Infinite Realm

At the edge of Black Grill's cave, a multitude of players had gathered and set camp around the place. The flags of a few guilds were hung in front of the bigger tents while the smaller ones just had a simple party or an individual staying in them. This large mass of players consisted of the players and guilds from Black Mountain town, Riverdale town, and Salt Springs town. While it wasn't exactly every player from these towns, they still consisted of a majority of them.

"Wow. So many players just for one event." A guild member couldn't help but exclaim.

"Will there even be enough monsters?"

"What do you know? I heard the Kobold king enslaved every monster in the cave so even our numbers are no match for theirs." A slightly older-looking guild player said.

"The heck?" The young man, who was the player who spoke earlier, was stunned.

A floor in Black Grill's Cave was bigger than the size of 2 Wembleys[1] and each floor housed almost five thousand monsters spread all out. Because of the absurd size of the place, it was entirely possible for players not to encounter each other unless their destination was the same. While it wasn't impossible though, it wasn't overly common for players to meet each other. This was especially so from the 7th floor of the Outer region to the lower floors. With such a large expanse of space, the number of monsters within the floors would obviously not be little. Player estimates put the figures at about 500-2,000 monsters on each floor.

"Looks like you're new." The older player spoke as he glanced at the young man. The young man's level was level 5 while a majority of players were already level 6 at least. Unless the young man was an extremely terrible player, he would have to be a newcomer.

"Yeah. I just started a week or so ago." The young man didn't deny it.

"A week to reach level 5? you've got skills." The older man spoke, however, his smile seemed to show that he didn't fully believe the young man. It took not just him, but a majority of other players more than 2 weeks just to get to level 6, yet this young man whose hair might not have even grown fully used 1 week. He would be a fool to believe him.

"Listen up." A voice sounded in the camping area.

The attention of the young man and the older man, who was just a middle-aged man, was turned to the source of the sound. 

Dozens of metres away was a lineup of players in red and black armour. They stood in a formation with the long-range players behind, followed by the [Assassin] players, then the close combat players with the [Guardians] being at the forefront and the [Berserkers] being just behind them. The total number of players was almost one hundred and every one of them didn't look like average players. They were Elites at the very least, with a few Experts in their ranks. This was especially so since the 7 players that stood in front of the rest felt quite different. Undoubtedly, they were all Experts.

The origin of the voice from before was a middle-aged man in pure black armour that held a large great-sword in front of him. He gave off a savage and bloodthirsty aura that not only prevented other players from approaching him but from even staring at him. A glance at the man made them feel cold as if they weren't staring at a human being but a servant of death; a cold-hearted killer.

The middle-aged man's voice boomed again.

"We have no spot for failure here and so, I expect to see each and every one of you give this your best. This is an opportunity for our Howling Wolf Battalion to show these pretty boys how it's done. Don't bring shame to the Battalion or else I don't mind taking your heads."

"We won't."

"Haha. Captain doesn't need to worry."

"It's time we show them who's the boss around here."

The army that stood in front of the man all replied with a battle-ready tone. Their fighting spirit had surged from the man's words and they were already to go start a massacre. This was especially for one certain [Assassin] who was one of the 7. He licked his blade as his eyes glinted with an eerie light.

"Good." The middle-aged man nodded.

"Now, advance!"

In an orderly fashion, the formation of players made their way towards the entrance of Black Grill's cave which was just a few hundred metres away.

"Battle Wolves has become more daring these days." A voice suddenly sounded from behind the two players from before.

'Huh?' The older player was shocked as to how someone had appeared behind him without him realising so. But as he turned around and saw the appearance of the personage, he was shocked.

"Commander Chesces!" The middle-aged man(the older of the two) was shocked but still saluted at him. The person before him was the 5th Hand of the Emperor and a high-ranking member of his guild, Emperor's Might. If not for the mission given out by the Town head, he would have never met him. 

"Dispense with the formalities." Chesces lightly smiled. 

