Infinite Realm

While Sovereign hosted a Grand Guild Meeting for the guilds of White Valley town, the guilds of Riverdale, Black Mountain, and Salt Springs towns were preparing to face the Kobold king.

Back when Sato still facing the first challenge of the Main Trials, the Kobold king had led its forces up to the Outer region's 6th floor. Logically, considering the strength of its forces and the speed of advancement, it would have taken the monster a bit above 2 hours or 4 hours tops to have made it to the 1st floor but it didn't. On the contrary, the Kobold king had slowed the advancement of its forces to a snail's crawl when compared to their previous momentum. 

When this news was reported to the various guilds via the scouts they had placed in the cave, they were all surprised and couldn't understand the reason why the Kobold king would do such. Nonetheless, such actions made gave the players of the 3 towns more time to prepare their various battle strategies as well as contemplate the Kobold king's main goal.

Some believed that the Kobold king was going on a rampage and wouldn't rest until at least one town was destroyed. As for the reason for its slow progress, they believed that this was just the calm before the storm. They were also of the opinion that the game was providing them with another opportunity to shine and be reborn and so, the slow-going actions of the Kobold king and its army were nothing more than the system giving the players some preparatory time. 

It should be noted that of the 3 towns, only Riverdale had received the 'baptism' of a clover town; Black mountain town, which was the closest, only took care of the scraps. However, in the eyes of the players of the 3 towns, this was an opportunity that belonged to all. Unlike the normal events that focused on one town, this was seemed to encompass the 3 towns. One of the reasons why this was so, as because this time around, the players decided to take the initiative and face the threat.

But there was another group of players that had a different idea of the motive behind the Kobold king's actions. These players presumed that the Kobold king was limited to Black Grill's Cave hence the reason why it slowed down its army's advancement, almost to a halt. 

Of the 2 groups, the logic of the second group could be said to make the most sense, after all, no matter how strong it was, it shouldn't be capable of threatening a town. Most players, especially those of Riverdale who had witnessed their town head in action, surmised that the Kobold king wasn't a tenth of Town head Arman's strength, and the Kobold king, being an intelligent monster, should be able to guess this. Hence, it was idiotic to presume that the monster would dare to attack a town. Surprisingly though, they were right, but not exactly. The Kobold king did want to see blood flow but it was forced to slow down because of something.

A couple of hours back, just as the Kobold king had made it to the Outer region's 4th floor, it had sensed a presence that was much stronger than it. This presence belonged to Arman. IR was extremely realistic and just like in a reality, what kind of town leader would let threat rise in his backyard? This was especially so as he sensed a dark force hidden within the monster that seemed to approach the level of a Saint(6th tier). However, even though he was aware of the existence of the monster, he could do nothing about it.

Black Grill's cave had a legend surrounding it and even the fall of an Empire was related to this. Consequently, the entire place became a forbidden ground to NPCs. No matter how many guts or balls he was born with, there was no way Arman would claim to be much stronger than an Empire. As a result, he was forced to watch the Kobold king approach the entrance. However, Arman had resolved himself that once it left the vicinity of the cave, he would slay the monster.

The Kobold king seemed to sense the mysterious eyes on it however, it didn't actually plan on stopping but only slowed down its progression to the 1st floor. It was as if it was thinking of what to do or how to handle the threat outside. Logically, it could simply retreat to the Middle region and wait till it was much stronger to take them on but it didn't want to. It wanted to see mountains of bodes and a river of blood. 

"Who knew there was such a demonic force hidden down there."

Arman frowned from his office. His eyes were locked in the direction of Black Grill's cave, almost as if he can see the current happenings there despite the distance. 

"It can't be helped. None of us can get into the cave because of the curse so it's impossible for us to know what dwells and occurs down there." 

His secretary, Alice, stood by a few steps behind him as a helpless expression was spotted on her face. 

To her, taking charge of Riverdale or any of the other 2 towns close by was nothing more than a burden. No one knew the nature of the curse but all they knew was that whoever entered inside would die irrespective of their strength; only low leveled NPCs could go in unharmed but even then, the monsters there were more than capable of dealing with them. Having such a time-bomb that contained god knows what made ruling this area a burden. Nonetheless, as the Town head and the secretary to the Town head, it was their duty to maintain the peace and security of the surrounding area. This was why despite his impressive strength and ability, Arman was actually made the lord of a town and not a city. 

"Send the Chosen ones. Since they seem to be immune to the curse and they also have the potential to grow stronger. Let them explore the area better and give us a detailed report. At the same time, I want them to eliminate that monster." Arman said with a cold voice.

"Also, it would be best if you could request the other Town heads to do the same."

"Understood."

Just a few minutes later, as the players in Riverdale were all preparing to engage the kobolds, a system notification suddenly popped up and caught the attention of all the players in town. 

[[System notification :

Wide-Scale Announcement 

Region level: Town

Mission Title: Eliminate the Threat

Mission Rating: B

Mission Detail: Town Head Arman has noticed a lurking threat in Black Grill's Cave and due to certain reasons, requires you to defeat it. 

Basic Rewards :

-Town Head Arman's gratitude (Increase in Relationship points with the Town head)

-10 Silver coins

-**** Experience Points(Depends on your contribution in the battle)

Penalty : 

-Town Head Arm's disappointment (Decrease in Relationship points with the Town head)

-Loss of 1 resource map (Black Grill's Cave)

-All players would experience hard times in Riverdale town.

System Description: The Town head puts a lot of faith in you but failure to live up to that would cost you a lot. Think this through, lest you find yourself losing everything.    

System: Accept/Decline (To accept, please visit the Administration Hall.) ]]

The mission wasn't only limited to Riverdale players as within the next one hour, the players of the other two towns, Black Mountain town and Salt Springs town, also got a similar mission from their various town heads.

. . .

. . .

. . .

[[ System notification :

Logging out from Infinite Real…

Disconnecting from the Heavenly System Universal server…

Disconnecting Neurolink…

Awakening process beginning...

Prepare in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 ]]

"Finally." Sato sighed as he noticed his environment slowly changing. 

3 hours had gone by in reality since Sato was 'killed' and had gone offline. Despite not being in the game, he could receive all the news and feed of the current happenings from both his teammates and a few gaming channels dedicated to IR or even player livestreams. The VR gaming industry was already quite popular so it was common to see such.

Sato had mostly focused on channels and livestreams operated by guilds or players in both White Valley town and Riverdale. Because of this, he knew that the beast horde would soon be attacking White Valley town and he was also aware of the large-scale mission given out by the Town head. Sadly, as he was in an isolated environment, he couldn't receive the system notification.

'I just have to be done with this in time and I can still make it.' Sato thought.

"This should be the last trial right? I wonder what the challenge would be."

. . .

Infinite Facts :

The tiers of power include :

1st tier, Beginner/Apprentice rank e.g. [Sword Apprentice]

2nd tier Normal/Practitioner rank e.g. [Swordsman]

3rd tier Master rank e.g. [Sword Master]

4th tier King rank e.g. [Sword King]

5th tier Grand-master rank e.g. [Sword Grandmaster]

6th tier Saint rank e.g. [Sword Saint]

7th tier Demigod/Infinite Mortal rank e.g [Sword Demigod], [Sword Mortal]

8th tier God rank e.g. [Sword God]

Currently, all players are of the 1st tier Apprentice rank.