies right? Or do we log off? Cause I''m really craving some pies right now and not some data pies." Fudo sighed as they were walking away from the entrance. Despite Infinite Realm being proimed as a second world, it was more or less so, still a virtual world. As a result of this undeniable truth, some things you could get in reality, you still couldn''t get it here. That''s why despite their life in virtual worlds being way more better and fun than in reality, yers still had to go offline.

    "Yeah. We would head to town first and go offline. Replenishing supplies wouldeter." Sato replied.

    During their exploration in ck Grill''s Cave, there were times they got injured or received damage. Because theycked a healer, they had to make up for this with health potions and so they needed to replenish these potions. They could have obviously done so at the entrance of ck Grill''s Cave but the yers who sold supplies did so at a much higher price than in Town. On,y those who were in a hurry and couldn''t afford to head back to any town close by,would purchase from them.

    "Lu Zhen and that pretty snow[1] where heading to town right? Why didn''t we follow them?" Fudo asked.

    "Lu Zhen says they are rted but from the look of things, it had been a while since they had a proper conversation. They needed the space."

    "Huh? What''s this? When did our dear cold-hearted Sato understand feelings?" Fudo snickered.

    "Hmm?" Sato suddenly froze in steps.

    "I, I was kidding. Come on, don''t do anything to me. You''re a warm-hearted guy, the best and most friendliest human being ever. I''m still a virgin!" Fudo cried while slowly stepping backwards.

    "..." Sato was stunned speechless even more so as he felt some yer''s attention on him after Fudo''s misbehaviour.

    Ignoring Fudo''s facy, Sato recalled his purpose for standing still. Sato nced around at the various yers here, scanning their expressions and dressing. Even though they had separated from Lu Zhen and Xue Yan, Sato and Fudo were still within the environment of ck Grill''s Cave so there were still a lot of yers here. Some yers were hawking their goods while others were looking for yers to apany them into the Cave. All in all, it was quite a vibrant and lively area.

    "What''s wrong?" Fudo noticed Sato''s abnormality and halted his pace.

    "You didn''t notice? Don''t tell me you have been getting rusty already?" Sato smirked at Fudo.

    Upon hearing Sato''s words, Fudo didn''t retort but scanned the entire ce.

    "...I see." Fudo mysteriously smiled.

    "Well then, lets be going." Sato said with a straight face before walking away.

    "Hey, wait up!" Fudo chased after him.

    On another side, two yers who were trying to blend in with the crowd had a frown on their faces.

    "Do you think he noticed us?" The yer on the right asked hispanion.

    "...I don''t think he did right? I mean we are quite far from him and we blended in well¡­" The other yer answered, uncertain of his own words.

    "It doesn''t matter much." Another yer uttered from behind them. This yer wore a brown colored armor and had a wild beard on his chin. Surprisingly though, he wasn''t burly ass one would think if they saw his beard; he was just an average guy who happened to have a high testosterone level.

    The man continued "Once he leaves here, he will be as good as dead. After all, he''s here."

    Ad interim, one yer was hiding in the crowd with ck cloaks on. One would think that he/she will actually stand out but that wasn''t so. It was quitemon for some yers to wear ck cloaks and a few of them were actually present all over here. Because of this, the yer didn''t attract any unnecessary attention. This very cloaked individual was staring at Sato''s back.

    Despite being aware that they were being trailed, Sato and Fudo were moving at a steady pace;her slow nor fast, without any signs of urgency. They went on like this for 15 minutes and by now, they were already far from ck Grill''s Cave and isted from other yers, or so one would think.

    *Phew* *Schuuk*

    "That''s as far as you go."

    An arrow had been shot into the ground, two steps away from Sato. Following the arrows appearance was man''s voice that reverberated. Sato nced at a tree in front of him that happened to be the origin of the arrow and also the voice.

    Standing on the branch of 25 metre tall tree was a Ranger d in forest green leather armour that perfectly blended with his surrounding. If he hadn''t directly revealed himself, it was quite possible that Sato wouldn''t have been able to spot him.

    ''A custom outfit?'' Sato indistinctly frowned. As a an apprentice cksmith who had already been behind the hammers, Sato could easily identify custom grade and industrial grade equipment. Even though it was a leather armour the man wore, the rules somewhat applied to it too.

    Usually, from the manual he had read, industrial grade armour and equipment mighte in different colours but the shades were limited depending on the ranks of the product. Using this case as an example, level 5 armors coulde in green, red and so on but this was limited to only one shade. So while green is one of the colours used, forest green isn''t. This is unless the armour was not a level 5 one or it was custom-made.

    Logically speaking, it should be impossible for any yer to be able to get custom-made weapons after all, the fee for hiring a cksmith is expensive; really expensive that it even hurts the wallet of those big guilds. Because of the high price tag attached, custom-made weapons, essories and armours shouldn''t be able to reach the hands of regr yers.

    ''Are they from a big guild then? No. I might just be thinking too much.''

    Even though it was said that custom-made equipment were gotten from orders made to cksmiths, there was another way, treasure hunting. One could get a custom type weapon or equipment from a treasure chest or if they are even luckier, mission rewards.

    "Who the hell are you people?" Fudo yelled at the Ranger.

    The man, who obviously looked to be much older than Sato and Fudo, red at Fudo before saying "Since you aren''t our target, I will give you a chance here and now. Leave or you will regret it."

    Fudo didn''t explode as one would think. Instead, he calmed himself and stared at the man. "Oh? I''m not you target? Then who is?"

    "Are you stupid or what? It''s obviously not you and there''s only one more person left. Or is your brain the same as a pig just as your body is?" The man smirked.

    "Yo, old man. Do you want to die?" Fudo stared at the man with a smile filled with extreme murderous intent.

    The man felt a shiver run down his spine once he looked at Fudo but he quickly regained hisposure. "Hmph. I was nning to let you off but now it seems like you will die with him too."

    "Enough." Sato finally spoke. "Looking at you, I''m pretty sure you aren''t the boss. So where the hell is he? Or is it a she?"

    "...what do you mean?" The man stared vigntly at Sato.

    "Stop trying to y it cool and call out your boss. I don''t have time to spend on cannon-fodders like you?" Sato yawned.

    "Cannon-fodder?" The man twitched his lips. "Do you want to die?!"

    "Enough, Todo. It looks like the ant is a bit smart." A yer d in full red armor walked out from another area. He had an orange tracker[2] on his head signifying that he was a yer who had a lot of blood on his hands and not monster blood.

    "Who are you?" Sato asked with a curious expression.

    "Tch. Don''t y dumb with me, bastard!" The newly arrived yer yelled. "Take a close look at me and tell me you don''t know who I am?"

    "I don''t know you."

    "Tch. It matters not. You will still die at my, Blood Sword, hands."

    Yes. The newly arrived yer was Blood Sword[3], the berserker from a while back who had lost to Sato together his team, with Sato reaping the rewards of the Mortal rank chest from them back then.

    "Ah~ It''s you, the loser from back then."

    "It doesn''t matter whether you remember me or not. Even if you beg for forgiveness, I still won''t let you off easily."

    "Who said I wanted to beg you for anything?" Sato replied.

    "Heh. You will regret those words. Men. Come on out." Blood Sword called out with a p following which many yers in different clothing and armour, began making their appearance one by one.

    "You thought that I was apanying you in talking hut in actual fact, I was dying for time. Not only have my men now arrived but they''ve set up a formation barrier around us. It cost a lot but it will be able to prevent people from hearing or seeing what will happen next." Blood Sword grinned.

    "Now do you regret not running away?"

    This question wasn''t targeted at Sato but rather Fudo, who had been given the opportunity to leave.

    Fudo ignored him and nced at Sato. This time they were outnumbered and not by monsters, but yers. Even though they were level 8 with their opponents being level 6, they were outnumbered 1:11. In other words, there were at least 22 yers on the opponents side. Being outnumbered by monsters was better as they couldn''t cooperate with each other and use their numbers advantage properly but humans could and they could do even more.

    "Hai[4]¡­Not only did you not learn your lesson before but you also brought even more men. I mean, wanting to die is not bad for you but bringing others to follow you too? " Sato then spoke out loud to his opponents. "Didn''t they teach you all? Having a pig leader is bad already butmitting suicide isn''t good at all."

    AN:

    [1] y on words. One meaning of the name or character ''Xue'' is ''Snow''¡­I think I have a probably of naming girls ''Snow''¡­a ''snow'' problem, lol.. That''s a terrible joke.

 Chapter 124 - 120 : Domineering Skills

    "Hahaha. Hahahahaha. You sure are one funny b**tard." Blood Swordughed wildly. "You know what, I think I like you now. Just drop your space bags and equipment and I will let you go. How about it?"

    "I appreciate you liking me but my apologies, I''m straight. Also, do you take me as a fool? You obviously wouldn''t let us go just after we hand over our stuffs. That doesn''t suit you dark yers." Sato replied.

    With his almost 4 years experience of gaming, Sato obviously knew how to differentiate truth from lies. Bringing 22 men and setting up a barrier just to let him go if he handed over his stuffs? If anyone actually believed such a crap, they might as well believe that the Earth is t.

    "Tch. I''m not gay and it''s your loss for losing such an opportunity." Blood Sword said vexatiously as if he was a good Samaritan that just got rejected for offering to help.

    In truth though, Blood Sword never nned on letting them go scot-free even if Sato and Fudo both handed their equipment and resources. Forgetting the dark yer code of eliminating a target, there existed a blood feud between him and Sato. It should be recalled that a couple of hours back, Sato had fought against Blood Sword''s crew of 4 over a Mortal rank chest. In that event, Crimson Scar, the prideful assassin, had died at Sato''s hands while Sato himself escaped with the contents of the treasure chest. Blood Sword had obviously came back for payback over that disgrace and the fact that he had brought 22 men and a barrier showed that things wouldn''t just end at him taking Sato''s stuffs.

    Despite how twisted it sounds, Blood Sword''s real goal was actually to capture Sato alive and torture him. That was why he brought a team of 22 yers; not to kill him but to capture him. In VR games, killing yers is actually a lot to easier than capturing them alive as the targets could justmit suicide, indirectly escaping from their enemies'' clutches. With 22 different yers, Blood Sword believed that even if Sato was a level 7 yer(the publicly known highest level) he could still capture him alive. But oh, was he in for a good surprise.

    "Since you refused my good will, you might as well die." Blood Sword stated indifferently as if a god judging over mortals.

    From the 4 separate directions (front, left, right and back), different projectiles took the air, all aimed at Sato and Fudo.

    Of the 22 yers Blood Sword had brought, 12 of them were long-range yers and they were divided into 4 teams of 3. Each team had at least 2 Rangers and these yers used a ss specialty skill of theirs, the [Triple Shot] which could allow them to urately fire 3 arrows at a target.

    With the two Rangers in each team shooting a total of 6 arrows, multiply that by 4 and we have 24 arrows. Add that to the remaining 4 mage ss yers'' attacks and there would be 28 projectiles heading towards Sato and Fudo from 4 different directions. If they had alle from the same direction, Sato would have been able to not only dodge it but even block it. But as it came from 4 separate directions, it became harder for him to do so and more riskier.

    "You lose." Blood Sword smirked.

    "Really?" Fudo, who had yet to speak so far, grinned.

    When the projectiles were less than 2 metres away from Sato and Fudo, Fudo held his staff as he muttered silently,

    "[Mana Pulse]."

    Fudo then lifted his staff up and stabbed the bottom down at the floor. Immediately the ck Alder Staff came in contact with the ground, a crimson ethereal cloud-like wave, sted out in all angles like wave. It looked flimsy and weak to the touch as it even passed through Sato without hurting him, but once it came into contact with the projectiles, it either deflected them or crushed them all.

    [Mana Pulse] was a new skill Fudo had gotten quite sometime ago; very long in fact back when they had fought the [Cursed Servant]. It was used to deflect attacks and projectiles aimed at the user but in actual sense, it wasn''t only limited to attacks. To better exin, the skill was used to shove everything within a certain distance of the user, away from the user. If the substance is far weaker than the power wielded by the spell, it could be destroyed by the spell. A good example was some of the arrows fired at them. As they were made from weak materials, below the 1 star rating, those arrows were destroyed.

    The reason Fudo had yet to use this skill was because it wasn''t so practical in battle. It best served as a defence type skill even more so when one is outnumbered in battle. Ignoring the Goblin warfare back then, Fudo had yet to be in such a scenario and so he had yet to use the skill. Also, it had quite a high MP cost, not something one could easily afford especially when they are still low levelled.

    ''But that''s all changed. I can now use it for at least 3 times.'' Fudo grinned like a creep.

    The crimson wave went on for a few more metres before stopping, exactly 5 metres away from Fudo.

    Blood Sword''s team were stunned at the skill''s effects and strength that they halted their advances and thoughts, staring at the mage in a red mage gown.

    *Stomp*

    Taking the opportunity made possible by the enemy team''s act of being stunned in awe, Sato dashed at the yers in front and drew his sword from it''s sheath.

    "You dare?!" The yer closest to Sato was shocked by Sato''s movements. ''Rather than escaping, he actually wants to retaliate?''

    "Die!" The yer, who so happened to be a berserker like his leader, shed his axe at Sato. His attack looked powerful and was even boosted with a skill. Swift and deadly, would be the right words to describe this strike. But in Sato''s eyes, the eyes of a level 8 yer, this attack was as slow as a falling leaf in a calm weather.

    *Schwatt* [2] (Author''s idea of a sword forcefully cutting through flesh.)

    -64 [Chop] (66/130Cannon-fodder yer)

    "Arghhhhh!!!"

    Rather than blocking the attack, Sato had dodged it easily and countered with a sword sh that went through the yer.

    With one sword strike, Sato had easily taken almost half of the yer''s HP. This act alone ced the public in stun again.

    Not letting this chance go by, Sato swung his sword again and brandished it swiftly twice at the yer. In less than a second, the berserker had turned fallen, with his body slowly crumbling to stardust.

    "Sttthhh!"

    All the yers present, apart from Fudo, were all shocked and stunned silly. They couldn''t breathe normally again and were all wondering what cheat this yer had used. Even a level 7 yer couldn''t just defeat that level 6 berserker in 3 moves. Despite the fact that the berserker had not gotten a subss yet and wascking 5 extra attributes points, he still wasn''t supposed to die that easily even more so, that quickly.

    "Is he a demon?" Someone asked.

    It couldn''t be helped that some thought that way as what Sato had achieved was very shocking.

    "Hmm. He''s too weak. I even held back but it looks like I might need to do so more." Sato muttered.

    "Pfft." Blood Sword who stood way back suddenly coughed up blood. As if what Sato had aplished wasn''t mind-blowing enough, he had to rub it in by saying he was holding back.

    "This b**tard...Attack! Kill him! Use everything you have and bring me his head!" Blood Sword roared angrily. Sato had defeated him before and he didn''t want that to happen again especially now that he had 22, no, 21 men on his side.

    "What''s going on?" Blood Sword stared at his men. Even after he had yelled ''attack'' no one had taken a step closer towards Sato. In fact, they had all slowly begun to retreat backwards.

    yers could die and even if they would still resuscitate, they would lose a lot of experience points. No one would like to lose experience points, if they could avoid dying. They all had the same thought; if Sato could kill that guy under 4 moves, what about them? Even for the ones who had sub-sses and boasted of having the highest HP, after taking a look at Sato''s damage values, they knew that it would only be a matter of two or more strikes added to the initial 3 strikes, before they would be goners.

    "What''s going on? Didn''t you hear me? Attack! Whoever gets me that man''s head would receive 2 Upper tier Mortal rank equipment." Blood Sword added incentives to his words.

    "Upper tier Mortal rank equipment? And 2 at that?"

    The yers'' eyes began to glow red with greed. They had seen the power of an Upper tier Mortal rank weapon before. Hell, even their boss used one. Such weapons or equipment could easily change a gamer''s fate and status at this stage of the game. If they had those, they could potentially rival expert yers in battle.

    "But, he''s strong..." One of them hesitated.

    "Strong? Maybe it''s just his weapon. Heck, it should be an Upper tier Mortal rank weapon at least, right? If I kill him and it drops, I could ask the boss for it." One yer, who happened to be a swordsman just like Sato, stared at the de in Sato''s hands with greed.

    "That''s right. There''s no way he could be above level 7. It should be his weapon!"

    When another yer supported this statement, more began to believe it and so, their eyes slowly shined with greed even more. Together with Blood Sword''s promised reward, the yers'' moral was through the roof due to greed.

    Sato on the other hand, didn''t know whether tough or to cry. The useless [Bandit''s Sword] that he had in his hand, which happened to be the lowest of all Mid tier Mortal rank weapons, was actually been spected by the yers to be an Upper tier Mortal rank weapon.

    "Ah!"

    With one yer roaring, the other yers then joined and rushed towards Sato. They are attacked without fear of death and with confidence in numbers. The long-range yers fired their attacks while the physical sses ran forward to assault Sato. Like bees to honey, like a man rushing towards a beautiful woman, like irons to a ma, like, like...

    "Like Moths to a me, you rush to your despair."

 Chapter 125 - 121 : Sneak Attack

    "Fudo, you can go take a break. These guys are too weak to bother you. Leave everything to me." Sato said to Fudo.

    "Haha. You''re right. These morons aren''t fit for this great Emperor to make a move. Fufu." Fudo replied with a smug.

    "Die!" The yer closest to Sato couldn''t stand the way they were looking down at them(dark yers), so he increased his speed and reached Sato quickly.

    This yer happened to also be a berserker and like his short-lived teammate, he also used an axe. Probably due to the wild and destructive nature and look of axes, most dark berserkers tend to prefer them over great-swords and other weapons, though the great-sword still had a much better appeal whenpared to the other weapons; apart from the axe of course.

    Sato didn''t bother to take a stance when facing such a weak yer. He simply swung his sword head-on against the berserker''s attack.

    *ng*

    Facing the full force of Sato''s strength, the berserker''s axe, apanied by the sound of metals colliding, deflected over to the side.

    "Impossible!" The berserker cried. Berserker yers were well known for their strength and attack power. When a berserker set their stats growth to automatic, the system rmendations would even grow them strength-wise.

    ''Even if he is a level 7, he is still a swordsman. With my equipment, I should have been cover up the difference. So then why? I have the boost!''

    In Infinite Realm, stats were one''s representation of strength but it wasn''t theplete real deal. Once one selects a ss, their avatar''s physique and abilities are enhanced in regards to that ss. For example, when one selects the [Berserker], their [Strength] and [Endurance] receive a passive boost in physique and this isn''t recorded by the system but left for the yers to find out. Because of this boost, when a berserker and a swordsman who happens to have the same [Strength] as the berserker, disregarding the bonuses of their equipment and weapons, sh swords, the berserker would be winner of the sh but just by a tiny margin. This tiny margin is due to the passive boost in physique brought about by the ss. The same applied to other sses but in various areas. This way, the various sses would have their special points when a facing an opponent with the exact same attribute points. The specialties of the other sses weren''t yet known but people already knew that berserkers and guardians were innately stronger. But all these only applied as long as the difference in [Strength] between the berserker and the enemy yer wasn''t above 1 point. In other words, this didn''t apply to Sato.

    Sato was a true level 8 yer with 10 attribute points higher than the berserker. With an Upper tier Mortal rank armour that gave him +5 [Strength], there was no way he would lose in a contest of strength to a level 6 berserker.

    Even as the berserkerined, his axe was already knocked to his side, leaving him open to Sato. Sato obviously wouldn''t end things at that. He shed his sword at the berserker with full strength and sent him flying for 5 metres while crashing into other yers before he finally fell down.

    ''Only 5 metres? Tsk.'' Sato grumbled internally but he still kept a serious look as he faced the other yers.

    Despite the phenomenon of a flying berserker having urred, the yers still rushed at Sato with greed and madness. This wasn''t something that could be solved by just killing one person.

    Before he knew it, the next yer had already closed up on Sato but this time, it was a swordsman.

    The swordsman brandished his sword at Sato and because Sato had just attacked the berserker, he didn''t have enough time to dodge and so decided to block the attack with his sword.

    *ng*

    Sparks flew off as the two swords collided. Sato was about to attack the yer when he noticed the grin on his face.

    ''Huh?''

    It was almost toote but Sato managed to sight a ck shadow darting towards him from the side of the enemy swordsman. Because he was caught up with the swordsman in front, he couldn''t block the attack so he then retreated away by stomping his right foot a bit forward and propelling himself backwards and escaping that ck object.

    Once he got his feet back on the ground, Sato nced at the ck object that had aimed at him.

    ''A spear? Interesting.''

    Indeed, it was a spear and guess who was at the other end of the spear. Another berserker. Sato was surprised at the discovery of a spear-wielding yer after all, the spear was one of the hardest weapons to master[1] and was less used whenpared to the sword. Another fun fact was the one at the other end of the spear. It was another berserker.

    ''These guys really love this ss.''

    Before Sato could make a move, he heard a whirring sound. He reacted quickly and turned behind and what was in front of him was an arrow just less than two metres away. At this distance, Sato could easily dodge the attack but he didn''t just do that alone. After the dodged the arrow, Sato grabbed it by the body and spun back to face the berserker who was rushing his way, and threw the arrow at the yer with the entire force his muscles could release.

    Back in the Old Era, an average human adult had about 70kg in strength. Due to the advancements of better food and exercise routines in society, it increased to 80kg. In Infinite Realm now, 5 points in [Strength] is the basic strength measurement of an average human. In other words, 5 points was equivalent to 80kg. Sato had 21 points in [Strength] and when converted to Kilograms, it would be336kilograms! One should know that the record of the strongest man ever back in the Old era had a record of501 kg[2]. At level 8, Sato had gone beyond the half mark for this record. Even though he hadn''t yet reached it,336 kg was something to behold, especially when that amount of force is channeled into an arrow.

    *Phew*

    The arrow sped over to the berserker and because he never expected his opponent to fire a projectile at him, he got hit right in the eye by the arrow.

    "Arghhhhh!!!"

    Dropping his sword out of reflex, he held onto his wounded eye and yelled.

    Sato wanted to rush over but the other yers had already caught up to him. So far, he had either killed or immobilised 3 yers out of 22. He was still a long way to go if he wanted to win this.

    Gripping his sword hilt tightly, Sato ran towards the yers because he knew that if he spaced out too often, the long-range yers would aim at him.

    The approaching yers were delighted that Sato ran towards them rather than escaping because from what they had seen, his [Agility] stats surpassed even their best assassins. If he wanted to escape, he could easily do that and the barrier would be the only thing in his way but this wasn''t permanent. The reason so was because once the barrier received damage beyond it''s tolerant limit, it would shatter. The limit was quite high for current yers but they were anxious that Sato could reach it since he seed to be stronger than they had thought. So the best way to defeat him was to swarm him and keep him down. But oh, were these yers in for a surprise.

    Sato dashed into the horde like a wolf into a sheep pen. Wherever he swung his sword, blood spilled and cries were heard. Like a demon god dancing in the midst of mortals, Sato reaped the lives of many yers within 3 strikes. None were a match for him. Even for the Guardians who thought themselves to have a much better defense, they onlysted to receive one more sword sh.

    ''He truly is a demon.'' Blood Sword thought as he stared at Sato. Sato''s actions now would look amazing to another but in front of Blood Sword, it was scary. Being able to take on that much yers was difficult. For the ones that got injured, they had to fight that way as Blood Sword didn''t bring a Cleric or a Druid with them, since he found it unnecessary. Now however, he wondered why he didn''t do so.

    ''Doesn''t matter. You''re destined to die today no matter what you do.''

    As more and more yers died, the remaining began to feel their resolve wavering. Sato hadn''t only taken on the closebat yers but he had also attacked those long-range ones who hid behind. During this battle, everyone(apart from Fudo of course) was Sato''s target no matter where they were.

    "Argggh!"

    With a loud terrifying shrill, a mage yer died by a sword sh to the chest. As his body fell, Sato was seen standing in front with body sttered all over his face. He looked very scary but his previous actions were more scarier to these yers. After having gone through a round with Sato, they all hesitated to face him but some still ran forward.

    As Sato battled those "some", an assassin suddenly struck from the side with a short sword. This assassin was Crimson Scar, the guy whom Sato had murdered back then.

    "Haha. Die!" Crimson Scarughed wildly as he shed at Sato.

    "Hmph." With a high enough [Agility] and [Dexterity], Sato easily dodged it and countered back at Crimson Scar. However, Crimson Scar smiled and said,

    "I am not the one you should be focusing on."

    The space, less than a metre beside Sato, suddenly vibrated a bit and a silhouette appeared there with a dagger thrust towards him. Due to the sudden abruptness and closeness of the attack, Sato couldn''t dodge neither could he block it even though he had raised his guard up for sudden attacks. The dagger then proceeded all the way till it was but a few centimetres away from him.

    ''Shit!''

    Infinite Facts(It''s been awhile) :

    Physique boost in regards to ss :

    Warrior jobs: Strength and Endurance

    [Assassin]: Agility, Dexterity

    [Rangers]: Eyesight, Dexterity, quick hand movements

    [Swordsman]:Dexterity, quick movements and reflexes(high evasion rate)

    [Cleric]: Stronger vitality.

    [Druid]: Stronger vitality, increased mana sensitivity

    [Elementalist]: Increased mana sensitivity and control, depending on elemental affinity physique strengthens

    [Summoner]: Increased mana sensitivity and control, spatial awareness

    [Cursemancer]: dark element strengthens the user, higher resistance to curses, diseases and status effects

    [Necromancer]: dark element strengthens the user, gains slightly more exp from kills

 Chapter 126 - 122 : A Familiar Face

    Noguchi Juro stared at the wall in front of him in silence but in truth, his brain was lost in it''s thoughts, recalling the events of the day.

    ''It costs a lot to treat Milio-Schripolises and it isn''t easily cured even with modern day science, requiring constant treatments. Each of these treatments costs a couple thousands of ALDs. The first treatment might be more affordable but what about theter treatments... Even if little Sato gets into a big guild or starts making some cash, I can''t let the kid take all the burden alone.'' Juro thought.

    The first medical treatment for Milio-Schripolises cost at least5000ALDs. It might sound cheap but one should remember that the average sry of most people is at most6800ALDs; Noguchi Juro''s was slightly lower than that. Just the first treatment cost more than half of the sry much less the following ones.

    *Sighs*

    "Looks like I have to work harder otherwise... I would have to contact the n."

    The Noguchi n was a behemoth in terms of martial arts and also finance. Though they were weaker than the Kurosakis, it wasn''t by much. They were even said to be able to contend with the families that ruled over the ISJ. Rumours had it that the Noguchis would have done so quite some time ago when the Kurosakis also rose to power, but as a martial arts family, they focused on seclusion and didn''t involve themselves that much in politics and so they remained as a major family and not as the controllers of ISJ. Nheless, the other families, including the major leader families of the ISJ, all steer clear away from the Noguchis and try as much as possible to avoid them unless when necessary.

    So powerful were they that once upon a time, a very influential n that felt they were strong, challenged the Noguchis'' prestige. Within a week however, the entire family''s business copsed with some of their members dead. Dead! Rumour had it that the Noguchis did so since they had a feud with the family. But with no proof, they went away scot-free.

    In the current society, murder was one of the most abhorred practices that was literally unforgivable no matter the reason so. Because of this, gangster and things only beat or injure their targets and don''t even dare to kill them otherwise, the punishment wouldn''t just stop at imprisonment. With the improved security and surveince equipment and devices, no one dared to say that they could murder someone and get away with it. So for the Noguchis to have done something like that, this proved to show not only their power but also their influence as for sure, they would have had to have a hand in the security department, who helped wipe out all the data. For someone to do that for them even, that person had to have high devotion and loyalty to the family since the punishment for such a crime, if caught, was far worse than one could imagine.

    With this, it was obvious to see that the Noguchis weren''t a family one could easily mess with.

    "But dealing with those guys...that''s even worse." Old Juro sighed.

    Juro had left the Noguchi n after an incident sometime ago and so he didn''t want to associate with them or go back. He even doubted whether they would help him after all, the reason he ''left'' was actually because he was chased away.

    . . . . .

    ''It cost me a lot but with him here, this battle is deemed to be in our favour even of this guy is an expert.'' Blood Sword thought as he looked at the battle in front.

    With a glistening light at it''s silver tip, the dagger closed in to Sato.

    At thest minute, Sato slightly moved his body to the right, dodging the dagger thrust that came behind from his left but not without being injured. Due to the close proximity of the dagger to his body, even if Sato had dodged it, it still managed to stab him at the side but the injury wasn''t so serious.

    -28 (122/150 Sato''s HP) (AN: The same chapt no, lol)

    Sato countered back against the mysterious attacker by shing his sword against the figure. But like a slippery eel, the attacker had dodged the sword and retreated away.

    ''His [Agility]...he''s more faster than I am.''

    Sato was a level 8 yer and he had faith in being one of, if not, the highest levelled yer. He estimated that his attacker would be level 6 and level 7 at most. As a level 7 yer, he would have less attribute points than Sato but that didn''t mean that Sato exceeds him in every attribute after all, their attribute points distribution differed. As an [Assassin], it was understandable that his attacker would have a higher [Agility] than he did, even though Sato was at least 1 level higher.

    "You might be strong but the very second I walked in here, your destiny was set. Why? Because you are human and we humans have weaknesses and limits." Blood Sword said.

    As Blood Sword said so, he had managed to raise the moral of his teammates after all, seeing Sato bleed was enough to tell them that he was at least not unbeatable.

    "Sneak attacks are dirty. Don''t you have shame?" Fudo yelled.

    "We''re dark yers. Shame doesn''t apply to us." Crimson Scar smirked as if what he said was something to be proud of.

    "Tch." Fudo twitched his lips out of disgust and frustration at Crimson Scar''s shamelessness. Nheless, he didn''t do anything as Sato still didn''t ask for his help.

    ''I hope he knows what he''s doing...''

    Sato on the other hand, didn''t have the luxury to speak as the other yers ganged up on him. Even the Rangers had closed up the gap a bit to get better uracy at him. With his enemies here and there, up and below, he had to keep his focus on them and also be alert against any other sneak attacks. This lead to him being fully focused and using his mental abilities a bit higher than before.

    "I was nning to take him down in one shot but he proved a little more difficult." A yer abruptly appeared beside Blood Sword. It was the assassin that had struck Sato just now. He had a ck cape on that prevented his facial features from being seen however from the voice that just sounded, it could be ascertained that he was a male. A silver dagger was dangling from his right hand

    "No matter. He will still die, one way or the other." Blood Sword replied with a wide grin.

    Sato faced the other yers that were still surviving. Because of thest stunt pulled by that mysterious attacker, Sato had to assign arge amount of his attention towards preparing for such eerie surprise attacks. As a result of this, the battle slowly turned into a stalemate.

    ''This can''t keep going on like this.''

    Thinking so, Sato stepped back by one step and suddenly moved forward in an elusive manner, dodging all the strikes and arrows fired his way.

    ''Martial arts : Butterfly steps.''

    Butterfly steps was a simple movement technique that Sato had learnt from his Grandfather. Using this technique, he easily dodged both the projectiles and in attacks while still reaping the lives of other yers. The good thing about this technique was that it made his movements looked random and unanticipated and so, even if that Mysterious attacker wanted drop ambush him, he wouldn''t be able to predict Sato''s movements.

    "Arghhhhh!"

    Body parts flew and blood spilled. The sounds of explosions and arrows flying was the theme of the day, alongside the continuous nging of swords.

    Sato had started out against 22 yers but now, there were only 7 left.

    "Send the back. They''re useless to us now." The mysterious yer said to Blood Sword. Though Blood Sword was the leader of this expedition, he still listened to the words of this man. No, he had to because he couldn''t bear the consequences of not doing so.

    "That''s enough." Blood Sword shouted.

    Upon hearing his words, the remaining 7 yers retreated away with relief of their faces. Throughout the time they had fought Sato with their deadrades, they could barelyy a finger on him because he was too fast for them. Most of the closebat yers were either Berserkers, Guardians or Swordsman, so there was no way that they were faster than the level 8 Sato. They wanted to retreat before but they didn''t because they couldn''t bear to receive Blood Sword''s fury neither could they handle it. So with Blood Sword calling the retreat himself, it was the best thing they could ever ask for. After all, Sato was like a war demon facing a group of flimsy mortal vigers; they stood no chance against him.

    The mysterious yer then looked at Sato. "From what you have disyed so far, I guess you''re an expert ss yer. Using such useless weaklings against you would be almost pointless."

    He then grinned wildly before continuing, " However, it''s almost. Fighting such arge group of people should have put a lot of pressure on you and demanded a lot of mental power from your brain. Especially since you had to keep a look out for my surprise attacks. That obviously means you should be quite tired now.

    "In a battle of experts, the state of the mind and body does a lot in determining the winner. Especially in one involving me, Biyo!"

    The mysterious yer abruptly took off the cloak covering him, revealing both his armour and facial features. The face was quite familiar to some of the yers present but to Sato, this face was very familiar.

    It was Biyo, the dark yer who had caused the destruction of Blue Diamond Guild, Sato''s ss guild, back in Conquest.

 Chapter 127 - 123 : Sato Versus Biyo

    Biyo began walking slowly towards Sato, with a wide grin on his face and ackadaisical air around him as if he wasn''t worried about his opponent.

    With each step he took, Sato seemed to recall the scenes of that year.

    *Stomp*

    _________

    "Katsumi. Why did you do this?" Teenage Sato asked the youth in front of him.

    "Katsumi is dead. I''m Biyo, Biyo of hell." The youth grinned fiendishly.

    _________

    *Stomp*

    _________

    "Making a guild filled with ssmates and thinking you could go far. That was your mistake."

    "Katsumi, no, Biyo. Die!"

    _________

    *Stomp*

    "Biyo..." Sato said as he stared at the young man in front.

    Biyo was just 10 metres away but for an assassin of his skills, 10 metres was nothing much.

    "Do you know me?" Biyo halted his footsteps as he stared at Sato with a curious expression.

    "Who doesn''t. You''re amander of Hell Raiders, Biyo of Hell." Sato replied perfunctory.

    "Ah. Looks like I''m already famous." Biyo replied with a smug.

    Sato didn''t tell you that he had known him closely before neither did he say that they had actually fought each other before too. This was because Sato wanted to keep his identity a secret lest he attracts unnecessary trouble from Biyo''s side. Mentioning Biyo as amander of Hell Raiders wouldn''t attract any suspicion from him after all, the Hell Raiders were a dark guild that already had some fame especially after their escapades in Conquest.

    "No matter. Knowing me doesn''t mean I will let go. At the best, I would only send you off quicker, that way it wouldn''t hurt." Biyo smiled.

    "Really? You''re an assassin. Your type is suited for indirect and sneak attacks. Why did you walk towards me like that in the open?" Sato asked him.

    "Because I don''t need to use such silly tricks for a weakling as yourself. You''re finished already." Biyo smirked.

    ''Still the same Biyo. Underestimating those around you.'' Sato shook his head.

    "Well then. Shall we begin?" Biyo twirled his dagger as he stared at Sato right in the eye.

    Before Sato could respond, Biyo dashed towards him and easily covered the 10 metres gap as fast as a cheetah, and shing his dagger at Sato.

    ''Same as always, Biyo. Attacking when one least expects it.''

    A silver glint shed as Sato swung his sword to block the attack.

    *ng*

    A reverberating sound broke out as the two weapons collided.

    "Impressive. You were able to keep up with me." Biyo said with his eyebrows raised.

    As an assassin, Biyo boasted of the highest [Agility] effects and best physique suited for it. He thought that Sato would at most be a level 7 and even at that, his [Agility] shouldn''t be higher than his. So Biyo was quite surprised that Sato could react to his strike. Unknown to him though, Sato was level 8 and even if he used a custom attribute distribution method, he still focused a bit on his [Agility] such that with two levels ahead of Biyo, he could slightly surpass his [Agility].

    "That''s cause you were too slow." Sato smirked. He then applied more force on his sword and shoved Biyo away.

    Using the force behind the sword, Biyo twirled round once and shed at Sato again, but this time, he shed out multiple times.

    Sato, in return, also brandished his sword multiple times with each sh blocking Biyo''s attack. Biyo thrust his dagger,Sato would block with the side of his de and then counter attack forcing Biyo back. But before he could strike while the iron is hot, Biyo would capitalize on his superior [Agility] and [Dexterity] to retreat and attack immediately.

    "It seems like it would end in a tie." Crimson Scar said with hesitation and astonishment. He couldn''t believe that Sato could hold out against Biyo. That was something unbelievable as he knew whom Biyo was. This was a guy that had participated in the destruction of a guild back in Conquest! And not just nominal participation but he had defeated the guild leader of that guild.

    "..." Blood Sword on the other hand was silent. His silence was due to the fact that Sato could currently tie with Biyo and also his frustration that Biyo couldn''t finish Sato quickly. He didn''t have a doubt that Biyo would win but he believed that it would take some time and time wasn''t what he could afford despite having set up a barrier.

    "Get ready. We will join in."

    Sparks flew off as the two continued in their tango. Sato couldn''tnd a hit on Biyo and Biyo couldn''tnd a hit on Sato. However, due to the fact that Sato''s [Strength] was higher, Biyo was continuously forced back with each collision while receiving minimal reduction to his HP after two or three strikes.

    ''What''s wrong? How''s this happening?!'' Biyo thought as he fought with Sato. ''How?! How am I losing?!''

    Even though the battle may seemed tied in the eyes of onlookers, Biyo himself knew that his opponent was stronger. Not just stronger, he was looking down on him and holding back. Biyo noticed that sometimes when he was forced back, Sato would suddenly lunge closer and look like he would strike at him but the speed of his sword would slow down at such an absurd manner that it wouldn''t be easily noticed by others. But for an expert such as Biyo, he could easily noticed this act. It was because of this slowly down that Biyo would be able to block the attack and continue resisting.

    ''This isn''t a battle. He is using me to y!'' Biyo grit his teeth in anger. But despite all hisints, he couldn''t do anything about it. He had already been fighting at his best but he still couldn''t beat Sato.

    .

    "Arghhhhh, bastard!!" Biyo suddenly yelled in annoyance before lunging himself at Sato with his dagger aimed at him. He was going in for a hit-for-hit.

    "You''ve finally lost it huh?" Sato smiled.

    "[Horizontal sh]"

    Sato shed outwards his target however, wasn''t just Biyo but also his dagger. He nned to block both the attack and hurt Biyo with just one strike! And he could achieve this, why? Because his [Strength] was higher.

    "Now die."

    Sato''s sword deflected Biyo''s dagger in one hit and it still went on to strike Biyo on the chest.

    70 (60/130Biyo''s HP)

    "Nani?!" Biyo was shocked to see the damage he had just received. This was even after a part of the force of the attack was neutralized by the collision of his dagger on the sword.

    Sato didn''t give him any more chances as he swung his sword once more at the open Biyo.

    Seeing Sato''s approaching sword, Biyo, who was stunned after the attack, couldn''t resist and was forced to watch Sato''s de.

    ''Is this the end?'' Biyo thought in despair. At thest moment, he seemed to have gone back to the past. Back to that day he had pursued thest of Blue Diamond''s guild and met him. ''It isn''t even the same person and I am still going to die. Am I that weak?''

    Sato was devoid of emotions as he brought his sword closer to Biyo. With Sato''s absurd attack power, this strike would be just enough to end Biyo.

    *ng*

    Suddenly, Sato''s sword collided with a dagger that appeared out of nowhere.

    "Don''t tell me you forgot about us already?" A yful voice sounded.

    Sato turned to look at the wielder of the dagger and also the speaker. It turned out to be Crimson Scar, the assassin he had killed back then and also his first PK target in Infinite Realm.

    The assassin ss had a very special skill that was simr to short distance teleportation. It was called [[Silent Steps]]. It was this very skill that Biyo had used back then to suddenly sneak up on Sato and harm him. Crimson Scar had used this to make it in time to block Sato''s strike.

    While Sato was focused on Crimson Scar, Blood Sword appeared behind him and swung his great-sword down at him.

    *Boom*

    Rocks flew out as Blood Sword missed his target and struck the ground.

    Sato stood back a few steps away from the trio and stared at the duo.

    "So, you want to interfere in this fight?"

    "He''s right. You can''t interfere." Biyo snapped out if his daze and replied.

    "Interfere? This fight was set-up by me so I don''t see any interference here." Blood Sword grinned. Though he was smiling at Sato''s words, deep down he was a bit scared of Sato.

    ''This guy had managed to force Biyo back and almost killed. Heck, Biyo was already dead if Crimson didn''t make it in time.''

    As for Biyo, Blood Sword didn''t bother about him again since he couldn''t face Sato alone.

    "Oh? Then it looks like it''s my mistake. No worries though, you two were still going to die so dying early doesn''t make any difference." Sato replied.

    "Haha. Cocky as always, you b**tard. Wait till we tear you up then we will see whether you can keep up that attitude." Crimson Scarughed.

    "Sorry but I can''t. It''s not that I''m too impatient for waiting but you guys just can''t do so." Sato shrugged.

    "You guys go back. I will handle this." Biyo stood up and tightened his grasp on his dagger.

    Blood Sword looked at him as if he was looking at a deluded person.

    "Sir, you just can''t. Not only is your HO pretty much down by half or more, but you have seen his strength yourself. Rather than forcing yourself to handle him alone, let''s work together. When we''re done, you can torture this b**stard as much as you want." Crimson Scar said.

    "Who said I''m not a match for him?! I''m Biyo of Hell! A nobody can''t be stronger than me!" Biyo yelled.

    "Yes, sir." Crimson Scar humbly replied but deep down he was annoyed and disgusted at Biyo''s madness.

    "As for you, nobody, you will surely die today." Biyo pointed his dagger at Sato.

    "Yeah yeah. Just make sure toe at me all at once. That will make things faster since I''m kinda tight on time." Sato replied.

    "...hahahaha" Crimson Scar stared at him with incredulity before breaking out in a fit.

    Blood Sword frowned and said "As you can see Lord Biyo, he just looked down on me and I can''t let him go scot-free. It''s either we team up together and fight him or we fight him on our own. Either way, I''m not letting him off for you."

    "You...fine. Let''s do it then." Biyo said after seeing the look on Blood Sword''s face. Even if he was his direct superior, he knew Blood Sword''s attitude and was pretty much sure that he wouldn''t give up after his honour had been yed with like this.

    "You better prepare yourself, cause you''re gonna die." Biyo said.

    Sato replied,

    "I was always prepared.. Just not to die, but to kill you."

 Chapter 128 - 124 : One Hit Man[1]

    [Charge]

    Blood Sword rushed at Sato using the Berserker''s charge with his great-sword held high. Biyo also dashed at Sato but he purposely hid behind Blood Sword being slightly behind him in terms of speed by just0.5seconds. Crimson Scar however, went into stealth immediately, as an assassin normally would after all, the only anomaly was Biyo and not him.

    Blood Sword''s charge was the first to reach Sato as Blood Sword swung his sword down at him. Sato knew that if he were caught up blocking this attack, Biyo would assault him during that time. So the best option was to dodge the sword. With his superior [Agility], Sato moved his body to the left, dodging Blood Sword''s strike. However he didn''t stop there.Sato immediately stretched out his right leg and kicked Blood Sword right in the chest sending him stumbling 5 steps back. At the same time, Biyo arrived with his dagger shing at Sato.

    *ng*

    Sato swung his sword down at the dagger and blocked the strike as sparks set off between the two.

    ''He still hasn''t made a move yet.''

    Even though it looked like Sato was fully focused on the battle, he kept his sense up for any sound that would indicate Crimson Scar''s footsteps. Using the stealth skill [Fade], would only eliminate one''s presence, aura, smell and figure but the sounds of their footsteps wasn''t counted. So whenever an assassin used [Fade], they would try their best to minimize the noise they produce while walking.

    Returning his senses to the battle, Sato wasn''t inclined to stop blocking Biyo''s dagger as he applied more force to his sword in an attempt to bring his sword down on Biyo. Biyo jumped backwards while using his free hand to toss a ck dart at Sato.

    ''Still uses hidden weapons.'' Sato smirked.

    Infinite Realm sses weren''t just limited to one weapon or so. Just as before, when Sato encountered a Berserker with a spear, some other sses are capable of using other weapons. Even the Specialist sses can too but there are certain repercussions. [Rangers] can also use daggers but the amount of damage they can output with it is far worse than their bows and far worse means less than a third(1/3) of their usual attack power. They would need to attain the [Dagger Mastery] passive skill that is usually assigned to [Assassins]. Finally, they would also not be able to use the skills attached to the dagger(if any) and the dagger would be a lot weaker at their hands. But there are also some side weapons yers can use that won''t be affected by their ss. One such example are hidden weapons like darts, small daggers, needles, etc. But due to the fact that in order to use such, one would need a high amount of [Dexterity] and [Agility] to match up, only assassin yers actually bothered to use them but they still weren''tmon.

    *Tink*

    Sato tilted his sword to impede the trajectory of the dart, effectively blocking it from reaching him. He stomped on the ground with his right foot and was about to dash towards Biyo, when he noticed Blood Sword''s approaching figure from the edge of his eyes. Rather than moving forward, Sato then used the force from the stomp to send himself towards the opposite direction of Blood Sword.

    *Bang*

    Just like before, Blood Sword''s ck and red great-sword had missed Sato and struck the ground sending off tiny rock particles into the air.

    Sato appeared a few metres away and as he was about to rush after Blood Sword, rm bells rang in his mind as he abruptly took a step to his left while bending his body in the same direction.

    At an unknown point in time, Crimson had appeared behind Sato with his dagger lunged at him. But because Sato had made that startling and unforeseen movement, Crimson Scar''s dagger had only stabbed through thin air, missing Sato by a 5~6 centimetres.

    ''He''s too slippery.'' Blood Sword thought as he nced at Sato who had gone 6 or so metres away from Crimson Scar.

    ''And his [Strength]... it''s greater than mine''

    He recalled how Sato had kicked him back before. From the impact of that kick, Blood Sword knew that if he didn''t have his armour on, he would have received damage from it. Receiving damage from a kick! If he told this to anyone else, they wouldugh at him for either having a flimsy defense or exaggerating things.

    The [Strength] attribute helped to determine one''s Attack power but one thing yers didn''t know was that it had a feature of it''s own. Infinite Realm pursued reality and so the producers obviously considered making it possible to take damage from a punch or even a kick. Yes. Without a weapon, so far as their [Strength] was high enough, one could still defeat a monster with their bare hands but it would be a lot tougher than using a weapon. In the same way, Sato, who already had a [Strength] value exceeding 15 points, could make one sustain damage just from his fists and kicks, especially so if the person was lower levelled than he was and also had a weak defense. Blood Sword''s defense wasn''t that weak but his level was lower than Sato''s, and not a simple difference of 1.

    ''Can we really win?''

    "Tch. As slippery as an eel." Crimson Scar cursed after Sato had dodged his sneak attack. He didn''t give up though as he dashed towards Sato. On the other side, Biyo also did the same and as such, there were two yers heading Sato''s way; one from the front and another from the side.

    Blood Sword didn''t want to be left out so he also attacked from the front but because he was a bit slower than the two assassins, they reached Sato before he could.

    Biyo and Crimson Scar both shed their attack at the same time forcing Sato into a a pickle. Like being between a rock and a hard ce, Sato wasn''t able to dodge since the two attacks came from tricky angles. His only option was to face them both but the two attacks were approaching at almost the same speed and time.

    Sato''s pupils moved rapidly as he hurriedly but calmly calcted which attack to face first. In the end, rather than moving away, he lunged himself at Biyo, looking as if he was trying to go in for the kill without bothering about Crimson''s dagger.

    ''Is he crazy?!'' Biyo screamed in his mind. He didn''t expect Sato to react that way but in the few milliseconds he thought that, he understood Sato''s reasoning.

    Sato was barely able to face the three of them at the same time but he would surely do better against two. Biyo''s HP was currently the lowest and if Sato couldnd one more attack on him, he would be a goner. Even if Crimson Scar were to attack him, chances are that he wouldn''t be able to deplete Sato''s HP before Sato had killed Biyo.

    ''Damn you!'' Gritting his teeth, Biyo stooped his attack a d hurriedly retreated away from Sato. The reason why was because he believed that Crimson Scar wouldn''t be able to kill Sato in that small time frame and also he obviously didn''t want to be a bait. Biyo wanted to kill Sato with his own hands and not be killed by him.

    Crimson Scar might not have figured out ''Sato''s intentions'' but he had seen an opportunity as long as Biyo went on with the assault. Seeing Biyo ditching him, Crimson Scar was totally infuriated, so much so that his face almost turned red, but he still went on with the attack as Sato looked open to him. But oh, was little Crimson in for further irking.

    Just as Crimson Scar was about to rejoice that he would finally finish Sato, he saw the edge of sword in front of him, heading straight for his forehead.

    [Horizontal sh] Critical +30%

    -125(5/130Crimson Scar)

    ''Huh?'' Crimson Scar was stunned.

    -5 (0/130Crimson Scar)

    Before he could even react, Sato delivered a punch to his head. Added with the sh that had almost cut it in half, the punch finally separated the upper part of Crimson Scar''s head (starting from his forehead), giving Crimson Scar a very miserable death.

    Sato, who was thought to be going in for the kill on Biyo, was actually not nning so; his main target all along was Crimson Scar. He knew Biyo''s behavior very well. This was a man that would rather save his own skin than sacrifice himself against a personal foe. The lunge against Biyo was actually a trick to force him to retreat while baiting in Crimson Scar to drop his guard down.

    This was quite a risky n because if Biyo wasn''t the same as before, Sato would have died. Also, Sato needed to time things very well so that Crimson Scar wouldn''t be able to retreat at all and this required him to wait at almost thest moment before counter-attacking. If his [Dexterity] wasn''t high enough, Sato would have lost his chance and possibly his life, there and then. However, everything turned out for the best as he had killed Crimson Scar in almost one hit, needing only a punch to finish the job.

    The reason for that absurd damage was because Sato had applied a martial skill, to be specific, the Lotus Sword Art''s first form, Swift Kill. The ovepping of both a sword art and an in-game skill increased the damage of his attack and with Sato''s already high damage value, the critical strike ,Crimson Scar''s low HP and the fact that Crimson Scar''s head wasn''t shielded, all lead to Sato achieving such a superb performance.

    "Now it''s 2 against 1.. I hope you guys don''t disappoint me."

 Chapter 129 - 125 : The Last Round

    The ground was dyed red with the smell of blood diffusing in the atmosphere. Sato stood still with his sword pointed downwards as blood dripped from it''s tip, further ''beautifying'' the floor with its crimson charm. Like a demon that had justmitted a massacre, Sato stared at Blood Sword and Biyo before asking,

    "Are you just going to keep staring or what?"

    Blood Sword was angered at the death of hisrade for the second time. Despiteing for revenge for earlier, Sato had turned 22 men to 7, while also almost killing his secret weapon, Biyo; and eliminating Crimson Scar again.

    Biyo, on the other hand, shivered as he looked at Sato. He had finally realized that Sato never aimed for him and was just ying mind games back then. A majority of his fear came from the fact that Sato was able to predict his reaction. This implied that either Sato had either guessed so or that Sato knew him closely.

    "Who are you?!" Biyo yelled at him.

    "Me?" Sato pointed at his face, "I''m just a nobody."

    ''"Liar!" Biyo lost his patience and darted at Sato. It looked like he had lost his reasoning as he was determined to kill Sato even though he knew he couldn''t achieve that.

    "Everyone, together."

    Blood Sword also moved with Biyo, not forgetting to borrow the strength of the remaining 7 yers he had brought.

    "Fudo, handle those guys for me would you?" Sato nced at Fudo, totally ignoring Biyo''s approaching figure.

    "Sure." Fudo nodded. He had been bored watching them battle without getting a taste of the action. Now Sato had offered him a chance, even if it was one against a few weaklings, he didn''t mind it.

    Fudo pointed his staff over to the surviving 7 before saying,

    "Hahaha.[Explosion]!"

    *Boom*

    On the other side, Biyo had arrived within 2 metres of Sato and at such a distance, it wasn''t difficult for him to attack.

    "Die!"

    With an almost absurd hand speed, far greater than that of an average human being, Biyo brandished his dagger at Sato. In return, Sato met the attack head on by swinging his sword at Biyo.

    *ng*

    Metal noises rang out with bright red and white sparks spewing out as the two weapons collided.

    A small short breeze rubbed Sato''s cheeks as he stared at Biyo''s face that had a scowl on it.

    "Hehe." Sato smirked at Biyo.

    Infuriated, Biyo tightened his grasp on his dagger and withdrew it immediately, before brandishing it multiple times at Sato.

    Another round began between the two as they fought aggressively with one another. Biyo couldn''t harm Sato and Sato wasn''t in a hurry to finish off Biyo so the battle became a stalemate of sorts. But if one were to look carefully, they would see that Sato had everything under control.

    Blood Sword suddenly appeared behind Sato and brought down his great-sword. With a red glint, the sword came down heavily like thunder[1] from the heavens.

    Sato swiftly dodged the strike while retreating to the sides, but Biyo chased after him like a nasty dog ster.

    "It seems you''re eager to die. It''s about time I end this farce."

    Sato turned and shed back at the advancing Biyo. It looked simple but in the eyes of an expert such as Biyo, the attack was flexible; seeming as if it could assault him from any angle.

    ''Shit.''

    Biyp couldn''t react in time and tried his best to tilt to his left but the sword still chased after him.

    ''Now!''

    Sato speed up his movements and by the time Biyo realised this, it was toote.

    -52 (8/130Biyo)

    Luckily for Biyo, the attack didn''t finish him off. Unluckily for him, Sato wasn''t done.

    Just like with Crimson Scar, Sato punched at Biyo with his left hand and though Biyo had seen him do this before, he never expected Sato to do the same to him.

    *Bang*

    It wasn''t a full-powered punch so Biyo didn''t receive any damage, but it sure was hell was still painful.

    The punch had ced Biyo in a slightly stun state, and not the status effect type but rather, Biyo himself was stunned. Sato then followed up with a simple sword thrust at him and this turned out to be the strike that seal d the deal.

    -53 (0/130Biyo)

    Like ashes falling from above, Biyo.s body disintegrated into brilliant particles.

    Blood Sword, who was left out during that time, nced at Biyo''s dispersing remains before taking in a deep breath.

    "Retreat!" Blood Sword yelled as he red at Sato with red eyes before running away.

    Blood Sword''s remainingrades were struggling against Fudo. They had lost two of their men to him, leaving behind only 5 yers. The 5 yers were happy to hear Blood Sword''s retreat call since Fudo had formed an almost impable defense against them, despite being a mage. Hearing Blood Sword''s words, they ran with their tails behind their heads, as fast as they could away from the Fire elementalist.

    "This guys are all creeps."

    "They''re too strong."

    The yers ran helter-skelter, away from the sight. Fudo wanted to give chase but his [Agility] wasn''t up to the test. So he instead, focused his attacks on one target, hoping to take him down and increase their loses even more.

    "You think you can get away." Sato said, but not to the escaping cannon-fodders but instead to Blood Sword.

    Sato dashed after the escaping Blood Sword, like an eagle diving for a fish in the river.

    "You dare to chase me?!" Blood Sword shouted with unbelief.

    "What wouldn''t I dare to do." Sato replied perfunctory.

    Blood Sword was scared silly as he knew that he couldn''t handle Sato on his own. Even his backer, Biyo, died at his hands much less him.

    "Let me go and I can write off this debt for good." Blood Sword said. What the mouth says isn''t always what the mind thinks. Blood Sword was just mouthing meaningless words hoping that Sato would let him go. As for writing things off? A tyrant like Blood Sword wouldn''t let things go so easily.

    "Hmph. What do you take me as? A 7 year old? Why don''t you stop running. I promise I won''t attack." Sato replied in return.

    "Tch. B**tard! You dare to y with me?!! The strength of my backers isn''t something you can ignore all by yourself. Stop this farce now or you will surely pay for itter on!" Blood Sword roared.

    "Later on? Fine then. I don''t mind waiting forter on. But now, you die." Sato stopped talking and immediately elerated even faster, reaching Blood Sword within a second. The distance between them wasn''t much to start with and with the time that went on as they were talking, Sato had already caught up to Blood Sword.

    "Greet the devil for me in hell." Sato''s glinted as he shed at Blood Sword using [Chop].

    Blood Sword tried to block but with such measly reflexes and [Dexterity] whenpared to Sato, it was a pointless act.

    -60 (110/170Blood Sword )

    "It would take more than two strikes to finish me" Blood Swordmented as he hacked at Sato using the [Berserker]''s [Cleave]. As a [Berserker], Blood Sword not only had a high [Strength] value but also high [Endurance] and [Vitality]. So it wasn''t surprising that Sato''s

    "You''re right." Sato replied as he dodged the great-sword. "3 strikes should do it."

    Sato once again used a sword art but not the Lotus Sword Art. Instead he used themon martial skill, Mountain sh. Applied to this was also the [Swordsman] skill, [Hack].

    -58 (52/170Blood Sword)

    Though the skill [Hack] caused only an additional 10% whenpared to [Chop]''s 20%, Sato had almost caused the exact same damage because of the martial skill he used.

    "How...?" Blood Sword stuttered before turning around to escape. Oh, if only he knew that doing so would make things worse. Sadly for this viin, he didn''t.

    "It''s over."

    With his back wide open like that, there was no way for Sato to miss his target. This time, he aimed at Blood Sword''s head. During their brief battle, Blood Sword had been shielding his head since he knew that Sato usually goes for the head [2] but now that he was retreating, Blood Sword didn''t have the luxury to do so again.

    Blood spilled as a sword prated the skull of Blood Sword''s head, exiting through the middle of his eyebrows. For some, this would be a gory scene but for Sato, this was just another day in a VR world where the strong rules.

    Sato pulled out his sword as Blood Sword''s body began to disintegrate. He swung it to the side, strewing blood all over the ce.

    "Are you done?" Sato turned and asked Fudo who was a few metres behind.

    "Yeah. 3 of them got away but the rest went to meet their fellows." Fudo smiled. It looked like he had just experienced another day at the park rather than fighting a bunch of dark yers.

    "No problem. Those ones should pretty much know how to deactivate this barrier. Once it''s done let''s go back to town; we''ve wasted too much time." Sato sheathed his de as he spoke.

    The two weren''t worried that they would get arrested, why because their markers were still glowing green. They were attacked first by the group so the System had counted their entire actions as self-defense. As long as it''s only your attackers that you kill in self-defense mode, the System wouldn''t charge you for anything.

    "Once we log off, contact Takehasi for me. I''m pretty sure he would love to get revenge back against Biyo." Sato smiled.

    Takehasi was the founder of Blue Diamond Guild, their ss'' guild back then in Conquest. The fall of his guild was due to the fact that they had discovered a god level artifact and the news was made to known to the Hell Raiders.

    Apart from Kara, a friend of theirs who betrayed the guild, the down fall of the guild was also thanks to Biyo, who went by the alias of Katsumi back then. Takehasi had always wanted to take revenge but he couldn''t since after that day, he never saw Biyo again. But now, Sato had discovered that he migrated over to Infinite Realm. If Takehasi knew this, he would stop at nothing to get his revenge.

    ''He would be a useful addition to the club..'' Sato nced at the radiant ball of light hung up in the sky.

 Chapter 130 - 126 : Meeting Yato

    (AN: Errors may exist since I couldn''t correct it in time...)

    [[ System notification :

    Logging out from Infinite Real¡­

    Disconnecting from the Heavenly System Universal server¡­

    Disconnecting Neurolink¡­

    Awakening process beginning...

    Prepare in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 ]]

    "Huff...This time was a bit better than thest." Sato blinked as he rxed his breathing and heart rate.

    After the battle with Blood Sword''s team, he and Fudo had both returned back to Riverdale Town where they both rented out a hotel room each, before logging out of the game.

    5:16 pm Saturday 22 July 21** [1]

    ncing at the projected screen from the cubic disy unit beside his bed, Sato sighed. Though only a day had barely gone by, he had experienced a lot of stuffs. From the goblin war to ck Grill''s Cave, to the ambush by Blood Sword''s team, it was a day filled with action-packed adventures and fun.

    ''A doubled time rate really was no joke. That ambassador was right'' Sato sighed as he felt a slight throbbing sensation on his forehead. It was so small that one wouldn''t notice it easily but Sato had a greater grasp over his body than a regr human does.

    ''If I had gone on for 3 or so more hours, it would have hurt even more.''

    After settling down a bit, Sato walked out of the room, not forgetting to leave behind the VR headset he held in his hand.

    As he was walking down the stairs, Sati began to n out the crew for his club.

    ''Lu Zhen doesn''t seem like a bad guy so he could be a part of us. Xue Yan isn''t so important but if she''s free then she could join us. We need an MT and a healer. Natsuo could pass as a healer and Takehasi could do well for an MT. If we would need anyone else, it would be a Ranger type yer.''

    As he was lost in his thoughts, Sato''s Acad XI vibrated on his arm. ncing at it to see who called, Sato was surprised to see the ID, Yato, on it. Without thinking, he picked up the call.

    "What''s up? Don''t tell me you''re calling for me to change your hospital diapers?"

    "...Since when did you have Fudo''s terrible sense of humor? No wonder they say ''Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are." Yato responded from the other side of the call.

    "...*cough*." Sato coughed awkwardly. "So what did you call for?"

    "I broke up with Mia."

    "So? Why are you telling me this?" Sato asked.

    Yato''s lips twitched on the other side but he still continued. "Don''t tell me you''ve forgotten? You said that once I get back to my senses, you could help be richer. So..."

    Sato replied, "First of all, I didn''t forget and secondly, I don''t think ''richer'' is the right word but they''re pretty much the same. Alright then, meet me at the Piramids[2] in 15 minutes, let''s talk."

    "Alright. Thenter." Before Yato could even cut th call, Sato had already done the ''pleasantries''.

    "Still the same as ever." Yato smiled. "But that''s good."

    Sato went down to the kitchen and took a drink out of the futuristic refrigerator.

    ''Thest energy drink...need to get some whening back.'' Sato thought as he sighed before downing the contents of the bottle into his system, through his mouth.

    "Oh? You''re done gaming? Are you going anywhere, brother?" Hayami asked as she walked into the kitchen.

    "Yeah. Tell Grandpa that I would be back before 7. You guys can have dinner without me." Sato said.

    "Alright." Hayami nodded.

    Sato left the house and then went over to the Piramids.

    The Piramids was a medium ss restaurant that served good food and drinks in the Common Area of Shinjuku. A lot of people liked to go there since it had a fabulousyout and an amazing set of meals especially the recipes they served that dated as far back as the Old era. As a result of the retro meals and nice interior, The Piramids nevercked patrons. Back in highschool and also College, Sato usually visited here with Fudo and the rest, since it wasn''t so far from his home. As such, it became somewhat like a meeting ce for any one of them.

    Walking through the light doors[3] of The Piramids, Sato looked around and saw that it was mostly full but not so much. He walked over to a spot by the edge of the walls and sat there. Since it was located at the edge of the walls, it was somewhat isted and the chairs beside it were too, since few people tend to pick such a spot.

    Sato tapped on the table and it disyed a menu which he began mindlessly nced at. It might seem like he was reading it but in actual fact, Sato was thinking about how to go about developing his club. He wasn''t a Chinese MC who happened to reincarnate to the past and so, knew a lot of things about the game. No. Sato was a just a good gamer than had to go with the flow of time and figure how to move about things.

    After having waited for almost 5 minutes, a figure passed through the light door and approached him. Sato raised his head to look at the person and was greeted by the handsome face of Yato.

    "What took you so long?" Sato asked, though he knew that Yato wasn''t evente.

    "You say that as if you got here an hour ago." Yato smiled and took a seat opposite Sato.

    "So? What''s your n?" Yato asked.

    "Gaming." Sato answered inly before tapping on a meal on the disyed menu.

    "I already know that it''s gaming. What I meant was do you want to form a guild like Takehasi did? Or do you want to form a simple party?" Yato replied.

    "Neither but somehow, both. Just a club but with only 10 or so people." Sato smiled.

    Yato wasn''t surprised at the numbers called even though a club usually had from between 12-30 people. He already knew that Sato didn''t like having too many people and he also didn''t have a lot of people to trust in order to make the foundations of a guild. So starting out as a cub wasn''t an issue. The only thing was whether Sato would turn it into a guideter but Yato didn''t care. So far as Sato was the leader, he would follow him all through.

    "Any ideas who would join in?" Yato asked.

    "Fudo, you, Takehasi, Natsuo and another guy I met online." Sato replied as he picked up a paper cup from a spot in the table that just opened up. Twirling the cup a bit, he sucked through the straw that was on top of it when praising the taste of the milkshake served here.

    "Woah. You met someone?" Yato stared wide eyed.

    "...tch." Sato outrightly ignored him.

    "Okay okay." Yato chuckled. "But that''s just 6, if counting you. We need at least 4 more people."

    "Don''t worry about that. As we go, we will solve thatter on." Sato said as he sipped his drink.

    "Here''s your order sir." A young teen wallked over to the duo and ced a te of food atop the table.

    In most restaurants, this was usually done by a robot or an android but here in the Piramid, they applied that retro theme of using human servers. But if course due to funding and payment issue, not all servers were human; some were androids. The one who attended to Sato and Yato was a human.

    "Thank you." Sato replied before picking up a spoon and ncing at the meal. It wasa simple rice and curry but done in the style as it was in the Old era, together with some of the spices used then. It was ''some'' because not all of the ingredients still existed; the Great Reparation caused a lot of harm to nts too.

    "What are you waiting for? Dig in." Sato said to Yato.

    Yato nced at his own meal and since Sato had already said so, he did the same.

    "Itadakimasu."

    The duo enjoyed their meal of rice and curry but not in a hurry [4]. After that, they exited the restaurant and headed elsewhere.

    "Where are we going to?" Yato questioned.

    "The Gamebox Guide." Sato answered.

    "Why?" Yato asked again.

    "To go get you a headset." Sato replied. "You don''t think you would be ying with a universal do you?"

    Though Universal headsets could connect with the right adapter, it would still not give you that perfect experience as with the rmended edition.

    "Okay."

    AN :

    Sorry I haven''t been up to datetely. I have both a driver''s ss and a my work since we it''s December so I have been even more busytely. I know I said I will increase chapter rates but that''s looking hard. but no worries though, I will try.. Also, as promised, the top voters will get their names in the next few chapters so get ready people and still keep voting. Thanks

 Chapter 131 - 127 : Energy Drinks

    The Gamerbox Guide was a bit far from The Piramids. Sato and Yato decided to take a ride over there.

    The year was 21** and most of the vehicles were AI piloted. Due to this, very few taxis had human drivers and most of the taxis were actually owned and operated by either the government or a private transportation body, depending on the region. The reason for this was to minimise traffic and organise the movement standard of public vehicles under one body. The ''road'' transport system of the Common area of Shinjuku was under the government''s jurisdiction. The entire public transport vehicles were all piloted by sub-bodies of the main transport AI designated to Shnjuku city. As a result of this, traffic was at a minimal level and one would always reach their destination at the designated time.

    Hailing a taxi, the two got in and headed over to the Gamerbox Guide. The taxi then hovered off and flew to their destination, at an altitude not lower than 3 metres and not higher than 10 metres from the ground. This was the standard altitude for most hover cars, so as to prevent traffic idents and incidents. Their trip was uneventful and since they were using a ride, it only took them 5 minutes to reach their destination.

    The two walked into the building and went to the isle with the VR headsets meant for Infinite Realm.

    "They restocked huh?" Sato stared at the VR headsets that were arranged on the counter.

    "Restocked?" Yato asked. Sato then exined what had happened yesterday.

    Previously when Sato hade here (which was actually yesterday), there were only 7 headsets and he had taken one, leaving behind 6 headsets. Now however, there were actually 23 headsets disyed for sale.

    "It looks like Infinite Realm has gotten a lot more popr than before and this is just a few hours after it was realised. Otherwise, this store wouldn''t have gotten a new cargo." Sato smiled. He had already expected Infinite Realm to be a st as soon as it was released. Apart from the improved graphics and imagery termed 4 UHDR graphics (4th Gen Ultra High Definition Realism), there was also the smoother connectivity, better interface andrger world with various different life options; it wasn''t necessary for yers to even live their lives in battle as they could pick whatever subss they wanted and focus on it plus they could level up with them. With all these amazing features and more, it was destined for Infinite Realm to have arge fan-base and yer-base.

    "But this should only be the beginning. I estimate that with in a month''s time, the user count would increase to a billion yers." Sato said.

    "A billion yers within a month?!" Yato was surprised. Even the current number one, Conquest, didn''t reach a billion until 7 months after its release.

    "Huh? Who the heck are you kids?" A man looking to be around 25~28 years of age walked from the side and stared at Sato and Yato. Despite calling them ''kids'', he was just only a bit older than them but the thug face he kept make him look a bit older.

    "And you are?" Yato looked back at the man.

    "Who I am doesn''t matter. What matters is the fact that you country bumpkins actually think that this rip-off would actually gain a billion yers in a month. That''s a billion not a million. Not a number kids like you guys could imagine, Mr Know-it-all." The man replied with undisguised scorn and disdain disyed on his face.

    "Kids? And you? what are you? An old man?" Yato replied.

    "Ignore him. Let''s go." Sato said as he picked up a helmet and left. Paying attention to pointless human beings was never an action Sato liked to participate in.

    "Hey. Did I say you can leave?" The man blocked Sato.

    "Did you say I should stay either? No. Also, this is a private property and I''m pretty sure it isn''t yours. Keep being stupid and I don''t mind calling the security on you." Sato said to the man.

    "...tch. We will meet again soon, kid." The man said as he walked away from the duo. If he got reported by Sato, unless he bought something from the store to prove that he was a customer, he could be banned from the store. Even if he still did so, he wouldn''t go free so smoothly since he had already offended Sato in the store and there were cameras to surely prove so. As such, retreating was the best choice of action.

    "What a dumb**s." Yatomented.

    "You were once the same as he was." Sato inly replied as he continued walking to the payment counter.

    "..."

    At the counter, Yato paid for the headset all by himself. Sato was initially inclined to paying a part of it as he still had some cash left, but Yato disagreed and used the money he was meant to spend on Mia today, to purchase his VR headset and a few other essories like batteries, and energy drinks.

    You might be wondering, why the heck are energy drinks sold at a gaming hardware store? Since most professional yers tend to be active at least 15 hours a day with some going for 22 hours a day, especially since using a gaming cabin or even a headset is almost the same as sleeping, they hardly have enough time for meals and this is where energy drinkse in. Most energy drinks are now supplied with at least 60~70% of all the required nutrients the human body would need. In other words, taking a ss of energy drink is almost the same as taking one te of a meat, vegetable, and oil-dish, that has all the nutrients, ranging from vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins to even lipids/fats [1] and minerals.

    There were different types of energy drinks and the moreplex ones went by the name ''Nutritional drinks'' . Those ones had a much moreplex ratio of nutrients that would enable the human body to work better and faster in a much healthy way; all tested by the right medical professionals. A simple sip would be more than enough to stop a headache and one bottle could even cure a simple fever.

    Energy drinks were divided into grades. From the lowest to the highest: Grades E, D, C, B, A, S, S+ X. The higher the grade of the energy drink, the more nutrients it had. As of Grade B, energy drinks are called Nutritional drinks or nutrient drinks. This is because from here on, an average human being could survive for more than a month on just these drinks alone. The higher the grade, the longer they can survive solely on it and some of them could even be used to cure some diseases like Mria, Diarrhea and so on. Inevitably though, energy drinks weren''t aplete recement for meals as some people still preferred that sensation of chewing and eating. At Grade S and above, they weren''t freely sold in public and could only be gotten through special channels. Grade S+ and X were nicknamed ''Healing Medicines'' because it was said that they could cure moreplex diseases like Cancer and AIDs. Because of this, their sale was strictly controlled by the government to the extent that anyone found having the ability to produce them, would be taken under custody and monitoring. Grade X was even more strictly controlled and not even billionaires or trillionaires could get their hands on them as they wish. Each person could only purchase one in their lifetime and this was the rule by the entire parliament of the Alliance.

    Seeing Yato purchase a few energy drinks, Sato recalled that his stock had also depleted and so used his cash to buy a few bottles, enough tost for at least 2 weeks. However, the grade he could afford were only the lowest, Grade E; even Yato could only afford 1 Grade D, while the rest were Grade Es. The Grade Es were still within the tens of ALDs (about 30 ALDs) but the Grade Ds cost at least 200 ALDs. In other words, 1 bottle cost as almost as much as a regr VR headset while 4 could already afford an Infinite Realm VR headset! And these weren''t even the nutritional drinks.

    Once they were done, the two left the store. Sato had requested for the drinks to be delivered to his home since he they were a lot of them. He only took 3 bottles with him before leaving. Yato had also done the same thing since his house was a quite far from here. The two didn''t head back home but walked together. Their destination, the male dormitories of Shinjuku School of Engineering and Mechanics.

    "Will he still be there?" Yato asked.

    "If it''s him then I''m pretty sure he will." Sato replied.

    The ''he'' Sato was talking about was their 7th teammate, one whom Sato and Yato had thought of while they were on their way to the Gamebox Guide. A weird guy that would rather keep staying at the dormitories even though he could afford a nice bungalow or an apartment in an exquisite high-rise building.

    The ''four eyed'' Seiichi Tadashi.

 Chapter 132 - 128 : Seiichi

    Shinjuku School of Engineering and Mechanics wasn''t so far from the Gamebox Guide so Sato and Yato decided to go on foot.

    Shinjuku School of Engineering and Mechanics couldn''t be exactly described as a very prestigious school but it was still prestigious to an extent; far beyond the current standards of colleges back in the Old Era [1]. After all, it was the main college of the 2nd ss city, Shinjuku city, so the architecture wasn''t nned too badly. As technological advancements were achieved, society in general improved for the better (and maybe for the worst too). Some schools offered to hold sses in a physical meeting while others decided otherwise. Some majors in Shinjuku School of Engineering and Mechanics also operated this way as such, there weren''t a lot of buildings in the campus.

    The main gate of Shinjuku School of Engineering and Mechanics was a M-shaped gate that gave off a feeling of being produced with advanced technology. At the main entrance of the SSEM (abbreviation of the school) was a huge hovering spherical silver orb that projected a light gate. This orb was a actually the generator that supplied the entire campus with power. Yes. So absurd were the school management that they used their generator as a main gate. ording to the first head of the school, he said that using a generator as the gate would show the world of their zeal towards technology and their pride as an Engineering school. Ignoring the fact that it was a power engine, the orb was quite pretty and it gave off an ethereal feeling especially with the rainbow coloured light it disyed at nights.

    The orb was about 4 stories tall and was ''hovering''. This hovering effect was actually as a result of it being held by a gundam. Yes, a freaking gundam. It stood at the middle of the M-shaped gate and was creation as tall as a 7 story tall. Though it was made with metals, it wasn''t actually operate-able but more for aesthetics, though a rumor that went round the campus imed that it was a failed experiment for the ISJ that ended up as a doorman.

    With such an overbearing entrance, one would expect the SSEM to be an advanced school for the rich kids or a talent training facility or something. But in actual fact, this was just a regr school with a weird taste in architectural design. The even more prestigious schools had way more better looks than the SSEM with some of them actually located on a floating piece ofnd; a floating ind and not floating water but in the air! Whenpared to such amazing schools, the SSEM supposed awe-inspiring bearing, was nothing.

    Walking through the gates of the campus, Sato and Yato headed over to a building by the side. There were actually a total of 6 buildings assigned as male dorms and they were all located at the North-Eastern part of the school; the main gate was located South. From this, it could be seen that the distance was quite far. In order to enable students make it in time for sses and activities, and also minimise traffic incidents due to vehicles, the school had an inventory of hover-boards and special road bikes, designed for fast, smooth andfortable mobility round the campus. The building they went to was the pick-up site for these special ss rides. Sato and Yato logged in to the server through the aid of an AI and borrowed the road bikes from the android in charge before heading to the dorms. Thanks to them, the original 15 minute journey to the male dorms site only took 3 minutes.

    The dorm Seiichi stayed in was just a 4 storied building, a bit bigger than the energy generator in front of the campus. It was at the edge of the other buildings and it looked quite simple with no excessive designs or anything.

    "Call him out." Sato said to Yato right after they stopped their bikes. He nced behind at a huge tree that seemed ordinary, trying to peer into the darkness underneath the trees branches.

    Yato wanted to argue why he should be the one to call Seiichi but he gave up seeing as Sato wasn''t paying him any attention.

    In a room on the 3rd floor of the male dorm that Sato and Yato stood in front of, a student in sses sat in front of a desktop system seated on a table. This wasn''t actually like the advanced systems that the Modern era[2] but was a desktop from back during the Old Era. Actually, it wasn''t those exact ones but it was made with the exact same parts and style as those ones; but it was improved a bit to be more faster and capable. Disyed on the screen was a title ''Dark Souls 3''. Apparently, the student in front of the system had just loaded a game from the Old Era. In between his hands was a game-pad from back in the Old Era.

    "The Old Era did have a few nice games. It would have even been better if they were in VR mode though. But ying with pads are still better. I spent a lot to get my hands on this antique and I hope it''s worth it."

    The student nudged his sses as he stared at the screen waiting for the game to finish loading up.

    *Ding* *Ding*

    A cellphone like object beside the monitor began to ring as lights akin to the phenomenon of the Northern lights, move back and forth on the sides of the object.

    "Arghhh. Who is it?" Seiichi dropped the game-pad and picked up themunicator [3] and answered it without checking the ID.

    "Who is it?" Seiichi asked.

    "What do you mean who is it? Didn''t you check the ID?" Yato''s voice sounded from the other side.

    "...this voice¡­you''re already out?" Seiichi asked with a slightly higher tone.

    "Why wouldn''t I be out?! Did you think I got hospitalized for a deadly disease or something?!"

    "Who knows? You might have gotten AIDs or something." Seiichi replied.

    "Who the heck still gets AIDs?! [4]. Juste out of your rabbit hole. Sato and I are waiting for you outside." Yato said.

    "You guys are outside?" Seiichi asked with surprise.

    Yato then replied, "Yeah. What else did you think I said? It seems like all those hentai you''ve been watching with earbuds are finally affecting your hearing."

    "...I''ming out now."

    *Beep*

    Before Yato couldugh at Seiichi''s awkward tone, the call had ended. Even so, he still chuckled.

    As Seiichi had said, he didn''t take long to arrive from the dorm''s entrance. He wore a brown jacket with a ck vest within. On his feet were a pair of stylish ck trainers. Coupled with his signature sses, Seiichi nced at the duo.

    "So, what''s up that you guys couldn''t wait till morning?"

    Yato didn''t say a thing but nced at Sato instead.

    "Would you like to be a part of our club?" Sato asked directly.

    "A club?¡­what are your goals?" Seiichi nudged his sses.

    "Let''s take a seat first." Sato said spoke.

    The trio began walking away from the dorms, towards a bench that was at the parking lot. After they took a seat, Yato brought out a cigarette packet and asked, "Anyone interested?"

    The cigarettes he had brought weren''t like the ones in the Old Era that was too unhealthy. Thanks to advance research, the dangerous content of cigarettes had been reced with some neutral or less deadly contents. The even more expensive ones were kinda healthy and not bad for the body. The good thing even was that it still had that ability to grant relief and emotional detachment, aiding the body to release a suitable amount of dopamine that isn''t dangerous to the system. The bad thing though was that some were even more addictive but this was limited to some.

    Both Sato and Seiichi took one each and lighted it before enjoying the smokes. They had already puffed out the 3rd time before Sato spoke again.

    "The goal is as it always has been; to make money. I know you don''t really need money but don''t tell me that you n on living off your parents forever, even more so with your family''s state."

    As he listened Sato''s words, Seiichi sucked in another breath of smoke before puffing it out with a slightly mncholic expression.

    Not a lot of people knew this but Seiichi was actually the son of a billionaire. Yes, a billionaire. Apart from Sato, the only one who knew this was Yato. That was why Sato had allowed him toe with him. Seiichi''s father started out as an average man but managed to work his way to the top before starting his ownpany and reaching this status, a-worth of at least 1.2 billion ALDs , all within 30 years. Quite impressive right? Seiichi however, wasn''t so happy about this.

    As one already knows, the more powerful a man, the more ambitious he not only bes, but also his children. He had two wives with one giving birth to 2 children and the other 4. Seiichi was the 3rd son in a family with 6 children; 4 males and 2 females. Though 3rd, he was the first of the second wife with his sibling being thest born girl. Their father didn''t go the regr path of leaving his inheritance to the oldest but to the one who deserves it. As such, an intense battle for session began in the family. The eldest of the children and also the 1st son, Kosuke, felt that he deserved it most as he had helped his father start up the business. The second son, Eiji, also felt the same way and so only considered Kosuke as a threat since the rest were younger an didn''t matter. But in other to make sure, he had dealt with his other siblings. Of course, he couldn''t go as far as murdering them but he made them quit having any ideas of their father''s inheritance using dirty tricks. Kosuke knew this but was in tacit support of it. Seiichi was disgusted at his siblings behaviours and acts and so escaped from the family as a result, Eiji''s clutches couldn''t reach him and Eiji didn''t bother since he saw Seiichi''s act of running away as cowardice and tacit denial of the inheritance.

    Despite leaving though, his mother still sent him some money to survive on. That ''some'' though, was quite huge of an amount for regr people. Seiichi had used it to live his life free from his family''s clutches, just the way he wanted, but deep down, he wanted to go back.

    Seiichi wanted to go back, and teach his brothers a lesson; one they wouldn''t ever forget.

 Chapter 133 - 129 : Interception

    Earth became a better ce after the Great Reparation. Governments United and formed the Alliance; the ultimate government that governs the Earth. The other surviving countries became states, subservient to the Alliance. This includes both the ISJ, the French Republic and a few other nations. Unlike the previous formats of united governments like the UN of the Old Era, the Alliance was more strict and overwhelming. Like an Emperor with an iron fist, it gave outws as orders and they were quickly implemented, with any repudiation and flouting uneptable. Secessions were literally non-existent and impossible as despite bearing the name ''Alliance'', it wasn''t an alliance type of government but a solid system.

    With the unification of world powers, development progressed and advancements were made. However, human reasoning and behaviour didn''t change much. Human beings were still greedy and selfish, even though they knew that those qualities were what lead to the war. Despite murder being prohibited, there were multiple other ways of destroying a person''s life. Terrible ways of making one feel dispirited and demoralized.

    Eiji had applied these various ways and methods, to get his younger siblings off the race for the wealth, with the only exception being Seiichi. But even Seiichi didn''t dare to challenge him because he knew how scary Eiji was, and also, because Eiji was just one person; there was still another and that was Kosuke.

    "Do you have a solid n? I hope you didn''t decide this on a whim like Takehasi did back then, otherwise this would just be pointless." Seiichi said to Sato.

    Sato replied him, "You don''t need to worry about the nning. Unlike back then in Conquest, I don''t n on forming a guild; not yet anyway. Just a simple club. So unlike with a guild, our nning and growth would easily be controlled and well organised."

    "I see." Seiichi replied before contemting on decision.

    "Since we don''t have anything to do now and we have almost graduated, I might as well have fun with you guys." Seiichi smiled.

    "Alright." Sato nodded. " I guess unlike Yato, you already have a VR set right?"

    "Yeah, but even if we are to start out as a club, we would still need to supply each of our members with cabins. That means funding." Seiichi said.

    VR cabins were a lot better than headsets as the connection capabilities were not only further enhanced and improved on but also had better modifications. Simply put, it was a lot more faster than VR headset in improving connectivity speed and flow. In other words, if two yers of the exact same strength and stats were to face each other in battle, the one using a VR cabins stands a better chance of winning against one using a VR headset. This better chance is just0.01% but in a battle of experts, that much even matters. The reason for this is that due to the massive size of cabins, they can be fitted with better equipment that improves the connection of the conscious to the server, thereby improving reaction speeds of yers in the game. VR headsets could also do this butpared to the ability of a VR cabin, it isn''t worth speaking of.

    "Don''t tell me that you expect me to fund everything?" Seiichi nudged his sses as a glint shed on it.

    *p*

    "Ouch." Seiichi yelled as he grabbed his head with both hands while staring at Yato who just pped him on the head.

    "I told you we didn''t need this guy. He''s always thinking too much." Yatoined to Sato.

    Sato sighed at the duo before saying to Seiichi, "Don''t worry about it, really. As for the funding issue, I didn''t invite you cause I needed your money or anything. Infinite Realm has a lot of potential and potential means opportunity. That''s what we will capitalize on to fund ourselves. All you need to keep your mind on is the fact that you are just joining us to offer your expertise and not your cash."

    "Alright. Sorry for doubting you guys." Seiichi smiled and bowed in apology.

    "If that''s all then we can leave right?" Yato asked as he stood up from the bench.

    "Wee online by 6:30pm." Sato said as he also stood up.

    "That soon?" Yato asked. The time was just 5:51 pm. Sato wanted them to be ready within 39 minutes.

    Sato replied, "You need to meet up with the others plus level up since you''re just starting newly. The timing is great even as we got a mission on our hands. The mission is important and the rewards should he impressive too. Oh yeah! That reminds me. Seiichi, where did you spawn?"

    "Me? I used the random feature so I got dropped at ck Mountain Town." Seiichi answered him while standing.

    "ck Mountain huh? This must be fate." Sato chuckled.

    "You also got sent there?" Seiichi inquired with surprise.

    "Yeah. Meet me at ck Grill''s Cave by 7pm. Ok?"

    "Alright." Seiichi nodded before walking back to the dorms. "Then we will seeter."

    Seiichi had only taken 5 steps forward before he saw a couple of guys walking his way.

    ''Late night drinkers?'' Seiichi wondered. He was about to walk past them when one of them suddenly kicked him. Seiichi wasn''t expecting that and so got hit, flying back by 3 metres beforending on the ground.

    *Thud*

    The loud sound of his body crashing, had alerted Sato and Yato who were heading to their bikes. They turned their heads and were surprised at the sight before them.

    "Seiichi!" Yato yelled as he rushed over to his friend to check on his condition. Seiichi was wrapping his abdomen with his hands while gritting his teeth in pain as heid on the hard cold floor. He had received a surprise kick to the stomach and since he wasn''t prepared, most of the force ended up injuring him a bit.

    The assant didn''t make any moves after that but instead stared at the two and asked "Who among you is Yato?"

    Looking at the speaker, he was dressed in a very roguish way, looking more like a thug than a student. The others beside him were also looking the same. With a jacket draped on his shoulders, with a green vest and ck trousers, he red at the two in front, like an adult staring at a few troublesome kids. From his stance in the group, it seemed like he was the leader.

    "I am..." Yato replied, unsure of the reason why they were looking for him.

    "Oh? It looks like you are." The gangster grinned. In truth, he already knew who Yato was as his employer had given him a picture of Yato. He only asked that to know whether Yato would have the guts to reply him or not.

    "What do you want?" Yato asked carefully while trying to hold back his ring temper.

    "What do I want? Hahaha. Boys, he asked what do I want? Is he a moron or what?" The young man chuckled.

    "Hahaha." The remaining gangsters followed his lead as they allughed at Yato.

    Lifting his left hand to signify his men to be quiet, the young man stared at Yato with a scary look on his face.

    "What do I want? To beat the hell out of you, of course."

    "You..." Yato got angry and was about to rush at him when he felt a hand hold him back.

    "Who are you?" The young man asked Sato. He had noticed him before but he ignored Sato, after all his main target was Yato. He didn''t want to offend anyone else lest he attracts danger. Even though his employer had told him that none of Yato''s friends were a heavy-hitter, he still didn''t want to take his chances anyhow.

    "Me? I''m a friend of his." Sato pointed at Yato with his head.

    "Oh? So you also want to y heh?" The young man stared at Sato as a smile slowly crept on his lips.

    "y? Well, the only game I know how to y is beating bad guys so sure." Sato said nonchntly.

    "Hahaha. You''re one heck of a proud fe. Let''s go talk somewhere else." The young man turned around and headed out of the dorms'' area.

    The dorms'' area might look silent and empty but in actual fact, it was being surveyed by surveince systems and security equipment. The reason for this was obvious, to improve security in the campus. If the two parties were to suddenly start fighting here, the security bots and guards in charge of this area would be deployed, breaking them off. This didn''t sound so bad but it would impede the young man''s mission and also, Sato, Yato and Seiichi, who were still students, could be punished for fighting in school grounds. So the idea of taking the battle elsewhere was understandable as even if they still fought, as long as it was in a quiet ce and the two parties had agrd to do so, the security AI could actually ignore their actions. The school had taken it into consideration that some students might want to settle their differences with fists rather than words. In other to prevent their grudges from being held in till it broke out of control, they unofficially allowed fights as long as it urred outside of public eyes and didn''t go too far. You might think that they were crazy for doing this but it was tacitly agreed to by even the government in an effort to reduce the killing intent of people. They felt it was better to let people vent off their anger than to keep it within for long, to explodeter.

    Watching as the group left without actually dragging them or forcing them, Yato nced at Sato and asked, "Are we really going to follow them?"

    Sato asked back "Do you want to tell me that you don''t want to know why they are looking for you? If you aren''t interested then we can escape now."

    Yato didn''t know what to say in return.

    "Doesn''t matter whether you are going or not. I can''t let that sh**head get away with what he did to me." Seiichi gritted his teeth as he stood up.

    "You sure you''re okay?" Sato asked him with a bit of concern.

    "Tch. Because I haven''t worked out in a while doesn''t mean that I have gotten that weak." Seiichi replied.

    Seeing Seiichi''s enthusiasm, Yato said "Okay then. Heck, I wonder why I was wasting time. Let''s go waste those sh**heads."

    "Good. Let''s go then.." Sato smiled.

 Chapter 134 - 130 : Collision Of Fists

    Sato, Yato and Seiichi followed the group till they arrived at an isted basketball court, quite some distance away from the dorms.

    Though a lot had happened after the Great Reparation, with a lot of knowledge and info lost, a majority of knowledge and technology survived the war. This was because unlike the Medieval and ssical era where information and knowledge were stored in papers, information was stored in much advanced systems like hard-drives, cloud, sh drives and more. So even after the damage that wrecked the Earth, not all was lost except a few secluded and concealed ones[1]. Information regarding Sports was one such that wasn''t lost and as the world settled down, apart from the inclusion of a few new ones, these ''old'' sports were brought back. Basketball was one such activity and the Shinjuku School of Engineering and Mechanics adopted this sport into their curriculum.

    The location was perfect since barely anyone would bother toe to the court especially at this time of the night. On one side, was Sato''s group of three made up of him, Yato and Seiichi. On the other side was the young man from earlier alongside 7 other guys. It was a 3 on 8 face-off.

    "Before we begin, I want you to tell me the name of your employer." Yato red at the young man. He never recalled offending this party of gangsters and so he guessed that they must have been sent by someone. The problem is, he didn''t remember offending someone so badly that they would hire a bunch of thugs to beat him.

    "My employer? A loser like yourself doesn''t have the right to know that and what was that you said, before we begin? There''s no beginning or anything that ''we'' would do. It''s just me and my guys whooping your a**es till you can''t walk again." The young man grinned. Though it was illegal to kill someone, it wasn''t much of a problem to cripple them and that was his intention.

    Yato was angered by the man''s nonchnce and wanted to rush at him but seeing the number behind him, weakened his will a bit. He even began to wonder why they were here and didn''t break for a run back then.

    "Yato, is your conviction wavering?" Seiichi nced at Yato. "Did your break-up really hurt you that badly?"

    "What the hell are you saying?!" Yato barked.

    "*Yawns*". The young man interrupted them. He then pointed at the trio.

    "Enough of the child''s y. I didn''te for such a terrible drama. Men, beat the hell out of them till they call me Grandpa."

    A man who looked to be good at brown-nosing and puffery, said to the young man, "Boss, we don''t need to fight them all together. Just send only 3 of us. That way these kids won''t be able toin once we beat them."

    The man who spoke was actually a man, a middle aged one at that. He had a tough look and despite his boorish appearance, he was quite smart.

    Seeing how respectful this man was to the young man, made Yato to be more anxious about his identity.

    "Hmm. You do make a point. The three brothers, handle these boys for me." The young man waved behind.

    3 men, or rather thugs, who looked to be of the same blood, as their faces had simrities with one another, walked from behind the young man, towards the trio. One could even mistake them as triplets since their age gap wasn''t much. Despite so, they all looked older than Sato''s crew.

    The one who looked to be the oldest nced at Yato once he was 5 metres away from him.

    "Kiddo, kowtow and apologise and I might let you off with only a broken arm." Even as he spoke, he had an ugly grin on his face that was totally disregarded Yato''s existence, making it seem like he was talking to an ant instead of a human being but he did have the liberties to act that way. Why? Because the man was quite tall, rivalling Katsuo in height. Together with his slightly muscr body, it looked like he wouldn''t need to exert much force in other to beat Yato.

    "Cause you''re big doesn''t mean anything. If you want to go then let''s go." Yato snapped back.

    "Hahaha. Alright." The man''s eyes glinted as he punched out his right arm.

    ''He''s fast.'' Yato''s eyes widened as he stared at the iing fist. He barely reacted in time to tilt his head to the left, dodging the approaching fist. Yato wanted to counter back when he noticed an approaching shadow. He hurriedly applied force to his feet, propelling himself backwards. As he did so, Yato saw the middle aged man''s sweeping left leg that he had luckily dodged.

    "Hmm. You dodged it?" The man stared at Yato in surprise.

    ''That was close.'' Yato thought as he looked at the man in a different light. He had thought that he was an average hoodlum who only depended on his huge frame to scare people but he turned out to be wrong. The man actually knew some martial arts. From his movement earlier, Yato knew that the huge man had practiced some special exercises to utilize his body''s advantages properly. Despite having such a hefty phsyique, he was still fast with his punches and kicks.

    "What''s wrong kid? I admit you got some skills for dodging my attacks but you would still lose to me. So why don''t you stop wasting time ande closer?" The man grinned seeing as Yato kept his distance away.

    "Yato, can you handle him?" Sato finally spoke up for the first time since they came here.

    "... I doubt it. " Yato sighed. As much as he didn''t want to say so, he knew the truth better than others. Battling someone with such a huge frame and quick movements was quite hard, especially since it has been long since Yato took his martial art sses.

    "Okay. Let me handle it." Sato said as he began to walk towards the huge man.

    "Hohoho. Where do you think you''re going to?" One of the other two brothers said to Sato as he blocked his path. "You''re my target so you have to face me first."

    "Move out of my way or you pay in a terrible way." Sato said tly.

    "Hahaha. Third brother, look how that fool is taking you. Don''t tell me you would take this while standing?" The other brotherughed. If considering the first one''s hefty figure and more matured look, one would guess that he was the First brother and this oneughing would be the second brother.

    "Haha. Pay?! Me?!" The third brotherughed with a furious tone. "Let me show you how high the sky is little kid."

    The man dashed at Sato quickly and punched out. At the same time, he charged up his left fist to be ready to punch again in case Sato dodges, blocks or gets hit.

    ''It would be over before you even know it.'' He thought as he grinned evily.

    "Too slow."

    Those were the only words the man heard before he suddenly got knocked out. Thest thing he saw however, was a fist in front of his face.

    *Thud*

    "How..?" Everyone stared wide eyed, well, not really everyone, but instead everyone from the enemy side.

    "Kid. It looks like you''ve got some talent." The first brother said as he narrowed his eyes.

    Seeing this, the second brother said "Elder brother, leave him to me. You don''t need to bother yourself for this trif-"

    "No." The burly man cut him short. "He''s mine." A wide grin broke out from his lips as he stared at Sato like a lion mocking it''s prey.

    "I hope you can keep me entertained way more better than your friend."

    Sato replied him, "You don''t need to worry about that. All you have to focus on issting longer than the other one."

    "Haha. Omoshiroi. Let''s go."

    The big guy suddenly stomped his right foot on the ground, applying an almost absurd amount of force to it, rocketing himself towards Sato.

    "Prepare to die!" The first brother said as he directed his right fist at Sato.

    "Better than thest one but still not good enough." Sato said as he easily dodged the fist strike before sending a fist of his own at him.

    The burly man ced his left hand in front, right between his body and Sato''s fist. Sato couldn''t remove his hand in time and so, he got his fist mped by the man''s palm. However Sato didn''t mind, instead, as if he expected it, he used the man''s clutch as a fulcrum and together with the force he applied on his right foot, lifted himself up in the air and delivered a kick with his left foot, right at the man''s face.

    *Bang*

    The burly man staggered 3 steps backwards while grabbing the right side of his face in pain. He slide his palm on his face, wiping his lips, and then bringing it in front of his eyes where he noticed a crimson coloured liquid on his palm.

    "You...damn you! I will kill you, I swear. I will kill you, I will kill, I will kill you, I will kill you."

    The burly first brother entered a rage mode and ripped his shirts, before dashing at Sato without care.

    "Looks like little Mu has gotten angry." The young man smiled.

    "It''s from here on that the real show begins."

 Chapter 135 - 131 : The Culprit

    Despite seeing the approaching hulky figure of First Mu [1] Sato didn''t get anxious or scared but instead dashed at him. As they say, the best defense is offense. Sato didn''t have any ns on waiting for First Mu to approach him as that would make him stay on the defensive during the battle. It isn''t bad, true, but considering that they were a few other guys on standby, Sato wanted to end this quickly.

    When he was close to Sato, First Mu punched out with his right fist at a speed much more than thest one. Even so, Sato still reacted timely to the attack and hence tilted his head to the side, before countering with his right fist.

    ''You dare to use the same trick on me?!'' First Mu''s ferocious look seemed to transmit to Sato.

    Instead of trying to block the strike likest time or even dodging it, First Mu used hisst hand to punch at Sato from another angle, separate from Sato''s approaching fist. He was going in for a blow for blow.

    It might seem like his idea was dumb but First Mu had actually thought it out well. He believed that his physique could handle the force behind Sato''s punch while Sato couldn''t handle his. The reason was simple; Sato looked weak. Comparing the two would be likeparing a muscly giant to an average human adult; the difference was as clear as day and night. Sato''s physique didn''t stand a chance against his. As for the kick earlier that had made him bleed, First Mu believed that it was so only because Sato had caught him off guard and attacked his face. Unlike his face, his body was tough, a lot tougher than normal people.

    ''Let''s see how you handle this.'' Both First Mu and the young man watching, thought the exact same thing.

    ''If I retreat, he would force me back on the defensive. If I attack, I would get hit.'' Sato thought.

    Sato wanted to end this battle quickly in order to face the others and being on the defensive wouldn''t help. This was because the others watching could get bored and interfere in the fight, after all, they never signed any official agreement not to do so. Yato and Seiichi wouldn''t be able to handle 6 people (counting the young man) on their own. In the event that such happens, they would undoubtedly lose and would only be able to escape but the chances of seeding would be very low. So facing the strike head on was Sato''s only option because at such a distance, dodging would be easier said than done and it would affect Sato''s attack. With a clear chance in front of him, Sato didn''t want to lose it so soon.

    ''In that case...''

    Sato clenched his left hand, moving it towards First Mu''s left fist, with his two fingers: index and middle fingers, pointed outwards at First Mu''s left wrist.

    As First Mu''s fist approached Sato with only a few centimetres between it and Sato, Sato fingersnded on First Mu''s wrist but because the force propelling them was too little, First Mu''s fist stillnded on Sato. However, unlike what First Mu had expected, Sato only took a step backwards before standing still and firm against the attack.

    ''How?!''

    Before First Mu could process the development that had just urred, he felt a stifling feeling on his chest.

    *Bang*

    At the same time that First Mu''s fistnded, Sato''s punch also hit First Mu. But unlike what he had expected yet again, the force behind Sato''s strike was no joke. Itnded squarely on his chest, sending him staggering 5 steps backwards, almost falling on the ground.

    Before First Mu could regain hisposure both from the punch and the shock, Sato had appeared in front of him, sending a kick right at his face.

    *Bang*

    This time, it was a whole lot painful than thest strike Satonded on his face. First Mu was sent flying backwards by 3 metres before crashing down heavily. With the effects of both the punch and the kick, Sato had sessfully taken down the giant.

    *p* *p* *p*

    "Beautiful! Truly beautiful." The young man said as he walked over.

    "I never ever thought I would see someone who isn''t a grandmaster take down Little Mu that quickly. Or are you one?" The young man smiled at Sato.

    In martial arts, there were students, masters and grandmasters. The categorization was a lot moreplicated than these but this was the simplified edition. Since VR games mostly focus on one''s abilities in real life, martial arts and hand-to-handbat techniques became a necessity for gamers. So much so that, most of the yers who are Expert ss and above, have learnt a free or more martial arts moves. It is said that most of the Monster ss and above experts are grandmasters. As for who a grandmaster was, this was someone at the pinnacle of martial arts and hand-to-handbat. They were hailed as a one-man army, a hundred-in-one being, signifying that to these guys, numbers didn''t matter. Size too didn''t matter as no matter how big an opponent they faced, they woulde out victorious. Even a giant such as First Mu could be taken down by these guys in one move and the legendary ones could even stop him from attacking with just a stare.

    "Kidding. You''re too young to be one." The young man grinned.

    Almost all of the well known martial art grandmasters were above the age of 50 and even the prodigies were at least above 30; Sato was just 21 years old and so the young man didn''t expect him to be a grandmaster.

    "Do you want to retaliate on behalf of yourpanion?" Sato asked as he nced at him.

    "Boss!" Second Mu yelled.

    The young man lifted his left hand up, signifying Second My to be quiet.

    "You can''t handle this one. In fact, no one else but me can. Well, maybe Little Sai can but it''s just barely."

    Little Sai was the man with a golden tongue who had suggested that the young man leave Sato''s gang to a group of 3 from their side.

    "That''s..." Second My was surprised. Little Sai was the strongest of them all, second only to the boss. For him to say that the second strongest only had a small chance ofing out victorious against Sato, it proved to show that Sato was really strong.

    "Why do you think so highly of me?" Sato smiled yfully at him.

    "Huh? Don''t group me with the rest. I''m a pro so I know what you did. Back then, the only reason that you were able to survive Little Mu''s punch was because you mitigated a majority of the force with your fingers. Am I right? But your movements weren''t perfect and fluid so it should have still hurt you a bit."

    Sato frowned after seeing that the man had guessed it. Back then, the only reason he could stand against First Mu''s fist was because he had mitigated the force with his finger strike. The assault with his fingers wasn''t to direct First Mu''s fist elsewhere but to intercept the force in it and attenuate the punch. It was sessful but not so perfect, that was why Sato had taken a step backwards. If he hadn''t done that, Sato would have been sent flying with at least 3 broken ribs.

    ''It seems he didn''t notice it.'' Staring at the young man, Sato sighed internally.

    Sato guessed that that was all the young man knew and he felt safe because of that. In actuality, Sato had broken his left middle finger and also gotten a slight ache in his muscle because he didn''t use the skill well. If the young man knew this, he might target his left arm once they begin fighting.

    Seeing the young man stopping a few steps away from him, Sato readied himself for a fight.

    "The fact that you can use that skill goes to show that you must have a backer and not one I can mess with. So, I apologise dearly for any problem we have caused." The young man bowed at Sato.

    "..." Sato, Yato and Seiichi were shocked.

    "Boss!" Everyone on the enemy team were stunned.

    "Shut up and apologize." The young man said sternly.

    "But..."

    "No buts!"

    With a little bit of hesitation, the remaining 5 who were capable of standing on their own bowed their heads low and yelled uniformly, "We are very sorry."

    "... Seiichi, am I seeing things?" Yato asked with disbelief. Just a few minutes ago, these guys were trying to cripple them but now they were apologizing.

    "I wish I could say so but it''s obviously real." Seiichi nudged his sses as he replied.

    *Sigh* "It''s all his doing."

    Sato however stared at the group in front of him. He had recovered much quicker than Yato and Seiichi since back in his childhood he had much more servants than there are people here, awaiting his beck and call.

    "Do you think I will just forgive you and forget everything because you apologised?" Sato asked with a in expression, looking neither pleased nor bothered by the development taking ce.

    ''It''s as I expected...'' The young man thought.

    "I might have hoped for that but I know good things don''te easily. In exchange for your forgiveness, I will tell you our employer." The young man replied humbly.

    "Go on."

    "One name." The young man replied.

    "Yamamoto Ichiro."

 Chapter 136 - 132 : Wu Shiyiâ€™s Plan

    "Yamamoto Ichiro?" Sato asked curiously.

    Instead of replying, the young man nced at Yato.

    When he had heard that name, Yato was stunned but it didn''t take him longe to his senses.

    "I should have guessed it." Yato sighed.

    "Yo, Yato. Who the heck is Ichiro?" Seiichi asked.

    "Can''t you guess? How many Ichiros do you even know." Yato said with an annoyed look.

    "Ichiro...third gen Ichiro?!" Seiichi yelled after figuring it out.

    "Yeah." Yato replied exasperatedly.

    "Haha." Seiichiughed.

    Yamamoto Ichiro, as his nickname implied, was a third generation of arge family in Shinjuku, the Yamamoto family. Originally, the Yamamoto family was based in the Capital but they lost their position as a top family of ISJ to the Kurosakis a couple of years back. Even so, the Yamamoto family was still very powerful and influential. So much so that it is believed that the Yamamotos in Shinjuku are actually a branchand this branch is among the top 3 families of Shinjuku. Ichiro''s father happens to be the head of the family down here and so he could be said to be a child born with a diamond spoon, enjoying the best of the best in the family. Luxury cars, mansions, resorts, you name it. Ichiro had ess to all the properties owned by the Shinjuku Yamamoto family. As for how he was rted to this incident, Ichiro was pursuing Mia or rather, he is Mia''s ''new'' boyfriend.

    "So he probably did this to force you to stay away from Mia." Seiichi nudged his sses.

    "Doesn''t make sense. If this guy didn''t tell us about this, we wouldn''t know it was his doing." Sato said. He then asked, "What was Mia''s reaction when you broke up with her?"

    "Her reaction?" Yato then replied, ''I didn''t get a good look but I think she was a bit sad. No, she might have been sad because I believe she had emotions for me before. So me suddenly breaking up with her would hurt her a bit. Why do you ask?"

    "Ichiro must have wanted to teach you a lesson for that, maybe." Seiichi answered him with a look of realisation though unsure of his reply.

    "...is that possible?" Yato said with a low voice. If Ichiro really did this to him for Mia then it meant that he really liked her. In such a case, Yato wouldn''t have any chance of getting her back. Though he might have broken up with Mia, a part of him still wanted her back. Yato only steeled himself and held back the urge to face Ichiro because he didn''t want to let his friends, no, his family, down.

    "Maybe, but if that is the case then he must have really liked her. But I doubt that. It''s also possible that he might just have wanted to deal with probably because you were hanging around his girl. He couldn''t have done it before since you were still dating Mia and that could affect his ns but now that he has Mia in his hands, he shouldn''t be scared to do so." Sato said.

    "Yeah, you''re right." Yato recovered to his senses.

    "However, this tells us of something."

    "What?" Yato and Seiichi asked at the same time.

    Sato answered, "Ichiro probably has someone spying on you. Otherwise, how would he know that you and Mia have broken up."

    "Someone spying on me?" Yato suddenly felt that there were eyes lurking in the dark.

    "Don''t over think it buddy. It''s either that or the news got to him some how but there''s no harm in being cautious." Seiichi patted Yato on the back.

    "Okay." Yato nodded.

    "So now we are done here, what else are you guys waiting for?" Sato nced at the young man and his squad.

    "Allow me to introduce myself properly. I''m Wu Shiyi [1]." The young man dered.

    "Wu Shiyi? What''s someone of the Chinese Federation doing here?" Seiichi asked.

    "Is there any rule that says I can''t?" Wu Shiyi asked back with a smile.

    "You''re right." Seiichi smiled back.

    "So what are you waiting for Mr Wu?"

    Wu Shiyi nced at Sato and said, "I want to spar with you."

    "A fight?" Sato asked.

    "No. Just a spar. We don''t need to do anything deadly or fight with our lives or honour on the line. Just a regr spar between martial arts enthusiasts." Wu Shiyi smiled.

    "Okay." Sato nodded. He wasn''t afraid that Wu Shiyi was tricking to get his guard down and even if it was so, Sato wasn''t scared. There was no way he would let his guard down just because he''s opponent wanted him to do so.

    "What do you think the boss is doing?" Second Mu whispered to Sai.

    "I don''t know but the boss should know what he''s doing. Just follow his lead." Sai said.

    *Stomp*

    Wu Shiyi heavily stomped the floor, fixing his foot in position and taking a stance.

    Sato on the other hand kept a serious look with his two arms raised in front of him. He didn''t n on underestimating Wu Shiyi as he did with the other fighters. Wu Shiyi was able to see his moves from hisst fight and with that, Sato concluded that it was possible that Wu Shiyi might be as strong as he was.

    "I''ming." Wu Shiyi smiled before propelling himself forward with his right foot.

    Unlike First Mu, Wu Shiyi was a lot faster, so fast that Yato and Seiichi couldn''t even see him that clearly. But Sato wasn''t Yato not Seiichi. He clearly saw Wu Shiyi''s moves but even so, Sato didn''t have an easy time doing so.

    Wu Shiyi''s first move was a thrust with his right palm. His hand wasn''t clenched to form a fist but was open with his fingers stuck closely to one another. Unlike a punch, it would be more convenient to describe it as a ''chop'' but performed as a thrust.

    Like a spearhead to it''s target, Wu Shiyi''s hand approached Sato quickly aiming for his chest. Sato saw the attacking and he noticed it was very fast; so fast that it almost made him take the fight seriously. To avoid the strike, Sato tilted his head and at the same time his head was in motion, he lifted his left leg to deliver a kick at Wu Shiyi.

    Attacking while dodging! A risky procedure that required perfect concentration and calmness in the face of an attack.

    Wu Shiyi wasn''t like First Mu and was a lot stronger. He easily discovered Sato''s actions and so stopped his attack and used his hand to block the kick while at the same time, sending out a kick of his own at Sato with his left leg.

    Attacking while blocking!

    Wu Shiyi might not have been able to dodge Sato''s leg in time but he countered in his own way that wasn''t so different from what Sato did. It was as if he was saying "What you can do, I can do too".

    Sato smirked seeing this and so blocked the attack too. This resulted in a scene where both fighters had blocked the other''s left leg with their right hand.

    Using their right legs, they shoved themselves backwards, creating space between each other. Once there feet was on the ground, they spurred into action once more, not wanting to give the other the liberty of making the next move first.

    *Pa* *Pa*

    Sato and Wu Shiyi exchanged fists and kicks with each other, trying to force the other into submission. Even though Wu Shiyi had called it a spar, he was taking the battle a little bit more serious than he would take an actual spar. Sato never intended on going easy on the target so he also didn''t take the fight as a regr spar. However, none of them used a martial arts technique, except for a few basic ones like energy control and the rest. Only punches and kicks were used in the fight.

    Wu Shiyi kicked and Sato dodged while moving close to him and punching out. Wu Shiyi spaced away from Sato but returned quickly with a fist aimed at Sato''s face. Sato blocked it before sending a kick at Wu Shiyi, which he blocked. The kick sent Wu Shiyi 3 steps backwards while the punch sent Sato 2 steps backwards. The difference in steps wasn''t to say that Sato was stronger, after all, Sato had used a kick while Wu Shiyi used a punch. One''s kicking power is said to be greater than their punching strength so calcting their abilities with such a situation wasn''t ideal.

    "We can stop here." Wu Shiyi suddenly said.

    "Okay." Sato acquiesced, looking as if the fight was just a warm-up.

    "Then, till we meet again." Wu Shiyi said before turning around to leave.

    Sato then suddenly asked, "You aren''t the one from back then right? From your stance and bearing, you look more like a direct fighter than a stalker. That means you guys aren''tplete right? Who was the other one?"

    In truth, Sato didn''t expect Wu Shiyi to reply but he wanted to know whether he was acquainted with the stalker back at the Dorms'' area.

    "Oh? A stalker you say?" Wu Shiyi turned around. "That should be my senior brother."

    "Okay." Sato nodded. He watched as Wu Shiyi left with his gang members before turning to Yato and Seiichi.

    "Let''s go. It''s almost 6 PM."

    "Alright." Yato and Seiichi nodded.

    As they headed to the dorms, Yato asked, "Shouldn''t we invite Katsuo too?"He had already ignored the incident that just urred after all, there was nothing he could do about it. Ichiro was someone above him and unless Seiichi helped using his family''s connections, Yato couldn''t do anything about it.

    "Already did." Seiichi said.

    "When?" Yato asked with a surprised tone.

    "When Sato asked me to do so."

    "When was that?!" Yato halted his footsteps.

    "What do you mean when? Back before the fight."

    "But, but, but I was with you guys the whole time. Howe I didn''t hear anything?" Yato couldn''t help being stunned.

    "Who knows." Seiichi nudged his sses.

    Yato nced from Sato to Seiichi but he didn''t know how to react or what to say. In the end, he just sighed and caught up with the two.

    "Remember, 6:30 PM. Better be on time." Sato said to Seiichi once they reached the Dorms'' area.

    "You shouldn''t worry about me but yourself. Be sure to make it back home in time. Alright,ter." Seiichi waved the two goodbye before leaving for his room.

    "You have take a ride home in other to make it in time especially since you''re just going to be starting for the first time." Sato said to Yato as they both got on their bikes.

    "No worries. I know how to set my priorities straight. ck Mountain Town right?"

    "Yeah." Sato nodded.

    "Okay then." Yato replied as the two rode their bikes back home or rather, back to the school gate.

    . . . . .

    "Boss, why did we have to apologise to that kid? We didn''tplete the mission and we would end up offending that Yamamoto since we revealed his identity to them." Sai asked to Wu Shiyi after they had departed from the basketball court.

    "Offending a Yamamoto? So what? Much less a branch member, I would even offend a direct descendant rather than that guy. He''s a lot worse than that Yamamoto kid." Wu Shiyi replied.

    "!!!" Sai was surprised but he didn''t doubt his boss but he still found it a bit unbelievable. Even if Ichiro was a branch member, the Yamamotos couldn''t be taken lightly, especially in Shinjuku where Ichiro''s branch family ruled the city.

    "Boss. If I may ask, who is he?" Second Mu carefully asked.

    "Who is he? I tell you this, that move he used against your elder brother was one only Grand-masters know how to use. That guy couldn''t use it well enough but he did do a good job with it. This shows that he is below the Grand-master rank; probably a master level martial artist." Wu Shiyi replied.

    "Sthhh." Everyone took in a cold breath of air. Even Second Mu''s back began sweating heavily.

    A Master level martial artist. Even if these guys were below grand-masters they were still a force to reckon. Only their boss, Wu Shiyi, was a master level artist and he was just an early stage one but could easily take them all on with one hand. What more, this guy was a young one like their boss. This proved to show that he had a lot of potential and could possibly reach the Grand-master level.

    "But still, even if he is a Master, this is still not enough reason to offend the Yamamotos." Second Mu said slowly in fear that he might annoy Wu Shiyi.

    Masters weren''t rare unlike Grand-masters. One of the requirements to open a Dojo was to be a Master and there were quite a few Dojos in Shinjuku, since exercise was quite important for people, even more so in this age. In other words, the appeal of a Master warrior is nothingpared to the Yamamotos.

    "True, Masters aren''t that rare but now answer me this. How many Master have you seen at that age apart from me and him?" Wu Shiyi asked with a yful smile.

    "...only 2 and those two are National level fighters." Sai replied. Martial arts and exercises were now taken much more highly and so, it was inevitable that a few would want to make money from these. As such, martial arts and hand-to-handbat battles became popr but this is to be discussed another time.

    "Only 2 right? Now what do we - those 2 and myself - have inmon apart from our ranks and our age?" Wu Shiyi asked again.

    "Hmm... your teachers are all Grand-masters?" Sai replied.

    "Correct. You should have already guessed it but for those who still haven''t, that guy was able to use a skill only Grand-masters could use. Now who do you think taught him that?" Wu Shiyi yfully asked.

    "It can''t be?! He has a Grand-master as a teacher!" Second Mu and the rest, apart from Sai who had already figured it out, yelled in surprise.

    "Don''t be so loud now." Wu Shiyi said while picking his ear with his finger. " Now you get it?"

    "Yes boss." Everyone nodded. Compared to a Grand-master, the Yamamotos were nothing, even more so a branch family. They finally understood why their boss made them apologise.

    Even if he had a Grand-master backing him too, Wu Shiyi wouldn''t want to attract trouble to himself or his teacher, especially so since he doesn''t know the name or level of the Grand-master backing Sato.

    Wu Shiyi suddenly said, "It would be good if we could get close with that guy. Who knows, he might be able to help us someday. As for that shit head Yamamoto who didn''t investigate properly, no one tell him about this. Let him go provoke the ho''s nest himself. We might find out the identity of the Grand-master and also pay back that Yamamoto in kind for the injuries Little Mu and his brother received. Two birds with one stone."

    "Yes boss."

    "You''re truly wise."

    "Boss is right."

    All the gang members began to grovel and fawn over him.

    "Haha. Alright, let''s get back to base and look at their injuries." Wu Shiyi chuckled.

    "Alright."

 Chapter 137 - 133 : The Incident In Front

    [[ System notification :

    Locating server...

    Server located.

    Beginning Neurolink connection process¡­

    Connecting to server Heavenly System Universal server¡­

    Connection sessful.

    Verifying connection¡­

    Connection verification sessful.

    Beginning mind transit in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 ]]

    With a soft bright sh of white light, Sato saw himself back at the room he logged out from.

    "Hah. 6:16 PM. Made it a bit too early but it''s not bad." Sato said as he stared at the System clock on his interface. After Sato had left the Campus grounds with Yato, it didn''t take him long to reach home as his house was a lot closerpared to Yato. He just had a very small meal before taking an energy drink and logging into Infinite Realm. Th reason for his hurry was because every second counted in a game that was on par with another reality. Even if Sato was one of the, if not the highest levelled yer, if he didn''t work hard enough to keep this gap from the other yers they could reach up to him. This was even more so for those pro yers who were always online for at least 20 hours a day.

    Sato left the room and knocked at the one opposite his, which happened to be the one Fudo was in. After knocking three times in special pattern without any response, he finally gave up.

    "He''s not online yet. Well I did tell him 6:30 PM so it''s my fault for expecting that he would be online." Sato sighed before exiting the lodge.

    Because it was already evening in real time, it was still dawn in Infinite Realm

    Sato had not yet gone 5 metres away from the hotel when he noticed amotion in front. A bunch of yers were gathered round another while yelling curses and raining insults on the target. The passing yers all stared at the sight in front but none of them had any ns or interest in interrupting it. The reason was quite simple; they didn''t want to attract unnecessary trouble to themselves. In Infinite Realm, the guy beside you might be the heir of a million ALDpany or even a professional yer of a big guild. It was impossible for one to track the whereabouts of all the famous people [1] or even all the professional members of a guild starting from the outer members to the core members. Because this, the trend of ''Minding your business'' (MYB) became the culture of majority of the yers. Only those ''men of justice'', ''heroes'' or the troublesome ones, actually go about interfering in different situations.

    ''Who knows what might have happened¡­'' Sato thought as he walked towards there. He wasn''t actually heading to the scene to interfere or anything, but the path he had to follow happened to be where they were.

    "You stupid girl! Trying to rob me of my belongings?! What do you take me for even?!" A man''s angry voice reverberated.

    *Pa*

    *Thud*

    A loud sound was heard as a body fell to the ground heavily.

    "I didn''t¡­" The girl who fell to the ground whimpered weakly.

    "Hmm?" Sato was originally intending to pass by ignorantly when he happened o catch a sight of the yer that fell down.

    It happened to be a young girl with an innocent look and a kind face. Like an innocent angel sent to bless the world, though her beauty wasn''t as exaggerated as the Snow Goddess, Akihira Yukino, she was still a beauty of her own ss. She was indeed pretty but the p she had received from the yer caused a bit of injury on her face. Nheless, it only reduced her appeal by just a bit. But what drew Sato''s attention to her was the green hair she had.

    ''She looks familiar¡­Isn''t she?!''

    Sato tried to recall where he had seen her before he finally remembered. She was one of the yers who signed up for the cksmith exam back when Sato registered [2].

    "You b**ch! Stopping acting innocent and hand it over!" The man yelled at thedy who fell down.

    "It''s not yours¡­" She responded weakly.

    "What happened here?" Sato stopped and quietly asked a yer who was standing by the side and watching the ''show''.

    "Huh?" The yer nced at Sato. He was originally didn''t want to say but recalling that the incident would neither affect nor concern him, he did so.

    "That girl is as thief. Well, that''s what they said anyway." The yer said.

    "A thief?" Sato asked with surprise as no one would actually expect such an innocent looking young girl to be a thief.

    "I know right? You just can''t judge people based on appearances. Apparently she went on a quest or something with those guys and she tried to run away with a loot. She thought she would be safe in town but they sill caught up to her." The yer sighed. "Such an unbefitting thing to do for a pretty girl like this."

    "You sure?" Sato asked him.

    "We can''t ever be truly sure of something but even if she isn''t, who would dare to help her? See those guys." The yer pointed at the 6 men surrounding the girl. "They are a bunch of pro-yers. They might not be that famous but they''re still quite strong with their leader being a level 6 along 3 others. Even if the girl is innocent, no one intends on offending such a line-up of yers for a weak girl. It''s just unnecessary trouble."

    "Indeed." Satomented before turning around to leave. He never had any intention of helping her just because he had seen her before. They weren''t even acquainted with each other much less friends. Sato didn''t have a reason to go out of his way to help someone he didn''t know. He wasn''t a good Samaritan or anything. As for whether if the story told about her was true, Sato didn''t care to know.

    "Wait. Why haven''t the Town guards shown up yet?" Sato suddenly asked. In previous VR games, once a yer gets injured by another yer or a fight urs, the NPC security personnel usually show up but from the crowd gathered here Sato believed that this must have been going on for at least 5 minutes but there was still no sign of a Town guard or anything. The girl was obviously a [Cleric] and the guy bullying her was a [Guardian] so she would inevitably receive damage from his attacks just as Crimson Scar received damage from Sato''s punches. The only difference would be the damage value.

    "Huh? Now that you mention it, I don''t know. A few guards had shown up earlier on but they didn''t interfere." The yer replied while being surprised himself.

    "Fufu." Another yer who was close to them smiled. "Infinite Realm pursues reality and just like reality, the police wouldn''t interfere in every single scuffle they spot now would they?"

    "That''s¡­!" The first yer was dumbfounded. But upon focusing more on those words, he seemed to understand a bit. Indeed, despite iming to care for the security and well-being of the people, the police don''t really pay attention to every single incident.[3]

    "I see¡­" Sato responded with a strange smile. ''I really have been underestimating this game''s, no, this world''s features.''

    Having gotten an answer to his question, Sato turned around to leave. He had only taken 3 steps forward when he heard anothermotion break out. This time, the reason he turned back was because he heard a familiar voice.

    "What''s going on here?" A female voice sounded out. Contained in it was a bit of dominance and pride stemming inherently within from the speaker.

    "Who are yo-" The guardian yelled as he turned. However, once his eyes came into contact with the speaker, he suddenly went mute and astonished. In front of him was ady as beautiful as the moon in a dark night and as white as snow. Walking alongside her were 5 other yers but the main reason for the man''s astonishment was thedy at the lead.

    "It''s, It''s the Snow Goddess!" Someone from the crowd shouted with passion. Immediately some yers broke out in cheers while others were shocked at her appearance. Whispers went about as those who didn''t know her were informed of her achievements.

    The Snow Goddess, Yukino, had finally made a public appearance after the Goblin arc incident. It was inevitable that her fans would cheer at her sight. Even though she had taken 5th position in the Most Kills Individual category, her strength was still one worth taking note of, especially after it was revealed that she was held back by the Savage Tribe during the war. What was even more impressive was that despite being outnumbered 1:7 in an environment set to benefit the Savage Tribe yers, she managed to defeat 6 of them with thest one, Maniac Chief Goro, running with his tails between his legs. With the reveal of this event and even still being able t take 5th position, the Snow Goddess'' reputation had reached a new height.

    "What''s going on here? Don''t you know that you''re blocking the road?" Yukino said the yer in front of her.

    "I''m sorry. I''m sorry." The man hurriedly apologised. He might be a big figure in the eyes of average yers but in front of a true expert, he was nothing but a slightly bigger ant.

    "Don''t me me miss. I''m just trying to deal with a thief." the man tried to push the me to the green haired girl.

    "Hmm? It''s you?" Yukino stared at the weak individual behind the man. Because his figure had blocked off the view, she didn''t notice the girl until now.

    The green haired girl lifted her eyes to face Yukino and said weakly "Big sister..."

    "Hey you!" Yukino red at the man. "What did you say she did?"

    "She, she¡­" The man became all fidgety as he broke out in sweat. He knew he was doomed when Yukino recognized the girl and he became even more scared when the girl called Yukino ''Big sister''. Right now, if there was a heap of cow dung close-by, the man wouldn''t think twice before burying his head in it.

    "She what?"

    Realisingthat he couldn''t escape this predicament, the man was about to surrender but when he suddenly remembered that he was still in Town, a sense of boldness and courage was suddenly instilled within him.

    "She stole from me so I''m just punishing her for what she did."

    "Stole?" Yukino nced at the girl. "Is what he''s saying true?"

    "No big sister! He''s lying. We went to an abandoned ruins and I found a strange object there. But he forced me to hand it over even though we had agreed to keep whatever we found by ourselves."

    "So it turns out that he was lying and he was a thief."

    "Such a terrible person. He deserves to die for bullying such a nice girl."

    With her confession, the public turned their attention to the Guardian with anger and disgust clearly visible in their eyes.

    Feeling the increasing negativity aimed at him, the man roared at her, "Shut up!"

    He moved his hand to p her but suddenly discovered that he couldn''t feel a thing. "Nani?" He turned to look at his hand when he discovered that it was missing.

    "You dare attack me in Town?!" The man was stupefied. The punishment for fighting I Town was even worse than dying. For a famous pro yer like Yukino to actually do such was totally unexpected.

    "I would have done worse if you had pped her. Now scram!" Yukino said to him with her sword pointed at his throat.

    "...tch! Let''s go." The man left with his teammates, leaving behind the green haired girl.

    ''She still has such a feisty attitude.'' Sato smiled while watching from a distance. ''With no guards being present, I think she shouldn''t be in so much trouble. But to have taken such a risk, she should be quite close with that girl.''

    As Sato thought this, he noticed that Yukino was ncing through the popce as if in search of someone.

    ''Time to go.'' Sato quietly sneaked out. He didn''t have any intention of meeting the famed Snow Goddess again after all, thest time they met, he had rejected her invitation. Prideful people like her would surely have be irked by his attitude.

    "You didn''t need to do that captain. You could have just scared him off." A female yer beside Yukino quietly said to her through a voice call.

    "True but Chesces and the rest are away from Town. They did say that we need to attract the other guilds attention on ourselves. This should be able to do that." Yukino replied in the call. It was a private voice call so no one could hear them. Their lip control was also exquisite such that if one didn''t focus well, they would barely notice them speaking.

    "Ai~ Captain, you really like doing things the wrong way."

    As the girl concluded, she noticed that a squad of patrol guards where heading their way and so ended the call. Yukino also noticed that but she still remained calm despite attacking a yer in town.

    ''Let''s hope that I''m right.''

    Infinite Facts :

    In order to cater for those who work in the day, 6PM real-time is dawn in Infinite Realm while Night begins at 6AM real time. In other words, inverse time.. That is 6AM RT = 6PM IGT, 6PM RL = 6AM IGT.

 Chapter 138 - 134 : At The Blacksmith Guild

    After Sato had sneaked away from the location of the scene, he headed to the cksmith guild at the West Gate''s district. His main reason for doing so was to research more on the cksmith upation.

    After having epted the mission [Master Owen''s Trial] from the Master cksmith, Owen Triastis, Sato hadn''t yet made any achievements on his sub-ss. The mission''s duration was only 1 week long and the 1st day was about to go by. Though looking at things from that angle, one would presume that there''s still time but Sato has questioned why the System would set such a long duration for a supposedly ''easy'' trial. The conclusion he arrived that, the cksmith sub-ss might be one f the toughest sub-sses ever. This was especially so since he had spent more than 3 hours trying to forge a Low Tier Mortal rank short sword and had still failed. If it were in other VR games, Sato would have seed in 3 or so tries.

    Sato presumed that Infinite Realm wasn''t like those games that directed you on everything or took control of you while forging. Infinite Realm required the practitioner to be aware of his abilities and rte with the ss. In other words, if he was right, real life cksmiths would have a way more easier time than newbies like him. Ever since Sato was born, apart from VR games, he had nevere in contact with a hammer. Hell, who still uses hammers even.

    ''Since I don''t have experience, I need to get it. But finding cksmiths in reality is a whole lot easier than one would think and practicing here is a lot expensive.'' Sato sighed. Even though he and Fudo had made a killing after the Goblin skirmish, he would only be able to afford a few sets of materials. After he was done with that, then what next? It wasn''t like money grew from trees or anything plus he would still need those coins to help set up the foundation of his club.

    *Sighs* "Life really likes kicking people in the nuts."

    As for why Sato was heading to the cksmith guild without any ns on forging? Who said that the cksmith guild is only for forging?! There were books that he could read there and each of them contained not only the necessary knowledge on cksmithing but also the experiences of his seniors and predecessors. If he could read those books and understand them while taking out the important points, Sato''s sess rate in forging an equipment should increase.

    ''As they say, knowledge is power.''

    Since the hotel he had lodged in was in the West District, it didn''t take long for Sato to reach the cksmith guild. By the time he had reached there though,it was already 6:24 PM; 6 more minutes before Yato and Fudo would log in.

    ''Still enough time¡­''

    Walking through the arch doors of the guild, Sato once again stepped into the hall and was still greeted by the same sight of an empty building¡­not! Surprisingly this time, unlike thest, there a small crowd of yers lined up at the counter.

    ''It seems like they now know.'' Sato smirked.

    The intel that one would get a couple extra attributes after receiving a sub-ss wasn''t known to everyone back when Sat had registered. It was only a few hourster that a lot more people began to know of this. After that, most sub-ss guilds were filled up with yers wanting to gain a few extra attribute points. Even if it was still quite early in the morning (IGT), the cksmith guild was open quite sometime ago and so the yers were able to have lined up already. They took this opportunity to do so because once the sunes, out the environment would get clearer and so, it would be pointless to keep standing there instead of leveling up.

    ording to an estimated statistics by one of the top informant guilds, the super guild Hermes, each novice town (towns yers could spawn in) had at least between 1000 - 2,000 yers. That sounds like small number but have you ever seen a crowd of 2,000 people? Then you should know how incredible the sight was. 2000 yers all crowding the different sub-ss guilds just to register, it was understandable that not everyone would have been able toplete theirs yet.

    ''But that doesn''t bother me.''

    Sato walked forward, directly avoiding the queue and heading to the counter up ahead.

    "Hey, who is that guy? Is he crazy?"

    "He actually dares to cut the line?! Who does he think he is?!"

    Some of the yers beganining upon seeing Sato''s actions but Sato directly ignored them.

    "Hey." A burly man blocked Sato from going forward. "Go back and join at the end of the queue."

    The man had a metal armour on and arge axe hung behind his back. One look and one would know that his ss was a [Berserker].

    "Why?" Sato nced up at him and asked.

    The man was quite tall that Sato barely reached up to his neck. Due to the allure of the riches of VR gaming most tall people abandoned the idea of participating in sports and decided to be gamers. Th best part for them was that no matter what case it may be, tall people were always weed in any sports and this included E-sports. The [Guardian], [Pdin] and [Berserker] sses were a good example of this and so, most tall people tend to chose those sses.

    "Because we all came before you for the registration and it would be disrespectful of you to jump the queue." The man replied.

    "On normal days, I might consider your words but today I''m in a hurry so move out of my way." Sato replied inly.

    "No." The man straightly replied.

    "...are you sure you want to do this?" Sato said to him.

    "Try me." The man replied fearlessly.

    As Sato was about to settle this in his own way, one of the receptionists in front had noticed themotion and walked over.

    "What''s going on here?" A soft voice asked with a stern tone.

    ncing at the speaker, Sato saw that it was the NPC receptionist he got acquainted with before, Amelia.

    "Oh? It''s you?" Amelia sad with surprise. She had a good memory so it was understandable that she remembered Sato.

    "What''s going on?" She asked again but this time with a soft tone. She wasn''t yet an official cksmith or even an apprentice so technically, she was lower ranked than Sato. Hence, there was no need on being strong on him.

    "He''s blocking my way." Sato exined while pointing at the huge man.

    Amelia nced at him and asked "Why are you doing so?"

    The huge man had already felt that things had gone south with Amelia recognising Sato and it even became worse when she addressed him with stern tone but Sato with a soft voice. Nheless, he didn''t care much.

    "He was jumping the queue." The burly man replied in a simple manner just as Sato had done before.

    "And so? Do you know who he is? There''s no reason for him to queue with you guys so why are you blocking his path?"

    "No reason?" The huge man inquired.

    "He''s already an apprentice cksmith so his has his liberties in the guild." Amelia replied without any emotion.

    "Oh? I see. Then it''s my bad." The man said before turning to Sato. "I apologise." He bowed his head in apology.

    ''Huh?'' Sato was surprised. He never expected the man to apologise from the start especially after seeing his strong front. ''Maybe I misunderstood him.''

    "No problem. I too am at fault since I didn''t bother to exin properly." Sato bowed slightly.

    "Okay." The man said before returning to his spot at the queue. Sato, on the other hand, went forward together with Amelia towards her counter.

    "So what can I do for you today?" Amelia smiled at Sato.

    "I need to know the location of the cksmith library and also get ess to some good books. You''ve been here for awhile right? So you should know some."

    The reason Sato had asked her this instead of an actual cksmith was because Master Owen had previously mentioned that most of the cksmiths are busy people so they aren''t enthusiastic to visits. Rather than looking for a genuine cksmith to ask such a simple question, he might as well ask a receptionist. Since they have been here for a while, some of them might have gone through the books at the library. This was especially so for those who would want to be one.

    "Hmm." Amelia pressed a finger on her chin as she ruminated her words. "Well, the library isn''t off limits to anyone so you''re free to go there. As for a book to read, it depends on what you''re looking for. I have indeed been here for quite a long time already but I wouldn''t dare to say that I know all the books. However, I could rmend you some of the ones I''ve gone through."

    "No problem then." Sato replied.

    "Okay then. Follow me." Amelia smiled as she left the counter. She nced over at the resting area and said to ady who was going through a book "Hey, Shirley,could you please take over for me?"

    "Huh?" Thedy looked up to see who spoke. Upon seeing Sato beside Amelia, she smirked and replied "Sure thing."

    "Alright then, let''s go.." Amelia said to Sato.

 Chapter 139 - 135 : Meeting Up

    "Over here." Amelia pointed at a door as she approached it.

    "Hmm."

    Amelia opened the door for Sato to get through it. As he walked through the door, Sato was greeted by the sight of a huge and impressive hall.

    The library was huge hall filled with wooden bookcases almost 2 and a half metres tall. Despite so, it looked quite sturdy and the wood didn''t seem to be an ordinary one or something on oar with cedar or mahogany; it looked way more expensive and better. At the side of the book cases, a few words were painted on them, signifying the central topic of the books on the cases. On each of them were a ton of books and manuscripts of different ages, all focused or associated with cksmithing. These were writings or experiences from predecessors on cksmithing, containing enough knowledge to raise a Master level cksmith.

    The library wasn''t only filled with book cases and books. At certain intervals on the side, a pot of flowers was kept on the side to beautiful the environment. At the center of the library, was a small fountain that created a pond there. Apparently, the essence of the fountain was to use the sound of the water flowing to calm the minds of readers and tobat that excessive feeling of silence. [1]

    Apart from the sound of water running and a few footsteps, nothing else could be heard here.

    "So what would you like to begin with?" Amelia asked Sato.

    "I''d like to read some past experiences of other cksmiths. I''m having a bit of trouble in my work." Sato replied.

    "Hmm...past experiences. I think there are a lot of them here and there are a few specific ones at that. Over here."

    Amelia then lead Sato a bit deeper into the library before stopping at a book case.

    "Right here." Amelia said to Sato.

    "Hmm." Sato nodded in acquiescence as he walked closer to the book case. He began scanning through the books and manuscripts, in search of one to take with him.

    "Hmm. Hieler''s words, Masic''s Procedures, Master Dorian''s Experience in Forging, Etihad''s Savoir-faire oncksmithing. Theresure are a lot of books...Hmm? Juggard''s Hammer strikes?" Sato brought his eye on a small insignificant booklet.

    "Oh that? That''s a simple manual from the Grand-master cksmith Juggard. He is known as the Father of modern day cksmithing and forging since most beginners rely on his manuals." Amelia exined.

    "A Grand-master cksmith?" Sato was surprised. "Why is his work tossed here just like this?"

    "You seem to misunderstand. This book has been copied all over the world. This isn''t a special copy or anything and it''s only useful to beginners and apprentices so it isn''t as valued as the others."

    "The others?" Sato asked.

    "The good ones. You should have guessed that this isn''t all the ones the guild has right?" Amelia smiled mysteriously.

    "That''s true. Alright then. I will take these two. Can I borrow them from the guild?" Sato said as he brought out the two books: ''Juggard''s Hammer strikes'' and ''''Master Dorian''s Experience in Forging''.

    "Well, usually, you can''t unless you''re an official cksmith but Master Owen permitted you guys." Amelia replied.

    ''He really is helping us that much huh...''

    "Okay then." Sato nodded.

    "Then follow me to finish up the procedures." Amelia said.

    6:35 PM. RT (Real-Time)

    It didn''t take long for Sato to be done with the procedures before he could take the book.

    [[System : Iing Audio call.

    Caller ID : Emperor Wolf

    ept/Decline ]]

    As he left the cksmith guild, Sato received a call from his System interface, an In-game call. To be exact and one from Fudo.

    [[System : Audio call epted]]

    "Hello."

    "Hey, Sato what''s up? Where are you?" Fudo''s enthusiastic voice replied from the other end of the call.

    "I''m at the cksmith guild. It shouldn''t be so far from you soe on over." Sato replied him.

    "Hehe. Guess who I found here?" Fudo chuckled mysteriously.

    "Seiichi." Sato inly replied. When he had got back home, he sent Seiichi a message asking him to head over to their location at Riverdale. Seiichi was a hardcore gamer so Sato wasn''t worried that he wouldete.

    "...How the hell did you know that?!" Fudo yelled, shocked that Sato had guessed it in one try.

    "I sent him over there. Bring him with you whileing. Oh and also, what about Takehasi?"

    "Tch. No wonder you guessed it so quickly." Fudo grumbled. "As for Takehasi, he already has an ount in the game but he''s positioned elsewhere, Maple leaf Kingdom or something. I think he said it was at the Western side of the continent."

    "At the West? That''s far." Sato sighed. The Fallen Heart Kingdom where Sato was, is located at the South-Eastern side of the continent, way far from the Maple Leaf Kingdom. The kingdoms neighbouring Fallen Heart were just Reiss and Brusia, both kingdoms under the Brahman Empire. There was also another piece ofnd though but this was directly under the Andare, a rival power to the Brahman Empire.

    "What about Natsuo?" Sato asked again.

    "Same with him but he''s a bit closer though. The Reiss Kingdom. If I remember correctly, they should be one of our neighbours." Fudo answered.

    "Yeah. Put the call on speaker let me talk to Seiichi."

    "It already was." Fudo replied.

    "I''m here." Seiichi''s voice sounded from the call.

    "Oh? Seiichi, how did it go with Katsuo?" Sato asked him.

    "Good I guess. Katsuo should be setting up his avatar and he will be done in the next 5 or so minutes."

    "What ss?" Sato asked.

    "I don''t know but he did mention it''s an MT one; either a [Pdin] or a [Guardian]."

    "Okay then. You can wait for him while I stock on supplies. We don''t have a healer yet so we would need a lot of vials." Sato sighed. When it was with him and Fudo, the expenses were still slightly manageable but with a few more numbers, things would get a whole lot more expensive.

    "Later."

    [[System : Audio call terminated]]

    Sato nced up to face the skies as he began to think of how to go about things from now.

    ''Oh, I forgot to ask about Yato. Hai¡­''

    While Sato wen about to go purchase a few goods, unbeknownst to him, amotion had arisen from Yukino''s actions back then. The forums were heated up discussing about her as various different news with appealing headlines appeared all over the ce. While there were a few that had an ''okay'' title, some of them took things a little bit too far.

    "Shocking, Emperor''s Might Top beauty attacks in Town and doesn''t get arrested."

    "The Snow Goddess has seized her ce as the untouchable yer of Riverdale."

    "Did the Snow Goddess have an affair with the Town''s head to escape punishment? Find out now!"

    "The Love story of Town Head Arman and the Snow Goddess."

    "The Snow Goddess; even her charm knows no bounds as she seduces her way out of jail with her beauty."

    As dumb as some of the headlines sounded, they all focused on one fact; the Snow Goddess, Akihira Yukino, had attacked a yer in town but didn''t receive any punishment despite encountering the Town guards.

    Some yers had thought thus was a glitch or a bug and so tried to replicate the exact same scenario but oh, were they disappointed as they got caught and jailed in prison. A few others, the envious guild yers to be exact, wrote an aggressive report to the developers, iming that the System was rigged. However, the developers had released a statement iming that nothing was wrong with the System and it was only the Snow Goddess'' efforts that set her free. This didn''t seed in calming the yers down as there were more criticism andints filed to thepany. Until they finally released the reason to her being free.

    "The top 10 yers of the Most Kills award in the Individual category all received the basic reward and this included the title [Humanity''s Friend]."

    It was just a sentence but as more yers researched on it and recalled the title from back then, they finally understood why. The title made their rtionship levels with human forces to be at an [Honoured] level. So almost like a noble, they would be respected where ever they went, as long as it was a human settlement. In other words, so long as Yukino exined to the guards about what she did and why she did so, together with the fact that she only injured a yer and didn''tmit murder, there was no reason for her to be jailed. After all, her merits had already surpassed her crimes. There was only one sentence left in the minds of yers once they knew this; Why didn''t I try better back then?

    AN :

    [1] Excess silence here refers to pure silence or rather, true silence. Silence is good, yeah sure. But I''m not a fan of total silence. I prefer nature''s silence. You know, the silence you get at the beach, close to the sea or in a forest with the asional rustling of leaves.. PS : I coined all these terms.

 Chapter 140 - 136 : Meeting Up 2

    It didn''t take long for Sato to purchase all the needed supplies since they weren''t much to begin with; just a bunch of HP potions only. Since it was such a simple deal that he went for, he didn''t bother purchasing it at Grynx Merchandise, but went for somewhere cheaper. As for equipment and weapons for the neers, Sato couldn''t afford them with the meager amount he had, though calling his funds meager might be an understatement. After all, apart from guilds, Sato could pretty much be said to be the richest yer currently.

    After their spending at Grynx Merchandise back then, Sato and Fudo had left the store with a totaled amount of 80 silver coins. From the time hepleted the first mission of [The Goblins'' Invasion] quest up till now, Sato had made more than 75 silver coins. If the materials he had gained was added to the equation, Sato''s funds would be up to 1 gold coin or so. 1 gold coin! No solo yer had been able to make that much thus far. Even a majority of clubs and adventurer guilds haven''t been able to make that much from missions and fighting monsters alone. This could only be done by someone like Sato and Fudo, who both had a pretty good luck in getting high level but somewhat easy quests thus far. Unlike thest time Sato had 1 gold coin in liquidity, this 1 gold coin worth of wealth only belonged to Sato. However though, since Fudo had taken the exact same missions as he did, his own funds wouldn''t becking by much. In other words, adding up Fudo''s wealth to the table would equal to a total sum of 2 gold coins!

    Sure the money was enough to purchase new gears for everybody since Upper tier Mortal rank equipment could be afforded with a few silver coins, Sato didn''t intend on getting getting industrial grade equipment for Yato and Katsuo. However, custom grade ones were a lot more expensive and the main issue was supplying the materials and finding a cksmith to forge them. But Sato''s intention was never to find one. Then where would he get the equipment you ask? Simple. From the reward from the emergency mission he got while battling Sygrart [1]. Back then, Dream Tiger had cashed in his reward and got a system generated weapon. Sadly, he lost it to Sato in their duel. Neither Sato nor Fudo had cashed in for theirs though. For Fudo, he already had the [ck Alder Staff] which was already an Upper tier Mortal rank weapon. As for Sato, he wasn''t yet interested in getting a new sword as the [Bandit''s Sword] he had already catered to his needs. If it wasn''t for Yato though, he would have already taken the reward.

    ''The reward says a one Upper tier Mortal rank weapon of choice. I wonder, those it work for high levelled weapons¡­''

    Even though he thought that way, Sato knew that there was no way the System would give them such a heavenly boon so early in the game and even if it did, it would be pointless to get a weapon one can''t use, since most weapons have user restrictions.

    ''However, it''s only one piece. We would still need toe back and buy a few new gears but that would be after they have levelled up a bit and gotten used to the game.'' Sato thought. Even if he didn''t n on getting them new equipment now, they would still need it to face off against a world ss boss.

    After settling down his thoughts, Sato then went on to find his crew at the agreed location. During his ''shopping spree'', Fudo had sent him a message that everyone had arrived. In response, Sato had replied that they should wait for him at the West Gate and from there they would depart to ck Grill''s Cave. Now he was done with his procurement, Sato headed over there.

    It wasn''t a huge distance from the merchandise area to the West gate so Sato easily reached there in time. He was about to begin scanning round for his crew when he heard a voice calling him.

    "Sato. Sato over here."

    Turning his head to the source of the call, Sato saw Fudo''s plump figure together with a tall Katsuo, same height Yato and Seiichi, who surprisingly still wore sses even in the game. It wasn''t difficult to do so since such essories could easily be purchased in game but Sato never expected him to do so.

    "Yo." Sato simply greeted them.

    "What''s with that kinda greeting man? It''s been awhile since so why would you be like that?" Yato said with a rxed attitude.

    "A while? Wasn''t it just a few hours ago when we went to see you at the hospital that we all met?" Seiichi said as he nudged his sses.

    ''Ah~ Now I see why he got those.'' Sato''s inner voice eximed.

    "Well, what I meant was, that''s it''s been a while since we met IN GAME." Yato stressed after getting rid of the awkwardness Seiichi had brought with his statement.

    "So what ss did you get?" Sato asked as he began studying Yato''s look from head to toe.

    "A [Swordsman]." Yato replied with a haughty smile.

    "...damn." Sato replied with only one word but he wasn''t sad about that. Their team did indeed need one more closebat DPS yer though.

    "And you, Katsuo?"

    "Well, after Seiichi told me that you guys have issues finding a healer ss, I went with a [Pdin]." Katsuo replied. With his tall height and the system provided gear, he indeed fit the role of a [Pdin].

    "Alright then." Sato smiled pleasingly. With Katsuo''s ss as a [pdin], he could provide timely heals for himself and others and even though it was nothing inparison to that of a [Druid] much less a [Cleric], it was still better than nothing.

    "I couldn''t get you guys anything since I didn''t know your sses, but once you''re used to the game, we wille back and buy some gears, alright?"

    "No problem. I was already nning on getting used to the controls and configurations here before doing anything else." Katsuo said. Though all modern VR games, in essence, were supposed to be controlled mentally, some had a few bugs, connection dys and movementgs unlike Infinite Realm and this problems were kept in their head sand affected their actions. As a result, Yato and Katsuo would need time to adjust to the game a bit.

    "The best way to solve this is the only option you have; fighting." Seiichi stated.

    "What are we waiting for then? Let''s go " Fudo urged the group.

    And so, the party of Sato, Fudo, Yato, Seiichi and Katsuo hired a carriage to drop them off at the Stone Creek Forest. Of course, this trip was uneventful as there were few monsters close to Riverdale town. After all, why would a Primary town let a bunch of monsters wander around their location?

    Once the carriage was at the entrance of Stone Creek Forest, it halted for the passengers to get off. After paying the driver their fare, Sato and his crew began to walk off towards the direction of ck Grill''s Cave. There was still sometime before the agreed meeting time of 7 PM real time. Sato intended on letting Katsuo and Yato level up a bit after all, they couldn''t just go to a level 5 map while still being level 0 right? Just one hit, no half a hit, and they would be goners.

    "You guys would have to start out with level 1 monster s and so on. You don''t need to be in much of a hurry. In game, we still have 1 hour or so. Just get used to your skills and abilities." Sato said to the two.

    "Roger."

    While they went off in search of a target, Sato called Seiichi to the side.

    "What level are you?" Sato asked him.

    "Level 6." Seiichi said calmly. If it were anyone else he was talking to, Seiichi would have acted proudly after all apart from the absurd experts and so on, level 6 was the top level but Seiichi knew more and that was why he was calm. In front of the level 8 Sato, his pride as a level 6 yer was totally sh*t.

    "Level 6? That''s not bad and you''re a [Ranger] huh? You''re in luck. I have something for you." Sato smiled.

    "You do?" Seiichi asked. Sato was a level 8 [Swordsman]. Logically, there should be nothing he has that was of interest to a level 6 [Ranger].

    "Yes. You could say I got this from¡­a benefactor. You could even call him a friend, yes a friend." Sato smiled weirdly.

    "A friend? You?" Seiichi chuckled.

    "Just shut up and check it out.." Sato said as he pulled out a long object from his storage bag.

 Chapter 141 - 137 : An Unexpected Occurrence

    As Sato''s hand withdrew from the bag, an emerald bow exited alongside it. It had a dreamy feeling to it it alongside a sparkly touch to its look that made it look shiny.

    "Here." Sato handed it over to Seiichi.

    "A bow?" Seiichi asked. "Not to mock you but mine is quite impressive. It might not be an Upper tier but it''s among the top in the Mid tier Mortal rank. It wasn''t easy getting it even."

    "Just shut up and take it." Sato couldn''t help retorting at Seiichi. Here he was offering him a new weapon and he was still acting petty.

    "Okay, okay." Seiichi said. He took the bow from Sato halfheartedly before inspecting it with the [Appraise] function. The [Appraise] skill was one of the basic neutral skills, together with [Inspect], that every yer would naturally receive butpared to the abilities of a true Appraiser from the Appraiser subss, it was as nothing. However, it was still a handy skill for yers.

    ''Appraise.''

    With a thought, the information on the bow appeared on it in form of a panel only Seiichi could see.

    "This¡­This is?!" Seiichi shouted as his breathing became rushed.

    [[ Emerald Star Bow : Upper Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 25

    Requirement : Level 5 || 12 [Dexterity] || 10 [Strength] || [Ranger]

    [Attack Speed] +15

    [Attack Power] +20

    [Strength] +5

    Skills :

    Star sight : Passive : User''s uracy increases leading to a 1.2% increase in critical chance.

    Star Shot : Active : Fire an arrow that multiplies into 7, each containing 120% of the user''s Attack Power. Cool-down : 30 seconds.

    System description : An impressive bow for low level warriors. What more would you expect from something gifted by yours truly.

    ]]

    "An upper tier Mortal rank!" Seiichi eximed.

    "Yep." Sato nodded.

    Even though it might seem like Upper tier Mortal rank weapons and equipment were quitemon, this was only in the eye of peak guild experts. For themon folks without any impressive background, Upper tier Mortal ranks were godly weapons that were difficult to get. They mostly used Mid tier Mortal ranks and getting the top ss Mid tier Mortal rank weapons would be enough for some of them to treat it as family heirlooms. Maybeter in the game, these weapons would be easily avable but for now, they were as scarce as a white peacock.

    To make things even more amazing, this [Emerald Star Bow] was among the top in terms of power. Just one look and one would see that it was a bit more powerful than Fudo''s [ck Alder Staff]. Fudo''s staff might boost two main attributes with one secondary attribute but it only had one skill and that was a passive one that appeared based on luck. The [Emerald Star Bow] however strengthened 2 secondary attributes with 1 main attributes. Nheless, it had 2 skills and one of them was even an active skill that would turn a single attack into 7! With the passive ability, Star Sight, it was an ideal model for a [Ranger]''spanion.

    "I thought you wouldn''t like it? You did say yours was impressive so hand it back." Sato grinned.

    Seiichi''s lips twitched a bit, wondering why he had said such words. He still steeled himself and shamelessly said to Sato, "When did I ever say such? Are you taking me as a hypocrite? How could I have ever said such to you?"

    "Tch. You could have just apologized. No need for being so shameless." Sato replied. "Let''s be off. We don''t want to waste much time here."

    "Alright." Though Seiichi wanted to test out his new bow, especially the skills attached to it, he knew that he would get his timeter so there was no need to hurry.

    While they were having that short conversation, Fudo was assisting Yato and Katsuo in taking down a few low levelled monsters. While he would not receive any shred of experience for taking down these monster, Fudo still made sure that none of his teammates perished to them. Also being aware of the System''s distribution of experience points, Fudo didn''t actively participate in the battle neither did he enter a party system with the two. He only stared by the sidelines and interfered when necessary.

    "Alright. Enough ying with these low levelled creatures." Sato drew his sword. "We are in somewhat of a hurry so ying with these weaklings is no fun. The strong ones are way better."

    As he concluded his statement, Sato dashed at the small horde of monsters Yato had attracted, and yed them with a little bit above one strike for each [1]. In under 7 seconds, 13 monsters were dead. In other words, Sato spent less than a second for each. Such speed was impressive even if he was ying low levelled monsters but to Sato, this was dissatisfactory.

    "Let''s go."

    . . . . .

    A few hundred metres away from Sato''s group, Lu Zhen and Xue Yan where on their way to ck Grill''s Cave too. They had prepared at almost the same time as the others but left slightly ahead of them at a much faster pace. As a result, Lu Zhen and Xue Yan were ahead of Sato''s group.

    "Why are we in such a hurry even? He did say 7 PM. There''s a still a bit more time so rx." Lu Zhen said to Xue Yan as the two ran through the forest.

    "No. I need his help so it''s courtesy that I arrive first." Xue Yan hesitated before continuing, "Plus there''s this weird feeling I''ve been having, as if my instincts are warning me of something."

    "Of what?" Lu Zhen asked.

    "If I knew, I wouldn''t say ''of something''." Xue Yan red at Lu Zhen.

    The two kept on moving for a few metres before Lu Zhen suddenly spoke up.

    "There are a few people waiting up ahead." Even though he wasn''t a [Ranger], thanks to his high [Dexterity] and his innate impressive sight, Lu Zhen could easily spot objects easier than normal people in a crowded area or even a ce like the forest they were in now.

    "People? NPCs?" Xue Yan asked. Unlike other games where resource maps were usually devoid of NPCs, the same didn''t apply in Infinite Realm. One could randomly encounter an NPC either harvesting a few nts or battling a monster, though such scenarios were very rare. In such a case, they could help the NPC and hopefully get rewarded or enter a conversation with them in order to get a mission. Lu Zhen and Xue Yan had actually met one before but because Xue Yan was in a hurry, they went past the NPC.

    "No. yers." Lu Zhen replied with a frown. It wouldn''t be weird seeing yers here too but what was strange to him was that the yers had actually stood still as if waiting for someone.

    "Let''s circle around them." Lu Zhen said before Xue Yan could reply his previous words.

    "Okay." Seeing as how serious he looked, Xue Yan didn''t argue with him and just did as Lu Zhen said.

    They were still 200 or so metres away from the group of yers but before they could take a turn, 2 yers suddenly appeared out of the blue and blocked their path.

    "Who are you?" Xue Yan shouted. She didn''t her voice that much in fear of attracting others but it was just enough to show her annoyance and vexation at the duo.

    The two ck cloaked individuals didn''t answer but one of them faced Lu Zhen and asked "Where are the other 2?"

    Lu Zhen was still furrowing his brows, trying to uncover the identities of the duo when one of them had questioned him. From the voice of the yer though, Lu Zhen had realised that he was a man.

    "The other 2? I don''t know who you''re talking about." Lu Zhen answered him. He wasn''t in a hurry to attack them as he felt that there was no one whom he had offended enough to set an ambush for him. So it was better to answer the question that rush into battle. Who knows, the two yers might have made a mistake and they (Lu Zhen and Xue Yan) were not the intended targets.

    "Don''t y dumb. I mean that fat pig and the other one." The yer said, but this time with obvious fury in his tone.

    "The fat one¡­" Lu Zhen tried to remember a fat friend.

    "Are you that daft or what? Don''t y dumb with me." The yer said as he took a step forward in an attempt to rush Lu Zhen.

    "Wait." The other yer stopped hisrade. "It''s been a while miss, don''t tell me you''ve forgotten us?" The yer said to Xue Yan. From the way he addressed her, it turned out that he was a male like his partner.

    "A while? I''m sorry but I really don''t know you." Xue Yan shook her head.

    "Oh really?" The yer said with an over-exaggerated tone of surprise. He then took of his hood and asked,

    "How about now?"

 Chapter 142 - 138 : An Unexpected Occurrence 2

    "How about now?" The yer lifted up his hood and revealed the face underneath.

    "It''s you¡­!" Xue Yan eximed.

    Lu Zhen took a close look at him before he recalled where he had seen this yer before. It was Reeves, the [Guardian] that had previously aided Xue Yan back in ck Grill''s Cave [1].

    "What are you doing here?" Lu Zhen asked him with narrowed eyes.

    "What? I can''t be here?" Reeves smirked.

    Lu Zhen and Xue Yan frowned at his response. Coming from the way hisrade had addressed them alongside his attitude, they felt that he was here to cause trouble.

    ''But how did he know where we are? Was he on a lookout? Impossible. There are many different routes we could have used to head to ck Grill''s Cave. His teammates don''t number so many so he couldn''t up all the spots. He couldn''t have just guessed either.'' Xue Yan thought.

    "There has to have been someone tailing us but his teammates aren''t that skilled. So it has to be someone else. Also, after your disy of strength, it feels fishy as to why he would look for us. Even more still, he''s looking for the other two." Xue Yan whispered to Lu Zhen.

    "I see. Well, we don''t know what is going on here but they aren''t enough to stop us." Lu Zhen smirked.

    "Are you guys done with the couple whispering? Come on now, let''s fight." The other yer revealed his hood to show the face as Revees'' teammate from back then, Blue Banana.

    "Fight? Why do we have to do this though." Lu Zhen acted pretentiously.

    "Why? Isn''t it obvious? Your friends took something the belonged to us and you still have the gall to try and exin yourselves." Reeves said as he unsheathed his weapon.

    "Just you two." Lu Zhen smirked. "You''re not enough."

    "Why don''t we find out first." Reeves replied.

    Lu Zhen suddenly bolted at him, like a cheetah chasing after a gazelle. Lu Zhen''s intention in conversing with Reeves was to make him drop his guard down. He already knew that Reeves was targeting him after that question Blue Banana asked him earlier.

    Lu Zhen was an [Assassin] and so, his avatar''s physique was created in the direction of speed. Being a level 7 [Assassin] at that, he was far faster than a level 6 [Guardian] or [Swordsman].

    Before Reeves could even make a move to attack, Lu Zhen had already reached him and shed down with his dagger. Reeves was slow to react but not by much, as he somehow managed to bring his great-sword in front of himself, blocking Lu Zhen''s dagger from approaching him.

    *ng*

    Lu Zhen didn''t retreat despite having his advance blocked. He swung his dagger multiple times at Reeves hoping to get at least one strike past him.

    "Ha!" Blue Banana was initially stunned by Lu Zhen''s quick movements but regained himself and dashed towards the two, swinging his sword at Lu Zhen. Lu Zhen retreated backward, spacing himself from the two and returning back to Xue Yan.

    "You really are a tough one. You almost got me there even." Reeves chuckled as he wiped the sweat on his forehead. He wasn''t lying when he said that. Lu Zhen had almost killed him if he hadn''t reacted timely. In that second Lu Zhen had arrived before him, Reeves felt as if he was a rodent targeted by a swift and ferocious eagle. One second, no, one millisecond of dy would lead to unchangeable results; one that he would surely regret.

    "Hehe. I really wonder what makes you think you can kill me with that little strength of yours. Even worse, your friend over there should have simr capabilities to you. That''s just poor." Lu Zhen smirked.

    Reeves and Blue Banana frowned as a dark shadow cast on their faces. From the short sh just now, Reeves knew that he wasn''t Lu Zhen''s match. Lu Zhen seemed faster and more agile than him. This could be attributed to him being an [Assassin] but the fact that Lu Zhen was stronger than he was, was iprehensible to him. Nheless, it was still a fact that they indeed weren''t strong enough to take on Lu Zhen one-on-one. But that was only in a one-on-one circumstance not like this.

    "Tell us where those two are and I won''t make things difficult for you guys." Reeves asked, hoping to get an answer to the question Blue Banana had asked before.

    "I don''t know who you''re talking about." Lu Zhen shamelessly denied. If one said that Lu Zhen didn''t know who they meant back when the two wore cloaks, now their identities were revealed, it would be exaggeratedly far-fetched to say that he didn''t know who they spoke of.

    "You¡­" Reeves gritted his teeth in annoyance but eventually calmed himself from bursting out.

    "Do you really want to die just like this? For a bunch of people that don''t really matter?" Reeves asked him.

    Lu Zhen chuckled in response. "Haha. Do you take me for a fool or what? I already know that you won''t let me off too so why bother? Show me what you got cause it will take more than the two of you to defeat me alone."

    "We will see about that." Reeves said as he took his cloak offpletely, revealing the gear underneath alongside the shield that hung behind him. The armour he wore was a shiny silver heavy armour suited for physical sses that focused more on [Strength]. Compared to the creations of modern-day cksmiths, the armour was a bit lousy but one shouldn''t judge it just based on its looks. Unlike the silver armour, the shield was actually yellow in colour with a bit of brown lining the edges and giving it a weird charm that made it look considerably better than the heavy armour.

    The rank and tier of Reeves'' armour were unknown but Lu Zhen spected it to be of the Mid-tier Mortal rank. As for the shield, he presumed it to be of the same quality as Reeves'' armour. Lu Zhen wasn''t so sure about it and so, he didn''t let his guard down.

    As Reeves held up the shield while also wielding his great-sword, his aura changed noticeably. If before, Reeves was like a determined warrior with great strength and a terrifying de, with the shield in hand, he became a mountain that could blitz through any blockades or impediments.

    Blue Banana dashed from the side with his sword in hand, while Reeves went straight towards Lu Zhen with a shield in one hand and a sword in another.

    "Show me what you got." Lu Zhen smirked as he dashed towards Reeves.

    . . . . .

    As Sato, Fudo, Yato, Katsuo and Seiichi were heading deeper into the Stone Creek Forest, they discussed what to do once they reached ck grill''s Cave. Due to the fact that Yato and Katsuo had just started, Sato and the others couldn''t just leave them and teleport back to theirst location. At the same time, they can''t just begin the raid from the very first floor of the Outer region after all, that was a pointless endeavour for Sato and Fudo, both of whom wouldn''t be able to gain any experience points from the monsters there.

    "Why don''t we just head over to ourst stop directly? We do have 3 extra [teleportation runes] for that right?" Fudo asked Sato.

    "That would indeed be nice but these guys would easily die from a scratch from those monsters. Sending them there would be no different from sending them to the depths of hell. Since we ourselves would be busy facing the monsters, we would barely have enough attention to spare to protecting them. They would have to keep their concentration to its highest and that would lead to them spending more stamina." Sato sighed.

    "Don''t worry. I can do that." Yato smirked.

    "You sure? Both you and Katsuo are physical sses unlike myself. In other words, you would have to stand at the front lines. You sure you could survive out there?" Seiichi asked back with a small smile of derision. As a long-ranged yer, he didn''t have to worry about himself. Also, Seiichi was a level 6 yer, so he had the ability to survive on his own there unlike the two level 0s.

    "Tch. Just wait and see." Yato replied.

    "Ai. You two just lie arguing." Katsuomented.

    As the group kept moving forward, they overheard a sound that though not loud, it was quite audible to draw their attention.

    *ng* *ng*

    "What''s that?" Katsuo asked.

    "This sound? A fight¡­?" Seiichi said, unsure of his own statement.

    "Let''s stop wondering and go check it out. Right Sato?" Yato asked.

    Sato the other hand, wasn''t interested. "Let''s keep going."

    "Come on. Why?" Yatoined.

    *p*

    "Ouch." Yato held his head. "What was that for?" Yatoined as he red at Fudo.

    "If he hadn''t done that, I would have done so myself." Seiichi smiled.

    Fudo sted at Yato. "Are you being stupid or what? What concerns us and the battle up ahead? What if we get drawn into an unnecessarily guild fight? Did you lose your gaming sense all these while or what?"

    "Uh?" Yato was stunned.

    "He''s right. We might end up witnessing something we shouldn''t and get targeted by whoever''s there. It''s best to just ignore it and head to our destination. After all, aren''t we in a race against time or something." Seiichi exined.

    "True¡­" Yato said softly with a look of realisation.

    "Though you guys are right, it still wouldn''t hurt to check it out, right? We just have to be careful and send one of us at most. Who knows, we might profit from it?" Katsuo said in Yato''s defense. In their group, apart from Seiichi and Sato, Yato was closest to Katsuo. So close that they could be called best friends.

    "What you say does make some sense but who will go?" Sato asked back.

    At that moment, all eyes seemed tond on Seiichi.

    "Huh? Me? Why?!"

    "Because your eyesight has been improved by the game and you should be one of the fastest and most agile among us. You might not be an [Assassin] but your ss still has some simrities in stealth." Sato exined.

    "me yourself for choosing [Ranger]." Yato spread his arms out with nonchnce though a huge smirk was visible on his face.

    Indeed. Though the [Ranger] ss was suited for sniping from long distances, in other to achieve this, one has to be able to be as stealthy as possible. After the game hadunched, a few yers had discovered that the System had given [Ranger] ss yers a few minimal passive advantages in this area. Though it was minimal and even worse whenpared to the [Assassin] ss, half bread is better than none.

    "Fine then." Seiichi replied with discontent though he still went forward.

    AN :

    [1] Chapter 103

 Chapter 143 - 138 : An Unexpected Occurrence 2

    "How about now?" The yer lifted up his hood and revealed the face underneath.

    "It''s you¡­!" Xue Yan eximed.

    Lu Zhen took a close look at him before he recalled where he had seen this yer before. It was Reeves, the [Guardian] that had previously aided Xue Yan back in ck Grill''s Cave [1].

    "What are you doing here?" Lu Zhen asked him with narrowed eyes.

    "What? I can''t be here?" Reeves smirked.

    Lu Zhen and Xue Yan frowned at his response. Coming from the way hisrade had addressed them alongside his attitude, they felt that he was here to cause trouble.

    ''But how did he know where we are? Was he on a look-out? Impossible. There are many different routes we could have used to head to ck Grill''s Cave. His teammates don''t number so many so he couldn''t up all the spots. He couldn''t have just guessed either.'' Xue Yan thought.

    "There has to have been someone tailing us but his teammates aren''t that skilled. So it has to be someone else. Also, after your disy of strength, it feels fishy as to why he would look for us. Even more still, he''s looking for the other two." Xue Yan whispered to Lu Zhen.

    "I see. Well we don''t know what is going on here but they aren''t enough to stop us." Lu Zhen smirked.

    "Are you guys done with the couple whispering? Come on now, let''s fight." The other yer revealed his hood to show the face as Revees'' teammate from back then, Blue Banana.

    "Fight? Why do we have to do this though." Lu Zhen acted pretentiously.

    "Why? Isn''t it obvious? Your friends took something the belonged to us and you still have the gall to try and exin yourselves." Reeves said as he unsheathe his weapon.

    "Just you two." Lu Zhen smirked. "You''re not enough."

    "Why don''t we find out first." Reeves replied.

    Lu Zhen suddenly bolted at him, like a cheetah chasing after a gazelle. Lu Zhen''s intention in conversing with Reeves was to make him drop his guard down. He already knew that Reeves was targeting him after that question Blue Banana asked him earlier.

    Lu Zhen was an [Assassin] and so, his avatar''s physique was created in the direction of speed. Being a level 7 [Assassin] at that, he was far faster than a level 6 [Guardian] or [Swordsman].

    Before Reeves could even make a move to attack, Lu Zhen had already reached him and shed down with his dagger. Reeves was slow to react but not by much, as he somehow managed to bring his great-sword in front of himself, blocking Lu Zhen''s dagger from approaching him.

    *ng*

    Lu Zhen didn''t retreat despite having his advance blocked. He swung his dagger multiple times at Reeves hoping to get at least one strike past him.

    "Ha!" Blue Banana was initially stunned by Lu Zhen''s quick movements but regained himself and dashed towards the two, swinging his sword at Lu Zhen. Lu Zhen retreated backwards, spacing himself from the two and returning back to Xue Yan.

    "You really are a tough one. You almost got me there even." Reeves chuckled as he wiped the sweat on his forehead. He wasn''t lying when he said that. Lu Zhen had almost killed him if he hadn''t reacted timely. In that second Lu Zhen had arrived before him, Reeves felt as if he was a rodent targeted by a swift and ferocious eagle. One second, no, one millisecond of dy would lead to unchangeable results; one that he would surely regret.

    "Hehe. I really wonder what makes you think you can kill me with that little strength of yours. Even worse, your friend over there should have simr capabilities with you. That''s just poor." Lu Zhen smirked.

    Reeves and Blue Banana frowned as a dark shadow cast on their faces. From the short sh just now, Reeves knew that he wasn''t Lu Zhen''s match. Lu Zhen seemed faster and more agile than him. This could be attributed to him being an [Assassin] but the fact that Lu Zhen was stronger than he was, was iprehensible to him. Nheless, it was still a fact that they indeed weren''t strong enough to take on Lu Zhen one-on-one. But that was only in a one-on-one circumstance not like this.

    "Tell us where those two are and I won''t make things difficult for you guys." Reeves asked hoping to get an answer to the question Blue Banana had asked before.

    "I don''t know who you''re talking about." Lu Zhen shamelessly denied. If one said that Lu Zhen didn''t know who they meant back when the two wore cloaks, now their identities were revealed, it would be exaggeratedly far-fetched to say that he didn''t know who they spoke of.

    "You¡­" Reeves gritted his teeth in annoyance but eventually calmed himself from bursting out.

    "Do you really want to die just like this? For a bunch of people that don''t really matter?" Reeves asked him.

    Lu Zhen chuckled in response. "Haha. Do you take me for a fool or what? I already know that you won''t let me off too so why bother? Show me what you got cause it will take more than the two of you to defeat me alone."

    "We will see about that." Reeves said as he took his cloak offpletely, revealing the gear underneath alongside the shield that hung behind him.The armour he wore a was a shiny silver heavy armour suited for physical sses that focused more on [Strength]. Compared to the creations of modern day cksmiths, the armour was a bit lousy but one shouldn''t judge it just based off its looks. Unlike the silver armour, the shield was actually yellow in colour with a bit of brown lining the edges and giving it a weird charm that made it look considerably better than the heavy armour.

    The rank and tier of Reeves'' armour was unknown but Lu Zhen spected it to be of the Mid tier Mortal rank. As for the shield, he presumed it to be of the same quality as Reeves'' armour. Lu Zhen wasn''t so sure about it and so, he didn''t let his guard down.

    As Reeves held up the shield while also wielding his great-sword, his aura changed noticeably. If before, Reeves was like a determined warrior with great strength and a terrifying de, with the shield in hand, he became a mountain that could blitz through any blockades or impediments.

    Blue Banana dashed from the side with his sword in hand, while Reeves went straight towards Lu Zhen with a shield in on hand and a sword in another.

    "Show me what you got." Lu Zhen smirked as he dashed towards Reeves.

    . . . . .

    As Sato, Fudo, Yato, Katsuo and Seiichi were heading deeper into the Stone Creek Forest, they discussed one what to do once they reached ck grill''s Cave. Due to the fact that they Yato and Katsuo had just started, Sato and the others couldn''t just leave them and teleport back to theirst location. At the same time, they can''t just begin the raid from the very first floor of the Outer region after all, that was a pointless endeavour for Sato and Fudo, both whom wouldn''t be able to gain any experience points from the monsters there.

    "Why don''t we just head over to ourst stop directly? We do have 3 extra [teleportation runes] for that right?" Fudo asked Sato.

    "That would indeed be nice but these guys would easily die from a scratch from those monsters. Sending them there would be no different from sending them to the depths of hell. Since we ourselves would be busy facing the monsters, we would barely have enough attention to spare to protecting them. They would have to keep their concentration to its highest and that would lead to them spending more stamina." Sato sighed.

    "Don''t worry. I can do that." Yato smirked.

    "You sure? Both you and Katsuo are physical sses unlike myself. In other words, you would have to stand at the front-lines. You sure you could survive out there?" Seiichi asked back with a small smile of derision. As a long ranged yer, he didn''t have to worry about himself. Also, Seiichi was a level 6 yer, so he had the ability to survive on his own there unlike the two level 0s.

    "Tch. Just wait and see." Yato replied.

    "Ai. You two just lie arguing." Katsuomented.

    As the group kept moving forward, they overheard a sound that though not loud, it was quite audible to draw their attention.

    *ng* *ng*

    "What''s that?" Katsuo asked.

    "This sound? A fight¡­?" Seiichi said, unsure of his own statement.

    "Let''s stop wondering and go check it out. Right Sato?" Yato asked.

    Sato the other hand, wasn''t interested. "Let''s keep going."

    "Come on. Why?" Yatoined.

    *p*

    "Ouch." Yato held his head. "What was that for?" Yatoined as he red at Fudo.

    "If he hadn''t done that, I would have done so myself." Seiichi smiled.

    Fudo sted at Yato. "Are you being stupid or what? What concerns us and the battle up ahead? What if we get drawn into an unnecessarily guild fight? Did you lose your gaming sense all these while or what?"

    "Uh?" Yato was stunned.

    "He''s right. We might end up witnessing something we shouldn''t and get targeted by whoever''s there. It''s best to just ignore it and head to our destination. After all, aren''t we in a race against time or something." Seiichi exined.

    "True¡­" Yato said softly with a look of realisation.

    "Though you guys are right, it still wouldn''t hurt to check it out right? We just have to be careful and send one of us at most. Who knows, we might profit from it?" Katsuo said in Yato''s defense. In their group, apart from Seiichi and Sato, Yato was closest with Katsuo. So close that they could be called best-friends.

    "What you say does make some sense but who will go?" Sato asked back.

    At that moment, all eyes seemed tond on Seiichi.

    "Huh? Me? Why?!"

    "Because your eye sight has been improved by the game and you should be one of the fastest and most agile among us. You might nit be an [Assassin] but your ss still has some simrities in stealth." Sato exined.

    "me yourself for choosing [Ranger]." Yato spread his arms out with nonchnce though a huge smirk was visible on his face.

    Indeed. Though the [Ranger] ss was suited for sniping from long distances, in other to achieve this, one has to be able to be as stealthy as possible. After the game hadunched, a few yers had discovered that the System had given [Ranger] ss yers a few minimal passive advantages in this area. Though it was minimal and even worse whenpared to the [Assassin] ss, half bread is better than none.

    "Fine then." Seiichi replied with discontent though he still went forward.

    AN :

    [1] Chapter 103

 Chapter 144 - 139 : Overbearing Lu

    "What did you find?" Yato hurriedly asked Seiichi once he discovered his returning silhouette.

    "Two parties of two members were battling each other. One party was that of a [Guardian] and a [Swordsman]. The other was a fire type [Elementalist] and an [Assassin]." Seiichi said.

    "Hmm? What else?"

    Sato was about to say something else but he saw that Seiichi was hesitating as if he had something else to say.

    Seiichi replied. "You previously said that the guys we are teaming up with was a female fire type elementalist and a male assassin right? Those two looked quite simr to your descriptions."

    "Let''s go check it out then." Sato said.

    . . . . .

    "I really don''t know where you got your confidence from."

    Lu Zhen said as he stared at Reeves. In his right hand was his Mid tier Mortal rank dagger that was glistening with a red liquid that slowly dripped to the ground. In front of him stood Reeves and Blue Banana. Compared to before, their stature and look was a lot worsepared to before. Reeves'' armour had scratch marks here and there while his inner clothing was dyed red with a blood seeping through the exposed part of his body. One uncanny feature was a dull yellow glow that wrapped round him.

    If Reeves'' current form was one thatcked any serious injuries, Blue Banana''s form would be a different story. Though his injuries weren''t so serious, Blue Banana looked a lot worse than Reeves. ck burnt marks were all over his armour and even his face wasn''t spared from it. If one had their Gore-and-Blood function activated, they would see that a part of Blue Banana''s face was scarred by mes. It looked so terrible and disgusting that one might not be able to stand it. In fact, Xue Yan, the perpetrator of this act, even deactivated her Gore-and Blood function else she might have puked at the sight of Blue Banana''s wretched look. Apart from the facial damages, almost his entire right arm was devoured by Xue Yan''s unrelenting me attacks. Right now, Blue Banana barely had enough strength to wield his sword. Of course this injuries could easily be solved with a simple health potion however, it wasn''t like his opponent would stand still and let that be.

    During the battle, Lu Zhen had taken on Reeves while Xue Yan had taken on Blue Banana. The difference in strength was clear as during their previous exploration at ck Grill''s Cave, Reeves'' team only held on thanks to Xue Yan''s skills whereas against Rolo''s team who easily pushed them back, Lu Zhen alone was enough.

    Truth be told, this battle, or rather this one sided massacre, should have ended long ago; especially Reeves'' fight with Lu Zhen. The only reason Reeves could till stand was because of his Upper tier Mortal rank shield. Yes, the shield was an Upper tier and not a Mid tier. The difference in tiers might not be as huge as the difference between heaven and earth but this difference could still change the tide of a battle. The reason was because at the Upper tier Mortal rank, weapons and equipment would have skills imbued within them. The skills could be weak or strong and most of them where used as life saving skills or trump cards by a good majority of yers. In Reeves'' case, his shield''s skill was perfectly suited for a life-saving skill.

    [Resilient Guard]

    Though the title wasn''t so awe sounding, it explicitly defined the skill. [Resilient Guard] was an active skill that when activated it would create a light shield that totally encapstes the user. The dull yellow sheen on Reeves'' body was actually the [Resilient Guard] in its activated form. The light projection would absorb all strikes and attacks that was targeted at the user, keeping the user safe from any attack.Of course, such a skill had a weakness else it would be a heaven-defying technique and there''s no way that the System would let such a technique exist in a low level weapon or equipment; it just didn''t make sense. The weakness of the [Resilient Guard] could easily be figured out by majority of pro and veteran gamers, and that was the fact that the light shield had a limit of damage it could receive before it would be destroyed. Lu Zhen knew this of course but the problem was that he couldn''t break the shield as the damage limit was far more than he could deal to Reeves within a short time and it wasn''t like Reeves would just stand for Lu Zhen to attack him. The shield was worthy of being an Upper tier Mortal rank hence its skill shouldn''t be easily dealt with else it would be a joke. If Xue Yan had teamed up with Lu Zhen to attack Reeves, it would be possible to destroy the light shield, but Blue Banana always forced her to focus on him even to the point of receiving heavy injuries.s

    " I obviously got it from the fact that you can''t defeat me. Where else?" Reeves grinned.

    Seeing the annoying smirk on his lips, Lu Zhen was frustrated but he didn''t rush to attack.Through out their exchange, Lu Zhen felt that something wasn''t right. Though it seemed like Reeves was trying to kill him, Lu Zhen felt that he was trying to hold him back rather than kill him. Each time Lu Zhen tried to dash past his blockade, Reeves would hurriedly set himself in front of him(Lu Zhen) even at the cost of getting injured.This was where a majority of injuries came from. At times, Reeves'' attacks gave of the feeling of pushing back rather than going fro the kill. Of course, this was understandable as Reeves didn''t have the ability to hurt Lu Zhen much less kill him, but it was also confusing as Lu Zhen wondered why Reeves was stalling him. Considering how much hate Reeves had for him, Lu Zhen expected him to go full strength and try to kill him.

    ''Or is he trying to wait for his teammate to finish off Xue Yan?'' Lu Zhen brought up this spection in his ind but quickly wiped it off. Unless Blue Banana had a secret weapon that he had yet to use, there was no way he could beat Xue Yan in a one-on-one battle.

    ''But then what is he waiting for?¡­wait!'' Lu Zhen suddenly widened his eyes. He recalled that back then, Xue Yan had said that she was with a party of 4 or so other yers. Right now, it was Reeves and Blue Banana that were present. The other two or so yers weren''t.

    ''Even if they came it would make no difference. This Reeves isn''t a fool so he should have realised that. Then what is his n¡­''

    Even as Lu Zhen wondered this, he didn''t have any intention of finding out. It might be as he expected, that Reeves was waiting for his teammates or it could be worse. Either way, Lu Zhen didn''t want to find out as if it was really worse than he had expected, he might even die. If Lu Zhen could avoid his potential death, why wouldn''t he?

    "It''s time I end this." Lu Zhen spoke up.

    "Huh? You really think that you can break my [Resilient Guard]? You sure know how to joke." Reeves chuckled. This skill was one of his trump cards in monster hunting and PVP. As a [Guardian], having such a skill was akin o having a second life. This skill had saved him in tough times. The only reason he had not used it against Rolo''s squad back then was because he had used it in a previous fight against a level 6 Rock Golem. As such, the skill was in cool-down. Otherwise with this skill, Reeves wouldn''t have had a tough time against Rolo'' team. He even believed that he might have been able to turn the tides of the battle back then. The [Resilient Guard] wasn''t something any level 6 yer could break alone.

    "Whether or not I can, why don''t we find out?" Lu Zhen smirked. The [resilient Guard] might be very impressive to Reeves but for Lu Zhen, it was something he just had to put more effort in, to break it. I other words, during this entire time, Lu Zhen wasn''t taking Reeves seriously. Yes. He wasn''t taking Reeves seriously but had still managed to cause him so many injuries. This was the power of an expert who ced 10th in the Goblin war event! This was the power of a bona-fide expert yer.

    "I was hoping that I would defeat you without much effort but it looks like I would have to take this more seriously." Lu Zhen then outstretched two fingers towards the two opposing yers, disying it before them. With a smile, he said;

    "20% ! 20% of my full ability.. That''s the amount of strength I need to use and beat you guys."

 Chapter 145 - 140 : A Crazy Man And A Crazy Plan

    "20% ! 20% of my full ability. That''s the amount of strength I need to use and beat you guys."

    "This guy¡­" Reeves stared wide eyed at him. Even though he didn''t want to believe it, he felt that Lu Zhen was speaking the truth. But still, this "truth" was too much for him to handle. If Reeves was in a wuxia novel, he would no doubt vomit blood out of anger.

    Though Reeves was angered, Lu Zhen wasn''t bothered. In fact, all that stuff he said was a lie. He was just an expert yer; iming to use only 20% of his abilities to handle a veteran ss yer was just too absurd. However, Lu Zhen didn''t lie when he said that he was holding back in his fight against Reeves. He didn''t even take the fight as a fight but as entertainment. Though his statement of having used less than 20% to battle Reeves all this while was absurd, he had used less than 40%! Now Lu Zhen was nning on taking the battle a bit more seriously by using 50% of his real abilities.

    "Come on. Show me what you got and don''t keep me waiting." Lu Zhen taunted the two.

    "You¡­" Blue Banana growled before taking a step forward.

    "Huff." Reeves sighed heavily as he stopped Blue Banana was rushing towards Lu Zhen.

    "You know, I would have really liked to y with you but sadly there''s not enough time." Reeves suddenly grinned as he nced at the System clock on his interface, visible only to himself.

    "Not enough time?" Lu Zhen asked while feeling a bit anxious as if he had made a mistake.

    "Brother¡­" Xue Yan quietly called out from the side.[1] She was quite worried as Reeves actions had been strange to her. Xue Yan wasn''t a novice to gaming and so she easily realised that Reeves had been trying to hold them back and even Blue Banana did the same to her. Now with Reeves current statement, Xue Yan felt that it was better to risk it all to escape.

    Seeing her face, he could already guessed what happened. In response to her call though, Lu Zhen nodded as he prepared to intercept the two adversaries. Immediately, Xue Yan broke off from the group and ran away towards another direction far from Blue Banana and Reeves. Xue Yan was an [Elementalist] and in a high intensity battle, she could hardly achieve much due to hercking skills. As such, Lu Zhen already had the intention for her to escape, way back before they began fighting, while he handled the two opponents. Sadly, Blue Banana always kept his eyes on her and locked down her movements, preventing her from escaping far enough. Previously, Blue Banana had held her back preventing her from escaping and now that he and Reeves had kept their focus was on Lu Zhen, she finally had the time to escape. As for Lu Zhen, Xue Yan didn''t worry about him. To be precise, Lu Zhen told her not to worry about him. As an [Assassin], he obviously had certain ss skills that could help him escape from a perilous situation.

    "It''s toote." Reeves chuckled. Just as he concluded his statement, 6 different shadows leaped out from the sides immediately entering the foray.

    "You''re...!" Xue Yan stared at the new arrivals in shock.

    "Long time no see, miss." Rolo smiled in a gentleman like manner. Even as he did so, a bit of unhidden killing intent was exposed in his eyes. Together with the gentleman-like smile it made him look a lot eerie than normal.

    "Why are you here?!" Xue Ya asked him with astonishment in her eyes. She just couldn''t fathom why the man who had caused her previous team so much losses was teaming up with that exact team to handle her.

    "Why can''t I be here huh? Is there a rule that says such?" Rolo smirked as he scanned her body while licking his lips.

    In response to his actions, Xue Yan took a step back while shielding herself with her staff. It would be a lie to say that Rolo''s appearance and stare didn''t frighten her.

    Lu Zhen nced at the 6 new yers before staring at Reeves. "Why the hell would you team up with the bunch of wolves who forced you to swallow a loss? Even more so, you teamed up with them to strike your saviours?"

    Lu Zhen just couldn''t figure it out. Actually, no one can. Not only did you not retaliate against the party that attacked you and yed[2] your men, you even teamed up with them to strike your rescuers. Unless you were originally teammates with them, then you had to have had a screw lose somewhere in your brain. But Lu Zhen didn''t believe that they were teammates before. It just didn''t make sense to kill your own teammates to target the only outsider in your group, a girl.

    "Saviours? Is that what you think you are? Hahaha. Don''t make meugh. You guys took that precious bow from me and you think you would get away? How foolish!" Reeves cursed at them.

    ''Something isn''t right.'' Lu Zhen thought. Even though he hadn''t seen the rank of the bow, even if it was an Upper tier Mortal rank one, teaming up with a bunch of wolves in hopes of getting it back was more than dumb and Reeves didn''t look like such a dumb person.

    ''But then why¡­''Lu Zhen wondered.

    "Enough talking. Let''s finish him." Rolo smiled. From the 5 that came with him, 3 were his teammates while the other 2 were Reeves'' teammates. With that, the 2 parties wereplete.

    "Right. Remember the deal. We split everything 50-50." Reeves said seriously.

    "Of course, of course." Rolo chuckled but internally he was wondering how foolish Reeves was. To have requested the help of a bunch of dark yers, one that had even attacked him, Rolo couldn''t help but wonder whether he had a screw loose. Rolo had previously met with him and requested his aid in fighting those 3 that had killed him. Rolo had thought that it was a trap but after proving his identity, Rolo knew that Reeves wasn''t rted with those 3 in any way possible; only the girl was. After Reeves had exined his n, Rolo was interested especially since he would gain 50% of the lot. Those guys were strong so he guessed that their equipment and weapons would be impressive too. Originally he had thought that this was a trap set by Reeves and had even prepared a counter for it, but after reaching here, he realised that he might have over-thought things.

    ''This is just too good.'' Rolo grinned internally. An opportunity to take down two groups of yers was in front of him. How would he just just settle at 50%? Rolo nned on keeping his team''s strength and back-stabbing Reeves at thest second thereby gaining benefits from both two parties. Dignity? Pride? Trust? He was a dark yer for crying out loud. All those stuffs about moral and dignity doesn''t affect him.

    ''Keke. I will really reap a lot today.'' Rolo couldn''t help smiling. However, he still didn''t make the first move but waited for Reeves'' team. No matter what, he still didn''t get why Reeves would suddenly so he still had a bit of apprehension in his heart. But it turned out that Rolo''s caution was for naught as Reeves suddenly dashed towards Lu Zhen and Xue Yan while ordering his teammates.

    "Attack!"

    Seeing this, Rolo didn''t stay by the sidelines as that would lead to Reeves being suspicious about his motives. He too lead his teammates against Lu Zhen and Xue Yan albeit only 2 of them. He made those two surround the ce in case if Reeves asked why he left them behind. He could then im that it was to prevent Lu Zhen and Xue Yan from escaping or to intercept outsiders. In actual fact, he wanted those guys to preserve their strength and be ready to attack at the crucial moment.

    "Damn it." Lu Zhen cursed but he still tightened his grasp on his dagger.

    "Xue Yan. Stay behind me." Lu Zhen told Xue Yan. Though they were surrounded, right behind Lu Zhen stood one of the 2 yers Rolo had left on the sidelines. Seeing that he hadn''t made a move yet, Lu Zhen decided to take a bet and let Xue Yan stay there while he fended off the remaining 6 yers.

    "Still think you can use only 20%?" Blue Bananaughed out loud.

    "No. But I think 50% is enough." Lu Zhen smirked.

    "You¡­" Blue Banana red at him. " You still have the energy to be joking around in this situation? Fine then. I will ughter you and cut you into a thousand pieces."

    "Ohhh, I''m so scared." Lu Zhen said in a mocking tone.

    While Lu Zhen had his own encounter, Sato, Fudo, Yato, Seiichi and Katsuo were stopped by a stranger. Normally, they wouldn''t just stop because of one stranger since Sato suspected that the people under attack were Lu Zhen and Xue Yan. However, this one stranger was really strange.. Why? Because of the yellow marker on his head. This character was an NPC!

 Chapter 146 - 141 : The Mysterious Fellow

    "What the hell?" Fudo asked with a confused expression.

    It wasn''t unexpected to find an NPC out in the middle of Stone Creek forest or any other resource map. In fact, Sato had previously seen a few yers escorting NPCs here before. It was just that, unlike the other NPCs, this one was a bit strange. Most NPCs found in resource maps would have an expression of fear from luckily escaping a monster, or would be wandering around the ce battling monsters or searching for something. This one, on the other hand, was just standing still. It didn''t look like he was looking for something but rather he was lost. Of course, finding a lost NPC isn''t such a problem as if yers approach them with the right attitude, they could get a mission from them. The problem was the vibe the man gave. He looked to be lost but also not lost; rather it seemed more like he was waiting for somebody.

    "What do we do?" Fudo asked Sato.

    After the goblin event and meeting the Town Head, Fudo became more wary against NPCs. The Town Head, Arman Lagus, looked like a little kid of 12-14 years of age and so one couldn''t help but underestimate him. After the goblin event, most of the yers were made aware of his amazing strength and so didn''t dare to look down on him any longer. As a result of that event, Fudo decided to be more careful when dealing with random NPCs he met otherwise, he might end up offending a peerless expert.

    "Why are you getting nervous already? It''s just an NPC." Yato grinned at Fudo''s behaviour.

    "We can just circle around him. There''s no need to meet him." Seiichi said. Unlike Yato, he understood Fudo''s worries and also felt the same way about this scenario. Hence his opinion of circling around the NPC.

    Sato stared at the NPC and tried to see through him.

    The NPC was an old man, probably in histe 40s or early 50s. Despite being of old age, the old man was not only handsome, but he looked strong and not as frail as one would expect an elderly to be. He wore an oversized white robe, with gold coloured linings by the edges. On his chest was a mysterious pattern of a golden star that looked like a sun, with a huge white snake that threatened to swallow up the star. On his feet were a pair of brown coloured sandals that didn''t look expensive nor luxurious. The old man also radiated a virtuous aura that made him look kind and holy. With a white beard, a schrly and righteous but unbridled aura around him, the man seemed to be the friendly kind of person despite wearing such luxurious clothing that made him seem like royalty.

    If Ink Snow were here, she would surely know who this old man was. He was the weird old man she had met back at the Sahara Desert. Sahara Desert was located on the outskirts of Lavissen Town, stretching so far as to break through the border of the Reiss Kingdom into a neighbouring kingdom, with parts of it even entering the Fallen Heart Kingdom''s borders. Though it sounds like it was close, the truth was different. The three kingdoms were separated and at the same time, conjoined at this juncture by the Sahara Desert. However, the size of this Desert was quite unimaginable. So big was it that 2 Russias could even fit inside of the Desert with a bit of space still left for Spain, and this distance was just the explored parts in yer maps; there were still unexplored parts of the map! Due to the huge distance, yers in Lavissen Town couldn''t just traverse this distance and head to Stone Creek Forest in the Fallen Heart Kingdom. As such, it was surprising that the old man was here. Sadly though, Ink Snow wasn''t here so Sato''s group didn''t know the identity of this man.

    "Let''s walk around him."

    Sato decided not to risk facing the man after all, not only was the man''s bearing weird, as it was strange to see a royalty-like figure here, but also Sato''s instincts warned him continuously. When a person has reached a specific level of strength, their instincts would be developed to such a level that it could alert them of stronger figures. Sato had long reached that level and so, his instincts were developed to sense danger. In the eyes of the others, the old man seemed like a royalty with a friendly attitude. But in Sato''s eyes, the old man was like a bloodthirsty tiger in the body of an old man. This bloodthirsty aura was very vague that one wouldn''t even notice. This could be proven by the fact that apart from Sato, the rest didn''t seem to have sensed it.

    Of course, the bloodthirsty aura wasn''t the only reason Sato decided to go round the man. In some VR games, it wasmon to get attacked by NPCs for no good reason. A peerless god-level NPC could just kill a noob yer just because he(the yer) looked unpleasing to his eyes. Sato felt that this weird old man might do the same to them and he wasn''t willing to lose so many Experience points just because an NPC felt that he was ugly to look at.

    With that, the team circled around the old man. This wasn''t impossible as the distance between them and the old man was at least 150 metres. At this distance, the team felt that the old man wouldn''t be able to sense them plus the old man wasn''t really looking their way. With all these added together, as long as they tread carefully, they could avoid the old man''s detection.

    The team then turned around and carefully began retreating, trying not to create any sound while doing so. As they were retreating, the old man suddenly turned to look at them and smiled. Suddenly, everyone felt that blood run cold and their bodies suddenly stopped responding. This sensation onlysted for less than a second before it disappeared.

    ''Was I imagining things?''

    This was the question on everyone''s mind as they wondered whether they were imagining things. But Sato immediately unsheathed his sword and this action stirred the others to enter battle mode.

    "It wasn''t an imagination." Sato said as if he knew what was in their minds and so decided to rify it.

    "We''ve been spotted." Sato said once more while turning back to face the man.

    As the others turned around, they saw that the previous 150 metres space separating them from the old man, had be a 10 metres distance. Everything was still in its exact position; the tree 100 metres back was still was 100 metres back, the boulder 125 metres back was still 125 metres back. Everything was still in its exact position apart from the man. This showed that the man had suddenly covered 140 metres within a second and he did so without making a single sound!

    "Tsss." Fudo took in an exaggerated amount of air. Not only was he shocked, but he was also astounded. The same went for everyone else in this group.

    "This man¡­" Yato said as he gripped his sword''s hilt tightly with both hands.

    To yers, covering a few metres or so within a second was possible after all, martial arts had improved considerably than it was in the past. The same goes for the human body and physique. However, to do so without making a single sound was very very difficult, but not impossible. But this was only limited to covering a gap of 3-10 metres. For more than 100 metres, no, forget 100. For more than even 10 metres, this was impossible, much less 140 metres. Unless the old man had teleported, his speed has to be something far, far greater than what anyone had ever witnessed.

    "Wow, wow. Rx little fellows. If I wanted to kill you, I would have done so a long time ago." The old man chuckled as he saw the group''s battle stance.

    Even though he seemed like that nice grandpa across the street, none of them dared to drop their guards down. After a few seconds of deliberation, Sato said to the team.

    "Keep your weapons back."

    Sato knew that what the old man had spoken was true since if he could cover a 140 metres distance within a second without creating a single sound, he could easily kill them within 3 seconds. However, he was unwilling to trust the man''s words as such, he spoke up in the team chat.

    "Keep your weapons but don''t lower your guard down. Fudo, be ready to use your [Explosion] spell. The rest, whatever trump card you have, get it ready."

    Despite knowing that they were not the old man''s match, Sato was disinclined to leave his life to fate and die like amb. He might as well be on guard and be ready to retaliate. Even if they don''t kill the man, injuring him shouldn''t be a problem or so he thought. Another reason that he didn''t directly go on the attack was that Sato had noticed that the old man''s bloodthirsty aura had vanished from him as if it were never there to start with.

    "Does this elder require anything of us?" Sato asked amicably and humbly with one hand across his chest as he bowed at a perfect angle of 90¡ã. If one didn''t know that Sato had earlier pulled a sword against this man, they would think that he was his servant.

    "Haha. Good, good. I like your attitude." The old man guffawed. He looked like he was seeing a clown performing tricks in the circus.

    In reaction to hisugh, Sato was expressionless but only he himself knew how many times he had cursed the old man.

    "Alright then. In fact, I do need help from you." The old man suddenly said right after he stoppedughing. "Did you happen to see a red twin-horned fox running by here?"

    "A red twin-horned fox?" Everyone stared at each other in confusion.

    "No, sire." Sato replied.

    "I see. Alright then, it''s not your fault. In fact, you could say it''s a good thing that you didn''t see it." The old man smiled mysteriously. For an unknown reason though, every one of his statements had an ''alright then''.

    "Alright then, off you go." The man shooed them away.

    The group stared at each other in confusion but left immediately. Of course, this was right after they bade the old man farewell. Who knows whether he might have killed them if they didn''t do so.

    As the group had gone far out of sight, the old man smiled. A shadow suddenly dived down from the sky and rested on the man''s shoulder. It was a bird that looked like a divine eagle. It was a lot smaller than regr eagles but the aura it suffused showed that it was strong, very strong.

    "That kid isn''t bad. He managed to have sensed my blood aura. Hai~ Added with the fact that that little fox got away, it seems like I have been getting rusty."

    From the way the old man talked, it didn''t seem like he was talking to himself but rather to the divine eagle but that sounded weird and silly. The strange thing though was that he apparently knew that Sato had sensed that bloodthirsty aura he suffused back then

    "Oh well, that kid isn''t bad. His fate seems to be good here. He might achieve great things but who can be sure of that. His pattern shows that he will experience something dangerous but if he survives, he will gain a lot."

    *Caw* *Caw*

    As the man concluded, the divine eagle nudged him while making ''caw'' sounds like a crow.

    "Don''t worry, don''t worry. I don''t n on doing anything to the kid. I still haven''t caught that little fox. Hai~ If Az knew this, he would probably mock me for a 100 years. Having an apostle ranked figure escaping my clutches is really unbing of me."

    Once he was done speaking to his pet, the man turned in another direction and began walking forward.

    The strange thing, however, was that there was no sound of his footsteps and neither was there a trace on the floor. It was like the old man never walked there. This was quite inexplicable since the entire floor in Stone Creek Forest was covered in twigs, leaves, and dried roots. It is literally impossible to step on these parts and not produce any sound or trail. Even the number one assassin in the world would still leave behind tracks no matter how small. But the old man didn''t. The only exnation would be that either he was a spirit or that he never really walked on the ground, but instead was walking on air. To walk on air just a tiny inch away from the ground in such a manner that one wouldn''t notice it, would only prove more that this old man was a peerless expert that shouldn''t be underestimated.. Butpared to what he had done in the Temple of chains, this was nothing.

 Chapter 147 - 142 : The Plot That Ran Too Deep

    In a particr spot in the level 0 map, Stone Creek Forest, there was a battle going on here. 8, or rather, 6 yers were attacking 2 yers. Logically speaking, the 2 yers forming a party should have be taken care of long ago but surprisingly, they stood firm against the onught.This wasn''t because their opponents were weak but rather the two were strong. But even so, the numbers advantage wasn''t to their side. As a result, it was only a matter of time before the two fell to their opponents'' attacks. Even now, their bodies weren''t devoid of any injuries as the only melee yer between the two, was covered in cuts and scars, though they were light injuries and didn''t impede his movements.

    Indeed, the two were Lu Zhen and Xue Yan who were facing Rolo and Reeves'' team of 8. Despite having been surrounded by Rolo and Reeves'' teams, Lu Zhen and Xue Yan were able to hold on though the both of them knew that they wouldn''tst much longer. The reason was simple. Since Rolo an Reeves had nned to kill them, they most likely prepared a few items that would help them achieve that and even till now, they haven''t revealed even a tip of their cards. It might also be possible that they were over-thinking things but the fact still stood; Lu Zhen and Xue Yan were outnumbered and unless anything special happened, they were destined to lose.

    It would be absurd to call their battle ''heaven-defying'' but it was in no way a simple fight. Lu Zhen alone, took on the 6 vanguard yers while Xue Yan supported him from the back. The continuous nging of metal swords was the anthem of the day. Sparks flew with each contact Lu Zhen made with any of the opposing teams weapons. Even though he was surrounded and injured, Lu Zhen in no way looked any bit weak. He held his ground and steadily advanced and retreated when appropriate. If anyone else was in his position, they might not be able to stand their ground, being forced to the defensive while continuously retreating. In such a case, surviving would be an issue much less attacking. But Lu Zhen was different.

    With Xue Yan''s aid, he didn''t find it so difficult to hold on. He brandished his dagger, blocking the attacksing his way and at times even injuring his opponents.

    Debris flew around the ce as explosions lighted up the entire ce with mes spreading wide. This was an after effect of a special consumable explosive Xue Yan had used. It didn''t have a high attack power but was very good for covering one''s tracks and preventing them from being spotted by their enemies. The reason why she used such was very simple. Even though it seemed like Lu Zhen was holding off the attackers, Xue Yan knew that he did this at the great cost of his stamina depleting much faster. In other words, before 2 minutes was up, Lu Zhen would most likely end up as amb for ughter.

    There was no reinforcements and the opponents outnumbered them by far. So much so that there were still 2 more yers on standby. Unless a miracle happened, Lu Zhen and Xue Yan would perish here. Of course it might not be eternal death but to a pro yer, dying once would harm their progress. So Xue Yan was trying to create an opportunity for them to escape. Her [Agility] was far below Lu Zhen''s but she didn''t care about it. As long as one of them could escape, their loses could be reduced.

    "Run." Xue Yan yelled at Lu Zhen as she escaped from the encirclement. Lu Zhen also managed to shake off his attackers as he followed right behind her.

    Using the smokescreen formed from the explosion as their shield, the two ran to another corner of the forest. This ce happened to be the only loophole in the formation set up by their opponents and it wasn''t marked by the 2 substitute yers.

    "You think you can escape? Haha. This ce will be your burial ground, bastard." Reeves guffawed as he watched Lu Zhen being pursued from multiple sides by the other 5. of course, he too also pursued after the two. Even though it seemed like Lu Zhen and Xue Yan''s deaths were almost confirmed, Reeves had a slight uneasy feeling and so didn''t want to take any risks.

    ''After I''m done with these two, it will be these bastards turn.'' Reeves thought as he nced at Rolo with killing intent in his eyes. Surprisingly, Reeves didn''t just want to team up with Rolo''s squad and finish off Lu Zhen and Xue Yan. He also wanted to kill Rolo and his teammates!

    Reeves wasn''t an idiot so why would he suddenly risk teaming up with a bunch of dark yers to finish off two unimportant yers? His target this time around was actually Rolo. Back after he had left Xue Yan in ck Grill''s Cave, Reeves had suddenly had this thought of taking revenge but he knew that his strength was limited. But he didn''t want to give up. When a human encounters series of blows and falls, he would end up taking devastating measures to regain his dignity. In this case, Reeves suddenly had a thought; to make his two enemies battle each other and reap the benefits. He knew that it was very difficult to achieve this as it was most likely possible as Rolo''s team and Sato''s team might never encounter each other again, and even if they did so, he might not be present to reap the ultimate benefits. So Reeves decided to scheme against the two. He managed to luckily spot Rolo''s team in ck Grill''s Cave once more and he made a deal with him. To ambush Sato''s team.

    Of course Reeves guessed that Rolo might not believe him. After all, why would one approach the wolf that injured them to death''s door for aid, in order to counter the lion? So Reeves took on the disguise of a noob yer that got frustrated to his limits, losing all strands ofmon sense. He forged tales saying that Sato had robbed him and even killed a few more of his yers, making Sato and his teammates look far worse than Rolo''s. Since Rolo and his men had died earlier, he couldn''t ascertain the veracity of his statement. Reeves now went forward to even pay Rolo for his help, before signing a contract to prove that he didn''t know who Sato was, nor was in coalition with Sato''s team. These two actions managed to gain Rolo''s trust but Reeves didn''t trust him fully. In the eyes of a dark yer, this was a very good opportunity to reap more than double the rewards by backstabbing his contractors but Reeves acted like he didn''t know this and didn''t even bother to sign a contract to prevent Rolo from attacking him. This went on to confirm his ''identity'' as a reckless newbie to VR gaming, thereby reducing Rolo''s guard against him even more. But Reeves still didn''t rx nor let his guard down.

    To make sure that everything went well, he had even procured the help of a special character to achieve this. With the help of this special character, even if Rolo teamed up Lu Zhen and Xue Yan, he would still die. Of course to gain the help of such an individual, Reeves had to make concessions. Butpared to his spected gain, it was nothing. This was because Rolo and his teammates were dark yers. They had already plundered from a few other yers so their stash had to be huge. Also, as dark yers, they tend to trust themselves better and were always on the run. Hence it was very possible that they always kept their treasure with them rather than hiding it somewhere else.

    ''Very soon. I will be the winner.'' Reeves grinned.

    If Rolo knew of Reeves'' n, he might even puke blood out of anger. Even after his caution and strategizing, he had still fallen into Reeves'' n. But then a gain, Rolo couldn''t be med as Reeves was too careful with this n of his. Rolo cold only me his greed for getting in the way of his sights.

    "If I recall correctly, this guy???s name should be Lu Zhen. It happens to be the same as the top ranker from that goblin was stuff." One of Reeves'' teammates suddenly said.

    "Huh? An Expert yer?" Blue Banana was stunned[1]. The same was for Reeves as he began pondering on this strange coincidence.

    It was a well known fact that those who managed to get a ranking in the Top 10 spot for the Most Kills(Individual) category were Experts. From the entire table, only 4 yers power rating were unknown. This included the number 1 and number 3 rankers who were unknown, Dream Tiger and Lu Zhen. Dream Tiger had undergone solitary training and so he wasn''t so famous but after the rankings were revealed, his history was dug up, revealing his past achievements and rating as an Expert yer. As for the number 1 and 3, since their names were censored, their power ratings were unknown, but based off the fact that they had surpassed a bunch of other Experts, it was believed that they were Expert ss yers. Some even presumed that the number 1 was a Pinnacle Expert or maybe a Monster rank Expert. As for thest on the list, Lu Zhen, no one knew who he was. It was like he had appeared out of thin air. But since he/she was capable of ranking on the list, even though it was thest position, it still proved that this yer should be an Expert at least.

    Originally, these men hadn''t thought that it was the guy they were facing but after thinking a bit, they guessed it might be him. Unlike old games, current VR games didn''t put much importance into the names of the yers. Since the governing system or AI could simply differentiate yers based off of their brainwaves pattern, DNA and more, it wasmon to see two or more different yers bearing the exact same name. The problem of differentiating who is who was then left unto the yers themselves. As such, even if these men guessed that this Lu Zhen was the same as the top ranker Lu Zhen, this was but just a guess and they didn''t put much thought into it. It was the same with Sato and Fudo. When they heard his name, they guessed that he might have been the top ranker but they didn''t put much thought into it. After all, the two of them ranked 1st and 3rd, what concerns them with the 10th?

    "Haha. Boss Blue, don''t pay attention to what that moron said. This weakling can''t be an Expert. Experts are said to be able to take on 7-10 yers but this guy is having a hard time handling us 6." One of the yers said right as he was closing in on Lu Zhen.

    On a regr asion, this yer wouldn''t be able to reach Lu Zhen so quickly after all, he was one level lower and thatprised of a difference in attributes. This time however, Lu Zhen was not only tired but he wanted to cover the rear, preventing them from closing in on Xue Yan.

    ''Damn it. If this were a one-on-one, I would have long finished these guys off. Even if it was a battle royale.'' Lu Zhen cursed internally. He didn''t have the luxury of speech since he was caught up fighting the others, so the only thing he could though was curse them internally.

    ''Do I really have use it here?'' Right now, Lu Zhen was having an internal crisis. It was as the opponents had thought but not expected. He was indeed the Lu Zhen from the list! However, for some reasons, he didn''t want to reveal his identity. As such, his entire attacks and shes with these guys were all straight up and simple; it didn''t consist of any fanciful moves as one would expect from an Expert yer.

    "I guess I have no choice.." Lu Zhen silently muttered.

 Chapter 148 - 143 : Reinforcements Have Arrived

    If Rolo and Reeves knew that Lu Zhen was still holding back, even in such a crisis, they would be astonished at his actions and decision. To be able to do something like that could only be described as foolish by the duo. However, it was still impressive that Lu Zhen could already hold on against the 6, without going all out. If he was able tost this long while holding back, one could only imagine what would happen once he goes all out.

    As Lu Zhen was having an internal struggle, Rolomunicated with his original teammates. Due to the fact that Rolo''s appearance was somewhat sudden, the two different parties weren''t able to form arge party to cover them all. Rather than say that they weren''t able to, it would be more correct to say that they both never nned on doing such, and for Rolo, this was a very good thing; almost like a pie dropped from the skies.

    "You guys should get ready. Once we are done with these two, immediately strike those dummies." Rolo said to his teammates in the party chat. The reason he made such a decision was that the very moment Lu Zhen and Xue Yan both died, everyone''s guard should drop at that time. Such an opportune moment would be more than perfect for an assault.

    ''Don''t me me for anything. You''re just too stupid.'' Rolo thought as he nced at Reeves.

    Unknown to him though, Reeves had also made the same arrangements with his teammates as he felt that Rolo might do the same. Hence it all went down to who would be the faster figure. But with the help he had called for, Reeves believed that he would be the victor whoughsst.

    "Xue Yan. Keep running and don''t stop no matter what. Don''t even turn back to take a look." Lu Zhen yelled at Xue Yan. As he did so, he tightened his grasp on his dagger. He was stuck in an internal turmoil on whether to go all out or not but he ended up deciding to do so at the veryst minute. This was because once he showed his full strength to these guys, they would be stunned and shocked by his strength. Such an opportune moment would give Xue Yan more time to escape.

    ''Unlike you, I''m only ying this game for fun so it''s best you don''t die here. Ai~ I should have listened to you back then and left earlier.'' Lu Zhen smiled ruefully.

    As Lu Zhen was making suchments in his head while preparing to strike at the figure approaching him from behind, he suddenly saw a tiny glimmer up ahead.

    "Huh? That''s¡­"

    *Phew*

    Suddenly, with the whistling of the air, an arrow passed by Lu Zhen and shot towards the yer that was closest to him. Because the yer was never expecting such or rather because h was too focused on Lu Zhen, he was slow in reacting and couldn''t dodge it. Before he could even move his hand to block it, the arrow pierced his chest and dug deep into his body, almost prating his heart.

    "Argghhh."

    -55 (55/110 unimportant ID) [Drill Shot]

    A bloodcurdling scream arose in the forest as blood spilled on the floor, dyeing it crimson.

    The yer was an [Assassin] and that why he was able to catch up to Lu Zhen faster than the others. One has to remember that Lu Zhen wasn''t running at his fastest, so as to cover up the rear for Xue Yan. As such, this yer was able to catch up to him. As an [Assassin], the yer wore leather armour over te armour. This could be said to have been both a good thing and a bad thing for him. The bad thing is that because it''s leather armour, it got prated by the arrow. The good thing though, was that the armour managed to relieve a bit of the force, preventing the arrow from reaching his heart. Nheless, his left lung was damaged but to a yer, the effects are somewhat manageable; just somewhat.

    [[ System notification :

    You have been attacked by yer. Retaliating against your attacker won''t incur any punishment on you.

    Your left lung has been damaged :

    Stamina cost is now x1.5.

    You will be losing 1 HP every 5 seconds.

    Due to an abrupt reduction in oxygen supply, vision is affected. ]]

    "Who?!" Rolo shouted out. The reason he was infuriated was because the injured yer was his teammate. With the yer injured, his n to ambush Reeves'' team would be affected.

    "Stop." Reeves hurried ordered his men. He was astonished as to what had just urred. Normally, he would have been happy that one of Rolo''s men was attacked but Reeves knew that neither Lu Zhen nor Xue Yan could use a bow after all, none of them were [Rangers]. He knew that it was only Lu Zhen and Xue Yan that had arrived here together so he didn''t know who that was. The help he had also brought was not a [Ranger]. So the identity of this ambusher was unknown to him.

    Even as the two pursuers were shocked, Xue Yan and Lu Zhen kept running forward until there was sufficient distance between them and Rolo''s team before they stopped. Earlier on, Lu Zhen had spotted the arrow and from the way it was fired, it didn''t seem like he was the target. Nheless, Lu Zhen still adhered to caution as he nced at the origin o the arrow.

    While the entire team had entered a temporary state of shock, a fireball suddenly appeared from the side and headed for the injured yer. It was too fast as all of them were focused at the view in front. They never expected to see an attacking from the sides; even more so a zing fireball.

    "What do you take us for?" One of Rolo''s teammate, a [Berserker] who happened to be the closest to the injured yer, roared as he hurried over to shield the yer from getting injured any further. As a [Berserker], though his defensive abilities might becking whenpared to a [Guardian] or even a [Pdin], his [Strength] wasn''t. This yer intended on countering the fireball with a sh from his sword. In order to reach his teammate quicker, the [Berserker] used his ss'' specialty ability, [Charge].

    As the yer approached his teammate, an arrow came whistling again. This time however, it not only came from another position in front, but the target was the Berserker himself. The skill [charge] is a very impressive skill that [Berserkers] use to dominate a battle. However, it has one inevitable weakness. Once activated, the yer can only proceed in a straight line. This weakness might not seem much inparison to its effect but in a battle of experts, if one doesn''t take caution in how they use it, it could end up as double-edged sword.

    As the yer was still in the midst of is charge, he could only move in a straight line and with the arrow heading his way, he only had two options. One was to halt his charge and stop the arrow while two was to ignore the arrow and keep going to save his teammate. He couldn''t sh the arrow as once he did, the effects of the skill would be targeted at it and this would be no different than option 1. He also couldn''t ignore the arrow(option 2) as doing so would lead to him getting hit, thereby canceling his skill. Hence, there was only one option.

    "Bastard." realising this, the yer cursed before gritting his teeth and swinging his sword at the arrow.

    *ng*

    With a loud metallic reverberating sound, the arrow and the sword collided, with the arrow deflected over to another spot.

    As for the yer who was targeted by the fireball, there was no suspense there whatsoever. He got hit by the attack.

    *Boom*

    -72 (0/110 unimportant ID) [Fireball]

    Dead.

    Just like that, with two hits only, Rolo''s teammate died. The damage for the first attack was self-exnatory as the skill used on the arrow was the [Ranger] trump card, [Drill Shot]. Added with the fact that it was a surprise attack that almost lead to a critical hit, it was understandable that the skill took out half o the yer''s HP. However, thest attack was a regr [Fireball] spell. This was the weakest attack in an [Elementalist]''s arsenal, second only to the [Mana ball] spell. In fact, it was the same with the [Mana ball] spell as the only difference was that the [fireball] spell was elementally inclined towards the fire element. Though it was only the yer who got injured that knew the skills used, everyone could guess that thest attack was the [Fireball] spell but they couldn''tprehend how such a simple low level spell ended the life of a yer.

    "Who the hell are you people?! Show yourself.!" Rolo yelled in frustration.

    It was easy to guess that there was more than one attacker from the two attackers, hence the address of ''people'' and not ''person''.

    *Phew*

    The third arrow was fired and this time, the target was Rolo himself. But that wasn''t all though. Another fireball appeared from the forest, heading towards him too and apanying the two attacks was a voice.

    "Didn''t they tell you? The pig that makes the loudest noise gets killed next."

    AN :

    You might be wondering why I use [Assassin] over assassin, the same with the other sses. This is to prevent you guys from getting confused. I might mention assassin in any uing chapter or so. Here, assassin refers to someone that, well assassinates but [Assassin] refers to the ss. A [Ranger] can assassinate someone.. As such, he will be an assassin but not an [Assassin].

 Chapter 149 - 144 : Reinforcements Have Arrived 2

    "Didn''t they tell you? The pig that makes the loudest noise gets killed next."

    ''Who?!'' Rolo was stunned but he didn''t talk out loud as his focus was on the two iing attacks. He was an [Assassin] just like his teammate that died; the only difference being in their levels, where Rolo is level 6 while the other guy is level 5. With such simr attributes, Rolo knew that he wouldn''t be able to survive the two-pronged assault and even if he did, he would barely be able to hold on to his life.

    "Help the boss." Another of Rolo''s teammates yelled to the other two on standby. But such an act was pointless. The reason simply being that the two others were still some distance away from Rolo and they wouldn''t make it in time.

    "Don''t underestimate me." Rolo roared ran towards the arrow while shing his dagger at it. The reason for this was simple. Unlike the fireball that upied arge area, the arrow only took up a tiny bit of space. Hence, it would be way easier to block the arrow with his dagger than to do so against a fireball. Because the two attacks came from two different directions, this idea of his was very feasible.

    "Ha!" Dashing toward the arrow in front, Rolo struck at it with his dagger, in a bid to deflect the arrow away. At the same time, he nced at the direction the arrow came from, hoping to catch a glimpse of the archer.

    *ng*

    Sparks flew from the collision as Rolo managed to block the shot but at the same time though, his arm felt a bit numb from the reaction. This wasn''t because the [Strength] of the [Ranger] was greater than his. Rather, it was a simple matter of impact[1].

    *Boom*

    Less than 2 seconds after Rolo ran towards the arrow and blocked it, the fireballnded on the ground and set off a small explosion. The explosion wasn''t so powerful as one would think, but it managed to tussle the floor, sending off debris and dust into the air.

    With the dust as a smokescreen, a ck silhouette unexpectedly appeared and dashed at Rolo. The difference in time between the silhouette''s appearance and the fireball''s explosion was but a second. Though it was just a second, Rolo was unprepared for this as he never expected anything to be hiding close to the fireball.

    "You¡­!" Rolo was stunned as he finally got a glimpse of the silhouette''s appearance. It was Sato! Though Rolo never knew who he was, Rolo''s teammates had described Sato''s appearance to him. Apart from that, Reeves had also sent him a picture of Sato and Fudo, which he(Reeves) had taken without their notice back then.

    "Surprise~"

    Sato had gotten this idea of hiding an attack within another from Dream Tiger''s arrow that looked to have almost killed him[2]. Sato had hidden behind the fireball but was slightly slower than it, so as to not get affected by the st. Since everyone''s focus was on the Fireball and the arrow, no one paid attention to Sato who was behind. This could be attributed both to theirck of focus and the fact that the fireball came from the front while they were all behind. Also, the fireball was really bright, an effect as a result of the ''+15% affinity to fire elements'' from the Fudo''s [Igneel''s guidance].

    With a silver glint, Sato swung his sword towards Rolo''s head.

    Rolo had just blocked the arrow from before and it left his hand with a slight numbing feeling. Now facing Sato''s surprise attack, it looked like there was nothing he could do about it.

    "I can''t die just like this!"

    Rolo was disinclined to die so quickly especially since he had fallen like this before. They say when humans are at the edge, they tend to spur their body''s potential to its maximum.

    At thest moment, Rolo overcame the numb feeling and somehow managed to swing his dagger hurriedly at Sato''s sword.

    *ng*

    Thanks to his body''sst-minute movement and effort, Rolo managed to block the sword. Rather than trying to push forward for a counter, Rolo hurriedly retreated away.

    "Huh? You managed to block it?" Sato was surprised. He thought he had gotten Rolo back then as it seemed that Rolo''s end was inevitable but he somehow overcame that tribtion.

    "Doesn''t matter. Since you all will still die for pursuing arade."

    With Sato''s deration, the ambience of the ce became gloomy. Rolo was annoyed by the fact that not only had his teammate been killed but he was even forced back by the opponent. Reeves, who still had things better, was wondering how many men Sato had brought and whether his help would still seed in such a scenario.

    ''He should. After all, he''s an Expert.'' Reevesforted himself. There was no going back now as he still had to pay his helper for taking time out from his schedule to be here. The payment would have not been much if Reeves could gain from this but if not, the settlement would really sting his wallet; to the point of it affecting his progress in Infinite Realm. With that, Reeves contacted his aide in secret.

    "Can you-"

    Without waiting for Reeves to finish, the speaker on the other side cut him off.

    "Don''t worry. You underestimate me too much. Just handle that foolish guy and let me take care of the rest."

    With that said, the audio call was shut off.

    Usually, one would be annoyed at having a phone call cut off in his face like that but Reeves was different. Having received his aid''s assurance, he grinned.

    "You guys actually made it."

    Xue Yan stared at Sato in astonishment. She was already prepared to die and never expected to receive any help since most people tend to take a bystander position when they encounter such incidents. Seeing Sato here was even thest thing Xue Yan ever expected. She had thought that Sato must have left earlier and was already at ck Grill''s cave waiting for them or at the very least, close to it. Where they are right now, was still some distance away from ck Grill''s Cave; at least a kilometer away so Xue Yan didn''t have any hope of spotting Sato.

    "Haha. I knew you would make it." Lu Zhen shamelessly said. He didn''t know whether they would have made it to them in time. In fact, Lu Zhen, just like Xue Yan, was never expecting Sato''s help.

    "Tch. You indeed are way more shameless than I am." Fudo walked out from behind Sato.

    "What took you so long even?" Lu Zhen asked as if he had really been expecting them.

    "Tch. We had an unexpected encounter; nothing much."

    Due to the fact that Sato and his teammates were held back by the old man for a while, they had arrived quitete, leading to Lu Zhen and Xue Yan being pushed back by Reeves'' and Rolo''s men.

    "Luckily, we had made it in time before you two got wiped out." Fudo smiled at Xue Yan. As one would expect from a pervert who only fancies women, Fudo was still trying to make a good impression on Xue Yan. But how could Lu Zhen not notice that.

    "Hehe. I never thought the day that I would be happy at seeing your pig-like face would evere." Lu Zhen gave Fudo a serious jab with his words.

    "What did you say?!" Fudo barked in return as he pointed his staff at him.

    "Stop ignoring me!" Rolo yelled at them. "Call your that goddamn [Ranger] and let''s settle this."

    Rolo was really infuriated right now. Not only was his teammate dead, for the second time at that, but he was also ignored like an ant on the floor.

    "Ok." Sato smiled lightly.

    "Huh?" Rolo was stunned that Sato had actually agreed with him.

    "Don''t. He would be better in hiding." Xue Yan said to Sato.

    With a [Ranger] in a hidden spot, he could be sniping down the opponents and interrupting their moves at critical moments. Actually, that was how a lot of yers used long range sses. They tend to hide at a spot where they won''t be easily spotted and keep harassing their opponents till they are down. Even if their target would try to track them from the origin of the attack, the yer would have long evacuated that spot and head elsewhere. The hidden [Ranger] in this battle had done the same thing. He had fired 3 different arrows at 3 different targets from 3 different angles. That was why his attacks weren''t expected and easily dodged, thereby interfering with his target''s movements. If the [ranger] was to leave his location and expose himself, his threat level would decrease drastically.

    "Nah. Those tricks won''t work all the time." Fudo shook his head. With Seiichi having attacked 3 times already, even if he was still hidden, their enemies would be alert for his arrows and that would make things harder for him. Coming out of his hiding spot would enable him to be closer to the battle area, hence increasing the uracy of his shots.

    "Seiichi, you heard him. Come on out!" Sato yelled.

    "It''s about time we show these losers their ce."

 Chapter 150 - 145 : A Strange Turn Of Events

    "Seiichi, you heard him. Come on out!"

    A few seconds after Sato had spoken, Seiichi walked up from in front before stopping a few metres away from Rolo''s team. With a bow in hand and a nonchnt attitude, he looked like a godly archer that could shoot the sun and the stars down with his bow. Of course, this was only a metaphor as Seiichi didn''t possess such power. He was only a level 6 [Ranger] after all.

    "Yo." Seiichi greeted as he nudged his sses with his free hand.

    "So it was you...?" Rolo said in a somewhat questioning tone.

    "Duh. Who do you think it was? Can''t you see my bow or are you that blind? Do you need me to lend you my sses?" Seiichi poked at Rolo with his words while still keeping on a smile.

    "Haha. Good, good. You three will die today." Rolo dered as he pointed his dagger at Sato.

    "Hey, you missed us." Lu Zhen smirked while pointing at his face.

    Rolo was stunned. He had indeed forgotten about the original 2 targets and had set his focus on the 3 neers. In a group battle, forgetting the existence of one of the opposing party''s men was tantamount to losing the battle already. Having Lu Zhen point out this fact made his face a bit red out of embarrassment and anger. However, part of the qualities of a dark yer was their thick skin[1], so Rolo ignored Lu Zhen''s words and only red at him.

    "What? Was I wrong?" Lu Zhen grinned.

    "Enough chitchat you two. Let''s finish this." Sato said.

    Hearing this, Rolo regained his focus and nced at the opposing team. As he did so, he involuntarily made a serious face. On his side were only 3 yers; himself included, while on the opposing team were 5 yers and at least 3 of them were close to the Expert rank. Rolo himself was a bit close to this rank and he was the strongest in his team. Just forgetting the numbers advantage alone, Rolo''s team was still destined to lose this battle.

    "Hey, Reeves was it? What are you still doing there? Didn''t we join forces? Come help me already." Rolo nced at Reeves and shouted.

    When Rolo was being attacked, Reeves'' team had withdrawn a bit and set aside some space between themselves and Rolo''s team as if saying ''we have no part in this''. How could Rolo have not noticed this? But there was nothing he could do back then as he had to focus on the neers who were attacking him. Now with a bit of time in hand, he wanted to know Reeves'' take on this. He was still of the opinion that Reeves would help him after all, in Rolo''s mind, Reeves was a noob yer that was obsessed over getting his revenge for being humiliated.

    With Rolo''s statement, Sato''s team had to slow down their movements, after all, even if the addition of 4 new yers wouldn''t stop them from winning, it would affect the battle. So rather than rushing in to attack, they wanted to know the status of the other team.

    Now everyone''s focus was on Reeves and his teammates.

    "What am I doing here? Spectating of course." Reeves smiled weirdly. "And did you say join forces? Haha. You even asked me to help you." Reeves beganughing out loud as if he was in a circus watching a clown performing some really silly moves.

    "What''s the meaning of this?!" Rolo roared with red eyes. The red eyes weren''t because they were about to tear up, instead, it was from pure anger and fury.

    "What do you think it is? Your use to me is no more." Reeves smiled gently like a Saint who had just performed a good deed for the sake of the world.

    "My Use..?" Rolo was stunned.

    "Haha. How foolish can you get? Did you really take me for a dumb**s yer that knows nothing? You think I didn''t know that you were scheming against me?"

    Reeves smiled, revealing all his spections as facts. Truth be told, Reeves wasn''t so sure whether Rolo really intended on back-stabbing him; he was only 80% sure, but that was more than enough for him. Whether or not Rolo would have back-stabbed him, Reeves didn''t care as he nned on avenging hisrades for back then.

    "You¡­you knew?!" Rolo was stunned.

    "Of course I did. In fact, it was all going ording to n. Yes, you fell right into my n since back then." Reeves smiled. Since his aide had already said that he could handle Sato''s team while giving the instruction to ''handle that foolish guy'', Reeves didn''t n on using Rolo any longer. Indeed, the ''foolish guy'' was Rolo. What else would you call a person who got devoured by his greed?

    Rolo was even more shocked at this revtion. As he began recalling all the events back then, he realised something. The ''Reeves'' then was not the same as the one he fought before. They were like two different people; one a noob and the other a veteran gamer. A noob might invite a wolf to take down a tiger but a veteran yer would rarely make such a mistake. Even though his instincts had warned him, Rolo still fell for the trap all because of his greed. As for now, it wouldn''t be a lie to say that he was regretting it, but he still had to face the truth here.

    "You¡­You won''t die a good death! You must pay for this!" Rolo yelled fiercely but he didn''t make any move yet. The reason was obvious. In front there was an enemy, behind there was another enemy. Sideways? It wasn''t like they would both let him escape just like that.

    "Hey." Reeves called out to Sato.

    "???" Sato stared inquisitively at him.

    "I want to make something clear to you guys. I never really intended on targeting you guys. Everything was a trap for this dumb**s over here." Reeves said.

    "Oh?" Lu Zhen replied with a sarcastic tone.

    "Yes. Really. To fool him wasn''t easy and I had to n out a lot. You should have already known that I''m not his match. So I needed help. I was originally hoping to borrow your strength to finish him off but when I saw only you two, I lost confidence in the n." Reeves said as he nced at Lu Zhen and Xue Yan. With his statement, he indicated that he felt that Lu Zhen and Xue Yan''s strength was insufficient to take down Rolo''s team.

    "So you went on to attack us." Xue Yan red at him. There was no way she would believe such a silly statement at all.

    "Yes. I needed to give him a solid reason to trust me and attacking you guys seemed to be the best option. Also, if you guys were gone, there was a high chance that you would inform him." Reeves nced at Sato. "With that, you guys would be much stronger the next time we meet and so your strength would have been sufficient to end him." Reeves slowly exined.

    "Is that so?" Lu Zhen chuckled. "I''ve never seen someone as shameless as you are. Even fatty''s act of naming himself ''Emperor'' seems to becking inparison to your words."

    Reeves sighed and said "Taking one step back, you should have noticed that my men weren''t putting their all to kill you, right? That''s simply cause we didn''t want to but wanted you to escape. Even when we pursued you, we were always at the back. "

    As they listened to Reeves'' words, Lu Zhen and Xue Yan recalled that this was the case. He was actually speaking the truth.

    Even if Lu Zhen was strong, with the strength he had disyed back then, it was strange that he had been able to survive the onught of 6 yers. Even with Xue Yan''s help, it was still unimaginable.

    ''So it turned out that way. No wonder I felt something was weird.'' Lu Zhen thought as he stared at Reeves. But he still left the decision-making to Sato.

    Sato wasn''t present when all these happened so judging lies from the truth was difficult. Even if he was, it wouldn''t change much. All he did now was to stare at Reeves eye-to-eye.

    Rolo suddenly said, "After we have dealt with him, you guys could even keep all the loot. I just want my revenge."

    "He''s lying! Don''t trust him." Rolo suddenly shouted. "Work with me and let''s defeat him. If he betrayed me, he could do the same to you." He knew that if he was to have an opportunity to escape, it would lie with Sato. Sato''s team alone could defeat his, what more the two powers joined together. Hence in his opinion, Rolo wanted Sato to team up with him so they can defeat Reeves however, his real goal was to escape when they would least expect it.

    Regarding Sato''s pressuring stare and Rolo''s outbreak, Reeves kept a gentle smile on his face and didn''t bother about what Rolo said. He guessed that someone of Sato''s caliber wouldn''t be easily influenced especially after seeing his calm attitude again. He had even prevented his teammates from attacking Rolo so as to not make Sato suspicious of anything. But it wasn''t like Fudo was the same.

    "Shut up you shithead before I st a hole through your head." Fudo red at Rolo.

    Despite being insulted like that, Rolo didn''t retaliate, only keeping quiet and watching Sato. However, his eyes seemed to be convening a plea to him.

    "So, what will it be then?"

 Chapter 151 - 146 : The Outcome Of Comparing Strengths

    "So, what will it be then?"

    Sato stared at Reeves before responding, "What do you mean ''what will it be''? I said it before and I will say it again."

    Sato slowly raised his sword and pointed it at Reeves.

    "You will all die for pursuing arade of mine."

    [Sprint]

    Like a cheetah on the run, Sato dashed at Reeves.

    Reeves wasn''t expecting Sato to reject him much less attack him. His statement was almost wless and very reasonable. Plus if Sato were to attack him, he(Sato) would have to not only watch out against his(Reeves) attack but also Rolo''s. Even if Sato was an Expert, he wouldn''t be able to protect his teammates neither would he be able to hold out against them all so easily. So from a logical point of view, even if Sato wanted to kill him, it would have been best to team up with him and then finish off Rolo and teammates first before attacking him, and Reeves had nned for that.

    In retrospect, Reeves never really wanted to team up with Sato. All that stuff he spewed out back then was shit. Though they were bits of truth in them, the reason wasn''t as he expected. For example, when Reeves said that his teammates were holding back because they didn''t want to kill Lu Zhen and Xue Yan, that was shit. His teammates only held back because Reeves had told them to do so, simply because he wanted Rolo and his teammates to spend more energy battling Lu Zhen and Xue Yan, that way his own men would still have a bit more strength and stamina left. Also, when Reeves had spoken about staying behind, the reason was simr to the first and he also felt that Lu Zhen and Xue Yan might have been leading them to a trap so he took a careful approach and hid behind.

    Reeves had forged all those stories to get them to work with him to finish off Rolo''s team and once that was done, Reeves'' helper would arrive and together with him, Reeves would have dominated the battle , bearing the least casualties.

    Now seeing Sato attack reject him, Reeves was a bit stunned as he couldn''t figure out why he did so. That marginal error of being stunned resulted in him being slow to react to Sato''s iing attack. Sato had obviously expected this and that was why he attacked right after he rejected Reeves'' proposal.

    Without having the luxury of time to wonder why Sato had rejected him, Reeves prepared himself to face the attack.

    With Sato having attacked at the right opportunity, Reeves was too slow to counter with his sword. However, he still managed to react reflexively, moving his body a little bit to the side. This little movement of his couldn''t avoid Sato''s attack but at the very least, it prevented Sato''s sword from stabbing a critical point by just one centimetre.

    -49 (121/170 Reeves HP)

    ''Damn. His attack power is so high?''

    Reeves was shocked at the damage value he received. Usually, one would think that a damage value of 49 is quite low but Reeves didn''t think such. He knew how high his defense was. It might not have been as absurd as those weirdoes who would go for broke and ce all their attribute points in defense but it was still considerably high. As an MT, his [Endurance], [Vitality] and [Strength] were his highest stats and his major areas of focus. Reeves'' [Endurance] way past 10, reaching 14 points. Together with his high HP and [Strength], he was a true walking tank. And yet, even with a te armour on, Sato had been able to take 49 points out of his HP with an average strike. Reeves wondered what would have happened if his [Endurance] was lower than it was.

    Sato was nonplussed at the damage he had given as he expected it to be so. Unlike back when he the [Pdin] Fiko, Reeves was a bona-fide MT and his level was much higher than Fiko was back then. Even if Sato was two levels higher than Reeves, he had to bnce out his attributes in such a way that he would be able to get the best of them all. But Reeves didn''t bother abut such and would have most likely focused his attribute points on a few stats, leaving the others at a minimal value. Hence it would take a bit more to finish him off but that was just a bit more.

    Without taking a break, Sato brandished his sword at Reeves once more but this time he used a skill.

    ''[Hack]!''

    It wasn''t like Reeves was only staring at Sato all this while. Just before Sato''s sword had earlier stabbed him, he had already begun moving his sword. As Sato had thought, Reeves had focused a majority of his attribute points in the trinity of MTs[1] leaving his [Dexterity] and [Agility] points at a serious low. Hence he was too slow with making an attack but after Sato had stabbed him, withdrawn his sword and shed out again, Reeves'' sword finally arrived close at Sato.

    ''[Execution]''

    From the way things were going, Reeves was going for a blow-for-blow!

    Reeves knew that his [Agility] and [Dexterity] was too low to a majority of lightweight sses like the [Swordsman] and [Assassin]. In a battle against these guys, Reeves would be like a sitting duck. But with the advantage of a stronger defense and higher HP and attack power, Reeves wasn''t scared. He knew that if he were to turn the battle into one of attrition, he woulde out on top. Reeves believed that since Sato must have distributed his attribute points on more than 3 different, his defense would be low.

    The [Swordsman] ss usually focused on dealing damage over defense and this quality wasn''t only achieved through adding a majority of points into [Strength]. one would also focus on [Dexterity] and [Agility] and since they would act as the main damage dealing force. They still need to take care of themselves too, hence the addition of points into [Endurance] too, but the focus here wasn''t as much as in the other stats. Hence, in a contest of [Endurance], Reeves had a lot of faith in himself. Together with his absurd [Strength] value that surpassed a majority of yer sat his level, Reeves believed that Sato would get the lower hand of the fight if they both went for a blow-for-blow, and in fact he was right. But he made one fatal w; Reeves presumed that Sato was the same level as he was with the same equipment as he had.

    ''A blow-for-blow? Let''s go.'' Sato''s eyes glinted with fighting intent. Sato, with his superior [Agility] and abilities, could easily avoid this attack but he saw it as an opportunity to deal a lot of damage

    Within a second, the two attacks made contact with their targets and the result was made visible for all to see.

    "Arghh." With a scream, a body was sent flying for at least 3 metres before crashing on the ground with a thud. Looking at the only standing yer, everyone realised that the one who got tossed away was Reeves.

    -59 (62/170)

    "How?" Blue Banana stared in shock. He originally didn''t have any faith in Reeves defeating Sato but when he saw that it was a hit-for-hit scenario, he expected Reeves toe out on top. As the two were teammates, they often sparred with one another, as such, Blue Banana knew how strong he was and didn''t expect a [Swordsman] simr to him, to do much different. Now seeing this, it would be a lie to say that he wasn''t shocked.

    Not only Blue Banana and his teammates, even the forgotten Rolo was stunned. Seeing the result of this sh, he now understood why Sato felt it beneath him to team up wit any of them. This ''revtion'' however, didn''t only bring fear to his mind; it also made his heart cold. Rolo knew that if he kept wasting time, his death woulde soon. He had already died once and lost a massive amount of Experience points. If he died again, he would undoubtedly go down by one level and that isn''t something any yer would want to experience.

    On Sato''s group''s side, none of them were surprised at the result. On the contrary, they were mocking Sato for ''bullying'' Reeves. They all knew that not only was Sato a level 8 yer with a subss, but he also wore an Upper tier Mortal rank armour. With such high stats and good equipment, it would be foolish to try and face him in a such a way.

    In the contest of strength, Sato had only been forced back 3 steps while losing 37 HP. Reeves on the other hand, was sent flying 3 metres back while losing 59 Hp. The difference was already very obvious and if that wasn''t enough to convince one, the kill Reeves had used was the [Guardian] ss'' current top skill; the [Guardian] equivalent of the [Swordsman]''s [Horizontal sh], dealing 140''% of the user''s attack power. Sato had only used themon [Hack] skill that dealt only 110% of his base attack power yet, had been able to do that much damage. Unless one was stupid, he or she would obviously be able to tell that Sato was the stronger figure here.

    Sato nced at Reeves'' downtrodden face and said,

    "Next time, I''m not going easy on you."

 Chapter 152 - 147 : Strange Occurrence

    "Next time, I''m not going easy on you."

    Feelings Sato''s unwavering conviction and determination, Reeves felt that what he said was most likely true. In other words, Sato was holding back when he struck at him earlier. Reeves didn''t want to believe this as he felt it was really absurd. How could a yer be this strong? With just 2 strikes, Sato had smashed through Reeves'' confident defense and depleted his HP by more than 50%; it would just take less than two more strikes for him to be a goner. Reeves couldn''t understand how such a thing had happened. He refused to believe that Sato was an Expert as none of his attacks seemed to contain any ir or overbearing demeanor, neither did it look like a martial stance as such, Reeves couldn''t understand how Sato was so powerful.

    ''It''s his equipment. It has to be his equipment!'' Reeves'' eyes stared at Sato, or rather his sword, with unhidden envy and greed intent in them.

    Reeves wasn''t the only one who reached such a conclusion as some of his teammates also stared greedily at Sato, as if staring at a big piece of salivating meat. Despite doing such, none of them dared to make a move as the strength Sato had disyed was more than enough to scare the hell out of them.

    "Why did you attack him?! We aren''t your enemies!" Blue Banana yelled at Sato. Seeing his strength, his will began to waver but having crossed the Rubicon[1], he had to handle this properly.

    "You aren''t my enemies?" Sato nced at Blue Banana.

    With one nce, Blue Banana froze as he unknowingly began to sweat and get anxious.

    "Do you take me as a fool?" Sato asked him.

    "What do you mean?" Blue Banana asked with a stuttering voice.

    "Using Lu Zhen and Xue Yan as bait? Not intentionally nning to harm them? Only a child would believe such words." Saying up to this part, Sato then nced at Reeves who had just found his footing. "Also, you foolishly revealed yourself. You''re a vengeful schemer. Such a man won''t be pleased at having his property taken."

    "-"Reeves was shocked because Sato had discovered his n just from his small mistakes. Indeed, everything he had said right before Sato had attacked him was a sham and a lie; one that would make the devil impressed even.

    Reeves original intention was to eliminate Sato, Fudo, Lu Zhen and Xue Yan with Rolo''s help, however, he had only been able to find the location of Lu Zhen and Xue Yan. He had wanted to defeat them while still keeping his team at optimum state so as to handle Rolo''s but the appearance of Sato, Fudo and Seiichi had ruined his ns. Hence the need for a few amendments.

    All the words Reeves had said back then was just to let their guards down and try to get them to work with him. Apart from getting them to team up with him, Reeves also wanted them to be less suspicious about him. Back at ck Grill''s Cave, it was already proven that Reeves'' team couldn''t win against Rolo''s so it would be weird as to why Reeves had schemed against Rolo unless he had something to rely on. Reeves didn''t want them to reach such a conjecture as it would make them alert all the time, so he decided to bring their attention to a made up story. If Sato''s team had now teamed up with his, Sato''s mind would have been on how to attack Reeves'' team at thest moment rather than suspecting his action of scheming against Rolo. But as fate would have it, it turned out to be a pointless endeavour.

    ''But it seems like he still doesn''t know.'' Reeves thought.

    Nheless though, it might seem pointless to them but to Reeves, he seeded in fulfilling one objective and that was to remove any suspicion of having a trump card or aide. This was because with Sato having refused allying with any side, he would have to face the two and with him and his team focused on handling both his(Reeves) and Rolo''s team, there won''t be so much opportunity for suspicions.

    "Doesn''t matter though. You''ve already made a foolish decision." Reevesughed.

    "Rolo! Team up with me and let''s handle him. We both know that once he''s done with me, he woulde for you guys next. None of us are equal to him in strength so help me out here. I promise I won''t betray you anymore and our previous agreements would be doubled." Reeves yelled.

    It was early to call for his support since ''he'' would only make an appearance at the very crucial moment that would ascertain a 100% sess rate. Reeves wanted to create this opportunity and to do so, one target has to be eliminated or both targets tired out. The most feasible option was avable at a nce and Reeves chose it without hesitation or shame.

    "Hahaha." A creepyugh rang out. Contained within it was unspeakable amounts of hatred and frustration as the origin of this eerieughter, Rolo, stared at Reeves.

    "What do you take me for? Thanks to you, my path has officially been cut here. I''m already destined to die ever since I agreed to your proposal before. This time though, I don''t n on going down alone." Rolo stared fiercely at Reeves like a beast approaching madness.

    Having fallen for his greed before, Rolo didn''t n on doing so again. He knew that there was no chance for survival. Back at ck Grill''s Cave, he and his men had been killed to quickly to judge their opponents strength. But having seen the strength Sato demonstrated -beating more than 50% of the sh*t out of Reeves without much effort- Rolo knew that teaming up with Reeves wouldn''t make a difference. With Sato having revealed a glimpse of his hand and with it being so terrifying, he could only imagine his full strength together with that of his teammates. Even if Fudo and Seiichi''s abilities were weaker than Sato, it wouldn''t be by much, after all, a lion wouldn''t walk with pigs. In such a case, retaliation was futile and it was way better to end Reeves with his own hand. Who knows, maybe Sato might pardon him and only take his treasures letting him go.

    They say when humans find hope in their time of peril, no matter how small it is, they hold on to it. Having found his source of hope, Rolo stared at Reeves with renewed vigor, pouncing at him like a starving lion would do upon sighting a prey.

    ''This bastard¡­'' Reeves gritted his teeth as he faced Rolo''s assault.

    "Help the captain!" Blue Banana screamed as he rushed to back up Rolo. The rest of his teammates then attacked the remainder of Rolo''s team. Having lost one of theirrades, Rolo''s team had the lesser hand of the battle but with Blue Banana assisting Reeves, the battlefield was bnced. Of course this was without taking Sato''s team into ount.

    "So what do we do now?" Fudo asked Sato after walking up to him.

    "We can''t just stay away from this fight right?" Seiichi smiled. Having already attacked a yer and assisting in his death, Seiichi''s name tag and marker had changed, turning from its usual green to a light orange almost like amber. Even with such a feature, Seiichi still wanted to participate in the killing.

    "Of course not. I bet Sato wants us to wait for them to fight it all out and reap the most rewards." Fudo grinned as if having seen through ''Sato''s n''.

    "So what''s it?" Seiichi ignored Fudo and asked Sato.

    "Something is weird about all this." Sato narrowed his eyes as he watched the two different parties face each other.

    With Reeves having less than 50% of his HP left, he was in a perilous situation. In a one-on-one fight, he wasn''t Rolo''s match and so Blue Banana was there to assist him. Nheless, Rolo was still able to get the upper hand of the fight though it was just barely. As for the other fights, they were almost rounding up. Reeves'' teammates were regr yers who were used to PvE matches over PvP[2] whereas Rolo''s teammates where dark yers who ughtered yers on a daily basis so their PvP skills were worthy of taking note. It was without deliberation to say who woulde out on top and the results were already beginning to show.

    *Putch*

    A sword drilled itself into the into a yer''s flesh and blood began spurted out from the wound.

    "Ahhh!"

    Apanied with the injury was a a wave of pain that almost wiped out this yer''s will. In Infinite Realm, though yer''s can reduce the pain they feel, unless they had health issues, this reduction has a limit. So yers would still feel pain regardless. However, probably as a stance of showing off or something, most yers leave their pain sensation at its highest and boast about it, iming that they are training themselves(after all, martial arts is quite prevalent now). Only until they experience a heavy injury would they be able to feel the full effects of this.

    This yer happened to be such a person. Back at ck Grill''s Cave, one of Reeves'' men had been eliminated quickly, bringing Reeves'' number advantage to nil[3]. As a result of his quick elimination, he didn''t feel much pain. But now, with a sword passing through his guts, he surely felt a lot of it. Most likely after this battle, he would have learnt his lesson and reduce the pain sensation.

    "It''s over." Sato stared silently at the fight.

    Indeed. The very next second, the opponent of the injured yer pulled out his sword and shed again. But at that very second, something strange had happened. That yer suddenly froze without moving, as if possessed by a spirit. Immediately after, a creepy scene urred.

    A few eerie figures dug their heads out from different parts of the yer''s body. They opened their mouths but strangely, not a single sound was heard. With the appearance of the wailing spirits, the yer began to age quickly.

    This went on for 3 seconds before the yer who had this all happening to him, suddenly copsed. Upon contact with the ground, his body immediately disintegrated into starlight.

    He had died!

 Chapter 153 - 148 : Appearance Of The Mysterious Figure

    "What, what happened?" The injured yer from Reeves'' camp asked with whispering tone. Despite being alive and well, he didn''t feel safe. With his opponent having died in such a mysterious fashion, why would he feel safe?

    "Did he die?"

    Even though he had asked the question, he had obviously seen his opponent disintegrate while leaving behind a two pieces of equipment.

    "What just happened?" Fudo stared wide eyed. It was just too creepy and confusing. He had just been watching the battle alongside the others and they had all concluded that it was over but the result was shocking. The battle still ended as they predicted but not as they thought. The ''winner'' ended up as the loser, even worse was how he had died; it was too eerie without any trace or sign of such happening.

    With the death of another teammate, Rolo''s squad was left with only two men, resulting in them having a handicap in the battle. The original battle that had an obvious result ended up going in the opposite direction.

    But that wasn''t the end.

    "Arghhhh."

    Turning to look at the origin of the noise, Sato, Fudo and Seiichi were astounded. They noticed that it was Rolo''sst teammate who happened to be the one screaming but that wasn''t the reason why they were surprised. Rather, it was what happening to the yer. Beneath him was a ck pool from which white objects slowly rose up. Upon further inspection, these white objects were actually bones! The bones mostly consisted of aplete set of hand bones[1], femurs and tibias[2]. They weren''t just bones alone but alsoplete skeletons, humanoid skeletons. They upied a 2 metre radius around the yer and because they were targeted at him, his opponent(one of Reeves'' men) had managed to escape from the area-of-effect.

    *ck* *ck* *ck*

    These skeletons and skeletal palms grabbed onto the yer and pulled at him. Thebination of the ''stunning'' view and weird grinding sounds from the skeletons joints, formed a really creepy scene that struck everyone present. Even Reeves, Blue Banana and Rolo had stopped their battle.

    "What''s that?!" Rolo stared in fear.

    While Rolo was stunned, Reeves'' eyes shed with a strange glint before acent smile took shape on his lips.

    "Arghh. Die! Die!"

    Probably because he was scared of dying or something else, the yer being attacked had managed to regain a bit of hisposure, hacking at the skeletons and bones with his axe.

    The skeletons weren''t made of some perversely resilient divine weapon or anything so they easily shattered on contact with the axe. However, even as the yer shattered them, more came out from underneath him while the shattered parts slowly reattached themselves. If this went on for a while longer, it wouldn''t take long for the yer to die.

    "Damn it." Rolo cursed as he stared at what went on. He didn''t know the origin of the skeletons neither did he know what would happen if he went close to them, so Rolo kept his distance away from the yer despite him(the yer) being his teammate.

    4 seconds had passed by and the bones and skeletons had numbered plenty. Being outnumbered and swarmed by such strange and eerie creatures, the yer''s mentality wasn''t only put to a test but so was his stamina and HP. With their numbers being superior, the skeletons didn''t only drag the yer down but also stabbed at him with bone poles and their ws, inflicting varying degrees of damage on him.

    Thanks to Infinite Realm''s amazing visual resolution that was a lot like reality, this sight could be said to be a very stunning visual feast for the eyes but that wasn''t the most ''impressive'' feature. The most ''impressive'' feature could be said to be the pain sensation effect that was on for 90% of yers. Even if one reduced it to its lowest, one would still feel pain. If this pain is singr; resulting from one spot, the effects might not be that great, but if the pain happens to be inflicted from different spots at almost the same time, one would be in for a hell of a ride, exactly like this guy. Even worse was the fact that this guy was almost like the other one, except he toned down the pain sensation effects though not o its lowest.

    The bones that stabbed the yer, the ws that dragged at him, the skeletons that attacked him with bone weapons and the ones that bite at him, so much ''love and care'' was given to the yer that he couldn''t help but express his thanks in words, or rather sounds.

    "Arggghhhhh! Arggghhhhh! Please!!!! help!!! Boss, help me!!!"

    Realising that he can''t escape with his meager abilities, the yer yelled to his captain, Rolo, begging for help. However this action of his would turn fruitless as Rolo didn''t make any move. Even if he wanted to do so, Reeves and Blue Banana wouldn''t let him do as he pleased.

    4 more seconds passed by and these 4 seconds felt like hell to this yer. Finally, the hell had ended as he disintegrated into starlight, dying a miserable and painful death. Following his disappearance was that of the skeletons and bones. As they had arrived, they went back too, dissolving into the weird ck pool beneath them. In ce of him, a pair of boots were left behind reminding the yers that

    "Was that a skill or a trap?" One of Reeves'' men, the one who was battling the deceased a while ago, asked, fear and confusion still clear in his tone.

    Unlike the confused look in everyone''s eyes, Sato only frowned before ncing at a tree top a few metres away.

    "Do You still n on hiding or what?"

    Sato''s question was met with silence alongside the strange stares of the other yers but he still focused his sights on the branch above.

    "You really don''t want toe out?" Sato frowned.

    Silence pervaded the entire grounds and just as Rolo was about to ask a question, a melodious voice sounded out.

    "Fufu~ You actually noticed my presence?"

    The voice had a strange charm to it that caused the hearts of many to flutter. It was like the chirping of canaries in Spring time, sweet and alluring to the ear like honey is to bees, like sugar is to ants. So intoxicating was the voice that it made some of the yers unconsciously rx, befuddling them like alcohol does to the brain.

    Following that, a figure appeared from the confines of the tree top, making clear their figure to the yers below. Surprisingly, it was ady.

    The new arrival was garbed in ck outfits reticent of what mages would wear, and it gave her a chilling and creepy vibe but her appearance was all but that. She had a stunning figure, such that even world ss models would be ashamed of themselves in her presence. Two perky bunnies hid beneath her clothing butbecause their bust was quite impressive and also her clothing was made to fit, they were easily noticeable at a nce. A slim waist that looked fragile yet perfect, a perky ass that looked firm yet soft and luscious red lips that could wet one''s lips from a distance, together with a magnificent red hair that flowed down like a fiery waterfall, this new arrival didn''t look like your ordinary beauty. What made this sultry goddess even more appealing was the lovely yet enticing smile she kept on her face as she nced at Sato. With the way she stared at him while ignoring the rest, it looked as if she was intent ravaging him with her eyes; even Sato found himself a bit ufortable under her stare. Surprisingly though, that only added to her appealing charm.

    "You''ve finally made an appearance, cousin." Reeves smiled. The way he addressed her was like a citizen of a medieval empire addressing the King rather than a cousin. There was a lot of humility and respect in his tone as he talked to her.

    "I had too, since you couldn''t achieve such a simple goal." Thedy nonchntly replied.

    "I apologise." Reeves bowed low as he began to sweat profusely on his forehead. Having failed a simple task from her, he knew that he would end up suffering the consequencester. As for now, he nned on obeying her every word and serving her to the best of his abilities after all, her background was too scary.

    "It was you¡­?" Rolo asked unsure of his own words. Unless one was a fool, from the information in Reeves and the mysteriousdy''s words, the death of Rolo''s two men was her doing but he still refused to believe that a yer could do such; eliminating them in one move. Even Sato couldn''t do such so there was no way Rolo could believe that she did it. No yer was that strong.

    "What do you think?" Thedy smirked when she saw Rolo''s shakenposure.

    "Don''t worry. You will join your men soon."

    "You¡­!" Rolo red ferociously at her but he still didn''t make any move. Even though it was an ambush, the strength she had shown had scared him witless. Rolo knew that he wasn''t her match and together with the fact that he was alone, he wouldn''t stand a chance against her.

    "Back to what I was saying." Thedy turned and smiled alluringly at Sato.

    "How did you find me?"

 Chapter 154 - 149 : Taking Down The General And The Deputy

    "Tell me, how did you sense me?" Thedy smiled at Sato. She was quite young, averaging around the same age as Sato but the way she spoke to him was as if she was talking to a little kid.

    "I was originally thinking she was interested in you but nah. This babe has some serious issues. Plus there''s no way you can luck out on such a chick." Fudo suddenly said. He was utterly disregarding her words as he took the opportunity to jab at Sato with his words.

    "Did I permit you to speak?" The girl nced at Fudo as a gloomy aura suffused from her body, dropping the surrounding temperature to a minus.

    "Tch. What a tough chick. Your problem might be worse than I thought." Fudo twitched his lips as he ignored the girl''s aura that was targeted at him. Despite hisckadaisiacal attitude, Fudo was a bit shocked or you might even say, scared, of the girl.

    With advancements in technology and government, wars were hardly fought and so barely a few people could generate any special kind of aura, standing out from the billions of people on the and beyond. The introduction of advance VR games gave these people an opportunity to shine while also enabling more people to be exposed to a more ferocious and bloody environment; one they would never find in the current society. As a result of these, more people could generate auras even so, the difficulty of doing this was hard. One would have to go through a lot of life-and-death experiences and be able toe out alive to do so.

    ''She''s a pro and not your average one.'' Fudo narrowed his eyes as he thought.

    "Fudo, Seiichi. You two handle the others." said Sato with his eyes still on the girl. He didn''t ask Lu Zhen to help them because in his opinion, Fudo and Seiichi alone were enough.

    "Be quick with it too. The others are still waiting."

    Beforeing here, they had left behind Yato and Katsuo at a safe distance. With their strength, the two would end up as nothing more than cannon-fodder. Though it''s true that they would inevitably get involved in PvP matches, Sato felt that it was too early for the two. They had just migrated to Infinite Realm plus their levels were low; very low. Hence, despite the opponents being weaker in terms of battle skills, the difference in attributes couldn''t be easily breached with just martial arts or battle sense.

    "No problem." Fudo grinned.

    "You think you can beat me with my cousin here? Haha. You''re nothing more than a frog in a well. You just a step away from deat-"

    Just before Reeves could conclude his words, Lu Zhen suddenly appeared beside him.

    "You talk too much."

    Having been chased around by a bunch of weaklings beneath him and even almost forced to a corner, it would be a lie to say that Lu Zhen wasn''t vexed. He had already set his sights on Reeves long ago, like a hawk would target its prey. As a true [Assassin], Lu Zhen had silently withdrawn his aura long ago while stalking Reeves for the perfect opportunity. Now with his guard down, there'' was no way Lu Zhen would let such an opportunity go.

    "You dare?!" The ck dressed girl red at him. The distance between her and Reeves was quite substantial, but it still meant nothing to her. The only problem was that she never expected anyone to make a move in her presence.

    The girl had only focused on Sato due to the impressive strength he had disyed earlier, ignoring the others as if they were nothing more than walking corpses. She had never imagined that another yer would actually dare to make a move especially after her short but bone-chilling performance. Due to her underestimating them, Reeves would have to bear the consequences as it would take her at least a second to make a move.That was more than enough time for a level 7 [Assassin] to wreak havoc on a level 6 [Guardian] with less than half his HP left.

    [Shadow Strike]!

    -49 (13/170 Reeves HP)

    "Ack!" Reeves tried to hold back the pain of the stab.

    ''What a tough defence!'' Lu Zhen eximed internally. Normally, his base damage figures, with his dagger''s abilities added, was about 49. Despite having applied one of the trump card skills of the [Assassin] ss to his strike, Reeves only received the base damage value and this was thanks to a sneak attack! One can only imagine how much damage he would have received if he was prepared. This isn''t to say that Reeves had somehow neutralized the effects of the skill [Shadow Strike] but instead the amount of damage neutralized thanks to his defense happened to lead to those values. In other words, it was just a coincidence.

    ''Even so¡­'' Lu Zhen glinted his eyes. He had already guessed it won''t be so easy, seeing as Sato couldn''t kill him in 2 moves. The effects of [Shadow Strike] wasn''t only limited to increasing his attack power but also his attack speed and the best part, the effects weren''t limited to one strike.

    ''Die!''

    Lu Zhen brandished his dagger oat Reeves. With only a meager 13 Hp left of his initial 170. It would only take one move to finish him off but Lu Zhen had struck out at least 3 times at that very second. There was no way Reeves would be able to withstand all these.

    "No!" Reeves tried to retaliate butpared to Lu Zhen, his movement speed and attack speed was like that of a professional boxer to a snail; there was no space forparison.

    *Puah!*

    With a final thrust at him, Lu Zhen had finally ended the life of the crafty turtle. However, before he could revel in his victory, he sensed a terrifying aura locked on to him.

    "Die!" The dark clothed girl yelled.

    Without turning to take a nce, Lu Zhen immediately used a skill and suddenly vanished from from the spot, appearing 3 metres away.

    *Boom*

    A small explosion reverberated at the spot Lu Zhen previously stood, tainting the crater an ominous ck. Apart the shield that had dropped from Reeves, everything else was ck in colour. The nts at the spot were already dead with the ones by the crater''s boundary shriveling at a visible rate.

    ''That was close.'' Lu Zhen oozed off cold sweat. He could still sense the cadaveric aura from this distance so he hurriedly retreated a few more steps.

    With Lu Zhen having blown the horn of war and the unidentified girl responding in kind, no one was bothered to keep specting or chatting with each other. When everyone''s focus was on the Lu Zhen and thedy, Fudo and Seiichi had used that opportunity to prepare their attacks and fired them at Reeves'' men. With Reeves dead, there were only 3 of his men left. Even if Lu Zhen and Xue Yan''s presence were ignored, Fudo and Seiichi were more than enough to handle these bunch of misfits.

    [Spiral Shot]

    Seiichi had targeted Blue Banana with his shot as he knew that right after Reeves, Blue Banana was next in control. With the general gone, he was nning to take the deputy''s head.

    Blue Banana could be said to be lucky as while he was staring agape at Reeves'' death, he managed to catch a glimpse of Seiichi''s movements. But catching a glimpse wasn''t enough as before he could react, the arrow had already left the bow.

    When Blue Banana had taken notice of the approaching arrow, he saw that it had it wasn''t actually heading towards him but seemed to have veered off course. Thinking that Seiichi might have missed it, Blue Banana prepared to dash towards him to prevent him from attacking again as just like the Mage sses, a [Ranger]''s weakness was closebat. However, this was a very bug mistake on his part.

    The [Ranger] skill [Spiral Shot] could be said to be one of the most impressive basic skills for yers. The reason was because of a very special feature or ability it possessed; the arrow could curve.

    As Blue Banana took the first step, something unexpected urred. The arrow that had long gone off to the side, suddenly bent inwards and darted towards him. Because his attention was no longer on the arrow, Blue Banana didn''t notice this. He couldn''t be med after all, who would focus on an attack that seemed to be a wasted shot. He ced his entire attention on Seiichi so as to prevent getting hit by another arrow. Unknown to him, the previous one was approaching. As such, without any suspense, an arrow lodged itself into his head before he could react.

    Critical -87 (33/120 Blue Banana HP)

    ''How¡­?!'' Blue Banana was stupefied at the amount of HP he lost. Even when Seiichi had attacked previously, the damage he caused wasn''t this high. Even if this was still a critical hit, it was insane. In just one shot, he had dropped his HP by ore than 70%!

    But how would Blue Banana know that the bow in Seiichi''s hands was an Upper tier Mortal rank one and a system customized one at that. Even if it wasn''t customized for him, the bow was still much more powerful than your average Upper tier Mortal rank weapons, even going so far as to rival Fudo''s Back Alder staff.

    Earlier on, Seiichi hadn''t been able to use the full strength of the bow after all it wasn''t your average ones. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, Seiichi had only been able to get the hang of it after sniping down Rolo''s men from a distance. With the passive skill, Star sight, Seiichi''s chances of a critical hit was increased. With the abilities of the bow added too, Seiichi''s strength had experienced a qualitative growth, surpassing what an average level 6 [Ranger] should possess.

    ''No. I have to escape. I have to escape otherwise I will die.''

    Panic shed in Blue Banana''s eyes as he dropped any ideas of retaliating and turned around to escape. But how could Seiichi let him go just like that.

    With [Dexterity] surpassing the level 8 Sato, Seiichi had already reloaded his bow and aimed at Blue Banana.

    "Bye, bye."

    Seiichi released the arrow.

    *Twang*

    With the effects of his own attacking speed together with that of the bow added on to the arrow, a retreating Blue Banana with his back left open was nothing more than a pig open for ughter.

    *Puah*

    An arrowhead dug from behind, passing through his heart as Blue Banana''s footsteps halted.. With blood dripping from his lips and eyes filled with dissatisfaction, Blue Banana''s frame began to fall as his body slowly disintegrated into starlight.

 Chapter 155 - 150 : [Necromancer]

    "You¡­!" Thedy swore at Sato.

    Ignoring herment, Sato approached her and swung his sword at her. He had already wasted a lot of time here so why would he still entertain herments.

    "Fine. Die!" Thedy pointed her staff at Sato. Unlike the average mage staffs that was usually associated with an elemental mana, her''s had a gloomy aura surrounding it. It was ck in color with a little peach sized gray orb atop it. If one focused carefully, they would be able to see a fleeting shadow within the orb.

    Grey coloured gas gushed out from the orb and formed a ck dreary orb that darted towards Sato at a quick pace.

    [Spectral st]

    Immediately the gas left her staff, the girl turned around and fled, hoping to widen up the gap between her and Sato.

    ''What a strange ability.''

    Seeing the approaching projectile Sato narrowed his eyes at the sight before sidestepping to his right while still moving forward. As a result, he not only effectively escaped the orb''s trajectory but he also lessened the gap between himself and the girl.

    As a mage ss yer, the girl''s abilities in the physical department obviously couldn''t bepared with a physical ss yer of the same level, much less with a wide gap of 1 or 2 levels. As such, within a second, Sato had already reached her.

    ''Already?!'' The girl was a bit surprised but she still kept her cool.

    Turning back to face Sato, she waved her staff at him as if swatting a fly. Almost immediately, 4 gray pole-like crystals[1] took form and darted at Sato. Due to the swift speed the shards moved at together with the close distance between them and Sato, it looked like a sure-hit at that moment.

    ''[Parry]!''

    Sato hurriedly halted his movements and swung his sword at the approaching objects from a strange angle. This resulted in him blocking the 4 grey poles while only being forced 2 steps backwards and almost falling off his feet.

    "Impressive. I must say, but it''s over."

    Right before the voice ended, another grey ball dashed towards Sato. Having just blocked 4 shards that had manged to offset his bnce, Sato was in no condition to block the grey ball this time. Upon thinking this, he realised that all his movements had been expected or even predicted by the girl. Such a fearsome opponent could by no means be your average yer.

    The attack looked to be unavoidable as Sato had yet to bnce himself properly and it was too quick to be blocked. Though with his superior [Agility] and [Dexterity] he might be able to block it, Sato knew that it would most likely worsen things for him and create an opportunity for her tounch a sure-hit. That was not something Sato wanted to see happen. As such, this girl''s attack, which seemed to be simple was actually well-timed and filled with so many conspiracies.

    ''But it isn''t enough.''

    Sato moved his body''s centre to his back as ifpleting the motions of falling down on the ground. As his body bent backwards, he applied force on his two feet andunched himself backwards. This resulted in Sato producing a scene that looked like he was jumping backwards while falling down and indeed, he was. Surprisingly though, such a quirky action had managed to save him from being sted by the orb as when heunched himself away like that, the orb had exploded on his original spot and the rubble from the explosion, that darted away, had missed by a fraction. Toplete his acrobatic disy, Sato ced one hand on the ground, right as he was about to fall, and propelled himself upwards,pleting one aerial rotation beforending on his two feet.

    Seeing how Sato had dodged her almost sure-kill attack in a crazy fashion that she had never expected, the girl was stunned and stared agape at him.

    "You''re good, better than I imagined." She said. "But you will still die."

    The girl tapped the bottom of her staff and the ground while circting her mana through it. A ck and greyish wormhole that looked to lead to no where, appeared beside her. From it, a white hand extended from it and grabbed the boundaries of the wormhole. It isn''t really apt to call it a hand as it was more of a skeletal one but a hand is still a hand even without flesh.

    With force applied through the hand, a humanoid skeletal frame slowly exited from the other side and stared at Sato. It had a slightly massive head; a bit bigger than normal. In it''s eye sockets where two bouncing little green mes that seemed to be emotionless, further verifying the entity as an emotionless being. Its white bones weren''t all that white as little gray patches were scattered at some certain spots from which oozed grey lifeless gas. The skeleton held a bone sword in its right hand as itpletely excavated its existence from the ckish grey wormhole, revealing a 2 metre tall frame. It suffused a lifeless aura around itself and the little green grass beside it had suddenly began to wilt, as if experiencing its remaining years of existence within seconds.

    ''As expected. She''s a [Necromancer].''

    A [Necromancer]. The second dark ss in existence and the second summoning type ss. When IR(Infinite Realm)''s release was announced, the information on the major sses was released alongside it. Of course this information was minor ones like a few ss novice skill and so on. Nheless, the information was a bit vital to yers. On this note, the data on the the [Necromancer] and [Cursemancer] sses had attracted a bit of poprity from a majority of gamers. This was because the two sses were dark sses. Dark sses were sses that were said to be unorthodox as they usually had a few dealings with dark forces in various games. Though there was no such information released by the producers of IR that stated that dark sses are shunned by NPC forces, yers created various spections about it from their experience in other games. In most such games, dark sses end up having a hard time either in a majority of NPC cities or with a majority of NPC forces. These forces are usually the ones associated with religion and they are the ones that react in the most manner, when encountering dark ss yers. They would usually kill the yers for no reason other than the fact that their sses are aligned with dark forces; whether the said yer is aligned with such forces or not, the NPCs do not care. With such past experience in a majority of other games, most of the yers went for the more ''orthodox'' sses, evading the choice of [Necromancer] and [Cursemancer]. This was why quite a few such yers existed as choosing such sses would be equivalent to losing out on a few potential gains[2]. Hence, Sato was surprised to see one.

    Sato had originally guessed that she might have been a [Necromancer] but changed it to [Cursemancer], aspared to [Necromancers], the [Cursemancer] ss wasn''t so tight with the dark forces as all they deal in is curses. Pus he guessed that a girl wouldn''t want to associate herself with undead creatures, even if they were fake. However seeing her summon a skeleton, Sato realised that his original opinion was correct.

    "You''re worthy of me using my summon. Sadly, you will die here." The girl smiled at him.

    Sato narrowed his eye as he stared at the summon. The most annoying thing about [Necromancers] and [Summoners] was the fact that they could summon a creature to handle the aggro while they attack from behind. It was like facing two people instead of one. Even worse was the fact that as they got stronger, their summons would increase in number. Sato didn''t know whether IR operated the same way but he was sure that atter levels, [Summoners] and [Necromancers] would have at least 2-3 summons in their hands. As for now, it should be one.

    "Are you sure about that?"

    Sato wasn''t worried facing the skeleton monster. As it was still the early stages of the game, he guessed that yer''s summons would at most be a level above them and on average on par with them or even one level lower. Since she was a level 6 [Necromancer], the skeleton would be a level 7 at best but most likely a level 6 or 5. Facing such a creature alongside it''s master, Sato didn''t feel it was much of a task. Even if he found it difficult, he just needed to hold on for Seiichi and Fudo to finish thest of Reeves'' men and that would take just 3 seconds. In other words, the battle was already over.

    "Argghh!!!"

    With that scream, thest of Reeves'' men died under the onught of Xue Yan, Fudo, Seiichi and Lu Zhen.

    "Now." Fudo exhaled before ncing over at the girl. "How would you like to die?"

    There was a massive grin on his face as Fudo stared at the girl. She had always been acting so high and mighty ever since she came that he couldn''t wait to p her mouth just once. With her surrounded and outnumbered, her death was at least 70% confirmed; the remaining 30% having to dal with whether she had any special trump card or something. On this note, Fudo was on full alert and didn''t let his guard down.

    It wasn''t only Fudo who reached this conclusion; the others had also guessed so, especially with the way Reeves had earlier treated her.

    "A bunch of useless men." The girl cursed as she saw Reeves''st man copse into starlight.

    ncing at Fudo''s gloating face together with the Sato''s other teammates that slowly locked down all her routes of escape, the girl in ck gritted her teeth before she faced Sato.

    "We shall meet again and at that time, it would be a one-on-one where you die."

    Saying so, the girl hurriedly withdrew a scroll from her pouch.

    "Stop her." Sato yelled as he dashed over at her.

    Seiichi, Xue Yan and Fudo immediately attacked from a distance, firing different projectiles at her, a majority of them being fire-based.

    "Graaaahhhh!"

    The huge skeleton roared before standing in front of the girl, acting as a shield against the iing attacks. It swung its de at the attacks, warding them off, but creating an explosion that injured it, forcing it back by one step.

    At this time, Sato approached the skeleton and wanted to follow from the sides to reach the girl. Sadly, the skeleton noticed this and shed down its sword at him.

    Surprisingly, the attack was fast, forcing Sato to either retreat backwards or block it. No matter which one he chose, he would be toote.

    "Damn it."

    Sato retreated backwards as it would be pointless to waste his effort to block the attack.

    *Boom.*

    A small boom resounded as the bone sword struck the floor, forming a little crater of 2 metres in diameter. Seeing this, Sato frowned a bit as he realised that his decision of retreating backwards was a wise choice.

    "Well then, see youter." The girl chuckled.

    While the skeleton held them back, she had already torn the scroll into two andpleted the chants. A ck gas, almost like miasma, had already surrounded her and slowly began to spread apart. Immediately she had finished her words, the gas hadpletely covered her and dragged her into the wormhole that the skeleton had arrived from. With the escape of its master, the skeleton also disappeared into a grey light that entered the wormhole.. Following that, the wormhole quickly copsed inwards and disappeared.

 Chapter 156 - 151 : Entering Seclusion[1]

    "She''s gone¡­" Sato stared at the spot the strange girl originally stood on. He didn''t expect her to suddenly vanish that way. Her escaping without him knowing her identity made him feel alert and worried.

    The girl''s abilities might not be much for him but it was something most yers definitely can''t handle. Sato even believed that she might have the ability to take on Riddled Tree, the druid from before, or was even stronger than he was. This was especially so, with the aura her summon had suffused. It was able to handle Seiichi, Fudo and Xue Yan''s attacks while still being able to repel him. Such a creature couldn''t just be a level 5 or 6 monster. The worst part was that if she happens to be part of a strong faction then he days in ck Mountain town might be so peaceful.

    ''Oh well. It matters not. I have already offended those east Crow guys and a bunch of other dark yers. Adding one more wouldn''t matter much.''

    "Damn. I didn''t even get to know her name." Fudo sighed wistfully. He felt it was a pity to not know her identity not because he lusted after her but because an unknown opponent in the dark was worse than an overpowered one in the light.

    "Her escape method is really strange." Lu Zhen suddenly said.

    "Why do you say so?" Fudo asked him.

    Lu Zhen exined, "You may not have known but teleportation spells and the likes are banned in the middle ofbat. Unless the spell is a skill a yer has, it can''t be used inbat. I learnt this a while ago, back when we separated."

    "So you''re saying that what she used was a teleportation spell?" Sato asked.

    "What else could it be? It looked like a portal plus her presence has disappeared ever since she went through it. It''s most likely a portal to wherever she summoned that creature." Lu Zhen replied.

    "Well, what you said does make sense but shouldn''t such a ce be inhabitable if not inessible for us yers?" Fudo asked.

    In most VR games that allow yers to perform summoning spells, the world where their summons dwell in is usually inhabitable for yers. Take for instance if a yer where to summon a demon, the demon would usually arrive from the demon realm or some ce like that. Such a ce cannot cater for the development of yers unless they happen to perform certain procedures.

    "That''s probably why she tore that scroll. It wasn''t an escape scroll but a defensive scroll. The portal should be part of her summoning spell and not a skill." Sato said. Back when the girl was about to escape, she had taken out a scroll and torn it. Originally, Sato had thought that it was an attack-type scroll and so hurriedly dashed over to stop her. In the end, all it did was wrap a ck mist round her and dragged her into that eerie portal. He guessed that it must have been a special type of scroll that allowed her to pass through the wormhole safely.

    "Well enough about that, the other two are still waiting for us." Seiichi said. Due to the fact that they were in somewhat of a hurry and also because the two were way too weak, Sato, Fudo and Seiichi had abandoned Katsuo and Yato. Though Stone Creek Forest was said to be a level 0 map, it was till possible to encounter level 4 or 5 creatures here. Hence, leaving Yato and Katsuo(who were both still level 0) on their own, was almost the same as leaving them to the hands of fate.

    "The other two?" Lu Zhen asked with a hint of surprise.

    "I''ll exinter." Sato said.

    With Sato at the lead, the other 4 followed after him as they headed deeper in.

    .....

    "How long do you think they will take?" Yato asked Katsuo right after he defeated they had defeated a level 2 ck striped boar. Normally, level 0 yers would find such a monster difficult to beat but the two of them had worked fluidly to not just beat one but two ck striped boars at the cost of only a few minor injuries. As a result of their arduous training, the two had gotten better at controlling their in-game avatars while also getting close to the level 1 checkpoint.

    "Why are you in such a rush? Even if they return and fetch us, our destination is a level 5 map. We are still level 0 and going to such a ce is dangerous. A minor scratch would be more than enough to end us." Katsuo sighed. Forgetting their levels, their equipment was trash; the novice kind. Sato didn''t purchase any for them since it was pointless. he only agreed to do so once they were level 5 and the two had also agreed with it. Being both weak in strength, both the internal and external kind, Katsuo felt it was too risky to head to ck Grill''s Cave.

    "Since when were you a softy? Why don''t you just exit and go back to being a gori." Yato smirked.

    "I see. You want to die huh?" Katsuo stared at Yato as a red glint shed in his eyes.

    Seeing Katsuo''s towering frame confronting him, Yato was a bit scared but he reined in his fear and stared back at Katsuo in the eye.

    "Bring it on gori."

    Just as they were about to fight, a teasing voice rang out.

    "Hoho? The monkey and the gori are about to do battle?"

    With the voiceing to an end, Sato appeared alongside Seiichi and the others. The one who spoke was apparently Seiichi as he nced at the two in front with a derisive smirk.

    "Tch, it''s four eyes. You''re all talk now just because you''re higher levelled. Wait till I''m level 5. By then I''d be able to whoop your level 6 ass." Yato fired back.

    "I''ll be waiting." Seiichi smiled.

    Having watched everything that yed out, Xue Yan was confused whether these guys were friends or life-time enemies.

    On their way here, Sato had exined everything to Xue Yan. Since their target was a world ss boss, they would need as much help as possible. Even though Xue Yan''s mission statement had made it seem like it was a level 10 world ss boss, it might be level 11. The difference in level wasn''t just by a simple one as most yers had already began specting that since they will be able to enter cities at level 10, then the monsters they would find would be much stronger. Hence that difference between a level 10 and level 11 monster wasn''t as simple as the difference between a level 9 and a level 10. Disregarding the level difference, there was difference in strength between a level 10 monster and a level 10 world ss boss. Just from the fact that it is a one-of-a-kind monster with an impressive reward attached to it, one would know that it would be tough to handle. So the more hands on deck the better.

    Xue Yan had thought that the extra hands would be a bunch of strong close friends of Sato but now seeing them, she was a bit disappointed. Ignoring their rascal like behaviour, they were actually level 0.

    ''What the hell is he thinking?'' Xue Yan stared at Sato.

    Xue Yan wasn''t the only one who felt this way as Lu Zhen also did, but unlike her, Lu Zhen had this instinct within him that made him trust Sato.

    "Alright. Enough bickering like a bunch of kids. Let''s go." Sato said.

    "Fine." Yato said.

    "Yato, Katsuo, meet Lu Zhen and Xue Yan." Sato introduced them with a in voice.

    "Yo." Lu Zhen waved at them.

    "Hi." Xue Yan greeted.

    "Oh?" Since his focus was on Seiichi when the group arrived, Yato didn''t spot Xue Yan, but when his eyesnded on her, they inconspicuously lit up.

    "A beauty huh? Is she yours?" Yato asked.

    "No." Sato replied immediately.

    "Tch. Forever single dies without a jingle[2]. I never expected any less from you."

    "Says the one who got dumped." Seiichi ruthlessly countered.

    "...*cough*. So where are we heading next?" Yato awkwardly changed the topic. Despite being dumped, Yato had recovered quite quickly, probably due to the power of friendship. Hence Seiichi''s counter didn''t result to him breaking down or anything like that. Seiichi obviously knew this and that was why he had mentioned it.

    "Next is ck Grill''s Cave." Fudo answered.

    "I hope you guys prepared? We would be secluding ourselves there." Sato faced Lu Zhen and Xue Yan.

    "Yeah. No problem on or side." Lu Zhen nodded.

    With all their issues settled, the team began their journey to ck Grill''s Cave. Because they had already gone a bit further into Stone creek Forest, the distance remaining could easily be covered in 30 minutes but with Yato and Katsuo being slower than the rest, it would ended up as a 45 minutes journey.

    "We would be here for a while; at least 2 days. Once all our preparations areplete, we will fulfill our part of the deal." Sato said to Xue Yan once they were in front of the entrance of ck Grill''s Cave.

    "Hmm." Xue Yan acquiesced with a nod.

    Following that the team entered ck Grill''s Cave and so began their 2 day seclusion in ck grill''s Cave.

    Unknown to them though, a few hours they had entered the Cave, a piece of information had spread throughout the entire neighbouring town. This information had turned the previously peaceful towns into a hectic environment. Guilds mobilized their men, associations gathered together and yers formed parties. All of them had one goal in mind and this goal was rted to the information spread around.

    The first ever world ss boss of Infinite Realm had been discovered.. Its location, 10th floor Middle Region, ck Grill''s Cave.

 Chapter 157 - 152 : News

    With the Goblin battle that had just ended a few hours ago, none of the yers were expecting any startling or daunting changes to ur. They all believed that the next few days would be uneventful , with all the various guilds and yers engaging inbat in various resource maps all in a bid to be the first to reach level 10. As such with the release of a awe-inducing news, a lot of yers were surprised and you could even say that they were joyous. The reason? It was obviously because of the news that had been released.

    The first ever world ss boss of Infinite Realm had been discovered with its location being at 10th floor Middle Region, ck Grill''s Cave.

    The news originally came off as a rumor spread by an unknown figure but after having confirmed this with a few facts and posttions, more and more people believed it. They say that when one person embarks on a journey, 3 can kill a tiger[1]. As the rumor kept spreading more and more, most people began to take it as the truth. Say it was intuition or something else, but some yers believed that since they could go into cities at level 10, the number 10 had to have a special meaning in Infinite Realm or to be specific, the neighboring towns of ck Grill''s Cave. The reason why was because at the Outer region of ck Grill''s Cave, the 10th floor was the end and it lead to the next region. Also, despite the Inner region not having been explored by yers, the maps and notes gotten from monster kills and NPC stores recorded that the Inner region had at least 10 floors. Call it stupidity or intuition but using that logic of the number 10, most yers began to feel that the Middle Region''s 10th floor might not be so simple. Added with the rumor of there being a world ss boss, most yers hurriedly set off in order to verify this news. Even if it was a lie, what would they lose? They were already exploring ck Grill''s Cave. The addition of the rumor to the equation only helped to increase the allure of the map and nothing more. As for the gains, there were a lot.

    It was a well known that the usual world ss boss monsters were a one-of-a-kind existence that could not be found elsewhere hence they were usually absurdly strong. The rewards one would gain from was more than enough to make an average yer skyrocket to the ranks of an Expert[3]. It would vary from having their name broadcast worldwide on the IR server, earning them fame beyondprehension, to the profits they would reap in the form of loot. But that wasn''t all.

    Following the release of the news with a few ''experts'' and ''schrs'' of IR''s history[2] postting several theories that seemed to confirm this, a lot of forces began to pay attention to this. Some of them began offering rewards and bounties for any information pertaining to this event. Even the Super guild, Hermes guild, began paying attention to this.

    Unlike most super guilds, Hermes guild had a special status among Super guilds. The reason wasn''t because they were absurdly powerful or anything; on the contrary, they were one of the weaker Super guilds. The reason for this special status was because the Super guild, Hermes, was an information guild. With the poprity of VR games taking an all new high, most people began to focus their attention in this sector, however most of this figurescked the strength to be able to rise above the others and stand tall. Hence a few of this figures took a different approach in VR gaming. Rather than battling for resources with other guilds, they acted in a different fashion, either trading in-game, thereby amassing a massive fortune, or hired out their services. The Hermes guild happens to be one such figure. Unlike most guilds, their forte wasn''t in battles but trade and what they traded in the most was information. They werepilers of most of the yer rankings and lists, with the ''Gamer Expert List'', ''Neer List'' and the ''Greatest Of All time'' being the most popr of their numerousptions. Even though they mostly dealt in selling gaming information and merchandise, their strength as a Super guild was more than confirmed ad shouldn''t be taken light of.

    The Hermes guild wasn''t stationed in Riverdale town but ck Mountain Town, hence they couldn''t participate in the goblin warfare event. But this time was different as ck Grill''s Cave was located in the level 0 map, Stone Creek Forest, which happened to bother a few towns.

    When the news came out, not only did they Hermes guild gather their forces to prepare for the exploration, but they also released news that if anyone happens to find the world ss boss before them, they can video their battle with the monster and sell it to the guild at a considerably satisfying price. Not only that, the guild made known that if anyone had special information as regards to ck grill''s Cave or the Middle region''s 10th floor, they can sell this information to the guild and even be a member of the guild right away. With such ludicrous and impressive rewards, most of the yers felt that the rumor was indeed true and so set their sights on ck Grill''s Cave. Not only were there impressive rewards and fame in it but they could also gain the attention of the behemoth existence known as Hermes. What more could this be but an opportunity to turn their gaming careers around?

    .....

    *Bang*

    "Damn."

    ck Tempest cursed right after he banged his hand on the table.

    "What use is there in making noise? What''s done is done. The only thing we can do is hurry up before they catch up." Azure Dragon sighed. Despite being within ck Grill''s Cave for the past two days, how could he not about the news that managed to stir the entire neighboring towns to unrest? They were previously battling a few golems alongside some kobolds they encountered before he was informed of this. Right after the fight, Azure Dragon told the others to take a break while he informed ck tempest and Chesces of the news.

    "Despite having kept the information on a tight lock, it still managed to be known. Howe?" ck Tempest was frustrated and this was evident in his voice.

    "A spy?"

    "There will surely be a spy, the inconceivable point is that it is an upper echelon." Chesces answered him. The upper echelons were trustworthy individuals nurtured by the guild or those who had happened to stick with it thick-and-thin. So it was inconceivable that such a trustworthy individual, who also benefits a lot from the guild, would stab it in the back for extra profits, at the risk of being found out and receiving a heavy punishment.

    "Then how else will you exin this? Our moves have been revealed and the other guilds would be rushing down here soon." ck Tempest retorted.

    "If our moves have really been revealed then they would know where exactly we are. We were able to get this information at a very great cost but that doesn''t mean that we''re the only ones." Azure dragon replied with a glint in his eyes.

    "That should be impossible right? We only managed to do so since one of the developers happened to owe us a favor." ck Tempest eximed. If news of what he said were to be known, it would lead to massive outrage. To think that Emperor''s Might had a few ties with one of the developers of Infinite Realm. This alone was an inconceivable motion as most game developers would not reveal any information on the game as not only will this incur the public''s outrage, thereby reducing the poprity of the game, but it would also lead to the developer being tried in court by the Studio in-charge for giving out private information.

    "Oh please. Do you actually believe that?" Chesces suddenly said with a tone of schadenfreude.

    "What do you mean?" ck tempest stared at him angrily. It was a well known fact in Emperor''s Might that the two were like fire and water. With Chesces mocking him, how could he obviously stand it?

    "Hmph. Infinite Realm hides a very secret; one which the Alliance government is tied to. You think information regarding the game could just be revealed so easily?" Chesces said. They were inside a tent that isted noise so he didn''t have any problem saying this. The Alliance government was the most powerful body in the world, ruling it with an iron fist. No matter the entity, be they the ISJ, the French Republic, the German K?nigreich, the South African Empire or the other nations, they all had to abide by the Alliance''s codes and doctrines. To think that a game had ties with such a power was unthinkable.

    "...true." ck Tempest unwittingly sighed. The information Chesces had revealed didn''t stun him as it was revealed to some of the Upper echelons which he was a part of. In fact, not just Emperor''s Might but also all the other super guilds possibly knew this. That was why they all began migrating over to Infinite Realm.

    "It''s most likely that the producers set this scenario themselves. I warned those old fogies in the guild about this being a set-up by Dreand but they refused to agree. They didn''t even care if it was one. All they care about is profit." Chesces cursed. As the Sly Devil, it was already publicized that Chesces was a genius of tactics and maniption so why won''t he be able to tell one once he got a whiff of it.

    The game was obviously monitored by an AI created by Dreand Studios themselves. It would obviously notice any strange happenings so how wouldn''t it notice that their goal was the Middle region''s 10th floor? If the studio were to investigate a bit, they would realize that things were fishy and investigate their workers. AT that time, they would surely discover the developer that released the news. As one of the hands behind Infinite Realm, no developer would then dare to sell such vital information unless it was instigated by the studio themselves. This was the conclusion Chesces had arrived at when the headquarters ordered them to head to ck Grill''s Cave.

    "They must have gotten the news somehow but it doesn''t matter. We just need to be faster than them and on this notice, we have the upper hand." Azure Dragon said.

    Chesces shook his head. "I''m not too sure about that. If this was really instigated by the Studio then I guess we aren''t the only ones who knew of it earlier on."

    Azure Dragon and ck Tempest immediately frowned upon such a revtion but there was nothing they could do about it.

    *sighs* " We just have to do what we can do. Let''s go. Every second counts. Our target should be the 10th floor, we''ll only rest at the 9th floor." Azure Dragon said. In this expedition, he was the leader. If they happened to fail for whatever reason, it was inevitable that the me would fall on him hence he wanted to hurry over to the 10th floor as soon as possible. Having reached the 7th floor of the Middle region in two days, Azure Dragon wanted to blitzkrieg his way to reach the 10th floor within a day.

    "Captain, I think it''s best we call for reinforcements." Chesces suddenly said.

    "Hmm. You do know we would then have to wait for them, so why did you suggest such?" Azure Dragon stared at him in surprise.

    "We don''t need quantity but quality. The world ss boss wouldn''t be so easy to defeat. It''s best we hope to do so in one try. Previously, we left Snow together with a few of our other experts behind so as to mislead the others. Now such an endeavor is pointless. They might as well hurry over and meet up with us. With them our chances of victory would increase by a lot.

    "As for the other guilds catching up to us? Impossible. Unless they do as I''ve suggested and send only their expert forces, they won''t reach as far as we did. But such a force would only number 7 yers at best.Such an act might end up the same as striking themselves in the foot as the world ss boss won''t be easily defeated like that. Also, we can give Snow''s team a summary of our entire journey and routes hence she would like reach us quickly; at least with in a day. With them in our team, we can easily reach the lower floors quicker." Chesces said.

    "True." Azure Dragon said as he eyes glistened in joy at Chesces'' suggestion.

    "Haha. You braniac finally used your brain for something good, proving yourself useful." ck Tempest guffawed.

    "Better than a muscle-brain like yourself anyway." Chesces countered.

    "You¡­!" ck Tempest gritted his teeth.

    "Enough. We follow Chesces'' suggestion and wait for Yukino. They only have a day to reach us after which we move. Whether or not they make it in time doesn''t matter."

    .....

    At the same time as the majority of guilds and yers set their sights on ck Grill''s Cave together with Emperor''s Might nning their next actions, Sato''s team had finally concluded their seclusion training and had set their sights on the 10th floor.

 Chapter 158 - 153 : Improvements || Astral Blade

    Deep within the mountain that housed ck Grill''s Cave unbeknownst to any yer, a battle was undergoing between a party of 7 yers and a patrol squad of originally 15 kobolds, at a deep level that no other yer(s) has yet to reach.

    The team looked like your average yer party and had almost no special feature about them except being only slightly bigger. But if one were to pay attention to them properly, they would begin to notice more ''special'' characteristics.

    *ng* *ng*

    "Growl!"

    [Taunt]

    "Over here!"

    "Growl!" A kobold that looked a bit different from the rest growled with anger as it stared at the full armored yer that yelled at it. It wasn''t the only one that did so as the remaining 8 Kobolds copied its actions.

    "Xue Yan, Fudo. Now!" A masculine voice rang out.

    "Haha. Die!" With a chuckle, a slightly plump yer garbed in a fiery mage outfit worked together with a female yer dressed in a simr fashion and pointed his staff at the group of Kobolds that headed over to the armored yer.

    Combo style, double [Fire Ray]!

    *Boom*

    Torrential surges of mana burst out from the two mages, dashing over to the kobold group. With a loud boom, the fiery fire beams struck the group and light an almost devastating explosion. Circting the entire area wererge swathes of mes that possessed inundated more than a 3rd of the entire ce, raising the room temperature distinctly by more than a few degrees.

    "Kraw!!!"

    "Growl!"

    Apanying the increasing temperature and resounding boom were the cries of the Kobolds as they quickly began to burn under the heat while a strange scent of roasted meat wafted slowly through the entire ce.

    The messted for 8 seconds before they went off as the mana powering them returned to nature''s embrace. Even with the terrifying heat and mes, the Kobolds were still alive but not without repercussions as their HPs were low and most of their flesh burnt ck.

    "Lu Zhen! Yato!" One of the yers yelled while dashing at the half-dead kobolds.

    "On it."

    "I know."

    Two distinct replies came in as two yers sprinted into the kobold herd from different directions.

    As the 3 yers dived into the kobold herd, a ughter began as they ceaselessly attacked the kobolds without care norpassion. Added to the mix was the armoured yer from before, who ran around the ce swinging his great-sword at the Draconic descendants.

    "Kraw!" The unique kobold got shed by one of the attackers but it managed to ignore the pain before swinging the bone sword in its arms at the attacker.

    ''Damn.'' Because he wasn''t expecting it, the yer was too slow in reacting and looked to be doomed. But at that moment, an arrow whizzed from a distance, lodging itself at the shoulder de of the monster, thereby impeding its retaliation.

    "Kraw!!"

    The monster roared in anger as pangs of pain and sweat constantly inflicted it. It had unknowingly let go of its sword as the weight was too much for its injured arm to bear.

    "Now die."

    Taking the opportunity when the kobold was down, the almost doomed yer tightened his grasp on his sword and shed at the kobold.

    [Horizontal sh]!

    One hit to seal the deal!

    *Ssh*

    *Bang*

    With one sh, the yer decapitated the injured kobold, ending its miserable life in an astonishing fashion as blood ostentatiously sshed on the floor, giving the dull-colored ground a vibrant red design.

    At almost the same time, the other kobolds were being ended quicker. The reason was none other than the timely assistance of the [Ranger] from before.

    In less than 30 seconds, all of the kobolds were sent to a possibly better ce. From an original lineup of 15 kobolds to 0 remaining and all these were done by a party of 7 yers. If this news were to be made known to the public, they would be surprised and wonder which top guilds expert squad had done it. However, this was no expert squad of a top guild; it was just a bunch of close friends who formed a party of their own. Yes, this was Sato''s team, the unnamed squad[1].

    "Ha. This was a bit tough. I almost got injured." Fudo sighed exasperatedly. Listening to his tone, one would notice that he actually didn''t take this battle seriously.

    "Hmph. All you did was to hide behind while we took the full brunt of their attacks." Yato grumbled.

    "Hehe. Who told you not be a mage?" Fudo snickered.

    "Enough. We all know that we decided on this in order to increase the number of Experience points we gain. If we kept taking on only 5 or 7, the gains won''t be worth it. Attracting a whole bunch makes things better and faster." Katsuo said.

    Unlike the Katsuo from before, he had gone through an entirely different experience. Not only had his level increased, to level 6 at that, but also his equipment and weapons had been revamped to a whole new different level. This was nothing more than the result of the ''seclusion'' they had gone into. Having battled monsters way higher levelled than they were, everybody had improved and gotten stronger than they were 2 days ago.

    In order to cater to everyone''s needs, Sato had used the extra 3 [Teleportation runes] on Seiichi, Yato, and Katsuo, sending them to the Middle region''s 5th floor. They began their training from there, battling level 6, 7, and 8 kobolds, Rock Golems[2], Earth golems, Ground Rats, and so on. The worst of them was the Ground Rats which had the highest poption in the entire Middle region, second only to the Rock golem species [2]. Despite so, the team still forth their way to the lower levels while gaining massive improvements and rewards.

    Katsuo and Yato were both the ones with one of the most impressive improvements, going from level 0 to level 6. The best part was that they were just a tad bit away from level 7.

    Xue Yan and Seiichi had gotten to level 7 a day before and were currently progressing to level 8, having gone through the halfway mark a while back.

    Lu Zhen had be a level 8, making him one of the top levelled yers currently.

    As for the two dragons, Sato and Fudo, they had both be level 9! And this was with them having only reaped a bit from the battle. In order to help Katsuo and Yato to level up quicker, they had both stayed their hands from thest kill, leaving it to the two. Even at that, their effort in the past fights was well noticed by the System earning them their good share of the experience points, letting them keep their unofficial titles as the highest levelled yers worldwide in Infinite Realm!

    When the team had begun reaping their benefits and increasing in levels, Sato and Lu Zhen had gone back to town in order to procure a new set of equipment and weapons for those who needed it. This lead to Katsuo having a whole new set of armour, his very first at that, with Yato being geared head to toe and also Xue Yan experiencing a change of clothing. Lu Zhen, Seiichi, Fudo, and Sato also weren''t left out as they reced their novice equipment for new ones which were at the very least Low tier Mortal rank.

    Of course, these revamps cost a lot as not only did Sato and Fudo ended up spending a lot but everyone did too. Since it was weapons and equipment meant for them, they obviously had to take a share of the burden. In the end, everyone was left with less than 50% of their initial wealth while Sato and Fudo lost the most, turning from rich ''gold-naires'' to regr silver coin users.

    While everyone got new gears, Sato had used his reward from defeating Sygrart to create a new sword for himself. The reason was simply that he discovered that his reward could only use himself as aparison to create the weapon[3]. Surprisingly though, the created masterpiece was a level 9 weapon! It was a known fact that weapons in Infinite Realm were ranked in the 5s. So it was either -5 or -0 and nothing else. Sato had been astounded after he figured this fact out.

    Since the weapon was beyond Yato''s abilities, he had no choice other than to buy him a new sword that was also an Upper-tier Mortal rank. With that, Sato had finally reced hispanion de, the [Bandit''s Sword], with the new sword he christened [Astral de].

    [[ Astral de : Upper Tier Mortal Rank : Level 9 : Durability 35

    Requirement : Level 9 || 11 [Agility]

    [Strength] +10

    [Physical Attack Power] +25

    [Attack Speed] +12

    Skills :

    Astral Blessings : Passive : If used under the skies with the stars as the canopy, user''s attributes increase by 5%. Also passively gather energy from the stars.

    Astral Might : Passive Skill : One''s aura bes as overbearing as the stars affecting thebat abilities of their opponent. Effect differs based on difference in user and target''s level, [Endurance] and [Willpower].

    Astral de : Active Skill : Using the energy gathered from the stars, unleash an attack with devastating might. Cool-down : 10 astral points

    System description : The blessings of the stars are upon you. Shine on, hero! ]]

    When Sato had shared the stats of his weapon, everyone gave off one word, OP.

    Having seen the benefits, Fudo had hurriedly used his reward and gotten a level 9 staff too. He ended up giving Xue Yan the [ck Alder Staff] and kept his for himself. This act increased the overall strength of the group as most of their firepower lied in Xue Yan and Fudo, the two fire mages. Mainly because the Rock golem species had an absurd resistance to physical attacks but were weaker to magical ones especially fire-type spells.

    With everyone having new gears ready, levelling up became faster and they easily reached the 9th floor on the second day. Now they were approaching the exit of the 9th floor, ording to Xue Yan''s map.

    "After this, the next should be the boss huh?" Yato rubbed his chin.

    "I wonder how strong a World ss boss would be.. Thinking of facing such a monster is making my blood boil."

 Chapter 159 - 154 : Speculations

    "How much longer~?" Fudo cried out while walking.

    "Can''t you be quiet just for a sec?" Yato said.

    "Don''t me me. The map said we were close but we''ve been walking for a long time already now." Fudo replied.

    Hearing his words, Yato couldn''t retort them as he knew that what Fudo spoke off was true. It had been at least one hour since they had defeated that squad of kobolds. ording to the map, they were supposed to be close to the exit but they had been walking for an hour and had yet to spot it. Even though with the descent of each floor, the space increases a lot, they should have already reached the exit point already. Hence it would be a lie to say that Yato wasn''t a bit worried.

    "This ce is weird." Xue Yan suddenly said as she stared at the walls.

    "Why do you say so?" Fudo nced at her.

    "With each progression, the floor''s area increases. However, ck Grill''s cave is located within a mountain. No matter how big the mountain is, it should have a limit. I have a feeling that further down, the floors even be far wider than the mountain''s belt."

    "!!!" Everybody was surprised at her ims but when they contemted on it, they felt it had an inkling of truth within.

    The early floors were already big, big enough to fit 2 standard ser stadiums within, and with each descent, the floors increase even more in area. If one were to consider the fact that the Outer region housed 10 floors while the middle region housed 22 floors, they would realise that at the point yers reach the 22nd floor of the Middle region or even the 15th floor, it was possible that these floors would have already exceeded the width of the mountain! The only way the mountain would be able to contain such ces would be if the floors werepressed to fit into the mountains or the interior of the mountain was an entirely different ce!

    "But that sounds impossible right? I mean this is a level 5 map. Why would such a map be this amazing?" Yato spoke out his concerns. In many different games, it wasn''t a new thing to find and enter pocket spaces and dimensions. However, such ces were only essible to yers when they reached higher levels and even at that, they weren''t easily. Another important factor was that such ces normally needed an extremely powerful entity to make them; usually at a god level or close. Infinite Realm yers were still low levelled so it sounded weird that they would suddenly encounter pocket dimensions this early into the game much less the fact that such a dimension was easily essible to the public. Hence Yato''s disbelief.

    "I''ve also considered that fact too." Sato suddenly spoke up. "Think about it. First are the Rock Golem species and then the [Teleportation runes]. You could say that the Rock Golems were all created by a heaven defying object or something but that doesn''t exin the [Teleportation runes] and the formation that powers it. If you ask me, I would say that they are pretty much man-made."

    "What?!" everyone eximed before tantly sucking in arge amount of air. If what Xue Yan had said was just a spection, Sato''s statement would be a theory closest to being aw[1]. Most yers would just enter an environment and begin ying monsters without asking questions so Sato''s statements were quite shocking. But when they began reviewing it while recalling their past experiences, they came to the conclusion that what he said might be true.

    "It doesn''t matter." Seiichi shook his head. "The secrets of this ce is beyond our reach. Even the NPCs couldn''t fully explore here much less us low levelled yers."

    With Seiichi''s remark everyone came to their sense and sighed bitterly. Indeed. A powerhouse like the Town Head, Arman Lagus, should have known about ck Grill''s Cave and possibly tried to explore it yet there was no news about the Inner region or whatid there. Ignoring the Town head, there should have been a few powerful NPC adventurers who also came here yet they didn''t discover anything and eventually this area was forgotten by them; serving only as a training spot for low levelled yers. If such powerhouses and heavy hitters didn''t discover anything, who are they to think that they would.

    "You might be right but also wrong." Sato suddenly said.

    "Huh?"

    "ording to the System, ck Grill''s Cave is a level 5 map. Ignoring whether there''s a restriction that prevents high levelled individuals from entering here, it''s possible that the secret could only be found by someone weaker. But this is a just a guess."

    "True¡­" Fudo nodded. What Sato had said did make a bit of sense. If the secret of ck Grill''s Cave was made for only low levelled yers to use, I would be understandable as to why the high levelled NPCs couldn''t find it. Hence, they still stood a chance of finding it but that wouldn''t be easy and it would be time-consuming and time wasn''t something they had on their hands.

    Some time ago during their break, a friend Seiichi happened to have made while in ck Mountain''s Town, had sent him a message informing him of the current trending news. He had wanted to team up with Seiichi to head to ck Grill''s Cave and try their luck but Seiichi rejected. He was already with one of the best teams in Infinite Realm so why would he settle for less? From that message that friend sent him, Seiichi knew that most of the guilds and yers close to ck Grill''s Cave, at least 80% of them, were heading over here with the Middle Region''s 10th floor world ss boss as their target. Without wasting time, he had informed everyone else and so they had to cancel their break and move. With top gaming teams from different top guilds round the world as their opponents, every second and step counted.

    "We won''t go wandering around like headless flies. We already have a goal in mind now so we can''t move elsewhere. Nheless, it would be better to keep our eyes out for something good but that''s just all." Sato said. Rather than them looking for trails of a possibly non-existent object, it would be better for them toplete Xue Yan''s mission first. By then it won''t be toote to look for it.

    "Alright." Fudo sighed. Just this few seconds were enough to make him change how he viewed the entire ce.

    ''If there''s indeed a secret, I wonder what it is and who made such a fascinating ce.''

    The team slowly proceeded on but their journey couldn''t be described as one without suspense as they constantly fought monsters that either spotted them or blocked their path without departing. Unless it was as such, the team would usually avoid most of the monsters since they were in a race against time. Every second and step counted hence they didn''t want to be dyed for a silly reason.

    "In a while, we should be there." Sato said. He had interfaced the map Xue Yan gave him with his location. As such, their location was constantly being updated and disyed in the map. The reason that it took them a lot of time to approach the exit point was because the 9th floor was indeed veryrge; almost twice that of the 8th floor! To make things worse was that when they were teleported to the 9th floor from the 8th floor, the distance from their location to the 9th floor''s exit gate would take at least 2 hours in a vertical path. However, the 9th floor was filled with a lot of corners and bends together with a wide variety of monsters, hence the idea of covering the distance in a mere 2 hours was nothing more than an imagination.

    "We are here. Just past that boulder and we should see it." Sato said as he stored the map away.

    "Really?!" Fudo eximed. Trekking was never his forte and now that he had to do so while also battling monsters, it would be a lie to say that he wasn''t exhausted. Even as a game avatar, exhaustion would still affect him just like yers could still feel pain in-game. This wasn''t limited to him though as the others were also tired.

    "Hah. Do we take a break here or what?" Lu Zhen nced at Sato.

    "No. Let''s reach the gate and rest there." Sato said.

    "Okay." Everyone agreed. Experience had proven that the exit gates were the safest ce here. For an unknown reason, monsters didn''t reside within a 100 metres range of the gate hence it was the best possible rest point for yers in ck Grill''s Cave.

    Within 5 minutes, the yers had closed up the distance, passing through boulder Sato had pointed out earlier before spotting an azure coloured wormhole. Finally, the team had reached the exit gate. With relief in their eyes, they smiled and were about to go closer but what they saw next left them staring wide agape.

    "Howe¡­?!"

    (Special AN in author''s section)

 Chapter 160 - 155 : Unexpected Discovery

    In ck Grill''s cave, each floor was separated from the other by an impressive depth. Apart from that, the rock strata was very firm and dense making it impossible for yers to st through it and descend to the higher floors. Hence, exit gates were the only entrances to and fro each floor. Exit points[1] were special spatial nodes located within ck Grill''s Cave that connected each floor to the next floor. They weren''t one way gates as yers could still use them to ascend to the higher floors[2].

    For an unknown reason, the Exit gates repelled monsters from approaching it. Rather than repel, it would be more urate to say that monsters consciously avoided the gates by themselves. Hence, the exit gates in each floor were informally called Safe zones. However, the reason why monsters avoided these ces were unknown to the yers themselves as such, yers couldn''t capitalize on this knowledge.

    It is said that the fear of the unknown is one of the most dangerous fears. Without knowing why the monsters avoided here, yers had to live in fear of the unknown. Though most people believed that the Exit gates would be perennially safe, few believed otherwise. However, at the 10th floor, fate could be said to have shined on the beliefs of these few.

    "Howe¡­?!" Fudo was surprised.

    Sato stared at the gate while frowning at the sight before him.

    There were 3rge rock type monsters that stood in front of the swirling blue portal, acting as its guardians. They looked like the usual Rock Golems[3] but were different. Unlike the usual Rock golem species, these ones was a lot taller than usual and more slimmer. They had an individual height of 3 metres and rather than the usual brilliant red ''eyes'', there was a pair of blue coloured gems inserted in their eye sockets. The rocks thatposed of their bodies weren''t the usual caramel coloured ones. It was a strange honey coloured rock with brown lines streaking through it in a mysterious fashion. The aura the monsters exuded was an overbearing one that made yers to actively evade it and this was mostly due to its tall height that could dwarf a majority of yers.

    "Why the heck are there monsters here?" Yato grumbled in a low tone, fearing that the monsters may notice him.

    "Their aura¡­they are strong." Sato said with a frown.

    "This is bad, this bad. This is f**king bad!" Fudo began throwing tantrums. No one reprimanded him because all of them were also vexed at the discovery.

    The reason why everyone was frustrated wasn''t because the monsters looked strong, on the contrary though, they actually liked strong monsters as the stronger the monsters the higher the reward should be. However, the same couldn''t be said at this moment. The reason was because there was barely any time left. They were already in a race against time and had to hurry over here, avoiding tons of monsters and being cautious in their steps all because they wanted to reach the 10th floor and defeat the world ss monster before anyone could do so. With the appearance of not 1 but 3 strong monsters would undoubtedly affect their progress.

    Every second counted.

    Though the team believed that they were one of the top strongest parties in Infinite Realm at this point in time, it was nothing but one of the strongest and not the strongest. None of them believed that they were collectively better than the expert parties nurtured by top guilds. If those parties rushed at their full strength, it was possible that they would reach the 10th floor very soon as the strongest monsters from the Middle region''s 1st floor to the 9th floor were only level 8 kobolds. It was likely possible that a level 6 expert party of a top guild could easily defeat such a monster. If they ended up being held back, then their advantage would slowly cease to be, leading to them being caught up to by other top guilds. Xue Yan''s mission required them to defeat the world ss boss and as a world ss boss, once it was killed, it would cease to exist permanently. Hence, they had to make sure that they were the very first ones to do so, else the mission would count as a failure and Sat, having signed a contract with her, would end up suffering some repercussions for not fulfilling the deal.

    "Alright stopining and everyone should stop pulling on taut faces." Sato suddenly said. "It isn''t over yet."

    "What do you mean?" Seiichi asked. "Looking at those monsters they are way stronger than any level 8 monster we''ve seen and unless it''s a Special elite, I''m guessing its a level 9 monsters or something. As for our level 9batants, there are two of you guys and 3 of them. The worst part is that monsters are far stronger than yers. In other words, it would be hard for you guys to hold them on your own much less we lower levelled guys to defeat one."

    "Even though what he said isn''t totally true, there''s still some truth to it." Xue Yan sighed. Though she didn''t want to, she had to admit that it was almost impossible to defeat those monsters in time before the other guild members could catch up. What makes things worse was that even if they defeated the monsters before those guild freaks could catch up, they would still have to spare a lot of time facing the world ss boss at the 10th floor. To make things worse, once they have killed the monsters, they(the monsters) would take some time to resuscitate. During this time, yers could freely pass through the Exit gate without any interference. Simply put, they(Sato''s team) would just end up making things for the other approaching yers.

    "I know what you''re worried about and there''s a simple solution for that. We could just run pass them." Sato said as a matter-of-fact.

    "Run past them?" Xue Yan asked back.

    "Yes. Just run past them." Sato nodded.

    Xue Yan stared at him in surprise. She was actually expecting aplicated n that would help them defeat the monsters quickly while inhibiting the other yers or something. Such a simple idea was something she would only expect from Fudo''s lips. However, there was some truth to what he said.

    Why the hell should they bother about the monsters when the gate was their goal? Why they were all wondering how to defeat the monsters quickly, Sato had thought out of the box and presented them with a solution that everyone unconsciously ignored.

    "To do that though, someone would still have to hold them down." Seiichi said as he realised the fault in the n.

    "Myself, Fudo, Lu Zhen and Xue Yan would be delegated those roles. You, Yato and Katsuo should focus on getting to the gate." Sato replied him.

    The setup was made so that the long range yers would attract the monster''s aggro while the rest would dash towards the gate. Once they got through, Sato and Lu Zhen would now draw the monsters'' aggro towards themselves, leading it away from the long range yers. These guys would now head towards the gate and escape. Once everyone was gone, Sato and Lu Zhen would use their superior {Agility] and [Dexterity] to outrun the monsters before heading into the gate. Froa simple overview, the n looked like a fool-proof one.

    "It indeed does sound viable." Fudo said after listening to Sato''s exnation.

    "Alright then. What are we waiting for? Let''s go." Lu Zhen urged.

    .....

    "On my mark, fire your strongest attacks and draw their attention towards yourselves." Sato said to Fudo and Xue Yan. Seiichi was with the first group that would escape, which included Yato and Katsuo.

    "Alright." The two nodded.

    Sato then monitored the movements of the 3 rocky monsters. Ever since they had arrived, the 3 monsters only moved within a 15 metre radius of the Exit gate, in a to-and-fro motion.They never went past this distance, only scanning the further ces with their eyes. Luckily for Sato''s team, a majority of monsters in ck Grill''s Cave have weak perception and eye sight, probably due to the fact that they live underground. As a result of this, most monsters couldn''t see beyond the 30 metres mark. Sato and his teammates happened to be 50 metres away from the monsters when they first arrived and they had kept this distance all through, only sneaking a bit closer after their nning was done.

    "On my mark¡­Now!"

    "[Fire Ray]!"

    "[Fire Ray]!"

    With Sato''smand, the two fire type mages with terrifying attack power,unched the exact same spell that happened to have the longest range in their arsenal. As such, two ring beams burst out from their staffs and darted towards two of the monsters. Though it only aimed at the two, the third one happened to be in between those two. As such, once the attacknds on the two targeted monsters, the 3rd one would be implicated in the attack too. The worse part was that it would receive a majority of the strike as the rays would only shave past the two monsters but head to the 3rd one.

    Such an attack required exquisite coordination and timing; something that Xue Yan and Fudo had honed throughout their seclusion period.

 Chapter 161 - 156 : [Guardian Golem]

    (AN : Kindly alert me for any errors.)

    *Phew*

    With a loud whistling sound, two ring red rays of mes, darted towards a stone giant from two different angles and two different directions.

    *Boom*

    "Grawrrr!"

    "Grawrrr!"

    The two rays had shaved past the two monsters before striking the 3rd one in the middle with a resounding boom.

    "Grawwrr!"

    While the 2 stone giants only went off with a shave, the 3rd one, who happened to be the main target of the two attacks, received the full blow of the two attacks giving off an loud roar that shook the ce. Utter vexation and anger could be felt in its voice as the monster itself wondered who would dare to actually harm it.

    Turning its head over to the spot where the one of the two beams originated from, the monster noticed a slightly pudgy figure who was smiling at it. Though the monster didn''t have much intelligence, it felt that the smirk on that little figures lips was a derisive one, taunting it and mocking it for being such a weakling to have gotten hit by a smaller being. Following that, the little figure began running away.

    The monster red at the running figure, irked by the fact that this creature actually thought he could escape after having injured it.

    "Roar!" With a roar, it notified its teammates that the little pudgy figure was its target.

    Immediately, the stone giant took a step forward, dashing towards the small creature. Despite having a huge frame, the monster was surprisingly able to close up the gap between it and the short figure slowly.

    "Damn. This freak is actually this fast." Fudo grumbled. ''Looks like I underestimated it a lot.''

    After seeing that the stone giant was catching up, Fudo elerated again, avoiding the clutches of the stone giant and maintaining the distance.

    ''Looks like its almost as fast as I am and with the way it''s moving, its [Dexterity] shouldn''t be low either.'' Fudo had an ugly look on his face when he reached that conclusion. Usually earth ss monsters had the weakness of low [Agility] and [Dexterity], however, this strange stone monster didn''t have such a thing.

    ''It''s a good thing that we aren''t facing it. We just have to escape them.'' Fudo sighed with relief.

    While Fudo was being pursued by the monster, the other ones didn''t stand idle. One of the stone giants chased after Xue Yan, while the other stood warily by the Gate as if on a lookout for anymore intruders.

    Seeing this, Sato frowned a bit before saying in the party chat, "Fudo, Xue Yan, try and bring those guys further away. Hit them every once in a while to maintain the aggro."

    "Got it." Fudo replied.

    "Lu Zhen, aid Xue Yan." Sato spoke again. The reason he gave thatmand was because he noticed that Xue Yan''s speed wascking whenpared to the stone giant chasing after her. If things went on like that, it would catch up to her within 6 seconds.

    "Alright." Lu Zhen replied as he darted towards the stone giant while in stealth.

    "Everyone, here''s the monster''s info."Fudo said before uploading a file on the party chat.

    [[ System interface :

    Guard Golem (Elite)

    Level : 9

    HP : 796/1000

    Physical Attack Power : 75

    Magical attack power : 30

    Physical Defense : 25

    Magical Defense :10

    Attack Speed : 30

    Movement Speed : 20

    Attributes

    Strength : 25

    Endurance : 25

    Vitality : 100

    Agility : 10

    Dexterity : 10

    Intelligence : 10

    Willpower : 10

    Skills

    Elemental Blessing : Passive skill : Physical defense and attack is increased by 10%.

    Earth Roar : Active skill : Release a devastating roar that inflicts 140% Magical Attack Power as mental damage and maniptes the environment.

    Cool-down : 5 seconds

    Solid Punch : Active skill : Attack with 150% of Physical Attack Power.

    Cool-down : 5 seconds

    Trans-mutate : Active Skill : Manipte the earth to inflict damage worth 150% of Physical Attack power upon a target.

    Cool-down : 7 seconds

    Diverging Rapture : Active Skill : AOE attack that deals 120% of Magical attack power as damage. Together with a push effect.

    Cool-down : 10 seconds

    ]]

    "Indeed, it''s a level 9 monster. An Elite rank at that." Sato frowned. Earlier on, Seiichi had guessed that the monsters were level 9 ones but he never would have expected them to be Elite rank. The difference between a Common and an Elite wasn''t just in the titles but in strength. An Elite rank monster could handle 3-4 Common ranks on its own. In other words, these three level 9 Elite ranks were the same as nine level 9 Common rank monsters and this was just a conservative estimate.

    "This monster has more skills than I do and they are even more powerful than mine." Yato grumbled with a sour face.

    "You don''t need to worry. With me and my new baby, I bet I could solo him alone." Fudoughed. The twin attack he hadunched with Xue Yan had ended up taking a bit above 200 HP away from the Guard Golem and from his System interface''s battle records, he discovered that his own attack had dealt more than 100 damage points to the monster; and this was with a part of the attacks might having been shaved off by one of the Guard Golems. It was only normal for Fudo to feel bloated with pride.

    "Hehe. Why don''t you go ahead." Yato chuckled.

    "Get ready. It''s you guys'' turn now." Sato said to him.

    Sato exited the party chat before ncing at the sole stone giant or rather, Guard Golem, by the Exit gate. He was about to make a move when he noticed that the two that were earlier pursuing Fudo and Xue Yan respectively had suddenly stopped. The one that had been chasing after Fudo red ferociously at him and roared loud but it didn''t take a single step forward anymore. The one that pursued Xue Yan only red at her before it turned around and retreated back to its post. Fudo''s ''partner'' also followed through and headed back to the Exit gate''s area.

    "What''s going on?" Sato asked in the team chat; his question being aimed at Fudo and Xue Yan.

    "I don''t know. Previously it was just chasing after us but it suddenly paused some seconds ago and turned around." Xue Yan replied him with a worried tone. She didn''t know what went wrong hence her worried tone.

    "Same here." Fudo replied as he nced at the retreating Guard Golem with a serious face.

    Sato frowned at their reply as he couldn''t make heads of the monsters.

    "I think I know why." Seiichi said. Because he had nothing to do then, he had been paying attention to the entire event and had noticed something.

    "What?" Xue Yan hurriedly asked.

    "Did you notice before that the Guard Golems didn''t go past the 15 metre radius?" Seiichi said.

    "Yeah. And?" Fudo asked.The reason was simply because when the Guard Golem chased after him, they had long went beyond the 15 metre distance.

    Seiichi replied him. "I think that while the 15 metre distance is the minimal patrol area, there exists a maximum. They probably reached it and so had to withdraw."

    Listening to Seiichi''s conjecture, Sato felt that there was some truth to it because he had noticed that the two Guard Golems unwilling to take a step forward no matter how dissatisfied they were about the matter, especially the one that chased after Fudo.

    "Let''s try it again." Sato said.

    At this time, the two Guard Golems were still a few metres away from the Exit gate and each other hence, there was still an opportunity to attract their aggro separately.

    "Alright." Fudo nodded before he faced the retreating Guard Golem.

    "[Fireball]"

    A zing fireball with a diameter of half a meter took shape. The orange mes rampage as they zed around the ming ball. It was bright to the eyes and the heat could be felt even from a 3 metres away. Fudo didn''t cast the spell right away but held it in ce, constantly supplying mana to the ring fireball. With the continuous supply of mana, the ming ball increased in size as its temperature rose too.

    After 5 seconds of the holding the spell in ce, Fudo directed his staff at the Guard Golem.

    "[Greater Fireball]!"

    *Fuuuuu*

    With a strange sound akin to that of a burning gas[1], the fireball darted towards the retreating Guard Golem. It also happened to be that the spell Xue Yan used, was the exact same one as Fudo. As such, there were 2 one metre fireballs dashing towards two retreating Guard Golems.

    *Gruuu*

    As if sensing the mana fluctuations and the absurd heat, the Guard Golem that was targeted by Fudo turned its head backwards and saw the fireball closing in on it.

    "Roar!"

    The Guard Golem roared before lifting its right hand and delivering a punch right at the fireball. As the fist approached the fireball, a dull brown colour began to suffuse on it, ovepping the previous amber colour.

    [Solid Punch]!

    Within a second, the two attacks collided with each other.

    *Boom*

    As the fumes from the explosion cleared, the result of the encounter was made visible for all to see but it was unexpected.

    "Ho, How?!"

 Chapter 162 - 157 : Who Says We Canâ€™t Come Closer

    *Boom*

    With a loud boom, the ground shook a bit as the mes of the fireball burst apart due to the sheer force from the punch. The fireball wasn''t huge in size but it had devastating might, one most likely capable of destroying a 3 metre boulder. Thanks to the special effects of both [Igneel''s guidance] and Fudo''s level 9 staff, in rtion to Fire elemental mana, the effects of his fire-type spells were boosted to a whole new level. Not only did they have a push-back effect but there was also a chance to wreak havoc with an explosion effect; one surpassing that of the [Fireball] skill. Coincidentally, this effect had been triggered in this attack leading to the reverberating explosion.

    Less than 4 seconds after the short st, the dust from the explosion settled down as the result of the collision became visible for all to see.

    "Ho, How?!" Fudo stared in shock at the result of the collision.

    Surprisingly, the monster had actuallye out unscathed from that encounter. It was quite unimaginable as everyone knew that earth type monsters had a weakness for fire-type spells, much less fire-type spells with explosive capabilities. The worst part was that the monster had actually done so with its bare fist and not any blockade or weapon. Even if it was thanks to a skill, the skill was an attack type one and not a defensive skill. Hence, it was still quite shocking to see the Guard Goleme out unscathed.

    "Keep your head in the game, Fudo!" Sato yelled at him in the party chat[1].

    "Uh, alright." Fudo recovered from his shock. He recalled that his main goal was to attract the monster''s attention and not to y it. Even if the attack didn''t harm the monster, it would have still felt part of the force and got irked and annoyed at him attacking it. Just like how an adult would would feel irritated when a 10 year old stranger would suddenly appear and attack him. Even if the kid''s punches don''t hurt, the adult would still be annoyed by the kid''s unrelenting attitude. It could also be said to be the same as when a little ant bites an adult. Though you won''t get sick or lose vitality, the bite would still hurt a bit. The Guard Golem, in this case, would surely be frustrated and vexed at Fudo''s guts for attacking it twice even more so with having an explosion ur right before it.

    "Roar!"

    [Earth Roar]

    With a maddened re, the Guard Golem turned towards Fudo before roaring out loud in anger as invisible air waves diverged in a conical fashion. Wherever the air waves passed, the terrain was ruined as miniature rocks of different shapes sprung forth from the ground in an erratic and wild fashion. Despite there being a distance of more than 10 metres between them, the effects of the roar still reached Fudo before he could even react.

    -35 (105/140)

    "Puah!" Fudo suddenly puked blood as he almost fell to the ground, avoiding doing so by leaning on his staff. But when the ground began shaking as the terrain immediately changed, Fudo could barely remain standing. Maybe it was thanks to his above average weight but he was able to somehow keep himself standing.

    The sound wave had only stooped after having gone 2 metres past Fudo.

    ''Damn it!'' Fudoined internally as he used his free hand to wipe the leftover blood on his mouth.

    "Fudo!" Seiichi yelled in worry.

    While Fudo had a hard time with his own ''partner'', Xue Yan didn''t have things any easier. When the Guard Golem Fudo faced had blocked his attack, the one Xue Yan faced had actually dodged hers. Immediately after doing so, it nced at her in vexation before lifting a foot and stomping heavily on the ground.

    *Bang*

    A weird movement urred underneath the ground as a strange bulge formed and darted towards Xue Yan, leaving in its path, a continuous molehill.

    ''Run.''

    This was the only thing in her mind as Xue Yan immediately turned around an began running with the limit of strength her legs could muster.

    Infinite Realm was made to mimic reality in almost every aspect. As such, both the good and bad of reality were made to exist. The human body had a limit or rather, all objects have a limit. When an object or entity begins its path of motion, it undergoes a special quantity known as eleration. An entity''s eleration could differ from another or be the same, but the thing that remains clear is that once the entity begins its motion, it isn''t at its fastest.[2]

    Normally, earth type monsters have the disadvantage of being slower than yers both in movements and attacks, but Xue Yan was a bit too slow to react to the attack. As a result of this, by the time she began running, she couldn''t exhibit her full speed yet but the attack was already dashing at her at full speed. Hence, by the time she took her 4th step, the strange bulge had already appeared beneath her, upying a 2 metre area with her in the middle.

    [Trans-mutate]!

    Within that second, a few stgmites vented out from the bulge darting diagonally upwards from the sides like a fresh-and-up morning wood[3], with their target being the person in the middle.

    ''Is this it?'' Xue Yan stared unwillingly at the rocks. In that millisecond, she knew she couldn''t escape the encirclement and would surely die from being stabbed multiple times like that. Even if she lived, the rocks would hold her in ce, turning her into nothing more than a pig waiting to be ughtered.

    At that moment, countless emotions flooded Xue Yan''s heart. Unwillingness, sorrow, anxiety, fear, disappointment. She knew that dying here would end up affecting her progress as it would take at least half an hour for her to resuscitate. That half-hour was enough for guild elites to get even closer to reaching them, if not catching up to them. Once they did so, they might even defeat the world ss boos before their(Sato''s) tried to do so. Once that happens, her mission would be registered as an automatic failure, leading to her losing a lot thereby affecting her gaming career.

    ''I''m sorry.'' Xue Yan''s eyes glistened with tears.

    "Ha!"

    A loud shout suddenly broke her from her reverie as a figure had appeared before her.

    With eyes wide open, Xue Yan watched as that figure shed apart the approaching stgmites in front, while also grabbing her with one hand and tossing her away from the encirclement.

    "You¡­" Xue Yan stared in shock as she didn''t know what to say.

    "I still haven''t fulfilled my part of the deal. So don''t go dying on me now." Sato said inly.

    His emotionless look mixed with his heroic actions had unknowingly tugged a string in her heart as a slight blush arose on her cheeks but Sato was too busy focusing elsewhere.

    Tightening his grasp on his sword, Sato shed at the remaining stgmites, breaking them into pieces.

    Without wasting any time, Sato hurriedly retreated, simply for no reason other than the fact that the Guard Golem was dashing towards him. He ran without stop till he noticed that the Guard Golem no longer pursued him, before he finally slumped with a sigh of relief.

    Back then, Sato had been paying attention to Xue Yan and Fudo''s attempts but mostly on Xue Yan. The reason was no other than she being weaker than Fudo. Sato had grown up with Fudo and he knew his strengths and weaknesses. He believed that no matter the issue, Fudo would still manage to survive even if it meant doing so with only a sliver of health left. And he was right.

    Although it looked like Fudo was a goner back when he got attacked, with Seiichi''s assist and his own overwhelming stats, Fudo had managed to escape the clutches of the Guard Golem despite being heavily injured. Only someone as slippery and sly as he was could do such a thing.

    As for Xue Yan, she was still both lower than Fudo in attack power and HP but even defense, hence the need to monitor her actions. Although there was Lu Zhen close by, Sato still did so because his instincts nagged him. Apparently, he was right. Lu Zhen had suddenly had his actions stiffened, a result from the 3rd Guard Golem interfering with an [Earth Roar]. This resulted in him being a tag too slow to save Xue Yan, and with Sato being the next closest to her, he(Sato) could only do so. Of course, Lu Zhen didn''t end up with much trouble. As an [Assassin], he obviously had different ways to extricate himself from a fight.

    "Luckily, they still abide by the rule." Sato sighed as he saw the Guard Golems halt their steps once they were 40 metres away from the portal.

    "What do we do now?" Fudo asked. He had already hurried to join up with the others. As for Yato and Katsuo, those two were still in hiding as Sato didn''t intend for them to be noticed by the monsters yet.

    "We can try to kite them from this distance." Seiichi asked.

    "Won''t work. They will end up retreating plus we don''t know why they don''t get past the 40 metres mark. Who knows whether they would just ignore it eventually." Lu Zhen said as he nced at the two Guard Golems that stood staring at them, with a frown. The third one had already went back to guard the gate but the two Guard Golems still didn''t go back.

    Fudo smacked his shoulder before saying "Hey, don''t go raising up gs like that. That could be dange-"

    "Roar!" The two Guard Golems suddenly roared fiercely.

    "What''s going on?" Xue Yan asked as she covered her ears with both hands.

    Before anybody could consider answering questions, the two Guard Golems suddenly walked towards them.

    The first step seemed difficult for them to take but they managed to do so within 3 seconds. The second step took half of that and the third step was done at a regr pace. Sato''s team stared at this is in awe or rather, in fear and disbelief, before Sato finally recovered first.

    "Run!"

 Chapter 163 - 158 : Problems Cropping Up

    "Run!"

    Seeing the approaching tall figures, Fudo and Xue Yan quickly distanced themselves away form the monsters as being mages,they had an innate weakness when ites to defense.

    ''This is an opportunity.'' Sato''s eyes shed.

    "Katsuo, Yato, Seiichi. You guys head over to the Exit gate now. Fudo, Lu Zhen; you two handle one Guard Golem while I and Xue Yan take the other." Sato ordered from the party chat while retreating to a suitable distance.

    ncing at the Guard Golems, Sato noticed that even though they had managed to go past the 40 metres mark, they weren''t moving as fluidly as they did before. In the eyes of a regr yer, it would seem as if their movements were natural but to a martial artist and professional gamer like Sato, the Guard Golems'' motions were a bit rigid and impeded.

    ''It seems like their act of going past their zone has lead to them receiving a kind of movement debuff.'' Sato thought.

    Narrowing his eyes, Sato wondered, ''Is it only limited to their movements or their strength?''

    Having received Sato''smands, Katsuo and Yato, who were both waiting elsewhere, sprung forth from their posts and dashed towards the Exit gate. Seiichi had also branched from the main squad, moving towards Yato and Katsuo''s direction.

    No matter how fast Seiichi was though, he still got spotted by the approaching Guard Golems. The one that had confronted Fudo(AN: let''s name him Guard Golem A) ignored him as it was hellbent on eliminating Fudo''s existence from this floor. The other one(AN: Guard Golem B) turned over to nce at Seiichi and began making its way towards him. The reason for this was quite simple and obvious.

    The Guard Golems'' existence is to prevent anyone from making use of the Exit gates. So despite being called Guard Golems, they were more like ''Obstruction Golems''.

    Guard Golem A had been injured by Fudo and Xue Yan''sbined attack; far more than the other two had suffered. If that wasn''t enough, Fudo had actively mocked and harassed it, hence the existence of the beef between them. As for Guard Golem B, though it was injured, this was a slight one whenpared to Guard Golem A. As a result, there wasn''t much aggro. This lead to Guard Golem B still being able to recall its instinctual programming, which was to prevent anyone from gaining ess to the Exit gate.

    Guard Golem B lifted its foot high up, preparing to stomp the ground with force. Seeing this, Sato knew that it was about to attack Seiichi''s team from afar.

    To prevent the monster from pursuing the other squad, a sufficiently high amount of damage had to be delivered in one blow, injuring the monster and sowing the seed of hatred within it. The best choice for this act was obviously Fudo, however he was currently preupied with his dance buddy. Nheless, there was another suitable character for this; the level 7 Xue Yan, who happened to be a fire mage that wielded the [ck Alder Staff].

    "Xue Yan." Sato called out.

    Without having him to tell her, Xue Yan knew what she had to do.

    "[Fireball] [Mana ball] [Mana ball] [Fireball]" Xue Yan chanted multiple times. Though it was actually multiple times, it, at the same time, wasn''t.

    Multi-casting was a high level skill that very few yers. It cane in the form of an in-game skill or a skill a yer learnt.

    In Infinite realm and a majority of other VR games, Mage ss yers had to channel mana round their body in a specific path in other to cast a spell. Sometimes a chant was required or even a rune, or maybe both. But what remains the same is that mana has to be channeled in a specially different path for each spell. In order to multi-cast, yers would have to be able to circte mana in two or more different paths at the same time, without any of the man flow intruding on the other.

    To exin better, casting a spell is like directing water from a source through a channel in a field, reaching the exit; where the water is the mana, the source is the yer''s mana pool, the channel is the mana vein[1] , the field is the human body and the exit is where the mana flows out from as a spell. For a majority of mages, they use their staffs as the exit. There are a myriad of channels in the human body with each having special conditions. Each spell requires a different channel to flow through and some might need to flow through more than one channel. When a yer multi-casts, he/she would direct the ''water'' to flow from the source in two or more distinct streams -with each stream being the required mana for each spell- through the different required channels, while making sure that the ''water'' not only flows through the correct channel(s) but also doesn''t mix together when they reach the exit. From this, one could imagine the difficulty of multi-casting or even average casting.

    Luckily, yers had the System''s guidance when casting, hence dropping the difficulty by a notch. Nheless though, multi-casting was still difficult for current yers as the System doesn''t even help them in that.

    What Xue Yan performed though wasn''t the original multi-casting. All she did was to make use of the difference in cool-down time to ferociously cast two different spells. Despite yelling the names out in a row, the man flow for each spell would bepleted before the next one followed up. In other wors, she cast the spells quickly rather than at the same time. This could be easily achieved as the two spells, [Mana ball] and [Fireball] didn''t have a high requirement for casting and at the same time, had very short cool-down. The [Mana ball] spell didn''t even know what cool-down was.

    Three different coloured attacks -two blue and one red- dashed towards Guard Golem B''s back, with each being just a bit slower than the other. A secondter, another [Fireball] darted forward, but it was a bitgging in distance whenpared to thest of the other 3. Because most of her skills were still on cool-down, Xue Yan had to resort to this formation. Thanks to [ck Alder staff] though, the power of these attacks shouldn''t be underestimated, especially with the fact that Xue Yan was a level 7 yer now.

    -74 [Fireball]

    - 69 [Mana ball]

    -67 [Mana ball] ( 790/1000 HP Guard Golem B)

    "Roar!"

