...

The atmosphere inside the room suddenly became heavy as the mood of everyone significantly dropped. And when Shin saw that, he immediately chuckled a little before saying. "What's with that expression? It is not like we are already too late to solve this problem."

Hearing that, the others quickly turned their heads towards him all of a sudden as Cloe asked him curiously. "Care to elaborate, Mister?"

Shin crossed his arm in front of him and said smirkingly. "We may be late at stopping them from completing the formation, but it doesn't mean that we can no longer stop them from activating it."

"And how are we going to do that?" asked Owen with a deep frown.

Shin wore a smirking smile when he heard that before answering. "They may have completed this formation, but they still lacked the most important thing to activate it. They still need a 'sacrifice'."

He paused for a few moments before explaining further. "This kind of formation can only be used for a single purpose. And if I am not wrong, then they are most likely planning to turn the whole kingdom into a corrupted place or something similar."

"It is similar to what happened in the Holy City of the Saint Heaven Kingdom. During that time, the Corrupted Cult spread a large number of Corrupted Nest around the city before using the monster hordes created by those next to attack the Holy City."

Reaching this point, Akailu suddenly chimed in. "Yeah, we also heard about that. But what about it? Are you telling us, a monster horde is going to emerge from the ground and attack all of the cities within the Kingdom?"

Hearing that, Shin pointed at the virtual map once again, especially the three parts which had a star pattern on them. These parts of the formation circle were creating the triangular formation which made it pretty obvious that they were the critical parts of the entire formation itself.

"As you can see, these places should be where they need to do the sacrificial ritual. And if you pay close attention to them, you would notice that they were facing towards the Elven Kingdom and the Dwarf Kingdom," he said as he pointed at the two particular parts that he was talking about.

The other quickly understood what he was implying the moment they heard those words. Then Charlotte immediately said. "So, you are saying that they are supposedly going to declare a war against the Beast Glade Empire once they fully take over the Elven Palace?"

"That is supposedly their Plan A if you are not successful with your previous quest. And the bloodshed that will take place during the war between the two nations is going to be the so-called sacrifice for the ceremony or whatsoever it is," answered Shin noddingly.

"So, our involvement in the Elven Kingdom forced our opponents to proceed with Plan B?" asked Alucard as he nodded his head.

Then he took a brief pause to point out that the third part of the formation circle was not facing either of the two kingdoms. "But what about this place? It is neither facing the Elven Kingdom nor the Dwarf Kingdom, so how can they get the required sacrifice for this particular spot?"

Shin nodded his head and quickly answered. "I understand what you are thinking. This place is really quite odd since it is facing a map which can't be explored by the current players."

"The monsters beyond that place are too high-leveled even for peak experts, so there are no players willing to explore that map. But that is also the very reason why the Corrupted Cults choose this spot."

The latter part of his words practically confused the other members of the group, so Shin quickly continued before they could even ask. "Since there is no one exploring that map, it can be a perfect spot to transport an army without being noticed."

Bang!

"So, are you saying that they are planning to attack the Beast Glade Kingdom from three sides?" said Akailu as he slammed his hand at the wooded wall behind him.

"What's worse, winning and losing is not their main goal. All they want is bloodshed so that they could turn the whole kingdom into a corrupted place. And once it happens, conquering the two neighboring kingdoms is not going to be a problem since both of their forces are weakened because of the war," said Owen as he was also able to see the big picture.

"Whoa~! What a well-thought plan," commented Alucard as he didn't know whether to become impressed with what he learned or be scared of the opposing side's strategist.

"But as I said it is only their Plan A. After Ms. Charlotte become involved and Mr. Akailu discovered the strangeness of the quests running around the kingdom, those guys had no choice but to remove two of you out of the picture since you will become an obstacle for their plans," said Shin.

"But they still failed in the end and were forced to abandon the original plan and proceed to the next one," he emphasized once again before tapping a couple of times in the air before asking the others to pay attention to the virtual map once again.

This time, black dots were added on a virtual map and slowly spread around the Beast Glade Kingdom before forming three large groups gathered in three different places.

"We can forget about the Dwarf Kingdom since we don't have clear information about what is going on in that place. But since we are assuming that there is a large army of undeads hiding within this map, then we can say that they are going to divide their forces like this before attacking all of the cities around it."

