...….

Saint Heaven Kingdom, Holy City, Shunkai Forest

It had been 41 hours since the start of the special hunting event. A lot happened already; the event was not only rapidly coming to an end, but also quickly reaching its peak.

During this time, the hunting guilds took three hours to find Shin and the others. And the battle immediate broke out after this. And since Lawless and the others became aware that Shin was able to hold himself with a Titled Ranker, they've let him joined hands with Hayden, Stephanie, and Morgan. With them on a team, Lawless, and Faker, and Charlotte were free to slaughter every enemy on sight without worrying about Shin's safety.

And after some time, the big news after big news shocked all of the players of based on the Holy City; shocking battles were being uploaded online repeatedly, making the players to be engaged into a heated discussion. The `Royal God: Azacel` of the Miracle Guild had fallen in battle, while both the `Sky God: Rayford` and `Heavenly God: Credo` of the Skyline Guild were forced to run after his death.

At the same time, the big alliances started to appear one by one; aside from the Skyline dumping out the Miracle Guild and partnering with the Unified forces of First-Rate Guilds, the HeadHunter Guild, Golden Dawn, and Credit Republic were also formed a massive Alliance.

With the strength of these Hegemons, the other weaker powers were forced to halt their advance to avoid getting in conflict with these guys.

The HeadHunter Guild sent the `Mad God: Bloody Edge` to lead a group of Expert High Rankers and some Titled Rankers on the Shunkai Forest. At the same time, the Golden Dawn and Credit Republic coordinated with them by sending their respective officers-in-charge, the `North-Star God: Broken Blade` and `Ruined King God: Raging Fortress` to lead a group Rankers of their own and with the same quality as the HeadHunter people.

They managed to corner Shin and the others, but they failed to capture them because Charlotte was forced to expose her identity by using her signature move, the 'Dancing Elemental Dragons' Combat Technique.

She repelled the three Godlike Players of the opposing group, making it easy for Lawless and Faker to escort the others on the teleportation gate created by Hanzo. Then they helped her to escape on the void gate. And with that, Shin and the others managed to escape that predicament unscratched. But that incident also exposed how did they escaped, so the powerful alliances make some preparation to prevent them from escaping.

And that is the third Alliance appeared. The snakes of Hydra Guild and the lunatics of Blood Carnival joined forces to join the fun. These guys managed to pushed Shin and the other on the corner once again.

And since the Hydra Guild and Blood Carnival were already aware of the teleportation ability of Shin's Elemental Companion, they brought a powerful sealing formation scroll to seal of the whole area. Even if it couldn't fully prevent Hanzo from using his powers, he still need some time to create a void gate.

And that window was grabbed by the three Heads of Hydra Guild to harass Shin and the others. Adder, Python, and Cobra are thief-class players that are standing on the peak of the gaming world so they gave an immense threat to Shin and the others. What's more, the Blood Carnival people were not some guys that you could trifled with either, they sent some 'Maverick Gods' of their ranks, and two of them at that, the pair of 'Blood Demon: Yorick' and 'Blood Spear: Murong' duo.

With these five Godlike Players, it was not a surprise for Lawless and the others to be in the disadvantage. What' more, the opponents were not underestimating Lawless and Faker anymore, especially that they were already aware of Charlotte's identity.

Left with no choice, Lawless and Faker were forced to bear their fangs too. And when that happened, the opposing side became shocked at the battle prowess of the two. Lawless was more than enough to handle two of the opposing Godlike players. Faker, on the other hand, didn't lose to him either as he was more than capable to fight with two Godlike Players on his own. And with the help of those two, Charlotte became free to go on rampage.

When the opposing side became aware of who are their opponents, they had no choice but to retreat to reorganize themselves. They also need to re-evaluate their opponents first.

And when they study their battle styles, all of the Powerhouse Guilds of the Holy City became shaken at what they have discovered. And somehow the information got leaked on the public, making entire player population of the Saint Heaven Kingdom to explode in an uproar.

The dynamic duo of the 'Dark Hero' Adventurer Team is back! The `God Slayer: Tora` and `Death God: Yami` set their feet in the gaming world once again! What's more, they are teaming up with the `Elemental Goddess: Charlotte` on clearing an event. And these legendary figures are fighting against the allied forces of some Powerhouses of the game for this event!