    By the time the third attack hit it, the monster right fist glowed with a deep brown sheen as it turned around and punched behind. Maybe it was due to intuition or maybe the Guard Golem could sense the approaching heat, but the punch had happened to collide with thest attack, the fireball that camest.

    *Boom*

    Just like when Guard Golem A had punched Fudo''s fireball, a small boom urred butpared to that of the previous one, it was really to small; like a firecracker''s explosion.

    "Roar!" The monster nced at Xue Yan ferociously while releasing an angered roar. Without bothering about Seiichi and the others anymore, it began to make its way towards Xue Yan.

    From the reactions of the two monsters so far, one would notice the difference between regr monsters and monsters with Intellect. The two Guard Golems were obviously regr monsters who only abide by their instincts as they forgot their duties and fueled by rage, charged towards those who injured them. If sufficient aggro was drawn from any regr monster, yers could easily fool around with them and defeat them, so far as they(yers) had the required strength to do so. If a monster with Intellect where to be in the these Guard Golems'' position, it would remain at its post. Even if it were to attack the yers, it would fake ignorance and return to its post while waiting to ambush the yers once they get closer. Regr monsters however, didn''t bother about schemes.

    ''They are off.'' Sato sighed with relief.

    "Everyone, focus on holding these two back to buy them sometime. Seiichi, attract the aggro of the 3rd one and make sure it doesn''t interfere with their mission. Yato, Katsuo. Once you guys get to the other side, try and clear the area for us ok? Now, move!" Sato gave out orders continuously before he charged valiantly towards the nearing Guard Golem B.

    "Xue Yan, work with me." Sato said when he was within 4 metres of Guard Golem B, sneakily withdrawing an object from his storage bag.

    Tightening his grip on his new sword, [Astral de], Sato swung it at the Guard Golem, with his target being its head.

    ''Die.''

    The Guard Golem didn''t block with its arm but instead opened its mouth at that close distance.

    "Roar!"

    [Earth Roar]!

    Sato had previously seen the effects of the skill on Fudo and despite knowing that he had a higher defensive ability than him, Sato didn''t dare to receive it straight like that.

    ''Luckily, I prepared.'' Sato thought as he flung out an object with his other hand, towards the Guard Golem B''s mouth as it was about to roar.

    It was a [Simple Explosive], the kind that Sato had used back when he was level 0 and had to face the wild saber beast. With the current strength of yers and the monsters they fought, such an item became almost useless and barely anyone would bother to buy it. However, Sato did and it turned out to be useful now.

    When the invisible sound-waves approached the explosives, there was no suspense.

    *Boom*

    A miniature explosion set off and though it didn''t harm the Guard Golem, the explosion had managed to disperse the sound-waves by messing up the air flow with heavy vibrations.

    Sato ignored the explosion and still shed his sword at the Guard Golem.

    Because it had opened its out for an attack that was supposed to be a sure-hit, the Guard Golem''s defenses were done at that moment. It is said that a monster without a defense is equivalent to amb on the chopping block.

    [Horizontal sh]!

    Without being able to resist, Sato''s [Astral de] easily cleaved through Guard Golem B, shing apart at its lower jaws as if wanting to separate it from the monster.

    Critical!

    -160 [Horizontal sh] (637/1000 HPGuard Golem B)

    "Ro!"

    Miniature rock particles sttered on the floor as part of the monster''s jaw got decimated. It tried to cry out in pain and anger but wasn''t able to produce the usual roar.

    Despite causing such a heavy injury on the Guard Golem, Sato wasn''t inclined to stop at just one sh.

    Once he concluded with the first strike, Sato held his sword with both hands and brought it down on the monster in a diagonally downward fashion, like a samurai from the Ancient times.

    [Chop]!

    -124 (513/1000 HP Guard Golem B)

    Sato didn''t stop there even, as he held his sword in a thrust position, preparing to force it through the monster.

    At this point, Guard Golem B had recovered part of its senses and didn''t want to keep experiencing this endless ''pleasure''. With the flick of a finger, it manipted the earth, creating a shock-wave that sted out in all directions.

    [Diverging Rapture]

    Sato was too close to the monster and couldn''t avoid this strike as it came without warning.

    -28 (122/150 Sato''s HP)

    He felt a vigorous air-wave of some kind, sting him backwards until he was 6 metres away. At this point, Sato performed some aerial maneuvers and managed tond on his feet. Truth be told, he could have easilynded within the 2-3 metre distance from the Guard Golem. He onlynded this far so as to separate himself from the monster. Why? Because he wasn''t alone.

    Xue Yan''s attack seemed almost perfectly timed as a [Greater Fireball] had closed in on the monster right after Sato got sted away. Without any time to rest, Guard Golem B hurriedly put a hand in front of its face. The reason was none other than its skills being on cool-down.

    *Boom*

    With a much more powerful explosion than herst attack, Xue Yan''s fireball managed to push the Guard Golem 3 steps backwards with the monster almost losing its footing.

    Sato was about to move in for another attack but he halted his footsteps. Because at this time, he managed to get an update on Yato and Katsuo''s progress.

    They couldn''t get into the Exit gate.

 Chapter 164 - 159 : The Only Way Out

    (AN : Alert me for any errors please!!!)

    "Howe?" Fudo asked with unbelief. The main goal of the team lied on the 10th floor so they weren''t interested in the ''mobs'' thaty here. The original n was just to barge through the Exit gates but now that they discovered that they couldn''t do so, things would only get more harder. Even if they weren''t scared of the monsters, the Guard Golems weren''t some mobs that they could easily beat despite how easy things might have seemed to be.

    Because of the news, Sato had halted his follow-up actions on Guard Golem B, giving it enough breathing space to retaliate.

    "Raw!"

    With a loud roar, Guard Golem B lifted its right foot and stomped heavily on the ground. Following that, the spot where Sato stood on suddenly sunk down by half a metre as earth spears burst put from the ''walls'' that had formed.

    ''Damn.'' Sato cursed.

    Though Sato was a bit surprised by this maneuver from Guard Golem B, it still wasn''t enough to take him down.

    Relying on his superior sense and [Dexterity], Sato dodged the spears while he extricated himself from the crater.

    After retreating to an even more safer distance, Sato didn''t pay much attention to the Guard Golem but ruminated on the team''s next action. With their previous idea being null by the Exit gate''s present state, Sato guessed that there had to be a special key or criteria to fulfill before they could go through the gate.

    If it were a key, chances were that it was hidden somewhere close by but still visible for yers to see, like a chest or a box. There was also the chance that the key was with one of the monsters. If it were the former then all they had to do was to look around for it but if it were thetter, things would be even more difficult.

    There was still also the possibility that they had to fulfill a certain criteria. Sato guessed that it could be a level requirement, skill requirement or maybe to defeat the Guard Golems. If it were a level or skill requirement, it would mean that this battle was pointless and that all the other guilds'' enthusiasm would be drowned in cold reality. However, if the criteria to be fulfilled were to defeat the Guard Golems, though such a fit wasn''t impossible for Sato''s team, it would most likely affect their ns. When taking things into ount, this possibility was the most likely and even if he were to consider both the criteria possibility or the existence of a key, the chances of them being able to pass through the gateid in defeating these guys.

    ''What you try to avoid will, regardless, alwayse to you.'' Sato sighed.

    "Listen up guys." Sato said in the party chat. " Some of you might have guessed it but some of you might not. Regardless, we have one goal now."

    ''Don''t tell me¡­!'' Fudo eximed in his mind.

    "To eliminate the Guard Golems." Sato expressed.

    At this time, most of them had managed to keep some distance away from the Guard Golems. There was a short moment of silence after Sato conveyed his decision. This was because, apart from Sato and Fudo, no one else could deliver heavy strike to the Guard Golems. Even if Xue Yan was to be added, her attack power was considerably lower than the above two. While they were 3 suitable DPS yers, there were 3 Guard Golems. They obviously can''t assign one yer to ach monster as it would end up taking too long to defeat it, leading to problems arising.

    "What''s the n?" Fudo asked.

    If one of them were to be pointed out as the one who knew Sato best and had been with him the longest, the answer would surely be Fudo. Fudo had this unshakeable faith and trust in Sato to the extent that if Sato were to tell him to assist him in murdering someone, Fudo would follow through. Compared to murder[1], battling a Guard Golem in a VR game doesn''t seem so troublesome.

    "Fudo, Katsuo, Yato. You guys form one team. Seiichi, drag that 3rd one over to Fudo''s team. Together with the other one Fudo was previously charged with, you guys keep them at bay. Lu Zhen, youe over to my side and help me hold down this big guy. Xue Yan, work with me and let''s take this guy down as quickly as possible."

    "That''s crazy right? I mean handling one isn''t hard but can Katsuo really take on two?" Yato hurriedly asked.

    "I know, but we don''t have any other option left. He''s our only MT." Sato replied. ncing at Katsuo who was a distance away, he said "Katsuo, at leastst for a minute. Just one minute and I will be there."

    "...alright. It''s just like being a Power forward in basketball except I have to defend against two guys now. No problem¡­I think." Katsuo replied with an unsure tone.

    "Just have some faith in yourself." Satoforted him. "Alright now, let''s go."

    With Sato giving the go ahead, Seiichi fired three consecutive shots at Guard Golem C, drawing its attention towards himself. Once that was done, he quickly dashed towards Fudo''s side with Katsuo and Yato following just a bit behind of him.

    Lu Zhen didn''t hurry over to Sato''s side as he had to help drive Guard Golem A''s attention away from Fudo. Only when Seiichi''s team was close did he swiftly separate himself from the Guard Golem, running towards Sato''s side.

    When Seiichi''s team had arrived, Katsuo immediately used [Taunt]on the twomonster''s,bining the skill with a simple roar that easily grabbed their attention. With the two Guard Golems'' aggro on him, Katsuo tightened his grip on his shield and his sword, preparing to face the monster''s while keeping his healing spells ready to go.

    ''Just a minute huh? I should be able to do this.'' Katsuoforted himself. Unlike Sato, Katsuo was just a level 6 yer. Taking on, not one, but two level 9 Elite monsters on his own was a difficult job. The good thing though was that thanks to Sato''s splurge on their equipment, Katsuo''s shield and sword were both Upper tier Mortal rank. With these two high quality products, he could barely bridge the gap between himself and the level 9 Elite monsters.

    While Katsuo and the rest took on two Guard Golems, Sato and Lu Zhen kept Guard Golem Bpany. One level 9 [Swordsman], one level 8 [Assassin] and finally, one level 7 Fire [Elementalist]. to make things better, two of the 3 yers were at least Expert ss yers. Such a lineup was very impressive currently in Infinite Realm and it would be a lie to say that they could not handle a level 9 elite monster with a little bit above 50% of its original HP.

    ''37 Hp. That''s 7-8 clean strikes needed.'' Sato thought. Sadly though, it wouldn''t be easy to achieve such as not only was his ss'' trump card skill in cool-down but it would also be much harder tounch a simr surprise attack like that to the monster.

    "Lu Zhen. Be careful of its [Earth Roar] and [Trans-mutate] skills. Those ones are a bit tricky. Even that [Diverging Rapture]." Sato said to Lu Zhen.

    "No worries." Lu Zhen replied calmly.

    "Xue Yan, cover us." Sato said as he began walking slowly towards the Guard Golem. By the time he took the second step, he increased his speed a bit and when he took the 6th step, he was already running.

    "Okay." Xue Yan nodded.

    Without wasting time, Xue Yan channeled her mana through the right routes, exiting it out from her staff in the form of a fire ball which darted at the Guard Golem. Xue Ya didn''t stop there though. She went on to cast another spell, the [Mana ball]. Just like before, she wanted to make up for quality with quantity.

    Lu Zhen immediately entered stealth and sneaked to the side, dashing towards the Guard Golem''s side in hope of being able tond a sneak attack on it.

    Within two seconds, Xue Yan''s spells had overtook Sato and closed in on the Guard Golem. Recalling what had happened to it previously under Xue Yan''s onught, a hint of wariness and fear surged from the Guard Golem''s eyes but it quickly recovered.

    "Row!"

    Releasing a strange roar with its disfigured mouth, the Guard Golem hurriedly lifted up a boulder that had been dislodged from the ground, tossing it at the first fireball.

    Relying on its passable [Dexterity] and [Agility], the Guard Golem dodged the other attacks and for the ones t couldn''t, it simply braved through them.

    -67 (446/1000 Guard Golem B''s HP)

    Of the 4 attacks Xue Yan had aimed at the Guard Golem, only one managed to make it through and that was a [Mana ball]. Despite not achieving much though, Xue Yan was anything but disappointed after all, her main goal was just to provide cover for Sato to close the gap; injuring the Guard Golem came second.

    "Take this."

    Sato shed his sword at the monster.

    Even though it was caught up facing Xue Yan''s attack, it easily saw through Sato''s actions. Rock particles suddenly gathered at its left palm as the Guard Golem extended it in a bid to catch Sato''s sword.

    *Phew*

    With the sound of air being sliced apart, Lu Zhen appeared out from stealth and brandished his dagger at Guard Golem from the side. What looked like a single assault from Sato was actually a two-pronged pincer attack with Lu Zhen.

    If that wasn''t enough, Xue Yan was in the background charging up a [Greater Fireball] to target the monster once an opportunity shows itself.

    A fool-proof n that was aimed to heavily injure the Guard Golem in an almost sure pattern.

    "Now, die!"

 Chapter 165 - 160 : Quick Assault

    From three different anglesid three strikes that would undoubtedly heavily injure any yer or monster below level 10 and all these trikes were aimed at one level 9 Elite Guard Golem. With a majority of its skills on cool-down, there was no way it could inhibit or defend against these attacks. Even if it were to make a move, with its instinctual responses and intelligence, it would only be able to defend against one of these attacks.

    Without any suspense, it chose Sato as its target. The reason was none other than Sato having severely injured it before, having a majority of its aggro fixed on him.

    "Row!

    With a roar, it grabbed at Sato''s Astral de with its earth-coated left hand, ignoring Lu Zhen''s strike and Xue Yan''s charged up spell.

    Seeing this, Sato didn''t feel down or anything. On the contrary, he smirked in response, simply because he was expecting this. The real n wasn''t for him tond a hit but for Lu Zhen to do so.

    "Hehe." Lu Zhen smirked as he abruptly increased his shing speed aiming at the Guard Golem''s back.

    [Shadow Strike]

    [Backstab] [1]

    [Backstab] was one of the most impressive skills in an [Assassin]''s arsenal and the reason for this was none other than the extra prative force applied to the weapon. Hence, such a skill was very useful against [Guardians], [Pdins] or monsters with absurd physical defense, which in this case, the Guard Golem happened to fit the mark. But that wasn''t the only reason he used the skill.

    Sometime ago, Lu Zhen discovered that when he used [Backstab] on an opponent''s back, the attack power actually increases! he had actually discovered this when he had a weird train of thought that made him wonder what the effects of [Backstab] would be if he actually stabbed a back. Lu Zhen believed this was a hidden feature in the skill as it wasn''t in the detail of the skill. With such hidden knowledge in hand together with the extra prative ability of the skill, Lu Zhen felt that [Backstab] would be quite suitable to be used as trump card move especially when used with [Shadow Strike]. Now with the Guard Golem having ignored his attack while going for Sato, Lu Zhen felt that this was a very good opportunity to deliver a ton of damage.

    At the same time, the result of Sato and the Guard Golem''s sh was revealed.

    *ng*

    When the two forces collided, a sound akin to that of metals colliding reverberated. Sato''s sword got mped by the Guard Golem''s left hand, locking it in ce. And this was without the Guard Golem losing any bit of HP.

    ''I underestimated you¡­'' Sato sighed a bit. He never thought that the Guard Golem would actually go uninjured when grabbing his sword. Even if it had a rocky coating on its palm, this was still a bit iprehensible.The only exnation was that the monster was stronger than he had thought.

    At the same time as Sato''s sword was caught by the Guard Golem, Lu Zhen''s sh had arrived.

    -70 (376/100 Guard Golem B''s HP)

    "Row!!!"

    The Guard Golem let out a roar of pain and fury with its disabled mouth.

    While Lu Zhen''s attack was a sess, Sato himself wasn''t so nonchnt. Even though Lu Zhen was the main dealer this time around, Sato didn''t n on just watching things.

    ''You think my sword can just be caught with your bare hands that easily?''

    Sato smirked just as the Guard Golem''s left hand was still mped hard on his sword.

    ''4th form : Lotus sh. [Hack]!''

    At the instant the Guard Golem was in pain, a new surge of power ran through Sato''s arms and was injected into his sword, abruptly increasing both its speed and power.

    As if receiving a new surge of power or having taken a few pills of viagra, Sato''s sword suddenly moved with an even greater amount of force, creating a crack on the palm before cutting through it like, a hot knife through butter.

    Before the Guard Golem could even react to his attack, the sword approached its face and sliced at it.

    [Critical!]

    -95 (281/1000 Guard Golem B''s HP)

    Lu Zhen also didn''t stop at one attack, making full use if the increased attack speed and damage of [Shadow Strike].

    -34

    -32

    -35 ( 180/1000 Guard Golem B''s HP)

    In anger, the Guard Golem iled its arms around in a bid to chase Sato and Lu Zhen away. This tactic proved useful as Sato and Lu Zhen hurriedly created some distance between themselves and the Guard Golem but there was another reason to their action of having retreated backwards; and that was because it was Xue Yan''s turn.

    "[Greater Fireball]!"

    Sato and Lu Zhen''s properly aimed strikes had done a lot to inflict multiple damages on the Guard Golem, forcing it to focus on them and ignore Xue Yan. This gave her the opportunity and space to not only close in a bit on the Guard Golem, but also make sure that her attack does not miss the target.

    *Boom*

    With no unexpected urrence or suspense, the fireball struck the Guard Golem and let off a small explosion, forcing it back by three steps while also eliminating more than half of its remaining HP. In the end, the Guard Golem was left with a meager 63 HP, which anyone in Sato''s team could easily drain in one or two hits.

    Having lost a lot of HP in one assault, the Guard Golem had already entered its [Enraged] state, having its attributes increased by at least 10%. Despite being aware of this, Sato and Lu Zhen didn''t look worried. On the contrary even, Lu Zhen was more pumped up. The Guard Golem being in its [Enraged] state could be said to be the same as it being on itsst leg.

    ''I wonder how many exp I will get from this.'' Lu Zhen''s face flushed with joy. Even so, he still didn''t let his guard down since a cornered rabbit could bite back viciously much less a cornered Guard Golem.

    "Row!" The Guard Golem roared with ire. Its previously blue eyes had now turned red as if depicting the amount of anger and hatred the monster held against the three yers.

    "So who wants it?" Sato suddenly asked.

    "Huh?" Xue Yan got confused.

    "You don''t mean¡­?!" Lu Zhen widened his eyes.

    "I''m level 9 already. The amount of experience points it would give me would be negligiblepared to what you guys would receive. So, who wants it?" Sato nced at the two.

    Xue Yan was shocked at Sato''s statement. This was a level 9 monster! Even if he was already a level 9 yer, this was an Elite monster. It would still give him a sizeable amount of Hp. Even at that, Sato thought nothing of it.

    "In that case, I might as well forfeit. I''m level 8 sopared to the level 7 Xue Yan over here, I won''t benefit much." Lu Zhen spread his hands out.

    "I, I-"

    "It''sing." Sato directly cut her off. The Guard Golem was already enraged. This added to the fact that it was a monster that moved based off of its instinct, there was no way it would just stand by and watch them.

    "Row!!"

    The Guard Golem used [Earth Roar] again, destabilising the yers'' movement. With its increased stats, the effect were much better than before but because Sato and Lu Zhen had already distanced themselves from the monster, the effect was a bit weaker, taking only 37 HP away from them both. As for Xue Yan, she had more points in her [Willpower] stats than they did, hence she only lost 38 HP. To the team, this was negligible as a few vials of Health Potions could easily solve this defect.

    "Xue Yan, we will try and give you the perfect opportunity. Take it down in one strike." Sato said to her as her dashed towards the Guard Golem in a bid to get its attention focused on him.

    "Okay." Xue Yan nodded.

    If someone else where here, they would have thought Sato was joking with his statement. This was a level 9 Elite earth-type monster! And he wanted to take it down in one strike?! Even if it only had 63 HP left, no regr yer could finish it in one strike. They would need at least two or three and these would have to be direct ones; without being blocked or interrupted. The more shocking fact for an outsider would be the fact that Xue Yan had actually agreed. Of course with the [ck Alder Staff] in her possession, such an amount of HP was even smaller than her regr damage by arge margin.

    Even though Xue Yan was the one to have made thest hit on the Guard Golem, it remembered Sato the best, as the guy who not only dismembered its jaws but also redid its look. It immediately dashed after him with the intent to kill.

    Once Sato was just 5 metres away, the Guard Golem lifted its right hand, which also happened to be its only working hand, and punched at Sato.

    [Solid Punch]!

    "Old trick." Sato lightly smiled and easily dodged the punch. This was only possible thanks to his superior movement attributes and battle senses.

    The Guard Golem was even further enraged to see that Sato easily dodged its punch. It ignored the fact that its left palm was injured and swung its left hand at sideways, in a bid to squash Sato.

    But at this time, a ring red beam was caught in it sights unintentionally. Because the Guard Golem was too focused on Sato due to its hatred, it once again ignored the other two and this act of ignorance was nothing more than the opportunity Xue Yan needed.

    "Now, rest. [Fire Ray]!"

 Chapter 166 - 161 : Emperorâ€™s Mightâ€™s Progress

    "How far are we from the Exit Gate?" A man in a [Swordsman] lightweight armour asked. His light armour was all ck and added with his overbearing and wild aura, the man was like a devastating unsheathed sword that blitz forth in a straight path, ignoring any obstacles. Beneath his foot was the body of a level 7 Kobold which had apparently bled to death. This man was ck Tempest; one of the top ranking [Swordsman] of Emperor''s Might, who also participated in this mission alongside Azure Dragon and Chesces.

    "That''s the third time you are asking this question already." Chesces nced frustratingly at him.

    In just two days, Emperor''s Might had made massive progress into ck Grill''s Cave diving into the Middle region''s 7th floor a few hours back. Following Chesces'' suggestion, they had slowed down their progress while waiting for Yukino and the rest of the reinforcements. But despite being slow, they were still able to make it to close to the Exit gate of the 7th floor.

    "Is there any rule that says I can''t do so?" ck Tempest retorted.

    "You guys always like arguing every second." Azure Dragon sighed. He then continued, "We should be close, at most within an hour or so we should be there."

    "An hour huh? How far are the others? Snow and her team? And also ourpetitors?" Chesces asked.

    "Snow''s progress is quite fast already. Following our map and the route wee went through, they are already on the 5th floor." Azure Dragon replied.

    "...*sighs* She really is worthy of her title as a ''Queen.''" Chesces sighed. Even ck Tempest had a shocked expression on his face.

    It was indeed true that the Snow Goddess'' team was smaller than Emperor''s Might''s main team nheless, to be able to reach the 5th floor of the Middle Region within a few hours, even with some guidance, was more of a testament to the team''s strength; after all not everyone would be able to achieve such a record speed so easily. What was still more worth taking note of was that the team''s strength wasrgely dependent on Yukino. It wasn''t that the yers assigned to her were weak but instead she was too strong. Unlike dark yers, Yukino''s forte wasn''t in PvP, hence the reason why she didn''t shine much against Three Kills'' team. But when ites to PvE and dungeon battles, Yukino was a true Queen.

    "What about our opponents?" Chesces continued his query.

    "The yers in this expedition would surely be the core of the guilds. They are their various guilds most trusted sub-ordinates and it''s quite difficult to get our men into their ranks. You should have obviously figured this out." Azure Dragon nced at Chesces.

    "Hehe." Chesces chuckled in response. "Even if that is so, there should still be a few of our men in there right?"

    Azure Dragon smiled faintly.

    Despite being a high ranking member of Emperor''s Might, Chesces didn''t have ess to the information of all the spies ced in the various guilds; even Azure Dragon didn''t have such authority. For this expedition though, the higher ups in the guild gave some of the information of the spies and themunication route to them. However, the information regarding the yer''s identity and themunication method used to contact them was limited and only given to Azure Dragon. This action was more than enough to show the amount of trust and faith the higher ups had in Azure Dragon. Without a doubt, he was one of the most influential and powerful members of Emperor''s Might in the younger generation.

    "Each time wemunicate with them increases the risk of them getting exposed. So the higher ups have severely cautioned me and assigned stringent requirements I have to bide by before I can do so. However, I guess this could be said to be an important issue so maybe they would let it slide." Azure Dragon said.

    Azure Dragon then opened up his System interface and searched for a yer before calling the yer while screening out his ID from the call. In this fashion, the yer who was being called would be unable to see his name, only seeing an ''[Anonymous ID]'' where the Caller ID should have been. He didn''t wait for the yer to answer the call before cutting it. In the same fashion, he called a few other yers before going to a special group chat that was linked to a social tform that exited in reality. None of the regr members and even core members knew of the existence of this channel. Azure Dragon only gained entry after the upper echelons had rmended. This channel was actually themunication tform of all the spies of Emperor''s Might with the guild''s officials. The act of calling-and-cutting or rather, ''shing'', of the various spies'' yer ID with an anonymous one, was a special secret code that requested them toe online in the channel.

    While Azure Dragonmunicated with the various spies, ck Tempest led a small team of 5 to clear a spot for the group to rest. Having battled monsters for more than two consecutive days, ck Tempest was no longer the same. He was now a level 7 [Swordsman] and had also lucked out to gain a skill book from a Mortal rank chest they discovered earlier on. With these added together, it didn''t take him long to clear a spot for the guild to take a short 10 minutes break.

    Chesces had also benefited from the chest as he got an Upper tier Mortal rank sword. Of course with ck Tempest having an increase in level, Chesces also got his share. Because he didn''t survive till the end against Sygrart, he was ineligible to receive a majority of the rewards especially the titles and the customized weapon option. On the good side though, he had still gotten a lot of Experience points from the battle. Added with the ones he now got from ck Grill''s Cave, Chesces was now a level 8 [Swordsman], one level higher than ck Tempest.

    "*Sighs* Let''s move." Before the team could enjoy 3 minutes of rest, Azure Dragon suddenly broke their joy.

    "That quick?"

    Some yers were stunned but they didn''t go against his words. To be in the same team as the stunning Azure Dragon, who was appreciated by the upper echelons of the guild, was a noteworthy achievement to any one of them. As a result of this, none of them dared toin about any of his orders but would try to fulfill it with the best rating in hope of being selected to directly serve under his him. At that point, their life would reach its peak and their gaming achievements and ranks would even soar alongside his.

    "Any problem?" Chesces asked with surprise as he walked over. Alongside him was ck Tempest, who also wanted to know what was going on.

    Azure Dragon frowned before he said in a low voice that only Chesces and ck Tempest could hear "I just got info that some of the guilds are catching up, with a majority of them being at the 5th floor."

    "Already?" Chesces asked with surprise but also confusion.

    Reaching the 5th floor so quickly was quite impressive butpared to Yukino''s ster achievement, it was still a bitcking. Also, the 5th floor was still some distance away from the 7th floor. Even if it was just two floors those two floors were huge in area. There was still the fact that the other guilds would have to proceed cautiously but Yukino, with the experience of Emperor''s Might''s main team, wouldn''t need to be so cautious, hence she would reach the 7th floor even faster than the other guilds'' teams. As such, Chesces was confused as to why Azure Dragon would order them to move.

    "If that was all, then I wouldn''t be so worried." Azure Dragon said with a heavy and serious tone.

    "Heaven''s Angels'' God''s Retaliation battalion has already set sights here. Worst part is that they are on the 6th floor."

    After hearing what Azure Dragon said, both Chesces and ck Tempest had heavy expressions disyed on their faces.

    Heaven''s Angels wasn''t a super guild but a 1st tier guild. Compared to a super guild, a first tier guild doesn''t sound much but Heaven''s Angels wasn''t your regr first tier guilds. They were peak first tier guilds! This means that they were just one step away from being rated as a super guild! With such a title attached to them, even super guilds had to take them seriously. As for the God''s Retaliation battalion, this was their trump card battalion! Most of the top guilds still had their trump card battalions in other VR games, with a majority in Conquest, the current number one VR game. No one had actually migrated their top battalions to Infinite Realm yet as that would be almost the same as surrendering their attainments in other VR games. But Heaven''s Angels had actually dared to pull such a devastating maneuver. Every peak guilds'' trump battalion was one made up of their strongest. Such battalions had the ability to simply bulldozer through any obstacle and im territories no matter where.

    "Heaven''s Angels really is ambitious. No one knows the secret about Infinite Real yet but they still dare to make such detrimental actions. Don''t they care about their territories in Conquest?!" Chesces was surprised.

    "Either they know something we don''t or they are making a risky bet. I take it as thetter since even Hermes has no information on the secret and also that old fogey of theirs always likes making such risky bets." Azure Dragon said.

    "In that case, we should move quickly. Forget about Snow''s team. Every second counts so we can''t wait for her." Even ck tempest had kept a rare serious expression after hearing this news. This was just to show how much of a threat they saw the God''s Retaliation battalion as.

    Back in Conquest, God''s Retaliation battalion had actually faced off against a super guild''s army in a city defense battle and won. The God''s Retaliation battalion was more known for attacking than defending but they still pulled it off. This battle ended up adding more fame and fear to their name, making them recognized by the majority of yers with more super guilds having to take them more seriously. If that wasn''t enough, they retaliated and actually aunched an offensive against the said super guildying siege on one of their cities. In the end, the God''s Retaliation battalion actually one. This battle added more emphasis to their name ''Retaliation'' because it was said that their performance in attacking was way better than defending. And the best part, the said super guild was actually Emperor''s Might!

    "This time, we won''t lose to them. We have to wash that shame away.." Azure Dragon said lightly but his eyes disyed how serious he took this expedition.

 Chapter 167 - 162 : Middle Regionâ€™s Level 10

    "So this is the 10th floor." Fudo stared at the wide open space in front.

    "It isn''t what I really imagined it to be."

    After the team of Sato, Xue Yan and Lu Zhen had taken down Guardian Golem B, they regrouped with the other 4 and finished off the remaining two Guardian Golems. Once that was done, strange dots of golden coloured light had departed from the Guardian Golems'' body and entered them. Originally, they didn''t know the function of the light dots but Sato had guessed that it was the ''key'' they needed to get into the 10th floor. After arranging and distributing the loot they got from the battle, the team left for the 1oth floor. Unlike the previous Exit gates, teleporting to the 10th floor had taken them a while; at least 5 seconds instead of the usual 1 second, before they were able to step into the 10th floor of the Middle region.

    "Yeah. It''s different; way too different. But I guess that proves that there''s indeed a boss level monster here." Yato said.

    Alongside the two were Sato, Katsuo, Xue Yan, Lu Zhen and Seiichi. They had all began surveying their surroundings after they had been teleported over to the 10th floor and were surprised at their findings. This was because unlike the previous upper floors that were a wide expanse of ruggednds with a ton of bends, corners and smaller caves, the 10th floor was arge expanse ofnd with no exit or entry whatsoever. However, the mana level was quite notable; it was at least twice that of the previous floors. It could be said to be mana-filled, enclosed cave hall and in the middle of this cave hall was a settlement of sorts. That''s right, a settlement.

    "What do you think lives there?" Yato suddenly asked.

    "Barney." Fudo said seriously.[1]

    "What?" Yato stared at him in confusion.

    "What do you think would be there in the first ce? Of course it''s monsters." Fudo barked.

    "But what kind of monsters?" Xue Yan asked.

    "Look closely." Sato suddenly said.

    Immediately, everyone focused their sights on the settlement in the middle.

    The settlement was like a rural vige from Ancient times. Most of the buildings were made of either y or carved rocks and boulders, or even both. The roofs were all made from y that was ttened and dried, before being attached to the buildings. With the buildings in the centre, a 3 metre high fence was setup, running round the settlement as a barricade to prevent outsiders from sneaking in. Though it is called a fence, it was a terrible yet creepy one; being made of sticks, spear-like carved rocks and bones. Due to the appearance of the bones, it would be more apt to call the fence, a warning block.

    With the fence having surrounded the buildings, there was only one entrance in. The entrance was but 4 metres wide and by the two sides of it stood two 2 metre or so tall kobolds. They both held a bone spear in one hand as they scanned the area like Imperial pce guards.

    "Kobolds huh?" Fudo sighed. "I should have expected it."

    Having been one of the very first yers to have battled a Kobold, Fudo wasn''t surprised at this. On the contrary, he had always wondered whether the Kobolds had a nest but as the team had a goal set in mind, there was no deviations in their paths so they couldn''t explore a majority of the floors properly. Now seeing this, he finally had the answer to his question.

    "I am guessing that they should be a bunch more kobolds here, after all this looks like their home. But where are the rest?" Lu Zhen asked.

    "Over there." Seiichi answered while pointing at a particr spot within the ''walls''[2]. Among all the yers in the team, he had the most superior eyesight which came as a perk of being a [Ranger]. Scanning the settlement despite there being a distance of more than 300 metres between them, was not much of a challenge to him.

    "Isn''t that just a building?" Lu Zhen nced at Seiichi. The spot Seiichi had pointed at seemed like a t circr tform of more than 400 metres in diameter, with a few protruding points scattered in a n irregr fashion.. In the middle of the tform was a tall stone statue. Due to the distance though, none of them were capable of making out the statues facial expression or looks.

    "Look carefully." Seiichi simply said.

    Doing as Seiichi said, with a bit of confusion and frustration, Lu Zhen

    "That is¡­!" Not just Lu Zhen but everyone else was astonished. They had originally thought that the spot Seiichi had pointed out was just a circr tform with a statue reminiscent of a town centre or something but when Seiichi told them to look carefully, they all realised how wrong they were.

    ck Grill''s Cave was a leveling map that was located in a huge cave system and even went further underground. Because of this, lighting was a huge issue for yers. Luckily for them, ck Grill''s Cave''s floors weer mysteriously lit with dim lights. Though the lighting was very dim, it was still enough for yers to make use of to see a few metres in front. But as for long distances, unless one was a [Ranger] or had a dark vision type skill, they would barely be able to see much.

    The ''tform'' wasn''t actually a tform but a multitude of Kobolds who were tightly packed together. The initial protruding points were actually the heads of the taller Kobolds. It turned out that the huge statue in the middle wasn''t actually situated atop a circr tform but was surrounded by a bunch of kobolds.

    "This is, this is insane!" Yato was in shock.

    Xue Yan''s mission was to y the world ss boss located on the 10th floor of the Middle region. As it stands, the appearance of the world ss boss was unknown, but with the appearance of these kobolds, it could be presumed that the world ss boss was a Kobold too. The Kobolds that upied the 400 or so metres circle numbered at least 500 kobolds! To battle such a massive number of Kobolds before they would finally face the boss monster seemed like an impossible quest especially with their meager numbers. The chances of pulling off the original mission would now be 10%. This 10% however, wasn''t on survival but was on the basis that they could y the boss before they died because they will surely die in the end, under the Kobolds'' onught. Unless a god were to descend to aid them, they will surely die if they attack.

    Sato frowned at the sight of this. Forget battling the monsters, they still haven''t spotted the boss. If there was really no boss, the wouldn''t their journey here have been for naught? Even at that, the boss would most likely be surrounded by a few bodyguards. Once they began the battle, themotion would surely attract the other Kobolds. At that time, even if the kobolds were level 4, the team would be devoured by the waves of Kobolds. By then, much less defeating the boss, staying alive would be a difficult task.

    "Xue Yan. Are you sure this is the right ce?" Sato asked her. Even though Xue Yan had asked for their help, she didn''t share the mission with them so he needed to confirm things with her. Despite her seemingly selfish act, Sato wasn''t bothered as just the map she had given them was enough.

    "Ye, yeah." Xue Yan stuttered. She too was surprised at this view and even began wondering whether this quest she got was meant for low level yers

    "*sighs*The boss is nowhere to be seen so we have nothing to do yet. Let''s just watch and see what they are doing. Who knows, maybe the boss would appear and seclude itself elsewhere." Sato said.

    When they heard Sato''s words, the team which was on the brink of insanity and frustration, had their spirit lifted up. It was still possible for the boss to seclude itself from the settlement. In such a scenario, they wouldn''t need to face all these Kobolds, only having the boss as their opponent. In such a case, their chances of sess would remain as it was before; 50/50.

    "I just hope you are right. Otherwise, all our actions would have been for naught." Yato sighed.

    Xue Yan tightened her fists as she hung her head low while biting her lips. All she could do now was hope; hope that Sato''s conjecture was true.

    "Here ites."

 Chapter 168 - 163 : Life Order

    *Thud* *Thud*

    With loud footsteps that seemed to proim the descent of an Emperor, a 3 metre tall Kobold walked towards the tall statue in the centre. As it passed the other kobolds, a majority of them failed to reach up to its waist. Even the tallest amongst them could only reach up to the upper part of its chest.

    "Is that the world ss boss?" Fudo asked with surprise.

    Unlike the other kobolds that looked like lizard-men with lean muscles, the huge monster had a hulking physique with buff muscles that threatened to burst through its flesh. Together with its exaggerated height, the kobold could be deemed to be a towering monstrosity of stupendous strength. One look at it and one would feel their will to resist quickly decrease, like a lit match stick being quenched with a bucket of water. Even the other kobolds were scared by this anomaly of their race, as they gave way for the gargantuan to pass through till it reached the statue.

    The aura the beast radiated would make one feel that they were in the presence of king of beasts. Resistance was futile and fear would reign. Despite the distance of more than 800 metres between them, everyone in the group could feel this sensation of fear as their blood boiled, their palms became sweaty and backs felt cold. This wasn''t just a difference in strength, it was a difference in bloodline and life order!

    It is already a well-known fact that not all life are born equal and that''s a fact. In nature, all life are different and so possess different life standing or order. The life of a cockroach can''t bepared to that of a human and this is because of its standing in the natural order of life. Each specie surpasses another in one or many ways, earning it a rank in the natural order. This is why preys flee in terror in the presence of a predator.

    Kobolds are said to be descendants of the supreme Dragon race race. However, due to the extremely thin bloodline they possess, kobolds can''t even bepared to low level wyrms much less dragons hence their existence are ignored by high level adventurers. Despite having such a weak bloodline, there can be anomalies in the Kobold race. Such anomaly usually entails a kobold unlocking more of its ancestral abilities or having a purer bloodline. The purer a kobold''s bloodline is, the closer it gets to its ancestors, the dragons'' level.

    Kobolds are generally said to have less than 0.001% of their ancestor''s bloodline within their DNA. Due to the amount of Draconic bloodline being minute within their blood, kobolds were far weaker than their ancestors and their existence was also ignored by higher level entities. However, when a Kobold happens to be born with a purer bloodline, even if the increase in Draconic concentration is just 0.01%, the Kobold will experience a qualitative change; one at the level of life sublimation. This change would make the kobold far stronger than its peers as its bloodline and life order would have increased far ahead of its own kind.As a result of this, it would automatically be the leader of the kobold tribe. And this was all just because the bloodline was purer by just a little bit. The reason for this simply had to deal with their ancestors. The dragons were just that strong.

    The kobold in front of them, which happened to look like the leader of this settlement, was a good example of a kobold with a purer bloodline. Though its draconic bloodline would be, at most, of 0.001% purity,pared to the average less than 0.00009% that most kobolds have, this was quite impressive. This minor increase in purity not only made it stronger, but made its fellow nsmen bow before it and even threatened Sato and his teammates instinctively from a far distance. This was the difference in a species'' order of life, the natural order of life; the life order of all beings.

    "Can we really beat that?" Katsuo asked as his Adam''s apple throbbed. Despite this being a game and the opponent being a bunch of codes, he instinctively felt fear towards it; fear that made him lose the will to fight.

    Not only Katsuo as even Xue Yan, Fudo, Yato and Seiichi slowly felt their will weaken as they had passively dived into illusions were they were surrounded by blood and bones, before being killed by the monstrosity in front.

    "Stop staring!" Sato shouted in a low voice.

    Like a bomb being set off, Sato''s voice made Xue Yan and the rest regain their sense, waking up from the illusion.

    "What was that?" Fudo suddenly got scared. Without knowing it, he had entered an illusion where he was being assaulted by a multitude of kobolds and blood warriors. One would undoubtedly be scared, or even scarred, after such a creepy encounter.

    "I, I felt like I had died, like I was being tortured." Yato shared his experience. They had yet to battle the boss but had already swallowed a loss, and this was all because they stared too long at the monster from an 800 metres distance. Imagine if they were within 10 metres of it then?

    "This mission is a lot harder than we thought." Sato sighed. He might have been a pro gamer before but faced with such a mission and with his meager abilities,pleting the mission was impossible.

    ''Though, there has to still be a way.''

    Yes, Sato believed that there had to be a way. Even though he felt it was impossible, it didn''t mean that he would simply give up. Generally speaking, ck grill''s cave is recorded as a level 5 map. This was with the Middle region not being fully explored. With that in mind together with the current progress of yers and information exchange, it was presumed that only from the Outer regions till the Middle region''s 10th floor was a level 5 map. Hence the monsters residing here would be at most a level 10 monster.

    Against a level 10 monster, Sato didn''t see any reason why they should shy away. Sato and Fudo were both level 9, Lu Zhen was level 8 with the rest being either 7 or 6. Despite their MT, Katsuo, being a level 6 [pdin], Sato believed that if he shared the pressure with him, they would be able to tank the monster while the rest deal damage. With his calctions, their chances of sess would be at least 60% so why should they retreat now that they have gotten this far? Of course, this was all based on the fact that they could battle the boss one-on-one or rather, 1-on-7.

    "We can''t just turn around aftering this far. We at least have to try." Sato said. "Let''s get closer so we can have a better look. "

    At the distance they were, they couldn''t see much of what was going on further in. Though they were quite lucky that the Exit gate teleported them to a small hill of sorts, they could only see the general view and not the specifics.

    "Alright."

    No one disagreed after all, they didn''t want to go back empty handed aftering this far. It was just a game; it isn''t like they would die in reality if they did here and so they decided to still take the risk.

    The team walked closer but slowly till they were at least a 100 metres away from the gate and 300 metres away from the square the kobolds upied.

    "Let''s stay there."

    Spotting a high ground, Sato led the team to the elevated teau. Standing from there, they could not only see a better than from before but they could also hear the noiseing from the kobold settlement.

    "Roar! Graw! Krawkt!"

    "Roar!"

    Rough screams and roars sounded from the square as the towering kobold walked towards the statue apanied by a few other tall kobolds, in a slow procession. From the vigorous and energetic roars from the other kobolds, one could easily presume that there were cheering or hailing the chief kobold.

    Having gotten closer to the ''event area'', Sato and his crew were able to see the kobold chief a bit better. Even if they couldn''t, Seiichi had directly live-streamed his view in the party channel, so by simply going there, they could watch everything live as if they did so from Seiichi''s view. Without a doubt, the [Ranger] ss had better visual abilities as Seiichi''s view was a whole lot clearer and detailed than that of majority of them plus, it was free of any illusory effects as it was just a broadcast of the original view and not the original view itself.

    Through Seiichi''s view, they saw that the kobold chief wasn''t like the other kobolds both in looks and in dressing. The outfit of the kobold chief was actually a bone armour patched with the dried skin of an unknown animal. Below, was a skin skirt that the kobold used to cover its man-,uh, kobold parts. The two horns on its head was longer than that of the others and its ivory texture gave off a weird metallic sheen to it as if there were a pair of daggers rather than horns. The skin texture was still colored red but a whole lot deeper than the rest, approaching that of blood. In one hand, the right to be exact, was a bone spear that towered even its massive frame, closing in at a height of 3.5 metres.

    Behind the kobold chief were two other kobolds who were just a head shorter than it. Without a doubt, these kobolds had a more purer bloodline than the rest, onlycking whenpared to the chief kobold. They too had buffed muscles that were tightly packed together. Unlike the chief, they had a bone sword grasped in their hands as they apanied the chief in the procession.

    The kobold procession was a steady one from the outer edge of the 400 metres circle till the centre. This alone took two minutes with the loud cheers of the kobolds keeping Sato''s team on high alert.

    Finally, the kobold procession had stopped.

 Chapter 169 - 164 : The Ritual

    The kobold chief stood reverently in front of the statue together with its guards. Beside the statue was a small altar that had been setup by a few other kobolds with some instruments dropped in it.

    The statue that stood right at the centre of the settlement, was that of a kobold, quite different from the rest. Even though it was just a statue, it looked overbearing with it''s 7 metres height. The kobold statue had horns longer than an average kobold. Apart from having a few discrepancies in looks, the most noticeable feature was the wings that hung behind it. There were also a few streaks of brownish red that looked like a strange paint randomly sshed on the statue. All these features added together made the statue have a strange beauty to it. It was undeniable that the kobold that was carved in to this statue was one with a bloodline far more purer than the current Kobold chief. With a far purer bloodline than even the current kobold chief, it was understandable why it was venerated so much that a statue was created in honour of it.

    "That''s impressive..." Fudo stared at the statue in amazement.

    "Roar!!!" The kobold chief roared.

    *m*

    Immediately, more than 500 kobolds suddenly dropped to their knees with a reverent expression on their faces. Only the three leading kobolds -the kobold chief and the two pure bloods- were left standing.

    "Kraw!!!!"

    The kobold chief let out a strange high pitched roar as if addressing the crowd.

    "Roar!"

    The kobolds roared in response to the kobold chief''s scream.

    Following that the entire kobold horde suddenly dropped their heads low, as if paying respects to their ancestors. The two pure bloods beside the kobold chief then kneeled on the floor with the kobold chief being the only one left standing.

    The kobolds repeated a series of roars and kowtows with a serious expression while the kobold chief performed a ritual on the small altar that was set up beside the statue. A little monster that looked like a rabbit but was a bit different from it, was grabbed by the kobold chief. The ''rabbit'' had streaks of blue, red, white and grey on it skin with a tiny horn centered right between it''s brows. If a [Druid] were to focus carefully on it, they would notice that the mana in the environment passively circted round this little guy.

    Using it''s sharp ws, the kobold chief tore the ''rabbit'' into two as the blood spilled on a stone bowl underneath. The kobold chief squeezed the corpse dry, filling the stone bowl, before devouring the flesh in a boorish and hurried manner.

    With the blood in the bowl, the kobold chief walked towards the statue and sshed the blood on it. From the looks of things, it could now be presumed that the brownish-red stains on the statue was actually blood stains from other ''rabbits'' or creatures that had dried up with the passage of time.

    *Gulp* *Gulp*

    The kobold chief left a bit of blood in the bone bowl which it gulped down swiftly.

    "Roar!!!" Once the bowl was cleaned empty, the kobold chief lifted it and roared out loud.

    In response to the roar, none of the kobolds roared back but their reverent expressions strengthened as if they had all taken a dosage of Viagra or a very potent aphrodisiac. Some of them even began huffing and puffing violently like a bunch of ''hungry'' males.

    "What are they doing?" Xue Yan suddenly asked. The sight looked confusing not just to her but to everyone else.

    "I think, they are praying or probably paying respects to the statue." Sato said, a bit unsure of his words.

    "When do we attack?" Yato suddenly asked.

    "Why the rush, man?" Fudo asked him.

    "I don''t know why but I''m getting a bit nervous. My instincts are warning. Something bad might soon happen." Lu Zhen replied.

    "Same here." Sato said with a serious expression.

    "... something like what?" Fudo asked.

    "I don''t know." Lu Zhen sighed.

    Sato stared at the kobold square, watching the kobolds go on with their ''honouring ceremony'', his thoughts unknown.

    "Let''s wait a bit more." Sato said. "It''s too soon to make a move and even if we want to, we can''t just rush in there; we would inevitably die without achieving much."

    "Yeah, you''re right." Fudo supported him.

    "Alright." Lu Zhen agreed.

    "Whether it''s a prayer session or they are paying respects to their ancestors, there''s nothing much we can do except to wait. They will eventually have to leave. The only problem though, is the other yers." Sato narrowed his eyes.

    .....

    The kobold ceremony had went on for at least 30 minutes. During this time, Sato and his team had made different ns for battling the kobold chief in different scenarios. For the scenario that the kobolds'' ceremony wouldst beyond an hour, they decided that they would either try to assassinate the kobold chief or wait for the other yers to arrive here. If they other guild yers were toe here, they could then use them as cannon-fodders and look for an opportunity to y the boss. Though this n didn''t look so righteous or anything good, none of the yers in Sato''s team was bothered about this. In VR games, thews of reality don''t work here. You either eat or get eaten, kill or get killed and no third option. So rather than diving into the horde and getting killed trying to eliminate the boss while also reducing the kobold horde for the nearing yers, they would instead turn those yers to their knife while they wait for a chance.

    Luckily for them, there was no need for that as the ceremony looked to have entered it''s closing stages.

    The kobold chief grabbed its bone spear with both arms and stabbed it right in front of the statue. It then picked up a bone dagger from the altar and cut a slit on it''s right hand. As the wound bled, it sprinkled its blood on the spear and the statue before kneeling down with a reverent expression. The statue suddenly glowed a dull red colour. If it was outside, one might not notice this glow, but here in ck Grill''s Cave, the statue stood out like a sore thumb.

    A 30 seconds moment of silence was observed before the kobold chief finally stood up with a serious expression. At the same time, the glow of the statue slowly faded till the statue returned to it''s quiet form. It grabbed its spear with one hand before uprooting it from the ground.

    "Roar!"

    Lifting the spear up, it roared once more, this time though, it faced the kobold horde.

    "It looks like it''s over." Fudo said. He was right.

    After the kobolds seemed to roar and growl in jubtion, they began to depart and head to their various spots or houses. In the end, it was only the kobold chief and it''s two guards that were left.

    "Do we move in now?" Yato asked.

    "Are you stupid or what?" Fudo nced at him with a face that seemed to say ''what the hell?!''

    "Not yet." Sato answered Yato.

    They watched as the kobold chief finally departed from the square with it''s guards. From the looks of things, it was heading to a building close by.

    "If we keep waiting, we might not get another chance." Even Lu Zhen began to urge Sato.

    "If we go in now, our battle would undoubtedly attract the attention of the others." Sato reprimanded him.

    "If we keep waiting, we might lose it for God knows when. As for attracting their attention, if we give it our best with everything we''ve got, we can probably finish the boss within a minute" Lu Zhen replied without giving up. His statement was not without proof.

    Back when he and Sato returned to town, they had got quite a few scrolls and explosives. They converted a majority of their funds to consumables and weapons that would help strengthen them. Though it would be far-fetched to say that they could take down a town with them, taking down a level 10 boss is still quite doable.

    Even Xue Yan had the expression of ''what are we waiting for ? Lets go in''. Lu Zhen''s statement had even affected Katsuo and Seiichi''s stand as they also nced at Sato, waiting for him to make a decision.

    Sato still had his eyes in the kobold chief, his expression serious as he began pondering in their options.

    Finally, Sato spoke but what he said shocked the group.

    "You can go in if you want to. In fact,anyone of you can, but don''t drag me in with you. If you get into some deep sh*t, don''t expect me to help you."

    "You..." Lu Zhen was stunned. This was sthe first time he had heard such words from Sato.

    "Sato..." Xue Yan too couldn''t believe what Sato had said.

    "...fine." Lu Zhen sighed indignantly.

    "Sato, what did you find?" Fudo asked Sato. If there was anyone who knew Sato best, it would be him.

    Hearing Fudo''s question, everyone turned to nce at Sato.

    "If I am correct, then something is wrong here." Sato said.

    "Something is wrong?" Xue Yan asked.

    Sato replied "I can''t put my finger on it yet or rather, I don''t have any proof yet.. But if we go in now, we will surely die."

 Chapter 170 - 165 : Progress

    On the 7th floor was arge party of 15 yers. They were all d in quality outfits with quality weapons. At the very least, each and every yer was geared in Mid tier mortal rank equipment with at least two of their equipment or weapons being of the Upper tier Mortal rank. Even their overall look and presence would make one feel as if they were in the presence of experts.

    Infinite Realm had been online for more than 24 hours which in in-game time represents 48 hours. yers had been able to upgrade their equipment during this time but still, Upper tier Mortal rank weapons was still a bit rare and not some cheap cabbage you could find on the streets or fields. Even if one could find them in NPC stores, without enough funds to cover the expenses, all they could do would be to stare and drool over it. For this team to be geared in at least one or two Upper tier Mortal rank each, was not just a show of wealth but of power!

    "How far are we from the 9th floor and what is the ETA?"[1] One of the yers who was dressed in an overbearing leather armour asked. From the way he stood ahead of the rest of the payers, it could be presumed that his was the leader of this team. His clothing only had the colours red and ck, streaming through it. The patterns were arranged in such a way that the entire equipment gave off a bloodthirsty aura. From an overview, it could be seen that the top clothing fitted well with the lower one. This was only so for a specific type of equipment; a set equipment, and one for [Berserkers] at that. Together with his ferocious appearance, he looked like a bloodthirsty savage.

    "We are still a bit far boss. The eight floors next after which it''s the 9th floor. With the current momentum of the team, if we keep going as we have been, it would only take 5-6 hours to get through the two floors. But with the way the monsters increase in strength, I predict it might even take us up to 8 hours." Another yer who stood behind the previous one replied. Behind him hung a quiver made of tanned monster skin that was painted to rece its original look. Held in his right hand was a bow that measured at a height of 1.3 metres. The wood used to manufacture this exquisite bow didn''t look to be ordinary as it had a purple colour to it. Slight pulses of mana drew themselves to the bow, passively enhancing its abilities. This feature was only limited to the highest ranking Upper tier Mortal rank weapons and above.

    "8 hours¡­that''s too long." The leader of the group shook his head.

    If the other guilds happened to hear what he was saying, they would feel that he was conceited and arrogant. To spend just 8 hours to go past the 7th and 8th floor to reach the 9th floor was already an impressive record. One should remember that despite having theplete map for the Middle regions 1-10 floors, Sato''s team still took 2 days to go from the 5th floor to the 10th floor. Though most of the time was spent levelling up, it still took them a lot of time to reach the 9th floor. Even Emperor''s Might current team lead by Azure Dragon, would be quite satisfied to make it from the 7th floor to the 9th floor all in 8 hours. After all, their numbers were limited but the quantity and quality of monsters they would face all depended on their luck.

    "It can''t be helped, boss. With each progression in floor level, the monsters get a whole lot stronger plus the chances of meeting a horde or a pack increases." The ranger sighed.

    The team leader frowned as he stared ahead in thought. They had just gone through the 6th floor''s Exit gate, arriving at the 7th floor and all these was done in the space of a day. With such an amazing clearing speed, any guild would usually be proud of themselves but for an unknown reason, he kept feeling uneasy.

    "How''s Emperor''s Might''s progress?" The team leader suddenly asked.

    The [Ranger] replied, "A few minutes ago, our informants reported that the Snow Goddess'' team were on the 5th floor. As for the other guilds, they are on the 5th floor, progressing to the 6th."

    "Haha. It looks like after we beat them back in conquest, they have always been hiding behind their tail." One other yer guffawed. From his dressing, one could presume that he was a mage type yer.

    "Enough. We only managed to beat a branch guild back then and not their main force so don''t boast too much about that. If you really want to, then aim to defeat the Snow Goddess yourself." The team leader reprimanded.

    "Sorry boss." The mage bowed stooped his head low.

    Ignoring the yer, the team leader continued, "There''s now way that Emperor''s might would have been so slow in reacting. Ever since the game began, they have already been makingrge movements. It is impossible that they wouldn''t have gotten some inside information about the world ss boss'' existence earlier on."

    "You mean¡­"

    "The Snow Goddess'' party might be a fake to get people''s mind off this idea. Remember, the Snow Goddess isn''t the only capable member the guild had sent. There''s still still Azure Dragon, Chesces and ck Tempest. But all those guys are missing. Do you know why?" The [Berserker] team leader asked.

    "Because they might have another important mission toplete?" One yer voiced out his thoughts.

    "That''s quite possible but there is still one other option. It is quite possible that Emperor''s Might have already sent a team earlier on. If I''m correct, then that squad should have most of their heavy-hitters and are probably even ahead of us. Maybe at the 8th floor or even the 9th floor." The team leader said with a frown.

    "!!!" The entire team was surprised.

    "How is that possible? Unless they got inside information¡­ but there''s no way the developers would let that happen right?" The mage yer asked.

    The team leader nced at him with an intimidating re. "Hmph. Where did you think the news about the world ss boss came from? It''s obviously a leak, maybe one done purposely. It''s understandable that some characters would have gotten a hold of the information before the majority."

    "Ah? I understand." The mage yer said with a depressed tone after being lectured.

    "Let''s move. We''ll be taking only 4 breaks in each floor and each break would only be for 15 minutes tops. Anyone who dares to hold us back would be killed by myself. Now move. Our retaliation against the superpowers begins here." the [Berserker] said with a deep tone.

    .....

    "Where next?" Yukino said as she pulled her sword out from the corpse of a Ground Rat.

    "If we go forward for 200 metres before taking a turn to the left and proceeding 500 metres or so, we should find the Exit gate to the 6th floor." Kylian said. At the same time, he was admiring Yukino''s strength after all, she alone had soloed a 2 level 6 Ground Rats while receiving only minor injuries. It was because of his admiration for her abilities that he had joined her private party alongside Griffin.

    *Tweet*

    A notification sound rang out but only Yukino was able to hear it.

    Opening her system interface, she checked the notification and discovered that it was a result of a message she got from Chesces.

    ''They are moving ahead¡­''

    "...not enough. We have to hurry." Yukino said with a sigh.

    "???" Kylian nced questioningly at her.

    "Whiskers is moving without us." Yukino said. Whiskers was the nickname she liked to use to address Azure Dragon behind his back[2]. Azure Dragon knew of this but he couldn''t reprimand her since she was the ''princess'' of their guild.

    "That soon? I thought they were waiting for us so why?" Kylian asked.

    "A change of ns apparently. Heaven''s Angels is hot on their tail so they decided not to wait any longer, lest the lose their advantage."

    "I see." Kylian sighed.

    ''If it were any other guild or even a super guild, Azure Dragon might not have made the same decision but with Heaven''s Angels, he doesn''t want to take any chances.'' Yukino thought. She obviously knew why this was so.

    After what Heaven''s Angels had done to Emperor''s Might in Conquest, the bad blood between them was something that couldn''t be written off with an apology. Emperor''s Might had once seeded in avenging themselves but the scar still remained there. Hence, Azure Dragon would prefer to forfeit against any super guild than to do so against Heaven''s Angels.

    ....

    Meanwhile, Sato''s team had prepared themselves for their operation.. The target, the kobold chief.

 Chapter 171 - 166 : The Setup

    (AN : Apologies. I discovered that the chapter I posted previously was the wrong one and the worst part was that it appeared twice. Sorry for that please. I will update the chapters with the original as fast as I can. Once again, sorry ? . *sighs* this is all because I didn''t have myptop at the time.)

    "Arhhhh. It''s been 8 hours since we have been waiting!!" Fudo cried out in frustration. He still remembered to lower his voice just enough for the others to here him and the sound not to go past 5 metres.

    "Stopining. You aren''t the only one who had to wait." Yato grumbled. "Also, it''s already past 8 hours."

    After the small confrontation between Sato and Lu Zhen, with Lu Zhen losing, the team didn''t make a move on the kobold settlement again.

    With Sato''s instincts warning him about approaching there, the group decided to stalk the settlement in hopes that the kobold chief might leave for a walk or something. They were however deemed to never get that chance as the kobold chief barely made any movement during this period. Whatever orders he had for the tribe was passed by the two guards. Such an eventful activity of stalking for a long period of time would eventually bore anyone, especially yers, who usually tend to care about their time. The good thing though was that while they were waiting, a few kobolds would asionally exit the settlement and head out.

    Originally, they had thought that the 10th floor was probably the hideout of the kobold tribe in ck Grill''s Cave. But with it being secluded, this idea sounded ridiculous. However, when a bored Lu Zhen once chased after a kobold that left the vige, he discovered that it wasn''t so. The 10th floor wasn''t really secluded. There were other entrances and exits but they were well hidden, such that if one wasn''t blessed by the goddess of luck or had an overly meticulous personality, one wouldn''t even know that they were standing in front of an exit. This discovery ended up confirming their idea that the 10th floor was the home of the kobolds that wandered the lower floors(5-9). As for the path that the exits lead, they couldn''t find out because a restriction prevented them from being able to go through the entrance. The team wasn''t bothered much though, as their main goal stillid on this floor.

    After the discovery, the team went on to explore the entire area while also sneaking up on a few kobolds, to at least relieve the boredom and stress but that didn''tst long.

    Without having made any progress in their ''monitoring mission'', Sato proposed a new idea. That was to wait for a few more yers to reach here and get them to handle the horde''s aggro while they go for the boss. Morally, this didn''t sound like a good idea but no one cared. The unspoken rules in every VR game, and even reality, was like that. And that was to eat or to be eaten, to kill or be killed. It was either they got the kill or another guild did. Considering this fact, none of them made a fuss about Sato''s n. And so, the team went on, assassinating kobolds that left the settlement while waiting for more yers to arrive.

    About 3~4 hours ago, they had gotten their first guests. This group was actually Emperor''s Might''s team lead by Azure Dragon. In order to prevent themselves from getting discovered, Sato''s team went into hiding in one seclusive spot they had discovered while exploring the floor. Sato also used a special scroll, a [Cloaking scroll], to shield the team from being detected by a [Druid]. The scroll was quite cheap as it''s effect was only useful against creature under level 10. They didn''t use it to sneak into the settlement because the kobold chief would still detect them and would alert the tribe. If they were surrounded within the settlement, then they would have undoubtedly died so that n was scraped. Now though, the [Cloaking scroll] ended up being put to good use.

    Even with the arrival of Emperor''s Might''s team, Sato still felt that their numbers weren''t enough tost against the kobold horde so the team had to wait for more yers. Funny enough, Azure Dragon had made the same decision for his party and like that, two teams waited for more yers with only one having the knowledge of the other.

    "If you''re that bored or tired, you could go ahead and dive into the kobold settlement. With your ''amazing'' strength, I predict that he boss wouldn''tst long against you." Seiichi said.

    "The heck is wrong with you?! I know I''m amazing but why did you have to say it that way?!" Fudo retorted. If one wasn''t paying proper attention to the topic of the matter, he/she might misunderstand Seiichi''s words. That was exactly why Fudo got angry.

    "Hehe." Seiichi nudged his sses.

    ording to his ''martial way'', teasing Fudo and Yato would bring peace to one''s hearts. So no matter the time or scenario, he wouldn''t mind doing so.

    "You guys keep it quiet, would you? What would you do if we get spotted?" Sato sighed.

    "The [Cloaking scroll] is still active. Anything under level 10 can''t spot us through Mana sensing. Also, the ce we are right now is very secluded. I doubt they would discover us even if they decided to explore this entire floor." Fudo said as he waved his hand.

    "That still doesn''t mean you should go shooting off your mouth anyhow." Sato retorted.

    "Hehe." Fudo chuckled awkwardly.

    "Hmm?" Sato suddenly turned his head to an empty spot by the side. "You''re back already?"

    Immediately, some changes urred by that spot as a human figure suddenly appeared. It was Lu Zhen who had canceled his stealth skill.

    "No matter what I can''t sneak up on you that easily can I?" Lu Zhen bitterly smiled.

    "What''s up? What did you find that made youe back this early?" Sato said.

    Because the team had to be in hiding to prevent their presence from being discovered, they were not able to update themselves about anything that went on outside. To solve this problem, Lu Zhen, the only [Assassin] in the group, was made into a scout. At times, he would have to go out and monitor Emperor''s Might''s actions. This wasn''t easy as one mistake would lead to him being spotted. Sato had even lent him afew [Cloaking scrolls] to prevent being spotted by the mages.Lu Zhen usually spent 5-10 minutes watching their targets but the journey usually took him 20-25 minutes because he had to be cautious. This time however, Lu Zhen came back within 15 minutes hence Sato''s surprise.

    "I have news. A new group just came in." Lu Zhen replied.

    "Huh? A new group? Already?" Xue Yan asked in surprise. It is quite difficult to make it from the Outer region''s 1st floor till the Middle region''s 10th floor but in slightly more than two days, two groups had already done so. Sato''s team''s advantage was the map that Xue Yan had gotten as a result of the quest so she wondered how these two teams had done so.

    "You say already but I say they sure took their time." Fudo chuckled. Unlike Xue Yan who was new to gaming, Fudo already knew a bit of the prowess of the top powers. Such a task like this would be nothing for them considering the fact that the highest level mobs are level 8 with only a very few level 9 monster in the 9 floors.

    "You can''t judge those big guilds with your shallow logic. What might seem difficult to you is extremely easy to them." Seiichi said to Xue Yan.

    Despite having her brain being called shallow, Xue Yan couldn''t retort as she knew he was right.

    "So what are we going to do now?" Yato asked Sato.

    "How many are in the second group?" Sato asked Lu Zhen.

    Lu Zhen went into thought for a while before saying "15. 3 MTs, 2 healers with the rest being damage dealers. I think 4 mages and 6 physicals."

    Sato closed his eyes in meditation for a few seconds, pondering on their next course of actions.

    ''If I remember correctly, the first team should also be of simr numbers or so right? That should be 30 baits. It''s enough.''

    Sato then opened his eyes with glistening fighting spirit in them.

    "Let''s move."

    Meanwhile...

    "Captain, some new arrivals are here." A yer dressed like an [Assassin] said to Azure Dragon who stood beside Chesces and Blood Tempest.

    "Do you know who they are?" Azure Dragon turned to ask the [Assassin].

    "Yes captain. They are from Heaven''s Angels. I presume that they should be part of the God''s battalion because their leader this time is the ''Blood beast Soran''." The [Assassin] reported.

    "Soran..." Azure Dragon narrowed his eyes. Even Chesces had a small frown on his face when he heard that name.

    "It shouldn''t matter still. On the contrary, the fact that it is Soran leading them should help us the more." Chescesmented.

    "True. That mad man always likes to see blood and it doesn''t matter whose. They should be able to hold back the kobold horde for a while."

    Azure Dragon then said to the yers beside him.

    "Everyone remember, once we begin the raid, give your everything to severely damage the boss in the first round. We only have 3-5 minutes to do so, else we die. Even if we are to die, we have to defeat the boos, you hear me?"

    "Yes captain." Everyone responded.

    Azure Dragon nodded. "Good.. Now move ording to n."

 Chapter 172 - 167 : The Setup 2

    "So this is the 10th floor huh?"

    The team leader of God''s Battalion, the [Berserker], Blood Beast Soran, scanned the floor with his eyes. He was a bit surprised to see that the entire floor was like an isted cave but he didn''t feel much about it. This was because he had one goal in mind and that was to kill the world ss boss on this floor. As for exiting the floor, Soran believed that be a path left for departure and even if they couldn''t find an exit, they could justmit seppuku[1]. But this was left for when they were done with their mission and couldn''t find any way out.

    "It looks like we might be the first ones here." The arrogant mage yer said with a smug. After having been rebuked by Soran a couple of hours back, he had had a slightly sour mood. Now seeing the somewhat empty cavern, he believed that the team leader might have been wrong with his theory and that they -the God''s Battalion squad- were indeed the leaders of this raid[2].

    "Don''t be so sure yet. We haven''t explored the entire region first. Who knows whether they got teleported the same ce as we did." Soran nced at the yer.

    Though Exit gates were meant to lead one to the next floor, the exact positions differ based on the Exit gates. In each floor, there exists at least 9 Exit gates and each of them would send one to a different stop. Sometimes, the Exit gates would refresh and so, a specific Exit gate could send a yer to one point but send another to a different stop.

    "Also, Flood. Shut up." Soran said. Once he spoke, his aura had be overwhelming as the mage yer felt as if he was drowning in a river of blood with the ambience of savagery and massacre.

    This feelingsted for 3 seconds but these 3 seconds felt like 3 days to Flood king. These ''3 days'' weren''t those regr days or vacation days but one filled with suffering.

    After the feeling went off, Flood King continuously sucked in deep breathes of air as his back was all covered in sweat.

    With a twisted expression, Flood King nced at Soran in fear as thought

    ''The Blood Beast really isn''t a pushover.''

    For their exploration in Infinite Realm, Heaven''s Angels didn''t hold back but they didn''t go overboard either. They couldn''t really send all the forces of the God''s Retaliation Battalion to Infinite Realm as they still needed to protect their interests in Conquest. But sending a squadron of this famed battalion wasn''t much of a problem. For this, the Blood Beast Soran''s team was sent over alongside a few other guild members, to start up a branch in IR.

    As the highest ranking authorized member of the guild, he was the head figure of Heaven''s Angels branch. But Soran being Soran, was barely interested in managing the guild so a few specialists were sent over for this. Flood King happened to be one of them.

    In name, Flood King was the one of the upper echelons in Heaven''s Angels branch here in Infinite Realm. He was also one of the few experts raised and trained by the guild so his authority was quite high. This lead to him being below only two persons in the IR branch; the guild leader of the branch and Soran. The guild leader of Heaven''s Angels IR branch might be the guild leader but he still had to give face to Flood King, as he was an expert raised by the guild. Soran, on the other hand, didn''t care and he had the right not too. But this action inadvertently infuriated Flood King, but it wasn''t like Soran would still care about that either.

    When the information about the world ss boss was released, Soran decided to lead his team for the raid. The IR branch guild leader didn''t have a problem with this and even if he did, Soran''s authority was higher than his so he couldn''t make a fuss about it. However, the guild leader still sent someone to monitor Soran, as no one really liked having things stir out of their hands especially when they were supposed to be the head. In summary, the guild leader was a bit frustrated that Soran wasn''t under his control. For the decision of who to send to monitor Soran, Flood King was the best choice. Under the guise of the upper echelons of the guild wanting him to gain experience, Flood King was dispatched alongside Soran''s team by the IR branch guild leader.

    Flood King wasn''t actually a member of God''s Retaliation Battalion but was there to make up the numbers and gain experience, well on the surface that is. His main objective was actually to note down Soran''s misbehavior and mistakes so the branch guild leader could use against him but things weren''t so good for Flood King.

    Together with his somewhat sheltered life and arrogance, Flood King wasn''t willing to be lead by Soran; a man recorded to be the same as a wild beast. Because of this, Flood King talked back at Soran at times and even questioned his decisions; things that a regr sensible human being wouldn''t do to their superiors.

    Most of the time, Soran ignored this action of his but even Buddha has his limits. This time around, Soran had gotten fed up with Flood King''s stunts as he replied his provocative action with his vicious aura.

    "If I am correct, then I would say that that ce is where the boss is." The [Ranger] from before pointed at the kobold settlement. It wasn''t like anyone couldn''t guess that but the [Ranger] said so to avoid the awkward atmosphere from getting worse.

    "Let''s get a closer look then." Soran said.

    Without wasting anymore time, the team began walking towards the monster encampment. Unbeknownst to them though, their movements were being monitored from a distance by Emperor''s Might, who happened to have use the same strategy as Sato did when monitoring them; hide in a secretive spot and use a [Cloaking scroll].

    "Good. It looks like they are heading over." Azure Dragon nodded as he nced at the God''s Retaliation Battalion team with a telescope.

    "Everything is in ce now. All that remains is for Tawaki to attract the monsters towards them and then we move in." ck Tempest said.

    "Tawaki would make it." Chesces said as if understanding the underlying meaning of ck Tempest''s statement.

    "Of the men in our crew, Tawaki is the fastest. Added with the fact that he is an [Assassin] and he has a [Cloaking scroll] and a minor [Speed Boost scroll], sneaking past the guards down there and making a scene before escaping shouldn''t be too difficult for him."

    Tawaki was the [Assassin] who spotted the God''s Retaliation squad back when they first appeared [3]. He was also the top ranking [Assassin] in this party and one of the best in the guild entirely.

    "I know. But something makes me feel uneasy." ck Tempest sighed.

    "...me too." Chesces smiled bitterly. "It just feels all to easy to me."

    "All too easy?" Azure Dragon shook his head. "If it works out them it is all too easy. But as for now, we don''t know. The n might sound simple but there are too many loopholes. First, what if Tawaki doesn''t attract the monsters properly, after all he isn''t an MT. Second, what if Soran''s men don''tst long against the kobold horde? Third, what if the boss is too strong for us defeat in time?"

    "There are a lot of issues stemming from this n but we don''t have enough time nor men to prepare for various contingencies." Chesces shook his head with a sigh.

    "Indeed. That''s why we have to make sure we get this right in one try. So stop lowering our morale and focus on the fight that is toe." Azure Dragon said.

    "Okay."

    While the mantis stalks the cicada, the Oriole waits in hiding.

    Unbeknownst to the team, there was a third party present, Sato''s group.

    While Azure Dragon had also given out his orders and made preparations for the raid, Sato did the same. Funnily enough, their intentions and ideas were almost the exact same thing.

    While Azure Dragon sent Tawaki as their bait, Sato sent Lu Zhen forward. In this regard, Lu Zhen was way better than Tawaki because he was one level higher. Even if Lu Zhen didn''t focus on speed as Tawaki did, the increase in level still made his overall stats a lot higher than Tawaki''s. With the head-start and resources Sato had distributed to him too, Lu Zhen''s chances were much higher than Tawaki''s.

    "Xue Yan, care to watch a show?" Fudo asked her.

    "What show?" Xue Yan stared confusingly at Fudo.

    "One where we get to mess up a top guild." Fudo grinned.

    "It''s been awhile since I have ruined a top guild''s n while reaping the benefits. I never thought that my blood will boil this badly." Fudo said with an intoxicated look.

    Seeing this, Xue Yan slowly stepped away from him as she felt that Fudo looked incredibly creepy right now.

    "Enough." Sato reprimanded him. "Everyone get ready. Once Lu Zhen has attracted the monsters towards them, we have to quickly dive in and separate the boss away. If I''m correct, then we have only 3-7 minutes to seed in eliminating the boss. We have only one shot at this so no mistakes, okay?"

    "Yeah, yeah. We got it." Yato said nonchntly.

    "Katsuo, this mission dependsrgely on you as the MT. Try not to mess this up." Sato said lightly. He didn''t want to add much pressure on Katsuo but it was still inevitable as the raid did indeed dependrgely on whether the MT could hold down the boss'' aggro.

    "I know." Katsuo nodded heavily.

    Sato nodded. "Alright then.. Lu Zhen should be almost in ce so let''s move."

 Chapter 173 - 167 : The Setup 2

    "So this is the 10th floor huh?"

    The team leader of God''s Battalion, the [Berserker], Blood Beast Soran, scanned the floor with his eyes. He was a bit surprised to see that the entire floor was like an isted cave but he didn''t feel much about it. This was because he had one goal in mind and that was to kill the world ss boss on this floor. As for exiting the floor, Soran believed that be a path left for departure and even if they couldn''t find an exit, they could justmit seppuku[1]. But this was left for when they were done with their mission and couldn''t find any way out.

    "It looks like we might be the first ones here." The arrogant mage yer said with a smug. After having been rebuked by Soran a couple of hours back, he had had a slightly sour mood. Now seeing the somewhat empty cavern, he believed that the team leader might have been wrong with his theory and that they -the God''s Battalion squad- were indeed the leaders of this raid[2].

    "Don''t be so sure yet. We haven''t explored the entire region first. Who knows whether they got teleported the same ce as we did." Soran nced at the yer.

    Though Exit gates were meant to lead one to the next floor, the exact positions differ based on the Exit gates. In each floor, there exists at least 9 Exit gates and each of them would send one to a different stop. Sometimes, the Exit gates would refresh and so, a specific Exit gate could send a yer to one point but send another to a different stop.

    "Also, Flood. Shut up." Soran said. Once he spoke, his aura had be overwhelming as the mage yer felt as if he was drowning in a river of blood with the ambience of savagery and massacre.

    This feelingsted for 3 seconds but these 3 seconds felt like 3 days to Flood king. These ''3 days'' weren''t those regr days or vacation days but one filled with suffering.

    After the feeling went off, Flood King continuously sucked in deep breathes of air as his back was all covered in sweat.

    With a twisted expression, Flood King nced at Soran in fear as thought

    ''The Blood Beast really isn''t a pushover.''

    For their exploration in Infinite Realm, Heaven''s Angels didn''t hold back but they didn''t go overboard either. They couldn''t really send all the forces of the God''s Retaliation Battalion to Infinite Realm as they still needed to protect their interests in Conquest. But sending a squadron of this famed battalion wasn''t much of a problem. For this, the Blood Beast Soran''s team was sent over alongside a few other guild members, to start up a branch in IR.

    As the highest ranking authorized member of the guild, he was the head figure of Heaven''s Angels branch. But Soran being Soran, was barely interested in managing the guild so a few specialists were sent over for this. Flood King happened to be one of them.

    In name, Flood King was the one of the upper echelons in Heaven''s Angels branch here in Infinite Realm. He was also one of the few experts raised and trained by the guild so his authority was quite high. This lead to him being below only two persons in the IR branch; the guild leader of the branch and Soran. The guild leader of Heaven''s Angels IR branch might be the guild leader but he still had to give face to Flood King, as he was an expert raised by the guild. Soran, on the other hand, didn''t care and he had the right not too. But this action inadvertently infuriated Flood King, but it wasn''t like Soran would still care about that either.

    When the information about the world ss boss was released, Soran decided to lead his team for the raid. The IR branch guild leader didn''t have a problem with this and even if he did, Soran''s authority was higher than his so he couldn''t make a fuss about it. However, the guild leader still sent someone to monitor Soran, as no one really liked having things stir out of their hands especially when they were supposed to be the head. In summary, the guild leader was a bit frustrated that Soran wasn''t under his control. For the decision of who to send to monitor Soran, Flood King was the best choice. Under the guise of the upper echelons of the guild wanting him to gain experience, Flood King was dispatched alongside Soran''s team by the IR branch guild leader.

    Flood King wasn''t actually a member of God''s Retaliation Battalion but was there to make up the numbers and gain experience, well on the surface that is. His main objective was actually to note down Soran''s misbehavior and mistakes so the branch guild leader could use against him but things weren''t so good for Flood King.

    Together with his somewhat sheltered life and arrogance, Flood King wasn''t willing to be lead by Soran; a man recorded to be the same as a wild beast. Because of this, Flood King talked back at Soran at times and even questioned his decisions; things that a regr sensible human being wouldn''t do to their superiors.

    Most of the time, Soran ignored this action of his but even Buddha has his limits. This time around, Soran had gotten fed up with Flood King''s stunts as he replied his provocative action with his vicious aura.

    "If I am correct, then I would say that that ce is where the boss is." The [Ranger] from before pointed at the kobold settlement. It wasn''t like anyone couldn''t guess that but the [Ranger] said so to avoid the awkward atmosphere from getting worse.

    "Let''s get a closer look then." Soran said.

    Without wasting anymore time, the team began walking towards the monster encampment. Unbeknownst to them though, their movements were being monitored from a distance by Emperor''s Might, who happened to have use the same strategy as Sato did when monitoring them; hide in a secretive spot and use a [Cloaking scroll].

    "Good. It looks like they are heading over." Azure Dragon nodded as he nced at the God''s Retaliation Battalion team with a telescope.

    "Everything is in ce now. All that remains is for Tawaki to attract the monsters towards them and then we move in." ck Tempest said.

    "Tawaki would make it." Chesces said as if understanding the underlying meaning of ck Tempest''s statement.

    "Of the men in our crew, Tawaki is the fastest. Added with the fact that he is an [Assassin] and he has a [Cloaking scroll] and a minor [Speed Boost scroll], sneaking past the guards down there and making a scene before escaping shouldn''t be too difficult for him."

    Tawaki was the [Assassin] who spotted the God''s Retaliation squad back when they first appeared [3]. He was also the top ranking [Assassin] in this party and one of the best in the guild entirely.

    "I know. But something makes me feel uneasy." ck Tempest sighed.

    "...me too." Chesces smiled bitterly. "It just feels all to easy to me."

    "All too easy?" Azure Dragon shook his head. "If it works out them it is all too easy. But as for now, we don''t know. The n might sound simple but there are too many loopholes. First, what if Tawaki doesn''t attract the monsters properly, after all he isn''t an MT. Second, what if Soran''s men don''tst long against the kobold horde? Third, what if the boss is too strong for us defeat in time?"

    "There are a lot of issues stemming from this n but we don''t have enough time nor men to prepare for various contingencies." Chesces shook his head with a sigh.

    "Indeed. That''s why we have to make sure we get this right in one try. So stop lowering our morale and focus on the fight that is toe." Azure Dragon said.

    "Okay."

    While the mantis stalks the cicada, the Oriole waits in hiding.

    Unbeknownst to the team, there was a third party present, Sato''s group.

    While Azure Dragon had also given out his orders and made preparations for the raid, Sato did the same. Funnily enough, their intentions and ideas were almost the exact same thing.

    While Azure Dragon sent Tawaki as their bait, Sato sent Lu Zhen forward. In this regard, Lu Zhen was way better than Tawaki because he was one level higher. Even if Lu Zhen didn''t focus on speed as Tawaki did, the increase in level still made his overall stats a lot higher than Tawaki''s. With the head-start and resources Sato had distributed to him too, Lu Zhen''s chances were much higher than Tawaki''s.

    "Xue Yan, care to watch a show?" Fudo asked her.

    "What show?" Xue Yan stared confusingly at Fudo.

    "One where we get to mess up a top guild." Fudo grinned.

    "It''s been awhile since I have ruined a top guild''s n while reaping the benefits. I never thought that my blood will boil this badly." Fudo said with an intoxicated look.

    Seeing this, Xue Yan slowly stepped away from him as she felt that Fudo looked incredibly creepy right now.

    "Enough." Sato reprimanded him. "Everyone get ready. Once Lu Zhen has attracted the monsters towards them, we have to quickly dive in and separate the boss away. If I''m correct, then we have only 3-7 minutes to seed in eliminating the boss. We have only one shot at this so no mistakes, okay?"

    "Yeah, yeah. We got it." Yato said nonchntly.

    "Katsuo, this mission dependsrgely on you as the MT. Try not to mess this up." Sato said lightly. He didn''t want to add much pressure on Katsuo but it was still inevitable as the raid did indeed dependrgely on whether the MT could hold down the boss'' aggro.

    "I know." Katsuo nodded heavily.

    Sato nodded. "Alright then.. Lu Zhen should be almost in ce so let''s move."

 Chapter 174 - 168 : The Setup 3

    "Ha...All I need to do should be to get past those guys and wreak havoc within the settlement." A yer stared at the settlement from a distance while thinking up a n to proceed with.

    Looking at his leather based armour, one would easily surmise him as one of the lightweight sses [1]. With the absence of a bow or a staff, it could be concluded that he was an [Assassin], and indeed, he was. This was Tawaki, Emperor''s Might''s too ranking [Assassin] for this raid.

    "No matter how good my abilities are, going in through the front gate while using [Fade] is still suicidal. The kobolds in front are most likely not for show. Making a scene at the front gate also wouldn''t be enough...Hai~ Such a difficult task." Tawaki sighed.

    "But the more difficult it is, the better." Tawaki licked his lips.

    Emperor''s Might might be the dream of all yers, a super guild, but only those in the guild know the real truth. No matter the body or organization, the distribution of resources would always be limited for the majority and focused on the elites. Being one of the top ranking guilds in gaming history, Emperor''s Might only epted Experts and nothing less. With the constant passage of time, the amount of Expert rank yers had increased by a lot and as a result of, the battle of resources became even more onerous as it became harder to prove one''s self as the better candidate for resources. Everyone tried to make contributions in order to receive rewards or get ess to the training facilities of the guild. No matter the choice, one wouldn''t regret it at all.

    As long as Tawaki performed well with this his task and the team seeds in ying the boss, his rewards wouldn''t be little. If he even performs quite well in the boss fight, there might be a chance that he would be brought directly under Azure Dragon''s care. At that time, his rank in the guild would soar past what it currently is. With the possibility of such a future in front of him, Tawaki decided to do all that he could to grab it.

    "Alright. Let''s begin."

    Tawaki stood up from his hiding ce and began approaching the kobold settlement at a cautious pace in fear of identally attracting any kobold''s attention. His pace though, wasn''t so slow as he had to time his actions well and attract the monsters towards the God''s Retaliation crew right when Azure Dragon and the others have left a lot of space between them.

    "If I''m correct, then it should be 7 minutes from now. 7 minutes, that''s all I have got."

    Tawaki sped up a but till he was just 200 metres away from the ''walls'' of the kobold settlement. At this distance Tawaki felt that he won''t be noticed by either the kobold guards or the boss. Even with a [Cloaking scroll], Tawaki tried to be as cautious as possible because his future in Emperor''s Might was closely rted to this mission.

    ''This fabrication looks so awful. There probably should be a loophole or something within. Hai~ I should have done this earlier.''

    Tawaki began scanning the fence in an attempt to look for a hole or a broken down part to sneak in to the settlement.

    As he was surveilling the fence, Tawaki noticed a shadow that was approaching from another direction. The shadow wasn''t approaching him but the settlement. Tawaki reflexively hide himself, thinking it was a kobold, before sneaking out a bit to take a peek. He focused on the shadow of and was surprised at what he saw.

    "That''s...a yer?!"

    Tawaki couldn''t believe what he was seeing but the result was clear. It was a yer garbed in a ck cloak. Because of the cloak, Tawaki didn''t know who it was but from the physique of the creature and the green marker atop the individual, he was certain that it was a yer.

    ''Who could it be? The God''s Retaliation crew just recently arrived. They wouldn''t be so dumb as to barge into the kobold encampment just like this.

    "Then, is it a third party?"

    Upon thinking of this, Tawaki''s blood went cold wondering how the individual got past them but he eventually rxed at that thought.

    Each floor had between 5-9 Exit gates and each one lead to a different spot on the next floor. Emperor''s Might had only used one of such Exit gates and arrived elsewhere. Even though Emperor''s Might performed a few inspections, they couldn''t keep the entirety of the 10th floor under radar. This was because the 10th floor was very big and with the little team members they had, they couldn''t bear to spread themselves apart for supervisions. As such, it was quite possible for yers to arrive at the 10th floor by using a different Exit gate from the one which Emperor''s Might had used. The God''s Retaliation team had most likely gotten their map from the same source as Emperor''s Might hence the reason why they appeared at the spot Emperor''s Might did before.

    ''But then, why is he dashing in like that? Don''t tell me he/she thinks they can just rush in like that and defeat the boss?!'' Tawaki stared ludicrously at the figure. He felt like the figure under the hood might be under the influence of some extremely strong drugs. However, instead of reporting this discovery, Tawaki decided not to because in his own idea, this yer as doomed to die. Why bother stressing out Azure Dragon and the others when he could just sit down and enjoy the show.

    Meanwhile, the figure in particr, didn''t notice Tawaki. This was because he was paying full attention to the mission assigned to him. This figure was actually Lu Zhen.

    Before the team proceeded with their ns, Sato had requested everyone to wear ck cloaks and activate the privacy feature, shielding their facial features from being seen. This was because this n of theirs would end up offending a lot of figures and one of them was a super guild. It was too early for them to sh with such a behemoth, even if it was just a branch. So, Sato decided that they do so while still keeping their identities a secret. Currently, there was no equipment or consumable known that could defy the shielding function of a ck cloak, hence this idea was good.

    No one disagreed with this and immediately donned a ck cloak. As solo yers, they all had at least one set of ck cloaks just in case, so there was no problem with the n.

    In the mind of Tawaki, Lu Zhen looked like he was nning to dash into the kobold settlement and create a path of blood before facing the boss. Such a n would be suicidal to anyone and this included Lu Zhen. In actual fact, Lu Zhen''s mission wasn''t that. Just like Tawaki, he was meant to sneak into the settlement and cause a lot of problems, before escaping with the aggro of the kobolds on him.

    Usually, a normal [Assassin] would do things the sneaky way and try to find a loophole in the fence to get in, but Lu Zhen didn''t want to do so. In his opinion, why go through all the stress when there''s a front gate that''s open?

    When he was about a 100 metres from the gate, Lu Zhen immediately activated [Fade], going into stealth just before he entered the kobolds'' sense range.

    "What?" Tawaki was surprised. He never anticipated that the other figure was an [Assassin] since the person ran at a somewhat average speed. Seeing the character go into stealth, for an unknown reason, Tawaki began to have a strange foreboding.

    With his stealth skill activated, Lu Zhen went past the kobold gurads without any problem. This wasn''t just because of his stealth skill but also because of his level.

    When faced against higher levelled monsters, the abilities of yers face a regression due to the difference in strength. This was amon sense in VR fantasy gaming that everyone knew about. It was also because of this reason that Tawaki didn''t dare to use stealth and proceed through the front gate. He was a level 7 [Assassin] and with the settlement being not only the resting ce of the boss but also the HQ of the kobolds, he suspected that the guards were level 8 kobolds; possibly even being of the Elite rank. Adding the fact that his team had encountered level 9 monsters back at the 9th floors Exit gate, Tawaki wouldn''t be surprised if the kobold guards were level 9 too. Against such a monster that was on alert, Tawaki didn''t have much faith in getting past them, but Lu Zhen did. He was a level 8 [Assassin] and even if the kobolds were level 8 Elites or level 9 monsters, he could still get past them as long as he was cautious enough.

    Once he went past the kobold guards, Lu Zhen stopped at a distance of 5 metres from the gate as he nced at the kobold settlement with a feverish expression.

    ''From here on now, things be fun.''

 Chapter 175 - 169 : Attracting Aggro

    Lu Zhen''s mission, as given by Sato, was simply to wreak havoc and destruction all around, making it so that all the kobolds present would unequivocally hate him. With their aggro set on him, he would then depart from the settlement and draw the monsters towards Emperor''s Might and Heaven''s Angels'' God''s Retaliation battalion unit. From an overview, the mission looked easy, but in actual sense, it was filled with risks here and there.

    Firstly, Lu Zhen had to be able to sneak into the kobold settlement without getting spotted early. Secondly, he had to wreak enough havoc and destruction that at least 90% of all kobolds present would have their aggro draw towards him. Thirdly, Lu Zhen had to be able to escape the settlement while suffering the attacks of more than 300 or so kobolds. Next, he had to make it to the location of both Emperor''s Might and Heaven''s Angels'' teams before mixing up with them and forcing them to deal with the kobolds, while also trying to escape without being noticed by the kobolds. That way, without the original target in mind, the kobolds would vent their frustration on the two teams. Lastly, Lu Zhen had to do all this while possibly being chased by a level 10 world ss boss.

    Lu Zhen had faith in his abilities to outrun 90%+ of the kobolds present but for the kobold chief and even his two personal guards, Lu Zhen didn''t think so. Ever since he had started ying IR, this was the hardest task he had even encountered.

    ''But the harder it is, the more fun it should be.'' Lu Zhen slowly began to awaken his Daredevil side.

    Lu Zhen began to walk away from the gate. At the same time that he was doing so, he put his hand inside his space bag and brought out a few orbs. This was the [Simple Explosives] Sato used back when he was level 0. Even this set was gotten from Sato.

    Currently now, this consumable was useless against most monsters due to both its weak power and the fact that the monsters yers battled now were a lot stronger than the low levelled ones. Nobody bought this toy anymore as it literally had almost no effect on monsters. It was so bad that if one used it against even a Rock Golem or Ground Rat, reducing 2-3 HP from the monster, that yer could be said to bedy luck''s beloved child. With such terrible performance on these creatures, one could easily expect what they would get if they used the explosives against the defective descendants of dragons, the kobolds.

    Unless yers battled wild animals like regr tigers, sabers, lions and so on, they wouldn''t bother buying such a consumable. Even when battling against such low level creatures, yers could defeat them in just 2-3 moves so there was no need to spend their money on the explosives.

    Though this special object couldn''t cause damage to monsters, they served another use; one that Lu Zhen needed right now. Explosions.

    "Enjoy~"

    Once Lu Zhen was at an appropriate distance from the front gate while also a bit deep within the settlement, he tossed a [Simple Explosive] at one if the houses close-by.

    *Boom*

    *Crack*

    Uponing into collision with the stone house, the [Simple Explosive] detonated and created a few cracks on the building, almost copsing it. The houses might have been made from rocks but these rocks had absorbed a minuscule amount of mana. Though it was very very small, it made them much stronger than regr rocks. As a result, one explosive wouldn''t be able to copse them. However, Lu Zhen didn''t stop at one.

    Without wasting any time, Lu Zhen tossed a few more [Simple Explosives] on the building while doing the same to the neighbouring houses too. He also deactivated his stealth still in order to be seen as he was causing mayhem.

    *Boom* *Boom*

    *Creak* *Crack*

    *Boom* *Boom*

    *Bang*

    The buildings fell under the might of the explosions, but the culprit didn''t even bother to take a look at the result of his work.

    Lu Zhen didn''t bother to admire the destruction of the buildings because he was running around the entire ce while tossing explosives left and right.

    "Roar!"

    "Roar!"

    With such loud noises and explosions wrecking their homes, it would be impossible for the kobolds not to notice the issue at hand.

    Because he had deactivated his stealth skill and was running up and down the entire ce, the kobolds easily spotted Lu Zhen and pursued after him.

    "Roar!"

    "Hahaha. Try and catch up to this daddy and maybe I would give you a bigger bang."

    "Roar!"

    As if sensing Lu Zhen''s provocations, more kobolds joined in the chase while the others from the beginning increased their pace.

    Lu Zhen was also forced to increase his speed, but his hands still weren''t idle as they continuously tossed out explosives. Before this, Sato had purchased at least 50 explosives, just in case they were forced to face a horde of monsters or were surrounded by yers. Though against real monsters these explosives were weak, if used well they would be extremely useful and for this job, Lu Zhen going them to his liking.

    "What the hell is going on?" Tawaki stared agape at the settlement. The explosives had weak power so they weren''t all that loud. But Tawaki was a lot closer to the settlement than others so he could easily hear the noises and reverberations from them.

    "No, I have to report this to the captain, now."

    Turning on his system interface, Tawaki immediately contacted Azure Dragon.

    "Tawaki, any problem on your side? How far away are you?" Azure Dragon questioned. It was almost time for Tawaki to have arrived over to the God''s Retaliation side so he wondered whether if Tawaki was calling to inform him of that.

    "Yes, captain. We have a problem." Tawaki hurriedly said.

    "A problem?" Azure Dragon frowned. "What problem?"

    "A third party. I spotted a strange yer who dashed into the kobold settlement. I didn''t know what the was up to so I didn''t want to bother you yet but the yer suddenly started wreaking havoc in there. There''s explosions and kobold roars. I don''t know whether he''s battling them or not but I still decided to inform you captain."

    "I see. Keep your eyes peeled for any strange event okay? And also, when this is all over, prepare yourself."

    Without waiting for Tawaki to reply, Azure Dragon hung up.

    "...*sighs* I knew it." Tawaki sighed. Despite having tried to make the incident sound like it wasn''t his fault, he still couldn''t get away from his act of having reportedte.

    "Let''s see what''s going on." Tawaki then walked closer towards the settlement. Since even the kobold guards had ran back into the settlement, he didn''t need to be that cautious anymore.

    Meanwhile, Lu Zhen was having the time of his life with the kobolds. Running helter skelter while throwing explosives and dodging attacks from the different kobolds, Lu Zhen experienced a thrill akin to that of walking through a mine field. Each time he happened to slow down to make a turn or avoid an attack, he would almost be caught by the kobolds.

    Having wreaked havoc in their home, Lu Zhen was surrounded from all directions by the kobolds. He was only able tost this long by making use of the buildings while also tossing a few explosives to push the kobolds back each time they approached him.

    "Damn it. With all I have done, he still hasn''t appeared." Lu Zhen cursed. Though he was ''having fun'', he still didn''t forget his main goal and that was to attract the kobolds out of their hiding ce. He was also supposed to attack the boss out too but despite all that he had done, the kobold chief was yet to appear.

    ''Then there''s no other option I guess.'' Lu Zhen thought as he nced at the central area. He had been unwillingly to go there, only wreaking havoc by the edges of the settlement. This way he could easily escape once needed. But now, with the boss having not made a move yet, Lu Zhen had to reset his priorities.

    ''I hope I live through this.''

    Saying his prayers, Lu Zhen darted towards the central area with an army a 100 kobolds strong right behind him. The sight of such a massive horde chasing after one man was quite impressive from an aerial view.

    "Damn it. With all I have done, he still hasn''t appeared." Lu Zhen cursed. Though he was ''having fun'', he still didn''t forget his main goal and that was to attract the kobolds out of their hiding ce. He was also supposed to attack the boss out too but despite all that he had done, the kobold chief was yet to appear.

    ''Then there''s no other option I guess.'' Lu Zhen thought as he nced at the central area. He had been unwillingly to go there, only wreaking havoc by the edges of the settlement. This way he could easily escape once needed. But now, with the boss having not made a move yet, Lu Zhen had to reset his priorities.

    ''I hope I live through this.''

    Saying his prayers, Lu Zhen darted towards the central area with an army a 100 kobolds strong right behind him.. The sight of such a massive horde chasing after one man was quite impressive from an aerial view.

 Chapter 176 - 170 : Escape

    "What happened?" Chesces nced at the frowning Azure Dragon.

    "Tawaki said he had encountered a third party here. He only mentioned seeing one yer but I don''t know whether there are more yers or not." Azure Dragon said with his frown still on.

    "That''s bad then." Chesces sighed. ''But there''s nothing we can do about it. All we can hope for is that things still go ording to n."

    Azure Dragon then said, "Though that''s true, I feel like things won''t be as easy as we originally nned. At the very least, we have to prepare a few contingency ns to work with."

    "Yeah." Chesces nodded.

    "Roar!!!"

    Before Chesces could add another word, a loud roar sounded out, threatening to take down the entire 10th floor as the ground began vibrating as if an earthquake was urring.

    This phenomenonsted only but 5 seconds; just 2 seconds longer than the roar.

    "What was that?" Chesces asked incredulously.

    Azure Dragon kept silent as he stared at the centre of the 10th floor, the exact location of the settlement, with a serious expression. The loud and intimidating roar hade from there and there could only be one monster capable of such prowess.

    ''What the hell is going on there?''

    Let''s rewind a few seconds back...

    Havinge to the decision that he wouldn''t depart without thoroughlypleting his mission, Lu Zhen decided to make some changes to his strategy.

    In order to attract the boss'' attention towards himself, Lu Zhen dashed over to its location.

    Back during the Kobold ritual ceremony, Lu Zhen had spotted the building the kobold chief dwelled in, so locating it wasn''t so difficult.

    While moving towards the area, Lu Zhen withdrew a leather bag from his space bag and filled it with the remaining explosives.

    "Here''s a gift from Santa Lu."

    When he was just 100 metres away from the boss'' building, under the pursuit of the other kobolds, Lu Zhen tossed the bag at the building before turning tail and running as fast as his legs could carry him.

    *Boom*

    A loud explosion sounded out from the central area of the settlement. Though the explosion didn''t have the ability to severely injure the kobolds, the rebound force was not a joke. At the very least, apart from the buildings being taken down, a few kobolds that were close-by at the time were forced back by a couple of metres.

    As for the main target of the explosion...''He'' was very angry.

    "Roar!!!"

    With a loud roar, the entire floor began to vibrate as if an earthquake had descended here. The tremors were even worse at the central area of the settlement, where the loud roar came from.

    Lu Zhen didn''t dare to turn his head back to take a look. He elerated to the best he could, even using [Sprint] to increase his speed.

    ''I think that did it.'' Lu Zhen smiled as he ran. He didn''t let his guard down though as he knew that from here on out, things would get a whole lot more difficult. And in fact, he was right.

    Though the explosion didn''t injure it even one bit, the feeling of having your house fall on you wasn''t something anyone would be pleased with.

    Using its inherent superior senses to mana, the Kobold chief scanned the entire settlement in search of the perpetrator. This wasn''t so difficult as the culprit in question was being pursued by a horde of kobolds.

    The kobold chief was surprised when it discovered Lu Zhen; both because it wondered how Lu Zhen sneaked into its territory and also because Lu Zhen was a human. In this underground world of the kobolds, humans were very rare; akin to theparisons one would make with rhinos or armur leopards. This was because until the existence of the world-ss boss was known, no yer had ever made it to the 10th floor. As for the NPCs, ck Grill''s Cave didn''t have any allure to them so they barely even explored it, with those doing so being only weak characters that couldn''t even make it past the 7th floor. Added to the fact that the Kobold chief was an ascetic of sorts, it was quite understandable that it would be shocked at Lu Zhen''s appearance.

    Though surprised, the kobold chief didn''t n on letting Lu Zhen go. On the contrary, it wanted to capture him and study this ''wild'' creature, in hopes that he could serve as a worthy sacrifice, on par to the rainbow rabbit it had used before.

    "Roar!" With a loud roar akin to that of a tiger, the kobold chief chased after Lu Zhen. Just slightly behind it were the two ''bodyguards'' who were also hot on Lu Zhen''s tail.

    ''They will catch up to me in 10 seconds.'' Lu Zhen thought. Though he didn''t turn his back, from the aura the kobold chief released, he could easily gauge the distance between them both.

    ''I just need to make it out of here first.''

    While Lu Zhen was escaping the pursuit of a kobold army and the kobold chief, Tawaki had finally managed to get to a high yet close enough spot to be able to see what was going on in the settlement. He watched as Lu Zhen maneuvered through the settlement, using the buildings and few objects on the road as a blockade to slow down the kobolds. However, within the kobold wave were three strange characters that ran at a faster pace than the others.

    These were the kobold chief and his two guards. Their unyielding momentum and drive were quite intimidating to anyone that watched from a distance, much less up close. Even more so was the fact that when he stared long at the kobold chief, he had a feeling that he was slowly losing himself. If not for the training he had gotten from the guild, Tawaki doubted that he would be able to easily resist the illusions.

    ''Then, howe...?'' Tawaki stared at Lu Zhen with surprise. Though it looked like Lu Zhen was having a difficult time as he even got few injuries, he was still able to hold on.

    "Is he a ''King''?'' Tawaki thought incredulously but eventually shook his head. It was already quite impressive for Lu Zhen to havee this far but a ''King'' would have.

    While Tawaki was wondering about the ability of Lu Zhen, the person in question had managed to escape from the settlement within 15 seconds. It sounded long but one should remember that the settlement was home to a lot of kobolds. It was understandable that there were a lot of houses and the distance was quite far. During this time, Lu Zhen had suffered a few minor injuries and one close shave from the boss. Lucky for him, he was an [Assassin] and so had a few escape skills.

    ''Finally.'' Lu Zhen sighed internally. ''Now the 4th path.''

    Having the location of both guilds known, Lu Zhen decided to increase his speed to his best. With the effects of [Silent Steps] still on, Lu Zhen barely managed to keep the guard between himself and the kobolds at an average

    "That''s...?!" Tawaki eximed as he watched Lu Zhen heading in one direction. That particr route Lu Zhen had chosen to follow, would lead exactly to where Emperor''s Might''s team was.

    ''No, I need to let them know.'' Tawaki thought. Without wasting any time, he sent a message to warn Azure Dragon and the others about the iing danger.

    ''Now, do I keep following him...???!!!!''

    While Tawaki was still yet to make a decision, he suddenly felt a cold deadly aura lock onto him, freezing him to a stop.

    With great difficulty, Tawaki tried to turn his head backward as he felt that that was where the source of this aura was. Upon doing so, however, he was shocked to stupor.

    ''Damn it!''

    Right in front of him stood a kobold warrior. This kobold warrior was different from the others. It wasn''t the kobold chief, instead, it was one of the Chief''s personal bodyguards. It might not be on par with the chief but for it to stand so close to the kobold chief, Tawaki had suspected it to be of level 9 rating at the very least. Without a doubt, such a monster was beyond his abilities.

    The kobold chief had actually sensed Tawaki a few moments ago. Because it was in a hot pursuit with Lu Zhen, it was unwilling to stop its chase and head elsewhere. At this same time though, the kobold chief didn''t want to miss another ''specimen''. As a result, it had to send one of its most trusted confidants after the job.

    Kobolds originally have an advantage in going around unnoticed underground; even Sato and Lu Zhen almost fell to one because of this. Tawaki had let his guard down and with the kobold''s abilities, it easily closed the gap before he realised this.

    Facing the level 9 or more monster, Tawaki tried to take the initiative in the battle by making the first move, but even that first move of his looked too sloppy in the eyes of the kobold.

    It easily dodged Tawaki''s dagger thrust before punching out a scale-coated fist,nding the strike right on Tawaki''s abdomen.

    "Arghhh."

    It might have been an illusion but at that moment, Tawaki had the feeling that the punch had broken 3 of his ribs.

    Before he could even take a deep breath to process things, another punchnded right on his face. And so, just like a punching bag, Tawaki couldn''t retaliate against the kobold.

    With such a situation urring, the battle became an uneventful one as within 6 seconds, Tawaki''s life ended at the hands of the kobold.

 Chapter 177 - 171 : Azure Dragonâ€™s Frustration

    Lu Zhen didn''t notice that Tawaki had actually fallen moments ago. He couldn''t be med though. Ignoring the fact that Tawaki had died, Lu Zhen didn''t even sense Tawaki''s presence. Part of this of could be attributed to the fact that Tawaki was a couple of metres away and another reason would be that Tawaki''s stealth abilities were superior to Lu Zhen''s. This was understandable after all, Tawaki was one of the best [Assassins] in Emperor''s Might while Lu Zhen was just a slightly better yer than most. However, no matter how good Tawaki was, he still died while Lu Zhen was still alive, well for now that is.

    Back when the kobold chief infuriated at Lu Zhen''s stunt, both Sato''s team and the God''s Retaliation battalion heard the intimidating roar. Sato''s group could easily guess that this was as a result of Lu Zhen''s actions but the Blood beast''s squad, who had recently arrived to the 10th floor, were left with expressions of confusion.

    "That should be the boss right? Why does it sound so angry?" Flood King asked out loud.

    Soran frowned at this. To have reached his post in Heaven''s Angles guild and the God''s retaliation battalion, strength alone wasn''t enough; brains too were required.

    Soran couldn''t figure out why the boss would be so angry like that or what could have annoyed it but recalling the possibility that Emperor''s Might must have moved ahead of everyone else, he easily reached a conclusion that made his blood run cold. They were not the only ones here and what''s more, the other party had already entered intobat with the world ss boss. Rather than getting frustrated, Soran actually smiled.

    ''It''s been a long time since I yed ''fisherman''.''

    "Get ready boys, we might round up quicker than we thought." Soran said before heading to the ce the roar originated from.

    [[System : Iing Audio call.

    Caller ID : Lu Zhen

    ept/Decline ]]

    [[System : Audio call epted]]

    "What''s up? Are you done?" Sato immediately asked.

    "Yeah. The big dude is right behind and he looks a bit angry." Lu Zhen replied. "You guys are already there right? I''ve done my part so you guys shouldn''t mess this up."

    The n Sato had set up in order tobat the kobold chief''s forces sounded simple but was very difficult. Lu Zhen was meant to draw the kobolds over to Azure Dragon and Soran''s side while he(Sato) would draw the boss away from the kobold horde and back to the settlement. This was because the settlement was the best possible ce to battle the kobold chief. If they fought in an open environment, their chances of victory would be but 20-30% but at the settlement, it would shoot up to 40%-50%.

    Logically, it would have been better for Lu Zhen to draw only the kobolds while ignoring the boss, that way Sato''s team could move in and attack the boss at the settlement but this n was scraped. The reason was because no matter how strong the Emperor''s Might and Heaven''s Angels'' teams were, they won''t be able tost that long against a hundred strong kobold army. Once the kobolds were done with them, they would return back to their encampment. If perhaps, Sato''s team couldn''t finish the boss in time, then they would die a pointless death. With such an obvious w that relied on luck, the n was scraped.

    Sato then made changes to the n, having Lu Zhen also draw the boss'' aggro. The reason for this was so that Sato and his team would move in to set a few traps and make the environment advantageous to them. This way, their chances of victory would increase to at least 50%.

    "No worries. They are already in front of the settlement." Sato replied calmly.

    "Okay. I''m almost approaching the destination." Lu Zhen said.

    "Alright. I will be sending you the coordinates then. Good luck."

    Without wasting any second more, Sato hung up the call. Browsing through his system interface, he found a message Seiichi had sent him and forwarded it to Lu Zhen.

    In order to make sure that everything went ording to n and the position of their targets were certified, Seiichi was sent to monitor them and update the position of the group to him. When the team was exploring the 10th floor, they created a rough map for it which now turned out to be useful for this n. All Seiichi had to do was mark the position of the target on a copy of the map and send it to Sato. Of course being one person, he could only monitor one group. Sato sent him to watch over Emperor''s Might and ignored Heaven''s Angels. It wasn''t that he didn''t want to pull them in to the n but someone else would do so.

    Azure Dragon was waiting for Tawaki to update him when he suddenly noticed Tawaki''s name having a gray shade.

    Tawaki was dead.

    "!!!"

    Azure Dragon was stunned and wondered what could have happened.

    ''What could have happened? Was it the monsters? Or was it the unknown party?'' Azure dragon frowned in thought.

    ''If its the unknown yer group, how many are they?''

    Though he wasn''t recognized for his brains like Chesces was, Azure Dragon was still a man of tactics and strategies. As a man of such qualities, if there was one thing he hated then it would be having an unknown element interrupt his ns. No one liked factors that were out of their control suddenly appearing and Azure Dragon hated that the most.

    Having been revered as one of the young generation yer most valued by the guild, it would be a lie to say that he wasn''t prideful and arrogant; it was just that he was a lot calmer than most. This was clearly visible back when Fudo had rejected his invitation. This time though, with such a huge mission in his hands and arge burden to go with it, Azure Dragon was unwilling to fail, both because it was amand from the higher ups and also because of his pride. Now with Tawaki suddenly dying without the cause being known, Azure Dragon began to have a strange foreboding feeling that things would not only go opposite of what he expected but might end up worse.

    Azure Dragon wasn''t the only one who noticed Tawaki''s ''grayified'' name in the team''s interface screen. The others did too. With the terrifying roar from earlier together with this incident, putting two and two together, it wasn''t hard for the yers to guess that something might have gone wrong at the kobold encampment. As for what it was, they just like Azure Dragon, were confused.

    "Captain, what do we do now?" Chesces faced Azure Dragon.

    Azure Dragon didn''t reply him but tried calling a yer. From the disy name at the Caller ID section, one would notice that the yer''s name was Riley. He was the main scout for this mission and was the only [Ranger] in the team.

    Th call was received as a brown haired European male appeared on the other side of the video call.

    "Riley, what''s up with Soran''s team? What action did he take?" Azure Dragon asked. With Tawaki sent to attract the kobolds, Riley was sent to monitor Soran''s God''s retaliation squad.

    Riley replied him, "Soran looks to be heading to the source of the roar. I dare not say that I''m right but with the way he usually acts, I''m guessing that Soran ns to interfere with the event over there."

    "As expected of that maniac." Azure Dragon chuckled as if he was mocking Soran.

    "Keep them on your watch. If he makes a different move, let me know. Also, mark his spot down for me." Azure Dragon said. Just like Sato had done before, Azure Dragon had made a rough map for the floor, only difference was thatpared to thatpared to that of Sato''s team, theirs was a lot less detailed andplete. Actually, Azure Dragon''s team had made a rough map for every floor they went by so far. This way, if the guild ever wanted to explore here again, particrly the low levelled yers, they could have an urate map based on the experiences of this team.

    "Alright." Riley nodded.

    Azure Dragon cut the call immediately. With Riley''s update, he could at least make sure that he wouldn''t end up being set up by Soran''s team or fall for any unexpected traps.

    ''Soran, Soran. Your greed would be the end of you. Just when I was looking for a vanguard, you offered yourself up.'' Azure Dragon grinned inwardly.

    "Let''s move guys. We are heading to this spot." Azure Dragon pointed at a spot on their map. It was a bit close to the settlement but was at a vantage point. At that spot, they could easily oversee everything that happened at the front entrance of the settlement.

    "Alright." Everyone nodded in response.

    Just as they were about to leave, Azure Dragon got a call from someone else. It was the second [Assassin] yer of the team. While Tawaki was sent to draw the kobolds towards Soran''s team and Riley had to supervise Soran''s team, this guy was made to be the scout for the team. He was positioned a few hundred metres away from the main team to prevent any surprise attack from the kobolds or any monsters that may possibly exist here. Because of the importance of their roles, he and Tawaki were the only yers that could call Azure Dragon directly; the others had to report through ck Tempest or Chesces.

    "Ore[1], what''s up?" Azure Dragon questioned.

    "Captain, we have a problem. " Ore said hurriedly.

    "The kobolds, the kobolds are heading our way!"

 Chapter 178 - Chaoter 172 : Azure Dragons Frustration 2

    "What did you say?!" Azure Dragon asked with a surprised tone.

    "The kobolds, the kobolds look to be heading our way." Ore replied.

    "...are you sure?" Azure Dragon asked hesitantly. He already knew the answer to hisquestion but he couldn''t resist asking it.

    Ore replied him "At least, 70% sure captain."

    Having received an answer to his question, Azure Dragon frowned in thought why wondering how things had ended up this way.

    ''Wait a minute..!''

    Azure Dragon hurriedly asked, "Ore, are the monsters heading here on their own ord or are they being lead over here by someone else."

    Ore turned his attention from the screen, looking elsewhere. He narrowed his eyes as he kept staring at that ce till he suddenly spoke up.

    "Yes! I think there''s someone there."

    Usually, the role of a lookout is taken on by [Rangers] due to their advantage in sight. But because Riley, who was the only [Ranger] present in the team, was sent to monitor Soran''s team, Azure Dragon had to make do with what he had and appointed the Ore to take on the role.

    In other to prevent himself from being caught in between the monsters, Ore had separated himself far away from the approaching horde. Because of the huge distance in between, Ore, who as an [Assassin] didn''t have the ''godly'' eyesight that [Rangers] possessed, couldn''t see much even more so in this underground environment. Ore hadn''t initially noticed Lu Zhen but with Azure Dragon questioning him, he was finally able to notice a fuzzy dark figure in front of the horde.

    Azure Dragon''s face chilled up as he a cold look was left disyed. His guess had been right. Someone was trying to use them as bait, just as he wanted to use Soran''s team.

    ''For them to actually dare to do such...'' Azure Dragon gritted his teeth. This action of Lu Zhen''s had inevitably pricked a spot in Azure Dragon''s pride. Not only that, because of the current progress of the mission, it looked like Emperor''s Might would consequently lose out today.

    At this point in time, Chesces and the rest of the team had already noticed something strange was going on with Azure Dragon. Because the video call was in private mode, apart from Azure Dragon, no one else knew who he was talking to or even the content of the conversation.

    With Azure Dragon suddenly bing angry, all the yers present, who were undoubtedly Experts at the least, easily felt the change in temperature brought about by Azure Dragon''s cold aura.

    "Captain, is there a problem?" Chesces asked nicely. He knew that at this moment, Azure Dragon was angered. Normally, he would wait till he(Azure Dragon) had let off some steam. But because the mission was too important for the guild, he couldn''t wait for that to happen.

    *Sighs*

    With a sigh, Azure Dragon regained his cool and retracted his aura. From this action of his, one would realise that even when frustrated like this, Azure Dragon was a man who could still think calmly. This was one of the reasons why he was valued by the guild''s upper echelons.

    "A problem has just urred. The unknown yer who might have had a hand in Tawaki''s death is leading the kobolds towards us."

    Azure Dragon''s first set of words had stunned the group but before they could even react further, he continued with his words.

    "If my guess is correct, it means that this yer must have arrived here before us and hidden himself. He or she should have thought of the same n as we did and decided to enact it on us."

    "How?" ck Tempest was the first to react. "We had first-hand information and we also rushed up here as soon as possible. Ignoring that, they are very few teams that are capable of reaching this ce faster than us and we are aware of all of them. Heck, we have even been monitoring their motions ever since we got the information. So howe?"

    Back when Emperor''s Might had paid a developer for this information, they had made sure to pay attention to the movements of everyone that they felt would be a threat to them; even Heaven''s Angels wasn''t left unguarded. The result of their surveince was that none of these guilds had made any massive movements yet that pointed towards ck Grill''s Cave. As for the other weaker guilds, they weren''t set in their(EM) sight. To reach the 10th level of the Middle region, having a good and reliable map wasn''t enough. One would also need a strong team to be able to face the monsters on the floors. Also, the gate guardians at the 9th floors were quite difficult for even super guilds as they too also lost a man. If they suffered such a loss even with a team of Experts, one could only imagine what a team of regr veterans from weaker guilds could achieve. In summary, it was 90% impossible for any guild below the 1st rank rating to make it this far before them.

    "I would also like to know who they are and how they made it but sadly, we don''t have the luxury of such information now do we?" Azure Dragon nced inly at ck Tempest.

    The words in ck Tempest''s mouth got stuck in his throat as he felt awkward being nced at like that.

    "So what do we do now?" Chesces asked with a serious expression.

    The team couldn''t just simply turn around and go back. Ignoring the fact that they couldn''t do so till they found the Exit gate -as even their [Teleportation runes] stopped working-, even if they could find the gate, they wouldn''t dare to retreat. The guild had invested a lot for this first-hand information. Ignoring that, they had also spent a lot to afford the gears that this team currently wore together with the consumables and support items they bought. If it were to be rounded up, at least 1-2 gold coins were spent buffing them up to peak form. Having such arge amount of money spent on this team only for them to retreat without any achievements, it would be a lie to say that the upper echelons would easily forgive them or wouldn''t me them.

    "We just change position. It''s quite possible that the yer might just be leading the horde to our position and doesn''t know of our existence of location so let''s just go elsewhere." Azure Dragon said.

    Since the time Ore had reported till now, not up to 2 minutes had gone by. They still had enough time to extricate themselves from this problem by easily changing locations.

    Without further ado, the team moved in another direction, perpendicr to that of the approaching horde [1]. They chose the left direction because in this way, they would still be quite close to Soran and his teammates.

    After 5 minutes passed with the Emperor''s Might team having gone more than 300 metres away from their initial position while running at full speed, Azure Dragon received another call from Ore when they had just taken a stop.

    "What''s up?" Azure Dragon asked with a bit of confusion and a slight frown. Looking at Ore''s expression, he felt a slight sense of trepidation.

    "Captain, they''re still chasing after us." Ore said with a bitter look on his face.

    "Damn it!" Azure Dragon cursed. The worst assumption he had guessed turned out to be true.

    Azure Dragon didn''t bother to reply to Ore as he said to everyone in the team through the party chat.

    "Listen up, change direction and move over to the God''s Retaliation battalion''s side."

    "What?!" ck Tempest eximed in surprise. Not just him; everyone else was also surprised. Even Chesces raised his eyebrows in surprise at the statement.

    "What''s the problem?" Chesces and ck Tempest simultaneously asked.

    Azure Dragon grimaced his face before saying "If I''m correct, we are being monitored."

    "?!??!" ck Tempest was shocked.

    "Howe?" Chesces asked. He was a bit surprised but with the movements and reactions Azure Dragon had made, he had somewhat expected this.

    "Just when we changed direction, the kobolds also changed direction, under the lead of that yer. If I''m correct, then it''s highly possible that it isn''t a single yer that made it up here but a party. It''s also highly possible, at least 80% chance, that we are currently being monitored by one of them." Azure Dragon replied. With the actions he had made and the reactions from the kobolds under Lu Zhen''s lead, Azure Dragon had easily reached a somewhat wless conclusion.

    "But still, why do we have to team up with those guys?" ck Tempest couldn''t resistining. Can''t we just look for the spy or something?"

    Azure Dragon didn''t bother to answer him but the same couldn''t be said about Chesces.

    "Hehe. Are you dumb or what?" Chesces mocked him with a derisive grin on his lips. "They have been monitoring us for God knows how long yet we didn''t discover them. You suddenly think that at thest moment, they would suddenly make a mistake and expose themselves to us? As for looking for them, who knows how long that will take. The kobolds are already closing in on us and we can''t keep running forever. We can''t escape either or even bother facing off against the kobolds on our own. The best option would be to team up Heaven''s Angels and try to pull it off."

    "But still..." ck Tempest was unwilling to just give up like that.

    "Enough." Azure Dragon cut him off.

    "We aren''t surrendering or begging them for help. I''m correct then we are pretty much in the same boat with them. If those guys discovered us, who can say that they didn''t discover Soran''s team too. What I''m really afraid of is that out ns have already been predicted by them." Azure Dragon sighed.

    "Is that even possible?" Chesces widened his eyes.

    "You ask me. You do the same to others so you should be able to guess so." Azure Dragon said to him. "I feel like ever since we stepped into this floor, all our actions were not only monitored by the but predicted by them too."

    ''If that is the case, then their leader should be a really scary figure in the gaming industry. Too bad we wouldn''t be able to find out who he is.'' Chesces shook his head as hemented inwardly.

    From the directions that he had tried to plot things out, Chesces discovered that their chances of survival were less than 20%.. In other words, if Azure Dragon''s words were right, they were doomed to die the very second they stepped into this floor.

 Chapter 179 - 173 : Reappearance Of [KÅjinâ€™s Arrow]

    "As expected." Sato smiled right after receiving a message from Seiichi. The message contained the details of Azure Dragon''s actions, describing how the team was heading towards Soran''s side.

    Azure Dragon was right. Ever since they had stepped into the 10th floor, their actions had been predicted by Sato. Because of this, the n went smoothly without any problem.

    ''Lu Zhen has been hanging on for a while now but I doubt he couldst even more.''

    It had been almost 5 minutes since Lu Zhen had led the horde away from their home. Even with the aid of his ss skills, it was already very impressive that he hadsted this long especially with the boss and its two guards right behind him. The original n was for Lu Zhen to lead the horde away and midway through the journey, Sato would lead the boss elsewhere. However, a small unexpected event urred on Fudo''s side, leading to Lu Zhen having to hold off the boss this long.

    In fact, Lu Zhen actually didn''t have the strength to have evensted this long. Even if he was a level 8 [Assassin], he didn''t ce all his attributes in [Agility] so there was no way that he could out run the boss for this long. The reason he did so was because of the treasures and supplies Sato had given him. In this mission, it wouldn''t be an understatement to say that Lu Zhen''s role was one of the, if not the most important. A such, Sato had deliberately given him a lot of supplies to make sure that nothing went wrong.

    Apart from the [Simple Explosives], Lu Zhen was also given a bunch of scrolls and traps to aid him in his quest. The total of all the supplies capped at 10 silver coins! That amount was enough for a yer to afford two average Mid-tier Mortal rank weapons. If the yer could still his heart and add more, he could even afford a Mid-tier Mortal rank set equipment or an Upper tier Mortal rank. Even if it will be the lowest of Upper tier Mortal rank weapons, it was still an Upper tier Mortal rank weapon.

    An Upper tier Mortal rank weapon was something current yers couldn''t easily get their hands on. Unless one was a core member of a big guild, they couldn''t easily get their hands on a weapon of such quality not just because it''s rare but because it''s very expensive. The craziest part though is that the amount of consumables Sato handed over to Lu Zhen was almost on par to this

    With supplies costing that much, Lu Zhen was not only able to hold back the boss and its minions from approaching him but he also renewed the aggro on himself.

    ''They should be done by now, so I think it''s alright to move in now.'' Sato thought. With 5 minutes having passed by, Fudo and the rest should have been able to rectify the issue. That then means that Sato could follow the n once again.

    "Lu Zhen, begin as nned." Sato said to him in the party chat.

    "Okay." Lu Zhen replied him.

    Staring at the boss from a distance, he withdrew a scroll from his storage bag and unfurled it. He stared at the inscriptions written atop the scroll before chanting them out loud at a somewhat slow yet somewhat fast speed.

    At this time, the horde being lead by was but just 100-200 metres away. At this distance, the kobold chief''s attacks wouldn''t be able to teach and the same held true for Sato''s. On a good note though, with such a wide stretch in between them, Sato would easily be able to escape at a moment''s notice. Nheless, he still couldn''t make an impression on the boss from here. That was why he resorted to using a magic scroll to attack, as these devices were capable of a much more longer attack range.

    "Tainted with the blood of a deity yet forged by the blood of another. Blessed by the infinite swirls of the almighty mes. Wreak havoc on this petty creature..."

    With his chant almostpleted, Sato made a cut on his index finger and traced a wavy pattern on the scroll with his blood. Once done, a fiery arrow took form right in front of him. The arrow was long and looked more like a spear than an arrow. If not for the fletching at the tail, one would easily mistake it as a spear.

    As the ming arrowpleted it''s formation, Sato tore the scroll in pieces and flung the pieces at the arrow. Following that, he pointed his hand at the kobold chief and with his concentration focused on the target, he lightly yelled.

    [K¨­jin''s arrow]. Go!"

    *Phew*

    As if being fired from a bow, the ming arrow darted towards the kobold chief at an insane speed. Within a second it covered the 100 metres distance and in the next second, it had already approached the kobold chief.

    The kobold chief had set its eyes on Lu Zhen the entire time, ignoring the state of its surroundings. Because of this, it didn''t notice the arrow in time. By the time it did however, the arrow was already just a metre away from it.

    *Boom*

    The arrow collided at a target and the force behind it burst with a startling yet beautiful explosion. Within a 3 metre range of the explosion point, the kobolds nearby were burnt to crisp and within a 5 metres range, the kobolds there sustained heavy injuries. At 10 metre space, a few could be seen above though they were not without injuries, with the luckiest of them having light injuries while the most pitiful ones being fiddled with holes here and there.

    The power of the attack was much more than even what Sato had expected.

    The first time Sato had witnessed the prowess of [K¨­jin''s Arrow] was when Drunken Hog had used it in the raid against the goblin boss, Sygrart[1]. Back then, the attack had not only wrecked the first barrier set up by Sygrart but it also destroyed the defensive shield Sygrart had set up while still having enough power to st him away. With such a performance back then, there was no doubt that [K¨­jin''s Arrow] could rank among the top 20 or even top 10 most powerful attack type scrolls. But because it was back then, some might still doubt its power against current monsters but Sato knew better.

    From an information gotten by an information broker[2], one which Seiichi had bought, certain scrolls have the ability to grow in power with the user and some particr exact scrolls vary in power. The spell [K¨­jin''s Arrow] was one of the very few that was under both ssifications. Based on the user''s needs and ability, the power could adjusted to fit them and at the same time, there were also weaker variants being sold.

    Back then, Drunk Hog wasn''t even above level 5 hence the power he could draw out from the scroll was very little but still, it was enough to make Sygrart eat a loss. Now, Sato was a level 9 yer, and though not a mage ss, the power he could bring out from the scroll was much more than the Drunken Hog of back then. Also, the variant he bought was much more powerful than that of Drunken Hog''s as this alone cost 15 silver coins. If it happened to be Fudo who was present, then the effects of the st wouldn''t be limited to a 10 metres radius only; it might even reach 20 metres!

    ''That should be able to do it.'' Sato smirked.

    Looking at the original spot that the Kobold chief stood on, the entire spot was burnt ck as the ground sunk in by at least 30 centimetre. There were burnt koboldsying on the floor looking somewhat simr to a dish of roasted alligator. Due to the still existing heat on them, one could even hear a sizzling sound as the smell of roasted reptilian meat also drifted through the air. For the kobolds that were still alive, a lot of them had lost a body part or two and even the luckiest of them had a ring scar on its chest. The kobold horde had even slowed down their steps to a halt as they nced at the scene.

    The kobold boss and its two guards where the only one left standing within the 3 metre radius but not without injuries. The two guards had both lost an arm each; one lost the right and the other the left. This was because the target of the arrow was the boss who happened to be in the middle of them both. Even though they were a tad slower than the boss, it was just a tad so they still got hit.

    As for the boss, being the target of the st, its injuries would be expected to be the worse, but surprisingly, it wasn''t all that bad as one would expect.

    At thest moment when [K¨­jin''s Arrow] had closed in on it, the kobold chief had still managed to catch a glimpse of it. Relying in its reflexes, it had shed at the arrow with an axe. The axe was so terrible that it could barely, as in BARELY, be able to ssified as a low tier Mortal rank weapon. Against [K¨­jin''s Arrow] which was like a targeted missile, such a weapon was nothing but a metal rod, but in the hands of the kobold boss, it seemed to be something else. Relying on its absurd strength, the kobold chief was able to mitigate a portion of the attack, reflecting it to the sides but it couldn''t handle with the full brunt of the attack that easily. Hence even with its amazing skills, the kobold chief still received injuries.

    A majority of its entire frontal part was burnt almost to a crisp. The hands that held the axe was even worse as there was still a red color seeping through it with burnt flesh and muscles visible to the eye. One of its eyes -to be exact, the left eye- was totally destroyed. There was nothing present in that eye socket except for a ck blob.

    "Roar!!!!!!!"

    An ear-piercing roar rocked the entire floor as the kobold chief nced over at Sato''s position with extreme hatred. It wanted nothing more than to grab a hold of him, tear him into two before eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Even from this distance, Sato could feel its fury as his blood went cold from that vicious re.

    ''I guess it''s time to go.'' Sato thought as he immediately turned around and ran at his full speed. He didn''t want to wait for the kobold chief to chase him as he knew without fail that it would. His mission was simply to draw it away from Lu Zhen and with his performance so far, Sato was very sure that he had scored 120% out of a 100% in this mission.

    Seeing the infernal creature who caused it such serious injuries simply turning on its heels, the kobold chief was greatly infuriated. It didn''t even bother about Lu Zhen again as it pursued after Sato with a roar. Though it didn''t bother about him, that didn''t mean it nned on letting him go. Despite not having much contact with humans, the kobold chief felt that Lu Zhen was in this with Sato, as such, it sent on of its guards to lead the other kobolds to capture Lu Zhen alive. It nned on torturing Lu Zhen once ites back, making sure to turn him into a sacrificial creature to their god. As for Sato, the kobold chief wanted to handle him alone, both in order to regain its pride in front of its people as the strongest and also because of its own personal hatred for Sato. It simply wanted to tear him apart with its own hands.

    Unbeknownst to the kobold chief though, the series of orders it had passed on with a roar would inevitably make things easier for Sato''s team.

 Chapter 180 - 174 : Teaming Up

    ''Hmm?''

    Even though Sato had retreated without wasting any time, he was able to sense that there were only two figures chasing after him. Initially, Sato thought that with the massive damage [K¨­jin''s Arrow] had caused to the kobolds and their chief, the entire kobolds would pursue after him under the lead of the boss. If that was the case, then Lu Zhen would have to find a way to make the other kobolds focus on him again. Unexpectedly, it was only the kobold chief and another bodyguard that pursued after him. This would mean that the other guard and the rest of the kobolds were still chasing after Lu Zhen.

    Sato wondered why this was so and ended up reaching a startling yet understandable conclusion; the boss possessed intellect.

    In Infinite Realm, just like a majority of other VR games, monsters are generally ssified into 3 Is; Instinct, Intelligence, and Intellect.

    A majority of monsters operate based on Instincts and the level of intelligence they have differs. Some would outrightly do as their instinctsmand or as they were made to operate. A good example was the Rock Golems who ignore pain or fear and charge in against a yer. Some animal-type monsters also behave like this, only retreating after having suffered at the hands of yers. A good example of these kinds would be the Ground Rat.

    As for the next two, they deal with monsters that are a bit smarter than usual. Monsters with Intelligence know when to retreat and when not to. They know how to fight better than monsters of Instincts, but the difference isn''t much.

    Monsters of Intellect, however, are even scarier. Being able to formte tactics and ns are just a few of the things they can do. Some of them are even capable of using martial arts!

    Seeing as how the kobold chief had reorganized its troops, Sato guessed that it either possessed high intelligence, bordering Intellect, or it was outrightly a monster of Intellect. Due to the fact that they were yet tobat it at close range or even engage inbat with it, Sato couldn''t be sure which it was. What he was sure of, however, was that even with the injury the boss had taken, it would still be a pain in the ass for them to defeat it.

    ''It doesn''t matter. So long as everything goes ording to n, we should win.'' Sato thought.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    "Captain, someone''sing." One of the mages in the group said.

    "Hmph. So, there was someone else here." Soran smirked. He had previously guessed that there was another party lurking on the 10th floor but he had no proof yet. Now that they had found one, he decided to jab Flood King just a bit.

    This action of his might make him look like a kid but Soran didn''t care. One of the reasons why he had the name ''Beast'' in his title was not just because of his wild and savage nature but also because he never gave a sh*t about what others thought of him. He always did things as he pleased.

    Flood King obviously knew that Soran was mocking him but he couldn''t do or say anything, after all, Soran ended up being right while he was wrong. As for whether the team had just recently arrived? Flood King doubted that.

    On their journey here, the Heaven''s Angels IR branch had dispatched a few yers and spies out to monitor the other guilds'' progress. Because they were still a 1st tier guild, they weren''t able to sneak in their yers to the top guilds'' core teams, but monitoring them on the floors wasn''t a difficult problem. All they had to do was to pay a few dark yers to take note of those who made it past the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors of the Middle region. As for the higher floors, they had hired a bunch of reputable experts, either solo or dark yers, to monitor those teams.

    Their team had originally thought that they were the first ones in and with that advantage, they could easily monitor everyone''s progress. From the information that they had previously received from their lookouts, the next team that was catching up to them was an unofficial party, and following close to them was Yukino''s team together with a few reputable 2nd tier teams.

    Apart from Yukino''s team, Flood King doubted that anyone else would be able to defeat the three level 9 Guardian golems on the 9th floor. Without defeating them, no yer or team would be able to get past the Exit gate. This would take time and factoring in the time Heaven''s Angels had spent here, it was less than 15 minutes. It was impossible for there to be a neer already.

    "Men, take your stations. Prepare to ambush them." Soran ordered.

    "Ambush them? We don''t know whether they''re friend or foe yet you want to ambush them all of a sudden." Flood Kingined. He had the backing of the branch guild leader, whose status wasn''t so inferior to Soran, and he was also an influential figure of sorts so he didn''t fear Soran that much.

    Soran left him with only one sentence.

    "For this mission and in this floor, all are foe."

    A few secondster, some figures could be seen approaching them. Because the terrain of the 10th floor was filled with many highs and lows, Soran''s team didn''t notice these yers as they themselves were at the low ground. If not for the alertness of the mage yer who noticed the unnatural flow of mana from that direction, they wouldn''t have discovered these yers. Speaking of which, the mage who sensed them was actually a [Druid], the ss well known for its high affinity with natural mana in its purest form.

    As the figures approached his team, Soran discovered that they were actually Emperor''s Might''s top yers. He could see Azure Dragon, Chesces, and even that blockhead, ck Tempest in the group.

    ''I see. So this was their original team.'' Soran chuckled internally while outside he put on an astonished look. If one didn''t know anything, they would actually think that he was surprised at the sight of Azure Dragon''s team.

    "Azure Dragon. Never thought I would see you here." Soran chuckled coldly as he withdrew his "surprised" look.

    "Hehe. Me too. But enough with the lies, Soran. You should have obviously sensed our presence." Azure Dragon said as he nced at the [Druid].

    "Captain, if I''m correct then he should have even prepared a ''weing'' team for us." Chesces added as he stressed upon the word, ''weing''.

    Upon seeing the reactions and hearing the sentences from these two, Soran''s face twisted a bit before he showed a cold smile.

    ''These two still are as smart as ever.''

    For the ambush, Soran had hidden two of his mages and 3 of his physical ss yers. He only left the well-known ones close so that no one would suspect the strength of his party. A team of 10 yers with 2 healers didn''t seem so suspicious to anyone at first sight so he wasn''t worried about being discovered. However, he made the mistake of not withdrawing the [Druid] too.

    Truth be told, Soran didn''t think much of it. Even though [Druids] are said to be capable of sensing a yer from far out, that was an exaggeration. Not every [Druid] could do this. They had to be able to focus on the flow of mana in their environment and the problem with this was that the flow in various environments differs. This ''flow'' includes both frequency and speed, and it wasn''t that easy to sense. It was like trying to feel the wind speed with your skin, and even worse, you had to do this in an extremely calm weather. But in actual fact, sensing the flow of mana was a lot more difficult than that. Apart from that, there was also the limitation of distance. Due to the special care given to the [Druid] ss, sensing mana flow in a 5 metres radius wasn''t difficult for most yers but further out depended on themselves. Even for the [Druid] in their team, the guy could only sense 27 metres far out at, and that was with him pushing his senses all out.

    "Hehe. So to what do I owe this favor?" Soran asked. He ignored theirments as if he never heard it even though their deductions were correct.

    ''As shameless as ever.'' Azure Dragon thought.

    *Boom*

    Before he could reply Soran, an explosion urred as smoke rose into the air from a distance.

    "What was that?!" Everyone was shocked.

    Soran nced at the smoke before turning to Azure Dragon with a frown. The explosion had urred in the direction they had arrived from. Though it wasn''t the exact one as going straight from where Azure Dragon and his team arrived, if one made a slight deviation they would still reach the same ce.

    Before the team could even settle down after that, another phenomenon urred.

    "Roar!!!!"

    An infuriated roar that seemed to contain one''s anger against the heavens echoed through the entire floor. Unlike the previous one from before, this one was a lot worse. Some of the weaker yers could even feel their legs shiver a bit as they almost lost their bnce. Even Azure Dragon, Chesces, ck Tempest and Soran felt their blood go cold at the sound. This reaction wasn''t only a result of the anger of the speaker that seemed to rage against the 7 seas, but also from the speaker itself. This was an innate difference in Life Order, one that not even Soran nor Azure Dragon could go against unscathed.

    "You should have obviously heard that roar from earlier. Added with the explosion and this roar, you should have realized something. We aren''t the only ones here." Azure Dragon said calmly.

    Listening to his words, Soran frowned. He might not be well known for his intelligence as Azure Dragon and Chesces were, but to have reached his post, he had to still be a bit smarter than average.

    "So?" Soran asked. From the sound from earlier, Soran could easily guess that the other party was facing the boss. If anything, having the other party do the job while he waits to reap the rewards sounded nice. What he didn''t get was why Azure Dragon was moving in the opposite direction.

    Azure Dragon calmly exined, "Here''s the breakdown of things. The boss dwells in a monster encampment with, give or take, 2 to 300 hundred monsters. The other party intends on drawing the majority of the monsters towards us while they face the boss alone. That way, not only would they have solved the issue of the horde of monsters but also prevent anyone else from sneaking up on them. Two birds with one stone."

    Soran had a grim look on his face as he listened to Azure Dragon''s words. Once he finished speaking, Soran replied "We just arrived, so I doubt they know of our presence. If anything, I''m guessing you were their target, yet you dragged your problem over to me. Hehe."

    As he finished his words, Soran had a cold smile on his lips. It was a smile that didn''t look like one. He had easily spotted a loophole in Azure Dragon''s tale, is what he thought. Truth be told, Sato already knew about their presence but neither Azure Dragon nor Soran knew this.

    "Whether what I said is true or not, we are in this together." Azure Dragon spread his arms out nonchntly. "We either die together, alone or try and bring our enemies down with us."

    Soran wasn''t willing to work with them but he knew that Azure Dragon''s words were true. With him having arrived here, Azure Dragon had already pulled them into this. Even if the third party didn''t know of them, Azure Dragon''s actions had forced Soran''s team to the open. Soran could guess that for the n to work, the third party would have someone monitor Azure Dragon''s team. That person should have already discovered them by now and alerted theirmanding figure. With that done, Soran was forced into the y. He either teams up with Azure Dragon and tries to find a way through this or he dies with his teammates. There was no third option.

    "Hehe. Fine, we have ourselves a deal.." Soran smiled.

 Chapter 181 - 175 : Face-off

    "Hehe. Fine, we have ourselves a deal." Soran smiled. In such a situation where their live and death was an unknown factor, Soran had to make a proper decision.

    Soran might be known as the Blood Beast but he wasn''t as wild or reckless as the men of the Savage Tribe. Whenpared to the Maniac Chief Goro, Soran was a lot more sensible and reasonable. The only reason he had the title ''Blood Beast'', was because of his hunger for blood and murder, but that those not mean that he would let his wild nature cloud his judgement so easily. This could easily be seen from the fact that despite continuously challenging him, Soran didn''t kill Flood King. If it was Goro in his shoes, a different situation would sure y out.

    Being a man with at least a good amount of awareness and insight, Soran knew that this wasn''t the time to argue with the opposing party but to team up with them. Another reason was because Soran was annoyed that a third party had actually taken him as nothing more than cannon-fodder to hold back the boss.

    ''Wait till I get my hands on you. If I don''t let you experience the ancient ''truth-seeking ways'' of old, then I''m not worthy of being called the Blood Beast.'' Soran thought as a sadistic smile appeared across his face.

    "So what''s the n?" Soran asked Azure Dragon.

    "I need to know how many men you have present." Azure Dragon simply said. Till now, Soran had yet to recall the yers he had kept in hiding for an ambush. Having revealed his reason foring and also busting his act, Azure Dragon was expecting that Soran would call those yers back.

    "Hehe. Return, men." Soran chuckled as he signaled with his fingers.

    Without any dy, 5 silhouettes appeared from 5 different positions and angles. The ce they hide before was very concealed that if one didn''t pay close attention enough, they wouldn''t even notice the shadows of the yers.

    Experts!

    This was the word that resounded within Azure Dragon''s head as he nced at these 5 yers. He wasn''t that surprised that the personnel''s dispatched by Heaven''s Angels for this raid were Experts instead, he was surprised that these yers weren''t well-known.

    Even though there exists yer ranks above the Expert level, just reaching this level alone was enough for one to be taken seriously by a majority of guilds. At this level, one would already have a bit of fame and would even be paid a monthly sry of 1200-4000 ALDs. Such an amount of money has already surpassed the regr blue cor pay while still closing on to those of white cor office workers. In lower guilds, these yers are even paid a bit more sometimes and this was because if the strength they possessed.

    Having shed with Heaven''s Angels for a while already, especially the God''s Retaliation battalion, Emperor''s Might already had a list of most of their Expert ss yers. As a top ranking official of the guild, especially with the fact that they would have topete against Heaven''s Angels, Azure Dragon had memorized the list as ordered by the higher-ups. From his memory of the recorded Expert yers of Heaven''s Angels, Azure Dragon could recognize Soran and the other 9 but as for the 5 that just appeared, he never knew of them.

    ''I see. If not for this emergency, Soran wouldn''t want to reveal their identities. It''s seems like Heaven''s Angels haspleted their training program and might even have a few more talents hidden in the shadows.'' Azure Dragon thought with a frown.

    "Hehe. What''s wrong? Is the esteemed Dragon surprised or confused?"

    This statement didn''t actuallye from Soran but from Flood King. Ever since Azure Dragon arrived here, he had simply ignored him throughout. Apart from the one nce Azure Dragon gave him at the beginning, he had only been paying attention to Soran. For someone as prideful as Flood King, it would be a lie to say that he wasn''t annoyed. In this conversation of the two top leaders, even Chesces had spoken up so why shouldn''t he talk?

    In this regard, Soran wasn''t displeased at him for the first time, but actually nced at him before chuckling.

    Azure Dragon grimaced his face as he stared at Flood King. After going through the list from the guild''s higher-ups, he already knew who this yer was. It was just that despite being an Expert, his achievements weren''t enough for Azure Dragon to take him seriously.

    "Why would I be surprised at a mere addition of 5 yers?" Azure Dragon clicked his tongue.

    "Good." Flood King grinned.

    "So do you have any n ready now?" Soran interrupted them.

    In the aspect of tactics and strategy, Soran''s team had the lower hand whenpared to the other side. There was Chesces and Azure Dragon who were both well-known for their intelligence. As for his side, there was only himself and Flood King who could barely make it. Hence, Soran relinquished the role of strategizing to them. However, this didn''t mean that he would just let them turn his men to a couple of cannon-fodders on the battlefield.

    Azure Dragon could obviously guess the reason why Soran was pressing forward to hear his n. Without wasting anymore time, he replied.

    "It''s quite simple really. We just have to-"

    "Roar!!!!"

    A tyrannical roar interrupted them. However, the scary part this time wasn''t the roar, but the fact that it sounded to be a lot closer than before.

    "Could it be...?!" Chesces eximed.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    While Sato had drawn the kobold chief and one of his guards elsewhere, Lu Zhen was being pursued by a maddened kobold wave that was led by a bodyguard of the kobold chief, suspected to be at least level 9. In Lu Zhen''s own words, ''this might be a bit less than before but it''s still fun''.

    Originally, the gap between himself and Azure Dragon''s team wasn''t much and with the target having halted their motion, Lu Zhen eventually caught up to them.

    "Guess what Santa got for you guys!" Lu Zhen blurted out once he saw Azure Dragon and the others'' figures.

    "That quick?!"

    Azure Dragon was rmed. He previously thought that it would take at least 5 minutes or so for this stranger to arrive with the horde. Even though they wouldn''t be able to aplish much, 5 minutes was better than nothing. He didn''t know that with the stunt Sato had pulled back then, he ended up enraging the kobolds and with his absence, this rage was transferred over to Lu Zhen. With overflowing boiling blood in their veins, the kobolds desperately wanted to tear any creature to pieces. This ended up passively increasing their speed a bit, forcing Lu Zhen to do his best and also increase his pace even more. In the end, the estimated 5 minutes turned to 2 minutes.

    "Damn it. Take formation. MTs in front, range yers behind. Healers get on the go. Everyone else, attack with whatever you''ve got!" Azure Dragon barked out orders.

    The members of the God''s Retaliation squad were hesitating to follow the orders of a former enemy and so were a bit slower in reacting.

    "What are you waiting for?" Soran nced at his teammates. With Soran having expressed his stand, the rest didn''t dy any further.

    Azure Dragon had evidently noticed this but there was nothing he could do about it either. All he could do was frown at their actions while thinking that their slow reactions would eventually cost the teamter on.

    By this time, the kobold horde that was about 30 metres away had already noticed these new yers. The rest re in their eyes suddenly red even more as they roared and growled loudly as if celebrating, while running a bit faster than before.

    Previously, there was only Lu Zhen to release all their anger on. No matter how strong he was, Lu Zhen was but one individual. For an army of 100 kobolds to release their anger at one individual was impossible. Just 4-5 kobolds were more than enough to tear a yer into pieces. Any more and it would be much difficult for everyone to get a fair share. That was why when they saw more of the strange creatures, they were suddenly joyful. Rather than dealing with one, dealing with abined 31 was way better. At least everyone would have a much higher chance of feasting on the meat of these strange creatures. Thinking about this, some of them even began to salivate so excessively that saliva began dripping from their mouths like water from a tap.

    "They take us as food." Flood King frowned. How could he? A proud son of heaven, be taken by such lowly reptilian creatures formed from data as food? He couldn''t even stomach that feeling and wanted to attack immediately. Unlike in battles against Rock Golems, Flood King''sbat prowess wouldn''t be reduced against these monsters so he was itching to destroy them. If not for the distance limit of his spells, he would have already attacked long ago.

    "Mages!" Azure Dragon yelled as he saw the kobolds closing in on the 15 metres distance.

    "Attack!"

 Chapter 182 - 176 : Holding On

    "Attack!"

    With his yell as a prelude to the battle, Azure Dragon pointed his staff at the approaching creatures. He wasn''t alone though, as the other yers worked alongside him.

    This was a battle that would determine their life and death. As such, no one shirked away from it. They couldn''t just die either. Being experts, they all had their pride. After realizing that this was nothing more than a setup, even though they knew that willingly dying would ruin the ns of the opponent, they still didn''t want to. Instead, they all harbored the hope that they could survive through this and face against the other party. The sight of abined 30 yers facing off against, at least, 100 kobolds was really impressive at the least.

    Of course, Azure Dragon and Chesces didn''t have the hope of living through this unlike the others. The reason that they fought, instead of simply dying, was to earn enough Experience points that would counter-bnce the loss from their deaths.

    "Ahhh!"

    With loud screams and fierce roars, the melee yers dashed towards the kobold horde with the myriads of attacks from the back acting as their support. Even though it seemed, no. Even though it was a like a pointless endeavor, they still faced off against the intimidating force of the other side without any intention of retreating or skirting the threat in front.

    *Boom*

    The first spellnded and this one happened to be from a Fire [Elementalist] from Emperor''s Might.

    *Boom* *Boom* *Bang*

    "Roar!"

    "Growl!"

    Less than a secondter, the other attacks from the others arrived too. With at least 8 [Elementalists]unching attacks at the kobolds, they were still able to cause a sizeable amount of damage to the monsters.

    Kobold body parts flew into the air as the smell of roasted meat permeated the air. Blood spilled as some of the kobolds either roared or growled in pain. Nheless, the effects of the attacks were still limited as more kobolds rushed from the back and went past the victims of the first volley. Some of the forerunners also went uninjured from the wave. Even Lu Zhen had managed to dodge a shot from Riley, who had rejoined the group for this battle.

    "Charge!"

    With the limited effects of the long-distance attacks doing their deed, the melee yers then charged at the kobolds. Altogether, there were 6 MTs participating in this raid, of which 4 of them were [Guardians] while the other two yed the role of [Pdins]. Funny enough, the distribution was even for the two different parties.

    The 4 [Guardians] stood their ground at the very front, alongside the 2 [Pdins]. Apart from the mage ss yers, there were 17 melee yers avable. With 4 of them forming a wall in front to intercept the horde, the remaining 13 prepared themselves to confront the predominant force in this battle.

    4 secondster...the two parties collided.

    "Roar!"

    "Haha." With augh, Soran weed the first kobold, ignoring the defensive line formed by the yers before diving into the kobold horde.

    ''Looks like he''s lost it.''

    Recalling his title, Chesces'' lips twisted with a wryly smile as he watched Soran y his way through.

    Being a [Berserker] and a Warrior job yer, Soran''s strength couldn''t be doubted. With a blood red axe in hand, he cut his way through the kobold army. Soran was originally a level 6 [Berserker] but after his journey through the lower floors till this point, he had managed to be a level 7 yer, with just a few Experience points short of bing a level 8 yer. Because of his amazing strength, very few kobolds could match up to him. A majority of them were just level 6 and 7 monsters, with a few level 8 monsters present. Against the level 6s and 7s, Soran didn''t have a hard time. Even though monsters were said to be stronger than yers on average, this was only in attributes. In skills, yers had the advantage to grow. Unless he encountered a level 8 kobold, Soran was a dominating force in the battle.

    "They aren''t that strong..." One yer suddenly said out loud with surprise.

    The imposing momentum of the kobolds together with their current location, made the yers to take the kobolds as high levelled creatures. They never thought that they were monsters that even Soran alone could take on. Though it was actually a stretch to say that Soran could take on 100 kobolds, a unit of 7 wasn''t such a difficult task for him. Ignoring him too, there were still 16 other melee yers with skill close to his. Even with a conservative estimate, each of them should be able to hold on against 5 kobolds. That would now be at least 80 kobolds. With the assist from the long-range yers, they might be able to hold on against this 100+ army. Thinking of this, the moral of the team increased even more as some of the other yers left the back-line and darted into the horde to conduct a massacre. Unknown to them though, things weren''t as easy as they thought.

    Back when the kobolds were about to sh with the yers, Lu Zhen had taken a turn to another direction, avoiding being ced in between the two camps. The monsters had alreadyid their eyes on the bigger party which happened to be the alliance of Azure Dragon and Soran; ignoring Lu Zhen''s sneaky actions. Well, they all did except for one.

    The other guard who led the kobolds here had kept its sight on Lu Zhen throughout the entire time. Even as he tried to escape quickly, the kobold chased after him. Originally, Lu Zhen''s speed wasn''t much faster than it but after Sato''s ''gift'' to them, it had lost an arm and had its abilities reduced. Hence, it wasn''t able to catch up to Lu Zhen once again as it did the previous time. Nheless, chasing after him wasn''t difficult for it.

    "So you want to be a dog ster huh?" Lu Zhen nced at the kobold behind. If this were before, he wouldn''t dare turn back while running, but with the kobold losing an arm and having its abilities being affected, Lu Zhen wasn''t as scared as he was before.

    Lu Zhen then nced back to see how the yers were handling the monsters and discovered that they were doing okay and even having a slight advantage. However, the mission wasn''t for things to be so easy for them.

    ''7 minutes at least. That''s what Sato needs. The two side have to be equal then.''

    Thinking like this, Lu Zhen made a curve and turned back, heading towards the battle zone with the kobold guard behind him.

    Because of this action of his, Lu Zhen had inevitably reduced the gap between himself and the kobold guard.

    Seeing an opportunity, the kobold guard immediately drew its bone sword as swung at Lu Zhen.

    ''Shit.''

    While cursing, Lu Zhen made a narrow dodge before retreating a few steps backwards. As a result, his attempt of trying to re-enter the battlefield had been blocked by the kobold guard. He was now forced to face it in a one-on-one battle. Realising this, Lu Zhen grimaced.

    ''Even though it has lost an arm, it should still be a level 9 or so monster. I''m already quite lucky that speed isn''t its forte but with things being like this, my chances of victory are quite low.''

    Staring at the kobold guard, Lu Zhen tried to think of a n to quickly subdue it, but it wasn''t like his opponent would just let him be.

    The kobold guard brought down its sword again, as if it was a butcher that was about to chop a piece of meat.

    ''Dodge!''

    Lu Zhen didn''t dare to presume that his [Strength] was higher than the kobold''s so he quickly moved to dodge the attack. Like an ant to sugar, the kobold guard chase after him forcing Lu Zhen to pay attention to it and not giving him any opportunity to escape. From this action, it was as if the monster was intelligent. Lu Zhen might not im to be one of the top strategists or pros in gaming but he easily noticed this point.

    ''Not just the boss but also this guy?!'' Lu Zhen eximed. In most VR games, intelligent monsters and monster with intellect were quite rare. But in this raid, there were already 3 of them spotted in the same ce! This was unimaginable in other games.

    ''It''s forcing me to face it in battle and I hardly have enough time to-whoa.''

    Lu Zhen had his thoughts interrupted by an unexpected sh from the kobold guard. Even though he tried to dodge it, he was a tad too slow and almost ended up getting his skin marred. If not for the leather armour he wore, he would have been in deep sh*t. Nheless, the force behind the attack still took 5 HP from him.

    ''I need to force it to focus on those guys but how...'' Lu Zhen thought.

    As he faced off against the kobold guards, the other yers had their own problems to handle.

    They originally thought that the kobolds weren''t much of a big deal after seeing Soran take on 5 of them at once. With Soran as their role model, they had dashed into the horde and began battling the kobolds. Things were going smoothly for them but that was just for a few seconds as some of the kobolds behind suddenly sprung forward. Unlike the ones they had been confronting, these guys were actually level 7 Elites and 8s.

    With the new vibrant force added to the mix, the yers began having a hard time, needing heals every 3-5 seconds and relying on the long-range yers to help them and hold the kobolds off. This was unavoidable as from the usual trend of ck Grill''s Cave, as one goes to a higher floor, they encounter stronger monsters. How could the Middle region''s 10th floor, which housed a suspected level 10 world ss boss, be filled with a mere level 6 and 7 kobolds?

    The majority of the yers were level 7 with the only high levelled ones among them being Chesces, who participated in the Goblin battle event and raked in a lot of achievements. However, he was only one man and would certainly focus more on assisting his original teammates. Even so, his ability was limited in this regard.

    "We have to hold up, men. Try and kill as much as you can and don''t die so easily" Azure Dragon yelled from the back as he sted out two water type spells at almost the same time, sting two level 7 kobolds away from one of his teammates. In ck Grill''s Cave, Fire [Elementalists] could be said to be the real winners in life but against kobolds, they didn''t have much of an advantage over the other [Elementalists]. As such, Azure Dragon didn''t face any suppression and was more than capable of taking on 2 level 7 kobolds on his own.

    ''Damn it. After this is over, I swear I will track down those bastards and end their careers.'' Azure Dragon thought.

    Meanwhile, ''those bastards'' were about toplete their goal on this floor, or so they thought.

 Chapter 183 - 177 : Forced Hand

    1 and a half minutes before Lu Zhen drew the kobolds over to Soran''s side.

    ''Almost there...''

    One man and two kobolds were engaged in a hectic chase as the only human in the group was being pursued by the two monsters.

    One of the monsters had an arm lost; to be exact, its right arm. Despite this, its speed was still quick and it wasn''t losing out by far aspared to the other two.

    While the first kobold was disabled, the other was severely injured with a majority of its front burnt ck. If an average human being were to stand in its ce, the person would undoubtedly die from such devastating injuries. From this, the vitality of this creature could be easily seen as it wasn''t something a human or even a regr kobold couldpare to. While it ran, it emitted a red blood mist that stuck closely to its body. The mist was both as a result of the heavy injuries that the monster sustained and also as a result of its anger towards the human in front. As for who this human was, it was obviously Sato Kurosaki, or as he went in the game, Sky de.

    Sato had been running for less than 30 seconds but those 30 seconds had been one of the most dangerous experience he had ever gone through.

    As an [Assassin], which was the ss with the most undeniable link with a faster speed and higher burst damage, Lu Zhen had been able to hold out under the pursuit of the kobold chief and its two guards. It wasn''t just because of his high [Agility] but also because of the passive bonus from his ss. Sato however, was a [Swordsman], a ss that didn''t receive such a good treatment.

    During those 30 seconds, there were a lot of time that Sato was almost caught by the kobold chief and these times numbered far more than Lu Zhen''s from the time he left the kobold settlement till he met up with Sato. At one time, Sato was but with an arm''s reach of the kobold chief. If not for the general skill, [Sprint], effectively saving him at that crucial moment, Sato would have been forced to face the boss and in a one-on-two battle. Even with the boss and the guard''s injuries, Sato didn''t believe that he stood a chance against the two.

    Luckily, the boss was heavily injured and this somewhat affected its speed and reactions, giving Sato the opportunity to widen the gap even further. Also, as a descendant of the legendary dragons, the kobold chief''s forte was in strength and not speed. Even if it was a level 10 world ss boss, it wouldn''t be much faster than a level 8 [Assassin].

    With the current status of the pursuit, Sato was out of danger but this was based on the current state of the chase. Lu Zhen wasn''t any faster than the kobold chief but with the aid of his ss skills and passive boost, he was able to slightly surpass it in terms of speed. While Sato was a lot slower than Lu Zhen, the kobold chief was injured this time around and so, its speed wasn''t as it was before. Even at that, Sato wasn''t faster than it by that much. Only by relying on the skill [Sprint], could he widen the gap. Nheless, the skill had a 5 seconds duration. Once the time was up, the kobold chief would slowly begin to catch up to him.

    ''I''m still a bit far from the location. This is bad.'' Sato thought as he kept running forward. He had used [Sprint] 10 seconds ago and there was still 10 seconds left in the cool-down time. The kobold chief was already catching up to him and the kobold guard wasn''t far behind.

    Making use of the uneven terrain, Sato was able to prevent the kobold chief from reaching him any sooner, but such a tactic still had its limits. He estimated that within 8-10 seconds, the kobold chief would close the gap even more and he would be with an arm''s length of it.

    With only one second left on the cool-down, the kobold chief would surely be able to approach him even closer and attack. Once he got caught up in a fight, Sato didn''t believe he would be able to easily free himself then.

    This was because a couple of seconds back, the kobold chief had closed the gap between them both, forcing Sato to engage in a fight with it. In the battle, Sato had realised that the kobold chief''s fighting pattern was approaching that of a yer. He was undoubtedly surprised as this signified that the monster had high level intelligence at the very least and may even possess a sliver of Intellect. Back then, Sato had depended on [Sprint] to force his way out from the one-against-two scenario. He believed that with the kobold chief seeing his method, it would most likely not let the same thing repeat itself again. This was the difference between a monster with high level intelligence and a monster of instinct. If it were thetter, Sato could just keep engaging in a battle with it before suddenly retreating. Such a hit-and-run tactic would be quite effective in dealing a sizeable amount of damage but before he could even consider the n, he was doomed to fail already.

    ''If my calctions are right, I''m just 200~300 metres away. Such a distance would take me less than a minute to cover especially with the aid of [Sprint]. But I need to survive this.''

    With 6 seconds left on the cool-down time and with the kobold chief less than 10 metres away. Sato realised that he would have to make at least one move against the monster in order to escape safely.

    Sato then began to analyse his situation even more.

    ''The kobold guard isn''t that slower whenpared to the boss. If I focus on the boss, it would suddenly appear at that moment, holding me down. I can''t focus on it either as the monster is behind the boss...if that''s the case, then I will have to do this. But I will only have a one second space.''

    Originally, Sato never paid attention to his system interface while running as he had to be continuously alert against the kobold chief. He counted down the left over time in his mind and he pushed his senses to its limits, almost to the point of having eyes behind his back.

    From those ''eyes'' Sato could ''see'' that the kobold chief had suddenly stretched out an arm as if it wanted to grab him by the scruff of his neck.

    With the mental calctions he had done, Sato realised that there were only 3 seconds left before the cool-down ended and the kobold chief''s attack would only take a second to reach him. In other words, he had to hold off against it for just two seconds. Two seconds might sound simple but with such a high difficult task before him, Sato felt that those two seconds were too long but there was nothing he could do about it.

    ''Here ites!''

    Feeling the slight change in wind pressure, speed and direction, Sato suddenly turned around and swung his sword at the kobold chief.

    ''[Horizontal sh]!''

    The sh was packed with Sato''s full power, with the intent not to kill but to force back the kobold chief.

    The kobold chief grinned as it saw Sato''s actions but it didn''t intend on withdrawing its hands. The kobold chief was going for a hit-for-hit.

    Sato''s sword moved from his left to the right while the kobold chief''s hand approached him from the right. If everything kept going as it is, both parties would get injured. As for who would suffer the most, it was unknown but the fact still remained that Sato would be at a disadvantage in the end. This was because once he got hit, the kobold guard would swoop in on him. Also,pared to the kobold chief, his HP was a meager value. This one blow would, without a doubt, eliminate at least 30-40% of his HP. True say, Sato''s attack would most likely take off a chunk of the kobold chief''s HP, but when the ratio ispared, the result would be obvious; Sato would be on the losing end.

    ''Don''t underestimate me.''

    Sato tilted his body to the side, sacrificing his shoulder for his head. This action effectively prevented the w strike from striking his head but he would still have to suffer the strike on his shoulder. Sato didn''t feel this was bad as whenpared to his head, his shoulder at least had the [Dawn Steel armour] protecting it.

    "Ha!"

    *Puchi*

    Sato''s swordnded on the kobold chief''s body, causing more injuries to spring from the already damaged chest. At the same time, the w stabbed into his shoulder, directly going through the armour and into his flesh.

    ''So this is the strength of a world ss boss...''

    Sato frowned as his system interface disyed damage values of -53. Despite being hindered by the armour, the w had still passed through and dug into his flesh. Even if the reason could partly be attributed to the fact that the armour was weakest at the joints, the kobold chief''s strength still yed a huge deal in this round.

    Luckily for Sato, the armour had still helped a bit and so, the w hadn''t go far into his body. Unluckily for him, the kobold chief held his sword with the other hand while the kobold guard approached him immediately.

    ''Damn. Such a crafty beast..'' Sato cursed as he stared at the kobold chief who grinned at him, as if mocking his predicament while still ignoring the injuries it sustained and the pain of the sword grating at its palm.

 Chapter 184 - 178 : Hidden Featu

    As the kobold guard quickly approached him, Sato realised that he had only two choices he could make. One was to abandon his weapon and retreat immediately. A second had already gone by and the cool-down was already off his skill. With the aid of [Sprint], Sato believed that he would be able to widen the gap between himself and the two monsters.

    The second option, was to battle it out here. With his weapon mped in the palms of the kobold chief, this seemed impossible. Even more so was the fact that the kobold guard''s strength would probably be higher than his. Without a weapon, he would surely be at a disadvantage in the brawl.

    No matter how one thought, the first option seemed like the only reasonable one. But Sato wasn''t inclined to give up that easily.

    ''But what can I do...'' Sato''s brain hurriedly began processing at a very high speed.

    Suddenly, in that very nanosecond, he came up with a very absurd idea.

    ''It might work, it might not. But I have to still try.''

    ''Mountain Fist!''

    With one hand still gripping on his sword, Sato suddenly punched at the kobold guard with his left fist. He was actually trying to use his hand to attack the kobold guard''s bone sword. This was insane because anyone in their right mind could easily be guess the end result of the sh; and that would be Sato getting seriously injured in a light case but losing his hands if things went South. The leather glove that had covered his hand was a Novice rank equipment and it didn''t have any protective function. Punching out like that was almost no different to punching out with his bare hands. In this kind of scenario, this move was akin to suicide or ast stand before giving up.

    Even the kobold guard in question was surprise at his actions, before it sneered in response. This was understandable, after all, how could the weak and fragile arms of this strange creature possiblypete with the might of its bone sword? Not even the chief would dare do such.

    Sato punched out with all his strength and focus, with the single intention of deflecting the strike before it arrived at him. The power in the fist couldn''t be underestimated as if such ability was demonstrated in the real world, it would be able to create a dent of a metal te. But whenpared to that of the kobold guard, it was stillcking.

    At thest moment before the two attacks collided, Sato only yelled one word in his mind.

    ''[Parry]!''

    *ng*

    With a sound simr to two metals colliding, the force behind the kobold''s bone sword was neutralized. Sato had actually seeded in stopping the attack but not without a cost.

    The bone sword was stopped, true, but it still managed to injure him at the very least. After all, Sato contested against a bone sword with his bare hands. No matter what, there was no way he could go unscathed. The sword had managed to dig one inch into his fist, almost severing his fingers. The pain was very excruciating and harrowing to the flesh. Even with his painful sensation reduced by 50%, Sato still found this difficult to endure. Luckily for him, the sword didn''t dig any deeper and hade to a halt.

    This was quite incredible as not only did Sato survive this experience but he had confirmed a certain conjecture of his. Skills could be used without weapons!

    The value of this information was beyond estimation and this was due to not only the negligence of yers but also their old fashioned, retard brains.

    When IR was released, the developers had constantly advertised how good the game was, iming it to be a new reality. They imed that it would be a sensational game that would be different from the other ones in existence. Despite such constant enlightenment, most yers ignored their words treating the game as they did with others. Sato however, was different.

    Ever since he met the [Cursed servant] and the goblin war, Sato discovered that this game might not be like the rest. Common gaming logic wouldn''t necessarily be applied to it. From then on, he began thinking outside the box. At this point which seemed to border life and death, sess and failure, Sato''s brain had brought up an absurd idea that no other yer would have thought of in his ce. He had wanted to use skills with his body.

    In some martial books and even in martial arts training, they say that the pinnacle of a weapon user would be to use any material as a weapon. A pinnacle swordsman would be able to use a branch or even a leaf as his sword. This sounded absurd but because no one had ever been proven to have reached such a level, it was unknown. But from the teachings of such martial arts, it was quite possible. If IR incorporated most if thews and practical knowledge of reality into the game, wouldn''t one be able to perform such skills with their body?

    Though the basis of this would be to reach the pinnacle first, with the aid of the yer interface and system, maybe a shortcut could be found. When an enticing idea is born, it bes hard for a person to press down such temptation.

    As Sato''s mind had given birth to such an idea at thatst moment, he decided to try it out. Truth be told, he had actually tried this experiment a while back, just when they were waiting for yers to arrive here. The result was that he had failed, but for an unknown reason, Sato felt that he was close but just missing something. That something turned out to be such a life and death moment that would spur his potential.

    Yes, this was a game but sometimes, the struggles in a game aren''t much different than that in reality. Sato had made a deal with Xue Yan toplete this mission. Because they didn''t know each other back then, the penalty for failure was quite severe to Sato.

    Originally, Sato wasn''t bothered as if he failed the first time, he could always try againter but with the divulging of the information to the public, he was forced to only have one try at it. With the way things were now, if the team were to fail now, the chances of them even getting a second chance was low. Compared to the other stop teams, they didn''t have much of an advantage except for being a bit higher levelled.

    In coordination, team work, Expert count, resources and manpower, they were a lot worse. As a result, Sato couldn''t affirm that apart from them, no one else had the strength to take on a level 10 world ss boss. It was highly possible that if these two teams went all out, they could take down the boss without much of a hitch. By the time Sato and his teammates died, revived and re-challenged the floors, other teams might have already arrived here. This was because the [Teleportation runes] only worked up to the 8th floor. They had to still work their way back to the 9th floor. By that time, at least 2 or 3 other teams might have made it this far to the boss. Who knows, maybe one of those teams could pull it off.

    With such a conjecture in mind, Sato was forced to try his best in this battle. In this confrontation, he was able to drive his potential and force himself to face the kobold guard''s bone sword. Though the effect was weaker than normal (with a sword), Sato was still able to pull it off and save his skin. But now wasn''t the time to rejoice.

    Making use of the opportunity when both the kobold chief and guard were stunned at his actions, Sato pulled his sword from the clutches of the monster, before turning back and running at the speed his legs could take him.

    "Roar!"

    The kobold guard was shocked and even more so, enraged that Sato had stopped its strike with his fist especially after its boss had made an opportunity for it to attack. Without dwindling behind, the kobold guard pursued after Sato.

    The kobold chief, on the other hand, didn''t hurry to pursue him yet but nced at Sato''s departing figure for a bit before chasing right after.

    Like this, the trio once again engaged in a cat-and-mouse game, with Sato at the lead while the two kobolds pursued right behind.

    "Sato, where are you?" Right after Sato epted and audio call that shed in front of him, Fudo''s voice sounded out.

    "I''m almost there. You should be seeing me in 10 seconds or so." Sato replied. With the 5 seconds boost from [Sprint], Sato could cover a lot more distance. With 5 seconds more, even at regr speed, the 4/5 of the former 200 metres would have been covered up by him.

    "Okay." Fudo replied before cutting the call. He knew that every second Sato spent running was done with full concentration and his senses at its highest. Because of this, Sato didn''t dare to pay much attention to his system interface and only focused on running and keeping track of the kobolds'' movements. Every second he split his concentration elsewhere would make things harder for him. If not for his anxiousness, Fudo wouldn''t have even called him.

    "Guys.. Get ready, we will be in action in less than 10 seconds."

 Chapter 185 - 179 : Face-off

    "Guys, he''s here." Fudo eximed in the team chat.

    Staring into the distance, at an approximate point less than 200 metres away, was Sato. Behind him were the kobold chief and the kobold guard who had been chasing him for a while now.

    Usually, when yers keep leading a monster beyond its habitat, the monster would quit chasing them because of its unfamiliarity of foreign grounds. The only way to seed in this was to cause such severe and heavy damages that the creature would be thoroughly angered at the yer. Another way was to continuously cause damage to the monster, as a result, constantly renewing the aggro of the monster. Lu Zhen had made use of thetter against the kobold horde while Sato made use of both.

    [K¨­jin''s Arrow] had gravely maimed both the kobold chief and its guard to the point that they simply couldn''t let the instigator of the attack to go scot-free. To makeparisons, it was like a lustful man having his male organs mutted maliciously to the extent that the organs would have lost their function, and all these was done without his permission. To make such a man lose his precious dignity just like that would be equivalent to entering a life-and-death enmity with him. Though the situation wasn''t exactly the same, the end result was. The two kobolds hated Sato to the extreme and this was even more so for the kobold guard, who lost not just its arm but also its dignity in failing to finish off Sato back then.

    "Xue Yan, get ready." Fudo said.

    Out of the long-range yers in their team, Seiichi was absent as he had to keep track of Emperor''s Might. Only Fudo and Xue Yan were left behind. Excluding Fudo, the effects of Xue Yan''s attacks were on the lower side of the scale in this long-range battle. The reason was quite simple and could easily be exined in a question. Between an arrow and a fireball, which one seemed to be faster? Though it was true that a fireball packed more punch than an arrow, if it couldn''t hit the target, what use was it?

    Just like the [Assassin] ss had a passive boost in speed, the [Ranger] ss had a passive boost both in eyesight and also long-range attacks. Their attacks were made to be slightly faster than that of a mage even if the two parties had the exact same attribute points distribution.

    Fudo was higher levelled so there was no problem in terms of his attack''s movement speed, but the same couldn''t be said about Xue Yan.

    Sato had originally wanted Seiichi to work with Fudo, but his role was indispensable and no one else could do it. Though Xue Yan was still a long-range yer, being equal in level, her attack''s speed was inevitably a bit weaker whenpared to Seiichi''s.

    "Once they get in range, hit them with all you have got. For this mission to seed, we have to be quick with our actions.

    "Yato, you and Xue Yan would work with Katsuo and finish off the kobold guard as quickly as possible. Sato will tank the boss and keep him in check so you guys shouldn''t bother about it. I will assist him with that too and maybe with you guys also. But don''t expect much from me."

    In this time when Sato had to be paying attention to his tail, Fudo tookmand and gave out the orders to the rest. In truth, this was already the strategy they hade up with long ago.

    "Hit it with your best and don''t hold back. Try to kill it as soon as possible. When Lu Zhen and Seiichi get back, defeating the boss wouldn''t be that difficult anymore." Fudomented.

    As he watched Sato and the kobolds steadily approach the 20 metres attack range, Fudo raised his concentration to its highest as he gripped his staff tightly.

    "Now!" Fudo suddenly yelled out. He pointed his staff at the kobold guard as his mind abruptly calmed down.

    ''Explosion.''

    -118 (???/??? ???) (AN : Monster stats is unknown)

    "Roar!!!!!!"

    As the kobold guard was suddenly set aze, it cried out in pains as it halt its pursuit while wriggling its body in a futile attempt to put off the mes.

    At this time, Sato suddenly took a sharp turn, moving over to the side and increasing the space between himself and kobold guard. This was to create a new battlefield for Katsuo and the others to take on the kobold guard while he ''danced'' with the chief.

    The kobold chief had obviously noticed its guard being shrouded in mes but it still kept its attention on Sato. This wasn''t solely because of its monster instincts but also because it noticed that the new arrivals who caused the damage to its guard were even weaker than the one it was chasing after. It believed that they shouldn''t be able to defeat its guard and with their position being revealed, such a cheap-shot couldn''t be reenacted once more.

    "Move in!" Fudo yelled out.

    Before Fudo''s voice had even faded, Katsuo had already dashed towards the kobold guard with a shield in one hand and a great-sword in one hand. Most great-sword usually had to be wielded with two hands but Katsuo''s hand a special passive feature. As long as one''s [Strength] exceeded a certain amount, they would be able to wield it with one hand though the attack power would be a bit weaker than when a yer does so with two hands. Nheless, this feature was very useful to MT-type sses, who usually had to wield but a weapon and a shield.

    "[Execution]!"

    Using the trump card skill of the [Pdin] ss, Katsuo closed in on the kobold guard. The sword glowed with a bright radiant, like a soft but bright light, almost approaching the sun in intensity. Even if the kobold wasn''t wrapped in mes, there was still a chance that it wouldn''t be able to dodge the attack, much less now it was distracted.

    Like the emissary of a heavenly being bringing judgement upon the world, Katsuo brought down his great-sword upon the distracted kobold guard.

    [Critical Hit] -40 (???/??? ???)

    "Roar!"

    Though the damage was quite low, the pain brought about by the strike was simr to being pierced by a thousand needles. No matter the creature, such a pain isn''t something anyone could easily tolerate.

    Having drawn the monster''s aggro to himself, Katsuo didn''t stop at one hit but went for another.

    "Die!"

    As he swung his sword, the kobold guard quickly reacted and shed against the sword with the bone sword in its left arm. Katsuo was a [Pdin] so he had inevitably ced a majority of his attribute points in [Strength] and [Endurance] and was too slow to react to the kobold''s retaliation.

    *ng*

    Despite having shed with his sword, in one strike, Katsuo was forced back in a horrific manner, flying across almost like a meteor, before crashing into a boulder.

    -64 (96/160 Katsuo''s HP)

    "Puah!" Katsuo spat out blood.

    "Katsuo!" Yato hurriedly cried out.

    From that one sh, it had been revealed that the [Strength] difference between the two was almost, if not already, past a gap of 10 points. Even though the kobold guard''s attack was rushed as a form of retaliation, it still wasn''t something Katsuo could handle with a simple sh.

    Truthfully, unlike the other MT or strength-based sses, the [Pdin] ss didn''t have things easy. Sure, they could use healing magic, making them look and sound way cooler than a [Guardian], but everything has a cost. Because of the ability to heal, [Pdins] now had to improve their [Intelligence] stat otherwise the healing ability would be nugatory and have no purpose. In such a case, the yer would have already wasted the ss and should have instead gone for the [Guardian] ss. In summary, by being both a healer and an MT, [Pdins] had to focus their attribute points on [Strength], [Endurance], [Vitality] and [Intelligence]; that''s 4 attributes to continuously improve! Not forgetting the fact that they also have to steadily increase their [Dexterity] and [Agility] before they be useless in battle, the [Pdins] had things difficult.

    Though Katsuo tried his best in distributing his attribute points, whenpared to a [Guardian] of the same level, his [Strength] would inevitably becking, much less against a level 9 Kobold guard; a distant descendant of dragons.

    "Watch out!" Yato yelled again as he saw the Kobold guard move towards Katsuo.

    ''Damn it.''

    With the strike from before, Katsuo was yet to move his body so easily.. If the kobold guard were to reach him, he would be nothing more than a sitting duck.

 Chapter 186 - 180 : Suspicion

    "[Greater Fireball]."

    From the side, a zing fireball bigger than an average basketball darted towards the kobold guard. The fireball wasn''t that big, being only 22 centimetres in radius(roughly 9 inches), but the power behind it couldn''t be estimated based on its size alone. If it were to be measured, then it could be said that this fireball could easily destroy an average sedan with a steel body. Now this very attack, which surely packed a punch, was headed towards the kobold guard.

    The kobold could sense the threat behind this attack and simply couldn''t afford to ignore it. If it were at its top form, then it could easily swat the fireball to tiny me splinters. However, with the current injury it had received from both [K¨­jin''s Arrow] and Fudo''s [Explosion], the kobold guard didn''t dare to take this attack head on unless unavoidable. In this case however, the attack was easily avoidable as despite it seeming quick in the eyes of most yers, it was just average to the kobold guard.

    This was due to the difference in [Dexterity] and reaction speed between the two species. A kobold could be said to be a bigger lizard and most lizards are very fast on their feet. A kobold wasn''t so different from them in this manner.

    The kobold guard hurriedly halted its foots, before dodging to the side, letting the fireball whoosh past it.

    As it dodged it, another approached the kobold guard but this one was smaller than the previous one and it could sense that this attack was also weaker than the first. Using its bone sword, the kobold guard shed at the fireball, cutting it into two separate hemispheres that exploded due to the destabilization of the spell. But that wasn''t the end as a mana ball also close in on it.

    Every time it spent its strength blocking or dodging one attack, another would be sent its way. This was the horror of battling a mage ss yer, especially an [Elementalist].

    +16 (112/160 Katsuo''s HP)

    With the kobold guard being forced to pause on its movement and focus on dodging and blocking, Katsuo made use of the time to perform a healing spell, however,pared to the damage he received the effects were meager.

    "Damn it." Katsuo cursed.

    In this mission, Katsuo''s role was to tank the kobold guard. From the sh from earlier, it was revealed that he couldn''t even handle a rushed attack from the monster. As things stood, how was he supposed to tank the monster?

    Even though the [Pdin] ss was said to be able to perform healing spells, inparison to a true healer ss like the [Druid] or [Cleric], its effect was not worthy ofparison. As he just started out, Katsuo had the basic [Minor Heal] that aided him to recover 10% of his HP. However, the downside wasn''t just the low amount of HP being recovered but the cool-down of the spell. It was a whole 20 seconds! A lot of things could happen in 20 seconds and considering the strength of the kobold guard, Katsuo doubted whether he could hold on against it.

    "Let''s handle it together. Xue Yan, watch our backs for us." Yato said. With Sato handling the kobold chief and Fudo assisting him, Yato decided to step up and takemand. Unlike Xue Yan, this wasn''t his first game and he was way better atmanding than Katsuo was.

    "Katsuo, you hurt the creature, right? Where''s the stats then?"

    "Oh." Katsuo eximed as he stood up and nced at the monster.

    ''[Inspect]''

    Immediately after, a few lines of information were disyed on Katsuo''s system interface. He didn''t spend much time on it as he immediately forwarded the info to the team chat.

    [[ System Interface :

    Kobold Guard (Special Elite)

    Level : 9

    HP : 542/900

    Physical Attack Power : 66

    Magical attack power : 0 (30) (AN : Can''t use magic.)

    Physical Defense : 23

    Magical Defense : 10

    Attack Speed : 42

    Movement Speed : 30

    Attributes

    Strength : 23

    Endurance : 23

    Vitality : 90

    Agility : 15

    Dexterity : 14

    Intelligence : 10

    Willpower : 10

    Skills :

    Razor ws : Passive Skill : Basic Attack. All w-type attacks contain 130% of basic attack power.

    Lesser Strength : Passive Skill : Though called Lesser Strength, this is inparison to a dragon''s strength. All Strength-based skills and physical attacks possess 120% of basic attributes.

    Tough Scale : Passive Skill : Defensive abilities against physical attacks increased by 10%.

    Bone sh : Active Skill : Gather power into one strike to cleave down the opponent. 140% of attack power as base.

    Cool-down : 8 seconds.

    Slithering Strike : Active Skill : A thrust like a snake. Launch an attack that has a very evasive motion making it difficult for the target to keep track of the attack''s direction and location. Attack possesses 120% of user''s basic abilities.

    Cool-down : 4 seconds.

    Wild Burst : Active Skill : Gather potential and momentum just to release it all in one strike. Attack power increases by 40%.

    Cool-down : 12 seconds.

    Fury : Active Skill : By burning the potential and bloodline within one''s blood, all attributes increase by 10% for 15 seconds. With each usage though, bloodline purity and potential decreases. But this can be regained with the aid of high quality ingredients.

    Cool-down : 4 natural days. ]]

    As descendants of dragons, whether close or distant, dragon-kin, lesser dragons and the rest all posses a few dragon type abilities. By purifying their bloodline even more, they gain the opportunity to get a few special abilities with links to their ancestors. Even kobolds with their useless bloodline are capable of gaining such an opportunity but it only happens once in a blue moon, for a descendant with higher purity than seen before.

    Basically, despite having a pretty much useless and weak bloodline, kobolds still possess strength, speed and defense that is higher than most monsters. Apart from that, kobolds wended up depending on external tools and weapons, just like mankind did. The result was that a few of them developed skills closing in on martial arts and the rest. But when beingpared to the refined fighting skills of mankind, theirs pale inparison butpared to their fellow monsters, it was an advantage they got due to their negligible rtion to dragons and higher intelligence.

    If a yer were to underestimate them because of their flimsy bloodline, that yer might end up paying with a drastic result.

    "It''s already so strong...I wonder how the boss would be then." Yato said as he nced at Sato who was facing the boss in stand-off.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    When Sato had drawn the kobold chief 20 metres away from the others, he suddenly turned around and shed at it. At this point in time, Sato was slowly getting gassed out. This was not because he was weak but rather the high intensity running and concentration he had kept on the kobold chief all this while started to show some side-effects. Even the man with the highest stamina in the world would eventually get tired, much less Sato, whose record was a lot worse.

    The kobold chief''s eyes brightened as it saw as Sato quit running and faced it. In that moment, there seemed to be a mocking smile disyed on its lips as with a growl, the kobold chief jumped at Sato.

    Sato firmly tightened his grip on his sword, sending a sh at the approaching kobold. The sh was well timed such that even with the 5 metre distance between the two parties, the sword would still close in on the kobold chief. Also, the lethal damage behind this strike was something that was even unknown by the kobold chief. Simply stating at it wouldn''t help anyone in anyway. However, losing focus on the sword for just a second could be the end of you.

    Lotus Sword Art : First form, Swift Kill.

    In response to the attack, the kobold chief pulled out its bone spear and finally used it in battle. And so, a spear and a sword went against each other.

    The spear is said to be the king of weapons while the sword is the swiftest of weapons. In terms of strength and power output, spear does indeed supersede a sword but in terms of a speed, the sword is supreme. This was a sh against speed and strength.

    *ng*

    Metallic reverberations sounded out as the two weapons collided and stopped at a draw. Surprisingly, Sato was able to hold out against the kobold chief but he was forced to take one step back to eliminate the remnants impact from the collision.

    ''Still not enough.'' Sato sighed internally.

    Inevitably, Sato''s [Strength] wascking whenpared to the Kobold chief''s but using a martial skill to cover up his weakness, Sato was able to hold out against the kobold chief without losing that badly. Despite so, he still did suffer a loss and that was why Sato was disappointed.

    ''It''s a world ss boss. My holding out against it this far is already good.'' Satoforted himself. As he was about to use [Inspect] on the monster to collect its information, the creature in question was incensed at the end result of the first sh.

    The kobold chief hurriedly mped its ws tightly in the bone spear before it suddenly thrust out forwards, towards Sato.

    An inch longer is a level stronger.

    In this regard, the spear superseded over the sword as before Sato''s sword could reach the kobold chief, this spear might have already pierced him. Hence there were only two solutions; block or dodge. But the spear came too quickly for Sato to respond to it. The scary part however, wasn''t the speed of the spear but its bizarre course and movement. One second it would look like the attack wasing from the left side and the next second it would be from the top or elsewhere. Surprisingly, this skill was almost like a martial arts technique.

    ''[Slithering Snake]''

    The bone spear flitted across the air as it stabbed towards Sato. Not being able to easily spot the bone spear''s real position from the multitude of after-images made Sato stunned for a bit before he hacked out with his sword in a random manner. It looked like he had lost himself in the after-images and decided to randomly brandish his sword out however, it wasn''t that simple.

    Sato didn''t hesitate to use the same martial skill while attaching a ss skill to it.

    ''Swift Kill. [Parry]''

    *ng*

    At the instant he struck out, Sato''s sword had actually collided with an object. The collision ended up forcing the spear into view as the other after-images rapidly dissipated.

    Even as Sato had gone on the offensive while making use of a skill, he still took two steps backwards. This was becausepared to the earlier strike, this one was a whole lot stronger and on apletely different level. Even with his ss skills and martial techniques, Sato could barely prevent that numbing feeling from spreading through his palm.

    ''It''s quite strong but for a world ss boss, this is disappointing..'' Sato frowned.

 Chapter 187 - 181 : A One-on-One Experience

    It wasn''t that the kobold chief wasn''t strong but for a world ss boss, Sato felt that it was quite weak. Though he was indeed on the lower hand of this fight, Sato could still hold on against the kobold chief. If Fudo were to be added to the equation, then beating it wouldn''t be so difficult.

    True, Sato and Fudo were both level 9 and quite strong but ording to the information on the 10th level, going past level 9 was simr to a Carp leaping through the Dragon gate; both species, whether yers, NPCs or monsters, would all be way much stronger than a level 9 yer. However, the kobold chief didn''t seem to be doing a good job proving this point.

    Sato didn''t know why but he had this nagging feeling that things weren''t so simple.

    Instinct and premonition were two abilities that were theorised to exist within creatures who have lived in the wild, dangling upon the thin line in between life and death. Even till now, the scientists and researchers of the world were yet to understand this phenomenal ability [1]. Humans had steadily advanced from the era of cold weapons, living a more peaceful life that led to them losing this ability. Going with the earlier train of thought, unless a human being were to dance regrly in the mes of war while bathing in the blood of their enemies[2], they wouldn''t be able to regain this ability of premonitions and foreboding. Of course, there are a few who still possess this ability but they were few and far in between.

    With the release of VR games, what people couldn''t do in reality could be achieved here. Here, not only were their darkest desire not repressed, but they were freed like a pigeon from its cage, being left to wander and do as they pleased. This was even more so in the case of murder, which was like an everyday thing in VR games. As people feared getting killed in games and losing most of their progress, they began to train and push themselves to their limits; almost reliving the lives that their ancestors lived. As such, a couple of high ranking yers were able to develop this 6th sense that prevented them from dying so easily.

    A few years ago, Sato had a stunning record as a pro yer. Added with the fact that he had been into gaming for more than 4 years; facing off against different yers who used different tactics, he had refined his battle sense and abilities to a very high level. Having a 6th sense could be said to be very much expected from him.

    ''I have to figure out what this nagging sensation is...''

    Even as Sato was thinking this, he didn''t lose his focus on the monster in front of him.

    When the kobold chief''s strike was blocked by Sato, it was infuriated. Even though Sato was on the lower end of the round, the kobold chief didn''t see any difference to it. If anything, it felt like that was an insult to it. Being a kobold with a purer bloodline, it had yet to encounter its match. Despite attacking this puny creature in front of it with a technique created by the legendary kobold warriors, it had only forced him back by two steps. If this wasn''t insulting enough, then the fact that its bodyguard had managed to fling the other one across the ce like a broken kite was more than enough to do the job. Sure, the kobold chief felt that whenpared to the other puny creature, the one he battled was a lot stronger but that still didn''t change the point; this weird being was close to matching up to it.

    They say that what the strongest worry about is not having a worthy opponent to battle but the kobold chief never wanted such an opponent in the first ce.

    "Roar!"

    Tightening its grip on the bone spear to the point that its muscles began to tighten, the kobold mped down on the spear with its left hand before swinging it out in a sweeping motion, like a demonic warrior that was about to wreak havoc to thends.

    Just the wind by the side of the spear was enough to cleanly cut a ceramic te in half while still being able to create a mark on steel te. It wouldn''t be an understatement to say that if this were in the real world, the spear wind could easily deflect a metal bullet and the spear could easily cleave a car in half. Then just imagine what would be of a human being if they got caught by this. Even if yers'' bodies were better enhanced to be much stronger than they were in reality, this attack would be capable of taking at least 49% of Sato''s HP.

    [Bone Sweep]!''

    Sato didn''t hesitate to bring up his sword in a defensive manner. The reason was because with the speed and the trajectory the spear approached from, he wouldn''t be able to dodge it in time. As for attacking in an attempt to defend, against this skill, Sato felt that it was way too risky. This strike was far more dangerous than thest one and if he wasn''t careful, he might not die do easily but he would surely take some damage. Without a healer to back them up, taking damage in this fight would eventually lead to a harmful result.

    ''[Chop]''

    With a simple and straightforward motion, Sato brought down his sword with both hands in retaliation against the kobold chief''s spear.

    *Dang*

    Unlike before, the sound of the two weapons colliding could easily let one know that things didn''t end up as before.

    This time around, Sato wasn''t just forced back by a couple of simple, easy steps. He was almost sent flying as he was tossed backwards for at least 3 metres before he managed tond on his feet. Even so, Sato still staggered backwards with heavy steps for at least 7 steps. The worst part of all these was that he had actually lost 29 HP from that sh, despite narrowly blocking it.

    The kobold chief wanted to rush towards him again but Fudo made an appearance on this battlefield, using the [Greater Fireball] he had been charging for a while to force it back. If not for this move of his, Sato might have been a goner.

    ''What was that?!'' Sato was rmed as he began to inspect his body. The kobold chief''s previous attacks had never been this aggressively before. Just this strike alone was capable of forcing him back while still giving his internal organs such a massive shock that he had received a sustainable amount of damage from the sh. If that wasn''t enough, his hands were still feeling a numbing sensation in them. That spear sweep had almost forced his sword out of his hands.

    ''It''s a good thing I managed to change weapons otherwise, that [Bandit''s Sword] would have been turned to scrap.'' Sato thought.

    Just with one attack, he had been forced back by this much. This wasn''t only because of the kobold chief''s strength but also because of his weapon. Sato spected that the bone spear was on par to a Mid-tier Mortal rank weapon at the very least. A real unranked bone spear couldn''t force him back that easily without suffering a crack from his own attack. The bone spear wasn''t a normal weapon.

    Even as he realized this, Sato didn''t use this finding tofort himself. He had inevitably lost to the kobold chief and his situation was forced to be worse than it was previously. He just hoped that the kobold chief wouldn''t be able to perform such an attack again. At the same time, he actually it would. This was because having been forced to swallow such a loss, a strange feeling began creeping up from within him. Such a feeling wasn''t new to him as in his previous exploits in Conquest, he had felt this before. This was desire to battle. The craving to sh against one stronger than himself and improve on his skills. This was Sato''s fighting intent.

    "Good. I was thinking that you were too weak to y with but now, you have done well in proving me wrong." Sato said as he wiped the blood that flowed from his mouth.

    The kobold chief was annoyed that Sato was still standing but it didn''t hurry to attack. This was because it had finally noticed the appearance of that pudgy figure that hid behind. If not for him, it would have eliminated this puny creature in front.

    "Fudo, let me y a bit with this guy. Go help the others and try to finish off that other guy quickly." Sato said as he noticed the kobold chief''s line of sight.

    "But..." Fudo was unwilling to give up. Sato had just suffered a drastic loss and if not for him, it was highly possible that he would have died. Yet, Sato still asked him to retreat.

    "Don''t argue. I suffered that badly because I underestimated it. This fellow must have been holding back from the beginning, way back when it was chasing Lu Zhen.

    "Go. Having you here is pointless. It would just waste more time and decrease out chances of sess. Help the others to finish off that guy and we can all work together against the boss. Otherwise, if we keep going at it as we have been doing, the other kobolds might arrive soon." Sato exined.

    "... alright."

    In the end, Fudo acquiesced to hismand and left for the other side.

    Maybe it was because the kobold guard could guess what they were saying but it didn''t bother about Fudo any longer. It set its sight on Sato as it grinned in a mocking fashion. It was as if it was looking at an idiot who threw his only chance of sess out of the window. At the same time though, the kobold chief was infuriated because Sato believed that he could handle it alone.

    Sato ignored whatever emotions the kobold chief expressed with its looks as he said,

    "Now, it''s just you and me.. Come on. Show me what you''ve got!"

 Chapter 188 - 182 : Being Forced Back

    "Now, it''s just you and me. Come on. Show me what you''ve got!"

    Without waiting for the kobold chief to make a move, Sato dashed towards it with his sword in hand.

    "Roar!"

    Having been provoked by Sato, the already vexed kobold chief was angered even more. A little ant that had just suffered to it not only rejected help but even dared to taunt it to battle. Who wouldn''t be annoyed in such a situation?

    Even though Sato had made the first move, to the kobold chief, his movements were still slow. Taking a step forward, the Kobold chief closed in on Sato with its spear shing towards him.

    ''Fast.''

    Against the kobold guard, Sato was a bit slower and the kobold guard was even slower than the kobold chief. With theparisons that obvious, Sato didn''t stand a chance in terms of speed against the Kobold chief. He even knew that the only reason both he and Lu Zhen hadsted this long was because the Kobold chief never went all out. Even after taking a strike from [K¨­jin''s Arrow], which severely injured it, the Kobold chief never went all out yet. It was only when Sato had constantly annoyed it, while sending Fudo away, did it finally stop holding back.

    Sato spected that it was holding back while chasing Lu Zhen because it might have things were off and it still did the same against him because it might have sensed Fudo''s presence but didn''t know where he was. It was only until the battle was made into a one-on-one did it decide to end things quickly. The intelligence disyed by the Kobold chief was unprecedented anywhere else. It just went to show how dangerous and cunning the creature was.

    In fact, Sato feared that the injuries that the kobold chief may have received from [K¨­jin''s Arrow] weren''t that serious to it. This was because apart from the burnt area in front, the kobold chief didn''t seem to have sustained any heavy damages. Even the kobold guards who weren''t the main target of the attacks both lost an arm each. If that was so, then the defensive attributes of the kobold chief were something to be feared.

    With the two parties no longer holding back, the battle that would ur would be a major deciding factor for the entire raid.

    *Bang*

    A loud explosion sounded out as dust flew into the air. Huge vibrations urred in the atmosphere, sending out a shock-wave in all directions. This was nothing more than an after effect of the sh between the two parties.

    While it was true that a breeze was spewed out, spreading in all directions, such a wind could be said to be of two variations. The first moved against Sato while the second moved against the Kobold chief. As for the one that was much more powerful, the answer was very obvious.

    *Boom*

    Sato got tossed even worse than he was before, flying past the 7 metres mark. In the direction he flew in, dust particles were blown wildly into the air, almost forming a thick haze. The Kobold chief only experienced a slight breeze from the sh but Sato was the one who endured the hardest. Against a level 10 monster, Sato didn''t stand a chance. This he knew but he didn''t expect that things would be this bad.

    If before he only experienced a slight numbing sensation from the previous sh then now, he felt that the veins in his arms were really about to burst out. Sato felt strength slip out of his arms, almost as if they were broken. Without a doubt, if he blocked another attack from the kobold chief again, he would surely lose an arm.

    If you think that the worst of Sato''s injuries was this, then think again. Apart from almost getting the bones in his arms broken, Sato puked out a whole mouthful of blood. There was no reason other than the fact that the force from the blow shock his internal organs a lot.

    During thest attack, Sato had lost 29 HP just from blocking a blow, but this time around, he had actually lost 57 HP! Almost double of the previous one. This was insane especially when one would realise that this came from just blocking the attack. An average level 6 yer, of the [Berserker] or [Swordsman] ss would only be able to barely match up that amount with their full-powered strike and trump card skill. Remember, this was only barely; in actual fact, most of them would only reach an attack power of 52 points or 55 at best. In other words, a collision with the level 10 kobold chief was actually much more than a full-powered blow from a level 6 DPS yer.

    Before Sato could give off a sigh of relief or even spring himself back up, the Kobold chief had already arrived with 5 metres away from him.

    Sato didn''t even have the luxury to curse as he hurriedly propelled himself away from his originalnding spot by pressing on the floor with one hand.

    *Boom*

    The Kobold chief''s spear stabbed into the ground, creating a small crater of 2 metres diameter at the target spot.

    "Sthhh." Seeing this, Sato sucked in a cold breath of air as he realized that this strike was much more powerful than the first one. It was most likely that the kobold chief intended to finish him off with the second strike.

    ''This is bad. Much less being its match, I''m evencking worse than its shadow.[1]''

    Originally, Sato had already overestimated the kobold chief''s ability. Havingnded a clear hit with [K¨­jin''s Arrow], he had expected to at least severely injure the kobold monster and indeed he had done so. Despite that, it seemed like the injuries weren''t much to it.

    ''No. Though that''s a possibility, it''s also quite possible that the kobold chief is pushing itself to its limits. It might not be able to hold out that long.''

    The power of [K¨­jin''s Arrow] was undeniable. Even the kobold guards and regr kobolds that were outside the target range still got affected; much less the main target, the kobold chief. Even if it was a level 10 monster, there should be no way that it would receive such a strike and go away unharmed. Just that the degree of the harm was unknown.

    Using this small window of rxation, Saying stated one word in his mind.

    ''[Inspect]''

    Previously, the [Inspect] ability could be activated without any necessary conditions or quote being fulfilled but the with the previous update back before, there was now the condition of harming the target before the skill could be activated.

    Sato had injured the Kobold chief back when he used [K¨­jin''s Arrow]. Even though it wasn''t a skill unique to him or his ss, he did activate the attack and also controlled it yo aim at his designated target. As such, the system had taken it as an attachment to of Sato''s, enabling him to use the [Inspect] skill. Sato originally didn''t find it so important to use and also the kobold chief had been interrupting him time after time whenever he wanted to use it. Even if he did get the stats, Sato wouldn''t be able to find any opportunity to take a look at them. It was only after being forced this much that Sato decided to do so at all cost. As the saying goes ''Know thyself and thy enemy and the battle would have been half won''. Sato already knew his abilities and all that was left was that of the kobold chief''s.

    [[ System Interface :

    Kobold Chief (Elite)

    Level : 10

    HP : 1500/1500 (x15)

    Physical Attack Power : 78

    Magical attack power : 0 (39) (AN : Can''t use magic.)

    Physical Defense : 40 (x1.5)

    Magical Defense : 18 (x1.5)

    Attack Speed : 45

    Movement Speed : 34

    Attributes

    Strength : 26

    Endurance : 27

    ...]]

    "Roar!"

    Before Sato could get a proper look at the stats, the kobold chief roared in anger and moved towards Sato. It was as if it felt that Sato had done something to it but it didn''t know what.

    ''Damn.'' Sato cursed as he turned tail and fled.

    The reason why he told Fudo to go while he took care of the kobold chief wasn''t actually because he was prideful or had confident in his strength to beat it. It was because they werecking time.

    Yato''s crew were quite weak and though they could take on a few strong monsters on their own, the level 9 Kobold guard was a bit beyond their reach. They werecking that firepower and tanking ability to do so. If they were to take too long against it, the team wouldn''t be able to have much time left to defeat the boss and that would be bad. Hence the reason why Sato sent Fudo to them.

    For this to be sessful, Yato''s team with the addition of Fudo should be able to take down the Kobold guard within a minute while Sato had tost this long against this terrifyingly destructive monster. However, this second condition proved difficult as Sato could barely tank one hit from the Kobold chief. He was only left with 64 HP and this would only suffice to handle one more hit. Sure he had health potions, but it wasn''t like the kobold chief would just watch him recover now.

    ''I wonder how long I canst....'' Sato thought as he jumped to the side, narrowly dodging a spear throw from the kobold chief.

 Chapter 189 - 183 : Lu Zhen Escapes

    "Ha. Ha. Ha."

    A young man d in light iron armour huffed and puffed as he drew his sword out from the insides of a kobold warrior.

    "Roar."

    Before the young man could even rx his body for second, another kobold warrior pounced at him, hoping to ravage this man and eat his flesh.

    "Damn creature!"

    The young man swung his sword at the creature, leaving behind a terrifying gash on its chest. Despite sending the monster flying, a few more kobold scurried to upy its spot as they hoped to be the lucky one to feast on the man.

    ''This is bad.'' The young man thought as he saw this. Spreading a bit of focus elsewhere, he noticed that hisrades were also stuck in the same position; all trying to hold their ground against the seemingly never ending wave.

    This young man right here was the 5th hand of the Emperor of the super guild Emperor''s Might, Chesces.

    Even though the monsters weren''t all that strong, their numbers still sufficed to put a lot of pressure on the team. Because of this, the team was slowly being forced backwards. Though none of them had fallen yet, it was only a matter of time for that to happen.

    "We can''t keep going like this." ck Tempest said in the team chat.

    The original n of the group was to hold out against the kobolds while grinding them for experience points so that in the case they(the yers) were to die, their loss wouldn''t be that much anymore. However, some of them still didn''t like this n. This was because in such arge wave of kobolds, killing one of them was very difficult. It wasn''t like the Goblin war event where there were NPCs to assist the yers. Here, it was only the yers and the kobolds, with no third party present. Even though the yers were stronger than the kobolds, it still took some effort to finish off one kobold. During this time, more kobolds would flood in and attack the yers. As such, yers couldn''t just focus on one kobold alone and so, the amount they could kill was too low hence, the original n of minimising their losses didn''t see as viable as it did before.

    If ck Tempest could already figure this out, then Azure Dragon would surely have too. The problem was that there was nothing they could do about it. In fact, the only reason that they were alive was because the de-facto leader of this horde, the kobold guard, was being distracted by the [Assassin] who brought the kobolds here.

    "...Captain. Let''s go with n B." Chesces suddenly spoke up. While they were heading over to Soran''s side to team up with them, the group had made a few ns to use. Most of them weren''t so useful in this situation with only two achieving the pass mark. The first was what they originally intended to do. As for the second, that became their n B.

    "Alright. But we have to make sure that they are no longer monitoring us for it to seed. If we suddenly do as nned, their guards would be raised against us. Also, we would need to make a few changes to the n. Soran''s team would be useful to the sess of this n after all." Azure Dragon replied.

    If their first n was to hold out against the kobolds and kill as much as possible, then their second n was to sacrifice some of their men to let a few survive. When the enemies in the dark would have ignored them and left them to die, Azure Dragon, Chesces and a few others would sneak out of the encirclement and track down the 3rd party. As the third party would be facing the boss, they would hide behind and with for the right opportunity toy siege, like a mantis stalking the cicada.

    Meanwhile, Lu Zhen was having quite a tough time facing the kobold guard on his own. Actually, it couldn''t be called facing it or the likes as what he actually did was just to run around the monster while annoying it with a few sneak attacks once in a while. The reason for this was simply because he wasn''t the kobold guard''s match and also if he left the kobold guard to its own devices, it would move in and battle the other yers. If that happened, they would suffer tragically than they are tight now and die at an even faster rate. This would, without a doubt, affect the ns Sato had made as the longer Azure Dragon''s and Soran''s teamssted, the higher the chances of sess for the team''s raid on the boss. Lu Zhen had even asionally attacked a few kobolds to help lessen the number and keep the alliance team alive but this act was nothing more than taking a drop of water out of the ocean in hopes of decreasing its size. It was a totally pointless act that lead to nothing.

    ''It should be about time now.'' Lu Zhen thought as he stered a smile on his face.

    Though his role was to dy the death of the ''baits'', Lu Zhen still had to regroup with the others. For the raid, every yer counted and with him added to the mix, the chances of sess would also increase. Lu Zhen was originally to keep the kobold guard away from the others till they were able to hold their ground against the more than 100 kobolds. At least 3 minutes had gone by already. Lu Zhen presumed that at this time, the team should be facing the kobold chief, with the other kobold guard dead. If he joined in at this time, he would not only be able to help the team defeat the monster faster but also be able to reap a bit of experience points once the kobold chief died. Being a level 8 yer, the Experience points he would gain from a level 10 monster would be a lot; even if it was the basic reward for participation after being divided among 7 yers.

    ''The issue now is how to take my exit...'' Lu Zhen thought. The kobold guard was like a leech stuck to his back. If he turned right, it would also turn right. If he turned left, it would also do the same. The monster was already stronger than him and had more attribute points than he did. In a one-on-one frontal battle, Lu Zhen would undoubtedly lose. The only reason he stood tall till this moment was because the kobold was injured otherwise things would have been way different than it was now.

    "Roar!"

    While Lu Zhen was lost in thought, the kobold guard abruptly closed the distance between them, leaving only a metre or so between them both. At this range, m the bone sword in its hand could already do a lot of damage.

    With the strength rivalling that of 2 or so full-grown tigersbined in one, the kobold guard swung its sword as its terrifying bloodlust locked on to Lu Zhen. The kobold guard had spurred its entire being into putting its strength in this one strike, with the intent to kill the little creature that had been harassing it.

    [Bone sh]!

    Even from in front, Lu Zhen could feel the danger within the strike. He knew without a doubt that if the bone sword struck him, even if he didn''t die, he would be incapacitated and lose more than 30% of his HP. But it wasn''t like this was the first time the kobold guard''s attack had threatened him this much.

    ''Time to make my move.''

    Lu Zhen suddenly turned around and as he did so, the bone sword was but a few dozen centimetres away from his face. If he stayed as he was now, the bone sword would certainly severely injure him. But Lu Zhen didn''t have ns to die that easily.

    It didn''t even take a second as Lu Zhen moved his body to the side, shifting his centre of mass over to the side and pulling his body in that direction. Even with the kobold guard''s high stats, because of the injuries it had retained -specifically the missing arm part- its attack speed had drastically dropped aspared to how it was originally supposed to be. This drop in attack speed made it so that Lu Zhen could perform suchst minute maneuvers without getting injured.

    *Bang*

    The bone sword crashed on the ground and sliced it apart like tofu. Because of the unexpected movement from Lu Zhen, alongside the fact that the Kobold had focused its full strength on that strike, it suffered apse in concentration and couldn''t keep it bnce properly at that time. The loss of an arm even made things worse such that one part of the kobold felt lighter than the other side.

    The direction Lu Zhen happened to move in was his right which in turn tranted to the kobold''s left. It was this exact left side that had lost an arm and also happened to be the weak point of the monster. If one were to focus on this position, it wouldn''t be difficult to take down the kobold. However, Lu Zhen didn''t have such ns.

    Without bothering to retaliate it anything, Lu Zhen dashed towards the main battle area, precisely where the other yers were. He was nning to lose the kobold guard there and escape from this area.. He had already spent enough time here and it was about time for the real chaos to be let loose.

 Chapter 190 - 184 : Lu Zhen Escapes 2

    "Hmm? Captain. That stranger is heading over here." One of the yers who stayed at the back line said.

    Though the pressure on the yers were a lot, this mainly applied to the frontline the most. As the kobolds were rushing from the front and them being wild creatures, they didn''t employ any battle strategy and didn''t bother to surround the yers, only trying to force their way from the front. In response to this, the alliance[1] used amon battle strategy; physical sses in front and the long-range yers and healers behind. As a result of this, most of the pressure was endured by those in front while those behind could steadily focus a bit of their attention elsewhere. It just so happened that one of them did so and spotted Lu Zhen''s actions.

    "Heading over here? What does he intend to do..." Azure Dragon frowned in thought. "Don''t tell me?!"

    Without paying attention to the battle in front any longer, Azure Dragon turned to nce at at the approaching Lu Zhen. A bit behind him was the one-armed kobold guard who held a bone sword in its sole hand and pursued after Lu Zhen with a ferocious appearance.

    "Damn it!" Azure Dragon cursed. Anyone with a brain wouldn''t actually think that Lu Zhen wasing to aid them rather they would guess that he came to add to their portion. Of course, this addition was just a simple 150+ kobolds + 1.

    Though Azure Dragon cursed and showed a surprised yet irritated expression, the truth was that he had expected this. There was no way that the opposing team would actually help him. He would have done the same with Soran''s team if he hadn''t fallen within the traps of a third party. The good thing though was sthat since the other party was making this move, it seems like they must have decided to stop ''supervising'' them. As long as they(alliance) could hold out a bit longer, Azure Dragon could move forward with n B. Thinking of this, he rxed his nerves as he nned out what their next movements.

    Normally, a 30-man team could withstand the advances of a 100-man kobold squad but when the addition of a general-level talent like the kobold guard is added to the mix, things be even more difficult. Of course, things were already difficult before because they were facing a more than 100-man kobold horde rather than a 100 kobolds.

    "Take formation. MTs strengthen defense and hold back advances. Mages! Take aim and force back the approaching third party. We have to make sure that he doesn''t get here no matter what." Azure Dragon hurriedly ordered the team in a somewhat flustered manner. This was to serve the action of misleading the overseers in the background. If he were to look prepared, it might breed a bit of suspicion in their hearts but looking as if he fell into their plot would give them a sense of pride and fullfilment that would make them drop their guard around them(alliance).

    While Soran looked surprised at the decision of Azure Dragon, he didn''t find it strange. The chances of the mage yers taking out the Kobold guard was very low. In the scenario that they didn''t seed in doing so, which was like 70%, the kobold''s aggro would simply move from the unknown [Assassin] yer to them. They would just end up giving themselves up on a silver tter. However, if they were to target the yer, as long as they didn''t kill them, they would be able to force them[2] back or even better, interrupt their movements, letting the kobold guard catch up to them and force them into a battle.

    "Fire." Azure Dragonmanded from the back-lines.

    Following themands of the de-facto team leader, the mages all took aim at Lu Zhen and casted their spells at him.

    Due to the nature of ck Grill''s Cave, a majority of mage yers who frequented here were fire-type [Elementalists]. The same could be said about the mages in this group. In Soran''s group alone, 3 of the 4 mages were Fire-type [Elementalists] and 4 of the 5 mages in Azure''s team were also fire-type [Elementalists]. With 7 mages taking aim at Lu Zhen, there was a bright outburst of ring red beams and balls as the [Elementalists] cast their unique ss spells at him.

    These guys weren''t novices or your average gamers. They were experts who knew when to attack and where to attack. Though they had never coordinated with each other before, having battled just for a few minutes already, they had formed an embryonic form of teamwork. In a guild war or a high intensity battle, this teamwork wouldn''t be enough to battle, but for a singr target such as Lu Zhen, it sufficed. They were ableunch attacks that passed through the horde of kobolds, moving straight for Lu Zhen. The attacks were well aimed that they were able to cover up all the possible dodging spots avable to Lu Zhen, effectively creating a scenario where he was being forced to block the attack.

    Lu Zhen was a level 8 [Assassin] so blocking the skills of a couple half-baked level 7s[3] and Expert rank level 6s wasn''t much of a deal; at worst he would lose a few HP. The main issue was that if he did so, the kobold guard behind would easily catch up to him. Having annoyed and harassed that creature for a while now, there was no need to say that it would ignore the gang of yers in front just to eliminate him first.

    To the yers of the alliance, there was no way that Lu Zhen would be able to avoid this attack. Everyone of them was an Expert yer at the least and they all had their arrogance and pride in their strength and skills. For an unknown yer who had to hide his identity to face them and use such despicable ns -even though they had nned to do the same before- they felt nothing more than disdain to this yer. They believed that just this collective move of theirs would be enough to wipe out their this vermin so after they had attacked, they refocused back to battling the kobolds.

    To the attack that the alliance mages felt was a deal breaker, Lu Zhen felt nothing more than contempt.

    ''You guys look down on me too much.'' Lu Zhen sneered.

    [Silent Steps]

    Just as the attacks were about to collide at him, Lu Zhen suddenly vanished from view, appearing just 3 metres in front of his original spot. As a result of this, the ming balls and rays struck at the kobold guard that was previously behind him. The Kobold guard had indeed seen the attacks before, but it presumed that they were headed Lu Zhen''s way and didn''t bother about it. As a result, it got hit by them and ended up being set aze.

    "Roar!!!"

    Initially, the mages no longer paid attention Lu Zhen, but with the roar from the kobold guard, they were a bit confused and so turned over to take a nce at the spot.

    "What?!"

    Expecting to see Lu Zhen being struck down and forced into a battle with the kobold guard, they were shocked to see him appear a few metres away from his previous spot with the kobold guard bellowing in anger.

    Being a level 9 creature, these attacks that the mages were so proud of would cause nothing more than a tickle on it and even if it was a fire-type attack, it would at most scar the creature a bit. But having being severely injured by Sato'' move back before, the kobold guard''s stats had dropped quite a bit to the point that not only could Lu Zhen face it in battle but also the attacks from these yers could now cause more than a minor scar. Of course, in the end, it wouldn''t heavily injure the kobold guard or anything of the sorts but still, no one liked getting injured, especially by ants.

    "He dodged it? Howe?" A mage suddenly asked.

    "It''s a skill. What the heck are you guys doing?! Have you forgotten already?" Azure Dragon yelled.

    Maybe it was because they had migrated over from another game but some of the yers were yet to be able to adapt to IR that quickly. They weren''t familiar with the skills of other sses hence their attack patterns had a few ws in them. It was to the point that they had forgotten about this trump card skill of the [Assassin] ss. Maybe they had forgotten or maybe they presumed that Lu Zhen had used it in his bout with the kobold guard, putting the skill under cool-down. Whatever it was, they had undoubtedly made an error in their judgement.

    "Growl!"

    As the alliance mages were about to attack Lu Zhen once more, they noticed that the Kobold guard no longer stared at him but had instead turned to them.

    "This is bad..." Azure Dragonined as he felt a headacheing from this.

    In the kobold guard''s mind, it was wondering why these little weaklings it had left to its brothers actually dared to attack it despite being surrounded. It couldn''t understand why they did so but it didn''t bother to. It was a monster after all. No matter how intelligent it bes, at certain times, it would still abide by its emotions and instincts.

    Without further ado, the kobold guard darted towards the party. To the kobolds in front of it, the kobold guard pushed them to the side with its bone sword, not bothering whether they got injured or not.

    It didn''t take long for the monster to reach the alliance yers but this time was enough for them to make a few preparations, though little. One of the MTs moved over to block the kobold guard''s path and hold it back for the other stores get ready. Once close to the yers, the kobold guard swung its bone sword down in the [Guardian] who tried to intercept it.

    *Bang*

    It was a full powered blow atop the [Guardian]''s shield. Even though the yer had yer had activated a skill and was making use of a Mid-tier Mortal rank equipment, he could do nothing about the attack and was still forced back by the strike.

    ''Strong!'' The [Guardian] protested as he grit his teeth and held on against the strike. But this was just the first of many.

    The kobold guard followed up with a kick at the yer. Because he had used both hands to wield the shield, the yer couldn''t react to the kick that arrived from the side and got tossed away.

    "Hiro!" A yer on Soran''s side yelled. The [Guardian] who got tossed away was a close friend of his and the both of them were part of the God''s Retaliation battalion but responded to Soran''s own squad. Seeing his friend being kicked away like a pillow, the yer was shocked and astonished. He easily realised that this cretaure who just joined the battle didn''t seem to just pass them by 1 or 2 levels.

    If an average yer could figure this out what more the others. Azure Dragon was rmed at this action and hurriedly beganmanding the rest while preparing to make use of a few trump card scrolls and supplies. At the same time, he requested that Soran did the same too.

    As this all went on, the main cause of all this, Lu Zhen, had stealthy exited the battle in that moment of shock and fear.. In a crowd of kobolds swarming like mad men, it wasn''t difficult for an [Assassin] of his caliber to do such.

 Chapter 191 - 185 : One Kobold Down

    *Phew*

    With the sound of air being cut apart, a thick bone spear flitted to its target while aiming at a vital point. The speed of the spear alone was on par with that of a level 6 yer. To have such power contained within one''s attack like that just went to show the ability of the user behind the spear.

    *Bang*

    Despite the awe-inspiring force behind the spear, it had missed its target, only shing with the floor and sending a few rock particles flying.

    ''That was close.'' Sato thought as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

    The battle between him and the kobold chief had been going on for more than 20 seconds already. Rather than calling it a battle, it was more adequate to call it a survival challenge for Sato. In just 20 seconds, Sato had almost died at least 6~7 times already. If an average yer or Expert where to stand where he was, it would be highly possible that the other figure would have died within 5 seconds. This was because the kobold chief was that strong. Not only were its movements quick but the strength the monster wielded was also quite terrifying. If not for Sato''s gaming experience alongside the daily training he had received from his grandfather, he too would have died over and over again, all because the kobold was that terrifying.

    However, in a weird sense, dodging the Kobold chief''s attacks was both difficult and easy. The difficult partid in its attributes being significantly higher than nay yer in current existence. Trying to contend with it both strength and speed was a dumb thing to do. The easy part however,id in the fact that the kobold''s attacks were monotonous. Maybe it was due to the fact that they lived separate from other intelligent species but apart from their skills, the fighting style of the kobolds was very much nd. It was just a simple motion of hack, sh and thrust with no shy movements or exquisite attacking patterns. If not for therge difference in attributes between himself and the Kobold chief, dodging the attacks would have been a piece of cake for even an average yer.

    Of course while the sizeable gap in attributes was a bad thing, Sato took this as an opportunity to hone his senses and reflexes. The kobold monsters attack patterns were simple with only its speed being worth anything. Such an opponent could be said to be the most perfect training buddy to hone one''s reflexes and response time.

    ''I can''t go on any longer.'' Sato sighed.

    In terms of attributes; either strength or speed, Sato had the lower hand against the Kobold chief. To have been able tost this long wasn''t as a result if his strength but his reflexes and battle experience. Having pushed his senses to the limits, to enable him to constantly dodge the kobold chief''s attacks, Sato had consumed his stamina at a much faster rate and was slowly approaching his limits.

    ''If they still aren''t done in ten second time, then I will have to move forward with the n.'' Sato thought as a going shed in his eyes.

    The idea of picking this location as a battle spot wasn''t a random n by the team. They had their reasons and with the time taken to bring the kobold chief over here, it was more than enough for them to create an advantageous battle ground for themselves which would help increase their chances of victory.

    "Roar!"

    The kobold chief was thoroughly frustrated that the creature in front of it could keep dodging its attacks with such vigor. From a distance, it would look like the ''animal'' was weak and tired but once its attack approached, the ''creature'' would suddenly perform an evasive movement at a strange angle. It didn''t know what to do except to press on so with a roar, it charged once again at Sato and swung its spear right at him.

    ''I just need tost 10 seconds more.'' Sato thought as he hurriedly backed away.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    While Sato took on the Kobold chief and Lu Zhen, the Kobold guard with a missing left arm, the team of Fudo, Yato, Xue Yan and Katsuo faced off against thest kobold guard with a missing right arm.

    Originally, with the absence of Fudo, the team was constantly being forced on the edge by the kobold guard. Katsuo could barely even tank it, receiving heavy damages for each time he did such. If things were to have kept going that way a team-wipe would have been inevitable. So, when Sato made the decision that Fudo focus on their side of the battle, this had undoubtedly saved their lives and given them a chance for sess. Of course things still weren''t as easy since the MT couldn''t do much against the monster.

    In every RPG game, the value of an MT was very high. This was because while the rest focused in dealing damage against the monster, the MT holds it down and forces it to concentrate on himself/herself. The end result of this was that only the MT would receive most of the attacks from the monster while the yers would be free to attack without fear of retaliation. For an MT to fulfill their obligation and for the team to seed in a raid, the MT''s damage handling capacity should be very high.

    In this case, Katsuo was a level 6 yer while the kobold guard was a level 9 Special Elite. The gap between the both of them was humongous. It wasn''t something that mere skills could handle much less the fact that as the game had just begun, the yers didn''t have a lot of skills to start with. So, even with the addition of Fudo, the team only had a hope of seeding; nothing was confirmed. In summary, the weak link of the team was Katsuo but there was nothing they could do about it. Of course, there was another factor and that was the absence of a healer ss. But just like the previous one, there was nothing they could do about it. They could only make do with the health potions they brought, but even those required them time to use.

    ''We need to wrap this up fast and team up with Sato.'' Fudo thought as he took a quick nce at Sato''s side if the battle.

    Even though he was unwilling to go with Sato''s order, Fudo could guess the reason why he did so and didn''t argue again about it. He now had to focus on how to defeat the kobold guard in the least amount of time possible. This objective originally shouldn''t be difficult because with Fudo''s absurd attack power against the heavily injured kobold guard, it was just a matter of 3-4 strikes to be done with it. The main issue was that the Kobold guard was moving all around the field. Even when it was being held back by the rest, it could still dodge an attack from Fudo with its superior reflexes.

    Logically, the best action would be to wait for Lu When and Seiichi to return but being in a race against time, they didn''t bother to consider that either. From the way things looked, Fudo spected that Sato might be able tost 29 seconds more or less. There was no way Lu Zhen and Seiichi would return within the allotted time frame.

    ''It has 493 HP left. That trantes to 6 base attacks. With the drop in defensive attributes of the monster, I''d say 4-5 attacks should be able to seal the deal. Landing an attack is already difficult, worst of all, we have to cause this much damage in an instance.'' Fudo sighed internally as he felt a headacheing in.

    "Yato, Xue Yan. You guys try and pin the monster down for just a second or two. That''s all I need. Yato, don''t bother about keeping your HP high any longer; just don''t die. Katsuo, you''llnd thest hit so be prepared this time around." Fudo said. The objective of letting Katsuond thest hit was for him to gain a majority of the Experience points. With that, he should be able to level up at least once. A level 7 [Pdin] was much better for tanking a level 10 boss monster than a level 6 [Pdin].

    "Alright." Everyone responded.

    Immediately, Yato did as Fudo had said. If they couldn''t defeat this kobold guard in time, then the mission could pretty much be said to be a failure as their chances now was already low. This lead to them having to do anything to win. Hence, as long as Yato didn''t die, there was no reason to keep his HP above the 80% mark again. Katsuo alone wasn''t enough to pin the boss down but with the addition of Yato, they would be able to pull it off even if it was just for a second. This was exactly what Fudo had hoped for.

    "Face me, shithead." Yato yelled as he dashed towards the kobold guard.

    Once he was just a metre away, Yato shed out with his sword, applying the skill [Chop] to it. If this attack were tond on the monster, it would undoubtedly take away a chunk from its remaining HP.

    The kobold guard obviously knew wthis and it wasn''t like it would sit still and wait to get diced up in cubes. It raised its bone sword and shed, intending topete in a battle of strength. Against such Yato or any other yer, the kobold guard was confident in its power.

    "[Taunt]" Katsuo yelled a few metres away as his shield suddenly glowed brightly.

    The [Taunt] skill could be said to be quite special as it was capable of manifesting in various forms depending on the user. It could be done with a roar or an attack, or by making a part or equipment of the user glow brightly just as Katsuo did.

    The kobold guard felt the effects of the [Taunt] skill on itself and its will to resist Yato''s attack weakened. This wasn''t because the [Taunt] still was a debuff skill but because of its special effects.

    The [Taunt] skill worked by sending a special kind of signal or feeling to the target. This increased the Target''s hatred to the user while at the same time feeding it the information that if it ignored the user, their(user) strength would grow. Basically, against monsters of Instincts, it worked all the time. However, when facing monsters with high intelligence, Intellect or monsters higher levelled than the user, the attraction and hatred-inducing effect might not work. Of course, while the kobold guard was quite intelligent, it could still be affected by the skill.

    With the effect of [Taunt] on the monster interrupting its mind, it unconsciously reduced the power behind its attack as a part of it suddenly had the urge to dash towards Katsuo. But with the sizeable intelligence it had plus the fact that it was forced to face Yato''s attack, the Kobold guard was barely able to subdue that idea.

    *ng*

    As the two weapons collided, Yato was only forced back by 3 steps without any injuries except feeling a slight numbness in his hand. Katsuo, on the other hand, had a temporary increase in ability with the Kobold guard having ignore this [Taunt].

    After forcing Yato back, the kobold guard didn''t bother to press on, turning around to eliminate Katsuo. It realized that this character who was too weak to handle its attacks, was actually one of the most dangerous; second only to the fatso behind.

    "Toote." Fudo grinned as he pointed his staff at the monster. By this time, the cool-down of the skill he had been waiting for, was over.

    "[Explosion]!"

    *Boom*

    -170 (323/900 Kobold guard''s HP)

    Having experienced this attack before, the Kobold guard was unquestionably scared of it however, it was toote to react as that hesitation it got as a result of Katsuo''s [Taunt] was more than enough for Fudo to take aim.

    "Roar!!!"

    As the kobold guard roared painfully while writhing on the ground in pains, Fudo didn''t stop at one attack.

    "[Fire Ray]"

    -109 (214/900 Kobold guard''s HP)

    "What are you all waiting for?"

    Even before Fudo could could his scream, Xue Yan had already taken aim andunched her own attack.

    "[Fire Ray]"

    "Roar!!!!"

    -114 (100/900 kobold guard''s HP)

    Having inherited [ck Alder Staff] over from Fudo, Xue Yan''s attack power had experienced a substantial increase, making her one of the highest damage dealers in the group. Though whenpared to Fudo and Sato, her skills werecking, she was the next strongest in the group, even surpassing Lu Zhen in burst damage. And all this was thanks to the prowess of a top quality Upper tier Mortal rank weapon.

    "Yato! Katsuo!" Fudo yelled. The monster had just one hundred HP left. With the [Burn] effect of [Explosion] still active, chances were that if he or Xue Yan were to attack, they would finish off the monster. So the best decision was to leave it to the two.

    "Was waiting for this."

    After the two mages had bombarded the kobold guard, it had lost a majority of its fighting ability. [Fire Ray] had a prative effect added onto it and with both Xue Yan and Fudo aiming at vital spots, the kobold guard had two gaping holes on its body. It could barely lift itself up much less resist. The former aggressive kobold was no where to be seen as only a sitting duck was left behind.

    "Die!"

    Yato didn''t bother to be careful any longer as he hurriedly closed the gap between himself and the monster before shing out with his ss'' trump skill.

    "Roar!!" The Kobold guard weakly roared.

    -85 (15/900 Kobold guard''s HP)

    After that one hit, Yato didn''t follow up but retreated immediately.

    From the back, Katsuo had appeared at an unknown time without the kobold''s notice. Even if the kobold guard was a little bit better, it wouldn''t have bothered about him since the three previous strikes had caused it irreparable damages. Now that it was on itsst leg, the senses if the monster were at its worst, enabling Katsuo to approach it without its notice.

    ''Let''s end this now.''

    "[Execution]."

    Katsuo unhurriedly brought his sword down.

    -71 (0/900 Kobold guard''s HP)

    [[System Notification : You have in the 2nd ranked Kobold guard of the Kobold chief, Arle]]

 Chapter 192 - 186 : Constant Improvements

    In most VR games, most monster didn''t have a name. Names were only given to certain special monsters that were ridiculously powerful or vital to the plot. The same however, couldn''t be said about Infinite Realm.

    In Infinite Realm, names were granted just like reality. In other words, a majority of all intelligent organisms had a name. However, not all names would be disyed on the System Interface. For example, the kobold guard that Katsuo had just in was named Arle. However, when he had used [Inspect] on the creature, he only received the info [Kobold guard] in the designated name slot. This was because the target in mind, wasn''t of any importance to the plot or the progress of the yers. Usually, only bosses or ridiculously powerful monsters would get the honor of having their names disyed while the rest would only do so once they died.

    "That''s one." Katsuo sighed as he finally felt the pressure on his shoulders lighten up.

    Havingnded thest blow on the monster, Katsuo had gained arge amount of experience points but because of the [Anti-Cheat Protocols] embedded in the System''s programming, it wasn''t so absurd. However, due to the difference in levels and also the effort he had put into the battle, it was still more than enough for him to level up once, even going past the halfway mark of level 7.

    "I''m heading over to where Sato is. You guys take a 30 seconds break and catch up as quickly as possible." Fudo suddenly said before turning around and speeding towards the direction Sato was.

    ''I hope he''s still doing okay.''

    Because Sato had engaged in a run-around tactic with the kobold chief, he had separated a bit far away from the rest. With the uneven terrain of the entire floor and the distance between the two, the team had eventually lost sight of him and didn''t know how he was doing. The only hope they had was that Sato''s name was still lit up in the team chat signifying that he was still alive. As for his current state, it was unknown.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    Some distance away from where Yato and the others stood, right beside a hill that blocked their view, Sato was constantly relying on his senses to barely dodge the attacks from the kobold chief. At one point in time, he was forced to block the attack and ended up getting injured. Luckily for him though, he had previously gotten a chance to down a bottle of health potions before the strike so his HP value was still stable.

    *Bang* *Bang*

    With the constant harassment from the kobold chief, Sato was forced to be dodging at all times, not having the guts to block unless when necessary. As a result of this most of the Kobold chief''s attacks went off target, crashing at either the boulders or ''mountain'' walls, ornding on the ground while forming a small crater and sending tiny rock pieces flying.

    *Boom*

    *Phew*

    ''Damn it.'' Sato cursed. He had just narrowly dodged a spear by rolling on the floor and as he was about to stand up, he saw that the Kobold chief had quickly adjusted its strike and moved the spear towards him. This had never happened before and it only implied one thing; the Kobold was improving.

    With his hands still on the floor, Sato propelled himself backwards with an awkward posture, barely avoiding the spear from the kobold chief.

    ''That was a close shave.'' Sato thought as he quickly distanced himself from the monster.

    Normally, he wouldn''t have been forced into such a state before but because he never expected the kobold chief to improve on its tactics, Sato was surprised by that move and so, almost caught by it.

    ''It seems like Infinite Realm isn''t really like other games. It''s either the boss was holding back before or it is constantly improving.''

    Sato doubted that it was the first point since there was no no reason for the Kobold chief to still be holding back at this point hence the second was the answer but this wasn''t a good thing.

    Despite having a much higher average attribute than all the yers, the kobold chief''s weakness was obviously to a top tier expert; its battle techniques were horrible. It was like watching an average adult swing a sword. Sure, they could do damage with it butpared to a master swordsman, it was just awful. Against normal yers, the kobold chief was an unbeatable opponent but to a pure and true expert, the ws in its attacks were clearly visible; the only problem being therge gap in attributes. It was because of thisck of battle techniques and skills that Sato couldst this long against the monster. However, the kobold chief couldn''t be med for this. It lived underground where its only opponents were either Rock Golems or Ground Rats. Against such a creature, purr strength was more than enough. The same went for all previous generations that may have existed. Without an intelligent creature with battle senses to face against, the kobolds fighting way was extremelycking in sophistication and mastery.

    However, now that it had found a ''worthy'' opponent, who constantly dodged its attacks, the Kobold chief realised that the previous method of fighting it had utilized wouldn''t do against this ''creature''. So, it began to improve. To start with, the Kobold chief was already a mosnter with a much higher level of intelligence than the rest of its kind. Supposing it had grown in a human environment, it would be on par with one of the top schrs in a town. This is just to describe the level of intelligence and potential it was innately born with. Though it didn''t get the chance to grow in such an environment, it still had thatrge potential and space for development. That is why during this battle, it began to adjust its fighting pattern and movements, improving on its techniques for higher efficiency and uracy. In summary, Sato had ended up as a sparring buddy for the creature.

    With the kobold chief improving on itself, things would be a lot more difficult in time. This was because as the main battle was constantly being dyed, the kobold chief would get better at fighting, hence get stronger.

    ''They should be done soon.'' Sato thought as he realized that his movements had gotten slower than before. He was already tired aspared to before. If to be ced in numbers then his stamina would be side of to be 50% of less. At this point, Sato was relying in both adrenaline -as copied by the game- and also his desire not to lose.

    The kobold chief suddenly thrust its spear from behind in a straight line. Aspared to the previous ones, this strike was much faster than the rest and with the streamlined spear tip, the air current easily split at the tip of the spear, reducing the air resistance and making the spear even more faster. By the time Sato had sensed this strike, it was but a few centimetres away from him.

    ''Shit.''

    Sato didn''t bother to know what or where the dangerous feeling wasing from. He simply moved to his left, trying to dodge the attack before it got to him.

    *ng* *Kluck* [1]

    -17 (57/150 Sato''s HP)

    ''Stthh.''

    While he had managed to dodge the spear at thest moment, Sato didn''t do a perfect job at that. It could be said that he had barely even made as if not for his Upper tier Mortal rank armour that he kept on, Sato believed he would have lost a piece of his flesh at that point. Even with the armour protecting him, the spear had still managed to pass through, injuring him a bit while dropping the durability of his equipment by 3.

    Sato didn''t even wonder what skill that was as he quickly dropped low and rolled on the ground, effectively dodging the spear that was shed his way. If it were previously, the Kobold chief would have stopped or slowed down with the first move but having improved on its battle techniques, it had quickly followed up with another attack. Luckily, Sato had expected this and his action turned out to be the right move.

    This time around, Sato didn''t bother to run again because he realized it was pointless. Rather than running around and burning out his stamina much faster than the Kobold chief did, he decided to face it head on. He guessed that the others might be experiencing some troubles so it would take them a when to make it. The problem was that, in that ''a while'' he would pretty much be dead. Rather than dying such a pointless death, Sato wanted to give it his all and eliminate a bit of the kobold chief''s HP while hoping to cause sevre damages to it. At least, this would give the others a much more easier time and a chance of sess.

    "Come on now. Let''s see what you''re worth.." Sato taunted the monster.

 Chapter 193 - 187 : Precise Strike

    (AN : Give me 3 hours to sort things out. Another chapter should be uploaded by then too.)

    "Come on now. Let''s see what you''re worth." Sato taunted the monster.

    The Kobold chief was initially surprised that Sato didn''t try running away from it but seeing his attitude and tone, it could easily guess that he was taunting it. It just couldn''t understand. This puny creature that had been forced to be on its two feet by it, still dared to face it and what more, taunt it.

    "Roar!!"

    Before, the kobold chief had managed to calm its rage down while it improved on its fighting skills but with Sato''s current action now, it ignored its previous desire to improve and decided to kill Sato for real. It simply dashed at Sato whole thrusting its spear forward in a simple manner.

    "Hmph."

    In response to the Kobold chief''s enraged roar, Sato simply snorted as he prepared himself to receive the strike.

    *Phew*

    The kobold chief''s spear darted forward as it split apart the air in front while mimicking the sound of an arrow soaring through the winds. Even without shing with the spear, Sato felt that the force behind it was at least 0.2 times stronger. The effect wasn''t so noticeable but even for a yer like Sato but having shed with the Kobold chief a few times, he could sense this.

    ''Fine, I was getting pumped up for this already. Let''s go!''

    Motivating himself, Sato didn''t shirk away from the fight bit instead took a step forward, intending to face the spear head on.

    Sato knew that in a head-on battle, he would surely lose out to the Kobold chief due to the difference in their strength but because the monster''s fighting skills werecking whenpared to his, Sato could level the ying field with that advantage. If he could strike at the point where the kobold chief''s control was the least, he could easily break the momentum of its attack, effectively eliminating the danger.

    At this point, where Sato''s life and death depended on both his abilities and choices, Sato''s brain operated at a very high speed, calcting not just the speed, angle and strength of the attack but also the most probable counter move and the best possible martial skill to use. Sato had reflexively entered a special battle mode where his brain''s output rate and calctive abilities where boosted beyond average standards. In this mode, the trajectory of the kobold chief''s spear was easily seen. Relying on both his battle experience from his entire 21 or so years and the experience from his short shes with the Kobold chief''s spear before, Sato analysed the energy transfer points in the Kobold chief''s attack[1].

    ''There!''

    Without wasting any nanosecond more, Sato mobilised his body to move at its fastest, sending a sword towards the spear. This time around though, he didn''t use a sh but a thrust, aiming at a point by the side of the spear''s shaft, just beneath the head. With the aid of his experience and eyesight, this was the energy transfer point with the weakest resistance and power supply hence acting as the weak-link of the kobold chief''s attack.

    *Ting*

    Just as the kobold chief''s spear was but a metre away from him, Sato concentrated his entire strengthat the tip of his sword and immediately poked the weak point on the spear shaft with a gentle yet forceful touch. This action of his dispersed a majority of the force behind the attack. At the same time, the remnant force from Sato''s sword diverted the spear from its previous trajectory, sending it towards Sato''s left, just a few centimetres away his head.

    The kobold chief was surprised at this as it wondered howe. Lost in its thoughts, it didn''t notice as Sato brought his sword down at the it. Because of the way Sato had positioned his sword as he performed that act of his, the sharp edge of his sword happened to be perfectly positioned to face the kobold chief. All he had to do was move it forward and that was exactly what Sato had done.

    [Chop]

    "Roar!!"

    Even if [K¨­jin''s Arrow] didn''t seed in killing the kobold chief or brutally injuring it, it still seeded in burning off the entire front of the kobold chief. This was exactly where Sato''s sword shed at. Evenmon sense would easily tell someone that while getting sliced by a sword was painful, getting sliced at one''s bare, unprotected flesh was even worse.

    -70 (1065/1500 Kobold chief''s HP)

    For the first time since the raid hadmenced, Sato had finally injured the kobold chief with his own abilities. Unlike the time with [K¨­jin''s Arrow] which was an ability that didn''t belong to him, [Chop] was his.

    Thoughpared to the amount he usually dished out against other monsters, this one was quite pitiful, the reason was self-exnatory. The kobold chief was both superior to him in level and life order.

    The level part didn''t need any exnation but the life order part was a bit shaky. This was because while the kobold chief had purer dragon bloodline than a regr kobold, this bloodline wasparably as useless as that of the regr kobolds. Inparison, that of the yers -[Chosen Ones]- was a bit superior to the kobolds. The only reason why the Life order effect took ce was because of the superiority in level. Take for instance while an adult tiger could easily defeat a well-trained dog, a well-trained dog could easily defeat a kid tiger. This was simply because the strength and prowess of the dog was already beyond what a little tiger could reach. Also, a new born dragon could neverpare to a saint-level human despite the huge gap in life order. The saint-level human could even exhort a special effect on par with the life order effect on the new-born dragon, though not exactly. And this effect was due to the difference in strength. As for the life order effect, it won''t act on the human saint because his/her power is far superior to the baby Dragon''s.

    Of course while Life order effect could happen like this, there would always be a few differences especially when the order is very very huge. For example, a young dragon could easily take on a saint-level human despite the human being way stronger. This was because the dragon had grown a bit and at the level it was, it could somewhat ignore the pressure due to level difference.

    Ignoring all this and returning to the present, the kobold chief was able to alleviate a majority of the attack''s power mainly due to the difference in level.

    Sato however, didn''t even bother about the damage as he immediately moved to strike again. But of course, there was no way the Kobold chief would standby and get beaten to shit especially since it had superior attributes. While it didn''t know why its spear suddenly lost a lot of force and changed direction from just a touch from the opponent, it didn''t shy away from battle especially with how Sato had just injured it. It couldn''t help but be frustrated, the ''creature'' who had been dodging and running suddenly faced it head-on and actually injured it! Of course it would be enraged.

    ''Hmm?''

    Sato could her the whistling of the spear beside him as he sensed that the spear was heading his way. He also felt a heavy pressure descending from above. At the same time, the kobold chief brought down its left fist down on Sato''s head, simply because its spear was still a distance by whenpared to its arm.

    Sato didn''t dare tank this strike as he knew the limit of his defense. He couldn''t even handle blocking its spear much less a direct hit.

    With a stomp, Sato sent himself back in a hurried manner as he rolled across the floor.

    *Boom*

    The force behind the kobold chief''s left fist was so powerful that it acted almost like a canon, propelling the air beneath the fist downwards in powerful manner. Just the fist-wind had bombarded the floor but it still made an explosive sound.

    Sato saw this and took in a deep breath.

    ''It seems like the boss'' fists are no worse than its spear.''

    While this sounded ridiculous, recalling that the Kobold chief''s fighting skills were horrible, Sato felt it made sense. In other words, the kobold chief might actually be much stronger bare-handed than with a spear. The only problem would be that its attack range would shorten considerably. That might have been the reason why it actually used a spear.

    With a sessful first hit, Sato''s spirit became a bit better as his morale and confidence increased. However, before he could even think of what to do next, the kobold chief had already approached him.

    ''Fast...'' Was the only thing Sato could think of before he was forced to block the iing spear.

    Even though he had seeded in dispersing the force of the previous attack while diverting the aim, this was more or so, simr to a one-time act. The reason was simply because the kobold chief was way too strong. That move Sato pulled off required him to not only locate the weak-link but also to aim at it and strike with the required force. It sounded easy but 3 major points were required to pull this off.

    The first was to locate the weak-link. The weak point of an attack was simply the point that experienced the least control and force supply. Each move required a specific amount of force to be applied in a different manner and a different route. In other words, how you sh out with a sword isn''t the same way you perform a thrust. When summarized, this meant that for each attack, the weak point differed. Locating the weak-link isn''t a problem for Sato, so far as he had enough time.

    The second point required Sato to have a correct grasp of his ability and aim exactly at the weak-link. The weak point could actually be in form of a tiny spot, simr to the eye of a needle or on or with a regr human eye ball, all depending on the target''s control. To be able to make a clean hit at such a small target in the heat of a battle was very difficult.

    The third point was for Sato to use the right amount of force for each move, else if he overdid it, the two contrasting forces -one from the Kobold chief and the other from Sato- would counter-react and act against the two. In such a case, even if Sato would seed in deflecting the spear, he would also lose his own sword.

    With the kobold chief quickly attacking together with these 3 points, it would be very difficult for Sato to emte that move of his.

    [Bone Sweep]

    Just as the spear approached, Sato felt that it had increased in strength. The feeling was simr but this time even worse. He felt that even if he blocked this attack, he wouldn''t be far from dying however, Sato had no choice.

    ''[Parry]''

    Taking the initiative to block this strike was the same as Sato giving up here. With his already low HP, once he took this strike his death could be said to be very close at hand.

    ''Well, I at least tried my best here.'' Sato smiled as he was prepared to release all the supplies in his space bag and detonate them.. But at that moment, something astonishing happened.

 Chapter 194 - 188 : Mysterious Poison Gas

    Just as Sato''s sword was about to collide with the kobold chief''s spear, a ring beam of red light appeared in his vision, darting towards them. Die to the fact that he had noticed itte together with the rapid rate at which it moved, it was toote for Sato to dodge it. However, while it seemed to be heading to the two, this was just a misconception in Sato''s part. As the beam closed in, Sato realised that it was actually the kobold chief that happened to be the target.

    "???!!"

    Because the Kobold chief had focused its entire attention on this strike together with the angle it stood at, it didn''t notice the beam till it was close to it. At this point, the Kobold chief could already sense the intense mana and threat from the attack, however, it was toote.

    "Roar!"

    [Critical Hit]

    -100 (965/1500 kobold chief''s HP)

    The beam dived into the body of the Kobold chief, who shook in response, sessfully digging into it before it(beam) lost its energy. However, the red beam had still managed to cause a lot of damage to the kobold. A little hole had taken shape by the left side of the Kobold chief, just at the point where a normal human being would have their heart located. The hole was long enough for one to dig their fingers in and wide enough for 3 fingers to fit. Without a doubt, if this were the body of a normal human being, they would, without a doubt, die to this attack. Of course, this was a game and the target too was a monster; such an attack wasn''t enough to kill it but causing quite a sizeable amount of damage was a sure thing.

    Due to the fact that the shot was a sneak attack together with the mark it hit, the attack ended up as a critical hit; one that dealt arger amount of damage than Sato''s. If that wasn''t enough, the following incident could be said to have dealt some sort of psychological damage to the monster.

    "Haha. Little twerp, you thought this great Emperor wouldn''t be back in time huh? That''s for thinking so little of me and letting me go. How did that taste huh? Was it good? Tell me, was it?" A gloating yet familiar voice sounded from afar.

    Sato didn''t bother ncing at the speaker as he had an inkling of who it was. Also, the attacker had seeded in creating an opportunity for him.

    Apart from injuring the kobold chief, the attack also helped to lessen the force behind its spear. As a result, Sato was able to block the spear before hurriedly retreating. He didn''t take the opportunity to attack because he knew that if he hesitated even a bit, the kobold chief might recover quickly and finish him off before he could retreat. With his low HP, that would be the end. Of course, if Sato''s HP was higher, he wouldn''t have hesitated to strike at that moment. Sadly, it wasn''t.

    As Sato had created enough distance between himself and the Kobold chief, he turned over to the position of the speaker and sure enough, it was Fudo who stood there.

    "Hehe. You owe this great Emperor one." Fudo grinned as he noticed Sato''s eyes on himself.

    Ignoring Fudo''s silly remarks, Sato smiled lightly. He indeed owed Fudo. If not for him, he might have actually died this time around. Without wasting any second more, Sato took out a vial of health potion and emptied the contents into his mouth with haste. Every little second and opportunity away from battle counted as one to recuperate.

    The kobold chief red at Fudo who had just interrupted its crucial attack. Because of that abrupt hit from the red beam, the skill the kobold chief had used against Sato was interrupted. If it were a normal skill then there would simply be no problem. However, it was actually its strongest skill that got interrupted. As a result, the kobold chief suffered a bacsh from the force of its own attack. Normally, yers didn''t experience this mostly because their skills and abilities were perfected over time[1] but because the fighting skills of the kobolds on this floor were terrible and unrefined, it wascking whenpared to ss skills of the yers. Being forced to abruptly stop like that would inevitably cause a bit of harm to the user. This was why the kobold chief didn''t spam this skill but used it with care.

    "Hehe. What? Are you angry?" Fudo noticed the re from the monster. At the same time, Sato''s voice sounded in his ears.

    "Where are the others?" This was a conversation being facilitated by the team chat interface so only those in the team could hear.

    "We''re recuperating. We will be there in 15 seconds or so." Yato''s voice sounded out. With Fudo having left them, Yato resumedmand as a temporary team leader.

    Originally, the crew had a 30 second break but they spent most of the time heading towards where Sato was. However,pared to Fudo, they were much slower. This wasn''t because of attribute difference but because they intentionally slowed down so that by the time they arrived there, they would be back at their peak or at least 80% or 90%.

    "Oh? Then, we will be there at the same time too." Lu Zhen''s voice suddenly sounded. He had regrouped with Seiichi after escaping the battlefield and now they were both heading this way together.

    "Okay." Sato said before exiting the team chat.

    At this moment, the Kobold chief was still wondering who to take on first but it eventually decided on Fudo. This was because this specific character had interrupted it twice. Even for a ''merciful'' leader like itself, this was beyond crossing the line.

    "Roar!"

    "Fudo, get ready." Sato said. With the aid of the health potion, he had managed to recover 50 points of HP, bringing his previous 57 to 107 HP. With this much, he could receive 2 strikes and still be okay. With Fudo''s help added to the mix,sting 15 seconds wouldn''t be that difficult.

    ''But to be sure...'' Sato silently withdrew a vial from his space bag.

    *Bang*

    The kobold chief didn''t waste a single second as it stomped its right foot on the ground and darted towards Fudo. It guessed that since the other party liked attacking from a distance, its defense and closebat abilities should be terrible. To have figured this out so quickly, showed how terrifying its intelligence was.

    "Where do you think you''re going?"

    There was no way Sato would sit still and watch the Kobold chief close in on Fudo. Even if the difference in abilities between the two was great, it didn''t mean that Sato was useless.

    As it happened to be, when Sato had retreated before, he did so in the direction Fudo was. In other words, to get to Fudo, the kobold chief would still have to go through Sato. In this regard, it didn''t fear facing Sato. Even though Sato had managed to injure it with his own abilities once, the kobold chief still felt that it could suppress him. It also thought that that trick Sato pulled off made him a one-trick pony. Apart from that, Sato hadn''t been much of a threat to it. But it didn''t know that one''sprehensive strength didn''t just include their personal strength.

    "Here''s a gift from me to you."

    Once he was just 3 metres away, Sato tossed the vial in his hand while slicing his sword at it. Actually, Sato''s sword slicing action seemed to be for naught because the vial had already gone out of the range of the sword. However, because he had shed out at his fastest while also using the entirety of his strength, a small sword wind was propelled forwards, shing with the vial. To a normal human being or even a monster, this sword wind might at most make a very light cut or mark on their skin, making it a harmless attack but for the vial, it could do more. The vial was made of ss and it was actually the cheap kind; the ones that could easily break from a short fall. Against this sword wind, the ss didn''t stand a chance.

    *Shatter*

    It didn''t crack but shattered instantly as the contents of the ss was released into the air. Surprisingly though, it wasn''t a liquid but a blue-colored odorless gas. While within the ss vial, it was in a liquid form but when exposed to the atmosphere, it became a gas. Due to its blue color, it looked a bit harmless but as it was still in the atmosphere, the gas rapidly became colorless till none of it was left visible.

    This was a special liquid that was extremely difficult to refine and very costly because of to do so, one would have to refine it in an enclosed area free from whatever forces that would act on it and turn the liquid to gas. To mimic such an environment was quite difficult making the price of this vial go up to 20 silver coins! Actually, the real value of this gas was cheaper than this but because it could only be made by certain alchemists -of which none were found in Riverdale or ck Mountain Town- the special liquid could only be imported hence the inted price. Nheless, for low level yers, this was a very powerful drug. Simply because it had only one special function; to weaken a target. In fact, Sato had not known of the existence of this liquid gas. It was actually Aaron, the NPC store manager of Grnyx Merchandise back at Riverdale, that rmended it to him after Sato made arge purchase of consumables at the store. There was a limited quantity avable at the store so it wasn''t disyed on the shelves for yers to see. Another reason was because Aaron believed that those who could afford it wouldn''t waste their time ncing at the shelves.

    While the liquid was in a gaseous form, it was a special poison in its own way. Unlike most gases where one, two or more individuals could breathe it, this poison gas only aimed at one. It wasn''t that more than one person couldn''t breath it in but that the effect would worsen if done like that. So, it was advisable to use only against a single target. Depending on the amount of gas one breathed in, the effect of the poison would strengthen in proportion. At least 40% was required to be breathed in to achieve the most basic effect. To achieve this feature and increase the chances of a majority of the gas being inhaled, it was made to be very light. So much so that with a single breathe, one can inhale at least 30% of the gas. In other words, only 3 breathes were needed for a majority of the gas to be absorbed.

    With the surprise appearance and eruption of the gas, the kobold chief didn''t know what it was neither did it feel anything strange but it suddenly halted its steps out of instinct. In such a scenario, within just a second, the kobold chief unconsciously inhaled more than 40% of the gas and was still taking in more.

    "It''s done.." Sato smiled.

 Chapter 195 - 189 : [Arghusâ€™ Potential Disperser]

    [[ Arghus'' Potential Disperser (Lesser rank) : Simple Grade

    Weakens the ability of the target to gather energy. Effect different based on the ability of the target.

    Under level 10:Attack power is weakened by 10% while Main attributes are weakened by 10%.

    Duration : 5 minutes.

    Level 10 and above but under level 15: Attack power is weakened by 7% while Main attributes(apart from Vitality) are weakened by 5%.

    Duration : 2 minutes.

    ]]

    Unlike most regr potions Sato had seen thus far, [Arghus'' Potential Disperser] didn''t focus on increasing the strength of the user. Just like its name implied, the gas that had diffused into the kobold chief''s system was a potential disperser that weakened the abilities of its target. While it was of a Simple Grade, it was quite impressive that it had effects on creatures above level 10. Usually, most Simple grade potions didn''t have such effects against level 10 and above monsters. This was due to the low quality of the ingredients and concoction method. Even the higher grade Advanced potions had their limits. However, [Arghus'' Potential Disperser] had broken thisw.

    Being made by a master of alchemy, Sir Arghus, it was termed as one of his greatest work for its amazing effects even. Sir Arghus had created a new path in alchemy that enabled certain potions to be able to ''jump levels'' to affect a much higher ranked creature or monster. [Arghus'' Potential Disperser] was one of his greatest creations in this area and it had the ability to eliminate thebat strength of a great being turning them from a King ss individual to nothing but a regr mortal. A King ss individual was a tier 3 being! Even in a kingdom, they were just a few dozens of these guys and nothing more. Of course,pared to the original version this one wasn''t as perverse and was a lot weaker. However, it was made with the same procedure as the original - the Arghus way- but with low quality herbs apared to the original set. Nheless, it was quite effective against monsters under level 15. For this drug alone, Sato had spent a lot. It was one of the trump cards for this raid and with its amazing effects, the chances of sess were boosted by 10%.

    "???!"

    Though the gas was odorless and colorless, once within the system of the target, it worked fast. The kobold chief had slowly begun to feel its strength waning as muscles felt a bit heavy than usual. It didn''t know what had happened but it could easily guess that it had something to do with the gas that had been released before.

    The kobold chief nced at Sato with hate with a slight feeling of apprehension and fear. This was because it had never felt something like this before. Nheless, it refused to retreat because even though its strength had weakened a bit, it was still stronger than Sato. A tiger would never shy away from a rabbit just because of a few tricks.

    "Roar!"

    The kobold chief re-enacted its charge once more and with the distance between them being shorter than before, it didn''t take long for it to reach Sato.

    Truth be told, Sato didn''t depend on the attribute reduction to face the Kobold chief but rather the attack power reduction. Compared to the effects of having 5% removed from all Main attributes, 7% off of the Attack power would be much better. This is mainly because usually, Main attributes are smaller in number than secondary attributes. With the already small value present, taking out 5% wouldn''t make much of a difference but since secondary attributes were alreadyrger, taking out an equallyrger percentage would have a much better effect. But of course, the 5% reduction in Main attributes still had its uses even if it was small. At the very least, the kobold chief''sprehensive strength would weaken even more. This way, tanking the monster would be a lot easier, though it would still be difficult.

    Seeing the familiar bone spear approaching him, Sato didn''t retreat but faced it head on. With his HP higher than before and also with Fudo in the background, Sato had a lot more confidence in facing the kobold chief in a direct battle.

    "Ha!"

    With a low yell, Sato brandished his sword at the spear. The point he targeted happened to be the weak point in this attack. It wasn''t a coincidence rather, Sato had managed to calcte the point this time around. This was because the Kobold chief was irked after having its strength weakened, so its attacks were a lot worse than before. It should be recalled that its fighting skills and spear arts were already terrible to start with much less now. Hence, it wasn''t difficult for Sato to spot the weak-link and strike it in time.

    *ng*

    Sato''s [Astral de] collided against the bone spear and shifted it away from himself, to the side. Normally, this would have been impossible even with his precision strike. At best, he would barely deflect the spear but this time, he had outrightly done so. The kobold chief was already weaker than before, its fighting abilities had dropped to a red zone and Sato had used precision strike. All these points added together made him temporary overpower the Kobold chief and deflect the attack with a single strike.

    Sato didn''t stop with just deflecting the attack. Like before, he shed down at the kobold chief once he had seeded in blocking the attack. The Kobold chief never expected Sato to be capable of dodging its attack just as before so it was too slow in reacting even with its higher attributes.

    -67 (898/1500 Kobold chief''s HP)

    ''Run.''

    Afternding a hit on the Kobold chief, Sato immediately began to move away, heading towards a different direction. Fudo also did the same thing and didn''t bother questioning Sato''s decision because he could easily guess the reason why.

    ''The others should be there already.'' Sato thought. The meeting point that they had decided on wasn''t actually here, where he faced the Kobold chief, but elsewhere.

    There was a reason that the team had decided to face the Kobold chief at another location and not at the Kobold settlement. This was to create an advantageous battlefield for themselves. Originally, Sato was supposed to have lead the monster there in the beginning but in the end, he didn''t. Instead, he waited till everyone was ready and done with their side missions be he did so. The reason was none other than the kobold chief being too strong and quite smart. If it noticed something was wrong in time, who could tell whether it would escape or not. If they missed this opportunity, drawing it out again from its hiding spot, the kobold settlement, would be very difficult. Hence, till everyone was gathered, Sato didn''t bring the kobold chief to that spot; well, that was until now.

    "Roar!"

    The constant frustrating roars of the kobold chief sounded out at intervals as the monster slowly closed in on him.

    With Fudo''s timely assist and the effect of [Arghus'' Potential Disperser (Lesser rank)] still active, Sato and Fudo were able to reach the selected location within a few seconds. On the system interface, was disyed a countdown timer with less than 2 minutes to go.

    The determined battlefield was a levellednd that was surrounded by a few small hills, turning it into a valley. It wasn''t thatrge but it spanned at least 200 metres wide, making it a good enough ce for a tough battle. It was an isted environment and looked like the perfect spot to hold down the fort. In this ce, they could fight till their heart''s content without fear of getting spotted by anyone, whether human or kobold.

    "Over here." Sato heard someone cry out. Turning his head over, his eyes happened tond on a yer, one of his to be precise, Katsuo. As the tallest in the team, it wasn''t difficult to spot him from a couple of metres away much less now he as just a few metres.

    Right beside Katsuo was Yato, Xue Yan and Seiichi. Sato guessed that Lu Zhen was also present but had entered stealth mode. Sato nodded at them all as form of greeting and alertness. With the team gathered now, they could officially begin the raid.

    From the earlier calctions and predictions they had made, thebined team of Soran''s God Retaliation squad and Azure Dragon''s team would be able tost against the kobold horde for at least 3-4 minutes. Factoring in the time it would take for the kobolds to find this spot, it would be a total approximate of 5~7 minutes. A safe judgement would be 5 minutes. In other words, Sato and his team had 5 minutes to not only beat the kobold chief but also escape the 10th floor. To seed in this, they needed to beat the boss in 2-3 minutes, which also happened to coincide with the duration of [Arghus'' Potential Disperser (Lesser rank)]. This sounded easy but it was actually difficult. Though the monster had lost quite a bit of HP, it was still a force to reckon with. The good thing though was that they came prepared.

    "Activate the array."

 Chapter 196 - 190 : The Raid Begins

    "Activate the array."

    Just less than two seconds after Sato had spoken, bright yellow lights illuminated certain spots in the valley. The lights started out dull before they slowly intensified in brightness and intensity.

    Maybe due to its instincts and natural fear to the unknown or maybe it was because Sato had kept on unleashing different surprises on it, showing it the world outside its well[1], the kobold chief had slowed down in its footsteps,ing to a halt within two seconds. A slight sense of apprehension passed through the kobold chief''s thoughts as it tightened its grip on the bone spear. But after waiting for more than 5 seconds, apart from the lights brightening up till they reached a limit, nothing else urred...or so it thought.

    [[ System Interface :

    [Low ss Earth Suppression Array] activated.

    [Low ss Earth Suppression Array] :

    Has 3 functions;

    Reduce target''s abilities by at least 5-10%. Effective on all creatures under level 15. Has little effect on level 15 monsters.

    Shields all energy explosions and activities rated under level 15 Elite rank for monsters and level 15 beginner rank for other life forms.

    Creates an illusionary field so that those outside can''t see nor sense what is happening inside. Illusionary field has its limits.

    Duration : 10 minutes. ]]

    [Low ss Earth Suppression Array] was a very impressive array formation that cost a lot. Unlike the other subsses and jobs that were easy to find, the Array/Formation guild[1] didn''t have a true branch in any of the towns. The reason why the word ''true branch'' is used is because even though there exists a building named ''Array Guild Branch'', this was more like a a shopping mart than a real branch. They didn''t ept any apprentices or pursuers of Array arts but instead only sold their goods. The same went for the Engineering Guild''s branch and the Rune branch. As for the reason why, that''s unimportant for now.

    [Low ss Earth Suppression Array] was one of the top formations under level 10, to the point that it even affected creatures above level 10 but under level 15, and even still had a slight effect on level 15 monsters. For such a powerful scroll, the price wasn''t one bit shy, reaching up to 30 silver coins! Luckily for them, it was worth the price. Just the main attributes reduction was enough for this array to be valued by most yers much less the fact that there were two other functions attached to it.

    The two functions were easily understood but their use was underrated. The energy shielding function was really important as it would prevent their battle from alerting the others. Even more amazing was the fact that it could actually handle energy attacks under level 15. The Kobold chief was already outrageously strong with its attack being capable of modifying the terrain. Despite this, it wouldn''t be able to make a scratch, much less a dent, on the terrain anymore due to the effects of the array. As for the illusionary effect, this was very important for the team.

    If before it would take the kobolds horde 3 minutes to find this spot after defeating the alliance, with the aid of this function in the array, it would take them even longer. This was because the array would mimic the environment in its original and natural form with the absence of any living creature. Unless Sato''s team''s luck was really bad or the kobolds had a lucky figure amongst their numbers, it could even take them an entire day to discover this location.

    [[ System Interface :

    Due to the level and ability of the target, Main attributes are reduced by 7%.]]

    "???" The Kobold chief was surprised as it felt that familiar feeling of its strength slowly waning till it reached a particr point.

    Having its attributes reduced twice -with the first being a 5% reduction and the second being a 7% reduction- together with its attack power reduced to 7% of its original value, the kobold chief wasn''t as dangerous as before. Though it was still a difficult foe, the constant reduction had made it so that Katsuo would be barely able to tank it with his level 7 attributes.

    Sato used the brief period that the kobold chief was in shock to widen the gap and escape further.

    "Hold it back for Sato to recover!" Fudo suddenly yelled.

    By this time, the kobold chief had recovered from its stunned state and pursued Sato once more. Ever since these weaklings had intruded on its homnd, it had been infuriated for God knows how many times. It just couldn''t wait to kill them off especially the swordsman in front. The Kobold chief felt that apart from the pudgy figure with the red staff, this little ''creature'' was the most dangerous.

    "Your target is me now!" Katsuo roared as he moved in front of the kobold chief from the side. He had imbued the skill [Taunt] into his voice, turning his simple roar to a skill.

    Back when he had to face the two [Guardians Golems] with only Yato, Seiichi and Fudo backing him up, Katsuo had once made a slight mistake in attracting the monsters'' aggro. Rather than a mistake, it would be more urate to say that he discovered a w in his abilities. Because he was way weaker than them, at one point in time, the [Guardian Golem] had actually ignored his [Taunt]. Katsuo realised at that point, that the [Taunt] skill wasn''t as supreme as in other VR games; monsters could ignore it and this was even more so if the monster was way stronger than he was or way smarter than usual or even both. In the case of the Kobold chief, it was both.

    Katsuo knew that he couldn''t risk failing to draw the monster to himself, so he positioned his body right in between the pursuing kobold chief and the retreating Sato. Though this was no different from suicide, it would increase the chances of him sessfully drawing the monster to himself.

    "[Block]!" Katsuo roared as he ced his shield in front of himself with both hands. With his sword hanging behind him and his shield held in front, Katsuo looked like a legendary warrior who was facing a demonic dragon. Well, though the real thing wasn''t exactly the same, it wasn''t that far from it.

    For this mission alone, Katsuo had ced 3 of his recently attained 5 attribute points into [Endurance] and left the rest in [Vitality]. For this mission, his job was to tank the kobold chief and not reduce its HP. With his Mid-tier Mortal rank armour and shield, Katsuo had faith that he would be able to pull it off.

    As the kobold chief saw Katsuo in its way, with the effect of [Taunt] added to its rage, the kobold chief didn''t ignore him but stretched out a w and shed at him. Even though this attack wasn''t performed with the bone spear, the power behind it wasn''t a joke.

    *Bang*

    "Ugh!"

    A small dust cloud, barely reaching one''s ankles, spread out as the kobold chief''s w shed with Katsuo''s shield.

    The force behind the w was mighty to the extent that despite blocking it with a shield, Katsuo suffered a bit from it. His arms were shaking from the impact but Katsuo still stood still without any feeling of worry or frustration. On the contrary, a slight smile traced his lips. He had blocked the attack without taking a single point of damage. One should recall that this was a level 10 Elite monster. Even though it attacked with its bare hands instead of its weapon, the might behind the strike was something no yer could resist cleanly. Though he didn''t do so cleanly, Katsuo was able to stand up to the strike without losing a single HP. For a non-pro gamer, this was an impressive achievement.

    While the kobold chief could easily tower over everyone, Katsuo was the only one to have managed to reach its shoulders being able to barelypare to it. With his current stance of blocking the kobold chief''s w, Katsuo looked heroic,parable to those legendary figures of old. But with the team being in a race against time, no one bothered to admire Katsuo''s figure now. Instead, they all began attacking.

    Before the Kobold chief could be surprised that Katsuo was still standing, an arrow had already closed in within the metre mark. At the same time, Yato approached from the left, where he hacked out with his sword. This was a pincer attack set up by both Seiichi and Yato. Surprisingly yet not, they both had faith in Katsuo being able to handle the kobold chief''s strike and decided to counter just a millisecondter.

    Though surpassing them in strength, the kobold chief didn''t n on tanking their attacks. It was still injured from [K¨­jin''s Arrow] so any regr attack would be of harm to it.

    Taking a step back, the kobold chief moved backwards and dodged the two attacks. This wasn''t all that difficult for it since it was faster than both the arrow and the swordsman. But at this moment, something else happened.

    Fudo and Xue Yan had actually been waiting for an opportunity and as they saw Yato and Seiichi both make their moves, the two had reached a conclusion and aimed at the only open spot left. This spot happened to be behind the kobold chief, just exactly where it retreated to. The kobold chief had unknowingly left the wolf''sir just to jump into the tiger''s cave.

    If that wasn''t enough, a small ripple urred in space as Lu Zhen, who had stayed hidden all these while, suddenly appeared from behind. This wasn''t a two-pronged assault but a three-pronged one. The kobold chief had unknowingly entered a three-way assault and what was worse was that because it had just moved towards the position, it couldn''t dodge the attacks.. It looked to be in dire straits from here on out.

 Chapter 197 - 191 : Battle

    Two fireballs aimed at the spot that the Kobold chief happened to have moved to. If it were at normal times, the kobold chief would be capable of easily dodging this two attacks aspared to its speed, they weren''t worth mentioning. However, having just evaded Seiichi and Yato''s assault, it had yet to regain to regain its bnce and was unprepared for these two hits. To make things worse, Lu Zhen had struck from the back, at a strange angle that was very difficult evade. Even at its best form, the kobold chief would have to block this attack much less now it couldn''t even move an inch.

    However, though it looked impossible for the kobold chief to extricate itself from this danger, it could still counter one of the 3 attacks. Of the three, it chose to face Lu Zhen. This was because not only was Lu Zhen closer, but unlike the other attacks, the kobold chief had more faith in overpowering him with the least bit of strength. As it did so however, something unexpected happened.

    At the veryst moment, just as the kobold chief''s w closed in on him, Lu Zhen suddenly moved to the side, evading the w and halting his strike. It turned out that his attack was a feint: one that was supposed to grab the boss attention towards himself. Lu Zhen had guessed that if the kobold chief was made to face the two attacks alone, it would sh with one. This would inevitably reduce the damage it would take. However, if the variable of a yer was added to the mix, it was quite possible that the monster would go for the yer after all, it was still a monster. And as he had this thought, the Kobold chief had actually reacted the same way.

    Now with the kobold chief''s back wide open -since it ignored the other two attacks- it was doomed to fall.

    *Boom*

    -83

    -46 (769/1500 Kobold chief''s HP)

    Though a regr fireball attack wasn''t an explosion ss spell, Fudo''s high affinity to the fire elements granted his a simr attribute. Butpared to a real explosive spell, it was much weaker. Even still, it was enough to stir up the dust in the area and create a small haze.

    "Where''s it?" Xue Yan asked. The system interface had already disyed the injuries the Kobold chief took but they couldn''t find a shadow of its existence. Of the greatest crimes tomit in a battle, number one would be to lose sight of the opponent and that was just what had happened.

    Fudo went silent for a while as he tried to look through the dust haze.

    "Watch out!" Seiichi cried out. Out of the 6 of them, he had the highest visual prowess and could see through the haze better than the rest.

    *Bang*

    An explosive sound rang out as a ck shadow burst forth from the haze and darted towards Fudo. It was very fast, at least much faster than Fudo, and with the fact that he didn''t notice it in time, it was just less than 10 metres away from him by the time he did. From this distance, he could make out what the ck shadow was. It was the kobold chief that had just recently been attacked.

    ''Shit.'' Fudo cursed but he knew now wasn''t the time toin.

    It was already toote to run and with the speed of the creature surpassing his, running away was pointless.

    "[Fireball]" Fudo pointed his staff at the monster.

    The kobold chief swung its bone spear at the conjured [Fireball], surprisingly smashing it to little me splinters. The kobold chief didn''t stop there though. It went forward still and thrust its spear at Fudo.

    Fudo had initially thought that the fireball would have been able to hold it back, even if it was just for second, so he would be able to prepare the next spell. He was astounded when he saw the Kobold chief destroy his spell with a spear but he didn''t have enough time to be amazed as the Kobold chief had already approached him.

    "Die."

    At the same time as the Kobold chief was just a few steps away from Fudo, Yato had already approached it. He brandished his sword at the monster, hoping to force it back or stall it a bit for the others to attack.

    In response to Yato''s sh, the kobold chief simply changed the direction of its spear, making the spearhead move towards Yato instead.

    Yato frowned at this as he knew that in a battle of pure strength he couldn''t contend with the kobold chief. Luckily for him, it wasn''t a one-on-one battle.

    *Phew*

    Just as the two weapons were about to collide, an arrow approached the kobold chief at high speed. If it went on to sh against Yato''s sword, the arrow would inevitably hit the monster.

    The kobold chief could easily surmise this but it didn''t halt its movement. Having been pushed on the defense against these weak ''creatures'', the kobold chief was vexed. It hoped to eliminate one of them even if it meant a hit-for-hit scenario. After all, while they could harm it, the damage it received wasn''t so huge so the kobold chief decided to take the risk. Of course this didn''t mean that it would just stay still and get hit by anything. As the kobold chief went on to sh against Yato''s sword with its spear, it outstretched one hand and swatted at the approaching arrow.

    *Bam*

    A current ofpressed air moved in the direction the kobold chief swatted, shing with the arrow and blocking it. At the same time, the spear and the sword collided forcefully. Sparks flew off as the loud sound of metals nging sted through the ce.

    Because the kobold chief had used one arm in that move, the force behind the spear wasn''t as great as it was meant to be. At the very least, it was at a level where it was bearable for Yato.

    Taking only one step back, Yato forced down the untamed force that had passed through his de at that moment of contact. Because the power behind the attack wasn''t as much as when Sato battled the kobold chief, Yato wasn''t sent flying, neither did he vomit blood. Apart from a minor dreary feeling in his arms, he didn''t feel much.

    Because Yato had managed to fend off the first attack from the monster, he had bought enough time for, not only Fudo, but the others as well, to make a counter.

    "[Fire Ray]."

    With the kobold chiefing to a temporary halt, Xue Yan used the fastest skill in her arsenal to attack.

    Fudo pointed his staff at the kobold chief as hepleted thest line of his chant in a low voice. With a dramatic expression and tone, he shouted,

    "Now, perish. [Explosion]!"

    Despite Xue Yan having cast [Fire Ray] first, [Explosion] had struck first. This was because unlike most skills avable to current mages, [Explosion] was elusive and even till now, no one had ever dodged the spell once cast.

    -224 (545/1500 Kobold Chief''s HP)

    -67 (478/1500 Kobold Chief''s HP)

    ''What perverse damage figures...'' Sato thought as he nced at the battle report on the system interface. One special feature of the team function in the IR system Interface was the fact that it could exchange battle information. This was, more or less, limited to damage values and battle skills. Of course, this feature could be deactivated but as everyone in this team could be said to be quite close to one another, there was no need to do such. Having taken a look at the figures, Sato was astounded and couldn''t help but feel a slight sense of pure envy at Fudo''s damage dealing ability.

    Fudo''s attack power was way bigger than Sato''s not because of his stats or weapons. Actually, Sato''s base attack power was even higher than Fudo''s but he still had the lower hand in attack power. This was simply because the effects of [Igneel''s Guidance] was very perverted. It could be ssified as an OP weapon even in the future, much less now yers were still weak. With the fire attribute boost from [Igneel''s Guidance] and his [Vermilion Pine Staff], Fudo''s attack power was able to go beyond Sato''s, to the point of there being quite a considerable gap between them. While in terms of base attributes Sato was superior, it was not a lie to say that Fudo''s attack power was greater than Sato''s.

    ''It''s time.''

    While he had extricated himself from the battle to recuperate, Sato didn''t just standstill all this while. He had been making thest minute preparations for the battle. While it looked like everything was going smoothly, Sato knew that the difficult moment would begin once the kobold chief''s HP went below the 30% mark, which tranted to 450 HP. At that point, the Kobold chief would enter its [Enraged] mode and the effects of the array and poison would be nullified to arge extent. At that point, things would be a lot more difficult for the team and it was highly possible that one of them might even die.. To prevent this, Sato had been making preparations all this while and it was about time for them toe to show.

 Chapter 198 - 192 : Battle Progress

    *Bang*

    *Boom* *Boom*

    *ng*

    At an obscure location on the Middle region''s 10th floor, a very important battle was taking ce between a team of 7 yers and one monster. The result of this battle would surely cause great waves to the local yers of the neighbouring towns and most likely affect the nning and decisions of the top guilds around, irrespective of the winner of the bout. Not only that, but if the yer side of the battle were to win the fight, they would enjoy not just riches, but also fame that woulde about from being victorious in the battle. As a result of this, the range of activity that would be affected by the result of the battle would increase from the surrounding towns to the entire yermunity in Infinite Realm. Of course, following thew of equivalent exchange, it would be very difficult for the team of yers to win the fight.

    The team engaged in the battle with the monster was indeed Sato''s team. As for the identity of the monster, it was without any suspense nor surprise, the kobold chief.

    The two different parties had been going at it for a while now and the battle was looking different from before. If earlier on, Fudo and the rest could be said to have an advantage over the kobold chief, as they were now, the battle had turned into a stalemate with neither side getting the better of the other. In fact, it was looking more like the kobold chief even had a slight upper hand. All these was because the kobold chief had entered its berserk mode, the [Enraged] state.

    Sato discovered that he had made a slight miscalction in his ns. At the mark of 478 HP rather than 450 HP, the kobold chief had entered [Enraged] mode. This happened to coincide exactly after Xue Yan''s fire ray had found its mark. Because of the early and unexpected change in the progress of the battle, Yato and Katsuo had almost lost their lives as they were the closest to the monster at the time of this development. Actually, Sato couldn''t really be med for this. Normally, the kobold chief would go berserk below the 30% mark(450 HP) but after having been yed around and irked countless of times, this mode arrived sooner than expected. However, apart from Yato being hurt quite badly, that he had to exit the fight, and Katsuo almost dying, the team didn''t suffer any losses from this. Eventually, they had slowly adapted to the monster. But because the [Enraged] state had nullified most of the effects of the [Aghus''s Potential Disperser] and the [Low ss Earth Suppression Array], the team couldn''t suppress it as easily as they did before. Forget that, they couldn''t even suppress it again. Katsuo had been turned into a volleyball as the kobold chief had tossed him up and down with ''special care''. If not for the timely aid of the others and also Sato''s return to the fight, assisting him with the pressure, Katsuo would have been a goner. Of course, Sato''s addition didn''t change the state of the battle, only helping them keep the status quo going.

    The only advantage the team had in this battle was Fudo''s [Explosion]. Almost a minute had gone by and during this time, Fudo had managed to use [Explosion] once more. Causing quite a sizeable amount if damage to the monster. But whenpared to the previous one, it was considerably weaker.

    As Sato joined the battle, he had shared with them the stats of the kobold chief he had gotten from before, which updated with the kobold chief''s transformation and the development of the fight, to better help them get a grasp of their enemy''s abilities.

    Kobold Chief (Elite)

    Level : 10

    HP : 314/1500 (x15)

    Physical Attack Power (-7%) : 78 (70)

    Magical attack power : 0 (39) (AN : Can''t use magic.)

    Physical Defense : 40 (-17 [Injured]) (22)

    Magical Defense : 18 (-10 [Injured]) (

    Attack Speed : 45

    Movement Speed : 34

    Attributes (-13% + 10%) [1]

    Strength : 26 (25)

    Endurance : 27 (26)

    Vitality : 100

    Agility : 17 (16)

    Dexterity : 15

    Intelligence : 13

    Willpower : 12

    Skills :

    Razor ws : Passive Skill : Basic Attack. All w-type attacks contain 140% of basic attack power.

    Lesser Strength : Passive Skill : Though called Lesser Strength, this is inparison to a dragon''s strength or a purer blood. All Strength-based skills and physical attacks possess 120% of basic attributes.

    Tough Scale : Passive Skill : Defensive abilities against physical attacks increased by 10%.

    Bone sh : Active Skill : Gather power into one strike to cleave down the opponent. 150% of attack power as base.

    Cool-down : 7 seconds.

    Slithering Strike : Active Skill : A thrust like a snake. Launch an attack that has a very evasive motion making it difficult for the target to keep track of the attack''s direction and location. Attack possesses 140% of user''s basic abilities.

    Cool-down : 4 seconds.

    Wild Burst : Active Skill : Gather potential and momentum just to release it all in one strike. Attack power increases by 50%.

    Cool-down : 10 seconds.

    Kobold Supreme roar : Active Skill ; Under this roar, all kobold-type creatures and dragon descendants with lesser purity than the user have to bow. Refusal leads to a 15% decrease in all abilities. Non-draconic creatures are also exposed to the skill but with lesser effects. If the victim happens to be weaker in both strength and life order whenpared to the user, they experience from 3-5% decrease in all abilities. Due to weak bloodline, the user would have both their potential and bloodline severely weakened, if not drained.

    Cool-down : 30 seconds.

    Fury : Active Skill : By burning the potential and bloodline within one''s blood, all attributes increase by 10% for 20 seconds. With each usage though, bloodline purity and potential decreases. But this can be regained with the aid of high quality ingredients.

    Cool-down : 2 natural days. ]]

    The kobold chief''s abilities were very impressive and beyond anything they had experienced so far. This was understandable as the kobold chief was the first level 10 monster the group had encountered so far and added with the information they had received, it was supposed to be a boss figure so the skills added to it fit the match. Both passive and active, altogether 8 skills were in the kobold chief''s arsenal. Of all the monsters they had encountered, this was the one with the most. It even surpassed a majority of yers in both quantity and quality of skills, especially [Fury], which Sato surmised that once the kobold chief activates it in tandem with [Kobold Supreme Roar], the group would surely suffer some casualties.

    The strength increase to the kobold chief wasn''t as simple as 1+1=2, because a lot of factors were needed to be considered in order to get an urate tag on the kobold chief''s strength. Even though it still suffered a 3% decrease in attributes, for the little numbers it possessed, this was almost negligible[2] and didn''t affect its strength by much so it was still considered a tough figure to handle, giving the team a to of pressure. A majority of this could be said to be thanks to the miniature draconic bloodline within. Even the [Burn] effect of Fudo''s [Explosion] never urred because of it.

    In Infinite Realm, there exists a race of creatures known as Godly monsters or God beasts. They were monsters, true, but the word "Godly"rgely separated them from your everyday creatures. Ranging from Phoenixes to God apes and Dragons, there were a bunch of such species of mass destructive powers in existence.

    Of the various God beasts, the Dragons were said to be one of the most overbearing ones, even more so than the God apes. It was to the extent that most of their descendants even had this quirky characteristic in-built within themselves. That was why despite having such thin traces of Dragon bloodline within them, the kobolds were prideful.

    For the pure-blooded kobolds(kobolds with a higher draconic concentration on their bloodline), they were able to exude an overbearing pressure that could affect living beings weaker than them. It was this very pressure that had affected Sato and the others back when they first saw the Kobold chief[3] and bred fear within them. However, once they had realised this fact, it was quite easy for them to ignore and negate the pressure [4]. But with the [Enraged] mode being activated, this pressure had be even stronger. To start with, Sato and the others were lower in level whenpared to the Kobold chief. Being able to hold out the first time was already amazing but such a thing couldn''t be easily replicated this time around. The pressure had affected them a lot, most especially to the weaker ones like Katsuo and Yato Their reaction time, ability to gather strength/energy for an attack and movement speed had degraded. It went to the extent that Sato was forced to act as the main MT, while Katsuo acted as a secondary figure.

    In a raid, the MT was one of the most important figures and with the MT now having lost his value, the raid would inevitably end with their end. Sato knew this but there was nothing he could about this matter. The kobold chief had be too strong for Katsuo to handle for just a few seconds on his own much less the entries duration of the fight. If not for the fact that he had a hidden card for the fight, Sato would have given up on this battle.

    ''Okay. It''s about time.'' Sato thought as he switched roles with Katsuo.

    "Everyone, get ready to go with n C. It''s about time we end this." Sato said in the team chat.

    During their battle preparations, they hade up with a bunch of very possible scenarios that would ur. In other not to be surprised it anything, they also came up with strategic approaches to the various scenarios. n C was the tactic they would use just in case the monster was too strong and couldn''t be defeated within 3 minutes or so. As for n A and n B, the first was the main approach they would use to finish things off while conserving a majority of their resources. It mostly centered on them being able to win using only the poison gas and the array. Thetter was a n tobat the situation where the kobold horde would have eliminated the alliance bait quicker than expected.

    "Alright." Everyone nodded.

    If everything was left to continue for just a few more seconds then the team would have a much higher chance of victory. This was because Fudo''s [Explosion] could go off cool-down and they could use it to their advantage to win the fight.. But due to the fact that theycked time and they also didn''t know the state of the battle on the other side, Sato didn''t want to take any risk and wanted them to finish the battle as quickly as possible.

 Chapter 199 - 193 : Igniting The Bloodline

    "Here."

    Using the space between the kobold chief''s attacks, Sato tossed a scroll over to Fudo before quickly reengaging in the battle with the kobold chief.

    At that moment, the monster brought down its spear with great vigour and might. Rather than a spear, it looked like it wielded a great axe in its might. The force behind the spear was like a torrential flood akin to the anger of the heavens. Though the attack wasn''t truly as exaggerating as that, the power and intent behind it was so overwhelming that before it had arrived, Sato could already feel the pressure.

    ''It got stronger?!''

    This was the only thought that passed through Sato''s head before he was forced to take on the attack.

    As a [Swordsman], defense wasn''t his specialty so Sato didn''t have a lot of options on how to guard against this strike. The only thing he could do however, was to strike back.

    [Parry]

    *ng*

    The two attacks collided as Sato felt an overwhelming force move through his sword and into his arms. Without any unnecessary suspense, Sato was forced back by at least 7 steps with all of them leaving behind deep imprints on the floor. He managed to regain his footing at he 8th step but his hands still felt a numbing sensation left over from the destructiveness of the previous force.

    If anyone else were in Sato''s shoes, they would most likely have been sent flying out by that strike but because of the additional 10 points in [Strength] that he got from [Astral de], Sato would at most be flung back 3 metres if he wasn''t prepared for the attack. Being prepared for it, only taking 8 steps back wasn''t so bad at least.

    After he was forced backwards, Katsuo had switched with him and interfered with the kobold chief''s follow-up attack alongside Lu Zhen and Seiichi. Fudo and Xue Yan weren''t stalling as they also joined in the attack, casting their spells at the monster at crucial moments.

    ''It''s gotten stronger than before.'' Sato thought with a frown as he finally got rid of the remnant force in his body.

    While it was true that the Kobold chief''s [Agility]and [Dexterity] outstripped his, with Sato''s 3+ years of battle experience and constant fighting with the monster, contending against the Kobold chief''s attack wasn''t as difficult as one would think. Having exchanged more than 20 strikes with one another, it could be said that Sato had a good gauge of the kobold chief''s strength. Even with its constant improvements in battle together with the [Enraged] mode, Sato had already brought up an estimate of its strength. A few seconds back, this estimate was quite correct but all of a sudden now, the kobold chief had gotten stronger. From the looks of its aura too, the increase in strength was actually just beginning. For that to happen at this stage, there was only one possibility.

    ''If I''m correct then it''s [Fury].'' Sato''s face suddenly became serious.

    Of the skills in the kobold chief''s arsenal, there were only 3 which Sato abhorred the most. Funny enough, the system had actually arranged it in order of magnitude in the kobold chief''s stats. They were [Wild Burst], [Kobold Supreme Roar] and [Fury].

    While [Wild Burst] had some semnces with [Bone sh] and [Slithering Snake] in terms of attack power, the concept of gathering momentum and potential was actually a hint from the system that the former was a lot more powerful than thetter two. The longer cool-down the skill possessed even admitted to this.

    There was no saying nor confirmation anywhere that the ability of the [Inspect] skill would be so heaven defying to uncover the true secrets of any being in the game. Even if the [Inspect] skill could indeed reveal to one the abilities of another, there was no promise or verification that stated that that was all there was to the target. Some yers had even suspected that the [Inspect] skill could only give one a basic analysis of a target as in some other games, so it wouldn''t be a surprise if the skill disys an attack to wield 30% extra of the user''s abilities when it might actually exert up to 50% of the user''s power.

    When Sato had gone against the [Wild Burst] skill for the first time, he had suffered quite seriously to the kobold chief. Despite so, Sato felt that this was the lesser of the three dangerous skills.

    [Kobold Supreme Roar] needed no exnation and Sato was quite grateful that the monster had yet to use this skill. This was because he didn''t know how much of an effect it would have on them, especially the weaker ones of their team.

    As for thest skill, [Fury], it could be said to be the one Sato was most worried about. While the skill looked like a double-edged sword for the user, the 10% increase could be said to be worth it, especially at crucial moments or life-and-death battles. It should be recalled that after the use of both Aghus'' Potential Disperser] and the [Low ss Earth Suppression Array], and the activation of the kobold chief''s [Enraged] mode, its attributes were only being suppressed by a meager 3%. If the 10% effect of [Fury] were to be added to the mix, not only would the monster no longer be suppressed but it would actually receive a 7% boost in strength. This was something that none of them wanted to see. So not just Sato but the rest all dreaded this skill, after they discovered it, and wished to take out the kobold chief before it could use it. However, it looked like they were a step toote to this.

    [[ System Interface :

    Target has activated [Fury].

    Due to knowledge of the ability, details have been revealed.

    Fury : Active Skill : By burning the potential and bloodline within one''s blood, all attributes increase by 10% for 20 seconds. With each usage though, bloodline purity and potential decreases. But this can be regained with the aid of high quality ingredients.

    Cool-down : 2 natural days.]]

    As soon as the kobold chief''s aura reached a certain breakpoint, strong winds blew around the area as everyone was forced to stop battling, trying to maintain their bnce and prevent themselves from tripping over. The winds blew at such high speed that it was roughly at the 9th mark of the Beaufort scale [1]. At such great speed, walking was already difficult not just for the team but also the kobold chief. Thismotion was none other than an after-effect of the monster burning its own ancestral bloodline.

    By burning off its potential and bloodline, the kobold chief would be able to increase its strength by half to two folds at least, but at the cost of permanently losing it. It was because of this reason that the Kobold chief was reluctant to use this ability, but in the face of death, it shunned off all hesitation and took this dire step without any regret.

    It should be recalled that Dragons were God beasts, and not of the weaker kind. Their power was something that an average saint couldn''t even handle much less a level 9 yer. Even though the Kobold in front of them was a descendant with such meager and negligible bloodline, it still possessed it. Because the Dragons were very overbearing, the very act of burning the bloodline, which was akin to igniting it or awakening the ability within it, would end up setting free the dominant might and greatness hidden within the bloodline, creating a phenomenon in the environment. This was why God beasts where called God beasts. Just a mere act of burning their bloodline, no matter how little, was enough to cause an environmental phenomenon. It was said that if a God beast''s blood worth a cup full was expended in such a manner, the phenomenon generated would be capable of wiping out a town! Of course, the secret to this and the skill needed to do such was known only to the descendants or high leveled existences; nothing as simple as lighting a match over the blood.

    With the kobold chief using [Fury], it had already given up surviving and wanted to drag a few of these guys with it to death. This was because using [Fury] was equivalent to cutting early its future achievements. It inevitably hated these 7 to the extreme for forcing it to such dire straits. Only their deaths would serve as appeasement to the Kobold chief.

    The skill would only be active for 20 seconds and during this 20 second, the kobold chief wished to drag them all to die with it, most especially Fudo and Sato with Lu Zhen next on the list. The reasons where obvious and needed no emphasis.

    After just 3-4 seconds, the wind had calmed down and the entire area had resumed its normalcy.

    ''It''s a good thing it didn''t break.'' Sato thought.

    Because of the might of a true Dragon that was exhibited from that miniscule bloodline, the array had shaken almost rampantly, looking as if it would break down at any moment. Luckily, the bloodline wasn''t much so the effect of the pressure was weak. The original array was capable of containing any ability under level 15 Elite rank yet, just the ignition of a tiny impure bloodline, not even the size of a water drop, was able to rattle it. Dragons were indeed amazing.

    After that thought passed through his mind, Sato nced over at the kobold chief, wondering what changed it could have gone through.

 Chapter 200 - 194 : Beaten Black And Blue

    After the kobold chief''s aura had reached a breakpoint and it hadbusted its bloodline, the kobold chief actually became shorter than it was. From its previous 3 metres height that dwarfed everyone, it became a slightly above 2 metres tall creature that barely towered over Katsuo. Though the overbearing feeling that came from its gigantic height was now gone, the aura it exuded was even more dangerous than before.

    *Creak* *Creak*

    *Crack* *Crack*

    With a slight shake of its body, the kobold bones began cracking and creaking, as if undergoing an upgrade to make it much stronger and durable.

    "Long-range yers, stop staring and take it down before it finishes transforming." Sato yelled.

    While in most shows and stuff, it wasmon to wait for the opponent to finish transforming, maybe because the attacker was unsure of what would happen if they attacked or probably wanted to give themselves a handicap, Sato reacted differently. It was pretty obvious that as the kobold chief was still adjusting to its new upgrade it would be in a weakened state, Sato wanted them to take the chance and attack. In a battle, only the results matter; as for the process, no one cares. As for the reason why the closebat yers didn''t move in, Sato''s instincts warned him that they might die if they did so.

    "[Fire Ray]."

    "[Drill Shot]."

    "[Fireball]."

    The first two attacks had a much longer range and greater speed than regr basic attacks. They acted as the main force for this strike, heading directly towards the kobold chief as fast as possible. The third attack however, was slower than the two. It didn''t aim at the kobold chief but moved from a blindspot towards the most probable position the Kobold would move to if it hoped to dodge the first two. Its slow movement and specified trajectory made it so that the kobold wouldn''t notice it as quickly as it would the other two and would end up moving towards the targeted spot. Of the three attacks, the first two were done by Xue Yan and Seiichi respectively while the third attack was Fudo''s.

    While it was true that it was quite risky for the closebatants to move in, they didn''t stand idle either. Some of them used this opportunity to recover their shape when the others surrounded the kobold chief, locking it down in ce while still maintaining a close formation with one another. Sato positioned himself just in front of the long-range attackers while Katsuo stayed 5 metres away. Yato took a bottle of health potion from the corner as he locked down the area. As for Lu Zhen, he re-entered stealth mode and waited by the side for an opportunity to strike.

    "!!!" Just as the fiery ray and darting arrow had entered the metre range from the kobold chief, the monster in question opened its eyes as it moved the hand that held the spear at an insane speed.

    *Bang*

    The air erupted as the spear collided with both the ray and the arrow, smashing them both to smithereens. The kobold chief didn''t even take one step back from that collision and moved forward towards the attackers. Since the fireball wasn''t aimed ta the kobold chief to start with, it was no threat to the target so it simply ignored it.

    ''Fast.'' Sato eximed within as he hurriedly moved his body towards the kobold chief''s path, hoping to intercept it before it reached the others.

    Because he was closer to the long-range yers, just in front of them, the kobold chief would have to go through him before it met them. Normally, this would be the position of an MT but because Katsuo was too weak to face the kobold chief, they had to make do with Sato.

    Just as he got within attacking range of the kobold, Sato brandished his sword at the monster with full power. He didn''t intend on holding back or testing the waters to see how strong it had gotten. From the get-go, Sato intended to use his entire strength to face it.

    If Sato felt the same way for the kobold chief, the monster could be said to feel the same way about him. Though it had received a new boost in strength amthat enabled it to easily surpass all the yers present, it still didn''t hold back on its strength, intending to finish them all with its full power. Like killing an ant with a huge rock, the kobold chief didn''t care if it was overkill or not. As long as they died, it didn''t bother about this.

    With a swing of its spear, the Kobold chief intended to bash him away like a baseball yer would to a baseball. Even the air slightly vibrated at the motion of the spear as the air current was manipted by the force of the spear.

    "Hmph."

    Sato put forth his best into his sh as his sword collided with the spear''s shaft.

    *Bang*

    Rather than the usual nging of metals, a miniature explosion of air was set off as Sato felt an overwhelming force swim through his sword and into his hands. Even as he tried to suppress the force, it was way too much for him to handle as he never expected. Forget about expecting it as even if he did, Sato doubted he could handle it.

    Without an outlet for it, the force rampaged through his body and shook his internal organs as Sato was sent back 3 metres in a flying rampant manner. Uponnding on the floor, Sato couldn''t resist it anymore as a sudden spurt of blood moved through his throat and spewed out from his mouth in a horrific manner.

    "Sato!"

    Before the others could even know much about his status, the kobold chief suddenly stabbed its spear at an empty spot in space. No one understood the meaning of its actions until a silhouette was sent flying farther than Sato did. Somehow, the kobold chief had managed to sense Lu Zhen, despite him using [Fade], and struck at him.

    "Damn it." Fudo cursed.

    The increase in abilities to the kobold chief by burning its bloodline wasn''t only limited to a percentage increase in attributes but also a boost in all other hidden areas for example, its perception. Because of this, the kobold chief could easily sense Lu Zhen even if he used [Fade] to hide himself. This was even more so since Lu Zhen was much weaker than the monster so his skills would suffer a weakened effect in it.

    The kobold chief didn''t stop at Lu Zhen as it ignored him and headed for the mages. In its opinion, these guys were the most dangerous as they had continuously interrupted its attack at crucial moments and had caused it severe injuries.

    Yato was about to make a move in the monster but as he did so, the Kobold chief reacted equally.

    "Roar!"

    [Kobold Supreme Roar]

    At the sound of the roar, Fudo, Xue Yan, Seiichi and everyone else that was still left standing, felt an unprecedented and formidable pressure descend upon them. It felt as if the weight of a boulder was dropped on their shoulders as they felt their abilities begin to decrease slowly.

    [[System Interface :

    You have been affected by [Kobold Supreme Roar]. Since you do not possess a draconic it kobold ss bloodline weaker than the user, effects is limited.

    Judging prerequisites...

    Judgepleted.

    Possessing both weaker strength but slightly higher life order than target, effect is limited to 5% decrease in Main attributes. ]]

    Previously, the kobold chief was reluctant to use the skill [Kobold Supreme Roar] because it came at the cost of an injury to its bloodline. For a skill that allowed it to reign among its kind, this was understandable. Having now burnt a majority of its bloodline, the kobold chief didn''t care about the after-effects of the skill any longer; only hoping to eliminate these ''creatures''.

    With the [Enraged] state activated, most of the skills of the kobold chief would experience a small rise in power. Now added with the effects of [Fury], the increase was marginal. Normally, [Kobold Supreme Roar] had a 3%-5% attribute reduction effect on non-kobold ss monsters or beings but with the dual enhancement, it now had a 5%-10% attribute reduction effect. This was a 100% increase in effects!

    Even though it hadbusted its bloodline and increased its strength, the kobold chief was still a kobold so its life order was still lower than that of the yers'' [Chosen Ones] bloodline. However, since its strength was superior to theirs, the effect still took ce. For Fudo, it was a 5% decrease in attributes. As for the rest, they all had a 7% decrease in attributes without exception. This skill had undoubtedly increased the difficulty of the raid for the team by more than 200%!

    "Shit." Fudo was losing it.

    At this time, Sato had just slightly recovered from the previous blow and stood up. Even though he had been knocked down, the effects of [Kobold Supreme Roar] still affected him. Unless one was dead, even if knocked unconscious, it would still affect them. This was because despite being unconscious, the target''s brain would still be active. The skill moves in the form of a sound wave towards the target''s brain and body, and exhibits a pressure on the target''s bloodline and abilities. So being unconscious doesn''t prevent one from being affected. Unless one can seal all the pores and openings of their body, prevent sound from passing or moving through it, they would undoubtedly be affected.

    While it looked like the raid was almost lost at this point, Sato didn''t give up so soon. He already knew that it would be difficult from the start and he had even expected a few casualties and losses. When he had seen the two skills, [Kobold Supreme Roar] and [Fury], they had helped affrim this belief of his.

    Rather than to react with fear and throw in the towel, Sato took on a serious expression as he tightened his grasp on his sword and wiped the left over blood on his lips.

    "Fudo, get ready."

 Chapter 201 - 195 : Wrapping Things Up

    "Roar."

    With the activation of [Kobold Supreme Roar], the already big gap in attributes was widened even further. Not just their individual strength but the collective strength o the group had taken a massive plunge for the worst. The kobold chief had truly be a big boss at this moment and it could easily take down anyone of them with just 2-3 moves.

    *Bang*

    The kobold chief stomped heavily on the ground, creating a crack twice the size of its foot and propelling itself once again towards the mages. Despite the many intrusions and disturbances, it still wanted to get rid of these people.

    ''Can''t let it happen.'' Fudo thought as he steeled himself.

    "Xue Yan, run!"

    For this raid to be truly sessful, Sato and Xue Yan had to survive at the very least. The reason was simply because of the contract they had both signed. The terms of the contract stipted that Sato helped her defeat the world ss boss and he takes the entire loot for himself. Two main points could be realised from this.

    First, Sato had to help Xue Yan defeat the world ss boss and nobody else. Participating in the raid counted so there was no problem in getting help. So long as both he and Xue Yan had a hand in the monster''s death.

    Secondly andstly, they both had to be alive to witness its death. This was because, when a yer died before the monster did, they wouldn''t receive any reward for ying the monster, simply because they died before it did. So for Xue Yan and Sato to say that they defeated the monster and for the System to approve of this, they both had to live till the end of the raid. So no matter the cost, Fudo had to make sure Xue Yan lived till the end. As for Sato, he didn''t need to worry about him; Sato obviously knew how to take care of himself.

    "[Fire Gush]!"

    A wave of fire burst forth from in front of Fudo, flooding the 3 metres space right before him and extending an extra 3 metres forward. With therge size of the me, the heat that emitted from it was scalding to the skin. Even the air became dry and stuffy, thanks to the insane heat from the spell.

    -71 (243/1500 kobold chief''s HP)

    The skill Fudo had used, was one from his new staff, which he had been saving for a perilous moment; exactly what he defined this moment as. While the spell was quite intimidating and daunting, its abilities weren''t as powerful as it looked. It was most effective in group battles, but in a one-on-one fight, it wasn''t as useful anymore especially against a much stronger creature or target. That was why Fudo had ordered Xue Yan to run. He only intended to use this spell as a smokescreen.

    Xue Yan didn''t argue nor say any heart-felt words as she took to her heels and escaped in the opposite direction. Seiichi looked on as he stood on standby with his bow aimed at the zing congration, looking for the smallest movement that would Identify the kobold chief''s figure. None of them believed that this attack would do much to impede the kobold chief.

    *Whoosh*

    A white bone spear exited the mes as the tip headed for Fudo''s forehead. Though it was still some distance away, Fudo felt a murderous aura suffuse from the tip of the spear. Just staring at it made him feel his body go cold. Unknowingly, Fudo had entered an illusion where all that existed was just himself and the bone spear.

    *Phew*

    Just as Fudo had lost himself at the sight of the bone spear, Seiichi had made his move, firing an arrow at the kobold chief who had just exited the mes.

    *ng*

    The kobold chief reacted quickly, swinging its spear at the arrow. This resulted in Fudo being released from the illusion since the spear was forced away from his sights.

    "Fudo! What the hell are you starting at? Move yourzy ass!"

    As Fudo was released from the illusion, he recovered just in time to hear Yato''s lecturing yome from a far. Fudo only smiled wryly as he refocused his attention on the battle.

    When Seiichi had forced the kobold chief to block his arrow, he had be the targeted for the creature. This wasn''t because he had interrupted its attack but because he had actually followed up with a few more of his own, forcing it to continuously dodge or block his arrows, till the monster got frustrated and advanced towards him. Even though he was not an Expert or anywhere close, Seiichi still had good gaming skills, having devoted a part of his life to this activity. He knew when to retreat and advance, how to attack, when to attack and where to attack. Because of this umted knowledge of his, though Seiichi couldn''t get the upper hand of the battle, he was able to remain safe and uninjured.

    ''Die.''

    Yato fearlessly closed the gap between himself and the monster, shing his sword from behind. Of the craziest among Sato''s team, Yato surely took the title of 1st ce. Only he would dare to do such a suicidal act.

    The kobold chief didn''t receive such massive powerups, that even made it sense Lu Zhen in stealth, for nothing. Even before Yato had arrived, it had sense him far out. It didn''t react back then because it wanted him to approach it first. With Yato now being within its attacking range, there was no way the Kobold chief would let such a free-kill slip out of its fingers.

    With a swipe of its spear to deflect the closest arrow, the kobold chief abruptly turned behind with its spear following close, before thrusting it at Yato''s figure.

    Despite seeing the bone spear, Yato dauntlessly ignored the spear as if it wasn''t a spear but rather a toothpick aimed at him. He wanted to exchange a hit-for-hit against the monster!

    Almost at the same time, Seiichi strung an arrow and fired right at the monster, sealing its path of escape. As for the reason why, this was because a ming ray of light was closing in on the Kobold chief just as Yato was about to make a suicidal move.

    Sato wasn''t left behind in this attack as he took the opportunity to close up the gap but he was still at least 5 metres away. The same went for Lu Zhen, who had recovered from the previous smack.

    Seeing as it was surrounded and about to get hit again, the kobold chief didn''t stop its charge, thrusting its spear all the way to Yato''s chest.

    *ng*

    The bone spear felt a little resistance as it collided with the te armour on Yato''s chest, which he had equipped before the raid. Even though the armour was there, the resistance was little, this was because with the kobold chief''s current strength, a level 5 Mid-tier Mortal rank armour was just like a block of cement; pretty strong but can still be smashed through with enough force.

    *Crack*

    -125 (5/130 Yato''s HP)

    It didn''t even take a second as the bone spear went through the armour, right into Yato''s chest. Because the kobold chief didn''t know the anatomy of humans, the spear was just aimed at Yato''s chest; missing his heart due to ack of knowledge.

    Yato had yet to get a subss so hecked a level''s worth of attributes whenpared to Sato and co. As a true [Swordsman], in his own words, a majority of his points were spent boosting his attack power so his HP inevitablycked the digits. If not for the armour shielding quite a bit of the force from the bone spear, Yato would have lost his life already.

    [Critical Hit]

    -33(210/1500 kobold chief''s HP)

    "Roar!"

    At the same time as he got hit, Yato''s sword made its mark on the kobold chief''s flesh, specifically targeting a spot he presumed to be a weak one.

    No matter how strong or overbearing the kobold chief was, there was no way that it would take a direct hit from [K¨­jin''s Arrow] without an injury. While its flesh seems to have only been burnt ck, there was a spot that had a hole recently formed. Because the lighting of the floor was bad to begin with, added to the fact that the injury was ck, it was quite difficult to spot this hole. Yato only discovered it by luck and had targeted this point. Originally, he wanted to use a thrust to attack, but having confirmed the spot, Yato didn''t want to stop at one move.

    With a bone spear still stuck within him, Yato held hi sword with both hands and moved it to the side, slicing through the kobold chief''s sturdy body.

    [Horizontal sh]

    [Double Critical Hit]

    -85 (125/1500 kobold chief''s HP)

    "Roar!!!"

    The kobold roared in agony as an extremely tormenting sensation of pain flooded its nerves. It didn''t even recall the follow up attacks from the others and simply punched at Yato.

    Seeing the fist closing in on him, Yato smiled wryly as he realized that this was the end for himself. Before he had made his move, he had poured a bottle of health potion in his mouth but didn''t swallow it. As such, the effects of the potion was limited and was used so soon. It was only after he got injured that he swallowed it down. Nheless, the amount of HP he recovered was meager and only meant to let him survive the spear hit. Against this punch, he would undoubtedly die.

    ''I guess this is the end for me.''

    As Yato thought this, the punch arrived in front of his face.

 Chapter 202 - 196 : Wrapping Things Up 2 || Mistaken Target

    (AN : All errors would be corrected two weekster...)

    "Yato!!!"

    Katsuo screamed from far out just before the Kobold chief made its move. Losing one yer might not really affect the progress of the raid that much but it would be better for them all to seed together. This was because once a yer dies before the monster does, they don''t receive any bit if Experience points even if they caused the highest damage or were responsible for thest hit.

    [Minor Heal]

    [Taunt]

    Using two [Pdin] ss skills in session, Katsuo tried to lessen the chances of Yato dying. However, because he was not a true healer, the effects of Katsuo''s [Minor Heal] was little; against the kobold chief''s flesh iing. As for the [Taunt], the kobold chief had already lost its senses and was determined to kill one of them; it wouldn''t stop just as it was a step away, all because of a scream.

    "Hmph."

    With the punch only 5 centimetres away from Yato''s face, Lu Zhen had suddenly appeared just beside the kobold chief. The short distance teleportation was an added effect of the [Assassin] skill, [Silent Steps].

    With him bring close already, Lu Zhen didn''t waste any second as he swung his dagger and struck at the kobold chief''s extended arm, digging deep into its flesh but not having enough strength to cut off the arm.

    -25 (100/1500 kobold chief''s HP)

    "Roar!"

    No matter the creature, be it man or animal, none would like to have a dagger sliced deep into their arm.

    From the injured spot on the kobold chief''s left arm, blood rushed out profusely, staining the entire arm, the dagger and the floor beneath it a brick red colour. From the dagger, Lu Zhen could feel that he had actually stabbed so deeply that his weapon reached the bone. Despite how much force he tried to mobilize, he couldn''t cut through it.

    Because of the sudden attack on the arm, the kobold chief''s punch was interrupted and Yato lived to see another day. Not wasting a second longer, Yato forced himself out of the spear as he retreated quickly to safe spot, hoping to reduce the blood loss and damage caused on his body.

    The kobold chief was infuriated with the pain it had just received and the fact that it had missed its target. The monster shifted its attention towards the cause of this incident, Lu Zhen. Havingnded a hit on the kobold chief, Lu Zhen wanted to strike a follow-up attack but feeling the kobold chief''s gase on him, he quickly retreated. With the passive effects of [Silent Steps] still active, this wasn''t difficult for him.

    Just as the kobold chief was about to pursue Lu Zhen, the attacks from the others had arrived. Seiichi''s arrow had divided into three, a specialty of the skill [Triple Shot], sealing the left and right sides of the monster with the third one going for it. At the same time, Fudo''s [Fire Ray] had arrived right in front of the kobold chief. If it was to go on with pursuing Lu Zhen, it might get hurt by the ray and surely get hit by the arrow attackings its left. In other words, the two skills had forced it to ignore the b**tardous ''creature'' that injured it.

    With blood-shot eyes, the Kobold chief swung its spear at the two attacks, using its uninjured right arm.

    *Bang*

    The [Fire Ray] disassembled into fiery particles whilst the arrow broke into splinters. Though the Kobold chief had sessfully blocked the two attacks, the bone spear it wielded began to show faint signs of cracking.

    The bone spear''s materials [1] were unknown and the same went for its rank but havinge from a wild and barely civilized tribe which most likely didn''t have advanced forging methods, it could be said to be of the Mid-tier Mortal rank at most. It was already impressive how the Kobold chief had been using it to smash apart Fudo''s fire spells but this would inevitably reduce its durability, especially since Fudo''s attacks were already OP for current yers. Even if it were one of the top ranked Mid-tier Mortal rank weapons, they would eventually get wrecked at the hands of Fudo''s continuous barrages.

    After destroying the two attacks, the kobold chief didn''t even get a second to rest as Sato had finally gotten within attacking range of it.

    ''Die.''

    The kobold chief had been injured by both Yato and Lu Zhen, with its left hand being disabled. Forced to block Fudo and Seiichi''s attacks with its right, it was open to attacks at this moment especially at its left, which ended up as a weak point for the monster. This was the perfect chance and opportunity for Sato to make his move and he didn''t fail to live up to the task.

    -97 (3/1500 kobold chief)

    [Horizontal sh]

    Holding his sword with both hands, Sato brandished it across the monster, leaving behind a horrifying scar as a memento on the kobold chief''s flesh.

    "Roar!"

    With the pain as an added incentive to the adrenaline rush it was currently feeling, the kobold chief forcefully moved its body over to the left and thrust its spear at Sato. The dull white spear point was aimed at Sato with arge amount of bloodlust rushing towards him.

    Sato never expected the monster to be able to counter after getting hit because he presumed that with his already high attack power and the kobold chief letting its guard down, he should have ended its life. Not expecting this, Sato was surprised and couldn''t react in time. Luckily, at thest moment, Sato had managed to gather himself and barely blocked the attack.

    Since it was a hurried strike, unlike the previous ones, added to the fact that the move was performed with one arm, the force behind the kobold chief''s thrust was weaker than usual, forcing Sato only two steps back without any loss in HP.

    ''It''s still a tough figure to beat. However, it''s on itsst leg.''

    "Katsuo, finish it!" Sato yelled. One if the reasons that this battle took them long was because of theck of both an a qualified MT and a healer. The healer could be solvedter and as for the MT, they just needed to strengthen Katsuo properly. The Experience points for thest hit would from a high level monster like this would be very precious for him.

    "Okay."

    As the kobold chief only had a very miniscule amount of HP left, Katsuo felt that there was no need to be so cautious. Using [Charge] to approach the kobold chief, he brought his sword down upon the monster, ignoring his aspect of defense and only focused on attacking.

    Thest hit that the kobold chief had delivered to Sato was done with thest bit of energy it had left. Facing Katsuo''s de, it didn''t have the least bit of resistance. This wasn''t because the kobold chief had surrendered to its death but simply because it couldn''t do anything about it; like a pig to the ughter, it didn''t couldn''t resist.

    -27 (0/1500 kobold chief''s HP)

    [[ System Notification : You have in the Kobold chief, Jekyll. ]]

    ''Finally, it''s over.'' Sato and everyone else sighed with relief.

    [[ System Notification : You have levelled up.]]

    Apart from Sato, Fudo and Lu Zhen, the others had levelled up with the death of the kobold chief, Jekyll. This was because they were already close to the level up mark and with the death of both the level 9 Special Elite, kobold guard Arle, and the level 10 Elite, Kobold chief Jekyll, therge amount of Experience points over-flooded their experience bar, raising their level up by 1.

    "Whew. That was one heck of a stressful fight." Lu Zhen sighed.

    During the battle, there were times when they had almost died as the entire event was filled with risk. All the way from when Lu Zhen drew the kobold horde out to battling the kobold guard, Arle and the kobold chief, Jekyll. There were too many close-to-death experiences that almost caused the team the battle. Luckily for them, they won.

    "Nice job back then, Yato." Seiichi chuckled as he patted Yato on the shoulder.

    The defining moment of the battle was when Yato charged right at the kobold chief without fear of death. Because of that, not only had he caused massive damage to the monster but Yato had also drawn its attention towards himself, giving the others the opportunity to strike. That had changed the entire tempo of the fight and given them the opportunity to win, otherwise, who knew how many of them would have died before they did so.

    "Now time for the rewards. Hehe~" Fudo grinned.

    "Hold on a sec." Sato suddenly said.

    "What?" Yato asked curiously.

    "The notification. It didn''t mention anything about the monster being a world ss boss." Sato replied.

    As soon as Sato concluded, everywhere suddenly became quiet as they all recalled the notification that just disyed. Opening up their interface, they checked their battle log for confirmation and discovered that it was true.

    "What''s the meaning of this?" Xue Yan asked with an anxious expression.

    Xue Yan was the one that was most worried about this battle most. Sato and his friends wouldn''t be much bothered whether they defeated the monster or not but she would be. This was because failure would reduce the chances of sess for her again as other guilds had begun making their way here. There was no way Xue could be assured that none of them would win hence, she wanted them to seed in one trial. Now having defeated the kobold chief, realising that this wasn''t the boss quenched her joy and made her heart feel cold. They had just wasted so much time only to wipe out a mob! What''s worse is that most of the resources they prepared for the world ss boss raid had already been spent. There was no way they could face a world ss boss as they were now.

    "Are you sure it must be mentioned? I mean, the monster was quite tough. Without our supplies, defeating it would have been impossible." Katsuomented. He was referring to the system notification about the kobold chief being a world ss boss.

    About the kobold chief being tough, Katsuo was actually right. This was because without [K¨­jin''s Arrow],[Aghus'' Potential Disperser] and [Low ss Earth Suppression Array], they wouldn''t have brought the Jekyll''s HP down that low. They might have even died a few minutes into the battle without those consumables.

    "If it were just that, I wouldn''t suggest this. Remember the monster''s attribute panel? There was no mention of it being a world ss boss. I thought it might have been an error, a glitch or maybe something else but now I finally understood it." Reaching here, Sato sighed.

    "It''s because the kobold chief was never the world ss boss.. It was never our target to start with."

 Chapter 203 - 197 : Awakening

    "Arghh!"

    With an aggrieved scream, another yer fell at the hands of a group of kobolds, falling into a puddle of blood before disintegrating into star-light particles.

    ''Another one¡­'' Azure Dragon gritted his teeth in frustration.

    The alliance had been battling for almost 5 minutes already but were yet to see the end of the kobold horde. Even if one were an extremely strong had high levelled being, engaging in such arge scale about with opponents roughly their strength for almost 5 minutes would undoubtedly tire one.

    Originally, the team didn''t have it so hard as they were at their peak forms. Back then, handling 3-5 kobolds wasn''t much of an issue for anyone of them. Even the mages could take on at least 3 kobolds. However, as they killed their way through, the ranks of the kobolds began to increase. From the previous level 5 Elites and level 6 Commons, level 6 Elites and level 7 Commons began to appear. Normally, these monsters wouldn''t be much against these guys in a one-on-one battle, but this wasn''t a one-on-one fight but arge scale battle. There was no way that the opponents would suddenly agree to that. What''s worse was that they had already spent a lot of energy and stamina against the first wave of kobolds. As a result, it became even more difficult for the team to persevere. Eventually, they began to lose a few of their men as their numbers slowly dwindled. From the initial 30 yers on the field, just 16 were left standing.

    "Hold on tight." Azure Dragon yelled from the back. Opening up his System interface, he located the team chat icon and made a broadcast.

    "Chesces, have you found a spot yet?" Azure Dragon asked.

    After realising that they wouldn''t be able to escape this trap arranged for them, Azure Dragon and Chesces had made another decision that would still give them a shot at the world ss boss; and that was to send a small team of 3 or 4 yers to sneak out of here. This team would then search and monitor the raid progress of the unknown party, waiting till thest minute where they would not only kill-steal the target but also eliminate that team and rob them of the loot. Though this didn''t seem like an honourable tactic, after having suffered at the hands of the mysterious group, Azure Dragon wasn''t bothered by such minor issues like morality. Also, even though Infinite Realm was hailed as another Earth, inevitably, it wasn''t. Funny enough, it was worse than Earth. This was a world where the strongest fist rules. Morality and the rest of the positive values weren''t as valuable as they were in the face of such impressive profits, neither did they work as much as they did in the real world.

    "Not yet. The kobold wave is too tight plus we need to be stealthy in our moves and that won''t be easy." Chesces replied after a while.

    For the n to seed, two points were needed. First, the team had to be strong enough to spearhead their way out of the kobold encirclement but this was easier said than done. The second point was that they had to do so without Soran''s team finding out otherwise, it was highly possible that those psychos would impede them and make their situation even worse leading to a team-wipe[1].

    The first point was the least difficult problem as the overall team of Emperor''s Might was made up of Expert yers. The team of 4, organized for the escape, was made up of verified Experts with the ''False King'' Chesces, taking charge alongside 3 other above-average Experts as teammates. The major issue was the second point. In other to fend off the monsters, the two teams had grouped together so it was quite difficult for a party of 4 to sneak out without being discovered, even in the heat of this battle.

    "Try and find a way out. We don''t have much time left again." Azure Dragon responded as he cast a [Water Ball] and shoved a kobold out of his way. He then followed up with a [Water Wall] spell, which he had gotten from the guild, buying himself some breathing space.

    "Use a straight-line formation. The MTs would give you an opportunity to escape. Forget about being stealthy any longer." Azure Dragon said. Recently, he had been getting a bad feeling about the mysterious party. At least 3 minutes had gone by since they heard any explosion sounds or roars. Logically, it was impossible for the mysterious force to eliminate the world ss boss that quickly as even Azure Dragon didn''t have the faith that he could pull it off with his own team. Also, if the boss had died, the kobolds here should have felt something and possibly retreated or headed to the spot but they didn''t. Nheless, Azure Dragon felt the brooding restlessness within his spirit and so he didn''t want the team to dy any longer.

    "...alright." Chesces replied after some hesitation.

    Just as he was about to coordinate with the remnant members of Emperor''s Might team for the ''great escape'', thest kobold chief with only a right arm left, made its move towards him.

    ''Shit.'' Chesces cursed.

    One of the reasons why the alliance lost a lot of yers was because of the wave of kobolds but at least 70% of the reason was simply because of the kobold guard. In words, of the 14 yers that had died, 10 were killed by the guard! This was either directly or as an assist. Nheless, the right-armed kobold guard had the highest kill points among the kobolds. With such a daunting record, why wouldn''t Chesces be afraid? Even though he had recently levelled up to level 8 in this fight, he still felt that he couldn''t solo the monster especially in these conditions.

    ''Run.'' This was the only word that went through his mind as Chesces brandished his sword in another direction, forcing a path through the kobolds.

    Just as Chesces had taken two steps forward, an earth shattering roar shook the entire floor, even more so than the kobold chief had done before.

    "Roar!!!"

    The roar brought along with it a formidable pressure that forced all the living beings present to aplete stop. An overflowing sensation of fear immediately clouded the minds of the yers as they felt their legs go jelly, using the ability to stand and having to rely on their weapons to barely do so. Only Chesces, who had managed to reach level 8, was the least bit affected. Even still, it was just the least affected. He too, still felt a daunting pressure press on his shoulder and almost forcing him to his knees.

    "What was that?" Chesces asked out loud after the roar went silent. The roar had caused the kobold wave to stop fighting so the yers were able to have a brief period of respite. However, this period made them all feel cold.

    The kobold guard made a confused expression before it suddenly lifted its face to stare at the ceiling.

    "Growl!"

    Thest remaining kobold guard suddenly growled with a low tone before it turned and ran back in the direction of the kobold camp. Surprisingly, the yers could feel a touch of sadness, respect and fear mixed in between.

    Following the kobold guard''s steps, the remaining kobolds immediately withdrew from the battlefield, all moving towards the same direction.

    "What just happened?"

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    Somewhere else on the Middle Region''s 10th floor, a team of yers stood before a half-burnt but dead shriveled kobold corpse. One could barely make signs of a bone armour that was previously worn by the monster. Having been wrecked by both extreme mes and attacks, it was barely recognizable and utterly useless, hardly providing cover for the sides. The blood-red skin could barely be noticed unless focused on the less damaged parts. This was the kobold chief that had just been in. After igniting its bloodline and potential, the kobold chief had damaged its foundations to the extreme. With its death, the bacsh of [Kobold Supreme Roar] and [Fury] came, turning its once buffed body to nothing but a shriveled, aged corpse.

    Sato and the others had also happened to hear the roar and unlike the yers from the alliance, they could guess what it was.

    "It came from the direction of the kobold encampment." Lu Zhen suddenly said. Having left from there, he obviously knew the direction and could easily pinpoint the origin of the roar to that spot.

    "Looks like our worst nightmare hase true." Sato sighed.

    "Get ready guys, I have a feeling we are gonna be in a hell of trouble."

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    Back at the kobold encampment¡­

    The ce wasn''t as lonely as one would expect as there were a bunch of kobolds still present. Actually, of the 500+ kobolds, only a 100+ had chased after Lu Zhen. This was because only that 100+ were actually warriors. The rest were but vigers, elderly, women and children, so there was no reason for them to pursue after the intruder.

    At this moment, the more than 300 kobolds left had all knelt and bowed in the direction of the town square, where the previous ritual was held. Not a single one pf them made any sound neither did they lift their heads up. If one wasn''t aware, they might presume that all these kobolds were nothing more than statues built in that position.

    At the ritual site, exactly where the 7 metres tall statue stood, a phenomenon had urred. The previous blood stains on the statue were being absorbed by it at a quick rate. Within 3 seconds, the statue had be spotless without a single pinch of dust nor a mark or dried blood.

    *Crack*

    Almost at the same time, a crack formed on the statue.

    AN (No space left at Author''s section):

    Infinite Facts :

    *Based on both the monster and yer being on equal levels :

    Common : An average yer can solo one of these so far as he/she is cautious and not overconfident.

    Elite : A Veteran wouldn''t have it easy against these guys but can still make do. An Expert would be needed at the very least but it isn''t always true that one can solo them.

    Rare/Special Elite : A party of 4 0r 5 yers is needed at the very least.

    King : Boss level monster that needs aplete party of 7 or more with necessary measures to be taken and preparations to be made.

    ETC

    * This stands true as of now.. In other words it might be possible that in the future, thisparison could change.

 Chapter 204 - 198 : The Secret Of The Statue

    The 7 metres tall statue had an imposing look when up close. It was like a breath-taking view, being the centre of attention in the entire encampment and floor. This was not only because of the statue''s height but also because of the craftsmanship involved and the aura it radiated.

    When talking about the craftsmanship, the pure-blood kobold statue wasn''t such an exquisite art work but a god level one. One could even say the statue was the masterpiece of a once-in-a-100 years art genius. It was awfully too realistic to the point that it could be aid to be scary. If not for the fact that the dull-brown colour that the statue possessed, signifying the fact that it was made from extremelymon and low rank materials, one might even mistake it as a giant type monster.

    Ignoring the looks, the aura the statue radiated gave a chilling feeling yet sacred feeling. It was like a work of art that was to be revered and not desecrated. One look at it and one would feel as if they were in the presence of a higher being. Losing the ability and will to resist was just one of the effects of the aura on living beings. If not for the fact that the statue remained at the same position all day, Sato and the others would have thought that it was a living being. Funny enough, their absurd im was quite close.

    *Creak* *Crack* *Crack*

    *Rumbles*

    With the first wriggly crack forming on the statue''s skull and running across it, a few more came to be, running in various directions and moving in multiple patterns all through the statue. This lead to the bonding force[1] acting on the statue to weaken a lot resulting in a rock debris falling off from the statue.

    As more rubble fell off the statue, a shocking scene was revealed. The original statue wasn''t simply just a statue. A part of the skull had already cracked down and within it was unveiled a hiddenpartment; a void to be exact. As more rubble fell off of the statue, a majority of the facial area[2] was open to the air, revealing a dark space that seemed devoid of any life or material.

    A second after the ''dark zone'' was unveiled, a pair of emerald green chilly eyes gleamed from the other side, breeding terror and fear to all who nced at it. Following the glistening eyes was a cold, somber and deathly aura that suffused from the depths of the statue; a total contrast of the aura the statue had radiated before it was damaged.

    With the release of this gloomy aura, the cracks on the statue began to widen and grow even further, increasing the rate of destruction and decreasing the time it would take to achieve that. In just two seconds, the cracks had covered a majority of the 7 metres tall statue. At the moment this was done, with the bonding force around the statue having been brought to its lowest, a grand outburst of aura burst forth with a vigorous momentum, destroying the statue to pieces and sending the pieces flying. The kobolds that were closest to the statue experienced this sudden ''attack'' first-handed with a majority of them getting injured, either severely or lightly, and a very few dying to the attacks. With just a single outburst of aura and broken statue pieces, at least 30 kobolds were injured with 6 dead. As this was the case, one could only imagine how strong the entity within the statue was.

    As the dust cloud from the statue''s explosion was blown away, the aftermath of the demolition could clearly be made out. The altar that was beside the statue was also wrecked to pieces with only a pile of wreckage left behind of the original structure. At the position where the original statue stood, a blurry silhouette could be made out. Like the statue, it was 7 metres in height. What was quite interesting to note was that it had a pair of emerald green eyes, reminiscent of the ones previously seen before. Without a doubt, the owner of those eyes was this silhouette.

    As the dust cloud finally settled, downpletely, the shadowy silhouette was finally made visible. It was a 7 metres tall kobold and the most interesting part was that it looked almost exactly like the statue that stood before. A much longer horn than the other kobolds, a lighter skin tone, and a greater height than the regr kobolds. The only differing feature of this kobold and the statue was theck of a pair of wings.

    As kobolds were descendants of dragons, by purifying their bloodline, they can approach their ancestors in both looks and strength, bing much stronger than the average of their kind. As their bloodline purity approaches their ancestors, they gain simrities with them. Basically, a kobold''s Draconic bloodline purity is usually around 0.00009%. For a Draconic descendant to possess wings, they usually need a bloodline purity of at least 15%, unless the descendant is a hybrid of a dragon and a winged creature. For kobolds, this was technically impossible but legends once told of one that had reached a bloodline purity of 17%. That kobold ended up bing a grand level figure, capable of rivalling some of the top generals of an empire before ascending into sainthood. With such mighty strength and amazing background, the Kobold legendary figure became venerated as a god by a majority of kobold tribes scattered round the world. This kobold was the exact one that was crafted as a statue.

    As for the current Kobold, it was one with a high bloodline purity, surpassing the kobold chief had its guards but being far below the Kobold legendary figure, at around 0.01%. This number was by far, muchrger than the Kobold chief''s 0.001% purity, leading to a veryrge discrepancy in strength. Even though it had lesser purity than the Kobold legendary figure, the new arrival still had a massive potential and because of that, was revered as the tribe''s true leader.

    When a kobold tribe manages to raise such a simr figure, there''s a practice that they undergo. And that is encasing the pure blood within a statue of the Kobold legendary figure.

    Even though it wasn''t a god, the kobold legendary figure approached godhood and so, could somewhat answer prayers as gods do. Most kobold tribes always create a statue of the legendary figure and venerate it, offering it sacrifices and prayers. In exchange for this, the legendary figure bestows abilities and helps purify the bloodline of one of them who has the best potential among them. The new figure who just appeared was the one selected for this ritual a few years back.

    From young, its great potential was noticed and it had been raised and trained to be a top figure. Havinge of age justst year, it was finally encased in a new statue of the legendary figure. As prayers and offerings were made to the legendary figure through the statue, the legendary figure would, in turn, help purify the bloodline of the one encased within the statue for a certain period of time; usually a year or so. Once the time frame was over, the statue would self-destruct as the selected candidate would reawaken anew and as a reborn figure with even more power than it had or would ever gain on its own.

    While the bloodline purifying ritual sounded easy and simple, it was anything but that. The sacrifices needed and the preparations made, all had to be done with extra care and focus.

    The previous ritual Sato and the others had witnessed, was actually a monthly basis prayer session that helped facilitate the bloodline purifying ritual. Here, the entire koboldmunity offers sacrifices and prayers to the statue, replenishing the faith energy stacked on it, thereby strengthening the connection of the statue with the legendary figure to help facilitate the bloodline purifying process. The rabbit-like creature [3] used as a sacrifice was a creature with a very high mana affinity and was one of the best sacrificial offering because of this.

    While the bloodline purifying ritual sounded OP for the kobolds, it had its limits. Otherwise, the kobolds could just keep doing this and within 30 years, raise a squad of 30 mighty pure bloods. Because the rate and degree of purification was mostly dependent on the potential of the chosen one, it was quite difficult to raise a high-level kobold figure through this process. However, making one with a purity of 0.1% wasn''t such a difficult task. But in the grand scale of things, a purity of 0.1% was still negligible and wouldn''t catch the attention of the high human figures. Another limitation was that because the bloodline purifying ritual required the legendary figure to spend some time and energy into it, it only allocated a certain number of slots to each tribe.

    This kobold tribe was quite small in size, inparison to the others, so it received only 2 quotas. One had been spent a while back and because of that figure from back then, the kobolds were able to take the entire 10th floor as their home base without any rival monster species existing here. The second was now spent on this one with the hope that uponpletion, the pure-blooded kobold would possess enough strength to lead the kobold tribe out of the 10th floor and onto the surface.

    Now however, because of the death of the kobold chief, the pure-blooded kobold had to stop its transformation. This was because the kobold chief was its father.

    Having its once-in-a-lifetime training and development process cut short before the duration was over, the 7 metres kobold was undoubtedly annoyed and didn''t even bother about the weaker kobolds, only giving them a nce before looking over at the direction Sato and the others were at. Despite more than hundreds of metres between them, it was actually able to sense the group''s location by picking up on the remnant mana signature of its father. This was a skill verymon among yers of the most mana-sensitive ss in IR as of now, the [Druid]. Without a doubt, this kobold wasn''t like the others of its kind, who were typically all fighters.. Rather than a fighter, it was a mage.

 Chapter 205 - 199 : The Difference In Strength

    Having locked onto Sato and the others, the higher grade kobold didn''t waste a second morezying around. With a step forward, the green eyed kobold appeared by a protruded rock more than 100 metres away as if it had teleported. Such insane movement speed was something even the current fastest [Assassin] couldn''t achieve. This wasn''t because the kobold had a great physique or anything, but was because of itsprehension of spatial magic. The most amazing part of this all was that as the green eyed kobold kept moving forward, its speed didn''t decrease but actually increased! From the first ''1 step to 100 metres'', it began to cover at least 120 metres with each step. As it did so, the spacial fluctuations became even wilder than before, clearly much more visible. This was the after-effects of using a spacial ss spell.

    Just like the Town Head, Arman, the green eyed kobold had the ability to use space magic. The only difference between the two was that the space magic the kobold used was just an elementary version. It was barely useful in battles and best served as a support skill. This was because while Arman had an already existing legacy to go through, the green eyed kobold had to start from the very bottom without any detailed notes, heritages or legacies to go through for assistance. Though eventually it managed to receive lesson from the legendary kobold figure, that being wasn''t so experienced in spatial techniques sopared to the legacy Arman received, it was stillcking.

    But still, having a certain control over the spatial elements was a noteworthy achievement. This was because the element of Space was recorded as one of the Superior elements, surpassing the 5 major elements and the myriad of secondary elements in strength. Even as a support skill, the value of spatial maniption was very impressive. In this case, the green eyed kobold used its ability to control the spatial elements, to shorten the distance between two points. While this sounded difficult andplex, for a creature with great potential and blessed by a half-god being, this wasn''t so difficult.

    Of course, as it was still weak, there was a limit to what the green eyed kobold could achieve with its abilities. Even shortening the distance between it and a point 100 metres away was beyond its regr abilities. It was only able to achieve this by using its anger and hatred to the ''outsiders'' to fuel its abilities.

    "Something''sing and it''s not a yer!" Fudo suddenly blurted out. Even though he wasn''t a [Druid], he was an [Elementalist], the next best thing after a [Druid]. The green eyed kobold was obviously a boss level monster, a mage one at that, so its mana signature would be huge. If one were to makeparisons between the mana signatures of the kobold and a regr magic-using monster, it would be like a bonfire against a fire-fly; the difference was bastardly obvious.

    "Run!"

    No one hesitated after themand was given, departing in a hurried manner at the fastest pace their feet could take them. Sadly, all was almost for naught.

    They had underestimated the movement speed of the green eyed kobold. Even with its rudimentary control over the spatial elements, it still surpassed the fastest [Assassin] yer in IR. Compared to this [Assassin] who focused a majority of his attribute points in [Agility] and [Dexterity], Sato and the others werecking by far.

    Using its rudimentaryprehension and control over spatial magic, it took the green eyed kobold less than 15 steps to arrive at the location. It was but at the 9th step that Fudo had sensed it and at the 10th step that Sato responded. With such little time in between, they hadn''t managed to escape far enough before the green eyed kobold arrived. Compared to before, the team was a lot closer to the monster so they didn''t even need Fudo''s reminder or alert to know that the new arrival was the ''not a yer'', Fudo referred to. Just the amount of mana it radiated was more than enough for them to know that this wasn''t a monster they could mess with.

    Drenched in a gloomily ck aura that made the ambience around it eerie while dropping the temperature down by a few degrees, the green eyed kobold nced at the departing yers. A strange glint shed in its emerald eyes as it lifted both hands to chest level.

    "Going so soon? Why don''t you all stay for a bit."

    Just as Sato was surprised at the fact that the kobold could actuallymunicate with them in a more civilized manner than the others, he suddenly felt his movements slow down before his momentum was forced to a painful stop as he crashed with an invisible wall. It wasn''t just Sato who experienced this but everyone else. Even the fastest of them all, Lu Zhen, who had given the group quite a significant gap, was forced to an even worse stop.

    ''What''s this?'' Before Yato could even figure out what forced him to a halt, he heard a scream from the side. Turning around to take a look, he saw Katsuo on his knees with a forest-green illusory yet solid spear stuck deep within him with the pointed end exiting from the other side of his body. Not even a secondter, Katsuo''s body began to break down into starlight.

    "Katsuo!" Yato shouted with a mixture of shock, fear and confusion. As he was too focused on whatever held him back, he didn''t realise when Katsuo was attacked, much less how the monster had done it.

    ''It just arrived,yet¡­'' Yato thought as he felt a chill crawl up from behind.

    "Hehe." The emerald eyed kobold smirked as it nced at Yato.

    *Whoosh*

    It was just a nce yet Yato felt his blood go cold. His body suddenly lost its ability to move as he felt his will to resist slowly weaken. Without knowing it, he had frozen in ce and like a tranquilized elephant, he didn''t have the ability to resist.

    [[ System Notification : Dominating re

    ''What''s going on?!'' Yato wondered as he stood in ce, without even being able to move his fingers. Not a second more and a few ripples suddenly appeared in space.

    Without producing any sound, the emerald eyed kobold had appeared in front of Yato.

