After the three-hour defensive battle came to an end.
“Everyone worked hard. Now, cheers!”
“Cheers!”
Ian’s guild members gathered at a nearby inn to clink glasses and celebrate today’s victory.
“Khaa!”
The crisp drink slid down their throats, washing away the fatigue that had built up.
The tipsiness that rose through them, the sensation of their heads floating pleasantly, felt wonderful.
On top of that, when they thought of the spoils they had earned today, smiles never left their faces.
“How much did we make today?”
“At a glance, it looked like over 300,000 gold. If you add in all the materials and this and that, wouldn’t it be even more?”
“All that hard work paid off.”
And that wasn’t all.
“Wow, the young ladies went up two levels each?”
“You went up a level too, Mr. Adrian.”
“That’s true. Wahaha!”
Priya’s party had gained two levels, while Adrian’s party had each gained one.
In many ways, it had been a defensive battle full of rewards.
Except for one person.
‘Is it for real that I didn’t even get half a level?’
Ian’s current level was 28.
And the strongest monster in the defensive battle, Orthros, had been level 25.
The level gap had been severe, and because the experience had to be distributed among nine people, the amount she could actually gain was negligible.
And since winning the defensive battle didn’t grant experience as a reward, Ian’s level remained stuck in place.
The one consolation was that the value of the spoils didn’t change.
“So, Guild Master, what are you going to use what you got this time for?”
Adrian, who had come over at some point, spoke while looking at the Minotauros horn, Orthros fangs, and hide placed in front of Ian.
“I haven’t really thought about it….”
The weapons and armor Ian had were all items made from materials obtained from bosses.
Even if these were materials obtained from elite monsters, if crafted, their performance would still fall short of Ian’s gear.
“Then how about selling them?”
“That’s not a bad idea either…. Why? Do you need them?”
“No, not that. It’s just, our guild name is a bit, you know.”
“A-ahem.”
“I’m joking, joking.”
Even so, Ian blushed and avoided Adrian’s gaze.
All the while vowing to herself, again and again, that she would definitely change the guild name someday.
“By the way, wasn’t Alessandro’s face a sight back then? The way he was grinding his teeth—ah, it felt so satisfying. I was delighted myself.”
Normally, the spoils dropped by monsters went first to the people who defended the area where those monsters appeared.
Thanks to that, Ian’s guild was able to take all the spoils from the monsters that had appeared in the northwest.
However, elite monsters were a little different.
Since they were monsters that required cooperation, Winsley Village’s rule was to distribute the spoils according to contribution.
Because of this rule, the Minotauros that appeared in the south and the other Orthros that appeared in the east ended up with the guilds of Shaura and Emily, who had defeated them, gaining the rights to their spoils.
Alessandro, who realized this fact belatedly, hurried around trying to salvage something, anything, but thanks to Ian’s performance, he got nothing.
He had tried to launch a surprise attack to steal the credit, but even that had ended in failure.
Because of that, when they saw him at the spoils distribution unable to claim anything and simply grinding his teeth, Adrian and his party members had to struggle quite a bit to hold back their laughter.
And the same went for Ian.
“Well, I also found it pretty… satisfying.”
As a gamer, there were few things as rewarding as putting an ill-mannered player in their place.
Ian, who had been disheartened that she hadn’t leveled up, was now smiling proudly before she knew it.
“But what if those people retaliate against us?”
At that moment, Ga-eun, the shield warrior and leader of Priya’s party, cut in between the two of them.
“If it’s against you or Mr. Adrian, that’s one thing, but if they take their anger out on us, I was wondering if we’d have any way to resist.”
“That’s….”
Just as Ian, who hadn’t thought that far, trailed off.
Adrian snorted and shook his head.
“It’s fine. They probably won’t be able to retaliate.”
“Why not?”
“Because their levels are lower than you’d think.”
As far as Adrian knew, Alessandro’s level was around 21.
Even if he had leveled up during this defensive battle, there wouldn’t be a big difference between him and Ga-eun’s group.
The same went for the level of his guild members.
With most of the high-level players having joined Emily’s or Shaura’s guilds, there weren’t that many players on his side who could exert real force.
“So don’t worry too much. Even if something does happen, the guild master here will slice them up for you.”
Ian’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Adrian.
“Excuse me, what about my opinion?”
“What, were you really not going to help?”
