“Damn a month of that kind of training really wears me out” said Ian rubbing his shoulder though looking at Peter he added, “Though the only training that really worn me out was yours. Doing a dozen simulated battles and getting lectured on what I did wrong is no fun at all.”

“Which is why it is called training, because it is not fun” said Hina a criticising tone to Ian before she realised she was defending Peter again. She frowned at this and noted that her behaviours was becoming...unlike her now.

“Yes yes~” Alexandra clapped her hands to get the group to pay attention to her and said, “Poor Lisa whom I'm SURE you remember as your homeroom teacher was quite sad to see you guys not even appear for your exams before.”

“....”

The group had nothing to say on this. There was little guilt but more like it was a pain to respond to this right now.

Yes, right now, Alexandra was working with them on their new subjects for the new semester since it was the start of it now. Normally they would have chosen it a while ago but...with their training they forgot about it again!

“First of all, you are taking the advance combat class with me again, then is advance history of the continent with Eden and advance analysis of class and skills with Viv and the second semester general course as well...somehow I think you guys are becoming lazy here....” Alexandra muttered at the end with a slight slight.

“That because it's easier for us for this arrangement to happen” said Peter with a smile.

Alexandra twitched and said, “Don't do that, you remind me of Alena when she asks for something...damn what the hell did Viv teach her while I wasn't looking?” she cursed at the end as well.

Peter felt that there was no need for them to know that piece of information...but whatever, more info on those three is always good.

“Anyway with this you have a whole another 4 months of a semester to deal with...sigh...and it's only going to be busier in game as well with the arrangements being made as well” Alexandra placed her hand on her forehand lightly and looked down.

Interested, Peter asked, “What kind of arrangements?”

“Oh, lots of mana stones that can hold mana, quite rare but obtainable and expensive as well as food and other supplies for the expedition” she said lightly though she paused to realise what she just revealed.

“So that was what the news has been talking about...” said Ian remembering the Royal Road new channels that said that the Kingdom was employing some of the elites in something unknown.

All the details were only vague at best and outlined that there was going to be a rough 5000 men army going somewhere by first teleporting through a large distance. There was not much but rumours says that a person found the hideout of the people who trashed the Imperial Palace all those months ago in the game.

“Well you don't need to know anything about that, just that it will take a while longer, a long time to get things into way for that mission” said Alexandra with a sigh.

After a few moments of silent, Alexandra said to the group after tapping a few buttons on her tablet, “There, I just removed the restrictions on your capsules so you can get in the game and play now.”

She then looked at the bed and said, “As for me, I rather get some sleep now...though I rather not laze around like Eden. Thus I have to tell you your guild responsibilities then.”

“Guild responsibilities? You mean what Arch, Ent and such were talking about during that tournament from a while back?” wondered Peter.

“Oh you heard of it before? Good that makes it easier to explain then. Basically you are given an outline on what you need to complete for a set period of time. The longer the time period, the harder the tasks you are given. Basically for you it will be to get to level 300 and do some quests and not screw up.”

“That sounds easy enough” commented Ian.

Alexandra let out a laugh and said, “You'll be surprise on how many failed this. When I say quests I mean Guild Quests not the normal kind.”

“....”

“Well good luck with that, I've left the details to your masters in game so you should speak to them as soon as possible.”

With that, Alexandra went to sleep on a bed in the infirmary. Hina, Maria and Grace promptly dragged everyone out at that time as well.

xXx

In the game, Sain respawn inside of Witchelm city as it was the last safe zone they were in and it was night as well. Looking around it seems that only one person here respawn nearby him.

“Oh, Sain! You spawned in this location as well?” wondered Lyndis running up to him.

Sain let out his usual smile and said, “Yeah, it seems so. We need to find the others but I'm in no rush.”

Lyndis stared at Sain for a bit and said, “You know, you should only say those words to Miriel you wannabe lady-killer. She seems to be off a bit thanks to you. Be a man to 'fix' her up then~” in a slightly teasing tone that made Sain wonder what was going on in her head.

Though it would be better for him to not know.

“I have no idea what you are talking about” said Sain bluntly ending this conversation to which Lyndis said, “Hmm...you're no fun” with a dissatisfied tone.

However before Sain could say a word about it, both of them heard a piercing scream.

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

“Eh?” “What?”

Both of them reacted and drew their weapons immediately and waited with dead silence. Soon enough the sounds of footsteps were heard.

“Help me!” a woman in dress robes came running to them. Her clothing was dirtied and she had a desperate look on her face. Behind her were three men chasing her, all armed as well.

Sain wondered who they should help, the woman or the men?

But before anything else, Lyndis rushed at the three men and took them out with her sword. She cut them up with her sword flashing quickly.

“Wait!” Sain shouted but it seemed that Lyndis did not listen to him. She was about to kill off the third person as well...!

“No choice, Evil Rule Art: Astral Bind!”

Ropes of mana appeared around Lyndis and bind her causing her to fall on the ground trapped like that. Naturally seeing his attacker down like that, the third man moved to attack Lyndis now. But Sain already knew what to do.

“Evil Rule Art: Sleep Hypno!”

