World Online

"Damn this." a large, burly man was standing in the middle of a forest, cursing. His veins bulged as they held a large weapon that was only fitting for a man of his stature.

He was bigger than everyone else that was standing next to him.

Surrounding him was not a small group. It was a literal army. An army of players behind him.

But all of them were not comforted by the presence of their allies. Instead, they all had eyes of desperation on their faces.

They did not want to be here. They wanted to go home.

​ This was not going according to plan.

The large man looked to his right. A slender woman dressed in black, with daggers in both her hands, looked back at him.

"Who was the one who scouted this place? Not one thing is going according to plan." He grunted.

"Our best were the forefront. We can't even blame Frontier and Hulhan for this mistake. This was something that no one expected. We were too weak." The woman shook her head.

"Everyone, including me, lost levels." The large man grit his teeth, throwing the ax in his hands to the ground.

The sound that it made did not faze him for even a second.

"And here we are. Completely surrounded. We can't even retreat back. We will have to lose another level before we can have a chance to even return to the cities." He said.

"We can use return stones, but we only have enough for our core. Not for everyone." The woman suggested.

"As much as I would love to do that, these idiots will start protesting, saying that we are supposed to help them as well. Better stay here and help them retreat. If they lose any more equipment, I will have to sell a majority stake to stock them back up." the man said.

"The President will not like the report of what he sees here. We rushed here, but nothing is going according to plan." The woman said, still calm and frigid.

There was a reason that she was called the frozen queen by the lower ranks.

"Which bastard convinced me that the unknown lands are full of opportunity? Who told me that we can find epic items for free?" He growled, looking around.

Right behind this large man was the core that he and the woman were just talking about. And all of them immediately looked another way.

They couldn't face this man's wrath right now. And they certainly weren't in the mood for this.

Dying so many times, and facing so many losses, they were not ready to face another in the hands of their own.

"We must retreat. Tell me, is there a way? Can we actually get through these beasts?" He asked.

"Right now, three of our members have to combine forces to counter one of these peculiar beasts. I think this place isn't for us. It is for those in the second tier. We should have ascended our tier before coming here." She said.

"Damn this. With this expedition, I have to spend another week grinding so that I can get back to level thirty and try to ascend my tier." He gripped the ax that was on the ground and yanked it up.

"The beasts still didn't move. Maybe they will let us pass?" The woman supposed.

"No." The big man shook his head.

"This is all just a joke to them. A joke to them all. They are telling us that they don't need to start the attack to rip us all apart into shreds." He grit his teeth.

"We can't afford to let you die. You have too many treasures. The entire core has too many cores. We lost two Epic Items in this expedition. The remaining ones are all on you. You will have to return, guild master." The woman pleaded.

"If I return, will you take care of the alliance?"

"The alliance is gone. If you look to the back, all you will find are disgruntled members of the other two guilds. The cores of those two guilds have long returned." She said.

"What? Why didn't you tell me?!" The man barked.

"Because you would go there and kill every man from Frontier and Hulhan yourself. They are still our allies. But they did the sensible thing." She said.

"Sensible? I will not go down a coward. We will force ourself out. I will return a war hero. Not a coward." The man shook his head and said.

"Who will dare say that? You are the guild master of Aries. Who will dare say that the guild master is a coward? The entire guild will make sure that man will never live another day in this game peacefully." The woman said.

"Red Jade." The man clicked his tongue.

"You return. Take my treasures. Return them to the guild. Losing a level won't affect me too much. Just one or two more weeks of grinding. But we cannot lose epic items." He said.

"But the other will get an advantage the longer you have to grind to get to the second tier!" The woman, Red Jade, said.

"Do you really think that there is anyone in the world who is in the epic class and in the second tier? I will be the first, definitely. The other guilds still think that we are here, crushing it. Tell everyone once again. Not a word of what happened here leaves the place." He said.

"As you wish, Guild master." She nodded, bending her head slightly.

"Well then, I guess it is time for me to go into battle." He said, raising his ax.

"Your ax, guild master. You told me to return the epic items to the guild, after all." Red Jade held her hand forward.

"Ohh, right. This just went from insanely difficult to impossible."

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