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Chapter 458 - l will let you beat me up later

Shen Yue looked at the guy in front of her with disgust and anger, but she did not dare underestimate these opponents.

She gripped her daggers tightly, eyeing the opponent that she wanted to target.

If she could charm the fatty and attack the woman along with Mei Mei, then they could easily finish her off and help Derek tackle the other berserker.

She quickly made the mental calculations and signaled Mei Mei while simultaneously using her [Beguile] skill.

At the same time, Barret as well rammed forward with a green aura enriching his strength. It looked like he had the same idea as he directly pushed to take out the weakest link, Mei Mei.

But Derek blocked him, and the two tanks ended up butting heads against each other. Shen Yue saw that and hurriedly cast her spell. The first time hadn't worked out.

"Cool. Cool. Calm down, pretty lady. Your charm won't work on me." Madan laughed and took out a shining gun.

Bang. Without a single wrinkle in his movements, he steadily took out the gun and pressed the trigger.

But Shen Yue wasn't exactly slow either. The moment she saw that her spell was not working, she had already started working on her next move.

Both the hunter and the healer should equally be weak against close combat, so either of them was a good target.

However, before she could make a choice, the decision was already taken for her.

She twisted her body and rolled on the ground to avoid the bullets, immediately jumping up and running towards the fat guy.

"Ba Ha Ha Ha Ha! This is the best fight ever! Oh my god! How can someone look so sexy? But I am sorry, miss. I am a little hard to get. You first have to play with my pets."

Madan ducked out, easily evading Shen Yue's daggers, and resummoned all of his pets one after the other.

Shen Yue gritted her teeth and quickly backed away from the huge beasts that spawned in front of her, every single one of them barring their teeth at her.

Liam was correct. These players were not the normal opponents.

Shen Yue gritted her teeth and fought with the hound, the bear, and two things that looked like a mash-up of weird creatures.

Meanwhile, Mei Mei and Anya were busily throwing spells at each other. Mei Mei had more offensive spells, and Anya had more defensive spells, so they were essentially at a stalemate.

And just like that, Barret and Derek were also evenly matched. Shen Yue's gaze flitted over to them briefly before settling back on the beasts surrounding her.

However, just as she did, she noticed something from the corner of her eyes. There were… two Dereks…

Shen Yue was completely stunned. She, of course, recognized this technique. Derek learned that by just sparring with Liam for one day?

And just how long had it taken for Liam to learn the same thing?

What were these guys? Monsters?

At this rate, she would never ever be able to reach them, stand shoulder to shoulder with them. Shen Yue gripped her hand and spun her body around faster.

If Derek was using this technique, she wanted to use his momentum and take out at least one of them.

She sparred with the beasts surrounding her, and at the same time, she tried to get closer to the berserker.

"Not so fast." Madan noticed this instantly and grinned as he shot forward several arrows toward the woman.

Shen Yue's speed was already reduced, and with four beasts on her trail, she was not able to budge. Unless…

She made a quick decision and dodged only some of the attacks while taking the rest head on. She then ran as fast as she could and used [Beguile] on Barret.

Even though what she did was very abrupt, the berserker only sneered at her as a thick red aura enveloped him. It looked like he was already prepared for it.

Shen Yue's efforts were wasted, and she hurriedly downed a health potion, once again dancing around and fighting the four beasts that did not let go of her.

Madan also did not give her any room for escape, and he shot forward another batch of arrows. These ones were weirdly glowing yellow.

"Yes, these are my custom-made arrows. Aren't I awesome? Beauty, it's not too late. I can still marry you. Ha Ha Ha."

Between the beasts and the arrows, Shen Yue was completely trapped. Seeing that she had locked herself, Derek made a move.

He aggroed three of the four beasts surrounding her and gave Shen Yue some breathing room, but this led to him getting pushed back, and Barret did not let the chance slip by landing two heavy attacks on him.

Shen Yue bit her lips. She felt like she was really useless if her charm did not work, and she hated it. She did not want to be a dead weight.

She was tired of being weak and helpless. She waved her dagger around, blocking the attacks from the hunter.

Since she started playing the game and learning how to fight, she had improved leaps and bounds, but it was still not enough.

She was still weak and useless.

No. I should stay calm. Shen Yue reminded herself and prepared to use the last two powerful attacks in her arsenal.

If she was going to die here, she was going to take someone along with her.

And just as she prepared to cast [Mesmerize], suddenly another idea struck her. She had tried her [Beguile] skill on the hunter and the berserker, but what about the healer?

She saw Anya completely involved in her fight with Mei Mei, the two women both verbally and physically assaulting each other.

She only had one chance at this. In a split second, she used her finishing move [Blade Dance] and diverted Madan's attention while simultaneously arriving next to Anya.

And then…

[Beguile]

Bingo! It worked!

Shen Yue grinned as she quickly made the healer attack the hunter. "Mei Mei, help Derek! Now!"

Though very much shocked, the little girl understood what was happening and she immediately changed her target.

