Inside Maze Forest, a cooling breeze swept the area with an earthly freshness. A dew speckles spider web slung between two plants glinted and twinkled as it caught the sun while some forest creature flitting from tree to tree.
Hubert was minding his store while he was engrossed in his inventions. There was no customer this day except the usual, Ren and his friends, but Hubert didn’t mind the slow business.
Sooner or later, players would pour into the place. There was no question about that.
Hubert was entirely focused on what he was doing, and the tiny gnome wasn’t minding the ruckus of his neighbors on the other side of the wall.
They had been noisy since they arrived. Hubert was used to it and had learned to ignore them. As long as they cleaned the place, they had no problems. The noise of their activity felt dull on his ears anyway, the echoes swallowed by the surrounding vegetation.
Until the peace was disturbed by Leonel’s loud roar.
Earlier that day, Ren and Leonel were in their usual headquarters to discuss World Conqueror’s future.
“Man, even Fighting Lambs, and Roaring Tigers didn’t want to work with us anymore. After what we’ve been through? Those guys abandoned us at the first sign of trouble when we fought for them when they have nothing in their names.” Leonel stretched his hand over his head and released a loud blast of air.
“I can’t blame them. They’re just normal humans who didn’t want to be on the wrong side of the foot of the Alvarez family,” Ren said, eyes on the map on top of the table.
Leonel stared at the ceiling and scratched his head. “Are they really that powerful?”
Ren shot Leonel a look before his eyes went back to the large map sprawled on the wooden slab. “Think of the Gambino and Axis family. The Alvarez is almost the same level as them.”
Leonel shot to his feet from surprise. “Whoa! They’re filthy rich then!”
After seconds his expression fell into hopelessness. “Then are we doomed? Our business is just starting, but it all went down the drain just because you killed a girl?”
“I killed her in a PvP fight, which she started,” said Ren without care. “And it’s not entirely doomed. Both Silvia and Isolde are still expressing their desire to work with us.”
At the mention of Isolde, Leonel’s heart skipped a beat. He forgot to send her flowers this day because he was so troubled with World Conqueror that he failed to remind himself of his . . . boyfriend duties. He could only hope that he wouldn’t be hunted by her guards and wouldn’t be ambushed by his father and brother.
Dear God, please give me until this afternoon, and I will send her tons of pretty roses. Leonel silently prayed. If Isolde wasn’t happy, so was his future. He needed to make her happy and satisfied at all times because his life was literary depending on it.
Leonel felt tired all of a sudden. He couldn’t straighten things out with her because he was sure that he would lose his head when her family found out about the truth that he only liked her as a friend.
But everything felt wrong, and he had to straighten things with her sooner or later. He was leaning on the later part since he still wanted to live.
“Leo!”
Leonel flinched, and he whipped his attention at Ren, who was looking at him with a raised brow.
“W-what?”
“Did you hear what I said?”
“Ah . . .”
“Pay attention.”
“R-right.”
“I said that Isolde and Silvia are still willing to hire us . . .”
“. . . But?” Leonel felt like there was a big, but at the end of Ren’s sentence, so he took it upon himself to add it.
“We would never regain World Conqueror’s name by just clearing dungeons,” Ren said seriously. “We need something big. Something that would go down in history. Something that would iron our names in COVENANT. Something that would make everyone grovel at our feet and not care about Serius Alvarez’s threat.”
“Err . . .” Leonel scratched his cheek. “That sounded hard. What do you have in mind?”
“. . .” Ren skimmed his jawline, eyes glinting in focus, and Leonel knew that his friend was brewing something . . . diabolical that would either catapult their names in history or drown in the sea of forgotten warriors.
A heavy silence descended between them.
Neither one spoke.
Leonel was staring intently into Ren’s eyes, drawn by whatever crazy plan he was brewing in his mind.
When Ren’s lips stretched into a concerning grin, Leonel swallowed hard, for he knew what was about to come.
“We’re going to defeat a World Boss.”
. . .
. . .
“. . . Huh?”
Ren inhaled sharply. “Think about it. Defeating something that no one has ever defeated would surely give our group the attention it deserves. What’s more, all guilds would come to our feet to buy the items we acquired.
“Serius Alvarez or not, once our names boomed in that sky, every top guild would surely employ us. If we killed a World Boss, then they would think that defeating other bosses and clearing dungeons would be a piece of cake for us, and that old man’s words would no longer pose a threat both in-game and the real world.”
“Wait. Wait. Wait.” Leonel caught his head to process what Ren said. “It’s all good and all, but I thought that defeating a World Boss isn’t an easy feat? You need at least hundreds of players with three digits ATP or more to actually kill one. How are we going to kill it if it’s just going to be the two of us?”
“Three,” corrected Ren.
“Three? Who’s the other one?”
Right on cue, they heard a knock on the door.
Thinking that it might be Isolde, Leonel quickly got to his feet and opened the entrance.
However, he was stunned when he opened the door and saw Evie staring straight at him.
“Hello,” she said, face blank. “Is Ren there?”
“. . .” Leonel blinked many times, and it took a whole fifteen seconds for him to react.
“Y-yeah! C-come in! Come in!”
Leonel hopped to Ren and he might as well shouted in his ears.
“Ren! Ren! Evie is here! Evie is here!”
“Ignore him. He just took too many vitamins today. That’s why he is so hyper,” said Ren at Evie. “Take a seat first.”
