Chapter 214: Give Me Time

Everyone sat around an extinguished bonfire. They were holding a meeting after resting the entire night.

However, nobody could sleep soundly. In front of them was the Immortal Dragon and behind them were Single-Horned Dragons. There were no comfortable beds, only hard soil. An army without a base was no different than a group of mountain bandits. No, their situation was worse than mountain bandits in a sense that they couldn’t even enter the forest. They were like bandits living near the mountain rather than on top. It was inevitable for their morale to plummet.

Cross dragged a large log and sat on it, using it as his chair. Then, his first action in the meeting was to turn to Sangdao.

“I’ll be blunt. Can you just leave?”

Sangdao stood up and politely bid farewell. “Dao understands. I hope we will have a chance to work together next time.”

“It’s an option to be considered. Honestly speaking, I don’t trust you. You clearly have a connection with Montra,” Cross said frankly.

Sila interrupted. “But, Dao chooses to become Montra’s enemy. I think she can be trusted.”

Cross stared at Sila. “Not to mention her, I still don’t trust you. Don’t think that we are close friends just because we are in the same alliance. Our relationship is about mutual benefits, no more, no less. If one day you seem useless to me, I will not hesitate to take care of you by my own hand.”

Sangdao lightly tapped on Sila’s shoulder. “This is fine, Sila. Mister Cross is making the right decision. If you doubt someone, you can’t use them. That’s basic. We can meet again next time.”

Once she finished, she activated the invitation card in her hand and disappeared without waiting for Sila’s objection. Witnessing Sila’s crestfallen expression after her exit, Varee’s brows twitched subconsciously. After that she subtly moved closer to Sila without anyone noticing, possibly driven by women’s intuition.

After Sangdao had left, Cross began discussing the big problem literally sleeping in their entire city and driving them crazy.

“The topic we are going to discuss today is the same as two days ago. We will have to decide our next course of action.”

Sila had slept for two days, so he was clueless as to what Cross was talking about. He looked at Varee, his expression revealing his confusion.

“We are discussing the method to cope with Infernee’s invasion, Sila. We have to come up with a method before it becomes a grave problem. In wartime, an army without any city as a base will be put into an extremely disadvantageous position. Thus, we have to quickly seize the city back and reconstruct it, or escape and find a new base.”

Cross added, “Varee is right. Based on what Bluebird told us, this dragon will cease to exist when Montra deactivates the spell. This is the third day and he still hasn’t deactivated it, so we have to assume the worst case, which is that he can maintain the spell as long as he wants. It’s time for us to come up with countermeasures. The topic of the discussion today is to decide which option we will take.”

Sila was attending the meeting for the first time, so he asked, “What are the available options?”

“The first is for us to take a detour around Grea City and march to Colossia City. That city was conquered by a newly established army of the Heavenly Dragon Guild, so we stand a chance at taking it over. Moreover, that city is at the center of the Main Continent. Whoever occupies it will have a mobility advantage; being able to unite forces from different areas. It’s the city that we absolutely have to get our hands on in wartime. If we go with this option, it will be like we are doing that ahead of schedule.

“However, this option comes with risk. Montra will have anticipated this option. He should have prepared ambushes during our travel or strengthened the city’s defense. If we die, we will revive at Grea City and be constantly killed by Infernee. Considering the risk, we are currently voting for the second option. The vote is two against one for the second option, with Beluga being the one voting against it.”

Everyone listened and gave it some thought. Most of them agreed with Cross and chose to go with the second option. Except Sila of course, who raised his hand and asked again.

“What is our second option?”

Cross turned to Sila and replied with annoyance, “The second option is to mimic Beluga. We won’t use a city as our base but will seize a monster’s territory. If we succeed in raiding the boss monster, its minions will become weaker and won’t pose much of a threat to us. In short, we will raid the boss monster and place the Territory Flag. Then, we will acquire a temporary stronghold with wild monsters as the natural guards around our base.”

The Territory Flag was a special item which only a guild leader could use. Once a boss monster was slain and a guild leader planted the flag in its pool of blood, the guild would obtain a temporary guild base. With it, guild members could register the base as their revival spot. Moreover, monsters that inhabited the area wouldn’t respawn until the guild base collapsed.

“So, take a good rest, everyone. The day after tomorrow, we will take over the Single-Horned Dragon Forest!” Cross shouted, and the members shouted back with liveliness.

“W-What did you just say?! The Single-Horned Dragon Forest?!” exclaimed Sila.