With these news, the friends and foes of each side were starting to appear one by one. The allied forces of the HeadHunter Guild, Golden Dawn and Credit Republic decided to join forces with the alliance of the Hydra Guild and Blood Cranival on this event, creating a very powerful hegemon.

And since their archrival was on the other side, the Dragon Pavilion showed some intention of joining hands with the former Commander and Vice-Commander of the Dark Hero Adventurer Team and helped them repel their enemies.

The Wing's Alliance and Titan Guild, on the other hand, still chose to stand on the sidelines together with the other guilds, like the Skyline and the Allied forces or the First-Rate Guilds. But since they wanted to wait for a little more, it is already too late for them to choose sides later.

And with all of these, the battle of the Shunkai Forest was about to reached its peak!

...

Somewhere in the borders of the Shinkai Forest, Shin and the others were currently resting when a group of three hooded players walked towards them.

When Shin turned his heads at them, he felt that they some kind of ancient dragons are moving towards them. He clicked his tongue and muttered to himself. "D*mn! I already felt too weak for burdening Lawless and the others, and now, these guys are coming here with that kind of presence? Tsk! Looks like I really need to hasten my leveling speed after this event…. Eh… No, maybe after that Shadow Ranking Cup, I also want to have a title of mine."

When the new arrivals got near them, Lawless immediately greeted them. "Ho~ho! I didn't expect that the famous duo of the Dragon Pavilion will come and give us some aid."

"If we are talking about the duo, aren't yours is a lot more famous than us?" said by Miracle Dragon as he shakes Lawless' right hand.

"You can call me Lawless now," said Lawless as he return the handshake. After that, he turned his attention to the other guy and said. "And this friend is?"

Monroe looked at Lawless and introduced himself while extending his right hand. "I'm Monroe, an Elder Dragon (means he have an elder position in the guild)."

"Oh! Looks like we have some big-shot here, Huh?" said by Lawless shaking Monroe's hand.

"So can we start about the business now? Even if the time is in our side, the current situation still didn't permit us from doing some idle chats. What's more, those guys on the other side will not just sit there either," said by Martial Dragon with a commanding voice.

"We can talk about the terms later. First, we need to make a plan about how are we going to fight the other side. Now that they are already aware about your real strengths, those guys are going to do some countermeasures for sure, especially now that the element of surprise were lost," said by Miracle Dragon.

Lawless smiled bitterly and said. "As expected of the Military people, you guys are always in discipline. So want to hear from me?"

"Can you share your strategy? The Event is about to end so I guess there are not much to discuss about that, but I still want to hear your whole plan so that we can get your train of thoughts and match it with us," said by Miracle Dragon.

Lawless shrugged his shoulders before narrating all of their plans, especially the arrangement that Shin that had made. And when the other side heard how Shin arranged the flow of events, they couldn't help but at Shin's direction with weird faces. That kind of planning was something a military strategist will do.

And now that the event had only few hours left before it reached its end, even the three of the will think that this was their last hurdle, given that they also have the virtual map of the place. Shin's tactic was very simple but it was also effective that it could even trick some people like them.

While Lawless and the others were making some preparations, Shin was currently having a deep thought. Even if everything was going according the plan, he still couldn't shake off this uneasy feeling. He felt the there was something amiss, as if he had forgotten something, and it was a very important thing.

"Tsk! What the hell is it? I'm sure it is not because of our enemies, even we are outnumbered too much, and Brother Lawless said that we have some reinforcement too," muttered Shin to himself as he tried to looked for the main problem.

Then Shin suddenly heard a woman's voice, interrupting his thoughts. "Hey! Thinking about something?"

Shin knitted his brows before turning his head the person. And unexpectedly, he saw Charlotte squatting down and taking a seat beside him. Since his fires time seeing this girl, he already don't like this girl's attitude so you can expect him to be cold to her. "What do you want?"

"Why? I can't sit here? And what's with the cold shoulder?" said Charlotte as she ignore Shin's cold treatment.

'Aren't you the one that always been cold since the beginning?' thought Shin to himself before continuing to look at her in a cold way.

Charlotte shrugged her shoulders and said. "I just want to ask about the first mercenary contract that we made. Is it still good or not? I need to get your answer now since I need to make some arrangements after finishing this quest."

