Chapter 125 - Hell mode first clear (1/2)

”So, you done with your quest?” asked Tristar.

”Didn't take any, Tristar. I was serious about attempting the hell mode,” said Merlin.

”How many heads did you collect?” asked Tristar.

”34.”

”For that you would get a silver equipment at most. Why don't you submit when you have collected more?” suggested Tristar.

”Are the number of items available limited per day?” asked Merlin guessing accurately that Tristar didn't want him to choose anything right now.

”Caught me,” said Tristar. ”I tend to become more like you in your presence.”

”How were the quests?” asked Merlin.

”Oh. They are a nightmare. You could have warned me about the weapons the bandits have there. Six teams got wiped out because of it,” said Tristar.

”Boris was at the bandit camp, wasn't he?” asked Merlin confused.

”That idiot is like a kid. He didn't have the common sense to report about it,” said Tristar.

”He might be angry that you and Rex didn't allow him to stay here longer,” suggested Merlin.

”I hope not,” said Tristar.

”Either way he is an idiot,” added Sultan.

”So? Did you guys complete at least one of the quests?” asked Merlin.

”Not the ones near the bandit camp. Only one team did it till now, and it was led by Nix,” said Tristar.

”Nix came here?” asked Merlin surprised. He didn't expect Nix to also come here. He expected Oceanis to send someone else to do the grunt work on the first three days.

”Ya. He just did one assassination mission, came back and told that it isn't worth the trouble. Then, he left the town area. Told me the trip was an entire waste of his time. He asked for you though,” said Tristar pointing to Shadow.

”Me?”

”Probably wants to feel you out and check the place. He explored the town for some time and then met with few of his guild members before leaving,” said Tristar.

”You know anything of it?” asked Merlin.

”No clue. He could have messaged me directly, right?” asked Shadow as he checked his messages. ”Wasn't contacted by him. Not even a ping.”

It was quite confusing for the rest of them, but Merlin who had known that Oceanis was trying to recruit more members for his team could easily guess it. They wanted to ask Shadow Tyrant to join them. But he didn't care as he now knew that Shadow was the boss of the Crimson Realm guild. Even he didn't expect Shadow to join him after he came to know that and was wondering if his investment was a waste.

”Odd thing. I can't understand why he was so secretive about it,” said Merlin putting on a confused expression on his face. He decided to feign ignorance as he didn't want Shadow to have any idea about it.

Though Merlin was trying his best to not let Shadow know about it, Shadow had already known about it as he had already experienced it. But Shadow didn't have any intention to recruit players for the Crimson Realm guild team. In fact, he was considering whether he should join that team, or the team being led by Merlin.

For the Crimson Realm guild, he didn't want to recruit new star players. He had played along with them for quite some time and they had good coordination. He would rather have them be trained in the game with the help of the trainers that he planned to recruit from Rodrigo's contacts.

The reason which caused them not to be famous in his past life that they didn't have an advantage as Rudra and his team went away from their previous owner and set up a workshop independently quite some time after the game had started.

”Shall I contact him,” thought Balthazar as he asked the same of Merlin.

”It is a waste. He could have contacted you if he wanted to. He definitely didn't want to have you be able to take snapshot of it. He wanted to talk personally, but if he didn't find what he wanted, he wouldn't have left,” lied Merlin shaking his head.