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Owen and Ithilien walked out of a luxurious house in the middle of the city. They just finished submitting their quest completion and reported their progress. Everything went smoother than they had expected as they did not find any hindrances along the way.
Now that they had completed most of the tasks that they needed to complete, they were only left with the most important one. It was to complete the final chain of the major quest that they had cleared before.
It was to meet a certain NPC in at the center of the Maze Forest, one of the strangest and most complicated maps within the Sacred Light Kingdom.
According to the information that they had, the NPC was named Nolan and was known as Keeper of the Groves. Given that he was a Titled NPC, the two were expecting that this guy would play an important role in the future.
It was a simple quest to deliver a message. However, it would take some work to complete due to the location of the NPC.
The Maze Forest was a very complicated map. A lot of players were lost in it after trying to venture within it. All of them were trapped within the forest and could not get out, forcing them to use their teleportation and return scrolls to go back to the city.
But despite that being the case, the players were having a hard time fighting the temptation of venturing into that place.
The map was like a treasure trove that was filled with rare herbs and special ores. Such resources were currently in demand in the entire kingdom due to their multiple uses like the creation of the unique potions that could only be found in the Sacred Light Kingdom.
These herbs could also be used to create some unique pills that were always been the top product of the kingdom. These pills were top-quality resources that could give permanent attribute points or long-lasting buffs that most of the players would go crazy for.
This was one of the reasons why the Apothecary Sub-Class was famous within this kingdom. Even though the other Empires and Kingdoms had Apothecary specialists of their own, the ones that could be found within the Sacred Light Kingdom were one of a kind.
Even the Hand of Midas, which was known as the number one lifestyle guild and trading firm within the virtual world, only had a decently good Apothecary Specialist.
Even if they had almost all the number one players in different lifestyle professions, they still did not possess an Apothecary Specialist who could confidently say that they were the best apothecary within the game due to the masters staying in this kingdom.
Of course, there was also the rivalry between Alchemy and Apothecary, which had similar traits and shared the same target market.
But despite all of these, there were still some distinct differences between the two.
Since the Apothecary within the Sacred Light Kingdom was quite unique, the powerful guilds and organizations within the game were also trying to gain influence within the kingdom.
One of the guilds that managed to take root deeply in this kingdom was the Golden Dawn, which spent quite a lot of time and effort on annexing multiple small to medium guilds based on this place.
Golden Dawn was one of the top Powerhouse Guilds within the game, which made them quite a strong contender at controlling the resources within the Sacred Light Kingdom.
But despite their efforts of trying to monopolize everything, their rival guild, the Mythical Guild, also managed to grow a decent influence within the kingdom.
Multiple clashes between these two guilds already occurred within the game due to them trying to take control of certain grinding maps and leveling areas. They were also fighting over the unique resources whenever a mine or harvesting fields were discovered.
While these two were busy fighting against each other, another powerful force suddenly emerged from the dark – the Clear Water Guild. This guild was being sponsored by a huge corporation in the real world, the Black Water Corporation, who took an interest in investing in the virtual world.
The Clear Water Guild might not be as experienced as the two Powerhouse Guilds since they just joined the competition within the virtual world, but they had a lot of money. They could hire multiple workshops with a decent reputation and recruit famous small organizations within the game to be their fighting force.
With their money, recruiting some strong and powerful individuals was also not a problem while the management would be overseen by the specialist from their side in the real world.
Then they would provide the gold that would equip these forces with top-quality equipment and weapons, giving them a decent fighting chance against any powerhouses within the game.
With these three hegemons competing against each other, the smaller guilds did not stand a fighting chance and could only pick up the scraps that were overlooked or left behind.
Due to the heavy influence that the three guilds had built up within the Sacred Light Kingdom, the other powerhouse was having a hard time joining the competition. Especially when these three had a tacit agreement to crush whoever was trying to join the competition within the kingdom together.
They were joining forces if an outside force tried to get a slice of their pie.
Of course, these three powerhouses were quite crafty enough not to provoke the wrath of the public. They had set certain rules for themselves to make sure that they would not be provoking some talents within the masses and missing the chance to recruit them.
With these three keeping an eye on each other, there was a certain tranquility within the kingdom despite how competitive it was.
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Owen and Ithilien were quite famous within the kingdom before due to their talent and battle prowess. The three guilds were keeping an eye on them and even extending an olive branch to them, showing their sincerity in recruiting them.
But the two chose to remain on being independent players up until they were recruited by Shin to join the Empyrean Talons.
Before, Ithilien had a group of friends that she would regularly hunt and grind with during their free time. It was also a team of independent individuals, who were quite skilled and talented despite their not-so-pleasant personalities.
Regardless, she would regularly join them with their hunts, dungeon clearing, and questing from time to time since most of them were her classmates in school.
But during one of the important quests that they were doing, they stumbled upon the members of the Golden Dawn, who happened to be hunting in the area.
Those guys were quite arrogant and tyrannical, they tried to chase the group away under the pretext of their guild was doing an important business in the area.
Due to the bad temper of some of Ithilien's friends, tension was quickly built between the two sides.
But before the fight broke out, someone from the Golden Dawn had recognized Ithilien. Due to her fame, a lot of players from top guilds within the kingdom were able to recognize her.