    "!!!" Yato was rmed but having been stuck in a state where his bodycked the ability to move even just an inch, he was as helpless as trapped rabbit facing a lion. Actually, the scenario of a trapped rabbit was at least a bit better than his, since the rabbit could at leastunch a desperate attack, but Yato couldn''t even puff out a mouthful of air much less retaliate.

    "Argh!!!"

    Unlike Katsuo, who had a light spear run through his body, Yato was shrouded in deep green mes that were surprisingly chilly. However, this was only on the outside. These mes, while chilly on the outside, were actually very very hot on the inside. Once anyone was shrouded by them, they would feel a heart-wrenching, teeth grinding, lip-biting pain. It was not a pain that originated from the physical but from the soul. While the mes were indeed too weak to damage one''s soul, against an opponent weaker than the user, giving them a free ticket to ''funnd'' wasn''t much of an issue. So ''amazing'' was this treatment that even after Yato regained his freedom of movement, he still didn''t move his body.

    After experiencing such excruciating pain for at least 3 seconds, the kobold finally ended Yato''s pitiful life with a simr attack as it did with Katsuo.

    By this time, the other had already gone some distance away from the two. Against such a monster, no one was silly as to suddenly confront the monster. That was just extremely stupid. Much less if the even had the Soran''s and Azure dragon''s teammates with them here, there was still a high chance that they would die, much less now with just 5 of them left. Also, this was a game and not reality; dying here wasn''t the end. With such an obvious point in front of them, there was no way or reason for them to face the kobold, especially not now they were weak. Having spent a majority of their supplies to defeat the kobold chief, the team could be said to becking any trump card ability to help them win the battle or face the emerald kobold on equal grounds.

    With all these points, there were just a few things that they could possibly do. There was no hesitation at that moment and the survivors had went with the n, which also happened to be the one with the highest sess rate.

    Their only option was simple; split up and escape.

    Infinite Facts :

    Blood Purity is a special factor that affects the future strength and potential of a creature. The purer one''s bloodline is, in other words, the closer to resembling their ancestor''s DNA, the stronger the creature is. However, this theory isn''t perfect. This is because, some creatures could actually be stronger and better than their ancestors.. In such a scenario, having a purer bloodline isn''t a good thing.

 Chapter 206 - 200 : As Fast As Your Legs Can Take You, Run!

    Of the original 7 members present, 2 of them had died, exactly Katsuo and Yato. Their deaths had arrived so suddenly that the others weren''t able to react in time. Even if they could, it wasn''t like they wouldn''t. The monster was obviously far stronger than the 7 of thembined.; facing it was beyond suicidal.

    As Sato and the rest evacuated from the area, the green-eyed kobold didn''t just standstill and stare at them. Having taken down two of the yers, it still wasn''t satisfied enough. In honour of its fallen father, it had sworn to decimate the entire team; there was no stopping at two.

    "Spread out!"

    While it was true that they didn''t notice the green-eyed kobold in time, the team had managed to react ordingly. This was because right before it arrived, Fudo had already sensed it approaching. There was the space of at least one second between its arrival and the team''s reaction. Added together with the fact that it aimed for Katsuo and Yato first, that space was enough for the others to create some distance between them and the monster.

    After using spacial maniption more than 10 times, the green-eyed kobold had worn out its mana tank. Since its proficiency over spatial magic wasn''t that good to start with, it had to spend more mana than usual and also had to withstand the bacsh and after-effects of the skill with its body. As a kobold, it indeed had a strong body butpared to its kinsmen, this was still weak. This ''weak'' body was incapable of tolerating the continuous strain and bacsh from using spatial maniption to mimic a forceful approach to teleportation. Because of this, the green eyed monster didn''t use spatial magic to pursue after the others, but that didn''t mean it was out of options.

    Being, at least, at the level 10 rank; the green-eyed kobold''s attributes alone was more than enough to pursue the remaining 5. However, this was on the condition that they ran in the same direction. Sato knew this and that was why he gave the team the order to split up. He made it so that everyone''s chance of survival depended on their individual luck.

    5 different yers in 5 different directions. With a few choices to make, one would be torn apart of which to choose no matter who or what they were.

    Sensing the leftover mana in the environment together with the ck marks left on Jekyll, the green-eyed kobold reached the conclusion that a me user had a major hand in the death of its father.

    It reached the conclusion that a me user had a major part in the death of its father. Using its magic sense together with its high affinity to mana, the kobold screened the yers and within a second, it locked on to the fire mage yers in the team. Without a second to lose, it locked on to a target and ran after them. The target was Fudo.

    ''Damn it.'' Fudo cursed as he sensed the kobold right on his tail. The green eyed kobold was like a walking tank of overflowing mana. Normally, it would be able to suppress its aura from being so easily noticed but with its rage roaring through the roof, the kobold wasn''t bothered about that.

    ''Guess I''ll have to use it.''

    With that thought, Fudo suddenly pointed his staff to his side and released a fireball that zed across the field. Immediately after that, Fudo took out a scroll from his space bag and tore it into two. It was a swift-use scroll that needed no incantations or excessive actions to activate it.

    As the two halves of the scroll fell to the ground, a light-yellow glow erupted from the spot. It wasn''t blinding to the eyes but was soft. The glow wasn''t so intensified so it didn''t spread so far, barely illuminating a 5 metres radius.

    Barely a secondter, the green-eyed kobold had arrived just behind Fudo, right at the point the glow erupted from. Suddenly, mystical chains broke out from the spot, entangling the kobold to form a glistening ''cocoon''. Though it looked like the kobold was trapped, Fudo knew that this wouldn''t hold it for long. The main purpose was just to pin it down, for what was toe.

    ''Now.''

    All of a sudden, Fudo disappeared from his previous position, appearing 30 metres away, right where his fireball hadnded. This was a special skill he had gotten a long time ago; [(skill name)] [1]. Fudo had gotten it from a spell scroll he got after he and Sato defeated the [Cursed servant] [2]. Because of the long cool-down attached to it, Fudo barely made use of it, only saving it as a trump card skill for escaping when all seemed for naught.

    *Boom*

    Before anyone could react to Fudo''s sudden change in position, the spot green-eyed kobold was pinned down sudden erupted with a loud and violent explosion. At least, a 15 metres radius of the green eyed kobold''s location was turned to dust. Even the [Low ss Earth Suppression Array] couldn''t handle the st and was devastated beyond repair.

    The ground shook for at least 4 seconds and during this period, despite being tempted to take a look, none of the yers did; only running for their lives with the best strength they could muster. This was because they all knew that no matter the amount of damage the explosion wreaked, it wouldn''t be able to kill the kobold. Even if it severely damaged the monster, none of them believed they would still have a shot at eliminating it.

    ''That should hold it down for a while.'' Sato thought as the entire team escaped even further out.

    The scroll was a special trump card they had prepared for defeating Jekyll [3] but due to certain circumstances, it didn''t have the opportunity to reveal itself. Normally, the array linked to the spell was capable of holding down any figure at level 10 and below for at least 7 seconds but with the earlier motions of the green-eyed kobold, Sato felt it only held it down for 3 seconds or even less. Even still, this was already quite impressive. As for the origin of the explosion, this was the major array, the [Low ss Earth Suppression Array] imploding on a specific target within.

    While it was indeed revealed that the [Low ss Earth Suppression Array] was a simple barrier-type array that didn''t even shield off anyone from entering, such a simple feature wasn''t enough for the array to be worth 30 silver coins. It had a special skill attached to it that made up a considerable percentage of the price. The skill was named [Implode].

    From the merchant Sato had bought the array from he came to discover that the [Low ss Earth Suppression Array] he purchased, actually had a hidden feature within. Because of this hidden feature, the price was much higher than other support barriers like it and even higher than other [Low ss Earth Suppression Array]. For an unknown reason, the person who made this exact one had inscribed an explosion ruin within it, giving the array the ability to attack at the cost of self-destruction. However, the inscriber had hidden this feature so unless one was a qualified [Appraiser], they wouldn''t discover it. In a way, one could say it was a hidden feature, a surprise for any who would buy it. Because of this, this exact [Low ss Earth Suppression Array] was sold at a much higher rate than normal. Sato didn''t have enough money to spend on an [Appraiser] (mainly because the info had already been revealed to him so there was no need to do so again) this hidden ability wasn''t revealed in the system exnation of the array.

    By the time the explosion had set off and settled, every one of them was at least 80 metres away from the point. The 10th floor was a cage of sorts so there was almost no way out without finding an Exit gate, but this was almost. Before they began the raid, Sato and the others had wandered around the floor and discovered a few exits out. For a some of them, they couldn''t get in because there was a restriction that prevented them but there were still a few they could get past. The team didn''t explore these channels because they didn''t know whether they would be able to return back in time or find a way back but that didn''t mean that they would simply ignore them.

    One of the reasons Sato had decided for them to face the kobold chief out of town was because of these ''special exits''. The location they had chosen for the raid was decided not just by the terrain but also by the ''location''. This ''location'' referred to the position of the ce. In this case, the most important criteria that defined this position were those special exits.

    In the scenario where the kobold chief turned out to be much stronger than they thought, Sato didn''t want them to die an unnecessary death just like that. With a few special exits close by, they could simply escape into them and possibly survive the threat of death. With this, it could be seen that Sato had even nned far ahead into the raid than others would.

    While indeed the special exits didn''te to use against the kobold chief, they were useful at this point.

    ''The closest should be a hundred metres more...'' Sato thought.

    The ce they were had 5 such exits but only 3 were essible by them, with the rest being restricted to ess. Sato had headed straight for one of them and this one happened to be the closest. Also moving in the same direction as he was, was Xue Yan and Lu Zhen. Fudo had originally done the same but after being forced to use [ze Movement], he changed direction to another one. As for thest one, Seiichi went for it.

    At this point in time, it looked like the team was out of trouble but they all knew that was anything but true.

    "Roar!"

 Chapter 207 - 201 : Another Death

    "Roar!!!"

    Not more than two seconds after the explosion had settled down, the terrifying roar of a creature sounded out. Just its screams alone had forced everyone to a temporary halt.

    [[System notification : You have received mental damage.]]

    -5

    -5

    -5...

    A splitting headache assaulted the heads of Sato and his teammates but they forced themselves to ignore the pain as they resumed their escape.

    ''Just a little bit more...'' Xue Yan breathed heavily as she ran. They had already ran quite some distance and she could easily see the exit from where she currently was. But seeing the exit channel didn''t mean she was safe.

    The green-eyed kobold recovered from the st with only a few dark patches on its cloak. The explosion that was capable of injuring below level 15 monsters, severely injuring a level 10 monster and sending anything below that directly to the grave, couldn''t even harm a hair on the monster. If not because the 10th floor couldn''t amodate level 15 monsters, Sato would have suspected the kobold to be one and not a weak one at that.

    The green-eyed kobold was infuriated at Fudo''s sneak attack and wanted to reciprocate in kind. However, bybining [ze Movement] together with the time taken before the kobold regained itsposure, Fudo had taken an alternate route that was covered with obstacles. Pursuing him would be but a waste of time so the green-eyed kobold decided to leave him forst. Turning its attention towards the next target, it selected Xue Yan as its prey. This was mainly because she was a fire [Elementalist] and also because she happened to be the closest to it. Of the surviving yers, Xue Yan was the slowest so it couldn''t be helped that she became the new target.

    Narrowing its eyes as it stared at its target, the kobold finally made its move.

    Reaching its level, one would gain intelligence not less than that of a human. In other words, the monster had achieved intellect. From the current setting, it could see that the yers were heading towards the dark exits as if their lives depended on it. Just by intuition alone, the kobold felt that if they walked through there, it would be a lot harder to find them again.

    Just a distance of 80 metres or so, separated Xue Yan from the exit. If she were given at least 5-7 seconds, she could easily make it but it wasn''t like the kobold intended to sit back and let that happen.

    Stretching its hands forth, the kobold activated its spatial abilities, summoning forth an attractive force that dragged Xue Yan over to it. This was using the abilities of space to mimic the gravitational force exhibited byrge bodies. It is known that all objects possess gravity and therger an object''s mass, the greater the gravitational pull. But it stands without a doubt that all objects upy and exist in space for space is the foundation of all matter. Using this theory in a much more advanced method, one could mimic certain natural forces to a degree by just relying on spatial control and maniption.

    Though it was previously mentioned that the green-eyed kobold''s control over the spatial elements was too weak to be implemented in battle, this was in consideration of a battle between the creature and an equal being or one stronger than itself. To give an analogy, the damage the kobold could exhibit with its spatial prowess was simr to the damage of a pillow. Like how an adult could use a pillow and finish off a little child in a fight, but against another adult or in a gunfight, a pillow served almost no use to victory. In other words, by power ranking, Sato and the others were nothing more than a little child in front of the kobold.

    "Ahhhh!"

    Being the one on which the force of attraction was exhibited upon, Xue Yan was extremely nervous and scared. At this moment, she had finallyprehended the meaning of the phrase "so close at hand yet so far away". All she needed was but a few, little seconds yet the kobold or rather, fate didn''t offer her that. Xue Yan had thought that the explosion would have held the monster back long enough; she had hope and maybe because of that, her fall was painful.

    One would wonder why she felt this way in a game but when a person is immersed in a VR world that looks exactly like the real world, they tend to take it so unconsciously. No one liked to die, whether in a real world or a fake and also, the pain felt was damn real. Produced by inducing the nerves with certain shocks, which was much more direct than having one''s physical body injured, there was no holding it down or conquering the pain. In fact, rumours had it that when one feels pain at a 100% sensation rate, even if it was just a minor stab or scratch, the pain felt during pregnancybour flops inparison.

    Like a nail to a ma, Xue Yan was forcefully attracted towards the green-eyed kobold, without any shot at escaping.

    "Xue Yan!"

    Lu Zhen had always kept his watch on Xue Yan the entire time. Being rted to her, he subconsciously treated her as his younger sister and didn''t want anything bad to happen to her, be it in-game or in reality. Ignoring his own safety or chance of victory, Lu Zhen dashed towards the green eyed kobold.

    At this point, Sato couldn''t ignore everything and keep running. If Xue Yan dies here, he would automatically fail to fulfill the contract as Sato doubted whether any of the big teams would lose in this raid. God knew how long it would take him make a lot of money for the team to get a new round of consumables and supplies.

    "[Astral de]!"

    A 5 metres long azure colored band flew out and struck at the green eyed kobold. Like a long-range sword attack, the sh was very swift and sharp. It carried with it an indescribable momentum that came from above. It was like the strike of a higher being released with the intention of ripping apart the skies. Ignoring the physical aspect of things, the sword strike had an attached [Willpower] attack on it. If one''s will and ability to resist was way too weak to be worth anything, the target wouldn''t just lose out to the physical attack but also a mental attack. This was the effect of the passive skill attached to Sato''s new sword, [Astral Might].

    As for the attack itself, this was the only active skill of the de which also happened to be named right after it. To use this skill, one would have to store the energy of the stars into the sword. In other words, one would have to expose the sword to the night sky. Before the raid had begun, Sato had gone out once to store up enough energy of the stars to unleash one strike beyond his regr capabilities. If not for the current limit of the sword, which allowed only one hit to be stored, Sato would have otherwise stayed longer much than he did. Even still, the might of this one sh shouldn''t be underestimated. If timed well, it was quite possible for Sato to take out 40% of a level 7 or 8 [Guardian]''s HP, and this was the ss most famous for their HP and defense!

    With a brilliant sky-blue trail, the azure sh closed in on the kobold before Lu Zhen or Xue Yan did so. Despite attackingte, Sato''s attack had arrived earlier than the others.

    "???"

    The kobold stared curiously at the approaching object. Though it felt a small sense of apprehension towards this sh, it still wasn''t much. In other words, it felt that Sato''s full blown strike that could turn the tables of a PvP fight, would cause nothing more than a minor mark on its body.

    *Bang*

    With its ws, the green-eyed kobold collided with the azure sh, disintegrating it into azure pieces that scattered all over. It didn''t get severely injured or harmed, only being forced 2 steps backwards by the blow with a few scratch marks here and there on both its skin and cloak.

    ''What a tough defense...''

    Though Sato''s strike failed to injure it much, it still caused some scars to the creature. With this move of his, he had managed to figure out the bottom line and a few more valuable battle info about the monster.

    Because the kobold was forced to pay attention to the azure de, the gravitational pull it had disyed got weaker and so, Xue Yan was able to extricate herself from it.

    At the same time, Lu Zhen tossed a few projectiles to hold the monster back before turning around and running away, moving alongside Xue Yan to keep her safe.

    The green-eyed kobold simply swatted away Lu Zhen''s attacks, like a human would do with a measly mosquito. ring at Lu Zhen and Xue Yan, the green eyed kobold finally unleashed the entirety of its aura, bringing a massive change to the ambience of the entire ce.

    Before the two, Lu Zhen and Xue Yan, could go past 4 metres, the temperature of the area suddenly dropped below zero, making the two of them feel as if they were in a frost hell. This wasn''t because of the monster targeting them specifically but it was simply the kobold releasing its bloodlust and aura to the max.

    The kobold didn''t stop there as it took a step forward and suddenly appeared behind Xue Yan, sending a w her way. Xue Yan didn''t have the ability to react quickly as she saw a w moving towards her. It looked slow yet fast but there was nothing she could do about it.

    Just when Xue Yan thought all hope was lost, Lu Zhen appeared close by using [Silent Steps] to teleport beside her. He struck out with his dagger, aiming the tip right at the right eye of the kobold. This way, if the monster were to go on with its attack, it would undoubtedly get severely injured by Lu Zhen''s move. But if Lu Zhen were to go on and the kobold happens to retaliate, without any ident, he would surely die.

    ''Lu...'' Xue Yan thought with glistening eyes. She knew that for a creature like the kobold, there was no way it would go through with its attack. It had gained intellect and wouldn''t want to be injured if it can avoid such. Xue Yan guessed Lu Zhen also knew this and that was why he aimed for such a critical spot. He was forcing the monster to focus on him, using his life as bait to save Xue Yan''s.

    Indeed, without exception, the green eyed kobold retracted its w and moved against Lu Zhen. After Fudo''s previous trick it was already incensed about being injured by ''lower lifeforms''. It didn''t n on adding more to its ''injuries'' any more.

    ''Hehe, I won''t go down that easily.''

    Knowing he was going to die either way, Lu Zhen looked to severely injure the kobold, that way, he can increase the chances of the others sessfully getting away.

    "Puah!"

    "Arghhh!"

    As a w dug into his chest, Lu Zhen coughed out arge amount of blood but at the same time, using the entirety of his leftover strength and piercing the kobold right in the eye. What''s worse was that he didn''t stop there. Lu Zhen actually shed down with the dagger still stuck in its eye. For a living creature, the pain one would feel from such an attack was beyond estimation.

    With bulging green eyes, the kobold used its other w and sliced at Lu Zhen''s neck, decapitating him and sending him to his death.

    Just like that, the third yer, the [Assassin] Lu Zhen, had died.

 Chapter 208 - 202 : OP Boss

    ''Damn it.'' Sato cursed as he saw Lu Zhen''s disintegrating body. There was a smile on his face as his body slowly withered.

    *Boom*

    At thest moment, Lu Zhen''s remains detonated with a st. He had set off the remaining [Simple Explosives] he had on himself, in hopes that he could injure the kobold even more.

    While the explosion was indeed strong -capable of even taking down a full grown elephant- a above-level 10 monster couldn''t be affected by such. If one was lucky then the explosion might tickle such a monster otherwise, it wouldn''t even react to it. Whether Lu Zhen knew this or not didn''t matter as the explosion could also serve another purpose; that was to create a smoke-screen to inhibit the kobold''s vision, buying the others more time to escape.

    "Don''t just stand there! Run!" Seiichi yelled at Xue Yan from behind as he nocked an arrow on to his bow.

    "Sato, take her with you. I will provide cover." Seiichi said to Sato through the team chat.

    Sato didn''t argue as he felt it was unnecessary and would waste more time. Also, he could understand where Seiichi came from; Xue Yan was too slow and letting her be was too risky as there was a more than 70% chance that she would die.

    Running towards Xue Yan, Sato picked her up and immediately backed her before taking off on a sprint. The reason he did so was because Xue Yan''s speed was much worse than his. Even with the increased weight, Sato was still much faster than she was so giving her a ''ride'' though might hinder his speed but it would at least increase her chances of survival.

    "Thank you." Xue Yan softly muttered from behind Sato. She was indeed shocked silly when Sato picked her up but she didn''t resist. Though Xue Yan was a neer to gaming, it didn''t mean that she was dumb. She knew that if she was to survive this incident, she would need help from someone and Sato just happened to provide one.

    "Don''t thank me yet. Just hold on tight and hope that we live through this." Sato replied nonchntly.

    While Sato carried off Xue Yan, Seiichi stayed behind at a distance to grant them cover. Even though the mission turned out to be a failure in an unexpected way, the team still had to make sure that Sato and Xue Yan lived.

    "This will be tough." Seiichi sighed bitterly. He was just a level 7 [Ranger]. Facing a suspected level 10 world ss boss that should be at least Special Elite, without any special consumable or supplies, there was no amount of hope that could save anyone from death.

    "5 seconds. Just 5 seconds. That''s all the time we need!" Sato yelled in the team chat. At the same time, he activated [Sprint] and stored his sword into his space bag to prevent it from disrupting his movements.

    Even though Sato knew that Seiichi might only be able to hold down the monster for only a second or two, that wasn''t enough. If it where Sato alone, then maybe in two seconds he might have given a reason gap away from the monster and maybe before it caught up with him, he would have closed in on the tunnel''s entrance. But carrying Xue Yan with him, he needed more than double the time.

    The tunnel that Sato had aimed for all these while was only 78 metres or so away. Considering that an [Agility] of 10 points already closed in to the movement speed of the fastest man alive, a mere 78 metres could be conquered in but 5-6 seconds. However Sato had 12 points in his stat and he also had the added weight of Xue Yan''s figure so it would actually take more than 5 seconds to reach the stop. Nheless, Sato believed he could make it in time.

    Fudo''s ambush was already irritating to start with much less Lu Zhen''s. The green-eyed kobold was irked at the fact that it had gotten injured by these creatures. Though the explosion didn''t do much to it, the stab in the eye was a lot painful.

    "Bastards!!!" The green-eyed kobold roared.

    Green mes spewed forth from its sleeves turning the floor beneath it to moltenva. From this one could presume the temperature to be at around 1500¡ãC or close. At such temperature, most stones would be liquid and a human would be ash. This was the difference between a level 10 or more world ss boss; it was a being beyond a mortal''s understanding! If the green-eyed kobold even wished, it could move to a mortal settlement and be treated like a god, just as it was here.

    At this point in time, the green-eyed kobold had forgone the idea of ying with these measly creatures. It relinquished the original n of capturing some of them and simply wanted to annihte them all, here and now.

    The mes on kobold''s left hand dissipated as a light blue shade was revealed to wrapping the palm. It then moved the hand towards its left eye and used two fingers to touch the injured eye. The injured eye began to heal at an astonishing speed with the ''ck hole'' being closed at a visible pace, shocking Seiichi who stood on guard against it. This was the first time they had seen a monster in Infinite Realm healing.

    "Self-heal?!" Seiichi asked with a twisted expression on his face.

    While it was true that the concept of self-heal wasn''t new in most games much less VR games, yers of IR had yet to see any monster that had this characteristic. They all thought that the producers of IR had genuinely removed this ability after all, in reality, no one can self-heal in battle at such an absurd rate. Sure living organisms and even inanimate objects can self-heal but it wasn''t that absurd and they couldn''t do so in battle like that. Even as it stood in VR, one would require not just magic alone but the aid of either a trained individual or a special supply to achieve this. Without the aid of a healer ss or some health potions, healing in battle was virtually impossible. But no one had ever considered whether monster happened to know some healing spells just as yers did. They couldn''t be med though.

    Normally creatures and individuals weren''t a jack-of-all-trades; one would usually focus on one path and train along it. But currently, the green-eyed kobold had defied this logic. Not only had it used space magic but also me magic and now healing magic. The first two could be ignored after all, one could ssify them under one category; that is the attack magic category, but healing magic was altogether a different stuff. It was because of this that the two sses [Druids] and [Clerics] were a whole new job altogether. It had been presumed virtually impossible to learn two different magic categories. Even in previous VR games, unless one had reached the top, it was difficult to achieve this.

    With the knowledge of the kobold being able to self-heal, Seiichi realised that defeating it was definitely out of question, whether now or eventer. This was a true OP boss.

    ''Let''s get through this first.''

    Aiming his bow at the kobold, Seiichi let go of the arrow on it with the greatest of hope.

    [Drill Shot]

    The greatest advantage of [Rangers] was their longer attack range. Even whenparing with mage sses, [Rangers] were still on top. This was one of the passive advantages granted on to them by the game. While mages had to increase both [Intelligence] and [Willpower] to increase their attack range, [Rangers] only had to increase their [Strength]. Seiichi already had 17 points in there and added with the passive boost from his ss, his attack range was beyond the 20 metres mark, but below 30 metres. This was a very much safe distance in both PvP matches and certain PvE matches but against a monster like the kobold, this distance didn''t make him feel safe enough.

    "???"

    Originally, the green-eyed kobold was about to pursue after Xue Yan and Sato but it suddenly sensed an iing threat from the side. With a furious expression, the kobold swung its hand at that direction sending forth a billowing wave of green mes.

    "Die!"

    The mes were massive, reaching so high that they almost touched the ceiling of the floor. With such a massive size, the heat exuded from it wasn''t to be joked about. 19 metres from the mes was already hit enough to rival an oven set at 150¡ãC. In other words, water would turn to gas instantaneously and this was at a 10 metres distance! Even further out wasn''t left out as the temperature increased wildly, making those within a 30 metres range from the me to sweat out profusely as if they had just journeyed through the hottest desert for 3 days and 3 nights without the slightest reduction in heat. From the motions of the green-eyed kobold, this was an easy spell for it to cast, yet such a spell couldn''t be countered by any IR yer currently in existence. This was the true strength of a world ss boss!

    "Incredible!" Even though the attack was aimed at him, Seiichi couldn''t help but appreciate it. Normally, mes had an aesthetic feeling to them. Basically, in the eyes of some, mes were a beautiful an artistic fabrication of nature. This green mes had a different feeling to it that and me lovers and art appreciators engross themselves at the sight of it.

    Against the epassing green mes, Seiichi''s arrow was like a toothpick going against a boulder; the difference was so great that even a mad man could tell.

    *Whoosh*

    The arrow didn''t even have a single reaction as it was drowned by the seemingly all-epassing mes.

    Seiichi tried to retreat in time but in the end, he turned out to be much slower than the mes.

    "Damn it!" Seiichi cursed as he ran.

    It didn''t even take a second before the me wave was within 5 metres away from him. At this distance, Seiichi could already feel the scalding heat, which was by far too much for his body to handle. The feeling was akin to being ced within a huge oven and being baked alive; it was by no means as pleasurably as being in a sauna.

    ''Guess I''d have to use it.'' Seiichi thought as he sighed bitterly.

    Seiichi wasn''t a selfless fool or anything like that. The reason he decided to cover Sato and Xue Yan was because he believed he could leave here safely. As for the source of his belief, it was a special one use exchange talisman he had gotten from one of the Mortal rank chest the team had discovered on the way. The talisman came in a pair, an activation talisman and the position talisman. The talisman allowed one to use the activation part to teleport to the position of the other talisman. Though it was a one-use item, it was very valuable and wasn''t something one could easily buy with money alone. It was not a lie to even call the talisman a second life. In this situation, Seiichi couldn''t do anything other than activating the talisman.

    Luckily for him, before the battle against the kobold chief, Jekyll, Seiichi held the activation talisman with him and kept the positioning talisman at the entrance of one of the tunnels. The only reason why he didn''t use it earlier was because it had a distance limit of 100 metres. Seiichi had to wait till he was within a 100 metres of the positioning talisman.. Before he had interfered with he kobold''s chase, Seiichi made sure that he was within range or a least close to it.

 Chapter 209 - 203 : The Secret Of The Corridor 1 (Very Big )

    *vroom*

    Within less than a seconds, the massive congration of mes drowned Seiichi''s ''figure'', going past it and turning the entire ce into ake of moltenva. Of course, with the presence of the mes, this scenery wasn''t spotted till the green mes died out 10 metres past Seiichi''s previous position.

    The man in question had already activated the talisman and arrived just beside the tunnel''s entrance. Without a second to waste, Seiichi turned around and headed into it, in fear of the kobold reacting to his disappearance and giving chase. This wasn''t Seiichi giving up and running away rather, this was the only possible move he could make. After retreating at least 100 metres forwards, Seiichi couldn''t make a single attack from that distance. Since he couldn''t do anything anymore, there was no reason for him to remain behind as that would be courting death.

    While all these seemed to have taken quite sometime to ur, it didn''t. From Seiichi shooting his first arrow to being forced back, not even 3 seconds had gone by. The green-eyed kobold didn''t even spend more than a second against him as it only took just a simple motion of its hand to not only block Seiichi''s attack but also counter.

    "Sato. It''sing!" Xue Yan screamed from behind Sato. Since Sato was doing all the running, she decided to focus on monitoring the kobold. Upon seeing its approaching figure, Xue Yan immediately alerted Sato.

    "Damn it." Sato cursed. He was still at least 65 metres away from the tunnel and this was thanks to him using [Sprint], otherwise, he would have been much farther away.

    While [Sprint] had aided him in increasing his speed, factoring in Xue Yan''s weight and the fact he had only ran for less than 2 seconds, he couldn''t have gone any farther than this. The green-eyed kobold was, at least they thought, a level 10 monster. Even if it wasn''t on the physical side, it would only take 3-4 seconds for it to catch up to them and 1 second has already gone by.

    "Just keep running!"

    Sato and Xue Yan suddenly heard a voice in the team chat. Xue Yan didn''t have the time to figure it out as she saw was pressured by the kobold''s looking figure but Sato didn''t need to think much to know who it was.

    ''That fat pig...'' Sato smirked as he focused solely on running and ignored the threat behind. This infallible faith in his friend was something that took a while to grow within him. The two of them could be said to be the best of best friends, brothers but not by blood. Just as Fudo had an undying trust and believe in Sato, Sato felt the same way about him.

    "That''s...!" Xue Yan suddenly eximed.

    Sato nced at the side and saw what had attracted her attention.

    From behind, a zing ming spear sped forward towards the kobold. It didn''te from directly behind, but at an angle from the side. The shot was well taken such that the spear looked to be heading for Sato and Xue Yan but with the pace they were moving at, they would surely overtake it leaving the kobold to be at the targeted spot.

    And just as they had thought, a secondter, they had gone past the target spot of the spear and the green-eyed kobold just happened to be there. It discovered the zing spear and at the same time, realized that it was a lot more dangerous than the arrow from before.

    Halting its steps, the green-eyed kobold turned to confront the attack and ignored the escaping duo.

    It didn''t take long for the spear to arrive but with a swing of its palm, the kobold blocked the attack with a green shield.

    *Boom*

    The spear blew up on collision with the shield, sending shards of fiery energy in different directions. Luckily for Sato and Xue Yan, they had gotten away from the active range of the attack and so were free from danger.

    Because of the surprise explosion, the kobold was forced to remain still, till the attack had exhausted itself before it could resume its chase.

    There goes myst piece." Fudo sighed with a somewhat bitter look seeing as he didn''t even injure the monster.

    The fire spear that he had just shot actually came from a scroll Fudo luckily got during their progress through the floors. The attack power was weak but for monsters under level 10, it was still quite impressive. Fudo had left it to face the kobold chief, Jekyll, but seeing as how they had managed well enough in that battle, he didn''t use it again. While it had no use back then, it was still a bit useful now.

    It was indeed true that the spell was weak against monsters level 10 and above but that didn''t mean it was totally useless against them. It might not cause a heavy injury like [K¨­jin''s Arrow] but it could still serve as a form of impediment for them, just like it did now.

    "I guess it''s time to leave."

    While he was indeed a good enough distance away from the kobold, Fudo still hadn''t arrived at his destination. He would only feel safe once the environment changed.

    While Fudo''s attack didn''t cause much to the kobold, it did buy Sato and Xue Yan more time. The green-eyed kobold had spent at least 2 seconds on that attack if not 3. Using this time, Sato managed to widen the gap between the monster and him and Xue Yan. He only needed another 2 seconds to be close to the tunnel but this was on the condition he could maintain his speed. Sadly, [Sprint] was about to deactivate in the next second.

    ''Damn it! Just a bit closer!'' Sato gritted his teeth as he moved with all his might.

    The green-eyed kobold pursued them closely and with Sato losing the advantage of [Sprint], it quickly caught up to them by the 2nd second. At this point in time, Sato was but less than 30 metres away from the tunnel. He only needed 2-3 more seconds to make it but it looked like he wasn''t destined to do so. This was because the kobold suddenly used its spatial maniption abilities and closed in on the two.

    Extending its hand forward, the kobold could almost feel Xue Yan''s cor at its grasp. Xue Yan cast a fireball at the monster. Sato was too busy running so she took it on herself to act as the defense. However, even though the distance between the two parties was already quite close, the kobold easily dodged the spell. This was because not only was Xue Yan skillscking but also because the kobold was a lot stronger and faster than she was.

    Seeing her attack miss, Xue Yan had already began to lose hope. She spammed [Fireball] in multiple sessions but the best she could do was dy her imminent fall Hy only a second. In the next second, the green-eyed kobold ignored the attacks and swooped in to grab her.

    It was at that moment that the green-eyed kobold suddenly froze in its steps its eyes looking lost as if it couldn''t see them but was elsewhere. Xue Yan noticed this irregrity but she didn''t attack, fearing that she might awaken the monster from its fleeting state.

    This went on for just 2 seconds, but these two seconds were more than enough to preserve the life of the duo as Sato managed to take thatst step for them, heading into the tunnel.

    The green-eyed kobold was ''lucky'' enough to reawaken at that moment and send itself back at them. However, as it wanted to move into the tunnel, it collided with an invisible wall situated in front.

    *Bang*

    The green-eyed kobold was worthy of being called a world ss boss as this negligence didn''t cause it to take a fall nor get injured. Not even a concussion was felt by the monster as it red at the tunnel wishing it could tear those two apart.

    *Bang* *Bang*

    Refusing to give up so easily, the green-eyed kobold continuously attacked the wall, using a mixture of magic and physical blows. However, all was for naught as not even a ripple was detected in this invisible barrier.

    "Roar!!!"

    With onest re, the green-eyed kobold lifted its head and turned around, releasing a great roar through the floor.

    "Ha! Ha! Thank goodness¡­" Leaning her back against a wall, Xue Yan breathed out with relief.

    The entire operation was thrilling, stressful and filled with various ups and downs. The entire task was filled with variousyers of difficulties that strained the yers and would have forced them to their end. Even after they had defeated the kobold chief, they were shocked to discover that they had faced the wrong target, with the right one appearing at that moment. This lead to the team losing at least 3 of their men, reducing the previous line-up of 7 yers to 4. Twists and turns and ones that weren''t nice at that.

    Taking a few lights sticks[1] from their space bag, the two light them up and used it to survey their environment. Compared to me torches, these light sticks were much weaker in intensity but they were still able to provide just enough light for on to see. The point of it having a weaker intensity was so as to avoid attracting unknown creatures towards the wielder. In dark ces, adventurers mostly suffered ambush to monsters just because their light was too bright and had attracted unwanted attention. To solve this issue, a rune-smith[2] had developed a special type of equipment that could glow in the dark like an average torch. The difference being that the light stick produced could be turned on and off by a simple incantation and also, the lights produced from the appliance had a weak intensity and so, at a distance beyond 5 metres or so, it won''t be visible.

    "What''s this ce anyway?" Xue Yan asked after calming her emotions. The walls of the entire passage were brown in color just like ordinary soil. From the rough works and finishing, I could be surmised that the passage was a natural creation but at the same time, it gave off the feeling that it wasn''t one.

    "I don''t know but I don''t think its a nice ce to be." Sato replied her.

    "Why do you say so?" Xue Yan asked with a inquisitive expression.

    "Simple. Because the kobold didn''t chase after us." Sato pointed at the path they had arrived from.

    It had already been at least 15 seconds since they had stepped into the passage. With its speed, it would only take the kobold 5 clean and clear seconds for it to catch up to them from a 100 metre distance much less a 3 metres one. Yet, there was no sign of the kobold at their back.

    As Xue Yan realised this, her expression had changed multiple times visibly with a mixture of shock, fear, anxiety and wariness taking their turns. While Sato didn''t say much to start with, upon thinking deeper into his words, one would discover the reason for Xue Yan''s reaction. For the green-eyed kobold to not chase after them all this while would most likely be due to one of two reasons.

    First, the kobold couldn''t enter the passage. This opinion stems from the fact that yers couldn''t enter all the tunnels in the 10th floor so following the same logic, maybe monsters couldn''t enter the tunnels yers could.

    The second reason, which happens to be the most logical one and the one with the highest possibility, was that the green-eyed kobold was scared of something. It is said that no matter how intelligent a creature gets, its instincts would still remain deep within. Animals and monster all had an instinctive reaction to bloodlust and danger. There have been tons of instances where animals were able to sense danger, whether natural or induced, and the same could be said with certain monsters. It was either that the green-eyed kobold had sensed something ferocious and dangerous to it or that it had a very bad and, possibly, life-threatening experience here before resulting to it not daring to enter again. No matter which of the two it was, it wasn''t a good thing for the Sato and Xue Yan.

    After having so many upheavals in her emotions, Xue Yan finally calmed down as she noticed that despite the revtion, Sato still remained calm as if he had expected it. The same thing had happened when the green-eyed kobold had arrived. Even as it used its overwhelming difference in strength to squash the team''s attacks, Sato was unperturbed. Even when he yelled orders at the team, he always did so in a calm and collected manner. This characteristic of his was what made him a good leader that was trusted by hisrades and unknowingly to her, Xue Yan found this part of Sato charming.

    "Hmm? Is there any thing on my face?" Sato asked Xue Yan as he noticed that she had kept her look and focus all on him.

    "No, no. There''s nothing there. It''s just¡­I was wondering why you aren''t worried about the possible threat dwelling here?" Xue Yan hurriedly changed the topic as a red ''rose'' blossomed on her cheeks.

    "Oh, that?" Sato asked. The 10th floor was already dark much less a tunnel within it. Sato couldn''t notice Xue Yan''s reaction so he only paid attention to her words.

    "My grandpa always use to tell me something; take care of the pennies and the pound would take of themselves. It''s a proverb from the Old Era." Sato said.

    "What does that have to do with us?" Xue Yan asked as she noticed Sato going quiet.

    Sato replied her, "Well its actually an advice on how to save up arge amount of cash but my grandpa gave it a twist. ording to him, we should take care of what we have in hand and the future would handle itself and I agree. Why should we worry about the future that we can''t tell? We''ve done the best we could and survived but worrying wouldn''t get us out of our predicament or make things any better[3] now would it? We might as well just keep moving forward and see what the future holds for us. Who knows, maybe the kobold might be scared of an inanimate object rather than a living one. If that''s the case then worrying now would be totally pointless especially as we don''t have any other path to take."

    "I see¡­ your grandpa is a really wise and responsible man." Xue Yan said.

    Recalling the silly smug on the old man''s face each time he beat him in a sword fight together with his randomly childish behaviour, Sato put on a wryly smile and replied "Yeah sure. He''s responsible alright."

    "Let''s move in deeper and explore the area. Standing here is a waste of time and wouldn''t get us anywhere." seeing as there was nothing to do at the moment, Sato raised up a suggestion.

    "Okay." Xue Yan nodded in acquiescence.

    The two then began walking down the passage, which had extended to be a corridor, looking for anything that could let them know where they were. Originally, they were at the 10th floor of the Middle Region and they also thought that this passage would just lead elsewhere within the floors but with all the ups and downs, and turns and corners they had made, Sato began to doubt that assumption. The more he considered that this could be a higher floor, the more Sato realised that he could be right. What else would make the green-eyed kobold scared if not for a stronger existence and where else could one find an existence more stronger than that kobold other than the higher floors? Having asked himself this question, Sato''s heart became cold as he realised that they might have left the wolf''s den and stepped into the tiger''sir.

    ''Oh well, there''s nothing we can do about it.''

    With that thought in mind, Sato didn''t bother worrying about anything that would happen. He adopted a ''let''s wait and see'' disposition as he explored the corridor with Xue Yan.

    Initially, precisely at the very first time the two had stepped into the passage, the environment was very simple and uninteresting. It was just like an average tunnel that was gorged out from a mountain with only brown colored rocks by the side. Now however, there were a few carvings and scribbles on the wall. Varying from animals to stick,man figures, it could be presumed that an intelligent civilization must have explored here first, if not the original owners of this ce.

    "This ce is really strange¡­" Xue Yanmented as she nced at the various sketches on the wall.

    Sato walked over to one part of the wall and stood right in front of a drawing, studying it with an expressionless face.

    "What''s wrong?" Xue Yan gently asked.

    "The drawings." Sato said.

    "They are humans."

 Chapter 210 - 204 : The Secret Of The Corridor 2

    [AN : Please read the previous chapter. It just gotpleted.]

    "The drawings." Sato said. "They are humans."

    Xue Yan was shocked. "Humans? Why the hell would there be humans living underground? Are sure about that?"

    "Come take a look." Sato moved away from the wall, exposing it for Xue Yan to catch a glimpse.

    On the wall that Sato was referring to, there was a bunch of artistic engravings etched on it. Though the symbols were a lot haphazard and jumbled that it was almost iprehensible and looking a lot like a 7 year old''s art, if one were to focus harder on it, they could make out a bit of what was drawn.

    The ''humans'' Sato spoke of were actually a bunch of stick-man-like creatures with round heads. Though he couldn''t confirm his suspicions, Sato believed they were humans based on the visual representation and vibe that the artist was trying to give off.

    The drawings went all the way from when the walls were no longer nk till further down the path. Divided into sections with each one seeming to tell a different story, the scribbles and carvings on the wall was like the diary of a civilization that had roamed the world long ago.

    At a section of the wall just close to where Sato previously stood before, there were a few stick-man figures holding what looked like staffs or spears. The beings looked to live a simple life devoid of war, religion or government. It was like the most simplest of civilizations yet, from the vibe the ''pictures'' gave off, couldn''t bepared to the ancient man of caves[1].

    "These are¡­!"

    While the aforementioned section looked to be made by a bunch of 4th graders, the section just where Sato stood at and also the ce Xue Yan was currently staring at, was like the work of a an amazing artist. Though you couldn''t say that the carver was on the level of Michngelo, Donatello or Da Vinci, he/she was still on par with modern day artists. The two sections were just separated by a less than 5 millimetres line yet the difference was very huge. It was precisely from this section that Sato confirmed his belief that the individuals and species in this artwork were humans.

    "Humans¡­they really are humans!" Xue Yan eximed. Even though this was a VR world, she just couldn''t fathom the thought of humans living in this hell-like maze, with various monsters and secrets hidden within.

    "But how?" Xue Yan immediately asked. She wasn''t so good at hieroglyphs and couldn''t understand the meaning nor representation of the drawings in front of her. Though Xue Yan surmised that it told a story, she just didn''t know how to directly trante it. She didn''t know when but Xue Yan suddenly had this thought and feeling that Sato knew all. Even if he didn''t, he could easily figure it out or give an exnation close to the real deal.

    Sato answered her, "I''m not so sure but from the drawings from the previous sections, their choice of settlement and a few other factors, I''d say that the individuals that lived here either encountered a devastating experience above and forced to move down here or were simply forced to live here."

    "What''s the difference?" Xue Yan asked, confused.

    "The first implies that they had no choice and did so for survival. It could be a gue, famine or an all-epassing war. Whatever it was, it didn''t necessary target them; they were just unlucky. As for the second, it simply implies what it means. They were forced by another to move. In other words, they were targeted. It could be other humans or other species." Sato rified his previous words.

    After pausing for a while for Xue Yan to digest his words, Sato continued,

    "Looking at the art, it shows that for some reason or the other, these guys were forced down here by another group of species. The most possible bet would be by their fellow humans. The drawings arecking in detailed descriptions and words so I''m not so clear on the reason. They might have been criminals, weaklings, cursed or maybe abandoned for some reason or the other. At the same time, I might also be over-thinking things and they might have just migrated into the mountains, probably cause they wanted to. Thend above is filled with many species and so conflicts of various kinds would arise due to resources. So in a way, moving underground isn''t a bad decision to avoid all these."

    While Sato wasn''t sure of his first set of words, Xue Yan felt that he might be right. This was because exactly as Sato had said, the drawings on the wall showed that whatever human civilization that had dwelt here before had previously encountered a terrifying enemy in the open. This was depicted in a section behind where what looked like the civilization in question, held up what looked like spears and halberds and went to face off against another set of stick-man like beings rode on creatures. Eventually, the next ''slide'' showed that they had moved to a mountain. While it looked like they were forced by the enemy, since there was no verbal or textual confirmation anywhere, Sato didn''t wholeheartedly agree with his own idea, yet. This was because in the following sections or ''slides'', there was no sign of the civilization losing in the war. In fact, the result of the war seemed to have been eliminated or better yet, not ''stored''.

    "Let''s keep going." Sato said before moving forward.

    Xue Yan responded in kind and followed Sato a the duo headed deeper into the corridor.

    As they walked further in, they also paid attention to the carvings and drawings on the wall. At some point in time, murals also began to appear on the wall. It was no longer the same stone carvings or engravings but coloured images that helped the two understand more about the story the images told. Apparently, from the murals, whatever human tribe that had lived here had a very long history, witnessing decades and centuries of changes and raising generations after generations. They looked to be the peaceful kind as apart from the previous engraving of them fighting a war, there was no other such imagery. The lives of the underground humans was quite simple without any legendary or noteworthy experience. They looked more like anti-activists and easily contented people than your average humans with great dreams of big achievements.

    Eventually, Sato and Xue Yan lost interest in these murals because in the following ones they saw, it was just a depiction of the simple life and meagre experiences of the civilization. There was nothing there that could give them any information on who the civilizations were or what this ce was.

    "Hmm?" After walking down the corridor for almost 10 minutes, Sato saw a dot of light a few metres forward.

    "What''s that?" Xue Yan asked. "Light?"

    "Let''s find out."

    Walking towards the light, Sato didn''t increase his walking speed but actually slowed it down. The closer he got to that point, the slower he walked and the less sound his footsteps produced. They were in unexplored territory so prudence and caution were the two most important qualities to be exhibited here.

    Just as they looked to be 10 metres away from the light source, Sato was finally able to see what the light spot was. It turned out that the light spot really wasn''t a ''spot''. It was more like a cavern deep within the mountains. From the distance they stood, it was very difficult to discern the interior of the hall so Sato and Xue Yan made their way towards it. As for why there was such a bright light shining out from there, none of them could guess urately.

    ''Hopefully, there would be a way out.'' Sato thought.

    Having been force to such desperate conditions, Sato was looking for a way out of the corridor. The duo were forced into the tunnel without a choice and the only way out(from what they know so far) was also their way in. Sadly, Sato guessed that since the green-eyed kobold couldn''t get them a while back, it would end up having a few of its nsmen monitor the entrance and wait for the day Sato and Xue Yan exited. With such a scary thought in mind, Sato had long ago decided to look for another exit in here rather than to use the previous one.

    ''Hopefully¡­''

 Chapter 211 - 205 : Exploring The Floor

    "Wow¡­" Xue Yan unconsciously let out a light gasp of admiration.

    They had just walked into the hall and began to take the sights into their eyes and from Xue Yan''s reaction, it was easy to see that the ce was quite impressive.

    Simr to the main area of the 10th floor, this entire ce was a huge cavern system equipped with not just its own flora and fauna but also sunlight. Yes, sunlight! It was quite surprising to discover sunlight within a cavern located deep inside ck Grill''s Mountain[1]. It wasn''t that there was a hole made on the cavern''s roof, letting in sunlight, instead there was a real sun located high above! The cavern''s roofs were so high up that not only was there a sun but there were also clouds floating in the atmosphere.

    Green grass and tress with colorful flowers scattered all round, n air drifting through the area, and a warm sunlight raining upon all creatures, such a magnificent scenery would make one feel that they weren''t underground but outside instead. It was just like a picturesque scene right out of an award-winning Spring season photograph.

    "This is unreal¡­" Xue Yan said, still in shock of environment.

    They had appeared dozens of metres away from the closest building so they were able to take in a part of the view of the cavern from here Behind them was a huge wall with a 5 metres wide 3 metres tall hole. It was from this hole that the two had arrived into this cavern.

    While Xue Yan was in shock, Sato, on the other hand, didn''t give off such a strong reaction to the view as she did. He had already yed a ton of other VR games and had seen simr scenes or even much better ones. The only noteworthy attribute Sato felt was worthplimenting was that the view was much better than other VR games in terms of graphics quality. But this was to be expected if one were to consider the fact that the game made use of 4 UHDR graphics; one especially developed just for this game.

    While Xue Yan was lost in appreciating the beauty of the entire ce, Sato surveyed the environment with his eyes, scanning for any signs or clues of a living creature or what not.

    The cavern was reallyrge and byrge, it was really reallyrge. It could fit in two Middle region 10th floors and still have space for a third! One shouldn''t forget that the Middle region''s 10th floor was already big; big enough to fit in at least 2-3 standard football stadiums. In other words, this cavern could actually fit in 6 stadiums at a conservative estimate, but 9 stadiums at an exaggerated estimate. These stadiums weren''t just your average college stadiums but one closing in on the Wembley stadium in terms of perimeter and area.

    The entire cavern wasn''t just filled with nts but also signs of civilization. These included but were not limited to, buildings, gates, statues and so on. The architecturalyout of the entire cavern was such that all buildings extended outwards in a circle with the building right at the centre being the tallest of them all. Without a doubt, this edifice had to be a very important one to this civilization, possibly being the centre of government and representation of authority of the upper echelons of the civilization. If they were to investigate these buildings, Sato and Xue Yan would probably find a few information that would exin more to them about their current circumstance and also the original dwellers of this cavern. Sadly, most of the buildings were already wrecked beyond repair and recognition and the remaining ones left standing were still greatly damaged, just less whenparing them to the others.

    "Let''s go." Sato suddenly said.

    Xue Yan, who he was obviously addressing, was shocked out of her reverie before she asked " Where to?"

    Sato replied as he began walking forward, "The tallest building."

    Of the entire buildings left standing, the one at the centre was the least damaged. Added to the fact that it was possibly the administrative centre of the civilization that resided here before, Sato felt that he would have a much higher chance of finding some answers in there than anywhere else.

    The original goal was to find another way out but as things stood, the green-eyed kobold, which was most likely the real world ss boss, wouldn''t be defeated any time soon. Since that was the case, Sato decided to explore this cavern. Who knows, maybe he might find a good surprise down here.

    As Sato and Xue Yan approached the centre of the cavern, they got closer to the various buildings and were able to see them up close which was better whenpared to doing so from far out.

    While a majority of the buildings were made of stones and bricks, a couple of them had wood mixed in. The architectural style of the houses was one never seen before. The houses were either made in a rectangr format or a squarish one. Lines were drawn on the walls with the spacing between each being urate to thest millimetre. Even the houses were equally spaced out and had the exact same scale. In other words, each rectangr house, though might not be equally the same in measurements, but they were in a scale. For rectangr houses, it was a 3:4:2[2] while square-type houses went by 1:1:1[3].

    Another noticeable fact about the houses was that the doors stood at a height of 3 metres. Normally, an average human was about 175-180cm(5.74-5.91 feet) in height and though they were some towered above that, it wasn''t so absurd. With a height of around 175-180cm, unless one was building a luxurious pce or hotel, logically, the doors should be at a height of 2-2.5 metres(6.56-8.520 feet). Most of the houses here looked like residential houses and not anything special. So for the homes to have a door height of 3 metres, this implied that either this civilization had a tradition of making tall doors or their average height was much taller than regr humans.

    ''This brings us back to the question of who they are. Are they humans or another race?''Sato thought as he nced deeply at a door close-by.

    Apart from the rubble and partly wrecked houses, there seemed to be nothing else worth taking note of, that is from the outside.

    "Let''s check out a few of these houses." Sato suddenly said. Though a majority of the houses were wrecked beyond recognition, some of them were still standing. Since the buildings looked to be devoid of any living creature, Sato wasn''t nning on letting any possible spoils go free like that. Even more possible was the prospect that he could find a clue as to which civilization existed here and learn more about their history and culture. The buildings were wrecked beyond recognition so Sato wasn''t able to get any information on the civilization based off of their architectural designs.

    "Okay." Xue Yan nodded. Sato was the de-facto of the current ''team'' plus he had also saved her so Xue Yan wasn''t inclined to argue with him.

    Since they were already within the city, the duo didn''t need to worry much about where to start from. All they had to do was to look for the closest sturdy building that was only partially devastated. While this sounded easy, one should recall that most of the houses were already destroyed, so the somewhat easy sounding task was actually a lot difficult than one would think. Luckily for the duo, there was one just a few metres in front.

    The selected house was a 2 story building with each story averaging at about 5 or 7 metres in height. It was brown in colour and had a few engraved lines and images on the outer walls, acting as a sort of design for the house. Sliding a finger across the wall, Sato noticed that there was no sort of remnant ash or soil on his hand or even his sword after he made a mark on it using his de. In other words, the material used to make the building was sturdy and had a smooth surface, simr to concrete or wood. This goes to show that the construction technology of this civilization was above average for an ancient ones. They didn''t use mud or created rough works out of wood but instead used an unknown material that was as sturdy as concrete. They also smoothened the walls of the buildings and while this didn''t seem to tell much, it showed that their aesthetic and design senses were approaching that of the current era. Added with the murals and engravings in the corridor from earlier, at their peak, this civilization didn''t seem to becking aspared to the current era, in terms of art and aesthetics. To put it in another way, this ancient civilization was anything but old-fashioned.

    The target house wasn''t all thatplete as it was partially demolished. Half of the roof was gone alongside a part of the 2nd floor. Only the ground floor(1st floor) and the door were leftplete. Of the majority of partially demolished buildings, this one was a bit moreplete than the rest. Because of this, there was a limited space left for searching and this was what Sato wanted. Their main goal was still the building at the centre and Sato didn''t want to spend too much time checking out other buildings.

    "Be on guard." Sato said to Xue Yan. While it looked like the entire ce was devoid of living creatures, Sato wouldn''t start treating it as such until this was proven. This was why he had taken on a cautious guard and requested Xue Yan to do the same.

    cing one hand on the door, Sato applied a bit of force and pushed it outwards.

 Chapter 212 - 206 : Exploring The Floor 2

    (AN : There''s quite a high possibility that errors, and a whole lot of them at that, might exist.)

    cing one hand on the door, Sato applied a bit of force and pushed it outwards. On doing so though, he experienced arge amount of resistance as a result of the door''s weight.

    ''The heck?!'' Sato wondered what kind of creature such a door was made for.

    In order to move the door, Sato was then forced to use both arms and push it in. But by doing so, he would be open to any possible ambush from within.

    "Xue Yan, keep a close eye and cover me." Sato said to her.

    While Xue Yan wondered why Sato was overly cautious, she didn''t say anything but simply nodded in acquiescence.

    After receiving her confirmation, Sato sheathed his sword and ced both hands on the door. With a low grunt, he pushed the door with an appropriate amount of force to prevent it from producing too much noise and alerting whatever potential figure that might be in there.

    *Creak*

    With the force applied from Sato''s arms, the wood-like door began to move in slowly, creaking at every juncture; signifying how long it has been since the door had ever been opened.

    It took Sato a full 4 seconds before he was able to create enough space for one person to barely enter at a time. Despite Sato having the original intention of using little force to open the door, he ended up using almost all of his strength because of the door''s weight.

    ''If the door is this difficult to open then I wonder what the circumstances would be with the tower.'' Sato thought as he nced at the door that he had barely managed to open.

    "Aren''t you going in?" Xue Yan asked as she noticed Sato leaning on the wall instead of going in.

    "I need to catch my breath first." Sato replied.

    After at least 10 seconds had gone by before Sato squeezed into the building through the miniature opening. He scanned the entire room briefly before inviting Xue Yan in.

    The room that the two stepped into was just like any regr room in a house. It was an average-sized room and from the furniture and cing, Sato guessed that it was probably the sitting room. Just like a regr sitting room, there was a table, a few chairs, and a roughly created bookshelf to decorate the room. It simply looked nothing out of the norms, except for one minor yet important detail; the entire furniture was bigger than normal. The chair was big enough to carry a cow and still have some leftover space. The table was a rectangr one with a width of 3 metres, a length of 6 metres and a height of at least 1 metre. All in all, this implied that whatever species or creature that dwelt here had a muchrger physique than an average human being.

    "It looks like we made a mistake in our conjecture. It''s even possible that whatever civilization this is, might not even be human. They might not even be rted to humans." Xue Yan said.

    "Not really. It''s true that they might not be humans but saying that we aren''t rted is definitely wrong. Otherwise, why do they look like us?" Sato retorted.

    Recalling the murals in the corridor, Xue Yan realised that Sato might be right so she only nodded in response.

    "It seems like here''s safe. Let''s split and try to find any clue regarding this ce. If you find anything ''special'', you can keep it to yourself." Sato said. The ''special'' here was any loot or supply that wasn''t directly useful as a clue to discover the identity of the ancient civilization. In summary, any resource, consumables, weapons or equipment.

    Though the two were a team, it was just a temporary arrangement that resulted from Xue Yan''s deal with him. Because of this, there would surely be an issue of sharing loot among them. For the battle against the kobold chief, because of their misinformation, Xue Yan was left out of the loot since she had agreed that with them taking the risk to fight a world-ss boss, it wasn''t right of her to still go after the loot. Even though they had eventually discovered that the kobold chief wasn''t the world-ss boss, because of the following events that had urred, there was no time to correct the error of sharing the loot. While Xue Yan didn''t make a fuss about the previous error, Sato guessed that she was still dissatisfied but didn''t speak up because they still weren''t out of their predicament.

    Since he wanted to prevent such a problem arising once more, Sato made up his mind that whatever they find here individually, would be held by the person who found it. So even if Xue Yan finds a piece of Legend-rank equipment, Sato wouldn''t pester her nor pressure her to hand it over and vice versa.

    "Alright."

    Xue Yan wasn''t dumb so she could easily figure out why Sato made such a decision. The truth was that even if Sato decided to hug all the loot, she wouldn''t argue with him; though she would be dissatisfied, Xue Yan wouldn''t retort. This is because it was thanks to thebined effort of Sato and his friends that she was still alive. While dying in the game would result in losing a bunch of Experience points or a level at most, Xue Yan didn''t want her progress to be hampered. The reason was because of something a friend of hers told her regarding the game, Infinite Realm. From that, Xue Yan reached the decision that she would try her best not to lose out to the other pros and one way of doing that was to minimize her death count.

    Apart from the main door that Sato and Xue Yan entered from, there was another door and also a passage on the opposite side, that lead to the stairs. In the passage, there were two doors; one by the left and another by the right and a bit further in front was the stairs. 4 different possible options to pick but only two yers.

    "Let''s leave the stairs forst. We can explore the door over there and leave the other two for individual selection. What do you say?" Sato brought up a solution.

    Xue Yan nodded, "No problem."

    The two then went into the door within the sitting room. Taking a good look inside, they noticed that it was a store of sorts. A fewrge empty crates were scattered all over the ce alongside a bunch of sacks that looked to be filled with something.

    Xue Yan walked over to inspect the sacks but Sato suddenly grabbed her hand.

    "What?" Xue Yan was a bit surprised at his actions.

    "From the looks of things, this room might be a store of sorts. It''s quite possible that whatever that''s in there might be a soluble or a good. If that''s the case, then with all the years that have gone by with it being left like that, it might have expired already." Sato exined.

    Seeing him stop, Xue Yan replied, "So? There''s still the chance that it''s just some metals or something like that, that''s in there."

    Sato nodded. "True. But what if it''s as I said? It''s quite possible that thepounds might have expired to the point of bing poison."

    Xue Yan''s face reacted visibly to Sato''s words because it was likely true. Foods like eggs and oysters be poisonous once they go past their expiration date. Even if this world had magic, it didn''t mean that the foods don''t spoil.

    Xue Yan then took out a piece of clothing and used it to shield her face. At the same time, Sato walked over to the sacks and pried them open with his sword.

    Just as he had thought, a small pure-colored gas escaped from the sack before it diffused out. This gas was the result of the elongated storing of certain types of materials (whether edible or not) for some time.

    After the gas had cleared out, Sato inspected the sack and discard it was just as he had thought. Checking through the entire sacks in here, Sato reached the conclusion that there was nothing of worth in this room. And so, just like that, Sato and Xue Yan exited the ce and went over to the rooms by the stairs.

    After selecting their choices, the two walked into the rooms and scanned around for anything of importance. This only took them 5 minutes before the two exited the room with only a 30 secondg behind the other.

    Following the original rule Sato had brought up, none of them said anything about their findings; only reporting that there was nothing of value in there. Together, both Sato and Xue Yan then went up to the top floor.

    With the second floor partially damaged, there was not much to look at. Sato and Xue Yan walked up the stairs before ncing around the floor upon reaching. After a light-detailed search of 3 minutes, they left the house, supposedly, without any loot.

    "Let''s keep moving." Not bothering about whatever harvest Xue Yan might have reaped, Sato walked alongside her towards the tower at the centre.

    After seeing the state of the previous building, they both unequivocally decided to ignore the other buildings and focus only on the goal at the centre since the chances of discovering any information in rtion to this ancient civilization were much higher at the tower. Of course, the greed and adventurous spirit of yers made it so that they wouldn''t totally ignore the other buildings.. Only once they were done exploring the gigantic tower would they finally explore the area.

 Chapter 213 - 207 : Black Grillâ€™s History || The Man Who Scammed All

    ck Grill''s Cave is an extremely huge ''infrastructure'' whose origin and creation are unknown by the general popce. This means that not only the yers but also the NPCs, don''t actually know the history nor origin of this ce.

    The earliest tales of the Cave system was that of its discovery. Back then, the Fallen Heart Kingdom had yet to exist and there was only a low-level independent settlement of humans close by. The humans in the settlement decided to explore the grounds but in the process of doing so, they lost a lot of men. Eventually, they left thends unimed and unexplored, focusing on their usual daily lives and activities. The only noteworthy achievement the vige did was tagging the site as a forbidden ground.

    With the passage of time, ck Grill''s Cave -which didn''t have this name back then- was slowly forgotten and the hands of modern civilization began to spread out. Merchant caravan began to wander far and wide in search of customers and tribal specialties. It was during this period that the uncultured settlement was discovered by a not-so-popr merchant caravan, and trade began to flourish for both sides. As the tribesmen got closer with the merchants, they began to share some of their knowledge with them and this included the information about the cursed cave, the name the vigersbelled the cave system with.

    The leader of the merchant caravan spected that the cave system might either be a monster settlement or might house the legacy of a deceased legendary-ss warrior or an ancient civilization. No matter which route he thought from, the cave system represented gold in his eyes; the only difference being at what cost and its worth. Stirred by his greed, the leader then hired a bunch of mercenaries and together with a few vigers to lead the way, headed to explore the cursed cave in hopes of getting a legacy of a deceased warrior strong warrior or an ancient civilization. Of course, he didn''t really participate in the expedition; only watching from a safe distance. The result was nothing short of expectations with only 3 mercenaries out of a whooping 30 men surviving the expedition.

    Knowing that he couldn''t make a fortune out of this due to his limited abilities, the caravan head was left with two options. The first being to team up with a few other powers at his level to explore the sight and thest being to sell the knowledge of this ce to other. From the narrative of the 3 surviving mercenaries, the caravan head eliminated the thought of the cave system housing the remains of an ancient civilization or race and settled on the idea that it held either a monster settlement or the remains of a very strong warrior, though the chances of this was low. After weighing the scenarios of cost to reward especially with the added fact of the cave system most likely being a monster horde settlement, the merchant caravan head decided to sell the information to others.

    Returning back to the vige, he gathered his men and set out. As his caravan was simr to a wandering merchant''s, the caravan head had visited various towns and settlements. Each time he did so, he always ''inadvertently'' mentioned about a ''legacy sight'' over a ss of wine[1]. To make the conversation more believable, he cursed his deficiency in not being able to organise argepany of men for the exploration but always avoided to mention the location. All these was done in the evening or night times, under the ''influence'' of alcohol.

    Actually, the caravan head was a heavyweight in drinking but no one knew this since he hid the fact well by avoiding alcohol or, in cases when he couldn''t do such, pretending to be drunk after 3 cups. For this scam, he drank a few cups where ever he went to and pretended to be drunk fooling everyone.

    For those interested in his ''spilled beans'', they would confront him the next morning when he was awake and subtly ask for more information. ''Shocked'' the caravan head would try to deny this and say that it was a lie but the ''intelligent'' folks would deny him the chance, threatening him to speak up or there might be some ''issues'' in their trade use. Some would adopt the notion of forcefully buying but most did both, utilizing the logic of ''sticks and carrots go hand in hand''. For a legacy inheritance of a great ancient figure, nothing was against the options.

    Of course, the merchant caravan head, in order to protect his business would ''unwillingly'' sell the information at an ''appropriate price''. A legacy of a great figure was more than enough to change the power distribution of a certain region. Legacies of Grand-masters were enough to make a a top level faction while those of Saints figures could even give birth to a kingdom. As for those of Infinite Mortals or demigods, those were enough to give rise to an Empire level faction or a true Empire! The Caravan head made sure to paint the description of the ''legacy hideout'' with absurd descriptions and ideas leading others to specte its worth to be about that of a Grand-master figure''s, at the very least, and maybe even a Saint figure''s. For such legacies, no matter how outrageous the price was, it was worth it. As such, the caravan head made a killing of this information.

    To give himself a way out, the merchant also added that he wasn''t really sure whether if it was a legacy sight, adding in that he had tried exploring the area but most of his men died as a result. He told them this because it was inevitable that these powers would discover this from the original vigers that settled close to the cave system. He wasn''t afraid that the viges and tribes would give up because of this as curiosity and hope was a very dangerous part of man.

    While some tribes would love to monopolise the information, they couldn''t hold the merchant from leaving for too long neither could they kill him, only having to make quick preparations before the information spread. With no one being able to stop him, the merchant had sessfully sold this information to a wide group ofmunities. He avoided strong individuals because those ones wouldn''t be scared of eliminating him to prevent the ''secret'' from spreading, after all, unlike tribes and viges, individuals didn''t really have a headquarter or designated site.

    Because of the importance of the information, any tribe that go a hold of it would hurriedly mobilise their forces. At that point in time, everyone could notice that most of the towns, viges and tribes were making huge movements as if they were nning to go to war so for a period of time, there was a sense of urgency and nervousness.

    As the minor powers scurried towards the cave system and began their exploration, they discovered that they were duped. Not only did they lose a lot of men, but they didn''t even discover the end of the cave system. Though they felt that the chances of it being a legacy was true, with their abilities the various powers realised that they wouldn''t be able to get it.

    The only ruling powers in existence close by were the Reiss kingdom and a fallen power known as Drawelt, of which one was to the west and the other. Back then, ck Grill''s Cave was within thends that bordered Reiss Kingdom and the Drawelt Empire.

    After news of the discovery had spread wide and far by the merchant head, he still wasn''t satisfied with this especially after he heard that the various powers couldn''t find the end. This was understandable since those guys were nothing more than bigger ants in the eyes of a Grand-master or Saint figure. Getting such an inheritance would be difficult, if there was any to start with. Because he wanted to know whatid within the cave system, the merchant wasn''t satisfied with the lower powers'' achievements and decided to aim higher. That lead to him going to one of the major powers that bordered the area, the Drawelt Empire.

    Being subservient to the Brahman Empire, the Reiss Kingdom was a lot weaker whenpared to the Drawelt Empire, having to rely on their backer to survive. Since the merchant had connections with the Drawelt Empire, he decided to offer them this ''opportunity''. Using his means, he managed to ry information about the ''inheritance location''. This lead to the Drawelt Empire sending a scout team first to confirm the news. Within 2 weeks, a reply was gotten and so the Drawelt Empire reacted properly by sending in a specialized team for the expedition.

    Unlike the previous explorers, the expedition team were much stronger and organized, going past thest stop of the others and stepping into uncharted territory. However, just as things looked easy going and smooth, an unexpected incident urred. The details of this incident were lost to time but one particr effect of it that was never forgotten. This was the resulting fall of the Drawelt Empire.

    Yes. Because of their exploration of the cave system, the Drawelt Empire had fallen. This isn''t a kingdom or anything like that but a freaking Empire! And born from the toughest of blood and iron wars. An invincible existence that canst for up to a thousand years! And one such existence had fallen just by exploring a cave system.

    The resulting fall of the Drawelt Empire lead to the rise of the Orioma, Ashelot and the Fallen Heart kingdoms. Actually, Drawelt was slowly being gobbled up by the Reiss Kingdom but most of its civilians fought their way out. Because of certain reasons and differences in opinion, they separated, with the Fallen Heart Kingdom and Ashelot kingdom, the two biggest leftovers of the Drawelt Empire, going their separate ways. The Orioma kingdom, on the other hand, was thend of the Drawelt Empire captured by the Brahman Empire using the Reiss'' Kingdom''s forces.

    It was because of this drastic example of the fall of an empire that ck grill''s Cave had yet to be fully explored. The rumored site of the urrence of the incident was the Inner region while the upper regions -Outer and Middle regions- were safe. As such, high levelbatants are banned from entering the cave system but it was used a training and adventure zone for low-levelbatants.

    As for the merchant who sold off the information of this Empire-death trap, he went missing just before the fall of the Drawelt Empire but was still forever known in history. This was because in ordance with a use in the sale of the information regarding the cave system to the Drawelt Empire, it was to be named after him.

    In other words, the merchant caravan''s head was the one known as ck Grill.

    [AN : Wanted to post a 3rd one but itste so I will leave it for tomorrow morning. I might also make it bigger than usual if I got time.. Also, I will try an reply yourments as soon as possible.]

 Chapter 214 - 208 : The Door

    Middle region''s 10th floor was a wide expanse ofnd that solely housed a low-levelledrge kobold tribe. While the monsters were ssified as low levelled creatures, they were the apex predators in their location, being the only existing species on the floor.

    From a simple overall view, the 10th floor only consisted of the wide expanse of unevennd, arge kobold settlement and a bunch of tunnels that lead to the other floors. Due to some certain unknown reasons, a majority of these tunnels couldn''t be essed by yers while some of the ones that could be, weren''t avable to the kobolds. Such a contradiction couldn''t be exined by anyone, mostly because very few yers had actually discovered this situation.

    As very few yers had reached the 10th floor, none of them knew that there existed a hidden floor that could only be reached by essing one of the tunnels on the 10th floor. At the end of this tunnel was arge expanse ofnd rivaling the 10th floor''s ''main area''. Within this zone was the vestiges of an unknown ancient civilization. The architectural style and culture of the civilization was unlike any seen either in the entirety of Infinite Realm or the real world. It was a little like thebination of Dwarven architectures, but missing the integrated statues, and medieval structures. At the same time, it had some sci-fi like incorporation into the art. This was very obvious in the design of the tallest building in this region, the central tower located at the middle of the region.

    It was this exact ce that Sato and Xue Yan ended up and also, it was the central tower that they aimed for.

    "Damn. What a huge door..." Xue Yan unconsciously eximed as she stood in front of the tower alongside Sato.

    From a distance, the door looked average as if it had noting special about it but as they closed in on it, the size steadily began to increase till they had closed in on it. Back when they were still far, Sato had expected the door to be huge. Considering the fact that the door of the two-storied building they went through was at least 3 metres tall, for the central building that looked to be the control centre of the ce, it wasn''t anything strange for it to be bigger; maybe at around 5 or 6 metres tall. If referring to Sato expecting the door to be bigger, he was right. But if referring to the size estimates he had made, Sato was by far wrong.

    The door didn''t stand at a height of 5 or 6 metres. Heck, it didn''t even stand at 10 metres; it was way taller, reaching at least 25 metres! That''s roughly the same as a 4 storey building[1]! Even the width wasn''t so simple, averaging at around 3.8 or 4 metres. If the door was already this big, one could only imagine the size of the tower. For it to have been visible throughout the entire zone, a height of 100 metres was barely enough. As for the real height of the building, Sato wasn''t bothered to find out.

    "There has to be a mechanism for this." Sato said, with hope. Moving the previous 3 metres almost required his entire strength and now he was expected to push open a 25 metre tall building. What was he? Hercules?

    Sato presumed that no matter how absurd the ancient civilization was, a 25 metres tall door couldn''t be easily pushed by them. This was on the basis that they could easily move a 3 metres tall door since they used such for a majority of their homes. After all, no one would make a do they can''t open and for one that would be used in a home, it had to be much easier to open. Of course, Sato didn''t forget the thickness of the door which mattered most in respect to its weight. Thest one was about 13 centimetres thick so he guessed that this one would either be of the same thickness orrger by 5 cm at most or even smaller, though the chances of being thinner was low. If a 3 metre could easily be pushed open by those guys, a 25 metres door would require at lest 2 or 3 of them using their full strength to do so and they would surely take quite some time at that. In that case, it would be much easier and reasonable for the civilization to have a special mechanism for opening it. As for whether their technological abilities reached such a level, Sato wasn''t worried about it. Even his ancestors from the Old and Ancient Era had achieved such, much less an ancient civilization from a magical era.

    "Look around for anything that looks like a clue or a secret key." Sato told Xue Yan as he began feeling the door and scanning it with his eyes.

    The silver-coloured 25 metres tall door was a gigantic existence that one wouldn''t easily see anywhere. If it weren''t for here being a virtual world, it would be impossible to find such a sight elsewhere. On the surface of the door were strange ck patterns akin to the mapping of the blood vessels in a humans body. They stretched from the left side of the door to the right side without any specific pattern.

    "Over here!"

    Not long after, Xue Yan called out to Sato, pointing at a spot just a few metres by the side of the door.

    Sato arrived beside her and nced at what she was pointing at. It turned out to be a ck-steel rectangr te that was embedded into the wall. In a way, it could be said to be simr to the name-tes back in the real world.

    On the ck te were a few indecipherable words that Sato couldn''t recognize nor read. It was like the writing of a 4 year old; a total mishmash of symbols and baffling strokes. Surprisingly though, as he focused on the words, the meaning was automatically tranted into his head as if he actually understood it.

    "These are¡­man runes!" Sato was stunned.

    Back when he registered for a subss at the cksmith guild, he had received his very first lecture from the cksmith master, Miss Trevale[Chpt. 19]. At that time, Sato had learnt that runes were divided into two categories; the Racial runes and Ancient runes. Just as its name implied, the Racial runes were specific to different races. There was the Elvish, Draconic and even the kobolds had their own variation. For the humans, it was the Gregorian and man runes. Miss Trevale didn''t speak on the Gregorian but did so for man. Apparently, man was the easiest of the two and it also had the special feature of being self-tranted. In simple terms, one doesn''t need to learn it to know what it means. All you have to do is just stare at it for awhile and the words would automatically be tranted within one''s head. Sato didn''t know why this was so but this special feature made thenguage very handy as customers could avoid getting cheated when purchasing goods[2].

    "''One with heart and mind. Beside the great divide lies the trail to life. Life gives life but with lifees death. Beware of the one who speaks from within.'' What the hell is all this jumbo nonsense?" Xue Yan asked with a strange look on her face. She had heard riddles and read dharmic statements but the words disyed on the que was like a mixture of different topic that didn''t rte.

    Sato nced at the words and re-read the mental trantion again. In the end, he couldn''t figure out the meaning as the words were too esoteric.

    ''One with heart and mind¡­does it mean we should rx and not be worried? Beside the great divide lies the trail to life¡­what the heck is the ''great divide''?'' Sato used a palm to massage his forehead as a frown formed on his face. Of all the things he hated, riddles were at the top.

    "Wait a minute. ''Beside the great divide''¡­"

    Without wasting time, Sato walked towards the centre of the door. There was a long straight line that divided the door into two equal parts. This was the mark that resulted at the points the two doors joined. For a 25 metres high door,this line was equally 25 metres long.

    "The great divide¡­?" Sato stared at the line in thought.

    "You think that''s what those lines were referring to?" Xue Yan asked, dumbfounded.

    Sato half nodded."It''s quite possible. There are no instructions to opening the door and the closest we have to such are those words on the que. If we presume that they are referring to opening this door then this should be the ''great divide''."

    "''Beside the great divide lies the trail to life''. If this is the great divide then what is the meaning of the rest?" Xue Yan ced her hand on the line as she asked what was on her mind.

    ''One with heart and mind. Beside the great divide lies the trail to life. Life gives life but with lifees death. Beware of the one who speaks from within''.

    "''One with heart and mind'' probably means we should rx or something. As for thest two sentences, it feels more like a warning." Sato replied.

    "A warning?"

    "Yes." Sato nodded. "''Beside the great divide lies the trail to life'' in other words, behind this door is the supposed ''trail to life''. But at the same time, it says that life gives life yet lifees with death. What confirms this even more is the line ''Beware of the one who speaks from within''. If I''m correct, this tower isn''t the political centre of this civilization. It''s a seal."

    "A seal?!" Xue Yan was shocked. She couldn''t get why Sato reached such a conclusion but as she recalled his words alongside the words on the que, she felt that Sato''s conclusion had some truth to it.

    The statement ''Life gives life but lifees with death'' was like a warning. Recalling that the que mentioned something about the trail of life being behind the door, going past the door and discovering this ''life'' woulde with its own drastic consequences. In another way, it could be understood that ''life'' was sealed behind the door and is quite dangerous because ites with ''death''. What was even more strange was the line ''Beware of the one who speaks from within''. It was most likely possible that there was something else inside, something that couldmunicate. In a way, this thing could be the previously mentioned ''life''.

    "Are we still going in?" Xue Yan asked with a low voice. She wasn''t the gaming type of person nor the horror movie kind of individual. Facing a scenario that looked like one off a horror movie made her feel a little scared.

    "Of course." Sato replied calmly. "Don''t tell me you''re scared? It''s just a game. The worse that could happen would be a small frightful moment. The IR helmet regtes our brainwave pattern at incredible rates. The very second anything harmful is about to happen to us, it would automatically shutdown and disconnect us from the server."

    The VR gaming industry had steadily improved in both quality and quantity. In other to be the leading figures, most VR game developers incorporate new aspects into their game, adding a more mysterious plot and new game elements.

    Once before, apany had made a horror game, so scary that it was advised by certain psychological institutions that no one should y it. Even the developers had ced an extreme warningbel on the product. But humans being curious refused to do so. With the improvements in VR technology, games became more realistic and this horror game was no different. As such, the game happened to be so scary that 3 yers who couldn''t handle the scare, had actually died in reality. One, after ying the game 2 days straight, died from a sudden surge of thanatophobia that lead to a cardiogenic shock. Another died from excessive fear and anxiety that lead to both a heart attack and epilepsy. The third one experienced SUDEP(Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy)[2] which was linked to some respiratory conditions the victim had suffered from, which the doctors imed to have activated due to extreme fear. In summary, all 3 yers died from fear. What was even more scary was the fact that 87 other yers had suffered minor issues, ranging from a brief heart failure to minor epilepsy, to a simple faint. After that, the game was jointly banned by most states and thepany was forced to pay damage fees despite having ced a warningbel. Following that period, the VR gaming industry took a big hit as most horror games were rescinded from the market and a majority of games had to redo their plot, eliminating most horror rted incidents and even reducing the hideous looks of their monsters.

    This went on until a new design for both the VR cabin and helmet wasunched, enabling the game''s OS(Operating System) to be able to perform a health-rted check on the user and automatically shut down the game if the user is experiencing any health-rted problems in-game. Compared to the helmet''s feature, the cabin''s was more advanced, being equipped with even first-aid capabilities both to handle respiratory issue and cardio- and neuro-rted problems.

    ''Sadly, I can''t afford it yet.'' Sato sighed.

    "Let''s try and open it first. We can worry about the restter." Sato said.

    "Okay, but how do we do that?"

    Moving his hand towards the mark, Sato replied her,"ce your hand on the line and keep a straight mind."

    Xue Yan then did as Sato said, moving closer to him and standing before the line alongside Sato. It was a straight line and Sato had already ced a hand on the line. Because she was shorter than he was, Sato had ced his hand a bit above and left some space for Xue Yan to do the same below. Xue Yan then ced her hand on the line at a point just beneath where Sato ced his and rxed her mind. The two were infinitely close to each other and thanks to the future of IR''s reality impression, they could get a whiff of their scents. This was the closest Xue Yan had stayed with a man that wasn''t rted to her so she inevitably had a visible reaction on her face. Luckily for her though, Sato''s attention was only at the door.

    The two went on like this for 5 seconds with Xue Yan getting redder by the second but nothing had changed with the door.

    "Nothing''s happening." Xue Yan said with an awkward tone.

    "One with heart and mind¡­" Sato frowned as he mumbled those words in thought.

    "Try thinking about opening the door." Sato said with a low voice.

    "Okay." Xue Yan nodded then did as Sato asked.

    3 seconds in and nothing had happened.

    Xue Yan was about to make ament when suddenly, a brilliant surge of light burst forth from the straight line, devouring their figures. This went on for 4 seconds before the surge slowly dispersed. As it did so, the spot where Sato and Xue Yan stood was revealed to be empty as silence pervaded the entire area.

    Sato and Xue Yan had disappeared.

 Chapter 215 - 209 : Unexpected Trouble

    Middle region''s 10th floor was a wide expanse ofnd that solely housed arge kobold tribe. The leader of the tribe was a kobold lord with a higher bloodline purity than an average kobold and is usually the highest in the tribe. If any other kobold with a high bloodline purity than average kobolds but less than the chief''s appears, it would serve directly under the chief as a guard and would only be beneath it in terms of authority. Such a simple political structure might seem to have a lot of loopholes and would result in terrible governance and whatnot, but it didn''t matter to these simplistic creatures. All they needed was a leader and be it a dictator, a democrat or a republican, they didn''t care.

    While it stands true that once a kobold with a much higher bloodline purity than the current chief is birthed and bes of age would then be the new chief, there was a special exception. This was in the case where the new figure has a bloodline purity approaching the 0.1%. The kobolds didn''t have any scientific orboratory way of testing this, but the instinctual fear as a result of the difference in life order would help them tell the purity levels. Such figures with an inborn high level of bloodline purity were referred to as kobold kings.

    Such figures that closed in on those numbers were very rare among kobold kind approaching it, they would experience a qualitative change[1] that would brighten up their future. Each time such a being was born, it signified the opportunity for thriving times for the tribe that gave birth to such an individual, hence, the value and rank for such a personage was above the chief title.

    For this kobold tribe that had settled in the Middle regions'' 10th floor, they were lucky enough to raise one such character. Following the tribe''s traditions, it was encased in a statue of the kobold legendary figure with offerings and prayers being offered on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. If Sato and the rest had made their moves just a monthter, it would have undergone a qualitative change and have a bloodline purity of 1%, finally stepping out of the category of kobold to be a dragon-kin. By then, the chances of a team of yers under level 10 beating it would be less than 2%. However, thanks to the efforts of team Sato, they had ended up creating an unexpected domino effect, resulting in the world ss boss not undergoing a promotion. Of course, while this was a good thing, it wasn''t so good.

    Even if the kobold king''s advancement was obstructed, the monster was still a tough figure to beat. With it''s early release, yers would be forced to face it before they could progress through to the next floor. There would have been no problem if the kobold king was your average boss but it wasn''t. This could easily be seen from its maniption of spatial elements and an emerald colored fire, which was a sign of having obtained a special me.

    Even though the resulting noise from the kobold king''s ss with Sato and the others was quite loud, the alliance members(Soran + Azure''s teammates) weren''t able to verify the cause or the on-going events. This became even more worse for them after they realised that the sounds of the battle had stopped.

    Curiosity overwhelmed them but recalling the previous explosive sounds alongside that massive wave of green colored mes, the two groups didn''t wish to make a move. The only thing they tried doing was looking for a way out.

    "Damn it. What the hell is going on there?!" ck Tempest cursed.

    After the kobold horde had departed, most of the yers initially sighed with relief till a sense of distress flooded over them. From there on, the alliance of Emperor''s Might and the God''s Retaliation Battalion squad was broken. It became an every man for himself situation.

    Azure Dragon, having prior knowledge of the floor, took his men to a tunnel that he suspected to be an exit point. It was one of the retreat options he had prepared just in case the raid went south. When they were being pursued the first time, Azure Dragon didn''t give the order topletely retreat because he would end up dissatisfied and targeted by the other upper echelons for not achieving anything. But now that they not only lost some men but also had no evident chances of sess, he decided to make the decision. At the very least, the failure wouldn''t be totally pinned on his head and he could also im to have tried his best. Of course, that didn''t mean he would be free from punishment having lost at least 6 men out of a team of 16.

    "That''s probably our sign to run faster." Chesces smirked bitterly. This wasn''t the first time he had seen such absurd disy of power; in fact, it was verymon in VR games. Chesces only felt despondent at his current state of weakness where he could do nothing but run. In fact, this had been the trend ever since Soran''s team had arrived.

    "Stop talking and focus on running!" Azure Dragon barked. "We need to make it there before any trouble closes in on us."

    "Captain, over there!" A random yer that we don''t need to bother about, shouted.

    With that shout, everyone focused their attention in front. Unknowingly, they had reached the edge of the floor and just in front was a protrusion on the cave''s wall, at approximately an elevated point 2 metres above ground. The protrusion was like a pointed stage that went out 2 metres away from the wall. At the point it came into contact with the wall, there was a hole that lead into the wall. The end couldn''t be seen as the ce was dark but Azure Dragon had previously sent a yer to investigate and there was no problem with it.

    The hole was just 120 metres or so away from them and with the current speed they were running at, it would take them 10 to 12 seconds to make it. None of them shied away from using their agility-boosting skills because as pro-yers, they always took things seriously. If there was ever a need to retreat, then they would do it to the best of their ability and not be stingy with skills.

    ''Just a little bit more and we are safe.'' Azure Dragon urged himself. He needed to get the remainder of his teammates out, safe and sound. That way, the penalty from the guild he would receive, would be much less than normal. Plus with the guesses he thought up regarding this incident, Azure Dragon believed that the information would further reduce his sentence.

    As for where Soran went, Azure Dragon wasn''t bothered nor interested. On the contrary, he wanted those group of psychos to perish within this cavern. That way, one group of possible opponents would suffer a terrifying loss.

    ''Almost¡­'' As the group got within the 30 metres mark away from the hole, Azure Dragon slowly began to rx and ced his mind on other points, like how to face the pressure of the upper echelons after this failure of a raid.

    "!!!"

    Suddenly, a daunting pressure erupted on Azure Dragon, abruptly forcing him to stop and on his knees albeit almost. This was all thanks to his professional training received from the guild. If there was someone else in his shoes, then would have ended up in an awkwardly disastrous position. Though Azure Dragon did avoid aplete stop and unnecessary embarrassment from lying on the ground, due to the remaining momentum from his run, he ended up taking a few awkward steps forward before he sessfully calmed the tension on his body.

    "What was that?"

    "I don''t know¡­"

    "What a terrifying pressure¡­"

    Azure Dragon wasn''t the only one that ended up under the influence of that mysterious force as the other members of the team had already halted their movements. Normally, as a professional, when such a scenario urs, one should run forward with all their might, not daring to look back but these guys did the opposite. If this were in real life, they wouldn''t do such a thing as it might risk their lives but this was a game so they weren''t all that bothered about death especially if they were risking their lives for valuable information. In this case, the valuable information was the cause of the sudden terrifying pressure.

    "What''s that?" A yer suddenly said. It was that same yer whose name is not required. The object he was referring to was a ck dot approaching them in a strange manner. It disappeared and appeared at intervals and with each cycle, it got closer to the group.

    "WHAT ARE YOU ALL STANDING THERE GAWKING AT?! RUN!" Azure Dragon yelled at the top of his voice. Unlike them, he was an [Elementalist] so his mana sensitivity levels was only below that of a [Druid]. The ck dot that was approaching them, was like, for him, a horrifying creature filled with mana. In his mana vision, the ck dot was like a horrifying conglomeration of aura, reaching a height equivalent with a 3 storey building and still spiking up. Without a doubt, that little approaching ck object was the source of that overwhelming swathe of green mes from before.

    ''It''s most likely the world-ss boss. What happened? Did that third party fail? Damn it. A bunch of mongrels not only interrupted our raid but it seems they vexed the boss otherwise, it wouldn''t have chased us this far out.'' Azure Dragon cursed.

    The yers might not be afraid of ''death'' but he was afraid of them dying. With each yer his team loses, he would end up with more pressure from the upper echelons, resulting in his sentence increasing.

    Work first, funter. This was the unspoken code of pro yers showing that they had to do as they were told before considering enjoying the perks of a game. In most cases, it was simply to listen to the orders of their superior and in this case, the guild yers had to obey Azure Dragon''smand and hold down their curiosity to the unknown object, immediately taking to their heels and resuming their race to the hole.

    However, they were trying to outrun a monster that had elementary control over space. Even if it was elementary, teleportation surpassed mere bodily movement.

    It didn''t even take up to 3 seconds when the ''ck dot'' had closed in on the group, revealing itself to be the kobold king that had attacked Sato''s group.

    Despite a distance of 2 metres between them, the kobold king just swung its right hand lightly, at the pace of a leaf falling down during a sunny day.

    Apanying the motion of its palm was arge wave of mes that simply blocked any chances of escaping from behind. The mes were a lot smaller than the ones used against Seiichi, not reaching up to the ceiling, but they were stillparably as hot and dangerous. It was no joke to say that one would directly turn to ash upon contact with it.

    "Dodge!"Azure Dragon yelled as he conjured up a water wall behind them. Compared to the mes, however, size-wise, the water wall was like an average sedan in the path of a boulder. Strength-wise however, it was like a pebble trying topare with a boulder; it simply stood no chance whatsoever.

    The mes ended up drowning at least 4 of the remaining 10 yers, leaving the other 6 safe for now. But the kobold king never intended to just stop at one attack. While the mes had failed to kill these 6, it still seeded in forcing them to a halt and making them diverge from their original intended path. This gave the kobold king more time to kill them as the hole was just 10 metres away. For current yers, a 10 metres sprint was nothing and would just take at most, 2~3 seconds, but these little seconds were enough for the kobold king to cause some irreparable damage.

    "Arghh"

    The kobold king wasted no time in starting a ughter, teleporting from one point to another but mostly chasing after them with a stomp of its foot. Against such a monster, the attributes these yers were most proud of was nothing so the kobold king could easily catch up to them in such close distances.

    "Spread out!" Azure Dragon yelled, but it was toote as a lot of his men had already died. There was just him, Chesces, and the guy we don''t need to know. As for ck Tempest, the wild [Swordsman] could barely hold out against one move, dying to the second strike of the kobold king.

    "Damn it."

    The remaining 3 had already spread out in different directions with Chesces being the first to do so. He had long figured out that they couldn''t face the monster so his entire focus was on escaping and luckily for him, he was the closest to the hole.

    "Stop!" the kobold king roared as it pointed a finger at Chesces. It couldn''t initiate spatial maniption to shorten the distance again because it had already overloaded its body. The only option was to attack from a distance.

    A green beam burst out from the finger and darted over towards Chesces. As it moved in the air, light was bent due to the absurd amount of heat contained within the strike.

    "Not on my watch." The third yer, Mr. Nobody[2], already knew that he stood no chance of survival so he decided to risk his life for Chesces to escape.

    Moving in front of the kobold king, he used his great-sword to block the st but the end result was him being forced away as he felt the temperature of his weapon abruptly increase. The kobold king fired another shot but Mr Nobody steeled himself and gripped tightly on his great-sword, ignoring the high heat and shing at the beam. With the increased heat from the second beam, Mr Nobody couldn''t wield the great-sword and inadvertently let it drop.

    As a result of the constant blocks, Chesces had managed to escape and Azure Dragon too. The kobold king was infuriated because of this and immediately closed in on the yer, grabbing at the defenseless yer''s head and erupting a ring mass of green mes on his head, turning Mr Nobody to Mr. ''No-body''[3].

    The kobold king didn''t pursue after the two as it presumed that the hole was the same as the one Sato had used. Instead, it set its sight elsewhere and that happened to be the direction Soran and his teammates had escaped to.

    That day, apart from the lucky few of Sato''s team and Azure dragon and Chesces, everyone else had died.

    What was worth noting was that the two guilds heavily involved in this, Emperor''s Might and Heaven''s Angel, didn''t let the information of an OP boss existing o the 10th floor out.. As they had both suffered a loss, they tacitly agreed to let the other guilds suffer the same. With the thoughts of a sadist, they watched on as the other guilds, adventurer groups and yers headed into a death-zone

 Chapter 216 - 210 : The Strange Statues

    "What happened just now? Where are we?" An uposed female voice sounded out.

    "Rx." A calm and deep voice replied the first speaker.

    ncing around, Sato tried to find his bearings in this new location but all he could see was a long corridor, wide enough for 10 men to walk side by side, with blue mes lit on torches that hanged all the wall.

    "I think we got in." Sato said.

    "We got in?" Xue Yan asked with surprise. She suddenly turned behind hoping to see the door but all she met with was a wall that stood tall. There was no crack, split or any sign that it was a door. It was just like an average wall, only being taller.

    "Are you sure about that?" Xue Yan asked Sato.

    Sato replied her, "I said it''s a guess but it''s most likely probable. Give or take, 70% sure."

    The reason Sato wasn''t 100% sure was because there were scenarios in various VR games where one would actually be teleported elsewhere despiteing in from another ce. Considering the fact that there was no door behind them, Sato presumed that it was either they got into the tower but were transported to another room or they were actually teleported to another ce and never really got into the tower.

    The first scenario wasn''t bad as they would have still achieved their goal gaining entry but the second one wasn''t so good. In most games, being teleported elsewhere was usually a sign of not having used the correct entry method. In summary, it would mean that they were lost and would spend a lot more time tracking their way back.

    While Sato was more inclined to the fact that they had gained entry to the tower, he still couldn''t eliminate the possibility of having being teleported elsewhere.

    "Let''s check the ce out first. We will figure out the rest as we go."

    Saying so, Sato began walking towards the corridor with the intention to reach the end. Xue Yan followed up with him since she didn''t have a choice. Recently, Xue Yan discovered that since she left for the raid with Sato, she hadn''t been able to keep up her cold attitude around him but there was nothing she could do about it. She and Sato were stuck together and in order to find their way out of this mess, Xue Yan had tomunicate more often with him even if she didn''t likemunicating.

    The two kept walking for at least 4 minutes before they finally saw the end of the path. At the end of the corridor was a hall that was veryrge. The roof of the hall was a dome structure with the highest point being more than 20 metres above the ground. This was 5 metres less than the height of the door of the tower, but still, this was an already impressive structure. As for the size of the hall, it was on par with an average ser stadium with a seating capacity of 50,00 people.

    Walking into the hall, Sato and Xue Yan began to study the appearance of the entire ce.

    At the sides of the hall, there were 15 metres tall grey coloured statues of different human-like figures that exuded different auras that were all greater than that of the kobold king. One looked like a warrior in full-body armour and it suffused the aura of an unyielding warrior. Another was like a wild unruly berserker(1), dressed in what looked like animal fur with absurd bulging muscles making it obvious that this character was an untamable savage that lived a life of blood and iron . Another statue was of an anthropomorph that hadrge but lean muscles, perfectly adding to its beauty but the aura it exuded was one of the most dangerous. Despite being just a statue, Sato felt that if he got too close, he might actually die.

    ''Amazing.'' Satomented within his head.

    Apart from imagery and physical sensation, another attribute VR game developers tried to mimic from reality was perception and the other abstruse sensations. Improving the game''s graphics and imagery wasn''t much of a difficult task and linking physical sensation with the right brain wave patterns also wasn''t difficult as these two features were the foundation of VR games. While those two weren''t an issue, attaching the natural perception, instincts and and other abstruse sensations were very difficult, especially something like aura. Most games had failed badly in this and ended up as a flop, the most popr of all being Syncral. Where these games failed, others seeded. So far, Sato had noticed that the aura sensation and eruption mechanism of IR was at the top, being superior to that of the current number 1 game, Conquest, by a small margin. Even features such as instincts and asional instinctual perception were applied to the game, making it more realistic in more ways than one.

    While Sato stood still and admired the novelties of IR, Xue Yan was frozen in ce.This was the first time she hade head to head with such an overwhelming and burdening conglomeration of various auras. It should be recalled that this was her first time in a VR game and for most of her life, she had lived an average and simple life; noting into contact with any dangerous scenarios or individuals. As such, unruly auras and bloodthirsty ones like the one that suffused from the berserker figure, made her legs wobbly. Added with the unyielding and forceful aura exuded from the armored statue and simr others, it was already quite impressive for Xue Yan to remain standing.

    Xue Yan might not have been a yer before nor encountered life and death scenarios before but it was an innate ability of man, just like every other animal, to take notice of auras especially when the sensation was too intimidating and imposing like these ones. The weaker the creature''s will, the more susceptible they were to the mental pressure. Having not encountered that much dangerous events in her life, it was expected for her will to be weak. However, her background made it such that while Xue Yan never met with any dangerous mishap, she didn''t have it easy in life and ended up with a strong level of determination for a girl her age.

    Sato noticed Xue Yan having some problems with holding her ground so he patted her on the shoulder and said, "That''s enough. Just wait by the corridor for me."

    Xue Yan wanted to argue when she noticed that Sato''s attention wasn''t on her anymore. Instead, he was staring at one peculiar statue 20 metres away.

    "Stay on guard." Sato said with a low voice as if afraid of being overheard.

    "What''s wrong?" Xue Yan asked.

    Sato didn''t reply but a frown formed on his face.

    "That''s enough hiding. Why don''t youe out and introduce yourself."

    There was silence even after Sato had spoken as if showing that they were the only two animate beings present.

    "You think I''m joking? Stop ying pretend and show yourself!" Sato roared.

    Two seconds went by and the ce was still silent. Xue Yan began thinking whether Sato had some mental issues when the man in question suddenly changed his expression and raised his sword up in front of his body.

    *p* *p* *p*

    3 audible and resounding ps sounded out from in front of them, covering the entire stadium sized hall without losing out in pitch or intensity at any point.

    "Impressive. Despite my leaking just a bit of my aura with the statues of the Achievers, you were able to catch on to it." A deep and calm voice sounded out.

    Sato and Xue Yan both nced at the speaker with Xue Yan being a bit shocked at his appearance. Yes, his. The speaker looked to be an old man, though not that old, and had features just like an average human being. The only difference being that his skin was of copper skin tone. It looked awfully simr to mud but had that metallic sheen to it, making it look unnatural and almost as if it wasn''t flesh but metal that was used to forge the old man''s body.

    "Who are you?" Sato asked. The reason Sato took the questioning approach rather than just randomly attacking was because he felt that the old man knew a lot about this ce especially as he had mentioned ''Achievers''. Also, they were within his grounds. Sato didn''t know the man''s strength nor much about the environment so it was best to take a cautious approach to things. Nheless, he had no intention of letting his guard down nor sheathing his sword.

    "Who am I? Why don''t I answer that for you after you''ve passed a simple test of mine."

    Saying so, the old man pped twice and with that, one of the statues began to move.

    The statue was one of the ''smaller'' ones reaching only a height of 12 metres. Compared to the taller ones, this statue had a much weaker aura, possibly signifying that it was weaker than them. It looked like a swordsman as it held only one sword in hand with a clothing that looked like leather armour. But of course, as the statue was made of a weird grey stone, the ''clothing'' was also made of the same material.

    "You don''t need to defeat it to win. Just survive 3 strikes and you''ve won. In order to make things fair, I have limited their power just suitable enough for you. Win and I tell you whatever you want to know and also give you an opportunity at greatness. Fail and you die. Oh yeah, I know you both are Chosen Ones so don''t think you will die a simple death. Hehe." The old man smirked evilly.

    Sato frowned at the old man''s words as he realised that things wouldn''t be as easy as he thought. Even if the condition was just 3 strikes, the old man wouldn''t make the test to be so simple otherwise, what would be the point of organizing it.

    "So, who''s going first?"The old man asked. But before Sato could reply, the old man added "You know what? Since you spotted me, it means you should be much stronger than the female over there. I don''t have a habit of bullying weaklings or females so I pick you, boy."

    Once the old man concluded his words, Sato smiled bitterly but wasn''t bothered. In the beginning he never nned on letting Xue Yan take the test but he didn''t expect the old man to be such a sexist either.

    "If I win, does she still need to take the test?" Sato asked. This was what he had on his mind as he doubted whether Xue Yan would be capable of passing the test. Even though they were bound by a simple contract, Sato wasn''t inclined to let her die just like this.

    ''Worse case scenario, we run back where we came from and try to defeat the statue with the terrain.''

    "You don''t need to worry about that." The old man said. "You both seem to be of the same team so technically, you count as one. But she still has to pass the test. In that case, rather than facing 3 attacks, you would have to take on 6 strikes but can be assisted by thedy. Do you wish to take this option?" the old man asked with a smile that didn''t look exactly like one.

    "...yes." Sato nodded.

    "!!!" Xue Yan was shocked that he actually decided to do such for her. They had yet to see the strength of the statue but with the aura it radiated, it was no pushover. Facing 3 attacks from it would undoubtedly be difficult goal but Xue Yan believed that Sato would be able to barely make it. As for 6 attacks, that was nothing short of a suicidal wish.

    "Why?" Xue Yan asked softly.

    "It sounds like a challenge so I thought it would be fun." Sato replied.

    Even if he didn''t have much exposure with the opposite sex, Sato wasn''t a total dimwit. There was no way he would say that it was because she was weak so he just forged a simple lie. But in all honesty, it wasn''t a lie. From the cing and location of the statues, Sato felt that they were heroes or as the old man said, ''Achievers'' of the ancient civilization that once dwelt here. In other words, these guys were extremely strong characters who could crush him with just 1% of their strength. Even if they were weakened, Sato still wasn''t their match. This was very obvious from the fact that the old man brought out the shortest and weakest of them all for him to face. Sato really wanted to see whether he could push his limits and handle 6 attacks from such a character.

    The statue began to make its way slowly towards the duo and as it did so, the aura it exuded began to weaken till it was exactly 7% of its original. From this, it could be seen that the old man limited the strength of the statue to only 7%. This was his estimation of what was barely manageable for Sato yet suitable for the test.

    "Get ready." Sato said as he tightened the grip on his sword

 Chapter 217 - 211 : Against The Statue

    *Dong* *Dong*

    With heavy footsteps that shook the ground beneath it, the 12 metres tall statue proceeded at a slow yet calm pace towards Sato and Xue Yan. Even though its aura was reduced to 7% of the original, it still wasn''t something Sato could handle.

    "To make things easier, if you manage tond a hit on the ''Achiever'', that counts as one less attack to face." The old man added to the previous rules.

    This privilege made the chances of passing the test even easier. This was becausepared to just standing still and taking on 6 attacks with each being stronger than the previous one, it was way better to retaliate, turning the test from one of endurance to a spar of sorts. Of course, this was more of an advantage when the participant(s) numbered above 1. This way, one could tank the statue while the other attacks. Obviously, Sato had thought of it and made the necessary changes to the duo''s formation.

    "Get ready." Sato cautioned Xue Yan. He stood in front while Xue Yan, stood behind with a distance of 10 metres between them. At this range, Xue Yan would be free from harm while still being capable of providing support for Sato.

    A secondter, the statue began to increase its walking pace with each 3 steps and as it did so, the intensity of its aura experienced a wild increase. This didn''t mean that the old man lied and increased the statue''s strength but rather, with its imposing movement, its momentum increased, resulting in an increase to its pressuring aura. Added with the long-sword in its right hand, it looked like a seasoned warrior that could take heads even when surrounded by a battalion.

    4 secondster and the statue had appeared right in front of Sato. Compared to the statue''s 12 metre height, even the 7 metres kobold king was a kid much less the 1.8 metres Sato.

    "One." The old man said.

    The statue lifted its sword high and brought it down on Sato. The pressure from the sword alone would make one feel weak-willed especially when added together with the absurd length and width of the sword, which was an 8 by 0.8 metres long-sword. It would be suicidal to think that anyone would be able to take on such an overbearing strike head-on and Sato didn''t think he was the chosen one for this. He didn''t shy away from retreating as the rules didn''t necessary imply that he had to face the strikes head-on but survive them.

    *Bang*

    The heavy long-swordnded on the floor with a loud bang and just the reverberations from this collision could offset an average person''s bnce. Luckily for them, this wasn''t real life so Sato and Xue Yan''s stats were already much more than they were in reality. The sound alone couldn''t do more than leaving behind a lingering tone in their ears.

    ''What great strength...'' Sato sucked in arge amount of cold air. He already knew that the test would be difficult but he wasn''t expecting the first strike to already be this hard to handle. One should know that for tests like this that require the participant tost a certain number of moves or even seconds, each strike usually bes stronger than thest. If the first strike was already this powerful, what would be next one be like. Even if part of the reason the Statue''s blow was this powerful was due to the momentum gathered from its run, there was still no denying that the weight and force behind the attack was incredible as to achieve such results, these two factors were extremely crucial.

    "Hmm?" Sato briefly nced at the spot he stood before and was surprised at what he saw.

    With the momentum from its run, it was no understatement to say that the sh of the 12 metres tall swordsman was capable of severing 5 armored tanks stacked atop each other in half. However, there was only a white mark on the floor. The stone didn''t even show any signs of cracking, as if that attack was nothing more than a pebble being tossed at a boulder by a little kid.

    "Hehe. The floor is made from Egrevoid; a special variation of Egrevite that is capable of withstanding massive impacts and absorbing it to strengthen the cohesion between the material(atoms). It would break from a casual sh of the strongest ''Achievers'' much less one of the weaker ones who has even been suppressed." The old manmented as he noticed Sato''s astonishment.

    "Egrevite is the material that the statues of the ''Achievers'' are made of." The old man also added. To him, this information wasn''t anything worth hiding so he let it known in order to help Sato understand his previous statement easier.

    ''Egrevite and Egrevoid¡­'' Sato took note of the two materials as he stared at the statue.

    The swordsman statue nced ta Sato with a blue glint in its eyes. It was as if it was surprised that he had actually dodged its attack.

    Th statue then positioned its body to face Sato before slowly lifting its right foot high up. The foot had reached an impressive height of 3 metres before it was suddenly brought down.

    *Bang*

    With a bang, the 12 metres tall statue, only the heavens knew how much it weighed, propelled itself at an impressive speed of 60 km/hr towards Sato. There was only a distance of 5 metres which was nothing for the blurring statue to cover. Before Sato knew what had happened, he saw a grey colour in front of him as he felt a billowing pressure from the figure.

    ''Fast!''

    That was the only thing Sato could think of before he forced his body to quickly respond to the iing attack.

    It was already toote to dodge so the only thing Sato could do at that point was to meet the attack head on while praying that he doesn''t end up as pulp.

    A light grey glow shimmered as the long-sword locked in on Sato and approached him. Sato didn''t bother thinking as he moved his sword to meet the attack.

    *ng*

    There was no spark forming or an excessive reverberation of the colliding of metals, or any such. Normally, those stuffs happen when the forces in conflict are equivalent in strength, whether roughly or not, but that didn''t happen here. This was because the sheer strength of the ''Achiever'' was well beyond Sato''s. The difference was even more than with the kobold chief where back then , Sato could at least exchange hits at the cost of his HP. But against the ''Achiever'', his HP wasn''t the only thing at stake.

    *Phew*

    *Boom*

    From the point of collision, a figure flew through the air like a stone flung through the air, only stopping aftering in heavy contact with the walls of the hall.

    "Puah!" Sato''s body convulsed in mid-air as he puked out blood due to the agitation of his internal organs from both the shock received from the sword strike and the collision with the wall.

    *Bang*

    With the aid of the natural forces of gravity, Sato''s body was brought down in dereliction with his limbs sprawled out like a knocked out drunkard.

    "Sato!" Xue Yan screamed as she hurried over to his side.

    "Are you alright?" Lifting him up by the shoulder, Xue Yan asked with care.

    "Sure." Sato tried to extenuate his situation despite the sliver of blood running down his lips all the way to his jaw.

    Sato could only feel pains all over his body and this made him realise something; ever since he had started ying VR games, this was one of the most brutal beatings he had ever received. The fact that IR had better sensation and reaction-based technology didn''t make things feel any better. Without a doubt, if he had received such damages in the real world, Sato didn''t doubt that he would have died just from the shock received in the sword sh alone.

    "Did you think you would be left to keep dodging like a mouse?" the old man suddenly asked with a grin. "If the test was that easy then it would have no meaning."

    Sato could barely smile bitterly at the old man''s words as his ploy was being seen through. Indeed, Sato never nned on a contest of strength with the ''Achiever'' but wanted to keep running around the ce and dodging its attacks. He never expected it to suddenly erupt with such impressive speed, catching him off guard an into close quarterbat. However¡­

    ''Why didn''t I use [Parry]?'' Sato thought as he realised that he had made a noob mistake, which was unlike him.

    He had obviously decided on facing the ''Achiever'' head on and no matter which speed it moved at, Sato would have used his defensive skills nheless. However, he actually didn''t. It was as if he had forgotten he had such skills.

    "Oh? You realised it so quickly?" The old man smiled mysteriously.

    Sato nced ta the old man hoping for an exnation and without a doubt, the old mana gave him one.

    "The abilities of the ''Achievers'' aren''t just limited to strength otherwise how would they be so strong and famous? Each ''Achiever'' has a special ability they either mastered or were born with and it was thanks to not only their talent and hard work but also their abilities that they were capable of making it thus far.

    "The ''Achiever'' whom you are facing has a special ability known as [Guide]. He can easily lead an opponent to forget or think of something else while confronting him, when they lose the slightest of concentration. While it sounds simple, the uses are unimaginably plenty especially in battle." The old man exined with a smile.

    Hearing the words from the old man, Sato''s body went cold and he realised how much he had actually underestimated this ''Achiever'' before him. If this were a life or death battle then he would have died a hundred times over, even if it was actually the weakened version of the ''Achiever'' he was facing much less the original.

    "This is one of the weakest yet its ability is this strong. I wonder how powerful the rest are." Xue Yan couldn''t help but exim.

    ''But why aren''t they famous?'' Both Sato and Xue Yan thought at the same time.

    "Alright. Seeing as you''re injured, this test is over." The old man suddenly said. "While I did say it''s a life or death battle, that was if you kept on facing it. In reality, you have 3 opportunities to give up and restart. After that, you either pass or die. With how you are now, I doubt you can continue right?"

    Sato didn''t disagree with the man and simply nodded. Even if he used a healing potion, he would still end up dead. He might as well use this opportunity to take a break ande up with a winning strategy with Xue Yan.

    "Good." The old man then pped twice and the grey statue walked over to its original spot.

    "The test is over and you can challenge it another time. Of course, this ''other time'' is limited within 3 days. After 3 days, whether you''re ready or not, you must challenge the test once more.

    "I wish you good healing¡­cause you will need it.." The old man grinned creepily.

 Chapter 218 - 212 : The Third Round

    "It''s time." The copper-tinted old man opened his eyes as he spoke.

    Sato stood up at the old man''s words and unsheathed his sword, gripping it tightly with his right hand. Xue Yan followed close to him as she gripped the [ck Alder Staff] in worry and anxiety.

    It had been 6 days(In-game) since the first time Sato had challenged the ''Achiever''. In other words, apart from the first time, Sato and Xue Yan had also faced off against the statue before, making his theirst shot at victory. Sess would mean that they would finally know what hid within here and though the old man never mentioned it, they would most likely gain ess to them. While the rewards for victory was quite pleasing, the penalty for failure was anything but that.

    [[System Notification :

    Trial of the ''Achievers''

    Mission Rating : A

    Mission Detail : Defeat the selected ''Achiever'' or survive 6 strikes from it. Failure is only permissible 2 and at the 3rd time, the participant would die and officially fail the mission. (1/3 chances left)

    Basic Rewards :

    -Knowledge on the ancient civilization that once lived here.

    -One appropriate skill of the ''Achiever'' would be randomly bestowed.

    -ess to the Great hall of *****

    Penalty :

    -Death with an additional 30% permanent decrease in Experience points.

    -Achiever''s Curse; yer would receive a permanent 30% decrease in Main attributes.

    -Immortal soul would be harmed; 50% reduction in Experience points gained for 1 months.

    System Description : There''s no turning back once you''ve reached this stage. Either fight like your life depends on it(especially since it does) or just end up with a crippled ount.         ]]

    For a mission with a rating of A, the [Trial of the Achievers] couldn''t be described as easy or such. The penalties were so terrible that it could almost count as an S-rated mission at this point in the game.

    Being thest opportunity they would get, Sato and Xue Yan had to make sure that this one counted otherwise they would end up with a heavily crippled ount. That would without a doubt, dy their gaming progress in IR or in a worst-case scenario, totally ruin it.

    During this 6 day period(IGT), he had learnt a lot from the previous two battles. In thest one, he had managed to make it up to the 4th hit with Xue Yan havingnded a lucky shot at the Achiever.

    While they couldn''t leave the hall, they could still exit the game and take a break. During his break, Sato checked up on his grandmother and also practiced non-stop with his grandfather when possible, asking for his opinion and advice regarding the event.

    With the constant breaks and pauses he took, thanks to having almost nothing else to do in-game, Sato was able to learn a lot and was quite confident to go past 4 hits, which was hisst record, and reach 5 hits. This was on the condition that Xue Yannded a clean shot, reducing the necessary amount of strikes to receive by 1. While he wasn''t confident of tanking 5 hits up straight, 4 wasn''t an issue for him with the strategy Sato came up with. The 5th hit would be eliminated by Xue Yan and the 6th strike, which would affect their gaming career in IR, was left to fate and luck.

    If possible, Sato hoped for Xue Yan to be able tond 2 clean hits but he already knew that even making 1 was very difficult for her, after all, the Achiever before them wasn''t a regr monster that functioned on instincts or the likes. It had battle experience and had a very rapid response time. This wasn''t something a neer in gaming could beat. For Xue Yan to even make 1 clean shit was more than enough to show how much of a promising talent she was in gaming.

    "Remember the n." Sato said to Xue Yan who then nodded in return.

    Just like before, the duo resumed the formation they had used; Sato staying in front with Xue Yan behind by at least 10 metres. Due to the differences in their roles for this battle, this was the most efficient formation as it would keep Xue Yan safe from being caught in the fight while still giving her an opportunity to interfere.

    "Let''s begin." Sato said to the old man.

    "Alright." The copper-tinted old man replied.

    Immediately after, the same swordsman statue that had served Sato and Xue Yan 2 consecutive defeats made its way towards the duo from its original disy spot. As it did so, Sato and Xue Yan entered battle mode, taking on a serious appearance and raising their guard and alertness levels to the top all with one thought running through their heads; ''We must make it this time around''.

    Like a slow procession to its throne or the gant walk of a magnificent warrior to the battle front, the Achiever walked slowly as if ignorant of Sato and Xue Yan''s existence; taking them nothing more than ants in its path. While this slow walk seemed unnecessary, it actually wasn''t.

    Previously, the old man had mentioned how the swordsman Achiever possessed the unique skill known as [Guide]. It was a skill that could passively and unnoticeably influence the thoughts and decisions of the target at the slightest loss of concentration without their knowledge. When the Achiever confronts its target with a slow walk, it builds up pressure which is applied on the target. While facing the pressure, most would either lose out to fear or try to stand strong against it. In the process of doing so, they would inadvertently lose concentration on the skill, [Guide], and fall prey to it. This was why the Achiever usually moved slowly. Of course, if the circumstance requires it, the Achiever could also change its fighting style to a fast-paced battle because in such high pace battles, it is far more easier to lose concentration. Sato had learnt all this the hard way in the previous fight and he was hoping to capitalize on this meager knowledge to win the fight.

    It didn''t take long for the Achiever to reach within 5 metres of the duo and with its arm length and 8 metres long-sword, this distance was already suitable for attacking.

    *Whoosh*

    With the horizontal movement of its arm, the long-sword was shed out right at Sato. The momentum packed behind the sword was like that of a 10 metres tall wave as while the sword''s thickness was much shorter than that, the force behind this blow was on par, if not greater, than that of a wave.

    As with his previous n and approach, Sato never intended on colliding with the first strike. Not only was this one of the strongest strikes of the Achiever, but it was one of the most dangerous as if he got caught in it, the Achiever would follow up with a chain of attacks. However, while dodging seemed like the bets possible option, it wasn''t free of any risk. Nheless, after making the calctions, Sato decided it was best to do so.

    *Bang*

    Unlike with the first battle, the long-sword didn''t actuallynd on the floor but just sliced through the air above it. In spite of that, the force behind the sword had unwittinglypressed the air close by and released it along with the strike. The word air, which had a majority of the force from the strike, was divided into two, with a part going towards the wall of the hall and another ending up colliding with the floor. As for Sato, he had retreated more than 3 metres to the side with a jump, dodging both the sh and the sword wind.

    Seeing that it''s first attack had been dodged, the Achiever followed up with another move, changing its fighting style from the usual slow and controlled manner to a wild and hurried pattern. Along with the change in fighting style, the aura around the statue would experience an inevitable change. Picking up on this change, Sato prepared himself to face the enemy but he did this in a way one wouldn''t usually expect.

    Normally, in a battle where one is expected to survive for a certain amount of time or strikes, what remains in their mind isn''t how to attack or the next move to make instead, it''s how to defend. However, after having faced the Achiever twice already, with each one ending in a pitiful yet regretful failure, Sato discovered that if he kept remaining in the passive, his chances of victory would be much less than going on the attack. While it seemed like the Achiever was far more stronger than him, it should be recalled that it was set to a level where it was just barely enough for Sato and Xue Yan to hold on against. Because of this, Sato''s chances of victory by attacking was quite possible. Of course, to achieve this, he wasn''t the only element needed in the equation.

    "[Greater Fireball]" Xue Yan chanted from a distance as she let go of the zing chair-sized fireball in her hand.

    The Achiever sensed the fiery mana ball approaching it and reacted to it by hacking at the ball. At the same time though, Sato had closed in on the monster for a strike.

    Being imprinted with the battle sense and memories of a legendary ss figure, such a simple pincer attack was nothing to the Achiever as it not only cut through the fireball but also wielded the sword with the same force and aimed for Sato with a thrust.

    Just when he was a metre away from the sword, Sato suddenly dodged to the side, intending to let the sword move past him.

    Seeing an opportunity to make a clean hit on Sato, the Achiever wanted to swing the sword to the side, just where Sato had dodged, but a ming ray pierced its side from a blind-spot.

    *Boom*

    -0

    Xue Yan''s [Greater Fireball] and Sato''s dive were all just feints for this move and it turned out as a sess. By the rules of the trial, a clean hit was equivalent to one strike and having dodged one strike already, Sato was left with 4 more hits to face.

    After the light explosion from the ray cleared off, there was no injury on the spot with only a ck mark left behind. However, that small disruption had forced the Achiever''s attack to a halt, giving Sato the opportunity to escape once again. Despite that, Sato didn''t take it.

    Using the short period where the Achiever was ''stunned'', Sato swung his sword at the grey statue from a distance.

    [Astral de] [1]

    Logically, there was nothing he could do with this motion as there was still at least 8 metres between them. Magically though, a blurry yet soft burst of light exited his sword and darted towards the statue. The light was like a broad beam, having a width of 0.3 metres and a length of 1 metre. It moved soundlessly and quickly that by the time the Achiever had noticed it, the beam had hit its mark.

    *Schwuah*

    With a soft sound like a hot knife through butter, the beam prated into the Achiever but only made a mark less than an inch deep before all the energy from it dissipated.

    Seeing the damage the attack had caused, even the old man had to raise an eyebrow as this was the first time he had seen such a move from Sato. The strike as one Sato had originally saved for the kobold chief but didn''t get the chance to use in the end. Who knew it would end up useful here?

    With that move, Sato only had to face 3 more hits ornd 3 more attacks to win.

    Xue Yan cast a [Fireball] in hopes of it nailing the Achiever but maybe it was because it was fed up of having been hit time after time, the Achiever released a roar and sped up its bodily movements, using the 8 metres long-sword to block the fireball.

    With a heavy stomp, it propelled itself towards Sato and dragged its sword together with its 12 metres tall body, creating an intimidating image for Sato.

    Not having expected this, Sato was surprised for just that instant but even an instant was enough for [Guide] to influence him to lower his guardpletely. Luckily for him, Sato had a stronger will than most and was able to get himself back. However, the small dy had resulted in him not being able to dodge the iing strike, being forced to take it head on.

    ''[Parry]!'' Sato grunted as he swung his sword to meet the Achiever''s attack.

    The end result was nothing short of expectations as like the very first time, Sato waspletely overpowered by the sh and forced back like a bullet in air. If there was one major difference between this time''s ''flying session'' and thest, it would be that Sato had managed to bring himself down and didn''t end up in such a pitiful state as before.

    Sato had achieved this by forcing his sword down on the floor, using the friction produced to slow down his speed and also transferring the force from the blow to that point. While Egrevoid could resist heavy impacts and such, prative features had much more of an effect that random impact. Of course, this didn''t mean that Sato was able to prate through the floor easily with his sword but he was able to go at least half a centimeter deep while transferring the remnant force from the collision to his sword and finally to the Egrevoid floor. This resulted in most of the force being negated with Sato receiving lesser bacsh than intended. Sato had learnt this technique from his grandfather during this 3 day period and was finally able to put it to use.

    -105 (45/150 Sato''s HP)

    ''Damn.'' Sato wiped the blood on his lips as heined.

    He had managed to just find his footing when the Achiever made another move against him. With only 45 left and all his defensive skills on cool-down, there was no way Sato could tank the next hit.

    Xue Yan, seeing Sato in trouble, cast [Fireball]. Her original intention wasn''t tond a hit but to force the Achiever to focus on her attack and give Sato the opportunity to escape. Sadly, the reaction of the Achiever didn''t end up as she had anticipated.

    The grey stone swordsman ignored the fireball despite sensing it, seeming as if it didn''t want to let Sato go.

    As this was the third and final round, the conditions of the battle to determine a loss was simply for Sato to die. With his HP at 45 points, all it needed was one hit and Sato would be a goner. The Achiever might not be conscious but it was battle-conscious. It realised that rather than losing such a Godsent opportunity, it wouldn''t mind getting hit once. At the very least, Sato still needed 2 more hits or dodges to win. Getting hit once wasn''t game over for the statue.

    ''Damn it!'' Sato cursed as he realized that the Achiever was stuck on finishing him off. He didn''t dare to keep thinking anymore as Sato did the only thing he could at that moment; defend.

    The Achiever''s attack was like a cleave,ing from Sato''s upper left corner and heading diagonally downwards, towards his right side. Due to the massive size of the long-sword, Sato couldn''t dodge to his left neither could he head to his right. As for going back, that was impossible because the length of the sword was beyond what he could outrun within this short time frame. So the best option was moving forward.

    Realising this, Sato changed his original decision of defending to attacking in hopes of getting thatst hit on the statue. Since the battle looked to be lost, Sato wanted to make a very risky bet to win it at thest minute. Since the chances of him dying was very high to the point of being set in stone, Sato decided to take this risk without bother. After all, it was better to die knowing he had tried his best than doing so with regret.

    Just when the Achiever''s long-sword was 4 metres away from him, Sato made his move.

    [Chop]

    ''Lotus Sword Art, 1st form; Swift Kill.''

    Using these two skills, the power behind the sword was much more than average but what was surprising was that Sato didn''t hack out with the sword but actually tossed it at the statue.

    *Phew*

    The In-game skill, [Chop], was an attacking skill that depended on the strength of the user, utilizing the user''s full power in one blow. Using Swift Kill, Sato hoped to amplify the sword''s striking power. Bybining the two skills, the force behind the sword toss was no doubt deadly for any yer to take head on.

    With the force of the two skills, there was a chance that the sword wouldnd on the Achiever right before its attack took Sato''s life. That chance was what Sato was betting on.

    *Boom*

    Xue Yan''s fireball made contact with the grey giant but because the [Fireball] spell was much weaker than a [Great Fireball], the damage was beyond negligible and couldn''t even affect the Achiever''s movements.

    The long-sword approached Sato as the hovering shadow of death clouded him. Having let go of his sword, there was nothing Sato could do other than to hope; hope that his sword wouldnd first.

    *Tink*

    Maybe it was luck, maybe it was fate, but just when the Achiever''s sword got within a metre of Sato, closing in on him at a distance of half a metre, Sato''s sword resounded with a metallic collision sound.

    The sword had made contact.

    "Congrattions, Chosen Ones.. You''ve passed the test."

 Chapter 219 - 213 : The Caventry

    "A little more and you would have been a goner. Congrattions, Chosen Ones. You''ve passed the test."

    [[System Notification :

    Trial of the ''Achievers''

    Mission Rating : A

    Mission Detail : Defeat the selected ''Achiever'' or survive 6 strikes from it. Failure is only permissible 2 and at the 3rd time, the participant would die and officially fail the mission. (1/3 chances left)

    Mission status : Completed ]]

    The Achiever''s long-sword was just 50 centimetres away from his head when Sato heard those words. Without a doubt, if the Sato''s sword had taken much longer to make a hit, even by just a second, he would have died an instant death.

    Nheless, despite the strike being canceled so suddenly thereby saving Sato from the threat of death, the leftover force from it still made it''s way towards Sato. The sword intent and terrifying pressure from the sword had suddenly been dissipated but the violent sword wind from the strike still made its way towards Sato. In order to prevent the unintended from happening, the Achiever let go of the seal on its strength, releasing an overbearing pressure that dissipated the sword wind, turning it from a highlypressed wind capable of cleanly slicing a van into two to a gentle beach wind on a regr summer afternoon.

    From this, Sato realised the difference between himself and the Achiever once again. He had just faced the grey statue at 7% but just the sword wind of the Achiever, which could slice him apart over and over a dozen times before dissipating, was easily eliminated by an outburst of its aura. What was even more interesting was the fact that Sato felt that the pressure it had used to dissipate the sword wind was a lot weaker than its original self. It most likely did so because Sato wouldn''t be able to bear the full brunt of its pressure.

    ''Scary¡­'' Sato inwardly sucked in cold air.

    "Wait, what did you say?!"

    Due to the pressure from the looming sword above him, it took Sato a while to process the words that the old man had said, leading to his surprised state.

    "You''ve passed the test. You now officially have ess to the Great Hall of the Grey Chains also known as the Hall of Achievers." The old man said with a warm tone that had a hint of servitude in it. The old man then pped his hand 3 times and the grey statue of the swordsman Achiever made its way back to its original post as if nothing had happened.

    "The Great hall of the Grey Chains?" Sato asked curiously as he nced at the Achiever before shifting his attention to the old man. Xue Yan also returned close to him as there was no need to stay far away any longer.

    "Yes. The exnation is quite long and it would involve the history of my former masters, the Caventry. To summarize it better, you could say it''s one of the physical locations of the Grey Chains." The copper-tinted old man answered with a servile tone,pletely different from his mysterious and creepy personality.

    "Your former masters? The Caventry?" Xue Yan was surprised.

    "Yes."

    Sato rubbed his chin in thought before asking "You said we''ve passed the test and so now have official ess to the hall right?"

    "Yes."

    Sato went on to stroke his chin as if in thought but in reality, he was actually ncing at the system interface, specifically the reward section for the mission. In that section, there was a statement about the knowledge of the Ancient civilization that dwelt here before.

    Having been ying IR for a while now, Sato discovered that some mission rewards wouldn''t just show themselves tantly in front of the yers. Sometimes they would appear in the form of privileges or authority just like now. If it were before he hadpleted the test, Sato wouldn''t be able to receive any answers to his questions from the old man so there was no way he could learn any information about the ancient civilizations, after all, even the mural barely had anything about them. Unless Sato could somehow find a mighty empire that had existed for as long as the ancient civilization had or possibly had some clues about them, there was nothing he could do, and even the two mentioned options were just possibilities. It was highly likely that no existing power knew much about the ancient civilization like the copper man in front of him.

    Due to the scarcity of this, it worked well as a mission reward but unlike other games where if the yer passes the mission then the information would suddenly be given to him through the interface, IR doesn''t make things so easy but adds in that ''real'' feature. For missions like this, the yer was required to interact with the supervising NPC for his/her rewards and that was what Sato needed to do now.

    "Does that mean you will answer all our questions?" Sato probed.

    The old man didn''t answer immediately but smiled.

    "It depends on the nature of the question. As long it doesn''t go beyond what was specified in the regtions, then yes."

    "Then what are the regtions?" Sato asked with interest.

    "Anything that touches the origin." The old man smiled mysteriously.

    Sato frowned hearing this. Rather than making things easier, the old man had justplicated the entire stuff, frustrating him. Having talked with him for a while now, Sato could roughly guess how the old man thought. He knew that once the old man smiled like that, all should be forgotten. The smile was the copper old man''s way of saying ''I ain''t talking no more but I don''t mind frustrating you with esoteric terms''.

    Sato sighed and simply decided to ask his questions.

    "First of all, who or what are you?"

    "Oh, that''s true. I haven''t introduced myself properly to you two." Performing a 90 degrees bow like an average butler from the Victorian era, the old man continued,

    "I''m Saimon Magistris, the current guardian of the Great Hall of the Grey Chains and the humble servant of the Caventry civilization."

    "Saimon¡­you aren''t human, are you? Are you one of the Caventry? Sato asked. At this stage, Xue Yan kept quiet and left all the asking to Sato while she paid extreme care and attention to all that Saimon said.

    Saimon answered, "I''m neither human nor Caventry. You could say that I''m a puppet but at the same time something else. My kind was raised by the Grey god to serve his direct descendants and people, of whom the caventry are a part. We live and die for the Grey so, in a way, you could call me a puppet."

    Sato was surprised and confused because he was never expecting such a reply but that didn''t stop him from asking a follow-up question.

    "Who is the Grey god? Who are his descendants and people?"

    "That''s against the regtions so I can not answer you." Saimon smirked.

    ''As I had expected...'' Sato sighed but Saimon''s next wordsforted him a bit.

    "However, while I can''t answer that directly, I can still give you a satisfying answer that''s within the rules." Saimon looked Sato in the eye.

    Sato hesitated at Saimon''s stare but eventually nodded, "Let''s hear it."

    Saimon nodded in return as ifmending Sato for his choice before speaking,

    "The Grey side. Whates to mind when you think of the word ''Grey''?"

    Sato thought for a while before replying to him, "Something neither good nor bad, neither ck nor white."

    Saimon nodded, "Yes. And that''s who the Grey god is. HE is the one who lies between good and bad, neither good nor bad. Between white and ck, but neither white nor ck. All HE exists for is to maintain bnce in the world; true bnce. For this, while he is neither ck nor white, good nor bad, in other to achieve true bnce, HE can be either at a time but not forever. As for HIS followers and descendants, they are the ones who abide by HIS will, acting as HIS instrument for bnce."

    Having gotten a workable answer and knowing he couldn''t get more than that, Sato then asked the question that had always been in his mind.

    "What are the Caventry and what is this ce meant for?"

    "The Caventry are descendants of the Grey god. As descendants of god, they were special beyond regrprehension. They possess strength and physique beyond the average races. However, the heavens were fair and made it so that reproduction was a very difficult task for them. Nheless, the abilities, physique, and aptitude they possessed made them one of the top races back then. For this, they were envied, feared, and ostracized by most. With time, these negative ideas and thoughts had multiplied beyond suppression, leading to the point that the other races had ganged up on them, including the human race. While the Caventry weren''t eliminated, they were forced into hiding; living in mountain caves and underground cities. But having already lost a lot of their numbers together with the difficulty of procreation, they inevitably became extinct." Saimon sighed.

    Listening to his words, Sato matched them with the murals back at the corridor and reached the conclusion that what Saimon said was true.

    "As for the purpose of this facility. It hides both the inheritance of the Caventry and functions as a seal.

    "Rather than just this building alone, the entire ''Back Grill''s Cave'' as you all call it, is a huge seal.. As for the sealed object, it is the Demon God''s Son."

 Chapter 220 - 214 : Explanations

    "The demon god''s son?!" Xue Yan cried out in rm and surprise. They were just below level 10 yet they had already encountered matter''s rting to such an entity. Why wouldn''t she be shocked.

    "Yes, an asura to be exact, but you don''t need to worry that much." Saimonforted.

    "Is it because of the seal?" Sato asked what looked to be an obvious answer.

    "Yes but not really. The demon god''s son has been sealed for over a thousand year so he has inevitably weakened and is barely of any threat to anyone. Well, anyone above King rank that is." Saimon replied him.

    "I see."

    It would be a lie to say that Sato wasn''t a bit shocked about the revtion of a the son of a god level being being sealed here. At the very least, such an individual would have been at the Demigod realm at his prime. To have been sealed in an abandoned cavern in a low level ce for so long was quite shocking. While this plot had been used in a few VR games already, it wasn''t really popr. This was because in such scenarios, it was very much clich¨¦ that the seal would end up broken. Apanying this event would be a quest or a mission that would either serve as an opportunity to reap massive rewards and increase one''s chances of being a high ranker in the game, or end up destroyed alongside a massive power in the game with their gaming career in the game brought to a close.

    ''Where there''s fortune, there''s a risk.''

    "What is the current state of the seal?" Sato asked with a serious face.

    As he heard the question, Saimon''s face had a visible frown on it as he slowly lost himself to his memories. The mood of the entire hall suddenly dampened with a chilling breeze filling the entire ce. Sato and Xue Yan suddenly felt like they were tossed into a frozen hell as they both slowly felt their limbs weaken. Xue Yan could even barely keep a hold of her staff as it slipped from her hand and fell on the floor.

    *ng*

    "Oh, my apologies." Saimon got awakened by the sound of the staff''s fall and hurriedly apologised as he returned to normal. Following his transformation, the entire hall also calmed down with the temperature returning to normal.

    Seeing how smoothly and quickly everything transitioned, Sato was astonished. He realised that he might have underestimated this old figure before him, and not by a tiny figure. Saimon had always kept this ''scammer'' smile on his face that most fortune tellers had. This made him look like a cunning man but barely of much threat. Even back when Sato had traced him by his aura, it wasn''t as overbearing as the Achievers. Heck, it wasn''t even close in intensity. As a result of that, Sato thought that Saimon was much weaker than even the weakest Achievers and he presumed that most of his ability came from controlling the grey statues but this small show proved him wrong. Saimon was a beast of his and even much worse than the swordsman Achiever Sato had faced, even if it was at its peak form. To have been able to influence the temperature by that much while also being able to create a slight breeze all just by losing hisposure showed how scary of a figure this old man was.

    ''But it''s understandable. To be the guardian of this ce and the servant of a civilization, there was no way he would be so weak. From his statement of the demon god''s son being weak and barely of any threat, he should be at the Saint level at the very least.''

    The Saint level was chronologically the 6th level of strength in the game, being beneath only the Demigod realm and the God realm and figures at these two realms were extremely difficult to spot. In other words, excluding these two ranks, Saimon was one of the strongest warriors in the world. If his ability to control the Achievers was added, then eliminating a kingdom such as the Fallen Heart kingdom would be just as easy as reciting the alphabets. Even an empire would have to approach him with caution.

    Without a doubt, Saimon was the strongest living being Sato had ever seen. He even felt that the Emissary from Gnorkacked inparison. But this would mostly be due to the fact that what Sato saw was but a mere projection.

    "The seal could be said to not be of the best of states now." Saimon sighed heavily.

    Sato''s eyes sparkled as he felt a chance to get a good mission.

    "Is there anything we could to fix it?"

    "You two?" Saimon stared at the two of them with incredulity.

    "Bahahaha. I apologise forughing but that''s the most funniest joke I have heard in centuries." Saimonughed hard as he grabbed his belly with a grin.

    "How can you, a weak human, even if a [Chosen One], expect to fix a seal made by a god?! Hahaha!"

    ''B**tard.'' Sato cursed internally. He was never expecting to get mocked despite showing such a ''sincere'' attitude to ''help''.

    "Even if we can''t repair it, we should still be able to help you find materials to do so right?" Xue Yan asked. She understood Sato''s intentions for asking and decided to help after all, she too would benefit from such.

    "Ah¡­ That''s enough fun for one day." Saimon said to himself.

    "While what you say makes sense, do you think that the materials used to produce the seal for a top rank demigod level being could be found on the streets? Such materials could only be found in other worlds and even if you could get there, it would take way too much time. Just forget it." Saimon waved off their request.

    "If there''s nothing else that you have to ask, then you''re free to go."

    Sato kept a pensive look on his face before he asked, "Why is the demon god''s son sealed here?"

    "Because it was the will of the Grey god." Saimon simply replied.

    ''The Grey god again. After this, I need to pay the library a visit. I doubt a town''s library would have the necessary information but I still have to make do with it.'' Sato added a new task to his schedule.

    "Since we have passed the test, don''t we get any rewards? Also, you said we have official ess to the Hall but of what use is it?" Xue Yan asked. She asked this because for the 3rd reward of receiving the Achiever''s skill, the system had not informed them of anything. In other words, the break point for this actuallyid in Saimon''s hands.

    "What an interestingdy you are." Saimon smiled at her.

    "You indeed get rewards for passing the test and 3 at that, 2 of which you have already received; ess to the hall and knowledge of the hall. The 3rd one woulde shortly. As for what use official entry is, you gain privileges rting to this hall."

    "Privileges like what?" Sato asked Saimon. He was annoyed at how Saimon spoke and paused periodically, as if being limited to a certain number of words in one speech. However, Sato couldn''t yell at him since he knew that Saimon could just end him with a wave of his hand.

    "While the Great hall of the Grey Chains is a seal for the demon god''s son, it also serves as training site for the Grey Chains and the Caventry and is equipped with various other facilities like rest,nguage centre and a 7 millennium old library that has been constantly updated. Don''t underestimate the training facility though. As children of the Grey god, the physique of the Caventry was beyond normal and not by a little. Even the weakest of the Caventry warriors at the Master realm could take on a standard human at the King realm. For them to show improvements, the training facility has to be beyond normal too.

    "There are also special tests here and depending on your progress and achievement, you would receive various amazing rewards. And trust me when I say that they are amazing. If you want, you could take the test right now or another time." Saimon responded with a speech longer than usual.

    He then paused for a while before adding, "Usually I wouldn''t say this but seeing as you''re the first visitors in years, let me give you a piece of advice. The test doesn''t depend on your strength as it is always made to suit the participant''s level just like the previous one. So whether you want to train more or not makes barely any difference. It would be best to take it as soon as possible because the sooner you get the rewards, the better things would turn out for you. Of course, you could dy it and hone your skills better in hopes for a better one. It''s your choice."

    "I see. Let''s get our rewards first before we decide." Sato said.

    "Alright. In ordance with the regtions of the hall, receive your reward." Saimon stretched his hands towards the two as if bestowing upon them blessings.

    (Xue Yan''s interface) [[ System notification :

    You have received skill [Overbearing Momentum]

    [Overbearing Momentum] : Passive Skill : You radiate an overbearing aura that makes opponents weaker than you to cower in fear. Attack Power +5%, Opponent''s defense -10% if weaker than you by two levels or more, -5% by one level, -3% for equal level. Difference in Life Order and [Willpower] is also capable of affecting the end result of the skill. ]]

    (Sato''s interface) [[ System notification :

    You have received skill [Linear Strike]

    [Linear Strike] : Active Skill : Using one thrust or sh, deal 150% of attack power in one hit. +10% to prative abilities.

    Cool-down : 10 seconds.

    ]]

    [[ System notification :

    Your performance has pleased the Hall guardian, Saimon Magistris. Rewards are doubled.

    ]]

    [[ System notification :

    You have received skill [Chain Hit]

    [Chain Hit] : Active Skill : release 3 strikes equaling 140% attack power with 130% attack speed.

    Cool-down : 15 seconds.

    ]]

    ''New skills and 2 at that.'' Sato smiled.

    While the original mission reward was meant to only be a single skill, Sato actually got one more than Xue Yan. This was because he had unintentionally impressed Saimon by using the unconventional move of tossing his sword. As for Xue Yan, her performance was just average so Saimon didn''t bother about it.

    "You have received your rewards for the first test. Now tell me, do you wish to undergo the Great hall of Grey Chains'' true test?"

    AN : Update times may vary but rest assured that before 12am GMT, 1 chapter(at the very least) would have been dropped.

 Chapter 221 - 215 : Iâ€™m Your Neighbour

    "Finally. We are back." Sato sighed as he stared at the wall before him. The environment was quite dark as they had returned a bitte into the night. This directly corresponded with the the wee hours of the day in reality or the afternoon.

    Sato and Xue Yan had rejected the idea of taking the official test at that point and exited ck Grill''s cave more than 2 hours ago, arriving back at Riverdale town.

    There were 2 reasons for that happening with the first being the most obvious one; they weren''t ready. Having gone through one battle-type test already and barely passing it, the duo knew better than anyone that they weren''t ready for another test especially one so simr to the previous. This was especially so for Xue Yan, who barely had that much effect in the previous test. She only managed to pass it because of Sato handling most of the grey statue''s concentration. If she were to face it one-on-one, Xue Yan knew that she wouldn''t even stand a single chance against it. So the idea of taking the next test was ridiculous and it would be much better for them to get used to their new skills and improve theirbat abilities first before taking the test. After all, there was no time limit on when they could.

    The 2nd reason, though not as effective as the first reason, still managed to sway their opinions and considerations towards taking the test. This was simply because that day was thest day for the mission [Master Owen''s trial]. Sato had never forgotten about the mission despite the seemingly busy schedule he had kept. While the rewards were stated to be unknown, for a B rating mission, there was no way the system would be stingy. Also, the penalties for failure were more than enough ''motivation'' to get the mission done. As a result, Sato had to return and take the test with the intention of obviously passing. The only problem was that Sato was yet toplete a new creation.

    While things stood to be difficult for him during this time, Sato had actually prepared properly. Back when he went to town with Lu Zhen, he had visited the cksmith guild and borrowed a few books from them to read. Sato always tried to make use of every single free period within ck Grill''s Cave to rehearse the subss'' theoretical knowledge since he couldn''t forge anything in there. Of course, while the theoretical knowledge of forging is easier than the action itself, rehearsing the course wasn''t all that easy as with each theory and idea Sato read, he learnt of a way to the issues surrounding it ranging from the effects , side-effects and sess rate of forging via that method. Because he couldn''t be able to practice out those methods, Sato didn''t know which was suitable for him.

    At times, Sato even got confused about some terms and scenarios painted in the description of forging in some books since they required him to have tried out these methods and experienced these reactions to understand them. Luckily for him though, it seemed like fate got him covered.

    ''The Caventry were really amazing.'' Sato sighed as he recalled thest minute affairs that helped him.

    Back at the Great Hall of Grey Chains, Sato had asked Saimon whether the Caventry had any cksmithing room or record. Since the civilization was so advanced that they had such amazing achievements like the central tower, which looked to be operating with a high ss formation in control one of which Sato suspected to be rted to space ergement, and the statue of the Achievers, which seemed tobine sculpting, runes and formations, there was no way their knowledge would becking. With such amazing achievements in various sub-sses, Sato believed that they would have training rooms and records. Luckily for him, Sato''s presumption turned out to be true.

    "The library alone has knowledge that has books that have been gathered over millenniums and these books aren''t limited to simple knowledge so yes, there are a few rting to cksmithing. There''s even some for alchemy, rune-smithing, engineering, beast-taming, conning, theft, hunting and more. There''s even random knowledge on beast and nts." Saimon said.

    With no time to waste, Sato secluded himself in the library and went through the information there. If not for theck of time, Sato would have tried reading everything but because hecked time, he only focused on topics rting to cksmithing. Xue Yan decided to join in, going through the books to help her decide a subss to select.

    The library Saimon spoke of wasn''t underrated. It was huge and had some many different categories of book that if one were to spend 2 times worth of an average human''s lifetime, they still wouldn''t go through a third of all the books in there. Even the books in the cksmithing section were a lot. Fortunately, yers didn''t need to really go through the entire book. Just grasping a bit of it would automatically record everything into their interface where they could easily retrieve the information at any point int time as if it were a part of their memory.

    Sadly, this fast-reading ability was still limited so it wasn''t like Sato could begin reading everything. The limitations were mostly the fact yers had to go through the book and understand a bit of it first, and also their mental capability had to withstand the repeated sudden influx of knowledge other wise, their brains might suddenly explode or tire out.

    It was just too bad that Saimon didn''t let them take any book out from the building otherwise they could have gone through them over time or made a lot of gold just from selling the copies.

    With so many books that held both experiences and records pertaining to cksmithing, and a practice forge, which Saimon shared the location with Sato, the duo spent another 4 hours reading and practicing. All that remained now was to take the test before the day was over.

    ''There''s still some time left.'' Sato thought as he nced at the ink ck sky that had a green moon hanging.

    Not wasting any more time, Sato headed for the cksmith guild.

    Unlike in reality, most stores and shops in IR don''t really close up for the day. This was because thebour distribution was mostly focused on adventurer jobs or jobs rted to battling monsters. Such characters tend to work all day long and could return back to town at any point. So for other jobs and work ces that are associated with them, for example taverns, pubs, hotels, the ck market and so on, they mostly closete into the night; either at 10pm or 12am. Some even closeter than that. The cksmith guild, being closely rted to them too, usually closed by 10pm and Sato had returned a bit past 8pm.There was still time for him toplete the mission. As for hoping to be the first ce or getting a high rating, Sato didn''t believe he would achieve such.

    "I''m heading to the cksmith guild. What about you?" Sato asked Xue Yan.

    "I''m going to meet up with Lu Zhen and exin things to him before logging off." Xue Yan replied. Unlike the duo that were stuck in one location, the others hadnded elsewhere and managed to exit the 10th floor They had been levelling up and going through their usual gaming activities, while waiting for the two.

    Sato nodded. "That''s good."

    The duo had both discussed revealing their experiences to the others after all, Saimon never stopped them from doing so. The only problem was re-tracking their steps back there but that wasn''t much of an issue.

    He then nced at the gates as if he was staring into the distance before saying "Even though he might be lying, I feel that Saimon''s statement about taking the test early seems true. So the earlier the better. Do you agree?"

    "I feel the same way too but I think we shouldn''t rush it that much." Xue Yan responded.

    "True." Sato agreed.

    "How about 7 days from now? Remember, we still need to defeat that monster and it''s not like the big guilds would ignore if just because they can''t do it now." Sato said as he recalled the kobold king.

    Sato had estimated that as of now, no yer should be capable of defeating it since no one expected it to be that strong. But the same couldn''t be said for tomorrow or the following day or the next. As more people realise how strong the world ss boss is, most of them would give up while the rest would be even more motivated. This was due to thew of equality; the stronger a monster, the greater the rewards. For big guilds, any extra reward is a valuable one as it would enable them broaden the gap between them and theirpetitors and increase their chances to be at the top.

    Xue Yan thought about it a bit before she nodded.

    "I was originally thinking a month or so but you''re right. A week from now should be enough."

    "Okay. Try improving your martial arts and fighting skills while you''re at it. If you can''t find a ce to do so, contact me. Here''s my contact." Sato sent Xue Yan his number and home address via in-game mail.

    "Shinjuku?" Xue Yan showed a surprised look.

    "Yeah, any problem?" Sato shifted his eyes over to her.

    "No, nothing. It''s just that I actually live there. And seeing your street name¡­I think we are neighbours." Xue Yan said with a strange tone.

    "..." Sato stared at her in surprise.

    "...what?" Xue Yan said awkwardly as she couldn''t stand Sato''s eyes.

    "*coughs* Nothing. I was just shocked at that revtion. I mean, I haven''t seen you around before." Sato awkwardly replied.

    "It''s not your fault. I don''t like going outside." Xue Yan said with a low voice.

    It seemed like there as a story behind that but Sato wasn''t interested in hearing. Rather than saying he wasn''t interested, it was more like he wouldn''t bother forcing her to speak if she didn''t want after all, they weren''t close friends.

    "Alright then."

    After saying their goodbyes, the two walked their separate ways with Xue Yan heading towards the South District while Sato moved towards the cksmith guild.

    ''Time to get this settled.''

 Chapter 222 - 216 : Test

    "Wee. How may I help you?" The receptionist on the duty asked.

    ''It''s not Amelia. She''s probably off her shift.'' Sato thought as he nced at the unfamiliar face behind the counter. The ''new'' receptionist was still a female but unlike the blonde and young Amelia, she had brown hair and looked to be a bit older; probably in herte 20s or early 30s. While she wasn''t as pretty as Amelia, the brown-haireddy had her own beauty that was both as a result of her seeming matured personality and her older age. On her name tag were the words ''Sienna''.

    "I would like to take my official cksmith test."

    "Oh." The brown-haired Sienna was a bit a surprised.

    "It''s a bit toote to apply as a cksmith as most of the official ones are either off-duty or busy with their work."

    "I think you''re misunderstanding me." Sato said. He then took out the circr token Amelia had given him before, dropping it on the counter.

    "I''m already registered as an apprentice. I just want to take the official test."

    "Ah? My apologies for the misunderstanding." Sienna bowed. As a receptionist, her rank in the guild was lower than apprentice cksmiths. Having inadvertently mistook Sato as a guy that was about to register in the cksmith guild and not a registered figure, Sienna had to apologize least the individual gets angry. After all, it wasn''t so difficult to find a recement for the receptionist role.

    "No problem."

    "Your token for confirmation please. It''s guild policies."

    "Here." Sato brought out a coin shaped token that was roughly the size of half a palm and dropped it on the counter in front.

    Grabbing the token Sato had dropped atop the counter, thest ced a finger on it and focused her attention on the circr object for awhile.

    "You''ve only been an apprentice for a week and you want to take the official test?!" Sienna abruptly widened her as she stared at Sato.

    "...is it really that absurd?"

    Sato couldn''t get why she was overly surprised but he finally understood it after hearing her next sentence.

    "Absurd?! People usually remain an apprentice for 6 months or even a year and some for 3 years. But you only did so for a week?!"

    Astounded and dumbfounded, Sato didn''t know what to say. Nheless, he didn''t want to waste any more time here.

    "It was at Master Owen''s request."

    "Master Owen...you mean Lord Owen?!" Sienna raised her voice in shock once more.

    "Oh, I see. You must be one of those apprentices he gave a challenge too. But it''s almost time for the challenge to be over." She stared at Sato with a weird face.

    "Well, is he around?" Sato asked.

    Since the mission was for him to be a cksmith within a week, following the logic of reality, there had to be someone present to monitor him as it was in reality. In other games, this wasn''t so as the GM[1] would simply pass them once they have fulfilled the required prerequisites. Sato guessed that either the NPC, Master Owen, would oversee the test for him or someone else would.

    "Not really. Lord Owen is always busy so it''s quite difficult to get a hold of himtely. However, he did leave behind his instructions for you all. A cksmith on duty could oversee your test or you could just look for the instructor in-charge of your group to do so. But of course, if your instructor is too busy then it''s best to look for someone else. If everyone else is too busy, then you can only take the test at ater date."

    Listening to her words, Sato thought of the blue haired beauty who also happened to be the only female cksmith in Riverdale town.

    "In that case, is Miss Trevale around?"

    "Yes, she is. Should I check if she''s free for you?" Sienna asked.

    "Please do."

    ''I just hope she''s free.''

    Due to the fact that most subss practitioners don''t need to leave their departments or research room as often as adventurers, most of them spend their time doing research and are barely able to attend to others especially during the night time. This was even more so for official practitioners who barely offered their services since most requests were always so simple that their apprentices alone we''re enough for them. In other words, the chances that Miss Trevale would be free was quite low. Going even further, the chances of any official cksmith being free was very low. It couldn''t be helped as Sato had chosen a bad time for this. The only thing he could do was to pray and hope that this wasn''t so.

    It didn''t take a while for Miss Trevale to arrive at the entrance.

    "What''s up? I''m going to soon wrap up for the day so?" Miss Trevale hurriedly asked.

    Sienna then exined everything to her after which Miss Trevale nced at Sato and sized him up a bit.

    "Name?"

    "Sky-de" Sato responded her.

    "Follow me." Without checking to see if Sato followed her not, Miss Trevale began heading deeper into the guild.

    While the other party walked forward, Sato followed closely from behind while wondering what the test would be like. From the library at the Hall of Grey Chains, Sato figured out that while each subss had the same type of test, there was more than one way of doing things with each having their own advantages and disadvantages.

    The mostmon test method was to produce a sample live and direct. While it had the disadvantage of taking too long to finish, the examiner could easily check the progress and skill of the examinee. At the same time, they can also confirm the examinee''s sess rate.

    Another one was to submit a sample that was recently made in a time-span of 24 hours. Using a very special equipment, the examiners would test whether the product was really made by the examinee. The advantage was the fact it didn''t take as long as the first method since all that was left was to confirm that the equipment was produced by the examinee. As for the disadvantages, since the production method wasn''t being monitored, the examinee''s sess rate couldn''t be identified the same goes for their skill. Though the equipment''s rank could indeed help identify one''s skill it couldn''t be said to be urate. This was because sometimes, the factor of luckes into y during production and this could affect the test results. Example, an apprentice could suddenly make a Rare-steel rank equipment when actually their proficiency level is limited to Mortal rank. If the apprentice submits the Rare-steel rank equipment, their evaluation would put them at being capable of producing such goods when in actual fact, it was just a lucky coincidence.

    The third examining method was when one would take a detailed written test. This test would consist of objectives and subjectives, with the usual sentencepletion and multiple-choice questions taking the majority. It could be said to be the easiest exam yet the worst as it only tested one''s theoretical knowledge and not practical knowledge. No matter how detailed the questions were, they still didn''t have a way of proving one''s ability. At the very least, such testing method was used to calcte one''s potential in a subss.

    The fourth method, which happened to be the second mostmon, was tobine both a live practical and a written exam, testing both one''s knowledge and ability. The disadvantage was that it took too long to make preparations and was quite stressful. However, the uracy of the test was the highest amongst the others so most subss guilds tend to make use of it for the transition exam[2]

    "Here we are." Miss Trevale pushed open a door.

    "This is..."

    "Your exam would be held here. Its going to be a purely practical one which you will be doing here. All the necessary materials, equipment and blueprint are avable inside." The blue haired beauty exined as she walked into the room.

    Sato followed her in and began examining the entire ce. The room was simr to the basic forging rooms of the guild. Just like those ones, there was also a mana gathering array, a furnace, an anvil and a work-bench. There was also the basic equipment for a cksmith like a pair of tongs, two hammers(a normal one and a rune-engraved one), a few moulds for different weapons and a magical equipment that functioned just like a blowtorch. At the middle of the room was a 2 metres wide and 1 metre long table. The table looked to be constructed with a special kind of metal that was highly resistant to force and extremely hard, making it suitable to also work as an anvil. At the edge of the room was a bookshelf with a few scrolls, slips and books. That was the reference centre for cksmiths in work. It made things easier for them as rather than going to the library, they could look up what they need from there, while still overseeing their work.

    "The script is on the table. Normally, you''d have 9 hours to make 2 copies out of 3 chances. But seeing as you''re running out of time, you have only a bit above 3 hours.. Good luck."

 Chapter 223 - 217 : Rigged Steel

    cksmithing was a job that required intense dedication, focus and endurance and these requirements weren''t excluded in IR either. Unlike most VR games were yers would simply wait for a loading bar to fill up and check the status of their creation, IR used the hands-on feature making it so that the efforts of yers were intricately tied with the end result of their product. yers had to actively participate in the production of their equipment as the result actually depended on them. Just like cksmiths in reality, yers had to perform but the smelting, hammering, quenching and the other processes.

    Of course, IR wasn''t the first game to have done this. Some other fantasy games had achieved the same making it such that yers weren''t surprised nor frustrated at having to do such since a majority must have had prior experience at this. While it wasn''t the first, IR did add in some new features to make the process not just easier and convenient but also fun and more realistic. In reality, cksmiths need to train their endurance and strength as most of them could spend anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours. But IR implemented the some but neat feature that linked one''s attributes with their daily life in the game.

    In most games, one''s attribute points normally affect their fights and battles and not their daily life. One could have their strength at 100 points and be a "beast" in battles yet, the effect of their strength isn''t noticed in their daily activities say for example, in lifting a cup or opening a door. It''s as if there was no difference. The increase in attributes would only be noticed in battles and no where else. However, IR worked differently. An increase in attributes, be it [Strength] or [Agility] would be noticed in one''s daily life, especially once the increase besrge. With the constant increase in attributes, yers'' abilities would increase and this would also affect their abilities in their various subss profession. Take for instance the cksmith profession. Increasing one''s [Strength] would help yers be able to shape their works with less strikes and it would also help them handle tougher and harder materials. One can''t expect a yer with 10 points in [Strength] to be able to hammer the toughest metal in IR even if it was heated.

    Another feature that made cksmithing fun in IR was the existence of various cksmithing methods of which quite a few of them don''t actually exist in reality.

    While quite a lot of people would be interested in the fancy of making their own weapons and equipment, not everyone was a fan the idea of sitting close to a furnace for hours while hammering a specific work at specific intervals and rate. Why some people might not have an issue with this, a lot of people would. So, to make the sub-sses more attractive, there were various kinds of cksmithing methods like mana forging, cold forging, reshaping and so on. These methods could be more difficult or easierpared to the usual ''furnace runs'' but it was undeniable that they brought in a different taste to the sub-ss though at the beginning of the game, these ''unorthodox'' methods weren''t easily avable. Luckily for somebody though, the library of the Great Hall of Grey Chains had a few manuals on them.

    "Before you begin, I received a piece of information from the guild master earlier on in regards to the test."

    ''The guild-master?'' Sato was surprised.

    "You have 2 choices. You either take the usual test but with 3 hours instead of 9 hours or, you take the second one with an increased difficulty." Miss Trevale said.

    "The second one?"

    "You will work with a tougher material but with a longer allocated time." She replied.

    "Material rank and test duration?"

    "Peak 2 star. 7 hours."

    Sato frowned at the response as he began considering his avable choices. While it wasn''t impossible, it was not within Sato''s current ability to be able to forge a weapon each 1 hour or each 1 and a half hour., if he went with the first test. He needed at least 2 hours to be sure of a sessful product and this wasn''t possible with the first. However, while the second option did provide him with more than the minimum amount of time he required, a peak 2 star rank material wasn''t a joke or something he could easily handle.

    "I pick the second option."

    "Okay." Miss Trevale nodded. "The white blueprint on the table would be for your test. You can begin now."

    *Ding*

    [[System Notification :

    Master Owen''s trial

    Mission Rating : B

    Be an official cksmith in 1 week time(In-game).

    Rewards : Unknown

    Penalty : Banned from ever bing a cksmith

    +30% increase in price when purchasing from cksmith guild

    Rtionship points with cksmith guild bes [Hatred]

    System Description : Go big or go home.

    Duration : 9 hours     ]]

    ''Let''s see.'' Sato approached the table and picked up the white blueprint.

    "Rigged Steel long-sword."

    Rigged Steel is a special variation of steel that ended up as a 2 star material. While the material itself wasn''t rare or anything, the technique behind the production and the the logic behind it was an extremely guarded secret. This was because Rigged Steel was one of the very few 2 star ranked materials that formed with the aid of mana and other arcane forces. Unlike most minerals and materials that were produced naturally, Rigged Steel was one of the very few ones that had to be created artificially. It should be recalled that only 3 star and above materials can be formed with the aid of mana and other bizarre forces and because of this, the toughness of such materials supersede anything man could create. But Rigged Steel had actually reached this standard, albeit barely. It was developed by the cksmith guild of Fallen Heart Kingdom and the form to do so was held tightly in their grasp to the point that even the Royal family doesn''t know it.

    The reason was simply because Rigged Steel was one of the strongest 2 star metals, surpassing even Dawn Steel in toughness though by just a bit. What makes it even more amazing was that it could be made from the 1 star metal, steel. Unlike natural 3 star and 2 star materials that needed certain preconditions to form, as long as steel existed, Rigged Steel would always exist and the term ''scarcity'' wouldn''t be applied to it. Considering that iron was one of the most abundant metals in IR, the market for Rigged Steel could be said to neverck a supply. Sadly, due to the monopolization of the production method, an artificial scarcity was created leading to a hike in price. But still, the metal was worth it thanks to its absurd characteristics for a 2 star ranked metal. It even had an unofficial nickname cause of that; the false 3 star element.

    ''As if having such a limited time-span wasn''t hard enough, I still have to work on one of the most toughest metals ever. Sigh, they really are making this test a whole lot difficult.''

    Being an apprentice cksmith, Sato obviously knew about Rigged Steel and with the knowledge from the Hall of Grey Chains'' library, he knew more. Yes. Apparently, the form to produce the metal wasn''t created by the cksmiths of the kingdom but by the Caventry. The cksmiths were just lucky to have stumbled upon an old site of the Caventry and excavated the ce, finding the blueprint there. Sato also knew that the reason why there was a low production rate for Rigged Steel wasn''t because the cksmith guild had done so intentionally to hike up the price but because the manual they have is iplete, resulting in a low sess rate for the metal. Sato knew this because the real Rigged Steel had a strange rigged pattern that looked like both a wave and a crack on it and the one before him didn''t look exactly the same or even simr. He had read all these at the library and had taken special interest in it since the metal was one of the few artificial ones in existence.

    Such a crazy coincidence was actually good for Sato as while the cksmiths of Fallen Heart had a barelyplete manual, Sato had studied both the creation process and the maniption process. So without a doubt, unless a cksmith Caventry were toe here, Sato could be said to be the only existence in the town who knew how to perfectly manipte the metal.

    ''This is going to be fun.''

 Chapter 224 - 218 : Forging Experience

    (AN : This is a somewhat simr equivalent to a filler chapter, used to exin how forging/cksmithing works in IR. It''s quite long and might get boring to some so you''re free to skip if you wish.)

    In a forging room located at the 1st floor of the cksmith guild''s building were two individuals, a middle aged female and a young adult male. The temperature of the ce was above the average room temperature leading to the bodies of the two persons to begin sweating. Such a description would no doubt arouse the interest of certain perverted figures but no such ''activity'' was going on there. Instead, the increase in temperature was as a result of the furnace being activated for a while.

    Though true that each room in the cksmith guild is ssified into 3 categories -Basic, Intermediate and Advanced- all of the rooms were equipped with various formations and while the mana-gathering array was a basic one, it wasn''t the only one. There were a few other basic formations and arrays like the Temperature regtor, venttion system, furnace lighting array that dealt with increasing and decreasing the heat of the furnace and a few others. These arrays were set up to make things easier for the cksmith while working.

    *Whoosh*

    ring red mes coagted within a furnace, heating up the entire room and forcefully turning the contents in the furnace into liquid.

    ''Almost there.'' Sato stared at the mould that held the Rigged Steel with sweat slowly dripping from him. Being so close to the furnace, a distance not more than 1 metre, it was inevitable that the zing heat would find its way towards Sato, forcing his body to react against it.

    The temperature of the furnace was actually much higher than what was felt in the room. It was only thanks to the temperature regtor array that the duo of Sato and miss Trevale, didn''t really experience the full brunt of it. Actually, if Sato wanted, he could manipte the array such that they both wouldn''t feel any heat. However, Sato didn''t.

    While true that using the temperature regting array on the room wouldn''t affect the forge, this only applied for certain elements and not all. For something like Rigged Steel, which needed a very absurd amount of heat to melt, it would be best that the temperature regtor array would be set to minimum effect or at worst, mid performance. This wasn''t only because there was the chance of the array affecting the furnace but also because of the characteristics of Rigged Steel.The cksmiths of Fallen Heart kingdom might not have realised it yet but Sato knew that Rigged Steel was quite sensitive to a drastic change in temperature. However, the way it demonstrated this was different from normal.

    To better understand this, an ice cube could be said to be sensitive to a drastic increase in temperature as when the cube is ced in an environment with a temperature surpassing the freezing point[1], the cube would begin to melt. This is the cube''s way of disying its sensitivity to the change in temperature. In the case of Rigged Steel, once melted to liquid, it had to be quickly cast and hammered into shape else while still under the effect of high heat else, there might be discrepancies in the final product. A drastic change in temperature would affect the final result so cksmiths have to work with the metal under high and stable heat. Because of this, the cooling process of Rigged Steel is much different from regr metals as a special cooling method, array and fluid is used over the usual method of dipping inside water.

    ''Rigged Steel is quite rare due to the low production rate. As a result of this, it isn''t so popr amongst apprentice cksmiths. While there might be books that focus on forging with this metal in the library, not a lot of people would bother to read it. In other wors, while it seems to be 3 chances to try, the failure rate for this exam is quite high. It would take the faster yers the first trial to realise this issue and the 2nd one for slower yers. For the slower ones, the exam would pretty much be a failure for them. As for the faster ones, while they might have realised the issue, chances are that they still wouldn''t be able to find a solution before the time is up. Even if they do, since its their first time handling this metal, they are up for a failure. In summary, this test is much more difficult than it seems. Giving it a B rank is just evil.'' Sato sighed as he stared at the ''golden liquid in the furnace.

    Forging a simple weapon with an average 1 star metal was already difficult much more forging such with a peak 2 star metal that needed special attention and methods to work with. Especially with the fact that most yers would spend their time in the fields leveling up than in the library, there was a 98% chance that anyone who took the increased difficulty test like Sato did, would fail.

    ''It''s almost ready.''

    Sato left the furnace and walked towards one end of the room with a small bag in hand. The bag was a space bag that had all the avable materials for the test, paid by Sato but provided by the guild. Since a lot of people tend to take the cksmith test, the guild would experience a financial crisis if they decide to handle the procurement of the test materials themselves. So, in order to both avoid this and also deter away the whimsical candidates who just take the test for fun.

    At the spot Sato headed towards, there was a sophisticated workbench that was fixed there. While it is called a workbench, the equipment was high and long enough to be called a table, being 1x1 in dimensions; only smaller than the table at the center. On it, were inscribed a few different engravings, one of which was the engraving pattern for a temperature regtor. This wasn''t the controlling array for the room''s own but was another different entity on its own.

    Putting a hand into the bag, Sato drew out a green colored crystal, which looked more like sea-foam than green. The crystal radiated a sizeable amount of mana that gave off a cooling andfortable feeling.

    ''So this is how a magic crystal looks like.'' Sato thought.

    What separated cksmiths and metal-smiths or the ancient cksmiths was the fact that cksmiths had transcended regr metal works, going so far as using mana-based and mana-rted materials in their work. The perfect representation of this was the categorization of materials which was based on the creation process, strength and mana-rted properties[IF] of the material in question. One of the mana-rted materials they use were magic crystals, mana crystal and man stones.

    Magic crystals were the solid condensation of elemental mana into crystals and were usually used as the power source for a majority of arrays and formations. As a result of the high elemental affinity of the man within them, magic crystals appear in different forms and colours, depending on the elemental mana stored in them. The crystal in Sato''s hand was exactly a magic crystal of the wood/nature elements. The furnace was also powered by a formation except that the magic crystal used was brownish-orange in color, kind of like fire orange, signifying the elemental association of the gem.

    A fun fact to note was that the deeper the shade of the color of the magic crystal, the purer the mana and, sometimes, therger the amount of mana within it is.

    Mana crystals were a higher and much purer version of magic crystals as a result, they both had the same quality of having different colours and shades.

    Mana stones, unlike the previous two, was a whole different stuff. It wasn''t the condensation of elemental mana but man in its purest form. Mana is a vague energy that wasn''t fully studied so defining its purest form was something difficult for even the NPC locals. Because of this, there are more varieties of mana stones than there are for mana crystals and magic crystals. So far, a few mana stones had been discovered one of which were the blood stones; pure concentration of blood energy which can''t be counted as an element. Apart from mana stones like blood stones, soul stones and so on, there are 3 main types of mana stones; Purple mana stones, white mana stones and ck mana stones.

    While magic crystals and mana crystals are elemental based, it doesn''t mean you can''t interchange them in their duties. Take for example how Sato was using a wood type magic crystal for temperature regting when a fire-type one would be much better. True, the effects would be lessened but the goal would still be achieved.

    After admiring the crystal for a while, Sato ced it atop the workbench right at the formation eye for the temperature regting formation. The array was actually an ethereal substance that was made up of arge circle with another circle within. At the space between the two circles, a bunch of cryptic words were written there and the words radiated a gull gray light. Most of the other formations were like this and it was only by knowing both the structure andprehending the runes that one would be able to differentiate them. While he wasn''t an array master, Sato was still a cksmith in-training so knowing how to operate basic formations was a necessity.

    Following his movements, the temperature regtor formation erged with a green sh and eclipsed the other formations, upying more than two-thirds of the workbench. Sato then set up a mould that had the shape of a long-sword right underneath the formation.

    Manipting the runes on the formation, Sato made it so that the temperature visibly began to increase at a quick pace. The mould was made with an extremely heat resistant material so it wasn''t easily affected by the heat.

    Apanying the change in temperature of the formation''s area of effect, the magic crystal within the formation''s eye constantly decreased in size, but this change was negligible to the point that it wouldn''t be noticed with one''s naked eyes.

    ''It''s time.''

    When the temperature of the mould became close to that of thedle in the furnace, Sato took out his equipment and began setting them up. Apart from the duo hammers, there was a mp, a chisel and a few other equipment.

    Sato then returned to the furnace where he wore his apron together with a pair of cksmith gloves before extracting thedle that held the molten Rigged Steel with a pair of tongs. Holding the to go firmly with his hands, Sato emptied the contents into the mould. As the mould was still hot, the change in temperature of the Rigged Steel wasn''t much, retaining the integrity of the material.

    Sato took a thin t metal and used it to wipe off the excess molten metal from the mould. The bench was equipped with an auto-cleansing array, a liquid gathering array and a defensive array and the energy the arrays used could easily be supplemented by the environment. The excess molten metal that fell off the mould was then automatically gathered at one point on the bench and rounded into a ball. Since the effect of the temperature regtor array was active on most of the bench, the excess metal retained its molten form despite being condensed.

    In the process of forging Rigged Steel, an abrupt change in temperature would not only affect the integrity of the metal but also the resulting product. While the effects might not be that much, as an apprentice cksmith, Sato needed to increase his chances of sess at any cost. As such, a negative effect on the metal, no matter how small, had to be avoided at all cost. But if the temperature of molten Rigged Steel couldn''t be change so quickly, cooling it was a difficult process for most cksmiths but the temperature regtor array made things much easier.

    Sato made quick calctions and decided that with each 3-5 seconds, he would drop down the temperature of the array by the minimum value eptable. This way, the integrity of the metal wouldn''t bepromised.

    As a result of this, it took him 5 minutes before Sato had managed to drop the temperature of the molten Rigged Steel to a value he could work with.

    ''Now!''

    Without wasting any time, Sato extracted the ''half-baked'' long-sword and held it in ce with 2 mps he had prepared. The mps had a heat-resistance array to prevent them from being damaged by the temperature regtor array and the heat of the metal so Sato wasn''t worried about the absurd heat. He also stopped adjusting the temperature, leaving it to remain constant at a workable value.

    Picking up the regr hammer, Sato began shaping of the long-sword to his desire.

    *ng* *ng* *ng*

    Sonorous nging sounds resounded as Sato continuously hammered the long-sword at the spots he noted an imperfection. When the metal now prove difficult to the hammer, Sato took the mana-infused one and ced another magic crystal at a groove at one end of the hammer. He then used the other end and began to hammer it.

    With each strike, mana flowed from the magic crystal into the long-sword, tweaking the properties of the metal and increasing its attributes. Apart from that, the infused mana could change the weight of the hammer to the user''s requirements so Sato didn''t need to change equipment.

    ''Is he really a newbie?'' Miss Trevale stared at Sato in astonishment. From what she knew, Sato was supposed to be one of the individuals that had recently registered into the guild not more than a week ago. Most of them had barely registered for any sses or even practiced that much. Even if they were to lock themselves up in a forge for the week, it would be impossible for them to grasp most of the knowledge and skill required for the test unless one was an inborn genius destined for the forge. That was why Miss Trevale thought that Owen''s trial was just a way of bullying the [Chosen Ones] and breaking their pride in being ''different''. Yet, the way Sato handled the hammer; striking at the notable imperfections and easily modifying the long-sword to his desire, made her wonder whether he had learnt cksmithing before or was a true inborn genius.

    ''If he is, then the Riverdale branch has to keep him on hold as much as possible.'' Miss Trevale thought.

    She didn''t know that it wasn''t Sato being an inborn genius instead, the facilities in the Great Hall of Grey Chains was that amazing. While it seemed like Sato only had a few hours there to learn, there was actually a time dtion hall in there that had a rate of 1:3[2]. So rather than having only 4-5 hours of practice, he actually had at least 12-15 hours or so. While the time still wasn''t enough to master cksmithing to a standard level, considering the fact that the GHOGC(Great Hall of Grey Chains)''s library had a lot of books on cksmithing and an above-average practice room, the time frame was barely enough for this.

    *Huff* *Huff*

    Having hammered the long-sword for more than 10 minutes already, Sato was feeling exasperated. The only reason he was able to hold on was thanks to his strong will.

    Almost 2 hours had already gone from the allocated time leaving Sato with bit above 3 hours to work with. Despite knowing this, Sato didn''t act bothered nor tried to quicken his work pace. This was because one of the dumbest yet worst mistakes to make as a cksmith was to rush the process. For a job that required one''s full concentration and effort, unless one was a professional, rushing the work would lead to a result below the intended quality. With the limited experience he had, it made all the more sense why Sato had to take things slowly and easy.

    ''This can pass.'' Sato thought as he stared at the half-done long-sword in front of him.

    The long-sword wasn''t yetpleted but the shape had been made out. All that remained was for Sato to put the finishing touches and improve on the creation.

    The temperature Sato had left the sword at was barely enough to make it form a solid but the weapon was still ring red, showing how hot it was.

    Sato began to reduce the temperature once more but this time, he took out a special liquid and applied it on the sword. The liquid was a special cont that had formed thanks to the effects of mana and some certain special chemicals. While water was still amon cont in cksmithing, mana-based conts were preferred for better stability and strengthening.

    Once the sword had cooled down to be a true solid, Sato would increase the temperature again as if he wanted to melt down the sword. However, he always stopped once the long-sword had be red hot and easily malleable. He would then begin hammering once more before cooling again then repeating.

    Sato went on with this process, interchanging the regr hammer for the rune-carved one. With the constant hammering, cooling and heating, the physical properties of the long-sword were strengthened further as the long-sword approachedpletion

    Once he felt is was okay, Sato began the finishing touches on the sword. He fixed in a customized handle that he developed on the spot and applied coloring to the sword''s de and handle, making it more creative and beautiful to the eye. He then used a whetstone on the sword''s de till eventually¡­

    [[ System notification :

    Rigged Steel Long-swordpleted.

    Analysing product...

    Product has reached the required rank ]]

    [[ System notification :

    Rigged Steel Long-swordpleted.

    +5 Proficiency point

    Please assign a name to the product. ]]

    ''Sess!''

    Sato stared at the blue sword in his hands with a smile.

    The Rigged Steel long-sword smithing manual was a general manual. It didn''t actually describe how to make a long-sword but how to process Rigged Steel to make one, hence the name ''Rigged Steel long-sword''. Because of this, the final product would have the privilege of being assigned a name by the maker since the actual sword making process was done ording to the user''s desires.

    "I will call you, ''First''."

    [[ System notification :

    ''First'' has beenpleted.]]

    With no effort, Sato assigned an unenthusiastic name to his first creation in the cksmith guild but he wasn''t bothered. Considering his proficiency in cksmithing, the long-sword he just made wouldn''t be useful to him and can only be sold for money. Racking his brain just to give a cool name to something that would get sold felt dumb to him[3].

    ''[Inspect]''

    [[ System notification :

    First (Rigged Steel long-sword) : Mid Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 30

    Requirement : Level 5 || 5 [Strength]

    [Physical Attack power] +10

    [Attack Speed] +7

    [Strength] +3

    ]]

    ''3 stats. Two secondary attributes and 1 main attribute and no skill. It should be in the mid ranks then. Just a bit above average.'' Sato sighed in disappointment.

    While most people would rejoice at sessfully making an average work that would still have a market, Sato wasn''t. This was because he knew that the reason the long-sword reached that level was due to the precious materials used in its production. Normally, the increased [Attack Speed] option wouldn''t be essible for swords below level 10 unless in certain special asions, like Sato''s Astral de that was an Upper Tier weapon. However, the metal Rigged Steel had the special feature of being extremely hard yet very light. When used to make a weapon, it makes the weapon much easier to handle than other variations made with heavy metals like Dawn steel.

    "Time for the next one."

 Chapter 225 - 219 : Mainstream Fear

    [[ System notification :

    Rigged Steel Long-swordpleted.

    Analysing product...

    Product has reached the required rank ]]

    [[ System notification :

    Rigged Steel Long-swordpleted.

    +5 Proficiency point

    Please assign a name to the product. ]]

    ''Finally.'' Sato sighed with relief as he put down the hammer as he nced at the long-sword in front of him.

    "Congrattions. You''re now officially a cksmith." Miss Trevale apuded softly.

    This was the second long-sword Sato had produced and with it, he had sessfullypleted his test, bing an official cksmith. Unlike the first one, this one took less time as Sato had already gotten used to the process with the first try. He still had 30 minutes on the clock and one more try but Sato wasn''t bothered about that. Instead, his focus went to his system interface.

    [[ System notification :

    You havepleted Master Owen''s trial.

    Rewarding yer¡­ ]]

    ''Good.''

    "What''s wrong?" Miss Trevale asked Sato. She noticed that he was just staring at his sword without noticing her so she felt both surprised and a bit irritated. After all, even if Sato had passed the test and officially be a cksmith just like her, she had a much higher ranking than him and was also a senior in the business.

    "Oh, nothing. I just felt that I could have done better with this sword." Sato lied as he swung the sword around to feel its weight.

    "You don''t need to worry about that. At least it reached the Middle tier of the Mortal rank and is suitable for lower ranks of the beginner level. You should be proud of yourself." Miss Trevaleforted.

    While yers had a much detailed measurement of their abilities with the game''s level categorization, NPCs used the basic ranking method[1] to sort out their strength level. For better uracy, they divided each rank into sub-levels of low, intermediate, high and peak.

    "Since you havepleted the test, you will receive your reward as well. Sadly, apart from the basic remunerations, I''m not authorized to give any additional rewards. You will have to find the Master Owen for that. Luckily for you, he had already thought of this and would be meeting with the winners tomorrow. Oh wait, that should beter today." Miss Trevale said.

    "Here."

    Opening her hand up, she revealed what was held within. It was a rectangr token, simr to the Miss Trevale had. Compared to hers though, there were less inscriptions and carvings.

    ''Those probably signified our rankings.'' Sato thought. Even if he had passed the test and proven himself as an official cksmith, there was no way Sato would be able to contest against someone who had been beside the forge for more than 10 years.

    [[ System notification :

    Congrattions onpleting Master Owen''s trial.

    Title ''cksmith'' rewarded.

    Subss ''cksmith'' rewarded.

    100 ounces(2.8 KG) of 2 star material White Sand rewarded.

    3 bars of Timber Crystal rewarded.

    10 ingots of ck-Dawn steel ]]

    "This is your official cksmith token. With it, you can gain discounts and rewards from the guild while also having the guild vouch for your creations, to a certain extent of course. It can also help you around in town a bit. Keep it safe and close to you at all times."

    Sato nodded as he heard Miss Trevale''s exnation but his mind was elsewhere.

    "The test is over. Does that mean I have to return the left over materials?" Sato asked.

    Miss Trevale shook her head. "No. You''ve already paid for them so there''s no need. Unless you want a refund, no one''s taking the leftover materials from you."

    "Is the facility also included in this?" Sato pointed a finger up.

    "Since you have a bit of time left, then yes."

    "Okay. I would like to go on with forging and also buy 3 more hours." Sato said.

    "Do I look like a receptionist?" Miss Trevale asked with an irritated tone.

    ''Oh, I forgot. IR is more realistic. I need to look for the exact personnel.'' Sato almost face-palmed himself.

    "By the side of the wall, over there," Miss Trevale pointed at a spot a bit far from the work bench. "You can request additional time and make the payments before you leave."

    "Okay." Sato nodded.

    "The material reward would be sent here in a while."

    Following that, Miss Trevale walked out of the room as there was no reason for her to remain anymore.

    ''She''s gone¡­''

    Sato walked over to the long-sword he had recently made and checked its stats. Compared to the first one, it was a bitcking but it was still okay for a below-level 5 yer.

    "Since you''re pretty much the same as the other one, I will just name you ''Second''." Sato decided on ackluster name just as he did the first one.

    Having settled almost everything in regards to the cksmith test and not having a breakthrough n on how to defeat the world ss boss, Sato decided to focus on forging. With the few materials he had plus the onesing in from the reward, Sato decided to breakthrough his limits and forge a weapon that would be suitable for himself, or at the very least, Yato.

    ''Worsees to worse, it should be suitable for mainstream yers.''

    As the thought passed through his head, Sato heard a knock on the door. Opening it, he saw a young girl of a bit above 18 years of age in an apprentice uniform with a space bag held with both hands.

    "Teacher said I should give this to you." The young girl handed the space bag to Sato as a small blush crept on her cheeks. It couldn''t be helped though. Sato was a much older guy plus he had sessfully passed his test, the hardest of them at that, and qualified as an official cksmith. For any young girl in a town such as this, a figure like Sato was the prince charming of their dreams.

    "Thank you." Sato inly said as he received the bag before closing the door.

    Emptying the contents on the central table, Sato organized himself before grabbing a hammer.

    ''Time to begin.''

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    During the time Sato and Xue Yan were stuck in ck Grill''s Cave, a lot had happened in the outside world. More teams and guilds had made their way to the 10th floor of the Middle floor. The Elite rank Guard Golems, despite being level 9, weren''t all that tough.With enough yer-count, good skills and coordination and the right strategy, beating them wasn''t difficult. It just so happened that all the guilds and teams who did so all possessed these qualities.

    Still angered and irritated with having Sato''s team murder its father and get away scot-free and also Azure Dragon and Chesces'' lucky escape, the kobold king had put the entire 10th floor on lockdown. Because of that, the influx of kobolds into the lower floors wasn''t as much as it used making it such that yers only encountered either Ground Rats or Earth puppets, reducing the difficulty of progressing through the lower floors.

    With the decreased difficulty of progression and the bridge known as the Guardian Golems being crossed, there was nothing that prevented these teams from getting to the 10th floor. However, upon arrival, they all went through the same event which they wouldn''t be forgetting anytime soon.

    If the goblin event at Gnorka was a bloodbath with blood being shed everywhere, the 10th would be a ce that ended upbelled as a ''No return'' zone. With each passing minute, yers died either in a direct confrontation with the kobold king and its forces or under ambush. Yes, ambush.

    In order to prevent yers from ever escaping its grasp again, the kobold king became more proactive. It sent a bunch of kobolds to lock-down all possible escape points for yers and began searching for yers on the 10th floor. With each hour that went by, at least 2 yer teams would have suffered an assault and experienced a team-wipe.

    When a guild fell, they would hold back the information in order to bait more to die. This was because they didn''t want to suffer a loss, or as they would say, experience ''such a good event'' alone. However, as more teams and guilds fell plus with each passing second where no official announcement was made by the guilds, especially those spected to have reached there first(like Emperor''s Might), rumors and suspicions began flying about.

    As time went by and more teams reached the 10th floor, the truth waster revealed. The world ss boss was a beast, and not the literal word. No one could exchange more than 3 moves with it as at the fourth move, most would be too slow to react. When it fought with space magic things became worse as no one stood a chance no matter how small. If Sato and the others happened to witness one of its battles, they would have realised that it actually went easy on them but the truth was far from that. It wasn''t that it purposely went easy on them but it was jut recovering from having exited the ''training'' process and so, couldn''t exhibit its full power. But with the time between Azure and Soran''s teams dying, and the next team of yers arriving, the kobold king managed to recover.

    The event where yers died on the 10th floor became known worldwide on the IR servers and was termed as ck Grill''s Demolition. A whooping 16 different guilds and teams had fallen at the spot and with the estimate of each team having at least 12 yers, this was at least 192 yers reported dead. These weren''t average yers, but Experts! People that could easily have afortable life as a gamer by just signing up for a guild. Riverdale was a Primary town like ck Mountain town. Each Primary town could hold at least 350,000 people(NPCs and yersbined). yer poption usually varied from a sixth(1/6) to 2/3rd of the total poption. By conservative estimate - considering that IR just began - 1/6 of the total poption, which was a 19,444 or so, were yers. Of that number, a reported 300-400 of them were Experts. This was just barely above 2% of the entire yer poption! And almost half of that number had died in one raid! This was a big hit to the yer structure of Riverdale town.

    With so many experts in one location reported dead, ck Grills'' Demolition began trending on the forums. This wasn''t a surprise as once the details that lead to it were revealed - the main one being the discovery of a world ss boss - a lot of people paid attention to the news. While IR might have simr features with past VR games, in the end, it was still a different game. The discovery and battles of a world ss boss was valuable information that would help other yers gauge the strength of monsters so them paying attention to this was very much understandable. While some paid attention for information gathering reason, others justughed at the result.

    It should be recalled that a few towns had experienced certain events that lead to the rise in levels of mainstream yers. These towns were nicknamed ''4-leaf clover towns'' and these towns had attracted the hostility of other yers in different locations. Some had even gone far as to hold the game developers responsible but the developers denied ever nning that; iming it was the System that was in control and not them. Now that one of those clover towns had experienced a massive setback, a lot of yers began to rejoice but not all.

    The guilds and more intelligent yers knew that the setback didn''t affect all the yers and also, this setback wouldn''t be forever. Eventually, one guild would take down the kobold king and reap its rewards, widening the gap between them and others even more. To this, they were quite right. Because currently, the top guilds of Riverdale and ck Mountain had conveyed a meeting on how to defeat the kobold king as soon as possible. They were forced to do so because of a news they had recently received.

    With the reveal of the kobold king''s strength, yers began avoiding the 10th floor but the kobold king didn''t want that. It wanted to kill more. It wanted to see blood. So, the monster left the 10th floor for the lower floors. As a result, yers began avoiding ck Grill''s Cave as a levelling zone and this in turn, would affect the various guild''s development because there were very few levelling spots for yers above level 5. Also, who could say that the kobold king wouldn''t leave the cave system.. And so, the guilds had to begin making preparations, for the next greatest raid in IR history.

 Chapter 226 - 220 : Temporary Base Located

    *Thump*

    "Ah~ Finally!" Yato rejoiced as heid down on the floor casually.

    It had been 7 days(RT) since Sato had passed the cksmith guild''s test and during these days, a lot of events had urred. After meeting up with Fudo, Yato and the others, Sato informed them in detail about his experiences on the 10th floor after which he brought the group with him there. He nned on turning the Great Hall of Grey Chains to their base since they were the only ones who currently knew of it. With the added security of the kobold king''s to the central hall''s test and the hidden location, it was the perfect hideout.

    As for how Sato got the others in despite the existence of the rampaging kobold king, Sato simply used a teleportation rune. This was one of the basic privileges he got from being allowed official ess to the Hall of Grey Chains. As long as he was within the premises of ck Grill''s Cave, he could teleport in and out of the floor that housed the central tower at will. Sato could also bring a maximum of 2 people with him and with Xue Yan having the same privilege, it wasn''t difficult to bring the other 5.

    While they did get in, Fudo and the others still had to pass the test to gain official ess. The test format could allow a maximum of 2 individuals to 1 Achiever with the goal of making 6 hits, or 5 individuals to 2 Achievers or 1 Achiever at a higher power level with the goal of making 7 hits. Actually, depending on the number of challengers, the test would change in ordance. To make things easier and amodate the weaker ones, the team chose the 5 man to 1 Achiever format.

    The team of 5 spent the first 2 days levelling up in other maps, raising the team''s overall power level after all, it was better to face the test when they were much stronger than they were. As a result, Seiichi, Katsuo and Yato all became level 8 yers and also got their sub-sses, boosting their overall fighting prowess to a higher level. Lu Zhen found it difficult to reach level 9 but on thest day, he seeded in breaking through and finally reached the ranks of Sato and Fudo to be one of the highest levelled yer in the team. The reason the team improved this much was thanks to their expedition on the 10th floor, that saw them defeat a lot of high levelled monsters for their rank. Even after being shared amongst 7 yers, the experience was still sizeable.

    While the others battled monsters, Sato and Fudo focused on their sub-ss. The reason was simple; if they wanted to get to level 10, the weak monsters around wouldn''t help. The only option was to face the kobolds on the 10th floor or battle the kobold king. Rather than calling it the only method, it was more urate to call it the fastest method. For most pro yers, fast was usually better than stable so Sato and Fudo made the same decision. While Sato spent his time perfecting his cksmithing skills at both the cksmith guild and the cksmith area in the Central tower, Fudo did the same. The knowledge for sub-sses wasn''t only limited to cksmithing neither was the huge quantity of books only a feature for them. In fact, the alchemy and rune-forging(aka Inscribing) section had more books than the cksmith section. With such a truckload of knowledge left lying around, Fudo took his time to go through them and perfect his art, just like Sato did.

    Whilst everyone got busy, Xue Yan was actually the busiest. Simr to Sato, Xue Yan didn''t need to participate in the battle with the 5 so she had much more free time than they did, yet she still felt it wasn''t enough. The first 2 days were spent levelling up like the others, letting her reach level 8, but the remaining 5 days were spent honing her battle skills and increasing her knowledge on runes.

    Xue Yan choosing Rune-forging for her sub-ss wasn''t because she was influenced by the others but instead she happened to develop an interest in it. After realising that Saimon controlled the Achiever''s via runes and also witnessing the prowess and reading about it, she fell for the idea of enchanting objects and manipting mana through scribbles. As an [Elementalist], mana control was one of the specialties of ss, hence, the idea of being a Scribe seemed perfect.

    For the period she was offline, Xue Yan went over to Sato''s ce where they borrowed his grandfather''s dojo for training. Truthfully, the first time Xue Yan came over, she was filled with anxiety and apprehension. It was the first time she was visiting a stranger who happened to be a guy. While Sato wasn''t really a stranger, he wasn''t a friend either. When she came over, Alice weed her in with a kind attitude, like a lovely mother-inw weing her daughter-inw. Even the old man, Juro, gave Sato a side look as if congratting him on bringing a girl over. Having lived most of her time with a cold attitude and dissociating herself away from others, Xue Yan felt awkward in all of this. Luckily for her, Sato brought her away for practice before everything had gotten extra weird.

    With the triple lessons of in-game battle training, inscription practice and martial arts/fighting practice, Xue Yan turned out to be the busiest of the 7, followed closely by Sato who handled all her training sessions rted to fighting.

    After 2 days of intense grinding, the team of Fudo, Yato, Lu Zhen, Seiichi and Katsuo then confronted the Achiever. However, it took them till their 3rd try, in other words, 3 days(RT) before they passed the test.

    "Whew. Even though its much weaker than that kobold king or whatever, its fighting experience and skill is greater." Lu Zhen sighed in awe as he recalled the past days of ''hell''.

    The Achiever they faced wasn''t the same swordsman Sato and Xue Yan faced but instead an axe wielder. ording to Saimon, the two were on par with each other but his reason for changing the opponent was just because he felt like doing so.

    While supposedly on par with the other one, its strength for this test wasn''t, as there were 5 challengers instead of 2.

    With a higher level of strength, the difficulty of the test increased in kind to the point that it almost drove the 5 into despair. No matter what move they made, it was like the Axe-wielding Achiever could sense it. It would react immediately and counter, even with 5 yers on its tail. This resulted in the team barely being able to make a hit and reduce the hit-count. If not for the level 9 Fudo and Lu Zhen, together with Sato adjusting their strategies offline, the team would have failed the test.

    "How did they even pass this? I know it was only the two of them and so the test would drop in difficulty but still. The difficulty would correspond." Yato asked out. The two he was referring to were Sato and Xue Yan. They both went deeper into the hall, with Xue Yan staying at the library and Sato at the cksmith Area.

    "It''s Sato we are talking about. He was the one who helped us with this so why wouldn''t he be able to do the same for himself." Seiichi replied.

    "Alright you two. Now we have official ess, let''s head in and check this pace out." Fudo said before Yato could speak.

    Since they never had official ess before, the 5 were only limited to the hall that held the Achievers. But now that they had finally seeded in passing the test, they were granted official entry into the hall by Saimon, enabling them to visit the library and the other quarters in the building.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    *ng* *ng*

    In arge room somewhere within the central tower, aka the Great Hall of Grey Chains, Sato was hammering constantly at a t piece of metal. It was till far frompletion as Sato was still hammering it to shape, so the identity of the object was unknown. However, from a single nce, one would notice that the metal was too big to be a sword but seemed just right for a chest-te or a shield.

    [[System notification : You have new mail]

    "Oh?" Sato slowed down his hammering but didn''t halt them.

    Opening the mail, Sato saw that it came from Fudo, informing him of their victory in the test.

    ''They''ve passed? Well, that''s good.'' Sato sighed as he resumed hammering the metal at his previous pace.

    "This should be the 5th day. Once I''m done with all of this, it will be time to take that test." Sato said out loud as he recalled Saimon''s proposal.

    "I just hope this will be sessful." Sato stared at the metal sheet being hammered.

    What Sato was trying to produce was an armour and not any ordinary one, but one at the Upper tier Mortal rank!

 Chapter 227 - 221 : Entry Trial

    Exactly 24 hours(RT) had gone by since Fudo and the others had passed the test and gained official entry, Sato and Xue Yan were ready to challenge the special test Saimon said was only avable to yers who passed the entrance test. With the time spent forging and training, Sato felt that he was ready for the test and Xue Yan also felt the same.

    Though he wasn''t able to level up, Sato made massive improvements to his overall fighting prowess after getting used to the effects of his new skills and stocking up on astral energy for his sword''s skill. You could say that he as at his peak form right now.

    "I don''t know how long it will take us so you guys just improve on yourselves and level up more. We still need to face the kobold king and every second of training counts." Sato spoke to the team. Since the others had just recentlypleted the previous test, they needed time to not only take a break but to improve on themselves more. Hence, the idea of the other 5 following the team of Sato and Xue Yan was unlikely.

    "Alright then. You can go on your date now." Yato shooed.

    "No problem. We''ve got this." Fudo grinned silly.

    Sato sighed at the behaviour of his friends but he ignored them as he faced Xue Yan.

    "Let''s go."

    Xue Yan nodded in response as if unaffected by Fudo and Yato''s ridiculous disy which in truth, she was.

    "Hmm? Have youe for the trial?" Saimon asked as he saw Sato and Xue Yan heading his way.

    "How did you know?" Sato asked, a bit surprised.

    "Your personality says that you will try the trial soon enough. You haven''te to find me for anything so I presumed the only time you would do so is when you want to give the trial a shot. Also, you came with her." Saimon pointed at Xue Yan

    "Those 5 justpleted their entry test so there''s no way they would want topete in the trials so soon."

    ''An urate analysis.'' Sato mentally praised him.

    "You''re right. Since we''re about to take the trials, could you help us understand what they are?"

    "Follow me." Saimon said as he turned around and headed to one of the statue of the Achievers.

    The trio then walked towards the statue which also happened to be one of the tallest ones present. Just like the previous two, it had its face hidden behind a stone helmet. Compared to the swordsman and the axe-wielder, it was like an adult in front of a child, based off of height alone. Following the logic of a taller height equals greater strength, it was without a doubt that Sato and Xue Yan or even the duo plus the other 5, would lose against it, even with a reduced power level. And this fact was proven true by Saimon''s next words.

    "Lord Worrus. Ranks at the top 10 of the strongest of Achievers. He has a special body that has a high affinity to mana especially of the void kind. That enabled him to be able to manipte space better than anyone in recorded history, only beneath the gods of course. Even if there were a hundred of you 7, making a total of 700, you guys wouldn''t be able to pass the entrance test and that''s with Lord Worrus being suppressed." Saimon stopped in front of the statue and said with an almost fanatic tone.

    ''That strong!'' Sato and Xue Yan eximed mentally.

    To be able to take on seven hundred level 8 and 9 yers while being roughly at level 10 was too absurd and unbelievable but there was no reason for Saimon to lie to them. In other words, it was either that Saimon didn''t know their full strength - which sounded silly since he had witnessed them battle before - or he was really speaking the truth and the Worrus was that strong.

    "The test was developed by Lord Worrus long ago hence, the entrance to the trial grounds are located within the statue." Saimon said as he raised his left hand up before drawing a circle round it with his right.

    A tear in the void escorted his finger as it drew the circle, rapidly erging with each passing second as the eyes of the Achiever Worrus radiated a red glow. After just 5 seconds had passed, a ck portal had formed right in front of the statue with an ancient aura spilling out from it. Due to the color of the portal, the view of the other side remained unknown to the duo.

    "My affinity with space isn''t so good; barely average at that. I''m saying this cause you would most likely experience turbulence or a few fluctuations that would affect you negatively."

    "Okay." Sato and Xue Yan nodded.

    "Let''s go." Saimon said to them before walking in.

    *Voom*

    Sato and Xue Yan didn''t hesitate to step in right after as the same low hum apanied their disappearance.

    *Whoosh*

    With a low whoosh, the tear patched itself up as the red glow radiating from Worrus dimmed down till it extinguishedpletely. The hall then returned to its silence with the absence of life being the theme of the environment.

    On the other side of the portal¡­

    "Wee to Versuchsgr¨¹nde. The true trial grounds of the Caventry."[1] Saimon''s voice sounded out with an imposing yet delighted tone.

    Sato and Xue Yan took a second to recall their circumstance and location as the teleportation process wasn''t so pleasing as Arman''s.

    ncing around, Sato studied his environment and was quite surprised as he wasn''t expecting this.

    The trail grounds wasn''t as one would expect. It wasn''t a mountainous location nor a valley or even a building. They had appeared within an open field as if they had exited not only the central tower but also ck grill''s Cave. There was a dazzling radiant sun high up in the sky, a semi-clear blue sky with a few white clouds and an empty field in front of them. Yes, an empty ground. No training equipment, no buildings and no sign of any living organism apart from the weeds that were at knee-height and the 3 people present. It didn''t seem to be a trial ground of sorts no matter how anyone looked at it. It looked more like abandoned field.

    "Is this the trial ground?" Sato asked.

    "Yes." Saimon answered with a smile.

    "Then what are we supposed to do? What''s the trial?" Sato asked with furrowed brows.

    "The trial¡­has already begun." As he concluded his words, Saimon''s figure slowly began to fade. The same went for Xue Yan''s figure but hers faded even quicker such that within 3 seconds it was gone.

    "Versuchsgr¨¹nde, the proud grounds of the Caventry was created by Lord Worrus to be the training ground for the Caventry. With the extinction of the Caventry, it served as their inheritance ground." Saimon spoke as his legs began to turn transparent.

    "What you see isn''t the trial grounds but one of the trials itself."

    Hearing that revtion, Sato was shocked but he still forced himself to remain calm as Saimon wasn''t done speaking.

    "The trials are divided into 2 phases; the entry phase and the main trials. What you see is the entry phase. The reason for its existence is to prevent those who are way too overconfident of their skills to end up dead after all, the trials are no joke. Passing it would lead you to the main trials. The main trials consists of more than one challenge and each one grants a reward that would be given to you at the end of the entire trial.

    "Each challenge has a certain duration attached to it. Failure toplete the challenge within the specified time leads to an automatic failure. In battle-type challenges, you risk the chance to die since this is a trial and not a yground.

    "If you would like to quit, this is the only chance you would get. Now tell me, would you like to begin or retreat?"

    By the time Saimon had finished saying all that he wanted to, half of his body - from feet up to his waist - had already disappeared while his upper body begun to vanish.

    ''An option to retreat huh?'' Sato thought as he nced at the notification on his interface.

    [[ System notification :

    The Caventry''s Path (Series)

    Mission rating : A

    Mission Detail : You have been granted the opportunity to experience hell as the Caventry do.

    Two trials and several challenges. With each challenge passed, a reward is granted. Get a high rating for better rewards.

    Basic Rewards : ???

    Penalty :

    -50% temporary decrease in Experience points for 2 weeks(RT)

    -50% temporary decrease in Main attributes for 2 weeks(RT).

    -Immortal soul would be harmed; 30% Permanent loss of attribute points for each Main attribute.

    System : ept/Decline

    System description : It is advised that the yer make this decision properly. The test would involve certain scenarios that would affect the yer negatively. If epted, yer would be required to go offline and make preparations as the duration and structure of the mission could potentially affect the yer negatively. For preparation steps, please check *Long term Online Preparation Manual*[2].

    To help set up a challenge, yer''s memories would have to be read. epting the mission would be the same as permitting the system to ess yer''s memories. Personal/private information rted to finances or confidential information won''t be shared and shall be deleted permanently from the system''s database once the mission is over. All actions and decisions are protected Alliancews (Lois universelles de l''Alliance, Section A : Paragraphe 3. Modifi¨¦ dans l''¨¦tat de France).[3]

    ]]

    ''For an A rated mission, this is really severe.'' Sato thought.

    From the notification, Sato figured out that the penalties were tougher than he could handle. Ignoring the system penalties, the decision of letting the System read his memories was quite risky since everyone has their secrets. Thanks to the French amendment, despite VR games possessing the ability to read one''s mind, they didn''t. No one would dare challenge the Alliance''s authority, not even arge state or other federations, much less a game-devpany.

    ''Ignoring that, the penalties are really something.'' Sato sighed. He then took a dep breath as he prepared to make his decision.

    ''The heavens are fair, that''s why¡­''

    "I ept."

 Chapter 228 - 222 : Unknown Seeker

    "I ept."

    [[ System notification :

    The Caventry''s Path (Series)

    Mission rating : A

    Mission Status : epted(In Progress)]]

    Saimon smiled as he had Sato''s words. With his body almostpletely faded, he nodded at him.

    "Alright then. I wish you the best. Don''t overdo things. It would be too bad if I don''t see you anymore after all, you''re the first visitor the hall has had in over 500 years."

    Having said all he wanted to, Saimon ''s body turned translucent as he vanishedpletely from the premises.

    "He didn''t exin the goal of this trial." Sato thought out loud as he stared at the spot Saimon previously stood.

    ncing around, Sato tried to spot any hint or clue that would help him pin down the aim of the trial.

    "Hm? How?"

    He didn''t know when but Sato had suddenly noticed a rainbow fog that surrounded him and was closing in on him at a slow pace.The fog was looking ethereal and with the unimaginable colouration of assorted colours, it was elegant and appealing. However, Sato felt otherwise.

    While an average human would get an enticing feeling from the rainbow fog, Sato''s senses gave him a tingling sensation as if warning him about them. Just like an average person would in this situation, Sato''s mind was beguiled by the rainbow fog, making him want to approach it but thanks to his strong mental will, Sato was able to resist it. It was this very weird feeling that flipped Sato''s alertness.

    ''This feeling¡­'' Sato began to frown as a small sensation of fear began creeping in.

    [[ System notification :

    [Hiatus Feature] activated.

    yer is required to go offline and make proper preparations for the mission ording to the *Long term Online Preparation Manual*.

    If preparations have previously been made or is deemed unnecessary, the trial would resume. Do note, the System strongly suggest yer to make appropriate preparations ording to the *Long term Online Preparation Manual*. ]]

    ''Another system notification. It looks like this mission might be much more dangerous than I thought.'' Sato sighed internally.

    With the notification''s appearance, the rainbow fog had stopped spreading giving Sato some breathing space.

    Sato then checked out the ''Long term Online Preparation Manual'' ording to the system''s instructions. Without a doubt, the statement ''the System strongly suggest yer to make appropriate preparations¡­'' had grabbed his attention. If the System had gone so far as to put that in the notification, it means that the mission was no joke and the dangers involved would most likely affect his real body.

    "Indeed. It seems it''s that bad." Sato sighed once more.

    The Long term Online Preparation Manual was a simple instruction ''booklet'' that helped yers prepare for long term online connection. Pro-gaming had be a highly regarded upation ever since the VR sector had massive improvements. Actually, a bunch of other upations rted to entertainment began to shift over to the Fr sector thanks to the fact that just like animations, anything is possible in VR. However, the change in the gaming sector was the most impressive since VR initially began with it. Because of this, a lot of people began to devote their lives to gaming, trying to climb thedder of sess and as things went on, the trend of extremists[1] became popr.

    Gaming extremists/addicts, people who, even at the cost of their mental and physical health, would still keep gaming. While there were a few ways to stop this - for example turning the servers off on a particr day of the week - such methods would sometimes raise dissatisfaction amongst users. As a result, games that didn''t make use of such policies adopted the practice of educating yers on the dangers of constant gaming and also giving them certain measures to take to reduce the effect of long term gaming.

    The Long term Online Preparation Manual preparation manual Sato just checked out was one such method developed by a verified health care agency for gaming addicts or extremists. This included stocking up on energy drinks especially if one had a cabin since the drinks could be connected to the cabin and at certain intervals, injected into the yer''s body. For those who used VR helmets though, rms had to set that would go on at certain times in the day reminding the yer to have a meal or take a break. To prevent their game progress from being affected, a special feature, which was only limited to headset users, would activate, pausing their progress in the gaming and leaving it unimpeded. To prevent yers from cheating though, this feature was strictly controlled and monitored by the system and wouldn''t activate except in scenarios like this.

    "I already have a bunch of energy drinks enough for 2 weeks but I think its best to get another." Sato sighed as he began logging off. Because the [Hiatus Feature] had been turned on, the progress in the mission was brought to a stop hence the reason why the rainbow fog had halted diffusing.

    [[ System notification :

    Logging out from Infinite Real¡­

    Disconnecting from the Heavenly System Universal server¡­

    Disconnecting Neurolink¡­

    Awakening process beginning...

    Prepare in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 ]]

    "Ha¡­" Sato released a deep breath upon regaining conscious and taking off the helmet.

    "Looks like I''ve gotten used to the process." Sato smiled lightly as he stood up from his bed.

    ncing at the digital clock by the side, he noticed that the time was 9am, roughly the time the store would open. Because of this, Sato scrapped his original idea of ordering the energy drinks with delivery and decided to walk over there. First of all, he wanted to work out a bit and stretch his legs. Secondly, Sato wanted to go school and round up all the documents and necessary school works needed before graduation.

    Going downstairs, he noticed that the house was empty and saw a message disyed on the LCD panel of the table. Apparently, Old Juro had taken Alice with him to the hospital whereas Hayami went out to hang out with her friends. From his grandfather''s statement, the old couple would be out till 4 in the evening and the same went for Hayami.

    "She''s already a grown-up." Sato sighed as he thought of the little sister he doted upon.

    Apart from his grandparents, Hayami was the only true family Sato had left. Their parents had died long ago so he ended up taking on the responsibility of raising her alongside the old couple. As for the paternal side of his family, Sato never gave a f**k about those guys and it wasn''t like they felt any better about them(Sato and Hayami) too. Sato was even sure that if they knew where he and his sister was now, they would capture them. If it wasn''t for the Alliance''sws, he and Hayami might end up worse.

    Eliminating such depressing thoughts from his head, Sato exited the building after making sure that he had enough funds in his ount. His destination was the usual Gamebox Guide.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    "You say his teacher is possibly a grand-master?" An old voice resounded in a dojo at a certain ce.

    "Yes, master." A young man who was sitting in a seiza replied. If Sato, Yato or Seiichi were here, they would remember the young man as Wu Shiyi, the guy who was hired by Yamamoto Ichiro to beat them up before[2].

    In front of him was an old man that had his back facing him while practicing calligraphy on a bamboo paper. These days, bamboo were quite rare thanks to the constant development of the environment, wild life was quite difficult to spot. Due to this, nts like bamboos were quite difficult to find and could only be grown in greenhouses, making their cost sky-rocket. To be able to get a bamboo slip meant that the old man either had a bamboo garden somewhere or he was stinky rich to be able to afford such for luxury. Funny enough, the answer was both.

    "Hmm¡­There aren''t a lot of grand-masters these days much less here in Shinjuku. I would like to meet the young man, Yi. Schedule a meeting for me, okay?" The old man''s voice resounded again.

    "Yes, master." Wu Shiyi bowed.

    "Alright now. You can leave." The old man said without turning back.

    Wu Shiyi then bowed in response, stood up and bowed again before leaving. Once he was gone, the old man stopped writing, gently cing the quill feather he was using to write by the side.

    Staring at the bamboo slip before him, the old man sighed as he mouthed out his thoughts.

    "After all these years of searching, I''ve finally found you. It''s probably you, old friend."

    What was written on the bamboo paper turned out not to be calligraphy but a painting. It was a painting of a middle aged man.. If one focused carefully on it though, they would notice that the man in the painting had a few simrities with Sato''s grandfather, Noguchi Juro.

 Chapter 229 - 223 : Stalkers

    "That would be 75 ALDs." The automated sales-bot reported.

    ''I''m beginning to run out of cash.'' Sato sighed as he transferred the reported amount to the designated ount and registered his goods for delivery to his ce.

    After spending 1000 ALDs to purchase the IR VR headset and a few other essories, spending almost 300 ALDs for energy drinks and now spending 75 ALDs, Sato''s past savings were almost emptied. If things went on as they did, he would need to collect some money from his grandfather which Sato didn''t want to do.

    First of all, their family wasn''t that well-off and also, his grandmother had recently contracted an illness so every amount of money they had mattered.

    ''I really need to speed up on my ns.'' Sato thought as he recalled the announcement regarding IR that he happened to have spotted just a few minutes back.

    The announcement was regarding a few changes to IR with mainly started with the application of the fiat currency-to-In-game currency feature. This feature would finally enable the copper, silver and gold coins in IR to have a value, being avable to purchase with real money. As things stood, the coins in IR didn''t really have a specific value as exchange wasn''t allowed by official channels as a result, when two yers wanted to perform a transaction with real money for an in-game item, the value of the item in real mary price is determined by the persons involved. But with the implementation of this feature, all these would change. The coins would have a fixed value and a tform for exchange would b made avable in the game. This would better help in making transaction and also increase the value of the game even more. If Sato made use of this opportunity by forging weapons and selling at a profitable price, he would then have a stable source of ie. But this was just one of his ns for making money in Infinite Realm.

    Walking outside the store, Sato was about to hail a taxi to school when he suddenly felt someone staring at him with a vicious intent. If not for his gaming experience where he had to walk between a fine line between life and death, Sato wouldn''t have noticed it.

    ''Who is it?'' Sato wondered but he didn''t react to it and acted as if he never noticed anything.

    Instead of going through with his original idea of getting a ride, Sato decided to take a walk. While the distance was a bit far, it was still within trekking distance.

    Sato kept walking towards the university with a steady pace as he tried to pinpoint the location of the stalker. The person wasn''t a professional so it wasn''t difficult for Sato to do this even with his back turned towards the opponent.

    ''Right there.'' feeling the unhidden rage within the stare, Sato was able to pinpoint the stalker''s location to be 21 feet diagonally behind him and walking just enough to match his pace.

    ''Hm?'' Just when Sato was thinking of how to solve this issue, he noticed a new gaze locked on him.

    ''Wait¡­ there are 3?!'' Sato was shocked as he felt a total of 3 different gazes from 3 different directions locked on him.

    ''Who the heck are these guys?'' Sato thought with a bit of suspicion. While he wasn''t exactly friends with everyone, he wasn''t their enemy either. For someone to send a group of people after him meant that they had a serious grudge.

    ''Is it Ichiro?'' Sato recalled the guy who took Mia away from Yato and sent some guys after them. In his mind, this was the only guy who would go so far as to still pull the same shit again.

    ''Let''s have some fun then.'' Sato smirked in an unnoticeable fashion as he headed to an isted area. He wasn''t worried about being injured or getting beaten since Sato usually did the beating. As for getting killed or getting mugged, he was the least worried about that. Unless someone had mentally gone ill, they wouldn''t normally dare tomit murder.

    It wasn''t difficult for Sato to find a remote area. The route from the Gamebox guide to Shinjuku School of Engineering and Mechanics had been covered by him for god knew how many times. The ce he went to was a little open space witha building nted in the middle that was hidden behind a few other buildings. It originally housed a store but the owner went bankrupt and the ce gotten seized by the bank. Due to theck of buyers because of the remote location, the ce slowly became ignored and forgotten.

    Once he had walked in front of the building, just 2 metres away from the entrance, Sato paused and stood still as if he was listening to the winds.

    "You cane out now."

    There was no reply to Sato''s words but he wasn''t bothered at this but smirked with his hands in his pockets. There was a pen in his right pocket which he bought on his way here. Since the stalkers didn''t want to receive his warm wee, he decided to give them a proper invitation.

    *Phew*

    As his hand left his pocket, Sato abruptly turned and tossed the pen at a direction behind him. The pen was too quick that the shadow hidden at that spot couldn''t react in time and got hit.

    "Argh!"

    A masculine voice sounded out in pain but Sato ignored it and instead tossed another pen with his left hand at the source.

    With the pain and surprise from the first hit, the figure never expected another hit and got pierced again.

    "Argh!" Another pitiful scream resounded less than a secondter.

    "You bastard!" Another voice from elsewhere cursed as a figure jumped out of its hiding spot. The new arrival suddenly dashed towards Sato and punched ta him but Sato expected this and was able to dodge before he arrived. After seeing that he had missed, the assant didn''t make any move but red at Sato.

    "Kijin bro, you okay?" The third and final character made an appearance.

    With no one bothering to make a move on him, Sato was finally able to get a good look at his ''followers''.

    The first one, Kirin, who got attacked twice by Sato was an average looking man. Apart from his slightly long face, he was average in every other regard. The two pens had been removed from his body but two bloody holes were left on his right shoulder and left thigh as mementos.

    The second man who attacked Sato was a middle aged man with a roughly shaved beard. Sato was astounded at why someone would look like this after all, shaving was anything but difficult.

    The third man wasn''t anything special but he looked familiar to Sato.

    "You¡­you''re the old dude from back then?" Sato was a bit stunned.

    It was the ''old'' man Sato and Yato had met back when they both went to purchase a VR set for Yato and some energy drinks[1]. Back then, Sato hadmented one how he felt that Infinite realm would reach a billion yers in a month''s time but the man contradicted him instead.This almost lead to the two parties shing if not for the man exiting at thest moment.

    "Well well well. Look who remembered me." The man grinned.

    "It''s quite difficult to forget an ugly face." Sato responded.

    "You¡­.!"

    "Why the hell are you after me? Don''t tell me that a simplement got you all riled up?"

    This was what Sato was earnestly confused about. Sato never insulted him no made any violent move on the man so there was viable reason for him to stalk him(Sato).

    "No one mocks me like that and gets away with it. Ether pay a 100 ALDs or break an arm and kowtow to me." The man grinned silly. Despite seeing Sato injure one of his men and also witnessing his skills firsthand, the man still felt he had a good shot at victory after all, Sato was outnumbered.

    "I see. You''re one of the dumb ones. And here I was getting a bit worried." Sato shook his head. He had originally thought that the man was hired by Ichiro but it runs out he was one of those gang guys that always felt threatened and liked to carry their weight around. While security had improved considerably, thugs could still be found in different ces. So far as they didn''tmit a crime, the government had no reason to arrest them.

    "What did you say?!" The man shouted.

    "I just said you''re dumb. What are you gonna do about it?" Sato stared at the man with cold eyes.

    Hoji didn''t know why but eh suddenly felt like he was in the presence of death. That re alone was more than enough to weaken his will but being in the presence of some of his gang mates, he didn''t want to show a weak side to the weak man in front of him.

    "You damned little kid! You wanna die?!" Hoji roared but didn''t make any other move.

    "It depends on whether you could actually pull it off. Though I doubt youck the balls for it." Sato taunted.

    It had been long since he had had a proper fight in the real world. Though that event with Wu Shiyi was good, it still didn''t satisfy him. Sato wanted to test out some new moves he had learnt this past few days and the proper practice dummy was right in front of him. There was no way he would miss this opportunity.

    "You fucking bastard! Die!!"

 Chapter 230 - 224 : Versus

    "You fucking retard! Die!!"

    Hoji screamed as he dashed towards Sato while punching out. The second man, who was on standby, also made his move as the two tried to pincer Sato.

    "Too weak." Satomented coldly as he easily deflected Hoji''s punch with his palm, sending it off towards his side.

    Hoji was surprised but due to the remnant momentum from his charge, he got tossed a few metres away before recovering.

    The bearded man delivered a kick with his left leg towards Sato and Sato responded by raising his right hand to perform a block.

    *Pa*

    The sound of skin hitting skin[1] resounded as Sato felt a slight pain on his forearm.

    The man didn''t stop at one kick as he hurriedly retreated his leg and delivered a punch with his right fist. Sato blocked again with his hand but the man kept on firing punch after punch, not giving Sato the opportunity to retaliate even once.

    While the two were engaged in a tight battle, Hoji suddenly assaulted Sato from behind but Sato had sensed his presence even before he sneaked up on him.

    With a slight turn of his head, Sato dodged the punch from behind and punched behind with his left hand at Hoji. The other man then noticed this as an opportunity and closed in on Sato, delivering an attack of his own at a difficult angle. This resulted in the scenario where Sato counter-attacked at Hoji but was also under assault. If he were to go on with the punch, there was no doubt that he would get hit in the process.

    ''Now what will you do¡­'' The bearded man mused with a smile.

    The man didn''t have a hefty figure but his body''s frame was still a bit bigger than an a average person. As a result of this, his physical power, in kind, would also increase, making his attacks more deadlier than normal people.

    Hoji, on the other hand, did in fact have a hefty figure which made him look older than he actually was. With 2 deadly attacks aimed at one person, the option of blocking one and dodging the other was still a risky bet. Yet, due to the fact that the bearded man had attacked at a very precise yet dangerous angle, dodging became a difficulty.

    Seeing the tight spot he got bind into, Sato didn''t dawdle nor hesitate to make a decision in the fast-pace battle. Even as he was under attack, Sato didn''t retreat because of one man but when on ahead with his attack. He used his left hand to punch behind and his right hand to block the man''s punch.

    The stranger was surprised but still didn''t hesitate to send a kick whilst Sato was in an awkward stance. Sato however, blocked the kick with his leg but because he had underestimated the strength of the kick at such close range, he was forced back by 2 steps. At the same time, his left punch had already connected with Hoji''s face,nding squarely one his nose and readjusting Hoji''s facial appearance while sending him back by 2 metres.

    "Argh!" Hoji yelled in pain as he noticed the new ''adjustments'' on his face.

    Sato ignored Hoji''s scream with a frown as his attention was focused on the man before him. Despite forcing Sato back, the stranger hadn''t let Sato go, still retaining the attacking hand of the battle.

    With each move the two exchanged, Sato''s frown deepened. This was because he had underestimated the strength of the stranger. The man''s reflexes, skills and abilities were beyond what an average thug would have. He was more likely to be a martial arts practitioner than a thug. But realising this wasn''t the problem, but the effects of the conclusion. If the man was really a martial arts practitioner, and not your beginner ss type, then why was he with a thug? One should know that since the concept of VR enabled users to bring in their real life skills, gaming guilds were on the hunt for martial artists. In this era and age, it wasn''t difficult for a martial artist to get a job either as a gamer or a teacher of the art.

    Guessing that he was probably hired by Hoji or something, Sato decided to stop thinking about it and focused on the battle.

    *Pa* *Pa*

    *Pa*

    Sato''s fist collided with the bearded man''s kick with the two attacks negating each other. With a push using his hand, Sato separated himself from the man. This time around though, the man didn''t chase after him but stared at him.

    "Impressive skills." The bearded man said with a smile. "You almost make me want to take this seriously."

    Sato frowned at his words but still asked what was on his mind.

    "Who are you?"

    "Me? I''m a forgotten nobody." The man said while still smiling. "The only thing worth noting is that someone wants you dealt with."

    Sato was surprised as he initially thought that they were just chasing after him simply because Hoji felt offended by his previousments and actions but with this new reveal, it seemed that thing weren''t as simple as he thought.

    "Who sent you?" Sato asked though he did so with little faith. Logically, there was no way an assaulter would reveal the identity of his boss but Sato still wanted to ask.

    "Hehe. Our employer? Well I don''t really know who that is. All I know is the mission. Speaking of which, you''re Sato, right?"

    Sato was surprised at the fact that the man knew his name but he wasn''t that bothered about being in serious danger. Murder was illegal after all so the best they could do was to leave him crippled or severely injured but there was no way Sato would stay still and let that happen.

    "Yes."

    "That''s good otherwise we would have made arge mistake right now. After all, the mission''s details were to take ''care'' of Sato. I wouldn''t want to be taking acre of someone else''s child now would I?" The bearded man cackled.

    Sato''s heart tightened as he heard that. Apparently, he was being targeted by someone that knew him quite well. This could easily be seen from the fact that Hoji''s crew had begun chasing after him from the Gamebox Guide. Only those close to him, knew that Sato got his gaming equipment from there. The Gamebox Guide wasn''t a big high-end store neither was it the only one of it''s kind. There were a lot others around and even another closer to Sato''s home. He only chose it for certain special reasons. So unless the employer had been spying on him for more than a week already, there was no way they would have expected him to be there.

    Despite realising this, Sato was still calm with his expression as still as an undisturbedke''s surface.

    "You said you don''t know who hired you?" Sato spoke calmly. At this point, he realized that the boss figure here wasn''t Hoji but this bearded man.

    "Yeah. I just got the offer and took the job. Who knows, maybe I do and I forgot or maybe I didn''t." The bearded man replied. From the tone of his voice, it was as if he was stating a fact yet there was a hint of sarcasm.

    "I see. Then I might as well beat it out of you. I hope you don''t mind me doing that."

    Before the man could reply, Sato had already closed in on him. While it might seem unscrupulous, this was a battle and not a spar in a dojo or some training drill. Taking advantage of any given opportunity no matter how dirty it looked was the right thing to do.

    "Hehe."

    The bearded man wasn''t your average figure as despite Sato''s impressive speed, he was able to catch on to Sato''s movements.

    The man tightened his palm into a fist and punched at Sato''s approaching figure. Sato dodged the iing punch and sent a simr response to the bearded man which the man blocked with his free hand.

    Sato didn''t stop at one punch as he sent another blow towards the man with his second hand, before delivering a follow-up kick after the punch was blocked.

    Having just blocked 2 of Sato''s punches, the bearded man was a tad too slow to react to the kick and got hut in the face. While the damage wasn''t much, it still enabled Sato to maintain his momentum and gain the upper hand in the fight, forcing the man on the defensive.

    The two traded blows while changing postures and positions. If one didn''t know any better, they would presume their fight to be a martial arts performance as kicks and punches in an elegant and organized fashion was the theme of the battle. This didn''t mean that the two were ying around but instead the performance rate of their skills were at the peak or almost. It was like a fight between two martial arts masters. While it looked like a performance, it was a mesmerizing battle that would arose one''s interest just from watching it y out.

    Hoji didn''t participate in this the battle because he had realised that he wasn''t of any use in this fight. In a martial arts battle, a street thug was totally useless sometimes even when he had a weapon. With the absence of Hoji and also the third injured gangster, Kirin, Sato was left to face the bearded man alone, without distractions. While anyone would rejoice at the prospective of this scenario, Sato wasn''t happy. This was because the bearded man alone wasn''t much of a warm-up for him, much less a threat.

    Sato had decided to entertain this ''y'' once he noticed the 3 because he thought it would be interesting and simply wanted to stretch out his body. Since barely anyone could match up to him, thanks to his training from young due to his grandfather, Sato hadn''t found a worthy opponent in reality apart from Wu Shiyi. In order to entertain himself and prevent his skill from getting rusty, Sato decided to face the 3 of them at once hoping that it would be fun or at the very least, a simple warm-up. The sneak attack on Kirin wasn''t just to reduce their numbers but to test the skill levels of the assants and Sato got a lot disappointed when he realised that apart from the bearded man, the other two were pretty much weaklings. Even the only exception was just a bigger ant in his eyes.

    Originally, with Hoji in the mix, the fight was a bit interesting but not anymore. Sato had now decided to end it rather than keep this farce going on.

    Just when he was about to unleash his strength and end the fight quickly, Sato''s sharp sense picked up on something.

    At the same time, due to that slow yet short hesitation, the bearded man was able to free himself from Sato''s onught.

    "Hehe." After getting to a safe distance, the bearded man chuckled as he nced at Sato before shifting his attention towards the entrance to the alley.

    "They are here."

 Chapter 231 - 225 : Defeated

    "They are here."

    Moving his attention and focus towards the entrance, Sato noticed the resultingmotion that was urring over there which the bearded man had reacted to. About 12 or so other individuals had walked into the enclosed area with a batons and sticks. They didn''t try to keep it hidden as they walked in showing that the crew had actuallye from where ever they did with the weapons out in the open. It was as if they weren''t scared of being found out by security.

    ''It''s quite possible that these guys aren''t your normal thugs. Either they have a good connection with someone above or the guy who hired them has offered them a few privileges.'' Sato thought.

    "Boss, we are here."

    "Boss, who do you need us to take care of?"

    The new arrivals began chattering and making exaggerated disy of loyalty and brotherhood towards Hoji and the bearded man.

    "Stop gawking around and surround that guy." Hoji pointed at Sato as he yelled aggressively at the group.

    Following his orders, the dozen or so men surrounded Sato without leaving him a space to escape.

    "Hehe. Will you give up now or pay the price?" The bearded man grinned.

    "Why it''s true that you would still get beaten, the degree of damage would vary. Doesn''t that sound like good news for you?"

    "What makes you think that I will?" Sato calmly asked the man, ignoring the circle of men formed around him.

    "I don''t expect you too." The bearded man replied with the very same grin as before.

    "Let''s take him on and stop wasting anytime." Hoji said to the bearded man. While he didn''t explicitly show any signs of submission, his tone was respectful proving that whoever this man was, he was a bit higher in authoritypared to Hoji.

    "Okay. Give him the best care you can possibly show."

    "Men, you heard it. Whoever breaks an arm gets paid double. The same goes for a leg. Attack!"

    "Ha!"

    With Hoji giving themand, the armed men rushed at Sato all at once, intent on each getting a piece of him.

    "Whoever breaks an arm or a leg gets paid double? Let''s see if you can pull it off."

    Sato didn''t wait for the fighters to close in on him as a he approached them. He started off with a guy that held what looked to be a cast-iron crowbar.

    Before the man could swing the crowbar at him, Sato punched at his face. Unlike the bearded man, all these men were nothing but your regr thugs. Even though the martial arts trend was a popr thing at the time, these guys had at most superficial knowledge and expertise, ranging from knowledge about the basic stances to hand movements. Against someone like Sato -who had been trained since young- this was nothing.

    *Smack*

    Sato''s fist collided cleanly with the first assant''s face as a heavy sensation of pain flooded the target. The force of the blow directed his face in another direction and the resulting effect it made the assant drop the crowbar in his hand. With a muffled ton and an injury that would possibly send him to the hospital, the man was sent back by 2 metres before hended horribly on the ground, knocked out in one punch.

    Having taken down one of the attackers with one punch, Sato moved on to the next one.

    Due to the fact that Sato had attacked so suddenly, the others weren''t able to react after one of them was taken down and so, they couldn''t avoid the massacre that was toe.

    Like a tiger in the midst of a herd of sheep, Sato brought rampage and pain wherever he walked.

    Punches, kicks and bodies were flying all about. No matter how hard the gang tried tond a hit on him, Sato would easily and fluidly dodge the attack. Even if it came from behind, Sato dodged as if he had eyes behind his head. Rather than a human, it felt like they were battling a martial arts god. Heck, they wouldn''t mind that as losing to a god wasn''t a problem. But for a bunch of middle aged men to lose to an unknown young man, it was quite disgraceful.

    "Tch. A bunch of wastes." Hoji cursed from the side as he saw Sato take down another gang member. From the initial dozen men to 7 men. Not even 7 seconds had gone by and Sato had taken down at least 5 men despite being surrounded from all angles.

    "Puah"

    Sato''s fist collided with the abdomen of one of the gang members as the victim uncontrobly opened his mouth and puked out excess saliva.

    ''Hm?'' Sato wanted to go on andnd the finishing blow on the man when his instincts suddenly alerted him as a bad feeling stemmed from within. Without further ado, Sato hurriedly jumped to the side in reflex.

    Once he got his footing in ce, Sato nced back at his original spot and saw the bearded man standing exactly where he previously stood. Before Sato could further react, the other 7 gang members clustered towards him and the man took the opportunity to hide himself within their numbers again.

    Realising that not only did he have to deal with 7 other delinquents armed with cold weapons but also a professional grade martial artist that hid amongst the others, Sato didn''t actually feel worried nor threatened. On the contrary, he was happy. He wanted a warm-up fight and the current setting was satisfactorily for what he needed.

    ''Sadly, I need to get back to the game.''

    With that thought in mind, Sato suddenly speed up his actions, taking down a gang member with only 2 moves.

    "Not on my watch." The bearded man abruptly revealed himself once he saw that Sato had sped up his actions. He thought that Sato was worried he(Sato) would lose with the number against him and so decided to speed up his attacks. He thought that the n of outnumbering Sato with him included in the mix was sessful and so didn''t want Sato to reduce their numbers. But what the man didn''t know was that his n to outnumber Sato was useless. Sato speeding up his actions was simply because he wanted to return to gaming and not because he felt threatened by the group. If the bearded man knew this, he would pretty much puke blood out of anger.

    "Ah!"

    "Auck!"

    Sato took down two men with a 4 hitbo when he saw the bearded man arrive in front of him with a punch heading his way.

    *Pa*

    Sato caught the man''s punch and held him in ce before sending a kick towards his face. However, the other delinquents had no intention of sitting still.

    The bearded man blocked Sato''s kick but that was followed another punch from Sato, which connected with his face. Sato couldn''t follow up with that hit as he was forced to pay attention to the others. This time though, Sato increased the force behind his blows, hoping to knock them out with one punch.

    After Sato knocked out another 2, the bearded man finally reacted and rejoined the battle. This time around though, Sato had a much easier time handling him. There were only 3 thugs left and with the stranger added, there were 4 fighters. The original 12 men weren''t enough to threaten Sato much less the 4 of them. One by one, without excessive effort, Sato took them all down, starting with the random thugs. Eventually, apart form Hoji and Kirin who stood by the side, only the bearded man was left standing.

    From start -when the dozen or so gangsters had arrived- till now, not a full minute had gone by and Sato wasn''t even exhausted.

    "You guys are the only ones left now." Sato nced around.

    There were bodies strewn all over the floor. If one listened carefully, they would hear the muffled sounds and groans of paining from these bodies.

    In order to make sure that they don''t stand up any time soon, Sato didn''t simply punch them but targeted their arteries and acupoints. This was to make sure that not only would the gangsters be knocked out long enough but they would lose their ability to move even if they were awake. Of course, the effects weren''t permanent; Sato wasn''t that heartless after all.

    "You bastard. You will pay for what you''ve done." Hoji gritted his teeth as he grieved.

    Sato ignored him and stared at the bearded man.

    "Now will you tell me who your boss is?"

    "My boss?" The man frowned. At this point in time, he realised that he had underestimated Sato a lot. He couldn''t even bother smirking anymore.

    "it''s obvious that you aren''t with them. It''s either you were employed alongside them or that your boss sent you over with them to supervise the deed. Now will you tell me his identity or do we still do things the hard way?" Sato flexed his wrists as he walked closer.

    "Haha. I admit that you''re smart but this isn''t over. I''ll be back." The bearded man dered before he abruptly turned around and escaped.

    "If you think you could escape after the shit you just pulled then you must be dreaming."

    Sato ignored Hoji and Kirin and went after the man. From the original heated fight to a chase, the change in the battle was a bit unexpected but Sato wasn''t bothered. The bearded man, however, was.

    ''He''s stronger than the reports stated. Wasn''t he supposed to be a gamer? Why the heck are his martial arts skills so high level?!''

    The man wasn''t worried about no being able to escape so he still use a portion of his focus to recall the incidents of the battle. He decided that once he returned, he wouldn''t make any move on Sato till he was sure of sess.

    ''If I had gone in for an ambush from the start, this wouldn''t have happened at all.''

    The bearded man''s specialty wasn''t one-on-one directbat but ambush. This could be seen from how he managed to hide himself in the midst of the other fighters back when they were battling Sato. The only reason Sato was able to notice him during their very first confrontation was because the man wasn''t at his best. He never expected a 21 year old to be able to sense him while he was stalking him so he was flippant in his actions. Now, the man began to regret it.

    ''I just need to escape first then I will think of the rest.''

    ''He''s quick.'' Sato thought as he pursued the man, exiting the remote location towards the outside.

    ''Hm?'' Sato suddenly stopped in his footsteps as he realised that he had lost the man.

    "How?" Sato thought out loud.

    ''Unless, he was holding back? No. I admit I felt him holding back but his true strength shouldn''t be that absurd. That''s unless he really isn''t good at directbat.'' Sato analysed the possible exnation he could think of.

    ''If he really is an assassin type of individual, then things are a lot more serious than I thought.''

    Sato sighed as he felt that his days would get less peaceful than before.

    ''Those two would probably be gone by now.'' Sato recalled Hoji and Kirin.

    I''ll just go home now.''

 Chapter 232 - 226 : What The Hell Happened?

    [[ System notification :

    Locating server...

    Server located.

    Beginning Neurolink connection process¡­

    Connecting to server Heavenly System Universal server¡­

    Connection sessful.

    Verifying connection¡­

    Connection verification sessful.

    Beginning mind transit in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 ]]

    Once again, Sato returned to thend surrounded by a colorful fog but before he could think of his next action, a notification popped up before him.

    [[ System notification :

    The Caventry''s Path (Series)

    Due to the severe consequences and requirements of the mission, the system would like to confirm with the yer on their decision.

    Would you want to continue with this mission? ]]

    "Another enquiry?" Sato was a bit surprised.

    "If this mission is all that deadly and stuff, then why the heck is it still rated A?"

    With a sigh, Sato re-confirmed with the System again. Of course, his decision still remained the same; a yes.

    [[ System notification :

    The Caventry''s Path (Series)

    Mission rating : A

    Mission Status : epted(In Progress)

    System description : It is advised that the yer make this decision properly. The test would involve certain scenarios that would affect the yer negatively. If epted, yer would be required to go offline and make preparations as the duration and structure of the mission could potentially affect the yer negatively. For preparation steps, please check *Long term Online Preparation Manual*[2].

    To help set up a challenge, yer''s memories would have to be read. epting the mission would be the same as permitting the system to ess yer''s memories. Personal/private information rted to finances or confidential information won''t be shared and shall be deleted permanently from the system''s database once the mission is over. All actions and decisions are protected Alliancews (Lois universelles de l''Alliance, Section A : Paragraphe 3. Modifi¨¦ dans l''¨¦tat de France).[3]

    ]]

    [[ System notification :

    Counting down till [Hiatus Feature] deactivates.

    10, 9, 8, 7, ¡­

    ]]

    "A countdown huh? That''s good I guess." Sato said as he stretched his body as he inspected the familiar rainbow mist.

    Before he had logged in to the game, Sato had contacted the others and notified them that he might go AWOL for possibly a long time. Having made a majority of his preparations, Sato was ready to face the mission and the little time avable via the countdown was enough for him to adjust his mental faculties.

    [[ System notification :

    ¡­, 0.

    Time Up.

    [Hiatus Feature] deactivated. ]]

    The rainbow fog went into motion again and slowly crawled in in him.

    Sato stared at the fog with furrowed eyebrows as he was confused of what to do. His sense warned him of the fog but there was no way to dodge it. As for attacking it or running past it, Sato didn''t know the depth of the fog but he was pretty sure that once he went in, returning back to the exact same spot he stood now might not be so easy.

    With the imaginary clock ticking down to the time the entire ce would be polluted by the mysterious fog, Sato was slowly running out of time and had to make a decision as soon as possible.

    "Since there seems to be no other option," Sato unsheathed his sword. "Let me see what''s on the other side."

    Having gathered himself, Sato picked a direction and walked towards the rainbow fog. He was going to get drowned in it either way so he might as well take the initiative and try to find out what''s hidden within.

    The distance between him and the fog wasn''t much, so within 13 steps, Sato''s figure was already blurred by the fog.

    ''Looks like it''s deeper than I thought or it might have even epassed the entire ce.'' Sato thought as he kept walking within the fog with his sense on alert.

    He had already been walking for more than 5 minutes but Sato had yet to see the end of the fog. This lead to him thinking in the direction that either the space covered in the fog was extremelyrge or the entire trial ground was actually covered in it.

    If it was the first hypothesis, then there wasn''t much of a problem since if he kept walking, Sato would eventually find the light at the end of the tunnel. However, if it was the second conjecture, then pointlessly walking forward would be meaningless.

    ''The trial can''t be that pointless. It''s either there''s an end somewhere or there''s a way out. I just have to find it.''

    Sato unhesitatingly moved forward with confidence.

    Sato had been walking for more than 30 minutes already but he still hadn''t found a clue about an exit. He had changed directions for God knows how many times but he had discovered a few things about the ce.

    What was very strange about the terrain was that it was very t and smooth; devoid of any rocks or nts. The original terrain, while still a nd, was not totally devoid of objects. There were at least a few rocks and nts scattered all over. There were patches of grass at random intervals which added colour to the dull brown floor. However, in thend within this rainbow fog, there was no such thing. Not a single rock nor stone could be seen on the floor. It was as if Sato was walking on a perfectly t b of cement. Heck, when he even checked the floor, Sato didn''t find any single stone or sand. The ground was very hard and perfectly t.

    ''Did I get teleported elsewhere?'' Sato couldn''t resist thinking such.

    "Hummmm*

    Out of nowhere, a deep low hum resounded in the entire ce. While the pitch of the tune was low yet heavy, for some reason, it adversely affected Sato and forced him to clean his ears.

    ''What the hell is this?'' Satoined internally as he was forced to resist the sound by any means necessary.

    The problem though was that despite blocking his ears with his hands, the sound still transmitted to them perfectly, as if there was never any blockade to start with.

    It went on for 5 seconds before Sato suddenly felt his conscious slipping away. He tried to run away from the sound but it felt like the sound came from everywhere. There was no singr point of origin and no matter how far he got, the pitch, volume and frequency of the sound remained constant.

    4 seconds had gone by after Sato felt that he was losing his ability to stay awake, when he finally lost it. Sato uncontrobly copsed on the ground and lost conscious. It was as if he had taken a sleep in the middle of the ground.

    "Ughhh. What happened?" Sato finally awoke but with a terrible headache.

    Sato ced his right hand on his forehead as he slowly stood up from the ground and surveyed his location.

    "Hm?" Sato''s eyes widened a bit as he noticed that the previous rainbow fog was nowhere to be found.

    What was even more interesting was the fact that there was a forest behind him and in front was a hamlet, just 200-300 metres away. Thend he stood on was covered in fresh green grass simr to carpet grass.

    "Where am I?" Sato couldn''t resist asking out loud.

    ''Teleportation?'' Sato wondered as he began nning his next step.

    "Since I''m here, I might as well check out the ce."

    Havinge to a decision, Sato began making his way towards the hamlet in front. It wasn''t that far so it wasn''t a problem.

    During the journey though, Sato felt that he had gotten a bit weaker than normal but was more energetic than usual. Apart from that, he also noticed that the trees were a bit bigger and taller than usual.

    ''This might really be a whole new ce.'' Sato thought as he closed in on the hamlet. He could overhear the sound of running water leading him to suspect that there was a stream or river close, something that the previous location he was in didn''t have. There was even a hill in the distance which further confirmed his belief.

    "Stop right there kid." A deep voice ordered just as Sato was but a few meters away from the hamlet.

    "Where are youing from and what were you doing?" The owner of the voice, a tall middle aged man with a rough beard and hunter clothings, asked Sato. From Sato''s perspective though, the man was a lot taller than he was making him wonder whether he was a giant.

    Sato''s brain worked at a rapid pace as he came up with the most suitable reply he could think of.

    "I got lost on my way and found this settlement." He replied with an awkward face to match his words.

    "Huh? A kid like you got lost?" The man asked with surprise. "Don''t you know the rules?"

    "Let him be, Gali. He''s a kid so he probably went out to have some fun and got lost." Another man walked up to the duo while speaking.

    "Kids these days don''t like to listen to instructions. You would have known this if you had one of yours."

    "Shut up, Drake." Gali said to hispanion.

    "Haha."

    While the two were bickering with each other, Sato''s head was experiencing a storm.

    ''Kid? He called me a kid? Why?! Don''t tell me...''

    "By the way, you look a bit familiar. Don''t tell me that you are Edgar''s kid?" Drake asked Sato.

    "Hey! Hey! Where are you going?! Why are you running?!"

    "Hey! Kid, stop!"

    Sato dashed towards the stream by the side, ignoring the screams of shock from the guards. Once he was by the riverside, Sato squatted down and looked at his reflection.

    ''Oh damn. I was right.''

    What Sato saw in the river wasn''t his 21 year old self but a little cute boy with innocent features. The boy had cute cheeks with a bit of baby fat, soft shiny ck hair with a perfectly paired pair of ck eyes and thin lips. Sato recognized the child to be his 11 year old self. Somehow, he had appeared in a strange ce in his 11 year old body!

    "What the heck is up with this trial?!"

 Chapter 233 - 227 : The Face That Can Never Be Forgotten

    "What the heck is up with this trial?!"

    Sato couldn''t resist screaming out loud. Ever since he had started gaming, Sato had never experienced anything like this. Being transmigrated into someone else''s body wasmon but being sent to his 11 year old body was different.

    ''I guess this is what they meant by essing my memories.'' Sato recalled the system notification that partially functioned as a warning to him.

    "Hey kid, what the heck is wrong with you?" Drake asked Sato as he slowed down his pursuit.

    "Where''s this?" Sato ignored Drake''s question and asked him another. While he didn''t have memory of all of the towns in Fallen Heart kingdom, he still recalled the yer-upied ones.

    "Huh? Don''t you know? This is Allegri; the only . Did you hit your head or something?" Drake looked at Sato with disbelief. He was shocked beyond stupor to the point of forgetting that Sato hadn''t answered his own question.

    "Allegri..." Sato muttered silently. No matter how he thought about it, the name wasn''t familiar to him.

    ''I might as well just check the ce out. Since I got sent here, the trial has to be rted with the town. In that case...'' Sato sighed heavily as he made his decision.

    "I got lost and injured sir, so I don''t recall anything." Sato said as he tried imitating an innocent expression. Since he was in his 11 year old body, he had to act like one else they might get suspicious. While changing personalities wasn''t his thing, acting like his younger self wasn''t an issue.

    ''This is for the mission so I just have to tolerate it.'' Satoforted himself.

    "You don''t recall why you were outside?" Drake stared at Sato with an incredulous expression.

    "*Sighs* Come with me. Let''s go find your parents." Drake waved at Sato to approach him.

    "My parents...?" Sato asked, a bit surprised.

    "Don''t tell me you''ve forgotten them too?"

    Drake already lost count of how many times the kid in front of him had made him baffled.

    Sato hesitated as he didn''t know how to reply. On one hand, he could act like he hadn''t forgotten but it would be weird and difficult for him to actually act out the part of the child. However, saying that he had forgotten wouldn''t make things easier for him. He didn''t know the culture of behavioral patterns of the people in the hamlet so Sato couldn''t predict how they would react. They might send him to a doctor or shaman for a check-up or run a few spells or something on him. Also, he needed to blend in to the vige but he couldn''t do that if stood out as the kid that lost his memories.

    ''Wait a minute, I''m supposed to be a stranger here. I''m my own self and not a transmigrated soul or something. How the heck do I have parents?''

    "Whether you''ve forgotten them or not doesn''t matter now. Come with me." Drake said after seeing that Sato had yet to reply him.

    Sato, still ying his part, nodded innocently like the little kid he was and followed the man.

    "What happened back then?" Gali asked Drake.

    "Dunno. The kid is here so why don''t you ask him yourself." Drake gestured towards Sato who was behind him.

    Gali nced at Sato and asked, "So? Why did you run all of a sudden?"

    "I thought I had forgotten something by theke." Sato smiled shyly.

    "Whatever. Go in and go find your parents." Gali waved him off.

    Sato nodded in response before he was walked away with Drake escorting him.

    During the walk, Sato was wondering how he would go about with the mission. From his short experience, he tried to pin down the aim of the trial so as toplete it as quickly as possible. It should be recalled that in IR, the faster onepletes a quest, mission or trial, the greater their reward. This was Sato''s goal and he decided to spend every time avable to achieve this.

    ''There''s most likely a task toplete and it could be anything. Finding a spy, a treasure, anything and everything. *Sighs* This will be difficult if I don''t get enough hints.'' Sato sighed internally as he felt a headache brewing.

    "Sato...is that you?"

    While he was absentmindedly walking, Sato heard a soft feminine voice reaching out to him, that forced him to stop. The reason why he stopped wasn''t because the voice was calling him but that the voice was familiar.

    ''It can''t be...'' Sato felt hisposure shake.

    In an awfully familiar open space, which happened to be the ce Sato and Xue Yan got teleported to, Saimon stood still and was looking ahead. At the spot he was looking at, there were two floating ss orbs. Within the orbs were Sato and Xue Yan, who were currently experiencing their trials in different forms. For Sato, he was in his 11 year old self and had suddenlye to a stop with shock written all over his face. For Xue Yan, she was in her 15 year old self, all huddled up in grief at the edge of a room.

    Saimon nced at the two ss orbs before sighing.

    "The test has already begun. There''s nothing you can do about it." A deep voice resounded. The strange thing was that it didn''te from Saimon''s lips, showing that there was actually someone else present. However, the person''s figure was nowhere to be seen.

    "I know." Saimon said with a low tone.

    "It''s been long since anyone has been to the Hall and even longer since anyone has challenged the trials. I was really hoping for them to win but I think I rushed them too much." Saimon sighed again.

    "If they can''t pass it, then it''s the will of the Grey God. If they can, then it''s still a result of HIS will and their luck. It all depends on HIM and them." The voice replied.

    "Yes. Everything is the will of the Grey God." Saimon concurred.

    "Just pray that they pass. I too, am tired of having to wait for the chosen one and I wish the same just as you do; for them to seed. But this can only be true if they have the will to persevere, the luck to go through it and the blessings of the Grey God. We can''t do much about the first 2 but we can still pray to the Lord for HIS blessings upon them." The voiceforted Saimon.

    "You''re right, Lord Worrus." Saimon responded respectfully.

    Lord Worrus, one of the strongest Achiever''s in Caventry history, ranking at the top 10 in all generations. This very figure who was supposed to be dead for God knows how long turned out to be the one Saimon wasmunicating with!

    "I will go take my sleep as usual. Unless any major important change happens, don''t wake me up." The voice slowly dropped in sonority with each word mouthed.

    "As you wish, Lord Worrus." Saimon bowed to the space in front of him.

    As he did so, a strange thing happened. The space in front suddenly warped within a split second, as if it was a piece of clothing that was folded at a point. A terrifying pressure descended at that split second, forcing Saimon''s body to shiver and the floating ss orbs to creak. If the pressure hadsted for a much longer period, there was no doubt that the orbs would have broken and Sato and Xue Yan, who were both inside them, would end up dead.

    Despite seeming to be made of ss, the material used to forge the orbs were actually high level materials, rated 4 star at least, with the majority being 5 star! The ss-like material was actually the 5 star material, Void Core crystal and the core of the creation was another 5 star material, Inter-dimensional stone. The arrays used on the orbs were drawn with Liquid Ruin Energy, another 5 star material, and perfected with 4 star Rainbow dew, a high ranking 4 star material that is extremely close to the 5 star rank. A lot more precious materials were used on the orbs making their value extremely high but the Great Hall of the Grey Chains were lucky enough to have 5 of them.

    With so many exquisite materials used on one orb, one shouldn''t take the orbs as a pair of fragile eggs. The materials made them so strong that even a full-powered attack from a half-step Saint wouldn''t make even a crack them and one such attack was more than enough to wipe out 3 Riverdales! Even a true Saint would need some effort to crack the orbs so it was more than impressive that Lord Worrus could make the orbs tremble by just exposing his aura. That makes one only wonder what level he had achieved.

    "If even Lord Worrus thinks much of you guys then better live up to his expectations." Saimon spoke to the two orbs or rather, to the two persons in the orbs. Sadly though, his voice couldn''t be transmitted to them as the orbs themselves were another world with differentws. Whatever that was ced in there would be separated and isted from the real world and any external influences. Unless the orb was cracked or destroyed, it would remain like this forever.

    "Sato..." The feminine voice spoke again.

    Sato hesitantly turned around and as he did so, he saw a face that he would never forget; not even in his dreams could make him do so. The face he saw, was that of his...

    "Mother...."

 Chapter 234 - 228 : Forgotten

    The entry-level trial was designed to make sure that the main trials Challenger would be capable and worthy of such. The main trials weren''t simple tasks that could bepleted over the course of a day because one wanted to. These were trials created to find the most appropriate inheritor for the achievements of the Caventry civilization. To make the trials that difficult, a lot of precious resources were used in its development making it so that the trials couldn''t be challenged casually.

    In order to reduce the amount of challengers, the entry trials were introduced to the fray and their difficulty were rated A-S rank. The entry trials came in various formats but the most popr was the illusion version. By using the ss orbs, the trials could be constantly reorated and challenged without any loss of resources, unlike with the main trials.

    The entry trials focused on testing one''s willpower and the best way to do that was to present to them a situation or a past experience where they are most vulnerable. By essing one''s memories, the System figs into them and searches for the yer''s weaknesses; be it an individual or an event. Because it is highly possible for the trials to end up reawakening one''s traumatic experience, a warning is given to the yer and they are required to sign a guarantee that they wouldn''t sue the gamepany not hold charges to them. By agreeing to the mission, the yer would also agree to this too.

    While making someone experience a traumatic event once more would seem torturous and evil, it could also help them to recover from it. On this basis, IR went ahead with enabling the System to implement such tactics in the game. The entry trials of [The Caventry''s Path (Series)] was the very first instance that this concept was actualized. Sadly for Sato and Xue Yan, they were the first b rats'' for this experiment. Passing would grant them rewards while still enabling them to participate in the main trials whereas failure would result in them being traumatized once more. The only way they could get out of this mess was is if they could figure out the aim of the trial and walk towards it without turning back.

    "I just hope they do." Saimon sighed once more before turning his attention elsewhere.

    As thest guardian of the Great Hall of Grey Chains and also thest remaining servant of the Caventry civilization, Saimon was charged with making sure that the entire building functioned properly. He simply couldn''t ce all his attention on two yers even if they were participating in what could decide the fate of the entire Caventry.

    "Mother..." Sato stood still frozen, staring at the figure in front of him. He just couldn''t believe his eyes as someone he never thought he would see ever again and as before him.

    "Sato!" The middle aged woman ran towards him and held him in her embrace.

    Sato couldn''t respond to this as he was stunned silly; only being capable of enjoying that familiar warm embrace.

    "You had us worried there for a second. Don''t you get suddenly go missing like that again." ''Kurosaki Izumi'' said.

    "I''m sorry." Sato''s eyes got wet as he slowly lost himself.

    ''No! This can''t be real! She''s dead, they are dead! I saw it!'' A voice spoke up in his head as Sato abruptly widened his eyes and shoved the figure away.

    "Son ...?" ''Izumi'' asked.

    "I''m n-"

    Before Sato couldplete his words, a wave of memories rushed into his head as he felt a heavy heafache. Due to the mental stress, Sato could hardly keep his bnce as he almost copsed if not for Drake grabbing hold of him in time.

    "Son!"

    "Hey kid, what''s wrong with you?" Drake asked as he patted Sato form behind.

    Meanwhile, the centre of all this was stuck in his mind, experiencing an all new memory. Frames after frames passed before Sato as he saw himself living an all new life in this new world. It was as if it was all natural. As if he was the one who had experienced them all.

    "What was that?" Sato absentmindedly asked himself once he recovered.

    "What was what?" A deep voice asked him.

    "Son! You''re finally awake." ''Sato''s mother'' hugged him.

    "Where am I?" Sato couldn''t resist asking.

    "At home. You''re at home, son." ''Izumi'' stroked him gently.

    "At home..." Sato muttered quietly as he recalled the memories that had just ''awakened'' within him.

    From what he had seen, Sato discovered that he had lived here for most of his 11 years of life. He had gone out with a few of his friends to y and fell from a short cliff and entered a shorta. In hisa, he dreamed that he was in a technologically advanced world where he lost his parents and lived 10 more years trying to make ends meet with his sister and grandparents.

    "It felt so real..." Sato couldn''t resist eximing in a low voice.

    "What felt real, son?" Izumi asked.

    "Nothing." Sato replied softly. He was currently d that all of that was a dream and he didn''t lost his parents but he wasn''t in support of describing to them this terrible nightmare.

    "You know kiddo, you really made your mom and I worried."

    Hearing that deep voice that spoke to him earlier before, Sato remembered that there was actually a 3rd person in the room.

    "Dad..." Sato looked towards the source of the voice.

    "Who else would it be you little weasel? Come give your old man a hug." A middle aged man with a well proportioned body came into view with his arms wide open.

    "Father..." Sato''s eyes began to moisten.

    "Stop being an idiot, Kenshin. Our son just woke up so let him rest a bit ok?" Izumi fired at the middle aged man.

    "Alright, alright. Huh? Why the heck are you crying?" Kenshin closed in on Sato and questioned.

    "I just, I just missed you guys." Sato couldn''t hold back the tears as ''his'' 11 year old self kicked in.

    "Aww. The little kid missed us. Come here." Kenshin dragged Sato to his side and gave him tight hug.

    "Come on over too, honey." Kenshin pulled Izumi towards him.

    "We''re all one big family and we aren''t going anywhere. Your parents would be here for you and won''t be going anywhere, anytime soon." Izumi whispered.

    "You got that right?" Kenshin asked Sato.

    "Hmm." Sato nodded as he tried to call himself.

    "Good. This is your life.. Our life."

 Chapter 235 - 229 : Awakening

    A week had already gone by but in reality, not more than 4 hours had which tranted to 8 hours in IR time. Sadly though, Sato wasn''t able to notice this since he was stuck in the illusion and had already epted his new life as an 11 year old boy in a somewhat isted vige. Sato couldn''t be med for this as the memory imnt was so well done that anyone would have fallen for it on the spot even if they weren''t Sato.

    With a perfect reality and a harmonious life, there was no reason for Sato to ''wake up ore to the conclusion that this was all too good to be true. He just wanted to enjoy this moment with his family because that had always been what he wanted.

    *Chop* *Chop*

    At an open space close to the home of the family, a middle aged man was chopping a log of wood to small sizeable pieces with an average sized axe. Beside him was a little kid who stood obediently from the side and watched on silently in admiration.

    "Darling, it''s time for breakfast. You too, Sato. Come take your share." Izumi''s voice sounded from the house.

    "Coming!" Little Sato shouted joyfully in response.

    "Ah~ I was really hoping to finish up this batch but maybe next time. Come on now champ, let''s go." Kenshin dropped his axe and walked towards the building with an arm extended towards the little Sato.

    Sato walked over and held his father''s hand before the two went into the house.

    Stepping into the house once more, Sato saw his mother arranging the tes at the dining table with a little girl of aged 5 or 6, holding onto the helm of her dress.

    "Little Hayami, let go of mother or you might get hurt. Can''t you see she''s busy?" Sato lectured his little sister.

    "No." Hayami furiously shook her head as she tightened her grip on her mother''s clothes.

    "Haha. Let your sister be. She''s still a kid so she always likes to stay close to your mother." Kenshin shuffled Sato''s hair.

    "Enough now. Let''s have breakfast. After this, you''re following me to the market alright?" Kenshin spoke to Sato. "You need to learn the ins and out of the business."

    "Okay, father." Sato nodded with his little head.

    15 minutester, Sato and his father, Kenshin, made their way to the deeper part of the hamlet. Their house wasn''t close to the centre of the settlement but it wasn''t far off either.

    At the centre was located a public market where the vigers could easily go and trade off their goods in exchange for other goods or the settlements local currency; a special mineral that looked simr to jade. The value and buying power of the currency depended on both the weight, shape and quality of the ''jade'' piece.

    To help stabilize the financial situation, the governing power in the hamlet was in charge of the mining and distribution of the ''jade'' stones; doing so in an organized manner. As a result of their efforts, the ''jade'' stone used as currency all had a standard weight and shape with differing qualities. The higher the quality, the greater the buying power of the ''jade'' stone.

    Currently, there were 3 grades; low, mid and high grades. Considering that the hamlet Sato and his family dwelt in was little and so didn''t experience much economic transactions, low grade ''jade'' stones were the mostmonly seen type.

    "We should be able to sell these logs for 75 low grade genas." Kenshin spoke as he escorted a donkey that dragged a carriage filled with logs of wood. Walking alongside him was the little Sato, who energetically nced around as if it were his first time outside.

    Due to the fact that he was still young, Kenshin didn''t let his son wander around that often. It even got worse after Sato ''returned'' to the vige. Throughout the past week, Sato only left the house once, and that was when he escorted his mother to a neighbor''s ce.

    "Get your Red Boar meat right here!"

    "Armaniko leaves at a cheap price! A bundle at 3 low genas. You can only get such nice price here!"

    "Buying medicinal nts at an appropriate price. Don''t bring fake or else you will get disgraced."

    "Stick close to me, son." Kenshin said to Sato.

    "Okay." Sato nodded.

    It wasn''t long before Kenshin and Sato arrived in front of a store in the public market. Kenshin went into the store to negotiate with the store-keeper whereas Sato was left behind to look after the goods.

    With nothing to do and nowhere to go, little Sato nced around and admired the various groups of people that wandered the market. He watched as buyers bargained with the sellers and as some sellers scammed their customers of their goods. Sato was even ''lucky'' enough to witness the event of a novice thief being caught in the market. However, being the adventurous kid he was, Sato wasn''t easily satisfied with staying one ce for so long. Eventually, he got bored of sightseeing and decided to take a short walk round the store.

    ''What''s taking Dad so long?'' Sato thought as he walked a few metres away from the carriage. Sato hadn''t gone far when amotion suddenly arose in front of him.

    "Thieves! Thieves! Stop them!"

    "Hey! Watch out!"

    "Stop them!"

    A wagon being pulled by 2 striped ''horses'' was running wildly on the road. Coincidentally, Sato''s little frame happened to be crossing that very road at that very time. This lead to the scene looking as if he would get hit and trampled upon by the carriage.

    *mp* *mp*

    ''Is this it?'' Sato thought as the rampaging carriage as but 2 metres away. He could feel death approaching but as a kid, the only thing he could do was to stand still, frozen in fear.

    "Sato!"

    A figure flew past Sato and dragged him along, pulling him away from the path of the carriage.

    *Bang*

    Two bodies collided on the floor as the spreeing carriage zoomed past them.

    "Are you alright, son?" Kenshin lifted his son up from the ground and dusted him. Coincidentally, he happened to have been done with the negotiations and was looking for Sato. Luckily for him, Kenshin had found his son at the right moment. Without thinking, Kenshin had jumped in and pulled his son out of danger otherwise, he might have lost him permanently.

    "I''m, I''m okay." Sato said absentmindedly as if he was traumatized by the event.

    "*Sighs* Come on now, let''s go." Kenshin held him by the hand and walked back home. He had already sold the wood and got the money so there was no reason to remain here, especially as Sato had almost ended up dead.

    While they were heading back, Sato''s eyes seemed to have lost focus as he was recalling that event.

    ''It feels so familiar an at the same time, not. Why?'' Sato thought.

    It didn''t take long for the little kid to be able to pinpoint the origin of that deja vu feeling.

    "Spectra! Manual control!" A male voice ordered. Despite the rush in his words, the man''s voice was identical to Kenshin''s.

    "Honey, they are close." Adymented in a worried tone. Just like with the man, her voice was extremely simr to Izumi, Sato''s mother.

    "Dad, is everything gonna be okay?" A little boy asked the couple. The kid looked awfully simr to the current Sato.

    "Everybody get down!" The male''s voice yelled.

    It was at this point that Sato woke up from his hallucination, returning to the ''real world''. His palms were sweating and his eyes were widened in shock and fear.

    "What''s wrong?" Kenshin asked as he noticed that his son had suddenly stopped moving and the hand he held was moist.

    Sato didn''t answer him but turned around and nced at everything present. From the houses to the stores, the customers to the sellers, the humans to the animals, then finally his father. He couldn''t resist his emotions as he eyes began to glisten, with tears slowly dripping down them.

    "What''s wrong?" Kenshin began to worry for his son as he suddenly squatted down and wiped his tears.

    "Don''t worry. I won''t me you for not listening to my instructions and wandering around. Daddy won''t punish you so stop crying and let''s go home." Kenshin hugged his son tightly.

    "Mmm, mmm." Sato shook his head.

    "It''s not that."

    "Huh? Then what?" Kenshin pulled away and stared at his son.

    "It''s you, mom, little Hayami and everything else." Sato''s tone began to change slowly from a child''s own.

    "What about them?" Kenshin raised an eyebrow.

    "You''re all fake."

 Chapter 236 - 230 : Awakening 2 || Entry Trials Explained

    As the whole world shattered into ss particles which in turn disintegrated into starlight, a young man stood in the middle of all this with a sword in hand. He didn''t seem to be bothered by the change of scenery as his eyes looked zed.

    Despite the change in location, Sato didn''t seem bothered as he was still stuck in his head, recalling the recent memories of what had taken ce. It would be a lie to say that he didn''t enjoy that experience a bit. Though it was an illusion, seeing his parents once more made him happy.

    It had been long since he had seen his parents and there was never any game that made use of one''s memories against them nor was there any VR application that brought one back to their memories, so Sato never expected such to happen. Luckily, that encounter had unexpectedly touchd a soft spot in his memories that forced him to wake up. Nheless, the damage had been dealt. A forgotten traumatic event was awakened from within him but there was nothing Sato could do about it except to keep it down. After all, he wasn''t forced by the game to participate in the trials but voluntarily chose to do so.

    ''I''m still weak. I still haven''t forgotten about them.'' Sato used his free hand to wipe off the tear drops on his eyes.

    "Congrattions on passing the entry trial." Saimon''s voice woke Sato up from his reverie. His figure slowly came into existence around 10 feet away from Sato.

    "What you had just experienced was the entry trial where you are made to relieve either an extremely traumatic experience or ced in a fake world with your dreams made a reality. You only spent less than 9 hours but were able to break through the illusion. Though your result can''t be said to be amazing, it''s still eptable."

    Realising that he had arrived at a new spot, Sato surveyed the area with eyes. He discovered that he didn''t return to the open space where Saimon had dropped him off before but instead, arrived in what looked like the interior of a building; or more appropriately, a pce.

    The room, or rather hall, that Sato stood in was veryrge; so much so that a football match could be held within it with space for a spectator count of 500 or so to standfortably apart from each other.

    There were two rows of pirs, 6 on each side, that marked the boundaries of the room. The pirs towered at an impressive height of 20 metres or maybe more. On the pirs were what looked to be coiling golden dragons that clung tightly to the pirs.

    The ceiling of the building was very high that Sato could barely make out it''s features. There were paintings and murals of what looked like mythical creatures and gods. As for the identity of these beings, Sato was currently unaware.

    In front of him was arge corridor that lead deeper into the building. Due to the somewhat poor lighting, Sato wasn''t able to make discern where it lead to or what was in there.

    Apart from this, there was nothing else in here. There was no door behind him not any window, making Sato wonder how he had gotten in here.

    "Where is this?" Sato asked Saimon.

    "Can''t you recognize it? This is the trial area." Saimon replied him with his usual servile smile.

    "The trial area? I thought the ins was the trial area?" Sato questioned.

    "Well, the ins was but an illusionary aspect that came with the entry trial. Ever since we passed the portal, we had arrived here." Saimon smiled.

    "I see..." Sato came to a realisation.

    "One question."

    "Go on."

    "Why the trial? The entry trial I mean." Sato asked.

    "Well you see, the main trials of the Caventry was developed to train the Caventry properly while at the same time, rewarding each challenger. However, there''s a limited amount of rewards to give out. So, the higher ups decided that not everyone could just be allowed to participate else, we might be wasting resources on weaklings and not have enough to spare for the worthy. Apart from that, there was still the fact that some of the trials required certain resources to operate them and randomly spending those resources just because one wanted to test their meager strength was deemed wasteful. So, the idea of an entry trial was brought in. Failure to pass it would prevent one from gaining ess to the main trails and save resources for us. In short, you could say that the entry trial helps weed out the weaklings from the challengers." Saimon replied calmy.

    "So, why this format? Why not anything else?" Sato asked again.

    If it were just to weed out the weaklings, there were other ways to do so. A simple battle-type test would be enough to achieve this and it also seemed like the best way to do so. Sato wanted to know why it was an illusionary trial like what he had just experienced.

    Saimon nced into the depths of the hall, right where the corridor was, before answering, "Originally, it used to be that simple but as the Caventry faced the issue of annihtion and extinction, they made the decision to change the format of the trials. What lies at the end of the trials is theplete inheritance of a great civilization; something that could easily change the current power scale of the continent, tilting it in anyone''s favor. The difficulty of the trials therefore, has to rhyme with the reward otherwise, anyone could easily get past the entry trials and go for the main trials. A test of willpower and mentality would be much better than one of strength for something like this."

    He then turned towards Sato and continued.

    "Of course, the entry trials weren''t made to be ridiculously difficult for just no reason. Even theposition of the trials was made with a goal in mind; and that was to test one''s willpower. By making one go through their most traumatic event once more, the test aims to see whether the trial challenger could free themselves from it. While one could say this is an extremely harsh trial, it still has it use. The inheritor of the Caventry''s knowledge and gifts has to be one with a strong body, spirit and mind. Weakness in any one of these points won''t be tolerated hence the reason why the entrance trial and the next few trials would test you on this."

    "How about Snow Bird? Is she done with hers?" Sato asked. Snow Bird was Xue Yan''s IGN, made by taking part of the literal meaning of her name[1].

    Saimon shook his head, a bit disappointed.

    "Not yet. She seems to still be having a hard time."

    Sato didn''t say anything apart from releasing a sigh as he could understand her situation. If not for the small incident that had urred back then, Sato doubted whether he would be able to free himself from the illusion in time.

    ''At least I know the game is capable of such. I can avoid making such a simr mistake next time.'' Satoforted himself.

    Sato then nced at the system clock and noticed that only a bit above 4 hours had gone by. He was surprised that he had actually spent that long but thinking back, he didn''t find it bad. In the illusion, it felt as if one week had gone by. If the same had happened in reality, Sato would have missed a lot and wasted so much time which wouldn''t be good for him. Losing 4 hours was much better than a week but if the gains weren''t worth it, then it was a waste of time. However, Sato believed they were worth it.

    ''Even so, Saimon said my performance was just eptable. That means that my reward would just be stuck at the basic level.'' Sato sighed internally.

    "What''s the duration for the trial?" Sato asked Saimon. He recalled that Saimon had previously mentioned that each challenge had an attached duration. Failure toplete it within the specified time was the same as failure.

    "10 hours." Saimon replied while facing him.

    ''No wonder I got a pass.'' Sato sighed internally. 10 hours in IR tranted to 5 hours in reality. Sato only escaped the illusion after a bit more than 4 hours had gone by. No matter how anyone looked at it, that was just a pass and not a result to be so proud of.

    ''Despite trying not to, I still underestimated the trials.''

    "Would you like your rewards now orter?" Saimon interrupted Sato''s thoughts.

    "I thought you said I would get themter? Once the trials arepleted?" Sato was a bit surprised at Saimon''s question. It was as if the old man didn''t even know his own rules.

    "That''s for the rewards of the challenges from the main trial. The entry trial is different. You can receive the rewards right now. A word of advice however, it''s best to take themter on. Doing so now could affect your final evaluation and possibly increase the difficulty of the uing trials. Of course, for that to happen shows how good the rewards are. Without a doubt, it could also help you get through the next challenges. The decision depends on you."

    Sato hesitated a bit as he went into thought, beforeing to a conclusion.

    "I will take them once I''m through with everything."

    Saimon smiled and nodded at Sato''s choice before proceeding to walk towards the corridor.

    "It''s time for the next trial.. Follow me."

 Chapter 237 - 231 : The SudÅ || The Main Trials Explained

    "Follow me."

    Sato didn''t bother questioning Saimon as he walked all the way from behind till he caught up with him.

    *Stomp* *Stomp*

    In the empty cold corridor, only the footstep of the two could be heard as they walked deeper in with nothing but silence apanying them.

    While still in the previous hall, Sato was unable to see the interior of the corridor but as he now stood within it, he discovered that the lighting wasn''t as bad as he originally thought. On the contrary, there was no issue with the lighting whatsoever as blue menterns hung on the walls and illuminated the entire corridor.

    ''It seems that there''s a formation or something that prevents people from spying in from the outside. Either that, or we went through a portal or something.'' Sato thought of various exnations as to why he couldn''t see the interior of the corridor from the hall.

    "I believe I''ve mentioned time without number as to how the original main trials had undergone a change in format so as to select an inheritor of the Caventry''s knowledge?" Saimon asked, not expecting an answer. "Now, I will properly exin the main trials to you."

    "The main trials are divided into 3 different challenges with each challenge focusing on testing a specific attribute of the challenger. There''s a specific goal and allotted time for each test and they all differ from one challenge to another.

    "In no specific order, the challenges usually test one''s strength, courage, heart, intelligence, willpower and so on. However, only 3 challenges are experienced by the challenger. In some situations, if not most, one might be tested for more than one quality in a single challenge. Say for instance the entry trial you just went through. That can serve as both a test of willpower and courage. Willpower is needed to differentiate illusions from reality whereas courage is needed to break through such. This is especially so in your case." Saimon nced at Sato.

    Sato couldn''t resist agreeing with him internally. Knowing that it was an illusion wasn''t enough for one to pass the entry trial. They also had to break the illusion. While it looked like this was easy, it wasn''t. When Sato had realised that he was in an illusion, he was saddened but a part of him refused to believe it and wanted to remain there. This happened despite him knowing that everything was fake. To break through the illusion, Sato had to admit wholeheartedly that everything was fake. He had to be bold and courageous enough to leave behind such a peaceful life that he had always dreamed of, for reality. That in itself, wasn''t easy.

    "So what you''re saying is that it''s quite possible for a challenge in the trials to test for more than one quality?" Sato asked.

    "Yes." Saimon confirmed. He then added.

    "As for the forms the test may appear in, I''m not obliged to say."

    "I expected that." Sato replied without much reaction.

    He had truly expected it. If Saimon could tell you the format of the challenge, then what use was it again? By knowing both the format and goal of the test, there was an 80% chance that Sato would seed in passing the trial. That would affect the integrity and value of the test since Sato seeded not because he passed the test the right way or was worthy but because he knew how to pass the test. It would be the same as cheating on a high school exam. Passing by cheating didn''t mean you knew it or would have passed it either way.

    Having said all that he needed to, the two then continued on their way to the trial grounds in silence. Sato took this period to reassess his mental state in order to prevent the previous situation from uring again. At the same time, he took note of his surroundings, constantly being impressed by the amazing detailing in the architectural structure of the corridor. While Sato was an engineering student, he still had a bit of interest in architecture so he easily noticed a few remarkable trials in the corridor. Take for instance, the murals and carvings on the wall. They were so expertly done that one wouldn''t notice any damages nor excess markings. Everything was smoothly as if it were naturally done.

    "We are here." Saimon said as the duo approached the end of the corridor which was a huge wall that spanned at least 9 metres.

    There has a huge gate fixed within the wall in front of them, right at the centre. It had a few red lines and patterns scattered all over in a mystical fashion. The gate was 3 metres wide, leaving 3 metres of space on both sides and approached a height of 5 metres. The edges of the gate was marked with a bronze coloured metal, simr in shade with Saimon''s skin tone. The gate itself however, was jet ck and extremely smooth; to the point of possessing reflective qualities almost simr to a mirror''s.

    Sato couldn''t tell what metals the door was made of despite memorizing a bunch of metals and materials from both the cksmith guild''s library at Riverdale and the cksmith section''s books at the Hall of Grey Chains'' library. Nheless, he could tell that they were extremely precious as even Saimon had previously admitted that everything used in the main trials were precious.

    Right after the boundaries of the gate, there were two 3 metres tall carvings of what looked to be two heavenly beings; one carving on each side. Honestly, the images looked creepy and horrifying. While the word ''heavenly beings'' was used to address them, they looked more like demonic creatures than your average angelic beings.

    A pair of fangs extended from their upper jaws, almost touching the edge of their chin. One short yet broad grey horn prated through their skulls and rose up to a height of 5 inches. Their skin tone was a dull red color, simr to wine[1].They had a humanoid form - the usual two arms and two legs with an upright posture- and a human-like face with simr facial features. If one were to exclude their viinous features, they looked no different from humans; just a bit taller. If the features were left behind, then there was no way they looked human-like much less ''heavenly''.

    The only reason Sato perceived them as such was because of the feeling he got when he stared at them. Rather than bloodthirsty murderers, they felt more like dire protectors that would do all they can to keep safe whatever it is they were meant to. There was an overbearing aura exuding from the carvings but this aura was also calm, gentle and deep with a sacred feeling attached to it. That feeling of sacredness with the desire to care and protect was in heavy contrast to the physical appearance of the creatures but with his honed instincts, Sato felt an unfathomable level of danger from it. These carvings felt alive to him.

    Saimon bowed reverently for awhile at the two carvings before he finally spoke up.

    "These are the Sud¨­. Grand-protectors of the Caventry assigned to them by the Grey God. You could also call them my direct ancestors."

    Sato was surprised at this revtion as he never guessed that the human-like Saimon was actually rted to such creepy creatures.

    As if noticing Sato''s confusion, Saimon exined.

    "The Sud¨­ ended up mixing with the Caventry and a few other races leading to several mixed blood appearing. There weren''t a lot of them who had descended to start with, so pure-blooded Sud¨­ where very rare. In other to keep their lineage going and continuously fulfill their mission, they had no choice other than to mate with other races."

    Having rified Sato''s confusion, Saimon didn''t stop talking but kept on going.

    "The two in front of us are one of the first Sud¨­ to have descended and also two of the strongest. After death, their bodies were buried in the most sacred ce of the Caventry, which happens to be deep within this tower. However, it wasn''t their full corpse that was buried. Due to the special attributes of the Sud¨­, part of their corpse was kept elsewhere, acting as a source of protection to important territories of the Caventry. A good example would be the gate in front of us. In each of the carvings, lies a finger of the rted Sud¨­, that''s why you can feel their aura. It''s nothing more than a representation of the Sud¨­''s existence."

    "In other words, they are still alive despite dying?" Sato questioned with shock in his eyes. If this were true then the Sud¨­ were an amazing OP race, capable of ruling the entirety of IR much less Fallen Heart kingdom.

    "Yes and no. It''s difficult to exin but just take it as them being dead but not fully dead. Alright, let''s begin." Saimon stopped with the exnations as he moved towards the door.

    ''He doesn''t want to talk huh?'' Sato sighed internally.

    For a second there, he was actually considering transnting the Sud¨­ DNA into his body. While he didn''t know whether that was possible or not, Sato guessed it should be especially as the Caventry seem to be more advanced in mana and magic than any power he had seen so far. Just imagining it made him look forward to such. Even if he couldn''t get their DNA, using their bones as forging ingredients would no doubt increase the quality of the final product. Sadly, there was no way Saimon would let him take a part of the Sud¨­ that had been treated as a glorified relic for thousands of years.

    Standing in front of the door, Saimon ced both hands on it and whispered a few iprehensible words as his reflection was disyed on the clear door. Following that, Sato heard the sounds of gears clicking and turning as a deep hum resounded in the corridor. This phenomenon didn''tst long as before 2 seconds went by, the corridor reverted to normal. However, during those 2 seconds, Sato felt that the Sud¨­ had actuallye to life as he had sensed a threatening sensation greater than before from them. He could almost swear that he saw them nce at him with an apathetic look during that short time.

    "Behind this door lies the main trials. A piece of advice before you go." Saimon said with a serious tone.

    Sato ended his thoughts and paid full attention to Saimon. For Saimon to say this at thest moment most likely showed how important it was.

    "Each challenge would most likely ur in different worlds. In other words, you would experience life in different ces; different worlds with differentws. There could be scenarios where you are powerless, scenarios where you don''t possess the abilities you do now or scenarios where you possess all the abilities imaginable but no matter what, don''t forget your goal. I''ve already mentioned how each task has a specific duration so try your best to aplish it as quickly as possible lest you fail. Don''t easily give up and strive for sess. The Caventry never gives up and their inheritor can''t be a sore quitter either.

    "Lastly, be true to yourself. The point of the main trials is to test the challenger and see if he or she is worthy of inheriting the Caventry''s work. If you pretend to be who you aren''t, you will, without a doubt, fail."

    The door opened at a regr pace till it was wide open, showing a 3 metres wide and 5 metres high opening. Just like with the corridor back at the hall, Sato couldn''t see anything inside as only pitch ckness upied his sights.

    "Now, go.. The trials of the Caventry await you."

 Chapter 238 - 232 : New Location

    Sato walked through the door with no hesitation at all. Havinge this far, turning back at thest minute was nothing more than making a dumb decision. In fact, he couldn''t even retreat at this point as once a the main trial have been activated, there''s no turning back again for the challenger unless they replenish the resources spent in doing so. As for the process of the resources, there was no need to say that the current Sato couldn''t afford it.

    As his entire being went through the door, Sato suddenly experienced a zero-gravity sensation as he felt himself be weightless. This feeling went on for 3 seconds and during those seconds, apart from feeling weightless, Sato could neither hear, see, smell nor feel anything. It was as if his entire being was shutdown; his senses going dark. This feeling was akin to being in a mother''s womb; the only exception being the operation of one''s conscious.

    *Vroom*

    In a strange unknown space, a ck wormhole suddenly opened mid air and spat out a dark figure.

    [[System notification :

    You have discovered [Bloodfallnds]

    No reward is given for this discovery.

    ]]

    "Hmm?"

    Once he felt free from that oppressive feeling, Sato''s body began to readjust back to it''s normal state of operation. However, just as it did so, Sato was given a surprise he never expected.

    With his eyes widened in surprise at whatid in front of him, Sato discovered that he was free falling his way to the ground.

    "Shit!" Sato cursed.

    He was at a height of at least 35 metres. Even if he didn''t die, getting seriously injured was still a possibility.

    ''I have to find a way to cushion my fall.'' Sato began operating his brain at high speed.

    Ideas after ideas ran through his mind as Sato was running out of time but he still couldn''t figure out anything to do. There was no object close by to make use of. Even thending area was devoid of rocks, being nothing but barrennd.

    ''Am I going to die just like this?!'' Sato was disinclined to giving up just like that. He didn''t have a teleportation skill like Fudo or an explosive spell like Xue Yan, so the options of teleporting to a safe distance or cushioning his fall with an explosion were cancelled.

    There was only one option Sato was left with, and that was to set his body in the right position that would bring about the least amount of damage to him. The rules of the trials were quite simple and there was just one major thing to note; don''t die no matter what. So even at the cost of breaking an arm or a leg or maybe even both, Sato wanted to assure his survival. In the end, he could simply down a healing potion and return to his peak form.

    ''That''s it!'' Sato''s eyes glistened with realisation.

    Putting his hand in his space bag, Sato pulled out a HP vial, unclogged it and ced the opening in his mouth.

    ''If I time it well, then it should work.''

    What Sato was trying to pull off was a special strategy that became quite popr at a point in time in VR games.

    Health potions had the effect of healing yers and they usually began working once the yer swallows them. In fact, they begin working upon contact with the internal system of a living carbon-based being. In other words, the very second it gets into the user''s mouth the healing potion begins its work. However, the healing speed when kept within the mouth is much slowerpared to being ingested.

    Now, the gaming strategy used by yers was to keep the drug within their mouth during battles and as they got inured, they would ingest the potion. The use of this strategy was in extremely dangerous scenarios where one could easily be killed or severely injured with a single strike. By ingesting the potion at the appropriate time just as the attack connects, a healing effect would apply to the damage effect. This would create a scenario with a contrasting effect where the yer is both being receiving damage and is being healed. As long as the timing is right and the amount of HP provided is just enough to neutralize the damage to a certain level, leaving the yer alive, the strategy was an OP survival ''bug''.

    However, while it stood to be an OP ''bug'', the factors involved in pulling it off made it a very impractical strategy in battle. This was simply because one couldn''t always judge the amount off damage they would receive from an attack because certain various factors could potentially change the values. Also, the timing of the ingestion of the health potion had to be perfect lest the yer dies before the healing effect kicks in or maybe takes it too early and still dies either way. To be able to pull this off perfectly in battle, one would need urate information on the opponent''s strength and preparation time; lots of it at that. Hence, the strategy was slowly abandoned and forgotten.

    ''But its not like I have any other choice.'' Sato thought as he emptied the contents of the vial into his mouth. He however, didn''t ingest the potion but left it in his mouth. His intention was clear; to ingest the potion at thest second just as hends.

    ''Almost.'' Sato''s body increasingly got closer to the ground.

    Just as Sato finally chugged down the liquid, he suddenly halted 1 metre up in the air.

    *Cough* *Coughs*

    The sudden jerking sequence apanied with Sato''s hurried intake of the potion had made him almost choke on it. Luckily for Sato though, he was able to cough it all out in time.

    "What the heck?" Sato eximed with an irritated tone.

    *Bang*

    Following Sato''sints, the levitation effect on his body shutdown as he crashed violently on the ground.

    "Ouch. That hurts." Sato picked himself back up from the ground.

    ''From the looks of things, I might have thought too much about things.'' Sato sighed as he began surveying his new location.

    The part about him thinking too much about things was Sato presuming that his beingunched from mid air was a test check his survival rating when in actuality, it was nothing meaningful. In the end, a certain mechanism was set in ce to prevent him from dying by a fall so even if he didn''t do anything, Sato wouldn''t have died. However, he didn''t know this so he couldn''t be med for taking preventive measures.

    ''That''s¡­''

    As he nced around to take note of his location and possibly spot the challenge''s goal, Sato noticed that he was in the middle of a desert-like environment with only red soil and red clouds. What made things even more ''special'' was the fact that there was nothing else present. Nokes, no viges, no buildings, no nts, and apart from one very tall mountain, there was no ground elevation. The ground was perfectly t with not a single boulder in sight much less a a hill or a mountain or even a valley. The only exception was the conspicuous mountain in the distance, whose peak prated the red clouds.

    "I guess that''s the challenge goal." Sato thought out loud.

    "Bloodfallnds huh?"

    ncing at the system notification that had alerted him a few seconds ago, Sato felt that the name of the trial location was quite interesting.

    ''Well it doesn''t matter much. Time to check out this ce.''

    Making a quick equipment and skill check to confirm that he didn''t miss anything, Sato then walked towards the mountain. While he didn''t take the option of running, despite knowing that the challenge was timed, Sato still didn''t walk at a rxed pace. He was currently in unknown grounds and his safety mattered most. As for the best way to ensure his safety, it was to proceed with caution.

    *Stomp* *Stomp*

    As the ground was t with only a bit of soil on it, Sato''s footsteps were quite easy perceive in this drynd but he wasn''t bothered. Simply because there was nothing he could about it.

    ''Either way, if something can hear me, I can also hear it.''

    With that thought in mind, Sato courageously, yet cautiously, continued on his journey deeper into the red desert.

 Chapter 239 - 233 : The First Challenge 1

    ''It''s huge.''

    Standing just a few metres away from the mountain, Sato eximed at the size and height of the entity. While it was indeed massive from afar, Sato never expected it to be this big. Just the base of the mountain alone took up more than 6 kilometres worth ofnd. Even the width of thergest stadium on earth would only be able to upy two-thirds of the entire base.

    From the angle Sato stood at, the mountain seemed to be segmented into 3 parts.

    The first section began from the mountain''s base all the way up to the waist, just a few metres from the centre. While it looked to be a few metres from Sato''s position, the true distance could be up to a 100 metres till 2 km, based on the absurd size of the mountain. The most notable feature of this section was the ''baldness'' of thend. Half of the region was devoid of any vegetation, being clearly visible and vulnerable to the weather. The stony brown ground was a bit eye-catching as not even a single leaf of grass was present. As for the other half, there were barely any nts or trees, with the very few present being spaced far apart. But unlike the other half, there was at least a smallyer of grass on the ground, giving the terrain a bit of green.

    The second section, which began right where the first ended till the point that was shielded by the clouds, was a lot better than the first, in the sense that the vegetation present was much more. Like the average forests on Earth, the second section had a tree every 2 or 3 metres. Therge amounts of trees and leaves gave the mountain a fascinating outlook to any passerby. By distance alone, the second section was muchrger than the first section. It was at least 3 km long whereas the first section was longer than 1 km but smaller than 2 km.

    The third section was the part of the mountain hidden in the clouds. As it wasn''t visible from below, Sato didn''t know what was there neither could he guess what could be there.

    The 3 different sections when viewed as a whole, gave the mountain an eye-catching yet entric sense of beauty. Sadly, Sato wasn''t here to admire such wonderful work of nature.

    ''Is the goal supposed to be located at the top or am I just supposed to climb up to the top?'' Sato wondered as he approached the mountain.

    ''I hope it''s that easy and not a silly task as to find something in here.''

    The mountain was veryrge such that if Sato was given a week tob through it, he would not be able to pull it off. If exploring the entirety of the mountain was that difficult, one can only wonder how long it would take to look for an object in there. That wouldn''t be a mission anymore but punishment.

    "Challenger, wee to the Staircase to Zolstice."

    Just as Sato was bout to take his first step up the mountain, a booming voice resounded from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It had no obvious origin so it was impossible to discover where it came from.

    [[System notification :

    You have discovered [Staircase to Zolstice]

    No reward is given for this discovery.

    ]]

    "Staircase?" Sato thought out loud. Saimon had previously informed him that with each challenge he faced, unless the challenge was simr to the one he faced at the entry trial -which needed him to be dependent on his will and determination to pass-, Sato would be notified of what to do. So Sato wasn''t particrly surprised by the voice but paid attention to its words.

    "Challenger, you are required to reach the designated spot on the staircase within 48 hours but not limited to it. The higher you go, the greater your rewards. Failure to reach the designated spot equates to failing the challenge."

    "Designated spot?" As Sato said this, a red marker line suddenly appeared within his vision. It circled round the mountain like an stic hair band and was located at the mountain''s waist, just a bit into the second section.

    ''Saimon said that the test doesn''t focus solely on one''s strength but also potential. While I haven''t figured out the goal of this test, it doesn''t seem to be strength-inclined. To have selected the second zone as my test goal and giving me a 2-days limit to do so obviously means that climbing this mountain wouldn''t be a walk in the park.'' Sato thought as he nced at the red line in his field of vision.

    ''It would be nice if I could actually reach the top¡­'' Sato''s eyes wandered all the way to the peak of the mountain. Sadly, as it was shielded by the red ''mes'' high up in the air.

    Without further ado, Sato took his first step up the mountain, officially starting his challenge.

    "Hmm?" Sato raised an eyebrow right after he made that first step. He had suddenly felt a daunting pressure lock onto him. This pressure made it difficult for him to move his body as freely as he usually did.

    Luckily, the pressure wasn''t that much so all Sato felt was an ufortable feeling on his back; simr to having walked half a kilometre with a 10kg backpack.

    While it sounds difficult, for someone who has worked out for a majority of his life, this wasn''t a problem. Also, Sato''s avatar''s stats were much better than his real body so this much weight was pretty much nothing.

    ''However, I doubt it would remain the same as I progress up the mountain.'' Sato thought.

    Nevertheless, Sato kept walking forward. He had already began the journey so turning back was dumb and pointless. The penalties for failure were unknown but considering that this was an A rated mission, they would in no way be so simple as a single deduction in level.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    150 metres in, and Sato had yet to encounter any other life-form apart from himself. There was not even a single trace of green on the barren floor.

    Unlike with the ins, Sato didn''t walk at a rxed pace but walked much faster. At times, he even ran so as to cover up more ground. It wasn''t that Sato was underestimating the danger of the environment but more like he had a bit of confidence in himself. The entire ce was barren of any nt or vegetation and apart from the very few boulders scattered all over, there were no obstacles that hindered Sato''s vision. In such a simple setting, it would be quite difficult for Sato to suffer an ambush. Nheless, Sato''s guard was never down throughout the journey. The worst mistake of anyone, whether expert or noob, would be to underestimate the opponent, whether animate or inanimate. In this case, Sato''s opponent was the inanimate mountain that contained hidden dangers unknown to him.

    *Shee* *Shee*

    Overhearing strange sounds from behind a boulder a few metres away, Sato suddenly stopped running and swiftly unsheathed his sword, preparing to face whatever it was that hid there.

    "Hmm? You''re?!"

 Chapter 240 - 234 : The First Challenge 2

    (AN : Correction made to the previous chapter. Time limit bes 48 hours and not 5 days. In IGT)

    "Hmm? You''re?!" Sato was surprised at the sight of the figure in front of him.

    "Sato¡­.Oh my gosh, Sato! You''re here too!" A feminine voice spoke up.

    The owner of the voice, who also happens to be the basis for Sato''s surprise, was actually Xue Yan.

    "What are you doing here?" Sato asked her. "I thought you were yet toplete your entry trial?"

    "Well, I just did so a while ago." Xue Yan inly replied, though there was a slight tinge of satisfaction in her voice.

    "Did you get the same mission as I did? To get to the top?" Sato questioned.

    Xue Yan nodded but then shook her head.

    "Yeah but not exactly. There''s a red line along the mountain. That''s my goal. Well that''s what the voice said."

    "I see." Sato replied.

    The reason why he had asked her whether her goal was the top was because Sato was actually skeptical about the ''Xue Yan'' in front of him now. Right before he headed for the main trials, Saimon had stated with a somewhat disappointed appearance that Xue Yan was still stuck in the entry trial''s illusory world. Not up to an hour had gone by and Xue Yan had suddenly appeared once again in front of him. Even if she had somehow escaped the illusions doing this time, logically, she shouldn''t have been able to catch up to him so soon.

    By asking her that question, Sato wanted to verify whether it was a fake or not. While the challenges one would encounter in the main trials would differ, as long as it was the same location, the goal would remain the same. In other words, while it was possible for this mountain-climbing expedition to be Sato''s first challenge, a different challenge could be presented to Xue Yan. But if it happened that her first challenge would be in this same [Staircase to Zolstice], the format of the challenge would be the same as Sato; which was to proceed to the marked spot within 2 days. This was one information Sato had picked up from Saimon back at the Great Hall of the Grey Chains.

    "Alright then. I guess both our stops are the same so let''s support each other along the way." Sato stated.

    While it looked as if there were no living beings apart from the two of them, Sato wasn''t so ready to ept such a notion. Having a teammate, especially a mage, would be pretty helpful in this trial.

    "Okay." Xue Yan nodded in agreement.

    The two then set-off on their journey, but this time with each other apanying them.

    During the journey, the two had encountered different developments that turned the originally boring trip into an adventurous one. Apart from the constantly increasing pressure, they also encountered a few life-forms along the way. One such life-form was the monster that currently stood in front of them right now.

    "Awooo!!"

    [[ System interface :

    [[ Phantasmal Rock-wolf (Common)

    Level : 9

    HP : 990/990

    Physical Attack Power : 36

    Magical attack power : 51

    Physical Defense : 25

    Magical Defense : 5

    Attack Speed : 30

    Movement Speed : 24

    Attributes

    Strength : 12

    Endurance : 25

    Vitality : 99

    Agility : 12

    Dexterity : 10

    Intelligence : 17

    Willpower : 5

    Skills

    False w : Passive : 40% Chance for a w attack to ignore any physical defense and hit the target. Damage caused isn''t counted as physical damage but as mental damage.

    Insubstantial body : Passive : Physical attacks have are only 40% effective. Magical attacks, unless they are mind-type attacks, have only 60% effect.

    Mind Howl : Active : Release a howl that would destabilise the target''s focus and will.

    Cool-down : 7 seconds.

    System Description :

    Monsters manifested out of illusions.

    No experience or reward is given for defeating them,

    ]]

    For a level 9 monster, the Phantasmal Rock-wolf was quite weak. Possessing only 3 skills - 2 passives and 1 active- one would presume that it''s threat on the danger scale was quite small but that was nothing more than a terrible analysis and assumption.

    The Phantasmal Rock-wolf was a creature that was born of the illusory features and ability of the mountain. Though they were illusions, the damage they dealt was certainly real. Dying at its hands was the same as dying at the hands of a real monster. As a creature born from illusions, the effects of physical attacks on it were greatly weakened. This was witnessed in the effects of the passive skill [Insubstantial body]. Physicalbat sses could only deal 40% of their original attack power as damage to these monsters. Even the mages weren''t spared as their attacks were but 60% effect, butpared to the physical sses 40%, this was more decent. Just this skill, [Insubstantial body], alone made them such unbearable creatures to face much less the other 2 skills.

    That''s right, the other 2 skills were another headache to settle with especially the passive skill [False w].

    Imagine having managed to keep up with the Phantasmal Rock-wolf''s movements and attacks but suddenly being surprised out of the blue by an attack that couldn''t be blocked. What was worse was the fact that the attack would have no signal nor indication and appeared at random intervals. This made facing the phantasmal rock-wolf in closebat a difficult task.

    Of course, if it were just one such wolf, an Elite yer could handle it much less an Expert. However, this was only if there was one such monster.

    In front of Sato and Xue Yan stood 3 Phantasmal Rock-wolves.

    "This will be a tough one." Sato took a deep breath as he tightened his grip on his sword.

    The greatest challenge for gamers when facing a monster was to pin them down. Usually, this role was assigned to a Tank ss like the [Guardian] or [Pdin] but in the absence of such a yer, another physical ss yer would have to step up to the role. For the duo f Sato and Xue Yan, only Sato was suitable for this role. However, tanking the Phantasmal Rock-wolves was a difficult challenge particrly because of its 2 disheartening passive skills.

    To be able to pull this off, Sato would need to be at his best and ce his entire focus in the battle. And this was just to fend off the monsters. To defeat them was another story.

    Luckily for Sato, while this was a challenge for him, with the aid of mage, the threat of the wolf was reduced to a workable feat.

    "Just like before, I will attract their attention while you deal damage at an opportunity you get, okay?"

    "Alright." Xue Yan nodded.

    This wasn''t their first battle with a Phantasmal Rock-wolf or even a group. Tens of metres back, they had encountered 4 level 8 ones and had easily taken them down and even before that, they had faced a six level 7s and three level 8s. Even though the three before them were level 9 ones, Sato had confidence in winning this round. So long as he could prevent the wolves from reaching Xue Yan while she provided hi support, it was only matter of time before the wolves would end up dead. Sadly, the game didn''t reward them for their kills.

    ''Well, all rewards are supposed to be presented at the end of the trials so I guess it''s understandable. Plus, these monsters are illusions and not real.''

    Proceeding carefully towards the monsters, Sato set his eyes on the one at the middle and began his assault. He aimed to drag the other 2 into the fray and keep them upied long enough for Xue Yan to have a shot at dealing heavy damage on them.

    Behind him, Xue Yan watched as Sato faced the monsters with a in, emotionless face. Slowly, a creepy, sinister grin upied her lips as her eyes glinted with an eerie light.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    *Crack*

    Back at the spot were Sato awoken from the entry trials, a cracking sound, akin to the sound of a crack forming on a ss surface, resounded. Previously, there were 2 ss orbs but with Sato having passed his entry trials, there was no longer a need for one of them to be left behind. The cracking sound seemed to being from thest ss orb that was silently floating mid air. Strangely though, there was no sign of damage on the ss orb despite the reverberating sound.

    *Creak* *Crack*

    The sound slowly went on till eventually, the ''ss'' shattered. Thest ss orb, which was silently floating like a star high up in the sky, abruptly puked out a shadow that violently crashed onto floor. Weirdly though, there was no sound from the crashing. It was as if the shadow had crashed on a soft bed that absorbed all the force rather than a a hard floor.

    "Oh?" Saimon''s pleasantly surprised voice sounded as his figure slowly came to view.

    "You''ve finallypleted your trial? Congrattions and wee back."

    The shadow slowly revealed itself to be a figure, which from its features could be ascertained to be a feminine one.

    Slowly, the owner of the body stood up and revealed their appearance.

    It was Xue Yan!

 Chapter 241 - 235 : [Astral Might]â€™s True Power

    "So, how do you feel?" Saimon scanned from head to toe.

    "A bit tired but that''s just mentally." Xue Yan said as she massaged her temples.

    "That''s to be expected. What undergoes the entry trial is your consciousness and not your body. While it''s true that your body does get taken into the orb, it''s actually stored in a different space from the trial grounds." Saimon exined as he stretched out a hand to the ss orb and beckoned it.

    The hovering ss orb, like a child to its parent, floated towards Saimon''s open hand and rested on it.

    A ck fissure opened right beside Saimon following which he ced the ss orb within it. While the interior couldn''t be seen, the ck fissure actually led to the treasury of the the Hall. Since the entry trials were over, the ss orbs were of no use and needed to be returned back.

    "While your performance couldn''t be said to be amazing, you still seeded to pass the trials before the deadline. Your partner was already less than an hour ago and has already proceeded to the main trials. Would you like to do the same or receive your rewards?" Saimon queried.

    "Sato is already done?" Xue Yan asked with surprise but as she did so, she suddenly felt that there was no reason for her surprise. Sato had never stopped surprising her sopleting the entry trials before she did so didn''t seem much to her.

    ''I''m still too weak.'' Xue Yan thought to herself.

    Meanwhile, Saimon went on to answer her question.

    "Yes he did. He skipped his rewards and proceeded straight towards the main trials. I suggest you do the same as he did since that would prevent the difficulty of the trials from increasing."

    Saimon then went on to exin the same thing he said to Sato, leaving Xue Yan to make the final decision.

    "I see." Xue Yan responded after Saimon was done with his exnations. "I will proceed with the main trials and receive my rewards after I''m done."

    Following in the footsteps of Sato, Xue Yan decided to receive her rewards subsequently after the main trials. This seemed to be the best decision as the difficulty would be left set at her current ability. If she had epted her rewards and gotten an increase in strength, Xue Yan wouldn''t have enough time to get ustomed to her new-found abilities before the main trials. With the difficulty then being increased, things would be a lot harder for her. With that in mind, it would be better to take the rewards at the end of the trial and face the trials with her familiarized strength.

    "Alright then, follow me." Saimon nodded at her choice before leading her to the same ce he led Sato.

    Meanwhile ¡­

    "Damn." Sato cursed as he caught a glimpse of one of the Phantasmal Rock-wolves perform an assault at him from the side. Being preupied with the two in front, he couldn''t allot his focus elsewhere lest he gets surrounded and injured.

    "Watch out!" A familiar effeminate voice yelled at him.

    Sato ducked at the call and jumped out of the range of the 3 wolves, not bothering tond smoothly.

    *Boom*

    A fireballnded right at the spot Sato was, which also happened to be where the 3 wolves jumped at. As a result of such great timing, the 3 Phantasmal Rock-wolves got sted by a single attack.

    "Awoo!"

    -35 (761/990 Phantasmal Rock-wolf A''s HP)

    -34 (739/990 Phantasmal Rock-wolf B''s HP)

    -33 (821/990 Phantasmal Rock-wolf C''s HP)

    While it was true that the monsters were made from illusions, it didn''t mean that they couldn''t receive damage. Magic spells and attacks even had more of an effect on them than physical attacks so having a mage work as the main damage dealer was reasonable.

    ''We''re too slow.'' Sato grimaced as he caught of glimpse of the Phantasmal Rock-wolves'' remnant HP.

    They were still a distance from the marked spot atop the mountain and yet were being held back by three level 9 monsters. Without a doubt, Sato and Xue Yan would still encounter more monsters along the way and if they had to take too long to finish the monsters off, they would not reach their goal in time. However, each time Sato thought of this, he would end up sighing at their shorting.

    It wasn''t that the team was weak but rather, their circumstances made it so. Ignoring the fact that the Phantasmal Rock-wolves were monsters that had high immunity towards attacks, especially physical attacks, there was still the ever-present pressure that nketed the mountain. Even worse was the fact that the pressure increased as they went higher up the mountain. Currently, the duo were only about 400-500 metres deep so the pressure was still bearable, at least to the point they could still face off against the monsters present. But as they progressed up the mountain, the pressure would eventually be intolerable and it would even take longer stretch for them to finish off a target. Their destination was at the early points of the 2nd section which tranted to a bit above 2km in. There was still a long way to go so Sato needed toe up with a good and viable strategy before that time arrived.

    ''Let''s get rid of this fes first.'' Sato gazed at the Phantasmal Rock-wolves.

    If he weer to go all-out, defeating them wouldn''t be an issue, but Sato didn''t want to do so. Who knew what else hid deep within the mountain so it was best to keep some of his cards with him, especially the expendables like his weapon''s skill, [Astral de]. Luckily, despite facing the Phantasmal Rock-wolves in a unfavorable environment, Sato was able to hold up against them and this was partially thanks to his own personal strength and the passive skill of his sword, [Astral Might].

    "Xue Yan, speed up on the attacks. We need to clear them quickly, okay?!"

    "Alright." Xue Yan nodded.

    Resolving himself to his role, Sato jumped at the trio and shed his sword at them, specifically the one with the lowest HP of the three.

    ''[Astral Might]!''

    While the skill was indeed a passive one, Sato had discovered during his training at the Hall that the skill had a neat effect simr to an active skill. The description of the skill was to make the user exude an overbearing and boundless aura like the universe. Based on the target''s level, [Endurance] and [Willpower], the strength of this aura would vary. However, this aura could actually be strengthened a bit and super-imposed by the user''s one emotions and aura. Say for instance, something incorporeal like killing intent, could bebined with the aura from [Astral Might] and strengthen it. Also, one''s heated emotions like anger, desperation and so on, could also strengthen the effects of the skill. While the strengthening wasn''t absurd, it was still within an eptable range.

    Channeling his emotions and desire for victory, Sato hacked at one of the Phantasmal Rock-wolves and apanying his attack was the pressure from his aura. This pressure was first faced by the natural pressure from the mountain but only a part of it was negated. The remainder came steam-rolling at the Phantasmal Rock-wolf, holding it in ce.

    What did it mean to face the aura of the boundless stars?

    A simple sr system like ours has 8s of which Earth is on the medium scale in terms of size. In the milky way gxy, there were around 700-3200 suchary systems and at least 200-500 billion stars present, much lesss which numbered from 400 billion to 3.2 trillion; and this was but one gxy. There were hundreds of billions of gxies in the universe and simr to the milky way, they all had more than 100 billion stars. If the numbers ofs in the universe were to be counted, it would surpass the sextillion count.

    Facing just earth alone, one would feel how tiny they were, much less facing the entire universe and its hundreds of billions of gxies, septillions of stars and sextillions ofs. Even thought the effect wasn''t as exaggerated as with Sato''s [Astral Might], it was still simr; just on a much, much, much smaller scale. Nheless, this was enough to handle a few level 9 Phantasmal Rock-wolves, forcing them to shiver in fear.

    While the majority of the pressure was focused on one of the Phantasmal Rock-wolves, the other 2 still felt it and their reactions were hated for a second. While a second sounded small, for a yer of Sato''s caliber, that was enough to cause a lot of damage.

    [Critical]!

    -40 [Chop]

    -26

    -28

    -23 (622/990 Phantasmal Rock-wolf B''s HP)

    In just a second, Sato had shed out 4 times, dealing a total of 117 damage points to the Phantasmal Rock-wolf.

    Xue Yan didn''t waste the opportunity Sato had provided as she took aim and focused her attacks on one of the other 2 Phantasmal Rock-wolves which also happened to be the one with the lesser HP.

    [Critical]!

    -41 [Fire-Ray]

    -29 (691/990 Phantasmal Rock-wolf A''s HP)

    ''We can do this!''

    Sato''s eyes brightened as he entered total concentration with a calm and collected mind.

    *Bruuuuu*

    The earth suddenly shook violently as if there was an earthquake or an ongoing battle between two gods of war. Boulders rolled down the mountain and cracks began to form as fissures were left behind. The trees in the distance swayed violently with some of them even falling to the ground. It was like the sign of the armageddon, just a little bit better.

    "What now?" Sato''s face twisted in frustration.

 Chapter 242 - 236 : Flee

    "What now?"

    With an exasperated expression, Sato separated himself from the wolves and returned to safety.

    With themotion being sorge, even the Phantasmal Rock-wolves had their attention drawn away from the fight and hesitated chasing after Sato.

    "What the hell is happening?" Xue Yan was confounded at the new development.

    "I don''t know but it''s definitely not a good thing. Let''s get to somewhere safe first."

    Sato dragged her by the hand as he ran past her. Xue Yan didn''t repel him but ran alongside Sato as the two slipped away from the site. The Phantasmal Rock-wolves didn''t remain behind either, as they all took their paws and fled the scene.

    After they had gone past a few metres, Sato let go of Xue Yan as he sheathed his sword back and led the way.

    "Sato! Behind us!"

    Overhearing Xue Yan''s call, Sato peeped behind and saw a dust-storm rushing down the mountain towards them. To be exact, it wasn''t targeted at them but more like they happened to be within its range. The dust-storm, if measured, would no doubt reach a height of 15 metres. From the angle it approached, the dust-storm actually blocked the light from the red sun, casting a shadow upon the earth.

    With eyes wide like saucers, Sato didn''t dare falter in his footsteps as he increased his speed.

    "Run and don''t look back!" Sato told Xue Yan.

    Sato couldn''t imagine what had cursed such a massive dust-cloud but he didn''t want to find out anytime soon. His current priority was making sure that both Xue Yan and himself could outrun the dust-storm or get somewhere safe and wait it out. With the pressure from the mountain, this proved to be difficult. Fortunately for them, they hadn''t go so high up the mountain yet so the pressure was still bearable.

    "We need to find a safe zone. Look out for any."Sato informed Xue Yan.

    Xue Yan didn''t reply as she was concentrated on escaping, nheless, she heard Sato''s words.

    Not more than 30 secondster, Sato noticed that the dust-storm, which was previously 200 metres or so behind them, had actually caught up and was only a hundred metres or so away.

    "Damn it." Sato cursed as he could feel the hand of death closing in on him.

    ''Death here means failure. There''s no way I can die so soon and not like this.Not even at the hands of a tough beast but a storm? No way!''

    Sato was unwilling but there was nothing he could do about it.The first section was mostly clear open sand fields with a few medium andrge boulders scattered all over. Unless they ran up the mountain or back to the ground(sea-level), there was no ce to hide from the dust-storm. However, going up the mountain wasn''t a n since the dust-storm wasing from there. As for heading down, that was exactly what Sato and Xue Yan weer doing however, even though they hadn''t gone so dep into the mountain, they had still gone a sizeable distance in.

    In summary, before they could most likely reach the ground, the dust-storm would have devoured them.

    Sato''s face contorted as he realised this. It was as if the heavens were forcing them to die and fail this trial.

    "Sato, over there!" Xue Yan yelled as he used her staff and pointed at a certain direction.

    Tracing the staff till the end, Sato saw that Xue Yan was pointing at a a cliff by the side of the mountain. The face of the cliff actually housed a cave that if one didn''t pay attention to it, they could walk past it without realising so. While the first section was an open space, there were still irregrities in ground height and so, a few cliffs and steep walls existed.

    The reason Sato didn''t find this ce on his way up was simply because he didn''t take this path up. During their retreat, Sato didn''t have enough time to retrace their steps and simply chose a random direction and headed down.

    "Move."

    Sato changed direction towards the cavern. With the way things were now, the cave seemed to be the only safe zone for the duo and unless they found another -which the chances of that happening was very low- or they reached the ground before the dust-storm annihted them. However, Sato doubted they could achieve that so he went with the current best option; to take shelter. Doing so would not only minimise their losses[1].

    As he closed in on the cave''s mouth, Sato didn''t bother going in smoothly and simply jumped into the cave. Xue Yan did the same too since the dust-storm was just a couple of metres away. Once inside, she rolled herself deeper in just like Sato did.

    *Whoosh*

    *Bang* *Bang* *Boom*

    Just 8 seconds after they had gone in, the dust-storm passed by their previous position, eclipsing the entrance of the cave while creating a wreck.

    Seeing this, Sato''s eyes disyed a sliver of fear as he retreated further into the cave. The reason for his reaction wasn''t just his fear of the dust-storm''s strength and intensity but also the fact that he had actually underestimated its speed. Initially, it wasn''t so fast and was just at the speed enough for them to barely outrun it but now, it seemed to have suddenly elerated as if it desperately wanted them dead.

    "That was close." Xue Yan sighed as sheid on the floor, trying to catch her breath.

    Sato didn''t make anyment but instead took out a light-stick from his bag and light it. He then used the light produced to inspect their surroundings. With the rampage the dust-storm was caused, the entrance of the cave was blocked and they had to find another exit point. Luckily for the duo, the cave was actually bigger than they thought. There was a passage that lead deeper in but as for whatid in there, they didn''t know.

    "We have to find a way out. Spending too much time here would hamper our progress." Sato said.

    Xue Yan didn''t reply him with words but simply stood up.

    "Let''s go."

 Chapter 243 - 237 : Discovery

    A low-intensity orange light spread into a dark room, upying the entire area and illuminating the dark cold room. However, as the light kept spreading, it soon encountered an obstacle in the form of a wall preventing it from going any further.

    "Another dead end." A sigh rang out in the light room.

    "I''m sorry." Xue Yan apologised with a low voice.

    "It''s not your fault. It''s just how things are." Satoforted her.

    The duo had already spent more than 45 minutes within the cave, exploring it in hopes of finding an exit. As they did so, they discovered that the cave was much bigger than they had thought, almost bing a whole different ecosystem from the outside world. Along the way, they hade across different forks that lead to different directions. In order to avoid wasting any more time, Xue Yan suggested that she uses [Mana Sensing][1] and try to pick out the right path. Sadly though, while they still managed to enter a few passages that seemed to be the right one, they would encounter more forks that led elsewhere. Inevitably, some of the decisions the duo made regarding this was a misstep and they would bump into a dead end. Currently, this was the 5th dead end they had found but the 3rd consecutive one.

    ''For there to be so many different corridors, this shows that there must have been artificial construction going on in here. What the hell is this ce?''

    Sato began to contemte on the purpose and basis of this mountain. He had originally thought that it was made by the Caventry to serve as a trial ground but from the recent findings here, it seemed like either the Caventry or another civilization had once dwelt here. This made the mountain seem to be more than just a trial ground. While there wasn''t enough evidence to prove this, the fact that there were man made tunnels excavated here, showed that a certain amount of manpower was once mobilized in here or might even still be here.

    ''If it''s the first conclusion then there''s no problem. But if it''s the second, there''s a chance that a monster horde might be hidden deep within.'' Sato frowned at that realisation.

    "Xue Yan, have you sensed any living creature yet?"

    Xue Yan closed her eyes and focused her attention on her skill, trying to spot any mana outburst/signal or discement of mana particles within the skill''s radius. This took her 5 seconds after which she opened her eyes and shook her head.

    "No. I haven''t sensed anything since we started heading in or even now."

    "Okay." Sato replied.

    Despite Xue Yan''s feedback, Sato didn''t drop his idea of the possibility of a monster horde residing in here. It was quite possible that the creatures were either hidden deep within, at the innermost section, or that the creatures'' poption was lower than he thought, making it so that they had yet to encounter any one of them.

    "Any problem?" Xue Yan noticed that Sato had taken on a serious contemtive expression.

    "I have a strange feeling that something''s wrong. There''s something hidden in the depths of this cave system. If we aren''t careful, we could lose our lives and fail the trial." Sato informed her of his suspicions.

    "I feel the same way too. These tunnels look man-made but why would someone do such a thing just for a trial ground? It doesn''t add up. But it''s also possible that we could be over-thinking things." Xue Yanmented.

    As he noticed that Xue Yan was simrly skeptical as he was, Sato decided to take his assumption to be the truth. It was better to be safe than sorry.

    "We''ll move more carefully while you try as much as possible to activate [Mana Sensing]; at least every 20 metres or so. I will reduce the intensity and range of the light to prevent us getting spotted while you be on guard for any surprise attack or ambush. Let''s go." Sato gave out his instructions before heading back the way they came from. This was a dead end so there was no meaning to them standing at a spot and staring at the wall. Their trials were timed so every second mattered.

    Xue Yan nodded in response as she walked after him.

    10 minutester, the duo were in arge open area within the cave system. At this point, it was more suitable to call it a cavern rather than a cave system. This was because there were a bunch of protruding rocks and boulders scattered all over. Stgmites, stctites and other speleothems were spread all over the ce turning it into a Speleology[2] wonder site.

    Xue Yan had led them here saying that she had sensed foreign mana in the environment. The foreign mana didn''t refer to the mana produced from the presence of another creature or being, but mana from outside.

    It should be recalled that Sato had felt that the cave system was like a whole different ecosystem of its own and this wasn''t limited to the nts or soil but also the mana. From Xue Yan, Sato hade to realise that the prevailing mana in the cavern was Earth-type mana due to the structure and nature of their location. But now, Xue Yan imed to have discovered signs of water-type mana. The only way for this to be possible was for there to be a water-type mana monster that resided at the location or at the very least, frequent the area, or that there was arge amount of water in that area.

    If it were a monster, then going there would be pointless but notpletely. More or less, they would finally be able to identify the monsters that dwell here and also, chances were that there would still be a water body present since such monsters tend to stay close to a favorable location. If it were a pool of water, a stream or river, the story would be totally different.

    For there to be a water body in this cavern, there had to be a source. Whether it flowed from underground or was a stream or river that flowed in from outside, Sato wanted to find out. To a certain extent, this was their only means of escaping this dark zone.

    Xue Yan''s discovery turned out to be true as standing on a elevated rock surface, the two spotted ake in the distance. They couldn''t grasp the size of theke due to the distance between them, neither could they see a stream or river that flowed in from the open. Nheless, they didn''t conclude yet that there wasn''t any, since the likelihood of there being an underground water channel was still 50-50.

    "Let''s go."

    As the two headed into the open area, they noticed that the pressure on them -which never departed since they were still on the mountain- was steadily increasing. Previously, as they were exploring the cavern, the pressure was constantly undting; increasing and decreasing at certain turns they took. Now however, the pressure was straight up increasing. This meant that they were actually going up the mountain. But the weird fact was that thend they walked on looked to be a t one. In fact, it wasn''t. They had just descended from an entrance located up on a cliff-like wall so technically, they were descending rather than ascending. In other words, this didn''t add up; there was no reasoning or exnation as to why the pressure was increasing.

    "Be on guard. This feels weird." Sato said to Xue Yan as he unsheathed his sword and went into a high alertness and awareness state.

    "Alright." Xue Yan sped her hands nervously on her staff as she raised her senses to the highest, trying to spot any changes in the mana fluctuation in the area.

    *Boom*

    "What was that?" Xue Yan asked with an anxious tone.

 Chapter 244 - 238 : The Grand Guilds Meeting

    Almost 14 days (IGT) had gone by since Sato and his team had failed toplete Xue Yan''s trials after mistaking the kobold Chief for the world ss boss. During this time, Riverdale, ck Mountain and thest neighbouring yer town, Salt Springs town, all had majorplications arising due to the after-effects of ck Grill''s Demolition.

    The Kobold king, who had led an army of kobolds up the lower floors[1], had seized control of the Middle region''s first 10 floors. These floors were home to the much stronger monsters and as yers'' levels had already risen quite much, it became the most explored area of the entire cave due to the high levelled monsters. But with the Kobold king now forcing its way in and upying the area, these floors became a danger zone filled with level 7-8 kobold. If one were unlucky, they would encounter a level 9 kobold guard or even worse, the Kobold king itself.

    Having one of their major levelling spots gone like that, an uproar broke out as the battle for resources became even tougher. The 3 towns together had a total of 6 or so resource grounds for a yer poption of more than 45,000 yers, with each one of the maps being different from the other, both in environment and location. With one of them, which happened to be the most popr and convenient of the 6, now taken out of the table, an unfavorable situation was made out from this event.

    Prices of materials, especially the ones that came from ck Grill''s Cave, rose up significantly. This was not just limited to yer markets but even NPC markets, after all, who said that the Kobold king only attacked yers? With an increase in materials and supplies prices, a shrinkage in avable levelling spots and finally, the forced exit of dark yers, who previously hid and roamed around the area, chaos ensued as fights began breaking out easily. Fights broke out between yers for monsters to hunt. Rampant, incessant killings and robbery became the norm and the situation was continuously growing out of hand.but that wasn''t the worst part.

    The kobold king''s army didn''t n on stopping at the Middle region but was spotted progressing towards the Outer region. What was more frustrating was the fact that the 3 different Town heads didn''t n on making any move on it. It was as if they weren''t even bothered or anything.

    None of the yers could understand this as the role of these heads was to protect the interest of their area ofmand or in simpler terms, defend their towns. With a threat looming, it would be better for them to cut it by the root before it became worse. However, if the yers knew of the true history behind ck Grill''s Cave as well as the ''aplishments'' tied to it, they would understand the town heads'' reactions. ck Grill''s Cave was a no-go area and if there was one thing that the Fallen Heart Kingdom was very sure about, it was that the stronger the trespasser, the greater the bacsh. The Drawelt Empire was an empire-level power, owning a portion of the continent so, their bacsh for trespassing was great, very great. This was the entire demise of the power.

    If an individual at Arman Lagus'' level were to go in there, there was no doubt that he would nevere out again.

    With the NPCs not making any move against the kobolds, the yers had to take it upon themselves to find a solution. And so, a Grand Guilds Meeting was called upon for the top guilds of the 3 towns.

    A Grand Guilds Meeting was the term assigned to a meeting of more than 5 guilds that wield massive power and influence in their area or the gaming world.

    Salt Springs Town was a Secondary level town but at the top of its kind, closing in on the Primary town rank. If ck Mountain town was said to be the ''mineral valley'', whereas Riverdale was the ''economic rail'', Salt Springs town would be the ''economy''s lifeblood''.

    ck Mountain town was nicknamed ''Mineral city'' due to its strategic location, being surrounded by 3 mountains that were filled with minerals. Riverdale Town was at a very special location that had well-developed roads that facilitated trading and made it a perfect trading spot. Salt Springs Town, on the other hand, was one of thergest salt producing spots in Fallen Heart kingdom. Together, the 3 towns were called the ''economic lifeblood of the Fallen Heart''.

    Producingrge amounts of salt every month, the amount of wealth Salt Springs town possessed was unimaginable, going beyond what most primary towns would have. The only reason it was still limited to a Secondary town was due to its smallernd size and weaker military otherwise, it could easily rank as a high level Primary Town like Riverdale and ck Mountain.

    Due to its flourishing economy, the state of the buildings and the civilians in the town was well above other Secondary towns. Salt farming was the mostmon upation here and there were less adventurers whenpared to the other two towns. As a result of this, yers didn''t have to struggle for mission or resources as in the other towns. But as they say, the System is fair.

    Having lesspetition from the NPC side, the amount of resource maps open to them were much less than others. The sizes of the maps was even smaller than their counterparts. So,petition was still as tough as ever, if not tougher than in other ces.

    While yers had the option to migrate over to either ck Mountain town or Riverdale, most of them didn''t. This was because due to the flourishing economy here, a lot of certain goods, or specialties, could only be found here. The existence of ck Grill''s Cave had also lessened the migration as the map wasn''t that far either. However with the after-events of ck Grill''s, Salt Springs Town was currently the most affected of the 3 towns. Therefore, the big guilds of the town had called for a Grand Guilds Meeting of the 3 towns'' guilds.

    At a certain 2 storey[2] restaurant in Salt Springs town, there were a group of people gathered at the second floor. The restaurant was seemingly luxurious with a lot of magnificent, expensive designs strewed all over the building. Even the furniture weren''t simple as just a random wooden chair could cost more than 120 silver coins! This was a gold and 20 coins! An amount of money very very few yers couldy their hands on. If 7 or so of these chairs were gathered, they could easily surpass the wealth of any guild in IR!

    The people gathered at the second floor were a bunch of yers in either luxurious attires or expensive armors. No one here wore anything below the Mid-tier Mortal rank and even then, the equipment was at the top of its ss. These people were the top guild experts and representatives of their various guilds, and not any small guilds but the big names in the gaming industry.

    This meeting called didn''t involve all the guilds, adventurer groups, associations or clubs, but simply called upon the strongest and most powerful of them all. Without a doubt, if these yers decided on something here, the yermunity of the 3 towns would be impacted severely. It was no stretch to say that these guys joined together couldn''t eliminate a world ss boss.. And that was exactly what they nned to do.

 Chapter 245 - 239 : The Grand Guilds Meeting 2

    "Wee everyone, to the the very first Grand Guilds Meeting in Fallen Heart Kingdom and most especially, our ck Rock City Province." A young man garbed in fiery red mage gowns stood up and dered.

    The 3 towns of ck Mountain, Riverdale and Salt Springs, alongside a few other settlements and tertiary grade towns were all controlled by ck Rock city; a Primary level City. The above locations and their surrounding areas were therefore generally referred to as the ck Rock City Province.

    The yer who just spoke up was a high ranking representative of a 1st tier guild in IR. While he was a high ranking official, he actually served as the guild leader for the guild''s branch located in Salt Springs town.

    "I won''t go forward with nice pleasantries but simply address the topic at hand, which also happens to be the main reason for this gathering." The young man suddenly put on a serious face as he addressed the yers on the round table.

    "The Kobold king, as our sources have discovered to be its title, has been going on a rampage; one that has currently surpassed its local dominion and is stretching out to our area of activity. This in turn would harm the development of our yers and enable the other guilds in different areas to widen the gap between us."

    "Hehe. Why make it sound so serious, old Ember? We all know that it''s the guilds in your Salt Springs town that are facing the full brunt of this issue. The pressure is mostly on you guys and not us, so why would we bother?" A boorish looking middle aged man spoke up from his seat. Unlike Green Embers, his guild was located at ck Mountain town so the ramifications of the kobold king''s of ruckus wasn''t a very serious issue to them.

    As he spoke, a few other yers nodded imperceptibly to his words as they seemed to share the same view as the man.

    "Is that what you think? Is this what you all think?" Green Embers swept his eyes on everyone present.

    "While this doesn''t sound so bad to most of you, considering the fact you have other options for resources, this would actually affect you all, us all! In terms of levelling spot, ck Grill''s cave is the only map that contains monsters at level 7 and above inrge numbers. In terms of resources, the low rank earth core - which happens to be one of the most valuable materials at this point - can only be gotten from the Rock golems there. Even the hides from the Ground Rats are still worth something.

    "With the way things are spiraling out of hand ck Grill''s Cave would eventually be a ''no-go area'' and if that happens, the consequences would definitely affect a whole lot of us and impinge on our interests. This isn''t a me or you problem but the problem of everyone in the entire region." Green Embers said with a strong voice.

    "There are other resource maps with valuable resources and high levelled monsters. We could just migrate over there and take control of the spots." Another yer who was representing a peak 2nd tier guild from ck Mountain town spoke up.

    Most yers present knew that the main victim of all of this were the guilds stationed in Salt Springs town. The kobold king was a powerful figure to face and as of now, no guild could face it off on their own, hence there was no sense of urgency in doing so. But with its current exploits, the guilds of Salt Springs town needed to get rid off it as quickly as possible; the only problem being that theycked the ability to do so. Unlike Riverdale town, the strongest guild there was the first tier guild, Brilliant Wings, which Green Embers represented. There were the only 1st tier guild there with the rest being mostly 3rd tiers, 4th tiers and just one 2nd tier guild. Lacking the ability to pull of the raid, they decided to drag the other guilds into this. Sadly, the otherscked enough determination and verve to do so. Rather than taking such high risks in assaulting the kobold king, they might as well take their time and grow steadily till they were capable of doing so on their own. At that point in time, the rewards would very well be worth the risk.

    "Oh really? You''re all smart; you can most likely figure it out. Seizing control of the resource maps would lead to the ire of the free yers. While they are worth nothing alone, when added up, even your guilds would suffer a terrific loss at their hands. Hence, the idea of trying to wrestle control and ess of the other resource maps from them isn''t viable." Green Embers replied.

    "Doesn''t matter. If we thought of such, we already knew the resulting problems that would crop up and I tell you much pride and joy; most of us pretty much have our solutions ready." The uncultured middle aged said with a wide grin. He wasn''t afraid of offending Green Embers as not only did he(Embers) need their help but also because his own background was in no way weaker than his.

    "But of course, you could very well make us move; for the right reasons of course."

    While it was true that the Kobold king''s rampage wasn''t severely affecting the other guilds, it still was. There was a limited amount of resource maps and all those maps had a fixed area. With the hundreds, if not thousands, of other yers grinding there, it would be difficult for one to find a suitable prey especially as yers begin to level up more. At that time, the battle for resources and experience points would be more violent since high levelled monsters were quite scarce in other areas.

    The reason why all these guild representatives were ignoring such future problems and refused to mobilise their forces was simply because they wanted to make the best out of this crisis. They all wanted more gains and incentives for their guilds, hence the reason the meeting was being dragged about. Simply put, they wanted the guilds of Salt Springs town to offer them a nice bid, simr to a good tasting carrot, that would make them willing to move their hands. That was the meaning behind the brutish middle aged man''s words.

    Green Embers frowned at his words. He obviously knew that these guilds would be difficult to put up with but he never expected things to be this tough. These guys were acting as if this situation had nothing to do with them, when it more than actually did. Heck, the reason for the Kobold King''s outrage was suspected to be as a result of Emperor''s Might and heaven''s Angels'' teams.

    Green Embers nced at the representative of Emperor''s Might, who happened to be Azure Dragon, and noticed that he had yet to make any statement ever since the meeting began. Even as things heated up, he actually acted as if it had nothing to do with him.

    ''These wolves¡­'' Green Embers cursed within.

    Finally, he let out a sigh.

    "Fine¡­let''s begin negotiations."

 Chapter 246 - 240 : Betrayal And Desperation

    *Boom*

    *Boom*

    *Boom*

    Multiple loud explosions shook the entire cavern asndslides urred by the walls and rock particles of different sizes were sted into the air from different locations like shrapnel in an explosion.

    "What was that?" Xue Yan asked with an anxious tone as she bent low to avoid the whistling stones. Even as she spoke, the vibrations from the explosions were still ongoing. The ground ''jumped'' up and down as if an earthquake was going on.

    They say once you dread a thought or an event, sometimes, your fears be a reality. Sure enough, Sato''s fear counted among the group that abide thisw.

    Before Sato could even think of what to reply her with, he saw something that shook him.

    Massive moving elongated blobs, which looked to be a pack of a strange white organism with a length of 8 metres and a height of 3 metres, began exiting the tunnels formed from the explosions. Rather than saying that the holes were formed from the explosions, it was more appropriate to say that these creatures were the cause of it all. The white creatures had wriggly bodies akin to that of a grub. Their ''skins'' excreted a moist slimy liquid that facilitated their body''s movement while also having a simr trait with concentrated acid, being capable of softening the ground due to their high toxicity level. With no eyes or facial features, apart from two strange pairs of thin fine lines that looked like 2 pairs of antennae, these monsters were truly a disgusting figure to look at. But while their looks weren''t something admirable or pleasing to the eyes, the auras they exuded was pretty much attracting. This was because they were -without a doubt- very rming, and not in a good way.

    "Run!"

    Sato didn''t bother to study these monsters anymore as his senses alerted him of danger. These ugly looking creatures were strong; strong enough to kill him and Xue Yan much less with a bunch of them gathered.

    Xue Yan didn''t bother questioning Sato''s decision as she also took to her heels and retreated back the path they came from.

    The duo ran forward without turning back. At this point in time, all that was in their head was escaping this dilemma. As for finding a way out of the cavern, that would be left forter, if they could survive this.

    *Boom* *Bang* *Boom*

    The constant contraction and extension of the worm''s body, or peristalsis, created constant vibrations on the cavern''s floor and produced loud noises kin to the sound of the earth during earthquakes. Despite having such massive frames, the ''worms'' were able to move at an impressive speed that they were actually catching up to Sato and Xue Yan. At the rate they were moving, it wouldn''t take up to a minute for them to catch up to Sato and Xue Yan whereas it would take Sato and Xue Yan at least 2 minutes to get o the entrance.

    ''I need to be faster.'' Sato thought to himself.

    *Boom* *Boom*

    The earth, a couple of metres by Sato''s right, was dredged up as a few other worms jumped out from the new hole and joined in on the pursuit. However, this was the least of their problems as even more holes were made all over the cavern and more worms made their appearances. A simple scan round the entire cavern showed the presence of at least 50 of such worms!

    This might not sound like an impressive number but from the feeling Sato''s senses expressed to him about them, these worms were at lest level 10 monsters! A single level 10 Common rank monster might not seem like much to Sato but 50 was a whole different story. Heck, even 3 was a task for the gods alone[1].

    "Sato, over there!" Xue Yan yelled from behind as she pointed her finger to the side.

    Sato nced over in that direction and discovered that there was a wall there. In the middle of the wall was a tunnel which lead to a dark unknown territory. The reason Xue Yan had brought his notice to the tunnel was because it was much closer to them than their original point of entry. Also, the direction the tunnel was located at was pretty much clear of any white ''worms''.

    "Go!" Sato hollered as he switched direction over to the tunnel.

    The white ''worms'' had been closing up on them and with the abrupt change in direction, the gap had lessened. But at the same time, due to the structure of the ''worms'' frames and their size, their flexibility was much worse than the 2 bipedal creatures in front hence, Sato and Xue Yan easily widened the gap just before the monsters could change direction.

    ''Almost there.''

    Just a 30 seconds run was needed for Sato and Xue Yan to get to the tunnel. Sato was in front whereas Xue Yan was behind. This wasn''t that Sato had left her behind purposely but that there was nothing he could do since his [Agility] was much greater than hers to start with.

    Just as Sato approached the 10 metres range from the tunnel, an opening formed a few metres away and a white ''worm'' jumped out of it, heading straight for him; an almost 3 metres wide mouth with dull white teeth opened in front of him.

    Luckily for him, Sato was able to notice it in time but due to therge build of the monster, he only had very little space left for dodging. But that was more than enough for Sato.

    Applying a precise and sufficient amount of force on his right foot, Sato propelled his body towards the side. With his armour on, he didn''t need to fear the acid drops that slid off the body of the creature and only needed to shield his face with his arms. However, in doing so, Sato failed to notice a ring red light that approached him.

    *Boom*

    -64 (86/150 Sato''s HP)

    Due to the armour he wore, the red light didn''t go through him and cause heavy damages but exploded on his body. Nheless, this wasn''t a good thing as Sato got disced in midair andnded horribly on the floor, just a few feet away from the monster.

    "Why?" Sato turned his head towards the direction the attack came from.

    "Hehe~" A lightughter rang in his ears.

    It was Xue Yan who had attacked him and since he was never expecting such, Sato got hit badly.

    "Could you please hold them back for me, okay? Take it as you making some new friends, alright? See youter or maybe not~" Xue Yan chuckled softly as she overtook Sato and headed into the tunnel.

    Sato picked himself back from the ground but it was pretty much toote as the previous ''worm'' had caught up to him. Sato couldn''t outrun it at this distance and so could only face it, but doing so would lead to the others catching up to him before he could escape in time.

    "Damn!" Sato cursed as a wave of desperation flooded over him.

 Chapter 247 - 241 : No Other Option

    Faced with the approaching white ''worm'' and the other hordes that were just a couple of metres away, Sato didn''t have much time to make decision.

    ''I have to get to safety.'' Sato thought as he nced at the tunnel in front.

    However, he was doomed to be disheartened.

    Just as Xue Yan went past the tunnel, she actually fired a fireball right at the ceiling, causing it copse and seal the tunnel. Not only did she n on letting Sato die, she also made sure to seal any possibilities of him making aeback. And sure enough, with how things were, the chances of Sato dying was more than 90%.

    Sato gripped the hilt of his sword tightly as only curses ran through his mind. He then turned his attention back to his predicament and didn''t bother to direct it elsewhere, even to spot for a new escape route. This wasn''t because Sato didn''t want to but he couldn''t; the white ''worm'' had already arrived!

    [Astral Might]

    Sato channeled all his emotions into his sword as his aura billowed like the undting waves of sea.

    With his sword held t in front of him, Sato shed at the monster.

    [Horizontal sh]

    Sato didn''t just attack with his sword but also applied his aura to strike in order to increase its attacking power. This was a veryplex skill that martial artists used, simr to the concept of gathering potential before a strike. This would give their attack an imposing prestige, as if one wasn''t facing a sword but a divine mountain.

    Apart from nts, every other living creature was an animal and all animals are born with an innate sense or intelligence. This inherent intelligence made them know when they were hungry or tired. It gave birth to desires within them but the most important feature bred from this intelligence was the ability to differentiate prey from predator.

    Fear enabled one to differentiate a target and prey, a weakling and a powerhouse. It was this instinctively bred fear that enabled animals in the wild to live longer and for certain animals, they don''t need to witness a disy of strength before they would develop fear to a certain creature. They could sense one''s strength just from their aura.

    High level martial artist could exude their auras and use it to deter opponents just like bloodthirsty monsters in the wilds did. At a higher level, even their moves would be able to give off its own aura, exposing the amount of potential and force within the strike. This, when added with their passively emanating aura, would cause a fear effect on the opponent that, if effective, would cause ws to form within the target''s defense. In other words, for attacks like that, the target not only faces a physical attack but also a mental one; a two-pronged approach.

    That was exactly what Sato had done just now. He applied both his own aura and also the aura from [Astral Might] to his attack. Even if the white ''worm'' wasn''t a monster of intelligence or intellect, it was still an animal, and just like other animals, had inherent intelligence. Faced with the over-bearing aura from Sato''s sword sh and also the boundless feeling from [Astral Might], it would inevitably be affected.

    "Krrhhh"

    The white ''worm'' produced a strange low pitched sound as it widened its mouth and collided with Sato''s sword.

    *ng*

    Sato''s sword struck one of the monster''s tooth and at tat moment, Sato felt an iparable hardness from it. It was as if he trying to cut through a 10 inch thick steel block with a crowbar; while his weapon wouldn''t get wrecked, it was a pointless endeavour.

    ''Tough!'' Sato groaned as he tried to subdue the excruciating force that rampaged through his arms.

    "Krrkk!" The white ''worm''s whiskers trembled as the creature released a cry before twisting its head and biting down on Sato.

    Sato had no intention of getting caught by it as he dived to the side, saving his skin from its impending doom.

    *Boom*

    Therge weight of the white ''worm'', which was focused on its mouth, came crashing own on the ground as a 7 inch depression was formed on the ground.