The man suddenly fell asleep on the stop collapsing onto the ground like that without moving a muscle.

“Sain!” Lyndis screamed as he looked to see if the woman was fine. After checking, he kept one eye on her after saying not to leave and went to Lyndis.

“Why the hell did you bind me?!” Lyndis screamed at him. She did not believe what she was doing was wrong. To this Sain simply sighed and explained to her before he let her go.

“You shouldn't have killed those two...now we need to spend some time making it so this event didn't happen” he said to her.

“What are you talking about?!” Lyndis struggled but the strength of the spell was too much for her. Not surprising since the spell was a single target spell that had a good amount of power to it.

Being more anxious now due to several reasons, he quickly messaged the others to come here quickly and in a few minutes they all came rushing here all while Lyndis was still bound to his spell.

“Calm down for a moment and think through on what is happening due to your killing spree” he ordered Lyndis. He looked back to the woman who was thankfully still here and said, “Don't say anything yet, this is as troublesome as it is right now.”

“I understand” she simply said those words respectively and bowed to him. He had a strange suspicion of her but that had to be thought of later on.

In the meantime, Sain checked her out. Long lusty brown hair and was in a pure white one piece that was her dress robes that didn't cover much up in the leg department. He would now stop here since if Miriel caught him staring at her...

“You're thinking that I didn't catch you staring at her exposed legs right?” asked Miriel breathing down his neck. He felt true fear then and there.

“Examining only to deter where she is from” he said quickly.

“Normally I would say 'No excuses' but this time I see that Lyndis is tied up with your spell, two people are dead and the third is asleep probably thanks to you as well” she said, paused only to ask, “So what happened?”

Sain explained the chain of events quickly to Miriel.

“Hmm....”

She pointed at Lyndis and said, “Unbind her.”

Sain did what she said, he trusted in her judgement at least. Plus Lyndis wasn't the kind of person to attack him or the sleeping man all of a sudden if there was no cause for it.

However upon release, Lyndis moved up to punch Sain, or at least she tried. Her fist hit a barrier which was placed by Miriel after all and she cursed on her hand being hurt.

“Minor Heal.”

“...Thanks” Lyndis said in a grudging way. Soon enough Raven, Serena and Shadow who was also with Anna; his master appeared as well.

Looking around all of them except for Shadow was silent.

“Well this a complicated piece of cake we have here...did Lyndis really cause all of this?” he asked.

“Screw you” said Lyndis in return.

Shadow turn his head away and made the comment of, “I take that as a yes then.”

Sain sighed seeing sparks fly from Lyndis to Shadow and asked, “First, what do we do here? We have two dead, one more or less captured...speaking of which, can someone tie him with rope? I don't think my sleep spell will last any longer.”

The sleeping man was quickly tied by Anna who did so silently.

“Right, and we have the woman being chased here as well which I have not spoken to yet” he continued.

At that moment, Anna walked to the woman and asked, “Name?”

The woman who seemed a bit frightful of Anna said a slightly shaking tone, “Aria Dutcish Meldwore.”

Anna frowned and said, “This is bad.”

Miriel nodded and also said, “This is bad indeed. This person is the daughter of a recently fallen noble that tried to rebel against the kingdom” she looked at the men and then said, “Those people were probably from the Kingdom to capture her as well.”

“....”

All of a sudden, things became complicated.

xXx

At the home of Anna which no one from the group had ever been to, the group and their masters had gathered.

Sain and the others did not even have to look around the place when Gen said, “You lot really got yourself in deep trouble here. Thankfully Anna is a specialise in removing corpses from a scene. If what I heard was true then you helping her was the worse choice.”

Gen took a glare at Lyndis and asked, “Did you not even ask of who they were? Then saying that they were people from the Kingdom would prompt you to stop.”

Lyndis looked down in shame. However it was Ron who backed her up saying, “She couldn't actually help it you know. Her class is now 'Flame Samurai' plus she had the 'Honour' stat as well. A woman being chased by three three men...even if it was Raven, he would have probably done the same.”

“However he would not have killed two, three if not for Sain stopping her!” Gen roared, “Actions must always be taken with the consequences in mind! That is called thinking!”

“Gen she gets it” said Mel with a glance at him looking at the state of Lyndis who made this mistake, “There is little we can do now. At best we can erase that this event ever happened but first we need to know what exactly is happening from Park and Anna who are interrogating those two right now.”

And not too soon did both said people entered the room with the rest of them. The woman named Aria followed behind as well.

“Good news and bad news guys” said Park with a sigh, “Good news is that the three men weren't from the Kingdom, in fact I think the Kingdom should be thankful for Lyndis doing what she did.”

Everyone sighed of relief then.

“And the bad news?” asked Gen still not happy enough about this.

“We have the largest damn smuggling, slavers and so on organisation to deal with now” he said bluntly.

Jenny looked in surprised and asked, “You mean [Little Droplet]?!”

Park nodded grimly and said, “Yes, which is good news and bad news once again. Good news is that they can be get rid of since we now have a source of information. This organisation is so tight that any leads hold nearly nothing but based off that guy that Sain saved, we know where one of their routes are.”

