The Almighty Ring

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After a few circles in the sky, Jiang Fei had scouted the territory of the Iron-Blood Alliance guild.

Their quest was to destroy the guild storage unit, which was located deep inside the castle.

It was inevitable. Others did it since it was the safest way to secure the guild’s materials. Even Jiang Fei had designed Empyreal Dragon’s storage unit to be the same way. All those important, countless, priceless materials had to be secured somewhere with tight security.

The only thing that Jiang Fei felt lucky for was the fact that their progress of their castle building was not as far as Empyreal Dragon. Although Empyreal Dragon started off slower than Iron-Blood Alliance, the Aristocrats had sent their help, thus, allowing Jiang Fei to move faster and further in terms of territory construction. Iron-Blood Alliance was not done with their construction. If they had, Jiang Fei would be forced to send in Isabella in her dragon form to attack. There was no other way for him to attack.

When a guild territory had finished its basic construction, only players with the guild master permission were allowed in. However, since they had not finished their construction, Jiang Fei and the party would only need to avoid the Scout Tower’s detection AoE as well as other players. In theory, they could maintain stealth throughout the mission.

Once Jiang Fei returned to regroup with the others, he informed everyone and drew a makeshift map on the ground. Billy Boy sighed in relief since he, too, had feared that the territory was completed.

“Let’s get going now! Guild master, fly to the sky and provide insights. Hazy, take the lead and find a path for us. The rest of us, stay put until guild master and Hazy Memory give us the green light!” Billy Boy gave the command and everyone nodded in agreement. They would have to move fast since the one-hour timer was left with only thirty minutes. If they could not finish their mission within the one hour time frame, all of Twilight City would be alerted to their presence and it would take them only five minutes for nearby players to defend the storage unit; ten minutes for all members of the guild to reach their base, and thirty minutes for all Twilight City players to join the defensive right. Time was the luxury that Jiang Fei and the party did not have.

Puff!

With a puff of smoke, Hazy Memory turned invisible and moved quickly toward the enemy base. At that moment, Jiang Fei applauded Billy Boy’s judgment to bring an Assassin to this mission.

Jiang Fei summoned the Skygliding Dragon and soared into the sky with Isabella behind his back. As such, Jiang Fei informed Hazy Memory about his general location while Hazy Memory would scout and find a suitable path for the rest of the party to infiltrate undetected.

Being stealthy in the game and in reality were two different things. In the real world, even if you were caught by a guard, a quick chase and kill would eliminate that person, thus removing your presence again. In the game however, once you kill a player, they would re-spawn immediately. Easily, they could open the guild chat channel and inform everyone about the attack. That was why, Billy Boy had sent in the stealthy Hazy Memory to find a path with no players for them to infiltrate. One wrong move and the mission would be compromised.

Destroying the storage unit would require four special bombs that were also given by the system. Each player could only hold one of them and those who had the bomb could not be invisible. That was one of the other reasons why Billy Boy had brought in an Assassin since the rest of the team could not be invisible.

If the quest was not limited with time, Billy Boy would not need to waste so much effort. Jiang Fei alone could finish the job, with Isabella attacking the territory with her Forbidden Spell. In the worst case scenario, a team of invisible Thief could sneak in and attack.

However, the risk was high, as well as the reward for completion. Billy Boy had chosen the safe way instead.

With Jiang Fei being the eye in the sky, the party was able to move easily whilst avoiding the detection from players and towers. Even so, there was a problem. Even if those enemies were not on guard, they were coming in and out of the guild territory to restock or to craft equipment. To avoid any player detection, Hazy Memory would scout the area. When someone was coming, he would inform Billy Boy and the rest to hide in a corner. Only when the coast was clear, they would move on closer to the storage unit.

Little by little, the party was able to make progress. However, the time taken was just too long. Even Billy Boy started to feel nervous. Jiang Fei was high in the sky; he did not feel much danger as compared to Billy Boy and the party who were behind enemy lines. There were many times that they had gotten overly close to the enemies. It was because of Jiang Fei and Hazy Memory’s instruction that they were able to quickly move around buildings and hide from being sighted.

If their plans failed and they were detected, if they chose to fight, they would be killed. If that happened, the only way for Billy Boy and the party to leave Twilight City was through Beginner’s Village. That was experienced by the over 200,000 players from the top two guilds of Twilight City. Having to fight in someone’s turf was an extreme disadvantage. The first disadvantage was not being able to reequip.

Once the gates were closed, there was no way for one to use the Teleportation Circle to return to one’s own city. It was either run or be killed. Currently, Twilight City’s Teleportation Circle was not even functioning. Hence, the only bad end for the party was to be killed until their level dropped so low to the point where the system would automatically send you back to Beginner’s Village.

That was the sort of danger that except Jiang Fei, the rest of the party felt. He could fly. Hence, if there was a fight that he knew that he could not win, he could easily fly away to safety. If the Teleportation Circle was working, he could easily fly to it and head back to Dawnlight City.

As time passed by, Billy Boy started to panic as everyone was about to be alerted of their presence. If they were found out, their quest would be abandoned and their mission would change from destruction to survival.

“Guild master, how far is it?” asked Billy Boy. At that point, he was very nervous as there was only five minutes left.

“Two more streets!” said Jiang Fei from the sky.

“This is the center of the Iron-Blood Alliance. There were so many NPCs around as well as players coming in and out. We need more time to get closer to the storage unit. Five minutes is definitely not enough!” Billy Boy said.

“What do we do now?!” asked Burning-Eyed Shana.

“Give me a sec… We can run. If we use our skill, one minute would be enough to reach the storage unit. In that time, if things go well, we could blast the storage unit!”

“And after that?” asked Hazy Memory.

“After that, the guild master will swoop down and take all the materials. As for the rest of us, every man for himself!” said Billy Boy with a straight face.