The greatest pride in my life was to serve as a sentinel for the village of Hermine. Thanks to our leader, we managed to build something solid and prosperous—a village where Dwellers could gather and live in safety. It was a peaceful haven amidst chaos.

Yet despite all our efforts and sacrifices, some did not reciprocate our kindness.

The leader's former partner attempted to reduce the village to ashes, but we successfully stopped him. More recently, he found a way to blow himself up along with another prisoner.

Interestingly, the guy didn't die instantly. He was finished off by a farmer—one of his colleagues we later arrested.

What made him think it was a good idea to kill someone without authorization?

Besides, the victim was a guy brought in by Guil, that naive fool. To think it was a good idea to bring in someone from the outside, not very clever.

But anyway. Managing a village with over 200 players was not easy, but nothing was impossible with our leader. He had implemented a whole agricultural system to save everyone from their debt.

However, he understood something fundamental: every system is doomed to self-destruct. The seed of change always eventually sprouts, bringing down even the strongest walls.

With this understanding, he planted something else in the villagers' minds to protect them from themselves—a belief. This belief was that the only chance of survival was to remain confined in the village.

While the outside world was indeed dangerous, the truth was that the leader was more than capable of warding off any threat. Fear was the best instrument of control, and our leader was a maestro at using it.

In his true identity, he was known as the 'Merchant King'. A player feared by all except the ignorant.

His mere aura was enough to keep high-level players who sought our riches at bay.

Our system was flawless. Some of us even began to believe the lies we kept for the inhabitants.

Guil was one of them, and even another sentinel, Zam.

But Grem and I remained rational, even after all these years. There was no room for madness and denial in our ranks, yet the leader did not act against them.

I disliked the idea of sentinels being weak and impressionable. In fact, I blamed this for what was happening with the leader's dungeon.

I was in the middle of a manhunt—I was going to capture a well-equipped player—when I received a request on my screen from the leader.

He usually never communicated this way. It was a bad sign.

His message indicated that someone had entered his dungeon through the secret door. No one other than the four of us, and the leader himself, knew about this passage.

It was clear that there was a traitor among us, but there was no time to sort that out then. I was the closest to the dungeon, so it was my responsibility to deal with the intruder.

Proud to be the fastest among the sentinels, I quickly arrived at the dungeon's open door. I entered and ran towards the door that led to the room where our stocks of Turcos juice, and especially the Orb of Infinite Magic, were kept.

The orb was our leader's most prized and beloved possession. He loved it so much that he himself would visit it once a year, despite rarely leaving the village.

There was no way I could let someone escape with it.

As I descended, I noticed the wooden door was jammed shut—impossible to open. My first instinct was to use my blades to cut it open, but I reconsidered. The orb was very sensitive, and I didn't want to take any risks. If it exploded due to my clumsiness, not only would I die, but the leader would be devastated.

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I began to push with all my strength to force the door open. The intruder had nowhere to run. I had time.

After several minutes and a sore shoulder, I finally managed to open the door.

The room was empty. I looked around.

A crate had been partially emptied, otherwise, everything was in order. Except for the orb. It was gone. My heart sank. "Of course it's been stolen," I muttered.

But the thief couldn't have gone far. I moved to block the wooden door to prevent him from escaping.

He was probably hiding in another crate. All I had to do was search all of them.

Five minutes later, I had checked all the crates. He was nowhere.

I began to worry.

Where could he be?

The only possibility was that he had fled into the dungeon. If that was the case, he had no chance of survival.

The problem was that I also had no chance of retrieving the orb. The only person capable of surviving in that dungeon was the leader himself.

I opened the metal door to see if the thief was hiding nearby. I moved forward and looked around, but I saw no one.

"What should I do now?" I muttered.

I couldn't return to the leader empty-handed. I couldn't bear the thought of disappointing him. But neither could I follow the thief into the dungeon.

In the end, I decided to alert the leader using my screen.

The message was sent, and I quickly received a reply.

"Stand guard, Zam is on his way," was the leader's message.

So there I was, sitting on a crate, right in front of the wooden door, waiting.

After about 15 minutes, I felt a powerful vibration, followed by an explosive blast.

The source of the explosion was no mystery—it was the orb that had been shattered.

Blood ran from my lip as I bit into it, then I moved the crate and flung open the wooden door.

In an instant, I was out of the dungeon, sprinting towards the explosion.

As I arrived at the site, all I saw was destruction. The orb had created a massive crater in the ground, big enough for a person to escape from the dungeon.

So that was his plan—to use the orb to make an escape. I started searching the surrounding area for any clues.

It didn’t take long before I found some traces and was just about to follow them when I heard a voice. "Keb, wait." It was Zam.

"Wait for what? We need to take out the thief!" I was nearly shouting, but managed to hold back.

"It's the leader's order. We have to return, he's summoned all the sentinels." He stated calmly.

I was frustrated and puzzled by this decision, but I knew better than to question the leader. So, I decided to follow Zam back to the village.

As we neared the village, we used our assassin skill - phase-walking - to traverse the tree barrier.

We then made our way to the leader's grand house.

It was sectioned into three parts: one was a shop for the village merchants, another was a public area where the leader received villagers, and the last was his private quarters where he resided with his harem and close guards.

Guil and Grem were there, waiting for us in front of the house. We exchanged nods, remaining silent, all aware of the serious situation.

"Enter," the leader's voice echoed.

We followed the command, passing the curtain to his throne.

The leader sat there, looking lean and youthful since his recent level up.

We were all standing before him as he studied us carefully.

"I've been informed that my orb has been destroyed... I won’t beat around the bush, I'm devastated. That orb held centuries’ worth of energy. It could have brought great prosperity to the village." He paused, wiping away a few tears.

Then he continued, "I don't want revenge. I don't want negativity. I just want justice." With that, he rose to his feet. "Bring me the thief, alive." His words were simple.

The leader spoke of wanting no negativity, but his eyes were aflame with rage.

I knew his true commands, his hidden desires: to inflict as much pain as possible on the thief.

I understood the leader far better than the others, and I was ready to be the one to deliver the thief’s disfigured body to him.

"Unfortunately, I can't send you all," the leader resumed.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Guil and Zam will hunt the thief. Keb and Grem will stay here, continuing with their regular duties. I'll put a bounty on the thief’s head, every bounty hunter in the region will be after him. Do we know his player number and what he looks like?" He asked.

I was seething, not chosen to join the hunt.

The worst part was the idea of using bounty hunters for such a personal matter.

"Why didn't you let me find this player when I was in the dungeon? I'm sure I could have captured him!" Frustration tinged my voice.

The leader raised his hand, signaling that I was overstepping. "Keb, the damage is done. You failed to protect my most prized possession. I can't trust you anymore," he said.

My heart felt like it had stopped. It was as if I'd been stabbed.

I too had just lost the thing I treasured the most, and I was in danger of never getting it back.

That damn thief had committed the unforgivable, and I was ready to disobey the leader to deal with him personally.