“Which leads to their operation” said Gen, “Which leads to one of their bases and their network.”

Park chuckled and said, “Good thing Lyndis killed before asking since these guys would have suicide if they could not escape.”

“....”

Gen made some sort of grunting noise that made Mel and Jenny chuckle a bit as well at him. But soon enough, Gen went back to the serious him and asked Park, “Is there anything else to extract from him?” referring to the man captured.

Park shook his head and said, “Done and disposed of.”

“Easily done” said Anna with confirmation. The group felt a slight chill feeling that their masters were too used to this and wondered what happened in the past for them to harden like this.

Park and Anna turned to the woman named Aria and the rest of them turned and looked at her as well. Gen then asked, “So what do we do with you? As a fallen noble, you have actually less worth than a commoner right now. Plus [Little Droplet] was chasing you for reasons unknown and will be looking for you.”

“I can help!” Aria said with resolve.

Gen replied with, “Girl, every last one of us here is stronger than you and more capable though I am questioning one recently...but still what you can do, we can probably do with more safety and reliability as well.”

It was then that Aria smiled and asked them all, “But can you meet up with an informant that has information on [Little Droplet] including their bases and networks?”

“....”

The room well silent then and Park said, “You better not be lying here else we will make you experience hell” in a cold voice. Such a thing was too good to be true.

“I am not.”

“Location? Time? Identity?” Gen asked these three questions.

“Umm..what?” Aria was unsure on what Gen wanted.

“Location of meeting, time of meeting and who you are meeting” said Mel confirming what Gen asked in a more roundabout manner.

“Uh...at an abandoned village, around a week from now and I don't know the last, I was just told from a friend I knew that was killed recently about it” Aria answered.

“....”

The room was silent once again and Gen said, “This is too risky. But too good of an opportunity to risk. Ron will take care of this matter, you and Aria will talk on all the details that will be needed, every last word your friend said to you.”

Ron nodded and took Aria away with her surprise at his quickness. Then Gen turned to Anna and said, “Though you hate taking orders from me, investigate her family and any connects of connects that may have leads.”

Through frowning due to the reason that Gen stated, Anna nodded her head and said, “Roger” before disappearing. Then Gen said to Park, “Tell the city governor about this to report to the Kingdom” to which Park went out then.

Finally to Mel and Jenny, “Search around the place, identify anyone that is there and yet not suppose to be and so on. You know the drill, anyone following will be captured if possible else killed.”

“Right.” “I know.”

Both of them left and so it was only the group and Gen now.

“As for you all, Eden told me of your trial and I want to congratulate you all on passing considering that we, your masters all faced the same thing and knew it was quite...difficult.”

“....”

Due to the current situation they were in, none of them dared to even make a wrong breath.

“And because of this, your responsibilities will increase as well. First of all are the conditions you need to fulfil before the deadline.

A window appeared in front of the group.

Guild Orders

The Guildmaster has issued several orders based upon the judgement that you will be kicked out of the guild if you do not complete all of the following. These can be done in any order and in any way.

Reach Level 300

Complete 5 Guild Quests (Higher ranked ones will be worth more. C = 2, B = 3, A =4, S =5)

Complete one mission from a Guildmaster.

Time Limit: 1.5 Years

“The first two you don't really need to worry about. There is actually a place where you can accept Guild Quests instead of trying to find them. The only thing is that A rank and higher Independent Guilds can only use them for success reasons” Gen further explained, “As for the last thing, I'm not so sure since the stuff Eden gives can be extremely easy or difficult beyond anything else.”

Sain nodded and said, “Got it” understanding what Gen just said but soon asked, “So what are going to do?”

“Nothing” said Gen bluntly, “You all have just reached a new stage of the game here. It's best for you to train to around level 250 before even considering anything else.”

“....”

Sain stood there frowning. Did they not, despite their low levels completed Guild Quests before? Even though it was difficult to the point that he felt they could not endure, did they not complete it with little to no help from the guild?

“Master, we are strong enough to take care of ourselves” Sain assured.

Gen only shook his head and said, “You are wrong, there are many things in the world that even make me frightened and I am someone who is several hundred times stronger than you.”

“But we cannot just not do nothing in these circumstance!” Sain said again with a louder tone this time.

“There are times when you need to do nothing.”

“We have done nothing in the last three years! Everything was with the guidance of someone else!” Sain shouted this time. He did not like the fact that they were in the hands of Eden all the time. With this, they were suppose to be more free than before from that.

“....”

Gen was silent and then finally opened his mouth to speak.

“I still refu-”

“Cut them some slack Gen” said Ron interrupting him. Gen sent a look at Ron as he entered with Aria and then said, “This girl wishes to speak to them” pointing at the group.

“...Fine” Gen agreed in the end.

Aria who was in dressed in something that was more appropriate and made Miriel not want to hit Sain for staring at her, looked and examined the group one by one. With a smile she finally said, “I wish for your help!” while bowing

“....”

“From what that gentleman-” Lyndis also blurted out something inappropriate at that moment, “-Said, it seems that it is likely that some of my family. My younger siblings are still alive but captive. I wish for your help in finding and saving them!”

