At the other leveling spot of Guggenheim, a party of 200 over players was leveling in an orderly fashion.
A buff middle-aged man with a faint domineering aura was killing a black bear monster when all of a sudden, a scrawny player with a terrified look on his face went up to him and delivered some heavy news.
"Boss Coast, something has happened to GrayFox!"
GoldenCoast was one of the important higher-ups of the Fortune Alliance in Guggenheim.
"GrayFox, did you lose the staff?" GoldenCoast signed to the other party member to take over the battle with the black bear monster as he walked away to contact GrayFox.
"It was a setup!"
GrayFox had just been revived back in Guggenheim's respawn point. He looked rather sour as he briefly updated GoldenCoast about what happened.
"Hehe, that guy understands you well, knows about your relationship with FallenMoon, and has the ability to pull off this setup...There are only a few who fit all the criteria. With a little investigation, the mastermind will be exposed, but there's no hurry. Finding out the mastermind now doesn't do a lot now. I'm more interested in the fact that they were able to work with the monster to set you up," said GoldenCoast with a cold sneer.
"Me too. I never thought it was possible before it happened. Working together with a monster...who would've thought? I've sent Lycoris on an investigation. The good news is that the monster that they summoned killed them in an accident and escaped with the staff. The one who set this up isn't just trying to make me lose my staff. They will go after that monster and get the staff back through any means. The monster is an Elite of the Monolith Stronghold, so he will return to the respawn point after that. Send some men over. It's not that hard to locate that Elite." GrayFox had returned to his composure.
"You deal with that. I don't want to be part of this. El Staff is good, but it's not something concerning since it's just a matter of money. It's great if you can retrieve it, but there's no harm losing it either. However, the enemy mustn't get their hands on it," said GoldenCoast with a sharp gleam in his eyes.
"I understand." GrayFox nodded.
The Fortune Alliance was not afraid of losing, but their enemies would never get any spoils or loots from them. Even if the Fortune Alliance had to pay for the cost of another El Staff, they would never let El Staff end up in their enemies' hands.
Soon, all the members of the Fortune Alliance in various leveling spots of Guggenheim received an order. Their eyes gleamed sinisterly while they continued leveling and subtly moved towards the designated location.
With the Fortune Alliance making a huge move, such a scale of commotion would never escape The Richest's eyes. DemonMarshal frowned when he received the news. "Has the Fortune Alliance made a move?"
Things were developing in the worst direction. The Richest somehow ended in an awkward position, so neither moving forward nor retreating was an option.
The Fortune Alliance could generously let their men search for the bandit leader, but The Richest could not. If they asked their men to search for the bandit leader, the Fortune Alliance would also know about it. As long as the Fortune Alliance was not an idiot, they would know that The Richest was behind this whole plot.
However, DemonMarshal was not lacking options either. He planned to make use of the situation."The Fortune Alliance is looking for a bandit leader. Anyone who spots the Elite at the Monolith Stronghold, report immediately!"
The Richest and the Fortune Alliance were always on hostile terms. The rivalry was fierce between the two guilds, so that was not exactly a strange order for him to issue.
The Fortune Alliance would surely suspect something right off the bat, but as long as they did not have any evidence, it would not be a problem.
'Both sides must have made their moves, but it's too bad. They are still in the newbie ranks and their levels are too low, thus they can't afford a fight.' Deep inside Maple Forest, Mohai was killing the mobs for their souls as the thought popped in his mind.
In the previous battle, if Mohai wanted to, he could give El Staff to WhiteNightFirefly first for the Deep Dark Originite and then snatch the staff from her again, but he did not.
His goal was not just the Deep Dark Originite or El Staff. His main purpose was to incite conflict between the two super guilds, The Richest and the Fortune Alliance.
The two super guilds were always at conflict and once the conflict reached a certain level, it would explode and if the two guilds fought each other, both of them would end up heavily injured.
Therefore, Mohai did not return to the Monolith Stronghold right away as he wanted to use the time to brew the conflict between the two guilds.
At the same time, the time spent outside due to a contract with the player was not calculated towards the weekly [Free Action]. Since he was already out, he might as well have used the chance to collect monster souls, especially the souls of Elite Monsters. He must get a few this time no matter what!
Mohai had high anticipation for the kind of subordinates he could recruit using an Elite monster soul.
Since he was not born in Guggenheim in his past life, he was not entirely familiar with the distribution of the Elite monsters across the map but locating a few to kill was not a problem.
Searching his memories, Mohai quietly snuck closer to the Elite monster's location. While he was venturing deeper into Maple Forest, he did not realize that a small and sneaky figure staring at him from the bushes, watching him disappear deeper.
It was the loli Warrior that he called Sticky Candy!
"Thank goodness for my wisdom and valiance for discovering this fella earlier. Otherwise, I would've gone out and died in vain." The loli Warrior tapped on her soft and bouncy chest confidently.
She had actually been leveling around the area before she noticed a sneaky group moving around Maple Forest. Curious, she thought that she had run into something interesting, so she followed the group.
She did meet something that piqued her interest: a monster was summoned and it snatched a player's equipment.
She almost jumped out to join the fun, but she realized that the monster summoned was the bandit leader who had slapped her to death last time.
After she noticed it was the same bandit leader, her interest dropped rapidly but not entirely. She was still quite interested in this monster that had killed its own boss to usurp the position and snatch a player's equipment.
On second thought, the loli Warrior waved her hand and summoned a green elf sprite the size of her palm. The elf sprite was an emissary of the Elf tribe in Guggenheim. For the sake of the future, the Elf tribe sent a sprite to all the major cities and made contact with the Adventurers.
The little green Elf sprite was Fennec, and as one of the Elves, she segregated her emotions properly. Love was never mixed with hate.
Fennec would reject making contact with the Adventurers that she hated. As for the Adventurers that she liked, she would be very passionate about helping them.
When this pure-looking Adventurer appeared before her with her large, googly, and crystal clear eyes, Fennec felt like she was looking at an angel that had descended on Earth.
Indeed, this tiny little female Adventurer was unlike the other Adventurers who spoke to her and only hoped to get perks from the Elves.
Her soul was as pure as an angel. Fennec remembered that before she arrived in the human city, the Elf Queen had told her that the Elves needed the protection of the Adventurers in the future. Therefore, whenever she met any trustworthy Adventurers, she could form a contract with the said Adventurer and help the Adventurer grow stronger. The stronger the Adventurer was, the better the protection the Elves would get.
The Elves' intuition was never wrong. This Adventurer that was as pure as an angel must be the Adventurer that the Elf Queen spoke of.
Therefore, Fennec approached the loli Warrior proactively and offered to form a contract.
It was actually Fennec's final test. If this loli Warrior had any ulterior motives, Fennec would be informed during the process.
Fennec then realized that the loli Warrior was hesitating to form a contract with her.
Where else could she find an Adventurer like her? There would not be another one like her elsewhere!
Fennec was afraid that the loli Warrior would say no, so she struck the iron while it was hot and persuaded the loli Warrior. Finally, the loli Warrior agreed to form a contract.
Unbeknownst to her, Fennec had just dug a big hole for herself.
In less than a day's time, she regretted her decision.
The loli Warrior was no angel. She was the Devil reincarnated!