The group appeared back at the entrance to the dungeon with a white flash. In front of them was a tightly packed group of people, all trying to organize parties for the dungeon. The group started to try to find a path out, towards the flight service. Some players got irritated when someone started to try and push through them, but when they turned around and saw ‘Phoenix Rising’ above Athenes and Nobunaga they quickly settled down and made a path. The guild name had already made others fear and respect them, making it easier to move around. Of course there were those that didn’t really care and was still irritated by them. There were also those that were more irritated by the fact that they were part of ‘Phoenix Rising’, they felt inferior and wanted to take it out on the guild members. Sora had been thinking about making his information public for a while now, he didn’t want to hide his name forever. Just as Sora had been thinking that a large man had purposely blocked their path.

“You all think you can strut around like you own the place just because you’re part of Phoenix Rising? Your guild is just a bunch of no name players that were picked up by someone who was a little famous.”

“We were only trying to pass through, we didn’t-”

“Shut up bitch, a no name healer like you doesn’t get the right to be proud!”

Athenes was cut off before she could even finish her sentence, Sora could feel the fire in Nobunaga’s eyes as he looked at the man with a gaze that could devour him. He had just pulled out his sword when a shadow had already leapt at the man.

Blossom had used [Savage Pounce] to immediately engage, she was grinding her teeth and you could almost see a red glint in her eyes. Before the man even had time to pull out his weapon he was hit with [Savage Pounce], a basic attack, and an [Overwhelm] that managed to crit. The man was dead before he could even figure out which person attacked him. Blossom had a red name tag, revealing all of her information. Her name was almost as famous as Ethereals and had earned a lot of fans. This was the first time they had seen her in action other than the small clip from when she was fighting the bandit boss. Nobody was sure who said it first, but the word ‘Red Devil’ had quietly entered everyone's ears. It turns out that Athenes and Blossom had bonded more than Sora had thought, resulting in Blossom killing someone in the middle of a large crowd for her sake. Nobunaga was the most stunned, since he had always been the one to protect his little sister. This time it was the person that Nobunaga had somewhat of a rivalry with that was there to help Athenes, even before he was able to take out his sword. Sora just shook his head as he also revealed his profile information.

“Now we have to walk down the mountain, you know we can’t use the flight service if you have the murderer status on you.”

“Hehe, oops I forgot. I was just too angry since this bastard dared to call our precious little Athenes a bitch.”

LeeLee also revealed her information as the group started to walk towards the path down the mountain. The crowd that was once loud to the point of not being able to hear your own thoughts was now quiet to the point where you could hear a pin drop. The crowd parted as the group passed by, nobody willing to act more conceited than they should. Blossom already had the murderer status and had showed such a savage appearance, who would dare to block her path? Some people had thought about trying to retaliate against her but when they saw that she was with not only LeeLee but also Ethereal, they had changed their minds. The group started to head down the mountain, with passing players looking with awe at the impressive lineup that their group had.

The team was about to pass by the cave that contained the Frost Elementals, where the Frost Elemental boss, Lanche, resided. Sora didn’t have too much of an interest in him anymore since the mana recipes would start circulating in the market, bringing their value down.

“Hey Nobunaga, what do you and Athenes plan on doing now?”

“We will probably go back to hunting for plants, Athenes has always liked gardening and looking at flowers, that’s the whole reason she had become an Alchemist.”

“If you're around this area tomorrow then keep an eye on that cave. There is a boss that will spawn there, he drops the Beginner Mana Potion Recipe and you could easily defeat it with a healer. It will also help get Athenes Alchemy level up.”

“Alright, I’ll look out for it.”

The team made it to the bottom of the mountain and split up. Athenes and Nobunaga started heading back towards Frost Peak Village, while Blossom and LeeLee wanted to take a break from the game. Sora headed back towards his outpost, he was surprised to see how busy the caves were. Most people were waiting outside of the cave, waiting for people to come and take them through the mountain. These people would charge a fee of 1 silver per person, which began to add up considering the amount of people who came through here. Sora had coincidentally ended up following one of the large groups. After a while the group stopped, while the leader had came back to Sora with an angry look on his face.

“You think you can get a free pass-”

The man had seen his player name before he was able to continue shouting at him. Sora was already reluctant to let other people make money off of his outpost, this man stepped over the line. He decided right there and then to shut down his operation.

“You can’t expect to make money off of my business, can you? So tell me, how many people have you pushed away from coming into this cave. How many of my potential customers did you make leave?”

“I-I-I would nev-”

“Most importantly, how much of that money are you willing to compensate me for?”

The man had choked on his words, he had indeed pushed away many people. The entire guiding operation was under the leadership of a small unofficial group that was created specifically for this occasion. Sora had been away so when the group didn’t suffer any repercussions they kept becoming more tyrannical, seeing how much they could get away with. Thanks to the amount of people that were within the group, they were able to easily bully the weaker players out. The only people they allowed to pass through for free was players of the ‘Phoenix Rising’ guild, along with stronger players that they didn’t want to offend. Some of the people even said they were under the orders of Sora, this man being one of them. The crowd seemed to catch onto what had happened.

“Wait, he isn’t working for you?”

“He isn’t even part of my guild, why would I let him?”

