Chapter 101: Guild War — Dawn (2)
Teiron of the White Jade Touch Guild moved quietly through the forest.
My luck is ridiculously good.
By chance, he had run into two Slaughterer Ghouls in succession and had already gathered two Primordial Fragments.
If he could just regroup with the other guild members now, entering the inner depths should be easy.
“Over there!”
“Let’s hurry!”
Voices approached from nearby.
Two people.
Outnumbered, he immediately climbed up a tree and hid.
They didn’t seem to belong to the Ashen Wolf Guild, the common enemy, but it would still be foolish to confront them recklessly.
Even though a temporary alliance had been formed, explorers from other guilds were ultimately enemies who had to be eliminated.
Should I just wait here for now?
Teiron’s class was Cleric–Druid.
As a priest serving Metherd, he possessed a Mystery that allowed him to observe the entire forest clearly as if it were his own front yard.
Rather than wandering around unnecessarily, it would be better to stay still and eliminate other explorers or ghouls when the opportunity appeared.
Just as Teiron made his decision and blended quietly into the tree while surveying the surroundings—
“Waaah!”
Someone came running toward him in a hurry.
Turning his head to see what was happening, Teiron’s eyes widened.
A small human explorer was being chased by a massive gray orc.
That’s Targon!
Targon, the Guild Master of the Ashen Wolf Guild.
A monster who had reached Rank 2 among the Twelve Heroes purely through achievements, surpassing even explorers with superior ability!
Normally he would never even dream of challenging him, but inside this labyrinth everyone’s level was equalized, making him a manageable opponent.
Let’s at least try it….
If he attacked from hiding, it would be safe.
Even if he failed, the explorer currently being chased would become the sacrifice anyway.
Teiron generated several large seeds in his hand and quietly waited for the right moment.
“Stop following me!”
The pitiful explorer ran directly beneath him, and just as Targon followed close behind—
Tudududu!
The seeds that had been prepared shot forward like bullets.
[Bullet Seed].
A Sixth-Tier druid Mystery powerful enough to shatter even a monster’s exoskeleton if it struck properly.
“……!”
Targon, who had been focused entirely on the chase, noticed the seeds too late and hurriedly raised both arms to shield his face—but at Level 5, it was useless.
Got him!
“…Huh?”
Just before being swept up in the thrill of victory, Teiron realized something was wrong.
The [Bullet Seed] had passed straight through the body of the massive gray orc.
“Hm—?”
And what was that strangely seductive pose he was making?
Startled, Teiron immediately leapt to another tree and fled.
Even if their Soul Rank had been equalized, a direct confrontation with Targon offered no chance of victory!
Whoosh!
“Ugh!”
Suddenly engulfed in rising flames, Teiron fell straight to the ground.
Fire was one of the many weaknesses of vampires.
He instinctively protected his neck with a proper landing technique and tried to roll across the ground to extinguish the flames.
At that moment, a hand suddenly appeared in front of his eyes.
“Hello.”
The explorer who had been chased earlier smiled brightly and fired flames from a hole in his palm.
“…Ah.”
Whoosh!
Engulfed in the flames of the Spark of Glory, Teiron’s burning body scattered into the air.
Three Primordial Fragments fell to the ground.
Targon, who had been watching with both hands on his waist, spoke.
“Oh, you had two already? Lucky.”
Kar, currently disguised as the explorer Beldora, nodded.
“Yeah, really lucky. Teiron would’ve been a tough opponent.”
Without deception tactics, defeating him would not have been easy.
Since the White Jade Touch Guild’s stability dropped drastically without its support members, this was practically the same as catching a big fish.
Kar silently mourned the unlucky druid while storing the three gems in his subspace.
“Master, what form should I change into next?”
“Wait a moment. I’ll decide.”
The Eye That Whispers Falsehoods was originally an activated ability, but since it had replaced the user’s real eye and settled there, it was treated as a sustained-type special Mystery.
It could still be activated even while using [Transformation].
“Uhehe….”
“Why are you laughing like that?”
“That’s how scheming cultists laugh. You should try it too.”
“Ah! Uhehe…!”
Master and Mystery laughed ominously together.
