Ian’s mind raced in order to grasp any information on his opponent.

‘Firstly, just from looking at the equipment they have on, I can tell that they are for sure an Assassin…’

The Assassin stood in a relaxed state even despite having figured out Ian’s identity.

From what Ian knew, there were not a lot of Assassins in Kailan whose abilities were high enough.

Truthfully, that was the reason why he sent off his retainers first.

Because he was sure that there wasn’t a user amongst the Assassins, which was a new class, that could face him.

Since he was already confident that he could face them alone anyways, if his opponent was to run away because he dragged his retainers along with him, there was no way for Ian to catch an escaping Assassin.

‘Firstly, I think there’s just one in the Luspel Empire… The dude that beat me in the rookie league before, was his name Limlong?’

However, as Ian thought that there was no reason for an Assassin affiliated with the Luspel Empire to spy on the defensive fortress of the Pyro Domain, he quickly set aside his thoughts on Limlong.

‘If it’s an Assassin of the Kaimon Empire, I heard that a user affiliated with the Titan Guild was famous…’

The current official first-place in the Assassin rankings was affiliated with the Titan Guild, and from what Ian knew, he was in the early lv 140s.

‘If it’s that dude, he has a right to be confident even in front of me.’

Ian was over lv 150, but it was not known externally.

And no matter how exceptional Ian’s fighting ability was, if it was an Assassin that had the upper hand in PvP, it could be obvious that they didn’t feel intimidated even if they were slightly lower in level.

Just when Ian was searching for his opponent while thinking of this and that, the Assassin swung his wind and fire wheels as he charged towards Ian.

Ta-tat-!

With light footsteps, he shrunk the distance between Ian and him in an instant.

If this happened before, Ian would have prioritized increasing the distance between them, but he had something to count on now.

“Summon!”

Ian, who firstly summoner all of his Familiars quickly and casted his buff skills, used the new skill he obtained, ‘The Will of the Selamus Warrior’, without delay.

• You have used the skill, ‘The Will of the Selamus Warrior’.

• For 20 minutes, all combat stats will increase by 40%.

• You may concentrate all your production stats onto one combat stat. Please select the stat.

Clang-!

Blocking off the attack of the Assassin, who had charged through in the meantime, stepped back as he finished setting the skill.

“I’ll invest it into Agility!”

• Your ‘Agility’ stat has increased drastically.

• Your Proficiency towards all weapons have increased by 15 levels.

• The level of ‘Spearmanship’, which is the Proficiency related to the weapon that is being used, has been set to Intermediate-rank level 5.

Along with the message popping up, a golden ray of light began to wrap around Ian’s whole body.

While looking at Ian, who held up the spear shaft firmly, the man sneered at Ian.

“You’re deciding on close combat even though you’re a Summoner?”

Ian nodded his head as he grinned.

“And if that’s the case?”

“You’re going to regret it.”

Responding shortly, he charged towards Ian again, and while swinging his spear around, Ian began to fight him face-to-face.

Clang- Cla-clang-!

As the blade of the wheels and pole of the spear clashed against each other, a metallic sound rang out.

In an instant, the two people exchanged multiple attacks and blocks.

Pung-!

As the distance increased between the two people from engaging with strong attacks and rebounding against each other, all of the Familiars beginning with Ly began to attack the man.

With a big body and slow attack speed, Bbakbbak wasn’t able to deal much damage onto the Assassin, but on the other hand, the combined attack of Ly and Pin was incredibly elaborate and threatening.

Chwaaak-!

• Familiar ‘Ly’ has dealt critical damage to (Unknown).

• (Unknown)’s Vitality has been decreased by 13,253.

• Familiar ‘Pin’ has dealt damage to (Unknown).

• (Unknown)’s Vitality has been decreased by 10,233.

And the two eyes of Ian, who gave and received attacks, narrowed.

‘What the hell? He’s a Luspel Empire user.’

Through the system message that popped up, he was able to figure out the nationality of the Assassin.

If he was a user that was a citizen of the Kaimon Empire, it would have popped up as ‘A Kaimon Empire User (Unknown)’ in the system message, but the fact that there was no mentioning of that meant that it was counter evidence that he was a Luspel Empire user.

‘Since you can’t set your nationality as private, he’s definitely affiliated with the Luspel Empire, but why exactly is a Luspel Empire user attempting to spy? Are they planning on building a fortress following our domain?’

The theory that Ian thought had the highest possibility was that he was a ‘secret agent’ who received an offer from the Kaimon Empire’s side.

