“For it to be a quest shared with the whole guild. This is my first time seeing something like this.”

“On top of that, it’s an Empire Quest. And the Difficulty Level is double S-rank.”

A large flag with the symbol of Kaimon Empire embroidered magnificently, and below it, the flag of Titan Guild flapping along with it.

And at the head of the flag, over two hundred members of the Titan Guild were headed towards somewhere.

“Get ready, Emily. We’re almost at Shikar Desert.”

“Yes, Shyakran.”

Dark blood-red armor, as well as two long greatswords that hung on either side of his waist.

Shyakran, who was famous as the number 1 ranker for the Warrior-class in the Korean server, entered Shikar Desert.

Shikar Desert, where the common monsters’ average levels were in the 130-range, was still considered a place of non-aggression for most of the users, but there was no hesitation in Shyakran’s footsteps.

“Shyakran.”

“What.”

“I don’t know about Shikar Desert, but do you think that we will be able to pass through Sky Desert that will appear right after with this fighting power?”

At Ceilron’s question, Shyakran was momentarily submerged in his thoughts.

“Hmm.”

Sky Desert was an area that Ian broke through with the knights of the empire during his Griffin Hatching Quest.

Sky Desert was a wide desert area that surrounded Sky Highlands.

Compared to Sky Highlands, it was an area with a lower rank, but despite that, as it was a tremendously dangerous place where the average level was over 150, Ceilron’s worry wasn’t irrational.

Currently, the average level of the Titan Guild’s expedition was in the late 120s.

Shyakran, the Guild Master, was at an incredibly high level at over lv 140, and Ceilron, who was 2nd place in the Knight rankings, was also at an outrageous level that was in its late 130s, but still, Sky Highlands, where it was teeming with monsters ranging from lv 150, couldn’t help but be menacing.

Shyakran, who finished thinking, slowly opened his mouth.

“Even if we detour slightly, we need to break through here. Since we need to pass through there in order to go to the central continent.”

Emily, who was next to them, spoke with a worried expression.

“I think that it may have been better to have just gone over the border through the northern continent instead. If that was the case, we may have been attacked by the Luspel Empire soldiers, but I think that they could be weaker than the mummies or monks that appear in the Sky Desert instead…”

At Emily’s words, Shyakran shook his head.

“No, then it would be too late. And if we were to even get caught by a high-ranking guild of Luspel while moving, it will become troublesome.”

“That’s true.”

While walking through the desert path, where his feet sunk down to his ankles, Shyakran thought to himself.

‘The first guild that steps onto the land of the central continent will be the Titan Guild.’

Ever since the beginning when Kailan first opened, he had always dominated all of the content.

He wasn’t the first user to have class-changed to Warrior-class, but the one to have reached lv 50 and build the Warrior-class Tower was him, and he had even monopolized tons of fields and dungeons’ first discoverers’ rewards.

Shyakran was a user that knew better than anyone else how big ‘dominating’ as well as the effect of ‘good profit’ that came from it was in a game.

Because of that, this large update was another chance for him.

‘Thanks to the Empire Quest I completed a couple days ago, I even collected 2 thousand Specialty Points already. We need to dominate the central continent quickly and grab benefits for the guild’s level as well.’

And suddenly, a user popped up in his thoughts.

It was a Summoner user that recently was becoming an explosive topic of conversation within the community.

And although for just a moment, it was a user he had butted swords with when he stopped by at Pascal Islands because of a quest.

While thinking of Ian, the corners of Shyakran’s mouth curled upwards.

‘Ian, huh, Ian… It would be nice if I could meet him again…’

Before he met him, Shyakran had thought that the ‘Summoner’-class alone was generally a useless PvE-exclusive class.

Since most of the Summoners he had met up until now were absolutely weak.

However, Ian was different.

Even though he had faced him with his clone that could only display half of his actual abilities, he still cornered him.

‘It would be nice if I could meet him in the central continent. Of course, if we were to properly fight, he wouldn’t be a match for me.’

However, there was a part that Shyakran was thinking incorrectly on.

Since the Ian that Shyakran fought at that time was also not in his complete state.

At that spot, amongst Ian’s Familiars, only Halli was in the battleground.

In a sense, that was a penalty that was no less than Shyakran, whose main body was missing.

While Shyakran was lost in his thoughts, the shout of someone in the rear-end of the guild party was heard.

“Enemies have appeared at the right!”

Shyakran’s head instinctively turned.