And so, the cultist’s conspiracy was about to shake the guild war in earnest….
Somewhere in the forest beneath the gentle moonlight of a full moon.
“Die!”
A lion beastman explorer swung his clawed arm fiercely.
A powerful strike combining several berserker-class Mysteries.
“Not bad.”
The gray orc muttered calmly and casually caught the enemy’s wrist.
“But it’s slow.”
“…Ugh!”
The orc blocked the attack—which would have been impossible for most explorers to even react to—and threw out his other arm.
A straightforward punch delivered in a straight line.
The movement was light, but the impact was not.
Kugugugung!
With a sound like rock shattering, the surrounding trees and grass shook violently.
The explorer who had been struck had already been blasted backward, spraying blood.
“An opening!”
An explorer wearing a robe suddenly emerged from behind a giant tree.
The cold blue light gathered at the staff in his hand surged forward as countless waves of frost.
[Frost Wave].
A Seventh-Tier Mystery favored by Mage–Elementalists.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga—!
The wave of frost swallowed the orc instantly and continued forward, freezing the grass and trees behind it solid.
“Got him! There’s no way he can endure that!”
According to leaked information, Targon had no cold-resistance Mystery.
With his Soul Rank adjusted to Level 5, there was no way he could withstand [Frost Wave].
“…Don’t relax yet.”
The lion beastman who had been blown away earlier approached while rubbing his swollen cheek.
“If Targon could be taken down with something like that, he would’ve collapsed in a labyrinth long before gaining his current reputation.”
“Yeah, I know.”
The elemental mage kept firing spells for a while longer before lowering his staff.
Then he stared at the completely frozen orc and muttered quietly.
“Did we finish him?”
Crack!
Just as the mage began chanting a resurrection spell, Targon shattered the ice and stepped out.
“Refreshing.”
“…How did you endure that?!”
The elemental mage asked in shock, unable to suppress a mage’s instinctive curiosity.
Targon brushed away the pieces of ice clinging to his body and answered calmly.
“The rank of the soul and physical ability are not important. What matters are the countless efforts and accumulated Mysteries built through exploration experience earned with blood and sweat.”
The orc lightly stepped forward.
Before anyone realized it, he was already standing directly in front of the mage.
He grabbed the enemy’s neck with his large hand and lifted him into the air.
“Ghk….”
“Raiden!”
The lion beastman’s body suddenly swelled as he swung his blood-red claws.
Crack!
Although he moved later, Targon’s hand struck first, smashing the enlarged beastman’s jaw.
Soon the elemental mage’s neck snapped, and his body hung limp.
Not long afterward, the two explorers scattered into the air as blood.
“As expected of our Guild Master.”
Rai, the Sea-Origin Elf of the Ashen Wolf Guild who had been hiding behind them, stepped forward and gestured.
“Hehehe!”
“Gems, gems!”
Small water spirits followed their contractor’s orders and brought dark-colored gems.
“We’ve secured two for now.”
“Rai, which guild were those two from?”
“They were from the Shooting Star Guild. This was their first guild war. The two who just got eliminated were even their guild master and vice guild master.”
“I see.”
The gray orc nodded calmly and shook the frost from his hair.
“No wonder only two of them attacked. It’s their first time.”
If anyone else had said it, the statement would have sounded like arrogance.
But because it was Targon speaking, it sounded like a legitimate observation.
In the previous guild war, he had defeated five explorers at once.
“Where are the other guild members?”
At the guild master’s question, Rai unfolded a map to check.
“Dran and Brunelda have just regrouped and are heading this way. As for the Battlefield of the Sun…”
The elf narrowed his eyes while studying the map.
“They entered fairly close to each other at first, but for some reason they’re moving separately now.”
“Hm.”
As a veteran explorer, Targon could roughly guess the situation on the other side from that alone.
“It seems Kar is playing some kind of trick.”
“I thought the same. Will it be alright?”
“No matter what he’s planning, we’ll have to trust the Battlefield of the Sun to him. We recruited him in the first place to break the strategies of other guilds.”
His instincts told him something.
Kar was definitely up to something unusual.
