Azimuth: The Elden Throne

This was another large chap that had to be cut into two.

That's about it, enjoy!

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/Sometime after Dale and Fray's meeting…/

A group of people watched in interest as Dale walked inside the pharmacy once again together with the other NPCs...

"Guess that's it for the 'Event'..."

"That was pretty brutal… I wonder what he did to deserve that." A man with blond hair said as he walked down the street

A skinny man on the side shrugged, putting one hand on the tall blond man's shoulders as he smiled.

"Did you see how the Alchemist was looking at Dale as he beat him up, Drey? It was like a… Hm…"

"Like a princess watching her knight?" A girl replied

"Yeah yeah! Exactly Cecilia."

His smile twisted into something depraved…

"This is golden! Pure Drama I tell you!"

"I think he may have done something to her…"

'Perhaps if I find a way to sneak around... I can take a look at some saucy content...' He thought as his expression distorted

/Bonk!/

But before he could finish, a girl with short black hair and a pair of glasses knocked on his head.

"Say it any louder and he may hear you."

"I would recommend you to stop before you receive the same treatment as that fool on the ground, so shut your teeth before I make you."

"Y-Yes Ma'am…"

She became annoyed.

"Didn't I tell you guys to not call me that?..."

"You did Ma'am!"

"#!!..."

"Let's go everyone, we're done here." She said as she rolled her eyes

Meanwhile, she thought:

'That Npc was definitely beyond Level 35, the sword given to him may have looked normal, but it was Level 25 and of Special Rarity, from its looks, it was one of the drops from the "Protect the Fields" Quest.'

'It was quite a decent weapon, yet it was destroyed just like that by his fist.'

'I already knew Lord Dale was boundless, but today I have witnessed a portion of his powers... That's what this dunce would've thought...' She thought silently as she looked at Rodi

'If the current outlook of the Southern Grasslands and that guy's face wasn't enough to convince them of his strength... Well...'

'May neither of that ever befall me.'

After watching Dale beat the crap out of a man in brutal ways, Rodi and company made their way back to their temporary residence… An Inn that had been recently repaired was right next to the also recently opened restaurant.

It was an extremely high-demand area, as logging off within an Inn allowed them to get the next tier of the Rested Bonus by the time they logged back in while being next to the Restaurant cut some time, allowing them to be one of the first in getting the bonuses.

The Stock was limited and the high-quality food that had the best price-to-effectiveness ratio was always sold within the first hour.

Regardless, there, they discussed their future plans such as the soon-to-arrive event.

/Bzzz.../

And midway through that, Hina, Rodi's superior, was interrupted by a sudden call.

So everyone stopped what they were doing as Hina talked with their leader…

"Uhum… Okay… That's all from me and… Hum?"

She was a bit stunned.

"I… My apologies for that, I should've been more mindful… D-Don't apologize miss!"

Hina was flustered as she talked, a rare side to this secretary-looking serious girl.

"Wh-What?... I… That may be possible… We definitely can but…"

"That is a bit sudden don't you think?..."

"Uhum… Okay… We have indeed… Alright."

"I'll discuss this with them, but we should properly hold a meeting soon… Yes, I know you're full of stuff to do I'm not blaming you for that." She said awkwardly, even though she herself was also full of things to do

"Hm? Guliver found what?... Lucky bastard… H-How much?..."

She clenched her fist as her expression twisted, she was envious!

"Really?!... Bastards!... Alright, we'll keep an eye on them, but suppressing everyone alone will be a bit too hard."

"Is that all?... Alright, Guild Head, I'll let you go back to your raid, make sure to contact us soon…"

/Beep!/

With a large beep, the call ended and Hina was left looking at the wall with a dark expression, but no one knew how to approach her in that state.dαs `n?ν?| сom

It looked as if something had gone wrong...

"Uhum..."

Being the second in command of their Clans operations within Resko, Rodi opened his mouth to ask:

"What did our head want?"

Hina turned her face to meet them, sitting on her chair as she fixed her expression and hair.

"There is good and bad news… Which one of those do you want to hear first?"

The skinny man was the first to raise his hand.

"The good one!"

/Clears throat…/

"So, we aren't tasked with raiding the Catacombs anymore and are now free from that monotonous grind."

/Cheers!/

Everyone apart from Rodi cheered.

Obviously, he was rather thrilled with that as well, however, from the start, he had a reason to be there…

He raised his hand politely so he could have a chance to speak.

"Hina, we weren't hunting in the Catacombs because we were forced to, but because that was the best place available."

"Since no other Guild has access to that area, we are the sole Clan with access to not only the Catacombs but also the Sewers."

"No competition means we always have a monster to fight without interference." <subtxt> . </subtxt>

"We have developed a strategy to raid those areas in order to complete as many Quests as possible for a total of 110% efficiency, leaving right now would be throwing away that work."

"If we don't hunt there, we'll soon be overcome by the other Guilds that have used more resources here, I perfectly understand the situation of our Clan, but abandoning our leading position isn't the way."

"The difference between me and the Captain of the Thunder Wheel Giants is just that of 6 Levels, it may be big, but if we stop, they'll catch up in another month or two."

"And that will be when we'll lose our position as the leading Clan... No, that'll happen sooner." Rodi said deeply

'Not only that, the Catacombs are also a reliable way to contact Dale, allowing us to talk a little with him and extract information every encounter.'

'That was how we learned of this Inn and restaurant's existence, we can't give up on future information just like that.'

Hina remained silent throughout his explanation, and she nodded, clearly understanding all of his points.

But she knew he wasn't done, so she allowed him to continue.

"We also can't forget about our responsibilities..."

"If we stop doing that Quest, someone else will do it in our stead, and they'll take over our place just fine!"

This was Rodi's biggest problem.

Even if they gave up on this for something else, if their enemies got their hands on this...

But Hina was ready for her own counterargument.

"That may be true, but that is one of the reasons why we must start moving."

"First, our current raid area isn't really… Wealthy."

"All drop items are either destroyed, or completely scraped, and even with the Smith Quest of exchanging 5 broken pieces for 1 repaired piece of gear, even after 2 full weeks grinding, we still failed to get a full set of that gear for anyone."

Rodi's expression soured, he knew that feeling very well, and he hated it.

While other players could drown in items, they could do nothing but sell them for scraps in the smithy, which awarded them with extra income and Experience, but Levels aren't everything.

A single item with good stats could cover the difference in levels just fine.

"In order to get better items, we need to go deeper into the Catacombs..."

"But can't even go beyond the 3rd floor due to the continuous debuffs, if you lack Constitution, if you stay more than 10 minutes on the 5th floor you just die."

"You'll even start to take poison damage when you enter the 4th."

"Only Drey who has the highest Constitution stat can somehow resist the Miasma debuff on the 5th floor, but Cecilia and Iroha are support characters, their 'Ct' value is super low."

"Even if we pull the other field linked to the Catacombs, the sewers, into the matter things won't change."

"They aren't that good of an area to hunt in, you talked about that hidden area within the sewers last time, but we were locked from getting there, remember?"

"I... You're correct, we can't only Level up, we need items to more effectively hunt." Rodi said as he started to know where this conversation was being led to

And following his expectations, Hina passed them a small piece of paper.

Written on it were many numbers... Scary numbers...

"Hunting in these fields takes a lot of resources from potions to repairs, all of those cost money, it may be in-game money, but since we can exchange that for real money..."

"I don't really need to finish that do I?"

"..."

/Slam!/

Hina smashed her hand onto the table, startling the others!

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Notes

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