When Liam noticed that everyone was staring at him with sparkling eyes, he started to laugh. He knew what they were thinking.
"Brother, you have my crown?" Mei Mei was the first to ask.
"Ummm… Do you also have other weapons?" Alex eyed him suspiciously.
Even Shen Yue and Shin Soo, the quiet ones, seemed to want to ask him a question but said nothing. Instead, they stared at Liam with intrigue written all over their faces.
Liam shook his head. He knew this was coming. "Alright. I do have some items with me, but I will only give them to you when you guys reach Level 20."
"Or rather, whoever gets there first will receive the goods. It's up to you to make sure that what you want is still there when you reach level 20."
Everyone gulped. This meant that Liam still had the legendary items with him? He clearly did not deny that. The five pairs of eyes twinkled as they looked at the rhino corpse.
This single boss gave everyone an entire level bump, bringing up their levels to 11. They were ready to attack the next one! Level 20 wasn't too far, and everyone's hands were itching to hold the items they were familiar with.
After Liam placed the boss into the spatial artifact and picked up the mana core, the group promptly left for the next gate. Once again, a vigorous battle ensued.
Unlike in the game world, in the real world, every level up only gave two stat points, so the progress was painfully slow. It was as if they were playing in the hard mode now.
To make matters worse, Liam stopped Rey from participating in the group fight this time, so things were more difficult, dangerous, and risky. The group ended up fighting for a full ten minutes before the boss was finally down.
But ultimately, it was worthwhile because everyone gained significantly more experience points as a result of having one fewer person in the group. Only Rey looked as if he had bitten down on something very bitter.
"This is so unfair. My level is stuck. Bro, what is this…"
Liam smiled. "Have some patience. There is plenty of time for you to level up."
Rey still sulked for the rest of the trip as the group continued moving from one boss to the next. He repeatedly offered to take someone else's position if they became tired, but no one was willing.
So he ended up lazily resting right next to Luna, who also had nothing much to do. After a while, he had the daring thought to play fetch with Luna, but very quickly, he dropped the idea as the fox gave him an icy stare.
The next couple of hours went by in this manner, and finally, all the gates within the marked territory were successfully taken care of, the beast corpses were cleaned out, and mana cores were collected.
"Huff. Huff. Now what?" Alex winced, as she was now completely out of it. Even if she wanted, she couldn't move a single muscle at this point. Everyone else as well looked like dead dogs.
Their levels also stopped increasing by huge chunks after level 13, so those who had the idea of searching for more gates and clearing them quickly tossed it out.
Luckily for them, Liam also agreed with them. "Nothing just yet. I will drop you guys back home. You should take some rest. There is a lot more work to do tonight."
"Thank god!"
"Ooof!"
"Thank you, brother!"
Everyone looked extremely relieved, except for Rey, who had barely broken a sweat. However, he also did not complain as the group promptly returned to their base.
The small apartment complex now looked extremely crowded, with everyone living under the same roof, but this way, everyone was able to get some peace of mind and rest easy.
When Liam and the others arrived, food was already prepared and ready to serve. The group had a hearty meal together, and to top it off, Liam took out some beast corpses.
"We should be eating this from now on. These beasts have a good amount of mana in their bodies. So eating their meat will help with the mana assimilation process." He explained.
Everyone who wasn't too tired or sleepy began helping with the meat processing, and the group shifted the party to the huge terrace upstairs.
The meat was nicely grilled by some of the older mothers in the group who had a lot of experience in cooking. Soon, a delicious aroma wafted out.
Everyone received a generous helping of the meat. After their long day, everyone was relieved to sit down to a delicious meal and unwind together.
They laughed and chatted about the events that had been terrifying just a while ago. More importantly, they thanked their lucky stars that they decided to move here based on a whim, trusting a stranger they had met online.
While the other members of the guild might also be doing better, it definitely wouldn't be the same as being in the same base as the big boss.
By now, the others were probably still struggling to survive. Who knew there might have even been some casualties? Thinking about this brought the group's mood down.
But soon, this changed as some new guests arrived. Just like Liam had predicted, the old granny had arrived at their doorstep, bringing along with her about a hundred people.
Among these hundred people, about forty were trained fighters and members of her dojo. All of them were also official Crimson Abyss guild members.
The gathering quickly became very lively with these new people as everyone mingled with each other freely and relaxed. Liam took out some more beast meat for the newly arrived people, and everyone had their fill.
Most of the day went by in this manner as everyone let loose, but when evening arrived, Liam quickly gathered the main group for a meeting. "Ok. Let's discuss the next steps."
