The Imperial Knights were powerful and, among them, Hellaim was the strongest.

‘Wow… he just killed a Lv.136 Thunder Falcon by swinging his sword once…’

During the battles, Ian was there mainly for support.

At first, he had tried to do something, but it didn’t take him long to realize that it was better to help the

others.

‘At least, Big Guy and Rake are doing their part.’

Big Guy’s Abyss Hole helped a lot by pinning the enemies. Additionally, Rake had a high Attack Force

and was inflicting great damage with its wide-range skill.

Ly also fought with its new skill, however, it was not that helpful. Hali, who had just gotten over Lv.50,

could only avoid the monsters and walk around.

Put together, Ian and his pets worked as much as one or two Imperial Guard.

Of course, that was enough to impress Hellaim.

“Ian, you are a greater Summoner than I thought.”

“Haha… really?”

Hellaim had thought at Lv.100, Ian wouldn’t be of much help in battles.

As they fought, Ian’s mouth was opening wider and wider.

‘Haha! this is the true EP gathering!’

They fought for about three hours and Ian, who was Lv.100, got 25% of the EP needed for next level-

up, Ly reached Lv.101 while Hali that used to be Lv.1…

It was gaining levels at an insanely fast speed.

‘it is taking longer for it to level-up after reaching Lv.50… but he will still reach Lv.80 when the quest

ends.’

Ian got even more excited while he kept firing Spheres of Magic Power.

However, a while later, Hellaim raised his hand to halt his men, “We will rest and organize here.”

Ian was a little confused, ‘Hmm? Why are we stopping? We haven’t received any big damage yet.’

Ian was curious since Hellaim and his men had completely slaughtered all the monsters so far.

Hellaim gave the answer to his question right away.

“The Desert of Firmament is over that ridge. There are Lv.150 Monk Mummies there.”

Ian turned nervous and excited at the same time.

‘Lv.150 monsters… I’ve never seen them, even as screenshots!’

It must be extremely dangerous but, at the same time, he would get even bigger EP.

Hellaim warned again, “The battles ahead will be hard so brace yourselves.”

…

“Herss.”

“Yes?”

“How much of our base’s protection time is left?”

Hearing Piolan’s question, Herss checked the base’s information.

Then, he scratched the back of his head, “Wow! it’s already been two months since we got the base.

We only have a month left.”

“Uh… that’s too short. The North Continent will be in a mess after a month.”

Herss nodded, “I guess so.”

The Lotus Guild had gotten its base less than a week after the North Continent was updated.

That meant the other strong guilds got their new bases around that time.

The Titan Guild, which was the first to get a base, got one after three days of update. Therefore, most

bases’ protection would be gone when the Lotus Guild’s disappears.

Piolan was worried, “It will be impossible to defend our base if a giant guild attacks… I’m worried.”

However, Herss looked rather relaxed, “No, Piolan. If we upgrade our base to Manor before the

protection period ends, we can defend it.”

“Really?” Piolan asked back.

Herss nodded, “Yes. We cannot have soldiers now because our base’s a Hamlet, but when it

becomes a Manor, we can have NPCs as soldiers. We can also have thick defensive walls.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.”

Herss continued to speak, “I hear that we can also have towers for defense.”

“I’ve read about it on the community. But they said it would cost a lot….”

Herss knew about that so he immediately replied, “Yes. So, we will have to invest everything we have

in preparing our base to defend it as soon as it becomes Manor. It’s a cost we must pay.”

Piolan’s face was darkened, “Umm… but wouldn’t we lose too much if we fail to defend the base? We

would be able to protect it once or twice, but if we get attacked again and again, we would be in a

trouble…”

Herss shook his head, “No. I think we would be able to have peace again after defending the base for

a while. If we hang on till then, it will be okay.”

As the guild’s master, Herss had studied a lot about bases.

‘Even the No.1 and 2 guilds would not be able to take our base so easily if we finish preparing as I

plan.’