    *Shhhh*

    While Sato had indeed dodged the white ''worm'', the toxic acid on its skin had sshed on him, reacting vigorously with his armour.

    [[ System interface :

    [Dawn Steel Armor (te Armor)] Durability has dropped by 3 points. ]]

    Sato''s face became stern as he nced at the notification. Having used the [Dawn Steel Armor (te Armor)] in many battles already, especially ones he acted as an MT, it was inevitable tat his armour would get weakened. The acid from the white ''worm'' was nothing more than the icing to the cake, finally causing severe damage to his armour. Luckily, it wasn''t irreparable as he could simply find a cksmith in town to patch it up once he''s done with the trials, since the grade of the armour was currently beyond his abilities. However, this was on the condition he could survive this mess.

    *Boom* *Boom*

    The ground trembled continuously as the other white ''worms'' got closer to the duo. At this rate, Sato would end up as nothing other than worm food here unless he made a decision. But with almost no option to make, there seemed to be no opportunity for salvation.

    ''No. There''s one!'' Sato thought as he nced at the hole excavated by the white ''worm'' in front of him.

    As it stood, this was the only escape route within reach of Sato. But at the same time, it was an extremely risky option because Sato didn''t know where it lead to. It might be the nest of the white ''worms'' or the private nest of this particr one; either way, none looked like a good preference. At the same, it could also lead to an unexplored region deep within the mountain but no matter which, Sato couldn''t guess.

    Sato took a deep breath as he ced his sword back into his sheath.

    "Screw it. Staying here is the same as dying. I might as well struggle a bit more and take every chance I get. Who knows, I might get surprised."

    While Sato thought this, he didn''t really have much confidence in his words but none of that mattered; surviving did.

    "Later." Sato waved to the white ''worms'' after which he dashed towards the hole.

    It wasn''t that far from him, only 4~5 metres away.. Before the closest white ''worm'' to him could react, Sato took a big leap and plummeted into the hole.

 Chapter 248 - 242 : Hope Of Survival

    *Whoosh*

    The hole formed by the white worm''s digging had a diameter of 3 metres at the very least. With so much avable space, one could fit in 2 or 3 humans in there and there would still be space for them to slide down, much less a single Sato.

    Sato slid down for almost 7 seconds before he finallynded on the ground, though he did so in a not so pretty fashion. Not bothering to survey his surroundings, Sato hurriedly took out a light stick and lit it, before running in the first avable direction he spotted. He didn''t bother to check for other tunnels because that could dy him and lead to the white worms catching up to him. Every second counted and Sato wasn''t looking to waste any.

    *Thud*

    Just 5 seconds after Sato had departed, a dull thud resounded at his originalnding spot as a dull white and squishy figure crashed down. But that wasn''t all as a few othernded on the other one.

    In the end, about 4 or more of such creatures had entered the tunnel and even more dived in. Due to their massive sizes, the tunnel couldn''t fit them and so movement was extremely difficult for these creatures. An average intelligent creature wouldn''t force itself into the tunnel after seeing one of its kind do so but this worms didn''t seem to be that smart. But that wasn''t an issue for them.

    The worms at the top drilled through the ground and created a new tunnel. The soil was very hard and so it could barely support the weight from the worms that drilled their tunnels above. Subsequently, the tunnel below, which was also the first one, would not copse.

    The worms who dived into the tunnel weren''t the only ones chasing after Sato though. A majority of them had burrowed into the ground from above, and relying on their senses, which was catered for underground movement and exploration, they chased after Sato.

    "Hmm?" Sato perked his ears up as he kept on running.

    ''They caught on quickly¡­''

    Even though he knew that the monsters weren''t so far away from him at the time and also that they excelled at underground movement, Sato was hoping that he could at least widen the distance between himself and the monsters and also maintain that distance till he could find a safe spot and go back up. He never had any ns of throwing them off underground as that was impossible especially since he used the light-stick to find his way around here. That alone was an identifier that would enable the monsters spot him. There was also the fact that the very tunnel he was using now was literally dug by one of those monsters; there was no way he would know the ins and outs of it better than the creature itself.

    ''Which?''

    Up ahead was another fork that had 3 different tunnels; one each at the right, left and centre. Having barely any time to think, Sato went with his guts and moved to the left one.

    Running within the left tunnel, Sato noticed that the ever-present pressure that was steadily increasing before, had suddenly surged up even more. While the increase wasn''t so absurd as to force Sato to his knees, it was still enough to force his running speed to reduce.

    *Boom*

    "Kkrrrh"

    "Krrrkk"

    Coursing through the air were the high pitch shrill of the worms as they traversed the tunnels. On a t ground, the worms were undoubtedly faster than Sato but since they had to bore a new tunnels during their chase, their speed dropped. However, they were just slightly slower than Sato, well, most of them.

    "Krrhhh"

    As he heard that shrill, Sato felt it was familiar despite the worms all having a simr sound. He nced around and spotted a huge figure recklessly forcing itself through the tunnel, and in the process colliding with the tunnel''s walls. That was the first worm that had gone down the hole and also the one that had confronted Sato. As it was making its way through a preexisting tunnel, it moved at a much faster pace than the others and was able to close in on Sato.

    ncing at the monster which seemed as if it was making its way towards him with great difficulty, Sato didn''t dare presume that he could out run it. Since it was able to gain on him, there was no doubting that it would catch up to him in a while.

    ''[Sprint]''

    With a fierce stomp, Sato''s speed increased as he slowly began to maintain the gap between himself and the worm. But with the increase in speed, an increase in consumption of Sato''s stamina followed. Usually, the amount of stamina consumed while using [Sprint] wasn''t so much but with the extant pressure here, the consumption was at the very least double of what it used to be. At this rate, forget outrunning the worm, Sato might even die of exhaustion before that could happen.

    ''If there''s no other choice, I will have to use it.'' Sato''s eyes glistened with fighting intent.

    There were a few emergency supplies and trump cards he had prepared for the trials. Despite sounding hical for a trial that is supposed to select a sessor to the Caventry based on their traits and strength, this wasn''t prohibited by Saimon. Sato had saved them up for extreme emergencies where his chances of sess where exactly zero. He hoped to conquer the trials with his own strength and didn''t want to rely on external help but with his current situation seeming to be at an impasse, he needed a table-turner.

    Sato didn''t n on staying and fighting the entire horde as that was more than dumb. Instead what he wanted to do was to force this one back or better yet, severely damage it within a limited amount of time. That way, he would be free of any pursuer that could catch up to him anytime soon.

    Just as Sato had resolved to attack, he spotted a ray of light from the wall up ahead. If not for the tunnel being very dark and his light-stick having a short range, Sato wouldn''t have noticed the light. The only problem was at the point the light came from, the road ahead bent to the right, perpendicr to it. In other words, where the road ended was where the light came from. Sato would have to turn to the right if he wanted to remain on the road.

    ''Why would there be light? Unless¡­''

    With hope in his eyes, Sato unsheathed his sword and tightened his grip on it. He turned off the light-stick and tossed it back into his space-bag. Wielding the sword with both hands, Sato swung at that light point on the wall in front of him.

    "[Astral de]!"

    A light glow formed on the edges of Sato''s de and as he swung it down, the glow separated itself from his sword and darted towards the wall.

    The glow had an otherworldly feeling to it, as if one was staring at the lights from the stars in the sky. No matter ho one looked at it, the starry light didn''t look dangerous or anything but instead exhibited a gentle and calming feeling from just staring at it. But Sato knew that this feeling was nothing more than an attribute possessed by the energy within the sh. This energy was termed by the system as Astral points and could only be gathered under the canopy of the stars, in other words at night time. Also, the skill was limited to storing just 3 shes worth of Astral Points each time, so every sh was precious. Because of this, Sato tried to avoid using it unless when necessary but with the worm chasing after him and his only hope of escaping enclosed in front of him, Sato decided to take the risk. This was do or die so there was no way Sato would shy away from the risk.

    *Siiieew*[1]

    ''Break!''

 Chapter 249 - 243 : Guesses

    ''Break!''

    *Bang*

    At the edge of a cliff, located somewhere up the mountain known as [Staircase to Zolstice], an explosion urred on the cliff''s surface as rocks sted off into the air. Not more than 3 secondster, a shadow jumped from the newly formed hole and tumbled towards the ground. The jump height was at least 7 metres but this shadow didn''t seem to know that as it rolled about in the air before crashing violently on the ground. Luckily, during its fall, the force and speed at which the shadow fell was mollified by the branches and leaves from a few trees that stood in its way but these still didn''t prevent it from the inevitable.

    *Thud*

    -34 (52/150 Sato''s HP)

    ''Shit. That hurts.'' Sato groaned as he forced himself up with one hand and held his side with another. Barely managing to pick himself up, Sato didn''t bother trying to identify his location as he began making his way forward, with the intention of getting far away from the spot where hended.

    As he did so, Sato noticed that the pressure outside seemed to have be almost double of what he had felt back in the tunnel. In his current state, he couldn''t run for a long time under this pressure but Sato didn''t care. All he wanted to do now was just to create enough distance between himself and his hunters or better yet, find a safe spot to hide.

    Not longter, his pursuer also forced its way through the same hole. Since the rock enclosure on the cliff''s surface was already weak to begin with, added with Sato''s [Astral de] assault which made a hole in it and weakened the structure even further, the worm didn''t really need to dig through it and only needed the momentum from its pursuit to burst forth from the tunnel.

    *Boom*

    What greeted Sato''s sight was a ''soaring'' massive worm-like creature that dripped acid during its ''flight''.

    "Krrhhhhhhh!" As the worm flew through the air, precisely a second after it had taken flight, it unleashed a high pitch shrill and unlike the previous ones, this one seemed to convey pain and suffering; like the screams of a tortured captive.

    "Huh?" Sato stared at the monster with a strange look. He couldn''t understand why the monster would be in pain from simply just sailing through the air.

    As the monster ''soared'' through the air, it seemed like it could keep on going, however, that obviously wasn''t possible. Due to its heavy weight, it was eventually force back down to the ground; just a few metres away from Sato who had made his way to a safe spot.

    *Thud*

    With a loud sound, the worm-like monsternded on the ground, though only after crashing through a few branches and wrecking them to splinters. Once it was on the ground, the monster didn''t bother chase after Sato, who happened to be just 5 metres away from it. Instead, the creature writhed its body in pain, twisting, contorting and convulsing while releasing cries that prickled the ears.

    ''It''s¡­in pain.'' Sato thought as he gazed at the agonizing creature.

    ''It''s currently weakened.'' A glint shed in his eyes as he stared at the monster. However, Sato was still hesitating whether to make a move.

    While the worm-like monster looked to be in pain, Sato too wasn''t in his peak form. Not only was his HP below 50% but he was also exhausted from the chase. A starving camel was still bigger than a horse so there was no way Sato believed that he could easily face off against the worm-like monster, even in his peak state much less his current state. Also, the monster''s defenses alone was more than enough to give Sato a headache. Though when he initially attacked, it was the tooth of the monster he had shed with -which also happens to be the hardest part of it- logically, there was no way that the strength and defense of its skin would be much far worse. Even if it was that bad, it would still be at least one-fifth(1/5) of it. At the very least, it would be on par with a Low-tier Mortal rank armour or even a Mid tier one. In other words, the amount of damage Sato would be able to deal would be considerably shaved off by the monster''s defensive abilities.

    Just as Sato was hesitating whether to attack it or not, the white worm seemed to have realized that it could escape its predicament and burrowed itself into the ground. The speed at which it did so was much faster than when it was chasing after Sato!

    "It seems they are scared of the light or maybe something else in the air, maybe it''s the pressure. That''s probably why they live underground." Sato thought out loud.

    "But at least, I''m finally out." Sato breathed out with relief as he copsed on the floor to take a break.

    After downing a few HP potions and taking a short rest to replenish his stamina, Sato then stood up and finally began trying to spot his approximate location.

    ''The pressure here is double that of the one in the cavern but triple that of the one at the previous spot. In other words, all these while, I didn''t actually lose progress as I thought, but actually progressed up the mountain.''

    Sato was surprised at this conjecture of his.

    If what he assumed was right, then it meant that the cavern had a special way of mitigating the pressure from the mountain by half! This was incredible! What even made it better was that there seemed to be a path within the mountain that led upwards while taking the appearance of a levelled floor otherwise, Sato wouldn''t havee this far. The cavern was actually a shortcut of sorts!

    ''Back at that open ce, if my guess is right, then it means that we were going up the mountain back then. If I was still there, then I might have reached the destination quicker and easier than expected.'' Sato sighed as he recalled the open ce where he and Xue Yan werest spotted together and also the ce were he got betrayed.

    Thinking of that, Sato asked out loud to himself.

    "But why would she? It doesn''t make any sense."

    "If we had both encountered a legendary equipment or something, I would have understood that but we didn''t. Xue Yan obviously knows that I will confront her in reality so it really wasn''t worth it. Also, that expression¡­" Sato''s mind shed with Xue Yan''s smiling face from before.

    "That didn''t feel like something Xue Yan would do. The atmosphere around her at the time also didn''t feel like her." Now Sato had the time to rx, he was able to realise a few points that he didn''t notice before.

    "If that''s the case, then that wasn''t Xue Yan. She might have been possessed or something. Even worse, that might never have been Xue Yan even from the start!" Sato''s eyes widened.

    "An illusion? It''s possible. I mean the Entry trials did something simr so mimicking Xue Yan wouldn''t be a problem. Also, the phantasmal wolves are actually illusions but their attacks hurt as much as the real thing so it makes sense."

    As he realised this, Sato felt a cold sensation on his body.

    "This trial really won''t be as easy as climbing a mountain."

 Chapter 250 - 244 : Progress

    For the first challenge of the Caventry''s Main Trials, Sato was to reach the designated spot on the [Staircase of Zolstice] within 48 hours.

    During his entire adventure with ''Xue Yan'', though it seemed short, Sato had actually spent more than 8 hours of which a majority was spent within the cavern. Now it was almost 12 hours since Sato had walked up the mountain but he was still a bit far from reaching the red stripe on the mountain.

    "Huff, Huff, Huff."

    Sato dragged his weary body up the mountain. He had been hiking for slightly more than 4 hours now and along the way, Sato had to face a diversity of monsters.

    The first section was a bit below 2 kilometres in distance but Sato''s stop was around the edge of the second section. This meant that Sato had to traverse at least 2 kilometres before he could say that he hadpleted the challenge. Since his exit from the cavern, Sato had only walked 500 metres or so. Yes, about 500 metres in 4 hours. That was a very terrible advancing speed.

    This couldn''t be pinned on Sato for being slow but that he had actually underestimated the pressure of the mountain.

    Back when he had exited the cavern and experienced the sharp increase in pressure, Sato could barely handle it. He had originally thought that it was his current exhausted state that made it so but unknown to him, he was wrong. The pressure was already beyond what a normal human body could handle. It was mostly due to the adrenaline that was flowing through him from the chase, that kept Sato going.

    After taking a break, Sato was rejuvenated and so, his body could persist better under the pressure but Sato''s mistake was in his estimation of how long he could. Sato had initially thought that he couldst for at least 3 hours under the pressure and endure only 2 battles before he would be forced to take a break but he didn''t factor in the possibility of the pressure increasing or rather, he couldn''t. Sato didn''t know thews or physics behind the increase in the burdensome pressure so he couldn''t adjust his calctions to fit it.

    As Sato progressed, he was initially doing alright and didn''t encounter any enemy but as he went further up the mountain, Sato discovered that monsters and other possible existences, weren''t the only things he needed to be fearful of. There were array traps up the mountain that attacked him or even trapped him in a different environment, exposing him to unknown dangers. There were also curses that would imnt themselves on him, causing Sato to consume more stamina while walking or even just by simply staying still. During the journey, Sato had got caught in one and suffered a doubled consumption in stamina.

    Apart from that, Sato had crossed a pressure boundary and as with the others, the pressure increased by 30%. Sato already had difficulties with the pressure as it was, so a 30% increase could only be described as a misery he had to live with.

    If that didn''t make things bad enough already, Sato encountered some monsters along the way and they weren''t just the usual Phantasmal Wolves. There were Twin Beak Hawks, Mirage Vipers, Illusive Crows and Red-Back Bears. Of these monsters, the Twin Beak Hawks and Red Back Bears were actually living creatures unlike the others so killing them rewarded him with experience points and loot. The Illusive Crows hunted in groups just like the Phantasmal Wolves and considering that they attacked from the air, they were much more difficult to handle than their grounded friends. Sato had to avoid them at all cost just as he did with the Twin Beak Hawks since their attack pattern was a hit-and-run tactic and he couldn''t fly to retaliate. Despite knowing that they gave out material rewards, Sato didn''t want to encounter any Twin Beak Hawk for the same reasons and also because thest time he did so, he almost died.

    Having to be wary of these creatures in such a disadvantageous terrain with an overbearing pressure that affected one''s body and also formations scattered all over the ground in a random pattern, Sato had to be on high alert all the time and this ended up increasing his stamina consumption. As a result, Sato''s progress was slowed as he had to take a 20 minutes break every 30-50 metres.

    With all these hindrances along the way, it was quite impressive, in a sense, for Sato to have gone up 500 metres within 4 hours. When added with the 900 metres he had traversed by using the Cavern, Sato had walked a total of 1300 metres or 1.3 kilometres up the mountain. All that was left was about 700 or so metres. If the pressure of the mountain were to be constant, it would take Sato around 8 hours or so to get there. But since that was unrealistic, Sato couldn''t be sure of how long it would take him but that didn''t make him desist from pushing forward.

    ''I wonder what other surprises I would find up there.''

    Staring at the red band that circled round the mountain, Sato didn''t know what more to expect at this point but he resolved himself to proceed onwards.

    In current modern era, each VR game always tried to produce a whole new different idea, experience and feeling in order to attract more users. Because of this, one couldn''t be a pro gamer just by simply having knowledge of a few gaming tactics. While such tactics would be applicable in clich¨¦ scenarios like dungeon runs and monster raids, in events like the Main trials and simple adventure travels, they were either barely useful or utterly useless. Missions like this often relied on the yers themselves and not any fanciful knowledge or experience from previous games. It was because of this that Sato had swallowed a loss back at the cavern and even at the Entry trials. Never in his entire 21 years of living would he have expected that his memories could be fashioned against him in such a tactful manner in a VR game.

    As for finding one of the causes of his loss, ''Xue Yan'', Sato thought it was highly improbable.

    If that was a fake then it means that he or she would be far gone by now to who knows where. If it was the original who was possessed, then it was quite possible that Sato would encounter ''her'' at the end point.

    ''In that case, the answer to everything lies above.''

    With a determined mind, Sato continued his journey up the mountain. He didn''t know how long it would take him to reach there but what he did know was that he would do so, under the remaining 36 hours of time.

    Elsewhere...

    In the towns of Riverdale, ck Mountain and Salt Springs, the current yer poption was all hyped up and jittery. While it was true that these towns were always bustling with activities due to therge number of yers there, the atmosphere in the towns now were a whole lot different than they usually were. This was because news about the Kobold King''s army breaking into the Outer region had spread but that wasn''t all.

    ording to scouts from the various guilds and parties that went in, it took the Kobold King only 30 minutes to blitzkrieg through the 10th, 9th and 8th floors, and this was mostly due to therge expanse of space within each floor otherwise, it would have taken much less time to do so.

    With the news of its advancement spreading, yers began to wonder whether it would stop anytime soon.. Some even wondered maybe, just maybe, the Kobold King doesn''t n on stopping at ck Grill''s Cave.

 Chapter 251 - 245 : Trouble On The Lower Floors

    The reason for such unstoppable momentum was due to the weak resistance from both monsters and yers. Yes. Despite know of the Kobold King''s aplishments, some yers still dared to venture into ck Grill''s Cave. Some of them did so in hopes of trying to get a kill on the boss while others wanted to take down a few kobolds but a majority of them did so because of theck of resources maps.

    With a lot of yers now avoiding ck Grill''s Cave, it made things a whole difficult for others. The other maps were slowly getting crowded and the prices of certain goods, mostly those from the Cave, increased. Some saw this as a window of opportunity since if they could get their hands on those goods, they could make a lot of cash.

    Men die for riches like birds do for food.

    Seeing an opportunity to change their fate, these yers took the risk and went back to grinding within the Cave, eliminating monsters and reaping rewards. With less yers around, they didn''t need to worry aboutck of monsters or such and they slowly felt that the Cave to be a grinding heaven. Some of them even assumed that the Kobold King wouldn''t reach the Outer region after all, the environment here was different from the Middle region hence the reason why no kobolds were spotted here before. And with the assumption sounding quite logical, a lot more yers who were hesitating or having a hard time at other maps returned and the others solidified their conviction to stay.

    However, the yers that remained were just your average run-of-the-mill guys who were either barely good or at the Veteran level; very few Experts were present. This amount of strength when facing the Kobold King and its army, obviously could wipe the dust from their feet or even make it sweat out a drop. They all died easily. To the Kobold King, it was like stomping on an ant and this took no effort from it.

    The monsters on the Outer region didn''t resist either as the Life Order rating of the Kobold King made them unable to. The innate fear born within them to predators on a higher scale on the food chain, weakened these monsters'' will, so advancing through the floors wasn''t a difficult issue for the Kobold King.

    6th floor, Outer region.

    "Run!"

    "Out of the way! Get out the way!"

    Unlike how it used to be before, the 6th floor of the Outer region was currently filled with total pandemonium.

    Usually, due to therge expanse of space within the floors, yers hardly came in contact with each other. The floors had so many turns and open spaces that it was possible for 100 different yers to walk in and not encounter each other within 4 hours of exploration. Getting lost was easy and that was why the sale of maps were one of the most profitable at the front entrance. But with the Kobold King''s ''crusade'', most solo yers, adventurer groups and even parties began teaming up with one another. Mainstream level rating was currently at level 6-7 with a couple others already at 8 and the average level of a kobold was at level 7.

    Every 2 seconds or so, a scream would be heard as a yer would have fallen to the des of the enemies.

    "Damn it. Why the heck are the kobolds down here?" One of the escaping yersined on his way out. He was previously in a party but most of his teammates had died forcing him to team up with another group. Currently, the Ranger was at the edge of the 6th floor of the Outer region. This was the safest spot on the 6th floor ever since the Kobold King arrived. This was because after here would be the 5th floor.

    "I really don''t know. This is far too much. First was the massacre at Gnorka and now this. Is the game trying to kill us or what?" Another yer sighed with frustration. He had been part of those that got in by the Emissary during the Goblin incident. Experiencing this now, there was no way he wouldn''t let his emotions and curse out loud.

    "I don''t know either. But what I do know is that if this keeps going on, I''m probably going to quit this game. Conquest is still trending so picking up where I left doesn''t sound like a bad idea."

    The yer who just spoke, a mage ss yer, was also like the other one, in the sense that they had both suffered twice at the hands of OP NPCs.

    This conclusion wasn''t only reached by this yer. A few other yers who had suffered a lot in the game had already made up their minds to migrate back to Conquest or other VR games where they still had a useable ount. While it was normal to suffer a fee losses in a game, they felt that the ones they had experienced in IR was too undeserved and unreasonable, in the end, severely affecting their progress in the game.

    "A bunch of wuss." A yer draped in ck cloakmented from the side. He didn''t bother hiding his voice so the others easily heard him.

    "What did you say?!" The mage raged.

    "I said you''re all a bunch of weaklings. Running away from the game just because of a few losses. You shouldn''t have even bothered starting it." The cloaked yer grinned.

    The mage ss yer was annoyed but he didn''t make any move. This was because he didn''t know who this strange yer was or whether there was a faction behind him. He also had to be careful of revealing their position to be the wandering kobolds since once he attacked, a fight will inevitably break out. In order to prevent their location from being revealed, chances were that everyone would attack him at the same time so as to take him down more quickly. In such a scenario, survival chances were at it''s lowest for the mage. However, the mage wasn''t willing to take such an insult.

    "Alright. Cut it off you two." A yer with a heavy shield and a burly figure walked towards them. Unlike the cloaked figure who''s level was unknown, the [Guardian] in front was a bona-fide level 8 yer! This was a very impressive achievement only gotten by those experts from the big guilds. Simply put, this young man in front of them both was on par with a guild expert. What more was that it was due to his amazingmand and superb fighting prowess that kept the team going for so long.

    "...I understand." No matter how unwilling he was, in front of such a figure, the mage had to step down.

    "...hmph. Fine" The cloaked yer harrumphed before walking to another corner. It seemed that even he feared the Guardian a bit.

    "Silver Sky has been getting more obstinate these days." A clerical walked up from behind the Guardian.

    "It can''t be helped. He got overshadowed in thest fight by an unknown Assassin. He has always been taking himself to be the best but as he realized there was someone better, he couldn''t handle the blow." The Guardian replied. A closer look on his face added with the content of their conversation, one would realise that he was One Sword, one of the captains of a top adventurer group, Mountain Rift, and also the guy who had tried inviting Sato and Fudo to his team [1].

    One Sword had brought his crew to the 3rd position on the Most Kills list for teams and had personally taken the 8th position on the Singles list, surpassing East Crow''s Dream Tiger and drawing with Swift de of the same guild and Kylian, the head MT of Emperor''s Might''s branch in IR. All these achievements added together made him a notable character but his low-key personality made him almost unknown to a majority of yers. It was only during this crisis that he had garnered even more fame as he led his team, alongside a group of other yers to safety and his performance while doing so was magnificent.

    Despite being a level 8 [Guardian], One Sword could take on 3 level 8 kobolds and do so with ease. Both his huge frame, his strength and his top notchmanding skills, enabled him to gain the respect of all the yers present. This was why the mage had retreated at the sight of him.

    "He better get himself together. The game hasn''t been on for long so there''s still more opportunity to shine." Ao, the team''s cleric, replied.

    The ck cloaked yer was Silver Sky, the group''s ace and [Assassin]. Even since he couldn''t make it to the list at the Goblin incident with the only [Assassin] doing so being an unknown character, Silver Sky took a huge hit to his ego. Since then, he begun levelling like crazy, dedicating himself to battling monsters. It was actually on his suggestion that the team left the other avable maps and returned to ck Grill''s Cave, otherwise, they would have chose a safer destination.

    "He eventually will. After all, he is the team''s ace." One Sword smiled. As a team leader, having faith in his teammates was something necessary and supporting them when possible was a must. This was something One Sword knew very well and it was because of this that he made a great leader.

    "I hope so." Ao sighed. He then walked left One Sword and decided to chat with the other team members. However, Ao hadn''t taken more than 2 steps when an rm suddenly sounded.

    "The kobolds, they areing!!"

    ...

    ...

    ...

    As the Kobold King was on a rampage in the Outer region, Sato had gone a considerable distance up the mountain and was close to the goal.

    Unbeknownst to him though, an interesting event was to take ce before he did so.

 Chapter 252 - 246 : Red-Back Bear

    "Ha!"

    *siiw*

    With a sh that cut through the air, Sato attacked the target in front of him as he channeled his energy into his attack.

    -54 (354/1000 Red-Back Bear''s HP)

    [[ System interface :

    Red-back bear (Elite )

    Level : 9

    HP : 354/1000

    Physical Attack Power : 75

    Magical attack power : 0 (15) (AN : Can''t use magic.)

    Physical Defense : 30

    Magical Defense : 10

    Attack Speed : 21

    Movement Speed : 16

    Attributes

    Strength : 25

    Endurance : 30

    Vitality : 100

    Agility : 8

    Dexterity : 7

    Intelligence : 5

    Willpower : 10

    Skills :

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ]]

    "Growl!!!"

    Usually, Sato''s attacks would cause more damage to a target as his attack power was around 120 points or so, but ever since he began his journey up the mountains his attacks couldn''t cause as much damage as they used to. In the case of the Phantasmal Wolves, it was their perverse defense against physical attacks. For the Red-Back Bears, however, it was their thick hide that added to their defensive prowess. Apart from that, battling under the strenuous pressure from the mountain, affected Sato''s movements. That amount of force he could galvanize with a swing of his sword was also affected. As a result, the power behind his attacks was smaller than usual. This wasn''t just the pressure affecting him though, but also Sato trying to conserve as much energy as possible.

    The Red-Back Bear, which was around one and a half the size of a grizzly, growled in pain and anger before bringing a paw down at Sato.

    With the weight of its body behind the attack, the force contained within the paw strike was capable ofpressing the hood of a truck to scrap much less a human body. Sato had no intention of trying out the effects of such an attack on himself so he jumped to the side and dodged the hit.

    *Bang*

    The bear''s pawnded on the ground and the bear fell from its upright position, down on all fours.

    Sato took this opportunity as the monster was still stunned from missing its attack to make his.

    -63 (291/1000 Red-Back Bear''s HP)

    "Growl!"

    Reacting to the sudden influx of pain from the attack, the Red-Back Bear released an aggrieved growl as it tossed itself wildly. Sato however, had already retreated just as soon as his attack connected.

    After trashing around the ce, the bear then nced towards the side where Sato stood and released a disgruntled roar.

    "Growl!!"

    [Domineering Roar] [1]

    An invisible sound wave erupted from the vocal cords of the bear, bringing with it a devastating force that moved in a fan-shaped direction and created cracks all over the floor.

    ''It''s here.''

    While Sato already had some data on the bear''s skills, for such an attack like this, dodging it was easier said than done. This was because the Red-Back Bear often released asional growls and it was very difficult to differentiate these growls from the sonic attack. It was only when the attack was made that one would notice it. However, by then, it would nearly be toote to dodge.

    *Thud*

    -35 (54/150 Sato''s HP)

    Sato was tossed backward by the invisible sound wave,nding heavily on the floor and possibly damaging a few bones. He felt an aching pain on his left elbow but Sato didn''t bother to check what it was as he hurriedly stood up and extricated himself from his position.

    *Bang*

    The Red-Back Bear had propelled itself towards Sato''s previous position and made a wreck at the ce. Arge paw print with an indentation that spanned half a metre was left at the site. Without a doubt, if Sato had dyed by even a second, his chest would have copsed under that assault and he would have been sent on his way to samsara.

    ''No matter how many times I see it, it has such an immense amount of strength.''

    Sato estimated the power of that paw strike to be on par with a fast-moving truck but even more lethal. The reason simply being that all the force was contained within a smaller range, making it even more dangerous. A direct hit was more than enough to wipe out 50% of his HP. Even blocking the paw was a risk not worth taking.

    On a normal asion on an equal field, Sato''s [Strength] -attribute plus equipment boost- was greater than that of the Red-back bear''s, but as he was forced to minimize the amount of energy he spent in his attacks, the power behind them was weaker than usual. As a result of this, a part of the force from the bear''s paw strike would still be transmitted upon contact with his sword. This in turn would put him off bnce, allowing the bear to make a clean hit.

    Having dodged the attack and created some space between himself and the beast, Sato nced at his trembling left hand and realized that he had cracked a bone back there. The injury didn''t simplye from the sound attack but also from when Sato had once tried blocking a blow from the bear. With the effects of the two attacks piled up on one arm, it was inevitable that the arm would experience severe injuries.

    Originally, in this disadvantageous environment, Sato''s chances of beating the Red-Back Bear was less than 60% and with his stamina having depleted thus far and the injuries piling up, it became less than 40%. Luckily for him though, Sato wasn''t the only one in a bad form. The opponent was left with less than 30% HP and so long as Sato could persevere for a little while and make some 7 or so strikes, he woulde out on top.

    Seeing as the Red-Back Bear had yet to make a move, Sato spoke up.

    "Little bear. Even if you''re a monster, you should pretty much be able to get a bit of what I''m saying here. We''re both injured and at our worst. If we go on any longer, you will surely lose while I will get severely injured. I don''t want that to happen and would love to avoid an all-out fight right now. All I just want to do is to get through here, so how about it?"

    Of the monsters in the area, the Red-back bear and the Twin Beak hawks were the most dangerous predators not only because of their strength but because they were real. However, one boon of them being real was that yers would receive experience points and rewards upon defeating them. Sato had discovered this fact when he defeated his first Twin Beak hawk; though at a great cost. Nheless, the idea of rewards and experience points wasn''t enough for Sato to face off against these monsters. The only reason why he had to battle this bear was that the path he needed to take up the mountain corresponded to the bear''s marked territory. As an alpha male, there was no way the Red-back bear would let another creature saunter into its territory freely.

    Sato had his suspicions that the monsters in this trial had a bit of intelligence, though far from making them monsters of intellect like Sygrart or the Kobold Chief. However, this little bit of intelligence had made them much better than the monsters outside. This was especially so for the Red-Back Bear.

    Despite having a big frame that made it much slower than Sato, the monster was still capable of causing him a lot of trouble. Its moves had a bit of logic behind them and it seemed as if it didn''t attack blindly but did so with a n in mind. Of course, due to the low degree of intelligence it possessed, its attack patterns weren''t that absurd and could easily be determined with enough effort.

    The Red-Back Bear didn''t react to Sato''s words but a glint shed in its eyes as it hesitated on making a move. Unlike what Sato had previously thought, the monsters on the mountain didn''t live in harmony. There was a strict hierarchy that existed between the various species and apanying this order were inevitable blood feuds between the creatures. For instance, the ''real'' monsters like the Red-Back bear and the Twin beak hawk were mortal enemies with the phantasmal creatures. They would often battle each other on sight irrespective of what the other was doing.

    Faced with Sato, who seemed to have a simr feeling of being alive like it, the Red-back bear hesitated on attacking. While it wasn''t scared of a fight, it didn''t want to end up injured and then ambushed by the phantasmal monsters. As a result, seeing Sato not making a move against it, the bear''s will to battle slowly began to weaken.

    Seeing as the bear didn''t go on a rampage again, Sato slowly began to retreat. While he could indeed defeat the monster, especially as it had a low HP and he only needed 7 attacks or so to finish it off, Sato didn''t want to take the risk. The Red-back bear''s [Domineering Roar] had a 3-seconds cool-down. Sato had barely a bit above 30% of his HP left. All it would take was one direct hit or 2 blows for him to be a goner. With the pressure force field acting on him, the difficulty of actually defeating the bear was harder than one would think. Unless Sato used a few of his dedicated trump cards, he couldn''t defeat the bear unharmed, and using these trump cards was something Sato wanted to avoid if possible.

    The Red-back bear stared daggers at Sato but didn''t make any move as Sato continuously retreated until he was out of its sight.

    "sighs. Almost there." Sato nced up the mountain, taking in the view of the red ethereal ''band'' that circled around the mountain.

    Sato was currently at the second half of the 1st section; just about 500 metres away. The pressure at this point was bing unbearable and it made battling even more taxing. This was one of the reasons Sato tried to talk his way out with the Red-back bear. He never expected things to turn out good but it eventually did. Now, so long as Sato tried to avoid battles again, it was only a matter of time for him to reach the end of the road.

    Sadly, fate seems to have a way of ying with people.

    Up ahead of him, Sato seemed to overhear the sounds of battle. Normally, he would just ignore it and circle around the site but one of the voices of those participating in the battle sounded very familiar to him.. It was a voice he would never forget; not even in his dream.

 Chapter 253 - 247 : Seeing Xue Yan

    ''It''s as I had expected.'' Sato thought as he narrowed his eyes.

    A few minutes back, Sato heard amotion from up ahead that managed to garner his attention. In the midst of all that chaos, he heard a familiar voice that he could not forget so easily. One that left him with unanswered questions.

    Wanting to confirm his suspicions, Sato didn''t go round the battlefield as he usually did when he encountered simr events. Instead, he went towards it. Now, standing just a couple of metres away, Sato was able to confirm his suspicions.

    There were two parties currently engaged in a brawl. Of the two parties in the battle, one of them was a fierce looking ck panther with white ws that extended up to 5 inches!

    As for the identity of the other party, it was Xue Yan!

    Sato was shocked at her appearance as he never expected to see her here. If this Xue Yan was a fake like he had thought so, then there was no reason for her to be trying to get up the mountain.

    ''What the hell is going on?'' Sato thought as he focused his attention on the fight.

    Xue Yan''s opponent was a phantasmal creature just like the Phantasmal Wolves but unlike those guys, this one hunted alone and was much more threatening than its cousins. It possessed ferocious strength, worthy of a big cat and also had high agility and was very nimble on its feet.

    Each time Xue Yan thought she has it locked on, the cat would dodge her attack with soft steps and close in in her. Because of this, Xue Yan had been injured a lot of times, with a few open wounds that scattered over her body. If medical attention wasn''t given to her, Xue Yan would end up incapable of battle and die due to blood loss or even before that, be devoured by the ck panther. Even without the wounds, at the rate the battle was progressing, Xue Yan would end up cornered within a few seconds and dead in another.

    Sato was hesitating in whether he should help her as he wanted to know why she had attacked him. As it stood, Sato had 2 ideas on what went on.

    First was that he presumed that the ''Xue Yan'' who attacked him was an illusory monster, simr to the monsters on the mountain. The problem with this theory was that there was no reason for the other illusory monsters to attack her if she too was an illusion. If this theory was true however, it meant that there was a possibility for the real Xue Yan to still be present on the mountain too.

    Second was that Xue Yan got possessed by some weird monster that took control of her body. This theory sounded more likely than the other one but the problem was discovering what kind of monster could do such. Ever since he had began walking up the mountain, Sato had yet to encounter any creature that has the ability to manipte someone''s will to such a degree.

    There''s only one way to find out but it depends on whether she can survive this.''

    Sato had no intention of helping Xue Yan pass this tribtion unless he could confirm her identity, lest he brings upon himself another problem.

    "Damn it." Xue Yan cursed as she was forced into a retreat by the panther. Nheless, against a big feline who moved on 4 legs, there was no way she for outrun it especially since her ss wasn''t an agility-based one.

    "Roar!"

    The panther widened its maw and released a roar before jumping at her.

    With its body that approached 2 metres(6.5 ft) in length, the weight of the panther was staggering and there was no doubt that once it got on top of her, that would be the end of Xue Yan.

    ''Looks like I have no choice.'' A glint shed in Xue Yan''s eyes.

    "[Shadow Bind]!"

    Suddenly, something unthinkable urred. The ck panther that had already leaped into the air, got frozen mid-air. As if bound by a string of wires, its frame was held tightly in apacted manner. It was as if some invisible ropes had gotten a hold of it there.

    Seeing as her skill had worked, Xue Yan didn''t bother to retreat but actually faced the panther head on. At some point in time, her staff was gone and she had formed a seal with her two hands which she pointed towards the monster.

    "[Mirage Cage]"

    The eyes of the panther seemed to flicker on and off as it dulled for a moment but brightened again. This set of actions continued for a while till it looked as if the panther couldn''t resist anymore as it eyes finally zed over as lost that glint of intelligence it previously held.

    The ck panther had died, and in such a mysterious way at that.

    "Ha. Ha. Ha." Xue Yan began to pant quickly signifying that whatever it was she had done, had taken quite a toll on her.

    "Hehe. You might be a mirage beast too but your level it too weakpare to mine." Xue Yan grinned as she stared at the ''hanging'' corpse of the panther.

    *Thud*

    As if in response to her statement, the ''hanging'' corpse fell down with a dull thud as the body sprawled out on the floor. There was no trace of heartbeat or reaction from the corpse, further confirming its state.

    Meanwhile, behind a huge rock, Sato took all this with shock. He never recalled Xue Yan having such a skill or even such an amazing fighting prowess that she could solo the beast like that. While Sato could do so, he had to admit that he couldn''t achieve it in such a simple fashion.

    ''Hmm? She''s tired.'' Sato caught of glimpse of Xue Yan''s face, which had turned pale from the bacsh of her skill.

    ''Now''s the best chance.''

    Sato stepped out from behind the rock with a sword in his hand. He didn''t dash over for a sneak attack as he had yet to confirm the true identity of whoever it was in front of him. However, Sato already had a ce on how to do so.

    "Hmm?" Since Sato didn''t bother concealing himself anymore, Xue Yan had easily sensed when he had arrived.

    With a vignt expression, Xue Yan turned over to get a look at the new arrival when she inadvertently widened her eyes in shock.

    "It''s been a while.." Sato smirked.

 Chapter 254 - 248 : The Face Behind The Mask

    "It''s been a while." Sato smirked.

    Xue Yan''s eyes were widened in shock, and amidst that shock was a tiny feeling of fear and surprise. However, she hurriedly calmed herself down and eliminated that fear, only leaving behind the shock in her eyes. Sadly though, her speed of response was much slower than Sato as he had caught that look of fear in her eyes.

    ''She''s the one.''

    That nce was enough for Sato to confirm that the Xue Yan in front of him was the one who attacked him. This canceled out the possibility of there being 2 Xue Yans and also confirmed the fact that the person in front of Sato right now, was the very same one that attacked him in the Cavern. All that was left now was to confirm whether this was the original Xue Yan who got possessed or an illusory monster copy.

    "What are you doing here?" Xue Yan asked with surprise as if she never anticipated Sato''s arrival or presence.

    "What do you mean what am I doing here? I have a mission toplete. Don''t tell me you''ve forgotten? You were the one who almost caused my death after all." Sato smiled as he took slow steps towards her, his sword still in hand.

    All these added together -his reply, his smile and the sword in hand- made Sato look like a scary grim reaper who reaps souls with a smile on his face.

    "What do you mean?" Xue Yan asked with a confused expression that contained a hint of surprise. It was as if she was hearing this for the first time and felt that Sato''s statement was iprehensible and illogical.

    "I haven''t seen you before now. Thest time we met was back at the hall. Right before the Entry trials."

    "Oh?" Sato paused. What she said was right. Ignoring all that had happened, thest time Sato met up with Xue Yan was at the Entry trials ground which Saimon imed to have been the main trial grounds hall.

    This left Sato a bit confused. There was no way a monster born here would know that unless it somehow went through his memories. But with his prior experience from the Entry trials and the eerie nature of this ce, who said that couldn''t be possible. Realising this, Sato resumed his motion.

    "True. But sometime ago, I got attacked by someone who looked exactly like you. Right now, I''m not sure whether you''re the real one or a fake so I need further confirmation."

    "Further confirmation? Fine. Ask me anything." Xue Yan replied with a calm tone, just like she usually did.

    "Oh no. Asking you a couple of questions isn''t a fool-proof method. I think I have something better." Sato smiled.

    "Something better? Like what?" Xue Yan frowned a bit but soon rxed her facial muscles.

    "The system interface. It''s capable of revealing the identity of any creature despite their current appearance. All I need to do is just to make a tiny mark on your body and we are good to go." Sato replied calmly. He wasn''t bothered about revealing the existence of the system interface to a possible monster. This was a game. Even if the monsters knew about it, since they had no way to ess it, they would eventually forget it. Simply because this feature was only limited to the use of yers.

    "I don''t think you need to go so far as to injure me. Even if you want to, why don''t you wait for me to heal and get back to form before you do so." Xue Yan suggested calmly. It was as if she never had anything to hide.

    "No. The earlier the better. I don''t want to take any risk." Sato shook his head.

    *Sighs* "You''re really too stubborn. Alright, here." Xue Yan stretched an arm out.

    "You can make a mark but don''t overdo it."

    "Alright." Sato nodded at her.

    Just as Sato was only a metre away from Xue Yan, she suddenly swung her other hand at him and with it was a fireball that sted towards him. At the same time, Xue Yan hurriedly retreated backwards.

    At such a close range, the fireball was very difficult to avoid and one would undoubtedly get hit by it. With their position thrown off bnce, the tide of the battle would turn to the opponent''s favor. Such a decisive move was very impressive and an amazing disy of battle tactics from Xue Yan.

    Sadly, it seemed as if Sato had expected it as he dodged to the side and swung his sword at her.

    Simr to how Xue Yan''s attack was unexpected, Sato''s was even more unexpected**. Xue Yan was too slow to avoid the sword and with the unique angle Sato hacked at,

    The de of his sword came down on Xue Yan and the sword seemed to faintly lockdown and escape route. While Sato had shed out without any skill, the attack itself was filled with his thoughts and opinions about the sword.

    ''Damn.''

    As the threat of the sword loomed closer to her, Xue Yan was caught in fear on what to do. Sadly, since she never expected Sato to attack her, Xue Yan wasn''t prepared to receive it. In simpler terms, she had been caught in a bind and without any thing on the scale of a miracle urring, the results were decided.

    "Ahh!"

    Sato''s attack was in no way subtle or skilful. It was straightforward and simple;cking the novelty of a master swordsman. Nheless, this brutal way of attacking was one of the best way possible for him to bring about results. Sato had unleashed his entire strength in that sh and because of this, the unguarded Xue Yan had to face the full brunt of Sato''s attack,which contained his more than 20 points of [Strength].

    -136 (???/??? ????)

    *Thud*

    Xue Yan got hit and was forced backwards, flying through the air beforending violently on the ground. Even then, she couldn''t pick herself up as she first coughed out ck blood before finally finding the strength to raise herself backup, although slowly.

    In just one move, Sato had dealt severe injuries to her and at the same time gotten the advantage in the battle. However, Sato didn''t push forth for another attack but instead used his [Inspect] skill on her.

    "Time to see who you really are."

 Chapter 255 - 249 : [Nightmare Devil]

    [[ System interface :

    Nightmare Devil (Elite )

    Level : 9

    HP : 764/900

    Physical Attack Power : 45

    Magical attack Power : 45

    Physical Defense : 15

    Magical Defense : 25

    Attack Speed : 30

    Movement Speed : 30

    Attributes

    Strength : 15

    Endurance : 15

    Vitality : 90

    Agility : 15

    Dexterity : 10

    Intelligence : 15

    Willpower : 25

    Skills :

    ¡­

    ¡­

    [Systemments :

    Quest Hint : Monsters capable of fashioning your thoughts against you.]

    ]]

    "Nightmare Devil. Interesting." Sato thought out loud as he nced at the result of [Inspect] skill.

    While the title, Nightmare Devil, was a bit over the top, it was still capable of defining the monster in front of him. That was right. The person who stood before Sato wasn''t Xue Yan but an indigenous monster of the mountain.

    Nightmare Devils were illusory creatures just like the Phantasmal Wolves and the ck Panther from before. However, unlike their fellow cousins, Nightmare Devils possessed an impressive amount of intelligence, making them seem like humans from the start. They couldn''t be called "monsters of intellect" as this human-like craftiness and smartness was amon feature of Nightmare Devils. Hence, they seemed more like highly intelligent creatures than Intellectuals. Nheless, these guys were as scary as the main deal.

    Possessing intelligence that rivaled a human, Nightmare Devils could take on any form they wished while at the same time, skimming through one''s memories and finding the rted memories of their target. This was evident in how despite being a fake, the Nightmare Devil before him could easily fool Sato and make him think that it was Xue Yan. It was capable of going through his memories and spotting the rted information, easily able to woodwind one with its actions as it analyzed the corresponding memories. What was even scarier was the fact that they could imitate one''s technique and skill just like the original user in the memory.

    Despite so, the personal strength of the Nightmare Devil didn''t add up to much. So long as one knew that the creature in front of them was born from an illusion, the danger of Nightmare Devils would plunge to just a bit above zero. This was because, in essence, the Nightmare Devil had a specific amount of attribute points assigned to specific attributes. This is turn would limit the power of techniques it copied. Say, for instance, a Nightmare Devil was to copy the looks and abilities of a [Pdin] or [Berserker], with their meager attribute points in [Strength], they, logically, shouldn''t be able to perform any of the skills rted to the ss. But since their abilities derived from illusions, passively believing that they could, would empower these devils whilst denying so would return them to their base form.

    "What did you say?" ''Xue Yan'' or rather, the Nightmare devil asked with a bit of shock in its eyes. If Sato had realized its identity, there now the possibility that he could defeat it. Be the monster or yer, no one wanted to die.

    "I said I know what you''re so you stop with the disguise." Sato steadily said.

    The Nightmare Devil nced at Sato in shock and couldn''t help but retreat by one step.

    Nightmare Devils weren''t all that amazing at copying looks and skills. Once the jig was up, they would be almost simr to pigs for ughter. This couldn''t be helped since in direct one-on-onebat, the Nightmare Devils easily lost the battle. They had to rely on their deceitful skills and illusions to win a fight otherwise, they might not be the same.

    *Flutter*

    Sato took the initiative as he sped towards the Nightmare devil, with the edges of his clothing being lifted by the wind.

    Having already been injured by Sato, the Nightmare Devil was aware that in directbat it wasn''t Sato''s match. Hence, without any form of hesitation, it turned around and began retreating.

    "You still think you can escape me?" Sato smirked.

    Compared to Sato, the Nightmare Devil''s [Agility] wasn''t that high. Added with the fact that Sato made his move first and also the distance between the two wasn''t much to start with, the gap between was but a mere 3 metres. Apart from that, from the Nightmare Devil''s movements, it looked as if the pressure also affected it. While Sato didn''t know why, he wasn''t bothered as this signified a good thing for him too.

    "Damn."

    If there was something the first sectioncked, it was coverage. Because of this, no matter how far the Nightmare Devil was to run, it couldn''t get away from Sato and at the pace it was consuming its stamina, it would end up exhausted soon enough.

    ''If only I wasn''t injured. I might have been able to outrun him.'' The Nightmare Devil thought to itself.

    The [Endurance] and [Willpower] stats affected one''s stamina and the [Willpower] stat happened to be one of the Nightmare Devil''s highest stats. If not for its battle with the [Mirage Panther], the Nightmare Devil would have had confidence in outrunning Sato. One could only say that its luck was bad for it to be engaged in a tight battle when Sato was close by.

    "Ah!!! Bastard human!!! Die!"

    The Nightmare Devil suddenly turned around and pointed the staff in its hand at Sato, releasing a fireball at him.

    While Sato had been chasing the monster from behind, he didn''t let his guard down while doing so. As a result, when the Nightmare Devil had turned around and cursed, Sato had already changed position.

    *Boom*

    The fireball crashed at an empty spot and exploded.

    Before the Nightmare Devil could react to this, Sato had closed the miniature gap between them and was within a metre distance. At this point, he was more than capable of attacking the monster. Sato wasn''t sluggish in his reaction as he immediately struck at the Nightmare Devil. With a thrust of his sword, Sato aimed at the chest of the monster; right where the heart of an average human being would be.

    "Auck!"

    -130 (634/900 Nightmare Devil''s HP)

    The sword pierced through with the tip appearing behind the monster.

    Still in the form of Xue Yan, the Nightmare Devil red at Sato with a maddened look and reddened eyes. If red could kill then Sato didn''t doubt that he would have died a hundred times under that look.

    "You...will...pay!!!" The Nightmare Devil squeezed out those words under the pain of the lodged sword.

    *Crack* *ck*

    *Crack* *ck*

    Under Sato''s watch, the Nightmare Devil began to change appearance, growing taller by an inch with each passing second and getting beefier as its muscles began to bulge.

    When Sato noticed the monster undergoing a transformation, he hurriedly withdrew his sword out from it and retreated a couple of steps back till he felt secure. From a safe distance, he watched as the monster shape-shifted to something else.

    The facial appearance of the Nightmare Devil began to change as its skin tone darkened and the long ck hair it had fallen off. The feminine look was lost as two short horns grew out from the forehead of the monster. ws grew out from the nails on its fingers, elongating until it approached a length of 5 inches. Its skin got covered in dark ck scales that possessed a reflective sheen, giving the creature a ''metallic beauty''. From the original ''femme fatale'' Xue Yan, the Nightmare Devil had taken on a horrific appearance akin to a demon from the underworld. The aura the monster exuded was a creepy one that made its opponents feel the sensation of death in its presence.

    "Roar!!"

    With a roar, the Nightmare Devil unleashed the entirety of its aura, turning the original peaceful and opennd into a death zone. A dreadful aura flowed through the entire ce, preventing any other creature froming close while also weakening every lifeform within. This included Sato.

    [[ System notification :

    You have been inflicted by [Nightmare Air]

    Hallucinations will randomly ur.

    Chances of Hallucinations urring increased by 5% within the domain.

    yer will experience a decrease in Attack Power and Defense. Decrease depends on the results of a [Willpower] check.

    ]]

    "This will be your grave, human.." The Nightmare Devil grinned fiendishly.

 Chapter 256 - 250 : One-On-One With The Nightmare Devil

    "This will be your grave, human." The Nightmare Devil grinned fiendishly.

    Sato frowned as he felt a new pressure converge onto his body. Unlike the ever-present pressure exuded from the mountain, this one didn''t affect his body but rather, his mind. It was simr to the drowsy feeling one would get when they feel tired or just awaken from a deep sleep. Unless Sato pulled his attention together, he would slowly feel his strength flow from him till he couldn''t even flex his arms anymore.

    ''This pressure ovepping with the other one makes things a lot harder to handle.'' Sato furrowed his brows.

    ''And there''s still this guy...''

    At this time, the Nightmare Devil had alreadypleted its transformation and the energy it radiated was dreadful to one''s senses, evoking a spine-chilling reaction within one''s body.

    It no longer looked like the previous beauty it was but instead carried with it a hellish aura and a fearsome appearance that made one feel as if they were facing a true devil. Like standing face-to-face with a demon god, one had to bear the brunt of its aura, which was extremely frightening and had the effect of weakening one. Due to the prolonged exposure to its aura, the rocks beneath the Nightmare Devil had even begun to crack, with a sliver of ck forming within them as if they were corrupted by something.

    "Die!"

    The Nightmare Devil howled as it threw itself right at Sato. Where ever it passed, the ground seemed to suffer a very slight depression as the strength erupting from its body was approaching the earth''s breaking point.

    A 7-foot devil with a cruel and vicious aura, moving at high speed was a truly impressive sight, to an outsider that is. To Sato, it was like facing a zing meteor hurtling straight towards him. The ''zing'' part here didn''t refer to light or heat but instead the immense amount of energy being discharged by the monster.

    With a pair of emotionless eyes, Sato took in the movements of the Nightmare Devil and only reacted once it was within attack range. At that very second, Sato burst out with the entirety of his strength; his body fluidly cooperating with his sword as if they were one and the same.

    *ng*

    [Parry]

    Sato knew that with the Nightmare Devil''s upgrade and charge, he couldn''tpare its abilities with the previous disy of strength. So, the only thing he could do was to take it seriously, therefore, Sato had to use the only ''blocking'' skill in his arsenal. The result was him colliding with the Nightmare Devil''s ws as a metallic collision sound resounded.

    ''Strong...'' Sato knit his brows as he felt an invisible force flow through his arms.

    shing with the Nightmare Devil''s ws made Sato feel like he shed with a block of diamond rather than a w.

    With the Nightmare Devil''s individual strength plus such a good ''weapon'', defeating it would be a difficult task especially now Sato hadn''t gotten a grasp on its new improvements.

    While he was in thought, Sato noticed as the Nightmare Devil swung its other w right at him. With his sword already in a sticky situation, there was no means for Sato to block this attack unless he wanted to sacrifice a body part.

    Applying just the right amount of force to his right foot, Sato propelled himself into a retreat backwards.

    *Bang*

    The fist air from the Nightmare Devil''s attack contained an insane amount of power which ended up shattering the floor beneath Sato''sst position.

    Having not retreated more than 6 feet away, Sato wanted to move in for a counter but was forced into a stop by the remnant energy of the fist wind that headed towards him.

    With a dignified expression, Sato hacked at the air with both hands in his sword, cutting through the fist wind. But as he seeded in doing so, Sato felt a slight numbing sensation on his hands as the sword swayed a bit from the remnant power of vibration.

    ''Even the energy residue is this strong.'' Sato frowned.

    Even as Sato thought this, he didn''t lose his focus on the battle as the Nightmare Devil chased after him.

    "Kekeke." The Nightmare Devil appeared in front of Sato and sent a punch his way.

    As a true-bred monster, it was more attuned to battling with its bare fist and ws than with a weapon. While it sounded like the monster would be at a disadvantage against a sword, its body''s toughness wasn''t something a regr human being couldpare to. After having shed with it before, Sato estimated its ws to be on par with a Mid-tier Mortal rank weapon! It was true that whenpared to Sato''s Upper-tier Mortal rank [Astral de], the Nightmare Devil''s ws couldn''t stand shoulder to shoulder, but the amount of force and strength it was able to generate was beyond what Sato couldpare to. As a result, Sato was forced to avoid a front collision when possible, only retaliating when forced to or when an opportunity presented itself.

    *Bang* *Bang*

    The stray ws and punches from the Nightmare Devil sent out a destructive force that rampaged through the terrain. The boulders close by were turned to rubble and even the ground beneath them wasn''t spared; being smashed apart to form pebbles.

    *Boom*

    The two continued to trade blows recklessly with each attack causing resounding booms that scared a few nearby creatures. While the overall damage their attacks caused to the environment wasn''t as exaggerated, it was still something a regr level 5 yer couldn''t handle.

    As the battle went on, Sato tried to retreat from the fight. This was because he had realized that the Nightmare Devil was much stronger than he had thought and for him to defeat it, he would need to make better preparations. Not only was it faster than he was, but the Nightmare Devil''s reaction speed was almost the same as his. Its defense was higher and there was also the eerie energy contained within its attacks and the burdening mental pressure the monster exuded on him and the ever-present one from the mountain. All these added together made it quite difficult for Sato to beat the Nightmare Devil anytime soon.

    This wasn''t to say that Sato couldn''t defeat the monster right now but instead if he wanted to do so without having to use any of his trump cards it would be very difficult. Even without them, Sato could still possibly defeat the Nightmare Devil, but that would require a prolonged battle. With the noise they''ve made so far, Sato doubted that there wouldn''t be any monster rushing here to be the fisherman. To prevent that, he either needed to end the battle quickly or retreat to fight another day.

    However, why would the Nightmare Devil let Sato retreat after he had injured it twice and forced it to release its true form?

    "Kekeke. Die!" The Nightmare Devil spotted a chance just after Sato was forced to block an attack of it and had his centre of bnce disced.

    While the Nightmare Devil was with intelligence, it couldn''t bepared with a monster of intellect. Even as it had discovered an opportunity to deal severe damage to Sato, it still employed its barbaric method of fighting; simply sending a w to Sato.

    Because there was noplexity or sophistication in its attack, Sato could easily make out the trajectory of the w. By twisting his body to the side, he was able to narrowly dodge it but still got caught up by the w wind.

    -47 (103/150 Sato''s HP)

    "Kekeke." The Nightmare Devil cackled as it saw the bleeding injury on Sato''s side.

    Sato froze on the spot and nced at the injury, ignoring the grinning Devil.

    Using his left hand, he said finger on the wound, wiping the blood that spilled out from the injury. Nheless, this was a fruitless endeavor as another trail of blood appeared right after Sato cleaned the previous one.

    "What? Scared? Kakakaka." The Nightmare Devil grinned as it saw Sato stare at his injuries. It thought it had seeded in angering Sato and to the monster, this was a good thing since Sato would give up on retreating and face it head-on. Even though its [Agility] was higher than Sato''s, it would still take a while to pin him down and prevent him from escaping, especially as there were other creatures here.

    "Alright. You''ve done it." Sato spoke, his eyes still focused on his wounds.

    Sato lifted his head and stared at the monster with a somewhat maniacal look in his eyes.

    "I''m guessing you haven''t had a taste of the pain of death, cause I''m about to serve you a whole te."

 Chapter 257 - 251 : One-On-One With The Nightmare Devil 2

    "How about I give you a taste of death?" Sato nced at the Nightmare Devil as he tightened his grip on his sword.

    "Hehe. Why don''t you try?" The Nightmare Devil grinned.

    "[Astral Might]" Sato said with a low voice.

    Immediately, a billowing invisible force burst forth from Sato''s figure. Like the aura of a godly dragon, it pressed forth against the Nightmare Devil; countering its mental pressure and the natural pressure from the mountain. Sato had channeled his emotions into the passive skill, increasing the strength of it by one-fold.

    "Hehe. I admit that this aura of yours is quite impressive but if you n on beating me with this alone, then you might as well just fall over a rock and die." The Nightmare Devilmented, seemingly unaffected by the pressure from Sato.

    This was understandable since the effects of [Astral Might] depended on the difference in level, [Endurance] and [Willpower] between the user and the target. This was the only weakness the skill possessed. Both Sato and the Nightmare Devil were level 9. However, the Nightmare Devil''s [Endurance] was 5 points higher than Sato''s whereas its [Willpower] was 22 points higher! The difference was an insurmountable gap that required a total of 27 points, in other words, at least 6 level up worth of points. With such a massive gap, the effects of [Astral Might] on the Nightmare Devil was nothing more than a light breeze.

    It wasn''t only those two attributes that Sato lost out in. Excluding [Strength], Sato was utterly suppressed by the Nightmare Devil in both [Agility] and [Intelligence]; as for [Dexterity], Sato was ahead by just one meager point. When the difference in attribute points was only limited to one or two attributes, there was still a possibility of winning the battle. But once it went above three, the battle could well be a certain loss. No matter how one looked at it, Sato was outmatched and outssed whenpared to the Nightmare Devil. Despite knowing this, however, he still went on to challenge it.

    This wasn''t to say that Sato was being stupid or overestimating his strength, rather, Sato felt that the appearance of the Nightmare Devil meant more than meets the eye. At first, one would presume that the Nightmare Devil was just one of the monsters that dwelt on the [Staircase to Zolstice] but after exploring a part of the mountain, Sato had yet to spot another simr creature. Even though back then he didn''t know of the existence of the Nightmare Devil, Sato didn''t run into any monster that had a humanoid shape much less of a monster that could transform itself into someone else.

    With the little information he had, Sato guessed that either the Nightmare Devils within the first section were sparse and widely spread or that there was a single one. In either scenario, it meant that there was a high chance that the Nightmare Devil would give out a reward and the reward would be exceptional or at the very least, satisfactory.

    It should be recalled that most phantasmal and illusory monsters don''t give kill rewards; even Experience points weren''tpensated. For the real monsters like the Red-Back Bear and the Twin Beak Hawk, they gave out measly Experience points with no loot. It was because of this that Sato avoided the monsters. Even when he was blocked by the previous Red-Back bear, Sato took the option of trying tomunicate with the monster overing to blows with it. Rather than struggle for such a paltry amount of Experience points, Sato would instead avoid any unnecessary battles and try to conserve his stamina as much as possible. But this time, things were different.

    There was a high chance that the Nightmare Devil gave out rewards. There was even the possibility that killing it would influence hispletion rating for this challenge. In that case, Sato decided it was best to take on the Nightmare Devil than retreat.

    Right now was the best possible opportunity to do so. The first reason being that the battle was currently being held just a bit close to the territory of the Red-Back bear from before. Because of this, the chance of there being another monster close by was low. Apart from the location, there was also the fact that the Nightmare Devil had been injured by Sato''s two previous strikes. With just less than 85% health less, Sato stood a chance against it. The problem, however, still remained. And that was the fact that the Nightmare Devil surpassed him in more than one attribute.

    ''But it''s not like this is the first time something like this is happening.'' Sato thought.

    Generally, monsters tend to have much more attribute points than yers in the same level and for monsters with specialties, like the Nightmare Devil, a certain attribute of theirs would be absurdly higher than the rest.

    "Die!"

    While it might seem like a lot of time had passed, in reality, only 2 seconds had passed. During these 2 seconds, the Nightmare Devil had been monitoring Sato, looking for an opening to attack. After spotting one, it instantly made its move.

    *Crack*

    The ground beneath the Nightmare Devil''s feet cracked as it forcefully hurled itself towards Sato. The speed at which the Nightmare Devil moved would undoubtedly leave the world''s fastest man in its dust. Even for Sato, the Nightmare Devil was fast. Of all the monsters Sato had faced against, it was just only slower than the Kobold Chief and Kobold King.

    "Keke." The Nightmare Devil appeared right in front of Sato with its teeth forming a creepy grin with its mouth. It looked like a spooky Halloween sculpture or to be more appropriate, like a demon straight from hell.

    Despite the horrific appearance in front of him, Sato''s mind remained calm as he swung his sword at the monster. Of the 7 attributes, the only one that Sato exceedingly surpassed the Nightmare Devil in was [Strength] and the gap wasn''t a simple one. The [Strength] count of the Nightmare Devil was at 15 points. As for Sato, with all the bonuses from his equipment and weapons, he had a whopping total of 34 points!

    During the first round, the Nightmare Devil had made use of its higher [Agility] and movement speed to force Sato to continuously be on guard. Because of this, Sato couldn''t freely utilize his entire strength and it made the battle look as if he was being suppressed. But now, since the Nightmare Devil took some time before it made its move, Sato was able to gather all that power and force into this strike.

    Even if the momentum from the Nightmare Devil''s dash was added in, its strength would just peak at 16~17 points. Against the entirety of Sato''s 34 points of [Strength], this was just pitiful.

    Lotus Sword Art : 4th form¡­ Lotus sh!

 Chapter 258 - 252 : One-On-One With The Nightmare Devil 3

    Lotus Sword Art : 4th form¡­ Lotus sh!

    Despite seeing the approaching sword, the Nightmare Devil still went on to sh with it. In its own opinion, it had been suppressing Sato ever since it had taken on its true form, hence, this time wouldn''t be any different.

    *ng*

    In that instant, a violent metallic sound burst forth from the point of collision between the two weapons. Sato''s sword seemed to be halted by the Nightmare Devil''s right w, making it look as if the two were tied.

    However, before even a second could be counted, Sato''s sword cut through the w of the beast, going so far as almost slicing off an entire arm.

    "Arghhhh!"

    [Critical Hit]

    -147 (617/900 Nightmare Devil''s HP)

    The Nightmare Devil screamed uncontrobly as it hastily withdrew while holding on to its dangling arm. But why would Sato let it escape right after dealing grave damage to it?

    To cause as much damage as possible, Sato had used a downward sh to counter the Nightmare Devil''s charge. The disadvantage of this was that it wouldn''t be easy for him toe up with a follow-up attack quickly and even if he could, the power of the next move would likely be much weaker than the first. For this, Sato had prepared ahead of time and that was why he had avoided using his in-game skills.

    "[Horizontal sh]."

    Sato hurriedly repositioned his sword and swung in a horizontal trajectory at the monster.

    Because his movements were seamless and nned ahead of time, it was still able to inflict damage on the Nightmare Devil as its front was still facing him.

    The monster couldn''t keep up with Sato and with its left hand upied propping up its right, it was all open to Sato''s attack.

    -153 (464/900 Nightmare Devil''s HP)

    Compared to the first attack, the difference in damage between Sato''s two attacks wasn''t much. This was because Sato had exhausted most of his strength on the first one and so, he wasn''t able to mobilize as much power as he did with the second move, leading to the difference in damage not being sorge despite one being performed with a martial technique and the other with an in-game skill.

    Nheless, that was quite amazing because even with thebined effects of the [Nightmare Air] and the mountain''s pressure, Sato being able to burst forth with that much strength was an impressive achievement.

    "You...!"

    The Nightmare Devil gritted its teeth in pain.

    Sato''s first move had left it with a disabled right arm that dangled back and forth in an unsightly manner. As for the second move, that had left behind a gory red line on its abdomen. A closer look at the damaged area and one would be able to spot the intestines and other internal organs of the Nightmare Devil. A bit more and Sato would havended another critical blow. If one didn''t have enough backbone, they wouldn''t be able to stomach the sight and would end up puking out their breakfast.

    From the two attacks, Sato realized that the scales on the Nightmare Devil''s were nothing more than ornaments to its looks; paper armor, if you may. He even ced their defensive strength on the same level as gauze clothing; both serving as nothing but a fancy attire. This was inrge contrast to most scaled monsters as most of those monsters tend to possess a high defense, especially to physical attacks. Even the scales of a level 8 Kobold were much tougher than it.

    ''Well, it is in the jurisdictions of a specialized monster.'' Sato thought.

    Even as all this went through his mind, his movements didn''t stop.

    Sato rushed in and swung his sword once more at the injured prey.

    The Nightmare Devil was scared silly and almost couldn''t react in time.

    Suddenly, something strange urred on Sato''s end. The image of the Nightmare Devil seemed to have moved to the left and so Sato adjusted the trajectory of his sword to aim for it. As he cut through this image however, Sato felt nothing, as if he had only cut through the air, and in fact, he had.

    ''What was that?'' Sato thought but quickly remembered.

    ''So this is the effect of the [Nightmare Air].''

    Sato frowned as he recalled the special aura leaking from the Nightmare Devil and influencing the area, forming a sort of domain around it.

    The Nightmare Devil took the opportunity when Sato had missed his strike to escape deeper into the mountain.

    Seeing the fleeing monster, Sato didn''t hesitate to give chase, but he tried as much as possible to lock on to the creature in front of him, lest he loses it in another illusion.

    As the Nightmare Devil saw Sato not hesitating to give chase to it, it gritted its teeth, ignoring its injuries, and increased its speed, retreating deeper into the mountains.

    It couldn''t understand why or how Sato had been able to burst out with a more formidable strength than he had shown in their first fight. If he was this strong, then what was the point of putting in a weak front? However, the Nightmare Devil didn''t want to stay behind and find out the answer. Right now, its survival was more important than knowing why the enemy held back.

    Sato, upon seeing the Nightmare Devil retreating, pursued it. Only he knew why he had suddenly been able to turn the tide of the battle around.

    While it was true that Sato''s [Strength] was more than double that of the Nightmare Devil, he wasn''t able to erupt with that much power easily. The reason was none other than the boundless pressure from the mountain. This pressure was affecting the entirety of his body, making walking difficult much less erupting with an immense force in a high-speed battle. Because of this, Sato had to fight with barely half of his ability, using the other half, tobat the pressure''s effects and keep his movements up to standard. This made it seem like he was weaker than the Nightmare Devil and was being suppressed but in reality, the environment was against him too.

    The pressure affected Sato especially when he moved and so, he had to shear off a part of his focus and strength to resist it. But if he were to stand at a spot, the effects were just bearable and the amount of focus and energy he had to use was at the minimal level. In other words, the amount of power Sato could employ in battle from a spot was much greater than he could while moving. That was why the strength of Sato''s first strike was much higher than any before that despite the defenses of the Nightmare Devil being higher than it was in its ''Xue Yan'' form.

    The second strike made use of the [Swordsman] trump skill and the Nightmare Devil''s flustered movements to cause an equallyrge amount of damage.

    Thanks to the two skills, it made the Nightmare Devil recalcte Sato''s strength and reach the conclusion that it was outmatched. Though this was undoubtedly true, for such a disadvantageous environment like this, the Nightmare Devil had made a mistake; Sato was just barely its match and didn''t stand much of a chance against it.

    Sato had used just 2 attacks and instilled fear within the monster and in any battle, the opponent''s morale was an important factor. Without a doubt, Sato had shattered the confidence of the Nightmare Devil by just employing a simple ploy in his attacks. This was the result of his well-grown battle experience.

    "Don''t force me, human!" The Nightmare Devil roared in fear as it discovered that Sato was slowly catching up to it.

    "You say that but what makes you think I care?" Sato smirked, putting up a strong front.

    The Nightmare Devil only raged on at Sato''s words; its body vibrating out of indignation and anger.

    Due to the damages it had gotten, the Nightmare Devil couldn''t reach up to its previous speed and was slowly being caught on by Sato.

    Realizing that there was no way out for it if the human behind didn''t die, the Nightmare Devil suddenly halted its run and turned around, swiping its only intact left w at Sato. It wanted to seize the opportunity when Sato was speeding towards it tond a surprise attack.

    However, how could Sato not discover this? As a pro yer, he had gone through countless battles and had developed his battle sense through countless iron and blood feuds.

    During the chase, Sato had guessed that the Nightmare Devil might pull something like this so he was always on guard. Now seeing his predictione true, there was no way he wouldn''t be able to react in time.

    In closebat, what mattered was one''s [Dexterity] and not [Agility], as this dealt with both one''s reaction speed and attack speed. The difference in Sato and the Nightmare Devil''s [Dexterity] was just 1 point. This wasn''t much to start with but with the grievous injuries the Nightmare Devil carried, all its attributes suffered a drop in strength.

    The attack, which in its mind, was performed with the utmost of its abilities, could easily be spotted by Sato. In Sato''s eyes, the Nightmare Devil''s attack speed, while indeed greater than most, was still as inconspicuous as a ck ball under the sun.

    ''Hmm? Something''s wrong.''

    Sato didn''t know why but his instincts screamed at him that the attack in front was a fake. The real danger was from the side. Sato had honed his instincts after countless battles, so despite his eyes showing him something else, he trusted his instincts more.

    Sato directed his sword to his left, totally ignoring the Nightmare Devil''s w that came from the front. If the w were tond in him, there was no doubt that Sato would suffer at least a 40% decrease in HP.

    *ng*

    Sparks flew off as Sato''s sword collided with a mysterious force in mid-air. At the same time, the Nightmare Devil''s w arrived in front of him, however, it seemed to just pass through him without causing any damage. At the same time, the Nightmare Devil seemed to disappear.

    At the spot his sword halted, another Nightmare Devil appeared. This was the real one while the other was a phantom.

    "You saw through it?!" The Nightmare Devil was shocked silly.

    Sato wasn''t inclined to reply to it as he realized that the battle was bing tougher with each passing second.

    The illusory effects of [Nightmare Air] which were supposed to ur at random intervals had suddenly done so twice in a row with each time revealing a gap in Sato''s defense. The first time, the Nightmare Devil was not prepared and lost the opportunity to counter but it managed to do so this time around. If not for Sato''s quick reflexes and battle instincts, he would have gotten injured.

    "Just die."

    Sato shoved the arm of the Nightmare Devil away with his sword and struck once again at it. This time, he aimed for the abdominal region; the exact spot hisst attack hit.

    To Sato, there was no meaning in attacking the right arm again. Leaving it hanging was better than taking the whole thing away as it would influence the movements of the Nightmare Devil. As for attacking another spot, that would draw the battle even longer and that wasn''t something Sato wanted to see.

    So, the best option was to attack the abdominal region and widen the previous injury. This way, not only would Sato''s attack most likely be a critical one, but he would also diminish the monster''s HP even faster.

    [Chop]

    [Critical Hit]

    -172 (292/900 Nightmare Devil''s HP)

    "Arghhhh!"

    With the attributes of the Nightmare Devil suffering a drop due to its injuries, Sato attacking just after the Nightmare Devil was surprised at him blocking its attack despite being under an illusion and finally, Sato attacking a vulnerable spot, causing a [Critical Hit], all these factors added together made the damage of this attack even more greater than the previous two.

    All the constant struggles and efforts of Sato had seeded in bringing the HP of the Nightmare Devil down to thest dregs; just a bit above 30% of its total HP.

    "You will pay!!!!"

    [[ System notification :

    Target has entered [Enraged] state.

    Main attributes will experience a 10% increase.

    ]]

    From this point on, the real struggle could be said to begin but to Sato, this was both bad news and good news.

    The [Enraged] state temporarily increased the abilities of a monster, simr to ast-ditch effort or thest adrenaline rush one would experience just as they faced death or thest energy burst resulting from one''s unwillingness to perish. Most times, this change in the monster''s state would lead to yers dying as they would be overwhelmed against it. This was especially so for even stronger monsters as a 10% increase in overallbat was more than enough to influence the results of the battle. However, Sato wasn''t scared.

    A 10% increase might seem like much, but with the Nightmare Devil''s current state, this was just a somewhat pointless effect. In Sato''s eyes, the Nightmare Devil was nothing more than a dead dog and a 10% increase inbat ability would do nothing to change that.

    "Futile struggles.. Just die."

 Chapter 259 - 253 : First Challenge Completed

    "Huff. Huff."

    A young man d in silver armor, with a silver sword that had a ck handle gripped tightly in his hands, took slow yet steady steps as he journeyed up the mountain.

    His body shivered at times as if he had caught a cold, yet this youth still managed to keep himself from falling. At times, he supported his frame with the sword in his hand, taking periodic breaks to catch his breath.

    In the somewhat open area of the second section of the mountain, his figure was visible even from afar.

    "Finally."

    The young man breathed out atst before falling to his knees as he tried to recuperate from the exhausting trek.

    All around him was a light red mist that covered the entire area. It acted as a type of rejuvenating gas, aiding the young man in the recovery of his stamina and energy while at the same time, healing his injuries.

    "Who knew this mist would have such properties." The young man thought out loud with an exhausted look on his face.

    This young man with a weary expression was Sato.

    After hours of hiking apanied by intense battles some of which almost made him lose his life, Sato had finally reached the designated stop on the mountain. Sato had finallypleted the first challenge of the Main Trials; making great progress to the goal of inheriting the Caventry''s knowledge.

    [[System notification :

    First Challenge : Reach the designated stop on the [Staircase to Zolstice] within 48 hours.

    Challenge Progress : Completed.

    Calcting rewards...

    ]]

    "I wonder what my rating is..." Sato absentmindedly wondered as he stared at the notification.

    The rating for each challenge would determine the quality and quantity of rewards he would get at the end of everything. If Sato performed badly in this challenge, while he still would get his rewards, he most likely wouldn''t get much of the good stuff and would be stuck with the basics. But if he managed to get a nice rating, the rewards Sato would receive would surely be enough to rile the envy of a super guild. After all, the rating of the mission wasn''t simple, to begin with.

    "Congrattions challenger, on passing the First Challenge of the Main Trials."

    The booming voice from earlier that had introduced the challenge to Sato, spoke up once again.

    "You took exactly 28 hours, 36 minutes, and 28 seconds to do so, out of the allowed 48 hours."

    For the first challenge of the Main Trial, Sato had taken a full day plus 4 hours just to go through a 2+ kilometres distance. If anyone were to hear of this, they would wonder what took Sato so long. Some might even consider him to be on par with a sloth. But Sato couldn''t be med for being so slow.

    Rather than saying he had taken so much time, Sato''s pace could be said to be quite impressive. After all, he still had less than 20 more hours on the clock.

    To deal with the pressure from the mountain while at the same time, facing off against tough monsters and a boss creature like the Nightmare Devil, surviving till this point was already good enough while doing so with 20 hours left was admirable. It wasn''t an easy task after all.

    Sato however, knew that a majority of his achievements was due to that cavern he had rushed into with the Nightmare Devil''s Xue Yan form. Thanks to that, he had avoided a lot of monsters on the way up and though he took quite a lot of time, he still made it much higher than he would have if he trekked from the top.

    Another reason was also the fact that he had barely encountered any other monster after defeating the Nightmare Devil. It might have been possible that the Nightmare Devil happened to be the ring-leader or the spawn lord for the phantasmal creatures and so, killing it would in turn eliminate the rest.

    "Your rewards and score have been calcted and would be made known to you at the end of the trials. For the next challenge, you will be granted a rest period of 6 hours before it will officially begin."

    "That''s good." Sato sighed with relief.

    The entire journey towards here was filled with danger and peril, and worst of all was the fact that his body couldn''t heal as quickly as it could in the outside world. Not a single step up was made without Sato having to carve the path with blood and sweat, so having finally gotten the opportunity to take a break, Sato couldn''t help but want to enter a repose. Even with the mist''s effects, he would still need to take a break here for a while to get back to his peak.

    During the period Sato took a break, he opened up his interface and went through his inventory.

    Due to the specialty of the Main Trials, which was its ability to iste own in an entirely different world, Sato couldn''tmunicate with anybody neither could he check up on the trending events of IR, hence, he was left in the dark about the Kobold King''s advance.

    In the scenario where he couldn''t get any source of information or entertainment, Sato went through his inventory and skill list, reminding himself of all his consumables, equipment, abilities and avable skill options. At times, he also thought of skillbinations and motions that would help him take down an opponent quicker than normal.

    All in all, Sato tried to make use of the interlude between the two challenges to not only recover but alsoe up with better strategies for facing illusory enemies and other unexpected monsters. The first challenge of the Main trials had seeded in widening his vision and expectations, hence, Sato had decided to adopt a different approach to the challenges.

    He decided to prepare for any and possibly, all eventualities, whether expected or unexpected. In other words, Sato tried to develop a battle style that could enable him to take down monsters stronger than himself much more efficiently while at the same time, without using any of his trump cards.

    While it was true that Sato had done something simr before even the Entry trials, he discovered that that wasn''t enough. Having gotten a taste of the real challenges, it became easier for Sato to do so.

    Slowly but surely, with each second that went by, the 6 hours break ultimately came to an end.

    "Prepare for the second challenge."

 Chapter 260 - 254 : The Challenge Of The Labyrinth

    [[System notification :

    You have discovered [Labyrinth of Helios]

    No reward is given for this discovery.

    ]]

    ''Another one. I wonder where all these ces are¡­''

    Within a strangeplex with barely passable visibility standards, Sato read the notification on his interface as his mind wandered off.

    Since the beginning of the Main Trials, Sato had discovered 3 new locations; the first being [Bloodfallnds], the next one was the[Staircase to Zolstice], and thest being his current location, [Labyrinth of Helios].

    The [Labyrinth of Helios] didn''t seem to possess a certain rtionship that the first 2 did, in that the first 2 were conjoined together; the [Staircase of Zolstice] being located within [Bloodfallnds]. There was the possibility that the [Labyrinth of Helios] was located in another continent or maybe even an entirely different world from the [Bloodfallnds]. Sato didn''t doubt the possibility of this, after all, he had witnessed the technology of the Caventry. They had created 2 different worlds just for the Entry trials.

    ''The extents of the Caventry, I wonder where it lies. Also, what could have possibly threatened such a civilization to extinction?''

    Sato ended his thoughts there as he shifted his attention to his surroundings, trying to grasp the goal for this trial.

    The entire floor seemed to be dimly lit such that Sato could barely catch a glimpse of the walls by his side. There was no approximate source of lighting, making it seem as if the area possessed natural lighting. Behind him was a wall just 3 feet away. There was no sign of any door or exit making it such that Sato had only one path to go. As he stared at the path in front, Sato realized that he couldn''t see the end of the road, as it seemed to extend into darkness which began at about 30 metres or so away.

    Just as Sato took one step forward, a voice sounded within his head.

    "The second challenge of the Main Trials; the Maze. Challenger, you are required to advance as close as possible to the exit within 36 hours. Depending on the distance between you and the exit together with the uracy of your path, your rewards would be decided. Locating the exit would merit you the highest rewards. A shortfall in achieving a certain range and uracy of the path would equate to failing the challenge."

    "A maze huh?" Sato thought out loud with a crumpled expression.

    Maze trials were the worst simply because they didn''t rely on the participant''s strength or ability but luck. Unlike when one has an aerial view of the structure, spotting the right path within a maze is a hundred times more difficult. Depending on theplexity of the structure, it could even be a thousand times harder!

    This was because unlike when one stared from above, within the maze, they would have to select a path based on their intuitions. The uracy of the pathrgely depended on one''s luck and that was something no one had control over. In some ways, this could be said to be more of a test of one''s luck than their strength. And when ites to luck, Sato wasn''t a son of the heavens but an average human. From some of his past experiences, his luck could even be said to be really terrible.

    ''I don''t have hope of finding the actual path out; just getting close would be alright.'' Sato thought as he recalled the instructions.

    He guessed that the passing requirement would being 70-80% close to the actual path or maybe even the exit. In that case, Sato had a slightly higher chance of sess but this was only slightly. In the end, everything depended on his luck.

    ''However, there''s no way that the trial would be so simple. There have to be certain obstructions along the way or this wouldn''t feel so challenging.''

    If the challengers were left to wander the entirebyrinth without encountering any obstructions, this challenge wouldn''t be worthy enough of being a decider for the Caventry''s sessor. While theplexity of the maze could up the challenge, it still wasn''t enough. The main reason was simply that it was quite illogical to set ''luck'' as one of the criteria for one''s sessor. Quantitative factors like strength and intelligence were best-suited for this.

    "No use thinking about it without finding out first."

    Sato unsheathed his sword and walked forwards. Right now, there was just one path in front of him but eventually, that one would diverge to 2 and 2 into 4 or maybe directly into 100. Sato didn''t doubt this for one second but he still went forward with his back straight and his sword in his right hand.

    . . .

    "He''s moved." Lord Worrus'' voice resounded in that familiar location.

    Saimon sighed as he heard this.

    Right ahead of him was a big screen with a width of at least 200 inches(16.7 foot) wide and 100 inches(8.33 foot) long. The screen was divided into 2 with one side disying Sato as he moved through thebyrinth.

    Unlike in the Entry trials where they could easily monitor the progress of the duo directly, Saimon needed to activate a specific formation that would let him peer into the location and progress of the challengers during the Main Trials. While he could do this by himself, with Lord Worrus'' aid, more features of the array could be activated. One of which was currently active.

    While the ''camera'' could easily take note of Sato and his movements, thanks to Lord Worrus'' involvement, the shot could be taken from an aerial view; epassing the entirety of thebyrinth. This shot upied the second half of the screen. From here, the duo couldpare Sato''s progress in thebyrinth with the actual structure and it was very very big andplex even from a full view. Nheless, the duo weren''t ordinary people and could easily spot the correct path that leads to the exit thanks to this. However, to the duo, this wasn''t of much use; only serving as a reference aid to Sato''s actions.

    "Of the challenges he could face in the second round, it had to be this." Saimon sighed as he seemed to have suddenly aged by a few years.

    Lord Worrus, who was still hidden within a space node, didn''t make anyment as if he too concurred.

    The Main Trials experienced by a challenger consisted of 3 various challenges but the truth was that there were more than 3 different challenges. The 3 challenges to be confronted in the Main Trials were selected randomly from a set. However, not all challenges were equal in difficulty. Some surpassed the others by a full tier inplexity and perplexity. Since the challenges were chosen randomly by the formation that governed the trials, which was independent of any foreign influence ormand, no one knew what they would face beforehand in the Trials. Not even Saimon or Lord Worrus could. Everything could be said to be left to one''s luck.

    Of the challenges that surpassed the majority in difficulty, the challenge of thebyrinth was one of the hardest. This was because, unlike most challenges that tested one''s strength, intelligence, or other physical or mental faculties, it mainly looked at one''s luck.

    Luck was a concept that couldn''t be measured, increased, decrease, or be trained, hence some of the Caventry had felt that the existence of this challenge was pointless and not needed, however, some thought otherwise. Despite the differing ideas and opinions, the leader of the Caventry left the challenge to continue its existence.

    While a few other features were added to the challenge to make it ''easier'', the main them of the challenge was left intact. Because of this, the difficulty of thebyrinth challenge remained at the top. It was to the point that encountering this challenge in the Main Trials was said to be the manifestation of one''s bad luck and a sign that the end of the trial had arrived. It was because of this that Saimon had sighed bitterly because he didn''t have much hope of Sato passing.

    This was because unlike what Sato thought, one needed to be 85-99% close to the actual path or the exit to barely pass. As for the full score gotten from finding the right path and the exit, only 3 people had ever gotten that in the entire Caventry''s hundreds of years of existence. Of the 3, only one had done so by luck while the other 2 were extremely proficient in space-time magic. All 3 individuals had ended up as great warriors and legends in the Caventry and one of them was Lord Worrus.

    As a former participant in the challenge, Lord Worrus knew the difficulty much more than Saimon did. However, he still harbored a bit of hope that Sato would be like that lucky figure or even just wield a bit of his luck and barely get through. Of the two participants in the Main Trials, Worrus harbored the most faith in Sato. If he couldn''t get through this and eventually failed, chances were that no one else would be able to receive the Caventry''s inheritance any time soon and Worrus didn''t want to see this happen.

    This was because they were running out of time.

 Chapter 261 - 255 : Mysterious Attackers

    "Another dead. *sigh*"

    A sigh rang out in a dimly lit room that had only one entrance. The room was empty, with no sign of prior habitation. There was no furniture or even windows; save for the door behind, there was nothing worth noting in here. At the other end of the room was a point covered in pitch-ck darkness but with the aid of the weak light scattered throughout the room, one could make out the shadow of a wall there.

    A figure was standing within the room, just in front of the door, seeming a bit disappointed at the fruitless findings.

    It had been 18 hours or so since Sato''s second challenge had begun. During these hours, Sato had yet to experience much; apart from finding dead ends and junctions.

    After he had extricated himself from the corridor from before, Sato hade into contact with one of those junctions and this one had a total of 7 different entrances that looked equally simr and exuded the same aura. The only thing that made them "different" from each other was their position.

    Starting from left to right, the holes arranged themselves beside each other like eerie portals. Even when he stood before all 7 holes, Sato hadn''t been able to spot a difference between them. Eventually, he had chosen the 2nd one from the right.

    As he kept going forward, however, Sato had encountered simr forks and junctions to the point that if not for him recording his path with the aid of the system interface, Sato would have gotten lost or maybe gone mad. This was because the entire corridors and paths in thebyrinth looked exactly the same. There would always be that exact number of paths in a junction(7) making it seem as if he had walked in circles.

    If one''s willpower or fortitude were weak, they would be overly anxious at their situation, not knowing whether to move forward or retreat. Added with the fact that the mission had a duration but didn''t disy one''s progress, it would be a lie to say that Sato wasn''t a bit anxious.

    Even when Sato didn''t experience the ''repeating roads'', he would either encounter dead zones like the one before him or just be led around on a single trail for more than an hour before finding a fork[1].

    Sato had previously gone through a lot of simr ces like this one since the start of his 18 hours-long exploration, leading to him feeling slightly exhausted. That added with the anxiety he got from not knowing his progress, lead to him having an almost spiritless look. Nheless, Sato tried to keep himself calm, in order to prevent a mental breakdown, while still pushing forward despite the aura of despair and seemingly hopeless journey.

    In the beginning, Sato didn''t hope to be able to find the exit but nned to be within range of it. In other words, he was looking for a pass rather than an excellent rating. This was because Sato already knew his abilities and he figured out that the challenges within this trial wouldn''t be so easily resolved. But with all the roads looking the same, Sato''s confidence in being able to pass began to waver.

    "There''s no use thinking about it. I''ve already gone quite deep so who knows, maybe I''m actually close to the end." Sato thought out loud as he turned around to exit the chamber.

    Suddenly, from within the darkness at the edge of the room, a pair of forest green eyes came to life. Within the pupils of the image was Sato''s departing back.

    At a speed slightly above Sato''s walking pace, the green eyes approached him but Sato seemed to be ignorant of it. Even as the owner of the eyes steeped from the shadows, a strangeyer of darkness seemed to wrap itself around it, blocking the creature from being spotted. Since the room was dimly lit to start with, it was difficult to spot this absurdity.

    As the owner of the green pair of eyes got within 2 metres of Sato, a sh erupted from its eyes as a w appeared from thatyer of darkness that wrapped itself around the creature. The w was fast, almost like a fleeting shadow, and struck out at Sato.

    "Hmph."

    Sato rolled forwards just as the w was about to get a hold of him, dodging it by a hair''s breadth.

    After Sato had rolled forward, creating a 2 metres space between him and his assant, he suddenly turned back and threw out an object he had taken from his space bag.

    *Bang*

    As the object was in mid-air, just a few feet from the looming shadow, it exploded violently, releasing a blinding surge of light that covered the entire room.

    [sh grenade]

    The bright surge of light lit up the entire room for 3 seconds. During those three seconds, the brilliant light behind was too strong to the point that Sato couldn''t look at it. He lifted his left arm and used it to shield his eyes as his head dropped low.

    Just as the 3 seconds count was about to be done, with the sh intensity dropping, Sato noticed that it wasn''t just one figure that had tried to attack him but 3.

    Apart from the figure that tried to kill him, 2 other strange creatures stood at his right and left-hand side respectively. If not for the timely explosion of the sh grenade, the 2 other monsters would have joined hands together with the first one such that even if Sato had blocked its attacks, he wouldn''t have been able to react to the other two.

    "That was close¡­"

    The only reason Sato managed to notice the monster was due to the killing intent it leaked out at thest moment. Otherwise, he would have been a goner.

    Upon realizing this, cold sweat swept through his back as Sato didn''t hesitate to run back towards the entrance after dropping off ament.

    There were 3 monsters and 1 Sato. Considering the difficulty of the trial alongside his past opponents, Sato presumed that the monsters were between level 9 Elite rank to level 10 Elite rank. If it were a one-on-one battle then it could be said that Sato stood a chance against them as long as it wasn''t stronger than a level 10 Common rank. But facing 3 such monsters alone, even if they were level 9 Elites, was nothing short of suicide. Sato barely understood the terrain enough and his goal wasn''t to kill monsters but to find the exit. If he spent all his time facing off against monsters, he would inevitably fail the trial. Unless when necessary, Sato nned to avoid fighting any monster unless he can take it down in seconds. If that wasn''t possible, then he would simply retreat. Even if it seemed cowardly to do so, Sato didn''t care. Surviving and passing the trials was more important than showing off his skills to a few monsters.

    The sh died down as the 3 monsters regained their sight. Without attempting to do anything else, the 3 figures chased right after Sato, who happened to have gone quite a distance already.

    "Awooo!"

    "Awoo!"

    Continuous ghostly howls red from behind Sato. Despite having made the move first, the monsters had almost caught up to him and Sato was at risk of getting killed.

    He was indeed right.

    Just a couple of metres behind him, 3 eerie dark patches of fog sped towards him like meteors. The aura they exuded was the same as the 3 monsters in the dark room.

    Nheless, Sato didn''t lose hisposure but kept a calm and collected face as he analyzed his various escape routes.

    As things stood, Sato couldn''t retreat to the path he had followed. This was because at the time of his escape, he simply chose the closest path before him and that happened to be one of the unexplored corridors he had yet to go through. In a bid to escape the pursuit of the 3 monsters, Sato had taken this path.

    While there didn''t seem to be any problem with this, there was. This was the fact that since Sato had yet to explore here, he couldn''t be sure of what to expect. Chances were that he would either end up lost, encounter a dead end, or even worse,e across another monster. Getting lost was the least of his worries as the other two possibilities would mean that Sato would likely up dead.

    There was also the probability that Sato would lose the monsters on his way since thebyrinth was filled with so many different routes. This was the possibility Sato hoped for the most.

    ''There!''

    Sato suddenly came across a junction and just like the previous ones, it diverged into 7 separate courses. He hadn''t noticed it on time due to the poor lighting but as he came close to it, the 7 entrances exposed themselves like the maws of a demonic beast. There was nothing but pitch-ck darkness within them and Sato couldn''t make out what was hidden there.

    In actuality though, the darkness wasn''t really real. The [Labyrinth of Helios] seemed to entail a specific rule that limited the vision of anyone within to a certain radius. It may look like up ahead there was no source of light, but as one would get closer, the area would mysteriously brighten up as if the light was naturally existing. This was very mysterious because there was no visible source of light anywhere; be it a lit candle, an opening to the skies, or maybe a luminous gem, there were none. The light just existed and was spread apart in all directions at equal intensity, concentration, frequency, and simr color. Because of this, it was impossible to spot the origin of the light unless the light originated from every spot.

    Without any consideration or deliberation, Sato hurtled towards the one by the extreme left. Since he couldn''t see the interior of the entrances, he decided to go with his guts and randomly chose a direction.

    ''Hopefully, I can get rid of these guys.''

    Was Sato''sst thought before he went in.

 Chapter 262 - 256 : Face-off

    "Awooo."

    The 3 weird monsters stopped right in front of the junction Sato previously was at, unsure of which path to take.

    Unlike what Sato had thought, the tunnels had something special about them that prevented tracking techniques and methods. Due to this, the monsters didn''t know which path Sato had taken and were forced to a halt to make a decision.

    As a result of their standstill, the streaking meteor form was dismantled, revealing what was hidden within.

    Just like before, they were shrouded in a ck fog that prevented their features from being spotted. The fog was like a cape that prevented an ounce of light from getting through. Added with the already dim environment, the monsters were like demonic ghosts straight out of a horror film.

    The 3 shadow monsters nced at each other for a while, appearing to be having a conversation. Suddenly, the 3 shadow monsters began to oscite at rapid rates while also convulsing like glitches in a video game. Slowly, three dark blobs exited from them forming a whole new silhouette beside them. In total, there were now 6 shadow monsters that stood before the 7 entrances. However,pared to the original 3, the auras of these 6 were much weaker.

    Just like cells, the shadow monsters could split themselves in two. The only problem with this was that the copies would be much weaker than the original. The ''original'' here didn''t refer to the main body that got split off but thebination of both the split body and the main body. In other words, the current 6 were copies.

    "Krrr!"

    One of the copies released a strange shrill before dashing towards the entrance at the centre.

    The other copies followed right after thest one but chose separate tunnels. However, as there were 6 copies as opposed to 7 tunnels, there would undoubtedly be one tunnel that would go untouched by the monsters. To the monsters, this was a sacrifice they had to make as exploring just one alone was the limit for each.

    "Hmm?"

    Sato focused his sense behind him and realized that there was no sign of any pursuer behind him. Regardless, Sato continued running ahead with pausing. At the very least, he hoped to find a safe spot where he could recuperate a bit and hid. If after a while, there was still no sign of them, then it would mean that he had seeded in losing them and could resume his search. However, he did slow down his pace to conserve his energy while also trying to catch his breath.

    About 5 minutester, just as Sato believed that he was free atst, his senses abruptly tingled, ringing warning bells in his head.

    "Ohe on!" Sato could help but be surprised.

    There was no need to guess the reason why he had such a feeling because he had instantly figured out why. Though the aura was weak and distant, Sato could still feel it. The monster had caught up to him somehow.

    It should be recalled that the [Labyrinth of Helios] wasn''t your averagebyrinth or maze. It was veryplicated with various junctions, forks, and branches. With every 200-300 metres a person walked, they would inevitably see a branch road that led elsewhere. Sometimes, they would see 4 different paths in every 200 metres walk. This made it so that one could easily get lost no matter how hard they tried not to. Adding the fact that the entire structure seemed to be sealed underground, losing your sense of direction was only a matter of time. Heck, Sato couldn''t even differentiate north from south. At this point, he didn''t even know which direction he initially started from.

    Making use of theyout to his advantage, Sato had taken various turns during his escape. Even Sato wasn''t able to track his way back at this point.

    Despite all this, the monster was still able to track him up till here.

    ''At least it''s just one of them.'' Sato thought.

    ''If it can find me, is it possible it can also ry this discovery to the others?''

    As Sato thought of this, his mind suddenly chilled.

    If that was true, then it meant that no matter how far he ran, he would still get caught.

    ''In that case¡­''

    Sato abruptly came to a stop.

    He then turned around while pulling out his sword from its sheath as he stared at the path before him.

    "All this running and wandering with no clear goal has made me tired. I think you should be enough for me to do a few stretches." Sato said as he massaged his sword-wielding hand with his free arm.

    He was speaking to the monster but sadly, there was no one in front of him. Sato knew that this was because the monster was still a bit behind, after all, there was no way it would rapidly catch up to him even if he had taken a break before. The time the 6 copies spent added with the time this copy spent searching for Sato''s trail, when added together, made it so that Sato had created arge gap between him and it. It would take at least 30 seconds before the monster would actually catch up to him and that was already an overestimate from Sato.

    "I just have to finish this in 1 minute."

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    *Ding Dong*

    "Hmm. Grandpa, are you expecting anybody?" Hayami''s voice sounded from the living room.

    She didn''t care about her voice being heard by the person at the door or rather, it was impossible for that to happen. This was because the door was soundproofed, preventing sound from leaking out from the building.

    "A guest? No, not any." Old Juro replied from another room. It was still morning and he had just woken up. From what Old Juro knew, even if he had any friends that would pay him a surprise visit, it would usually be at noon, when they were certain that he would be avable.

    "Okay." Hayami responded as she moved towards the door.

    Using the door monitor[1], Hayami checked to see the identity of the uninvited guest. It was a young man that looked to be about Sato''s age. He wasn''t exceedingly dashing but his facial features were still above average. He looked to have a nice build but unlike most people in Shinjuku, he didn''t look to be of pure Japanese descent but instead had a few features that made one associate him with a Han[2].

    "Someone from the Chinese Federation doing here?" Hayami muttered as she opened the door.

 Chapter 263 - 257 : Wu Shiyi Pays A Visit

    "You are¡­" Hayami asked as she stared at the young man before her.

    "Wu Shiyi, a frie-, an acquaintance of your brother." Wu Shiyi smiled, ignoring the error he almost made while introducing himself.

    After taking on the mission passed onto him by his master, Wu Shiyi made use of his forces and influence to track down Sato''s location. This wasn''t difficult since Sato was never secretive about his movements. The only reason it took Wu Shiyi this long to make contact was that he had other things that upied his time. It was only now that he was able to catch a breather and make his move.

    "Okay¡­" Hayami gave him a weird cold look.

    "Well, my brother''s busy right now so could youe at ater time?"

    Wu Shiyi massaged his brows as he heard that. He had finally gotten a break and was able to initiate contact but the target was not avable. Wu Shiyi had other things to do and he didn''t know when next he would be free to meet Sato again. If he kept on dying the mission, his master would inevitably be annoyed at him.

    "Where did he go? How long will it take him to be back? If he won''t be back anytime soon, can you tell me when next I can see him?" Wu Shiyi fired question after question at Hayami.

    "Wow. Chill, kiddo. You don''t have to be so anxious." Old Juromented as he walked in on the duo in the living room.

    "That little twerp is probably still gaming. If I remember correctly, he should be going offline in a while. If you n on waiting for him, there''s no problem with that. However, since we weren''t expecting a guest at this time of the day, there''s no table for you at the dining area, sadly."

    "No problem about that." Wu Shiyi hurriedly stood up as he greeted Old Juro.

    "Old man don''t be rude. There''s still some time before breakfast so I could make a new te for the kid. He did say he is Sato''s friend right? I haven''t seen his face before so I''m guessing he''s a new one. You shouldn''t treat your grandson''s friends like this okay?" Alice lectured from the kitchen.

    "Hai, hai. Little Hayami, go help your grandma in the kitchen." Old Juro nced at his granddaughter.

    "Alright." Hayami left the area for the two men.

    Meanwhile, Wu Shiyi still kept his eyes on Old Juro.

    Even though Old Juro looked like a middle-aged man, Wu Shiyi could feel an aura that entailed the vicissitudes of life from him, and together with the light in Old Juro''s eyes, Wu Shiyi believed that he was much older than he seemed. Apart from that, there was this suppressed aura he felt from him that sent shivers down his spine.

    ''Grand-master?!''

    Wu Shiyi became alert. He never expected that uponing to Sato''s household he woulde face-to-face with a grand-master. Though he wasn''t sure whether Old Juro was one, the feeling he gave him was almost the same as his master.

    It should be known that grandmasters weren''t cabbages one could find on the streets. They were high-level martial arts practitioners with fame tied around them. Wealth, influence, strength, you name it. Most grandmasters nevercked any of these unless they were the ascetic types. Even Wu Shiyi''s master who followed the path of asceticism now, still possessed arge sum of wealth.

    ''He might not be a grandmaster but he should at least be a peak level master.'' Wu Shiyi analyzed.

    Old Juro noticed that there was a special light in his eyes and also saw the way Wu Shiyi stared at him but he paid no heed to it.

    "You said Sato''s still gaming. May I know which game that is?" Wu Shiyi suddenly put forth a strange question.

    "Oh? If I remember, it should be Infinite Realm." Old Juro replied.

    "Infinite Realm¡­" Wu Shiyi pondered.

    He recalled that his master had also said there was something strange about the game. A lot of conspiracies and ns seemed to be tied with it. While it might look simple now, it would eventually reveal its fangs. The earlier one started ying the game, the higher the benefits they would gain when the time arrives. These were his master''s exact words.

    ''Guess I will start ying too.'' Wu Shiyi decided. However, that was a matter that would be left for the future. He still had some things to settle here.

    "How long will it take for Sato to be done?" Wu Shiyi asked politely.

    "How long it would take him?" Old Juro repeated the question. "Probably an hour or two."

    Wu Shiyi released a sigh of relief as he realized that the time was within his free period.

    "Say¡­" Old Juro nced at his from head to toe.

    "You''re a martial artist aren''t you?"

    "Senior could say so but this junior''s attainments aren''t anything to boast about." Wu Shiyi humbly replied. His current personality was a stark difference from the haughty young boss Sato had seen him as. If Sato were here, he would have found it difficult to believe that this was the same Wu Shiyi he had fought.

    "Hehe. Don''t use such humble silly words with me. Your gait, posture, and aura all say the same thing. You should at least be at the Master rank." Old Juro smiled, his eyes looking as if he had seen through Wu Shiyi. There was no underlying tone in his words same as when one was probing a person, instead, there was a firm deration in them, as if he were stating a mere fact.

    ''This man, he''s dangerous¡­'' Wu Shiyi surmised.

    "You know, I have a private dojo at the back. It would take a while till Sato''s up and for breakfast to be ready. Why don''t we go exchange a few pointers huh?" Old Juro said as he stood up.

    Using the momentum as an elder and the host, he made his words firm. While it looked like he was just making a suggestion to Wu Shiyi, he was just sharing his decision with him. There was no chance for Wu Shiyi to deny his proposal as it would seem disrespectful. If that were to happen, Old Juro could simply drive him out of the house and there would be nothing wrong with it.

    "This man¡­'' Wu Shiyi twitched his lips. Eventually, he let out a sigh.

    "Alright."

 Chapter 264 - 258 : Wu Shiyi Vs Old Juro

    (AN : Some fighting stances and moves here would require the reader to look them up for better imagination.)

    "So, which are you good at? Armed or unarmedbat?" Noguchi Juro faced Wu Shiyi right after they stepped into the private dojo.

    Wu Shiyi sighed internally as he realized that this old man was way too entric for him.

    He didn''t reply immediately but set his sights on the dojo.

    The interior of the dojo was about 4 metres in height with an area of 40 square metres. While it sounds big, considering the other professional facilities avable in town, Old Juro''s dojo would be graded as one of the smaller ones.

    At one side of the dojo was the equipment area. There was a 4 tier sword holder standing on one side and a sword rack beside it. Both held different styled swords made with different materials. Some were made with bamboo, white oak, and maple. There were also a few others that were made with polycarbonate and acrylic. As for metallic swords, there were only 2 and there were ced above the rest, hanging off a sword mount that was ced on the wall. In total, there were about 13 or so swords.

    Apart from the swords, there was also a small collection of other weapons, ranging from spears, staffs, daggers, nunchaku, and sai. However, while they numbered much more than the swords, individually they were smaller. Each weapon only had 2 types and at most 3. Simr to the swords, they were all made with non-metallic materials.

    Wu Shiyi walked over to the swords and felt a couple of them but wasn''t satisfied with what was before him.

    "Let''s go unarmed." Wu Shiyi finally replied.

    "Hmm? You didn''t find anything to your liking?" Old Juro raised an eyebrow.

    It had to be known that his specialty was swords. That was why there were so many different kinds of swords. So Juro was surprised that Wu Shiyi couldn''t find anything suitable for him. While it was true that weapon users had special requirements for their weapons, ranging from weight to length, with so many assortments of swords, chances were that one would surely find one barely usable for them but Wu Shiyi didn''t. This left Old Juro feeling kind of down and disappointed. He was hoping to show off his collection to this kid yet the young man didn''t feel anything about it and actually refused to use a weapon from it.

    Seeming as if he could sense Old Juro''s feelings, Wu Shiyi hurriedly replied.

    "It''s not that your weapons aren''t good enough but they aren''t the type that I use. I''m more of a fan of zanbat¨­[1] and horse-ying sabers. While katana and tang swords are okay, I am not so good at them, or rather, I can''t bring out their full prowess." Wu Shiyi exined.

    "Oh? You''re one of those brute force guys huh? I never thought of that. Actually, I never expected there would still be a zanbat¨­ user in this era." Old Juro stroked his chin in amusement.

    "Alright. It''s fine."

    The two then walked towards the centre of the dojo and took their positions. Wu Shiyi transitioned from a horse stance to a tiger stance as he kept his face cid in front of Old Juro. As for the old man, he simply took a basic Tai Chi empty stance.

    There was only a space of 3 metres between them both but at their level, this distance was next to negligible.

    Wu Shiyi''s face became serious as he suspected that the man in front of him was a peak master or maybe even a grandmaster. This was simply because the presence Old Juro gave off at this moment was next to nothing. No matter the person, everyone had an aura and this was especially true for martial arts practitioners. The only way a person would seem to not have one was if they withheld it back but to do so, one would have to be an above-average practitioner of martial arts; at the very least, a master.

    Even if it was just a spar, Wu Shiyi had to take it seriously lest he loses face as his master''s student.

    Old Juro smiled as he saw Wu Shiyi''s face. It was as if he could see what was going on in his mind.

    "I''ming." Old Juro announced. By giving his opponent a heads up before he made his move, Old Juro was disying how confident he was in his skills.

    Before Wu Shiyi could make any mentalment on that, Old Juro''s figure appeared just a few inches away from him, a fist heading towards his face.

    ''Fast!'' Was all Wu Shiyi could think as his eyes widened in fear. He wanted to dodge but had the feeling that he couldn''t.

    Old Juro''s fist gave off the feeling that it upied every possible escape route of Wu Shiyi''s. It was as if he wasn''t facing the fist of a human but the fist of a 100 metres tall beast. It was the only thing his senses could spot in that instant, the only thing his eyes could focus on. Left or right, it felt like the fist was locked on to him.

    In that instant, as he realized that he couldn''t dodge the hit, Wu Shiyi sent a punch of his own towards Old Juro, while raising his left arm to block the fist.

    In a fight between two high-level martial artists, ending the fight as quickly as possible was the best strategy. Old Juro had done the exact same thing by attacking so quickly with that fist of his while Wu Shiyi wanted to do the same by blocking the attack and counter-attacking at the same time.

    If another martial artist was in Old Juro''s position, this move of Wu Shiyi''s would be able to bring the fight to an end quickly. Even if the hit didn''t connect, the opponent would be forced to the defensive side of the fight and with time, Wu Shiyi would be able to end the fight.

    Sadly, his opponent was Old Juro, a descendant of the Noguchi n.

    Seeing Wu Shiyi''s actions, a smile crept up on Old Juro''s face as he pushed his fist towards Wu Shiyi''s left arm. As for the iing punch that was headed his way, Old Juro effortlessly moved his head to the side and dodged it.

    *Bang*

    At the same time, Old Juro''s fist collided with Wu Shiyi''s arm with an almost explosive force. At that moment, Wu Shiyi didn''t doubt that if a bit more force was added to that fist, his left arm would have ended up broken. The strength behind the punch was beyond Wu Shiyi''s calctions that it sent him back 5 steps.

    ''How?'' Wu Shiyi was shocked at the amount of force Old Juro could mobilize in one punch.

    It should be known that he was a martial arts practitioner and a professional at that. Wu Shiyi often battled other fighters in cage fights or organized matches so his body''s strength and toughness were beyond that of ordinary people. Even among fellow martial artists, it could still be ranked close to the top. It was because of this that he dared to block Old Juro''s fist and also counter-attack at the same time. Yet, just one punch had almost sent him to the hospital.

    Even afternding a hit, Old Juro wasn''t satisfied with that as he dashed in on Wu Shiyi. While he didn''t feel threatened by Wu Shiyi, he clearly wanted to end the fight as quickly as possible.

    ''Damn.''

    At this moment, Wu Shiyi had his bnce disced by that punch and was almost like a sitting duck. Old Juro didn''t give him any breathing space so he couldn''t regain hisposure in time. Without any time to pull himself together, there was a high chance that Old Juro''s next attack would be a clear hit.

    ''No!''

    As Wu Shiyi had taken the 5th step backward and managed to keep his cool, Old Juro appeared in front of him once more and sent a fist his way. Just like with thest one, this fist gave off a boundless feeling that seemed to upy everywhere, giving Wu Shiyi the feeling that he couldn''t dodge it.

    While he still didn''t manage to pull himself togetherpletely, Wu Shiyi was prepared for it.

    A kick was sent Old Juro''s way just as he came within close distance of Wu Shiyi.

    This kick was thest ditch effort by Wu Shiyi. Because of this, he was open and if Old Juro found a way to dodge it and attack him, Wu Shiyi would surely get hit and the fight would be over. However, if Old Juro couldn''tunch an attack during this interval, Wu Shiyi would be able to regain his bnce and the battle would continue.

    This was becausepared to his arms, Wu Shiyi''s legs were a lot stronger. Even if Old Juro punched at his leg, Wu Shiyi believed he could withstand it. This was because they were simply sparring and not engaged in a life-or-death battle. The amount of force they could each utilize was limited otherwise, Wu Shiyi would have lost his arm back then.

    ''Ast resort attack? Futile.'' Old Juro thought in that instant.

    He didn''t even bother to dodge the kick and just moved his other hand towards it while he slowed down the descent of his fist.

    "This is the end."

    Old Juro''s hand suddenly sped up and mped down on Wu Shiyi''s leg, holding him in ce.

    Just as Wu Shiyi was about to react to this development, he only saw a shadow cover his view before he was sent flying.

    "It''s over."

 Chapter 265 - 259 : Beat-down

    "Krrr!"

    As the high pitched scream rang out in the tunnel, Sato gripped his sword tightly and focused his gaze and attention in front of him, umting his potential and power for an attack.

    From the aura he felt ahead, Sato realized that the monster was much weaker than it was before. While he wasn''t too sure about it, the evidenceid in front of him. Sato didn''t know what had happened back at the junction so he could have in no way guessed that the original 3 shadow monsters had divided into 6. However, this didn''t matter to him. This was because if even if were the original copy, Sato had faith in himself that he could defeat it. The only problem however, was that he couldn''t do so too quickly.

    "Krrr!"

    Just as the shadow monster copy spotted him, it released a loud shrill and jumped right at Sato.

    "Let''s get this over with."

    ''[Astral Might]''

    "[Chop]."

    Gathering his entire potential to his sword, Sato erupted with a mighty aura as he shed at the iing shadow monster. From an outsider''s point of view, Sato was like a an expert swordsman facing off against an evil creature. He brought his sword down on it as if passing judgement to the life-form.

    *ng*

    The shadow monster revealed what looked to be a w underneath which it used to block Sato''s sword. But how could the w of a the copy of a level 9 or so monster stand up to Sato? Even if it were the original monster or even a level 10 Elite monster, as long as it wasn''t a strength-type creature, it would lose to Sato terms of strength and raw power much less a measly copy.

    The monster had underestimated Sato''s strength and as a result, it had to pay for doing so. Its w only managed to hold Sato''s sword back for only a second before being pushed to the side. As for the sword, it then went on unimpeded and struck the shadow monster by the side, from what would be the right shoulder de, almost cutting through it.

    -145 (???/??? ???)

    "Kiiiii!"

    The shadow monster yelled in pain as it struggled to back off. But how would Sato let go off this chance?

    After the strike, Sato confirmed that for an unknown reason, the monster was much weaker than before but he still didn''t bother about that; only raising his guard up a bit lest he gets ambushed.

    Drawing his sword back, Sato swung it at the shadow monster within the same second. In his hands, the Astral sword didn''t feel like a solid block of metal but a whip. Sato shed out 3 times at the monster and this was with him holding back since he had to keep his guard up.

    -121

    -124

    -132

    3 different figures popped up with thest one being much higher than the rest. This was because Sato purposely aimed thatst sh at the same ce as the second one, increasing the injuries on the spot.

    "Krrr!"

    As Sato had continuously injured the monster before it was capable of recovering, the dark fog that previously revolved around it was dispersed, showing the appearance of the monster that was previously hidden beneath.

    The shadow monster was ugly and wretched, looking like a 30 years old decayed corpse that was dug out; its skin awfully pale. Like a human suffering from extreme malnutrition, the shadow monster was sickly and very thin. In its eye sockets were two clear white ''eyes'', different from the red glow that was visible when the dark fog still shrouded it.

    Sato frowned at the sight of the monster. Since he had started the Main trials, all is opponents had been non-humans. Even the Nightmare devil that took the appearance of Xue Yan was still a true monster. However, this creepy creature Sato encountered here, looked almost no different from a human. If its flesh were a bit more thick, the ws cut down to average nail length and if the eyeballs possessed an iris and ck pupil, it would be hard to separate it from an average person. The feeling that Sato got from seeing this made him a bit confused.

    From the way Saimon spoke and the statue of the Achiever''s back at the Hall of Grey Chains, Sato guessed that the Caventry weren''t humans but were still anthropomorphic. However, his gut feeling told him that whatever that was in front of him was by no means rted to a Caventry. That lead Sato to think, where the Caventry allies to humanity or enemies? It would be better if they had a neutral rtionship but after hearing the history of the Caventry''s downfall from Saimon added with the appearance of this strange monster, Sato doubted that. The status of the rtionship between the two races would surely affect his mission''s progress and maybe the ending.

    ''Maybe it might not be a human but a monster variant. I''m worrying too much over things.''

    Shaking his head to clear off his thoughts, Sato rushed again towards the monster. While it sounded like it took quite sometime, all those things went on in Sato''s head and only 3 seconds had passed in reality. 3 seconds weren''t enough for the monster to change its ending nor escape, but it wasn''t like it was nning to either. For some reason, the intelligence of the shadow monster or more appropriately, zombie creature, was low. It only retained certain instincts, the leading one being to devour all life forms other than its kind.

    ''Die.''

    Sato rushed at it again and swung his sword diagonally at it.

    The sickly ''human'' stretched out a w to Sato, in a bid tond a hit before Sato did. Sadly, it still made yet another futile effort. Its opponent wasn''t an ordinary person but a level 9 [Swordsman], if not one of the best in the game currently. The difference between the two was massive and was not something that could be ignored.

    Sato saw the w approaching him but he didn''t retreat at all. Instead, Sato changed the trajectory of his sword and used it to block the w. Right after that, he shoved the w away and made a horizontal sh at the monster, using his ss'' ultimate basic skill.

    [Horizontal sh]

    [Critical]

    -183

    *Thud*

    The remnant force from the blow sent the monster back until it crashed on the wall with a loud thud.

    The current Sato could be said to be unmatched against any monster under level 10 Elite. The only reason he had a tough battle with the Nightmare Devil from before was simply because Sato was already exhausted and the pressure from the mountain made battling very taxing on his body. Despite that, Sato still came out on top. This alone was a testimony to his strength.

    If in such a situation, Sato still managed to stand firm and prevail over his foe, the fight with him and this sickly ''human'' could be said to be nothing more than child''s y, especially since this was just a copy of the original. To Sato, this battle wasn''t even worth calling a battle. It wasn''t even worth terming it as a workout. It felt more like bullying a 7 year old than an actualbat.

    Because of this, the monster felt fear. No matter what it did, it couldn''t harm a strand of hair on Sato''s head. Even for a dumb creature that relied on instinct, it knew what fear and hopelessness was, and right now, it felt it.

    Seeing the monster that stared at him with a fear and apprehension in its eyes, Sato didn''t slow down his movements nor take pity on it. Instead, his eyes seemed to contain extreme coldness and indifference in them.

    "Back when I was young, I always got injured and suffered a lot of failures and defeat. But someone taught me something. If you have anyone to me for any setback or failure, be they mishaps or bad luck, don''t me fate or the universe for being unfair. me yourself for being too weak. This perfectly describes you right now.. As a favor, let me end your weak and useless life."

 Chapter 266 - 260 : Invitation

    "Huuu." Sato breathed out right after he took off the VR helmet that covered his head.

    "The Main Trials are something. Even till this moment, I''m still not sure how I''m doing." Recalling his current challenge in the Main Trials, Sato could only sigh in frustration. Unlike the previous one, which made the end goal obvious from the beginning, the current challenge forced Sato to rely on his luck and intuition to move blindly through the entire ce.

    ''I will just spend 30 minutes or less before I return.'' Sato thought.

    Unlike what one would think, the Main Trials couldn''t be paused. Once the yer began them, he was expected to be logged in at all moments as the trials would be constantly running. However, being logged in for far too long was an issue that could lead to certain problems and cause a burden on one''s body. Because of this, the yer would usually be warned by the system just before they epted the mission and at the same time, would prepare arge stock of energy drinks to help neutralize any unforeseen problem from being connected online for too long.

    However, despite still making such preparations, Sato often took out some time from the game to take a break in reality. This was entirely possible thanks to the fact that the duration attached to each challenge was quite big. Shaving off 30 minutes in reality, which tranted to an hour in-game, wouldn''t harm his progress by that much.

    Sato usually spent his 30 minutes either having a simple meal, taking his bath and brushing his teeth, or spending time with the family especially his grandmother. Even if he did have energy drinks, they were low-quality ones hence he still needed to eat once in a while. Normally, this time wouldn''t be any different but it was destined to.

    Just as Sato got downstairs to have a simple breakfast, he noticed that his grandfather and sister were both missing from the table.

    "Where''s grandfather and Hayami?" Sato asked as he noticed an extra te by the side.

    "They are at the dojo with a guest." Alice answered.

    Just before Sato could ask about the identity of the guest, the duo had returned with a familiar face in their midst.

    "You are¡­!" Sato widened his eyes in surprise.

    "It''s been a while." Wu Shiyi smiled at him.

    Sato was surprised yet perplexed as to Wu Shiyi''s appearance. He never expected to meet this character again much less at his ce. There wasn''t much interaction between the two since thest time they met so Sato was wondering why Wu Shiyi suddenly had a change of heart toe see him.

    "Alright, let''s have breakfast first." Old Juro noticed that the way Sato looked at the other young man was strange but he didn''t bother to ask.

    Breakfast was short and sinct, mostly since Sato had to return to IR while Hayami had to prepare for school. It only took the family 20 minutes or so for the entire table to be cleared of dishes.

    During this time, Wu Shiyi felt awkward to meet his te but after a bit of encouragement from Old Juro, he lost all manners and made himself feel at home. He wolfed down on his meal at his own pace and his own pace was far ahead of the others. He went so far as to ask for seconds, making Hayami twist her face in disgust at the guest''s manners.

    After the meals were taken care of and the table was cleared, Wu Shiyi volunteered to help with cleanup. Even though at times, he seemed to have a rogue and uncaring personality like a few young masters, he was still instilled with proper etiquette by his master.

    Seeing the enthusiastic young man volunteering to help, Alice took up the offer. Sato also joined in with Hayami, while sending his grandma away to rest.

    After the dishes were cleaned up, which didn''t take long since there were 3 people at it, Wu Shiyi finally approached Sato and ryed his reason for looking for him.

    "You say that your master wants to meet me? Why?" Sato asked.

    "Actually, he''s more or less interested in your master and wants to see him. Seeing you is just his roundabout method of doing things." Wu Shiyi exined as he nced at Old Juro.

    Wu Shiyi, after discovering that Old Juro was Sato''s grandfather together with the short spar, reckoned that the old man was Sato''s master. This was because not only did Old Juro have the necessary strength and expertise to train a master rank martial artist, but he was the closest to Sato. Logically, one wouldn''t go off and hire a teacher for their children or grandchild or other close rtives if they could teach those skills to the child themselves.

    "Why exactly? Is it to exchange experiences or what?" Sato pushed for a more detailed answer.

    "I don''t know. That old fogey barely tells me anything." Wu Shiyi spread his arms out to express hisck of information. In front of his master, he was a docile young man and an obedient student, but outside, none of that mattered. Because of that, he usually addressed his master as ''old fogey''.

    "If your master isn''t interested in meeting with mine, then there''s no problem. But my master would still want to earnestly meet up with you."

    Sato contemted on his words, trying to figure out why such an elusive character had suddenly taken a liking to him. If it was because he was young and had potential, that didn''t make any sense as Wu Shiyi was roughly the same age as he was and was equal in strength. Also, the old figure would have guessed that Sato had a master so the idea of poaching him was illogical. This was because poaching one''s student was one of the most despised and detested acts in the martial artsmunity. Not only would it soil the perpetrator''s name but it would also bring a bad reputation to the student. As a result, it was almost impossible for such a situation to ur.

    In the end, he wasn''t able to find a reason suitable enough but not finding one didn''t mean he was scared of meeting the man.

    "There''s no problem but it would most likely have to be next week." Sato said.

    He still had the Main trials toplete alongside some other ns of his. Sato didn''t n on pushing those ns backward so he decided that he would meet up with Wu Shiyi''s master after he was done with his problems.

    "Alright then." Havinge to an agreement, Wu Shiyi was satisfied since he had sessfully fulfilled the mission.

    Before leaving, he collected Sato''s contact details and also gave him his, this way Sato could contact him once he was free.

    "Alright then. Later." Wu Shiyi left the building.

    "So, what was that all about?" Old Juro walked in from within the house.

    "His teacher wants to meet up with me and also you." Sato repeated everything that Wu Shiyi said to his grandfather.

    "It''s either to exchange lessons or something else. However, it seems that the old man''s interest is mostly in you. It might even be to invite you to a martial arts contest or maybe give you a job at a dojo or something. Either way, there''s no harm in going. If you''re scared, then I could apany you whenever you need."

    For some certain reasons, Old Juro never showed himself to members of the martial artsmunity, specifically the older generation so while the invitation seemed harmless, Old Juro didn''t n ongoing. However, for his grandchildren, who were thest of his blood, the old man wouldn''t mind shedding his much less showing his face.

    "Don''t worry about it, grandpa. I''ll handle it." Sato replied without any expression. He knew why his grandfather avoided martial artists, especially prominent ones of the older generation, so there was no way he would let his grandfather get involved.

    Old Juro nced at Sato in the eye for a while before he finally acquiesced.

    "Okay."

 Chapter 267 - 261 : Virtual Times || A Familiar Face

    Sato returned to the living room where he decided to take a short 5 minutes break before he went back online. Rather than calling it a break, he wanted to update his knowledge on the recent happenings in the VR gaming industry.

    The digital disy was on and what was being broadcast was a show from a popr channel that focused on trending VR games and all rted information.

    The show was usually hosted by two individuals, a young man and a counterpart of the opposite sex. It usually started with a short trailer of the most popr events from the top 5 VR games as a prelude, before moving on to the main part of the show which featured a few public announcements from VR games, uing events, andpetitions, and interviews with celebrity gamers or developers. In the VR gaming world, this show was very popr by both average gamers and pro gamers as it tried to cover up all the information yers may or may not have heard about. The show went by the name ''Virtual Times'' and was run by the super corporation, Amazon Network Corporation. Even the channel was run by the samepany.

    Despite being a show that only focused on the VR gaming-verse, Virtual Times was able to rank among the Top 5 most viewed shows, having one of the highest viewer ratings ever, and was the number one VR game-rted show. This was because the VR gaming world had an estimated 1.5~2 billion members, which included both casual and pro gamers spread apart in various VR games. With Virtual Times having the most detailed updates on various VR games while being operated by a world-renowned information corporation, it was inevitable that it would rank as the first.

    The show had begun long before Sato tuned in but it was yet to end. It usually took about 45-50 minutes for each segment. Normally, 2 episodes would be streamed each day with one in the morning and another in the evening and this was so unless an event that was sorge that it affects at least 40% of the general poption in a VR game urred. In such a scenario, a special live episode would be released during the period of the event.

    The evening broadcast was usually a repeat of the morning stream and the special episodes of the day(if any) but with a few new added details.

    As Sato gazed at the disy, it started with a few discussions on some of the top trending VR games, ranging from guild wars to Legend rank missions and quests that affected the majority of gamers. It even covered some of the events in IR one of which was the Kobold King''s advancement in ck Grills Cave.

    "You should have all about the game Infinite Realm, which just got released a few weeks ago. In case you all don''t know yet, the game has recently been trending, seeing a spike in yer poption in recent times. ording to our analysts, this has to do with the fact that IR, as it''s poprly called, has better visual graphics and thought-to-motion matchmaking process, making movements even more better and fluid." The male host said.

    "Indeed. Such improvements might not sound massive but they can easily affect the progress and battle strength of yers in-game. With such improvements, the pro yers would be able to disy their strength even better than ever. This would make PvP fights more interesting and entertaining to both the spectators and the participants. It would be in no way an overstatement to say that this upgrade will bring changes to the entire VR gaming industry." The female hostmented.

    "Well, we don''t need to wait because as ofst week, IR has risen from the 30th rank in our ''Most Voted VR Games'' list to the 12th rank. And all these changes happened within just 2 weeks! It makes one wonder whether if IR would be the one to take down the three years running 1st ce - Conquest." The male host sighed with emotion as if he was witnessing the birth of a legend.

    "With the current development in the game, it is quite possible. But that is a matter for the future and not now. Now, we witness the current trending events in IR, and funny enough, they are rted to the popr ''4 clover towns''." The man smirked.

    The young woman beside him then went on to exin.

    "For those of you who may not know, a ''4 clover town'' is a popr term that has recently been given to novice towns in IR that encounter a ''town destruction level threat''. While this sounds like a bad thing, so long as one can live through it, their strength would grow by leaps and bounds. This is even more advantageous to guilds as they could raise the total level and wealth of their squads in just one event. Because of this, the original catastrophic events are seen as a sign of good luck, and towns that live through them get termed as ''4-leaf clover towns'' or ''4 clover towns'' for short.

    After her part, the young man returned to give the update.

    "At the top of our list are the towns under the jurisdiction of Fallen Heart''s ck Rock City. They include the primary level Riverdale town, secondary level Salt Springs town, and a 4-leaf clover town, primary level ck Mountain town. This is the first-ever situation where a 4 clover town would be undergoing another ''lucky'' chance and if they are to live through this, we expect that the overall prowess of the town''s yers undergo another rise leaving the others in the dust."

    "I know right?" Thedy said with envy thick in her tone. "Top VR game analysts are already predicting that the first-ever yer to step into the realm of level 10, thereby moving into the city woulde from here. And with the usual trends of VR games, that yer would surely receive arge red packet[1]. Who wouldn''t be jealous of such an opportunity?"

    The young man smiled at his co-worker''s performance and then went on t give the full detail.

    "The entire event is circled around the fact that a suspected above level 10 and above Elite rank monster would soon escape its dungeon confines.

    "The Kobold King of ck Grill''s cave is leading its forces approaching the first floor as we speak and if it passes through the cave''s confines, it would be free to wander the world and hunt down surrounding yers. NPC forces aren''t making any moves concerning this so it''s left to the yers. Our investigators recently got the news that the top guilds of these 3 towns had organized a meeting n on how to take down this monster so we should be expecting some action quite soon. As for the details rting to this, you can find it on our website or follow-up on the specials dedicated to this."

    The young man then went on to talk about some other updates and events that had urred in IR for at least 5 minutes, before thest one came up. Sato had slowly gotten entranced by the show and decided to dy his logging-in.

    "This looks like a good one and it''s also on a ''4 clover town''. we might be witnessing the birth of another such town, people. Brusia Kingdom''s White Valley town is about to wee an event that would either be thedder to prop them up high or the hammer that knocks them down."

    White Valley town was one of the novice towns that spawned yers but was located in Brusia kingdom; a ce nowhere close to Fallen Heart kingdom.

    "ording to our informants, the event is rted to White Valley town''s monster wave which is said to ur bi-annually and is made up of 4 waves, with both the quantity and quality of monsters increasing with each wave. Luckily for some and unluckily for others, the period the game happened to have beenunched was just close to it. Now, with more than 2 weeks having passed in-game, the monster wave is approaching. This would be could be said to be a lucky chance for the yers of White Valley town as if they survive this, the overall strength of the town''s yers would increase and they would be recorded as one of the ''4-leaf clover towns''." the male host reported.

    "Ah~ An opportunity to be a 4 clover town. Such events are rare and may as well determine the life and death of the town and its yers." The female yer sighed with longing.

    "The most enviable of opportunities but still dreaded." The male hostmented as he noticed his partner''s behavior.

    "Mmm? Why?" Thedy asked.

    "This is because of thetest report we got justst night. Pine crow town, which happened to be one of the ''lucky'' towns to be presented with a 4 clover opportunity, wasn''t so lucky. Not only did the yers fail, but they also lost their base, as the town was destroyed in the process. It''s because of reasons like this that a 4 clover opportunity is known as the most enviable of opportunities but still the most dreaded. So far, 3 towns have suffered severe damage and losses in these events with Pine Crow being the first to be decimated. And this is mostly because theycked the average amount of Expert yers to survive the situation."

    "That''s terrible." The youngdy said with a tone of sorrow and pity.

    The man nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Hopefully, White Valley town would survive theirs but most analysts doubt that. This is because the situation looks to be as precarious as the of Pine Crow town. Not only do theyck the average mount, but the difficulty of their trial seems to be far more than usual."

    "However, a special guest of ours seem to disagree with that right?" The youngdy smiled mysteriously.

    "You''re right. Ladies and gentlemen, help me wee our guest for today''s show, the Frost King of the Red Sea -Kurosaki Genma!"

    A loud apuse rang out in the show''s studio from the audience stand and was reyed through the speakers in the living room. From the intensity of the apuse and the length of his title, it seemed like the special guest was a well-known figure in the VR gaming industry and indeed he was.

    Kurosaki Genma was one of the top mage yers in the country and had participated in 3 different international gaming tournaments, with his best result being a spot in the Top 20s and his worst in the Top 50s. On a national scale, he was one of the Top 10 gamers of the current age and had several endorsements from differentpanies. He even had a guild of his own which was a Peak 1st tier guild.

    As long as one was a knowledgeable gamer or even dabbled a bit, they would know who he was. Because not only was Genma a pro gamer, but he was also a descendant of the prominent and prosperous Kurosaki family.

    Sato, as a pro gamer, would no doubt know who he was.. But Sato didn''t know that name or face by his title or profession as a gamer but by another form of address - his cousin.

 Chapter 268 - 262 : Kurosaki Genma

    "Haha. You are indeed right. I wholeheartedly disagree with that statement." A young man walked in from the side.

    He had a handsome face, ck hair, and a perfect physique, making him quite simr to a flower boy. From his posture and walking steps, one could feel a firm sense of self-confidence and pride radiating from the young man. This was a by-product of the environment he grew in alongside his status in life. Some would call this the aura of a king.

    Sato stared at the figure in the disy as his mind went back to memoryne.

    Kurosaki Genma.

    While he wasn''t the son of the current head of the Kurosaki family, he was still a direct member of the family line. If things were to be put in more descriptive terms, the former head of the Kurosaki family, which happens to be Sato''s paternal grandfather, had 5 children: 4 boys and a girl.

    Kurosaki Kento, rankedst of the four sons, was the father of Genma as well as Kenshin''s younger brother and Sato''s uncle. While he didn''t seed in bing the family head after Kenshin''s death, he still got his hands on a lot of power and authority over some of the family''s businesses so he was still a man of authority in ISJ and had to be taken seriously.

    Being one of the privileged sons of Kento, Genma enjoyed a lot of privileges and was able to get whatever he asked for since birth. Eventually, afterpleting his studies at a notable business school, he, alongside his elder brother, took charge of a couple of businesses under their father for a while before Genma left the business scene to be a pro gamer.

    While a lot of people felt that Genma''s decision was a waste of talent, Genma didn''t care and only did what he wanted. In the end, he proved a lot of people wrong and shut a lot of mouths after his stunning performance in his first-ever international tournament where he took the 33rd position out of hundreds of finalists. Since then, Genma had made a lot more achievements both locally and internationally and eventually became one of the official ambassadors for Quantum electronics, one of thepanies under the Ajita Group which dealt with the retail of electronic appliances ranging fromplex devices like gaming capsules, consoles and 3-d disys tomon household appliances like a microwave or a television or disy unit.

    With so many achievements, sponsors, and fans surrounding him, Genma could be said to be at the peak of his life but others begged to differ. This was because Genma was still young, being 21 years of age. He had a lot more years ahead of him and so had a lot more potential than some other gamers. Because of this, Genma had another nickname apart from ''The Frost King of the Red Sea''. He was also called ''Ajita''s 5th star''. ''Ajita''s stars'' were a group of youngsters from the Ajita Group, specifically the Kurosaki family, who had made ster achievements in various sectors, be it in the VR gaming industry or the marketing department, and still had lots of potentials to do more. In simpler terms, they were the most prosperous under 30 of the Kurosaki family and Genma was ranked 5th. This was with him having both high expertise and skill in business administration and VR gaming, something you wouldn''t see every day, anywhere. One can only imagine how amazing the next 4 were.

    ''Genma¡­''

    Others may not know but Sato could guess why Genma had left the business scene. He most likely suffered suppression from both his big brother and the other family members. While the Kurosaki family might seem like an amazing family with a lot of wealth and talents, it was these very two things that made thepetition within the family a whole lot harder. Even kidnapping and threats were an everyday urrence for an up-anding family member. For a young man like Genma, it wouldn''t be easy to survive in such a field so his best option would have been to withdraw.

    "Wee." The male host stood up and shook hands with Genma. The youngdy, on the other hand, smiled at him with stars in her eyes. It was unknown whether this was an act or how she truly felt.

    "You all might be wondering why we invited him today so I might as well let you know. The 1st tier guild, Sovereign, happens to be the leading guild representing the entire White Valley town''s yer poption. So who other than the very guild leader of this magnificent guild, would be the most suitable to exin the situation to us?" The male host said.

    Sovereign was the guild founded by Kurosaki Genma. With his amazing gaming skills and expert management ability, he had raised the guild from the 4th tier rank to the 1st tier within 5 years. Originally, he didn''t start out as the guild leader, only taking the role of the guild owner when the guild was founded. It was only after he fully delved into gaming 3 years ago that he officially took the helm as the new guild leader.

    "So, unlike the various reports and analysis of different VR gaming analysts and prognosticators, you were saying otherwise to the expected destruction of White Valley town. Can we know why?" The male host returned to the topic at hand.

    "There''s no other reason than the fact that Sovereign would be taking the lead in this battle. While it is true that the monster wave would increase in quantity and quality with each wave, we have already nned a few contingencies and setups to help with this." Genma answered confidently.

    With the way he spoke, it was as if the monster wave that had yet to ur was already done with. If anyone didn''t know the specifics about it, they might think that it was nothing more than a breeze.

    The interview went on for a while and even after they had discussed the issue regarding White Valley town''s safety. Genma didn''t leave because he was the special guest for the day so until the segment was over, he had to still be present. Just his presence alone was sure to cause a spike in the viewer ratings for the day''s show so the 2 hosts wanted to take advantage of it.

    Sato had lost interest the very second Genma hade within view.

    His rtionship with his father''s family could be said to be very shaky and even making contact with any one of them was too risky. Because of that, Sato started nning on how to avoid contact with any one of them and tried to recall the various characters of the family that may have joined the game.

    ''He''s changed a lot.'' Sato thought as he saw Genma''s profile.

    Back when he was still a part of the family, Sato was quite close with Genma and while they weren''t the best of friends, they were still close cousins. Back then, Genma was a naive little kid that always cried at the littlest disruption. He was a lot shorter than Sato so he always followed after him making people presume that the duo had an older and younger brother rtionship.

    Now, however, the previous signs of that naive little kid were all gone.. All that was left now was a man with billowing self-confidence.

 Chapter 269 - 263 : The Black Jade Gate

    ''Alright. Time to get this over with. I''ve spent so much time in these trials and my level has been stagnating for more than a week now. It would be bad if I get left behind.''

    After logging back into the Infinite Realm, Sato felt pumped up for action, or more precisely, he wanted to be done with the Main Trials as quickly as possible. Because he had been stuck here for almost 2 days, Sato''s level didn''t increase by much. This was especially true since the opponents on the Entry trials couldn''t be defeated for Experience points and the ones on the first challenge of the Main trials mostly consisted of Phantasmal creatures that were unreal. In other words, they provided neither rewards nor Experience points for killing them. Even for the real monsters, they provided a measly amount of Experience points. Added with the fact that Sato only encountered less than 3 such monsters, Sato''s strength was crawling at an extremely slow pace that made one feel hopeless about it. As for the uncanny humanoid creature Sato faced off with earlier, he easily defeated it, and just like the real monsters of the First challenge, it didn''t give much Experience points.

    The faster hepleted the challenges, the sooner Sato would return to the main world and begin leveling up.

    From the show, Virtual Times, Sato realized that there was a chance that he would receive a reward for being the first yer to make it to level 10. And he had a shot at it because, from the information ryed from the program, there was yet to be any yer that had broken through the bottleneck and stepped into the next level.

    ''Only if these monsters gave more Experience points then I wouldn''t be so hard-pressed at the moment.'' Sato sighed as he ventured deeper in.

    The challenge wasn''t one that simply depended on his efforts but was time-based. So, no matter how far Sato walked, it wouldn''t be over till the 36 hours duration was over or he found the exit. However, the second option was unrealistic.

    After Sato had dealt with the shadow monster clone, he had journeyed further into thebyrinth, taking turns and bends to the point that he couldn''t even recall his way back. While this sounded dumb and stupid, this trial was one totally dependent on one''s luck.

    Considering the fact that no map, even if it were an iplete one, was given, finding one''s way around the ce was impossible. It wasn''t as if the exit could be said to be north and so one would try to keep heading north no matter what. The location of the exit was unknown. Using the starting position as a guide, the exit could have been to the west, east, or north. There were no hints, giveaways or any plot to it. To find one''s way out, one could only depend on luck, unless they were like the other 2 that did so; relying on theirprehension of spatial magic and elements to find their way out.

    ''However, I am not a mage much less do I have an affinity to the space element. This path was already far from me from the very beginning.'' Sato sighed internally with a bitter expression.

    Since he couldn''t rely on his ability or control of spatial elements, which were non-existent by the way, Sato could only hope that his luck was as good as the third figure who passed this challenge, or even a tenth of his. That way, while Sato wouldn''t get the highest rating, he would still pass the challenge. However, only the heavens knew how bright his lucky star was.

    "Hmm?" Sato looked up ahead and was surprised by what he saw ahead of him.

    Right in front of him, just a couple of metres ahead was a gigantic gate that stood at an imposing height of 12 metres and a width of 5 metres. The gate had a slit in the middle, making it seem like it was made up of two doors. If one looked closely at it, it looked more like a double door than a gate. Sato identified it as such because the size was way too absurd to simply address it as a door. Also, it gave off the feeling as if it existed to lock something behind it, just like a seal.

    The reason Sato noticed it was mostly because the gate exuded an evil aura that sent shivers running down his spine. This wasn''t to say that Sato himself was scared of the gate but instead, the gate triggered his body''s natural reactions. Like when a wild animal was in the presence of a formidable prey, its instincts would alert it and the same was happening with Sato. His body seemed to scream at him, ringing warning bells as he stood just a few metres away from the door.

    "What the hell is this?" Sato couldn''t help but wonder out loud as he approached the gate.

    Though the lighting in thebyrinth was dim, it didn''t mean that Sato couldn''t see anything. From a distance of fewer than 5 metres away from the gate, Sato could easily take in the view of the entire gate.

    The gate looked to be made of a kind of ck Jade but was as tough as a divine metal. Carved on the surface of the ck Jade gate, were murals of ancient gods and demons, asuras and devas. Creatures that might have dominated the world at some point in time.

    On the left side of the gate were celestial gods that stood on clouds and wielded different weapons. They all had an indifferent look on their face as if none of the burdens of mortality[1] affected them. In their hands were stylish weapons ranging from swords, bows, and spears to umon ones like a harp, a zither, a flute, and even a horn.

    On the right side of the gate, however, was a legion of demons, ranging from one-horned demons and two-horned demons to scaled monsters and 4 armed creatures. They all had ferocious looks etched on their faces, seeming as if all they lived for was destruction, murder and pige. The weapons they held, though simr, looked barbarous and crude, different from that of the celestial gods.

    The two separate murals were painted in such a way that it made the two different races face each other as if they were waging a divine war against the other. The art was extremely realistic to the point that Sato had the feeling that these beings could jump right out of the mural and appear in the real world.

    "Such an amazing level of art." Sato praised.

    While he was an engineering student in the real world, it didn''t mean that he knew nothing about art or couldn''t appreciate it. Even a novice in art won''t be able to resistplimenting such a piece at a close first look.

    Looking at the murals, Sato even wondered whether one of these races was the depiction of the Caventry or maybe their ancestors. After all, from Saimon''s words, the Caventry had something to do with the ''Grey God'' and such a title was most likely used to address a high-level NPC individual in the game. He wouldn''t be surprised if one of the celestial gods in this depiction was the Grey god, though Sato felt it was unlikely.

    ''I wonder what''s behind this gate...'' Sato couldn''t resist his curiosity.

    While his instincts did indeed warn him that something scary lies behind there, Sato still couldn''t resist the desire to know what it was. This wasn''t him simply being curious but also Sato looking for a turning point in this challenge.

    With the way things were, Sato didn''t have much faith in passing this challenge so unless he took certain risks, he might not seed in the challenge.

    Now, before himid an opportunity or an end; it could be either. Since Sato didn''t have much faith in getting through the challenge by just running around the ce, he decided to explore behind this gate first. Who knows, though highly improbable, maybe he might find the exit or better yet, find a map of thebyrinth. What mattered was that there was a chance to turn things around and this chanceid behind the gate.

    "That settles it. I''m going in."

    Having made up his mind, Sato ced his two hands on the two sides of the gate and applying a certain amount of force to them, he pushed forward, opening it just like a door.

    AN :

    [1] Burdens of mortality here refer to some of the features of man. Mainly emotions and hunger.

    Infinite Facts :

    Versuchsgr¨¹nde was made by Lord Worrus. As for the locations of the various trials, most of them exited before his birth.. All he did was connect them to Versuchsgr¨¹nde, making it the starting position for anyone who wanted to participate in the Main Trials as well as the holy ground of the Caventry.

 Chapter 270 - 264 : Behind The Gate

    *Vooo*

    As Sato pushed the gate open, the two doors moved inwards slowly while making a grating sound like a door that hadn''t been opened in years.

    Maybe due to that, the two sides of the gates, which acted as individual doors, didn''t swing open but stopped halfway, forming an opening enough for 2 people to walk in but maybe due to poor lighting, most of the interior couldn''t be made out. No matter the amount of force Sato applied, they refuse to fully open.

    Realizing that there was no point in forcing them wide open, Sato walked through the opening, going past the doors and into the dark chamber.

    "This is?"

    As Sato stepped through the door, he felt the environment changing. This feeling wasn''t that resulted from his location being changed by a teleport spell but instead was an inherent change in the environment. The mana here was much thicker than in thebyrinth. It was even thicker than it was in the outside world. One could even

    "What could cause such high intensity of mana?" Sato eximed as he took a deep breath of the refreshing air, feeling his internal organs being cleansed and strengthened by an unknown force.

    Mana was the basis of all life in Infinite Realm. The nts took in mana and this made them different from the ones in the real world, turning them into better materials and nutrition for mankind to survive on.

    The cause of the evolution of animals to beasts was also a result of mana, showing its ability to affect one''s gic sequence. These beasts were a whole lot stronger than their wild animal ancestors, making them almost a whole different species.

    Apart from its ability to influence the structure of life, mana also had some impressive features on people. This was especially so for the yers. In a mana-rich zone, it was believed that learning spells and HP and MP recovery would be much faster than elsewhere. While this didn''t sound like much, it was actually a godly feature. This was because, ignoring cool-downs, such a property would enable yers to constantly cast their spells to their heart''s content. It was in no way an overstatement to say that such zones were training holynds, especially for mages as they would be able toe in contact with the elements much quicker and also recover their mana at a much faster pace than elsewhere. It was still advantageous for the physical sses since they could recover their stamina faster. In summary,nds with high mana intensity were highly desired by all kinds of yers.

    Apart from the mana concentration, the lighting in the hall was far different from that back outside.

    Ever since he had stepped into the [Labyrinth of Helios], Sato noticed that the lighting was dim and the absence of a true light source could be associated with this. For an average human being, while they would still be able to make their way out in this environment, long-term exposure would undoubtedly affect their vision and ruin their eyesight. If this wasn''t a game, Sato would have experienced the same. While he was still able to manage the bad lighting, it still affected Sato''s skills as in an environment where one could barely make out their surroundings, engaging in an intense battle was far too risky. This was one of the reasons Sato retreated when he encountered the 3 shadow monsters.

    However, the lighting issue wasn''t the same here. Blue me torches were hanging on the walls by the side of the hall, illuminating the hall with their brilliance. Apart from that, there was arge luminescent cobalt crystal that hung from the ceiling.

    While it was called a crystal, this was simply in regards to the object''s structure. It was in no way the same as those pebbles that were used as jewelry. Its size wasparable to some of therger boulders Sato had seen on the [Staircase to Zolstice]. An estimated measurement ced the crystal at a width of 8 metres! As for its height, this was indiscernible since a majority of the crystal was lodged into the ceiling. However, the crystal surely exceeded 2 metres as this was the height of the exposed part.

    With the illumination from both the me torches and the crystal, the entire hall was well-lit, to the point that Sato could see more than 15 feet away from himself clearly; a distance that was originally difficult outside.

    The hall was no less than 150 metres in length and 80 metres in width. By the two sides of the wall were five 20 metres tall columns that reached up to the ceiling like spears aimed at the heavens. They acted as a form of support beam for the ceiling and on these columns were a bunch of miniature luminous blue gems inid within them that offered a bit of lighting to the ce. The gems followed a specific pattern that added a sense of aesthetic beauty to the columns.

    On the walls behind the columns were murals and carvings of ancient gods, demons, and spirits. The theme asionally changed from a battle zone to a ughter fest and then a pious depiction. It was as if the murals were describing a certain story or maybe even a personal experience. Sadly though, Sato had no interest in these murals.

    This wasn''t to say that there weren''t precious to him as they might be able to offer him some hints on the Caventry''s origin. The point here was that from the beginning since he stepped into the hall, apart from the luminous(luminescent) crystal on the ceiling that managed to attract his attention for a while, Sato''s eyes had only been directed in front of him.

    Right in front of Sato, at the other end of the hall, was a majestic throne that towered at a height of 10 metres, dwarfing Sato''s figure like an adult dwarfed a child. The throne held exquisite patterns, carvings and designs fit for an emperor''s throne. However, unlike the throne of an emperor, there was no regal feeling attached to it. On the contrary, the throne exuded an overbearing heinous aura that seemed to swallow the light in the hall.

    This aura wasn''t like the evil aura from the ck Jade gate but felt like the aura of a bloodthirsty savage; the same aura one would feel from the hands of a man who had bathed in the blood of thousands. This was the aura of a killer and not your average one, but of one who had walked the battlefield alone, ying all who came before him till his eyes went red from the death and blood. The aura of one who had washed his hands with the blood of thousands upon thousands of creatures, both man and monster, and had participated in the drinking of this same blood that came from various races. This was the aura of a true-born killer, a harbinger of death, destruction, ughter, and bloodshed. This was the aura of the emperor of Carnage.

    And seated right on the throne, was the utter personification of that being.

    [[ System notification :

    You have encountered the guardian of the first sector; Emperor of carnage and bloodlust, [Blood king Varg].

    ]]

 Chapter 271 - 265 : [Blood King Varg]

    [[ System notification :

    You have encountered the guardian of the first sector; Emperor of carnage and bloodlust, [Blood king Varg].

    ]]

    ''Guardian of the first sector, Blood king Varg¡­'' Sato frowned as he stared at the sinister existence in front of him.

    [Blood King Varg] looked to be a kind of demon or a demon-kin at least. He had blood red skin and ck silky hair. It had two horns that protruded from its forehead, making it look like a demon from hell. Its biceps were huge and filled with explosive power. Inparison, those of body-builders from the real world looked like a kid''s arm in its presence. The monster was d in metal armour and a 5 metres long great-sword, reminiscent of a buster sword, was lodged on the ground and standing upright just beside the throne; the exact metal for either the armour or the sword unknown.

    Apart from its look, there was a misty red smoke that covered it; easily noticeable even under the blue light. This was the extreme condensation of its aura giving birth to the manifestation of to a material form.

    Even from far out, Sato could still sense the massive and imposing aura from it. Despite the high mana concentration here, Sato still felt that the air reeked of the nauseous smell of blood, and in truth, he wasn''t wrong. This smell wafted from the throne underneath Varg and had a light metallic taste to it.

    A closer look beneath the throne and Sato noticed that a small stream of blood circled the throne. The stream was around 2 metres in width and circled a distance of at least 10 metres round the macabre throne. Even though he didn''t know the depths of the stream, Sato believed that the amount of blood needed to produce that unending flow could only be supplied from the bodies of more than 200 people. And for it to affect the mana-blessed air and stain it with such a horrid smell, at least blood from a 100 people would do, if not 200. To be able to massacre so many people just to form a stream of blood as a form of decoration could only be described as madness and savagery. (browse how much gallons of blood a human has).

    ''Why is there such an existence here? I thought the challenge was only to find the exit?'' Sato frowned.

    From what the voice earlier had said, all Sato needed to do was to find the exit or toe within a certain distance of it before the deadline was up and he would simply pass. There was no mention about any sector guardians or fights neither was there any mention of a reward being attached to ughtering them otherwise, Sato would have gone on a hunting spree in thebyrinth.

    ''Now that I think about it, the same could be said with the first challenge. There was no mention about any monsters but I still encountered them. Also, this makes sense. I was wondering why the Caventry would use a challenge of luck to find a sessor but with this in the mix, it''s a bit eptable.'' Sato thought as he analyzed the monster for a weakness.

    From the aura it radiated, alongside the system notification that introduced it, Sato felt it a must to y this monster. Since he had already discovered it, he might as well do so. Who knows, there might be a hidden reward attached to killing it and if he were to retreat here and now, he might regret it.

    ''But wait, don''t tell me that the exit isn''t actually located within this sector but on the next, or maybe another?'' Sato frowned.

    ''Considering that the notification called this the first sector, I''m guessing there are others. The question however is how many.''

    ''Also, did the mission refer to the exit of this sector or the main exit of the entirebyrinth? If that is the case, does that mean I have to defeat this monster to get to the next sector and still face another guardian?'' Thinking this far, Sato''s face twisted a bit as he realized that he might be right.

    It wasn''t that Sato was afraid of battle but he had spent way too much time wandering this area. He had already utilized over half of the allocated time just to find this monster. If there was another sector, which there certainly was, how long would it take him to find the guardian for that area? Unless if his luck was really good, there was no way he would use anything less than 9 hours. Even if he had a heaven-defying luck, it would still take at least 6 hours of journeying after all, this guardian wasn''t hidden at the edges of thebyrinth but deep inside. The same would most likely be true for the others, if they do exist.

    ''Damn it. Do I really have no fate with the Caventry?''

    Recalling how he had almost failed in the first challenge thanks to the Nightmare Devil and now seeing the situation he was in currently, Sato realized that his luck hadn''t been in the greatest of forms since he started the Main Trials

    ''There''s no use worrying about things. I might as well take this big guy down and do so as quickly as possible. After that, I can then work my way through all of this.'' Sato sighed.

    Most probably due to the fact that Sato was out of its alert range, the Blood king had yet to spot him. Due to this, Sato could be said to hold an advantage over the monster since he had the element of surprise. He could take his time to n out a well thought out strategy that should be effective on it.

    With the resources he had at hand, Sato believed that if he weer to go all out, he should be able to take down the monster. But the key here was if he did go out. From his estimation and guess, Sato believed that there would be another guardian on the next sector and it most likely will be equal to, if not stronger than this one. If he were to go all out here, then he would be nothing more than a siting duck if he were to encounter the next guardian. Hence, Sato had toe up with very effective n that would assure him victory while still preserving a majority of his cards. If he had a team, this would have been very easy, but since he could only depend on himself, Sato had to make sure that he didn''t make any mistake, lest he dies and loses out on the entire Main Trialspletely; losing all the rewards he had racked up here while turning his entire experience here into a waste of time.

    Since he had the element of surprise, and the monster didn''t seem to be waking up any time soon, Sato tried to analyze it from a distance, looking for any open weakness while ncing round the terrain, trying to formte a strategy to defeat the monster. The system notification only gave a title introduction to the monster and not any other information. Since he had yet to engage with the monster in a fight much less cause any damage to it, the [Inspect] skill was practically useless. Hence, Sato had to rack his head and think of any and every possible body part or ability that could be a weakness.

    After just 5 minutes since stepping through the ck Jade gate and encountering the Blood king, Sato''s eyes glistened as he came to a decision.

    ''I think this will work.''

 Chapter 272 - 266 : Engaging [Blood King Varg]

    The Blood king [Varg] was a bloodthirsty monster that lived for carnage and ughter. While it had a somewhat humanoid appearance, it wasn''t a human. Just the horns alone proved this, alongside the crimson coloured skin.

    Sitting on the 10 metres tall throne, its true height was unknown, but an estimate would put it at 7 metres at the very least. The height alone made it a difficult monster for Sato face off against on his own.

    The power-packed muscles that buffed out explosively were another will-breaker for anyone who wanted to face off against the monster. It was no overstatement to say that a full-powered punch from one of those arms was on par with a speeding truck. In fact, it might actually be more powerful. Despite knowing this, Sato still decided to face the monster.

    The first reason was simply because Sato had a gut feeling that defeating the monster would help increase his rating for the mission and maybe even help him pass the trial or at least give him a hint on how to do so. This belief came from both his instincts as a pro gamer and also the system notification that popped up all of a sudden. Sato had a vague feeling that it did so to hint at the monster''s importance.

    If even the game''s in-built system was hinting to the importance of the monster, why would he let such a golden goose go free? In the end however, it all came down to whether or not Sato could defeat it.

    Taking slow and silent steps, towards the Blood king, Sato tried to close in on the Blood king and deal a sneak attack on it before it awakens. Since he didn''t know its alert range, Sato could move slowly, hoping that his miniature and steady actions wouldn''t alert it in any way.

    ''Almost¡­''

    At this time, Sato was just 30 metres away from the monster. For mages or [Rangers], 25 metres is their average attack range while the experts and pros were capable of attacking from 30 metres tops, both due to their amazing skill and good equipment. If were Fudo were here, he would have been able to coordinate with Sato and attack from this distance. Sadly, he wasn''t and Sato was also a physical ss, meaning he had be within at least 2 metres range f the monster to make a hit.

    Of course, Sato didn''t believe that he coulde within 2 metres of the Blood king and it wouldn''t notice him. In fact, Sato doubted he could make it to the 10 metres radius but that 30 metres might still be possible. His n was to get just close to that distance or at least, only 20 metres away from the Blood king and he would use [Astral de] on it. He still had two of them left and considering the fact that whatid before him was a guardian, Sato didn''t mind using one.

    The skill was very powerful and using it as an opener and for a sneak attack was definitely worth it because, if used well enough, it would deal considerable damage to the monster and give Sato the advantage in the uing battle. So long as Sato could deal the maximum damage possible in one hit and hopefullynd a critical hit, he could then slowly grind the monster to death.

    ''Almost¡­'' Sato held his breath as he walked within 30 metres radius of the blood king.

    Infinite Realm had been on for a while now and a lot of yers had discovered certain behavioral patterns in various monsters. For instance, most boss level monsters have a sensory range of 20-30 metres. Depending on the monster''s rank, if a yer were to make a single sound within this range, even if they were to breathe loudly, the monster would discover their presence if it were awake. But if the monster were asleep, the sensory range was limited to 10 metres. It was because of this that Sato didn''t have any hope ofing that close.

    If it were a normal monster, Sato could simply dash straight at it with his top speed and with his somewhat high [Agility], he would have a high chance ofnding a hit just before the monster would react. However, facing this monster that he knew nothing about, Sato didn''t have faith in that strategy. Just the aura alone was more than enough to scare him a bit.

    ''Here should be good.''

    About 23 or so metres away from the Blood king, Sato paused and nced at the monster in front of him.

    The reason he didn''t proceed any further despite the standard sensory range for a monster being between 10-15 metres was because he didn''t want to underestimate the monster. The Blood king was without a doubt, by aura, the strongest monster Sato had faced, second only to the Kobold king. In some aspects, it was even stronger than the Kobold king''s. Compared to the Kobold king''s overbearing aura, the Blood king had a cruel and savage aura that made breathing a bit difficult. Of course, having a stronger aura didn''t mean it was stronger than the Kobold king. After all, there was no way the Trials would pit such a powerful monster against Sato. That wouldn''t be a trial anymore but just torment or a disy of oppression.

    Grasping his sword with both hands, Sato calmed his breath and tried to slow it down as much as possible. This was to prevent the Blood King from detecting him once he attacked. One should know that [Astral de] was a shy skill so the very second Sato releases it, the Blood King would most likely sense iting. To prevent this, Sato had to be at his peak and attack with the best of his ability. He had to perform with not 100% but 120% off his strength if not 200%.

    Sato took a stance with his sword ced horizontally before him.

    ''[Astral¡­''

    Mobilizing his aura to the highest and focusing it on his sword,. At this very instant, Sato''s aura was at its peak and he was in his strongest form so far. With no hesitation in his movements, Sato activated the weapon''s skill and shed out.

    ''...de]!''

    A 2 metres long dazzling arc of light in the form of a curved moon shot out from Sato''s sword and headed straight towards the Blood king [Varg]. The curved light was mesmerizing to the eyes and felt ethereal as if it didn''t belong in this world. But beneath that mesmerizing arc was a hidden killing intent, a power capable of cutting through whatever stood in its way.

    The speed of the arc was insane and almost. Within a sh, it had gone past 10 metres and would soonnd on its target.

    It was at this moment that the Blood king, [Varg], lifted his eye lids.

 Chapter 273 - 267 : Fighting [Blood King Varg]

    Just as the Blood king, [Varg], lifted his eye lid, an insurmountable pressure descended in the hall. It was as if a demon god had descended upon the mortal realm as a suffocating blood aura suffused through the entire hall.

    At this moment, Sato didn''t bother to wait and see if the [Astral de] made contact. He turned around and took to his heels as if he tried to create more distance between himself and the Blood king.

    The aura it exuded at that point made Sato realise something; he wasn''t its match in directbat. Luckily, Sato had already made ns for this.

    At the moment, right before Sato retreated, the dazzling arc of light that had was released from his sword which was the embodiment of the [Astral de] skill, had already approached the Blood king. As it did so, the arc released the entirety of its energy.

    If the light was like a highlypressed sh of energy barely giving off any energy signal, then it was now like a resplendent arc of light that glistened within the hall. The aura it gave off alone at that very second was one that sent danger signals to the Blood king. Even though it was much stronger than Sato, this move of his threatened it considerable. It was because of this that the Blood king had woken when the attack was within 10 metres of it.

    Despite waking up just before the sword arc arrived, it was toote. The speed the vivid sword arc moved at was very fast and this was easily seen from the fact that it had crossed no less than 10 metres within an instant. Even with the Blood king awakening, there was just less than 10 metres between it and the arc which was easily crossed by the attack within a second.

    The Blood King wanted to react and block the attack but its weapon was a few metres away from it. While it could stretch out its hand and grab the sword, once it did so, the attack woulde before it could make any move.

    In response to this tricky situation, the Blood king lifted its left hand and ced it in a guard position before it, intending to use the arm and to block the attack. It then stretched out its right hand towards the sword. The n of the Blood king was to make make an attack right after it blocked the one before it. The reason behind this was to prevent the attacker from getting the upper hand and forcing it to be on defense.

    This n was one of the most logical option as the arm it used to defend had a guard wrapped around it and the muscles on the arm would also provide some defensive measures, preventing the attack from causing too much of a damage. But as they say, man proposes and heaven opposes. The same applied for monsters too.

    [Critical Hit]

    -243 (???/??? Blood king Varg''s HP)

    "Arggggh!"

    Varg had underestimated the power behind the sh as the attack wasn''t a regr one from Sato but one that had more than 120% of his focus and strength attached to it.

    It should be recalled that Sato''s [Strength] attribute was at 20 points and with the extra 14 points of [Strength] and 25 points of Attack power, he got from his equipment, his damage could be said to be amongst the top of his ss. Apart from a few strength-obsessed psychos and some others exceptions, Sato could be said to be the most strongest in terms of offense, not just for the [Swordsman] ss but for the two jobs of Specialists and Warriors, which constituted the entire physical sses. Sato was even capable of rivalling the top [Assassins] in terms of damage when they use their ss'' trump skill.

    Not just that, but the skill [Astral de] dealt damage not just based on Sato''s attack power but also the special effects of Astral points, which were the quantification of the special energy collected from the stars. The increase in damage brought by this energy wasn''t specified as it could vary based on certain hidden conditions, one of which was the potential of [Astral Might] and the user''s state upon activation.

    When Sato had used [Astral de], his focus was at its highest as his breath was concentrated in one flow. Even the aura from [Astral Might] was influenced by him and gathered into the sword. The end result was that the multiplication factor of the Astral points on the skill''s damage, was at its highest.

    In other words, if on normal asions the skill [Astral de] had an additional 30% boost in Attack power, then when Sato used it just now, it had a 60% increase in Attack power! This was double the usual standard!

    When applied on his already high Attack power, the damage of this skill was beyond anything a yer could do with their own ability. When added with the increased damage from the attack being a critical hit, this had resulted in Sato making a new record for himself for the highest damage caused in a single attack.

    A bone-deep injury was left on the spot where Sato''s sh had made its mark. It was very gruesome to see and it was still bleeding profusely. Even for the Blood king whose height was estimated at 7 metres or so, the injury on its arm wasn''t simple.

    -101

    -89 (???/??? Blood king Varg''s HP)

    The remnant energy from the sh broke off from the main body that was impeded by the arm and attacked the Blood king''s main body. However, the armour it wore wasn''t for show as it blocked off a majority of the force from the spige. The remainder, though it caused harm to it, didn''t do as much as its original counterpart. However, it was still higher than what most yers could do if they were in his shoes.

    Overhearing the monster''s roar, Sato turned his head behind and clicked his tongue at the sight of the monster''s injuries.

    "It would have been better if your entire arm got sliced off."

    At the same time though, Sato was shocked at the amount of damage his one attack had caused. It was almost 50% stronger than his strongest base attack with [Horizontal sh]. When added with thest two blows, it was already double the damage of his strongest attack! And this was after the monster''s defense had kicked in. Supposing the Blood king had no armour or defensive abilities, the damage would have been more.

    ''If only I can replicate it so easily.'' Sato sighed.

    While thinking so, he didn''t forget to use [Inspect] on the Blood king to be cognizant of its stats.. As they say, know your enemy and victory would be close at hand.

 Chapter 274 - 268 : Fighting [Blood King Varg] 2

    ''[Inspect].''

    [[ System interface :

    Blood King [Varg] (Weakened Avatar''s projection) (Elite)

    Race : Demon-kin

    Bloodline : ???

    Level : 10

    HP : 1567/2000

    Physical Attack Power : 120 (+60)

    Magical attack power : 30

    Physical Defense : 30 (+25)

    Magical Defense : 17 (+25)

    Attack Speed : 34 (-5)

    Movement Speed : 25 (-5)

    Attributes

    Strength : 30

    Endurance : 30

    Vitality : 200

    Agility : 15

    Dexterity : 13

    Intelligence : 15

    Willpower : 17

    System Description : Attributes in () are equipment effects.

    Skills :

    Demon Bloodline : Passive Skill : Stronger regenerative abilities, endurance, health and greater attack power.

    Mana Cirction : Passive Skill : 10% increase in defense against magic attacks.

    Blood Aura : Passive Skill : Being a king of the battlefield, user exudes an aura of carnage and ughter, drowning it''s opponent in its bloodlust. When used to the fullest, a domain is formed.

    Duration of domain : 1 minute.

    Cool-down for domain use : 1 hour.

    Blood sh : Active Skill : Releases a sh that contains a bloody aura, which affects the mind, and destructive abilities, which affects the body. Attack power increased by 40%. If sessfully blocked, the attack explodes upon contact with the object. Explosion wields 140% of User''s attack power as force and contains a push-back effect.

    Cool-down : 3 seconds.

    Twister sh : Active Skill : sh out an attack that envelopes the target and form a whirlpool, trapping them within. Damage is received over time and damage value is at 120% of user''s Attack power.

    Cool-down : 5 seconds.

    Blood re : Active Skill : One nce to send the target to a world of ughter, carnage and torment. Basic damage calcted with Magical Attack Power as base. Damage dealt is dependent on difference between user''s and target''s [Willpower]. the greater the difference, the greater the damage.

    Cool-down : 7 seconds.

    Blood Wave : Active Skill : With user as centre, unleash a blood wave that spreads out to a radius of 10 metres with a push-back effect and hallucinatory effect. Attack power at 140% of Magical Attack Power.

    Cool-down : 7 seconds.

    ]]

    As Sato nced at the stats, he was surprised by what he had seen. Unlike the usual attributes of most monsters, the Blood king''s was different, if not special.

    First was the fact that there were two new features in the results, one of which was its Race and the other its bloodline. The [Inspect] skill usually didn''t disy the race or bloodline of most monsters. This wasn''t to say that they didn''t have any but instead, the information was unusable and didn''t count as basic by the system.

    To put it in another way, the [Inspect] skill was a skill that could identify and quantify the strength of an opponent upon activation. In a way, this skill could be said to be a godly feature as knowing one''s opponent would help one to win a battle so the System applied limitations to the skill. First was the fact that yers would have to injure the target first before they could use the skill. Second was that only basic information would be revealed. Regarding this, bloodline and race weren''t generally revealed and if one wanted to discover this, they would have to get the subss, [Appraiser] that helped in identifying things and would increase the ability of the [Inspect] skill.

    In summary, the [Inspect] skill only offered basic information about one''s opponent in regards to a battle. So apart from battle-rted attributes, skills, level, tier and monster name, nothing else was usually revealed. So, Sato was surprised to see the two information of Race and Bloodline in the skill''s result.

    What even caught his attention further was the fact that the Bloodline section only contained question marks. This meant that even with the [Inspect] skill, Sato couldn''t see through it. For him to do so, he either had to get the [Appraiser] subss and boost his [Inspect] skill or find a simr but high level skill. However,none of these options were avable at the minute.

    Another thing that surprised Sato was the fact that the Blood king possessed equipment that could boost its ability. This was really shocking as this was the first ever monster Sato had encountered to have such.

    While it was true that other monsters did indeed possess weapons and equipment, for example the kobolds, those weapons and equipment couldn''t make it to the official ssification of weapons and equipment. In other words, they were failed goods in the eyes of cksmiths. Those were usually products of metal-smiths and they barely made it to the low tier Mortal rank, which a majority of the works being Common.

    Common rank weapons and equipment was an unofficial rank given to weapons or equipment that couldn''t make it to the Low tier Mortal rank. Stuffs like average kitchen knives, a farmer''s rake and so on where counted as Common. They couldn''t directly increase one''s attributes and only maintained their basic features. For instance, while a regr kitchen knife couldn''t boost one''s stats, it still possessed the ability to sh and cut, and so, could still cause damage.

    Most monsters so far, used Common rank weapons. This was why Sato was surprised at the fact that the Blood king wielded a true blue Mortal rank equipment.

    ''And looking at the boost in attributes, it should be a Mid tier Mortal rank at the least or even an Upper tier.''

    "Roar!!!"

    Varg gripped its sword as it nced at the retreating figure.

    With a step, it propelled its body forward, chasing after Sato with the buster sword still held in its hands. Interestingly enough,its speed seemed to be simr to Sato.

    ''No. It''s a bit faster.'' Sato frowned.

    Luckily though, he had retreated just before the Blood king could make its move so there was still some distance between them.

    "Die!" Varg suddenly roared, its voice like the promation of a demon from the depths of hell.

    ''It can talk?!''

    Sato was shocked but wasn''t overly surprised. Most of the boss monsters he had faced so far all seemed to have the capability to engage in a conversation with yers.

    Just as it spoke, the Blood king shed its 5 metres long sword at Sato. As it did so, a red gleam formed on the sword which eventually separated from it and arced its way towards Sato.

    It looked a lot like Sato''s [Astral de] and was roughly as fast as it too, the difference being that the attack''s length was much longer and it also contained a ferocious bloody aura that reeked of death and destruction.

    [Blood sh]

    ''Shit.''

    ncing behind him, Sato saw the speeding red beam filled with killing intent, rushing towards him. A second hadn''t gone by and the beam was just a few metres away from Sato. With the length and speed of the attack, unless Sato had a teleportation spell or skill, dodging it was impossible.

    ''[Parry]!''

    Sato swung his sword at the beam, intent on blocking it with his sword.

    *Boom*

    -32 (118/150 Sato''s HP)

    The red arc exploded upon contact and force behind the explosion passed through Sato''s armour not only injuring him but also tossing him into the air.

    *Thud*

    -3 (115/150 Sato''s HP)

    Sato sucked in cold air as he tried to withstand the pain from the hard fall. Luckily, his body''s defense was strong so he didn''t lose much HP from that. The same also went for the explosion. Since it had to go through the armour, the damage of the force was much weaker than it was supposed to be so.

    ''Just some spige caused this much damage even with my armour.'' Sato frowned.

    The attack just then, wielded the force of both the Blood king''s Physical and Magical Attack power. As a result, despite the explosion containing only 60% of this, the damage wasn''t something that average yers could handle so easily. Even with thebined effects of Sato''s Physical and Magical defense adding up to contend against the explosion, he still lost a sizeable amount of HP.

    One should recall that this was with Sato having blocked the attack. If it were a direct hit, even with the armour, the damage would have been on another level.

    ''Too strong.''

    Sato believed that if he were to pick between facing the Kobold chief once again or the Blood king, he would undoubtedly choose the former. He even had this feeling that if the two were to go head-to-head, the Blood king would run over the Kobold chief.

    Maybe it was his imagination or something else but Sato felt that most monsters in here were much stronger than their main world counterparts. He suspected that it had to do with the fact that this world was possibly different from the one ''outside''.

    Sato referred to the world where all the other yers were as the outside world because he ever since he stepped into the [Bloodfall Lands], Sato felt that he had entered a whole new world. Starting from the just before the Entry trials begun at Versuchsgr¨¹nde till here at [The Labyrinth of Helios], Sato had this instinctual feeling that all these locations were not part of the world ''outside''. And actually, there was a bit of sense to it. Versuchsgr¨¹nde, ording to Saimon, was created by Lord Worrus; a being who wielded the power of space better than any mortal and only beneath the gods. For such a legendary individual, making a separate realm that was independent of the main universe shouldn''t be impossible. Even if it was, cutting a piece ofnd and separating it from the main universe would be.

    ''I need to find a way to take it down fast.''

    Even after Sato hadnded hard on the floor, he didn''t remain lying. He had picked himself up a while ago and began running once more.

    In other for Sato to win, he had to avoid closebat with the Blood king and try and whittle down his HP. But as a closebatant, if he couldn''t get within reach of the Blood king, it would be extremely difficult if nor impossible for him to cause any damage. But Sato had already made ns.

    ''Almost there..'' Sato''s eyes glinted with mischief.

 Chapter 275 - 269 : The Advantage Of A Subclass

    Even before he had engaged the Blood king, Sato already knew that he wasn''t its match in directbat. If he had a team or even a partner, then things would have been a lot more easier. Sadly, the Main trials seemed to be a solo-based challenge.

    So, if Sato couldn''t face it, then how was he supposed to defeat it?

    The answerid in Sato''s setup.

    ''First one!''

    When Sato was 75 metres away from the other end of the hall, which also happened to be where he came in from, he suddenly swung his sword out and pointed it at a certain spot in the hall. His movements seemed silly as even after 2 seconds, nothing happened.

    However, as the Blood king passed the same ce Sato pointed at, a brilliant orange light gleamed from the spot and exploded towards the Blood king. There wasn''t just one sh but 4 from the four cardinal directions. One from each side which included in front and behind of the monster.

    At this point in time, Sato, who was about 15 metres away, had stopped and faced the Blood king with his two hands joined up to form a seal.

    ''Array activate. [4-directional st]!''

    From the four directions of the Blood king, from the exact position the orange lights gleamed from, 4 ming pirs jutted out from thin air and headed towards the monster. Upon their appearance, the temperature in a 10 metres radius pf the beams had distinctly increased by a couple of degrees as even Sato who was still out of reach felt the effects.

    From the directions and the patterns the attacks took, they didn''t just dart towards the Blood king but also sealed any possible point of escape. In other words, the attacks were impossible to dodge. This was all due to Sato''s meticulous arrangements, battle sense and experience.

    "Got you." Sato smirked.

    *Boom*

    The 4 ming pirs struck the Blood king and exploded upon contact, creating zing inferno that lighted up the air and sparked the temperature up by a few points once more. Thebined explosion of the four zing pirs at one point, had formed a gigantic me that upied 4 metres of space with the Blood king right in the centre, and increased the lighting in the hall by more than 3 times what it previously was.

    "Howl!"

    -21

    -27

    -17

    [Critical Hit]

    -84 (1418/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    The explosion of the 4 pirs took the Blood king as the centre and as a result, had forced it to a stop. Because the explosion was too loud and the mes too bright, the figure of the Blood king couldn''t be made out as the best Sato saw was a hazy figure shrouded within the mes. The only thing he could sense, were the loud howls of the Blood king which seemed like it writhed in pains within the mes.

    ''It seems to have a bit of effect.'' Sato smiled as he saw the damage values popping up on his interface.

    Originally, Sato didn''t expect the fire array to do much damage and only cause few scars to the monster. However, the results he saw now were much better than expected. The column that fired from the left even caused greater damage to the monster as the spot it struck happened to be the location of the injury on the Blood king''s left arm; the very same bone-deep injury that was left behind by Sato''s [Astral de].

    While the total attacks were a bit below 150 in damage, one shouldn''t look down on them. The only reason the ming beams didn''t do much damage was because the Blood king had perverse defence, surpassing that of the Rock Golems and kobolds. But for it to still cause that much damage was already impressive and there was still the fact that as the monster was wrapped/wrought in mes, it would receive constant damage over time.

    [me DoT] (AN : DoT : gaming term meaning Damage over Time)

    -10 (14o8/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    ''One shouldn''t underestimate any subss just because of the prefix ''sub''.'' Sato thought as he recalled the origin of the array.

    Infinite Realm aimed to mimic reality and mix it in with fantasy as much as possible, hence there existed so many subsses tat it was rumored that yers have only touched 3% of the existing ones. What was even more daunting was the fact that this 3% consisted of more than 75 subsses. While they were called subsses by the yers, the official name tagged to these sses were ''lifestyle sses''. This was because these sses didn''t directly influence battles and were mostly mimics of a few careers in reality to enable various kinds of yers enjoy the game how they see fit. In other words, just like in reality where one could be a banker, an engineer, a farmer or even a pop star, the same could actually be replicated in-game.

    Because of the various different types of lifestyle sses that existed, The trend and belief that these sses were unusable in battle spread, and honestly, it was true. Just think about it, what could a farmer possibly do in a battle against a legendary beast? Harvest some crops before he gets ripped to shreds? Even for the supportive ones like a cksmith or an alchemist, who could create certain equipment or potions that could affect the bnce of a battle, against an overwhelming and truly strong opponent, they were useless.

    It was because of this fact that the battle hardened yers didn''t bother on getting a subss. Unlike with Fudo, when he had to just read a book and receive his reward, or with Sato, where he already got his reward right after registering, the difficulty of getting a subss had increased by multiple folds. The Alchemy guild didn''t just let anyone be an apprentice as not only did they have toplete the basic alchemy manuals but they also had to seed in concocting a Simple grade potion of the lowest tier. Even the cksmith guild didn''t let new examinees free as they had to create a Low tier Mortal Rank weapon, even if it was of the lowest caliber. It was as if the simple trials for Sato and Fudo was a ''Bonanza period'' for the yers where they wouldn''t need to do much and will still get their subss plus the System rewards. But with the ''Bonanza period'' now over, the difficulty had increased.

    This, added with the fact that subsses didn''t do much to a yer''sprehensive strength, made quite a lot of people abandon the thought of getting one. The lure of having an extra level''s worth of attribute points might sound nice, but when facing a real expert, it might not do much. Rather, the improvements and boosts gotten from equipment and weapons were a lot more attractive. So rather than spend a couple of hours, if not days, trying to pass a some ''silly'' exams, most yers would rather go to the fields and grind monsters, increasing their strength and also making a killing in fortune.

    Even the yers who had subsses eventually ignored them as their original intention for doing so was just for the extra level''s worth of attribute points. Since their goal had been achieved, ''why waste more effort and time more on what they deemed unnecessary?'' was the thought in the minds of these yers. And so, the poprity of lifestyle sses had taken a big drop and very few yers still bothered with getting one.

    However, the same didn''t go for Sato''s crew. Sato made it his mission that everyone of them, almost a half of them did. While the others had yet to select theirs, they did get to learn a lot about them and practice it so as to get familiar with them. A good example was Xue Yan, who took a liking to the [Scribe] subss and had spent 5 days (RT) which tranted to 10 days (IGT) on inscription.

    While it was true that most of those days weren''t solely spent on the subss, a majority of them were. With the facilities and equipment of the Great Hall of Grey Chains, Xue Yan''sprehension of the subss advanced rapidly.

    ''The strength of these runes are pretty impressive. Against monster under level 10, they should be capable of doing massive damage. If they could be mass produced, we could make a huge sum.'' Sato''s eyes glinted as he thought of the future.

    Even though they did make quite a lot after defeating the Kobold chief, the team still had to spend a lot. This was especially so for Sato and Xue Yan, who had to make preparations for the Main trials and this tranted to spending a lot of money.

    The library of the Great Hall of Grey Chains had so many collections rted to various subsses and even books on the various Runenguages were there. While the knowledge on rtively newnguages like the human race''s man were limited, that of ancientnguages like the Gregorian runenguage were moreplete. As a result, Xue Yan started from a much higher vantage point that most yers who studied runes did. The advantage of this was that her progress would be much faster and the strength of her runes greater, whereas the disadvantageid in the difficulty in both learning and drawing rune. At times, Xue Yan even used Runenguages of the Ancients, Elves and Dragons as reference.

    With 10 days worth of time, Xue Yan had of course made sufficient progress that she was able to draw basic runes, and because the runes were drawn in Gregorian, the power within them was much stronger than average runes; at least stronger than the one Miss Trevale drew back then during Sato''s cksmith ss. In other words, though Xue Yan hadn''t take the official Runes guild exam, she was currently the most proficient Runes-master and the strongest in terms of Runes.

    ''I have toplete this trial and get an excellent result by all means.'' Sato strengthened his resolve.

    The Caventry''s knowledge bank, aka library, was astounding and the records they had were immense and varied, ranging frombat knowledge to nonbat info. So long as one had the time and energy, they could be able to master all subsses from the books alone and also practice them out in the research area. They could also learn a bunch of skills and be unhindered within the entire gaming world, so long as they don''t encounter a terrifying NPC. From this alone, the strength of the Caventry at their peak could be imagined.

    If one could seed and make all of this as theirs'', raising a mighty force in Infinite Realm would only be a matter of time.

    And this was just the effects of owning the library, one can only imagine what else the Great Hall of Grey Chains held. It should be known that while Sato and the others did indeed have ess to a majority of the facilities in the tower, they didn''t have ess to the all of them, especially the true core facilities. Like the arsenal, the Central control room or even the Demon god''s son''s seal. They could only be able to ess this ces once theyplete the Trials and inherit the ce.

    "And for that to happen, you have to die, big guy.." Sato faced the burning figure.

 Chapter 276 - 270 : Sato Vs Blood King Varg

    *Woo* *Voo* (AN : Modified sound of zing mes.)

    ''I guessed it wouldn''t do much but this is even worse than I hoped for.'' Sato thought as he stared at the monster in front of him with a solemn expression.

    The Blood king was still wrapped in mes, however, a blood-red mist seeped out from its body, slowly quenching the mes. Even the DoT from the mes had stopped thanks to the presence of the red mist.

    "Huhhhhh." Varg breathed out loudly as its crimson eyes took on a deeper sheen.

    ''I guess the big guy''s angry.''

    Sato faced the Blood king but he didn''t n on taking it on, yet at least. Just by the aura alone, the Blood king''s strength was beyond his. The only way Sato could contend with it was either he went all out; which Sato didn''t n on doing yet, or he weakened it to a level he could handle.

    The second option was the one Sato chose and he nned to achieve this with the help of Xue Yan''s arrays.

    "Come on big guy. I didn''t think you were so weak. Look, just one shot, and you''re all messed up. And you''re supposed to be a king for crying out loud." Sato mocked from a distance.

    "Roar!"

    Varg yelled as it gripped the buster sword with both hands and swung it down at Sato.

    [Twister sh]

    A blood-red gust of air charged towards Sato with terrifying momentum. It was like a mini-tornadoprised of a bunch of wind des that werepacted within a certain area. If this ce weren''t the [Labyrinth of Helios] but the outside world, this gale would be able to tear down a couple of trees and create fissures on the ground.

    "Hmph!"

    Sato darted towards the side in a flurry, almost creating a blurry image of himself.

    *Boom*

    The gale attack from the Blood king crashed at Sato''s previous spot, impacting the ground and making an explosive sound. The strange thing, however, was despite the loud sound produced from the collision, the ground didn''t have any dent or mark on it. Even the spot where the Blood king was set aze only had some sparse burnt marks; the explosion from the array didn''t even cause a dent.

    However, Sato didn''t have time to take note of this fact because he was soon to be under harassment by the Blood king who was sprinted towards him.

    "Stth." Sato sucked in cold air as he grasped his sword-wielding arm with force. Right where he did so, at the upper arm, there was a wide cut that was bleeding.

    After having gone through the results of the [Inspect] skill, Sato was prepared for a majority of the attacks of the Blood king but he still underestimated it a bit. This couldn''t be helped as this was the first time he was encountering these skills. As a result, he still got caught by one of the wind des from the attack. The good thing however was that the cut wasn''t so deep so he could handle it. Just a few sips of his health potion would fix it.

    The problem though,id in the fact that the Blood king didn''t seem to want to let him do so.

    With its 7 metres frame, closing a mere 15 metres gap wasn''t difficult especially as it had managed to force Sato to a stop with its [Twister sh].

    "Roar!"

    Apanying the massive frame of the Blood king was its 5 metres buster sword that came swooping down at Sato.

    ''Shit.''

    Sato couldn''t help but curse internally. On the outside, however, he had a calm mind as he prepared to face the sword. He didn''t have much of a choice since he couldn''t dodge the attack.

    "[Parry]"

    By now, the cool-down on the defensive skill was up so Sato resorted to it to block the attack. However, he didn''t put the entirety of his strength into it as he nned to utilize the force of the attack to escape.

    The sword wasing in a downward fashion but by moving towards the side a bit, Sato forced the Blood king to redirect the sword towards him. The end result was that the sword no longer came down vertically but diagonally.

    While this didn''t seem to change things much, it made it such that Sato could utilise the force of the sword to escape.

    *ng*

    *Bang*

    The two swords collided with a metallic ng, but before the sound could spread past the two, a figure was shot out with a bang.

    *Thud*

    Sato was sent flying by a few metres before he managed to regain his bnce in the air, forcing his feet down and skidding to a stop.

    -25 (90/150 Sato''s HP)

    ''Strong.''

    Sato suppressed the urge to puke out blood as he tried to neutralize the remnant force that left his hand numb.

    Together with the bonuses from his equipment, Sato''s [Strength] was at 34, just 4 points higher than the Blood king''s. However, in terms of Physical Attack power, Sato''s 127 points(102 from [Strength] and 25 from [Astral de), was by far lower than the Blood king''s 180 points. In other words, while in a battle of pure strength, Sato would surpass the Blood king, when utilizing their weapons, the Blood king''s ability was beyond Sato''s. As a result of this, added to the fact that Sato didn''t use the entirety of his strength in blocking, there still arge amount of force that passed through the two swords, flowing from one of them into the other and finally, into Sato''s body.

    Due to the sh between the two, Sato''s HP was closing in on the 50% mark, already at the 60% mark. If he kept on shing head-on with the Blood king, he would eventually die from the force from the attack.

    Sato knew this but since he had to pull some distance from the monster, he had no choice but to take the best possible option, even though it was risky.

    Having achieved his goal, Sato didn''t wait for the Blood king to catch up as he ran forwards once again, heading towards the ''entrance''.

    "You''re alive?" Varg stared at Sato with a hint of surprise in its deep crimson eyes.

    Even though it was surprised at Sato having taken the hit, the Blood king didn''t waste any second as it pursued after Sato once again. However, it didn''t absentmindedly rush ahead as it did before but did so with caution.

    ''Trying the same trick again won''t work.'' Sato frowned as he saw the monster''s behaviour.

    His original intention was to lead it to another array but since it wasn''t as dumb as those random monsters out on the streets, it obviously wouldn''t fall for the same trick so easily again.

    ''In that case, I have to trick it to do so.'' Sato''s eyes glinted as he stopped running and turned around to face it.

    Since he couldn''t fool the Blood king into the other arrays, Sato could only move on to the next step of his n; confrontation.

    ''[Inspect]''

    [[ System interface :

    Blood King [Varg] (Weakened Avatar''s projection) (Elite)

    Race : Demon-kin

    Bloodline : ???

    Level : 10

    HP : 1393/2000

    Physical Attack Power : 120 (+60)

    Magical attack power : 30

    Physical Defense : 30 (+25)

    Magical Defense : 17 (+25)

    Attack Speed : 34 (-5)

    Movement Speed : 25 (-5)

    Attributes

    Strength : 30

    Endurance : 30

    Vitality : 200

    Agility : 15

    Dexterity : 13

    Intelligence : 15

    Willpower : 17

    . . .

    ]]

    The me DoT had gone on for 6 and a half seconds, eliminating a total of 25 HP from the monster''s health bar. While this didn''t do as much as Sato''s fanciful first few strikes, it still causes simr damage with the array strikes. In fact, the special feature of the arrayid in the burning mes that would engulf the target. Sadly, due to the Blood king''s strength, the mes didn''t couldn''t do much damage and also couldn''tst much.

    ''There''s still a lot of health.'' Sato looked sullen as he nced at his interface.

    "Oh well, I might as well use this chance to exercise my muscles." Sato tightened his grip on his sword while he held a Health potion with the other hand. Just before the Blood king could reach him, Sato emptied the contents in his mouth, recovering 30 HP to his pretty much-endangered health.

    The health potion was cheaper than the usual ones so the effects were much limited but still effective.

    "This should be able to make me hold on for one extra attack." Sato muttered as the 7 metres figure came within 5 metres distance from him.

    "Die!"

    With a swing of its 5 metres buster sword, Varg cleaved towards Sato, intent on cutting him in half with this strike.

    Unlike the previous one, this attack was in a horizontal direction making it so that Sato couldn''t easily dodge it. Also, it was prepared for the event that Sato would try to exploit its attack to escape just like he did before. The very second such would happen, it would chase after Sato and at the same time, use a long-range attack on him while he is still in the air. Even if Sato were to somehow block it, he would be forced tond quicker and the Blood king would already aim tond the finishing blow.

    This n seemed extremely perfect and it was incredibly horrifying that a ''monster'' was able to think up something like this. If every monster were this smart, most average gamers would suffer heavy losses at their hands, forcing them to quit the game.

    However, Varg seemed to have underestimated the opponent before it. While the target was much weaker than it was, he was a pro yer and not an ordinary one at that.

    "[Linear Strike]"

 Chapter 277 - 271 : Beat-down

    "[Linear Strike]"

    A dazzling light burst out from Sato''s sword as he thrust his weapon at the iing sword with extreme speed. The sword looked like the strike of a master swordsman butcked that extravagant disy and sh most attacks had. Apart from the light that reflected off the de''s surface, the sword looked like a simple straightforward thrust that even a 12-year-old could pull off.

    It was quite strange that Sato had such a move. Considering the size of the Blood king''s buster sword, a sh would have been more effective than a thrust in this situation.

    Comparing the two different attacks was likeparing a mop stick with a horse-ying de. Not only was the difference obvious at first sight, but the momentum of the 2 attacks differed by far. However, that didn''t stop Sato from going forward with his attack neither did he dither in his actions. Even so, from an outside view, Sato''s actions looked like ast stand.

    *ng*

    All of a sudden, something incredible urred.

    At that instant, Sato''s sword struck the body of the Blood king''s weapon but it wasn''t forced back. On the contrary, it not only held its ground but seemed to be forcing the buster sword backward.

    "What-"

    Before Varg could react to the change, the sword in its hand was forced back by Sato as a ray of light shot out from Sato''s strike and stabbed it on the chest, pushing it back by a couple of steps.

    -53 (1340/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    ''It''s stronger than I imagined.'' Sato thought as he saw the effects of hisst attack.

    The move [Linear Strike] was one of the 2 skills Sato had gotten from Saimon as a reward for passing the Achiever''s test and also one of his 4 trump card skills. Ever since he had gotten it, apart from testing out the skill at the training grounds of the Caventry, Sato had never used it against any opponent yet. As one of his trump card skills, it was very precious even though the cool-down wasn''t that long. What made it important was the power of the attack, which could easily change the tide of a battle if used properly, for instance, now.

    On a normal asion, the strength and attacking prowess of the Blood king surpassed Sato''s by far but with the additional 50% increase to his attack power from the skill, Sato was not only able to match up to the Blood king''s power but even exceed it. This caused the monster to not only be forced back but also get injured by the remnant energy from the attack. Furthermore, the increased prative effect made the attack very effective against Varg''s armour.

    ''But that''s not all.'' Sato''s eyes shed with decisiveness.

    The move just now had forced the Blood king off bnce and made a hole in its defense. As a result, an opportunity was created for Sato to make a clear hit on it. The window of opportunity was small but for a yer of Sato''s caliber, it was more than enough.

    [Sprint]

    *Bang*

    Pressing forward, Sato sped towards the Blood king as he immediately swung his sword once he was in reach.

    Originally, the distance between the two was more than 10 metres but Varg had closed the distance to less than 5 metres when it made its move on Sato. If it had attacked from a distance back then, it wouldn''t have ended up in this position. Now, this move it made had ended up bing its bane as a mere 5 metres distance was nothing to Sato in his base form, much less now he increased his speed with [Sprint].

    "[Horizontal sh]"

    Wielding his sword with both hands, Sato shed at the Blood king, aiming his attack at the point that got hit by the remnant force from [Linear Strike]. His intention was to worsen the injury and also deal the highest possible damage with this hit, hopefullynding a critical blow.

    Because the Blood king was had just lost its bnce and was stunned by Sato''s move, it didn''t react in time against Sato''s follow-up attack. By the time the monster realized it, Sato was already in front of it.

    -128 (1212/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    "Ahhh!"

    *Thud*

    With its footing being lost after the previous strike, Sato''s sword forced the monster to the ground with a heavy thud.

    Instead of following one with another attack, Sato pulled away from it while tossing a few talismans at it.

    ''I hope this works.''

    The talisman Sato tossed were a few experimental works of Xue Yan.

    Even with the warehouse of knowledge known as the library, Xue Yan wasn''t able to master everything regarding her subss so quickly. As the upation was one that required a lot of experiments and practice, dedication and time were essential apart from the vital knowledge. As a result, Xue Yan was only able to focus on developing a few arrays and learning a few runes. The [4-directional st] was one that relied on the fire element, which happened to be her area of specialization, so Xue Yan was able to learn it quickly. However, these talismans were different so not only was Xue Yan''s sess rate low but also the attack power of the talismans varied.

    "[Arcane Spell: Mystical Lock]!"

    Sato activated the floating talismans with a shout.

    *Clink* *Clink*

    Golden lights burst out from the talismans as yellow coloured chains with a sharp hook at the tip, each darted out from the talismans and went for the Blood king. Sato''s moves were wless and continuous, not giving the monster any time to recover so it couldn''t even react in time to this attack.

    One by one, the golden chains pierced the Blood king. When the first one arrived, it collided with the armour on the Blood king and was deflected to the side.

    Failed!

    Seeing this, Sato frowned but didn''t make any move yet as there were still some other chains making their way to the Blood king.

    Failed

    Failed

    -56

    -52

    Failed

    -34

    -94 [Critical Hit]

    Failed

    ¡­

    There were 12 talismans and so 12 chains, but of the 12 chains, only 7 managed to pass through the Blood king''s armour and pierce its skin. 3 of those had aimed for the limbs; one of them on the right leg and the other two pinned down the arms. As for the other 4, they all aimed at the abdominal area with one getting stuck in its heart.

    ''At least the sess rate''s not bad.'' Sato sighed with relief.

    While it was true that through the aid of arrays and other outside help -like equipment and weapons- yers would be able to jump levels, there was still a limit to this otherwise, a level 5 yer would be able to y a level 80 King with a legendary weapon. In other words, there existed a sort of ''natural limit'' within these objects.

    Apart from that, each talisman had to be made separately and with Xue Yan''s barely passable sess rate of doing so, the strength of each one would undoubtedly vary from the other. It was already impressive enough that 7 chains managed to dig themselves within the monster.

    "Human!!!"

    Varg roared with anger.

    One should know that these chains had a certain feature attached to them that made them heavier than they looked. Even for the Blood king, these chains were quite heavy, and with 7 of them stuck in its body, this made things worse.

    "Fu." Sato released a breath of air.

    [[ Blood King [Varg] (Weakened Avatar''s projection) (Elite)

    Race: Demon-kin

    Bloodline : ???

    Level : 10

    HP : 861/2000

    ¡­ ]]

    ''Almost there.''

    A glint shed in Sato''s eyes as he saw the status of the Blood king. He had seeded in taking down the boss'' HP below 50% and was closer to victory. Sadly, however, Sato only had one more array left but it was much weaker than the [Arcane Spell : Mystical Lock] and was also a fixed one(it had to be set in a predetermined location ahead of time). So no matter what, Sato would still have to face the Blood king on his own. The problem though was that he would end up facing an enraged one.

    "Normally I wouldn''t rely on outside help but I''m in a race against time you see. Well, no matter. Time to wrap this up."

    Sato dashed towards the trapped Blood king and delivered a heavy chop at its trapped leg, intent on crippling it. If he seeded in his goal, then the Blood king would be a whole lot less difficult to handle.

    -93 (768/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    "Roar!"

    An ear-piercing roar sounded within the entire hall.

    The sh from Sato was done with his full strength and with the Blood king having lost its mobility, it was no different from amb on the ughter block; being incapable of resistance.

    Its blood-red eyes red at Sato before it shifted its attention towards the floating talismans.

    The talismans looked as light as a feather and it was quite unimaginable that such an object could support those heavy yellow chains.

    As it was pinned to the ground, the Blood king couldn''t easily tug the chains hence, the only way to escape was to force itself up.. However, with the situation it was in, that was very unrealistic.

 Chapter 278 - 272 : World Of Carnage

    "Hmph!"

    -65

    -70 (633/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    With the Blood king pinned down on the ground, Sato dealt damage to it continuously, aiming for the same spot on its leg in hopes of crippling it. With the chains holding it down, the Blood king was like a fish caught in a, with no way to go or route to escape to, but Sato didn''t rx his guard. He was only able tond 2 extra strikes to the [Horizontal sh] before the Blood king reacted to the attack.

    "Roar!"

    [Blood Wave]

    The Blood king released a blood-red energy wave from its body that tugged at the chains.

    -24 (96/150 Sato''s HP)

    While Sato was prepared, he was still knocked back a couple of feet by the energy wave.

    *Clink* *Clink*

    2 of the seven chains that got in were forced out from Varg''s body, one of them being the one stuck close to the heart while the other was the one that pinned down its sword-wielding right hand. Following the removal of the chains, the talismans that held them disintegrated together with the chains attached to them.

    The remaining 5, though weren''t forced out, were already loosened much aspared to before. Without a doubt, if the Blood king were to perform the same skill once more, all the chains would be removed from its body.

    The good news was that the skill was in cool-down, the bad news was that the cool-down wouldn''tst long. The terrible news was that since one of its arms was free, the Blood king could remove the rest with it. And yes, it did exactly so.

    *Clink* *Clink*

    Grabbing its sword with a single hand, the Blood king swept it at the 5 chains at once, cutting right through them like a hot knife through butter. The talismans above disintegrated once they lost the connection and the remnant part of the chain that was still stuck in the Blood king''s body also vanished, just a while after losing connection with the talismans.

    "Tsk." Sato clicked his tongue at the sight.

    He had been hoping that the talismans could hold the monster down for a while but the entire thing crumbled under one move.

    ''It can''t be helped. Not only is there the level difference between the two but Xue Yan is still an apprentice at inscribing runes.''

    While levels didn''t matter much to subsses as much as their ranks do, they were still important. For one to be able to create a true masterpiece work, they would need the necessary ability. A cksmith would require the strength to work with a hammer as well as the stamina tost under the heat and undergo long-term activities. As for a scribe, they would need enough mana to be able to draw moreplicated runes as well as the stamina and fortitude to be able to hold on while doing so. All these were either stats that yers could directly increase as they level up or would naturally as they level up.

    With this limitation on them, even if a yer had the blueprints, recipe, structure, or form for a piece of forbidden god-level equipment, potion, technology, or array, due to the low level they would not be able to produce it.

    So while Xue Yan did have the form and structural patterns for the [Arcane Spell: Mystical Lock], she couldn''t be able to produce it to the highest degree due to her level limitations. Being able to already make one that held the Blood king down for a while was already an achievement that no scribe yer had ever done.

    ''This far is already good enough.''

    With a determined look in his eyes, Sato decided to finish the battle within 3 minutes.

    This wasn''t him overestimating himself or underestimating the Blood king but Sato trying to squeeze out his potential in this fight. He had nced at the timer and realized that he didn''t have much time left for this trial. Sato''s instincts told him that defeating this monster, however, would help increase his mission rating. The title of guardian of the first sector obviously wouldn''t be for show and abiding by the yer rule of risks, the greater the difficulty, therger the reward.

    ''If I use it, I should be able to wrap this up in seconds. However, the cool-down is too long.'' Sato seemed to be hesitating to make a decision.

    "Roar!"

    Varg finally got to its feet after taking off the chains. Its entire body was covered in crimson blood and looked all gory. If a yer with a weak stomach were in Sato''s ce, they would undoubtedly puke at the sight.

    "Human, you must pay with your life." Varg growled as a blood-colored light shimmered its eyes.

    [Blood re]

    [[ System notification :

    [Blood re] has been used.

    yer undergoing [Willpower] check.

    Difference exceeds 10. ]]

    Apanying the system notification was an instantaneous change in scenery for Sato. He got dragged from the previous blue-lit hall to a strange blood in that had a crimson sky that looked like it was lit aze. The ground was a dark red soil that was littered with bones and skulls. Some of the bones even had a bit of blood dripping from them as if they were recently taken out from their bodies.

    Standing in the middle of this in, Sato was confused as to how he arrived here but before he could think about it, a terrifying pressure came down on him without any sign. Compared to the pressure Sato was currently facing, the one on the first challenge''s [Stair of Zolstris] was like a breeze.

    *Ding*

    "Puah!"

    -60 (36/150 Sato''s HP)

    Sato couldn''t evenst 3 seconds before the sword left his hand as he was forced to his knees. He also puked out a mouthful of blood that sttered on the floor and seemed to blend with the soil. Even now, Sato found it had to keep his conscious intact as he felt the strength in his body flow out from him.

    Luckily for Sato, this experience didn''tst for long as he suddenly returned to the hall.

    "What just happened?"

    Sato wondered before realizing that he was down on his knees and just like in that strange world, there was a small puddle of blood before him. That blood was his.

    "!!!"

    Shock appeared on Sato''s face but before he could think more about it, he suddenly felt a figure heading towards him.

    "Die!"

    The blood king swung its sword down at Sato.

    Having lost his sword and not having recovered from the unpleasant experience, Sato looked to be too slow to react and if things continued like this, he would surely die from the attack.

    "Hmph!"

    With a resolute expression, Sato finally decided to stop holding back.

    ''Berserk skill, [Gratitude of Races]''

 Chapter 279 - 273 : The Sacrifice To First

    ''Berserk Skill [Gratitude of Races].''

    [[ System notification :

    [Gratitude of Races] skills has been used.

    [Gratitude of Races] : Active Skill

    Receive a temporary boost to abilities and skills +1

    All attributes +5

    Defence increases by 10

    Attack Speed increase by 10

    Damage dealt multiplies by1.5

    Healing Speed x1.5

    Duration : 15 seconds

    Cool-down : 3 days

    System description : The gratitude of a race shouldn''t be taken lightly much less that of multiple races.

    Note : This skill is upgrade-able so far as certain conditions are met.

    ]]

    *ng*

    The 5 metres long buster sword suddenly halted in mid-air. No matter the amount of force the Blood king used on it, the sword couldn''t proceed forward even by an inch.

    "Hehe."

    Sato grinned as he looked the monster straight in the eye.

    In his hand was a sword but it wasn''t the silver coloured [Astral de].

    ''I never thought that this piece of junk would save my life.''

    [[ System interface :

    First (Rigged Steel long-sword) : Mid Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 23/30

    Requirement : Level 5 || 5 [Strength]

    [Physical Attack Power] +10

    [Attack Speed] +7

    [Strength] +3

    ]]

    The Rigged Steel long-sword in Sato''s hands was one of the finished products he had made back at the cksmith Guild''s workshop during his cksmith exam. While it was a finished work, the strength of the weapon was too weak for Sato to use, especially whenpared to his [Astral de]. Even for a Mid-tier Mortal rank sword, it was barely up to market standard. But this couldn''t be med on Sato as he was just an apprentice cksmith without much experience.

    While this sword was indeed too weak for his use, if not useless, the sword ended up being Sato''s lifesaver at thest moment.

    "How?!" Varg stared at the young man holding the sword in front of it.

    It couldn''t understand how the yer who happened to be on hisst leg, suddenly experienced a turnaround and was able to block its attack despite having been injured by its [Blood re].

    What was even more imaginable was the fact that the young man before it pulled this off with a low level weapon that was simr to the ceremonial swords it had.

    Everything had an aura; be it animate or inanimate, they all did. For weapons, the aura they had determined the rank and tier of the weapon and the rank and tier of the weapon also determined the strength of its aura. The Rigged Steel long-sword, though forged with a peak 2 star material, had a weak aura to it due to the barely passable forging skill used on it. Because of this, Varg couldn''t understand how it had stopped his sword that was on par with a high quality Upper tier Mortal rank sword.

    Sato however, could guess why.

    Even though the long-sword wasn''t made with the best of cksmithing skills, it was still made with an impressive material as the foundation and was still a bona-fide Mid tier Mortal rank weapon. The main material used was Rigged Steel, which was a peak 2 star material that rivaled even a few 3 star materials in terms of hardness.

    Apart from that, the magic crystal Sato had used in the process of forging was a wood elemental magic crystal. Part of the elemental energy entered the sword and granted it a slight affinity to wood energy. The wood energy within the long-sword passively conflicted with Varg''s blood energy and while it didn''t have the upper hand, it still managed to lessen the power of the sword by just a bit.

    The most important change had to do with Sato''s skill, [Gratitude of Races], which increased his stats to be even higher than the Blood king''s and so, being capable of taking a full blow from it head-on. At this point, even if it was just for a while, Varg was no longer Sato''s opponent.

    Feeling the boundless aura being radiated from Sato''s body increasing, the Blood king began to feel fear for the first time. Even when it was trapped by the Mystical lock spell, it wasn''t as worried as it was now.

    Aura was the realization or manifestation of one''s strength. The abrupt increase in Sato''s aura was as a result of the abrupt increase in strength brought by his skill. Sato''s [Astral Might] was a passive ability that constantly made him exude a boundless might. The strength of this aura mostly depended on Sato''s strength and as he constantly leveled up and increased his attributes, it would also increase in intensity and effect.

    Right now, even the Blood king had difficulties facing this aura that seemed to want to devour it whole.

    "What are you?" Varg asked with slight fear in its eyes.

    "Doesn''t matter. You''re going to be the first sacrifice to my weapon so just die."

    Sato swung his sword to the side, pushing the Blood king''s de towards the side.

    Instead of using that small interval to retreat and take a health potion, Sato pushed forward and brandish his sword at the monster, not giving it the time to think out its next move. While this sounded like a dumb move for Sato, who pretty much had low health after the [Blood re], it wasn''t.

    Actually, Sato didn''t necessarily need a health potion anymore. [Gratitude of Races] had added 5 points to each of his Main attributes including [Vitality]. 5 points to Vitality was the equivalent of 50 HP and with that amount of HP, Sato could tank one more [Blood re] from the monster. As for the other attacks, with his increased defense and movement speed, it would be a major challenge for Varg tond a hit his shadow much less his actual body.

    However, with his increased attributes, Sato''s Attack speed was more than twice that of Varg''s and his Movement speed was also higher than the monster. So,nding a hit on the 7 metres tall monster was as easy as hitting a pi?ata with your eyes open.

    -51 (582/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    While the attack power of [First] was sorelycking whenpared to [Astral de], Sato didn''t put much thought into it. This was because in the end, the Blood king was nothing more than a dead man in his eyes. The Blood king stood no chance and couldn''t turn the battle around. The only thing was that Sato would need to put more effort into the battle, but that in itself wasn''t much of a problem.

    "Roar!"

    The Blood king roared in anger before pping its left hand towards Sato.

    "Too slow."

    Sato stepped on its body and propelled himself backwards just before the palm could arrive. As a result, the Blood King ended up hitting itself. However, the monster wasn''t dumb so it had slowed down and reduced the force of the palm leading to t not inflicting any injuries on itself.

    Even after creating some distance between himself and the monster, Sato didn''t take a breath as heunched himself once more at it, not giving it a chance to attack. With the duration attached to the skill, Sato intended to finish the battle as fast as possible even if it meant taking some risks.

    "Human, you have made me mad!" Varg roared as the blood mist around it thickened in intensity.

    Following that, its aura also increased and 6 inches ck spikes jutted out from its corbone. The two horns on its head also increased in height as they approached 12 inches from their previous 8 inches height.

    ''[Enraged] mode?''

    In Infinite Realm, once a monster''s HP goes below a certain mark, they would usually enter an [Enraged] mode, which was simr to the berserk mode seen in most games. The HP mark for the [Enraged] mode differed from monster to monster. Some had theirs at the 15% mark while others at the 25% mark. However, yers had managed to discover that a majority of monsters had theirs below the 30% mark. As a result of this, it was officially epted by the IR yermunity that once a monster''s HP went below the 30% mark, they should all be at their toes for a sudden surge in power for the monster.

    Seeing the Blood king now showing signs of increase in power, Sato frowned but didn''t stop his movements. Only an idiot would wait for the opponent to finish transforming before attacking.

    ''Lets'' make this quick.''

 Chapter 280 - 274 : Death

    ''Let''s make this quick.''

    [Chain Hit]

    -92

    -86

    -84 (320/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    [Chain Hit] was the second skill Sato got rewarded with by Saimon after passing the test. Originally, Sato didn''t n on using the skill as it was a bit OP especially when performed with [Astral de]. he had left it as one of his trump card skills just in case he got into a tight spot. However, after the Blood king had forced him to use [Gratitude of Races], Sato had decide to drop all pretenses with it. With [First] being much weaker than [Astral de], he also needed the skill to boost his damage up.

    Afternding those hits on the Blood king, Sato hurriedly retreated from the spot, lest he gets injured by the enraged monster.

    "Ahhh! Human!!" Varg cried out as it brandish it sword in a wide area, hoping to cleave retreating Sato into two.

    At this point in time, Varg had foregone all forms of defence and was like a wild beast on a rampage. It wanted to kill Sato even at the cost of its own death.

    "[Blood sh]"

    A red wave exited from the buster sword and darted towards Sato with a bloody killing intent. In the current form of the Blood king, this attack was more than enough to end the life of a level 7 [Guardian] even if the yer activated their defensive skill and used a shield to block it.

    "I told you before, too slow."

    Sato flickered from his previous position, appearing by the side. The [Blood sh]nded where he previously stood at and though it didn''t damage the ground, it left behind a bloody aura that could weaken yers.

    "Now it''s my turn."

    Sato stomped his right foot as he darted over to the Blood king and closed the gap between them. This was the perfect opportunity for him to engage in closebat as a majority of both his and the Blood king''s skills were on cool-down.

    *ng*

    As the two collided swords, Sato was sent skidding backwards as he felt his blood boil from that sh.

    Without the [Astral de], in a battle of [Strength], Sato won by a minor difference of 2 points or so. However, when considering the two''s Attack Power, Sato''s was way below the Blood king''s. this couldn''t be helped as even when he had [Astral de], he still didn''t get the upper hand much less now he wielded [First] that was a whole lot weaker.

    ''While the difference in our attack power is great, my body''s defence is on a whole other level from before. I won''t get hurt from the remnant forces now.''

    Having something to rely on, Sato no longer shied away from shing head-on with the Blood king. Even after being forced back by thest collision, he still recovered almost immediately and charged right back into action.

    With his superior attack speed and movement speed that still surpassed the Blood king''s even after going berserk, Sato could easily toy with the monster even if his Attack power was a lot weaker than its.

    asionally, Sato was able to get a few past the monster. Because of the increased attributes however, the defense of the Blood king became a lot tougher than it previously was.

    -45

    -36 (239/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    "Damn it!!!"

    Varg roared before it shed its sword in a sweeping motion, bringing with it a tumultuous gale.

    [Twister sh]

    As soon as the cool-down went off one of its skill, the Blood king didn''t hesitate to use it as it finally realized that it was in a dangerous situation.

    "That won''t help you."

    Sato had already retreated back a bit and with the space in between them, it wasn''t that much difficult to dodge the attack. Sato mustered his energy to the highest as he dodged the attack at the fastest speed his body could carry him at. However, the direction he moved at wasn''t a safe spot; instead, he headed right back at the monster.

    "You dare!"

    Seeing the opponent not wanting to give it some breathing space, Varg was frustrated to the extreme. Its frustration was the same as a farmer who tried to capture a mouse that always devour the grains at the . When the mouse-trap is set, the mouse would be nowhere near it. However, once the trap was removed, the mouse would return to the same spot and feast on the grains.

    Varg couldn''t do a thing to Sato despite being stronger than him in a head-to-head sh. But using his superior agility and movement speed, Sato was able to add injuries upon injuries to it while also dodging its attacks easily. What was even worse was that Sato continuously aimed 3 certain spots. One being the already injured right leg, the second was the spot on its chest that was injured by [Linear Strike] and thest one was a spot behind the monster that got injured by the Mystical Lock spell.

    The locations of these 3 spots were very tricky resulting in the Blood king being unable to protect them all the same time. Sato obviously knew this and that was why he chose to attack these 3 spots. Since the defense of the Blood king had taken a new high after going berserk, it became harder for Sato to deal maximum damage on it. The only option was to attack injured ces.

    Of the 3 spots, Sato prioritized the right leg as the very second he sessfully cripples it, the Blood king''s threat rating would plunge. Varg knew this but even if it decided to protect its right leg, Sato would still attack the other areas so there was no meaning in doing such.

    Sato finally found a breakthrough point and shed at its leg once more.

    -56 (183/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    Just as the Blood king''s HP went below the 10% mark, something incredible happened.

    +200 (383/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    ''What?!'' Sato was shocked to the point that he almost got sliced in half by the buster sword.

    After retreating to a safe spot, Sato couldn''t help but recall what just happened.

    "Self-healing?"

    Sato muttered as he noticed that some of the open wounds on the Blood king''s body were slowly patching up. If this went on for a while, the Blood king would be able to recover a majority of itsbat strength and that wasn''t a good thing for Sato.

    ''Never thought I''d see it here.''

    Self-healing or self-recovery wasn''t a new feature to VR games, on the contrary, it was even popr in games from the Old era. However, Infinite realm was special. Since it had begun, no monster with the ability to self-heal was found. Some yers spected that maybe because the monsters they encountered were too low level, it was impossible to find any while others argued that IR simply didn''t have such a feature implemented for the monsters. But seeing this now, Sato realized that it was probably, no, the first group were most likely right.

    ''No. I have to finish this.''

    Not knowing the limits of the Blood king''s recovery ability, Sato opted to go for a full out offensive even if it cost him an arm.

    "[Hack]"

    Sato closed in with his body moving at the limits of his speed. At such speed, the Blood king could barely keep up with Sato''s ''small'' figure so Sato was able to close in on it.

    [Critical Hit]

    -106 (277/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    "Roar!"

    With a pained roar, the Blood king was forced down on one knee. Sato''s move just then had seeded in crippling it but that wasn''t all.

    "[Chop]!"

    Due to the sudden change in bnce for the Blood king, its buster sword had slipped from its hand so not only was it unarmed but it was defenceless facing this attack.

    Since he hadpleted his goal of crippling it, Sato didn''t go for the leg anymore. Instead, he went for the wound on the chest this time around.

    -92 (185/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    The attack power of [Chop] was greater than that of [Hack] and also, the armour the Blood king wore already had a ton of damages on it so its effect was terrible. Luckily for it, the damage wasn''t a critical hit so it still managed to live through it.

    "Not yet." Sato roared.

    Right now, the Blood king''s health was below the 10% mark and to prevent whatever happenedst time from re-urring, just in case it would, Sato intended to finish it in one hit.

    Normally, this wouldn''t be impossible so far as Sato was wielding [Astral de], but with [First], this was a whole lot difficult. Luckily for him, the cool-down on one of his major skills just went off.

    [Linear Strike]

    The ce Sato aimed for, was the heart of the Blood king, where one of the yellow chains had previously left its mark. With the prative effects of [Linear Strike], this became a sure-kill move.

    [Critical Hit]

    -312 (0/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    [[ System notification :

    Congrattions Sky de. You have defeated the guardian of the first sector; Emperor of carnage and bloodlust, [Blood king Varg].

    ]]

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    "Finally. It''s over."

    A sigh rang out.

 Chapter 281 - 275 : The Secret Of The Sector Guardians

    (AN : Edits would be made once I''m done with today''s papers.)

    [Linear Strike]

    [Critical Hit]

    -312 (0/2000 Blood king Varg''s HP)

    [[ System notification :

    Congrattions Sky de. You have defeated the guardian of the first sector; Emperor of carnage and bloodlust, [Blood king Varg].

    ]]

    Seeing the notification together with the hulking 7 metres body that had stopped breathing, Sato left out a sigh of relief.

    He didn''t know the conditions for self-heal for the Blood king and suspected that it would ur once its HP went below the 10% mark. However, this would take a second or so to take ce and so, there was but a tiny window of opportunity for one to defeat the Blood king. Of course, the condition to pull this off was that one would have to be able to deal at least 200 damage points to the monster after its defensive abilities have been factored in to the count.

    Currently, no yer has been publicly recognized to be able to deal that much damage in one hit against a level 9 monster much less a level 10 Elite. Worst part of all was that the monsters in the trials were a lot stronger than the ones in the outside world. This was especially so for Varg. All its skills made it an all-round fighter with impressive offense skills. If another yer were in Sato''s shoes, they would have died before they could even shave off 10% of the boss'' health.

    ''If I didn''t have this skill, things would have been a whole lot harder.''

    Sato sighed as he felt the effects of [Gratitude of Races] deactivate, with the skill entering its cool-down phase.

    [Gratitude of Races] was a skill Sato had gotten after defeating Sygrart just before it transitioned to its final form. While the notification back then had congratted him on stopping the descent of an evil god, which Sato still didn''t know the full story of, the skill was rewarded to him for his endeavors.

    Ever since he had gotten the skill, Sato was too reluctant to use it after all, the cool-down was extremely long; the longest he had seen so far in IR, taking 3 days of Real time, which is converted to 6 days in IR. Because of this long cool-down, Sato made this skill his ultimate trump card, only willing to use it when there was no other option which was exactly what had happened back then. Varg had managed to push Sato to the wall and unless a miracle had urred, Sato would have died if he didn''t use the skill. But even so, he didn''t regret using it.

    "My rewards from this kill should be pretty impressive. Sadly, my Experience bar didn''t increase." Sato said with a bitter expression.

    Though his time here had helped him refine his skills, Sato''s strength hadn''t increased much. On the contrary, he was slowly falling behind as other yers were slowly catching up to him.

    ''If things go on like this, the reward for reaching the city first might not go to me.''

    Unbeknownst to Sato, the level 10 checkpoint was arge wall to all yers. The developers of IR had set fixed points as checkpoints in the game. These checkpoints were certain levels that were purposely made harder to reach for the first set of yers closing in on them but would be easier for the majority after the hurdle had been cleared.

    The first one was the level 5 checkpoint that was previously difficult for yers to reach but after Sato, Fudo and a bunch of other yers had crossed it, the difficulty dropped by more than half after the upgrade and became a whole lot easier for other yers to reach this level.

    The current checkpoint was now level 10, which stalled a lot of level 9 yers like Sato and Fudo. This was especially so since the novice viges barely had any map with a ton of level 9 and level 10 monsters. Since hunting monsters with a much lower level than the yer only gave little Experience points as reward, when added with the restriction from the level checkpoint, even grinding monsters for a week(IGT) might not aid one in reaching level 10.

    While this feature seemed unfair, it was actually a form of regtory bncing by the developers. As for the purpose of this, it was to enable low leveled yers catch-up to the high leveled yers quickly. This was to eliminate the advantage the rich and influential yers had because Infinite Realm held a secret that would affect the lives of the entire world''s poption. The upper echelons, influential figures and powerful businessmen all knew this and had already begun sending their own set of yers into the game. Big guilds had even started their migration over to the game but the average yers and popce who knew nothing didn''t react as such. Until the news was made official, the developers nned to give the average yers a hand in the contest and enable them get a foothold in the game as much as possible. This was to level the ying ground for everyone and minimize advantages due to wealth and power as much as possible.

    "Hmm?"

    Sato noticed as the Blood king''s body began to fade away, a grey coloured paper remained behind on the spot the Blood king previously stood at.

    Sato was surprised at this because ever since he started the Main Trials, no equipment, weapon or any object was left behind after the death of a monster. At best, only a measly amount of Experience points would be granted to him but with no loot. So it was normal for him to be surprised at this discovery.

    Rewind a few seconds back¡­

    "Finally. It''s over."

    A sigh rang out.

    Saimon was pleased that Sato had managed to end the life of the Blood king and a satisfied expression could be spotted on his aged face.

    The voice that spoke up then didn''te from Saimon though but from the space in front of him.

    Before the two was the same screen that disyed Sato''s progress in thebyrinth.

    "Praised be to the Grey god. With this young man''s sess, his chances of passing the [Labyrinth of Helios] has increased by far." Saimon said with an ted tone.

    It should be recalled that the Great Hall of Grey Chains has been without an owner for centuries. The knowledge of the Caventry had just been gathering dust and their existence had been wiped away from the annals of history. In the current world, the amount of people that actually knew about the Caventry could be counted on one''s hands. No matter who, no one would like to see their race forgotten and extinct.

    Because of this, Saimon had been silently rooting for Sato and Xue Yan to pass the trials and inherit the entire ce, that way, the Caventry''s wisdom and umtions could be put to use and their history be brought back to limelight. Originally, Sato was the one with the highest chances of sess but after seeing Sato being sent to the [Labyrinth of Helios], Saimon''s hope in him waned since it was extremely difficult to pass the challenge. However, everything changed now with the death of the Blood king.

    "The condition to pass the [Labyrinth of Helios] challenge is to find the entrance or at the very least, approach a certain distance away from it. However, for a majority, the exit is only a concept, existing in a separate space and time thereby being impossible to reach. Unless one possesses a heaven-defying luck or high level mastery in spatial magic, it would be impossible to find it. So, the next best thing is toe within close range of it and pass the trials through the second method." Lord Worrus spoke up.

    The second method was made by one of the ancestor-level figure and a previous leader of the Caventry. It required the participant toplete a few tests and with each one passed, a reward would be given to the participant that would bring them closer to the exit. Apart from that, they would also be rewarded with ''rating points'' which were special tenders that could improve one''s overall rating for the [Labyrinth of Helios] challenge. The guardians of each sector were one of the tests left behind by the ancestor figure and they gave out more rating points than the other tests.

    Defeating the guardian of the first sector, the Emperor of carnage and bloodlust, [Blood king Varg], had rewarded Sato with a bunch of rating points. Also, the piece of paper left behind after its death was the reward that would bring Sato closer to the exit of thebyrinth. It was an iplete map of thebyrinth.

    While it was iplete, the map held one very valuable information that would bring Sato a step closer to sess. It directed him towards the location of the guardian of the second sector. With this, Sato wouldn''t be like a headless fly; searching around pointlessly. He would now have a goal and a clear direction towards it.

    "Sadly, he''s not the second sector''s guardian''s match." Saimon sighed.

    "If recall correctly, it should be the projection of a blessed son of the Titan race?" Lord Worrus asked.

    "Yes." Saimon nodded with a heavy heart.

    "*sighs* In that case, he has already lost. However, reaching the hall of the second sector''s guardian would till reward one with a few rating points. Added with the ones he already has, he should be able to barely clear the challenge." Lord Worrus sighed.

    As a moderator of the Main Trials, he knew the strength of each sector''s guardian like the back of his palm. Even though the guardians'' strength would be adjusted to correspond with the challenger''s, they were still not bosses anyone could easily beat. This was especially so for thest 2 guardians.

    "It''s too bad he can''t make it to the third sector. Otherwise, his rating would have been quite high. If he could even beat the guardian there, then that would have been amazing." Saimon nced at the screen in front of him.

    Defeating one guardian would reward one with a map to the next but defeating all 3 guardians would reward one with the map to the exit which in turn meant a perfect rating. However, ever since the challenge was made, no one in the history of the Caventry had been able to achieve such.

    The reason was simply because of the strength and identity of the third opponent.. It was the projection of an avatar of the demon god''s son; the very being sealed within ck Grill''s Cave.

 Chapter 282 - 276 : The Second Sectorâ€™s Guardian

    "Almost there."

    After ncing at the piece of paper held with both hands, Sato folded the thin piece of paper and kept it safely within his space bag before resuming his journey.

    After he had defeated the Blood king and retrieved the map, Sato''s progress in thebyrinth could be described as traveling 10 miles with a step[1].

    When Sato began the challenge, he had started from the first sector. After the defeat of the Blood king, a door, different from the one he went through before, had appeared beside the throne of the Blood king. The door lead him towards the second sector, which was the next zone for Sato as well as the only ce the map was useful.

    With the aid of the map, not only was he able to avoid a majority of the traps in thebyrinths, but he was also able to avoid the hideouts of certain monsters and also hunt for treasures.

    The [Labyrinth of Helios] was originally supposed to be a trial of luck but after the modifications made on it by the ancestor-level figure of the Caventry, some additional features were applied to it but they didn''t change the fundamentals of the trials. In a specific location within thebyrinth, treasures and items were hidden all around and unless one had great sense, unimaginable luck, or a map of the ce, they wouldn''t be able to discover these treasures. Luckily for Sato, he had one of the 3.

    The entire challenge was to go on for 36 hours and with the aid of the map, Sato was no longer like a headless fly as he now had a clear path in front of him. As a result of that, he decided to spend some of that time scavenging for treasures in thebyrinth.

    The reason he did so was that he felt that the next boss, the guardian of the second sector, would be a whole lot more difficult to handle. If that wasn''t bad enough, apart from one other array left, Sato was out of a table-turning item and his ultimate trump card skill, the [Gratitude of Races], was on cool-down. Since the chances of him losing to the second sector''s guardian were quite high, Sato decided to spend his time looking for treasures. At the very least, he wanted to make a killing from thebyrinth just before he left.

    Some of the items in here ranged from low-level rare herbs and materials to forging blueprints, manuals, and array blueprints, special runes, damaged but still usable equipment and weapons, precious gems, and magic crystals. There were even a few intact weapons that he had recovered. Even while doing all these, Sato made sure to leave behind enough time left to reach the guardian of the second sector and possibly defeat it, if that was even possible.

    After having gotten enough profits from thebyrinth, Sato organized his earnings before setting his sights back on his original goal and making his way over to the second sector''s boss room.

    "There it is."

    Unlike in the first sector, it didn''t take him that long to reach the boss room since he already had a map that lead exactly towards here.

    Starting from the time Sato had entered the [Labyrinth of Helios] to when he exited the game and took a break and finally, reaching here, it had taken him a total of 29 and a half hours. Out of that 29 and a half hours, it had taken him 20 hours to reach the first sector''s boss room but 7 and a half hours to do so here; the remaining 2 hours were spent outside the game, during the time Sato had exited the game. Sato would have taken less than 4 hours to make it over to the boss room but because he spent most of his time looting thebyrinth, Sato had taken much longer than normal. Even so, the time he took was still less than a half of the time he had taken in the first sector. All this was thanks to the iplete map in his hands.

    "Impressive."

    Standing before the entrance that leads to the boss room, Sato couldn''t resistmenting on the structure of the gate.

    Unlike the first sector''s gate which stood at a height of 12 metres and width of 5 metres, the second sector''s gate was at a height of 24 metres and a width of 10 metres; twice the size of the first sector''s. Where the first sector''s gate was made out of ck jadeite or so, the second sector''s boss room gate was made out of what looked to be a pristine white moonstone kind of rock. Even the aura the gate exuded was different from that of the ck jade gate.

    Unlike the ck jade gate''s evil aura that automatically alerted Sato''s senses with a horrific sensation, the white moonstone gate brought with it n overbearing pressure that seemed to crush both body and soul. Just standing before the gate was difficult for Sato as felt a daunting pressure fall on him and his breathing slowly became ragged.

    ''Damn.''

    After adjusting himself to the pressure, Sato continued his scrutiny of the gate.

    Just as with the ck jade gate on the first sector, the white moonstone gate also had a bunch of carvings on its surface. Simr to the former, the left side of the gate depicted those exact gods that Sato had seen back at the first sector. Because he had stared closely at them back then, Sato had a good impression of the carvings and he was able to confirm that the two were quite simr but not the same.

    On the right side of the gate, however, there was no carving of the familiar demons that were on the ck jade gate. Instead, there was a carving of giant-like creatures. The smallest of these creatures stood at a height of 10 metres while the tallest of them approached 20 metres. Most of them were burly and they all held in their arms weapons of war. Some held a staff that suited that height while others held spears, poles, javelins, and hammers. A very few even wielded swords and sabers which obviously wasn''t at the same length as the ones used by humans.

    In terms of looks, these giants weren''t much different from humans; having 2 legs and 2 arms and even looking just like an average human, if one were to exclude their height. However, Sato felt that there weren''t humans and this wasn''t just because they were taller than regr humans.

    The reason Sato identified them as ''creatures'' despite their extreme resemnce to humans was because of his gut feeling. No matter how simr the two races looked, Sato felt that they weren''t the same. It was the same feeling he got when he stared at the image of the celestial gods. The celestial gods also looked like humans but the feeling they gave off did not suit a human.

    Despite the circumstances surrounding the gate, Sato didn''t hurry to open it up but further inspected it. He guessed that the identity of the monster behind this gate was rted to the aura and carvings on the gate. After all, the aura of the first sector''s gate was an evil one and the carvings were that of a legion of demons going to war. The monster behind that gate ended up being a bloodthirsty demon. From this, one could understand why Sato thought the same would be true here.

    "Battling a giant huh? This should be interesting."

    After having his fill of the view, Sato ced both hands on the gate and pushed it open. The weight of the gate was heavier than the first sector''s so it required much more strength to open it wide open. Luckily for him, Sato could still manage to do this, however, he was only able to create a slit for one person to pass.

    ''This is my limit.''

    Sighing at his weakness, Sato didn''t continue to open the gate but stopped. He had already made enough space for himself so it was pointless to do more. He didn''t hurry to enter the gate though but sat down before it and recuperated a bit. The foe behind the gate would most likely be the greatest opponent he had ever faced so Sato wanted to be at his best before encountering it.

    5 minutes went by before Sato stood up and walked through the ''entrance''. Once he got past it, the gate shut itself close.

    On the other side, Sato stood in a hall a bit simr to the previous one, only much bigger. The entire ce was lit with a bright white light that was at the right intensity to not affect one''s eyes. The setup of the hall was a lot simr to the other one but with a few differences; having a giant white luminous crystal at the centre of the ceiling with dozens of pirs that held small luminescent white crystals.

    However, Sato didn''t have time to pay attention to any of this because of the notification that greeted him right after he got past the gate.

    [[ System notification :

    You have encountered the guardian of the second sector; Blessed son of heaven''s might, Child of the Titan race, [Atrit].

    ]]

 Chapter 283 - 277 : Second Sectorâ€™s Guardian

    [[ System notification :

    You have encountered the guardian of the second sector; Blessed son of heaven''s might, Child of the Titan race, [Atrit].

    ]]

    Standing before Sato, just a couple of metres away from him, was a 15 metres tall giant that stood still like a frozen block with its eyes closed. The giant was unmoving like a rock and held a giant door-sized war-hammer with a length of 17 metres, perfectly suitable for it, pinned to the ground just in front of it.

    At a height of 15 metres, the giant was the tallest creature Sato had seen since he began ying IR. It easily dwarfed the 7 metres tall Blood king, by far and just its intimidating height was more than enough to wane one''s battle intent. It should be known that the average height of a giraffe, the world''s tallest creature, was between 4.3-5.7 metres (14.1-18.7 feet). even the tallest recorded giraffe only stood at a height of 5.88 metres, less than half of the giant''s height. From this, one could imagine how tall it was. Just its height alone rivaled most 3 story buildings. But what was most impressive about the monster wasn''t its height but its strength.

    The aura the giant exuded was a bit simr to the one on the white moonstone gate. It had an overbearing feeling to it as if it existed to crush through all obstacles, disying the personality of the owner. From the aura alone, Sato guessed that this monster was one whose abilities tilted to the strength department. In other words, in a head-on encounter, even if the two were at the same level, Sato would not be the giant''s match.

    ''This feeling¡­''

    As Sato stared at the monster, he felt his blood tumble and boil just from staring at it. An unpleasant feeling circted his body as Sato felt shivers run through his spine. As with what had happened with the ck jade gate and the Blood king before, this was Sato''s body''s instinctual reaction to a formidable opponent, the only difference was that the feeling was multiplied by 10.

    ''If I''m correct, this feeling is due to the difference in our life orders.''

    Sato sucked in a cold breath of air as he realized where he had felt this before.

    Life order, life hierarchy, bloodline difference, all of them referred to the same thing. Not all lives are born equal. This a truth that some refuse to admit. Some are born stronger than others while some are born smarter. This was mainly as a result of the difference in genes and the actualization of this difference was referred to as Life order in IR.

    Due to the variety ofplex species that existed, each race had its specialties, strengths, and weaknesses and so, a difference in ability resulted. Some races were stronger than others while some had a much greater affinity towards mana. Due to all these and more factors, a natural ranking between the races resulted from it. The human race happened to be in the middle of the rankings, but to be exact, the lower part of the middle rankings.

    The giant in front of Sato was from a race that ranked within the top part of the rankings, and while it wasn''t amongst the strongest of that ss, the bloodline was far superior to that of an average human. Even the [Chosen Ones] bloodline within the yers, wasn''t enough to eliminate the difference between the two. Due to this, once Sato enters battle with the giant, his abilities would be suppressed due to the natural difference in bloodline between the two.

    It should be recalled that even at the same level, Sato wasn''t the match of the giant much less now that he would have to suffer a reduction in attributes due to the difference in Life order. What was worse was that the giant would surely not be at the same level as Sato. At the very least, it would be a level 10 Elite like the Blood King or a Special Elite.

    Since it had a name, it was pretty much impossible for the giant to be a Common rank monster and as it was guarding the second sector, which came after the first, it had to be stronger than Blood king by at least 50%.

    ''Is this the end for me?'' Sato couldn''t help but sigh with bitterness and frustration.

    His instincts both as a gamer and a martial artist told him that he couldn''t change his faith and defeat the giant. This was especially so with [Gratitude of Races] in cool-down. If it wasn''t, Sato might have had a shot at victory but now it was, his chances were only at 20%.

    "Whatever. I already did well and I have a feeling that I have passed the challenge. I also made a killing from my treasure hunting experience so ending everything here isn''t so bad."

    After raising his mood, Sato unsheathed his [Astral de] and walked towards the giant.

    He made no preparations to face it since, in front of absolute power, all tricks and skills were useless. He was most likely going to lose so he decided to minimize his losses. Therefore, Sato didn''t make use of thest array he had. There was still one more challenge left and who knows, it might be useful then.

    Once Sato was 20 metres away from the giant, Atrit suddenly awakened as a blue glint shed within its eyes. It didn''t make any move but just simply stared at the little man in front of it.

    Sato paused in his footsteps as he stared at the unmoving giant in front of him. The pressure it ced on him by simply staring at him was incredible. It almost rivaled the pressure Sato felt on the 1 km spot on the [Staircase to Zolstice]. In other words, just with a stare, it had limited Sato''s fighting ability.

    ''Incredible¡­'' Sato couldn''t help but praise.

    Such strength was amazing and it reminded Sato of a powerful monster he had faced in another VR game. The only difference was that the Sato there was already extremely powerfulpared to the him in IR.

    ''The game mechanics have to be praised. It isn''t easy to replicate such suppressing feeling to this degree.'' Satomented on the game''s design.

    ''So far, only Conquest is capable of rivalling IR in terms of graphics, body-to-avatarpatibility, and realism.''

    The two beings came to a standstill with none taking a step forward.

    Sato knew that he couldn''t defeat the giant but he wanted tost longer against it. Hence, the best option was to be on the defensive. As for Atrit, it was too disdained to make a move on a weakling that it only stared at him. As a result, the two didn''t make any move and only stared at each other.

    After a while, Atrit spoke up.

    "Human, aren''t you scared?"

    Sato wasn''t surprised that the giant could speak up, after all, Blood king Varg and the Nightmare Devil couldmunicate too so he was already expecting it.

    "Why should I be?" Sato raised an eyebrow at the question. He was quite surprised that this giant was more interested in conversing than fighting, making him think that its intelligence level was much higher than Varg.

    Atrit was surprised at Sato''s reply but it still answered.

    "I am much stronger than you are and even the difference in our bloodline is like the difference between heaven and earth. No matter how you look at it, you are not my match and can''t defeat me. It''s only normal for you to be scared and anxious."

    "Well, sorry to burst your bubbles but I''m not afraid of you." Sato spread his arms wide open as if to say he can''t do anything about it.

    Atrit frowned at his response.

    Being a blessed son of heaven, he had been praised, admired and feared by many. Very few of his opponents could face him with a calm and collected mind much less a nonchnt attitude and every one of those people were great warriors that even he feared.

    "In that case, I will send you your way." Atrit finally made a move.

    ''He''sing.'' Sato put on a serious face.

    Truthfully, he was a bit scared of Atrit but there was more anticipation and excitement than fear. This was because Sato was about to face one of the strongest beings that he had ever encountered so far but was still close reach to him in terms of ability.

    Atrit didn''t attack with his war-hammer but moved his fist. He punched out with his right fist at Sato despite the distance of 20 metres between them.

    Sato didn''t underestimate the attack as long-range moves performed with one''s body were quitemon in VR games.

    Arge fist suddenly materialized outside of Atrit''s. The fist was made of green coloured energy and was 5 metresrge. Just the aura from it was overwhelming and it made Sato further convinced that he wasn''t Atrit''s match. This was because just the fist alone was more than enough to kill 10 Satos.

    "Die."

    Atrit''s voice boomed.

    Almost instantaneously, the green energy fist hurtled towards Sato at an insane speed. The speed at which the fist moved made Sato''s [Astral de] look like a snail.

    "!!!"

    Before Sato could even think of what to do or even exim at the speed of the attack, it had arrived in front of him.

    "Die."

    Atrit''s voice resounded in his ears as Sato''s figure became engulfed within the green fist.

    *Boom*

    An explosion went off as the fistnded at Sato''s position. Green energy waves sted off from there and rampaged around the spot, sending flickers of green energy into the air. Just those flickers alone could end the life of a level 5 [Guardian]. in other words, the fist itself, being the main form of the attack, could eliminate the life of any yer in IR.

    After the explosion settled, the state of the spot was revealed. Unlike with the Blood King''s attacks, a dent had formed on the ground as a 4-inch depression was left on the floor. As for Sato''s body, it was missing.

    Atrit had already returned to standing his original standing position but a light frown was seen on his face.

 Chapter 284 - 278 : Revival Token

    [[ System notification ;

    You have died. ]]

    Sato''s consciousness appeared in a white empty room as the system notification woke him up from his ''sleep''.

    ''Where am I?'' Sato questioned himself before realizing what had urred just recently.

    "Ah. I died." Sato said nonchntly.

    Normally, most yers would be annoyed at their death as that would mean that they would lose a lot of Experience points and in the situation of this Main trial, the penalties of death were even worse. After all, death meant an automatic failure. But Sato didn''t seem to have any signs of anxiety, nervousness or regret.

    ''The second sector''s guardian is way too strong. If not for the item I got after defeating the Blood king, I would have died back then and this would have all been over.'' Sato sighed.

    Right after he had defeated the Blood king, Sato was rewarded with quite a few items. Sadly, as he had decided back before with Saimon, he could only receive them once the trial was over. However, 2 of those rewards were quite special and so, could be gotten ahead of time. One of them was the map that leads to the second sector''s boss room while also having routes to different treasure areas in the second sector. As for the other one, it was a one-time revival token that was only usable in the [Labyrinth of Helios].

    ording to the rules of the Main Trials, death in any challenge represented failure. However, due to the intense difficulty of the [Labyrinth of Helios]''s challenge, a high-level figure of the Caventry, who also happened to have been a previous leader of the race, had made a few amendments to the trials. Apart from implementing the use of rating points, a special revival token was produced and hidden within thebyrinth, that would give one a chance to seed.

    The revival tokens could preserve one''s life in the trials and make it so that death in thebyrinth doesn''t necessarily mean the end of the Main Trials for a participant as through the aid of a mysterious power, the participant would be brought back to life elsewhere. Of course, there was no such thing as a free meal.

    For one to gain a revival token, they had to beat a guardian of a sector. However, there were 5 tokens; 3 could be gained from defeating the 3 guardians of the 3 different sectors while the other 2 were scattered throughout thebyrinth.

    It should be known that the [Labyrinth of Helios] was divided into 3 sectors and each sector was extremely big. It took Sato a whole 20 hours just to find the first sector''s boss room and this was because his luck was a bit higher than average. Some of the more unlucky participants of this challenge in the past had spent the full 36 hours but still found no clue of the existence of a boss room, and this was only one sector. From this, the size of the entirebyrinth could be estimated and in the entirebyrinth, 2 revival tokens were spread apart. In other words, unless one had a stroke of really good luck, they would be unable to find these revival tokens.

    Immediately upon death, the revival tokens would activate and preserve the soul of the owner, sending them to a safe environment.

    Atrit''s attack was so powerful that Sato''s physical body in the game was destroyed upon contact. His ''soul'' however, was preserved by the revival token but as his body had been destroyed, the system notification had sent him a death notification. Of course, thanks to the special effects of the revival token, Sato''s death was different from normal so he didn''t lose any Experience points. Even if he did though, Sato wouldn''t be worried as he had a feeling that with each monster he killed, he received an equivalent amount of Experience points, just that he wouldn''t get them now; only when the Main Trials were over would he be able to do so.

    ''So where am I? This ce doesn''t look like thebyrinth.''

    Sato inspected the empty white room but in reality, there was nothing to inspect. The entire ce was empty.

    ''Is this the revival zone?''

    After yers died, there would be a dy of 30 minutes or so before they could resuscitate. During this time, their ''souls'' would be elsewhere, awaiting the time of return. Since he had yet to die in IR, Sato had never been to the revival zone so he didn''t know how it looked like.

    ''No. This doesn''t seem like it.'' Sato thought, before recalling that he had seen a system notification beneath the first one. Opening his system interface, Sato spotted the notification and opened it.

    [[ System notification :

    Revival token has been used.

    User has been withdrawn from the challenge location and would wait within the [White empty room] till the challenge timer runs down. ]]

    ''So I have to wait till the remaining time is up? And what''s with thecking name? [White empty room]?'' Sato sighed.

    The revival tokens could be said to be an amazing artifact as they could preserve one''s life from true death. However, to limit the abilities of the token, it was made so that if anyone were to activate it and use it to preserve their lives, they would be withdrawn from the challenge to the white empty room but still retain their current ratings. This was to prevent participants from easily passing the trials with the aid of the Revival tokens. The token''s function was only to prevent the death of one and not to help them clear the challenge.

    Since he had nowhere to go, for now, Sato decided to log out of the game as the remaining time on his counter was a bit above 6 hours. This was the same as 3 hours in reality. There was quite a lot of time left so Sato decided to spend it offline.. He wanted to see how far the others had gone and also check up on the current state of ck Grill''s cave and the 3 novice towns.

 Chapter 285 - 279 : White Valley Townâ€™s Crisis

    On the outskirts of Riverdale town, just a couple of metres away from ck Grill''s cave, there was an old man who sat on a boulder. If Sato or any of the others were here, they would recognize this old man as the strange fellow they met in the forest before.

    On the old man''s shoulder was an eagle, a bit bigger than regr crows but smaller than an average eagle. However, the aura the eagle exuded was deadly. It was even greater than that of the projection of the Emissary that attacked Riverdale. Yet, this very eagle was docile in the arms of the old man, keeping its aura within its body and nudging at the man''s arms yfully.

    The old man had a smile on his face as fed eagle a few grains. These grains looked like your average rice grains but they were actually mana crystals, one of the highest condensations of energy one could find. A single mana crystal cost at least 30 gold or so, even still, this old man fed them to the little eagle like candy.

    "Ai~ little birdy, you''re still too young. Your growth rate is really slow otherwise I would have given you something better." The old man sighed with regret.

    The only thing better than a mana crystal was a mana stone and the price of those wasn''t something that could easily be negotiated. Simply put, they were priceless yet to this old man, they were just bird food.

    "Hmm?" The old man suddenly looked towards ck Grill''s cave. In his eyes, the rocks and walls of the mountain were nothing more than transparent ss. He could clearly see the interior of the cave as well as spy upon the happenings in the Great Hall of Grey Chains.

    "This is interesting. That fellow''s luck is really amazing. It makes me wonder whether if the ''Time of Changes'' has arrived." The old man smirked before he withdrew his vision.

    Even though he could spy upon the site, it didn''t mean he could do so without getting noticed. One should recall that the technology and advancements of the Caventry were at the peak of this world. The fact that they could create small worlds and use them for the Entry trials should already say such. There was also the fact that they had the blessings of a god, they Grey god to be specific. Hence, no matter how daring the old man was, there was no way he would im to be able to spy on the location for long without getting spotted.

    "Hmm? Another disturbance?" The old man turned his head in another direction.

    The ce he was ncing at wasn''t within the vicinity of Fallen Heart kingdom but at least one kingdom away. It was the kingdom of Brusia. The only reason the old man was able to nce that far was because he had once left behind a totem that functioned like a cellphone tower and enabled his senses to reach that far.

    "Another apostle? These days these guys are getting more and more daring. It makes me believe that the ''Time of Changes'' ising." The old man sighed.

    "Let''s go, quirky." The old man said to the little eagle.

    A secondter and both the old man and the little eagle had mysteriously disappeared. It was like they were never there before.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    Sovereign guild headquarters, White Valley Town, Brusia kingdom.

    Despite being a mere week plus old, Infinite Realm already had more than 100 million yers with hundreds if not thousands of guilds. However, none of these guilds owned a building in the game. Not just them though as no yer did either. But being organizations that had to manage and control arge group of yers, these guilds needed a centre ofmand. Hence, a majority of them came up with the idea of rentingrge halls or even buildings, especially hotels, and using them as their centre ofmand. Nheless, not a lot of guilds were able to pull this off as renting the rooms in a hotel cost quite a lot for an average yer much less renting the entire building or even a majority of the rooms.

    However, being the guild owned by one of the direct descendants of the Kurosaki family and also having a bit of support from the family, since having a standing IR was a top priority for most of the top figures, Sovereign was easily able to rent a 2 story hotel in White Valley town for a month. If the exchange feature, which enabled yers to sell and buy coins using real currency on an official tform, was activated, Sovereign would have been able to rent 5 hotels for 6 months and this was with them going moderate and being considerate for other yers. Sadly for the, it wasn''t.

    In one of the halls of the hotel owned by Sovereign, a meeting was ongoing with the participants seated in the meeting being the guild leaders of the various guilds in White Valley town. Any one of these people could affect the lives of the yers in White Valley town much less this gathering of them all. It was no understatement to call these yers the true rulers of the yer poption of White Valley town

    "I won''t start with any pleasantries or whatnot. Today, we are here to discuss the matter of the approaching beast horde." The young man who sat at the head seat spoke up. He was the guest speaker on thest interview in Virtual Times and the founder and current guild leader of the peak 1st tier guild Sovereign, Ajita''s 5th star, and the Frost King of the Red Sea, Kurosaki Genma.

    After Genma started the meeting, ady in sses beside him, exined the situation to the various guild leaders.

    "As we all know, the beast horde is a bi-annual event that urs in White Valley town. It is a progressive horde that is made up of 4 waves with the next one being stronger andrger than the previous. The main best horde is usually handled by the NPC mercenaries and soldiers a couple of miles away. The ones that usually make it to the town are the leftovers and the weaklings, well for the NPCs that is. However, for current yers and the NPC citizens of the town, these monsters are difficult to handle. As a result, the subjugation and extermination of these monsters are left to the only avable fighting force in town, the yers.

    From our intel and analysis, the main boss of the beast horde would be a King rank monster and it is usually handled by the town head and his forces. However, the bosses of the 4 waves are left for the yers. We believe that these boss monsters would be within the range of level 9-11 with their rank being at the Special Elite rank at best but on average, the Elite rank. In other words, they are much stronger than us yers. Due to this, the only way we can beat them is by cooperating and utilizing our forces with the best possible tactics. Otherwise, once we, thest defense of the town, fall, the mission would be over and the town would be destroyed. If that happens, every yer would suffer a severe penalization to our avatars, which would affect our gaming careers and progress in IR.

    The good news though, is that we have a secret weapon that would help us stand a chance at sess but for this to work perfectly, we would require everyone''s help. If done correctly, not only would we be victorious in the best wave but we would also be able to make our mark in the game.

    Also, this event would be broadcast by Virtual Times. In other words, sess here would raise the poprity and morale of our various guilds. We could anticipate new intakes and enrollments from yers. Also, the rise in poption and poprity could boost every one of us higher in rankings and this would lead to more sponsors, funding and resources. And these are just the benefits of being broadcast. There still exists the profit from defeating the beast wave which would increase our levels by far and reward us with a ton of resources and privileges. At that point, White Valley town would officially be recognized as a true blue 4 clover town. That''s all."

    Thedy nudged her sses before taking her seat, slightly behind Genma''s.

    "You''ve all heard it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to increase our rankings and strength in IR. If we take this chance and seed, we would soar like eagles in the sky. If we ignore it, we will suffer the repercussions and be drowned in regret." Genma expressed.

    "I hope you all would do your best and work with me lest we lose all our developments so far.. With that said, let the meeting that would decide the faith of White Valley town officially begin."

 Chapter 286 - 280 : Wide-Scale Mission

    While Sovereign hosted a Grand Guild Meeting for the guilds of White Valley town, the guilds of Riverdale, ck Mountain, and Salt Springs towns were preparing to face the Kobold king.

    Back when Sato still facing the first challenge of the Main Trials, the Kobold king had led its forces up to the Outer region''s 6th floor. Logically, considering the strength of its forces and the speed of advancement, it would have taken the monster a bit above 2 hours or 4 hours tops to have made it to the 1st floor but it didn''t. On the contrary, the Kobold king had slowed the advancement of its forces to a snail''s crawl whenpared to their previous momentum.

    When this news was reported to the various guilds via the scouts they had ced in the cave, they were all surprised and couldn''t understand the reason why the Kobold king would do such. Nheless, such actions made gave the yers of the 3 towns more time to prepare their various battle strategies as well as contemte the Kobold king''s main goal.

    Some believed that the Kobold king was going on a rampage and wouldn''t rest until at least one town was destroyed. As for the reason for its slow progress, they believed that this was just the calm before the storm. They were also of the opinion that the game was providing them with another opportunity to shine and be reborn and so, the slow-going actions of the Kobold king and its army were nothing more than the system giving the yers some preparatory time.

    It should be noted that of the 3 towns, only Riverdale had received the ''baptism'' of a clover town; ck mountain town, which was the closest, only took care of the scraps. However, in the eyes of the yers of the 3 towns, this was an opportunity that belonged to all. Unlike the normal events that focused on one town, this was seemed to epass the 3 towns. One of the reasons why this was so, as because this time around, the yers decided to take the initiative and face the threat.

    But there was another group of yers that had a different idea of the motive behind the Kobold king''s actions. These yers presumed that the Kobold king was limited to ck Grill''s Cave hence the reason why it slowed down its army''s advancement, almost to a halt.

    Of the 2 groups, the logic of the second group could be said to make the most sense, after all, no matter how strong it was, it shouldn''t be capable of threatening a town. Most yers, especially those of Riverdale who had witnessed their town head in action, surmised that the Kobold king wasn''t a tenth of Town head Arman''s strength, and the Kobold king, being an intelligent monster, should be able to guess this. Hence, it was idiotic to presume that the monster would dare to attack a town. Surprisingly though, they were right, but not exactly. The Kobold king did want to see blood flow but it was forced to slow down because of something.

    A couple of hours back, just as the Kobold king had made it to the Outer region''s 4th floor, it had sensed a presence that was much stronger than it. This presence belonged to Arman. IR was extremely realistic and just like in a reality, what kind of town leader would let threat rise in his backyard? This was especially so as he sensed a dark force hidden within the monster that seemed to approach the level of a Saint(6th tier). However, even though he was aware of the existence of the monster, he could do nothing about it.

    ck Grill''s cave had a legend surrounding it and even the fall of an Empire was rted to this. Consequently, the entire ce became a forbidden ground to NPCs. No matter how many guts or balls he was born with, there was no way Arman would im to be much stronger than an Empire. As a result, he was forced to watch the Kobold king approach the entrance. However, Arman had resolved himself that once it left the vicinity of the cave, he would y the monster.

    The Kobold king seemed to sense the mysterious eyes on it however, it didn''t actually n on stopping but only slowed down its progression to the 1st floor. It was as if it was thinking of what to do or how to handle the threat outside. Logically, it could simply retreat to the Middle region and wait till it was much stronger to take them on but it didn''t want to. It wanted to see mountains of bodes and a river of blood.

    "Who knew there was such a demonic force hidden down there."

    Arman frowned from his office. His eyes were locked in the direction of ck Grill''s cave, almost as if he can see the current happenings there despite the distance.

    "It can''t be helped. None of us can get into the cave because of the curse so it''s impossible for us to know what dwells and urs down there."

    His secretary, Alice, stood by a few steps behind him as a helpless expression was spotted on her face.

    To her, taking charge of Riverdale or any of the other 2 towns close by was nothing more than a burden. No one knew the nature of the curse but all they knew was that whoever entered inside would die irrespective of their strength; only low leveled NPCs could go in unharmed but even then, the monsters there were more than capable of dealing with them. Having such a time-bomb that contained god knows what made ruling this area a burden. Nheless, as the Town head and the secretary to the Town head, it was their duty to maintain the peace and security of the surrounding area. This was why despite his impressive strength and ability, Arman was actually made the lord of a town and not a city.

    "Send the Chosen ones. Since they seem to be immune to the curse and they also have the potential to grow stronger. Let them explore the area better and give us a detailed report. At the same time, I want them to eliminate that monster." Arman said with a cold voice.

    "Also, it would be best if you could request the other Town heads to do the same."

    "Understood."

    Just a few minutester, as the yers in Riverdale were all preparing to engage the kobolds, a system notification suddenly popped up and caught the attention of all the yers in town.

    [[System notification :

    Wide-Scale Announcement

    Region level: Town

    Mission Title: Eliminate the Threat

    Mission Rating: B

    Mission Detail: Town Head Arman has noticed a lurking threat in ck Grill''s Cave and due to certain reasons, requires you to defeat it.

    Basic Rewards :

    -Town Head Arman''s gratitude (Increase in Rtionship points with the Town head)

    -10 Silver coins

    -**** Experience Points(Depends on your contribution in the battle)

    Penalty :

    -Town Head Arm''s disappointment (Decrease in Rtionship points with the Town head)

    -Loss of 1 resource map (ck Grill''s Cave)

    -All yers would experience hard times in Riverdale town.

    System Description: The Town head puts a lot of faith in you but failure to live up to that would cost you a lot. Think this through, lest you find yourself losing everything.

    System: ept/Decline (To ept, please visit the Administration Hall.) ]]

    The mission wasn''t only limited to Riverdale yers as within the next one hour, the yers of the other two towns, ck Mountain town and Salt Springs town, also got a simr mission from their various town heads.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    [[ System notification :

    Logging out from Infinite Real¡­

    Disconnecting from the Heavenly System Universal server¡­

    Disconnecting Neurolink¡­

    Awakening process beginning...

    Prepare in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 ]]

    "Finally." Sato sighed as he noticed his environment slowly changing.

    3 hours had gone by in reality since Sato was ''killed'' and had gone offline. Despite not being in the game, he could receive all the news and feed of the current happenings from both his teammates and a few gaming channels dedicated to IR or even yer livestreams. The VR gaming industry was already quite popr so it wasmon to see such.

    Sato had mostly focused on channels and livestreams operated by guilds or yers in both White Valley town and Riverdale. Because of this, he knew that the beast horde would soon be attacking White Valley town and he was also aware of therge-scale mission given out by the Town head. Sadly, as he was in an isted environment, he couldn''t receive the system notification.

    ''I just have to be done with this in time and I can still make it.'' Sato thought.

    "This should be thest trial right? I wonder what the challenge would be."

    <strong>. . .</strong>

    Infinite Facts :

    The tiers of power include :

    1st tier, Beginner/Apprentice rank e.g.[Sword Apprentice]

    2nd tier Normal/Practitioner rank e.g. [Swordsman]

    3rd tier Master rank e.g. [Sword Master]

    4th tier King rank e.g. [Sword King]

    5th tier Grand-master rank e.g. [Sword Grandmaster]

    6th tier Saint rank e.g. [Sword Saint]

    7th tier Demigod/Infinite Mortal rank e.g [Sword Demigod], [Sword Mortal]

    8th tier God rank e.g. [Sword God]

    Currently, all yers are of the 1st tier Apprentice rank.

 Chapter 287 - 281 : The Third Challenge

    "Challenger, prepare for the Third challenge."

    "This should be thest trial right? I wonder what the challenge would be."

    Sato readied himself as the white dimension he was in fell apart to reveal a new location.

    "Hmm?"

    Sato was suddenly greeted by a bright burst of light that forced him to squint his eyes. Luckily for him, the light didn''tst long, as it decreased in intensity and his eyes slowly got used to them.

    "Where am I?"

    Sato couldn''t help but question as he caught a glimpse of his new location.

    The area was a t ground with grey coloured soil and no sign of vegetation. Even from where he stood, he could see far into the distance as there was no obstruction in the way due to the absence of both trees and elevated soil. All in all, the ce gave off a bizarre feeling even to Sato who had ventured into many ces in various VR games.

    ''IR''s graphics and realism are indeed the best.'' Sato sighed. Not only was the ce extremely realistic, but the feeling it gave and the feeling his in-game avatar felt made it feel even more real.

    As Sato was praising the game while taking in the view, he noticed something odd about the ce. Sato noticed that the environment felt a bit ''special'' and different from all the other challenge locations. It wasn''t just because of the ambience of the ce but something else.

    Sato felt like he was atop a suspended tform and when he looked up, he guessed that his intuition might be right. This was because just a few metres above him was the blue sky dotted with a bunch of irregrly shaped white clouds. It felt so close to reach but Sato knew that there were still, at least, dozens of metres between him and the sky. What caught his attention, however, was the lightweight feeling he felt in this new ce. It was almost as if it was floating but not exactly; as if the effects of gravity were lesser here.

    "This feeling...That''s!!!"

    As Sato gazed around and took in the sight, he noticed something from the edge of his eyes. Trying to confirm his suspicions, Sato dashed over the end of the tform which wasn''t that far from him. As he approached it, Sato began to slow down till he was just a few steps away from the edge. Yes, the edge.

    "Yep. I guessed it." Sato took in a deep breath at the sight ahead of him.

    He was actually on a floating tform suspended high up in the air; more than 7 kilometres from the ground! A fall from such a height was more than enough to kill a majority ofrge creatures like an elephant or a blue whale, much less a human being.

    From the position he stood at, Sato could see a majority of thend beneath him. The ground was covered in a mixture of green and brown. There were a few mountains scattered across the area and arge mountain range extended towards the East.

    Thend below Sato was like a heavenly ground. Gigantic trees grew from the earth and mighty beasts wandered throughout the area. There was nock of birds that resembled divine eagles and golden rocs. However, due to the distance between them, Sato couldn''t take in the sight of all this clearly. However, a couple of things did manage to grab his attention during this while.

    One of them was arge swallow that had a wingspan of at least 10 metres(10.9 yards). From the height he stood at, Sato wouldn''t have been able to spot this creature as a height of 7 kilometres would make anything below look like an ant. However, this swallow managed to reach a height of almost 3 kilometres or so and the aura it radiated happened to catch Sato''s attention. He felt that in a one-on-one battle with this ''little bird'', he wouldn''t be its match. To make a much betterparison of the differences in their abilities, Sato felt that the Blood king Varg he faced wouldn''tst one move against this bird. Luckily for him, the altitude of 3 kilometres looked to be the swallow''s limit, either that or it didn''t sense him.

    Just as Sato was astounded by the might of the bird, arge shadow suddenly swooped down and caught the swallow in its ws.

    ''Fast!''

    The swallow that was stronger than 15 Blood kings couldn''t even make a move or retaliate against the ambusher due to therge gap between their strength. All its actions of self-preservation looked like the tantrum of a little kid in the presence of the ambusher. The ws of the new arrival had sunk deep into the swallow''s body and after just 2 seconds, the swallow could no longer resist as itsst breath was snuffed out.

    It was at that moment that Sato finally caught a glimpse of the attacker. It was a red-winged eagle that had a body with a crimson shade. It had a wingspan of 50 or so metres(54.68 yards) with amber coloured ws that had a width of at least 5 metres. There were a few lines of red blood that came from the dead swallow, dripping from the ws. When mixed with the amber ws, they added a different kind of beauty to it. The ws of the eagle looked like a high-grade metal and Sato''s cksmith instincts told him that those ws could be used to forge a Rare-Steel rank weapon at the least and the level could even be above level 15.

    ''It might even be more. After all, I don''t know what level this monster is at.''

    Not just the ws, but every single part of the eagle could be used to create a weapon or equipment that would change the bnce of power among yer guilds in IR.

    After killing the swallow, the eagle didn''t immediately depart but nced towards Sato. Just one look from its blood-red eyes made Sato''s body go cold. However, the eagle didn''t make any move as it seems to be wary of something. Having achieved its goal, it pped its wings once and suddenly speed off far into the distance with a red blur.

    ''Incredible. I can''t even react to its speed. If it had aimed for me, I would be dead without knowing how.'' Sato took a deep breath as he felt that this ce wasn''t as simple as he initially thought.

    ''I have been here for a while yet no rules or instruction has been given to me.'' Sato took his sights off the in below and focused on the tform he stood on.

    Usually, with each location change, a voice would sound out that would inform him of the requirements to pass the trial and the duration of the trial. Apart from telling him to prepare for the third challenge, it said nothing else to him. Even the system notification that informed him of his new location didn''t appear.

    As Sato surveyed the tform, he noticed that deep into the distance, there seemed to be an altar or something located there. The structure was constructed with pure white stones and that made it a conspicuous object in this ce. The only reason Sato didn''t notice it when he initially arrived was that his attention was on figuring out the reason behind the weightless feeling he felt.

    ''I''m guessing the third challenge is most likely rted to that spot. Time to get going.''

    Sato began making his way towards the white structure however, he didn''t heedlessly rush towards it. One thing he learnt from thest challenges was that no matter the location, the trip would be in no way, smooth. There would always be a few monsters or creatures that would try to stop him or attack him. Sato didn''t want to fall into an ambush or get attacked and injured just because of a moment of carelessness. He would rather walk slowly than just charge towards the ce. Of course, Sato didn''t walk slowly since he was in a rush to get done with the Main trials. Nheless, he still didn''t sprint at full speed and also kept his senses on alert and raised his guard up for any surprise attack.

    . . .

    "He''s finally begun." Saimon''s voice sounded back at the ''viewing centre''.

    "Hmm. From here on out, sess or failure would depend on how well he performs. If his luck and strength arecking, he will lose everything. On the other hand, if it is satisfactory, he would be reborn and have a future worthy of a divine dragon." Lord Worrus'' voice replied.

    The Main Trials consisted of 3 challenges and the nature of the first 2 challenges changes at random. However, the third challenge would always remain the same no matter what. This was because the third challenge was the most important challenge that defined the most important quality of a Caventry; their strength. Also, passing this challenge would mean the end of the Main Trials.. In other words, once Satopletes it, he would be able to leave this dimension and reap the hard-earned rewards of his tiring efforts.

 Chapter 288 - 282 : First Battle

    ''Strange. I''ve been running for almost 5 minutes now but I still haven''t reached it'' Sato frowned as he stared at the white altar in front.

    It looked like it wasn''t that far; about 300 metres or so, but even with Sato running at almost full speed, he still hadn''t reached it and the distance still looked the same.

    ''Also, I haven''t encountered any monsters here. Are there really no other lifeforms out here?''

    Apart from not making much progress towards the white altar, Sato hadn''t encountered any forcestely. Just like with the first section of the [Staircase to Zolstice] which was devoid of any nts, the tform Sato was on, was the same. There were no nts or trees and apart from the white altar in the distance, there was no elevated ground. Simply put, Sato could easily see the area around him without much of a problem so there was hardly any way he could get ambushed. Nheless, he had yet to spot any monster so far.

    *Crack*

    "Hmm?" Sato perked up his ears and ced his hand on his sword''s hilt as he stared at a spot a few metres in front of him.

    *Crack*

    The ground suddenly cracked open as a 3 metres wide fissure formed. A ck shadow jumped out of the fissure and hurtled towards Sato with an aura of killing intent.

    "Hmph!"

    Sato reacted quickly and unsheathed his sword in one swift motion while also shing his sword towards the assant.

    *ng*

    ''Hard!''

    During the collision, Sato had managed to force the creature back but he also felt a strong impact force which numbed his hand. The body of the assant was much tougher than he had thought, so much so that it was almost like shing head-on with an Upper-tier Mortal rank defensive equipment.

    "Krrr."

    The creature wasn''t left unharmed either. It should be known that among current yers, Sato''s attributes could be said to be one of the highest, especially his [Strength]. Even for this creature with a hide almost as tough as an Upper-tier Mortal rank defensive equipment, it would still get injured in a head-on collision with Sato''s sword.

    "What in profanities are you?"

    With the collision between the two ending in a draw, Sato was able to get a view of the assant and he was stunned by what he saw.

    The monster was a humanoid creature that had its body covered in a brown hard shell like a lobster''s. It had two pairs of ws for arms and had a monstrous face. Despite being able to stand on two legs, it didn''t look like a human in any way. Even the two ''legs'' looked more like those of a crustacean than a human;cking toes and just looking like a pair of thicker curved chopsticks.

    "My very first opponent in this strange world is you huh? A 4 armed creature with high defense and impressive speed. Also, to have taken my counterattack head-on without getting injured, your [Strength] should be quite high. This will be a tough fight." Sato put on a serious expression as he faced this foe.

    Facing a 4 armed monster was far more dangerous and difficult than facing a 2 armed monster. This was because, with the advantage of an extra pair of arms, such a monster could make an extra set of attacks with the amount of time and effort a regr 2 armed monster would. In other words, where a 2 armed monster canunch 2 attacks with its arms, a 4 armed monster can make double of that, which is 4 attacks in the same amount of time.

    Considering that Sato only had 2 arms, it would be difficult to take on the monster unless he was could react much faster than it. For him to be able to pull this off, he had to face the monster with his total concentration and effort. To summarise, he had to take the battle seriously.

    There was still the fact that the monster had high defense, great strength and nice speed. All these factors made it more deadly than a normal 4 armed monster.

    "Shrrrkk!"

    The crustacean monster shrieked before charging towards Sato. It moved at such a speed that it would leave a level 8 [Assassin] in the dust as it waved its ws at Sato.

    With a calm mind, Sato didn''t rush to intercept it but stayed on the defense. He needed to analyze the monster for its weaknesses and take it down once it showed a w and to do this, Sato needed to be on the defensive for a while.

    *ng* *ng*

    The two traded blows repeatedly with no side giving space to the other. Sato had his [Strength] which seemed to be a bit higher than that of the monster so he was able to hold his ground even though he was on the defensive and even managed tond a couple of hits once in a while. The boost in attack speed from his weapon also enabled him to keep up with the monster''s 4 arms. As for the ''lobster man'', which is the name Sato gave to the monster, it wasn''t a weakling either.

    Not only was the ''lobster man''s strength impressive but its battle ability was at the level of a Veteran yer, making it a difficult opponent for regr yers. Without a doubt, if some average yer were in Sato''s position right now, they would have been killed dozens of times over.

    From the continuous collision between the two and due to the difference in [Strength], a few of Sato''s attacks were able to transmit a decent amount of force that dealt damage to the monster. Even though it had a tough shell that mitigated the pration damage, it still couldn''t subdue the force from Sato''s attacks.

    -30

    -16

    -18

    ''[Inspect].''

    [[ System notification :

    4 wed Crustan (Elite )

    Level : 9

    HP : 836/900

    Physical Attack Power : 105

    Magical attack Power : 0

    Physical Defence : 30

    Magical Defence : 0

    Attack Speed : 30

    Movement Speed : 20

    Attributes

    Strength : 35

    Endurance : 40

    Vitality : 90

    Agility : 10

    Dexterity : 10

    Intelligence : 0

    Willpower : 0

    Skills :

    . . . ]]

    Overall, the monster''s attributes were a bit simr to the Nightmare Devil''s with the only difference being its perverse defense and high attack power. There was even a passive damage reduction skill that came as a result of the existence of the shell.

    It was because of this that despite Sato trading blows with the monster for a while, he wasn''t able to cause much damage to it.

    ''Times like these are when I wish I was a mage.'' Sato thought after getting a glimpse of the monster''s attributes.

    Looking at the stats, the 4-wed Crustan looked to be the nemesis of all close-range fighters but the prey of mages but this was actually a wrong deduction in some sense. The third challenge was always modified to suit the challenger, in other words, even if a mage were in Sato''s position, they wouldn''t necessarily face the same monster. Even if they did, its Magical defence would be very high, at least on par with the current 4-wed Crustan''s Physical defence.

    ''I need to find its weak spots.'' Sato thought as he blocked a w from the monster.

    ''There!''

    With a sh, Sato thrust his sword swiftly and easily swept past the defences of the monster. The target of his sword was the joint that connected the left upper w to its body. A line of red liquid flowed down from the spot and dyed Sato''s silver sword with a tinge of red.

    -116 (720/900 4-wed Crustan''s HP)

    "Krrrrrr!!!"

    The monster shrieked before furiously waving the 3 other ws at Sato. However, Sato seemed to be prepared for this as he instantly separated himself away from the monster.

    ''Looks like I was correct. The joints are the weakness.''

    Just like withmon crustaceans, the strength of the shells at the joints was always weaker than elsewhere. This was to help facilitate movement and agility as if the shells there were as hard as in any other ce, it would be difficult for the monster in question to be able to move its ws with ease.

    ''Now I know your weakness, it''s over.''

    Sato lunged back at the monster and this time around, he didn''t remain on the defensive as before but forced his way with an overbearing momentum. Each and every one of his attacks was precise and aimed at the monster''s weak points. When the creature tried to retaliate, Sato would force it back with his overwhelming strength.

    Sato initially focused on the left upper arm and after he had seeded in causing heavy injuries to it, to the point of almost crippling the arm, he focused on another target. The battle wasn''t difficult for him because even though the monster had the battle skills of a Veteran yer, itcked Intelligence much less Intellect. In some ways, it could be said to be nothing more than a battle puppet without the means to improve. Such a monster was not much of a challenge to Sato so its defeat was just a matter of time.

    Less than 2 minutester...

    "Shrrrkk!"

    With an unwilling screech, the 4-armed Crustan fell to a puddle of its own blood. Sato, who stood opposite it, didn''t seem to have used much energy in the battle as only a tiny bead of sweat was seen on his forehead.

    ''This is just the first opponent. Who knows how many more I''ll meet before I reach it..'' Sato''s eyes glinted as he stared at the white altar in front of him.

 Chapter 289 - 283 : Reaching The White Altar

    "Shrrrkk!"

    With a loud shriek that seemed to entail the unwillingness and sorrow of the creature, thest 4-wed Crustan fell to the grey soil as red blood spilled from its injuries, dyeing thend a new colour.

    Sato pulled out his sword from the body of the monster as he heaved out a sigh of relief. Apart from the one that had just died, the corpses of two other 4-wed Crustans were scattered around the ce. There was even a faint undtion of starlight in space, showing that a few other bodies had already disintegrated to stardust.

    "Aiya. This challenge has to be the most frustrating one." Sato sighed as he fell on his butt and decided to take a break.

    It had been 2 hours since Sato killed the very first 4-wed Crustan. Ever since then, he had fought more than 20 of these creatures as he closed in on the white altar. Normally, facing more than 20 monsters in a space of 2 hours didn''t seem like much of a problem but Sato had to face them in batches.

    The first group was made up of two 4-wed Crustans, which he encountered just a few minutes after defeating the first one. The next group was also made up of 2 of those monsters but the third group suddenly had 4 monsters; an extra 2 added to the previous count. The following group after that was also 4 monsters but the next was 5. From then on, the appearance of the monsters repeated in that pattern as the difficulty increased with every 2 groups. Luckily for Sato, once it reached the point of 6 monsters appearing at once, there was no increase in number as the count seemed to have reached a cap.

    What was especially annoying was that these monsters didn''t only appear from random spots but did so within a certain range of time.

    To put it in better words, each 15 or so minutes, Sato would face another group of 4-wed creeps irrespective of his position. However, the time wasn''t exactly 15 minutes. After constant battling and experimentation, Sato discovered that after 13 minutes or so after the appearance of a group, within the space of 7 minutes, another group would appear. In other words, another group could appear either 13 minutester, 14 minutester, 15 minutester till 20 minutester, disregarding whether the first group was eliminated or not.

    This had happened when Sato was taking on the first group of 2 and because he was nning to conserve his energy, he ended up using too much time and another group of 2 had appeared. In the end, Sato had to push himself to the limit to defeat the four 4-wed Crustans quickly.

    Also, with the increase in the count of the monsters, Sato would need to use more energy to defeat them. From his analysis, Sato only had 13 minutes to not only defeat the monsters but also rest and progress forward towards the white altar. One can imagine the difficulty of this goal and the amount of stress Sato experienced.

    Last but not least was the fact that since the tform was located so high up in the air, where the oxygen was a bitckingpares to the ground below, Sato used up his stamina at a much faster rate than normal.

    Hence, in that space of 2 hours, Sato had barely gone past 1 kilometre as he needed to conserve his energy and recover while at it. He had also killed at least 35 monsters and each one after the 18th was done with Sato pushing his body to the limit.

    This could be said to be one of the most taxing and pressuring trial Sato had ever faced but at the same time, it wasn''t devoid of its rewards. Sato instinctively felt that he reaped some profit from these monsters however, maybe due to the agreement he had made at the beginning, he could only receive these rewards at the end of the trial. Also, each of the battles after the 18th kill was fought with Sato pushing himself to the limit. As a result, Sato''s control over his body improved dramatically as he slowly felt his body get ustomed to this lightweight feeling and his agility seemed to improve.

    ''This effect is like training in a gravity chamber. However, the results aren''t reflected in my stats. Maybe it''s being applied to my physique.'' Sato thought as he took out a bottle of water from his bag and drank it.

    Before he had begun the Main Trials, not only had Sato prepared nutrients for his body in the real world, but he had also prepared for his body in IR. His stamina and endurance here depended on the state of his avatar and not his real body so he needed to care for it too.

    After taking a short 2 minutes break, Sato hurriedly stood up and prepared to continue on his journey. While it was true that he hadn''t recovered fully, if he spent any more time here, the next group of 4-wed Crustans would arrive.

    "It doesn''t look as far as before." Sato said to himself as he stared at the white altar.

    The white altar looked to be just a few hundred metres away and if he were to run at top speed, Sato could make it in time.

    "Alright. [Sprint]."

    Sato sped towards the white altar. Even though he still had to retain a portion of his energy for the next battle, Sato still wanted to hurry over to the white altar andplete the Main Trials.

    It should be recalled that ever since he stepped into this ce, the third challenge hadn''t been announced to Sato. The situation was quite simr to the first challenge, where Sato had to roam through the [Bloodfall Lands] before when reached the [Staircase to Zolstice] where he received the mission. By using the same logic, Sato presumed that the same could be applied here; the only difference being the presence of the 4-wed Crustans. Simply put, all he had to do was make it to the white altar ahead and the actual challenge would begin. Fighting these monsters, though they may be giving him an unknown reward, was pointless. Sato didn''t let himself forget his main goal which waspleting the trial.

    [Sprint] onlysted for 5 seconds and after that, Sato''s speed would return to normal. However, Sato unequipped his [Astral de] and grabbed hold of a brand new sword. The sword was much lighter and shorter than regr swords and the aura it radiated was weaker than the [Astral de], however, this sword had one special feature that the other didn''t; it increased his movement speed.

    This was a sword that Sato had forged after he had be an official Apprentice cksmith. Because his skills in cksmithing were a bitckingpared to the NPCs, the product was much weaker than originally intended so Sato didn''t use it in battle neither did he sell it. Nheless, this sword finally came to use now as it could increase Sato''s speed to the same level as when he used [Sprint] without it, much less now he did so with it.

    ''After this, I need to find a few skills that can improve my speed.'' Sato thought as he began to realise that [Sprint] was getting useless for him.

    A 12% increase in attributes was impressive only if the base attributes wererge enough. In Sato''s base form, [Sprint] could barely add 3 points to his movement speed which barely increased his speed. If it were in the past, when a single difference in points could change the bnce in a fight, that would have been alright. However, current yers were now stronger and had good equipment that boosted their attributes too. One difference in the Main attribute could prove a bit helpful but in a secondary attribute, it was pretty much useless; even a difference of 5 was just barely satisfactory.

    Sato kept running forward for 6 minutes and each time [Sprint] went off cool-down, he would use it once more whereas when it was in cool-down, he would reduce his speed and try to catch his breath.

    2 minutester and Sato felt that the white altar was much closer than before; very much closer in fact. It looked to be just 100 metres away and Sato felt that this wasn''t his imagination.

    At this distance, Sato could take in the scenery a bit better. The altar was a huge rectangr structure that was built with a few white stones that looked like ceramic but gave off a metallic sheen on its surface. There were tall white pirs a few metres from the altar that went around it as if forming a prison with the altar in the middle. The altar radiated an aura of sanctity and holiness that made Sato have an instinctual desire to worship it. Luckily for him, he had stronger willpower and was able to resist that feeling.

    ''Incredible...''

    While Sato was awed by the structure, he was also frightened by it to an extent. One should know that this was a game, yet a building in it made him feel so little as if he was in the presence of a god.

    *Crack*

    "Shrrk!"

    "Damn it!" Sato cursed as he realised something.

    It had been more than 13 minutes since the appearance of thest group and the new one could appear at any second; in truth, they could have started 2 minutes ago because that was when the 13 minutes ''cool-down'' for the monsters ended. Sadly for Sato, just as he was about to reach the white altar, they decided to do so now.

    ''No. I can''t waste any more time here. The altar''s just a bit close. I have to make it in time.''

    Sato had this intuition that the monsters could not approach the white altar. He even believed that all their actions so far had been to stop him from doing so. If that was the case, then once he did reach the structure, they would stop chasing him as their mission would have failed.

    ''I have to make it.''

    With a resolute expression and his eyes set on the white altar, Sato didn''t stop his movements to face the monsters but increased his speed even more.

    *Crack*

    There were currently five 4-wed Crustans that had appeared behind him and they all chased after him. The difference between their speed and Sato''s wasn''t much but because Sato had already gone past them, leaving them behind, they wouldn''t be catching up to him any time soon. However, they were just 5 and not the usual 6.

    *Crack*

    "Shrrrkk!"

    Another 4-wed Crustan popped up from in front of Sato. The energy from this was one was a bit stronger than the rest but Sato didn''t pay attention to it. The only thing in his mind was how to avoid it. Sadly, the 4-wed Crustan didn''t seem to want to let him go so easily.

    "Krrr."

    With a low-pitched sound that was different from the others, it lunged at Sato as it attacked with all 4 ws at the same time.

    "Damn it." Sato cursed as he hurriedly switched out the sword in his hand for his [Astral de].

    "Out of my way."

    Sato focused the entirety of the pressure from [Astral Might] into his sword. At the same time, he used [Horizontal sh] however, he didn''t use the sharp edge of his sword to attack but instead the blunt part. Sato wasn''t interested in killing the monster but wanted to force it away. The best way to do this was to use the body of his sword as he would be able to transmit more raw power into it and it would exhibit a better pushback effect than the sharp edge.

    *ng*

    -18 (???/??? ???)

    Sato frowned as he felt the resisting force flowing through his sword but he tried his best to ignore it and pushed the monster away. Because it was caught in mid-air, the 4-wed Crustan was simrly sent back flying.

    After he had forced it back, Sato didn''t waste any time and resumed running. That small stop had made the other 4-wed Crustans close the gap a bit but Sato was still confident of getting rid of them. This was because the white altar was just a few dozen metres away.

    ''Come on.'' Sato urged himself as he ran with the full strength his body could muster.

    "Shrrk!"

    The 4-wed Crustan that Sato had forced back stood up enraged and chased after him. It was visibly faster than both Sato and the other 4-wed Crustan, as such, the gap between it and Sato closes up quickly.

    ''Damn.'' Sato cursed but his mind was still calm.

    He still had a few skills that could throw it away but that would require him to be in close proximity to the monster. Also, he would have to slow down to do so and that would enable the others to catch up to him.

    ''I only have one left.'' Sato seemed to be hesitating in making a decision.

    Actually, Sato could choose to stop and face the six 4-wed Crustans, however, Sato noticed that the aura of thest one was a bit different than the rest, meaning that it was much stronger than the others. Adding the fact that he was exhausted from all this running, facing six 4-wed Crustans was way too risky and what was worse was the fact that thisst one was much stronger than the others. Sato suspected that it might be a Special Elite or an Elite rank monster that was extremely close to it. It might even be a level 10 Elite.

    Because of this, Sato calcted that his chances of victory were slightly above 30%. In other words, staying behind to fight was suicide. His best option nowid in reaching the white altar.

    ''If that''s the case.'' Sato seemed to have made a decision as his gaze became set and he gripped his sword tightly with his right hand.

    "Shrrrkk!"

    The stronger 4-wed Crustan was just 5 metres away from Sato. At the same time, Sato was just 15 metres away from the white altar. However, he didn''t doubt that the 4-wed Crustan would reach him before he reached the altar.

    "Get back!"

    Sato suddenly yelled as he abruptly turned around and shed his sword at the monster.

    There was still a distance of at least 4 metres between them so Sato''s sword wouldn''t be able to reach it, however, he wasn''t worried.

    At that moment, white gentle light glowed from his sword. As Sato shed out, the light separated from his sword, forming a crescent as it exited the sword and darted towards the 4-wed Crustan. The energy from the crescent sword light was calm; the glow from the light gentle. However, if one focused their senses on it, they would realise that the sword light gave off a boundless feeling like the void in the heavens.

    [Astral de]

    Sato had used thest [Astral de] attack stored in his sword to attack the 4-wed Crustan. He didn''t doubt the strength of this attack because it was even capable of severely injuring Blood King Varg. Even though this one wasn''t as strong as thest, it still contained the same essence, so it couldn''t be underestimated.

    ''It''s over.''

 Chapter 290 - 284 : Invincible Might

    ''It''s over.''

    *Phew*

    With a whistling sound, the 1.7 metres crescent sword light struck the 4-wed Crustan and formed a wide gash that gushed outrge amounts of red blood.

    [Critical Hit]

    -178 (???/??? ???)

    "Shrrrk!"

    The remnant force from the attack sent the monster shrieking in pain as it flew backward, extending the gap between it and Sato.

    Since the crescent sword attacked horizontally, there was still remnant energy from the attack. It should be known that the width of the 4-wed Crustan''s body was about 60 centimetres(0.66 yards or 1.97 feet). There was no way the entirety of the sh would be tanked by the monster. The leftovers that broke off from the main body flew off to the side and struck the other five 4-wed Crustan, injuring them while forcing the others to a stop. Even though the attack held back the others momentary, that slight pause was more than enough for Sato to widen the gap even further considering that he was running at full speed.

    Sato kept running without turning back and just less than 2 secondster, he made it.

    *Step*

    Satonded on a white step that lead to the top of the altar. Even though he had reached his goal, he wanted to climb up to the top, just in case his instincts were wrong. Fighting from the top would be much easier as he would have the advantage. This was because the stairs were a risky ce to battle as only 2 people could walk side by side on them.

    However, just as he took the first step, Sato felt a weird undtion in space that kept him frozen. An invisible vibrating ripple spread from the altar passed through Sato''s body without harming a hair on him. But as it did so, Sato felt a pressuring force from it that could annihte him instantly. At that moment, he felt like an ant in the presence of a divine dragon.

    The 4-wed Crustans that pursued after him, including the leader who recovered from the strike, all paused once they saw Sato atop the stair. It seemed like they could sense the iing vibration as they all screeched and began to retreat. The leader was much stronger than the rest and it sensed the ripple earlier, so it easily overtook the rest in escaping. However, the invisible energy ripple wasn''t something to be underestimated.

    Originally, the ripple was moving at a slow pace after it exited the altar but it became faster with time. Just a secondter and it was already faster than Sato at his top speed. Another secondter and it easily surpassed 3 times the leading 4-wed Crustan''s speed.

    "Shrrk"

    The slower 4-wed Crustans shrieked in fear as the invisible ripple closed in on them. The very one at the back had even begun to sweat as it tried to burn its potential and escape. Sadly, its hope was crushed as the ripple made contact with it.

    The very second the leading ripple from the wave made contact with the slower 4-wed Crustan, the monster began to disintegrate from the point of contact. As the ripple went by it, the disintegration rate increased in speed till the 4-wed Crustan was no more. After that, the ripple sped up even more and devoured the other 4-wed Crustans. Even the leading one was no match for its speed as it got caught by the osciting ripple and turned to dust.

    Sato witnessed all this with fear in his eyes. It was unimaginable that such a devastating power had gone through him without leaving behind a scar.

    ''There should be some kind ofw that protects whoever is on the altar from harm.'' Sato came up with an exnation.

    After this event, the 4-wed Crustans were no more and Sato could finally take a break.

    After witnessing that unimaginable power that vanquished the 4-wed Crustans without any resistance, Sato had a bit of apprehension towards the altar. It should be recalled that death here meant failure. There was no revival token or anything simr like in the 2nd challenge so Sato had to advance cautiously.

    ''I should take a break and be at my best form before going.''

    Guessing that whatid ahead of him would be the final trial, Sato decided to take a break and recuperate a bit. He had been running for more than 7 minutes and at the veryst minute, he lost a lot more stamina as he was being pursued and had to asionally fight back. Also, a few of his skills were on cool-down so he had to wait for them to go off, to be in his peak form before taking on the challenge.

    As he was taking a break, Sato began to analyse his strength as well as his chances of victory.

    ''Sadly, [Astral de] is all used up. [Gratitude of Races] is in cool-down and would be unavable for thest challenge. I''ve also used up a majority of the arrays Xue Yan lent me with only one of them left. However, it''s just a support type.'' Sato frowned.

    He suspected that thest challenge would be a battle-type one, after all, the others were challenges with different intentions; the fights that urred in them were never directly rted to the main theme of the challenge. Even in the second challenge, facing off against the sector guardians was just a shortcut devised to make the challenge easier; it was never originally intended for the challenge neither was it directly rted to the main theme which was testing one''s luck. Because of this, it was understandable that the final challenge would be a battle, after all, there was no way the sessor to the Caventry wouldn''t be a strong warrior or at least have the potential to be one.

    If his suspicion was right, then the opponent would be a difficult one. One should remember that just the guardian of the second sector had killed him in one move and there was still the third sector''s guardian.

    Sato no longer had his ultimate skill and he was out of attack type arrays that would be very helpful. Even the astral points(energy of the stars) stored in his sword were used up so he couldn''t use the [Astral de] anymore. No matter how one looked at it, Sato was a lot weaker than when he started the Main Trials.

    "Oh well, I''ve made it this far and that''s still good. I could still challenge the trials again when I get stronger. However," Sato''s tone took a strange tone as he nced at the top of the altar with a smirk. "it''s still too early to give up."

    "I will give it my best and win. No, I have to win otherwise, how can I hope to face my family?"

 Chapter 291 - 285 : Xue Yanâ€™s Experience

    *Boom*

    A violent explosion rang out on an arena as a ming ball hit a red wooden puppet.

    *Crack* *Crack*

    Large cracks began to form on the puppet''s body and they eventually expanded and extended to cover the entirety of the puppet.

    *Bang*

    Finally, with a fierce bang, the puppet broke into pieces and was destroyed. Sprawled all over the arena, just a couple of metres around it, were the leftovers of a few other wooden puppets.

    "Huff Huff."

    A weary Xue Yan was exposed after the explosion settled, with sweat all over her forehead which entuated her beauty to a whole other level. Due to the sweat excreted from her body by virtue of the demanding battle she had undergone, her previously loose mage robes began to stick to her skin, highlighting her magnificent curves. The aura exuded from Xue Yan''s body was fiery and this wasn''t because of her beauty.

    "This girl has a lot of potential." Saimonmended as he stared at thedy in red robes with a hint of astonishment in his eyes.

    "Indeed. Ignoring the rewards they would gain at the end of the trials, just by their current gains and achievements, she''s already surpassed that little boy." Lord Worrus'' voice sounded from the side.

    From the tone of his voice, he also seemed to be impressed about Xue Yan''s progress in the trials as he didn''t harbor as much faith in her as he did in Sato. As for the ''little boy'' he was referring to, that was obviously Sato, and by all right, he could do so. Ignoring the fact that this was a game, if they were to calcte their ages, Sato''s age wouldn''t even be up to a hundredth of Worrus''.

    The current Xue Yan was a whole lot stronger than before the trials. This wasn''t strength in rtion increase in levels, but improvement in her skills and battle awareness. In IR, attributes weren''t a pure measure of one''s abilities or strength; they were just a physical quantification of an element of one''s abilities such as their speed or power. Also, a yer could improve in strength even without increasing their attributes. This was by improving their body''s natural physique[1]. The effect of physique was currently not popr among yers but it actually existed.

    A good example is when a [Guardian] and a [Swordsman] or maybe even a mage ss yer with the same amount of [Strength] were to sh in closebat. The mage yer or [Swordsman] would lose to the [Guardian] because [Strength] was the advantage of a [Guardian] and their physique is altered to give them this advantage. The current Xue Yan was able to gain an improvement in her body''s physique that aided her abilities as a mage in the Main trials or to be specific, the first challenge.

    "This girl is really lucky; at least luckier than that young man." Saimon sighed. He was originally rooting for Sato to win and didn''t have much faith in Xue Yan but she had ended up giving him surprise after surprise.

    "True." Lord Worrus didn''t deny it.

    The Main Trials consisted of 3 different challenges and each participant would usually face a different one, though some challenges would repeat. However, it was a confirmed case that at a single instance, despite the number of participants entering at the same time, they would all experience different challenges. Sato and Xue Yan had entered the same time but their challenges were different from the other. Sato had faced the [Staircase to Zolstice] for his first challenge but experienced the [Labyrinth of Helios] for his second. Xue Yan, on the other hand, had faced the [Puzzle of Cryptics] for her first and the second one, which she was currently facing, was the [Battle of Ten Thousand]. When Lord Worrus and Saimon praised Xue Yan for her luck, they were referring to the fact that she had encountered the [Puzzle of Cryptics].

    Not all challenges in the Main trials were rted to battle, after all, several different participants had appeared in history and would appear in the future. Some of the challenges would aid one inprehending their strength and abilities better and the [Puzzle of Cryptics] was one such.

    The [Puzzle of Cryptics] was aimed at mages and Rune-forgers or scribes. They were required toplete a specific amount of fragmented magical runes within a certain amount of time. While it was a challenge, yers were able to learn more about runes and spells in the process, increasing their knowledge as well as their control and power. The more runes one couldplete, the more knowledge, experience, and improvements they would receive.

    This was like having an apprentice mechanic fix the engine of a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. At first, he/she obviously would know nothing about it since their area of expertise wasmercial cars and he/she was just an apprentice. But if they were to start from the bottom, going over old Toyota or Honda models, then learning about the new ones then old Ferrari models, and so on, they would eventually learn the mechanics behind it and would be able to fix the car engine, so long as their learning speed and thinking capacity were satisfactory. The same held for the [Puzzle of Cryptics].

    However, Xue Yan had an advantage.

    Using the same analogy, imagine if the apprentice already had forehand knowledge about the Ferrari engine. They would just need a little bit more experience to convert that theoretical knowledge to practical skill. At that point in time, they would be able to repair the engine or even build it from scratch. The same went for Xue Yan who had already read a lot about runes and spells in the Hall''s library. The first challenge only served to help her digest this theoretical knowledge and convert it to practical skills.

    It was because of this that both Lord Worrus and Saimon had praised her for her luck because the first challenge had helped her to increase her strength without affecting her level. In other words, the challenges the current Xue Yan would face wouldn''t increase in difficulty but would remain the same. However, she was already much stronger than she was before.

    As for the second challenge that she was currently facing, the [Battle of Ten Thousand], it was as its name had implied. The [Battle of Ten Thousand] required Xue Yan to face ten thousand opponents however, she wouldn''t do so all at once, otherwise, even thebination of her, Sato, and the others wouldn''t do much. It was a survival challenge, so dying didn''t mean failing the entire Main trials. Xue Yan had to face her opponents in sets and each one would be stronger than thest. Apart from that, she also had to reach a specific amount of kills which would enable her to move on to the next challenge.

    Xue Yan originally began by facing one dirt-brown wooden battle puppet which was a level 5 Elite that she easily defeated. The next was 2 opponents and the number kept increasing in each set. By the 5th round, there was one Special Elite rank battle puppet with blue stripes but she still won. Following that, the number of Special Elites increased till she reached a total of 7 opponents. After that, the challenge repeated but this time it was a peach-coloured battle puppet which was a level 6 opponent. The same went on and by the 5th round, a Special Elite was also added to the mix.

    The loop continued till she encountered her match, a green coloured battle puppet, which was a level 8 opponent.

    Just like Sato, Xue Yan had made her preparations, sadly for this challenge, outside help wasn''t allowed. However, Xue Yan was still allowed to use her manufactured runes since she had personally made them and they were considered a part of her strength. Because of this, the level 8 opponents weren''t a challenge to her either. It was only when she faced the level 9 Elites that Xue Yan began facing some difficulties, after all, she had used most of her runes against her level 8 opponents.

    Currently, Xue Yan was had just defeated the 4th wave of the red puppets meaning that her strength was about the level of four level 9 Elite monsters despite being a level 8 yer; and this is after she had spent a lot of stamina and energy on facing other monsters s well as using most of her skills and abilities with the previous opponents.

    "Her strength is quite alright but this is where it ends." Lord Worrus said.

    "Indeed. Ever since its creation, no one has everpleted the [Battle of Ten Thousand]." Saimon nodded.

    The [Battle of Ten Thousand] required one to defeat ten thousand battle puppets, whose strength would increase with time and proportion to the challenger. Not even a god could im to be able toplete it. Even Xue Yan knew her limits.

    ''I''d probably lose against the next one. However, I need to deal as much damage as possible to them. If I can defeat the Special Elite then that would be better.''

    Since she didn''t know how many puppets she had to defeat to pass, Xue Yan had to kill as many as possible just in case. This was why despite knowing she would lose, she still wanted to give it her all and take a few enemies down with her.

    "Such will and endurance are impressive." Lord Worrus'' voice said.

    "If she had appeared back in the days, I would have taken her as my student."

 Chapter 292 - 286 : The White Altar

    "That''s about it." Sato stood up from the stairs and dusted himself.

    After a 20 minutes break, Sato had recovered about just enough stamina to make it to the top. Currently, he could be said to be at peak form, if his losses were to be ignored. Having to his peak, Sato decided it was just about time to see whatid at the top of the altar. He hoped that he was right and that his final challenge was rted to this altar else, he would have to wander the entirety of this greynd. It should be known that it took him more than 2 hours to get from the edge of the graynd to this white altar.

    The white altar was very huge. By width alone at the base, it was about a kilometre wide. Lengthwise, it was 2 kilometres long. The altar was made of white metallic ceramics that had runes engraved on them. Sato couldn''t notice it from far out but now he was right on top of it, he discovered the glistening deep-blue little lines that snaked around the altar. Sometimes, these runes would form symbols and writings. Other times, they looked like drawings and carvings of certain beings. The runes also gave off a mysterious feeling to anyone who stared at them and they seemed to be enticing to one''s soul.

    "Hmph." Sato harrumphed as he stared away from them.

    ''That was close.'' Sato sighed.

    He noticed that just then, he had slowly fallen into an illusion just like in the Entry trials. However, after experiencing the illusions in the game, he could easily separate himself from them. This was because the game developers and the controlling system didn''t make the illusions so realistic as they did with the game or else, even the greatest of yers wouldn''t be able to separate themselves from it.

    At the 4 sides of the structure were 4 stairs that lead to the top. Compared to the size of the altar, these stairs were small as they could only amodate 2 people walking side by side; 3 people could also walk side by side but they would have to squeeze in together. In terms of measurement, the stairs were around 2 or so metres wide. The ce Sato stood at was the staircase facing the east side.

    As the stairs lead up to the altar, the overall size of the altar began to decrease till it was only 200 metres in width and 400 metres in length. Nheless, this was still an impressive size. In terms of height, the white altar easily dwarfed any 60 storey building. Sato estimated it to be about 700-800 metres high, rivalling some of the tallest buildings from the Old era(our time). without an elevator, it would take him a long time to get to the top.

    ''I''m already at least 3 kilometres off the ground. This means I''m already in the domain of the clouds. A few hundred metres up more would make things a lot worse.''

    Looking up to the top, Sato noticed that there were a few white lumps beside the altar. These white lumps were actually clouds.

    With the grey ''ind'' floating at a height of an estimate of 3 kilometres, it was already within the area of clouds and an added 700+ metres would send it deeper in. While it was indeed amazing to see the clouds close by, it made things a lot worse for Sato. This was because, at this height, breathing would be more difficult for Sato. Even if this was just a game, the game tried to copy every feature of reality. In other words, the possibility of Sato losing consciousness here due to the low concentration of oxygen was very likely.

    Sato frowned at this thought but couldn''t do anything about it. He didn''t prepare any respiratory equipment as he never thought he would need it, neither did he prepare any heat supplying one. After all, at this altitude, the temperature was already cold much less a few hundred metres up.

    ''I just hope my body can handle it.''

    While VR gaming sounded fun, there were still its dangers. Since to mimic reality properly in a game, not only were amazing graphics designing skills necessary, but the equipment used by yers would have to be able to provide the urate feed and reaction to a specific action or stimulus. Take for instance, when a yer is stabbed, say in the chest, the game would replicate the sensation of pain through the aid of the equipment(either VR helmet or cabin) and send the information to the brain through the connection with the nervous system. The information would be well detailed such that the brain would read it and presume that the yer was truly injured in the chest. However, this injuring is only limited to the in-game body and not one''s real body but the brain reads it the opposite way. Simply put, VR games aimed to fool one''s brain into perceiving fantasy as reality.

    The dangers associated with this were obvious. If the sensation of pain is too much for a yer to handle, they could lose consciousness. There was also the problem Sato faced, where the game would replicate the feeling of one having trouble breathing. If Sato couldn''t handle it, he would lose consciousness and possibly die in reality.

    Of course, to avoid this, a few safety measures were put in ce by the game developers, one of which was the option that allowed yers to control their body''s pain sensitivity. There was also the fail-safe feature that would automatically shut a yer''s body down(in real life) and also log them out from the game. At the same time, if one was using a cabin, it would inject them with nutritional fluids and try to stabilize their body''s conditions. This was one of the reasons VR cabins were expensive and but still desired by a lot of yers. Compared to VR helmets, thepatibility ratio, misceneous and fail-safe features were a lot better.

    With his safety in mind, Sato reduced the body sensitivity to the lowest possible which was about 30%. He also adjusted his breathing using a few breathing exercises he learnt from his grandfather. Sato intended to try and minimise the amount of air he gave off in one respiratory cycle while also making his breathst longer. That way, he wouldn''t easily get tired on the way.

    ''I can only keep this up while walking but if it''s a fight, then effects would lessen.'' Sato analysed.

    Once he was done making his preparations, Sato began making his way to the top of the white altar.

 Chapter 293 - 287 : The Third And Final Challenge

    ''I can only keep this up while walking but if it''s a fight, then the effects would lessen.'' Sato analysed as he slowed down his breathing.

    Once he was done making his preparations, Sato began making his way to the top of the white altar. The white altar was very huge so it would take some time for him to get to the top. The earlier he left, the better.

    Some 3 hourster ¡­

    "Huff." Sato puffed as he dragged his weary body to thest steps that lead to the top of the altar.

    Since the distance from the top to the bottom of the altar was almost a vertical height, the difficulty in climbing it was a lot harder than some mountains. Sato had to take a break every 15 minutes to not only catch his breath but also calm his body''s system and temperature.

    Sato discovered as he went up the altar, the temperature began to slowly drop as the entire ce became much colder. Luckily for him, there was a magic torch in his space bag that not only provided light but also produced heat which he used to keep his body warm. With the aid of the torch, Sato was able to barely keep his body''s temperature at the average temperature despite having been on the altar for more than 3 hours. Nheless, the consumption of his energy and stamina was still massive even after his precautionary measures. Luckily for him, there were no foreign species or opponents on the staircase on the altar so Sato didn''t need to fight any battle and was able to make it to the top unharmed.

    "Finally." Sato sighed as he stood at the top of the altar, taking in the sight before him.

    Just a couple metres away was an arena that was 3 metres off the ground. The additional height didn''t bother Sato since it was just a couple of metres. However, Sato''s attention wasn''t on that. He had noticed something else.

    ''The temperature here is warmer and the oxygen levels are better than below.''

    Sato was stunned by the conclusion of his scrutiny. This was because it sounded very illogical.

    Logically, as one approached the peak of a highnd -especially a mountain- they would discover that not only were the oxygen levels lower in concentration but also the temperature would drop while at the same the effects of gravity on their body would lessen as they were slowly escaping its reaches. However, as Sato reached the peak, he discovered that all these changes had reset to normal. It was almost as if he didn''t climb up but went down. The oxygen levels had returned to normal; the gravitational force and also temperature increased back to the regr values. Everything was reduced to its base value on the ground.

    While this was strange, it was a good thing for Sato. Although after more than 3 hours of climbing, his body had begun to adapt to the previous environment, it still wasn''t quite suitable for him. In such a ce with lower degrees of temperature, weaker gravitational pull, and lower oxygen concentration levels, Sato would not be able to perform to his best. Hence, this abrupt change was a good thing for him as his body performed best in such an environment.

    After settling down for a moment and catching his breath, Sato began to walk towards the arena while also ncing around the ce.

    The peak was much smaller than the base of the altar, being 200 metres in width and 400 metres in length with the arena right in the middle. As Sato had climbed up from the east wing, he only had to walk less than 100 metres to reach the arena. Apart from the arena at the centre, there was nothing else on the altar''s peak which was a bit strange but Sato didn''t bother about it.

    The arena was a raised tform with dimensions of 60 by 35 metres, hence was quite big. It was made up of strange ck rocks that looked to be extremely hard even from a distance. On the peak of this white altar, the ck stone arena located right at the middle could be said to be extremely conspicuous and eye-catching.

    ''I''m guessing that''s where it all ends.'' Sato thought as he approached the arena.

    Because the arena stood at a height of 3 metres, there was a small staircase by the side that helped one climb to the top.

    When he was just a couple of steps away from this staircase, Sato paused in his footsteps and shut his eyes closed. He decided to adjust his mood and prepare himself for a big battle after all, from what he had seen in the Main Trials so far, it was best that he didn''t underestimate thisst challenge lest he regrets it.

    No longer than 2 minutester, Sato opened his eyes abruptly as a sh appeared in them. There was a firm indomitable will in them that looked to conquer all. Added with the passive aura from [Astral Might], Sato was like a war general about to intercept the enemy inbat.

    ''Time to go.''

    Sato unsheathed his sword and took thosest few steps, climbing up the staircase and reaching the arena.

    Just as his two feetnded on the arena, a familiar voice rang out in his ear.

    "Congrattions challenger on making it this far. Wee to the final challenge. Sess or failure here would determine your future progress. Seed and your future achievements would be no less than that of the descendant of a divine dragon. Fail and you shall be condemned to a life of mediocrity unless you encounter another fate-changing experience."

    ''As I thought.'' A smile crept on his lips as Sato heard that familiar voice and tone.

    At the same time, two system notifications appeared on Sato''s status.

    [[ System notification :

    The Caventry''s Path (Series)

    Mission rating : A

    Mission Detail : You have been granted the opportunity to experience hell as the Caventry do.

    Two trials and several challenges. With each challenge passed, a reward is granted. Get a high rating for better rewards.

    Basic Rewards : ???

    Penalty :

    -50% temporary decrease in Experience points for 2 weeks(RT)

    -50% temporary decrease in Main attributes for 2 weeks(RT).

    -Immortal soul would be harmed; 30% Permanent loss of attribute points for each Main attribute.

    Mission Status : epted (ongoing)

    System description : It is advised that the yer make this decision properly. The test would involve certain scenarios that would affect the yer negatively. If epted, yer would be required to go offline and make preparations as the duration and structure of the mission could potentially affect the yer negatively. For preparation steps, please check *Long term Online Preparation Manual*[2].

    To help set up a challenge, yer''s memories would have to be read. epting the mission would be the same as permitting the system to ess yer''s memories. Personal/private information rted to finances or confidential information won''t be shared and shall be deleted permanently from the system''s database once the mission is over. All actions and decisions are protected Alliancews (Lois universelles de l''Alliance, Section A : Paragraphe 3. Modifi¨¦ dans l''¨¦tat de France).[3]

    ]]

    [[System notification :

    The Caventry''s Path (Series)

    Mission Title: The Last Challenge

    Mission Rating: B

    Mission Detail:

    Basic Rewards :

    -Mission: The Caventry''s Path (Series) will bepleted

    Penalty :

    - Mission: The Caventry''s Path (Series) will be failed

    System Description: The final test to change your destiny. There''s no going back now; there never was. Either fail and fall to the worst form you have ever been or seed and stand strong amongst many.]]

    "Challenger, the third and final challenge of the Main Trials is a battle-oriented one."

    ''I guessed it.'' Sato thought as he tightened his grip on his sword.

    "You are to defeat your opponent within 24 hours. There are no limits to the number of deaths you can die but once the time is up and your opponent remains standing, you will have automatically lost and therefore failed not only the challenge but also the Main Trials."

    Sato was stunned at the details of the challenge and felt a bit apprehensive about it. For the challenge to require him to defeat an opponent within 24 hours while also granting him an unlimited amount of restarts after death, it showed that the opponent could not be underestimated.

    "Your challenge begins now!"

    Just as the voice ended, bright particles of light appeared from different spots in the arena and condensed together at the centre of the arena, slowly forming the outline of a figure. Just 4 secondster, the figure waspleted and the light went off revealing the features of Sato''s opponent.

    As he saw the appearance of the opponent, Sato was shocked to stupor and couldn''t resist eximing in surprise.

    "You''re....!!"

 Chapter 294 - 288 : Satoâ€™s Opponent

    "You''re...!!"

    Sato stared at the figure in front with an expression as if he had seen a ghost. He never would have expected that his opponent would be this person.

    "Hehe. Surprised?" A mocking voice sounded out.

    As the bright light from the formation of the figure had dispersed, a young man with ck silky hair was revealed. He looked to be about 20-21 years of age and had the body of a model. With ck eyes and thin lips, his facial features were very appealing to the opposite sex. A handsome face and a perfect body all in one, made him the dream guy of many girls. Most importantly though, he looked exactly like Sato.

    "So the third challenge is to battle myself. This is weird." Sato couldn''t help but think out loud.

    From a third-person view, the scene in the ck stone arena was such a strange sight to see. 2 young men that looked exactly the same, just like a pair of identical twins, stood opposite each other on the stage. They looked so alike, even in their clothing, that the only thing that could be used to differentiate them was their aura. The one on the left side was calm and collected, like a mature and responsible adult. The one on the left, however, looked to be more overbearing as he stood in ax posture and had a condescending smile on his face as he stared at the other one.

    "Heh. Don''tpare me to you. I''m a lot stronger than you weak piece of sh*t and you will soon realise it." Sato 2.0 said with a smug.

    Sato twitched his lips as he heard those words. It looked and sounded strangeing from ''his'' mouth.

    While it did look like him, the personality of this copy was a whole lot different. It was like the total opposite of him; overbearing and extremely self-confident, to the point that it was nauseating to speak with him.

    However, while this copy had a prideful tone and spoke with a gloating tone, Sato didn''t keep acent expression when facing him neither did he doubt its words about being stronger.

    The Trials of the Caventry weren''t something to be underestimated. Rationally, the final challenge should be the most difficult of the three. Even if it wasn''t as difficult as the [Labyrinth of Helios], it should still be close inparison. In other words, while this opponent looked like Sato, his true strength might even be much greater than that of the Blood King and maybe just a bit below the second sector''s guardian, Child of the Titan race [Atrit]. Otherwise, it wouldn''t make sense as to why he was granted an unlimited number of deaths within the challenge''s duration of 24 hours. As for why Sato believed that the copy in front of him couldn''t be as strong as Atrit, this was because that would make the challenge impossible to pass, hence bing meaningless to judge one''s strength and potential. No matter what, the game mechanics and rules would at least give yers a chance of sess no matter how little.

    ''The only way I can find out about his true strength is by engaging him in a fight.'' Sato analysed with a calm mind. Nheless, he didn''t intend on making the first move but took on a defensive stance and waited for the clone to attack.

    Sato knew that it was impossible to pass the challenge in one try so he hoped to use this first round to understand the copy''s strength. To do this, he had to remain on the defensive and not on the offensive. Also, while less likely to be, there was still a chance for Sato to win in the first round if he could time a counterattack properly.

    "Yaaaawwn. Are you done yet?" The carefree copy said with a bored tone. From its words, it was evident that the clone was waiting for Sato to think of different strategies to use against it before it would attack.

    For one to give their opponent prep time to scheme against them, they were either foolish or extremely confident in their strength. Sato guessed that the copy was of the second group but he was still annoyed at its casual demeanour. Anyone would be irritated if their opponent didn''t take them one bit seriously. However, Sato didn''t lose himself to anger and attack. He still kept his defensive stance and waited for it to make the first move.

    "nning on holding your defence huh? If I were to attack, not only would you grasp my fighting style but as long as I make a single mistake, you will retaliate without holding back and possibly defeat me, or at least suppress me. Interesting." The copy smiled as it revealed Sato''s thoughts.

    "Looks like I underestimated you." Sato replied with a slightly grim expression.

    What it said was true. Sato was indeed hoping to capitalise on a mishap from the opponent''s side to retaliate. After he had stepped foot on the arena, Sato noticed that his skills had all gone off cool-down and his body was rejuvenated back to its peak. All the stamina and energy he had lost had also been recovered. With all of that, especially the skills that had refreshed, Sato saw an opportunity to win in one round, so long as he timed his attacks well and utilised his skills properly. But with the clone knowing this, it would be a lot more difficult to pull off.

    ''Difficult but not impossible.'' A glint shed in Sato''s eyes.

    "Hehe." The copy seemed to know what Sato was thinking but it wasn''t bothered about it. It had the utmost confidence in its strength and didn''t believe it would lose to Sato.

    "Here Ie."

    Since Sato wasn''t going to make a move, the copy decided to do so. Making an announcement just before it attacked was its way of telling Sato that it was the stronger of the two.

    *Bang*

    The copy hurtled forward with a bang as its speed surpassed Sato''s even at his peak. There was a distance of at least 15 metres between them but with the speed the copy approached, this distance would easily be covered within a second.

    Seeing the imposing momentum at which the copy closed in, Sato moved forward to attack. He was still at the edge of the arena so there was a possibility that the clone''s attack would send him out of it.

    While the voice didn''t say anything about the fight be limited to the arena, Sato could guess so. There had to be an underlying reason for the arena''s existence so Sato guessed that falling off of it was the same thing as failing. Unknown to him though, his analysis was correct. This part of the challenge wasn''t mentioned because it was expected of the challenger to guess this. One could say that it was a test of the challenger''s battle experience and thinking because these two things were required to figure it out.

    *ng*

    Sato didn''t use any skills against the copy as he shed with it. He wanted to test its strength and ability so simply fighting with his techniques and skills was enough.

    "You''re strong¡­" The clone said as the two figures were both forced back after that collision.

    "But not strong enough."

    The copy was only forced back by 2 steps whereas Sato took 4 steps backward, almost reaching the edge of the arena.

    ''How is this possible?'' Sato questioned himself as he calmed down the surging blood in his body.

    From the collision just now, Sato discovered that the [Strength] of he and the copy was just about the same, otherwise, he would have received damage from that sh, no matter how little. Yet, even with the two being tied in [Strength], the power of the copy''s attack was at least two times more effective than his. In other words, even with the same attributes, the copy could use them two times more efficiently than Sato, resulting in an overall difference in power.

    "Hehe. This will take a bit more effort than I presumed. You are quite stronger than I thought. But it doesn''t matter, you will still lose.." The copy shed Sato a grin as its momentum slowly rose.

 Chapter 295 - 289 : Beheaded 1

    Feeling the imposing momentum from the copy rising steadily, Sato looked sullen as he faced the individual before him.

    In just one move, the difference between them had been revealed and Sato was on the losing side of the battle. He never expected the copy to be this strong. While it wasn''t as powerful as Atrit, it managed to suppress him despite the two of them having the exact same number of attribute points.

    "What''s wrong? Are you scared? Don''t tell me you want to give up so soon?" The copy said with a somewhat disappointed tone. However, anyone with a brain would realise that it was mocking Sato.

    The very next second, the clone dashed towards Sato while brandishing its sword at him.

    "Come on. Give me a better show than this. Fight! Fight! Fight! Hahaha!"

    Sato was at the edge of the arena and if he were to sh once more with the doppelganger, he would be forced out of the arena. Also, if he remained defending, he would just be constantly forced back due to the difference in strength between the two. So he made a quick decision. Sato sprinted towards the clone to intercept it however, he still didn''t n on fully going on assault mode. He still needed to ascertain a few more fighting skills and tactics from the double before he could make his move.

    *ng*

    Once again, the two experts shed with one another and as usual, Sato was on the lower end. But since he was prepared for it this time around, Sato was able to shave off a part of the force and only took a step backward.

    "Impressive." The duplicate praised as it attacked once more.

    *ng* *ng*

    The two exchanged blows with Sato being forced back constantly. From the looks of things, he was the weaker of the two and he seemed to have no advantage over the copy. However, Sato was still an Expert yer at the least and a Master rank martial artist. He was able to retaliate once in a while and managed to make the copy retreat, lest it gets injured. Apart from that, he was also able to hold his ground and despite being suppressed, he was still uninjured even as the fight went on.

    "Die."

    The double saw an opening in Sato''s defence and thrust its sword forward.

    Seeing this though, Sato didn''t seem concerned or troubled by it; on the contrary, a smile crept upon his lips.

    Just as the duplicate''s sword closed in, Sato swayed his body to the side while also shing his sword towards its head. He hadid a trap for it and as the target had caught the bait, Sato intended to deal a severe amount of damage to it and maybe even a [Critical Hit].

    Strangely though, even as its sword missed, the duplicate didn''t seem worried even with the sword approaching its neck. Instead, it just smiled at this.

    "Too slow."

    At that instant, its body seemed to wobble like a drunkard''s under the effect of alcohol and it had managed to dodge Sato''s attack.

    Sato widened his eyes as he never expected the clone to dodge his attack in such a strange fashion but he didn''t let his guard down even after that.

    The two immediately separated from each other before ncing at the other with different emotions in their eyes. Sato looked at the duplicate with surprise and astonishment in his eyes whereas the duplicate simply stared at Sato with the same condescending eyes and smile it had since the beginning.

    ''This will be tougher than I thought.''

    Sato originally wanted to fight the duplicate and force it to reveal more of its fighting techniques and abilities without using a majority of his cards but the duplicate also fought Sato without using any skill either. It was because of this that the battle was currently in a dead-lock otherwise if Sato used his in-game skills and faced the duplicate as it was now, he would easily restrain it and maybe defeat it. The same could be said if the duplicate used its skills whereas Sato didn''t.

    ''24 hours huh¡­I might as well use them now.'' Sato''s eyes became serious as he made his decision.

    The duplicate nced at Sato in the eye and it smiled with a knowing look on its face as if it had guessed what Sato''s n was.

    The next moment, Sato charged towards the duplicate with renewed vigor and intent.

    "Good!"

    The duplicate yelled before raising its sword against Sato.

    [Hack]

    Sato started off with one of the weakest skills in his arsenal to test out the strength difference between him and the duplicate. However, the doppelganger''s next action stunned him.

    "[Hack]"

    *ng*

    The two swords collided and set off sparks in the air. While Sato had already guessed that the clone would have about the same skill set as he did, he never expected it to perform the same move right after he did so.

    Frowning, Sato took back his sword and attacked again.

    [Chop]

    The duplicate smirked and struck out once more with its sword too.

    [Chop]

    *ng*

    Once again, the two swords shed and Sato, being the weaker of the two, was forced back by 2 steps.

    At this point, Sato realised that it wasn''t a mere coincidence or an ident; the duplicate was purposely messing with him and retaliating with the exact same skill that he used.

    "What? Are you angry? If you are, why don''t you do something about it." The duplicate grinned.

    Sato charged back once more and this time around, he unleashed a flurry of attacks at it. While part of the reason he did so was that he was enraged another reason had to do with the fact that he hadn''t put much pressure on the clone so it was able to still makements in the middle of their fight. Without enough pressure on it, not much of the duplicate''s skills will be revealed.

    *ng* * ng*

    After blocking two strikes from the duplicate and being forced back, Sato kicked forward with his right foot, sending the charging figure back. He then pounced forward at it and shed out with his full strength.

    [Horizontal sh]

    "Hehe."

    With acent expression, the duplicate brandished its sword at Sato using the same skill as he did.

    *ng*

    Right after the two attacks connected, Sato borrowed the momentum from the repelling force to twist his body in mid-air and move to the side. He thenunched another assault but this time, from the left side of the duplicate.

    The duplicate dodged just in time and then countered with an attack of its own, but Sato had hurriedly retreated at this time.

    ''Its reactions, motions, and response time are all high. This will be difficult.'' Sato frowned.

    The duplicate not only possessed the same attributes and skills as he did but also, its battle sense and experience were no less than his; in fact, Sato felt that it was much more experienced than he was. If the duplicate were to be pit against the Blood king, Sato felt that it would be able to take it down without much of an effort. Even now, Sato felt that it was still holding back by a lot.

    "If you''re out of tricks you better let me now right now.." The duplicate smiled at him.

 Chapter 296 - 290 : Beheaded 2

    "If you''re out of tricks you better let me now right now." The duplicate smiled at him.

    While the opponent was tough, Sato hated its mouth to the bone. The duplicate seemed to always attack Sato with its words whenever possible. Not only did it want to defeat him physically, but it also wanted to do so mentally too.

    "sighs. It looks like it''s the 3rd personality in charge this time around." Saimon sighed in the viewing hall.

    "This young man would end up being toyed around by it without even realising it."

    The third challenge would always remain constant and when one recalled that more than one person could participate in the Main trials, there was a chance of the 2 or more participants reaching the Third challenge at roughly the same time. However, the individuality of the Trials still had to be maintained at that point so not only were there various possible locations for the third challenge to be held, there were also various consciousnesses that took charge of the opponent.

    That''s right. The person Sato fought wasn''t just an inanimate copy of himself but was a mirror image that was controlled by a replicated conscious of a Caventry expert. This Caventry expert was referred to as the third and it had an overbearing and prideful personality; always looking down at its opponent and had ended up gaining the wrong kind of fame for this.

    "It doesn''t matter which personality he faces, their strength would all still be roughly at the same level. If he can''t handle this one, facing another would make no difference." Lord Worrus cold emotionless voice resounded.

    "True." Saimon nodded before focusing his gaze on the fight.

    *Thud*

    Sato was forced to the ground after he failed to defend against an attack of the duplicate properly. Just as he was about to get back on his feet, the duplicate stomped its foot at him.

    *Bang*

    Sato rolled to the side and dodged the foot but the loud sound from just that stomp made his heart shake a bit.

    After he managed to get back to his feet, Sato retreated but the duplicate didn''t n on letting him go this time around.

    ''In that case¡­''

    Since Sato couldn''t get the upper hand despite using his ss skills, he decided to use some of his martial arts skills from the real world.

    ''Lotus sh.''

    Sato swung his sword down vertically in a steady manner. The attack seemed to be going straight down but there was a weird feeling to it that only martial artists would sense. As expected, the duplicate thought this was only a regr attack and still went on to sh with it.

    *ng*

    This time around, Sato wasn''t the one who was forced back but the duplicate.

    "How?" It eximed in surprise.

    Just a while ago, it was suppressing Sato yet it didn''t get any advantage from this one attack; on the contrary, it was even forced back.

    "Not done yet."

    Sato didn''t stop at one attack but unleashed a barrage of sword strikes at the clone. Since it was stunned from thatst strike, it wasn''t able to respond in time and was continuously being forced back. Each time it tried to gain the upper hand, Sato would use a martial arts skill to restrain it and force it back again.

    Like this, the duo went from one edge of the area towards the centre. The duplicate had already begun sweating like crazy as it realised that it was in a bad situation.

    As the opponent''s mentality became frail, more and more openings were made avable and Sato slowly gained full control of the tempo of the battle. However, the duplicate was still not to be underestimated as its defense was still tight and it didn''t get injured.

    ''In that case¡­''

    Hoping to end the fight with a critical blow to the individual before him, Sato waited till he found an opportunity just like before. However, to make sure that his attacknded a clear hit this time around, Sato activated [Sprint] and attacked with [Linear Strike] as he thrust his sword past the defense of the duplicate. At this time, sweat poured out profusely from the monster as it discovered that it had messed up.

    "It''s over." Sato smirked as his sword was just 5 inches away from the duplicate''s body.

    At such a distance, dodging was impossible and the same held for blocking. Even the current fastest [Assassin] yer would fall to this de without having any ability to resist.

    Just as Sato felt that victory was within his reach, his senses suddenly alerted him of danger but Sato was too slow to react to it, after all, all his attention was ced on this strike and he never expected to get ambushed all of a sudden.

    "Indeed. It''s over." the duplicate''s voice resounded in Sato''s ears.

    A silver sword suddenly stabbed into Sato''s chest, going right through the gap in his chest te from the side and stabbing into his heart. Red blood spilled from the spot as Sato''s attack was interrupted by the massive influx of pain he felt from the injury.

    [Critical Hit]

    -143 (7/150 Sato''s HP)

    "How?" Sato faced the duplicate with a pained expression with shock and surprise noticeable in his eyes and tone.

    "Hehe. You''re not the only one who''s got skills. Now die."

    Though Sato was stunned, he didn''t hesitate to retreat right after he was injured. However, he had still underestimated the attacking speed of the duplicate.

    Like a swift sword cutting through the fallen leaves of a tree, the duplicate''s attack reached Sato before he knew it and made a clean cut on Sato''s neck. Because the spot the sword aimed at was a vital area and also the power behind the sword was enough to even harm a level 10 Elite together with Sato''s HP being low, Sato''s head separated from his body and rolled on the floor as the sword made a clean cut on his neck.

    "Hehe. Beheaded.." The duplicate licked the remaining blood on its sword.

 Chapter 297 - 291 : A Terrifying Opponent

    Sato''s headless corpse on the arena began to disintegrate into starlight. The head that still had a stunned expression also broke down and turned to brilliant dust particles. The spilled blood on the stage also began to mysteriously disappear.

    10 or so secondster, there was no sign of Sato''s headless corpse or head anywhere. The stardust had disappeared alongside any clues of a dead body. At the same time, a sh of brilliant white light shone a few feet away from the arena for less than a second. With the disappearance of the white light was the appearance of another figure. The revival mechanism had brought Sato back to life but it did so at a much faster rate than in the outside world.

    Normally, Sato would have noticed this but his attention was ced on the duplicate on the arena. Sato''s body slightly shook as heid his gaze on the copy with an incredulous expression.

    "You know martial arts?" Sato couldn''t believe his eyes.

    In VR games, the advantage certain yers, especially the experts, held over NPCs, monsters, and even other yers was their knowledge of martial arts. As VR games were able to replicate the moves one could perform in reality, the essence and stances of a majority of martial arts could also be performed by yers in VR games. This ended up bing another trump card and fighting style for the yers, apart from the ss skills.

    This was why with the increasing poprity of VR games, martial arts also benefited from it. The same also happened as martial arts tournaments gained more fame. In the end, a few of these tournaments were even performed in VR games, due to the limitless capabilities and incorporation of fantasy within these games. One good example was the annual "9 Dragons Martial arts Tournament" that was heldst year in a Top 5 VR game, ''Dynasty''. As a result, the two industries of VR gaming and Martial arts became interrted with one another. Of course, they weren''t the only ones connected by interest.

    However, no matter what, it was usually only the yers that were aware of and could perform martial arts. Apart from a few exceptions like NPCs that practiced martial arts in the game or VR games directly rted to martial arts, no other NPC or monster could do so. But before Sato, was one who could.

    This normally wouldn''t be enough to stun him as there were a few NPCs even in IR who could perform martial arts, like the strongest mercenary in Riverdale town, Deval, who was a fist arts practitioner, however, the martial arts the clone just used was different; especially thest move it used to behead Sato.

    The technique the duplicate used to sneak an attack on Sato was a high-level martial arts skill that only Master level practitioners were able to perform. As for thest move it used, that was Sato''s signature technique, the 1st form of the Lotus sword art, Swift Kill. This was the source of Sato''s shock and astonishment as he began to wonder where it might have learnt it.

    ''Don''t tell me it also has my memories?'' Sato''s face became grim.

    The possibilities of that happening was quite high, after all, the Entry Trial read Sato''s memories and produced a scenery where Sato had what he desired most. The first challenge of the Main Trials also had a monster with the capabilities of reading its opponent''s memories and taking on the form of a person from it; having both their skills and personality. Sato didn''t doubt that the clone in front of him was something simr and it might also be aware of all his martial arts techniques and skills, especially since it was supposed to be another him. Consequently, it would be difficult for Sato to get an upper hand against it.

    ''Wait, no. That technique it used to change the tides of the battle, I never learnt that. Heck, I don''t even know what it is.''

    If the duplicate was aware of a martial arts skill that Sato didn''t know of, this meant that not only did it have the skills in his arsenal but it also had a bunch of its own. Therefore, as it was already aware of martial arts, it seemed that the duplicate was actually pretending to be suppressed by Sato''s attacks before, just to make him drop his guard and retaliate when he least expects it.

    ''Crafty, skillful, and dangerous.'' Sato attached 3 words to the duplicate''s personality.

    "Hahaha. That was a nice one. You really think you got me back then?" The duplicate spotted the revived Sato andughed.

    "I told you from the very beginning; I''m much stronger than you. Also, guess what? I only defeated using 40% of my abilities. Isn''t that amazing? A clone surpassing the original by far. Haha." The duplicate guffawed.

    "Laugh while you still can because you soon won''t have a mouth to do so." Sato spoke with an irritated tone.

    The words of the duplicate were not only aggravating but its personality seemed to make one just want to beat the sh*t out of it. Even Buddha might not be able to tolerate the crap it spewed.

    The duplicate grinned at Sato''s reaction as it seemed to expect that from him.

    "Oh yeah? While don''t youe on up let''s have another go. Come on, I don''t bite."

    Sato ignored it and stopped paying attention to the duplicate. Even though he was vexed by it, it didn''t mean that he had lost himself to anger. No matter how infuriating and provoking the words of the duplicate spoke, it mostly consisted of the truth. Currently, Sato wasn''t its match. Going up one more time would just be asking for a beating. And on the matter of it holding back by 60%, Sato felt that it was true. The movements and attack patterns of the duplicate were toox. It could have simply finished Sato off from the very beginning but decided to y around with him. From this, one could see that the duplicate wasn''t afraid of losing because it simply didn''t see that happening.

    Nheless, Sato had still achieved a bit from thest fight and he had gotten to know more about the duplicate''s fighting ability.

    ''The third challenge is a contest of strength. However, it doesn''t focus on overwhelming power but skill. My martial arts had reached a bottleneck since it''s very hard for me to find a worthy opponent. If I use this opportunity properly, my skills could improve. I guess this is a good thing for me.''

    . . .

    At the edge of ck Grill''s cave, a multitude of yers had gathered and set camp around the ce. The gs of a few guilds were hung in front of the bigger tents while the smaller ones just had a simple party or an individual staying in them. Thisrge mass of yers consisted of the yers and guilds from ck Mountain town, Riverdale town, and Salt Springs town. While it wasn''t exactly every yer from these towns, they still consisted of a majority of them.

    Lined up in front of these tents were various yers, kitted up for battle. Their disciplined stance, orderly arrangement, and the uniform dressing they had on made them have an imposing momentum that scared off some of the other yers. They were the trump card team of one of the 1st tier guilds of ck Mountain town, the Howling Wolf Battalion.

    In front of this team stood a middle-aged man in ck armour. A great-sword hung on his back as he nced at his squad before turning towards ck Grill''s Cave. He steeled his gaze at the entrance and he radiated a bloodthirsty aura around him. From this alone, one would realise that such a yer was not one you could mess with. Chances were that he was even a veteran soldier who had retired to gaming.

    The middle-aged man then opened his mouth and yelled in a deep voice.

    "Everyone, advance!"

    (Check AN for announcements.)

 Chapter 298 - 292 : Chescesâ€™ Younger Brother

    At the edge of ck Grill''s cave, a multitude of yers had gathered and set camp around the ce. The gs of a few guilds were hung in front of the bigger tents while the smaller ones just had a simple party or an individual staying in them. Thisrge mass of yers consisted of the yers and guilds from ck Mountain town, Riverdale town, and Salt Springs town. While it wasn''t exactly every yer from these towns, they still consisted of a majority of them.

    "Wow. So many yers just for one event." A guild member couldn''t help but exim.

    "Will there even be enough monsters?"

    "What do you know? I heard the Kobold king enved every monster in the cave so even our numbers are no match for theirs." A slightly older-looking guild yer said.

    "The heck?" The young man, who was the yer who spoke earlier, was stunned.

    A floor in ck Grill''s Cave was bigger than the size of 2 Wembleys[1] and each floor housed almost five thousand monsters spread all out. Because of the absurd size of the ce, it was entirely possible for yers not to encounter each other unless their destination was the same. While it wasn''t impossible though, it wasn''t overlymon for yers to meet each other. This was especially so from the 7th floor of the Outer region to the lower floors. With such arge expanse of space, the number of monsters within the floors would obviously not be little. yer estimates put the figures at about 500-2,000 monsters on each floor.

    "Looks like you''re new." The older yer spoke as he nced at the young man. The young man''s level was level 5 while a majority of yers were already level 6 at least. Unless the young man was an extremely terrible yer, he would have to be a neer.

    "Yeah. I just started a week or so ago." The young man didn''t deny it.

    "A week to reach level 5? you''ve got skills." The older man spoke, however, his smile seemed to show that he didn''t fully believe the young man. It took not just him, but a majority of other yers more than 2 weeks just to get to level 6, yet this young man whose hair might not have even grown fully used 1 week. He would be a fool to believe him.

    "Listen up." A voice sounded in the camping area.

    The attention of the young man and the older man, who was just a middle-aged man, was turned to the source of the sound.

    Dozens of metres away was a lineup of yers in red and ck armour. They stood in a formation with the long-range yers behind, followed by the [Assassin] yers, then the closebat yers with the [Guardians] being at the forefront and the [Berserkers] being just behind them. The total number of yers was almost one hundred and every one of them didn''t look like average yers. They were Elites at the very least, with a few Experts in their ranks. This was especially so since the 7 yers that stood in front of the rest felt quite different. Undoubtedly, they were all Experts.

    The origin of the voice from before was a middle-aged man in pure ck armour that held arge great-sword in front of him. He gave off a savage and bloodthirsty aura that not only prevented other yers from approaching him but from even staring at him. A nce at the man made them feel cold as if they weren''t staring at a human being but a servant of death; a cold-hearted killer.

    The middle-aged man''s voice boomed again.

    "We have no spot for failure here and so, I expect to see each and every one of you give this your best. This is an opportunity for our Howling Wolf Battalion to show these pretty boys how it''s done. Don''t bring shame to the Battalion or else I don''t mind taking your heads."

    "We won''t."

    "Haha. Captain doesn''t need to worry."

    "It''s time we show them who''s the boss around here."

    The army that stood in front of the man all replied with a battle-ready tone. Their fighting spirit had surged from the man''s words and they were already to go start a massacre. This was especially for one certain [Assassin] who was one of the 7. He licked his de as his eyes glinted with an eerie light.

    "Good." The middle-aged man nodded.

    "Now, advance!"

    In an orderly fashion, the formation of yers made their way towards the entrance of ck Grill''s cave which was just a few hundred metres away.

    "Battle Wolves has be more daring these days." A voice suddenly sounded from behind the two yers from before.

    ''Huh?'' The older yer was shocked as to how someone had appeared behind him without him realising so. But as he turned around and saw the appearance of the personage, he was shocked.

    "Commander Chesces!" The middle-aged man(the older of the two) was shocked but still saluted at him. The person before him was the 5th Hand of the Emperor and a high-ranking member of his guild, Emperor''s Might. If not for the mission given out by the Town head, he would have never met him.

    "Dispense with the formalities." Chesces lightly smiled.

    He was currently d in silver-white armour and had a silver-blue long-sword strapped to his waist. Because he had died quite a few times, his level was only at level 8. However, this was still impressive as not a lot of people were at level 8. Also, Chesces was one of the Experts of the guild so his true strength wasn''t only dependent on his level.

    "Being the strongest 1st tier guild in ck Mountain town and with no super guild in the way, they seem to have gotten more courageous in their acts and have begun swaggering around like the lords of a manor." Chesces resumed his evaluation of the team of yers that had just departed.

    While most of the information of Infinite Realm wasn''t revealed to the public before its release, some were gotten by the top guilds of the game before it reached the yers. The summary of the many Novice towns in the game was a good example. Even before the release of the game or before the information was made official in the forums, the upper echelons of the top gaming guilds had gotten their hands on this information. It wasn''t a piece of confidential information and it would be made known to the general popceter so getting early ess wasn''t a difficulty for these powers.

