"(Phew, what a day.)"

For the first day, it was quite hectic for Daniel. But soon after he arrived at his home, he grabbed his sword and headed to the abandoned building for his daily training. After he got Grave back, he felt he could relax a bit. But once he saw Sitka fight, he felt he shouldn't slack off and he should continue his stat grinding diligently.

"(I shouldn't rely on Grave too much, if it broke by chance I would be back to being a simple merchant. Grinding stats is the only thing I can do as a merchant for now.)"

Daniel decided that he would reduce his gaming time and sleep early today. Tomorrow he planned to wake up early and jog to his workplace.

"(I will do the three hour physical training at the hospital, thankfully I have my own locker at the hospital and I can take a shower there.)"

As a part-timer, there was no way Daniel would get a locker since the locker room is for permanent staff only. To get his own locker, Daniel had to negotiate with the hospital management to take on the guard duty starting at 4:30 am to 7:15 am in exchange for a locker and a bit more money. The proposal was strange but Daniel successfully convinced the hospital management.

"(Then I will do the sword practice after I return from the job.)"

Daniel’s schedule had started to become more compact.

**********

Stat Window

Character name

Chrono

title

100 menslayer

Level

70

Class

Merchant

Health

510

Mana

440

Fame

300

Infamy

11,000

Strength

105(+50)

Dexterity

245

Endurance

40

Wisdom

41

Intelligent

46

Sense

100

Luck

28

Stamina

99

Legendary Sword Stat Window

Sword Name

Grave

Class

Soul Necromancer

Level

70

Soul

10,000

Attack

65~70

Durability

75/75

Spear Throw(Passive) (Level 4 Intermediate):

Spear throwing will have additional damage, speed and distance.Can knock back enemy with heavy spear.

Damage + 80%

Speed + 60%

Distance + 160%

Battle Harden Sword Mastery (Passive) (Beginner level 5)

The strongest sword mastery in the world, learned by having countless great battle wielding a sword

Attack power +60%

Speed +60%

Knight Rider(Passive) (Beginner level 2)

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

A riding skill design for battle. Increase weapon damage while riding a pet and reduce pet speed penalty when giving you a ride.

Weapon damage +20% (Increase depend on pet speed)

Pet movement speed = 92%

Negotiate rose to beginner level 2

By rising Negotiate to level 2 wisdom,sense and luck increase by 1

Chrono gained a whopping 20 levels after his party cleared 2 monster lairs, slayed Oroviath and its 5 sub bosses while slaughtering Oroviath's minions with Jurek's party help. After the battle, Chrono shamelessly persuaded Aramis and Jurek to give him all the loot present.

The clan rankers didn't particularly mind but Aramis strongly objected. The result, Aramis could only takes 5 expensive looking equipment from Oroviath's stomach before his body couldn't handle any more weight. The clan rankers didn't take anything and all of them agreed the material should be given to the clan’s only merchant, Chrono.

Once he had the permission, Chrono took all the loot with the portal. He even took Oroviath, the 5 sub bosses and the minions’ corpses to get the materials from their bodies later. The field that once was a battlefield returned to a beautiful hill after Chrono 'cleaned' everything with the portal.

Ancient Merchant Secret ( Intermediate Level 1)(10 mana):

Create portal that can transport your belonging from the warehouse. Special belonging can be transport form anywhere in the world

A number of his fighting skills had gone up in the last fight. 'Ancient Merchant Secret' is one of them but the interesting thing was that the skill description had also changed. Chrono had already anticipated the mana requirement would go down but the new skill description piqued his interest.

"(What was considered a 'special belonging'? Is it a special item like Grave or a pet like Thorin? Maybe both? I will test it later.)"

Since Chrono didn't update his stats yesterday, only now did he do so. He decided to use his previous stat distribution plan with 3 points to dexterity and 1 point to strength and stamina each. Once Chrono finished updating his stats and checking on his skills, he took out the 'BloodBrothers Hideout Return Scroll' given to him by Jurek yesterday.

"(Hmm? You are still here?)"

Even though Thorin was Chrono pet, a normal pet will usually return to their previous check point after their master logged out in the middle of nowhere. The check point was usually the place where the pet and its master last visited, where the pet can eat and sleep leisurely.

In this case, the last check point for Thorin was the clan hideout. But strangely, instead of returning to the clan hideout, Thorin waited for Chrono to spawn at the same place he logged out. Even though Chrono had already cleared out the monsters here, normal monster still spawn here after an hour since it is a monster field.

Beside, unlike normal users Thorin doesn't know how to find a 'Safe Spot' where monsters didn't spawn which meant it hadn’t rest properly. While waiting for Chrono, Thorin annihilated any monster trying to get near the spot where Chrono logged out.

