By the entrance of the city of Erendak, a young man in a black cloak slowly made his way through the crowded streets. While he did so—he was cautious of his surroundings.

"...Erendak sure is crowded as ever, huh?" Shinto murmured out whilst eyeing his surroundings. "Well, that's a no brainer."

The city of Erendak was the main base of operations for his guild—Vainblood. Thus, there was no question as to why many players flocked over to the city in hopes of getting a glimpse of the guild members who were famous among the players of the game.

As a guild, Vainblood was a highly competitive one catered towards [ Crystality ], the MOBA scene. Typically in the top three rankings of guilds in the game, the players of Vainblood were mostly within the unified rankings much like Shinto.

Each with their own individual abilities, they comprised a total of fifty members, where ten of them were core members of the guild within Crystality—making up two teams, and the main one included Shinto in it where he was the main DPS.

...

Continuing down the streets of Erendak, Shinto's footsteps soon stopped in front of a gate that led towards an extravagant building—the main attraction of the city. The castle of Erendak—where the Vainblood's base was at.

"...I guess I'm here now," Shinto nodded his head as he confirmed that he was at the right location. "Now then..." averting his gaze over towards the few knights standing by at the gates—Shinto took out a small emblem from his inventory and soon showed it towards them.

"Ah... Sir Shinto! Viscount Kaisus is waiting for you in the castle," upon confirming the emblem of Vainblood within the hands of the young man, the knights who were on duty began opening the gates of the castle. "Please, proceed."

"Thank you," saying his thanks, Shinto soon entered through the gates.

...

As he entered the castle of Erendek—Shinto's line of sight was greeted by the elegant display that was the hallways, which were decorated by the countless banners of Vainblood that was hung up by the railings from the balconies on the second floor. Besides that, from the walls of the hallway—portraits of the guild members were hung up on it, showing their best look and poses.

There were many eye-catching things that were in the castle. Though, that wasn't the center of attention. Instead, at the arrival of Shinto—the bustling environment and talkative players of the guild all stopped to stare at the young man that stood out of place in front of the castle's entrance.

With a beaming look of excitement among the members and the atmosphere within the castle suddenly turning into that of a festive-like environment, the players of the guild all rushed towards Shinto like a flood.

"Ah...! Brother Shinto!" One of the members—[ Graven ], greeted Shinto with a cheerful expression. "We've been waiting for your arrival!"

"Brother Shinto, brother Shinto, look!" Soon after, another member by the name of [ Maxim ] walked up towards the young man and soon began boasting proudly of his achievements. "I've finished this S-Ranked quest and got this new set of armour! Isn't that awesome!?"

"Shinto! I've heard you won a match against Arceus? Congratulations!" And in the next moment, a member soon approached Shinto, congratulating him.

"Aha..." at the scene before him, Shinto couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the sudden greetings from all the guild members. Though it was a common occurrence for him, it was still something that he was not used to as he would typically avoid large crowds. "You guys..."

As the members of Vainblood continued to flood in and greeted Shinto, a small loud clap echoed through the hallways—soon catching the attention of everyone.

"Come on now, give the guy a break will ya?" From the direction of where the sound came from—a long, silky auburn-haired girl could be seen making her way over towards the crowd. "He only just arrived! No need to be crowding around him y'know."

"A-Ah, Sister Hikari!" Hearing the voice from the young woman from behind them, the guild members hurriedly shuffled towards the side, making way for Shinto and Hikari to meet. "S-Sorry our bad... We were just too excited to see Brother Shinto, you know?"

"Aha, it's fine! But... Shinto has some business to tend to, so..." With a chuckle, Hikari soon grabbed onto the young man's arm and pulled him away from the crowd. "—I'll be borrowing him!"

...

As Hikari dragged Shinto away towards the second floor of the castle—she and the young man stopped momentarily by the railings and in turn, Shinto let out a sigh of relief.

"Phew... Thanks, Hikari," Shinto smiled at the woman before him. "If it weren't for you, Rienla might have given me an earful for being late to the meeting..."

With a saint-like aura around her, the auburn-haired woman was [ Hikari ]—a White Priest and a member of the main team of Vainblood, acting as the main support that focused on aiding her allies through healing and defensive buffs.

"Aha, it's always lively when you're back in Erendak, so don't sweat it!" Hikari chuckled. "Though... You 'might' get an earful from Rienla actually."

"Oh... I'm the last one, aren't I?" he sighed.

"Revelen just arrived a while ago, so pretty much," she shrugged. "But not to worry! You're not that late~! Maybe fifteen minutes or so?"

"Yeah... I'm gonna get an earful from Rienla," he shook his head helplessly.

"Well can't be helped, right? I've heard you fought with Arceus earlier," she thought to herself. "He's always that persistent, huh?"

