After getting out of the city and the demon settlement on the outskirts, Liam made sure that he was not being followed and then quickly messaged the rest of the group to see where they were.
Fortunately, they weren't too far away, and everyone was also leveling together, so it was easier to reach the whole group.
They only needed to fly for a few more hours, and they soon reached the group.
They were in a mangrove type of area, except that in this mangrove, there wasn't any water. There was tar everywhere.
"What place is this?" Liam waved his hand at Mei Mei and Shen Yue. He was surprised because this was his first time coming here, and he also hadn't heard of any place like this.
"Brother! You are back! What happened? You didn't message us for a while, so we were worried." Mei Mei rushed over first.
"Is everything okay?" Shen Yue also came over and stood next to her.
"Yes. Yes. Everything is alright." Liam smiled. He saw that the rest of the guild group was here, but no one was enthusiastic about coming and greeting him.
Rather they seemed very occupied with the tar pond. They simply kept staring at the pond like it was their mortal enemy.
"What is going on?" Liam queried.
"He He. Brother! Don't mind them. They won't come and meet with you anytime soon!" Mei Mei giggled.
"Huh? Why?" Liam was still confused.
"So you really don't know about this place. Ha Ha Ha! I found it first!" Mei Mei still did not explain things to him and was purposefully teasing him.
Seeing this, Liam grinned wickedly. "You won't tell me, huh? Then I guess you don't want the gift I got you this time?" It was his turn to tease the little girl.
Just as he said this, the bats also started arriving one after the other. Their speed was a lot lower than Luna's, so they were only arriving now.
"Boss! Behind you!" Someone immediately shouted.
"Brother! Move!" Mei Mei already started casting, and Shen Yue as well drew out her weapon.
The other guild members who were busy before also quickly rushed forward to take care of this bat problem.
Their eyes were particularly locked on to the boss bat at the front.
"This elite looks strong!"
As the whole group prepared to start attacking the bats, Liam hurriedly raised his hands and laughed. "Hey! Hey! Hey! Stop attacking these cuties!"
"Eh? What is cute?" Mei Mei frowned. "This thing?"
Liam rolled his eyes at her and then took out a bunch of scrolls from his inventory. "Ok. It looks like Mei Mei here doesn't want her flying mount. Who wants it? First come, first serve."
Fuck! Everyone who was still staring at the scene in confusion now finally understood what was happening.
Wait, first come, first serve?
Oh shit!
As soon as the words dawned on them, everyone dashed forward immediately.
Ultimately, those with better reaction speed and with higher agility won this small competition, and a line formed in front of Liam.
"Not bad." Liam smiled and then broke out the bad news. "I only have 20 at the moment. So only half of you are getting the mounts now. The other half will have to wait for some more time."
"20 mounts?"
Everyone gasped in shock.
And seeing the way Liam was treating this as nothing, they did not know how to react. They had all assumed that there would only be one or probably two at the maximum.
How could there be 20 mounts?
"I hope no one has any complaints." Liam smiled and started handing out the scrolls one by one.
Everyone shook their heads with a wry smile. Why would anyone have any complaints? No other guild at the moment could possibly have rewards like this!
Even if they did, they would ask for an arm and a leg as contributions first, but their big boss was freely giving away coveted items like it was nothing.
They couldn't help but feel more gratitude toward Liam and the group. They were part of a good group, and no one wanted to screw it up. This meant that they had to work harder!
Everyone silently steeled their resolve, and within the next couple of minutes, the distribution was completed.
The 20 players who received the scrolls immediately started activating the inscriptions.
The way these beasts were sealed was slightly different from the way the beasts were sealed back in the Xion realm.
Also, those seals were only available for the hunter class. However, this seal seemed to be available for everyone irrespective of their class.
This was the main reason why Liam was able to purchase these and bring them over easily.
In a moment, everyone became busy with their new mount and started examining their beast and becoming friends with it.
The other half could only look over enviously and silently curse themselves for being slow.
"I suggest you guys form pairs of two. This way, everyone can travel together faster and cover more area."
"Yes, boss." The group became busy as Liam distributed every last beast, including the one that received the potion. He gave that one to Derek.
This time he was the only one who received special treatment as Liam had directly walked over to him and handed him one even though he did not stand in line.
Everyone else received the same treatment, including Mei Mei, who didn't get anything.
"Brother…" Mei Mei pouted quietly. In the end, she really did not get one. "This is so unfair."
"Didn't you call them ugly?" Liam grinned. "Alright. Alright. I am just messing with you. You will get one in the next batch. For now, you can share with Shen Yue."
"Ok." The little girl nodded. "You are the only one for me, buddy." She patted her panther with a sad face.
"Heh. I really don't have one." Liam chuckled. He ignored the girl who was putting on an act and walked over to Shen Yue.
The woman was startled to see him come over alone and quickly arranged her hair, tucking the unruly strands behind her ear.
"Ummm… Liam. Thanks."
"It's nothing. Did you finish the contract?"
"Yes, I did." She smiled and patted the bat. "I think he likes me very much."
"Of course. He does." Liam looked at the adorable woman feeding meatballs to the bat and patted the beast as well.
"Are you really okay?" Shen Yue suddenly asked.
"Yes, why do you ask?"
"No. I just thought that… you look a bit tired."
"Hmm?" Liam's expression turned serious for a second, and he answered her. "Yes. There was something, and now I am fine."
"Oh." Shen Yue nodded. She did not pry into it anymore.
"Here. I got something for you." Liam transferred all the meat bundles he had purchased from the city. "This will help you level your cooking more."
"Ah. Thanks."
Seeing this Mei Mei walked over to the duo as well. "You got sis Yue two gifts and nothing for me? This is seriously unfair!"
Shen Yue quickly put everything away, blushing furiously. Of course, since these three were here, a fourth party also wandered in.
Kyuuuuu!
Luna arrived at the right time and blinked cutely at Shen Yue. Though she was acting cute, this was by no means a request. This was a collection visit, and everyone knew it.
Shen Yue couldn't help but giggle and gave the fox some meatballs to eat. She also gave Liam some more food, basically everything that she had prepared whenever she had free time.
"This is a lot. Thanks." Liam curiously checked out the properties of everything.
[Melted Bone Soup]: +3 to all attributes for the next one hour
This was the most efficient item, and it was quite good. It actually gave a boost of 18 stat points in total, even though its effect lasted only for about an hour.
From the last time, Shen Yue had really improved a lot. Liam chatted with the two girls for a couple of minutes and then quickly excused himself.
Now that everything had been distributed, he had other things to take care of.
"Brother, where are you going?" Mei Mei asked.
"Back to the Xion realm."
"Oh! What about those ravens?" All the members of their group knew about this, so Mei Mei was naturally worried. She did not want Liam to die inside the game.
"Don't worry. I found something for them. Maybe." Liam smiled and flicked her head. He then said goodbye to the duo and left silently.
"Ah! I didn't even tell him what's special about this place!" Looking around the tar mangrove, Mei Mei only remembered now.
After seeing the bat mounts, she had completely forgotten their conversation.
"It's fine. Let's work hard and give brother a surprise when he returns back! Every time he gives us something. This time we will give him a surprise!"
The little girl did a fist pump in the air, and Shen Yue as well nodded.