Shen Yue then turned to the hunter who had pretty much toyed with her for the past few minutes. She might not be as strong as him, but along with Anya, she definitely was.

Seeing the two women coming towards him with daggers and staff in their hands, Madan gulped. "Ladies… please… this is not the ménage à trois that I want."

"Shut up!" Shen Yue shouted as she started sending out one attack after another. Anya as well did the same, rage and anger etched on her face.

For some reason, it looked like this person wanted to beat up the poor guy whether she was under the spell or not.

"Stop it, you mad woman! Snap out of it already! I will let you beat me up later, alright. Just snap out of it already."

Madan's health was drastically dropping, and the guy shouted at the top of his lungs.

He could manage one of these women, but the two of them were too much even for him. He was completely out of his league.

The effect probably lasted only for some seconds, but it looked like he was going to die before then.

Madan gritted his teeth and tried to move back to evade some of the attacks, but it was useless. However, he was not planning to lose just yet.

The problem was Anya. So he decided to deal with her. He quickly drew an arrow and sent it flying towards the healer.

Just like always, Anya as well dodged it, but it was not a simple arrow. A net popped out of the arrow and trapped the healer, who was caught like a butterfly.

She struggled for a couple of seconds, and that essentially wore out the rest of the time she was under the effect of charm.

"Anya! Fast! Cast a protection spell! Otherwise, you will once again fall for it." Shen Yue hurriedly tried to recast the spell, but the healer was faster.

She did not need to be reminded. She had already cast the protection before anyone warned her.

And of course, once she came to her senses, she immediately dashed towards Mei Mei once again.

Clearly, she couldn't care less about what happened to the other members of her team, and that was this group's main weak point.

Shen Yue could clearly see it. They did not work together as a group at all. She used this chance to continue barraging her attacks on the hunter.

"Bitch! At least throw me a heal before you leave, you ungrateful-" Madan spat out and struggled to defend against Shen Yue.

But before she could close him, Anya rolled her eyes at him and sent a heal anyways, quickly reversing the situation.

She also healed up Barret and all of Madan's pets, making the group's effort so far completely worthless.

"Ha Ha! What are you going to do now, beauty? I have seen all of your tricks. Now you have to see mine. Don't run away from me."

Madan took out another whistle from his inventory and blew on it. This time a huge beast started materializing in front of Shen Yue.

It did not even completely appear when it had already lifted its leg to stomp on the woman. "That's a dinosaur? dragon?" Shen Yue was absolutely speechless.

She quickly tried to move, but the beast had an insane speed that she had not experienced before.

From the corner of her eyes, she could also see the special frost arrows on Madan's hand once again.

"Game's over, pretty lady." Madan grinned and shot the arrows forward.

Just as he expected, Shen Yue was also not able to evade them. Her speed reduced several folds she was going to become a flattened meat paste. There was no doubt about it.

But just as it was about to happen, suddenly, a golden shield appeared in front of her. "Sis! I got you!" A voice shouted out loud.

"What the hell?" Madan blinked when he suddenly saw another person standing near Shen Yue. He had a shield in his hand.

And before he could understand what was happening, three other players appeared, all of them surrounding him.

The rest of the crimson abyss guild members were here!

Chapter 459 - You were saying?

"They are all here? But how?" Madan was utterly dumbfounded.

"Dude! You might be strong, but don't think that we are all weak! We were never planning to run from the beginning!" Shin Soo shouted as he took over tanking the huge beast, covering for Shen Yue.

Shen Yue then quickly appeared next to Madan and started unleashing all of the dagger moves she had learned so far.

The hunter now became completely helpless.

If it was just one person, he could dodge, but while he was trying to evade her attacks, ice spheres, fireballs, arrows, and all sorts of attacks started piling up on him.

It looked like the entire guild was trying to put him down first, concentrating all of their attacks on him.

"DAMN IT ALL!" He quickly tried to back away and become invisible, but Shen Yue's daggers did not allow that.

She used [Blade Fury] and took out a bunch of daggers from her inventor, throwing them all out in a horizontal sweep.

Madan's location was immediately found out, and since he had used one of his pet's skills [Absolute Defense] already, there was nothing else he could do except die quietly.

"This is what happens when you overestimate your abilities." Shin Soo righteously declared, which made the dying guy roll his eyes.

The truth was that they had never underestimated them. Obviously, they had accounted for the fact that the opponent had 40 players in their group while they only had 4.

But the thing was that… they had something to make up for this drawback!

A giant colossal Level 80 death knight!

This battle should have never dragged out for this long. It should have been an instant blood massacre!

So how the hell was things playing out in this fashion? Where did their calculations go wrong?

Was it their fault? Did they lack proper coordination? Perhaps if Anya hadn't shot forward with focus only on the Crown, things wouldn't have become this bad?

Maybe if they did not think that everyone was running away afraid of them, they would have been more careful? Did they really underestimate their opponents?

No. In reality, those were just secondary reasons.