    As is poprly said and known, information is power. With the knowledge of these ces, the guilds began nning where to set their headquarters in the game as well as their starting location. All to get ess to as many resources as possible, some of them even began analysing what may or may not appear or happen in these ces.

    ck Mountain town, Riverdale town, and Salt Springs town were a bunch of the few towns eyed by the top guilds who decided to begin in Fallen Heart kingdom. Of course, there were still a bunch of other towns eyed by these guilds. For example, the town closest to the capital, Moon Flower town, as well as some of the towns that lead to port cities. The generally epted categories of Novice towns in the order of importance to yers were: Main spawn point, secondary spawn point, third tier areas, outskirts.

    The ''outskirts'' were towns suspected to have lesser resources and were also far from the capital city or other areas of importance. Third tier areas were okay but only some of the weaker 2nd tier guilds and 3rd tier guilds struggled to use these ces as their headquarters and official starting location. Secondary spawn points were more valuable from the 3 and they were fought over by 2nd tier guilds, weaker 1st tier guilds, and branches of super guilds. As for the best of all, the Main spawn points, only super guilds, and peak 1st tier guilds fought over these ces as their official starting position.

    While this was the way things went, there were a few exceptions. A good example is Battles Wolves, one of the stronger 1st tier guilds, using ck Mountain town, which is a secondary spawn point, as their official starting position and headquarters. In other words, unlike Emperor''s Might, who only sent a branch division to Riverdale town -which was a secondary spawn point- Battle Wolves had actually sent their main force over. Because of this, they had the advantage in the struggle for ck Mountain town and easily suppressed all the other forces there while still shing head-on with a few tough guys like Emperor''s Might. This was why Chesces had said that they were bing more and more daring.

    "Hehe. Older brother, what kept you busy for so long? Why didn''te to see me sooner?" The young man that was beside the middle-aged said.

    ''Older brother?'' At this point, the middle-aged man began to sweat as he remembered how he had taken this kid lightly. Who knew that he would be rted to one of themanders of his guild. Luckily, he didn''tsh out at the kid otherwise his future would be ruined.

    "It seems like you didn''t take this seriously." ncing at the level of the young man, Chesces frowned.

    "With your strength, you should be a level 6 at least, and with better effort, a level 7."

    "Hehe. I''m adjusting. You know I just started gaming recently so I can''t use my full strength yet." The young man spread his arms open as if saying he wasn''t to be med.

    Chesces ignored hisment before replying to his question.

    "There''s no meaning to meeting you since your level is still low. Luckily for you, an opportunity like this has risen. If you do good, you could be a level 7 at the end of it all. Reaching level 8 will only be a matter of time."

    Listening to the conversation of the two, the middle-aged man was dumbfounded. The way Chesces had talked was as if he was stating a fact and not an estimate. It made him begin to look at the young man beside him in a new light.

    ''Maybe he did just use a week to reach level 5. And from the Commander''s tone, he should have been able to reach level 6 at least, if he took things seriously.''

    Thinking up to here, the middle-aged man felt as if all his years of ying VR games were a waste of time.

    "Come with me.." Chesces spoke to the young man before he walked elsewhere.

 Chapter 299 - 293 : Enlightenment

    *ng* *ng*

    On a ck fighting stage in some unknown location, there were 2 individuals engaged in a sword fight. One of them had a solemn look on his face as he brandished his sword multiple times in the direction of his opponent. As for the opposing figure, he had a carefree expression on his face as he received all the strikes from the dignified man with ease. These two were respectively Sato and his duplicate.

    The nonchnt duplicate thrust its sword at Sato right after it spotted an opening, sending him back by 3 steps. It then pressed on and shed out a flurry of sword strikes at Sato, dealing continuous damage on him, before sending him flying with a sword sh.

    *Thud*

    10 secondster, Sato''s body reappeared close to the edge of the fighting stage.

    "Again!"

    With a low roar, Sato charged back in and exchanged blows with the duplicate again. Compared to before, Sato''s attacks were now more precise and urate;cking any fanciful moves to them but being direct yet harder to deal with.

    *ng* *ng*

    *Thud*

    Less than a minuteter, a body was sent flying but just before itnded on the ground, it hadpletely disintegrated into stardust. 10 secondster, the same figure appeared at the outskirts of the arena.

    "Another time!"

    *ng* *ng*

    "Tch. Don''t you get it? You''re weaker than me. Give up on your futile tries. They are pointless." The duplicate said with an irritated tone but Sato didn''t reply it and kept pushing on with his attacks.

    Sato had been stuck in this dimension for over 14 hours yet he couldn''t even make a mark on the duplicate''s armour. While he had indeed made improvements in his sword arts, Sato was still not the duplicate''s match.

    In 14 hours of fighting, Sato had used every trick in his book, every skill essible to him, including [Gratitude of Races] but he couldn''t get the upper hand. The reason was simply because whatever skill Sato had, the duplicate did too. Hence, Sato couldn''t get the upper hand by utilizing any of his in-game skills.

    On a good note though, even after the skills were used, once Sato died and was revived to the arena, all his skills would be refreshed as if the term ''cool-down'' doesn''t apply to them. As a result, even though he still wasn''t the duplicate''s match, Sato was still able to deliver pester it and make it take him seriously sometimes. Of course, the duplicate would also have its skill and status refreshed with each round.

    Seeing Sato not respond to itsment or react to its words, the duplicate frowned in annoyance.

    "In that case, just die." The duplicate said coldly.

    ''Not good¡­!''

    The sword in the duplicate''s hand became almost like a flexible snake as it passed through Sato''s defense and stabbed him right in the chest.

    [Critical Hit]

    -138 (12/150 Sato''s HP)

    However, the duplicate didn''t stop there as it quickly took back its sword and flourished it once more, ending Sato''s life for the umpteenth time.

    -84 (0/150 Sato''s HP)

    10 secondster with a brilliant burst of light, Sato appeared once more outside the stage but this time, he didn''t dash in as he did before. Instead, he stood at the side as he went into thought.

    "Huh? Have you given up?" The duplicate stared at him.

    Sato ignored it and instead began recalling his experience so far.

    ''As expected. The defence of my armour is weakened here.''

    After exchanging blows with the duplicate countless number of times, Sato had finally begun to discover some of the mechanics of the final challenge. One of them was that being forced out of the stage equates to losing the fight, another was the matter of his body''s defence.

    Sato had previously noticed that each attack aimed at a vital organ would deal more damage than usual, with the chance of a [Critical Hit] urring being high. This was why the duplicate always aimed for his heart in battle, to end the fight quickly. Also, Sato observed that his armour couldn''t repel the sword as it did with certain physical attacks in the outside world. Rather than behaving like metallic armour, the [Dawn Steel Armour] behaved like leather armour. It was much easier to cut through as against the sword of the duplicate, it felt more like a piece of cloth than an armour. However, it did still manage to reduce the damage he received on other parts of his body.

    ''This should be the same with it.'' Sato conjectured.

    ''If I cannd a clean hit on a vital spot, passing the challenge wouldn''t be difficult.''

    While he indeed thought of this, Sato knew that the difficulty of achieving this was very high. Since the start of this challenge, he had not been able to get his sword through the duplicate''s defence, not even once. If just making a mark was so difficult, then actually injuring it or aiming for a weak spot was even harder.

    ''Martial arts, in-game skills, weapons, and attributes. Excluding martial arts, it''s on par with me in everything else yet I still can''t beat it.'' Sato had a grim look on his face as he thought of this.

    The duplicate was a copy of him so all the skills and equipment Sato had, it also had. As for the martial arts it used, they consisted of a variety of those, however, the level at which the duplicate could use them was roughly the same as Sato.

    In order to try and find a breakthrough point as quickly as possible, Sato had engaged in a continuous set of battles with the duplicate all in hopes of finding its weakness or the crux to defeating it. But even with all his efforts, he still hadn''t found one.

    ''There has to be a way to win. It can''t be invincible.'' Sato thought.

    Sato had once thought that there was a secret on this altar that would help him win but after spending 2 hours searching for ''it'', he found nothing. At this point, he was feeling a bit helpless.

    After not reaching any conclusion, Sato walked up to the stage once more.

    "Hehe. Here I was thinking you had given up. Come on, y with me a bit more." The duplicate grinned.

    Sato didn''t rush to attack as usual but instead calmed down and decided to wait for it to attack.

    "This again?" The duplicate chuckled.

    "I''ming."

    The duplicate charged towards him and hacked its sword at Sato.

    With aposed expression, Sato didn''t hurry to attack yet but tried to spot the trajectory of the attack while at the same time guessing its next pattern of attack.

    "Ha!"

    Just when the duplicate was less than 5 metres away, Sato retaliated with his sword and blocked its attack, forcing the rip-off back. Unlike with the first time he faced off against the duplicate, Sato only went back by half a step. This was the result of the improvements he had made after 12 hours of intense fighting.

    Despite seeing its attack being blocked, the duplicate didn''t have any change in its same condescending expression as it attacked once more. This time, its target was Sato''s left side.

    Having just blocked its attack and also being forced back, Sato would be too slow to react to the next one. Even if he managed to somehow do so, he would be forced off bnce and the duplicate would be able to end everything with the third attack.

    ''Fast reactions, movement, and an impressive battle awareness and alertness.'' Sato evaluated.

    An invigorating aura burst forth from Sato''s body as his power increased and his attributes began to rise. At this moment, Sato radiated the aura of a hero, and when imposed with the passive boundless aura from [Astral Might], it made it seem as if he was a legendary heroic knight that was undefeatable even in the face of a futile battle.

    [Gratitude of Races]

    Being forced to a tight spot, Sato used his ultimate skill and managed to react just in time to block the attack. With the increased bonus in [Strength], he wasn''t forced off bnce by the duplicate''s move but instead had made it retreat by 5 steps.

    "Hehe. Did you forget? I have that too."

    Just as it spoke, a simr aura leaked out from the duplicate slowly, before exploding all at once. Compared to Sato, the momentum from the duplicate using the same skill was much more imposing.

    "Die."

    The duplicate charged back again and attacked once more at the approaching Sato. This time around, the sword it shed out gave off a weird feeling. A regr yer wouldn''t notice this but as a pro-gamer and a martial artist, Sato did. The duplicate had used a martial art skill with that move.

    Sato frowned because he couldn''t predict the trajectory of that sword attack. It felt like the duplicate''s sword was aimed at his right but also his left. At this moment, Sato couldn''te to a decision, and that lead to a hole in his defence being formed.

    ''Hehe.''

    The duplicate obviously took notice of this and aimed for his heart.

    *ng*

    "Huh?" A surprised expression was shown on the duplicate''s face as the sword in its hand was stopped from moving an inch further.

    "You''re too conceited." Sato apathetically said.

    Even if he couldn''t see the trajectory of the sword, Sato could easily guess that the duplicate would go for his heart as it always did.

    "Haha. True. But don''t feel high over one sword."

    The duplicate took back its sword and attacked once more. Compared to before though, the intensity of its strikes had increased.

    *ng*

    With each time the two swords collided, brilliant orange and red sparks flew out from the point of contact.

    The two swords danced around but with neither seeming to have an advantage over the other. Eventually, Sato could hardly keep up with the duplicate as its attack continued to increase in both speed and strength, pressuring him to make more mistakes.

    ''His attacks seem to be aimed at the weak point of my attacks.''

    Even though he was on the losing end of the fight, Sato wasn''t bothered. Instead, he had entered a tranquil state where he easily spotted the mistakes and differences between his attacks and the duplicate''s. This was the famous ''Enlightenment state'' and unbeknownst to him, Sato had gained enlightenment after engaging in countless fights with the duplicate.

    An Enlightenment state was a very special situation or state that one would enter once their focus and concentration were at the epitome that it could achieve. There were two suchmon forms; the Void state and true enlightenment.

    The Void state was when one''s focus and attention on a particr subject were at their highest. A good example would be when an artist is focused on painting a scene with their whole heart. During that point, the artist enters a state where he/she ignores the happenings of reality as their attention is focused on the scene before their eyes or in their head. In other to create that magnificent work, they ''exit'' reality and only put their eyes on their goal. This was the state Sato was currently experiencing.

    True enlightenment is sudden enlightenment that happens randomly and at unexpected moments. A simplified version of such would be when one is trying to solve a riddle. At first, they don''t know the answer but at a sudden moment, just like a click, the words begin to link up and the answer is revealed to them with no effort attached. It is also the same thing that happens with certain inventors. They might be currentlycking an idea of what to create or make but out of nowhere, an idea seems to pop up in their minds.

    In his enlightened state, Sato could spot the mistakes he made and refined his attacks mid-battle as well as see through the attacks of the duplicate.

    Sato used this opportunity to take note of the duplicate''s fighting style while also keeping in mind the mistakes that he made in the fight.

    As time went on, Sato''s attacks became better and refined than before.. Slowly, it was harder for the duplicate to force him back again.

 Chapter 300 - 294 : Breaking Point

    ''He''s improving his skills and at an even faster rate than before.'' The duplicate frowned sightly.

    Even though the duplicate had things easy and was still capable of defeating Sato, it wouldn''t as easy as before. This was because Sato''s skills and control had been improving, and they were already much better than they previously were.

    Most of it was thanks to the duplicate and this special environment, which enabled Sato to continuously face off against an opponent faster and stronger than him inbat skills and control without losing anything. Even a novice in battle strategies and skills would have his/her skills polished if he/she were in a simr situation as Sato.

    However, even though improvements were inevitable, the rate at which Sato was developing was much faster than before. It could be said that in these couple of seconds they had exchanged dozens of attacks, the progress Sato had made was much more than the one he had in all the other fightsbined.

    ''No. I have to end this.''

    Enraged at being used as a whetstone, the duplicate increased the ferocity of every one of its attacks and seeded in forcing Sato back.

    ''Looks like he''s lost it.''

    Sato detected the escting vigor from the duplicate''s attacks. Even knowing that though, he still remained calm and kept a steady defence while also studying the duplicate''s attacks.

    ''Everyone of its moves seems random but they are precisely targeted at the weak spots in my attacks.''

    The duplicate always had a supercilious attitude when dealing with Sato. It always acted haughty and scornful towards Sato''s attacks and strength but it did have the strength to do so. This was because it could easily spot the mistakes and weak points in Sato''s every move and it would utilise it against him. Though it was true that Sato was a pro-yer who had gone through multiple battles, he wasn''t the best yer to exist. In his eyes, his attacks might look okay but in the eyes of some few, Sato''s attacks would be riddled with weak points and loose holes. This was like how an average chess yer could beat a beginner and a few yers at his level but against a grandmaster, his moves would look no different from a 3-year-old''s. In the eyes of the duplicate, Sato''s attacks were like that.

    ''There''s also that weird air around it.''

    Sato noticed that every move of the duplicates seemed to have a weird air attached to it. It was even more noticeable each time the duplicate wanted to use a martial arts move. The air wasn''t tangible but Sato felt like it made the duplicate''s attacks better.

    To an outsider, Martial arts was just a collection of body movements and actions but to those who have dedicated their time to it, it was more than that. Martial arts, to some, could be said to be a way of expressing themselves and for them to seed in doing so, their actions had to entail their feeling. In simpler terms, their movements had to contain an essence to them. This was one of the important factors used to differentiate the sses of martial arts practitioners.

    As a Master level practitioner, Sato''s attacks had more essence than that of a white belt. But against a grandmaster, however, it wascking by a great deal. The duplicate''s attacks had more essence than Sato''s attacks and if he wasn''t wrong, the duplicate''s control and use of martial arts were on the same level as either a peak level Master rank or a Grandmaster; which was the same level as his grandfather.

    ''I doubt it''s a grandmaster cause the intent in its attacks feels a bit weaker than one. It should be at the peak of the Master rank or so.''

    Having exchanged blows with his grandfather, Sato could easily ascertain the level of the duplicate''s skills but even if it wasn''t a Grandmaster, a peak Master rank martial artist was still a tough nut to crack. It should be known that even though Sato was Master rank martial artist, he wasn''t as experienced as the old folks who had been stuck at that level for a while.

    ''If I can mimic its intent though, defeating it would be only a matter of time.''

    Just as Sato was thinking this, the duplicate''s sword managed to pass through his defence once more. However, as if it had learnt its lesson from before, the duplicate didn''t aim for his heart but his shoulder.

    -87 (63/150 Sato''s HP)

    ''It''s over.''

    Having injured Sato atst, the duplicate felt that victory was close at hand. Though it didn''t manage tond a critical hit, the spot it stabbed was still close to one. With one of his shoulders injured, Sato would inevitably have a hard time fighting against it and his death was only a matter of time.

    Even though he was injured, Sato barely reacted to it and thrust his sword forward with the injured right arm.

    "What?"

    The duplicate felt incredulous at the fact that despite being injured, Sato could still attack with the same hand. It should be known that in IR when a yer gets severely injured at a body part, they would lose the ability to utilise that part as they usually would. Also, the duplicate''s sword was still stuck in Sato''s arm so moving that arm should be very difficult. With the painful sensation attached to it, no one in their right mind would think of using the arm, at least until the sword was removed. However, Sato didn''t even care. He didn''t even flinch when the sword pierced him.

    The duplicate hastened to remove its sword and escape Sato''s reaches but because Sato''s attack had already been released when its sword had struck, the duplicate couldn''t extract it in time or else it would get hit.

    ''Damn.''

    Choosing to abandon its sword, the duplicate let go of the hilt and hastened to create some distance between it and Sato with a jump backward. However, why would Sato let it go so easily?

    Sato charged right at it and swung his sword at the copy. Because it was in the air, dodging was a difficult matter and the duplicate knew this more than anyone. Somehow though, it managed to move to the side, luckily dodging Sato''s attack. Even if Sato wanted to perform a follow-up attack it would be toote because the duplicate''s foot was about tond on the ground. Once it did so, it could easily escape again or maybe even retaliate.

    ''Hehe. I will make you pay soon. Just you wait.'' The duplicate grinned inwardly.

    However, just within that instant, warning bells rang in the duplicate''s mind as something astonishing urred before it; something it never would have expected.

    The sword that was stuck in Sato''s body got pulled out by his left hand. Normally, ording to the Equipping function of the game, since Sato could only use one weapon at a time, he shouldn''t be able to attack with that one. However, he had already tossed away the [Astral de] after his attack had missed. Therefore, while the sword did belong to the duplicate, Sato could still easily use it. This was especially true since the two [Astral de] didn''t have any function that prevented this from happening. Also, the duplicate''s sword wasn''t stuck so deeply in his shoulder and with its previous efforts of trying to pull it out, the sword was already loose and could be taken out without much effort.

    The change was so fluid as if Sato had nned it from the beginning and in fact, he did. Sato knew that even if the duplicate was caught mid-air, it would still be capable of dodging at least one of his attacks. By the time he would redirect his sword and gather energy for a second one, it would havended on the ground and easily retreated. Once that happened, even without its sword, Sato didn''t doubt that the duplicate could turn the tables around. In that case, rather than take such a risk, why not use its weapon against it?

    Since such a strategy was unconventional, the duplicate never expected it at this moment. After having dodged Sato''s previous attack, it couldn''t dodge this one. Forget impossible, it couldn''t even react to it in time.

    In such a situation, there was only one oue left for the copy.

    "Die."

 Chapter 301 - 295 : Final Clash

    "Die."

    -78 (72/150 Mirror Image''s HP)

    Unlike with most monsters and opponents that would require one to injure them first before their status could be revealed, the duplicate''s was different. Being a replica of Sato, there was no need for the original conditions of [Inspect] to be fulfilled before Sato could get a glimpse of its attributes since the two could be said to be of the same body.

    "Damn."

    After getting hit by the attack from Sato, the mirror image cursed before creating a 10 metres gap between him and Sato. At this point, just like Sato, the duplicate was extremely weak. This weakness wasn''t in its physical state but its current condition. Not only was the duplicate currently unarmed but its HP was less than 50%. Considering the attack power of Sato, any one move would be more than enough to take it down. The only reason it even had that much HP left was that Sato had used its sword against it. Despite wielding it, the sword inherently didn''t belong to him so the damage he could deal wasn''t at its highest. Otherwise, with that strike alone, Sato would have been able to wipe away at least two-thirds of the duplicate''s HP.

    "I will make sure to finish the job properly with the next one." Sato said without any expression.

    With the two of them having less than 50% of their HP left, the one tond the next hit would assuredly be the real winner. Sato had finally managed to push the duplicate to this state and since [Gratitude of Races] was on cool-down for the both of them, his chances had increased. There was also the fact that the duplicate was currently unarmed so not only was its attack power weaker but it was also unable to use a few powerful skills like [Astral de] or even the passive [Astral Might]. Sato had at least a 50% chance of victory and if he tackled this with a cautious approach, his chances would be at least 70%.

    No matter how one looked at it, Sato had a chance at victory after more than 14 hours of taxing battles. However, he still didn''t rx. Sato believed that it was at this very moment and situation, where the duplicate was pushed to the edge, that it would finally burst out with its full strength. In other words, even though it looked like he had the upper hand, the very second he shows just one w, no matter how tiny it may be, he would end up losing. If Sato lost at this point, all his progress would have been for naught and the duplicate would be a lot more cautious in the next round. Because of this, Sato resolved to end this challenge with this battle.

    "You¡­!" The mirror image gritted its teeth in anger.

    The person it had been ying with just a while ago had suddenly reached a level where it became a threat to it. To add to the injury, this same person still had the audacity to verbally threaten it. It was like watching a harmless cub grow. At first, it was far weaker than one''s self but as it approached maturity, even the owner would have to be cautious around it. From an extremely weak stage to the point where it could threaten one, the change felt a bit unreal but it was there to be seen.

    "Don''t get your hope sup just because I''m unarmed. This time around, I will show the true difference between us."

    As the mirror imagepleted its talk, the temperature around it suddenly plummeted. The air around it became strange and surreal, simr to the feeling its attacks passively gave off.

    ''It''s finally getting serious.'' Sato took in a deep breath as he tightened his grasp on the duplicate''s sword.

    With the current development in the battle, he couldn''t retrieve his sword now as that would be no different from exposing a w to the duplicate. The other weapons in his arsenal were much weaker than the [Astral de] so even though this wasn''t the original, Sato still decided to use it. At least, half a bread was better than none.

    "I will show you the true strength of a genius of the Caventry." The duplicate superciliously said. Even without a weapon, it seemed to have unshakeable confidence in its ability to defeat Sato.

    However, Sato noticed that there was something different this time around.

    If before the mirror image could be described as a reckless young master of a noble family that looked down on everybody, the current duplicate in front of him was like a man of true nobility. It didn''t look down on anybody based on its background but its ability. It was like the difference between an emperor and a spoilt prince; the aura of nobility and imperial air around the former easily pushed thetter to the side.

    ''The true strength of a Caventry genius?'' Sato noticed something in the mirror image''s speech. However, before he could think more into it, the opponent made its move.

    *Stomp*

    With a fierce stomp, the mirror image hurtled towards Sato almost like a meteor. The imposing air from its body added with the staggering speed at which the duplicate streaked towards Sato gave it a more threatening feel that prevented Sato from even daring to face off against it. Sadly, it was toote to dodge it so Sato could only try his best to block the attack.

    "Die!"

    The mirror image suddenly punched out when it was just 3 metres away from Sato.

    [Chain Hit]

    *ng*

    The duplicate''s fistnded on the sword. Even though it was contending with an Upper-tier Mortal rank weapon, it not only didn''t get injured but was actually able to contend with the weapon and cause some minor difort to Sato.

    ''Such strength¡­'' Sato couldn''t help but develop a grim look on his face as he proceeded to make some space between himself and the mirror image.

    Even without a weapon, the mirror image was still able tond such an impressive blow. It should be known that most of Sato''s [Strength]es from his character''s attributes followed by the bonus from [Astral de] which was an increase of 10 points. 10 points was not a little number no matter how one looked at it. Yetcking these 10 points, the duplicate''s blow was nothing to scoff at. Sato could even feel a slight numbing sensation from the arm that wielded the sword.

    "Again."

    The mirror image punched out with the other hand forcing Sato to stop retreating and face it.

    Just the force alone from this blow, aroused Sato''s fighting spirit as he felt that if he wasn''t careful, he would end up dying to it if he didn''t react fast enough.

    ''Damn..'' Sato was annoyed by the persistence of the mirror image but he still confronted the attack.

 Chapter 302 - 296 : Final Clash 2

    Sato quickly reacted and ced his sword in front of him once more. This time around though, it used the sharp edge of the sword to face off against the attack.

    *ng*

    -5 (67/150 Mirror Image''s HP)

    The result was still the same. As being made of metal, the mirror image''s fist made a resounding ng as it shed with the sword. This time, however, there was a slight injury on its hand as it took some damage from that action.

    ''It''s still unfazed.''

    Sato was a bit shocked seeing the mirror image not even reacting to his move. Despite having collided head-on with the sharp edge of the sword, the fist of the mirror image only received some minor injuries.

    "Hmph."

    With a loud humph, the mirror image ignored the pain and struck out with its right fist. This time around, it aimed for the side of Sato''s sword.

    [Chain Hit] was a skill that enabled the user to release 3 strikes that wielded at least 140% of the user''s attack power and 130% of their attack speed. It was a very useful skill for any yer as it was the same as making 3 attacks all having the same power as a single one performed with the generic ultimate attack skill of a ss. In simpler terms, it was OP. The only reason Sato had this skill was that he had gotten it as an extra reward for passing the Achiever''s Trial.

    This fist was much faster than the previous one, as the mirror image had held back a bit with the others, so Sato was only able to notice it when it was toote.

    *ng*

    The sword was pushed to the side, almost flipping out of Sato''s hand. If that had happened, Sato would be unarmed against the mirror image, and in such a situation, he would most definitely not be its match.

    "It''s over."

    The mirror image then formed a knife with its right hand and directed it towards Sato while making a chopping motion at him.

    [Chop]

    A dreadful aura akin to the sensation of death swept over Sato. Having died countless times already at the hands of the mirror age, Sato was overly familiar with this feeling. It was the feeling of death approaching him with its inescapable arms.

    ''Even without its sword, it''s still this strong?'' Sato couldn''t help but grumble.

    With the strength the mirror image was currently disying, Sato surmised that the previous fights were nothing but a warm-up session to it. It was only now that it had taken him seriously.

    Despite knowing this, Sato wasn''t inclined to giving up at the moment. This was the closest he had evere to victory and he didn''t want to lose this opportunity for any reason whatsoever.

    With the sword out of the way, it looked as if the mirror image''s ''knife'' would make it to Sato without any problem. Suddenly, a dazzling burst of light gathered at the de of the sword.

    ''You''re not the only one who knows how to perform skills without a sword.'' Sato''s eyes steeled.

    Performing skills without a weapon wasn''t a new thing for Sato. He had discovered that back before however, he wasn''t so skilled at doing it so he hardly used it. One reason was because even if he seeded in doing so, the attack power of the skill performed with his fist would be far weaker than when performed with a weapon. Considering that every opponent Sato had faced so far had a strong defence, it was pointless to use this technique against them. However, seeing as the duplicate employed it, Sato began having second thoughts. Hence, he decided to try something new.

    ''[Astral de]!''

    The radiant light on the sword flowed through the hilt into Sato''s body and gathered at his left arm. In the end, Sato punched out with his left fist at the duplicate. A momentous st of energy escaped from his fist, carrying with it a boundless aura that contained a hint of destructive nature.

    [Astral de] was a technique that needed the [Astral de] sword to be performed. It stored the energy of the stars -also known as Astral points to the yers- and released it in the form of crescent beams. However, from the skill description, Sato noticed that there wasn''t exactly any rule that stated that the energy had to be released with the sword. While it was true that the astral energy was stored in the sword, it wasn''t necessarily true that it would be the only medium of attack.

    Each time Sato performed the skill, he noticed that the dazzling light on the sword was the coagted form of the astral energy. Apart from that, Sato had the feeling that he could manipte this energy to go in any direction that he wished so long as he was still connected to it. This was why it wasn''t really necessary for him to sh out his sword to release the attack; just simply pointing at the target was enough.

    However, during this period, a thought crossed Sato''s mind. What if he directed this energy towards himself? Logically, if he were to do so, the energy would rampage all over his body and he would get injured by his attack. But since he could manipte this energy to a certain degree, theoretically, he should be able to use it with his body.

    After eating plenty of losses to the duplicate, Sato had been thinking of unconventional ways to win and this was one that he came up with. Since it was a new tactic he had just developed, there was no way that the mirror image would know of it so Sato decided to keep it as a trump card that could be used to ascertain his victory. However, to preserve the secrecy of the technique, Sato had never tried it out so everything was nothing more than theoretical knowledge. But that knowledge was finally put into practice now.

    Because [Astral de] was an external attack, it reached the mirror image just before its palm couldnd on Sato.

    *Phew*

    -130 (0/150 Mirror Image''s HP)

    With a high-pitched sound, a ray of light exited Sato''s fist and pierced the chest of the mirror image, exiting from the other side and shooting into the sky.

    In the wake of its path, was a bowl-sized hole, left on the chest of the mirror image. Half of its beating heart could be seen, alongside a few lung pieces and rib bones. A massive amount of blood spilled out from the injury, staining the ck stage red.

    The eyes of the mirror image were widened in shock as it never expected Sato to have such a move in his arsenal. It tried to speak but only a mouthful of blood was spilled from its mouth. The original knife hand that was targeted at Sato made contact, but the force and power supporting it had already dissipated alongside the life force of the user.

    "Indeed.. It''s over."

 Chapter 303 - 297 : Backlash

    "Indeed. It''s over."

    *Thud*

    With a thud, the lifeless body of the mirror imagended on the ground. Even till now, Sato felt that it was a bit unbelievable that the haughty duplicate of himself, that had caused him to eat so many losses, had finally died.

    At the moment, a system notification ding sounded in his head but before Sato could check it out, he abruptly copsed.

    "Ugh." Sato managed to use the sword and keep himself from falling while also puking out a mouthful of blood.

    -54 (6/150 Sato''s HP)

    ''Damn.'' Sato sucked in arge breath of cold air.

    "The bacsh is this much?!" A tinge of unbelief decorated his voice.

    "Luckily, it only happened after I had defeated the mirror image. Otherwise, I would be a goner."

    The theory behind Sato''sst move was to use his body as a medium to channel the astral energy and perform the skill, [Astral de]. However, while he did seed, his body was never suited to be a true medium for the energy so there would inevitably be some issues with this technique.

    While in its pure form, astral energy contains a boundless aura, it still harnesses a destructive power behind this boundless air. As the astral energy passed through his body, the destructive capabilities of the astral energy would ineluctably damage his body. The only reason he received the injuries now was because Sato had previously suppressed and dyed it to defeat the mirror image first. However, he was only capable of doing that for only a second. Once the time was up, his internal organs had ruptured and the damages would only continue to increase. Luckily, he had seeded in defeating the mirror image with that attack otherwise, not only would he have died, but it would have also learnt a new skill.

    [[ System notification :

    yer has suffered extremely severe internal injuries and would lose 30%-40% every 5 seconds till injury is at least suppressed.

    yer will suffer a temporary drop in ability :

    -50% to all Main attributes including [Vitality].

    -50% to HP and Mana recovery speed.

    -40% to Stamina.

    More Stamina and energy are required to perform actions.

    yer will be in constant pain till the injuries are treatedpletely.

    System Description : yer is advised to seek medical attention for faster recovery.]]

    ''This is bad. I need to recuperate.''

    The effects of the injury were worse than Sato had thought. Not only was his avatar currently crippled, but it would still receive damage over time due to the severe injuries.

    Not wasting any more time, Sato took out all the health potions he had stored up and uncorking them. Most of the health potions were stored in regrboratory vials but a few of them were stored in a special kind of cylindrical ss sk.

    The current Simple grade Health potions in the market had a limiting factor attached to them. After taking one, a yer would have to wait for 15 seconds or so before they can take another but Sato''s current condition didn''t allow for that. His HP was already below 10% ad if he couldn''t get it above 40% in the next few seconds, he would die. Luckily, Sato had purchased a better version of the health potions. While they weren''t of the Advanced grade, they had better healing ability than the regr potions and also could be taken continuously; the only downside being that the effect would be far weaker. The only problem was that these Health potions cost even more than themon one and so, Sato could only afford a couple of them.

    *Gulp*

    With no hesitation, Sato began downing potion after potion, raising his HP above the red line. However, when 5 seconds was up, arge chunk of his HP was gone, butpared to before, he only lost 30 or so points.

    ''The potions are finally taking effect.''

    Health potions didn''t just bring a yer''s HP back to the green zone but they also helped with certain ailments and conditions. Even if one had a broken leg in the game, so long as they could afford the right potion, they could recover back to their peak.

    ''However, I doubt these will be enough.''

    Sato''s injuries were very severe that the low-level potions he had weren''t enough to handle them. The best they could do would be to suppress the injuries. Eventually, Sato would either have to find a doctor, a [Cleric], [Druid], or a [Pdin] to heal him.

    ''I should try as much as possible not to use this technique. It''s dangerous both to my opponent and myself.''

    After another 5 seconds, Sato lost 15 HP and following the next one, he lost only 5 HP. After that, Sato no longer received any damage from his injury as the vials and sks of Health potions he had taken had seeded in suppressing the injuries.

    [[ System notification :

    yer has suffered extremely severe internal injuries that have been barely suppressed.

    yer will suffer a temporary drop in ability :

    -30% to all Main attributes including [Vitality].

    -30% to HP and Mana recovery speed.

    -20% to Stamina.

    More Stamina and energy are required to perform actions.

    yer will be in constant pain till the injuries are treatedpletely.

    System Description : yer is advised to seek medical attention for faster recovery.]]

    ''At least the bacsh has weakened considerably.'' Sato sighed.

    With the dwindling of the bacsh effects, Sato would be able to recover much faster and at least, wouldn''t be so weak anymore.

    "This time I was close to death. If not for that moment of enlightenment that helped improve mypatibility rate, I might have died again. If that had happened, who knows how long it would take me toplete this challenge."

    Infinite Realm was a virtual reality game that enabled one''s consciousness to experience an all-new virtual fantasy world. Through constant experimentation and improvements, the virtual world of most VR games was perfected to mimic reality. However, this was only to a certain degree. In the end, a virtual world was still not reality so not everything would be the same.

    It was because of this that even though the virtual world would look realistic, it wouldn''t feel so. For example, in some games, yers would feel a slight hindrance in their movements or senses due to theckingpatibility and resonance between the game engine and servers with the yer''s senses[1]. This would make things difficult for the yer in the game and would potentially harm their careers if they were pro yers.

    To avoid this, some games had developed an in-built syncing software and a calibration device that improved a yer''spatibility rate and movement in the game. However, for this to work, the yer in question would have to demonstrate a lot of actions and push their body to the limit to achieve the highestpatibility rate possible. But this was quite impossible with yers since they barely found any reason to push themselves to the limit, after all, death in the game didn''t mean death in reality. So even till now, no yer had ever achieved a 100%patibility rate in any VR game. Even IR, with its advanced technology, can only assure yers a basic 70%patibility and adjustment rate; the rest depends on the yers themselves. The highest knownpatibility rate in a game was 92.7% and that was achieved by one of the most popr gamers in the world and also, the renowned strongest; God Emperor ck.

    Increasing one''spatibility rate without outside help was extremely difficult but Sato had managed to pull it off after having engaged in a series of high-intensity battles with the mirror image. Thanks to it, not only had he improved hispatibility rate with his in-game avatar but he had also refined his martial art skills. A few other special trials and opponents were created with various degrees of martial artist ranks as their base strength and the mirror image was one such. As a result, battling with such opponents would, in turn, help improve one''s skills.

    It should be known that the strength of the mirror image wasn''t simply a Peak Master rank as Sato had thought. On the contrary, it was actually developed with the abilities of a Grandmaster as the foundation. However, the difficulty was reduced as not a lot of yers would be able to defeat a true blue Grandmaster, and also the Mission''s difficulty was not even at the S rank. Hence, whenpared to a true Grandmaster, the mirror image''s skills were a bitcking.

    Nheless, the knowledge and the battle experience of a Grandmaster were still left behind so it was still stronger than a peak Master rank martial artist. In other words, Sato had actually seeded in defeating a Grandmaster rank fighter. Even though he did so with the aid of a few tricks in the game and some unconventional tactics, he still managed to pull it off; this alone was a fit that not a lot of yers could achieve. Unbeknownst to him though, he would never know of this.

    "Now, time to have a loot at my rewards."

 Chapter 304 - 298 : Rewards

    "Now, time to have a look at my rewards."

    However, as he nced at his system interface, Sato didn''t see any notification informing him of havingpleted the trials. He didn''t even see informing him that the challenge was over.

    ''What''s wrong? What''s going on?'' Sato got confused.

    He even began to wonder whether the mirror image had truly died, after all, its corpse was still on the stage. Usually, when a monster or an opponent dies, they disintegrate to starlight but the same didn''t happen with it.

    Just as Sato began trying to figure out why he had yet to receive any system notification informing him of his victory and was even considering stabbing the mirror image a couple more times to confirm its death, a gentle sh of light abruptly appeared just a few feet away from him. It onlysted for 3 seconds before it went out slowly. With the disappearance of the light, a new arrival had appeared on the stage.

    "Congrattions young lord, onpleting the Main Trials of my esteemed race." Saimon smiled at Sato.

    Currently, he was filled with joy and delight since, with Sato''s triumph, the Caventry''s knowledge and history wouldn''t be forgotten, and would once more have a chance to appear on the world stage again. Because Sato hadpleted the Main Trials and was worthy of inheriting the Caventry''s entire collection, he had changed the way he used to address Sato to ''young lord''; after all, Saimon was just a servant to the Caventry and not a true Caventry. By ranks, the sessor of the Caventry was much higher than him.

    *Ding*

    Apanying the sound of Saimon''s voice was the familiar ring of the system notification sound.

    [[System notification :

    The Caventry''s Path (Series)

    Mission Title: The Last Challenge

    Mission Rating: B

    Mission Detail:

    Basic Rewards :

    -Mission: The Caventry''s Path (Series) will bepleted

    Penalty :

    - Mission: The Caventry''s Path (Series) will be failed

    System Description: The final test to change your destiny. There''s no going back now; there never was. Either fail and fall to the worst form you have ever been or seed and stand strong amongst many.

    Mission Status: Completed

    __________________________________

    The Caventry''s Path (Series)

    Mission rating : A

    Mission Detail : You have been granted the opportunity to experience hell as the Caventry do.

    Two trials and several challenges. With each challenge passed, a reward is granted. Get a high rating for better rewards.

    Basic Rewards : ???

    Penalty :

    -50% temporary decrease in Experience points for 2 weeks(RT)

    -50% temporary decrease in Main attributes for 2 weeks(RT).

    -Immortal soul would be harmed; 30% Permanent loss of attribute points for each Main attribute.

    System description : It is advised that the yer make this decision properly. The test would involve certain scenarios that would affect the yer negatively. If epted, yer would be required to go offline and make preparations as the duration and structure of the mission could potentially affect the yer negatively. For preparation steps, please check *Long term Online Preparation Manual*[2].

    To help set up a challenge, yer''s memories would have to be read. epting the mission would be the same as permitting the system to ess yer''s memories. Personal/private information rted to finances or confidential information won''t be shared and shall be deleted permanently from the system''s database once the mission is over. All actions and decisions are protected Alliancews (Lois universelles de l''Alliance, Section A : Paragraphe 3. Modifi¨¦ dans l''¨¦tat de France).[3]

    Mission Status : Completed

    __________________________________

    Rewarding yer¡­

    ]]

    "With thepletion of the Main trials, you are now eligible to receive your rewards." Saimon smiled.

    As Saimon concluded with his words, Sato noticed his Experience bar at the edge of his interface screen begin to rise. Within just two seconds, it had gone reached the level 10 checkpoint and gone past it. Sato was originally close to the level 10 mark so the Experience reward from this mission was more than enough to make it there.

    [[ System notification :

    yer has leveled up.

    Rewarding 5 Main attribute points.

    __________________________________

    Congrattions on being the first to reach level 10.

    Hidden quest, [The man who took the first step],pleted. Awarding title, [The Precursor].

    [The Precursor] :

    For being the first to reach the very first road-mark in Infinite Realm, you have gained much more than the rest of yourrades and have proven yourself worthy. Your physique will be greatly improved.

    When battling other yers, your attributes get a boost depending on the difference between them and that of your opponent.

    5%-9% difference : +5%

    10%-14% difference : +10%

    15%-19% difference : +15%

    20% difference and above : +20%

    System description : Attributes boost doesn''t apply in group battles. You are unmatched in a one-on-one fight against your kind.

    ]]

    However, before Sato could even read through the introduction for the title [The Precursor], he discovered that his experience bar was still rising and showed no sign of stopping, even after passing the level 11 checkpoint. On the contrary, it even increased in speed.

    [[ System notification :

    yer has leveled up.

    Rewarding 5 Main attribute points.

    __________________________________

    yer has leveled up.

    Rewarding 5 Main attribute points.

    __________________________________

    yer has leveled up.

    Rewarding 5 Main attribute points.

    __________________________________

    ¡­ ]]

    It was only after it had filled the bar for level 14 and making a little progress towards level 15 that the mind-boggling rise had stopped. In total, Sato had levelled up 5 times, bing the strongest yer in IR based on levels and attributes alone.

    "Incredible¡­" Sato couldn''t help but feel that all of this was still a dream.

    A whole 5 levels had just been jumped in less than a week. The higher one goes, the more Experience points would be needed to level up. So that means that the total Experience points needed for these 5 levels Sato had jumped was more than 5 times the total he would need to get from level 0 to level 5.

    If anyone else were to hear of this, they wouldment how unfair the world is.

    Before Sato could further react to all of this, another system notification greeted his interface.

    [[ System notification :

    Congrattions on being the first to be ahead of the other yers by 5 levels.

    Hidden quest, [Diligence Pays],pleted. Awarding title, [Industrious Achiever].

    [Industrious Achiever] :

    For being the first to surpass the next highest levelled yer by more than 5 levels, your earnest achievements can not be easily surpassed.

    +10% to Experience points gained in field hunting.

    +5% to Experience points gained in Dungeons.

    ]]

    After all of that, Sato could only say one word.

    "Wow!"

 Chapter 305 - 299 : Rewards 2 || Worrusâ€™ Descent

    "Wow." Sato sucked in a cold breath of air.

    While the rewards weren''t done with yet, the number of Experience points he had gotten alone was enough to make him one of the strongest yers currently.

    "Here." Saimon walked towards Sato before opening a palm at him.

    "This is?" Sato asked with a confused expression. There was only a green coloured ring that looked as if it were made of emerald.

    "This is your reward." Saimon said with a smile.

    Seeing that he refused to exin any further, Sato didn''t hesitate again and collected the emerald ring.

    [[ System notification :

    Rewarding yer...

    25 ingots of Limber Steel

    20 ingots of Dawn Steel

    13 pouches of Gold Dust

    3 Timber Crystal

    7 logs of Iron Pear Wood

    3 shoots of ck Root Ginger

    7 Silver Cores

    ...

    ]]

    "So many materials...!" Sato couldn''t help but exim.

    It should be known that every one of those materials was at least 2 star ranked, and even for the 2-star materials, they were the most precious of their category and kinds of stuff that could only be gotten with luck.

    There were even a few 3-star materials such as the Timber Crystal; which was the crystallization of wood and nature energy within an ancient tree after a couple of years, and Iron Pear Wood; which was an extremely tough wood that could even rival ck-Dawn Steel in toughness.

    There was even one 4 star material in the mix, Titan Crust, which was a very special metal that could only be produced by the legendary Titan race.

    All the materials that had appeared were all really expensive and if he sold them to the public or even the NPCs, Sato could make arge sum, enough to make him enjoy the next few days in IR like a king. Even if he didn''t sell them but used them to forge some weapons, as long as Sato hired a good cksmith, the result would be a bunch of Upper-tier Mortal rank weapons or equipment at the least bit using the 2 stars and 3-star materials, or even a Rare Steel rank weapon or equipment using the 3-star materials with the 4-star materials. As for the level of the end product, it definitely wouldn''t be low and would be in between 10-15, depending on the cksmith''s skill and the level of strength in mind for the weapons.

    The reward didn''t only consist of materials though, as there were also gold coins that were present in the list, and not in a little sum. There were also a few books on subsses as well as two general skill books.

    However, Sato didn''t see any of these in his space bag so he wondered where they could be.

    ''Could it be?''

    With an incredulous but expectant expression, Sato focused his mind on the emerald ring just as he would with his space bag.

    Almost instantaneously, his consciousness was brought to a new dimension with proportions of about 4*4*4. What caught his attention was the copious amount of materials stacked in one ce, a big chest in another, and a small shelf at one edge. The stack of materials was of varying colours and sizes, and so, added a strange touch of beauty to the ce. It was as if he had entered a treasury at that moment.

    After Sato retracted his consciousness from the ring, two words resounded loudly in his mind.

    ''Space ring!''

    The emerald ring Saimon had passed him was a much advanced storage equipment known as a space ring. Unlike space bags that were divided into ''slots'', a space ring was like a room. While most space bags did contain more space than a space ring, the dimension in a space ring was far more stable and it was handier than a space bag and also had some impressive features to it. Sato had learnt all these from a few merchants in IR that had advertised the product to him before. Sadly, he had to focus his funds elsewhere so he couldn''t get it before. However, he now has one.

    ''While it''s true that most space rings aren''t better than a space bag, any random space ring is much better than the novice space bag we have.'' Sato recalled some of the features of a space ring and couldn''t resist smiling to himself.

    The space ring of the lowest ss cost more than 10 gold coins and Sato currently had one better.

    "Since you''re a cksmith, I had customised most of your rewards to aid you in your ss. You shouldn''t becking materials for a while and you can experiment to your heart''s content too." Saimon chuckled.

    "Also, I noticed that despite being a [Swordsman], youck a bunch of fundamental skills so here." Saimon pulled out two books from the sleeves of his cloak and handed them to Sato.

    Sato collected them both and nced at their titles.

    ''Double Wielding technique! Plus a new skill!''

    Sato was a [Swordsman] who used one-handed swords as his basic weapon. The advantage of these swords was that one could attack much faster with them whenpared to double-handed swords. This is very noticeable especially in the [Astral de], which boosts his Attack speed by a lot.

    However, these types of swords usually had one problem; their attack power. Compared to double-handed swords, one-handed swords were much weaker in attack power but lighter and faster than the former.

    Of course, the [Astral de], which had the advantages of the two and none of their disadvantages, was an anomaly since it was a customised weapon by the system made for Sato. However, it was only a level 9 weapon and Sato would soon find it impractical. He was already experiencing such now. As he was currently level 14, a level 10 sword would fit him best.

    When Sato would have to retire the [Astral de], he would be forced to experience the weakness of a real one-handed sword. Learning the double wielding technique would help to minimise that weakness as with two swords he could cause twice the damage, though at the cost of his concentration.

    Therefore, this skill was very useful to him now. Even if he had yet to find a suitable level 10 weapon, he could still equip one of his creations alongside the [Astral de] and be twice as deadly as he is right now.

    As for the skill, it was a basic skill simr to [Chop] and [Hack] that had a short cool-down. With the addition of the new skill, Sato''s attack method andbo would be more diverse than before.

    "These are the rewards that I can offer you. For the rest, the Lord will do that." Saimon smiled mysteriously.

    "The Lord?" Sato got confused at that statement.

    Suddenly, a daunting pressure descended on the white altar. Even the greyndscape began vibrating from the after-effects of the mysterious pressure. Strangely though, the white altar remained calm and Sato who stood at the ck stone arena at the top of it only felt a bit of this pressure. Nheless, this bit was more than enough to scare the heck out of him.

    ''What kind of existence is this?'' Sato couldn''t fathom the strength of the aura''s wielder.

    ''Could it be?''

    At this time, Saimon''s voice sounded out once again.

    "Wee, king of space-time and the beloved of the void, Lord Worrus."

 Chapter 306 - 300 : Behind The Gate

    Feeling the daunting pressure on his body, Sato was astounded at the strength of the individual who had just arrived.

    ''Hmm?'' Sato nced around but couldn''t find any sign of any entity at all. However, the overbearing pressure that was still present meant that someone, or at least something, was here.

    "If you''re looking for Lord Worrus, he''s already here."

    Picking up on Sato''s actions and expression, Saimon exined calmly as if he had expected it.

    "For certain reasons that I currently can''t say, Lord Worrus exists in a special state. If he were to appear here in his true form, this dimension, which isn''t stable enough, wouldn''t be able to tolerate his existence and will shatter into fragments. In the end, apart from Lord Worrus, we would both end up dead in a twisted space-time due to the destruction of this dimension and there wouldn''t even be a single shred of us remaining much less aplete corpse to bury."

    After listening to Saimon''s exnation, Sato understood the reason why he couldn''t see the new arrival, and at the same time, he waspletely amazed. A mere appearance of the character could cause the destruction of a dimension. Even though it was because this world wasn''t ''stable enough'', as Saimon had said, this was still pretty impressive. This meant that the strength of Lord Worrus was at least enough to wipe out the three towns of ck Rock region. Even the Emissary from back then might not tolerate a single blow from him. It was even very possible that nobody in the 3 towns, whether NPC or yer, was even a match for him.

    ''Wait a minute...'' Sato suddenly recalled something

    "If I''m correct, Lord Worrus, you''re an Achiever?" Sato asked carefully.

    Sato remembered that just before he began the Entry Trials and had entered into this foreign dimension, Versuchsgr¨¹nde, Saimon had led him to the statue of an Achiever who he had imed was the creator of this test and the dimension too. ording to Saimon back then, even if there were 100 of the previous Sato and Xue Yan, as well as the other 5, making it a total of 700 yers, they would have still lost to that figure.

    "Correct." A deep emotionless voice resounded in the space but Sato could easily pinpoint the origin.

    With Lord Worrus'' reply, the way Sato ''looked'' at him became different. There was a tinge of respect in his eyes and this respect came as a result of Lord Worrus'' strength.

    "I have to admit, though I was rooting for you, I didn''t have much hope for you. While they do have massive potential, most humans are generally too weak and usually aren''t up to the task."

    Lord Worrus scanned Sato.

    Worrus was truly surprised that Sato hadpleted the final challenge and he did so quite quickly. The reason for his surprised reaction, though might sound racist, was that Worrus looked down on humans. Compared to the Caventry, who were blessed by a god, humans were far too weak. Be it in pure strength, mana maniption, or even potential, the Caventry surpassed humans in all that. Even the famed Titan race was below them. That''s why despite hoping for Sato to win, he didn''t really believe that to be possible either.

    Originally, Worrus had presumed that if Sato were to somehowplete the third challenge, he would barely do so at thest 3 hours of the challenge or so. But Sato had proved him wrong andpleted the challenge just after 14 or so hours.

    "Come with me."

    As he spoke, Sato felt a weird undtion in the space around him and before he realised it, he had appeared in another space.

    ''Incredible. I didn''t even feel a thing.'' Sato was surprised at the current development.

    Even when Saimon had teleported both he and Xue Yan to Versuchsgr¨¹nde, they had both experienced a little unsettlement. This showed that Lord Worrus'' expertise in the space department was above his. Also, when Arman had teleported the entire yers to the battleground, there was a slight dy at that and it wasn''t as fluid as Worrus'' teleportation. While this could be attributed to the number of targets for the teleportation spell being muchrger, the dimension Worrus used was very stable, and prating space was quite difficult. For him to do so in such a smooth manner meant that his ability to manipte space would be at least on par with Arman''s and might even be higher.

    In front of him was a huge ck gate at an approximate height of 20 metres. In front of this gate, Sato was like a toddler facing a giant.

    "The space here is more stable than the outside so I can only bring us this far."

    Recalling that he wasn''t alone, Sato reflexively turned to the source of the sound.

    "The positive of this is that my form can be tolerated here, barely."

    Sato saw a dark fuzzy figure just beside him. It had the physique of a regr human being but because of the state of existence of the figure, theplexion and details couldn''t be identified. Even the facial features of the figure couldn''t be seen by Sato. All he noticed was a dark gray cloak that covered the individual.

    The figure looked unreal but existed. This was because Sato could feel its aura a bit and the aura was quite familiar. It was the same aura that had descended at the ck stone stage and had brought fear into his heart.

    "Lord Worrus." Sato respectfully said.

    Even though he was in a game, he had to abide by the rules of the game, treating every NPC character as if they truly existed. Because of this, Sato behaved respectfully in front of Lord Worrus. After all, this was a character that had garnered the respect of Saimon and was also a heaven-defying individual, in the game of course.

    "No need for the formalities." Worrus smiled.

    "As the only sessor of my civilization''s inheritance, you can be said to be one of us so the title isn''t required."

    After saying that, the fuzzy phantom of Worrus turned to look at the gate in silence, seeming to be recollecting himself or drowned in his memories.

    Sato also turned to have a good look at the gate since he had gotten distracted from it just a while after he had arrived.

    ''This is...!''

    The gate was entirely pitch ck with no other dominant colour. In this environment with dim lighting, it was possible for one to not take much notice of it and barely even identify the distinct features on the gate if they didn''t focus on them.

    The material of the gate was simr to jade, in that it didn''t possess that reflective capability of metals but the refractive ability of a gem. The gate exuded a very strange and mysterious aura that garnered fear and respect from Sato''s instinctual being. His body naturally reacted to this aura and Sato had the feeling to just bow down before the gate.

    On the gate was a carved mural of heavenly beings and demons facing off against each other with fierce expressions on their faces. On the left side were the gods, devas, and heavenly beings whereas on the right side were the devils, demons, and asuras.

    In the hands of each was a weapon that was pointed at the opponent. The weapons ranged from the traditional ones like swords, spears, bows, and so on, to umon ones like zithers, harps, flutes, and even battle gloves. There was even a god on the left side who held a beam of light and a demon on the right who held asso.

    The reason for Sato''s initial shock was because the gate looked all too familiar to him. Even though there were minor discrepancies here and there, it was simr to the ck jade gate that held the guardian of the first sector, Blood King Varg.

    "What''s behind the gate?" Sato couldn''t hold back and asked the question on his mind.

    Rather than answering his question directly, Worrus asked in a mysterious tone.

    "You remember the function of ck Grill''s cave and the reason why the Great Hall of Grey Chains is hidden here?"

    It didn''t take long for Sato to recall the conversation he had with Saimon back when he had just finished the trial of the Achiever alongside Xue Yan. As he recalled that conversation, his two eyebrows raised exaggeratedly as he couldn''t help but question.

    "Is it?"

    Worrus'' tone suddenly went grim as he finally answered Sato''s question.

    "Behind this gate lies the true form of the deal that epasses ck Grill''s cave; the seal of the Demon God''s son."

 Chapter 307 - 301 : The Last Reward 1

    "Behind this gate lies the true form of the deal that epasses ck Grill''s cave; the seal of the Demon God''s son."

    Sato was shocked since he never expected to be brought here. This was the centre of it all, the true form of the seal that held the Demon God''s son; a being who could easily face off the more than 10 million yers in IR and stand undefeated. Even in the NPC popce, Sato guessed that very few figures were capable of standing up to him. Otherwise, an entire resource map, that hasn''t even been fully explored by either yers or NPCs, wouldn''t be used just to hold him down.

    "What, scared?" The phantom of Worrus seemed to smile at Sato''s reaction.

    Before Sato could answer him, Worrus continued.

    "It''s understandable. After all, behind these gates lies the remnants of being who had threatened the destruction of the Southern region of the West continent."

    The current world of Infinite Realm consisted of 3 continents; Rhodia, Ilo, and the West continent. The current location of the kingdoms of Fallen Heart, Ashelot, Reiss, Orioma, Maple Leaf, and Belrausia were all located on the South of the West continent. Reiss, Fallen Heart, and Ashelot kingdoms were in the southeastern part to be specific.

    To have been a threat to an entire region of a continent was more than enough proof of the Demon God''s son''s strength.

    "You''re one of us so I will let you know a bit about the battle back then." Worrus said with a serious tone.

    "What do you know about the Chaos War?"

    Sato thought on those two words and he recalled that back when he had just spawn into the game for the first time, a six-winged human had exined to him about a war that had ravaged thend, involving a bunch of races fighting over a treasure and caused a lot of lives to be lost.

    "From what I know, a lot of races had faced each other to determine the possessor of a legendary treasure. In the end, the All-father lead a legion of gods to defeat all the other races and take control of the treasure, ending the war and bringing peace to thend. Apparently, to prevent the greed of others from rising, he sealed away the treasure and wiped the memory of its location from his mind." Sato reiterated all that he was told back then.

    Worrus nodded at the description but he suddenly asked a question.

    "Do you believe that is true? The part about the All-father sealing the treasure away and eliminating the memory of its location from himself."

    Sato paused as he never expected Worrus to ask him such a question. But as he thought of it, he finally realised something.

    "No, I don''t."

    "And why is it?" Worrus asked as his phantom seemed to smile.

    "The All-father had seeded in wielding a treasure that could incite the greed of countless races. This means that it could even incite his. While sealing the weapon away seems like the right thing to do, keeping it with himself sounds like the most logical event that had urred. Even if he did seal it away, there''s no way he would wipe the memory away from his brain as that is too risky."

    Sato then exined.

    "The All-father wouldn''t interrupt in such a battle unless he felt threatened by the treasure or it might have garnered his interest. With that in mind, there''s a high possibility that other gods desired it too. I''m guessing that the Demon God and the All-father aren''t really the best of friends. If all races were interested in this, then even the demon race would be. So I''m guessing that the Demon God would have wanted it too. Rather than hiding the treasure far away, keeping it in his possession sounds way more logical and it minimizes the risk. At the same time, it would help consolidate his position as the All-father. "

    "What an interesting analysis." Worrus couldn''t help but praise however, he didn''t say whether Sato''s words were right or wrong.

    "This world is more than it seems to be. You should try as much as possible to take everything seriously and take your time in making decisions, lest you make the wrong one." Worrus advised.

    "Follow me."

    Worrus then began to walk towards the ck jade gate, which was a few metres away from him. As he did so, he formed seals with his hands, and with each sealpleted, a gray inscription would fly out from his hands and dive into the gate, disappearing without a trace. With each seal that had dissolved into the gate, a strange gray light would blink within the gate. It was as if Worrus was inputting a special kind of password to open the gate.

    "The Demon god''s son is a crafty yet prideful fellow but also one of the strongest Demi-gods to have ever existed." Worrus began to talk as he approached the ck jade gate.

    "His strength is one of the greatest in the Demi-god realm. So strong was he that even some of the lower Gods weren''t his match. It took the entire strongest of my race, the top Achievers, to be able to barely defeat; at a great cost though." When he reached this point in his talk, Worrus'' footsteps slowed down and his voice seemed to have aged by a few years as a depressing air covered the ce.

    "While we did defeat him, we only managed to separate his soul from his body. Reaching his level, utter destruction of both his body and soul can only be done by a god and no god was willing to offend the Demon god unless when forced to. Even though we didn''t kill him, after thousands of years of having been separated from each other, both his body and soul have weakened considerably."

    At this point, Worrus stood right in front of the ck jade gate. He had stopped forming hand seals a while ago and currently, 106 points on the 20 metres tall gate were glistening with a grey light. Surprisingly though, in this dim environment, the grey spots of light were quite visible. The grey dots of lights were connected by a strange white ''mist'' that flowed within the ck jade gate, giving the entire gate a mysterious feel to it.

    Worrus raised both hands and pushed the gates forward.

    "Behind this gate, lies the soul of the Demon god''s son."

 Chapter 308 - 302 : The Last Reward 2

    "Behind this gate, lies the soul of the Demon god''s son."

    *Grind*

    The ck jade gate slowly opened with a loud sound akin to that of two mechanical gears grinding against each other.

    As the two sides of the gate parted, the interior of the hall behind the gate was revealed.

    Sato nced around, trying to take aim at the view and see what a seal that could hold an extremely powerful demi-god would look like.

    The hall was dim just like the outside and had a queer atmosphere that sent shivers running through one''s spine. Strangely though, one could easily make out what was within without much difficulty. It was mostly empty, with the absence of any pirs, furniture, or any kind of decorations or structures. There was only one noticeable detail in the ce. At the centre of the hall, was a ck altar that stood in the middle of a pitch abyss. Like the ocean circling an ind, the entire surroundings of the altar was a pitch-ck abyss. At the other edge of the abyss was a dark metallic ground that covered the remaining hall. To better imagine the scenario, the abyss and the stage were like ake with an ind in the middle[1].

    The only way to get to the altar was through a small ''bridge'' that extended from one side of the altar to the other edge of the abyss, where the metallic ground begins. The bridge was coloured brown, just like y, and it was a stone bridge that arched through the nightmarish abyss.

    At the top of the ck altar, Sato could barely spot the figure of what looked to be a sword, imnted on the tform.

    "Your final reward lies at the top of the altar. However, to get it, you have to pass a small trial." Worrus smiled.

    ''Another trial.'' Sato inwardly cried.

    "What''s the trial?"

    Though he was already tired of going through one trial after the other, havinge this far, Sato wouldn''t shy away from one more. After all, the reward of this one was most likely the ultimate reward for the mission.

    "You just have to make it to the top of the altar. No big deal. Of course, you can simply not give it a try and we will head elsewhere and get you another reward." Worrus smiled though due to the nature of his current form, Sato couldn''t see this.

    Even though Worrus said that it was no big deal, Sato didn''t fully believe him. If it was no big deal then why the heck did the entire atmosphere seem to say so. However, part of what Worrus had said was still true. This was supposed to be the reward for the mission. In other words, it was meant to be his. The trial wouldn''t be overly difficult but it wouldn''t be too simple either.

    At this moment, a system notification appeared in front of Sato.

    [[System Notification :

    Lord Worrus'' Test

    Mission Rating : B

    Mission Detail : Cross the bridge and arrive at the top of the altar.

    Basic Rewards :

    -The ultimate reward possible for the mission, [The Caventry''s Path].

    Penalty :

    -Another reward would be given and yer would lose all chances of evering in contact with this one or even returning to this location once again.

    System Description : You either get the prized collection with a bit more effort or you settle for an object of lesser value without any stress. Either way, you still get rewarded, only the value of the reward differs. It''s your choice.

    System : ept/Decline (Please reply to the NPC.) ]]

    ''So I can either settle for less or go for the best. The penalty isn''t exaggerated despite being a B rank mission so there''s no harm in trying.''

    "I''d like to give it a try. As the inheritor of the Caventry, I would be a disappointment if I shy away from such an opportunity simply because of my worries."

    Sato epted the mission and at the same time, added flowery words to raise Worrus'' impression of him. As a pro-VR gamer, it would be a disappointment if he didn''t try to farm favorability points whenever possible.

    As expected, Worrus smiled at his words and indiscernibly nodded.

    [[ System notification :

    Lord Worrus'' regard for you has increased.

    Lord Worrus'' respect for you has increased.

    ]]

    The Caventry was a race born with high potential and strength. Once theye of age, they are destined to be almost invincible against anyone on their level. Because of this, they had an ingrained pride within them and didn''t shy away from a challenge so easily.

    Worrus gave Sato the option of withdrawing to another ce simply because he wanted to see whether Sato would be courageous enough to go through with the trial before him or retreat. If Sato had decided to retreat, though he would still get his reward, he would lose Worrus'' respect and admiration for him.

    "Go on. Take what is yours, if you are worthy." Worrus nodded towards Sato to begin.

    Having received the go-ahead for the trial, Sato began to make his way towards the bridge.

    As Sato approached the structure, he felt that the creepy feeling around him had intensified. When he was at the entrance, it wasn''t much and just felt like an instinctual reaction but as he neared the abyss, Sato began to fill a chilly wind blow past him. The wind didn''t make his body feel cold but rather, his soul. It was as if the coldness he felt didn''te from his body but from within.

    ''This is too creepy.'' Was the only thing Sato could think of.

    The distance between the entrance and the abyss wasn''t much to start with so within a few seconds, Sato had arrived in front of it. If he took a few more steps, he would be at the edge of the abyss.

    From where he stood though, Sato could still see within the abyss and what he saw, was nothing. Rather than saying that he saw nothing since it was quite possible for him to be staring at something, Sato couldn''t identify whatever was down there because of the total absence of light. Even though the hall was dim, there was still a mysterious source of light that barely light up the ce and enabled one to see. However, the abysscked any such source of light. It was dark, like a vacuum devoid of light.

    ''I wonder, what is down there.'' Sato couldn''t help but think. He decided that once he was done with this trial and had received his reward, he would ask Worrus for an answer. As for whether the NPC would tell him anything or not, that was left for then.

    Sato walked a few more steps in the direction of the bridge and just as he was one step away from it, he paused.

    Standing in front of the bridge, not only did Sato feel the full force of the oppressive and bone-chilling air from the abyss, but he also felt a mysterious energy that made him feel little. The energy seemed to being from the stone bridge and that was why Sato had paused just before it.

    ''I''m guessing this is where the trial really starts from.''

    Resolving himself once more, Sato then took his first step on the bridge.

 Chapter 309 - 303 : Shadow Phantom

    Even though he had some apprehension towards the abyss, Sato still proceeded. Previously, when Sato was still at the entrance of the hall, the stone bridge didn''t look that long and he had estimated it to be about 20-30 metres long. However, when he stood before it, Sato realised that he was wrong; the stone bridge was at least 100 metres long.

    *Step*

    Sato took his first step onto the bridge, resolving himself to see the trial to the end and make it to the top of the altar.

    ''Ugh!'' Heavy.''

    Sato had just taken the first step onto the stone bridge when he felt the gravity around him suddenly increase by at least a quarter. It almost felt like he was submerged in the depths of the ocean. Apart from that, Sato also noticed that the chilly wind that blew around the ce had increased in tenacity and intensity. Since he had left the premises of the metallic ground and had arrived above the abyss, Sato was able to feel the devastating** might of the wind. If before the wind was like a gentle breeze that made one feel a chill across their body, the current breeze was now close to a gale and made one shiver.

    Luckily for Sato, his defence was quite high especially after he had leveled up quite a bit. While he hadn''t yet allocated his main attribute points, his body''s physique had improved quite considerably after going past level 10. In this wind that could cripple a level 5''s fighting ability, Sato was still able to proceed without much of a hassle.

    ''However, this is just the edge of the abyss. It''s quite possible that the wind would get worse at the centre.''

    Sato had a grim look on his face as he stared in front of him. If just the edge of the abyss could make a level 5 yer lose their fighting ability, the wind at the centre of the abyss would even be worse and maybe the other edge of the abyss would be capable of affecting a level 10 yer severely.

    With 5 metres he walked, Sato began to feel that the wind was steadily increasing in intensity. The gravity was also increasing though at a much slower rate than the wind.

    After Sato had walked almost 30 metres, the wind changed colour and had a ck hue to it, making the direction of the gale visible at first sight. It became difficult for Sato to see further ahead of him. From his current position, Sato discovered that he could barely make out what was 10 metres in front of him. After that was total darkness brought about by the ck wind.

    ''Strange.'' Sato frowned when he realised this.

    This was because right before he had epted the mission when he was still at the entrance of the hall, the stone bridge was extremely visible and there was no form of hindrance or obstruction to his vision back then. He could easily see from the beginning to the end of the stone bridge.

    Just a few metres away from him, the ck winds gathered in front of Sato before coalescing to form a humanoid ck phantom. The ck phantom was devoid of any facial features apart from two deep red beads which were where its eyes were supposed to be. It had two arms and two legs like an average human but its form was misty. This was because the phantom was created from the ck winds that blew forth from the bottom of the abyss. Apart from the creepy ghost-like look, the ck phantom had a pair of horns on its head, giving it a demonic look.

    ''An opponent huh? I knew this wouldn''t be a trial without one.''

    Sato unsheathed his sword and stood opposite the ck phantom in aposed manner. While he wasn''t afraid of a battle, the current environment didn''t favour him any one bit. On the contrary, it was extremely disadvantageous to Sato. There was the pressure from the increased gravity that severely affected his movements as well as the chilling breeze from the abyss that weakened his fighting will and body movement.

    "Even so, you''re still no match for me."

    This wasn''t Sato being overly conceited but a fact. From the aura the ck phantom exuded, Sato surmised that while a level 10 yer would experience a bit of difficulty, they would still be able to handle the monster. Even though he had yet to distribute his main attributes, based on his improved physique alone, Sato was capable of suppressing any yer below level 10 and was able to tie with an average level 10 or even level 11 yer. This was the advantage of crossing the level 10 checkpoint as well as gaining a bunch of power-ups from his rewards, especially his new titles. Though the title, [The Precursor] was most effective against yers, it still improved his avatar''s physique considerably, making it so that Sato could fight on par with a level 10 yer even with his level 9 stats. This was the legendary boost of jumping levels.

    "I haven''t had the time to test out my new strength soe on. I will take you on without using my attribute points. If you can force me to use them all, you have my respects." Sato smiled at the ck phantom as he pointed his sword at it.

    The mindless creature couldn''t understand his words, but Sato''s taunting pose seemed to irk it as the red colour within its eyes deepened. Long ws grew out from the hands of the creature as it rushed at him with the intent to kill.

    "Too slow." Sato smiled before dodging the creature''s charge without much stress.

    ''Die.''

    -135 (???/??? ???)

    Sato hacked right at it with his sword, creating a horrifying scar that went across its body. Due to the state andposition of its body, the ck phantom didn''t bleed put any blood or simr liquid. However, ck mist seeped out of the injury inrge quantities as the ck phantom seemed to have shrunk a bit in size.

    Despite receiving such a wound on its body, the ck phantom acted as if it didn''t feel a thing, lunging towards Sato and attacking without regard for itself.

    ''A mindless monster?'' Sato thought.

    One of the dangerous kinds of opponents to face wasn''t an extremely powerful foe but one who had no regard for their well-being, in simpler terms, a mad man. In Sato''s eyes, the ck phantom was nothing more than a mad man and wanted to take him down even if it meant dying together with him. Nheless, it didn''t mean that Sato was afraid of confronting the creature but rather, he had to do so with caution.

    -127

    -132

    -132 (???/??? ???)

    With his improved physique and strength, Sato easily dodged all the attacks of the creature as well as made his own attacks, which all hit the creature without fail. Every one of Sato''s moves dealt a devastating hit to the monster as they all contained astounding power, surpassing a majority of what other yers could achieve. If it were a level 7 or 8 monster in the ck phantom''s shoes and the battle was held elsewhere, it would have died long ago. This was because every one of Sato''s attacks was very powerful and on par with a blow from a level 10 yer.

    One should know that the level 10 checkpoint was a really important checkpoint for yers; crossing it would result in an augmentation of a yer''s abilities and capabilities within the game. The only reason the ck phantom held out this long was that it was much stronger than level 7 or 8 monsters and the current environment was hindering Sato''s movements, otherwise, the damage he would be able to deal to the creature would be much more than was disyed by the system interface. Despite all these though, the ck phantom''s end was inevitable and close at hand.

    "You''re such a tough guy. Still don''t want to go down huh?"

    -125

    -127

    Sato shed out twice, forcing the ck phantom back by a few steps as ck mist leaked from its injuries.

    ''[Inspect]''

    Originally, Sato was never nning to use this skill as he felt no need of checking the creature''s attributes. In the face of absolute power, all manner of trickery is useless. Because of this, Sato lost interest in checking its stats as he knew that it wasn''t even a worthy opponent for a warm-up much less a battle. However, despite dealing so much damage to the monster, it had yet to fall.

    One should know that the level 9 Elite Kobold guards only had 900 Hp, even the Nightmare Devil had the same amount of HP. The total damage Sato had dealt to the creature in front of him was enough to bring the HP of those two to the red zone or even send them into aa, yet, apart from the slight reduction in size due to its loss of the ck mist that formed its body, the ck phantom was pretty much okay. Unless the creature had equivalent HP to that of the boss monster, Blood king Varg, it should at least have entered its [Enraged] state by now.

    [[ System interface :

    Shadow Phantom (Common)

    Level : 10

    HP : 722/1500

    Physical Attack Power : 120

    Magical attack power : 0

    Physical Defense : 15

    Magical Defense : 20

    Attack Speed : 39

    Movement Speed : 26

    Attributes

    Strength : 30

    Endurance : 15

    Vitality : 150

    Agility : 13

    Dexterity : 13

    Intelligence : 0

    Willpower : 20

    Skills :

    ¡­ ]]

    In terms of pure stats, the Shadow Phantom surpassed Sato in everything. However, thanks to both the boost from his physique and his Upper-tier Mortal rank [Astral de], Sato was not only able to catch up to it but even surpass it.

    "So it''s 1500 huh?" Sato sighed at the sight of the HP bar. The average monster would barely reach the 100 points mark in terms of HP whereas yers were very far from that.

    "It doesn''t matter. You will still die under my de."

    Without any hesitation or second thoughts, Sato charged at the creature, intending to finally bring the battle to an end.

    ''Die.''

 Chapter 310 - 304 : The End Of The Road

    In a dark hall at an unknown location, a young man and a shadow monster were engaged in a fierce battle. Sparks flew off each time the two shed with their weapons. The young man used a sword to contend with the creature, while the shadow demon used its vicious ws to sh with the sword.

    At first, the young man had the lower hand in the battle but as time went on he slowly began to suppress the creature.

    *ng*

    The silver sword collided with the ck ws as the Shadow Phantom was forced back.

    Seeing an opportunity in front of him, the young man hurriedly struck out once more with his sword.

    ''Die.''

    -135 (0/1700 Shadow Phantom (Elite))

    The silver sword thrust forward and ran through the body of the Shadow Phantom, exiting from behind. ck mist gushed out profusely from the injury as the young man withdrew his sword.

    "Finally." Sato sighed as he saw the Shadow Phantom''s figure burst apart into ck mist.

    Since he had stepped onto the brown stone bridge, he had encountered an ambush every 30 metres. The very first Shadow Phantom that he faced wasn''t much of a problem to him but the ones that came after were much stronger. The second assault saw Sato facing two level 11 Shadow Phantoms and since he was about 60 metres into the bridge, the pressure he faced from the increased gravity and the gloomy ck winds made this battle a whole lot difficult than thest. However, Sato wasn''t an average yer as he had quickly adjusted to the environment and defeated the creatures, though with a few minor injuries.

    On the third 30 metres checkpoint, which was about 90 metres away from the stone bridge''s starting point, Sato had to face 4 Shadow phantoms that were at level 12. While it started with him being suppressed by the monsters at first, Sato eventually got the hang of it and managed to not be overly forced back on his feet but he still wasn''t their match. In the end, Sato was forced to increase his Main attributes with the excess points he got from levelling up. However, he didn''t use everything; only using two levels'' worth of attribute points from the 25 points he had received. This was because Sato was using this battle as a way to train himself and improve his control over his avatar as well as hispatibility with it.

    Of the 10 points he used, Sato had ced 3 in [Endurance] and 1 in [Willpower] -in order to resist the pressure from the increased gravity and the effects of the ck winds- and 4 in [Strength], raising his attack power to another level. As for the remaining two, he added it to his [Agility]. Sato''s [Dexterity] didn''t need any improvements for now as the boost from his [Astral Sword] made his Attack Speed to beparable to these creatures.

    The 4th checkpoint, which happens to be where he was at now, had an Elite Level 13 Shadow Phantom blocking the path. Compared to the Common rank Shadow Phantoms, it was a lot more stronger and fierce, and it was even higher in level than the previous ones. There was also the home-ground advantage it had and since Sato was a lot deeper into the bridge, about 120 metres or so, the effects of the 2 hindering factors were a lot worse. At this juncture, just the ck wind alone was enough to impede the actions of a level 10 yer whereas the increased gravity made things worse. If a level 8 or 9 yer were in Sato''s shoes, they would find it difficult to contend with even a Common rank Shadow Phantom much less an Elite.

    In order to defeat this monster, Sato had to go all out, and apart from [Gratitude of Races], he used every skill in his arsenal to beat it. This was mostly because he hadn''t allocated all of his attribute points yet, otherwise, defeating this monster would have been as easy as counting from 1 to 10.

    ''Just an Elite Rank is the same as a BOSS. The level 10 checkpoint is a whole lot different.'' Sato began toment.

    While it was true that the previous BOSS monsters he faced were all Elite ranks, it was understandable since they were below level 10. Below level 10, it is very difficult for a monster to advance past the Elite rank like the Kobold guards were able to. Any monster who could, would either possess an impressive bloodline or their environment aided them to do so. All these factors were almost inessible to monsters below level 10 as such, a majority of BOSS monsters below level 10 were usually at the Elite rank. However, even though the BOSS monsters were Elite ranks, they were still stronger than other Elite ranks in the same level.

    Past the level 10 checkpoint was a new world for both yers and monsters; even NPCs experienced great changes at this stage. Average level 10 and above Elite monsters were basically as strong as a below-level 10 Elite BOSS, if not stronger. To better understand this, if the Elite Shadow Phantom were to face the Elite Kobold Guard while being at the same level as it is(level 9), it would wipe the floor with the kobold''s face till it could see its reflection. At the same level, an above-level 10 Elite monster was equivalent to a below-level 10 Elite BOSS. With the boost from the level difference, it was way stronger. Because of this, yers would have a hard time facing off against these monsters as fighting any single Elite was the same as facing a BOSS monster below level 10.

    After taking a very short break, Sato walked to the spot where the Shadow Phantom fell and picked a ck crystal shard that wasying on the floor. He had realised, after the first Shadow Phantom''s death, that these creatures dropped loot and gave some Experience points upon their death unlike the monsters in the Main Trials.

    The Experience points were average for the level 14 Sato but for a level 9 yer, it would be enough to bring them closer to the level 10 checkpoint. As for the ck crystal shard that dropped, it was a low rank [Shadow Crystal], a type of magic crystal.

    ''No, wait a minute. This isn''t a magic crystal, it''s a mana crystal and one of the shadow element.'' Sato''s eyes widened in shock. Since he had read the books rted to cksmithing from both the cksmith guild in Riverdale and the Caventry''s library, Sato was able to differentiate between the two.

    Compared to magic crystals, mana crystals were much rarer and way better than the former. They were a higher concentration of mana and much purer than magic crystals. However, due to their rarity, they were much more expensive than magic crystals. Sato had yet to see a store in Riverdale town sell one. Of course, it might be possible that the big stores like Grynx Merchandise had one but didn''t keep them up for disy.

    Based on the intensity of the shade of the crystal, Sato surmised that it was a low-rank one but even that was way better than a magic crystal. This was a lucky boon for him as Sato would have never guessed that these creatures dropped mana crystals after their death.

    A single magic crystal costs at least 20 silver coins. A mana crystal, on the other hand, would have its value calcted in gold coins, even if it were a low-rank one.

    What makes things even better was that the mana crystal''s element was the shadow element, a lesser form, or a lesser variety of the darkness element. While it was a lesser form of the darkness element, its rarity and rank were above that of the 5 elements, making it far more expensive than the mana crystals of those 5. In other words, the cost of this mana crystal most likely exceeded 20 gold coins.

    ''Such luck.'' Sato couldn''t help but whistle in joy.

    After taking his loot, Sato departed towards the end of the brown stone bridge. He was already 120 metres in and though he couldn''t see too far ahead because of the ck wind, Sato guessed that he was approaching the end of the bridge.

    5 minutester, Sato had walked another 30 metres. The reason why it took him 30 minutes was because the gravity was slowing down his movements and forced him to proceed at a slow pace.

    ''So what would it be this time around.'' Sato kept a clear eye for any strange movements. When he faced the four level 12 Shadow Phantoms at the third checkpoint, he had suffered an ambush at their hands. The 4 creatures had tried to pincer him from 4 directions and while they didn''t seed in killing him, Sato had lost quite an amount of HP at their hands. Ever since then, he began proceeding with caution whenever he neared the 30 metres mark.

    After walking for a few metres, Sato had yet to spot any disturbance or abnormal movement. Just as he was about to question himself whether he had calcted his steps correctly, Sato saw a pitch-ck structure ahead of him. While the wind was also ck, the shades of the two colours were different, making it so that one could differentiate between the two as long as they paid attention. The reason why Sato spotted the structure so easily was because he was at high alert for anything unusual, otherwise, he might not have discovered the object.

    ''Could it be?'' Sato stared in front with a hopeful expression.

    He increased his pace as he headed towards the structure but he didn''t fail to nce around once in a while to prevent being ambushed at thest moment.

    A minuteter, Sato was able to arrive just in front of the ck structure and at the end of the bridge. If he were to take the next step, he would arrive atop this weirdplex and finally leave the stone bridge as well as the abyss'' range.

    ''Finally, I have made it to the end.'' Sato smiled slightly.

    Taking that next step, Sato finally left the range of the abyss as well as the brown stone bridge, arriving within the premises of the ck altar that held the treasure.

 Chapter 311 - 305 : The Black Sword

    Taking that next step, Sato finally left the range of the abyss as well as the brown stone bridge, arriving within the premises of the ck altar that held the treasure.

    Almost as if he had entered another world, Sato suddenly felt lighter and morefortable than before. This wasn''t because the new field was cozy or anything. On the contrary, it had a gloomy feeling to it. It was almost as if Sato hadnded in and of hopelessness; a world of despair. The reason for the loosed and rx feeling Sato got was that the gravity had returned to normal. Having been ustomed to an environment with almost 2 times the usual gravity, Sato''s body would inevitably feel a moment of euphoria andfort as it returned to an area with normal gravity.

    ''So the source of the pressure must havee from the stone bridge.'' Sato deduced.

    While this new setting didck the pressure on the stone bridge as well as the ck winds that came from the abyss, it had a glum ambiance and was eerie silent that it became spooky for anyone there.

    After pausing for a while to adapt to the setting, Sato began his journey towards the top of the altar.

    Unlike the pristine white altar in the third and final challenge of the Main Trials, this ck altar was circr and was made up of multiple littleyers that also functioned as stairs. Simply put, one could proceed towards the top from any direction. Another way one could put it would be that the altar was a huge circr staircase.

    Sato advanced towards the top, taking one step at a time as he cautiously scanned the entire area. He didn''t believe that the trial would simply end with the stone bridge so Sato decided to keep his eyes out for any surprises.

    Gradually, he began to faintly hear screams and sounds resembling the faint mumbling of insecure individuals. These added with the creepy nature of the entire ce would make one feel insecure.

    Sato frowned at all of this and despite him trying to see so, he couldn''t spot the origin of the noise. It was as if it was all in his head and not real.

    ''I''m close to the top. I shouldn''t be so easily bothered now.'' Sato thought as he nced ahead of himself.

    The altar originally wasn''t that huge and reaching the top alone from the bottom would take less than 10 minutes, from the distance that was seen from the bottom that is.

    Having resolved himself to keep going, Sato ignored the noise and kept advancing towards the top. However, he didn''t totally ignore it as a part of him made him suspicious of the sounds.

    As Sato continued up the altar, the space around him began to slowly change. At first, the changes weren''t so noticeable but with time, Sato was able to spot them after all, the altar was originally devoid of any decorations.

    ''nts?'' Sato stared at a small patch of green grass a couple of greet beside him. He was pretty sure that the altar didn''t have such when he nced at it from afar. Even the topography of the altar didn''t look like something capable of breeding any nt.

    Even as he saw the patch of green grasses though, Sato didn''t choose to check them out. Some part of him seemed to warn him that if he did so, things might end drastically for him. This altar started with a creepy vibe and with the current development of things, Sato didn''t doubt that he could die mysteriously without knowing. To prevent this to the beat he could, Sato decided to curb his curiosity and keep his mind focused on the goal at hand.

    With each step Sato proceeded forward, the changes increased and became more noticeable. There trees spawning around her and there, and the original altar began to lose its void look. Luckily, the altar still existed so Sato was still able to proceed without a hitch.

    Eventually, shadows began to fleet across the trees, as if something was moving around there. The first time Sato spotted one, he stood rooted in the ground and he prepared for battle. Strangely though, nothing charged towards him and even the faint mumblings in the background had stopped too. It was only after he began walking that the entire ce resumed its creepy form.

    ''If someone without much of a liver was here, they would feel weak at the knees and maybe even pass out.'' Sato examined the strange happenings.

    While the ck wind from the abyss didn''t blow here, a simr wind did. It was invisible just like air but it also has that chilling ability that the ck wind possessed. Apart from that, it seemed to breed fear within one, making them feel weak and leaving them unable to resist as they drown in their weakness. If a level 9 yer were to experience this breeze, they would find it extremely difficult to move and would just stand frozen in one spot.

    Whenbined with the strange environment, the breeze made one feel scared and distressed while numbing one''s senses, and in such a situation, one''s ability to judge things clearly would be severely affected.

    Luckily for him, Sato''s physique was that of a level 10 yer and his attributes were much higher than one. He was able to resist the effects of this wind by a degree but to improve the effectiveness, Sato used another 5 attribute points; cing 3 in [Endurance] and 2 in [Willpower].

    ''I''m not a mage, neither am I a Tank, yet, my [Willpower] is quite impressive.'' Sato didn''t know whether tough or cry.

    Normally, he would have used these attribute points to improve either his [Strength] or [Agility] and [Dexterity], but the situation had forced him to make such a decision. Luckily though, it was worth it as Sato could proceed forward without much of a hitch. This made Sato feel happy because if he had allocated all his attributes points from the very start, he would find it very difficult to survive here.

    As Sato went ahead, the scenery slowly began to change. At first, this change wasn''t much but once he was at thest few ''steps'' away from the top of the altar, the change became abrupt.

    From the original forest setting with a bunch of fleeting shadows and faint mumbling, it instantly switched to a war zone. The previous trees were nowhere to be seen and in their spot were corpses, of different races and species, scattered all over the ce like grass on a field. Like trees in a forest, broken weapons were scattered all around, with a part of them being stabbed into the ground. Blood dyed the ground red with some ces even spawning rivers of it. Rather than a war zone, this ce looked more like and of blood and death.

    ''Where is this?''

    While Sato could still see the top of the altar and from there, identify that he was still on the ck altar, a part of him felt like this ce was real. It was as if he was in a different world from the outside world.

    Sato nced around but apart from the strangely shaped corpses, broken weapons, and glistening red blood, there was nothing but else here.

    As he quietly stood in this strange world, Sato felt despair. He could almost feel thest few moments of the warriors who had died here. It was as if he was in a battle with the other corpses but at this moment, there were still alive. Their opponent was just one man, or rather, one creature. Yet, they didn''t have much hope of winning. Everyone was scared as they faced off against this one individual and this included Sato, who had mysteriously stepped into this dream world. Despite outnumbering the opponent 1:100000000, no one felt that they could win this war. On the contrary, they felt more like cannon-fodders, sent into war to tire the opponent. But even though they knew this, they didn''t shy away from the battle.

    However, once the battle truly began, they saw as theirrades died in such an unjust manner. Before anyone could make a move, they had all died. All the opponent did was to wave a hand and yet, hundreds, if not thousands, had fallen at that point. There was only one word that could be used to describe the opponent; strong, insanely strong. At the same time, there was one word that could be used to describe the soldiers'' feelings at that point; despair, despair at the fact that they couldn''t even achieve anything as they began dying inrge numbers with every move of the opponent.

    Before Sato knew it, he too had died in battle, to just a wave of the hand of that powerful figure. At thest few moments that he did so, Sato felt unwilling to die so easily, yet he despaired at this because he knew he couldn''t change his fate.

    "Ha. Ha. Ha."

    Sato suddenly woke up from the illusion. His back was wet from sweat as he panted heavily.

    ''That felt all too real.'' Sato couldn''t help but wipe off the sweat on his forehead.

    The illusion was all too real, simr to the one he experienced in the Entry Trials or even greater. The very second he had entered it, he couldn''t differentiate it from the game''s reality and he even forgot that he was in a game during that time. It felt exactly as if that was his life, his real and original life.

    ''The heck? This game is all too real and that''s dangerous.'' Sato couldn''t help butin a bit.

    When a VR game bes too real, it could potentially affect the psyche of the gamers, making them forget that they''re were even within a game. The danger of this was that due to prolonged gaming, the health of the gamer could be affected severely but as they were still stuck in their ''reality'', they wouldn''t feel affected nor bothered. Some might even believe that they died once they do in the game, and as the brain works in mysterious ways, their body could actually imitate such an act in reality and send the yer into aa.

    This was why modern VR capsules and helmets had an auto-off sequence when a yer remains online for more than the suggested period that was safe, otherwise, their health could be affected and this would lead to the game having bad reviews and a drop in sales.

    As Sato was cursing the game for being all too real at that point, he realised that he had already appeared extremely close to the top of the altar. Just a few steps away from him would be the top and from here, he was able to see what was there.

    It was a ck sword that stood out even in this dim environment. The craftsmanship used in making it was very impressive and could be rated 5 stars at the very least. What made the sword special though, wasn''t simply the craftsmanship or the design or the intricacies in its structure.. It was the aura the sword exuded, an aura that bred fear just by ncing at it.

 Chapter 312 - 306 : The Sealed Demon

    ''So that''s the goal.'' Sato stared at the ck sword in front of him.

    He was currently on thest tform on the altar, scilicet the top of the altar. In the middle of the tform, just a few steps away from Sato, was a sword that was stabbed into a small podium with the hilt of the sword pointed towards the sky.

    The sword was pitch ck and was made with an intricate design that made it look like a priceless work of art. It was an average-sized double-edged great-sword with strange inscriptions engraved on the sword''s de. The hilt was simrly ck like the de and had an obsidian gem imnted on it. Sato could even faintly see a demonic creature that seemed to be struggling within the obsidian.

    The air around the sword flowed with a feeling of despair and gloominess, making anyone who tried to approach it suddenly lose their will to get closer. The aura from the sword had upied the air around there, making breathing difficult, even for Sato who currently had 16 points in his [Endurance] and 6 points in his [Willpower]. Butpared to the aura around the sword, the energy the sword oozed off made it feel like one was facing an overbearing and intimidating opponent. In the presence of the sword, Sato felt like a small insect that could be killed without a hitch.

    ''Why the heck is the reward such an evil weapon? I thought the Caventry were part of the righteous camp?'' Sato wondered as he stared at the sword in front of him.

    While the power and energy it exhibited showed that the sword was much stronger than an Upper-tier Mortal rank he had seen before, the aura was more inclined to the demonic side, making Sato hesitate a bit to receive it. One should know that Sato currently dwelt and operated in the region of the righteous camp. There was even a church in every town in Fallen Heart kingdom and there would surely be one in every city. If one of the ministers or priests were to spot him with such a weapon, Sato would be tagged as a malevolent being and would require ''cleansing''. Of course, this cleansing simply meant eliminating him. Even if he tried avoiding the church, considering that IR was made to match reality to an extent, it was possible for the regr NPCs to even report him to the church. Who knows, a mission might even be generated for yers to hunt him down.

    While running away from any town that had a church sounded like the simple solution, one should know that the distance between each kingdom was huge. Even, Riverdale town, which was close to the border, would require a 3 weeks journey at least, to reach the next Kingdom which is the Reiss kingdom. 3 weeks is a long time and Sato didn''t want to spend it on the road.

    Sato had previously thought that the Caventry were aligned with the good guys so he never expected his final reward to be this.

    ''No matter. It''s very powerful and would help me a lot. Worst-case scenario, I will have to spend my time in the Caventry''s home. ck Grill''s cave hasn''t been fully explored so there''s still the chance that above-level 10 monsters live down here. If I want to get anything from town, I could ask the others too.''

    After nning out his future, Sato walked towards the sword to receive it. From what he had guessed, he would only need to draw the sword out from its stand and the mission would bepleted.

    Sato sheathed his own sword before walking up to the ck sword before him. Once close, he then grabbed the hilt with his right hand, intent on pulling it out from the podium.

    "You dare!!!"

    "!!!"

    The very second Sato''s hands had gripped the demonic sword''s hilt, Sato heard a loud voice boom in his mind as he felt a chill flow from the hand that held the sword and sweep through his body. Before he could even respond to this, Sato began to spasm as his consciousness left his body once again.

    ''Not again.''

    Appearing in a strange ck world, Sato sighed at how many times he had been dragged into illusions starting from the Entry Trials till now.

    The new world he was in was all ck and empty but eerie enough, he could still see the space around him. However, Sato couldn''t move an inch. He felt frozen in space and his body couldn''t move an inch. The only thing he could do was move his eyes as not even his lips could separate.

    In front of Sato was a humongous creature that stood at an impressive height of 100 or so metres. It was an understatement to even call Sato a dwarf whenpared to this creature. He was more like an ant standing before a majestic dragon, but this creature wasn''t a dragon.

    It was a humanoid monster with a ck and red skin tone, and a pair of demonic horns growing from its forehead. Just like your average human being, it had two legs and two arms but these limbs of it were more exaggerated than that of a man. The two arms had blood-red ws that could easily pierce through a truck or even a fallout shelter[1] like a hot knife through butter. It had two bat wings that extended from its back, with a wingspan of more than 200 metres.

    On its body, including the head, limbs, and wings, were little blood-red scribbles and inscriptions that gave off a mysterious feeling to anyone ncing at them. While the writings were ''little'', this was inparison to the creature''s size. Every one of those inscriptions was at least as long as a middle finger and big as a hallux[2].

    While the creature looked overbearing and sinister, it couldn''t approach Sato one bit. This was because it was held back by a bunch of chains that pierced through its body and bound it in ce. The bat wings behind its back were stretched to the limit and held in ce by dozens of chains that prated them and made them incapable of mobility. The limbs were also impaled by these chains and a couple of them wound its body in ce. Even the horns in the monster''s head weren''t left alone as they were wrapped around by the chains.

    Just to hold this creature alone, Sato estimated that there were more than a thousand individual chains and every one of these chains had weird inscriptions that glowed with a noticeable golden divine light in this dark world, and sealed the creature in ce.

    Despite being locked up, there was still a wide grin on its face, that seemed to deride Sato as its beady red eyes nced at him with disdain and pique.

    "To dare to try and wield me, you must be seeking death.. Foolish ant."

 Chapter 313 - 307 : The Fiendâ€™s â€˜Requestâ€™

    "To dare to try and wield me, you must be seeking death. Foolish ant."

    A deep booming voice that made one feel so little inparison, resounded across the dark space.

    Just that voice alone made Sato feel fear from the depths of his body and made his mind shudder. While Sato himself wasn''t really afraid, his body was and as such, he had lost a majority of his body''s functions and abilities, even finding breathing a difficult issue.

    [[ System notification :

    Due to the massive difference in strength and Life order, yer hase under suppression and is incapable of resistance.

    -Main attributes are weakened by 99%.

    -All skills are locked and inessible.

    -Body functions be more difficult to perform and the body bes more difficult to operate.

    ____________________________

    yer is suffering from respiratory issues.

    -Stamina is reduced by 60%.

    -Every action costs more stamina than usual. Stamina cost *3.

    ____________________________

    yer is suffering from blood flow issues.

    -Ability to focus on an object decreases.

    -Sight is affected.

    -Stamina reduced by 20%.

    ]]

    Notifications after notifications rang in Sato''s head and as he opened his interface and nced at them, he was shocked by the result.

    Unknowingly, Sato had begun to breathe heavily.

    Sato realised that the reason he couldn''t move an inch was due to the aura of the creature. It froze his body and sparked off the innate reaction and fear an animal showed when they encountered a creature far higher than it on the food chain.

    From what he could sense, Sato discovered that there were 2 reasons that the aura affected him so greatly.

    The first was because the creature was much stronger than him, both in rank and level. He didn''t doubt that it could kill him just by sneezing. Luckily for him, the creature was held down in ce dozens of metres away from him so he could be said to be at a safe distance away from it.

    The second reason, which also happened to be thest and most important one, was the difference in bloodline and Life order between the two.

    In Infinite Realm, Life order consisted of both one''s race and their bloodline. For example, despite being a human just like the NPCs in town, Sato''s bloodline was different since he was a yer and he had the bloodline [Chosen Ones], making him stronger than an NPC of the same level. So his Life order rating was much higher than the human NPCs in the game. However, Sato was still a human being which is why when facing opponents of a higher race, like the Titan, Atrit, Sato would experience a suppression in his abilities and would not be able to fight at his best [IF].

    Even though Sato was a human with the [Chosen Ones] bloodline, making him better than the average human, he was still a human. Compared to whatever race the demonic fiend in front of him came from, he was much weaker. And there was still the fact that the creature''s bloodline was also pure.

    The suppressive feeling from all these factors made it difficult for Sato to move any part of his body apart from his pupils.

    ''It''s strong; too strong. Even Worrus didn''t give me such a helpless feeling.'' Sato thought as he stared at the creature.

    So far in IR, this was the strongest being -whether friend or foe-Sato had met.

    "Hehe. Speechless huh? As expected of an ant." The demonic fiend spoke up again.

    Even though it was stabbed and chained in different ces, the creature didn''t seem to feel any pain as it still stared at Sato with that scornful smile.

    "I wonder, why would those dumb grey folks bring a hairless little kid here. Do they hate you so much that they want me to kill you? Haha."

    Each time the fiend spoke, Sato''s head would hurt him severely as if 10000 horses were stampeding in it. The only reason he had yet to fall unconscious was due to his own willpower. At this stage, the attributes he had couldn''t do a thing here and Sato had to depend solely on himself.

    "Let''s make a deal little kid; set me free and not only will I give you a million times the power you currently possess but I will also help you kill those grey folks who sent you to me." The fiend looked expectantly at Sato.

    ''Why does he think that Worrus sent me to die at his hands? That can''t be possible right?'' Sato began to think.

    He could easily guess that the ''grey folks'' the fiend referred to were the Caventry of which Worrus was a part of. Sato just didn''t get why the fiend thought he was sent here to die. In the end, Sato concluded that the fiend might be overthinking things, after all, he was here to take possession of the sword.

    ''If I''m correct, this should be the sword spirit.''

    This was amon term in some VR games Sato had yed as well as some web novels he had read in his free time. It was simply the consciousness that dwelt within a sword. However, it only existed in absurdly powerful weapons. This meant that the sword Sato wanted to get a hold of was a Mythic rank sword or maybe even a Divine weapon!

    ''But for it to be sealed like this, alongside its appearance, this can only mean one thing; the sword spirit is probably the Demon God''s son.''

    While the deduction sounded incredulous, Sato felt it was true. He was currently in the seal of the Demon God''s son and seeing such a fiendish creature in front of him, it was logical for him to think so and the assumption was usible.

    "Hmm? Answer me, kid, or face the consequences." The devil looked to be annoyed.

    "Oh wait, I forgot my aura is too pressing for a measly ant such as yourself."

    After it said that, Sato felt the creature rein in its aura as the pressure that held him in ce slowly receded till he could finally move his arms.

    "Ah." Sato stretched his body a bit to get a hang of it before he finally faced the fiend in front of him.

    The creature didn''t seem annoyed that Sato had ignored it for a while but instead smiled at him as it questioned.

    "How about it? Set me free and live with the power to destroy all, or die here and now and have your soul extinguished from this world."

    Sato didn''t hurry to reply as he began contemting his choices.

    ''While it seems like I have no option, such a thought might be wrong. There''s no way that Worrus and Saimon would send me here if this demon had the power to kill me. If it did, it could affect the state of the seal and even escape in a few years or so. Those two don''t seem like the type to make such a mistake and let this menacing creature be unleashed into the world.''

    The seal to imprison the Demon God''s son, who also happens to be one of the strongest demigods in the world, had to be extremely powerful and tight, preventing him from using any of his abilities to reduce the chances of escaping. If it couldn''t, then in time toe, the demon would be able to break the seal and escape, wreaking havoc once more upon the world.

    Even if the seal was the type to weaken over time, it should have been constantly reinforced by the survivors from that time, like Worrus and Saimon or even the other Achievers, who may or may not be alive. Sato didn''t believe that Worrus and Saimon would be sox as to not do their job properly, especially since this demon was sealed with the blood of many from the Caventry. Based on what he had seen so far, Sato felt like Worrus was the type to value his kind and their efforts. inly put, he would eveny his life on the line to prevent the seal from breaking one bit since this was the work of the blood and sweat of his people.

    Even if the seal were to be so weak that the demon could still exhibit a bit of its prowess, unless they truly wanted him dead, Worrus would have alerted Sato before he went to the altar. There was no reason for them to want him dead as he was the new inheritor for the Caventry''s knowledge and legacy. Rather than killing him, they would try to protect him at all times. Sending him to a weakened seal that held the Demon God''s son didn''t sound like a form of protection.

    ''In other words, it''s quite possible that this freak can''t do anything to me and all of this is just for clout.'' Sato conjectured.

    However, testing this theory out was too risky. If he was right, then the fiend in front of him was nothing more than a paper tiger and he would survive this experience. If he was wrong, however, and offended the demon, Sato would die.

    Dying wouldn''t sound so bad to a yer but Sato felt like the death penalty wouldn''t be as simple as losing a few Experience points. The one to kill him was a being of at least 80 levels and 4 ranks ahead of him. Dying to it whenpared to dying to a monster or yer of simr level and rank was like the difference between being killed by a nuke and being shot by a gun.. At least thetter would leave your corpse behind to be mourned and might even feel better, but the former would decimate you into ashes of ashes using extreme heat and radiation.

 Chapter 314 - 308 : Satoâ€™s Decision

    "So what is your answer, little man." The gigantic fiend looked down at Sato.

    Apparently, it wasn''t bothered about Sato''s silence as it had much patience when dealing with this manner. It even reduced the amount of disdain it had on its face in a bid to get Sato to side with it. In its own opinion, Sato would help it after all, who would choose death over an opportunity to turn their life around.

    "Hmph." Sato smirked.

    "It seems like all the years you''ve been locked up here has resulted in you losing your IQ. They say wisdomes with age but I don''t you got any wiser in your time spent here alone." Sato mocked.

    "What did you say?!!!" The fiend yelled as the chains holding it in ce began to quiver as if they would break apart any moment from now.

    Sato grimaced as he saw this but he soon rxed. This was because the mythical inscriptions on the chains glowed with golden divine light and the quivering stopped as the chains tightened, minimizing the space the fiend could work with.

    "As expected, you''re nothing but a paper tiger."

    After saying that, Sato paid the demon no heed as he tried to figure eight the secret of leaving this ce as well as taking the ck sword for himself.

    "You!!!"

    The fiend was vexed to the point of producing steam however it wasn''t able to make any move with the chains tightened.

    "Do you want to die?! Apologize now and set me free and I might just forgive you."

    Sato smirked as he heard those words but he didn''t bother replying to them.

    The fiend seethed with fury but it didn''t make any move or rather, it couldn''t.

    ''Did he see through my plot? But how?'' It began to feel worried.

    In truth, the demon was as Sato had thought; it waspletely powerless within the seal. There was no way Worrus would have let Sato in if the demon still possessed some of its abilities as that would be no different from sending Sato to his grave. In fact, the seal was recently reinforced so it could be said to be at its strongest right now.

    The aura the fiend had released earlier was actually the tiny bit of energy it had managed to gather up all these years. When Sato''s consciousness was transported into the seal, as the original resident of the dimension, the demon was able to discover him before Sato could realise anything. In that millisecond just before Sato became aware of his surrounding, it came up with the idea of scaring Sato and using him to free itself from the seal. It gathered up thest dregs of its energy and used it to pressure Sato, simting a situation that made it look as if the seal wasn''t so secure and making Sato feel as if he could be killed at any second depending on the demon''s thoughts. Just when the energy was almost depleted, it then withdrew it back in the guise of permitting Sato to respond. From a certain viewpoint, the plot of the demon was wless and perfect. However, its target was the pro-gamer, Sato aka Sky de.

    If it were anyone a bit slow in realising some of the little discrepancies, they would be scared of the demon and feel threatened especially after experiencing its aura. In the end, they would do as the demon ordered and end up freeing it from the seal. Sadly for the fiend though, Sato saw through its plot.

    Realizing that its trick had been seen through, the demon lost its patience.

    "You bastard! Set me free this instant. Set me free or when I get out I will burn your entire family line to ashes. I will lock your soul and the souls of all you''ve loved and torture them for hundreds, no, thousands of years. Let me out this instant or my fury will rain on you!!!"

    While the threatening words of the demon were quite vile and menacing, Sato didn''t bother with them. This was a game; his loved ones weren''t even in the game. Even if they were, they would only appear as an avatar. There was no way the demon could seal their souls and torture them for years.

    In regards to this, Sato felt like the demon was just spewing pointless crap so he wasn''t inclined to keep listening to it.

    ''This dimension seems limitless but I can''t waste time trying to explore it. The key to wielding the sword should lie close by or it might be with the demon.'' Sato pondered.

    ''If the demon is the sword spirit, then that means that to wield the sword, I will need its acknowledgement.'' Sato frowned.

    Sato guessed that to gain its acknowledgement, he would have to free it. However, there was no way he would do such as the risks were too much. Truthfully, even if he wanted, he most likely couldn''t. It was quite possible that Worrus was monitoring everything here from the outside after all, even with the seal, it was still quite risky to let Sato approach the demon. In other words, whatever happened here would be seen by him, and Worrus would never let Sato unlock the seal.

    Have it as it may, Sato''s conjecture was surprisingly correct.

    "He didn''t fall for it. As expected of the young lord." Saimon said.

    "Hmm." Worrus nodded expressionlessly.

    The two were at the entrance of the hall but even with the substantial distance between them, they could see what was happening within the sword''s inner dimension.

    At the top of the altar was Sato''s physical body, which was still in the same pose as he was when he grabbed the sword. The obsidian within the sword''s hilt was glowing a bit and it was this very gem that Worrus and Saimon had focused their gaze on.

    "It should be expected of him. Falling for such a cheap little trick would be demeaning to one who is to inherit my people''s legacy."

    "Indeed." Saimon smiled as he heard this however deep down, he was feeling happy for Sato.

    If Sato had ended up sumbing to the demon''s threat, not only would he lose the ultimate reward but he would lose everything he had gained from the Caventry so far, and this includes the physicalponents as well as ess to the Hall of Grey Chains.

    Back to the dimension

    ''If that''s the case...'' Sato began racking his brain for an idea when one suddenly popped up in his head.

    "Hey. Let''s make a deal."

    "Hmm?" The demon, though still angry at him, nced at Sato with a hint of surprise. Even though it hated him to the bones and looked down on Sato, the words he had said had managed to garner its attention.

    "I will set you free from your seal, in exchange that you grant me the power to wield the sword."

 Chapter 315 - 309 : How To Tame A Demon

    "Hey. Let''s make a deal. I will set you free from your seal, in exchange that you grant me the power to wield the sword."

    The chained winged demon nced at Sato in surprise before bursting out in a fit.

    "Haha. You, a measly ant that I could easily squash at my prime, dare to think you can strike a deal with me? Don''t make meugh." The demon ridiculed Sato.

    In its opinion, Sato bringing up the idea of a deal made it seem like the two parties were of equal strength. Usually, one would only perform deals with someone of simr stature or strength with them. As Sato was nowhere near it inparison, the demon felt it beneath it to make a deal with Sato.

    One should know that the previous ''deal'' of setting it free in exchange for magnificent power was a lie. The fiend never nned on making a deal with Sato as it felt that was beneath it. Even now that Sato presented this idea to the table, it was disinclined to bargain with Sato.

    Despite seeing the demon''s look of disdain, Sato remained calm and replied.

    "Laugh while you can butst I checked, I''m not the one with something to lose here. Compared to you who had to wait hundreds of years for my arrival, I''m not the least bit bothered by your rejection."

    The demon froze at Sato''s response as it never expected him to retort. It wanted to throw a fit at Sato for his words but it realised that he spoke the truth. While it would surely regret it if it doesn''t use this opportunity to finally escape the seal, Sato wouldn''t be bothered about not getting the sword. It was just a sword and wielding it wasn''t a matter of life or death. Worst case scenario, Sato would just visit a cksmith and request for a copy of the sword while the demon would still be stuck in here.

    "You think you can fool me?" The demon tried to throw a fit.

    "Not really, that''s why I''m saying the truth." Sato calmly replied.

    Seeing Sato facing it without any change in his expression, the demon began to consider the offer.

    "What exactly do you want?"

    The demon refused to believe that Sato, being after the sword, would decide to let it go. One should know that it had been sealed alongside the sword. Once it was set free, the quality of the sword would drop.

    "The sword."

    Sato then exined.

    "You see,pared to putting my trust in you and setting you free for unimaginable power, I''d rather do so and get the sword in exchange. The sword has a power of its own and the materials used in its forging are extremely precious. So not only does the sword have a practical value, but it also has its financial price tag. I would rather free you in exchange for it than do so for power that I can''t be certain you will give me. Who knows whether you might fill your side of the deal or not. However, if you agree here and now, we both would depart with smiles on our faces."

    Because of its strength and Life order, the sword -which functioned as the container for the seal- had be stronger.

    While he couldn''t leave this zone, Sato wasn''t interested in doing so yet. He had a feeling that the trial wasn''t that simple and leaving this dimension wouldn''t mean that he would be able to make the sword his own. The only way to do so would be to gain the approval of the sword and with the demon dwelling within it, its approval automatically became the same as that of the sword to an extent.

    "You have grabbed my attention, you measly ant. So, how do we go about it?" The demon asked. It wouldn''t simply do as Sato said just because Sato promised to set it free. To it, promises are nothing more than flimsy words that can be broken at any moment.

    "I''m guessing that freeing you from your seal wouldn''t be so easy and simple and would require a lot of preparations and materials. In that case, fulfilling your end of the bargain, which is to let me wield the sword, would make things easier for the both of us."

    The demon nodded at Sato''s words. It knew that the seal users to imprison it wasn''t something that could be gotten rid of by saying ''abracadabra''. A lot of preparations, materials, and runes were needed to break the seal even if it was just by a little.

    "But how do I know that you won''t trick me?" The fiend asked.

    "Have any ideas?" Sato didn''t offer his suggestions yet as he felt that the demon wanted to say something. He only opened and clenched his fist as if he was exercising his palms.

    "Hehe. Of course. A blood contract. Using it, we can prevent any unnecessary tricks and scams." The demon nced at Sato with a strange look.

    "Okay. How do we use it?" Sato calmly questioned.

    ''Hm?'' The demon was internally shocked at Sato''s current personality. It was still of the idea that Sato was joking and wouldn''t set it free but from the looks of things, it was no longer sure.

    "Come closer." The demon said.

    Sato grimaced his face at the request but the demon hurriedly exined.

    "I don''t n on killing you, yet. For the blood contract to be pulled off, we need to be within 5 metres of each other."

    The two were currently separated by more than 30 metres and from the words of the demon, this distance would affect the blood contract spell.

    While he wasn''t willing to trust the demon so easily, Sato didn''t have a choice. He still went forward though, cing his hope in the chains that bound the creature.

    The area Sato stood on was quite special. In this seal dimension, there was nond and Sato simply stood mid-air. However, the level at which he stood happened to correspond to the demon''s chest. It was because of this that he was able to take in the full view of the fiend without any problem.

    Moving forward, Sato began to approach the demon and the ce he came close to happened to be its chest.

    As Sato got closer, he was able to see clearly, the inscriptions on its body as well as the ones on the chains. When he nced at these inscriptions, Sato realised that he couldn''t understand them despite having a rudimentary knowledge of runes. The inscriptions on the demon''s body looked familiar though, and as Sato tried to recall where he saw it, he realised that it was the same as the inscriptions on the body of the ck sword.

    ''There has to be a rtionship between the two.'' Sato thought as he opened and clenched his fist. Within it was a bottle cap that had appeared from nowhere.

    When Sato was about 15 metres away from the demon, he suddenly paused.

    "What''s wrong? Don''t tell me you''re scared?" The demon chuckled.

    "Not really." Sato responded.

    "I just finally got the hang of it."

    The demon was confused by Sato''s words but before it could even ponder on them, it saw Sato lift his right hand and open it. Following that, a gigantic broadsword created from light formed in the air, and Sato hurriedly gripped the hilt tightly with both hands.

    "Die."

    *Whoosh*

    With the sound of air being cut apart, Sato brought the sword down at the demon. Because it was never expecting that, the demon couldn''t react in time and got shed by the sword. Strangely though, the sword didn''t cause any harm to chains and simply went through them like they didn''t exist, only causing harm to the creature.

    "Ahhhh!!!"

    -498 (???/??? ???)

    ''As I thought. There''s no way this trial would be one without a battle.'' Sato smiled.

    "You!!!" The demon was enraged. It couldn''t understand why Sato suddenly attacked it or how he pulled it off. The change was too sudden and it had never expected this to happen at all.

    Back after Sato had ignored the demon''s first round of curses, he began thinking of a way to not only leave this ce but also gain the recognition of the sword. However, as he realised that this demon chained up in front of him might be the sword spirit, he discovered that this would be a difficult task.

    With that in mind, Sato began questioning the nature of the trial.

    At first, he had thought that all he needed to do was to reject the demon''s provocation but he discovered that it wasn''t that simple. From there, Sato believed that the goal might be to make the demon willing to serve him or at the very least, grant him control over the sword.

    With a direction of thought, Sato began thinking of how to make that possible. He first thought of tricking the demon but Sato realised that that was too impractical, if not impossible. This was a crafty being that had tried to deceive him immediately he appeared, what were the chances that he would seed with his own scheme?

    Just when he was running out of ideas, an inconceivable plot appeared in Sato''s head; why not beat the shit out of the demon? After all, this was a game and almost all of the trials he had faced required him to defeat someone or something.

    However, after recalling that he had no weapon with him here, neither could he use his skills, Sato doubted that this was the way. This was until he thought of something inconceivable again. Why not conjure up his own sword. It was then that Sato decided to try it out because he had a gut feeling that it would work out. However, with the demon''s eyes set on him, it would be difficult to test that out. Hence, Sato requested to strike a deal with it while he tested out the ''creation ability'' silently with his palms, forming very small objects like bottle caps and so on.

    The idea of striking a deal with the demon turned out to work well as not only did it direct its attention elsewhere, but it also enabled Sato to get closer to the fiend without seeming suspicious. While Sato guessed that the demon couldn''t attack him, he didn''t know whether it was due to a distance limitation. So, Sato needed to get closer to the demon without it suspecting him and this scheme of his came in handy.

    When he finally got the hang out of the creation ability, Sato decided to drop all pretenses and formed a huge broadsword immediately. With the shock of the appearance from such arge weapon, the demon wouldn''t be able to react in time and Sato was able tond the first hit. The first hit was the most critical as it was meant to severely injure the demon and force it to be unable to do much to the following ones.

    Luckily for Sato, everything turned out well and he currently had the upper hand in Thai confrontation.

    Staring at the indignant face of the demon, Sato emotionlessly brought down his sword.

    "No more talking. Just hurry and die."

    Even though it was able to see the swording down, the demon couldn''t do anything against it. Thatst sh had left a deep wound on it and had forced it to use thest dregs of its energy to suppress the injury. Currently, its energy tank was empty, and with the chains binding it, the demon couldn''t do anything about it neither could it dodge the attack. It was a sitting duck in regards to this.

    "Ahhhh!!!!"

    -450 (???/??? ???)

    Another blood-curdling scream resounded in this dimension.

    "You...you bastard! Once I escape this seal, I swear I will finish you off. I won''t let you die so easily but will torture your soul for thousands of years."

    "Too much noise." Sato hacked down again.

    -476 (???/??? ???)

    "Ahhhh!!!!"

    ''Who knows how long I will have to keep this going.'' Sato frowned before increasing the frequency of his attacks.

    For the demon, this sealed dimension became hell as Sato unleashed sh after sh on it, causing it to experience pain like no other.

    "Do you concede?" Sato nced at the weary demon.

    "Never." The demon spat out one word.

    "Okay." Sato nodded before he attacked again.

    -479 (???/??? ???)

    "Ah!!!"

    No one knew how many seconds had gone by or how many times Sato had attacked. Even Sato himself didn''t know. He only finally stopped when a system notification sounded within his ears. Opening his interface, he nced at the system notification and stopped attacking the demon as a smile formed on his lips.

    [[ System notification :

    Congrattions to yer, Sky de, forpleting the mission [Lord Worrus'' Test].

    Rewarding yer¡­]]

 Chapter 316 - 310 : [Void Opening Key]

    "Please...enough." The demon weakly begged.

    While it truly didn''t want to admit defeat, the broadsword of light that Sato had used to inflict injuries on the demon had crumbled its will. The injuries it had received would require it a few dozens of years to heal and it wouldn''t be able to store energy as quickly as it did before. This in turn would extend its sentence in this void prison and this was something the demon didn''t want to see happen. Because of this, even if it were just for a moment, it decided to lower its head in front of Sato.

    "Good." Sato withdrew the gigantic sword and dispersed it into particles.

    The system notification had already alerted him that the mission waspleted with even the demon begging him to stop. Attacking further was pointless unless Sato had a sadistic taste in torturing non-humans.

    With the concession from the demon''s side, a dark gloomy light appeared on Sato''s arm for a while before disappearing. In its ce was a ck tattoo that took the form of a sword. A closer look at the tattoo and Sato discovered that it looked a lot simr to the ck sword that he was after.

    Before he could ask the demon about it or even question it in its identity, Sato disappeared from the dimension with a sh.

    In the outside world, Worrus and Saimon had been following Sato''s actions with their senses. When Sato had brought up the idea of striking a deal with the demon, they were both shocked and couldn''t react in time. Saimon didn''t understand why Sato would do such and began worrying for him whereas Worrus had frowned at his actions and was about to make a move. If Sato had actually gone through with that plot and struck a deal with the demon, not only would he have failed the mission but Worrus would have killed him instantly. It could be said that when Sato was acting out his n, he was unwittingly walking on a thin wire.

    Luckily, just before he got close enough to the demon, Sato had abruptly attacked before Worrus made his move. If he had gotten within 10 metres of it, there would have no longer been a Sato in the sword''s inner dimension.

    "Such a crafty fellow. Not only did he discern the scheme of the asura but he also discovered the fundamentals of the seal." Saimon sighed. Sato had surprised him multiple times already but he still couldn''t help but be amazed each time.

    "Hmm." Worrus nodded. "Even I never saw thating."

    The seal within the sword that held the soul of an asura was created by the Caventry and since one could enter it, the Caventry had to give themselves some perks to help them subdue the asura within. One of the advantages they had was the ability to conjure up any weapon from their imagination, though with certain limits.

    As a recently admitted member of the Caventry, Sato also possessed the right to use this ability but Worrus was never expecting him to figure it out so quickly.

    "He''s out already."

    Just as Worrus had finished speaking, Sato''s body suddenly shook for a second as his eyes regained their rity. His right hand, still on the ck sword''s hilt.

    At the same time, a system notification rang out in his head.

    [[ System notification :

    Demonic sword [Drakken] has epted you as its master.

    ]]

    With a solemn expression on his face, Sato drew the sword out of the podium and lifted it heroically.

    [[ System notification :

    yer has leveled up.

    Rewarding 5 Main attribute points. ]]

    ''I levelled up again? Guess this must be the result of the Experience reward of the mission.''

    "Congrattions on sessfully wielding [Drakken]." Worrus'' voice sounded out from behind. It was at that point that Sato remembered where he was and immediately ended his dashing pose.

    ''I got lost in the moment...''

    Worrus smiled at him and didn''t seem bothered about Sato''s actions since he couldn''t read Sato''s thoughts.

    "With the Drakken in your hands, you will be pretty much unmatched among opponents at your level." Worrus stated.

    "Come with me."

    Before Sato could even check out the new sword, Worrus teleported him away. This time around, they had appeared at the ce where it all began, the location Sato experienced the Entry Trials. However, they weren''t at the ins where Sato was before but had appeared within a pagoda.

    "Is it ready?" Worrus asked.

    "Yes, my lord." A voice replied to him. Following quickly was the figure of a little ''boy'' with silver skin tone, different from Saimon''s copper-colored skin.

    Sato lifted an eyebrow at the figure''s appearance and arrival as he never expected to see one more living being apart from himself, his crew, and Worrus and Saimon here. While he had suspected that there would be other NPCs apart from the two he had met thus far, Sato presumed that they were in a form of stasis so they wouldn''t be making an appearance any time soon. However, with the arrival of this fellow, his first spection was confirmed. As for whether the others remained in deep sleep or not, he couldn''t confirm that.

    "Young lord." The young boy greeted with glistening eyes.

    Unlike Saimon, the little boy didn''t look like an old fellow but instead, a very young man or even a teenager. From his appearance alone, Sato guessed that he was between 14 to 16, as the young mancked any signs of facial hair. His eyes even possessed a hint of innocence and curiosity, showing that this person must have not had much experience with the outside world. He had chubby cheeks that made him look adorable. When paired with his height, the kid was a lovable fe to thedies.

    "This is Meson. Saimon would be a lot busy in the time toe so Meson would be in charge of showing you around the ce and helping you with whatever trouble you face." Worrus introduced the new face.

    "Don''t be fooled by his appearance. He''s a special breed and is at least 3 centuries old. Rather than a kid, you could say he''s a dwarf."

    "Hello...Meson." Sato didn''t know how exactly to address him as while the dwarf was older than he was, he looked like a teenager.

    "He, he, hello." Meson stuttered awkwardly that it made him look even cuter.

    [[ System notification :

    Meson''s respect for you has increased.

    Meson''s admiration for you has increased.

    ]]

    ''Hayami would like him if she were here.'' Sato recalled his little sister''s love for adorable creatures and individuals.

    "Hand it over to him, Meson." Worrus said.

    "Ah, right, yes. Here, young lord. Take it." Meson withdrew a special small box from his space ring and gave it to Sato.

    ''Hmm?''

    Sato ced his new sword in his space ring and received the box from Meson. Opening it, he saw a golden key lying within.

    [[ System notification :

    You have received 1 [Void Opening Key].

    ]]

    "Void opening key?" Sato couldn''t help but ask.

    Worrus nodded as he exined.

    "With this key, you no longer need toe to ck Grill''s cave before you can enter the hall. So long as you are within the region of Stonecreek Forest, you can open up a void door and teleport over. The range is quite small because the Hall [1] has been in a dormant mode for a while now. Once it''s restored to full power, more of its functions would be unveiled, the range could even extend to cover the entirety of this kingdom."

    As he heard those words, Sato couldn''t help but feel astonished. He never expected the little key before him to possess such capabilities. This was equivalent to a transportation tool and when the Hall restores itself to full operation, the range of the teleportation would cover the whole kingdom. This was a kingdom and not a city. By conservative estimates alone, an average kingdom in IR was simr to Canada inndmass.

    ''With this key, turning the Hall into our base of operation bes easier..'' Sato''s eyes shed with ideas.

 Chapter 317 - 311 : Getting Stronger

    *Whoosh*

    After passing through a wormhole opened up by Worrus, Sato and Meson had returned to the Hall of Achievers.

    ncing at the stone statues that seemed to have existed for centuries, Sato sighed as he recalled how difficult the Achievers'' trials were for him and Xue Yan. The current him would be able to take down that Achiever without a hitch but this was because the Achiever''s power limit was set to match thebination of the previous him and Xue Yan. Put in another way, the current Sato could defeat the former him and Xue Yan. Calling him the strongest yer in IR by both attributes and levels wasn''t an understatement.

    "It''s already 6:35 pm." Sato opened up his system interface and nced at the time.

    The date was currently 5th August, which is two weeks after Infinite Realm''s release. In-game, this would be the same as a month. So much time had passed so quickly that Sato didn''t realise it.

    ''I wonder how Xue Yan is doing.''

    Even with the 1-week training session that the gang experienced, the increase in strength wasn''t much in Sato''s point of view. While they did increase their levels considerably, for Sato, levels weren''t everything in a game. One''s strength also depends on their equipment as well as their martial prowess. If a yer''s hand-to-handbat skills or weapon handling were terrible, then even if they were 5 levels ahead of their opponent, they could still lose the battle.

    Xue Yan had barely had a week to improve herbat skills with Sato and recalling that the third challenge was to face one''s self inbat, Sato didn''t have much hope of her passing. There was also the second challenge''s [Labyrinth of Helios] but since the first two challenges differed for every participant, Sato didn''t know whether Xue Yan had things easy or difficult.

    Sato decided to then ask Meson about her.

    "Snow Bird?[1] I don''t have enough authority so I wasn''t able to watch the trials with Lords Worrus and Saimon. However, Lord Saimon did inform me that you might ask about a femalepanion. ording to him, she started her third Challenge just a few minutes after you did, so she should be out in a couple of hours." Meson replied.

    "Alright." Sato nodded.

    Before he would proceed to inform the crew of their next actions, Sato had to wait for Xue Yan to be present.

    ''Time to check my gains.''

    Ever since he had finished the final challenge, Sato was too upied to check all the rewards he had earned. He was met by Saimon just a short while after he had finished off the mirror image and was then taken away to the seal by Worrus. After that, he had to retrieve the sword at the top of the altar following which he was brought to the pagoda by Worrus, where he met Meson and finally was brought back here. Throughout all these events, Sato didn''t have enough time to check his rewards and calcte the value of his gains.

    ''Let''s start with you.''

    Saving hisst reward, the ck sword [Drakken], forst, Sato opened up his system interface and nced at his status.

    [[ System interface :

    Name : Sky de

    Race : Human

    Bloodline : Chosen Ones

    Title(Active) : Savior of Races

    Other titles(Inactive) : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom, Humanity''s Friend, The Precursor, Industrious Achiever.

    Level : 15

    HP : 1500

    Heritage/Legacy : The Caventry''s Inheritor

    ss (Job) : Apprentice Swordsman (Specialist)

    Subss : Apprentice cksmith

    Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Current location : Great Hall of Grey Chains

    Attributes

    Strength : 24 + 4 (Dawn Steel Armour) + 10 (Astral de)

    Endurance : 16 + 2 (Dawn Steel Armour)

    Vitality : 15

    Agility : 13 + ??? (???)

    Dexterity : 12 + ??? (???)

    Intelligence : 1 + ??? (???)

    Willpower : 6

    Physical Attack Power : 72 + 12 (Dawn Steel Armour [Strength] boost) +30 (Astral de [Strength] boost) + 25 (Astral de)

    Magical Attack Power : 3 + ??? (??? [Intelligence] boost)

    Physical Defence : 36 + 22 (Dawn Steel Armor)

    Magical Defence : 12 + 15 (Dawn Steel Armor)

    Attack Speed : 36 + ??? (??? [Dexterity] boost) + 12 (Astral de)

    Movement Speed : 26 + ??? (??? [Agility] boost)

    Free Attribute Point : 15

    Free Potential point : 2

    Skills :

    Chop : Active Skill : Launch a heavy strike with full force, causing additional 20% damage. Cool-down : 5 seconds

    Parry : Active Skill : Use 110% of [Strength] to block a skill. Sess depends on [Strength] rating of both user and target. Cool-down : 5 seconds.

    Horizontal Swipe : Active Skill : Release a horizontally positioned attack wielding an additional 40% attack power. Cool-down : 15 seconds.

    Linear Strike : Active Skill : Using one thrust or sh, deal 150% of attack power in one hit. +10% to prative abilities. Cool-down : 10 seconds.

    Chain Hit : Active Skill : release 3 strikes equaling 140% attack power with 130% attack speed. Cool-down : 15 seconds.

    Others(Weapon, equipment, or title rted attached skills) :

    Gratitude of Races : Active Skill :

    Receive a temporary boost to abilities and skills +1

    All attributes +5

    Defence increases + 10

    Attack speed increases + 10

    Damage dealt multiplies x1.5

    Healing speed x1.5

    Cool-down : 3 days.

    System : The gratitude of a race shouldn''t be taken lightly much less that of multiple races.

    Note : This skill is upgradeable.

    Astral Blessings : Passive : If used under the skies with the stars as the canopy, user''s attributes increase by 5%. Also passively gather energy from the stars.

    Astral Might : Passive Skill : One''s aura bes as overbearing as the stars affecting thebat abilities of their opponent. Effect differs based on the difference in user and target''s level, [Endurance] and [Willpower].

    Astral de : Active Skill : Using the energy gathered from the stars, unleash an attack with a devastating might. Cool-down : 10 astral points

    ??? : Unregistered

    Equipment and weapons

    Astral de : Upper tier Mortal ss : Level 9 : Durability : 35

    Dawn Steel Armor (te Armor) : Upper Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 40

    ??? : Unregistered

    Novice Swordsman Leather Trousers

    Novice Swordsman Gloves

    Novice Swordsman Shoes

    ]]

    The previous injuries on his body after the fight with the mirror image had already healed. This was after Sato had taken some health potions along with a special pill Meson had given him slightly after they met.

    After crossing the level 10 checkpoint, yers, NPCs, and monsters would experience a qualitative change. The multiplication factor for the secondary attributes would also increase and this was especially so for the HP stat. This was because, for the two parties(yers and NPCs), they would longer go by the title of Beginner, but would be promoted to the next sub-rank, which is the Apprentice rank.

    For yers, their [Vitality] would no longer be multiplied by 10 to give their HP but instead by 100. [Endurance] and [Willpower] would be multiplied by 2 for Physical and Magical Defence stats, and [Intelligence] by 100 for MP. Overall, the change in multiplication index increased the battle endurance of yers and made it possible for them to squash yers below level 10 even if they both had the same attributes.

    ''I will have to make a visit to a Swordsman guild and make it official.''

    While Sato had indeed gotten promoted, NPC forces would still identify him as a Beginner rank swordsman. This was because Sato had yet to make the change official. To do so, he would have to visit a sword-rted guild or association and get identified as one. Sato could either go to the City''s Army barracks, a registered sword art dojo in the game or find some popr sword hermit to test him and register him as an Apprentice.

    ''There''s no sword art dojo here. I think I will wait till I get to the city.''

    After settling on that problem, Sato further inspected his status panel. Seeing the Legacy section no longer empty, a smile crept upon his lips.

    Currently, Sato''s status could be said to be the mostplete as well as the most impressive in the game. Not only was he level 15 but he also had a Legacy, 4 titles[2], and was already an apprentice in both his main ss and subss.

    After reveling in his stats, Sato then nced at his free attribute points.

    There were two methods of assigning attributes points in IR; the system suggested/rmended path and the manual selection mode.

    If Sato had used the system suggested levelling up method, the attribute points would have been allocated automatically and he would have no free attribute points. But because he chose manual selection mode, Sato could distribute each point by himself to whatever attribute that he saw fit and he could even leave some if he desires. The disadvantage of this was that if he were to level up amidst battle -unless he splits a part of his attention towards his system interface- his battle strength would not experience any rise.

    In total, Sato had levelled up 6 times; 5 times right afterpleting the Main trials and the mission [The Caventry''s Path], and 1 more after gaining the recognition of [Drakken] andpleting the mission [Lord Worrus'' Test]. Since every level up provided a yer with 5 attribute points, the total of attribute points Sato had unused was 30.

    During the mission [Lord Worrus'' Test], when Sato was crossing the brown stone bridge, he had used 10 attribute points to increase his stats. After he had exited the bridge and arrived at the altar, Sato used another 5 attribute points to improve his body''s resistance to the environment.

    Currently, Sato now had 15 free attribute points left, which was the same as 3 level-ups. He then added 6 into [Strength], 2 to [Endurance], [Vitality], and [Agility]. Finally, Sato added thest 3 to [Dexterity]. As for the 2 potential points, he used one on [Chop] and the other on [Hack], bringing the power of the two skills to another level.

    ''That should be it.''

    After settling all of this, Sato then turned his attention towards the question mark on his status panel.

    ''Unregistered huh?''

    In IR, chances are that a yer might stumble upon a legendary weapon but not be aware of its rank even though they can see that it''s a weapon. In such a scenario, they will be incapable of wielding the full might of the weapon unless they be aware of its abilities. Hence, even if they manage to equip it, the weapon would be shown as ''???'' or ''Unregistered'' in the status panel, because the yer isn''t aware of the true nature and capabilities of the weapon.

    To solve this issue wasn''t difficult as all one would need to do is simply appraise the suspected weapon or equipment to discern its abilities.

    ''I''m guessing it''s you..'' Sato nced at the ring on his finger.

 Chapter 318 - 312 : [Void Emerald Ring]

    After distributing thest attribute points ording to his desire, Sato then turned his attention towards the space ring strapped on his ring finger.

    Space rings had much stable andrger spaces thanmon space bags. Also, it was handy and easy to carry and use. Just with a thought, one could send an object into the dimension within the ring and with another thought, they could retrieve it too. This was way better than the beginner space bag that required the user to insert their hand into the bag to retrieve the object.

    ''[Appraise].''

    While the [Inspect] wasmonly used against monsters and yers, the [Appraise] skill was used for materials, weapons, equipment, and essories.

    [[ System interface :

    [Void Emerald Ring : Low-tier Rare-Steel Rank : Level 10 : Durability 15

    Requirement : Level 10 || 1 [Intelligence]

    [Agility] +5

    [Dexterity] +3

    [Intelligence] +10

    Natural Blending : Active skill : Hide the aura, smell, and sound of the wearer for 10 seconds.

    Cool-down : 1 minute.

    ]]

    The space ring was made from Void Emerald Crystal, which was a 4-star material lower ranked than Void Silver. However, in terms of making a storage device, Void Emerald Crystal was preferred over thetter since it was much cheaper and easier to get. Of course, this was inparison to Void Silver and not 2 or 3-star materials.

    Since it was made with a 4-star material, the rank of the ring was at Rare-Steel rank. Having been made with such a valuable material as the foundation, it could be said to be impossible for it to be less than that. The space ring also happened to be the very first Rare-Steel rank gear Sato had ever gotten, as well as the first essory he had worn.

    As a Rare-Steel rank essory, though it didn''t boost his attributes so greatly as a regr weapon of the same rank would, the effects were still impressive, especially the +10 [Intelligence] that was extremely valuable to mages. There was also the skill attached to the ring that increased its value even more.

    If the Void Emerald Ring were to be put for auction, Sato believed that it would reach a price of at least 2 gold coins; and this was because the current purchasing power of the yers was still weak. If he sold it a few weekster instead, the price could even reach 4 gold coins. If he even sold it to an NPC store, Sato believed he could sell it for 5 or 6 gold coins, after all, this was a space ring produced with the craftsmanship of an extinct civilization; the value of the ring shouldn''t be underestimated.

    The +5 [Agility], +3 [Dexterity], +10 [Intelligence] and the [Natural Blending] skill made this ring an extremely sought after item for mages. Sadly, none of them were aware of its existence.

    Viewing the interior dimension of the ring through his system interface, Sato checked the value of the materials he had gotten from Saimon. There were at least 20 different kinds of 2-star materials, both forging and alchemical materials, in quantities averaged at about 15 per material. As for the 3-star materials, there were about 7 of them or so and their average quantity was at about 4 let material.

    However, Sato only briefly nced at these materials before setting his sights on one particr one.

    "There it is."

    With a thought, Sato made a short ingot of a mysterious metal appear in his hand. It had a dull brown colour simr to copper and could even be easily mistaken as it. However, the feeling the metal gave off made it different from copper. The energy that leaked out from the metal bar had an overbearing nature to it as if one was facing a gigantic mountain or a towering giant.

    ''4-star metal, Titan Crust.'' Sato''s eyes glinted as his breath became hot and rapid.

    This was a 4-star material, and as far as he knew, this was the very first one to appear in the hands of a yer. The first hidden mission that had even appeared earlier on when the game began, turned out to be a scam that lead to the Goblin battle at Gnorka. In other words, Sato was possibly the first yer to have ever had such material in their inventory but he couldn''t confirm this since there was no achievement rted to it.

    ''It''s best I keep this with me. When my cksmithing skill improves, I will use it to forge a piece of equipment.''

    4-star materials were rare and would remain rare even as yers increase their level. This was because for a 4-star material to be made, certain criteria have to be fulfilled at the same time and every one of them was individually difficult to reproduce. As a result, 4-star materials and above were and would always remain rare.

    Knowing that, it was more advisable for Sato to keep hold of the Titan Crust in his hand and use it once his cksmithing abilities have seen some improvements.

    "Hey Meson. Do you guys have any 5-star materials or even 6-star ones?" Sato suddenly asked the dwarf idling beside him.

    Meson looked at Sato with a naive expression that made him look cute as he seemed lost in his thoughts. He then replied Sato.

    "Huh? 5 and 6-star materials? We have a ton of 4-star materials in the inventory alongside a bunch of 5-star ones. As for 6-star materials, those are extremely rare. Some of them are even desired by gods so you can guess how difficult they are to find. However, I do remember that back in the days, we used to have a few of them. I don''t know about now but even if we do, it''s probably in the treasury."

    "I see."

    Sato knew that he wouldn''t be able to get any of those any time soon even if he was the current inheritor of the Caventry. Otherwise, his very existence would be a bug in the game. Truthfully, he was already a bug; any more than this and Sato would be a super bug. With the current equipment, wealth, and materials in his hand, Sato was well ahead of any other yer or guild, however, this was still manageable to a certain extent. Giving him any more would make the game be tilted to his advantage, and no good game would operate as such.

    Having one 4-star ranked material as well as a few 3-star ones were okay but having 5-star materials was too much. The game would not reward Sato with such so quickly unless he hadpleted an S rank or higher mission.

    Returning the ingot of Titan Crust into his space ring.. Sato then turned his attention onto the ck sword in one corner of the ring''s dimension.

 Chapter 319 - 313 : [Cursed Sword Drakken]

    ''Come.''

    With a thought, Sato retrieved the ck sword from the storage dimension within the space ring.

    In less than a second, a ck gleaming sword with a metallic look appeared in his hand. From the angle he stared at it, the sword looked to be crystalline but felt metallic to the touch. As he slid his hand across the de, Sato felt the sword vibrate in his hands.

    [[ System notification :

    [Drakken] is delighted at your touch.

    ]]

    ''...what a strange sword. Don''t tell me that you''re a female sword?!''

    After receiving a slight shock from the notification, Sato then held the sword in front of his face before using the [Appraise] skill.

    [[ Cursed Sword Drakken : Low Tier Rare-Steel Rank : Level 15 : Durability 55

    Forged with extremely precious dark element materials as well as the purest of Dragon''s breath being used as the mes, and Rainbow Dew used as a catalyst, the true power of the sword isn''t what you see now. Due to the unprecedented level and rank of the sword, it has been sealed with a ton of high-level runes and spells and the seals can only be unlocked as the wielder bes stronger. The more seals unlocked, the stronger the sword gets. However, there is a risk.

    As the sword has a unique sword spirit formed from the original sword spirit and a soul fragment of an asura, the wielder stands the risk of getting possessed by this special existence, which is predominantly controlled by the soul fragment. The more seals unlocked and the stronger the sword gets, the higher the chances of being possessed by the fused sword spirit. Continuous use of the abilities of the sword also increases the chances of getting possessed, though only by a very small figure.

    There are currently ??? seals and 0 have been unlocked.

    Requirement : The user has to be recognized by the weapon''s sword spirit to wield the sword.

    [Strength] +20

    [Dexterity] +8

    [Agility] +2

    Prative abilities increased by 25%

    Skills :

    Hopeless Hope : Passive Skill : As the wielder''s HP decreases, attribute points increase. For each 10% decrease in health, once HP is below 30%, Secondary attributes increase by 10% of base values.

    ck me sh : Active Skill : Release a long-range attack with a 30 metres attack range and 140% of Attack Power as damage. Upon contact, the skill would explode into a zing ck fire that would wrap itself around the target and deal me damage alongside mental damage both wielding 120% of Magical Attack Power. The mental damage has a slight chance of sending the opponent into a [Stun] state. Cool-down : 7 seconds.

    Dark Veil : Active Skill : Release a 5 metres wide darkness domain with a duration of 3 seconds. Any target within the domain would have their avable skills disabled and inactive. Skill doesn''t affect an attack that has just been used. Cool-down : 20 seconds.

    Shadow Movement : Active Skill : Teleport to the nearest shadow within a 5 metres range or a previously marked shadow within a 15 metres range. Cool-down : 20 seconds.

    NB : The full potential of this sword hasn''t been awakened yet. As the wielder gets stronger, the sword too can be improved alongside them.

    This sword is bound to the user and can''t be dropped, sold, exchanged, or used to its fullest by another.

    System description : Born from some of the most precious Dark-type materials as well as having a soul fragment of an asura fuse with the sword spirit, the value of this sword is beyond any simple definition. Be careful with each time you wield this sword or else, you will get devoured. ]]

    "Another Rare-Steel rank..." Sato couldn''t help but take in a deep breath.

    ''Has my ancestor''s grave finally started spewing out green smoke?''[1]

    Finding one Rare-Steel rank gear, even if it were an essory or equipment, was very difficult. Yet, within a short time, Sato had gotten two of them, with one being an essory while the other was a weapon.

    ''The attribute boost is really amazing. It even surpasses that of [Astral de] in some ways.''

    For a while now, [Astral de] had been Sato''s main weapon since the bonuses from the sword were unbeatable even when considering a couple of other Upper-tier Mortal rank weapons. This was because, unlike those ''factory-made'' swords, [Astral de] was formed by the system after Sato had cashed out in one of his rewards from the emergency mission that popped up while battling Sygrart.

    Apart from the increase in attribute points, there was also the increased pration effect, which would make the sword more effective even when facing metal armours. In other words,pared to the [Astral de], Sato would be capable of dealing more damage to MTs with [Drakken]. Once he equips it, it will increase his overall fighting prowess and bring it to another level.

    ''However, this talk about the sword spirit...''

    Sato had managed to ask Meson what he knew about the rumored Denon God''s son sealed within the depths of the Hall but Meson didn''t know much about it. As such, Sato couldn''t confirm that whether what he faced was the Demon God''s son or not. However, from the system description, he knew that it was a demi-god rank monster at its peak too.

    ''The sword can grow with the user but continuous use of it increases the chance of losing one''s self. Even upgrading the sword or unsealing it does the same. No wonder it''s called the Cursed sword.'' Sato thought. However, he still kept on scrolling through the stats.

    The piece of advice only said that continuous use of the sword''s skills would increase his chances of falling to depravity however, the increase factor was too small so Sato could still take the risk.

    ''Also, as the sword increases in power, so will I. In that case, as long as I get stronger, I should be able to handle the bacsh or even find a way to eliminate it.'' Sato made up his mind. He just couldn''t afford to reject the sword just because of a slight scare.

    ''This sword is just too good to miss out.''

    Unlike most regr weapons Sato had seen, the Low tier Rare-Steel rank sword had 4 skills attached to it and one of them was quite simr to berserk skills. As one''s HP decreases, their attributes increases in turn. The skill, [Hopeless Hope], just as its name implied, was a passive skill that allowed one to turn the battle around. In some ways, it could even be said to be much better than a berserk skill.

    The silencing ability, [Dark Veil], was one Sato found very interesting and useful. It could help him to either end a battle very quickly or at the very least, deal severe damages to his opponent. It could also be used to turn the tables on one as no yer would expect their skills to suddenly be silenced in the presence of a [Swordsman].

    There was also the [Shadow Movement] skill that could be used as an escape skill, a life-saving dodging skill, or even used to pull off a quick assassination. While this skill was better suited for [Assassins], it was still valuable to Sato. If used properly, it could also be a table-turner like the other two.

    Finally, there was the [ck me sh] which Sato guessed would be quite simr to [Astral de]. The only difference, apart from the essence of the attacks, was the fact that [Astral de] could only be used a limited number of times while [ck me sh] could be immediately the cool-down goes off. In a fast-paced battle, [Astral de] had the advantage, but for whittling down the opponent, [ck me sh] was more useful.

    ''Luckily for me, I finally got the double sword-wielding technique. I can enjoy the best of both swords.'' Sato smiled as he recalled Saimon''s gift to him.

    ''The world should be prepared for my reappearance. With the increase in my level as well as this new sword and the double wielding technique, the World ss BOSS'' head is pretty much mine.''

    All that was left was for Xue Yan to exit her trials and then the team could return to the Koboldir for Round 2.

 Chapter 320 - 314 : Xue Yan Comes Out

    As he currently had nothing to do and with the others out levelling up, Sato decided to improve on his cksmithing skills while he still could.

    While yers could take on different jobs and lifestyle sses in IR, quite a number of them didn''t. This was because not only were these subsses time-consuming but they were also expensive to improve on.

    Taking the cksmith subss as an example, one would need to purchase arge assortment of materials to produce several kinds of equipment. A true cksmith has to be capable of forging more than one type of equipment or weapon with each creation having a passable quality. Just the material cost for a Mid-tier Mortal rank weapon was enough to send a yer to the fields for 2 days and since no cksmith yer has an 80% or greater sess rate, they would need to purchase 3 sets of the materials; that''s 6 days worth of field hunting earnings.

    This issue wasn''t limited to the cksmith subss as all the other lifestyle sses faced the same problem Because of this, very few yers bothered to dabble in lifestyle sses, with only the internal members of a guild or an association as well as solo yers with deep pockets who happen to be interested in the ss, taking the lifestyle sses seriously.

    With the materials he had received from the mission, Sato was now capable of furthering his knowledge and experience in the ss. In some ways, one could say that he had a better start than the rich yers and guild yers. This was because the materials Sato had were all high-quality ones; even the 2-star materials in his inventory were high-quality ones and not the average ones found in NPC stores. They were enough for Sato to increase his cksmithing experience and try his hand at producing various kinds of equipment.

    If Sato was able to raise his sess rate as well as forge market-level Mid-tier Mortal rank weapons and equipment with ease, he would be able to open up amercial channel that could find his goals in IR.

    ''If Xue Yan could also advance in her Rune-smithing skills and mass-produce more talismans, we won''t have to worry about money in the future.''

    The dozens of 2-star materials, as well as the library of blueprints, were more than enough for Sato to practice with so he began considering letting Xue Yan have a go too. Even if the materials weren''t enough for them both, Sato believed that Xue Yan''s reward from the Main Trials would provide her with a few more. If that didn''t do, Sato could still head back to town and purchase a few more. Apart from the materials and other rewards he had gotten, there were at least 5 gold coins left inside the ring for Sato to use.

    In the eyes of Worrus and Saimon, this was a pitiful amount of money but to Sato, this was enough to gear up the entire team in new armour and still have some left.

    Sato had wondered why the game would give him so much money so early but a part of him guessed that once he entered the city, this amount wouldn''t be as useful as it is in town. Considering that he was already level 15 and would have to go to the city soon, rewarding him that much money wouldn''t affect the bnce of the game.

    ''I can either save it or use it. However, earning money should be a bit easier in town than it is here so investing it on the team would be better.''

    Sato went over to the cksmith area in the Inner sector and spent almost 14 hours trying out new things while testing different theories of his.

    *Bang*

    An explosion sounded in a room deep in the Hall but surprisingly, apart from the ck smoke that diffused around the room, nothing was destroyed.

    "Are you alright, young master?" Meson''s voice sounded.

    *Cough* *Cough*

    "Yeah, I''m good. Luckily you activated the protective array just in time." Sato waved off the ck smoke in front of him before leaving the room.

    "Okay, young master. I will clear the room up."

    Meson then went to a table at the edge of the room and activated a bunch of arrays. Suddenly, arge suction force appeared from the ceiling and sucked in the ck smoke. Within 3 seconds, the entire room was now clear and the ck smoke had disappeared without a trace.

    On the working table[1], which was located right at the centre of the room, there was a damaged piece of metal alongside a few cksmithing tools. A light green barrier covered the scrap metal with minute amounts of ck smoke leaking out from it.

    Meson stared at the metal within the barrier as he said.

    "Thebination was odd by a few percentiles and because of this, the remaining processes required stringent conditions. Also, you imbued slightly too much mana into the product and with your rune being tacky, this resulted in an explosion. Luckily, we were dealing with low-rank 2-star metals here. If it were one of the higher-ranked ones, it would have exploded before I could activate the barrier."

    "Then I have to sincerely thank you for that." Sato thanked him as he returned to the workshop.

    "N, n, no worries, sire. It''s, it''s my pleasure to be of help to you." Meson began stuttering with his words as a slight blush crept on his cheeks.

    While Meson had the appearance of a 14-year-old on the younger side, he was actually 347 years old. But because he was born in istion and didn''t have much experience with the outside world, he had an innocent personality. Nheless, a 300+ years person was still an old folk and a lot could be done in that time.

    Having ess to such an amazing facility, Meson was able to master a few subsses, with hisprehension of the art of cksmithing being the highest. It was to the point that Meson was made one of the head cksmiths of the Great Hall of Grey Chains, being second only to two others.

    After knowing this, Sato asked for his assistance and tutge. While he could practice cksmithing and fumble about on his own, Sato would be able to make better progress having the support and teachings of a 300 years old dwarf. You could even say that in the entire 3 towns, Sato currently had one of the best cksmiths ever, teaching him.

    Thanks to Meson''s help, Sato had made massive improvements in these 13+ hours. It was to the point that his sess rate as forging Mid-tier Mortal rank weapons was at 53%, higher than any yer in IR.

    After realising that, Sato decided to look at another path in cksmithing and was trying to produce one-time equipment and supplies with very high attack power. Compared to weapons and equipment, they used fewer materials but had certain intricacies in their production method. Since he had no experience whatsoever in producing consumables, even with the direction of a Grandmaster cksmith, failure was inevitable for Sato.

    "I knew it would be hard but I never thought it would be this hard." Sato sighed.

    This was the 4th explosion that had urred. The first two were due to inconsistency in the materialbination while thest two, including this one, were mostly a result of the poor design of his rune as well as a few minor problems.

    "Don''t be worried, young master. It''s already impressive enough for you to have achieved this much in 5 hours so you should be proud of yourself." Mesonforted.

    "You''re right." Sato sighed as he began cleaning the table.

    "Also, didn''t I tell you to stop calling me ''young master''? I don''t like that address."

    "I''m, I''m sorry but it was what Lord Saimon told me to address you by." Meson hurriedly apologized.

    "Who should be superior in ranking, your Lord Saimon or me, your young master?" Sato nced at him.

    "Uh...it should be...you?" Meson hesitantly replied.

    Sato nodded.

    "In that case, follow my words. Don''t call me young master or young lord or young anything that sounds so praiseworthy. Just call me Sky de."

    "No, no. That can''t do. At least, let me call your young sky. No, young master." Meson said, forgetting Sato''s words already.

    "...just forget it." Sato shook his head.

    Just as he was about to resume cleaning the entire ce up, Meson spoke up again.

    "Young master, thedy you inquired about has finally appeared."

    "Snow Bird?" Sato asked.

    Meson nodded.

    "Alright then. Once I''m done with this we can go see her."

    "Let me help you too." Meson enthusiastically walked over.

    "Okay.." Sato epted his help.

 Chapter 321 - 315 : The Red Figure

    After they were done cleaning up the workshop, Sato and Meson left for the main hall, which was that very room that held the statues of the Achievers. Just like Sato, Xue Yan had been teleported thereafter her Trials hade to an end.

    As he was walking, Sato sent her a message to wait for him there. At the same time, he also sent the other 5 a message, requesting them to head back here.

    20 secondster, Sato and Meson had reached the main hall. Immediately he entered, Sato felt the mana here was a bit more active than before. He also felt that the fire elemental mana was richer and much violent than before. This was because the temperature of the entire ce had increased by a few degrees, making it a bit unbearable for a regr human. Luckily, this was just a game and as Sato was much stronger than before, his body was capable of handling this little heat.

    After being surprised by the slight increase in temperature, Sato noticed a thin red mist at the centre of the hall with a figure within it, staring in another direction. The main hall was extremelyrge so Sato could barely make it out the figure within the mist much less discern who it was. The figure looked to be entranced by the statue as it didn''t seem to sense Sato''s appearance.

    "Do you know who that is?" Sato asked Meson who stood behind him.

    Meson scrunched his face as he tried to remember any persona who carried with them such a phenomenon but in the end, he shook his head.

    "No. I don''t recall any one of us looking like this nor do I remember any of the Caventry who looks like this."

    Meson wasn''t a Caventry but the same as Saimon, one of the ''butlers'' of the Caventry.

    "Also... I think it''s a female." Meson hesitated before saying. He knew that the person Sato was looking for was ady but he didn''t know how she looked.

    ''Could it be?'' Sato disyed a surprised look on his face as he thought of an incredulous assumption.

    He then proceeded to walk towards the red figure.

    The appearance of the red-figure had not only increased the temperature in the hall but also increased the concentration of fire elemental mana. Because of this, a thin red mist had appeared in the hall due to increased mana particles. The closer Sato got to the figure, the thicker the red mist became. However, even at its thickest, the red mist was only hazy so Sato was able to discern the figure''s appearance. Sato was able to see that the red on the figure was actually a crimson cloak with stylish gold patterns that they wore.

    When Sato and Meson were about 30 metres away, the figure seemed to have sensed their existence as they turned around to nce at them. As the figure turned around, the appealing face of an elegant yet graceful youngdy revealed itself.

    Faint crimson marks streaked her face like the tribal marks of certain locals or the strokes of a calligraphy master. Despite the out of the ordinary imprints, she didn''t look one less ugly. On the contrary, the crimson marks seemed to highlight her beauty to a whole different level, giving it a mystical sensation and taste.

    "Sato..." The beauty smiled at him.

    As she did so, the fiery aura around her converged into her body. The hazy red also gathered towards her as the temperature in the hall dropped back to normal.

    "Looks like you had a big harvest." Sato smiled back at Xue Yan.

    Just from the phenomenon her appearance had brought alone, Sato felt that the reward Xue Yan received from the Trials wouldn''t be much less than his. For a second, he even guessed that she might have passed the final challenge.

    "Hmm." Xue Yan nodded as her face blossomed with a smile.

    Ever since life had gotten bad for her, there were only a few people that could see her smile. Having spent a lot of time with Sato, she inevitably epted him as one of them.

    "Sadly, I wasn''t able to pass thest challenge." Xue Yan sighed.

    The Main Trials of the Caventry wasn''t a simple smelting trial or a summer vacation camp. It was a trial that was used to not only train the toughest of the race but also decide the inheritor of their legacy. If anyone could easily pass it, then it wasn''t worthy of such functions.

    The other two challenges might not be all that difficult for some, but the final challenge, which acted as the ultimate decider, was a whole different story. Even Sato had a hard time defeating his mirror image and only pulled through by a bout of inspiration, much less Xue Yan who had much less battle experience than Sato. Even if the [Puzzle of Cryptics] challenge improved her strength while the [Battle of Ten Thousand] helped her gain more fighting experience, it still wasn''t enough to defeat her clone who had the battle sense and skills of a Grandmaster for the temte design.

    "Don''t worry about it. As long as you had enough gains to bnce out the time spent, then it was well worth it." Satoforted her.

    Xue Yan nodded with a smile as Sato''s words seem to have cheered her up a bit.

    "Who is he?" Xue Yan then nced at Meson who stood a step behind Sato.

    ''You could say he''s one of my rewards.'' was what Sato originally wanted to say. But recalling that the NPCs here had their own personalities and thoughts, and not some programmed scripts or words, he replied.

    "He''s a helper that was assigned to me by Lord Worrus."

    "Lord Worrus?" Xue Yan asked.

    "Don''t you know? The Achiever who created the foundational world that holds the Main Trials, Versuchsgr¨¹nde. He was with Saimon a majority of the time though he was hidden in space. Didn''t you see or rather, sense him?" Sato exined with a confused face.

    Xue Yan shook her head.

    "I didn''t see Saimon only till the end of the Trail. As for the Lord Worrus you speak about, while I do recall Saimon''s description of him, I didn''t see him. The only Achiever present at the spot was Lord Vulgia."

    Sato didn''t know who that was but he felt confused as to why Saimon and Worrus didn''t meet Xue Yan. He had finished his Trials way before her so they should have been able to meet up with her.

    ''Don''t tell me those two are a sexist?'' Sato began thinking wildly. He even had the insane thought, though jokingly, that the entire Caventry was made up of males, after all, he had yet to see a female Achiever.

    However, Sato was overthinking things. Worrus and Saimon weren''t sexist nor did they purposely avoid Xue Yan because she was a female. Contradictory to that, they had been paying attention to her progress through the disy screen from before. The only reason the two focused on Sato was that he was progressing much faster than Xue Yan was in the Trials.

    As for why they didn''t meet herter on, Saimon had to take charge of the entire facility so he could barely make out any more time. As for Worrus, his ''form'' was about to fall apart so he had to enter stasis mode once again. Even during the Entry Trials, Worrus didn''t pay much attention to any of them as he had to stabilise his body lest it reacts adversely with the outside world leading to his aura leaking out and inadvertently killing those around him.

    Since the two turned out to be busy at the time, another Achiever of simr rank to Worrus took over. In a way, this could be said to have been a good thing for Xue Yan as the Achiever who took over was also an [Elementalist] of the fire element and a [Scribe]. In the end, Xue Yan had won his admiration and had received more rewards than she would normally have. But neither of them knew this.

    Infinite Realm, though a game, didn''t follow the standards of regr games. Because the NPCs were more ''alive'', changes could be made to the plot of the world as well as the mission a yer would receive and the rewards attached to it. Not only did this make the game more realistic than others but it also made it much harder to y.

    "So, how was it?"

 Chapter 322 - 316 : [Aoefir] [1]

    Xue Yan could guess Sato''s intentions so she wasn''t bothered about it. While they had known each other for just one week and a few days, those days were spent closely with one another. As such, she and Sato were quite close to each other. And could be regarded as friends.

    "It was quite difficult, especially the second challenge. If I had not made some improvements on myself with the first challenge, then I wouldn''t have gone so far."

    Xue Yan then went on to describe her experience in the Trials as well as how she had advanced and improved along the way. Finally, she began describing herst experience within the trial grounds.

    "When the time was up for the final challenge, I thought I had failed the Main Trials and got disappointed, after all, Saimon had said that failing a single challenge was the same as failing everything. While I was a bit pleased with my progress, it was still saddening that I had lost everything when I was so close to it all." Xue Yan immersed herself in her memories. One could only imagine how she felt at that time. Having strived her best and ced all her hopes and efforts in this, just to fail at thest step, it was impressive of her not to break down at the spot or throw a tantrum and curse the game developers.

    "It was then that Lord Vulgia appeared and told me that I would still be rewarded. He said that both he and the others were pleased with my growth and potential so they decided to make an exception for me. At the same time, they told me that you hadpleted your challenges and was now deemed the inheritor so there was no meaning to the Trials anymore, as there can only be one inheritor. However, since I didn''tplete mine, my rewards would only be based on my progress and not the original reward."

    ''So there''s a mechanism like this in the game.'' Sato thought.

    ''This information could prove to be useful in the future.''

    "Apart from some average ranked 2-star materials and a few high tier ones, I also got a new skill and this new staff." Xue Yan held her staff in front of her.

    It was at this point that Sato realised that what she held in her hand wasn''t the [ck Alder Staff] that Fudo previously owned but a crimson staff with ck lines all over it. A closer look at the lines made Sato discern that these weren''t lines butplex runes that he had never seen before.

    "May I?" Sato opened a hand towards the staff.

    Xue Yan nodded before passing the staff on to Sato.

    Just like the [Inspect] skill, the [Appraise] skill had certain conditions that need to be fulfilled before it could be used. One of them was that the weapon had to be not more than 20 levels above the yer or else they wouldn''t be able to discover anything apart from its name. The most important of the conditions was that the weapon had to be held in one''s hand before one can view its stats. Also, the weapon had to be unequipped to be able to view it. If it were equipped by a yer, NPC, or monster, then one can either request the individual to unequip[2] it and then pass it over or the individual could just pass it over while permitting the other to view it.

    Such strict measures made it possible for a yer to own a Legendary equipment in town with no one being made aware of it. But as all things had an opposite, there was one exception to these conditions. That is when a yer is killed and an equipment drops upon their death, it automatically bes ownerless so there''s no need for one to request permission to view the stats. They can just simply pick it up and do as they wish with it.

    "[Inspect]"

    As Sato used the skill on the staff, a small transparent panel appeared just beside it. This panel was invisible to Xue Yan but Sato could easily identify what was written beside it.

    [[ System interface :

    [[ Monarch of the Inferno, Aoefir[1] : Low Tier Rare-Steel Rank : Level 10 : Durability 40

    A work of art by the great [Scribes] of the Caventry, [Aoefir] has the ability to grow alongside its user. With [Aoefir] in hand, one canmand the mes and controlva. Only one with great potential and infinite strength would be capable of using it to its greatest

    As the staff was made with some precious materials and high-level abilities, it is unmatched by any other. But because of this, the full power of the staff can''t be brought out by simply any user, and so, additional seals have been applied to match its user''s strength.

    There are currently 25 true seals and 10 false seals.

    0 have been unlocked.

    Requirement : The user has to be recognized by the weapon''s spirit to wield the staff. The user also has to be an [Elementalist] of the fire branch.

    [Intelligence] +20

    [Dexterity] +7

    [Willpower] +5

    Casting time reduced by 5%

    Casting time for fire-type spells reduced by 15%

    Attack Power of fire-type elements

    Skills :

    Monarch of mes : Passive Skill : +20% affinity to the fire element. +10% affinity to the children of fire. Resistance to fire-based attacks increased by 40%.

    zing Fury : Active Skill : A Monarch is one whose anger can topple cities.

    Swathes of mes with 170% of user''s Magical Attack power will burst out to cover a radius of 5 metres.

    MP Cost : 500 MP.

    Cool-down : 20 seconds.

    Fire Maniption : Active Skill : Change the shape or form of a fire-based attack or change its direction in a short moment.

    MP Cost : 100 MP.

    Cool-down : 15 seconds.

    NB : The full potential of this magic staff hasn''t been awakened yet. As the wielder gets stronger, the magic staff too can be improved alongside them.

    The magic staff is bound to the user and can''t be dropped, sold, exchanged, or used to its fullest by another.

    System description : By epting this staff, you have decided to follow the legacy of the Monarch of mes, Lord Vulgia. As long as your brain still has a few screws intact, your future in this world would be limitless and great.]]

    Sato had just two letters to describe this staff.

    "OP!"

    Even though his new sword [Drakken] was pretty impressive and absurdly powerful, it could barelypare to Xue Yan''s [Aoefir]. Not only did [Aoefir] provide more attribute points than [Drakken], but it also had more additional bonuses.

    Though it had one less skill than [Drakken], each skill was very impressive and the passive skill, [Monarch of mes] was a 2-in-1, boosting her defence against fire-based skills while increasing her offensive abilities. The skill, [zing Fury], though it had a high MP cost, was currently the skill with the highest base attack power Sato had ever seen. If the +20% affinity to fire element effect was added, the skill''s power would be so absurd that it might be able to take down a level 9 or even level 10 monster in one shot.

    The reason for [Aoefir] surpassing [Drakken], despite thetter having a fragmented soul of an asura, had to do with the seals. [Drakken] held the soul of an asura and even though it was just a fragment, the power shouldn''t be underestimated. Because of this, Sato guessed that [Drakken] had more seals or maybe even better ones than [Aoefir], which only reduced the strength of the staff for the user to wield. With that in mind, Sato assumed that in the long run, [Drakken] would eventually surpass [Aoefir].

    However, for now, it was undeniable that [Aoefir] was way better than [Drakken].

    "That reminds me, what level are you?" Sato suddenly asked.

    In IR, unless a yer allowed their level to be revealed to the public, no one would be able to know what it is. Generally, only show-off and most casual gamers did this; the rest of them all kept their level hidden.

    "Level 11.." Xue Yan said with a light smug on her face.

 Chapter 323 - 317 : The Others Arrive

    "That reminds me, what level are you?" Sato suddenly asked.

    "Level 11." Xue Yan said with a light smug on her face. "A little bit more and I will be level 12."

    ''As expected.''

    Sato was a bit surprised but not too much after all, he too had gone through the Trials. So long as one''s performance wasn''t bad and they were able to pass the first challenge, their Experience points reward would be massive; at least more than a week''s worth of field hunting.

    "What''s yours?" Seeing that Sato wasn''t too surprised by her words, Xue Yan began to wonder what Sato''s level was.

    "Level 14." Sato lied. It would be too shocking for her if she knew that he was level 15. It would even be too shocking for every single yer in IR if they knew this.

    "Level¡­14?!" Xue Yan widened her eyes.

    Xue Yan already thought that her level 11 was impressive and even if Sato hadpleted the Trials, she guessed that he would be level 12 or 13 after all, levelling up in IR was extremely difficult. She never thought that he would actually be level 14. This was already 3 levels ahead of her, the next highest levelled yer, and 5 levels ahead of the next set of yers. In other words, the current Sato could finish off any yer, excluding her, in 1 or 2 moves. For her, however, it would take 4 or 5 more because of the qualitative change that came about and raised her HP value.

    "Don''t think too much about it. You''re already pretty strong so you should be proud of yourself."

    Sato tried tofort her but this time around, it didn''t work. Xue Yan tried her best to improve during this Trial so that Sato wouldn''t need to keep protecting her in troublesome times, but it turned out that she couldn''t even reach him one bit. Rather than getting close to him, she realised that the gap between the two of them was just increasing.

    "The system description says you have decided to follow Lord Vulgia''s legacy, what''s that all about." Sato tried to change the topic.

    "Oh that. Well, Lord Vulgia was pleased with my performance and said that I have a great amount of potential. Following that, he asked me whether I want to be his legacy holder which I agreed. Then he gave me the staff as well as my new equipment saying that his disciple has to look fashionable and strong." Xue Yan exined.

    ''What the heck?'' Sato''s lips twitched.

    As the staff was a low-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon, Sato didn''t doubt that the equipment would be the same; it might even be a growth-type like the staff too. For an NPC to suddenly reward a yer with such powerful equipment just to make them look ''fashionable'' would make any yer who hears of this cry in pain and envy. Some might even conclude that the NPC was smitten by Xue Yan''s good looks and rewarded her just for looking good. They would scream at the heavens for not making them appealing enough to NPCs while the envious ones would drag the gamepany''s name to the mud.

    "If anyone asks you just give them a different story, okay?"

    "Okay." Xue Yan didn''t ask why but outrightly agreed to his words.

    Sato then forged up a suitable story for Xue Yan to repeat to anyone else just in case they ask how she had gotten her equipment and she couldn''t refuse to tell them.

    The reason for this was that if she told the truth, some may presume that she was rewarded for her looks and not her strength and this could in turn drag Xue Yan''s name into the mud as well as damage the game''s integrity.

    In the business of VR gaming, where there were so manypetitors, anything was possible. A rival gamepany could even use this opportunity to target IR and that would make the game lose poprity as well as some of its yers. If that were to happen, the game managers would strip Xue Yan of her equipment and weapons in order to console the crowd. It was best to avoid this as soon as possible lest they get dragged into deep sh*t.

    "That reminds me, this is Lord Vulgia." Xue Yan pointed at a statue by the side.

    Sato nced in that direction and saw a 30 metres tall statue of a hooded figure with a staff that looked a lot like [Aoefir]. it was then that Sato remembered that just as he entered the main hall, Xue Yan had her attention focused on this statue and almost didn''t notice him.

    As if she had read his kind, Xue Yan exined.

    "Back before you had arrived, I was still in the process of receiving the legacy from him. It included a few skills, knowledge on [Aoefir], and a bunch of other historical knowledge about the world and Caventry. It also had a map of the entire hall as well as the location of Lord Vulgia''s pce and a few of his resources."

    "You really had a big harvest, didn''t you? I''m kind of envying you right now." Sato sighed.

    Despite being the inheritor of the Caventry, it looked like what he got was less than Xue Yan''s. Nheless, Sato wasn''t the kind to easily get jealous or let something like this get in between them.

    *Ding*

    [[System notification : You have new mail]

    ncing at his interface, Sato opened up the mail with a thought and read it quickly.

    The message was from Fudo and had his usual tone and taste of words. Apart from the regr fooling around, it stated that the others were close to ck Grill''s cave and would be there in 2 minutes. If one didn''t know any better, they would simply think that Fudo was informing Sato of his return but Sato knew the truth. They were trying to say that he and Xue Yan should wrap up their ''honeymoon'' before they arrived.

    ''Those guys¡­'' Sato knew that the others were probably involved in this as well.

    While he did think of Xue Yan as a nice girl, he currently had no feelings for her so Sato wasn''t too bothered by this message.

    "Looks like the others are here already. Let''s go meet them." Sato said to Xue Yan after noticing her inquiring look.

    "Okay."

    The two then walked towards the entrance of the hall, which was way on the other side. Along the way, Sato described his own experience as well as his reward to her.. Since Xue Yan had told him hers, he only felt it was right to do the same.

 Chapter 324 - 318 : The Full Crew

    It didn''t take long for Sato and Xue Yan to make it to the entrance. There was a small stage that held a teleportation array here that allowed them to depart from and arrive into the hall rather than following the original route Sato and Xue Yan had discovered. The duo then waited beside the teleportation array for the others. This too didn''t take too long as approximately 2 minutes after Sato had received the mail, a brilliant sh of light burst from the array on the stage for a few seconds before a few silhouettes appeared.

    "My beloved Sato~"

    A somewhat sweet voice greeted the duo as a figure ran towards them.

    "Get away from me." Sato used his right foot to stop the individual.

    "Ouch." As the person was approaching at a high speed, they were not able to stop in time and crashed into Sato''s foot, falling to the ground.

    "Is that how you greet an old friend?" An aggrieved voice spoke from the floor. Following that, Fudo''s oppressed face became visible to the duo.

    "You''re talking as if we haven''t spoken in years. Get up." Sato''s face twitched at Fudo''s antics.

    "So, how was it?" Seiichi asked the question that everyone else wanted to know.

    "It was alright. Ipleted the Trials so you could say I''m half an owner of this ce." Sato said inly.

    "Ooooo. That means we get to take and do whatever we want right? Haha. With these statue dudes, we can move unbridled throughout the entire game. We can even destroy a few super guilds." Fudo hurriedly stood up and rejoiced.

    The others also had looks of astonishment and overhearing Fudo''s words, their thoughts also began to wonder about.

    "Hehe. Let''s go rob a few Super guilds right now." Lu Zhen grinned like a miser.

    "Didn''t you guys hear me? I''m just half an owner. Apart from granting me entry to anywhere here and a few other privileges, I can''t do much." Sato poured cold water on their dreams.

    "Huh? But I thought the reward was the inheritor of this ce? What kind of sick joke is that?" Fudo grumbled as if he was the one who was affected by it all.

    "The game system would surely pursue bnce. It obviously wouldn''t give out such an unfair advantage to you this early in the game so it makes sense." Seiichi nudged his sses as he et out his thoughts.

    "Correct." Sato nodded.

    "Then what''s the use of all this?" Fudoined.

    "At least we now have a base that can''t be rivalled by any other in the game, as of now." Yato looked at the bright side.

    "Tch." Fudo snorted.

    "So, how did you guys do?" Sato asked.

    "You should know how difficult levelling up in this game is. Even after all my efforts, I still haven''t reached level 10." Fudo shook his head as he sighed.

    "There''s just not enough level 8 monsters much less level 9 and 10 for me to take on. So I just leave them to the others."

    "Same. I''m still a bit far from level 8." Yato said while Katsuo nodded, implying that he experienced the same issue with him.

    "I''m a bit close to reaching level 9 but unless I take on a few level 9s on my own, it would take me 3 or 4 days grinding level 8s." Seiichi said.

    "Don''t look at me. I just entered level 9 less than a week ago. It will take me a long while to make any massive improvement." Lu Zhen said once he noticed Xue Yan''s eyes look his way.

    "What about you Sato, what''s your level?" Fudo suddenly asked.

    As they heard the question, the others immediately turned towards Sato with interest. They were all wondering what Sato''s new level was and since Sato had set his disy to be hidden, none of them knew what it was.

    Currently, in Infinite Realm, there were 2 major ways of levelling up or rather, gaining Experience points. The first was field hunting and the other was bypleting missions. There existed a third method mentioned in the game''s introduction which was dungeon running but no dungeon had been discovered yet so this option was currently unavable.

    Of the two existing methods, field hunting was said to be the fastest as it depended on one''s efforts. As for taking on missions, this was extremely time-consuming and taxing to the human body. This could easily be seen from the mission Sato had epted, which took him almost 5(IGT) days toplete.

    While missions did give arge number of Experience points, sometimes, the time spent doing them could be used to gain more Experience points in the fields so yers usually preferred field hunting overpleting missions.

    As the crew stared intensely at Sato while awaiting an answer, none of them noticed the mischievous smile on Xue Yan''s face.

    "Level 14." Sato smiled wryly.

    "... that''s it. I''m quitting this game! Bye-bye everyone. Bye-bye grey statues Bye-bye world." Fudo yelled.

    "Ah!!! The heavens are unfair. Why you of all people??!!" Yato dramatically cried.

    "Damn. Just while we were all working our asses for a few points, you went ahead and grinded the exact amount of days you were gone in levels." Lu Zhen sucked in a cold breath. Sato had been gone for almost five days and in turn, he gained 5 levels. Lu Zhen was wondering what kind of blessed luck Sato had that he didn''t.

    ''Is it because he''s more handsome than I am? I knew it, this game favours good-looking people!''

    "What about you, Snow Bird?" Seiichi ignored the overacting duo and asked Xue Yan. Considering that Sato gave them such a shocker, Xue Yan''s wouldn''t be much worse.

    In the group, only Sato and Lu Zhen addressed Xue Yan by her actual name, though in private. The rest had to call her by her IGN as they weren''t so close with her.

    "That''s true. Don''t tell me you are the same crap that this farm animal did?" Fudo pointed at Sato as he said.

    ''How am I a farm animal?''

    "Not really. I''m only level 11, much worse than he is." Xue Yan shook her head with an expression that made her seem sad and pitiful.

    ''Hey, what are you acting all sad about? You''re way better than us!''

    While they all thought the same, no one bothered to point out this fact. This was because Sato''s revtion had already given them a big knockout that they felt Xue Yan''s level was eptable, forgetting the fact that she was 2 levels higher than even the best yers in the world.

    "That''s enough." Sato said.

    "I called you all here cause we need to n out our next move from here on. We still haven''t helped Snow Birdplete her quest yet. We still have a world-ss BOSS to kill."

    "If you had said this to us without letting us know your level, I would have thought you had gone nuts in the head and will let you have a taste of my fireball." Fudomented.

    "Same here, but he would have tasted my sword." Yato nodded.

    Sato suddenly had the urge to face-palm seeing the two still misbehaving.

    "Knowing that the two of you are now above level 10, with some proper nning and the right gear, I think we have a shot at this." Seiichi, one of the few serious yers in the team, said.

    "Exactly. That''s why we need to discuss our next line of action." Sato replied.

    "Ah yeah. I remember now." Fudo suddenly face-palmed.

    "Today''s supposed to be the official day of the raid."

 Chapter 325 - 319 : Emperorâ€™s Mightâ€™s Goal

    On the 5th floor of the ck Grill''s cave''s Outer region, a bloodbath was urring as a tremendous battle was ongoing between two forces. From such a description, one would think that the two forces battling were of equal strength but they weren''t. On the contrary, one side was heavily outnumbered by the other and only held on this far due to their noteworthy tactics and skills.

    Of the battling forces, one side was a group of humans made up of yers of different sses. Though the team was abination of various sses, the yers were able to demonstrate amazing coordination,munication, and teamwork -which was superior to their opponents'' -holding on against their opponents despite being outnumbered. Yes, the outnumbered side was yers.

    As for the opponents of the yers, it was a bunch of monsters. The monster army was made up of Ground Rats, Earth Snakes, Mud Bears, and a bunch of other creatures. What they all had inmon was that they were the original inhabitants of this ce. They were the monsters yers had to face in order to progress through the floors. Some came from the 6th and 7th floors while the majority were on the 5th floor. There were even a few kobolds from the Middle region that stood behind the army.

    However, these monsters, which were usually separated from one another by the floors, had suddenly gathered together and formed a force to be reckoned with. Even though the yers were able to hold out against them, the stalemate wouldn''t remain ''stale'' for long.

    "Hold on! MTs, don''t let any enemy get past you. Healers, don''t lose your focus on the MTs for even one second. Long-range damage dealers, keep the support up for the MTs. I want to see more bodies piling." Chesces yelled from the front line as he kicked a Mud bear backward.

    "Reinforcements will be here soon so don''t give up no matter what."

    When yers had just begun exploring the level 5 regions, the Outer region was a somewhat safe location and a holy ground for regr yers. Unless one went seeking death by heading towards the Middle region or got taken down by a rival yer, deaths weren''t excessivelymon on the Outer regions first 5 floors.

    With the Kobold king''s awakening, however, everything had suddenly changed. The monsters were united under itsmand as it passes through each floor, starting from the 9th floor of the Middle region till the first floor of the Outer region. It was only when it felt threatened by the auras from the Town heads that it remained within the confines of ck Grill''s cave.

    After much time had passed, it got bored of waiting and departed back to its original area. However, the army under itsmand was left in the hands of its most trusted subordinates who then split apart and set upmanding spots in every 5 floors, though there were asionally a few random ones elsewhere.

    Thesemand lines of the monster army became the location of a sub-BOSS battle in the eyes of the yers. This was because every monster ''rest-stop'' had a somewhatrge gathering of monsters alongside a few strong kobolds that were either level 8 or level 9 Elites or even Special-Elites, leading the monster army.

    In a one-on-one battle, a level 9 yer wasn''t assured of a victory against a level 8 Special-Elite much less a level 9 Special-Elite. Hence, most yers began forming raid teams to defeat them. As the Kobold King had retreated to the Middle region, the Outer region was temporarily safe so yers began heading to kill a few monsters.

    Chesces'' team was on their way to the BOSS region for the 5th floor when they encountered a surprise ambush by the monsters. It just so happened that a few kobolds had gone on patrol with some monsters and had seen Chesces and co, but to the team, this was an unanticipated event.

    As the two sides were of different races and have already encountered the other before, there was no use in exchanging words -not as if they would understand each other- and so, they immediately embroiled in a heated battle.

    Thanks to Chesces'' incredible strength as a false king as well as his impressivemanding ability and the team''s amazing coordination and response time, they were able to hold on as they awaited reinforcements from the other side.

    "Damn it. Who would have thought that these monsters were actually aware of the concept of patrol and supervision and would even use it." Chesces gritted his teeth with frustration.

    He had only 10 men in his team including himself, whereas the monsters in front of him numbered at least 26. The kobolds leading them numbered 4 and Chesces suspected that they were level 8 Commons with the chance of one or even two of them being a level 9 or a level 8 Elite being quite high. Since the kobolds stood at the backline and only fired arrows at them, none of the yers had been able to get close to them to make a scratch and use [Inspect].

    "Ares! Find a way to make it to those guys and take them out. Take Tawaki with you." Chesces ordered one of the [Assassins] in the team.

    The 4 kobolds were much stronger than the regr monsters and it was because of their constant harassment with their arrows that the team couldn''t proceed forward so easily.

    "Copy." A figure in dark clothing replied as he dashed forward from the side.

    The dark figure then stuck close to a wall as the lighting there was so poor that the area was pitch ck. Relying on the darkness, he then proceeded forwards at a pace not too quick but not too slow. Each time a monster happened to be close by or approaching him, he would abruptly slow down his movements and sneak past it in absolute silence. One look and one could guess that this guy was a professional at sneaking into houses, both in the game and in reality.

    The other [Assassin], Tawaki, was more tant with his moves. Relying on his superior movement speed and reaction, the yer was able to dodge a lot of attacks from the monsters. He was almost like a fish in the water, as flexible as a snake in the bush. It was almost impossible for any of the monsters to hold him back, and for the ones who managed to do so, a silver sh would greet their eyes, blinding them insidiously as the yer continued on his way.

    One in the dark and another in the light, two [Assassins] rushed forwards as they nned to take the heads of the 4 kobolds.

    "Kraw." One of the kobolds, who happened to be a close-rangebatant and socked a bow, charged towards Tawaki as it found his progressing speed annoying and insulting towards them.

    "Good. You''re my target now." Tawakiughed heartily as he moves towards it. Just when the kobold was 6 feet away from him, Tawaki immediately retreated and pulled it to another spot.

    Alongside his teammate, they were both ordered to take down the archers but with the armed kobold beside the other 3, this would be a difficult task. So, the two had unanimouslye to a decision. Tawaki, who attacked from the light, will draw the monster''s attention while Ares, from the shadows, would ambush the other 3.

    ''Good.'' Chesces apuded internally.

    After Tawaki had drawn away the armed kobold from the area, the other 3 kobold archers resumed terrorising the other yers but they failed to notice Ares, who had crept up just 5 metres behind them. This wasn''t because the senses of these monsters were terrible but instead, Ares'' stealth technique -especially when mixed with the in-game skill [Fade]- was extremely dangerous to any foe.

    ''Die.''

    A distance of 5 metres was nothing to a professional like himself and Ares easily covered this distance in one jump.

    [Shadow Strike]

    [Backstab]

    Activating two skills at once, Ares plunged his dagger into the back of the unaware kobold archer

    [Critical Hit]

    -156 (???/??? ???)

    "Kraw!"

    A hideous and dreadful cry rang out but rather than inspiring fear in the hearts of listeners, it seemed to express the pain of the speaker.

    A short ck sword of about 13 inches in length had prated through the back of the kobold to appear in front, right from the position its heart was located at.

    Ignoring its cry, Ares didn''t retreat but made use of the full potential of the skill [Shadow Strike], which increased his damage and Attack Speed. In just one second, he had unleashed at least 7 strikes on the back of the kobold.

    -72

    -78

    [Critical Hit] -122

    -81

    -64

    -71

    [Critical Hit] - 118 (???/??? ???)

    4 of those were targeted towards the injured spot while the remaining 3 struck its neck. If not for the fact that he had 2 different targets, Ares would have been able to unleash more than 7 attacks. Nheless, he didn''t regret it. This was because he hadnded two [Critical Hit] with thest one being on its neck. This left the kobold archer on death''s door as it simply staggered before falling to the ground on itsst breath.

    Knowing that he hadn''t finished the job as he had yet to receive any reward of notification, Ares struck out once more at the falling figure before quickly dashing to another kobold.

    -65

    [[ System notification :

    Enemy {Kobold Archer (Level 8 Common)} is dead.

    Rewarding yer...]]

    With a solemn expression, Ares ignored the notification and attacked another kobold.

    Tawaki had managed to draw the other kobold towards the front line, where the mages then bombarded it with their attacks as soon as they found an opportunity, and Tawakinded the finishing blow, ending its life.

    With the deaths of two kobolds, the group''s morale seemed to be restored a bit but Chesces knew that they still weren''t out of the mess yet.

    "Need any help?" A voice sounded from the sidelines.

 Chapter 326 - 320 : Emperors Mights Goal 2

    "Need any help?" A voice sounded from the sidelines.

    The voice had a tone of confidence that was very obvious to a listener. It was as if the problem that assaulted Chesces and his teammates would surely be resolved upon their entry.

    "What took you guys so long?" Chesces let out a sigh of relief even as he faced off against one level 8 Mud Bear and two level 7 Earth Snakes.

    "Hurry up and join in, if you want a piece of the cake that is."

    Chesces didn''t need to turn around to know that the speaker was the very person he was waiting for, Azure Dragon.

    Azure Dragon smiled at Chesces'' words. Behind him were the other members of Emperor''s Might, most of which participated in either the battle with Sygrart or had experienced the battle at the Middle region''s 10th floor like the [Druid] Kylian, the [Guardian] Griffin, the [Assassin] Ore and even the ''Queen'', Snow Goddess Yukino. They had all gathered at this moment, forming the most powerful team that Emperor''s Might''s Riverdale branch could form as well as one of the strongest yer teams in the entire ck Rock province.

    Azure Dragon didn''t hurry to join the battle but instead assessed the entire situation. Chesces was aware of his behaviour so he didn''t urge him butmanded his team to hold on for just a little while longer. Within 5 seconds, Azure Dragon had gotten a summary of everything as well identified the weak points in the beast horde.

    "Ore, attack from the left wing with Riley and finish off those kobolds. Griffin, support the front line with the other MTs. The rest...Kill."

    Azure Dragon gave off his orders with a calm and collected attitude as he began the casting rites and chants for a powerful spell.

    The yers behind him then dashed towards the monster horde as their killing intent soared. These yers weren''t your average cabbages or potatoes that you could spot anywhere. Every one of them was a bonafide Expert and was capable of taking 4 or more average yers down with ease.

    Since Chesces'' 10-man squad was able to hold out against a more than 26 mob of monsters, the addition of Azure Dragon''s team of 8 men was more than enough to tilt the bnce towards Emperor''s Might.

    Slowly but surely, the rate at which the monsters fell began to increase. Within a minute of their entry, one kobold had fallen and the monsters'' numbers had dwindled by 30%. Two minutester and not only was thest kobold long dead, but the monsters remaining added up to a pitiful number of just 7 of them. It took the 17 men and 1 woman, just a few seconds to finish them off.

    "Finally." One of the MTs in Chesces'' team sighed with relief as he decided to take a break.

    The backline yers[1] like the healers and mages began gathering the loot from the battle. While these monsters were a bit weak, the materials they dropped were still valuable, otherwise, most guilds wouldn''t have been worried about the Kobold king''s actions of seizing the area.

    "What happened here? How did you get into such a miserable position?" Azure Dragon approached Chesces. As the branch guild leader, it was beneath him to gather the loot even though he was a backline yer.

    As he heard this, Tawaki involuntarily shuddered as he was ready to take the me but Chesces replied.

    "It was a slight moment of carelessness. I never expected the monsters to be close to us and I messed up my strategies. I ept all the me." Chesces said with a straight face.

    Azure Dragon stared at him in the eye and though he knew that Chesces was lying, he didn''t want to push the matter anymore, lest an internal strife would ur. The current timing wasn''t good for that as the unity and utmost solidarity of the team were necessary for the next series of actions.

    "Your pay for the month will be deducted by 30% and you will have to pay the usual fine to the guild. You almost cost us this mission so this is the least you get. Just make sure it doesn''t happen again." Azure Dragon grunted coldly.

    Even though he didn''t want to push the matter, he still had to exert his superiority and disy his dissatisfaction, lest his teammates take him as a paper tiger.

    "Understood." Chesces nodded.

    Despite being often referred to as the 5th Hand of the Emperor, in the branch guild here, he was lower than Azure Dragon in terms of authority. Because of this, he had to bow his head to him.

    Tawaki nced at Chesces with admiration in his heart. In truth, the previous event was due to a slip-up from him.

    As an [Assassin], Tawaki was tasked with scouting the path ahead for the team alongside Ares. But to be more efficient in a certain sense, the two divided the job amongst themselves and took shifts.

    It was Tawaki''s turn to scout the area and monitor for any abnormal movements but he had failed to notice the monster horde in front. It wasn''t that he was blind but Tawaki had gotten distracted by something and failed to check on a particr area. When the team then proceeded forward, they encountered the monsters before them. However, it was toote to turn around so they were forced into battle.

    After the failure at the Middle region''s 10th floor, where Tawaki was killed by one of the Kobold chief''s guards, Azure Dragon was displeased with him and his ranking in the team had dropped. If it was discovered that this ambush was a result of ax attitude from him, chances were that Tawaki would be demoted and sent to a remote area of another VR game to start all over. Such a fate was extremely terrible especially for a pro yer whose livelihood depended on gaming. Hence, Chesces'' actions of taking the me for him had inevitably won his admiration.

    "We need to hurry up. ck Tempest''s group is waiting for us on the 7th floor."

    With the absence of the Kobold King and the increased monster count, the Outer region became a levelling heaven of sorts. yers could form teams and fight till their satisfaction or, for the weak, till they got tired of dying. With the rise in the number and quality of monsters, everyone saw this as an opportunity to increase their levels so, most of them had gathered at ck Grill''s Cave.

    While the original threat of a Town level destruction seemed to have ended, the mission assigned by the various Town heads remained and the glory attached to finishing off the very first World-ss BOSS in the game still existed. Hence, none of the yers returned to their ces and began grinding monsters in ck Grill''s cave, in a bid to reduce the Kobold king''s avable forces just before they confronted it. Of course, this idea only remained in the minds and hearts of a few top guilds. The majority were only here to participate in the fun and at the same time increase their levels since the concentration of monsters had drastically surged.

    Emperor''s Might was one of the guilds with the lofty goals ofpleting the Town head''s mission as well as getting the first-ever kill on a world-ss BOSS in IR, however, they knew that their level was too low to face off against the Kobold king. To solve this issue, they decided to increase their strength as they progress towards the Middle region.

    To increase the levelling efficiency of their team, they had divided into 3 groups with one being lead by Chesces and the other by Azure Dragon. As for thest one, it was lead by ck Tempest.

    Chesces'' team was originally doing alright but ended up suffering an ambush due to Tawaki''s mistakes. As for Azure Dragon''s team, having a majority of the best yers of the guild with him, the team was able to breeze through most of their obstacles with ease.

    ck Tempest moved far earlier than the two teams and was a scouting team for the others. While it didn''t consist of a majority of the strong figures, their total battle strength was still alright, and was able to rank among the top in Riverdale. Even as a branch guild, the average yers of Emperor''s Might can''t bepared to the normal average yers or casual yers. They were a super guild after all, so they didn''t ept any Tom, Dick, or Harry. Every one of them was at least a Veteran rank yer otherwise the guild would just send them to the streets.

    "Remember, our goal is the Middle region. I won''t tolerate mistakes like this any longer."

    While Azure Dragon seemed to be speaking to Chesces, he had increased his voice by a notch showing that he was talking to everyone. This task was too important to him and if he did well, the upper echelons of the guild would support him more and they might even allocate him more resources and experts. At that point, seizing control of ck Rock province would be a dream within sight for him.

    No matter what, Azure Dragon didn''t want to see this mission end up in a failure anding to nothing.

    ''No matter what.''

 Chapter 327 - 321 : The Teams Plan

    "Baku- Explosion!!!"

    A fiery wave washed over the area as the monsters ahead got drowned in it, with only their screams of pain being heard.

    The torrential firested for only 2 seconds but once the mes went off, the ground was covered in ck scorched spots.

    "Haha. That''s what you get for challenging Daddy and his friends." An irritating guffaw rang out like the bellows of a vicious and greedy psychopath.

    "Focus, you fat pig." Yato yelled right after he took down an Earth snake with his sword.

    "What did you say?!" Fudo fumed from the backline.

    "Wait till we''re done with these guys then I will settle this with you."

    "Haha. No problem. I''ve never feared a challenge much less one from you, pig." Yato chuckled, though there was a clearly detectable tinge of disdain in his voice.

    "Concentrate." Sato frowned.

    The team was currently facing off against a small horde of monsters, and though they had the upper hand -an overwhelming one at that- Sato didn''t want any mistakes to happen.

    However, his worry was for naught as the team easily squashed the monsters within 5 minutes.

    "Hai~ It took longer than I thought without Lady Snow." Fudo put on a tearful expression as if he had just lost a close family member.

    After Xue Yan hadpleted her Trials and met with the rest together with Sato, Sato then gave everyone a 1-hour break to rest and be at their peaks. In reality though, the break was meant for Xue Yan who had just finished her Trials. When the break was over, the team was prepared to join the ''race'' but Sato decided against Xue Yaning with them. As it stood, she had just gone through a 24-hour(IGT) long confrontation so it was inevitable that she would feel weary. Hence, Sato decided against her following them with Lu Zhen seconding the decision. As a result, there were only 6 of the original 7 present here; Sato, Fudo, Lu Zhen, Yato, Seiichi, and Katsuo.

    "You talk as if you had a shot with her." Yato grinned at Fudo with disdain.

    "Why wouldn''t I? My handsomeness is exquisite and unique, such that I''m a one-in-a-million figure. See!" Fudo shamelessly praised himself.

    Everyone''s faces twitched as they heard Fudo''s narcissistic yet enthusiasticment on himself. While Fudo couldn''t be described as fat, his weight was still above the average number. Also, even though he did look good, he wasn''t so good-looking as he had made himself sound.

    "You''re the only one who could be extremely shameless and do so without any hesitation." Katsuo couldn''t resistmenting.

    "So what''s the next move?" Seiichi ignored the others and asked Sato.

    They were currently on the Outer region''s 7th floor, which was 13 floors away from their target. However, they weren''t in rush, or rather, Sato said they shouldn''t be.

    When Fudo had begun rying the development of the teams of ck Rock region back when they were still at the Hall, Sato and the others got pressured and felt the need to eliminate the world-ss boss before the others did.

    It should be noted that while the world-ss boss was suspected to be a level 10 Elite or Special Elite by a majority of yers, Sato and his teammates, alongside Soran''s team and Azure Dragon''s team had all encountered it. They knew that the Kobold king was definitely not a level 10 monster, even if it was a King ss. Sato even knew better than the rest as he suspected that the monster was a level 15 BOSS especially after his experience in the Main Trials.

    While the strength of the monster made it seem unbeatable to the current yers, one shouldn''t underestimate these yers. Alone, they were surely not the kobold''s match, but in waves and mobs, no one could say who would stand on top. When this was added with the fact that Emperor''s Might had a vague yet better grasp on the Kobold king''s strength than the others, Sato couldn''t say for sure that the monster wouldn''t fall in this raid. Hence, he decided that they would return to ck Grill''s Cave and defeat the Kobold king.

    Luckily for them, with Sato being the current inheritor of the Caventry''s legacy as well as everyone else having official ess to most of the basic facilities of the Hall, they were able to use the teleportation array in the Hall.

    Previously, they could only use it to exit and enter the Hall rather than having to get to the 10th floor in the Middle region and find the right tunnel, which was obviously too much of a stress. With Sato having passed the Main Trials and bing the ''young master'', he was now able to use the teleportation array better. He could easily teleport to any point in ck Grill''s Cave, including the Inner region.

    However, as the Hall hadn''t been in full operation for so long, since it was mostly in a dormant state, the teleportation array''s function was only limited to the Middle region''s 9th floor.

    Coincidentally, this was thest floor before the Kobold king''sir. In other words, so long as they wanted and Sato gave themand, the team could have teleported to the Exit gate of the 9th floor and be within reach of the 10th floor effortlessly. But Sato did the opposite and made the 5th floor of the Outer region their starting point. In Sato''s words, while the team was individually strong, their synergy and unity needed to be worked on.

    The opponent was most likely a level 13 or above Special Elite rank monster, or maybe even a King rank monster, thatmanded a horde of level 7-9 monsters. If they faced off against it as they were now, their death was assured without fail especially since theycked a Healer. So, the team had to adapt to their current situation and improve their coordination with one another. If they did so, not only would their defence be strong but their attack would be powerful as well. The team would then create a bnce between attack, defence, and support, and may even be capable of taking on some of the big teams out there.

    For this to happen though, they needed a lot of training as well as team-fighting experience. They obviously couldn''t start with the tough monsters yet neither could they train with weaklings, so Sato decided to start from the 5th floor of the Outer region; at least they would still be capable of finding a few worthy opponents here.

    Sato''s n turned out to be for the better as the team had made it from the 5th floor to the 7th floor while improving on their coordination and synergy. During this period, Sato barely made any input in the battle as he was a level 15 yer; killing these mobs would gain him nothing, not even a shred of Experience points or loot. So the opponents were left to the other 5.

    "The next move?" Sato began pondering.

    Katsuo''s tanking abilities had seen a massive improvement in this training session since not only did he have to face off against multiple monsters at once, increasing the pressure in him and forcing out his potential, but he also had Sato''s guidance.

    Yato was next in profiting the most as his swordy became more refined thanks to Sato''s inputs andments to it. Compared to all other weapons, Sato was well versed in the art of the sword so he was more than capable of being Yato''s temporary teacher.

    Fudo, Seiichi, and Lu Zhen didn''t gain as much as the other two but their abilities did improve a bit, especially their teamwork skills. Currently, everyone could read the others'' move and react in ordance to it, creating such an amazing strategy that they could take down an Expert with ease.

    "We proceed as usual. This region is of no use to us anymore so we rush our way to the Middle region. We don''t have any information on the top guilds so we don''t know how far they''ve gone. While I doubt that any of them have reached the Middle region yet, we need to hurry a bit, just in case." Sato said.

    "Alright. To the Middle region." Fudo pointed his staff forward like a pirate pointing their saber out towards the sea.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    Elsewhere on the Outer region''s 7th floor...

    "Captain." A yer saluted the middle-aged man before him.

    "How far are we from the closest Exit gate?" A deep voice questioned.

    "If the previous maps are still urate, then without any interruptions, we''re just 15 minutes away." The yer replied. He had a long how strapped behind him signifying that he was a [Ranger].

    "Okay. Let''s move then. We are the vanguard for the main team so we have to secure the path and make it to the Middle region as soon as possible. Every second counts so I want you all ready to move in 5." The voice repeated.

    "Yes, captain." The yer nodded before exiting the tent.

    ''Azure Dragon and Chesces are on their way. Considering that they have a majority of the guild''s forces with them, their progress would be quick. I have to be even faster otherwise those preeks would make trouble for me.''

    This middle-aged man who was called ''Captain'' by the other yer and was currently engaged in a soliloquy was actually ck Tempest, the yer sent to lead Emperor''s Might''s vanguard squad.

 Chapter 328 - 322 : A Major Coincidence

    To improve the efficiency and progress of the team, Azure Dragon had divided Emperor''s Might into 3 squads. He lead one squad while the other was headed by Chesces. As the two teams had met on the 5th floor, they decided to transverse the floors together.

    The third team, on the other hand, was the vanguard team and was lead by ck Tempest. The purpose of this team was to get information on the kobold king''s units; including their numbers andprehensive battle strength. They were also supposed to monitor the lower floors and report on the strength and identity of any guild team they encountered. Azure Dragon knew that Emperor''s Might surely wasn''t the only guild that had their eyes set on the Kobold king.

    In a battle between two or more opponents, information was one of the most essential elements that helped one in achieving victory. Azure Dragon was well aware of this and so ordered ck Tempest to lead a team ahead of the others.

    Since he had left earlier than the others, ck Tempest was ahead of them but since theprehensive strength of his team was much weaker, he was only leading by 2 floors. If his team was as strong as Azure Dragon''s, then it would have been a difference of 4 or more floors. Nheless, his team was still strong; at least stronger than the top teams of 2nd tier guilds so ck Tempest was still able to proceed much quicker than other guilds.

    Coincidentally though, the floor ck Tempest''s team was in, was currently the same as Sato''s team. In fact, the two teams hade close to crossing paths before, and at least twice at that, but because of theplex terrain of the floor, they didn''t discover each other. As a result, though the two parties suspected that there were other yers and guild teams here, they didn''t know who it was.

    On each floor, there existed at least 5-7 Exit gates to proceed to the next floor or retreat to the previous one. Sometimes, the gates are positioned randomly and extremely far from each other; rarely were they ever positioned close to each other. A majority of the time though, the arrangement of the gates was such that each one was situated in the direction of the 4 major cardinal points and the 4 ordinal points. In other words, the Exit gates would have a corresponding point directly opposite of it when the entire ck Grill''s Cave is viewed from a bird''s eye view.

    The Exit gates Sato and ck Tempest happened to choose to be the exact same one; the gate in the West direction. Both sides had crossed each other without being aware of this fact, then went on to aim for the same gate, in terms of direction.

    However, ck Tempest''s team had more men than Sato''s, and in terms of battle strength using levels as a reference, they were also much weaker than their counterparts. These two factors made it such that Sato and the rest were ahead of ck Tempest and his teammates by dozens of metres. Also, the two had taken different paths to the Exit gate and the nature of the paths was such that they would only meet each other at the location of the Exit gate.

    Simply put, both parties were headed in the same direction but from two different points. Added with the fact that ck Tempest and his crew were behind by dozens of metres, the two different parties were unaware of the other''s existence and intentions, which were simrly the same. One could say this was a coincidence but they could also say that their fates were somewhat tied to each other.

    ....

    "How far are we from the Exit gate?" Lu Zhen asked Sato as they were walking forward.

    Since Sato could not involve himself in their battles as it was pointless to him, he had taken on the role of the team''s navigator.

    "If we put in our best, we should be there in 10 minutes." Sato replied with a pensive expression.

    "Even with you by our side?" Fudo raised an eyebrow at the response.

    "If I''m to help you guys then it would take us only half the time." Sato smiled. It wasn''t that he was boasting but he was just that strong.

    The difference between a level 15 yer and a level 6 or even 7 monster was a 100% increase in level for the monsters. Adding on the improved abilities that came as a result of crossing the level 10 checkpoint, no monster beneath level 10 could take a bit from Sato and not suffer dearly. When Sato had tried testing his strength with them, he had inadvertently sent a Mud bear flying back by 10 metres with more than half of its HP gone; and this was just a simple motion with his sword. It should be known that while it wasn''t the most powerful monster, by pure strength alone, the Mud bear was much stronger than a kobold of equivalent level, yet, Sato had made a ''nice'' work out of it with just a simple move. If Sato had taken the monster seriously and used his ss skills, heavens know what would be of it.

    While the others, apart from Lu Zhen and Fudo, would be having a bit of difficulty facing these monsters on their own, Sato didn''t experience any of that. Though Fudo and Lu Zhen could take the monsters down with ease too,pared to the leisure with which Sato could pull it off, theirs was nothing.

    "Let''s get going then. These guys aren''t worth our efforts and time. Mosquitoes might have meat butpared to that of a cow, it isn''t worthparing." Fudoughed.

    The monsters here are too weak to the team that killing them would only provide a pitiful amount of Experience points. Rather than remaining here and wasting their time on them, Fudo felt that it was best for the team to proceed to the Middle region where there were ''greener pastures''.

    They didn''t know the progress of the major guilds of the 3 towns so one could say that Sato''s team was in a race against time. While he had suspected that no guild would make a major attempt on the BOSS in the next 2 days or so, Sato had no way to confirm this. Fudo realised this and could guess that since the Outer region was of no use to the team, Sato would help them to reach the Middle region.

    "You''re right. Let''s go." Sato said.

    While 10 minutes didn''t sound long, who knew how much progress the other guilds would make in this time.. Hence, Sato wasn''t willing to waste it and decided to interfere in the uing battles.

 Chapter 329 - 323 : Sato Takes Action

    "Hey? Sato, are you sure this is where the Exit gate''s supposed to be?" Fudo''s faltering voice questioned with disbelief.

    Just as Sato had predicted, the team took only 5 minutes to make it to the location of the Exit gate of the Outer region''s 7th floor. However, upon arrival, they were stunned at the sight before them.

    "The heck?!"

    The Exit gate they had selected was located in a basin 800 metres wide and as they had just arrived, Sato and the others were at the edge of the basin.

    300 metres away from the team was a horde of monsters gathered in one location. Earth snakes, Mud Bears, Ground Rats, and so on could be spotted with a random nce in any direction. The entire basin could be described as a washbasin, but instead of water being held in it, there was a whole swarm of monsters gathered within it. A simple nce and Sato estimated there to be at least 30-50 of these monsters. Just this amount was capable of taking down any single team in ck Grill''s Cave, though they would encounter some troubles with the top teams.

    "What the heck are you shouting for? Want to burst my ears with that freakish voice of yours?!" Yato snapped. It wasmon knowledge between the gang that these two figures didn''t get along nicely. Rather, they were quite close, but their way of showing it wasn''t the same as how regr people do.

    "Why can''t I yell? Can''t you see those numbers? And what''s this about bursting your eardrums? If this Emperor [1] wants to burst them, who are you toin about it, huh? You should be grateful and grovel at my feet rather than whining so much." Fudo barked in retaliation and the way he said those words without an ounce of shame showed how thick his skin was.

    "...bloody. I knew you were a pig but I didn''t know your skin was that thick." Yato''s face twitched.

    "You...!"

    *Bang* *Bang*

    "Enough with the antics." Katsuo said right after he knocked the duo on their heads.

    "You..." Yato turned over to retaliate but as he was faced with Katsuo''s gigantic frame, his anger suddenly dissipated.

    "Freakish giant." Yato muttered under his breath.

    "I can''t believe you''re making so much fuss over these guys even though you''re the second highest levelled yer here." Seiichi nced at Fudo with disdain.

    Even though the team was some distance away from the monsters, they could sense the aura of the creatures. After going through countless battles and bloodshed, they could estimate the strength of the monsters based on their aura.

    Seiichi, who had the best vision in the team even surpassing that of the [Assassin] Lu Zhen, was able to see more. He approximated that the monsters were only level 6 and 7, with a few level 8 mixed in between. Originally, such a lineup of monsters was overkill even for the Outer region''s 7th floor. Monsters above level 6 could only be found in the Middle region, but with the Kobold king''s previous campaign, the power structure andposition of every floor had changed. This was a special urrencemonly known by gamers as a Dungeon''s advancement [2].

    Against any other team in IR, these monsters would prove a handful for them to handle and could even bring about their deaths. But when facing their team, these monsters were barely enough for a warm-up and this was because their numbers were bigger than usual.

    "Tch. I obviously knew they are weak but their numbers mean I will have to put out much effort than often. That''s too much for this Emperor." Fudo grunted.

    While he wasn''t a [Ranger] or an [Assassin], he was a mage yer and an [Elementalist] at that. Identifying the strength of the opponent was easier for him than with the others as he could sense the mana fluctuations around the creature and approximate its level. While this wasn''t so urate with physical monsters (monsters that couldn''t use magic), it was still better than nothing.

    "True. We might be able to take them down but that will take some time. Who knows what could happen during then? Maybe we could suffer an ambush to another team that might suddenly arrive out of the blue." Lu Zhenmented.

    "You seem to be forgetting something." Fudo gave a sly smile. "We have ourselves a bug[3]. Something the developers might not have even anticipated. Hehe."

    At that moment, everyone turned their eyes towards Sato, their own personal ''bug''.

    It should be known that Chesces'' 10-man team had fallen prey to an ambush of 26 monsters with 4 kobolds leading them. Yet, Sato and the others, who totaled to just 6, were confident about handling more than 30 monsters. This was because they had a level 15 yer with them; something unprecedented in the entire yer society of Infinite Realm.

    Sato''s true strength was unknown, even to himself. However, the entire team knew that even if he were to face these monsters all on his own, he would stille out victorious; and this was with him being alone. Presently, however, he wasn''t. He had help and his helpers weren''t weak either. All these factors added together made it such that even if the number of monsters present was doubled, they would still stand firm ande out victorious.

    ''Even still, we need a good strategy to win quickly but with the least amount of effort.'' Sato narrowed his eyes in thought.

    "I''ll attack from the left-wing while you guys attack from upfront. Katsuo, attract as much aggro as possible and only bother about healing yourself. Yato, focus on supporting Katsuo to the best you can and make sure that no monster gets past you both. Fudo, deal as much damage as you can to the backline of the enemies and cause as much of amotion there as possible. But don''t forget to assist the others since just the two of them holding up against this many monsters would be difficult. Seiichi, support the duo and make sure no harm gets to them too. Take down any monster that slips past them as quickly as possible. Lu Zhen, you try your best to locate the Exit gates. We shouldn''t forget our goal, which is the Exit gate.

    "No rule states that we have to kill these monsters to thest men so we should just focus on holding them back king enough and grabbing their attention while Lu Zhen sneaks behind them. If he can find the Exit gates and we can cross them, then we won''t hesitate to ughter our way in. If there''s a criterion to be fulfilled to get through it, then we have to do so, even if it filling turning this entire basin with blood.. Now, let''s move."

 Chapter 330 - 324 : The Top Guilds Conspiracies

    Stone Creek Forest was a level 0 map that barely had any appeal to current yers. Only those who had just started the game with the novice towns of ck Rock province as their starting point would bother exploring the ce, or so it was supposed to be.

    In recent times, apart from the low levelled yers(level 0-5), a majority of the other mainstream yers and experts had also frequented the area. A closer look at their tracks would show that all these figures went in one direction; towards a mountain that was located in the depths of the forest.

    This mountain was quite big, and could almostpare with some of the majestic natural ''giants'' in the real world, but in the world of IR, it was just one of the small-sizedmon mountains. However, this mountain held a lure to the yers. This was it was the location of the level 5 map, ck Grill''s Cave, and in recent times, ck Grill''s Cave had undergone a new development that attracted the attention of a majority of the world''s guilds and yers to set their sights here. Even though a greater part of these numbers couldn''t make it there, they still sent in their spies and contacted every information agency to get the gist of the locale yers and guilds'' progress in the situation.

    "So, what''s the current situation of the ce?"

    In a bar in Riverdale, two yers sat across from each other on a wooden table as they discussed over a ss of beer. One of them wore leather-type armor and had an armguard strapped on his left arm. As for the other yer, they had a ck cloak on, but even with it, the yer could be seen to be a male. This was because of the appearance of the two hands that stretched out from the cloak. While it was smooth and spotless like jade, it had a tyrannical feeling to it and looked more like a man''s palms than ady''s.

    The voices of the two figures were quite low but just loud enough for the duo to hear each other while outsiders would have a hard time listening in.

    "What do you think?" The other man, a [Ranger] based on his dressing, asked in return.

    "The top guilds are rushing in like there''s no tomorrow. Information reaching me says that there are at least three 1st tier guilds in there and the super guild, Emperor''s Might. Even though they are just branch guilds, their strength shouldn''t be underestimated especially Emperor''s Might and those psychos, Battle Wolves. Even to this moment, I still don''t get why a highly ranked 1st tier guild like this would aim for a Secondary spawn point. It sounds good at first as they could easily avoid conflicts with the big guys in the early stage, but they would lose out herepared to the others in those Main spawn points." The [Ranger] shook his head as he sipped from his ss, seemingly filled with regret at the decision made by the guild.

    "Do you think they will win?" The other yer, who was dressed in a ck cloak, ignored hisment on Battle Wolves to focus on the topic at hand.

    "Didn''t you hear me? Three 1st guilds and one super guild branch, which is even stronger than some of the main forces of a 1st tier guild. These are just some of the top powers engaged in this raid. There are still the 2nd tier guilds and the big clubs and associations. While they may not number in the hundreds or thousands, they are still strong enough to take on ten level 10 monsters. As for the world-ss BOSS, in my eyes, it''s nothing more than a dead dog. Ah, a living dead dog to be exact." The [Ranger] chuckled.

    "But why do I feel this isn''t so?" The other yer sighed.

    "Huh?" The [Ranger] nced at him with disdain.

    "Don''t get me wrong. I''m not saying that your judgement on their strength is wrong. I''m just wondering, are our estimates of the BOSS'' strength really urate? I mean, this is a monster that took over the entire floors from the Middle region''s 10th floor down to the Outer region. Such a monster cannot simply be a level 10 creature."

    The cloaked yer hurriedly exined, seeming to be afraid of making the other party annoyed.

    "You think the big guilds didn''t think of that? They obviously did but what difference will it make. It''s obviously because they are aware of this that they are all still moving forward." The [Ranger] said.

    "Can you better exin for me?" The cloaked yer asked in a somewhat humble tone.

    A hint of arrogance shone in the [Ranger]''s eyes but it was only off a brief moment before it dissipated without a trace. However, the next words that came out of his mouth seemed to be said with a bit of contemptced within it.

    "The top guilds of ck Rock province are not dimwits but great leaders and pro gamers. If you could have realised such an obvious fact, then they too would have? Yet, they still wandered towards the Middle region. And why? This is simply because they don''t want to give up. The current forces in ck Grill''s Cave now could be said to be the strongest in the entire province. Such a force is capable of cutting a sorry figure out of any opponent even if it were a level 10 Special Elite." The [Ranger] said with a bit of pride as if he were one of those yers.

    "If they could do that to a monster of such prowess by relying solely on their abilities, imagine what would happen if they made use of the boons in the game? Stuff like explosives, scrolls, Rare-Steel weapons, and so on. Not even a level 11 or even level 12 Elite would stand in their way. It''s because of this that they have such confidence. The system is just so there''s no way the BOSS would surpass level 11 much less 12. That alone is sufficient reason why the guilds are so confident."

    "In other words?" The cloaked yer seemed to grasp at something.

    "In other words, they n on using each other. I reckon those guys would reach the 9th floor of the Middle region and wait for the others. At that point, they would decide to team up and face the BOSS because individually, none of them stand a chance against it." The [Ranger] cleared things up for the cloaked yer.

    "However, while that would work, they would all harbor ideas behind their backs. The appeal of a world-ss BOSS is too good for any guild. There would inevitably be some internal frictions during the battle." The cloaked yer said with a frown on his face. However, due to the cloak''s shading abilities, his facial expressions couldn''t be seen.

    "Yeah but those guilds aren''t excessively dumb. They know what to do and when to do it. They would surely keep themselves in check but only till thest minute. At that point, they would all wreak havoc on one another in a bid to secure the first kill. Even if they don''t pull that off, attacking the other for the loot would still be possible. While the First kill glory for a world-ss BOSS is impressive, the loot would be more enticing if you ask me." The [Ranger] smirked.

    ''That would be such a lovely sight to see. However, I''m not worthy of such.'' He shook his head with a bitter expression on his face.

    "Thank you brother, for this advice of yours." The cloaked man stood up before giving a simple bow to their other party.

    "No need for the formalities. You paid for the information and I gave it to you, it''s simply a business transaction."

    The [Ranger] shook his head showing that he couldn''t ept such but his face had a smug smile that showed how satisfied he was with this treatment. From this alone, one could infer one thing; the [Ranger] was a shameless, thick-skinned, arrogant bastard.

    "Alright then. Later." The cloaked man departed.

    "Don''t forget to meet me if you need more info." The [Ranger] smiled as he twirled his ss of beer.

    Apart from the simple conversation the two had, a detailed report of the strength of some of the guilds participating in the raid was sent to the inbox of the cloaked figure. After he left, the cloaked man then sent the information to some other yers. The [Ranger] in the tavern would never have guessed that this yer was actually an info-hunter for one of the guilds contending in the raid. He had been tasked with getting information on the other teams to prepare his guild for what was toe.

    Simr events had taken ce in different ces at different times as the various big guilds of ck Rock province were all gathering information on the teams sent in by their adversaries. While this information didn''t seem so useful to any random yer, it was extremely valuable to these guilds as they could craft up plots and ns to deal with their adversary once the Kobold King was dead.

    In the eyes of these guilds, the real difficulty, or rather the true opponent, wasn''t the world-ss BOSS but themselves. In their heads, the Kobold king was nothing more than a living dead whose lifespan had already begun counting down.. The only issue they had to face was how to reap the most rewards once that countdown was over.

 Chapter 331 - 325 : Taking Down The Stronghold 1

    On the 7th floor of the Outer region within the huge mountain in Stone Creek, a natural basin existed and within it was a mob of monsters scattered all over the ce. Most of their numbers were focused at the centre while a few figures were wandering at the edge. At the centre of the basin was a small grey wooden house.

    In actuality, the building could barely be called a house as it looked more like a stable for horses made with the most abhorrent of all craftsmanship skills. It looked like a random treehouse built on the ground and was made without any effort or inspiration. Chances were that even an experienced 10-year old who built houses with Lego building blocks could have done better.

    Because of the huge frames of the Mud Bears, Ground Rats, as well as therge number of monsters, the dim lighting and the structure of the terrain, Sato and the others didn''t spot it so soon until Seiichi manages to catch a glimpse of it.

    "Lu Zhen." Sato called out.

    "That''s your goal. While looking for the Exit gates, try to investigate that ce. Who knows, maybe we could reap some unexpected rewards."

    "Okay." Lu Zhen nodded.

    "Alright then. Let''s finish up with these guys in the outer ring. After that, the two of us would go and attract the rest here and leave them to the others. Then, we proceed as nned."

    Everyone nodded.

    The n Sato set up was quite simple and very effective. The almost 50 heads of monsters was a number that could give the various guilds a headache to deal with. No individual guild was capable of pulling such off unless they called in their entire force. Only a super guild like Emperor''s Might would, and this was only in the scenario that the 3 different squads united together to face off against the monsters. Even then, victory wasn''t assured as arge mob of monsters like this would surely have a strong kobold leading them. The inclusion of a ''sub-BOSS'' figure like that would make things a lot more difficult to handle. But for Sato''s team, things didn''t stand the same.

    Even to the group, a level 11 monster was nothing more than a paper tiger with Sato''s assistance. Such a monster might be a fearsome opponent but it would be facing a much terrifying adversary in the form of Sato. It was like an ant daring to confront a human, even if it was a toddler. The ant simply stood no chance no matter what.

    However, Sato didn''t want to interfere too much as if the team began overly relying on him, their strength would decline. This was why even though he had decided to help them to increase the team''s progressing speed, he still brought up a detailed n when he could simply take down the monsters on his own. Sato intended to involve everyone in the fight and let them experience more battles to hone their skills. At the same time, this would prevent them from overly depending on him even if they were to confront a difficult opponent.

    While it was true that every member on the team could take on a monster all on their own, if they happened to get drowned by their numbers, the team would eventually lose their lives. Hence the reason for a strategy.

    The strategy Sato thought up was quite simple and was the mostmon one adopted by many guilds and teams during dungeon raids or BOSS raids. It involved taking down the minions, starting from the ones furthest from the BOSS'' location till they got to the ones closest to it.

    Even though the basin had a considerable number of monsters, not all of them were clustered at the centre. While the greater part of these monsters was packed at the centre, a few of them were scattered close to the edge of the basin and these monsters seemed to act as patrollers. They were spaced from the main horde and were distributed across the basin. Nheless, there were still a few blindspots for yers to attack as each ''lookout'' was at least 7 metres apart from the other and 200 metres away from the basin''s edge. If done correctly, one could draw these monsters away from the rest and take them down one at a time till only the cluster at the centre was left. Since these monsters were dumb and only relied on their instincts, the chances of them noticing anything wrong were extremely low.

    The System was just so even if the monsters were much stronger than mainstream yers, it still left a slight loophole for them to manipte and achieve victory. However, to achieve this victory, one would still require the necessary strength. Luckily enough, Sato and his crew had that strength.

    "Now, move."

    Lu Zhen was the first and also the fastest to have run into action. This was mostly because Sato held himself back for the others to take action before he would and also because Lu Zhen''s innate reactions were among the fastest in the group. This didn''t mean that his reactions in the game were the fastest, but that his bodily reactions in reality -which got simted in the game- were quite fast. As a result, immediately Sato gave themand, he had already sprung into action like a swift[1] in flight.

    Like fish in clear waters, Lu Zhen meandered through the terrain as he darted towards the monster he had set his sights on. It was a Mud Bear, and whenparing its strength to the other species here, it would only be inferior to a kobold, making it the second strongest species of monsters within the Outer and Middle region.

    ''Let''s see how strong you are buddy.''

    Most [Assassins] would use a stealth skill to sneak in on their target before making their move but Lu Zhen did otherwise. Possessing superior capabilities and skills that could only be rivalled by a level 9 monster -which would only exist in the Middle region- Lu Zhen wasn''t scared of the monster and just charged straight towards it without concealing himself. One point was due to his overwhelming attributes that surpassed the creature, another was because the Mud Bear had its back turned towards him at the hat moment.

    -83 (???/??? ???)

    "Growl!!!"

    A silver sh appeared behind the Mud Bear followed by its growls of pain. The monster abruptly turned towards its back as it tried to spot the source of its pain however it didn''t see any figure close by and was momentarily confused.

    Unknown to the creature, Lu Zhen had hurriedly retreated and was now stationed at its back once more. Being in such a good position, it would be a shame if he didn''t make proper use of it.

    -78 (189/350 Mud Bear''s HP)

    After the first attack, Lu Zhen had used [Inspect] on the monster to confirm its abilities, and seeing that it was nothing more than a level 6 monster, his daring attitude had received a proper boost.

    In just two moves Lu Zhen had brought the HP of the Mud Bear down by more than 40%. This was the strength of a level 9 pro facing off against a level 6 monster. In Lu Zhen''s eyes, this wasn''t a fight; this was bullying.

    "It''s as expected. They are weak; level 6 weak." Lu Zhen reported with a disdainful grin in the team chat.

    Even though the group had suspected the monsters to be weak, it was better to be safe than sorry. One of Lu Zhen''s roles was to test the strength of the monsters and that was why he had rushed ahead of the others. While checking the strength of one monster wasn''t exactly urate enough to define the power of the others, it was still manageable and could be used to make an approximate of the entire mob''s strength by adding or deducting 1 level or 2 levels at most. In other words, considering that the strength of the Mud Bear was at level 6, then the rest would either be level 5, level 6, or level 7; at most the strongest would be a level 8 Common but even an Elite couldn''t make the group shy away frombat even if Sato''s strength wasn''t added to the mix.

    "Alright. You all know what to do so go ahead." Sato replied in the team chat.

    Immediately after that, the aura of the entire team surged as they charged towards the monsters. It was as if they weren''t going to face a dreadful unit that could squash the forces of most guilds in the area. Instead, the look on their eyes was like that of ''starved'' warriors dashing towards a pretty maiden who could bring down countries with her looks.

    AN :

    [1] Swift bird : a type of bird that looks simr to a Swallow.

    Infinite Facts :

    For mainstream yers and experts, a level 9 Elite, Special-Elite, or even a level 10 Common or Elite rank monster was a sub-BOSS figure.. But to Sato, they are just measly mobs.

 Chapter 332 - 326 : Taking Down The Stronghold 2

    "Roar!"

    "Hiss!"

    A conundrum of noises flooded the nearby area as the team of Fudo, Yato, Seiichi, and Katsuo engaged in a battle with the monsters. Lu Zhen rampaged amongst the monsters further in while Sato took on the monsters in another ce.

    The monster formation in the basin on the 7th floor could be imagined to be made up of 3 concentric circles. The first one, starting from the smallest as well as the innermost circle, was the monsters gathered around the wooden ''treehouse'' precisely at the centre of the basin. It could be assumed that the monsters in this area were the strongest as well as the most difficult to deal with here. Luckily, their numbers were meagre and didn''t add up to much.

    The second circle was the elite unit of the monsters. A conservative estimate would put them to be a bunch of level 6 Commons and Elites. Compared to the monsters in the innermost circle, they were a lot easier to deal with but had more numbers than their counterparts. These guys could be said to be the main force of the entire monster horde.

    Thest circle was the outer circle as well as the look-out circle. These were also the forces that Sato and his team were currently facing. It consisted of a third of so of the entire monsters and was the nextrgest force right after the second circle however, it was a tad weaker than thetter. Also, the monsters here were a bit spaced out from each other making it possible for one to draw a single monster away from the group and take it down. Despite this, Sato and the rest took a different approach to this.

    Seiichi, Yato, and Katsuo were all level 8 whereas Fudo and Lu Zhen were level 9. The strength of the group was at least 2 levels ahead of their adversaries.

    As they were much stronger than the monsters, the team decided to take a stand in one position while drawing the other monsters towards themselves. This wasn''t a difficult problem since Seiichi and Fudo were long-range attackers and each of their moves packed a punch. So much so that the monsters would lose almost a third of their HP with each attack. If it weren''t for them having to draw the monsters towards the group, then Fudo and Seiichi might be able to reduce the number of these monsters by at least a half. As for why they didn''t do so, this wasn''t hard to understand.

    While the concentricyout of the monsters separated them, the distance between them wasn''t much. Therefore, while it was true that the team could simply dash in and defeat the monsters in the outer circle, they risked the chance of getting surrounded by not just the monsters there but also the ones from the middle circle; who would get alerted from themotion of the battle as the distance between the two groups wasn''t much to start with.

    Hence, team Sato had to take a different approach to things. They set themselves a couple of metres away from the look-out squad while the long-range yers worked with Lu Zhen to draw the monsters towards themselves. Under thebined assault of Yato and Katsuo, with a few assists from Fudo and Seiichi, the monsters would then be defeated with ease.

    Because of the distance between them and the outer circle, as well as that between the outer circle and the second circle, they would be able to defeat these ''patrol troops'' without potentially alerting the main force.

    In IR, every monster had a sensory range just like creatures in reality. For the majority of them, their sensory abilities were strong at 10 metres but further out, they began to drastically weaken. So much so that the monsters couldn''t hear a single sound at this 20 metres mark. As for their visual abilities, it was weakened at the 30 metres mark, where some monsters could only see blurry figures whereas the majority were as good as blind.

    All these values had been based on the monsters in ck Grill''s Cave and Stone Creek Forest and were derived after countless experiments by different yers. The information was then publicly sold by the yers as such data was extremely valuable to pro-yers, gaming guilds, and clubs.

    "Lu Zhen, once their numbers have dropped by half, you will move in with me to the next line." Sato ordered from the team chat.

    "Copy." Lu Zhen replied before slicing through the neck of an Earth Snake, decapitating the creature and ending its monstrous life[1].

    The formation of the monsters was a circle so the team''s reach could only be aimed at one point of the circle. Sato had attacked from another point since he alone was more than enough. Hence the reason why it was only the 5 of them that were positioned in the same area.

    Sato nned to eliminate the monsters in the outer circle before they could slowly move in and do the same with the monsters in the middle circle. This was because, while it was true that they were stronger than the monsters, even an elephant would fall when assaulted by hundreds of thousands of ants. If the team got toox and relied solely on their overwhelming strength, there was indeed the chance that they would seed but there was also the chance that they would get outnumbered. This was why despite being absurdly stronger than all the monsters here, Sato didn''t recklessly dash towards the wooden ''treehouse'' but requested the assistance of Lu Zhen, whose ss was extremely apt in sneaking in.

    ''The sub-BOSS fights are usually in levels that are multiples of 5. For one to be here is an absurdity. It''s best we don''t take too much of a risk.'' Sato thought.

    "Haha. Die, you vermin." Fudo guffawed as he sent a fireball towards a Ground Rat.

    *Boom*

    The fireball was too fast for the monster to react and so collided with the Ground Rat, sending it back by 5 metres with an explosion.

    -275 (???/??? ???)

    "Haha. I haven''t dealt so much damage in my entire IR career. This is nice." Fudoughed.

    In Infinite Realm, a yer''s attacking ability is in respect to an opponent of equivalent strength. For example, if a level 7 [Berserker] has 10 points in [Strength], his Physical Attack power would be 30 points, ignoring whatever bonus he gets from his weapon or equipment. The meaning of this value is that if the yer were to attack an opponent of simr strength, which is level 7, supposing the opponent has no defensive ability, the [Berserker] would deal exactly 30 points of damage to the opponent; not taking into consideration the extra damage from his weapon. To put it inly, the base damage figure of a regr attack of the [Berserker] would be 30 points. However, if the [Berserker] were to face an opponent of either higher or lower strength, the result would undoubtedly be different.

    This was like having a teenager face off against another teenager of simr age and then having that same teen (the first one) face off against a toddler, then a matured adult, or preferably, an Olympic Gold medalist in wrestling. The amount of damage the teen could cause with the exact punch against these 3 different opponents would differ, and this is with each punch containing the same force and power as the next.

    Against the opposing teenager, if the teen manages tond a punch on his opponent, it would cause them to squeal in pain and lose their fighting ability for a second or more.

    Against the Olympic gold medalist, the damage the teen could deal with that equally powered punch would differ by far. At best, it might make the opponent grunt in pain, and in the worst-case scenario, it would do nothing to do the opponent. This was because the strength of the opponent far outstripped that of the teenager.

    However, if the teenager were to face off against a toddler, that punch which could diminish the fighting strength of another teenager and make an Olympian only grunt in pain, would cause severe injuries to the little child. If lucky, the child would only suffer a severe head concussion and a few broken bones, which would keep the child hovering between life and death. Otherwise, a baby-sized coffin would be ordered from the coffin-maker for a Saturday funeral. This was simply because the strength of the teen surpassed that of the little child. This was the difference between the strength of the opponent and the fighter, and this very difference was applied in the mechanics of IR.

    When the level difference between two opponents surpasses 2, the higher levelled yer is like a teenager while the lower levelled opponent would be the same as a young kid or around 14 years old in their presence. The lower levelled yer would be capable of retaliating but this was only by a bit. In a life and death battle, the chances of any form of retaliation were too low to exist.

    When the difference in level then surpasses 3, reaching up to even 5, the higher levelled yer would be like an Olympian participating in Wrestling, facing off against a toddler. There was no chance of retaliation. This wouldn''t be a battle, this would be nothing more than an act of bullying, one-sided beating, oppression. Heck, this was just an expression of tyranny and torment. The battle wouldn''t even be much of a challenge to the Olympian. It was this very reason why Sato didn''t participate with the others as the training would have no point with his participation in it.

    ''Hai~ Sometimes being too strong is no fun.''

 Chapter 333 - 327 : Slaughter-Fest

    "Haha. I haven''t dealt this much damage since I began ying IR." Fudo had a silly grin on his face as he tossed fireballs after fireballs into the fray of monsters.

    "Tch. Shut your mouth up, you frigging bully." Yato cursed. It seemed that Yato would always try to aggravate Fudo whenever he saw a smile on the young man''s face. It was as if his entire goal of living was to make sure that Fudo could never smile peacefully in his presence.

    "Whad''ya say?" Fudo nced at Yato with a fuming face.

    "Taking joy in dealing with monsters 3 levels below you. If you aren''t a bully then what are you?" Yato smirked, looking pleased with Fudo''s reaction.

    If the yers from the outside could see this scene, they would be astonished. Despite facing a mob of monsters that could bury almost every yer team in IR, Fudo and Yato not only handled them with ease but they also had some free energy on their hand to squabble with each other.

    "Focus. Let''s eliminate these guys as quickly as possible." Seiichi frowned.

    "I don''t think we need to overly worry about that." Katsuo spoke up despite holding back 4 monsters at once.

    "Look."

    The trio then turned towards the spot Katsuo signalled and then, they were astonished.

    It should be known that of every man in the team of 6, the lowest level was level 8, which was 2 levels above the monsters before them. They were at the peak of strength when considering the entirety of IR''s circle of gamers. Even though they were outnumbered 6 to 50, the group was able to hold on with such ease that other gamers would envy them for their strength. Yet, there was one individual out of the gang of 7 men, who performed far better than his 5 peers.

    "Damn. He''s such a fierce monster." Seiichi''s lips twisted unstably. He was barely able to hold himself from screaming curse words and cursing the game developer for being so unfair.

    "Hey Yato, do you still think I''m a bully?" Fudo asked with a faint voice. It seemed as if the pride he had gotten from ruling over the monsters with ease had just shattered.

    "Bullsh*t. If I call you a bully then what will I call him? Tyrant, a menace to society? Either way, your bullying ways look like the tantrums of a little kidpared to that." Yato furiously replied.

    Fudo drooped his head, seemingly disappointed at himself.

    The sight before the 5 men was nothing more than Sato battling the monsters. Rather than calling it a battle, a warm-up would be bette-, no, it should be as Yato had said; this was the highest level of bullying ever.

    Sato had originally nned on staying out of the battle and even if he were to interfere, he would only do so a bit. However, seeing the others engaged in what seemed to be a wanton ughter ignited his fighting intent.

    Ever since he had reached level 15, Sato had not engaged in any battle with any opponent, be they weak or strong. This was simply because there was no worthy opponent for him to face. The targets he previously had in mind, apart from the Kobold king, were either too strong or too weak. Facing either of them wouldn''t help him to estimate his true strength as a battle with an overpowered opponent would end before he knew it, while one with an overly weak opponent would be over in one attack.

    Seeing as his friends were having fun, Sato''s hands began to itch forbat so he decided to engage in a little ughter-fest. While it was true that the level 6 monsters were all too weak, their numbers were quite big and could barely do for a warm-up. With that in mind, Sato decided to join the battle but he attacked from another direction so as not to affect the others. However, Sato had underestimated his strength. Even with the distance between them, themotion he caused was enough to attract the attention of the others.

    The monsters stood no chance against Sato. Even if they were 3 times the number they currently were, they still stood no chance. This was because Sato was strong; too strong, absurdly strong.

    Every single sh of his would send a monster flying back by at least 7 metres. For the lucky ones, they would be sent flying with over half of their HP gone and a terrible injury on their body, ranging from a wide, deep bloody gash, to a severed body part. For the unlucky ones, they would be sliced into half with their HP -whether full or not- brought down to zero. But that wasn''t all.

    The soaring bodies of the monsters, whether dead or alive, would collide with theirpanions behind, injuring them and sending them flying back too. Like a bunch of dominoes, they would collide with other monsters and finally crash to the floor. This resulted in a situation where the surrounding space of 5 metres around Sato was devoid of monsters.

    Despite this, Sato would just abandon his "safe zone" and dash towards another gathering of these monsters and the same would ur again.

    Every sh of his was vicious, seeking to take down the opponent in one hit. Even though he knew that having a gap of 9 levels assured him of at least a 99% kill rate with each monster, Sato still intended to make that a hundred percent by aiming at their weak points. This resulted in a scene where heads and upper bodies were flying all about. Sometimes, the other 5 would see theplete left side of a monster tossed into the air and sprinkling blood as if it were a fountain, before crashing down with a thud and staining the floor in a pool of red viscous blood. Since everyone in the group left their vision uncensored through the game''s settings, they were able to see the entirety of this.

    "Damn. At this rate, Sato should be called a butcher and not a swordsman."

    "I bet that even if the number of the monsters was doubled, no tripled, they would still not stand a chance at touching the helm of his cloak much less injuring him." Seiichi sighed as he shot out two arrows at a Mud Bear that came dashing towards the crew.

    In Seiichi''s opinion, the reason why this was possible wasn''t simply because of Sato''s level gap but also his abilities. This wasn''t just because he was at least 6 levels ahead of these monsters but because Sato was highly skilled in martial arts and VR game fights. Even if someone else were in his footsteps, with the same level, same equipment, and the same sword, they might not be able to pull it off.

    Every one of Sato''s attacks was aimed at a weak point of the monsters and he could react in time and dodge an attack from the monsters even if it was the lunge of an Earth Snake from behind. Even when Sato would end up surrounded by the monsters, he relied on his battle experience as well as his superior bodily reactions to dodge the attacks of the monsters and retaliate when a weak spot is exposed. His sword flitted in and out like the strokes of a master painter but with much greater speed.

    Like a ck Marlin speeding through the deep oceans, Sato moved through the horde of monsters and ughtered his way around. Not even 2 minutes had passed since his participation and the monsters in one-quarter of the outer circle had already been eliminated.

    Realising this, Sato finally came to a stop, and as he retreated away from the monsters'' active range before ncing over to the side, right where his teammates were.

    "What''s taking you guys so long?" Sato asked.

    "...f**k you. You freaking bug!!! You ughtered those monsters with ease and you still question us?! Did you forget your level?!" Fudo fumed as he spat out saliva into the air.

    "Tch. Leave that absurd creature. We have to hurry up and not be left behind by him." For the first time since the trip, Yato didn''t argue with Fudo as he recollected himself and focused on the fight in front of him.

    As if the team had renewed their vigor and energy, the strength of their attacks increased by one level.

    Seiichi''s fingers constantly operated his bow as arrow after arrow departed from it, striking various monsters at their weak spots. Yato and Katsuo pushed forward even more and held the front line to the best of their abilities. Because of this, the corpses in front of them began to pile up and if not for the automatic disintegration of these corpses, a wall of corpses would have formed in front of them.

    Fudo assisted the duo and would sometimes attack the monsters that were far out. Lu Zhen moved through the monsters like a snake and each sh from his Upper Tier Mortal rank de would end up taking at least reducing the victim''s HP by 30%. 3 attackster and the monsters would fall to the ground.

    The increased intensity of the team''s attacks made it such that in every second that went by, at least 2 monsters would fall to the ground in cold blood.

    ''Damn. What the heck is up with them?''

    Sato was astonished at this and couldn''t help but wonder who offended these guys.

 Chapter 334 - 328 : Satos Worries

    "That''s thest of them." Yato announced as he withdrew his sword from the belly of a Ground Rat.

    "Okay. Now time to loot. Hehe." Fudo rubbed his palms together with a money-grubber''s smile on his face.

    "Luckily for us, the auto-loot function is avable here." Seiichi said.

    Since Infinite Realm tried to pursue reality in its mechanics, it would be strange for there to not be any corpses left after a battle. However, in certain situations, the scale of the battle might be immense that before one could finish looting the entire corpses, a day might have gone by. Also, since the corpses -bothrge and small- would be sprawled all over the ce, it would be hard for yers to discern which body part belonged to whom to be able to loot it. Usually, it''s the mostplete part of the target that could be looted however, if the corpses were dissected into small parts, confusion could arise in this manner. And in arge-scale battle, such could easily happen. Wouldn''t that mean that one''s efforts in defeating the opponent would go unrewarded?

    To prevent such a situation, the auto-loot function was introduced as a part of the game, bing a new feature in VRMMMORPGs. Originally, some games did have this feature but it came at a certain price but IR was the first to implement it as a basic feature.

    Duringrge-scale battles, the auto-loot function would be activated and the corpses of the dead would disintegrate into starlight, leaving behind a small floating orb with a soft dull light emitting from it. yers would only need to then loot this object and the process was quite simple. One would only have to plunge their hand into the orb and withdraw it. Depending on one''s luck, a piece of equipment, a weapon or resource may or may not be pulled out from the orb.

    While this didn''t sound like a true auto-loot function, it was still much better than having to dig through bloody corpses for a reward. It would be more appropriate to call it an auto-dismantling feature though. As for the true auto-looting function that automatically collected one''s loot, it did exist within the game but naturally, it woulde at a price.

    "Auto-dismantling." Yato pointed at Seiichi with his index finger. "It''s called auto-dismantling and not auto-loot."

    Ah...seems like the author made a mistake with the name too...

    "Whatever." Seiichi ignored him.

    "Alright, everybody. We''re done with these guys out here so we have to push forward and eliminate the others as quickly as possible." Sato said from the team chat. He was still a couple dozen metres away from the group so shouting his orders from there would be inconvenient.

    "Same strategy?" Fudo asked.

    "Nope. This time around, we cut through their lineup and attract the guys in the centre. Lu Zhen, you use the opportunity created from themotion to investigate that wooden house. If the Exit gate is in there, you alert us immediately after which everyone would then dash towards it." Sato replied.

    "Why can''t we just eliminate all the monsters here and check out the wooden house at our own pace?" Katsuo asked.

    "You all should already be aware: we aren''t the only ones on this floor. It would be best that we move as quickly as possible and in secret. Every top guild has most likely set their sights on the world-ss BOSS and every one of them has an informant hanging around the other. The guilds might not be aware of this but none of them are the Kobold King''s match. However, we are. If we seed in defeating the monster, every guild would inquire amongst themselves about the identity of the sessful team. Even if they don''t trust the words of the other, they all have their various spies amongst one another. Once they figure out that none of them seeded, they would set their eyes on the third parties, who are the independent associations and clubs.

    "Now, supposing that a guild''s team spots us here. We would automatically be one of the suspects if we defeat the Kobold King as nned. While we can simply deny it, they could pressure each of us in our identities. If they discover the true strength of our team, we would be automatically deemed as the culprits. And unless we hand over the loot we gain from the battle, they won''t let us go even if I''m 5 levels ahead of everyone. Once that happens, our gaming career in IR would be hindered by these guys." Sato exined.

    "It should be known that it isn''t just one or two guilds that are involved in this struggle but the top guilds of the 3 towns. Upon promotion to level 10, we would all be gathered in the city and that would make it easier for them to deal with us, whether individually or as a group. Rather than create such a problem, it would be better to avoid it if possible." Sato sighed.

    The reason for his sigh was because he was aware that even with his current strength, he couldn''t offend the big guilds just yet. He wasn''t the only one in the team so even if the guilds couldn''t deal with him, they would still be able to unleash their fury on the others. Fudo and the rest can''t always be with him so the possibility of this happening was extremely high. Apart from that, the big guilds could still deal with him by cing a bounty on his head.

    It should be known that levels aren''t everything in IR. Even when one was facing a much higher levelled individual they could stille out victorious by relying on external help. Sato and Fudo''s battle against Sygrart, and the team''s raid on the Kobold Chief and its guards were pretty much good examples.

    If the big guilds or even the hired hands they had sought out were to n an ambush for Sato properly, even if he were a level 20 yer, they would still have a chance of sess as long as they sacrificed a lot to achieve this. This was what Sato feared and so, he decided that they move in secret lest they attract attention to themselves.

    "Alright, we get it." Fudo replied with a rxed expression. However, deep down, he had already considered Sato''s words with a heavy heart. This was because he too had recognised the problem they would end up facing if they got spotted. Even Yato and the others understood this as they all had serious expressions on their faces.

    The big guilds weren''t to be messed with especially those from the 1st tier rank and above. Which one of these guilds didn''t make use of unscrupulous means and methods to get where they were now? There was even a super guild involved in this struggle and while it was only a branch force, it still couldn''t be underestimated. If things got worse for them, they could request help from the main squad and the entire matter would get blown out of proportion.

    "Rx. Since you all understand the matter at hand, you don''t need to keep such serious faces. We just have to be quick with our actions and leave no clue behind. That way, the chances of us getting suspected would be the least." Sato tried to ease the mood.

    Everyone nodded since Sato''s words were undeniably true.

    "Alright then. Let''s just proceed as nned but remember, we have to be quick. Try not to use overly explosive or noisy attacks and be swift with your moves." Sato then nced at Lu Zhen. "Lu Zhen, the entire sess of this operation depends on you. The quicker you can get to the wooden house and analyse the situation in there, the faster we can leave here and potentially escape without getting discovered."

    "Got it." Lu Zhen nodded.

    "Then, let''s go."

 Chapter 335 - 329 : [Transcendent Severance]

    "Growl!!!"

    A Mud Bear growled with anger and displeasure before charging forward and bringing down its paw with great strength at the target before it.

    The force from the paw came down like a rock from a 12 metres tall building, bringing with it a tremendous destructive power that could turn gold bars into gold dust. There was no doubt that the paw was even capable of turning an average sedan to junk.

    If the paw were to collide with the body of an adult, turningatose for 4 years with a few broken ribs, a ruptured lung, a broken spinal cord, and some other major or minor injuries would be a lucky event. If one were unlucky, they would be sent on a journey to meet their ancestors. However, some might feel that the unlucky event was way better than the "lucky" scenario, but that depends on one''s opinions.

    Despite the force behind the attack, it was brought to a halt as it collided with a green shield held up in front of it.

    *Bang*

    -15 (???/??? ???)

    Like a bullet being brought to stop by a Ker armour, or a tree branch trying to pierce through a metal wall, the paw couldn''t proceed any further no matter how much power was out into it. Because of the unexpected interference, the force from the attack had managed to rebound and injured the Mud Bear''s paw.

    "Haha. You hit like a woman." (AN: Author apologizes to the other gender if they find this offensive.)

    Katsuo held up a shield in front of him, blocking the Mud Bear''s attack and keeping himself out of harm. Truth be told, even if he was struck by the paw, Katsuo would only lose a bit of his HP, after all, the attack came from a level 6 monster whereas he was a level 8 [Pdin].

    "Growl!!"

    Filled with indignation, the Mud Bear released a loud growl as it tried to attack with its other paw, however, Katsuo was done ying with it.

    Even though he was a [Pdin] and had allocated a majority of his attributes in [Strength] and [Endurance], he still has a few of them boosting his [Dexterity]. Inparison though, his attack speed would be slower than the other sses at his level but against a monster 2 levels beneath him, and one that has its attributes leaning towards pure power, Katsuo''s attack speed was more than enough.

    [Transcendent Severance]

    An average-sized great-sword moved from left to right, passing through the body of the Mud Bear. But with this simple movement of this average-sized great-sword, the Mud Bear was sliced into two halves, with its upper body leaning backward and the lower body falling towards Katsuo.

    *Splurt*

    [Critical Hit]

    -487 (???/??? )

    "Whoa!" Katsuo couldn''t resist sucking in cold air as he stared at the result of his actions.

    The Great Hall of Grey Chains had a massive library that was a collection of various knowledge, including educational, geographical, historical, and battle-oriented books. However, the crew -apart from Sato and Xue Yan- didn''t have enough authority to go through the battle techniques. Even Sato and Xue Yan were only allowed to learn one skill otherwise, with the entire collection in the Library, they would be able to be the strongest yers in IR.

    Nheless, even though the remaining 5 weren''t allowed to check out the books, they were still granted one skill after passing the trial of the Achievers, and the skills weren''t your average run-of-the-mill kinds. This could easily be seen from the ones Sato had. [Linear Strike] and [Chain Hit] had given Sato an advantage in both PvP and PvE battles. Even the passive skill, [Overbearing Momentum], which Xue Yan got was amazing; way better than Sato''s at least. This was because the skill not only increased her attributes but also decreased that of her foe. It was like thebination of a buff and a de-buff skill. However, the lucky winner in this contest was Katsuo.

    The skill Katsuo had received was [Transcendent Severance] and it was a power-packed skill that perfectly suited his ss. You could even say that it was a skill tailored for his ss. The summary of the skill''s ability was a sh that deals an extra 60% damage to the target with an added chance of causing a bleeding effect. 60% increase in attack power, so far, this was the highest boost to one''s attack power while using an attack skill. It even surpassed Sato''s [Linear Strike] that only gave a 50% increase.

    As for the bleeding effect, this didn''t just mean that the monster would bleed, but that it would lose a sizeable amount of HP with each passing second. Since IR adapted realistic measures and scenarios to its foundation, both yers and monsters bleed upon getting injured. However, the effect of this bleeding was minor to them, especially whenpared to the actual in-game Bleeding effect. It was likeparing a needle injury to a machete injury.

    A light stab with a needle could at most make one lose a drop of blood every 3 or 5 seconds and the pain was mostly irrelevant as it couldn''t affect one''s performance. A light stab with a machete, however, would drastically affect one''s performance. Blood would be flowing from the cut and not in droplets. Even if it were in drops, it would be 2-5 drops, every second. When the cut bes a heavy one, survival bes a struggle. This was why most yers liked weapons that could cause such effect and Katsuo had a skill that could do the same.

    It was because of these factors together with the level difference, the advantage of a surprise attack, and the critical effect, that Katsuo was able to cleave the monster into two.

    Despite knowing this though, Katsuo couldn''t resist sucking in a breath of air at the sight of the damage figures.

    "Don''t get lost in those fanciful thoughts of yours. Push forward." Seiichi yelled from behind. Katsuo was the MT so he was in front of the team and their progress depended on his efforts. If he were to suddenly pause, the yers behind him would too. Luckily, the monsters were too weak for the crew so this didn''t result in any losses for them.

    "Okay." Katsuo recovered from his shock as he resumed his duty as an MT.

    "Lu Zhen, do you copy?" Sato asked in the team chat. He was attacking from another angle to prevent his battle from possibly interfering with the others.

    "Yeah." Lu Zhen replied.

    "Good. Remain on standby for now. In the next 5 seconds, I will burst in and attract the mob deep within. Find the right opportunity and tactically rush in. Fudo, Seiichi, Yato, and Katsuo, you guys hold up these guys here. It would be great if we could finish them off but don''t get too obsessed with that. Remember our target."

    "Got ya." Fudo replied.

    "Also, Lu Zhen, try to be done with your recon within 2 minutes or less. For some reason, I''m having a bad omen about things so be as quick as possible." Sato added.

    "Okay." Lu Zhen responded.

    Once the conversation was over, 5 seconds had already gone by. As nned, Sato suddenly burst forward, heading towards the deeper section of the basin where the top elite units of the monsters hid. He wanted to draw them away from the wooden house so that Lu Zhen could sneak in and check the ce out.

    As he did so, Sato had a slight frown on his face. Ever since they were done with the monsters on the outer ring, his instincts had been sounding rms for him. It wasn''t like the feeling he got when he was in danger of death or about to encounter a formidable hostile party. Instead, it was just a warning; the kind one would feel when something was about to go wrong.

    ''What did I miscalcte?'' Sato Couldn''t help but wonder.

    Meanwhile...

    A few hundred metres away from the basin, was a different team of yers.. From the direction and path they were taking, it seemed that they intended on going towards the basin where Sato and the rest were.

 Chapter 336 - 330 : Black Tempestâ€™s Dismay

    A few hundred metres away from the basin, was a different team of yers. From the direction and path they were taking, it seemed that they were heading towards the basin where Sato and the rest were.

    Despite seemingly walking erratically, everyone in the team had positioned themselves at certain points that would help them coordinate properly and retaliate against the enemy in case they suffer an ambush. From this alone, it showed that this team of yers weren''t your average rookies but pro-gamers who have a lot of experience, and were experts in dungeon raids and field battles. Even their gear wasn''t average as every one of them had at least one Upper-tier Mortal rank equipment and the worst of them had a top-tier Mid-tier Mortal rank equipment.

    However, something was strange about this. They all seemed gloomy but at the same time, exuded a hint of murderous intent. It was as if they had suffered a loss that left them resentful.

    "ETA?"[1]

    A middle-aged man who seemed to be the one inmand asked without a change in expression. However, if one were to maintain their senses on him, a fierce killing intent would be discovered. The only reason it wasn''t that perceptible was because the man was suppressing it.

    "With our current pace...10 minutes, captain." The [Ranger] who led the way with a somewhat downcast tone.

    The middle-aged man''s chiseled face disyed a frown but he held in his dissatisfaction. A gleam of light reflected on his face, highlighting his facial features.

    Surprisingly, it turned out to be ck Tempest of Emperor''s Might. This discovery further meant that this team was the vanguard squad of Emperor''s Might. As for the reason for ck Tempest''s frown as well as the doleful atmosphere in the group, it was quite a surprise.

    The vanguard team, who had departed ahead of the main squad earlier on, had surprisingly suffered an ambush 5 minutes ago in a stgmite forest. What was surprising about it was the fact that the ambushers had dared to contend against a super guild''s team. If that wasn''t daring enough, the ambushers had gone as far as tossing insults and mocking the yers when they had attacked. One of them had even called ck Tempest''s mother a s**t.

    With the event having gone that far, the team didn''t hold back anything against the assaulters and managed to force them back, sending 3 of them to the grave. However, the ck Tempest was still displeased with the results because one of them had fallen at the hands of the enemy. This was technically unavoidable as that yer was one of the targets in the ambush and ck Tempest was another.

    The yer was one of the top Experts of the guild who was assigned to ck Tempest''s team to help bnce out the power distribution. However, he had now died and this dropped the overall strength of the team by quite a few figures.

    The respawn point for most yers was set to Riverdale town as that was the safest location to respawn. The same was also said for this yer but the team couldn''t possibly wait for him to return, so, they had to move ahead with their numbers down by one. This was the source of the team''s anger and despondence.

    What was even more annoying was that they weren''t aware of the identity of their opponents as all of the yers in the ambushing team had worn ck cloaks. That, together with the dim lighting made it difficult to identify anyone even based on their fighting style.

    After the ambush, ck Tempest had rearranged the squad''s formation to prevent such from happening but as the die has already been cast, there was nothing they could do about the previous event.

    "Damn it. Those guys better pray that I don''t find them." ck Tempest gritted his teeth in rage.

    The [Ranger], who acted as the deputy of the team, kept a low head.

    As a [Ranger], he was also tasked with looking out for the team alongside the squad''s [Assassin] yer. However, it was the [Assassin] that was the target of the ambush and he had failed to notice that. Even though this could be attributed to the fact that the stgmite forest was aplex terrain that was not only difficult to navigate through but was a perfect ambush zone, he still couldn''t be considered innocent.

    "Are you sure they aren''t guild squads?" ck Tempest faced the [Ranger].

    After the ambush, the team had begun racking their heads, trying to figure out the identity of their attackers. The [Ranger], Blue Sky, believed that the attackers weren''t yers from any guild. He based this on two reasons.

    Most guilds had sent their elite forces to ck Grill''s Cave and while that sounds like the ambushers could be one of them, it wasn''t.

    The goal of the elite forces was the Kobold King and since no one was truly aware of its full power, they wouldn''t do something as foolish as attacking each other. The first reason was that they would need the other to test the BOSS'' strength and the other was that they could potentially team up with the other guilds and face the monster. If they were to attack one another, they could potentially harm themselves in the process and lose their members and at the same time, weaken the strength of potential partners and this wasn''t a good idea.

    Also, if the guild gets discovered, they would suffer the retribution of the other and in this case, it woulde from a super guild. No one in their right mind would want to offend a super guild unless there was an already existing feud between the two parties.

    But there was a simple solution to all of this. Just in case those guilds desperately wanted to eliminatepetition, they could simply hire other yers. It has to be known that guild yers weren''t the only ones with ess into ck Grill''s Cave. Solo yers, gaming associations and clubs, and even small parties could join in on the fun. Naturally, as the strength of these teams was weaker than most guilds, they wouldn''t set their sights on the Kobold King but would simply battle the monsters in the Outer region.

    However, what if a guild were to offer them benefits to ambush another guild? If the remuneration was worth it, these guys could do so. As they were mostly random yers without any permanent residence or desire to rule an area like the guilds, they wouldn''t mind attacking anybody, even a Super guild, for the right pay.

    Therefore, the chances of the attackers being non-guild yers were quite high but there was no confirmation that they weren''t guild yers either.

    "Hehe. It seems like Emperor''s Might has been too lenient these days. Hehe. They should wait for me to get back. I will make sure the town sees blood." ck Tempest disyed a creepy grin on his face.

    Everyone beside him suddenly felt the temperature plunge down and a ghastly chill crept up on them. ck Tempest had released his suppression on his killing intent and this had caused a change in the ambience of the ce and every yer there felt it.

    ck Tempest and Blue Sky had both tacitly ignored the fact that there was a spy in their team. This was something unavoidable as the most trusted yers were with Azure Dragon and Chesces. ck Tempest''s team was mostly made up of yers that were there to fill the ranks and iso the chances that a spy might have mingled in between them was quite high. This incident proved it but there was nothing he could do to flush out that individual, yet.

    "Captain." A yer from behind spoke up.

    "What is it?" ck Tempest turned around with a re.

    "Uh...I just sensed something ahead of us." The yer hesitated before speaking.

    "I think there are a few yers ahead."

 Chapter 337 - 331 : Discovered

    "Uh...I just sensed something ahead of us." The yer hesitated before speaking.

    "I think there are a few yers ahead."

    It should be known that ck Tempest''s strength was roughly the same as a ''false king'' and the same could be said about his aura. Once his murderous intent, which was honed after countless battles -both real and virtual-, was released, an average yer would find it difficult to move. Even for these guys, while they could still move, they couldn''t resist.

    "Sensed something? What?" ck Tempest dissipated the murderous intent as he asked.

    Sensing that dreadful feeling dispersing, the yer continued.

    "It seems that there''s an ongoing battle ahead of us. It''s between a bunch of monsters and a team of yers. I can''t ascertain their numbers correctly but I''m sure of this fact."

    ck Tempest frowned but didn''t say a word. It should be known that the yer who spoke up was a [Druid], and while they were slightly beneath [Elementalists] in sensing mana, they could function better as a scout than the opposite party. This was because their natural inclination was towards nature-type mana and life mana so sensing lifeforms was much easier for these guys. Added with the fact that they were natural healers with a few crowd control and buff spells, [Druids] were a must-have for field battles and even dungeon raids.

    "It might be those ambushers. Maybe they were trying to head to the next floor andy another ambush for us or someone else. "It''s also possible that it might not be them." The [Ranger] whispered to ck Tempest.

    ck Tempest grimaced as he pondered on the team''s next set of actions.

    "Where did you say they were?" ck Tempest asked the [Druid].

    "Up ahead. They should be in the direction of the Exit gate." The [Druid] yer closed his eyes for a bit before opening them and replying.

    "In that case, we move forward. If they happen to be in the way, we kill them." ck Tempest said.

    "What if they aren''t?" Blue Sky carefully asked.

    "If they aren''t our allies, we kill them." ck Tempest said with a murderous tone.

    "We have suffered a lot today because we weren''t suspicious about the activities around us. But that''s gonna change starting now. Once we encounter any team that doesn''t belong to a 2nd tier guild or above, we force them out of the way or eliminate them. It''s best we take the risk and offend these small parties, than for us to suffer another ambush because of ourx attitudes towards them."

    "Understood." Blue Sky responded. However, he knew that ck Tempest''s words were nothing more than a way to vent his anger.

    Randomly attacking every non-guild party they encounter would lead to them gaining more enemies as time passes. The individual strength of the enemies might be weak but if they were to team up, their collective strength couldn''t be ignored, not even by a super guild. Hence, even if ck Tempest was angered, he won''t go killing off everybody. However, that didn''t mean that he couldn''t kill them either.

    ck Tempest''s original intention would be to pressure these third parties into stepping away, but if these yers didn''t cooperate with him, then ck Tempest wouldn''t mind killing them. He didn''t reach his position in Emperor''s Might by being a lenient fellow and he wouldn''t mind spilling blood if his authority was ever challenged.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    While the [Druid] on the other side could sense Sato and the others, Fudo wasn''t capable of doing the same. This wasn''t to say that his ability to sense manner was weaker than the other party. On the contrary, it was better, after all, Fudo was a level 9 [Elementalist] while the other was a level 7 [Druid].

    The reason why Fudo wasn''t able to sense them though was that ck Tempest''s team had used a stealth scroll on themselves after that ambush so sensing their mana signatures bes more difficult. Apart from that, the other party was a [Druid], which was a ss skilled in sensing lifeforms whenpared to the other sses. In other words, he had a superior advantage over Fudo in this regard even though his level was lower.

    All these factors added together made it such that ck Tempest''s team had discovered the existence of Sato and the others but Sato''s team hadn''t sniffed a trail of them.

    "Growl!!"

    "Be quiet." Sato brandished his sword as he split the monster into two parts.

    -878 (???/??? ???)

    Against these monsters, every one of Sato''s attacks seemed to deal unimaginable damage and these were such values that Sato wouldn''t see against an opponent of his caliber.

    With the strength he possessed, it should be said that anyone would feel intoxicated when confronting weak monsters like these, and Sato himself wasn''t free of this emotion. It was like the feeling of being the lord above all. With one sh, he could end a life and with another, he could end multiple lives.

    ''Hai~ this is indeed bullying.'' Sato sighed internally.

    In the neighbouring areas of the 3 towns, no monster could be said to be Sato''s match, except for the Kobold King, but this was only just a possibility. The problem associated with this discovery meant that Sato''s strength wouldn''t increase since he won''t get any Experience points for killing weaker monsters even if he cleared out the entire Stone Creek Forest and ck Grill''s Cave two regions.

    ''After all this, I should head over to the city. I will sell off the weapons I''ve forged and the useless ones too. This town has nothing to offer to me again but I can still make a few bucks before I leave.'' Sato decided on his next series of actions as approached the Inner circle.

    With his impable skills and stunning strength, even if Sato was surrounded by 200 of these monsters, he still wouldn''t find himself to be a difficult situation. So, a mere number of a few dozen wasn''t an issue.

    It didn''t take long for Sato to break into the encirclement and charge straight at the elite forces on the inner circle. Once he was on there, Sato didn''t hesitate to attack the monsters there, drawing the aggro of the entire mob towards himself.

    "Growl!!!"

    "Hiss!"

    "Roar!!!"

    Seeing that his n was sessful, Sato immediately retreated through the same path he had arrived from. He made sure not to run too fast nor too slow but at an appropriate pace that kept the monsters at a safe distance but still left him in their active range.

    ''The rest depends on you.''

    Once the monsters had chased after Sato, Lu Zhen, who was hiding close by, dashed towards the wooden house just as nned.

 Chapter 338 - 332 : Bizarre Occurrence

    As Sato drew the monsters away from the wooden house, Lu Zhen dashed into it with a sh. He had gone through the loopholes and blind spots of the monsters and since their focus was on Sato, none of them spotted him

    Amongst the monsters Sato had drawn away from the wooden house were five Ground Rats that were slightly bigger than the others, seven Mud Bears, three Earth Snakes, and one Kobold. From the experience and info gathered by a majority of yers, the strength of the monsters was around level 6 Elite or level 7 whereas the kobold was either a level 7 Common or Elite or even a level 8. If anyone else were in Sato''s shoes, they would find it difficult to maintain an appropriate distance from the monsters and not get injured in the process but Sato didn''t have an issue pulling this off.

    *Step* *Step*

    With the monsters drawn away from the building, Lu Zhen began speeding his way without fear of being discovered.

    Compared to the view from the outside, the wooden house turned out to be bigger than he had thought. Just two seconds after entering the building, Lu was confronted with an intersection.

    Two of the paths led to the left and the right sides respectively while thest one went straight ahead.

    ''It should be at the centre of this building.'' Lu Zhen thought.

    Technically speaking, the most important facilities of a building is usually located at the centre of the building. While there wasn''t any specific reason for this, most people believed that this was either for aesthetic appeal or because the important ces were better suited to be right at the core of the facility, signifying its rank.

    Having selected a path, Lu Zhen darted forward and ignored the other road. It wasn''t that he didn''t want to check out those ces but instead he had an important task which he had to fulfill before he could check out other ces.

    It didn''t take long for Lu Zhen to reach the end of the road, after taking a few cuts and bends. The building was small, to begin with so a level 9 [Assassin] would not have any problem scouring through it with ease.

    There was a room at the end of the road and the doors were slightly open. Suddenly feeling the air being different here, Lu Zhen minimised the sound from his footsteps before approaching the door in stealth. He peeped through the opening in the door and saw two kobolds standing guard in ce. The kobolds each held a long pole with a pointed tip in their hands. They stood still like the Queen''s guards in front of the Buckingham Pce but released a ferocious aura that suffused the entire room.

    In between the two kobolds was a swirling blue wormhole that looked like a portal to a mysterious ce. This was the Exit gate that Lu Zhen had been looking for.

    Lu Zhen was first thrilled at finding the Exit gate so quickly but he suddenly frowned as he realised something.

    ''Exit gates are supposed to be safe zones but there are two guards here.''

    It should be known that all Exit gates were safe zones as they had a strange characteristic that seemed to repel monsters away from them. The only exception to this was the Exit gates on the Middle region''s 9th floor. Even then, the monsters there were acting as guardians of the Exit gate. Rather than calling them monsters, they were more like bodyguards that existed to guard the gate. This was a natural urrence and not like the one before Lu Zhen, where a kobold took the role of a guardian.

    ''What does this mean?'' Lu Zhen racked his brain to betterprehend the situation but he was stuck at an impasse.

    Since there was nothing he could do about it, Lu Zhen proceeded to go on with the tasked and informed Sato and the others of his discovery. At the same time, he dropped a short description of the path he took as well as a crude map of the ce.

    ''This is strange.'' Sato suddenly frowned upon hearing the report.

    At first, Sato was quite surprised that Lu Zhen had found the Exit gate just within a minute or so after taking action but as he heard the details reported by Lu Zhen, as well as his conjectures, Sato couldn''t help but grimace a bit as he felt that things were quite bizarre.

    Just like Lu Zhen, Sato realised that there was a problem with the Exit gates. Apart from the Middle region''s 9th floor, this was the only floor that had an Exit gate guarded by monsters. Sato Couldn''t ascertain whether this truly had anything to do with the Kobold King as the previous Exit gates they had passed through weren''t guarded by monsters either.

    "There''s no other exnation for this than the Kobold King''s advance. You all should remember that the sub-BOSS areas were also a result of this. Maybe it had decided to set up such checkpoints from the 7th floor down. " Seiichi voiced out his thoughts.

    "Maybe." Sato sighed.

    This was the only logical exnation for this so Sato didn''t bother to think of anything else. No yer had everprehended the true essence and form of these Exit gates. Even after bing the inheritor of the Caventry''s legacy, Sato still didn''t have any information in regards to this. It seemed as if the Exit gates had nothing to do with the Caventry, but this was quite strange.

    The entire ck Grill''s Cave was a huge seal and this was a fact. Apart from the monsters dwelling there, who had somehow found a way in, every other thing was a creation of this seal, including the golems. This was why even with the Kobold King''s strength, no Rock golem species was a part of its army. However, for something else to exist here without the means of the seal was quite ludicrous; especially if it were something as important as the Exit gates, which possessed teleportation capabilities that could send one to the next floor or the previous one.

    ''This entire map is crowded with mysteries and I doubt we would be able to discover the truth any time soon.'' Sato sighed. By ''we'', he didn''t refer to his team but the entire yer-base of IR.

    "Sato." Fudo suddenly called out in the team chat.

    "Any problem?" Sato asked. The monsters behind him didn''t seem to add any pressure to him so he had a lot of energy to spare in the team chat.

    "I sense movement from the outside." Fudo said.

    "I''m not so sure as I only sensed a slight fluctuation in the mana flow, but I think there''s someone, or better yet, some people, approaching."

 Chapter 339 - 333 : Departure 1

    "Sato." Fudo suddenly called out in the team chat.

    "Any problem?" Sato asked. The monsters behind him didn''t seem to add any pressure to him so he had a lot of energy to spare in the team chat.

    "I sense movement from the outside." Fudo said.

    The battle with the monsters couldn''t be described as tough since everyone in the team was much stronger than the monsters individually, much less collectively. Due to this, Fudo had a lot more spare energy and time which he used to prove the entire area. In the process of doing so, he had unwittingly stumbled into an interesting discovery.

    "I''m not so sure as I only sensed a slight fluctuation in the mana flow, but I think there''s someone, or better yet, some people, approaching."

    Unbeknownst to ck Tempest''s team, Fudo had surprisingly managed to perceive their presence. The reason for this wasn''t difficult to understand. The team was contending against a level 9 [Elementalist]. Although [Elementalists] weren''t as sharp as [Druids] in sensing lifeforms, when ites to perceiving a change in the mana flow of an area, they are one step ahead of their contemporary.

    70% of every living organism in the world of IR has been exposed to mana and this was especially so for yers, monsters, and powerful NPCs. When any of these individuals move into a different location where the mana flow has been constant, a change results in it due to their presence. To better understand, let''s say that the destination of the individual is represented with a bowl of water. The water represents the state of the mana flow in the area and as the water in the bowl is constant and stationary, so is the mana flow. In this analogy, the individual is now represented as a ss of water.

    When the individual arrives at the destination, their presence -which has an inkling of mana- would cause a change to the state of mana in the environment. Using the above analogy, the ss of water would then be emptied into the bowl. The result of this would be a vibration analysis n the water surface as the water from the ss tries to mix in with the water in the bowl. The ripples formed in the bowl are simr to the ripples produced when a yer or a monster steps into a different ce [1].

    [Elementalists] are capable of sensing this ''ripple'' since their natural affinity with mana is much higher than the other sses. This gave birth to their ability to function as scouts, just as [Druids] do.

    The limitation of this though is that the ''ripple'' only exists as long as the said individual remains in the environment. However, the longer the individual remains in the environment, the natural mana system would adapt to the presence of the individual and incorporate their existence into the system. Like with the analogy, eventually, the ripples formed by the water would disappear with time and the same happens here as the natural mana system adapts to the individual''s presence. This is why an [Elementalist] can still suffer an ambush to a yer. Simply because the yer had remained hidden in the ce to the extent that the natural mana system incorporates their presence into the mana cycle.

    There are a few other limitations to the sensing abilities of [Elementalists] as well as some advantages over that of the [Druids], but this would be left for another time.

    Sato pondered for a very short while before giving out his orders.

    "Alright, everyone. We have a map and we have a route. Now, let''s go."

    Rather than wait to discover who and what was behind them, Sato felt it was best and also safer for them to depart. It would be best that during this raid they try as much as possible to avoid leaving behind any trails and waiting for the new arrivals was the same as leaving a trail behind. Whether the group behind was hostile couldn''t be confirmed but one thing was certain, they definitely wouldn''t be an ally.

    "Alright."

    Having received themand, the 5 of them increased the intensity of their attacks as they dashed towards the wooden house.

    Fudo used his explosive speels to clear the path ahead while Katsuo and Yato pushed the monsters in front of them to the side. Seiichi fired arrows from the blindspot of the formation, targeting any monster that tried to force its way towards the group.

    The team moved forward with great vigor and the monsters weren''t able to impede them in any way.

    Seeing as the others were closing in on the wooden house, Sato turned around to face the 16 monsters behind him.

    "I would have loved to y with you guys longer but it''s time for me to leave." Sato smiled.

    Tightening his grip on his sword, Sato then swung the de in front of himself.

    The first monster to arrive was a pitiful level 7 Earth Snake. As a level 7 monster, it was capable of giving the majority of gamers in IR a run for their money and even the level 8 experts would have to take it seriously. This was because Earth Snakes had a poisonous bite that could paralyze a yer and deprive them of their fighting ability. Even though the effect became weaker against stronger opponents, it could still be problematic for 99.9999999999% of gamers in IR.

    As for why the Earth Snake is tagged as pitiful in this scenario, this was because the very individual it had set at its target was the 0.0000000001% of the current gamer poption, the only yer who could be said to be immune to its venom due to therge difference in strength between the two of them. This individual was the very first level 10 [Swordsman], Sky de Sato.

    "Too bad I can''t use you for snake meat soup. You can go meet your predecessors now."

    Unlike before, Sato had gathered his full strength and shed out with tightened muscles. It could be said that just the sh of his epassed the more than 30 digits of [Strength] he possessed. Against such power, what was a meagre level 7 beast that didn''t even have more than 10 points in [Strength]?

    Immediately the sword came in contact with the Earth Snake, it cut through it with ease just like a hot knife through butter. Like a divine sword beheading a dragon, the Earth Snake was cut into two sections with the head flying towards the side and the corpse crashing before Sato. Blood spurted from the severed neck almost like fresh water from a fountain, dyeing the floor blood-red.

    "One down, 15 more to go."

    Some of the blood had sprayed on Sato''s face and even a bit of it andnded on his lips, giving him a sinister look that could scare the living hell out of any weak-minded individual.. At that moment, Sato looked almost like a bloodthirsty demon that would stop at nothing just to turn the earth into a bloody hell.

 Chapter 340 - 334 : Suspicions

    "Captain, the other party has begun moving." The [Druid] in the team said after some consideration.

    After he had discovered the presence of Sato and his teammates, the [Druid] was assigned to be constantly monitoring their movements and alerting ck Tempest of any changes. This wasn''t a difficult task but it required him to put all his focus into it. As a result, the [Druid] wouldn''t be able to scour the area for any ambush and he also wouldn''t be able to react to one. Luckily, they were almost close to the Exit gate, so the chance of suffering an ambush was quite low.

    "So soon?" ck Tempest raised an eyebrow.

    "Just when we''re closing in on them." ck Tempest looked displeased at the report.

    The team was currently on their way to the Exit gate so it was understandable as to why ck Tempest felt dissatisfied.

    "If you think of it that way, it feels strange." The [Ranger], Blue Sky, suddenly spoke up.

    "What do you mean?" ck Tempest looked at him.

    "I''m not so sure yet as I need more info."

    Blue Sky then turned to the [Druid] and said, "Describe everything you''ve sensed."

    The [Druid] then went on to describe the changes he had spotted from the other side. Overall, he had discovered that the mana fluctuations in the area had surged and the rate of death of the monsters also sky-rocketed whenpared to before. This meant that the ''mysterious party'' had increased the intensity of their attacks.

    "If my guess is correct, then there''s a possibility that we''ve been spotted." Blue Sky said after a few seconds of consideration.

    "Hmm? Why do you say so?" ck Tempest asked.

    The team had been very careful with their movements and they had even used a stealth scroll. It would be very difficult for anyone to sense them in this scenario.

    "The target suddenly increases the intensity of their attacks and they begin heading deeper in. This could mean anything but I feel it points towards a single direction; they were being chased by something.

    "If this is the case, the bothered are two possibilities. We could infer in the first one that it''s a powerful monster that forced them to hasten their actions in search of an escape route. And in fact, this sounds quite logical and might as well be the answer. But there''s also the other possibility. Though the likelihood of this is low, there''s the possibility that they might have discovered our presence. It could exin why they are running towards the Exit gate." Blue Sky exined.

    "But how?" ck Tempest widened his eyes. "We already used stealth scrolls and our mana signatures are being manipted. It should be impossible for such to happen."

    "I don''t know either, that''s why I feel the chances are low." Blue Sky said.

    "Then why did you suggest it?" ck Tempest felt incredulous at his words before frowning at him.

    "It''s like this: while the chances of the other party being chased by a strong monster sounds logical, it''s not so possible. For there to be a monster that can agitate one to the point of only thinking of escaping, the monster has to be at least level 9; possibly an Elite rank at that. If you were to encounter such a monster when surrounded by a bunch of others, what would be your orders, captain?" Blue Sky asked.

    "My orders? It would be a full-scale retreat." ck Tempest said after pondering for just 2 seconds.

    "But what if the monster is a level 8 or thereabout creature? What would be your orders?" Blue Sky questioned again.

    "A level 8? I would face it. As long as we make good use of our tactics and abilities, we can not only defeat it but profit from that event." ck Tempest said without much thought. He was a level 8 [Berserker] and a ''false king'' at that. If he couldn''t face a level 8 monster alone, he would be a great disappointment to the guild.

    "Precisely. Whoever our targets are, we should presume that they have equal or at least, simr strength to ours. When considering this, we would believe that their reactions would be the same as ours.

    "As for the issue of the monster''s strength, a level 9 monster wouldn''t so easily appear anywhere especially in the Outer region. If it does exist, it would be in the Mode region rather than here and the same could be said for a level 8 monster. That''s why I didn''t seriously consider the chance of there being a strong monster out there and included the second possibility." Blue Sky Said.

    "But if they found us, then how did they do it?" ck Tempest was confused.

    "I don''t know either but we haven''t fully explored the game. Who says there isn''t some kind of equipment that could pull that off? Maybe it''s a sensor or maybe it boosts the scouting capabilities of a [Druid]. Thing is , I don''t know. But I don''t think we should rule out the possibility of them discovering our position." Blue Sky answered.

    Blue Sky''s spections, though rational, didn''t apply to Sato and the others. Unlike what he had assumed, Fudo was only able to spot the others because of his level and his high affinity towards fire elemental mana. With a level difference of 2, it was quite easy for him to sense ck Tempest''s team even if the [Druid] in the team was trying to hide their mana signatures. As for how he had perceived them despite the stealth scroll being active, it was because of his advantage in elemental mana affinity.

    In IR''s yer base, Fudo could be said to be one of the yers with the highest affinity towards fire elemental mana. This came from both his advantage as a fire [Elementalist] as well as the essory [Igneel''s Guidance] and his weapon, [Vermilion Pine Staff]. Abined 25% boost to fire affinity saw his fire spells increasing in firepower as well as increased his sensitivity to fire elemental mana.

    Among ck Tempest''s teammates was a fire [Elementalist] and though the stealth scroll was used on them, the standard was a low one which had weak ability against above level 10 creatures but was suitable for current yers. Fudo''s affinity was enough to bring his prowess to a level above that so he was able to pick up the ''scent'' of a fire [Elementalist] in their formation. Once he did, Fudo had then concentrated harder on the signature and discovered the others.

    ck Tempest would never have thought that his decision of bringing a fire [Elementalist] with him, would lead to his position being revealed.

    "If that''s the case, then for them to be running away means that they are suspicious." ck Tempest thought out loud.

    "Probably but maybe they just don''t want to mess with other yers, yet at least." Blue Sky replied.

    "Hmm." ck Tempest nodded.

    "Everyone, increase your speed. We need to make it to those guys before they escape. There are the odds of them being rted to our ambushers so we need to catch up to them and interrogate them. Move." ck Tempest gave the orders before increasing his pace.

    The yers in his team also increased speed and everyone dashed towards the Exit gate. They had abandoned their previous strategy of slow and steady since they couldn''t afford to let Sato and the others escape.

    From the information disyed on the map, it would have taken them 5 minutes to make it to the basin by moving at their previous steady speed. But as the team had picked up their pace, it would only take them half the time to make it there or even less. In other words, the team would require at least 2 minutes to make it over or maybe even a minute. For the faster ones in the group, like ck Tempest, they could do so before that time.

    ''Hopefully, we can make it.''

 Chapter 341 - 335 : Departure 2

    "Sato, they''ve increased their moving speed. I think they know we''ve caught a whiff of their presence." Fudo said in the team chat.

    "It doesn''t matter, just move ahead and get to the Exit gate in time. As long as we pass through it, there wouldn''t be any problem again." Sato said right after he sliced a Mud Bear in half.

    Once a yer passes through an Exit gate, they appear at a random spot on the next floor and unless one follows after them within a certain interval, they would be teleported elsewhere. In situations where guild members wanted to pass through the Exit gate, they all do so under 20 seconds to prevent being sent to different locations on the next floor.

    Sato estimated that it would take more than half a minute for the party behind them to reach the Exit gate. If Sato and the others were able to pass through the gate in time, then it would refresh the destination and they would be safe.

    "I will let you guys off for now. Killing you wouldn''t be difficult but I hope you can hold back those guys."

    Of the initial 16 monsters that had chased after him, only 7 remained and among them was the only kobold in the group. Defeating these guys wasn''t a problem for Sato but it was a task that had no reward attached to it. Not only would he not get any Experience points but he also wouldn''t receive any loot for doing so. Apart from that, he would be wasting his time here and increasing the risk of being spotted by the neers. Hence, Sato came up with a different plot.

    Sato intended to leave the monsters be and escape their encirclement before leaving through the Exit gate. The monsters were most likely bound by location so they wouldn''t chase after him once he did so. When thepany behind them were to arrive, the monsters would then change their focus towards them and attack those guys. This would dy the possibility of the yers entering the Exit gate in time and increase the team''s chances of pulling off a sessful escape.

    "Growl!"

    Even with their continuously diminishing numbers, the monsters didn''t shy away from a fight and surrounded Sato. This wasn''t due to courage, bravery, or whatnot but that the monsters were simplistic in nature. Apart from the kobold, the other monsters all acted based on their instincts and the behavioural patterns of wild animals, which was based on the supremew of the jungle; the strongest is king. By Life order alone, the kobold was superior to them so unless it gave the order to retreat, the monsters would fight till thest man, or monster.

    Sato ran towards a Mud Bear that stood guard in front and swung his sword at it. He didn''t attack to kill it but simply to push it to the side as he wanted the number of elite monsters to berge enough to hold back the third party.

    -458 (???/??? ???)

    Even though it was a simple swat, Sato had taken more than half of the Mud Bear''s HP with that attack but there was nothing he could do about it. The level difference between the two of them wasrge enough to turn any action of Sato''s to be on par with the full strike of a level 10 yer.

    ''Sorry pal.''

    Before he left, Sato also knocked away a few other monsters especially the ones with higher [Agility] than the rest, like the kobold and thest Earth Snake. Once he was done, Sato then rushed towards the wooden house at full speed. None of the monsters were able to catch up to his shadow much less reach him so Sato wasn''t worried about anything.

    The distance between him and the wooden house was about 60 metres or so, but it took Sato less than 5 seconds to cover it.

    The others were already inside the house and they had reached the room that held the Exit gate. They were about to confront the kobolds in the room when Sato had arrived.

    "How many?"

    Sato asked just when he was a few feet away.

    "Two." Yato replied.

    Sato didn''t stop running and instead barged into the room. It took him less than a second to spot the two kobolds who were stunned at his entrance. Before the two monsters could even react to this, Sato had appeared in front of one of them and thrust his sword forward.

    -672 (???/??? ???)

    "!!!"

    Like a needle through a ball of cotton, the sword went unimpeded through the body of the kobold. The kobold widened its eyes in shock as the sensation of pain suddenly flooded into it. However before it could release a cry, Sato withdrew his sword and swung at its head in one swift motion.

    *Thud*

    A monstrous head with a face covered in an expression of difort and shock fell to the ground with a thud.

    Two seconds hadn''t gone by and a level 7 kobold had departed from this world. This was a monster that could give some yers a run for their money but in front of Sato, it was like a little insect that could be squashed with two stomps.

    The second kobold finally came to its senses as it brought its spear down with a whoosh. However, Sato was one step ahead of it. It was unknown when, but Sato had suddenly appeared in front of it, almost like a fleeting ghost. The kobold was stunned at his speed and couldn''t react in time, partially due to its shock and also because it had just attacked with the spear in its hand.

    The spear had already been thrust forward but there was no one in front. The intended target of the spear was right before the wielder but the kobold couldn''t do anything about it.

    [Hack]

    -989 (???/??? ???)

    To make sure he killed the monster in one hit, Sato had used one of his ss skills and shed the monster in half. Call it overkill or not, but Sato didn''t want to waste any more time dealing with it, even if it were just an extra millisecond.

    "Incredible...!"

    Fudo and the others who stood outside all widened their eyes in astonishment.

    From start to finish, it had taken Sato only 3 seconds to clean up two level 7 Elite kobolds but from his expression, he didn''t seem to be pleased or surprised at this. On the contrary, there was a slight frown on his face.

    ''I was too slow.''

    This was what was on Sato''s mind at the moment. He felt that as a level 15 yer he should have been able to deal more damage and finish off the monsters faster than he just did so he couldn''t help but be a bit disappointed at himself.

    If Fudo and the others knew what he was thinking, they would surely curse him for being too greedy and drown him in their saliva. Sato''s strength was already at the peak of the yermunity of IR yet he didn''t seem satisfied by this fact. Fudo would surely cry out that the heavens weren''t fair, especially for giving such strength to an ungrateful yer.

    "Let''s go." Sato turned to the team and said.

    "Lu Zhen is not here yet." Katsuo suddenly said.

    Lu Zhen was the first to reach the wooden house and he had discovered that the room that contained the Exit gate. Despite this, none of them had spotted any sign of him.

    Sato frowned slightly and was about to say something when a bunch of hurried footsteps sounded by the door.

    "Here. Huff, huff." Lu Zhen suddenly dashed into the room while breathing heavily.

    Sato gave him a look but didn''t ask any questions.

    "Alright.. Let''s go."

 Chapter 342 - 336 : Lu Zhenâ€™s Stroke Of Luck 1

    "Where are they?"

    At the top of the basin that led to the Exit gate, ck Tempest stood at the edge and surveyed the entire area. Slightly behind him were the others of his team but ck Tempest''s words were said with a somewhat absent-minded tone.

    "I don''t know, captain." The [Druid] in the team spoke up. He then looked forward as if looking for something before replying.

    "They mysteriously disappeared. They had gone forward, towards the centre of this basin, but had suddenly disappeared."

    ck Tempest had a look of frustration on his face but there was nothing he could about it. He knew that the opponent had now escaped and would probably not encounter them again, anytime soon.

    The yers behind him all felt his fury but they dropped their heads low.

    It should be known that after the death of the team''s [Assassin], ck Tempest became one of the top 3 fastest individuals in the team. If he wanted to leave everyone else and chase after the other party, he could have done so, but instead, ck Tempest moved at a speed slightly above the others, staying at an appropriate distance that wouldn''t leave any of them behind. While it was true that the closer they got to the Exit gate, the lower the chance of suffering an ambush, ck Tempest remained with the team because sometimes, things might not go as usually expected.

    "How long do you think it''s been? How long have they been gone?" ck Tempest asked the [Druid].

    "It''s been at least 10 seconds." The [Druid] replied with a low voice.

    While it took more than 10 seconds for the Exit gate to refresh, it would take ck Tempest and his team more than 20 seconds to get to the Exit gate''s location. That added with the previous 10 seconds was more than enough for the Exit gate to refresh.

    "So, they have escaped us, huh?" ck Tempest asked out loud, though the tone of voice implied that it was a rhetorical question.

    "Let''s keep going. We''re here now so there''s no use idling around." ck Tempest began to descend the basin.

    The rest nced at each other before they followed him with a sigh. Having spent quite some time with ck Tempest as the captain, almost all of them have gotten the hang of reading his state of mind. While it seemed like ck Tempest was calm right now, he was most likely fuming inside and was just putting up a pretentious front. The very second he encounters a monster or an opponent, only the heavens would be able to save that single soul from his fury.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    "Let''s keep going. It''s safer to leave this spot." Sato said to the group.

    No one refuted his statement as it was indeed true. Even though the Exit gate is said to refresh the destination after a certain amount of time, the ''refreshing'' might not change the destination. It was like how random number generators would issue the same number once twice in a row or how mystery boxes in some games would give out the same reward two or more times in a row even after a gamer opens them at different time intervals. However, unlike those money-grubbing scammer games, the possibility of this happening with the Exit gates was extremely low.

    "Hey, Old Lu. What took you so long back then?" Yato asked Lu Zhen.

    During the time Sato and Xue Yan had spent in the Main Trials, the other 5 had worked together a lot so they were quite close with each other. ''Old Lu'' was the nickname Yato gave to Lu Zhen as he felt it might be slightly disrespectful to call him by his full name, even though it was also his IGN.

    "Nothing much. I just explored the other areas before you guys came in. He." Lu Zhen smirked eerily.

    "Oi, Old Lu. It looks like you got something nice. Come on, man. Ain''t I your close buddy? Come on, show me." Yato''s eyes glistened.

    "Don''t force him, Yato. What any one of us gets in this journey belongs to that person alone." Satomented.

    "Don''t worry about it. How can I be selfish over such a little thing after all you guys have done for me and my cousin. Once we reach a suitable junction, I will show it to everyone." Lu Zhen said.

    Even though he and Xue Yan hade to an agreement a long time ago with Sato over the distribution of loot, Lu Zhen felt that it wasn''t right to hide whatever he gained from them. Sato had even exposed the knowledge of the Caventry''s Hall to them at no cost. Because of that, Xue Yan had be the second highest levelled yer and also improved her skills and increased her knowledge. The same went for Lu Zhen, even though his gains weren''t as much as Xue Yan''s. Apart from that, his teammates had helped him and Xue Yan increase their levels and get new equipment. It would be unfair of him to still treat them as strangers after all of this.

    Sato smiled faintly but didn''t say anything. Truthfully, he had spoken up as a way to test Lu Zhen''s reaction. Sato had ns of starting a club and he would need a lot of manpower for that. If Lu Zhen had agreed with his words, then it would mean that Lu Zhen was an unscrupulous human being that could abandon one in the face of profit. However, if he did otherwise, then it would mean that he was trustworthy and worth making a friend out of.

    "Tch. Now I don''t feel like it''s something good if you''re so willing to bring it out." Yato grumbled.

    "Haha. If I were you, I wouldn''t say that so soon." Lu Zhen chuckled mysteriously.

    Some minutester, the team had finally managed to find a good reclusive spot that suited for a hideout. While their experience on the previous flooring wasn''t physically stressful, it was mentally taxing so everyone voted for a break.

    "Alright then.. Let''s see it."

 Chapter 343 - 337 : Lu Zhenâ€™s Stroke Of Luck 2

    "Alright then. Let''s see it." Yato rubbed his palms as he approached Lu Zhen.

    "The rank is quite low and it also came with a magic lock so I couldn''t open it in time. However, to have been ced in that facility means there shod be something special about it." Lu Zhen said ced a hand into his space bag and pulled out an object.

    "That''s...!"

    Everyone widened their eyes in surprise. Sato lifted an eyebrow at the sight of the object since that brown coloured luster was very familiar to him.

    The object turned out to be a dull brown box. Based on the colour alone, this was a Mortal rank chest. It was the lowest rank of treasure chests in the game and could be found in secretive spots of almost every field. However, no one looked down on it.

    "A Mortal rank chest huh? I wonder what good items we could get." Fudo smiled with an avaricious grin on his face.

    "It should be good. You should check the location it was gotten from. I have a good feeling about this guy." Lu Zhen smiled.

    While Mortal rank chests were the lowest rank treasure chests and often gave out basic rewards, there were a few examples on the about yers who managed to hit gold with these boxes.

    While the rank of a treasure chest remained constant, the quality of the reward inside didn''t. In other words, there was no rule that stated that Mortal rank treasure chests would have at most 3 Upper-tier Mortal rank equipment and no Rare-Steel rank equipment. A Mortal rank chest could have an Upper-tier Mortal rank equipment today but tomorrow, a yer could discover one that held a level 10 Rare Steel rank weapon or maybe higher.

    This was the joy in Mortal rank chests. While their low quality confirmed the presence of low-rank equipment and weapons, there existed a possibility for one to strike it big with them.

    To know whether a Mortal rank treasure chest contained any high-quality equipment or reward, a few yers developed a theory that was quite applicable in this regard. One would only need to check the difficulty involved in seizing the Mortal rank chest as well as the location it was found. If the difficulty of extracting the chest or the rewards within it was hard or the location was a dangerous one, following the belief that the System was fair, one would be bestowed impressive rewards to make up for their loss in the game.

    Of course, all of these were just theories with no proof behind them. Once, a team of 7 had fought a tough battle against a strong monster just to get a Mortal rank treasure chest. In the end, 5 of the yers had died in the battle while the other two went on to win it. After everyone had resuscitated, they opened the Mortal rank treasure chest just to see a bunch of cheap goodies like stealth scrolls and whatnots with a few Mid-tier Mortal rank weapons. Based on the average cash out of Mortal rank treasure chests, these were just average rewards. The inclusion of the stealth scroll and other barely useable stuff made the reward a bit lower than the average giveaway. There were a few other simr instances so one could never be sure about what they would gain from a treasure chest, especially a Mortal rank treasure chest.

    "Why the heck did you grab the entire box and not open it back then?" Fudo asked Lu Zhen.

    "I didn''t have enough time." Lu Zhen said before he pointed at the lock.

    "See this. It''s a magic lock. Opening this is way harder than opening a simple lock. I couldn''t risk spending so much time to do so, so I simply took the box with me. "

    Treasure chests were either locked with a simple lock or a magic lock. For a simple lock, anyone could open it and all they needed to do was to remain motionless for some time right after clicking the [Unlock] icon on the box. As for the magic lock, it required the aid of either the [Thief], [Scribe], or [Fraudster] subsses. In case one wascking any they could simply purchase a special scroll that helped in opening them. Because of the requirements for opening a magic lock, Lu Zhen had straight-up seized the box rather than opening it.

    "Oh? A magic lock? This is the first time I''m seeing such." Fudo stared at the box with interest.

    "How do you n on opening it?"

    "Did you forget?" Not just Lu Zhen, but everyone else looked at him as if they were staring at an idiot.

    "Eh? What?" Fudo became flustered.

    "I''m a [Thief]." Lu replied as he set the box in front of himself.

    "Oh! That''s true." Fudo hollered.

    Lu Zhen ignored him as he set his sights on the magic lock.

    The reason why any of the 3 subsses was required to unlock a magic lock was that the magic lock was made up of runes. From this, one would realise that the most suitable subss for handling this operation was actually the [Scribe], aka [Rune-smithing] subss. However, since the action involved was considered ''stealing'' to a certain extent, the [Thief] subss had to be included.

    From this, one could see that just like [Scribes], [Thieves] also studied runes but their specialty was opening magic locks and setting traps unlike [Scribes] who learned everything. Theparison was the same as a medical doctor and a paediatrician or a gynaecologist. The medical doctor studied medicine in general and was capable of looking after different sses of people and genders. A paediatrician, however, specialised only in child cases just like a gynaecologist or an obstetrician, who only worked on pregnant women.

    "The runic patterns used here are quiteplex." Lu Zhen frowned.

    "Can you undo it?" Sato asked him.

    "Yeah, it''s just strange. This is a Mortal rank chest but the runic patterns of the magic lock are almost asplex as a Rare-Steel rank chest." Lu Zhen grimaced.

    "How do you know what a Rare-Steel rank magic lock looks like?" Fudo asked.

    "The library at the Hall had a lot of information on this." Lu Zhen smiled faintly.

    The Caventry was a civilization with thousands of years of heritage. Even though the majority of them have been wiped out, their legacy and knowledge were still kept safe and their library was constantly being updated by the survivors who explored the outside world once in a while.

    During his stay there, Lu Zhen had also looked through the subss section just like Xue Yan and Sato and has increased his knowledge on his subss. While the [Thief] subss couldn''t be defined as orthodox, it was still useful so the Caventry had a few collections on the subss, though it wasn''t as much as that of the orthodox subsses.

    "The fact that it''splex definitely means that this isn''t an ordinary Mortal rank chest." Lu Zhen said with a smile.

    Even Mortal rank chests had multiple differences between them. There were those with simple locks and those with magic locks, and even for the ones with magic locks, the difficulty of the lock differed from one another.

    *Click*

    After working on the lock for almost 5 minutes, Lu Zhen finally seeded in breaking it as a click sound came out of the lock.

    "Time to see what''s in here."

 Chapter 344 - 338 : Satoâ€™s Dream

    "That''s all." Lu Zhen said as he closed the box.

    "Haha. You really have some dogsh*t luck, Old Lu. It''s almost on par with this great Emperor." Fudo guffawed.

    After Lu Zhen had opened the Mortal rank chest, the contents were emptied and then auctioned within the group. The reason for putting them for auction rather than distributing them for free was because Sato felt it was wrong for the others to get the items without having done anything. As for the money paid for the goods, Sato brought up the idea that it would be held in a "party ount" and the funds would be used to benefit the entire team. Since the money would eventually go back to everyone, no one disagreed with this, and Seiichi was chosen to be the team''s finance manager, or better yet, treasurer. This was mostly because guild features hadn''t be avable to yers yet.

    Of the 6 men present, Fudo was the one who gained the most as a majority of the items in the box were leaned towards mages so most of the team members didn''t auction for it. Lu Zhen, being the one who found the box, was permitted to take 2 items without having to pay anything. As for the rest, it was bought by the remaining 3 since most of the items weren''t useful to Sato, who was well above the mainstream level of yers, and Fudo had already gotten his fill together with Lu Zhen.

    "Even if these items aren''t useful to me, I can sell them off to other yers at a high price." Fudo had a wide grin on his face.

    It should be known that treasure chests and boxes were quite rare and because of this, the items found in them were usually valuable, even if it was from a Mortal rank chest. Fudo was already level 9, which was not far from level 10, so a majority of these goods would be worthless to him. However, he could still sell them to other yers and make a killing.

    "Enough grinning, you greedy pig." Yato said with a scowl on his face.

    Yato didn''t manage to get anything from the Mortal rank chest since most of the items inside leaned towards mages. Even for the few that didn''t, he got outbid by Katsuo and Seiichi so Yato didn''t have the strength to be polite or even to keep a smile on his face.

    "Haha. This Emperor made a killing so my magnanimous self will ignore the cries of poor you. Don''t worry. Who knows, maybe your turn is just around the corner?" Fudo smirked.

    "You...!"

    "Alright, that''s enough. Break it up you two." Sato said.

    "I will be returning back to town now so you guys will have to go on without me." Sato suddenly said.

    "Huh? Why?" Everyone turned and asked him.

    "Isn''t it obvious? I''m too strong." Sato said with a smug.

    "Tch." Fudo suddenly lost all the previous joy he had upon seeing Sato''s smile.

    The others were simrly irritated a bit but they understood what Sato was trying to say.

    As a level 15 yer, the gap between him and the monsters here was more than 3 levels so he wouldn''t be getting any shred of Experience points from defeating them since this was a regtion in the game. It could be said that any fight he engaged in would be the same as using a boulder to kill an ant; it was overkill. What was worse was that this action would benefit him nothing; not even the least valuable reward. So Sato''s words weren''t wrong in any way because he was indeed too strong.

    Rather than to while away his time here, Sato decided to proceed with a n of his he had thought up a long time ago. So he set his sights back on the town and decided to take his leave now.

    "Okay then. We understand so get going now." Fudo waved at him.

    Sato ignored him before delegating Seiichi as the new captain of the party in the team control and left the party.

    "Hey! What did you do that for?" Fudo yelled.

    "Yeah, why?" Yato stared at Sato.

    "What?" Sato emotionlessly asked.

    "You made four eyes the captain. The heck?" Yatoined.

    "Yeah. Don''t you know I would have been a better leader than he is? I thought we were best friends." Fudo pouted.

    ''What the heck? Since when did I be a caretaker for a bunch of kids?''

    Even though he knew that the duo was just messing around, Sato got tired of their antics.

    "Enough games, you two. You have to be serious about this. We''re contending against some of the tops guilds in ISJ and the Asian server too. If we lose this opportunity, no one knows when we would get something simr again. I and Xue Yan have indeed gotten stronger and we can simply rely on the two of us to beat the Kobold King but where will your pride be if that happens? Wouldn''t you be more proud of yourselves if you y an important role in the battle? But everythinges at a cost and that''s why you''re all here.

    "I n on making one of the greatest gaming clubs in ISJ and I don''t want ckers in my team. Having fun is good and all but you shouldn''t overdo it."

    Silence pervaded the ce as everyone was surprised at Sato''s speech. Not because of the serious expression he had on when he spoke but the content of his words.

    ''He wants to make one of the greatest clubs in ISJ?'' Lu Zhen looked incredibly at Sato.

    It should be known that ISJ was one of therger states in the Alliance that focused on VR gaming, after all, the VR industry had experienced a massive boom here so it was to be expected. Due to this, thepetition between VR game developmentpanies was heated and thepetition between gaming guilds and clubs was even more vicious. Those who managed to survive thispetition long enough became the current reigning supremes, knownmonly as Super guilds. Despite knowing all of this, Sato had still nned on creating a new club to challenge these supremes. This was the reason why Lu Zhen was shocked.

    It should be known that the Emperor''s Might guild in Riverdale was only a branch of the real deal and even at that, they still made impressive achievements in Riverdale and were recognised as the strongest guild not only in the town but also in ck Rock province''s gamermunity. And this is just the strength of a branch of a super guild. There were multiple other branches like the one in Riverdale scattered all across the world of IR and there was still the main headquarters that was much stronger than the branches. From this, one can imagine the strength of a true super guild and Sato wanted to contend against those guys. If this wasn''t madness then what else would it be?

    "Alright. I get it " Fudo sighed after being lectured by Sato. Unlike the others, he not only knew about Sato''s goal earlier on but he also knew the reason behind it so he was quick to understand.

    "Fine." Yato agreed. Though he yed around most times, he knew when to be serious and when to mess around, and now wasn''t the time for that.

    Seeing that everyone seemed to understand him, Sato nodded his head.

    "Good. I will be heading back now. We''ll see each other again in 24 hours. By then, Xue Yan must have gotten enough rest and also ustomed herself to her newfound strength.. When everyone is set, we will then head straight to the Middle region''s 9th floor with the 10th floor as our final goal."

 Chapter 345 - 339 : The Trade-house 1

    ck Rock province''s Riverdale Town.

    It didn''t take long for Sato to return to ''base''. It took him at least an hour since his departure from the group before he could reach Riverdale. This was because with the Caventry''s authority and with a [Teleportation Rune], he was able to jump directly to the 1st floor of the Outer region or even the entrance. Sato had chosen to go to the 1st floor before wearing a ck cloak to hide his identity and departing the area.

    Originally, with one of the highest authorities in the Caventry, Sato was granted a [Void Opening key] that could not only send him to the Great Hall but could also open wormholes to close locations. However, he needed to ''store'' the destination within the [Void Opening key] else he wouldn''t be able to locate a stop. It was because of this that Sato had taken ''too long'' to reach the town. If it were with the [Void Opening key], he would have done so almost instantly.

    ''I will save a few locations but they''d probably be not more than 3. I don''t have many spots left on the key and I will need to use most of them in the city so 3 spots will be the only quota I can assign.'' Sato decided on what to do with the key.

    Riverdale town, as one of the 3 yer towns in the ck Rock province, was bustling with yers and more active than it was before. This was because, with the constant passage of time since IR''s release, the developers never stopped giving updates on the current affairs in the game as a form of advertisement. Even some of the recorded battle scenes and videos from yers especially those ofrge-scale events like the Goblin incident at Gnorka or the predicament at White Valley town were all uploaded and used as an advertisement for the game. This led to the yer poption steadily rising as some casual gamers and pro yers had their interest drawn towards the game.

    ''It''s only a matter of time before IR officially steps into the top 10 games.'' Sato sighed.

    The top 10 games were the most amazing VR games in the world with a strong yer base as well as massive poprity and tons of sponsor-ships. Various gamingpetitions were held in these VR games and a lot of yers had made their grand debut on them. The rank of top 10 was tough to beat, especially the top 5 which was pretty much described as immoveable and unbeatable by the gaming society.

    While Sao felt that IR''s chances were optimistic to make it to the top 10, he wouldn''t say the same for the to, at least not yet.

    The west side of Riverdale, which was Sato''s destination, was the financial district of Riverdale town. It could be said to be the financial bloodline of the entire town and crippling the services here would be the same as damaging the town''s economy.

    Sato''s intention ining here was to find the town trade-house and sell some of his equipment.

    Towns were much smaller than cities and also had fewer facilities whenpared to thetter. This was easily seen when one recalls that a majority of theplex subsses like Engineering, do not have a branch in any of the towns. Apart from that, cities had auction houses where yers could simply put their goods for sale and wait for the oue but towns were riddled with markets and stalls for such business. The disadvantage of this was that one wouldn''t be able to sell their item for the highest possible price but at least, half a bread was better than none.

    To sell an item in the town market, one would need to purchase either a store or a stall, with the former being more expensive than thetter butes with better features. For example, in a store, one has a much higher chance of garnering the attention of a potential NPC customer than with a stall. Normally, it was only yers who focused on the [Merchant] subss or those who had a lot of goods to sell but weren''t in dire need of the money, that would bother to rent a stall or a store.

    For yers who simply wanted to sell a single item or a few, but had no interest in renting out a store or a stall, they would either consign their goods to other yers to sell on their behalf before deducting fees, or they will simply sell the items to NPCs. There was another method though, which was to consign the goods to the trade-house.

    A trade-house could be said to be the auction house of towns but the core operation of the two was fundamentally different. Auction houses sold off goods in an auction and operated by the rule of the highest bidder gets the goods. A trade-house, however, had a tagged price to the item and operated by the rule ''firste, first serve''. In other words, while you can unt your riches in an auction house and get whatever you want, in a trade-house, you had to make sure that you were the first to ce an order on the item otherwise, even if you were an in-game Bezos, you wouldn''t get the item. Despite this, trade-houses weren''t so popr amongst yers.

    The reason why yers would rather consign their goods to a merchant yer rather than the trade-house was usually that trade-houses had a rmended fixed price for each good. In other words, one can only set the price of their item to a certain range provided by the game after a simple appraisal of the item. But in yer-owned stores and stalls, one could sell their items at whatever price they wished. You could even ce a price tag of 1 million gold coins on a loaf of stale bread. Of course, no one would be foolish enough to spend such arge amount of money on that and this included even the NPCs. In fact, among all the means of trading, auction houses ranked first on the table, followed by yer-owned stores and stalls, NPC-owned stores and stalls, and finally, trade-houses.

    However, since Sato did not personally know any yer who owned a store or even a stall, he decided to sell his work in the trade-house rather than in an NPC store. If he were to sell it to an NPC store, while it was true that he would make a bit more money than in a trade-house, God knows when the NPC would finally put his work up for sale in the store.

    Sato''s intentions ining over here weren''t just to make some cash but to sell off some of his handmade swords and create a name for himself as a [cksmith]. This idea was connected to his master n and since Sato would soon be leaving for the city, he had to make sure that it will work out as soon as possible, otherwise, he would have sold his creations at an NPC store.. At least there, he could get a better price for them there than in the trade-house.

 Chapter 346 - 340 : The Tradehouse 2

    ''There it is.''

    Though it was his first time heading there, with the direction of a few yers as well as a map of the entire West district, Sato was able to locate the trade-house.

    After making a few turns from the main road and heading deeper into the West district, Sato arrived at the Riverdale''s trade-house without much hassle. Since it was a general economic building and somewhat of a store, it was located close to the public market; just a few metres away from it.

    The trade-house was a 3 storey building (AN: American standard) painted with a deep shade of amber that stood just across the road to the public market. It had its courtyard as well as a small pavilion by the side for recreational reasons. Just thend size alone was more than any other store Sato had seen before. The materials used for the building''s construction were high quality, roughly at the 2-star peak rank and 3-star rank, making the building itself a treasure. Though not as impressive as that of Grynx Merchandise, it was roughly on par with it, in the sense that just like the former, the trade-house could resist attacks from monsters and was valued at a price that could make the entire yer poption of Riverdale town go broke in heavy debts.

    Two NPC guards d in iron armour, stood side by side right in front of the gate. They were dressed in the official uniform for Riverdale''s town''s guards but with a few differences. This roughly implied that the trade-house was a building owned and operated by the town''s government. In modern-day tongue, it would be called a State-owned enterprise(SOE). The aura from the guards was my h stronger than anything Sato had ever felt. It was even greater than that of the Kobold King!

    ''Anyone who dares to rob this building has my condolences.''

    As these words crossed Sato''s mind, he also began toment why the town was deemed to be weak but had such formidable forces. In the goblin event, the NPCs present were indeed strong, but not as strong as these guys.

    ''It''s probably the game''s settings. If warriors as strong as these guys had participated in it, yers would have been of no use in that event. We would end up as nothing more than spectators.'' Sato thought.

    He felt this exnation of his was urate because just one of these guards was stronger than 2 or maybe 3 Kobold Kings. If about 3 or 4 of them had participated in the Goblin incident at Gnorka, they would be able to paint the entire battlefield red, with more than 100 goblin corpses sprawled on the floor in just 30 minutes.

    At the top of the gate was a ring banner that was stretched out, with the words "Riverdale''s Tradehouse" disyed on it. As long as one was in the vicinity of the public market, it wouldn''t be difficult to spot the building from far out since the other stores were only 2 storeys tall and none of them have off that luxurious feel that the trade-house did.

    Walking through the gates of the trade-house''s environment, Sato then went straight towards the wooden door that was as tall as two men stacked on top of each other.

    At the door was another guard but unlike the ones at the gate, it was a young boy who was dressed like an attendant.

    "Wee to Riverdale''s Tradehouse." The kid bowed at Sato before proceeding to push the door open for him.

    ''Impressive.'' Sato couldn''t resistmenting in his head. Thement wasn''t only because of the courtesy he had received but also the young boy''s strength. The wooden door looked thick and was also taller than the boy by far. despite this, he was able to push open the door seemingly without much effort.

    "Thank you." Sato replied. Even though he was in a game, Sato intended to treat every NPC as a real human being no matter their status.

    Sato then proceeded to walk into the building where he was further stunned by the sight.

    Simr to the interior of Grynx Merchandise''s branch store in Riverdale, the trade-house was painted white but had a few majestic murals that used the ceiling as their canvas. Blue coloured streaks ran around the walls of the building in a disorderly yet mystical pattern, that gave the entire ce an otherworldly yet refreshing feel. A few vases potted with exotic nts were kept at strategic locations in the building. Even the couches, sofas, tables, and counters were all designed in an orderly manner.

    The entire interior design screamed an exotic yet simple design. Even if such a design was used in a building in reality, it would still be considered breathtaking.

    ''For a trade-house, this is truly spectacr.'' Sato praised.

    Unknown to him though, it was only the trade-house in Riverdale town that was like this. The others, though still impressive, couldn''t bepared to that of Riverdale town. Even some cities'' auction houses were roughly on par with Riverdale''s trade-house.

    The reason why Riverdale town''s trade-house was different was that Riverdale town was the economic lifeline of ck Rock province. It was located at a certain juncture that made it possible for one to head to either ck Mountain town, Salt Springs town, and ck Rock city without much of a hassle. Because of this, most NPC traders who couldn''t afford to stay in a city, based their businesses in Riverdale town due to the ease of transportation. As more businesses appeared, the economy of the town began to improve hence, there was enough money to go around the town and improve most of the facilities. Buildings like the Administrative Hall and the trade-house received the most attention and care, so they looked even more splendid than their counterparts in other towns.

    Sato then nced at the counters but was surprised to see a queue before each one. Though it wasn''t really long, it wasn''t all that short either.

    ''Ah. I forgot.''

    Compared to the stores and stalls in the market, the trade-house sold various equipment, weapons, and materials at a cheaper price than the others. However, while it was true that to a seller, the trade-house seemed to have a lot of disadvantages since it sold their goods at a cheaper price, it wasn''t so for the customers. This ''discounted price'' was well appreciated by yers so most of them would prefer to shop for their items here. Nheless, there were three major ws to trade-houses otherwise the other stores would be pretty much empty and wouldn''t make any earnings.

    Simr to an auction house, the trade-house only sold goods that were sold to them by other yers or NPCs. This meant that they wouldn''t have every single item at any point in time but only the ones they had purchased. This was a problem for most yers especially when they were in dire need of a certain product.

    Take for instance if a yer wanted to purchase an Upper-tier Mortal rank weapon like a spear or some other stuff. There was no guarantee that such a weapon would be avable in the trade-house since not only were Upper-tier Mortal rank weapons quite rare to find in the fields but weapons like spears were even rarer. Rather than keep waiting for such an item to appear in the trade-house, it would be more advisable to just head over to a store and get a suitable one. After all, the items put on sale in the trade-house were abandoned items that yers didn''t need.

    Another problem with trade-houses was theck of consistency. You might find a nice weapon today but it won''t be avable the next. This was because the trade-house didn''t specialise in selling certain goods but only the ones sold to them.

    Thest major problem with trade-houses was the fact that theycked averagemodities like HP and mana potions, water bottles, or edibles like bread and wine. A loaf of bread costs 3 copper coins on average but in a trade-house, it would be bought at 1 copper coin or so. A merchant wouldn''t make a profit by selling such here but would instead suffer a loss. Hence, they preferred to sell suchmodities to stores where they could make a profit. This lead to trade-housescking simple but necessarymodities like this. But for selling weapons and equipment, one would still be able to make a profit, though not as much as they would in an NPC store.

    The greatest advantage of a trade-house over stores and stalls was the fact that the item would immediately be put on sale. So, for cksmith starters and rune-smiths who wanted to be famous with their crafts, a trade-house was the best ce to start from, in the absence of an auction house of course.

    ''No matter.''

    Sato walked over to one of the shorter queues, which only had 3 people on the line, and stood in it.

    Two minutester and Sato was thest man in the queue. The attendant on the counter was attending to a yer in front of him. All Sato needed to do was just to wait for the attendant to be done with the yer and then it would be his turn.

    Suddenly, amotion arose from the entrance of the trade-house.

 Chapter 347 - 341 : The Obnoxious Blacksmith 1

    Roughly two minutes after Sato had joined the queue behind a counter, amotion broke out at the entrance of the trade-house.

    A group of yers had suddenly walked in and the public began to react to it. From the "Oohs" and "Aahs", Sato guessed that the yers were quite popr, especially the two in front who seemed to be the focus of the entire yers.

    "Isn''t that the guild leader of Yellow Cross? And that dude over there. Isn''t he one of the captains of that big club, Armed and Dangerous?"

    The distance between the counter Sato stood in front of and the one by his left was just between 1-2 metres. The yers on the queue there werementing on the characters that had just stepped into the trade-house. Their voice wasn''t low to start with and they weren''t whispering either so Sato could easily listen in on the conversation.

    "Yeah. There''s even that solo yer who''s been making rounds recently." The other yer replied to his friend.

    "So many popr gaming figures. What are they here for?" The first yer who spoke, an [Assassin] by his dressing, asked with confusion.

    "Can''t you see who''s at the lead? That''s Blue me. The new cksmith that''s been garnering attention recently. He''s the dude that forged those Mid-tier Mortal rank Snake swords and double-edged iron swords." The other yer, an MT by profession, replied.

    Back when Sato was busy with the Main Trials, some weapons and equipment had been making rounds after they were first sold in the trade-house of ck Mountain town. For so many of the same type of equipment with simr quality suddenly appearing in the trade-house was quite rare but not impossible. However, when it continuously appeared with time, a lot of yers felt it was unbelievable for one to keep farming these weapons in the same field constantly. Hence the idea that it was the creation of a yer cksmith began spreading.

    It originally started as a rumour till the next set of these items were sold with an insignia of a tongue of blue coloured me inscribed on each of them. This action went on to confirm the rumour, turning it from that to a fact. The result of this was a mad outbreak as various guilds began mobilising their members to look for the original cksmith.

    Double-edged swords were quitemon in the IR as literally every sword user made use of this weapon. The quality of the double-edged iron sword made by this unknown cksmith was slightly on par with that of the ones on the market but what made them more desirable was the fact that the swords could be mass-produced by a yer, making them more affordable than the ones in NPC stores.

    As for the Snake sword, these were short swords that were extremelypatible with [Assassins] and other short sword users. Snake swords focused on attacking speed and movement so they were easy to handle, light in weight and, were sharp and deadly, possessing the prative abilities of a high-quality dagger. The extended length that differentiated them from daggers made it so that [Assassins] would be able to dealparatively more damage as well as increase their attacking range.

    These two weapons, as well as a few other pieces of equipment, were forged by the same cksmith with the insignia of a blue me. While their quality could be termed ordinary by experts, it was still an appreciable good when considering the entire yer niche.

    "You mean it? The Snake swords and double-edged iron swords are his? Those are currently the highest-ranked weapons ever made by a yer in the 3 towns and they''re pretty much unbeatable in ck Rock province. Their quality is roughly the same as market standard but since they are made by a yer, the value is much higher than those in NPC stores but their abilities are half a step higher. So he''s the master behind those weapons, the cksmith Blue me." The [Assassin] said a thick tone of awe in his voice.

    The poprity of the Snake swords and double-edged iron swords was such that a lot of guilds began giving out orders and rewards to search for the cksmith. Since a lot of guilds had mobilised their numbers to look for the cksmith -unless the said individual departed the vicinity of the guilds- the cksmith would be found and that had happened a few days ago. The man behind the blue me products that caused a ruckus in ck Rock province was the man in front of the crowd, Blue me.

    "Yeah. A lot of guilds have been trying to get him on their side recently. Anyone who manages to do so would be a top figure at this stage of the game and they could reap a lot of benefits cause of that. No one wants to be left behind especially since this is the early stage of the game; the best time to build a strong foundation." The MT added.

    Mid-tier Mortal rank weapons might be the worst tier of equipment an expert would have but for average yers, it was still an impressive gear. Even for the big guilds, they could only garb their experts in Upper-tier and Mid-tier Mortal rank equipment. As for the yers below the pyramid, they had to make do with whatever they could find. This was because the cost of gearing yers in that equipment and weapons at that quality was expensive, even for a guild. This was where the advantage of a yer cksmith came in.

    In IR, one can hire cksmiths to forge for them equipment however the cost for hiring an NPC cksmith was absurd; so much so that you could afford 20 Upper-tier Mortal rank weapons with that amount. But if one were to recruit a yer cksmith, the costs would be a lot cheaper and much negotiable. However, yer cksmiths who could make such weapons and equipment were already few and far between.

    cksmithing, as one of the 3 major subsses, wasparably harder than the others. It wasn''t easy for one to be a cksmith much less be able to forge Mid-tier Mortal rank equipment with a high sess rate. This was the reason why the appearance of the Snake swords and double-edged iron swords had caused a storm.

    If any guild was able to hire such a yer, it wouldn''t be long before they could suit up their members with Mid-tier Mortal rank equipment and weapons at the least. And considering that the cksmith was able to sell a lot of his handmade goods inrge quantities and at an almost weekly pace, it meant that his sess rate at forging Mid-tier Mortal rank equipment was high. This meant that he/she might be able to have a shot at Upper-tier Mortal rank equipment.

    With such benefits on the line, a lot of 2nd and 3rd tier guilds who, unlike the top tier guilds, couldn''t afford to raise their own cksmith, tried to hire Blue me.

    "Sadly, he hasn''t responded to any of them despite their ridiculous offers. His appearance here in Riverdale is sure to bring a storm." The MT said.

    ''So he''s a cksmith too.'' Sato thought.

    After he had passed the cksmith test, Sato wasn''t aware of any other yer cksmith simply because he didn''t bother. cksmithing was one of the tougher subsses to get and since most yers were only interested in the extra level''s worth of attribute points, they wouldn''t do something so tiring as to select cksmithing as their subss. If not for this incident, Sato would have forgotten that there were other yers who took cksmithing as their subss.

    ''However, why would he leave ck Mountain town for Riverdale? Also, he already has a lot of guilds sucking up to him but he refused to join any. That''s strange for a regr yer.''

    yers could either choose to enter a guild or get recruited by one, but the privileges they would receive would be different. When a yer joins a guild by participating in the qualification test, they would be treated as regr members and have barely to zero privileges in the guild apart from the basic ones. However, when a guild recruits a yer, they tend to offer them nice benefits to make sure the said yer joins them. The benefits received are far more than what a yer would get if they participated in the qualification test just like every normal yer.

    "Hehe. Brother Blue me, wouldn''t you like to consider my offer?" The plump figure who was the guild leader of the 3rd tier guild, Yellow Cross, turned to ask the light-skinned man beside him.

    Blue me, a yer who unlike the rest here, looked to be of European descent with brown coloured hair, had a slightly arrogant expression on his face as he replied the guild leader.

    "Guild leader Gon, you seem to not have heard me correctly. I currently do not want to tie myself down to a guild yet. I just wish to be free and unfettered as I explore the extremities of my subss."

    "Haha. I understand, brother Blue me, I do. But you know, for you to experiment more in your subss, you will need the resources and support of a guild. While the others might not be able to fulfill this for you, I will offer you my guild''s unconditional support if you join us." Gon smiled.

    ''This fool thinks too much of himself. If it wasn''t because my guild is a 3rd tier guild, would I even be here begging for your help?''

    How could Gon not understand the inner thinking of a proud man like Blue me? Gon knew why Blue me rejected his proposal. It wasn''t because Blue me truly wanted to be free and unfettered but he wanted a bigger guild toe after him. Since his appearance, only weak 2nd tier guilds, 3rd tier guilds and lower hade after him but Blue me had rejected them all. Gon guessed that he wasn''t satisfied with the ranks and wanted top-tier guilds toe after him. But why would such guilds, who usually raise their own staff, want an average yer?

    Yes. In the eyes of these guilds who stood at the peak, Blue me''s ability to forge Mid-tier Mortal rank equipment that was just at market standard was average. Being at the top, these guilds wouldn''t want to fill in their ranks with average men. Even if they wanted, they could just make an announcement and countless yers would troop in to register. Why would they go out of their way to recruit one?

    (AN: Annoncement in Author''s section)

 Chapter 348 - 342 : The Obnoxious Blacksmith 2

    Even though Gon was clearly aware of Blue me''s ingrained arrogance, he still required his prowess.

    3rd tier guilds weren''t like the guilds above them; they were much weaker, be it financially, strength-wise or even the number ofpetent folks whenpared to thetter. Lacking financial abilitiesparable to real 2nd tier guilds and above makes it difficult for them raise a cksmith from scratch so they usually resort to hiring a frencer. Having their own cksmith would help them cut their weapons budget by a lot and it could help them gain a good foundation at this stage in the game. If they make use of the opportunity correctly, they could surpass other 3rd tier guilds and maybe step into the rank of 2nd tier.

    "Brother Blue me, whatever you need to be done here or collected, just ask and my me shall help you."

    Gon patted his chest with confidence. Of course, all these were tant bullsh*t. Even Gon was clearly aware of this. He was just the leader of a measly 3rd tier guild. Fulfilling such promises was beyond the ability of even a peak 1st tier guild much less an average 3rd tier guild like Yellow Cross, but Gon didn''t care. The whole point of spewing such words was just to make the target have a better opinion of him and presume that he would truly serve them to the best of his abilities.

    "You words are truly calming, guild leader Gon." Blue me paused before he slightly smiled.

    While his outer look was calm and unperturbed, Blue me''s mind was close to breaking out in a rampage.

    ''This fat pig is ruining my mood. Does he want me to tell at him before he gets it?'' Blue me was currently dissatisfied at Gon''s attempt to rope him to the guild.

    ''How the hell does he think that a 3rd tier guild is worth my services? Does he not know how high the skies are?''

    It was as Gon had thought; Blue me rejected him simply because he was waiting for a top tier guild toe after him.

    While most yers would humbly pledge themselves to the top gaming guilds, Blue me wanted these guilds toe and beg for his assistance. That was why he kept selling his works at the Trade-houses rather than applying to register at a guild or even epting the offers of 3rd tier guilds like Yellow Cross. Sadly for Blue me, none of the guilds he kept his eyes on had approached him in recent times.

    Battle Wolves, which was the strongest 1st tier guild in ck Mountain town, ignored his presence, making no efforts to seek him out. And this was despite them knowing that his was the creator of the Snake swords and double-edged iron swords, even after buying his works!

    Seemingly dissatisfied about that, Blue me had left ck Mountain town for Riverdale town, hoping to catch the attention of the super guild Emperor''s Might as he believed that only they would be able to see his ''true worth''. Blue me originally thought that it was because of the distance between the two towns as well as the ongoing battles at ck Grill''s Cave that made the super guild not approach him, but with him here, it would be easier for them to do so.

    Arriving with expectations of being greeted by representatives from the various big guilds in Riverdale town, Blue me was only met with those from 3rd tier guilds and lower. The best he could find were those of the weaker 2nd tier guilds'' branch in Riverdale. Even though there was the ongoing crisis at ck Grill''s Cave, emptying the experts in the town, Blue me expected to be treated better than this. Incensed, he decided to sell some of his prized creations in the trade-house but Gon, alongside a few other representatives from multiple clubs and guilds stuck close to him.

    "Brother Blue me, you definitely haven''t tried the local products of Riverdale right? An amazing cksmith like yourself would definitely be too busy for such after all, your time is precious. Why don''t we head out after you''re done here and have a try at those great drinks. My treat?" The burly man beside the duo, who was one of the captains of Armed and Dangerous, smiled at Blue me.

    While Armed and Dangerous was only an adventurer team, they were on par with 3rd tier guilds but slightly stronger than guilds like Yellow Cross. This was mostly attributed to the strength of their captains, of which 3 of them were on par with Experts. The burly man, Koko, was one of the three Experts. He was the only one among the other guild and club representatives who could speak to Blue me in Gon''s presence.

    On a regr day, Blue me wouldn''t mind the ttering as well as the offer but he was simply in a bad mood now. However, he wouldn''t bluntly go out on these men and offend them. They were still men of pride and strength. Even if they were 3rd tier powers, they were people he couldn''t dare to offend, at least until he got the backing of a much stronger party.

    "I apologize but I will have to return to my career once I''m done here. I recently had an inspiration and I''m nning on running a few tests as soon as possible so I must decline." Blue me said with a not so apologetic tone.

    "Oh? No problem. Maybe next time." Koko replied.

    ''Compared to that farm animal, this guy seems a lot nicer. Too bad he''s only amanding figure of a high ranking 3rd tier power.'' Blue me thought, but wasn''t excessively bothered about it.

    ''An inspiration? Don''t tell me...'' Compared to the simple minded Koko, Gon was a man full of plot and conspiracies. He guessed that Blue me had simply brought up an excuse to reject Koko or was likely telling the truth. Even if it were an excuse, there might be a hint of truth in it.

    ''Is he close to being able to forge top grade Mid-tier Mortal rank weapons? Or maybe Upper-tier Mortal rank weapons?'' Gin''s breathing became ragged but he quicklyported himself.

    ''If that''s true then I have to rope him to my side as quickly as possible or make sure no one gets him.'' Gon''s eyes shed with a cunning light.

    "Hey you, move out of the way." Blue me arrived at a counter and spoke to the young man in front of him.

    This was the closest counter to him and also the one with the least number of yers standing in line. To make things better, the clerk behind the counter was done with thest yer and the yer before him was next. Being in a bad mood, Blue me didn''t want to stand in line while having to deal with these two men. He wanted to leave here as soon as possible so he decided to exert some pressure on the yer before him.

    If it were when he had just begun ying IR, Blue me wouldn''t do something so stupid as offending a random yer, because you can never know who is who[1]. But recently, he had gotten bloated with pride from his recent achievements as well as all the ttery he had received from multiple personages. With his arrogance through the roof, Blue me forgot his cautious nature and decided to do as he pleased.

    ''What the hell is wrong with this guy? Did he drink something bad for his head today?'' Sato looked at the man who had just spoken to him.

    Sato had lost interest in the appearance of Blue me and the others after he heard he was a cksmith. It wasn''t that Sato was despising him but Sato had better things to do. Also, with one look, he had ascertained the man''s character and didn''t want to have anything to do with him. Who knew that the man would not only approach him of his own volition but also order him to move out of the way?

    "Didn''t you hear me? Do you know who I am?" Blue me looked slightly incensed.

    "Move out of my way, now."

    Sato frowned at the condescending attitude of Blue me but he simply ignored him. It wasn''t that Sato was a wimp but he was inside the town. He couldn''t attack anyone here as it was categorised as a safe zone, and attacking in a safe zone would warrant his arrest by the town''s officials. That was equivalent to having his ount suspended for a few days. It wasn''t worth it.

    Blue me was angry and was about to make a move when one of those representatives behind him suddenly stepped forward.

    "Allow me." The young man smiled.

    He was a representative of a 3rd tier guild that was a bit weaker than Yellow Cross and ''Armed and Dangerous'' so he couldn''t pitch in his words during the conversation. Now that Blue me encountered some problems, he decided to help him in a bid to develop a favorable impression of himself in front of Blue me.

    The other representatives seemed unwilling as they realised they had lost a good opportunity but Gon and Koko actually didn''t seem bothered. Having raised their respective guild and team to a high level, these two were obviously shrewd. They knew it was best to not offend any random person especially in Riverdale town. This town had a lot of crouching tigers and dragons and being local ''bigwigs'' here they knew better than the others representatives who were just random low level officials. They would rather watch as things unfold than take such a risk.

    "Hey kid, move away now while I''m still being nice.." The young representative said to Sato with a menacing look.

 Chapter 349 - 343 : Monkeys Falling From The Sky

    "Hey kid, move away now while I still have the strength to talk to you." Thenky young representative spoke with an overbearing tone, leaving no chance for Sato to retort.

    "Kid?" Sato stared funnily at the young man as if he was looking at a clown.

    The young man was roughly the same age as he was, with only a difference of just 2 or so years between them. Despite that, he actually had the gall to call Sato a kid.

    ''Are monkeys falling from the sky today or what?''

    "What about it?" The young man said with a ferocious expression. "Don''t you know who I am? Leave now before things get dirty. I don''t mind telling that if you don''t, not only will your gaming career end, but I will make sure to deal with everyone close to you."

    "Hey, look over there. Seems like something is about happen."

    "Poor guy. That young man right there is the president of that current upstart club, Fierce Hounds. Even though they are new, they have been making rounds recently. He probably wants to put on a show and use that guy to increase his club''s reputation."

    "Ah. What a pity."

    The trade-house wasn''t a ce that was off-limits to yers and as there were already a bunch of yers here before Blue me and the others'' arrival, they were able to spot themotion Sato''s side. Truthfully, it was hard not to see it since Blue me''spany were quite popr among yers so everyone''s eyes had been on them from the start.

    "That guy should just relinquish his position." One yermented.

    "While that sounds like the most reasonable move to make it would hurt him nheless. Everyone has their pride and I don''t think any man would like to bow to a fellow man." Another yer said in Sato''s defence.

    "True, but what else can he do? Go against them? Even if those guys aren''t the leaders of top guilds they still have an army behind them. Anyone who goes against them without the backing of someone greater would just be digging their graves. And looking at that guy, while he does look handsome, he doesn''t look like any popr gaming figure or like someone with the backing of a big guild. He should just suck it up and depart." The yer who spoke before countered.

    Back to the centre of everything, Sato''s expression became cold after the young man had said those words. If there was one thing Sato hated to the bones, it was threats, and the young man had just uttered some.

    "You took the words right out of my mouth." Sato red at him. He was trying his best to suppress his anger lest a fight breaks out. Even if he won, which undoubtedly he would, the repercussions would be harsh.

    Sato wasn''t scared about any retaliation from them. Even if it were a super guild, he still wouldn''t be afraid. The only problem was that the NPCs in the game wouldn''t care about his feelings and would lock him up in jail. This would harm his progress in IR. If it were at normal times, Sato wouldn''t be too bothered, but now was an extremely delicate period that could affect his ns severely; it wasn''t worth getting into a fight right now.

    But that didn''t mean that Sato would sit still and get bullied!

    "Get the hell out of my sight, before things get dirty."

    Almost instantaneously, as those words had exited Sato''s mouth, the temperature in the trade-house dropped as the multitude of yers stared at Sato in shock while the young man was fuming in anger.

    "You, you, what did you say?" The young man pointed his finger at Sato with rage.

    "It''s seems like the monkey isn''t only stupid but deaf? Didn''t you hear me? Get the hell out of my sight."

    At this point, even Gon, Koko and Blue me started frowning.

    Gon and Koko were racking their heads over the identity of the young man before them. In their minds, for Sato to retort against thenky young man, it as either he had something to back him up or he was simply a mad man. While mad men weren''t few, Sato didn''t seem like one to them. Plus the overbearing aura he had made it seem like he was used to being in a high position. So it made them more cautious about this matter.

    As for Blue me, he was annoyed that it was taking this long to handle such a simple matter and his impression of thenky youth dropped.

    "I thought you all were making noise about being such big figures but a small fish appears before and you can''t even handle him properly. Such a shame." Blue me said with a bit of regret bit anyone could see that he was actually mocking them.

    Immediately, the face of thenky youth became heated as he felt embarrassed. He was about to make a move when a voice spoke out.

    "Are you all done or what? Whoever''s next pleasee." The NPC attendant by the counter said with a dissatisfied expression.

    It was a youngdy with brown hair who, though not an exotic beauty, was still above average in terms of looks.

    NPCs in Infinite Realm had their individual personalities and emotions, and this was a fact that was constantly advertised by the game''s developers. The NPC in front of the group was just as acimed.

    She had originally been enjoying the ''show'' but got bored since a fight hadn''t broken out as she as expected. This led to her current dissatisfied expression as well as herment that arrived at such a timely manner.

    "Sorry to keep you waiting." Sato apologised as he walked towards her.

    ''Hmm? Such an interesting young man.'' The young clerk looked a bit surprised.

    While she did disy an attitude just then, it was actually wrong of her to do so after all, she was just a clerk. But not only was the young man before her not angered, but he even apologized to her

    "What do you think you''re doing? Where the hell are you going?" Blue me roared.

    Sato ignored him and walked towards the counter.

    "You..."

    Suddenly, a hand stretched out and caught Sato.

    "Are you fucking deaf or what?!"

    It wasn''t Blue me who stopped Sato but thenky youth. He had realised that Blue me''s impression of him had dropped and he tried to salvage it at this moment. Apart from that, he was also infuriated at how Sato had treated him.

    He was the president of a gaming club roughly on par with 3rd tier guild. He had lots of people constantly ttering him and pleasing him, all in an effort to get on his good side. But here was a man who didn''t give a sh*t about him and had constantly disrespected him. He didn''t seem like someone with a background so thisnky youth had tried to bully him earlier but who knew that the young man wouldn''t stand down. Anyone who had been in a position of power for long enough definitely couldn''t stand this. Now it wasn''t simply a matter of getting on Blue me''s good side but also salvaging his pride.

    "Let go, right now." Sato faced thenky youth with a solemn look on his face.

    "Or what?" Thenky youth retorted.

 Chapter 350 - 344 : Dont Mess With Me

    "Let go. Right now." Sato faced thenky youth with a solemn look on his face.

    "Or what?" Thenky youth retorted.

    "Brother Blue me, you can proceed to the counter. I will handle this kid by myself." Thenky youth said to Blue me without turning back.

    "Okay." A small smile crept on Blue me''s lips. He was finally pleased with how thenky youth handled matters so his temper had cooled down a bit. Ignoring Sato''s presence, Blue me began to make his way towards the counter.

    "Let go." Sato repeated again.

    "Or what?" Thenky youth pushed back.

    "You have been acting like some figure recently. It seems you don''t even know how high the sky is. I don''t mind teaching you a lesson."

    A grin hung on the face of thenky youth. However, the feeling it gave was one of murderous intentions.

    "I''ve already warned you."

    Before thenky youth could react to his words, Sato quickly moved and held the wrist of the young man. With a tight squeeze, he grabbed the wrist of thenky youth and bent it backwards.

    "Ah!!!"

    Injuring a yer in a safe zone was against the rules of the game so Sato didn''t break the young man''s wrist. However, he did twist it to the point of almost breaking, letting the youth experience the feeling of undiluted pain.

    "Ah!!! Let go! Let go now!" Thenky youth yelled as he was brought to his knees by Sato''s actions.

    Sato ignored him and sent a kick to his face while controlling his strength. If it were before, with his above 30 points of [Strength], this kick would not only break the nose of thenky youth but deal a lot of damage, but after the short "exercise" at ck Grill''s Cave, Sato had basic control of his abilities.

    *Thud*

    When his footnded on thenky youth''s face, Sato had already released his grip on the young man''s wrist. This lead to the young man being knocked to the floor by the kick.

    No one had expected Sato to abruptly make such a move so none of the other yers were able to react in that split second. Just as they realised what had happened, it was already toote. If that wasn''t bad enough, Sato was still not done.

    Blue me was surprised by the scream that sounded from behind. Thinking it wasing from Sato, he turned around hoping to catch of glimpse of that audacious figure and taking pleasure in his suffering. Sadly of him, what greeted him was a boot to the face.

    Blue me was one of those yers who focused on their lifestyle sses so his fighting ability was low. Ever since the game had begun, he had only managed to reach level 5, and this was with the aid of a few guilds and clubs that needed his help with forging an equipment or wants to recruit him. Against a level 15 yer like Sato, it wouldn''t take much to defeat him.

    *Thud*

    Blue me''s body wobbled backwards till he crashed at the counter behind him in a sprawled manner, simr to a man who drank too much and got knocked out.

    In just two seconds, Sato had knocked out two men without depleting their HP by even 1 point. He did it with such ease and speed that it looked as if he never even made a single move.

    Ignoring the crowd, he walked towards the counter with such focus that one might think he wasn''t aware of anything else.

    ''Luckily I didn''t make a move.'' Gon sneakily wiped the sweat off his forehead.

    He was rejoicing at his decision to sit still and watch. While it was true that he would be able to have his revenge by mobilising his guild memberster, it would still be disgraceful for a guild leader to be taken down so easily.

    ''Better you than me.'' Gon mocked inwardly as he nced at thenky youth.

    ''That control...''

    Gon might be a crafty fellow but the true battle expert was Koko. He was astounded at Sato''s control of his strength. Not only was Sato able to make sure that thenky youth felt a ''pleasureable'' sensation of pain but he also did so without causing any damage.

    It should be known that the avatars of yers in not just Infinite Realm but also other major VR games, were much stronger than a regr human being in reality. Because of this, yers had to engage inbat right after leveling up so as to get a better grasp at their newfound strength. While this sounded easy, it necessarily wasn''t. yers could indeed gain basic control over their strength but precise control like the one Sato had disyed, was extremely difficult.

    To put it in an analogy, it was like the difference between tossing a rock 20 feet into the air and catching it with one''s bare hands, and recing the rock with an egg and repeating the exact same actions without cracking it. While this wasn''t impossible, it was extremely difficult.

    ''He should be an Expert at the very least.'' Koko thought.

    "You, you. How dare you? Are you insane?" Another representative, a ck haired youth, who wanted to get on Blue me''s good shoes roared.

    He had been beaten by thenky youth to confront Sato and whike he had felt regret at not responding quickly, he suddenly felt a sense of relief. However, he noticed something that the others didn''t in time because they were to stunned at Sato''s actions. Sato had attacked a yer in a safe zone and though no damage was dealt, all these were caught in the eyes of the NPCs.

    Usually, yers tend to forget the NPCs in their calctions but IR made them an integral part of the game. Even if the system didn''t ssify Sato''s actions as going against the rules, Sato had disturbed the peace in the trade-house. If one were to pull such an act in a mall in reality, they would be escorted out by the mall police and banned from the mall or in serious cases, be sent to jail. Going by this pattern, the same should apply here in IR otherwise their motto of mimicking reality would be a joke.

    "Guards, guards! Can''t you all see? This young man is disturbing the peace in the trade-house. Get him! He should be banned from here. No, that''s too lenient. He should be sent to jail." The young man hollered.

    Responding to the roars of the young man, the security personnel in the trade-house approached the group.

