Ethan had been speaking in a rather casual, almost roguish manner, describing how he planned to carry out his spiteful and thankless tasks, but Xandria cut him off.
Her barrage of questions made Ethan suddenly realize that the developnt of Ethereal was never announced in advance. What he was saying now was essentially spoiling future events. But he couldn't help it—the mont he thought of Zachary, Ethan's mind always seed to overheat.
Still, he didn't dwell on it too much and replied, "It's absolutely true. As for where I got the information, you don't need to know. But as for the benefits of holding a fortress… I'll tell you once we're officially working together."
Xandria had been leaning in, ready to listen, but Ethan's response was essentially useless.
She slowly sat back down, lowering her head in thought. After a mont, she looked up at Ethan and said, "In Blackridge, half of the Level 4 guilds have already received investnts from the Steele Consortium. The investor is none other than Zachary, the eldest son of the Steele family.
Originally, I didn't want to accept any outside investnt. But…"
Tears seed to well up in Xandria's eyes as she stared at Ethan. "Ethereal is just too damn brutal. All my years of gaming experience are completely useless here. My studio has 2,093 mbers, all of them rogues, and we can't just delete our accounts and start over.
To level up the guild, we need stronghold upgrades, and to upgrade the stronghold, we need points from clearing dungeons. What kind of crap design is that? Why not just let us earn points by killing players in the open world? I guarantee my crew would dominate in no ti. And now you're telling there's going to be so Fortress Wars? This is just going to be the death of …"
Ethan's jaw dropped as he stared at Xandria. Her mature, elegant face was now streaked with tears. Her voice, already a stark contrast to her appearance with its soft, almost childlike tone, was now spewing curses about Ethereal's chanics.
The visual and auditory dissonance was sothing he might never experience again in his lifeti.
For a mont, he even felt a pang of guilt toward Morzan, the old man behind Ethereal. Look what he'd done to this poor woman…
"Stop, stop, stop!" Ethan couldn't take the contrast anymore and quickly raised his hand to cut her off. "Alright, just wait for to send my people over. I'll take care of it. Oh, and thank that guy who gave the Status Cleansing Scroll. Tell him I consider him a friend now."
With that, Ethan stood up to leave, not waiting for Xandria's reaction.
Xandria was montarily stunned but quickly realized what had happened. Back then, she had only ordered her rogues to hang back and point Ethan in the right direction. She had been puzzled as to why Ethan had agreed to help her before she even made her request. Was it because she's just that beautiful? She had even felt a little smug about it at the ti.
But now she understood—it was all about the bond between two n.
"Wait!" Xandria called out as Ethan was about to leave. "When will your people get here?"
"Probably three days. It takes at least thirty-two hours to get from Harmony City to Blackridge." Ethan knew this well. Back when he had used his Stag Form, it had taken him sixteen hours. For players without mounts, running on foot would take at least twice as long.
"That long? Why not just use the teleportation system?" Xandria asked, her eyes widening.
"Teleportation costs 46 gold per person. Even with a group discount, it's still 1,380 gold. Are you paying for that?" Ethan was eager to leave. This woman's stark contrast between her appearance and voice was making him incredibly uncomfortable.
If she covered her face while speaking, or if he just looked at her without hearing her voice, it would be a completely different experience.
But still…
Ethan couldn't even describe the feeling. All he knew was that he was covered in goosebumps.
"Here… 1,400 gold. Take it. This al's on . Now get your people here as fast as possible!" Xandria said, tossing a bag of gold coins at him before turning and slamming the door behind her.
Ethan stood there, holding the bag of gold, completely dumbfounded.
[Ding… Contract has been generated!]
A system notification chid in Ethan's ear. In private system rooms like this, the system would automatically generate a contract based on the conversation, binding both parties to the agreent.
Outside the room, Xandria smirked to herself. 'You think you're so clever, huh? Just wait until your people get here. I'll treat them so well, they'll end up loyal to instead. Hehe…'
Back in the room, Ethan shook his head with a bitter smile. What the hell just happened?
But he didn't waste any ti. He imdiately contacted Celia and filled her in on the situation. He asked her to pull together ten teams capable of clearing Expert-level dungeons.
Renegade Alliance currently had 40,000 combat players and 10,000 support players. Over a hundred teams could clear Expert-level dungeons without issue, so pulling together ten teams was no problem.
Ethan also instructed Celia to have these players sign a confidentiality agreent. After all, he had promised Xandria that the teams would join Nocturne Order in secret.
Additionally, they had to sign another clause stating that no matter what conditions Nocturne Order offered, they would imdiately leave the guild and return to the Renegade Alliance if recalled. They were also barred from rejoining Nocturne Order for three years.
Anyone unwilling to sign these agreents wouldn't be sent to Nocturne Order.
Of course, the benefits of this assignnt were quite attractive. Not only would Nocturne Order cover their salaries and all consumables, but they could also keep any equipnt they looted. This single perk alone had many players scrambling to sign up.
In the end, Celia selected ten teams, totaling 300 players, who then teleported out of Harmony City.
Ethan waited for them to arrive and gave them one final instruction: "If you have any demands, make sure to push hard with Nocturne Order's guild leader."
He emphasized the words push hard with a mischievous grin.
The 300 players' eyes lit up. They could already imagine the juicy benefits this assignnt would bring.
And true to Ethan's advice, once they arrived at Nocturne Order, they made all sorts of outrageous demands. Surprisingly, Xandria agreed to every single one.
It would not be until they had earned enough points and were preparing to leave that Xandria would discover the truth. She would pull each of them aside for a chat and eventually learn that they had signed a contract with Renegade Alliance before coming.
When she finds out, Xandria would definitely be furious. She would probably spend hours cursing Ethan's na.
But that's a story for another ti.
For now, Ethan sent the 300 players to Nocturne Order and then left Blackridge. He had no intention of sticking around. After all, he had already pissed off half the guilds in Blackridge. Hanging around there would just be asking for trouble.
Back in Harmony City, he could roam freely because Renegade Alliance was the dominant force there. Everyone showed him respect.
Ethan knew it was better to hit and run. Guerrilla tactics were his specialty.
While he was feeling pretty pleased with himself, Frostfla was about to lose his mind.
Not that Ethan cared. Even if he knew, he'd probably be like, 'What are you gonna do about it?'
This trip to Blackridge had been incredibly profitable. After hopping onto the teleportation array and arriving in Springhaven, a flash of white light signaled his arrival.
Ding…
[System Notification: Lil w has accepted your friend request!]
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