Those all just happened and could have been easily overcome. So what the hell went wrong?

As Madan's consciousness faded away and his lifeless dead body hit the ground, he finally realized the main reason why they were in this predicament…

This was all because… of that one person.

The fact that these people were able to fight back, counterattack, and even manage to kill him was also all because of that person.

The person who was keeping the death knight occupied for so long!

They had not underestimated anyone's abilities, but even they did not think that a Level 50 player could hold out against a Level 80 death knight for so long?

Only because of that, they were in the current situation where they were up against forty players and outnumbered.

If the Level 80 death knight had been free to assist them, this situation would have never happened.

These forty players who were arrogantly putting them down would have instead been crushed like ants.

Everything only went downhill because their deathknight was still busy somewhere else.

How the hell was that monster doing this? Shouldn't he have gotten one-shotted by now? Just what was happening over there?

Meanwhile… a few miles back…

The person whom Madan was thinking about was still strongly standing… at least for now…Nether Scythe] The powerful attack that Liam had used did not even manage to scratch the surface of that monstrosity.

Liam gritted his teeth and looked at the giant death knight. They had now successfully separated the two halves of the group, but they were still not out of their predicament just yet.

The biggest threat was still alive, and he did not know how long he would be able to hold on.

CRASH. The death knight swung its sword, striking down Liam.

Liam, on the other hand, didn't move away from it. There was no point in doing so. He couldn't outrun it, he was not able to damage it, he was not able to do anything to it.

He was like an ant fighting against a dragon. So he only took a couple of steps back and summoned a thick black wall of nether around him on all sides like a barrier.

[Ding. You have created a new skill - Black Box]

The death knight's sword slammed against this defensive barrier, and the black box broke into a million pieces, shattering completely.

The death knight then furiously tried to strike him down once again using another sword move, but Liam reacted in the same way by summoning another [Black Box].

From the beginning, he never planned to beat this thing. It was impossible.

So, for now, he was just buying time. If he couldn't do any damage to this thing, then he was determined not to take any damage from the thing.

Also, every time he summoned a [Black Box], he took a few steps back, slowly moving away and away.

Seeing this, Kouske was furious. "You are not getting away this time, Liam! No matter what tricks you are thinking of pulling, you might as well save them for another time!"

"This time, it's our win! It's already decided."

Kouske grew frustrated waiting for the death knight to do something useful or even Liam to do something stupid.

However, he could still only sit idly and watch this fight from the sidelines.

This was because… though one side was attacking and the other side was putting up barriers in a repetitive fashion… this happened at a ridiculously fast-paced speed!

He wasn't even able to see anything properly, much less intervene. All that was visible to him were black structures getting broken down and reconstructed repetitively.

But how was he doing that? How could he continuously keep up this sort of defensive barrier? Was he able to use mana potions and nether so effectively?

More importantly, how was he conjuring such complicated magic spells without any sort of downtime or even casting time?

Every single attack from the death knight struck like thunder, the Level 80 killing machine sending out one attack after another relentlessly.

SLASH. SLASH. SLASH. SLASH.

However, for every attack the death knight dealt, there was one more barrier popping up. There was simply no end to it!

Just how long did Liam possibly think that he could keep this up.

"Think about it, Liam! What is your end game here? You took the emerald crown from us! How about you give it back? Maybe we can talk about other things after that."

"Even you know that you cannot keep this up."

"Give it up. We are winning. Stop it, and let's talk like adults." Kouske gnashed his teeth and muttered the words.

He did not even know if his words were getting through because this was not a fight he dared touch.

Black wisps of energy erupted like flames engulfing the whole place. The speed alone was something beyond his level.

If not for the death knight, then… Kouske shuddered to think about the results right now.

No, even with the death knight, nothing was set in stone. He could feel it. A feeling of fear. He feared the guy in front of him very much, and he did not even know why.

They were going to win this time? It was predicted! Nothing could go wrong!

"You better listen to me! Your teammates are paying for your arrogance right about now. My team would have already killed half of them."If you stop now and concede, at least the other half will live. Don't be selfish and think about others. I think you know what death inside this game means."

"Are you willing to sacrifice everyone else just for the sake of one item?"

Kouske hastily tried to convince Liam. However, a feeling of panic started arising in his heart because no matter what he said, the other person did not seem to care in the slightest.

Maybe he couldn't hear him?

Just as this thought floated in his mind, suddenly, a name greyed out in their group.

"Huh?" Kouske's eyes widened in shock. For a second, he couldn't believe it. "No, this is impossible!"

And before he could digest this, the other two names as well greyed out one after the other.

"YOU WERE SAYING?" Liam loudly laughed, his maniacal voice ringing out in all directions. "I am thinking… hmmm… I am going to refuse your offer."

"Now, how about I give you an offer? Return the item that you stole from me like a petty thief!"

"Otherwise…"

"You will never get a chance to see the other three alive…"

"You do know what dying inside the game means, right?"