The reason Emperor Saga designed the pet’s mentality to return to the last check point after their master logged out was because the pet may die while waiting for their master since users’ play times were varied. Thankfully Thorin is exceptionally strong and Chrono logged in after a day but his current mentality was quite dangerous to his own life.

"(From what I know a loyal pet will return to the last check point while a disloyal pet will run away. Is it a bug or something? But from my last experience with Grave a bug is unlikely. Maybe there's another mechanism I didn't know about?)"

A lot of monster corpses lay around Thorin, Chrono could only imagine how many battles Thorin went through just to wait for him to log in. A normal pet will only stay at one spot if the owner provided enough food and set up a camp at the 'Safe Spot'.

Last time, Aramis’s camping skill and Francis’s pet food supply made it possible for Chrono to provide food and a camp before he logged out. But yesterday Chrono decided he should just let Thorin get back to the clan hideout.

"(I will consult with Francis later, Thorin even ate the monsters here because I didn't provide food for it yesterday.)"

Chrono mounted Thorin before using the return scroll so Thorin would also get teleported back.

*******

Once Chrono got to the hideout, he headed to the hideout’s stable to hand over Thorin to Francis.

"Hmmm.....he gained quite a few levels, I told you to be careful."

"Sorry, but this time I couldn't help it."

"You are walking on thin ice. With this many levels he can evolve into a drake at any time and by that time it may even attack you. Even when he was in my care, he would attack whenever he saw the opportunity."

"Don't worry he's quite docile and loyal too."

"Really? Strange, okay, put it there."

"Okay"

"(It almost time to head for the meeting room.)"

********

The meeting room was a small room used by Jurek to consult with his high ranking clan members when the clan needed to make an important decision. Usually, the meeting room was used once per month, but because of the clan guardian’s sudden death, there was an emergency meeting.

In the meeting room, there were 8 seats but only 6 persons were present including Jurek, the 3 henchmen, Sitka and another high ranker called Robo. Chrono and Aramis were special guests in the meeting room. Even though there were 2 seats vacant, they were told to just stand.

"Okay, let’s start the meeting. I believe, everyone understands the current situation. Yesterday, these two here slayed Oroviath, the 5 sub bosses and all of its minions. In this meeting, we will discuss 4 things.

"First of all, the next guardian will only spawn after 3 months. In these 3 months, we are vulnerable against attacks from the authorities. We will discuss the measures needed to avoid the authorities during these 3 months."

"Second, we need to make a new pact with the new guardian but a new pact requires 20 top tier artifacts which will force us to use a lot of our resources. We will discuss on how to gain these resources."

"Third, we will discuss whether to keep Oroviath’s death a secret or disclose it to all of the clan members. And if by any chance Oroviath’s death has been discovered, what we will do if the authorities decide to attack."

"And finally, we will discuss the punishment of these two."

"Now, let us begin. Raised your hand when you want to speak and don't interfere while other speak."

"(For a bandit clan, Jurek favours democracy. Maybe I have some chance to at least not getting kicked out of the clan.)"

While Chrono was lost in thought, Robo raised his hand.

"I suggest we decrease our outlaw activity until the new guardian spawns. That way, the authorities may overlook us for 3 months if we are lucky."

"Hmm...any other suggestions?"

Grandin raised his hand and began to speak.

"But adventurers may think it's safe to explore the Kramoris mountain range once we decrease our activities and they will most likely find out about Oroviath’s death. We need to teach anyone that dares to stray from the main path a lesson while instilling fear into anyone daring to come here. I suggest we increase our activity by 10 times."

Grodel raised his hand once Grandin finished talking.

"If we go with the increased activity road, I suggest we divide the clan members into multiple parties and we will raid multiple places all the time. Every member will be given a schedule and one party should raid at least 3 times a day. The clan’s activity will be like the old days."

Then Grail raised his hand to add further.

"How about we raid a small village or town while we’re at it? We can raise our funds to make a new pact with the new guardian. Last time, our clan almost went bankrupt when we made the pact with the guardian. Some clan members even withdrew from the clan because they thought it was a foolish decision to make a pact with the guardian."

"Hmmm....Do you want to add anything Sitka?"

"My stand is neutral on this one."

"Honestly, I think it's more fun if we increase our activity too. Since it's unanimous, we will go with that one. Now let's move on to our second discussion, increasing our bandit activities isn't enough to fund our new pact, anyone have any suggestions?"

"............."

"No one has any suggestions? Let's put this on hold first, we will move on with the third discussion. Should we disclose Oroviath’s death or just keep it a secret? I personally think keeping it a secret is better since the probability of the information leaking is higher. And about our actions against attacks of the authorities, before we had Oroviath’s protection, we would just abandon our hideout if it got discovered, should we just do that?"