"This way, they can at least gather enough blood to compensate for the amount that they need for the ceremony," he added before letting the others have a clear look at the virtual map.

After a few moments of overserving the virtual map, Charlotte suddenly raised her head and looked at Shin, asking. "How large is this army from your estimate?"

Hearing that, the others quickly turned their heads at Shin as they were also thinking about the same thing.

Seeing that, Shin thought for a couple of moments before slowly giving his answer. "Well, I can't give you the exact size of their army."

"But given all of the calculated moves that we have faced so far, I can say that those guys spent quite a lot of time plotting this grand scheme. And putting all of that in consideration, I can say that they have a very large army on their side."

"Large enough to guarantee the success of their Plan B," he emphasized.

"Tsk! So, that means we are going to face a large army this time? How about we ask some help from the Head Chieftain of the Kingdom?" muttered Akailu, fully concerned.

Overhearing what he just said, Arthur couldn't help but laugh before saying proudly. "You don't have to be too scared about that. You have me on your side?"

He then paused for a moment to point at Leonard while saying. "What's more, we also have that guy? So, there is nothing to worry about."

Hearing that, Akailu's face suddenly turned stiff as he wanted to refute but he couldn't find the right words to answer back since he knew that these two monsters were really a pair walking disaster. Even the top powerhouses of the game would think twice before making a move against these two.

Meanwhile, Leonard immediately cut the conversation off and asked Shin. "What's your plan? I already told you that it is impossible to ask for some assistance from the main tribe of this place unless we provide solid evidence and not just our assumptions. So, don't get high hopes on them."

"How about asking some help from the Temple of the War God? This place is still under the jurisdiction of your Temple," asked Cloe while pursing her lips.

Unfortunately, Leonard shook his head before answering. "I'm sorry but I don't have the power to mobilize the Temple's Forces if it is not my territory."

"The Church of Light is in a similar case. They are not going to move unless there is definite proof that the Corrupted Cults are making their move," said Cloe while wearing a troubled expression.

At this point in time, Shin suddenly patted her head and said. "It is not like we are already out of options. So, do get discouraged yet."

"Really!? Then let's see your brilliant plan," said Cloe excitedly while looking at Shin with sparkling eyes.

Then Shin quickly pointed at the virtual map before saying. "A formation circle will only work if all of its most important parts are properly linked to each other."

"So, all we have to do is break that connection, and the whole system will either crumble completely or become crippled useless," he added smirkingly.

After that, he pointed at a certain part of the formation circle before continuing. "Let's forget the locations that are facing the Elven and Dwarf Kingdoms and focus on this isolated place instead."

"We will go to this location and block the opposing forces before they reach the cities within the area," he added to emphasize his intention. And when he saw the doubt on the faces of the others, he quickly pointed at Arthur and Leonard and continued. "We may be facing a large army this time but fighting this kind of battle is the specialty of these two, so they can just cripple their forces first before we join the prey."

Hearing that, Cloe suddenly chimed in and proudly said. "Yep! And you also have me! The holy power of my class is the bane of all undead, so you can re-…"

She was still in the middle of talking when Shin suddenly cut her words off. "Nope, you don't. You are not participating in this battle."

"Huh~!? Why not? I can provide strong firepower in this kind of battle. Don't tell me you are excluding me out again? Let me remind you, I am still the Commander of this group!" said Cloe in one breath while glaring at Shin.

"Again? What 'again' are you talking about? I am giving you a special mission this time," said Shin, trying to defend himself.

"Is that so? Then let's hear it out then," she said outside but still cursing inside because she couldn't work with Shin once again.

Shin cleared his throat for a moment before pointing at the smaller formation circle drawn on the virtual map. "I need you to guard this place. And of course, you are not alone. I already asked Chaotic Luck to make his preparations earlier, which is also why he can't attend our meeting."

"What is with that smaller formation? It doesn't seem important. It is also not connected to the main formation circle that was covering the entire Kingdom," asked Owen out of curiosity.

But the answer that he got was not something that he had expected. "I also don't know. But it is better to be prepared for the worst-case scenario than regret it later when some unexpected mishaps happened."

'And I also don't want to get played by 'my opponent' for the second time around,' he added inside his head while wearing a mysterious smile.

...…