Precipice

Alarm sounds went off all over.

Every single citizen all over Turron Town wore heavy expressions on their faces as they evacuated to the town's stadium and emergency shelters.

"I heard that there was a dungeon outbreak coming towards us."

"Are you serious? But aren't the authorities overreacting a bit too much?"

"That's right, we have the defensive magic array protecting the town, 5 master rank champions, and numerous expert rank champions, wasn't that dungeon in the forest only a 4th-grade dungeon?"

"Evacuation is kind of overkill."

"I don't know about that, I saw the guild master running towards the town hall just a minute ago, the look on his face is kind of serious."

"Me too, I think there is something serious going on behind the scenes that the guild is not telling us."

The people made various speculations about the sudden evacuation order issued by the guild.

Nevertheless, most of them listened and headed towards the shelters in an orderly fashion, however, there were a few bad apples that took advantage of the situation and caused a ruckus.

The sounds of glass being shattered reached the people's ears, they turned their heads to look and saw a thief running out a stole a bunch of armor in an armor shop.

"Isn't that Bob's store?"

"That guy, isn't that Dirty Dan?"

"Dammit, I knew he was no good."

The people commented as they witnessed this happen before their very eyes, some turned their heads to look in another direction and saw a fuming dwarf wearing a furious expression.

"My store! Catch that thief!"

Bob yelled and dashed towards the thief.

Various events played out all over the streets of Turron Town.

Meanwhile in the Town Hall...

The town put down a communication device on his table and looked at the guild master with a serious look.

"I have called the neighboring towns and they said that help will arrive in a couple of hours."

The town lord said while shifting his gaze to look at his most trusted knight, Salvador before looking at his secretary beside him.

"Go get my gear, it has been a while since I have fought since I became the lord of this town."

The secretary bowed and left the room.

"So you are assuming that Ironclaw could be dead?"

The town lord asked, his behavior and attitude looked completely different from how he interacted with Revlo before.

"A dungeon outbreak just occurred and we received no news of the expedition party, we can safely assume that the entire expedition party all perished."

The guild master replied.

*Smack

The town lord smacked the table in sheer frustration while wearing an angry look on his face.

"F*ck, the overall strength of the town just took a large hit with the annihilation of the Iron Maiden adventurer group and Ironclaw himself, even the vice-guildmaster is taken out of action."

The town lord muttered while gritting his teeth.

"My lord, it seems like all of this was pre-planned."

The heavily armored knight, Salvador said.

"I know, activate the towers and turn on the defensive magic array, looks like we are going into battle."

The town lord commanded.

"Yes, my lord."

Salvador bowed and left the room as well.

"Do you have any idea of the culprits behind this incident? Or what their motive is?"

The town lord asked.

Hearing the question, the guild master shook his head.

"I have no clue, other than knowing that the invaders are from the vampire race and both are master rank champions, we don't know anything else about them."

The guild master said.

The town lord smacked the table once more, this time splitting in half, and glared at the guild master.

"What the hell are you doing then? You incompetent piece of shit, our strongest adventurer is assumed to be dead and now the vice-guild master is heavily injured and we don't even know a single thing about the enemy and all you could give are excuses?"

Hearing the town lord's angry rant, the guild master remained silent.

Seeing the look on the guild master's face, the town lord snorted derisively.

'I can use this as leverage to weaken the adventurer guild's influence in the town.'

The town lord thought.

Being the guild master of the adventurer's guild branch of Turron Town, the guild master enjoyed authority and power that is not much inferior to the town lord himself.

Stewart was always dissatisfied with this arrangement, that is why the two never really enjoyed a friendly relationship.

It was a coincidence that the guild master became the tutor of the town lord's daughter.

'I can spread propaganda about the adventurer's guild incompetence, after this whole incident is over, I will slowly remove your influence bit by bit and then I'll assign someone I can control as the new guild master.'

People like the town lord were individuals who craved power and influence above all else, if there was an opportunity to gain those things, he will take it, even if it meant some form of sacrifice.

'Look at this bastard, instead of worrying about the town, he is still thinking of bringing me down and gaining more power, what a piece of sh*t!'

The guild master could pretty much guess what the town was thinking, the only reason he stayed silent was because he didn't want to argue with the town lord right now since it was not the appropriate time for infighting to occur between them.