“I just hope it’s big enough to drag in the spy who killed Rigobert.”
“……”
A fierce killing intent radiated from the gray orc as he slowly rolled his shoulders.
Rai stepped slightly farther away before speaking.
“Guild Master, we should move. Do you remember the strategy Yallen told us?”
“Of course.”
Targon nodded cheerfully and grinned.
“First, beat up every visible member of another guild.”
Other guilds. Ghouls. The spy.
Beat them all down.
Then winning would be easy, regardless of any information leaks.
“…Didn’t Yallen say survival was more important than collecting Primordial Fragments? That’s why we brought exploration tools focused on vitality maintenance and recovery.”
“The goddess Teramea, who watches over every battlefield, said she won’t bless those who hide like cowards.”
The Goddess of Peace and War, Teramea, had never said such a thing.
Although she once caused controversy by delivering a revelation that essentially meant, ‘I want to smack all those cowards on the head.’
“Let’s go, Rai.”
“…Yes.”
Even though he knew he had become a public enemy, Targon began walking openly without hiding himself.
Their combat power had leaked, so there would be some hardship.
But that was fine.
“Let’s hunt down that spy quickly.”
If he could avenge himself against the traitor, even a brutal battle would not be a hardship.
“We’ve finally cornered him.”
Near the Golden Tower in the Battlefield of the Sun.
Three explorers surrounded a Western Continent dwarf who had been driven into the corner of a natural fortress formed by thick trees.
“…This is seriously exhausting.”
Born, the vice guild master and martial artist of the Great Warrior Guild, sighed while rubbing his smooth bald head.
A pink-haired berserker holding tonfa shouted while catching her breath.
“Stop running and just give up!”
“Why?”
Yallen.
The young-looking Western Continent dwarf schemer smiled brightly.
“Are you already tired? Well, the ghouls rampage so fiercely in the Battlefield of the Sun that it’s not easy to handle. If I didn’t have much experience, I would’ve been exhausted already.”
“…You little—! You’re still talking!”
The pink-haired berserker burst out angrily.
Even though all of his Mystery information had been leaked, Yallen was not an easy opponent.
He skillfully slipped through the encirclement again and again.
Various tools that restored vitality.
And one decisive factor.
“I’m sorry. Honestly, I’m in danger, but I don’t want to lose so easily right now. If possible, I’d like to be eliminated by someone who overwhelms me with real skill.”
In other words, when translated into normal speech used by other races—
You’re all too incompetent to defeat me.
The explorers of the Great Warrior Guild closing in on him exploded with anger.
“…That really pisses me off.”
“I want to tear that mouth open first.”
“Calm down. He looks like a kid, and criticizing a Western Continent dwarf’s speech violates the Spirit of Harmony.”
“His mouth violates it more!”
Yallen’s unusually “pure” manner of speaking—even by Western Continent dwarf standards—was rapidly exhausting the explorers mentally.
“…Stop getting angry. Let’s just kill him.”
Born shook his head and channeled inner power into his bandaged fists.
The other explorers blocked Yallen’s escape routes with their Mysteries and weapons.
“Now just give up—”
Piuung!
As Born spread his legs and took a stance, an arrow suddenly flew from a blind angle.
Born knocked the arrow aside with his fist and turned his head.
“Oh dear, sorry!”
“…….”
On a particularly thick tree branch sat a grass elf holding a bow and a human holding a dagger.
A strange group known for loving the grotesque monster Eyebear.
Explorers from the Snow-Bear-Love Guild.
“…What do you think you’re doing? Didn’t we form an alliance until every member of the Ashen Wolf Guild was eliminated?”
“Sorry. My hand slipped.”
“What? Stop talking nonsense, you lunatic!”
The pink-haired berserker shouted furiously.
The human explorer from the Snow-Bear-Love Guild poked his cheek with his finger and winked.
“Can’t you overlook it just once after seeing my pretty smile?”
“……”
While the explorers of the Great Warrior Guild laughed in disbelief, Yallen narrowed his eyes.
The blue paint applied to his wrist trembled softly.
Bound Color.
…He’s here.
Kar, disguised as someone else, was nearby.