...…

Real World, Shin's Residence

Arthur just got a call from Shin and was told to login into the game and head over to the Blade Glade Kingdom for some quest. He was also asked to gather the members of their team if possible since the quest was quite troublesome.

"Tsk! What kind of trouble is this guy getting himself into again?" complained Arthur as he headed over to his room after taking a shower. And while he was climbing the stairs, he suddenly bumped into Leonard who was on his way to the kitchen for some water.

"What is it? Did Shin cause another trouble again?" asked Leonard smirkingly as climbed down the stairs.

Hearing that, Arthur released a helpless sigh before replying. "Not exactly. It looks like he bumps into another major quest with that crazy luck of his."

Leonard chuckled when he heard that and asked. "So, where are we going to hold this party and who are the 'organizers' this time?"

"I am not sure about the details since he said that he is going to explain it later. But the location is in the Beast Glade Kingdom," answered Arthur while shrugging his shoulders.

"Beast Glade Kingdom? You mean that Kingdom under the 'Tri-Kingdom Alliance' alongside that small Kingdom of Dwarves and the Elven Kingdom?" asked Leonard with knitted brows.

"Yeah, that one," said Arthur while nodding his head.

Hearing that, Leonard made a snap with his fingers before saying excitedly. "What a coincidence!? The Temple of War God just gave me a special quest regarding that Kingdom. I heard that the Corrupted Cult is messing with that kingdom. And since that place is under the jurisdiction of our temple, they want me to deal with the situation."

Hearing that, Arthur suddenly clicked his tongue before complaining. "Tsk! I thought it was finally my turn but it looks like I need to wait again. How long do I need to wait for my Empire Quest to be cleared?"

Seeing the dejected expression on Arthur's face, Leonard couldn't help but shake his head a little before patting his friend's shoulder before saying. "Who said that you can senselessly accept an Empire Quest at this stage of the game?"

"Huh~…! Is it my fault then? Are you telling me to refuse such an important quest when it is right in front of my eyes?" asked Arthur with a deep frown.

This time, Leonard refused to give any comment and just shrugged his shoulders before brushing past Arthur and continuing to climb down the stairs. "Let's meet at Shin's residence later."

"And you should contact Archimedes and Daulla too. I heard that they are finally done with the things on their sides. I'm sure that they will like to take part in this quest," he added as he walked towards the kitchen in a hurry.

***********

Going back in the game.

The trio of Charlotte, Owen, and Ithilien managed to infiltrate the dungeon prison without encountering any problem. But despite that being the case, they still didn't dare to lower their guard.

Moreover, Charlotte was also very suspicious of the current situation since she was familiar with the guards of this place. The protection on this place shouldn't be this lax, especially that their opponents were supposedly expecting them to be in here.

Their small group only encountered the weakest of guards so far. So, it was pretty obvious that the most elite ones were currently waiting for them at the deeper parts of the prison.

The three of them continued advancing cautiously while taking down all of the guards that saw them.

Not long after, they finally reached their destination and saw a huge crowd of elite guards waiting for their arrival. And to make the matter worse, Charlotte even spotted the elite Twilight NPCs that she fought alongside Shin earlier among the ranks of their enemies together with one of the personal guards that were always on the side of the crown prince.

"Heh! You guys sure took your time to arrive here. Did you know that I am about to die of boredom while wait for you?" said Silver as he took a step forward.

Owen couldn't help but stare at Silver weirdly when he saw the latter's actions before whispering to Charlotte. "Who is this guy? He is acting as if he is some sort of bigshot or something."

"Don't get fooled by his dumbass attitude, that guy at least has a decent skill to keep up with any Peak Titled Rankers," replied Charlotte without removing her eyes at the huge crowd of enemies in front of them.

"Heh! Don't bother to think of any strategy to win this losing battle. You guys are already surrounded, so just surrender peacefully so that we don't waste our time," said Silver smirkingly. And when those words left his mouth, another group of guards suddenly came out from the corridor where they came from.

"Looks like we are now stacked in a very sticky situation," said Owen with a twitching corner of his mouth after seeing that they suddenly got surrounded from all sides.

"This is no longer a part of the plan, so what are we going to do now? I'm not sure that I can guard both of you with this many enemies," he added as he swept his gaze at the guards surrounding them.

Hearing that, Ithilien slightly nodded her head. They were expecting that their opponents were going to strengthen the security within the prison but they didn't expect that the opposing side would sacrifice the security on the other areas in exchange for focusing all of their forces in a single place.

Meanwhile, Silver was currently smiling from ear to ear as he was confident that Charlotte and her partners would not be able to get out of this place no matter how hard they tried.

He was about to say something to mock the trio when he suddenly heard Charlotte laughing. He raised his eyebrows and asked. "What's so funny?"

Owen and Ithilien were also the same since they also couldn't understand the meaning of her actions. 'Did she have a plan that we are unaware of?'

"I was wondering why he insisted on not taking any more loot earlier. Maybe he already knew that we are going to face this kind of situation," muttered Charlotte laughingly.

Overhearing her words, Owen and Ithilien further knitted their brows as they couldn't understand what she was saying.

It was the same for Silver who was currently wearing a deep frown right now. But at the same time, his senses were telling him that there was something wrong in the current situation. So, he immediately waved his hand and ordered the soldiers to capture the three before something went wrong.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

Charlotte suddenly took out a scroll from her inventory space and quickly sacrificed a couple of high-quality materials to it before crushing that scroll without any hint of hesitation.

Swoosh!

Then all of the guards suddenly halted their tracks as a powerful aura swept past their bodies. And immediately after that, everyone felt an intense tremble from the earth and shook the entire prison.

Not long after, earth pillars suddenly rose from the ground and pierced the ceilings one after another. Then they formed a strange formation that enclosed the entire place.

When the formation was done, Silver suddenly felt that the mana density within the area became rich. At the same time, he could also sense that the defensive formation that he had set earlier to enclose the castle showed some signs of being disturbed.

"D*mn! The elemental balance has been broken!" cursed Silver out loud before ordering the prison guards and Twilight NPCs that he brought to attack. "What are you doing?! Move!"

Hearing his shout, the NPCs finally regained their senses and resumed attacking. And when Owen and Ithilien saw that they were being besieged from all sides, they couldn't help but curse their luck before getting ready for battle.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

But before the NPCs could even reach them, four simultaneous explosions suddenly blasted the leading NPCs and sent them flying towards their colleagues.

Then the two saw that they were currently surrounded by Charlotte's Elemental Companions on four sides with Suijin floating in the middle of their group.

"Eh!"

Both Owen and Ithilien were taken aback by their sudden appearance but they immediately regained their senses and quickly readjusted their positions to compliment the formations of the Elemental Spirits and took their battle stance.

Owen positioned himself in front of Charlotte while raising his shield in front of him. Then Ithilien stood behind the latter as she loaded a couple of arrows on her bow and infused her magic on them.

Then Charlotte started chanting out some spells and summoned a group of fireballs and icicles above her, fully prepared to be launched at any given moment.

Everything happened a little too fast for Silver to respond, so he could only stare at the group with glaring eyes. And when Charlotte saw that, she immediately smirked and quickly said provokingly. "Where is that smirking face that you had earlier?"

Then she waved her hand and told her Elemental Companions that they were free to go on a rampage for the first time.

...