'Patience...patience... got to look at the bigger picture first.'

The guild master calmed himself down.

After leaving the town lord's office, he met a white-haired teenager in the hallway.

"Meona."

The guild master smiled.

"Uncle, I heard everything, sorry about my dad, please don't take his words to heart."

Meona bowed her head with an apologetic expression, she was not naive enough to not know what her father was thinking.

Even though she knew that her father was always planning to bring the guild master down, she was still his daughter at the end of the day.

The last thing she wanted to happen was to see the guild master and her father fighting against each other.

Choosing between his father and mentor, Meona did not know who to side with, so she apologized to the guild master on her father's behalf.

The guild master knew what type of dilemma Meona was facing and didn't choose to make it hard for her.

*sigh

The guild master sighed and patted her head gently.

"It's okay, I'm already used to it by now, go to an evacuation shelter and wait there until this all blows over."

The guild master said.

Meona raised her head, her eyes filled with a pure fighting spirit, and shook her head.

"No! I want to fight too, I am an adventurer as well!"

Meona said while pulling out her adventurer badge from her pocket and showing it to the guild master.

The guild master smiled wryly and shook his head in return.

"I know, I am the one who gave it to you, but this is an outbreak of a 4th-grade dungeon, there will be master-ranked monsters involved, and also..."

The guild master paused for no particular reason.

"I bet your father is not going to allow you to go."

Meona's body jolted as her brows shot up in realization.

"I'll convince him."

Meona affirmed confidently.

"I think you should step out of this one, little lady."

The guild master said.

Meona was stunned and looked at the guild master with wide eyes.

"Huh? Why? I'm not some princess that needs pampering, I'm going to fight because I am an adventurer."

Meona said with clear determination in her voice.

The guild master suddenly felt a headache and he looked far in the distance and spotted a shadow that was trailing Meona a while ago.

"You there! You better tell this to the town lord, convincing the little lady is too troublesome for me."

The guild master said while his eyes were locked somewhere in particular.

"Uncle, who are you talking to?"

Meona asked while showing a confused expression, she looked behind and saw no one.

'Is stress getting to him?'

Meona thought.

"I got to go, little lady, I'll see you later."

The guild master said before he left.

He didn't bother to reply to her question since he knew that the shadow behind her acted as her secret bodyguard that Meona doesn't even know about.

'He may be an a**hole but at least he cares about his daughter.'

The guild master thought as he left the town hall.

Meona looked at the guild master's departing figure for a few seconds.

"Hmph."

She harrumphed and just as she was about to take a step forward, her father's voice rang inside her head.

'Meona, come to my office.'

Startled, her posture stood straight and her cat tail became stiff like an antenna.

"Urgh."

Meona groaned and forced herself to walk towards the town lord's office with rigid and slow steps.

A boy of the bull tribe of the beastmen race was wearing a large backpack that is twice his size and was walking on a rocky path that was connected to the Turron Town's entrance gates.

Oblivious to the danger headed his way, the boy whistled a tune, looking relaxed as he approached the town gates until he noticed the ground was violently vibrating.

He turned around and saw a carriage making a beeline towards him.

"This fuc---"

The boy cursed as he jumped to the side to avoid getting run over while glaring at the carriage driver when he noticed that his backpack got ruined, and the items inside the bag got scattered all over.

Undaunted by the boy's angry stare, the carriage yelled at the boy with a panicked voice.

"What the hell are you doing here kid? Can't you see that there is an army of monsters headed this way?"

Hearing the man's panicked yell, the boy noticed that the vibrations on the ground didn't pause even when the carriage stopped running.

He looked behind him and squinted his eyes, as a novice rank champion, his vision was something no ordinary people could match up to.

"Oh crap!"

The boy yelped and hopped onto the carriage with the carriage driver without even caring that the stuff inside his bag was scattered all over the ground.

"Go, go!"

The boy yelled as they reached the town gates.

"Activate the formation!"

One of the knights on the town walls commanded.

The four towers in the corners of the town lit up and shot a pillar of light in the sky and converged in the middle.

A blue forcefield suddenly covered the town like a dome and formed a hollow half of a sphere.

The guild master, the town lord, Salvador, the other knights, and the adventurers watched on as an army of monsters was headed their way in a frenzied manner.

"Here they come."