All 25 upper echelons of the Wind Rider Guild went to the different areas of the monster fields around the outskirts of Golden Lake City. Having a lot of areas to cover, they had no choice but to split up. Each group consists of 2-5 upper echelons and 25 main squadrons. One group was tasked to check out the Critter area where Kaya was currently on. They started asking around the nearby players for Kaya's whereabouts.
"Excuse me, have you seen this player?"
"Alon? Isn't he that super rookie who took down a mutant berserk monster? No, I haven't seen him around."
"Excuse me, have you seen this guy somewhere?"
"I think I did. We found a guy with the same cloak but we didn't see his face. I'm sure that cloak he was wearing was the same as that guy we met."
One player said as he checked the description given to him by one of the guild members.
"Where did he go?"
"He disappeared right away but I'm certain he went to the deeper parts of the area. The only exist in this monster field is back at this entrance and I've been here all this time and have yet to see him get out."
"Oh, I see thanks."
"It's nothing, care to ask, why are you looking for him?"
"Let's just say, he messed with the wrong people."
After getting the information they needed, the upper echelons quickly contacted the other groups that Kaya was in this location. Afterward, they immediately scattered to scour every inch of the forest.
"Boss, I think I found him. He's wearing the same hood as the guy, Alon in the description."
A scout immediately called one of the upper echelons and they quickly followed through the location given. When they arrived, it was just what the scout had said, the cloak was a lot similar to the image but they weren't sure if it was the same guy since this one was currently hiding in the cloak. When they tried to use their observation skills, they couldn't see through his cloak which increased their suspicions more.
"Hey, you guys!"
"Huh? Are you talking to us?"
"Yes! Specifically you in the black cloak!"
"Why?"
Kaya replied in a monotone voice. Although he could change his looks, he couldn't change his voice so he had to act up.
"Remove your cloak, we wanna see your ID."
"Why?"
"Just fucking do it! Do you want to die?"
Kaya thought about it but he felt like a pushover if he would oblige to a baseless threat from a nobody he didn't know. Seeing that Kaya was hesitating, Roman was rather confused, although Wind Rider was a 3rd-rate guild, they had the infamy of killing anyone they see fit if they don't get what they want. They were a dark guild pretending to be in the light.
Dark guilds are guilds that consist of unorthodox players who specialize in PKs. They are like mercenary groups except you can pay not just one mercenary but a bunch of them at the same time to do your dirty work for you for a necessary price. In reality, though, Wind Rider Guild was simply another branch of the real dark guild, Blood Carnival Guild. Their only job is to recruit talented players who enjoyed killing and introduce them to the upper management of the true guild. Jeremiah and Charlemagne are the only middle-managers tasked to manage the Wind Rider Guild and this fact was kept a secret by the two people, nobody else in the group knew of this.
"What business do you have with Nuclear Fist? I don't think of anything that may have set the ire of the upper echelons of Wind Rider Guild."
Roman asked. When they heard the name Nuclear Fist, they were rather confused, if the hooded man was not the Alon they were searching for, then they'd just be wasting their time going here, they'd already contacted everyone else and were going to arrive shortly.
"Shit, if he isn't Alon then the Guild leader will kill us."
One upper echelon murmured to his companions.
"How about we just tell him that 'that' is Alon? We'll fight them and if they try to escape, let's not chase after them and tell the Guild leader that they were able to run away."
"Oh, your right! That's a nice idea."
After planning out their screw-ups, everyone unsheathed their weapons. One mage cast a magic circle and a giant fireball flew out of it.
"I'm sorry, but we can't leave empty-handed."
Boom!
As soon as the fireball came in contact with them, it exploded and smoke covered the area. As soon as the smoke dissipated, what appeared from the area was a large thorny shield that encompassed the two.
"Shit! I thought I was a goner, thanks Fist."
Kaya simply nodded as he retracted back the broken shield in his hands. The shield was made of the hard exoskeleton of the Mother Centipede that was amplified with the berserk state. It had turned into a shield after Kaya activated Fighting Virtuoso which allowed him to transform any material into a weapon. But even with the high durability of the shield, it wasn't a match for the firepower of a tier 2 mage damaging spell.
When they saw that the two were still alive, the upper echelons were rather surprised, he knew that both had to be 2-digit players but to think they were able to block a tier 2 mage's spell head-on and survive without any wounds.
"Are you sure you're not Alon?"
"You're looking for that guy Alon who managed to defeat the hell boss dungeon by himself? No, Nuclear Fist is not that guy. Alon is still level 50-ish but this, Mr. Fist here is already a three-digit player. You must have mistaken him for someone else!"
