...

On a forest not far too far from the thirteenth fallen outpost.

Black Hand couldn't help but do a double take at Shin as he couldn't believe how skill was how skilled was this guy at commanding team that he was not familiar with. What's more, his commands were very simple and very easy to understand, and that was why most of the members of his team the Eternal Hope Adventurer Team were able to execute it properly.

In fact, Black Hand pretty much didn't do any commands when they were breaking through the swarm of corrupted monsters. All of the commands were made by Shin.

And what left Black Hand in awe the most was Shin's flexibility at commanding. The goal of their formation and movements seemed to be quite basic and simple at the first look. But when he took a closer look at it, that formation was actually had some complexity in it. That formation involved attacking, defending, supporting and moving forward.

What's more, there were also some thief-related classes around them that could appear from time to time while stunning the monsters that were going to charge at them. And if ever those guys failed to stun a single one, Shin was able to spot it almost instantly. And when that happened, he would order the Archers and Musketeers to shot those monsters down before they even managed to get near them and messed with their formation.

That kind of quick decision and on-the-spot reaction was quite amazing. If it was Black Hand, he was sure that he couldn't do better than Shin. Or at least, couldn't give that kind of commands as quick as him; and there were even some monsters that might get pass his notice and messed up the rhythm of the formation a little.

'Tsk! This guy is really good,' thought Black Hand on himself as he evaluated Shin's strength.

And while he was having that long train of thought, S.Tigris suddenly walked at him and said. "So, what do you think about that guy? How good is strategical ability?"

Then Black Hand replied at him almost instantly. "Good! Extremely Good! That guy is really skilled at making good decisions. Those strategic skills that he shows us in the meeting earlier may be some theoretical skills that he has, but what his show us earlier is something else. His strategic and quick thinking is really top notch."

"So, you still take him as a Strategic type of General, huh?" said S.Tigris after hearing that. Then he immediately added after a brief pause. "But I can't blame you for that since all of the plans that he has shown to us is really a strategic way of thinking. What's more, you are a similar type of commander so it is understandable."

Black Hand was confused at first but as be heard the latter part of what S.Tigris had said, he immediately understood what he meant. "Are you telling that he is an instinctive type of commander than a strategic one? And everything that he did is based on his instincts? But-!..."

Black Hand wanted to say something more, but S.Tigris immediately cut him out. "Yeah, I know that his strategical skills are really good. That is why he is not just an instinctive type of commander."

Black Hand suddenly paused for a moment as he was slightly taken aback when he got a what S.Tigris was implying. Then he spat three words out. "A hybrid type?"

…

Meanwhile, the man in question was obviously not aware to what Black Hand and S.Tigris were talking about. And he was currently talking with Simba and the others.

"So, what is our next plan?" asked Hayden as he tried to catch his breath from being exhausted from the previous intense battles.

And the one that answered him was Revier. "Obviously, were need to recover ourselves as soon as possible and repair our equipments."

Then Shin suddenly chimed in. "How much time do we have before that monster horde attack the Holy City?"

"Usually, a monster horde will take at least one whole day (in-game time) to be complete, after a King-Class Monster is born. But that was for a natural monster horde. What we have here is obviously a man-made one, so it will surely take a lesser time for this horde to reach its ideal number of monsters. With that, our time is quite limited for the preparation." said Simba almost immediately.

Then he paused for a moment before quickly adding to what he had said. "But we can afford not to worry about that, Shin Bro. Since this will surely be a City Defense Event, or it may even be a City Crisis Event. Either way, both of those will involve a lot of players during this event. And since Holy City was currently housing quite a few Power House Guilds, this event will become a little messy."

"But that also works to our favor. What we need to focus now is our current quest that is currently in the running. So, if the City is currently in chaos, we can use that as a cover to hide our movements. With that, our quest is going to become a little easier."

Shin thought for a moment before saying. "So, are we going to leave everything at the hands of the powerful guilds? We are the ones that initiated this event."

Simba suddenly started chuckling when he heard that before saying to Shin. "Don't worry, Shin Bro. We can still join this incoming event after the are done with our quest. These kinds of events last for at least a week (in-game time) so we still have a lot of spare time to clear our quest."

Even if Shin understood it, he was still knitting his brows. "But these events have a point system, so if you want to do our quest first, that will leave us with a huge point gap with the leading players of Powerhouse Guilds. We are going to be left behind."

And when Simba heard that, his lips suddenly curved into a grin before reassuring Shin once again. "As I said earlier, don't worry about that, Shin Bro. I'll make sure that we are going to become the big winners of this event."

At this point, the pairs of Gino and Audrey, and Black Hand and S.Tigris walked at them. Then Black Hand immediately said. "So, I guess we are going to separate here? The quest seems to be partially done. All we need to do was to defend the City properly and it will be cleared after."

Lawless nodded his head, indicating the he agreed to what Black Hand had said. And when the latter saw that, he immediately bade his farewell together with S.Tigris. Then they gathered up their groups and ordered them to return to the Holy City so that they could start making preparations for the upcoming event. Other players based on the Holy City were still not aware of the upcoming big event, so they could use this advantage that they had so that they could get ahead of the others.

Gino and Audrey seemed to have a different goal in mind since they didn't immediately leave after Black Hand and S.Tigris left. And when Lawless saw that, he couldn't help but threw a joke with them. "What's the matter brother Gino? Don't worry, I am sure that those guys from S.Tigris' group will pay you for your help. You guys are being bind by a contract after all."

It was to lighten up the mood, but when Lawless saw that Gino and Audrey were quite having a serious look on their faces, he immediately shut his mouth and waited for the two to state their purpose.

The two hesitated for a moment and looked at each other once again before Audrey started talking. "Actually, you are the ones that we are looking for when we arrived on this Kingdom."

Then the others suddenly become interested and let her continue. Audrey hesitated for a moment before continuing. "Our main purpose of going on this Kingdom was to find a good place to migrate in. And we seem to find the Calderock Town a suitable place for us to settle in."

"And from what we have investigated, you guys are quite close to the owner of the town or the Guild Leader of the Hand of Midas Trading Firm. Can you guys help us sent a meeting with any of them?"

The faces of the others suddenly turned weird after hearing that and about to look at Shin. But they immediately stopped themselves midway when they suddenly realized something. And the one that open his mouth first and replied was, Simba. "Let's forget about the other reason first. But let's talk why did you guys want to settle on an ordinary town than a Major City?"

Then the atmosphere suddenly turned tense as things reached this point. The pressure that Simba was currently giving was something that couldn't be laugh at. It was as if he was signaling the two that if they something he didn't like, then they would be dead for sure.

...…