Infinite Realm

"Thank you for your help." Xue Yan bowed at the trio.

Xue Yan felt that Reeves was being insensible and that was why she didn't agree with him. Sato and his teammates could have killed them and taken their equipment but he didn't and only laid his hands on the loot from the dark players. He wasn't obliged to save them but he still did. For Xue Yan, it really wasn't worth it to fight with their rescuers over a measly bow.

"Don't thank me. Someone told me to save you." Sato replied.

"Huh? Who?" Xue Yan asked with surprise. She didn't recall telling anyone that she was here and it wasn't like she had a lot of friends who were interested in gaming. To be honest, she didn't have a lot of friends. Xue Yan was always cold to outsiders. Even when she joined up with Reeves' teammates, she didn't chat much with them. With such an attitude, Xue Yan barely about 3 people she could call 'friends' in her life but she didn't feel that bad about it

Sato looked at Lu Zhen who was signalling him not to mention it. Seeing that he didn't plan on speaking, Sato replied "They said we shouldn't mention them."

He used 'they' in other to prevent her from guessing the identity or gender of the person. Otherwise, if he used "he", Xue Yan might suspect one of them. Of course the chances of this was next to zero but it's better to be safe than sorry.

"So what will you do next?" Lu Zhen asked her.

"Your friends are gone now and I doubt they would still want to team up with you. I reckon they have already kicked you out of their party right?" Fudo commented.

Xue Yan nodded. When he left, Reeves, who had the role of party captain, kicked her out of the party. Xue Yan didn't feel much about it, only a bit disappointed because without a team she wouldn't be able to reach the depths of Black Grill's Cave and complete her mission.

"In that case, why don't you team up with is?" Lu Zhen asked.

"..."

Sato glared at Lu Zhen.

Seeing his look, Lu Zhen hesitated a bit but still didn't step down. "If I'm correct, she should know her way around here. Otherwise they wouldn't have come this far nor would they dream of doing so. I mean look at their levels. She's still okay with a level 6 but those guys were level 5 and they didn't have much skill. Unless they are stupid, they wouldn't come in this deep without a map."

"True." Fudo nodded. "But what makes you so sure that she's the one with the map and not the other guys?"

Lu Zhen was stunned. "Uh? She's pretty?"

'Seriously!!!' Both Sato and Fudo cursed inwardly.

"Hey, do you have a map with you?" Sato asked Xue Yan.

"...no." Xue Yan lied. She didn't know whether she could trust them and this map was an asset of hers that lead to her mission site. Losing it would be equivalent to failing the mission and giving it out might lead to unexpected events occurring. As a meticulous individual, it would be best to avoid any accidents and go with the plan she had already made. She also didn't want to team up with them as her personality wasn't really one that would just join up with anyone.

"Okay then. Since she doesn't have a map, she isn't of any use to us so there's no reason for her to join us."

"But..." Lu Zhen tried to argue.

"No buts. Or else you can leave with her too." Sato narrowed his eyes. He had already acquiesced to Lu Zhen's previous request and he didn't plan on doing so with another.

"Alright. I won't argue anymore." Lu Zhen gave up. Even though Xue Yan was related to him, she was but a distant cousin. He had already tried his best for her. it didn't seem like she was interested in joining the party as she didn't even speak once regarding the decision.

"Let's go."

Sato , Fudo and Lu Zhen left Xue Yan and headed their way.

'i now have two options; go back and try again later or move forward.' Xue Yan thought of her next action

'Going back doesn't ascertain whether I can manage and get this far once more after all, not a lot of people are enthusiastic to come to the Middle region like those guys. So there's only one way then.'

After a minute or so of deliberation, she walked towards a tunnel by the side.

. . . . .

"Lu Zhen. As long as you want to keep staying in this party, don't do that again."

After they had been walking for not more than 2 minutes, Sato glanced at Lu Zhen.

"... okay. I apologise." Lu Zhen bent his head a bit. "Also thank you for saving her. I owe you one."

Though in honest sense, Lu Zhen would have been capable of handling those 4 dark players alone, he chose to request for Sato's help because he couldn't assure that he could protect the others there. Sato had agreed to this and saved Xue Yan and at the same time, he still kept him in their party and even shared their gains equally with him despite Lu Zhen's behaviour. It would be dumb to say that Lu Zhen didn't genuinely appreciate this. One should remember that this was Black Grill's Cave, non mage classes would find it difficult to survive here alone. Even if Lu Zhen was level 7, he would still die if he was assaulted by a bunch of level 6 Rock Golems.

The party of three went deeper into the Middle region.

Black Grill's Cave is divided into 3 regions and each region has at least 3-4 floors. Of the 3 known regions, the outer region was actually the smallest, despite having 10 floors. To get from one floor to the other, the players would have to go to specific designated points. In each floor, there were at least 6 exits to the next floor and each exit was scattered around the entire floor, separate from one another. It took the trio 4 hours to go through those 10 floors just to arrive at the Middle region and this was because they were avoiding most of the monsters there. With this, one can imagine how big the region was.

The Middle region had 22 floors and it was at the 4th floor that the trio had encountered Xue Yan. As for the Inner region, no one really knew how many floors it had but from the few incomplete maps, the players knew it had at least 10 floors.

A total of 42 floors with each floor having at least a height of 20 metres and some, like the natural hall they found Xue Yan at, had a height of 50 metres. One could only imagine how big the mountain was. Excluding the Inner region's floors, which was located underground, the mountain had 32 floors. Using the estimate average value of 30 metres per floor, the mountain would then stand at a height of 960 metres! Though compared to some mountains in reality it was indeed lacking, a height of 960 metres was still impressive. One should remember that this height is calculated as from where the Cave begins and that is at the belly of the mountain. In other words, the mountain was actually bigger than 960 metres; this was just the height of the cave from sea level.

Sato never planned on getting to the Inner region. Just think about it. If the 4th floor, out of 22 floors of the Middle Region, had level 6 Elites what would the 10th floor have?

The majority of players were currently at either level 5 or level 6. Few of them were level 7 and these were the pros. The cream of the crop of the pros were close to level 8 with only a handful of them at this level. At this point in time, it is but a mere dream for any player to reach the Inner region. Some even speculated that level 10 monsters would be cannon fodder at the 15th floor of the Middle region.

Sato's plan for the team was to try and reach the 10th floor. He speculated that once they reach there, chances are that a treasure might be there. You could say it's a gut feeling but Sato instinctively felt that they would profit well if they make it there before other players. The good thing though was that because they were much high levelled than mainstream players, no one else should be capable of reaching there except for a few elites of the top guilds. But maybe even them don't have such a lineup as Sato's team does.

Even knowing this, Sato still wanted to hurry. Seeing Xue Yan and her team here didn't bid well for him. Though most people believed that the dark players would only stay at the early floors of the Middle region, it is still possible that some of them would like to explore the lower floors. But no matter how much he worried, they could only take it slow because the monsters here where high levelled than the upper floors and also, they still needed the experience points. So unlike the Outer region, where they ran past the monsters, they would have to take it slowly in the Middle region.

"Let's try and reach the 5th floor in 2 hours time."