Liam grit his teeth and summoned another [Black Box] as the death knight continued pummeling him.

Even though he had a perfect affinity with nether, his body still accumulated some fatigue every time he was manipulating the massive quantity of nether.

But the other person did not know this, so he was fine for now.

"So how about it? Return this cute thing back to me. He He He and I will let you and your little friends live." Liam let out another burst of maniacal laughter.

"You know what... maybe don't... then I can have more fun take it right out of your hands!"

"What is mine. Will be mine. One way or the other."

Chapter 460 - The prediction was not wrong

"What are you…"

Seeing the thick wisps of nether obeying Liam as if he was their Emperor, Kouske trembled. He was also a necromancer just like Liam, but they couldn't even be compared on the same page.

How the hell was he so strong? Kouske looked at the man in front of him dumbfoundedly.

Their leader's prediction had gone wrong. Their group had died, and now they were under the threat of complete annihilation?

They had the winning card. Shouldn't they be winning right now? How did everything go wrong? He did not even know what to do next.

They had attacked from a position of strength, but how were they supposed to prepare for a Level 50 player fighting equally with a Level 80 monster?

More importantly… their big brother's prediction went wrong? This was impossible!

However, just as the thin man trembled pondering if they really had no other choice except to surrender here… suddenly, something felt off.

Someone was coming, or rather… it was not a single person.

Both Kouske and Liam instinctively turned around to see a huge army of demons coming toward them.

Some of them were on land and some on them were in the sky, riding some sort of bat faced mount.

But the sheer number of them was enough to strike fear into anyone's heart. Both Kouske and Liam stared at the incoming demons and both of them were at a loss for words.

However, Liam was the first to recover because he could tell exactly why they were here.

"Damn it. They noticed me! Did the fight here cause too much disturbance?" He erected another barrier to block the death knight.

Barely holding back with this monstrosity was his limit, there was no way he was going to manage these many demons. Was he going to die today?

This was checkmate. There was no escape from this situation.

As if answering his predicament, something even more strange happened. Kouske had recalled the death knight to stand by his side.

It was clear that he had assumed these demons to be on Liam's side.

Only Liam knew that that was not the case, but he couldn't care less about clearing this misconception or using this situation to his advantage.

If he gets caught in this swirling whirlpool, the only way out was death! So the moment he got the split second chance to do something, he immediately entered [Stealth] and ran.

He ran as fast as he could away from the crime scene towards the fox that was hiding further away from the scene of the battle.

Without a single moment of hesitation, Liam then hopped onto the fox and the duo bolted away like there was no tomorrow.

At the same time, Liam also furiously typed in the chat, "Keep running. Don't stop."

Everyone was surprised because they had assumed that they were going to camp the graveyard for the drops from the three players but they did not question Liam's command.

Every single member of the crimson abyss guild dropped what they were doing and fled the scene in a rush.Meanwhile, Kouske only realized what happened after a few seconds. When he turned around, Liam was not there. Not even a single house fly was there in the vicinity.

"He ran?" Kouske now understood. He had mistaken things. The demons and Liam were not allies. Rather Liam had used this chance to escape.

"Damn it." He let out a long sigh and quickly started working on the next things.

Only himself and the death knight were still standing and the demons were coming right at them.

Thankfully, the demons were still at a distance away. So he quickly dismissed the death knight and fled the scene as well. He messaged the others as well to flee.

The group only met back after a few miles, hiding their figures amidst the dense thorny forest.

Today's mission had ended in failure and all four of them had grave expressions.

Anya, Barret, and Kouske looked too serious to speak anything and silently walked side by side. Only one person opened his mouth.

"Ah… so many of my arrows were lost this time." Madan clicked his tongue, making everyone turn towards him.

Anya gave him a death stare. "My emerald crown is still with that little bitch! Who the fuck cares about your damned arrows!"

The leggy Russian blonde then turned to bark at their small makeshift group's leader, "Kouske! Where is the victory that we were foretold! Hmmm? What the hell is this?"

"I knew it was going to be like this before itself!"

"All of these predictions, these stupid foretellings, everything is false! That guy is just messing with us! We gained shit today!"

Anya's flat chest heaved up and down as she relieved her frustrations by continuously spewing out Russian curse words.

At first Kouske did not say anything but he then stopped to look at her. "You should shut up. Don't forget that you got that crown in the first place thanks to that person."

"Now you are bad mouthing him because something went wrong? Weren't you the one who foolishly chased after that little girl?"

"If you had stayed back and fought, maybe we could have killed Liam this time."

Anya was completely speechless. "How dare you! Don't you dare try to put this blame on me! You couldn't finish that annoying prick even with a Level 80 death knight! You do not have the rights to place this blame on me!"

This one again spiraled another bout of arguments between the group which went out of control. After a few minutes, Kouske who had become silent again opened his mouth.

"I know you guys think that we lost today. You all did die. So we did lose something today. But as I see it, we also gained a lot today."

