2.1 Guild Tensions/Something in the Forest

After the earth elemental Chieftain was killed, it dropped 2 items. A skill book and a piece of iron ore.

I took the skill book because it happened to be a skill I could use with my bow.

[Multi-Shot] Lvl. 1

Shoot 3 arrows at once. Uses 75MP.

Cooldown: 15 seconds.

I learned the skill and gave the ore to Tyrant. After this, we pushed forward the same way and killed more earth elementals. After 5 more waves, everyone had already reached level 22 and I was already 50% of the way through to level 23. My pet, Luna, also reached level 15.

At thus time, Tyrant decided that we should go back to town and repair our equipment. He took out a group teleportation stone and with a flash of light, we were back in town.

After teleporting to the town center, we all split up to get what we needed. I repaired all of my equipment and it cost 150 gold. After this I stocked up on potions, throwing knives, bandages and sold some of the gear I picked up from the elementals.

When this was done, I went to the my masters place. When I saw Ivy, she was leaning against the window with a jar of wine in her hand. When she heard someone enter the house, she turned towards the door. "You've come! I have some techniques I want to pass on to you. This should help you through any trial you face." After she spoke, she lifted her finger and placed it on my forehead. At this moment, I saw images of a young woman waving her dual shortswords to block attacks coming from multiple angles. I focused on the swords and found that there was a semi - transparent screen in front of her. This screen looked like a constellation inside of the night sky. After blocking those attacks, the young woman stopped waving her sword and started saying. "This is a technique that I started using in my early adventurer days. It is called Starscape. It can be used defensively as you have just seen or can even be used offensively as well. I will repeat this one more time." After saying this, the young woman used the technique once again. I put all of my attention on her tried to ingrain all the movements into my memory. When she finished I came back to Ivy's place. I opened my eyes and looked at Ivy.

"Who was that?" I wanted to know the identity of this person.

"The lady in the memory? That person was my master. Her name is Cataleya Vermillion. She was the last Wielder of Light before she passed away. The last thing she told me was to give the spark of light to my own student. She was the one who arranged those tests you went through." Ivy had a bitter smile when she was talking. "You are almost strong enough to fend for yourself. When you reach level 40, come find me and I will send off to do your class advancement. Let me warn you, advancing your class will be an extremely arduous task. You will most like not be finished within a week. Make sufficient preparations." Ivy took on a serious look. I nod and say my farewells.

[System] Quest Received: Tier 2 preparations.

○ Reach Level 40 with yourself and your pet

I walk to the fountain and see my friends waving at me. "What took so long?" Shirayuki walked up to me and inquired.

"I went to visit my mentor and recieved some benefits and a quest. She wants me to reach level 40 so I can become a tier 2 thief." I say all of this and no one asks anything else.

While we walked out of the east gate, we spotted 2 groups of people fighting in the distance. This battle looked like it had gotten out of hand as more and more people kept joining the battle and dying. There were corpses lying on the ground everywhere. Even I was a bit pale when I saw this.

"We should avoid the crossfire and make a wide flank around them. We can't get involved in something like this." Tyrant suggested and everyone nodded. We decided to go around the northside of the forest. We would spot players every now and then sprinting towards that battlefield. I could only shake my head at them as I thought it would be pointless to fight each other at this point.

While we were walking towards a clearing, we heard a loud roar from a little deeper withing the forest.

"Should I take a look?" I asked them.

"Go ahead, be careful. If you see no one there, we'll try and kill it, if you happen to spot people, then it would be best if we avoid them." Tyrant says this and I nod. I quickly dissapear into stealth and jump onto the trees before slipping away in the distance.

While in stealth, I remembered that I should be livestreaming so I turned it on and greeted everyone who joined the stream. "Hello Everyone." When I look at the chat, I can see new users joining the stream. After they finished greeting me, they started to each other.

Polaris: Have you guys seen that war going on between Empirian Phoenix and Heavenly Wolves? Right outside the east gate of the capital city, they were fighting it out and so far the casualties on both sides have passed the 1000's.

Slaughter God: Yeah. When I saw the carnage outside the east gate, I had to go on a wide flank around that battlefield while using my skills to get out safely but I still got hit by 3 stray arrows. It scared me to death.

Helios: This war is getting out of hand. It also won't be long before corporations start to invest into the game and its guilds. I have a bad feeling.

.....

After jumping in the trees, I find another clearing but this clearing is anything but clear. There are at least 25 corpses scattered around. All of them have one thing in common. Their eyes are opened very wide as if they has experienced the greatest fright of their lives. The fear and trepidation in their eyes made me feel a sense of dread. I looked away and saw a strange thing moving away from the clearing.

This thing was covered in black and had wounds all over its body. It had a thick layer of miasma around it. When ever it passed by something, it would corrode it. It was even corroding the air and mana around itself. This was the first time I had seen something like this and it sent chills down my spine. I appraised it so I could get an Idead of what it was.

[Mutated Corosive Hobgoblin] Lvl. 30 [Lord]

HP: [30000/30000]

Seeing this, I felt a wave despair hit before I turned around to leave. But when I turned around, I felt a chill going down my spine. I immediately used gale steps and was hit. I was knocked into the tree and was damaged by the impact.

-1000

Emotionless: Isn't this a bit too strong? She got knocked more than 20 meters away.

Helios: The plants around them have all died. This doesn't seem like something anyone can handle at this point.

Crackerz: This looks like a bad situation.

I was in shock. I quickly activated all of my speed boosting skills and fled.. When I turned around to see if it was chasing me, I saw 10 more of them come out from behind the trees. One of them was bigger than the rest and the aura that radiated off of it made my heart palpitate in fear. I chose not to go near my teamates. Instead, I called Tyrant.

"Tyrant, it is bad. You guys need to get out of the forest right now!" I was very anxious. This was far to dangerous for anyone at this point.

"What is it? Are you alright? Are there players after you?" Tyrant didn't think much of it. He thought that I was overreacting a bit.

"Tyrant! There are 10 lord class monsters chasing me and they were being led by something that was most likely way stronger than them. I don't know if I can make it back to town. You guys go first and I'll see if I can lose them." After that I ended the call and focused my attention on evading their pursuit.

"Yo Tyrant, what's up? Why is your face pale?" Blade Dance looked at Tyrant when saw his expression change.

"There has been a change of plans... We go back to the town. There is something very dangerous in this direction. BloodMoon said that she is being chased by 10 lords and needs us to be in town so we don't loose any gear."

"Lords? Lord class monsters? 10 of them? We can't just sit here. We have to save her!" Shirayuki wanted to save me but Tyrant shook his head.

"I think BloodMoon made the right decision. She could have ran towards us but instead, she ran the opposite direction. She did this so we wouldn't die unnecessarily. Let's take advantage of the opportunity she gave us and leave this forest before we run in whatever it is..." Tyrant made the decision but he was still quite worried. Everyone followed him out of the forest. When they got out of the forest, they saw a blurry shadow pass by them.

"Fuck... What was that?" Dragon Fault says. He almost screamed out loud. It scared him so bad, he was sure his life was shortened.

"...I don't know but since it ran past without hurting us. We should be fine. I hope." Tyrant said.

They looked back at the forest for a while before going back into town.

While they were running back, I was trying to think of a plan so I could get the lords off my tail.