The Trip Begins

(Robin's POV):

It is now nighttime and everyone was currently asleep. I went around to check on the others but they seem to be not around. Julius is currently here with me and we're talking about my group.

"Man, I didn't expect for them to be somewhat strong actually. I'm interested in training that shadow assassin personally. What do you think Robin?" - Julius

"Well, I'm sure that they're talented alright."

Jay's group might be a good addition to the team as it is a group of assassins that can pull off highly coordinated attacks and can act as a scouting group.

The fact that we won't really have to do much information collection is already a nice thing. We mainly had Allen, Ross, Julius, and Mitch try to grab out some information within the entire island and the actions of various factions. At some point, when we spread out to various locations, it was getting trickier as some factions have been preparing for some big actions towards the game's process or probably some war. I just hope that it's game progress instead as the people could be problematic if we just let them be.

"Anyways, you seem to be keen on finally doing that one thing you want to do?" - Julius

"Yeah, I can finally aim to collect the required ores."

"Plan to get make a sword out of it?" - Julius

"Yep, Denzel and Karl said that there wasn't a problem when I asked them after the extreme raid."

"I see, how many swords do you have now?" - Julius

"You'll see soon."

I stood up from the chair in the cantina and went towards the door.

"Well, let's just say that I got a lot of weapons in my arsenal."

"Pfft, acting cool?" - Julius

I ignored Julius's statement and went to bed for the time being.

When dawn struck I immediately woke up and went towards the entrance after bringing a demonite pickaxe for the mining parts.

I then took a bottle of Michael's holy potion that will be used for emergency purposes. Just in case, he did tell me to grab one bottle if we need it or so.

Michael brought the orb that creates the potion but he left about fifty bottles in his room in the castle and left a note that it's for everyone while he's away. He brought the orb with him because he had extreme trouble after halfway into his expedition which is quite a bizarre situation.

When Michael returned here a few months ago, his gear was pretty tattered and is actually in a state of nearly dying from poison. To be completely honest, he looked like crap.

But apparently, their expedition continued or so and I have no idea what's happening to him.

"Robin!" - Jay

Jay had arrived to the northeast side of the castle walls and sat down next to me while looking down at the downward slope of the mountain.

"We're heading to the Arcana biome first?" - Jay

"Yeah, this one has the rarest ore after all. Just getting a stack can take a long time."

"What do you mean?" - Jay

"Well, let's just say that we'll be stuck collecting a bunch of arcane ore while fending off against various monsters and possibly a faction that could be a dangerous threat."

"Faction? Ah, Praetorian has some territory there." - Jay

"Nope, I mean the faction that hides in the underground caves. I gained some information about them from Allen who apparently saw an underground city that has a gigantic core covered in some glass."

"Did he get more info than that?" - Jay

"Apparently, when he was found, he was attacked immediately without hesitation so I assume that they're a dangerous faction."

"I see, then I guess we're gonna have to be careful?" - Jay

"Ah! There you two are!" - Grace

Grace arrived to our spot and sat down next to Jay.

"Jeez, so we're going for Arcana first?" - Grace

"Yeah, we're gonna have some problems so I'm gonna have to plan out some decent strategies when it comes to player attack."

"Do you got something in your mind when it does happen?" - Jay

"Yeah, we'll be mining together until a player attack occurs. When it does, I'll have you Grace to create follow-up attacks as I stand as vanguard. Jay, snipe the targets down, aim for the ones with high threats like the assassin and their mages."

"Alright." - Jay

"I see, what about Rylle and Ridley?" - Grace

"They keep mining, we shouldn't waste too much time so we have to maintain efficiency."

"Where's the other two?" - Jay

"Just contacted them, they'll be here any moment."

After having some small chitchat about the other members, the other two had finally arrived.

"Yo guys, so we're gonna start with the Arcana?" - Ridley

"Yeah, we're gonna end up having a lot of trouble just navigating with the abundance of monsters there. Mana Breaker will be necessary in that place."

"I see, how much ore do we need?" - Rylle

"I'd say about a hundred."

"A hundred?! Isn't that a super rare ore?!" - Jay

"Well, it's Denzel we're talking about. Either we go big or we go home. Let's go!"

