Mid afternoon by the quiet North Ga

Mid afternoon by the quiet North Gate bridge.

It was autumn; the maple leaves swirled as they danced with the breeze and gently fell on the clear waters. With a “Pa” sound, I sat atop the bridge’s white jade railings. My Frost Rain Sword glowed with a faint purple hue as I quietly waited.

After a few minutes, a huge group of people slowly walked towards me. They all had the same emblem on their shoulders, it was the crimson imprint, the kind that was used to seal contracts. A Swordsman with slightly long hair and a red cloak drooping behind him came forward. The corners of his mouth had a small smile –

Han Bei Song, Lv 57, Silver Swordsman
Main City: Ba Huang City
Guild: Crimson Contract
Position: Guild Master

……

Just like me, Han Bei Song’s emblem glittered with a golden hue of a Guild Master. He reached out his hand and said with a smile, “Hello Li Xiao Yao. I am Han Bei Song, the Guild Master of [Crimson Contract] !”

I moved my hand to shake with his and said, “Yeah, from now on, we will be Ba Huang City’s first alliance. When any of us gets in a pinch, the other one must help out.”

“That’s how it should be!”

I opened the guild management window and clicked the alliance tab. A light shrouded Han Bei Song’s body as the alliance formed. In front of my eyes, the name color of all those [Crimson Contract] players that were standing behind Han Bei Song changed, indicating that they were now friendly players. This way, during fights, AOE attacks from either of us will not injure either of us.

The Lv 56 Barbarian, Sheltering Guest, who was behind Han Bei Song, started to laugh, “I never imagined that just after [Crimson Contract] had been established, we would be able to have such a formidable ally from the same city; [Zhan Long]!”

Another player frowned and scoffed, “Deputy Leader, [Zhan Long] was created only a day earlier than us and isn’t that much ahead. Do not belittle ourselves…”

Sheltering Guest replied, “You know nothing Xiao Si. Although we have founded our guild at almost the same time as [Zhan Long], they’re completely different from us. Since the start, Xiao Yao Zi Zai of Ba Huang City has been in conflict with [Vanguard], [Flying Dragon] and [Wrath of the Heroes]: those big guilds. He’s been fighting them until now and with the addition of General Family’s four core players, beautiful twins Yue Qing Qian and Yue Wei Liang and his own core members Old K, Wolf and some others, [Zhan Long] is strong, strong that they can deal with our [Crimson Contract] without any problems.”

I laughed, “The gap isn’t that great. I actually like [Crimson Contract] and hope that you guys continue to develop further and become powerful enough to form alliances with stronger guilds. Our two guilds have many adversaries in Ba Huang City and [Flying Dragon] really wants to utterly destroy us, so we must grow faster. Within half a month, [Zhan Long] will strive hard to become a Lv 4 guild with a 3000 members. You should also do the same.”

Han Bei Song nodded, “[Crimson Contract] will not let its allies down. We will endure this time and avoid any confrontations with [Flying Dragon] until we become a Lv 3 guild!”

“Good, that’s how it should be! Well then, I have some quests to finish so just continue with what you were going to do.”

“Okay!”

……

I entered Ba Huang City with members of [Crimson Contract] still after at me. After resupplying some items, I went straight to the cold barren lands of Dragon City. It’s been awhile since I visited Dragon City so it was useful to see what that old Tomb Guardian Karl was doing. After rising to Lv 60 and changing to my 3rd job, I might have a new instructor and will no longer see that old guy in the future.

After a walk of 40 minutes I finally arrived at the cold barren lands of Dragon City.

At the foot of Dragon City, Beast Tamer Dalin’s tent was in complete tatters and looked like he hadn’t been living there for a long time. Even the number of flags on Dragon City’s walls had lessened. If it was not because of those red colored battle flag fluttering in the wind, I might have thought that there has been a change in the city’s ruler.

Drawing the Frost Rain Sword, I climbed along snowy mountain path step by step to reach Dragon City. However, I didn’t enter the city itself. My teacher was not located there; instead, I went to the snowy ridges of the valley – a plain and barren land with various dragon bone fragments everywhere, gleaming duly.

In the distance, the stone cottage was still quietly standing there.

I held onto Frost Rain Sword just in case and slowly walked towards the door. I knocked on the stone door with my free hand “Da, da”, and then said, “Teacher, I’m back. Do you have anything for me to do?”

“Creeeeak.”

The stone door slowly opened as the Tomb Guardian of the Dragon Tomb came outside with his wheelchair. His face was very pale; he even had a fresh scar on the right side of his bony cheek. The cut was extremely deep and should have been from a very sharp weapon. The end part of his wheelchair had also been slashed off while there were sword marks on the tomb walls with streaks of dark blood on the floor.

“Teacher, what’s going on? What happened?” I asked in surprise.

Karl’s eyebrows furrowed and sighed, “Three days ago, a legion of Dark Dwarves attacked the cold barren land of Dragon City during the night. After a night of intense fighting, the Dark Dwarves retreated after they suffered more than 3000 casualties.”

“The Dark Dwarves?” I paused.

“Yes!” Karl looked at me and lightly said, “The Dark Dwarf King dispatched an army of ten thousand Dark Dwarves to destroy Dragon City after you killed their Dark Dwarf Prince. Unfortunately for them, they Dragon City was stronger than they expected and Lord Lou Lin led us to strike back against the cruel Dark Dwarves. Heavenly King Ran Min also lent us his help in slaying one of the leaders of the Dark Dwarf army. 3000 Dark Dwarves died before they started fleeing towards the east of Fire Stone Canyon…”

I took a deep breath and inquired, “Our losses are not that great, right?”

“Not that great?”