Find the Lost Siblings

The daughter of a fallen noble, Aria Dutcish Meldwore has beliefs that it is possible that her younger siblings are still alive but captive of the evil organisation 'Little Droplet' which is also a threat to the Kingdom. She requests for you to help her find and save them else...find them nonetheless.

Requirement: Save Aria from kidnappers

Rank: Unknown

Reward: Unknown

Seeing this, Lyndis immediately tried to say, “We ac-” but several hands covered her mouth stopping her from accepting. Looking around, it seems that everyone has a serious expression and she got what was happening right now.

Because of the fact that Aria looked defenceless and innocent, she had let her guard down again. Accepting this quest may not be the right thing to do.

As such Sain asked, “What are your intentions on giving us this quest?”

“Uh...I want to save my siblings?” replied Aria in a question like tone as well.

“Do you know the risks we need to take for this quest?” asked Sain once again.

“B-But my siblings” Aria started tearing up and the others were about to be sway by it if not for the fact that Sain had an especially cold face on which made it impossible for them to suggest anything to him.

This was the first time they saw Sain with such a face, which meant this decision was extremely dangerous.

“What do you think master?” asked Sain on something the rest of the group did not get.

“Hmm...not sure” replied Gen, “Could be a trap, could be ignorance, both come in hand to hand after all.”

After a while, Gen asked, “Girl, do you know what Independent Guild runs this city? You should seek help and ask them instead.”

“....”

The rest of the group suddenly knew what was going on. However Lyndis still had some doubts...though in the right ways now. Was it a coincident that she and Sain met her running at them when they just appeared and she has information to lead them to [Little Droplet]?

Now was the time to decide on which answer was correct here.

However at the same time, Lyndis did not want to cause unnecessary trouble to the rest of the group and the guild due to her. As such, she decided to reject this request...even though it would be a bad thing due to her 'Honour' stat, the circumstances in this situation was really too suspicious to accept right now.

But Sain overturned her internal decision.

“We accept this quest then” he said surprising everyone else at the same time.

Party has accepted the quest!

With this, they were in one this whether they liked to or not. First to react was Shadow who said, “This was unexpected, I thought you would say no.”

Sain gave Shadow a wry smile thanks to that and then it was Lyndis's turn to react with, “W-w-w-wait a second! Weren't you on the side of opposing accepting this quest?!”

“Did I ever say that?” Sain wondered.

“Your face hell of did! None of us could talk with that super cold 'I am going to kill someone' kind of face on you!” she shouted back.

“Well it's good that you got your energy back” Sain laughed considering that minutes ago, she looked like she wanted to disappear. Miriel sighed seeing that Sain was trying to encourage that Lyndis. She would have been fine even without him interfering.

“Now it looks like you are stuck with us dealing with this” said Ron with a laugh looking at Gen disproving face he was making.

“Sain...” Gen warned but Sain said, “I know” with a smile. He made his resolve to kill Aria if it turned out as a trap in the end.

With another sigh, Gen said, “Get a room at an inn, tomorrow we will discuss what is to be done.”

With a nod, the group left the house and went straight to a nearby inn.

xXx

After paying the inn for a particularly large room for all of them, as they had little intentions of sleeping but rather to use it to discuss, the group sat in a circle wanting to talk about what just happened.

“So..Lyndis' screw up turned out to be a good opportunity for a big bust eh” said Shadow with some sarcasm in his tone.

“Don't say it like that, I'm still feeling guilty thanks to Gen you know” said Lyndis shaking her head. In the last hour her stress levels had really gone up and was giving her a headache.

“In that case you can rest for a bit you know” advised Miriel, “There is a bed you can sleep on in this room.”

Lyndis looked to the bed that was extra large but that was really the only bed in the room itself. She really did not want to take up space like that and thus said, “No..I really can't-”

“And somehow she is changing her personality to compensate for her shortcomings when she said before she wouldn't with us” said Shadow commenting to himself though it was obvious who was the target of the words were.

“Shut it! I'm going to sleep then!” Lyndis shouted at Shadow before throwing herself onto the bed with a thud. Despite being large, it was not soft which made Lyndis' body ache a bit when she hit the bed.

“....”

“Anyway with that done” said Sain ignoring the groans of pain from Lyndis when she hit the bed, it was actually really hard, “We should talk about what she should do now, our normal dungeon raiding plans seems a bit more difficult then.”

“That only depends on what your master tells us to do” pointed out Miriel, “We may not be to do anything for the next month or so until they finish up on their side.”

Shadow nodded and agreement and said, “Taking on an evil organisation...I feel like we need to increase our level plus...I want to buy new equipment, to be precise a bow to use as well.”

“A bow?” Miriel questioned, she did not know the content of anyone else's training except for Sain's.

“Yeah, I was using that training time to train in it, I got quite good as well with a short bow which can be hidden quite easily as well” he said.

“And there is no possibility that you can shoot someone directly behind you while aiming forward?” asked Sain more interested now.

“Hey!” Miriel actually slapped Sain on the head for saying that with a red face. He did not need to remind her of that failure...

“So we agree on waiting until tomorrow to decide on what to do then?” asked Sain ignoring Miriel a bit.

“Agreed.”

