MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

"Let's depart!"

After having everyone double check their equipment and their necessities for the upcoming raid, Valyr went ahead and departed from the guild alongside the people he chose.

…As well as the envious gazes of those he hadn't chosen.

Promising those that weren't chosen that they'd be the ones chosen for the next world raid, the young man led his guild members to the place he and Malutar had agreed to meet upon, their earlier conversation still fresh in his mind.

With everyone's levels in their group hovering around the peak of Rank 1, it only took an hour or so for them to arrive at the venue.

"…I guess this is the right place?" muttered Valyr to himself as he briefly glanced at the night sky.

Wondering if he had made the right choice by having his guild come here near the middle of the night, the young man's worries quickly disappeared the moment someone in their group spotted a similarly large group heading to where they were.

"Ataraxia!" Unsurprisingly, with Valyr's group in their view, the group that was still heading to where they were swiftly increased their pace, allowing the young man to see Malutar leading at the front after a couple of minutes or so.

"Malutar," said Valyr back with a smile, shaking the man's hand before looking at the people accompanying the latter. "These your guild members?"

"Yep." Malutar nodded, only to then look at the young man with an apologetic smile. "Seeing how you brought your guild members this late in the night, I honestly feel a bit guilty for requesting you to come here."

"Don't be," replied the young man, letting out a bit of laughter. "Though it may be late into the night, everyone here is eager to experience the world raid for themselves."

"I'm glad to hear that, then," said the man in return with a relieved smile.

Though he still felt a bit of guilt for inviting someone like Valyr into their world raid, especially with how they've only interacted once, Malutar decided not to continue that train of thought any further.

After all, aside from Valyr not having problems with it, the fact that the guild currently renowned for their leader's strength was helping with the world raid put his mind at great ease.

With that, the man briefly took in a deep breath to compose himself before looking at Valyr with a calm expression. "According to what the other leaders told me, it'll still take them quite some time to get here."

"How long?" asked the young man.

"The farthest among them would still take an hour to get here," replied Malutar with a wry smile. "The reason why I chose this spot is because this is the nearest safe location to the world raid."

"You've already tried the world raid, then?" Valyr raised his eyebrow in curiosity.

"A bit," responded the man. "However, it wasn't a serious attempt. We only did the world raid once to gather more information in preparation for this one."

"That means you originally had two keys, then?" asked the young man, recalling that the key would be consumed as long as one initiated the world raid.

"Four, actually," clarified Malutar, causing Valyr to look at him in slight surprise.

"Though… I'm not confident even three attempts would be enough for us to clear that," added the man, giving him a wry smile once more.

"…What world raid are we doing, exactly?" Faintly nodding in response, Valyr threw another question at the man, allowing his curiosity to get the better of him.

Getting the feeling that the world raid they'd be tackling would be one of the easier low-level world raids, the young man was instead left at a slight loss for words when he heard the name of the raid that came out of Malutar's mouth.

"If I remember it correctly, it's called Lamentations of the Red Wyvern," said Malutar, only to then notice the serious expression on Valyr's face. "…Is there something wrong?"

"Are you sure it's called Lamentations of the Red Wyvern? Not Lamentations of anything else?" asked Valyr for clarification.

"I'm… definitely sure it was called Lamentations of the Red Wyvern," responded Malutar after some time, which caused the young man to let out a low sigh in response.

"If that's the world raid we'll be tackling… then we might really need to use all those keys you've saved up to clear it."

Among the world raids accessible to those between Rank 2 to Rank 5, those that had names starting with the word 'Lamentations' were considered by many to be a mixed bag.

The reason why many thought that ways was because this type of world raids focused more on telling a story rather than just pure battle.

Because of that, these raids greatly ranged in difficulty, with some only needing the party to do a simple task to clear it, while others needed one to complete the equivalent of a linked quest to do the same thing.

With that being said, out of all the 'Lamentations' that fell into the latter category, most, if not all players agreed that Lamentations of the Red Wyvern was the hardest low-level world raid one could gain access to.

After all, not only did the raid have the party accomplish tasks related to the red wyvern's story, but it also forced the party to aid the red wyvern in the story to fulfill its long-awaited wish.

To become a red dragon.

'Though the world raid would scale accordingly to the average level of the party, completing Lamentations of the Red Wyvern at this level would still be nigh-impossible to achieve, thought Valyr to himself, feeling a bit pessimistic at their chances.

'However, if we do clear it, then the rewards that we would get from it is…'

With the gears in his mind beginning to turn because of that singular thought, the young man was soon able to make up his mind, letting out yet another low sigh as he turned to look at Malutar.

"…Alright."

"Hmm?" Malutar looked at Valyr with a raised eyebrow.

"As the guild leader of Azure Coalition, we'll do our best to help clear the world raid in the least number of attempts as possible," said the young man to him, his expression a mix of conviction and determination.

"Ataraxia…" Feeling his heart warm up at those words, the man looked back at Valyr with a smile before responding back, "Don't worry. I'll make sure that your guild's efforts will be equally rewarded."

"As the guild leader of Big Richard, it's the least I can do to make sure things go smoothly between our guilds."

"…"

"…What?"

"…"

"…"

"…Big Richard?"