Since it was the truth that a user who was a citizen of the Luspel Empire, who could freely enter into the domain, would have an easier time approaching the fortress.

Meanwhile, while Ian was thinking of this and that, the battle charged towards the final stage.

The Assassin’s Vitality gauge bar had slowly started to blink.

On the other hand, the damage that Ian received was almost nonexistent.

The Assassin, who stepped back and created distance between Ian and him, spoke as if he was mumbling.

“How surprising. To think that you would be this strong. I thought that there would be a lot of parts that were exaggerated, that is.”

Ian clicked his tongue as he replied.

“Tsk, tsk, well, if you’ve figured it out, why don’t you obediently surrender now? I want to know where you’ve come from.”

Truthfully, because Ian didn’t use all of his fighting power, he was dumbfounded.

‘For a dude that looks like he wouldn’t be able to even handle Ly alone properly, he’s bluffing hard.’

His nimbleness and fighting sense seemed exceptional, but because he didn’t use any special skills or irregular attacks, he was too easy to face.

The Assassin stared at Ian as he opened his mouth again.

“Unfortunately, it looks like this will be the end for today.”

At those words, Ian grinned.

“Who said I’m just going to let you go?”

As Ian’s words finished, his Familiars surrounded him.

However, the man was still relaxed.

“It looks like you have at least a Detecting Potion.”

A Detecting Potion was an item that allowed one to see their opponent that was hiding for a fixed time after intaking it, and Ian had that.

Ian pulled out the potion from his inventory and showed it as he nodded his head.

“Of course. So, it would be best for you to voluntarily reveal your identity. By the looks of it, it looks like your equipment is good, too, so wouldn’t it be depressing if you died and dropped even one?”

However, as if he was sneering at Ian, he pulled out a magic scroll as he waved it.

“Sorry, but you won’t be able to catch me today.”

And before Ian could take action, he ripped open the scroll.

“Damn it.”

His body was wrapped in an energy of purple light as he disappeared into the air leisurely, and Ian licked his lips.

“Tsk, literally everybody and their mother have been using rare scrolls lately.”

The scroll that the man used was of the same kind as the scroll that Ilahan, the Guild Master of the DarkRuna Guild, used.

Of course, as it wasn’t an AoE Return Scroll, it was much cheaper than the item that Ilahan used, but it still wasn’t cheap.

“This is upsetting. By the looks of it, he’s probably a secret agent, right?”

At Ian’s words, which he almost mumbled, Ly, who was next to him, replied.

• I think so. Something is definitely weird, Owner.

“What is?”

• I think his combat abilities are incredibly exceptional, but he didn’t use anything aside from the most basic common Assassin attacks.

At those words, Ian nodded his head.

“I felt that, too. He was probably trying to hide his identity. Since if it was a dude that had a hidden class, the moment he used his main force skills, his identity would be revealed.”

Ian, who turned his steps, hurriedly went into the domain.

‘So, there’s a power that’s trying to figure out the internal structure, huh? We need to guard more thoroughly. In that case, should we build more detecting towers?’

* * *

The day that Ian hurriedly entered the domain.

The attack did not start immediately like he feared, but the Allied Forces of the Kaimon Empire slowly began to move.

Amongst the many siege warfare that were held within Kailan up until now, it was definitely the largest in size.

As Ilahan’s movements were captured, it was a situation where the official community and the broadcasting stations were already going crazy.

Especially on the main page of the official community, there were already posts on the condition of the battle or analyses of the fighting power on both sides uploaded with provocative titles.

• The last hope of the Luspel Empire! Will the Pyro Domain be able to block off Kaimon’s large army of 50 thousand?

• The top 3 guilds of Luspel who powerlessly handed over the Pyro Fortress, which is the ‘Ansi City’ of the Luspel Empire, to Kaimon.

• The biggest siege warfare in the history of VR games! That background has been dug up in detail.

Definitely, if you were a user that played Kailan, you couldn’t help but have interest in this large-scale siege warfare, and in places like the bulletin board or the chat window, arguments for and against issues related to the large-scale siege warfare that would happen soon were arising.

And the hottest amongst those issues were on the ‘incompetence’ of the giant guilds of the Luspel Empire.

• No, guys. I’m a Kaimon citizen, so it doesn’t matter to me, but truthfully, what are Luspel’s giant guilds doing? They preoccupied practically all of the content in the eastern continent, but as the central continent opened and a proper fight occurs, they’re just bumming around.

