Chapter 77 - Reaching the City-3 (1/2)
The mail he received from Sophia was a source of both comfort and anxiety. It was a source of comfort as it implied that Sophia was concerned about him in this life too and he finally got some information about the next step in his career. Not knowing what would happen to one's career was always a source of discomfort.
The anxiety was because it told that he would be directly reporting under Xander Drake. Any job that required one to report directly to an authority that high would have a high-risk factor and a lot of responsibility. It was concerning to him that the job would put him in the more danger. He already faced enough threats. Moreover, it might also lower his chances of meeting with Sophia at the base.
”I can't do anything about this now. Let me handle it as I get the official posting,” thought Balthazar as he sent a mail to his grandfather informing him that he would be 15 to 20 minutes late. Winston immediately replied that the meeting wasn't urgent and even specified to take his time in reaching the office. It was like Winston didn't really want to meet him.
With that he reverted his focus back from the messages board on his panel to the game. He had to finish up the quest as fast as possible. Even though he got a bit more time now, he couldn't take it easy. Else, he would fail in his plan.
He moved through the forest in search for more beasts that they could take down. He also suggested that they take different routes while searching for the beasts. He wanted Slaine, Roll, Rudra to move and himself to move through the forest while the rest of the team moved along the path towards the city.
He divided the group equally. He went along with the players from the Dreamz workshop as he was most familiar with them. With all of them at level 9 it wasn't that dangerous to move separately. They could at the very least retreat safely now.
”Contact us if you find any other players or any other danger,” said Shadow as he went into the forest leaving the other three. He wanted at least one from his workshop and one from the Quiet Fire's team to be in the first three that enter the city only these would get reputation points. His best bet were Rudra and Merlin.
Though all the 12 members who were doing the quest are at level 9 after the fight with the lions. Merlin had the most as he frequently focused on even his trade professions of cook and alchemist. He was the go-to source for resources like food for the team. Thus, his experience was just 200 points short of level 10.
Rudra was like the rest and needed a lot more experience points, but he was the guild leader and if the leader had more reputation points, it would be easy for them to expand and get hold of resources. Even though Balthazar was going to help the Crimson Realm guild, it was always best for Rudra to have a decent number amount of reputation for situation where he might not be available.
Rudra needed a significantly higher amount of experience compared to Merlin. With the six of them in the forest they could have Rudra take the last hit and with the proper experience mode, he could gain experience much faster.
Shadow quickly put any monster he found in a near death state and using the level 5 garrote to choke, he held it till Rudra landed the last hit. In this manner, the rate at which Rudra was gaining experience was steadily increasing.
At the Blackrock town and the other villages and cities under the White Heart City region, many were shocked to see the leaderboards. The board at the Blackrock town was completely dominated by the 11 members of his group. Shadow had long ago opted to not show his name in the leaderboards.
Even in the entire White Heart region, the occupied the top 5 positions. There were members from other groups that had reached level 9 and were competing with him. With the Blackrock town promotion, there was a lot of exchange of goods and resources causing many members also to reach the level 9.
Luckily, none of them knew the best way to complete the quest that allows them to reach the city. Even if they tried to kill all monsters they found, it wouldn't be possible to kill the boss at the city at level 9.
With Shadow helping him, Rudra soon managed to reach level 10 in 60 minutes. Merlin had already reached level 10 by that time. With the two of them reaching level 10, the player in the region were in uproar. Most were spamming the forums with accusations that they have been using some sort of glitch in the game.
Luckily, the game moderators were quick to reply informing that no unfair means were used saving their guilds reputation among the players. Soon, a person called Wandering Hermit that there were others that have reached level 10 but had opted to not be shown in leaderboard. He also listed a few names from various towns indicating why he thinks so.
In the list, Shadow was also mentioned. It was known that Shadow had been playing with Merlin. Also, Shadow had a few first clears, but his name never popped up even in Blackrock village list. Informing these facts, he suggested that Shadow definitely crossed level 10, but kept it secret.
Though there were other who insisted that it might not be so as Shadow already had first clears and had no reason to keep his level secret, they would all be proven wrong within an hour.
Once, Rudra had crossed level 10, Shadow immediately provided him with the stag horn halberd he crafted to Rudra. He decided it is best that they aim for clearing the quest. Even if they didn't cross level 10 by the time the boss died. It wouldn't be hard to enter the city as the cleared the quest. They just need to cross level 10 through trade profession or a few more kills before they teleport to the city from the BlackRock Town.
They went along the path and soon could see the city wall from a distance. They only came in contact with a few isolated monsters like the red fanged cougars, but they could easily take care of these monsters.
As they began to saw their destination, the team started to run along the path in excitement. They stopped caring about other beasts that might come. Only, Shadow knew that it wouldn't be easy and carefully observed his flanks as he was running.
As he expected there were few roars and soon a pair of bears popped out of the forest attacking them from the front. Though these bears were both level 9 elites, Shadow didn't consider them difficult enough for the end of the quest and had the team be on hold instead of actively attacking them.
His doubts soon proved to be true as another bear which was much smaller than these two jumped out of the forest behind them. This was named Sun Bear and was the level 10 boss monster he was waiting for. It was clear that these monsters had the team flanked.
[Forest Bear] (Elite Monster)
Level 9;
HP: 6000/6000;
[Sun Bear] (Boss monster)
Level 10;
HP: 9000/9000;