Huh? Everyone was completely confused with Kouske's words.

"What are you talking about?" Barret asked.

"I am talking about that guy's true power! I know how to beat Liam." Kouske smiled. "I now know all of his secrets."

The three of them stared at the thin necromancer in front of them with confusion hoping for an explanation.

Kouske nodded and explained everything to them without leaving them hanging. "According to my estimate, that person should have an S tier affinity to nether."

"Huh? S-tier? That's impossible! Do you think high-grade affinities are that common?" Anya scoffed.

"Hey. Think before you speak." Madan interjected. Unlike her, he understood it immediately. Liam definitely had an S- tier affinity. Perhaps even an SS- tier affinity.

That was the only explanation as to how he was able to hold his own against the Level 80 death knight!

"What I am saying is true. Which means, the next time we fish them out, I know exactly how to trap him." Kouske nodded. "Don't worry. You will get your crown back soon."

"Hmm. It looks like the prediction was not wrong after all."

Chapter 461 - No more running!

"Hmmm… As long as I do not have a mana core, I would have to keep running from all of these idiots." Liam leaned on the tree he was sitting beside and muttered absent-mindedly.

After running for so long, he wanted to take a break and think about some things, and it didn't take long for him to notice the obvious.

His fans suddenly multiplied!

There were now too many people behind him in both realms.

"Tsk. This is very inconvenient. I need to settle some debts quickly." Liam munched on roasted meat Shen Yue had given him previously and drew circles on the ground.

There were too many things to do, and the big war should be ending any time now. The timeline was also a big mess. Everything was happening faster this time around.

At this rate, the last and final update might really end up happening sooner than expected as well.

After the game first launched, they were now officially closer to the end of the three months mark.

If the war between the Nether realm and the Xion realm ends and the Xion realm stabilizes, then the next phase would kick in, followed by the changes to the real world.

At this point, the various governments and the people would realize the truth about the game and the deaths inside the game.

At first, they would try to block it, but it would be useless as it was literally impossible to make sure that no one entered the game.

Seeing that they had no other choice, then the governments would jump into the game as well with full force.

Not just them but all the industries, corporations, and every single organization in the world would enter the game, trying to get a piece of whatever pie this was.

Then the game would truly become outrageous, individual players no longer having many chances to develop themselves.

Before this happened, Liam wanted to establish himself and make a clear difference between himself and the other players, but now he seemed to be pushing that boundary.

"I need to make that mana core as soon as possible…" He let out a small sigh.

This was a very real roadblock that he was facing. Either he had to do it, or he had to get someone else to make it.

Liam would have given up if not for the alchemy tablet that he stole from those guys. He wanted to see if he could get some insights from that tablet.

But for that, he first needed a place where he could completely be at peace and not keep looking over his shoulders every other minute.

"Hmm… I am now wanted in both realms. Where can I work where nothing can possibly attack me?"

The guild residence was out of the question because if Level 80 ravens started pecking at the walls, even their S rank guild would collapse.

It would be different if he did some of the upgrades. Then the guild residence could even hold out against a Level 100 beast horde.

But those upgrades were insane gold sinks. He did not have that kind of gold at the moment in his hands. More importantly, it would require not just gold but also other materials.

"So that is out of the question… where else could I peacefully camp for a few days?"

Liam silently gazed at the crooked circles on the floor that he had drawn, and a place came to his mind.

"Alright. That should do it." With a big grin, he packed up everything and made the portal to return back to the Xion realm.

"Luna, remember. As soon as we go through this, we need to make a run for it."

Liam stretched his limbs. This was going to be a test of his agility and speed, but once he did it, he would be safe for the time being.

The small fox as well mimicked his actions, and the both of them prepared themselves. The next second, the duo blasted through the portal.

Liam jumped onto Luna's back in one smooth motion, and the white fox then shot forward through the air and the clouds like an arrow.

"Where are we?" Liam hurriedly pulled up the system interface to check. They were on the outskirts of Yleka city, which was perfect for them.

"Luna, it looks like luck is on our side this time. Let's go east. Get to the city, and don't stop until you reach the huge tower in the city."

Liam sucked in a big breath of air and prepared himself for anything that could happen. As the white fox dashed forward, he peeled his eyes open for any signs of the damned ravens.

And the birds did not disappoint him.

Just like he expected, the sky soon started to rumble, and a tear in the air appeared. Something big and huge stepped out from within this tear. It was a claw!

"Fuck! Luna! Fast Now!"

Liam started making a huge ice ball. They had almost reached the city, and now they just needed a few more seconds.

"Come on. Come on. Come on." He mumbled, eyeing the big claw that was now a full black-feathered leg. If this bird actually attacked them, they were dead meat for sure.

But ZOOM!

The duo arrived at the city safely.

Luna let out a small sigh, and she looked like she was reducing the speed, but Liam immediately warned her.

"No! Don't stop until you reach the tower." He pointed to the tower in the distance. Sure, the city was safe and had enough soldiers to protect them even against higher-tier beasts.