The situation was quickly resolved at that time. But before the Ithilien's group could even walkway, an officer from the Golden Dawn suddenly arrived and made the situation even worse.
He tried to harass Ithilien, which quickly escalated into an intense battle. Because of the huge difference in strength, Ithilien's group was immediately wiped out aside from her.
It was at that moment when they tried to humiliate her and do something terrible. But before they could even lay a finger on her, Owen suddenly appeared and slaughtered everyone.
This caused the higher-ups of the Golden Dawn to be enraged, especially when that officer happened to be the brother of an elder of the guild.
The guild sent a bounty order to the pair, making them to be the target of the whole guild.
The guild had also used some underhanded methods to poach Ithilien's friends, making them betray the two and sell them out.
Owen was so enraged that he hunted those friends and forced them to hide behind the city walls and never come out.
That was also the time when Owen's reputation reached its peak within the kingdom. Not only did he hunt down those traitors, but he also did it while he was being hunted down by a powerhouse guild.
Of course, there was still a limit to the strength of an individual. Even if Owen was skilled and powerful, he could not face the forces of the Golden Dawn by himself. He was forced to hide and run along with Ithilien.
What made things worse was when those 'friends' of hers suddenly shared the information about the chain quest that Ithilien was doing to the Mythical Guild.
The Mythical Guild tried to communicate with the two. They even said that they would be willing to mediate with the Golden Dawn as long as Ithilien shared the quest with them.
As it turned out, the quest that Ithilien was doing was a major quest that concerned the main storyline within the Sacred Light Kingdom, and the Mythical Guild happened to be the one that was able to clear the previous chapter of the quest.
But after losing their lead, they did not know where to start and blindly looked for clues. It wasn't until they stumbled upon the information that Ithilien's friends had shared with them.
Things escalated further and became a complicated issue when the spies of the Golden Dawn and Clear Water Guild got the information and reported it to their higher-ups.
It became even more troubling for Owen and Ithilien to stay in the kingdom, especially when the three hegemons were looking for them. This was the reason why the two were forced to leave and migrate to a different city.
They first wanted to stay in the Elven Kingdom since Ithilien had a pretty decent reputation there. But as if luck was not on their side, that kingdom was also in a complicated situation, which led them to meet Shin and Charlotte along the way.
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"This is an important quest, so we have to be careful. We still don't know when those guys will become aware of our return," said Ithilien to Owen, who seemed to be itching to cause some trouble.
"Don't worry. I understand our situation very well," he said with a smile.
If it was not for this quest being a solo quest, then they would be more willing to share it with Shin and the rest of the Empyrean Talons. But since it could not be shared, they had no choice but to proceed with the original plan.
They could actually ask the others from their adventure team to help, but since everyone was busy with their respective businesses, the two chose to take the risk and head back with just the two of them.
It was not like they were the same as before.
Owen had already finished the chain quest to convert his class to the one that he had gotten from the treasures that Justin had left behind. He had already become a genuine 'Ancient Protector', which seemed to have an evolutionary path that could rival the Ascended Class.
He still hadn't tried tackling his Tier 3 Class Promotion quest due to this issue with Ithilien. Moreover, he also wanted to familiarize himself with the new set of skills that he had gotten and tried to enter the state of Reality Manifestation that Shin had taught them.
Aside from that, Owen had already become more accustomed to the set that he had gotten from Justin. This was a top-quality gear that could rival Shin's Apocalypse Set and Arthur's Divine Dragon Set.
He also had the sword and shield that Black Hammer had forged for him to compliment this set and his fighting style.
With all of these, Owen had become more confident in himself.
Not only him, but Ithilien too.
After the previous Empire Quest, the Empyrean Talons had gotten quite a lot of equipment with the highest quality and other forms of resources.
Due to her being the only Archer of the group, Ithilien had received the bow that the Archer King 'Caelum' had been using before. It was a top-quality bow that was at the peak of the Black Mithril Rank, so it was not hard to imagine how powerful she had become after possessing such a weapon.
Aside from that, Shin also provided the materials that she needed for creating a personal set. Then, Shin commissioned Harmony to craft it for her. As the number one Tailor in the game, it was pretty natural for her to create an equipment set that was comparable to the products that Black Hamer had forged.
The leather armor that Harmony had crafted for Ithilien was also a Black Mithril Set that made her ashamed to take.
She wanted to refuse at first, but after Shin insisted that it was part of the contract and the team was investing in every member, she could no longer be stubborn and accepted the set in the end.
Owen was already living proof, after all. The guy had not only received an overpowered class and equipment set, but he had also received a specially tailored pair of weapons, so how could she refute?
She also received the 'proof of qualification' that they had gotten from Caelum, but she had yet to use it since she wanted to see what rewards she would get from this major quest that she had.
She already had the other half of the scroll, and she would be receiving another if she managed to clear all the chain quests.
She was quite curious about what kind of reward she would receive upon completion. She also wanted to see if it was a special scroll that would help her convert into another race or class.
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The pair fixed the special cloak that they had received from the Hand of Midas. It was the special cloaks that could hide their identities, which was also similar to what the elites of the guild were using.
It was the same cloak that Shin had seen from the elite squads of the Hand of Midas, which was based on the design and abilities of his [Nightwalker's Cloak].
After making sure that no one had spotted them, the pair quickly blended with the flow of players walking out of the city before heading to the Maze Forest.
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This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