Vol. 7 - Ch. 366 - A wild ‹White Saber› appears!

After reaching LV40 in the ‹Training Hall›, Rina, Misato and Mert spent some time trying out their new skills against the monster of room 4.It should have been over as soon as they reached the level limit, but I guess ‹Training Hall› and new skills contributed to their newfound excitement.

"It's about to call it a day, everyone."

"Oh my, It's already time."

"Woah, I didn't even feel the passage of time."

"Oh no, I can't miss the dinner-desu!" Sᴇaʀᴄh the NøᴠᴇlFire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

"......Let's go back then."

Rina, Misato and Pamela let out a surprised yelp after confirming the time, while Mert calmly inserted his words.

Everyone had just finished 11th wave when I saw time was nearing curfew and brought their attention to it. And unsurprisingly, the sky outside when we left the tower was covered by the night veil.

"Goodness, it's completely dark."

"We are nearing the summer solstice, that's why. Still, it has been a while since I have seen the sky so dark."

"What!? I didn't know you were such a disciplined person, Rina-san!"

Hearing Rina's honorary student-like remark, Misato looked slightly astonished.

Well, it must have been impossible for an outgoing girl like her to wrap her head around such a stiff schedule. Given its Misato, I bet she should have roamed around in the night as well.

Rina, on the flip side, made sure to return to her dormitory before sunset apparently, and virtually never went out at night.

"Hmm?"

We were just heading toward the gate with a brisk stride when we saw a party of 5 members, each wearing white plate armor, coming from the direction of the gate. Mert's face scowled seeing them.

"What's wrong, Mert?"

"Zephyr, I am having an unsettling feeling. Is that party going to head toward the tower this late?"

Now that he said, it was indeed quite a late for that.

Entries to dungeons were open till 10 pm, and if students didn't return by 12:00 a.m, a search party would be formed which would affect the evaluation.

So it was too late for them to challenge the ‹Training Hall›. But if they weren't there for that, the only other reason I could think was——

"Excuse me. You guys, you must be freshmen top guild, ‹Eden›, right?"

——They were waiting to ambush those returning from the tower.

Oh, a home run huh; Mert's intuition was on point, the party seemed to have business with us.

The group of knight-esque boys with well-built bodies indeed called out to us.

We motioned for the girls to step back as Mert and I moved forward.

"Well, yes. We are ‹Eden›, but who might you be?"

One of the well-built boys nodded after hearing my answer. The other four boys were standing behind him in attention. I guess he is their leader.

Hmm, quite a well trained bunch they are~.

"I apologize for stopping you. To introduce ourselves, we are the members of ‹White Saber›, sub-guild of A-rank guild ‹Temple Saber›, and I am Diase. Can I have a bit of your time?"

"‹Temple Saber›? The guild Rika talked about. If my memory serves me right, they had a ‹Duel Battle› with ‹Beast King Gal-Tiger› last month, no›

I searched through my memory to dig up information about them. Daise nodded in affirmation.

"Yes. I presume you also know the result as well?"

"It was the victory of ‹Beast King Gal-Tiger›, and they also won the stake, ‹White Throne›."

It seemed like Mert was also well aware of that ‹Dual Battle› as he replied unhesitatingly.

‹White Throne› huh.

It was a special equipment exclusive for recovery job holders, possessing a powerful effect of its own. The skills it has were ‹Plus Range Lv10› and ‹Anti-Regen Resistance Lv9›.

To put it in a few words, it was capable of healing members from a distance in guild battles without dropping the potency of healing skill.

‹White Throne› was a drop from Advanced-dungeon, though if one searches harder, they might be able to get it as a rare drop from Intermediate-high dungeon. I assume whoever got it must have found it in a drop from Int-high, given Advanced dungeons were an uncharted territory in this world.

To be honest, I was also quite interested in why they were here.

I did want to return quickly as well, but it might not hurt to hear what they have to say.

So I decided to stay behind, and so did others. Hmm, they could have left earlier though. In the end, we all stayed to listen.

"You're right. Our parent guild had dominated the A-rank with the ‹White Throne›, but in its absence, they are now caught up in a precarious situation. The situation has been similarly dire for us, the ‹White Sabre›. We are currently a D-rank guild with 18 members."

"Well, this is quite a predicament indeed."

Daise's face scrunched in a bitter smile as she spoke about their present condition.

They must have been at their wit's end. I presume they want to make clear their current predicament, hence he didn't try to hide anything.

The fall of the parent guild in the ranking war wasn't just another news for the members of the sub-guild.

Imagine joining a sub-guild, because it belonged to an A-rank guild, with the dream to become a regular one day, but only for the parent guild to fall from the grace of A-rank before you could get involved with its affairs; it must be disheartening.

However, the even more grave issue was not in it, but the remaining 2 slots for members in ‹White Sabre›. If the parent guild dropped in rank, obviously there would be some who need to leave due to member limitation. In normal cases, it was the role of a sub-guild to take in those members, but ‹White Sabre› didn't have the capacity to accept many members.

Having more than 11 members in the sub-guild means that if the parent guild loses, such issues will arise. The general rule of the thumb was to keep at least 10 spots in the sub-guild open to respond to situations like this, since a D-rank sub-guild could only have 20 members at a time.

What will happen in this case then? Obviously, the brunt would be borne by the members of the sub-guild. In simpler words, they would be dismissed.

Though It was a question why ‹Temple Sabre› ignored this rule; were they confident in their abilities, or some other reason propelled them to ignore it? Either way, it had now come to bite them back.

Daise nodded to me and continued.

"Indeed. A lot of members will be dismissed if no measure were to be taken. Numerous members will be left stranded."

"And how did it lead to contact us, ‹Eden›?"

Mert asked the main question, seeing the right opportunity.

I understand their current situation, but I couldn't think how this and contacting ‹Eden› was linked. Mert's eyes were practically screaming 'just spit it out already'.

Growl

Oh, no wonder. I could hear a faint growl coming from his stomach as I stood next to him.

"We have several reasons. Our imminent goal is to prevent dismissal of many members, for that, ‹Temple Sabre› want to negotiate with ‹Eden›."

"Go on."

"Thanks. First, there is something ‹Temple Sabre› desires."

Feeling the discussion was going nowhere, Mert's eyes slowly narrowed. Albeit, with the height of Daise, he didn't notice it. In the game, it would have been announced like 'It was super ineffective'.

"‹Temple Saber› wants to buy the recipe of ‹Dungeon Carriage› that ‹Eden› is in possession of for 300 million Mir."

"What a cheapskate offer. No thanks."

Mert rejected the proposal without even batting an eyelid.