Roman reasoned out. Hearing his rather genuine reasoning, made the situation a lot more sense.
"No wonder you can block a spell just like that, to think we'll find another expert from these places. Well, it doesn't matter, once you defended our attack, it already meant you oppose our guild."
"What kind of bullshit reason is that?"
"He exhausts me, kill him."
Everyone started bombarding Kaya and Roman with a rain of spells and arrows. The melee players charged in pursuit as they went all out to secure their deaths. Roman watched and felt hopeless, not only was there such a huge gap in their levels, but they were also at a numerical disadvantage. What could the both of them ever accomplish?
"Run, I'll stop them."
"Y-you? But you'll die!"
"No worries, I don't plan on dying from these lowlives."
"What?"
Before Roman could ask more, Kaya pulled out two of the Mother Centipede's sharp mandibles. Each mandible was 1.5 meters in length and as Kaya held it in both his hands, the mandible started to change shape and form a sword. The sword looked lackluster but its sharpness and durability could be seen as top-tier.
Ting~
[Fighting Virtuoso has been activated]
[Mother Centipede Mandible
Type: One-handed sword
Durability: 1000/1000
Sword made up completely from the mandible of a Mother Centipede. It conducts poison very well which amplifies any Poison Element by 250% of effectivity. Its sharpness allows armor penetration by 10% and the attack power is equal to 150% of the wielder's strength.
Requirements: Alon]
'This is pretty neat!'
Kaya was surprised upon seeing the information of the swords in his hands. He was glad that he had chosen to upgrade this skill instead of the Monster Eater skill since this was a lot more productive when it comes to fights. He felt comfortable waving the sword around and when he released his Poison Element to it, it didn't form into a liquid substance that dripped down but an aura of dark green hue appeared around the blade.
Just as the spells started moving their way, Kaya leaped in the air and threw out numerous shell parts of the centipede's exoskeleton. This acted as a blast shield that blocked all incoming projectiles from hitting them. He then activated Flash to immediately arrive in front of the melee players and started brandishing his swords at them.
"Fuck! So fast!"
The melee tried to block the swords but the speed was just too fast for their eyes to follow up. This made it a lot harder considering that Kaya's swordsmanship was rather unique to them. They couldn't even block a single attack since once they tried to predict the sword movements, they'd be too late to realize it was a faint causing them to reveal an opening to their defense.
-3700!
-3400
.
.
"Khuaaak!"
"Who the fuck is this expert!?"
"Shit I'm poisoned!"
Each of these players had at most 10k health but despite surrounding Kaya with their numbers, they could not even land a single blow. His attacks were just too fast. One swing from his sword damaged 3 people at once and each one of these players couldn't even block it.
' I'm finally getting the hang of it.'
Kaya could've killed them in one shot but he decided to hold back and only used 40% of his attribute to see if he could still perform the swordsmanship of the legendary swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi.
Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū was the name of his sword style. It consists of using two swords at the same time and executing both faints and strikes to confuse the opponents. This was the first few martial arts that Kaya had learned from the books given to him by his grandfather. He already mastered it but he only needed a blade that could follow up with his mastery and now that he had one, he decided not to hold back.
Dazzling swordsmanship stunned the players as Kaya accurately strike the red spots in their bodies instantly killing them. Since they were the ones who started an attack, the system didn't deem it a penalty. Although his ID was still red, it was concealed by the mask's effects.
"Who the fuck is he?"
"I have never seen such a sword expert in my life!"
"Are you sure that's Alon? Didn't that guy use telekinesis?"
"Tch, we can't stop now!"
The upper echelons still had doubts about whether or not the person in front of them was Alon but now that they had seen his combative prowess, it was entirely different from the information they had saw. Who could've thought that they'd senselessly provoke a hidden expert?
"Everybody! Spread out, that guy is an expert, we can't afford to fight him in short-range combat, mages cast your lock-type spells! Supports, buff and heal the tanks and warriors! Marksmen, surround him and activated any lock-type skills you have! Let's wait until guild leader arrives!"
The upper echelons started commanding their subordinates and they quickly followed the order. They didn't care about Roman since they didn't see him as a threat rather they let him run away since it would be useless for a wolf pack to chase a rabbit when they're currently facing a tiger.
Seeing that they were trying to surround him, Kaya didn't give them time as he released some of his speed and started reappearing and disappearing from the eyes of the player. He performed Shadow Steps.
