Infinite Realm

Sato stared at the young lady in front of him who had parts of her clothing damaged due to the unscrupulous attacks from the Kobolds. Though he kept a straight face, he was quite impressed at her perseverance in going deeper into the 4th floor without any comrades but at the same time, he felt she was foolish and filled with so much self-adulation otherwise, why would she think she would be able to go past this floor on her own? Even Sato himself never had such thoughts.

"What do you mean 'what do we do?'. We will obviously do as planned and keep heading deeper. She's of no use to us so why should we bother about her?" Sato said plainly before turning around to walk away, ignoring Xue Yan's brief shock.

Once Sato had finished speaking, Xue Yan was a bit surprised as her body froze stiffly but she quickly recovered. Sato and his teammates didn't have any responsibility towards her. According to them, the reason they helped her the last time was because someone had requested. However, Xue Yan had thought about it and realized that not only did she not tell anyone if her current location but also, no one knew of her current predicament. She thought that they might have saved her on a whim or so, or maybe they had wanted something from her but it proved all wrong after they had let her go.

They weren't totally good Samaritans. Xue Yan didn't have any advantage worth them keeping her so they left her. This fact, Xue Yan understood very well .

"Wait."

Sato turned around and looked at Lu Zhen who had just spoken.

"I will stay back with her." Lu Zhen said.

"..." Xue Yan stared at him with shock wondering what was going on.

"...are you sure about it?" Sato asked. He didn't really want to let go of Lu Zhen even if he had already served his role of acting as a guide. As an [Assassin], Lu Zhen had been a able to deal heavy damages to monsters with his ambush tactics and surprise attacks. Losing him would no doubt, surely reduce the team's overall attack power. But if he was really inclined to leave, Sato wouldn't force him back.

Pulling up his system interface and clicking on the exit button in the party chat, Lu Zhen replied with a firm voice "Yes."

The reason he had done so was as the saying would go, 'Blood is thicker than water' even if that blood is thin. Lu Zhen guessed that for some reason, Xue Yan wasn't willing to just leave like that. Even if she wanted to, she would still require the strength to do so. For a level 6 elementalist, this would be quite a daunting task. Because of that, Lu Zhen decided to help her.

Seeing as Lu Zhen was being definitely serious, Sato left him to be. As he already surmised that he couldn't call him back plus it wasn't his style to just a call so someone back. Fudo too, felt it was a loss but he couldn't say anything to Sato. He knew his attitude and that was that once Sato agreed on something, changing his thoughts over it would be very difficult.

Xue Yan stared at Lu Zhen and asked "Why?"

"Why? Well Uncle Xue wouldn't really be happy with me if I let his only angel get lost and harmed now, would he?" Lu Zhen smiled.

Xue Yan was stunned. Among her family's relatives, few knew father and even fewer could call him 'Uncle Xue'. One of those few was a young man that her father had nicknamed 'Little rascal', who aided the family sometimes and even gave her father some money once he had any.

For the first time since she had started playing the game, even including the moment she was rescued by Sato and co., this was the only time Xue Yan felt truly touched.

"Hold it " Xue Yan yelled at Sato and Fudo while holding back her tears. They were tears of joy after having found a lost one, and not that of sorrow.

"What's it this time?" Rather than Sato replying, Fudo did so as he was tired of being stopped and turning back. Sato too felt the same way as he had a small frown on his face.

"You guys said before that as long as I'm useful to your crew, you will let me join?" Xue Yan asked. She had already decided on what to do and as for whether she would regret her decision, even she herself wouldn't know.

"Yes..."

Xue Yan breathed in to comport herself before saying "Well I have a map, and not just any ordinary one; a map from here to level 15."

"Sttth...." Sato, Fudo and even Lu Zhen sucked in a large amount of air in shock.

The roles of map were quite simple; to lead the way to the next floor. Most maps would also have shortcuts on the least 'monster busy zone' but all in all, they all served to lead players to the next floor otherwise they would have to express on their own. Black Grill's Cave was a really huge facility. Each floor was also very big, so big that you could fit at least 2 stadiums in each! If players were to spend their time looking for the exit individually, they would only depend on their luck to find it. This was obvious as Sato, Fudo and Lu Zhen had been looking for the exit point to the 5th floor but still hadn't found it . However, the existence of maps changed this as they recorded down the exit points of each and every floor discussed on them. With a map in hand, players could easily locate the exit.

With Xue Yan saying that she had a map, and one even extending all the way to the 15th floor, there was indeed no reason not to get it. Most maps barely had any info on the Middle region. Even for those that did, they eventually ended at the 5th floor and only some big Guilds had them in their possession. There might even be some that went on till the 10th floor but no one would know as all the big guilds had tacitly agreed to prevent the distribution of such maps to the public. This was because they wanted to explore those regions first before any other player(s) did so. Spreading such maps would be equivalent to treason as the person who did so would be collectively hunted down by the big guilds.

Xue Yan decided to take the risk of not only being possibly hunted by other guilds but also to let her mission be known because she needed to complete it and also she trusted Lu Zhen. Lu Zhen seemed to trust Sato so Xue Yan felt that she could do the same.

"How can we trust you?" Fudo quickly asked after noticing this problem.

"What's your username?" Xue Yan asked.

Fudo smirked. "My ancestors were true born emperors so I decided to follow in their footsteps. You can call me Emperor Wolf."

Xue Yan nodded before opening her system interface and sending an incomplete copy of the map to Fudo.

*Ding*

Hearing the ding sound that was only limited to him and signified a mail, Fudo activated his system interface and browsed the mail column.

Seeing his focus elsewhere, Xue Yan guessed that he had received the mail and said "This is just a part of the map. It shows the location of the exit channel to the 5th floor."

Fudo couldn't validate the map but he still kept it and sent it to Sato.

Saying browsed through the map and realized that it may be real as the location of the exit point was a place they had yet to have gone.

He quickly collected himself before asking "What do you want in exchange?"

Maps were very precious in Black Grill's Cave and for Xue Yan to have brought such a precious map just to join them sounded stupid as one could sell it for a lot of money. Sato guessed that for her to mention this, her request might not be as simple as joining their party. After all, Xue Yan didn't seem like the dumb kind who didn't know the value of what they wielded, otherwise she would have told them before.

Xue Yan took a deep breath and replied " I need you to help me defeat the world class boss on the 10th floor."