“I just took in your junior brother today. Although he is a hunter, his foundation is solid. You have to work hard, Liam. Don’t let Keiraake you.”

  “Yes, master.”

  After introdug the new junior, Baker told him to tinue his training while taking Liam to the side.

  The master tested Liam, making sure that his suddehrough hadn’t messed up his foundatio, the old man expined some light exercises which were beneficial for the mana pathways aka meridians.

  Obviously Master Baker had already thought it through after discussing the casting of skills with Silva and Liam. Now that the news became official, he began to alter the training.

  Although the master wasn’t doing so voluntarily, he preferred to prepare his disciples, helping them avoid injuries.

  Liam felt the old man’s flig emotions. He didn’t know how to sole him, apart from training diligently and not giving up on martial arts.

  After a while Master Baker appeared gratified, going on to instruct Liam and Keiran until the game was about to go online.

  The two disciples excused themselves and found quiet spots to log in.

  Liam quickly found himself ba aboul. He returo Duabalis, meeting his friends at their guild headquarters.

  The pce was gradually being lively. Many guild members met here to form parties.

  The guild members were eager to go os and earn tribution points. But some discovered new information in the guild menu, sparkiement among them.

  Liam and his friends had decided to publish strategies to clear various dungeons for their core and tier 1 members. They hoped to discover some talents and form more teams dedicated to hunting dungeons, increasing the guild’s ine.

  In aboul there were multiple dungeons with the same level requirements. Being the fastest to clear one of them earhe most prestigious achievement, but this didn’t make the other first clears worthless. Liam just didn’t feel like hunting them.

  Thus, it would be great if the guild could gather more taleeams to farm achievements and server annous for their sponsors.

  Speaking of sponsors, the discussions also bore fruit. For now, the guild mao secure five partners including Colville strus, St. Fabre, a clothing pany belonging to Wayne Deney, and Douraronics, which was owned by Fortune’s father.

  With this ihe guild could secure their member’s wages and also buy some gold in case they o stock up on building materials.

  But naturally they couldn’t rely solely on sponsorships. Sun’s Knight was already w on a pn to make their brand known. However, he couldn’t do all of this aloherefore, the pns were progressing slowly until the friends found time to discuss them further.

  Right now, they would rather discuss more immi projects. Everyone agreed to Liam’s suggestion of sying a world boss this afternoon when Cye and Balm were doh recruiting.

  Until then everyone dispersed to go after various quests, earning the goodwill of NPCs, preparing to recruit them ter.

  Liam oher ha somewhat flicted.

  He could seek out some bcksmiths or alchemists, which could be easily recruited right now.

  But there was a simple problem. Their quests were just to. Thus, he decided to delegate those tasks to some eager tier 2 members while tag something more worthwhile right now.

  Liam smiled as he donned his shadow cloak and headed for Brobrity, the capital of the Southern Light Kingdom. When Liam reappeared, the city was still covered in the same heavy atmosphere.

  A lot of pyers could be seen, many of them preparing to go the border and fight the infernals.

  Fortunately, the city was less crowded than during the hunt for the world boss.

  However, Liam khis would soon ge as world bosses respawn after 7 days. The otion then might be even bigger, as the number of pyers going past level ten was soon about to surpass one million.

  At that time their guild might send some pyers to try their luck. Silent Acacia had once suggested monopolizing the world boss, but his idea was quickly disregarded when they learhat a rank 1 guild had a limit of 350 members.

  Liam was quite gd that this was the case. He found the idea of fighting the same, under leveled world boss multiple times to be incredibly b. He would rather challehings he didn’t know already like the uping quest.

  As his thoughts reached this point, Liam smiled, looking at the rge tower before him while taking of his shadow cloak. He had arrived in the most prosperous district of Brobrity, the majestic paot far from him.

  The imposing tower before him was structed from sturdy light-brown timber, decorated with wood ing from the Bck Blood Forest. On closer iion one could find fine golden runes inscribed in its wall, which had an oppressive effe infernals and other chaotic creatures.

  This was the home of the powerful guardian of the Southern Light Kingdom, Therim Riverbell.

  When Liam passed through the opulent gate, he could almost taste the vast mana filling the air. The tower’s inside appeared luxurious but fortable. A rge portrait depig Therim took up a lot of spa the wall, its golden frame sparkling in the sun.

  To the right a few mages w for Therim were sitting on armchairs, engrossed in their books. They ignored Liam as he went up the stairs.

  The young man passed a few floors, ing close to the top before entering a rge room making up the entire floor.

  Golden sunshihrough tall windows, showing the dust in the air. Almost the entire room was filled with shelves carrying books and magical tris.

  In the ter stood a heavy ebony desk decorated with golden highlights, showing the prestige of the kingdom. Therim sat behind it, his face, framed by long bck hair, buried into a thie.

  Liam approached the mage, waiting quietly. It was still important to show courtesy to such high-ranking NPCs. Especially if one wahem to join one’s guild ter.

  Luckily Therim didn’t let Liam wait for too long. After a minute he closed his tome with a bang, raising his head.

  “Adventurer.”

  Therim didn’t show him much favoritism. If it was 'Favored Son of aboul', the person who killed the word boss, Therim would most likely wele him warmly.

  Liam didn’t care too much, speaking respectfully:

  “Great mage, I came to you because I discovered something after the fight against the Void-Corrupted Hawk.”

  “Oh? You have successfully stirred my i!”

  “Here, please take a look.”

  With those words Liam retrieved a strange, bck thing from his iory. It ended in a sharp tip, its flexibility remi of a tentacle. As soon as it appeared, void energy began to spread in the room.

  Therim’s eyes immediately shot open.

  “Void dweller!”

  With a rough shout he waved his hand. Golden runes appeared in the air, settling on the objed sealing it.

  Liam acted surprised:

  “Yhis, great mage?”

  “Yes. It is the leg of a void dweller.”

  Looking at Liam’s eyes the mage judged that he didn’t uand and offered an expnation:

  “The void is the world outside of aboul. We call its inhabitants void dweller. They are beings driven by the io destroy, invading our beautiful world from time to time and wreaking havoc.

  It is the duty of every being in aboul to defend our home. However, these treacherous devils… hmpf!”

  “Are those void dwellers strong?”

  “It depends. The bigger danger es from the void energy they carry with them, which cause great harm.

  I was fused at how the forest could suddenly suffer uhe void’s corruption…”

  Hearing this, Liam inwardly rolled his eyes. If he was fused, then why didn’t Therim iigate by himself instead of leaving after the fight. However, there was no use iioning the logic of NPCs.

  “… but now I uand. This leg is the source of corruption. But this begs the question how such a leg got into the forest. I don’t believe this could be a ce.”

  Listening to Therim, Liam’s thoughts moved. A jecture came to his mind.

  He remembered in his old life that the Southern Light Kingdom offered a unique quest early on which asked the pyer to stop the pns of a certain noble.

  He was sidering the possibility that someone accepted this quest but failed it, leading to the pn succeeding.

  He was surprised that this led to the emergence of a world boss. Maybe these were also sequences of [Hell] difficulty. heless, Liam was ied to see how the quest pyed out now.

  He put his focus ba Therim as the mage tinued speaking:

  “Advehis is a serious matter. Sihis involves the void, we have to iigate thhly. Are you willing to take on this task?”

  “Of course, great mage!”

  “I appreciate it. For now, we should gather information. Try asking around within the vilges surrounding the forest. Maybe you find a clue.”

  Liam nodded respectfully as his quest updated. Therim opened his tome, showing that he said what he wao say.