Game of the World Tree

▪️THE MERCENARY WHO KNOWS WHEN TO QUIT

In the Elven Forest, City of Florence.

Demacia, who had just finished helping an NPC move some bricks, couldn’t help but sigh as he checked his abysmal personal reputation score before entering the teleportation circle leading back to Chosen City.

After a brief flash of light, he arrived in the central square of the city. However, as soon as he got there, he felt that something was different than usual.

“Huh…Why are there so few people here today?” Demacia wondered aloud as he looked at the sparsely populated city square.

With it serving as the player’s primary base of operations, the Chosen City is typically bustling with various activities throughout the day. The central square, in particular, serves as the transit point to Florence and it stands out as the city’s liveliest area, especially during the night, since the arrival of the third batch of beta-players.

Every night, these newcomers would host bonfire parties, and, more recently, they’ve also begun selling kebabs openly in this area.

Such a lively scene usually occurred on a daily basis, to the point where even the saintess, Alice, had become numb to it and no longer cared.

However, the odd thing tonight was that despite the bonfire still burning strong, the number of people lingering in the city square was surprisingly low. Moreover, Demacia also observed that many players were hastily packing their gear before heading southeast of the city.

“Where is everyone going?” Demacia was perplexed.

Looking around, he quickly stopped a player who was sprinting towards the southeast and inquired, “Hey bro, where are you headed? What happened to all the people in the square?”

The player glanced at Demacia, somewhat surprised, and replied, “Oh aren’t you ‘Demacia’ the infamous player who have the lowest personal reputation score in the whole server? Dude, you haven’t gone yet?”

Hearing others label him as the player with the worst reputation, Demacia felt the urge to weep, yet there were no tears left within him.

The player just then must have then realized how rude his remarks sounded and awkwardly coughed twice before adding,

“Uh, hasn’t anyone told you? There’s a quest event happening at Black Dragon Castle right now, and a group of human mercenaries have infiltrated the Castle! They even mentioned there’s a Silver-ranked Boss, fully equipped with magical gear! Dude, everyone’s rushing over there to fight off these mercenaries!”

“Human mercenaries, and a quest event?” Demacia was taken aback and quickly opened his system interface. As expected, he saw the explosive chat log in the general discussion channel of Natural Hearts Guild.

-Hey, we’re in trouble! A human army has attacked Black Dragon Castle!

-What!? A human army!?

-No, it seems like mercenaries instead! They’ve already breached the castle hall! Lol It’s pure chaos all over here! xD

-Are they strong?

-Yes! And there’s also a Silver-ranked boss! It looks like he’s wearing some magical equipment and appears to be a Magic Swordsman!

-Fuck yeah! Another quest event triggered!

-Let’s go, let’s go! Lmao Let’s team up and fight! I’ve got dibs on that silver-ranked boss equipment! (｀∇´)ψ

Meanwhile, his friends’ list was also bombarded with notifications and he quickly checked each and everyone of them.

“Demacia! Hurry and join our party! There’s a brawl at Black Dragon Castle!”

“Hey bro, where are you?”

“Reply to this asap!”

Even Li Mu apparently had called him several times.

“Where are you? We’re mobilizing people at our guild.”

“…”

“Have you finished cleaning the toilet?”

His cleaning task were interrupted midway due to the events that happened underground, plus he had also became engrossed in his MLM business not long afterwards. As a consequence of neglecting these tasks, all his previous attempts to gain favor with the NPCs were wasted.

So over the past few days, he decided to try doing these task once more.

Demacia wanted to succeed this time that he even reluctantly muted all his notifications so that he wouldn’t be distracted at all.

Which is why he had only just learned about the situation just now.

“When did this happen?” he asked eagerly.

“Hmm… not too long, I think. Just a little over ten minutes ago. It seems like our guildmaster, Salty Cat, triggered it first, and she seems to be captured by those humans even now!” the player replied.

So this player was a member of Moe Moe Committee.

Demacia inwardly mused before remarking, “Is it that flat-chested middle school rich girl again? Dammit, her luck is just too effin’ good!”

The player didn’t respond to his snide remark and just awkwardly waved at him, before saying, “Uh, hey man, I won’t bother you anymore. My teammates are also calling me, so I gotta go!”

With a smirk, the player quickly ran off, causing Demacia to pause for a moment. Then, he pulled out his weapon, before he contacted Li Mu, and hurriedly ran towards the southeast as well, where the teleportation array leading to Black Dragon Castle was located.

Black Dragon Castle, inside the hall.

As elves continued to pour out endlessly from the teleportation circle, Crocodile’s complexion gradually paled, taking on a slight shade of concern…

The castle hall, which was originally designed to accommodate the activities of a fully grown dragon, has now been completely occupied by fully armed elves.

There are elves everywhere he looked, and based on his rough estimates, there should have been at least three hundred of them within this hall!

They banded together, shouting and cursing as they rushed towards Crocodile and the rest of the mercenaries with wild abandon.

Those at the forefront were already locked in combat with the mercenaries. However, because there were just so many of them, the elves at the back ended up not forming a proper formation and were instead huddled tightly together in a chaotic manner.

Initially as he watched elves continue to appear, Crocodile’s mood gradually shifted from joy to surprise, and then to fear.

Thirty elves were very easy to deal with.

A hundred elves, even if they’re a bit more powerful, could still be fought against just as long as he could coordinate properly with his subordinates.

—But now.

There were already over three hundred elves inside this huge hall!

