“That’s right,” Queen Magenta added, “the boss was obviously not an opponent we could kill at our current level, and with our current stocks of recovery potion. So there must have been some tricks you guys pulled. Please hand over the token, we will decide the ownership some other ways.”
“Aren’t you being unreasonable?” Sinreaper uttered with discontent.
“What unreasonable, I am already kind enough to not demand possession of the token directly. We will discuss another way to determine who will get it.”
“No!” A resolute voice was heard. They all turned to the one that had spoken out, it was Jeanny.
“You stay out of this, little girl!” Queen Magenta uttered.
“No! You are a disgrace! I have seen them take out the Boss with my own eyes,” Jeanny said. “I’ve helped them fight the boss. It was very clear they had win fair and square. Who are you to ask for a demand after you yourself fled in cowardice?”
“How dare you!” Queen Magenta was fuming. “You traitor! Do you still consider yourself as our member? Do you want to be expelled?!”
“If the guild condoned your preposterous act, then I am ashamed to be a member of it!”
“You…!”
“Stop!” Selena came in between them to stop things from going out of hand.
Silverwing spoke out at this time, “in any way, the token is already in my hand. And I have no intention to give it up to you. If you are not satisfied, you can try to take it by force. I won’t mind returning it in kind.”
Queen Magenta glared at him, but she soon realized that she had lost. The item was already in Silverwing’s inventory bag. Even if she killed him, there was no guarantee the item would drop. And she had no confidence that her guild would win if they went to war with White Scarfs guild.
“Since the token had been taken, we will leave it at that,” Selena said, she gave a look to Queen Magenta that told her to let go of the matter. Queen Magenta agreed by being silent, but her face still showed extreme displeasure though.
“In that case, we will leave. Jeanny, let’s go,” Selena said.
“Wait,” Silverwing called out. “It is true that the token was already ours. But as agreed, we will share the Boss’ loots. I’m not like some person who will go back on her words just because I am suspicious of the other party.”
Queen Magenta glared at him when she heard the sarcasm.
Silverwing ignored her and displayed the six items in his hand. “We will distribute based on ranking as agreed. Mister Storm Wind had taken his prize. There are six left, which coincidentally are the same number of the surviving people here. Mister Warpath, you are the second rank, please take your choice.”
Warpath mouth twitched when he heard himself being called second rank. It’s the second time now he had lost to Jack. Although he still believed that Jack had cheated, he didn’t see a way to force him to admit his dishonesty. So he swallowed his pride and inspected the items in Silverwing’s hands.
In the end, he chose the rare one-handed sword. Jeanny went next, she chose the uncommon camping tent. Selena and Silverwing chose the uncommon equipment. The remaining uncommon materials were given to Queen Magenta and Sinreaper.
After everything was distributed, they all agreed to leave the dungeon. After the dungeon was cleared, there was an option to leave immediately from where they were, so there was no need for them to go all the way back to the entrance.
Outside the dungeon, Scarface and the others from Death Associates were gathering not far from the entrance. They had failed the dungeon and had come out for some time. Both them and Corporate United had lost some people in the dungeon, but they had managed to escape and come out safely from the entrance.
They had heard that White Scarfs and Wicked Witches had gone into the dungeon as well not long after them, and still had not yet come out. They had assumed those two guilds’ players must have all been obliterated inside.
When Jack and the others had cleared the dungeon, the notification that they had cleared it was also getting broadcasted around the entrance of the dungeon. The people of Death Associates were discussing their experiences within the dungeon and talking about the strategy for their next skirmish. All of them were shocked when they suddenly heard the broadcast.
In addition to that, besides the dungeon entrance, a stele had magically appeared out of the ground. On its surface was the record of the ten persons that had cleared the dungeon for the first time. Scarface and Red Death had gone to look at it. They were utterly dejected after hearing the notification, and after they saw the rankings listed on the stele, their expressions were becoming even grimmer.
Bigarm had followed them into the dungeon and was one of the people that had died inside. Thus the guy had been sent back to the capital after reviving. If he was nearby at the moment, Scarface did not know if he could resist the urge to kill him himself. The guy had created such a thorny enemy for their guild.
“How the hell did they clear it?” Red Death said. “We have reached the boss as well. It was still a manageable opponent by itself, even when its life fell to half and summoned ten minions, we could still manage it. But on its second summoning, hundreds of its minions came out, I don’t think anyone would have survived fighting that swarm with the Boss still around. I just don’t see any way to defeat them all at our current stage.”
Scarface was contemplating Red Death’s words. He had also agreed that such condition was impossible to be dealt with, unless their levels were much higher or if they had skills that could deal damage with a large area of effect. “They must have found some other ways to deal with the swarm that came out during the Boss’ late phase. It doesn’t matter now, the guild creation token had been taken. We might as well spend our resources elsewhere. If later we learn the secret, we can come back again for this dungeon. Otherwise, it was too wasteful to keep on sacrificing the level of our members just to find out about the secret of clearing this dungeon.”
“I agree,” Red Death said. “What about the people of Corporate United? Are we still cooperating with them?”
“They will also lose interest now that the Guild Creation Token is no more. Never mind them, they can continue with this dungeon if they want, but we will not take part in it anymore.”
“Alright. What about that guy from White Scarfs?”
“Tell him to keep staying there first for the time being. If this operation had been a success, it won’t matter if we have fallen out with the guild. But because they had gotten the token, they will have a head start, better if we have someone inside to monitor things. Tell him not to worry, he will be compensated for his trouble. When we had assembled all the members of our guild that had arrived in this world, a small guild like White Scarfs won’t be a problem at all.”
“I will have people relaying that message.”
“Damn it, when I got that leak about the token, I thought we can start having a foothold earlier than the other guilds here. Such a pity…” Scarface sighed with unwillingness.
“Can’t help it. Now we need to increase our pace in collecting gold coins. We can only establish our guild the normal way.”
They then went back to reorganize their people. Since this dungeon was no longer important, no reason to station so many people here. They would discuss arranging other tasks for the members here.
While they were still chatting, a ripple appeared in the air near the dungeon entrance. The ripple turned into a ball of energy that pushed nearby people away. The surrounding people were stunned by this sudden turn of events.
The ball descent and landed on the ground, before dispersing and revealing seven people. The people around came closer to see and found out that the seven were part of the group from White Scarfs and Wicked Witches, who had just cleared the dungeon.
Both members of White Scarfs and Wicked Witches that were stationed around the dungeon immediately erupted in cheers. They acted like people that had just welcomed their heroes and heroines back. While the people from Death Associates and Corporate United could only stare in jealousy.
