Invitation

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/At the same time, within a private room of the Mercenary Guild…/

/SPLAT!/

As the video of a man being smashed to a pulp by a massive green guy played, a man calmly drank some rough beer with a serene gaze.

If it wasn't clear already, he was watching a Livestream from one of the many players participating in the 'raid' of the Field Boss of the fields.

After taking a large sip, he said with a small chuckle:

"How brutal."

/Slurp…/

"You seem pleased." Someone else said as he looked at the man drinking

He wasn't alone, as next to him were 7 others, all wearing different clothing that represented their Classes and jobs.

They all had the same emblem on their chest… A red emblem…

"Of course I am, look at them, those greedy fucks, they didn't properly access the situation, and that's what they get."

/Slurp/

The man's cheeks were a little red, and next to him were 5 more mugs...

Seeing this, a girl with a pair of ponytails asked:

"Are you... Drunk?... Did you turn that configuration on again you son of a B? Didn't Boss tell you not to?!"

"Ahh, you're such a bore! I'm not drunk sheesh..."

"Besides, what's the fun in drinking if I can't even feel the kick? Having just a simple status notification is such a bore..."

"..."

But before this girl could say anything else, the man took another sip and said:

"Heh, you know what happens when you lose your items next to Dale, right?"

"His nickname is 'Dale, the cleaner' for a reason."

A girl wearing a hood replied in a smug tone:

"Of course, we know... He's a menace."

"He'll kill any player with a negative Karma outside of the Village if he meets them, and not long after, their items will be seen being sold by one of the NPC street merchants."

"It isn't difficult to imagine what'll happen to those players' items… The ones that weren't stolen by other players will likely be appearing in the market soon enough."

"We should definitely take a look later, see if we can find anything useful, especially since those guys are there, they'll try to recover their items with everything they have after they fail this."

"You talk as if they are going to fail."

"You think they'll survive?"

"Nope."

"Then don't talk... In any case..."

"You forgot one thing."

One of them interrupted, a girl with long and smooth black hair:

"Dale does give your items back if your Reputation is above 25, but only when you had no negative Karma during the time of your death, or during special circumstances like when we lost our items in the Dungeon…"

"At that time, we had to buy them off him, albeit it was pretty manageable, it was still a bit pricy."

The girl with the hood shrugged, finding her comments funny.

"Come on, do you really think any of those guys have such a high Reputation?"

"It took us dozens of Dungeon dives and Quests to reach our current ones, it would be incredible if even one had such a high value…"

"Probably only those guys from the big Clans have it, but as you said, seeing how Dale himself isn't attacking the monster, he'll likely not give the items back to them."

"It seems this matter is deeper than it seems… I smell something big."

Everyone nodded, it was clear this wasn't some simple matter…

As they did so, she smiled wickedly... Thinking about how miserable those people would become later this day once they logged again after the death penalty...

"Heh, I want to see their expressions once they try to get their items back only to see that someone already bought them... I call dibs on the Red Staff, I've been wanting that for a time."

"We'll move." Rodi said as he got up from his chair

"Already?"

"Yes, those players won't last 10 more minutes, so we need to rush there just in case something does happen."

The girl wearing the hood asked:

"Isn't it dangerous? That gorilla guy won't attack us, right?"

"Different from you perverts, I play with the pain settings on the low end of things, but that doesn't mean getting hit by that cleaver will be tolerable..."

But Rodi shook his head while he ignored her second comment...

"Unlikely, if you rewind the stream, you'll see how at first, the monster was trying to communicate."

"But after some misunderstanding, one of the players attacked it by 'mistake' and this mess started."

"Seeing by how the main NPC didn't attack it and instead, talked with it, we can determine this is a major event in the storyline of this Village…"

Rodi smiled, looking at everyone sitting at the table.

"So don't you all think it's our job to be at the forefront in regards to this?"

They all smiled.

"I hope it doesn't take too long, I have to eat something soon…" A skinny man replied as he stretched his arms

"It shouldn't take long, so stop whining, and let's go!"

…

/Back in the fields…/

/Whistle~/

As if he was strolling in the woods, Dale casually whistled away a popular song as he collected the shiny loot on the ground, gathering them onto a large pile on the side.

Until all players were dead, he couldn't store them in his inventory, and even if they were occupied fighting the berserk guy over there, who knows?

It would be best to wait for a little and once everyone was dead, swoop in everything at once.

'As always, there doesn't seem to have anything interesting for me to get...'

'Still, I'm impressed at how the players evolved, these aren't the same pieces of gear from the tutorial, these are completely different.'

'Monsters can drop gear apart from materials, even if only for Standard players... That is likely where all of this came from.'

'Sometimes I think it's unfair, players can grind the same monsters for hours to get some High-Level item, while I need to go to the ends of the Earth in the most inconspicuous places to find some...'

'And now that the base level of this area has increased, the quality of the items dropped has increased significantly... If they are lucky of course, an unlucky player will only drop low-tier items regardless of their area...'

'I should be happy that I can... Borrow these items from them and not be locked from their usage.'

'One day...'

/Boom!/

A massive explosion that made even the air tremble shook Dale out of his thoughts.

"Phew… That guy sure is something."

He could see the faint figure of a large warrior holding a cleaver with one hand as he swept the ground with it from beyond the dust raised by the explosion...

'But… He seems quite manageable…'

"Cough!"

'I shouldn't underestimate him, what he is showing is definitely not everything he can do.'

'These players should only amount to some light exercise and warmup at most.'

Dale was very much interested in the outcome of their clash, of everything he faced so far, this warrior seemed to be the closest to him in terms of combat style and strength.

He can't use everything he has in the middle of the forest against a monster with a bizarre autonomy, but this one is humanoid, and he uses a cleaver and martial arts, it's almost too perfect to be true...

He stared at his quest screen for a few more seconds before thinking:

'Still… Just because it says "optional", it doesn't mean I shouldn't do it.'

'Just like he isn't using his full strength to deal with those players, neither was I considering my full capabilities.'

'My current stats, plus this armor, all of the Accessories I can currently equip, and my two rather good weapons, I should be able to fight him to some extent…'

'The problem is the penalty the other players are receiving… Would it also be applicable to me? Would I have to fight that guy to the death?'

'It doesn't seem to be the case, but there is no harm in thinking… Albeit I tend to overthink.'

/CLANG!/

"Holy…"

/Sparkle…/

With a final swing, the Karkavan Warrior killed the last player, and a shiny bow dropped on the ground.

"Hm? %$^%!"

The warrior didn't seem pleased, perhaps even… Unsatisfied.

It wanted more… So it looked around in search of more enemies to fight.

And it finally turned it's face to Dale, noticing he was the last one standing.

Wasn't he the perfect partner? Already fully equipped for a fight?

"..."

Dale immediately felt a faint pressure weight down on his shoulders as the Karkavan turned his gaze to him.

He knew what he wanted… And his reply would be...

'How troublesome…'

With a faint smile on his face, Dale approached the Giant man.

…

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Notes