Online Game: Starting With SSS-Ranked Summons

Chapter 160 Blackwater Hollow

"You mean I could join Gilderhaven as a member?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

The woman let out a small, amused chuckle. "Yes and no."

Arthur waited, intrigued.

"Yes," she continued, her voice smooth and professional, "you will be registered under the Gilderhaven Guild, but you won't be a full-fledged member. Think of it as a contracted partnership."

Arthur's fingers tapped lightly against the counter. "Meaning?"

"You will not be bound by guild rules, nor will you receive any benefits or compensation that official guild members do," she explained. "You simply take the job, complete it, and leave after getting paid."

Arthur nodded slowly. That worked perfectly for him.

If he joined as a full member, he'd be tied down by guild obligations—rules, duties, and worse, loyalties.

He needed absolute freedom to operate.

This way, he could reap the benefits of the guild's resources while still remaining independent.

The woman continued. "Of course, we take 10% of the reward as a guild commission."

Arthur smirked. That was expected.

A small price to pay for having access to the city's most powerful missions.

"Alright," he said. "Sign me up."

The receptionist nodded, before asking him questions.

"Name?"

"Azarel," Arthur repeated once again.

"Race?"

"Human."

She wrote it down without another word. "Talents?"

"Summoner."

After noting it down, she asked the next question.

"Talent grade?"

"B-Grade"

"Level?"

"Level 15." Arthur lied through his teeth, he wasn't level 15 but he had to lie to accept higher missions, whilst also not showing too much suspicion of him. If he could, Arthur would have said 20 or higher, but he was too young and they wouldn't believe it.

"Alright. Place your hand here."

She gestured to a small, glowing emblem embedded in the counter.

Arthur pressed his palm against it. A faint pulse of energy ran through his skin as the system recognized him.

[Ding! You have been registered as a Gilderhaven Guild contractor.]

[You may now accept missions from the guild.]

But if this emptiness was the result of battle... then the land had been burned clean. Not just once, but over and over again. Siege after siege, until the very soil gave up, refusing to grow anything in defiance of the blood spilt upon it. A graveyard without bodies. A wound that never healed.

Arthur's boots crunched against dry, cracked earth as he walked.

"Strategy or ruin?" He thought, before he exhaled through his ose

Either way, it didn't matter.

His focus was beyond the wasteland—toward the true wilds.

Arthur pressed forward, the ground beneath him transitioning from dry and cracked to softer earth.

The change was gradual at first—patches of stubborn grass appearing here and there, followed by the occasional lone tree standing defiantly against the sky.

Then—

A wall of green.

A dense jungle loomed ahead, stretching as far as the eye could see.

But it was unlike the forests near the village.

The trees here were monstrous—towering titans, easily three to five times larger than anything he had seen before.

Their trunks were thick, their bark gnarled and scarred by time. Some of them looked as if they had survived countless battles, their roots twisting through the earth like massive veins.

The canopy overhead was so dense that sunlight barely filtered through, casting the jungle in a perpetual green twilight. The air was humid, thick with the scent of damp earth and rich foliage.

Arthur's steps slowed.

Arthur moved forward cautiously.

With every step, he memorized his surroundings, noting key details.

The roots of the trees were massive, some jutting out of the ground like small hills, while others twisted together to form natural archways. Read exclusive chapters at My Virtual Library Empire

Thick vines hung from the branches, some as thick as his arm, swaying ever so slightly despite the still air.

Arthur continued forward, Then—A sound. A soft, slithering hiss.

'I've finally found them,' Arthur thought, as he heard the sound.

The jungle was alive with noise, but this sound was different.

Low. Slow.

It came from beneath the roots of a massive tree, where the shadows pooled like liquid darkness.

Arthur's grip tightened on Chaos.

Then—a flicker of movement. A scaled body coiled just out of reach of the light. Arthur didn't need to see the full body to know.

Serpents.

And not just any—the very ones he had come to hunt.

Arthur exhaled slowly, his pulse steady.

He had found them.

Blackwater Hollow was here.

And the hunt was about to begin.