"Mhm. It can get quite annoying at times with his constant arena invitations or sudden ambushes," Shinto lamented. "But it's Arceus, so there's that."

"Aha... Well then, that just means you ought to give him a good, thorough beating one of these days!" she stated.

"As if I don't already do that..." Shinto grumbled whilst sending a glare at Hikari.

"Hey, hey, you need to make his beating extra flashy!" she joked as she soon began gesturing towards Shinto. "But in any case, we should be headed for the meeting room right about now, so let's go!"

With a nod from the young man—the two continued ascending the stairway and began making their way over towards the meeting room, which was not far from where they were at.

…

Creek...

Upon opening the door of the room where the meeting would be held—the two belated members of Vainblood were greeted by the gazes of all the seated members of the main and secondary team, numbering up to eight in total.

"Oh. You've finally arrived, huh?" Entering the room, Shinto was greeted by a bulky man by the name of [ Wenzhou ]. With his big hands stroking on his full-grown beard, he was a Warrior class of the secondary team. "You kept us waiting for what?"

"Jee! Shinto's finally here!" Following up with the man's words—a short blonde haired male by the name of [ Bunnix ] shouted out in impatience. He was a Gunslinger of the secondary team. "Great! Now can we finally get started?!"

"Ahem. Sorry my bad," Shinto apologized. "I had some things to attend to earlier which was why I was late."

"It's fine. You're just in time anyway to start the meeting," the silver-haired Qi Master of the main team—[ Rienla ], calmly said. "You and Hikari should head to your seats so we can begin."

"Right," nodding his head, he and Hikari soon made their way over towards the front area of the long table to take a seat. Moments after they had done so, the meeting began.

"Alright then. Since Shinto arrived, let's begin today's agenda," the young man at the forefront of the long table—[ Kaisus ], the guild leader and main defender of Vainblood, began his speech. "So... As you all may know, our upcoming match for the league in crystality is against Ten Swords. A guild that mainly specializes in their brute strength and power."

"Uhuh... Go on?" Bunnix nodded his head as he gestured impatiently towards Kaisus. "What's the strategy? What's the team composition? The usual?"

"Hah... Would you stop being impatient?" A masked man by the name of [ Revelen ], grumbled silently. "Just let Kaisus speak and you just listen."

"I'm in a rush, alright?!" he clicked his tongue. "I just want to get this over with! My quest's on a time limit, y'know!"

"Alright, alright. I'll keep it short," Kaisus nodded his head. "So for this meeting, I'll be going over the strategy that we'll be using..." Whilst the guild leader was continuing with his sentence—Shinto, who was directly in front of Kaisus, only stared at the man blankly. Not listening to the discussion at all.

"...the same old stuff," while the meeting was ongoing, the only thought within his mind was this. "Would there be anything new to this? No... It's Ten Swords. Nothing much to note about that."

For Shinto, he was no stranger to fighting against the same old guilds within the league of Crystality. In the end, he knew very well he would dominate. Thus, he felt not a single challenge in fights. For him and towards his own mountain that he had created—it was indifference.

He couldn't focus nor could he listen in on the ongoing discussion—all he could do was let his mind wander off elsewhere throughout the meeting.

...

"...and that's it for the meeting," whilst Shinto was lost in thought, the young guild leader finally concluded his speech. In the next moment, he turned to the listless Shinto. "Anyhow... Shinto, do you have anything to say?"

"..." despite Kaisus calling him out, Shinto remained silent.

"Shinto?" he asked again.

"..."

"Helloo?" Hikari waved her hand in front of Shinto. "Earth to Shinto?"

"Huh? Ah!" Realizing that Hikari and Kaisus had been calling him out—Shinto abruptly blurted out as he soon turned towards Kaisus. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I asked if you were fine with taking the top lane this time," Kaisus repeated. "Titus will definitely be at the top since the Crucible of Swords is there. So, you and Hikari will need to handle him. Do you have any comments about it?"

"Ah... Nothing," he slightly coughed, quickly composing himself. "I'm fine with this placement."

"Is that so?" Kaisus closed his eyes whilst nodding his head. "Then, that will be all. The meeting is adjourned."

"Woohoo! Finally! Done!" At a moment's notice, upon Kaisus's final words—Bunnix hurriedly stood up from his seat and rushed out of the room. "Now I'm going, so see ya!" Meanwhile, from behind him, the rest of the members in the room followed suit.

"...hah," letting out a quiet sigh as he noted that he and Kaisus were the only ones left in the room, Shinto slowly got up from his seat and turned towards Kaisus, soon greeting him farewell. "...if there's nothing more to the details, then... I'll head over to see Hideo."

"Ah... Before that," as he was about to leave—Kaisus suddenly called out to him. "Could we have a little talk?"

"...huh?" Shinto glanced back towards Kaisus with a confused look. From the atmosphere around him—it was that of an eerie one. "...is there a problem?"