The issue was that those soldiers would take their time to arrive typically, and by then, he would have already been skewered by this giant raven.

So even within the city, they wouldn't be safe. The one and only location in this entire city where they would be safe no matter what was the PVP tower!

And this was also Liam's target!

Others might not know this, but the PVP tower was a very mysterious tower, and equally mysterious was the tower master who sat at the top most floor of the tower.

He was not an ordinary person, and the tower itself had several protective inscriptions, runes, formations, and talismans guarding it.

Even during an invasion, no one would be able to touch this tower or, for that matter, any other tower in any other Kingdom or city.

So this was the one and only place where Liam would really be able to focus on his task without having to worry about the bunch of birds.

Chapter 462 - Special event?

On a nice sunny day… at the trade capital of the Gresh Kingdom, Yleka city…

Several players of the popular mysterious game 'Evolution Online' was casually walking on the streets, chatting with their friends or loved ones.

However, in the midst of this pleasant city atmosphere, suddenly something dark flew above everyone's heads, disrupting the leisurely vibe.

"Huh? What is that?"

"That looks like an airplane!"

"The fuck? Where did airplanes come inside evolution online? Wash your eyes, idiot! That's a flying mount!"

"You are the idiot! Your mom is the idiot for giving birth to you, and your dad is the idiot for ejaculating you! I am not talking about that one. I am talking about the other one!"

"The other one?"

The group of people tilted their heads up to see another huge shadow crossing them again, but this time, the shadow was enormous, mean, and lean, streamlined like a jet plane, and it zoomed past them, taking only a fraction of a second.

And it did not stop there…

Right afterward, three other big black jetplanes whooshed past them, lifting up all the robes of those who were standing on the street. Many colorful sights were revealed.

"Dang! What is happening in the city today?"

"Maybe some special event!"

"Let's go and check it out!"

All the players in the city had seen this strange occurrence, so they hurriedly chased after the black shadows which were now circling the PVP tower at the center of the city.

And these were not mere shadows… because their speed had considerably reduced, everyone could finally see these creatures clearly.

They were ravens! Red-eyed huge monstrous ravens!

And most players could only see the question mark on top of these birds, so they couldn't fathom their exact level, but they were definitely high-leveled birds!

What were these huge ravens doing inside the city? What was going to happen now?

Everyone watched the birds with their eyes peeled open, waiting for some pies to drop from the sky.

Only two heads stared at this bunch of ravens with apprehension. Liam and Luna were both panting.

In the end, Liam almost did not make it. It was touch and go. He had to leap off of Luna's back and dash into the tower hall with every ounce of mana in his body concentrated in his legs.

Only because of this he made it. Otherwise…

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Liam laughed nervously and then waved his hands at the ravens glaring at him with their sharp red eyes.

"Good luck." He whistled and casually walked inside, expecting the bird to now peck at the tower relentlessly before something bad happened to them.

Luna as well smirked and followed him, with her three tails swishing left to right stylishly.

The five ravens could only helplessly stare at their prey walking inside without being able to do anything.

But unexpectedly, these creatures did not even attempt to ram at the tower or anything crazy like that. They simply stared and then left as if they already knew what to do and what not to do.

Like their levels, their intelligence was also extremely high.

Liam stopped and noticed this with a grave expression on his face because this was not good news. This was bad news. "Could they see the formations blocking them?"

The thing was.. he could also only see question marks. He did not know their actual levels.

It looked like this time the crazies had upped the difficulty level several folds instead of going to the next step. Just what was this quest that forced him to do it so blatantly?

The more it forced Liam, the more he grew wary of it and did not want to attempt it. With the limited time he had he did not want to take on risky things unnecessarily, but the thing was…

Did he really have a choice?

"I should not worry about that right now." Liam immediately entered the elevator and pressed the button for the 100th floor.

He had reached here the last time he had entered the PVP tower, so now he was able to access the same floor.

Ding. The elevator promptly arrived at the destination, and he walked past the numerous players crowding around on the floor.

The place was vastly different compared to the last time he had visited with a variety of new shops, both players owned and NPC owned, but Liam did not bother to take a look at anything.

He directly went over to one of the alchemy rooms, the highest grade available, paid the coins for it, and settled there.

"Ok. Here goes nothing…" Liam took a deep breath and started making the concoction one more time.

He repeated all the steps listed in the recipe and regulated the mana for the cauldron as best as he could.

This was the most complicated recipe he had attempted up until now. So much so that every time he went through this process, there was one improvement or the other in something.

His mana manipulation improved, his mental focus improved, his knowledge about the herbs and handling of the herbal essence improved.

Every single time he attempted this concoction, he always improved a little bit. However, all of that was still not enough.

He had sunk about 48 hours now in this recipe, and it was still not enough.

Liam calmed himself down and tried not to think about the past failures. He only focussed on the cauldron in front of him.

Soon… a few minutes passed by… just like this in complete and utter silence. Of course, except for the constantly sizzling and roaring cauldron.