The crowd all became enraged, while the man that had been swindling them had started to sweat. Everyone knew that there would be trouble if Sora came back but they all thought that it wouldn’t be their problem as long as someone else was caught. This man was just unlucky enough to be the culprit.

“There is no need to look so nervous. How about this, I will help you get through here safely if we can work out some sort of deal.”

“Yes, yes, that sounds great. What kind of deal?”

“Simple, first you need to refund everyone's money. Second, you need to start listing the names of every person who is also doing this. Third, You will give me 50% of the profit you made. Also, if I find out you gave me any false information… well I’ll leave that to your imagination.”

The man was surprised at how easy it would be to get out of this situation, he had expected to turn in all the profits he had made. He had already expected to sell out all of his group members, except all he needed to do was give him a name instead of actually setting up a trap or leading him to them. This would help him stay under the radar against his group, which he wasn’t really friendly with anyways. The man let out a breathe of relief as he started listing off many names. Sora pulled up his guild management and started to blacklist every name that was mentioned. Blacklisting them will make NPCs that are within his territory hostile to them. It also gave any player the rights to kill them without penalty. It was basically like banning them from entering his territory.

…..

A group was currently sitting around a table in the restaurant that was part of Sora’s territory. They were laughing merrily as they talked about all the money they had been making while some were even trying to flirt with the innkeeper NPC. The NPC wouldn’t attack them for something small like this, or else they wouldn’t dare to do so.

“This has to be the easiest money I have ever made. All we have to do is sit here while our lackeys rake in the money.”

“I could get used to this, I just wonder how long we will be able to continue.”

“Hopefully a week, I doubt this Ethereal person could deal with all of us. As long as we stick together we should be safe. Once he figures out who is behind it we should cause some commotion before he can assemble his guild, then we will be able to leave before he can catch us.”

“Hahahaha, I wonder-”

Before the man could continue a large line of red text appeared in front of him that read ‘You have been blacklisted from entering Ethereal’s territory.’. The man looked around the table, it seemed like every single one of them had gotten the same message since they were all staring off into space with a surprised look. Every person also had a yellow name tag above their heads.

“What does blacklisted me-”

-6,443

The man received a huge damage number as a kitchen knife struck the back of his head, resulting in an instant death. The other men looked at the kitchen knife with shock as the gentle looking innkeeper had walked over and retrieved the knife. Her gentle look had been replaced with a savage appearance as she started walking towards the men in the group.

“You are trespassing on Lord Ethereal’s territory, I will be doing the honor of exterminating you in his stead. Well… it might be a little personal, since you all decided to try and tease me.”

The knife was wielded skillfully as it slashed through the air, killing people in one hit. The group of men had started to try and run but before they could get very far the innkeeper had appeared in front of them. She began to swiftly deal with every person, cleanly killing them in one hit. At the end she simply stepped back to her bar counter and began wiping it down. Some of the other people within the restaurant had seen what happened to them and recorded it. Some of the men who had been trying to flirt with her earlier had now started to shake and didn’t dare to ever do so again.

A similar scene was happening within each building that Sora owned. The blacksmith had used his hammer to smash players to the ground. The old shopkeeper had used an old sword, moving very fluidly considering his age. Nearly 60 players were killed within the first few seconds of being blacklisted. Some players who were outside of the buildings, in the chasm, or even within the hot springs had received the blacklisted message along with having a yellow tag above their head. The other players were confused about what it meant, until they were given a notification that the yellow tag means they can be killed without penalty.

-Territory Announcement-

All players who have been blacklisted will be killed on sight by ‘Phoenix Rising’. A blacklisted player can be identified through their yellow name tag. To those who aren’t part of ‘Phoenix Rising’, feel free to kill them if you want or leave them be until we can find them. Every player that has been blacklisted was part of the group that goes by the name ‘The Winged Guides’ and has been charging players for passage through the cave, falsely using my name for their own profit.

Every player had started looking around to find players with the yellow name tag. Everybody was already irritated by those people since they all had to pay a fee just to travel around the area. Even those who didn’t want the guide was forced to pay just to travel through the cave. Another massacre had occurred, this time with players doing the deed instead of NPCs. There were a couple people in the hot springs that had been bombarded by many different spells and abilities, killing them within less than a second. This was a good opportunity to help out ‘Phoenix Rising’ and they didn’t want to let the opportunity slip. After the massacre, every player was reminded to not offend the guild, or else they could have the yellow name tag next.

….

Sora finished putting in all the names, along with sending the territory announcement to anybody that was currently within his territory. The man who he had caught was afraid of Sora going back on his promise. The man pulled out 100% of the profits he had made and quickly handed it over to Sora. It was only 15 gold but that was pretty good considering the short amount of time he had been guiding people. Sora didn’t really care about the money, he simply wanted to set an example to people who tried to take advantage of him.

“Alright, get out of here now.”

The man didn’t dare stay around and quickly ran out. Sora could have killed him too but by letting him go it showed that those who help him are much better off than those who go against him. The crowd of people had been watching the entire thing, some had even started to record so it was only a matter of time until word started to spread. Sora decided to put up signs to help people go through the cave without a guide. The signs were cheap so he was able to set them all up for only 15 gold, the same amount he had gotten from the man he had just let off with a warning. When Sora stepped into his cavern a message popped up in front of him.

Territory Coffer: 135 gold and 55 silver

Would you like to collect the money?