The entire group had set off towards the Arcana biome just east from Denzel's crystal palace. We didn't stop there and just went straight to the blue biome. When we entered, we suddenly got a refreshing feeling that's slowly turning to heartache.

"Guys, do you know the drill when it comes to this biome?"

"Yeah, we have to keep spending mana at all times." - Jay

"Good, activate a skill or two that boosts your stats."

"Got it!" - Everyone

"Aight, that is the only thing we have to keep around ourselves. See that in front of us?"

The first thing we saw is a group with seemingly powerful gear.

"Yeah? Wait, Farsight!" - Jay

Jay activated his farsight which made his eye gain a scope. That looks pretty neat, it's nice that it has uses too.

"That emblem... It's Praetorian." - Jay

"Aight, let's kill em. They're mostly aiming for Denzel's palace since it's more vulnerable, but when did they take information that Denzel had left the palace?"

"Dunno, but they look like a threat so we should get rid of them." - Ridley

"Surely you guys can handle a group alone?"

"Yep, I'll take dibs." - Jay

"Aight, have fun Jay!" - Grace

"Give Robin a good show." - Rylle

"Good luck." - Ridley

"Be careful alright?"

These guys, are they sure that they could handle a group of a famous faction alone? Well, who knows we might see a nice battle.

(POV Shift: Jay's POV):

It's finally time for me to show Robin that I have more potential than being just a recruit of the asylum.

"Precision Protocol."

I aimed my sniper rifle while walking forward. After correctly aiming towards the person with the lightest gear. I fired a sniper bullet straight to the eye. I instantly recovered from recoil and started preparing once again. I increased my precision by pouring more mana since the enemies have been alerted.

"Sniper!!" - ???

"Defensive formati-!" - ???

I shot another bullet and destroyed the throat of another person in one go. Let's make this swift, so we could finish this quickly.

"There he is! Eliminate him!" - ???

I hid my sniper rifle and brought out a pistol along with a dagger on my right hand. I then fired a few times with the quick draw pistol and reloaded as the five remaining enemies pushed forward towards me.

"Front liners and an assassin... This will be easy..."

I mumbled and fired more shots towards them, damaging their defenses pretty well.

"Attack now!" - ???

Their assassin jumped out and tried to swiftly eliminate me despite holding no weapons. A magic assassin? Oh wait, this is the Arcana biome, I forgot.

I performed a quick reload technique which gave me enough leeway against the assassin. He shot a barrage of arcane magic which I had to dodge pretty quickly by dodging to the side. I twirled around to avoid some tricky attacks and fired a few bullets to the assassin. After getting hit, he flinched a few times before landing in a bad state. I simply finished him off by slashing him with my dagger while he's falling.

"R-retreat!" - ???

"No running! Praetorian!"

While shouting out, I brought out my sniper rifle once more and fired a powerful round and changed to a crouching position. The enemies are retreating by running back which made me hit another head.

After loading the next round, I fired another round which hit the chest of one more enemy. The enemies changed their plan and tried to retreat while facing me. Did you really think that a shield is gonna help you?

I simply shot another round which pierced through the shield and destroyed the helmet of another enemy and killed him.

"I-I surrender!" - ???

Surrender huh? Well I remember Robin telling me to not trust anyone that's Praetorian so...

I walked closer while the guy raised his hands up while dropping all his weapons. When I noticed, Robin was narrowing his eyes with my decision making. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing.

The enemy kneeled down and bowed himself to the ground while shaking.

"Please let me live!" - ???

"Tell me about Praetorian."

"A-alright! Praetorian is... OVER MY DEA-!" - ???

I blasted him with a bunch of bullets without mercy. Giving him false hope is a good idea so there isn't really any issue there. Just planting some trauma because this faction might've kidnapped Kaede if she wasn't careful.

I simply sighed in relief with my thoughts.

"Good thing Kaede is in one of Robin's friend's place."

"Good work Jay, that was a magnificent level of being a solo marksman. You should be fine with distance guarding soon." - Robin

"Eh? Why?"

Those words that came out from Robin just told me that everything there wasn't all that we have to do.

"You guys will be guarding the dungeon entrance from afar right?" - Robin.