Varee turned to Sila. “Yes, the Single-Horned Dragon Forest is the closest area. Furthermore, it’s an unpopular location that players rarely visit. Although Rex is a dragon, based on the information, it’s only a Marquis-Rank mutated dragon. If everyone joins forces, there is a high chance that we can take it down.”

Sila imagined the scene of the Single-Horned Dragon Forest being engulfed in the flames of war. The sight of the Single-Horned Dragon’s families playing with each other was still deeply ingrained in his memory.

He didn’t want to destroy the balance of the forest, especially when Rex was one of his benefactors and had taught him Tiger Dragon Qi. There was no way he would ever allow such a thing to happen.

“I object to the idea! We should search for other options,” said Sila. Everyone looked at him.

“You don’t get a vote. As such, the result from the high-position members is two against one. Even Lone Wolf agreed with me,” said Cross.

Sila didn’t know what to say. The only thing he was certain of was that he wouldn’t let it happen. Meanwhile, Bluebird gave it a thought and raised his hand.

“In fact...” Everyone turned their heads to Bluebird. “...Er, what I want to say is the Wicked Union was loosely established with Sila as one of the main founders. He is in the same position as you, Beluga, and Lone Wolf. He isn’t the representative of any guild but himself. Therefore, he has the right to take part in the voting. With his vote, the voting result is now not two-against-one but two-against-two.”

Since Sila was alone and had never taken part in any of the meetings, everyone had assumed that he was just an ordinary member in the union. Honestly speaking, it was indeed hard to accept that one person could have a high position in such a big alliance.

Cross took out the alliance agreement and read it. He really couldn’t find any words to oppose Bluebird’s reasoning. It seemed to him that Bluebird was more capable than he appeared. Thinking about it, Cross wondered why such a person who was perfect in both strength and intelligence chose to become a part of an information guild.

He even started to feel that the rumor “The guild which Bluebird joins will inevitably face calamities” was a fake rumor the Blue Pigeon Guild made up in order to prevent other guilds from poaching such an excellent player.

Sila sent Bluebird an expression of gratitude, to which the latter only winked and stuck his thumb up like usual.

Actually, that was Bluebird’s specialty; the ability to search for any loopholes in documents for him to exploit and be as lazy as possible. Every time he was assigned work, he would read the assignment attentively in order to come up with some excuse to reduce his workload. By doing this repetitively, his talent for spotting loopholes in any kind of contract or agreement blossomed.

In the end, every time work was assigned to Bluebird, Yardpirun had to be the one writing up the documents.

If someone were to see that thirty pages were required to assign a simple task to Bluebird, they would come to understand how the Wicked Union’s alliance agreement was full of loopholes in Bluebird’s eyes.

“Bluebird is right. In that case, what is your idea, Sila?” asked Cross.

“We will proceed with the third option. Kill Infernee and reclaim the city,” Sila replied resolutely.

“Humph! If that’s the third option, how about I tell you the fourth option? We break into the city and every one of us dies, leaving us with no chance to participate in the war event.” Cross disputed. “My point is that your idea isn’t an option. It’s suicide. Infernee can’t be killed. That’s why her title is the Immortal Dragon. Montra will laugh at us as soon as we step into the city.”

“I wouldn’t have an ounce of confidence if she was the real Infernee. However, that isn’t possible if she is only the effect of Dragon Soul. If I can’t take her down, it isn’t too late for us to discuss other options.”

Cross read the agreement again, then he said, “According to the agreement, you are indeed a high-position member. It’s true that I have no right to order you around, however, you don’t have the right to order the Royal Armament Guild members as well. I won’t allow you to bring even one of my members to die in vain. Fighting a dragon requires hundreds of players. Even worse, this dragon is the Emperor-Rank one. How do you plan to recruit members for your party in such a short time?”

Everyone looked at Sila, waiting for his answer. Sila thought about it for a minute before he replied.

“I won’t borrow even one of your people. Tomorrow, Bluebird and I will defeat Infernee with just the two of us.”

“What?!!” Everybody was shocked. It was impossible for only two players to defeat the Emperor-Rank dragon, even when you took the fact that she wasn’t the real deal into consideration.

In fact, the one who exclaimed the loudest was none other than Bluebird.

“Hey, Sila, wait up... I don’t...” Bluebird was stuttering.

“Was what you said to me last night true? You said that you can send her flying as long as you can approach her.”

“Er... well, yes, but...” Bluebird tried to come up with an excuse. However, it seemed Sila had already decided everything for him.