The bigger a guild was, the more it had to protect.

The top 10 guilds already had two or three bases each. If they took men from there and attacked

another base, they might lose their own bases, so they could not just venture to invade.

As a high-ranked guild, Lotus only had to prepare itself so that the strongest guilds would not be able

to attack it.

Herss thought it would be better to invest a lot in defense so that no one would be willing to attack it

than to protect the base with medium defense force and risk it.

‘However, the bases that fail to become a Manor will be good preys.’

Herss had been very nervous about a week ago.

All the requirements needed to upgrade their base were about to be fulfilled, but he couldn’t even

guess when Clovan would be able to become a noble.

However, he could relax after he heard from Ian that he was doing the Empire quest.

‘I hope Jinsung finishes his quest and returns soon. The other requirements would be all taken care of

in one or two days.’

He had told that to Clovan, but he didn’t tell him to stop raising his Reputation.

He had to consider the possibility of Ian failing the Empire quest, and it was better to have more noble

users in the guild.’

‘More members with noble titles are necessary to fulfill the requirements of the Grand Manor, the next

level… and most of all, if both Ian and Clovan could get the titles, we would be able to have our own

knights.’

Herss’s plan was being carried out step by step.

They had worked hard after they got the base, so their guild was now in the top 500 in the ranking.

‘I will protect the base at all cost.’

The base was literally a goose that laid golden eggs.

Herss clenched his fists.

…

It had been 24 hours since Ian and Hellaim’s men entered the Wasteland.

As Ian didn’t get enough rest, his eyes were sunken.

‘Uh… I could have slept for about five hours… but I was too worried…’

NPCs sleep at night. Therefore, when the Sun went down, Hellaim and his men had camped and

started sleeping.

Of course, Ian also logged out and got some rest.

However, since he was worried about coming back late and being abandoned in the Wasteland, he

logged in again just after three hours.

Because of that, he had to wait for four hours before the knights started to move again.

‘Hu… just hold on a little longer. I can sleep after the quest.’

That much of tiredness was nothing compared to the time where he had hunted like a madman to

reach Lv.93.

Ian braced himself again.

Whoooosh-

A strong wind started to blow from all directions.

Ian could feel that he was in the Highlands of Firmament.

‘Shall I check the map?’

He was right as the map confirmed his position, he really was in the Highlands of Firmament.

Ian dismissed the map and looked forward again.

Neigh-!

Hellaim halted his horse and all his men stopped.

“Finally.” Hellaim muttered in low voice and turned his horse around to look at his men.

“The Highlands of Firmament is extremely dangerous. There are monsters called Teranodon here.

They are very powerful.”

Ian couldn’t resist his curiosity and asked, “What is their level?”

He had never heard of Teranodon before and he had never seen Hellaim being so tense about

monsters.

Hellaim thought for a while, “If my memory is correct, they are about Lv.190. They are lizards as big

as elephants.”

“…”

Ian was dumbfounded.

‘I can really die.’

That was his first thought.

He had almost been killed by the Lv.150 Monks a few times. Cold sweat started to run down his

forehead.

Hellaim continued to speak, “This place is dangerous. We can be massacred by just one mistake. So,

we will move with a different strategy.”

Everyone listened to Hellaim, “You will see a high altar in the middle after walking for 10 minutes.”

Hellaim gulped hard and continued, “We will reach the altar by taking the shortest route and fighting

as little as possible. Next, Ian will go up to the altar with the Griffin’s egg.”

Hellaim looked at Ian, “While Ian hatches the egg on the top of the altar, we will protect the altar and

fight any enemies that attack us. We will not attack first recklessly. Understood?”

“Yes, sir!”

Hellaim was more serious than ever.

Ian felt the dangerousness of the Highlands of Firmament and braced himself once more.

‘I cannot fail now after coming this far.’

Ian looked at the Highlands of Firmament.

They started to move again, however, they moved differently now.

They moved slowly and as carefully as possible.