Cye felt the pressure while listening to the others discussing the establishment of a guild. Realization slowly settled in. A lot of effort and work would e her way.

  However, she also felt the anticipation. With the help of her party this dream of hers didn’t sound so unrealistiymore.

  The blond woman subsciously g Liam. She was fident that as long as the expert stayed, all hurdles inating from that game could be overe.

  Balm oher ha her legs weaken at this moment. She looked towards Cye for reassurance. Seeing the apparent calm on her friend’s face, Balm also felt her spirits lifted.

  The party discussed some more before they came to a clusion. They would slowly prepare for now, talk to Sun’s Knight, and invite some friends to join while waiting for the guild system to open.

  Liam expected the system to be established together with the gold exge, but he had no firmatio.

  “Ok. We talked long enough. Now it’s time to work.”

  Silent Acacia ehe discussiohere wasn’t much left to say. The reed, turning their heads towards Liam one by one.

  “What do you want to do now?”

  “Well, you are the one who made a bet. Don’t you think we should level up and tackle the dungeon?”

  “Alright.”

  Liam already expected this request. Thus, he made some perday.

  In his old life many different strategies for power leveling emerged. He only had to pie which was suitable for the current party.

  “Let’s go guys. Our goal will be reag level 15.”

  “Nice. Let’s leave everyone in the dust!”

  Cye smiled, feeling some relief. A g the ranking list showed Star Gazer’s team right behind their party.

  On top of that a few more names appeared one by one on the ranking list.

  Some pyers who already carried a reputation from ames gradually showed their prowess.

  People like Mountain Lord, a famous tank known for his PvP skills or Phoenix Feather, a female mage known as a leveling fanatic, finally ehe public eye.

  However, Liam remained uurbed, fident that no one would be able to catch up if he didn’t allow them to.

  He entered a teleporter, once more arriving in Striking Wood Town, close to the area where the party fought the snake boss.

  A solemn atmosphere hung in the air. The vilgers appeared rather cautious, gng at the armored soldiers for a hint of security.

  Liam approached the town’s wall built form thick wooden pegs. Close to the gate was ay area. The g of ons could be heard apanied by strained shouts. A few soldiers were training uhe watch of a stern-faced female captain.

  Signaling the party to stop Liam waited patiently for a few seds until the captain aowledged them.

  “Adventurer. Are you here for honor or ?”

  Other than Liam the others were someuzzled by this greeting. Although they had seen the quest boards pced in cities and towns, they didn’t have time to read those yet.

  The quest boards were meant to guide pyers to os if they were uo find some themselves. But why would anyone among the party members read those boards if they had their seemingly all-knowing expert?

  Thus, no one khat this guard captain handed out os. Naturally, it was not difficult to figure out. Guards and other officials often sought the assistance of adventurers.

  No one was surprised when the captain handed out a quest after a few sentences.

  “Those dastardly orcs have been ing closer to the border! They let their wargs roam freely. Those bloodthirsty dogs even cross the Great Spirit River, entering the empire and attag the locals.

  It’s time to thin out their numbers. But those beasts aren’t stupid. They won’t attack if they aren’t assured of victory.

  You will his. Bait them with the meat we prepared. They won’t be able to resist.”

  “You t on us.”

  The female captain nodded with a ral expression as she handed over twenty pieeat to Liam.

  “If you need more meat, e to me.”

  Liam grinned slyly as he put the bait away, gng at the quest notification.

  [Quest: Thin out the wargs]

  [Lure wargs with the prepared bait and kill them.]

  [Wargs killed: 0/20]

  [Optional: Kill more wargs for extra rewards.]

  , Liam led his party out of the town while expining the pn. Making sure that everyone uood, he sighem to begin.

  Bloody Edge solemnly took a few pieeat from Liam before separating from the party. He scurred across the grassy field, soon disappearing behind a hill.

  Soon, the thief reached aorn by battles. The dark soil had a bloody st to it. Maroyed ons and armors were half buried into the ground. Bloody Edge noticed that a lot of them didn’t seem fitting for a human body.

  Suddenly he noticed a sound nearby. Remembering Liam’s instrus he quickly went into stealth, keeping his body close to the ground and his steps light.

  A man walked out behind some broken wooden structure, wearing a patched leather armor with dirt all over his skin.

  He cautiously approached one of the broken ons, stantly looki and right, fearing that the army might be close by.

  Not notig anything the man hastily pulled out the on before esg.

  Watg his back, Bloody Edge hesitated briefly before using [I].

  [Lucky SgerRank: on

  Level: 22

  HP: 3200/3200]

  Level 22…

  Bloody Edge drew a sharp breath, vaguely seeing the sger gathering with a small group in the distance.

  He recalled all the tricks for stealth he had read up on, advang with utmost caution.

  He took wide detours, avoiding all the sger groups until a vilge came into his view. It was situated on a narrow creek. Its once clear water now murky and bloody.

  The vilge was also past its peak. Its wooden wall was heavily damaged. Eveempts in patg it up weren’t able to restore it.

  Many of the houses id in ruins while the rest of them were now inhabited by groups of sgers.

  Bloody Edge advanced slowly, avoiding the men and women in ragged clothes lingering outside, bemoaning the hardships of their lives.

  He circled the vilge finding a hole in the wall just as Liam told him.

  Bloody Edge was once more amazed by the extent aail of Bleary Mirage’s knowledge.

  Naturally, all of the party members felt it was strange, but they collectively chose not to question their expert.

  Thus, Bloody Edge shook of the thought as he robbed through the hole in the wall, entering the vilge.

  Keeping his body in the shadows he scurried between broken houses. Whe as close as possible to the gate, Bloody Edge stopped, piling up ten pieeat in a hidden location before disappearing in a secret basement nearby.

  While the thief was w, the rest of the party didn’t stay idle either.

  They followed Liam towards the south, once more entering Wouliph Forest. But this time they didn’t e for the deserter camp but approached the far-reag sound of rushing water.

  It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the coast of a truly broad river. Its water was somewhat greenish, flowing at high speeds.

  This was the Great Spirit River, inating from the eastern mountains and drawing a natural boarder betweeriving Basilisk Empire and the Red Steppe, which most orc tribes called their home.

  The Red Steppe was teically still part of the tral pins. A long time ago before a group of humans, called Tarraner, arrived form the western o, orcs spread from the Red Steppe wandering through the tral pins, taking everything they needed.

  Whearraner suddenly arrived and demanded a piece of the pie, it led to fierce wars. The orcs, having profited from the fertile nd for a long time, mao gain the upper hand.

  However, this was when the usually reclusive wood elves, having suffered from the orcs’ plundering for a long time, suddenly came out of the deep forests and assisted the Tarraner.

  On top of that even the aloof high elves sent a few powerful mages sihe arrogant orcs dared to raid their vilges in the past.

  Faced with this alliahe orcs had no choice but return to their aral nds in the Red Steppe, fining their movement to this small and dry nd.

  Afterwards most of the tral pin had been taken over by humans, allowing them to strive.

  This was the a history. Siheionships had ged more than ohe former unity among humans couldn’t be taken franted anymore. Each of the different kingdoms and empires had their own ideas, some of them reg with ord some fighting fiercely.

  The Striving Basilisk Empire which was closest to the Red Steppe mostly showed an ambiguous attitude, focused on defending. But with some orc tribes daring to raid its territory new flicts arose. Now it was on the pyers to influehe fate of the two races.