And the thing that had caught his gaze was a group of monsters at around lv 140.

“We’ll face them and then move. Everybody, get into combat formation!”

At Shyakran’s words, the users of Titan Guild moved in perfect order.

And Shyakran’s body shot forward quickly.

‘Let’s see, shall we warm up…?’

“Heu-aam…!”

Jinsung, who woke up from his sleep, was slightly taken aback at how incredibly dark it was.

This was because, no matter whether it was in the middle of the night, the lights of the streetlights should have at least leaked in, so it would be normal for him to see even a little bit in front of him, however, his view was completely pitch-black.

“Ah, did I fall asleep in the capsule yesterday?”

Jinsung, who had recognized that he was inside the capsule, felt around with his hand and after finding the button, he pressed it firmly as he mumbled.

“I do roughly remember… As soon as quest completed popped up, I think I lost consciousness right away…”

Jinsung, who came out of the capsule, spread both of his arms out and stretched.

“Euaah- But what time is it right now? Dawn?”

He checked the time to see it was 5 o’clock in the morning.

As he thought about the time that he fell asleep at yesterday, he even roughly understood.

“Still, I slept over 12 hours. No wonder I felt refreshed…”

Jinsung’s gaze momentarily turned towards the new capsule model.

The interior of the old capsule model was quite comfortable as well, but the new capsule model felt as refreshing as if he actually slept on his bed and woke up.

Jinsung turned his gaze towards his bed that was in one corner of his room, and mumbled to himself.

‘Should I… get rid of my bed?’

Jinsung seriously contemplated.

However, because he somehow felt that if he did that, he would become an undo-able(?) cripple, he decided to hold back.

Jinsung, who instinctively wanted to check the rewards of the succeeded quest, was about to go back into his capsule again but stopped and stood.

This was because his stomach rumbled.

“Ah… It’s even been over two days since I’ve eaten…”

Jinsung closed the capsule again and headed towards the kitchen.

The moment he realized his hunger, an emptiness in his belly that couldn’t be held back descended upon him.

‘Hmm, but what is this smell?’

Jinsung, who looked into a questionable shopping bag that was on top of the table, was momentarily flustered.

This was because it contained a lunchbox that still had a slight bit of heat to it.

And on top of it, there was also a memo with lovely handwriting on a small post-it note.

• The soup in the flask can just be eaten, while for the fried rice, heat it up for about 3 minutes in the microwave and then eat it!

“…”

Jinsung, who read the memo, was flustered.

‘Is it mom? No, there’s no way that mom would have come and gone… But if she did come and go, there’s no way that I would still be alive…’

And soon, he was able to remember Harin.

‘It seems like Harin came and left. Did she game a little before she left?’

Come to think of it, he felt like he could slightly smell Harin’s perfume inside the house.

Creak-.

Jinsung, who pulled out a chair and sat down, opened the lunchbox and began to eat.

On the note, it said to heat it up before eating, but Harin’s fried rice was delicious enough even to eat on its own.

“Wow… This is really delicious!”

The meal that he ate for the first time in 48 hours was simply delicious, and after finishing the lunchbox in the blink of an eye, Jinsung wore a satisfied smile as he lied down on his bed.

Jinsung, who grabbed his smartphone that was just thrown on the head of his bed, sent a message to Harin.

• Harin, I ate well! Seriously thank you… T T I’ll see you later at school!

And before Ian even put down his smartphone.

Harin’s response arrived right away.

• I expect you to come and get me in front of the station by 3:30 in the afternoon!

“…”

Jinsung, who saw the message, was taken aback, but he then smirked as he nodded his head.

“Sure, well… I even got such a delicious meal like this, so why couldn’t I even do that much?”

Jinsung, whose mood brightened as much as possible, went into the capsule with light footsteps.

There was still close to 9 hours left until it was 3:30 in the afternoon.

* * *

• Welcome to the world of Kailan.

Ian, who listened to the familiar login notification as he logged onto the game, looked around.

‘It’s the personal bedroom of the Lord. Since I was forcibly logged out, it looks like I was moved over here.’

Ian, who got up, opened his information window first of all and began to check the rewards.

The first thing that caught his eye was his Fame.

‘Keu, my Fame is now over 7 digits now.’

His fame that he had accumulated up until now was at 1.2 million.

Ian wore a pleased expression.

‘If it’s this much, shouldn’t it be alright to promote up to a viscount now?’