And the next instant…

BOOM!

Another huge explosion rocked the small alchemy room. The cauldron blasted completely, parts of it flying everywhere, and Liam and Luna both coughed up black smoke.

"Another failure huh… it is fine." Liam rubbed Luna's back.

Letting out a small sigh, he took out the precious tablet that he had stolen from the ogre demon city lord back in the nether realm.

Chapter 463 - BFFs

Liam took his time to observe the stone tablet properly.

He held it carefully in his hands, well, at least as carefully as he could because the thing weighed like a mountain, and it was not easy to lift it or place it in his lap.

But luckily, only the front side of the tablet seemed to be special with something inscribed on it, so he did not have to examine it up close for too long.

After a few minutes, he placed it on the ground, slanted against the wall just like the other person had done.

Liam then took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and sat in a meditative pose in front of this tablet. He looked at it and then stared at it as best as he could.

This stone tablet was a precious treasure. There was simply no doubt about it. Even at first glance back at the ogre's special alchemy room, Liam felt a special pull towards it.

He could feel it clearly. There was something profound about this stone tablet. He couldn't exactly place his finger on it, but the feeling was unmistakable.

If he could just understand what was so special about this block of stone, then perhaps he would be able to make some huge developments in his alchemy skill.

But for now, this seemed to be just wishful thinking…

Liam tried his best to grasp the profound feeling and decipher the things from the stone tablet, but it was to no avail.

After about an hour, he decided to take a short break and saw that Mia had messaged him.

"I am here inside the PVP tower." He responded to her with his whereabouts, and Mia immediately arrived at his doorstep.

"So fast? Did you need something?" Liam smiled and opened the door.

The alchemy chamber had automatic air circulation and purification functions. Otherwise, black smoke would have blown out when he did.

However, there were no automatic cleaning facilities. It was only Luna running around picking up things, so the inside of the room looked like it had been through a lot.

Mia curiously peeked and then stepped in. "Yes, I wanted to talk to you about something." She nodded.

Coincidentally, she was also wearing a simple, clean white robe, something similar to the ones the divine temple priests wore.

It covered her entire body from her neck to her legs with a slit on the side that revealed her long snow-white legs and toned thighs.

In fact, the entire robe clung to her body snugly, outlining every little curve and dip.

And unlike Liam, she had not even taken any elixirs thus far, so whatever her appearance was inside the game, she had the same in the outside world as well.

After staring at a stone for hours, this was a good change. Liam chuckled inwardly and sat down on the ground, pointing her to the spot in front of him.

Mia as well sat down, adjusting her robes a bit so that the slit didn't travel up and reveal everything about her lower body.

She always felt very conscious in front of this person, who might as well be a wolf waiting to gobble her up.

"So I see you are still wandering in the divine temple…" Liam probed.

"Ah. Yes. Both Alex and I have been doing quests in the divine temple. I wanted to talk to you about this only." Mia took a deep breath and then started explaining calmly.

"There are a lot of highly rewarding quests in the divine temple these days, and they are handing out experience points and reputation points very generously."

"So both me and Alex have been doing these quests non-stop to see if we could get any hidden class quests or other unique special quests."

"I also had another idea. Our guild currently has a lot of members."

"I know you said that we will roll out the inner member and the outer member contracts after a while, but I did not want to miss this opportunity."

"I am not sure how long these divine temple quests would last. I was thinking we should select a group of priests or paladins and nurture them."

Liam couldn't help but smile seeing the usually cold and confident Mia nervously explaining things. He raised his hand quickly and stopped her.

"So these things you can do on your own. If you are still feeling not confident enough, just send me a message. You don't have to meet me in person and waste your time."

You don't have to ask me permission for everything. I trust your judgment. Cough. Cough. I should be more clear. I trust your judgment, not your sister's." He chuckled wryly.

Mia as well awkwardly smiled and nodded. She knew how Alex could be impulsive sometimes, so she didn't say anything.

"And this is a good idea," Liam added. "To groom a batch of priests and paladins huh…"

Seeing that he was thinking about something else, Mia became curious and asked, "Do you have anything on your mind?"

"Yes… I don't think you know, but we have four new best friends, and actually, your idea might help them a lot."

While he was fighting the giant Level 80 death knight in the nether realm, Liam noticed something interesting.

Just like how the nether was empowering him, it was surely empowering the death knight as well.

Because when he had fought the monstrosity back in the Xion realm at the necromancer's cave, where he had found it for the very first time, its strength was not this much.

Perhaps it underestimated him and did not show its full strength. That was also a possibility, but chances were that the death knight got a few buffs in the nether realm just like he got.

And this meant that… it would also potentially be weakest when fighting against the divine affinity players just like him.

So if they had a team of well-groomed priests and paladins… the next time they faced the thing which Liam had a feeling could be soon… then they might no longer need to run away.