    ''Hehe. Let''s see what you can do now..'' The ck haired young man grinned.

 Chapter 351 - 345 : Surprising Discovery

    ''Forget it. Having such an arrogant figure in my guild might do more harm than good.''

    After seeing Sato take down thenky youth and Blue me with ease, Gon originally wanted to retaliate in a bid to gain Blue me''s favorability but he felt that there was more to Sato than the eye revealed so he didn''t make a move. Gon believed that it wasn''t worth the risk for him to offend Sato in a bid to make an impression on Blue me since he barely knew much about the other party. By making this decision, Gon had decided to step down from the race of ''pursuing'' Blue me.

    Another reason for that was that Gon felt that Blue me''s arrogant behaviour could potentially harm his guild. It was highly possible that after gaining as much benefit as possible from them, Blue me would depart in a ruthless manner once a higher power bes impressed at his achievements. In other words, it was highly likely that Blue me wouldn''t have any attachments to them and would even be harder to control.

    Just as Gon had made that decision, Koko had also made a simr decision but this was mostly the same as Gon''s first argument but a bit different. In Koko''s opinion, Sato was an Expert yer and it was quite rare to find a solitary Expert yer. This meant that either Sato had a backing of a big club or guild, or he was just like Koko; running a club of his own. In either of these situations, it meant that it wouldn''t be easy to mess with him.

    However, standing still and watching without assisting Blue me would inevitably spark his anger so Koko had decided to give up on hiring the cksmith. Instead, he was more interested in Sato. If possible, he would like to recruit him, though the chances of that sessfully happening were low.

    While the two men had different thoughts, they were but shocked out of their minds by the following words.

    "Guards, guards! Can''t you all see? This young man is disturbing the peace in the trade-house, the town''s property! Get him! Arrest him! He should be banned from here and never to set foot in here again. No, that''s too lenient and kind. He should be sent to jail to contemte on his crimes."

    The words of the ck haired young man brought everyone back to reality.

    ''Yes, this was a safe zone. Even if that man had managed to defeat those two without depleting their HP, he still attacked them. While this didn''t totally break the rules, it did touch upon their limit. He can''t get away now, especially with the way that fellow put it. This guy is done.'' was what everyone thought at that moment.

    What Sato had done couldn''t be said to be explicitly attacking the yers as ording to the system regtions, a yer can only be recognised to be under attack after receiving damage from the attack of the opposite party. Damage in this sense, didn''t simply reply to an injury but a depletion in HP. Even if the HP was immediately restored, the act had already beenmitted and spotted under the system''s nose. While Sato did risk direct punishment, thanks to the ck haired outh''s twisted words, things had be bad for Sato .

    Three NPCs guards walked over to the group and surveyed the situation. Spotting Blue me and thenky youth who were both knocked out, the guards were a bit surprised that someone had actually dared to do such here. Seeing as everyone was staring at Sato, one of them the NPC guards walked asked Sato.

    "Are you the one responsible for this?" The leader of the guards asked.

    Sato knew that he was doomed but he had choice. If he were to deny his actions, that would be stupid as they were done in the open for all to see. That would just be seeking trouble and possibly increasing his sentence. The only thing he could was be honest at that moment.

    "Yes. Yes, I am."

    As he answered, Sato switched his title from [Industrious Achiever] to [Saviour of Races]. [Industrious Achiever] had been active ever since he began re-exploring ck Grill''s Cave with his gang. Only one title can be active and as he was in a battle zone, he chose the one that was most suitable. Sato finally switching the titles was as a result of his gaming senses. twitching. It was this action that left him with a strange idea in his head that led to this decision.

    Even after making the change, Sato didn''t seem to change in the eyes of the yers but for the NPCs, he was became "different".

    "Oh, it''s the Saviour. Apologies for that." The NPC squad leader bowed at an exact angle of 90 degrees.

    "Protector!" The other two NPCs greeted as they performed the same movement as their leader.

    "What the..." Everyone stared in shock at the scenario in front of them.

    NPCs were actually bowing to a yer.

    It wasn''t that such an urrence had never happened in a game before. Actually, NPCs obeying yers were quitemon in multiple games already. It was just that no one knew how to do so yet in Infinite Realm. A lot of yers presumed that one would have to be a noble or a noteworthy figure in the game but as it was just 2 weeks since its release, no one was aware of how to pull this off yet. But suddenly, right in front of these yers, such an event was currently taking ce.

    "We apologize for not recognising Lord Saviour." The guard leader said with a somewhat fervent expression.

    To yers, Sato was just another yer but to the NPCs, Sato -while [Saviour of Races] was active- was the man who went against a demon god''s spawn and prevented its descent into the mortal world. While his tales weren''t on par with that of legendary heroes and godly figures, Sato was still famous and well respected by most of the NPCs, especially those of ck Rock province.

    ''Who knew that this title would be more useful than I had expected.'' Sato smiled.

    "You, you. Who the hell are you?" The ck haired young man said with shock.

    Just a few seconds ago he was relishing in his head, praising himself for such a magnificent plot. But everything took a sudden change just when he least expected it.

    "Who am I? I don''t think you''re worthy of knowing that."

 Chapter 352 - 346 : Rage

    "Who am I? I don''t think you''re worthy of knowing that."

    "You...you dar-" The ck-haired young man.

    *Bang*

    Sato punched the young man in the face without waiting for him to finish his words. He was already tired of all these charades and decided to end it with a fist.

    "Ugh...You dare?" The young man roared. Surprisingly, the young man wasn''t knocked down with that punch and recovered with just a groan.

    "Get him!"

    Unlike thenky youth that hot knocked out earlier, the young man had arrived with a few of his guildmates. Having been humiliated like this, the young man would be aggrieved if he didn''t settle this matter instantly.

    Losing himself in rage, he ordered his teammates to attack Sato. If he were in a calm state, he wouldn''t make such a silly move since the NPC guards were still here, but being blinded by rage, he forgot all about that. As for his teammates, they had socks for brains[1]. They thought that since the NPCs didn''t attack Sato, they also wouldn''t attack them as long as they dealt with Sato without causing any damage. In their heads, they thought that since Sato could pull off the act of taking on a yer without dealing damage, they too could do it.

    He did it with just a simple kick, so why can''t we?

    The three men behind the ck-haired young man dashed towards Sato in a pincer formation. They knew that Sato was strong and shouldn''t be underestimated so they tacitly decided to attack from 3 different angles.

    One of them attacked from the centre while the remaining two attacked from the two sides. They intended to subjugate Sato as quickly as possible, before knocking him out and handling him outside town. As long as they managed to bring Sato outside of the town, they would be free of the regtion that prevented them from injuring a yer and Sato would simply be at their mercy.

    Sadly for these folks, Sato wasn''t such an easy target.

    The yer by the right sent a punch at Sato but Sato easily deflected it with a palm before delivering a blow of his own.

    *Pa*

    Not expecting such quick reactions from him, the yer got punched right in the nose by Sato and fell backward.

    Sato didn''t follow up against him as he had to face the remaining two others.

    For the yer on the left, Sato sent a kick at his guts with his left leg, sending the yer down before he could even make a move. Thest yer, who attacked from straight up, managed tounch an attack at Sato which was something his otherpanion couldn''t. The punch came at the right time just as Sato had dealt with the yer on the left. Because of the timing, it looked as if the punch would be difficult for Sato to dodge and the attacker had already begun rejoicing in his head.

    However, such a seemingly timed punch looked nothing more than an attack filled with ws in Sato''s eyes.

    Taking a step backward, Sato moved his body to the side and dodged the punch with ease. Just before the yer could even react to this, he was greeted by an uppercut from Sato that perfectly connected with his jaws.

    -23 (???/??? ???)

    Unlike the other attacks of Sato, this one had caused damage as the point of contact was a delicate part of the human body.

    *Thud*

    Simr to the yer who attacked from the right, this guy was also knocked out. With an audible sound, his body copsed on the floor as silence spread through the entire trade-house. The source of this was the battle, but unlike before, it wasn''t in awe of Sato''s skills but the fact that he had injured a yer right in front of the NPC guards.

    ''Is he crazy?'' Koko widened his eyes in surprise.

    Unlike the others, as a martial artist and a battle-hardened gamer, Koko knew that there were multiple options for Sato to take. He could have punched the yer in the guts, directly at his face, or subdued him as he did with thenky youth from before. But instead of doing any of that, Sato had purposefully attacked a fragile point of the yer. Yes, purposefully. Koko knew that Sato didn''t feel any threat from the attack of that yer, and could easily toy with him if he wished. This meant that Sato had clear control over the situation therefore, all the other options were indeed essible to Sato but he still took such a risky one. Even if one had immacte control, the chances of not dealing any injury to a target by attacking them at that spot were extremely low. Considering that Sato had better options but still took it, it meant that he was either stupid or unafraid and stupid; either way, Sato was stupid.

    "Haha. You''re finished now! Haha! Guards, did you see that?! Arrest this mad man." Haha." The ck-haired young manughed audaciously.

    Previously, Sato was left off as he hadn''t injured anyone. However, it was as clear as the sun in a cloudless sky that Sato had injured thest yer. Every yer saw it and the NPCs too. The way the young man saw it, there was nothing Sato could do about it again; he was doomed to jail.

    Sato didn''t talk to the young man but faced the guards and asked.

    "I was assaulted and insulted by a bunch of lowlifes so I retaliated in kind. Do you find anything wrong with my actions?"

    "No, lord Saviour." The guard leader shook his head.

    "Then you should help me and settle the rest. I have a busy schedule and it has been affected by these morons. Deal with them as you see fit." Sato said before he walked towards the counter.

    "*Cough* *cough*...huh?" The young man almost choked in his saliva.

    The guards had not made a move on Sato despite him injuring a yer out in the open in a safe zone. Instead, they had begun rounding up his men and even the guard captain had approached him with a ferocious expression.

    "Don''t make any move if you want things to be easy." The NPC guard captain said with a menacing look.

    "The heck? I''m not the one you should be after; he is. I''m just a victim here." The ck-haired young man screamed in outrage.

    "Shut up." The guard captain moved and punched the young man in the guts.

    The guard captain was much stronger than the Kobold King that had been terrorizing the entire ck Grill''s Cave. Without a doubt, a punch from him was not something a level 7 yer could handle.

    -36890 (???/??? ???)

    Stttthhhh.

    Everyone took in a deep breath of cold air at the sight of the damage values. This was just a punch yet it caused so much damage. One can only imagine the final value if the attack was done with a weapon. While the result would be the same even if the damage values were much higher, the penalty one would receive for dying would be higher.

    This was why yers weren''t so suicidal as to face a stronger monster since it wasn''t worth the risk. If a yer was killed in one hit, they would lose a lot more Experience points and the chances of dropping a piece of equipment upon death would increase.. If the damage they received was higher than their overall HP, their losses would also increase in correspondence to the damage value.

 Chapter 353 - 347 : Becoming Famous

    While everyone watched as the other yers were rounded up by the NPC guards, the cause of all this as well as the centre of attention, Sato, had already finished up with the attendant and sneaked out of the trade-house.

    All Sato needed to do was to sell his weapons to the trade-house and leave but as he wanted to avoid the attention of so many yers on him, he just handed the weapons to the clerk and said he wille for the moneyter. He wasn''t worried about not getting it as first of all, these were NPCs and though programmed like humans, they were still more trustworthy than humans. Also, he would still be doing a lot of businesses with the trade-house and so, be visiting the ce over a long period. Hence, collecting his money now orter made no difference to Sato.

    Rather than get stuck in the ''sticky'' situation at the trade-house, where everyone''s eyes were on him, Sato decided to sneak out of the ce. Once he was outside, he then donned on a ck cloak that prevented his facial features from getting spotted.

    ''I can see the forums blowing up now.'' Sato sighed.

    How could he not understand the thoughts of those yers? Some of them might have already recorded the confrontation back then and had uploaded it on the forums for content and publicity.

    Sato wanted to keep a low-key and he would have continued to do so if Blue me, thenky youth, as well as the ck-haired young man didn''t force his hand. Even a monk wouldn''t tolerate such incessant bulls**t much less Sato, who wasn''t one. Though he would have liked to have a faint presence and remained low-key, that doesn''t mean that Sato would simply bow his head just to any yer. In fact, he didn''t mind risking his current condition to vent his anger on those who offend him. In other words, even though he would be popr on the forums for a while, Sato didn''t mind it as long as he had taught those guys a lesson.

    Regarding being popr on the forums, Sato was right; he had indeed be popr.

    Just as Sato had thought, some yers had recorded the entire confrontation between him and Blue me. The yers who did so were either streamers or gaming bloggers. There were also a few of them who just wanted to upload something fun on the forums and gain a few new followers while at it. These yers had originally started recording Blue me since he was somewhat of a celebrity. Getting Sato in the shot was unintended until he had shed with Blue me over the right to the counter.

    Smelling drama with a hint of explosive confrontation, a bunch of other yers had joined in and began recording the event. As a result of this, there were more than just a few copies of the confrontation that had made their way to the forums. The forums were packed with a lot of active fellows who began discussions on the ''true'' identity of Sato, as well as the reason why the NPC guards had sided with him. While this turned out to be a simple discussion for some, to the guilds, this was an all-new threat.

    Sato''s existence meant a jarring possibility for these guilds. Unlike the less experienced yers, these guilds had quite a lot of senior members so they figured out that Sato was able to get past the rules by gaining certain privileges. There were many ways of getting them but the mostmon and direct one was to be a noble.

    A noble. This was a character who could influence the lives of the NPCs and even the yers. Every guild would want a noble in their ranks as this meant that they would be able to receive some privileges from the town, city, or area the yer has been assigned.

    The route to bing a yer was obvious to many but the part of bing a noble was an unknown, even for the topmost guilds. However, now there existed one in front of them, why wouldn''t the guilds of Riverdale undergo a mass search for the figure. If the yer was a solo yer, then they could simply recruit him and there would be no worries. However, if they turned out to be a member of a guild already, then the other guilds would either try to partner up with the said individual''s guild or eliminate the yer and make him worthless to his guild.

    Of course, Sato wasn''t aware of this but even if he was, it would make no difference.

    Right after selling off the weapons he had forged, Sato made his way to the cksmith guild, which wasn''t that far from the trade-house. Till the others were prepared, Sato nned on using most of the low-quality materials to forge equipment and weapons which he would put up for sale. Since he would be soon leaving for the city, didn''t want to go without enough having money. There would surely be a lot of opportunities and treasures there, and monopolizing as many as he could was his goal. However, doing this would be impossible if Sato didn''t have enough funds.

    As for why he was confident in his works being able to sell well, this was just a craftsman''s faith. Sato had yet topare his works with that of any yer cksmith as he always aimed to be at the system basic standards at the very least. As a result, not only was Sato unknown in the cksmithing industry but he also wasn''t aware of the achievements of other cksmiths. But Sato didn''t care about any of this. He just wanted to sell his works and go.

    Sato was quite confident in himself and his ability, and this confidence surged a bit after he realised that Blue me made weapons barely on par with market standard but was still wanted by quite a few guilds. He could make better swords than that dude but that person was being regarded as a "Forging Genius" by some naive yers.

    ''Oh well, I have to put them up for sale. I just need to return to the trade-house tomorrow.'' Sato thought as he walked through the doors of the cksmith guild.

    Unbeknownst to Sato, after his works had been sold to the trade-house and put on disy, a smallmotion had already broken out between the yers in the trade-house.

 Chapter 354 - 348 : Uproar

    Ronny was an average yer who ran errands for the top-ranking members of his guild; an average 2nd tier guild that wasn''t excessively popr. While the elites of the guilds were directly involved with the organization and operations of the guild, yers like him worked for them and followed their directives.

    One of the orders Ronny was given was to keep an eye on the trade-house exhibits just in case something amazing pops up. While the chances of such happening were exquisitely low, partly because most yers would sell their valuable goods to other ces for more profit, there were still a few urrences of such. A good example was with the trade-house in ck Mountain town where Blue me had sold his Snake swords and double-edged iron swords to them even though he could sell them to NPC stores at a much higher price.

    Nheless, the possibility of this happening was still very much rare so the role of ''checking up'' on the trade-houses was usually deemed a pointless job. However, most guilds would rather give out such a futile job than to lose out just in case one''s luck turns up when they least expect it. The problem though was assigning a yer to take the task. Most yers would rather spend that time levelling up than waiting for that lucky break and if the guilds were to force their members to do so, dissatisfaction might build up within the ranks leading to internal strife. So to draw yers to take the task of their own volition, theymissioned this task with rewards attached to it.

    If a yer were lucky enough toe across something impressive, they would be rewarded by the guild for the discovery and even receive more if they happen to purchase the item for the guild. Also, the yer would undoubtedly acquire a set for themselves so it was a win-win. Even if the said yer didn''t find anything, they would still receive a certain amount of reimbursement for their time spent. Though this remuneration wasn''t much inparison to the reward foring across something useful to the guild, it was still better than nothing.

    Ronny was one of the few guild yers that took such a task. This was mainly because Ronny was aware of his capabilities as a yer. Compared to the elites, it would be much difficult for him to achieve much in IR but he never nned on doing so. On the contrary, Ronny was only interested in making a few bucks without much effort and this task seemed perfectly tailored for him.

    ''I bet it''s going to be the same boring items on the catalogue.''

    Ronny enthusiastically walked into the trade-house and approached a counter.

    The trade-house was a 3 storey building. The first floor catered to receiving items from yers and addressing concerns from the yers and other NPCs. It was also the administrative part of the building, holding the office of the supervising manager as well as other important figures. The second floor held the weapons and equipment that were put up for sale while the top floor was where materials and other items were kept.

    Usually, yers would head to the designated floor in search of whatever brought them here but if they wanted, they could approach the clerks on the first floor and ask for a list of the items put up for sale; for a small price of course.

    Paying the clerk a fee of 12 coppers whilementing in his heart about how many loaves of bread he could get with that, Ronny took a nce at the scroll that was given to him. The list he had asked for contained the newly arrived goods in the trade-house within the past 12 hours and it appeared on his system interface for easy use.

    Every 12 hours, Ronnie would grace the trade-house with his presence to not lose out on any opportunity. Since he updated his knowledge every 12 hours, there was no reason for him to spend a sizeable amount of money for aplex index of the goods in the trade-house. A simple list of the items released in the previous 12 hours was more than enough for him.

    ''*sighs* It''s just a bunch of worthless goods. All impractical for the guild.'' Ronny sighed.

    The trade-house bought goods from yers at a much cheaper price than other stores did, but they also sold at a cheaper price. While the selling business was somewhat lucrative -since yers would like to get their much-needed goods at a cheap price- the procuring part wasn''t doing so well. No yer would like to sell their loot or items at a cheap price; they would always try to haggle for any little bit of profit.

    The only thing that prevented the trade-house from bing meaningless to the yers was the fact that a few NPCs would regrly put up some goods for sale in the trade-house. If one were lucky, they might stumble upon a legendary equipment but that had never happened before. Nheless, something useful but not overly rare would periodically appear in the trade-house. This led to some yersparing the trade-house to another simr feature in multiple games, a lucky draw.

    "Hmm? What''s this?" Ronny suddenly had his attention drawn to a certain item.

    The list was pretty detailed as most of the items would usually be appraised by an official appraiser before being put on sale. Hence, yers could pretty much check the abilities as well as attribute bonus(es) the weapon or equipment would provide upon being equipped.

    "The heck?!" Ronny unintentionally yelled before realising that a lot of people had their eyes on him.

    Laughing awkwardly, he set his sights back on the list, or to be specific, the item on the list.

    [[ System interface :

    [Generic : Rigged Steel long-sword]

    ]]

    What stunned Ronny was the above-named item or to be specific, its abilities. It was unlike any Mid-tier Mortal rank weapon he had ever seen.

    [[ System interface :

    Generic (Rigged Steel long-sword) : Mid Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 25/25

    Requirement : Level 5 || 5 [Strength]

    [Physical Attack Power] +11

    [Attack Speed] +8

    [Strength] +2

    ]]

    ''This, this, this is incredible. The quality is impressive and even slightly above market standard.'' Ronny couldn''t help but praise.

    ''Looking at the amount put up for sale, I doubt it was farmed in a dungeon or a field. It''s probably put up for sale by an NPC or a yer.'' Ronny narrowed his eyes in thought.

    ''If it''s an NPC then there''s no problem. But if it''s a yer, then I need to get to him quickly.''

    Even though Ronny had azy attitude, he was a smart fellow. He had already thought of various possibilities and how to react to each of them.

    ''I will just report this to the guild. As for now, I need to acquire a lot of these swords.''

    Just like in the other guilds, there was a whole bunch of other personnel simr to Ronny.. As they set their sights on the [Generic] Rigged Steel long-swords made by Sato, they hurriedly reported to their guilds and the ones who had enough funds with them went on to buy as many swords as they could.

 Chapter 355 - 349 : The Bizarre Phenomenon

    While an uproar has risen among the guilds over the appearance of the Rigged Steel long-swords with the name [Generic], the creator behind them as well as the mastermind behind this great plot, was currently engrossed in his work.

    Sato nned to build up some poprity as well as a foundation for a customer base with his remaining time in Riverdale town. It should be known that the longer he remained there, the more time he wasted. After all, Sato was currently level 15 and there was no opportunity for him to improve his skills here. He might be a local tyrant with his current ability but if he remains in town forever, he would eventually get surpassed massively by the other yers. Rather than let them catch up to him, it was better for Sato to maintain the level gap.

    But since Sato had ns for the future, which wasrgely tied with his cksmithing subss, he had to make sure that he built a customer base as early as possible. Also, having all that knowledge learnt from the Hall''s library without putting it to good use was the same as having flour but not making bread out of it[1].

    ''To grow my career as a cksmith, I need to develop a specialty. As for now, the Rigged Steel long-swords are okay but still not good enough.''

    The problem with the Rigged Steel long-swordid in the fact that the quality was not enough to attract the attention of elite gamers and expert figures. However, this couldn''t be helped.

    Sato wasn''t at the stage where he could forge Upper-tier Mortal rank weapons as if they were street cabbages. Even if he were to give a shot at making one, unless he used a lot of 3 stat materials and maybe one 4 star material in the mix, Sato wouldn''t be able to pull it off. However, the quality might even be below market standard or roughly on par with it. Nheless, this was a dumb move. Even a child could see that such an investment wasn''t worth taking, after all, 4-star materials could be used in making a level 25 Rare-Steel rank weapon with the most basic necessary forging skills. So why should they be used for a measly level 5 Upper-tier Mortal rank weapon?

    ''In that case, I have to change my target market.''

    Since Sato was currently incapable of making weapons for expert-level yers, he decided to focus on those on the lower rung; the average yers.

    The current mainstream level of yers was between level 5-8, mostly because of the sudden influx of new yers in recent days. If considering those who started out early alone, then the average level of yers was at level 6-8. Sato''s works were suitable for yers at that level and this was why the swords had made amotion once they were put on sale.

    ''Making another weapon is a bit futile since, apart from the mages, most yers use the sword. If I start making defensive equipment, that would be better.'' Sato thought as he began browsing through the blueprints in the cksmith guild.

    Compared to weapons, defensive equipment was more valuable and rarer than the former. Even a few experts who might have an Upper-tier Mortal rank weapon would only wield Mid-tier Mortal rank defensive equipment. This made them ''golden eggs'' that every yer wanted to have but the cost of doing so was immense. If Sato was able to forge these ''golden eggs'', he would be the ''golden goose'' that every guild desired; a money-printing machine. Sadly, Sato had no intention of joining any guild and just wanted to make some cash.

    ''If I also sell defensive equipment with short swords, I should pretty much have created my brand.''

    Thinking of a scene where almost all the yers in town used his works, a small smile spread across Sato''s lips.

    "Alright then. Time to make a choice."

    Waking up from his imaginations, Sato began browsing the avable blueprints in the cksmithing guild''s library. Actually, if Sato wanted something better, he could borrow the blueprints in the Hall''s library since the final products were much better in terms of quality and ability whenpared to the ones here. However, most of them were above his current ability so it was pointless to search for a suitable blueprint there.

    After spending more than 10 minutes looking through the various blueprints for defensive equipment, Sato finally set his eyes on one of them. Actually, Sato had selected two blueprints; one being a blueprint for a shield while the other for a chest te. Sato eventually settled on the chest te even though it was more difficult to produce. This was because whenpared to a shield, a chest te had arger market than a shield.

    Steel armours were used by most of the physical sses, except for the [Assassin], whereas shields were only used by [Pdins] and [Guardians]. It was obvious from the start which one would make more money and build arger customer base.

    "Time to get busy."

    ording to the original n, the team would have to wait for Xue Yan to recover back to her peak condition before they would take on the Kobold King. In Sato''s calctions, this would take up to 24 hours in real life. In other words, he had 48 hours in the IR to get ustomed to forging the chest te and achieving a productive sess rate as well as close to standard quality too.

    "This will be a long period."

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    At the Middle region''s 10th floor, the ce where all the chaos and havoc began as well as the currentir of the Kobold King, a huge mountain that almost peaked to the ceiling stood right at the centre of the floor. The weird thing about this mountain was the fact that it wasn''t here the previous time Sato and the others had made it this far.

    At the top of the mountain, a sinister ck fog had covered the peak of the mountain, blocking it from view. Even though the lighting in ck Grill''s Cave was dim, the ck fog was pitch ck, almost like the epitome of darkness. Even in this dark environment, it was standing out due to its extreme nature.

    If that wasn''t creepy enough, an eerie cackle suddenly escaped the ck fog. It sounded faint but carried with it a ghostly and blood-curdling sensation. Though faint, it was still strong and maintained the same pitch even after spreading far and wide. In the end, even the kobolds who were far out suddenly froze in their footsteps as they heard it.

    The eldritch cackle went on for 4 seconds before it finally disappeared without a trace. The kobolds below could finally stretch out their limbs but surprisingly, none of them did. On the contrary, they all remained stuck in their positions. No, they weren''t still; they were trembling. They were shivering all over as if they had just encountered a terrifying demon from the abyss....and this included the Kobold King.

 Chapter 356 - 350 : Start The Raid

    24 hours might sound like a lot of time and while it wasn''t exactly so in reality, it was in Infinite Realm.

    During the extended period of 48 hours, a lot of major changes had urred. The number of level 9 yers had increased while the overall level of mainstream yers had boosted to level 6 for other areas,k but level 7 for clover towns, excluding thete-boomers in the towns.

    For the novice towns in ck Rock province, the guilds had all gathered their teams and headed into ck Grill''s Cave a few days back. Currently, the fastest of them was already on the 7th floor of the Middle region, about to enter the 8th region. This team was undoubtedly that of the number one guild in the region; Emperor''s Might.

    Even though Battle Wolves was a tough figure that had made ck Mountain town their major starting point, they had yet to fully migrate their members over to IR until they were done dealing with their resources in other VR games. This lead to the situation where the force of the two guilds was pretty much equal and the same, so they were both threats to the other party. However, even as a branch guild, Emperor''s Might was still a super guild and a force to be reckoned with. Moving ahead of everyone else and taking the leading position was one of the naturally expected reactions from people.

    Apart from the progress made in ck Grill''s Cave, the appearance of the Rigged Steel long-swords made by the unknown ''Cloud cksmith'' had brought a storm to the 3 towns, especially in Riverdale town, which was the home of all this, simr to how the Snake sword and double-edged iron swords were popr in ck Mountain town. The title "Cloud Master" was the address yers attached to the mysterious cksmith behind the Rigged Steel long-swords due to the ''insignia'' on the swords.

    More or less that "insignia" was a slight defect that wasmon for Sato when he forged the Rigged Steel long-swords. Sato wasn''t even aware of the fact that he could imprint his one true insignia onto the sword but even if he knew, chances were that he wouldn''t care.

    While it was true that the Rigged Steel long-sword wad simply a Mid-tier Mortal rank weapon, the quality of the de was already at the peak of that tier. Apart from that, their prices were ridiculously cheaper than what one would usually find this item to be. Seeing a nice yet cheap item, some yers sniffed a business opportunity and began to buy the long-swords. While most yers eventually handed it over to their guilds, a few retained the items and decided to sell them at a higher price to make a profit.

    At the same time, a bunch of guild members began stalking the trade-house in hopes of spotting the cksmith "Cloud Master".

    The cause of all this, Sato, had visited the trade-house 2 other times right after seeing the good publicity the Rigged Steel long-swords had received. Selling the two batches at different hours was to be able to reap as much profit as possible. To prevent any unnecessary questioning especially with his increased poprity from the Blue me incident, Sato had worn a ck robe and sneaked into the trade-house when yers were least expecting it. Once he was done selling the swords, he would then sneak off again in the same sneaky manner. This led to the identity of the "Cloud Master" remaining a mystery till this moment. And this "Cloud Master'' had justpleted a few new sets of equipment.

    [[ System interface :

    Fine Steel Armour (Chestte) : Mid Tier Mortal Rank : Level 5 : Durability 35

    Requirements : Level 5 || 7 [Strength]

    [Physical Defence] +12

    [Magical Defence] + 7

    [Endurance] + 1

    ]]

    Without a doubt, these new defensive equipment would also bring about another storm upon their release.

    [[System notification : You have new mail]

    Just as Sato was coincidentally done with the equipment, he got a mail from Fudo reporting that Xue Yan had returned.

    ''I guess it''s time to move then.''

    Sato wrapped up the leftover materials before storing them back into his space ring alongside thepleted armours that were littered all across the floor. Once he was done, Sato then exited the cksmith guild, ending his 48 hours.

    The journey back to ck Grill''s Cave wasn''t much but that had nothing to do precisely with Sato. After spending an hour in a carriage, Sato stopped at the edge of Stonecreek Forest before taking out a golden key and pointing it mid-air as if there was a done before him. This golden key was the [Void Opening key] Sato had gotten from Worrus after the Trials.

    ording to Worrus, the [Void Opening key] could be used to open up a portal to the Hall from any part of the kingdom but because the Hall is just recovering back to its original state, the active range of the key was only within Stonecreek Forest. While this made the key seem a bit less useful, it had saved an extra hour or two of the journey so Sato was grateful for it.

    Just as he turned the key clockwise in air, a click sounded as the phantom of a door appeared before him with a light burst of golden light. Sato then walked into the door of golden light before disappearing with a sh. Less than a second after he was gone, the "door" followed after him and disappeared too.

    When Sato had appeared again, he was in the main hall, and in front of him was the crew with Xue Yan included.

    "That was quick. I thought you were in town?" Fudo asked.

    "Yeah. But I had a handy item that saved me a lot of time." Sato replied without much of an expression.

    "So, what''s the n?" Lu Zhen asked.

    "The n? Simple. We just teleport to the 9th floor and finish off those floor guardians. After that, we head to the 10th floor and settle this problem once and for all." Sato replied with an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

    "Seriously? No raid ns or anything?" Yato couldn''t resist asking.

    "What need is there for a n when you have Sato and Xue Yan. This is already killing a chicken with a horse-ying de. If you still need a detailed n then that would be the same as smashing open an egg with a meteor." Fudo looked at Yato strangely.

    "Enough chit-chat everybody. We''re already on a tight schedule and the other guilds would be catching up to us if we waste more time. Let''s go " Sato said.

    Immediately after Sato had spoken, he alongside the entire group went onto the teleportation tform at the edge of the Hall and then used it to hear to their next destination.

    Unbeknownst to the multitude of yers outside of here as well as in ck Grill''s Cave, an unprecedented battle was underway.

 Chapter 357 - 351 : Silver Wolfâ€™s Dismay

    "Damn it!"

    *Bang*

    A fist recklessly shed with the rock wall with a bang. While the wall was unaffected, the fist undoubtedly wasn''t as it shivered a bit, seemingly as a result of the impact upon collision. The owner, however, didn''t seem to be bothered by the pain as he grit his teeth in anger.

    "How is this possible? We left earlier than they did but we ended up behind. How?!"

    A middle-aged man spoke with indignation as a bloodthirsty aura suffused from his body, forcing his teammates to remain silent despite his questions.

    This man was the middle-aged man who had led the Howling Wolf Battalion of Battle Wolves guild to ck Grill''s Cave. He went by the IGN Silver Wolf, a name that reminded him of his previous days in the military.

    Back before he began ying VR games, Silver Wolf was a soldier of the ISJ ground troops. However, due to some behind-the-scenes maniption, he ended up turning a scapegoat for a crimemitted by an influential party in the military. As such, he was stripped of his rank and rusticated from the military. This was the very first time he ever felt discontent about the social pyramid system as well as his position in it. Seeking a new different life but still with the same thrill that he felt in battles, he became a VR gamer.

    VR gaming was a rising industry back when he showed up and since it was a mix of realistic features, one''s battle skills proved to be very useful in it. Hence, with his martial arts knowledge and skills from his military days, Silver Wolf was able to make a name for himself and eventually got recruited by the top 1st tier guild, Battle Wolves, which was surprisingly a guild made up of retired soldiers, mercenaries, and a few other skilled gamers.

    After having struggled through the ranks for years, he finally made it this far and was elected as one of the high-rankingmanders as well as the leader f one of the guild''s trump card squad, Howling Wolf Battalion. This event in ck Grill''s Cave was supposed to be his stage, the stepping stone he would use to garner more fame as well as increase his value and authority in the guild.

    With his well-timed instructions as well as his clear-cutmands, Silver Wolf was able to bring his team to the 7th floor of ck Grill''s Cave Middle region within 2 days, while some of the teams who had left before him were still trying to find their way. Suchmanding skills and tactics would be praised and even Silver Wolf would have been pleased with his achievements if this were at another time, but for now, he was currently ashamed of it.

    The middle-aged man, Silver Wolf, was aggrieved and excessively discontented.

    He had led his men with an overbearing momentum and forced their way through every obstacle that stood their way but even at that, they were still overtaken by another team. If anyone as prideful as he was were in his shoes, they would without a doubt, feel the same.

    ''Are the heavens against me?''

    Silver Wolf lifted his head as he stared at the ceiling. His expression was as if his vision had pierced through the ceiling to nce at the skies above.

    Putting on a solemn yet determined face, Silver Wolf then brought his focus to his team. These guys consisted of soldiers like himself, who were forced out of the military for various yet simr reasons as himself, as well as a few youths who had rtions to military families but didn''t want to enter the military or were too young to do so. They had all gathered in Battle Wolves and had voluntarilye under Silver Wolf''smand after knowing who he was. While they were part of the Howling Wolf Battalion, these guys were closer to Silver Wolf and were the guild yers directly under his control; in other words, his private guards.

    "Old Wolf, you shouldn''t be too worried about things. They are just one floor ahead of us and it isn''t like they would dare face the BOSS alone. No matter what, we will still catch up to them." The [Guardian] closest to Silver Wolf said. He was a 2.1 metres tall giant with a burly body and his decision of choosing the [Guardian] ss looked to be reasonable especially when considering his physique.

    The two of them were part of the same toon back in the military and could be described as brothers in arms. They were both orphans and treated each other like real blood brothers. Back when Silver Wolf was unjustly retired from the army, this middle-aged man had left alongside him and a few others. In IR, he went by the IGN, Iron Bear.

    "I understand, Old Bear." Silver Wolf. He then nced at the 15+ men behind him and said.

    "Men, we will speed up now. Regardless of how much blood we have to spill, we have to make it to the 10th floor as fast as possible. Anyone who has anyints is free to depart now but if you are to follow me from here on and do as I say, we will find glory at the end of the tunnel. Now, are you with me?"

    "Yes, captain." The team replied with a unified thunderous sound. It was as if they weren''t bothered about revealing their position to the monsters, and honestly, they weren''t.

    "Good. Now, we move!"

    The scene above was just one of many scenes that had urred in the teams of other top guilds as the news of Emperor''s Might''s arrival on the 8th floor was spread to many. While it was true that none of these guilds had any intentions of taking the Kobold King on their own, the race to the 10th floor was still a thing as it disyed the difference in strength between the various teams. At the same time, getting a good rank would help them in negotiating for the loot from the Kobold King''s death. Hence, every guild, no matter which tier they were, had mobilised their strongest yers for this event.

    With Emperor''s Might currently taking the lead, and Battle Wolves up for second ce, the remaining 8 of the top 10 positions were aggressively contested for by the other 1st tier guilds and some of the stronger 2nd tier guilds. Everyone wanted a piece of the pie but they all knew it wouldn''te free. So, no matter the cost, the various teams pulled out the stops to make sure they got a good ranking which would not only help them in the forting negotiations but could also be used to boost the poprity of their guild. After all, making it to the top 10 positions in a race being participated by more than 20 guilds, clubs, and teams, showed the remarkable prowess of their team.

    While the entire atmosphere was getting heated up, Sato and the others had already begun making their way towards the target''s location. Up front, Emperor''s Might took the title of publicly acknowledged 1st ce, but Sato and the others had already sneaked their way to the 9th floor with the aid of the teleportation arrays.. If the other yers knew of this, they would scream of injustice while the enemies of Emperor''s Might would mock them for being so contented with their ''first'' ce.

 Chapter 358 - 352 : Returning To Origin

    "Hai~ Back then, I never thought I would be making my way back here so soon." Fudo released a sigh that seemed to be entailed with the vicissitudes of life.

    "Hold your horses, man. It''s just been less than 2 weeks since we''vest been here; not even a month. So why do you have to make it sound seem as if it''s been years since youst showed up here?" Yato looked at Fudo with a queer expression.

    "Hehe. What would you know?" Fudo replied.

    "Seiichi. What''s our current location?" Sato asked.

    Being the only [Ranger] in the team, Seiichi was tasked with reading the map and pointing out the direction for the team. Lu Zhen took the role of a scout since the [Assassin] ss was best suited for the task. Being the team''s MT, Katsuo handled the front with Sato assisting him while Fudo and Xue Yan took the back. As for Yato, he was tasked with protecting the back-liners and keeping them safe from harm.

    "Luckily for us I guess, we aren''t so far from the Exit gate. It''s just a 15 minutes walk towards the North from here." Seiichi replied right after he had finished consulting the map.

    "15 minutes? Indeed, we are lucky." Sato smiled lightly.

    It should be known that when yers are teleported to the next floor by the Exit gate of the previous floor, they get dropped at any spot on the entire floor. If not for the maps being avable, getting lost would extremely be easy much less finding the Exit gate to the next floor. Usually, the spot where yers are dropped off is such that there would be a difference of at least 1 hour in distance between them and the nearest Exit gate. Most times though, this was 2 hours or more due to the winding paths as well as the obstacles on their path known as monsters. It was all of these added that made exploring ck Grill''s Cave a difficult task and well as proceeding towards the 10th floor.

    However, Sato and the rest had made use of the teleportation array in the Hall. While it still had a random stop, it was at least better than the Exit gates. This could be seen from the fact that they were teleported to a point just 15 minutes away from the nearest Exit gate. Something like this would never happen if they had used an Exit gate instead of the teleportation array.

    "Let''s get moving now. Time waits for no man."

    It didn''t take long for the team of 7 to reach their destination. In fact, it didn''t take that 15 minutes to do so. Running at top speed, the group had one-shot any monster on their way, reducing the number of obstructions they would face. This was mostly Xue Yan''s handiwork as she was currently the only one with the ability to one-shot a level 6 or level 7 monster, apart from Sato. In the end, it only took them 10 minutes to reach their destination with ease, with their clothing unarmed and their breathing still even.

    "It''s been long, guys." Fudo waved at the 3 Guardian Golems that secured the Exit gate.

    "So, who''s interested?"

    Everyone in the team was currently stronger than most yers by quite a lot. There was also the fact that the lowest level here was level 8. The Guardian Golems were level 9 before and they would remain the same since the Kobold King had nothing to do with them and this was currently the most formidable lineup any other yer would have seen before.

    While 3 Elite rank Guardian Golems would be a problem for most yers to handle, for the ''men''[1]. On Sato''s side, any one of them could take on this monster on their own ande out unscathed so rather than using a boulder to crack an egg, it was best that they took things easy.

    "They are level 9. While you guys would be able to defeat them alone, it would be difficult if they group up." Satomented.

    "Let me handle them." Xue Yan called out.

    After she was done with her trials, Xue Yan had taken a break from gaming to recover from the stress she was under all through the process. Unlike Sato, who was quite confident enough to exit the game a couple of times during the trials, Xue Yan only did so twice and each of those times wasn''t up to even an hour. When her ''break period'' was over, Xue Yan wasn''t given enough time to get ustomed to her newfound strength and skills. Seeing an opportunity to fix that, she decided to volunteer to handle the monsters. Unlike the Fudo and the others, Xue Yan was already level 11 so taking on the three level 9 Elite Guardian Golems wouldn''t exactly be a problem.

    "Alright." Sato nodded.

    If Fudo and Lu Zhen were to take these guys on their own, once they win, the Experience points would bring them closer to level 10 but Sato didn''t feel it was necessary. The Experience points from defeating the Kobold King and his forces would undoubtedly be more than that and it would surely bring those two to level 10.

    Having received the go-ahead order from Sato, Xue Yan proceeded to confront the Guardian Golems.

    "Graw!"

    Once Xue Yan got within the active range of the first Guardian Golems, it roared at her as a form of warning as its blue beaded eyes stared at her with a bit of apprehension.

    Most Rock golems were just machines with no bit of emotion and only operated based on their programming rather than their instincts. However, the Guardian Golems were different. Though they couldn''t be said to be intelligent, they still had a certain level of instinct that helped them differentiate between an easy target and a difficult opponent. The Guardian Golem before Xue Yan had managed to identify her as thetter so even though Xue Yan was already in its active range, it didn''t attack yet but tried to scare her off.

    Xue Yan smiled lightly as she kept on walking forward. It was as if she wasn''t about to face off against 3 difficult opponents but was taking a walk along the park on a sunny day in Spring. Her entire expression was calm and unperturbed as she gave off the feeling of a harmless daintydy.

    Seeing this, the Guardian Golem became a bit confused as it had previously sensed a dreary amount of fire mana within the opponent but all of that seemed to have disappeared. As a creature formed from mana, its ability to sense mana was undoubtedly much sharper than yers.

    ''Returning to origin? No, it''s a bit far from the original. Xue Yan seems to have half a foot in that realm.'' Sato was a bit astonished.

    Returning to origin was a special martial arts technique but unlike the others, it had nothing to do about one''s strength. It neither increased the user''s attack power nor defensive power however, anyone who had mastered this skill wasn''t to be underestimated.

    For martial artists to grow, they have to engage in countless battles and improve on themselves and their techniques. During this period of growth, it was inevitable for one''s aura to constantly change with the various situations and encounters one must have experienced. Returning to origin was a skill that helped one withdraw their aura back to themselves and seal it tightly, looking no different from a regr human being. While this sounded easy, it wasn''t. Usually, only high-level and experienced martial arts experts were capable of pulling this off. Sato was surprised that Xue Yan was close to the true meaning of this technique since she has just stepped foot into the world of martial arts just some time ago.

    With only a week of training and her 3-day(RT) experience in the Main Trials, it was astounding that Xue Yan was able toe close to the realm of Returning to origin.

    ''She''s a talent worth keeping..'' Sato thought as he stared at Xue Yan.

 Chapter 359 - 353 : Goddess Of Flames

    As Xue Yan kept walking forward, the attention of the other two Guardian Golems was inevitably drawn towards her. The Guardian Golems were designated with the role of watching over the Exit gate of the 9th floor. Xue Yan''s current actions were pretty much the same as challenging their authority and this could not be tolerated.

    "Grawwr!"

    The 3 Guardian Golems simultaneously roared before dashing towards her. Even though the monsters were each at a height of 3 metres, their speed was already surpassing that of an Olympian sprint runner by far.

    *Bang*

    With a loud stomp, almost like an explosion, the 3 Golems had darted towards Xue Yan like Greyhounds in a dog race.

    Their imposing momentum acted to also weaken their opponent''s fighting will, but against Xue Yan, this move was nothing more than a parlor trick.

    Walking forward with calm yet steady steps, ignoring the rumbling of the ground as well as the roars of her opponent, Xue Yan pointed her staff towards the 3 Guardian Golems in front as her lips moved.

    "mes born from the depths of the earth. The sea turns to mist and thend to liquid. The anger of the monarch can not be held back. The will of the monarch is unstoppable...[zing Fury]."

    Just as the incantations were done, the Guardian Golems were already within 5 metres of her. At this distance, the Guardian Golems were already capable of attacking Xue Yan and even if she was two levels ahead of them, receiving the full brunt of their attack wouldn''t sit well with her and she would lose quite a lot of HP too. Even if she was level 11, Xue Yan was still a mage and that meant that her defensive ability was beneath that of the other sses.

    Though he knew that she wasn''t stupid and also has eyes, Lu Zhen wanted to alert her of the danger that was close when suddenly, he was stunned to silence by the next series of events.

    From the tip of Xue Yan''s staff, a sea of brilliant orange fire burst forth like water from a leaking dam. With the appearance of the mes, the entire space of 10 metres around Xue Yan experienced a sharp increase in temperature. Even the area outside of this range still saw a change in temperature.

    Therge billow of mes rushed towards the 3 Guardian Golems that were just a few away from Xue Yan, drowning them in a sea of orange. The area of 5 metres in a cone-shaped view from Xue Yan''s perspective was covered in the stunning mes in full capacity but from one metre out, the mes began to dissipate.

    [Critical Hit]

    -1088 (???/??? ???)

    [Critical Hit]

    -990 (???/??? ???)

    [Critical Hit]

    -989 (???/??? ???)

    Just a secondter, the mes had dissipated, almost as if they were never there. That is until one takes a nce at the floor.

    Sthhh.

    Lu Zhen, Fudo, Seiichi, Katsuo, and Yato all sucked in a fresh breath of cold air as they nced at the floor ahead of them. Even Sato was a bit surprised despite knowing that Xue Yan''s strength had experienced massive improvements.

    The ground that was nketed in the orange sea had turned ck, pitch ck. What was even more astonishing was the fact that amidst that charcoal-like floor, there were a few patches of orange. These orange patches wereva ponds formed from the exposure of the ground to intense heat. Smoke was still oozing from the floor as the ground was slowly cooling down, showing how hot the mes must have been.

    As for the original targets of the attack, their previous amber-colored ''skin'' had turned ck as they had fallen to their knees due to the intense heat. One of them had already copsed to ck rubble which got scattered on the floor.

    It was at this moment that the other 6 yers on standby recalled the damage values that were disyed earlier. They were originally too focused on the attack as it was quite grand and eye-catching, but the pitiful states of the Guardian Golems brought them back to their senses.

    Stttthhhh.

    Another round of sucking in cold, eh, it should be hot air, yes. Another round of sucking in hot air took ce as they were all shocked to stupor. This time around, the shock was too heavy. Ignoring the part where Xue Yan had pulled off 3 consecutive critical hits with one attack, the damage caused by her attack was behind anything they had seen.

    With just one move, Xue Yan had killed off one Guardian Golem and brought the rest down to their knees, to the point that they were capable of resisting any further attacks and could even be finished by a random level 3 yer in one hit. Yes, a level 3 yer. Even though Guardian Golems usually had a very high passive defence against physical attacks, Xue Yan''s attack had dealt so much damage to them that their defence was turned to nothing. Even the original level difference pressure they could enact on a low levelled yer was messed up. As a result, even a level 0 yer could finish them off at this moment.

    "Damn. She''s one hell of a chick." Yato said with fervor.

    He was still stuck in the memory of Xue Yan''s attacks that he couldn''t slow down his heart''s speed.

    "I need to be a level 10 yer." Fudo suddenly had the urge to cry.

    At the start, Fudo was the one with the highest damage dealing capacity in the team before Sato managed to catch up to him as the two became the highest levelled yers of IR. Sato then went on to be more capable than he was in damage dealing. Before Fudo could recover from this blow, Sato and Xue Yan hadpleted the Main Trials and experienced a sharp increase in strength. Sato was now level 15, which was far from his reach, while Xue Yan became level 11. Fudo still believed that after the Kobold King was dealt with, he would be able to regain his ce as first, eh, rather it should be the second-highest damage dealer in the squad now. But seeing this now, Fudo wasn''t so sure that it was still possible.

    Xue Yan''s strength increase wasn''t just in quantity; as regards to level, but also in quality. Her fire affinity had risen to be the highest among the crew and even her equipment was beyond what Fudo currently had. Her control was even more exquisite as the spot she stood on was unharmed be it by the mes or the extreme temperature. That spot looked to be just as it was before, perfectly normal.

    At this moment, standing on that perfectly okay spot with ake ofva and a swathe of scorchednd in front of her, Xue Yan looked like the incarnation of the goddess of mes.

 Chapter 360 - 354 : A Maidenâ€™s Heart

    "[Fireball]. [Manaball]."

    Seeing as thest two Guardian Golems were literally on theirst legs, Xue Yan cast a simple fireball spell to finish off one and used the basic [Elementalist] skill, [Manaball], for another.

    -378 (???/??? ???)

    -456 (???/??? ???)

    This was the first time she had used this spell since she became a level 4 [Elementalist] and it just so happened to be used to finish off a level 9 Elite monster. But even though it was her first time, the damage was still worth taking a look at.

    [Manaball] was the basic skill for all [Elementalists] but once they choose their elemental path after level 0, they rarely use this spell. It was instead reced by the elemental variation of their path. In the case of a fire [Elementalist], this would be the [Fireball]. The advantage of the elemental variation was that it also caused elemental magical damage to the opponent. Simply put, the new skill would experience a qualitative change and could deal more damage against a certain kind of enemy, unlike the basic skill that just dealt base damage. But against another kind of enemy, the elemental variation might deal less damage than the basic spell.

    A good example would be the everyday matter in ck Grill''s Cave. Against a Rock Golem, the [Manaball] spell would undoubtedly deal less damage than the [Fireball] spell but more than the [Waterball] spell and even more than the [Earthball] spell. This was because those two elements just happened to be the ones that a Rock Golem has resistance to but the fire element happened to be its bane.

    Against neutral monsters though[1], an elemental variation was much better than the original [Manaball] as it had a few special features that made it stronger. This was the reason why the spell [Manaball] was usually abandoned by [Elementalists] once they learn their elemental variation.

    "I''m done." Xue Yan turned around and said with a smile as she nced at Sato.

    Arriving at this ce had made her recall the first time they were here. Back then, Xue Yan was a lot weaker than she was now and the 3 Guardian Golems were tough opponents for the 7 of them. She has almost died at the hands of one of them but was safely pulled out of the way by Sato. That action of his had left a mark in her maiden life and became a part of her memories.

    Now, Xue Yan was stronger than before and also more capable of taking on these monsters without any problem. It was because of this, as well as her recollection of the past, that made her decide to battle the Guardian Golems alone; saying it was because she needed to get ustomed to her strength was nothing more than an excuse she gave to the others.

    "Alright." Sato nodded at her before proceeding with the rest of the team towards the spot.

    To prevent any external interference, the rest of the team had hidden 50 metres away from the battlefield. At this range, they were outside of the Guardian Golems'' sensory range and didn''t need to be worried about getting spotted.

    ''Little Snow is acting strange. She''s been smiling more often than usual.''

    While everyone else nonchntly walked forward, Lu Zhen stared at Xue Yan in thought.

    If they were to mention those who knew Xue Yan best among the 6 of them, then the answer would undoubtedly be Lu Zhen. He had noticed that this cousin of his, who was the type of beauty that kept a cold facade no matter the situation, had recently started smiling more often.

    When it came to reading women, Lu Zhen wasn''t exactly the one you would call for this but he still noticed that his cousin seemed to be acting differently. While he didn''t know the reason why, Lu Zhen felt that it might have a bit to do with her personal matters and not Sato, so he didn''t think too much about him. The idea of even rting Xue Yan''s actions with Sato never crossed his mind. Instead, Lu Zhen felt that he should let his cousin enjoy this feeling since she pretty much had a not-so-nice childhood.

    As everyone got close to the remains of the 3 Guardian Golems, golden light dots simr to fireflies, exit the rubble left behind from the copse of each Guardian Golems. In the end, the light dots grouped themselves into seven and conglomerated in the bodies of the 7 yers. This was the ''entry ticket'' into the 9th floor''s Exit gate.

    The previous time they were, because the strength of the monsters was more than theirs, Sato had brought up the idea of running past the monsters and heading into the Exit gate. In the end, while they did manage to draw the Guardian Golems away from the Exit gate, they had failed to pass through it as the gate had a prerequisite for its usage; the Guardian Golems had to be eliminated. After their death, or destruction, gold-coloured light dots would flee from the remains of the Golems into the bodies of the yers involved in the battle, granting them ess into the Exit gate.

    While Sato and the others didn''t participate in the battle, they were in a party system with Xue Yan. So, not only was the Experience points from the Guardian Golems shared amongst them, but they also received the recognition of the golden dots.

    As the crew walked towards the Exit gate, Xue Yan nced at Sato once more as she felt a strange sensation in her heart. Because of the formation the team used to move, Sato didn''t notice anything out of the ordinary and neither did anyone. Xue Yan was behind and Sato was in front so most would usually mistake her action as her simply staring ahead. At that point in time, maybe it was due to her dwelling too much in her memories, but Xue Yan felt that Sato looked good. Moving along that line of thought, she suddenly felt that it would be nice if they were a lot closer.

    ''*sigh* What''s wrong with me? After we are done ying the Kobold King, we will all take our different paths. At that time, what being friends with him, I might not even be able to see him again. We will probably return to our status as strangers.''

    As she thought up to hear, Xue Yan sighed internally while a slight feeling of difort sprouted in her heart.

 Chapter 361 - 355 : At The 10th Floor Again

    Passing through an Exit gate was almost the same as crossing over to another location and the same still applied here.

    As Sato and his teammates went through the Exit gate, they felt a slight feeling of weightlessness before feeling that forceful sensation of gravity on their body once again. Opening their eyes, they scanned the sight in front of them.

    "It''s...different." Fudo spoke up. While he was the first to say it, he wasn''t the only one who noticed it. Once they had all opened their eyes, everyone in the gang had caught a glimpse of the same scene at that very moment and the same thought had sprung in their heads; what the hell happened here?

    The Middle region''s 10th floor was arge field with uneven ground; this was a fact that everyone in the team already knew. But despite the differing height of each elevated patch ofnd, none of these mounds had reached a certified height where they could be regarded as a mountain. However, there just happened to be one in front of them right now.

    "How is this possible?" Sato furrowed his brows.

    The first time they were here, they had been teleported closer to the centre of the floor so they were able to spot the kobold settlement quickly. Since they were on a highnd back then, they weren''t spotted by any kobold but had instead maintained their state of alertness and stealth. This time around though, they had teleported quite some distance away from the central region of the floor and the vicinities of that mountain.

    Considering that some new changes must have urred, being teleported far out was better than being sent to the central region of the floor where they might dying without knowing her. To this, one could only say that the group''s luck was pretty impressive.

    "That mountain is eerie."

    Amongst the group''s members, Xue Yan was the highest levelled [Elementalist] so her ability in sensing mana was roughly on par with a level 6 or 7 [Druid]. She was able to sense the uncanny situation surrounding the mountain and decided to alert the others first.

    "Indeed. It wasn''t here the first time; that, I''m sure of." Fudo nodded.

    "The question now is how the heck did a mountain appear out of nowhere? And on the 10th floor at that?"

    "I think we will have all our questions at the central region. Meanwhile, everyone, take a 30 minutes break after which we will continue forward. Lu Zhen, you go ahead and scout the area 100-200 metres ahead of us during this time. We''re currently in enemy territory and the enemy isn''t a dumb monster. There will probably be patrols and sentries just like with the other floors. If we make the mistake of rushing forward now, we may get drowned by their men, and even with the level difference, our defeat would be an eventuality. So, we need to still employ strategies." Sato spoke up.

    No one disagreed with Sato''sment as it made quite a lot of sense. Thest time they were here, there were at least 200 or so kobolds but only 100 or so kobolds pursued after them. That number alone was more than enough to give the 7 of them a hard time and they had to make use of other groups as bait to draw these monsters away.

    Unlike with the first time, they couldn''t risk waiting for other yers to arrive but they also weren''t strong enough to face off against a 100 plus kobolds on their own. Seeing that they were forced to an impasse, Sato had to change his schedule a bit.

    After Sato had designated the various roles to everyone, Lu Zhen left the group and went to scout ahead. His role was one of the most, if not the most important one in the team. This was because based on the result of his investigation, Sato would be able to create a workable raid n for the uing battle.

    25 minutester, Lu Zhen had returned to the same spot. Sato had decided to use this ce as their hideout as not only was the hill looking somewhat deste and abandoned, it also had a few escape holes like the ones from before. It served as the perfect location for the team. There was also a small but sizeable cave by the side of the hill. This served as the team''s meeting spot as well as their hideout.

    "What''s the news?" Sato asked.

    Lu Zhen first sent a rough map of the neighbouring area to the team chat before retelling his experience.

    "A few hundred metres away from here would be the current settlement. Their original location seems to be the new housing spot for that auspicious mountain. When I had approached the settlement to get a better look, I sensed a dangerous aura enshrouding it. I tried to trace the aura back when I discovered it came from the mountain." Lu Zhen said with a bit of apprehension in his words.

    "I don''t know what it is or what''s there but I have a feeling that if we battle close to it, we will die."

    Sato grimaced at his words but the thought of Lu Zhen sounding crazy never crossed his mind. Sato knew that Lu Zhen was an Expert yer and Experts were quite skilled with their senses, especially their intuition, which has been honed closer to perfection than that of regr people. If anyone else had said this, Sato might not take them seriously but as the words hade from Lu Zhen''s mouth, he would rather be wrong and agree with him than take that risk and do otherwise.

    "I never nned on us facing them in their home ground in the first ce but thanks for the information." Sato said.

    "You should have had an inkling of my n right?" Sato looked Lu Zhen in the eye.

    "Was there any suitable spot?"

    The others might not understand these words but Lu Zhen did. In a situation such as this, where one was faced with the issue of having to take down a target who was surrounded by his forces and the home ground wasn''t so safe, there was only one suitable n for this. The best n was to create a diversion to separate the target from the guards and this was to lure one of them away. In this case, it was the target. However, they would need a good ambush spot that would serve to their advantage for this.

    "Yes." Lu Zhen smiled as circled at a point on the map in the team chat. Following that, the map disyed in the others interface also had a point circled just like Lu Zhen''s.

    "Good." Sato nodded right after he read the summary of the environment.

    "Alright then. We move in the next 5 minutes. Everyone, this is the n."

 Chapter 362 - 356 : Drawing The Kobold King

    The 10th floor of the Middle region was a bit different from how it was since thest time a yer had ever set foot on it. Though the differences weren''t much, they were crucial to the forting battle. This was especially so for the inconspicuous mountain that stood at the centre of the floor, recing the previous kobold settlement that stood there before. While most yers would feel that it was too bizarre and might even be disadvantageous to them, they couldn''t put their finger on it.

    With the mountain upying their previous location, the kobolds had relocated to a few hundred metres away from the mountain. This new location happened to just be in the direction Sato and the others so they were saved from the stress of having to go round the mountain in search of it.

    ''Aiya~ This young master is always charged with the toughest role of drawing them out. This is no fun.''

    ncing at the kobold settlement from the cover of a boulder, Lu Zhen seemingly sighed at his terrible fate.

    Just like before, Lu Zhen was chosen to be the bait for the Kobold King. Logically, with Sato being the one with the highest level amongst them, he should have taken on this role. However, there was no other reason for this other than the skills associated with the [Assassin] ss.

    While it was true that Sato''s [Agility] and [Dexterity] were currently on par with Lu Zhen''s and his increased strength assured his survival, when ites to sneaking into a guarded area as well as escaping the sight and grasp of the enemy, the [Assassin] ss was built for this. Skills like [Fade] and [Silent Steps] made an [Assassin], an assassin. Because of this, the role of drawing out a target would forever be assigned to Lu Zhen.

    If there was one person Lu Zhen had to me for this, it would only be himself.

    The target this time around was the Kobold King, so unlike before, where Lu Zhen only had to wreak havoc and turn the hatred of the kobolds to himself, he had to vex an above level 10 BOSS and also draw it away from the settlement all on his own.

    ''This would be fun.''

    Despite having such an almost impossible task ced on his shoulders, Lu Zhen still had the energy to make a joke.

    ''Sneaking in and attacking it is extremely dumb so the only way to draw its attention would be to cause amotion at the front gate.''

    While the main target of this mission was the Kobold King, who most likely resided in the depths of the settlement, it was way too risky and stupid for Lu Zhen to sneak into the settlement and attack the monster even though this seemed like the most direct and obvious option. The reason was simply that once he did so, Lu Zhen would find himself surrounded by God knows how many kobolds. However, this would be the best-case scenario. The worst possible result would see him being killed instantly by the Kobold King. It should be known that the true prowess of the Kobold King was still unknown so it was definitely a dicey situation.

    "Guess it''s gonna be the same ol'' strategy."

    Taking a scroll out from his space bag, Lu Zhen unfurled with a reluctant expression before uttering the chants written on it.

    The scroll in his hands was a recorded AOE spell with a range of 30 metres. The range was impressive and the scroll was currently the only Mortal grade scroll essible to yers with such an attack range. Because of this, the price for the scroll was something that would even hurt the pocket of a 2nd tier guild.

    However, for the scroll to achieve such a splendid attack range, the attack power of the scroll was sacrificed, bing weaker than most attack scrolls at the same level. Against a level 10 monster, it might still cause damage but against the Kobold King, it might not even be able to tickle it.

    Lu Zhen''s intention behind using it, however, wasn''t to cause any damage but to cause amotion.

    "...[Fire Rain]"

    Afterpleting the chants of the scroll, Lu Zhen then swung it towards the sky and activated [Fade], entering stealth mode. Despite being a sheet of paper, the scroll had managed to reach an impressive height of more than 50 metres in the air.

    At that height, the scroll then lit up in mes as it slowed turned to ash that scattered high up. Before 3 seconds could count on the clock, tens of fireballs had taken form in the air. If one had paid attention to the scroll from the very beginning, they would realise that these fireballs were actually birthed from the ashes of the scroll that light up in mes. The tiny ash particles had mysteriously turned into fireballs.

    [Fire Rain]

    Sato had already considered various possible options and the idea of using arge-scale AOE attack was his idea. The [Fire Rain] scroll was also purchased by him using some of this reward from the Main Trials. To prevent their reliance on external help, this was the only scroll Sato had purchased despite having arge amount of wealth that could even make the treasuries of a few guilds go green with envy.

    As the tongues of mes dropped on the kobold settlement, they set aze the thatched houses and roads in a 30 metres radius. Since Lu Zhen was still some distance away from the kobold settlement, the attack had only managed to reach the outer region of the settlement but it was still enough to cause devastation. The unlucky kobolds who were out in the open got burnt by the mes, falling to the floor with a loud shrill. It was like armageddon had descended on the kobold settlement. mes aze everywhere while chaos spread with the noise.

    "Roar!!!!!"

    A terrifying roar broke out from the centre of the settlement, forcing the other kobolds to a stop and eliminating the disorderly screams due to the panic.

    "Finally." Lu Zhen narrowed his eyes.

    A 7 metres tall kobold, simr to a little mountain, walked out from the building at the centre of the settlement. With a pair of green eyes and a pair of horns longer than the ones of an average kobold, this figure red at the scene before with rage.

    mes of fury seemed to re up in its eyes as it nced at the houses being set on fire and the kobolds who were covered in mes.

    "Roar!!"

    A roar filled with extreme rage broke out from its mouth. The roar had somewhat solidified and even began putting off the mes on the houses and the kobolds.

    With just one roar, the cmity that had befallen the kobold tribe was put to an end.

    Lu Zhen inhaled arge amount of air out of astonishment. That was the attack of a Mortal Grade level 10 scroll! Even if it was powerless against above level 10 monsters, to be able to put it off with just a roar was rming.

    Without a doubt, this was the world-ss BOSS that had drawn the attention of the three towns towards ck Grill''s Cave. This was the Kobold King.

    ''This guy-''

    Just before Lu Zhen couldplete hisment on the Kobold King, the monster suddenly nced in his direction. At that moment, Lu Zhen felt his blood run cold. His body froze out of fear and his eyes widened in shock.

    ''He, he noticed me.''

    Lu Zhen was surprised by his thoughts but he didn''t doubt them. Some could say it was a coincidence that the Kobold King happened to nce in his direction, after all, Lu Zhen was in stealth mode so it should be impossible for this to happen. However, Lu Zhen was sure that it had nced at him; 100% sure.

    Run.

    That was the only word that crossed his mind before Lu Zhen took to his heels. He wasn''t bothered whether his abrupt movement would reveal his position or not. Right now, the only that was in his mind was to escape this ce.

    "Remember, you either draw the BOSS away or the monsters. I believe drawing the BOSS away would be a lot easier than drawing the monsters away but the BOSS is quite cunning. I doubt it would be easy to pull that off. It''s even quite possible that the very second you make your move, you would be spotted. So, try as much as possible to pull off your task in one move. Whether it works out or not, just run. The Kobold King isn''t something we should underestimate."

    Recalling Sato''s words back then, Lu Zhen could finally understand what he meant by it. At that time he thought that Sato was exaggerating things. Even if the Kobold King was powerful, it shouldn''t be able to spot him in stealth mode from far out. So long as he was outside the active range of the monster -which he estimated to be 30-40 metres- he should be safe. But now, Lu Zhen realised how wrong he was.

    Luckily for Lu Zhen, he had managed to attract its wrath towards himself. In this way, his task could be said to have beenpleted.. He just had to hear where the others were and live through this event.

 Chapter 363 - 357 : Face Off

    "He''sing."

    Sato''s voice alerted the others as they all took their positions and heightened their senses.

    Lu Zhen didn''t bring any shame to his ss and title as an assassin, as not only was he able to draw the BOSS'' aggro towards himself but he also managed to lead it thus far without incurring any injuries. Since the Kobold King was judged to be a monster above level 10, for a level 9 [Assassin] to have survived its pursuit for this long was really praise worthy.

    However, no matter what, Lu Zhen wouldn''tst much long against it as the monster was already catching up to him. One could say that it was only due to the initial gap between them as well as Lu Zhen''s quick response to its re, that kept him alive. Otherwise, the Kobold King would have caught up with him earlier on.

    Seeing Lu Zhen about to get caught in a perilous situation, Sato charged towards the Kobold King with his sword held high. Among the yers in his team, he was the only one capable of going toe-to-toe with the Kobold King. Their MT, Katsuo, was weaker so it would be suicide sending him forward.

    The Kobold King seemed to have not noticed Sato and the others as its green eyes were dead set on seeing Lu Zhen dead. In its arm was a green short spear that had appeared out of nowhere that was made for long distance battles.

    "Ha!"

    Just as the Kobold King was about to toss the short spear in its arm at Lu Zhen, a roar sounded from in front and broke its focus. Before the Kobold King could even retaliate in kind, a silver sh appeared in front of it together with a dangerous sensation.

    Reflexively, the Kobold King swiped the short spear before it in a bid to force the opponent back.

    *ng*

    An abrupt sound echoed from the spot as the Kobold King''s arm shook a bit.

    "Hmph."

    Sato, who had appeared on the other side at an unknown period, grunted as he barely held his stance with his sword-wielding arm trembling from the short sh. At the same time, a look of astonishment appeared in Sato''s eyes.

    From that collision, Sato had discover that not only was the Kobold King''s [Strength] not weaker than his even one bit, but it actually higher than his by a slight but sufficient difference. Sato realised this from the collision just now. While his attack was a full on charge, the Kobold King''s defence was hastily set up but it was still able to repel his strike and almost made him eat a loss.

    ''This will be a tough one.'' Sato narrowed his eyes.

    It would be a lie to say that Sato didn''t feel a bitcent after bing level 15. He was currently the strongest yer by level alone and was 4 levels ahead of the next highest rated yer. Such achievements made him destined to rise to the peak of he kept it up. Having a bit of self-contentment as well as pride in his attainment was normal. Even when the idea of taking on the Kobold King was brought up, Sato believed that it wouldn''t be a match for him after all, the initial spection of its strength was level 10. Even if it was a level 10 King, it would still be no match against a level 15 yer. Letting the others join him was to let them bask in the honour of ying a world ss BOSS as well as distributing the rewards between themselves, otherwise, Sato would have long left the Hall and chased after the Kobold King till it was dead.

    Now that he was facing it or better yet, now that Sato had exchanged a blow with the monster, he couldn''t help but change his previous thoughts about it. Everyone had made a mistake and the same went with Xue Yan''s previous estimations. The Kobold King wasn''t simply a level 10 or above monster; it was at least level 15 Special Elite or above. Added with the fact that it was meant to be a world ss BOSS, its fighting prowess would definitely not be ordinary.

    Against such a monster, if Sato were to lose the slightest bit of concentration the tempo of the battle would flee his hands and even he would possibly die.

    "Formation!"

    With a bellow, Sato called for the others as he realised that taking this monster lightly might cost them this battle, and that wasn''t something they could risk.

    The Kobold King was without a doubt, going to be the strongest opponent the team had ever faced. If they were to take it on without proper preparations and strategies, the battle would surely be a loss. There was also the fact that the other kobolds would soon head over here and Sato had no faith in being able to defeat the Kobold King before they arrived. Hence, a formation was devised for the team''victory.

    The formation Sato adopted for the battle was as thus; all long-range attackers alongside himself would duke it out with the Kobold king. As for the close rangebatants, they would take on the kobolds. To be specific, Sato, who would serve as both an MT and a damage dealer in the battle against the Kobold King. Fudo and Seiichi would then take on the role of the team''s main damage dealers. Xue Yan, Yato, Katsuo and Lu Zhen would temporarily act as damage dealers too until the other kobolds were closing in on them after which they would depart to hold them back.

    The reason for having Sato act as the MT was simply because Katsuo wouldn''t be able to exchange blows with the Kobold King much less deal enough damage to have its aggro centered on himself. Due to the risk the Kobold King posed in close range, the main damage dealers had to be long-rangebatants. As for why Xue Yan was part of the interception squad, she had an arsenal ofAOE attacks that were extremely useful for holding back a horde of monsters. Apart from that, her great strength would also serve to reduce the load on Yato and the others and the team would be able to work more efficiently with her having their backs.

    Before the others could officially join the battle, the Kobold King seemed to have noticed them but ignored their existence, only sending a nce towards Xue Yan but that was all. In its eyes, only Sato was a worthy opponent and had to be taken seriously. The others could be handled with a wave of a palm from it.

    "Using chickens to face off against a dragon. How foolish." The Kobold King said with a condescending tone.

    It was already a known fact that it could speak and this fact was even more clearer to Sato and the rest, after all, they were the first one to confront it face-to-face and even had the privilege of having a sentence spoken to them. This was obviously the thought patternof the Kobold King. It felt that these humans should be privileged that it had spoken a few words to them despite their unpleasant abilities. To the Kobold King, its words were like gold and the yers weren''t worthy of it.

    However, the most irksome thing wasn''t the words it had spoken just now but the ones it said next.

    "If this is all of you, then this battle is pretty much over.. It will end with your deaths if you have nothing entertaining enough."

 Chapter 364 - 358 : Versus The Kobold King!

    "If this is all of you, then this battle is pretty much over. It will end with your deaths if you have nothing entertaining enough."

    Arrogant, prideful, disdainful, conceited, domineering, overbearing.

    All of these words were barely enough to describe the Kobold King''s attitude from just those two sentences. Since he had began ying IR, no. Since they had begun ying IR, nobody on the team had ever seen a monster or even another yer, looking at them with so much disdain and arrogance that it literally made them want to smack that face to the ground.

    It was as if it didn''t even ce them in its eyes as an opponent but only as some street performer. The words ''if you have nothing entertaining enough'' was more than enough to prove this. From beginning to end, despite being lured here, surrounded and outnumbered, there was no sign of worry on the Kobold King''s face, only disappointment. Yes, disappointment. For some reason, the Kobold King was disappointed at the lineup standing against it.

    ''Wait a minute. The Kobold King possesses intelligence not necessarily less than that of a human being. Apart from that, it also has a bit of control over space to facilitate its movement. But despite that, Lu Zhen had managed to escape its grasp. No matter what, even if Lu Zhen was one level higher than he is now, he shouldn''t have been able to escape. Even if the gap between them wasrge in the beginning, this lizard should have been able to catch up to him in a few seconds and dice him up in another. Therefore...this means that Lu Zhen didn''t escape, it let him run.''

    Reaching that final conclusion, Sato''s blood then suddenly ran cold.

    The Kobold King had previously disyed its distance shortening ability long ago. It wasn''t a new thing to these guys and Lu Zhen had somewhat prepared himself for it. However, when it finally came down to the chase, the Kobold King didn''t even use the skill. It was as if it had forgotten about it. Originally, Lu Zhen had praised the heavens while the rest praised his luck but seeing that look on the Kobold King''s face, Sato realised something. It wasn''t that Lu Zhen had escaped or that the Kobold King had forgotten about its spatial ability. It was that it probably wanted to fish out all other intruders and betrayers, so it yed along with Lu Zhen and chased him ''furiously''. It was only with Sato and the others'' appearance that the Kobold King finally decided to retire its act.

    ''Such a crafty move but for what reason exactly? Does it want to finish us all together? Is that why?''

    Before Sato could even ponder in this anymore, Lu Zhen immediately sent them a message. He was afraid to use a typed message as it might affect their battle so he he simply sent a voice note.

    "The kobolds have left the settlement. From the looks of it, they''re heading this way."

    Based on the original battle tactic, Sato and all the long-range yers, apart from Xue Yan, would take on the Kobold King. As for the only exception, she would join up with Lu Zhen, Katsuo and Yato to battle the kobolds. The reason for sending their second strongestbatant out was because the kobold shad the numbers advantage. In such situation, AOE skills would prove the most useful but only Fudo and Xue Yan truly possessed such capabilities. Fudo was too weak so he might not be able to do much against such a horde but Xue Yan could do better. But now, Sato began contemting on his previous decision.

    The Kobold King was much stronger than anyone had anticipated so it was high probable that Fudo''s attacks might not cause it any worry. In that case, it would be dumb to send Xue Yan away since Sato would have to focus on handling its aggro while they would still need someone with simr might to deal damage. Also, the entire motive for all of this was to let Xue Yan defeat the Kobold King as that was the priority of the mission. If she barely participated in the battle and only appeared to deal the final hit, her final evaluation would be lower than if she had a direct hand in its death.

    "Change of ns. Fudo, you go with Lu Zhen and the others. Xue Yan, you stay with me."

    "Okay." Fudo replied while Xue Yan simply nodded. None of them bothered to ask why Sato had suddenly changed the n as they knew he probably had his reasons.

    Without dying any further, Fudo, Yato and Katsuo ran towards Lu Zhen and the four of them went forward to intercept the kobolds, leaving behind Sato, Xue Yan and Seiichi to face off against the Kobold King.

    The Kobold King watched all this happen with an apathetic nce. It didn''t seem bothered neither did it try to stop the four from running. In its eyes, those 4 were the weakest with only the mage and that assassin being slightly stronger than the others. They wouldn''t be able to entertain it enough so it was better they died at the hands of its people. As long as the female mage and that swordsman remained behind, the Kobold King wouldn''t care even if the archer behind them left too. The was the unbridled confidence that came from possessing the strength it did; from both its bloodline and potential.

    Today, the Kobold King had decided that it would y these few humans in front of it but would do so slowly and painfully.

    Since young, the Kobold King had been held in the highest esteem by its people and had never met an opponent. Only when it was close to leaving the cave that it discovered that the world outside was huge and filled with powerful people, especially that ''little boy''. Just one nce was enough to make its body turn cold and retreat with its tail tucked between its legs. Because of that, the Kobold King was currently incensed. A being such as itself was being looked down upon by another. This had undoubtedly hurt its pride, and not by a small margin.

    After thinking that it would never be able to express the anger outwards, that fellow had wreaked havoc to its home. As the tactic was quite simr, it guessed that there were others behind that fellow and ran after him but purposely left behind a survival path for him. When it saw Sato, it was happy and surprised. Happy that its conjecture was urate and surprised that Sato''s strength was simr to its. This had made it surprised but it soon calmed down down after recalling that ''little boy''.

    Despite not being aware of the proverb, the Kobold King suddenly felt like a frog in a well who decided to take a look outside. It decided to kill this young man not because he had simply intruded upon itsnd but because he was like a thorn in its sight. However, the death woulde slow and painfully, as a way tofort it and heal its injured pride.

    At that moment, while the Kobold King had a calm and emotionless look on its face, it was actually filled with rage and indignation.. It was unwilling to ept its fate of being unrivalled in the world and killing Sato was the only way it would calm down.

 Chapter 365 - 359 : Battle!

    With Lu Zhen, Yato, Katsuo, and Fudo gone, only the actualbatants for the battle were now left behind. The Kobold King stood still and didn''t make a move yet. In its opinion, it was beneath it to make the first move when facing off against some low-level creatures. As for Sato, it was too risky for them to take the first action, hence the resulting stand-off.

    *Bang*

    At the moment one would least expect it, a ray of red light st forth from Sato''s side and struck at the Kobold King. Not bringing shame to its strength, the Kobold King had already conjured up a green shield when the day was in front of it. The earlier explosive sound was was a result of the green shield being destroyed by the red ray. However, the red ray was also forced to dissipate after the explosion.

    Taking it as the sign to kick off the battle, Sato had already charged towards the Kobold King to engage it in battle.

    When he was just within reach of the Kobold King, Sato shed his sword out like a legendary pdin intent on ying the demon king.

    *Bang*

    Just like with the ray, the Kobold King had conjured up another green barrier to receive the attack but this time, however, the result was different. Sato had struck out with the full force of his strength. He knew that this would be a tough match so, unlike the Kobold King, he had begun the fight with his full strength.

    Not expecting that to happen, the green shield that the Kobold King had conjured up shattered into shards and the sword proceeded towards it. Relying on its higher stats, the Kobold King managed to move its head towards the side, dodging most of the danger the sword posed to it but not all of it. The sword then went on to make a mark on the Kobold King''s face, brushing against its scales while breaking a few of them apart.

    -70 (???/??? ???)

    "Grawwr!"

    Just as Sato was about to use a follow-up attack, the Kobold King reacted quickly and summoned a white object into its hand.

    *Phew*

    With the sound of something cutting through the air, the white object was swung towards Sato at an insane speed, almost as if it were a divine sword cutting through the air.

    Danger.

    Sato''s senses warned him of the impending danger so he brought his sword in front of him to take the hit lest he dies an unjust death.

    *ng*

    The two objects collided with each other and surprisingly, the Kobold King''s weapon was able to generate a metallic ring upon shing with Sato''s sword.

    Using the force from the attack, Sato retreated since his goal of attracting its aggro towards himself could be said to have seeded. However, he was astonished at the result of their sh.

    The white object the Kobold King held was a bone saber with blood-red lines on it. A close look at the lines revealed them to look simr to runes but not the ones Sato was familiar with. The aura from the saber was also quite impressive, giving off a bloodthirsty feel to anyone close to it. While the saber looked to be made of bone, the material looked much stronger than a regr bone. Both the material and the aura of the saber made itparable with an Upper-tier Mortal. A close look at Sato''s sword after the sh showed that it got nicked at a point. In other words, the Kobold King''s weapon wasn''t just on par with an Upper-tier Mortal rank sword, it was even slightly better than it.

    When Sato retreated, following the original strategy thought up, Xue Yan and Seiichi turned their attacks towards the Kobold King. From afar, a zing fireball speed towards the horned creature while 2 arrows attacks from the sides while a third hid behind the fireball.

    "Out of my way!"

    With an imposing roar, the Kobold King swung the bone saber in a horizontal line, repelling the arrows while dispersing the fireball, all with one sh.

    When they all saw it, the trio frowned as they realised that this battle would be a lot tougher than they thought. While it had only been less than 10 seconds since they engaged the Kobold King inbat, the only damage they had managed to deal was the cut on the Kobold King''s cheek which was caused by Sato''s previous sh and the Kobold King''s negligence. Finding a simr opportunity would be difficult and winning this battle would be even more difficult.

    The Kobold King was already enraged after Sato had managed to injure it. It was supposed to be a figure looked upon and worshipped by other kobolds; a being much stronger than the human before it. Despite all this, just a moment of carelessness has led to it being injured. Without a doubt, the Kobold King was already incensed to a level much higher than it was before. If before it wanted to give Sato a slow and painful death, now it wanted to do just that as well as capture his soul and torture it slowly and painfully.

    *Bang*

    This time around, the source of the miniature explosive sound was the footstep the Kobold King took. Just with one step, it had already approached Sato with the bone sabering down at him.

    "Come then!"

    Not willing to lose out against it, Sato proceeded to confront the monster head-on.

    Xue Yan and Seiichi''s attack power was too weak to make it to the Kobold King but if it was held down by someone, they would be able to attack at critical moments and deal some damage. Apart from that, they could also assist Sato in the battle and lessen the burden on him with their well-timed attacks.

    *ng*

    The first sh led to a sonorous outbreak of noise but before the sound could fully dissipate, the two had exchanged 3 more attacks and were still at it. This led to the entire area being filled with the sound of metals shing in mid-air.

    The two changed positions on the battlefield like two fishes racing in the water. One second they could be here and the next, they would be 7 metres away. The reason for this was both due to the intentional actions of the Kobold King to avoid being locked down by the long-range attackers as well as Sato''s weakness.

    Sato''s attributes were just a bit lower than that of the Kobold King so he had things harder than it and would be forced back at times especially after a tricky attack from the other party. Luckily for him, he had Xue Yan and Seiichi pitching in their help once in a while. This helped him to not only bring the fight to a bnce but to also steer the initiative slightly towards his side.

    Nheless, the Kobold King wasn''t a world-ss BOSS for naught. Even with the two ''obstructions'' as well Sato''s skills that slowly helped him gain the initiative at times, the Kobold King was still able to exhibit better control of the battle than Sato.

    From a bystander''s point of view, the battle looked as if they were both on par with each other.. However, Sato -as one of thebatants here- knew that if things went on like this, their defeat was a certainty.

 Chapter 366 - 360 : The Demon Is Drawn

    The reason that Sato believed that their defeat was approaching was simply because the Kobold King was that strong. Sato alone couldn''tpare to it in a one-on-one battle as he needed the assistance of both Xue Yan and Seiichi to intercept the BOSS at critical moments. However, no matter how coordinated the trio was with their attacks, a 3 on 1 battle would be more difficult than a 1 on 1.

    In a one-on-one battle, thebatant would only need to focus on his opponent and nothing more. All his moves would be to either attack or defend and they were all performed for himself/herself. But in a 3 on 1 battle, it was different, especially when the adversary was equal in strength to thebination of the 3.

    From ayman''s view, as regards to a 3 on 1 battle, the individual fighter would find things difficult since the number''s advantage wasn''t on his side but this wasn''t true in all cases. A 3 on 1 battle, especially with an opponent who was on par with thebination of all 3, was harder for the 3 fighters than it was for the individual opponent. The 3batants would have to have seamless coordination to be able to contend with the opponent, being able to switch from offense to defense to prevent being picked off one after the other. In other words, unlike in a one-on-one situation where the fighter only focuses on himself, a 3 on 1 battle, where the individual opponent isparable to the trio, sees the three teammates working on their attack and defence. Any slight mishap from one of them could lead to the death of the entire squad since the three teammates were necessary to contend with the individual opponent.

    It was this very situation Sato currently faced. Since he was the only one that could go toe-to-toe with the Kobold King at least for a while, he had to make sure that it didn''t leave his sights and go for any of his teammates. At the same time, Sato would have to withdraw from the battle once in a while to give himself some breathing space but at the same time, it had to not be too long of a break otherwise the others would suffer the consequences.

    There would have been no problem with any of these if they could continuously deal considerable damage to the Kobold King but the problem was they couldn''t. On the contrary, Sato had been receiving injuries each time he shed with the Kobold King due to their difference in [Strength].

    The Kobold King''s defence was extremely tight that it would be difficult for a roach to get past it. Even for the times they managed tond a hit, Sato discovered that the Kobold King would shrug it off and the injury would even heal with the Kobold King recovering the lost HP. Without a doubt, this was the legendary HP recovery ability monsters possessed.

    Sato wasn''t new to such as other VR games also had a simr feature with their monsters. If one couldn''t deal enough damage that surpassed the monster''s recovery range, they would be unable to defeat the monster and would eventually die at its hands unless they retreat. From the current situation, Sato, Xue Yan, and Seiichi were unable to deal enough damage to cause an actual threat to the Kobold King but at the same time, retreating wasn''t an option for them.

    "Xue Yan, get me some space." Sato yelled as he blocked a stroke from the Kobold King.

    "Okay." Xue Yan nodded before casting a [Fireball].

    Once the spell waspleted, she didn''t release it but held it in ce and kept pumping mana into it. After it had reached a saturation point, Xue Yan let go of the fireball at an appropriate moment that the Kobold King was forced a step back under Seiichi and Sato''s assault.

    "[Greater Fireball]."

    With her improved affinity to the fire element, not only was the attack power of her fire-based skills boosted but the speed of her attacks had also seen an increase.

    *Phew*

    Though the fireball moved at a slower pace than the fire ray from before, due to the timing of the attack, it still managed to close in on the Kobold King just before it could respond.

    "Hehe." The Kobold King sneered at the attack.

    While any random move from Xue Yan was enough to give any yer a headache and greatly affect the fighting power of monsters level 10 and below, against the Kobold King, her moves were just so-so and the same went for Seiichi''s. If not for them purposely aiming at its weak points, the Kobold King wouldn''t even need to dodge them. Now though, the fireball Xue Yan had realised was much bigger than normal and it also didn''t target any weak point of the Kobold King, seemingly just going for its chest.

    While it was true that this move wouldn''t cause it much harm, it decided to block it nheless.

    Swinging the bone saber at the fireball, the Kobold King intended to cut it in half and force it to dissipate when suddenly, Xue Yan smirked.

    "[Fire Maniption]"

    Xue Yan immediately activated one of the skills of her [Aoefir], turning the fireball into 5 thick strands of ming ropes that wound around the Kobold King.

    "It won''tst long!" Xue Yan yelled.

    Since her level was much lower than the Kobold King''s, her skills weren''t supposed to have much of an effect on it. However, [Fire Maniption] was linked with [Aoefir] which was a high-quality Low-tier Rare-Steel rank staff. Apart from that, Xue Yan''s fire affinity experienced a 20% increase thanks to the various bonuses of her staff and even her control over her spells had also increased. Also, Xue Yan had to put her entire focus on the spell to be able to pin the Kobold King even just for a second. As a result, she was incapable of using any other one. All these added together made it possible for her to lock the Kobold King in ce for only 2 seconds. But to Sato, that was more than enough time.

    ''[Inspect]''

    Being the only one who had managed to deal damage to the Kobold King, Sato was capable of using [Inspect] on it. He hadn''t done so before since the Kobold King was continuously targeting him.

    [[ System Interface :

    Kobold King (King)

    Race : Kobold

    Bloodline : Purer Descendant

    Level : 15

    HP : 10,000 (x50)

    Physical Attack Power : 150 (+45)

    Magical attack power : 45

    Physical Defense : 80 (x2)

    Magical Defense : 40 (x2)

    Attack Speed : 51

    Movement Speed : 40

    Attributes

    Strength : 50

    Endurance : 40

    Vitality : 200

    Agility : 20

    Dexterity : 20

    Intelligence : 15

    Willpower : 20

    Skills :

    Razor ws : Passive Skill : All w-type attacks contain 150% of basic attack power.

    Lesser Strength : Passive Skill : Though called Lesser Strength, this is inparison to a dragon''s strength or purer blood. All Strength-based skills and physical attacks possess 140% of basic attributes.

    Tough Scale : Passive Skill : Defensive abilities against physical attacks increased by 40%.

    Bone sh : Active Skill : Gather power into one strike to cleave down the opponent. 150% of attack power as base damage.

    Cool-down : 5 seconds.

    Wild Burst : Active Skill : Gather potential and momentum just to release it all in one strike. Attack power increases by 70%.

    Cool-down : 10 seconds.

    Kobold Supreme Roar : Active Skill : Under this roar, all kobold-type creatures and dragon descendants with lesser purity than the user have to bow. Refusal leads to a 15% decrease in all abilities. Non-draconic creatures are also exposed to the skill but with lesser effects. If the victim happens to be weaker in both strength and life order whenpared to the user, they experience from 5% decrease in all abilities. Due to weak bloodline, the user would have both their potential and bloodline severely weakened, if not drained.

    Cool-down : 30 seconds.

    Fury : Active Skill : By burning the potential and bloodline within one''s blood, all attributes increase by 10% for 20 seconds. With each usage though, bloodline purity and potential decreases. But this can be regained with the aid of high-quality ingredients.

    Cool-down : 2 natural days.

    Mudfall : Active Skill : Create andslide with stgmites randomly popping out from the ground in a radius of 5 metres.

    Cool-down : 7 seconds.

    ]]

    Compared to the Kobold Chief, the Kobold King had the same number of skills with only [Mudfall] recing [Slithering Strike]. but in terms of strength, the Kobold King was arge distance away from the former.

    ''With this kind of attributes, the current me shouldn''t even be a close match with the Kobold King but I haven''t lost much HP. Why?'' Sato was confused.

    "Sato!" Xue Yan yelled to snap him out of his state. Xue Yan couldn''t hold it back anymore so the Kobold King had just broken the bindings on it. If Sato wasn''t paying any attention, he might suffer a loss.

    ''I got it.''

    Even as Xue Yan had screamed his name, Sato was still trying to solve the riddle. It was then that he had realised something. Ever since the battle began, the Kobold King had yet to use any of its skills. As for the reason why, when partnered with the fact that Sato was still safe under the Kobold King''s assault, the answer was very obvious; it wasn''t taking them seriously.

    "Hehe. You friggin'' lizard."

    Even a Buddha will feel offended by such much less Sato. However, he didn''t lose it straight away but realised this conceited behaviour of the Kobold King could be used to his advantage.

    ''Since you like holding back so much, I won''t be holding back any longer.''

    At that moment, Sato decided to go for broke and use everything he had to take on the Kobold King.

    At that moment, Sato stroke the ring on his finger with his left hand.

    At that very moment, a great evil was about to make its debut after ten thousand years.

 Chapter 367 - 361 : Precaution

    shback...Just after Meson had passed the [Void Opening Key] to Sato within that unnamed pagoda (AN : Chapter 310).

    "Listen to me, kid.''

    Just as Sato was admiring the ]Void Opening Key] and cooking up different ideas rted to it, Worrus'' voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

    "You''ve gotten the cursed sword but I doubt you know much about it so I will tell you what I know then."

    Listening to Worrus'' words, Sato''s attention was immediately drawn and his entire focus was centered on the man or rather, the space in front of him. Since Worrus was no longer in that dark space which had a much more stable space, he had returned to being invisible after he had changed his location.

    "You already know that the cursed sword has the soul of an asura, which is either a high-level Saint-rank figure or a demi-god rank figure, however, this time around, it''s a being somewhere between both." Worrus said.

    "Based on the location of the sword as well as the story seemingly behind it, you''re probably thinking that the asura soul within the sword is that of the Demon God''s son, right?"

    Sato nodded in reply and truthfully, that was what he had been thinking. Back before, Worrus had mentioned how the entire ck Grill''s Cave was used to seal the Demon God''s son. He also mentioned that the hall where the sword was kept had the asura''s soul sealed within. After confronting that heinous demon in the sword, not just Sato but also anyone in his position woulde to the same conclusion that that asura was probably the Demon God''s son.

    "Well, you''re wrong and at the same time, right." Worrus said mysteriously.

    "The Demon God''s son''s body and soul had been separated and sealed apart. Since the soul was the true essence of that sinister creature, it was much stronger than the body and was still very strong even with the absence of the body. Therefore, we had to divide it into 7 parts before sealing each part away from the other. After centuries of being apart from each other, most of the soul fragments had developed their own conscience and personality, bing different from the original soul. The cursed sword in your hand has one of the soul fragments sealed inside of it. 3 others are hidden here while 2 were sealed away in a different location. As for thest one, it''s lost." When he reached thest sentence, Worrus'' tone was a bit weird, like a criminal caught in the act but still trying to lie his way out with an anxious and fretful tone.

    "Lost?" Sato asked in confusion.

    "Eh...to be specific, it got stolen from us. Hehe." Worrus awkwardly chuckled though a tinge of anger was hidden behind his coldugh. It couldn''t be helped.

    The Great Hall of Grey Chains was supposed to be one of the most secured ces in the world but someone had actually managed to break in and steal one of the most valuable possessions in their hands. This wasn''t just a simple matter of theft but of also failing his predecessors and sessors who sacrificed themselves to seal the Demon God''s son. Losing one fragment of its soul had left him extremely angered but as he was unable to track the figure, Worrus had no choice other than to give up. Unwillingness and anger were the current reigning emotions in Worrus'' head right now. Each time this topic was brought up, Worrus'' ever-constant nk expression would experience a change due to his dissatisfaction with the event.

    "I see." Sato replied. He had noticed the change in tone in Worrus'' voice so he said this to interrupt his reverie. At the same time, Sato was wondering who it was that could waltz in here and actually leave with something as precious as a fragment of a legendary asura.

    "Don''t think too much about things. Right now, you only need to care about the fragment in your hands." Worrus said.

    "While its level is weaker than the original and the fact that over the years the soul fragment is weaker than it previously was, it is still very dangerous. Each time you use the sword, you would be allowing it to recover its lost strength. The longer you use it, the faster it can recover. Once it has fully recovered, the soul fragment will be capable of possessing you and using your body as a host. At that point, you would be dead in every sense. There''s also the other possibility of your body not being able to handle the abrupt increase in power so your body would explode. Your soul would be caught in the explosion and will also be inevitably lost.

    "The only way to influence this was to reduce the recovering speed by using a few seals which are already in ce. If you have a few others that are different from the one already in ce, then there''s no harm in bumping up the strength of the seal. You could also avoid using the sword as often as possible unless when necessary. I understand that since Saimon passed you the dual-wielding technique, you''d probably want to test it out, right? But proceed with caution. It wasn''t easy for us to wait for someone like you and we wouldn''t like to do so again." Worrus said with a somewhat mncholic voice.

    "All you need to know is this, the cursed sword is useable in all battles but it''s advisable to only do so when facing a worthy adversary."

    It was due to these very words of Worrus that despite owning the [Cursed Sword Drakken], Sato had yet to equip it. He didn''t remove his [Astral de] neither did he attach a new sheath to his belt. Unless he was confronted with a difficult situation, Sato had already decided not to use Drakken, at least for now.

    However, nothing is absolute in this world.

    The Kobold King had forced Sato and the others into a stand-still and based on the fact that it was not only looking down on them but also, they had yet to cause any severe injuries to it. There was no other choice left for Sato than to use Drakken to beef up his attack power lest they lose the battle due to his fear of the unknown.

    ''What''s the worse that can happen? It''s just a minor issue of explosion or possession and the chances of any of that happening is quite low. However, if I keep ying it safe, we will lose this battle. But with Drakken, our chances will surely increase.''

    With the passage of time and exchange of blows, that initial thought which had been experiencing some hesitation was now turned to reality as Sato decided to wield Drakken for the first time in battle.

    ''Don''t bring shame to me.''

 Chapter 368 - 362 : Drakken Unleashed

    The part about adding more seals as well as frugal usage of the sword were all precautionary measures to avoid the risk of losing one''s life. There was one true method to prevent death or possession and that was by taming the soul fragment inside. This was sounded ludicrous since it was a proud soul fragment of an asura that was being put in the discussion. Unless the user was much stronger than it, it wouldn''t bow its head to anyone. However, no one stronger than it would want such a ''weak'' sword, in this way, the asura soul fragment waspletely without worries.

    Luckily for Sato, there was still one other measure that could help and that was to strike a deal with the asura. As long as the asura willing offered its services Sato wouldn''t need to be bothered about possession but only about the asura recovering its former strength. This was exactly what Sato had done during the trial for the sword but it was just a verbal agreement that didn''t count as much so the risk was still there.

    ''But it''s not like I have another option.'' Sato thought.

    With a swipe of his left thumb over the ring, Sato then summoned the cursed sword just as the Kobold entered the 5 metres radius around him.

    One of the greatest advantages of a space ring over a space bag was the ease and efficiency an item could be extracted from the former. A space ring would only require one''s thoughts after which the item would instantaneously appear without any dy. As for the space bag, one would have to perform the same actions as they would when extracting an object from an actual bag so it was undeniably much slower than a space ring in terms of extraction. While this didn''t sound like much of a useful feature, Sato had turned it into one.

    The Kobold King was dashing towards Sato and its focus was only on his right hand which wielded the [Astral de]. No matter how one looked at it, this was the only part of Sato that could be a threat to the Kobold King so it was the only ce worth focusing on. This wasn''t to say that the Kobold King didn''t pay any attention to Sato''s feet or his stance butpared to these other parts, it was more focused on the sword.

    Being a pro yer and a high-level martial artist, Sato saw an opportunity to make a clear hit with a little scheming so he only waited till the Kobold King had crossed the Rubicon [1] before he summoned the cursed sword.

    that second, the cursed sword had made its very first appearance in the outside world and it did so in a grand manner that wouldn''t be forgotten anytime soon.

    At that very instant, a terrifying demonic energy wave burst forth from [Cursed Sword Drakken]. It was almost as if one had entered the demon realm and was clouded by evil energy. The sinister brewing force made one feel the extremity of despair while depriving the target of their will to both resist and to live. It was the same feeling one would feel once they were told that they were destined for the 18yers of hell no matter what good act they perform. That feeling of despair and hopelessness would drown an individual and make them run mad. Though the Kobold King was stronger than Sato, it wasn''tpletely unaffected by this aura especially since the aura of despair and evil was boosted by the effects of [Astral Might].

    If one recalls correctly, [Astral Might] gave off the feeling of being boundless. It was like the sensation one would feel when they were in the middle of the ocean or in space, staring at the depths of the universe. One would realise how tiny and unimportant they were against such a force and that was exactly how [Astral Might] made one feel. As for the passive aura from [Cursed Sword Drakken], this was due to the presence of the asura soul fragment. The energy the asura soul fragment possessed could make one feel despair and fear, reducing, if not eliminating their will to resist. As it was now sealed within the sword, the sword would inevitably be tainted by this energy and take on this aura. Though it wasn''t as strong as that of the soul fragment, it was close to it in terms of essence.

    The two energies from [Astral de] and [Cursed Sword Drakken] focused on two different aspects but due to the boundless effect of [Astral Might], the two were not only able to work smoothly with each other but strengthen the other. As a result, the Kobold King wasn''t just facing the aura of [Cursed Sword Drakken] but the strengthened version that had [Astral Might]''s effects superimposed on it.

    As the Drakken was just making its first appearance, the aura that had been clustered together was released in full bloom that even the Kobold King couldn''t help but pause for one second. However, that one second was more than enough for Sato.

    [ck me sh]

    Ayer of jet ck mes appeared on the edge of the cursed sword bringing with it an extreme aura of gloominess with a strange sensation of chilling heat. Sato swung it down at the Kobold King with an imposing momentum.

    -257 (9743/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    "Grawwr!"

    Like a hot knife through butter, the cursed sword made a gaping gash on the Kobold King''s body, bringing along with it a trail of ck mes and the painful roars of the Kobold King. Once the sword has left the Kobold King''s body, the ck mes red up with a whoosh and wrapped the Kobold King like a nket wrapping a newborn baby.

    [me Damage]

    -7 (9736/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    [[ System notification : [Stun] was sessful. Target will be unable to move for 2 seconds]]

    Just as the ck mes swarmed the Kobold King, it became incapable of releasing its throes of pain as the stun effect of the attack had taken effect. Not wanting to waste such a golden opportunity, Sato brought down his [Astral de] for a follow-up attack.

    -135

    -137

    -130 (9334/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    In that single second, Sato had shed out 3 times with both swords. He was about to go for the 4th one when he noticed that the [Stun] effect had worn out. The Kobold King had already brandished its bone saber at him and in a seemingly rushed manner, Sato brought Drakken in front of him and blocked the attack though he was sent back like a rejected sack of potatoes.

    "Grawwr! Bastard!!!" The Kobold King yelled before it charged at Sato.

    "Sato!" Xue Yan and Seiichi yelled at the same time.

    While the previous event sounded long, it had only taken ce in the space of 2 seconds. It was too small for the duo that was away to make any attack and because they never expected Sato''s counter added to the fact that he was quite close to the Kobold King they weren''t able to do much then. Xue Yan and Seiichi were greatly surprised when they saw Sato make a counter when they all thought that it was over but the shock then turned to worry as they saw the Kobold King st Sato away and charge towards him. It all happened so quickly that they weren''t able to react to it. From turning a hopeless situation to a favourable counter and then back to a hopeless situation, it would be difficult to find someone who can react to such so quickly.

    "Die!"

 Chapter 369 - 363 : Giving The Lizard A Beating

    "Die!"

    The Kobold King took this opportunity where Sato was still in mid-air to make its move. Being in such an improper posture in mid-air, it would be a dream for Sato to be able to retaliate especially since he had no bedrock for support.

    "Heh." Even with the looming figure of the Kobold King, Sato still had the strength to nce at it and scoff with a disdainful expression on his face, ignoring the fact that his life was at risk.

    This little act of Sato only served to rile the Kobold King even further as it jumped towards him and brought down the bone saber at him. Unbeknownst to the Kobold King, it had only fallen straight into Sato''s trap.

    ''[Astral de]''

    Sato knew that the series of attacks he had inflicted on the Kobold King had served to make it lose its temper. For a prideful creature like it that even went as far as holding back against the three of them, being injured by the foes it looked down on would critically hurt its pride. There was even a high chance that the Kobold King would retaliate in anger and temporarily lose its sense. It was that chance Sato was targeting and that was why he even took one step further to provoke the Kobold King with his expression, all with the final goal of making it lose its frame of mind so it wouldn''t think properly and react in time to the next attack.

    While it was true that Sato was incapable of performing an attack in mid-air with his current posture, that was only limited to a close-range attack. For a long-range skill like [Astral de], Sato only needed to brandish his sword at an urate but still tricky angle to prevent the Kobold King from responding quick enough to him and luckily, the position he was in suited his requirements almost perfectly.

    "!!!"

    By the time the Kobold King discovered that brilliant crescent beam of light, it was already toote. It was already within 7 metres of Sato and at this range, while it was easy for it to dodge any close-range attack from Sato, the same couldn''t be said about a long-range attack. This was partly due to its negligence and also because it was currently in mid-air like Sato. The previous disadvantage of its target had simrly turned to hunt it.

    In a flustered manner, the Kobold King hurriedly moved its head to the side in an attempt to avoid losing its head.

    -217 (9117/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    Even though the Kobold King had managed to move its head towards the side, avoiding a critical hit by a close shave, the 1 metre long crescent wasn''t something that could easily be avoided. The Kobold King''s left side took a direct hit with the scales on its body cracking to pieces and blood spilling from the injury. Part of the energy from the crescent beam had seeped into the Kobold King''s flesh and this energy also had a hand in the injury inflicted on the Kobold King, going so far as to slow down its recuperation speed.

    Because the Kobold King was moving from one direction with the crescent sh -with its more forceful and terrifying momentum- going in the opposite direction, the Kobold King was sent back at a speed slightly slower than the speed it used to jump.

    *Boom*

    As if a cannon shot was fired, the Kobold King crashed to the floor with a loud boom, creating cracks on the ground. However, the Kobold King was indeed worthy of being a world-ss BOSS as despite crashing with such momentum that would wreck a truck to pieces, it only felt a bit muddle-headed.

    "[Fire Ray]."

    The first time Sato had been able to reverse his plight, Xue Yan and Seiichi weren''t able to respond to it in time and the Kobold King had recovered and made its move. Now, however, they were more alert. This was especially so for Xue Yan who had already recovered to her senses once she saw the Kobold King flying back. This wasn''t to say that Xue Yan was more alert than Seiichi, who is a true-blue gamer, but rather her [Dexterity] was currently higher than Seiichi''s. In IR, [Dexterity] influenced one''s reaction speed and hand movements so having a higher [Dexterity] meant that one would be able to react to events faster than others.

    "[Drillshot]."

    Seiichi was just one step behind Xue Yan as he used his most precious arrow coupled with the fastest and strongest skill of the [Ranger] ss to leave a mark on the Kobold King.

    In IR, a muddleheaded state was simr to being stunned and that was what the Kobold King was currently experiencing for the third time. The first was with the unveiling of [Cursed Sword Drakken], the second was after it got struck by the skill [ck me sh] and the third was now, having gone through a violent crash after being struck by Sato''s sword. The first 2 events of the Kobold King being stunned had seen it losing quite a lot of HP in just 2 seconds and this third one would be no different.

    -99

    [Critical Hit]

    -47 (8971/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    Xue Yan''s [Fire Ray] had arrived first but due to the level difference between the two, her damage was extremely poor inparison to Sato''s. As for Seiichi''s, it was even worse. If not for [Star sight], the passive effect of his bow that helped increase his shooting uracy aiding Seiichi in targeting a weak point of the Kobold King and causing a somewhat substantial amount of damage, his attack would have dealt zero-damage and be counted for nothing.

    It should be recalled that Seiichi was a level 8 [Ranger] whereas the Kobold King was a level 15 King. Even if Seiichi''s damage amounted to a value of 1 point, it would still be something to be proud of, after all, the difference in level didn''t just mean a massive difference in attributes alone but also a qualitative difference in their aura. There was still the qualitative improvement that monsters, yers, and even NPCs go through.. Jumping through all that and also the 5 level gap, and still being able to inflict damage on the opponent was very impressive.

 Chapter 370 - 364 : A Tough Battle To Fght

    "This is going to be a tough match." Sato said through the team chat right after hended on his two feet.

    Sato didn''t rush forward to attack the Kobold King now that it was down because that was too risky. Chances were that Sato would end up suffering an ambush once he got close to the Kobold King and that was something he had to desperately avoid.

    The Kobold King had a HP value of 10000 which was currently the highest Sato had ever seen. Even after that heated series of attacks that were more than capable of taking down five level 10 monsters on the level of the Blood King Varg, the Kobold King came out with more than 89% of its health left. It should be known that this opportunity was made possible by Sato''s abrupt withdrawal of [Drakken][1], leading to the Kobold King falling into a very short daze. Making use of that chance, Sato had attacked with [Drakken] and sent the Kobold King into another short pause. One could say that the Kobold king was very pitiful as there was a follow-up attack right after all of that, which now left it to the current state that it was. All of this was simply a result of one move from Sato which was slightly unexpected.

    Nheless, those series of actions couldn''t be repeated as not only would the Kobold King be ready for it but [Drakken] wouldn''t be able to unleash that terrifying air that had stunned the Kobold King previously. That aura was the entire air that had been amassed ever since Sato had taken the sword away from the Caventry. While [Drakken] still had a sinister and bleak ambience around it it wasn''t as strong as before.

    Since those sets of moves couldn''t be repeated, it would be a lot more difficult to inflict serious damages. This was the source of Sato''s worry. The Kobold King had a ton of HP and if they couldn''t dish out enough damage, the Kobold King -who had a healing factor of 50HP/5 seconds- will be able to recover back to its peak in no time.

    "How are you guys doing over there?" Sato asked Fudo on the team chat.

    "Not so good but we are okay." Fudo''s voice transmitted to Sato''s ears.

    To prevent themselves from being surrounded by the horde of kobolds, Sato had divided the team into 2 and therger group was tasked with holding back the kobolds. As the kobolds were only around level 6-level 8, the team led by Fudo could be said to have it easier than Sato and the others. However, the staggering number of the kobolds made battling them a difficult task. They had already changed positions more than twice to the various ambush spots the team had selected and prepared ahead of time to cope with the number of Kobolds. At the same time, relying on a majority of the handcrafted runes Xue Yan had given to them, the team of 4 was able to hold their ground despite being heavily outnumbered. However, this meant that once they ran out of supplies or got tired, they would face their doom.

    "So you guys have to be quick there. I don''t know how long we can keep it up but it will probably onlyst for 7 minutes or so." Fudo said after some thought.

    "7 minutes¡­okay." Sato nodded.

    Meanwhile¡­

    *Bruuu*

    The rubble that held the Kobold King began to copse as a towering frame slowly rose from the ground. There was a malicious glint in its eyes as it stared at the trio in front of it.

    "Xue Yan you and Seiichi put all your attention into this fight. I will get entangled with it while the two of you force it to make a few blunders in the middle of the battle."

    Now that Sato had the addition of [Drakken] to the fight, not only had his attributes experienced a substantial increase but Sato''s threat level in the eyes of the Kobold King had increased as it decided to take him seriously. To Sato, the increased threat level was nothing in his eyes as the Kobold King would eventually take them seriouslyter on. Therefore, the introduction of [Drakken] to the fight was entirely positive and Sato wanted to use this momentum to push forward with more attacks.

    "Let''s start."

    Without further ado, Sato charged once more at the Kobold King but this time around, he was more confident in himself thanks to the increased attributes.

    "[Star Shot]."

    Star Shot : Active Skill : Fire an arrow that multiplies into 7, each containing 120% of the user''s Attack Power. Cool-down : 30 seconds.

    As his attacks counted for the weakest, Seiichi decided to use them to form distractions, hindering the Kobold King from potting Sato and for this act, [Star Shot] was undoubtedly a nice choice. Turning 1 into 7, Seiichi aimed each arrow at tricky angles and critical spots. Even if the Kobold King wouldn''t concede much from these arrows, no one would like to sit still and get beaten.

    "Futile!"

    With one wave of its bone saber, the Kobold King had deflected all seven arrows with ease.

    However, during this time, Sato had increased his movement speed and was already within range of the Kobold King. In the next moment, the two collided weapons like decade-long mortal enemies who had encountered each other on the battlefield. There released a flurry of attacks right after the first ''greeting'' with neither side surrendering to the other or even exposing a slight weakness.

    [Bone sh]

    The Kobold King had forgone its previous tactics and had begun employing skills simply because it was extremely enraged by Sato.

    7 seconds had passed since the heavy assault on the Kobold King and during this period the Kobold King had already recovered 50 HP.. Not wanting for all his hard work and effort to go to waste, Sato decided to take things up a notch.

 Chapter 371 - 365 : The â€˜Forerunnersâ€™

    *Stomp* *Stomp*

    On the 9th floor of the Middle region, thest floor before one would reach their of the Kobold King, arge team of yers were proceeding carefully as they made their way through the floor. A few of them had scratch marks on their armour and some of them appeared to be a bit drained from stressing their bodies. But their eyes look spirited and the morale of the team didn''t seem to have suffered an excessive blow. On the contrary, the spirit of the team was high and everyone looked to be possessed by a strange vigor that was continuously increasing.

    "Captain, we are close." A [Ranger] who led the group from in front said.

    "Spotted the Exit gate. It''s just a few metres away from you guys." A voice uttered in the team chat. It came from one of the [Assassin] scouts that had moved ahead of the party to scour the area in front.

    "Copy." A young man replied with a solemn voice hint a ce at his face and one would spot a hint of expectation and tion in his eyes.

    The young man with the seemingly nd tone but eyes filled with anticipation was Azure Dragon, the guild leader of Emperor''s Might branch in Riverdale and a ''false king'' expert. He was also the main leader of this team and under hismand, the 20+ man team was able to make it to the 9th floor faster than any other team, despite having more men than normal. Yes, 20+ yers.

    Previously, the participating yers of Emperor''s Might had been divided into 3 teams. The first team was made up of 7 yers and was put under ck Tempest''smand where they served as the vanguard squad. The other two teams were the 8-man main force and the 10-man sub-main force, led by Azure Dragon and Chesces respectively. After the two main forces had united on the Outer region''s 5th floor, they proceeded as one till the 1st floor of the Middle region where they met up with ck Tempest''s crew. From there, the 3 teamsbined to form one massive squad, a total of 25 yers led by Azure Dragon, and went on to clear the path ahead of them and making their way to the 9th floor.

    There are advantages as well as disadvantages to having such arge team. The major advantage was the fact that they would be able to proceed with ease and cope with almost any enemy they would encounter. A setup of 25 expert yers would surely have the right ratio of healers, damage dealers as well as MTs. This meant that as long as the number of opponents didn''t reach an absurd value, even if they were faced with twice their number of monsters, they would stille out victorious.

    While the advantage sounded impressive and useful, the disadvantage was a seemingly perfect counter to it. Having such arge number of yers gathered together was simr to having a bonfire lit up in a in in the middle of the night. Monsters in IR have certain simr features to monsters in reality.

    Since they reside in the wild for the majority of their lives, their skills and abilities were honed for hunting in the wild just like monsters in reality. Where wild animals can smell a drop of blood [1] from a mile out, monsters in IR are not only able to do the same but they, especially the stronger ones, could simrly sense a living organism by their mana just like [Druids]. While the mana concentration in yers was usually small and concentrated within their body, leaking out only in minute amounts, when arge number of yers are gathered together, these minute amounts of leaking mana add up to form a pond or even ake.

    To these bloodthirsty creatures, they were like a lit torchlight in the middle of the night. It was quite obvious to them and they could easily track down this group of yers. As a result, Azure Dragon''s unified team had suffered a lot of ambushes and assaults at the hands of not just the kobolds but the other lifeforms as well that dwelled on the floor.

    Luckily, all the yers in the team were experts so even with the unrelenting and constant assaults, they were able to stand firm and forge a path of blood till they came this far.

    Some of them had their armours damaged and their weapons chipped, but they still had a proud expression on their faces because, at this very moment, they were the very first ones to make it this far during this period.

    "What''s the status on the other side?" Azure Dragon questioned.

    "It remains as it was. The [Guardian Golems] are still here and there''s no sign of any other monster apart from them." The lead [Assassin] for this raid as well as the one who spoke up earlier, Ore, replied.

    "Alright then. Just remain still and keep a lookout for us. We''re on our way."

    After saying so, Azure Dragon then lead the team to the position of Ore on the map, which also corresponded to the location of the Exit gate for the 9th floor; the very gate that would take them to the Kobold King''sir.

    It wasn''t long before Azure Dragon had led his team to arrive at the spot. Being themander of a super guild level squad as well as the branch guild leader Azure Dragon didn''t rush straight to battle with the 3 Guardian Golems but stood at the side as he analysed his options.

    "From the information we have, the strength of the golems rises in correspondence to the number of challengers. At their base, they are level 9 Elites but considering that we have 25 men here, I''m guessing we would be facing level 9 Special Elites." Chesces sighed.

    Before the conquest of the Kobold King, quite a few guilds had led their teams to the 10th floor of the Middle region and in the process, they all had to get through the 9th floor''s ''guards''. with quite a few teams having passed through them with each team having a different number of yers, differing opinions on the strength of the [Guardian Golems] had surged leading to a few yers realising that the strength of the [Guardian Golems] differs with the number of yers participating in the attack. However, if a team were to leave behind a majority of their yers with only 3 attacking the [Guardian Golems], if the [Guardian Golems] were defeated, only those 3 would make it through the Exit gate. Hence, all yers had to participate in the attack. but if the number of yers was quiterge, the strength of the 3 [Guardian Golems] would also increase in kind.

    Emperor''s Might had 25 yers participating in this raid so the minimum expectation fr the strength of the [Guardian Golems] would be at the Special Elite but below a King, as ording to the folklores from town, a King is always above level 10.

    Even though their side had 25 men, against three level 9 Special Elite [Guardian Golems], Azure Dragon couldn''t be too certain of victory but a loss was still impossible.

    "Get ready.. We will follow this n."

 Chapter 372 - 366 : The â€˜Forerunnersâ€™ 2

    Three 3 metres tall amber-coloured golems with blue ''eyes'' stood before a blue portal with a solemn air around them. From this arrangement alone, it was obvious that these monsters were the famous but dreaded [Guardian Golems] that stood in between the yers and the Kobold King.

    "They still look normal." ck Tempest couldn''t resist speaking.

    "That''s because we haven''t yet engaged them." Chescesmented.

    "Once we entangle ourselves in a battle with them, the change would ur."

    The [Guardian Golems] were the final obstacle between the 9th floor and the 10th floor of the Middle region. Depending on the strength of the yers, the [Guardian Golems] strength would increase in kind. Since it was possible for some yers close by to not want to get involved in the battle, the sensory range of the 15 metres. Within this space, any yer that approaches them would be identified and recorded as an enemy, and depending on the number of enemies, the strength of the [Guardian Golems] would surge. Even if the yer who had entered the 15 metres were to die or flee from the spot, the strength of the [Guardian Golems] wouldn''t decrease. Also if a yer were to attack them even from far out, they would still be recorded as an opponent and the [Guardian Golems] would see a surge in its attributes.

    Because of this, most yers proceeded in small squads during the previous journey to the 10th floor. For those who brought a lot of men, they went in batches, with the main team going first before the others. This was to prevent the scenario where the [Guardian Golems] would be much stronger than them, leading to a team-wipe if the yers weer to go all at once.

    Because of the inherent limitations within monsters lower than level 10, the [Guardian Golems] would reach a peak strength of level 9 peak Special Elite no matter how many yers were present. Though it was level 9 Special Elite there were still slight differences between an average Special elite and a peak one. Since the highest number of yers to have ever challenged the [Guardian Golems] in one instance was 15, no one knew how strong a peak Special Elite would be. In fact, the 15 yers that had faced the three level 9 Special Elite [Guardian Golems] were wiped out in the battle. After that, no one dared to pull off such a stunt again until now.

    The race for first to reach the 10th floor at this point was much more intense than before. Previously, it was only a rumour about the existence of a world-ss boss that caused such an event. Since it was a rumour, not a lot of guilds put their efforts into it as it might turn out to be a wasted trip. However, now was different. Not only was the existence of the monster confirmed, but yers also had an approximate measurement of its strength. If that wasn''t enough, the top guilds of the 3 towns had called upon a majority of yers for this raid. A conservative estimate would see 300 yers heading over here as quickly as possible with tens of guildsing in to reap a few benefits. A force of 300 yers against the Kobold King and its army. No one dared to believe that the Kobold King would live through this assault even with the assistance of its men so a lot more yers joined in the raid.

    This ended up turning the raid into a phenomenal event and the guilds saw it not just as an opportunity to improve their strength but also as a window to fame. Since in the mind of the yers the Kobold King was as good as dead, the only problem left was the distribution of loot. Hence, an unspoken contest was drawn up, with the first group to make it to the 10th floor having priority in choosing from the loot. This would help aid further distribution of the loot after the Kobold King was in, and would prevent a massive mess from resulting after the battle. The original idea was brought up during the grand meeting of guilds held in Salt Springs town but it wasn''t officially announced to yers, with only the top guilds being made aware hence the reason why it''s termed as an ''unspoken contest''.

    As a super guild branch in the region of the 3 towns, Emperor''s Might had attended the meeting and were aware of this rule hence the reason why Azure Dragon mobilised 90% of the experts in the guild.

    "We can''t go in batches or it will be a waste of time." Azure Dragon frowned.

    Even though the contest imed to only be centered on the party who reached the 10th floor first, it still took into consideration the number of yers in that team. Compared to having just 7 yers reaching the 10th floor, it was more grand and stirring to have 25 yers. Such an rming force would not only see praises and adtion raining from other yers but it would also inspire fear into the hearts f the other guilds. Azure Dragon nned to use this raid to show the other guilds the strength of Emperor''s Might, and to also tell them that even if this was a branch guild, it was still not something they could contend with. This would no doubt help his future campaign when they begin vying for superiority over ck Rock City with the other top guilds.

    "A level 9 Special elite isn''t something a level 9 yer could easilypete with. Even for us, it would still be a troublesome foe." Chesces said.

    During this trip, thanks to Azure Dragon''s nning and the guild''s focus on him, Chesces had managed to reach the level 9 rank just like ck Tempest and the other experts. Despite that, he wasn''t so bold as to confront a level 9 Special Elite all on his own much less 3. It should be recalled that there are currently 25 yers present. The strength of the [Guardian Golems] would be adjusted by the system to give these 25 yers a hard time. Even a team of five level 9 yers might notpare to the 3 [Guardian Golems] at that point.

    "For one who''s called the 5th hand, you sure bicker a lot." Azure Dragon mocked.

    "Everyone, get into formation.. I want to see just how strong these monsters are to dare topare with one of the strongest guilds in history."

 Chapter 373 - 367 : Half-way There

    While Azure Dragon and his teammates were about to face off against the three [Guardian Golems] that helmed the path towards the 10th floor, Sato, Xue Yan and Seiichi had already been engaged in a battle with the Kobold King for more than 10 minutes. During this time, Sato and Xue Yan spammed almost all their strongest skills to prevent the Kobold King from regenerating its HP back to the top.

    *Boom*

    Just when Sato had separated himself from the Kobold King, a fireball sted forward, forcing the Kobold King to a halt in its chase and exploding right aftering in contact with its bone saber.

    "You vermin!" The Kobold King cursed as it red at Sato before giving chase once more.

    Xue Yan and Seiichi would continuously hinder its movement with their long-range attacks and the worst part was that once the Kobold King turned to face them, Sato would immediately turn around and attack it.

    Originally, the Kobold King wasn''t bothered about Seiichi''s attacks and even Xue Yan''s weren''t as deadly as Sato''s so it could ignore them both. However, even if a single bite from an ant couldn''t hurt an elephant, countless bites would do the job. Under the incessant harassment from Xue Yan and Seiichi, the Kobold King had been irritated without end. Worst of all was Sato, who stood between it and them. If the Kobold King were to turn its attention towards the duo, Sato wouldunch an assault on it. Compared to Xue Yan and Seiichi, Sato''s attacks were the real threat so the Kobold King couldn''t just ignore him. Hence the reason why despite being attacked by Xue Yan, the Kobold King had cursed at Sato instead.

    "If you have any problem with me, then shut up, and let''s settle it."

    "Grawrr!"

    In anger, the Kobold Kind suddenly elerated and closed the gap between it and Sato, bringing its saber down like a guillotine.

    Sato, in turn, brandished his [Astral de] with full force, shing with the Kobold King''s bone saber with none of the two weaponsing out on top. Using his left hand, he then thrust [Drakken] through a tricky angle, managing to pierce right through the scales of the Kobold King.

    -107 (4789/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    The ck sword drilled itself into the Kobold King''s flesh, ignoring the scales on it that acted as a natural defensiveyer.

    During the 10 minutes Sato and the rest had been engaged in battle with the Kobold King, they managed to bring its HP down to the 50% mark. It was thanks to Xue Yan and Seiichi''s incessant harassment as well as Sato''s double-wielding ability that resulted in the Kobold King losing so much HP. Even though the Kobold King was a world-ss BOSS monster, it was still a level 15 monster and no match against the cursed sword, [Drakken], especially with its increased pration effect. Even the scales it was most proud of couldn''t hinder the sword one bit.

    "Grawr!"

    The pain from having a sword stuck inside one wasn''t something anyone would enjoy and the Kobold King was no exception to this.

    With its bone saber being restrained by Sato''s [Astral de], the Kobold King -who seemed to have no other weapon left- suddenly swiped at Sato with its left w. Considering that the Kobold King had only attacked with its saber this move woulde as a surprise to anyone and they would get caught by it. The Kobold King''s base attack power was at a whopping 150 points. There was also the 150% boost to w attacks and the 140% increase in attack power of physical attacks. That would equate to roughly 300 points of damage in total.

    In summary, just the one simple w attack, which was a rushed move and wasn''t registered as a skill, was capable of taking down a level 9 [Guardian] with all his attribute points in defence, apart from the basic 10 allocated to [Vitality]. Even if that were included, the [Guardian] would still end up as mashed potatoes. Not only that, even a level 10 or 11 [Guardian] would lose a piece of skin to that. At the very least, they would end up losing a third of their health to just this random attack of the Kobold King.

    Unfortunately for the monster, the sudden attack it had made was still something within Sato''s range of consideration. Having both the memory of his battle with the Kobold Chief as well as the information on the Kobold King''s skills and abilities, Sato already knew that it could attack with its ws. Apart from having to watch out for the attacks executed with the bone saber, Sato also kept an eye out for its ws, hoping to avoid a scenario where he would suffer due to a suddenpse in concentration. Luckily for him, or maybe not, Sato''s fears happened but as he was prepared for the attack, he didn''t lose out much.

    Taking one step backward, Sato evaded the trajectory of the w while at the same time pulling out his sword from the insides of the Kobold King. Even as he did that, Sato had no intention of making things easy for the Kobold King. He didn''t take back his sword in a straight-line path but pulled it out while shing upwards, adding to the injuries of the Kobold King whilst spilling deep crimson blood on the ground.

    [Critical Hit]

    -178 (4611/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    "Grawr! Bastard!" The Kobold King yelled. But it couldn''t chase after Sato right away as the sh had induced severe injuries to it

    ''We are too slow.'' Sato thought as he stared at the incensed creature.

    While they were battling and it seemed like they were the only ones here, Sato wasn''t the one to rx cause of that. On the contrary, he was feeling a bit tense. Of the 7 of the present, Sato was the one who knew more about the top guilds as he had once witnessed them inbat, face-to-face. He had even fought with some of them in the past and this time around, they were contending with a bunch of them. Though Sato and the rest had indeed made use of the teleportation arrays to get a headstart ahead of the guilds, they had also taken a day off to prepare for the raid. This ended up turning their original advantage into nothing more than a temporary one. So sooner orter, the top guilds would make it here; it was just a matter of when.

    But even though he knew this, there was nothing Sato could do. The Kobold King''s defence was too perverse that apart from him, only Xue Yan could deal damage to it but the effects were iparable to Sato''s attacks. As for Seiichi, unless he used his expensive arrows, coupled with his ultimate skills, his attacks only served as a distraction to the Kobold King.

    If Sato were to his ultimate skill, [Gratitude of Races], he would be able to bring the Kobold King''s HP down to 30% at the very least, but once that happens, he would have nothing to use and contend with the Kobold King in its berserk mode.

    ''There''s only one other option then.''

    "It''s time. Use everything you have on hand now guys.. We either win it here or lose."

 Chapter 374 - 368 : Enhanced Hefir

    "It''s time. Use everything you have on hand now guys. We either win it here or lose."

    Logically, there should be no reason to rush things since if they proceeded with the steady pace they were going at, the Kobold King would eventually be defeated. The problem, however, lied in the word ''when''. If they took too long that a guild team showed up, Sato and the others would end up in trouble. The best-case scenario was the guild offering their ''help'' while the worst-case scenario would be a ''mantis stalking the cicada unaware of the oriole behind'' scene. They would just end up doing everything for a group of strangers to swoop in for the kill. Hence Sato gave the order to everything they had on hand.

    It should be recalled that earlier on, the group has taken a 24 hours break before heading to the 9th floor and starting their campaign. During this time, Sato didn''t just focus on cksmithing and the others didn''t just battle monsters all day long. Unlike most guilds that had set their sights on the Kobold King, having the first-hand experience, Sato and his team knew what to expect in this battle. Apart from the Kobold King being the strongest BOSS they''ve ever faced, there was also its 100-man army behind it. A team of just 7 yers couldn''t contend with such a force especially since only one yer in the team could barelypare with the BOSS in terms of ability. There was also the fact that the teamcked a healer ss yer so the battle would be more disadvantageous to them. Hence, they had to make do with external aid.

    Luckily for the team, with Sato and Xue Yanpleting the Main Trials, they had made quite a lot of money; at least enough to make them rank as one of the richest yers ever and even the richest yers, if guilds were excluded[IF] that is. Using a part of their funds, they had bought a few supplies to help in this battle. While it was true that the effects of external items wouldn''t be able to win a battle alone, it would still be able to make the process easier.

    "Grawr!"

    As Sato re-engaged the Kobold King inbat, Seiichi, who had things the easiest in the battle, took out a scroll from his space bag and began reading the chants. Xue Yan acted together with Sato to keep the Kobold King busy and prevent it from interfering with Seiichi.

    "[Linear Strike]''

    Finding an opening in the relentless assaults of the Kobold King, Sato thrust [Astral de] through the opening but the Kobold King''s reaction wasn''t something to be underestimated. It managed to move its body to the side, dodging the sword at thest minute while still shing down with the bone saber.

    Sato was forced to block with [Drakken] before he proceeded to swipe the [Astral de] horizontally, in the direction the Kobold King had dodged.

    -101 (4510/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    While it was true that the Kobold King''s strength was beyond anything a yer apart from Sato could singlehandedly face, its battle techniques werecking behind inparison. Even its [Dexterity] was lower than Sato''s by 3 points so its reaction speed couldn''t bepared to his. Eating a loss in closebat was unavoidable.

    "Hehe."

    The Kobold King grinned as it ignored the pain from the sh and stretched out its left hand and grabbed at Sato.

    ''Shit.''

    Sato never expected the Kobold King to suddenly develop a pain tolerance to his attacks so he was caught partially unaware by the move. The reason for the word ''partially'' was because Sato had an eye out for any w attacks from the Kobold King. While this didn''t count as such, it was still performed with the arm hence, even though Sato never expected it to suddenly grip at him, he was still on alert for any unorthodox fighting style.

    Applying enough force to his right foot, Sato propelled himself backward and dodged the Kobold King''s arm. Like a dog-ster, the Kobold King refused to let Sato off and chased after him.

    The Kobold King had discovered that each time it was in closebat with Sato, it could avoid the harassment of the other duo. Even though Xue Yan and Seiichi couldn''t do much to it, having them constantly chipping off its HP in little amounts and distracting it with such petty attacks wasn''t advantageous to it. This was because it couldn''t tolerate that disturbance for long and once it turned to face them, Sato wouldunch a surprise attack at it.

    This was like a pro fighter having a bunch of mosquitoes disturbing him during a battle. The mosquitoes can''t do much to it and the damage they inflict is negligible. However, their presence will be very annoying and distracting to the fighter. But once he decides to shoo them away, he would end up defenceless to the attacks of his opponent.

    The same situation applied to the Kobold King so the only thing it could do was to remain close to Sato, that way, Xue Yan and Seiichi wouldn''t attack so carelessly in fear of friendly fire.

    ''It''s improving in battle.'' Sato thought.

    Sato was surprised to see that the fighting techniques and pattern of the Kobold King were changing, or rather improving. Because the Kobold King was being raised so carefully since birth together with the fact that its bloodline was purer, there was no match for the creature in the entire settlement so there was no opportunity to improve its skills. Just by relying on its terrifying attributes alone, it had dominated the entire floor. But this came at the cost of having poor battle techniques. Now, however, with the presence of a worthy foe, it began showing massive improvements in its techniques.

    If before the techniques of the Kobold King could bepared to a 12-year-old who has been practicing martial arts from 10, now, it wasparable to a 15-year-old with the same starting point. Sato couldn''t help but be shocked at this.

    ''A monster with intellect really isn''t something so simple.''

    While Sato admired the Kobold King''s improvement speed, he also felt troubled by it. The improvement of the Kobold King went to show that if the battle dragged on for too long, the Kobold King would eventually be much more difficult to handle than it is now.

    *Phew*

    Just as Sato was thinking of a n, a projectile shot forward at such a great speed that both he and the Kobold King had barely any time to react.

    *Bang* *Boom*

    With a bang, the projectile collided with the Kobold King and set off an explosion, sting it back before it could realise anything.

    *Boom*

    [Critical Hit]

    -465 (4045/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    The Kobold King was sent flying 30 metres back, colliding with a small hill and creating a crater at the point of impact. With a boom, the crater imploded as andslide urred, burying the Kobold King within.

    "Aiya~ In the end, I had to use it." Seiichi sighed with a regretful expression but inwardly, he wasn''t bothered, after all, it wasn''t his money he had used.

    The scroll he had used earlier was a special scroll meant for [Rangers] and it improved the attack power of their arrows as well as added a special explosive feature with pushback effects. Even against a level 10 monster, the enhanced arrow would still be able to cause quite a sizeable amount of damage. When paired with a good [Ranger] and a high-quality arrow, the effects would be even better.

    The arrow Seiichi had fired was called Hefir and was an arrow made from the peak 2-star material Dawn Steel and the peak 1-star material, Helm Oakwood. It cost him a whopping 17 silver coins and even then, Seiichi wasn''t able to bring out the full power of the arrow. Using the spell on it further increased the attributes of the arrow that if a level 10 [Ranger] had used it on the Kobold King, it would be able to shave off at least 30% more HP than the amount Seiichi had eliminated.

    Truthfully, such an arrow wasn''t easily bought. If it were, a sizeable number of yers in IR wouldn''t find raids difficult. It was only due to Sato''s title, [Savior of Races], -which gave him simr treatment to a noble- that he was able to get it. Aaron Schauks, the manager of Grynx Merchandise in Riverdale, had willingly offered it to him when Sato had requested for a powerful tool.

    "The BOSS would be on alert after that shot and I only have 2 more scrolls. I can only use them when you guys have made an opening for me." Seiichi said to the duo.

    "No problem, leave it to me.." Sato nodded.

 Chapter 375 - 369 : Taking Down The Lizard

    "That should have knocked him out, right?" Xue Yan questioned.

    Not only was the attack power of the enhanced Hefir astonishing, but the push-back effect from the explosion was potent. Adding in the fact that Kobold King was caught by surprise, it wouldn''t be startling if it ended up getting knocked out.

    "I don''t know about that but at the very least, it should be in a [Stun] state. However, it''s too risky to attack." Sato replied.

    Even as Seiichi''s arrow had currently incapacitated the Kobold King, Sato didn''t hurry to make any move but only stood at the side. This was because while it seemed that the Kobold King had been knocked out by that arrow, it might not be. The Kobold King was buried under the rocks after that explosion so Sato could only stand by the side and wait. If he were to approach the site, the kobold king might suddenly spring up and attack. Even if that didn''t happen, to attack, Sato would have to dig through the rubble and that was a pointless act that would only benefit the Kobold King. Hence, he was left with only the decision of waiting.

    Luckily for Sato, he didn''t have to wait so long.

    "Grawr!"

    *Boom*

    +100 (HP recovery)

    The Kobold King blew through the rubble before hurriedly jumping away beforeing to a stop, gracing the trio with its appearance once again. This time, however, it was profusely bleeding from the right side of its upper body; the point where the arrow struck it. Rather than calling it a ''point'', it was more apt to call it a ''spot'' as a hole had formed there from the st, bing the origin of that slowly gushing stream of blood.

    Even a BOSS such as the Kobold King couldn''t stand firm in the face of such a shot and the scales it was most proud of had been vited without mercy. The first time was by Sato''s [Drakken], which had easily pierced through it like a sharp de piercing through a taut piece of paper. Now it was by the enhanced Hefir, that made a gaping hole on its chest, piercing through the scales and exploding with a bang, knocking a few of them into the air while turning the rest to burnt crisps.

    [[ System notification :

    Target has suffered severe injuries and would lose 1% of their HP every 7 seconds until the injury is at least suppressed.

    Target will suffer a temporary drop in ability :

    -5% to all Main attributes including [Vitality].

    -20% to HP and Mana recovery speed.

    -100% to Stamina.

    More Stamina and energy are required to perform actions.

    Target will be in constant moderate pain until the injuries are treated.

    ]]

    -100 (3945/10000 kobold King''s HP)

    "What, what was that?" The Kobold King asked with lingering fear in its eyes. The arrow had caused it such severe damages that it had even lost its saber in the explosion.

    While it looked like the enhanced Hefir had made a bullseye on the target, it wasn''t really so. The Kobold King has to be hailed for being one of the strongest BOSS in the game because even at the speed the arrow moved at, already surpassing both it and Sato''s senses since it was shot at an unexpected juncture, the Kobold King was still barely able to react to it much faster and better than Sato. If Sato were in its shoes, that arrow would have taken more than twice the damage it already did, leaving Sato at the doorsteps of death. However, the Kobold King barely managed to move to the side, leading to the arrow hitting its right side rather than the intended left area of its upper body, which housed its heart.

    If the arrow had struck the intended target, the Kobold King would have surely lost more than twice the amount of HP it did, and its injuries would have been worse, leading to the debuffs being more grave. Therefore, it wouldn''t be wrong to say that the Kobold King had narrowly escaped the jaws of death. Being agitated and rmed was only a normal response.

    "Your defence is too open."

    Like a ghost striking in the dark, Sato had suddenly appeared by the side of the Kobold King.

    While it was true that he was reluctant to attack while the Kobold King was stuck under the rocks, Sato had closed in on that location, waiting for the moment the Kobold King would free itself from the rubble. That very moment was would be an opportunity for him to make his move. Though the Kobold King had been on alert for another arrow, jumping right away in fear of getting shot at again as it had escaped that pile of rubble, it had temporarily forgotten about Sato since the only thing on its mind was dodging any possible arrow simr to thest one. This lead to the situation where the moment the Kobold Kings alert sense was at its highest for an attack from afar, but at its weakest for close-range assaults. In its opinion, Seiichi would have attacked with another arrow and Sato would steer clear from it, or they might have even thought it was dead and wouldn''t follow up with another attack. No matter what, it never expected Sato to chase after it just as it had escaped the rubble.

    Knowing that Seiichi would want to utilise those enhancement scrolls only when he was sure of an attack, Sato didn''t have to worry about anything and only had to make such an opportunity for Seiichi. And the spot he had aimed his sword for, was the very same side that had a gaping hole on it.

    Seiichi''s arrow had attacked from the front but it didn''t manage to pierce through to the other side. Sato decided to do a better job by attacking right from behind that same spot.

    [ck me sh]

    [Critical Hit]

    -428 (3517/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    Dark mes like the fires from the deepest trenches of hell, burst forth from the sword in a flurry, wrapping the Kobold King''s right side in its warm embrace.

    -15 [me Damage] (3502/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    "Grawrr! Bast*rd! Damned beast!" The Kobold King howled in pain.

    While the damage of the mes themselves wasn''t much, the painful sensation it caused, especially on one''s flesh, was excruciating. A monster like the Kobold King, who had barely been beaten up this badly in its entire life, had never experienced such. As a result, it had howled in pain as it cursed at Sato.

    The man at the centre of all this was deaf to the bawls of the creature as he swung his other de down at it.

    "You dare!"

    With an incensed face, the Kobold King punched behind with its left arm at Sato, from underneath its right arm. Because of the hidden angle the attack came from, Sato had only just discovered it before he got hit by the blow.

    *Bang*

    -152 (1180/1700 Sato''s HP)

    All the wrath, indignation, and hatred of the Kobold King were packed in that punch sending Sato into a horrific retreat. But since it was a rushed attack, the damage inflicted wasn''t much to Sato.

    [Critical Hit]

    -253 (3364/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    "Grawr!"

    Even as he was sent backward, Sato pulled his sword with him, causing it to draw a horrific line on the Kobold King''s body to the point that its right arm almost got amputated by the sh. Due to this, the Kobold King didn''t immediately follow up with an attack and was forced to a rooted stop.

    *Whoosh*

    A fireball came flying its way but with the current state of the Kobold King, it couldn''t do anything about it.

    Just as the fireball was about to collide, it suddenly reshaped into a ming rope and wound around the monster.

    As the Kobold King was confused about this strange urrence, a shocking change urred to the airflow in the area.

    *Phew*

    A sharp whistle rang out in the air, like a rocket darting through the air.

    "!!!"

    It was then that the Kobold King recalled something; the very reason why and how it had ended up like this. However, it was already toote. The ming rope and it in ce and even the injury from Sato had forced it into a sudden immobility state.

    Even as the Kobold King riled up thest of its strength to break through the bounds, the arrow had already arrived.

    *Bang* *Boom*

    A repeat of before urred, with the enhanced Hefir arrow creating a loud bang upon collision before detonating with a loud boom. The target wasn''t a new area but that same right side.

    The first reason why was because Seiichi wasn''t sure whether the Kobold King would be able to dodge like before and with the right part of its body being the most injured area, it would be a lot harder for it to dodge the shot even if it meant moving by just an inch.

    Secondly, the arrow would worsen the injury at that area, potentially severing off its right arm that was used to wield the bone saber and reducing its fighting ability. This was a critical blow to the Kobold King and may well as be the turning point in the battle for the team''s sess.

    As for the third and final reason for aiming at the right spot, there was no third reason. Seiichi just wanted to do so.

    [Critical Hit]

    -691 (2673/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    "That should teach him.." Seiichi nudged his sses with a proud smug on his face.

 Chapter 376 - 370 : Taking Down The Lizard 2

    *Bang* *Boom*

    The enhanced Hefir struck the right side of the Kobold King just like thest one. This time, however, it didn''t send the Kobold King flying back excessively like before only sending it back by 5 metres to the ground. As for the target of the shot, the right upper body of the Kobold King got sted to bits with the remnant force from the blow sting off to smash a boulder 3 metres away to rubble.

    "Strike while the iron''s hot." Sato said in the team chat as he made his way towards the Kobold King''s position.

    Sato''s health was below 70% but he still dared to close in on the monster. This was because his HP potion was on cool-down and now was a good time to attack the Kobold King. The team''s momentum was high and the Kobold King''s morale was low with its body riddled with injuries. If Sato dyed simply because he wanted to recuperate, this chance might be lost and the Kobold King would be on higher alert.

    "I know." Seiichi replied as he strung 3 arrows on his bow. As a pro gamer like Sato, the ability to spot openings like this and reacting in time was a skill he had honed.

    "Puah." The Kobold King slowly stood up from the crater it had formed upon crashing, coughing out blood as it did so.

    [[ System notification :

    Target has suffered extremely severe injuries and would lose 5% of their HP every 5 seconds until the injury is at least suppressed.

    Target will suffer a temporary drop in ability :

    -40% to all Main attributes.

    -50% to HP and Mana recovery speed.

    -50% to Stamina.

    More Stamina and energy are required to perform actions.

    Target will be in constant extreme pain until the injuries are treated.

    ]]

    The devastating effect of having two enhanced Hefir strike at one spot as well as the drastic injuries that would result from it was enough to turn any average level 15 monster powerless and without the ability to fight any longer, but the vitality of the Kobold King was so absurd that even with all its injuries, it was still capable of fighting. Even with it half of its organs, the kobold King still radiated an intense amount of bloodlust that showed it wouldn''t go down without a fight.

    "[Triple Shot]"

    Just as the Kobold King lifted itself, 3 arrows streaked through the air and struck it. If the Kobold King were in its top form, it wouldn''t need to fear these arrows as they wouldn''t be able to harm a hair off of it(if it had any) but now, even amon pebble -if it collides at the right spot- could even send it on its knees much less Seiichi''s arrows.

    What''s more, due to the technique Seiichi applied to the arrows, while they appeared in front of the Kobold King, they became from 3 different angles in such a way that dodging one would make the Kobold King susceptible to another.

    At roughly the same time as the arrows closed in on the Kobold King, Sato had already arrived beside it. This lead to the situation where the Kobold King was now facing a 4-pronged assault. Finally, there was still Xue Yan who stood on standby, just in case the Kobold King managed to dodge all of these.

    The attacks were all properly timed in such a way that the Kobold King barely had any time to react right after it stood up.

    Being unarmed and defenceless, there was only one result that would ur.

    -67 (2606/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    "Ugh."

    At thest moment, the Kobold King had managed to dodge two of the arrows by relying on its quick reflexes. The third, however, hit the mark, sending the Kobold King grunting in pain.

    With the heavy injuries of the Kobold King, the level suppression that had affected Seiichi''s attacks could be said to almost be nonexistent by now. While indeed it still existed, the injures of the target were far too much that the Kobold King became easily prone to injuries from any form of attack. Its defence became nothing more than paper and even a level 6 yer would be able to deal damage higher than 0 much less a level 8 [Ranger].

    As the arrow struck the Kobold King, Sato''s sword, or rather swords, had also arrived.

    -217

    -229 (2160/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    Starting from the top left, Sato shed diagonally downwards at the Kobold King''s back with both des, making a bloody gash behind it.

    "You underestimate me too much!"

    Instead of roaring in pain as it usually did, the Kobold King''s bled out due to extreme indignation as it cursed at its foes.

    Sato, who was the closest to it, noticed that its energy levels and bloodlust were increasing despite having so many serious injuries. In IR and all other various VR games, there was only one possibility that exined this phenomenon.

    Berserk mode.

    *Whoosh*

    The air around the Kobold King swirled violently around the monster as dust particles were lifted alongside it. Sato, who happened to be close by, hurriedly retreated away in fear of getting swept up by the weird storm.

    "Xue Yan!" Sato yelled in the team chat.

    While he couldn''t do anything to the Kobold King in its current state, there was still Xue Yan who definitely possessed a few AOE attacks or powerful skills that could pierce through the wind. They couldn''t just wait for the Kobold King to finish its transformation as there might be some adverse results to that for them.

    "[Fire Spear]"

    Relying on her exquisite mana control thanks to her training as a scribe, as well as the inheritance of Vulgia she had gotten from the Caventry''s Fire Monarch, Xue Yan cast the new spell she had gained from that inheritance; [Fire Spear].

    This was a more advanced version of the spell, [Fire Ray], and it had an added prative effect that made it a powerful single-target spell. Due to the aerodynamic shape of the finished product, the speed of the spell(inaction) was faster than [Fire Ray]. the only disadvantage of the skill was its somewhat long casting time. Even for Xue Yan who had a few added advantages from [Aoefir] that enabled her to shorten the time for casting a majority of her spell, techniques like [Fire Spear] required a lot of concentration and focus to cast it and these all tranted to preparatory time. Even for someone of Xue Yan''s caliber, the spell still required at least twice the effort used in [Fire Ray] but with the advantage of more than twice the attack power of thetter.

    *Phew*

    Streaking through the air with a red sh, the ming spell aimed for the silhouette of the Kobold King within the red storm, and with a boom, it exploded upon contact.

 Chapter 377 - 371 : Arrival

    *Vroosh*

    With a strange wormhole-like sound, a blue portal appeared somewhere on the 10th floor. A group of yers slowly began to exit the gate with a few of them having some dent marks on their armour, and some having red blood sshed all over theirs like a trademark design. The air around the entire crew was like a unit that had just gone through a devastating battle but none of them had anyints. On the contrary, as they all walked through the portal and appeared here, they had an expression of pride with joy lit up on their faces.

    "Finally. We''ve made it." The young man in blue mage gowns who stood in front said with a contented expression.

    He was Azure Dragon, the guild leader of Emperor''s Might subdivision in ck Rock province. The yers behind weer all the members of the guild selected for the raid.

    Though their adversaries, back on the 9th floor, were three peak Special Elite level 9 Guardian Golems, Azure''s team totalled 24 yers, and every one of them wasn''t a noob in VR gaming. They were all pro-gamers with quite a number of Experts among them. Facing the monster trio that had defeated quite several yers, the 25-man team stood their ground and were able to defeat the Guardian Golems without any sacrifices.

    "Ore, what is the location of the other teams ording to our intel?" Azure Dragon asked without turning back.

    Ore, who was the lead [Assassin] in this mission as well as the head of their intel division, replied, "I''m still trying to fetch more info from some of our spies but the majority have confirmed that no other guild has made it this far. 70% of them are still yet to make it to the 8th floor while just a minority have recently stepped foot on the 9th floor."

    "What about Battle Wolves?" Azure Dragon asked with a solemn expression.

    In this contest, the guild''s greatest opponent was the 1st tier guild that lorded over ck mountain town, Battle Wolves. Unlike the other guilds'' teams, the Howling Wolf Battalion was made up of former military personnel, prospective personnel as well as trained units and ex mercenaries. This meant that when it came to organization, cooperation, and collective battle strength, they were one step ahead of other 1st tier guilds and could even rival some super guilds in this regard. Together with the fact that they hadpletely migrated over to IR and set their main base in ck Mountain town, they were truly a force to reckon with.

    "No info yet butst I heard, they were at the 9th floor roughly the same time as us." Ore said with a careful tone.

    The entire ce became quiet as Azure Dragon didn''t reply a word, seemingly in thought.

    "We''re still quite some distance away from the centre." Chesces suddenly spoke up as he surveyed the area. He said so not only to wipe out the awkward air but also because he noticed something strange.

    "Also, the entire ce feels¡­different."

    Just as Chesces spoke up, the entire group began to check out their surroundings, and those who had been here before realised what he meant. At the spot that was supposed to be the centre of the entire floor, a mountain stood there like a towering monument. To those who wereing here for the first time, this seemed nothing special. But to those who were here during this first run, like Chesces, Azure dragon, and so on, the mountain was a new addition.

    "It doesn''t really matter for now. Our target is the Kobold King. Only once it''s in can we then check out the entire ce." Azure Dragon said.

    "Let''s go. We have to find a nice spot for camping."

    It was already a known fact that the 10th floor was riddled with kobold guards. If the group got identally spotted and their position revealed, they would face the hunt of the Kobold King and its legion. However, they still had to be close to the centre to monitor the movements of the kobolds as well as gather information on their collective strength. Hence, they had to find a secluded spot that wasn''t far from the kobold settlement but it also had to have an escape route for them just in case they get spotted by the Kobold King. In summary, their goal no was to find a recluse spot with a tunnel exit that was usable by yers.

    "At the very least, wended at a nice spot." Chesces said.

    The Exit gate that brought the team over had appeared in a remote location on the 10th floor; close to the boundary of the floor. This area was devoid of any kobold guards so the team didn''t need to worry about their safety nor the chance of their appearance being revealed.

    "True, but we''re still some distance away. Let''s get going." Azure Dragon replied.

    "Ore, you lead Tawaki, Ares, Riley, and Latte with you to form the scout team. ck Tempest, you lead the vanguard with Monolith and two attackers. The rest would set up Formation 3: exploration style. Let''s move."

    Per hismands, the entire team took up the roles that had previously been assigned to them. Ore lead the scout team away from the group, keeping a steady distance of 120 metres between them while ck Tempest and the 3 others kept a distance of 60 metres, staying right in the middle of the two teams. This way, he could provide support to Ore''s team till the main team arrived, just in case they got ambushed, and the main team could provide support for him in case the same happened to his squad.

    The team then began their journey towards the centre with steady steps. They had already aplished their goal of reaching the 10th floor before any other team so all they had to do now was wait for the other guilds to make it this far. Then they could officially begin the raid right after teaming up with them.

    15 minutes into their walk and the team got a report from their scouts in front. They had spotted another group.

    "Another group?" Azure Dragon had an unsightly expression on his face.

    "Who are they?"

    "From their gait and formation, I''d say, Battle Wolves.." Ore sighed.

 Chapter 378 - [Bonus ] 372 : Arrival 2

    Just as Azure''s scouts had spotted them, Silver Wolf''s scouts had also discovered the existence of the opposing team but neither tried to avoid the other. As a result, it didn''t take long for the two different teams to meet up.

    "Iron Bear. It''s been a while." Chesces spoke up.

    While Silver Wolf was the leader of the Battle Wolves'' team in this raid and Azure Dragon led Emperor''s Might, thetter''s authority and position in his guild was above that of Silver Wolf. However, it would have been better than having to converse with the second rank Iron Bear. Hence, Azure was disinclined to speak with him and left the negotiations to Chesces.

    You send a minion and expect to talk with the boss? Dream on.

    "Haha. If it isn''t the 5th hand of the Emperor, the sly devil himself. What brings you here if I may?" Iron Bear asked.

    The question sounded like a dumb one but the hidden meaning behind it was simply Iron Bear mocking Chesces. First, he praised Chesces with his recognised titles and then asked the question, ''what brings you here''. The question didn''t refer to Emperor''s Might being here -as the answer to that was pretty obvious- but it was referring to the fact that Chesces came out to represent them.

    It wasn''t a secret among the top-ranking figures of the top guilds that Chesces and Azure Dragon had a bit of beef between them. The two were figures nominated for the upper echelon spots in the guild. In other words, they werepetitors, as well as opponents. However, Chesces never showed any interest in the high positions like elder or guild leader despite having a headstart with the pseudo-elder-like position in the title of the 5th hand. Despite so, Azure Dragon saw him as an opponent; a challenge he must face. Not only was Chesces stronger than he was but he was also as smart as him, if not slightly smarter. This gave Chesces an advantage such that even if he didn''t want topete for the position of elder or guild leader, the upper echelons would still select him.

    As the two were now in the same branch with Azure Dragon heading it, anyone with a little bit of sense as well as the aforementioned intel, would know that Azure Dragon wouldn''t make things easy for him and might even try to ruin him.

    Iron Bear was clearly aware of this, hence, such a simple question like ''what brings you here'' not only mocked Chesces for being a secondhand figure but also reminded him about the issues between him and Azure Dragon. With just two sentences, he had tried to sow discord between the two heads. A simple-minded person wouldn''t realise thisplex evaluation but someone like Chesces, whose head was filled with conspiracies, plots, and schemes, could discern this hidden meaning at a nce.

    "Why shouldn''t I be here? I''m the guild''s lead fighter so it''s only right for me to be here. You n the other hand, why are you here?" Chesces tossed back the question.

    "Haha. As expected of a devil-like yourself. I''m a military man and I''m not good at such things. As for why I''m here, you obviously know that. Let''s stop with all this y and have a nice chat now." Iron Bear smiled.

    "I don''t think we both are worthy enough for that right?" Chesces smiled.

    "You''re right." Iron Bear nodded.

    "My captain opts that we discuss over there." Pointing a finger to a small hill a couple of metres away, Iron Bear continued, "The area is clear and there''s a cave wide enough for our two teams. It''s just that it''s still far from the centre, hence the reason we didn''t take camp over there."

    "Okay."

    Not bothering to waste any time on senselessments, Chesces left to report the situation to Azure Dragon, and iron Bear left to do the same.

    "Negotiations? Hehe. He probably wants to figure out who made it first." Azure Dragon rapped his finger around his staff.

    "The title for first is something important to our two guilds as it would help in the actual negotiations. Solving this problem now would make things better for both sides." Chescesmented.

    "True. But if we''re second, then that''s bad." Azure Dragon said with a dignified expression.

    During the Grand meeting of guilds at Salt Springs town, selecting a leader for the alliance was a difficult problem so the various guilds came up with the idea of this contest. As they say, action speaks louder than words but the gamers say strength speaks the loudest. Being able to reach the 10th floor first was both a show of strength as well as one ofmanding ability. So selecting the leader via this method was seemingly not bad. There was an underlying effect though, the leader could preserve his troops and use the rest as cannon-fodder to weaken the BOSS, unleashing the full strength of his squad only at thest moment.

    There was also the problem of the loot division, so the first to make it to the 10th would not only be the de facto leader of the alliance of the various guilds but would also have priority when choosing from the loot. All these perks made the spot lucrative for the top guilds so even Azure Dragon wouldn''t want to lose out of it.

    On the other side¡­

    "We managed to make it in time but just barely." Silver Wolf sighed.

    His team had originally departed before everyone else and theirprehensive strength was among the top, yet midway, they got overtaken by Emperor'' Might. After riling up the spirit of his team, Silver Wolf rushed forward with his men, without regard to their safety or such; only forging a path of blood till they made it to the 9th floor. Once that was aplished, the rest became easier. The team was only made up of 15 or 16 yers so the strength of the Guardian Golems wasn''t as terrifying as the one Emperor''s Might faced, but they still didn''t have it easy.

    Finally, after using one of their key tools, they managed to win the battle and immediately darted through the Exit gate just so they could be the first.

    "The super guilds have enjoyed years of domination and supremacy without a worthy foe. As a result, they have gotten weak. Even so, they are still a difficult opponent for many. Relying on their heritage and strength, even a silly branch would strut its tail like a true dragon when it''s just the same as a rabid dog but with better ability. However, a branch is but a branch and not the main thing." A middle-aged man beside Silver Wolf spoke up.

    "Even if it departs from the tree, it would still need some time to grow. And during this period of growth, is when it''s at its weakest. It no longer has the support of the main tree so it ought to lie low and bid its time, till it has maturedpletely. Then it can astound the world, turning into a great tree. But that youngd, Azure, doesn''t seem to understand this. He''s too desperate for glory that he doesn''t mind digging a pit for himself. Such a waste of talent.." The man shook his head.

 Chapter 379 - 373 : Chescesâ€™ Analysis

    It didn''t take long for the team led by Azure Dragon to make it to the location revealed by Iron Bear. The cavern wasn''t that far off from their location and the surrounding area was clear of any kobolds so they proceeded smoothly.

    At the mouth of the cavern were two yers from Howling Wolf Battalion that acted as lookouts for the ce. When they spotted Azure''s team, one of them retreated into the cavern while the other stayed behind to receive them.

    "Follow me."

    Once the two parties met, they didn''t exchange any pleasantries nor greetings as the yer led them into the cavern while another yer appeared to take his ce as a guard.

    While he was a bit annoyed by the treatment, Azure Dragon didn''t stress it but went on to follow the yer with his teammates.

    The cavern was quite big, just as Iron Bear had described it, capable of amodating the 40+ yers and their tents. In fact, it could even hold up to 60 yers without being cramped up. At one side of the cavern was a bunch of tents set up by the yers while at the end of the cavern, arger tent was set up, serving as themand centre. The tents weren''t anything fancy and were just brown coloured canopies set up as a resting area.

    "ording to the captain, you guys can pitch up your tents over there." The leading payer pointed over to the right. By the left side was where the Howling Wolf Battalion yers had pitched their tents and directly in front was themand tent.

    "As for your captain, his presence is required at themand tent." The yer pointed at the only different coloured tent in the area, the army greenmand tent that could house at least 9 people inside of it.

    "Chesces, organise the yers. Kylian, you''re with me." Azure Dragon said while staring at themand tent.

    Kylian nced at Chesces and seeing that he was quiet he replied, "Alright."

    The duo then departed towards themand tent with the guard yer in tow.

    "What the hell is he doing? Why didn''t he pick you? It''s the most obvious decision." Yukino said with a mixture of confusion and annoyance. While she might not be rated as one of the most valuable yers in the guild like Chesces and Azure Dragon, she still had a bit of influence so she was aware of the disputes between the two but she never expected it to even affect their decisions this much.

    "What do you mean?" Chesces asked with a nk face as he led the team over to their designated area.

    "Since Azure Dragon is heading over to negotiate with those guys, he should have selected a partner who is also as smart as he is to aid him in the negotiations. He should know that we''re currently in enemy territory so we could get set up at any point in time by them. The meeting there might even be a trap to take him down. Going in into theirmander''s tent without appropriate security is dumb.

    "You''re clearly as smart as he is and even stronger than him, so you''re the best possible choice we have. Yet, he didn''t choose you." Yukino frowned.

    "You worry too much." Chesces smiled.

    "No matter how much b*lls Silver Wolf has, he wouldn''t dare to attack us, especially at this point."

    "Why do you say that?" Yukino asked.

    Chesces lifted a finger and replied, "First of all, killing us here would do them more harm than good. That would be the same as announcing an all-out war and at the stage we''re all at, that would be disadvantageous to both sides and would enable some fishers to rope in a killing. If we were to go to battle, Battle Wolves wouldn''t stand a chance. The game hasn''t even been on for a month so not the difference in levels and strength isn''t much. In other words, the winning factor would be battle tactics, group cohesion, and individual strength, all of which we trump them at."

    "Secondly," Chesces raised another finger, "we all want to take down the Kobold King and no team can do that individually. This is a fact that has been recognized otherwise, we wouldn''t be here, waiting. Every battle power counts and this is even more so for top guilds like us. Our battle prowess is valuable and very much needed and eliminating us would cause them more harm than good. Not only will their numbers reduce, but the overall strength and number of participants in the allied army would drop drastically. If the prowess of the raid team sees a drop in number, this would reduce the chances of victory and therefore make the battle a whole lot more difficult."

    "Lastly, let''s say they do seed in annihting our entire team, there is no way the Howling Wolf Battalion would be able to silence the news of our deaths. Both the spies amongst them as well as us will reveal the news of our death."

    Seeing that Chesces had stopped speaking, Yukino asked, "Wouldn''t that be detrimental to the guild''s honour and poprity. Releasing the news that a well-renowned super guild''s raid team was wiped out by that of a 1st tier guild without the opponents losing much of their yers. Not only will this be seen as a sign of weakness, but it would also turn us into aughing stock and increase the poprity of our enemy. So why would we do it?"

    "Why, you ask?" Chesces smiled.

    "It''s because this will reduce the credibility of our enemy. Everyone would want to dig in on the news and once theye about the circumstances we are in, Battle Wolves would be the detested party. Everyone knows that the top guilds are gathering here for the raid. If one of the potential candidates to lead the allied raid team were to eradicate an opposing candidate, no one would want to work with them. They would be excluded from the allied raid team if not wiped out by the other guilds. Even if that doesn''t happen, Battle Wolves would be forced to relinquishmanding rights and their team would be sent to the frontlines as cannon-fodders.

    "If we blow the matter up more, Battle Wolves could even lose their credibility in the eyes of the average yers. They would be seen as backstabbers and betrayers, and not only would this reduce their standing in the hearts of yers but it would also affect their members'' morale. This would also affect their sponsors'' businesses and no one would want to partner up with them anymore. If we were to strike at them during this period, in the name of revenge, we would even be able to rally a few other yers and guilds to our side and defeat them without much loss.

    "So no matter what, Battle Wolves wouldn''t dare to assault us like this, especially during this period." Chesces smirked.

    "...so much plot hidden within a simple action." Yukino sighed. "No wonder you''re amander figure and a sly bastard."

    "Hehe." Chesces rubbed his nose awkwardly at the praise.

    "But still, that doesn''t exin why Azure Dragon didn''t call you. You''re still pretty smart and strong so you are the best option."

    "From my previous exnations, we can be sure that they wouldn''t dare to attack us. If there''s no harm in there, then strength isn''t required." Chesces said.

    "You shouldn''t forget that Azure is also a ''false king'' like myself, so escaping over to our side shouldn''t be much of a problem. Also, it''s just some simple negotiations so I''m not needed. If he can''t handle that much then he would be a disappointment to the title of guild leader. Kylian is quite smart too so bringing him along wouldn''t be bad. Also, he''s a [Druid] and the ss is pretty good at healing and crowd control; a perfect aplice to pull of an escape to this side.

    "Enough talking about this and go set up camp with the others. We''ll be here for some time so it''s best to get all the rest you need and prepare yourself for what''s toe. The Kobold King isn''t a pushover and we will most likely depend on yers like you to lead the charge. Your role is crucial o you should be at your peak at all times."

    "Alright."

 Chapter 380 - 374 : The Meeting

    The interior of themand tent was simr to the setting of a meeting room. A round table was set up with 6 chairs circled around it. Seating at the chair directly facing the entrance was the leader of the Howling Wolf Battalion team for this raid, Silver Wolf, while standing behind him was his deputy, Iron Bear.

    "Azure Dragon is it? Aren''t you a bold one to waltz in here without fear of getting killed. What''s even more interesting is that you brought a [Druid] with you as your bodyguard." Silver Wolf disyed a mocking grin on his face.

    "Unless you''re either an idiot or a fool, you wouldn''t attack us even if we wouldn''t resist. That''s quite disappointing for someone who is known to fear nothing." Azure Dragonshed back as

    As they say, two tigers can not upy one mountain. While Battle Wolves was currently based in ck Mountain town and Emperor''s Might was based in Riverdale town, this was only for the early stages. Eventually, the yers and guilds of the 3 novice towns of ck Rock province would have to go to the city if they want to improve better. And in this regard, there was only one city for the 3 areas, ck Rock City. This meant that while the guilds of the 3 towns fought separately for domination of their regional areas, the true battle would only begin at the city, where the ultimate ruler of the province would be decided. This meant that the 2 reigning guilds of Riverdale and ck Mountain town -Emperor'' Might and Battle Wolves respectively- would duke it out at the city for who will stand supreme. Hence, there was no need for the duo to be acting with courtesy.

    "Haha. As smart as the records say. That''s good." Silver Wolf said with a fake smile.

    Azure Dragon simply smiled without saying a word.

    Seeing as his guest had yet to speak, Silver Wolf cleared his throat and said.

    "Well you see, my purpose in inviting you here is for us to n the strategies we would utilise in the raid."

    "The others haven''t arrived yet. Don''t you think it''s a bit too early for that?"

    "We will of course do the final strategising when the others are here, but as the first to make it this far, we should have a framework ready for them to evaluate." Silver Wolf answered.

    "True. However, isn''t that the job meant for the role of the raid leader. And isn''t that role decided by the first to make it here. Who are you to suddenly squeeze into the same rank as my guild." Azure Dragon narrowed his eyes.

    "Hehe. Your guild''s rank? As far as we all know from the surface, we both made it here at roughly the same time if not the exact. Rather than make things difficult, conceding to a shared control would be the best option for us both. Don''t you think so?" Silver Wolf asked.

    In the minds of the two leaders, their respective teams were the first to make it to the 10th floor and none would want to concede defeat to the other. The reason was simple; the position of 1st was extremely valuable to either side.

    "Hehe. Roughly the same? I wouldn''t be so sure about that." Azure Dragon smiled confidently.

    While the question of who came in first was still unanswered, there were numerous ways of finding that out. The easiest method was for the two guilds topare the time they had arrived on the 10th floor to the other. By simply checking the two values, they could easily point out who the winner was. Even if one of the guilds tried to fake their time, the spies hidden within both sides would eventually reveal it to the public and this would affect the guild''s standing in the gamingmunity. The only reason that the spies from either side haven''t revealed the time was because every yer was currently under surveince. Once any of the spies from either side had any chance, they would pass on the information to their heads.

    Emperor''s Might had a spy amongst the men following Silver Wolf and it was due to this that Azure Dragon was confident. Even though they had yet to hear anything from that yer, once the mole is no longer being monitored, Azure Dragon was sure that he would deliver the information regarding their record time.

    Also, considering the fact that their guild had more men and more elites, Azure Dragon refused to believe that the Howling Wolf Battalion beat them to the 10th floor first. In his mind, agreeing to Silver Wolf''s suggestion of the two of them taking the roles as the leaders of the allied raid team was the same as giving their adversaries an advantage for doing nothing.

    "I''m giving you a way out now but you''re refusing. Don''te beggingter." Silver Wolf said with a dark face.

    "What do you mean?" Azure Dragon frowned as he released his aura.

    The entire temperature of the entire tent suddenly dropped by a few degrees as Azure Dragon''s killing intent pervaded the area. Iron Bear, who stood behind Silver Wolf, suddenly felt chills run across his spine as he pulled his sword out of reflex. Even Silver Wolf couldn''t resist moving his hand over to his sword.

    Azure Dragon was a ''false king'' which meant that his strength was close to that of a pinnacle rank Expert. Underneath the title of ''King'' or ''Queen'', he was a yer that shouldn''t be taken lightly. Only Silver Wolf was capable of holding him down for a while but Iron Bear wasn''t. Having walked through countless battles, Azure Dragon had gained an aura that could stir the inherent primal instincts of humans. By simply releasing it, Iron Bear''s battle reflexes had kicked in as he took a battle stance, seemingly as if he was about to face a BOSS-level monster.

    ''So this is the strength of the famed ''Dragon''.''

    In VR gaming, while it was true that yers were allowed to take on any name, in themunity, especially in big guilds, there was an unwrittenw that prohibited certain names or titles from being used by yers. These names or titles only be rewarded to one after great merit or a ground-breaking achievement had been fulfilled. A good example was the title ''God'', which was only left for god-ranked Experts; or names rted to the 4 heavenly beasts[1], or the names of certain legendary beasts.

    Azure Dragon originally went by the IGN "Azure Wind" but after achieving great merits for Emperor''s Might as well as having great battle records that were unsurpassed by many, he changed his name to "Azure Dragon" and no one had anyints about it. The guild had evenmended him for that and rewarded him with his own personal team. After that, they went on to give him more opportunities to bring glory to his name and the guild by assigning him the role of branch guild leader and delegating two pinnacle rank Experts directly under him. If that wasn''t enough, after Azure Dragon had been officially recognised with the name, the number 1 VR game ''Conquest'' had created a special limited edition medal only for him. Though it had no special features, it was the same as acknowledging his title as the ''Azure Dragon''.

    This was the value of such great names and the names alone had the ability to instill fear in the hearts of yers, what more the yer themselves.

 Chapter 381 - 375 : Confrontation

    "That''s enough." A deep voice sounded from the side.

    As the voice resounded through the tent, the chilling aura Azure Dragon had released suddenly calmed, as if it had encountered a blockade and was forced to retreat.

    Azure Dragon narrowed his eyes as he nced over at the neer. It was a middle-aged man that looked to be in his early 30s or thereabout. He was the middle-aged man that was with Silver Wolf before Azure Dragon had arrived. He had a chiseled face and looked very matured but he gave off the aura of a war veteran. It wasn''t like that of Iron Bear that was too brutish, or Silver Wolf''s that felt like a battle expert. The aura the middle-aged man gave off was that of one who had been inmand for a long time. Like a war general whose everymand would assure his men of victory.

    Even as the middle-aged man''s eyes came in contact with Azure Dragon, he didn''t seem humble or polite neither did he seem rude. It was as if the middle-aged man was looking at someone beneath him; someone who wasn''t worthy to be in his presence but he decided to just give him a nce. Azure Dragon had only seen that look in the eyes of very few people and every one of them was either an extremely strong opponent or a powerful personage in real life.

    "King of the Hill, Han Otoki. It''s a pleasure to see you here." Azure Dragon narrowed his eyes as he spoke. He had reined in his aura and cooled his temperament as he stared at the middle-aged man. This was a foe he couldn''t afford to offend both in-game and in reality.

    "Little Dragon, what Silver said is quite true. It''s better to work together than to be fighting for who will lead first. The Kobold King is an opponent is I myself wouldn''t dare to take on alone. Having our two guilds lead the allied raid team would be for the best." Han said.

    "Sorry but even if your majesty says so, I still won''t agree." Azure Dragon lightly frowned as he replied.

    "*sighs* I guess we''re destined to be enemies then." Han shook his head.

    This sounded absurd as though this man wasn''t the leader of the Howling Wolf Battalion team in this raid, nor the guild leader of Battle Wolves, he had just decided that the guild would go to war with Emperor''s Might with just a few words.

    Azure Dragon had a dark expression but he didn''t say anything. This would have eventually happened sooner orter so making it clear at this point didn''t matter. While he could afford this by conceding to the duo, Azure Dragon held his stand. Even Silver Wolf showed no reaction to this as if he had expected it too.

    Normally, no matter how much guts a 1st tier guild has, they wouldn''t go head-to-head with a super guild unless their interests are heavily affected. But in this case, not only was Battle Wolves'' n of building their headquarters in IR affected but their opponent was a mere branch of the real thing, which was only roughly on par with an average 1st tier guild or maybe just a tad bit stronger. In other words, even if Battle Wolves never nned to build their HQ in ck Rock City, they still wouldn''t mind shing with Emperor''s Might subdivision there.

    Logically, being aware of these two facts, the most strategic move that Azure Dragon should have taken would be tow low and not sh with Battle Wolves. It could be seen as him giving them face and in turn, Battle Wolves wouldn''t make things hard for them and there might even be room for cooperation. However, Azure Dragon had gone ahead and chose the opposite the very second he discovered about their existence and n.

    It wasn''t that Azure Dragon was being foolish or arrogant because he was the leader of a super guild''s branch but that he had no choice. Azure Dragon was one of the up-anding young figures in the guild and one of the potential candidates for be it a high tiermander, an elder rank, or even the position of guild leader, the Emperor. However, for him to gain any one of these, he had to prove himself worthy. That was why the guild''s upper echelons had delegated him as the guild leader for one of their branches and sent him away. And truthfully, he wasn''t the only one. This was a test, and depending on how well he did here, his value and authority in the guild would rise, seeing him be a more powerful figure and increasing his shot at bing the emperor.

    Therefore, no matter what, Azure Dragoon could not give up the ruling rights of ck Rock City. Even if doing so would see him gain a valuable ally,pared to the glory and merit of ruling the city by himself, the one with the highest advantage was pretty obvious. If Azure Dragon was the only one being tested, then it wouldn''t be a bad thing for him to gain such a strong all like Battle Wolves, however, he wasn''t. Supposing Azure Dragon went ahead and stepped down for Battle Wolves, giving up ck Rock city for an ally, but one of hispetitors seeds in taking control over their area of jurisdiction, Azure Dragon''s significance in the eyes of the guild''s upper echelons would drop and though both his prestige and influence might increase, it would only be a bit. From there, unless something special were to ur or the guild upper echelons were to have a change of heart, Azure Dragon''s path to bing the emperor would be blocked. At best he would end up as an elder rank figure in the future but the position of a high tiermander was more likely, and that was something Azure Dragon wouldn''t like.

    It was like falling from the position of crown prince to be a measly baron. Someone with a low starting point might not be bothered but Azure Dragon would. Hence, unless Azure Dragon would want to resign himself with a lesser position, he would have to sh with Battle Wolves sooner orter. This event just made things happen sooner and Battle Wolves attitude of trying to force the two guilds to run the allied raid team together was something that had stepped on Azure Dragon''s boundaries and pride.

    "If there''s nothing else, then I will take my leave now, your majesty." Azure Dragon nced at the middle-aged man, Han Otoki.

    "You can go now," Han said inly.

    Azure Dragon nodded and turned to leave but just as he did so, a yer rushed into the tent and bowed before the Silver Wolf and Han, making Azure Dragon pause in his footsteps.

    "What''s the matter?" Silver Wolf wrinkled his eyebrows and asked. He had previously warned his men not to interrupt the meeting unless it was extremely important and even then, they were to make an announcement outside before they could enter.

    "Apologies for the rush, captain, but the matter is extremely urgent and affects the entire raid." The yer said with sweat covered all over him. Silver Wolf trained the yers under him just like the military does, so this young man knew obviously what it meant to break a rule under him. However, the news he held was just too important to proceed with formalities.

    Silver wolf hesitated a bit due to Azure Dragon''s presence but Han spoke up "Continue."

    The young yer didn''t know who Han was but seeing as his captain said nothing against that, he said,

    "Newsing in from the scouts at the frontlines.. An unknown group of yers is currently engaging the Kobold King in battle. And from the looks of things ording to them, the mysterious team is close to seeding!"

 Chapter 382 - 376 : Spied Upon

    "Hold on guys, just a little bit more." Sato yelled in the team chat.

    (478/1700 Sato''s HP)

    "Damn. This guy''s a tough nut to crack. Even with his injuries, he''s still putting up a front."

    (820/1200 Seiichi''s HP)

    "Grawr!"

    (1465/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    [Fury]

    Barely a minute had gone by since the Kobold King went berserk and ording to the severity of its injuries, it was supposed to have been dead 40 seconds ago. However, after the Kobold King had gone berserk, its injuries had been suppressed. The initial crippling of its skills, due to its injuries, that lead to the Kobold King losing 5% of its HP every 5 seconds had changed to 3% every 10 seconds, and its HP recovery speed was only slowed by 25%. This meant that in every 5 seconds that went by, the Kobold King would recover 75 HP which meant 150 HP every 10 seconds. So, in every 10 seconds that went by it only lost 1.5% of its HP instead of the supposed 3%.

    Due to the Kobold King''s act of forcefully suppressing its injuries, it was able to retaliate even more than before. Though it was true that the severity of its injuries didn''t offer the Kobold King an increase in strength aspared to its base form, it had gone all out against the trio, trading injury for injury.

    When it had taken that approach, the Kobold King had be more deadlier than it was before. In just this past minute alone, Sato, Seiichi, and Xue Yan had incurred more damage than throughout the other 29 or so minutes. In total, this raid had gone on for almost 30 minutes and the Kobold King was still able to cause hell for the trio even with its weakened stats.

    ''We need a turning point.'' Sato thought as he stared at the Kobold King that was undergoing a second transformation right after it activated [Fury].

    The skill, [Fury], was independent of the usual berserk form of monsters and the two could be stacked together, raising the strength of the user to an all-time high. However, it came at a great cost; a very grave one at that. [Fury], unlike berserk mode which was a monster purely reacting out of anger, was a skill that boost the strength of a kobold by making it burn its blood and potential. The result would see the monster''s strength soaring to about 20-30% of its original abilities. However, once the skill duration was over, the monster would end up in a weakened state with its blood needing time to recover. In some more dire cases, the creature would end up dead right after using the skill to defeat its opponent.

    For the Kobold King''s case, this weakened state would end up acting in chorus with its injuries, forcing the Kobold King to either require an extremely long time to recover or to die. Even without the skill''s side-effects, the Kobold King would eventually lose its life to the injuries as there was no healer figure among the ranks of the kobold poption. With its options being cut off, the Kobold King no longer bothered about being conservative and decided to go all out, using a skill that would even hasten its death with the hope of dragging either Sato, Xue Yan, or Seiichi with it to the underworld.

    As [Fury] was activated, the Kobold King''s scale shades took a much darker than it already was. The ws grew a bit longer and the horns on its head glistened with a metallic sheen as they looked a bit taller and shinier. Even the aura of the Kobold King underwent a drastic change as not only did it be heavy, it also exuded a deep and extreme nature of carnage and the desire for blood. It was as if a demon of death had appeared on the surface and wouldn''t be pleased until it saw blood spill to form rivers.

    "Xue Yan, retreat with Seiichi. I will try to hold it down for a while. Find the best opportunity to attack otherwise, avoid reckless shots."

    Sato hastily gave out an order as he felt rm bells ring in his mind.

    "These guys are quite strong." One of the scouts from the Howling Wolf Battalion, a young yer, said in awe as he stared at the battle ahead.

    "Don''t make excessivements or movements lest they spot us." A stern voice sounded from beside the young yer.

    "Sorry for that." The young yer lowered his voice as he apologized.

    "You''re worrying too much, Var. If they could spot us, they would have done so long ago. The only mage yer here is that female [Elementalist] but she''s too focused on the battle to sense our presence. If she could pull that off, then she would be a monster." Another voice different from the other two, spoke up with a rxed tone.

    The scouting team consisted of three yers, 2 [Assassins] and 1 [Ranger]. The youth was one of the [Assassins] together with the other voice that had reprimanded him. As for thest one, the one with the rxed tone, it was the group''s [Ranger]. being blessed with an advantage in regards to sight, the [Ranger] was able to see things that the other two couldn''t.

    As an [Elementalist], and a high levelled one at that, Xue Yan should have been able to sense the presence of these yers especially since they didn''t make use of any special scrolls to hide their presence. However, as her full focus was required to face the Kobold King, Xue Yan wasn''t able to spread a part of it out. Also, she never would have expected for another group of yers to make it in time to the 10th floor while the team was still here, so, Xue Yan believed that there was no need to waste her energy on such a pointless act; the Kobold King was a much better target so she focused solely on it. This resulted in the current situation where the 3 yers from the Howling Wolf Battalion were able to close in on them but Xue Yan still didn''t sense their presence.

    "You''re right. But we still have to be careful lest we attract attention towards ourselves." Var, the leader of the scout team as well as the second [Assassin] in the group, said.

    "News justing in. The captain is leading the team over here. Emperor''s Might is with them as well." The [Ranger] said. He was the one in charge ofmunicating with the main team so all information had to pass through him.

    "The captain is truly a genius." Var couldn''t help but praise.

    He could obviously guess that the reason why Silver Wolf was leading the team over was to take the kill. Rather than waiting for the other guilds to show up and work with them, sharing the loot in the end, it would be better to snatch this opportunity right here. This was already amon act in VR games but to these military-style trained men, they weren''t used to such acts.

    "But why bring another guild with him?" The youth couldn''t help but ask.

    "Isn''t it obvious? From the conservative estimates from the Grand guild meeting, to defeat the Kobold King, at least 6 guild teams are required. But here we see just a team of 3 yers. To have faced the Kobold King alone and gone this far meant that they weren''t a simple team. Even if they were originally more yers in the group, for these 3 to have survived this long means that they aren''t your average Experts. Who knows, they might even be Monster-ss Experts. If we were to face them alone, even if the trio are tired, they would still be able to put up a good fight. In that case, using a super guild''s raid team as cannon-fodder against them wouldn''t be a bad idea." Var analysed.

    "To use a super guild as cannon-fodder. Only captain would dare to do such. Kekeke." The [Ranger]ughed.

    "Monster-ss Experts?" The youth asked. He wasn''t into gaming for as long as the other two and was just a recent recruit. It was due to his amazing potential that Silver Wolf took him under his wing.

    "The second strongest ss of yer. Just like their title implies, they are all monsters." Var said with a bit of dread.

    "I once had the liberty of encountering one such battle between them. Their reaction speed, battle techniques, battle awareness, and skills were all top-notch. Their ability to control the tempo of a fight was even more impressive. I wouldn''t evenst a few seconds against those guys. Even our captain might only be able to block one or two hits from them but the tempo of the battle would fully be in their hands. I give him only 5 seconds before everything wille to an end."

    "That strong?" The youth widened his eyes.

    "Even stronger. Let''s just hope that these guys aren''t at that level.. If they are, only using Emperor''s Might as our shield would we then have a shot at the reward."

 Chapter 383 - 377 : Impending Disaster

    "Grawl!"

    Like a lion pouncing on its prey, the Kobold King darted towards Sato and brought down its ws on him. Even without its right arm, the Kobold King still gave off a ferocious aura that made one not underestimate it.

    *ng*

    Sato intercepted the strike with his [Astral de] and swung the cursed sword right back at the creature at the same time. He had targeted its right side, which also happened to be its current weakness.

    "Hehe."

    [Wild Burst]

    The Kobold King pushed forward with its left w, forcing Sato back.

    "Roar!"

    [Kobold Supreme Roar]

    With its death pretty much inevitable, the Kobold King had decided to go all out against the trio, using every single skill in its arsenal without care.

    The roar came as a surprise to Sato and the same went for the skill. [Kobold Supreme Roar] was a de-buff skill that affected both draconic and non-draconic creatures simply because of the difference in Life order. While this difference wasn''t enough to exactly influence Sato''sbat ability, since when he got promoted after reaching level 10 his [Chosen Ones] bloodline improved, it was still enough to affect him.

    Due to Sato not anticipating the attack, he was temporarily stunned for a second. But just that slight dy in reacting was enough for the Kobold King''s next move to get him.

    [Bone sh]

    Just like how Sato asionally channelled a few of his skills through his body, the Kobold King had performed a simr action. There was no limitation to [Bone sh] being used only on a weapon so the Kobold King was easily able to replicate it into a w attack.

    Knowing that he couldn''t dodge it nor block it in time, Sato went for a different approach.

    -102 (376/1700 Sato''s HP)

    "Hmph." Sato grunted as he received the attack straight to his chest but at the same time, he retaliated with his sword.

    - 64 (1401/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    Compared to attacking with, [Astral de] had a much weaker overall attack power as well ascking the prative effects of [Drakken].

    "Heh."

    The Kobold King sneered at Sato as if it didn''t feel the pain. It then raised its ws for another attack but Sato hurriedly retreated. Xue Yan and Seiichi had also made their move.

    "Hmph." The Kobold King harrumphed as it stomped a foot down on the ground.

    [Mudfall]

    Earthen spike grew out from the ground at an absurd rate as they sprung forward and shielded the Kobold King from the iing projectiles. Due to the effects of the [Enraged] mode, the skills of the Kobold King had seen a slight increase in prowess, making them more powerful than usual. In a radius of 7 metres, rather than 5, a small rock forest had formed. Rock spikes between 1-2 metres in height had covered a majority of the area.

    As Sato had barely made some distance between himself and the Kobold King, he was still within the range of the attack. A rock spike darted out from the ground and aimed at him. Because he was caught by surprise, Sato could barely react to the attack. Luckily, the spikes spread out in a gradual process and not simultaneously.

    Starting from the area within a metre of the Kobold King ten further out, the rock spikes grew out rapidly.

    *ng*

    Sato pulled his right hand over to his front, blocking the rock spike that came after him. Due to the immense force that the rock possessed, Sato was sent up into the air, flying backward almost like a speeding bullet.

    The attacks from Seiichi and Xue Yan were blocked by the Kobold King''s AOE skill and it nced at the duo with a mocking grin from behind its shelter.

    "Sato, we can''t hold them back anymore." Fudo''s voice sounded from the team chat.

    It was a 4 against 100 battle that was going on on the other side. Though the quartet was individually much stronger than the Kobolds and they also had seamless coordination, the numbers weren''t on their side. It wasn''t like the 4 of them had an unlimited number of skills and each skill still had to undergo a cool-down after each use. No matter how one looked at it, they should have been dead long ago. It was only thanks to the fact that Sato had spent quite a majority of his wealth on supplies and consumables. Having an authority simr to that of a noble, he was able to get his hands on a lot of hidden items that weren''t easily essible to yers.

    Using them, Fudo and the other 3 were able to hold out against the 100-man army for only 30 minutes. But that was all. They had run out of items and couldn''t hold out much longer. Even Katsuo was currently surrounded by a mob of kobolds and would end up butchered up soon enough.

    *Thud*

    Satonded on the ground and managed to find his footing just in time to avoid a disgraceful fall.

    ''We need to wrap this up quickly.''

    "Even if I die," The Kobold King said.

    "you''re won''t end up any better. Hahahahahaha." Like a deranged psychopath, the Kobold King beganughing out madly.

    Sato, Xue Yan, and Seiichi couldn''t understand the meaning of its words but they raised their guards and their senses were focused on the Kobold King to the point that even any slight movement of its finger would be noticed by them.

    Unlike the trio, the Kobold King had already sensed Var and his men who were hidden. It had even gone one step further to spot the iing team lead by Silver Wolf.

    Based on the fact that Var remained hidden even as it was approaching its death, the Kobold King realised that the two groups weren''t working with each other. In other words, they were most likelypetitors; opponents battling for a prize. And this very prize happened to be its head.

    Incensed, the Kobold King had decided to go all out as it knew that surviving was almost impossible. Ignoring Var''s group, the team lead by Silver Wolf was made up of more than 20 yers. Even at its top form, they would be able to give it some trouble much less now it was half a foot into the underworld. Hence, the Kobold King decided that it would force Sato and his teammates to use all they had and tire them out. The purpose of this was to give Silver Wolf and his group more time to make it here and also weaken the strength of Sato''s group. The Kobold King knew that even though Silver Wolf''s team was made up of a lot of yers, Sato was stronger than them and with Xue Yan by his side, they could take on those guys. But if the duo were exhausted, things would be a lot easier for Silver Wolf and his teammates.

    There was also a third reason for going all out. The Kobold King could potentially produce an escape path. It guessed that there was a chance Silver Wolf and his team would want to be the ones to finish it off. Though it didn''t know why, this was just an instinctive guess. If that was then the case, there was a chance for it to escape in the chaos that would soon ensue. Apart from Sato, no one was capable of holding it back so all it had to do was wait for him to be upied fighting the others. It could then retreat to a safer spot.

    ''Oh? Just in time.'' The Kobold King thought.

    "Haha. You nned this well." The Kobold Kingughed out loud.

    "You even held back my minions and brought me to this secluded area. An impressive n. But this n of yours would be the detriment to your lives. Here shall be your resting ce. Your grave!"

    Sato, Seiichi, and Xue Yan didn''t understand what the Kobold King meant but it didn''t stop them from feeling a little bit trepid and anxious. This was especially so for Xue Yan who felt that it would be too disastrous to lose aftering this far.

    "Ignore his words and just be on alert. We''vee this far and we can''t lose just because of a few sentences." Sato yelled to restore order.

    "Fudo, try your best over there and just hold out for a minute. If you can''t just retreat."

    Sato originally nned for them to depart from there as the raid was almost over, but the words of the Kobold King put him on alert. Who knows whether if it will call for its minions at thest moment.

    "Not sure we can but we will try." Fudo responded.

    Unknown to Sato though, his worries were unnecessary. The developers of Infinite Realm, Dreand Studios, had done a lot of research and development into the characters and elements in IR including the Kobold King. The Kobold King was a prideful creature and following that syntax, it would refuse to call for aid even if its life was in danger. It would rather die standing strong than live under the protection of its people. Hence, Sato''s presumption was wrong. No matter what, the Kobold King wouldn''t call for backup. Sadly though, Sato didn''t know this.

    "Haha." The kobold King suddenlyughed.

    "It''s toote!"

 Chapter 384 - 378 : Retreat!

    Chapter 378 : Retreat!

    "Haha." The kobold King abruptlyughed.

    "It''s toote!"

    Sato was about to attack the Kobold King, since its words seemed to target their morale, when out of the blue, Xue Yan released a cry of rm.

    "What''s wrong?" Seiichi, who was the closest to her, asked.

    "There are some people approaching us. They aren''t far from us." Xue Yan said as she closed her eyes and tried to grasp that feeling.

    Because she was too focused on the battle, Xue Yan had not been able to spot Var and his men before. However, the Kobold King''s words forced her to be on alert and so, her sensory abilities were raised to the max. Together with the fact that Silver Wolf''s team was made up of quite a lot of people, hence resulting in the conglomeration of mana being thick around them, it became easier for her to sense them despite the distance.

    If Silver Wolf had ordered his men to scatter and surround them or even use a screening scroll to block their presence, Xue Yan wouldn''t have been able to sense them but since they were in a hurry in fear of losing their target, Silver Wolf didn''t bother with any of that. Because of that, it became a lot easier for Xue Yan to sense them even though she wasn''t intentionally looking for them. Therge number of yers made it easy for her to spot them especially with the fact that the Kobold King had forced her to be on alert.

    "Hehe." The Kobold King suddenly moved forward and grabbed at Xue Yan.

    It intended to use this moment of distraction to take down one of the two strongest of the trio. That way, not only would its chances of escaping increase but the chances of Sato and Seiichi dying at the hands of Silver Wolf''s team would be higher.

    "Don''t you dare."

    Sato dashed towards the Kobold King as he swung [Astral de] and stabbed himself.

    -40 (336/1700 Sato''s HP)

    While this looked like a pretty dumb move that had no reason behind it, there was indeed one.

    If one can recall, there was a very special kind of skill attached to the cursed sword, [Drakken], which increased the ability of the user by 10% for each 10% loss in HP below 30%.

    Sato''s HP was currently at 336, below 510 which was exactly 30% of his entire HP bar. 10% below that would be 340 but since Sato''s HP was at 376, he couldn''t ess the skill, hence he had to injure himself and bring his HP down. This meant that the condition for using [Hopeless Hope], the passive skill of [Drakken] had now been met. Currently, all of Sato''s secondary attributes experienced a meteoric rise of 10% and this included his movement speed which was already a tad bit than that of the Kobold King.

    Though it was true that the Kobold King had taken on the battle style of tit-for-tat, now that there was a chance of survival, it didn''t want to take any more unnecessary risk.

    Seeing Sato''s approaching figure, it then abandoned its actions and retreated away. Sato chased after it as he intended to use this momentum to force it to its end. But it was at this moment that Xue Yan spoke up, and her words shocked him.

    "yers are approaching here at a rapid speed. About 20 or more and they are really close to our location. Just about 100 metres or less."

    For a level 7 yer, a 100 metres gap could be covered in a few seconds so that meant that the trio didn''t have enough time to finish up. They either retreated at this moment or get caught in what might be a messy situation.

    "20 plus yers¡­"Sato muttered.

    "Retreat!"

    "?!" Xue Yan nced at him in surprise.

    "Didn''t you hear me? Retreat. The same with you three. Fudo, Yato, Katsuo, you guys retreat immediately."

    "But why?" Xue Yan asked.

    This was the second time they had embarked on this mission and why the first could have been said to have reaped them some rewards, they were still forced to retreat. Having tasted that feeling before, together with the fact that the Kobold King was pretty much on itsst leg, Xue Yan was a bit unwilling to retreat.

    "Don''t ask any questions and just go. Seiichi, take her with you and leave." Sato ordered.

    Seiichi only nodded in reply before he grabbed Xue Yan''s arm and dragged her away. While she was indeed unwilling, Xue Yan wasn''t stupid. Seeing as how serious Sato was, she let Seiichi take her away as she gave a departing nce at Sato.

    "I will be right behind you." Sato smiled as he could guess what she was thinking.

    The order to retreat and his remaining behind wasn''t due to Sato''s overreaction but a simple analysis. From Xue Yan''s report, Sato had reached 2 conclusions.

    One, the team heading their way was definitely not a simple one. There was a 100% chance that the raid team of the super guild, Emperor''s Might, was a part of them. Even if the duo''s levels were higher, facing against such a team of Experts armed with raid items and equipment, their chances of winning -especially as they were quite exhausted already- was very low. There was also the Kobold King who was on standby. The numbers weren''t on their side and neither was the location, there the most logical course of action would be to retreat.

    Secondly and most importantly, the team was heading their way and from Xue Yan''s description, they were running towards them. The noise of the battle wasn''t much so unless the raid team was quite close, they wouldn''t have heard it. But for them to be rushing over in full force rather than taking a careful approach meant that something was up. A super guild team or even a regr guild raid team, wouldn''t make such a mistake unless they were noobs, and there was no way for any noob team to make it this far before the other top guilds. This meant that the team rushing over here must have already investigated the source of the disturbance via their scout team and they already knew that another team was facing the Kobold King right here. This was something they couldn''t tolerate hence they began rushing over to the site. This meant that from an unknown period till now, Sato, Seiichi, and Xue Yan were being monitored by a concealed team.

    As a result of such an almost certain analysis, Sato chose the best course of action which was to retreat.

 Chapter 385 - 379 : Against The Scout Team

    "Now I understand. You already knew about them, didn''t you?" Sato faced the Kobold King.

    The Kobold King hadn''t stopped Seiichi and Xue Yan from escaping as that was a risky move. Also, leaving them be would, in turn, increase its chances of escaping as well as that of Sato dying. With the aid of his two partners, Sato would have been able to fight off the neers but alone, he would surely be defeated.

    "I''m not obligated to answer you, filthy human. But even then, so what?" The Kobold King sneered.

    "As I said before, you will die before I do."

    Sato frowned at the Kobold King''s words before he hacked out with [Drakken].

    [ck me sh]

    A jet ck arc of mes departed from the sword''s edge and darted towards its target. Shockingly though, the target of the attack wasn''t the Kobold King but a seemingly empty space.

    "Ah!"

    *Bang*

    -67 (???/??? ???)

    A cry of rm rang out followed by a loud sound of collision as the arc of ck mes temporarily halted in midair, before pushing forward almost instantaneously, sending a figure crashing a few metres away. Finally, it then spread out in a flurry in an attempt to surround the figure.

    "Kito!" Another voice yelled from the side as two figures revealed themselves from elsewhere.

    They were Var, the leader of the Howling Wolf battalion''s scout team, as well as the young man who was the only [Ranger] in the group. As for the origin of the cry from before, it was the youth who was thest member of the team as well as the second [Assassin] yer.

    Being forced to block off Sato''s attack, he was forced out of stealth mode. Even though he had managed to block the attack, he didn''t do a good job since he didn''t react in time, leading to his right arm being covered in unquenchable ck mes.

    "Huh? Ah!" The youth, Kito, yelled in shock seeing the ck mes on his arm.

    "Help me put it out!" Kito cried out.

    -53 (???/??? ???)

    As one of the yers hailed for having an astounding level of potential and talent, the youth knew that to remain of value to his guild, he had to be strong. Dying now meant a loss of Experience points and that would affect his career. If he had died during the raid, then it wouldn''t matter as his losses would be settled and he would have ended up with a few rewards gotten from the guild, but dying here was different and not profitable.

    "What''s wrong with you? Calm down. It will go off on its own." Var roared at him, with a little bit of confusion in his eyes. He couldn''t get why Kito was overreacting over such a little thing. The damage wasn''t even worth being fearful about, though it wasn''t little either.

    While Var didn''t know what was going on, Sato had an inclination toward the truth.

    [[ System notification :

    Hidden effect of ck mes has been activated.

    NB : Visit an [Appraiser] to learn more about the hidden secrets of your weapon/equipment. Doing so would enable you to be able to use the weapon/equipment even better and ess all of its abilities.]]

    Even though it was true that yers could get an understanding of their weapon by using the [Appraise] skill, it was only the basic information about their equipment that would be revealed. This was especially so from weapons and equipment above level 10 or the Upper-tier Mortal rank. In other words, what Sato had seen before was only just a tip of [Drakken]''s abilities. The point of this was to add value to the subss [Appraiser] otherwise if everyone could simply scan a piece of equipment or material and get the full information using [Appraise], the subss [Appraiser] would be pointless and useless.

    ''I haven''t heard about any [Appraiser] in town. They probably only stay in cities''.

    Sato turned his attention away from his interface and focused on the situation before him.

    After guessing that someone was spying on them, Sato sent Xue Yan and Seiichi away. While it was indeed to save them, it was also to use them as bait to draw out the concealed opponents. Sato believed that there was no way whoever was watching them would let Seiichi and Xue Yan escape just like that. If the unseen foe couldn''t stop them, then they would surely follow behind the duo in secret. That was Sato''s aim and he managed to sense Kito despite the young yer moving in stealth.

    ''An Expert.'' Var thought.

    Although he had already guessed this, he still harbored some doubts. However, seeing Sato''s quick reactions and action, Var was pretty much sure of it. Worst of all, Var guessed was now sure that Sato wasn''t an ordinary Expert. He was an Expert too but he wouldn''t be able to spot Kito in stealth.

    "Die!"

    The Kobold King suddenly lunged at Sato, shing its left w at him.

    Seeing an opportunity to take down the opponent and the Kobold King as well, Var ordered the [Ranger] beside him to work with both sides and maintain a bnce while Kito tries to chase after Seiichi and Xue Yan.

    "Who are you?" Var yelled as he suddenly attacked Sato.

    Ever since Sato and his teammates had stepped into the 10th floor, they had worn ck cloaks with them, preventing their faces from being seen. The way the ck cloaks worked was that they would project a stationary ck screen that would shield the appearance of the wearer from being spotted but the wearer could still see through the screen, simr to how a tinted ss works.

    Apart from Sato, whose cloak was almost in tatters due to the previous heated battle, and Katsuo and Yato who were swarmed byrge numbers, Xue Yan and Seiichi''s were still okay and functioned perfectly, preventing their identities from being spotted.

    While it was true that Sato''s cloak was damaged, it still managed to shield a part of his face from being seen. Hence, the question from Var.

    [[ System notification :

    You have been attacked by a yer. Retaliating against your attacker won''t incur any punishment on you. ]]

    The AI operating the game was very advanced. Unlike all other VR games where you had to be injured first before you can be allowed to retaliate without fear of bing a red name, the Heaven system was sophisticated to the point of being able to recognize an attack. It could take note of when a yer was truly about to be attacked by another and perform the uratemands at that point, preventing nasty situations from urring. Simr to now where all the attacks aimed at Sato were meant to kill, it would be disappointing if Sato had to wait for Var''s attack tond on him before he could retaliate without having to worry about getting his name tainted.

    The Heaven system had already identified Var''s move as one that goes against the basic rules of the game and so it had proceeded with the following course of action by granting Sato an immunity towards having his name tainted. This quick response feature was very useful in high-end matches and fast-paced battles where one character was on thewful side and another was either on the dark side or simply didn''t bother about the rules of the righteous.

    Sato didn''t reply Var but simply lifted his right hand to block the Kobold King''s advance with [Astral de], retaliating back at it with his left sword [Drakken].

    Just as he did so, an angered Var had appeared within 4 feet of him, forcing Sato to withdraw his right sword and sh with him.

    At the same time, the Kobold King suddenly turned tail and fled while the [Ranger] at the back fired three arrows at Sato. If that wasn''t enough, Kito used this chance to run past Sato, heading towards the direction Seiichi and Xue Yan fled.

    In less than a second, the 2 main adversaries had taken three different approaches. Sato was now forced to make a choice where he could potentially see one of them escape.

    Because of Var locking him down, alongside the arrows fired by the [Ranger], Sato''s life was in danger. However, if he decided to save his skin, he would end up letting the Kobold King go and that would turn all the current progress the team has made into shambles. Not only that, Kito was chasing after Xue Yan and Seiichi so if Sato couldn''t stop, considering that he was an [Assassin], Kito could escape quickly and Sato would lose track of him. It should also not be ignored that there was the sure possibility of both Var and the [Ranger] behind preventing him from chasing after Kito.

    In summary, Sato had been forced into a tight spot where it seemed like all was lost just in one second.

 Chapter 386 - 380 : Against The Scout Team 2

    "Not enough."

    If faced with the current situation Sato was in, an average yer would either try to save his skin or tank the attacks from the [Ranger] and Var, before going for either the Kobold King or Kito. However, Sato was no average yer.

    ''[Astral Might]''

    Sato doubled down on the passive pressure released by his de, focusing it on Var who was just a few steps away from him. The sword, which was already on its way, went on to sh with Var''s dagger, bringing with it the boundless momentum from the special aura.

    *ng*

    Var felt like he had shed with a speeding truck as the force from the sword flowed through his dagger into his body, wreaking havoc within it as he felt his organs vibrate to the force. Without realizing it, Var had opened his mouth wide and puked out blood.

    -87 (???/??? ???)

    Before Var could even process a single thought right after that, his body was abruptly shot into the air like a rocket. Var had barely realised that his feet were no longer on the ground when he was more than 10 feet into the air. The direction and angle he had flown at were such that he had interfered with the trajectory of the two arrows headed towards Sato.

    -58

    -61 (???/??? ???)

    [[ System notification :

    You have died.

    ]]

    In mid-air, a shocked expression was disyed on Var''s face as he saw his HP go from the 100% mark, down to 0. It had happened all too quickly that Var felt that it was a dream. He even prayed it was such as dying meant that he had lost a substantial amount of HP which would cost him a lot to regain.

    Sato didn''t pay attention to this. In fact, right from when he had already collided weapons with Var, Sato''s attention was no longer on the man. He already knew his strength and if he couldn''t take down a level 8 [Assassin] while he was level 15, that would be a shame and a disgrace to his name and ability.

    Right after Sato had sent Var away, he had focused his attention on the other [Assassin], Kito. For thest arrow from that [Ranger], Sato had simply swiped at the air with [Drakken] and this created apressed de of air that deflected the arrow to the side.

    "[Astral de]."

    This was the second [Astral de] Sato was using since the raid and he still had one more left.

    Sato could have used this skill to stop the Kobold King but since its prowess was roughly the same as his, unless caught by surprise, chances were that it would easily dodge the attack and still be on its way. Hence, Sato had used it on Kito, whose skills were way below his. The chances of this youth dodging the sh were very slim whereas blocking it would be the same as suicide. Of course, the target wasn''t aware of this.

    Eight after Sato had swung his de, he mysteriously disappeared from the spot, appearing just a mere 3 feet away from the Kobold King.

    "?!?!"

    The Kobold King was astonished as it widened its eyes in shock. There was no undtion of space, no fluctuation of mana, or anything out of the ordinary with Sato''s appearance. It was as if he had always been there.

    "Die."

    Sato stretched out his arm as he brandished [Drakken] at the reptilian-like creature.

    - 107 (1297/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    The Kobold King hurriedly backed away from Sato right after that but Sato followed closing after it, almost like a piece of tissue paper stuck under one''s shoes.

    [Bon sh]

    The Kobold King wed right at Sato but instead of retreating, the ck-haired youngster blocked with one sword at hacked with the other. Due to the fact that the Kobold King''s speed had momentarily dropped as it attacked, Sato''s sword was able to reach it once more.

    - 69 (1228/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    "Graw!"

    In frustration, the Kobold King bit down at Sato, forcing him to retreat this around.

    As Sato finally stepped away to have a breather, the others had finally returned to their senses. As for the identity of the ''others'', that was just the [Ranger].

    Kito, who had to face Sato''s second [Astral de] was not lucky enough to make it. He had tried outrunning it but the brilliant curved beam of light was too fast for him to do so. Kito couldn''t even react in time to dodge it so he tried blocking it. However, that was a dumb move from him considering that Kito had already suffered before after shing with Sato''s [ck me sh]. While it was true that part of the reason could be attributed to the abilities of [Drakken], a majority of it was due to the absurd gap between him and Sato. So even though [Astral de] was weaker than [ck me sh], it was not something the meagre Kito, who had already taken a HP potion before, could handle.

    Just bying in contact with the attack, the out had already been sent back to his respawn point without dy.

    ''This guy¡­is a beast!'' The [Ranger] couldn''t help but sweat in fear.

    If not for Sato having to change his focus to the Kobold King in fear of it escaping, the [ranger didn''t doubt that he would have died alongside his previousrades.

    ''What was that skill even?''

    Sato escaping the encirclement of him and Var could be easily understood as the strength difference between Sato and Var being huge. Due to this, Var was easilyunched into the air in the direction of two of his arrows and the third was deflected just by a sh from the target.

    Kito''s death wasn''t a mystery either as it could be attributed to that strange skill that was too powerful for him to handle. Even the [Ranger] doubted whether he could survive if he were the target of that skill.

    The only strange thing from what had just happened during this 5 seconds battle was Sato''s mysterious disappearance and reappearance beside the Kobold King. It looked almost like teleportation but wasn''t exactly the same. All the [Ranger] saw was a few ck tendrils escaping from Sato''s shadow and dragging him to the ground. The Kobold King might not have seen it clearly but the [Ranger] noticed that Sato didn''t actually appear out of the blue but was ''vomited'' from the floor close by.

    While the [Ranger] and the Kobold King didn''t understand how such could happen, Sato perfectly did. It was thanks to the built-in skill of [Drakken], [Shadow Movement], that Sato was able to change his position so quickly.

    [Shadow Movement] could enable the user to ''shadow jump'' to any shadow within 5 metres or one with a 15 metres range. However, thetter required the user to mark the shadow beforehand but there was no limit to how many shadows could be marked.

    During his battle with the Kobold King, Sato had marked quite a few shadows around the area just in case he would have to suddenly retreat or strike at the Kobold King when it least expects it. With the Kobold King plotting its escape, Sato was forced to then use the skill and jump to one of his already marked shadows. Since Sato had never used the skill throughout the fight with the Kobold King, it never would have known that such existed in Sato''s arsenal so it wasn''t so cautious with its escape. This wrong behaviour from the Kobold King ended up costing it a lot as the perfect chance to escape had fallen from its grasp.

    The reason why that was the perfect chance to escape was that the number of opponents was much less then. Now, however, it was no longer the same.

    The others had arrived.

 Chapter 387 - 381 : Hidden Hand

    "Mark?" A deep voice said with surprise.

    As the voice sounded, Sato, the Kobold King and the [Ranger] all turned their attention towards it.

    "Captain!" The [Ranger] shouted out with relief.

    "Where are Var and Kito?" Silver Wolf asked, still a bit stunned by their absence.

    "...dead." Mark answered with a pained expression.

    Silver Wolf widened his eyes with shock but still maintained his calm as he surveyed the area. Beside him was Azure Dragon and behind was thebined force of Emperor''s Might''s raid team as well as the Howling wolf Battalion.

    While it was true that Sato had gave spared his attention towards the new arrivals, it was only a nce. After that, he had his focus fully locked on the Kobold King as he reengaged it in battle. This act was easily noticed by the two leaders and their forces, and they felt as if in the eyes of this cloaked young man they were nothing but just some measly figures.

    "Damn you¡­!" Iron Bear gritted his teeth in anger as he was about to approach Sato but Silver Wolf stopped him.

    "Let him have his fun." Silver Wolf sneered.

    "When it''s almost over, we move in."

    Currently, Sato had ignored the party and was taking on the Kobold King in a one-on-one match. Even though the monster was heavily injured, it was still in berserk mode and so remained a tough opponent even for Sato.

    Silver Wolf''s intention was to let Sato do all the work and bring the Kobold King''s HP down to the dregs before finishing it off. As for how they could see the HP of the monster, it was thanks to a special equipment wielded by one of his men. It was an equipment of the [Appraiser] subss so even with the level difference, they were still able to bypass the criteria of injuring the target and could simply nce at its attributes. However, the system was fair hence, because of the level difference, they could only view one attribute of the Kobold King which was its [Vitality]. This enabled them to go one step further and see its HP too.

    Since the yer in charge of the equipment had to ce his entire focus on the Kobold King, the members of the raid team didn''t know what Sato''s level was but they weren''t worried either. In Silver Wolf''s perspective, Sato was either a level 10 or 11 peak Expert, possibly at the rank of a ''King''. Chances were that he might even be a level 12 yer closing in on the Monster-ss Expert rank since he was able to fend off the weakened Kobold King all on his own. But even at that, Silver Wolf wasn''t scared.

    Their team was made up of one of the strongest group of yers in IR together with a subdivision of a super guild working alongside them. If they couldn''t take down a yer at such a caliber, especially with all their prepared raid gear and items, it would be a disgrace to both guilds; a stain in their name that would be difficult to wipe out.

    Even if by some miracle, they weren''t able to take Sato down, Silver Wolf still had a trump card that could even help them defeat a true-blue Monster-ss Expert yer. If he were to actually use it straight away, they could defeat the Sato and the Kobold King without Azure Dragon''s aid but doing so would incur certain repercussions that he may not be able to handleter. That was why Silver Wolf left this option as ast resort. Having Sato do all the deed before using Emperor''s Might as his shield would be better than showing all his cards right away. Despite the fact that Silver Wolf was indeed a veteran military figure, he wasn''t one of those muscle brains or only good at shooting guns. He tookmanding sses and military tactics lessons so he was a bit versed at tricks like these.

    ''It would have been better if we could use him. Damn that treaty.''

    *ng*

    As Sato''s sword collided with the Kobold King''s ws once more, he frowned seeing that the neers didn''t join in the battle. His original intention was to take them down during the chaos as well as find a chance to escape once he had done so but Silver Wolf''s n had ruined that. The same went for the Kobold King who nned to use the chance when Sato would be held back by the others to escape.

    The two crafty beings, engaged in battle with each other easily saw through the plot of their stalkers. This led to the scenario where neither side fought with everything they had. The Kobold King was engineered by the game''s developers to think like a human so it reacted as one, whereas Sato who was a true flesh and blood, also acted as one. However, to prevent the Kobold King from healing back again, Sato had to put in more effort than it did and the Kobold King also had to match his pace lest it ends up dying. Hence, the duo''s idea of holding back wasn''t something that would remain feasible for long bu the progress of the battle was still stuck at an impasse.

    "At this rate, it will take a lot of time before they are finished. Who knows, maybe another concealed team could make it here by that time. It''s best that we move in for the kill now."

    Though the raid team of Emperor''s might was slightly stronger than that of Battle Wolves, Azure Dragon didn''t want to take the risk and rush forward, turning his men into cannon-fodder. There was also the fact that suddenly jumping in for the kill would leave Silver Wolf dissatisfied and would lead to more problemster on. Right now was a perfect opportunity to lessen the beef between them and if done properly, the two guilds would be able to avoid a guild war this early into the game.

    Silver Wolf thought about Azure Dragon''s words for a while before he replied,

    "I agree.. It''s about time we wrap this up and go home."

 Chapter 388 - 382 : End Of The King

    Though Sato held back a bit against the Kobold King, it didn''t mean that he wanted to drag out the battle. Sato knew that the longer the battle went n, the more impatient the two teams behind would get. But since he didn''t have any idea how to handle them yet, he had to drag out the battle for as long as possible while he thought of one. While he did so, he sneakily sent a message to Seiichi and Xue Yan. Sato guessed that they still weren''t so far from his position as Fudo and the others, plus, Xue Yan was needed toplete the mission.

    ''Hmm? They can''t wait anymore.''

    Since both he and the Kobold King weren''t doing their best, Sato was able to partition a portion of his senses to the ''fishermen''[1]. He noticed that they had changed their strategy and begun to surround the two of them. This was most likely because they got impatient an wanted to end the battle quickly to prevent any risks from urring.

    ''Guess I''ll have to use it then.''

    [Linear Strike]

    Just before Silver Wolf and Azure Dragon could give themand to attack, Sato''s aura suddenly burst as he thrust his sword in the side of the Kobold King.

    Though the Kobold King had its guard raised against him, it still focused a bit on the two teams behind. As a result of this, its response speed was slower than usual.

    -157 (1364/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    ''What?!'' The Kobold King was shocked at Sato''s actions.

    In its opinion, it was suicide to battle both it and the team watching them. It would have been wiser if Sato was looking for an opportunity to escape rather than engaging in a life or death battle with it.

    "Hmm? He wants to finish it off? Stop him!" Silver Wolf yelled.

    While the true benefit in ying the Kobold Kingid in the loot it would drop, the Experience points reward was still going to be massive and it was only rewarded to those involved in the battle. The bigger the role yed, the more Experience points one would gain.

    Silver Wolf didn''t simply intend on just getting thest hit it also eliminating a reasonable proportion of its HP, that way, the amount of Experience points he would gain would be enough to reach level 10 and maybe go over.

    The long range yers in the Howling Wolf Battalion squad, all took aim at Sato andunched their attacks.

    Sato ignored everything that came at him as he focused on the Kobold King. The arrows arrived first due to their small size and aerodynamic shape. One by one, 5 arrows hit Sato''s armour and while some did manage to pierce through it, none of them dealt Sato any damage.

    Before anyone could react to that, the magical attacks came over. Unlike the arrows, the ming balls had special effects like [Burn] or a push-back effect, so Sato couldn''t simply let it hit him lest it affects his battle.

    ''Since it''s time to end this, no holding back. [Gratitude of Races].''

    [[ System notification :

    [Gratitude of Races] skills has been used.

    [Gratitude of Races] : Active Skill

    Receive a temporary boost to abilities and skills +1

    All attributes +5

    Defence increases by 10

    Attack Speed increase by 10

    Damage dealt multiplies by1.5

    Healing Speed x1.5

    Duration : 15 seconds

    Cool-down : 3 days

    System description : The gratitude of a race shouldn''t be taken lightly much less that of multiple races.

    Note : This skill is upgrade-able so far as certain conditions are met.

    ]]

    Sato immediately activated his berserk skill which also happened to be the most OP in the game. Berserk skills were quitemon but since they were skills that had the ability to easily turn the tide of a battle, their effects were limited and the duration were short. However, [Gratitude of Races] was a special one that wasn''t as limited as the others and it''s duration was more than double the usual.

    The skill could be said to be perfect for any physical ss user as not only did it cover attack speed and power, but it also boosted one''s defence and healing ability. When partnered with an Expert yer at the very least, a killing machine would be born. It would take either an extremely strong and talented individual to take down the target or a lot of yers attacking all at once, albeit with sacrifices sustained.

    But when the skill isplimented with a yer of Sato''s caliber and level, the end result was far above the previous. Taking down such a yer would be almost impossible for other yers.

    "Die."

    With [Gratitude of Races], Sato need not fear the attacks from the mages so he focused on the Kobold King.

    The Kobold King was both incensed and stunned as it never expected its ''partner'' to suddenly turn on it.

    "Human, are you crazy? We will both die at this rate!"

    Sato ignored its words and thrust his sword through its side. With the added 5 points to his main attributes, Sato was stronger than the Kobold King to the point he could suppress it.

    -148 (1216/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    Blood spilled as the Kobold King scrunched its face in pain and indignation. If it had known that this would happen, it would have escaped long ago, even at the cost of another grievous injury.

    Just as this thought passed through the its mind, the fireballsnded on Sato.

    *Boom*

    Normally, the explosive effects of these attacks weren''t much but as there were a lot of them aimed at one target, it created an explosion louder than usual. Sato was still close to the Kobold King so the creature was also within range of the explosion. The space a metre around the duo had turned ck due to the me sand as smoke dissipated from the spot.

    Azure Dragon frowned at the sight as he felt something strange had happened there. The explosion was bigger than normal and the effect of superimposition, which a bunch of guilds had yet to figure out, was disyed there. It wasn''t as if no one else had tried tobine attacks like that to create a muchrger effect; even Emperor''s Might had tried such. However, none were sessful; at least from what he knew.

    Superimposing attacks, which was the art ofbining one or more spells or attacks to create a muchrger and powerful effect, had yet to be realised in IR. Simply attacking at the same time and spot wouldn''t necessarily achieve it as the two or more attacks might end up canceling each other. However, that hadn''t happened when the fire [Elementalists] of the Howling Wolf Battalion had attacked together.

    "That''s a secret." Silver Wolf smirked. He could easily guess the reason for Azure Dragon''s confusion but there was no rule that stated that he had to rify the riddle. It was after all, a secret of their guild; an advantage that would improve their chances of ruling ck Rock province. Considering that he would end up as enemies with Emperor''s Might very soon, it was even more understandable for him not to say.

    ''Maybe letting them be now isn''t the best option.'' Azure Dragon thought as he realised that Battle Wolves was bing more of a dangerous opponent than before.

    "What?!"

    Azure Dragon was suddenly woken from his thoughts by the surprised screams of his teammates.

    "What''s going on?"

 Chapter 389 - 383 : Bizarre Escape

    "What?!"

    Azure Dragon was suddenly woken from his thoughts by the surprised screams of his teammates.

    "What''s going on?"

    No one replied him as everyone behind was too stunned to speak. They all widened their eyes in shock as they stared at the unexinable event before them.

    "He survived?" Azure Dragon muttered with a hint of disbelief.

    Seeing Sato standing still alongside the Kobold King, Azure Dragon was confused.

    That attack could take one a level 10 BOSS and deal a handful of damage to it. It was understandable for the Kobold King after all the level difference, life order difference, and attributes difference was enough for it to offset the damage. Sato, on the other hand, was just a level 11 or 12 yer(suspected). Considering that he was a [Swordsman] yer and not a tank like the [Guardian] ss, there was no way that he would be able to take thatbined attack so easily. Yet, he actually pulled it off.

    "Stop him or else the BOSS kill would be his!" though he could use this time to mock Silver Wolf for being too conceited, Azure Dragon knew what mattered most and that was taking down the Kobold King.

    Seeing as Silver Wolf''s team had failed, hemanded his teammates to make their move. Speaking, his team was stronger than Silver Wolf''s by both quantity and quality so he had a better shot at seeding.

    Though it seemed like Azure Dragon was helping and while it was true that they seemingly had the same goals, it wasn''t exactly so. Like mentioned before, the loot of the world-ss BOSS, the Kobold King, was the main goal of the raid. The second goal was the kill. Whoever killed the BOSS would have the opportunity to get their name spread all on servers, bing popr in multiple countries for such a deed. Not only would the name announcement increase the poprity of the guild but it would also improve their recruitment efforts, increase their sponsors and also add more glory to the guild. This was something every guild treasured and some might even take it over the loot. There was also the Experience points reward which would undoubtedly be a lot and since the two teams never teamed up via the interface, they wouldn''t be able to share the experience points amongst themselves so only one team could get it, or at least those who participated meaningfully[IF].

    Earlier, Azure Dragon didn''t make any moves on the BOSS or Sato as Silver Wolf was the one who led them here and so, could be said to be the de-facto leader. It would be despicable of him to try and steal the kill right under their noses especially since Silver Wolf was the one who led them here. It could be said that he had given them an opportunity and was willing to make peace with them. In other words, Silver Wolf currently had the moral high ground. Fighting over the BOSS with him could lead to a fuse sparking off immediately and it wouldn''t be worth it in the long run especially if Silver Wolf blew the matter off in public and degraded their name. Therefore, Azure Dragon could only stand behind and leave it to them, at least till they have made the first move. Only at the crucial moment would he then participate, otherwise, he would not get a share of the loot for just standing by and watching.

    Now, however, as Silver Wolf had failed in his assault, Azure Dragon could easily take part earlier than nned. If everything goes well, his team would take the kill and have their name broadcast. If Silver Wolf were toin, he could easily say that he was aiding arade seeing as he(Silver Wolf) had failed with the first attack. This way he could retain the moral high ground and not be used of not being grateful.

    "Engage in a close-range battle. Long-range fighters, assist our attackers and disrupt the target''s moves." Azure Dragon hurriedly yelled out hismands as he dashed to the frontlines.

    "That bastard." Silver Wolf gritted his teeth. Azure Dragon''smands might seem simple but it was extremely disadvantageous to him.

    If they had engaged in a ranged fight with Sato and the Kobold King, the Howling Wolf Battalion would still have a chance of making aeback. However, a closebat fight prevented them from easily attacking from range in fear of friendly fire, and in terms of quality and quantity of close-rangebatants, Emperor''s Might had the upper hand. That means that by engaging in closebat, even though it was really risky, there was at least a 70% chance that the one who would y the Kobold King woulde from Emperor''s Might.

    "Men, move in."Silver Wolf ordered. Even though he knew that he might lose his men in the battle, it was still better than losing the first kill.

    "Human¡­you will regret this." The Kobold King muttered in a low voice.

    (1156/10000 Kobold King''s HP)

    Though it had survived the explosion, it was still slightly affected by it. The Kobold King''s defence was already at the state that a level 5 yer could injure it much less abined assault from 3 [Elementalists].

    "I doubt that."

    Following those words, Sato abruptly kicked the Kobold King into the air. Despite the monster having a height of 3 or so metres -almost twice that of Sato- it was easily flung into the air. Before the Kobold King couldnd on the ground, Sato jumped up and shed at the monster.

    "Even if I''m to die, it wouldn''t be like this!" The Kobold King yelled as it suddenly swiped the air with its remnant left w.

    A ck w mark formed in the air as space was slightly torn apart. The space between it and Sato was suddenly formed by these ck spatial w marks.

    As he was still in mid-air, Sato could barely dodge it and looked as if he would get caught by it. However, the torn space was closer to the Kobold King ad with its descending speed, it had managed to reach the area before Sato. The Kobold King was then swallowed up by the torn space before the ''injured'' area began to heal up.

    Everything happened so quickly that by the time Sato had crossed that spot, the space had returned to normal.

    "Spatial maniption." Chesces said with a bit of dread in his eyes. He had participated in therge-scale raid at Gnorka and had managed to witness Town Head Arman inbat. He knew well how much of a danger the Kobold King would be with such a skill.

    "It''s gone.." Sato whispered as his feetnded back on the floor.

 Chapter 390 - 384 : Identity Revealed

    There was a brief moment of silence as everyone stared at the air in shock, not knowing what to do now.

    The Kobold King had escaped the area using a space-type skill and this was unexpected even for Sato, who had already witnessed the BOSS'' space magic before.

    From what Sato had read in the summarized edition of the Town''s library books on elements[1], space magic was one of the hardest to learn and a majority of basic space magic users were unable to use it mid-battle as it required a lot of focus for one to be able to sense the spatial elements and manipte them ording to their desires. Unless one had an innate sensitivity to this element, like fire [Elementalists] had an innate sensitivity to fire element, one would be unable to use space magic to the fullest.

    After Sato had used [Inspect] on the Kobold King''s skills, he presumed that the previous performance of the Kobold King might have been done with a certain type of equipment since no space-rted skill had popped up on the information regarding the creature''s skills. With that in mind, Sato was more alert for the equipment than he was on the Kobold King, after all, if the Kobold King suddenly popped out a battle-type space equipment/weapon, the battle would be half won.

    Strangely, even as it was approaching its death, none of that took ce. This left Sato doubting; presuming that maybe it might have left behind the equipment or something otherwise, this couldn''t be exined. Seeing as the Kobold King had suddenly used a space skill and escaped, not only was Sato''s earlier misunderstanding correct but he also had a much clearer idea of its circumstances.

    ''It isn''t well versed in space magic. It''s probably a beginner with only knowledge on escape techniques.''

    Beginner space magic users had onemon problem, they couldn''t use it in battle especially high-intensity battles. The quicker the speed moves are being exchanged, the lesser the chances of them being able to use space magic. This would then exin why the Kobold King hadn''t used such skills in battle. There was also the possibility that it only knew escape techniques and had no knowledge of battle skills rted to space magic. This would then exin why even in times of respite during the battle, it didn''t perform any AOE space skill.

    ''If it''s a total beginner, then not escaping before could be understood. Having used space magic especially with its current state, the Kobold King would be more weakened.'' Sato thought.

    Forcefully using magic would cause harm to the user and the more deadly the spell or the greater the difficulty, the higher the chances of getting injured. With the Kobold King''s state as well as its proficiency in space magic, there was no doubt that its injuries had worsened by forcefully using the spell inbat. This could exin its angered roar before leaving. It already knew the risks but still dared to use it.

    While Sato was in thought, the two teams behind were wondering what to do next. They didn''t participate in the raid with Sato and the others so they weren''t aware of the fact that the Kobold king wasn''t well-versed in spatial maniption. Hence, there was a bit of hesitation on whether they should give chase.

    "The Kobold King might have probably gone far right now and since it''s much stronger than us, it wouldn''t be an issue for it to hide from the senses of our [Druids]. Also, based on the style the developers have used, I''m guessing that the Kobold King would definitely not be so foolish as to give out its location like that. Overall, giving chase seems like a weak option." Chesces said.

    "That''s true but as it''s weakened and heavily injured, we might have a shot at it." Azure Dragon said.

    "It''s better to test out our luck than give up straight away."

    After hesitating for a while, Azure Dragon gave out hismands.

    "ck Tempest, you take Yukino, Ore, Riley, Monolith, and Griffin as well as 12 others with you and go look for the BOSS. 2 more [Assassins] should be in your lineup with [Druids] as the main healing force. Kylian, you go with them too. As for the others, stay behind with him to take down that yer."

    Making the [Druids] a priority was due to their flexibility to act as a CC unit(Crowd Control), as well as scouts, healers, and buffers. Against the kobold King, a lineup with enough [Druids] would have a much better chance at sess than without. The [Assassins] and mages weer also to cooperate with the [Druids] and search for the Kobold King.

    Though Chesces had already said that it will likely not be possible, Azure Dragon wanted to give it a shot. Since the BOSS was already terribly weakened, who knows, maybe it won''t be able to hide itself as good as they thought.

    ck Tempest made his selections quickly before choosing a direction and leaving with his men. Yukino was a bit unwilling to go as she felt that the face behind that cloak was quite familiar. Her curiosity could also be exined as her wondering what the face of the man who had dared to go against the big guilds of ck Rock province looked like.

    It should be known that Sato''s ck cloak was already damaged after his fight with the Kobold King. The explosion from before had done an even better job at that but because Sato''s back had been facing them, ever since, they had yet to get a good look at his face. Since it was amand from her leader, Yukino had to leave with ck Tempest''s team and the direction they chose just happened to be in front of Sato. That means that the team would have to pass him if they wanted to proceed forward. From this, it could be seen that even ck Tempest also wanted to have a look at him too.

    Silver Wolf also made simr decisions to Azure Dragon, sending out 10 of his men alongside Iron Bear to give chase to the Kobold King. He had originally wanted to lead them personally, but seeing as Azure Dragon remained behind, he too made the same decision. While it was true that no one in Iron Bear''s team was on par with Yukino, they had enough items to offset the difference and even gain the advantage against her so he wasn''t worried.

    Just as ck Tempest and Iron Bear''s teams were close to passing Sato, he suddenly turned around and faced them all, his face revealed under the dim lighting of the cavern to their eyes.

    "It''s you!!

 Chapter 391 - 385 : Dropping Pretenses

    "It''s you!!!"

    Yukino raised her voice in shock.

    Even Chesces had his eyes widened as Kylian and the rest who had fought alongside Sato before were all shocked at his presence.

    "It''s been a while." Sato greeted calmly. Since his identity was revealed now, there was no use acting as if he was some mysterious character.

    "I never expected you to be this strong." Yukino said with a bit of dissatisfaction in her tone.

    Sato didn''t reply to her as he scanned the various teams.

    "Do you know who he is?" ck Tempest asked Yukino who seemed angry at Sato''s silence.

    "Yeah. We could be said to be formerrade-in-arms. We fought alongside each other during the goblin raid, together with Kylian, Chesces, and the rest. Back then, he wasn''t this strong." Yukino said with a bitter expression.

    "A ck horse?" Azure Dragon thought out loud. Yukino didn''t lower her voice and she wasn''t too far from them so he easily overheard her.

    ''This is getting interesting.'' Silver Wolf thought.

    "Hey kid, what do you think about joining us? I mean joining my guild, Battle Wolves."

    "Silver!" Azure Dragon roared.

    "What? He only worked alongside your guild before but no one ever said he was a part of you guys. Now I want him in mine, why are you overreacting?" Silver Wolf smiled.

    From what both sides had already seen, Sato''s strength and level weren''t ordinary. Having him would be somewhat equivalent to having a ''king'' in their ranks, hence Silver Wolf didn''t hesitate to show his attitude.

    Even though Yukino had said they had once worked together before, anyone with a bit of sense would notice there was some dissatisfaction between the two. Sato had ignored her while she had an irritated look on her face. This didn''t seem like much but it would affect Sato''s choice for a guild; at least, Emperor''s Might was out of the question.

    As for why Silver Wolf thought that Sato was ''guildless'', it was simply because someone with a strong enough backing wouldn''t need to hide his face. This meant that either Sato''s guild was a low-rank one or that he didn''t have a guild and was probably in a small club or party. Comparing that to a top rank 1st tier guild that dares to go head-to-head with a super guild''s branch, that was nothing. The chances would even get higher considering that Sato seemed to have a bit of beef against them.

    With Sato''s help, Silver Wolf wouldn''t need to use his ultimate trump card and they could take on Emperor''s Might right here without suffering a disadvantage. They might even be able to suppress them. Azure Dragon knew this and that was why he had barked at Silver Wolf.

    "What happened to taking him down together? He almost ruined our raid." Azure Dragon said seriously, almost as if he was barking.

    "Stop making things sound so serious." Silver Wolf waved him off.

    "The Kobold King isn''t dead and we should also thank him for weakening it, turning it into a simple kill. At the very least, we should thank him for that."

    While these were the words that came out from his mouth, deep within, Silver Wolf was sneering at Azure Dragon.

    ''Trying to antagonize him. Not with me.''

    Azure Dragon knew that since he couldn''t get Sato on his side and that would end up tipping the current power structure, he decided to make Sato more cautious against the opposing side. This was the utter replication of the phrase ''If I can''t have him, no one can''.

    "Are you all done?" Sato suddenly said.

    "Huh?" Both sides nced at him with confused expressions.

    "If you are then let''s get this over with. I''m tired of listening to all these farts." Sato scratched the back of his head with his left hand, which still happened to wield [Drakken].

    "Huh? Kid, what do you mean?" Silver Wolf asked, still bewildered about what was happening here.

    "Want me to spell it out for you?" Sato looked him in the eye.

    "I''m tired of listening to your farts."

    "Why you...!!!"

    Before Silver Wolf could finish his words, Sato had already made his move on them. In a sh, he has appeared beside Iron Bear.

    Closing an eye to the fact that they were trying to make peace with him now, Sato couldn''t ignore the fact that they had tried to kill him just a few seconds ago. If not for the Kobold King''s sudden disappearance, they wouldn''t have paused till his corpse disintegrated to starlight. As a result, his first target was the team led by Iron Bear, which, though wasn''t the closest to him, was the one that has offended him the most as well as the weakest of them all.

    "Stop him!" Iron Bear roared as he watched Sato''s silhouette close in on him.

    "[Block]!"

    Iron Bear steadied his shield before himself as he prepared to meet Sato''s attack head-on. He knew that Sato was quite strong and possibly even stronger than him since he had shed head-to-head with the Kobold King.

    As a [Swordsman], Sato''s attribute points would mostly be focused on [Strength], [Agility], and [Dexterity], therefore trying to take on Sato directly would be foolish. The best move would e to hold him down while the others converge and surround him, and that was exactly what Iron Bear wanted to do; tank the first attack and give the others more time to react.

    Sadly, Iron Bear underestimated the [Strength] difference between him and Sato, and this mistake cost him.

    *Bang*

    When Sato''s sword came in contact with Iron Bear''s shield, the sound produced from the collision wasn''t like that of two metals nging. It was more like a thin metal sheet being smashed in the middle by a 30 pound(13.6 kg) steel hammer.

    The shield dented at the point of collision as Iron Bear''s arms behind it felt burdened by the force. A vibrating force passed through the shield, wreaking havoc in his arms before going into his body and shaking his organs.

    "Puah." Iron Bear puked out blood instantly as his body was shot into the air due to the abrupt force from the impact from the collision.

    *Boom*

    Like a streaming meteor, Iron Bear flew through the air before crashing a couple metres away by the side of Silver Wolf, forming a small crater at the spot. His current status, unknown.

    "Im, Impossible." One of the yers that stood behind Iron Bear muttered with disbelief.

    "That was an Upper-tier Mortal Rank shield! A yer shouldn''t be this strong! You''re a bug!" The yer yelled in fear.

    Sato didn''t bother to reply to thement as he brandished [Drakken] at the yer. Being at close range, the advantage of his superior [Dexterity] was easily noticeable as the sword had already made 3 shes on the yer before he had noticed anything.

    "He''s a bug. Run!"

 Chapter 392 - 386 : One Against Many

    They say that real men fear nothing, or rather, true warriors are unafraid of death nor a difficult opponent. Even when faced with an opponent stronger than themselves, they tend to persevere to the best they can. They could rush head-on against a dozen men or even a hundred men. A battle troupe with a 100% victory rate was not enough to even shake their will.

    However, there are two things that such people fear most in a fight. The first were opponents with mysterious or bizarre fighting methods. The second is an exceedingly overwhelming opponent that makes them see no chance of victory; a death god or the reaper''s beloved and that take their lives with the ease a farmer uses to pluck the weeds from the farnd. Against anyone that falls under either of these categories, the so-called ''real men'' or ''true warriors'' are incapable of putting up any form of resistance. And for the Howling Wolf Battalion present on the 10th floor, Sato was a foe that fell under the second category; an overwhelmingly powerful individual.

    Against his de, no one was able to take more than two hits. Usually, the first was to disassemble one''s defense and the second would be the killing blow but a majority of the time, most of them fell at the first strike. Having either their weapon tossed aside or their bodies flying through the air like birds on steroids. What made this that impressive was the fact that these yers weren''t your everyday gamers or some noob rank yer; they were Experts who could easily have a high-ranking position in any guild below a super guild. Even in a super guild, they would still be respected and treated with utmost sincerity in the group. Yet, an entire formation made up of such yers was being wrecked apart by Sato in seconds.

    "Stand your ground!" Silver Wolf yelled to regain control of his team.

    "Work with me here or we''re both going to suffer." He said to Azure Dragon threateningly.

    "Why so anxious? Have your men hold him down while mine deliver the finishing strike." Azure Dragon nonchntly replied.

    Obviously, he wasn''t so foolish as to immediately join the battle. No matter what, he would rather have the Howling Wolf Battalion deplete Sato''s stamina before acting. Also, as a mage, he was able to sense that Sato''s current strength was due to a special skill of sorts.

    ''It''s probably a berserk skill.'' Azure Dragon narrowed his eyes.

    He was right.

    The skill active was [Gratitude of Races], which Sato had originally intended to use and finish the Kobold King before it suddenly escaped. There were still about 7 seconds left on the clock after that so he had used it to take on the Howling Wolf Battalion.

    ''It''s like running on steroids. Once the time is up, he will be exhausted and weakened.'' Azure Dragon thought.

    Most berserk skills had the side-effect of putting the user in a state of weakness once the duration was over and Azure Dragon had presumed that Sato''s skill was the same. If he were to form a strategy on this basis and use it against another yer, Azure Dragon would most likely seed with his ns but against Sato, that was a dream. After all, Sato''s skill was [Gratitude of Races] which happened to be the current best existing berserk skill that not only had a lot of abilities and power-ups but had a long duration with no side-effects.

    "ck Tempest, move with your team and get past the. Find the Kobold King as quickly as possible." Azure Dragon ordered in the team chat.

    Now was the best time to make a move especially as Sato was too focused on Iron Bear''s team. Against him, Azure Dragon believed that with his strategy and unit, defeating Sato wouldn''t be an issue. Hence, there was no need for ck tempest''s team to remain behind. They might as well go on with their mission.

    "Alright, captain."

    ck Tempest then led his team forward, ignoring the battle happening just a few metres behind them.

    "Where do you think you''re going?" Sato abruptly turned behind and shed at the closest yer to him on their side.

    There was a distance of at least 9 metres between the two of them but Sato had easily closed that gap within a second. The target was a [Ranger] yer; a ss notable for their eyesight and recognition speed. In terms of reflexes and environmental awareness, they were roughly on par with [Assassins] but even then, the yer never noticed when Sato had arrived behind him despite having his guard up for sneak attacks.

    -997 (???/??? ???)

    "The hell? kuack" [The Ranger] barely managed to say these words with a low voice before he was forced to vomit blood right before another sh shed with his head being severed off his neck.

    Everyone in the team was an Expert so that low voice from the deceased as well as the killing aura that pervaded amongst them was enough to put them all on alert.

    "You dare?!" ck Tempest roared. Even Battle Wolves who currently had some beef with them had yet to attack but a reckless solo yer actually did.

    "Attack!"

    A battle cry broke out as the yers took up a formation before converging in on Sato who was in the midst of them. Under the lead of ck tempest, the close-rangebatants dashed towards Sato while the long-range attackers made way for them and retreated to the back.

    "Let''s attack too."

    Iron Bear''s team, which was currently led by another yer, also joined in o the assault as they attacked from behind.

    In this manner, Sato was surrounded from all angles. Retreating wasn''t an option and he could only forge a path of blood if he wished to. However, Sato never nned on escaping.

    "Xue Yan, you guys find the Kobold king and get rid of it while I keep them busy." Sato whispered. It looked like he was talking to himself but Sato knew that ''they'' had gotten the message.

    "Okay." A female voice sounded in his ears.

    "Now, let the real ughtermence."

 Chapter 393 - 387 : Exposed

    "Huh?"

    [[ System notification :

    You have died. ]]

    *Burst*

    A sword ran through the body of a yer so quickly that the target hadn''t realised it. It was only when he saw the system notification that the pain from the blow finally reached his nervous system. However, it was already toote to react as the yer had exploded into starlight.

    "Haa!"

    A [Guardian] yer suddenly appeared from behind Sato and swung a war-hammer at him. Due to both the sudden arrival and the width of the weapon, Sato couldn''t dodge it in time neither he could react quickly to make a counterattack, so he simply ced his left hand in front of the war hammer, preventing himself from getting hit.

    *ng*

    ''Too strong...''

    Like a hammer hitting a thick metal block, only a reverberating ng was heard as Sato''s weapon remained steady like an iron wall. The [Guardian], on the other hand, felt some pains on his wrist which was a result of the impact from the encounter.

    ''How?'' The [Guardian] was shocked.

    Even though they were previously notified by Azure Dragon that the target''s level could be higher than theirs by at least 2 levels, most of the yers still had faith in themselves and their abilities. The target might be a level 11 or 12 yer, so what? It wasn''t like he was a Peak Expert or a Monster-ranked Expert. As long as they could catch him off guard or even swarm him with their tactics and coordination, he will be as good as dead. However, despite catching Sato off guard, the [Guardian] wasn''t able to cause any damage and had even injured himself in the process.

    3 levels equated to a difference of 15 attributes points. Considering that, unlike most sses, the [Swordsman] ss had to focus on either 3 attributes; [Strength],[Dexterity], and [Agility], or even 4 or 5 with the additional main attributes being [Endurance] and [Vitality], since they yed important roles at close range. It was this attribute allocation issue that made the [Swordsman] ss one of the hardest basic sses to y. With the 15 attributes points, unless the yer was a total idiot, presumably, only 5 would go to [Strength] and the remaining 10 would be distributed across the other 4 main attributes.

    The [Guardian] ss, unlike the [Swordsman], had to only focus on [Endurance], [Strength], and [Vitality]. So it was obvious that their [Strength] was generally higher than other yers in the same level. Going by this thought, the difference between a basic level 11 [Swordsman] and a level 8 [Guardian] in terms of [Strength] should be just 3 points or so.

    A 3 point difference doesn''t equate to overwhelming suppression so it didn''t make sense how the [Guardian] was easily losing out. The only exnation was the additional attribute points gained from a piece of equipment or weapon. This meant that Sato''s equipment and weapon were well ahead of that the [Guardian]''s in terms of quality and maybe even quantity. Considering that Sato wielded two swords, it was understandable that the [Strength] difference would increase but this made Sato even more deadly.

    Two high-quality swords of at least Upper-tier Mortal rank rating, a difference of 3-5 points in [Strength], and finally, reaction speed that made it almost impossible tond hit on him. All these meant that defeating Sato wasn''t something that would be achieved without a lot of sacrifices, and even then, they might not seed.

    ''Monster.'' The [Guardian] couldn''t helpmenting in his head.

    Sato pushed the war-hammer away, throwing the [Guardian] off guard and hacking at the defenseless yer.

    "Pin!"

    ck Tempest, Yukino, and one other [Swordsman] had surrounded Sato on all sides and aimed their swords at him.

    ording to the original battle n, the [Guardian] yer was supposed to force Sato off bnce with his attack while the other threeunch an ambush and take him down as quickly as possible. However, with the [Guardian] failing at that, they decided to simply attack at that moment.

    2 Expert yers and one peak Expert had all targeted Sato at a moment where he seemed slightly vulnerable. Even with the level difference, an assault of this calibre was capable of forcing a yer as strong as Sato to take a loss. However, this didn''t stand true for Sato.

    "[Shadow Movement]."

    As if he never existed, Sato vanished from the spot as the weapons of the trio stabbed through the empty space.

    "Where''s he?" Yukino hurriedly asked.

    Unbeknownst to them, Sato had appeared beside one of the yers from the Howling Wolf Battalion. Before the said yer could even react, two swords moved across his body, making an ''X'' and sending him back to his respawn point.

    ''8''

    Since Sato had dropped all pretenses with the two teams and intended to hold them back, he had ughtered at least 8 yers without fail. Even though the two teams had initiated the battle first -when they had interfered in his fight with the Kobold King-, not everyone one of them had attacked him. Hence, Sato''s marker has already turned red as the system identified him as a PKer(yer Killer).

    ''That was close.'' Sato thought.

    Because he was slightly upied by that [Guardian], taking on 3 simultaneous attacks from 3 different angles was almost impossible, even for Sato. Especially since one of the attackers was a Peak Expert and another was close to that rank, the best option at that point was to escape the area. Luckily, [Shadow Movement] was off cool-down otherwise Sato would have no other option than to face them. If that were to happen, while he wouldn''t die, Sato would surely suffer a loss and if the trio worked well enough, they might even force him to stand on the receiving end.

    "I get it!" One of the yers at the backline, right beside Silver Wolf, suddenly yelled.

    "I get why he isn''t running away even though he can."

    While the teams led by ck Tempest and the Iron Bear (formerly) handled Sato, the ones behind assisted them from a safe distance. As the battle had gone on, they began to realise that Sato might be stronger than they has imagined. Even so, against the two guilds, his death was inevitable especially if they were to use their trump cards. Being this strong, Sato should have realised this fact but he still remained behind. This startled Azure Dragon and Chesces just a bit and they began to wonder why he didn''t do so?

    The first conjecture they came up with was that Sato was angered by their interference and decided to retaliate a bit. The second was that he was hired by another guild or party to weaken their strength.

    The third idea was that he had decided to weaken their teams to reduce the chances of them chasing after him or resuming the raid on the Kobold King. This would increase Sato''s chances of sesster on since the only possible opponents were not up to the task any longer.

    The second conjecture was the least possible as they had already confirmed that Sato didn''t belong to any guild and was possibly a solo yer or a party yer. Therefore, the first and the third options were most likely especially the first one.

    However, the [Ranger] who was previously a part of the scouting team led by Var had suddenly recalled that Sato wasn''t the only one here.. Add that with the fact that he remained behind while the Kobold King had already escaped, he instantly reached a certain spection.

 Chapter 394 - 388 : One Minute

    "He has other teammates outside. I think he''s holding us back while they take on the Kobold King!"

    The [Ranger] who survived Sato''s previous assault eximed.

    "!!!" Azure dragon widened his eyes at those words.

    While their previous spections sounded reasonable, they weren''t fearful of them. It was only the words of the [Ranger] that had managed to ignite a bit of trepidation in their hearts.

    ''If that''s true, then...''

    "Yukino, Griffin, Ore, Kylian, ignore him and look for the BOSS. All [Assassins] and mages, work with each other and try and pin him down even for a second. The rest of you, make use of that time and use your greatest attacks on him. Chesces, get your a** into that battle and help them! Use all items on hand and end that b*stard!" Azure Dragon shouted his orders with an anxious tone.

    Yukino hesitated a bit before she spoke up.

    "But-"

    "But nothing! Get going, now!" Azure Dragon cut her off.

    Silver Wolf also gave out simr orders as Azure Dragon but he sent only 3 yers to escort the other 4. The reason was simple; a mere team of 4 yers wouldn''t be able to handle the defeated Kobold King without any additional help. There was also the unknown team from Sato''s side who would definitely interfere in the fight. From just this, Silver Wolf realised that the team Azure Dragon had sent out wasn''t to take down the Kobold King but to interfere in the ''outsiders'' battle. Of the 3 yers he sent, one was the only [Druid] in his team while the other two were a [Berserker] and an [Elementalist] respectively. Excluding himself, the [Ranger], and 3 others, these were thest surviving yers of his team since Sato had already killed off 7 out of the 14 men he came with.

    ''They''ve finally realised it.'' While Sato didn''t believe that they would discover his true intentions, he had still prepared for it.

    ''This would be tricky now. Switch.''

    [[System notification :

    Title [Savior of Races] has been removed.

    Title [The Precursor] has been equipped. ]]

    With the duration of [Gratitude of Races] being passed a while ago and the skill currently under cool-down, Sato decided to trade it [The Precursor]. While the title''s effects were ineffective in group battles, as long as he could iste himself with a single opponent, defeating them would be even faster. However, that would be difficult to achieve and so to some, this title could be regarded as useless but Sato decided to retain it just in case it was needed.

    "He''sing for us." Kylian reported with a mixed tone.

    He never thought he would have lived to see the day where he had to run from an opponent who was not a peak Expert nor part of any rival guild but had also fought alongside him before.

    "He''s a haughty b*stard." Ore snorted.

    "Ignore him, the rest would hold him back." Yukino said.

    While it was true that she wanted to face off against Sato, the guild came first and the guild leader''s orders were the same as the will of the guild.

    Of the 8 yers Sato had killed, only 1 was from Emperor''s Might. While Sato had indeed traded blows with the others, he avoided killing them unless necessary, only setting his target to those of the 1st tier guild. This was because it was much easier for him to handle the fury of a 1st tier guild than that of a super guild even if it were just a branch. However, that didn''t mean that he would let them keep harassing him continuously. In the end, every human had their limits.

    More than 10 yers surrounded Sato in a bid to hold him back and prevent him from chasing after the others. Though they knew that they were no match for Sato, they only had to hold him back for a while as the others escaped.

    "This is your end." Monolith, a [Guardian] yer who was also the second highest-rated MT in the team, said.

    "Sato, we''ve spotted him. Just give us a minute and we''ll be done." Fudo''s voice sounded in his ears.

    Even though he was in an intense battle, Sato had set all audio messages from the team chat on auto-y. This way, he wouldn''t miss out on any important information.

    From Fudo''s message, two details were could be interpreted. First of all, he alongside the other 3 has caught up with Xue Yan and Seiichi. As for the second detail, it wasid out in full in the message.

    "1 minute. No problem." Sato said.

    The yers surrounding him heard his words but they were confused. Before any one of them could think up a meaning, Sato had already made his move.

    [Linear Strike]

    Sato chose a target in front of him and thrust his sword immediately at the yer. With his already superior attacking speed and movement speed, the yer couldn''t react to Sato''s attacks and got stabbed in the chest.

    -1230 (???/??? ???)

    Sato had targeted an [Assassin] as that was the only ss that might be able to give him a headache considering that their reflexes were naturally above that of the other sses. Also, the ss'' outfit was leather armour which Sato could easily pierce through by making use of either of his swords.

    ''Too fast'' were the only words that went through the assassin''s mind as he felt to the sword.

    ''Another one.'' Azure Dragon frowned.

    He had noticed that Sato took down their yers in either one or two moves. He would only use a third one against MTs or yers that were lucky enough to live through the second strike.

    "[Entangling Vines]."

    The yers Sato faced off against weren''t average yers but veterans and experts who had experienced several fights already. Their reaction speed and decision-making abilities were something regr yers couldn''tpare with. Hence, while Sato had the strength to ughter them like mobs, that wasn''t necessarily true.

    The [Druid] who stood on standby was able to react quickly to Sato''s assault on the [Assassin]. This was because the yers were already prepared for it and also, this certain character had an innate rapid response speedpared to regr people. In other words, his reflexes, in reality, were faster than others. Since IR tried to incorporate every part of a yer into the game world, the [Druid]''s quirk also apanied him.

    *Rustle* *Rustle*

    Dark green vines sprung up from the ground and entangled themselves around Sato. They had upied a small area around him making it difficult to dodge them. Even though Sato was a level 15 yer, if he got caught by those vines it would still take him a while to get rid of them. And the time he would spend doing that would be more than enough for the 10+ yers to attack him.

    [Astral de]

    Sato used thest [Astral de] on his sword to slice apart the vines in front of him.

    "Ah!"

    -700

    -678

    -879

    The remaining energy in the crescent de sped forth and hacked at 3 yers. While it wasn''t enough to send them to their respawn point, it still brought their HP to the red zone.

    "Damn it." The [Druid] who attacked earlier cursed.

    "Stop wasting your energy and use the items." Chesces yelled as he tookmand from the front lines.

    Azure Dragon had sent him to control the yers from up close but in reality, Chesces knew that this was an effort to burden him with responsibilities. Supposing they were to fail in defeating Sato and eliminating the Kobold King, as one of themanders of a unit, Chesces would have to share the me with Azure Dragon. So to avoid that, Chesces had to do a good job and seed with his mission even though he was a bit unwilling to attack Sato.

    "I apologize for this but as you''re currently our enemy, I have no choice but to do this." Chesces said.

    As they had both fought alongside each other before, Chesces had gotten a hint of Sato''s personality which he approved of. Therefore, despite standing on opposite sides, he still treated Sato with respect.

    "Mages, cast the fort!"

    The mages who all stood at the back lines each took out a scroll that they hurriedly unfurled. Before Sato could try and guess at what they were nning, the scrolls suddenly lit up with blue mes and burnt to ashes within a second. Following that, a blue barrier was erected from the standpoints of the mages. As the mages had all surrounded them, the barrier took on a hemispherical form, encasing Sato, Chesces, and all the other members of Emperor''s Might and Howling Wolf Battalion who stood at the front lines. This excluded Azure Dragon, Silver Wolf, the [Ranger] from before, as well as another yer. In summary, there were at least 16 yers stuck alongside Sato and they were all his opponents.

    [[ System notification :

    Pressure Barrier has been activated.

    yer will experience a special pressure that decreases movement speed and attacking speed. Attack power will also be affected.

    -30% to movement speed.

    -15% to Attack Power. ]]

    Barriers weren''t a new thing to IR but this barrier was one that mainly focused on a target''s secondary attributes. The cost of ignoring the Main attributes was that the effects on one''s secondary attributes were severe. The pressure barrier also has a special feature that enabled it to ignore allows and only targets foes. Who was an ally and who was the foe would be identified by the mages who operated it from the outside.

    At least 5 mages were needed to operate the barrier and their mana was constantly fed to it to operate it. The meaning of this was simple, to escape the barrier, one would have to deplete the mana of the mages if theycked overwhelming strength to shatter it all at once. This was because by relying on the mages'' mana, the barrier would be able to tank average damage and could even heal itself of minor fissures.

    "Trident formation." Chesces ordered.

    The yers in the team then followed their proper training and organised themselves in the appropriate formation. The speed at which they went about this was incredible as within 2 seconds, the formation waspleted.

    Chesces smiled as he nced at the stunned Sato.

    "From here on out, you can start counting down to your death."

 Chapter 395 - 389 : One Minute 2

    40 seconds was left on the clock as Sato was surrounded in 3 different directions by at least 15 yers. The three different groups were made up of yers lined up in front of each other with the MTs taking the front. Behind them were [Assassins] followed by the [Berserkers] or [Swordsmen] with the ranged troop taking the tail.

    The Trident formation was one of the raid formations designed by the strategists of Emperor''s Might to contend against dungeon BOSSES. While it was developed for monsters, the formation could be adapted to be used against individual yers too. It was this very adaptation that the yers had used.

    "Attack."

    Chesces ordered from the back.

    The yers then dashed towards Sato with the MTs taking the lead. The close-range damage dealers followed up close while the ranged attackers had already made their move. There were only two [Rangers] in the squad whereas the attack-type mages where all keeping the pressure barrier active. Since they werecking range output, Chesces had already notified the Howling Wolf Battalion to work in concert with his team. Apart from that, Chesces had already taken out another scroll and began reading the incantations for it. Since the go-ahead to make use of all their items was given, he didn''t n on holding back lest he loses due to his underestimation of Sato.

    "You think this is enough?" Sato lightly said.

    Following that, he moved his feet rapidly as he appeared beside on of the MTs. His target was Monolith, the second best MT in the guild right after Griffin.

    Sato knew that with the barrier on, there was no way he would be able to catch up to Yukino''s team any time soon. And since Xue Yan and the others only needed a minute, Yukino wouldn''t be able to catch up to them either. Hence, rather than go after them, Sato decided it was best to weaken these guys. Since he had already be enemies with them, it was best to weaken their forces a bit to avoid harming the others.

    ''How?'' Monolith widened his eyes in shock.

    The pressure barrier was already active but Sato was still faster than he was. It was almost as if the barrier was ineffective on him.

    ''But how?'' Monolith questioned his mind but before he could get an answer, Sato had already brought down his right sword.

    Sato''s speed wasn''t something Monolith could handle and that remained true even now.

    Monolith barely had enough time to lift his shield when the [Astral de] made its mark on him.

    -473 (???/??? ???)

    A rough mark was made on his chest te as Monolith lost almost a third of his HP in that one attack.

    "How is he moving so quickly?" The others finally noticed the anamly but it was already toote.

    It wasn''t that the pressure barrier didn''t affect Sato but its effects were just too weak on him. The group had prepared an item that would work against a level 10 BOSS. The problem though was that Sato was already beyond that level. As such, the effects of the pressure barrier wasn''t enough to cause any harm to Sato. While it did indeed reduce his speed, that was only by 1% or so. Such a change was miniscule and would barely affect Sato''s operations. Sadly for them, none of them were aware of this.

    Afternding the first hit, Sato didn''t relent as be followed up with another attack. It was just a simple sh like the other but Sato had packed the entirety of his strength into it. As such, Monolith was sent flying back.

    "Die!"

    Even though the yers were shocked, none of them paused in their footsteps and they believed that that would give their opponent some breathing space.

    Two [Assassins] lunged at Sato from the side while a [Berserker] confronted him up front. The [Rangers] behind had also taken aim at him to interfere with his movements while the [Druids] were prepared to cast their healing spells and at the same time, aimed their CC(Crowd Control) spells [1] at the possible points Sato would try to dodge to. This meant that Sato was forced to face the three attacks from the close range attackers and also handle the airborne assault from the [Rangers] without dodging.

    "Not enough."

    Sato swung [Drakken] at the arrows as the cool-down of [ck me sh] was off. A fiery arc of ck mes spewed from his sword and struck the arrows in mid-air.

    Because the arrows were shot in a straight line and thanks to Sato''s exquisite control, the ming ck crescent proceeded towards the direction of the 2 [Rangers] that has taken aim at him. Sato''s [Dexterity] was unmatched in this battle so the speed of most of his attacks has already began to rival that of a mini BOSS; it wasn''t something the yers here couldpare to. Hence, the ck crescent had moved so swiftly that the [Rangers] were only able to respond just when it was 5 metres away from them. Even from this distance, there were still able to feel the terrifying heat from the sh.

    Dodge.

    Without anyone needing to tell them, the [Rangers] abandoned their posts and ran for their lives as the ck crescentnded on their original spot, making a terrifying ck mark in the floor as the mes slowly began to dissipate while burning the ground.

    On the other hand, the [Berserker] as well as the two [Assassins] were already within reach.

    Ares took the back while Tawaki attacked from Sato''s right side. From his fighting style, Tawaki had realised that Sato was right handed despite him wielding two swords. Though it was way logical to attack from the weaker side, he nned to keep Sato''s strong hand upied for the [Berserker] to make his move.

    [Shadow Strike]

    Tawaki thrust his dagger straight towards Sato''s right lung, intending to cripple him for a while or at least, keep him upied. He had also used another skill, [Kill], which increased his attack power and damage for the next attack by 40%. There was also an additional bleeding effect that would activate if the hit is clean.

    With [Shadow Strike]''s 30% increase to damaging ability and [Kill]''s 40% increase, the thrust performed by Tawaki was capable of even injuring a level 11 Defence-type Elite rank monster without fail. Therefore, even if Sato was confident in his ability, it would be best not to tank this hit with his body.

    There was also Ares who had attacked from behind using the same [Shadow Strike] boost but with [Backstab] to support it. That was a 30% increase to damage and another 20% increase to the new value.

    As for the [Berserker] who came from the front, he used [Charge] to close the distance very quickly and brought down his greatsword with the skill [Cleave].

    No matter how one looked at it, it would be very difficult for Sato to dodge the three attacks. Even if he could, the [Druids] on standby would use their CC spells on him and the three could attack once more, but this time, with a much high certainty ofnding a clean hit.

    Stuck in a situation that looked bad for him, Sato wasn''t one bit anxious. Instead he was a bit thrilled at his dire situation. His blood boiled as Sato became excited.

    ''Good. Show me what you can do!''

 Chapter 396 - 390 : One Minute 3

    "Ha!" The [Berserker] roared as he brought down his sword.

    Just as the [Berserker] was only a few steps away from Sato, Tawaki and Ares slowed done by just a tiny bit, making the [Berserker] be the lead attacker as well as the one who would reach Sato first.

    ''Hmm?''

    Sato noticed it and immediately guessed what was going on.

    The [Berserker] had used [Charge] to catch up to him and a special effect of the skill was to stun the target with the next move the user would perform. Once stunned, the [Assassins] would be able tond a clear hit. However, if Sato were to turn his attention towards the [Berserker], he would suffer an attack from either of the two [Assassins] or maybe even both.

    ''I''ll take you then.''

    Sato thrust his de towards the [Berserker] as he wanted to eliminate him immediately.

    Compared to getting attacked by 2 [Assassins], suffering a [Stun] effect from the [Berserker]''s attack was worse. If that were to happen, he would end uping into contact with loads of attacks from the others.

    -589 (???/??? ???)

    Like a hot knife through butter, [Drakken] pierced through the Mid-tier Mortal rank armour the [Berserker] wore, before lodging itself into his chest. Despite that, the [Berserker] only crunched his face in pain as he went ahead to swing his great-sword.

    Among all the sses, it was the [Berserker] that had the highest level of pain endurance. True to the ss'' name, yers who selected the ss would have a higher pain tolerance than others and also have their pain limiter''s bottom limit at 20% rather than the usual 50%-30%. Apart from that, their attack speed would also slightly increase as their HP did as this was one of the passive effects and advantages of the ss.

    "Hehe." The [Berserker] grinned as his sword came swinging down at Sato.

    "Too slow." Sato struck out with his right hand as the [Astral de] shed with the sword, sending it to the side.

    The assassin duo had already arrived right beside Sato with one behind him and the other by his right. With his left sword stuck in the [Berserker] and his right sword having blocked the attack, Sato looked to be at a disadvantage at this very moment.

    "Die!" The duo roared.

    Knowing that he couldn''t dodge both attacks, Sato tilted his body to the side to dodge the dagger from behind while he brought down the [Astral de] at Tawaki.

    Sato had decided to tank Tawaki''s attack since he was lower than Ares in terms of level. With the difference increased by one, Tawaki''s attacks would be even less effective than Ares'', despite having a muchrger increase in attack power.

    ''He chose me. As expected.'' Tawaki smirked.

    Despite seeing the swording at him, he didn''t pause in his actions as he stabbed his dagger right into Sato''s chest.

    -3 (???/??? ???) (AN: This is what Tawaki sees in rtion to Sato''s HP)

    Sadly, as part of IR''s level difference effect, Tawaki''s de wasn''t able to go deep as it only made its way barely an inch deep. But that was enough for him.

    ''[Strand]!''

    "!!!"

    Suddenly, Sato felt his control over his body slip, as all his movements and actions abruptly paused.

    *Shiik*

    -3 (???/??? ???)

    Ares took that opportunity to change the direction of his dagger as he stabbed Sato right in the chest from behind. He had aimed for his heart but as with Tawaki''s, Ares'' dagger didn''t go in too deep.

    "[Strand]!"

    [Strand] was actually a spell scroll Emperor''s Might had chanced upon during one of their explorations in a small cavern within ck Grill''s Cave. It was located in a Rare-Steel rank chest. Only 5 of the scrolls were uncovered and they had the ability to stun a target for one second so long as the target was under level 20. It was one of the selected items to be used against the Kobold King in the raid but since Sato''s priority level had increased, the duo was made to use it against him.

    As for the reason why Sato was to be stunned, it lied in Chesces.

    "...triekos greftiamorimos. Haltfia marikos des vielga satigrey. [Centennial One Shot]."[1]

    [[ System notification :

    You have received a temporary blessing from the Silver God''s relic.

    For one attack, all attributes are raised to the one rank above the user up to Practitioner rank, and level increased by 5, up to level 20.

    Cool-down : 5 days. ]]

    Suddenly, Chesces'' body lit up in silver mes as his aura began to rise rapidly. Like an angel descending from the heavens, Chesces was glowing in silver-colored light as he radiated an aura of sacredness alongside destruction and battle intent.

    Chesces then grasped his sword tightly with one hand and before anyone knew it, he kicked the floor and flew straight at Sato. The speed at which he moved was almost like a bullet as he was too fast for anyone to notice nor catch up to.

    Within a second, Chesces had appeared right in front of Sato and stabbed his sword at him.

    The sword, covered in silver sacred light, made contact and released a blinding light as well as a loud explosion.

    *Boom*

    An explosion urred at the spot Sato and Chesces stood at as Tawaki, Ares, and the [Berserker] left the site in a hurry, in fear of getting caught in the st.

    "Is it over?" The [Ranger] who had survived Sato''s rampage from before, asked with an anxious expression.

    There was dust all up in the air, acting as a smokescreen that prevented the result from being seen so the [Ranger] couldn''t help but ask. He was anxious because of the attack performed by Chesces couldn''t stop Sato, then nothing could.

    While he wasn''t close, he still felt the energy that Chesces had radiated at that moment. It made him feel weak in his knees and the [Ranger] didn''t doubt that if he was the target of that attack, he would die over 10 times just to that one move.

    "How would I know? You''re a [Ranger] so shouldn''t your sight be better than mine?" Silver Wolf backfired.

    He was feeling shocked, hopeful, and fearful all at the same time. Shocked at the strength Chesces had disyed, hopeful that Sato would fall under it and fearful of what Emperor''s Might still have hidden. Just the power they had disyed in this battle was enough to show that they were worthy enough to contend with the Kobold King and Silver Wolf knew that they had more trump cards hidden.

    ''We need to be more cautious about these guys.''

    "Ah...I can''t see it." The [Ranger] awkwardly replied Silver Wolf''s retort.

    "Im, impossible!"

    A cry attracted the two''s attention.

    "What happened?"

 Chapter 397 - 391 : Han Descends

    "Im, impossible!"

    "What happened?" Silver Wolf asked as he turned his head towards the point of collision between Sato and Chesces.

    "How, howe?"

    At the spot where the two min characters of the show had shed, Chesces was the only one left standing as Sato had flown 10 metres back. Even for him, the strength of that attack was something difficult to handle.

    "He, he blocked it?" The [Ranger] was astonished.

    *Clink*

    A piece of metal chipped away from the [Astral de] and fell to the ground. Following the metal chip was a sad feeling that engulfed Sato temporarily.

    Despite moving at an insane speed, in the end, Chesces was too slow as at thest few moments, the [Stun] effect was already over and Sato was able to move. He had managed to react quickly and ce [Astral de] in front of the attack, saving himself from that cmity. However, as a result of that, [Astral de] had been damaged.

    "You''re strong; very strong. The trump card we had prepared for the Kobold King was only able to chip off your sword." Chesces said with amazement.

    "And your innate reaction speed, it''s at least on par with a false King''s. You''re definitely not a nobody. Who exactly are you?" Chesces narrowed his eyes and stared at Sato in the face, trying to recall any famous yer or martial artist that looked like him.

    [Centennial One Shot] was an extremely powerful buff spell sealed within a scroll that could raise the rank of a yer by one, up till the Practitioner rank, and increase their current level by 5, up till level 20. The rank part might seem confusing but the advantage was incredible; even better than the 5 level increase.

    It should be known that all yers are currently within the Beginner rank whereas Sato was in the Apprentice rank after getting past level 10. Just with that alone, his HP had increased to surpass all yers in existence. Even a few of his attributes had new multipliers making him much stronger than yers under level 10 even if they both had the same attribute points. From this alone, one can see the advantage of ranks.

    The Practitioner rank was one step ahead of Sato''s Apprentice rank so that meant that the bonuses received were even more than his. Adding that to the 5 levels worth of attribute points, [Centennial One Shot] was the number 1 buff spell discovered so far. It even put Sato''s skill, [Gratitude of Races], to shame.

    It was only by luck that Chesces had chanced upon this skill in an NPC store in town. It was a wandering merchant who looked weird and sneaky. The NPC had opened a stall and began selling strange goods at devilishly cheap and extremely expensive prices, depending on the good. Because of that, most yers thought that it was a scam and didn''t patronize the character. Some, however, decided to try their luck believing that it was like a mystery box kind of event that happened once in a while. However, most of them ended up buying crappy and useless items or somemon goods like a tree branch or some firewood. If not for the anti-fight rule in ce, some yers might have attacked the NPC in anger.

    It was only by luck that Chesces had purchased [Centennial One Shot] and he kept it to himself, hoping to use it to make an impressive achievement in the game. This was because rather than using it now, using it at level 15 was much wiser and he would be able to use the spell to its fullest. Sadly, Chesces had no choice but to use it in hopes of defeating Sato, but who knew that he would have failed in the end. Sato had somehow managed to block that attack, and though he still suffered a loss, he wasn''t dead.

    ''In the end, just who is he?''

    Sato didn''t reply Chesces but nced at the damaged part of his sword. Cracks were slowly spreading as more chips began to slowly fall off the de. Swordsmen(not the game ss) generally developed a rtionship with their swords as time passes on. [Astral de] was the first powerful sword Sato had gotten since the start of the game and it had apanied him in quite a few adventures already. He had gotten it as the reward for ying Sygrart and it had apanied from then on.

    Facing the Kobolds and the [Guardian Golems] for the very first time. Against the Kobold Chief, the [Nightmare Devil], and Blood King [Varg]; even in his loss against the Child of the Titan race, Blessed son of Heaven''s might, [Atrit], as well as his battle against the sealed fiend with [Drakken] and finally the Kobold King. [Astral de] had apanied him in many adventures and missions but it was never damaged in any of those, until now.

    "That was a really impressive skill there." Sato lifted his head as he faced Chesces and finally spoke up.

    "Sadly, it failed to finish me off. And that would be the end of you."

    "Captain, what do we do? He survived." The [Ranger] became anxious and asked Silver Wolf. Unlike the other yers in the team, he wasn''t a former military personnel but a militant[1]. He had seen Sato fight and he knew they stood no chance. However, he didn''t want to die just like that.

    ''I guess there''s no choice. I''ll have to use it then.'' Silver Wolf ignored the yer as he came to a decision.

    *Tap*

    Suddenly, a hand appeared on his shoulder with a pat.

    "Hmm?" Silver Wolf was shocked.

    He hadn''t sensed any presence close to him but somehow, someone had been able toe within reach and make physical contact with him despite his training. It should be known that Silver Wolf was a former soldier and also a false king. His senses were something average people couldn''tpare to. Even from 30 metres out, he would be able to feel an eye on him but he felt nothing until the hand touched him. That meant that the owner of the arm was definitely someone way above him in terms of strength.

    "Don''t use it. It''s not worth doing so on a yer." A voice sounded from behind him.

    Turning his head, Silver Wolf was greeted with the sight of a brutish-looking middle-aged man with a chiseled face. He had the aura of a war general but despite him being so close, Silver Wolf wasn''t able to notice it until now.

    "General Han." Silver Wolf greeted with a salute.

    "Dispense the formalities. This isn''t the military." Han Otoki waved him off.

    "As I was saying, you don''t need to use our trump cards on a yer. It''s just not worth it. We aren''t like those guys that just want to show off their prowess. We should keep our cards hidden."

    "Okay, sir. Silver Wolf nodded.

    "As for the kid¡­I will handle him myself."

 Chapter 398 - 392 : Sato Vs Han 1

    "Sadly, it failed to finish me off. And that would be the end of you."

    Sato told Chesces as he ced [Astral de] into his space ring and switched [Drakken] to his preferred hand.

    "Then you better hope that you''re right. Otherwise, you would be the one dying." Chesces lightly smiled.

    Even though he knew that Sato was much stronger than him, he only believed this was due to the difference in their levels. In a one-on-onebat with both sides being equal in terms of equipment and attributes, Chesces believed that he woulde out on top so he wasn''t bothered about this loss. Also, dying in the game wasn''t the same as dying in reality as he would stille back to life so Chesces didn''t feel much about it.

    "Hmm?" As Sato was about to attack Chesces, he felt an intimidating aura lock on to him.

    Moving his eyes towards the direction of the aura, Sato saw a middle-aged man with a slightly ferocious and arrogant expression looking down at him, both literally and figuratively as the spot the man stood on was a slightly elevatednd.

    ''Who is he?'' Sato couldn''t help but wonder. The aura the man exuded made Sato realise that he wasn''t an average joey and was much stronger than the average Expert. What was even more strange was the fact that his senses had alerted him of danger as soon as he nced at the man. This was despite Sato being more than 5 levels ahead of other yers.

    "Kid, your opponent is me." Han said as he slowly walked towards Sato.

    There was a distance of at least 100 metres between the duo but the speed at which Han walked was a bit tricky. It looked like he was walking but the distance he covered was simrly on par with someone running, or at least, hurriedly jogging. As a result, it only took him a few short seconds to enter the barrier and approach the duo.

    The pressure barrier prevented one from leaving but not from entering so Han didn''t face a challenge there. But it wasn''t like anyone would dare to stop him from doing so.

    "You can leave now." Han said to Chesces.

    "Why don''t we team up and take him down?" Chesces asked. He could guess that Han walked wasn''t an ordinary character however Sato overpowered everyone based on level difference. This was something that skill alone wasn''t enough to use and close the gap.

    Han ignored him and kept walking forward till he was just 2 metres away from Sato.

    Sato narrowed his eyes as he prepared to sh with the new individual. He could tell that the middle-aged man wasn''t an easy foe and even though he had confidence due to his level, Sato couldn''t understand while he still felt a bit uncertain regarding his opponent.

    "You''re definitely level 13 or higher, and seeing as you blocked that attack, you''re probably 14 or 15." Han spoke up as he gazed at Sato. While he did say this, Han was a bit skeptical. Even for him to reach his current level he had to go through a lot, so for one to reach level 14 or 15 so soon sounded ludicrous to him.

    Sato didn''t respond, neither did he disy any suspicious expression at Han''s guess.

    Being level 15 had quite a few advantages but there were also some disadvantages attached to it. If he grabbed too much attention, a lot of yers would begin toin to the developers that it was unfair for such an individual to exist. And while it is true that Sato reached this level by relying both on luck and his abilities, the other yers wouldn''t give a sh*t about that. If the developers were too pressured by the yers, they would end up nerfing Sato or at least, reduce his levelling speed via elongated missions or "coincidental" penalties. Therefore, even if someone were to urately guess his level, Sato wouldn''t show any reaction so as to avoid suspicion.

    "Whether you tell me or not doesn''t matter. I''m not like those weaklings who report just because they''re too weak. I myself, am also ahead of the others." Han said before activating his status disy to public view. However, he only showed some unnecessary information alongside his level.

    Sato nced atop him and then saw the information.

    [[ System interface :

    Name : General Han

    Race : Human

    Bloodline : Chosen Ones

    Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

    Level : 11

    ss (Job) : Berserker (Warrior) ]]

    ''Level 11?!'' Sato was surprised.

    It should be known that for he and Xue Yan to get ahead of the others, they had to encounter a very special mission which happened to be the Main Trials of the Caventry. For one to have such an experience, they didn''t just require strength and skill but also luck. Sato and Xue Yan were simply lucky that the tunnel they used to escape from the Kobold King before had led them to the Caventry''s site.

    Luck was a very special factor in life that couldn''t be seen or calcted however, it could influence an individual''s life to a very high degree. For Han to have gotten to level 11, he definitely had a lucky encounter that was just slightly beneath that of Sato and Xue Yan''s.

    ''Level 11.'' Azure Dragon grimaced.

    With such a character in their ranks who not only had the skill but also the strength, Battle Wolves would have an advantage over Emperor''s Might for the battle of ck Rock province.

    ''The only one with the ability to rival him is Yukino, but ignoring the level difference, she''s still a bit inexperienced and would lose even on an equal ying field.''

    While Azure Dragon was bothered by this reveal and had begun nning for the future, Chesces was regretting things a bit.

    ''If he has used [Centennial One Shot], this battle would have already been over.''

    "Let''s wrap this up quickly. ording to the treaty, I''m not supposed to interfere, but as you have affected the interests of both guilds, I think this would be a special exception. Right, little dragon?" Han said without turning back.

    "...yes, your majesty." Azure Dragon said with a sigh.

    "I can ignore this and will vouch for you if anyone brings it up so long as you only handle this b*stard and not the Kobold King."

    Since Han was level 11, he would have a much better chance against Sato aspared to the rest of them who were either level 8 or 9.

    "Good." Han nodded with a light smile.

    "Now," Han stared Sato in the eye.

    "How would you want to die?"

 Chapter 399 - 393 : Sato Vs Han 2

    "Now," Han stared Sato in the eye.

    "How would you want to die?"

    *Whistle*

    A gentle breeze blew across the space in between the duo as the both stared at the other with emotionless eyes. Both eyes crossed in this confrontation as the space between them slowly got heated.

    *ng*

    Suddenly, Sato ced his sword in front of himself and this was followed by a metallic reverberation as Han appeared right in front of him wit his broadsword hindered by [Drakken].

    "Good reflexes." Hanmented before he kicked at Sato with his right leg.

    Sato blocked with his left arm but he still felt a slight sting from taking the attack head-on and was even forced back by one step. Han then used that chance to lunge at him while brandishing his double-handed weapon once more.

    "Hmph."

    Sato hacked out with his full strength, intending to use his attributes advantage to mess up Han''s movements and disarm him. However, being a former general, Han had already taken note of all of his opponent''s moves and advantages. When he saw Sato swing his sword, Han felt a bit odd and managed to realise that the target was finally getting serious. Despite that, he didn''t draw back his sword.

    *ng*

    Once more, the two simr yet different weapons collided to produce a metallic ring that was a bit piercing to the ears. However, unlike what Sato had expected, Han was still standing firm right in front of him.

    "[Barrage]."

    Han immediately lifted and attacked again in a hurry. Sato was only barely to react after the sword was right before him.

    *ng*

    Like with the previous attacks, this one was a failed attempt once more as Sato had blocked the attack before it could cause any harm. However, Han had already drawn back his sword and prepared for another attack.

    *Bang*

    This time, the sound from the sh was a bit more explosive and Sato had felt his sword almost slip out from his grip right after shing with Han''s.

    ''It got heavier.'' Sato thought.

    He however, didn''t have much time to explore this idea of his as Han made his third consecutive attack.

    *Bang*

    Even though he was better prepared, Sato was still forced back 3 steps by the sh, almost to the point of losing his bnce and falling to the ground. Han had also moved in during this period and attacked once more, as if he was waiting for this.

    ''Not so fast.''

    Sato''s eyes narrowed as he hurriedly regained his calm and attacked his adversary. Like before, Han didn''t retreat but shed out with both sides, aiming his attack for the side of Sato''s de.

    *ng*

    ''Hmm?''

    Sato noticed that his attack seemed to be less effective than usual against Han. An attack that would send the opponent flying back even when blocked, would only force Han back by 2-3 step. Even if Han was level 11, there was still a 4 levels gap between them.

    [Linear Strike]

    Sato thrust his sword forward, seizing the opportunity where Han was forced back to make a decisive move.

    ''[Seven Wind Illusory sh].''

    Han shed out with his broadsword in a peculiar fashion seeming as if he was randomly swatting invisible mosquitoes in the air. But as Sato got closer, his senses alerted him as he suddenly cancelled his attack and also began hacking at the air.

    *ng*

    *ng*

    *ng*

    Despite the fact that he seemed to have attached thin air, Sato''s sword had made collisions with something in mid-air. That ''something'' was what his senses had alertred him off.

    ''Air des?'' Sato was a bit stunned.

    To be able to brandish his sword in a fashion that it wouldpress the air to form air des, one''s control and strength would have to be top-notch. When a yer crosses the level 10 threshold, their abilities improve; both attribute-wise and ss-wise. The innate advantages of a ss would see better improvements and would be made much stronger while their attributes would be more powerful. For a ss like the [Berserker], their strength advantage would be made more clear and they would be able to easily overpower an opponent of althe opposite ss even if both parties have the same number of allocated attribute points.

    However, the control required to form air des wasn''t something anyone could just have. Hence, there was one conclusion which was the attack was a skill.

    ''Upper-tier Mortal rank and not an ordinary one.'' Sato evaluated the broadsword in Han''s hands.

    Discerning the quality of the weapon might seem like a pointless act but it wasn''t so. Though there was already a pretty detailed ssification of weapons, a few differences still existed between them.

    For example, among the Upper-tier Mortal rank weapons, [Astral de] was at the top. Even though it was a level 9 weapon, it could evenpare with a slightly above-average Upper-tier Mortal rank level 10 weapon. Also, [Drakken] was at the peak of level 10 Low-tier Rare-Steel rank weapons with [Aoefir] standing alongside it. A piece of equipment like [Rackow''s Guard], which was the shield Emperor''s Might took after defeating Sygrart, was weaker than the above duo in quality despite still being a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank equipment just like them.

    This slight difference in quality would give quite a few details and information about the weapon or equipment in hand. Something at the quality of [Drakken] would have at least 2 active skills with one passive skill, and it would also boost at least 3 main attribute skills. As for an equipment on par with [Astral de], it would have at least 1 active skill and another passive skill while still enhancing 1 main attribute and 2 secondary attributes. As for an equipment on par with a level 10 Upper-tier Mortal rank -one of the higher quality- Sato guessed that it would be simr to that of [Astral de] but with 1 extra skill; most likely a passive one.

    Sato presumed that Han''s sword was something simr, therefore, the skill he has used now was one of the active skills, and there was still a possibility of the existence of another active skill. Knowing this would help him be on alert for a surprise attack.

    While it seems like so much time has passed, Sato actually processed all of this information within a second. He has already blocked Han''s attack but he was still moving towards him.

    "[Cleave]."

    The momentary respite that came about from Sato having to block the air des as enough for Han to regain his bnce and make a proper attack.

    As if he was pulling a heavy load, Han hauled his sword with both hands and hacked out in a horizontal fashion at Sato. A slight gale had formed from that move of his as Sato was forced to face both the breeze and the sword.

    [Passive skill : Gale-maker]

 Chapter 400 - 394 : Sato Vs Han 3

    [Passive skill : Gale-maker] [1]

    Invisible air des hid within the gale as they all moved as one following the trajectory of Han''s broadsword. Even though he couldn''t exactly see the des, Sato could sense their existence as he nced at the approaching sword.

    [Shadow Movement]

    Sato disappeared from the spot, appearing a couple of metres away and effectively dodging the wide range attack.

    *Boom*

    Han''s sword collided on the floor where Sato originally stood. Pebbles flew out from the area as fissures were made on the spot. The air des had made sh marks in a 3 metres wide area while Han''s broadsword was the main culprit for that explosive sound.

    ''It''s that skill again.'' Han frowned.

    While he didn''t participate with the others in the first subjugation round against Sato, Han had stood by and watched, keeping in ind all of Sato''s skills and attack patterns. He had seen when Sato had used [Shadow Movement] to dodge the joint assault of Yukino and the others but he still wasn''t able to figure out any counter to the skill. The only thing he managed to think of was that the skill definitely had a long cool-down so Sato couldn''t continuously use it. That was why he had forced him to do so using his wide range skill.

    Despite expecting Sato to use the skill, Han was previously hoping that Sato wouldn''t be able to escape its range but his hoped were all for naught.

    ''No matter. He''s done for.''

    Without any dy, Han lifted his broadsword once more and dashed towards Sato. This time however, he was surprisingly faster than before.

    [[ Hidden effect : Lightweight : Passive :

    Decreased air resistance and lighter body weight. Movement speed increase by 30%. ]]

    In exchange for their strength, [Berserkers] lost out in terms of speed whenparing them to [Swordsman], much less the [Assassins]. The broadsword Han held was a special Upper-tier Mortal rank weapon that was catered to solve this issue. It suited both [Guardians] and [Berserkers] as it would not only increase the damage of their attacks but also improve their movement speed.

    The hidden effect was unlocked when Han had stumbled upon a wandering [Appraiser] around the vicinities of Letion ins, which was a high level map. Originally, Han was unaware of the NPC''s role as an [Appraiser] and had only discovered this after the NPC offered a free service in exchange for Han aiding him in locating a special nt in the ins. Since he didn''t have to go in deep, Han had agreed and seeded, gaining the [Appraiser]''s help in unlocking a hidden feature of his broadsword.

    With this, Han''s sword had a total of 3 skills; 2 passive and 1 active skill. The active skill was [Seven Wind Illusory sh] while [Gale-maker] was one of the passives. As for thest skill, that was the hidden effect that increased his movement speed, [Lightweight]. It was quite contradictory for a broadsword to do so.

    Sato had just appeared elsewhere when he noticed Han speeding towards him. In his opinion, thest skill used by Han was an active skill with either a really long cool-down or long preparation, or maybe even both. Considering that he had already used it, Sato believed that he was safe from harm.

    He also considered the speed Han moved at and reached the conclusion that it was probably the effect of some skill. In that instant, Sato deduced the three skills as 2 actives and a single passive skill but he was just off by one. Nheless, the information was pretty helpful to him as Sato felt that he could now face Han upfront without much caution.

    *ng*

    The duo collided weapons once more and just like before, Han only moved 3 steps back.

    ''He''s shaving off the force from my blows.'' Sato thought.

    Logically, Sato''s [Strength] should be higher than Han''s thanks to the 4 level difference but this didn''t seem to be so during the battle. Han could still hold his ground a bit despite shing head-on with Sato. Therefore, Sato felt that there was a trick behind it. It was either that Han had a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank strength-type equipment somewhere or he was using some kind of technique to do so.

    As for the answer, Sato was quite right. In fact, Han used both methods to hold his own against Sato. He has a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank ne that increased both his [Endurance] and [Vitality] while he used a special martial arts technique that targeted certain points in an opponent''s attack to mitigate the impact upon collision. By doing this, Han was able to hold off quite better than the others as he faced Sato.

    [Chop]

    Sato decided to use a skill to force Han back but Han managed to dodge the attack by just a hair''s breadth. He then brandished his broadsword with both hands as if tried tond a hit on Sato.

    Sato reacted quickly enough by side-stepping as the broadsword cut through thin air. However, before he could take any further actions, Han attacked immediately, intent on not letting Sato have any breathing space.

    Each time Sato dodged, he would be greater by another de and whenever he blocked, a chain attack would follow by. Despite having the upper hand in terms of attribute points, Sato was surprisingly being suppressed by Han.

    "As yoo would expect from someone of the General''s capabilities." Silver Wolf said with passion.

    Azure Dragon however, was just frowning. From Han''s arrival to his reveal of his level as well as this battle, Azure Dragon realise that he had underestimated the ability of the man who held the title ''King of the Hill''. This was a future opponent of the guild and if he couldn''te up with some way to counter him, Emperor''s Might would lose ck Rock province to Battle Wolves and this would be a stain on Azure Dragon''s reputation.

    ''If he dies here though, it would affect him even if it''s just a bit.'' Azure Dragon thought as a strange glint shed in his eyes.

    In the end however, he didn''t go through with his insane n as the consequences would be too disastrous.

    ''If only this swordsman was strong enough.'' Azure Dragon nced at Sato with annoyance but he knew that Sato couldn''t be med. Han was a yer on an entirely different level. A task such as jumping level wasn''t something new to him.

    *ng*

    Sato managed to spot a chance to retaliate as he struck out with the full strength of his arms, sending Han back by more than 5 steps. At the same time, he also retreated, increasing the space between them.

    "If this goes on like this, you will die." Han suddenly said.

    It was strange that he had paused his attacks just to talk to Sato but Sato didn''t take this chance to attack either as he needed a breather.

    "You showed me some potential back when you were ganged up on. Where has that gone to? Don''t tell me that you''re holding back. Because if you are, I promise to make this a lot more worse for you." Han frowned.

    "Holding back? Could it be?" Chesces questioned with a low voice. He had also felt that there was something strange with Sato''s movements. Compared to the Sato he had fought alongside, the one before him looked like a yer that only relied on his attributes and external help; nothing like the Sato from before.

    "Who know?" Sato replied nonchntly with a question.

    Actually, Han was right; Sato was indeed holding back. The main reason to this was simply because he didn''t want to reveal too much. While they had seen his face, no one recognised who he truly was and Sato wanted things to remind that way. Chesces might not but the chances that Han would recognise him was quite high. Hence, Sato had to hold off on using any martial arts technique and only relied on his reflexes and attributes to hold Han back. However, against the King of the Hill, that would only make killing him harder and not impossible. If the battle were to continue like this, Han would eventually be victorious if he goes all out.

    "I see. So, you have chosen death? I''m really disappointed. I was expecting a good fight but it seems you''re not interested. Nheless, you shall die." Han grabbed his sword with one hand.

    Sato was just to react when a voice sounded in his head.

    "Sato, we''re done here."

 Chapter 401 - 396 : Retreat

    (AN : An error had urred here before. Kindly go to the next chapter to the read the continuation of the previous, then return here. Format : Chapter 394, 396, 395. The arrangement was messed up.)

    Just like Chesces, Azure Dragon and Han had thought, it only took 10 seconds for Sato to create a 200 metres gap between himself and his pursuers. The yers finally realised that they wouldn''t be able to catch up to him even if they used some special items to boost their speed. Slowly, some of them began to give up and the rest began to follow suit.

    At the same time,

    [[ World-wide server announcement :

    Congrattions to the team, Seven Star Glory, forpleting the achievement [First Kill] by ying the world-ss BOSS, the Kobold King [Angas].

    Rewarding yers¡­

    +1 World Renown Point to each yer

    +5 World Renown Points to the team name

    1 Gold coin to each yer

    Title [Warrior]

    + **** Experience Points

    _____________________

    Achievement [First Kill] : Be the first to y a world-ss BOSS. ]]

    Before Sato could even react to that, he received another system notification.

    [[ System notification :

    You have received 1 gold coin.

    You have received the title [Warrior]

    _____________________

    [Warrior] :

    For being the first to take down a recognized opponent, you have made your mark on the world stage and have proved worthy to dive in deeper.

    +5% to Experience points gained in field hunting.

    When facing BOSS level monsters :

    +10% to Experience points reward

    +2% to loot

    Attacking prowess increased by 3% ]]

    Sato had to deviate from his original path and stopped close to a secluded area before he properly went through the notifications.

    ''Seven Star Glory? This is probably one of Fudo''s antics.''

    Sato knew that it was Fudo, Xue Yan, and the others who had defeated the Kobold King, hence, it was easy to rte the team Seven Star Glory to them after all, the team was made up of 7 yers; Sato, Fudo, Xue Yan, Seiichi, Lu Zhen, Yato, and Katsuo. The ''Star'' was probably his way of referring to them as experts while the origin of ''Glory'' most likely came from the fact that they had made the first-ever achievement that was announced worldwide. That alone was a glorious achievement.

    ''Not bad though.'' Sato smirked.

    While the name wasn''t as daunting as Battle Wolves, Tower of God, The Dark Knights or Heaven Destroyers, it was still very impressive.

    ''1 gold coin isn''t a bad reward and would be very useful to the team. As for the title, it would be even more useful especially in field battles. With this, our levelling speed is assured and the team would have an even better future ahead of us.'' Sato was satisfied.

    The key value of the title lied didn''t justy in the fact that it boosted field loot but that the entire team members had it. If the title were only rewarded to one yer, it wouldn''t improve the levelling efficiency of the team as it would when everyone receives it. All 7 of them having this title meant that not only would their levels increase faster than other yers, but they would be able to dive into unexplored regions before anyone else would. Doing so as a team would be much better and safer than moving alone.

    ''Too bad.'' Sato thought.

    He already had a simr title which was [Industrious Achiever]. However, the increase in Experience points from field hunting was 10 and there was also a dungeon raid Experience points increase of 5%. If Sato could equip both titles at the same time, he would be a levelling machine. Sadly, the system seemed to have prohibited such as only one title could be equipped in each moment. Currently, Sato had [The Precursor] activated in order to handle the yers from before.

    If the others hadn''t attacked him before, just by relying on the level difference as well as the boost from [The Precursor], Sato would have been able to give Han a run for his money.

    "Fudo, where are you guys? Are you guys out yet?" Sato called.

    Part of the ns they had made for the raid included their escape route. If Sato wasn''t facing any difficulty during the process and they needed to leave in a hurry, they would join up and he would use the [Void Opening Key] to open a portal for them to leave. If Sato couldn''t reach them in time, however, they were to then head to an explored tunnel that had already been marked by Lu Zhen and escape from there. The tunnel was located a bit close to the Kobold settlement as no one would expect their escape route to be within enemy lines. Also, the kobolds themselves served as a form of natural protection so the location was pretty much ideal.

    "We''re heading towards the designated meeting point." Fudo replied. The designated meeting point was also the explored tunnel that served as their escape route.

    "The kobolds?" Sato asked.

    He recalled that there were a bunch of other kobolds and since Fudo, Yato, Katsuo, and Lu Zhen had left them, these monsters would be wandering around the floor like headless flies. However, he had yet to encounter one so far.

    "They''re currently in disarray. It seems like they have sensed the death of their leader and they''re all going berserk. Be careful out there. Taking on a dozen wouldn''t be a problem for you but if the numbers keep piling up, then it would." Fudo warned.

    "Okay. I will meet you guys soon." Sato replied after which he cut the call and began heading towards the proposed direction. He was able to identify his location thanks to the rough map Lu Zhen had made earlier. With this in hand, their team had a superior mobility advantage over the other two guilds that had just arrived at the floor.

    . . .

    While Sato and the rest were on their way out, news about their actions began to spread. The first to react to the announcement was Emperor''s might and the Howling Wolf Battalion teams, who -though might have anticipated it- were too shocked by the news. Anger, frustration, and unwillingness showed on their faces as the image of Sato flooded their minds alongside the desire to kill him.

    They had suffered their hardest to make it here but were just one step behind. The amount of frustration the two teams had couldn''t be exined with words. The old-timers were okay -as they had experienced simr losses before- but the new blood, especially in the Howling Wolf Battalion, were all dejected and reluctant. They all loathed Sato to the bones and some of them even swore to attack him on sight even if it were in town.

    "They needed this failure. It would help to strengthen their will to grow stronger and sharpen their spirits." Han said to Silver Wolf.

    "There''s no point remaining here. Let''s go."

    Silver Wolf then led the other yers as they returned back dejectedly. They could have gone to attack the remnant Kobolds but their team didn''t have enough yers and due to a special rule in ce, Han couldn''t aid them. Therefore, remaining behind would be dumb, and attacking the other kobolds was just suicide.

    "Captain, what do we do?" Chesces asked Azure Dragon.

    "What do we do? We move ahead. The Kobold King is dead and the Howling Wolf battalion is leaving. No one is our match here. The kobolds had a settlement so there should be some rewards there. Without their leader''s protection, I believe that they would disperse soon enough. Our numbers are still big and our forces strong. This is a good enough opportunity to reap as many rewards as possible. It might notpare to that of defeating the Kobold King but it would at least mitigate our losses as half a bread is better than none. We can''t let this be a failed trip." Azure Dragon replied.

    "Recall Yukino and the rest. Tell them to meet us up ahead."

    "Okay." Chesces replied. He then did as Azure Dragon had said, ordering the rest to get ready before notifying Snow Goddess, ck Tempest, and others about the change in ns.

    AN :

    [[ god-level or god-ranked expert or Destroyer

    Monster-ss expert

    Pinnacle or Apex expert,

    Average expert

    Elites

    Veterans

    Noobs ]]

 Chapter 402 - 395 : Mission Completed

    "Sato, we''re done here. The BOSS is dead."

    Fudo''s voice sounded from the other side.

    The original n was for Sato to keep the opponents at bay while the others defeated the Kobold King. ording to the original n, Fudo and the rest were supposed to take only a minute but they had encountered some problems in their battle with the Kobold King. Since it was facing death, the monster had gone all out and began spamming space-type spells despite its current condition, just to take them down. As a result, the team had to be extra cautious as they battled it and this made the battle drag out longer than they had thought.

    Luckily, Sato was able to hold off the two guilds, albeit barely, and so, the team on the other side didn''t experience any interruptions. While it was true that Yukino had moved with ck Tempest and a few other yers, a minute wasn''t enough for them to catch up so Fudo and the others didn''t experience any problems.

    "Copy." Sato replied.

    ''Seems like I''ll have to change my ns.''

    Before the message, Sato was already prepared to take the battle with Han seriously, but as it turns out that there was no reason for him to remain here, he decided to alter his original intentions.

    "[Sprint]"

    Sato abruptly turned tail and ran away.

    "Eh, he''s escaping?" Chesces widened his eyes in surprise.

    He was expecting to see an interesting fight with Sato taking the match seriously. While it was true that Sato did have the option of escaping, it never crossed Chesces'' mind that he would do so.

    ''Did I misread his personality?'' Chesces wondered.

    "Stop him!"

    On the other hand, while Chesces was stunned, Silver Wolf had managed to react quick enough and ordered the rest of his teammates to prevent Sato from escaping. With all the preparations they have made being wrecked thanks to him, Silver Wolf felt that he wouldn''t have a good night''s sleep without seeing Sato turn to glitter.

    "What are you standing there for?! Order your men to follow suit and stop him. Or are you not aware of the consequences of this?!" Silver Wolf barked at Azure Dragon.

    The master of the super guild''s branch division frowned at the ex-militant''s words but he still gave out a simr order to his men. It would be a stain to the names of the two guilds if the news were to spread that a solo yer had not only stolen their target but had also killed a bunch of their men before escaping without a single scratch, despite them doing their best to kill him.

    Just like that, the remnant forces from the two guilds began pursuing Sato.

    "You have disappointed me." Han suddenly said.

    "I was expecting to have an ''okay'' match with you and at least stretch my muscles but you took the cowardly path. Even though it''s the safest option for you, I don''t like it."

    Sato ignored him and kept running towards the boundary of the pressure barrier.

    It should be known that the pressure barrier upied a wide enough region to contain the forces of the two guilds. Apart from the ever-present pressure that weighed down on Sato, there was still the bluish hemispherical walls that after as prison. Since the mana used to maintain it was supplied by the mages, the barrier possessed a self-healing feature. For Sato to break past it, he had to deal enough damage that would either drain all the mages'' mana at once or unleash an attack that would destroy the barrier faster than it could repair itself.

    "He''s going for the barrier. Keep your focus high." The mage leading the others in maintaining the barrier yelled.

    "Don''t fail me, buddy." Sato whispered to his sword.

    "[Chain Hit]."

    Wielding [Drakken] with one hand, Sato shed at the barrier, making a clear mark on it.

    With the concentration of the mages at their peak, the barrier''s repairing speed was faster than usual so one attack, even at full power from Sato, wouldn''t be enough to take it down.

    *Bang*

    The second sh connected but this time, a tear appeared in the barrier.

    "Ho-"

    Before the mage could even finish his words, Sato''s third and final sh connected, tearing a hole through their barrier following which Sato hurriedly jumped through it. In front of him though, was an [Elementalist], who was charged with handling that area of the barrier.

    There were at least 6 mages maintaining the barrier and due to its size, the barrier was divided into 3 major areas with each side handled by at least 2 mages. Even at that, the size was still incredible so there were certainly weak points in the barrier.

    Using a reverse-psychology tactic, the mages focused on the areas beyond their positions, leaving their side to be the weak points. The reason behind this was quite simple; most gamers would target the spot far from the mages, believing that that was the weak point since usually, the farther a point was from the mage, the less mana would reach that location leading to it bing vulnerable to attacks. The mages of Emperor''s Might, however, did the opposite and made their locations the weak spots. This would result in a situation where the target would end up targeting the barriers strong points why they themselves remain unharmed.

    Sadly for them, this backfired since Sato wasn''t really bothered to figure out which was the weak or strong point; he was already strong enough not to bother about such. Sato just faced a direction and ran towards it, and it turned out that his chosen path collided with the location of an [Elementalist]. This could only be termed as bad luck, for the [Elementalist] of course.

    "!!!"

    With eyes widened in both shock and fear, the [Elementalist] was greeted by a ck sword that pierced through his chest. The cloth armour he had on did nothing to stop it, simply because it was too weak in both quality and level to do such.

    -475 (???/??? ???)

    Due to the fact that most of the force in the sword was used to break through the barrier, the damage wasn''t much but the pain was still there.

    "Puack!"

    The [Elementalist] puked out blood as he grabbed onto the sword with both hands. The staff that was previously in his hand had already fallen to the ground at an unknown period.

    The [Elementalist] looked at Sato with a faceced with shock, anger, and despondency.

    "Demon." The [Elementalist] spoke.

    "You will, regre-"

    *Ssh*

    Sato was disinclined to listen to his woes of hatred and anger as he made a horizontal sh with [Drakken], forcing the ck sword that was stuck deep within the opponent''s chest to move to the side and exit from the left lungs. Such an attack was both bloody and deadly, and this was proven by the system notifications on his interface.

    [Critical]

    -1024 (???/??? ???)

    "Save your words for yourself." Sato said to the disappearing body before he took to his heels once more.

    "After him." Silver Wolf kept barking as the men from both guilds chased after Sato as if he had cuckolded them.

    Han and Chesces however, didn''t bother. They both knew that Sato was well ahead of them in terms of level and as a [Swordsman], part of his attributes would have surely gone to [Agility]. Therefore, it was safe to say that even when considering the [Assassins] present, Sato was still the fastest. Adding in the fact that he had used [Sprint] and had taken off before anyone could react, there was no point in giving chase. Sato was destined to escape no matter how hard they pursued.

    "For him to escape now, does that mean that the Kobold King is dead?" Chesces suddenly thought of something.

    The [Ranger] from before had said that the reason Sato remained behind was to hold them back while his teammates finished off the Kobold King. Therefore, unless the Kobold King was dead, there should be no reason for Sato to escape all of a sudden.

    ''If that''s the case, then his teammates are definitely not ordinary yers. There might even be the chance that there''s someone close to him in terms of strength and maybe even level.'' Chesces thought.

    If Chesces could reach that conclusion, then the man who was said to be on par with him in terms of intelligence as well as the guild leader of the branch guild, would also make the same deduction.

    ''The battle for ck Rock province would definitely not be easy.'' Azure Dragon thought with a dark expression.

    He didn''t call his men back but left them to chase after Sato. It wasn''t that Azure Dragon didn''t figure out that they wouldn''t be able to catch Sato but he wanted his men to realise that themselves. They would then use this failure to improve on their skills and be better. At the same time, Azure Dragon could say to the higher-ups that he had tried his best, but the level difference was insurmountable.

    Also, if the news were to spread, it would sound better if it was exined that they had tried to catch Sato rather than they had given up from the start. It would still let them maintain a certain level of dignity at the very least.

    Sometimes, it was better to fail than to give up from the start.

 Chapter 403 - 397 : Brewing Currents

    (AN : Chapter 396 is two chapters behind. Sorry for that. It''s a slight error that will take sometime to fix.)

    [[ World-wide server announcement :

    Congrattions to the team, Seven Star Glory, forpleting the achievement [First Kill] by ying the world-ss BOSS, the Kobold King [Angas].

    Rewarding yers¡­

    1 World Renown Point

    1 Gold coin to each yer

    Title [Warrior]

    + **** Experience Points ]]

    "How..."

    The Snow Goddess Yukino, [Berserker] ck Tempest, [Assassin] Ore, [Druid] Kylian as well as the others who made up the subjugation team were wall stunned at the notification.

    "That quick?" Griffin couldn''t help but be surprised.

    Even though it was on itsst leg, the Kobold King was still a world-ss BOSS. It wasn''t some cannon-fodder that could be taken lightly.

    "We yed right into their hands." Kylian sighed. He was the only one who could maintain a calm expression in the midst of this surprise.

    "What do we do now?" Ore couldn''t help but ask.

    "What else can we do? We have to find them and deal with them. How dare they take us lightly." Yukino frowned.

    As a core member of the guild, she knew how much was sacrificed for this raid. A lot of the guild''s finances had gone into funding this raid and for all of it to end this way, she couldn''t help but be angry. To Yukino, the guild was her family and she couldn''t tolerate anyone messing with her family.

    "Calm down and stop being so aggressive." A deep voice exhorted.

    Surprisingly, it came from one of the least expected individuals, ck Tempest. He, who was well known for being hot-headed and having an aggressive personality was actually urging someone else not to.

    "Rushing forward is pointless now. Those guys should be pretty smart for pulling this off. I''m guessing they already have a prepared escape route and have already begun making their way there. It''s very likely that we won''t catch up to them or find them so why bother."

    "Then, what should we do?" Griffin asked.

    "Isn''t it obvious? We wait for the next set of orders." ck Tempest suddenly stopped low and took a seat on the floor.

    "...eh?" Everyone stared at him with wide eyes however, they still got the meaning behind his words.

    "He''s right." Kylian said as he also decided to take a seat. However, he didn''t go straight to the point like ck Tempest did but had found a small boulder close by and sat atop it.

    While everyone decided to take a break, Yukino gripped her sword tightly as she was close toshing out. It was at that moment that Chesces'' call came in.

    "A call from Chesces." Ore said.

    "That''s our cue." ck Tempest replied.

    Following that, Ore epted the call and put it on speaker as Chesces'' voice sounded.

    "You guys should have already seen the announcement. I won''t waste your time. Meet us at this point. We''re going to take the settlement and see if we can get anything there. See you soon."

    The call immediately cut after that and the team was left with a short moment of silence.

    "Let''s go." ck Tempest said.

    No one said a word as they all followed him. Just from Chesces'' call, they could feel the attitude of everyone on the other side. The raid was a failure and one that would forever remain in the records.

    Two guilds, 1 super guild, and another a top 1st tier guild had both lost to an unknown team of yers. What''s more, they were held back by one yer and had lost a lot of men to that yer. If that wasn''t bad enough, the said yer had actually managed to escape unharmed despite being imprisoned in a barrier and surrounded by yers.

    Their rivals would definitely not let go of this opportunity to humiliate them and the news would definitely be spread by the gaming press. This was not just a failure, but a humiliation.

    . . .

    "The Kobold King is dead already?"

    yers on the outside began to react to the worldwide server announcement with shock, especially the yers in ck Rock province. They were the ones who were the closest to the centre of attraction and also the ones who supposedly received first-hand information yet, some unknown team had actually taken the kill without them knowing.

    "Who or what the heck is Seven Star Glory? Have you guys ever heard of them?" One yer asked.

    "Nope. Never have."

    "This is the first time I''m hearing of them. Are they some noob team?" Another yer asked.

    "Are you stupid? Didn''t you read the announcement or are you seriously dumb? How could a noob team take on a world-ss BOSS ande out on top? This is something no guild has achieved so far? How could they be a noob team?"

    "Who knows, maybe they stole the kill?" The yer countered.

    "... you''re definitely stupid."

    And so, an argument broke out between two yers and it suddenly increased to 4 participants then 5 and finally 10. Unbeknownst to Sato and the others, they were slowly growing fans all over the world.

    Some yers were tired of seeing top guilds trend all the time. It had already been part of the status quo for such first kill achievements to be done by either a big guild or a big club, which was roughly the same thing. It was only was quite rare for those achievements to be done by a solo yer or even a random party or team. Hence, some yers had begun wishing for the time such will happen because the underlying meaning meant that the position of the big guilds would be threatened and their authority might be reversed.

    This would lead to a lot of fierce encounters as well as increasing rivalry and the entire yer ecosystem in that area could possibly be threatened with its peace. Therefore, it was usually yers who wished for chaos that would hope for such scenarios as they would find it fun and enjoyable.

    On the other hand, the actions of the Seven Star Glory team were taken by some yers as a challenge to the big guilds, especially those of ck Rock province. If the top guilds couldn''t react fashionably and in time to this, it would be seen as a sign of weakness and they would encounter a lot of difficulties especially from the side of the solo yers, guild-haters, and most importantly, dark yers.

    Hence, while some didn''t like Sato''s team, others appreciated their actions and even blew it over, forging stories about how they had won as well as iming that the team was all made up of God-level Experts. This would rally the public''s support of teams and parties, reducing the number of people willing to go into guilds as well as weaken their standing in the hearts of yers. In other words, this was all psychological y from the guild-haters and dark yers.

    Unbeknownst to Sato, this had resulted just from his team''s simple act of ying the Kobold King. A storm was brewing but he wouldn''t its direction.

    . . .

    White Valley Town, Angelor Province, Brusia Kingdom.

    White Valley town was a region extremely far from the boundaries of Fallen Heart Kingdom, much less its novice town Riverdale town. However, simr to Riverdale, it had experienced a ''lucky'' encounter that had changed its position in the hearts of yers.

    The town''s yers had just concluded the monster wave battle that urred twice a year at the town. As for the final BOSS of the wave, it shockingly turned out to be a world-ss BOSS. Though they weren''t prepared for this, under the leadership of the Sovereign guild''s guild leader, Frost King of the Red Sea Kurosaki Genma, the town''s yers had managed toe out on top. However, as Sato''s side had in theirs first, no one apart from the townsfolk knew this and so, this led to a dejected atmosphere among the yers despite their impressive achievement.

    Sovereign guild''s headquarters...

    *Bang*

    "Damn it. We were so close, so close to making history!" A [Berserker] hit the table before him with his fist.

    The monster wave was stronger than they had imagined; there was even an absurdly powerful NPC in the ranks and the town was almost lost. Luckily, an old man showed up and battles the NPC till he ran away and the town''s yers were slowly able to turn the battle back in their favor. However, due to that interruption, it took longer than expected to take down the world-ss BOSS, and so, they had lost the achievement of the first kill.

    "Stop stressing about it. We did well out there and kept the town in one piece. Also, our levels have risen higher than predicted and the loot from the kill is quite bountiful. Overall, this was a good thing." Genma said.

    "But still..."

    "But still what?" Genma cut him off.

    "You should recall that we never expected there to be a world-ss BOSS so you should be lucky we still made it through. Otherwise, the town would have been lost and the penalties would be haunting you right now."

    "I''m sorry." The [Berserker] lowered his head.

    "You still need to watch your temper, Milim." Genma sighed.

    "Don''t worry too much about it. Instead, help me gather information on that team, Seven Star Glory. They seem to be a bunch of interesting folks. If possible, try and recruit them.. Having them form a branch for us over in Fallen Heart Kingdom would be very useful."

 Chapter 404 - 398 : Official Formation

    "Over here." Lu Zhen waved from a distance as he spotted Sato''s figure.

    "Exposing yourself like that could attract unwanted attention." Sato said once he got close to Lu Zhen.

    "Don''t worry about it. I''m not a nab[1]. I''ve already scouted the area several times; it''s clear. Follow me, the others are waiting." Lu Zhen replied nonchntly as he began walking forward.

    Lu Zhen then led Sato on a 30-seconds run after which they approached a natural opening on a small hill. The 10th floor was very huge and had quite a few of these small hills scattered all around. Simr to the rest, this one looked nothing special and unless one were to explore it with a determined focus, they wouldn''t be able to find the tunnel that leads out of the floor.

    "What took you so long?" Fudo smiled as he greeted Sato.

    "Try facing a super guild as well as a top rank 1st tier guild''s raid teams on your own." Sato replied with a in tone.

    "If I was the same level as you, sting them to bits would be no problem." Fudo puffed his chest.

    "Sure."

    Ignoring his long-time best friend, Sato faced the others in the team as he asked, "Are you all okay?"

    "Yeah, why wouldn''t we?" Seiichi replied.

    "This was fun, honestly. Facing against a horde of monsters then taking on that 10 feet monster, this was an adrenaline-packed mission." Yato smiled.

    "You know we almost died, right?" Katsuo turned to him and asked.

    "Yeah, so? It''s not like this is a game where we die in real life if we die here. Stop being such a buzz-kill."

    "It''s called Virtual immersion. You take the game as if it were real." Seiichimented.

    "Yeah, yeah, yeah." Yato waved him off.

    "So, what are your ns?" Sato asked Lu Zhen and Xue Yan while the others became quiet.

    "I don''t really know." Xue Yan said with a shy expression.

    "I think I will stick with you guys, that''s if you will let me. Fighting as a team is better than fighting alone."

    Sato smiled at her before he turned to Lu Zhen.

    "Same here. The team''s already formed and it would be too bad to end things right now. You guys would now be ''Six Star Glory'' rather than seven but seven sounds better." Lu Zhen grinned.

    "You sure about it? Your reason is really¡­something." Sato carefully said.

    "I''m sure, and don''t underestimate me or question me about my decision." Lu Zhen narrowed his eyes.

    "Good." Sato nodded.

    "Yah~ Now the team, Seven Star glory is officially formed. Our goal is to attain as much poprity and glory as possible, even if it means decimating a few super guild teams." Fudo pped his hands and announced.

    "Haha. Good one." Yatoughed.

    "Hey, Sato. Next time let us all in when you''re messing with some top teams. I want to know the difference between us and them." Katsuo seriously said.

    "Same here." Seiichi added.

    "Okay then." Sato smiled, seeing as his teammates were pumped up and willing to improve.

    In a team fight, the most important element wasn''t a godly yer or a greatmander; it was coordination and team y. If the team was willing to do something together, their progress would be inrge steps and the coordination would be amazing.

    Also, seeing as the team wanted topare their skills with top-ss yers, Sato felt that it would be nice to arrange a training session for them. While their skills might seem satisfactory right now, it was only so if they don''t aim high. However, the team''s goal wasn''t just to lord over some nabs but topete with top guilds, hence they would need to improve their skills sooner rather thanter.

    ''I''ll have to start making preparations for this then.'' Sato added the idea to his mental to-do list.

    "Since we''ve formed the team then everyone would have ess to the loot." Sato announced.

    Part of the deal he had with Xue Yan before was to help her y the Kobold King while the loot would belong to them. Lu Zhen had also pleaded on her behalf and offered his own share too, hence, the duo weren''t supposed to get a piece of the loot even though they were strategic figures in the raid.

    "No. This can''t do." Xue Yan shook her head.

    "I already promised not to have a share plus what I have gained following you guys is a lot. Reaching my current level is also thanks to you all."

    Excluding the fact that it was due to Sato dragging her alongside himself to escape the kobold King during their first encounter -leading to the series of events that made her reach level 11 as well as improve on her skills-, Xue Yan''s major participation in the defeat of the Kobold King had led to her levelling up once more to be a level 12 [Elementalist] of the fire branch. There was also the fact that her equipment had been upgraded and her fighting style and prowess had seen massive improvements thanks to Sato''s training.

    Therefore, Xue Yan felt that it wasn''t necessary for her to receive any more from the team or else she wouldn''t be able to return the favor.

    "Don''t think too much about it. You''re part of the team so you deserve these. You too, Lu Zhen." Sato said as he noticed that Lu Zhen was about to say the same.

    "It would be wrong for me as the team leader to be partial. From now on, everyone is family and should treat each other equally. As the leader, I have to show an example and do the same first so don''t refuse me."

    "...okay." Xue Yan nodded imperceptibly.

    "Fine." Lu Zhen sighed.

    "Now, time to check out the loot. But before that, what level are you guys?" Sato asked.

    Only Xue Yan had set her level to public disy for Sato to see her improvements. Fudo, Lu Zhen, and the others, all kept theirs to private.

    "Hehe.. Why don''t you take a look then."

 Chapter 405 - 399 : Rewards

    "Hehe. Why don''t you take a look then."

    Following that, Fudo set a part of his status to public disy and the others followed suit.

    "Level 11, level 10, level 9¡­damn." Sato raised an eyebrow at the sight. While he did expect some of the level ups, some left him surprised.

    Take for instance Seiichi, who was previously level 8. Though he was at the same level as Yato and Kastuo, he was ahead of them in terms of progress. While the duo had their Experience points bars at 10%, his was at 80%. Also, he had a major participation in the fight against the Kobold King, having appearances all the way from the beginning till the very end where the Kobold King was killed. Hence, Seiichi didn''t just go up a level but two, bing a level 11 [Ranger].

    As for the others, Fudo reached level 11 too, whereas Lu Zhen had only managed to reach level 10, though he wasn''t so far from 11. Yato and Katsuo, due to their meager participation, had only manged to reach level 9. But thanks to their fierce battle against the kobold horde and the level difference between them and the Kobold King, they weren''t so far from reaching level 10.

    "Everyone has improved and it''s only a matter of time before the whole team could move to the city." Fudo smirked as if he as the one responsible for the changes.

    "True, but you guys can''t go yet. You have to give the Caventry''s test a try first. We need to reap as much rewards from here as possible before we move over to a new location." Sato said with some thought.

    "You''re right." Seiichi nudged his sses.

    "But the test is based on skills and not level. And if I''m correct, we aren''t strong enough yet, am I right?"

    "Don''t worry about that now. One step at a time, we will fix it." Sato replied.

    "Now¡­"

    With Sato giving themand, Fudo then extracted the items that dropped after the Kobold King''s death from his space bag.

    "Here they are."

    Sprawled on the floor was a bunch of items, ranging from equipment to materials and even scrolls.

    "I didn''t get to see it properly since we were in a hurry, but they are a lot." Yato eximed.

    "I did a rough count earlier. 3 pieces of equipment, 35 or so materials, 2 scrolls and 3 items I couldn''t identify." Fudo picked up the 3 items and handed it over to Sato. Of the 3 items, one was a mini cube simr to a rubik''s cube in size. The second item was an aged scroll without any name, title orprehensible words; only some scribbles and scratched parts were visible on the scroll. As for thest item, it was a bronze key.

    "[Appraise]." Sato silently muttered as he held the bronze key.

    [[ System notification :

    The item couldn''t be appraised because the user''s knowledge and abilities are too low. Please request the aid of a certified [Appraiser]. ]]

    Sato then tried the same on the remaining two items but he only got the same result.

    "Guess I''ll keep these till I find an [Appraiser]. No arguments right?" Sato asked.

    "None." Everyone shook their head in response.

    With the way things were, Sato would be heading to the city before them as they still need to give the Caventry test a try. Sato however, was level 15; while the others at level 11 and 10 could still manage, he however, couldn''t. There were no longer any monsters that could match up to his strength or even afford to give him 1 Experience point so Sato''s growth would be severely hindered unless he left for the city. Leaving the 3 items with him would be much better as the information regarding them would be discovered faster than expected. Hence, no one had any reason to disagree with him.

    "As for the others,"

    Sato then picked the 3 pieces of equipment and appraised them one by one. Luckily for him, unlike with the 3 previous items, Sato was able to get some results this time around.

    [[ Ghost-yer Gauntlet : Low Tier Rare-Steel Rank : Level 15 : Durability 75

    Made with quality 3 star ranked materials Thunderwood alongside Dark Cannister rock, and forged with the aid of 4 star ranked me, Ice-Blue me, this is a high level equipment for battling ghosts or forces from the dark side. Also provides defense against mental and soul-rted attacks.

    Requirements : Level 15 || 25 [Strength] 3 [Willpower]

    [Physical Defence] +50

    [Magical Defence] + 35

    [Willpower] +10

    All soul-rted and/or mental attacks are weakened by 10%.

    Ghost Barrier : A grey barrier encapstes the user, taking in damage equivalent to 60% of user''s HP. Damage absorbed is only mental or magical damage and not physical damage.

    Duration : 15 seconds

    Cool-down : 30 seconds.

    Systemment : A must-have for ghost hunting and mage battling.

    ___________________________________

    Unknown Bone Spear : Low Tier Rare-Steel Rank : Level 15 : Durability 80

    The main material of this spear is a bone from an unknown part of an unknown creature. However, the toughness seems to rival that of a properly made spear with 3 star materials. Don''t underestimate it due to its looks cause this spear can turn a tank into a sponge.

    Requirements : Level 15 || 30 [Strength]

    [Strength] +15

    [Attack Speed] + 15

    [Physical Attack power] +35.

    Increased damage dealing and prative effects.

    _________________

    Sierran Leather Armour : Low Tier Rare-Steel Rank : Level 15 : Durability 85

    Sierran leather is a quality 2 star material, approaching the 3 star rank, that has impressive defensive properties when made into an armour. Suitable for both leather armour-type sses as well as cloth armour-type sses.

    Requirements : Level 15 || Leather armour/Cloth armour sses

    [Physical Defence] +35

    [Magical Defence] + 75

    [Willpower] +10

    All magic based attacks are weakened by 5%.

    Regen : Active Skill : For each attack that makes contact with the armour, part of the energy is absorbed by the armour to produce 1 regenyer. After storing 10 regenyers, yer can decided to either form a barrier equivalent to 120% of their HP with a duration of 30 seconds or recover 7% of health instantly.

    Cool-down : 30 seconds.

    Systemment : With a very handy active skill that can be used in 2 different but important ways. Choose wisely when doing so~

    ]]

 Chapter 406 - 400 : Team Auction

    "Impressive." Sato praised after going through the stats of the new pieces of equipment.

    "The [Ghost-yer Gauntlet] looks like a good piece of equipment for an MT while the [Unknown Bone Spear] would be a [Berserker]''s favorite." Seiichimented on the two equipment. Sato had shared the results of the appraisal to everyone as they were all teammates. Also, it would help with the next series of actions.

    "Yeah. Even the [Sierran Leather Armour] is very useful. With good timing, you would actually be a monster in it. Imagine when your opponent goes in for thest hit against you and you suddenly recover your health and strike back, hard. Damn, I want it." Fudo added.

    "So apart from the 3 pieces of equipment, there are a 28 two-star ranked materials and 5 three-star ones. As for thest one, it''s surprisingly a 4-star materials, though low on the rating scale." Sato said as he rummaged through the pile of loot on the floor.

    "Of the two scrolls, one is a defense-type scroll called [Kiln-hold], as for the other one. I believe we''ve got jackpot." Sato smiled as he went on to share the details of thest scroll.

    [[ System interface :

    Forging Blueprint :

    Metal-braced Wooden Bow and Arrow : Level 10-15 Mid-tier to Upper-tier Mortal rank.

    Requirements : Level 10 and above || 20 [Strength] || [Ranger]

    Bow :

    [Physical Attack] +25

    [Attack Speed] +20

    [Strength] +7

    Stats may vary due to quality of the final product.

    Arrow :

    [Attack Speed] +10

    Damage dealt increased by 20%

    Special characteristic : Greater air resistance with increased hit-rate and uracy. Enhanced pration effects.

    Forging requirements : Apprentice cksmith rank at the very least with the required necessary knowledge.

    Forging elements : Iven Wood, Silver core, Dawn Steel metal...

    System Comments : Want to be a great archer with high uracy and damage? Then find yourself a cksmith to make this.

    ]]

    "A production manual for a level 10-15 Mid-tier to Upper-tier Mortal rank bow?" Seiichi sucked in cold air.

    His family was rich and because of that, Seiichi had received a few training sessions in marketing and business management. Just by recalling that Sato was a cksmith, Seiichi could instantly see the value of the production manual in their hands.

    While it was true that the Caventry''s library did have a few production manuals, some of the items there were beyond Sato''s current capabilities. It was like seeing a mountain of gold but not being able to touch it. Therefore, the guild funding n was a mess and still in development. However, with this new production manual as well as the Generic series of [Rigged Steel long-swords] and [Fine-Steel amours] he made, Sato would be able to develop a stable source of ie for the team. If Fudo''s alchemy products as well as Xue Yan''s talismans were added to the mix, the team would eventually be swimming in gold.

    "A forging blueprint? Nice. It will probably sell for a lot." Yato brightened his eyes. However, he slowly shut up as he noticed that the others looked at him strangely.

    After some hesitation, Yato then asked,

    "...What?"

    "...dummy." Fudo muttered.

    "Well that''s everything." Sato freed Yato from suffering any more at Fudo''s words.

    "We will now proceed to share the loot." Sato said following which everyone began to rub their hands in anticipation.

    While the forging blueprint wasn''t useful to them, the others were. Ignoring the two pieces of equipment that were only usable by physical sses, the [Sierran Leather Armour] attracted the attention of the team''s two mages as well as the [Assassin] Lu Zhen. Having the leather armour was pretty much the same as having an extra life especially since the team didn''t have a healer ss yer among them.

    Seeing the hint of anticipation in their eyes, Sato spoke up.

    "Since the team was recently formed, it will be difficult distributing the items fairly. Therefore, apart from the materials which will be shared amongst ourselves, excluding the 3-star and 4-star materials of course, the rest would be auctioned among ourselves. The money gained would be added to an official ount that would be operated by Seiichi. Any disagreement?"

    "None." Everyone but one person immediately replied.

    "Huh?" Seiichi was stunned. He was the only one that didn''t exactly agree with statement.

    "Why me?"

    "Out of everyone of us, you''re the only one who has a degree in business management. I only know how to fix machines and kill monsters." Sato smiled.

    "Okay then." Seiichi epted.

    Since there was an obvious reason as to why and since Sato trusted him, Seiichi didn''t question his decision any longer.

    "Also, the vice-team leader would be Fudo." Sato added.

    Same as before, no one argued or dropped a controversial statement. While it was true that Fudo has a tendency to joke around a lot, they knew that he had his serious moments. This became especially clear during the raid where everyone apart from Sato had worked together to defeat the Kobold King.

    Apart from Xue Yan, Fudo was the next best performing yer to the point that his precise timing had saved the life of Katsuo, who served as the MT in the fight. Hismands in the battle had also made sure that none of them had fallen prey to the final throes of the Kobold King, with everyoneing out alive. The same could also be seen when the group of 4(Fudo, Katsuo, Yato and Lu Zhen) took on the kobold horde alone.

    "Okay, now back to the main point. The three pieces of equipment will be auctioned alongside the forging blueprint as well as the 3-star and 4-star ranked materials. The defense-type scroll would be taken as a team property so will be exempted from the auction and held in the team''s inventory, ran by Xue Yan. The remaining materials would be shared as a reward amongst ourselves. Any problem with that?" Sato gave out positions while he also decided the rule for the loot allocation.

    "None so let''s start already." Fudo was bing impatient.

    After the battle, everyone in the team was rewarded with a gold coin each so the auction was destined to be heated. Even so, Sato, Xue Yan and Fudo were among the richest. Since Sato wasn''t a mage, Fudo didn''t need to fear his participation in the bid for the [Sierran Leather Armour], but the same couldn''t be said about Xue Yan. With the current wealth in her hands, Fudo believed that only the top of the ss 1st tier guilds as well as super guilds would be able to rival her wealth. And this was on the condition that the sum of all the guild''s assets were calcted. In other words, a super guild branch like the one headed by Azure Dragon was actually poorer than her if their liquidated cash were to bepared!

    ''Worsees to worse, I''ll borrow from Sato. The bone spear and the gauntlet aren''t suitable for his ss so he won''t bother with them. His sights is probably set on the forging blueprint and no one would bother to drag it out with him. Even if he aims for the 4-star ranked material next, so he should have a lot of spare cash remaining.'' Fudo began making ns.

    Unknown to him however, everyone else had reached the same conclusion. The key to winning their bidsid in Sato''s hands or rather wealth. Even Xue Yan realised that she might not have things easy if Fudo, Seiichi or Lu Zhen decides to borrow from Sato. She could only hope that he wouldn''t give them much.

    The major keyid in which item would be auctioned out first. If it was the leather armour, then the other twopetitors would most likely borrow from Sato. If the leather armour camest, Sato wouldn''t have enough to lend and Xue Yan would surely win the bid as long as she doesn''t participate in the others. It all came down to getting her priorities right.

    The others like Seiichi and Yato, however, had their thoughts elsewhere. Chances were that they wouldn''t get what they desired most so they began setting their sights elsewhere.

    Sato was sure to get what he wanted and everyone knew it was the forging blueprint. If no one challenged him, he would have a lot of spare cash to aim for the 3-star and 4-star star ranked materials. In other to prevent him from participating in the other bids, they would have to ce false bids to increase the price of the blueprint and make Sato spend a lot.

    The risk in this nid in the chance that if Sato decided to drop out of the run, they would end up purchasing the forging blueprint. To them non-cksmiths, it was pretty much useless. As for selling it outside the team, that wasn''t a wise decision and could possibly affect the team''s growth rate. Hence, they would reluctantly have to sell it to Sato. Chances were that Sato would put in a trade for it rather than to buy it back with cash. The problem though was that whatever Sato wanted to trade with would definitely be irresistible to them but their cash would be depleted.

    "The rules of the auction is as thus; first, once a bid has been ced, one would have to make sure they can afford it. If the bidder happens to win the bid, they will have to pay up. If they can''t do so immediately, their weapons and equipment would have to be mortgaged to the team." Sato smiled as he made the rule.

    "Secondly, lending is permitted so you don''t have to be too worried about not getting what you want."

    The second rule alone was enough to eliminate Xue Yan''s chances of winning by andslide and it would also make her more cautious in her decisions.

    "I wish you all the best and I hope we all get something out of this.. Now, may the auctionmence."

 Chapter 407 - 403 : Battle Formations

    The party of 4 began to follow in the [Assassin''s] footsteps as they began tracking down Sato. Even though there was no obvious footprint on the road, the [Hunter] subss had a few select skills that enabled a yer to spot even the tiniest of marks one''s boots could make the floor. If enough reference material was avable, they could even track a person based on their aura alone.

    "The marks stop here. He''s definitely around here somewhere." The [Assassin] said.

    "Guard." The [Cleric] immediately gave out amand and the whole team assembled in a formation.

    The team usually took bounties rted to tracking down someone and this would normally lead them to some unknown and dangerous spot. To reduce the risk involved, they began utilizing battle formations when they encounter such locations or situations.

    The [Cleric] was in the middle with the [Guardian] in front, the [Swordsman] behind and the [Assassin] by the side.

    ''A basic 4-man advancing formation.'' Sato nced at the 4 yers as they stood at their positions.

    VR gaming had been popr for decades already and with its ever-growing poprity, more and more ''How tos'', ''Dos and Don''ts'' and other guides in gaming were released. Amongst them was the various formations yers could take in certain scenarios depending on their numbers. Battle formations eventually became so widespread that about 90% of gamers world-wide were familiar with at least one of them. The 4-man advancing formation was a formation based on the fact that the team consisted of 4 yers; an MT, a healer and 2 DPS[1] yers, and were exploring an unknown map or location filled with risks.

    ording the formation manual, the MT would stay in front while one of the damage dealers -who should be at least capable of taking a hit- would stay behind. The healer would be in between the two while thest damage dealer yer would be by the side.

    By putting the MT in front, they were meant to serve as the team''s protector, intercepting any assault that would arrive from the front which was usually the riskiest direction in unknown grounds. The yer who stays behind was tasked with protecting the team from the back, which was why they were required to be able to take a hit. A ss like [Assassin] or [Ranger wasn''t suited for this position and it was normally handed over to the [Berserker], [Swordsman] or a simr ss. The healer staying in between the above two yers was because that was the safest position in the formation. The healer ss, which was well known for its terrible defensive abilities, was required to be protected at all times as their existence was crucial to a team''s survival in a battle.

    Thest role, which was handed over to the second DPS yer, was a flexible one. The yer taking up that role was to provide assistance to either the MT in front of the other DPS yer behind. One could say that they functioned as a support role in the formation, working alongside either of the above yers till assistancees from the other. For example, if the MT were to suffer an assault and tried to hold back the enemy, the support role would assist him/her till the other DPS yer arrived, and the same could be said if the positions were switched.

    ording to the original definition of the 4-man advancing formation, the support role would suit either a mage, a [Ranger] or an [Assassin] as these sses have high attacking power and speed but poor defensive abilities whenpared to the others. However, theirs was still better than a healer''s.

    "We know you''re here soe out!" The [Cleric] shouted.

    From the [Assassin''s] conjectures, the [Cleric] guessed that Sato was hiding somewhere close. He wouldn''t believe that Sato was able to throw them off as even an Expert rank dark yer had once been tracked down by the party.

    His reply was however, was met with silence.

    "ying hard to get huh?" The [Cleric] replied with a strange smile.

    "Emperor''s Might is already on their way here and unless you can lose us, they will catch up to you. You''ve a;ready witnessed the prowess of a super guild''s team and may have survived but this time, you will be facing a team dedicated to hunting you down. Unless you an throw us off your tail, your only option would be to finish us here. Soe out now while we are still ying along."

    ''So quick?'' Sato frowned. He had already guessed that the party before him would report his location but he didn''t think that Emperor;s Might would be so quick in responding.

    "Boss, why did you tell him that?" The [Guardian] asked with a confused expression.

    "This yer is definitely a smart guy based on the fact he had managed to survive an assault from 2 top guilds and remain hidden this long. He''s probably guessed that we have reported his location already so he most likely hid now to finish us off. He might not have wanted to do so before but seeing as he can''t throw us off, he most likely will now." The [Cleric] narrowed his eyes as he muttered.

    "I doubt we''re a match for him so the only thing we can do is hold out till reinforcements arrive. My statement before was just to put a sense of haste into him. It would make his movements more rushed and might expose ws for us to use against him."

    The others widened their eyes in shock as they didn''t realise that their leader had thought that far but they soon calmed ahead as this wasn''t the first time such had happened.

    "Just don''t move for the attack. Stick together and fight defensively. Reinforcements aren''t that far." The [Cleric] said as he stared at his system interface. It was set to private disy so only he could see what was disyed on it.

    ''Just a few minutes more and we will get our reward.''

 Chapter 408 - 401 : Departure

    "Baa! Bogus!" A slightly plump figure yelled as he tugged at his hair.

    "You all cheated!"

    "Hehe. Cheated? No, we were just smart. You''re the one who wasn''t smart enough to think like us." Yato grinned as he looked at Fudo''s disturbed expression.

    "A 3-star ranked material. I could see this for twice the price I got it you know." Yato juggled a small sized rock.

    Unlike what most of them had expected, Sato had kicked off the internal auction with the unveiling of the 3-star ranked materials. The yers like Yato, Lu Zhen and Seiichi, who already knew that trying to bid for the bigger items was pointless, were among the few that left with the 3-star ranked materials.

    Two of the five 3-star materials went to Lu Zhen while of the remaining 3, Yato and Seiichi both got one each. As for the remaining one, Sato had purchased it alongside the only 4-star material avable all at a record price.

    The bone spear was won by Katsuo since no one bothered to contest with him for it. The armguard was fought for by both Yato and Katsuo, but in the end, Yato has won it due to the fact that he still had a bit of his funds left.

    The main event which was the action of the [Sierran Leather Armour] was majorly fought over by Fudo and Xue Yan. The others sses who could still utilise the armour, like Lu Zhen and Seiichi, both stayed away as they looked at the duo call out numbers intensively. Eventually, Fudo won after borrowing almost one gold coin from Sato.

    Turned out that Xue Yan didn''t really need the armour as the inheritance she had received from the Caventry covered up her equipment all up to at least level 20. Therefore, Xue Yan didn''t really need to worry about either a defensive equipment or a weapon. She just yed along and hyped the price, leading to Fudo spending 110 silver coins for the armour. That was the same as 1 gold coin and 10 silver coins. It was after Sato had revealed the information to him that he ended up screaming in vexation.

    "You guys scammed me!" Fudo cried.

    "Nothing like that. I did warn everyone to be careful about how they spend." Sato smiled cunningly.

    "But, but..."

    "Enough. The money isn''t going to anyone''s pockets but the team''s. You can just take it as if you generously donated to the team." Sato said.

    "Generous donations my a**! That''s a golf coin plus 10 silver. You know what I can buy with that?!!" Fudo backfired.

    "What''s your n from here?" Seiichi asked Sato.

    Since his identity had been revealed, Seiichi guessed that Sato could no longer stay with them. The two guilds must have already released a wanted poster for him by now. Even if they didn''t, Sato wouldn''t be able to improve anymore if he remained in a low tier area like the three towns.

    "I''ll be heading to the city. There''s no reason for me to keep dying it." Sato affirmed Seiichi''s guess.

    "However, the teleportation array to the city is in town. How do you n on escaping those guys?" Xue Yan frowned as she asked with a hint of worry.

    "Don''t worry about it. No matter how desperate they are, they won''t attack me in town. The only problem is in the journey there. However, no one is my match." Sato confidently said.

    He then continued with a warning tone,

    "As for you guys, it''s best you move over to Salt Springs town. Riverdale and ck Mountain are the two areas ofmand of those two guilds. While it''s true that none of them spotted you with me today, it doesn''t mean that they won''t discover that you guys are rted to me eventually."

    "You''re right." Seiichi began massaging his brain as he could see an iing problem.

    "You don''t really need to stay long; it''s just for Yato and Katsuo to get to level 10 then you guys could all move collectively to the city. Better yet, you could give the Main trials a shot. There''s an Experience points reward there so you could skip out on the stress from field hunting." Sato adviced.

    "True but you did say we aren''t ready yet." Fudo added.

    "Yes. Starting tomorrow then, there will be a special training at this location." Sato sent everyone the lociof a certain dojo in Shinjuku city.

    "Hmm? Martial Peak dojo? That''s an overbearing name for an unknown ce." Lu Zhenmented on the name of the ce.

    "Ignore that." Fudo said.

    "Since we''re all done here, let''s leave. You guys could either go to the Caventry Hall or head over to Salt Springs town. As for me, I''m going to use the teleportation array in Riverdale."

    Sato''s decision of picking the teleportation array in Riverdale town rather than Salt Springs town wasn''t because he wanted to mess around with Emperor''s Might but because it was the closest town to this location. Also, if he happens to be spotted in Salt Springs town, it would make the two guilds ce their focus there and they might catch the others. Therefore, Sato decided to serve as a distraction by heading behind enemy lines. As long as he used the teleportation array there, they would discover that he had left the town''s region and won''t bother about searching for him.

    ''The others will at least be safe like this.'' Sato thought.

    "I''ming with you." Xue Yan suddenly said.

    "Huh?" Everyone looked at her with surprise.

    "I''m already level 12 so staying here wouldn''t be advantageous to my progress." Xue Yan exined.

    "It would be better for me to go with to the city with you."

    "She has a point there." Seiichimented.

    Most monsters close to the tows where under level 10. Exceptions like the Kobold King were really difficult to find and most times non-existent. However, ording to the introduction of the game, the maps around the city''s region had monsters from up to level 10 till level 30, with even some being up to level 50 and the surface area for the maps were absurdlyrge. This meant that yers would be able to improve better there than in the areas around the towns, provided that they wield the required strength. Being level 12, Xue Yan could be said to be have reached the basic requirement to set her sights on those locations. Therefore it was way better for her to do so than to while away her time here.