The amount of Fame that was consumed when a baron promoted to a viscount was 800 thousand.

However, to promote himself when he had exactly about 800 thousand Fame was not a good choice.

This was because if the Fame that the Lord had was low, the Loyalty of the retainers would drop, and their public sentiment value would decrease.

Before he did this Empire Quest, Ian’s Fame was nothing more than 850 thousand.

However, because he still had 200 thousand Fame remaining even after promoting right now where he had over 1 million Fame, he felt there wouldn’t be a big problem.

Ian opened his information window and went into the title promotion tab.

‘Yeah, let’s promote.’

Either way, the viscount title was mandatory even for the promotion to Large Domain, which was the next level after Domain-rank.

Ian pressed the promotion button without hesitation.

Along with that, a system message popped up.

As he saw that it popped up as a green message, it looked as if it was one that was sent to all of his guild members.

• User ‘Lord’ Ian’s title has been promoted from ‘Baron’ to ‘Viscount’.

• As the title of the Lord has been promoted a level higher, the guild’s Fame has increased by 10 thousand.

• As the title of the Lord has increased, the Territory’s public sentiment has increased by 5.

The system messages were listed all at once.

And as the green messages ended, white messages that appeared only for Ian popped up.

• As your title has been promoted, the maximum number of NPCs you can register as your retainers has increased by 5.

• As your title has increased, the Loyalty of your retainers has increased by 5.

Ian, who read through the messages, suddenly became curious about something after seeing the content that the Loyalty of his retainers had increased.

‘What were the Loyalties of my retainers originally at?’

Ian opened the information window that was in his retainer list, and began to check each Loyalty.

• Retainer List (Loyalty)

The maximum for Loyalty is 100.

• Celia

Level: 110

/ Class: Summoner

/ Rank: Heroic

Loyalty: 98

• Mallaim

Level: 107

/ Class: Warrior

/ Rank: Rare

Loyalty: 85

• Tenpus

Level: 114

/ Class: Priest

/ Rank: Common

Loyalty: 82

• Cerius

Level: 109

/ Class: Magician

/ Rank: Unique

Loyalty: 90

• Loreuten

Level: 110

/ Class: Warrior

/ Rank: Rare

Loyalty: 85

• Kaizar

Level: 246

/ Class: Warrior

/ Rank: Mythological

Loyalty: 5

‘As expected, the more you pay attention to them, the higher the Loyalty…’

The retainer that Ian paid most attention to before he appointed Kaizar was Celia, who had the highest rank.

And as expected, Cerius, who was the next highest rank, had the highest Loyalty after Celia.

Ian, who saw that, was stung internally.

‘Was I a little materialistic?’

While slightly self-reflecting(?), the expression of Ian, who checked the last of the retainer list, couldn’t help but wrinkle immediately.

“… As expected, he wasn’t just calling me Lord guy without a reason.”

The Loyalty of his new retainer, Kaizar, was at 5.

Even this was Loyalty that formed because Ian was just promoted to Viscount, so his original Loyalty was at 0.

Ian suddenly became nervous.

‘What should I do if Kaizar even wreaks havoc by chance?’

If his Loyalty was at about 5, it was a value low enough that it wouldn’t be weird if he was to strike a blow onto the back of Ian’s head in the middle of hunting.

For a moment, a cold sweat dripped down Ian’s spine.

‘If Kaizar was to strike a blow onto the back of my head, it will probably be game over for me right away…’

Kaizar, the retainer that was more fearful than smallpox!

Ian shook his head as he moved his feet in order to leave the room of the Lord.

Creaak-.

And the moment he opened the bedroom door.

“Viscount, are you feeling alright?”

Ian heard a familiar voice, and Ian’s gaze naturally turned towards the direction it came from.

“Hmm?”

The person that called Ian was none other than Paulean.

‘No, why is Paulean here?’

Wearing a puzzled expression, Ian asked Paulean.

“No, Sir Paulean, why are you here…?”

At Ian’s question, Paulean lightly showed his manners as he courteously held out a scroll made with red fabric towards Ian.

“This is a letter that His Majesty said to give to you once you woke up.”

And as Ian took it, Paulean’s words continued again.

“And His Majesty has commanded for me to serve you from now on.”

Chuk-.

Paulean showed his manners again with a disciplined motion.

Following that, a system message popped up in front of Ian’s eyes.

Ring-.

• ‘Thunder and Lightning Knight Paulean’ wishes to become your retainer.