Departure

Somewhere in the southern district of Algate City.

"Boom boom boom!"

"Crash!"

A loud sound resonated in a deserted alley as two guards smashed their hammers into a wooden door. The door looked normal like an ordinary emergency exit door usually located at the back of buildings. Yet, this door only gave up and flung open after more than 20 consecutive attacks from those two level 25 guards.

As the door finally opened, guards immediately swarmed inside; several paladins led the way and were quickly followed by mages and warriors. The group consisted of more than 20 guards and more importantly, they were accompanied by a group of 10 players. The players' leader was none other than Shining Blade, the guild master of Stone Defenders.

As the guards entered, they were not polite. They violently destroyed whatever came into sight. Tables were turned over and destroyed. A counter, on which several empty bottles were placed, was completely smashed under the hammers of the guards. Mages quickly shot [Mana Bolts] at the empty cupboards, turning the place into a complete mess.

"Continue moving!"

The group continued to walk forward, smashing everything along the way. Room after room, they mercilessly destroyed everything. However, not a single person stood out to stop them. The place was desert. Eventually, they reached the last room but as they smashed the door open, a foul smell assaulted the guard.

"Ahh"

Complaints were heard but the guards still proceeded forward. However, they became more careful this time. As Shining Blade and his party members entered the room, horror filled their eyes as they could not help but quickly want to look away and leave this place.

"What the F*ck is that?!"

"This is supposed to be censored!"

Compared to the composed guards, the players were simply not used to such scenes. In front of them, corpses being hung or lying on operations tables could be seen. They were clearly in a state of decomposition; some worms could even be found on a few bodies. The horrifying part was that several body parts were missing, it was clear that these people were tortured or could even have been subjected to human experiments.

Even Shining Blade, who was doing his best to stay calm as the leader could not hold much longer. He quickly raised his hand and backed out of the room followed by the other players. As for the guards, they started rummaging the place, looking for clues.

The captain of the guards quickly came out of the room to speak to Shining Blade.

"Sir, I am sorry. I have misled you here, I shall take full responsibility," said Shining Blade as soon as he saw the officer.

The latter let out a smile, "Don't worry, Shining Blade. This is indeed the lair of one of the evil cults. We were too late, and they have probably already run away. But at least, we discovered one of their bases; we might find some useful information here."

"Let me lend you a hand then. I and my men shall examine the previous rooms carefully!" answered Shining Blade.

"Yes, this place is big. We'll finish more quickly if you help us,"

...

An hour later, Shining Blade and the guards once again gathered.

"Reporting, Sir. We suspect that the evil cultists have recently fled from this place. They probably somehow heard about our operation and left in a hurry. There are many signs that prove that; most notably the fact that many items and even materials were left behind. We estimate that they left this place about two hours ago."

"They should have moved to another hideout! Otherwise, it is impossible for them to empty such a large storage room so quickly. This place was definitely an alchemical lab. We found many traces of herbs and plants typically used in by both alchemists and poison masters."

"That is good, what about the bodies? Were they identified?"

"We are still in the process of identification. Two have been recognized as being beggars that suddenly disappeared a month ago in the southern district. As for the others, we need more time."

"Good good. Continue the examination. We'll leave soon. I need to report to the bishop."

After dealing with the guard, the captain turned to Shining Blade. "Although we did not capture any evil cult envoy, the information was indeed accurate. We will reward you accordingly"

"Thank you, captain. If I find any information about these evil cults, I will definitely contact you again!" answered Shining Blade while smiling.

He was not being benevolent, nor did he reveal the location of an evil cult because he was looking to restore justice in this world. The only reason why Shining Blade was doing that was to build a relationship with the church.

The latter was naturally at war with all evil cults of the continent but despite facing so many enemies, it prevailed as one of the most influential forces. If Shining Blade could develop some relationship with the church, it would greatly benefit the Stone Defenders in the long run.

After he found the location of some evil cult followers, he quickly shared this information with the church. Unfortunately, when they arrived here to deal with them, the place was found deserted; only corpses and a few items remained. They failed to capture anyone but Shining Blade and his party members would at least receive some rewards.

...

30 minutes earlier, at the east gate of Algate City.

Li Wei arrived 5 minutes before the appointed time. After equipping the ring of Chaos, Li Wei also rearranged his inventory, removing most of the useless items. He basically only kept some potions and enough food for a few meals. This time, he also decided to take with him the Pyro Bomb. He did not know if he would need it, but it was better to keep it ready to be used than to let it rot in the storage chest.

Li Wei pondered about visiting the Clairvoyant before leaving. However, he soon gave up on this idea. He believed the Clairvoyant was an NPC that could give clues about events and quests, but he also asked for a high price. At the moment, Li Wei did not have anything that could be deemed as valuable. It would only be when he would undertake dangerous quests that Li Wei would try to contact the Clairvoyant.

As he arrived at the gates, Li Wei quickly noticed the caravan he would escort. It was easy to find them just by looking at the symbols on the caravans. Each merchant caravan had their own trademark or a distinguishable badge or emblem.

A few players were already sitting on their horses near the caravan. They all looked impatient to leave.