    "Okay, but you do so in Salt Springs town." Sato agreed while adding a condition.

    The reason he said so was to limit the chances of Xue Yan being discovered to be rted to him in some way and at the same time, she could act as a form of protection for the rest of the team along the way.

    "Okay then." Xue Yan nodded.

    With their destinations set, the team then departed the floor and left the cave, separating and moving towards their selected destinations.

    ''I bet there''s going to be a weing party for me..'' Sato thought as he nced in the direction of Riverdale town.

 Chapter 409 - 402 : Wanted

    "I want everyone on the lookout for that kid. Search high and low, no matter what it takes. Even if you have to ask every yer in this friggin'' town, find me that yer!"

    Just like Sato had predicted, the two guilds had mobilised all their forced to look for him. Both in the light and on the dark, there are lookouts all around for Sato. Wanted posters and pictures with Sato''s image began appearing all over the forums as announcements were being made with a bounty of 1 gold attached to the mission.

    For any urate information as regards to Sato''s location, the informant would be awarded 5 silver coins. If Sato was caught in that location, the informant would receive a 45 silver coins bonus. For each time Sato was killed by someone, the assant would receive 50 silver coins. If they were able to capture him and hand him over to any of the two guilds, they would receive 1 gold coin.

    With such arge bounty ced on an unknown individual''s head, the entire yermunity of ck Rock province were in a frenzy with every yer searching high and low for Sato. It was to the point that any individual spotted with a ck cloak would be blocked and searched. If the yer refused, they could be killed at the spot just based on suspicion.

    Since both Emperor''s Might and Battle Wolves had released their presumed opinions about Sato''s possible location, the areas around ck Grill''s Cave, Stone Creek Forest and Kiro Mountains were under lockdown by various yers. It became so difficult that dark yers didn''t wander around easily. However, some of them didn''t give up and even participated in the search, using it as an opportunity to rob and kill other yers. As a result, the entire three meals were filled with a lot ofwlessness and chaos, with the death numbers piling up every hour.

    Originally, the two guilds -Emperor''s Might and Battle Wolves- didn''t n on making the news public. However, just like they had predicted, some of the spies in their teams had released the news about the two guilds being harassed by a single yer. The information went on to state that the yer was the possible head of the team, Seven Star Glory, which had defeated the world-ss BOSS, the Kobold King. This meant that there was a high chance that the loot from the kill was in the possession of the yer. Though it was merely a chance, this information had riled the greed of several other guilds and with a picture already provided to them, they began their own manhunt for Sato.

    To counter this, the two big guilds decided to make the information public, though holding back on some information. They only announced that they were in search for a certain dark yer for challenging their authority and ughtering their yers. Since the news sounded quite real, not a lot of yers questioned it but only set their sights on the reward. In their minds, this wasn''t the first time something like this had happened -a situation where a big guild was challenged and so they retaliated by cing a bounty of the assaulter- so not a lot of yers felt anything was off. It was only the leaders of a few teams as well as some slightly knowledgeable yers, who felt that something was off.

    Nheless, they all came to the same conclusion that to find out what that was, they would have to capture this ''dark'' yer. Hence, about 80% of the yer poption in the two affected towns had set their sights on the bounty target.

    In Riverdale town''s West gate, ck Tempest was in charge of the search party in this location. Though the town was called a "town", it was actuallyrger than that and could even rival a few backwater cities in terms of area. Hence, Emperor''s Might had split their forced into 4 with each team being led by one core member.

    "Boss." A certain yer shrouded in dark clothing ran towards ck Tempest.

    "What is it?" ck Tempest said with a fiery attitude.

    After they had failed in the raid, the entire guild''s core members including Azure Dragon, were berated by the main branch. Due to this, everyone was currently in a bad mood and this was even so for the hot-headed ck Tempest.

    The yer hesitated a bit as he took in a big gulp of air before speaking,

    "We just received news from an adventurer team a couple of metres out. They imed to have spotted the target."

    "Another im? Do these guys think we''re joking here or what?!" ck Tempest roared.

    Ever since the bounty was released, a bunch of yers sent in ims that they had seen Sato or had information rted to him. About 99% of these news were all fake and it led to the team wasting both time and resources on a wild goose chase. While those yers were eventually punished, some still tried the same stunt, going so far as making a photoshopped image of Sato eitherying under a tree or battling some monster or doing some random act. Chesces had stated that this was an endeavour by their opponents to mislead them and it wouldn''t stop even if they punished the yers who did such.

    "Hmph! Gordon, take two yers with you and go check it out." ck Tempest ordered.

    Though ck Tempest guessed that this was probably just another fake, he still had to check on it just to be sure. It was better to be misled than to lose an actual opportunity.

    "Okay, boss." A [Berserker] who stood by the side responded before he called another yer with him and left with the dark clothed yer.

    Meanwhile...

    ''There are a lot of yers moving through the area recently.'' Sato thought as he hid atop a tree, shrouded by its leaves from hindsight.

    He easily guessed that a bounty would be ced on him and while Sato didn''t feat a battle, he didn''t want to be too exposed to the public. As long as he hid long enough, everything will eventually fade away and he would be able to walk in public once again. But for now, Sato believed that it was best for him to remain in hiding. One reason was because he didn''t like publicity and another was to avoid being surrounded by experts on Han''s level. Even with the level difference, Sato doubted that he would be able to escape with his life unless he used the [Void Opening Key].

    ''These guys are quite good.'' Sato thought as he nced at a certain group of yers up ahead.

    The party had managed to spot him once and they began chasing after him. To avoid getting himself a red name since he was about to enter town, Sato didn''t kill them and only managed to their the off. However, they had an expert tracker in their ranks, possibly an [Assassin] with the [Hunter] subss. Thanks to that individual, the party was still able to catch on to Sato''s tracks but they were always one step behind in finding him. However, they didn''t seem to bothered since as long as they could track him, they would be able to pinpoint his location sooner orter. And it was this very fact that made Sato frustrated.

    "This guy is a good runner. No matter how fast we chase after him, he''s still able to outrun everyone of us." A [Swordsman] in the team spoke up with a dejected expression.

    "He''s someone wanted by 2 top guilds. If he was that easy to catch, I doubt he would be wanted." A [Cleric], one of the healing sses in the game, replied.

    "What''s bothering me is the fact that he seems unwilling to attack us. For him to be wanted by both guilds and still be alive to this point, his battle prowess should be something amazing but he doesn''t seem to want to attack us." The [Cleric] frowned.

    "Don''t think too much about it. Maybe he feels we aren''t worth him stressing to deal with us. Most experts usually have a quirky personality and I''m guessing this guy is the same." Another yer, a [Guardian],mented.

    "Maybe. Well, it doesn''t matter. We just need to be able to track him down. Once the team from Emperor''s Might arrive, they will handle him while we get out reward." The [Cleric] stated.

    "It''s all thanks to Arnold here. That [Hunter] subss is definitely something." The ,[Swordsman] praised.

    Arnold, who bent on the floor to study the marks, smiled at the praise before resuming his work.

    The [Hunter] subss was one of the more difficult subsses to get, apart from the 3 most popr ones. Due to the abilities revolving it, it was more popr amongst [Assassin] yers as the subss seemed to perfectlypliment their main ss.

    "He''s definitely not gone far yet.. Chances are that he''s still in the surroundings so everyone has to keep their guard up."

 Chapter 410 - 404 : Escaping

    ''If I''m to escape without getting tracked, the [Assassin] has to go.''

    Atop a 10 metres tall tree, Sato hid in between the branches, preventing his figure from being spotted by the individuals below.

    To escape the crew below, Sato could simply ughter them all, but as he was about to enter the town, doing so wasn''t advisable. When a yer kills another yer, they have their name written in red alongside a red marker above their head, recing the usual green marker.

    There were a few ways currently known to get rid of the color change but the most simplest and employed process was to wait it out. Depending on the number of yers killed, the marker would slowly return to its original colour with time.

    Since Sato wasn''t too far from town and he also didn''t want to waste any more time, he could only kill one yer. Any more and that would intesify the shade of his marker and he would need to wait longer to get rid of it.

    ''Looks doable but won''t be easy.'' Sato narrowed his eyes.

    The [Assassin] was beside the [Cleric] making him located in the safest ce in the battle formation. Apart from that, Sato noticed that the [Cleric] wasn''t an ordinary yer. From what he had seen so far, the [Cleric] was most likely amander-type yer. Having such an individual in the opposing team would make it difficult to break through their defence. However, this was for a yer who wasn''t Sato.

    ''Strength prevails over all.''

    Without further ado, Sato propeelled himself down towards the group as he swung the ck demonic sword at them.

    "Look at out!"

    The [Cleric] who stood in the middle of the team alerted everyone.

    "[Iron Wall]"

    The [Guardian] brought his shield in front of his hefty frame with a yell.

    A silver coloured light sprung forth from the shield, forming a wall that stood between him and Sato.

    *CRACK*

    The silver wall, which had a damage absorption capacity equivalent to two times the [Guardian''s] HP, had cracked in one hit and looked to be close to breaking apart. This meant that the attack from Sato was equivalent to 170% of the [Guardian''s] HP. In other words, if that attack hadnded, the [Guardian] would have died before he would notice it.

    "Im, impossible!" The [Guardian] screamed in shock as realised this fact.

    "!!!"

    Even the [Cleric] was rmed by this but he managed to regain hisposure almost immediately.

    "Attack!"

    Before he hadpleted the order, Sato had already brandished his sword for the second time, turning the once solid silver wall to nothing but tiny silver shards that glinted like fireflies.

    The remnant force from the sword had propelled it tond on the [Guardian''s] shield, sending him flying away.

    "What?" The [Cleric], who was about to give out more orders to his teammates was stunned by this.

    ''Too strong.''

    Even though he thought this, the [Cleric] couldn''t back-off now as the battle had already begun. He guessed that for someone like Sato, once he had decided to kill, he would definitely get it done. And with them constantly harassing him by giving chase earlier, they had definitely entered his bad book.

    "It''s just a buff![1] It won''tst long." The [Cleric] said as he discovered the ''truth''. This was done not only tofort himself but his teammates as well or else, they would all lose the will to resist against Sato.

    Though scared, the other two understood the meaning of the [Cleric''s] words as they suddenly scattered.

    As a team that took on bounty-rted missions and the likes, they had prepared certain contingencies and ns for different scenarios. For a situation like this where the target was simply too strong to take on head-on due to a buff, there were two options; one was to hold out till the buff''s duration was over while thest was to escape and regroupter.

    The team automatically went for thest option as the strength Sato had disyed was enough to show them that they weren''t a match for him, even if they ganged up on him.

    Of the yers, the [Assassin] was the fastest since the ss was biased towards speed, but the [Swordsman] was the one who had gone the farthest as he was already located behind the others. The [Cleric] looked to be the most likely target since he wasn''t so far from Sato and his speed wasn''t up to par to the others.

    Even though he knew this, the [Cleric] didn''t panic and just kept on running.

    Just as the others thought they could breathe a sigh of relief, since they all thought that Sato would chase after the [Cleric], the [Assassin] was given the shock of his life as he saw Sato''s eyes ncing in his direction which also happened to be the opposite direction of that of the [Cleric].

    ''What''s going on?'' The [Assassin] thought in fear as he ran as fast as his legs could take him.

    His question was finally answered as Sato began to make his way towards him. At first, Sato was about 10~12 metres away from him but within a second he was only 7 metres away. In the next second, Sato was just 3 metres away from him.

    Before the [Assassin] could scream out in both fear and shock, Sato was already beside him with [Drakken] moving towards the yer.

    Added with the manner of Sato''s appearance, the ck edge of [Drakken] looked like a horrific weapon of death as the [Assassin] felt chills over his body just by ncing at it. rm bells rang in his head as he saw the iing de, but it was as if time had paused as his body was too slow to react.

    ''No!''

    There was only enough time for a single thought to go through his head as the cursed sword sliced through his body, cutting it apart cleanly into two different sections. Following that, the corpse began to copse into starlight as a shocked expression was disyed on the [Assassin''s] face.

    AN :

    [1] Buff : As a gaming terminology, refers to an equipment, item or spell that increases the ability of the user.

 Chapter 411 - 405 : Black Tempestâ€™s Resolve

    ''He''s already dead.'' The [Cleric] thought as he sent an eye back at Sato.

    He had guessed that Sato''s main target would be the [Assassin] as that was the only yer capable of tracking him down. While the others might seem like a hindrance, they really weren''t; killing them would only depend on Sato''s mood and the [Cleric] hoped that his mood was great.

    [[ System notification :

    You have attacked a yer. Killing them would incur certain penalties. ]]

    [[ System notification :

    You have killed a yer. Your name tag and marker would be tainted by the hatred and animosity of the yer. ]]

    Watching the other two flee with their tails tucked in between their legs as notification after notification appeared on his interface, Sato spared them a nce no more as he set out back on his route to town. This time though, he decided to take a different and longer path, not only because of the red name that he had to clear off but also because his position was currentlypromised.

    A whileter, Gordon alongside the two other yers he departed with had intercepted the [Cleric] on their way to the previous location.

    "Hey, stop." Gordon said with an authoritative tone as he spotted the [Cleric].

    ''Fuck, who the heck are these guys?'' The [Cleric] thought.

    The guild feature wasn''t avable to yers yet so Gordon and his teammates didn''t have any emblem or uniform rted to Emperor''s Might that would aid the [Cleric] in recognizing them. Also, being a member of a super guild didn''t mean that you would be popr; only the top ranking members and core members were. Gordon and his teammates however, belonged to none so the [Cleric] didn''t know they were and presumed them to be a solo team.

    The [Cleric] had actually wanted to escape but as he saw the lineup of the party, he dumped the idea. There was no way he could outrun them.

    "May I ask what you gentlemen need?" The [Cleric] asked nicely.

    "You''re the one who sent us the information right? Clean Hands?" Gordon asked.

    "Yes, that''s me." The [Cleric], Clean Hands, replied as he sighed with relief. He had initially thought that they were a bunch of robbers or maybe even dark yers whose markers had cleared up. Realising that he was wrong and that they were the reinforcements his team weer supposed to wait for, Clean Hands was instead relieved.

    "You imed to have spotted the target. So, where''s he?" Gordon went straight to the point.

    Gordon was doubtful that they had actually found Sato and seeing Clean Hands haggard appearance, his doubts became more solid. T this point, Gordon didn''t have any hope that Clean Hands had seen Sato; he just wanted to be done with this and return back to town.

    Clean Hands sighed as he put on a sullen expression before replying " He escaped."

    "Hmph."

    Hearing that, one of Gordon''s teammates looked at Clean Hands with irritation, looking almost as if he would tear him apart at any second. The other yer had already ced a hand on hilt, waiting for themand to cut Clean Hands to pieces.

    While Riverdale town was the closest town to Stone Creek Forest, it still took an hour by foot to make it. In order to prevent a situation where the target would escape before they made it in time, Azure Dragon had brought out some funds for the hunt and that included transportation fees. Gordon and his teammates had spent part of their allocated money on a carriage to make it here and while it wasn''t exactly theirs, they were irked that they had spent it on a wild goose chase.

    ''They don''t believe me.'' Clean Hands discerned immediately.

    "You do now the penalty for a false alert, right?" Gordon said with an intimidating tone.

    "I know you guys might think that I''m a telling the truth but I have evidence; a video." Clean Hand replied.

    "Ha! A video huh? Bring out and let''s see it." The yer who had his hand on his sword''s hilt said with derision.

    They had already seen tons of doctored tapes with Sato''s face on it but the guild had deployed specialists to go through every video just to realise that it was fake. The [Swordsman] thought the same of Clean Hands'' video so he wanted to check it out.

    Without wasting much time, Clean Hands sent the video to the trio.

    "How is it?" Gordon asked thest yer in his group.

    The young man was one of the video-analyzing experts the guild had called to check the so called evidence that would be handed to them by different yers.

    "It''s doesn''t look fake and looks more real than the others. I will have to check with the proper equipmentter on. But for now, I''d say it''s either a really good doctored vid or it''s 80% real." The young man answered.

    "Just to be safe, I will inform the captain."

    Though he sounded in, Gordon became a bit hopeful that Clean Hands wasn''t deceiving him.

    "In which direction was it?" Gordon asked.

    "A few metres away from here. Right over there. I think he left for south from there." Clean Hands answered.

    "Alright. Lead the way then." Gordon said as he stared at Clean hands.

    ''They''re still suspicious of me. Oh well.''

    "Alright. " Clean Hands nodded.

    . . .

    "An 80% possibility? Good enough." ck Tempest said right after he received the news.

    Unlike the others who would be more considerate and careful in their approach, ck Tempest was one who liked to go straight to the point. With an 80% chance of the video being real, he felt that there was no need to be prudent with more investigations.

    "That''s the highest we''ve had so far." A [Druid] by the sidemented.

    "Where do you think he''s headed?" ck Tempest asked.

    "Definitely a town. The question is which. But seeing as he was closer to Riverdale than the others, I think the answer is obvious." The [Druid] replied after some thinking.

    "However, chances are that this might be a diversion while he heads to either ck Mountain town or Salt Springs town. Especially thetter as it''s the safest of the 3 towns. But even then, I advise that we shouldn''t let our guards drop low. If he dared to attack the teams of both our guilds and Battle Wolves, he would not be scared ofing to either of the 2 towns controlled by the 2 guilds especially since towns are safe-zones."

    "If he dares show up, even if I will get penalized, I won''t let him walk the streets of this town in open light.." ck Tempest narrowed his eyes.

 Chapter 412 - 406 : The Confrontation

    55 minutester¡­

    ''Finally.''

    Sato sighed with relief as he saw the towering walls of Riverdale town.

    He was currently at the entrance to the West district, which was the west gate of the town. Since this was the area he was most familiar with, Sato chose it as his entry spot. While it was true that with his image distributed out in wanted posters some yers who might have caught of glimpse of him here before might have prepared an ambush for him, Sato didn''t care. The best they could do was attack him outside of town but once he came inside, all forms of attacks would seize.

    However, while it was true that the town served as a natural safe-zone, some yers were crazy and daring to the extent of stillmitting murders behind the town''s walls. This was especially so with dark yers who feared almost nothing. Nheless, even if a yer were to suddenly go crazy and decide to pull of an attack in the town walls, Sato was still strong enough to end the yer like tiger would end a rabbit''s life.

    ''There they are.''

    Sato spotted a few yers gathered in front of the gate acting as guards. Just by their actions, it was very obvious that they were the yers stationed as lookouts in front of the gate just in case Sato were to show up.

    ''One in the light, then where''s the one in the dark.''

    Sato was certain that the team of yers up ahead weren''t the only ones waiting for him. There weer definitely a few dark yers keeping an eye out in the dark and some other guild yers who might be camouged, acting as regr yers just to lower his guard.

    "Captain, we''ve found him." A voice sounded in the ears of ck Tempest.

    "So that bastard actually dared to show up in my direction." ck Tempest looked ahead with a smile that didn''t look like one.

    Even though Sato was still almost 300 metres away, there were [Rangers] and scouts who kept a look out for him. Considering the fact that the [Ranger] ss boost the natural eyesight of the yer in the game, seeing that far out -though difficult- wasn''t necessary impossible especially with the aid of certain scouting equipment. Also, there were yers scattered all around the area starting from the west gate till 300 metres out. Sato just happened to be within their radar.

    "Prepare to surround him. Do it slow and steady, and make sure he doesn''t notice. We can''t lose this chance." ck Tempest said.

    "Captain, should I inform the others?" The [Druid] beside him asked. The [Druid] was ck Tempest''s deputy for this mission so he had to remain at his side at all times unless during battle.

    The ''others'' the [Druid] referred to were the other captains charged with each section of the town. Considering that Sato was able to take on the main team to the point of wiping out almost half their number as well as escaping their encirclement in ck Grill''s Cave, the [Druid] felt that their team alone was not enough to hold him back so it was best to call for backup. Also, Azure Dragon had previously informed every captain as well as their deputies to notify the other teams if Sato shows up in their area.

    ck Tempest initially didn''t want to do so as he wanted to reim the honour and glory of the guild by himself. It wasn''t that he was selfish but it would be an insult to the guild if a team of super guild experts couldn''t take down one unknown yer. In his opinion, their dignity was already harmed and having them gank[1] on one yer would harm it further. They would eventually be taken as bullies by the yermunity and while ck Tempest didn''t care much about this, it would affect the guild''s honour and dignity which he definitely cared about.

    But with the [Druid] informing him of Azure Dragon''smands in such a subtle fashion, ck tempest had no other option than to follow them or else if he were to fail here, the punishment he would receive wouldn''t be little.

    "Inform the others. The south district''s team is the closest to us so start with them." ck Tempest said.

    "Copy."

    Without wasting any second more, the [Druid] popped up his interface and sent a message to the south district''s team which was headed by Yukino.

    "You," ck Tempest nced at another yer. " ''leak'' the information to those bounty hunters and dark yers by the side. Send them the target''s location and make it look like a spy in our guild did so. I want them tounch the battle for us. The opponent is strong and unless we have an equally strong yer, we can only use numbers. You should know what to do right?"

    "Yes, captain." The yer replied.

    Despite being a brawny kind of guy, ck Tempest wasn''t a ''strong fist but an empty head'' kind of person. If he was then there was no way he would be an important member of Emperor''s Might. He just preferred the easy way of doing things which was by using one''s fist.

    While the news of Sato''s appearance was slowly released and the other teams in the other districts were making their way over, the centre of all the attention, Sato, was wiping his sword with a cloth.

    "They''ve probably spotted me already and have most likely notified the others. If I dash out immediately, they would use every item and weapon in their arsenal to dy me and prevent me from getting to the town. They''ve already had a taste of my strength so they will be definitely prepared this time around." Sato sighed with a frown as he concluded his monologue.

    "I can''t start a ughter especially this close to town. The developers said to treat it as reality and if that''s true, the town''s security will definitely notice it. The question is whether or not they will chase after me."

    "*sighs. In the end, the only thing I can do is run as fast as possible and get into the town. Once I''m past the gates, this will all be over."

    While it looked lie Sato was worried, that was partly true and partly false. Partly true in the sense that he would soon face a team of yers lurking both in the dark and in the light, with various equipment and items that may be able to harm him or hold him down.

    Even though the game hadn''t been online for month yet, more than 2 weeks had already gone by. This was enough time for the various guilds to raise a lot of capital, farm a lot of items and equipment and improve on their skills while adapting to the game. Therefore, no one really knew how strong they were right now. The team Sato faced before was simply a raid team that consisted of less than 30 men. This time around, he would be facing more than 50 and possibly 100 yers. What''s worse was that the number will increase over time. There was also the fact that all those yers would be equipped with certain trump card items that would be able to stop him even for less than second.

    All of that amounted together would be able to make Sato eat a grievous loss in this situation. Therefore, it was understandable why he was a partly anxious.

    As for why Sato wasn''t anxious, it was because in the end,

    ''Overwhelming strength triumphs over all.''

 Chapter 413 - 407 : Attacked From All Sides

    Riverdale town was closer to Stone Creek forest than the other towns. Because of that reason, part of the area around it was covered in vegetation, making easy hiding spots and ambush areas outside of the town.

    "Captain, he''s made his move."

    Since he already had his n ready and couldn''t afford to waste any more time, Sato directly exposed himself as he began running in a straight line towards the town.

    "He''s aiming to get into town before anyone can stop him; wise choice." The [Druid] beside ck Tempest couldn''t help but praise.

    "Hmph. Even if his n is that easy, it'' not like we''re stupid enough not to realise it." ck Tempest smiled with mockery.

    "You''ve informed them?" ck Tempest asked the yer beside him..

    "Yes, sir. I did as you ordered." The yer immediately replied.

    "Good. Now, all we need to do is sit back and watch the show; it''s too soon for us to make an appearance."

    . . .

    "Boss, news just came in from our sources. The target is at our spot and apparently not so far from us." An [Assassin] faced a [Necromancer].

    "Oh really? This is good, good, good. Seems like the heavens have decided to smile on us." The [Necromancer] grinned eerily. On top of his head, was his identity marker which had the colour red, unlike the usual green markers everyone had atop their heads. Even the [Assassin] only had a deep orange(fire orange) marker atop his head.

    "For Emperor''s Might to be interested in that fellow to this extent, he definitely has something interesting on him. When you pair it with the fact that they had lost the first kill achievement to some unknown team, this prey is certainly rted to it. If we get to him first, then that secret will be ours. The Savage guild has to rise again."

    The [Necromancer] was apparently part of Savage guild, the dark guild that had a few shes with Emperor''s Might at the beginning of the game. After their constant beat-down by the big guilds, especially during therge dark yer manhunt a few weeks back, they had yet to make any noticeable achievement or progress.

    "Let''s move out. We have to take the target out before anyone else."

    . . .

    ''They are already getting so impatient.'' Sato thought as he noticed a few yers heading to his position.

    ''I need to leave now.''

    *Stomp*

    Like a cheetah chasing after its target, Sato left his hiding spot and dashed towards the town. He had his sword ced into the [Void Emerald Ring] to prevent it from affecting him in his run and since Sato had no intention of killing anyone, it wasn''t all that useful.

    "There he is!"

    Though Sato was running extremely quick, some yers weer still able to catch a glimpse of him and a few even managed to see his face. Added with the fact that he was running in such a hurry, they easily realised that he was the ''criminal'' everyone was looking for.

    "Stop right there."

    A [Guardian] jumped from the side and stood in front of Sato''s path. He had his shield lifted up to stop Sato but the [Guardian] obviously didn''t know much about this ''prey''. maybe due to being so self-conceited, the yer didn''t activate any defensive skills only putting his strength into his shield.

    *Bang*

    Sato''s fist connected with the shield and even tough he felt a bit of pain, it was nothing more than a sting. As for the [Guardian], the force of the punch had transmitted through the shield into his body, disrupting the natural processes in his system and giving him an unforgettable sensation. Sato''s in-game strength wasn''t something to be joked with. If it were to bepared to something in reality, Sato''s charge would be on par to that of a moving car at 50 mph. This wasn''t something an average level 7 [Guardian] could stop, even with a skill much less without one.

    Like stone thrown in a straight line, the [Guardian] was sent back till he crashed on a tree, making a dent on the tree''s trunk.

    "Mark!" Another voice yelled.

    Sato ignored the other opponents as he made his way forward, acting as if nothing had happened at all.

    "Strong, too strong."

    A yer who stood by the side and was previously about to attack Sato, froze in his footsteps as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. He had never seen someone take down a tank ss like that especially in the area those sses performed best.

    Sato had already gone past there and was headed to an open area when he felt something was off.

    "Hehe. Where do you think you''re going?" A creepyugh sounded in the open field as a yer garbed in ck cloak with a bone staff in his hand appeared mysteriously.

    "I hear that there''s a gold coin on your head. Why don''t you be a good boy and offer it to me. Kakaka." The [Necromancer] chuckled.

    Eve as he saw the weird yer before him, Sato didn''t stop as he continued charging forward like an invincible war machine.

    "What a stubborn child. Fine then, let''s do things the hard way." The [Necromancer] signaled with his hands.

    5rges appeared from the trees by the side as the surrounded Sato in every direction. Thes were interlocked with chains making them difficult to destroy and the holes were too little for any human sized object to pass through.

    "[Spectral Arrows]"

    The [Necromancer] waved his staff as 3 grey coloured spooky projectiles appeared and darted towards Sato from 3 different angles. The aim of the attack was to hold Sato long enough, even if for a second, so that thes would trap him.

    The [Necromancer] didn''t stop there however, as he went on to cast a basic spell, [Spectral st], at Sato.

    "Let me see the strength of the man who faced the Kobold King." The [Necromancer] grinned.

    AN :(Too big for Author''s section)

    Infinite Facts :

    The colour progression in detail was as from light orange, deep orange, red, scarlet, crimson, ga/blood red and finally ck.

    Light orange is a single kill up to 10. Deep orange begins from 10 till a hundred kills. Red signifies kills in the hundreds while scarlet appears from the 500 kill mark. Crimson is a monumental achievement that marks a thousand kills. Ga starts from 3000 kills whilst ck was 5000 kills. At this level, the achievement ''Death god'' is unlocked.

    PS : If a dark yer dies to another yer or an NPC, their marker''s shades lightens up which means a drop in rank. Therefore, it''s possible for a deep orange dark yer to have 200 kills but due to several deaths, didn''t make the marker cut.

    Therefore marker shade doesn''t indicate total kills but total kills without dying to a yer or an NPC.

 Chapter 414 - 408 : Running

    One from above, another behind, two from the sides, an extra aimed from the in front, with the 4 attacksunched by the [Necromancer], Sato had to face 8 different assaults all at once.

    Seeing the iing attack as well as the 5s that surrounded him, Sato didn''t grow anxious as he stretched out his hand and swung it in mid-air.

    Like a magician pulling a pigeon out of a top hat, [Drakken] mysteriously appeared in Sato''s hand with a ck metallic glint reflecting off of it as the sword was swung in mid-air.

    [ck me sh]

    A fiery arc of ck mes burst forth from the sword, moving towards the in front as well as the attacks beside it.

    Like a warrior moving unhindered, the ck me crescent shed the into two while also taking down two grey coloured projectiles as well as the dark ball that the [Necromancer] had firedst. Even after that, the crescent kept moving with vigor as it darted towards the [Necromancer].

    "??!"

    With eyebrows raised in surprise, the [Necromancer] was stunned by Sato''s counter but he easily regained his self. It was obvious that the fight wouldn''t be an easy one simply from the fact that Sato was able to take on two teams from two top guilds, singlehandedly..

    "[Spirit Summoning : Minor Summoning]"

    With the conclusion of his chant, a skeletal figure appeared in front of the [Necromancer] and immediately darted towards the ming arc.

    As it approached the ming arc, it suddenly lunged at it and without concern for its life, it wed at the crescent with its bony hand.

    *Boom*

    An explosion rattled the skeleton just as its hand collided with the ck arc. In the process, the explosion was just too strong that the skeleton was taken down with it, turning into bone shards with parts of it disintegrating into dust.

    Because of the explosion, Sato was forced to halt lest he gets injured by a byproduct of his attack.

    "To be able to destroy a trap, 3 of my attacks and still end my minor summoning. You''re one heck of a demon, aren''t you?" The [Necromancer] asked with a feverish expression that seemed either like fanaticism or anxiety due to fear.

    "Good, good. I will be taking your head and add it to my collection. Kakaka." The [Necromancer]ughed.

    ''Is he crazy?''

    At this point, Sato had forgotten that he was supposed to be in a hurry and couldn''t help but be stunned at the [Necromancer''s] reaction.

    Despite seeing that Sato was way ahead of him in strength, the [Necromancer] didn''t seem bothered but was still determined to kill Sato. It was either that he was really crazy or he had his confidence in something.

    *Rustle*

    5 shadows stepped out from their hiding spots in the bush as they surrounded Sato with a cold face. They were the yers who had fired thoses earlier but seeing as their attack had failed, there was no reason to keep hiding.

    Truthfully, the five were a bit gloomy since their ambush was handled with such ease. Despite having the element of surprise as well as an above-average item to aid them, they still weren''t able to pin Sato down and finish him off. Because of that, the battle would be elongated and more yers would soon show up to join in the hunt. This was both a bad thing for Sato and themselves.

    Bad for Sato, as even with a 6 level gap, taking on tend of people wasn''t advisable, and bad for the opponents because they would have to share the loot from Sato''s death with outsiders, as well as the bounty.

    "Focus on the job." One of the yers, who had a ck cloak to prevent his face from being seen, spoke out.

    "I know. Just buy me a few seconds." The [Necromancer] replied.

    The five didn''t make any noise as they proceeded to attack Sato. One of them, who was a [Ranger], retreated a bit as he immediately brought out his bow and fixed an arrow to it.

    Another, who held a staff, began casting spells at Sato. From the nature of his chants and staff, he looked to be a dark mage but not a [Necromancer] hence it could be inferred that he was thest of the main dark mage ss, the [Cursemancer].

    The third yer withdrew scrolls from his space bag as he began reading the chants on them one by one, before tearing them up. In just 2 seconds, he had torn apart 2 scrolls. The power in the scrolls proceeded to reach thest two and engulf them in it, boosting their attributes up a bit.

    As for thest two, of whom one of them was the cloaked yer, they withdrew daggers as they dashed at Sato without fear. From the looks of their weapons and movements, they were both [Assassins].

    The party of 6 was suited with the appropriate sses, not for a PvE battle but a PvP fight and even their coordination and actions showed that they must have practiced these movements a lot as a team. This was the development route of dark yers, especially the ones who moved in parties.

    Sato wasn''t interested in fighting it out with these guys as he didn''t intend on getting surrounded or getting an orange name so he just darted towards the side and began running away.

    "Get him."

    While the party was a bit stupefied at his actions, they still didn''t hesitate to give chase.

    "[Slow]" The [Cursemancer] yelled as he pointed his staff at Sato.

    Immediately, Sato felt his movement speed drop by a certain percentage as the others found it easier to chase after him.

    ''What an annoying ss.'' Sato thought.

    This was the second time he was facing a [Cursemancer] butpared to the yer he had faced before, the one chasing after him now was more stronger and experienced. Also, the game had been on for a while now so everyone was very familiar with their ss and had been developingbos for different situations.

    Even though he hadn''t faced a lot of [Cursemancers], Sato still did research on them.

    [Cursemancers] were a bit different from regr mages in the sense that some of their attacks couldn''t be seen. In other to bring out the true meaning of the word "curse", the developers had made the ss to be such that their attacks were usually invisible and mysterious. They could neither be sensed, seen, heard, or smelt. Within the basic attack range of a mage, the [Cursemancer] could be said to be invincible due to this attribute. Hence, it was quite difficult dodging their attacks or even blocking them. yers could only rely on their instincts in doing so.

    It was for this very reason that right after the healer, the [Cursemancers] were the next in line in priority of attacking. Sometimes, they were first because if they weren''t taken down, the fighter''s loss would be only a matter of time.

 Chapter 415 - 409 : Emperorâ€™s Might Joins The Mix

    "Hold him down!" The leading [Necromancer] yelled as he ran alongside the others as they pursued Sato. He was still preparing his spell but with him having to chase after Sato, the cast duration had increased in turn.

    "It''s not that easy." The cloaked [Assassin] said in response as he was still stunned by the fact that he couldn''t even catch up.

    ''Even though the cursended on him, he''s still this fast! He''s already really strong and now this fast? What level is he? What kind of equipment does he have on?'' The cloaked yer couldn''t help but be astounded.

    Despite running with his full strength, he could barely match up to Sato''s pace, and this was with Sato being cursed whereas he had a buff that increased his speed.

    ''I really need to be careful around [Cursemancers].'' Sato thought as he felt his speed slowly recovering.

    As this was the very first time Sato had faced a grown [Cursemancer], he wasn''t so cautious about the yer as he thought he could waltz and dodge all the attacks. Unlike the other sses, apart from the [Cleric], [Cursemancers] had the weakest attack power in the game and so, they were only good at team fights making the ss a dependent one.. Because of this, most yers tend to underestimate them, even in team fights. Sadly, Sato realised the hard way that his previous thoughts were nothing more than a dream.

    ''Hmm?''

    "Hmm?"

    Almost at the same time, Sato and the [Necromancer] felt something up ahead. It was like an instinctual response from their expert senses.

    "Haha. You guys are so terrible at one job. Let me show you how it''s done."

    A loud voice suddenly boomed from in front with the appearance of a descendingrge figure who wielded arge door-sized war-hammer.

    "Die!"

    The new arrival swung down the hammer with tightened muscles, amplifying its already descending speed due to gravity with his own strength. The end result was an attack that had the forces capable of smashing a full-grown elephant to death. Just the size of the hammer alone was enough to scare one from confronting it head-on, much less the attack that was terrifying.

    "Get out."

    With a cold voice, Sato brandished [Drakken] at the figure, purposely aiming it at the hammer to avoid killing the yer instantly. Even though the yer made his appearance with an intimidating assault, Sato was anything but intimidated.

    *ng*

    *Bang*

    A soft metal ng rang out the very instant the two weapons collided. However, before the sound could go far enough, a loud bang exploded from the same spot as the hammer-wielding figure was sent flying back almost in the same manner as he had arrived. Despite arriving in such a taunting way, he was unable to deal any damage to Sato and was instead dealt damage due to the force of collision from the two weapons.

    ''Too strong.''

    Even though the cloaked [Assassin] was already aware of this, seeing this disy of strength reminded him of the same thing again.

    "Ha!"

    A loud noise sounded as two yers charged from the sides with their weapons held high. They were [Berserkers] who had performed the ss'' [Charge] alongside the skill [Cleave]. The direction of their charge was undeniably Sato and even though they had caught a glimpse of the hammer-wielding yer''s end.

    Their original intention was to assault Sato once he was sted away by the hammer-wielding yer or at least held back by him. However, Sato had easily dealt with their partner, forcing them to make changes to their initial n.

    Not wanting to waste any more time, Sato dodged the duo with ease and sped up till he had left them behind.

    Seeing him get past them, the duo didn''t give up right away but instead joined up with the others and began pursuing Sato.

    ''Almost there.''

    The town was currently less than 200 metres away from Sato, and for him, this equated to roughly 20-30 seconds. However, there were at least 10 different yers behind and the number just kept on increasing. In terms of marksmen sses(ranged sses), there were at least 5 of them who could attack from a ranged distance with an insane uracy rate. Sato had to constantly dodge these attacks from time to time, to prevent himself from being held back by them.

    Just as Sato was wondering if these were the only yers after him, a bunch of yers showed up in front of him, just a few tens of metres away from the south gate.

    "Now!"

    ck Tempest roared as the floor beneath them developed a yellow aura. While the others were unaffected by the aura, Sato felt his actions to be immensely difficult to perform as his body slowly began toe to a halt. It was as if he was stuck in a quagmire and found moving difficult.

    "He''s caught. Now!" ck Tempest shouted.

    Following that, the yers who had arrived with ck Tempest began using their various attacks on Sato. Most of them, especially the long-distance fighters had already kept their distance from Sato and attacked from a safe spot. For the non-ranged yers, they made use of the ranged items in their bags starting from attack-type scrolls to ranged consumables like explosives.

    Multiple coloured projectiles shot through the air as they all aimed for the slow-moving Sato. For a second, the sky looked like a myriad of colours as both the grey and ck coloured attacks of the [Cursemancers], as well as the varied colorful attacks of the different [Elementalists], all streaked through the sky as they aimed for Sato.

    *Boom*

    The spot Sato stood at became covered in dust and explosions, all as a result of thebined attack he had to face.

    "See there, that''s how you do it.". ck Tempest smirked.

    "A bunch of dark yers but you still don''t know how to kill a regr one with no effort." ck Tempest jeered at the team of yers.

    However, he wasn''t done doing so when a voice suddenly spoke up.

    "It''s true that they don''t know how to kill a yer but who are you to say differently about yourself."

    The dust and mes from the explosion finally settled as Sato''s figure was revealed inside to be standing firm despite all of that.

    ck Tempest and the rest nced at him with wide-open eyes as they wondered how a yer could tank all of that without dying.

    [[ System notification :

    You have been attacked by a yer. Retaliating against your attacker won''t incur any punishment on you. ]]

    "You know, I was originally nning to let you all off but it seems like that was a mistake of mine. I have a feeling that till you understand the difference between us, you guys would stop at nothing to kill me. So, let me give you a glimpse of that difference."

    Even without his words, the others had realised that the temperature of the entire ce has dropped a few degrees as Sato''s face turned cold. The ck cursed sword, [Drakken], was firmlytched onto his right hand as Sato nced at the surrounding yers.

    During his run, 7 yers had joined up with the previous 6 from Savage guild while ck Tempest led a team of 8 yers with him. Therefore, a total of 21 yers were out in the open, confronting Sato head-on.

    Sato knew that there were a few more hiding behind the bushes, biding their time for the right opportunity to make a strike. He had even sensed at least 7 of them so far but there were definitely more than that. They were just being careful with their actions and didn''t rush to join the battle, most likely because they had seen Sato''s strength and weren''t too confident of victory even with the 22 yers in front. Those guys who hid in the shadows wanted to make use of the 21 yers as their cannon-fodder to deplete Sato''s energy and stamina before they would finally make their moves. However, Sato didn''t care.

    With the system notification alerting him of being able to attack the yers, Sato felt that there was no reason why he shouldn''t. If he kept on running, not only would he be perceived as a weakling, but the news would spread and other yers would be attacking him for being a lucky chap in defeating the Kobold King. It would not only affect the morale of the team but it could affect Sato adversely as most yers would begin considering him a lucky fellow. While it was true that Sato never cared about public opinion, he had to this time around, at least for the sake of his team.

    ''We''ll need to recruit some yers soon and if the leader of the team is seen as a wuss, no one would want to join us. In that case, a little show of strength wouldn''t hurt.''

    Even with the 20+ pairs of eyes on him, Sato remained calm and flexed his muscles. Stretching his neck a bit till he heard a ck, Satofortably nced around at the yers who remained frozen in their footsteps.

    "I5 seconds; that''s all I need.

 Chapter 416 - 410 : Emperorâ€™s Might Joins The Mix 2

    "Insolence!" A yer from the renowned super guild''s side yelled in fury.

    "Hahaha. That''s the funniest joke I''ve ever heard." The [Necromancer]ughed like there was no tomorrow.

    Even though heughed, he was extremely cautious deep down. If anyone were to know how strong Sato was, apart from the guild yers who had faced him up front, those who chased after would.

    "Die." The [Necromancer] said with a wide grin.

    *Whoosh*

    A spectre(specter in AmE) suddenly appeared behind Sato as it wrapped its arms around him. It had appeared in such an eerie manner that no one else had noticed it until it now..

    [Contracted Summoning]

    [Necromancers] and [Summoners] were simr in the sense that they both barely participated in fights directly, relying on their summoned beasts/creatures to do battle on their behalf. Even their skills were simr to the other, and could even be said to be the same.

    There were 3 general summoning skills the two sses possessed and though they differed a bit, they were simr in functionality. In the [Necromancer] ss'' case, the first was the [Minor Summoning], then [Contracted Summoning], and finally [Random Summoning].

    [Minor Summoning] was used to spawn a mob-level character to face the opponent. Usually, the strength of the summon was either a level or two below that of the user. [Contracted Summoning] dealt with summoning the [Necromancer''s] main battle force, in other words, their true battle summon and not a mob. It could also be raised and trained since it was a direct part of a [Necromancer''s] strength. As for [Random Summoning], it was a special skill that enabled them to summon a monster of random strength from the underworld. However, due to the peculiarities surrounding the skill as well as the criteria needed to utilise it, [Random Summoning]could only be essed at ater stage in the yer''s growth.

    The [Necromancer''s] [Contracted Summoning] was a spectre he had stumbled upon in the remains of a haunted house. Unlike the basic contracted undead summons [Necromancers] received upon starting the game, the spectre was different and also much stronger. There was no reason for this other than the obvious fact that the summon one contracts on their own would definitely be much stronger than a beginner level summon rewarded by the system.

    *Kisshhhhh*

    As the spectre moved, a sizzling strange sound transmitted from its body adding to the spooky nature of the creature.

    Sato felt a chill behind him and without turning to see, he simply relied on his instincts and jumped to the side. Just as the spectre was about to chase after him, Sato suddenly disappeared from his spot and appeared behind a yer on the Savage guild''s side.

    "Ah!"

    Only a scream was heard before the yer fell to the ground as a corpse.

    His teammates who were beside him were stunned by the sound and before one of them could even turn to the source, he was greeted by a ck de to his head.

    "!!!"

    An instant death.

    Within just two seconds, Sato had harvested the lives of two yers with a cold face.

    "[Spectral st]." The [Necromancer] waved his bone staff in Sato''s direction.

    *Whoosh*

    A dark coloured ball shot towards Sato like a canon-ball fired from a cannon. At the same time, the spectre had appeared beside Sato as itshed out with its ws again.

    Taking a step back, Sato dodged the ws of the spectre before he went on to move towards the side, blocking the ''cannon-fire'' that came from the [Necromancer].

    "Attack him, what are you waiting for?!" The [Necromancer] yelled at ck Tempest and his teammates.

    Knowing that the dark yers would serve as nothing but cannon-fodder if this goes on, ck Tempest gave the order for his group of 11 to join the fight. If they could, they were to defeat Sato, otherwise, the main goal would be to hold him back and prevent Sato from entering the town till the others arrive. When that happens, even if Sato was a level 15 yer(which he was), ck Tempest believed that he would still die.

    Even as the number of attackers increased, Sato didn''t shy away from a fight but instead confronted them one by one. One second he would be beside a [Berserker] and by the next one, a healer would be dead at his feet.

    "Watch out and stay in groups of threes." ck Tempestmanded as he tried to attack Sato.

    Usually, in a group battle, the individual would try to take down the strongest of the opposing team as that would make taking in the rest easier but Sato did the opposite. He avoided engaging inbat with the stronger yers and faced the weaker ones. It wasn''t that he was being a coward or anything, but that doing so would make things more difficult for him.

    Unlike in ck Grill''s Cave, the teams hade prepared for him. There was a high chance that most of the items they ced their fate in were in the hands of the strongest yers in the team. The abilities and number of items were unknown to Sato but he could guess that they were pretty powerful. After all, Emperor''s Might wouldn''t date tounch arge-scale manhunt for him if they couldn''t finish him off.

    "He''s escaping!" One of the mages in alert yelled as he noticed Sato''s pattern of movement.

    Unlike what they thought, Sato didn''t simply engage in a pointless ughter but only targeted the yers that stood in his way. The town wasn''t so far from him and that meant that reinforcements for the attackers wouldn''t take long to arrive. If Sato remained held down in the fight, ck Tempest would have indirectlypleted his mission, though at the cost of a lot of lives.

    ''Almost there.'' Sato thought as he saw the huge west gate.

    "Huh?"

    From the other side of the gate, a party of 7 were currently making their way towards Sato. The one who stood at the lead position was a youngdy, roughly the same age as Sato. She nced ahead of herself and noticed that a figure was dashing straight towards her. It was only when she focused carefully on the figure that she finally realised who it was.

    "It''s you?!" Yukino yelled in fury.

    Without even waiting for her teammates, she unsheathed her sword and increased her speed, charging right at Sato.

    ''Of all the people to meet, it had to be this mad woman.'' Sato''s face scrunched in exasperation.

 Chapter 417 - 411 : Helpless

    "Die."

    Yukino lunged at Sato with her great-sword in hand, forgetting that she wasn''t his match due to the level difference.

    *Vroo*

    As the Snow Goddess brandished her sword, a crystal-like beam shot from the tip of the de and headed towards Sato. Sato almost couldn''t react to it because he had never seen her use such a skill before. Luckily, he had been on high alert ever since his presence was revealed so Sato was barely able to dodge it, albeit at thest second.

    *Boom*.

    The beamnded on the ground and formed a crater with burn marks at the spot. The nearby NPCs who stood close to the gate were shocked and they began to panic. The guards hurried to calm them down as they nced at Sato and Yukino who stood still in confrontation. However, neither of the guards made any move against them.

    [[ System notification :

    You are close to a safe zone. Disrupting the peace in the area would result in you getting punished by relevant authorities. ]]

    Both Sato and Yukino paused their movements as they took note of the system notification. The notification alone was able to calm Yukino down as she had to consider her options properly.

    As most yers had yet to know of the mechanics surrounding the game, there were a few select types of notifications that would appear when a yer was about to cross the line and break a rule. The notifications served as a form of warning to the yers concerning the event around/pertaining to them. A good example was the current situation.

    While it was true that the area outside of town wasn''t ssified as a safe zone, the NPCs in the game weren''t so stiff elements that abide by simple programs. They were made with certain natural human reactions in mind. Depending on the exact situation, they could react opposite tomon knowledge.

    Sato and Yukino''s short sh had resulted in scaring the low-ss NPCs and citizens so the guards wouldn''t tolerate it if their fight went too far and affected the onlookers, hence the warning in the form of a system notification.

    "You can''t attack me and I don''t exactly have a reason to attack you. Why don''t you cool off and let me pass." Sato nced at Yukino as he spoke.

    "Who says I can''t attack you?" Yukino stared aggressively at him.

    "The closest NPC to me is just 15 metres away. Are you sure you can stop me from making it?" Sato replied nonchntly.

    "You¡­!!" Yukino couldn''t help but get angry as she realised the meaning behind Sato''s words.

    "You''re already ahead of me in level but you still dare to use an innocent bystander as a shield?!"

    The meaning of Sato''s words was just as she had said. The system notification that had appeared on the duo''s interface was merely a warning and a hint that they should avoid dragging the bystander NPCs into their fight, otherwise, they would get attacked by the guards. Sato discerned this almost immediately, and though unscrupulous, he decided to use it to his advantage. There were 3 reasons why he did so.

    First, it was the fastest and safest way for him to escape. The others had already arrived and for Sato to get away safely would be a bit difficult. If he were to use another yer as a hostage, no one would care especially so for the dark yers and NPCs. However, using the citizen NPCs would prevent even the craziest of yers from attacking him. The repercussions a yer would suffer under the hands of the NPC guards wasn''t a joke and could even cripple one''s gaming ount.

    Secondly, Sato didn''t want to breed too much bad blood between him and the super guild. Currently, he had only killed a handful of their yers and the numbers didn''t matter much as these yers were just average in the eyes of the upper echelons. But if he were to attack a prodigy like Yukino, the main branch might end up turning an eye towards him.

    Unlike the branch division here, the main branch was a true monster and the home to some of the most popr and strongest VR gamers in this era. The guild leader, the Emperor, was a good example and he resided with the main branch. Even if the main branch didn''t make any moves, some of the stronger branch divisions might and this was something Sato desperately wanted to avoid because there were some scary figures among them. Hence if possible, he wouldn''t turn to violence if he had a much simpler option.

    Finally, apart from his fear of the main branch as well as the stronger side branches, Sato had to make sure that the damages he caused here were reduced to the minimum, preventing the current branch from having any reason to pursue this to the end.

    As it stood now, Sato was mostly guilty of killing the Kobold King(which isn''t a crime) and ending a few of the yers from the branch guild. This wasn''t a viable reason for Azure Dragon to turn it into a blood feud. Eventually, there will be more world-ss BOSSES in the game and the yers of the guild would end up dying at the hands of others. If Azure Dragon were to pursue every single one of such incidents, he would get drained and die early with white hair.

    This meant that with time, this incident would be put to rest and the two parties would be able to confront each other without any detestation. They might even end up working together in the future. Of course, this was all on the premise that Sato didn''t cause irreversible harm to the guild especially by killing off their peak units. It was exactly for this reason that Sato didn''t attack ck Tempest or Yukino, even though he could kill them with ease.

    "Yukino, what''s going on?" Azure Dragon finally appeared.

    Seeing her in a standstill with Sato, he felt that things were weird and so, didn''t order for his men to attack.

    "We can''t do anything." Yukino sighed as she exined everything to Azure Dragon.

    Azure Dragon narrowed his eyes as he got the gist.

    At the moment, a lot of yers had gathered at the west gate. This included those who were interested in the bounty as well as those who just wanted to see some fun. If Azure Dragon didn''t solve the issue at hand, he would be dragged by the yermunity for being a wimp and the dignity of the guild as well as its guild leader would be severely harmed.

    "Let him go; that''s the only thing we can do." Chesces sighed.

    Even though as a member of the guild, he shouldn''t be saying such, Chesces already knew the truth and he knew that Azure Dragon did too. Unless they could instantly kill Sato, there was nothing they could do. Even if they could, the very second they try to give amand out, Sato would make his move at the slightest movement from them. Chesces knew this simply from a nce at Sato''s posture.

    Sato was already prepared to sprint away and with his speed, no one would be able to stop him from crossing a 20 metres distance much less 15 metres.

 Chapter 418 - 412 : Arrival

    [[ System notification :

    Wee, yer Sky de, to ck Rock City.

    ]]

    With a sea blue sh, Sato appeared on a small round stage alongside some other NPCs in arge hall crowded with other NPCs, with a slightly disced expression but recovered within a second.

    ''The teleportation array is way worse than the Worrus'' technique but that''s to be expected.'' Sato evaluated his experience.

    There were two major forms of transportation in IR as of now, the first was bynd; which required the yer to either walk to the destination or charter a carriage for the journey. The second method had to do with making use of teleportation arrays which, although quick, was very expensive.

    The teleportation array was a strategic invention in the world of Infinite Realm that enabled yers to move through towns and cities without having to take the long road. Also known as the epitome of space magic and magic technology, the device was capable of fast transportation speed as well as assured security during the process. Depending on the distance between the two nodes(the activated array and the target array) a yer could arrive at their destination from anywhere between 10 seconds-15 minutes.. And since it teleported the target to a set location, it was almost impossible for one to be robbed during the process. This was because not only was the teleportation fast speed -especially if the destination wasn''t too far from the location- but also, it was teleportation; robbing someone during spatial travel was almost impossible.

    However, certain exceptions did exist with the mostmon one being the interference of a grandmaster-level space-time magic user.

    Considering that finding a user of space magic alone was difficult, one could imagine the difficulty of spotting a space-time user what more a grandmaster-level kind of figure. Most of those figures were hired to work directly under a king or an emperor so they weren''t easily spotted. Even if one could, the target for the robbery has to be a teleportation ride that was heading towards a very long distance, for example, cross-kingdom teleportation, empire-kingdom, or even empire-empire teleportation. Hence the security of teleportation array travels, especially for cross-town or town-city, was the most secure among the various forms of travelling.

    ''So this is ck Rock city''s teleportation station¡­''

    The round stage Sato stood on a was grey coloured[1] tform with blue cryptic marks and scribbles all over it, looking like an aesthetic work of art. Apart from the one Sato stood on, there were 9 other stages with a simr appearance to his that had people on them. A few metres to the side were a bunch of counters filled with clerks.

    Over time, some NPCs would walk towards those clerks before paying a certain fee and receiving a ticket. Then they would head to the waiting room which was just beside the hall. Having experienced something simr, Sato knew that those were the NPCs that had booked a spot on the teleportation array but had to wait till all the spots had been sold before they could finally depart.

    ''Luckily, I made it in time.'' Sato thought as he recalled the past event.

    After the threat he had pulled up against the super guild and the surrounding yers, Azure Dragon was forced to let him go since they couldn''t hold him back. Truthfully, if he had seen any sign of hesitation, Sato would have charged straight to the town. Luckily though, no such urrence took ce.

    Even though they had let him walk, there were still a few yers trailing Sato, looking for an opportunity to end him even in town. However, Sato remained in crowded ces and even boarded a carriage to the teleportation station at the central district to prevent his stalkers from getting any opportunity to mess around and also to make it in time.

    The teleportation array was bestpared to an airne since just like howmercial airliners board more than 70 passengers in a bid to not only recover their expenditures but also make profits, teleportation stations did the same. Operating a teleportation array required a lot of special resources especially those of the space element as well as magic crystals and sometimes even mana gems(or mana crystals).

    Right beside Sato was a few NPCs that had tagged along for the trip. Since operating the array required a lot of resources, it would only be used after a lot of people had booked their spots for it, simr to how traveling on an airne goes. There were operating times for each usage and yers would either book ahead or arrive on time and pay for a spot. Each teleportation array had a maximum capacity of 25 people but only 15 spots would be avable for booking. The remaining 10 were left for those who arrived at the spot just before the array would be activated. This was to help facilitate travel for yers who might be in a hurry. However, any of the 25 spots could be upied by an NPC so payers had to make haste lest they do so toote.

    Sato didn''t want to waste his time looking for a map towards ck Rock city from Riverdale town and he definitely didn''t want to spend his hours on a carriage. Therefore, he took the easiest and fastest route which he hade to know of from the summarised edition of the library''s books. Of course, due to the fact that activating it was pricey, Sato''s wallet suffered a sting in exchange for the 7 seconds journey. It was for reasons like this that NPC merchants usually moved their goods via carriage rather than teleportation arrays, as the cost would be very high.

    "Young sir, do you need anything? Maybe a guide?"

    As Sato came off the tform, a young NPC boy walked up to him with a smile.

    ''I haven''t even gone out but the difference is too much.'' Sato sighed internally.

    Unlike with the teleportation array here as well as the teleportation station, the difference was clear inparison to that of Riverdale town. Not only was the teleportation station in Riverdale smaller, but there were also fewer arrays and clerks; probably since not a lot of residents could easily afford the means of transportation. There was also the fact that back in town, Sato wasn''t addressed or aided by any guide or anything simr. However, he was already met with one barely aftering here.

    ''However, this character design is something. Looks like life here isn''t so easy.'' Sato thought as he studied the young boy.

    The kid looked to be about 14 or 15 years of age but due to malnutrition, he had the body of a 12-year-old.

    "Do you know where I can get a map of the city?" Sato asked.

    He wanted to take a look at the many different scenes and ces in other to get ustomed to the city and reap as many benefits as possible.

    "A map? Yes, I do." The young NPC replied to him with a smile.

    "Price?" Sato asked immediately.

    "Just 4 copper coins."

    Back in Riverdale town, 4 copper coins were enough to meal in a pub while still having some spare change in hand. However, the same amount of money could only be used to purchase a map. The difference was clear right from the start.

    "Here."

    To an average yer, a fee of 4 copper coins wasn''t much so for Sato who was among one of the wealthiest individuals in the game, less would be said about it.

    "So, do you still need a guide, sir?" The young kid asked with a calm but slightly anxious tone.

    ncing at his innocent eyes, Sato decided to aid the kid as his character and appearance touched his heart. He could see based on the boy''s dressing alone, that the NPC was having a tough time making a living, and as a kid, it would affect him mentally.

    "Alright then. How much do you charge?" Sato asked.

    "I charge based on duration or destination, sir." The young boy replied.

    "Duration it is. Let''s go."

    After settling the fees with the boy, Sato asked him to lead him to the nearest material shop since he wanted to check out whether he could find something useful to us and improve on his cksmithing abilities.

    "You''re a cksmith?" The boy asked with interest and respect clear in his voice.

    "Kind of; I''m still an apprentice." Rather than making himself look amazing in the boy''s eyes, Sato just answered the truth.

    "That''s cool!" The boy eximed with glistening eyes.

    "Then you must be here for the Apprentice cksmithpetition."

 Chapter 419 - 413 : A Lead

    "That''s cool!" The boy eximed with glistening eyes.

    "Then you must be here for the Apprentice cksmithpetition."

    "Hmm? What''s that?" Sato asked as he felt that he had unwittingly discovered a hidden quest.

    In most VR games, to motivate yers to explore and adventure, quests and missions could be unlocked just by having a random discussion with some NPC or stumbling upon a notice. Just like how Fudo had gotten his first mission just by having a conversation with a drunkard and getting him wine, there were so many ways of getting missions from NPCs. It was to the point that in advanced VR games like IR, just by asking an NPC whether they needed help, a yer would receive a mission if the NPC did indeed need some help.

    However, most of the missions gotten this way had very poor rewards, and only with good luck would one stumble upon a good mission with satisfying rewards.

    Since he had just arrived, Sato decided to try his luck and see if he could hit the jackpot.

    "Huh? You don''t know?" The young boy nced at Sato with a confused expression..

    Sato didn''t reply him but simply stared the young boy in the eye.

    Seeing Sato not answer him, the young boy remembered their difference in status.

    "Oh. Uhm, the apprentice cksmith trials is apetition for apprentice cksmiths to test out their skills in front of the judges as well as the people. Depending on their performance, they could even get promoted to a quasi-cksmith rank or even straight up to a professional cksmith. There''s also an impressive reward for the winner, though I don''t know what it is. Also, even if you don''t win, there''s still an advantage."

    "Oh? What''s that?" Sato developed an interest in the boy''s words.

    "You should know that the service of a professional cksmith isn''t cheap neither is it easy for those like me to get their help. Therefore, apprentice cksmiths are actually the busiest in the entire industry. However, people are still a bit apprehensive about them. The title ''apprentice'' obviously has to do with this." The young boy exined.

    "So the advantage of thispetition would be for the apprentices to disy their skill. As long as they could get a good ranking or their technique is found satisfactory by the judges, they would be able to receive more customers and might even be a bit famous."

    "I see." Sato replied with a contemting face.

    ''So the Apprentice cksmithpetition is like a public disy of skills but in a tournament-like format. It would be useful for yers who focus more on their subss but not for me.''

    Though he found thepetition to be interesting, Sato didn''t feel like participating. He didn''t want to be recognized as a cksmith as he intended to keep that identity of him a secret. At the same time, Sato was more of abatant than a lifestyle ss yer so he didn''t have much interest in furthering his career as a cksmith.

    However, to a cksmith yer, the advantage was indeed impressive.

    As one had just arrived in town, there was a very low possibility that they would be patronised by NPCs. They would have to work at the cksmith guild for a while and build some fame for themselves before they could finally open a shop or a stall. Otherwise, if they did so first, they won''t make any profit and would simply incur losses. However, the existence of the contest helped change this. Thanks to it, yers could build a bit of fame for themselves without having to ''ve'' at the cksmith guild. Of course, this was on the condition that their skill was impressive and they got a good ranking in the tournament.

    "If I''m correct, one of the rewards should be a copy of Savir''s manual." The young boy suddenly said with an emotional tone.

    "Savir?" Sato widened his eyes in surprise as he stared at the boy.

    "Hmm. The legendary scribe, Savir. While it''s true that he was a rune-forger, he was said to have dabbled in many of the other arts including cksmithing. He had even made a special manual for apprentice cksmiths which is the reward for the contest this time around. Sadly, it wasn''t publicly circted so it can only be gotten in events like this. However, even then, the owner would have to return itter and not make a copy of it else they would suffer some heavy repercussions that could even be deadly." The young boy exined, not knowing why Sato was surprised.

    Partly paying attention to the boy''s words, Sato focused the other part of his attention on his ring. Inside of it was a silver coloured card with bronze edges and a mystical pattern engraved on the centre.

    [[ System interface :

    [Savir''s card : Unknown :

    Can be used to unlock Savir''s Mansion.

    System description : With this, you might get something good.]]

    ''I almost forgot about you.'' Sato smirked.

    Sato had gotten the card right after killing his first monster in the game, a Common ranked level 2 wild saber. He had originally thought that it was an item with a low drop rate since it looked a bit special but after seeing that there was not much information regarding it, he kept it in his inventory and didn''t bother bout it again. Even when he came back to the exact spot to hunt down another wild saber, Sato didn''t get a simr card making him suspicious of the card''s value.

    After that event, Sato had pretty much forgotten about the card. It was only just now when the young boy mentioned the name Savir did Sato find it familiar and recalled the card tossed away in his ring.

    ''If I want to learn more about Savir and the value of this card, getting the book would be much better than visiting an appraiser.''

    Sato ced the book on a higher spot in his to-do list over searching for an appraiser to aid him because from the very short introduction the young boy had given about Savir, it meant that the value of this card was something he shouldn''t underestimate. If there was a possibility that it would attract the malice of some NPC, Sato would rather leave it to rot in his inventory than take that chance.

    ''Looks like I will need to participate in thispetition.'' Sato thought as he slowly began to make up his mind.

    "Where''s thepetition held and how do I register? What do you know about it?"

    "Uh, uh,"

    Stumped by the barrage of questions, the young boy was confused as to which question he had to answer first so he ended up stammering.

    "*sigh* Just take me to the cksmith guild building." Sato said after seeing the young boy''s confused face.

    "Alright."

    Secretly breathing out a sigh of relief, the boy lead Sato once again but this time on a different road as their destination had now changed.

    Meanwhile¡­

    At a teleportation array somewhere in ck Rock city but different from the one Sato arrived at, a blue light shed, signaling the arrival of another batch of individuals. A majority of them were NPCs but among the ''passengers'', 2 were yers.

    "So this is the city huh?" One of the duo, the yer by the right, said.

    "We''re still inside the teleportation station and you''re already astounded." The yer by the left mocked.

    "Because we''re still inside the station doesn''t mean anything. The difference between a town and a city could easily be noticed here too. The fact that you can''t see that just proves to show why I''m the smart one." The yer by the right countered.

    The yer by the left snorted before he spoke up again,

    "Tch, whatever. Let''s get going. We need to take advantage before the others arrived."

    The other yer didn''t say anything else but walked together with his partner as they exited the building. Unlike Sato, they didn''t pay for a guide but decide to explore the city themselves.

    3 hourster¡­

    At the teleportation station Sato had arrived at, another batch of travelers had ''descended''. Among the group was one yer who had a cold face. If Sato were here, he would recognise the yer, after all, he had traded blows with him before.

    ''Sky de was it? I heard you''ve already arrived here 3 hours ago. I hope I can find you andplete our match.'' the King of the Hill, Han Otoki looked ahead before stepping off the teleportation array.

 Chapter 420 - 414 : Reverie

    "So that''s how it." Sato sighed as he stood outside of the cksmith guild in ck Rock city.

    He had just finishedmunicating with a clerk regarding the cksmith tournament and from what he was told, the event was scheduled to be held in the next 2 weeks, which was the same as a week in reality so there was no need worrying about it so soon.

    ''By then a lot more yers would have made it to the city.''

    Recalling the fact that he had once encountered a level 11 yer in town, Sato guessed that thepetition was set at that date to enable more yers participate in it. If there was one level 11 yer, there would definitely be a bunch of other level 10 and above yers.

    ''Now that I think about it, I didn''t unlock any achievement after making it here. That probably means I wasn''t the first.''

    Achievements were milestones reached by yers through a certain action. Take for instance the first kill achievement Sato and the gang had made after they had killed the Kobold King.. Sato had a feeling that there was an achievement for the first yer to make it to a city but he didn''t get it. This meant that there was most likely another yer who had arrived here before him.

    ''A lot of hidden figures are in the game. I wonder when they will reveal themselves.''

    While things looked a bit calm now Sato felt that there were a bunch of undercurrents that were bidding their time before they would take the entire server by storm. This only served to make him more motivated to work harder on his goals and improve on his strength.

    ''I can''t be toox with my level. Who knows whether I''m really the highest leveled yer. If I had such an experience, who says no one else would have a simr one?''

    "So where to now?" The young boy asked Sato.

    "Hmm¡­" Sato took out the map he had gotten from the boy and began browsing through it.

    "There''s not much information pertaining to the outside environment." Sato frowned as he realised that fact.

    Why the main reason he got himself a map of the city was to navigate his way around, Sato was still hoping that he would get a few clues about the resource maps close-by.

    "Sorry about that. The map was made with my experience." The young boy replied meekly.

    Sato sighed but didn''t pursue the matter any longer.

    "Where can I get a detailed map about the outside?"

    The young NPC pondered a bit before answering,

    "You could check out a few stores around. Especially this oned who sell adventurer gear and stuff."

    "Lead the way."

    The duo then resumed on their journey during which Sato reached the spot and got himself a new map. Compared to the one the young boy sold him, the new map had more details concerning the outside world but wascking certain details the other map had regarding the city itself.

    ''He did say he made this out of his personal experience. This kid is something.'' Sato thought as he studied the young boy once again.

    After purchasing all that he needed, Sato went through the new map looking for his next destination.

    ''Righy now I would need to check out the resource maps in this ce. From my analysis, we would be here till at least level 30 or 50. That means that the resource maps here should be more dangerous than the others in town.''

    In some random restaurant, Sato sat down alongside the young boy with the detailed map spread out in front of him.

    ck Rock City is a province level city that controls the surrounding ck Rock province. Under this province include Riverdale town, ck Mountain town and Salts Spring town, alongside some other tertiary level towns and settlements.

    Simr to ck Mountain town, ck Rock City was a mineral trove but on a whole different scale. Being close to not only the Koro mountains but also Maldora Canyon and Sunset Valley, it had ess to a lot of mineral hotspots so a majority of the townsfolk were miners. Due to this reason, ck Rock City was home to a lot of cksmiths. It was to the point that inparison to the other cities in the North of Fallen Heart Kingdom, ck Rock City had the highest concentration of cksmiths.

    There were also a bunch of other subsses that were well concentrated into the city, especially subsses who relied on mineraks and such to produce their goods such as alchemists, engineers and so on. Therefore, ck Rock City could be said to be the home of mineral-based subsses.

    ''I can see why Battle Wolves chose this spot as their starting point. Being in control of this city would make sure they need not worry about materials any longer.''

    Recalling that some basic information had been released about the towns and some cities, Sato reached a conjecture on why ck Rock City was such an attractive ce for some guilds. As for whether he was right or not, he didn''t know.

    "So where to now?" The young boy wiped his mouth after his meal.

    He was feeling happy that he had found Sato back at the teleportation station because not only did Sato not mistreat him like the others, but he had even gotten him a meal and paid him extra for his services. Because of that, the young boy decided to work harder for him, as a way to thank him for the favour.

    "Well, I''ll be heading outside of the city so this is probably the end of our contract I guess." Sato said.

    Since he was nning to go check out the areas outside of the city, having an NPC who couldn''t fight would make things difficult for him. It was better that he left on his own as he would only need to worry about his safety in uncharted grounds.

    "Oh, alright then." The young boy said with a slightly depressed tone.

    Sato smiled before dropping a few coins on the table.

    "Here''s your pay; you can keep the change."

    Without waiting for the boy to reply, Sato walked out of the restaurant and stopped a carriage that was heading towards the city gates.

    "I won''t forget this aid, mister." The young NPC muttered with emotion, his eyes covered in tears as he tried to hold them back in.

    Sato decided to help the boy the best he could because he reminded him a bit about himself.

    Though his parents were billionaires, after their death, Sato wasn''t given any of their wealth. Under the guise of managing his part of the shares of the famous Ajita group since Sato was still too young for that, his eldest uncle appeared and took control of his assets iming to return them only when he clocked 18. However, when Sato was became 11 years old, he was almost killed in an assassination attempt and that made him wonder whether he would actually be able to live up to that 18 years of age.

    Realising that their beloved grandson night not live a long life in that household, Sato''s maternal grandparents, Juro and Alice Noguchi, took him out of the Kurosaki household. To prevent such an incident from happening again, they even changed his name and moved far from the family house of the Kurosakis.

    A few yearster, Sato''s eldest''s uncle, who was in-charge of his assets, took over them under the assumption that Sato had deserted the family and abandoned his rightful duties as heir. Obviously, this was all made up crap, but Sato couldn''t simplye back to the family because the risk of being assassinated still existed.

    Truthfully, Sati wouldn''t mind returning back to the Kurosaki household if he was alone but he had his grandparents who cared for him and loved him, as well as his little sister Hayami. So, there was no way Sato would take that risk unless he was confident enough to assure his own protection. And the best way to do that was to make a name for himself, be a powerful individual that no one would dare to assassinate and the Kurosakis would take him seriously.

    As he was now, Sato was just a 21 year old. Even though he was heir to the family, not a lot of the family members saw him as that including his paternal grandfather. For them to ept that fact, Sato had to show that he was worthy of the title, and what better way to do so than to rise to prominence without the family''s aid? If he seeded in that, the family would ept him as a true heir and they would care more about his safety unlike before.

    ''Everything I do is just for that day.'' Sato clenched his fist.

    ''The day I can finally return and make my father proud.''

 Chapter 421 - 415 : The Carriage Station

    "Maldora Canyon¡­"

    Standing at the edge of a cliff, Sato looked ahead of him and was greeted by the sight of a deep and wide canyon. A ravine directly faced him with a long river flowing from its mouth to branch out into 3 tributaries that flowed in different directions within the canyon.

    ck Rock City was mineral city located close to a mountainous region. Apart from the Kiro mountains which was closeby, there was also Sundial Valley and Maldora canyon, which were all mining hotspots that gave ck Rock City its value.

    Sato chose Maldora Canyon as his first spot because it was the closest to the city and had transportation routes used by carriages. There was also the fact that it was a mining location so he could also mine for minerals as he was there.

    "Hmm."

    Sato stood by the side of the road as he studied the map in detail.

    ''The 4 locations here don''t look that bad..''

    ck Rock City, simr to ck Mountain town, was identified as a resource city. This majorly had a part to with the surrounding maps around it. Kiro mountains, Sundial Valley and Maldora Canyon were the mostmon ones, just to name a few. Every single one of them had a drop rate for a particr type of mineral ording to the map description. Even if one were just a subss yer, they could just head over there to mine for minerals rather than battle monsters.

    "The main problem is getting over there." Sato sighed.

    A city in Infinite Realm was very big. It was something a town couldn''t easilypare to, and this was with towns being as big as regr cities in reality. A city in Infinite Realm could easily take up to twice thendmass of top tier cities in reality.

    Unlike the levelling maps in towns, the one in cities were far from the city itself. If an hour was enough to walk from Riverdale or ck Mountain town to Stone Creek Forest, it would take 3 hours just to get from ck Rock City to Maldora Canyon which was the closest site to the city. This was mostly due to the fact that the city was really huge and was also erected at a spot close to the capital.

    3 hours was a lot of time and it was enough to make a significant progress in the game. Having to spend that much time just to reach a destination was definitely not worth it so Sato had to find another means of transportation.

    "Come get your ticket to Cralls town here. Come get your ticket to Cralls town here."

    Different from the transportation system in towns, cities had stations were one could book a carriage to any destination nearby. This was a detail arranged by the developers to help improve transportation for yers in cities. By simply going to a carriage station, one could either book a ticket for any of the avable carriages heading to a specific direction that happens to coincide with theirs, or they could pay for a private ride to their exact stop but at a greater cost than the former.

    Sato chose to use the first method, which was to find a carriage that would be passing through his stopping point. ording to the map he had in hand, Cralls town was a secondary level town within ck Rock province but unlike ck Mountain, Riverdale and Salt Springs towns, it wasn''t a novice town so there were no yers there.

    Cralls town was quite close to Maldora Canyon so by simply taking the carriage with the set destination, Sato could reduce his travel time down to an hour and a half. Also he could save money since amercial ride was better than a private.

    "Maldora Canyon, how much?" Sato asked the NPC who was previously yelling.

    "Maldora? You know this is amercial ss ride? Our stop is Cralls town do unless you n on stopping halfway, I suggest you go for one of the exclusive carriages. They would stop you exactly where you want." The NPC exined to Sato.

    "I''m aware but I don''t have enough money on hand for that." Sato shook his head to the suggestion.

    The NPC gave him a smile of understanding before pointing towards a building by the side.

    "You can head over there and book your ticket for the ride. When you''re done, you cane take a seat or remain in the waiting hall till all the seats have been booked."

    Sato nodded before walking towards the building the NPC had pointed out.

    When he walked in, Sato was greeted by the sight of arge hall with 6 counters at the other end. 2 of those had a que with the word "Exclusive" written in it, while the other 4 had "Commercial" on theirs.

    The hall wasrge and had a bunch of seats lined up in an organised manner, making it seem less clustered. A few potted nts were ced at strategic positions, adding a little bit of greenery to the ce.

    "A ticket to Cralls town." Sato walked to one of the counters with a "Commercial" and spoke to the clerk.

    "That would be 3 silver." The female clerk replied.

    ''That''s a lot.'' Sato inwardly eximed.

    ''Living life in the city would definitely be hard.''

    With a sigh, Sato was prepared to pay for the ride when the clerk added,

    "If you have an adventurer''s badge, there will be a 15% discount for you and if you have professional cksmith badge, you get a 20%."

    To make lifestyle sses more attractive to yers, certain benefits were offered to those who had them and it ranged from having easier ess to materials at a discounted price and even having some discounts on certain services. As most carriage transportationpanies relied on cksmiths for the production of their vehicles, a discount was offered to all professional cksmiths who made use of thepany''s services. As for the reason why adventurers had a discount, it was because the adventurer association had a deal with the carriagepany regarding the security of their trips.

    "I don''t have a professional cksmith badge; just an apprentice''s. As for the adventurer badge, here." Sato handed her a card shaped object.

    Right after he left the young boy in the pub, Sato had gone to the adventurer''s association to get registered. It was a well-known fact to all gamers that in fantasy like VRMMORPGs, getting registered in a mercenary association, adventurer''s association and simr bodies would be advantageous to the yer. Not only would they be able to apply for missions but they would also get certain perks that can only be enjoyed under the umbre of the bodies. The process of registering wasn''t do long so Sato was still able to make it to the carriage station just in time.

    "Identity confirmed. That would be 2 silver and 55 copper coins." The clerk replied as she passed Sato back his card.

    Sato received the card and in turn handed her the exact amount, no more no less.

    "Here''s your ticket. Thank you for patronising us and have a safe trip." The clerk smiled as she gave Sato a carriage ticket.

    The ticket was a lot simr to a ne ticket but with the image of a carriage as watermark.

    Sato took the ticket and left the hall, intending to get a seat in his carriage.

    As he walked out of the building, Sato was group of NPCs heading his way. They number between 12-13 and the one in the lead was an NPC dresser in fine clothing. At a nce, he looked like either a noble or a rich merchant, not just based on his dressing but also the aura around him as well as the way he carried himself.

    Wishing not to get in the way, Sato walked to the side and avoided the group but as he did so, he happened to be overhear the merchant speaking.

    "No matter what it takes, I want you to find that kid. Even if you have to ransack the entire ce."

    "Haha. Old White, we''ve been working together for a while now and you have been a powerful figurehead in the city so you should know that ransacking this ce isn''t easy. Unlike the other carriagepanies, this one is headed by the city lord." A burly NPC who walked closest to the merchant but just a step behind of him replied.

    "I know but you should understand what I mean. Find that kid and you will not only have my favor but I will surely reward you nicely." The merchant said.

    "Haha." The mercenary guffawed.

    "Don''t worry about it. You can consider it done."

    While the duo were walking, one of the mercenaries walking behind them absentmindedly collided with Sato. Because the NPC was ahead in both level and strength, Sato was forced back by one step even though he had tried to avoid the man.

    "Watch where you''re going kid." The NPC red at Sato before ignoring him and walking away.

    ''The hell is wrong with him.'' Sato frowned but he didn''t pursue the matter. He was outnumbered 1-12 and this was the city. Randomly attacking anyone in a safe zone, especially an NPC, was something must yers would try to avoid.

 Chapter 422 - 416 : A Surprise Meeting

    "Hmm? Any problem?" The burly NPC who led the others alongside the merchant turned back and nced at the NPC who had collided with Sato.

    "Nothing, boss. Just some dumb kid who had his eyes behind his head." The NPC answered nonchntly.

    "Okay. Just keep your head focused on this mission."

    "No problem boss. Isn''t it just to find a kid and his sickly mom? This should be easy."

    As the duo discussed, Sato had already reached his carriage and taken a seat as he waited for the carriage to get filled.

    Some carriage stations operated by time which meant that at a certain time, the carriage would depart regardless of whether it was filled up or not, just like it''s done in almost every transportationpany in reality. At the same time, some carriages operated on a different system that required the carriage to get filled with passengers before it would leave. The station Sato had arrived at worked in that exact way.

    The carriage had a total of 25 seats and 16 of them had already been booked. To pass the time, Sato opened up his system interface and began browsing the forums to get updated on the important events that had urred recently.

    [[ System interface :

    Forum Headlines :

    GOD TYRANT MAKES AN APPEARANCE WITH 30 DEAD AND 23 RUNNING WITH THEIR LIVES¡­

    ILLICARD VS HUNTER X; THE BEEF THAT LIVED THROUGH VRMMORPGs

    THE LARGEST MANHUNT SO FAR; THE HISTORY OF THE TEAM LEADER OF SEVEN STAR GLORY AND THE SHAME THAT BECAME OF A SUPER GUILD''S BRANCH¡­

    MONSTER WAVE DEFEATED; SOVEREIGN STANDS SUPREME!!!¡­

    LIFESTYLE CLASSES COULD BE THE NEXT THING. CLICK TO LEARN HOW¡­

    . . . ]]

    ''A god ss yer has already made an appearance?'' Sato grimaced as he read the first headline news.

    Since he didn''t specify a location for his forum feed, Sato''s feed was filled with the top popr headlines from the different servers that operated on IR''s mai, hence the reason why he saw various news not particr to ck Rock province.

    The news about the appearance of a god ss yer was ranked number one because not only were such yers very rare to find but they usually wouldn''t be active this early in the game. An unspoken rule existed amongst the apex yers to avoid facing off with weaker yers unless it was rted to their dignity or something very important to them. Therefore, news rted to either god-ranked Experts or even monster-ranked Experts was almost impossible to find this early in the game. It was as if they had disappeared and couldn''t be found. Apart from a few clips with their appearance in it, this was the very first battle video released that showed a battle between a god-ranked Expert against a team of yers hence the reason it had the most views and was ranked at the top of the forums.

    Next in line was a battle between two famous monster-ranked Experts; the first one being a popr dark yer that terrorized a lot of yers and guilds, including super guilds. As for the other yer, he was a hunter; a group of yers who targeted dark yers.

    Just as dark yers targeted yers, hunters targeted dark yers. They were usually hired by other guilds to hunt down a dark yer or take care of a dark team or guild that have been harassing them. In simpler, terms, they were mercenaries who specialised in killing. However, unlike dark yers, hunters didn''t kill yers only. They also ran dungeons[1] and helped other teams y BOSSES, including world-ss BOSSES.

    The most popr hunter guild was the Liberation League and Hunter X was one of the guild''s vice guild leaders. He and Illicard had a fight that began in a different VR game and they had carried their bad blood through more than 2 VR games already, with IR making it the 4th one. Due to the pre-existing bad blood between them as well as their ranks, the hype for the battle was at the highest; only below that of the news rted to God Tyrant.

    As for the third ce on the top headlines, it went to none other than Sato, for not only taking on a super guild branch''s raid team as well as that of a top 1st tier guild''s at the same time but also leading a team that took the first kill for a world-ss BOSS. Thetter alone was more than enough to earn him a spot on the headlines much less the former added in as a topping. This lead to the news rted to Sato taking third ce.

    4th ce was also an interesting piece of news that managed to attract Sato''s attention as it had to do with his cousin, Genma''s guild, Sovereign.

    As Sato read through each headline as well as the tags rted to it, the carriage slowly began to fill up. Only 2 seats were left empty before the driver arrived and announced that they were about to depart. Though confused about the development, Sato didn''t think much about it.

    "Hiyaa!"

    The carriage driver swung his whip at the 2 creatures that pulled the carriage.

    The monsters looked like horses except that they had a more aggressive aura around them as well as their ferocious appearance that could scare the bravest of dogs. With arger mane, aggressive red eyes, and a more muscly but taut physiquepared to that of horses, these monsters didn''t look like your average farm animals. They were Holfers, strange monster beasts that were said to be an evolved version of regr horses due to cross-breeding with a certain type of monster as well as the natural absorption of man into their body to improve gics.

    Holfers were wild creatures that weren''t easy to tame and so, required the aid of a beats tamer to pull it off. After birth, a young holfer could easily overpower an adult horse and in adulthood, they were equivalent to 6 horses. Because of the difficulty in breeding them as well as in raising them and breeding, Holfers were quite expensive and only used by carriagepanies for transportation. Since there were much luxurious and cheaper alternatives out there, holfers weren''t somon on the roads, especially in towns.

    The carriage kept moving on the road for a while, exiting the city in just 10 minutes whereas it would take Sato 30-40 minutes just to do the same by feet. After moving on the road for almost another 10 minutes, the carriage came to a stop as two individuals joined the ride and upied thest two seats. Coincidentally, the two seats just happened to be in front of Sato. Beside him was another seat but it was upied by a rude-looking NPC.

    The passengers were a bit surprised at the sight of the duo but they didn''t think too much about it, presuming that the duo had already booked their seats before or something.

    As the duo''s seats were positioned right in front of Sato, they walked towards him and Sato was able to get a good glimpse of them. He was surprised to see that it was a pale-faced middle-aged woman and a young boy who supported her with his arms. As for the reason for his shock, it was because the young boy so happened to be the guide that had led him around the city.

    "Long time no see." Sato greeted with a smile.

    "Oh mister, it''s you!" The young boy said with wide eyes. He was stunned to see Sato here as he never expected the young man who had recently arrived in the city to suddenly depart from it.

    "Hmm." Sato simply nodded without saying much. There was no reason to inform the young NPC of his destination so Sato didn''t bother to do so.

    "Is that your mother?" Sato asked as he nced at the pale-skinneddy beside the young boy. He looked quite simr to her and since thedy looked older, Sato presumed her to be his mother.

    "Yes, sir." The young boy simply replied and said no more.

    Seeing that he wasn''t going to say much, Sato no longer paid him any attention.

    "Why don''t you go take a seat and stop wasting our time. Don''t you know that the carriage hasn''t left yet cause you''re still standing?" The NPC sitting beside Sato growled at the young boy while giving a side-eye to Sato.

    "So-sorry about that." The young boy hurriedly replied as he escorted his mother to her seat before taking his.

    Sato ignored the NPC who gave him a bad eye since he wasn''t bothered to argue with an NPC. However, Sato still noticed a malicious glint in the NPC''s eyes as he nced at the young boy and his mother.

    Sato frowned at this but since the NPC didn''t make any move, he didn''t do anything either.

    With the duo finally taking their seats, the carriage driver resumed the journey as the holfers began running at full speed once again.

    "The target is with me. I repeat, the target is with me."

 Chapter 423 - 417 : Emergency Mission

    *Thud* * Thud*

    The holfers dragged the carriage along the brown hard road, leaving behind hoofmarks as well as tyre tracks on the road.

    Since the journey would take an hour for him to get there, Sato closed his eyes pretending to sleep, when in reality, he was browsing through the forums. Apart from the news on the major headlines, there were a few other important information that wasn''t disyed there. This was especially so for information regarding the events surrounding ck Rock province.

    "Stop the carriage!" A loud voice yelled from the outside.

    Apanying the voice was the sound of running hoofs as well as the neighs of horses that seemed to surround the carriage.

    The driver pretended to not hear the voice as he continued steering the carriage.

    "I said stop the carriage!"

    *Bang*.

    An object was mmed into the side of the carriage, scaring the passengers as well as the driver and forcing him to bring the holfers to a stop.

    sThe passengers by the side of the carriage nced outside through the windows to see that the carriage had already been surrounded by a bunch of men on horses.

    "Bandits!" One of the NPCs yelled.

    Like a lit match tossed into a mmable liquid, the cry of the NPC put the other passengers into hysteria. They became worried and anxious. The adults tried to keep their calm while praying to the gods to preserve their lives. The children began crying as they felt the change in the atmosphere.

    "Howe? I thought the city''s guards have already cleared the bandits in this area. How could they have returned so soon?" One NPC couldn''t handle it and broke down in denial and disbelief.

    ''What an interesting development. The emotional disy of the NPCs are even top tier.'' Sato nced around as he studied the faces of the passengers.

    He couldn''t help but admit that Dreand studios had done a good job in such detailing in the emotions as well as facial expressions of the NPCs. He almost believed that they were actually distressed humans and not programed elements in a game.

    ''Hmm?''

    While everyone was distressed and hoping that the bandits would only take their goods and leave their lives, Sato noticed that the young boy in front of him was more jumpy than the rest. While he couldn''t put his finger on it, Sato felt that the young boy was worried about something

    else.

    "I told you to stop and you refused to listen to me. You''re growing balls now huh?" The same voice that had shouted earlier sounded once more. This time however, it was closer than before.

    ''I''ve heard that voice before¡­'' Sato tried to recall where and who exactly it belonged to.

    "I''m, I''m sorry. You know how holfers can be. Bringing them to a halt isn''t so easy." The carriage driver apologized with a pleading tone.

    "Leave the old man be, Tae. Don''t forget the mission." Another voice spoke up.

    *Click*

    Following that, the knob of the carriage''s door was unlocked as the door was opened. By reflex, all the passengers nced at the door that was located at top right of the carriage.

    A burly figure walked into the carriage with an eagle-like re as he scanned the passengers one by one.

    ''That''s¡­''

    With a nce in the direction of the new arrival, Sato not only remembered the face but also recalled the origin of the voice from before.

    ''It''s those guys.''

    The man who stepped in just recently was the burly NPC who walked alongside the merchant Sato had spotted back at the station. As for the voice from earlier, it was the NPC mercenary that had shed briefly with Sato.

    "You guys don''t need to worry. We''re mercenaries; not bandits. We''re just here under the request of the merchant Kolin. As long as you guys cooperate, you will not be harmed." The burly mercenary said right after he noticed the somber atmosphere in the carriage.

    Since he was in a mission, he had to pull it off without affecting anyone outside of the mission otherwise, his rating would reduce and he might lose his job in the city.

    After they heard the mercenary''s words, though some were still suspicious about it, a majority of them had visibly rxed, but not entirely. They still kept up their guards but they were still a bit more calm than before.

    "Okay. Then what or who are you looking for?" One of the passengers in front braved himself up and asked.

    The burly mercenary smiled as he saw that the passengers weren''t so scared anymore.

    "We''re just looking for a young boy and a sicklydy. If you''ve seen them, please point out their position for me."

    Silence pervaded the carriage as the passengers kept dodgy yet anxious eyes. A few of them who had seen the child and his mother take their seats nced behind but others tried to maintain their calm. They all knew in their minds that the mercenaries weren''t here to talk about having lunch with the young boy and his mother so they didn''t want to risk the lives of the duo since their own lives wasn''t really at risk.

    The young boy was sweating like crazy at the back. He held his mother''s palms with his sweat-filked hands as he lowered his head and tried to think of an escape path.

    "They''re over here." A loud voice suddenly spoke up just as the other mercenaries began to enter the carriage.

    Sato turned to his side with wide opened eyes as he stared at the rude man beside him.

    "Don''t harm me or anyone else. The kid and his mother are both here. Take them and leave us be." The man said in a tone that sounded as if he was doing some good to the world. Even his speech seemed to have nothing wrong about it as it made him look like a savior.

    "Oh?" The burly man walked towards the back alongside his teammate, Tae.

    The young boy on the other hand, had tears leaking out of his eyes. He couldn''t escape without his mother, neither could he escape with her. She was sick and couldn''t be rushed around lest her disease gets worse. However, the boy still couldn''t remain sitting there or else he would be caught.

    He didn''t me the rude man for revealing his position, but simply med his luck. Even if the man didn''t speak, someone else would so it didn''t matter who did it, his luck was just shit.

    ''Why? Why can''t anything go right for us both? Why?'' The young boy began to break down.

    He suddenly felt a slight squeeze on his hand and nced at his mother who smiled at him with a loving look. Even though she didn''t speak, the young boy could understand that she meant for him to leave her be and escape.

    "No, no. I''m sorry, mother but I can''t." The young boy muttered as he cried.

    The young boy suddenly remembered the nice young man who had taken care of him, but stopped himself from requesting his help. He didn''t want to drag anyone into the mess that his family was stuck in so he decided just to deal with it on his own. Instead, he ced his right hand behind him as he held tightly into a hidden dagger.

    "There you are." Tae, the mercenary who was shouting before as well as the NPC who had shed with Sato back in the city, grinned as he faced the young boy.

    "You thought you could run away? Well, too bad."

    The young boy suddenly lunged at Tae with the dagger in his hand. He stabbed directly at the middle aged fellow, aiming for his chest with a hint of killing intent.

    Tae had never expected the young buy to counter at that moment but as an experienced mercenary, he was able to react just in time and dodged to the side. Part of the reason for this was because the boy''s ability and physique was below his, so while it felt like the boy''s actions were quick and rapid, in Tae''s eyes, they were as slow as a sloth''s.

    "Ah!"

    *ng*

    The knife fell off the boy''s hands as his wrist was grabbed tightly and twisted by Tae.

    "You actually dared to counter? You''re a funny kid." Taeughed.

    "You never expected us to find you right?" The burly mercenary nced at the sickly woman.

    "Truthfully, we wouldn''t have been able to do so. It was actually the driver who let us in on your location."

    "Old man Su?" The young boy widened his eyes as he screamed in shock.

    The carriage driver, Old man Su, was someone the young boy knew personally. He could be described to be an old friend of their family so they trusted him. When the young boy came up with the n to escape the city with his mother, he had decided to do so with Old man Su''s help since the old man drove a carriage. The n was to pick them up at a secluded location outside the city and the young boy would pay for the seats. By doing so, both sides would be satisfied and it wouldn''t seem like the old man was doing them a favorable. Never did he expect however, for the old man to betray them and reveal their location to the enemy.

    "I''m sorry kid, but they threatened me." The old man looked away as he felt the boy''s nce on him as well as his mother''s.

    "Threatened you? Haha. Why don''t you say that after you have the 10 silver coins you asked for in your hands." Tae mocked.

    "Enough chit-chat. You''reing with us."

    Tae dragged the boy by his wrist, not caring whether he injured him or not.

    The burly mercenary stood by the side and ordered another mercenary to go after the little boy''s mother while he departed from the carriage.

    Seeing his mother about to be captured by them, the boy ignored the pain he felt in his hands as he tried to resist. At the same time, he sent a pleading nce towards Sato. Even though he initially never nned in requesting for help, the boy had no other option than to do so now.

    [[ System notification :

    A mission has been generated due to a series of events.

    _______________

    Mission Title: Rescue the young boy and his mother from the hands of the mercenaries.

    Mission Rating: D

    Mission Detail: Due to an unknown reason, little Finn and his mother are being pursued by a bunch of mercenaries hired by the merchant, Kolin. Now they have been caught with nowhere to escape to, little Finn requests your help.

    Basic Rewards :

    -Little Finn''s gratitude (Increase in Rtionship points with Little Finn).

    -

    -Miss Rachel''s gratitude (Increase in Rtionship points with Miss Rachel).

    -**** Experience Points.

    Penalty :

    -Little Finn and his mother, Miss Rachel, would be taken away by the mercenaries.

    System Description: A seemingly low risk mission but with a low reward too. epting it might surprise you, both in good ways and bad ways.

    System: ept/Decline ]]

 Chapter 424 - 418 : I Find Them Disgusting, What About It?

    [[ System notification :

    A mission has been generated due to a series of events.

    _______________

    Emergency mission

    Mission Title: Rescue the young boy and his mother from the hands of the mercenaries.

    Mission Rating: D

    Mission Detail: Due to an unknown reason, little Finn and his mother are being pursued by a bunch of mercenaries hired by the merchant, Kolin. Now they have been caught with nowhere to escape to, little Finn requests your help..

    Basic Rewards :

    -Little Finn''s gratitude (Increase in Rtionship points with Little Finn).

    -

    -Miss Rachel''s gratitude (Increase in Rtionship points with Miss Rachel).

    -**** Experience Points.

    Penalty :

    -Little Finn and his mother, Miss Rachel, would be taken away by the mercenaries.

    System Description: A seemingly low risk mission but with a low reward too. epting it might surprise you, both in good ways and bad ways.

    System: ept/Decline ]]

    ''An emergency mission? Quite interesting.'' Sato thought.

    ''I don''t exactly know what''s going on here and the merchant who hired these guys seems to be some bigwig or something.''

    The reason Sato didn''t straight up make a decision yet was because he wasparing the boons and banes of the mission. As a pro yer, Sato wasn''t one who would let his emotions simply lead the way for him; he had to consider the various advantages and)or disadvantages surrounding the situation. yers who usually did so ended up ruining their ounts due to making bad decisions. yers who got led by their emotions would immediately agree to the mission but those who had control over them would consider the situation properly to see if it was worth it or not, just like Sato was doing right now.

    ''First of all, I don''t know what exactly started off this enmity. Recklessly joining in could cost me, especially since it seems like the merchant guy has a bit of clout.''

    Recalling how the passengers went silent after the burly man had mentioned the name Kolin, Sato knew that going against such a figurehead could potentially affect his growth in the city adversely. Therefore, unless the rewards were worth it, Sato would definitely try to avoid such.

    ''However, the rewards are anything but satisfactory. The only thing worth taking note of is the systemment attached at the end.'' Sato nced at the system description section.

    "Hmm? You''re asking for help, huh?" Tae noticed that the young boy nced at Sato with a pleading look.

    While it seemed like the thoughts that went through Sato''s head took a long while, only a second had actually passed. The young boy was still resisting while Tae pulled him away.

    As he noticed that the kid was ncing elsewhere, Tae turned to the direction the young boy was ncing at and was greeted by Sato''s face.

    "Oh, it''s you?" Tae almost instantaneously recalled Sato.

    "What? You n on helping this kid? Better know your ce you friggin'' bastard." Tae insulted without remorse.

    He had already been annoyed by how Sato ''behaved'' before and with the way Sato was ncing at both he and the kid calmly, despite the mercenaries having the advantage, Tae was further irritated. While he didn''t believe that Sato would actually make a move here, it still didn''t stop him from jabbing Sato with his words.

    ''You know what, f*ck sh*t. No risk, no reward. The city is too big for some random merchant to find me.''

    Havinge to decision, Sato prepared to take action. His decision wasn''t made due to his emotions but simply because he decided to take a risk. While it was true that pro yers had to be cautious, they also took risks as fortune could be found in danger.

    "You better remain low and keep your head down like the talent-less citizen you are."

    "I was originally thinking about staying out of this but your mouth is too violent; you need to be lectured on how to properly use it so let me give you a free lesson on that." Sato said as he out on a pissed off expression. Since he was nning to interfere, Sato needed a legitimate reason so as to avoid direct conflict with that bigwig and Tae mocking him was more than enough reason.

    Tae had yet to realise the meaning behind Sato''s words when a punch suddenly greeted him in the he face.

    *Bang*

    Tae was thrown off bnce by the punch but managed to stablise himself after retreating by 3 steps and letting go of the young boy. In front of him stood Sato who currently exuded the aura of a master. Even though he had just attacked Tae, Sato still had a calm and rxed face as if what he did was nothing a trifling act.

    "You¡­!"

    Sato didn''t wait for him to finish his words as he followed up with a kick straight to the face.

    Tae never expected for a follow-up attack and Sato wasn''t the same as the young boy; his physique was far better and even slightly superior to Tae''s. So, Tae couldn''t react each time and got a kick straight to the face.

    *Thud*

    This time around, Tae was unable to remain standing as he copsed to the floor with an audible thud.

    "You dare?!" Thest mercenary, who was charged with bringing the young boy''s mother along, roared as he charged right at Sato.

    "Pointless."

    Sidestepping to the left, Sato dodged the mercenary''s charge before delivering a punch to him in the chest, followed by an elbow to his back. The consecutive attacks was enough to put the mercenary to sleep as he crashed to the floor like hisrade.

    "What''s going on?" Th leader of the crew, the burly NPC, suddenly asked as he entered the carriage once more.

    Greeted by the sight of two of his men down as well as Sato and the young boy standing beside the two, the burly man was first stunned then infuriated as figured out what had happened.

    "You did this?" The burly mercenary asked Sato.

    "If not me then who?" Sato snorted.

    "May I ask why, as well as who you are?" The mercenary held down his anger as he asked. Life on the run as well as chasing after others had taught him a lot and one of them was to not underestimate the opponent for any reason.

    "Why can''t I? Must there be a reason?" Sato replied back.

    "If there''s one, it would be because I simply find your men disgusting to look at." Sato said with a nochnt tone and an emotionless face.

 Chapter 425 - 419 : Chased Away

    The mercenary leader put on a face at Sato''s reply. Never did he expect that someone would actually talk back to more, much less when he had just used the name of his backer.

    He didn''t bother to spare any words on Sato as he signaled to his men to attack Sato.

    By now, themotion from the inside had already alerted the mercenaries outside and some of them, about 5 or so, had entered the carriage to have a look. It was these very same men that followed themand given by the lead mercenary and attacked Sato.

    The walkaway in the carriage was narrow to the point that only 2 people could walk side by side through it.

    The first two mercenaries attacked Sato with oneing from the left while the other from the right. The one who attacked from the left was a step slower than hisrade as he purposefully slowed down to follow up on his partner''s attack.

    "Ha!"

    The NPC by the right struck first, shing his sword at Sato with the de still stuck within its scabbard..

    As the mercenaries were attacking an individual within the carriage, they had their weapons remain in their sheath lest they injure an innocent passenger and get in trouble. Despite that, the attacking power of the weapon was something that shouldn''t be underestimated. Even though itcked the lethality and fatality of an unsheathed sword, a sword within its scabbard still possessed the right qualities to take down an opponent, even if it was an armed foe. Provided that the user had sufficient strength and fighting prowess, a sheathed sword and an unsheathed one were the same; just that one possessed the lethal ability to kill with ease while the other didn''t.

    Seeing the opponent rush towards him, Sato pushed the kid to the side as he went forward to intercept the enemy.

    Once he was close to the attacker, Sato brought his head down as he dodged the sword that aimed for his head. Without any dy, he followed up with an uppercut straight to the mercenary''s jaw, forcing him off bnce. Sato then immediatelynded a straight jab at the NPC''s chest, sending him to the floor.

    At the same time, the other mercenary showed up, following in the footsteps of hisrade and attacking with his sword in its sheath.

    Sato had already added the character into his ns so when the NPC mercenary attacked him, he was able to react to it. Taking two steps backward, Sato retreated from the range of the attack before lunging towards the NPC like a true-born killer.

    *Pa* *Pa*

    Satonded fist after fist on the NPC, making the character lose control of the tempo of the battle and turning the tables in his favor.

    By the third strike, the NPC was already feeling pains all over his body and was unable to put up any form of defense. By the fourth hit, the NPC was barely able to maintain a stable sense of mind but when the sixth punch connected with the side of his jaw, the NPC lost consciousness and fell to the floor, lifeless. However, Sato was careful enough to control the strength of his punch so the NPC wasn''t dead.

    ''As expected, their strength ranges around level 12 and 15.'' Sato thought as he nced at the results of the [Inspect] skill on his interface.

    Just before Sato had epted the mission, he was expecting a hard-fought battle where he would barely be able to hold out against the mercenaries. However, when the actual fight started, he ended up being wrong.

    When Sato had attacked Tae, he did so in a rapid manner to prevent his target from reacting in time. At the same time, he secretly used [Inspect] on him to gauge his strength and used it to approximate that of the other mercenaries. The results showed that Tae turned out to be a level 13 [Hunter].

    In Infinite realm, NPCs who had main sses were few. Most of themon NPCs used subsses as their main sses because, ording to the world design, it was very difficult and expensive for an NPC to grow with a main ss. Even ignoring the price, for an NPC to practice a main ss to standard level, they required a certain amount of potential else, they would get stuck halfway and might to even make it to level 15 or even 10. This was because the growth process for NPCs was much different than that of yers who only had to kill monsters to get stronger. This was actually one of the advantages for yers hidden within the game. As main sses were superior, battle-wise, over subsses, yers wouldn''t have a hard time facing off against the regr NPCs just like with Sato''s experience right now.

    Simr to Tae, the other mercenaries had battle-rted subsses simr to the [Hunter] but whenpared to a true-blue battle ss like the [Swordsman], at the same level, a [Hunter] would be easily crushed.

    The other mercenaries paused in their footsteps as they saw as Sato took down 2 of their men with no difficulty. Even the leader had to narrow his eyes as a frown slowly took shape on his face.

    The mercenary Kolin wasn''t exactly a bigwig in town but to themoners and low-borns, he was. Due to the limit of his status, he could only hire low-ranking mercenaries who didn''t have a main ss like the stronger ones.

    Originally, they were supposed to be more than enough for the mission, after all, their target was a sickly mother with her young 14-16-year-old son. There was no need to hire a mercenary above level 10 and even one at level 15 was too much. But to increase the sess of the mission, Kolin didn''t shy away from hiring the level 12-15 mercenaries led by the man who stood with a frown on his face. However, a variable known as Sato had suddenly stepped into the picture.

    "Who are you?" The mercenary leader asked once again.

    Previously, he hadn''t taken Sato''s identity into consideration any much. However, after seeing the strength that Sato wielded, the boss of the squad was forced to take him more seriously.

    "Who I am doesn''t matter. You also aren''t strong enough to know that." Sato replied with a in face.

    The mercenary leader was angered but he didn''t lose his temper right away. Sato was right; they weren''t strong enough to know that. Despite being armed, they still lost to an unarmed Sato. This meant that his skill and strength was well above theirs. Pursuing this matter any further would lead to them just losing more face.

    "Let''s go." The burly man said with a hoarse voice.

    "But-" Tae, who finally recovered from Sato''s assault, spoke up.

    "Let''s go." The burly captain interrupted with a much deeper voice than before.

    None of the other, mercenaries dared to argue so they all followed their leader and exited the carriage.

    Sato could very well hear the displeasure in his voice and he could guess that they would stille after the mother and child pair, but that wasn''t his concern. He couldn''t just change his destination with no earlier consideration and head to some isted town just because of 2 random NPCs he had recently met.

    *p * *p*

    The passengers in the carriage began apuding Sato for his actions. While it was true that the burly man had said he wouldn''t harm them, the manner in which his group had arrived didn''t do much justice to those words. Therefore even with his words, the passengers were still fearful of them. With Sato having pursued the group away, he had won the praises and as well as the admiration of the passengers for not only saving their lives but also that of the mother-and-son pair.

    "Thank you." The young boy said to Sato as the sound of the departing horses reverberated in the air.

    "No problem." Sato smiled.

    [[ System notification :

    Little Finn''s respect for you has increased.

    Little Finn''s admiration for you has increased.

    _____________________

    Emergency mission

    Mission Title: Rescue the young boy and his mother from the hands of the mercenaries.

    Mission Rating: D

    . . .

    Missions Status : Completed.

    Rewarding yer¡­

    ]]

    "Can I know where you''re going to mister?" Little Finn asked.

    "A dangerous ce you see. Maldora Canyons." Sato replied.

    "Oh." Little Finn nodded dejectedly.

    His mother, Mrs. Rachel, signaled him from the side and the young boy rushed towards his mother before leaning his ear towards her mouth. After that, Little Finn turned to Sato and said,

    "She''s calling you."

    Sato was a bit surprised that the woman could speak but he didn''t waste any time walking towards her.

    Once he was there, a hand grabbed onto his and passed an object to it. Sato nced down to take a look and saw it to be a ne with a special kind of lock.

    ''[Appraise]''

    [[ Unknown Locket : Unknown : ???

    System description : A memento Rachel had gotten from her grandfather years back. As she''s not able to reward you with much, she has decided to offer you this. Looks worthless but might be worth something.

    ]]

    "I can''t ept this." Sato shook his head immediately.

    After seeing that it was a memento from her grandfather, he refused to ept the reward even though this was just a game.

    Mrs Rachel smiled at Sato and pushed his hands back. She then turned to her son and gave him a nce.

    "My mother hopes that you would be with us till we make it to Cralls town. We know we can''t do much but please, help us this much." Little Finn knelt down and begged.

    "...*sighs*. That''s enough. Okay, I will help you." Sato sighed.

    Since the family of two had offered him something so precious to them, Sato decided to help them this much at least. Cralls town wasn''t so far from Maldora Canyon so it would only take him an extra 3 hours to make it back to his destination.

 Chapter 426 - 420 : The Seed That Was Sown

    "So this is Maldora canyons."

    At the edge of what seemed to be a steep cliff, a figure stood in an observant fashion, taking in the sight thatid before him like a lord overlooking his province.

    ''It seems like I made it in time.''

    ncing at the system clock on his interface, Sato made a sigh of relief as he recalled the past event that he had just experienced.

    After the incident with the carriage, Sato had escorted the mother and son pair over to Cralls town where they had met up with a rtive who would take care of them. In exchange for helping them with their problem, Sato was rewarded by the duo and as well, given an exnation for the series of events that had urred.

    ording to the son, Little Finn, the reason for their being chased down by the merchant Kolin was simply because they had a certain piece of jewellery that had attracted the interest of the merchant. It was to the point that the greedy fellow had scammed the family through an borate scheme, in a bid to get them to sell it to him right after they had disagreed. Since he couldn''t just steal it in broad daylight, Kolin had to make use of various plots in an attempt to get the jewel into his hands. Apart from scamming the family into debt, he had also sent a robber after the jewellery.. Unluckily for the hired aid but luckily for the family of two, the thief happened to get caught by a series of coincidence as he tried to rob the family.

    After they got scammed into debt, the creditor -under the orders of Kolin- had demanded for the jewellery aspensation. The family refused and opted to pay through some other means. Thew of the kingdom enabled this to be possible so the family had a deadline to make up the cash or sell the jewellery to Kolin through the hands of the creditor.

    The mother and child pair then worked their bodies to pay up the debt with Little Finn doing random jobs like acting as a guide in the day while washing tes and cleaning the tables at a pub at nighttime. As for his mother, just before she got ill, she had sold off the valuable items they had while also washing clothes for others to make up for part of the necessary cash needed. They did this not just to make a living and pay off their debt but to also save enough and flee the city, escaping the harassment known as Kolin. Their target was Cralls town where Mrs Rachel had a rtive that could protect them in the town.

    By grace or by coincidence, the excess amount Sato had paid the young boy was enough to make up the requirements so the duo didn''t waste a single second, lest Kolin finds out, as they began making their preparations. And so, the following sequences of events had taken ce with the carriage driver revealing their location to the mercenaries and Sato saving them before escorting the two to Cralls town.

    After they had met up with their rtive, Little Finn handed the jewellery to Sato. In the words of his mother, which he ryed to Sato, the jewellery had caused them a lot of pain and suffering but rather they hand it over to Kolin, the source of their sorrow, they would instead sell it out to some random individual. However, as Sato had helped them this much, they would prefer to hand it over to him.

    As it turned out, the reason why the jewellery was so precious to the family was that it belonged to Finn''s deceased father, who had died while working at a mine. But if the memento were to bring the family more danger, they would rather let go of it than lose their lives.

    ''Another unknown artifact added to my inventory.'' Sato gazed at the object in his hand. An earring[1] with a blue gemstoneid in his hand, glittering like a polished pearl put on disy.

    It was the jewellery that had caused all that problem but ended up in his hands. Sato had tried using [Appraise] on it but not even a single line or word was revealed after the scan.

    "The view is truly stunning."

    Taking his eyes off the earring, Sato praised the scene in front of him as he took in the sight with a slightly awed impression. He was sincerely impressed by the view as such ces with a cinematic scene like this were quite rare in reality.

    Maldora Canyons could bepared to the Grand Canyon but was wayrger and epassed a greater area ofnd than thetter. Not only were there various rocks that were older than countries, kingdoms, and even species, but the massive variation in age had even created a symphony of colours with the existing distinct appearances of the rocks. In some parts of the canyon, it was almost as if one was staring at a rainbow upfront. In some other ces, it was a rainbow of a certain colour but at a different spectrum.

    Added with the strangely shaped rock moulds that pointed towards the sky, Maldora Canyons was a natural paradise as well as a natural tourist attraction that could fatten the wallets of the ministry of tourism of any nation.

    However, roaming within this canyon were creatures that could end one''s life within a jiffy. Even the military technology from the 21st century of humanity, apart from the apex creations, would hold no advantage against some of the monsters hidden here, especially the ones in the deeper parts of the canyon. However, no yer currently knew of this.

    ''I can''t stay here for long. There are still other maps to visit as well as the Apprentice cksmith tournament. There''s also Xue Yan.''

    Recalling that Xue Yan had yet to call him nor inform him by any means of her location, Sato became a bit worried, not just for her but for the whole team as well. Thinking back, Fudo and the others had moved with Xue Yan towards Salt Springske. So if Xue Yan were to encounter any problems along the way, it wouldn''t be just hers alone but the whole team''s.

    *Ding*

    "Speak of the devil." Sato glimpsed at his interface as he caught sight of a message.

    It was from Xue Yan.

    Opening it, Sato read the message and finally understood why she had yet to show up. Through the message, Xue Yan had exined that she was caught up aiding the others as their location had been revealed.

    It should be remembered that Sato had gone around Riverdale town while being escorted by Fudo during the early stages of the game. After his poster went viral those who recalled Fudo''s association with him started keeping an eye out for him. This became more pronounced right after Sato had escaped the clutches of Emperor''s Might and the dark yers in Riverdale town.

    As a form of retaliation, the dark yers began searching for Fudo and when he was spotted with the others, they all became prey. Luckily, Xue Yan was there so she was able to offer them protection. This was until Battle Wolves sent out their men. Things became more difficult and the team of 6 had to retreat to the Caventry''s walls for safety. When the other 5 are through with their trials, they would then proceed once more and head to the nearest town.

    ''Battle Wolves¡­''

    Sato narrowed his eyes as he stared at the name.

    Emperor''s might had at least taken a step back and not gone ahead to hunt down his teammates. Maybe they might have done so in the dark but they didn''t publicly attack them in broad daylight as Battle Wolves did. This alone had made the top-ss 1st tier guild enter Sato''s records.

    ''At least they''re safe.'' Sato sighed with relief.

    If his teammates were to die continuously, this would affect their progress as well as dy the time they would need to reach the city. One of the criteria to use the teleportation array was for the yer to be a level 10 or above.

    If one wanted to travel over to the city, using the teleportation array was the fastest and safest method. By taking a carriage or walking the distance, there was the risk of being robbed/killed by bandits or falling prey to monsters. And to survive this disaster, a yer would need to be level 10 at least. So in the end, the main goal was to reach level 10 no matter the method of travel one wanted to use.

    If Fudo and the others had died multiple times to the ''hunters'', they would not be able to make it to the city in time, and their progress would be dyed.

    ''This ount will be settled in the future, eventually.'' Sato thought as he faced the sky with renewed vigor and determination.

 Chapter 427 - 421 : First Battle In Maldora

    *Whistle*

    A gale blew by as Sato walked across the rocky grounds of the canyon.

    Maldora Canyon had a topography simr to most canyons. The ground was hard and covered in red brown rocks that held no water; only the sun''s heat. The terrain was a lot simr to that of a desert and simrly, the ecological system of Maldora Canyon was almost the same as thetter. It wasn''t that there''s was no source of water but that there was only one. A river moved through the middle of the canyon providing wetness to the nearby area. However, apart from the region close to the river, the others allcked a source of water and so, were mostly coveted in patched "tiles" and dry rocks.

    Trees that looked a lot like Acacia trees and Ya nts were scattered all over the ce alongside a few grey coloured nts that were adapted to the environment''sck of water. Even the monsters here were based on simr creatures that wandered the desert.

    ''The monsters ....'' Sato narrowed his eyes as he gazed in front.

    "Kreeee!"

    A high pitched noise rang out from the field ahead of Sato.

    The scene ahead was strange since it was something that naturally wouldn''t be possible in reality.

    Arge rodent-like creature stood still as it screeched into the air while confronting a huge snake with hostility surrounding it. The gigantic snake was covered in sepia coloured scales that acted as a natural camouge for it in this environment as well as form of defence against attacks from predators and retaliation from prey. If it wasn''t for therge rodent''s confronting stance as well as targeted hostility, Sato would have barely noticed it the snake

    ''I haven''t even gone that deep and the danger is this high already.''

    As the two creatures were having a showdown, both sides had voluntarily released their aura in a bid to scare the other away. Sato, who wasn''t so far from either of them and had just walked less than 200 metres into the canyon, could sense that the two monsters were quite strong; at least stronger than any monster he had met so far. While their fighting skill might not be exactly high grade, they were still very strong based on their aura alone. Whenparing them with the Kobold King, apart from the difference in Life order and battle techniques, Sato believed that the two monsters in front were almost the same as the Kobold King in terms of strength.

    The two beasts remained motionless as the air around them froze due to the intense nature of their confrontation. The temperature of the spot began to rise to the point that a slight movement from one side could mark the start of a violent and bloody battle.

    Eventually, one side lowered its head to the other and departed but the result was shocking and unexpected.

    It was the huge snake that had retreated, leaving the truck-sized rodent victorious. Normally, rodents would almost always lose to a snake in a fight so the result of this little showdown was outside of the norms of the food chain. However, it did ry one fact to Sato.

    As the monsters of IR survived based on the two most poprws of the jungle -eat or be eaten and the strongest is king- Sato was able to confirm that based on fighting prowess alone, the rodent was most likely stronger than the snake, but not by an overwhelming margin. Either that or probably that the snake realised that taking down the rodent wouldn''t be easy and it might incur heavy injuries on its body in the process. Being injured wasn''t so bad but in a dangerous location such as here, it was too risky as it could suddenly suffer an ambush from another predator. Knowing this, the snake might have possibly retreated for that reason alone.

    ''The monsters here are tough but it does make for a good levelling spot.'' Sato thought from his hiding ce.

    High level monster meant more experience points and this was even more so for Sato who was level 15. Finding monsters at his level was a difficult task to pull off in town, but in the regions surrounding the city, this was very easy as monsters of that level were all over the ce.

    ''There''s also the materials. ck Rock City is a heavenly ce for fighter cksmiths.''

    One of the reasons why Sato had selected Maldora Canyon as his first choice was because there was an open mine there. Even without a Miner subss, Sato would still be able to excavate a few amounts of materials from the spot.

    ''But first of all, I have to see how well I hold out against these fellows.''

    The location of the open mine was a bit deeper into the map. There was no way Sato would be able to reach that spot without having to fight his way through it. But before he could do so, Sato would need to face off against the weaker monsters to get used their skills as well as their fighting style. Since a majority of the monsters here were Common ranked, their stats would roughly be the same in terms of skill counts especially of they were at the same level.

    "*Squeak*"

    The ears of the rodent twitched as it turned towards a certain direction due the responses its senses had sent it.

    Sato didn''t take a sneaky approach as he felt it was pointless considering that the monster was able to spot a camouged sanke without a hitch. Nheless, he still tried to attack from behind but was still caught by the highly sensitive ears of the monster.

    The bulging eyes of the creature nced at Sato with a confused expression stered all over its face. It looked naive like a cute little kitten staring at a human for the first time. If Sato didn''t know that this monster had just scared away a huge snake, he would have considered taking it with him as a pet.

    "No matter how cute you look right now, you''re still a monster that I have to kill." Sato summoned [Drakken] from his ring as he walked towards the monster with caution.

    *Screech!!!*

    An ear-piercing sound was released from the vocal cords of the monster.

    Though it couldn''t understand Sato''snguage, it did feel a hint of hostility from him particr right after Sato had held his sword.

    Just after squaring up to a difficult opponent, another adversary had just walked up to it. It would be a lie to say that the creature wasn''t offended. This was even more so since Sato was a lot smaller than it.

    A certain ideology generally existed in the jungle, which was that the bigger a creature the stronger it was. By this motion, the rodent monster could be said to be stronger than Sato and it believed exactly the same. Hence, it was annoyed that a little creature much "weaker" than it was had actually walked up to it with hostility.

    At that moment, all the held-back frustration and anger from thest encounter was released at this moment.

 Chapter 428 - 422 : First Battle In Maldora 2

    The creature was a hulking mass of flesh that had a natural thick fur that acted as armour, and five 3 feet(0.91144 metres) long sharp ws on each limb. Apart from that, the rodent had long whiskers that were a sharp as a brand new razor de. Behind it was a long tail, about twice its body''s length, that weighed about 1/4 of its entire mass.

    *Screech*

    Therge rodent charged at Sato with red eyes, incensed that it was being provoked by a vermin.

    Seeing the hulky figure that stampeding towards him, Sato didn''t rx his guard even though he knew he could defeat the monster.

    Being higher in level doesn''t necessarily mean that one would defeat their opponent. yers who tend to get cocky due to their strength would always find themselves eating a loss in the hands of a professional yer or an expert. A yer''s level was one form of their strength while the otherid in their skills as well as their battle sense; this was typically so in PvP fights.

    In the case of a PvE battle, the same still holds true.. yers had to take their fights against NPCs or monsters seriously lest they suffer a loss because of their underestimation of the opponent as well as their cockiness.

    Every monster had a different fighting pattern and arsenal of skills from the other. The skills a kobold would possess wouldn''t be the same as snake-type monster. Also, the fighting style of an ape monster wouldn''t be the same as a human NPC. Each character had their own battle techniques and styles, so, whenever a yer was faced with a monster he/she knew nothing about, they would be on guard and usually y the defensive role as they study the battle style of the said monster. This was particrlymon when the said monster was at the same level as the yer or higher.

    While Sato had yet to determine the rodent''s exact level, based on its aura alone, he was sure that it was no lower than level 14 which was just slightly beneath the Kobold King in strength.

    "You better be able to put up a fight." Sato smiled as he lunged at the monster.

    *Shiiing*

    As if it could sense its wielder''s enthusiasm for a battle, [Drakken] released a shrill sharp noise as it was about to sh with the giant rodent.

    *Screech*

    The rodent responded to the shrill with a screech as it swiped its w at Sato.

    *ng*

    Despite seemingly being made of some bone-like material, the w was able to contend with a low-tier Rare-Steel rank sword without much of a problem.

    ''Incredible.'' Sato praised.

    He wasn''t only impressed by the monster''s ability to contend with his sword but also its ability to contend with his strength.

    Thanks to the bonuses of [Drakken], Sato''s [Strength] stat stood at the peak alongside some yers whose main focus was the aforementioned attribute. Even whenparing with a monster at the same level Sato was able to overwhelm them to a certain extent, unless it was a strength-type monster, but this wasn''t so with the rodent in front of him; and it wasn''t even a strength-type monster. While it was true that it wasn''t exactly able to contend with him, it was still able to hold out against Sato to the point that the two were seemingly on par with each other.

    But the main reason Sato was impressed was because of the ws.

    ''This is indeed a resource heaven for lifestyle sses. If I can make a weapon out of these ws, I wonder how much it would sell for as well as the final quality of the product.''

    With the goal of satisfying his curiosity, Sato became even more pumped up to finish the battle.

    "Ha."

    Sato flung the w to the side before leaping charging right at the monster.

    Though it was strong and fast, the disadvantage of its size still existed for therge rodent, and to Sato, this was an advantage he could easily maximize.

    -87 (???/??? ???)

    ''What a tough hide.'' Sato eximed inwardly as he felt the resistance from the fur. The damage values disyed were also lower than what Sato had achieved before during his fight with the Kobold King, but just a bit above his average figures back when he was still level 9.

    ''This would take a while.'' Sato thought as he prepared to retreat.

    Just as he was about to do so, a green sh appeared on his interface disy as he discovered that the rodent had recovered a portion of its HP; to the point that the damage he had caused was entirely patched up.

    ''Self-heal?'' Sato was stunned.

    *Whoosh*

    It was at that moment that the weighty tail suddenly pierced forward like a spear, aiming for Sato. Due to the slight shock he had received at that moment, Sato was barely able to react to the attack so he was forced to block it with his sword.

    *Bang*

    Like a kite with loose strings, Sato was sted away by the attack until he was at least 5 metres away from the monster. Even then, he still felt his arms tremble from the residue impact force from the collisions.

    ''So the tail is its trump card.''

    Sato realized that the true attack power of the huge rodent wasn''t from its ws but the tail. However, knowing this didn''t mean that the battle would be any easier; on the contrary, it would be taxing on Sato. Considering that the rodent creature could attack with both ws and its sole tail, it meant that Sato had to keep an eye out for 3 possible attacks. There were also its whiskers which he still wasn''t sure if the rodent could use to attack. All these added together made this cute creature a ferocious beast.

    ''[Industrious Achiever]''

    Sato reced the previous title on disy with one that best suited the current situation.

    [Industrious Achiever] didn''t give any boost in power but simply increased the rewards he would gain during looting.

    "Let''s try this again."

    ...

    *Screech*

    With an unwilling yell, the rodent was finally put to rest as a patch of ck mes burnt on a gashing injury on its body.

    "That was fun." Sato breathed out before approaching the corpse for the loot.

    While therge rodent monster was indeed stronger than most monsters, Sato was stronger than most yers. Its defeat was an inevitable result that only required time. In total, it took Sato 5 minutes to finish off the monster, mostly because of the self-heal ability as well as the strange pattern of attacks that it used to battle. Once he was used to all those factors, Sato was able to deal more damage faster and finished it off within a minute.

    ''Looks like my journey would take a lot longer than I thought.'' Sato frowned as he tried to figure out how to solve the problem at hand.

    *Boom*

    A loud explosion rocked the canyon as a small mushroom cloud rose up in the distance. The spot wasn''t far from Sato so he was able to feel the shock waves even more.

    "Roar!"

    "Grawwr!!"

    "Hauk!"

    As if a prelude to an orchestra, the explosion caused a chain reaction of noises from the varying monsters in the area. One by one, different sounds from different monsters boomed through the region; some out of fear while some out of anger.

    "What was that?" Sato wondered as he gazed in the direction of the explosion, his curiosity yearning to be satisfied.

 Chapter 429 - 423 : The Mysterious Black Gate

    *Rumble*

    At a certain area in the outer region of Maldora Canyon, a part of a specific cliff had copsed in a massivendslide resulting from a small earthquake, to reveal a huge gate. The rocks that had fallen off the cliff during thendslide surrounded the exterior of the gates, with some of them having created terrifying fissures thatid all over the floor alongside the effects of the earthquakes. The entire region was then turned into what might seem like a obstacle course simr to the ones on game shows. As a result of that, it became very difficult for one to approach the mysterious gate that had suddenly appeared.

    ''As expected, the monsters have caught on.''

    About 20-30 metres away from the gathering of monsters, Sato hid behind a stgmite-like rock as he surveyed the affected area.

    There were a few monsters around the spot, ranging from the rodent-like monster he had seen before to some other beasts that roamed the canyon. A majority of the monsters within a 200-metres radius had reacted to the noise from thendslide and most of them had wandered over here to figure out what was going on.

    ''Guess I''ll have to wait.''

    Sato couldn''t approach the gate up ahead because of therge number of monsters around. From his experience with therge rodent from before, Sato realised that taking on one Common ranked monster wasn''t an issue. 2 could be done, but facing more than that would out him at a severe risk of death. As for here, there were more than 12 monsters present. If he tried to dive in there and head for the gate, he wouldn''t be able to outrun all the monsters, especially an agility-based one like therge snakes present. Not only would he be spotted but Sato''s flesh would be torn apart by the masses and used for lunch. The only option he had was wait for them to leave.

    With time trickling by, the monsters slowly began to depart one by one. The main reason for this was that none of them could get past the ndmine'' of fissures scattered all over the ce or navigate through the ''obstacle course'' that was formed by the earthquake. Some of the cracks on the ground were small, while others were both deep and wide enough to swallow a whole elephant. As for the walkable space, it was too small for any of theserge creatures to make use of.

    Without any chance of getting to the other side, the monsters began to give up and retreat to their natural habitat, whereas some began attacking the other either due to vexation, starvation or they were simply natural enemies with one another.

    After 10 more minutes, everything finally came to an end and the entire ce was empty with no sign of life, save for some skilled monster blood and corpses, and Sato who could finally leave his hiding spot.

    After waiting for 2 more minutes out of caution, Sato finally left his hiding spot and approached the edge of thend that was unaffected by the earthquake andndslide.

    "How to make it to the other side now."

    The cause of thendslide was rted to earthquake, but the cause of the earthquake was unknown. It even became more strange to discern since the earthquake didn''t ur have a wide range, but the effects in the affected area was disastrous to the region. The surrounding 60 metres from the cliff was covered in fissures and cracks. It was ad if an earthquake had urred with the ground permanently damaged by it. Thend was uneven with some individual parts raised up while some were missing. Cracks of different sizes were scattered all over the ce and if one wasn''t careful with their movement, they would enter one and end up God knows where.

    Sato closed in on the edge of the affected region as he nced around and made a mental calction of the safest path to take. While it was true that the monsters couldn''t traverse through the area due to their size and control, Sato could. Not only was he smaller than the monsters but his body control was top notch, making it easier for him to move through the area and jump from one spot to another without fear of falling into a crack.

    It took Sato a full minute to nce around the ce and ascertain the spots that were safe and stable.

    Without further dy, Sato began making his way towards the gate on the cliff, and within 2 miniytes, he had sessfully avoided all the fissures and made his way to the gate.

    "It''s actually this big."

    The gate that had mysteriously appeared on the cliff''s face was about 15 metres tall, making it one of thergest objects Sato had seen in the game. It was jet ck but with a reflective metallic sheen to it but a gave off a jade-like sensation to the fingers once touched. There wereplex patterns and carvings on the gate''s surface but Sato couldn''t identify what was written there.

    Unlike the gates during the [Labyrinth of Helios] trial at the Caventry''s grounds, of he one before Sato was just a regr gate without any terrifying or demonic aura. If one were to exclude its domineering size and exquisite craftsmanship, it would just be a simple gate.

    Sato walked over to the gate and studied it, trying to find a way to open it but there was no sign of any lock or handle. However, Sato didn''t give up just yet.

    ''This is pretty much what they call a Goldner opportunity. If I can''t find my way in, who knows what I would lose out on.''

    With his determination increased, Sato took out [Drakken] and was prepared to see whether he could bring the gate down.

    *ng*

    The cursed sword shed at the gate but was unable to make a mark on it. It was as if it was a cotton stick and not a metallic sword that had struck the gate.

    Just as Sato was about to consider a different approach, the gate suddenly glistened with ck light for just a second, before returning to normal.

    "What was that?" Sato couldn''t help but think out loud.

    As he was about to strike the gate once more to see if it would produce another reaction, the gate suddenly began to vibrate.

    *Boom*

    Another series of earthquake began as the previous existing cracks widened whole need ones formed on the floor.

    ''Shit.'' Sato cursed as he could neither move forward not retreat. The original oath he had used was destroyed as new cracks formed and destroyed the entire terrain.

    In the end, Sato had no reason to worry as the space within 2 metres of the gate was devoid of any damage. None of the cracks or fissures were able to stretch that far so he had no reason to be worried.

    ''Strange.'' Sato thought but was still relieved that he wouldn''t die an unfair death.

    *Grind*

    Like a metal door that had been locked for ages, finally revealing its interior to the sun''s rays, the ck gate began to open with a loud grinding noise.

    Finally, after aplete minute of having to tolerate that irritating noise, the gate was fully opened and a staircase heading down was revealed to Sato.

    Without hesitation, Sato walked in took his first step on the stairs, one hand on his sword''s hilt and his eyes focused to the limit.

 Chapter 430 - 424 : Inside The Gate

    *Step * *Step*

    With each step that was taken, the dark tunnel was lit up by the light that came from the magic torch in Sato''s hand.

    ''Luckily I have still have this in hand.''

    Magic torches were special torches that didn''t produce light through the traditional method of setting a mmable on fire. Rather, it did so by absorbing mana from the environment and using it to produce light thanks to the help of a rune engraved on it.

    ''Still haven''t seen the end. I wonder how deep this staircase goes.''

    Sato had been descending down the staircase for over 15 minutes and had covered a distance of not more than 600 metres. Part of the reason for his slow speed was because Sato had to proceed with caution since the corridor seemed like a perfect spot for traps and ambushes.

    ''Hmm?'' .

    ncing in front, Sato noticed that the stairs hade to an end. The spot ahead of him copsed to form a t ground, showing that the stairs hade to an end.

    Once Sato''s feet got off the stairs, he was greeted by an open space that looked empty. The range of the magic torch was only 10 metres so Sato could only see that far. Outside of that range was total darkness that epassed the entire ce, preventing Sato from scrutinizing his surroundings.

    Since he couldn''t see through the darkness, Sato was confused of which direction to take from here.

    *Whoosh*

    *Whoosh*

    *Whoosh*

    Just as Sato had decided on a random direction and taken his first step, whooshing sounds went off as dull red mes lit up by the side. By the time all the mes had lit up, Sato realised that he was inside arge hall.

    There were 16 columns on each side of the hall; the left and right sides. With an area of about 16km metres square, the hall could be described as huge. There were markings along the tiles of the floor that seemed more like runes of some sort. The markings extended to cover the entire hall and even went up the ceiling by snaking through the columns.

    On each side of the hall -apart from the front and the end-, there were 8 doors summing up to a total of 16 doors. Sato had arrived from one of the doors by the left but was situated close to the centre of the hall.

    At one end of the hall was arge mural painted on a ck wall. The mural was an image of a hideous 7-horned demon with 6 eyes; three on each side. Two fangs jutted out from the mouth of the demon with blood dripping from its jaw. At a nce, it was obvious that the blood wasn''t the fiend''s but that of another creature.

    Due to both the savage look and the weird realistic sensation the mural had, simply staring at it would make one feel goosebumps as well as anxiety and fear. It was almost as if it wasn''t a mural one was staring at, but the actual head of a demonic existence.

    As for the other end of the hall, there was a stone statue propped there. It was the statue of a hooded creature seated upon a throne. Compared to the mural that had a height of about 7 metres and a width of 3 metres, the statue reached a staggering height of 21 metres upied an area of about 120 metres square. It radiated a lordly aura that made it seem as if an emperor was looking down on his citizens. Even from the distance of more than 60 metres Sato stood from, he could feel the regal aura of the statue. And at the same time, Sato would feel a creepy stare from behind whenever he faced the stone statue with his back turned towards the mural.

    ''This ce is way too creepy. The realism is absurd.'' Sato couldn''t help but let a remark about the ce.

    [[System notification :

    You have discovered [Temple of Vasili¨¢s]

    Rewarding yer¡­

    _________________

    +2 silver coins.

    +??? Experience points.

    Location has been added to your map.

    ]]

    "For the first time ever, I''m being rewarded for my endeavor." Sato chuckled.

    ''Temple of Vasili¨¢s. Never heard of a god by that name nor a simr religion.'' Sato thought.

    "Now, where do I go from here."

    Apart from the door he had appeared from, there were 15 other doors left for Sato to explore. 15 doors meant 15 different ces with possibly different experiences to go through. There was also the chance that some of them would lead to a simr hall like the one here that would further lead to more areas. All these possibilities added together made selecting a door to enter a problem.

    ''Since the door I came from lead me here, chances are that the other doors are exits and only a few would actually lead deeper into the temple.'' Sato began evaluating his options.

    ''This is a temple and the statue seems to be the centre of all this. It''s most likely that the doors closer to the statue would lead deeper in than the others.'' Sato stared in the direction of the gigantic ck statue.

    ''So it''s either left or right.'' Sato then nced at the two opposite doors closest to the stone statue on both sides.

    ''I just came from the left so I might as well check out the right.''

    Havinge to decision in such a weird way, Sato then walked towards the closest door to the stone statue by the right. Since there was lighting present, he turned off the magic torch and tossed it into his space ring. As for his sword, it had always been in his right hand and could be used at any second.

    As Sato made his way towards his chosen door, the demon mural on the opposite side experienced a change. A red gleam shed in all 6 pupils of the fiend as a creepy grin took shape on its lips. If Sato happened to be within a 10 metres range of the mural, he would have been able to hear a hair-raising chuckle that could scare a devil to death.

 Chapter 431 - 425 : The Secret Of The Temple

    *Creak*

    *Bang*

    The old wooden door was forced open as a ray of light shone in from the other side.

    "Another dud." Sato sighed as he nced at the interior to witness an empty room.

    Of the 16 pathways present in therge hall, Sato had already been in 13 of them, including the one he came from. If this one were to be counted, it would be 14 different doors.

    Apart from some of them being empty, like this one, the rest either had random items -like furniture, scrolls, candlesticks, and other ritual items- or had brown coloured treasure chests which signified the Mortal rank.

    Usually, a yer would be happy at the sight of a treasure chest but that only depends on the quality and items within the said chest. But the same didn''t hold true here. .

    For the ones Sato had found, they were either filled with low-level items and equipment that was barely of any use to him, or they contained a few silver coins. While all the items were of mary value, Sato was hoping to find something that would be particrly useful to him, like a forging material or maybe another blueprint. The only exception to the repetitive rewards was a certain object Sato had obtained that seemed to have a specific value here.

    [[ System interface :

    Cross-Dimensional Barrier Breaking Shard (Iplete)

    System description : An Appraiser would be needed for more information. ]]

    That was the special object he had obtained from some of the treasure chests in the rooms. Compared to the title of the item, the form of the object was very deceiving. It had the appearance of a ripped piece of navy blue paper but muchrger in size. At a closer look, what seemed to be coloured ink would be spotted on the piece of paper. This made Sato think that it was a part of a painting, and if not for the description, he would have taken it as such and sold it once he returned to the city.

    Of the [Cross-Dimensional Barrier Breaking Shard (Iplete)], Sato had managed to collect 5 parts and as he brought them together, he realized that they came from the source. In other words, they were one and the same object, just torn into different parts and distributed into the different rooms. As for why this was done, Sato didn''t know. All he managed to figure out was that there were 2 more pieces remaining for the "painting" to bepleted.

    From the ones he had managed to piece together so far, Sato realised that it wasn''t a painting of any lifeform or object, but an abstract painting with no solid reference.

    ''The name sounds cool but I don''t even know what use this is.'' Sato nced into his space ring as he walked towards the 15th door.

    Thest two doors were located in opposite directions, with one being by the left and the other by the right. Since Sato had started with the door closest to the statue, he ended up reaching the doors closest to the odious mural, specifically the one by the right.

    "Alright. Hopefully, I will find something here." Sato sighed.

    He proceeded to open the door and was greeted with the sight of a silver coloured chest.

    "At least it''s a Rare-Steel ranked chest." Sato cheered himself up as he approached the chest.

    It didn''t have a magic lock so he was able to open it using the normal method mostmon amongst yers, which was the [Unlock] basic skill.

    *Click*

    Once the timer for the chest was down, the lock opened up with a click and Sato was able to view its contents.

    "A spell scroll, a level 10 Low-tier Mortal rank cloth armour, 3,4 silver coins, and the usual piece of paper. The gains this time around are a lot better than the others."

    After emptying the chest and storing its contents into his ring, Sato left the room and headed for thest one. Simr to the rest, he found a Mortal rank chest in thest room which only contained a few random items that were useless to him as well as thest remaining shard.

    ''It seems like there''s really nothing special about this ce.'' Sato sighed as he departed from thest room.

    ''I wonder what these are though.''

    Extracting the 7 torn pieces, Sato began arranging them in the right order till he was able to produce theplete masterpiece.

    Just as Sato was about to take a proper nce at the end product, the painting suddenly glowed azure before it dashed out of his hands towards the mural on the wall.

    ''The heck?''

    Confused, Sato turned behind to nce at the strangely acting painting.

    Suspended in mid-air was theplete ''painting'', hovering just in front of the huge mural. It was as if the painting was weightless at that moment and impetuous to thew known as gravity.

    *Whoosh*

    Suddenly, a suction force appeared from behind the painting, or to be exact, the fiend in the mural. The exact point f the suction force was the fiend''s mouth, which at an unknown point in time, had opened wide to reveal a ''ckhole''.

    The painting in front was unaffected by the suction force but the same couldn''t be said about Sato.

    "Shit."

    Cursing his luck, Sato hurriedly retreated away from the range of the suction force as he felt it be more powerful. It was only until he was at a distance of about 5 metres that he became unaffected by the force.

    "What the heck was that?"

    Ever since the painting waspleted, Sato had been receiving one shock after the other. First was the painting suddenly approaching the mural of its own volition, then the suction force, and finally, the fact that the mural of a demonic figure with a closed mouth suddenly happened to open its mouth to suck in the surrounding mana and air towards the mural. All of these, if told in the real world, would make him sound like a psycho. Luckily, this was a VR world so anything was possible.

    ''Still, this should be beyond some of the natural rules.'' Sato couldn''t help butin.

    *Phew*

    A sharp sound drew his attention as a white bean appeared out of nowhere and struck the painting in mid-air.

    ''No, it''s not out of nowhere.''

    Sato abruptly turned behind and discovered that the source of the white beam was actually the ck statue at the other end of the hall. At some point in time, its eyes had begun glowing white as a white ray of light streamed from it, towards the painting.

    The painting absorbed the ray and began to liquify in a strange manner, such that its physical state became stuck in between a solid-state and a liquid state, or in simpler terms, it became a semi-solid.

    Slowly, the ''melted'' painting began to erge in size as it absorbed more of the white ray streaming in alongside the mana being sent into it by the suction force from the demonic head. Only when it became 6 metres in both length and height did the painting stop erging. At the same time, the suction force from the mural disappeared while the white ray from the ck statue dispersed.

    ''Looks like, it''s done.'' Sato remained away from the painting as he scrutinized it for any further changes.

    The painting wasn''t like it was before; it looked more like a condensed ck neb but also like a te that was formed from a ck glossy jelly. It remained motionless in mid-air as it gave off a mysterious sensation and a strange sense of beauty at first nce.

    *Crack*

    Just as Sato was considering approaching it, a crack formed on the ''te'' and an unimaginable event, something that Sato would never have expected, took ce.

 Chapter 432 - 426 : Battle With The Strange Creature

    Just as Sato was considering approaching it, a crack formed on the ''te'' as a silver glow leaked from it. Following that, an eerie event urred. A hand suddenly wriggled its way out of the crack as it followed the silver light to escape.

    As the hand exited the ''te'', an arm followed suit and then a shoulder, then a head, till an entire body managed to escape from. A ck creature with a faceless head appeared before Sato.

    The monster was entirely covered in jet-ck scales and had no facial features apart from two gleaming red beads. At the point where its fingers were supposed to be, 5 long ws extended from the palm of each arm, looking as sharp as a brand new sword. Each w was about 12 inches in length and simr to the creature, was ck in colour.

    The leg of the monster was shaped more like a goat''s leg but the feet were more like a human''s but with ws instead of toes.

    *Krrkk*

    A weird jarring sound was produced from the creature but the origin was a mystery since the monstercked any kind of vocal organ.

    "A battle atst."

    Sato gripped his sword tightly as he faced the monster. He was already getting a bit irritated that his journey so far had only been more of exploration than increasing his level. After seeing Otoki who was level 11, Sato became aware that the more he dyed his progress, the faster others would catch up to him. So his main goal was more on increasing his level than looking for resources.

    The creature charged towards Sato as it swung its arms at him. The distance of fewer than 5 metres was easily covered within a second and Sato was forced to confront it upfront. But it wasn''t like he didn''t want to start with.

    *ng*

    With the high-pitched sound reverberating from the collision of weapons, the fight officially began.

    Sato blocked one w with his sword while the other headed towards his head. With a simple nod of his head, Sato dodged it before moving back by two steps.

    Once he created some space between him and the monster, Sato immediately brandished his sword at it, switching from the defense to the offense.

    *ng*

    Simr to Sato before, the ck creature was able to respond in time and blocked his attack. Sparks flew off from the collision as the two remained tied in strength despite their differing stances.

    ''It''s strong, very strong. At least level 15 or even 16.'' Sato narrowed his eyes.

    This was by far the strongest opponent he had faced when considering monsters.

    Unlike the Kobold King who was superior based on attributes, this creature was a worthy opponent based on its skills. Even though they had only exchanged two moves, the creature''s response time and countermeasures were something a monster wouldn''t usually do. Most monsters relied on their superior attributes to beat yers in a tant fashion but the creature was utilising its attributes in the most effective way.

    The creature followed up immediately with another attack and Sato was continuously forced to block.

    He was up against a creature with two weaponized ws whereas he only had one sword in hand. If that wasn''t enough, the monster was fierce in its attacks and its speed and strength were roughly on par with Sato''s. These two factors made it a difficult opponent to take on even for Sato.

    "Hmph."

    Seeing the creature try to pull a sneaky move on him, Sato snorted in irritation as he struck his sword at the w that sneaked towards him.

    *ng*

    The w was forced off course but seemingly not realising it, the creature still remained on the offensive with its other w.

    "So stubborn."

    [Linear Strike]

    Irked, Sato thirst his sword forward as he caught on to a loophole in the creature''s defense.

    -87 (???/??? ???)

    *Crack*

    A weird cracking sound, simr to a t piece of wood broken apart, was heard as the sword prated into the body of the creature.

    "Not done yet."

    Though surprised by the feedback he got, Sato still pushed on with his attack, drawing his sword back and shing out almost instantly.

    -93 (???/??? ???)

    *Crack*

    Another crack formed on the creature''s body as the cursed sword [Drakken] made its mark on the monster.

    Ignorant of its injuries as if it was immune to pain, the creature lunged at Sato with both ws in an offensive posture.

    ''The heck?''

    Surprised at the creature''s nonchnce to its wounds, Sato cursed before immediately retreating. He already had an inkling that the creature was immune to pain especially after seeing it ignore his previous counter to its sneak attack.

    Like a hungry leopard chasing after a meal, the creature pursued Sato even though he had already retreated. Because of this, Sato was forced to remain on the defensive as he tried to catch his breath.

    And so, with the ck ''te'' floating in mid-air with silver-lined cracks, a gigantic ck statue at one end and a mysterious demonic mural on the other end, the two fighters: Sato and the ck faceless creature, began exchanging blows at a rapid pace.

    At times, Sato would be able tond a blow on the creature but it would use that opportunity to also attack him. As a result, Sato had already begun to incur injuries on himself.

    *ng*

    *ng*

    In just one second, the duo had shed more than 3 times with the defending party managing to block the attack just in time.

    *Whoosh*

    A w swept towards Sato with a forceful momentum but he was able to spot it in time just to retreat away.

    [ck me sh]

    Sato swung his sword at the creature just as he retreated, sending a ming ck crescent at the creature.

    *Bang*

    The arc exploded upon contact, pushing the monster away and giving Sato some breathing space. However, that didn''tst long as the creature charged once more at him.

    In the red-coloured hall[1], ck shes swept through the air as three ck-coloured weapons were swung around. One was done in a refined manner, aiming for critical spots and utilising every single opportunity, whereas the other was done in a seemingly rampant and aggressive manner, putting pressure on its victim.

    "At this rate, I don''t know who will die first. Me or you?"

 Chapter 433 - 427 : Battle With The Strange Creature 2

    [[ Temple Guardian Puppet (Special Elite)

    Race : ???

    Bloodline : ???

    Level : 15

    HP : 2,372/6,000 (x30)

    . . .

    ]].

    After discerning the creature''s identity through the [Inspect] skill, Sato finally understood why it didn''t have any facial features. It was simply because it didn''t need them.

    A puppet was an inanimate creation made with a goal in mind, simr to AIs and robots. Some puppets could be made to serve as servants, guards, or even chefs and so on, while others were designed specifically for battle. There was no need to think twice to know that the one before Sato was a battle puppet.

    Even though the two had managed to deal damage to each other, Sato''s skill with the sword was more advanced than the puppet''s so he was able to mitigate a lot of the damage and dodge most of the attacks. Hence, the puppet''s HP was already below 50% whereas Sato''s was still above 50%.

    Suddenly, a red hue appeared on the ws of the puppet as its attacks suddenly sped up. The force behind each strike and the speed supporting it were all increased. The intensity of the battle was boosted to another level that made Sato take it more seriously, lest he actually lose his life. And if that were to happen, he would respawn back in the city and that would mean that the over 3 hours of time he spenting here as well as the more than 45 minutes spent here would turn to waste.

    *ng*

    The puppet made use of a small window tond a heavy strike right at Sato, however, the blow was thwarted by a timely silver dagger that Sato had summoned at the veryst second.

    Nheless, because it was a rushed block, the silver de got flung away and Sato was still struck by the attack, moving back 3 metres.

    As he lifted his head to nce at the puppet, Sato saw the creature dashing towards him with a ck orb in hand. It tossed the ck orb at Sato with its right w. As the orb left the w, it broke up into 4 thin lines that attacked from 4 different angles.

    Sato hurriedly dodged to the side as the 4 attacksnded at his original spot, leaving behind sh marks on the floor.

    At the exact moment Sato had moved, the puppet had also moved with him and appeared just a few metres, almost giving Sato the shock of his life.

    "Waaaaaa!"

    A high-pitched scream resonated from the body of the puppet and affected Sato in a peculiar fashion.

    Usually, sound affects the ear or rather, the sound organs of the listener. A high-pitched sound would be piercing and harmful to the organs, while low-frequency sounds would also have negative effects on the human body. The noise released by the puppet couldn''t exactly be described as such.

    While it was sound that could be heard, the vibrations caused by it in the air were visible to the naked eyes. These vibrations surrounded Sato and slowed down his reaction speed and movement, having simr effects to a quagmire. The duration of the skill was very short but that was more than enough to affect Sato''s momentum.

    At the same time that the vibrations took effect, the puppet was already in front of Sato and had attacked with both ws, aiming one at his head and the other at his right arm. Even if Sato would somehow be able to react to this, it would be quite difficult for him to block the attack and impossible for him to dodge it.

    ''Out.''

    *ng*

    At thest moment, Sato had used [Drakken] to block the w going for his head. As for the other w, he had summoned a gauntlet on his left arm and used it as a shield against the other w.

    Once he had blocked the two attacks, Sato didn''t hesitate to retreat from the spot as he made some space between himself and the puppet.

    Unrelenting like a starved pervert who had spotted a beautiful virgin, the puppet chased after Sato andunched attack after attack, intent on not giving him any breathing space.

    Sparks flew off each time the two shed and Sato was constantly being forced back. From a third-person view, it would look as if he would soon lose the fight but Sato knew better. The fight was had just begun.

    *Bam*

    Sato sent a kick right at the puppet''s chest, spacing it away from himself. Before the target could recover, he jumped right at it and swung his sword towards its head.

    The puppet caught the sword with one w and proceeded to attack with the other, but Sato sent another kick straight at it.

    *Bam*

    Irked, the puppet red at Sato with its glistening red eyes and abruptly swiped both ws towards him with a strange ck glint in both ws.

    "Hmph."

    [Dark Veil]

    With a snort, Sato used the second active skill in his sword.

    Unlike [ck me sh], [Dark Veil] was a domain-type silencing skill that prevented any opponent within its range from using any active skill so long as the domain was activated before the skill was.

    Because of [Dark Veil], the skill the puppet had just prepared was cancelled and Sato only had to face a regr attack. That little action of his had led to the puppet''s momentum being ruined and it became easier for Sato to turn the tables on it.

    Without wasting any time, Sato easily parried the attack and went on the assault.

    While the 3 seconds duration of the skill sounded short, it was very useful to Sato especially since he had saved most of his skills for this.

    "[Chain Hit]"

    -132

    -124

    -118 (1998/6000 Temple Guardian Puppet''s HP)

    Immediately the skill concluded, Sato struck once again with his sword, but this time with the basic skill [Hack], before concluding up with two regr attacks just as the 3 seconds countdown went off.

    - 107

    -88

    -92 (1711/6000 Temple Guardian Puppet''s HP)

    Even though the domain went off and the puppet had regained all of its skills, Sato wasn''t inclined to end things just like that.

    *Bang*

    -112

    As the puppet was just about to recover from the harshbo from Sato, the swordsman delivered a brutal [Chop] to it, sending it back 3 metres in a flustered manner.

    Intending on paying it back for the unrelenting pursuit and not willing to let it have some breathing space, Sato immediately teleported beside the puppet using [Shadow Movement], before topping it off with a horizontal sh performed with the skill of the same name.

    "[Horizontal sh]!"

    -126 (1473/6000 Temple Guardian Puppet''s HP)

    *Bang*

    Like a broken kite, the puppet was sent flying 6 metres till it crashed on the floor just close to the ck ''te''.

 Chapter 434 - 428 : Unlocked

    *Bang*

    Like a broken kite, the puppet was sent flying 6 metres till it crashed on the floor just close to the ck ''te''.

    "Damn it. You have such a thick shell." Satoined as he felt a numbing pain in his palm.

    ncing at his left hand, Sato saw that the gauntlet he had used to block the puppet''s previous attack was already filled with cracks and would break apart with another random attack. But he had already expected that.

    The gauntlet was a level 10 Mid-tier Mortal rank gauntlet he had found in one of the rooms. The puppet''s ws were able topare with his level 15 Low-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon. If it couldn''t ruin a level 10 Mid-tier Mortal rank equipment then it would be a shame.

    "Still not enough?" .

    The puppet stood up with a bit of difficulty but apart from that, there was no expression or emotion in its eyes. Apart from the cracks decorating its body, there was no sign that Sato had done much damage to the puppet. Unlike a monster or a yer who would be bleeding or in pain, the puppet was simply lifeless and bloodless.

    "*Sighs* If level 15 creatures are this strong then it means that this game would be a lot more difficult as we go on." Sato sighed for the future of most yers.

    "Alright. Time to end this."

    Flexing his muscles a bit, Sato then narrowed his eyes as he decided to end this. He had previously been battling the puppet with a cautious attitude to study its fighting pattern and for fear of being surprised by a skill.

    Just like how the [Appraise] skill didn''t reveal everything rted to a piece of equipment or a weapon, the [Inspect] skill simrly stopped revealing all the skills possessed by a monster past level 10. Therefore, even though Sato had already scanned the puppet for its attributes and skills, he still had to be cautious for the ones that weren''t revealed by the result.

    *Bang*

    The puppet suddenly sped towards Sato as if it were still full of energy.

    Not wanting to be outdone, Sato charged right towards it with his right hand tightly gripping his sword.

    *ng*

    The two shed once again as they simrly did in the beginning, but this time around Sato intended to wrap the battle up quickly.

    ''Lotus sh.''

    *Crack*

    -112

    Once he drew his sword back, Sato immediately shed out in almost an instant, making a clean-cut mark on the body of the puppet.

    ''The damage is piling up.'' Sato noticed the value of his attack being roughly on par with a skill.

    The puppet didn''t bother about the injury as it brandished both ws at Sato.

    [Sprint]

    Sato boosted his movement speed with the basic general skill as he hurriedly dodged the two attacks.

    At the same time he did so, Sato thrust his sword at a point on the puppet''s body. The point was a junction where 3 cracks had met and it was located just close to the shoulder.

    *Crack*

    [Critical Hit]

    -178

    The junction widened as the sword went through it, almost severing the arm from the main body.

    The left arm of the puppet had turned useless as it swiped its right w at Sato without remorse.

    Realising that he was in trouble, Sato hurriedly pulled out his sword as he tried to retreat, but he still got caught by the attack.

    *Bang*

    The gauntlet Sato wore in his left hand shattered to pieces as he used it to tank the blow. However, the remnant force from the w had tossed him to the side like an abandoned rag.

    Relying on his reflexes, Sato was able to bring himself back to his feet almost immediately. He then shed with the puppet that had already charged right at him.

    *ng*

    Once he blocked the hit, Sato immediately forced the w to the side as he delivered a punch right at the feeble left shoulder.

    *Bam*

    [Critical Hit]

    -139 (1044/6000 Temple Guardian Puppet''s HP)

    The hanging left w was immediately detached from the body of the creature without much resistance. An unexpectedly, the puppet suddenly froze at that moment.

    While he was confused, Sato had no intention of letting go of a free meal. He immediately brandished his sword at two other points on the puppet that had cracks all over, dealing critical upon critical hit on it.

    [Critical Hit]

    -167

    [Critical Hit]

    -183

    [Critical Hit]

    -192

    [Critical Hit]

    -199 (303/6000 Temple Guardian Puppet''s HP)

    It was with the fourth attack that the puppet managed to recover but by then, it was toote to change the results.

    "[Linear Strike]"

    [ck me sh]

    A ming [Drakken] went through the puppet''s forehead and came out cleanly from the other side and to top it all off, Sato sent a punch right at its chest, where a human''s heart would be located, without any hesitation.

    [CRITICAL HIT]

    -279

    -32

    The ming sword thrust had caused a highly rated critical hit that was even recognised by the system while the punch aimed at a weak point had hammered the nail on the puppet, sending it to eternal rest.

    [[ System notification :

    Congrattions, you have yed the Temple Guardian Puppet and unlocked a new location.]]

    "Unlocked a new location? What''s that all about?"

    Confused, Sato halted looting the creature and tried to find more information on his system interface. Sadly though, there was no other notice from the system.

    ''What''s going on?''

    Just as Sato was pondering on what the notification referred to, the remains of the puppet suddenly crumbled to rubble and were swept off by an invisible wind.

    *Boom*

    As if a small explosion had just rocked the ce, the remains crashed into the ck ''te'' that was floating in mid-air, creating new silver cracks in it before forcing its way in.

    As Sato was about to curse at the system for stealing his loot, the cracks on the te began to multiply and widen as more and more silver light leaked out from it.

    Run.

    For some reason, Sato''s instincts warned him and without hesitation, he ran as far as possible away from the ck te.

    *Boom*

    An explosion louder than the previous one rocked the entire ce as Sato abruptly took cover on the floor.

    Following the sound of the explosion were two system notifications; one, a worldwide system notification and the other a regional notification that covered only ck Rock province. The contents of both notifications were pretty much simr but they managed to arouse the interest and vigir of the entire yerbase in the game. Their contents...

    [[ System notification :

    Wide-Scale Announcement

    Region level: Worldwide server

    The first-ever dungeon has officially been unlocked.

    Dungeon privileges and new entries have been activated.

    ]]

 Chapter 435 - 429 : Dungeon Fever

    In an unnamed forest on the outskirts of ck Rock City¡­

    "You know you can''t defeat me so why bother?"

    A stout figure held onto a sword with the top pointing downwards as he stood in confrontation with a masked opponent.

    "You never know, maybe things would be different today." The masked figure replied.

    Their voice was cracked and indistinguishable from a male''s or a female''s so the gender of the speaker was unidentified. Even their clothing was a loose ck cloak that made it difficult for one to figure out whether they were a man or woman based on physique. However, the yer had a weird dagger with runes carved all over it in hand which meant that their ss was most likely [Assassin]..

    "Nightmare, do you really think that to be true?" The stout man said with a smile on his face.

    "Enough talk, why don''t we find out ourselves, Han." The masked yer, Nightmare, barked.

    The stout man, who was the famed King of the Hill, Han Otoki smirked as he took a battle stance. The yer before him was another famed yer, but a dark yer.

    Nightmare was a reputed yer whose true identity was unknown. Be it their gender or nationality, none of that was known since the yer always hide behind a mask and spoke with the exact same fake voice. Even in games where a yer''s looks could be faked, Nightmare still wore the same mask as if hiding from something. In the early stages of any game, where the mask couldn''t be made yet, they would be wandering around in secret, hidden from the eyes of other yers. Butter on, Nightmare would show their face once more with the usual signature mask.

    It was a known fact amongst the top-tier yers that Han and Nightmare had a feud between them. The reason for the dispute between them wasn''t well-known but most yers knew that Nightmare would usually attack Han on sight.

    Rumours had it that Han had seen their real identity once so Nightmare had decided to constantly pester him. Another rumour had it that they knew each other in reality while another detailed about their ''history'' together. All in all there were different reasons spread around regarding the duo''s bad blood but none could be confirmed.

    "Always quick to battle. No problem,e." Han send as he stretched out one hand nonchntly.

    *Ding*

    Just as Nightmare was about to attack, a ding sounded in the ears of both characters and forced them to pause. Usually, they would ignore system notifications but the notification tone was one specific only to server-wide.

    [[ System notification :

    Wide-Scale Announcement

    Region level: ck Rock Province server

    The first ever dungeon has officially been unlocked.

    Dungeon privileges and new entries have been activated.

    For being the region to achieve the first unlock, dungeon rewards have been boosted by 5% in all existing dungeons in the region for 1 week(RT)

    Rewards have been boosted by 10% in the unlocked dungeon for 5 week (RT)

    Dungeon map will be avable in the city map.

    Good luck to all yers.

    ]]

    [[ System notification :

    Wide-Scale Announcement

    Region level: Worldwide server

    The first ever dungeon has officially been unlocked in ck Rock Province, Fallen Heart Kingdom, Main Continent.

    Dungeon privileges and new entries have been activated.

    Rankings have been unlocked.

    [Dungeon Rankings] has been unlocked.

    [Golden Fingers Rankings] has been unlocked.

    [One Above All Rankings] has been unlocked.

    For more information, go to the [Rankings] menu.

    ]]

    "Looks like our fight would have to be postponed." Han narrowed his eyes.

    Nightmare didn''t say anything but simply vanished like a ghost, leaving behind not a single sound nor footstep.

    "To think that someone would already have discovered the first dungeon." Han began sighed out loud.

    "Who could it be? Rhes? ck me? Jackal? There''s also the possibility that it might even be a dark horse."

    Walking away, Han sighed.

    "*Sighs* I need to take this more seriously."

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    Salt Springs Town, Sovereign guild''s meeting point...

    "So the dungeon has already been discovered." Genma sighed.

    "Looks like they''ve beat us to it." Red Knight Millim of Sovereign guildmented.

    "It doesn''t matter. We just have to make sure we''re the first to conquer the dungeon." Genma said.

    "Then shouldn''t we be on our way to the city?" Milim asked confused as to their current circumstances.

    "*Sighs* At this rate will I ever be able to hand the guild to you without any worries? You don''t need to be worried or hyped about leaving so soon. Do you really think the first dungeon would be that easy to conquer? Heck, do you think any dungeon would be? If it were then this game would end up as nothing but a sham. Bad reviews would stream in and it would only be a matter of time before it''s abandoned by yers."

    "Oh." Milim nodded as he looked at Genma.

    "Obviously, the developers would have thought of this hence the dungeon wouldn''t be so easy to conquer. I can even bet that the BOSS would be a level 20 monster at the very least. No yer is capable of tanking such a powerhouse yet and without a suitable tank, the raid would be a bust. That''s why I said you don''t need to worry yet." Genma exined.

    "Oh, that makes sense now." Milim nodded with an understanding look.

    "I predict it would take at least 5 days to a week before anyone would try the dungeons out." Genma added.

    "That''s just more than enough time for us to have a team of level 15 yers ready."

    "So when do we now move? I mean, the earlier the better right?" Milim pushed on.

    Genma replied almost immediately with a rxed tone, "I guess you''re right. Make a draft of the yers you think would be suitable for this dungeon raid. We have to focus on them first before the others."

    "That''s s going to be the first team, right?"

    "No." Genma shook his head. " We will need more than just them."

    "Alright."

    Simr to the situation with Sovereign guild, many of the top guilds all around the world began making preparations to take on the various dungeons in their regions. Part of the reason for this was attributed to the fact that weapons and equipment could be farmed better in dungeons but the main reason was imply because of the achievement of defeating a dungeon first, be it in their region or in the entire world.

    Just like with the Kobold King, many guessed that there would be a server-wide announcement forpleting a dungeon first, be it first in their region or first in all servers; but with thetter having more rewards than the former.

    The allure of having their name disyed to millions of yers while gaining amazing rewards from the system was something many yers wished to receive so they were all pumped all by the announcement.

    On all forums on all servers, the dungeon unlock notification was trending as many yers began to make their guesses on which super guild or op tier guild would be the first toplete their dungeon. Very few yers had even included Seven Star Glory on their lists as they felt that the group was a dark horse and could surprise the yermunity just as they did before. However, others refuted thisment and believed that the achievement of the said team was just a one-time thing, and possibly even a lucky shot.

    This theory became especially more pronounced when the news that Emperor''s Might and Battle Wolves'' Howling Wolf Battalion had made it to the 10th floor of ck Grill''s Cave Middle region at at that time. More and more skeptical yet envious yers arrived at the conclusion that Seven Star Glory had stolen the kill from the aforementioned guilds. While there was no proof of this, there was also not much proof that Sato''s team had actually taken on the BOSS on their own as no video of the fight was ever released.

    ''So this is what the notification meant about a new location huh? A dungeon.'' Sato couldn''t help but smile.

    ''Makes sense as to why the puppet was that strong. It was the dungeon''s guardian.''

    Discovering a dungeon had its perks especially since there would be a reward for that. Apart from this, he would also have the liberty of exploring it first since he discovered the location first but from the way IR operated, that wasn''t so.

    ording to the Province-level notification, yers could purchase a map with the location of the dungeons from the city hall so there wasn''t much of an advantage here for him.

    ''Nheless, the rewards are indeed satisfying.''

    Looking inside of his space ring, Sato spotted 2 gold coins as well as a few 3 star materials that previously weren''t in his inventory. These were the rewards he had gotten for unlocking the dungeon as well as defeating the puppet.

    ''The ranking menu? What''s that?''

 Chapter 436 - 430 : Rankings

    [[ System notification :

    Wide-Scale Announcement

    Region level: Worldwide server

    The first-ever dungeon has officially been unlocked in ck Rock Province, Fallen Heart Kingdom, Main Continent.

    Dungeon privileges and new entries have been activated.

    Rankings have been unlocked.

    [Dungeon Rankings] has been unlocked.

    [Golden Fingers Rankings] has been unlocked.

    [One Above All Rankings] has been unlocked..

    For more information, go to the [Rankings] menu.

    ]]

    [[ Ranking Menu :

    [One above All] : Let your glory be known by all who walketh the earth.

    This ranking entails the list of the top 1000 highest levelled yers at the moment. It covers yers on all servers and disys their names on all servers.

    You can deactivate the disy function and your name wouldn''t be shown on the list.

    _____________________________

    [Golden Fingers] : He who possesses Midas'' touch cannot be left unknown.

    This ranking entails the list of the top 100 richest yers at the moment. It covers yers of all servers and disys their names on all servers.

    It only calctes finances that personally belong to the said yer and not a group of yers.

    You can deactivate the disy function and your name wouldn''t be shown on the list.

    _____________________________

    [Dungeon Rankings] : The forerunner makes his mark.

    This ranking entails the leader-board for a dungeon''spletion. It is specific to each region''s server and contains the rankings, progress, and achievement of each team for every dungeon in the region.

    Team Party leader can deactivate the disy function and your name wouldn''t be shown on the list.

    ]]

    ''So these are the rankings¡­''

    With Sato''s victory over the temple guardian puppet, the dungeon feature in IR was officially unveiled alongside the various ranking lists.

    Apart from satisfying one''s ego and pride, the rankings acted as a form of free advertisement for various guilds and yers. Guilds could show off their strength based on their dungeon performance recorded and ranked on the [Dungeon Rankings] list while yers could show off their strength on the [One Above All] list.

    The advantage for guilds would be that their name would beuded in ces and yers would be swarming in to get a share of the glory. This meant that their recruiting speed would increase and the quality and numbers of payers in their league would rise.

    For yers, especially solo yers, being ranked on the [One Above All] rankings meant that they would be approached by various guilds and clubs with lucrative offers. They could easily make it to the ranks of core members without having to take any recruitment test because their achievements would be visible for all to see.

    "This is where the realpetition begins." Sato sighed.

    With the opening of the dungeons as well as the release of the rankings, battles in IR will get more heated and guild shes would be even moremon. Dark yers would be less cautious and more daring while independent yers and unofficial clubs would take to the guilds more rampantly.

    ''I still have a shot at this. Not a lot of yers have made it to level 10 so we could reap more benefit before they do.''

    Sato immediately wet to his friend list and sent a message to Fudo and Xue Yan, wanting to know how much progress the others have made as well as any updates on the various guilds.

    Once he had sent the messages, Sato didn''t wait for a reply but set his focus once again on the dungeon in front of him.

    ''Now, should I check it out or not.''

    Staring at the spinning ck-hole in front of him, Sato began contemting his next series of actions.

    While it was true that dungeons were more of team battles, yers could actually enter some of them alone in some VR games. Sato wondered whether the same could be applied here. While he wasn''t OP enough to solo a dungeon, Sato believed that he could explore a part of it on his own before dying. The reward bonus was juicy and it could offset any loss from death as well as still raise his experience points up by a sizeable amount.

    In any way Sato looked at it, the gains were okay.

    ''It depends on the dungeon''s level though. I''m guessing it should be a level 10 dungeon.''

    Approaching the wide ckhole, Sato stretched an arm out to feel it when he suddenly felt as if he was barricaded by a wall.

    [[ System notification :

    You have to be in a party of at least 5 yers, with an average level of level 12 to ess this dungeon. ]]

    ''An average level of level 12? looks like this dungeon won''t be so simple.'' Sato narrowed his eyes.

    If the average eptable level was a level 12, it meant that the BOSS of the dungeon would most likely be above level 15 and might even be level 20.

    ''We will need a lot of preparations for this.''

    Since he could no longer ess the dungeon and he had already explored all the doors in the temple, Sato then exited the ce through the same entrance he had arrived from, appearing once more at the cliff he previously stood before.

    ''This discovery has affected my ns. Looks like I won''t be able to stay here for as long as I had thought.''

    Sato''s original n was to spend a week leveling up here why also mining minerals to improve on his cksmith skills in preparation for the Apprentice cksmith tournament. But with the discovery of this dungeon, he would have to spend less time than nned and focus more on exploring the city to reap more benefits just before more yers arrive.

    ''There are always little surprise packages hidden all over. The first batch of yers to make it here would probably be like me; heading over to resource maps to check it out. Very few would bother about exploring the town as they''re all focused on their strength and this would be more so with the system announcement. This means that I still have a shot at it.''

    Reaching that conclusion, Sato then knitted his brows.

    ''In that case, returning to town now would be the best course of action. But I just can''t go back empty-handed.''

    Arriving in a dilemma, Sato sighed and was just about to return to town when he heard a strange call.

 Chapter 437 - 431 : Pet

    *Meow*

    "Huh?" Sato suddenly turned to nce at the entrance of the underground temple.

    What he happened toy his eyes on was a little feline, bigger than an average kitten but simr to a beagle[1] in height.

    The feline had caramel coloured fur with ck stripes all over it, reminiscent of a tiger. But in reality, it wasn''t one. The blue pupils in its eyes together with the white patch of hair on its forehead were enough to make Sato realised that this was a strange creature native to the fantasy world of Infinite Realm.

    "How did you get there?" Sato stared at the creature with cautious eyes.

    The feline stood right at the entrance of the underground temple which was the spot Sato had just exited. The strange thing was that the entrance was a one-way route, which means that there was only one path in and out. Since the feline had appeared just a few seconds right after Sato, it meant that it has been following him from behind. The problem with this idea was that Sato never felt any movement from behind so the matter''s appearance was unnatural.. This meant that either the little guy had directly appeared out of nowhere or that it had high-tiered stealth skills that trumped Sato''s senses without fail.

    ''Doesn''t look like a monster.'' Sato narrowed his eyes as he studied the creature.

    "Meow."

    The feline suddenly moved and jumped right at Sato. There was no sign neither was there any intention to attack, there was just pureness, simr to when a dog greeted its owner.

    Sato caught the feline squarely and was surprised to see it in his arms. He began wondering why such had happened as he never expected it to approach him of its own volition.

    "Hai. Lttle guy, you do know that you''ve picked the wrong choice here. If you had gone for a [Summoner] instead, you could be raisee properly and your future potential heightened. Instead, you came for a [Swordsman] like myself. That''s a bad idea."

    [Summoners] were part of the mage sses but different from the rest. Unlike most sses were the battle strength of the yer directly lied in themselves, [Summoners] fought using summoned creature/monsters called summmons. As for how they got their summons, [Summoners] either bought one from an NPC store or they explored the fields in search of one. The advantages and disadvantages of either side was clear to see.

    Buying a summon in an NPC store would mean buying a much weaker monster than a field version, and also, originality would becked as the store would surely have another copy of the monster. The advantage was that there was no stress in this method and the said creature had already been Broome and raised to fight battles.

    As for finding a summon in the field, it was a lot more taxing than buying one but the strength of the monster was more than that of a greenhouse baby. The main problemid in taming such monsters as they were a a difficult problem to handle, even for a ss known for doing such.

    Usually, a summon''s strength would not be above the summoner''s by more than a factor of one. For example, if a [Summoner] was a level 10 yer, their summoning would be at most level 11. However, for a level 10 [Summoner] to trap and tame a level 11 monster without outside help was an issue. Therefore, it was usually only guilds yers who had selected this ss. The others who happened to do so either did based on curiosity or they simply had not read the pre-released manual that informed the general public of the various abilities of the different sses.

    One special skill of a [Summoner] was the fact that they could raise a monster from young. Sato felt that the feline wasn''t an ordinary creature so he knew that the ss that would be able to utilise it properly would be a [Summoner].

    "If you''re toe with me, I might as well sell you off to some [Summoner]."Sato said to the feline.

    "Meow." The feline simply meowed in response, seemingly not understanding the words spoken to it.

    "Well, I will pay attention to youter. As for now, I need to find a mining spot."

    Dropping the creature back on the floor, Sato proceeded to take out his map and check for directions.

    "Meow."

    The feline rubbed itself against his leg till it noticed that Sato had nced at it. Then it suddenly turned towards a direction and started moving forward.

    "Huh? You want me to follow you?"

    Seeing the creature turn to him with yearning eyes, Sato understood that it was trying to lead him to a certain direction.

    "Alright then, let''s see where it is you want me to go to."

    Since this was a game, Sato had nothing to fear regarding his life. Dying herepared to reality just meant losing a few Experience points so there was no harm in following the creature.

    The duo then proceeded deeper into Maldora Canyon but during the process, they barely encountered any monsters. The very few they met with was easily taken care of by Sato without any dy.

    The two walked forward till they began approaching a corner within the canyon. What made this ce special was that Sato had noticed that both the texture and colour of the soil had changed. From the usual brown cinnamon and caramel colour, it had taken on a wood colour[2] and be a lot harder and denser.

    ''Could it be?'' Sato squatted down with anticipation as he dug out a portion of the soil and felt it.

    ''Rough to the touch and reminiscent of an ore. It really is it, Gast.'' Sato rejoiced.

    As a cksmith, and one who considered mining, Sato had read about the relevant information he would need for his goal.

    Gast was a special kind of soil that could also be used as a forging material. It was roughly on par with a low-end 2-star material and hard the special effect of bing soft like stic after heating despite having a hard form in its original state.

    The reason why Sato was ted at its appearance was because the presence of Gast signified the presence of another material, the 2-star material Dawn Steel, which was a lot higher in rating than Gast. Also, the presence of both Gast and Dawn Steel instigated the possible presence of ck Dawn Steel, which was a 3-star material.

    ''Has my good luck finally caught up to me or what?'' Sato simply couldn''t believe it.

    While his current location wasn''t his original destination, it was still better. Not only was there an obvious abundance of 2-star materials but there was also a high possibility of spotting a 3-star one. Also, he had managed to make it to this ce without much difficulty or effort, unlike his original destination that was supposed to be riddled with danger.

    ''And it''s all thanks to this guy.'' Sato stared at the little feline who was grooming itself with its paws.

    "You''re a good one and so, for your contribution, how about a name." Sato spoke to the feline.

    "Let''s go with, Milo."

    "Meow"

    The creature showed a satisfied look as it heard the name.

    "Haha. Alright, time to get to mining."

 Chapter 438 - 432 : Prelude To The Tournament 1

    "Ha. This should be enough, right?"

    Staring at the bags filled with rocks Sato wiped the sweat off his forehead as he stood up straight and stretched his body. Finally, he then nced towards the side.

    "What do you think?"

    "Meow."

    Milo, whozilyid on the ground and licked its paw, replied with its custom meow ignorant of what Sato was talking about.

    "You''re definitely a strange one. Even though I haven''t signed a contract with you, or acquired the [Beast-tamer] subss, you''ve decided to stick with me and help me out. Maybe it''s my luck."

    Unlike the [Summoner] ss that already had a basic skill for it, yers required a special beast-taming scroll to make a creature serve them.. The only other exception to this was the subss, [Beast-tamer], which a lot of yers have been trying to acquire. Not only could the ss subject monsters to the will of the user but it could also improve the user''s affinity to non-violent monsters. The subss was so rare that many believed it didn''t exist, but due to a rumour that had spread sometime in the past, some still refused to give up.

    ''Speaking about subsses.''

    Sato opened up his interface and skimmed through thetest notification.

    [[ System notification :

    Subss [Miner] has been unlocked.

    ________________________

    Subss [Miner] has leveled up.

    ________________________

    Subss [Miner] has leveled up.

    ]]

    Subsses in Infinite Realm covered many aspects of life, from high to low. Jobs like farming, security, author, bartender, pub manager, and so on were even covered. But unlike the top subsses, which went by the collective name of lifestyle sses, the lesser subsses weren''t so formal and could easily be acquired.

    Take for instance how Sato spent over 4 hours mining and not only had he acquired the subss [Miner] but he had also leveled it up twice. Compared to [cksmith] that was still at the first stage for more than 2 weeks now, the difference was obvious.

    ''With this many minerals, I should be able to experiment on a few works.''

    Sato became enthusiastic as recalled the forging blueprint for the Metal-braced wooden bow and arrow he had gotten after the team had defeated the Kobold King.

    The main material needed for the bow and arrow was 2-star material Iven wood; which wasn''t difficult to get, and 2-star metal Dawn Steel which was the main problem as procuring it inrge quantities wasn''t easy or cheap. However, thanks to the feline little fe that led him here, the hardest issue was solved with much ease.

    "Alright then, lets'' go."

    Saving the location to his system map for easy referencing for future use, Sato then departed the area alongside his newrade, Milo.

    Unlike arriving, leaving wasn''t so easy. Because there was no official carriage station close by, Sato had to follow the main road and hope that a carriage heading to ck Rock City would pass. Otherwise, he would have to walk the distance back, and that wasn''t much of an option.

    Depending on the speed of the carriage as well as the number of stops it undergoes, it takes approximately an hour to an hour and a half for a carriage to reach the Maldora Canyon stop, which was still some distance from the actual site. If Sato were to trek the distance, even if it meant him running at full speed, it would take him at least 4 hours, if not 5 hours to make it back. This was equivalent to the amount of time he spent mining. Obviously, it would be a dumb decision to walk.

    Luckily, Sato didn''t have to wait long to get a carriage and return to town.

    ck Rock City¡­

    The sky had already begun to dim by the time Sato had alighted from the carriage. ording to the ratio of In-Game time to Real-time, this meant that it was either 12 am or 12 pm(noon) in reality[1]. This time, however, it was noon.

    ''I''ll have to log out soon enough and take a break.'' Sato thought as he navigated his way over to the cksmith guild in the city.

    During night times, the monsters in the fields get a nighttime boost, bing stronger than normal while giving out fewer rewards. It wasn''t just in IR but in other VR games that had nighttime in their universe collide with the peak hours of reality, as decided by Alliance Healthws.

    The whole point of this was to diminish the enthusiasm of yers and make them spend more time in reality, away from fantasy, and to prevent their mental health from being eroded by the time dtion.

    But as a way to somehow bypass this regtion indirectly, most VR games increased the luck of their yers in fields at night times by between 0.3-0.6, while also adding special rewards. The increased luck only affected the quality of rewards and not quantity. So while the quantity of items gotten from loot isn''t increased, nor the chances of even getting a reward increased, the quality of an item gotten would potentially increase. That means that the possibility of getting a certain reward at night time or sessfully farming a rare piece of equipment was increased during the dark periods in games.

    However, whenparing this to the low reward quantity, it wasn''t really worth spending such long periods gaming unless important.

    The cksmith Guild in the city was a lotrger than the one in town. Just the guild''s area alone covered arge expanse of space. There were a total of 5 buildings at the site; 2 stores; one 3-storey building by the left and a 2-storey building in front, a 3 storey-building to the right, a 3-storey dormitory behind, and a main building with 4 floors at the centre.

    Confused about which building to head to, Sato made his way towards the main building at the centre as he felt that was the administrative block.

    "Hold." Two guards in full-body ck amour stopped Sato.

    "State your reason for visitation." One of the guards said.

    "I''m an apprentice cksmith and new in town." Sato pulled out his apprentice badge and showed it to the two guards.

    They both lifted an eyelid when they saw him do so using a space ring but they immediately recovered. Space rings weren''t rare in the city and as guards of the famed cksmith guild, they had definitely seen a lot of people with one. They had even seen the famed creators of such equipment so there was nothing surprising about it. They were all stunned that Sato, who imed to have arrived from a town, had one. Thinking that he was a son of some nobleman, they had recovered immediately.

    "I''m looking to rent out a practice room." Sato exined.

    "Considering that you''re an apprentice cksmith, you should head over to the forging hall." The guard who previously spoke up replied.

    The forging hall was the 3-storey building to the left when facing the main building''s entrance.

    "Thank you." After receiving directions from the guard, Sato then departed. But at the back of his mind, he was shocked.

    The forging hall was an entire 3-storey building, with there being 4 other buildings. Ignoring the one at the front which served as a store from the number of people packed up as well as the design, Sato wondered what all the other 3 buildings served as.

    ''To own such arge expanse of space in a city, the cksmith guild is definitely a behemoth.''

    Meanwhile, at the top floor of the main building which was the 4th floor[3], a sturdy middle-aged man stood by a french-style wall-to-floor window as he gazed at the city.

    "How are the preparations for the tournament going?"

    "They are doing alright, master. We just sent the news to the branch guilds in the various towns, I trust that within a week, more and more cksmiths would be heading over here." A young man who stood behind answered.

    "That''s good. Do well to make sure that this doesn''t be a bust. The neighbouring cities have already uncovered their own talents while we''recking behind. I don''t like it." The middle-aged man expressed.

    "That little fool Owen told me that he found some talents in that backwater Riverdale. I do hope that they attend this and are a bit pleasing to the eye. One of the Marquis'' sons is attending this event and he''s looking for young up-anding cksmiths to develop a force for his father. Even though we can''t hand over our talents, we can still help him in this way and at least he would owe us a favor. Hopefully, that little fool is right this time around."

    AN :

    [1] Time dtion details in IR (2:1) :

    Real-Time               IGT IR

    Wee hours of the day(12am-6am)    Night + Wee hours

    Mornings (6am-12pm)         Mornings + Afternoon

    Afternoon (12pm-6pm)        Night + Wee hours

    Night (6pm-12am)           Mornings + Afternoon

    [2] A reminder that the building styling is based on American standards. Ground floor(British/European) bes 1st floor. So a 4-storey building is a 3-storey building by British/European standards.

 Chapter 439 - 433 : Cyanide

    1 weekter¡­

    "Sato! The program is about to start." Hayami yelled at her brother from the sitting room.

    "Alright." Sato replied as he walked from the kitchen towards the sitting room with a bun in his mouth.

    "Grandfather''s not back yet?" Sato asked Hayami once he got there.

    "No. He and grandma went to the hospital for a checkupst evening. I think they spent the night at the hospital." Hayami said with a bit of worry in her eyes.

    The couple didn''t return this morning which meant that something must have happened. If that were true, then it most likely wasn''t something positive.

    "I see." Sato replied with a bit of emotion.

    Sato remembered that during the week, his grandmother had been feeling all tired and looking sickly. Even with the regr shots she took, the illness was already starting to act up and couldn''t be suppressed with the same drugs anymore.

    Milio-Schripolises was the cancer of their timeline. Even with all the improvements in health care and technology, it was still a stubborn illness to take care of. One of the reasons why was because it was very rare. As a result of this, effective treatments for it were still under research and development, and it could only be slowed down with the avable health features affordable to amon man.

    To better understand this, it could be said that Milio-Schripolises was incurable for an average man but not so much for a wealthy individual. As there was no official treatment program for the disease, advanced treatments using high-level technology were used by most health centres to handle various difficult illnesses and they were also used for the disease at hand, which is Milio-Schripolises. However, these advanced health treatments cost a lot and only the rich were typically able to afford them. Therefore, a situation was made where a disease seemed incurable but was actually only as a result of the cost of treatment.

    ''I need to work harder. Very soon, the exchange feature would be activated and I can earn a lot from that.''

    "It''s on." Hayami''s voice woke him up from his imagination.

    "Wee everyone, to another segment of Virtual Times." The voice of the usual male host sounded from the disy unit.

    "Today''s show would surely be fascinating to you guys out there as our special guest for today''s segment is an interesting fellow. So stick with us and I promise you, you won''t be disappointed. Announcements regarding one of the top trending games of the month, Infinite Realm, would also be made so please look forward to it." The female co-host added with a lovely smile.

    As usual, the show proceeded to give updates on various VR games, starting from the least popr ones on the top 10 -except the 7th ce- while speaking a few honorable mentions which were usually games below the top 10 but with a lot of potential. This alone took more than 20 minutes, which was equivalent to almost half the time of the show.

    Finally, the duo proceeded to the top 5, and this took even longer sincepared to the top 10, the report on the top 5 was more detailed and descriptive, covering a whole lot of events that had taken ce.

    "Finally, we arrive at the part where we invite our guest speaker to the stage. Regarding our special guest today, he isn''t a popr VR gamer, a retired yer, or even a streamer; neither is he rted to any of the front-end gaming upations." The male host suddenly announced.

    "Wait, he isn''t?" The female co-host abruptly faced her partner with surprise.

    "Ah, that''s true. I also kept his identity a secret from you." The male host tapped his forehead as he ''recalled'' a certain fact.

    "No matter, we will all meet him now. Please help me wee, one of the developers of the fastest trending game in history as well as the newly ranked number 7 on the rankings, Hashimoto Junki aka, Cyanide."

    A round of apuse sounded as a middle-aged man in sses walked out from backstage, onto the stage.

    The studio where Virtual Times was hosted had the same look as a news channel''s stage during the report segment of the show. However, once the interview segment arrives, the two hosts switch to a more open stage, simr to the ones seen on celebrity talk shows. With 2 armchairs and a styled sofa aesthetically arranged alongside a few potted nts and quality lighting, the entire stage looked fashionable and conducive even to the viewer.

    "Wee, Mr Junki or should I call you Cyanide?" The male host smiled as he stretched out an arm towards the guest.

    "Cyanide." The middle-aged man smiled and shook the arm.

    "You, you¡­" The female co-host was astounded as she stared at the Cyanide with wide-opened eyes.

    "Some of you may or may not know, but to those who have been gaming for over a decade as well those who know their VR history well, Cyanide would be a very familiar name." The male host said as he noticed his partner''s reaction.

    Sato had a shocked look on his face as he stared at the middle-aged man on the screen, surprised by what he saw.

    "Brother, who''s he?" Hayami asked as she saw that her brother was also shocked.

    "He''s-" before Sato couldplete his sentence, the male host interrupted him.

    "To those who do not know him, he is Cyanide, or better yet, the One-hit kill King, God of assassinations, Cyanide. A retired gamer and a former God-ranked yer.

    The history of VR games was over 2 decades old and massive improvements have been made continuouslypared to then. Simr to the current timeline, the yer rankings back then were the same and they existed a lot of fantastic yers. Cyanide was a very popr name back then as he had managed to climb to the rank of God. In simpler terms, he was among the first batch of yers who had gained the title of ''God''.

    To be a God-ranked yer meant that the yer had transcended what could be perceived as ''human''. they had a battle or record of at least 99% against yers that weren''t at their rank. They also had another title they went by, ''Destroyer'', which meant that even if they were surrounded by multiple other yers, they would still be able to wreak havoc and walk away with their lives intact.

    Monster Ranked experts were already so scary as defeating them would require a team of 20 Experts with at least 5-7 Apex Experts ''Kings''. Such a lineup couldn''t easily be found anywhere and only top-rate 1st tier guilds and super guilds could afford such a line-up. Hence, Monster-ranked Experts could pretty much walk the world unhindered as long as they avoid such parties. However, a God-ranked yer was different.

    These guys were the true monsters, but as the title had already been taken, they became known as ''Destroyers''. Defeating them required another God-ranked Expert with a team of experts to prevent the target from escaping or one of a higher tier. This was because as long as a ''Destroyer'' willed it, stopping them would only be a pipe-dream.

    Unlike Monster-ranked Experts, using the zerg tactics to beat them was dumb, since the number of lives that would be sacrificed to achieve that was a lot.

    Therefore, it became a well-known fact that unless one was a Monster-ranked Expert, they were to run at the sight of a God.

 Chapter 440 - 434 : Cyanides Hint

    "Haha. Indeed." Cyanideughed.

    "Random question but I and some viewers have been wondering, do you have any ns of making aeback to the industry?"

    "Not at the moment. I''m pretty satisfied where I am right now." Cyanide smiled.

    "Uhm, where are you at now?" The female host, who had finally recovered from the shock of Cyanide''s appearance, asked.

    Recalling that Hashimoto wasn''t introduced as a retired yer or even beta-tester, Sato was interested in knowing who he currently was.

    "Well, apart from some part-time beta-testing, I''m also working as a developer. I''m one of the developers of Martial World, as well the current most hyped game, Infinite Realm."

    "Oh wow. Sugoi~" The female co-host praised.

    While in the current world, developers didn''t earn as yers, it was only dependent on the poprity of their game. And since not much constant effort was put in, quite a number of people preferred working at the back-end of the VR gaming sector.

    "Alright, now back to the interview. About a week ago, the first-ever dungeon was unlocked in IR. Following that, more bad more dungeons popped up right after. By now yers must have gotten used to their existence but what we want to know, or rather verify, is some of the rumours that have recently started to be prominent." The male host said.

    "Indeed. We''ve been hearing a lot of stuff recently and we decided to get you onboard to clear away any random doubts and ideas." The female host added.

    "Okay then. I''m yours now so ask away."

    The male host then said,

    "So with the appearance of the dungeon, a lot of yers have be my more pumped about the game, especially the rankings. However, a few other yers water wondering when the other features of the game would be released. Say, for instance, the Fiat to Coin conversion."

    "Apart from having to sell their coins traditionally, where a buyer and the seller meets up, there''s no other format and the present one is quite risky to some. There have already been usations of some sellers attacking their buyers all over again and robbing them of the traded coins. Because of this, the financial transactions in the game have dropped ording to the Hermes guild''s report. Obviously, this isn''t a good thing" The female host added.

    "So now, a lot of yers were wondering when the official trade store would be open. If there''s any that is."

    "Hmm. That''s a good question. Well, we all know that the official trade store will not only help the yers make some cash out of the game but it would also increase the game''s poprity and boost profits. So it''s guaranteed that there would be one. In fact, ording to what I''m aware of, it should beunched within the week." Cyanide answered.

    ''So soon?'' Sato couldn''t help but exim mentally.

    ''But that''s still good.''

    Apart from guilds and clubs that made money from sponsorships, donations, andpetitions, solo yers and independent teams made their money through the exchange store. There they could sell off their gold coins to other yers in exchange for cash which could be used in the real world. The more advanced features of this even enabled yers to sell off their equipment and weapons in auctions or yer-owner stores for cash. In other words, rather than selling a piece of equipment to others in exchange for coins, yers could do so in exchange for cash.

    Though it was true that before the official exchange stores and features were activated, some yers had already begun making transactions with real cash, the efficiency and rate of doing so through the system was a lot better and cheaper. There was also the fact that yers couldn''t be scammed if they relied on the system''s guidance so it could be said that the exchange store was way better than regr transfers between yers.

    ''I need to focus more on cksmithing then.''

    Sato''s n for creating funds for his team was through the sale of products made by the lifestyle ss holders in his team. This consisted primarily of him, Fudo and Xue Yan, as the trio each possessed the most lucrative subsses when ites to making money.

    "Also, there are a bunch of other new upgrades in ce for lifestyle yers. We know that they have no interest in fights so the development team has made certain considerations on their behalf. Though for now, they won''t be able to witness any of that." Cyanide added.

    "You see, the town stage is a low-level introductory stage for yers. During that period, they don''t have ess to a lot of features and they don''t reallye in contact with much of the world or the plot within the game. You can even say that they have things easy to an extent. However, the city stage changes all of this. yers now have more freedom to explore their surroundings, rte NPCs, and experience a whole different life from the one we have here.

    "At the city stage, you could say that they can finallye into contact with the ''Infinite'' part of the game."

    "Interesting."

    "Truly amazing."

    Both co-hosts praised.

    "So now we have information rting to the game world, do you have anything for us concerning Infinite Realm in the real world?" The male host asked.

    The female co-host nodded as she added to the statement,

    "That''s true. Infinite Realm just bumped up in rankings from 12th ce to 7th ce. Do you guys have any ns on how to not only maintain this rank but possibly improve on it? It was once mentioned that the goal of Infinite Realm is to be number one. Could we know how you guys n on doing this?"

    Cyanide spread his hands open as he replied, "What more can we do other than what we have done already. yers will have to experience the world on their own and decide whether the game truly deserves the top spot.

    "As for how our next series of operations, I can''t say much but there is a n of hosting an internationalpetition sometime during this year. The n isn''t solid and could still be called a suggestion, but if it does happen, it would be worth participating in and viewing."

    "Oh? What are the chances of it happening?" Thedy asked with interest.

    "As I said, it''s still in the consideration stage and there''s no solid n yet. But better safe than sure, I think the pro yers put there should be prepared for one." Cyanide said with a strange smile.

    "Apetition already?" Sato couldn''t help but be surprised.

    VR gamingpetitions were quite popr, especially ones involving any of the top 10 VR games, more so for the top 5. Just the earnings from broadcasting rights and attendance would be a lot, thanks to the massive poprity of VR games.

    Infinite Realm currently had the potential to make it to the top 5, so an organisedpetition from them would be worth it. This was even more so since it would be their first-everpetition and the studio behind the game would want it to be a st. The rewards alone would surely be very impressive and the participation number would be very high. And since thepany would want to use that opportunity to make their mark, the number of channels that would be broadcasting the matches would be a lot and this meant that yers, guilds, and clubs could gain a lot of poprity from thepetition so long as they did well even in one match.

    ''So there''s both the exchange store and the uingpetition. Sigh, I need to start making preparations, fast.''

    The show was alreadying to an end and the main host was already wrapping up the interview with Cyanide, hence, there was no reason for Sato to keep watching. With that in mind, he departed from the sitting room and headed upstairs towards his room, where he downed a bottle of Grade E energy drink before grabbing his VR helmet and preparing to log in.

    ''Using a VR helmet isn''t satisfactory. I need to change to a cabin once I can afford it.''

    With that as hisst thought in reality, Sato put on the helmet as his consciousness departed from this world.

 Chapter 441 - 436 : New Development And Progress

    [[ System notification :

    Locating server...

    Server located.

    Beginning Neurolink connection process¡­

    Connecting to server Heavenly System Universal server¡­

    Connection sessful.

    Verifying connection¡­

    Connection verification sessful.

    Beginning mind transit in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 ]]

    From darkness to light, Sato''s vision changed as he found himself in a in room decorated with simple furniture.

    Apart from a bed, a wardrobe, a chair, and a desk, there was nothing else in the room. The room was painted peach and gave off a light and rxing smell thanks to the scented candles present.

    This was the basic style ofmon inns in IR. The ones in the town were slightly worse but basically, most of them looked the same. It wasn''t that there were no good or fancy inns but that this setup was limited to the mon'' ones.

    Just as we have in reality, there were different grades in the hospitality of the inns in IR. The grading system was equally the same as in real life, starting from an unranked up to a 5-star hotel. With the increase in stars, the luxury, hospitality as well as treatment in each ce would differ by arge amount.

    The inn Sato stayed at was an unranked one and it cost 45 copper coins per night and 80 copper coins for 24 hours, and this was the cheapest inn he could find. Compared to the offers of 15-30 copper coins and 25-55 copper coins respectively in towns(for all ranks), the inns in the city were a lot more expensive. This was even more so since ck Rock City was a big city even whenpared with other cities.

    Since he only needed it to log off, Sato had only paid for a full day before entering the room and logging off earlier on.

    In IR, when yers logged off, they would usually appear at the spot they had logged off or the official respawn point after death which was usually the centre of the town or city they belonged to. In most cases, yers preferred to log in at the spot they logged off as it was more efficient, especially in cases where the said yer might have logged off due to an emergency. In such a situation, if they had pre-selected their return spot to be the same as their respawn point, the yer would have to begin making their way to their original location which meant that more time would be spent doing so.

    To avoid such a scenario or anything simr, most yers set their return spot to be the same as their departure point. Because of this though, yers would need to find a safe spot to log off lest they log back in in the middle of an ambush or a dangerous situation. Hence most yers either picked isted spots if they were outside of a safe zone and hotels or inns if they were within a safe zone.

    "Here. I''ll be going now." Sato dropped the key back with the innkeeper downstairs as he departed the building.

    "Pleasee again and take care." The innkeeper, a middle-aged woman, smiled as she waved him off.

    During the 1 week Sato had been in the city, he usually lodged at their ce whenever he was in town as it was close to the cksmith Guild. As a result of this, there was a bit of familiarity between Sato and the innkeeper. Also, the innkeeper had noticed that Sato was an Apprentice cksmith as he always left the cksmith guild''s building and usually came back covered in soot or smelling like smoke and molten metal. Because of this, she began treating him a bit better than the others due to his special status. This was what the developers meant when they said that every NPC had its personality and thought process. However, Sato didn''t know this neither did he care.

    *Rustle*

    *Gallop*

    As Sato stepped out of the building, he was greeted by a lively scene just in front. Carriages were dashing past him and both yers and NPCs filled the street.

    It had already been a week in real-time since Sato had arrived in ck Rock City. That was the same as 2 weeks in the game. This was more than enough time for about 65% of the first batch of yers in ck Rock Province to make it to the city. Currently, the streets of the ck Rock City had yers walking through them and it wasn''t strange for one to even spot a level 11 yer. Level 12 yers were taken as experts whereas level 13 yers were very rare.

    This was understandable as the current highest levelled yer on the [One Above All] rankings was a level 14 yer who was a recognized guild expert with the title of ''King''. he had only just reached the level a few hours ago and was based in another kingdom far from the Fallen Heart Kingdom.

    While the yer was indeed recognized by the rankings as the highest levelled yers, insiders knew that wasn''t so. Apart from their face(MVP) and most popr yers, every top guild had their strongest men hide their levels from being disyed on the least, keeping it almost like apany secret to use to their advantage. Even Sato knew that the supposed ''highest levelled yer'' wasn''t really worthy of that title, after all, he(Sato) was already at level 16!

    The only reason he didn''t appear on the list was that, just like the hidden experts of the top guilds, he had kept his level hidden.

    "Where are you guys at?" Sato called Fudo and asked.

    Unlike Sato, who went offline during the night to take a break, Fudo, Yato, and Katsuo had been gaming all through the day and night. They were eager to have their level approach that of Xue Yan, at least, so that the overall strength of the team would be boosted.

    "Oh? You''re finally online. We''re at the gambling house, hehe. Just kidding. We are on our way back to the city. The carriage encountered some wild creatures but luckily the guards handled it."

    Nighttime within the game was a very dangerous period as, during this time, strong monsters tend to lurk closer to the city. Luckily for most, the carriagepanies usually hired a few guards from the adventurer''s association to work with them, though not a lot. So while yers'' safety wasn''t certainly guaranteed, they would at least have a sense of reassurance.

    "Okay then. When you guys make it here, meet me at the auction house." Sato ended the call once he received an affirmation from Fudo.

    Following that, he then made another call, this time to Seiichi.

    "How''s the trade going?" Sato skipped pleasantries and asked.

    "Good. I''ve reviewed a store in the outer region and I checked their price. It''s not bad but it''s not something we could get so soon with the current funds we have on hand." Seiichi replied.

    Sato sighed as he said,

    "Don''t worry about it. I''ll think of something. As for now, just keep an eye out for a good store or at least, try and find a reputable NPC store to partner up with for now."

    After he had made it to the city, Seiichi finally got his subss. But different from the others, he didn''t choose a battle-rted one or a production ss, instead, he got the [Merchant] subss which was closely associated with dealing in trades between yers and NPCs. Unlike the other two types of ss, the [Merchant] subss only offered yers an advantage when it came to business or trade but even so, it was difficult to y considering that only those knowledgeable about business and finance would be able to use it to the fullest. Seiichi, however, happened to be one such person.

    Being the son of a business mogul, he had taken sses regarding entrepreneurship, business management, ounting, and simr other courses from a very young age. Also, since he was going to be in charge of the team''s finances, having a subss that worked well with his role would prove very useful.

    After he was done with Seiichi, Sato then sent Xue Yan a message to meet up with him. Simr to him, Xue Yan had spent the week focusing majorly on her subss. This was partly Sato''s doing and partly her wish so it didn''t coincide negatively with her. During this period, Xue Yan had improved on her sess rate regarding the production of powerful talismans and enchanting weapons.

    Combining Xue Yan''s skills and products with Sato''s and Fudo''s, the trio was to form the foundation of the team''s wealth for future ns and activities.. However, this was on the basis that their production abilities improved with time and maintained a certain standard, else they would lose their ability to sell in the market.

 Chapter 442 - 437 : Void Transfer

    ''This should be thest call for the day.''

    As he was walking through the streets of the city, Sato dialed a contact on his friend list.

    "Yo, yo, yo. What''s up, Sato?" A hipster-like voice sounded right in Sato''s ears.

    "I''m alright, Matsui." Sato replied with a rxed tone.

    Matsui Yoshi was a cousin of Yato''s but from his father''s side of the family. His father and Yoshi''s mother were both siblings with Yoshi''s mother being the younger of the two. After the incident with his family, Yato had relocated over to his aunt''s family and stayed with them for a while before he left due to the mistreatment he received from his aunt. Of the cousins he had from that side of the family, only Yoshi was close to him.

    Recently, Yato had invited Yoshi to y IR but because he had started outte, he was still in the town. Since he was quite close with and trusted by everyone in the gang, Yato had informed them and Sato had made ns with him in mind.

    "So, did you manage to sell them?" Sato went straight to the point.

    "Yep, and it came out at a whooping price grand of about 6 gold coins and 78 silver or so." Yoshi with an ted face. This was the highest number of gold coins he had held in one sitting and it made him feel a lot thrilled when he realised that he had yed a role in making this much. If he were to expose his name to the [Golden Fingers] ranking, reaching the top spot wasn''t a problem since the money he held wasn''t tagged as group funds but individual property.

    "That''s good. You know what to do then?" Sato asked.

    "Go to the bank and deposit the money. Don''t worry about it. This isn''t the first time we''ve worked together and you should be able to trust that I won''t take the cash and flee if you had selected me for the job. Having you make for me weapons for free together with amission is a lot better." Matsuiughed lightly.

    For each piece of equipment he sold, Matsui had a 2%mission fee subtracted from the profit, which was gotten after subtracting materials cost from the final price. While it seemed little, Matsui usually sold off more than 10 weapons, together with an equivalent number of talismans and sometimes potions. All of these were items that cost quite a lot but were very useful to yers. As a result, the umtedmission ends up bing reasonable especially for a yer living in the town.

    For example, in this trade, after subtracting material cost, profits woulde out at about 2 gold and some spare silver coins. By the 2% cut, Matsui would be earning 4 silver coins or so, and in a novice town, this was a lot of money. Considering that he doesn''t do much to earn much, it wasn''t a bad deal to work for Sato in Matsui''s opinion.

    "Alright then. I will forward you your share right after calcting the costs." Sato stated.

    "No problem." Matsui replied.

    With that, Sato ended the call and began heading to the auction house in a hurry while recalling how he hade about with this idea of making arge amount of money.

    Sato''s cksmith skill had already surpassed the level of being able to make under level 10 equipment without any problem. However, the yers in the city were all level 0 and above and so won''t need such equipment. Only yers in town would. But the problem remained that Sato couldn''t get to town.

    The time needed to get to the novice towns by either foot or carriage was extensive and therefore not worth it. As for going through teleportation arrays, that cost a lot. Normally, the first teleportation array ride yers took from town to the city was at a heavily discounted price. When Sato checked for the original price, he felt that it wasn''t worth it. There was onest option which was the one Sato currently utilised and that was performing the trade through the official bank of the Fallen Heart kingdom, Bank Of Hearts.

    Thanks to a special feature possessed by banks in IR, yers could deposit an item in a particr branch and still be able to withdraw it from another branch almost instantly. It was done through miniature teleportation arrays which focused on only teleporting non-living objects hence, the cost of teleportation was a lot cheaper than with a teleportation array station.

    This feature was called void transfer and only yers with noble titles or high credit scores with the banks could apply for it. With it, they could withdraw an object from any branch of the bank across the world. Relying on this feature, yers with high credit scores or low-ss noble ranks or equivalent, performed trades with other yers. They would charge a small depending on the package size while the sender would pay for the delivery and processing fees as they make use of the ount holder''s ount to send a package. Then a yer elsewhere, the receiver, would withdraw the object from the said ount after receiving permission from the ount holder. This was currently how gold was traded in exchange for real cash with the absence of the official exchange store.

    The two parties involved would find a trustworthy ount holder and make a deal with them. The one selling the virtual currency would then deposit it into the ount holder''s ount and after receiving the alert, the ount holder would inform the party interested in buying. The said individual would then transfer real currency to the actual bank ount of the seller. Once the seller receives an alert, they would inform the ount holder who would then withdraw the virtual currency and hand it to the buyer right after processing fees, and the rest have been calcted and settled. While there were loopholes to this, it was currently the best system for buying and selling the game''s virtual currency with the absence of the official exchange tform.

    With the title [Savior of Races], Sato was able to qualify to use the void transfer feature and with the discount on top, it became cheaper than teleportation array fees even after adding bank processing fees. However, he didn''t act as a middleman for currency trading but instead focused on sending his goods to towns. Hence, the problem became finding a middle man to get the goods sold.

    Since Sato could only deposit the finished products in the ount, he would need someone else in Riverdale town, ck Mountain town, Salt Springs town, or any other primary level novice town

    Luckily, Matsui had just joined IR and as he was someone they all knew and could trust, Sato made a deal with him. In exchange for selling the items at the trade-house in town, Sato would give him a littlemission and also produce for him 1-2 equipment of his choice for free, as long as the materials were provided for.

    Since the trade benefited both parties and wasn''t particrly difficult to pull off from his side, Matsui had agreed to it without much persuasion.

    ''Next is to make a customer-base in town. Once we do that, our earnings would rise and we can move forward with some of my ns for the team.'' Sato thought as he recalled what day it was.

    It was a bright Saturday morning in reality and a simr time in this part of the world in IR. ording to recent updates from yers who had explored most of the city, the auction house would hold a general auction today which would showcase quality items from both yers and NPCs. Unlike the regr auctions on weekdays this one would see a rise in NPC poption, which, for production-ss, yers meant that they could sell off their items at a higher rate, and for regr yers, meant that the quality of items on disy would be higher than usual.

    As this was the very first general auction, a lot of yers had made their way over to the auction house in search of something good and for the producing yers, as long as their product attracted the crowd''s attention today, they won''t becking customers anytime in the future.

    ''So, it has to be today.''

 Chapter 443 - 438 : Auction House

    In cities in IR, the auction house was the contrary existing figure to trade houses that existed in towns but with more features and was also more profitable for yers.

    Trade houses were buildings that sold items at a cheaper price than the market rate. While this was advantageous to buyers, it wasn''t the same for sellers. The only advantage it had towards those who sold their products was that it allowed them to quickly convert the item or equipment into money.

    When a yer was to sell a certain good at the trade house, it would be done so at price cheaper than the market rate and sold at a price slightly above that but still

    Cheaper than market rate to others. In other words, those who sold their products or items in trade houses, actually took a loss whenparing the price to other ces whereas those who bought from trade houses profited the most.

    This sounded wrong but there was an advantage thatid within this concept for producers. When a yer cksmith, alchemist, or scribe wants to sell their product to an NPC store, they won''t always be sessful. The sess rate of selling their product depends on the fame of the yer in regards to their subss. The more famous the yer is as a cksmith, alchemist, or whatever, the easier it would be to get their item sold. While there still existed cases where a yer who was new to the industry managed to get their goods sold to an NPC store, it always had to go through stringent checks to ensure its quality, as well as the bargaining process where a [Merchant] ss holder would prove to be very useful. In summary, it was stressful for producers to have their products sold through NPC stores unlike in trade houses.

    Also, as more and more yers and NPCs purchase the items in trade houses, the yer''s poprity as a producer would increase so long as they left an insignia belonging to them on the product. Most yers didn''t know of this and few ced theirs just to satisfy their ego.

    So in summary, trade houses were like the nursery for lifestyle ss holders to sell their products. Auction houses, however, were something else.

    In IR, just like in reality, businesses could be owned by both yers and NPCs hence there wasn''t just one auction house but various ones. Some were operated officially by the kingdom, empire, or even a city lord''s office while others were either owned by an individual NPC, a chamber ofmerce, or a guild like the cksmith guild; which organised auctions once in a while.

    Generally, auction houses operated rather simr to an NPC store but not exactly. Just like the average NPC store, each auction house passed the consigned item through various quality tests before being put on sale. In some auction houses, the item would need to reach a certain grade before it could even be sold in the auction. In this regard, trade houses had the advantage of the ease of sale of products. However, these regtions made it such that yers were assured of finding an item of good quality in auction houses, unlike in trade houses where any rick and morty[1] could be found.

    However, since auction houses sold goods in auctions, only the highest bidder could get them. Therefore, chances were that the item could be sold above market price unlike in trade houses where one could get an item below market price. As for the producers, since their items didn''t really have a price cap, they could make more off it than they would in a trade house or an NPC store.

    In summary, trade houses were important for yers who needed to quickly sell an item while auction houses were for yers who needed to buy an item of high quality or one that was urgently needed. Also, trade houses were more advantageous to buyers as they could get an item at a cheap price while auction houses were more advantageous to sellers as they could make more than they would in an NPC store or a trade house. Essentially, these were the major differences between the two houses.

    "You''re here already." Sato smiled as he walked towards the entrance of the auction house.

    The entrance of the auction house was both noisy and rowdy due to therge number of yers gathered in front but Sato was still able to spot someone familiar.

    "Yeah. I was already done before you sent me the text so I decided to head over quickly." Xue Yan shyly replied.

    "No problem. Let''s wait for the others."

    Compared to the trade house, the auction house was a lot more elegant and luxurious. It was to be expected since this was an auction house operated City lord''s office. ck Rock City was a home of minerals and materials so the number of such items shipped in and out of the city was a lot. Most of the minerals mined from ck Mountain Town were usually brought into the city then sold in either auction houses, stores, or to merchant groups and chambers ofmerce. Therefore, the number of minerals and the amount of money being processed every day was unimaginable to current yers.

    Also, due to therge influx of minerals and materials, ck Rock City was home to a lot of lifestyle guilds. As a result, the number of items being produced daily was a lot. Therefore, the auction houses usually had a lot to sell and were stocked full, especially for special auctions like today.

    Since they processed a lot of transactions and they organise frequent auctions, the auction house in ck Rock City was built to look grand and stylish. From the groundwork to the rooftop, everything was valuable and expensive. The building could be said to be the definition of high-ss.

    The huge white pirs that held up the pediment were made from high-quality 2-star Pristine white-stone with various colorful gems indented on it. Golden gates made from actual gold, wooden doors made from 3-star Beril Oaktree wood supported with metal frames from 2-star Silver core, just the exterior alone was intimidating to the pockets of every yer present much less the interior.

    "As expected of the auction house operated by the City lord. ck Rock City is indeed a city in gold." Sato sighed with amazement. As a cksmith, he knew a lot about materialspared to other yers so he was able to easily identify the materials used in the construction of the building located close to the city''s centre.

    "Indeed. And a lot of lifestyle ss holders would be hoping to capitalise on this." Xue Yan added as she saw therge numbers of yers registering for the event.

    As this was the very first general auction being organised, attendance was at a high and yers were expecting to see a lot of impressive works on disy. Even the lifestyle ss holders had decided to sell some of their products in the auction since if it were up to standard, not only would they make some cash off of it but they could gain fame from it and be able to rake in a lot of cash constantly.

    To a lifestyle ss holder, being popr as a producer was much more important than killing monsters, and events like this were the perfect spot for increasing their fame.

    "Move out of the way."

    A cry suddenly interrupted the cacophony of voices from the yers.

    Following that, a group of yers in ck gowns with an aura filled with arrogance and pride began making their way towards the auction house. Wherever they went, the yers close by would give way for them while some would stare in awe and others would send fawning smiles their way.

    Among this group of yers happened to be a certain individual Sato was familiar with.

 Chapter 444 - 439 : League Of Hammers

    ''Hm? I know that guy.''

    ncing at a brown head in a ck gown but with a familiar haughty appearance, Sato had a weird look on his face as he never expected to cross paths with the same individual.

    The yer Sato was staring at was the man behind the production of trademarked double-edged iron and snake swords, Blue me, the obnoxious cksmith he had met at the trade house back in Riverdale town. Sato never thought that he would see him so soon since lifestyle yers tend to level up slower than regr yers. Sato had expected that they would finally show up a weekter due to their slow levelling progress so it was surprising that Blue me was already in town.

    ''Not like I know him that well do who cares.''

    Sato stopped focusing on Blue me alone as he nced that the others.

    Besides Blue me were a bunch of other yers in simr attire and attitudes. They all wore the same ck gown but with the sign of a brown hammer engraved behind it.

    ''They''ve already unlocked the guild function.'' Sato couldn''t help but sigh.

    Sometime during the week, yers had discovered that they could officiallyunch a guild in IR. Previously, the system never recognized the existence of guilds, only parties, and individual y. As a result, while yers were aware of who was and who wasn''t in a guild, the system addressed all yers as individual yers irrespective of their true nature. This was until the release of the guild function.

    Buying a guild function meant that guilds could officially exist in IR and be recognized by the system. This means that an official ount for the guild could be opened, missions from NPCs could be addressed to the guild directly rather than having to go look for one at the adventurer''s guild. Another benefit of the guild function was that a guild emblem could be developed and it could be attached to the clothing of the yer in any manner. In the case of the ck gowned men, their emblem was made to upy the back of their cloaks rather than appear like a small badge on their chest.

    Apart from that, the guild function also allowed yers to get ess to certain privileges that they normally wouldn''t be able to ess and it also enabled guild members to share these privileges with one another. Amon example could be a discount at a certain store granted to a guild. In practice, this meant that the discount would be applicable for every member of the said guild.

    After getting a guild function, guilds could also buy a building and have it take on the name of their guild alongside a guild sign attached to it. There were still a bunch of other little features attached to the guild function but this would be stressedter on.

    The reason why the guild function wasn''t so popr was that it came at a cost; 10 gold coins to be exact.

    A price of 1 gold coin was expensive to current yers and guilds much less 10 gold coins, hence not a lot of guilds, clubs, or yers had gotten the function. Even for Sato and the others, the price was a little steep. The only ones who did so currently were super guilds, top-rank 1st tier guilds, and a few other guilds or clubs owned/sponsored by wealthy individuals.

    For these brown hammer yers to have gotten a guild function without being popr meant that they were able to raise the funds amongst themselves or they had a big sponsor. It could also have been both.

    ''Who the heck are these guys?''

    Noticing the special change in the atmosphere, some yers who weren''t aware of the identity of the new arrivals began asking about the identity of the new arrivals. While they were familiar with the perks of a guild function, the insignia of the ck-clothed yers wasn''t any familiar to them.

    "Seems like you''ve been living under a rock or something." One yer said with a disdainful tone.

    "Those guys are the founding members of League of Hammers; the new guild recently founded but consists of just cksmiths. You could call it the cksmith guild for yers. Every popr cksmith among the three towns, apart from the Cloud cksmith and the ones who have already been poached by top guilds, has already joined them so you could imagine the clout they possess as well as funds."

    Since not everyone in VR games was interested in the battles nor did they want to experience extreme action, some of them decided to enjoy the game differently, walking the path of a lifestyle. The League of Hammers was one such example.

    They had recentlye to existence not so long ago and the group of yers aimed to develop a customer base to have their goods easily sold. As there were a lot of reputable names in the team, this goal wasn''t so far from being possible and the guild began getting more and more famous.

    ''Even if they''ve racked in a lot recently, there''s most likely a sponsor at the back.'' Sato narrowed his eyes as he recalled the 10 gold coins fee that was needed to activate the guild features.

    The difference between a guild with and without a sponsor was a lot especially in times like this. With the official exchange system not up yet, yers exchanged cash amongst themselves. This made it possible for the rich ones to raise arge amount of money quickly, for example in the League of Hammers case where the team was able to raise 10 gold coins in a matter of days. Even Sato''s team, which could count as one of the wealthiest teams in IR, couldn''tpare to such guilds or clubs.

    As the yers from League of Hammers made their way towards the consignment department within the auction house, Fudo and the rest had finally made it to the auction house.

    "What took you guys so long?" Sato asked.

    "Traffic." Fudo grunted.

    "There were so many yers and NPCs heading over here. Even those who happened to just be following the same road the auction house''s location to their destination were counted. Hence, the road became congested."

    "Alright enough. Stopining. Let''s get registered first and put out items up for sale. Don''t forget the reason why we''re here." Sato reminded as he pulled out a ck cloak and wore it.

    "Got that. " Both Xue Yan and Fudo nodded as they also wore their ck cloaks.

    "Katsuo and Yato, you two go find a ce to stay and enjoy the show. Try not to cause a ruckus okay?"

    "I should be saying that to you guys." Yato smirked.

    "We''re off now."

    The trio then departed, following the same route as the League of Hammers team since both sides destinations.

 Chapter 445 - 440 : The Auction

    "Ladies and gentlemen," A charming voice sounded from the stage at the centre of the auction hall which was filled to the brim.

    Inside the auction house was the auction hall where the event was meant to take ce. The interior of the hall was a majestic work of art, magnificent in all angles. The seating arrangements were quite simr to that of a theatre but with some private boxes located on the second floor. On each seat was a bidder''s card with the buyer''s number printed on it.

    The entire seating arrangement of the chairs and boxes was made to face the stage which was located on the other side of the hall, exactly just as the arrangement in a theatre was. At the centre of it all, the stage, stood the auctioneer who was in charge of running the ''show''.

    The auctioneer was a pretty middle-ageddy on light makeup. Her long legs and alluring physique, reminiscent of that of a swimsuit model, made her deserving to be described as gorgeous. Tied with the flowery red cheongsam that entuated her figure together with the slit by the side of the dress, exposing her fair thighs, the auctioneer was easily able to attract the attention of the audience towards the stage, or rather, towards her. Even the yers with the strongest will and resistance towards feminine charm couldn''t help but admit that she was a stunning beauty.

    "Wee to the first-ever auction-styled fete[1] organized to raise funds to sponsor the kingdom''s military campaigns in the north as well as to bolster the cities defence against the dark forces.

    "Even though this is a charity event, we want you all to know that the articles up for sale in this auction are of high quality and have been approved and guaranteed by a verified appraiser."

    To the yers, the auction being held was a special event and the same was so for the NPCs, however, the underlying meaning in these words differed. To yers, it was an opportunity to get their hands on a piece of rare equipment that would boost their strength in preparation for the uing dungeon raids or to increase their strength as well as their ranking but to the NPCs, this auction meant an entirely different thing. To them, it was a fundraiser organised by the City lord''s office to raise funds for the kingdom''s military expedition as well as to increase the city''s military might.

    ck Rock City was a border town and close to it was the massive Grangere Woods, which was the parent of Stone Creek Forest, as well as the Kiro Mountain range which extended all the way to the neighbouring kingdom. These two ces were home to some absurdly strong monsters that yers weren''t able to face n their own. Even the Kiro Mountains, that a few yers had wandered into back at the town stage wasn''t safe. Back then, the yers normally wandered around the outskirts of the area which was considerably safer than deeper in, but even so, they would asionally spot level 10 and above monsters.

    To defend themselves against the monsters that wander in and out of the area periodically, and alsounch a massive assault once a year, the city had trained a special guard unit for this. But even the guard unit would need arge amount of money to maintain them as well as to train them, and considering that there were other issues to be settled monthly in the city, most of the revenue couldn''t be spent on them.

    Apart from these two danger zones, there was still the fact that ck Rock City was located close to the juncture point of the two neighbouring kingdoms, Reiss and Orioma, both of which were subservient to the Brahman Empire, the mortal enemy of the Fallen Heart kingdom. This meant that sometimes during the year, there would be shes between the military forces of the two kingdoms with that of Fallen Heart kingdom, or to be specific, with the soldiers of ck Rock City. Hence, there were a lot of military expenditures to be made in the city and it was something that the city''s revenues alone couldn''t make up so easily. Therefore, fund-raising activities like these were usually organised to make up for the payments. This was all nned out ording to the plot set aside by the developers of IR and administered by the AI in charge, the Heaven System.

    "As all the items have been checked and verified, I hope that there would be noints about them or questions targeted at the integrity of the auction house. I would like us to also remember that this auction is being organised by the city lord''s manor so be expecting to spot an item consigned to us by them." The auctioneer smiled elegantly at the crowd.

    "The rules for the auction are quite simple. First, false bids are not permitted and if a guest happens to do so, they would have to pay for the damages incurred by their actions which roughly equates from half of the items price to two-thirds(2/3) of it, depending on which the auction house sees fit. Secondly, bidders are not allowed to use their status to pressure other bidders. This auction is organised and supervised by the City lord''s actions in other to raise funds for the kingdom''s military. Therefore, such actions will not be permitted."

    At the moment she said this, the auctioneer''s aura had changed to epass the entire hall. An unseen pressure could be felt by every yer and from that, they released that this beauty wasn''t just a beauty. Their instincts all told them the same thing; she could easily wipe them all out with nothing but a finger.

    ''The city is indeed a ce filled with crouching tigers and hidden dragons[2].'' Sato sucked in a cold breath of air as he realised that he was nothing but an ant here, unlike in Riverdale town.

    "And finally," The auctioneer continued as she reined in her aura.

    "All payments can be made during the auction or at the end of it. However, unless the winner has paid for the item, it won''t be handed over to them yet.

    "There are still other rules that I didn''t mention but you can go through them through the rule booklet underneath your seats together with your bidder''s card. As for the ones that I have mentioned, they are the most important and under no circumstances are you to break any of them as that would be the same as challenging the City lord''s manor."

    As shepleted her words, everyone, both yers and NPCs, put a hand underneath their seats and extracted the booklet there alongside their bidder''s card which had their buyer''s number on it. Those who were interested began perusing through the book while the rest just kept their eyes fixed on the stage.

    "Then without further ado, I present to you the first item of the day."

    A trolley was suddenly pushed out from backstage with an item covered by a magical hemispherical barrier on it.

    "The first lot on sale is a damaged vase that has been repaired to an extent. Coming from an ancient civilization roughly existing in the period of the great Emperor Mnchulus. While it has no special features whatsoever, having such an artefact in your inventory would be nice for showing off to your friends as well as demonstrating your love for history. Starting bid is from 3 gold coins and each increment should not be less than 50 silver coins.

    "Bidding may nowmence."

 Chapter 446 - 441 : The Auction 2

    "The bidding may nowmence."

    *Bang*

    A loud sound akin to that of a gavel being struck on a sound block resonated through the hall as the attention of the audience was centered on the item on the stage.

    ording to the history of the southwest region of the main continent, Emperor Mnchulus was a great Emperor who had lived more than 4000 years ago. He had managed to unify the entire southwest region under hismand and ruled the area with an iron fist. There was an era of peace and stability in the regions he ruled, while the neighbouring kingdoms were constantly being assaulted by his forces.

    Civilisations that had managed to survive during that period outside of Emperor Mnchulus'' rule could be said to be powerful nations. Even if they did so by simply teaming up, such couldn''t be underestimated. As such, relics and artefacts from those ces were pretty valued among the aristocrats of the kingdom. Though it was true that the item on disy didn''t have any special features or functions, just from being a collection from that era, it was already worth something.

    "5 gold coins."

    A bold and confident voice sounded as a bidder''s card was lifted into the air.

    "5 gold coins and 50 silver." A calm voice was heard before the auctioneer could react to the previous call.

    "Hmph. 7 gold coins." The first speaker said with an overbearing tone.

    Without the yers being able to consider joining the bid, the price had already gone beyond their reach. Only the top guilds in the game could now afford it, although they could barely do so after scraping up their wealth.

    "10 gold coins."

    As the price continued to soar, the yers were left astonished regarding the progression of the event. The first lot had already climbed up to a price of 10 gold coins and it wasn''t even a weapon but some random vase. If it already costs this much, then how much will the other items cost?

    While this was heartbreaking for most, to some, they felt a blood rush. In their opinion, there was a chance that the next items would be more expensive than this vase. However, the game would definitely not cheat them, so, the next items would surely be some high-quality stuff. Maybe it might even be a Mid-tier or Upper-tier Rare-Steel rank equipment. Low-tier Rare-Steel rank weapons were already capable of changing the oue of a battle as well as improving the overall strength of a yer. Recalling this, one could only imagine how powerful a Mid-tier Rare-Steel weapon would be.

    While it was true that the cost was high, as long as they gathered more of their funds, the guild representatives would be able to cover the cost. And it was exactly this that they had begun doing. Every single one sent a message to their various backers, asking for more money as well as their suspected reason why.

    "Going once. Going twice. Going thrice. Sold, for 12 gold coins and 40 silver coins."

    While the big guilds rearranged themselves and organized their finances once more, the auction for the vase was over with the item going for a whopping price of 12 gold and 40 silver coins despite having a starting price of 3 gold. To Sato, this wasn''t strange.

    Generally, the first item to go for sale in an auction determined whether staying behind for the entire event was worth it. It was usually more expensive and valuable than the other items but not too valuable enough to be the main event.

    The next item was otherwise quite simr to the previous one in terms of practicability and value. It didn''t have any function and was better left as a souvenir for the rich or some collectible they could hold onto and show to their friends.

    Like that, 4 more items were put on sale with their prices ranging from between 6 gold coins to 10.

    To kill themselves during the boredom, a few yers had even participated in the auction, making false bids on lots with a crafty smile. There was no prevention method or identification process that was used to confirm whether these yers could afford the numbers they called out and the individuals in question didn''t care. Since they called the number out for fun and not to pay for the item, most of them were careful in their approach and actions lest they fall prey to their own pranks. It wasn''t until an item was almost sold off to a yer did the others finally calmed their enthusiasm down and stopped ying around.

    Just as the yers were beginning to get impatient at not seeing anything valuable to them, the auctioneer addressed the crowd once again but this time, her words struck the hearts of the yers.

    "The art sale is officially over. In case you are unaware, the auction today is divided into two phases to cater to the masses. The first part was the art auction where we sold off a few pieces of art to the general public. Do keep in mind that some of those arts were once held by the City lord''s manor so their value is actually much more than what was called out or even sold for. If not for this charity event, such wouldn''t have been possible.

    "As for the second part of the auction, here we would see the main items going off for sale which includes a few items that would especially be attractive to adventurers here. Without further ado, let''s continue."

    As the auctioneer concluded her words, a dazzling spear was brought onto the stage.

    The weapon had a red hue to it, akin to the mes of a phoenix. The spearhead was ink ck, absorbing all variations of light and giving a creepy feeling to the spear itself. As for the shaft, it was marked with engravings all over it that would give off a light hum the very first time a had grabbed onto it.

    "What would a fundraiser for the military be without any weapons for sale? I present to you, the Invincible warrior [Red Nightfall]." The auctioneer introduced with a lovely voice.

    "Forged by the top apprentice cksmith of ck Rock City who just broke through to the ranks of nominal cksmith, [Red Nightfall] was his exam product as well as the signature of his potential having a shot at the Master title."

    Following her words, a light screen appeared behind her showing the stats as well as the story behind the weapon. This was to make things easier for yers as the chance that their [Inspect] wouldn''t be able to see everything existed.

    "A level 20 Mid-tier Rare-Steel rank spear." Sato sucked in a cold breath of air.

    It was already a difficult issue to spot a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank item or equipment but before them was a Mid-tier one. And best of all, it was a level 20 weapon.

    "It has 2 active skills and 2 passives. Boost 2 Main attributes and 2 secondary attributes, and can also be upgraded once to the next level checkpoint, which is level 25. No matter how you look at this, this is a worthwhile creation." Lu Zhen couldn''t resistmenting.

    "Sadly, the big guilds would be the ones contending for it and most of all, no one uses the spear amongst us." Seiichi analysed.

    The spear was most suitable for a [Strength] based ss and among that was the [Guardian], [Pdin], and [Berserker], but best for the [Berserker] ss. The team only had a [Pdin] who was Katsuo, however, he wasn''t good with a spear so it was unnecessary to consider getting one.

    "Starting pricemences from 30 silver coins and each increment should not be less than 5 silver coins." The auctioneer said.

    A starting price of 30 silver coins made the spear look and sound cheap but it was done so to increase the number ofpetitors as well as to make the bidding more fierce. Everyone present could roughly estimate the price of the weapon if it were spotted in an NPC store therefore, they knew how cheap a 30 silver coins starting price was. Even 75 silver coins were barely suitable to acquire the spear.

    "50 silver coins." A loud voice resounded from the right side of the hall.

    It was a yer who represented a big club and he had been annoyed about not bidding for anything so far. With a bid easily essible to yers, he made no effort to hold himself back as he called out his offer.

    "60 silver."

    "65 silver coins."

    "70 silver coins."

    With the first call breaking the silence, all the yers who could roughly afford the price began calling out their offers. Even if they couldn''t use the spear, they could at least sell it to an NPC store for a much higher price so most yers who had the money didn''t skive away from this auction.

    "Plebeians." A cold grunt sounded from in front.

    A yer in gold-coloured armour together with a ck spear beside him snorted as he saw the masses bidding enthusiastically for the spear.

    "1 gold coin." The yer called out as he lifted his bidder''s card.

    "Hoooo!"

    A shock wave spread amongst the yers as they didn''t expect someone to jump directly to the gold coin threshold but after seeing the yer who did so, some were not surprised.

    The golden armoured fellow was an Expert for a 1st tier guild who yed the role of charge. Apart from being an Expert, he was ranked 381 onst year''s ''Neer''s List''piled by the super guild Hermes, and appeared on the 673rd position on the ''Gamer''s Expert List'' for the Asian region. This meant that out of 1000 top-rated yers who had managed to enter the list, he was better than 327 of them. This was with more than 300,000 gamers residing within the Asian region alone. Therefore, he was ranked 673 out of 300,000+ which was a massive achievement no matter how one viewed it. It was because of that that he had every reason to be prideful and arrogant at this moment.

    "Hey golden boy, take a chill pill okay? You''re not the only one interested in this item." A jovial voice sounded from behind.

    "1 gold, 5 silver coins."

    Everyone turned to the source of the voice as they never expected someone to tantly harass the expert in front. However, once they found out who it was, they all understood things. It was another Expert who was a member of the guild of the golden armoured yer. The two had shed in battle multiple times so it was reasonable for there to be a form of dissatisfaction and malice between the duo.

    "The auction is finally getting lively." Satomented from the sidelines.

    "Can''t wait to see what more they have ready for us."

 Chapter 447 - 442 : The Auction 3

    As the auction for the item got more heated, Sato and the others stared in interest while also taking note of the numbers being called as well as the speaker. While these items weren''t so impressive to the NPCs present, to the yers, they were heavenly items that could affect the power structure of the yermunity in IR.

    An average Low-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon could do a lot in the hands of an Expert yer, much less a level 20 Mid-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon that could be enhanced up to level 25. Even though the yer wouldn''t be able to equip it anytime soon, considering that it came from an auction organised by the City lord''s manor and was forged by the recognised top apprentice cksmith of the city -who had officially be a true cksmith-, there was no doubt that the quality of the item surpassed the ones yers would find in the market or out in the fields. Therefore, even if such quality of equipment besmon, the one being sold today would still stand above the rest in terms of ability as well as potential.

    "1 gold coin and 20 silver coins."

    Finally, the price increase came to halt as most of the other bidders began contemting whether it was that useful.

    Currently, no one knew the price for a level 20 Mid-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon and so no one could guess the cap for the weapon in disy. They could only rely on their gut feeling and stop bidding when they felt the price wasn''t worth it any longer. And as it stood, most of the bidders felt that 1 gold coin and 25 silvers was too much a price for a level 20 weapon that wouldn''t be readily used yet.

    Rather than doing so, it would be much wiser to spend that money on something important and much needed. Also, there were a lot more items on sale so there was no need to go broke so early just for a weapon that can''t be used yet.

    "Going once, going twice, going thrice. Sold."

    *Bang*

    The hammering sound of a gavel resounded across the hall again as the bidding for the spear, [Red Nightfall], came to an end. The winner of the auction turned out to be the first yer who bidded on the item

    "1 freaking gold coin with 20 silver coins on top. When did we have so many rich yers?"

    A wave of energy spread through the hall as the entire yers became lively.

    NPCs spending gold coins was normal and understandable, but for yers to do so was different. While it was a known fact that guilds already had their funds in gold coins, the specific range or even the upper limit was unknown. Very few yers actually believed that these guilds would be able to spend 1 gold coin on just one item alone, unless it was every important, as most yers believed that doing so would affect the finance of these guilds. But just the first item that was biddable was already sold for a gold coin plus 20 silver coins.

    "Are we still the richest?" Fudo asked with a seemingly down tone as the auction continued with the next item being brought out.

    "Stop messing around, dimwit." Yato lectured him.

    "Looks like the funds of the big guilds have grown a lot this past week." Seiichi nudged his sses as hemented.

    "True. But that doesn''t have anything to do with us. We just need to focus on ourselves first." Sato replied.

    The 7 of them were in gathered together in one part of the auction hall, and while this wasn''t wise to do since they had a slight beef with Emperor''s Might and Battle Wolves, Sato wasn''t bothered.

    "Hey, isn''t that the guy that was wanted back in Riverdale town?" One yer whispered to another as he gazed at Sato''s direction.

    "Yeah, it is."

    After ncing at Sato, the colleague of the previous speaker nodded in acquiescence.

    Sato had spent the entire week forging and exploring Maldora Canyon so he was barely spotted by yers during this time. Even when he was exploring the city, Sato didn''t visit any public sites like the City''s library or square as he fet like he wouldn''t find anything useful there. Instead, he had visited rundown areas, pubs, and small stores in search for a good mission, but even the times he spent doing this was very short as most of his focus was on forging.

    With the two yers recognising Sato, the news began to spread that the once famous ''most wanted'' was present at the auction grounds. The information was even attached with the #ckRock''sAuction tag on the forums. As a result, almost everyone who was paying attention to the forums during this time, had discovered that Sato was present. There were even a few other posts taht took pictures of the 6 with him, attaching captions like "Seven Star Glory Assembles".

    By the time the next item was sold, without doing anything, Sato and his crew had began trending on the forums for ck Rock City''s province as well as a few other neighbouring cities.

    "Famous again." Lu Zhen smirked as he saw the various captions and posts with their pictures on it.

    "These guys sure do work fast." Xue Yan said with a slightly irritated voice.

    Xue Yan was used to being alone andying low. The only exception to this was when she hangs out with Sato and the others. Therefore, having her picture appear on the forums bugged her.

    "Will those two guilds do something about us?" Katsuo worriedly asked.

    "Ignore it. They will all cool off soon enough. Also, there''s the fact that this is a safe zone, and nothing like Riverdale. Security here is more assured so none of the guilds would try anything stupid." Satoforted.

    "True." Seiichi remarked.

    Elsewhere in the same hall...

    "Boss, we just got info that those guys are here. Check the forums." Iron Bear reported to Silver Wolf.

    "Huh?"

    Silver Wolf opened the forums as Iron Bear had said and immediately turned his eyes to the top trending posts.

    The first post was tag about the auction which was pretty much understandable. Clicking on it, Silver Wolf was greeted by the sight of the various posts with the tag. The first one was about the spear, [Red Nightfall], that sold for a gold coin and 29 silver; the current highest bidding price for an item. The next post was about Sato''s presence in the hall which caught Silver Wolf''s attention almost immediately.

    "He''s actually here? Good, good." Silver Wolf chuckled.

    "Keep an eye out for me in him, okay? Once this auction is over, I would like to have a nice chat with him."

    Following Silver Wolf''smands, Iron Bear sent an [Assassin] yer who had the [Hunter] subss and was also good at tracking, to keep an eye on Sato and the gang, but specifically Sato.

    "Next on the line now would be an item from an apprentice cksmith who recently relocated over to the city." Thedy on the stage introduced.

    Following that, the NPCs began murmuring with some questioning why such an item was being sold in this type of auction and not a regr one.

    "So realistic." Xue Yan couldn''t help butment.

    It wasn''t just her that thought so but also every yer in the hall. No one expected the NPCs to react to the yer ''portion'' of the auction and only took them as bystanders.

    However, this development went to show that the protocols and programming governing the behaviours of NPCs was well thought and true to the statement of the developers that the NPCs were, in essence, the same as humans.

    "I know you''re all surprised and pretty skeptical about the quality but I''m here to tell you tha,t just like I said before, every lot on disy has been tested and verified by our appraisers. We don''t n on cheating anyone here as that''s against our code of conduct."

    As the NPCs recalled the announcements made at the start of the auction, they all calmed down and waited for the auction to proceed.

    "Damn. Do these NPCs take us as a joke? Just because we''re still low levelled, they actually think that our items aren''t worth buying?" A certain yer in ck gown and with red hairined. He was a member of the League of Hammers and it was his product that was currently on disy, hence his emotional outburst.

    "Calm down. What would you expect from them? That they readily buy our work? Even though this is a game, you tend to forget the developers advice, ''Treat the NPCs as you would humans''." A deep voice sounded from the side.

    The speaker was a yer simrly in a ck gown like the others, however, he had his face shielded with a hoodie that cast a dark shadow over it. His facial appearance and even gender couldn''t be made out. If not for the deep voice that came from him, the yer would not be identified as a man.

    "I get it." The red-haired yer calmed down. The man beside him was a yer he couldn''t take lightly, even more so since he was in the League of Hammers.

    "Thank you for your understanding." The female auctioneer said to the audience.

    "Now, may the auction for the weapon beside me begin."

 Chapter 448 - 443 : The Last Item

    The item on sale was a buster-sword, about 1.2 metres(3.937 feet) long and 0.3 metres(0.984 feet) wide. The design was nd and the buster-sword looked simple, much like a butcher''s cleaver but with a smaller handle and arger size. Even the attributes of the weapon were simrly in as the design. In summary, there was nothing that made this sword special as some of the weapons that could be found in NPC stores were much better than it.

    The only noteworthy fact about it was that it was made by a yer. This alone meant that the product could be mass-produced and sold cheaper than market products to make money.

    The red-haired yer admired his work with eyes filled with pride even though he knew that there were much better ones out there.

    For this auction, not every product made by a yer was epted to be sold off. The quality of each equipment was checked by the appraisers of the auction house, and if they found it below a certain standard, it won''t be epted even if the equipment is ssified as a sessful product by the blueprint''s standard. So, for any yer-made equipment being sold at the auction right now, they could be said to be the peak of the yers current capacity in cksmithing as every one of them was above average whenpared to the handiworks of other yers.

    So even though the red-haired''s buster-sword was below market standard by a bit, the weapon was still epted to be sold at the auction because the production method of the sword was strenuous, hence the quality of the sword was different from other swords in the market.

    Looking at the red ''K'' brand on the sword, the red-haired was filled with pride. The buster-sword was forged with [Inksteel], a 3 star material that was very difficult to work with.

    The material wasn''t exactly rare but it had a high melting point and was very resistant to hammering. Hence, normal forging methods didn''t apply to it so most yers and even cksmiths avoided using the metal, unless when forging blunt weapons like war hammers or shields. The only thing that made it valuable was that due to its special quality, weapons made from [Inksteel] were very durable and powerful. Even then, it was only added in little amounts with other minerals. The buster-sword however, waspletely made of this material so it''s value was stretched high.

    ''This cost me half almost a gold coin to make and that''s just ignoring the losses during the process, otherwise, it would easily pass a gold coin in value.'' The red-haired cksmith sighed internally.

    As an apprentice cksmith, making some failures in the production process was normal. It was for this reason that most apprentice cksmiths didn''t use 3 star materials, even if it was a low grade one, for their works. The cost of both production and failure would be high, and even if they seed, the amount they could sell the creation for wouldn''t be able to negate their losses.

    If it wasn''t for the fact that his family was rich, and so he could buy coins and materials from other yers, the red-haired yer wouldn''t have been able to produce this weapon. Even then, there was still a limit to what he could afford so he still had to pay out of his own pocket.

    The apprentice cksmith wasn''t interested in the cash he would make from the auction, but instead, he was focused on gaining fame as a cksmith. Being tozy to explore the world of IR like most yers, he was just interested in gaining fame in what he perceived to be the most simplest way, which was by bing the best in a lifestyle ss. And to him, both this auction, as well as the group known as the League of Hammers, were the key factors to achieving this.

    ''As long as my creation sells the most, I would be able to gain more recognition in the league. Taking over as the head or seizing a valuable core spot would then be easy.'' A glint shed through the eyes of the yer.

    Meanwhile, the auctioneer went on to introduce the lot.

    "The buster-sword sword before you is entirelyprised of the 3 star material, [Inksteel], together with a few supporting materials. While its attributes aren''t exactly exceptional, the durability of the weapon is very impressive together with its destructiveness. If youya fan of blunt weapons but in need of a pinch of fatal trait, I suggest you get yourself this weapon. It can fit as a role of charging, or be used to turn the tables around. Both defensive and offensive, this is a work of art that shouldn''t be underestimated."

    With the elusive wording from the auctioneer, many of the yers and even a few of the NPCs had their attention focused on the buster-sword as they tried to pry its secrets open with their eyes.

    "The starting bid is 25 silver coins with every increment being at least 3 silver coins."

    *Bang*

    Another item was put on sale once again but unlike the previous ones, a few seconds of silence went by as no one ced a bid yet. Most were still skeptical about the value of the buster-sword since after all, the attributes on it were below market standard.

    "30 silver coins."

    Just when the red-haired yer was about to overreact, a bid was made in the item as the voice of a boorish young man sounded across the hall.

    "33 silver coins." Another voice rose up.

    Very soon. The auction for the buster-sword concluded at a price of 48 silver coins. Considering the quality of the item, this was pretty understandable as the lot didn''t have any special features or attributes.

    Following that, 13 more items were sold in the auction, with one of them belonging to Blue me, the cksmith who had crossed with Sato. Another one belonged to the cloaked man who stood beside the red-haired yer, and together with Blue me, they both had the honours of forging the most expensive yer-made equipment. As for the rest, they were either made by some yer apprentices in cksmithing or were relics that weren''t so old nor attractive to the NPCs present.

    Blue me''s [Guardian Shield] sold at a price of 63 silver coins while the cloaked yer''s went for 85 silver coins. It was a light sword stylised to fit [Assassins] the most. Due to the materials used to forge it, as well as the special attributes of the weapon, it was attractive even to [Swordsman] and some [Rangers] who would like to have a close range weapon.

    "We''re closing in to the end of the auction and we all know what that means." The auctioneer smiled.

    ''There''s still something better?'' Most of the cksmiths in the League of Hammers were shocked.

    In an auction, the lot was usually sold in ordance to the most valuable as appraised by the auction house. That means that thest item of the day would usually be the most valuable.

    As the auction was made to fit both yers and NPCs, it was divided into two segments with the NPCs participating in the first one and the yers in the second. This was because current yers couldn''t match up to the NPCs in terms of wealth so if both were to partake in the same auction, yers wouldn''t be able to afford anything at all.

    The NPC segment had already ended while the yers'' was thought to have ended with the sale of the [Erratic de], the sword made by the cloaked yer from League of Hammers. The yers had thought so because the craftsmanship skills used in making that sword had already surpassed that of all the other apprentice cksmiths. So everyone had already prepared for the auction toe to an end, unaware that the auction wasn''t close to ending.

    "Uwaaaa! That''s!"

    As the usually trolley was pulled over to the stage and the item on it was unveiled, the yers with impressive eyesight suddenly let out screams of surprise and even a few NPCs raised an eyebrow at the sight of the item.

    It was a crimson chest te that glittered in the dim auction hall. The attributes of it were yet to be revealed but all the yers were agitated and even the guild representatives couldn''t sit properly anymore.

    This was due to a noticeable feature they had spotted on the chest te; the white cloud insignia imprinted at the left breast of the chest te.

    The Fleeting Cloud.

 Chapter 449 - 444 : Cloudsmith

    "He''s actually here?!!" A yer in the audience couldn''t help but exim with shock.

    "Why won''t he be here? If the other cksmiths could make it to the city and participate in this auction, of course that cloud fellow would too." Another yer rebuked his partner.

    Back in Riverdale town, a few yers had managed to spot a certain long-sword with a strange insignia on it. Not only was the long-sword''s quality superb but its attributes were amazing and up to market standard. What more, there was more than one copy being put up for sale, meaning that the cksmith actually had the capability to reproduce the exact work with a high sess rate. From then on, the tale of the ''Mysterious Cloudsmith'' was born.

    There were a lot of other weapons and equipment introduced into the market by the same character, such as a short sword suited for [Assassins] and shields for [Guardians]. All these equipment were always up to market standard at the very least and some of them were even better than what could be found in the market. As a result of this, the poprity of the Cloud sign had blown through the roof and even the surrounding towns were aware of his existence.

    "That cloud sign..." The red-haired yer tightened his right hand to form a fist.

    The cloaked yer beside him retained a quiet appearance as he looked in the direction of the stage.

    In IR, cksmiths could brand their products with any design of their choice. This was a hidden feature that wasn''t mentioned anywhere and was left for yers to discover on their own. Thanks to the ever-curious yers in IR, this feature wa discovered early and had been poprized already.

    The red-haired yer used a "K" which was the initial of his yer name, to identify his work. As for the yer in the ck cloak beside him, he used a weird concentric circle with 3 rings to identify his creation.

    Sato, on the other hand, had identally left behind a mark during the time he forged Rigged Steel long-swords. After he had noticed that some yers had identified him as the ''Mysterious Cloud cksmith'' or ''Cloud'' due to the simrity between the mark on the swords with a cloud, Sato eventually settled on the cloud mark and began using it on all his products to make it easy for them to sell. Having already built a fanbase for his products, he capitalised on that like every businessman would. And the same held true to the items he had brought for today''s auction.

    "Didn''t know your work would be such a hot cake." Fudo smirked from the side.

    "Looks like we won''t have to worry about funds for the team. Haha." Yato jeered.

    "It looks like I''m not putting as much effort as you in this." Xue Yan sighed.

    "You will eventually. This is your first sale so don''t think much about it." Satoforted her as he ignored the teasing statements from his friends.

    "Without any further ado, let''s begin the auction for this grand piece."

    As the auctioneer concluded with her statement, the attributes of the chest te was suddenly disyed above the item for all to see.

    [[ Balk Rose Armour : Low-Tier Mortal Rank : Level 10 : Durability 80

    Requirements : Level 10 || Metal armour sses

    [Physical Defence] +55

    [Magical Defence] + 35

    [Endurance] +5

    [Willpower] +3

    Bulk Form : Passive Skill : Movement Speed is reduced by 5% as weight increases. In exchange, defence is strengthened by 30%. 10% chance to absorb 30% of damage.

    Rebound : Active Skill : Reflect a close range attack back to the attacker. 30% of the attack''s force is rebounded as impact while only 70% makes contact.

    Cool-down : 30 seconds.

    Systemment : While this could be described as a waste when considering the quality of the materials used, it still qualifies to stand side-by-side with top tier equipment at its level.

    ]]

    "!!!"

    The crowd was further stunned at he information they saw. A Low-tier rare-Steel rank weapon or even equipment was pretty much rare to the general popce but it was even more unimaginable that such an item was made by a yer. This alone had raised the value of the weapon to another level.

    "The Cloudsmith, has reached such a level already?!" Blue me, the cksmith who had once had a confrontation with Sato, stood in shock as he voiced out his surprise.

    Even the red-haired cksmith was astonished as he gazed at the attributes of the red chest-te.

    ''How is this possible?!''

    Everyone in the League of Hammers was stunned to stupor. They were the purported leader of all yer cksmiths in ck Rock City, boasting of reaching the highest achievements regarding the upation in the region. Some of them were even confident that the work of their leaders had already surpassed, or at least, was on par with what the Cloudsmith could make. This was because the sword put up for auction was a level 10 Upper-tier Mortal rank weapon, something that had astonished the yers in the area and sold for a record price of 85 silver coins .

    Yet, the item before them had already surpassed all their achievements. It was a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank equipment; something desired by many yers.

    It should be known thatpared to forging weapons, forging equipment, especially defensive ones, were a whole lot more difficult. The difficulty in forging an Upper-tier Mortal rank equipment was above that of forging an Upper-tier Mortal rank weapon but just below that of a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank, and kept going so in the same pattern for equipment above the aforementioned rank. This means that if the Cloudsmith was capable of forging a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank equipment, he should be capable of forging a weapon of simr quality. This had already surpassed the current peak of what any yer could achieve.

    "He''s definitely number one, that''s for sure."

    An unknown yer spoke those words, but it wasn''t refuted by anyone. All the yers in the auction hall at that moment had collectively agreed that the Cloudsmith was the best yer cksmith in the region, and maybe even the entire game.

    "You''ve shocked these people silly." Fudo whispered at Sato.

    Sato himself was also surprised as he never thought that things would go this out of hand. While he had intentionally brought a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon to to the auction in order to boost his fame as a cksmith, Sato never expected the hype to be this much.

    "Bogus. This might not be the Cloudsmith''s work. Who knows whether he bought the equipment and imprinted his insignia on it just to fool us. Forging a Low-tier Rare-Steel equipment isn''t the same as building a sand castle. Even our distinguished leader hasn''t achieved such a level yet and he''s a cksmith in real life. Who does the Cloudsmith think he is?" Blue me spoke up with a red face.

    "That''s quite possible."

    While it was true that Blue me had made amotion out of envy, his words did make sense. It was possible for a yer to imprint his insignia into an already made good and im that he had forged it. And as the appraisal methods yers knew of were limited,there was no way to confirm if it was true or not.

    Even if the auction house had a method to do so, they won''t be bothered as their role was just to sell the equipment.. However, if ament were to affect the end price of the item, the auction house would then have to interfere.

 Chapter 450 - 445 : Shocking The Community

    "Would the guest over there please take a seat." Thedy on the stage said with a nice smile though anyone with half a brain would obviously know that she was quite pissed.

    "While it''s true that our auction house is usually concerned with only the authenticity of the item, if a consignor ims that it''s an original product, the auction house would check to verify that fact as it would affect the final price of the item. Therefore, you need not worry when we say that this is indeed an original product from the apprentice cksmith nicknamed the Cloudsmith."

    "So it''s true!"

    The entire hall was filled withmotion.

    Presuming the chest te to be made by the Cloudsmith was nothingpared to having the auctioneer confirm this fact. This meant that the Cloudsmith had visited the auction house at some point in time today and also verifies the previous idea that he was currently the number one cksmith of the region.

    "But why didn''t he join the League of Hammers? He could easily take the role of their leader with such a skill like this?"

    It wasn''t known which yer said this exactly but the question has begun spreading throughout the hall as various conspiracy theories were also being born.

    "With that settled, we can now proceed with the auction. Most of you here should know how an auction works as well as the cing of items. So without any further exnation from me, you should be aware of the quality and authenticity of this item.

    "Starting bid is 30 silver coins and every increment should be not less than 5 silver coins."

    Compared to the starting bid of all the items provided by the other yers, Sato''s was the highest so far.

    "The auction house does take it to be an amazing work of art." A yer among the League of Hammers group said with a thick tone of envy.

    "45 silver coins."

    A bidder''s card was immediately raised as a price was shouted.

    "For a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank equipment? Aren''t you shameless?" Another yer jeered at the previous speaker.

    "65 silver coins. This isn''t a ce where the poor can bid."

    An uproar rose but at thement and the bid that was ced. In just two bids, the [Balk Rose Armour] had already be the second most valuable item made by a yer on sale during this auction.

    "You''re indeed right." A proud voice belonging to a woman sounded across the hall.

    "The poor shouldn''t bother bidding on this item. 1 gold coin."

    "!!!"

    All the yers in the hall were immediately stunned silly by that remark. A gold coin, at the third bid sounded very absurd but when one recalls that the item on sale was a defensive piece of the Low-tier Rare-Steel rank and could readily be used as it was a level 10 weapon unlike [Red Nightfall], it was pretty much worth the price. However, Sato guessed that there was another reason for the absurd increase in price.

    ''I hope he''s indeed here, otherwise this much spending would be pointless and severely affect the guild.'' Yukino thought.

    She was the one who had just bid 1 gold coin for the chest-te and even she felt that the price was a tad too much. However, Yukino had a reason for doing so.

    It was a well-known fact that the Cloudsmith was a yer, and judging from his erratic movement and behaviour, he was most likely a solo yer who had no alliance with any guild. Also, since he had put up his equipment for sale in this auction, chances were that the Cloudsmith would be here. As this auction was the only chance were the Cloudsmith could be spotted, Yukino had to demonstrate a sign of friendship, signifying that she, or rather the guild behind her, would like to partner up with the Cloudsmith. Si CE she couldn''t meet him upfront, the best way of doing this was to buy his equipment, and do so with arge amount of money.

    While this sounded dumb, it wasn''t. Not only would it demonstrate a sign of goodwill but it would also imply that Emperor''s Might has a lot of spare cash to help support the cksmith in his research; something every solo lifestyle ss yer desired when selecting a guild to base at.

    "Going for 1 gold. I want to remind you all the hat the cksmith who forged this very item was once praised by Lord Owen, and we should all know what that means."

    As the auctioneer added that line, the NPCs in the seat became surprised.

    Lord Owen was a noble and not an ordinary one. He had ties with the Royal family of the Fallen Heart Kingdom and apart from that, he was a master cksmith. Even in a city like ck Rock City, a Master was the highest rank one could find. And for an apprentice to beplimented by such a figure, it meant that their achievements in the future would not be little.

    ''So they even know about that too.'' Sato thought.

    Thepliment the auctioneer referred to was the fact that Sato had passed Owen''s test back at Riverdale town. While he did it just for the rewards, Sato never knew that there was a hidden advantage like this.

    "2 gold coin."

    "!!!"

    A price that had surpassed the highest price bidded on an item by a yer was called out, but the most surprising thing was the origin of the voice. It wasn''t from the first floor that housed all the yers in the avenue but instead, it came from the second floor where the private boxes were located.

    "It can''t be..that bid, came from the second floor!."

    While the location didn''t seem so special enough as to shock the yers, it actually was. From simply seeing Yukino''s presence alongside the other top guilds'' representatives on the first floor, the yers were able to surmise that it was only NPCs that were currently on the second floor, and simply from ncing at the seating arrangements, the NPCs on the second floor were no ordinary ones.

    Two things were shocking from this discovery. First of all, an NPC had ced on bid on a yer''s work. Second of all, it wasn''t an ordinary NPC who did so. When considering this, the price of 2 gold coins didn''t seem so impressive anymore.

    The yers weren''t the only ones that were shocked. Sato was and even the auctioneer too. She didn''t expect that a personage on the second floor would be interested in a children''s y toy. In the eyes of the NPCs, anything below level 20 was an ant. One can only be recognised as a fighter if they were at level 20 or below, otherwise I''m the eyes of the NPCs in the city, they were still kids. Therefore, a level 10 equipment was just a decorative piece of item that should be hung on the wall for show.

    The auctioneer never expected someone on the 2nd floor to be interested in this item, even more so that figure. Since ethos auction wasn''t anything special to the NPCs, not a lot of important figures had attended it, with only one of them being worthy to stay on the second floor.

    ''This kid seems to have caught his interest.'' The auctioneer sneaked a nce at Sato.

    Knowing that no one else would bid more than that, the auctioneer decided to bring it all to an end.

    "2 gold coins. Going once, going twice, SOLD to room number 2."

    *Bang*

    And so, the best equipment forged by a yer cksmith had ended up in the hands of an NPC. The yers, who obviously loved gossips a lot, had already began to spread the news on the forums. It wouldn''t take long before the entire IR server knew that an NPC had bought a yer''s good in an auction.

    The reason for all this hype was because events like this barely happened in other simr games. Even if it did, it was usually when yers were already high levelled and could forge equipment that were attractive to NPCs and yers alike; equipment that were usually legendary ranked or simr. However, this was the first time something like this had happened. An esteemed NPC bought a low-levelled item made by a yer.

    "The Cloudsmith is indeed the bets yer cksmith."

    Statements like this could be heard all over the hall from the ers present.

    As for the cause of all this, Sato, he was stunned silly as he never expected the price of the armour to go that high.

    ''Maybe I should be selling my products here more frequently.''

    Just as the yers were prepared to all leave, the auctioneer spoke up once more.

    "Now may we proceed to the next piece."

    Another one!

    Every yer was surprised.

    "Next is an item different from the rest. A pair of runes forged by an apprentice Scribe. While the artist has no name[1], the quality of the runes is beyond what one would expect from an apprentice and even more impressive than anything that has appeared so far.. Starting price is 30 silver coins with every increment being worth 3 silver coins."

 Chapter 451 - 446 : Suspicions

    "Yoshi! Finally it''s over." Fudo rejoiced as he exited the auction hall through the door with the others.

    "I have to admit, this was an eye opener. Selling our works in the auction hall would be more profitable than doing so elsewhere." Xue Yan said.

    Apart from Sato, Xue Yan and Fudo had also put up a few of their products for sale. The end result was Xue Yan''s talismans being sold for more than 40 silver coins per bundle and each bundle containing between 5-7 talismans. As for Fudo, each of his potion sold for at least 35 coins or more. Compared to weapons and equipment, potions and talismans were typically one-time use items so their prices were lower than the former. Even so, the potions and talismans Fudo and Xue Yan had put up for sale weren''t your average over-the-counter products.

    This was understandable as just like Sato, the duo had gone through the books in the Caventry''s library as well as experimented on a lot of different methods so the final products from their hands would be much better than what the best yer apprentice of the subss could do. Hence, the duo were able to make a name in this auction and Xue Yan was satisfied with that.

    "You think too much about this. It''s because this is the very first grand auction organised that''s why the prices reached this high. There''s also the fact that every guild is in need of any and every consumable they can get in hand for the dungeon raid so they wouldn''t mind splurging just this once. If it''s another time, I doubt things be go the same." Lu Zhen exined.

    "He''s right. Either way, we made a killing from this auction. Now we need to focus on making more and also preparing for the dungeon raid." Sato added.

    "Preparing for the dungeon raid? Already? I thought you said in a month''s time?" Yato looked at Sato with surprise. This was so because Sato had predicted that the guilds wouldn''t take the dungeons seriously until a month''s time. Only a week had gone by since then so it was still too soon to be preparing for an eventing up in 3 weeks.

    "That was before." Sato sighed.

    "This auction has made me understand that I have still underestimated these guilds. If they''re able to make this much just by staying a week in the city, who knows how strong they''ve gotten. I won''t be surprised if some of their Experts has already reached level 13."

    "So quick?" Everyone was stunned.

    "Haven''t you noticed? Levelling up is easier than it was before." Sato suddenly revealed.

    "That''s...true." Everyone unanimously agreed.

    Compared to when they were still at town, levelling up here was easier. This was because there was arge number of stronger monsters in every resource map. Be it level 10, 11, 12, and so on, up to level 15, there was nock of them. This assembly of monsters made it easier for yers, who were obviously lower in level than the monsters, to increase their levels at a rapid pace. As long as one moved in a party, getting to level 12 or 13 within a week or two wasn''t impossible.

    "With the sharp increase in strength, the guilds would be focusing on solidifying their financial foundations. Once they have enough wealth, they would then splurge it on items that would increase their chances of sess in the dungeon raid. My guess is that in the following week, a lot of purchases would be made in various NPC stores, and there''s also the chance that the exchange store would be enabled."

    "Why? I get the guilds spending a lot but what does that have to do with the game''s exchange store?" Lu Zhen asked confusedly.

    "That makes sense!" Seiichi abruptly spoke up.

    "You''ve figured it out too?" Sato smiled.

    "Yes. This is all a plot by the developers. I can''t believe I didn''t see thating." Seiichi chuckled in a deprecating manner.

    "Can somebody please exin this to me?" Fudo dramatically grabbed Seiichi by the cor and shook him furiously.

    "Calm down, okay." Seiichi shoved Fudo''s hands away as he tidied his cor and fixed his sses.

    "The dungeon raid would be very important to every guild and as this is the first dungeon raid in the entire game, the importance would be at an all-time high. Therefore, every guild would be poised to try their best and take the achievement for being the first toplete the dungeon, whether global achievement or regional achievement. This means that none of them would shy away from spending a lot of money to get this done, buying new gears and items. However, there''s a limit to the influx of cash in the game and how much a yer or guild could make in a certain time span." Seiichi suddenly turned serious.

    "Normally, it would take a month for them to all get prepared both financially and in strength-wise but as the levelling rate has increased more than normal, whenpared to back in the town, the big guilds all feel pressured to get ready for the raid as soon as possible. None of them know how far the forces of the other has grown so they''re all worried that while they might still be at the preparatory stage, some other guild would have already began testing the dungeon. As a result of their fears, the guilds wouldn''t mind spending a lot of cash. But the problem of funds arises and to this issue, there is only one solution; to buy coins from other yers or guilds.

    "If you recall, there''s a certain fee for making transactions through the exchange store and since it''s much cheaper than bank transaction fees, yers would find it a lot more attractive than thetter. Releasing the exchange store and the moment when guilds are in desperate need of coins might seem like a coincidence but it''s actually a nned strategy to make the best out of it. The amount of money the developers would make just from this ''coincidental'' move would be a lot." Seiichi sighed as he inwardly praised the development team for such a brilliant idea.

    "Damn. Isn''t that unscrupulous or something?" Yato asked.

    "There''s nothing wrong about it. It''s just a strategy to make the best out of the feature and it doesn''t go against any rule orw." Sato said.

    "I''m pretty sure the big guilds must have guessed about it and that''s why there''s been a reported low in the number of bank-to-bank transactions for the yers recently." Fudo added as he realised that fact.

    "Well, it doesn''t matter much to us. We just need to make as much money as we can and also make our own preparations. You guys can go levelling in the fields while I produce more equipment." Sato expressed his ns.

    "Me too. I''m already level 13 so there''s no reason for me to be out in the fields." Xue Yan voiced out.

    "No." Sato shook his head.

    "Regarding firepower, you''re the team''s main damage dealer, therefore your strength also has to be maintained at a high enough level. Level 13 might look good to you but remember that the recognised highest levelled yer is level 14. If not for you taking time out to focus on rune-smithing, you would have been level 15 by now. Don''t make that mistake and follow the others."

    "But,"

    "I said no." Sato maintained his stance.

    "Okay." Xue Yan replied with a depressed tone.

    "Oi Sato, you didn''t have to be so hard on her." Fudo spoke up.

    Just before Sato could answer him, an NPC walked up to him and without bothering with the others, said

    "My master is looking for you.. Kindly make yourself avable to his request."

 Chapter 452 - 447 : Galvin

    "So you''re the famous ''Cloudsmith''?"

    Standing before a floor-to-ceiling window was a young man of about 23-25 years.

    The young man had a perfect physique like a model; not too muscly and not too thin. He had white hair which was pretty rare even for the NPCs in Infinite Realm. Apart from that, the pair of blue pupils that nced at the world with tempered pride added to the looks of the character.

    Dressed in white attire with azure-coloured lining reminiscent of a noble in a fantasy world, it was easy to guess that the figure in front was an important character in this world, or at least, this city.

    "You''re right. I am the Cloudsmith." Sato replied as he studied the appearance of the young man before him.

    He had proceeded to consign his items to the auction while maintaining anonymity. This meant that while his title as the Cloudsmith could be used to boost the equipment''s final price, the auction house wasn''t to reveal that he was the Cloudsmith. For them to go against that rule and let this NPC know that information, meant that he was no ordinary character in this city.

    Facing such a personage, there was no point in denying his identity.

    "I know." The NPC replied with a strange smile before extending his right hand towards Sato.

    "You can call me Galvin."

    "Sat- Sky de." Sato shook the outstretched hand.

    "Please take a seat." Galvin pointed towards the couch that stood in the centre of the office.

    The office was twice the size of a meeting hall with simple furniture ced in an organized manner. There was a bookshelf by the side of the room as well as a few potted nts that lined the room. Two single armchairs, as well as a 3 seater couch that backed the entrance, were arranged to form a circle in the middle of the room. At the center of this arrangement was an exquisite coffee table with a teapot as well as a few teacups and biscuits ced on it.

    "Please." Galvin pointed at the table following which a servant who stood by the side, walked over and poured Sato a cup of tea.

    "Sky de, right? Is that like your adventurer name or your real name?" Galvin asked right after Sato had taken a seat.

    "It could work as both."

    "Haha. That''s nice." Galvinughed as he picked up a cup and sipped some tea.

    "Then I will call your de."

    Sato didn''t mind being called de or whatever. What he wanted to know was where this meeting would lead to.

    Picking up the teacup before him, Sato focused on the liquid in the cup as his mind wandered elsewhere.

    ''It''s most likely a mission, and a mission from somebody of high standing definitely wouldn''t be easy.''

    While Sato didn''t want to be tied down by any long-term mission, it didn''t mean that he will reject it straight away. He would at least weigh the pros and cons and see whether it would affect his ns for the dungeon raid.

    "As you''ve probably guessed, my calling you here would be because I need to discuss two things with you. First, I just want to get to know you. I believe you have potential as a cksmith and with the right and proper nurturing, bing a master at the profession will only be a matter of time. I''m hoping you would let me take the honour of having to aid you in your path." Galvin said.

    "What''s the catch?" Sato narrowed his eyes as he asked.

    "Haha. Such a skeptical young man. There''s really no catch but if you''re to insist, then it would be in my second request. I''m hoping that you would provide your services to me if and when required."

    [[ System notification :

    [[ Galvin''s Deal (Series)

    Quest rating : C

    Intro : A mysterious NPC with high authority, by the name of Galvin finds you. Discovering that you''re an apprentice cksmith with a lot of talent, he desires to develop a close rtionship with you while also making transactions with you.

    System description : This quest would take a lot of time toplete and could possibly lead you closer to the main storyline as well as certain important characters of the city or even kingdom. However, with such benefits avable, an equal degree of danger should be expected.

    Rewards : ???

    Failure Penalty :

    You will lose all connection with Galvin and would not be able to request his help in any matter.

    Depending on the mission failed, the penalty could range from D-A rank.

    System : ept/Decline ]]

    ''What a strange quest.'' Sato thought as he read through the notification.

    The quest neither disyed an attractive reward nor a heavy penalty that would scare Sato. Even the details of the quest weren''t so detailed, with only the line about the quest leading to the main storyline being the only noteworthy sentence.

    ''The risks from epting this mission are too much. The first penalty isn''t an issue but the second is quite suspicious. Even though the quest has a C rank, one of the missions within it could be an A rank.'' Thinking up to here, Sato sighed.

    "So, are you interested?" Galvin queried once more.

    ''He already ns to support me plus the team would need ess to some of the high-ranking officials in the city if we want to improve further than the others. This guy seems like he knows some of the ruling parties so it''s worth it. Just for that connection.''

    "No problem, but I do have to remind you, I''m not a full-time cksmith but a part-timer as well as a part-time adventurer. I also have my teammates with me and some of them are also lifestyle ss holders, but I''m guessing you already know that." Sato stared at Galvin in the eye.

    "Haha. You''re right, I do. That chubby alchemist as well as the pretty scribe. They''re both your teammates right?"

    Just as Sato had expected, Galvin already knew of Fudo and Xue Yan. The two''s products that were on sale in the auction had managed to attract his attention, and while he didn''t bid for it, Galvin was still interested in the producers. That was when he found out that Sato, Fudo, and Xue Yan were a team and he was ecstatic to get them to his side.

    "Yes." Sato replied as he got warier about the young man before him.

    "No need to be scared. It''s normal for people to investigate in things that interest them." Gavin calmly sipped from his cup.

    "Since you''ve agreed to work with me, I hope our partnership goes a long way from here and that we both profit honestly from it." Galvin dropped his cup before stretching out an arm once more to Sato.

    "Me too." Sato shook the hand in response.

    Galvin smiled with a satisfied expression before he continued.

    "Truthfully, I can''t give you any requests for now until I know the limit of your skills. Luckily, there''s the apprentice tournamenting up in two days."

    ''That''s right, the tournament.'' Sato inwardly facepalmed. He had almost forgotten that when he first arrived in the city about a week ago the little boy that showed him around, Finn, had informed him of an apprentice cksmith''s tournament that was supposed to be held in 2 weeks (IGT) which was the same as a week in Real-time. In other words, any time from now.

    Galvin continued, "I hope you can make it and disy your skills there. It would be easier for me to gauge your abilities and partition the right requests to you, as well as an opportunity for you to show your value to others. In summary, it''s a win-win for us both."

    "No problem. I already had ns of participating either way." Sato nodded.

    "Oh? Then that''s fine with me, I have nothing else to say." Galvinfortably rxed.

    Following that, the two chatted about random stuff till Sato felt it was time to go after which he took his leave.

    "Milord, why do you request the aid of that pitiful individual?" The NPC that had brought Sato over spoke up right after he left.

    "You won''t understand, Nigel. I need as much help as I can find for this event. My brothers are working hard so why shouldn''t I too?"

    Galvin walked to a counter by the edge of the room and took out a bottle of wine before pouring himself a ss.

    Walking to the floor-to-ceiling window where he now stood and watched the hustle-and-bustle of the city, Galvin swirled the ss of wine as he continued.

    "Great talent can be hidden even in the gutters of the slums.. To assure my victory in this little contest organized by my father, I wouldn''t mind searching through there even if it means soiling my attire."

 Chapter 453 - 447 : The Apprentice Blacksmith Tournament Begins

    Right after Sato left the room, he headed straight towards the nearest NPC store where he purchased a few materials with the proceedings from the sale of the [Balk Rose Armour] following which he then left for the cksmith guild to improve on his skills.

    As for the others, since they weren''t cksmiths like Sato, they went levelling up outside of the city rather than to waste their time inside the city. ording to the n from Sato, once the tournament was over, they would test-run the dungeon to see how far they can go so the team had to make preparations. Sato was level 16 so he didn''t need to worry much about his level. But the others averaged around level 10 and 11, which wasn''t enough for them to explore the dungeons. In Sato''s own words, level 13 would be the basic for them to check out the ce.

    24 hourster...in real-time...

    The cksmith guild''s base in ck Rock City consisted of 5 buildings; three 3-storey buildings, one 2-storey building and one 4-storey building that served as the administration centre. In one of the 3 storey buildings was arge hall that was enchanted with space magic, increasing the capacity of spectators it could housed. This very building was the 3-storey building Sato usually rented a basic forging room in, however, the location of the hall was on the top floor of the building.

    In front of the building was a long line of yers who were waiting to register for the tournament. Most of them weren''t so serious about cksmithing, but they decided to give the tournament a shot to see whether they could profit from it.

    "Show me your apprentice badge."

    At the front of the forging building, a table was ced in front on which sat an NPC cksmith who was in charge of the registration procedures.

    To prevent a cksmith from participating in the tournament as an apprentice, all the participants had to be checked and verified just before they entered the building.

    The procedure wasn''t something stressful. They just had to show their apprentice badge and spill a drop of blood on it to confirm that it belongs to them. When a yer receives the token for the first time, it absorbs a drop of blood from them. Sprinkling the token with the same blood could help to confirm that it belonged to one.

    The cloaked figure who stood before the cksmith handed his badge to him, before making a slight cut on his thumb and pressing the said finger onto the badge. Immediately after, the badge shine with a full rrd light, showing that the badge indeed belonged to the cloaked individual.

    "Alright, you can go now. Here''s your tag. It also contains a map of the ce so you don''t get lost. Good luck."

    The tag was a wooden object that looked a lot simr to a clothing tag. At the top was the number "778" indented on it and behind was the insignia of the cksmith guild. By simply pressing on the hammer in the logo, a map would appear in the yer''s interface to help direct them to the exact location of the tournament.

    Taking the tag with him, the cloaked yer sighed with relief as he walked inside the building.

    ''Luckily, the searching isn''t that strict.''

    The registration didn''t bother about the true identity of the participants for the tournament which was advantageous to those who wanted to remain in anonymity. As long as one was confirmed to be an apprentice cksmith and was also not a criminal wanted by the kingdom, they could participate in the tournament even I they had a creepy demon mask on.

    To prevent there from being any asion where a connection between him and his cksmith identity is discovered, Sato had worn a ck cloak with a mask on his face. Sato wanted to maintain that anonymous presence for the character Cloudsmith as it would make things a lot easier for me for now.

    The hall where the tournament was supposed to be held was on the 3rd floor of the building, or rather, the entire 3rd floor was the hall. Logically, such an area won''t be able to house much people within as the floor''s measurements weren''t suited to handle more than 300 people at once, however the cksmith guild wasn''t one to be underestimated. With therge amount of funds they had made throughout the years, they hired a professional space magic user to increase the capacity of the hall. As a result, while from the outside, the floor looked to be able to house about 300 people due to its spacious nature, in reality, it could carry at least thrice that number. In other words, it would take at least 900 people to fill it.

    As Sato walked into the hall, he was greeted by a bunch of familiar and unfamiliar faces. On the side of the unfamiliar faces were both random solo yers as well as guild representatives of various small and top guilds. This tournament was an opportunity for them to spot the yer cksmiths with the most potential and if possible, they would then recruit the yer to their respective guild. Hence the reason why so many guild representatives were here.

    As for the familiar faces Sato spotted, their roles were simr to the previous ones with some of them being Daichi, the guild leader of the 2nd tier guild East Crow, one of the captains of Mountain Rift Club, One Sword, Chesces and Kotaro(Fudo''s half-brother), Blue me as well as the other members of the League for Hammers, and some other yers.

    As he wore a mask together with the ck cloak''s shading feature, none of them had seen his face but the all noticed the character with a ck cloak but weren''t too bothered. This was because there were 3 other yers who had also worn ck cloaks and were participating in the tournament. Even if one were to exclude the participants, there were 7 other individuals among the spectators with ck cloaks. So Sato, who might look suspicious to some, was anything but that here.

    ''That''s good.'' Sato inwardly sighed.

    He had been thinking that if he was the only one with a ck cloak while participating, he would easily be suspected to be the Cloudsmith. But as there were others amongst the participants, Sato''s identity won''t be revealed unless announced.

    2 hours after Sato had entered, all the participants had finally arrived. There were a total of 400 participants in this contest and the numbers were given randomly. That was why Sato had the number "778'' on his tag, but I''m reality he was within the 300-400 count.

    Of thisrge number, only about 70-80 of the cksmiths present were yers, and this number represented the number of yer cksmiths in the entire ck Rock Province currently. The ratio was poor but understandable, after all, cksmithing was one of the hardest lifestyle sses to improve and most yers weren''t interested in doing so. Their only focus was in exploration and battles so why would they bother to tie such a heavy burden to themselves.

    The League of Hammers had about 20 of those yers, while about 15-20 were, frencers/solo yers. The remaining 40 or so belonged to various guilds and professional clubs.

    ''This is where the greatest yer cksmith for this period would be born. Cloudsmith, I hope you''re here to watch me surpass you.''

    A figure in ck cloak gripped their right hand tightly to form a fist as they stared at the stage in the middle of the hall.

 Chapter 454 - 449 : Rules Of The Tournament

    "Wee, everyone, to this year''s Apprentice cksmith contest for ck Rock Province held by the cksmith guild of ck Rock City."

    A white-bearded who could fit a character in the Bible stood on the stage at the centre of the hall as he announced the start of the tournament. He wore a navy blue gown with gold embroideries and 3 ck stars. Just by standing there, the sharp mages amongst the yer noticed that the flow of mana in the hall imperceptibly moved towards him.

    Sato and the other yer cksmiths, as well as the NPC participants, sat at one side of the hall. The hall could fit about 900 people but the stage alone could only hold less than a hundred. Hence, the 300 or so participants had to sit at the stands but were a lot closer to the stage than the spectators, so, they were able to feel the eerie man flow even better than the others.

    ''He''s probably the guild leader or some high-level figure.'' Sato thought.

    Just as he reached that conclusion, the old man''s next words denied and affirmed them.

    "As you may or may not know, I''m Master Kolin, the Vice-guild leader of ck Rock City''s cksmith guild as well as the head of external affairs of ck Rock Province''s cksmith guilds." The bearded old man said.

    "Due to certain reasons, the guild leader won''t be avable for this event so I''m in charge of overseeing it."

    "This contest aims to enable our young ones to get a bit of fame for themselves while also proving themselves worthy of bing an official cksmith. In other words, the top performers would have the opportunity of being promoted to the next rank without having to take any test while the rest would be able to grow a certain level of fame that would aid their careers. This is a win-win for everyone participating and I hope that you can still give it your best shot." Kolin nced at the participants as he spoke until here.

    "Even without the guild leader''s presence, there''s still myself as well as few other honourable characters so you should do your best to strive for the top. Hold nothing back in this tournament as it could very well define your future in this upation and maybe even affect your future.

    "Also, to help motivate you younglings, we have prepared a few prizes for the top ceholders. Some of you may already know that among these prizes is a copy of Saint Savir''s cksmithing manual. Even though he was a Scribe, his cksmithing skills weren''t any lesser than a 4-star master''s. some rumour that he had even reached the level of a 1 hammer Grandmaster but that we haven''t confirmed yet. From this information, you should know how valuable his manuals are, even if it''s just a beginner''s guide.

    In cksmithing, just like in every other subss, ranks existed. They were, in order of low to high, Apprentice, Practitioner, Master, Grandmaster, Saint, and Divine. As from the Master rank up though, there were still differences in skill. Each of those ranks was divided into 4 sub-ranks.

    For the Master rank, they were ssified into stars, from 1 star to 4 stars. For Grandmaster, they were ssified into hammers, all the way from 1 hammer to 4 hammers.

    The old man before them, vice-guild leader Kolin, had 3 stars on his gown, meaning that he was a 3 star Master cksmith, close to the peak of Master rank. At that level, forging Rare-Steel and Dark Silver equipment was a piece of cake for him and he could even create a level 20 legendary equipment with one eye closed, if one ever existed[IF].

    Kolin''s limit, however, was making equipment of Legendary rank at the same level as he was or at least, 5 levels below, which he hadn''t yet reached. Kolin could forge a piece of legendary equipment only if it was 20 or more levels lower than he was and also he was familiar with the materials and prices, otherwise, it would just be a Dark Silver product. However, forging a legendary rank required a lot of very precious materials which the cksmith guild didn''t have so many of. Also, Kolin needed to be at least level 100 to attempt forging one. With all these criteria, Kolin couldn''t meet the requirements to forge a Legendary item but he was still a highly valued cksmith.

    Grandmasters were rare; very rare, and the same was true for 4-star masters. The number of 4 star Master cksmiths in the Fallen Heart Kingdom could be counted with one''s hands and so, most of the high-level products were made by their 3 star Master, who were inrger numbers than the 4 star Masters.

    "So here''s how the tournament would go. The tournament would be divided into main parts, the written and the practical. The written part only urs once and would consist of questions from the apprentice exam, a few from the practitioner exam, and some rted to everyday cksmithing that one ought to know. The participants are expected toplete this part of the tournament within an hour and a half, irrespective of your opinions."

    As Kolin spoke up to here, quite a few of the yers had a weird look on their faces. It was okay to tell them the duration of the test but the additionalment wasn''t really needed.

    "The second part of the tournament is the practical part. It would be divided into 3 sub-parts with the 1st sub-part being a basic test for apprentices. The next would be a bit more difficult and the third sub-part would be harder than the twobined. To summarize, each sub-part would just be you forging whatever blueprint we pass to you. Whether or not you were previously familiar with it has nothing to do with us, but to make sure that doesn''t happen, the blueprints being used were made by our professionals or dug up from ruins so I doubt anyone of you have seen it elsewhere."

    While using a regr blueprint of equivalent difficulty in forging procedures wasn''t much different, to prevent the participants from bringing up excuses and ims that the winner was previously familiar with the blueprints more than the others, the cksmith guild had decided to dig into their treasure trove of low-grade blueprints for this event. The blueprints weren''t anything special, apart from being from an older civilization or era, and since they were low-grade blueprints, they were anything but special.

    The only reason such blueprints weren''t poprised first had to do with the fact that the forging procedures in it were a bit moreplicated than modern methods, and also, the cksmith guild didn''t intend to giarize it as they saw no need to do so.

    "Scores would be received from each part of the tournament as well as each sub-part, and these scores would be tallied and disyed on ranking board that updates real-time that way, the results would be obvious to the public and the cksmith guild would not be used of messing with the scores. While the scores will be public, the core criteria for scoring won''t be made known. Participants just have to be aware that their forging method and familiarity with it, efficiency, speed, the sess rate of production as well as the final quality of the product would affect their scores.

    "So without any further ado, I announce themencement of this tournament."

 Chapter 455 - 450 : The Written Exercise

    "Prepare yourselves for the written test."

    At an arena that was located behind the cksmith guild''s administrative building, just beside the dormitory, the entire 300+ contestants as well as the massive crowd of spectators had gathered for the event. The cksmith guild had not expected such arge turn-up in regards to the spectating parties before so they had to change the venue to enable the tournament to proceed with ease.

    Compared to the previous hall, the arena was very big and couldfortably house 3000 individuals. It was recently developed but didn''t belong to the cksmith Guild. Rather, it was a joint project by the cksmith guild and the Scribe guild, which was just opposite the two, for the city. Due to therge number of attendees, the cksmith guild decided to relocate the venue for the tournament to the arena.

    On the stage of the arena were the 300+ contestants all standing spaced out from each other. Simr to the square formation of a battalion, the participants of the tournament were each separated an arm''s length away from each other to preventmunication.

    "You should all know thatmunication is heavily shunned and prohibited in this part of the tournament. And to make sure that that stays true, there are a few runes that would help us ensure it." Kolin said.

    Following that, green runes circled the feet of each contestant as a light green barrier arose and enclosed them within it. Every contestant was enclosed in their barrier, separated from the outside world as well each other. To the spectators, they could see the contestants in the green barrier, but as for the stars of the event, the contestants, they weren''t able to see or hear anything from the outside, apart from Kolin''s voice.

    The arena, being a work of the Scribe guild, was decorated with assorted runes of varying functions. There were defensive runes as well as support type and misceneous runes. The green barrier was one such misceneous rune made for tournaments like this, that preventedmunication, in mind. Apart from the officiating party''s voice, anyone within the barrier would be unable to see or hear the voice of another, even if they were just one step away from each other.

    "The questions would appear on the green barrier and you''re required to answer them either by voicemand or touch, depending on your liking."

    "Remember, you have exactly one and a half hours to be done with the test whichprises of 120 questions. You don''t need toplete all the questions, heck, it isn''t even necessary for you to answer them." Kolin gave a strange smile.

    "This isn''t like some high school exam where your future or whatever depends on some bunch of scripts. There''s no failure here and your performance depends on yourself. Only those interested in winning and those interested in proving themselves should bother about the test. As for the rest, you can just ck around till the timer is over, I don''t care."

    "This old man sure is grumpy."

    Some yers beganmenting on Kolin''s behaviour. Some of them had already guessed him to be a grumpy old fellow due to the flourishing white beard on his chin, but some had initially thought different. However, after this speech of his, they had all managed toe to one very important decision, old man Kolin was probably single.

    "The written test begins now!"

    *Bang*

    Following the explosive sound, a bunch of writings appeared on the individual barriers of each contestant. The format of the questions was the same as an objective test with a few subjective questions. All in all, the objectives numbered about 80 while the remaining 40 was split between subjectives and a special category known as sub-objectives[1].

    ''Can''t believe I would be writing exams in a VR game.'' Sato sighed as he roughly nced at the questions in preparation to answer them.

    Truthfully, the questions weren''t that difficult. Though there were a few questions that were meant for practitioners and not apprentices, Sato didn''t have an issue with them as most of the questions were stuff he had either read in the Caventry''s library or had experienced while forging.

    "Time''s up."

    The green barriers suddenly went nk as the questions disappeared from the sights of the participants.

    1 hour and 30 minutes or rather, 90 minutes, sounded like arge amount of time but when one''s focus and attention is on a particr activity, they wouldn''t notice the time pass by. The same was so for the contestants as before they knew it, the written part of the tournament was over.

    Unlike the others, Sato hadpleted the written part of the tournament before the rest. Very few were able to match up to his peed and all of them were NPCs. In other words, amongst the yer participants, no one was able toe close to the speed at which Sato answered his questions. As for whether the answers were right or wrong, Sato would have to wait for the results, though he was extremely confident in himself.

    The green barrier cleared as all the contestants were able to interact once more with the outside world.

    *Phew*

    The vice-guild leader Kolin tossed a square-shaped object into the air, which ended up hovering at a height of 50 metres. Following that, the object projected down a screen of light which was filled with the names of every contestant present per their tag number. By the right side of the names was a column showing their respective rankings, by the left side were two columns, with one showing the tag number of the contestant and another which was meant for disying their scores.

    After just 3 seconds of being active in the air, the column which was meant to contain the score of the participants began to be filled up as the names were reshuffled in order of the highest scores. This reshuffling went in for another 3 seconds till everything finally calmed down.

    At the top of the list, the name which stood above all the others was just one line of a word and more of a nickname than a name. However, this line shocked every yer and NPC present.

    S/N Name     Number Score

    1.   Cloudsmith   778    265

 Chapter 456 - 451 : Practical Exercise 1

    S/N Name     Number  Score

    1.  Cloudsmith   778    265

    "A score of 265 points. The heck?"

    All the yers who nced at the scoreboard eximed.

    It should be known that the total score for the written exam was 280 points, with the 80 objectives being worth 160 points while the 40 other questions were worth a total of 120 points. Out of the 280 points, Sato had achieved a high score of 265 points; just 15 points away from a perfect score. This was with the average appearing numbers from the 5th ce below being below 200 points.

    The second ce on the list had a total score of 255 points, which was 10 points behind Sato and 25 points away from a perfect score, and this was from a character known as Handel Gretkart, an NPC who was said to be the grandson of one of the Master cksmiths in ck Rock City as well as the favourite to win the contest.

    As for the next highest-ranked yer, it was a pseudonym called Green Thorns, which also happened to be the insignia the yer branded their products with. The yer had a total score of about 232 points, and while that was far from Sato''s 265 points, it was still enough to earn them 4th ce on the rankings.

    Not only was Sato surprised since he has never heard that name but all the other yer cksmiths as well as those from the League of Hammers were stunned. They could understand the Cloudsmith taking first ce as he was the reputed and undisputed best yer cksmith in the whole of ck Rock Province, but for an unknown cksmith by the name of Green Thorns to take the second ce amongst ces was incredible.

    ''He''s probably a guild-born.'' Sato thought as he stared at the name.

    The title of ''guild-born'' was given to lifestyle ss yers that were trained by their guilds specifically for those sses. Since they had a lot of training and resources focused on them, their performances were usually better than that of independent yers. Also, as most guilds like to keep their resources (both human and non-human) a secret from others, it was understandable for guild-borns to not be popr in the yermunity unless they''re finally revealed to the public.

    ''I didn''t expect the guilds to take this so seriously as to bring out their men. Looks like I have to take this more seriously.''

    In truth, Sato could have scored better than the 265 points he got in the written test. If he wanted, he would have gotten a perfect score since most of the questions in the written test were stuff he read from the Caventry''s library. There was also the fact that reading and recalling what one has read in a VR game was much different than in reality.

    In real life, a person would have to read, memorise and understand an article to be able to get a perfect score on a test regarding the said piece. But in IR, when a yer reads a book, it''s stored in their interface and they could easily recall things with the help of the interface. The only reason why other yers didn''t do so well was that they weren''t familiar with the questions asked and so, they couldn''t get them right even with the interface guide.

    For Sato however, he was familiar with all the questions having gone through both the cksmith guild''s library in Riverdale and the Caventry''s library. He only lost 15 marks because Sato had intentionally failed the questions. He didn''t want to attract too much attention to himself as a perfect score was more eye-catching than first ce. Even the NPCs in the game would wonder whether he had cheated or something so Sato simply decided to avoid that fiasco by intentionally failing a few questions.

    "Now that we''re done with the written test, let''s proceed to the main part of the tournament; the practicals." Kolin announced, ignoring the results disyed on the light screen in mid-air.

    "All participants kindly move towards the blue circle with your tag number on it."

    Just as they were about to be confused by Kolin''s statement, the NPCs and yers participating in the tournament noticed blue circles appear close to them. Each of the blue circles had a 3 digit number on them which signified a contestant''s tag number. Sato, alongside all the other contestants, walked towards their numbers and stood on top of them. The tag numbers were spaced such that there were over two metres of distance between each contestant.

    As they were about to wonder what was going on, Kolin pped his hands together.

    "Appear."

    Blue shes urred throughout the entire tform and once they faded away, a bunch of tables and furnaces had appeared right in front of every contestant.

    ''Space magic.''

    Since Sato was quite close to the blue light, he was able to feel a familiar energy pulse which he had only felt from Arman''s teleportation spell. Adding that to the mysterious appearance of the equipment in front of him, Sato concluded that spatial magic was employed just then.

    "The cksmith guild really knows how to go all out. Just teleporting these few items would cost them a lot of magic crystals." An NPC close bymented on the phenomenon.

    Spells required mana which was the foundation of all things mystical and magical. Innately, mages could manipte mana in the surroundings to cast a spell by using the mana stored within themselves. To achieve a simr effect without the presence of a mage, a rune would be needed to rece the mage while a catalyst such as a magic crystal would be used to rece the mana stored within the mage. The moreplex the spell, the moreplex the time and more powerful the catalyst has to be, or in the case where quality cannot be afforded, the more quantity of magic crystals would be needed.

    Space spells were naturallyplex and required quite a lot of mana to activate, and for one on arge scale such as this, the number of magic crystals needed was a lot. So it was right to say that the cksmith guild had spent a lot just to make this tournament possible.

    *p*

    Following another p from Kolin, 100 puppets appeared from the outside with bags hanging on them, each puppet passed through the tables before the contestants while dumping materials and forging equipment on them for the contestants to make use of. This only took roughly 3 minutes after which all the tables before the contestants were filled with hammers and materials, as well as a blueprint of the object to be forged.

    "I believe that what you have to do at this point should be very obvious to you. You have just 1 and a half hours to create the equipment on the blueprint. There are enough materials on the table for 3 tries and that''s all that you get. You''re expected to use all the materials so even if youplete it on your first try, you have to make two more.. The number of equipment you make as well as the quality of the product would determine the number of points you get in this round. Now, begin!"

 Chapter 457 - 452 : Suspicions And Gambling

    S/N Name     Number  Score

    1.  Cloudsmith   778   685

    2. Handel Gretkart 111   675

    4.  Green Thorns  324   652

    5. Floating Mirage  787   616

    "It''s break time in this fabulous cksmith tournament hosted by the cksmith guild of ck Rock City and the rankings have been finally updated.

    "The number one spot is still retained by the unyielding number one yer cksmith of ck Rock Province, the elusive Cloudsmith. At this point, no one doubts his title as the number one yer cksmith in ck Rock Province and I''m sure he will prove it today. As for the second and third ces, they''re being held by NPCs with the second ceholder being the son of a Master cksmith. Rumour is going on amongst the yers that the NPC is being favored but since the first ce is still the Cloudsmith such rumor are being dismissed. However, we can''te to decision straight away and can only watch on from here."

    While the tournament was ongoing, many yers began live-streaming it, to either increase their follower count or they simply felt like doing so. Of all the live-streamers present, one of them had to most followers as well as the most audience. He was poprly known as the ''legendary nutter Pine dog''[1] and operated the channel ''Acorns and Walnuts''. While the name didn''t explicitly state what the channel was concerned about, it was still recognized as one of the most famous VR gaming live-streamworks in the gaming world.

    Pine dog had managed to build hiswork to such a level thanks to his amazingmentary as well as reputable information that he always feeds to his audience. Not only could yers know the most popr events in a VR game from thework but they could also tune in to his live-streams with impressivementary that could always keep them entertained with a smile on their face, or grab their attention like a dramatic action movie.

    Coincidentally, Pine Dog was based in ck Rock City Province and had started from Salt Springs town before getting promoted to the city. After being made aware of the cksmith tournament, he immediately headed over to the location to cover the event and boost hiswork''s ratings.

    "Fourth ce remains the presumed guild-born, Green Thorns as this unknown character bes the second-best yer cksmith right after the Cloudsmith. The difference between fourth ce and second ce is only 7 points so there''s still a chance for Green Thorns to rise in rankings. It should be known that just like the Cloudsmith, Green Thorns'' identity is unknown. A ''she'' or a ''he'', we do not know. But we do recognize them by the signature green thorns on their product.

    "Fifth ce goes to the reputed leader of the League of Hammers, Floating Mirage. During thest contest, he was ced at 6th ce but had managed to rise above his adversary, snatching thest position in the top 5 spots and bing the third-best yer cksmith of the province. This result is indeed impressive for anyone else, but as the supposed leader of all cksmiths in the region, taking the fifth position in the contest as well as the third position amongst yers doesn''t seem to make him live up to his title."

    One of the yer cksmiths in ck cloaks suddenly had a slight disfigurement in his facial expression as he listened to the live-stream through his interface. He was the yer in a ck cloak from the auction house, who had stood alongside Blue me and the red-haired yer; the leader of the League of Hammers as well as the best cksmith in the league, Floating Mirage.

    Having been shot down by the Sato from his self-built pedestal as the number one cksmith of the region during the auction, Floating Mirage had sworn to turn things around during this tournament. However, he was destined to be disappointed.

    Not only did he perform miserablypared to Sato, but he had even lost to an NPC and wasn''t in the top 5 after the written test. It was only thanks to the first practical session that he was able to barely squeeze himself into the top 5. Even then, there was still the guild-born, Green Thorns, ahead of him with a whopping 36 points difference which wouldn''t be easy to surpass. There were also the 2nd and 3rd ces which were NPCs, with the gap between him and the 2nd ce being 59 points, much less him and Sato.

    It was at that moment that Floating Mirage had given up on taking first ce and just decided to maintain his position, or at least, hope he could surpass the rumored guild-born and take 4th ce in the rankings but second amongst yers.

    Floating Mirage wasn''t the only one having a hard time though. The other members of the League of Hammers were finding it difficult to beat their NPC counterparts and make it to the top 10. Apart from Blue me and another guild-born, the rest were all below the top 15 spots, including the red-haired yer.

    "Who knew that this would be so difficult." Fudo''s voice was heard in the team chat.

    While the team wasn''t needed here, they still came over to show their support for Sato as well as to take notice of the progress of various yers.

    "What would you expect? If we''re to think through everything logically, it makes sense. The yers arepeting against characters that have been at this stage for months now. They''ve already gathered a ton of knowledge and experience regarding the subss andpared to us yers, who have only been around for two months or so, there''s no way we could simply beat them that easily." Seiichi exined.

    "Makes sense." Lu Zhen nodded.

    "Hey, Sato, how confident are you in winning this, and who do you think would be your runner-up?" Fudo greedily licked his lips as he asked.

    Just as there were live-streams covering the event, there were also betting tforms with different odds covering each yer. Some of the betting services were run by NPCs but quite a few of them were run by yers; the rich ones of course.

    The odds for Sato to take first ce were 1.1, to take second ce was 1.5, and third ce was 2.2. For Handel Gretkart, the odds to take first ce was 1.5, second ce was 1.1, third ce was 1.7. For Green Thorns to take first ce was an attractive 5.0, second ce was 3.8, third ce was 1.5 and 4th ce was 1.2 odds. As for Floating Mirage, the odds to take first ce was a whopping 11 odds, 2nd ce was 7.5, third ce was 5.7 while 4th ce was 2.2 odds. Fifth ce was at 1.3 while the sixth ce was 1.7 odds [2]. The higher the spected position was from the contestant''s current rank, the higher the odds. The same was true the lower one goes from the contestant''s rank.

    Since he was interested in betting arge sum of money, Fudo wanted to bet on a safe odd but with high risk. Simply pacing a bet on Sato taking first ce would only earn him a 0.1 increase to the original fee and while this was a sure bet, the profit was too little. Hence, Fudo decided to ask for Sato''s advice.

    "You make it seem like I''m a gambling pro." Sato said with a tired-out voice.

    "Hehe. It''s your profession so you should be able to see who has the most talent." Fudo thickened his face and praised.

    *Sigh*

    With a sigh, Sato turned to face the rankings in the sky as he began contemting.

    "Handel Gretkart will maintain the second position and there''s quite a high chance that Green Thorns would make it to the third ce. Therefore, you can bet on that and also on the current third-ce dropping to fourth. Floating Mirage is probably stressed about the rankings due to his status, and that could potentially affect his actions. But considering he was able to make it to the 5th ce calmly, he will be more cautious than ever. ce a bet on him retaining 5th ce but if you want to be extra careful, put another or him slipping down to 6th but with a slightly smaller amount of cash than the other one. As for the rest, I wasn''t paying attention to them so I can''t advise you on that. Ask Seiichi for more info; he''s a pro at this." Sato slyly passed the task onto Seiichi after which he left the chat and focused on the contestants.

    ''Green Thorns and Floating Mirage. I wonder who you fes might be.''

    Including him, there was a total of 4 yer cksmiths with ck cloaks on.

    The score distribution for the 2nd round was different from the written test. They were expected to forge a Mortal rank item and depending on the final quality and sess rate, which was determined by the number of equipment forged, they would be allocated points. For a low-tier Mortal rank equipment would be 50 points, Mid-tier 100 points, and finally, Upper-tier 140 points. The total points a contestant could amass in that round was 420 points which were 3 Upper-tier equipment.

    All those in the current top 5 were able to achieve this and from that, yers were able to limit the possible participants that held the identities of the top yer cksmiths.

    Of the top 5, three of them were yers and each had a ck cloak on. One was the Cloudsmith, the other Green Thorns and the final one would be Floating Mirage. Since none of them had admitted to being the other, nobody knew who was who. Only the members of the League of Hammers knew who was their leader amongst the trio but still couldn''t identify the Cloudsmith from the remaining duo.

    However, with the next few contests, the identities of all three would eventually be known to all.

 Chapter 458 - 453 : Cold Metal Mana Infusion

    "d to see you all have the strength to resume the second round." Kolin smiled as he spoke to the contestants gathered before him.

    "Keep in mind that you can quit halfway or whenever you want. I don''t mind. In fact, it would be best you do so now so that the guild can save resources."

    "The heck is wrong with this old man."

    Some yers began to murmur.

    As the organizer of this event, Kolin should be more encouraging of the contestants, in hopes that he could draw out their innate potential and ignite it with his words. However, the old fellow went ahead to do the opposite. By mocking the contestants, they would, at first, be annoyed and try to improve in order to prove him wrong but once they fail to do so, most of them would quit and the number of participants left would continuously drop with each contest.

    Obviously, some began to wonder why he did so and a few of them even believed it was exactly as Kolin had exined; to save resources.

    "The second forging test isn''t much different from the previous one. You have to create the equipment on the blueprint but have only 3 sets worth of materials. Unlike the previous blueprint, this one has the potential to reach the Low-tier Rare-Steel rank, even though it''s just a 30% chance. You have 2 hours and sess depends on your ability to manipte the materials to achieve this, so I wish you all good luck. You can begin now."

    The blueprint before Sato was that of a ssic pentagon-shaped shield. It didn''t have any name nor any special features that could make it above-average. Everything depended on the cksmith including the abilities and features of the product.

    Grabbing a pair of tongs, Sato ced the entirety of the main material into a crucible and moved the crucible over to the furnace. Normally, cksmiths would only melt the required amount for one work but Sato did for the three works. The reason he did so was to simply save time as if Sato were to melt the metal set by set, the entire 2 hours of time would be spent on melting the metal.

    Sato left the crucible in mes for about 45 minutes before he proceeded to extract enough molten metal for one shield and left the rest at a constant temperature. During the time it was in the furnace, he had already prepared the other materials as well as the equipment he would need for forging.

    The mainponent for the shield was a 2-star metal called Greysteel and the second most importantponent was a high-quality 2-star material called Blue Pod. Unlike most metals, Blue Pod was a cold metal found at the bottom of the ocean so manipting it with high heat could affect the characteristics of the metal, therefore it was usually worked on with cold-forging methods. However, the metal had to be mixed in with the molten Greysteel to produce the final alloy but due to its ''allergy'' to heat, this was a problem for most cksmiths.

    The blueprint didn''t exin how one could solve this issue and the problem was left for the contestants to figure it out. There were quite a few methods for them to use but only those who had studied them would know so.

    ''Let''s try this one.''

    The method Sato had chosen was one he had read about in the Caventry''s library as well as the easiest method to use. It was known as ''cold metal mana infusion'' and it was only possible thanks to the existence of mana.

    The way cold metal mana infusion worked was to put the molten metal in a special furnace that could easily and quickly change temperature and maintain the temperature such that the metal remained molten. As for the cold metal, it would be inscribed with special runes that would help it increase its temperature at a slow rate and would then be ced into the crucible with the molten metal. The result of this would be that the damage due to high heat would be reduced as the metal slowly melts.

    When the cold metal reaches a point where it seems that its characteristics are about to be ruined, or when it''s about to be a liquid, the rune shatters while alsopressing the cold metal into a jelly-like state and spreading it around the molten metal with its remnant force.

    Once the diffusion process is satisfactory, the cksmith would immediately change the temperature of the furnace, bringing it down to a point where the new mixture isn''t exactly a solid but is neither aplete liquid, maintaining a pseudo-solid state.

    The alloy would then be immediately ced into a mold and the temperature dropped once again till it cools off and bes a solid.

    The difficulties in this processy in three steps. The first was in the development of the rune. The rune had to be strong enough and powerful to be able to withstand high temperatures while still keeping the cold metal safe from that. At the same time, it should also be able to hold enough mana as a magic crystal wouldn''t be ced alongside it into the furnace. Finally, the rune had to have the ability to break down while still being effective to a certain level and producing apressive force that would act on the cold metal.

    Sato was aware of quite a few runes that could do such but the problemy in drawing them. He wasn''t a Scribe like Xue Yan and he didn''t focus on rune-smithing a lot, so it would be a difficult task for him to pull off.

    The second problemy in the diffusion process. The cksmith would have to be fully focused on the work as any mishap could result in everything bing a waste. The jelly-like cold metal would have to spread throughout the molten metal, but during this process, as it has lost a majority of the protection from the rune, its characteristics are constantly being affected by the heat from the molten metal. The cksmith would have to depend on their instinct to know when the diffusion was enough and when the characteristics are about to be entirely destroyed so they can avoid it, otherwise, the entire alloy would be a waste. This was the hardest part of the entire process as the focus required was extraordinary.

    Finally, having to change the temperature and switch the alloy from the crucible to the mold at a rapid pace was a problem for some, butpared to the other two issues, this was the least to be worried about.

    While this method sounded stressful and difficult, this was the easiest way to trulybine a cold metal with weak heat resistance to a regr metal that required to be worked on under a high temperature.

    "Such impressive skills."

    While the arena that the tournament was hosted in was an open space, the top parts of the stands were isted from the rest and made into private rooms for VIPs. The rooms were each shielded by a tinted ss window that prevented outsiders from spying on the personnel within.

    Inside one of these private rooms were two seated individuals; a young man and a middle-aged man, together with 3 other people that stood behind them. The one who had just spoken was the middle-aged man, and theplementary tone in his voice was very obvious to a listener''s ears.

    "I told you didn''t I? He''s an amazing talent." The young man stated.

    If Sato was here, he would be able to recognise this character easily. It was the young noble Galvin, that he had met just two days ago.

    "His methods are indeed impressive and entric but it''s too soon to judge him as a genius. We have to see whether he can actually maintain his spot ahead of young Handel." The middle-aged man stroked his beard.

    "You don''t need to worry about that. Whether he takes first or not isn''t really necessary, just as long as he can do the work for us. As long as we have him on our side, as chances of sess would definitely increase.." Galvin said as a glint shed in his eyes.

 Chapter 459 - 454 : Practical Exercise 2

    *Shhhhh*

    Arge vapor escaped from the bucket of water as the de of metal hurriedly began to cool.

    Sato''s face had a red hue to it as he withstood the heat while waiting for the metal to cool down to the appropriate temperature.

    Once it had attained a satisfactory form, Sato immediately took the metal de out of the bucket. He then immediately proceeded to hammer the de till it was able to achieve the perfect shape in his eyes.

    Sato then finally attached the de to a hilt he had already prepared for it, before applying the final touch to the sword after which it wasplete.

    [[ System notification :

    Greysteel long-swordpleted.

    Analysing product...

    Product has seeded to reach the required rank

    ]]

    As Sato used the [Appraise] feature in the sword, he discovered that hat it had managed to reach the Upper-tier Mortal rank. This was already in impressive here but as he was hoping on forging a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon, it was considered a failure to him.

    ''One more.''

    ncing at the remaining time he had, Sato sighed as he prepared for hisst attempt. If he could forge a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank version, Sato was sure that he would be able to maintain his rank as first of ce. It was less than 30 minutes left and Sato wasn''t sure that he could pull it off.

    First of all, the materials, as well as the final product, had an innate limit that reduced the chances of developing a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon from it. Finally, the fact that Sato had to apply Cold Metal Mana Infusion had inevitably damaged a few properties of the cod metal Blue Pod, thereby affecting the chances of a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank being the final result. But since all the otherbination methods Sato knew were a lot harder and required certain equipment and catalysts, he couldn''t change hisbination method.

    ''I can either hope that the others don''t forge a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank or lose out on a few points here.''

    Unknown to Sato, he was thinking too much about things.

    First of all, the difficulty of the blueprint in this round was higher than the previous one. If the former blueprint was something any Apprentice cksmith could have a shot at forging and seed, the current one wasn''t exactly so. While it was still beneath the rank of a Practitioner, it still wasn''t something an average apprentice could make. This was even more so when confronted with the problem ofbining a cold metal with a metal that required to be worked under high temperatures. While Sato was able to easily figure out a solution to this problem, the same wasn''t so for the others.

    Apart from the top 5 contestants on the rankings, the others were all having a very difficult time at this. Some of them didn''t know of any method to use to solve this issue and were still stuck in the testing phase, while those who knew hadn''t practiced it much or weren''t exactly exposed properly to the technique so their works ended up as failures. Hence, even though there was less than 30 minutes left, not a lot of participants had made more than 1 sessful weapon. Most were scraps while those who had seeded had narrowly done so, wasting 1 or 2 sets of the materials before they seeded in the next try. It was only very few who had made 2plete works but even then, the swords were stuck at the Low-tier Mortal rank.

    Even those in the top 5 weren''t exceptions to problems as they still experienced their own difficulties. Floating Mirage had problems with raising the rank of the final product. He had alreadypleted one and was almost done with the second one, but he felt that the quality wouldn''t surpass the Mid-tier Mortal rank, which was a problem he had encountered with the first work.

    Normally, as a professional apprentice cksmith, making items at the Upper-tier Mortal rank was a breeze for him and his eyes were at the Low-tier Rare-Steel rank. This was very obvious from the previous contest where, just like the other top 5 candidates, all 3 of his works had sessfully reached the Upper-tier Mortal rank, enabling him to surpass his predecessor who only had two Upper-tier Mortal ranks. Now, however, going past the Mid-tier Mortal rank mark was a lot tougher than usual.

    Floating Mirage felt that it had to do with hisbination method, but as he had no other one in mind, Floating Mirage had no choice but to keep using the same method.

    Simr to Floating Mirage, the other top 5 contestants faced various issues. Apart from Sato, who already had earlier exposure to this in the Caventry''s library, only Handel Gretkart was the only contestant who had things a tad easier than the rest. Simr to Sato, all two of his works had reached the Upper-tier Mortal rank and he only faced issues in getting them to the Low-tier Rare-Steel rank.

    30 minutes wasn''t long and before the yers knew it, their time had toe to end.

    "That''s enough." The old fe Kolin spoke up.

    With just a single sentence from him, all the furnaces had shut off down and the same held true for the formations that were active. As a result, a lot of unfinished works became scraps as they suddenly lost their support.

    A few yers silently cursed as they were originally close to sess but had just ended up failing thanks to Kolin''s deeds. However, none of them dared to speak out loud as they all realised that the old man had a few screws loose in his brain; who knew what he might do if they spoke out.

    "You''ve all done your best in this contest and while some of you may have seeded, others decided to just waste our materials." Kolin said with an irritated expression.

    "Just like thest time, kindly leave the stage while I test the quality of everyone''s work and give out the necessary points."

    With the order given, all the participants including the yers, left the stage at the centre of the arena and returned to their seats in the stands. Some did so with hopeful expressions while others were just in a terrible mood after this.

    On the contrary, those in the top 5 were quite rxed, though signs of stress and weakness could be seen into the faces of those who weren''t in ck cloaks.

    "Hey." A young man waved at Sato before walking over to him.

    At first Sato was confused before he suddenly recalled the identity of the young man. It was the current number 2 in the tournament as well as the NPC rumoured to be the son of a Master cksmith, Handel Gretkart.

    ''What does he want?'' Sato wondered.

 Chapter 460 - 455 : Handels Intentions

    "I don''t think we''ve met properly before so let me introduce myself first. Hi, I''m Handel Gretkart." The young NPC before Sato stretched out a hand.

    Unlike the yers in the top 5, the NPCs hadn''t hidden their identities so it was easy for them to be recognized, so long as one had basic information about them. Even if one didn''t, simply by watching the performances and bearings of the two NPCs it wouldn''t be any issue recognizing the descendant of a Master cksmith. There was also the fact that the nearby NPCs in the stands often pointed at them while cheering out their names, so identifying the top characters among the contestants was anything but difficult.

    "Nice to meet you." Sato sped his hands without any intention of revealing his identity.

    Simr to the yers, the NPCs couldn''t see through the ck cloak so unless a yer took the initiative to reveal their identity, even NPC forces would be left in the cloud about their identity.

    Seeing Sato not introducing himself as he did, Handel had a weird look on his face and was a bit displeased but he quickly recovered.

    "You look like you''re a professional at this and had a good teacher, unlike the rest. Care to let me know who he is? Maybe he knows my grandfather." (AN: A previous mistake was made before. Handel is the grandson of a Master cksmith and not the son)

    While Sato was skeptical about Handel''s intentions, he was still willing to give conversing with him a shot. Rather than go about making enemies, it was much better to grow awork of connections even with the NPCs.

    "I don''t have any. Everything I know was self-taught."

    Sato wasn''t boasting when he said this. Everything he knew was self-taught, to an extent. Apart from the basic free ss taught by Miss Trevale which Sato took with the others, he learnt most of the knowledge he knew from the Caventry''s library as well as the cksmith guild in Riverdale. After fumbling around all in his own and doing a few experiments, the current achievement Sato had made couldrgely be attributed to himself.

    "I see."

    Handel once again thought that Sato wasn''t interested in having a proper conversation and had decided to boast of absurd achievements. Nheless, he didn''tsh out at him as he was here to collect intel.

    The presence of the [Chosen Ones] wasn''t a piece of unknown information to him. In truth, almost all the NPC citizens were aware of them. Just like other species and races, the [Chosen Ones] was taken as a race different from the indigenous ones in IR, but because of their precise simrities to humans, the feeling of difference wasn''t much so they weren''t treated like anything special. Even in the eyes of Handel, he felt like every yer was just the same as them, except for the fact that their potential was greater and the same was so for their growth speed. However, it was due to these very two characteristics that he despised yers; seeing them as nothing more than a cheat code that didn''t know the meaning of hard work.

    "Well then, I just wanted to get to know you and wish you good luck on the next challenge. I heard it''s thest so our positions would finally be decided then. I will take my leave now."

    While it was true that Handel didn''t know Sato''s identity, Sato guessed that he must have his suspicions about him being the current number one. This was very obvious from Handel''s lines, "...our positions would finally be decided then". It felt as if Handel had an inkling suspicion that he was the Cloudsmith and had tried to trigger a reaction from him with this line.

    The words may seem ordinary but in reality, they were triggering and quite offensive. It was just the same as the idiom "don''t count your chickens before they hatch" which was usually used by those on the losing spot to warn their opponent ahead of them in a contest.

    ''Such a prideful fellow but it''s understandable. His grandfather is a Master cksmith and not a low ranked one from what I know.'' Sato thought.

    While he had previously decided not to antagonize anyone, it didn''t mean that Sato was willing to be friends with everyone. If an NPC was being rude to him, Sato would equally replicate the same energy. It was obvious that Handel didn''te to find him to truly make friends but to dig out his identity. Since the other party had hidden objectives, Sato wasn''t inclined to bother with him or give him want he wanted.

    Just as he had done with Sato, Handel had gone to meet with the other two yers, Floating Mirage and Green Thorns, and just as was with Sato, the duo wasn''t inclined to reveal their identities.

    ''What the hell is up with these fes?'' Handel wondered as he left for the stands.

    Normally, one would be interested in knowing more about the opponent but these 3 he had met didn''t let him try to probe for that. They all acted either nonchntly from the beginning or didn''t pay him much attention.

    ''Don''t worry. After the final contest, I will retake my position as first ce. Let''s see whether you guys would still be so nonchnt about me.'' Handel thought.

    "Our guild-borns are doing better than expected." Kylian suddenly said.

    "Yes." Chesces nodded.

    "Apart from those monsters in the top 5, the rest are doing well at the other levels."

    While it was true that Sato, Green Thorns, and Floating Mirage had stolen the show for the yers by holding 3 spots in the top 5 positions, the various guilds had their eyes on something else which was the performance of their yers. Taking one of the top 5 spots was an absurd goal that could only be made by those 3 where mas the top 10 was also quite difficult. Only Blue me alongside one guild-born from Emperor''s Might was able to do so.

    The next milestone was the top 15 spots which had 3 yers added to the mix. Two of them were also from Emperor''s Might while thest one was from Battle Wolves. This achievement made many raise their eyebrows in surprise, wondering what kind of training scheme Emperor''s Might had prepared for their cksmiths, or how they had found so many golden geese without seemingly much effort.

    The next milestone was the top 100 as the points difference between the contestants here wasn''t so much. Therefore,pared to the top 15 spots, this was morepetitive and had a better concentration of other guild-borns. Emperor''s Might had only one other yer here while the other guilds had a seemingly equal allocation of yers.

    Apart from Battle Wolves, which managed to have about 4 yers in this rankings, the rest only had about 2 or 3 each.

    "At least we''ve stolen the show. Not only are our cksmiths a level above the rest but we''ve also managed to know the full extent of her abilities whenpared to the rest." Chesces smiled as he nced at a hooded figure in front.

    This was a strange action because when one normally looked at that same hooded figure, their eyes would be filled with respect and curiosity as this figure was one of the three yers in the top 5 rankings, suspected to either be the Cloudsmith, Green Thorns, or Floating Mirage. However, as one of the core members of Emperor''s Might branch here, Chesces knew well enough who that was.

    "We have to thank Yukino for this. By just simply going out to take a stroll, who knew that she woulde back with such a talented individual like that." Kylian sighed as he praised Yukino who wasn''t sitting far from them.

    "True. After this tournament, she would finally be able to request more support from the guild and her skills would improve even further. It will only be a matter of time before she reaches the Cloudsmith level or surpasses him." Chesces said as his eye shifted to another individual. Surprisingly, this was Sato.

    Unlike the rest of the yers who were all in the dark in this, Emperor''s Might could identify who was who. The first cloaked yer Chesces hadid his eyes on was Green Thorns, a yer recruited by the Snow Goddess Yukino in the town stage of the game.

    Being a super guild, Emperor''s Might already had information in the League of Hammers, including their leader, so recognising him wasn''t much of an issue even with the ck cloak. The smell of soot and burnt mana particles was special and only appeared on those who locked themselves in forging rooms for over 2 weeks.

    Having recognised 2 out of 3 of the top 5 participants, it was easy for them to presume thest man to be the Cloudsmith; but as for the answer to the question of his real identity, there was no answer, yet.

    ''Eventually, you will have to reveal your identity sooner orter.''

    Since it was inappropriate for now, no one had tried recruiting anyone from the top 5 until the contest was over. In truth, the NPCs prevented this from happening lest the contestants are affected. Therefore, yers could only randomly guess who was who among the 3 yers, otherwise, Sato and the others would have been flocked by guild representatives by now.

    However, the ''protection'' wouldn''tst forever and if the Cloudsmith was hoping to increase his poprity even more, he would make an announcement at the end of the contest.

    ''I wonder what it would be..'' Chesces shook his head as he ced his attention on the other yers.

 Chapter 461 - 456 : Grade Classification

    "Wee back from your break. I hope you all have finally decided whether you''re still willing to continue or not. My cksmith guild doesn''t really like seeing so much resources being wasted in the hands of newbies like yourselves." Kolin appeared on the stage once again as he gave his signature speech.

    "How the heck did a rude man like this even be the vice-guild leader of the city''s cksmith guild. I mean, I know he has the skills but don''t they care about their face to give a high position that involves socialising with people to such a terrible character?" A yer couldn''t hold it in and whispered out his thoughts.

    "Sighs, it can''t be helped." An NPC who was beside him suddenly sighed.

    "The cksmith guild values skill above all else and the old fogie before us has exactly that. The cksmiths in the city who could rival him can only be counted with one hand and every one of them is an elder figure in the guild. As elders, they have a lot of resources allocated to them for their research while also having few things to do it be bothered about. Such a strategic position is more valued than the Vice-guild leader where they always have to organise the guild and supervise all activities. Hence, none of the other potential vice-guild leader candidates have any interest in holding the position so the old man easily got it."

    "Oh? There''s something like that?"

    With the NPC''s exnation, the yers finally understood while Kolin was still the vice-guild leader despite his seemingly uncivil behaviour.

    "Either way, the old man knows when to take things seriously and he knows how to get the job done. It''s said that he''s only like this to the young ones because one of his students has surpassed him and he''s gotten crankier ever since." The NPC added.

    ''To be so abusive just because a student surpassed him. This old fogie must have some issues.''

    As the conversation held was amidst the stage just a few steps from him, Sato was able to hear everything clearly and couldn''t help but shake his head with a sigh.

    "The challenge this time around is thest one and honestly, my favourite. You would get to at least see the difference between yourselves and the people you admire to be in this area of expertise." Kolin said.

    "In this next stage, just like the previous two, you will have to forge a certain piece of equipment. But unlike the previous two, you only have two shots at doing this and you have 3 hours. A lot of time right?"

    Among the contestants, many were skeptical but none were foolish. If the number of tries was reduced by one and the time was increased, it definitely meant that the next blueprint was a tough one to reproduce.

    By reducing the number of tries, the cksmith guild would conserve resources meaning that the next equipment required high-quality resources which indicated that the equipment they were supposed to produce this time around was not your average one. To further certify this assumption was the fact that the allocated time had increased by an hour. If following the trend of the previous rounds, the time increased by roughly 50% with an increase in difficulty.

    The first round was 1 hour and 30 minutes long with the second round being 2 hours long. Finally, this third round was assigned a whole 3 hours. And with the trend of increasing difficulty, it definitely wasn''t going to be easy.

    "Eto..." An NPC raised her hand up and attracted the public''s focus on her.

    The NPC was a young petite girl that seemed like she wasn''t any older than 18. For a job that was mostly male-dominated, it was shocking to see a youngdy amongst the participants. But what was even more shocking was the girl''s ranking.

    "Oh? Aren''t you the little one Miya? Ranked 7th right? I approve of your skills, just a bit." Kolin stroked his beard as he softened his tone.

    7th ce overall, using thest rankings as reference. This was a really high ranking and just from Kolin''s tone alone, the girl definitely didn''t get this ranking by mere luck.

    The youngdy, who most yers thought would be a weak little girl just because of her shy attitude and lithe physique, was anything but that.

    Sato nced at her arms and noticed that the structure of her muscles wasn''t so simple, but far from that.

    Simr to the lithe muscles of athletes, the young girl looked weak on the outside but her arms packed a punch. Ifparisons were to be made, her physique was akin to the character Sak*ra from the popr Shonen anime. While her muscles weren''t burly, they packed the same power as a muscly adult. This was understandable as the job of a cksmith required them to have sustainable strength and endurance to keep hammering at their workpiece for long periods. Even if one didn''t have any exercise routines before, simply taking on the job of a cksmith was more than enough of an exercise for the arms.

    ''She has potential.'' Sato thought as he recalled that her ranking was 7th ce while she didn''t look much older than him; in fact, she was actually younger than he was.

    "What do you have to say, youngdy?" Kolin asked.

    "Ah...I was about to ask, whether if the next equipment is at the practitioner rank?" The girl hesitantly asked.

    While it was true that weapons and equipment had a general rank in terms of quality which was the popr Mortal, Rare-Steel, Dark-Silver, Legendary, and so on, with each rank having the subranks Low-tier, Mid-tier and Upper-tier, there was still another form for ssification based on the difficulty of production. This was based on the level of the cksmith needed to at least seed at producing it with a high sess rate. ordingly, they were Apprentice, Practitioner, Master, and so on.

    When a piece of equipment is said to be at the Master grade, it meant that a Master level cksmith would be needed to forge it. While a Practitioner can indeed give it a shot, their sess rate would be low and it was highly possible that they wouldn''t even be able to produce the masterpiece.

    This grade of ssification enabled the cksmith guild to be able to distribute assignments and orders efficiently to the necessary personnel and to also prevent wastage of resources. So if a client needed a work to be done, the cksmith guild would check the production ssification and then call upon the needed personnel to fulfill the task, rather than just handing it out to a random individual. By using this ssification method, Master cksmiths were able to take a break and focus more on their personal research as they would only be called upon to produce a Master grade weapon or equipment, or when the entire hands in the guild were busy with various projects and there was an overflow in orders.

    "Hehe. No need to be so anxious so soon. You''ll find out soon enough." Kolin grinned.

    "But before that, here are the current rankings after thest round.. Feel free to bask in your ''glory'' for this moment, and motivate yourself to strive for a higher rank because, for the next round, you will need that motivation."

 Chapter 462 - 457 : [Haloclesâ€™ Scythe]

    S/N  Name     Number  Score

    1.  Cloudsmith    778   1285

    2.  Handel Gretkart 111   1275

    3.  Green Thorns   324   1252

    5.  Floating Mirage  787   1166

    The changes in the rankings weren''t by any means small as the difficulty the contestants faced in the previous round was high. Not a lot of the participants knew how tobine a cold metal and a hot one so quite a lot of them had failed to get satisfactory points from this round.

    In total, the 2nd round gave out 600 points, with an Upper-tier Mortal rank having 200, points, a Mid-tier at 150, and finally, Low-tier at 100 points. Sato and Handel had easily gotten all perfect points while previously 4th ceholder, Green Thorns, had managed to do the same, surpassing the former 3rd ce to be the new overall third in the tournament.

    Floating Mirage still maintained his ranking, producing only 2 Upper-tier Mortal rank and 1 Low-tier equipment. However, he was still satisfied with himself and didn''t think much about it. Floating Mirage had already given up on struggling for the 1st or 2nd position amongst yers and had decided to settle for third ce. It wasn''t a bad spot and he was still in the top 3.

    "Now you''ve all seen your current standings so without any further ado, let''s begin." Kolin pped his hands.

    Just like before, a bunch of mechanical puppets worked in and began dispersing the materials.

    This time around, Sato paid attention to the puppets in a bid to understand how they work.

    ''Mechanical-rted work doesn''te under the cksmith arts. I''m guessing this is something from the Engineering guild.'' Sato thought.

    The Engineering guild was among the most difficult subsses in IR. Unlike most subsses that were more of "arts", the Engineering subss was a science-based ss that focused on mathematics and physics. So to seed better than most, one would need the required knowledge. As most yers had no interest in mathematics, they all avoided it.

    Sato, however, was an undergraduate of Mechanical engineering. This meant that he was more than qualified to take up this subss just in case he wanted to. And coincidentally, Sato was already thinking of getting a second subss.

    ''However, it''s still too soon. Also, it would be best that I get one that directly enhances the strength of my main subss.''

    Sato then left that thought direction and focused on the materials before him. Unlike the ones they have been provided with, these were higher in quality that even a dummy in cksmithing would notice it.

    The glimmer around the surface of the metals was enough to show that these were properly refined and of high quality. They radiated differing mana signatures but on average, it was higher than the ones from the materials in the previous rounds.

    ''Peak 2-star materials and 3-star materials.''

    Sato sucked in a cold breath of air.

    The materials used in thest two exercises were mostly 2-star materials with the highest quality so far being the Greysteel used in thest round. But now, the third round took a sudden turn from this usual trend.

    Peak 2-star materials were introduced with even two 3-star materials in the mix. It was safe to say that the equipment they were required to make wasn''t some low-level product.

    ''The blueprint.''

    After the materials were dispersed amongst the yers, the blueprint for the equipment to be forged appeared on the work table of all the participants, and as expected, it wasn''t an easy job.

    [[ Halocles'' Scythe Forging Blueprint I : (Level 15 Low-Tier Rare-Steel Rank) :

    Requirements : Level 15 || 25 [Strength]

    [Strength] +17

    [Endurance] +10

    [Dexterity] +10

    Forging requirements : Practitioner cksmith rank at the very least with the required necessary knowledge. Can be attempted by an Apprentice with high skill, though with very low sess rate

    Forging elements : Greysteel, ck Dawn Steel, Rever wood, Silver Crystal Ink ¡­

    System Comments : With so much good stuff in one, this weapon is certainly a reaper in the hands of the right character. One can turn from a preacher of justice and equality to a butcher in the fields with this in hand. A favourite weapon for the men of the dark side.

    ]]

    While scythes weren''t popr among fighters, it was still a fancied umon product, especially among members of the dark path.

    Unlike most other basic weapons, Halocles'' Scythe wasn''t a simple one. There were 3 variations to the weapon and each one was stronger than thest, both in terms of quality and grade. Since the production method of each variation was a bit simr, cksmiths used the manual to improve on their skills and see how far they''ve gotten.

    Halocles'' Scythe wasn''t just difficult forging due to the arduous task of manipting the materials required, but also due to the shape of the weapon.

    Scythes could be said to be a bnce between a pole-type weapon and a curved saber. Because of this, the weight on the other end of the weapon was a lot, and cksmiths were required to create the weapon such that the weight won''t affect the integrity of the weapon''s physical characteristics especially during fights. What''s more, some scythes hadplex de parts that made shaking them out a lot more difficult than a simple curved de. All this and more made the weapon a no-no for most cksmiths and increased the cost of making one.

    By having the contestants forge a scythe for thest round, the cksmith guild was testing their adaptation abilities as well as their craftsmanship. As a true cksmith, one can''t simply expect to only be able to forge a sword and call themselves one. In the eyes of the Kolin, a cksmith was a professional at forging various kinds of equipment and weapons, not just some straight weapon or a definite shaped equipment.

    The aim of this tournament was to find out who amongst the apprentice cksmiths had enough potential to be raised or was qualified to be promoted to the next rank. Therefore, it was only reasonable for a task meant for a Practitioner to be included in the tournament.

    Sato screened through the blueprint until he felt he had understood enough of it. Then he scanned the materials in the table before matching them with the ones in his memory to identify which was what. After which Sato began cross-referencing both the materials and the blueprint with the production methods in his head as he began to single out the ones that were suitable to be used on the materials.

    From the previous round, it was already obvious that not all metals could simply be heated and melted together. Some needed special refinement methods while others were to be treated in a different manner or temperature. By identifying the materials first and then selecting the right production and refinement method for each, Sato would be able to lessen the wastage of materials, increase his chances of sess and also, make the work easier and more organised for himself.

    ''Alright.. Let''s begin.''

 Chapter 463 - 458 : Old Juroâ€™s Meeting

    "It''s been a while since we''ve met, Juro buddy." An old voice spoke up.

    "Hmm. The feeling''s mutual." Juro Noguchi, Sato''s maternal grandfather, responded to the other party''s words.

    The other party wasn''t an unfamiliar figure to Juro and even the way they spoke showed that they knew each other. Surprisingly, it was Wu Shiyi''s master as well as one of the few grandmasters of martial arts in the ISJ.

    After Wu Shiyi hade over to Sato''s house and sent the invitation from his master meant for Sato''s grandfather, Old Juro had epted it and decided to meet the elusive figure behind Wu Shiyi at a restaurant close by. When he got there, he was surprised to see Wu Shiyi''s master, Xiao Feng, waiting for him.

    Xiao Feng was an elusive figure who oy began his meteoric rise in the martial arts when he was 24. Unlike the Noguchis or the Hans that boasted of a century-old family with deep ties and experience in martial arts, the Xiao family was just a simple family with descendants in various industries. It wasn''t centered in any department and wasn''t as strongly united as all the other top families. It wasn''t even one of the top families of the Chinese Federation and was just a regr household. Yet this simple family had given birth to a martial art genius in the form of Xiao Feng, who had constantly broken records beforeing to the top after relocating to the ISJ.

    After a few pleasantries as well as some catching up, Old Juro faced his long time old friend and asked,

    "Old Feng, so why did you decide to meet up with me? Don''t tell me it''s simply for catching up with each other cause from what I recall of you, you would have simply called to do so." Juro turned to face his old friend of more than 20 years with a skeptical look on his face.

    "Ohe on. Why do you have to be so direct with your words? You make old me sound like a heartless bastard." Old Feng, or rather, Xiao Feng, chuckled as he picked up a cup of tea from the table and sipped it.

    Seeing this, Juro smiled at him but was a bit doubtful of his words.

    After spending time with each other for more than 20 years, it would be a lie to say that Juro couldn''t read a few of Xiao Feng''s behaviours and it was easy to tell that something was wrong. The question now was what exactly.

    "*Sighs* Fine. You''ve always been such a strong-headed fellow so I''ll tell you. Isao has begun making some moves with the Family''s authority, probably with the Family''s name too. He''s been calling in various martial artists together. Some suggest that he wants to organise a tournament while others think he wants tounch a huge dojo or something, and honestly, I don''t which is true. However, I did hear some news that he seems interested in the VR game, Infinite Realm, and has already begun making preparations to form a guild of his own." Old Feng exined in one breath.

    After listening to his words, Juro unconsciously frowned in response as he kept a pondering expression and made noments. Xiao Feng left him be and resumed with his drink as he knew that this information meant a lot to Juro.

    Isao, or rather, Noguchi Isao, was the current head of the Noguchi family as well as Juro''s elder brother with a 2 years difference between them. Compared to Juro, Isao didn''t have as much talent and potential as he did in martial arts and was slightly worse offpared to him, and by the Noguchis'' heritage trend, Juro would have been the head of the family. But certain matters came into light and certain events came into y with Juro leaving the family and Isao taking the spot. Nheless, the rtionship between the two brothers wasn''t bitter but estranged.

    After he had left the family, Juro had stopped contacting most of them and the same was true for his family members. Both sides had tacitly decided to avoiding in contact with the other, though they might be watching each other in secret.

    Old Feng''s timely news came in just after Sato had settled into IR and Old Juro was having to apany his wife in the hospital, however, the importance of this information wasn''t ordinary.

    Though Isao''s martial arts skills were beneath his, in terms of cognitive ability, scheming, and nning, Isao was ahead of Old Juro by far. This meant that every single move of his, especially on arge scale, had a huge meaning behind it and couldn''t be taken for granted. This time around, Isao''s act of calling on all martial artists would surely have a meaning behind it, and just like every tactician, the meaning was meant to benefit him and the family.

    "Why are you telling me this?" Juro asked Old Feng.

    In truth, Isao''s act of summoning all martial artists was understandable. It was most likely to host a martial arts contest and as the head of one of the supporting pirs of martial arts in the ISJ, Isao has more than enough power to pull it off. As for the benefits, they were a lot.

    As martial arts was trending during this period, thanks to the fact that one''s skills could be carried over to VR games and worlds, and used to gain an upper hand inbat-rted matters, the amount of focus ced on the industry was a lot. Every gaming guild had a dojo that they partnered with to train their yers. Even the military worked with a few of the too martial artists and training centres to develop both their human and AI troops'' hand-to-handbat ability.

    Also, there was the fact that exercise was already a renowned vital factor for good health, and even with the introduction of nutritional drinks, exercise still maintained its position and was even more needed.

    Apart from the peak of the technology, the higher the quality of nutritional drink taken in, the tougher the exercises have to be in other to fully digest the drink. The same was also true when an individual who has never taken a nutritional drink in their life, does so at the age of 30 and above for the first time. They would need a detailed set of movements to help their body wee these new ingredients and avoid shing with the body''s functions and system. This was where martial arts came in and so, everyone who nned on taking a higher quality nutritional drink one day, would also need to learn a martial arts technique or two to help in the digestion.

    Therefore, with the improvements in the gaming and VR sector, together with the milestones made in health and lifespan extension research, martial arts began to boom and became more popr than ever.

    With the boom in the industry, many tournaments and shows were made, and the amount of money realised in such tournaments was a lot; at least counted in the millions in ALDs, and hundreds of millions in Yena [1]. If Isao were to organise a tournament, it could simply be surmised that he was interested in having a share of the pie from the martial arts industry.

    ''But that has nothing to do with me.'' Juro prepared to live. He had to meet Alice in the hospital and apany her for the rest of the day, worried about both her health and mental state.

    "I''m sorry but I will have to take my leave. I have an appointment to meet up with."

    "Don''t leave too quickly, old friend." Old Feng was surprised. Before having a small realisation.

    "You think it''s just a tournament? If it were that simple, I wouldn''t have bothered you with such info. It''s too pointless and we all knew that sooner orter, the Noguchis under Isao would want a share of that pie. No. The reason why I mentioned all of this was because of myst statement. Rumour has it that they have eyes on IR and intend to firm a guild with some of the world''s best." Old Feng said.

    "If they seed, they will be the strongest and real the most benefits in the game. If they don''t, no problem either.''

    "Get straight to the point." Juro cut in.

    "Okay, okay. Sheesh." Old Feng sighed.

    "There has to be something about that game that has Isao making such a huge decision. This isn''t something a family head of a big family, such as the Noguchi, would do on a whim.. There has to be a deeper meaning behind it and value to the game, and I''m interested in it. So, how about it? Why don''t we form a guild of ours?"

 Chapter 464 - 459 : Mystery Flames

    Just as Sato had expected and as Kolin had said, most of the contestants, including the yers, found it difficult to forge the Halocles'' Scythe. Even with the detailed exnation of the process, many had already wasted one material and were lost on what to do.

    Of the designated 3 hours meant for the test, the yers had spent almost 2 hours with a majority of them having used the first set of materials only to create a failed product. Following this trend, it meant that no one would be able to seed in forging the Halocles'' Scythe.

    "Why is this so hard? What am I missing?"

    Many yers began to get worried and anxious.

    As they saw it, since it was very difficult for everybody to forge the weapon, -considering that this is thest round too- sessfully forging the scythe would mean that their ranking would surely increase and not by a small amount. Someone in the top 50 could easily get into the top 30 so long as theyplete the weapon ahead of the others.

    The knowledge of this fact had boosted the morale of the yers but realising that the difficulty involved in forging the weapon was something else, most yers had begun to feel the intricacy and perplexity of the task.

    "Wee once moredies and gentlemen to Acorns and Walnuts live-stream. To those who are just tuning in, I''m your host Pine Dog and this is my POV of the cksmith tournament going on in ck Rock City, Fallen Heart Kingdom. Currently, this is thest round and the rankings are as thus."

    Following that, the camera changed to nce at the floating scroll in the air which held the rankings of the apprentices.

    "As you can see, the number one remains the famous Cloudsmith with the popr ''gship'' figure of the NPC side, Handel, following closeby. In 3rd ce is the mysterious and unknown Green Thorns. 4th ce is the NPC Zeke and finally, 5th ce is the head of the League of Hammers, the self-proimed safehouse for all cksmiths in the region, Floating Mirage."

    Just before the tournament had begun, members of the League of Hammers had imed that their leader would surpass the Cloudsmith soon andbelled Sato a ''betrayer'' for noting under their banner. They had also said that once their leader steps out as the recognised best yer cksmith in the region, that the Cloudsmith should now admit his inferiority ande join them. Of course, Sato paid no heed to this but it became a source of gossip for other yers.

    ''The Cloudmsith vs the League of Hammers'' had been the talk of the day before the tournament and with the tournament''s progress so far, the winner was obvious. Therefore, even the live-streamer, Pine Dog, didn''t mind jabbing the fallen figures with his words.