With that, the group logged off from the game to search for anything on this organisation called [Little Droplet].

xXx

Back in reality, upon the encouragement of Hina, Peter logged into the Dark Gamer Union on Hina's account which she made without anyone else knowing.

There, he browsed through some of the latest news...prices of materials increasing and an increase in restlessness in certain areas due to increased monster attacks after a continuous drop in it since the last decade and so on.

He searched the term [Little Droplet] and got up some information from the Union.

Organisation Name: Little Droplet

Type: Dark, Evil

Funds: Unknown

Members: Unknown

Danger Rating: High

Information:

Location of bases, members and even resources of this organisation is unknown. It is more than well hidden.

Activates include kidnapping, slavery, drug dealing, assassinations but on a low key level only. Rarely do they attack high status people.

Goal of this organisation is unknown. However it has been declared as the enemy of the Kingdom, there are great rewards for those who report about them.

All other more detailed information requires more points to view

“....”

There was really not much on this organisation except that it was bad news to cross...and they did. Peter could not help but to sigh thinking of the trouble that will come to them now. He hoped that everything would work out well in the end...

“I don't know if this is a small organisation or a powerful one...or both...for even the Dark Gamer Union to not have much information on them...” Peter sighed. He spent the rest of the time off the Dark Gamer Union site and was researching places to train now that they were level 200.

xXx

The next day in game, which was only a few hours in real life, the group skipped the night this way, the group gathered at Gen's place this time where he would issue them his orders on what to do. He had all night to think of what could happen and prepared for all of that.

“I have decided still that it is best for you all to train to increase your level for a month.”

The group took a deep breath in, in the end he had no intentions of letting them in on anything?

“However, for the first week you need to focus on adjusting to using your new skills and classes. A week from now, Ron is to met with that informant that Aria mentioned. As for her, she is in protection right now and hidden away.”

Gen took one last took at the group before saying, “Dismiss! Get on to it already!”

xXx

At the side of the city gates where there was a weapon store nearby, the group was gathered to discuss on what to do.

“First me and Raven need to buy some new weapons” Shadow said to the others taking Raven with him as well as a few hundred gold. Everyone knew the value of good weapons and the fact was that the group was not scraped for cash like before.

Thanks to being in the guild, their expenses not only dropped but their gain increased as well. They had currently roughly 5000 gold in between them all so what was a few hundred gold? Plus from now on, their earnings would increase even more as well.

Monster would start dropping silver coins instead of copper and monster drops would sell for gold as well. From what most of the group knew, the price of swords, bows and other weapons were roughly the same price if they used the same amount of materials.

Because of this, a good level 200 bow would cost around a few thousand gold coins. Shadow buying one for a few hundred meant that his focus was not the power of the bow for now but rather it's use.

As for throwing weapons, they cost even less so Raven's expense should be fine.

Soon enough, Shadow and Raven reappeared back in front of the group with their new weapons as well. Shadow held a short bow that was barely the length of his arm. It had a silt feel to it and was coloured black. When placed on his back, it was hidden quite well.

Meanwhile Raven now had three throwing axes and twelve throwing knives on his side and the inside of his shield as well, all lined up. Raven looked more like a warrior than a knight right now due to that.

“What are the stats of those weapons?” asked Sain curious.

Shadow waved it off and said, “The really good ones were truly too expensive. I brought this weak level 140 one because it was the only one coloured black and could be hidden and was one of the few short bows they had. Raven's throwing weapons are the same. In all, it didn't even cost that much though we may need to visit a proper blacksmith for proper weapons.”

Sain nodded noting that they could not really rely on those weapons they just brought, but at the same time, they had other means to battle that were quite strong.

He set the course of where they would train, a dungeon that had werewolves in them. They could shift of their beast form or more human like form to attack. A balanced dungeon that had many foes to fight which was perfect as a test run.

As they walked, Sain thought of their new skills now.

Sain now could use runes though they were of the very basic to increase weapon damage of the group, change up the stat distribution of the party though had horrid conversion rates and could supply an extremely small amount of health and mana to the party for their kills. All of these would be extremely powerful when trained but not right now.

On the other hand, Lyndis now had a party buff that would only grow with time and two new passive skills that would be powerful if she could find a Katana type weapon which was moderately popular but on short supply. It will be most likely take a while to ask the guild for one.

Next Shadow's skills made him an even better assassin than usual now. Two skill that allowed him to hide better and one that allowed him to see weak points in enemies made it so that with the addition of a bow, even if it was weak, it could be powerful though his speed was dangerous enough.

Raven, the opposite of Shadow became an even better tank with a skill to increase his base parameters, a passive that increase the power of the first and finally another passive that makes it harder for foes to attack anyone but him.

Meanwhile Miriel had three passive skills that had no mana costs and would last through battles as long as she made them active. One looped a spell over and over again at the cost of most of it's power, another increased the effectiveness of a spell and the last decreased the abilities of foes. Though weak now, when trained they would also be quite powerful as well.

Finally there was Serena with three skills that directly increased her close combat potential. The first supplied a new source of strength for her, the second converted stats from the magical to the physical and the last allowed her to use her full potential in close combat. All three, especially the first was frightening at the very least to use.