He was currently clad in silver-white armour and had a silver-blue long-sword strapped to his waist. Because he had died quite a few times, his level was only at level 8. However, this was still impressive as not a lot of people were at level 8. Also, Chesces was one of the Experts of the guild so his true strength wasn't only dependent on his level.

"Being the strongest 1st tier guild in Black Mountain town and with no super guild in the way, they seem to have gotten more courageous in their acts and have begun swaggering around like the lords of a manor." Chesces resumed his evaluation of the team of players that had just departed.

While most of the information of Infinite Realm wasn't revealed to the public before its release, some were gotten by the top guilds of the game before it reached the players. The summary of the many Novice towns in the game was a good example. Even before the release of the game or before the information was made official in the forums, the upper echelons of the top gaming guilds had gotten their hands on this information. It wasn't a piece of confidential information and it would be made known to the general populace later so getting early access wasn't a difficulty for these powers.

As is popularly said and known, information is power. With the knowledge of these places, the guilds began planning where to set their headquarters in the game as well as their starting location. All to get access to as many resources as possible, some of them even began analysing what may or may not appear or happen in these places.

Black Mountain town, Riverdale town, and Salt Springs town were a bunch of the few towns eyed by the top guilds who decided to begin in Fallen Heart kingdom. Of course, there were still a bunch of other towns eyed by these guilds. For example, the town closest to the capital, Moon Flower town, as well as some of the towns that lead to port cities. The generally accepted categories of Novice towns in the order of importance to players were: Main spawn point, secondary spawn point, third tier areas, outskirts.

The 'outskirts' were towns suspected to have lesser resources and were also far from the capital city or other areas of importance. Third tier areas were okay but only some of the weaker 2nd tier guilds and 3rd tier guilds struggled to use these places as their headquarters and official starting location. Secondary spawn points were more valuable from the 3 and they were fought over by 2nd tier guilds, weaker 1st tier guilds, and branches of super guilds. As for the best of all, the Main spawn points, only super guilds, and peak 1st tier guilds fought over these places as their official starting position.

While this was the way things went, there were a few exceptions. A good example is Battles Wolves, one of the stronger 1st tier guilds, using Black Mountain town, which is a secondary spawn point, as their official starting position and headquarters. In other words, unlike Emperor's Might, who only sent a branch division to Riverdale town -which was a secondary spawn point- Battle Wolves had actually sent their main force over. Because of this, they had the advantage in the struggle for Black Mountain town and easily suppressed all the other forces there while still clashing head-on with a few tough guys like Emperor's Might. This was why Chesces had said that they were becoming more and more daring.

"Hehe. Older brother, what kept you busy for so long? Why didn't come to see me sooner?" The young man that was beside the middle-aged said.

'Older brother?' At this point, the middle-aged man began to sweat as he remembered how he had taken this kid lightly. Who knew that he would be related to one of the commanders of his guild. Luckily, he didn't lash out at the kid otherwise his future would be ruined.

"It seems like you didn't take this seriously." Glancing at the level of the young man, Chesces frowned.

"With your strength, you should be a level 6 at least, and with better effort, a level 7."

"Hehe. I'm adjusting. You know I just started gaming recently so I can't use my full strength yet." The young man spread his arms open as if saying he wasn't to be blamed.

Chesces ignored his comment before replying to his question.

"There's no meaning to meeting you since your level is still low. Luckily for you, an opportunity like this has risen. If you do good, you could become a level 7 at the end of it all. Reaching level 8 will only be a matter of time."

Listening to the conversation of the two, the middle-aged man was dumbfounded. The way Chesces had talked was as if he was stating a fact and not an estimate. It made him begin to look at the young man beside him in a new light.

'Maybe he did just use a week to reach level 5. And from the Commander's tone, he should have been able to reach level 6 at least, if he took things seriously.'

Thinking up to here, the middle-aged man felt as if all his years of playing VR games were a waste of time.

"Come with me.." Chesces spoke to the young man before he walked elsewhere.