She is not treating him as cold as before since she now knew that this guy had a massive potential in him. He might become a good ally in the future. So setting up some connections now was not a bad idea either.

Shin is gotten off-guard of this unreasonable elf now, but he ignored it for now and asked. "Didn't there are still two ongoing quest after this one?" while knitting his brows under his mask.

Charlotte shook her head and said. "Unfortunately, there are some urgent things that I suddenly need to take care off on the Real World so I don't thing that I can participate on those quests now. I already discussed it with Faker and Lawless earlier, and they already agreed and we can just end the contract after this quest."

"And you don't have to worry about the lost of Magic firepower, Lawless said that the dynamic couple of his team are coming online now so they might arrive at any time from now. So what do you think? Is the mercenary job still on or not?"

Shin was caught in a dilemma after hearing that. It's not that he wanted this girl to accompany him, actually he already decided to void the contract with her the moment he discovered that she was the unreasonable elf. But if he looked at it profit wise and her actual battle prowess, then he still wanted to borrow her strength to help him in hunting those High-Leveled monsters. That way hunting them is going to be easy.

And he was too ashamed to ask for some more help from Lawless and others after this incident. He already had them a given a good load of trouble with this 'quest' of his so he didn't want to become too indebted on them too much. At least until when he was strong enough to repay them. In friendship, he can't always be on the receiving end, sometimes he needed to be on the dispensing end too.

As for Charlotte, he already made a contract with her so he has some excuse for her to ask some help from her.

What's more, his plan was to raise his level for as soon as possible after these three ongoing quests so that he could reach the Level-101 as soon as possible to unlock his Awakening Skills, as a preparation for the upcoming Shadow Ranking Cup. And if he also managed to upgrade the [Yamato] at that time then that was going to be even more perfect.

And while Shin was on a deep thought, he suddenly heard Hanzo's voice inside his head. "Don't void it yet, Young Lad."

Shin knitted his brows and asked. "That's my original plan. But I also want to hear your opinion about it. So what is your reason?"

"But before saying that, just say to her that you are going to add another clause on the contract," replied Hanzo.

"What clause should I need to add?" asked Shin with some confusion while knitting his brows.

"Oh~♪ Young Lad, Don't tell me that you've gone senile already? Have you already forgotten about our sleeping friend already? And what we need to awaken it?" said Hanzo at Shin mockingly. Then he continued after a brief pause. "And didn't that Elven girl has an Elemental Companion that have an Earth-related element?"

"AH!" At this point, Shin finally got what Hanzo was implying.

And since the time inside one's mind was a lot faster than outside world, there were only few moments when Shin was thinking and talking with Hanzo inside his head. He looked Charlotte and said. "Let's wait until you got back online before discussing about that since I also need to do some things before proceeding to hunt down those monsters. But I also need to add a clause in our contract before that."

Charlotte was already smiling under her veil when she heard the first part of Shin's words since she thought that Shin was saying that because he saw her strength. But when she heard the latter part, she immediately became annoyed and asked while frowning her brows. "What do you want to add? If it is something unreasonable then let's just call the contract off."

"It is quite simple actually. You just need to help me find a place with a very dense Earth Elemental Mana," said Shin directly.

Now, Charlotte had gotten an idea what Shin wanted. "Oh~h. So you want to revive your Elemental Companion. If that was the case, then the price on the contract is a little low-….."

But before Charlotte managed to finish what she wanted to say, Shin immediately interrupted her and said. "I don't need anything extra. Just a place with the Elemental Mana, but if you don't want to, then let us just void the contract."

Charlotte didn't expect for Shin to act like that, and she was about to shout at him and agreed with the voiding of contract when she remember about the Blood Stones on Shin's hands. If she wanted to get some of those, then she needed to accept Shin's new term. And she knew that she couldn't bargain with Shin because he had the upper hand on the deal. All she could do was to take a deep breath to calm herself down and accept his new terms. What's more, Shin only needed a place with a dense Elemental Mana. She was an Elementalist after all so she knew a few places that fit Shin's standards.

After that, Shin and Charlotte signed the previous contract with the new clause that Shin had added. And that was also the time when Shin saw Lawless and the three representatives from the Dragon Pavilion finished their discussion and walked towards the group.

"Looks like it is time to work," muttered Shin to himself after seeing that so he slowly stood up from his sitting position while getting himself to be ready for what was about to come.

......