Thinking of Serena first, he had the group stop for a while and chanted, “Wolf Summoning!”

In front of him, magic circle was formed and the Hybrid Wolf Bright Luna was summoned looking curiously at Sain.

[Master, the presence around you became darker again]

Even so, Luna moved to lick Sain's hand when he could. As on raised from a pup, Luna was extremely attached to Sain. Furthermore he was used to the presence of the others as well.

“Why did you-oh it's for Serena right” said Miriel realising his intentions. Serena carefully looked at Luna with both interest and fright. Interest since Luna was quite the beautiful animal to begin with and fright since despite being only level 180, it could still kill her in one bite.

Luna's growth was no slower than the rest of the group and even made progress when Sain didn't summon him.

[Master why have you summon me? There are no enemies worth our time here]

“I didn't summon you to let you fight, more like I want you to make a contract with Serena here” said Sain. Hearing his words, Luna turned and looked at Serena with interest.

[This druid...changed in a way that makes me slightly fearful to her now. Before she was like a helpless rabbit but now a rabbit with sharp fangs?]

Sain chuckled at the choice of words Luna had for his impression of Serena though only he could hear Luna to begin with some exceptions like Viv. Luna continued to look at the rest of the group and said the following:

[It seems everyone else had grown stronger in different ways than I last remember. I fear I may not be much help to you until I reach level 200 and advance to the next form as well]

“Next form?” asked Sain extremely interested now. He had never heard of this before.

[For some reason, most monsters advance in terms of stages based on levels. The first advancement is level 200 which is the largest change and adding 200 more levels each, our power, speed and everything increases dramatically and there is a good chance of variations on advancing]

“Ho...I would like to know more about that but this isn't the time” said Sain to Luna, “Can you and Serena form a contract so she can gain part of your power?”

[Understood]

“Okay” Sain looked at Serena and said, “Luna agreed so you can form a contract with him now.”

“Y-Yes!” For some reason Serena was standing up straighter than usual. She placed her hand over Luna's head and said, “Source Contracting start.”

Immediately the area was filled with red light, then black and white light before it all faded away. Serena then made the motion to open up her status window and stared at it in shock.

“30 points bonus to strength and agility?!” she also screamed in excitement.

Sain then immediately checked the message that Serena just got.

You have made a contract with the Hybrid Wolf Bright Luna

As a result of this contract, you will gain the following:

Strength & Agility +30

The skill 'Claw Slash'

Stronger and new bonuses will appear as Bright Luna grows stronger as well

Sain was pleasantly surprised by this to the point that he decided to keep Luna around for a bit longer. As such, the six people plus a wolf walked a day and a half to a dungeon on the side of the mountain.

xXx

You have entered the tomb of a forgotten grave

That message appeared for the group who had entered this dungeon. Due to the fact that this dungeon was discovered in a hard to reach place, it is not exactly popular along with the fact that the experience and loot gain here isn't that much as well.

Sain had desummoned Luna seeing the goal here was not to clear the place but rather to see the extent of their growth right after their classes were upgraded. There was no need for Luna's service now that Serena made a contract with him.

After walking only three corridors down, they found a pack of large wolves that were even larger than Luna.

“Looks like this is the place” said Sain seeing the wolves, “Remember don't use boost or any other buffing spells. We are here to test ourselves not completely clear this dungeon while being drastically more powerful than them.”

The rest of the group nodded. Using the power of 'Boost' which doubled all stats, effects of skills and spells and such, it was possible for them to battle creatures 30 levels above the usual. While using all of their buffs it was possible for them to fight creatures 20 levels above the usual.

And with their base stats, they were already able to fight foes 20-30 levels above them. Using these things made it possible for them to fight a creature a 70 levels above them, though only fight and not defeat.

Along with the fact that combat becomes a lot harder as the levels goes up, right now at their best even with 'Boost' and their buffs, they can only manage monsters around 50 levels above them at best.

Which was why they went to this dungeon which had monsters ranging from level 180-200. A dungeon with werewolves in it that can transform into two forms to fight.

However Miriel asked, “In that case, can I use 'reflective song'? I want to train it using 'Sound Tunes Variation' since buffs aren't allowed.”

“Fine with me” said Sain not caring that much. With the current effect of that skill, it shouldn't affect much at all.

“Ah, they're coming” said Shadow pointing at the enemy charging them in wolf form.

At this point, the group was quite experienced on fighting level 200 and higher monsters so something of this level was something that could not panic them. They prepared their weapons and waited to attack.

But what did was that these seven wolves inflated and turned into werewolves when they got close enough.

“What the...!” muttered Lyndis moving up and using 'Power Strike' on one of them. The attack was blocked by the thick muscles that the werewolf had on it's arms. However strangely enough, Lyndis struck again at the same spot with her sword and this time did not use 'Power Strike'.

“Garr!”

The werewolf screamed in pain as Lyndis' sword cut through it's arm and into it's body. With another flash of several sword strikes on it, the werewolf died leaving only six left in the beginning of the battle.

Unwilling to be outplayed by Lyndis, Miriel chanted, “Glacier Strike!” striking another werewolf in the gut and killing it in one strike. This was the power of magic itself which was much higher than normal attacks.