Cross laughed. “Haha, fine. I will let you try. However, I won’t give you more time.”

“Tomorrow, midday.” Sila gave his words.

“Alright. Then, this meeting is dismissed. Let’s continue practicing. We will have to prepare for the invasion of the Single-Horned Dragon Forest in two days.”

Cross ordered everyone to train, and his men went off to comply with that. Although Sila was undeniably strong and Bluebird’s strength was beyond their expectations, nobody believed that the two of them could achieve such a feat.

After they all left, only Sila, Varee, Bluebird, and Julia remained. As for Sebastian, Sila had not seen him once since waking up. When he asked Julia, Sila found that the butler said he had to leave for a while to take care of a certain matter, and that they didn’t have to be worried about him.

Sila was deep in thought. He tensely considered the ways to get out of the current predicament.

Varee lightly placed her hand on Sila’s arm. “Is there anything Nam can do to help you?”

Sila looked at Varee’s hand and sighed. He recalled the scene of Cross using his body to protect Varee while he did nothing for her. He hoped that kind of situation wouldn’t happen again.

“Nam, you don’t have to be worried. Bluebird and I can take care of this ourselves,” Sila gently replied to her.

Bluebird interrupted. “About that, you better consult with me first, pal.”

Sila’s gentle words caused Varee to feel doubtful rather than delighted. “Sila, what’s wrong? You’re acting stranger than usual.”

Sila didn’t know how to reply to that. “Err... Nothing. I'm just concerned about your safety. That’s all.”

Bluebird interrupted again. “Umm... You should be concerned with my safety too, don’t you think? I’m the one you dragged into this mess.”

“No, Sila, you are kinder than usual. What happened? Are you planning to do something risky? Let Nam help.”

Sila seriously thought that women must really be able to read minds. “No, just Bluebird and I are enough. I will leave Lookhin and Julia with you.”

“But...” Varee was about to argue. However, Sila hurriedly released Lookhin and entrusted her to interrupt by jumping into Varee’s arms.

“Please know that… just knowing you are safe eases my mind,” said Sila, to which Varee’s face reddened.

Yet again, Bluebird interrupted the two. “Oi, oi. I’m still here, you know? Please be mindful about what you say. I’m feeling embarrassed just from listening.”

Finally, Sila shifted his attention to Bluebird. “Let’s go over there, Blue. I have some questions to ask.”

The two walked into the forest. Varee found it was difficult to follow them as Lookhin was hugging her tightly.

In the end, she gave up and muttered a question to Sila. Her voice was so light that Bluebird couldn’t hear. However, as a qi-type player, Sila could hear her words just fine.

“Give me some time. I promise I won’t take long,” Sila said without looking back.

Varee replied back. Her cheeks were pink. “...You better keep your promise.”

Sila and Bluebird walked a hundred meters into the forest. Finally, they stopped and had a serious talk.

“Blue, let me confirm. You said you can defeat Infernee as long as you can touch her. Is that the truth?” asked Sila.

“Yes, I can. However, as things are, I can’t possibly approach her. The density of Emperor-Rank magic power emitting from her is enough to kill me several times over. I don’t have a lot of health.”

“In that case, your only task is to speedily find a chance to touch her. I will handle the rest.”

“What is the rest?”

“Acting as a decoy, attacking, and protecting you.”

“Are you sure you can do all that by yourself? Just one task is already deadly. Why don’t you try to persuade someone to help?”

“I already have someone in my mind, though I will have to talk with him first... Let’s meet again tomorrow midday. If I still haven’t returned, please help me stop Cross from invading the Single-Horned Dragon Forest at all costs.”

“Err... Fine. I’m an expert at coming up with excuses. I assure you that nobody will step into the Single-Horned Dragon Forest... unless I run out of excuses.”

“Thank you very much.”

“By the way... what is it that won’t take long?” asked Bluebird.

It was irritating. When it came to a topic that he didn’t care about, those two talked freely without minding him. Yet when it came to a topic that smelled of juicy news, they fell silent and kept him from finding out.

“It’s nothing, just a personal and trivial problem.” Sila released a sigh to keep his mind clear.

Sila left Bluebird standing there confused and without an answer to his question. His two feet brought him deeper into the Single-Horned Dragon Forest. Fortunately, there would be a full moon tonight. If he traveled in a hurry, he would be able to reach the Valley of Immortals before midnight.

The person who could answer the many questions in Sila’s mind would be at that place. The only person who knew him more than he knew himself. The one Sila never imagined wanting to meet again.

His own Dark Self.