Inside his room on the tavern's second floor, Manco sat cross-legged on his small bed, the spell book floating in front of him.

Checking his list of spells, he had decided he would have to be a little more aggressive.

He removed three non-offensive spells, replaced them with Fireball, Ice Shard and a healing spell, then checked his finalized spell list again.

Tier-0: (5/5) 「Mana Bolt」, 「Fire Bolt」, 「Ice Shard」, 「Mind Link」, 「Obscuring Fog」

Tier-1: (3/3) 「Mana Blast」, 「Fire Ball」, 「Minor Heal」

Tier-2: (2/2) 「Mana Shield」, 「Silence」

Leaving the inn, he walked to the craftsman's quarter. Stopping at the leather maker's, he traded in his old belt and bought a better one with 8 potion slots.

EoL used a weighted and grid-based inventory system.

Save for a handful of exceptions, all items occupied 1 slot regardless of actual shapes and sizes. Consumables such as potions could stack. Each player started with 10 inventory slots, which can be improved with perks or expanded by equipping backpacks. As the game had a staggering amount of items to be looted, the number of inventory slots were quite generous.

Carrying capacity was influenced by player's strength attributes and certain perks. In addition, some bags had enchantments that lightened the weights of contained items.

Outside of combat, accessing the inventory was instantaneous. However, when the character was considered 'in combat,' a timer would be applied. For game balancing reason, the higher the player's level, the longer it took. For example, in the middle of a fight, if Manco wanted to get a healing potion of his inventory, he would have to wait 25 seconds.

The solution was using 'quick-slots'. The game had a variety of accessories that had 'slots' to store consumables: belts, pouches, clothes with outside pockets, and so on. Accessing these quick slots were always instantaneous, but the downside was that their capacities were limited and the items didn't stack.

At Nina's Potions and Concoctions, he bought some vials of proper Health Potion and Mana Potion (which restored more than the Redberries and Blueberries juice) and slotted them into the new belt. After pondering for a bit, he eventually settled on 2 Health Potions, 2 Mana Potions, 2 Alchemical Fire, 1 Poison, and 1 Paralytic Potion.

He restocked his crossbow bolts and re-applied Poison and Paralytic Potion onto his daggers.

As the promised time drew near, he began to feel the pressure.

It's been a long time since he's felt this way. The feeling of hunting down something just as dangerous as he was and could kill him even on his best day.

Objectively speaking, his character was not much better than theirs. His equipment was mostly run-of-the-mill. Save for the Barrage ability, which only sort-of worked at near point-blank range, using the gun at this point was even weaker than casting spells directly. Even though he was a couple levels higher, he was saving points for the new attribute unlocked after awakening.

His HP pool was abysmal, just a few hits were enough to kill him. Compared to his targets, he was neither the strongest, fastest, nor the most durable.

At level 25, he had 10 spell slots. The other side was lower level than he was, so each of them had fewer spell slots. However, they had three casters, which gave them a total of at least 20 spells.

He was outnumbered and outgunned (so to speak). The only things he had going for him were the experience and skill accumulated over ten years in the game.

Mahn Li checked and double-checked his preparations then logged off for two hours to try and relax.

A few hours later, Manco woke up in the tavern, still unable to shake the nervousness.

To calm his nerves and to pass the time, he returned to the barracks to practice the newly-learned hand-to-hand combat moves and do target practice on the dummies.

After a few hundred shots with the gun, he was sure it was one all-barrel discharge (which he dubbed the 'Barrage' ability) per 15 shots. As a preparation, he shot 13 shots out of the gun. One more shot and the next would be a barrage of five spells: Fire Bolt, Fire Ball, Ice Shard, Mana Bolt and Mana Blast.

'This is crazy. Why am I doing this?' He thought as he waited for his mana to recover.

He could easily avoid them, finish all the quests, and leave town without them being aware of him. Yet, he chose to challenge them.

The most obvious reason was that he wanted what they had. However, as he went over his preparations again, he realized the true reasons. He wanted to challenge himself, push himself to the limit, and prove to himself that he could succeed with his build. Above all, he wanted to challenge his old, irrational fear of 'Beta Testers' that had plagued him during his early years in Epoch of Liberty.