Now there were five werewolves in their large human like forms attacking them. The group shattered around these five and surrounded them attacking on all sides.

Shadow disappeared moving back and fired some arrows with his bow but dealt little to no damage to them but did manage to piss three of the remaining werewolves off to him drawing them in one direction.

“Ah damn” Shadow said that while moving behind Raven who became his meat shield. Raven swung his halberd using two hands as his shield was now strapped onto his arm temporary and cut all three of the werewolves but did little damage to them still.

The powerful blow did little to stop them from forcing Raven to defend himself.

“Evil Rule Art: Mind Shock!” chanted Sain attacking the mind of one of the werewolves that were attacking Raven. That werewolf stopped moving and Shadow through using various skills, there were too many to bother saying, attacked stabbing his short sword into the side of the head of the werewolf 'Confused' due to Sain's spell.

That werewolf fell onto the ground as Shadow and Raven worked on those two werewolves. Meanwhile Lyndis was tanking two werewolves on her own and was dodging instead of blocking with Miriel and Serena firing off spells that caused great cuts everywhere on the two werewolves.

Deciding to finish things off, Lyndis shouted, “Dancing Dragon Art: Second Slash!” causing a series of rapid attacks to come from her and finishing off the werewolves.

Looking onto the other side of the battle, Raven and Shadow finished off the other two werewolves as well.

Sain at that pointed noted the time it took for them to kill the werewolves and thought that even with the class change, new skills and increased stats, there wasn't much difference in how they fought.

Perhaps it was due to them not fighting enough. As such they dug deeper into it.

xXx

This dungeon was quite a small one, only taking them a total of four days to reach the deepest point and the boss room.

In front of them was a large 3 metre tall black werewolf known as the Black Werewolf King. A level 240 boss monster that was quite powerful in both power and speed.

In it's humanoid form, it had a lot of power and defence with a considerable amount of speed. But in it's wolf form, while it's power decreased a bit, it's speed increased dramatically making it a challenge to form a party that can deal with both.

It's speed was that it was faster than Shadow which was saying something but every last one of the group invested into Agility which meant they could endure it's speed. But without Sain allowing them to buff their stats, it would be difficult to fight this boss monster.

“What's the point of getting stronger if we can't beat something significantly higher level than us without the use of spells?” he said when one of them mentioned it.

It was one thing to depend on skills, another thing to depend on stats but a completely another thing to depend on true skills alone!

Their stats were quite higher compared to other players on their level but that was only due to training. As NPCs, they trained more and more than players so their stats were more than often higher than their levels. It was the same for the group as well, though compared to an NPC of the same level, their stats were still higher due to the level of training they had.

Right now, the black werewolf noticed the group which had just stepped into the room.

“AHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” The Black Werewolf King called upon it's allies to appear with him to fight.

But there were no other enemies, the group made sure of that. Before this, they killed every last werewolf so the Black Werewolf King could not use them.

Seeing that there were no comrades coming which mean they were all dead, the Black Werewolf King was angry now. Immediately shifting into wolf form, it became a black blur as it moved to attack Sain.

Not surprised at the least since he was the one at front, Miriel casted 'Ice Barrier' blocking the way to Sain to which the Black Werewolf King leaped over it to attack from above. But at the same time, Shadow was also in the air leaping at the Black Werewolf King and kicked it too the side, the right of the 'Ice Barrier'.

Bang!

With speed comes power as well, which was why Shadow's attack was powerful enough to knock the Black Werewolf King off.

The rest of the group took no time to also attack as well.

“Magic Arrows!” “Ice Bolts!” “Leaf Slicer!” “Flame Strike!” “Take this!” “...!”

Since all of them had the means of attacking in long range now, all of them attacked using long range without restrain. The first wave of attack from the group came with dark, blue, green, red magic attacks while there were also arrows and some throwing knives mixed in as well.

Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang...!

A series of loud noises came from where they just attacked now. Emerging from it, the Black Werewolf King was injured but not to the point it couldn't fight. In fact most of the attacks actually missed.

Another thing was that it's wounds were rapidly healing! The healing power of the Black Werewolf King was beyond frightening but nonetheless it's health was reduced by a bit.

“The damage it took was about...30% and it healed 20% or so...” muttered Sain calculating the damage they dealt. It wasn't that this Black Werewolf King was that strong but rather that it's healing powers were off the charts to the point that a short battle would be drawn out to a long one.

“No wonder why this place isn't so popular with the boss monster like this” sighed Lyndis, she hated foes that kept on getting up and up.

“Enough chatter, it's about to attack again” said Miriel warning the rest of them. However Sain noticed that there was something off about it's aura now.

Still in it's wolf form, the Black Werewolf King charged at them again, this time to Lyndis. Upon reaching her however, it transformed into it's humanoid form which was 3 metres tall. The speed of the transformation was too fast as well!

“Eh?”

Not only Lyndis but the rest of the group were shocked as well. Sain heard Shadow scream 'Burst Speed' but the Black Werewolf King was already in the position to punch Lyndis with a fist that was as wide as her waist.

