Deep in the forest right outside the Nymph castle, parties consisting of players were gearing up to attack.

There were a total of 5 different guilds, all consisting of their guild masters and the top players from each respective guild.

They had all carved out their respective areas of the forest and were going over their plan of attack.

Tensions were high in the air since this was the first time most of them had ever faced an S-ranked boss monster.

Even though a good number of players had certainly been killed by one. Players who had climbed their way up to the top 20 and top 10 spots had been killed by A-ranked boss monsters, so the thought of facing an S-ranked boss monster was terrifying.

In a certain section of the forest, though, one particular guild didn’t seem too bothered by the threat that lay ahead as they drank the wine they had brought with them in their storage space and partied to their heart’s content.

This guild was notorious and well known for acting like a gang of sell-swords rather than an actual guild.

A lot of the time, this guild was hired by corrupt nobles for assassination, exploitation, or even robbery.

Sometimes they were even hired by smaller kingdoms to fight in disputes against other kingdoms.

This guild had over 300 members, some of whom were slaves, either bought or captured as prisoners of war.

Their power lay in the number of members they had, since most of the players in this guild were ranked very low.

This guild took in just about anyone unless their strength was absurdly low.

In fact, the main reason this guild was allowed to exist among the 13 guilds was because their main job was to make sure that no other guilds could exist.

Of course, legally, every player was allowed to create his or her own guild, but with the limited number of players, it would be inconvenient if every jack or Jill owned a guild.

Hence, this guild came in handy. Their job was to deter newbies from forming guilds and helped force them into fraudulent contracts from top guilds,, by whatever means necessary.

This guild was named the Wild Hog guild.

At the center of this guild sat the guild master. He stood over 7 feet tall, his skin an oily shade of green.

He had eyes like those of a wild beast, with the whites of his eyes instead being bright orange with dark, slitted irises.

This beast of a man had an elongated face and a bald head. His top half was shirtless, revealing his muscular build with arms like tree trunks, while his bottom half was covered by a pair of leather trousers.

Beside him sat his battleaxe, a weapon so huge that most would have a hard time even lifting it up.

While in his lap sat two female companions who were both from his guild. His arms cupped around their slender waists.

From his mouth sprouted two sharp tusks that were about 5 inches in length.

His gamertag was Blood, and he possessed an extraordinary talent that could very well be considered a cheat by most, along with the race of an orc.

The other reason why there were so many members in his guild was because he possessed a title called ’Orc Ruler,’ which allowed him to be the ruler of over 200 orcs.

As they enjoyed themselves, the air around them suddenly got hotter, and the once rowdy group suddenly became quiet.

Sensing a powerful presence approaching him, Blood frowned deeply.

He watched as his guild members slowly parted, creating a path for the figure approaching.

It was a tall man with fiery red hair dressed in expensive leather and steel armor. On his waist, attached a relic of a sword.

This man wore a serious expression as he approached Blood, who was still seated on a tree stump.

Soon the man stopped in front of the towering orc, who grunted and muttered under his breath.

"Brother..."

"Blood..."

The two men stared at each other, a quiet intensity growing between them until Blood was the first to speak.

"Brother, what are you doing here? You should get back to your guild; they’ll need their guild master."

"We need to talk."

Blood leaned back slightly.

"Go on."

"...Alone."

At his brother’s words,Blood looked around at his men before fanning them away to leave; even the women sitting on his lap hastily got up and left, leaving the two brothers to converse.

"So, what do you want?"

The man stared at Blood with a neutral expression, both hands in his pockets as his amethyst eyes seemed to reflect the rays of the sun.

"I had a meeting with the other guild masters to discuss our next course of action," the man said casually.

Blood frowned.

"And yet none of you thought to invite me. Not even you, my own brother. Some things never change."

Blood was used to being left out of meetings when the other guild masters decided to gather.

He knew they all looked down on him because he was weaker. Most of them were ranked in the top 10, while Blood wasn’t even ranked in the top 100.

Most of them didn’t even consider him to be a guild master. And if it wasn’t for his brother’s protection, he probably wouldn’t have been one.

Unlike Blood, his brother, the man standing before him, was ranked 6th in the entire game! He was known as the Phoenix King.

Another thing that made him different from the other 12 guild masters was that they all possessed something he didn’t.

They all held a Terra-shard, something Blood had been dying to get his hands on to prove himself.

"We’ve all decided to attack at once. We want to get this over with as quickly as possible."

"Why?"

Blood’s one-word question caused his brother to pause for a moment before answering.

"Because it’s the best strategy. We swoop in and kill the S-ranked boss monster. What other reason would there be?"

"Maybe it’s because you’re all scared shitless," Blood said with an amused shrug.

The Phoenix King chuckled.

"We aren’t afraid of an S-ranked boss monster. I reckon two guild masters are all we need to take this monster out. There are five of us; this is practically overkill."

"I wasn’t talking about the boss monster. I meant him..."

The moment Blood said those words, his brother’s hand instinctively tightened into a fist. He immediately knew who his brother was referring to when he said ’him’.

"There is no evidence that the rank 1 player is here," the Phoenix King said, showing a crack in his earlier calm demeanor.

"There is no evidence that he’s not. He’s been collecting Terra-shards at an absurdly fast rate. He alone holds 6 of them. I’d say it’s extremely unlikely that he’s not here in this scenario. The man doesn’t do interviews, he didn’t form a guild, nor does he have a broker or a party. All he cares about is clearing the game, and the moment he’s done collecting all the missing Terra-shards, he’s going to come after the ones you guys have."

The rank 6 player didn’t have to rebuke Blood’s claims. They both knew he was right.

Sooner or later, all the shards would be gathered, and the rank 1 player would be coming after everyone who had a shard in hopes of uniting them to complete the game.

The man was reclusive. You never knew where he was or what he was doing, but whenever a flag appeared, he would almost always show up.

"That’s the real reason why I’m here. I want us to work together."

Blood scoffed and spat on the ground, but his brother continued anyway.

"You want a shard, don’t you? That’s the only way the others will accept you. If we work together and we get the shard, I’ll allow you to keep it."

The Phoenix King walked forward and placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder.

"Let’s clear this game just like we always planned. As brothers."

For a moment, Blood stayed quiet, but then after a while, a smile bloomed on his wrinkled face as he threw his massive arm over his brother’s shoulder.

"Well, alright then. Let’s clear this game together."