Infinite Realm

More than 15 hours had gone by since all the guilds began raiding dungeons in an attempt to achieve first completion. During this period, over 200 guilds worldwide had already been team-wiped at least once, with some having seen their end twice already. These guild teams weren't just those of 3rd and 4th tiers but also 2nd tiers with a few 1st tiers too. Currently, the only rank of guilds who have failed to suffer a loss were super guilds.

Usually, this meant that the super guilds had a high chance of conquering the dungeons but not everyone thought so. Having spent over 15 hours in their dungeons, quite a number of people were skeptical about the chances of success for the super guilds as they believed that these guilds must have spent all their prepared resources in lasting this long. That meant that they were pretty much unarmed but yet proceeding forward. In other words, their end was near.

Most of the information related to the progress of the various guilds' dungeon conquest was delivered by information guilds and information hunters.

Information hunters, as their name implied, were players who sold information of varying degrees and contents to other players. It could information about a location in the game -which they had researched on from either a library or a player they happen to know there-, or about another player or something else entirely. They were like the private investigators in Infinite Realm and their services were easily affordable. However, due to the fact that they worked individually, their area of reach and focus was limited.

As for information guilds, these were larger entities that trained and organised various information hunters. Because they were an association of multiple information hunters, their area of expertise and reach was wide. Some of them even had insiders inside the top guilds and so, could offer inside information about these guilds; something an individual information hunters typically couldn't provide.

Among the most popular and recognised Information guilds was the super guild, Hermes. As long as one had heard of the "Gamer's Expert List", "Greatest Of All-time or even the "Newcomer's List", then they should have heard of Hermes guild.

Hermes guild happened to be the compiler of the lists of the strongest players as well as the prestigious records of a player's feat. Amongst average players, they were well-known for their compilations and lists which recorded information about almost all existing Expert players, retired or active, but apart from that, they also sold information to other players and guilds. It was due to their reliable information and rapid relay speed that the guild has managed to build up so many connections, that despite not being as strong as its comrade in rank, Hermes was a guild that not even a peak super guild would what to offend.

Rumour has it that trying to offend Hermes guild was almost the same as requesting the gaming community to go after you, or at least, the top figures of the community.

Once upon a time, a Peak 1st tier guild had once tried to usurp Hermes and use it as a stepping stone to rise to the rank of a super guild. Their strength was well recognised that no one doubted that they would give Hermes guild a headache and might even come out on top after the struggle. Sadly, this plan was destined to be a failure as once the guild commenced their attack, they came under siege by various other guilds, both big and small. Those who owed Hermes guild had answered their call for help and the peak 1st tier guild was badly damaged to its foundation after that event.

This was just a mere display of the level of influence possessed by Hermes guild, and from what was later known that day, it was only 60% of those who owed Hermes a favour that had been called. Only one super guild and a few other 1st tier guilds were called but they still won it. From what was known then, at least 5 super guilds had close ties with Hermes and would have come to their aid if requested. In other words, if all the forces that had owed Hermes a favour were called, that Peak 1st tier guild would have ceased to exist.

As the recognised number one information hunter guild, Hermes had a big reputation as well as a large customer base. Most of the information related to the progress of the top teams were actually relayed by them to the others.

'For their information to be this detailed means they have a few spies in the top guilds. It would be for the best if we avoiding getting into conflict with these guys or even having anything to do with them. Sadly, that's probably impossible.' Sato sighed as he analysed the various reports on the forums.

Information was a key advantage in any tactical affair. Therefore, the suppliers of information were the backbones of such affairs. For a team like Seven Star Glory, which was a pretty small upstart, they wouldn't have anything to do with the big guilds or information guilds like Hermes. However, Seven Star Glory was a bit special in that it was the team that had killed the first-ever world class BOSS in Infinite Realm. Hence, a lot of eyes would be on them and a lot of people would be wondering who they are. In other words, just by making such a monumentous achievement, they had already entered the sights of Information hunters regardless of whether they want to or not.

The only question left to ask was how much information had already been dug up by those parties.

After updating himself on the events around the world, Sato resumed his journey towards his destination. His goal was a certain meeting point of the river that branched out to form a lake. It was an area Sato had spotted long ago, on one of his occasional visits to Maldora Canyon before the Blacksmith Guild's Apprentice Tournament.

At that time, in a bid to escape the clutches of a terrifying monster, Sato was forced to run deep into the Canyon grounds, branching from the main route, which was the river's path, over to another region.

The lake housed an even more terrifying monster that easily scared away Sato's pursuer just by its aura alone. When considering this, one would wonder why Sato was heading back there but in truth, Sato's goal was the 'mouth' of the lake; the point where the lake got connected to the river or in simpler terms, the strait of the lake.

Usually, in a region at by a powerful monsters, other monsters tend to avoid it and stay else, but there was a chance for even weaker ones to stay at the edge where it lived. This was because they would rely on the aura of the stronger beast to chase out their natural predators. Such monsters that acted like this were usually the ones that weren't prey to the strong beast ruling the region. So, to some extent, it was safe to say that only that monstrous creature dwelt in the lake but there might be a few weaker ones residing by the edge of the monster's influence.

Of course, this was only a bet from Sato as the most logical idea would be for the entire place to be devoid of monsters. But part of Sato wanted to check out that lake as he didn't have the luxury nor strength to do so before. But now that he was much stronger than he was back then, Sato was a bit curious about the area. Even if he couldn't beat the creature, he could at least run away from it; that, Sato was pretty confident in doing.

'There it is.'