• Ha, exactly. That’s my point… They’re good-for-nothing.

• Speaking of which, it’s really weird. The Lotus Guild, whose ranking is much lower in comparison, is enduring well like that, so then why exactly did the pigs, whose scale is much bigger, fall back into the rear and are hiding? I don’t understand.

• Person above, we will only find out if Lotus is enduring well after this siege warfare is over.

• No, to have even blocked off DarkRuna shows that they are enduring well enough. Even if about three or four other guilds guarded like Lotus, wouldn’t we have not been pushed back this much in the central area?

• Ha, I wish they would help the Lotus Guild out even now and blocked them off somehow…

• It’s too late now. The Pyro Domain will get taken anyways, and I think the pivotal point is how well they will block them off in the rear.

• I still wish that Lotus will block them off for as long as possible. Ian, fighting[1]!

Meanwhile, the guild members of the Lotus Guild within the Pyro Domain were moving incredibly busily.

This was because there was a need for them to raise their Defensive Power even a little bit more before the defensive battle began.

Herz approached and asked Carwin, who came out of the management office of the barracks.

“Yo, Carwin. The troops that are being trained in the barracks right now, do you think their training will finish within today?”

“Hmm… I think it will be tight. I feel that it will probably finish before the sun rises tomorrow.”

Herz slightly frowned.

“Hmm… that’s a little troubling.”

“Why?”

“The Kaimon Empire Army has almost finished with their formation now. If they’re fast, I feel like the siege warfare might even start tonight…”

Just when the two people were conversing, Ian, who had approached them without their knowledge, butted in.

“No, I don’t think there’s a need to be worrying about that.”

“Huh? How come?”

Ian checked the time as he continued his words.

“Based on the current situation, the fastest time that they could attack would be 10 or 11 o’clock, but if the siege warfare was to start then, what will the office workers do tomorrow when they have to go to work? They’ll need to assume that this will last at least 5 hours.”

“Oh…?”

Ian’s logic was quite persuasive, and while nodding his head, Carwin added on.

“It’s the break for us at least, but since office workers don’t have breaks…”

Of course, over half of the top rankers were white-collar workers whose job itself was gaming, but still, from looking at it generally, there was a higher ratio of people that weren’t like that.

Herz opened his mouth.

“Anyways, if the battle doesn’t start today like you say, then that’s a relief. I really want to use the mounted troops no matter what even if we’re going to lose.”

The soldiers in training that Herz asked Carwin about were the soldiers that had finished up to the 3rd upgrade and could be produced from the barracks as mounted troops.

As the average level of the mounted troops were close to 170, they were strong troops that could cover for at least one decent user.

Ian asked Carwin.

“Carwin, what is the total number of troops that are being produced this time?”

“Hmm… It will probably be about five hundred.”

Ian’s gaze turned over to Herz this time.

“Then if we were to combine them with the already existing troops, do we have about three or four thousand now?”

Herz shook his head.

“No, if my calculations are right, I think there should be about seven thousand?”

“Huh? How exactly do we have that high of a number?”

At the unexpected response, Ian wore a dumbfounded expression.

And Fiolan gave a response related to that.

“We have formed quite solid auxiliary troops.”

“…?”

Including Ian, who wore a puzzled expression, all three people’s gazes turned in the direction that Fiolan’s voice was heard from.

And in that spot, a couple other people even aside from Fiolan stood.

Ian’s gaze fixated on one man, who stood closest to them amongst the others.

‘Who is that? He seems like someone I’ve seen somewhere before…’

The man had a luxurious armour that shone a navy blue colour covering his whole body.

He walked forward as he held out his hand towards Ian.

“Nice to meet you, Ian.”

At the greeting of the man, who definitely looked like he was a top ranker even from a rough glance, Ian grasped his hand on an impulse as he asked him.

“Who… Are you?”

Just when he was about to open his mouth and reply, Carwin, who was in the back, opened his mouth first.

“Roy Chen? Roy Chen, it’s you, right?”

The man laughed as he slowly nodded his head.

“As I’ve received permission from Master Herz, we, the Valiant Guild, have decided to assist in this defensive battle.”

Roy Chen slightly bowed his head.

And while looking at him do so, Ian’s two eyes shone.

‘Valiant! If all goes well, this defensive battle… We might actually be able to last even until the end!’

Feeling as if he had obtained thousands of troops and horses, Ian bowed his head towards Roy Chen as well.

“Thank you very much for making such a difficult decision, Roy Chen.”

[1] Fighting = word of support or encouragement