Sain didn't have time to cast a spell as well.

BANG!

It's fist hit Lyndis and made her fly away almost lifeless if not for the fact that Shadow caught her in time.

“Moderate Heal!” “Health Restoration!”

Both Sain and Serena went to it and casted immediately healing spells onto Lyndis. Serena then casted a few regenerative spells on Lyndis as well as Sain looked at the Black Werewolf King who was now attacking Raven.

Seeing Raven being pressured extremely, Sain felt the rage in him build up. Even though he promised himself that he wouldn't let anyone...!

“Evil Rule Art: Mind Shock!” Sain chanted forcing the Black Werewolf King to pause to wear off the effects of his spell. Looks like this level of a spell can't cause a complete confusion status.

“Doing that to Lyndis...” Miriel's cold aura became even colder as she chanted, “Glacier Strike!”

Not from below but above came down the attack that hit the back of the Black Werewolf King and knocked it to the ground. There it was a perfect best for Raven to attack now as well.

“Meteor Stream Art: Heavy Blow!”

Raven swung his halberd down on the Black Werewolf King with both hands like using an oversized axe and caused a large chop wound onto the Black Werewolf King though it was already healing.

“Evil Rule Art: Astral Bind!”

Sain had no intentions of letting it get up again. Since it was on the ground, it may as well stay down as they torture it to death due to it's superior healing abilities. But as he was thinking of this, he felt a large amount of blood-lust and turned his head.

Both Shadow and Serena looked angry now with Lyndis still unsteady behind them due to the large impact.

“You may do the honours this time” said Shadow in a cold tone.

“Thank you Shadow” replied Serena in the same cold tone. Sain wondered when those two got along so much.

“Beast Transformation Art: Bear Shift!” Serena chanted with her body bursting with strength now. Her body grew another size but did not buff up with muscles like a lump of it but rather her body just together grew a whole size larger.

This made her hair seem shorter as it was still the same length now.

But Serena was not done yet.

“Berserk Conversing!” she shouted transforming all of her intelligence and wisdom stats into strength and agility instead. Over 500 points of each turned into roughly 340 points into the latter which meant that right now, Serena was stronger and faster than him.

She walked up to the Black Werewolf King with her killing intent clear and said, “Berserk Instinct” letting the skill take over.

She stepped on the Black Werewolf King's leg and suddenly applied enough pressure to break it.

“ROOOOOOARRR!!” The Black Werewolf King screamed in pain but Serena did not stop.

For the next half an hour, Serena 'Broke' the Black Werewolf King to the point that Sain actually mercy killed it so it didn't need to suffer anymore. For the first time, Sain felt that Serena was truly scary as well.

You have levelled up!

You and your party have killed a Black Werewolf King!

For this achievement you will gain the following:

At stats +3

Fighting Spirit +5

Damage against wolf type enemies will increase by 3%

It was a moderate gain from this fight and from the dungeon. Including this level up, they had gained a total of 2 levels thanks to this dungeon which was actually quite the lower gain for a dungeon.

However more importantly, Sain wanted to know what was up with Serena's sudden increase in strength.

As such, he checked that new stat which was called 'Rage'.

Rage

It is the emotion that will cause you to lose control but at the same time, provides you with greater strength and speed than even allowed with fighting spirit alone! The higher the rage, the more power that can be drawn out of the body but at the same time, this stat will only increase with more bottled up anger and will decrease when you use it to attack.

“....”

Sain could not say a word seeing this stat. It was literally a battery for a bomb to explode out. While quite powerful it relied on emotions to increase it? But with their all stat bonus, could Serena use this stat all the time or just when there was at least one point in it?

Sain did not know but had no intentions of testing it out since he rather not have that Serena attack him instead.

With this, the group spent another day and a half returning back to Witchelm City after testing out their strengths in the dungeon.

xXx

“I have some bad news.”

That was the first thing that Gen said to the group when they came back. He did not even wait for them to come to him but instead waited for them at the city gates and dragged them away into his home.

“The meeting with Aria's informant failed, Ron was ambushed and attacked. Though unharmed, it seems that [Little Droplet] is cleaning up for itself which means we are all in more danger now. Though it seems that they don't know yet that we are tracking them, Eden has approved of us destroying them since the Kingdom requested for it.”

It was then that a window appeared in front of them.

Destroy the Evil Organisation, Little Droplet

The Kingdom had requested the independent guild you are in to destroy the organisation that had been plaguing the kingdom for many years now. You are ordered to search and destroy every last trace of that organisation no matter the method.

Guild Quest Rank: B

Restrictions:

- The Organisation Little Droplet must be destroyed

- A majority of members of this organisation must be captured or killed as well

You have accepted this quest

Gen let out a laugh while the group was in shock now. All of a sudden they went from not doing anything to having to destroy this organisation. And they didn't even have the chance to deny even though they doubt they would be let off.

“Another troublesome thing came up...” Sain sighed thinking of the work they would need to do to finish this quest.

Onwards?PreviousExitNext

Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 9200~

- Things are starting to be set up now with this chapter...

- I just had to create an evil organisation...sigh...this kinda screwed up a lot of my planning on deciding on this...