Kazehana and her team were down, their bodies scattered across the damp cave floor. They could choose to release and run back from the Starter Zone to reclaim their corpses, but Let-There-Be-Light quickly did the math in his head. Even moving efficiently, it would take them close to ten minutes to return. That window was more than enough time to search for Gulu and, if things went smoothly, kill him before any interference.
"Rest up," he said calmly.
They stayed where they were. Some sat against the rock wall and tore into plain bread. Others tipped back bottles of clear water. On the surface, it had been a clean victory, but several of their health bars had dipped dangerously low. It had not been effortless. One or two critical hits in the wrong direction and the outcome might have looked very different.
Food was more important in Age of Conquest than most new players realized. Outside of combat, eating restored health and drinking restored mana. At their current level, options were limited to the most basic supplies. Bread for HP. Clear water for MP. Later, as they leveled up, they would gain access to better consumables with stronger recovery effects.
They did not even need to finish the food. A single bite or sip was enough. Within a minute, the system would calculate and apply the item's recovery effect automatically.
Flynn stood off to the side, oddly relaxed. He had finished the fight with around eighty percent of his health intact, and now that combat had ended, his HP ticked upward on its own. After wandering a few steps and glancing down the branching tunnel ahead, he said casually, "I'll scout forward a bit."
Let-There-Be-Light frowned and pointed at Flynn's head, as though he could physically indicate the missing portion of his health bar. "Even if you're strong, shouldn't you wait until you're full?"
Flynn hesitated, then scratched his cheek. "Actually… I didn't know bread restored health. So I didn't buy any."
Amy choked on her water and spat it out, staring at him like he had just confessed to living under a rock. The others wore similar expressions, somewhere between disbelief and admiration.
Let-There-Be-Light sighed, then opened a trade window. He placed a stack of bread and several bottles of clear water inside. "Take these. They're cheap. And when you're out adventuring, always carry some. They don't spoil."
Players had one hundred inventory slots, and items stored inside never decayed. There was no reason not to stock up.
Flynn accepted the trade without ceremony, offering a straightforward smile. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it." Let-There-Be-Light waved it off, then paused. "Wait. If you didn't buy food… you didn't buy health potions either, did you?"
Flynn hesitated for a fraction of a second. "No."
Silence fell over the group.
No food. No potions. And he was level eleven.
They all stared at him, their earlier admiration blending with something dangerously close to disbelief. Had he leveled purely on dodging and mechanical skill? Was that even reasonable?
"Monster," someone muttered under their breath.
Potions in Age of Conquest were not cheap. Even the most basic health and mana potions cost one silver coin each. To maximize grinding efficiency, most players relied heavily on them, rarely stopping to sit and eat. Low health meant a potion. Low mana meant a potion. It was instinctive.
And yet here stood someone who apparently ignored the entire system and still outleveled them.
Flynn did not insist on scouting alone in the end. It was only another minute before everyone finished recovering anyway. Once their bars were full, they moved deeper into the cave together.
The path twisted unpredictably, forcing them to move carefully around bends and narrow stretches. Murloc Guards patrolled in small clusters, but with their earlier experience fresh in mind, the group dispatched them efficiently. After a long stretch of winding tunnels, the cavern suddenly opened up into a wide, sunken chamber.
Water dripped steadily from luminous crystal formations embedded in the ceiling, each drop splashing softly against the flooded stone below. Around the edges of the cavern, Murloc Guards paced in small, overlapping routes. At the center stood a larger figure, broader and taller than the others, clutching a crude weapon.
Gulu.
"Found him," someone breathed.
Excitement rippled through the group. The journey had been anything but smooth, and now that the mini-boss was finally in sight, the urge to charge in was almost overwhelming. But the dozen or so guards stationed around the chamber forced them to rein it in. If Gulu used that annoying call-for-help ability and dragged all of them into the fight at once, it would be a guaranteed wipe.
"Safety first," Let-There-Be-Light said firmly, tightening his grip on his staff. "Clear the trash."
No one argued.
They split up as before. Not-A-Bystander and Hair-Stays-Perfect each controlled one side, acting as dual anchors for the pulls. Now familiar with the Murlocs' patterns, they moved efficiently. The Guards were sturdier than the smaller Murlocs, with higher defense and thicker health pools, more like shield-bearing warriors than skirmishers. Even Flynn took a little longer to bring them down.
Three or four minutes later, the last of the Guards fell. The cavern quieted. Let-There-Be-Light, however, did not relax. His brow remained furrowed.
