Still trapped in his room, Stargaze froze. He suddenly received a system prompt:

[System prompt: The player 'Five' has accepted your friend request. You are now friends. Send him a message.]

He never expected him to suddenly accept the friend request out of nowhere so much that he did not know how to react now. 'What should I say now? He definitely knows I am here because I was pressing the button constantly...'

In his boredom, Stargaze had been constantly pressing the 'Add as friend' button. A few days have passed since he first sent a friend request but the player Five completely ignored him. In an attempt to attract his attention, he had no shame in being the most obnoxious person, hoping that he was not blocked.

Now that his request was accepted, Stargaze became nervous. He did not know how to approach the problem. Should he threaten Five and taunt him into attacking? Should he be honest and ask for help? Or should he lie and trick Five into attacking?

He only had one shot at this. If he made the wrong choice, he might just end up being eliminated from the game in one week for failing the trial. He wrote:

"I am the dungeon master of 'Fire Pit' and I have a request to make." He was clear and concise. Stargaze pressed the 'send' button and anxiously waited. The answer came relatively quickly.

"What is it?"

"I know we had our differences but this is behind us. I need some help in dealing with a crisis at my dungeon."

"Just who are you?" Five's response took Stargaze aback. 'F*ck. Is he pretending to not know me or does he just want me to personally apologize? D*mn, it will teach me to take the honest route...'

"I am the dungeon master of the dungeon next to the Swift Gazelle Tribe. I cause you some trouble earlier by sending the barbarians to fight against the Musclewood Tribe. I apologize for the damage caused and hope that we can mend our relationship."

"It's you. What do you need help for?"

Stargaze's eyes lit up as he saw Five's response. However, he remained cautious and phrased his response to not appear desperate.

"I would like help in dealing with the Swift Gazelle Tribe. They generate a lot of DP but they are a little too strong for my dungeon at the moment. I am proposing an alliance for us to deal with this threat together."

"Are you trying to say that your dungeon is about to be conquered by the Swift Gazelle Tribe? Why should I help you? I have better things to do with the third trial."

Stargaze wanted to cry. He did not want to beg for help but it seemed like that guy was not taking in the hidden intent.

"Please reconsider my offer. I really need some help. Truth be told, my dungeon has already fallen. The barbarians are currently already in charge of everything and they are using my dungeon core to improve their forces. Once they become confident enough, I believe they would make a move against you to conquer your dungeon too."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Stargaze stared at the text and waited. A few moments went by but the opposite party showed no signs of response. 'Did I not say it right?'

Then, the answer came. "So you want me to help you? Not happening. As I said, I am busy working on passing the third trial. Goodbye."

Stargaze panicked. "Wait! You will earn a lot from getting rid of the Swift Gazelle Tribe. Isn't it an external entity? If you destroy it, you will receive a lot of Destruction Points."

He stared at the screen anxiously. 'Don't tell me he already left...'

Fortunately, Five didn't. "Aren't you a member of an alliance? Why don't you ask for help from your members? You have a mentor too, right?"

Stargaze heaved a sigh of relief and quickly typed his reply. "I am a member of the Storm Alliance but the closest member will take a few days to reach my dungeon. Furthermore, he is not strong enough to deal with the Swift Gazelle Tribe. You already dealt with the two dungeons who were my allies in this region. I have a mentor; he is the dungeon master of a dungeon at the Central Plains but as you already know, he is unable to intervene directly in our affairs."

He sent the message, hoping to not scare away his only possible savior.

"If your friend cannot help you, what makes you think that I would be able to?"

Stargaze internally cursed and racked his brain for an answer. "Based on what my monsters said about your dungeon and how you dealt with the situation at the Musclewood Village, I believe that your dungeon is definitely among the best. It should not be too hard for you to get rid of a barbarian tribe."

"The Swift Gazelle Tribe is not just any tribe; it is the strongest one of the region. Why should I risk my monsters on them when I can very well pass the trial easily by going for smaller tribes?"

Stargaze nervously typed: "The Swift Gazelle Tribe is already building its force. Soon, it would be unstoppable. It is in your best interest to attack it while I am still here. I will be able to help you as soon as I become able to summon monsters again. Together, we will definitely be strong enough to deal with the barbarians."

"It seems like I will be the one taking all the risk and doing all the work. And because we'll be working together, I won't even get any Destruction Points. What is the point in me helping you?"

'This is the key part...' thought Stargaze. He quickly typed: "I understand. What do you want from me then? I am ready to pay the price."

"Mmm. Can you tell me more about your alliance then? I have recently been thinking of joining one."

Stargaze's eyes brightened. "Indeed. If you help me, I can recommend you to the alliance leader. My mentor is one of the elders of the Storm Alliance. If he learns that you helped me, you will get a lot of benefit from the alliance!"

Unfortunately, Five did not seem to be excited by his proposition. He instead sent the sentence with seemingly a tinge of annoyance. "Tell me more about your alliance..."

Stargaze did not think much and hurriedly poured out the details he knew to boast the alliance.

"The Storm Alliance is the largest Alliance. I don't know how many old dungeon masters it has but we have more than one thousand players scattered all over the empires. The Storm Alliance is not very prominent here in the Sylvester Empire where it is suppressed by the Hurricane Alliance but in the Domogo Empire and the Arstan Empire, it is unrivaled."

"Many new dungeon masters chose to found their dungeons in regions where their alliance is not at the forefront. It is a way for the alliances to attempt to pierce into a different empire. There are about fifty members of the Storm Alliance here in the barbarian territory. They are scattered around the different regions."

Five did not immediately reply. He took his time to digest the information. "What kind of benefit will I get for joining the alliance?"

"It will have to be discussed but you should expect a few new monsters, some blueprints, and artifacts like the one available at the dungeon. More importantly, they will protect you if you are in danger in the future." Stargaze blushed in embarrassment as he wrote the last part of his message; clearly, his alliance did not do a great job at protecting him.

Five: "These rewards are not guaranteed as you said, they will need to be discussed. I want immediate rewards. What can you give me if I help you."

Stargaze frowned but remained polite. The conversation continued as Stargaze became more and more nervous. Unbeknown to him, he was already revealing some important information, like the level of the monsters of the other players and the location of their dungeon. He did not care about it; for now, his priority was to get Five to come and save him.

Eventually, Five asked: "I will think about it but what was your plan? Since you are asking for help, you should have thought of something."

Stargaze answered: "There is a secret tunnel connecting to my dungeon. If you use the secret tunnel, your monsters will be able to take the barbarians by surprise. With how relaxed they are in the dungeon, it should be easy for you to kill at least five hundred of them before they even realize it."

"A secret tunnel? Give me the exact location. I will think about it and ask my monsters first. We will observe the situation first and if it is really as you say, I do not see why we would not help you."

Stargaze let out a smile. "Of course... There is a small lake in the woods next to the barbarian village. Dive into the lake; there, you will find a tunnel that connects directly to my dungeon."