"Yeah, let's keep it a secret and our veteran members already have experience against attacks from the authorities, let's just do what we usually do."

"Nothing good would come from disclosing this to our member since they will just laugh."

"Agreed."

The discussion had proceeded smoothly until now, but then it was time to discuss about Chrono and Aramis’s punishment, both of them got extremely tense. Cold sweat ran across their bodies when Jurek started to speak.

"First of all, a round of applause to our two heroes that bravely challenged the guardian despite their low level."

All of the clan members clapped while looking at Chrono and Aramis’s direction.

"(What? Are they trying to be sarcastic?)"

"They are new and it's a game anyway, let’s go easy on them."

"Yeah, even if it's a game, my feet would still tremble if I had to face Oroviath. Both of them are really brave."

"Guys, please raise your hand if you want to speak. Besides, they still need punishment, it's our clan’s rule even though kicking them out of the clan is out of the question."

After Jurek ordered them to, Sitka raised her hand.

"Let's decide on their punishment later after the new guardian has spawned. We need all the help we can get now, Chrono and Aramis proved themselves worthy to lead a raid party."

Robo raised his hand once Sitka finished.

"I agree we should not kick them out but if we delay their punishment, it means we give them special treatment which is not fair to the other clan members."

"Err...can I speak?"

All eyes focused on Chrono when he suddenly spoke.

"Instead of becoming raid party leader, if I focus on my merchant role maybe I can help with raising funds for the clan more efficiently. Merchants are indispensable when it comes to raising funds anyway. My punishment can wait until after the guardian respawns. On the other hand, Aramis can receive the punishment now."

"Wha? Wait!! I know how to obtain 5 of the artifacts needed for the new pact. But to obtain those artifacts I need a long time, if I am punished now, there's no way I can get the artifacts on time."

The meeting concluded that Chrono and Aramis’s punishment could wait until after the new guardian had spawned.

*******

Once the meeting was over, Chrono went to his workshop to check on his loot. He didn't waste any time and begun to craft. He started with rebuilding his merchant wagon, because Jurek told Chrono he would start to go to town and sell the clan's raid spoils once a week. Since Chrono didn't want to use portal in front of other users, he needed the wagon to make it look like he carried something.

Currently, his skill wasn't enough to craft something from the material he gained from fighting Oroviath. Like the Ancient Dragon, Oroviath’s bones was made from one of the rarest ores in the world adamantium. The material was a bit lower in quality compared to orichalcum but it is still one of the best materials for crafting.

Chrono’s current skill also didn’t allow him to craft anything from Oroviath’s skin and like the dragon meat, Chrono also couldn't cook the guardian's meat. Chrono found an orb that might be a material for crafting an artifact but Chrono kept it for the time being.

In the guardian's stomach, Chrono found traces of weapons and armours but it seems like those items had already been ruined by Oroviath's corrosive body liquids. The result, nothing of Oroviath’s body useless but with his low level crafting skill, Chrono could craft nothing. Chrono put all of the materials he just obtained in his secret warehouse.

(Now, next one.)

Chrono started to skin Oroviath's five sub bosses. The materials he gained from the five sub bosses were considerably lower in quality but it could be craft by Chrono. Regrettably, all of the five sub bosses’ bones were normal bones. But Chrono anticipated that maybe the bones had some use in the alchemy department, for the time being, he kept the bones.

The sub bosses' skin quality was quite high but it was craftable by Chrono. He could create great leather armour from it but there was no way he could wear it. Chrono decided he should think about it later and continued to skin the sub bosses further.

All five sub bosses had an orb attached to their forehead. All of the orbs had different colours. Chrono quickly gathered the information about the sub bosses' orbs and from the information he had, the orb was the snake’s source of power.

The 5 sub bosses’ role was to support Oroviath and make the guardian seem invincible. In short, Oroviath and its 5 sub bosses fought exactly like Jurek and his 3 henchmen. Every sub boss had a different role which was either healing, buffing, debuffing, poisoning or shielding.

A sub boss will constantly renew Oroviath’s buff while one more sub boss will keep Oroviath’s health in check. The surrounding enemies would get debuffed by another sub boss and one more sub boss would unleash powerful poison on anything hostile to Oroviath. The last sub boss would cast shield or barrier and block any incoming attacks against Oroviath.

"(I can't imagine fighting Oroviath with the sub bosses still alive, I was lucky.)"

Since the orb is the source of the snake monster’s power, the five orbs power were based on the five sub bosses role. It was impossible to cast magic with the orbs but Chrono could REPLACE the orbs into equipment and receive a portion of its power.

"(Hmmm....what should I craft?)"

With something in his mind, Chrono began to Craft........