Serenity didn't even pay attention to the other guilds as they got into formation under GreenHat's command. They then began to move towards the forest that led to Flim Village. After a lot of searching, they had found the overgrown chicken, Sky King Fermoth's lair. It was located deep in the forest where many players would not tread, tucked away between two ridges. It had taken them an entire week to find it, but it seemed they were not the only ones searching for the lair.
As more and more guilds formed, competition also came with it. Now people were aiming to find new dungeons and world monsters to begin collecting accolades to make a name for their guild. Serenity, Golden sword, and The Queen's Throne were no different. However, Serenity was not so much out for the accolade but to have fun as a guild this time around.
"Ryu, Golden Sword, and The Queen's Throne are following us." Chi said as she came to Ryu's side.
"I figured they would. You are the fastest out of all of us, so if they attack, just kill them. " Ryu did not want to waste time killing idiots as it was right now. There were almost six hundred players all heading in the same direction, all going for the same target. They were bound to be a fight sooner or later.
"Alright, I will handle it then." Chi said as she pecked Ryu on the cheek and fell to the back of the group.
Beauty looked at the Golden Sword guild in front of her and sneered: "Pass on my word, as soon as we reach the lair, don't attack right away unless they attack first. We will play a waiting game. It seems the leader of the Golden Sword has a grudge against Serenity, so we will let them battle it out first."
Although Beauty was not smart when it came to certain things like love, she was not able to do all the things she has done without having some brains. She already knew her guild's overall strength could not stand up to Serenity or Golden Sword, but that did not mean she would not be able to overwhelm them if they began fighting Serenity and were already badly hurt.
One of Beauty's guards came to her side and whispered: "Miss, if I may make a suggestion."
"Hmm? What is it?" Beauty asked. She was open to any and all ideas, especially ones from her guards.
"What if we do this..." The guard began whispering into Beauty's ear.
When she heard what the guard had to say, a smile crept up on her lips. "This is a very good idea. Select a few assassins and have them split off from the group. Once we reach the lair, have them begin the plan."
"Yes, Miss..." This guard was the same one who stopped Beauty from just using her cultivation manual. Because of that, although limited, they were able to make a few copies of the cultivation manual. The method of creating copies of the manual was a well kept secret. No guild would want to give an advantage to another guild. But it did not take a genius to figure out that you could copy something like a cultivation method. Because of this fact, the market was quickly filled with cultivation methods. It was just that these methods were not very good and made leveling slower than killing monsters by a lot. Only those who were willing to grit their teeth and bear through the long process would buy these cultivation methods.
Gene was watching Serenity's every movement like a hawk stalking its prey. He knew from experience that if one were going to fight another guild for dominance over a region, you had to stay vigilant and never let your enemy out of sight. He, of course, did not forget about The Queen's Throne behind him either.
"Gene, some people just broke off from the group behind us. About twenty in total." BurningToast was in charge of keeping an eye on their rear.
"Send some people to take care of them. We do not want any interruptions when the battle starts. Serenity is a powerful enemy and has about ninety percent of all the top ranking players in the game in it. If we can handle Serenity, we will be able to take first place as the top guild. As of now, we rank fifth. Fourth is The Diviners, third is Fire Emblem, and second is Ice Palace. If we can take top place, we will be number one once again. If it was not for the fact that the other guilds were further away, we would have already surpassed them. So we have to try to win this upcoming battle and reclaim our first place spot." Gene was not happy. His guild has always been number one. But according to the unofficial ranking website that uses the games statistics they had dropped to fifth. Besides Serenity, the other three guilds were sponsored by big companies using the game to make money. Each player in those guilds worked for the company and was paid a high salary.
"Don't worry, as long as we can lay out that formation array, we can trap Ryu and then kill his entire guild right in front of him. It is just too bad that this formation array does not allow anyone to attack from the outside." BurningToast had gotten a lucky find when he stumbled upon a cave that had a small room in it. This was where he found the cultivation manual his guild was now using and a few formation arrays. One of which was a trap array that locked a person inside it and could only be released by the person who created the array.
"We can't screw this up. We will need our strongest members to lure him towards the array. It is just that..." Gene had no idea how they were going to lure him away when Ryu was so strong.
"Gene, you forget one thing. That fox girl is Ryu's wife. If we capture her..." BruningToast seemed to have forgotten that it was Chi who killed a lot of his members during one of the fights he had with Ryu.
"This is true. Then we will do that. Look for a chance to kidnap her when fighting breaks out. Use her to lure Ryu away and trap him in the array. From there, we will wipe out his guild and then kill the sky king." Gene hoped this plan would work. Everything he had setup for today was relying on this.
"Ryu, there is a lot of movement back there." GreenHat had made his way to the front after receiving the report from one of the other guild members.
"It's fine. Ignore anything that happens with those two guilds. Chi will handle it. Our main job is to make sure our guild's first guild outing is a success. I do not want our fun to be ruined by idiots." Ryu did not know how world bosses worked. He wasn't sure that if it was killed, whether or not it would respawn or not. So just in case it did not respawn, he would not give the boss up to anyone.
"Alright, I will spread the word to not attack unless they need to defend themselves." GreenHat said as he fell back.
After GreenHat left, WhiteLotus came to the front to make a report. "I saw some people fighting in the forest to the south of us. I am not sure who it is."
"As long as it is not our people, it's fine. As I told GreenHat just now, do not attack unless you have to defend yourself. Chi will handle the rest." Ryu looked up at the darkening sky and sighed. He had planned to have a few campfires with his guild members to really get to know one another but now… "Maybe I should just kill them all..." Ryu hated the fact that part of his plans were ruined!
While Trisha and Yuki were in dream land, unknown to them, Melgrave was sitting at the kitchen table with Tina with a file in front of him. "Take a look at this."
Tina, curious as to why the king was doing here so late, opened the file and was surprised. "This is?"
"This is the plan I worked up with my advisors. It is a world coalition for orphanages, and I would like you and your daughter to be in charge of it. I, of course, have put together a full team of trustworthy people to help you as well. Basically, unless you want to get involved, you will only need to okay a few documents here and there." Melgrave explained.
"I will need to think about this… When the girls are up, I will talk to them about it. Yuki still wants to return to school as soon as she can move her upper body again. I do not know if she will have time for this. I also need to look more into things as well. Can you set up a meeting with the team you put together? I want to see what their thoughts and ideas are." It was not that Tina did not want to take this opportunity, it was just that she would be responsible for millions of orphans if she were to take on this task. She had to decide if she was ready to take on such an important role.