“That’s not what I meant….”
“You all heard that, right? Our guild master says she’ll help.”
Applause poured out.
Even if he hadn’t said that, she would have helped, but embarrassed, Ian let out a quiet sigh.
At that moment, Priya, whose face had turned red, stood up and shouted.
“Anyway! Let’s go for round two now!”
“No, what are you planning to do now?”
It was already late as it was, and Priya was the one who had forcibly dragged her along when she had wanted to go in and sleep.
And now they had to do even more for an afterparty?
Before the annoyance on Ian’s face could spread further.
“When you say afterparty, there’s only one obvious thing, isn’t there?”
Seeing Ian’s gaze, she smiled mischievously and said,
“A bath, of course.”
Ian clutched her head.
***
To the east and west of Winsley stood two black towers.
No one knew why those towers existed there.
Even if they asked the NPCs, no clear answer came back.
However, they could make a guess.
Somewhere within one of those two towering structures, the boss that would be the key to liberating Area 5 was likely hiding.
However, what kind of monster inhabited those towers had yet to be revealed.
That was because players had not yet managed to reach them.
But the breathless guild contest and defensive battle they had been racing through had now come to an end.
It was time to return once more to exploring Area 5.
The morning after the defensive battle ended.
Dragging her tired body out of the village from early morning, Ian headed for the western tower.
There was no reason.
She had simply decided that today she would go west, and tomorrow she would go east.
Passing through the outskirts of the village where traces of the defensive battle still remained, she advanced deep into the grasslands, easily fending off monster attacks before arriving at the western tower.
Ian raised her head and looked up at the top of the tower.
“It really is high.”
Looking at the tower that rose so tall it perfectly fit the phrase “dizzyingly high,” Ian clicked her tongue.
But she had no time to stare blankly at the tower.
—Drrrrrr….
The tower door opened, and from within, a Minotauros revealed its massive form.
“Three in total. As expected, this wasn’t a place to come alone.”
For a safe investigation, at least two parties’ worth of people would be necessary.
But Ian drew her sword with a faint smile.
Because from the moment she came here, she had already accepted the risk.
—Kuwaaaaar!
Facing the Minotauros charging toward her at high speed with a roar, she lowered her sword.
The charge skill, Sword Rush.
Before the Minotauros’s axe could reach her, her sword shot forward like a streak of light and cut through the tendons in its leg.
At that moment, the axes of the other Minotauros came bearing down on Ian.
Continuing to run without stopping, Ian evaded the axes and swung her sword, launching sword energy.
Minotauros blood spurted upward.
Immediately after, Ian’s magic erupted, tearing into the wound.
In that opening, Ian cut through the tendons in all the Minotauroses’ legs.
Their massive bodies collapsed to the ground.
Dust rose into the air.
And Ian’s sword carved a deep wound into the neck of a fallen Minotauros.
After swiftly taking down all three Minotauroses like that, Ian immediately stepped inside the tower.
Within was a space laid out as a complicated maze.
It was structured so that one had to find the exit and move up to the next floor.
During that process, the monsters wandering the maze blocked Ian’s path.
However, they were all monsters Ian had encountered before.
She was able to defeat them without much danger and press onward.
Only—
“Where on earth is the exit?”
Even after wandering around for a long time, Ian couldn’t find the path leading to the top of the tower.
It was because the path was complicated, even though she had been revealing the map as she went.
Not only that, but once she took a wrong turn, it took a long time before she realized it.
She had no friend to talk with, monsters kept appearing in the meantime, and in many ways, it was a time with no sense of reward, only boredom remaining.
“Isn’t anyone coming?”
And so, just as she was beginning to miss even Alessandro’s face, despite having clashed with him the night before—
A massive door, like the one at the entrance, appeared before Ian.
“What… is this?”
Was it a boss room? Or a room where treasure chests somewhere had been gathered?
Her hesitation was brief.
Right now, it was a time to act rather than think.
She cautiously pushed the door.
—Drrrrrr!
The door began to open with a rough sound.
Ian slipped through the gap and entered.
At that moment, flames blazing from beyond the darkness illuminated the surroundings.
And far off, from the throne, a pair of red eyes seated there gazed at Ian.
[Lv 27. Crimson Minotauros King]
A Minotauros with crimson skin.
It was the boss of Area 5 that had remained unrevealed until now.