Amy noticed immediately. "You're worried about the boss?"
"No," he replied. "I've been tracking the time. Those foreign guys should be reviving soon. If we start Gulu now, they might show up mid-fight and take advantage."
Amy's expression dimmed. "So what do we do?"
Hair-Stays-Perfect strode over, a cold smile tugging at his lips. "We go back and kill them again."
Let-There-Be-Light shook his head slowly. "It won't be that simple. The last fight was close. If their Arcanist had landed a few more crits, we'd be the ones running back."
Flynn, twirling his dagger idly between his fingers, sounded almost bored. "Then we don't fight them head-on. We set up an ambush."
"An ambush?" Hair-Stays-Perfect's eyes lit up.
"There are a lot of turns in the tunnel," Flynn continued. "Two bends back from here, there's a recessed section in the rock wall. If we hide there, they won't see us immediately when they round the corner."
The group exchanged glances. He had noticed that on the way in?
Beast-Lover let out a laugh. "You were planning this from the start, weren't you?"
Flynn shrugged. "If we run into them, why not?"
"That's vicious," Beast-Lover said with admiration. "I like it."
Let-There-Be-Light considered for only a moment. The logic was sound. "All right. We'll try it."
They retraced their steps. After two bends, they found the spot exactly as Flynn described, a shallow recess carved naturally into the rock wall just beyond a turn. It was not large enough to hide all seven of them in one cluster, so they split.
Flynn and the melee fighters pressed themselves into the recessed area. Amy, Beast-Lover, and Let-There-Be-Light slipped around the next bend, still well within attack range. The distance between the two positions was short enough to coordinate but far enough to conceal their full numbers.
They had barely settled in when footsteps echoed down the tunnel. Voices followed, speaking rapid Japanese, laced with irritation and frustration.
Hair-Stays-Perfect typed in the party channel. "What are they saying? Anyone understand?"
No one replied at first.
Flynn understood well enough, but he had no interest in translating their complaints. He simply typed, "Arguing. Doesn't matter, stay focused."
Amy had begun typing a short translation, then paused and deleted it. He was right. It changed nothing.
The footsteps grew louder.
Flynn began the countdown in the party channel.
"3."
"2."
"1. Get ready."
A heavy armored boot stepped into view around the corner. The foreign Guardian led the group, with Kazehana close behind.
Hair-Stays-Perfect moved first. The instant he saw Kazehana, he activated Charge.
Amy and Beast-Lover emerged in the same heartbeat, a double shot and a magic missile flying toward the Holy Knight.
This had been their plan from the beginning. Kazehana was the core of the enemy team. Remove her, and everything else would fall apart.
Hair-Stays-Perfect's Charge stunned her for three seconds.
It was more than enough.
Flynn was already in motion. He slipped in from the flank, Borg's Fang flashing as Keen Strike carved across Kazehana's neck. A massive red damage number burst above her head.
Critical hit.
She died before she even had time to turn her head.
The enemy Guardian roared, his fury boiling over, and targeted Flynn, the most fragile-looking target. He charged forward with his axe raised.
Flynn shifted his weight lightly and twisted aside. The blade cut through empty air. He slipped past the Warrior's flank and dove straight toward their Arcanist.
Hair-Stays-Perfect, Sky-Slasher, and even Not-A-Bystander ignored the Guardian entirely, pushing past him to reach the backline. Without Kazehana's healing, the Asian team collapsed almost instantly. The Ranger and Beastmaster at the rear had already started retreating the moment the ambush began.
Flynn gave chase, he caught the Beastmaster within seconds and dropped him without difficulty. The Ranger, built for Agility like Flynn, reacted faster. In the chaos, he threw down a Frost Trap, and the sudden chill spread across the stone, slowing Flynn and the others just enough. By the time they pushed through it, the Ranger had vanished deeper into the tunnel.
When the dust settled, six of the seven foreign players were dead. One had escaped.
It was another decisive victory.
But victory came with consequences.
After two consecutive PvP battles, everyone except Not-A-Bystander and Let-There-Be-Light had accumulated PvP points. Flynn, having personally killed five players, bore the brunt of it.
In Age of Conquest, each malicious player kill granted one PvP point. A player's name would display openly above their character, impossible to hide, shifting from its normal color to red to indicate they were freely attackable. The more points one accumulated, the darker the shade.
Above Flynn's head, his name now burned a deep crimson. Like fresh blood.