From what he heard, they wouldn't be here much longer. If he wanted to confront them, it was now or never.

'I've got experience and skills. That should be enough. It has to be,' He muttered, psyching himself up.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

While practicing on the dummies, Manco felt something tugging at a corner of his consciousness, an extra-sensory alarm.

Focusing on that alarm, he learned that at least one player had entered the area surveilled by [Vigil].

He switched to his ragged civilian clothes and shot Cordelia a message.

[Are you there?]

No answer…

[If you're not, then good. Those guys are here. You might want to avoid them for now!]

"Alright. Let's meet the gang!"

He donned his ragged civilian clothes and left the barrack.

Immediately, he noticed the bunch strolling toward the marketplace. The whole group was here: the witch, barbarian, cleric, rogue, shaman, and ranger.

At the marketplace, they split up, each heading to a stall of their choice to stock up on supplies. As they shopped, they shouted to each other without bothering to lower their voice.

"Hey shaman! Don't forget to buy extra bug repellent salve!" Manco heard the barbarian's voice over the clamor in the market.

"I've got a name, you know! And do you need extra tampons too?" The shaman girl shot back.

"Fuck you!" He roared.

"Thanks, but no thanks!"

"Enough, both of you! Focus!" The witch ended the conversation.

…

Walking from stall to stall, Manco observed the group while making sure he did not stand out. All six were completely oblivious to his presence and leisurely picked out their wares. It looked like they were preparing for a long trip.

After about ten minutes, they gathered and went over their shopping list, bickering about each other's choices. Two of them ran back to the market, presumably to buy some missing items. Eventually, they were done shopping and made their way to the south gate.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Outside the gate, it was open land for a kilometer before they reached the forest.

Without much cover, Manco couldn't get as close to the group as he would like to. He had to hang back and walk alongside the farmers traveling to the fields to avoid detection.

After the group entered the forest, he waited several minutes before splitting away from the group of farmers to trail his targets.

With his Tracking skill, it was easy to follow the group. It took him several minutes to catch up to them.

Scanning the area, he spotted several animals. After a moment of consideration, he chose a teal-throated sparrow, which was grooming itself on a nearby tree branch.

[Mind Link]

He succeeded at first try and was now in control of the small bird.

Closing his eyes, he focused on its senses. The forest came to life with much greater clarity around him. Perching up the tree branch, he could see small worms crawling under a rock more than 10 meters away. From the ambient noise, which normally sounded like an indistinct mix of sounds, he could pick out distinct and subtle sources either from leaves rustling, animals moving, or other birds calling. Only the sense of smell was dulled somewhat.

Manco had discovered that he didn't have to stay in one place and give step-by-step directions for the creature under his control. He only had to ask it to perform simple tasks and it would automatically do the necessary movements to complete the task.

Looking around from the bird's vision, Manco spotted the group. He commanded the bird to fly to a branch several meters behind them and wait. Meanwhile, he opened his eyes and followed the bird.

After a while, he formed a definite rhythm where he could both move and command the sparrow at the same time. Which was fortunate, as the group began to pick up the pace. Soon, the control became like second nature and he could focus on their conversation.

Unfortunately, they weren't saying anything of note, just inane real-life things like rumors about celebrities, their relationships and acquaintances. The witch, cleric, and rogue were relatively quiet, while the other three chatted incessantly and only stopped when they ran into some predators.

After an hour later, the group had moved beyond the area he had scouted earlier. The ground noticeably became more barren, and the trees became less and less dense, and the animals more sparse.

Eventually, they reached a small clearing, at the middle of which stood a gigantic oak tree with heavy buttress roots. Using the group's size as reference, Manco estimated the trunk to be at least 15 meters in diameter, and was about 50 meters high.

Most of the tree was covered by a green-yellow 'net' made out of the stems of another vine-like plant. The tree itself seemed to be dying. It was almost leafless and its gray bark was chipping off in big chunks.

Stepping on the big roots, the group reached the base of the trunk. The barbarian pulled apart the vines like a curtain, revealing a large hollow in the trunk. One by one, the group entered the hollow.

"A dungeon entrance. Interesting!" After the barbarian entered the hollow, Manco dismissed the sparrow, left his hiding place, and approached the oak tree.