"Seems like I'm last?" thought Li Wei.

As he approached the merchants, the players naturally looked at him and gauged him. He would be their partners in this quest; it was normal to try to evaluate the level of their teammates.

"Hello, I am Seven. I registered for the escort mission," said Li Wei as he presented the badge. A tall bearded merchant quickly stood up and took the badge. After a few seconds of careful examination, the merchant let out a smile and presented Li Wei to the merchants.

"Since you are here. Let's quickly start moving! We are a little late on the schedule!" said another merchant.

"Late? It's not even 11:45 yet?" thought Li Wei.

He quickly jumped onto the horse he was given and the whole caravan started moving. He did not know why but this caravan gave him a strange feeling.

The merchants were all level 20 and some of them were quite muscular. They did not look like they needed protection. Even the frail-looking merchants were holding mage staffs while vigilantly looking around. As for the NPC adventurers, none of them looked particularly welcoming. Their levels varied but it seemed like the weakest of this group were the players.

The merchants quickly whipped the horses who started pulling the carts. The whole group slowly moved towards the gate.

The guards there naturally stopped the group but after a brief discussion with the merchant leader, they were all allowed to go through. Only a few eyes would be able to see the quick transaction that occurred between the captain and the merchant leader.

Li Wei was staying at the back of the caravans together with 5 other players. At the front of the group, the 5 NPC adventurers were opening the way and were closely followed by the merchant carts. A few players were riding their horses on the flank of the caravan while the remaining players were protecting it from the back.

The players were silent at first. Everyone was gauging each other. All the 10 available places were occupied. Many of them came from guilds Li Wei had never heard of before but one player was a member of the Stone Defenders. The latter was a mage with the IGN Galaxy. Compared to the other members of that guild, Galaxy did not have a strong oppressive aura that was commonly found in the soldiers. Instead, he was quite short and looked funny with his large round glasses.

In the game, glasses were considered as an accessory. They could provide players with some stats or special effects. It was the first time Li Wei was actually seeing someone wear glasses in the game. It was quite abnormal even in the real world, especially after the advent of a new laser technology which could heal people's eyes.

Apart from Galaxy, there was a young couple that was standing out of the group, two tanned men with bows on their shoulders, a rogue who was hiding his features under a dark hood, a young woman who was clearly a mage, a paladin who had a huge scar on his face and a warrior with throwing axes hanging at his waist.

The young couple was guarding the right side of the caravan while the rogue and the warrior with the axes were guarding the left side. This left Li Wei in the company of Galaxy, the two tanned men, and the young mage.

The tanned men clearly knew each other and did not have any intention of socializing with the others. The atmosphere was quite tensed, but quickly, Galaxy looked at Li Wei, trying to assess his strength.

"So you are from the Fleeting Clouds Sect, I am looking forward to seeing you fight," said Galaxy while moving his glasses with his index finger.

The two tanned men quickly turned to look at Li Wei. While many people heard about the Fleeting Clouds Sect and the Stone Defenders, they only knew the main branch of these guilds. Not everyone would take the time to memorize all the branch guilds and so, when they saw that Li Wei came from a guild called Avalanche, they did not think he was someone important.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Li Wei.

"Everyone knows that the Fleeting Clouds Sect has some special skills they can use. Every time I see someone from your guild fight, they always use skills I never saw before. I am naturally very curious about which one you learned," answered Galaxy. Despite the words he spoke, there was no malice in his words, only genuine curiosity.

"But I can say the same to you. Doesn't the Stone Defenders also have some special training programmes that can increase your stats?"

"Haha. A few additional stats points are boring when compared to a new skill. But again, I am just a small recruit. I only got access to the bad quality ones, so don't expect too much from me for the fights."

The two chatted for a moment but it was quickly followed by a long awkward silence.

Slowly, Li Wei got used to the rhythm of the horse. The "Clip Clop" resonated in his ears as he looked at the landscape.

It was once again the boring endless fields of crops but looking at the wheat dancing to the wind was quite appeasing.

...

A few hours later, the caravan finally came to a halt in front of a small inn. Everyone quickly got off the horses. After hours in that position, Li Wei's muscles were completely sore. He really wanted a massage right now.

However, there was no time to rest if he wanted to enjoy a meal. The merchants and the escort quickly entered the inn and sat down to eat. Strangely, the merchants were quite generous and offered everyone a warm meal. Meals were supposed to be provided by them, but Li Wei never expected to receive this kind of meal.

Although the merchants looked ferocious and strong, it seemed like they were quite kind-hearted. The meal was simple but filling.

After eating, Li Wei, the players, and the NPC adventurers went outside to feed the horses. They were all responsible for their own horses and also needed to feed those of the merchants. The horses were all safely resting in the barn of the inn.

The barn also turned out to be the escort's sleeping place for the night. The merchants offered a meal, but they were not generous to the point of graciously paying everyone a room for the night. And so, the escort ended up in the barn which was much better than sleeping in the open air.

Strangely, the hay was not uncomfortable. Li Wei even found his bed of hay quite comfortable. That night, he had no trouble finding sleep.