"He disappeared!"
"Is that some kind of skill?"
"Fuck! Kheuuk!"
Before they could even be aware of their surroundings, Kaya struck a player that had a red spot on his neck which caused the blade to struck right through his throat, and then brandished his sword to behead the player instantly killing him. One of their members suddenly died and when they shot another attack at the area in which their member had just died, Kaya disappeared again and appeared on another player from the rear. With one slash from his blade, he tore the entire body of the support player in half quickly alarming the other players.
"Shit! Is he some kind of ghost!?"
"What kind of overpowered skill is this!?"
"No...this is not a skill...it's a- kheuouk!!"
When one of the upper echelons realized that it wasn't a skill but a technique, two blades already pierced through his chest and his health immediately fell to zero. The other upper echelon tried to retaliate but his movements were too slow as Kaya sliced off both his arms unequipping him from the bow he held and then spun around to lop off his head.
"He killed the commanders! Run away!"
Having no leader to command, they began scattering like ants. This made it easy for Kaya to finish them one by one. Roman on the other hand was hiding on top of the tree and had witnessed everything that happened. It took Kaya no more than a minute to dispense 25 players.
'Thankfully, that man was my friend, if I had opposed him from the start, I might've shared the same fate as them.'
Roman felt reverence and fear from Kaya. He was happy that one of his many decisions had shown the best outcomes. Now he felt assured that with Kaya's help, they could easily take on hard quests and reap huge rewards. Roman's spatial awareness quickly rang and he immediately called out to Kaya.
"Fist! Look out!"
Just as Kaya heard the call from Roman, a giant ballistic arrow crashed towards him at the speed of sound but he was quick enough to block the incoming arrow with his blades but as result, it depleted the durability of the swords by half and pushing him far back by a meter. His hoodie had also fallen back in his head revealing his face and ID for everyone to see.
"It does seem that they found the wrong person."
Jeremiah pondered upon seeing the face and ID of Kaya that showed a middle-aged man with the name 'Nuclear Fist'. He reloaded his giant crossbow with another giant arrow as he rode a white tiger as a mount.
"I apologize that my subordinates have mistaken you for someone else but since you've killed them all, I suppose it's only right for us to kill you too."
"You do have a point but the fact that they tried to kill us just because they mistook us for someone else, isn't my actions justified as a form of self-defense?"
Kaya reasoned out with a smile. This made the other members who had just arrived call out in anger. They already had a problem on their hand and now another one appeared. All of them started unsheathing their weapons as they returned their mounts except for Jeremiah who still rode his white tiger.
"How about you join the Wind Rider Guild? With love to have another expert in our ranks."
Jeremiah said. Kaya became infuriated hearing this fact. Not only did they have to force him to join their guild, they even threaten to kill him if he refused. If this was how guilds work on recruiting other players, then it was best to stay away from them.
"Guilds are annoying."
After Kaya said those words, he remove the aura that was concealed in his body and released his domain amplified by the effects of his class. A pressure spread out so far that everyone that was nearby Kaya immediately felt heavy and fear struck their bodies.
"I-i can't move!"
"What...is this...pressure?"
"My body feels so heavy!"
The majority of the players fell on their knees and some even fainted in shock. Only the upper echelons could hardly withstand the pressure that the man emanated and Jeremiah and Charlemagne who were High Refinement Realm experts could barely budge an inch. Their face gloomed in fear as their expressions darkened.
'We messed with a monster.'
'Can our Guild master even exude this much presence?'
They were terrified. They were experts on their rights and although they don't boast about it, they would rather show their capabilities with their skills thats why they had become middle-managers of the Blood Carnival Guild, a Super-first-rate dark guild.
"Sir! Please join the Blood Carnival Guild!"
Jeremiah pleaded as he knelt on the ground the same as Charlemagne. This surprised not only their subordinates but also Kaya. Roman who was fortunate to be farther from Kaya heard the name of the guild and couldn't help but widen his jaw in shock. He immediately sent a message to Kaya.
"Big bro! Don't accept their request! Blood Carnival Guild is a very tyrannical guild that has a horrible reputation in the entire game. If you accept their offer, not only will you be a target by other super guilds, majority of the players in the game will hate you even if you do nothing to anger them."
Roman said in the message. Upon reading the message, Kaya understood what he meant. In the first place, he never had the thought of joining a guild even if that guild was the number 1 guild in the game, he wanted to do things alone, he wanted to push his limits with his own strength, and he wants nothing more but to be an Independent player.
"I refuse."