Chapter 464 - Can't scratch even the surface

"Eh? Who are these players?" Mia blinked, her eyes now falling on the stone tablet in the room. Instantly, she could tell that this was not something ordinary.

She had only not seen Liam for a couple of days, but he already had so many new secrets?

Liam smiled and shook his head, "I will introduce you guys soon enough."

"For now, focus on what you told me. If the divine temple is really being generous with quests, then this is a huge chance."

"Just like you said, you take a group of trusted players and get the maximum out of this. Just make sure that you are trusting the right people."

"It's better if you make them sign the guild contract."

Mia nodded. She as well had a similar opinion. With everyone's lives on the line, just word of mouth was no longer enough.

"Alright, then I will take my leave." She could see that Liam was busy, and neither of them had time just to sit around and chat, so she quickly prepared to leave.

"Good luck." Liam wished her and then went back to staring at the stone tablet. However, he was not focusing just yet.

His thoughts were still on the divine temple. Based on both Alex's and Mia's words, the divine temple really did look restless. They were making moves that they hadn't previously made.

It looked like this whole war on currently in a delicate equilibrium, a scale that was tipping every so lightly both on the right and the left side at times.

Liam couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he blew up this equilibrium…

More importantly, given how things were currently progressing, would this get them more time or less time than they had in his previous life?

This was the million dollar question!

The last time around, the Xion realm had won this war, but their world, the Earth had suffered. So what if, this time, the Xion realm lost the war?

A shiver ran down Liam's spine. A huge timeline landmark like this was too big for him to mess with. Only someone really crazy, someone with a death wish, would do something like this.

But he couldn't seem to shake this idea off. Was he really going insane thinking about something like this?

No, he was not the insane one. Insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

If someone wanted a change, then they need to do something differently!

If Liam messed with this balance and changed the outcome of the war, then it was akin to dropping an atom bomb on the whole timeline.

His fate, others' fate, everything would be uprooted and changed from top to bottom. There would possibly be a whole new world.

But maybe something insane like this was really required to save their future?

Liam sighed and decided to pin this idea for now. After all, he did not yet know even if he was capable of doing something like this.

For now, it was best to let things play out and see what was best. He shook his head and closed his eyes, once again staring at the stone tablet.

At this point, it seemed very futile to look at it, but he decided to give it a proper try before shoving it back into his inventory slot.

If that dumb ogre demon who couldn't make even a simple basic potion dared to dream about mastering this tablet, surely he shouldn't give up so easily?

Meanwhile… at the abovementioned dumb ogre demon's residence…

"My Lord, we searched everywhere. We were not able to find even a small clue about the Thol city Lord."

"Hmph. I already knew that. How would that rat still dare show his face after stealing something from me?"

"Hmph! He would probably be holed up somewhere by now, waiting for us to forget about him and let this go."

"Since we are at war, that rat must have made these calculations, but he is wrong. I am not going to let him off that easily! Hmph!"

"Go and inform our King. This matter will be settled quickly."

The ogre demon stood up with a loud grunt. "I will see how long you are running around like this!" He snorted coldly and then turned around to leave.

And before he could do so, one of the demons hurriedly chased after him. "My Lord…" The demon hesitated to speak.

"What is it?" The ogre grunted impatiently as he was already in a bad mood.

"My Lord… What if the Thol city Lord managed to… find out the secrets about the stone tablet? Then… informing this situation to the King might work against us." The demon nervously asked.

"Hmmm? What did you say?" Hearing him, the ogre's face changed. He turned around and stared down at him furiously.

"You mean to say… that useless rat would gain something from the stone tablet that I have been researching for decades?"

The ogre's face then once again changed as he began to laugh loudly, clutching his stomach. "Ba Ha Ha Ha Ha! You make good jokes!"

"For him, that thing will only be a stone!"

"Don't worry your pea-sized brain with things like this. Just do what I tell you. Ba ha ha ha!"

"I bet that bastard wouldn't even be able to scratch the first level! It took me three decades to get to that point."

"And he does not have three decades! That rat wouldn't even last one day once the King issues his case to the twelve High Lords! Ba ha ha ha!"

"Now tell me, could he possibly figure out everything in one day? Ba ha ha ha!"

"Idiot! Ba ha ha ha!"

The ogre demon's laughter rang loudly as he left the other demons dumbfounded. A few seconds later, they also realized the same thing and nodded in understanding.

Something like that was really impossible. Of course, the group of them have served the city Lord for several years now, so they knew what he was talking about.

Their special alchemy room had not always been like this.

It was only because of their Lord's genius that the stone tablet glowed one day, and a mystical garden appeared in the small room.

Nobody knew why it happened or how it happened. They knew that their Lord also did not know, but the fact that it happened itself is proof of their Lord's genius!

How could a random rat match their Lord's genius?!

The group of demons, including the guy who raised this question first, laughed amongst themselves, and everyone dispersed.

And unbeknownst to them… back at the Xion realm…

When Liam flashed his eyes open, he was no longer in an ordinary alchemy room.