    "The difficulty of the 3rd round exceeds the previous ones by far and even though the contestants are expected to make just one weapon out of two tries, no one has seeded despite almost 2 hours of the allocated 3 hours gone by. Oh wait, there are some improvements over there."

    "!!!"

    Just like with Pine Dog, the audience had also noticed the anomaly. Handel''s furnace had changed from the normal orange-red mes to a blue fire.

    "That''s¡­!"

    Since this was a test of skills, everyone was provided the same equipment and resources without any tampering done on any. Therefore, everything, including the furnace was basic and the same.

    The furnace had a fiery orange-red me as the core. There was nothing special about the me other than it was a bit hotter and calmer than normal fire. But the blue me currently before Handel was much different. Not only was it more than twice as hot as the orange-red me, but it was also less violent and vigorous. This meant two things; either Handel had done something to the me to change its internal structure or he had simply switched mes.

    "It''s a different me." An astute cksmith in the crowd eximed.

    Among the NPC audience weren''t just the regr folks but also a few Practitioner rank cksmiths who were hoping to take some of the remarkable contestants in the tournament as their students. There were also some 2 -star and 1-star Master cksmiths in the private area butpared to the practitioners, they were few and far between.

    "And ''it''s not just any simple me." The cksmith said as he gazed at the blue me in Handel''s furnace.

    "That''s the 2-star me, Lazuli me."

    Astonishment filled the ce alongside confusion as those who were aware understood the meaning of the cksmith''s words while the majority were left in a haze.

    "What''s that?" A yer instinctively asked.

    The cksmith nced at him for a while before he replied, "It''s a type of mystery me."

    "A mystery me?"

    "Yes, a mystery me. Just as materials and elements have different ranks, so do mes, and they''re simrly ranked in stars; from 1 to 6, with 1-star being the lowest and 6-stars being the highest. The Lazuli me is a 2-star me, and to tell you how precious it is, regr mes aren''t ranked and only special mes can be called mystery mes." The cksmith exined.

    "The Lazuli me¡­" Sato nced at Handel who was just a couple of metres away. The blue me was too dazzling that it even attracted his attention.

    Mystery mes, just like materials from 3-star and above, required the interaction of mana or special energies in certain environments and sometimes, certain mes. This was even more so for mystery mes ranked 2-star and above. In general, mystery mes could increase in strength(heat and intensity) by feeding them more fire-type materials, but they can''t surpass the limit of their rank and as a result, a miniature ranking system was developed for their growth. In other words, a 1-star me can never be upgraded to a 2-star me. But if carefully raised, it could either rival a 2-star me, albeit a weaker one, or be evolved into something of simr strength as a 3-star me but different in structure from the original.

    The subdivisions in growth were prenatal period, young, matured, and venerable stages. A prenatal mystery me was one that had just begun taking form. Its power was weak and could only bepared to regr mes, except with a few special abilities.

    A young mystery me was a mystery me that had just exited the prenatal stage and began to show the features of a mystery me, surpassing a regr me in both strength and intensity. As for a matured one, it would begin to show the prestige of its rank and be more powerful than ever before.

    At the venerable stage, a me was at its strongest in its rank and could jump ranks to match another. An example would be a venerable 2-star me matching a young 3-star me in burning intensity. The venerable stage was the result of properly raising a mystery me and feeding it lots of high-quality fire-type materials and rare treasures over a long period. Due to the requirements needed to achieve this, there were very few instances where a me had sessfully made it to the venerable level.

    The Lazuli me was a 2-star me that was born when fire-type mana interacts in a special manner and pattern with a Lapis Lazuli[1], which was a special type of gem that was quite rare to find, hence the name, Lazuli me. The exact process of the formation of the Lazuli me wasplex but in a simple form, the interaction of fire-type mana in the material within a certain environment over a long duration of time would give birth to the me at the core of the gem. By feeding the little me more Lapis Lazuli and fire-type materials, it would grow in strength and heat intensity.

    The one under Handel''s control was at the young stage, but while it wasn''t as overbearing as the matured stage or heaven-defying as a venerable stage mystery me, it still disyed the features of a true mystery me and gave him an advantage against the others.

    ''However, should this be legal?'' Sato wondered.

 Chapter 465 - 460 : Kolins Decision || Handel Sees Success

    The whole point of the tournament was to demonstrate one''s skills in cksmithing. To do this in the most efficient way possible, the participants would have to work with the most basic and necessary tools. If external items are permitted to be used in the tournament, this would damage the whole point of the tournament. Take for instance the use of mystery mes like want was happening now.

    Since mystery mes were much more powerful than regr mes, they were very good in the refinement of metals and for cksmiths, the purer the metal as well as the degree of refinement, the higher the quality of the end product. In other words, mystery mes have a passive effect of increasing not only the sess rate of a cksmith but also boosting the quality of the product.

    For even much higher grade of mystery mes, they could add special attributes to the weapon it equipment produced, making it much stronger than the original concept. For example, 4-star Crimson Red me would add a fiery attribute to any weapon produced with it, granting the weapon the ability to deal fire-type damage.

    Since mystery mes weren''t the most basic of mes and could also influence the product''s stats, it wasn''t really appropriate for them to be used when testing one''s skills.

    ''It shouldn''t be allowed in this tournament, right?''

    Just as Sato was wondering whether Handel''s actions went against the rules, an NPC contestant couldn''t hold back anymore and faced the private area, which was the ce they suspected Kolin, the supervisor of the tournament, to be easing off in.

    "Lord Kolin, forgive me for my rudeness but I thought mystery mes were banned from the tournament?"

    "I thought the same was true Lord Kolin. But why is Handel using one without any repercussions? Isn''t this against the rules?"

    "Why does it feel like the council is siding Handel? What happened to being just, fair, and all that?"

    Right as the NPC had spoken up first, a couple of others followed him and voiced out their concerns, hoping to get some answers. The majority of them were those jealous of Handel but couldn''t surpass him.

    Since they couldn''t surpass him, they didn''t wish for him to take first ce. Sato''s existence so far and helped in doing that but this third round was harder than the previous ones. Even Sato had failed with his first batch of materials, so the other participants were thinking of a way to prevent Handel from passing, lest he overtakes Sato and takes first ce.

    3 seconds passed after the contestants''ints and they received no reply. Just as they were wondering whether Kolin had heard them or not, a figure appeared above the stage.

    "He''s arrived."

    While almost all of the contestants had turned to face Kolin, only Handel kept working on his task.

    "Some of you seem to be making a fuss about the use of mystery mes, so let me ask you this. In a life or death battle, will you drop down your weapon just to prove to your opponent that you''re good at hand-to-handbat? Tell me. Or instead, would you run a race with one leg just because others are doing the same? No!" Kolin roared at them.

    "The cksmith tournament does indeed prohibit the use of external items but a mystery me isn''t external. Just like a sword, a spear it any other weapon is a part of a fighter, a mystery me is a part of one''s personal strength as a cksmith. Not everyone can get them and that makes them precious. Have you seen anyone selling mystery mes like cabbages? Like mana crystals that could easily be gotten in stores? No!

    "When a cksmith gets a mystery me, he treats it like his own child; as the closest possession to him. So it can not and never be counted as an external item, for it is a part of a cksmith''s strength." Kolin emphasized.

    "By this definition, you mean?" A contestant anxiously asked.

    "By this definition, Handel Gretkart is innocent of whatever ims you haveid on him." Kolin replied with an apathetic look on his face.

    "Either way, no rule against this was ever mentioned. So it''s all just in your heads."

    Kolin''sst words were enough to disperse the momentum of the contestants. Indeed, no rule targeted Mystery mes and with Kolin''s exnation of them being a part of the cksmith''s strength, fewer people wanted to argue with him.

    "This can''t be. So out of every 300 and so of us, only one person would pass this round."

    Those who came to this realisation were shocked and they couldn''t help but curse their luck for not finding a mystery me before.

    Sato however, remained calm as he began contemting an idea.

    A mystery me would improve his chances of sess with these materials, and without it, trying to pass this round would be almost impossible. However, it wasn''t like Sato had a mystery meying about that he could use.

    "A mystery me. I never expected that old fogie to pass his grandson such."

    At the top of the stands, inside one of the private rooms, two old men; one without a beard and the other with one, both sat side by side while one sipped a cup of tea without many expressions and the other just gazed at the stage.

    "He would do anything for his family." The old man who sipped from the cup sighed.

    The other man stroked his beard as nodded in agreement but at the same time, his eyes were wandering the other contestants.

    "If I had known, I would have given off one of my young 2-star mes to those with potential. That would have made things a bit more interesting now."

    "Indeed. Thanks to that old sh*t''s foresight, his kid is going to take first ce. Sigh. Looks like I have to prepare myself to listen to his proud voice for weeks toe." The old man without a beard, who sipped from the cup of tea, sighed with a tired expression.

    "Hmm? What''s that?" The other old man suddenly said.

    "That''s...it can''t be!!!!!" He abruptly stood up as his eyes were widened with shock.

    "What''s going on?"

    Aspared to his partner, the old man with the cup of tea wasn''t paying much attention to the stage so he wasn''t able to notice the change so quickly. But with hispatriot''s strange behaviour, he turned his eyes over and nced at each individual. Very soon, he spotted what had shocked his long-time partner and friend as his eyesnded on Sato.

    "This can''t be! How?!!!"

 Chapter 466 - 461 : A Mystery Flame?

    *Whoosh*

    A ck me appeared in Sato''s furnace, swallowing up the previous orange-red me while giving off an absurdly hot temperature.

    ''Sess.'' Sato''s eyes shone as he held the hilt of a blue-coloured sword.

    Right after the vice-president of the cksmith guild, Kolin had stated that a mystery me was a part of a cksmith''s skills, freeing Handel from the usations of the public while also giving him an advantage in the contest, Sato had thought of an idea.

    By basic definition, a mystery was a me that had surpassed the level of a regr me, gaining special attributes and much higher intensity and temperature than normal mes. So technically, certain special mes in existence can be ssified as a mystery me, for example, the ck mes of the cursed sword [Drakken].

    When Sato had thought of using the cursed ck mes to create Halocles'' Scythe, the urge to try it out was born and he couldn''t resist it. [Drakken]''s mes had an obvious limitation; it couldn''tst long outside of the sword. This problem was one Sato had been thinking of how to solve but the solution was very obvious and easy.

    Furnace mes were maintained by using specialbustibles and fuels, magic crystals, and unique formations to maintain them, so Sato theorised that the same could be applied to [Drakken]''s mes. The only issue was how to draw out the mes.

    The process of doing this was anything butplex as he could simply use the skill [ck me sh] to unleash a patch of ck mes into the furnace. But that would require Sato to draw out the sword as channeling the skill through his body was a risky act that he didn''t want to try. However, exposing the sword to the public could lead to his identity as Sky-de being traced to his character as the Cloudsmith, and this was something Sato didn''t want to see happen. Luckily, the pretty much useless feline, Milo, turned up.

    Ever since Sato had picked it up from the Maldora Canyon, Milo had barely made an appearance. It wasn''t that Sato had stopped it from doing so but that the feline had found a way to enter his space ring and had turned the entire ce into its home,zying inside and not interacting with the outside world. It was only now when Sato was in dilemma on how to sneak out [Drakken] that the creature had decided to do some work. Milo had waved a paw over the sword and the sword had magically changed its physical appearance to the current blue sword in Sato''s hands.

    With no worry about his identity being revealed, Sato freely took out the sword and released the ck me. But he never expected it to swallow up the orange-red me in the furnace.

    ''Oh well.'' Sato sighed as he couldn''t do anything about it.

    Ignoring the shocked stares of the contestants beside him, Sato focused on his task.

    ''He also has a mystery me?'' Floating Mirage gazed at Sato with wide eyes.

    He had previously thought that what separated him from the famed Cloudsmith was simply a slight difference in skills, which wasn''t much of a problem as it could be made up with time. However, seeing his ''rival'' pull out a blue sword that spat out a ck me, Floating Mirage realised that the difference between them didn''t justy in skills.

    ''I''ve lost this round.'' Floating Mirage sighed as he decided to take a break.

    It was decided by a majority of contestants that without a mystery me, trying to forge Halocles'' Scythe was a dream, and so far, there were only two yers with it; Handel and Sato. Since this was an agreed fact, Floating Mirage felt that there was no reason to bother with the contest anymore and decided to just watch Handel and Sato.

    "That kid also has a mystery me?"

    All the other contestants were shocked at the appearance of the ck mes on Sato''s furnace. Even the Practitioner rank cksmiths and the masters were surprised. What was even more astonishing was that the veterans in the field couldn''t recognise the me.

    "Old friend, do you know what me that is?" The old man without a beard asked hisrade.

    "I don''t. do you?" The bearded old man asked while still staring at Sato''s furnace.

    "Are you an idiot or what? If I knew, would I be asking you?" The other old man sighed.

    "I don''t know what me that is but I''m pretty sure that it''s stronger than that kid Handel''s Lazuli me." The bearded man said.

    "I agree too. The question is, is it stronger in terms of stage or rank?" The other old man dropped his teacup gently on the table as he tried to calm his mind.

    "He needs to be protected and raised carefully. He will be a great cksmith one day." The bearded man suddenly leaned on his chair as he stroked his beard.

    "I call dibs." The two men suddenly spoke at the same time.

    "Oh? Didn''t you just get an apprentice 7 years ago? Are you sure you can handle one more?" The bearded old man asked hispanion.

    "You don''t have to worry about me. You, on the other hand, have no experience in teaching others. It would be a waste if that kidnds in your hand so why don''t you step down from this challenge, okay?"

    The two old men had suddenly gone at odds with each other as they struggled for Sato. However, they weren''t the only ones considering getting Sato under their umbre, as there were a couple of other cksmiths that felt they had a chance. Even Kolin was having thoughts about getting Sato to work under him.

    ''However, we have to see whether he can seed or not.''

    Having a mystery me was just a prerequisite topleting the scythe and not a confirmation of sess. In the end, everything would stille down to the cksmith''s skills and his affinity with the me. Regarding skills, Sato was almost there but not entirely, and when talking about his affinity to the me, Handel had the upper hand as he has had the Lazuli me for over 5 years.

    From a single nce, Kolin was able to see that Sato had beginner-level control over the me and this might even be his second or third time doing so, but not more than 5 times. Funny enough, Kolin was right but also wrong because this was actually the first time Sato was using [Drakken]''s ck mes to forge.

    It was a well-known fact that during the cksmith tournament, Apprentice cksmiths with good potential could be picked up by a Practitioner or a Master cksmith to follow in their footsteps. This was one of the reasons why a lot of apprentices participated in the tournament.

    At another spot in the VIP area¡­

    "Not only are his skills amazing but he''s also in possession of a mystery me?" The middle-aged man who sat beside Galvin couldn''t help but exim.

    "Even I am surprised. I never knew he would be hiding this much." Galvin was also surprised.

    "Doesn''t matter whether you knew or not. We have to make sure that this kid doesn''t get into the cksmith guild''s hands or we might lose him." The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes.

    Unknown to Sato, while all of these went on, he had already begun his second attempt at the Halocles'' Scythe afterpleting his preparations.

 Chapter 467 - 461 : End Of The Tournament

    "Fuuu."

    Sato let out a breath of air as he stared at the scythe that stood before him.

    ''I hope it''s not a failure.''

    Out of the two tries the contestants were given to forge the scythe, Sato had created a failure in the first one.

    In cksmithing, failures were divided into two. The first was when the product doesn''t rhyme to the shape and structure of the original schematics. This was like when a cksmith is asked to forge a spear and he forges a sword instead. Both shape, look, design and features don''t match up to the required piece.

    In the second type of failure, both the shape, look and design of the product matches the criteria. However, certain features, most especially the ability and power scale of the weapon, is below the bar. Such a failure was typically categorised as a weapon or equipment not making the cut-off make to be ranked using the cksmith standards but could still be used.

    During the first try, Sato had made a failure under the first category, and while he had seeded in making a scythe now, he didn''t know whether it was sessfully a Halocles'' Scythe or a failure under the second category.

    "Time''s up. Step away from the workspace."

    Just as Sato was about to inspect the scythe and discern which it was, Kolin''s voice sounded and Sato was unable to perform any further action on the scythe lest he gets disqualified for disobeying the rules.

    "Leave the stage while your creations are checked and processed by the jury for your scores."

    As Sato left the stage, Kolin couldn''t help but nce at him. He(Kolin) was shocked that an unknown individual was in possession of a mystery me.

    It should be known that mystery mes were quite rare, starting from the 2-star rank and above. Finding them not only depended on luck but one had to be knowledgeable of the mes and their behaviours as well as have made preparations for capturing them.

    Despite this, an unknown apprentice, who was suspected to have no teacher, was in possession of a mystery me of at least 2-star rank and closing in on the matured stage.

    ''I need to investigate this kid''s background.'' Kolin thought before disappearing from the stage.

    Meanwhile...

    ''Impossible. This is impossible!''

    Handel yelled internally but tried to maintain an emotionless look on the outside. However, this was proving to be a difficult task for him as anyone whoid attention to his behaviour would notice Handel biting his lips as he tried to calm his emotions.

    There were two reasons for Handel''s current state of mind. The first was she fact that even with the 2-star ranked Lazuli me, Handel wasn''t confident that he had seeded in replicating the original model of Halocles'' Scythe. Just like Sato, he was not able to check the result of his product before the time was up. One the outside, it looks alright but chances were that the features and ability of the scythe was below average and so, might be a failure of the second category.

    This was understandable as having a mystery me didn''t guarantee that one would be sessful; it was just a mere prerequisite for apprentice cksmiths. Even still Handel would disappointed at himself if it turned out to be a failure.

    As for the second reason why Handel''s emotions were a mess, it obviously had to do with his number one opponent in this tournament as well as his current rival, Sato aka the Cloudsmith.

    With Sato''s reveal of the ck me and hispletion of the structure of Halocles'' Scythe, it was pretty much confirmed by all that he was the Cloudsmith. While his physical appearance was still shielded away from the eyes of all by the ck cloak he had on, seeing him was enough for most of the yers in the crowd.

    After realising that the Cloudsmith also had a mystery me of his own, Handel began loosing contorl of his emotions. He has thought that he has the third round in the bag, thanks to the 2-star Lazuli me his grandfather had gifted him when he was young, but he never expected Sato to have his and this made Handel stunned and unable toprehend anything else. Luckily, he wasn''t in an important step in his forging process or else, that smallpse in concentration would have destroyed his work.

    Nheless, Handel''s emotions had already entered a state of turmoil as he began worrying about whether he would be able to surpass Sato in this tournament.

    Handel, however, wasn''t the only one suffering from a mix of emotions. The other contestants were too with a majority of them sighing with disappointment due to their inability and poor performance in the tournament. Others were hoping that the scores remained the same, in fear of being overtaken by their runner-ups.

    Apart from Sato and Handel, only two other person''s had managed to create something close to the assembled form of the scythe. One was the NPC in 4th ce, Zeke, while the other was the third ced Green Thorns, which was very surprising. Green Thorns didn''t have a mystery me nor a Master as a close rtion, yet, this mysteriously character was able to rival those who did. Although the final creation of Green Thorns was most likely a failure of the second category, to still be able to achieve the basic form of Halocles'' Scythe -although with only a 62% uracy- their skill was well disyed simply by pulling that off.

    However, the spotlight only shone on Green Thorns for a while, before focusing on the two major characters of the tournament. The eyes of both the contestants and the audience shifted between Sato and Handel, as everyone began sharing their thoughts on who woulde out as the victor of this tournament.

    While it was true that Sato was still first ce, the difference between him and Handel was a mere 10 points.

    The written round had a total of 280 points (160 for the objectives and 120 for the subjective questions). The first round of the practicals has a points cap of 420 points (3 Upper-tier Mortal ranks at 140 points each). The second round had a point cap of 600 (3 Upper-tier Mortal ranks at 200 points each).

    Following the pattern, the third round would most likely give above 200 at the very least. That means that so long as Handel performed better than Sato, with his workpiece being higher in quality, it was not impossible for him to overtake Sato and take first ce.

    About an hourter...

    "What''s taking them so long to process the scores?" One NPC in the audienceined.

    During the previous rounds, it had taken between 20 minutes to half an hour for the points to be shared and scores disyed. However, a whole hour had gone by and Kolin''s silhouette was nowhere to be seen.

    This led to many yers having various suspicions about the situation. Some of them even began having conspiracy theories that the appraising council was trying to spot some errors in the Cloudsmith''s work so as to prevent him from taking first ce.

    While this was nothing more than some random conspiracy theory or some b*llsh*t, there was a bit of logical facy to it. This was mainly due to the fact that Kolin seemed to have sided with Handel right after the contestants beganining about the appearance of a mystery me. There were also some yers that added to this, stating that Kolin''s face had a slight change with a bit of gloom appearing in it right after he saw the Cloudsmith''s mystery me.

    *Whoosh*

    "He''s finally appeared..."

    Everyone calmed down as the old man, Kolin, appeared once more on the stage, and presumably, for thest time.

    "Due to the fact that this is thest round of the tournament, only the positions below the top 10 will be disyed on the scoreboard."

    Right after Kolin had concluded, the scroll in mid-air indeed changed as the scores for those below 10th ce began to change as some names rose above the others, though not many.

    "I will now announce the results for the top 10 spots."

 Chapter 468 - 462 : End Of The Tournament 2

    "I will now announce the results for the top 10 spots."

    Everybody quietened down as they waited for Kolin to make the announcements.

    "10th ce, Blue me with 852 points..."

    As Kolin spoke, the scroll in mid-air updated itself at roughly the same speed and time as it took Kolin to finish his words.

    Kolin continued all the way from 10th till he got to the fifth ce where he suddenly paused for awhile.

    "Now, the top 5."

    The atmosphere became increasingly heavy as the audience; both yers and NPCs, held their breaths as they waited for the results.

    "5th ce, Floating Mirage with 1201 points."

    Floating Mirage was stunned a she heard the scores. His score from the previous round was 1166 points and since he has failed to forge the scythe, he wasn''t expecting to get anything and had decided to give up straight from the start. Yet somehow, he had actually gained 41 points.

    "In 3rd ce, Green Thorns with 1345 points."

    Unlike the rest, excluding Sato and Handel, Green Thorns had managed to produce an artifact with roughly 62% simrity with Halocles'' Scythe. While it was still categorised as a failure, they were still rewarded for their effort with 93 points added to their previous score. With that, Green Thorns had temporarily surpassed Sato and Handel to take first ce.

    After Kolin had called out the scores for the top 5, excluding second and first ce, he paused for awhile again with a sigh, starving the curiosity of the audience as they wondered who was first ce.

    After 5 seconds of silence, which felt like 5 years for the audience, Kolin called out the remaining results.

    "At second ce with a grand total of 1425 points and first ce with a total of 1444 points are Handel Gretkart and Cloudsmith respectively."

    Since Kolin had called both spots at the same time, the audience was barely able to react a second after he was done, but once they did, a loud cheer broke out among the yers and the NPCs.

    The Cloudsmith, the representative of the yers on this tournament, had sessfully taken first ce.

    While some did expect this, they were still anxious about the scores as it seemed that the cksmith guild was more titled to Handel''s side and Handel looked more proficient with his mystery me than Sato. All these factors added together made even the most firm supporter of the Cloudsmith waver in their belief that he would take first ce. However, the results were officially announced and they could finally rejoice for the sess of their champion.

    "How?"

    Handel stood facing the scroll with shocked eyes.

    ''How did I lose?''

    From the written test all the way to the third and final round of the practicals Handel had been continuously living under Sato''s shadow. No matter how he performed, the Cloudsmith remained first and this began affecting his confidence. It was only until the third round where Handel felt he had a chance to rise above his opponent that he was finally calm. However, this sense of relief onlysted for awhile as it was revealed that the Cloudsmith also had a mystery me and one slightly better than his at that.

    It was at that moment that Handel''s mentality had shattered. Thest drag of confidence and hope he had in taking first ce was destroyed, and he had almost messed up his workpiece because of that.

    Now seeing the results with his two eyes, Handel felt like he was banished to a bottomless abyss, where all his senses were turned off. He couldn''t hear the cheers and exmations of the audience or even this beside him. He couldn''t see anything other than the name that was above his on the scroll. He couldn''t feel the air from the bodies of those rushing past him to congratte Sato. All he could see was the two names on the scroll and all he could hear were the words that came out from Kolin''s mouth.

    He had lost.

    "Congrattions."

    Floating Mirage faced Sato with mixed expressions. While he felt that Sato was supposed to be his rival, he had developed a certain level of admiration for him since Sato was able to make a stand and beat the NPC''s champion.

    "Thanks." Sato replied him.

    Just like Floating Mirage, he felt thatbthe rtionship between them was a bit strange so it was quite difficult conversing with him.

    "I know we''ve had our differences but you''re wee to join the League of Hammers anytime you want. Even if you don''t wish to, we can still work together sometime." Floating Mirage said.

    "That''s great. No problem." Sato replied.

    There was no harm in befriending the head of an organisation like the League of Hammers so Sato didn''t shun Floating Mirage away.

    While it was true that Floating Mirage took third ce among the yers, he still made an impressive performance. If not for Green Thorns who was secretly raised by Emperor''s Might, as well as himself, Floating Mirage would have been number one among the yers. His skill was undeniable and unlike Sato, who would have to focus on dungeons and levelling up soon, Floating Mirage was a full-time cksmith, so it was only a matter of time before he surpassed Sato.

    Having such a figure with a massive potential close to him wouldn''t be a bad idea no matter how one looked at it.

    Apart from Floating Mirage, the other yers who participated in the tournament had also walked forward and congratted Sato, while attempting to form a rtionship with him. Even the NPCs weren''t left out of this and for a moment, Sato was crowded by different people. However, there was one figure that didn''te forward to congratte him and that was the third ced Green Thorns.

    Originally, Sato wouldn''t take note of this but with Floating Mirage having congratted him, Sato recalled the image of the other cloaked cksmith who performed and wondered where ''he'' was.

    Just as Sato was locked in that train of thought, Kolin walked towards him without any expression on his face.

    "Come with me."

    Kolin''s emotionless voice sounded in Sato''s ears before his figure turned around and departed just as fast as he arrived.

 Chapter 469 - 463 : [Mental Resilience]

    S/NNameNumberScore

    1.Cloudsmith7781444

    2.Handel Gretkart1111425

    3.Green Thorns3241345

    5.Floating Mirage7871201

    The scores from the tournament remained disyed on the floating scroll even as the participants and spectators began to depart from the arena. Apart from Handel, who still stood with disbelief while staring at the results, all the other members of the top 5 had left.

    Green Thorns was picked up by Yukino and the other members of Emperor''s Might just before any other guild could question them. Floating Mirage had left with the others members of the League of Hammers right after making a few deals with some guilds, both top and average ones.

    Despite not taking first ce, Floating Miragecould be said to be the biggest winner of the contest as just the deals he had made alone was more than enough to develop the League of Hammers further into bing a highly valued organisation.

    As for Zeke, the NPC who took 4th ce, he ended up under the tutge of a Master cksmith who took a liking to him.

    With 4 of the top 5 members having gone their ways, Sato  the only who remained behind: though not exactly.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    "You might be wondering why I called you over." Kolin spoke to Sato.

    In response, Sato simply nodded as he began to study the old man''s expression.

    Right after the results were announced, Kolin had called Sato over to this office without any exnation. Apart from the two of them, there were two other men, old men to be precise. They were the two old fellows who had been watching the tournament from the private room in the arena, the bearded old man and his white-hairedrade.

    While Sato put on a naive and anxious expression, he already guessed that the reason he was called over most likely had to do with the ck mes he had used in the tournament. While he knew the origin of the mes, the others had presumed that it was an unknown mystery me.

    And just as Sato had guessed, he was right.

    "There are two reasons why I''ve called you here. The first reason is to give you your rewards for taking first ce. As for the second one, we would like to know where and how you got that me." Kolin narrowed his eyes as he stared at Sato.

    The room suddenly became quiet as the three Master cksmiths all stared at Sato with a slightly intimidating gaze.

    [[ System notification :

    yer has been locked with [Intimidating Gaze].

    [Willpower] judgementmences.

    [Mental Resilience] judgementmences.

    ]]

    ''An attribute judgement?'' Sato was inwardly surprised.

    Attribute judgements often urred in situations where a yer was under an influence or attack but could avoid it by simply possessing the required number of attributes.

    In this case, [Intimidating Gaze] was a passive skill that came from the questioning gaze of a higher-levelled character on a lower levelled individual.

    If Sato were a man with a weak will, he would break down at thebined gaze of the trio and be unable to tell a lie, perfectly exining his experience in the Caventry all up to the point he got [Drakken]. However, Sato wasn''t such a wimp.

    [Intimidating Gaze]''s judgement was dependent on two stats; [Willpower] and [Mental Resilience]. [Willpower] needs no exnation as it''s already a popr attribute recognised as a main attribute. However, [Mental Resilience] was different.

    Infinite Realm aimed to incorporate reality with illusion by mimicking the contents of the real world into the fake. This included both the features of the real world as well as that of the yers. However, there was a problem with this. As a game, it would make more sense for every yer to have the same starting point but by following the logic of mimicking reality, this was illogical.

    The physique of every yer in reality differed from the other. Some were naturally stronger than most, others had stronger willpower and this, were less scared of ''normal'' scary stuff or had better control over their emotions. In summary, every human wss different. Infinite Realm couldn''t seed in imitating reality if they couldn''t solve this issue, however as game, in order to promote equality, every yer had to have the same starting point.

    Therefore, the developers of Infinite Realm came up with the idea of categorising attributes. The twomonly known attributes were Main attributes and secondary attributes but these ones were closely tied to the yer''s avatar. There existed a hidden attribute category that was tied with the yer''s real life physique and stats. It influenced the yer''s avatar but not as much as the main attributes did. Here, the yer''s real life stats were reflected onto the avatar, thereby influencing its strength to a degree that couldn''t be called too much.

    [Mental Resilience] was one such attribute and it was the real life equivalent of [Willpower]. It was the quantisation of one''s mental abilities, including their thought speed, resistance to shock and control over emotions, in the game.

    With all Sato had been through throughout his entire life, his [Mental Resilience] was very high so much so that it was higher than his [Willpower] stats. However, since the attribute was a hidden category, Sato wasn''t able to see it.

    Even though Sato''s [Mental Resilience] was high, his [Willpower] was still low so he wasn''t entirely free from the effects of the skill. But he could still decide what to talk about and what not to.

    ''Here goes nothing.''

    "I discovered it in an ancient ruins in ck Grill''s Cave during my stay at Riverdale town. After going through a few trials, I managed to gain it as my reward and brought it under my control." Sato narrated.

    Mentioning ck Grill''s Cave as the location where the me was ''found'' wasn''t exactly wrong and it would also prevent the NPCs from having any further thoughts. The curse of ck Grill''s Cave was a well-known legend amongst the NPCs living within the area. By simply stating this location as the ce he found the me, Sato would easily prevent the NPCs from having any thoughts about exploring it and they would simply take it as his luck. And as he had expected, things went exactly that way.

    "Sighs. I see. It''s your luck." The white-haired old man sighed as he shook his head.

    He was previously having thoughts about going to the location Sato had ''discovered'' the ck me since it was quitemon for there to be more of the same me present in area in the case of 2-star mystery mes and below.

    ''Luckily, I used the right words.'' Sato sighed internally.

    "You said you did a few trials to get it as your reward? Please borate the situation more properly.." Kolin didn''t give up like the others.

 Chapter 470 - 464 : Standoff

    <strong></strong>

    "You said you did a few trials to get it as your reward? Please borate the situation more properly." Kolin nced at Sato with an inquisitive look.

    *Knock*

    Just as Sato was thinking of what to exin, a knock was heard from the door which interrupted the atmosphere in the room. The three Master cksmiths paid no heed to it as they thought that the individual on the other side would leave. However, they were surprised when the knock was heard once more at the door.

    "I thought you said no one would disturb us here." Kolin nced at the white-haired old man.

    "I thought the same too." The old man narrowed his eyes as he grimaced his face.

    "Who is it that dares to disturb us?" The old man spoke out with a low growl.

    "I''m really sorry for that, Master, but two men are here saying that they won''t leave without meeting you." A young voice belonging to a female sounded from the other side.

    The white-haired old man was confused as he never recalled expecting any visitors. Nheless, he still asked,

    "Who are they?"

    "The Marquis'' son alongside Lord Yugo."

    As they heard the two names, the three Master cksmiths in the room all scrunched up their faces immediately. The two characters outside were people they couldn''t mess with as long as they were not offended by them first. Even if the two outside somehow offends them, as long as it wasn''t too serious, the 3 Master cksmiths were expected to not pursue the matter for too long. This was due to the identity and the backing behind those two characters.

    The Marquis need no exnation as this was a character only below the King, Duke and Prince of the Kingdom. In ordance with hierarchy, the son of a Marquis was on par with a Viscount in authority but the connection of blood made them have more influence than a regr Viscount.

    As for Lord Yugo, that was an elusive but highly influential character. He was an Earl, which was also referred to as a Count in the Fallen Heart Kingdom, and he was in control of nearby province which was a bit closer to the Capital than ck Rock Province.

    In the Fallen Heart Kingdom, the ranking and authorities of nobles were a bit different. A Duke''s dukedom/Duchy consisted of 5 provinces in which the Dukemands full control of one them but simply supervises the rest.

    A Marquis was in charge of the province located by the border and was usually tasked with the job of defending the borders of the kingdom from opponents.

    Earls/Counts were in charge of ruling over a city or a province, depending on the number of merits they have acquired. Basically, they were the right-arms of dukes and aided them in ruling over the 4 other provinces a Duke supervised. However, some Counts and Earls didn''t have any control over a fief asrge as a province or a city. Some simply resided at the hintends of the kingdom and lived somewhat peaceful lives.

    As for the other titles such as Viscount, Baron and Knight, they were simply handed a small patch ofnd with only the Viscount having the authority to rule over and at the level of a town.

    Apart from Dukes and Marquis, the other nobles didn''tmand full control over theirnds but we''re simply being "leased" the property by the Royal family. This means that they still had to pay a portion of the tax collected from the citizens to the kingdom. Only certain special characters were given full control over theirnds even though they weren''t a Duke or a Marquis. Lord Yugo was one such character.

    The province Lord Yugo ruled over consisted of 2 cities, unlike ck Rock Province. One of the cities was granted to him as his personal fief by the Royal family, giving him full authority and control over the area just recently. As a result, rumours had it that Lord Yugo would be promoted to a Marquis very soon and it would just be a matter of time before he would be granted a piece ofnd by the border region to lord over.

    With such a future ahead of him, even though a Master cksmith still had to be fawned over by Earls and Counts and barely paid them any heed, these Master cksmiths didn''t dare to do the same with Lord Yugo. Not only was the authority of a Marquis impressive, but if Lord Yugo were to be promoted, he would need a few staff to move over with him. At that point, he could delegate one of them to follow him and take charge of the cksmith guild there. In other words, following Lord Yugo''s rise in power, any one of the Master cksmiths could suddenly be a branch guild leader and this wasn''t a bad prospect for them. Therefore, none of the Master cksmiths dared to offend Lord Yugo.

    "Let them in." Kolin sighed as he said.

    He didn''t know why they were here but Kolin had heard from the guild leader that the Marquis'' son was looking for talented cksmiths. It was very obvious that Sato had caught their eyes so they probably came for him. With that happening, it would be impossible for Kolin to continue the interrogation.

    ''The main focus now should be in bringing him to our side.'' Kolin began plotting up ideas.

    The door was pushed open from the other side as two figures walked in. They were Galvin as well as the middle-aged man with him during the tournament.

    ''So Galvin is the Marquis'' son?'' Sato stared at him with surprise.

    "Good day to you gentlemen. It''s been a while, Sky de." Galvin waved at Sato right after greeting the 3 Master cksmiths.

    Sato nodded in response as a form of greeting.

    After Sato had stepped into the office, at the ''request'' of the 3 Master cksmiths, he was forced to take off the ck cloak he had on. Without it, it wasn''t difficult for Galvin to recognise him.

    "You never told me you were such a prestigious figure. My apologies, sire." Sato paid his respects in the local manner of the Fallen Heart citizens.

    "Haha, I didn''t feel it was necessary. Alright, stop with the formalities. We''re partners not employer and employee." Galvin smiled as he walked over.

    "You two know each other?" Kolin raised an eyebrow.

    "Yeah. Surprised? We met each other during the auction about a week ago." Galvin smiled.

    While it looked like a simple smile, Kolin felt that it was more of a gloating expression, a smile of victory.

    "It''s been awhile, Masters Kolin, Halford and Fuol." Lord Yugo greeted.

    "Lord Yugo." Halford and Fuol, the two Master cksmiths smiled and greeted back whereas Kolin simply nodded.

    Whike most Master cksmithd tried to be in Lord Yugo''s good side so as to get promoted, Kolin wasn''t bothered. The rank of vice-guild leader wasn''t low and once the current guild leader retires, he would be the one to take over. Therefore, Kolin wasn''t really interested in fawning over Lord Yugo for an opportunity.

    "Can you exin why you had to interfere with our meeting?" Kolin asked the two neers.

    "I sincerely apologize about that, Master Kolin. I simply came over to receive my partner and hope that all is well." Galvin said.

    "Hmph. All is obviously we''ll, why won''t it be?"

    Galvin didn''t reply him but nced at Sato in response. Upon receiving Sato''s confirmation, he didn''t push the matter any further.

    "If possible, I hope you can let myrade go as we have important things to discuss; important things rting to my dear father''s ns." Galvin said.

    "Are you threatening me?" Kolin narrowed his eyes.

    If Galvin had stated that he simply wanted to speak with Sato, Kolin could easily reject him and reply that he could do thatter. However, by mentioning the Marquis, things would be a whole lot difficult for Kolin.

    "You misunderstood me. Why will humble me dare to threaten your graceful self? I''m just doing as I''m told." Galvin smiled.

    The entire room became quiet as the two stood in confrontation with each other before Lord Yugo finally cleared the air.

    "Just do us a favour this once, Master Kolin. If I''m correct, you must have called him over to reward him. That shouldn''t take much time and you can simply do so now. After that, we can leave straight away with him."

    If Kolin were to reject, it would mean that he had another reason for keeping Sato here and that was something he didn''t want to be revealed especially to these two.

    "Here." Kolin passed Sato a ring.

    Sato caught the ring once in was within reach and nced at it curiously.

    "The rewards for first ce are in there. Apart from that, I or rather, these two want to make you a proposition."

    "Ahem." Harold, the white-haired Master cksmiths coughed.

    "It''s like this, between me and my old friend, Fuol over here, who would you like to take as your master."

    "Eh?" Sato nced at the two in surprise.

 Chapter 471 - 465 : Next Course Of Action

    "Over here."

    Fudo, Xue Yan and the others waved at Sato right after they saw him step into the pub.

    Right as he was headed to the meeting room with Kolin, Sato had told the others to what for him at a pub as it would be weird if they did so at the arena. The reason was quite simple; out of all the contestants, only the Cloudsmith was taken away by an NPC and had yet to return. If the team were to wait for Sato, they would be suspected of either trying to poach him or having a connection with the Cloudsmith, and chances were that it would be the second one. Once that thought was born in the minds of other yers, it would be easy to corrte the once most wanted yer in ck Rock Province with the Cloudsmith. And while the chances were small, Sato didn''t want to take any risks and so had the others wait for him elsewhere.

    "So? How was it?" Fudo hurriedly asked.

    "A bit problematic but nothing too serious." Sato replied before he sent a short narrative of his experience to the team chat.

    Included in the ''report'' were the questions Sato was asked as well as the fact that he was pretty much saved by Galvin and theter events that took ce.

    "Oh? That old fogey has his eyes on you?" Yato abruptly said.

    "Apparently so." Sato nodded.

    The old fogey Yato referred to was the vice-guild leader Kolin.

    "In that case, it would be best you keep a low profile for a while." Seiichi stated.

    Sato, however, shook his head in response.

    "This is the early stage. It won''t be worth it to do such as it could affect our progress."

    "Wow. You got a lot of rewards." Katsuomented.

    After Galvin and Lord Yugo had made it into the meeting room, Kolin was forced to stop his interrogation and simply reward Sato before leaving. However, the two Master cksmiths, Halford and Fuol, were interested in recruiting Sato. In the end though, Sato rejected as his main was a fighter and not a cksmith. While dabbling in the profession wasn''t a problem, Sato had no intention of getting too close to it.

    With the problem at hand settled, Sato was then given his rewards by Kolin.

    "Yeah, but they''re more of strategic advantages for the team." Sato replied.

    Apart from Savir''s manual, Sato was given a Practitioner''s badge alongside a few rare materials and marypensation.

    It should be recalled that from the Master rank and above, individuals were subdivided based in their rank. The same could be said to happen with the Practitioner rank.

    To prevent a neer like Sato, from soiling the name of the cksmith guild, Practitioners were ssified into 5 grades with a Grade. The reason for this was that even in the Practitioner rank, there existed differences between each another. For example, despite being promoted to the Practitioner rank, it was very obvious that Sato couldn''tpare with the individuals who had been there for years so it would be unfair to put him at the same level as them. He was at the lowest wrung of the rankings with the gap between him and the 5th grade being a lot. It was for this reason that Practitioner ranks were able to be masters of some of the performers or even the winner of the tournament as long as they were of the 5th grade. Otherwise, it would be strange for a Practitioner to teach another Practitioner. But since there still existed a difference of grades between them, this was no longer an issue.

    While the difference in grade wasn''t as insurmountable as with the Master rank and above, the 5 grades of the Practitioner ranks each signified the cksmith''s abilities which made things easier for jobs to be allocated. For someone like Sato, who recently just got promoted, he was at the 1st grade, implying that his skills were still basic and not much different from an Apprentice in the eyes of the pros.It was from the 2nd grade onwards that one would be considered to be a true Practitioner of the art.

    Unlike the Master rank and above, whose subranks could simply be differentiated by their attire, the Practitioner rank''s subranks were differentiated using their badge which contained their information including how many years they''ve been at the service.

    Apart from being promoted to the next rank in his subss, Sato had also gotten a few useful items and materials for forging. He would also enjoy a few privileges from the cksmith guild for a while, such as discounts and priorities in buying materials from the stores owned by the cksmith guild. All these benefits piled up together made Sato a strategic resource to the team.

    "Hehe. You''re now our lucky star." Fudo smirked.

    "So what''s next?" Seiichi asked.

    "What next?" Sato closed his eyes for two seconds before opening them once again.

    "The previous week or two was simply the calm before the storm. By now, most of the top guilds should havepleted their preparations for the exploration of the new dungeons. Chances are that the same is happening with the top guilds round the world. Their first few approaches would be to test out the difficulty of the dungeons before making adequate preparations. However, I doubt that they''ve found most of the dungeons so far, especially that one." Sato signaled with his eyes.

    "ording to my sources, it doesn''t appear on the dungeon map purchased at the city center so in this regard, we have an advantage." Seiichi nudged his sses.

    "That''s right, we do." Sato acquiesced.

    After Sato had unlocked the dungeons, the locations of the dungeons were marked out in special maps tat could only be gotten in the city center. However, those maps didn''t include the dungeon in Maldora Canyons which was the one the team was referring to.

    "The bonus in the dungeon is a 10% increase in both material and experience rewards and itsts for whooping 5 weeks RT. That''s 10 weeks of game time. Compared to the 1 week grace the other dungeons possess, the difference is absurd." Yato couldn''t help but sigh.

    "And it''s exactly because the difference is absurd that we have to be careful. For such arge increase and differential treatment, the dangers within is definitely something the other dungeons can''tpare to." Lu Zhen shared his thoughts.

    Great rewardse with great risks. This was thew of IR and every yer understood that perfectly. The best example so far were the 4 clover towns who experienced dire situations that would either level the town to the ground or raise the overall strength of the town''s yers. The dungeon at Maldora could also be looked at in a simr way. The difficulty ofpletion was surely something that would drain the time and energy of any yer andpared to the other dungeons, it could be estimated to be about 3 time as tough. However, the 10% increase in rewards was still tempting even if one knew how difficult the dungeon was.

    Nheless, this wasn''t the time for such. The main reason was that every to team was currently aiming for the title of first toplete a dungeon. Hence, no one would purposely choose a really difficult dungeon when the others went for something easier.

    Seven Star Glory took the top teams and guilds as their target, therefore, it was safe to say that they weer also eyeing the achievement of firstpletion. As a result, choosing a difficult dungeon would be unreasonable, but the gains frompletion would be very attractive.

    As for why they didn''t simply aim for a normal dungeon beforeing to Maldora Canyonster, there was no assurance that the location of the dungeon in Maldora Canyons would remain a secret long enough. Even as they spoke, some yers were already farming at the spot and the longer they took to fully explore the dungeon, the higher the chances that it would be discovered by others. And if that were to happen, their monopoly over the dungeon would be lost and they would bepeting with several teams for who wouldplete the dungeon first.

    "So we need to decide now. Do we go for the regr dungeons or do we try our luck with that dungeon?"

 Chapter 472 - 466 : Genmas Sigh

    *Knock Knock*

    "Come in." The calm voice of the young man seated behind the desk resounded.

    Following the reply was the motion of the door opening halfway as an individual gather in leather clothing walked through the space and entered the room, before closing the door behind him.

    Once the yer approached the other end of the room, right where the young man was seated, with only a metre between them, he then saluted to the young man.

    "Reporting to guild leader. Sorry to disturb you, sir."

    "No problem. What''s the matter?" Genma calmly asked.

    Under hismand, Genma has moved his entire guild, or at least those who had reached level 10 and above, to theplimentary city that was in charge of White Valley Town, Angelor City.

    Using his connections as well as the guild''s multiple funds and his finances, Genma was able to purchase a lot of coins through the aid of a middle man but when the official exchange store wasunched, he switched to using it as having a middle man process the transfer cost lot more fees than a buying from the exchange store.

    Using the coins he had gotten from there, Genma had ordered the guild members of the financial department to purchase the guild function, officially making Sovereign recognised in IR, and also to get a base for themselves.

    Buildings in cities cost a lot and the closer the building was to the city centre or the economic area, like the public market, the more expensive bothnd and housing was. Hence, they simply rented out a small housing with 3rge rooms at the outer region of the city, close to the outskirts of the city. Here, the building was still under protection by the city guards and it was also quite cheap so Genma was satisfied with the purchase.

    Following that, Sovereign had been making various preparations for their dungeon raids and guild growth. It had already been a week(RT) since they came here and the guild had already made a name for themselves. However, they weren''t the only guilds here sopetition still existed for them.

    "There are two reports this time around." The yer who walked in, a level 11 [Ranger], said.

    With Milim, Genma''s right-hand man leading the trump-card team out in the fields, the [Ranger] had taken over the role of Genma''s secretary and PA(Personal Assistant).

    "The first is that our preparations for the dungeon raid is going as nned and it will bepleted in the next day or two."

    "So soon?" Genma raised an eyebrow before he calmed down.

    "That''s true. With the exchange store''sunch just the other day, the preparations should be going faster than before. What''s the next report?"

    Having received the go ahead, the [Ranger] continued.

    "The scout team for the dungeon have returned. Here''s a copy of their report." The yer sent a file to Genma.

    With Sato having unlocked the first-sver dungeon in the game, various dungeons popped all all around the main continent of IR. The yers and guilds all over the world began researching on the nearest dungeons closest to them, in a bid to develop a strategy to beat it. But no matter what, the information avable on the outside was limited. The best way to get urate and reliable information was to experience the dungeon themselves. Hence the adoption of the idea of sending scout teams.

    Sovereign was one of the first guilds to take up this alone and they had trained a batch of yers specifically just to take on the task of an advance guard as well as an informant for the guild. After weeks of training and deployment, they had managed to gather enough information about the nearest dungeon and send to the guild.

    Unlike the dungeon at Maldora Canyon, the other dungeons only required the yers to be at an average level of level 10 so it wasn''t difficult for the dungeons to be checked out multiple times. The current level of mainstream yers was between level 12 and 13. This was already a good enough level for yers to start exploring the dungeons but most guilds didn''t take the risk as they suspected the dungeon BOSSES to be stronger than level 15.

    If not for the constant deaths of the team members for the sake of exploration, the scout team would be level 13 on average by now. From that analysis, it was pretty easy to guess that they had been through the early stage of the dungeon multiple times and gone deeper at the cost of a lot of sacrifices. Nheless, they were currently level 12 after killing a lot of dungeon monsters and they had managed topile enough information about the ce. With time not on their side, they finally retreated from the dungeon and sent the report back to the base.

    "It seems like it''s as I thought." Genma released a heavy sigh beforeying his back on the chair.

    After 30 seconds of silence, he finally lifted himself back up as he faced the [Ranger].

    "Give the order to recall the main troop from their activities. Also, gather a list of yers level 13 and above and submit to me before the day is over. Take an inventory count of any weapon, equipment or whatever that would prove useful in the environment if the dungeon. If ites below 50 you have mymand to make purchases with the guild''s fund. The finance department will be on your side and I''ve already sent them an alert so don''t worry about it. Now, go."

    The [Ranger] proved to be a good PA as he managed to catch on to Genma''s orders before leaving the room.

    "Oh Infinite Realm. Why put such arge pressure on us yers?" Genma nced out the window as he sighed.

    "No matter what, the dungeon will still bepleted but the problem is time. Luckily, we don''t have any super guild residing here so the pressure is a lot lighter on us for the position of the regional first ce. As for the global first ce...sighs."

    After going through the report from the scouts, the signs and information all pointed to Genma''s previous estimations; the BOSS was most likely level 20. The only question was what rank. If it were Elite or Special Elite rank, there would be no problem. While the level difference was still huge, they could make it up with external strength. But if it were King rank, then things would be a lot more difficult.

    If that were the case and his worst fears came true, then it would mean that the raid would have to be pushed back by a week or two. However, Genma couldn''t simply just quit right now because of his fears and so, he would still have to lead his men to find out themselves the strength of the BOSS.

    ''I just hope it''s not that bad.''

 Chapter 473 - 467 : Preparations

    "Fuuu...haaa."

    Silver Wolf puffed a cigar as he stared at the cavern in front of him.

    Behind him was a team of 10 yers, all suited up for battle. Just the aura from the group made them seem like an insurmountable troop; a spear that is used to forge a path in the enemy''s formation. They were the best of the best from the Battle Wolves guild and were selected and trained specifically to conquer this dungeon.

    "Is everything ready?" Silver Wolf asked as he held the cigar with his fingers.

    In Infinite Realm, everything one could do in the real world applied here. Therefore, the fact that cigarettes existed wasn''t a surprise. On the contrary, it very much appealed to cigarette fans and chainsmokers since they could experience that calm feeling from smoking without having to be worried about any side effects or damage to their health.

    "Yes captain." Iron Bear replied.

    "All the equipment and items have been prepared for the raid and we''re ready to go. It''s just too bad that Lord Han won''t be able to follow us."

    "It''s not his fault." Silver Wolf sighed as he took another puff from the cigar.

    "He has toy low until the duration of the agreement is over. Otherwise, he will get hunted by the others."

    In VR gaming, there were rules know as the ''Unspoken'' that were used to govern the habits and actions of yers that were too strong for the average man, or to be specific, yers that were above the Pinnacle Expert rank/ ''King'' rank. Above that level, a yer would be a walking bomb as they could simply wreak havoc anywhere on their own, making the game impossible to enjoy for others.

    Attacking random yers when they felt like it or simply giving their guild an advantage in the early period of a game were examples of actions done by yers at a such high rank which could ruin the joy of a VR game for some. In summary, It would be bad and a bit unfair for others if these yers were allowed to roam free without being checked, at least in the early stages of a game. Hence the deployment of the ''Unspoken'' rules.

    One of the rules prevented these yers from attacking the weaker ones and looting them while the other one prevents these extremely strong yers in from assisting their guilds in raids and battle until a moment when it seems like the life and death of the guild was impending. While these rules seemed like they were cutting off the arms of a guild, it was advantageous to many.

    Take for instance with Battle Wolves. By following the Unspoken rule, they would be unable to request Han for his help in dungeon raids and team fights unless the guild was in danger of destruction. While it seemed like they had lost an important character for battles, the rule had helped level the ying field for them. Guilds like super guilds, who had a couple of yers at Han''s level were also unable to use those yers. If they could, then Battle Wolves would be destroyed by Emperor''s Might branch guild led by Azure Dragon, before they could even grow. But with the aid of the Unspoken rule, they had enough time to grow and make preparations against such yers.

    "In summary, it''s quite advantageous to us at least for now." Silver Wolf exined.

    Iron Bear scratched his head before nodding, seemingly understand a bit but still confused.

    "Alright. Let''s move." Silver Wolf scrunched the cigar with his fingers before tossing it away.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    "Aldeus has finally given us the values." A mage reported to Daichi, the guild leader of the East Crow guild.

    "Finally. What does it say?" Daichi asked.

    "The dungeon at the mountain ranges, which Battle Wolves is reported to have gone for, would be a good ce for mages. The montsers should be just like ck Grill''s Cave, highly resistant to physical attacks but weak against magical attacks. We tagged this dungeon the ''Earth dungeon''. As for the dungeon by the forest path, it should be a field type of dungeon with monsters of different strengths. Due to the varying nature of the monsters, sess rate there would be quite low but when considering a situation where we take on the Earth dungeon prepared. However, by the risk mechanism and calctions, it''s better we go for it than the Earth dungeon.

    ording to Aldeus, the Earth dungeon night be filled with surprises to help prevent mages from turning the area into a farming spor. In other words, it could be a honey trap for yers."

    "I see." Daichi sped his hands together as he supported his chin.

    Aldeus was an AI that was used to predict certain scenarios in VR games. The VR game industry was arge one and with various technological advancements as well as profits to be made from it, many different industries began diving into the sector. This included the AI industry.

    Originally, AIs were only used to control and manage the VR world however, a few idealists and scientists decided to use it in a different way. Just like betting simtors and predicting machines, the AIs they developed was meant to predict the scenario and events in a VR game by analysing a few constructs and data fed into the system. Aldeus was one such AI.

    Aldeus was used to predict the internal environment and mechanism of a dungeon by analysing the exttee environment, pattern of the game, story progress and more to determine both the difficulty and the type of montseds to expect in the dungeon. This would help guilds prepare better for the dungeon and avoid surprises that could cause a team wipe.

    However, since it worked by simply reading the inputted data and predicting the situation within a dungeon, and also since various possibilities could exist within a VR world, Aldeus didn''t have a 100% uracy in predicting the internal environment and constructs of a dungeon but a 30-40% uracy, usually dependent on the amount and uracy of the data provided. yers and guilds who made use of the software had to take the risk that the scenario predicted by the AI would be the direct opposite of the actual scenario within the dungeon. Taking such a risk meant that they could be shooting themselves in the foot without knowing it so not a lot of guilds did so but simply relied on their experience and tactical decisions.

    East Crow, however,bined both methods and were able to rise to the top. There was also the fact that the Aldeus software they utilised was patched by the guild''s personal software and AI development team, increasing the uracy by 3%-5% as well as creating more variables with a 65% chance of one of them being urate. With such a high possibility, it meant that out of every 5 scenarios suggested by the AI, 3 of those would be urate.

    To better understand this, take for instance the setting where an unknown dungeon arises in a forest. The patched Aldeus would predict 5 possible contexts that could apply to the dungeon such as the monsters being field type monsters, their attack power being higher than defense, drop rate being lower than regr dungeons but with high quality equipment, drop rate being higher than regr dungeons but with average equipment and the BOSS monster being a serious pain in the neck. Of the 5 suggested framework for the dungeon, there was a 65% chance that at least 3 of them were urate. By taking such a risk, East Crow would be more prepared for variables and would have a higher sess rate ofpleting a dungeon than most 2nd tier guilds.

    "If that''s the case, prepare the team for a dungeon raid. We''re taking the forest dungeon."

    In the same way that both Sovereign Battle Wolves and East Crow made their preparations, a majority of the top guilds in IR had begun their preparations to raid different dungeons; some hoping to make a killing while others aimed for the regional first ce or global first ce achievement.

    Seven Star Glory aka Team Sato, were also not left out as after 4 hours of journeying, they had finally made it to the Maldora Canyon.

 Chapter 474 - 468 : Entering The Dungeon

    "So this is where you found that annoying little feline."

    A team of 7 yers stood before an open gate that was hidden behind a cliff. Looking around, obvious signs of wreckage and rubble were visible at the site, showing that the gate was previously hidden behind ayer of rock but had been revealed after some time.

    This was the entrance to the dungeon located at a cliff in Maldora Canyon. As for the team of 7 yers, they were the original members of 7 Star Glory consisting of Sato, Fudo, Xue Yan, Seiichi, Lu Zhen, Yato, and Katsuo with the IGNs Sky de, Emperor Wolf, Snow Bird, Longshot, Lu Zhen, ck Sword, and Hopeless Knight respectively.

    "Yeah." Sato nodded as he began recalling the previous time he was here.

    Back then, Sato was about to leave the area when he heard a strange sound that attracted his attention. It ended up being Milo, the weird pet with an unknown bloodline that was currently in his possession. Even till now, Sato didn''t know where Milo came from, what it was or how it appeared in a dangerous location such as here despite seemingly having zerobat abilities.

    ''It can''t be a legendary pet with high survivability skills could it?'' Sato shook his head at that thought before leading the team in.

    "Let''s go."

    Even though the surrounding 60 or so metres of the gate was covered with cracks and fissures, it wasn''t a problem for the team to make it across the danger zone. With their current skills and capabilities, making a few jumps wasn''t an issue.

    Once the team covered the 60 metres distance, they now stood in front of the entrance which looked like a dark portal that led to another world. Without saying a word, Sato walked into it before lighting a torch just as he got swallowed by the darkness. Seeing as how Sato had fearlessly walked in, the others followed right after him with Yatoingst as he lit a torch from behind.

    With all 7 yers in, they began the 15 minutes descent towards the bottom of the hidden space. Unlike Sato, the rest were all at high alert for any surprises. Sato had already explored here before so he knew that nothing would appear during this descent down the staircase, however, to be on the safe side, he didn''t bother to inform the rest.

    *Step*

    *Step*

    It first began with Sato''s right foot and ended with Yato''s left foot as the entire team had finally descended down the staircase and appeared to the mysterious hall familiar to Sato.

    The appearance of the hall had barely any changes. The 16 doors(8 on each side) were still open, since thest time Sato was here he didn''t close them. The 16 pirs were also still there, propping up the ceiling of the hall, and the red mes that brightened the areas had already lit up with Sato''s appearance. It didn''t look like much had changed but Sato''s instincts said otherwise.

    "Something''s wrong." Sato stated as he began scanning his surroundings. The orange-red mes were already turned on so the entire hall was visible from his spot.

    "Where is it?" Sato suddenly whispered.

    "Where''s what?" Fudo asked curiously.

    "The mural. Thest time I came here, there was a mural behind that portal." Sato pointed at the spinning ck vortex that hung a few inches above the ground.

    The horrific mural which consisted of a horned demon with 3 pairs of eyes was nowhere to be spotted. Sato recalled that it had yed an integral part in the activation of the dungeon, but with the dungeon''s current stability, its presence was nowhere to be seen.

    "And that''s not all. The ck statue feels weird." Sato turned to the opposite side as he nced at the ck statue of a seated figure.

    Previously, the ck statue, alongside the mural and the fragmented painting, were the 3 objects that were used to activate the dungeon. With the painting turning into the ck whirlpool that served as the dungeon''s entrance and the mural gone missing, the ck statue was the only element left existing. However, Sato noticed that it didn''t possess that regal aura it once had. On the contrary, it felt ''dead''.

    "So what you''re trying to say is that the entire area is quite different from how it was before?'' Seiichi asked.

    "Yes." Sato nodded but he wasn''t too bothered about it.

    First of all, scenarios like this urred in various VR games. One could return to a certain location once again but spot a few differences. This had to do with those differences being rted to either a certain plot in the story or having urred due to a specific change brought by a yer.

    If it were a change brought about due to a yer''s interference then it would make sense. In this case, Sato suspected that his activation of the dungeon had led to the two artifacts being affected, with the mural gone missing and the statue losing its ''breath''.

    However, if it were due to the original plot of the story, then there were some hidden factors behind the disappearance of the mural as well as the ck stone statue losing its aura.

    ''However, it''s not like I have any way of confirming it.''

    Sato gave up at the thought of investigating the change since he had no point to start from.

    "So how do we go in?" Lu Zhen asked the question that was in everyone''s mind.

    While it seemed reasonable to presume that they could achieve that by entering the wormhole, the appearance of the portal looked a little bit destructive and didn''t seem like a safe option. No one wanted to die and lose a lot of experience points just because of some random problem.

    "Isn''t it obvious?" Sato looked at them.

    "We enter the portal."

    "Huh? You sure about that?" The others asked.

    "Let''s go."

    Sato walked forward and ced his right hand on the ck portal just like thest time he was here and simrly, he felt a slight resistance as if a wall was between his hand and the portal.

    [[ System notification :

    You have to be in a party of at least 5 yers, with an average level of level 12 to ess this dungeon. ]]

    Just as Sato was about to question the system''s capabilities, another notification popped up, but this time it was disyed in the interface of everyone in the team.

    [[ System notification :

    Checking basic requirements...

    The Party level averaged at 13.

    Requirements have been met.

    ____________________

    Do you wish the enter the dungeon, [Temple of Vasili¨¢s]?

    ]]

    ''So the dungeon takes the same name as this ce.'' Sato thought.

    "Alright, everybody. You guys are ready right?"

    "Yeah." Lu Zhen smiled.

    "Haha, time to beat some high priest''s ass. Let''s go." Fudo chuckled.

    "We need to take this in the name of Seven Star Glory!" Yato cheered.

    "Ready." Katsuo lifted his shield in front of himself.

    "What''s all this fuss for? Let''s go already." Seiichi nudged his sses.

    "Hmm." Xue Yan simply nodded with her cold face.

    Sato smiled lightly seeing the enthusiasm and readiness on the faces of his teammates.

    "Alright then. On to the first dungeon raid of team Seven Star Glory.. Let''s make it count."

 Chapter 475 - 469: Entering The Dungeon 2

    In a pitch-ck area in [Temple Of Vasili¨¢s]

    "The heck? Who turned off the lights?" Fudo suddenly yelled with a low voice.

    "Could you be quiet?" Seiichi cautioned.

    "Gimme a sec."

    Shortly after, a low-intensity light bloomed from a small blue orb as the vision was restored for the entire team members.

    "Thanks, Xue Yan." Sato nodded at her.

    The small blue orb that provided lighting to the entire ce was a special type of magic torch that Xue Yan had crafted during her time in the city''s rune-forging rooms. The resources weren''t costly but the production method was a bitplex. Luckily, Xue Yan''s skills in rune-forging were roughly on par with a Practitioner so it wasn''t an issue for her to seed.

    "Am I the only one who feels like that teleportation process was a bit disturbing?" Katsuo asked.

    "Same here. It''s even worse than the teleportation arrays in town." Lu Zhenined.

    Looking around, Sato noticed that apart from himself and Xue Yan, the others felt a bit of pain in certain parts of their bodies. Katsuo rubbed his back, trying to alleviate the pain there while Lu Zhen and the rest stretched the various affected parts of their body in a simr manner.

    "It probably has something to do with the level of the users. For me and Xue Yan, we''re at least level 15 so we don''t feel anything. As for Seiichi, Lu Zhen, and Fudo, you guys don''t feel much since you''re level 12 which is the average required level for this dungeon. However, Yato and Katsuo are the ones that are the most affected."

    "You''re probably right." Seiichi nodded after some thought.

    "So you''re saying it''s cause I''m weak?" Yato twitched his lips.

    "In summary, yes. Hehe." Fudo smirked.

    "Now, where the hell are we?" Yato ignored him as began stretching his arms while he nced around the ce.

    Upon arrival, the entire ce was covered in darkness and it was only due to the small blue orb released by Xue Yan that they were able to see their surroundings.

    "This should be a room." Lu Zhen said after looking around the ce.

    "But where''s the door?" Yato nced at him.

    "He''s right. As for the location of the door, there should be a trick to it. A hidden trap system to open or something." Sato said.

    "Time to work my magic I guess." Lu Zhen smirked.

    Of the entire team members, only Lu Zhen had the subss [Hunter], and when ites to trap systems and the likes, [Hunters] were number 1.

    The room was big enough to fit the entire 7 with no problems but it wasn''t thatrge. After taking 10 minutes of scanning through the walls, Lu Zhen had managed to spot the switch for the door. Activating it, an opening formed by the side of a wall with a rumbling sound, and the team was able to see the other side of the room, which was a corridor that led to an unknown area.

    "Finally." Fudo sighed.

    "Alright. Everyone, take formation." Sato stated.

    Katsuo immediately went forward, officially taking the role of the team''s tank. Yato nked him to the right while Lu Zhen stood a bit behind him to the left. Xue Yan and Fudo stood side by side in the middle of the trio with Seiichi just a bit behind them. Finally, Sato took the guard role behind, acting as a shield for the long-ranged yers.

    The formation seemed simple but every position was nned properly by Sato. Katsuo taking the tank role was natural as that was the purpose of his ss. Yato was meant to assist him while also dealing damage to the target in situations like a single battle. As for a group battle, he was tasked with lessening the burden of the MT(Katsuo). Lu Zhen was tasked withunching sneak attacks and that was why he was behind Katsuo. By staying at that position, he could hide behind Katsuo at any moment andunch surprise attacks at the opponent in single target battles.

    Fudo, Xue Yan, and Seiichi staying in the middle was the best possible option as that was the safest ce for them. Compared to the other teammates who were physical ss users, their defense was very weak so keeping them in front was not an option. Also, they would be able to deal the most damage from a safe spot, and as they were the main damage dealers of the team, this was a very necessary fixture.

    Seiichi staying a bit behind was to provide the highest damage from there. His new weapon had the special feature of dealing more damage the longer the distance between him and his target, hence Seiichi had to stay behind even more so than Fudo and Xue Yan.

    Finally, Sato''s decision of putting himself behind wasn''t because he was scared of battles but instead he wanted the others to get more battle experience as well as experience points. Currently, experience points weren''t Sato''s priority; the team''s collective strength and cohesion were. Even with all the battles they had fought, Sato still wasn''t satisfied with their progress and wanted them to be able to match up to the top teams of 2nd tier guilds at the very least. So leaving them to their devices and watching their backs was the least he could do for the team, hence the reason why he was stationed at the back of the formation.

    "Let''s go."

    The team of 7 then proceeded towards the exit.

    "Watch out." Xue Yan suddenly notified the team. As the highest levelled [Elementalist], her ability to sense lifeforms with mana was the highest in the team.

    "Okay." Katsuo, who stayed in front, nodded.

    "Cra!!!"

    A weird screeching sound came from up ahead. When the sound reached Sato and Xue Yan, they felt nothing about it but when the other 5 heard the sound, their bodies shook a bit as a strange wave of fear flooded them.

    [[ System notification :

    You have been infected by the passive skill [Inborn Fear]

    Attack Power reduced by 10% ]]

 Chapter 476 - 470 : Dungeon Raid

    [[ System notification :

    You have been infected by the passive skill [Inborn Fear]

    Attack Power reduced by 10% ]]

    ''A passive skill just from its voice?'' Sato frowned as the team approached the origin of the noise.

    *Step* *Step*

    Katsuo, who stood in front, was the first to notice the creature. It was a cloaked humanoid figure that held out a hand with an orb in it. The monster walked around aimlessly, but in a programmed manner, chanting a few incoherent words while periodically letting out that strange roar that had stunned the team.

    The creature was oozing out a dreadful aura of darkness that encroached the heart and mind of all, weakening one''s fighting ability and giving off a chilling atmosphere in the area.

    "The heck is that?" Fudo couldn''t help but curse once he got a sight of the creature.

    Sato narrowed his eyes as he felt it was a bit familiar but couldn''t pin his finger to it.

    "Look carefully." Seiichi suddenly said.

    With his prompt, the others focused their sights up ahead and noticed that there wasn''t just one of that creature there; there were at least 6 others, but due to the dim lighting as well as the dark clothing of the monsters, they didn''t notice they at first nce.

    "Time for our first battle I guess." Sato said while everyone else prepared themselves.

    "Go."

    Katsuo immediately charged towards one of the monsters in the passage with his shield in front of himself and just as he was a few metres away from it, he released a deafening roar.

    [Taunt]

    "Argh!"

    [Taunt] was the most basic skill as well as one of the few skillsmon amongst the two MT sses, the [Guardian] and the [Pdin]. While the description of the skill was in and simple, its functionality was top-notch. Unlike most skills that needed to be activated by performing a specific sequence or series of actions, [Taunt] could be activated by utilising any method the user saw fit.

    Some activated the skill by a simple swing of their weapon, others did so by performing undermining or unscrupulous actions, but there were a few who used the skill by doing the simplest action that attracted attention; shouting. By raising their voice high, these yers were able to bring out the fullest effects of the skill and draw attention towards themselves without a hitch. Katsuo happened to be among this group of yers.

    *Creak*

    As expected, the monsters noticed Katsuo but the first to react was the one closest to him. While it was indeed the first to react to Katsuo''s outrageous cry, it wasn''t able to react to his attack in time.

    *Bang*

    -3 (???/??? ???)

    [[ System battle notification :

    The opponent has been stunned for 0.3 seconds. ]]

    The shield collided with the creature right in the chest, creating a concave on the spot, followed by a deformation to the posture of the monster. With its head leaning towards Katsuo and the abdominal area moving in the opposite direction, the creature was pushed back by Katsuo to the point it almost copsed to the floor after retreating back by 4 steps.

    ''What a tough fellow.'' Katsuo thought, but he didn''t slow down with his actions as he immediately drew his sword and swung the edge right at the monster.

    -52 (???/??? ???)

    Seeing the little amount of damage his attack had caused, Katsuo raised an eyebrow but he didn''t lose track of himself. Having constantly practiced with the team following Sato''s orders, he had already learnt the basics of the role of a tank and knew when and what to set as his priority.

    ''[Inspect]''

    [[ System interface :

    Dark Priest (Common)

    Race : Human (???)

    Level : 11

    HP : 1595/1650

    Physical Attack Power : 60

    Magical attack power : 135

    Physical Defense : 37 (x1.5)

    Magical Defense : 67 (x1.5)

    Attack Speed : 60

    Movement Speed : 36

    Attributes

    Strength : 20

    Endurance : 25

    Vitality : 110

    Agility : 18

    Dexterity : 20

    Intelligence : 50

    Willpower : 45

    Skills

    . . .

    ]]

    Immediately he got the results, Katsuo didn''t hesitate to send it to the team chat while he took on the monster.

    Just a secondter, the other 6 Dark Priests had arrived before him and Katsuo was soon to be out under an onught.

    *Boom*

    A fireball darted and collided on one of the Dark Priests, setting off an explosion that blew it, alongside on other, to the side.

    *Phew*

    2 arrows shot through from behind, urately hitting two of the Dark Priests and pushing them back just a bit.

    Another fireball appeared and rammed one Dark Priest directly on the chest, pulling it away from Katsuo. As for thest one, Lu Zhen had stealthily appeared beside it andnded a kick on it, giving Katsuo a better breathing space.

    ''Good.'' Sato nodded as he watched from behind.

    While the team''s coordination and battle sense weren''t up to par with those of 1st tier guilds and above, they could narrowly make their way to be on par with the trump card teams of 2nd tier guilds.

    Yato, who wasn''t part of thebo mix just then, suddenly moved for the two Dark Priests temporarily knocked away by the arrows. 7 Dark Priests, on par with him in level, was a task for Katsuo to keep up with do Yato had to turn to a makeshift tank for at least two of them. In support would be Seiichi, who would make use of his high damage and precision strikes to lessen the pressure on Yato.

    As for the other 5 Dark Priests, Katsuo would have to find a way to hold them down while the main damage dealers, Fudo and Xue Yan, finish them off. For someone who wasn''t a pro gamer, this was a very difficult task.

    Luckily, Katsuo had some experience in tanking as he was usually assigned that role in different VR games due to his physique. Also, he had Lu Zhen to assist him with timely sneak attacks but the most important point was still Xue Yan. Having a level 15 heavy-hitter backing you up against a bunch of level 11 monsters had its value.

    *Boom*

    "Craww!!!"

    Before 2 minutes was up, the first Dark Priest had died under thebined attack of Xue Yan and Lu Zhen. Fudo assisted Katsuo to hold back the others and while he hadn''t killed any, he had seeded in dropping the HP of the monsters by a sizeable chunk.

    "I won''t besting long guys." Yato suddenly yelled from the other side.

    He wasn''t like Sato who was both absurdly strong and absurdly skilled. Yato was the definition of a typical [Swordsman] yer so there was no way he would be able to hold off 2 Dark Priests at his level all on his own, even if he had Seiichi''s assistance.

    One major reason for thisy in the fact that the teamcked a healer, so each member had to be careful in fights and avoid getting injured as much as possible. While there were HP potions, these potions had a limited effect as well as a cool-down, sopared to having an actual Healer yer on standby, it couldn''t suffice.

    "Katsuo, Yato, gather them all at the same spot then run." Xue Yan suddenly said.

    "Alright."

    None of them asked any questions as they simply did as she said. Katsuo steadily held his ground while Yato simply dashed towards him with the Dark Priests following closeby.

    When the two monsters were within reach, Katsuo abruptly yelled again, activating [Taunt] once more and pulling the somewhat mindless creatures towards himself.

    "Move!" Katsuo roared.

    [Grand Rebound]

    *Bang*

    A yellow force field erupted from Katsuo''s shield and spread out in a hemispherical manner, pushing the 6 Dark Priests away from him. At the same time, Xue Yan aimed her staff towards them and Katsuo immediately cleared the way, escaping from his previous position with all his might.

    [Monarch Of mes] passive skill engaged.

    "[zing Fury]."

    [Fire Maniption]

    Xue Yan''s eyes had a light orange glow in them as a pir of red light burst forth from the tip of her staff and darted towards the 6 monsters.

    Just as it was close to them, the red light exploded in a fury, releasing a ''tsunami'' of mes that covered arge part of the corridor. The temperature of the area had suddenly increased by tenfolds and even Yato, Lu Zhen, and the others had to withdraw a bit to keep themselves safe from the absurd heat.

    As for the Dark Priests, they were engulfed in the mes, and while they weren''t exactly at the centre of the explosion, they weren''t so far from it.

    "Damn..." Fudo couldn''t help but exim.

    "No matter how many times I see it, it''s still amazing."

    The attack used by Xue Yan was actually abo that utilised all three of the skills attached to her staff, [Aoefir]. The first was the passive skill, [Monarch Of mes], that increased her affinity to fire element by 10%, indirectly increasing the attack power of her fire-based skills. [zing Fury] was an active skill that released arge swathe of mes equivalent to 170% of her attack power in a 5 metres radius around her. As for thest skill, [Fire Maniption], it was the most important skill in thebo and the reason why the explosion had urred away from Xue Yan rather than around her.

    [Fire Maniption] granted Xue Yan the ability to control her mes, both in form and direction. Using this skill, she had temporarily prevented [zing Fury], which was actually a self-defence skill, from triggering around her, and had insteadpressed it into a ray which she fired towards the Dark Priests and finally released its true form. However, the level of skill required in using this ability was too high that Xue Yan wasn''t able to maintain the ray for long so [zing Fury] had returned to its true form quicker than expected, causing a devastating explosion within a 5 metres radius of the ray''sst stop.

    Nheless, the Dark Priests were still caught in the midst of the explosion and had suffered heavy injuries.

    "Time to finish them off." Lu Zhen immediately dived into the mes just as it had begun dispersing, hoping to get thest kill on the creatures.

    "Stop right there, you cheat." Yato roared as he followed right behind him.

    Sato stood behind as he watched all this with a small smile on his face. At that moment, he felt like a father watching his children grow, and while the feeling was a bit awkward, he didn''t think too much about it.

    ''The gaming world is about to experience the rise of a new powerful force.''

 Chapter 477 - 471 : Global Progress

    ''A Dark Priest?'' Sato analysed the data sent by Katsuo as the fight went on.

    ''Now I know why they look familiar.''

    Recalling the image of the ck hooded figure he had found at the ghost mansion in Gnorka, Sato matched the two and found out that they looked quite the same and were a bit simr to each other.

    Both the Cursed Servant and Dak Priests were all aligned towards the dark side and their spells were ever so simr to the other. If that wasn''t enough, even their dressing and appearance almost matched each other with a 70-80% simrity or more between them.

    ''Are they rted to the other or is ck Rock Province just riddled with dark forces?''

    As he was lost in thought, Sato failed to realise that the team had already cleared up the passageway and the Dark Priests were all dead. Apart from some scorch marks from Xue Yan''s devastating mes, only the leftover corpses of the creatures were left behind.

    "Oi, Sato! We''re done here." Yato called out to him.

    "Oh?" Sato snapped back from his thoughts.

    "Loot the corpses of then; let''s see what we''ve got."

    After receiving the go-ahead from the team leader, Yato walked up towards the remains of the Dark Priests, nning to loot it. Halfway through though, he was beaten by Fudo, who has appeared almost out of nowhere andnded at his target.

    "Allow me." Fudo grinned as he rubbed his palms, itching to have a go at looting dead bodies.

    Yato didn''t have the energy to bother with Fudo so he simply walked to the side and watched on.

    The looting process for monsters in IR was anything butplicated. By simply approaching the corpse, one would ce their hand either over or on top of it and a loot icon visible only to them would appear. By simply ''clicking'' in the icon mentally, the looting function wouldmence as the corpse would disintegrate.

    However, there was one other mechanism of looting in IR. This was by actually doing the job yourself and searching for any treasured on the monster''s body. This was the developers'' idea of making the process more realistic but it was made optional for yers due to various reasons, one being the duration and energy involved.

    Fudo, just like a majority of the yers on the server, preferred the automatic looting function as it saved time and was less stressful than its counterpart.

    As he looted the first corpse, two items dropped out from it but Fudo didn''t bother to check what it was before putting it in his space bag. He then went over to the next corpse and repeated the same action, but this time around, only one item appeared.

    Still maintaining his calm, Fudo went on to perform the same series of actions on the remaining 5 corpses and what he got in return was either 1 or 2 items from each corpse. In most cases, he only got a few silver coins or some random but extremelymon item or material.

    "Such a low drop rate. Both quantity and quality arecking a lot." Fudo''s face had a slight irregrity as he mouthed those words out.

    Fudo had always termed himself as the lucky mascot of the team. For him to get such a terrible reward rate from the loot was a challenge to his title.

    "Haha. Next time, why don''t you let me have a go, alright?" Yatoughed from the side.

    "Tch." Fudo tightened his staff in vexation.

    "Alright. You all calm down first. Even if the loot isn''t a lot, we still profited from this exercise." Sato said.

    "There''s the 10% increase to rewards and the Experience points you gained so be a little bit satisfied."

    Infinite Realm determined the allocation of Experience points from a defeated enemy in priority of who participated the most. Since Sato had avoided the battle all through, he received a very meagre amount of Experience points for belonging to the party whereas the rest received much more. While this seemed detrimental to Sato''s growth, it actually wasn''t.

    The level difference between him and the monsters had already surpassed 5 levels so his gains from the battle would still be less if he participated. Also, his participation would affect the reward of the others as the system would ssify the fight as them being ''carried''[1] by Sato and their rewards would be small. But with his absence from the fights, the effect of Sato''s presence in the party wouldn''t be much and the team would receive more Experience points than with him joining the battle.

    However, Xue Yan, who had a major hand in the fight, was still above the monsters by at least 4 levels. The level difference alongside her active participation had affected the rewards of the team so there was no major improvement on their levelling speed, but it was still better than when they were out in the fields.

    "Fudo. What did we get?" Sato turned to him and asked.

    "Done." Right after Sato had asked, Fudo sent a message to the team chat. He had already scanned the items as he picked them but he had never gone through the results yet.

    "What the heck is a darkness crystal shard?" Yato suddenly asked.

    Of the items Fudo had picked up, 65% of themprised of these darkness crystal shards. The 25% were silver coins and 2-star materials while the remaining 10% were two pieces of equipment; a leather glove and a belt, both level 10 equipment.

    Because the team already had their weapons and equipment revamped, thanks to Sato''s skilled hands, they didn''t find the two pieces of equipment attractive and only focused on the unknown.

    "I don''t know. It''s probably a dungeon specialty." Seiichi analysed.

    "Just keep it with you. It would probably be usefulter on in time. We will eventually find out its use as we proceed further. Let''s go." Sato said.

    With that, the team began heading deeper into the corridor, maintaining the same formation as they did in the beginning.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    While team Seven Star Glory was exploring the [Temple of Vasili¨¢s] dungeon, the other top teams were exploring their various dungeons. Compared to Sato''s team, these onescked a mage with critical firepower like Xue Yan, much less an OP factor such as Sato. What more, apart from the top teams from 1st tier guilds and super guilds, the levels of the raid team''s members of the various guilds weren''t anything special, so even though their dungeon was supposedly easier than Seven Star Glory''s, they were already experiencing some difficulties.

    "Hold on. We can still turn this around.* Daichi screamed at his men.

    "There are too many of them." Swift de, one of the main attackers of the East Crow guild as well as the man who had fought alongside Sato and Fudo during the Goblin battle, eximed.

    Hearing his words, Daichi began frowning.

    Compared to the dungeon Sato and the others had gone for, the forest dungeon East Crow guild took was one with monsters starting from level 10 and above. ording to Aldeus'' calctions, the dungeon was supposed to be safer than the Earth dungeon, and also more profitable. However, all these calctions were based on the data Daichi and his men had fed to it and they were losing one missing factor, which led to the team underestimating the dungeon, as well as Aldeus not deciphering one feature of the dungeon.

    As a forest-type dungeon, there was a high chance that the poption of monsters present in the dungeon would be above-average. However, as the scout team wasn''t able to go in too deep to the dungeon, they didn''t notice this factor and had presumed that the monster count was average. This proved to be a fatal w, both to Aldeus'' calctions, as well as the team''s preparations.

    The first 30 minutes to an hour wasn''t much of an issue for the team as they easily made their way in. But it was just as they had gone deeper in that the monsters began to flood them. While there were a few level 13 yers in the mix, against a pack of 4-6 level 10 monsters, they could only hold their ground and be forced into a drawn-out battle, losing their stamina with the passage of time.

    With the experts being preupied, it was inevitable for the weaker ones to fall prey to the monsters. If it took one level 13 yer to hold off four level 10 monsters, what could a level 11 yer do in a simr scenario?

    "Arghh!!"

    Before long, the first death was reported as a yer disintegrated into starlight and his name in the team chat was greyed out. However, this wasn''t all as with time, more and more yers began to die.

    With the number of yers reducing, the monsters has fewer targets to focus on and the experts in the team had their burden increased. The battle onlysted an extra 12 minutes from the death of the first yer before everyone in the team, including Daichi, had died.

    In dungeons in IR, death meant game over and the yer would respawn outside of the dungeon. This meant that the team''s adventures in the dungeon this time around was brought to an untimely end and became a failure.

    While this was quite sad, it wasn''t the only dreadful experience. Various other teams all over the world in Infinite Realm, ranging from 4th tiers to 2nd tiers had experienced team wipes. Even a low-rank 1st guild had a majority of their numbers forced out of the dungeon with the rest trying to keep their lives safe as they ran from their pursuers. And this was one of the luckier ones. Some had already experienced team wipes and were forced out of the dungeon.

    From this single experience, a majority of yers came to the conclusion that the achievement of Global First clear for a dungeon, was not an easy task, even with all the preparations they had made.

 Chapter 478 - 472 : Map Fragments

    "That''s the 7th one." Yato smirked as he pulled out his sword from the corpse on the floor.

    "Only 7? I got 9." Fudo grinned.

    "Obviously cause you were stealing kills while I had to work for them." Yato barked. He and Fudo had made a bet on who would get the most kills but Yato never expected Fudo to use a loophole and win.

    "Yato is right, you know. You were stealing a lot of kills." Sato said as ced his sword back into his sheath.

    The team of 7prising of Sato and his teammates had been walking for over 2 hours so far. While they were still in the same corridor as before, the width of the path had expanded muchrger than before. If it could be said to be able to fit 15 people standing side by side with their arms outstretched before, now it could hold 25 people; almost double the original width. With so much space avable, the team was able to perform better in battles and flexibly change their battle formations without a hitch. However, one change that came with this adjustment was the increased difficulty in battles.

    The dark priests the team had encountered along the way were much stronger than the previous ones. From the warning just before they had entered the dungeon, the average level of the dungeon was ced at level 12 so it was reasonable to call the bunch of level 11 monsters they met ''the weingmittee''. As they had walked deeper in, level 12 and 13 monsters became quitemon and what was worse was that the monsters weren''t just Common ranked; Elites filled the ce and the asional Special Elites were also present, but that wasn''t all.

    About 30 minutes ago, new breeds of monsters had appeared on the path, forcing the team to constantly change their formation to adapt to the various situations and strengths of the monsters. If not for Xue Yan, they would have suffered a team wipe long ago as such encounters they had faced had already numbered past 3. Even the top teams of super guilds and peak 1st tier guilds would find it difficult tost this long under such intense battles. It finally got to a point where Sato couldn''t just stand back and watch, but he still minimized his participation only to the point where it was needed.

    Thanks to Sato, the team was able to get some breathing space and proceeded forward. This was the advantage the group had over all the other raid teams currently in the game despite taking on a much tougher dungeon. While the top guilds had experts to clear the way, Seven Star Glory had the OP Sato assisting them from behind so it was only natural for them to be progressing through danger zones that would hold others back.

    ''But this dungeon is a lot tougher than I thought. Level 12 entrance but level 13 and possibly above monsters everywhere.'' Sato sighed internally.

    The mainstream level was between 12-13, with the pros approaching level 14 while the ones at the peak were aiming for level 15 and 16, yet, the [Temple of Vasili¨¢s] had monsters at level 12 and 13 flooding the entire ce. What was worse was that these monsters weren''t in small numbers as each wave numbered anywhere between 14-25 of them, and this was because Sato''s team consisted of 7 yers. Just from this alone, it was indeed right of the system to ssify the dungeon as one harder than the others.

    "How many fragments do we have now?" Sato asked Seiichi, who was now charged with collecting the loot.

    Because Seiichi had the [Merchant] subss, which granted a small boost to a yer''s rewards and luck due to the line of work of the ss, the team, excluding Fudo, had collectively agreed for Seiichi to loot the corpses.

    "Just 2 more, but I think we will be able to get those from here." Seiichi said.

    The fragments they were referring to weren''t the darkness crystal shards but fragments that made up the map of the dungeon. Sato and the others had originally presumed that the dungeon was simplistic, being a straight path that led to the end, but upon discovering a map fragment, Sato presumed that their previous beliefs might be wrong. If the dungeon was simply a straight path, then there would be no need for a map. The existence of the map fragment pointed towards this fact, challenging the previous idea of the team. However, as they could not get a glimpse of the actual map or even a part of it, till enough fragments were gathered to form one set, there was no way to confirm this.

    Therefore, not only was the goal of the team to explore the corridor but it was also toplete a fragment of the map and uncover the secrets of the dungeon.

    Sato never had any ns ofpleting the dungeon on his first try because that was simply impossible. He wasn''t some reincarnated MC that knew the dungeon like the back of his hand, neither did he have any inside information from the developers. His only option was to slowly explore the dungeon step by step till he felt that they had understood its mechanics. Only then would then now aim toplete it. Hence, Sato and the rest were prepared for a team wipe, even though a part of them never wished for it. But that was just a mere wish and an impossibility, but who knows.

    "Finally. It''splete." Seiichi announced a few seconds after he had looted thest corpse.

    Seiichi then sent an image of the map to the team chat for all to analyse at the same time.

    The map was a dull yellow rectangr piece of paper that had the outlines of a building shaped like a bident[1]; a trident with two prongs. At one point on one of the prongs of the bident, a red dot was shown, marking the current location of the map''s holder in real-time. At the tip of the two prongs were grey dots while at the end of the stem of the bident, there was a ck dot that served as the endpoint. Also, at the points where the prongs of the bident bend horizontally to join the stem, there were two brown dots with one being on each prong

    From a rough but simple scrutiny, the team realised that the two grey dots symbolised the entrance points into the dungeon while the ck dot was the exit as well as their of the dungeon''s BOSS. As for the brown dot, both Sato and Seiichi guessed that they were major checkpoints and possible nests of mini-BOSSES.

    "So by that logic, there are two entrances to the dungeon?" Xue Yan asked.

    Since the team were done with thest batch of monsters, they decided to take a break and analyse the map as well as try to

    "Looks that way. Nheless, the other entrance has nothing to do with us. We just have to keep going and explore the dungeon as much as we can." Sato replied.

    "Till we get team wiped?" Lu Zhenmented.

    "If that''s how you want to put. We''ve already gained a lot so far. The experience rewards each of you have gained are enough to cover the loss from a single death and still enable you to profit from this journey, but the same isn''t for me. So you should be the least worried about dying." Sato nced at Lu Zhen.

    "Who said I am?" Lu Zhen smiled.

    "Hmm. If we go by the deduction from you and Seiichi, then that means that we would potentially have to face 2 BOSS." Fudo faced Sato.

    Sato nodded.

    "It''s a dungeon so it''s understandable for there to be a mini BOSS. It would have been more strange if there wasn''t one, considering that this dungeon is supposed to be harder than the others."

    "The only problem here is the strength of the mini BOSS as well as the main BOSS." Seiichi nudged his sses. They were different from the usual ones he wore in town and were more suited to battle, and since they were forged by Sato, these sses werebelled as battle equipment and not a luxury good; offering increased vision, awareness as well as uracy with an arrow.

    "If I''m correct, the mini BOSS would be level 15; its rank should be either Special Elite or possibly a King. As for the main BOSS, I can''t be too sure about it. Maybe level 17 or 20. It could also be level 15 but with a much higher rank or something. There are quite a few possibilities."

    "Let''s leave all this forter. This is an exploration raid, not the actual stuff.2 Sato said in a bid to clear away the despondent atmosphere from Seiichi''s conjecture.

    "For the meantime, we move ahead and work with the presumption that the mini BOSS is a level Special Elite."

    Before anyone could ask why, Sato continued,

    "The Kobold King is a special existence; a world-ss BOSS. So, it''s reasonable as to why it was a King rank. As for this dungeon, it''s among the first batch in the game and while it''s stated to be more difficult than the others, it shouldn''t be to the point where a mini BOSS is a King rank. And seeing as we aren''t far from the checkpoint as well as the fact that we''ve only encountered level 13 monsters as the strongest, the mini BOSS should most likely be a level 15 monster. Let''s not forget the fact that the general level of yers is between level 12 and 13.

    "All these factors added together are enough reasons for us not to worry too much. Even if our worst nightmarese to be, don''t forget, you have me."

    "That''s true." Fudoughed.

    The team had mostly been proceeding while forgetting Sato''s true strength. While it was true that he had provided aid to them, it was only timely assistance that was granted when one of them was close to dying or was being overwhelmed by the monsters. Throughout most of the time, Sato left them to their own devices to see how they could cope with the pressure. The team needed improvements and they wouldn''t get that if he always assisted them. So with Sato barely interfering in the fights, unless when necessary, they had managed to forget about him and didn''t put him into most of their calctions.

    "Alright. Enough contemting.. Let''s go."

 Chapter 479 - 473 : First BOSS Spotted

    "Hey Seiichi, is this the checkpoint?" Lu Zhen asked in the team chat. As the only [Assassin] in the squad, Lu Zhen was temporarily tasked with the role of a scout, having to move ahead of the main team to get a look out on the opponents infront.

    "Yeah. ording to the estimations of the map, it should be the checkpoint." Seiichi replied.

    "Okay, got that. You guys hurry up then." Lu responded.

    It didn''t take up to 5 minutes before Sato and the rest had made their way towards Lu Zhen''s location, which happened to be the point where the brown dot on the mapid.

    The area was a closed off hall that had only one entrance; the corridor which Sato and the team had been travelling through. It was extremelyrge and there was no doubt that a massive crowd of about 3000-4000 people could fit in there without a hassle.

    The lighting of the hall was dim due to the fact that the torches were spaced out and few. At the same time, the hall was alsocking any furniture or decorative structures like columns and so on. It was very simple and in in terms of interior design, andcked any exquisiteness at first sight. The only special feature of the hall were the weird markings on the floor, which looked a lot like strange runes. But even Xue Yan, with her extensive knowledge of runes, couldn''t understand them or recognise them their origin.

    Just as stated before, the hall only had one entrance which was connected to the corridor Sato and the rest came from. There was no other entrance nor exit, but at a more careful gaze, Seiichi noticed something and then informed the team of his discovery.

    "So there''s a gate at the other end of the hall, huh?" Yato asked just to be sure.

    The distance between them and the other end of the hall was a lot so for yers whose ss had average visual prowess, they wouldn''t be able to spot anything special apart from the wall there.

    As for why Sato and the others hadn''t moved into the hall, they were taking precautions just in case a mini BOSS actually resided in the area.

    "There''s a hidden door by other end. It was hard for me to spot it but I managed to catch sight of the grooves thanks to my sses." Seiichi exined.

    "So what do we do now?" Katsuo looked at Sato.

    "We keep moving. Everyone prepare for an ambush at any second from the point onwards. The chance of there being a mini BOSS might look unlikely due to the current situation, but it still exists." Sato said.

    "We''ll make some changes to the formation. Yato, you go behind with Lu Zhen and watch our backs. Katsuo and I will keep the front guarded and lead the way. As for Xue Yan, Fudo and Seiichi, try to remain within close distance of us 4. No matter what, don''t stay more than 3 feet away from the other. Any questions? If there are none, then let''s go."

    Sato nced at everyone and with nobody questioning the new arrangements, they began proceeding towards the hall at a steady pace.

    The reason why Sato changed the formation was to intercept with any sneak attacks aimed at the team. Since by their estimation, the mini BOSS, if it did exist, would most likely be stronger than everyone in the team apart from Xue Yan and himself, Sato had to take the task of pulling its aggression since Katsuo would most likely be unable to pull that off. However, the back would still need some form of defence, hence the reason why Sato sent Yato and Lu Zhen there. With Katsuo by his side, they would be able to also defend their nks with ease as there were two of them.

    *Step* *Step*

    *nk* *nk*

    No matter how steadily the team walked, their footsteps still resounded in their ears and the nging of the metallic armour on Katsuo, Yato and Sato''s bodies, was even more resounding than their footsteps.

    "Wuuoooooo!!!"

    Just as the team of 7 were halfway into the hall, a weird cry sounded from all directions. The origin of the cry couldn''t be pinpointed and it felt as if it came from all angles.

    "What was that?" Fudo couldn''t help but exim as he held his staff tightly.

    *Rumble*

    The floor abruptly began to shake with the ceiling following suit. Dust particles began to rain from the ceiling as the tremor caused an upheaval that put the stability of the hall at risk. It was like an earthquake had descended but the intensity wasn''t exactly shocking enough at the start, but overtime, it begins to increase and even Sato''s instincts began to sound warning bells in his head.

    "Run!"

    Without thinking twice, the team immediately dashed towards the other side as Sato gave the order right after noticing that the situation was getting worse with each passing second.

    While it was a race for their lives, they still maintaied the formation and set priorities on making sure that the slower ones like Xue Yan and Fudo made it out safely.

    Separated by a distance of 200 metres or so, Sato was able to catch sight of the gate Seiichi had mentioned and he immediately aimed for it, with the others following his lead.

    Just when the team was about a 100 metres away from the wall where the door was located, arge hand upying a 3 metres wide area abruptly broke out from the floor in an unrestrained manner. Rocks dashed out from the spot and were flung in multiple directions. Even Sato and the others had to pay attention to not get hit by some of them.

    "It''s the BOSS."

    With Sato''s reminder, the team was forced to stop their run as they now stood face to face with the monster that had managed to burrow half of itself out from the ground in a hurry.

    With the efforts done by the strange monster to escape its confinement, the rumbling began to decrease in intensity as the entire hall slowly began to return to its normalcy.

    "What in the holy scriptures is that?" Yato couldn''t help but ask our loud.

    The monster had finally climbed out from the ground and revealed its true form the others.

    The subterranean creature was an oddly shaped monster with exaggeratedly big hands that barelyplemented its height. It stood at an impressive height of 7 metres with tattered shorts on, and with hands as wide as almost half of its height, it was a strange sight for anyone to see.

    Apart from therge hands that could push a batter or a batsman[1] to hopelessness, the monster had one eyeball rather than the normal two a human, or at least any basic anthropomorphic race had. It had deep dark skin which made it even harder to spot in the already dim hall. Its physique was a bit muscly, with the most obvious part being its legs that were shredded [2]. While the monster was dark inplexion, the minimum lighting in the area was able to make it give off a reflective sheen, making one wonder whether it was actually skin or some eerie scales that covered the creature''s body.

    All in all, the cyclops could be called an abomination; a disgusting creature that shouldn''t exist.

    However, all these were just physical descriptions, and to yers, they didn''t matter that much. To a pro gamer, appearances could be deceiving and all they trusted were stats. Hence, to Sato and the rest, the most important thing was the strength of the monster and even without exchanging blows, they could already tell that it was strong; very strong. This was because, the mana and energy levels exuded from the monster''s body was easily sensed by all of them, despite the fact that mages were supposed to have better sense in this regard.

    "Strong, very strong." Katsuo gulped down a mouthful of saliva as he wondered whether he would be able to tank a blow from the monster.

    "Xue Yan, what''s your take?" Sato whispered in the team chat.

    In IR, the basic method of gauging one''s strength apart from using the [Inspect] skill was by sensing the target''s energy or mana level. And this action was mostly performed by the [Druid] in a team. In the case where one was unavable, the task would be passed down to an [Elementalist] or a [Necromancer], then a [Summoner] and finally a [Cursemancer] and a [Cleric].

    In the team''s case, while theycked a [Druid], they still had the next best thing; an [Elementalist] and two of them at that.

    Of the two mages in the team, Xue Yan was higher levelled that Fudo and she was also a Scribe. Therefore, her sensitivity to mana was much higher than the rest of them, and she could even be roughlypared to a [Druid] at the same level. So it was right of Sato to ask for her judgement in the monster''s strength rather than Fudo.

    "Strong. While it''s not really on the same level as the Kobold King, it''s not far from it. And this is just my evaluation based in its mana capacity. From the energy I can sense from it, this monster is likely a physicalbatant so I can''t really gauge its strength urately if we don''t face it in battle." Xue Yan sighed.

    "That''s an inevitable action." Sato said as he noticed that the singr eye of the monster had locked onto him.

    "Here ites."

 Chapter 480 - 474 : Battle

    "Roar!"

    "Split!" Sato yelled as he noticed the monster''s actions.

    *Bam*

    Despite having a body packed with muscles, the cyclops was able to reach the team in one jump without a hitch,unching a palm attack right as it did so. Luckily though, Sato''s alertness was in battle so he was able to react more faster than the others.

    "Don''t spread too far as he might try to pick us up one by one. Katsuo, you work with me and let''s try to keep this BOSS pinned down and busy with us. As for the rest of you, hit it with all you''ve got. Let''s take this monster down as soon as possible." Sato gave out hismands.

    Everyone in the team silently acquiesced and decided to follow the ns. It was as of none of them could recall that they weren''t so far from the door which could be an exit, but in truth, they were all aware; they simply just dey their focus elsewhere and there was meaning to that.

    After the experience in ck Grill''s Cave with the Guardian Golems on the 9th floor of the Middle region, everyone apart from Sato and Seiichi, hade to the conclusion that some gates or doors could only be open when the guardian was beaten. As to how one could recognise such ces, they usually had a guardian watching over them that would attack anyone who gets close.

    While it was true that the thought of just running past the monster and heading to the gate was in their head at some point, it was scratched out after they recalled that such wasn''t possible with the teleportation portal in ck Grill''s Cave. So rather than to spend their time and prioritise running past the monster, they had all tacitly agreed that it was smarter to defeat it before aiming for the door. This was because a high chance existed where the door was inessible to them and could only be unlocked after beating this guardian monster. While they could test out this theory, it was much better to face the monster than spend their time and energy on something like that.

    "Wuuoooooo!"

    As the creature had missed the group,nding its huge palm on the floor and making a depression, it roared and immediately targeted Sato as it felt that he was the most threat to it amongst the seven.

    "Sato!" Xue Yan couldn''t help but yell.

    "Maintain formation." Sato calmly said.

    "I''ll start off by holding its aggro. Katsuo, you switchter with me."

    Sato could handle the monster all by himself but he didn''t want to take that route. If he did so, the team would be over-reliant on his strength and they wouldn''t improve anymore. Hence, even though Katsuo was way weaker than the monster, Sato still wanted him to tank it so as to feel the difference in strength and to develop his skills. This sounded wrong but there was actually some logic to it.

    When a fighter goes up against an opponent that surpasses him in all areas of physique, including speed and strength, the fighter would have to rely on his brain in order to obtain victory. This was the development of a fighter''s battle awareness and sense, and this was what Sato hoped for Katsuo. He wanted him to be able to think like a tank and fight like one, even if his opponent was stronger than him.

    "It''s me and you for now." Sato stood still as he faced the dashing cyclops.

    "Roar!"

    Seemingly infuriated that its target dared to show a hint of animosity and defiance to it, the cyclops lifted its right arm up and brought it crashing down on Sato. As it did so, a weird brown glow deemed to cover the palm, acting as a shield that protected it from harm.

    "Ha!"

    Sato pulled out [Drakken] and shed it out in one move.

    *ng*

    The sword collided with the brown forcefield first, creating fissures all over it. Nheless, the shield managed to hold its ground but only for a minute before the sword went through it and hacked at the palm of the cyclops.

    A ssh of dark green blood sprayed from above as the ck cursed sword had managed to make a cut on the monster with its remnant force while also shoving the arm to the side.

    Even though monsters typically had more attribute points than yers, a level 15 Special Elite would at mostpare to a level 16 yer, much less a level 17 yer. When the bonuses from weapons and equipment are added up, the monster would find it difficult to hold its ground against such a yer.

    In summary, as long as Sato wished to, with the current strength it was disying, he could solo the monster all on his own. This was a monster that would give a headache to mots of the guilds in IR but thanks to his level advantage, it would just be a difficult for him but not impossible.

    ''I''m truly a living cheat code.'' Sato wrly smiled.

    While he could contend with the monster on his own, Sato didn''t want to do so. Killing it wouldn''t gain him much, but if his teammates were to do so, the profit would be worthwhile. This was another reason Sato intended for them to take on this dungeon.

    Sato needed to constantly improve alongside his team but raiding a normal dungeon wouldn''t help him achieve that so the only option was the [Temple of Vasili¨¢s], which the system acimed to be much tougher than the others.

    "Wuoo! All trespassers must die!" The cyclops suddenly spoke up.

    "You can talk?" Sato stared at it with a bit of shock.

    His surprise at the monster''s ability tomunicate was simply because itcked an aperture for that.

    The monster didn''t reply him but swiped its left hand at Sato instead.

    *Phew*

    An arrow pierced through the air and immediately headed for the cyclop''s eyes but it turned out that the monster''s reactions weren''t as slow as one would expect as it immediately shut the lone eye with its eye lids.

    *Tink*

    The arrow struck the closed eye lid but was like a toothpick going against a metal wall as it slid down without causing any damage to the creature.

    "Explode!"

    Fudo immediately triggered one of the spells on his equipment, setting the left arm of the cyclops on fire, but the monster didn''t react in a hurry, seeming as if it felt nothing. Even the battle log that were always active didn''t show any sign of the creature receiving damage.

    In response, the cyclops opened its eye and nced at Fudo, seemingly mocking him for his futile effort.

    "What a tough guy." Lu Zhen frowned.

    "The heck? Not even a 0?" Fudo twitched his lips as he stunned at the result of his attack.

    "Focus." Yato said as he ran past Fudo and dashed towards the monster.

    "Katsuo!"

    "On it." Katsuo replied as he dashed straight up with his shield in front of him.

    "Face me, you one-eyed freak!"

    [Taunt]

    The cyclops, who was focused on Sato at the time, was suddenly drawn towards Katsuo by his roar. Despite not paying attention to the others, it had still managed to hear what Katsuo had said, and added with the effects of the skill [Taunt], the monster felt as if it had been pricked on its ''reverse scale''.

    "Roar!"

    Like a man that was interrupted in the middle of his mating session, the cyclops roared at Katsuo with an infuriated gaze, sending a punch straight towards him.

    ''I think I overdid it.'' Katsuo thought as he immediately hung his sword behind him and wielded the shield with both hands.

    [Protection]

    [Buffer]

    A green glow shone all over Katsuo for a second, before a yellow glow took over.

    *Bang*

    The cyclop''s fist collided with Katsuo''s shield after which he was sent flying back like a torn kite.

    *Boom*

    -78 (???/??? Katsuo''s HP)

    After flying for over 5 metres, Katsuonded heavily on the scribbled floor as his hands copsed freely with the shield falling to the ground.

    "Katsuo!" Fudo and Yato yelled at the same time.

    "Ugh. That was some hit." Katsuo slowly moved his left hand towards the right side of his chest.

    The only reason he was still able to breath was because of the two skills he had activated at thest moment.

    [Protection] summoned a light shield to receive attacks on his behalf. The total damage the shield could tank was equivalent to 2 times his [Endurance]. As for the other skill, [Buffer], it boosted his defensive abilities by 10%, increasing his damage enduring capacity.

    If not for these two skills, Katsuo would have been dead after that hit.

    ''A level 15 BOSS monster is definitely not something I can handle on my own anytime soon.'' Katsuo thought.

    "Sato, what now?" Yato paused his advance as he realised that the monster in front of him was no small fry.

    "We still have this in the bag so don''t worry too much. I''ll officially take tanking duties while you guys deal damage. If you can''t confidently face this monster even with me by your side, then you shouldn''t be here." Sato narrowed his eyes as he spoke.

    "Haha. Well said." Fudoughed.

    "In that case, Seven Star Glory shall officiallymence this raid.." Seiichi nudged his sses.

 Chapter 481 - 475 : Gatekeeper Baka

    "Wuooo!!"

    With a loud roar, an axe suddenly took shape in the hands of the cyclops as it brought down the weapon at Sato.

    *ng*

    Despite the overwhelming weight aimed at him, Sato was able to stand his ground with ease as he simply blocked the axe by lifting [Drakken] above him, resulting in that deafening sound that had resounded earlier.

    "[Greater Fireball]"

    *Bam*

    -113 (???/???)

    A fireball half the height of standard chair crashed into the cyclops, exploding with a low boom while sending the cyclops back by one step.

    "Got it!" Xue Yan yelled after her attack hadnded.

    Following that, all the team members received a message on the team chat.

    [[ System interface :

    Gatekeeper Baka (Special Elite)

    Race : Dark Cyclops

    Level : 15

    HP : 4218/4500 (x30)

    Physical Attack Power : 135

    Magical Attack power : 30

    Physical Defense : 64 (x2)

    Magical Defense : 50 (x2)

    Attack Speed : 60

    Movement Speed : 36

    Attributes

    Strength : 45

    Endurance : 32

    Vitality : 150

    Agility : 18

    Dexterity : 20

    Intelligence : 10

    Willpower : 25

    Skills :

    . . .

    ???

    . . ]]

    "You can''t see it''s skills?" Sato raised an eyebrow in surprise as he spaced away from the cyclops.

    "Apparently so." Xue Yan sighed.

    "It''s probably a new feature in dungeons. Not being able to see all information rted to the BOSS would make defeating it a whole lot difficult." Seiichi analysed.

    Information was power and the key to victory. This statement was nothing but the truth especially in battle-rted circumstances. Having firsthand knowledge about an opponent''s skills and abilities would help a fightere up with the best strategy to achieve victory in the easiest format. And with IR providing yers with the [Inspect] skill, they were able to win their battles easily than whenpared in other VR games.

    BOSS battles weren''t as difficult as they used to be since a team could lunch the first raid and get all the detailed information rted to the monsters skill, then organise themselves for a second raid which would assure them a 99% chance of victory. Sato had actually nned to do the same here. His intention was never toplete the dungeon in the first raid, but to know how strong the monsters are as well as the skills and strength of the BOSS. If they weren''t able to see this with [Inspect], then the difficulty ofpleting this dungeon would increase once again.

    It should be known that the current monster, Gatekeeper Baka, was a creature that most yers were unable to take on. It would require a team of at least level 14 experts with good coordination and equipment to do so. Also, this was a dungeon, and unlike the field battle with the Kobold King were anywhere from tens to hundreds could participate without affecting the Kobold King''s strength, in a dungeon, the strength of the monster was directly proportional to that of the yers as well as the number of yers participating.

    This means that with more yers participating in a dungeon raid, the stronger the monster would be. Therefore, the most ideal value would be a team of 5-7 level 14 expert yers. However, Seven Star Glory didn''t fit the bill so it was only natural for them to struggle or even be wiped out. But the bug known as Sato, was the only reason the team was able to hold their ground without a loss.

    ''But if we can''t see its skills, it would be harder for me to protect the team.'' Sato thought.

    ''I shouldn''t be carrying everything on my shoulders. They should get used to such situations on their on.''

    Even though Sato wasn''t doing his best against the BOSS, hoping to get his teammates feel a bit pressured from this and so improve, it still wasn''t enough for them.

    ''I might as well make a few more mistakes then.''

    With Sato doing the tanking, Katsuo ended up not having a role to fulfill. This was because his Attack Power and level was too low for him to cause any above-negligible damage to the monster while his defence was too weak to enable him withstand more than one hit. So Sato began making ''mistakes'' to have Katsuo cover up for him and keep him busy. That way, Katsuo would improve on his reaction speed and support skills.

    *Boom*

    "Growl!"

    *ng*

    With Sato not tanking the monster seriously, the battle became a lot heated than it was meant to be. Katsuo always had to be focused and prepared to close up the gap whenever Sato made a ''mistake''. Fireball, ming constructs and arrows all darted across the air as the constant swinging off the giant axe by the cyclops, added a different taste to the atmosphere.

    As the battle waged on, the team began to slowly adapt to the monstrous level do strength showcased by the cyclops. Seiichi''s arrows were able to hit better, Fudo''s attacks became more effective and even Yato seeded in pestering the creature like an irritating fly.

    *ng*

    Relying on his fast reflexes and good battle awareness, Sato reacted quickly as he managed to stop a blow from the cyclops.

    *Phew*

    Xue Yan, Fudo and Seiichi immediately nned to make the opportunity count. All three of them attacked from different directions with their main goal remaining the cyclops. Fudo''s fireball was the most inconspicuous and while it wasn''t asrge as the one Xue Yan had previously wielded, it was still powerful enough to cause harm to the creature.

    As for Seiichi, he had fired 4 arrows consecutively. The first 3 were shot with the skill [Triple Shot], and it was mainly supposed to act as a form of distraction and harassment for the monster. As for the 4th arrow, it was shot using [Drill Shot] and was the main attack from his side.

    Unlike Seiichi, Xue Yan was more direct. Being the only one who could contend with the cyclops just for being at the same level, she was the main fighting force of the team(since Sato didn''t participate in attacking). With her increased affinity to fire-type skills, Xue Yan easily cast 3 fireballs within 2 seconds, defying the one second cool-down in between each. She then topped up her assault with [Fire Ray], which was a speed-based attack that caught the cyclops offguard.

    Due to the multitude of attacks, as well as Sato who made sure to prevent it from escaping, the abnormal cyclops had received continuous barrages and lost a lot of HP in just one round for continuous assault. To make things end faster, Sato had even chipped in a [ck me sh] which made a mess of the monster.

    -128 (3028/4500 Gatekeeper Baka''s HP)

    By the time the dust had settled (AN: A metaphor), the cyclops had lost arge chunk of its HP, bringing the remainder down to roughly 69% or so.

    "Haha. This wasn''t as difficult as I thought." Yatoughed despite not adding to the previous assault.

    Below 70% was a form of mental checkpoint to most yers during a BOSS raid. Coming this far meant that the BOSS wasn''t unbeatable and that they could go for the kill and possibly seed in the raid. However, to Team Seven Star Glory,ing this far would make the beginning of an unforgettable event in there lives.

    "Roar!!!!"

 Chapter 482 - 476 : Monster Rank

    "Roar!!!!"

    The cyclops raised its battle axe to the air and abruptly mmed it on the ground.

    *Bam*

    For a very short while, the ground shook as if an earthquake had urred, but this was simply the reaction from the cyclops'' actions.

    Sato was able to remain bnced and stable despite the incident. However, apart from Xue Yan, the rest of the team found it difficult to remain still even after the ground had rumbled.

    "Growl!"

    "Filthy creatures."

    "Vermin of the light."

    Strange cries sounded from ahead and it was as they looked up that the team noticed that the walls had at some point in time, ''opened''. From the sale crevices in the walls, humanoid figures walked out as they made different sounds. Some growled iprehensible sybles while others cursed at them. In total, there were 14 such figures that had appeared.

    "This..." Yato couldn''t help but say as he tightly gripped his sword.

    They were already having a hard time with the cyclops and if not for Sato, they would have died long ago. But all of a sudden, 14 characters had joined the battle and from their appearances, they weren''t yers but simr to the Dark Priests they had encountered before.

    "Katsuo, hold them off. Lu Zhen, Yato, Fudo, finish them off while Seiichi and Xue Yan help me with the BOSS." Sato immediately ryed his orders.

    Of the 4 he picked, the first 3 barely had any performance against the BOSS as there strength was too weak. However, Sato didn''t want them to remain idle since they won''t gain much experience points once the cyclops is dead. Therefore, with a chance to now perform, he opted to choose them over Xue Yan and Seiichi, who would undoubtedly finish the battle faster.

    Also, the 14 monsters were human-sized and best for single-target attacks, something Xue Yan wascking whenpared to either Yato or Lu Zhen.

    "Got it."

    Finally having an opportunity to showcase his abilities, Lu Zhen dashed towards the group of Dark Priests that had just recently appeared with a ck dagger in hand.

    "Hold it right there." Yato charged straight ahead.

    "Over here!" Katsuo howled from the side as he immediately drew the attention of all the monsters present towards him. He intended to separate the 14 Dark Priests from the cyclops to prevent them from affecting the main battlefield.

    "Pay attention to me." Sato immediately struck out with his sword.

    *ng*

    The one-eyed creature managed to react it time and block the attack with its axe, forcing Sato to take a step back as he had finally achieved his goal.

    ''Now...'' Sato narrowed his eyes.

    While it was true that in a one-on-one battle, Sato was stronger than the Gatekeeper, this was mainly due to various conditions and bonuses. In truth, his true pure power was just slightly above its.

    In Infinite Realm, both monster strength and yer strength were ssified based on ranks and levels, but in the case of monsters, it made things a bitplex.

    A Common ranked monster would be the monster at the lowest position at a particr level whereas an Elite was much stronger; and the higher one goes in rank, the stronger the monster. But due to this difference, there was the possibility of a monster being able to ''jump'' levels.

    From the gathered experience of yers, they had realised that, in some cases, an Elite ranked monster was on par with a Common of the next level while a Special Elite would be on par to a Common of the next two levels or an Elite of the next level. While this principle didn''t hold true for all monsters, it was discovered to apply to a majority of them so yers gauged the strength of monsters this way. Also, generally, yers were the same as a Common ranked or Elite of the same level.

    Sato was a level 17 yer whilst the Gatekeeper was a level 15 Special Elite. By following the previous theory, the Gatekeeper would be on par with Sato in terms of raw power, and this was slightly true.

    At base form, the monster had more attribute points than Sato and even its [Strength] stat was higher than his by at least 10 points. However, Sato received bonuses from his equipment and weapon so his total points had even surpassed that of the Gatekeeper, even if its weapon also boosted its attributes. It was for this reason that Sato didn''t have an issue blocking its attack, and the level difference was another reason why he also didn''t fear getting hit head on.

    Nheless, suppressing the monster was different from defeating it. While the Gatekeeper couldn''t do anything to Sato, Sato couldn''t finish it off on his own that easily. It wasn''t to say that it was impossible, but it would be a difficult task.

    The governing AI must have already noticed Sato''s strength and dungeons usually attuned to the level of the yers that went within. Therefore, even though it looked like the Gatekeeper was simply a level 15 monster, its fighting pattern wasn''t simple and the skills it had were enough to hold Sato at bay. In other to beat it with the minimum effort required, Sato would need the help of his teammates. If he were to do it alone,unless he used his berserk skill, it would take a long while.

    "These guys aren''t that strong." Yato, who had already shed with the Dark Priests, reported his findings.

    "Their average strength is level 11 but I can deal with them without a hitch."

    "Alright. Hurry up then. It''s about time we leave this ce." Sato replied.

    While the other 4 took on the 14 Dark Priests, Sato held back the Gatekeeper while Seiichi and Xue Yan continuously attacked fit and depleted its HP. At times, Sato would make an attack of his own once he spotted an opening, speeding up the progress of the team.

    "We''re done."

    Less than 3 minutester, Fudo, Yato, Katsuo and Lu Zhen had finished up with the 14 monsters and they rejoined the main battlefield. While it was true that their attacks wouldn''t do much to the Gatekeeper, they could at least distract it for the main damage dealers to take a bite out of its HP.

    And so, on he fight went on for a couple more minutes and the team had finally managed to bring the BOSS'' health down to 50% when something else urred.

 Chapter 483 - 477 : Injured

    "Growl!!!!"

    "What now?"

    Anxietydled Sato''s face as he prepared for the unknown.

    *Rustle* *Rustle*

    "Again?!!" Fudo yelled as he looked ahead.

    Simr to before, a team of Dark Priests walked from the openings on the wall but unlike the previous ones, these group looked more terrifying. Their faces looked a bit wrinkled and aged. Their arms were thinner than an average adult''s and their nails were longer than normal. Their blood-red eyes were horrifying and the growls from their mouths sounded more like those of a wild beast. They still wore the usual ck cloak and looked like humans, only just more scary.

    "Another group of monsters? Why the hell is a gatekepeer now a Summoner?!" Fudoined.

    "Katsuo!" Sato roared.

    "On it."

    Katsuo immediately diverted and headed towards the new summons. Yato followed after him as he knew that handling distractions was his and Katsuo''s job.

    Like a knight heading into battle, Katsuo wielded his sword and shed at one of the approaching Dark Priests.

    *ng*

    The varmint used one of its arms to block the sword using the w-sized nails on them. Even though Katsuo''s sword was a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon, it was still an Upper-tier Mortal rank sword but the w was surprisingly able to contend with it.

    "These ones are much stronger than thest." Katsuo reported in the team chat.

    Sato''s face changed a bit but he still regained hisposure as he faced the Gatekeeper.

    "Take them down as quickly as possible. After that, weunch an all-out attack on the BOSS. At this point, I''m having a bad feeling about it."

    Seeing that they were still left to handle the Dark Priests on their own, Katsuo, Lu Zhen and Yato didn''t bother to request for aid but faced their opponents. They understood why Sato didn''t send Fudo or Seiichi to help them. It was training. If the team was too dependent on each another, their individual capabilities would weaken. In VR games, not all situations were tackled as a team so the sooner they got stronger individually, the better for them. And at the same time, the overall strength of the team would also improve.

    Amongst the trio, Katsuo and Yato were the weakest, even when considering the 7 in the team. Facing these monsters without much help would give them more experience points to level up with. Lu Zhen''s participation in this battle, despite being level 13, was to ease the burden on the two.

    While Fudo or Sato could do the same job, their influence in the fight would be too epassing as they can attack multiple targets all at once. But since Lu Zhen was an [Assassin], which was a single-target ss, he wouldn''t be able to ease off the entire burden faced by the duo so he was definitely the best option. Also, his participation in the main battle was weak as it was too risky for him to approach the BOSS to attack, and since he couldn''t do so, he was unable to cause any damage. Therefore, it was better for him to aid the duo.

    Once again, Sato was left to confront the BOSS all by himself, with Xue Yan, Seiichi and Fudo attacking from the distance. Without someone else upfront, Sato had to receive ''special'' attention from the one-eyed monster and while he was ahead of it in level, the attribute difference wasn''t much. Nheless, Sato still held on and was able to have its aggro pinned on himself, but this wasn''t forever.

    Apart from Sato, the one with the next most effective attacks was Xue Yan. As a level 15 fire [Elementalist], her battle capabilities couldn''t be underestimated as her damage was absurdly high even when considering her level and the target''s ability. There was also the passive skill, [Overbearing Momentum], which Xue Yan has gotten after the stone statue trial at the Caventry''s main hall. The s reduced the defense of her target by 5%, if it were on par with her in terms of level while boosting her Attack power by 5%. This, plus the passive from her equipment, made her a dangerous figure and a terrifying opponent.

    Considering that Sato only attacked when necessary, Xue Yan was able to attract most of the BOSS'' aggro on herself and if not for Sato standing in the way, it would have long gone after her.

    Nheless, as a monster of darkness, it knew nothing about fear and had tried to attack Xue Yan more than once so far. Luckily, Sato was there to hold it off, but this time around, he felt that the monster''s advance was a lot stronger than before.

    "Roar!"

    The cyclops suddenly brought down the axe in its arms with great power and speed, forcing Sato to block with his sword.

    *ng*

    As the axe couldn''t proceed any further, Sato thought he had managed to survive this hurdle when the cyclops suddenly retreated and swept at him with the axe from the side.

    As Sato''s arms were still in an upright posture due to his actions of blocking the previous attack, he barely had time to react when he saw a giant axe sweeping towards him from the side.

    ''Damn.''

    Sato inwardly cursed as he hurriedly ced his sword in between the axe and his body.

    *Bang*

    The attack came unexpected and Sato''s rushed actions weren''t enough to hold out against the Gatekeeper. Due to the impeding momentum from the attack, Sato was flung away by the axe and sent back by 7 metres. The Gatekeeper then took the opportunity to nce at Xue Yan and dashed towards her.

    Its goal was never Sato, but the three at the backline harassing it; specifically, Xue Yan.

    "It''sing." Fudo said.

    "[Fire Ray]" Xue Yan immediately chanted as she nced at the speeding cyclops.

    *Phew*

    Within a second, a ray of bright red mes darted towards the Gatekeeper from Xue Yan''s staff. The speed of the shot was astonishing as it crossed the 30 metres gap in less than 2 seconds.

    *Boom*

    The Gatekeeper brandished its axe at the beam, intending on slicing it in half. Sadly, Xue Yan''s firepower was impressive and the beam didn''t budge so easily. Instead, it exploded upon contact with the edge of the axe, repelling the file creature back by one step.

    *Phew*

    In the midst of the explosion, an arrow pierced through the air as it made its way towards the Gatekeeper.

    The monster was slow to react as it never thought there was a follow-up attack like this. All this time, it had its focus on Xue Yan as only her attack had caused substantial damage to it, with the others doing little game. Due to this act of underestimation, it never would have expected for an arrow to hide behind the Fire Ray and make use of the smoke from the explosion as camouge to get close.

    *Siiikk*

    An arrow prated the eye socket of the lone eye, lodging itself almost halfway into the eye.

    "Argh!!!!"

    The cyclops cried out with a loud voice as it unwittingly let go of the axe as blood profusely leaked from the injured eye.

    "Don''t underestimate us.." Seiichi suddenly spoke up.

 Chapter 484 - 478 : Unbeatable

    "[Explosion]" Fudo yelled as he pointed his staff towards the Gatekeeper.

    *Boom*

    "Roar!"

    -198 (1934/4500 Gatekeeper Baka''s HP)

    A small explosion lighted up on the body of the cyclops, but the mes only upied its left arm. Inparison to the creature''s body, this wasn''t much but the damage was still okay.

    At the same time, Xue Yan let go of the fireball she had been ''charging'' as the attack hit the Gatekeeper without any hindrance, exploding and forcing it back by one step. The trio then hurried to withdraw as they cleared up some space between themselves and the monster. Even though they could face the Gatekeeper, the disadvantage of their sses remained so it was best to put up some gap between them and the monster.

    "That was an ultimate attack and I only caused damage worth a bit above my average." Fudo sighed.

    The Gatekeeper was a level 15 Special Elite wheres he was a level 13 Fire [Elementalist]. There was a 2-level gap between them and considering that monsters generally had more attribute points than yers, the strength difference was more than 2 levels worth of attribute points. Also, the Gatekeeper was a Special Elite monster, meaning that it could contend with monsters two levels ahead of it. So even an ultimate attack from Fudo was only worth a skill attack from Sato.

    "Ugh." Sato slowly stood up from the floor using his sword as an aid.

    "Didn''t know you could erupt with such strength." Sato narrowed his eyes as he stared at the cyclops being harassed by the back trio.

    *Step*

    Sato firmly took one step forward with his right foot, beforeunching himself towards the Gatekeeper. He ran at full speed that the 60 or so metres gap between him and the monster was covered within 3 seconds.

    "ck me sh." Sato growled as he swung the cursed sword at the creature.

    A wave of ck mes immediately coated the sword and just as it was about to spill away, Sato had already brandished his sword in front.

    -175 (1759/4500 Gatekeeper Baka''s HP)

    "Argh!!" The cyclops roared out in pain.

    A 2 metres long arc of ck mes struck the Gatekeeper from behind, dispersing into a small wave that engulfed a portion of the monster. Once the attack hadnded, Sato immediately retreated to a spot 5 metres away.

    Sato''s movements were too quick and the Gatekeeper was focused on Xue Yan that it had temporarily ignored Sato. It never thought that Sato would recover from the previous attack within 5 seconds and then attack it.

    "You plebeians dare to harm the Gatekeeper of the temple of God?!" Gatekeeper Baka spoke as it turned to face Sato.

    "We already dared to bring your HP below 50% so shut up." Sato grinned before a glint shed in his eyes as he saw the monster''s movements stiffen.

    [Linear Strike]

    Sato had originally nned on just dealing one attack but he noticed that the Gatekeeper had abruptly frozen after its short statement. That was the result of the side-effect of the skill, [ck me sh].

    ck me sh : Active Skill : Release a long-range attack with a 30 metres attack range and 140% of Attack Power as damage. Upon contact, the skill would explode into a zing ck fire that would wrap itself around the target and deal me damage alongside mental damage both wielding 120% of Magical Attack Power. The mental damage has a slight chance of sending the opponent into a [Stun] state. Cool-down : 7 seconds.

    Sato never paid attention to the Magical damage part as his [Intelligence] was too low to cause any harm to any monster. However, the chance of sending a target into a [Stun] state wasn''t dependent on whether or not Magical damage was dealt, but mental damage. While it was true that both forms of damages could be countered by increasing one''s [Willpower], the specifics around Mental damage was a bit more different than Magical damage so the [Stun] effect could even take ce regardless of whether or not the target was injured by the me''s magic damage.

    However, because he had never witnessed a target being stunned before, Sato never had any hopes of triggering the effect. It was only as he noticed the stiff movement of the cyclops that Sato linked it to the skill''s hidden effect.

    Like a spear thrown at a target, Sato dashed towards the Gatekeeper in a straight line, leaving behind a white ''tail''.

    *Whoosh*

    One second Sato was behind the Gatekeeper. The next second he was in front.

    [Critical Hit]

    -321 (1438/4500 Gatekeeper Baka''s HP)

    *Ssh*

    Blood red liquid spilled from the side of the monster as a gaping wound appeared. If one were to look closer, they would even be able to spot some greyish white objects. That one sh from Sato was so powerful that it had even revealed the bones of the Gatekeeper!

    "Amazing." Seiichi couldn''t help but praise.

    [Linear Strike] wasn''t just a skill that focused on power, but pration. The whole point of the skill was to focus the user''s power into one blow, preferably a thrust. This was because one of the special features of the skill was to increase the pration of the attack by 10%. for Sato, it was 35% since [Drakken] already had a passive that increased pration by 25%!

    When those two bonusesbined into one powerful attack, it was understandable for [Linear Strike] to cut through the flesh of the Gatekeeper, going so far as to expose its ribcage.

    "Remember this, you''re not my match." Sato stared at the monster.

    Gatekeeper Baka retreated two steps backward as its face was covered in fear. A secondter though, it recovered and was instead incensed at the fact that it had retreated in the face of an opponent. In its head, it presumed that the ''Great God'' won''t forgive it for that behaviour and the only way of being pardoned was to stop these pagans.

    "Rar! All trespassers must die!"

 Chapter 485 - 479 : Underground Meeting

    "Dirty hum-"

    A sword abruptly pierced through the vocal cords of the Dark Priest, bringing its words to an abrupt stop.

    "That''s thest one." Yato pulled out his sword as he nced around.

    The 7 Dark Priests were easily finished by him, Katsuo, and Lu Zhen. Most of the praise had to go to Lu Zhen as he helped the duo cope with the pressure from the monsters. Unlike with the previous 14 Dark Priests, these seven were actually level 12 monsters, one level higher than Yato and Katsuo. Nheless, the time they spent with the group wasn''t a waste as they were able to hold their own 2 or 3 of these monsters and were able to dominate a one-on-one fight.

    With Lu Zhen moving through the battlefield like a fish in ake, the monsters easily fell to his de and weren''t able to cause any problems. Not even 2 minutes had reached and the 7 monsters were dead, giving the trio an opportunity to return to the main battlefield.

    As they did so, all of them failed to notice a ck ray of light sneak out from the corpses of the Dark Priests and flow through the runes. When looked at from above, the ck rays all darted towards one figure by following the strange runes and markings on the floor; their target, the Gatekeeper.

    "We''re done here." Yato yelled as he ran towards the main battlefield.

    "Alright." Sato replied as he blocked an attack from the Gatekeeper.

    "You humans, are not aware of the crime you aremitting." The Gatekeeper said in a low but deep voice.

    "Stop spewing random bullsh*t and just die already." Fudo fired a ming bolt at the monster.

    *Bam*

    -67 (1322/4500 Gatekeeper Baka''s HP)

    The Gatekeeper was being held down by Sato so Fudo''s attack had made a clear hit. Sadly, it was just a regr skill attack so the damage wasn''t much. However, while the damage wasn''t much, the overall effect was something else.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    Somewhere in North Africa..

    After the Great Reparation, which hadrgely damaged the world''s ecosystem, the surviving forces of humanity began their reconstruction under themand of the Alliance. During this period, part of Europe, Asia, Africa, and some of the ind nations in the continent of Australia(Oceania) was salvaged. South America did considerably well whenpared to itspanion in the North. These few areas that managed to survive this event weren''t left unharmed, however.

    The effects of the Great Reparation weren''t just limited to a high increase in radiation in the Earth''s atmosphere but also mass flooding and dangerous climates. It was because of this that ind nations, despite not participating in the war, were affected by the after-effects of the war with some ceasing to exist. The ind nations of the Pacific Ocean were the ones who bore the full brunt of all this as ind nations such as the Solomon Inds, Fiji, Tuvalu, the Maldives, and a few others. It was only thanks to the efforts of the people and the Alliance that humanity managed to prevail without any mutations and in their inherent DNA. Nheless, the damage remained and very few cities were habitable.

    For the continent of Africa, the least harmed zone was the central area but the Northern part of the continent didn''t have much of a problem only that, unlike in other regions, most of the cities were built underground. This was because the radiation that was released into the Earth''s atmosphere as well as the massive influx of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons had ruined the Ozoneyer, increasing the average temperature in quite a lot of ces. Northern Africa was one such region, and the devastating heat there made it very difficult for most to survive above the ground for long periods without proper equipment. [1]

    Underneath the ground was a hidden structure that served as the real headquarters for Dreand Studios [2]. The main server as well as the physical "body" of the AI overseeing the game, Heaven System, was also based here.

    Currently, a meeting was ongoing in one of the rooms in the underground building. The meeting room had dim lighting and apart from a slender figure who stood close to a disy screen, none of the other figures were visible. Only their outlines could be spotted as they all say on their seats and faced thedy.

    "So you said that the yer who unlocked the hidden dungeon is also the highest leveled yer in the game now?" A deep voice spoke up in the dark room.

    "Yes." A woman responded. It was the woman who stood beside the disy screen.

    She had green hair which was quite rare, even in this era that had a lot of people with naturally coloured hair. Looking at her figure, it was easy to presume that she was between herte 20s or early 30s but because of the current advancement of medical technology and gics, no one could be 100% sure about that.

    "ording to the report from Takio, the same yer had found the Legendary ranked adoptable environment, Home of the Grey Chains, aka, the Caventry Ground. Apart from that, he has also managed to pass all tests and is in possession of one of those weapons."

    "???"

    A moment of silence was immediately observed as the individuals present were too stunned by the report.

    "Are, are you sure about that?" A male voice, different from the first one, asked. The outline of the person who spoke looked a little bit shorter than the rest but was developed like a regr adult.

    "Affirmative." Thedy responded.

    "A character who possesses one of ''that'', has authority over a Legendary adoptable environment, highest levelled yer with 2 levels gap from the other experts, and has even discovered the hidden dungeon and has monopolized it for now, do I say his luck is absurd or what?" A sigh resounded from one of the members of the meeting. It was a figure who seemed to be wearing an anti-radiation mask on his face.

    "Having all of these doesn''t mean he will achieve great thingster on. Let''s just watch and see if he canplete the dungeon before others discover it." The deep voice that spoke up the first time stated.

    "Yes, sir."

    "Do we influence this factor?" The other man spoke up.

    "No, not yet at least. We give them 2 days. If you get can''tplete it, then we drop some hints for others to find it. The E-Sports tournament would soon be announced and before that, we need to make sure that the yers have reached a certified level where they would be able to disy great strength and attract others. We can''t leave such a good harvest in his hands if he can''t utilise it." The deep-voiced man replied.

    "Just 2 days? Even if he''s level 20, I doubt he can achieve it." A feminine voicemented as a ''shadow'' shook its head.

    Being the developers of the game, they were aware of the strength and abilities of the important BOSSes in the game, including the final BOSS of the [Temple of Vasili¨¢s] dungeon. None of them believed that Sato would be able to defeat the monster, even more so with the current strength of his team. Even with the 2 days ''grace'', most were still doubtful he could pull it off.

    "It''s his business whether or not he seeds. Our job is to ensure the fairness and safety of the game." The masked man spoke up.

    "Let alone the final BOSS, even the first BOSS is a problem for most guilds to handle. If he can''t figure it in time, his level 17 *ss would get whooped sooner orter." Another added.

    "That''s enough." The deep voice echoed.

    "I didn''t summon you all here toin or make noise. We have something important on our hands soon and we have to focus."

    "Yes, that''s true. The E-Sports¡­" The short man sighed.

    "This phase of the meeting is adjourned then. The next topic is preparations for the E-Sports tournament." The female standing beside the screen announced.

    AN :

    [1] All ideas for the Great Reparation as well as the resulting impact on the Earth were theorized from the fears of Global Warming and a nuclear world war. I hope no one takes offense in seeing their country or continent not existing. All the theories of the resulting effects of the Great Reparation could be seen online if you browse about the effects of Global Warming and the result of a nuclear world war.

    [2] The name of the studio behind the game.. Any previous name is an error.

 Chapter 486 - 480 : Weird Transformation

    The [Temple of Vasili¨¢s] dungeon was made to be one of the toughest for current yers. In fact, it was so difficult that ording to the AI overseeing the game, no team would be able toplete it for the next 2-3 days(RT). This included Seven Star Glory, aka Team Sato.

    Gatekeeper Baka was the first BOSS in the dungeon and it was a level 15 Special Elite monster that couldn''t be easily rivalled. Though it was way weaker than King-ranked Kobold King, it was powerful in its own way. ording to the system, only Seven Star Glory would be able to defeat it as of now, but if they were to underestimate it and not figure out the trick behind the monster, they would suffer a team wipe.

    -67 (1322/4500 Gatekeeper Baka''s HP)

    After Sato''sst attack, the Gatekeeper''s HP had gone below 30% and it entered its berserk mode.

    "Roar!"

    Bluish-purple veins appeared on the skin of the Gatekeeper as its height slowly increased by one metre. It tightened its grip on the axe as a blue sheen covered the weapon. 2 horns sprouted from its forehead as the lone eye in the middle took on a purplish-ck look.

    Sato tried to interfere with its transformation as he dashed towards the monster, but a simple swing of its axe had forced Sato back, with his arms having a tingling sensation.

    ''It''s way stronger than before.'' Sato narrowed his eyes as he thought.

    At the same time, incoherent roars sounded from the walls of the hall.

    "Oh no. Again?!" Yato, who had just returned from beating thest batch of Dark Priests, eximed.

    "This should be thest batch. Just hold them back while we finish the BOSS." Sato said.

    As they had expected, a small group of Dark Priests exited the openings on the wall. Following the previous trend, they were much smaller in number than thest batch; only 5, but their strength was higher.

    "The others were difficult to handle and were level 12. If I''m correct, these guys are level 13. Even if they''re Common-ranked, I can''t take them on my own." Yato spoke up.

    "Seiichi, with them." Sato said.

    Seiichi was level 12 so his inclusion and n a battle of level 13 monsters wouldn''t affect the rewards much.

    Seiichi immediately moved away from Xue Yan and Fudo, joining Yato and the others to face the new arrivals. However, before any of them could make a move, someone beat them to it.

    *Gnaw*

    The Gatekeeper had abruptly appeared in front of one of the Dark Priests and bit at its head. Blood spilled on the floor as the lifeless body of the Dark Priest began to fall. Unfortunately, the Gatekeeper didn''t n on letting go of this ''sack'' of nutrients as it grabbed at the corpse with its free hand and devoured it whole.

    "What the heck?" Yato, Katsuo, Lu Zhen, and Seiichi all stared in shock.

    Sato, Xue Yan, and Fudo reacted slower than the 4 but they managed to catch sight of this atrocious act just as they noticed that the Gatekeeper was no longer in front of them.

    "What is going on here?" Xue Yan couldn''t help but mutter as she saw the Gatekeeper going on an onught and ughtering the 5 Dark Priests that had just arrived.

    As the Gatekeeper was feasting on the monsters that were meant to assist it in battle, its aura steadily began to increase as a ferocious air formed around it.

    "Stop it." Sato immediately yelled as he darted towards the monster.

    "What? Why?" Yato abruptly asked.

    Sato didn''t answer him but shed out with his sword, sending a pitch-ck ming crescent towards the Gatekeeper.

    As if it had eyes behind its head, the Gatekeeper easily dodged the attack without much effort, but it was forced to stop having its ''meal''.

    Seiichi was the next to respond as he immediately fired arrow after arrow at the Gatekeeper. Nheless, against a level 15 monster, his level 12 attacks weren''t worth much but they served to distract the Gatekeeper and slow its eating progress.

    Unlike, Yato, Xue Yan didn''t question Sato''s decision and also began attacking the Gatekeeper, trying to drag its attention away from the Dark Priests.

    While everyone tried their best, the one-eyed creature still went on with its meal. At times it would ignore the attacks from Seiichi and Fudo, just to finish off a Dark Priest. As a result, it had lost a bit of HP but the amount was inconsequential. It was only when Xue Yan attacked and when Sato came close to it, that the Gatekeeper had to focus on them. Nheless, by that time, of the 5 Drake Priests that had appeared, 4 of them were already devoured with thest one having a barely intact body.

    When Sato came close to it, he immediately brandished his sword at the monster but was met with resistance from it.

    *ng*

    The cursed ck sword was brought to a stop and unlike before, Sato felt a numb feeling in his arm. This feeling was quite familiar to him and it had been long since he had experienced it. It was the feeling of shing with an opponent with a higher [Strength] stat than him.

    ''It''s gotten stronger.'' Sato sighed inwardly as he realised it was toote.

    In previous VR games, Sato had seen scenarios where a BOSS monster would devour its underlings in exchange for strength. He easilypared that with the present scenario and decided to make his move immediately. Sadly, he was a step slow as the Gatekeeper''s eating speed was much faster than his reaction.

    After using [Inspect] once again, Sato realised that the stats of the Gatekeeper had changed a bit. Apart from the 15% boost due to [Enraged] state, there was an additional 5 points added to both [Strength] and [Endurance]. All these had made it such that the physical capabilities of the Gatekeeper had already surpassed that of Sato, despite being 2 levels lower.

    ''Hm?''

    Sato noticed that below the foot of the monster, a bunch of ck ''liquid'' flowed through the markings on the floor and into the body of the Gatekeeper. At a closer look, Sato noticed that the ck ''liquid'' came from the ''leftovers'' of the Dark Priests the Gatekeeper ughtered as well as from the site Yato and the rest had fought the other Dark Priests.

    ''Even the ones we killed weren''t left free?'' Sato had an ugly look on his face.

    Seeing more ck ''liquid'' flow into the Gatekeeper, Sato realised that they were in a race against time. The monster was constantly bing stronger even as it sat there doing nothing. If they couldn''t kill it in time, it was possible that they would suffer a team wipe.

    ''I can''t let that happen.''

 Chapter 487 - 481 : Victory

    "Everyone, no matter what it takes, we have to kill this monster now." Sato said.

    "Katsuo, use your [Taunt] skill whenever it tries to go for thest Dark Priest. Everyone else, focus on attacking or harassing the monster. And remember, no matter what, don''t attack the Dark Priest. Killing it would only strengthen the Gatekeeper."

    "Alright."

    Having received their orders from Sato, the team immediately sprung into action.

    Sato bent his knee almost as if he was performing a squat before he lunged at the Gatekeeper. If it were before, the Gatekeeper would find it hard to react with Sato charging towards it at full speed, but after undergoing its ''baptism'', the Gatekeeper was able to react in kind, bringing down its axe straight at Sato''s silhouette.

    *Bang*

    A small airwave sted from the point of collision of the two opponents as they were both sent back by one step. The result of the sh was both parties were equal in terms of strength.

    [Fire Gush]

    Fudo swung his staff in the direction of the Gatekeeper, releasing a big wave of mes towards it. His n wasn''t to deal damage to the monster, as Fudo knew that his attacks weren''t worth much. Instead, what he nned to do was to destroy the ck ''liquid'' that flowed towards the Gatekeeper from underneath. If he could cut off the connection between it and Gatekeeper, then they won''t need to be excessively worried.

    *Whoosh*

    The mes immediately covered an area of 9 metres square a couple of metres ahead of Fudo. As intended, the area was exactly where the Gatekeeper stood, setting part of the monster as well as the floor on fire.

    -5 (1293/4500 Gatekeeper Baka''s HP)

    The Gatekeeper merely sent a nce at Fudo before itunched a myriad of attacks at Sato. After undergoing the enhancement from both [Enraged] state and devouring the Dark Priests, Fudo''s regr attacks were only worth a tickle and the only true opponent was Sato and Xue Yan. However,pared to the female me-caster, the ck-haired swordsman was more of a threat to it.

    *Phew*

    Arrow after arrow flew through the air, aiming for the Gatekeeper. Even though it was aware that the arrows didn''t do much harm, the Gatekeeper had its pride and didn''t n on letting creatures beneath it continuously harm it.

    "Sickening vultures. You deserve to be skinned alive and offered as a sacrifice to the great God." The Gatekeeper spoke as it immediately swung its axe in the direction of Seiichi and the others.

    A purplish beam shot out from the sword and crossed metres in seconds as it went towards Seiichi and those beside him.

    "Sh*t"

    Seiichi was only able to curse as he jumped towards the side in a bid to dodge the attack. Sadly, even his speed wascking in the face of the long-ranged attack from the Gatekeeper.

    -342 (1158/1500 Seiichi''s HP)

    "Seiichi!"

    A ring wound appeared by the side of Seiichi, stretching from the left side of his chest down to his left thigh. The wound was bleeding profusely and Seiichi was forced to abandon the fight and take care of it.

    *Boom*

    The beam went on tond at Seiichi''s original spot, sending Fudo who was close to him, flying back by 3 metres.

    "Damn you." Sato growled as he saw how the Gatekeeper had ignored him to attack his teammates.

    "Die." Sato narrowed his eyes as he thrust his sword forward.

    [Linear Strike]

    Once again, the skill Sato had used to heavily injure the Gatekeeper was put to use again. Like a thrown spear, Sato moved in a straight line and had closed the small gap between him and the Gatekeeper. At the same time, he used the skill [Sprint] to increase his movement speed to best the Gatekeeper in this division.

    *ng*

    Shockingly, the Gatekeeper was able to block the attack by using its axe as a shield. This was an unexpected tactic which Sato never sawing but that didn''t stop him still.

    [Chain Hit]

    Sato immediately sidestepped to the right as he brandished his sword 3 times at the Gatekeeper.

    As the monster had just blocked thest attack, it never expected Sato to immediately retaliate once again so quickly. As a result, every strike from Sato had managed tond a clear hit on it, with one of them aimed at the injury from the previous [Linear Strike] attack.

    -216

    -220

    [Critical Hit]

    -356 (501/4500 Gatekeeper Baka''s HP)

    In just 3 moves, Sato had brought the Gatekeeper''s HP close to death''s door. Even the monster showed a slight sign of fear in its lone eye as well t immediately retreated away from Sato.

    "Don''t tell me you''ve forgotten about me." Xue Yan suddenly appeared behind it.

    As a mage, Xue Yan was meant to attack from the backline, but as she saw Sato keeping the monster busy, she decided to take the risk and close up the gap all in order to make this move.

    "[zing Fury]"

    [Fire Maniption]

    A ray of red mes shot from Xue Yan''s staff and struck the Gatekeeper. As it did so, it exploded into a congration of mes that enveloped not just the monster but the 5 metres area around it.

    -288 (213/4500 Gatekeeper Baka''s HP)

    *Phew*

    [Critical Hit]

    -36 (177/4500 Gatekeeper Baka''s HP)

    "Roar!"

    In the midst of the mes, an arrow had snuck in and lodged itself at the injured spot of the Gatekeeper. Even though the damage wasn''t much, the position it had hit was a weak point so the pain that went through the nerves of the Gatekeeper was high.

    "Katsuo!" Sato yelled.

    Katsuo was the team''s official MT but his level was too low, hence Sato had previously decided that thest hit would be left to him. In fact, Sato didn''t want to participate much in the fight, if not for the Gatekeeper suddenly heightening its abilities out of nowhere. But that n had been scrapped and now Sato was only left with this.

    "Got it." Katsuo replied.

    The Gatekeeper''s HP was still too high for his level 11 self to handle so Katsuo had to team up with Yato, Fudo, and Lu Zhen. Sato kept the Gatekeeper pinned but he didn''t attack it anymore, leaving that role to the 4 of them.

    -12

    -56

    -78 (31/4500 Gatekeeper Baka''s HP)

    When just a shred of its HP was left, Katsuo lifted his great-sword in a ceremonial manner and shed at the Gatekeeper that was being held down by Sato.

    [Transcendent Severance]

    -59 (0/4500 Gatekeeper Baka''s HP)

    Using the skill he had gotten from the Caventry Ground, Katsuo put an end to the Gatekeeper, severing its corpse into two in a horrific manner.

    "Finally.." Sato sighed.

 Chapter 488 - [Bonus ] 482 : Level Up

    Looking at the severed corpse thaty on the floor, every member on the team immediately sighed out with relief, with Yato and Lu Zhen directly falling to the ground.

    "I almost thought I''d be dead back then." Yato eximed as he breathed out.

    "Yeah. This dungeon is indeed worthy of being the hardest for current yers. This is just the first dungeon BOSS and we''re this wrecked. Without Sato and Xue Yan, we would have died long ago." Lu Zhen added.

    "I didn''t do much, Sato pretty much did all the work while I just assisted him." Xue Yan shook her head.

    "You at least did more than us so you ought to be praised still." Fudo said.

    Sato didn''t join the conversation but began to contemte on the battle.

    Just as Lu Zhen had said, Gatekeeper Baka was the first BOSS of the dungeon and by referring to the map as well as their experience as gamers, it was by no chance the main BOSS or anything like that. Most like, it was the easiest BOSS-level target in the dungeon yet it brought them this much trouble.

    True that Sato seemed to have dealt with it without so much as a scar but the Gatekeeper has actually managed to reach his level of strength while still being level 15. As far as Sato knew, this was ludicrous and supposedly impossible but the monster had managed to change this fact.

    ''Or is this a result of having a high-level yer enter the dungeon? The system must have reorganised the stats of the BOSS to be able to cause me harm. Otherwise, if I were level 14 or 15, it wouldn''t have been this strong.'' Sato thought.

    Apart from the absurd level of strength possessed by the monster, there was also the fact that the overall strength of the team was too weak for this dungeon. The team was too dependent on Sato and Xue Yan, both for firepower and tanking. Even Lu Zhen and Fudo, who were much stronger than Seiichi, Yato, and Katsuo, weren''t worth a fart to the Gatekeeper if not for Sato keeping it busy. If Sato and Xue Yan weren''t part of the battle, the other 5 would have died within 10 seconds of the start of the fight. Even if Xue Yan was included in the fight, since the team wascking an appropriate tank, they would still end up dead, just onlysting longer; at least for 15 seconds.

    It was the issue that made Sato pause in contemtion as he realised that h might have underestimated the dungeon too much.

    ''At least this is just a scouting mission. We don''t n onpleting the dungeon yet, otherwise, that goal of mine would be ridiculous.''

    While Sato was stuck in his own world, Seiichihad already gone to loot the corpse of the Gatekeeper. He had initially tried the Dark Priests first but realised that unlike their counterparts from before, these guys didn''t offer anything

    [[ System notification :

    Do you wish to receive your rewards now or once you''ve exited the dungeon?

    Yes/No

    Note : Immediate eptance of the reward would potentially affect the strength of the monsters as well as the difficulty of the dungeon. ]]

    Seiichi paused his actions as he nced over at Sato.

    "You guys decide for yourselves. It doesn''t really matter. This is a test-run and we''re deemed to die anyway." Sato said.

    "But maintaining the difficulty as it is now would help us go further, right?" Lu Zhen asked.

    "I can''t say for sure." Sato shook his head as he stared at the Gatekeeper''s corpse.

    "Overall, you guys are too weak and if nothing changes, we might not even go so far. But epting the rewards now means you will get an increase in level, that''s for sure. But that also means that the overall strength of the monsters would increase to match up to you. In summary, the situation night not change much."

    "I see." Lu Zhen replied.

    "I''m taking mine now." Katsuo announced as everyone turned towards him.

    "As an MT, I''m supposed to be holding the monsters'' aggro but I barely had any performance against the BOSS." Katsuo tightened his fist.

    He then continued, "Also, as Sato said, this is a test-run. In the main thing,we would be facing the monsters with our new strength do I believe we shod do so starting now. We can get used to them that way. Facing a level 12 monster as a level 11 yer isn''t exactly the same as facing a level 13 monster as a level 12 yer. We''d all need to adapt to our newfound strength and who else better to use than our targets."

    "He makes a point there." Seiichi nudged his sses.

    "Haha. You really think so?" Katsuo awkwardlyughed as he scratched his head.

    "I vote that we take our rewards now. It''s better that way." Seiichi added.

    Sato then faced the others to see their take on the decision and he saw all of them nod.

    "Alright. You know what to do then."

    As soon as Seiichi confiemed the decision, golden lights suddenly lit up in the dim hall as Yato, Katsuo, Lu Zhen, Seiichi, and Fudo were bathed in them. In summary, pretty much everybody apart from Xue Yan and Sato had levelled up at least once.

    For Yato and Katsuo, being the lowest levelled in the team, their gain was muchrger than the others. They levelled up twice reaching level 13 in one straight dash before Yato''s experience bar slowly came to a halt at the 75% checkpoint while Katsuo made it up to level 14''s 2% checkpoint. This was mostly because the two had handled the Dark Priests with Lu Zhen assisting them. At the same time, they had participated in taking down the Gatekeeper with Katsuo delivering thest hit.

    As for Fudo and Lu Zhen, who were previously both level 13, they made it to level 14 with Fudo stopping at the 87% checkpoint while Lu Zhen at the 95% checkpoint.

    Seiichi, on the other hand, had not only helped in facing the Gatekeeper but his damage count was actually the third highest on the team; just below Sato and Xue Yan which was inevitable. This had to do with his urate shots that always aimed for a weak spot when facing the Gatekeeper. This was very evident from the fact that he had managed to target its injured region more than twice, despite the Gatekeeper trying to protect that part of its body. As a result of this achievement of his, he had managed to go all the way from level 12 to level 14, with his experience stopping at the 0% mark.

    One of the reasons for therge growth in strength was mostly due to the 10% increase in rewards that was avable in the dungeon for a while after Sato had unlocked it. It was for this reason that Sato had selected the [Temple of Vasili¨¢s] dungeon instead of regr dungeons.

    "Eh?!?? I''m still the weakest?" Yato cried out as he heard the rest mention their new level.

    "Don''t worry about it. You will soon reach level 14 so just work hard." Lu Zhen patted him on the shoulder with a smile that looked more like a smirk.

    "Get your hands off me if you don''t want to lose an arm." Yato twitched his lips.

    "Haha." Lu Zhen immediately retreated as he couldn''t hold himself back fromughing any longer.

    At the same time, Seiichi continued to loot the BOSS while Sato nced at his experience bar. Compared to the rest, he had made the least progress after the fight. Even Xue Yan had considerably better growth than he did. The number of experience points he gained wasn''t even worth 1%. At this rate, he would be wasting his time here while the others -both his teammates and rivals- would get stronger.

    ''I guess I have no choice then.''

 Chapter 489 - 283 : Journey Into Maldora Canyon

    Somewhere within Maldora Canyon...

    "Where to now?" Sato held up a map in his hand as he searched for his next destination.

    After the battle with the Gatekeeper, Sato and the rest had continued their exploration of the dungeon, [Temple of Vasili¨¢s]. Along the way, they had met various kinds of monsters, not just the usual Dark Priests. There were Cursed beasts; which looked simr to bears but were more ferocious and had cracked eyes with one horn jutting out from their temple, Dark Knights who rode on deer-like creatures with a pair of terrifying antlers and horrendous aura, and dwarf-like enemies that were mindless and only knew how to attack.

    Under the onught of the new types of monsters, the team moved forward albeit at a much slower pace than before. It took them over 4 hours before they managed to reach the next checkpoint which was another BOSS room.

    By relying on the map, Sato discerned that this wasn''t the main BOSS'' chamber but another mini BOSS.

    When the team went in, they were confronted by a Kraken beast with an overwhelming aura, far greater than any monster they had seen till date. That was the beginning of the end.

    Even though the team fought with all they had, they were still no match for the beast and had all fallen to its attack.

    In just 10 seconds, Yato and Katsuo were killed. 15 seconds, Lu Zhen had joined them with Fudo following suite. Seiichi disyed his impressive reactions and dodging skills as hested longer than the 4 but he still died a few secondster. Following him was Xue Yan, leaving Sato to face the monster all alone.

    Surprisingly though, even with his level 17 ability, Sato was not a match for the creature and was only able to hold his ground.

    Under the constant assault from the tentacles of the monster, Sato eventually failed to maintain his footing and joined the others in dying to its hands, or tentacles.

    Usually, when a yer dies whether it be in a dungeon or a field, they lose a certain number of experience points. However, after they had defeated the Gatekeeper, one of the rewards they got was a [Protection Card], which had the ability to prevent a yer from losing any experience points upon death. The only limitation of this card was that it could only be used in the [Temple of Vasili¨¢s] dungeon but to the team, they didn''t have any problem with this. There were 7 [Protection Cards] looted from the Gatekeeper''s corpse which was pretty much enough for everyone in the team so despite suffering a team-wipe, they didn''t really suffer any loss.

    It was right after that, Sato decided to leave the team and head out on his own. He wasn''t making any improvements by following then and was instead falling behind. And so, Sato left the others, leaving the dungeon''s environment and heading deeper into Maldora Canyon.

    ''As long as I keep going up ahead, I will encounter a river closeby. It''s quite possible that the monsters there would be amphibian-type creatures or reptiles. Their strength should also be from level 15 and above. There''s also the chance that they move in groups or are individual hunters. But based on the normal behaviours of animals in simr environment, they''re usually lone-wolves. If that''s the case, they will be Elite rank at least.''

    By simply using the location and climate of the environment, Sato roughly predicted the strength and type of monsters he would face. Doing this would make him more prepared as he woulde up with appropriate strategies to face them.

    With his destination fixed, Sato began heading deeper in with caution. Even with his level 17 strength, Sato didn''t dare to be so audacious in this region. Maldora Canyon was a level 15 map on paper but this was just the outer part of the region. The real Maldora Canyon was much bigger and the deeper in one went, the stronger the monsters. Most yers didn''t know this but Sato has stumbled on this fact earlier on. He had unknowingly encountered a powerful l that easily ughtered 3 other monsters without resistance. What made him realise that the monster wasn''t the average kind in Maldora Canyon was that its targets were level 16 beasts he had fought beforehand.

    Seeing the same creatures being ravaged by another opponent with such ease made Sato understand that he wasn''t at the top of the food chain here.

    *Craw* *Craw*

    Sato walked slowly, moving close to the cliff while intermittently hiding in the shadows of some lone trees or hanging boulders, preventing his silhouette from being spotted by aerial monsters. Hearing the loud caws from the side, he immediately went behind a dead tree as he hid and stared towards the origin of the sound.

    A couple of metres away was a carcass crowded by huge ck crows. From a distance, it wouldn''t seem like anything was wrong with this scenery after all, in a hot and arid location such as Maldora Canyons, it was reasonable for there to be predators as well as scavengers. However, the scavengers in quote -the ck crows- weren''t your average birds. Any one of them reached a height of at least 1.5 metres(59.055 inches) with had beaks that were 11.8 inches long(0.3m), and numbered about 6-8. They were one of the few monsters that moved in groups and while they usually feasted on carcasses, their taste wasn''t limited to that.

    Sato had once seen a murder[1] of crows attack a bison like monster and take it down. While he wasn''t aware of their level, he knew that he wasn''t capable of taking down that Bison monster with such as the murder did so after that encounter, he would always pause his movements and take cover whenever he sights any aerial bird.

    ''With danger at every corner moving forward is bing a whole lot more difficult.'' Sato sighed.

    While the area was much more dangerous than he had anticipated, Sato still didn''t n in going back.. Here was a good spot for levelling but due to the presence of the crows, Sato decided to change it.

 Chapter 490 - 484 : Information Hunters

    More than 15 hours had gone by since all the guilds began raiding dungeons in an attempt to achieve firstpletion. During this period, over 200 guilds worldwide had already been team-wiped at least once, with some having seen their end twice already. These guild teams weren''t just those of 3rd and 4th tiers but also 2nd tiers with a few 1st tiers too. Currently, the only rank of guilds who have failed to suffer a loss were super guilds.

    Usually, this meant that the super guilds had a high chance of conquering the dungeons but not everyone thought so. Having spent over 15 hours in their dungeons, quite a number of people were skeptical about the chances of sess for the super guilds as they believed that these guilds must have spent all their prepared resources insting this long. That meant that they were pretty much unarmed but yet proceeding forward. In other words, their end was near.

    Most of the information rted to the progress of the various guilds'' dungeon conquest was delivered by information guilds and information hunters.

    Information hunters, as their name implied, were yers who sold information of varying degrees and contents to other yers. It could information about a location in the game -which they had researched on from either a library or a yer they happen to know there-, or about another yer or something else entirely. They were like the private investigators in Infinite Realm and their services were easily affordable. However, due to the fact that they worked individually, their area of reach and focus was limited.

    As for information guilds, these wererger entities that trained and organised various information hunters. Because they were an association of multiple information hunters, their area of expertise and reach was wide. Some of them even had insiders inside the top guilds and so, could offer inside information about these guilds; something an individual information hunters typically couldn''t provide.

    Among the most popr and recognised Information guilds was the super guild, Hermes. As long as one had heard of the "Gamer''s Expert List", "Greatest Of All-time or even the "Neer''s List", then they should have heard of Hermes guild.

    Hermes guild happened to be thepiler of the lists of the strongest yers as well as the prestigious records of a yer''s feat. Amongst average yers, they were well-known for theirptions and lists which recorded information about almost all existing Expert yers, retired or active, but apart from that, they also sold information to other yers and guilds. It was due to their reliable information and rapid ry speed that the guild has managed to build up so many connections, that despite not being as strong as itsrade in rank, Hermes was a guild that not even a peak super guild would what to offend.

    Rumour has it that trying to offend Hermes guild was almost the same as requesting the gamingmunity to go after you, or at least, the top figures of themunity.

    Once upon a time, a Peak 1st tier guild had once tried to usurp Hermes and use it as a stepping stone to rise to the rank of a super guild. Their strength was well recognised that no one doubted that they would give Hermes guild a headache and might evene out on top after the struggle. Sadly, this n was destined to be a failure as once the guildmenced their attack, they came under siege by various other guilds, both big and small. Those who owed Hermes guild had answered their call for help and the peak 1st tier guild was badly damaged to its foundation after that event.

    This was just a mere disy of the level of influence possessed by Hermes guild, and from what waster known that day, it was only 60% of those who owed Hermes a favour that had been called. Only one super guild and a few other 1st tier guilds were called but they still won it. From what was known then, at least 5 super guilds had close ties with Hermes and would havee to their aid if requested. In other words, if all the forces that had owed Hermes a favour were called, that Peak 1st tier guild would have ceased to exist.

    As the recognised number one information hunter guild, Hermes had a big reputation as well as arge customer base. Most of the information rted to the progress of the top teams were actually ryed by them to the others.

    ''For their information to be this detailed means they have a few spies in the top guilds. It would be for the best if we avoiding getting into conflict with these guys or even having anything to do with them. Sadly, that''s probably impossible.'' Sato sighed as he analysed the various reports on the forums.

    Information was a key advantage in any tactical affair. Therefore, the suppliers of information were the backbones of such affairs. For a team like Seven Star Glory, which was a pretty small upstart, they wouldn''t have anything to do with the big guilds or information guilds like Hermes. However, Seven Star Glory was a bit special in that it was the team that had killed the first-ever world ss BOSS in Infinite Realm. Hence, a lot of eyes would be on them and a lot of people would be wondering who they are. In other words, just by making such a monumentous achievement, they had already entered the sights of Information hunters regardless of whether they want to or not.

    The only question left to ask was how much information had already been dug up by those parties.

    After updating himself on the events around the world, Sato resumed his journey towards his destination. His goal was a certain meeting point of the river that branched out to form ake. It was an area Sato had spotted long ago, on one of his asional visits to Maldora Canyon before the cksmith Guild''s Apprentice Tournament.

    At that time, in a bid to escape the clutches of a terrifying monster, Sato was forced to run deep into the Canyon grounds, branching from the main route, which was the river''s path, over to another region.

    Theke housed an even more terrifying monster that easily scared away Sato''s pursuer just by its aura alone. When considering this, one would wonder why Sato was heading back there but in truth, Sato''s goal was the ''mouth'' of theke; the point where theke got connected to the river or in simpler terms, the strait of theke.

    Usually, in a region at by a powerful monsters, other monsters tend to avoid it and stay else, but there was a chance for even weaker ones to stay at the edge where it lived. This was because they would rely on the aura of the stronger beast to chase out their natural predators. Such monsters that acted like this were usually the ones that weren''t prey to the strong beast ruling the region. So, to some extent, it was safe to say that only that monstrous creature dwelt in theke but there might be a few weaker ones residing by the edge of the monster''s influence.

    Of course, this was only a bet from Sato as the most logical idea would be for the entire ce to be devoid of monsters. But part of Sato wanted to check out thatke as he didn''t have the luxury nor strength to do so before. But now that he was much stronger than he was back then, Sato was a bit curious about the area. Even if he couldn''t beat the creature, he could at least run away from it; that, Sato was pretty confident in doing.

    ''There it is.''

 Chapter 491 - 485 : Lorls River

    There it is.''

    A couple of metres ahead was the main river that ''guided'' the canyon. The river could be described as beautiful from far out due to its shimmering blue colour and the refreshing air that wafted around it, but to those who traversed it, it was a terrifying ce, home to a bunch of dangerous monsters and man-eating creatures.

    The river was about 200 metres wide with trees on both sides, and was very deep. While Sato had never personally explored it, the records from the city stated that the depth of the river was more than 30 metres as from that depth down below, terrifying monsters had made a home out of the river. Even a famous adventurer who had once tried to explore it a long time ago, had only gone 50 metres below before he was forced to retreat by a dangerous beast.

    Still on the size of the river, it was once said that the water in the river was enough to drown a Primary town. That''s right; drown and not flood. This line alone, though a rumour, was enough to show therge amount of water flowing in the river as well as the insane rumoured depth of the river. This famed river, was named River Lorls or the Lorls river by an old lord of the region.

    On the other end of the canyon, the Lorls river would branch out into 3 smaller streams that ran across the kingdom. Even though these 3 streams were smaller than the main river, they were each at least 50 metres wide, with thergest being up to 130 metres wide.

    At a certain stop, the Lorls river branched out a bit to form a small distributary that went ind. Compared to the main river, this strait was a lot smaller, reaching only up to 60 metres in width. Nheless, the depth was still quite astonishing, as even Sato with his improved eyesight, couldn''t see the riverbed from his position.

    ''That''s at least 20 metres or so.'' Sato estimated how far deep he could see from the surface.

    If one were to follow the strait for 4-5km all the way to the other side, they would arrive at theke Sato had spotted the first time he was here. However, Sato had no ns of going there right away. He nned on levelling up here for a bit before doing so to increase his chances of survival.

    ''From the local map of the province, the Lorls river extends all the way to the south where it divides into 3 smaller streams. The river is normally used as channel to the sea in the south but its also home to a lot of dangerous monsters. Because of this, the weaker monsters tend to either stay above or depart from the river once they get close to a distributary or a tributary. This strait should be housing a bunch of monsters like that.''

    Recalling the information he had gotten as well as the ones he had theorised from researching about the ce, Sato prepared himself as he chose a spot to begin ''farming''.

    Sato walked about 1km away from the point the river Lorls broke out to form the 60 metres wide strait. At this distance, Sato felt it was safe to hunt for monsters as the chances of him attracting a big ''fish'' from the river was quite low.

    The area close to the river bank was different from the canyon''s usual topography and vegetation. Unlike the arid ground that gued most of the canyon, the area close to both the Lorls river as well as the current river before Sato had trees with a bit of greenery close by.

    Reeds grew by the river bank while some parts of it was swampy. The area within 30 metres or so of the two rivers, had quite a lot of nts although they were mostly tall shrubs and grass.

    ''Hmm? Lucky me.'' Sato smiled as he caught sight of a prey.

    By the river bank, around the region where reeds grew, a strange creature that looked like a crocodileid t on the ground as it bathed under the sun. Unlike an average crocodile, it had sea-blue scales with little spikes and a veined ck pattern that ran from its tail to the four limbs. This was a strange appearance for a creature living near the river as it was a scientifical fact that most creatures tend to take on a look that makes it easier for them to hunt for prey as well as survive and avoid assault from predators. This was why certain creatures had a simr skin/scale colour to the region they lived in. For a monster like this to have sea-blue scales in a green field was a bit ludicrous.

    ''The developers couldn''t have forgotten such a simple fact, right?'' Sato thought as he drew near to the monster.

    The croc was at least 12 feet long (3.6576 metres) with a width of about 3 and a half feet. It''s short limbs were packed with muscles that could dwarf that of a bodybuilder with ease. When the croc asionally yawned, Sato spotted two rows of teeth on the top jaw and a single row below. There were two long canine teeth that decorated the teeth set of the monster, simr to those of snakes. There was no doubt that this reptile was more than capable of devouring a human figure with ease. With just a final of its jaws, one''s body part would be permanently dismembered.

    ''Based on its build, it''s most likely a strength-type monster. However, crocodiles are said to be quite agile even onnd, more so in water. It''s best that I avoid a confrontation in the river.'' Sato immediately hid his figure out of sight.

    ''3 sets of teeth and such arge body size. It''s safe to safe that this guy has been eating lot so there''s nock of prey for it here. If that''s the case, it''s probably not done small fry.'' Sato narrowed his eyes.

    If one were to take Infinite Realm to be another reality, then they would have to look at every event just as they would in real life. The ability to do this was a major difference between pro yers and average yers.

    From ncing at the croc''s appearance, Sato had theorised that it wasn''t an easy opponent to face. This was because of its size. The huge size of the monster may not look like much but for such arge creatures to maintain its size and weight, it had to have enough to eat, and with such arge size, it needed to eat a lot. Being able to maintain its size here meant that the crocodile either had a lot of prey to eat or was an overlord of sorts within a certain range and didn''t have to worry aboutpetitors or predators. The monsters within that area would therefore, not be its match, hence the reason why it could eat to satisfaction.

    ''If that''s the case, then I have to proceed with caution.'' Sato gripped [Drakken] tightly.

    If Sato rushed to attack and the monster turned out to be stronger than he was, then that would be a problem. With the resources he had, as long as it wasn''t more than two levels stronger than he was, Sato had the confidence to take it down. If it were a Special Elite two levels above him, he could at least escape. However, if it were an Elite rank 3 levels above, Sato wasn''t so sure about that. It would also be bad if his conjecture was wrong and he would attract more monsters over due to the fight.

    ''So, I have tounch a quick and decisive attack to at least severely injure.. That way, the fight would be in my advantage and end quicker.''

 Chapter 492 - 486 : Riverside Fight

    At a certain unnamed distributary of the great Lorls River, a huge reptile with sea-blue scales sunbathed by the bank of the river. The contracts between its blue scales and the blueke with the green grass that grew by the side of the river, made the entire scene look like a work of art from an artist from the Renaissance.

    asionally, the blue scaled crocodile would open its mouth wide, seemingly yawning, and at times, it would open its two eyes and nce around, seemingly searching for something. The entire scene looked picturesque but if one was in the know, they wouldn''t take the blue-scaled crocodile for a harmless reptile. Just its size alone was scary, much less the power behind its limbs and jaws. However, this savage monster happened to be the target of a certain individual today.

    [Linear Strike]

    [Critical Hit]

    -378 (???/???)

    Apanied with a strange ck shadow was green blood that spilled from the creature''s back. Everything has happened too fast that the monster was only able to react when the damage had been dealt.

    "Grawr!"

    Releasing a painful roar, the blue croc twisted itself as it swatted its tail in the direction of the attack. Independent of its amazing length of 12 feet, was the 7 feet (2.1336 metres) long tail that was covered in spiked scales just like its body that went towards the assant.

    Suddenly, Sato''s figure that was previously on top of the monster, disappeared within a second only to appear 10 metres out.

    ''That was close.'' Sato wiped off the invisible sweat on his forehead.

    Due to his previous angle of observation, Sato had failed to spot the tail of the monster as it was blocked off by a few of the reeds as wes the hulking mass that made up the monster. It was only after he had made his move that Sato had discovered the 5th ''limb'', however it was then toote for him to adjust his ns as the blue-scaled crocodile had attacked with the tail. Luckily, Sato had made preparations prior to his assault just for situations like this -a situation where he would suffer a counterattack and not be able to react in time-. The preparation was the fourth skill of [Drakken], [Shadow Movement].

    [Shadow Movement] had the ability to teleport its user to any shadow within a 5 metres radius or to any marked shadow within a 15 metres radius. It was the perfect escape technique and it was Sato''s backup n for retreating right after attacking.

    Though he was hoping that he wouldn''t get to use it, due to its long cool-down, Sato was still satisfied that he did so or else he would have gotten hit. Looking at the weight and size of the croc''s tail, Sato knew that even if he had somehow managed to block it back then, he would have gotten injured or broken an arm. It would even be worse for him if he got sted into the river.

    After sensing that the figure above it was gone, the sea-blue croc turned to see who had dared attack it during its break time.

    Within this part of the river, the croc was a lord of sorts. Very few monsters could threaten it here and all of them lived far away from it, hence the reason why it usually let its guard down during this downtime. Never would it have expected that some living creature would attack it, much less a weak looking being like Sato.

    With its height of roughly 6 feet (1.8288 metres), 12 feet long length (3.6576 metres) and width of about 3 and a half feet(1.0668 metres), the croc had all right to look down at Sato who was only 1.8 metres tall.

    "Grawr!"

    The blue-scaled crocodile ran on all fours as it charged towards Sato, however, if one took a close look, they would notice that one of its limbs moved in a strange manner.

    Due to the fact that he was unaware of the location of any vital organs of the monster, Sato had to aim for elsewhere. There were only two options left, the monster''s head and its limbs. However, Sato wasn''t exactly sure that he would be able tond a hit on its head as even if the creature''s guard was down, by the time he would arrive above its head, it might sense him and possibly avoid the attack.

    Not wanting to waste an opportunity, Sato had decided to go for a limb. The advantage of this was that the monster''s fighting ability as well as movement speed would be heavily affected and the chances of sess of attacking a limb was much higher than going for its head. So Sato had gone for its right ''arm'', almost severing it with that attack of his. This was all thanks to the high prative effects of both [Linear Strike] and [Drakken]. As a result, even the tough scales of the monster wasn''t able to keep it safe against that strike, leaving it with an almost severed limb.

    "Grawr!"

    As the blue-scaled croc chased after Sato, it felt the pain in its right ''arm'' which prevented it from running at full speed.

    Sato smirked as be saw this, knowing that his n was sessful. While he would have preferred for the arm to be cut off, having it severely injured made almost no difference.

    For a monster with a 3 and a half metres long body, a 10 metres gap wasn''t much even if its limbs were injured. The monster had covered the short gap within just 2 seconds and immediately lunged at Sato.

    Seeing a hulking mass of brutality and savagery before him, Sato didn''t try to face it head-on but retreated to the side avoiding the creature''s charge.

    *Bang*

    Proportional to its size was the weight of the monster which caused a small dent on the ground as it missed its target.

    [Sprint]

    Sato then took the chance when the croc was off its bnce due that terriblending, as well as its injured limb that got in the way, and dashed towards it.

    *Whoosh*

    The croc seemed to have guessed that Sato would attack as its tail swung towards its.

    Unlike before however, Sato was prepared this time. He had already added therge spiked tail to his calctions and so, Sato easily avoided it and still proceeded with his charge.

    [Chain Hit]

    -83

    -78

    -82

    All three shesnded on the target, leaving behind bleeding sh marks. The cut wasn''t that deep as the prative effects of [Chain Hit] was weaker than [Linear Strike] so it wasn''t able to cut past the scales as efficiently and deal more damage. Nheless, Sato had still managed to injure it and that was better than nothing.

    "Grawr!"

    The blue-scaled croc was incensed that it had been injured twice now and released a loud roar before it immediately turned and wed at Sato with its left arm.

    Sato hurriedly retreated was he skipped backwards till he felt he was safe. However, Sato had underestimated the monster as it gave chase without regards for its injuries.

    While its huge size made it seem like the creature wasn''t fast, Sato realised that it couldn''t be judged bymon sense. Even with the injured right arm, the croc was still able to give chase at a speed that forced Sato to always be on his toes.

    Slowly, the duo began to depart from the river. This wasn''t an unconscious act but part of Sato''s n. Even though he had confidence in beating the monster, if it escaped to the river, there was nothing he could do about it. Therefore, right after injuring it severely, Sato''s next objective was to lead it away from the river.

    "Grawr!"

    With the gargantuan creature dashing after him, the environment around the river was tarnished by its movements. The grasses were uprooted with the soil turned over as the croc pursued Sato with a trail of green blood as well drag marks on the soil left in its trail.

    When the two had gone about 20 metres away from the river, the croc suddenly stopped as it red at Sato for a while before turning around and slowly walking back to the river.

    Sato also stopped and nced at it, realising that they had probably gone out of its active region, hence the reason why the monster decided to retreat lest it enters the area of another creature.

    Realising that hat he might not be able to lead it further away than he already did, Sato decided that this was a good enough spot to take it on.

    [ck me sh]

    Sato swung his ck sword at the monster, sending a ming ck arc right at it.

    *Whoosh*

    -87 (???/??? ???)

    Like hot knife through butter, the mesnded on the blue-scaled crocodile and cut through its natural defences, digging deep before ring out in a congration of mes.

    Sato had originally intended for the strike to hit the point where he had severely injured the monster but at thest moment, the creature had moved its body to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack from hitting the bullseye. Nheless, its massive frame served as a disadvantage in this situation as it still got caught by the attack and injured yet again.

    ''[Inspect]''

    Sato finally gleamed at the attributes of the monster, spotting its HP bar to be maxed at 4000 points, just a little bit below Gatekeeper Baka.

    ''Not enough.

 Chapter 493 - 487 : Riverside Fight 2

    The [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile], which was the name of the monster, was a level 17 Common ranked monster, the highest levelled creature Sato had seen. Its hard scales served as a semi-impregnable defence that made most of his skills to be only able to deal a ''discounted'' amount of damagepared to their real abilities. Even worse, was the fact that the monster''s strength was something Sato couldn''t contend with. Yet Sato still had toe out on top of this battle, otherwise, if he couldn''t, he might as well quit ying Infinite Realm.

    Luckily for him but unluckily for the blue-scaled croc, Sato was a pro-gamer as well as an experienced martial artist. Already equipped with the knowledge that Infinite Realm was a game that mimicked reality, Sato had reversed the knowledge of certain animals and mythical creatures as he felt that a few monsters would possibly be based on them. In fact, it wasn''t only Sato who thought this way but the various experienced gamers as well.

    So long as it was a fantasy game, many believed that the elements would be the same or at least, have a few simrities. Dragons would exist and so would goblins. Certain elements were a constant while a few others were an adaptation or modification of a few existing creatures. Take for instance the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile]. In essence, it was still a crocodile even though it was bigger in size and had a few special abilities. By makingparisons of such monsters with their real-life equivalent, it was presumably easier to spot the weaknesses of the monsters.

    Take the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] for example. Despite seeming like a humongous beast of war that could rip its opponents to shreds, standing unequal under the heavens, the monster had a very simple and obvious weakness; its weight and size. It wasmon sense that therger an object, the more energy/force required to set it to motion. For the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile], it required a lot of energy and effort to move, much less run. It wouldn''t be an exaggeration to say that the energy used in making it run a 20 metres distance was enough to make an average-sized human run a mile.

    For a level 16 and below yer who was not of an Agility based ss, the speed of the level 17 Common [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] was simply ludicrous for its size but when facing a level 17 yer and above yer with the right number of [Agility] and [Dexterity] points, it was just a bit fast but not impossible to react to. This was because the weight of the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] was actually impeding its movement but it could still generate enough energy to move faster than most. But for those who were close to it in terms of [Agility], they would be able to notice this point. However, this weakness couldn''t be so easily utilised.

    Firstly, one had to have at least 18 and above points in [Agility] in other to contend with the monster. The level 14 Lu Zhen and Seiichi had easily fulfilled this mark but that didn''t mean that they were the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile]''s match.

    Apart from matching the monster in terms of speed, one had to have the required degree of reaction speed or else, they could fall to an attack of the monster at close-range.

    In truth though, all these criteria only enabled one to be able to avoid the monster''s blow and not defeat it. Being faster didn''t necessarily mean being stronger. Take Seiichi and Lu Zhen for instance. While they were much faster than [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile], they were not its match in a one-on-one battle. This was because none from the duo was capable ofnding an attack that could pierce through the scales of the monster. Even if they were level 17, their attacks would only be able to curse light injuries, and unless they attack via an ambush, none of them would be capable of severely injuring the monster.

    As most yers said, the system was fair. The [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] wasn''t an average cannon-fodder but a bnced monster. Being faster than it didn''t mean defeating it, and even being stronger but not faster, also entailed the same end. Hence, even if one were level 17, it was much safer to engage it as a team.

    However, Sato was different. Not only did he have the basic required points in [Agility] but he also had a high level of strength that could serve as a threat to the monster. Apart from those, the cursed sword [Drakken] granted a 25% boost to the prative strength of all his attacks. Against a monster like the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile], such a bonus couldn''t be underestimated. Thanks to it, Sato would be using half the effort to achieve a doubled effect.

    (1349/4000 Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile''s HP)

    With his impressive skills as well as the advantage of his weapon, Sato was able to bring the monster''s HP down without getting injured. It was only a matter of time before the blue-scaled beast would fall at his hands, and even the monster seemed to realise that.

    Seeing as it wasn''t able to get the upper hand in this fight, with its HP already far below the 50% mark, the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] immediately decided on a retreat as it turned tail and dashed toward the river. If there existed a chance of turning the battle around, it would be underneath the water and not onnd.

    ''The heck?'' Sato was stunned.

    Normally, only monsters that posesse Intellect would be aware of the concept of retreat. Most monsters in VR games were just dumb creatures that only knew how to attack an opponent within their range. Even when they were close to death''s door, they wouldn''t retreat; only monsters with Intellect would do so since their intelligence wasn''t something a regr monster couldpare to. But Sato was sure that the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] before him wasn''t one such monster.

    What mostly differentiated monsters with intellect and regr monsters was the level of intelligence both creatures possessed. This in turn affected their fighting style greatly. Hence the reason why monsters with intellect were stronger than their dumber counterpart.

    Sato had already exchanged multiple blows with the monster and he realised that the fighting style of the monster was nd and straight. There were noplexities whatsoever and as long as one paid proper attention to it, they would spot a rhythm in its attacks. Hence, it was not a monster with intellect. However, the fact that it could conceive the idea of retreating meant that it probably wasn''t an average monster.

    ''Or is this one of the reality ''perks'' of Infinite Realm?'' Sato thought as he chased after the croc.

    No matter the reason, he couldn''t let it get into the river, or else all his efforts would be for naught.

    Sato''s speed wasn''t less than the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile]''s to start with, and he had already dealt tons of injuries to it, including the still bleeding right arm of the monster. So, it was a given that he would catch up to it before it could get to the river.

    "Grawl!"

    Seemingly realising that its actions were pointless as its assaulter kept chasing after it, the croc released a threatening roar but in reality, this was just a mere performance as it was already scared sh*t by Sato.

    "Haha. You can''t get away." Satoughed as he shed out with his sword.

    *Whoosh*

    The ever-familiar mes appeared behind the crocodile once again but this time, the monster seemed to be a bit prepared as it dodged to the side.

    "Heh."

    Unknown to it, its actions were all previously anticipated by Sato. Truthfully, he had hoped for the croc to dodge the attack as doing so would force it to slow down; just enough for him to get close.

    ''[Shadow Movement]''

    It had been over 2 minutes since Sato had used the skill and its cool-down was but a mere 20 seconds. Add that to the fact that Sato had only used it once, the monster had already forgotten that he possessed such skill and wasn''t prepared for it.

    *Splurge*

    Sato appeared from the shadow created by the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile]''s tail, hacking at the body part with his sword.

    [Linear Thrust]

    A ck thin line passed from one side to the other as Sato''s sudden attack sliced off the tail of the monster with green blood gushing out from the injury like a small fountain.

    [Critical Hit]

    -511 (838/4000 Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile''s HP)

    *Bang*

    In most tailed creatures, the purpose of the elongated body part was to help the creatures maintain their bnce as well as to function as an extra limb. The same held true for the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile], who upon losing its tail, immediately crashed down on its heavy weight due to the surprise attack as well as the pain from losing such arge body part.

    Even though Sato had heavily injured the monster once again, he didn''t n to retreat as before but instead wanted to end it. Sadly, Sato had to halt his follow-up move. It wasn''t that he didn''t have the heart to finish off the monster but his senses had immediately alerted him as Sato hurriedly retreated from the spot.

    Ahead of the duo, was the river which was the goal of the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile]. However, unlike the empty surroundings that had greeted Sato before, what he saw were two other [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodiles] that had just left the water.

    One of the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodiles] was just like the one without a tail. As for the second one, it was quite different. Not only was it noticeablyrger, but it also had a bloodthirsty aura around it. Unlike the green eyes that were synonymous with [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodiles], it had a blue eye with a hint of red in it.

    There was no doubt that while this was the same monster, it was definitely of a higher rank.

    ''The heck?''

    Sato cursed at his luck as he tightened his sword.

    Taking down a [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] wasn''t difficult; only time-consuming. However, taking on 3 of them, with one of them being an Elite at least, was a different story. Without a doubt, Sato wouldn''te out unscathed if he continued the battle.

    "Roar!"

    A more tyrannical roar sounded from the mouth of the bigger croc as it nced at its injured brethren before gazing at Sato.

    "Think I will be scared off by a simple roar? Bring it on." Sato smirked.

    Since he left the team to improve on himself, he had to do battle. Running from a dangerous situation wouldn''t help him improve. Unless the scenario looked like one where his death was close to being written on stone, Sato wouldn''t conceive the idea of a retreat.. That was his martialw, especially in VR games; to never retreat in the face of adversity.

 Chapter 494 - 488 : Miloâ€™s Intention

    "Ha, Ha."

    Sato breathed out loudly as he tried to calm his breathing.

    A few metres away from him was the corpse of a level 18 [Blue Reed Water Snake], one of the monsters that operated by the distributary formed from the Lorls River.

    It had been over 12 hours since Sato encountered the first [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile]. When he was close to finishing it off, Sato was interrupted but two more [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodiles] with one of them being an Elite rank. Even an organized party would find themselves stumped if caught in the same predicament, but Sato was able to defeat the three monsters though with a lot of effort. He had even crossed paths with death more than once, under thebined assault of the three attackers.

    It was only after Sato had managed to kill off the first croc that he slowly began to turn the tables in his favor. After about 10 minutes of battling, Sato had beat the Elite rank [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] as well as the Common ranked one with it.

    Right after that, he had left the spot for elsewhere, battling monsters for 12 hours(RT) straight, with the only breaks he took being bathroom breaks and sleep since monsters be more terrifying in the nighttime. Even then, that was only 3 hours'' worth of time before Sato resumed his training.

    The level 18 [Blue Reed Water Snake] was the third of its kind Sato had killed, although it was the strongest as the others were mere level 17. Nheless, the monsters were anything but weak as any one of them could take down a [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] of the same level. Having faced 3 of them in a row, it was inevitable that Sato would get tired even aftering out on top.

    ''The dangers here are something else, especially during this time of the day.''

    In real-time, it was currently 5 am and in Infinite Realm, the timeline was a bit simr. It was the early hours of the day, between 4 am and 6 am [IF]. During this time, the nocturnal creatures would be rounding up their hunt or steadily retreating back to their hiding ces. The [Blue Reed Water Snake] was one such nocturnal monster and it could oy be spotted at nighttimes or the early hours of the day such as now.

    Unlike the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile], the [Blue Reed Water Snake] wasn''t a strength-type monster but more in agility and speed. Add that to the tough scales on its body and its eerie pattern of movement, then the [Blue Reed Water Snake] would be an opponent that one would have to take more seriously than the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile]. One would have to keep their eyes on it at all times as well as be on the tip of their toes, to be able to react to its movement and dodge its attacks.

    ''All this stress has gotten me about hungry now.'' Sato grumbled a bit.

    As he had just woken up from sleep less than an hour ago, Sato didn''t have the liberty of eating a meal or making one. He had even forgotten to take an energy drink[1] as most of his focus was on logging online.

    ''If I had a cabin, I wouldn''t need to be reminding myself of that.''

    Apart from offering quality connection as well as perfect yer-to-avatar sync, gaming cabins were also equipped with special functions that checked the status of the human body and also provided them nutrients when needed.

    In other words, if a yer who was logged into the game was currently hungry, he could send amand to the cabin and the pre-installed energy drink in the cabin''s unit would beser-injected into the body of the yer. This way, even if a yer was hungry, he wouldn''t need to go offline to eat and could instead survive on energy drinks which, depending on its rank, could be better than an actual meal. Apart from that, cabins could also check a yer''s pulse and nerves to determine whether they were experiencing certain dangers and log them out if necessary.

    Feeling the sensation of hunger, Sato wondered whether it was his in-game self that was hungry or his actual body, or even both.

    Turning his head towards the side, Sato nced at the corpse of the [Blue Reed Water Snake] thaty there.

    ''If only...''

    In Infinite Realm, while the most revered subsses were cksmith, Alchemist, and Engineer, in reality, every subss had its advantages which could even be better than the top 3.

    Merchants could easily befriend NPCs and even get discounts with ease, better than others. Farmers had the ability to grow herbs and as long as one improved on the ss, they would be able to grow even 3 or 4-star herbs in their backyard. This was the same.s as literally printing money. Chefs were simr to Alchemists except their ''potions'' were tastier and had limited effects. A good chef could even make a meal that could give a yer some attribute points.

    While all the other sses had their advantages, if there was one that could challenge the top 3, then it would be the Scribe(runesmith) and Hunter.

    The Scribe needs less talk as if was a known fact that almost every production-based subsses would still make use of runes. Hence, it could be said that all production-based subsses were also Scribes.

    As for Hunter, the subss was one of the most ideal for battle-focused yers. Not only could it provide practical aid in battle but it could help one survive better. Hunters could track down other yers and monsters. They could also set traps that could be used in a fight. However, there was a certain ability of Hunters that quite a few yers envied. Hunters could skin monsters for their meat.

    In IR, generally, yers could only loot monsters for drops like coins, equipment, or materials after which the corpse dissipates. Unless the monster was a meat-type monster[2], there would be no meat drop. But Hunters defied the logic. They could extract neat from any type of monster, depending on the level of the subss, and put it up for sale. Because they were the only ones with this ability, Hunters were envied by the other subsses.

    Who wouldn''t want to taste the meat of a dragon or a Phoenix? Even going a step back, the meat of a [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] should be quite juicy, right? Sadly, only Hunters could answer this question as they were the only ones with the ability to draw meat out of a monster corpse.

    ''Yato doesn''t have a subss yet, right? I think I should make him choose Hunter.'' Sato thought.

    While part of the reason for this decision was because he wanted to have a taste of some monster meat, another part was actually for the team. Having a yer who could collect meat from monsters would increase the financial prowess of the team.

    One may not know but monster meat was quite an attractive item on the menu. The rarer or stronger the monster, the higher the cost of its meat. Having Yato be a Hunter could increase the fund-raising capabilities of the team and also increase their battle-prowess as Hunter was a battle-focused subss.

    After considering the idea again, Sato stood up and looted the monster before resuming on his journey. He was currently level 18 but Sato was nning on facing 2 or 3 more monsters before heading to theke once again.

    20 minutester...

    Sato had yet to find an opponent as he walked closer to theke. It was a strange event as the distance between him and theke was still quiterge so it was illogical for there to be no monsters close by.

    ''What''s going on?''

    Just as Sato was wondering what went wrong, Milo suddenly appeared by his side.

    "Huh? You came out?" Sato was surprised.

    Ever since the little feline had left with him, it barely made an appearance. This was because the creature had somehow found a way to enter his void ring and had turned the storage site into its own home, feeding in the 1 star and 2-star materials that were in excess in Sato''s ring. It refused to leave at Sato''smand and only did so once in a while, probably to see the yellow sun [3].

    Since Sato didn''t know the origin of the feline and Milo didn''t cause any trouble in the ring, he didn''t see a need to chase it away and left it to do as it pleased. He has a lot of low-rank materials and they didn''t cost a lot so Sato wasn''t bothered with Milo eating them. He only hoped that it would get stronger after doing so.

    Seeing the creature that only did as it pleased suddenly appearing now, Sato presumed that it was probably tired of staying in the ring and wanted to talk a walk as it usually did before.

    "Meow"

    Milo suddenly purred.

    "Hm?" Sato nced at it with a raised eyebrow.

    Milo had actually taken the initiative tomunicate with him which was quite strange.

    "What''s up?" Sato asked though he knew it was pointless. How could he, a human, understand the meows of a strange species?

    "Meow."

    Milo ''spoke'' again, but this time, it was different. Sato had actually ''understood'' it.

    When Milo meowed, Sato seemed to have understood its ''words'' right off the bat. It was as if there was some Milo trantor in his head that directly tranted that single syble into a bunch of words.

    While Sato was stunned about this, he didn''t forget what he had ''heard''.

    "You''re saying that you can sense something useful close by? It''s very precious and can help in promoting your strength and mine?" Sato was astonished. He was even suspecting that the game was ying tricks on him.

    "Meow." Milo nodded before turning towards a certain direction.

    "Meow Meow."

    "The energy is weak and it could disappear at any moment if we don''t hurry." Sato frowned.

    The direction Milo happened to be facing was opposite theke. Going there would mean abandoning his original n of checking out theke, after all, Sato didn''t know how far Milo was referring to but it was definitely not close. Spending time on what could be a wild goose chase was quite risky.

    ording to Milo, the trail could disappear at any moment and this could even be while they were tracking it. For such an uncontroble event, Sato wasn''t willing to waste his time on it. There was also the fact that the danger on the other side could be more than what he could handle and such a risk was quite huge to take.

    "Meow." Milo urged him.

    "Fine." Sato sighed.

    His reasons for agreeing were quite simple.

    First of all, Milo never had any bad intentions for him so if it said that there was something good for both of them, then there definitely had to be.

    Secondly, Sato wanted Milo to get stronger as once it did, it could help him in his fight. Milo had never taken the initiative to ask him for something but it did so now. This meant that whatever was on the other side was very useful to it. So, an opportunity to strengthen Milo was one he was willing to take.

    Thirdly, there were no monsters here so Sato felt it wasn''t a bad idea to go elsewhere for now. Theke wouldn''t change position so he coulde backter.

    "You win. Show me the way then." Sato smiled.

    "Meow." Milo immediately walked away with Sato in tow.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    Somewhere a bit isted within Maldora Canyon, far off from the direction of Sato and Milo, a battle was currently taking ce between a group of armed men and an unknown entity.

    "Protect her highness!"

    Before those words seemed to go far, a shadow swooped in on the speaker almost instantly.

    "Ahhh!"

    Screams reverberated as the sounds of metal nging apanied the fall of men. Blood spilled as lives were lost and breathe cut short.

    Thissted for a couple of minutes before silence was once again restored to the region.

    AN :

    [1] Energy Drink mentioned here is the nutritional drink developed in this world and not the ones you''re familiar with. The higher the ranking of the drink, the more efficient it is as well as the more nutrients it possesses and the higher its price. The rankings are as follows:

    S : 3 million ALDs

    A : 225,000 ALDs

    B : 10,000 ALDs

    C : 1250 ALDs

    D : 200 ALDs

    E : 30 ALDs

    NB: This is a rough price sketch. Different stores could sell at different prices. Ranks S+ and X can''t be bought with money alone

    [2] Monsters reared for their meat.

    [3] Can be read as taking a walk.

 Chapter 495 - 489 : The Wreckage

    Two creatures, a young man and a little feline, were cautiously moving through the dry terrains of depths of Maldora Canyon. At times they would move slowly ore to a halt. Other times, the duo would dash forward at high speed, with no intentions of slowing down even with the violent roars of wild beasts aimed at them.

    Sato had been following Milo''s direction for over an hour and had yet to spot anything out of the ordinary. During this period, he had suffered attacks from various kinds of monsters most of which were stronger than the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile]. It was for reasons like this that they had spent more than an hour going only so far, otherwise with no dangers, the duo would have made it this far in just 15-20 minutes.

    One of the reasons for the increased presence of monsters as well as the strength they possessed was that Sato and Milo had already left the vicinity of the river. On the contrary, they had approached the edge of the canyon,ing close to the ''walls'' of the canyon. The terrain here was the same as the other ces in the canyon; sandy and dusty, so the monsters that lived here were those that acted on thews of the jungle. There wasn''t enough prey for the monsters here and only the strong could survive. Hence, it was reasonable for every one of them to be stronger than the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile] or even the [Blue Reed Water Snake]. Luckily, Sato wasn''t the same and had gotten stronger than before so while the monsters were strong, they were nothing more than a pain in the that required more effort to beat.

    There were very few trees but more boulders lodged on the side of the walls of the canyon. The ground was hard and with very few obstructions. Because of this, Sato had to proceed with caution lest he attracts the attention of a terrifying monster. In this area, there were monsters that even level 20 yers would fear, and no yer was even at that level yet.

    *Sniffs*

    Suddenly, Sato paused. It wasn''t that he had noticed anything off but that Milo had abruptly stopped walking and began to sniff the air.

    "What''s wrong?" Sato asked.

    While it was true that Milo was incapable of speaking humannguage, it could still understand him.

    *Meow~*

    Milo released a long meow.

    Sato frowned as he heard it.

    Simr to before, Milo''s ''words'' had been tranted in Sato''s head and he finally understood while the little fellow had stopped walking. Apparently, it had caught a whiff of blood in the air. Normally, this wouldn''t be much of an issue as during their journey, Milo had sniffed out a bunch of other bloody sites. They were all monsters that had been hunted by predators or maybe injured from a feud with another monster. The difference this time around, was that the blood was that of humans; humans, not human. In other words, up ahead, there was more than one individual who was either injured or dead.

    At this point in time, Sato was stuck in quagmire. He could either go forward and risk getting attacked by a powerful creature, or retreat and resume his previous goal of heading towards theke.

    ''Is there even a reason to hesitate?''

    "Lead the way." Sato told Milo.

    The little feline didn''t bother with any unnecessary actions and immediately dashed towards the site.

    This time around, the duo actually spent 12 minutes to reach there despite the fact that it was just a distance of mere 700 metres or so. To understand better, an average athlete could do a 1km run in 5 minutes or less, much less a 700 metres distance.

    "Hmm?"

    When Sato approached reached the area with his partner, he noticed tyre marks on the floor, but that wasn''t the only thing that made him raise an eyebrow.

    There wererge footprints on the ground and it wouldn''t take a genius to realise that those 4-fingered footprints were made by some ferocious monster.

    "Tyre marks mean someone was traveling with a carriage. But why the heck would someone run rampant with a carriage in Maldora Canyon?" Sato let out his thoughts.

    It was indeed a strange urrence for a carriage to be wandering within Maldora Canyon. One should know that the area, even amongst NPCs, was a dreaded ce. No carriagepany would dare offer their services within or through the area even though their carriages are usually guarded by private guards. Even when Sato wanted to get to Maldora Canyon the very first time, the carriage he took only stopped him at the closest stop to the canyon and not at the entrance of the canyon. From this, one could see how much the NPCs dreaded the ce.

    What should further be noted was that this wasn''t the mere outskirts of Maldora Canyon, but quite close to the depths of the ce. Unless one was a great personage or at least, at the level of Sato, no yer or NPC would want to wander in here. Even if they did, they wouldn''t carry a carriage with them as protecting it would be quite taxing and such a big object would be an easy target for monsters.

    "So strange." Sato walked up and bent down to study the two marks.

    With the appearance of the new tyre tracks as well as the beast marks, it would be easy for one to presume that the monster was chasing after the carriage but there was also the chance that both parties had crossed through this ce without knowledge of the other.

    ''Looking at the marks, the monster probably came here after, otherwise its footprints won''t ovep that of the tyre tracks. They both seem to be heading in the same direction too. This means that the carriage was possibly running away from the monster. There''s also the chance that the carriage was moving to its destination and the monster had spotted its trackster on. This would mean that the riders weren''t aware of the monster trailing them. In that case, it would be easy for them to suffer a loss to it if it catches up to them.''

    Just from the two trails, Sato made two inferences which he felt were very close to the truth.

    "Let''s go." Sato stood up and departed in the direction of the tyre tracks. He didn''t need Milo to lead him to the site again as he felt that he would probably reach it by following those two trails.

    After running for 3 minutes, the duo had finally reached a small stone forest. Jagged brown rocks protruded from the ground creating aplex terrain that seemed to hide a lot of secrets. Nheless, the marks were still present so Sato wasn''t lost.

    Following the two trails, Sato eventually came to an open spot in the middle of stone forest. He was forced toe to a stop because the sight in front of him was horrifying.

    A luxurious looking carriage was in wreck with it tyres tossed far and apart. The carriage was without doors and was pretty much a mix of splinters and piles of wood. Corpses were strewn across the ground as blood flowed like a little stream, staining the brown floor with a savage hint of red. At a closer inspection, the corpses all wore armour and looked like guards subject to a noble household or such. But while all of this was a sight to behold, it wasn''t what made Sato stumped.

    A huge corpseid on the ground and was the major culprit for the stream of blood flowing on the floor. If the blood from the dead guards had formed miniature streams, the blood flowing from the huge monster corpse had formed a miniature river. Even Sato couldn''t help but wrinkle his nose at the damning smell.

    Just as Sato was moving forward to get a close look at the creature, he seemed to hear a low but weak voice, almost like a whisper.

    "Help, me."

 Chapter 496 - 490 : The Young Lady

    The broken carriage was coloured a pristine white with a mixture of gold decorating the edges and vertices of the ride. On one of the broken doors of the carriage, there was an emblem of a noble household. It was a crest that looked a grey Eagle-like creature standing on a golden halberd with its wings spread open. A red Sun was rising on the background as the Eagle''s eye nced up ahead, looking as if it was able to see whoever was staring back at it. The same emblem was also imprinted on the armour of the guards, both on their chests and backs.

    As Sato wasn''t versed with the nobility of the Fallen Heart Kingdom, much less ck Rock City, he couldn''t recognise which family the emblem represented. However, for them to be found within this region, it meant three things. Either the family was on the run from their enemies or that they were powerful enough that Maldora Canyon didn''t seem so scary to them so the owner of the carriage probably came hunting or something else. The third possibility was that the owner of the carriage was in a hurry to deliver a message or head/return to their destination.

    While it was true that Maldora Canyon was an infamous spot for NPCs, the area had the advantage as it could serve as a shortcut to the southern part of the kingdom. It should be recalled that the Lorls River that ran through the Canyon and headed straight south of the kingdom. If one were to head the same ce viand, they would have to make a lot of turns as the road wasn''t straight. However, by following the river, they could make it to the south of the kingdom faster and vice versa. But this was on the condition that they could survive the attacks of the monsters in the river so hardly anyone used this method of travel.

    If the noble family that owned this carriage had employed this route, then it meant was that they were confident in their strength or that they were in dire straits and needed to make it to their destination quickly, no matter the cost. So in summary, the third option still led to the first two: either the family was in dire straits or were confident in their strength.

    However, if the owner of the carriage was confident in their strength, for them to have fallen here either meant that the owner was overestimating themselves or that they had encountered something terrifying that even the powerful carriage owner and guards couldn''t handle. Sato didn''t doubt this as whole the NPC guards were dead, he could still feel a bit of their aura.

    No doubt, these guys were above level 20 at the very least and could possibly be stronger than level 40. Therefore, whatever killed them had to be level 50 or so.

    Looking a the huge monster corpse thaty alongside the warriors and the wrecked carriage, Sato felt that it was the culprit of the entire event. Not only did its feet match the footsteps Sato had been tracking, but its terrifying size and appearance made him feel like this was no ordinary monster.

    The corpse was that of a gigantic beast and by gigantic, it was at least 5 metres(16.404 feet) in height; and this was with the monsterying sideways. If it were to be standing upright, considering the length of 10 metres(32.808 feet) it hadying sideways, its height would also be the same. A 10 metres tall monster. If one has seen a human of 2 metres(6.56 feet) or 2.5 metres(8.2021 feet) in height, then they would know how huge 10 metres was. And the width of the monster was a stunning 5 metres; not something you would see everyday.

    Even though he was separated from the corpse by a distance of at least 10 metres, Sato still felt a sense of agitation upon staring at it. It wasn''t that he was scared but rather, the aura from the corpse was still enough to force his senses into auto-alert mode.

    Despite seeing the blood flowing front he creature nonstop, Sato didn''t approach it for fear that the monster maybe faking its death or still be on itsst breath. If that were so, then even thought it was terribly injured, it could still end his life with one attack. Losing a ton of Experience points over something that could have been avoided was an act Sato was willing to pull off. Hence, he stood at a safe distance and inspected the corpse. Luckily for him, the angle Sato stood at was good enough.

    The monster was a strange creature and a chimera of sorts. It had the head of a hyena but with the body of a leopard. On its paws were sharp ws that extended from the knuckles of the paws. A fixated gaze at them made Sato realise that those weren''t simple ws but bone ws; extension of the bones in its body that broke free from the protection of the skin and got exposed. Those were dangerous hunting ''equipment'' and Sato even had a feeling that they could destroy a level 20 Upper-tier Rare-Steel rank without effort.

    Level 20 Upper-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon. This was something that no yer had everid their hands on. Not even level 15 Upper-tier Rare-Steel rank. However, Sato was a cksmith so he could easily simte the strength of such equipment in his head. For the chimera''s ws to be able to turn a level 20 Upper-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon to scrap, meant that the quality of its ws were such that one shouldn''t underestimate it.

    ''Luckily, it''s dead or at least it looks so.'' Sato sighed.

    If he were to face this monster, Sato wouldn''t even be able to exchange a blow with it. Escaping was also out of the question as such a monster would be good at running. Even if it wasn''t a good runner, just the difference in strength and attributes would make it such that Sato at his fastest speed, was but a snail in the monster''s eyes.

    "Let''s go." Sato spoke to Milo.

    However, the little feline didn''t follow him but instead nced at Sato and pointed towards the carriage with its head.

    "Meow."

    "Huh? You want me to check it out?" Sato stared at it.

    "Alright."

    After a moment of silence, he finally agreed as Sato unsheathed his sword and circled around the monster to get to the broken carriage. It was best to be cautious so Sato didn''t want to approach the corpse at all. The blood on the ground was still fresh meaning it hasn''t been that long since the battle ended. There was still a chance that the monster was on itsst breath.

    As Sato got closee to the carriage, he was in high alert for any reaction from the monster or elsewhere. The entire ground was tainted with blood and Sato didn''t doubt that other monsters would get a whiff of it if Milo did. Hence, he had to be done with whatever he was doing here and escape before that happened.

    When Sato was about 2 metres from the carriage, he heard a weak voice that seemed to be whispering. If he wasn''t this close and didn''t stay on high alert, Sato would have failed to notice this voice. But now he did, Sato realised something; there was someone alive.

    Tightening his grasp on his sword, Sato approached the carriage, more cautious than ever. Even though the guards and the owner of the carriage were humans, it didn''t mean that they were friendly. So no matter what, Sato still had to keep his guard around them.

    "Help, Help me." The weak voice cried out.

    Sato approached the wreckage and was immediately stunned at the sight within.

    A youngdy roughly the same age as he was,ying within the confines of the carriage, injured. Her head was bleeding, her hair a mess with her attire torn apart. She looked so weak that she was incapable of moving a muscle. The only thing the youngdy could do was to repeat the same words over and over, in hopes that help would miraculously arrive. But even in her miserable situation, her beauty couldn''t be hidden. With blue eyes that looked like precious gems, blonde hair and a lithe figure, there was no doubt that this was a woman in her prime of beauty. Even the blood on her lips added a helpless and pitiful expression to the youngdy, surprisingly raising her beauty up a notch. Nheless, the injuries on her body made her look pitiful as it seemed like she wasn''t so far from death''s door.

    "Help me." The girl muttered.

    Her current appearance managed to touch the cold heart of Sato as he was contemting bringing her out of here to somewhere safe.

    ''However, this is Maldora Canyon. Carrying an injured person around would be the same as attracting trouble.'' Sato was caught in a tight spot.

    "Meow."

    Seeing its master hesitating, Milo then shared its thought.

    "Hmm? You say there''s something strange about her?"

    "Meow."

    "It could help us both?" Sato frowned.

    At this time, the girl seemed to have lost all energy as her breathing slowed and she couldn''t let out a sound anymore. If Sato were to decide to save her, then he would have to do so immediately or else she would end up dead. Having such a pressure on his shoulders forced Sato to ignore all manner of caution and take out a vial of Health potion.

    While it was well known that the HP potions worked for yers, no one knew whether it would do the same for NPCs. However, Sato didn''t doubt that after all, yers purchased their potions from NPC stores. There was no way that these stores would only sell items catered to yers and unusable to themselves.

    As the potion entered the soft but bloody lips of the youngdy, it began to work rapidly, healing her injuries at a visible rate. Sato left her for a while toet the potion do its work as he began ''inspecting'' the area.

    "Let''s go."

    When Sato saw that her breathing had stabilised and most of her injuries were healed, he picked her up in a piggyback ride and left the area with Milo. Staying further would increase the risk of being caught by a wandering monster or scavengers that would be attracted to the blood of the monster or the guards. This was something Sato didn''t want to see as there was a very high chance that he wouldn''t be the match of those creatures.

    "Milo, lead the way." Sato left the role of finding a safe spot to the little feline.

    In terms of perception, Milo was way ahead of him, be it in smell or hearing. Hence, it was the best decision to let Milo lead the way as it could help them avoid monsters along the path.

    "Meow." The little feline proudly agreed but didn''t waste any time to pick a direction as it knew the precariousness of their situation.

    ''I really hope I made the right decision..'' Sato thought as he nced at the head that rested on his shoulder.

 Chapter 497 - 491 : Hunting For Herbs

    Maldora Canyon was arge canyon with certain parts of it having their own ecological system. A good example were the region''s close to the River Lorls and its distributary. Even though Maldora Canyon was mostly a dry and arid location with brown sand and hard rocks, the area close to the liver was lush green with nts and grasses, it was like a different story from the other parts of the canyon. Simrly, there other such parts, a good example being the cave Sato currently resided in.

    After rescuing the youngdy from the wreckage site, Sato had followed Milo in search of a safe zone to rest and take a breather, and at the same time, figure out what to do with the girl behind Sato. The end result was Milo leading Sato to arge cavern within the ''walls'' of the canyon.

    Unlike the wet and stony environment filled with stgmites and stctites one would expect, the interior of the cavern was nothing like that. It was like a forest in the outside world, filled with greenery and trees as tall as 4 storey buildings. The ceiling of the cavern was very high, that even flying creatures were able to reside within the cavern with no fear of crashing into the ceiling. Sunlight shone in from a big hole at one part of the ceiling, illuminating the entire cavern. All in all, the entire cavern looked like a different ce from the dry terrain Sato had witnessed in a majority of his stay in Maldora Canyon.

    Truthfully, the first time he stepped into the cavern, Sato was on high alert as based on his intuition and experience, ces like this that were in direct contrast to their respective exterior usually held great dangers.

    Luckily, Sato had Milo who was able to sense the dangerous monsters even before they got close to them. It was as if Milo''s perception was greater than these monsters so it was able to spot them in time.

    "Alright, here looks good enough." Sato headed into a cave within the cavern.

    The cave wasn''t big but it was isted. Thanks to Milo, Sato was able to confirm that it wasn''t a stronghold of any monster and barely do monsters move around there.

    Sato gently dropped the youngdy on the floor before checking her condition. Her breathing had stabilised long ago and with the HP potion acting, her physical injuries were mostly healed. However, she was still stuck in aa and it would take some time for her to awaken. There was also the chance that she might not wake up unless proper treatment was carried out.

    ''If I were a [Pdin] or a [Cleric], this wouldn''t be much of an issue.'' Sato sighed. Nheless, he didn''t regret his decision of being a [Swordsman].

    Of all the sses, only the Specialists were a bit bnced and of all all the Specialist sses, the [Swordsman] was the most bnced in terms of attacking prowess and defensive abilities. [Assassin] only had a high attack power with high movement and attacking speed but their defences were pitiful and in some cases, below that of mages. [Rangers] had a simr situation but were a bit worse off. Their ability onlyid in long rangebat and once one closed up the gap, they were pretty much helpless. Only the [Swordsman] could hold up in a close range battle, have a pretty impressive movement and attack speed and better defence than the rest.

    Of course, while the factor of bnce seemed to make the [Swordsman] look like the best ss, this wasn''t so. Every ss had their own advantages. Even a [Swordsman] would lose out to an [Assassin] if they got caught in an ambush or a surprise attack. If a [Swordsman] couldn''t close the gap, they would be nothing more than a y toy in the hands of a [Ranger] or mage. Even in closebat, their strength was stillcking to the Warrior sses much less defence. So while the [Swordsman] ss had gone for a bnced arrangement in contrast to specialty, this happened to be both its advantage and disadvantage. A jack of all trades but master of none.

    ''Since I''ve brought her this far, I have to make sure she stays alive.''

    Sato immediately logged into the forums and began searching for adverts ced by information hunters. His n was to buy information pertaining to NPCs and their healthcare. While Sato had a passable level of medical knowledge, it wasn''t enough to treat someone ina. Since he couldn''t connect to the inte while in the game, the only option was to buy information from information hunters.

    Of course, whether or not he would find what he wanted was a different story.

    While he was searching, Sato also thought of all the possible options he could take.

    ''The health potion could only help with her physical injuries. I''m not sure if giving her more would help with the internal ones. I''m also not an Alchemist or Apothecarist so I don''t know what mixture of herbs could help in this scenario.''

    "Ah wait, Fudo''s an Alchemist." Sato facepalmed.

    Sato then sent a message to Fudo asking for his help. The team was currently in the dungeon so Sato didn''t want to disturb them by calling. Leaving a message for Fudo was the best option, even though Sato would most likely get a replyter.

    After that, Sato returned to scrolling through the forums in search of any health-care information.

    One could say that his luck was good as 10 minutester, Sato managed to find one. At the same time, Fudo also sent him a reply, detailing what he knew about awakening someone from aa as well as the necessary herbs needed. Luckily for him, Sato had a stock of 1-star and 2-star materials which also included a few herbs but unluckily for him, they were notplete to form the drug. It couldn''t be helped as Sato was a cksmith; most of his attention would be on materials and not nts.

    ''These nts are low rank and could easily be found in these areas. Maybe I might luck out and find a few here.''

    After getting the recipe from Fudo, Sato had immediately bought information rting to the nts he was missing. The information detailed not just the appearance but also the functions as well as the possible locations and growth spots for the nts. One could say that information hunters really took their jobs seriously in order to keep their customers and get a reputation. Such a detailed report wasn''t easy to get or evenpile so it was definitely worth the price.

    However, this wasn''t what Sato cared about. His priority now was finding the missing herbs.

    ''Guess I have to head out now. Hopefully, nothing untoward happens to her while I''m gone.'' Sato sighed as he gave one nce at the injured beauty who seemed to be peacefully sleeping.

    "Come on, Milo. Let''s go now."

    "Meow."

 Chapter 498 - 492 : Arnhaunt Family

    While Sato was interested in saving the youngdy''s life, he didn''t n on endangering his own by roaming outside for too long. Luckily for him, Sato didn''t take long to find the necessary herbs toplete the drug. The missing herbs were extremely low-level and not so special so it wouldn''t be an issue finding them. There was also the fact that the ecosystem here was quite impressive, giving birth to such herbs as if they were weeds. Hence, it didn''t take long after Sato had left the cave before he found them.

    "I hope this works.''

    After returning to the cave, Sato began mixing the herbs in the right proportion as Fudo has stated to form a paste and a syrup. Mixing it wasn''t that difficult and didn''t require one to be a specialist at that, so it wasn''t a problem for Sato. He then applied the paste in the prescribed directions onto the girl''s forehead and chest. Applying on the forehead wasn''t a problem but since it has to be done directly on the skin, it became a problem when Sato reached her chest. After all was said and done, Sato was still a young man in the prime of his youth.

    ''Have a clear mind, have a clear mind. Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...''

    Taking on the task that looked greater than anything else, Sato had to distract himself from having any side thoughts. Even though this was an NPC, the realism involved was a lot that she looked no different from a human being. If that wasn''t enough, then IR''s realism was a problem of its own. The game didn''t explicitly ban sexual content so yers could involve themselves in such acts. That means that all the reproductive organs as well as their ''abilities'' were replicated; this included the legendary boner experience.

    By the time Sato was done, a small camp had risen from beneath his trousers but calming his heart down with a few mantra, Sato easily recovered from that disgrace. He couldn''t be med; ever since he was born, Sato never had such a rtionship with the opposite sex. He had never dated any girl much less seen a girl naked so his reaction was natural.

    ''Friggin'' game.'' Sato cursed.

    Apart from applying the paste on her, Sato didn''t forget to feed her the potion as he opened the girl''s mouth and emptied be the vial''s content in. He then covered her nose, making it difficult for the girl to breathe as her body automatically responded as she tried breathing through her mouth. Thea the youngdy was in, wasn''t so serious, hence the reason why Sato could even treat it in the first ce.

    When he was done with all of that, Sato then sat by the side and waited. There was nothing else he could do but what for her to recover. As for going out and levelling up? The monsters in the cavern were no joke; they weren''t something Sato could take on. Unless he wanted to die without knowing how, it would be best to reduce his movements outside of this cave.

    "Mmm."

    About 4 hours or soter, light sounds came from beside Sato and the young girl seemed to murmur in her sleep before opening her eye lids.

    "Where, where am I?" She feebly asked.

    "You''re safe, at least."

    Sato walked up to the girl. Milo had already returned to the ring so it was only Sato and the girl that was left.

    "You, who are you? Where are my guards?" The girl widened her eyes in shock as she stared at Sato with a frightened appearance.

    Sato inwardly sighed, partially disappointed. He has originally thought that the owner of the carriage would be one of great strength to have dared move around in Maldora Canyon but it seemed that it was a character who was ignorant or maybe forced to such circumstances.

    ''I will need to gain her trust first then question her then.''

    "Your guards are all dead. You were the only one with a breath still left so I saved you." Sato replied.

    "De, dead?" The girl was stunned before her expression broke down. Her eyes became listless as he head faced the floor.

    "It''s, it''s all my fault. We could have used the normal route, but the family, they needed help. I just wanted to be of use so I decided to take the risk. I thought we would make it out. I can''t believe they''re all dead, and I''m alive." The girl seemed to be talking to herself as she murmured those words with a heartbreaking expression.

    Sato didn''t need to question her that much as her soliloquy had already helped him get the gist of the matter.

    The girl''s family must have encountered some danger that required outside help. She was then sent to find that help but doubting that she would make it in time if she took the normal route, the girl probably made the decision of passing through Maldora Canyon. She probably thought that with the strength of her guards, while it might not be a walk in the park, they would still make it out safely. However, reality was heartless as everyone apart from herself had died. Never did she expect for such events to take ce.

    ''She''s probably a greenhorn. A little flower raised in a greenhouse with no true knowledge of the outside world.'' Sato sighed.

    ''It''s quite possible that her family sent her away not to get help but to retreat. However, she couldn''t even figure that out.''

    Sato didn''t know what event had taken ce for the family to go to such dire straits but he wasn''t interested. Not only was he a yer, but he was still weak. Trying to interfere with events rting to the noble families in the Fallen Heart Kingdom with his meagre strength was akin to courting death.

    ''Heck, this is already courting death. If her enemies knew I saved her, I would be in for it.''

    "Here." Sato passed her a piece of dried meat out of pity.

    "You have been knocked out for a while now. You''re body needs some nutrients."

    "Th, thank you." The girl epted without any hesitation. She was aware that she indeed needed food so she didn''t stand on ceremony.

    After she has a ate a bit, Sato decided to start questioning her.

    "Who are you?"

    "Me?" The girl paused.

    "Cecilia, Cecilia Arnhaunt from the noble family of Arnhaunt." There seemed to be a slight tone of pride in her voice as she said this, butter she became a bit downcasted as she recalled all that had happened.

    ''Arnhuant family...'' Sato recalled the information he had bought a while ago on the forums.

    Since his knowledge of nobles werecking, Sato decided to fill up that gap and with the aid of information hunters, it wasn''t a difficult task. Sadly, he could only find information pertaining to big families and not the small ones. Luckily, the Arnhaunt family was covered under this.

    From the report, Sato was sure that she was telling the truth since data he bought had also contained an image of the emblems of some noble families and the Arnhaunt''s emblem of an Eagle resting on a golden halberd was present; exactly the same as the one Sato had seen on the carriage and the uniforms of the guards.

    ording to the report, the Arnhaunt family wasn''t exactly a big family. Though they were not a great family, they had ties with one; to be specific, with the Duke of ck Rock Province. The Arnhaunt family was a middle ranked family in a province two provinces away, however due to a marriage alliance, their ties with the family of the Duke of ck Rock Province was created and further strengthened. Relying on this, they were able to bring themselves from their original rank as a small noble family to a mid-level noble family. However, it was inevitable that this rise would bring them to the attention of ages other families as well as create more enemies for them.

    With the fact that their great benefactor was two provinces away, it would be hard for them to have much influence in their region. As long as a great family dealt with them quickly and silently, even the Duke would be hard-pressed to do anything.

    ''It looks like their enemies couldn''t bear to see them rise anymore and hard struck at them.'' Sato presumed.

    While it looked like the Fallen Heart Kingdom was quite peaceful from the yers'' perspectives, it was anything but that for the NPCs. Infinite Realm could be seen as a different world and the activities of the world would continue to move forward irrelevant to the yers'' existence but notpletely. So while yers could interfere in it, they couldn''t stop it.

    Since Infinite Realm was meant to mimic the basics of reality, plots and schemes amongst the hierarchy of the kingdom''s nobility was inevitable.. The Arnhaunt family was just one family that had fallen to this but not the only one.

 Chapter 499 - 493 : New Mission || Clue To Milos Identity

    Sato felt bad for Cecilia as simply a victim of the schemes of nobility, just like him.

    While it was publicly announced that his parents died in a car ident, Sato knew better. A car ident? Then why had the 9 year old Sato and the less than 4 year old Hayamo survived? Logically, having a much weaker constitute than their parents, they should have died, but they didn''t. A miracle? If it were, then it makes sense but surviving without any severe injuries? Illogical!

    Another fishy part was the fact that a robbery hadmenced within a Primary level city, a city only below the Capital in rank. Minor robberies weren''t much but something on a scale of having military grade weapons was fishy.

    One should know that murder was pretty much abhorred in the reign of the Alliance. As such, control over weapons was tight and extremely regted, yet, a few criminals had gotten their hands on military grade weapons. What more, this happened to be precisely at the same time as when one of the most influential figures of the Independent State of Japan(ISJ) as well as the current leader of one of the most powerful ns in the state and the richest, was on a vacation with his family.

    Not enough evidence? Then what about the witnesses. While Hayami was still a kid and couldn''t remember much of what had urred then, Sato clearly did. His parents didn''t die in an ident, they were killed; killed in a premeditated assault, an assassination!

    Sato could still remember that day clearly as if it were yesterday. The family had just entered their ride and were heading to their resort when amotion urred upfront. Despite avoiding it the first time, the robbers seemed to have coincidentally changed direction to their path. But it wasn''t a coincidence as Sato believed that they were being tracked by the other. And when the two parties hade close to the other, the robbers didn''t hesitate to attack them.

    Sato could still remember the emotions on the killer''s eyes. It wasn''t one of indifference as most armed robbers would have when randomly killing a stranger. It was one of recognition, eyes that seemed to tell ''found you''. Even if one were to attribute this to the robber recognising the family''s identity as the esteemed Kurosakis, wasn''t it wiser to take them as hostage in order to increase their chances of escaping the police?

    But the robbers didn''t do this. They didn''t even hesitate to shoot at the vehicle. Luckily, Hayami was being held down by her mother so most of the shots had went for the poor woman. As for Sato, he was in the back seat, directly behind his father, huddling himself in fear. He had only managed to catch a glimpse of the killer before his father had screamed hisst words: ''Get down!''. Even at the time of his death, Kurosaki Kenshin had not only realised the truth but he still kept the safety of his family in mind.

    The second just before the first shot was released, he turned his back to the killer and shielded his son who sat behind him. A 9 year old Sato was made to see his father''s loving smile and protective stance in that time of despair and had to keep it as thest memory of his father. All this because of the schemes of an unknown figure in the shadows.

    As for what had solidified his belief that it was a murder, were the words of the killer: ''They''re dead''.

    Because the ''robbers'' were being chased by the cops, they couldn''t verify the pulses of everyone, nor confirm whether they were all dead. They didn''t even prepare heat scans or life-monitors to confirm this so they only had to work by intuition. However, who could survive a shot from a military gradeser-gun? Even if one could survive one shot, how about 7? With that in mind, they didn''t feel a need to confirm their deaths and had immediately left the scene. By heaven''s grace, however, Sato and Hayami had survived.

    But even with the little Sato''s retail first-hand narration of the event, it was still ssifier as an ident with faults due to AI malfunctioning. Maybe when he was younger he couldn''t understand, but how would Sato say the same now? How could he not be incensed? How could he not know that someone''s hands were behind it? And that person was mostly a figure of great personage?

    Therefore, why they were of two worlds, Sato still pitied Cecilia as she was just a tad simr to him; young ignorant ones caught in the strife for power.

    "Sighs." Sato sighed as he sat down with a gloomy expression.

    "Huh? What''s wrong?" Cecilia naively asked.

    "Just recalling the past." Sato absentmindedly replied. Truthfully, he didn''t know why he did so. Maybe it was because he felt some goodwill to her since their situations were quite simr.

    "What do you n on doing now?" Sato asked her in a bid to change the topic.

    "Me? I still want to get to ck Rock City andplete the mission given to me." Cecilia replied.

    ''What a pity.'' Sato inwardly sighed.

    He could guess that there was no mission and that the youngdy''s family had just sent her away to seek asylum from the Duke''s family but she wasn''t aware of that. Living a life of nobility and sheltering had made her not realise such simple plots.

    As for why Sato pitied her, Cecilia''s family was probably wiped out by now but she still thought they were holding out. Even if they weren''t wiped out, before the Duke''s family could respond to this, the bloodline of Arnhaunt would have ceased to exist in that region.

    "Can, can you help me with my task?" Cecilia suddenly nced at Sato with innocent eyes.

    [[ System notification :

    A Request For Aid

    Mission Rating : B

    Mission Detail : You encounter a youngdy who was injured. Upon rescuing her, she asks for your aid in getting to the Duke''s residence. Take Cecilia to the Duke''s manor so she can fulfill her task.

    Basic Rewards :

    ???

    Penalty :

    -Cecilia''s impression of you drops

    -Possible chance of execution by the Manor guards.

    System Description : Hehe. The Duke''s Manor isn''t some ''anybody cane in here'' ce. Keep your guard up.

    System : ept/Decline (Please reply to the NPC.) ]]

    ''A mission?'' Sato was surprised. He never thought he would get a mission just by saving some random girl.

    ''It''s B rank. Not too difficult and should be doable. If I have a noble rank, I should be able to pull it off, but my girl of [Saviour of Races] covers for this.'' Sato began ruminating over his chances of sess.

    ''However, this description is strange.'' Sato thought.

    The System description was known to be providing hints for yers regarding a mission but in a roundabout manner. However, what Sato saw was even moreplex to understand.

    ''Keep my guard up...'' Sato suddenly felt a chill in the back.

    "Meow."

    Milo''s arrival suddenly disrupted Sato''s thoughts. At some point in time, the little feline became attracted to the outside world and left the ring once again. This time around, it stared at Cecilia in confusion, feeling both a sense of repulsion and attraction from her.

    "Huh? That''s..." Cecilia widened her eyes in surprise.

    "Hmm? What''s up?" Sato noticed this action of hers.

    "I''ve seen this creature somewhere, rather, I have read about it." Cecilia replied almost immediately.

    Lights shot out of Sato''s eyes as he felt his heartbeat quicken.

    One should know that even with the informationwork formed by information hunters, Sato still knew nothing about Milo''s species but Cecilia imed so.

    ''Indeed, thework of nobles is something us yers can''tpare to. At least not yet.'' Sato inwardly sighed.

    "Can you tell me what you know?" Sato asked her in a calm tone, a direct contrast of the current state of his mind.

    "I can''t remember much about it since I only just gave a rough nce at that page. I just recalled it right after seeing him. The exact lines were ''the body of a tiger but with the blood to a supreme. Blessings from the heavens and the mark of a greatings'' or something like that. It was pretty much highlighting how this creature wasn''t an ordinary beast." Cecilia innocently said.

    "Meow."

    Upon hearing this, Milo lifted its chin up as if it were a matter of fact and didn''t forget to tell Sato to treasure it.

    Sato frowned once he heard Cecilia''s words. It wasn''t that he doubted them but he realised that if she could recognise Milo, then others could. If what she said was true, then it would be for the best that Sato kept Milo out of the public eye lest he attracts great persecution onto his head.

    ''Sighs. Whatever. I will just take it one step at a time.'' Sato didn''tment at the problem ahead nor rejoice at the future prospects of Milo.

    "What about what I said? Will you help me?" Cecilia blinked.

    "No problem. It''s just heading to the Duke''s manor right? It shouldn''t be much of a task." Sato agreed to the mission.

    "Thank you." Cecilia rejoiced.

    "Oh, that''s right. What''s your name?"

    "Sky de." Sato replied as he stood up and began walking towards the exit.

    "I''ll be heading out now. Since I will be sharing my food with you in this journey, I will replenish before we run out." Sato said without turning back.

    "Oh, okay."

    "There''s enough food and water there to keep you busy. Don''t leave the cave or else you might die a sudden death."

    Just as Sato had said, there was food and water close to where he sat. He had brought those out before he left since Cecilia would need them to recover to her peak, or close to it.

    As she stared at the food, Cecilia then nced towards the exit but Sato''s figure had already disappeared long ago. Milo had also followed him as Sato required its help in avoiding the monsters.

    After two seconds of staring at the exit, Cecilia suddenly breathed in and then licked her lips.

    ''Delicious.''

 Chapter 500 - 494 : Profits In Hand

    In a forest within a cavern, two characters -a young man and a feline- were traversing the area with cautious footsteps. Once in a while, the duo would pause in their footsteps as the the feline would sniff the air and narrow its eyes as it nces around, seemingly in search of something or on the lookout.

    Eventually, the duo cane to a stop with the young man sitting underneath a huge tree while the feline kept a lookout for him.

    The duo were precisely Sato and Milo, who had left Cecilia in the cave with the excuse of scavenging for food. In actuality though, Sato left because he wanted to go through his gains from the journey. Apart from the profits from his hunt at the riverside, Sato had also looted the corpses of the guards as well as the monster. That''s right, he did exactly that.

    In Infinite Realm, monsters weren''t the only corpses that could be looted. Truthfully, no one knew this and Sato had only decided to give it a try, never expecting to seed.

    While corpses of humans could be looted, the procedure was different. Usually, when a yer looted the corpse of a monster, they didn''t really need to do much except to approach the corpse and click on the [Loot] icon that would appear above the corpse. But the same didn''t hold true here.

    As previously mentioned, there were two ways to loot a corpse. One was the automatic function, which relied on the system''s aid and was much faster than the rest. The other was by taking things into one''s hands; in other words, doing it yourself. For looting corpses of NPCs, particrly of the human and other intelligent races, this method had to be employed. yers would have to search the corpse for what they can extract so their gains would depend on how much effort they put into searching.

    Right after Sato had fed Cecilia with the HP potion, he had taken a walk around the scene. In actuality though, Sato went around looting the corpses for any potential gains. One couldn''t me him. The guards were all at least level 30 so whatever was with them would surely be attractive to someone of his level. As for morals such as respecting the dead and not piging corpses, this was a game; if he wanted to rise to the top then certain uneptable actions had to be considered.

    As for why Sato didn''t do this at the cave, he obviously didn''t want Cecilia to recognise any of the items and take him as robber or someone untrustworthy as that would ruin the mission at hand. So the only option left was to go through them outside of the cave. While he could have done so back when he went searching for herbs, because it was an emergency, Sato didn''t falter in his footsteps and only set his focus on finding the herbs. Now that he had free time, it was only right of him to check his gains.

    While the prospect of manual looting made it look like one could get their hands on anything, the system obviously wouldn''t allow it. Logically speaking, by relying on manual looting, one could empty the pockets of corpse, taking not just its items but even clothing. While this sounded strange, the armour of level 30+ guards of a noble household would surely be at least level 30+ Mid-Tier Rare-Steel rank, if not Upper-tier. If a yer could really loot a corpse dry, they would make it in the game without stress so the system had to bnce things out.

    Indeed, one could take off the armour as well as some other items off a corpse, but they wouldn''t be able to take it away with them. It would either disintegrate into stardust once they did or they wouldn''t even be able to put it in their storage bag nor depart with it. This was to prevent yers from making it big with one loot and disrupting the bnce of the game. If such measures hadn''t been applied, Sato would have gained a lot today. It should be known that there were at least 10 corpses at the scene and each of them were equipped with high-quality armour and weapons. Even if Sato couldn''t use them, selling them would him at least 300 gold coins. That was an amount of wealth that no guild, much less yer, could realise on their own.

    Thanks to the measures in ce by the system, Sato had to inspect each item to know which one he could depart with. In this regard, the system was helpful as the [Appraise] skill could help yers identify which item they could take with them.

    In the end, Sato had only managed to depart with the money the corpses held safe and a few other items with them. By conservative estimates alone, Sato had gathered at least 75 gold coins from the corpses and this was with the system preventing him from taking anymore. Apart from that, the value of the items he had collected wasn''t any less than the cash he gained so it was not an understatement to call Sato the richest yer in Infinite Realm currently.

    ''I could use all this wealth to improve the team''s gear. Maybe even get us a ce to use as our base.'' Sato felt pleased with the profits as it would help the team to gain an advantage in the long run.

    ''Time felt the main event.''

    Since he had to hurry and return back to the cave, Sato didn''t spend much time on ssifying the items and simply estimated their value and arranged them based on appearances. Further appraisal would be done once he returned to the city.

    As for the main event, that was simply the loot from the monster''s corpse. If Sato had dared to loot the guards'' corpses, why wouldn''t be do the same to the monster? And indeed, he did so.

    However, thanks to a hidden rule in IR that reduced the loot a yer would gain from a monster they didn''t kill or participated in killing, Sato didn''t gain much from the monster; only 3 items. But each of those items had a value that would cause argemotion not only amongst yers but even a few NPC stores.

    One of them was a w from the monster but due to Sato''s low level of experience, he didn''t know the true value of the item but he estimated it to be not less than 3 gold coins. Of course, this was a basic estimate with his poor knowledge. In truth, the value of the w would rise once it was used to produce a weapon and that was why Sato was pleased with it.

    The second item was actually blood. That''s right, the blood of the monster. Sato was quite surprised that the [Appraise] skill identified the creature''s blood as one of the treasures he could take. Apparently, it was very valuable to Scribes as it could be used as an ink for inscribing runes. Hence, Sato was unabashed as he collected tons of the creature''s blood. Due to his poor knowledge of runes and their materials, Sato couldn''t estimate the value of the blood but for it to be used in rune-smithing, there was no doubt that it was highly valuable.

    The final item was a strange one but was the most precious of the three. Sato didn''t even dare bring it out as he was scared that other monsters would be able to sense it despite the remote location Sato was currently hiding in.

    After Sato went through the profits from that ''adventure'', he stood up and dusted himself before returning to the cave. As for scavenging for food? Sato had prepared a lot of dry meat and water; more than enough for the two of them. All that stuff about searching for food was but an excuse to leave the cave. Now that he had achieved his goal, it was about time for him to return.

    ''Once I''m done with this mission, it will need time to clear that dungeon.'' Sato smiled.

    Sato was currently on a good mood not only because of his gains but also the improvement in strength. He felt that the others should have also improved by now so there was no reason to keep dwelling on the issue of the dungeon. It was time they cleared it and gained the title of first ce.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    While Sato was with Cecilia and the rest of the team raiding the dungeon, the other teams around the world were not cking behind with many already close topleting a dungeon. As for the favourites, they remained the super guilds.

    By now, ever his had suffered a team wipe at least once, with guilds lower than 1st tier already getting wiped out at least 4 times. Only super guilds as well as peak 1st tier guilds had only suffered such losses twice but it was not without gain. Currently now, quite a few super guilds and peak 1st tier guilds had already encountered the final BOSS of their corresponding dungeons and it was the only obstruction between them and first ce.

    With first ce in sight, one could imagine the morale and enthusiasm around these teams as they were all eager to fight and gave the battle their all.. As such, it was but a matter of time before first ce would be born amongst them.

 Chapter 501 - 495 : Trouble Ahead

    "I''m back." Sato announced as he stepped into the cave that was used as a temporary hideout.

    "Oh." Cecilia blinked with surprise.

    In her mouth was a piece of dried meat that was held by her hands. Meat particles had tainted her luscious lips with even her blue-white gown not left untouched.

    Seeing Sato staring at her, Cecilia hurriedly put the meat away and dusted herself, but she was unaware that her lips still had a bit of meat on them.

    "You''re back so soon?" Cecilia innocently blinked at Sato.

    ''So soon? I took at least an hour to get back.''

    While he thought this, Sato didn''t n on letting his thoughts known as there was no need for such.

    "You''ve got a bit of meat on your mouth." Sato pointed out.

    "Huh?" Cecilia widened her eyes before her cheeks flushed red as she hurriedly turned her back to Sato and wiped her lips clean.

    In the end, she was still an aristocrat and a female one at that. Her appearances mattered the most to her and with her being alone with a young man like Sato, Cecilia was even more obsessed about that. If was only because she was injured before that she failed to realise this. With Sato having gone away for while, Cecilia had enough time to recall her circumstances and self.

    "Sorry about that." Cecilia whispered.

    "It''s time we head back to civilization. Let''s go." Sato inly replied.

    "Oh, alright." Seeing that Sato thought nothing of the matter, Cecilia recovered herself and prepared to leave.

    After Sato had packed the remaining herbs and food he left behind, he turned towards the exit and departed. Cecilia followed right after him as to her, Sato was her key out of here.

    The distance from the cave to the original exit of the cavern was quiterge but nothing much for Sato. It was Cecilia who happened to be dragging him down. Even though Sato had administered treatment to her, she was still in the recovery phase so she couldn''t overexert her body. So even though he could make it to the exit in less than 2 hours -since he had to be cautious for monsters-, Sato had to slow down his pace for Cecilia to catch up.

    "Meow."

    The little feline led the way as usual, keeping a lookout for monsters that maybe closing in on them.

    It took the party of three almost 3 hours to make it to the exit.

    ''Sighs. With all this time spent, I doubt we would be able to clear the dungeon before the top guilds.'' Sato began epting a fact he originally refused to.

    Since he left the team, at least 14 hours had gone by. Adding that to the previous 15 hours of the various guilds starting their raid, a whopping 29 hours had already gone by. This was equivalent to slightly more than half a day in reality. With the e aggressiveness of the various guilds in raiding their respective dungeons, this amount of time was enough for the overall strength of the raid teams to increase by a substantial percentage even if they had yet to conquer their dungeons.

    Considering that the dungeon Sato and the rest had aimed for was much higher in difficulty than the rest, it was inevitable for them to fall behind the too guilds in terms of progress. While Sato knew this, he still held onto a bit of hope that it wouldn''t be so. But now, Sato couldn''t see that hope again.

    ''Sighs. Oh well, it''s just a firstpletion achievement. There will be many such achievement in the future.'' Satoforted himself.

    "Meow Meow." Milo abruptly halted.

    "What''s up?" Sato asked.

    "Meow." Milo ''spoke''.

    Sato frowned as he looked up ahead, seemingly stuck in a dilemma.

    "What''s up?" Cecilia asked as she couldn''t understand a word from Milo. The auto-trantion effect seemed to be only between the pet and master.

    "There''s a strong monster up ahead. A very strong one. It''s going to be quite difficult to get past it." Sato said with a wry smile.

    "What? Impossible. Wasn''t the area clear when you went past the first time? Why now?" Cecilia almost broke down.

    She had already suffered to a monster assault before and now that there seemed to be another infront of her, it was inevitable that she would react this way.

    "I wish I could answer that." Sato smiled wrly.

    From what Milo had said, a powerful monster was resting right in front of the exit of the cavern. Even though it was asleep, Sato didn''t want to take the risk ofing close if it wasn''t worth it. Who knows, maybe it would sense them once they got close and attack.

    ''The cavern is quite big. Who knows whether I will find another exit even after exploring it. Heck, would I be able to survive?'' Sato was stuck at an impasse.

    "Looks like we have no choice." Sato sighed.

    "You want to go there?" Cecilia widened her eyes in fear and shock.

    "Apart from the exit before us, the only option is to scale the walls of this cavern and aim for the opening at the ceiling," Sato nced above, staring at the opening at the ceiling that let in sunlight. "and that''s impossible."

    "But, the monster is there. It could spot is once we get close." Cecilia refused to give up.

    "Indeed. Once we get within its sensory range, there''s no doubt that we would alert the monster. If it''s in a deep sleep, then we won''t have to worry about that. However, I doubt that so we also have to take precautions." Sato said.

    "Then why?"

    Sato asked exined, "Who knows whether there''s another exit here. Even if there is, how long would it take us to find it? Can we be assured that we would find it without exposing our existence to the other monsters? Rather than take such a risk, I''d rather take the one before us."

    Cecilia went silent as she knew that Sato made a point. Looking for another exit was not only risky but extremely time-consuming. Who knew whether they would even find one? There was also the fact that she was in a hurry to get to the Duke''s manor as her family''s heritage was at stake. Cecilia couldn''t bear to spend too much time on this as each second that went by was a second of her family being at risk. The faster she got to the Duke''s manor, the better.

    So even if Sato''s n was extremely risky, Cecilia didn''t straight up reject it.

    "Let''s go then."

 Chapter 502 - 496 : Trouble Ahead 2

    A majestic creature that looked like a lion with antlersid right beside the only known exit out of the mystical cavern. Even as ity on the floor, its body formed a small hill, reaching an astonishing height of 20 metres. Even the antlers atop its head weren''t shy in measurements as the tallest among them was about 7 metres long. Whenpared to the enormous size of the monster, this was not worth considering.

    A low growl that shook the souls of the living creatures close by that resounded in a specific order. In actuality, this was just the snoring sounds from the creature as ity asleep. Just its mere snores were enough to terrify the other creatures and prevent them froming close.

    For the monster to even sleep close to the only exit in the open, was more than enough confirmation that it was an apex predator within the cavern''s environment, after all, staying out in the open meant a certain risk of getting attacked. For it to ignore such a factor meant that the monster was either dumb -which was quite a very low possibility- or that it was very strong; at least to ignore most characters in the cavern.

    ''Even though it''sying there in such a lifeless manner, the aura from that monster still sounds warning bells in my head.'' Sato stood on an elevated plot ofnd, roughly 200 metres away from the monster as he surveyed the area.

    Despite havinge to the decision of taking the main exit, Sato didn''t rush into action with the others but decided to check out the area first beforeing up with a n. They couldn''t just strut right in as there was a very high possibility of awakening the monster from its sleep. Encountering it was already bad enough, so waking it up early would be worse. Very few people wake up untimely and still have a smile on their face; the monster in front, however, certainly wouldn''t be among the group.

    "What do we do now?" Cecilia carefully asked, afraid of waking the beast up even though they were quite far from it.

    "We need to find the safest angle to approach the exit. We can''t just waltz right out." Sato replied.

    "Milo, scout the area."

    "Meow." Milo rubbed one of its paws on its face as if rubbing off some dust.

    "I''ll be fine." Sato smiled.

    "Meow." The little feline didn''t waste any second more as it immediately dashed to the side.

    Sato immediately began going through his inventory, looking for any sort of equipment that could help him at this point. He roughly estimated the monster''s strength to be level 40, more than 20 levels above his. There was no doubt that if it woke up, Sato and the others would die.

    A couple of minutester, Milo returned to the spot as it ryed all the info to Sato.

    The monster slept by the left side of the exit. While it wasn''t exactly close to it, there was only a distance of 20 metres between the exit and the monster. A distance such as that could easily be closed by a level 40+ monster with no effort, and unless one was equal to it in speed, they wouldn''t be able to react in time. Even the 20 metres gap was sure to be within the monster''s natural radar, so it would be almost impossible to escape it. If Sato was level 40, then the monster''s movements would make no difference to him. However, the 20 levels gap made it such that the monster would most likely look like a blur if it were to dash after him. So, outrunning it with such a little distance between them was out of the equation.

    There was another method he could use, and that was the [Void Opening Key]. Once the Hall Of Grey Chains was restored to full power, the range of the teleportation services would increase and Sato would be able to open a portal anywhere within the kingdom using it, including the cavern. However, there was a problem with this.

    The Hall had to be restored to full power and currently, it wasn''t even 40%. Even if it were 100%, Sato still wouldn''t use the key as the return point would be the Hall itself and bringing an individual not part of the team, and even more so an NPC of noble birth, harboured a certain risk that Sato wasn''t willing to take.

    Considering that Sato couldn''t use the [Void Opening Key] nor abruptly sprint towards the other side, the only thing he could do then was to find the angle furthest from the monster and give it a shot. The exit was arge opening at least 20 metres wide and 25 metres high. Adding that to the previous 20 metres, that would be a 40 metres distance between the monster and the other edge of the exit by the right.

    Even though the monster''s sensory range could possibly encapste a 50 metres radius, the further they were from it, the better. So escaping from the furthest direction would not only lessen their chances of getting discovered but also give them more time to react and escape just in case they do.

    From Milo''s scouting, Sato discovered that the extreme edge of the cavern''s exit was unhindered; meaning that there were no monsters close by. Apart from the one before them, the closest monster was more than 150 metres away, and this was with the fact that Sato and the duo were still 200 metres away from the exit. That''s a total of 350 metres, and with theplex terrain, as well as tall trees obscuring one''s vision, the distance was more than enough for the trip to feel safe.

    "Let''s go."

    Sato then lead Cecilia and Milo with him as they all moved towards the right side of the exit.

    There was only a distance of 200 metres between them and the exit, but because of theplexity of the terrain, and the cautiousness of the trio, they took at least 5 minutes to make it there. Their starting position was the wall of the cavern, just a few metres away from the exit.

    When they were about 60 metres away from the monster, Sato suddenly paused and the two hurriedly reacted and stopped walking.

    "What''s wrong?" Cecilia hesitantly asked, deeply hoping that nothing was wrong.

 Chapter 503 - 497 : Escaping

    "What''s wrong?" Cecilia whispered but Sato didn''t answer. Instead, he kept his eyes on the monster as if he has spotted something.

    "When we start walking, don''t make a sound. Move as gently as possible and try not to create any sounds from your footsteps. Stay close to the wall but don''t lie on it. The shuffling sound between your clothes and the wall could possibly alert it." Sato spoke up after a while.

    He didn''t need to give Milo any instructions as the feline knew better. Apart from that, it was a master in tiptoeing and soundless steps so Sato was least worried about it. The problem was Cecilia. Being the daughter of a noble, it was understandable that she didn''t know how to minimise the sound of her footsteps to be soundless, after all, her training would mostly focus on aristocratic behaviours as well as the knowledge of the kingdom''s political situation and history.

    When he saw Cecilia nod, Sato resumed his footsteps as he approached the exit. The duo immediately followed after him but unlike Milo, Cecilia had to be more careful about her steps so she was a tad slower than the other two.

    With Sato leading the way, Milo right beside him and Cecilia behind, the trio slowly approached the cavern''s exit with bated breath.

    The aura from the beast was constantly overflowing and even with a more than 40 metres gap between them, Sato could still feel it. His instincts screamed at him to run as he was no match for it. Sato could even feel his arms shake as he had to not only focus on his footsteps but also on his body. It was then that he realised that the monster''s sensory range was more than 50 metres, extending up to 55 metres.

    ncing behind, Sato noticed that Cecilia was in a simr situation but worse. She was even finding it difficult to move as each step took her more than 3 seconds to make. Sato frowned but couldn''t do anything about it, only hoping that she wouldn''t make any mistake and alert the monster.

    Once there was a 50 metres gap between him and the monster (meaning a 10 metres gap from the edge of the exit), Sato felt the aura intensify. The feeling was suffocating but strangely, Sato felt it was familiar. It was then that he realised that the pressure they felt wasn''t just due to the difference in strength between them and the monster, but also another important factor that determined the strength of a monster.

    ''Life Order.'' Sato grimaced.

    A difference in strength was already terrible enough but a difference in Life order was worse.

    Monsters were generally ranked ording to strength based on levels and then ranks. A level 15 monster was stronger than a level 14 monster; this fact was obvious, but when the concept of ranks is considered, differences can arise. Common rank was the weakest as well as the most basic. Using this rank as a reference, the above statement remained true. But when other ranks were considered, the result would be different.

    A level 14 Common-ranked monster might be weaker than a level 15 Common-ranked monster but a level 14 Elite-rank wasn''t necessarily any weaker. Going one step further, a level 14 Special-Elite or Rare-Elite monster was stronger than a level 15 Common-ranked monster but on par with a level 15 Elite, while a level 14 King-rank monster would literally wipe the floor with the level 15 Common-ranked monster. Even a level 15 Elite would still stand no chance as that was roughly on par with a level 14 Special-Elite.

    While the strength ssification isn''t exactly as stated, it''s roughly the same[1].

    However, there was a special factor that determined the rank a monster could possibly achieve, or in simpler terms, a factor that determined a monster''s potential. This was called Life order.

    Life order could be said to be the structural representation of the bloodline of a monster. The ranking of its origin of existence or ancestral descent. To exin with examples, the descendant of a dragon could never bepared to that of a rat as a dragon was a supreme creature at the top of the food chain while a rat was a creature that could be killed with ease. There was noparison between the two. Of course, as the bloodline is diluted even further, it''s quite possible for the far descendants of a dragon to be that weak, but not pure descendants.

    This was what Life order represented. It could be called a Food Chain but based on bloodlines. The higher and purer one''s bloodline was, the higher its Life Order and the greater its potential. With a better potential, the chances of it being a King rank or above would increase.

    Take for instance the Kobold King and the Kobold Chief. The Kobold Chief has a weaker bloodline and so, its Life Order rating was low and its potential was not enough to reach King-rank, getting stuck at the periphery. However, the Kobold King was different as it has achieved King rank at an early age. Not only that, but it also had enough potential to go above that, reaching the esteemed Lord rank and being a BOSS capable of wiping out Riverdale town, so far as its level grew to a sustainable height.

    This was due to the purity of its bloodline which in turn raised its Life Order rating and increased its potential.

    In the same way, as Sato had felt that dreadful pressure from the Kobold King as well as the Titan [Atrit][2] that had pressed on his blood and soul, he felt the same familiar feeling once more here.

    ''This is bad.'' Sato thought.

    Creatures with a higher life order typically had better senses and greater strength than regr monsters. For example, if two level 14 Common-ranked monsters were to battle each other, the one with a higher Life order ranking would usually win as it has more attribute points and better fighting ability than the other one.

    Since the monster before them had a high Life order that it could suppress Sato''s bloodline of a [Chosen One], then it was most likely not so simple. It was quite possible that its senses would be more apt than most so Sato and the rest had to be twice as careful with their movements aspared to before. However, this was an obvious problem as Cecilia was finding it hard to cope with the pressure.

    ''Damn it. We are just a few metres away.'' Sato couldn''t help but curse.

    Whileying down, the monster had a height of 20 metres so its actual height while standing up should even be more than that. The exit had a height of 25 metres. This meant that there was a chance that the monster wouldn''t be able to chase them once they got out. So all they had to do was depart from the cavern and they could be considered safe.

    Even though it was just less than 10 metres between the exit and the trio, Cecilia couldn''t help but sweat profusely as she approached the exit. The pressure from the monster was ever-increasing the closer they got and she was finding it extremely hard to keep up with Sato. Cecilia was already bing dizzy as her eyelids were blinking rapidly.

    "I, I have to hang on.." Cecilia whispered weakly.

 Chapter 504 - 498 : Unexpected Changes

    "I, I have to hang on." Cecilia whispered.

    It was only 9 metres left for the duo. On a normal asion, Sato would easily close this gap with a single jump, but with the current precarious situation before him, he had to advance steadily. Not only that, but he also had to keep an eye on Cecilia, just in case she couldn''t hold on. Having epted the mission, he had to keep her safe unless he wants to fail the mission however, that wasn''t an option.

    As for why? It was simply because the penalty for failure was the possible chance of execution by the manor guards. Execution wasn''t simply the same as dying. It could pretty much bepared to getting jailed as one''s ount would be inessible for a while. This ''while'' was more than enough for great changes to take ce in the game and mainstream level to go up a notch, after all, with the release of dungeons levelling up had gotten easier than ever. Therefore, no matter what, Sato had to put Cecilia''s safety ahead of his.

    7 metres left and at this point, Sato was supporting Cecilia to walk. He had no choice as it was very difficult for her to take a step further under the pressure from the monster''s aura even though it was asleep.

    Milo had been on a lookout for any monsters or uncertainties that may arise, when it suddenly felt something out of the ordinary.

    "Meow!"

    Milo didn''t bother to lower its voice as the little feline cried out.

    Truthfully, Sato didn''t need Milo''s warning as his eyes had always been on the monster, and right now, its eyes was also on them.

    ''Shit!''

    A huge amber-coloured eye with a ck vertical pupil in between stared at the trio in an unhurried manner forcing Sato toe to a stop.

    "What''s, wrong?"[1] Even Cecilia in her drowsy self seemed to notice that something was wrong.

    Sato didn''t answer her but kept his eyes on the monster, as he noticed a slight movement. He was hoping that the monster had just opened its eyes randomly and was still asleep so he didn''t make any move. Nheless, that tinge of mockery in its eye was more than enough for Sato to know that his hopes were a pipedream.

    "Run."

    With just 7 metres left, the monster had suddenly awaken from its sleep. Even though this gap was something Sato could easily cover, it wasn''t the same when he had to carry Cecilia who weighed roughly the same as him. Strangely though, when Sato began moving with her, Cecilia seemed to weigh heavier than normal. Sparing a side nce at her, Sato discovered that she had already caved in under the pressure and fainted.

    "Roar!"

    The gigantic monster abruptly stood up and released a earth-shaking roar.

    Sato immediately picked Cecilia off the floor and lifted her like a potato sack, dashing towards the exit. Though the distance could easily be covered within a second, that was more than enough time for level 40 monster to make its move.

    "Roar!

    The beast immediately swiped a w at the trio, sending forthpressed air des towards them. The air des moved at such great speed that it looked as if they had teleported to appear in front of them.

    ''Shit!''

    Sato didn''t waste any time as he dropped to the floor, pulling Cecilia alongside him.

    *Bang* *Bang*

    *Bang* *Bang*

    The air des dug deep into the walls beside the trio, making their marks as horrific fissures were left on the wall.

    Sato''s decision of going low proved to be the best as the air des -which had taken on a horizontal direction of attack- had missed them with only pebbles from the collision with the wall crashing on them. Butpared to getting sliced in half, this was nothing.

    "Move."

    [Sprint]

    Sato suddenly erupted with great strength as dragged Cecilia up as dashed towards the exit with Milo.

    "Roar!"

    Seeing that the intruders had actually survived its attack, the monster stood up and roared in fury as it darted towards them.

    When there was but a 2 metres gap between Sato and the exit, the monster was only 5 metres away from him. This gap was much to the gigantic creature as just the length of its arms alone could cover it.

    *Whoosh*

    A w moved unhindered as it cut through the air and pped towards Sato. Streaks of air moved together with the w bringing with them great force and prative strength. Ignoring that, just the 3 metres wide w was enough to destroy any thoughts of resistance.

    ''Is this how I will go down?'' Sato thought as he unwillingly stared at the w.

    There was only a metre between him and the exit but even if he made it, the w would still be able to smoothly pass through the exit and reach him. Unless he could create a 3 metres gap between him and the w in an instant, there was no escaping death.

    It was at that moment that something unexpected happened.

    Milo suddenly widened its mouth in the direction of the w, puking out a white dot. With the distance between them, even though this was in an instant, Sato could feel the energy from the white dot which was a serene yet chilling aura. It had this feeling off being above none yet beneath none, untainted and holy, but with an unknown force hidden deep within.

    But it was this very serene and holy dot that darted towards the w at an insane speed, almost breaking the sound barrier, and collided with the w.

    *Bang*

    Mangled pieces of flesh and blood sprayed out in a haphazard manner. 1/3 of the monster''s w had been destroyed by that attack as blood flowed from the point of injury, like a scarlet spring.

    Everything had happened so quickly and mysteriously that Sato was stunned to the point of almost stopping. Luckily, his quick-witted nature suppressed his curiosity as he ran out of the cavern. If it wasn''t for the pieces of flesh on the floor, as well as the blood on his face, Sato would have thought all of that was but a dream.

    It was only when he had gotten to a safe spot, at least 15 metres away from the monster, did Sato stop to catch his breath. Truthfully, he would have tried to go farther but the stress from that frightful experience had forced him to his limits. The adrenaline rush from the event had already stopped so Sato was overwhelmed by a wave of weariness. There was also the fact that Sato was carrying Cecilia with him and it was quite draining of his strength. All these factors added together made it difficult for him to progress any farther.

    "Milo, what was that?" Sato finally asked the culprit as well as his saviour.

    "Milo!"

    Sato noticed that even though the little feline had made it this far out with him, it was even more worn out than himself. The little creature only made use of itsst bit of strength to move into the [Void Emerald Ring].

    "Hm?"

    Sato was worried and had tried to check after it but he suddenly received a mental message from it telling him not to worry. Sato decided nced into the ring and saw itying beside a pile of materials. While it looked to be dead, there was still faint sign of life as the little creature was still breathing.

    ''He seems to have worn out himself.'' Sato thought.

    "Thank you, Milo." Sato said

    It was only thanks to the little feline that Sato and Cecilia had survived that event as their death had seemed to be an inevitable urrence. At the same time, this experience renewed Sato''s vigor of investigating what exactly Milo was. To be able to injure a level 40+ monster with a single attack, made it seem like Milo wasn''t any weaker but actually stronger.

    Sadly, whenever Sato tried to use [Inspect] on the creature, there was no results even if he managed to injure it.

    "Indeed, you have to thank him for that one."

    ''Huh?'' Sato abruptly widened his eyes as he felt a cold sensation at his abdominal region.

    Moving his hand over to the position, Sato felt a strange liquid and an empty sensation at a point on his abdomen. There was a hole there as part of his body was missing some flesh.

    *St*

    *St*

    "Truthfully, I''m a bit shocked that you actually made it out alive."

    Dark red droplets dripped from the hole on Sato''s body as a stunned expression crept onto his face. It was then that he had realised something strange as he felt that voice to be ever familiar.

    "Cecilia?"

 Chapter 505 - 499 : The Chase

    Sato left the cavern with someone else but his worry for Milo had led to him forgetting about that person. Originally, Sato had his guard up against Cecilia because he couldn''t confirm whether she was telling the truth. He had even hired an Information hunter while he was out to verify the situation with the Arnhaunt family while he kept his guard up against her.

    Normally, Cecilia wouldn''t have been able tond an attack on him but with the rollercoaster of events that had taken ce -from being under pressure while escaping and Cecilia fainting to being assaulted by the monster and Milo fainting-, Sato had inadvertently let his guard down for a second and Cecilia had used that window of opportunity to make her move.

    Ignoring the pain on his abdomen, Sato immediately jumped away from the spot, creating some distance between him and Cecilia.

    "I can''t believe that you had managed to dodge that even though it was an ambush. You''re quite something, aren''t you?" Cecilia smiled at Sato with the expression that looked as if she was ying with her favourite toy.

    Despite attacking at the moment when Sato''s guard was at the lowest, Cecilia had missed the attacking, only causing a mediocre level of damage to Sato. Rather than saying she had missed, it was more apt to say that Sato had dodged the attack at thest moment, albeit notpletely.

    Thanks to his quick reflexes and the fact that he had was still on high alert after escaping the cavern, Sato managed to move his body a bit to the side, keeping his internal organs safe from damage.

    "Who, who are you?" Sato asked as he began doubting everything Cecilia had said.

    "Who am I?" Ceciliaughed like a refineddy.

    "I already told you. But it doesn''t matter now; you will be dead soon."

    *Bang*

    An explosive sound rang out loud as Cecilia''s aura began climbing. The aura felt eerie and demonic, making one feel as if it wasn''t of this world. It was terrifying and chilling, to the point that Sato felt as if he had fallen into a deep cold abyss where no form of life could exist.

    *Bang*

    The aura burst forth from Cecilia, epassing a wide range of 7 metres around her. The entire 7 metres radius looked lifeless and devoid of any colour. Even as he stood there, Sato felt as if he couldn''t hear anything. His senses seemed to be feeding him wrong information as a wave of confusion washed over him.

    Despite being aware that he was currently in the arid terrain of Maldora Canyon, Sato felt as if he was in the North Pole as a bone-chilling wave struck him and Sato slowly lose his ability to move.

    ''No!''

    Realising the circumstance he was in, Sato immediately broke free from that feeling and further widened the gal between him and Cecilia, escaping the 7 metres dead-zone.

    ''That was close.'' Sato couldn''t help but wipe away the sweat on his forehead.

    "Hehe. You''re indeed a good fit. You could even free yourself from my domain." Cecilia said, although with a slight mncholic look in her eyes which onlysted for a second.

    Being free from the grasps of Cecilia''s domain, Sato was finally able to scan his opponent properly. It was then that he realised that Cecilia''s aura had climbed up to its peak, surpassing even that of the monster back at the cavern. It was only because the majority of her aura was concentrated in her domain that Sato was able to cope with it.

    "You, who exactly are you?" Sato couldn''t help but ask again with a bit of fright in his eyes.

    If one were to say that the chances of Sato surviving one-on-one against the lion-type monster in the cavern was 1 out of 10000, then surviving against the current Cecilia was 1 out of 1 million. It was futile to have any hope of survival. This wasn''t just because Cecilia was stronger but she was a human.

    Being a human, she was much smarter than monsters and her small size(inparison to the beast), made it more difficult tond an attack at her. At least with the beast from before, one could try and attack its weak spots like the eyes, but with a human-sized opponent, the difficulty in performing such an attack was even higher.

    "Still asking such stupid questions? I do admire the look on your face so I will grant you a painless death. Haha."

    [ck me sh]

    "Huh? You dare?" Cecilia widened her eyes as she was confronted by the attack.

    *Boom*

    The aura within the 7 metres radius domain had gathered in front of the attack to form an illusory shield that took the hit. The ck mes spread out in a wild manner, covering arge space in front of Cecilia and blocking her sight.

    "Pointless attacks. You will still fall down before me." Cecilia swung her arms as the aura shield disintegrated and shoved away the mes.

    "What?!"

    Without the mes hindering her sight any longer, Cecilia realised that Sato had already broke off in run, escaping form the area.

    Truthfully, the look of anxiety and fear on Sato''s face was all fake. He had done so to make Cecilia underestimate him, even just a little bit. After which his next move was to attack in what would seem to be a futile manner when in reality, Sato nned on blocking Cecilia''s sight and keeping her busy for a while; just enough to widen the gap between them.

    As he was running, Sato was going through a few plots and theories in his head to increase his chances of survival.

    No matter how one looked at it, his death was a surety; running away would only dy that but not prevent it. However, Sato wasn''t one to sit down and present his heads before the opponent. Even if there was a 0% chance of sess, Sato would struggle for a 0.1% chance.

    The way he saw it, he was no match for Cecilia. Just from her aura alone, the lion beast from before would at most be able to trade 7 blows with her, whereas Sato couldn''t even trade one with the monster. But it was due to this fact, that a problem arose. It was only now Sato had a bit of space to think that he had realised this problem.

    Cecilia had waited till Sato''s guard was at its lowest to attack him. And not only that, but also her attack had not ended his life. Even if the beast in cavern were to injure Sato slightly, that ''slight injury'' would be equivalent to at least half his HP. But from the battle records, Cecilia had only taken away 116 HP with that attack. Compared to Sato''s 2000 HP, this was but the tip of the iceberg. When all these points were added together, one would discover that Cecilia''s strength might not be as it seems, otherwise she would have killed Sato long ago and not wait till his defence was low. If one were to say that she went easy on him with that attack, it still doesn''t make sense why she had waited this long or for such an opportunity.

    ''Unless she didn''t have confidence of taking me down before. But if that were true, what was the cause? Her injuries?'' Sato felt this was more likely.

    If Cecilia''s injuries were heavier than he thought, then it would make sense why she didn''t attack him till now. But there was still another issue with this thought. If her injuries had recovered and her strength had returned, then she should have taken Sato down long ago and not wait till now.

    As he was trying toe up with a reason as to why things had progressed so, Sato felt a chilling sensation creeping behind him.

    ''She''s caught up.''

    The disadvantage of the terrain in Maldora was theck ofplexity. As it was a canyon, there were only brown rocks scattered all over the ce. Very few vegetation could be spotted and they were scattered far and wide. Because of this, it was very easy for one to get spotted if they didn''t move with caution. And since there were very few obstructions, chasing after someone, especially when the pursuer was faster, was not a problem.

    "You can''t escape me, Sky de. Stop running and nicely die in my arms." Cecilia grinned radically.

    Sato didn''t pay attention to her but simply used [Sprint] once the cool-down was over.

    Strangely though, despite supposedly being much stronger than Sato, Cecilia wasn''t that fast. When Sato used [Sprint], he became even faster than she was and was able to widen the gap bit by bit.

    ''Damn it.'' Cecilia cursed inwardly as she gritted her teeth. Nheless, she still have chase as she needed Sato if she hoped to leave here.

    The two kept on running, with Sato taking the role of the prey and Cecilia the predator.

    Knowing that the terrain didn''t favor him and he would eventually get tired, Sato had aimed for the great Lorls river. In his opinion, he would rather die to monster than to Cecilia.

    ''''Want to kill me? Fat chance.''

    But of course, Sato had no intentions of engaging in a suicidal act as he already had an outline of a n in mind.

 Chapter 506 - 500 : The Chase 2 (AN : Cant Believe Weve Made It This Far)

    "You already know it''s pointless so why don''t you stop running?" Cecilia yelled from behind.

    Sato, however, ignored her. He was already suspicious of Cecilia''s true strength and her attempt in goading him to give up further confirmed them. Nheless, her real strength was still more than enough to take him on singlehandedly; this Sato was certain about.

    ''Almost there.'' Sato ran at the fastest speed his legs could carry him.

    While it was true that Cecilia wouldn''t be catching up to him soon, Sato couldn''t maintain such speed for long. This was even more so now since he was still a bit weary from the confrontation with the monster in the cavern.

    Seeing Sato ignoring her and running without restraint, Cecilia wasn''t one bit happy even though she knew that such acts would drain Sato of thest bit of stamina he had. On the contrary, she was a bit apprehensive and skeptical about Sato''s actions. Logically, he should have known that running was pointless and would only drain his stamina, making it easier for her to kill him offter. Rather than doing that, it would be much wiser to try and fight for an opportunity for survival.

    Cecilia had taken herself as a good reader of human psychology and thought patterns and so, she had presumed that Sato would decide to take ast stand rather than try escaping. If that were the case, she had more than enough confidence of taking Sato down with ease. However, her presumptions and preparations had been for naught as Sato had actually taken off on a run.

    ''Maybe he wille back to his senses. The ins are wide and open; there''s no hiding ce for him. Up ahead is the great river with monsters even I can''t handle in my current form. Unless he ns onmitting suicide, he should know better.''

    Sadly, Sato''s intentions were in reverse to Cecilia''s thoughts.

    *Whoosh*

    ''Up ahead.'' Sato dashed towards the position of the sound.

    A couple of metres ahead was the great Lorls river. But unlike the previous peaceful scene Sato had met with the first time he saw the river, the view in front of him was different. There was still the greenery that was ever-present by the banks of the river but it was a lot thinner than the previous part of the river Sato had first seen. Apart from that, the loud whooshing sound was obvious from the river itself, signaling how great the water''s current was.

    "Do you actually n onmitting suicide, Sky de?" Cecilia couldn''t help but shout as she saw that Sato still had no intentions of slowing down.

    Sato sneered inwardly but didn''t reply her; only slowing down his pace a little bit as he tried to restore his stamina slowly.

    ''Heh, as I thought so.'' Cecilia shed a victor''s grin.

    The area covered in resplendent green colours was about 100 metres out from the bank of the river. A few tall trees could be spotted, although they were spaced away from each other. Nheless, the presence of obstructions would make it easier for Sato to throw off Cecilia and escape.

    ''Is that his n?'' Cecilia couldn''t help but guess.

    ''Stupid.''

    Since she was chasing Sato without much effort, Cecilia obviously had her way of tracking down Sato. Even if she were to lose sight of him, Cecilia could rely on these unorthodox methods to find Sato, but he certainly did not know of this; this she was sure of.

    Once he had entered into the vegetation zone, Sato abruptly increased his speed and began running in a haphazard manner, trying to throw off Cecilia.

    ''Hehe. So predictable.''

    At this point, Cecilia felt that she had seen through Sato''s n. His true intention ofing here wasn''t tomit suicide but to throw her off. There was also the possibility that Sato would try to ambush her once she lost sight of him.

    ''An impressive n but useless against me.''

    Confident that she had not only unveiled Sato''s plot but also had her countermeasures in ce, Cecilia didn''t hold back again as she increased her speed.

    Despite knowing that Sato was trying to throw her off, Cecilia couldn''t do much to stop him. She tried attacking where she was but Sato was able to dodge all her attacks with ease. Maneuvering through the terrain like a fish in the sea, Sato eventually threw her off his tail as Cecilia had lost sight of him.

    "Don''t get too cocky, kid." Cecilia shouted before sniffing the air.

    ''That way.''

    Compared to the sense of sight, the sense of smell was more reliable in tracking someone down especially as it wasparatively more difficult to permanently erase one''s smell than to hide one''s silhouette.

    *Phew*

    A ck object darted towards Cecilia, relying on the shadows cast by the branches and leaves of the tall trees to hide.

    However, Cecilia was no ordinary figure as she easily sensed the iing attack and simply tilted her head to dodge.

    The dagger simply went past by her, nting itself to the floor behind.

    "Is that all you''ve got?" Cecilia stopped as she asked. She had already found her target so there was no need to keep chasing.

    Indeed, Sato was in front of her, staring at her with his sword in hand.

    Sato knew that he couldn''t escape by simply throwing Cecilia off his tail. It wasn''t that he knew how he was being tracked but he roughly guessed that someone of Cecilia''s strength would have her methods. Since that was the case, facing off against her was his only bet. However, that was easier said than done.

    Compared to the aura she had released before, Sato knew that Cecilia was much weaker than she seems. As for the reason for the drastic difference, Sato presumed that it either had to do with her injuries or that Cecilia was being forced to use power much weaker than her peak form. This could either be rted to a seal or some other reason. Nheless, this ''weaker'' version was still much stronger than Sato.

    Despite not having traded any blows, Sato''s instincts had alerted him that going up against her would only lead to the inevitable result of death. But since he couldn''t escape either, Sato had to take the risk.

    "Why are you chasing after me? It''s not like I did anything untoward against you."

    This was the one thing that left Sato clouded. Why was Cecilia so determined to kill him?

    "Why? me your luck." Cecilia grinned savagely.

    "Die."

    Wanting to end things quickly and not spare any time on him, Cecilia waved her arm sending a green wave of aura towards Sato.

    Sato had always been on guard against Cecilia and as he saw her attack, he immediately reacted to it, ducking and rolling towards the side as he dodged the attack.

    *Stth Stth Stth*

    A corrosive sound was heard as the green aura wavended on the ground. There was no explosion or anything seemingly destructive, but when Sato nced at his original spot, he noticed that a majority of it had ''melted'' and the edges were still disintegrating under the influence of the leftover green aura.

    ''Acid?'' Sato wondered but he had no chance to confirm as another attack came his way.

    It was a vertical beam that Cecilia fired with her finger; the very same attack that had injured Sato before.

    *Pew*

    A dark tiny beam shot from the tip of her finger aiming for Sato''s heart. The shot was too fast that Sato couldn''tpletely dodge. In the end, he had only managed to move to his right a little bit, leading to the attack missing his heart but piercing through his left arm. Added with the one on his abdomen, there were now two see-through holes on Sato''s body.

    "*Grunt*"

    -106 (1778/2000 Sato''s HP)

    Even though it was not a fatal shot, the pain was still there. IR''s pain capture mechanism wasn''t anything to joke about. Even at a 30% feedback ratio, the pain of being pierced through, even if it was just a ring-sized hole, was not something to smile about.

    "This will be your resting ce, Sky de. But worry not, instead be proud. You will die at my hands, and I believe that''s way better than dying at some random monster''s ws, no?" Cecilia smile kindly.

    Despite that, anyone with even a single brain cell would know that Cecilia was anything but kind, especially after her words. Even Sato felt a chill seeing that smile.. It was the smile of a killer; and one who took joy at that too.

 Chapter 507 - 501 : Unexpected Reaction

    Over a minute had passed since Sato and Cecilia had started exchanging blows. Rather than calling it exchanging, it was more of Cecilia attacking with Sato running around the ce as he tried to dodge. Cecilia didn''t give him any breathing space to counter so Sato was always forced to be on his feet lest he gets injured. However, it wasn''t like there were no gains in this for him.

    Having survived for this long, Sato became confident in his suspicions. Cecilia couldn''t use her full strength. Otherwise, he wouldn''t have had any chance to react and would have been dead long ago.

    As for the reason why this was so, Sato believed it to be due to her injuries. No matter what, the injuries he had seen on her body back at the wreckage site were real. The HP potion was only able to take care of the surface wounds but her internal injuries were still there. Even the herbal mixture Sato had prepared ording to Fudo''s instructions was only meant to heal some of them to enable her to wake up from hera. In summary, Cecilia still had a few injuries and they were the more difficult ones to handle.

    Even though he knew this, however, this didn''t mean that Sato was a match for her.

    ''Damn this brat. How is he holding on?'' Cecilia cursed inwardly.

    She had thought that she could take Sato down without a hitch but he had constantly been dodging her attacks by utilizing the terrain to the fullest. If the duo had been duking it out in a wide-open space, Sato would have lost to her since. However, he had been relying on the trees for cover and meandering through the area with ease, making it difficult for Cecilia tond a hit.

    If she were in her peak form, this wouldn''t have been an issue as the speed of attacks would have been something Sato couldn''t avoid. Even if he could, she would have just razed this little forest to the ground without care orpassion. Sadly, Cecilia was unable to employ such methods.

    It wasn''t just because she was unable to perform such spells but that Cecilia didn''t want to alert any monsters in the river.

    The great Lorls river was home to a lot of powerful monsters. The deeper one went into the river, the more terrifying the monsters be. Apart from that, in the deeper parts of Maldora Canyon, the monsters that made a home from the river weren''t easy pickings. If she actually went on and razed this part of the riverbank, Cecilia might attract the attention or even ire of some of these monsters. In her peak state, Cecilia wouldn''t be scared of these ''shallow-dwellers''[1] but her current form simply didn''t allow that. It would be even worse if she were to draw one of those freaks in the river. Even if Sato were to die, Cecilia would unconditionally end up escorting him to the afterlife.

    ''Wait!'' Cecilia suddenly widened her eyes.

    She had yet to realise anything strange with Sato running around in a random manner as he dodged her attacks but as her mind had recalled the existence of the river monsters, Cecilia suddenly realised that Sato had been running in the direction of the river. He was leading her towards it.

    ''B*stard! I almost fell for it.'' Cecilia gritted her teeth in fury.

    If she had not recalled the fact that the Lorls river contained some monsters that even the current her couldn''t handle, then she might have unwittingly stepped into Sato''s ''trap''.

    "Get back here, you animal!" Cecilia growled.

    This time around, she decided to use her full strength. While it was true that her injury prevented her from using her peak abilities, the current strength she wielded was still fearsome. It was only because she was afraid of worsening her injuries that Cecilia had limited herself. But with the risk of Sato escaping and her life at potential risk of death, Cecilia didn''t care about worsening her injuries.

    *Whoosh*

    A huge green wave arose with the motion of Cecilia''s arms. Like great tidal waves, the green wave blitzed forward with great momentum, bringing down any obstacle in its path without fail.

    Sato nced behind him to see the terrifying force heading his way. With a frown, Sato immediately sped up as he tried to avoid its area of reach.

    *Stth* *Stth*

    Whatever the green aura touched immediately disintegrated out of existence. If not for the damaged soil that remained in the wake of the aura''s destruction, one wouldn''t have known that a great destruction had taken ce here.

    *Whoosh*

    The aura eventually faded out of existence after wreaking havoc within a 15 metres space.

    No lifeform was left in its wake as the entire greenery -both shrubs and trees- was wiped out of existence. The uneven ground, which was a result of the billowing motions of the green wave, was the only thing left visible, apart from a certain figure.

    "Sky de." Cecilia said with a bit of surprise but more of frustration.

    Her attack hade out without any alert and the speed of the waves wasn''t slow. The destructive capabilities were even more rming as just a slight touch was enough to send a living being to the other side[2]. But Sato had somehow avoided it.

    Cecilia already had a gauge on his speed, having pursued Sato for quite a significant distance, so there was no way she would have given him a chance to escape her attack.

    The abrupt timing of her attack as well as the speed of the green waves were all tailored to take Sato down without a hitch, but he had somehowe out of the development.

    ''Just what the hell is going on here?'' Cecilia couldn''t help but wonder. Nheless, she still retained a dominant outward appearance in front of Sato as if everything was still under control.

    "Haha. Surrender now and I will let you have a fast and easy death. Behind you is the great Lorls River and you have nowhere else to run to." Cecilia dered.

    While Cecilia''s words were a bit exaggerated, they were quite true.

    Of the four cardinal directions, Sato''s front was upied by Cecilia while behind him was as she had stated, the Lorls river. As for his two sides, if Sato were to make a move, Cecilia was sure that she would be able tond a heavy attack at him -one that would be very difficult to dodge. But even with that in mind, she still didn''t want to leave behind any risk.

    *Vrim* *Vrim*

    Suddenly magic runes took shape by the two sides of Sato forming runes that blockaded his path.

    Cecilia''s green aura wave attack from before was actually a two-pronged attack. The first was the one in the light, being the obvious green aura wave. The second was in the dark, which were these runes that had just made their appearance.

    While they looked like runes, these were actually the effects of a special type of talisman that Cecilia had activated. Stepping on them would be the same asing under the attack of a very powerful spell. Even a level 20 [Guardian] would shy away from these runes much less Sato. They blockaded the path and made it such that there was only two entrances and exit. One behind and the other in front. With the fact that the Lorls river was behind him and Cecilia in front of him, there was no escape.

    "It''s over." Cecilia grinned.

    The only reason Sato had survived this long had to do with her holding back and him utilizing the terrain to dodge her attack effectively. With Cecilia removing the limit on her strength and the entire ce having been destroyed to form a in, Sato seemed to have all his previous advantages as his end looked to draw near.

    "We will meet again, and the next time we do, it will be my win."

    Before Cecilia could even react to his word, Sato immediately turned around and dived into the river.

    ''Eh? Nani?"

 Chapter 508 - 502 : Narrow Escape

    ''Eh?''

    Cecilia stared in shock as Sato had dived into the river.

    ''Was he actually nning on suiciding all this while? Did I push him too far?''

    Unsure of what to do, Cecilia immediately dashed towards the river''s edge to have a look. She didn''t get too close, however, for fear of attracting the monsters within. With the degree of disturbance that she had caused on the shore, one couldn''t say for certain that no river monster was attracted by it.

    ''I can''t find him.'' Cecilia grimaced.

    While there were other reasons as to why she couldn''t find Sato -such as the blue colour of the river that made it harder to see deeper or the fact that she wasn''t close enough to the river''s edge to spot him- the most possible reason were of two categories; either Sato had been killed by a monster already or he decided to use the river as a means of escape.

    If it were the former, then remaining behind would be pointless as she might attract the monster''s attention. But if it were thetter, things would be a lot difficult and might even end up in the same result as the former.

    Using the river as a means of escape sounded like a reasonable n but it was filled with far too many uncertainties. There was the fact that dangerous monsters made a home out of the river. To escape using the river meant that Sato would have to encounter these creatures along the way, and any one of them was capable of tearing him apart with ease. Even if he was in luck and didn''t die immediately he dived in, he would still dieter aspared tond, the river was the home-ground of the monsters. Not only can they demonstrate their full strength there, but their sensory abilities had a wider range in there.

    "Damn it. It''s my fault for going easy at him from the start. I should have eliminated him from the very beginning." Cecilia gritted her teeth as she stomped her right foot in fury.

    ''Do I scan the river for him? Maybe he''s still alive in there. But if I do, I might attract the attention of some tough beast.'' Cecilia frowned as various ideas shed through her head.

    "If he''s still alive, he most likely won''t take the risk and remain here. That bastard possibly followed the flow of the river to escape or swam against it. He might have even taken the risk to go to the other shore... though I doubt that."

    Compared to going front or backward, swimming to the other shore was much dangerous as one wouldn''t be able to escape in any direction. At least if Sato decided to swim against or with the current, he could stay close to the river''s bank and retreat once he felt things went awry. It was for this reason that Cecilia refused to believe that Sato would try swimming to the other side.

    ''It''s difficult to swim against the current underwater and he''s already a bit exhausted. I''m guessing he would rely on the current to aid his escape.''

    Having considered certain facts, Cecilia immediately ran in the direction of the water''s flow, hoping to find Sato.

    Meanwhile, deep down, about 7 metres deep within the river, Sato held his breath as he clung close to the boundary of the river. Just as Cecilia had guessed, Sato didn''t have any ns of suiciding. Instead, he wanted to find a way to escape this terrifying pursuer. Hence, Sato had been plotting from the very second he had escaped Cecilia.

    Many ideas had been coursing through his head and the most viable one was escaping. Facing off against Cecilia meant certain death and Sato was not a fool to offer himself up like that. Even though there was a tiny chance of victory, there was a higher chance of escaping. Anyone with half a brain would know which to pick.

    Having decided on escaping, the problemy in how to pull it off. The canyon was a totally exposed area with barely any obstructions or windy roads that Sato could use to throw off Cecilia. Even if there was, Sato felt that she would still be able to track him down somehow as even monsters didn''t rely on their eyes alone, let alone an expert NPC. And it was during his run for survival that Sato recalled the river.

    Sato''s first idea was to draw Cecilia close enough to the river while baiting a tough monster to the surface. Then he would find a way to make the duo fight each other. This was actually a difficult plot to pull of but Sato didn''t feel like it was impossible for him. Sadly, Cecilia had increased the intensity of her attacks just before Sato couldplete that n, forcing him to move to n B; escaping via the river.

    While there was a risk in this n, in the form of the river monsters, it was this risk that surprisingly increased the sess rate of the n. The monsters would act as a barrier between Cecilia and Sato, preventing her from catching him. The river itself would provide a cover for vision as well as erase his smell, making it difficult to track Sato down, and unless the opponent had a supernatural means of doing so, Sato would be able to escape their pursuit.

    Even if Cecilia took the risk and dived into the river right after him, Sato would then revert to n A and bait a monster over to battle her. With the home-ground advantage, there was even a higher chance that the river monster would kill Cecilia.

    All in all, n B looked like a nice n but only on the condition that Sato was not assaulted by any of the river monsters as that would turn this n very much into an act of suicide. To even reduce his chances of getting caught by one, Sato decided not to escape by using the river as a route, but instead hiding within it till Cecilia left, before he returned to the surface and made his escape from there.

    Luckily for him, no monster had spotted him so far...yet.

    ''I don''t feel her aura from here. She should be gone.'' Sato thought as he held his breath underwater.

    Despite the conclusions he had reached, Sato still didn''t exit the river but held on. He had a nagging feeling that Cecilia wasn''t gone yet but was keeping a lookout for him. The very second he would rise to the surface, she would make her attack.

    3 minutes went by and still, no strange event had urred in the river or the bank. A few secondster though, a shadow appeared close to the river as a dissatisfied grunt sounded.

    ''He still didn''te up? Is he still here or has really died? Did he really use the river''s current to escape?'' Cecilia couldn''t help but panic a little bit.

    Even Cecilia had her doubts when she saw Sato dive into the river. She had even thought that he was trying to fool her when in reality, Sato was just using the water as a cover and himself as bait. In her own opinion, Sato''s n was to draw her into the river and then bait in a powerful monster and set them both up to battle it out. Obviously, Cecilia wouldn''t talk for his ''trick''.

    Cecilia had decided to fake her departure to give Sato a sense of calm and rxation. At the same time, the threat of the monsters in the river would also force him to withdraw from it under the pretext that Cecilia was already gone when in reality, she was hidden close by. If he was indeed still hiding within the river, Sato should have left within these 3 minutes as any second more spent there was a risk not worth taking. Yet, no one appeared. The Lorls river still remained as calm as it was before.

    "Damn it." Cecilia gritted her teeth.

    "That b*stard must have escaped already."

    While it was indeed her intention to stay behind, Cecilia had decided to just exin this error as her being tricked by Sato. In her mind, it was better to be tricked than to have made such a mistake a ''childish'' mistake.

    ''After him.''

    Cecilia didn''t waste any time as she dashed in the direction of the river''s flow.

    Who knows how far he had gone or whether he departed the river from elsewhere? Even Cecilia with her impressive strength, couldn''t admit that she would find him again.

 Chapter 509 - 503 : The Mystery Known As Cecilia

    A minute right after Cecilia had left, Sato immediately exited the river. Even though he didn''t want to do so so quickly, Sato had no choice. Despite being able to hold his breath underwater for at least 5 minutes, Sato wasn''t willing to spend a second longer down there.

    Not only was he running out of air, but despite the depth he stayed at being not more than 7 metres, the pressure Sato felt underwater was nothing to joke about. There was also the fact that he felt an unceremonious gaze lingering on him. Sato didn''t doubt that he had caught the attention of an underwater predator so he hurriedly left the spot once he felt that Cecilia had gone far enough.

    ''I need to get out of here fast.''

    Sato immediately broke off in a run.

    He knew that Cecilia was ady of circumspect and she most likely had her ways of monitoring this area even without her being physically present. Even though doing such was stressful and required certain abilities, Sato didn''t doubt that Cecilia could pull it off as she was not only a powerful mage but one who wouldn''t want to take any more risks at this point. It won''t be surprising if she left behind a gadget to monitor the area from a covert location.

    About 2 minutes after Sato had left, Cecilia returned to the exact same spot once again. It was just as Sato had suspected, she was monitoring the area through a special sigil.

    The sigil worked almost like a motion detector, sending a signal to its owner once a living being was detected within its range. It worked one-way so Cecilia could only receive an alert that a living being had passed through there. As for whether it was Sato or a river monster, Cecilia was unaware. Nheless, she still decided to check on it.

    Because of the distance between her and the sigil, it had taken some time for the signal from the sigil to reach Cecilia. Added with the time it took for her to get over here, Cecilia was 2 minutes behind Sato.

    ''A monster was here.'' Cecilia frowned as she noticed some abnormallyrge footprints on the floor.

    The sigil only had the function of spotting movement from an animate being. As for whether said being was a monster or a human, was unknown. So there was a chance that it was a false rm and it was only a monster that had passed by here. Since themotion on the surface was a lot, with part of the river bank''s vegetation being razed to cinders, it was only natural for a monster close by toe and inspect the area.

    At this point, Cecilia began fretting.

    ''Who knows whether he''s discovered my identity. If I can''t find that kid, then the mission would be ruined.'' Cecilia gritted her teeth before choosing a direction and dashing away.

    Two reasons led to her actions.

    The first was that Cecilia refused to believe that Sato still remained in the river. He must have either swam in a particr direction and escaped, or had left from here during the time she was looking for him. If he hadn''t exited the river yet, then it meant that Sato was dead. As for why she was confident in that, it was closely rted to the second reason.

    A monster was steadily approaching the shore.

    Even though Cecilia couldn''t extend her senses deep into the water, for her to be able to sense a monstering meant that its aura was powerful. Any monster with an aura that strong was definitely not a half-assed beast. Even she wouldn''t want to trade blows with such a creature. Therefore, if Sato was still in the river, he would undoubtedly die or might have already died.

    ''I just hope he''s dead. Otherwise finding him now would be difficult. But if I do find him¡­'' Cecilia narrowed her eyes as a hint of demonic energy leaked out from her.

    Meanwhile, the target of all this was long gone from the scene.

    When Sato had left the river, he didn''t waste a single second as he broke off in a run, using [Sprint] to increase his speed. When he realized that he wasn''t being chased, Sato immediately used [Shadow Movement]. Each time the skill went off cool-down, Sato would use it further lengthen the gap.

    While it was true that he could easily cover the basic 5 metres gap of the skill, the mysterious teleportation style of the skill made it very difficult to track him.

    Sato knew that Cecilia wouldn''t give up chasing after him -for whatever reason she had to do so in the first ce-, so any technique that could make tracking him difficult was even more appreciated than one that could increase his movement speed.

    In this regard, Sato was lucky to have both. Sato only held back in using the berserk skill from his title, [Gratitude of Races], as he felt that it was the only thing that could give him a fighting chance against Cecilia and also improve his survivability chances in this zone.

    Being deep within Maldora Canyons, Sato would normally have to progress at a slow and steady pace even with Milo leading the way, much less now he was all alone. Despite that, his speed wasn''t all that slow as Sato felt it was better to risk encountering a dangerous monster than facing off against Cecilia.

    Call it his guts or gamer instincts but Sato felt that there was a plot hidden here, and not one of an ordinary caliber. He even felt that dying in the hands of Cecilia wouldn''t be the same as dying at the hands of a monster or regr NPC character. The absurd abilities she disyed as well as the eerie green aura made Sato feel that Cecilia was more aligned to the dark side. It wouldn''t be surprising if her methods had severe consequences to even yers, after all, a personage of the dark side had methods that could harm the soul of an individual.

    Sato believed that, just like in other games, a death apanied by a soul injury wouldn''t be the same as an average death. It was for this reason that he didn''t mind jumping inside the river, even though there was still a chance of getting eaten by a river monster.

    *Ding*

    ''Hmm?''

    With the notification sign from the interface, Sato spared a part of his focus towards the new message. It was the report from the information hunter he had hired regarding news about the Arnhaunt family. The previous news was nothing more than general information regarding the family''s public allies, insignia, area of jurisdiction, and official status. For more detailed information regarding its members -particrly female members of the main branch- and so on, Sato had to pay more and wait for the information hunter to make a proper report. Sato had previously suspected Cecilia''s identity even before she had tried to kill him and now, he was even more suspicious of that. There was no motive for that and the two had never crossed paths before their encounter within this canyon.

    While Sato didn''t exactly want to read the report right now, a part of him felt it was necessary to do so. As they say, know your enemies and victory will be assured, anything regarding Cecilia might end up being useful if he was forced to face her. Hence, Sato found a safe spot and hid as he went through the information. It was then that heid his eyes on a staggering discovery.

    In the publicly acknowledged birth records of the Arnhaunt family, there was no Cecilia recorded within the register.

 Chapter 510 - 504 : The Mysterious Newcomer

    "This doesn''t make sense. Cecilia was at the sight with the others. How could she not be a member of the Arnhaunt family?" Sato quietly muttered in shock.

    ''Is she possibly a hidden piece?'' Sato thought.

    The concept of a hidden piece wasn''t anything new to him. Inrge families, it was quitemon for the heir a parent to be raised in secret while a figurehead remained in public to keep the attention of both public opinion and private enemies away from the character. This was a simple but effective ploy that left one''s enemies in the dark of the true abilities or structure of the family. When all was set, revealing the hidden figure at the opportune moment could help the said family or organisation to get an upper hand against their opponents.

    It was quite possible that Cecilia was the hidden chess piece of the Arnhaunt family, meant to only be revealed once she matured enough. As for why she was here, maybe it was as she said and that the family was in trouble.

    ''No. Staying with the rest doesn''t necessarily mean she''s an Arnhaunt[1]. There are various possibilities that could serve as an exnation. She might have been a third party during that event.'' Sato thought as he recalled his past experience as hepared it to the report he got.

    The site Sato had found Cecilia was one of rming bloodshed and carnage. Corpses were strewn all over the ce with the corpse of the monster taking the spotlight. At first sight, upon seeing Cecilia''s weak and feeble self in the midst of such terror, one would presume her to be a victim of such and in the same team as the others; heck, Sato had even thought so too. However, a new discovery in the report proved him wrong.

    ording to Cecilia''s ''testimony'', the Arnhaunt family was under attack by a much stronger great family and so, needed external aid to retaliate. However, the report Sato got proved that there was nothing of such. On the contrary, the Arnhaunt family was in their heyday, enjoying a steady rise in status and prominence.

    While Sato wasn''t inclined to believe everything straight off, as the chances of some hidden battle taking ce from hindsight existed, he wouldn''t exactly forgo the evidence before him. At least publicly, the Arnhaunt didn''t seem to being under fire or suppression, and with Cecilia''s name not being in the family''s registry, there was a chance that she was a fake; an outsider who had coincidentally been involved in the crossfire between the guards and that monster.

    ''No matter what her identity is, it doesn''t change the fact that she''s hostile towards me.'' Sato thought as he began nning his next move.

    Escaping the area was quite difficult as Sato had gone deep into the terrains of Maldora. If he wanted to leave, it would take him at least 2-3 hours of running at full speed, and obviously, this wasn''t something he could pull off as he might attract the attention of those monsters.

    Since he couldn''t just charge out, Sato needed a plot that would help him escape Cecilia''s clutches and depart from here.

    ''If I had a map of the ce, this would have been easier.'' Sato sighed.

    Currently, Cecilia was most probably running around the ce looking for him. Since Sato couldn''t discern his way around, the best course of action was to wait, and hopefully, Cecilia would get tired of searching and depart. But there were two problems associated with this.

    One, Sato would need to find a good hiding spot that would not only keep him away from Cecilia but also from all the other powerful monsters in the area. As for the second one, it was more of Sato''s worries.

    Hiding in a secluded area till further notice implied that Sato would not be able to join the team anytime soon. If he couldn''t do that, it meant that their dungeon raid progress would be behind the other teams, and their chances of taking the firstpletion achievement would drop.

    Truthfully, there was a simple solution to all of this and that was tomit suicide. Doing so would send Sato to the respawn point in town and he could make his way back and head for the dungeon instead. But Sato didn''t want to consider this option. Dying would affect his progress in the game as Sato would have to lose some experience points. While it wasn''t a lot, it certainly wasn''t small either and for a level 18 Sato to get back those points, he would have to journey once again into the depths of Maldora Canyon. Apart from that, there was also the mental barrier that usually held back yers. No one wanted to die recklessly even if the painful sensation of death wasn''t included. If a situation could be avoided without dying, why not do so?

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    Elsewhere within Maldora Canyon...

    ''Damn it. Don''t tell me I really lost him?'' Cecilia came to a stop at a certain location.

    Despite being behind Sato by only 2 minutes, without a lead to follow, Cecilia had already lost track of him.

    After Sato had left the river, he had immediately changed to new armour and clothing to prevent Cecilia from tracking him via smell. As a result, Cecilia didn''t have any clue where he went. While she did have a special spell that could solve the issue at hand, using it might attract the attention of other terrifying monsters. This wasn''t something she wanted to see. Hence, Cecilia had no choice but to go the conventional way and search for Sato with her eyes.

    Obviously though, this method was sorelycking and not reliable otherwise she would have found Sato long ago. Heck, Cecilia was currently a mile away from Sato and this was a conservative estimate. Sadly, she wasn''t even aware of the wide gap between her and her target.

    ''If he gets wind of my identity, my mission would be at risk.'' Cecilia frowned.

    She was sent by her superiors on a special mission that was vital to the rise of their organisation. While the mission wasn''t exactly difficult, it was a very crucial step to the bigger n of her superiors. Failure was not an option and it was punishable by death; and no, not a quick and easy death like beheading or such, but one far more frightening. Her body would be sliced into ten thousand pieces and her soul pulled apart bit by bit while she was still alive. The agonizing pain from such an experience would make one run mad and wish for death so desperately that they would take it as a blessing. But the psychopaths in the punishment division wouldn''t let things end so quickly. In fact, that was but a part of the punishment and not the full package; not even the main course.

    Simply thinking about their methods made Cecilia''s blood run cold and her hair curl.

    ''No! I have to find him.''

    Reminding herself of what was toe if she failed the mission, Cecilia resumed her search with even more fervor.

    "There you are." A female voice tinged with indignation and fury sounded out of nowhere.

    Cecilia was initially stunned when she had the sound as she didn''t sense anyone close by. But almost within that same second, her eyes widened in shock as her Dac expression was a mix of both that and fear. Shivers ran through her body as she found it difficult to take any step further.

    Abruptly within an instant, Cecilia leaped from her previous position to a spot a few metres in front. After that, she immediately turned behind and was greeted by a lithe figure.

    "You, you, you''re alive?!"

 Chapter 511 - 505 : Another One?

    *Boom*

    *Skrrr!*

    *Caw*

    A loud explosion rocked the area as the loud cries of the birds in the sky rang out in a cacophony. Arge flock of airborne monsters immediately rose into the air and scattered in multiple directions, clearing the area as if afraid of something. Even Sato in his hiding ce was forced to move out due to the disruption brought about by therge explosion, as not only were the monsters of the air ruffled but even the ferocious beasts of thend were forced to react. This was only natural as they felt a great crisis looming with some wanting to have a look.

    With the monsters running amok, the original safe spot Sato had found was at risk of getting discovered.

    ''What''s going on?'' Sato couldn''t help but wonder as he tried to find a safe ce to hide from the monsters.

    While he was tempted to head in the direction of the explosion, Sato didn''t take the risk. A majority of the monsters had also made their way there so following them would be no different than walking into the tiger''s den. Instead, this was the best opportunity to escape.

    Once he thought of this, Sato didn''t wait any longer. While there was still a risk in doing so now, it was the best opportunity. Luckily for him, the location of the explosion was in direct contrast to his escape route; on the opposite side of it. The stampede of monsters would easily cover his tracks and at the same time lessen the concentration of monsters in the area. Hence, it would be easier for Sato to escape. But if he waited for themotion to die down, the monsters might return to their previous locations and it would be tough for Sato to escape with ease aspared to now.

    Move.

    With one thought in his head, Sato began his elusive escape.

    He maneuvered through the area, making use of the boulders and craters along the way to hide. As he moved, Sato marked a few shadows and made use of them to either retreat or advance when he was in close proximity to a monster.

    While it was true that his senses weren''t on par with Milo''s, Sato''s danger instincts were still well above that of an ordinary human. By relying on them, he was able to make heads or tails as he moved, while also avoiding most of the monsters.

    It was only after 2 hours of fleeing that Sato finally came to a stop and took a break. Of the 2 hours, most of it was spent circling around a few monsters or hiding from them, otherwise, Sato would have taken only an hour or so to make it this far.

    Relying on his memory of the area, Sato realised that he was quite close to theke that was his original destination. Being close by meant that the monsters nearby were around his level. In other words, Sato didn''t need to be as cautious as before.

    *Ding*

    [[ System Notification :

    World-wide Server Announcement :

    Congrattions to the team, Mudane Elements, forpleting the first achievement [First Completion], bypleting the dungeon [Rocky Cavern].

    Rewarding yers...

    1 World Renown Point

    1 Gold coin to each yer

    Title [Adventurer]

    + **** Experience Points ]]

    The notification sounded thrice before it cleared out.

    Sato was stunned at the details of the message for a while but eventually sighed.

    ''In the end, it was inevitable.''

    Though Sato had hoped to take the [First Completion] achievement, he knew that it wouldn''t be so easy. Not only was the dungeon the team took on harder than the rest but their overall strength was a bit lower than their counterparts.

    True, Sato and Xue Yan were some of the strongest yers(in terms of level), but the rest of the team were below those of the other guilds, specifically Katsuo and Yato. One should know that the top guilds had been making preparations all to take the [First Completion] achievement so the strength and structure of their raid teams was something that others couldn''t easilypare with. Whenparing Katsuo -whose role as an MT was extremely important- and Yato with them, the difference was obvious. Even if one were to add Fudo and Seiichi there wouldn''t be much of a change.

    The difference didn''t justy in strength alone but teamwork and equipment quality, all of which the raid teams of the top guilds surpassed them in.

    As for the current holder of the achievement, Mudane Elements, they were a super guild that wasn''t based in the ISJ; a foreign super guild. Unlike Emperor''s Might, they didn''t have a branch in the Fallen Heart Kingdom either but their strength wasn''t to be underestimated; ranking in the Top 5 super guilds. Being the first to clear a dungeon in IR worldwide was more than a testament to that.

    ''We''re still a long way from contending with the big guilds. I shouldn''t think too much about it.''

    Before he could even recover from that, a regional announcement broke out, stating that Emperor''s Might had managed to achieve the firstpletion at a regional level. In other words, they were the first guild in the Fallen Heart Kingdom to havepleted a dungeon.

    This was another blow to Sato, but having been prepared for it, he didn''t dwell on it too much.

    Following that, Sato received a call from Fudo and the others with the teammenting their loss. Nobody med Sato for not being present for the dungeon raid as they knew that the major reason they fell out of the contest was that they were going up against top guilds with more than 5 years of history. Without a good and solid foundation, defeat was only natural.

    Satoforted them and told the team to focus on their current goal, which was strengthening themselves. In his own words, thepetition has only begun so it doesn''t matter if they''re behind just this once. There would be more opportunities to make it up in the future.

    With Sato''s words of constion as well as the obvious notifications that were making rounds on the forum, the team of 6 was further motivated to work harder and get stronger, faster. If they couldn''t do such, then they would be destined to remain in the shadows of the top guilds just like all other average clubs and teams. Having tasted fame once, after beating the Kobold King, no one was willing to just let things go like that especially Fudo and Yato. The two became the most energetic in the team as they rampaged around in the dungeon, causing chaos and ying monsters like it was nothing.

    Despite knowing that an opportunity to make a name once again had slipped from their hands, Sato wasn''t down but instead, still had his mind focused on the task ahead which was leaving here and conquering the [Temple Of Vasili¨¢s] dungeon.

    Eventually, Sato had passed theke and even closed in on the spot he fought the [Lorlian Sea-Blue Crocodile]. Sato didn''t go ahead to investigate as he felt it wasn''t time yet. His experience in the depths of Maldora Canyon made him more cautious about his surroundings and even more so about mysterious ces. Having crossed paths with dangerously strong monsters during his flee, Sato guessed that the monster in theke was at least as strong as those monsters or even stronger. As for why such a terrifying creature was this far away from the depths of the canyon, where most strong monsters lived, Sato couldn''t answer.

    When Sato made it past the distributary and arrived at the Lorls river itself, he noticed a body sprawled across the floor without any obvious signs of life. A closer look at the ''corpse'' revealed that it was actually a stunning youngdy, not much older than him.

    ''Another one? What''s up with this ce for heaven''s sake?''

 Chapter 512 - 506 : Identity

    A few metres ahead,id a youngdy with ink ck hair and a smooth fair skin. She looked lifeless as there was no sign of movement from her.

    With his previous experience with Cecilia, Sato hesitated on helping her. Even though thedy looked quite different from Cecilia from far out. Sato didn''t want a repeat of what had happened thest time where he had ended up saving someone who wanted him dead.

    Apart from that, he was finding it strange that he happened to encounter 2 youngdies within Maldora Canyon in the same day. Sato was even beginning to suspect whether thedy in front of him was of the same origin as Cecilia. If she was, then rescuing her would be dangerous.

    ''Not like i can leave her be either.'' Sato sighed.

    Truthfully, he was quite perplexed as to why there were so many characters found within Maldora Canyon today. First was the wreckage sitw where Sato found Cecilia as well as the corpses of the guards of the Arnhaunt family. Now was the youngdy with ck hair before him.

    Ignoring her might seem like the safest course of action but it didn''t rhyme well with Sato''s personality. However, their didn''t mean that he was a good Samaritan. Instead, Sato felt that if the person was worth saving then he might as well save them. As for how he would determine someone that was worth saving, the solution was very simple; so simple that Sato was disappointed at himself for not doing so the first time with Cecilia.

    Walking towards the ''corpse'', Sato finally got a clearer look at thedy. She was a pristine white beauty with small pink lips that were stained red by the blood bleeding from them. Her ck hair, which went on tandem with her ck adventurer''s gown, was scattered on the floor with part of it covering her face. Despite being in a lifeless state, she still exuded a kind of beauty that surpassed peers her age.

    Whenpared to Cecilia, the youngdy wasn''tcking in any manner, or area, and even surpassed Cecilia in that regard.

    It was as Sato approached her that he realised there w as a faint breathing motion as her chest slightly heaved up and down. It was almost unnoticeable but because he was alert, Sato had managed to spot it.

    ''Is she ying dead?'' was the first thought that passed through his mind but Sato eventually scrapped it.

    It wasn''t that he didn''t believe she could do that but her situation didn''t call for it. Even though there was no ghastly physical injury obvious at first sight, Sato knew that the youngdy was not far from death. Her clothing was damaged in some area and if one didn''t pay attention, they would fail to spot a certain area that was bandaged underneath. If not for the damage in her leather armour, Sato wouldn''t have noticed it.

    The bandage was already stained red meaning that the wound had opened up some time ago and she had been bleeding. Apart from that, the exposed flesh in that area has a purple hue; a sign that the injury was inflicted with a poisoned weapon. A heavy injury alone was already bad much less a poisoned one. These two alone were enough to send her to edge of the world of the living but Sato knew they weren''t all.

    The nail in the coffin was the blood on her lips.

    While one would at first presume that the blood was as a result of an injury on her lips, careful scrutiny would show that it wasn''t so. On the contrary, the blood had escaped her mouth and had stained her lips. For one to spit out blood from the mouth simply implied one thing, an internal injury and a heavy one to boot.

    3 serious wounds with each one being worse than the other was inflicted on the poor girl. Any one of them alone was enough to put one into a quandary much less all 3. Even Sato was shocked as how she had managed to stay alive for this long.

    While he knew nothing about her internal injuries, Sato was very sure that the injury in thedy''s abdomen had been inflicted more than an hour or two ago. If it were simply a physical wound, bandaging it wouldn''t be an issue, but it was poisoned. Most poisons work within an hour or so but yet the girl still held fast. The bandaged injury opening up again didn''t help things.

    Sato didn''t rush to help her despite her state. Seeing as she was still breathing, he felt that she had 30 minutes or so time left before she finally departed this world. This was more than enough time for him to make his move.

    Coming closer, Sato whipped out a dagger from his storage ring and made a light cut on the youngdy''s skin.

    ''[Inspect]''

    Sato called out in his head.

    Immediately after, he was greeted by the information he desired. Perusing through the notification, Sato managed to confirm the race of the girl as well as her name. He was surprised to see that her level was in question marks, meaning it was too high for him to see through it.

    Following that, Sato moved aside the strands of hair that covered the youngdy''s face as he tried to get a good look at her.

    A stunning face greeted him and while she wasn''t prettier than Cecilia, she was roughly on par with her. If Cecilia was like a blonde beauty capable of seizing the hearts of men at first sight, the ck-haired girl was like a kingdom-toppling beauty. There was no doubt that she would have the attention of many focused on her once she appears in public.

    ''As I had thought.'' Sato sighed with relief.

    After he had escaped from Cecilia, Sato had received a mail containing a somewhat detailed description of the Arnhaunt family. Within it contained the pictures and info of some of the publicly recognised members of the family. Among them was the face before him, La Arnhaunt.

    Sato had already seen the name after he had used [Inspect] on her but he decided to check her face to confirm her identity no matter how silly it sounded.

    ''At least she''s not a fake.''

    This fact made it easier for Sato to breathe out with relief but at the same time, it forced him to confront a problem he would have wished to avoid, saving the youngdy.

    Compared to the injuries Cecilia had, the one the ck-haireddy had was worse and more serious. If Sato dyed in finding a solution or at least, lessen the severity of her injuries, she would die. Not that he was a good samaritan but Sato felt that there was a hidden plot amidst all of this and the key to figuring that out lied with his ''patient''.. It was even possible for this plot to be rted to a hidden quest or even the main storyline of the Fallen Heart kingdom.

 Chapter 513 - 507 : Drunk In Success

    Beside one of the distributaries of the great Lorls river,id a youngdy and a young man. They were Sato and the ck-haired noble, La Arnhaunt.

    After confirming her identity, Sato had decided to save the youngdy''s life as he felt that she was the key to understanding the entire plot hidden away from him, which also included the reason why Cecilia was so desperate to kill him. Since he found a possible source for his answers, Sato would not let it go no matter what.

    In order to avoid an awkward moment, Sato didn''t undress La but cut off the piece of clothing that covered her injury. Once he did so, Sato then removed the dressing that protected it from infections. He was then greeted with the sight of a grievous cut that ran horizontally through her abdomen, just a bit above La''s belly button.

    Despite being properly dressed, the injury was still bleeding quite profusely and was an appalling sight for anyone to see. The cut was so deep that it had almost prated her intestines. Even so, the said organs were exposed to the open without the protection of a bandage. A closer look and one would notice that her flesh had patches of purple hue on them. Those were the areas heavily affected by the poison from the attack that had injured her.

    Apart from the bleeding cut and poison, the next problem Sato had to handle was La''s damaged internal organs.

    Unlike the previous two issues that could be resolved, albeit, with a lot of effort, the internal injuries weren''t within Sato''s area of expertise. He could simply employ his first aid knowledge to treat the two afflictions but for the internal injuries, a Healer ss individual would be needed. A simple potion like the HP potion might not solve the issue for two major reasons.

    One, HP potions weren''t as effective on NPCs as with yers. One would need to purchase a suited potion for NPCs if they desire to use it on them.

    Finally, the HP potion Sato had would be even less effective as this was meant for yers below level 20.

    With each 10-20 levels, yers would need to buy a new type of HP potion that would be more effective on themselves as an increase in strength reduced the efficacy of the potion. Hence the need for a new one. Obviously, the cost for a more effective potion was much higher than the lower version but it was worth it.

    La was definitely above level 20 and not by a minor difference. This was very obvious from the fact that Sato couldn''t get a glimpse of her level as only question marks had been disyed when he used [Inspect]. So there was no doubt that the HP potions in Sato''s hands could do much. It might be able to patch up some of the less severe physical injuries like it did with Cecilia, but acting as an antidote to the poison, healing her internal organs or even patching up therge cut in her body was out of the question.

    ''She has roughly 30 minutes left. If I can get her out of here and have Fudo and Katsuo look at her, I can preserve her life at least.''

    Fudo was an Alchemist which was mostly the subss associated with quite a lot of doctors in IR -alongside Apothecarist. As for Katsuo, he was a [Pdin] and was equipped with healing spells. Though, due to the level difference, Katsuo''s healing spells might not get La back to shape, it would be able to keep her alive just for Sato to bring her to town for proper treatment.

    With a n formted in his head, there was only one problem left; getting La over to where the others were. Sato couldn''t call the over here as that would take time. The region here was only a walk in the park for the level 18 Sato and not the rest of his teammates. He would have to move over to a safer spot for them to proceed without a hitch.

    "Hopefully, you can hold out just long enough."

    Sato poured a bit of HP potions on La''s physical injuries while also feeding her some of it. He then took out a piece of clothing and used it to wrap the injury on her body to stop the bleeding. While the HP potion might not be enough to heal the wound or make La recover instantly it managed to stop her bleeding.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    A couple of minutes ago...

    [[ System Notification :

    World-wide Server Announcement :

    Congrattions to the team, Emperor''s Might, forpleting the achievement [First Completion: Regionals], bypleting the dungeon [Mole Land].

    Rewarding yers...

    ...

    ...

    ...

    ]]

    "We did it!!!"

    "Yes!!"

    "Long live the Emperor!"

    Loud noises rang out as the sounds of celebration reverberated around. The ambience was filled with joy, festivity and relief because at that moment, the branch of the famed super guild Emperor''s Might in the Fallen Heart Kingdom, had made history as they were the first to havepleted a dungeon in their region.

    While this achievement couldn''tpared to its global counterpart, the branch guild never aimed for that since they knew their limits. Rather, they had aimed to dominate the region they were assigned to.

    Previously, under Azure Dragon''smand, the future of the guild was unknown and didn''t look so promising. While it was true that they had made a name for themselves starting with the goblin event at Gnorka, taking 4 spots out of the top 10 individual rankings, they had lost to East Crow in the group rankings and failed to secure the 1st and 3rd positions in the individual rankings despite being a branch of a super guild. Things even got worse when they lost a lot of men in their attack against the Kobold Chief, which ended with them dying at the hands of the Kobold King. The fate of the guild finally spiralled out of control after Seven Star Glory took the achievement for ying the first King-rank monster in the game.

    Alongside Battle Wolves, the branch guild was being mocked for turning into a stepping stone for a newly formed club, and as the leader of the branch guild, Azure Dragon didn''t have it easy. There were calls for sanction on his head from the main branch and even some of the elders who looked at him with favor expressed their disappointment.

    For this reason, Azure Dragon had mobilised all the forces at his beck and call for this raid. He had been determined to duke it out to the end as he was aware that the dungeon raid was possibly hisst chance of showing he was still worth leaving inmand of the branch guild. Even though he was up against a newfound club that was supposedly on par with a 2nd tier guilds in terms of elite strength, as well as the main force of a true-blue 1st tier guild, Azure Dragon didn''t step back; rather, he couldn''t. He had to win and take the trophy home.

    Maybe it was time for the sun to shine on him or that his ancestors'' grave[1] was emitting green smoke, but against all odds, Azure Dragon''s Emperor''s Might had pulled it off. His raid team had managed to clinch the title of firstpletion at a regional, and apart from the main branch, he was the only one to have done so so far. It was easy to understand how happy Azure Dragon was at this moment.

    "Alright, guys. Let''s pack things up from here." Azure Dragon smiled as he gave out hismands.

    Following that, messages after messages swarmed into his mail box with most of them being congrattory messages from his peers in the guild(as a whole). There was even two messages from two elder-rank figures on the guild.

    "Haha. Who said that we were being overshadowed by some newborns was a fool. Didn''t we achieve what they couldn''t?" A roguish-looking guild member cheered.

    Though the words were quite rude, since a few of the main guild members had actually said such, Azure Dragon didn''t silence the man as he shared the same thoughts.

    Seven Star Glory? Never heard of them.

    This was the era and region of Emperor''s Might; Azure Dragon''s Emperor''s Might.

 Chapter 514 - Overall Strength

    "Over here."

    Sato nced in the direction of the voice where he saw Fudo and the rest of the team.

    Right after he had managed to stabilize La''s condition to a certain level, he immediately left for the outskirts of the region. Previously, Sato had sent a message to both Katsuo and Fudo, requesting their aid in keeping La alive. It was only now that he had made it out, approximately an hour and a half or so.

    "What took you so long?" Fudo grinned as Sato approached them.

    "Don''t listen to him. We only arrived less than a minute ago." Seiichi said.

    "Is that the victim?"

    "Yeah." Sato nodded.

    "We need to get to a safe spot before we can treat her."

    Even though none of them were scared of the monsters in the open, it was best to find a safe spot to heal her so as to avoid unnecessary distractions. Luckily, finding a reclusive spot wasn''t so difficult as the team of 6 had previously chanced upon one on their way here.

    It didn''t even take a quarter of an hour for the team to get there, after which Sato had Yato and Lu Zhen stand guard while Katsuo and Fudo took care of the patient. As for himself, Xue Yan, and Seiichi, they gathered elsewhere to have a simple meeting.

    "So, how did you guys fare?" Sato asked.

    "Pretty good, actually." Seiichi answered.

    "We managed to make it to the second BOSS after getting used to the dungeon and improving our strength. However, the second BOSS still wasn''t something we could take on so easily. While we did manage to exchange a few blows, we didn''t get much information on its abilities." Seiichi sighed.

    As yers progressed, the [Inspect] skill was getting more and more impractical. While it still managed to reveal the name and level of the target, there were limitations to it especially if the target was much stronger than the user by a very significant gap like with what had happened with La. In such situations, the yer would only be able to get a glimpse of the target''s name and other simple details like race. As for the other data like attributes and skills, they were inessible. If the target was even higher-leveled, the user might not even be able to spot their name or the skill would fail.

    Since yers hardlye into contact with extremely strong individuals, this wasn''t much of a problem nor a reason to im that the skill was bing inefficacious. That had to do with the fact that the [Inspect] skill didn''t disy the entire skill set of its target.

    Normally, the target of most yers when considering this skill were monsters about a level or two, maybe even three, ahead of themselves. If it were in the past, when yers were below level 10, the skill would be able to disy a lot of information which not only included the target''s attribute points and allocation but also the entire skill set of their targets. This aided yers in formting the perfect strategy to take down their opponents without a hitch. However, things had slowly changed after level 10.

    Though it still disyed the target''s attributes points and allocations, the skills revealed weren''tplete. One wouldn''t notice this until they engaged in battle with the opponent where they would suddenly be faced with a new kind of attack that was never mentioned in the skill report. Since such an attack wasn''t taken into consideration when formting a battle strategy, most yers would fall prey to it and lose their lives.

    It was only after a lot of yers had made suchints on the forums that it was officially recognized by the IRmunity that the [Inspect] skill was getting less and less effective. It wasn''t a glitch pr a bug in the game, but a nned development. This was the only exnation given by the development team to the yers.

    "The dungeon is supposed to be harder than most dungeons. If you could note down the skills of the monster without stress, then the battle could be said to be half-won."

    "True." Seiichi nodded.

    While a lot of yersined about the [Inspect] skill no longer revealing the entire skill sets of its target, the true professionals didn''t. In most VR games, the [Inspect] skill never even existed as it was ssified as a cheat code. Being able to see all your opponent''s abilities before the fight began would undoubtedly make the game easier and for these pros, easier wasn''t better. They sought to increase their skills and refine them. An easy VR game wouldn''t help them achieve that. Some of them had evenined about the skill when the game had begun, iming that it was ruining the main point of the game.

    With the skill bing less and less useful, Sato realized that it was probably so functional in the early stage because the developers wanted yers to have a smooth path to progress. The first 10 levels could be described as baby steps and from there onwards would be when yers really dived into the game properly.

    "Why I called you both out is to know the progress of the team. How far have you guys improved?" Sato nced between Xue Yan and Seiichi.

    "We did alright if you ask me. While we still can''tpare to you yet, we should be among the top yers as of now." Seiichi answered.

    The current mainstream level of yers was between level 14-15. while the dungeon release did bring forth a new rise in momentum for yers, the dungeons weren''t so easy to conquer. It should be known that those who participated in the contest for the firstpletion of a dungeon were the best of the best, the trump card teams of the various top guilds and not their average elites or yers. Those yers were currently between level 15-16 with some closing in on 17. By that logic, the truly strong ones were level 17 and it was quite possible for some hidden figures to be level 18, the same as Sato.

    One reason for them catching up to him was because Sato had been preupied as of recent. He had barely fought to his fill before Milo led him to the crash site. From there, he was charged with taking care of Cecilia after which he was on the run from her. Even before then, Sato had spent most of his time refining his cksmithing skills. So much time had passed and it was enough for those dungeon-raiding addicts to increase their levels and close up the gap.

    "So what level are you guys now?" Sato asked.

    "I''m level 14, just a bit from 15. Lu Zhen is level 15, the same as Fudo. As for Yato and Katsuo, the ck-haired dimwit is level 14 while the giant is level 15. They were the ones with thergest growth spurt in the team." Seiichi sighed.

    Seiichi alongside Fudo and Lu Zhen had only experienced a 2 levels increase in strength but Yato and Katsuo were previously level 11, making it an increase of 3 levels and 4 respectively. One of the major reason for this was because the monsters they faced were much stronger than them. Facing a level 15 monster while still level 11 would them more experience points than a level 13 yer.

    Apart from that, the absence of a monster like Sato, the difficulty of the dungeon as well as the increased rewards essible only in the [Temple of Vasili¨¢s] dungeon made it easy for them to make such massive improvements. There was also the effect of the [Warrior] title they got for defeating the Kobold King which gave them a 10% increase in Experience points after defeating a BOSS monster.

    Without Sato in the mix, the team had improved their skills to the point that facing Gatekeeper Baka wasn''t an impossible task any longer. Even without Xue Yan, the other 5 would stille out victorious, though with some difficulty.

    "That''s good."

    Though he didn''t show it, Sato was sincerely impressed with the progress of his teammates as it meant that they wouldn''t need to depend on him always and were close to rivalling top teams.

    "And Xue Yan, what about you?" Sato nced at her with interest.

    If the others had made such massive improvements already, though levelling up was hard for her, Xue Yan wouldn''t have fallen back so much.

    Apart from Sato, she was the one with the highest attack power in the team as well as the main damage dealer. It wasn''t an understatement to say that her strength would determine the team''s progress in their next dungeon raid so Sato had to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn''t fall behind.

 Chapter 515 - Finding A Solution

    North district, ck Rock City.

    ck Rock City was often referred to as a border city as it was one of the few cities charged with defending the borders of the kingdoms from both monsters and alien invaders. As a result, the city was developed more like a fortress than a regr city. However, with the unearthing of ores in Kiro mountains as well as another mountain range, alongside the discovery of abundant low-level resources in Stone Creek Forest and Letion ins, ck Rock city began styling itself as a merchant stop, bing more open and resourceful while boasting of impressive economic strength. Nheless, it still didn''t forget its roots as a defence city.

    Simr to the partitioning done at the town level, ck Rock City was divided into 5 districts. Due to their proximity to the kingdom''s border, the North and West districts housed the city''s two major barracks. The South district, which leads deeper into the kingdom, served as the financial heart of the city, being the headquarters of most merchantpanies that operated here as well as the site of the city''srgest market. The East district was a bit simr to the South but lower in significance and magnitude.

    A party of 8 individuals, all garbed in ck cloaks, were currently making their way to a hospital in the North district. Since the North district -just like the West district- was home to the city''s military forces as well as being the closest part of the city exposed to danger, a hospital was erected at the spot, ready to provide immediate services to the military in case of an attack.

    Also, most of the levelling maps above level 10 could easily be essed from the North gate. As a result of that, most yers made the North district their home with only a few of the production-type lifestyle sses and merchants moving to the East district. So with the arrival of the yers into the city, the North district had be more lively.

    The 8 individuals currently making their way to the hospital were Sato''s team of seven alongside La Arnhaunt. While the seven of them walked on their own, Sato carried La on his back. As for why they all wore ck cloaks, it was to avoid unnecessary attention from the popce.

    Luckily for them, the hospital wasn''t built so far from the North gate and it only took the team a 15-minute carriage ride to get to it.

    Despite the technological time period of Infinite Realm being in the middle ages but with more fantasy and magic, the organization, custom, and operation of the facilities within were more suited to the modern age. Due to the fact that La''s case was an emergency, Sato was able to go through the usual steps for admittance and La received priority treatment right away.

    "So what next?" Fudo asked immediately after Sato left the ward.

    "We still have a dungeon toplete. Don''t tell me that you want to leave it be?" Sato raised an eyebrow.

    "Haha. Why would I want to give up halfway? When are we leaving?" Fudo immediately got pumped up.

    "I''ve been waiting for you to make that call. Can''t wait to beat that freaking Kraken to death." Yato flexed his muscles.

    While it was true that losing the race to the firstpletion had dropped the morale of the team a bit, it still didn''t diminish the team''s fervor and desire inpleting the dungeon [Temple of Vasili¨¢s]. Considering it was the first dungeon unlocked in the entire game, the rewards would definitely be more enticing than the others. Added to the fact that the monsters were much stronger than the ones in the other dungeons, the quality of the rewards uponpletion would surely be on an entirely different level.

    "What preparations do we have to make?" Unlike the overly enthusiastic duo, Seiichi was more calm and realistic. He knew that they couldn''t just rush towards the dungeon without care.

    "Apart from the usual resource prep, we need an extra hand." Sato said.

    "An extra hand?"

    "What do you think is our team''s greatest weakness in raiding dungeons, whenpared to guild teams?" Sato suddenly asked.

    "We are weaker than them both in terms of levels and actual skill." Lu Zhen stated.

    "Our teamwork still needs a bit more working on whenpared to them." Fudo shared his thoughts.

    Though they had been working on their coordination in field battles and dungeon raids, it still couldn''t bepared to that of the other guild teams. When one considers the fact that the yers in those professional raid teams have worked together for months, it would be absurd to think that Seven Star Glory would reach such heights in mere hours.

    "All the points you guys mentioned are correct but when considering dungeon raids, it''s not exactly so." Sato shook his head.

    "Then¡­"

    "Weck a healer." Seiichi abruptly spoke up.

    "Correct." Sato smiled.

    It wasn''t hard for someone of Seiichi''s intellect to figure that out especially since Sato had already mentioned searching for an extra hand.

    "A healer?" Yato nced at Sato curiously.

    While theck of a healer was a problem, he didn''t think it was their greatest one in dungeon raids. After all, they had alreadye this far without one.

    As if seeing through his doubts, Sato exined, "HP potions do solve the issue but it''s only temporary. They have long cool-downs and continuous usage in battle reduces its efficacy. Also, it takes a bit of time to take the potion and for it to take effect. Though it might seem small, even a millisecond difference could change the tides of a battle. As for Katsuo, while he does have a few healing skills, he takes the role of the MT which is one that requires a lot of focus. So, he can''t spare his concentration on the rest of us.

    "Having a healer would solve all these problems and we would be able to fight without worry."

    "That''s true." Yato reluctantly admitted.

    "But then how do we find one?" Katsuo asked.

    Apart from Lu Zhen and Xue Yan, who they met along the way, Seven Star Glory was a team made up of close friends. This made it possible for there to be less differences and arguments in the team since everyone already knew each other prior to the team''s formation. Adding more ''foreigners'' would go against that, after all, just like a club, a team had less strict regtions whenpared to a guild.

    "Natsuo''s ying Cleric but he''s still at the town stage." Seiichi sighed.

    "Then we need to recruit, even if it''s just a temporary aid." Sato said.

    . . .

    . . .

    . . .

    At the entrance of Maldora Canyon¡­

    *Step* *Step*

    A bloody figure wobbly made its way towards the exit with one arm gripping the other tightly.

 Chapter 516 - Looking For A Healer 1

    At the entrance of Maldora Canyon¡­

    *Step* *Step*

    A bloody figure wobbly made its way towards the exit with one arm gripping the other tightly. Even with the disheveled hair that covered the individual''s face, the twin mounds that rested on their chest suggested that the person was a girl. If Sato were here, he would surely recognize the blond e hair and blue eyes which were the most noticeable feature of the injureddy. She was Cecilia, the youngdy that had been chasing after Sato''s life.

    After Cecilia had lost track of Sato, she was confronted by a previous nemesis of hers. The confrontation between the two led to a devastating fight that had rocked the region of Maldora Canyons they were at. Due to the ferocious intensity of the battle, the duo had been severely injured to the point that a crippled body part wasmon in them both and the least of the injuries. However, Cecilia had managed to sustain the least damages as unlike her rival, she was able to remain conscious and find her way to the exit despite the series of onughts from the beasts that came her way.

    ''I need to get out of here fast.'' Cecilia thought as she dragged herself to escape.

    Currently, her life was in jeopardy so not only could she not pursue Sato any longer, but she had to dy thepletion of her mission till she was back to peak condition. Unknown to the yer popce as well as the NPCs in the province, this was a good thing.

    . . .

    "Looking for a level 13 MT! nning on raiding the dungeon, [Amber Cave]. Rewards would b split based on contribution."

    "Level 13 long-range yer needed. Preferably a [Ranger] but an [Elementalist] wouldn''t hurt."

    Even though the acimed North district, especially the North gate, was the wild area of the city due to its proximity to the kingdom''s borders, the presence of the military barracks made it seem otherwise. The only change to the former peace and tranquility here was the presence of yers who were either hawking their items or scouring for new party members and teammates.

    The existence of the dungeons made it easier for yers to level up and also gain resources but to do so, one would require the necessary power to pull it off. With the firstpletion race pretty much done and dusted, most guilds didn''t put in much effort into dungeons apart from those whose dungeons had yet to be cleared for the first time.

    Even though quite a few dungeons had been cleared by now, they were in the minority, with the other guilds still struggling toplete theirs.

    It was a well-known rumour that clearing a dungeon for the first time would reward more loot than normal so none of these guilds were willing to give up the opportunity. At the same time, some yers even became more daring to try and grab this fat piece of meat from the hands of the guilds.

    "So, we are here to look for a healer huh?" Fudo asked as he walked alongside Sato.

    "Don''t tell me we would start yelling for teammates like these guys?"

    Sato didn''t reply to him but nced at the yers going about with their actions.

    While it was true that they could do things just like the others and yell for a healer, Sato didn''t want just any yer to join the team. Even though the healer would be taking the role temporarily, it would be good if the individual had good skills and wouldn''t drag the team behind. Hence, Sato couldn''t just let any Tom, Dick, or Harry take on the role for the team.

    One of the easiest ways of confirming a yer''s abilities was by their level. The higher a yer''s level, the greater the chances that he or she was a pro. However, it wasn''t a perfect system to gauge one''s strength so Sato didn''t necessarily want to rely on it alone. But at the same time, he needed a healer with a high enough level so that the yer''s skills would have a better effect on the team.

    "Let''s go back to the hospital." Sato suddenly said as he turned around.

    "Huh?"

    It took the duo about 10-15 minutes to go to the hospital where Sato had left La, but unlike what Fudo had guessed, it wasn''t to check up on the NPC.

    Infinite Realm was a game that added realistic mechanics and fundamentals into a world of fantasy. Just like how a mage would be better in Rune-smithing than a physical ss yer, Sato suspected that a healer would be suitable for the subss, [Doctor]. Normally, this upation was upied by Alchemist and Apothecarists but Sato believed that it won''t be impossible for a cleric to do so. After all, the ss was centered on healing and what better ce was there to work on one''s proficiency than the hospital.

    Of course, Sato figuring this out didn''t mean that everyone else would, but Sato wanted to believe that at least one yer would.

    Unlike most other sses, Healers -especially Clerics- levelled up differently from others. While most yers did so by defeating monsters, Clerics levelled up by healing living creatures. This made it possible for them to even level up off battles. As for the perfect spot to find injured individuals to farm experience points with, the hospital was no doubt the best and safest option.

    There were two advantages to looking for a healer here. The first was that the yer here would definitely not be stupid. Not everyone was like Sato who easily realized a hidden feature of the hospitals in the game. Anyone who did would surely be a pro as well as a creative yer. Having such a character in the team would mean that they wouldn''t need to worry about he/she all the time as the person would hardly make any mistakes.

    Also, since hospitals were very conducive to healers, the target would surely not be low-levelled.

    "Let''s spread out. Once you spot a yer in doctor''s attire, alert me." Sato informed Fudo.

    "Alright."

 Chapter 517 - Recruiting A Healer

    Landon was a casual gamer who only participated in most VR games just for the fun of it. While he didn''t exactly take games as seriously as professional gamers, he did take it a bit more seriously than regr casual gamers.

    Landon had a certain quirk for chasing after loopholes and perks in various VR games. Simr to explorers [IF], he valued the plotlines of games more than actual gamey.

    Due to his ''studio'' behaviour when gaming, Landon had managed to discover a hidden trick in the now popr Infinite Realm. As a Cleric, Landon had theorised that working in a hospital would help him level up faster since the process of levelling up for Clerics required them to use their spells more on injured living beings. The best ce to find those was indeed in battle, but the safest ce was in a hospital.

    Going through with his idea, Landon had applied to work as a doctor in the hospital in ck Rock City''s North district. Surprisingly enough, the process was exceedingly difficult and he had only managed to pull it off thanks to his high IQ as well as his impressive skills. It was then Landon had managed to confirm his suspicions and since then, his level had been rising sky-high.

    Running abination of field service as well as his side job as a doctor in the game, Landon was able to reach level 15 with ease but he had kept his level hidden from the public. With the help of a special equipment he had found in one of his adventures, Landon was able to keep his level hidden even when he joined a party.

    ''I joined the hospital because I could level up faster but it''s getting boring now. I have no leads on the main plot of the game. It''s kinda frustrating.'' Landon, clothed in a typical modern doctor''s attire, sat in the waiting room of the hospital as he stared at the ceiling.

    ''Ugh. I think it''s about time I spend more effort on adventuring. Maybe I will find a lead then. Or should I wait till I''m level 20? After all, most NPC adventurers here are at least that strong.'' Landon remained conflicted.

    As a casual gamer, Landon didn''t spend much time gaming so he wasn''t aspetitive as most gamers. However, he did like to explore the world of a game. In his free time, he would evenpile reports about his experiences or some relevant and irrelevant knowledge and sell as an information hunter. This was how he made some spare cash in VR games despite not being a hardcore gamer.

    ''Oh? A yer is in the hospital?'' Landon raised an eyebrow.

    The existence of healer ss yers made hospital visits pointless to yers as they could get rid of any anomaly or injury with a simple cast of a spell. Added with the fact that barely anyone would be interested in taking on the job of a doctor in a VR game filled with fantasy elements, it was very very rare to find a yer visiting the hospital unless they were on a mission.

    ''Hmm?'' Landon was originally not going to pay the yer any attention till he saw him walking towards him.

    ''Probably nning on asking for directions.'' Landon thought.

    Most of the yers who came to the hospital toplete a mission and happen to have a chance encounter with Landon, usually ask for his help. It made sense to do so since Landon was pretty much the he only yer in doctor''s clothing so requesting his help would make things easier for them. Asfor Landon, he didn''t reject such requests but usually asked a bit of payment for his efforts.

    "Any problem?" Landon decided to take the initiative and be done with it.

    "You work here, right?" Sato asked the young man before him.

    "Yeah, what about it? Need any help with directions? It will cost you though." Landon smirked.

    "What''s your level?" Sato asked.

    Landon frowned imperceptibly at the question but he fluidly replied without slipping up, "Level 13. Not something to be proud of but I don''t mind."

    Sato smiled at the response because he has noticed the slight change of expression in Landon''s eyes. The reason for that was mostly because Landon was irritated by the question so there was a high chance that hos reply was a lie.

    "I''m here to offer you a role in my team. We require the services of a healer and I''m pretty sure you would like the job."

    "Not interested." Landon replied as he faced the other way and ignored Sato.

    "I didn''t say you would go unpaid." Sato dropped a space bag on the table in front of Landon.

    With the amount of wealth he had, purchasing a basic rank space bag was nothing for him. Sato could even afford a hundred of them and still not feel a dent in his wealth. The materials he had reaped from the corpse of the monster in Maldora Canyon as well as those of the guards, added with the ones he already had in his possession was enough to make him rank in the top 10 richest in the whole game, even if guilds were included in the list.

    Landon''s interest was immediately piqued by the space bag on the table. Space bags were ssified into three; basic, intermediate and advanced. While the space bag in front of him was of the lowest rank -basic rank-, it still cost at least 30 silver coins.

    The amount might not seem like much but it would take an average yer 2-3 days of farming[1] to make that much. Since the bag was quite costly, the contents within would surely not be cheap.

    "You can take that as advance payment. Once we''re done with the dungeon raid, you will get the rest. Of course, since you''re being paid, the dungeon loot won''t be shared with you." Sato spoke up.

    Landon didn''t hurry to check the contents of the space bag as he frowned at Sato''s words.

    "What exactly do you want me to do?"

    "You''re a Cleric who''s working in a hospital. If I''m correct, you''re at least level 14, if not 15. It''s only right that I pay you the right amount to motivate you to work to the fullest."

    Landon was stunned as he knew that Sato''s guess was on point but before he could even ask how he knew that, Sato continued.

    "As for the task at hand, it''s like I said; a dungeon raid. Excluding myself, there are six others; a [Pdin], two [Elementalists], an [Assassin], a [Ranger] and a [Swordsman]. We onlyck a healer and that''s what''s dying our progress. Even though I haven''t seen your skills, I trust that it has to be good enough for you to be able to keep your job here.

    "So, what''s your answer?"

    [AN : Remember to check out ''Reborn In A Magic World: From Cultivator To Mage.'']

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    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!