Infinite Realm

To improve the efficiency and progress of the team, Azure Dragon had divided Emperor's Might into 3 squads. He lead one squad while the other was headed by Chesces. As the two teams had met on the 5th floor, they decided to transverse the floors together.

The third team, on the other hand, was the vanguard team and was lead by Black Tempest. The purpose of this team was to get information on the kobold king's units; including their numbers and comprehensive battle strength. They were also supposed to monitor the lower floors and report on the strength and identity of any guild team they encountered. Azure Dragon knew that Emperor's Might surely wasn't the only guild that had their eyes set on the Kobold king.

In a battle between two or more opponents, information was one of the most essential elements that helped one in achieving victory. Azure Dragon was well aware of this and so ordered Black Tempest to lead a team ahead of the others.

Since he had left earlier than the others, Black Tempest was ahead of them but since the comprehensive strength of his team was much weaker, he was only leading by 2 floors. If his team was as strong as Azure Dragon's, then it would have been a difference of 4 or more floors. Nonetheless, his team was still strong; at least stronger than the top teams of 2nd tier guilds so Black Tempest was still able to proceed much quicker than other guilds.

Coincidentally though, the floor Black Tempest's team was in, was currently the same as Sato's team. In fact, the two teams had come close to crossing paths before, and at least twice at that, but because of the complex terrain of the floor, they didn't discover each other. As a result, though the two parties suspected that there were other players and guild teams here, they didn't know who it was.

On each floor, there existed at least 5-7 Exit gates to proceed to the next floor or retreat to the previous one. Sometimes, the gates are positioned randomly and extremely far from each other; rarely were they ever positioned close to each other. A majority of the time though, the arrangement of the gates was such that each one was situated in the direction of the 4 major cardinal points and the 4 ordinal points. In other words, the Exit gates would have a corresponding point directly opposite of it when the entire Black Grill's Cave is viewed from a bird's eye view.

The Exit gates Sato and Black Tempest happened to choose to be the exact same one; the gate in the West direction. Both sides had crossed each other without being aware of this fact, then went on to aim for the same gate, in terms of direction.

However, Black Tempest's team had more men than Sato's, and in terms of battle strength using levels as a reference, they were also much weaker than their counterparts. These two factors made it such that Sato and the rest were ahead of Black Tempest and his teammates by dozens of metres. Also, the two had taken different paths to the Exit gate and the nature of the paths was such that they would only meet each other at the location of the Exit gate.

Simply put, both parties were headed in the same direction but from two different points. Added with the fact that Black Tempest and his crew were behind by dozens of metres, the two different parties were unaware of the other's existence and intentions, which were similarly the same. One could say this was a coincidence but they could also say that their fates were somewhat tied to each other.

....

"How far are we from the Exit gate?" Lu Zhen asked Sato as they were walking forward.

Since Sato could not involve himself in their battles as it was pointless to him, he had taken on the role of the team's navigator.

"If we put in our best, we should be there in 10 minutes." Sato replied with a pensive expression.

"Even with you by our side?" Fudo raised an eyebrow at the response.

"If I'm to help you guys then it would take us only half the time." Sato smiled. It wasn't that he was boasting but he was just that strong.

The difference between a level 15 player and a level 6 or even 7 monster was a 100% increase in level for the monsters. Adding on the improved abilities that came as a result of crossing the level 10 checkpoint, no monster beneath level 10 could take a bit from Sato and not suffer dearly. When Sato had tried testing his strength with them, he had inadvertently sent a Mud bear flying back by 10 metres with more than half of its HP gone; and this was just a simple motion with his sword. It should be known that while it wasn't the most powerful monster, by pure strength alone, the Mud bear was much stronger than a kobold of equivalent level, yet, Sato had made a 'nice' work out of it with just a simple move. If Sato had taken the monster seriously and used his class skills, heavens know what would become of it.

While the others, apart from Lu Zhen and Fudo, would be having a bit of difficulty facing these monsters on their own, Sato didn't experience any of that. Though Fudo and Lu Zhen could take the monsters down with ease too, compared to the leisure with which Sato could pull it off, theirs was nothing.

"Let's get going then. These guys aren't worth our efforts and time. Mosquitoes might have meat but compared to that of a cow, it isn't worth comparing." Fudo laughed.

The monsters here are too weak to the team that killing them would only provide a pitiful amount of Experience points. Rather than remaining here and wasting their time on them, Fudo felt that it was best for the team to proceed to the Middle region where there were 'greener pastures'.

They didn't know the progress of the major guilds of the 3 towns so one could say that Sato's team was in a race against time. While he had suspected that no guild would make a major attempt on the BOSS in the next 2 days or so, Sato had no way to confirm this. Fudo realised this and could guess that since the Outer region was of no use to the team, Sato would help them to reach the Middle region.

"You're right. Let's go." Sato said.

While 10 minutes didn't sound long, who knew how much progress the other guilds would make in this time.. Hence, Sato wasn't willing to waste it and decided to interfere in the upcoming battles.