Not only that, but they were all also fully armed, with most of them even reaching the strength of intermediate Iron-rank!

What was even more shocking was that the teleportation circle behind them was still active as it keeps shimmering with light.

If it weren’t for the elves already standing on top of the teleportation array, there would probably have been even more people who were teleported but ended up in some other places instead…

H-How can there be such an overwhelming number of elves here!?

Is it possible that every remaining elf in the world has been gathering here in the elven forest!?

The Elven race…just when did their population become so abundant?

Confusion washed over Crocodile’s face.

Even back in the Holy Maniya Empire, the largest slave black market over there had barely under two hundred elven slaves at most, not to mention that less than half of them were young elves!

Yet here in this castle… there were hundreds of elves, all young and strong!

“C-Captain… are we still going to fight?” one mercenary asked hesitantly, after noticing Crocodile’s increasingly troubled expression.

“Screw it! Just take the elves we already captured, especially the females, and retreat!” Crocodile cursed and made the decisive move to withdraw.

Hundreds of elves, with each possessing intermediate Iron-rank strength.

With him being at the intermediate Silver-rank and leading hundred of mercenaries, defeating such an opponent would only take a matter of time, but—

The teleportation array over there is still active!

Crocodile truly didn’t dare to guess how many more elves would arrive if he stayed here any longer.

Eternal Lord above!

Where did all these elves suddenly come from?

However, Crocodile didn’t have time to ponder this question much longer as he had already been here with his men for more than ten minutes now.

Such a large battle could attract the Black Dragon back at any given moment.

And if the Black Dragon were to return, then it was probable that he and all the mercenaries accompanying him in this whole operation would face imminent doom if that really happens.

Which is why… it was better to cut their losses at this point and simply retreat with the elves they already captured!

Crocodile’s eyes flickered slightly with determination, before he pulled out a magic scroll from his pocket and immediately tore it open!

After a subtle wave of magic was released, a large gray-black misty substance materialized in his hand.

Crocodile then swung his hand, as mist immediately spread all across the hall as it obscured the vision of the elves…

“Bring our captives! Let’s go!”

Crocodile curtly gave the order, before he picked up a female elf who was tightly bound, and started running towards the exit…

The remaining mercenaries also followed suit, carrying the elves who had been tied in beforehand, and ran out of the castle hall one after another.

“Ugh, cough, cough… what’s this smoke? It’s making me nauseous!”

“Not good! They’re escaping!”

“Quick, chase after them!”

They raised their weapons and rushed like a swarm of locusts towards Crocodile, who was running away while holding his captives in his shoulders.

They chased him and his men all the way outside the castle but Crocodile sneered before taking out another scroll from his chest pocket once again.

It was a golden-rimmed magic scroll with intricate runic symbols and inscriptions engraved upon it.

Being a veteran mercenary and a Silver one at that, it is impossible not to have one or two trump cards up his sleeve.

And this scroll is one of such trump cards which is actually a long lost spatial magic scroll that Crocodile obtained while exploring an ancient ruin a few years ago.

At the same time, it also serves as the primary key that emboldened Crocodile to dare intrude upon the castle at the risk of being discovered by the black dragon!

He immediately began chanting a spell, and the magic scroll in his hands began to radiate with light…

Then, the scroll spontaneously ignited, before a shocking wave of magic spread around and formed a flickering gate of light right in front of Crocodile!

  Seven-ring magic——【Portal】

This portal can last up to five minutes and can teleport any target that entered it up to five kilometers away!

And Crocodile had already set the portal’s coordinates in advance. Once the scroll is activated, it will then immediately determine the teleportation destination to be his camp five kilometers away!

All of this had been planned by him right before he initiated the whole operation! The purpose was to escape any possible retaliation by the black dragon.

It’s just that he didn’t expect to use it to escape from elves instead…

“Go!”

As soon as the portal made of light opened, Crocodile ordered his men to immediately enter it.

The mercenaries also quickly entered it along with the stunned “trophies” on their shoulders…

The whole process only took less than a minute and after the last mercenary entered, the elves chasing after them also have finally caught up with Crocodile.

“No! They want to escape!”

“Is that a teleportation magic!?”

“Quick! Chase after them!”

They held their weapons up high and rushed toward Crocodile like a swarm of locusts.

However as looked towards the elves running towards him, Crocodile suddenly had the urge to lure some more elves into the portal.

He still had thousands of his comrades on the other side of the portal, and if he kept this portal activated, then any elves who would dare enter it will also be sent over to their camp!

Crocodile didn’t believe that there could be more elves here than the number of mercenaries in his group!

However… this idea only flashed briefly within his mind and was immediately abandoned because just now, he saw a black shadow that was getting bigger and bigger suddenly appeared in the sky…

The Black Dragon!

It’s finally coming back!

Knowing when to quit is the true path for a mercenary group to survive.

Crocodile glanced deeply at the sky, then smirked at the approaching elves.

“You’re all so lucky~ Goodbye!”

With that, he also finally stepped into the portal…

Afterward, the portal flashed momentarily before it disappeared into nothingness, leaving behind a group of wide-eyed players who had clearly missed their mark…

Watching this whole incident from the player’s perspective, Evé couldn’t help but remarked,

“What a cautious guy.”

She then glanced at the players outside the castle who were, at that moment, already contacting the dozens or so unlucky captives via chat.

Evé sighed softly.

“Too bad, that such cautiousness became pointless when he brought captives along with him…”

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