Chapter 139: Leila's Charge

Tang Jie stood with his hands clasped behind his back, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly. "A female thief appeared in Clear Water Village a few days ago. I heard a human ranger rescued her and took her there?"

"You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?" Lu Kuan's eye twitched slightly, though his expression quickly returned to normal. He curled his lip and said, "Why don't you also ask me if your wife ran off with another man?"

"Audacious!"

The guard behind Tang Jie let out a furious shout, leaped forward right in front of Lu Kuan, and raised his hand to strike!

Yet Lu Kuan lazily looked at his opponent, not moving an inch. Just as the guard's palm was about to land on Lu Kuan's face, Lu Kuan saw a dark blur flash before his eyes as Tang Jie reached out and blocked the guard's attack.

"Ha-ha! Very good!" Tang Jie laughed heartily, gave Lu Kuan a deep look, and turned to walk away. The "clank, clank, clank" sound of military boots stepping on the ground took quite a while to fade away completely.

At this, the female soldier's gaze toward Lu Kuan changed entirely. Her mouth was slightly open, and three words were blatantly hanging in her eyes: Reckless Fool.

Lu Kuan looked back toward the direction of the main gate, a trace of contemplation in his eyes.

"I tested him like that, wonder if it was enough to provoke him... Well, there's no other way anyway. Since I've run into him, I definitely have to try pushing Mungo's questline forward a bit..."

A few minutes later, Lu Kuan met Leila in the reception room.

The female commander was still dressed in full military attire, and her personality remained as direct and sharp as ever. Without any nonsense, she directly tossed a heavily sealed scroll to Lu Kuan.

The envelope was extremely exquisite. Light flowed through the magical runes on its surface, and dancing magical flames flickered at both ends of the scroll. Looking closely, the boiling little flames were actually tiny characters, appearing arcane and beautiful.

This was a high-level encryption magic. Without the correct passphrase, if someone tried to force it open, the scroll would burn to ashes instantly.

There was even a good chance that one or two small traps were hidden inside, more than enough to make Lu Kuan die a hundred times over.

"You are the most renowned adventurer in Lava Fortress, Old Lu," Leila said with a slightly serious expression, speaking one word at a time. "Therefore, I entrust you to deliver my letter to my old friend, Tandor, the Chief Mage of the Torrent Harbor Mage Tower. He will give you generous compensation."

Your letter?

Lu Kuan muttered inwardly, *You usually look so foolish, I never expected you could lie too.*

This encryption magic required at least a level 50 or higher mage to cast, and that Tandor in Torrent Harbor was also a high-tier mage above level 60.

If this letter belongs to you, I'll eat my hat. There is definitely something big going on inside this envelope!

"Commander, may I ask you a question?"

Sensing that something unusual was going on here, Lu Kuan naturally wanted to figure it out, so he asked out of curiosity: "Why choose me? Letting a nobody like me carry such a high-level scroll..."

Leila directly interrupted Lu Kuan, "After the battle of Clear Water Village, you are already a household-name hero in Lava Fortress."

Lu Kuan lowered his head and said modestly, "You flatter me. However, if you could tell me what's inside this scroll, I'm sure I'd have even more confidence in completing the mission."

"I'm afraid I cannot disclose that," Leila shook her head and said. "Old Lu, actually there are a total of 10 such scrolls, which have been given to 10 brave and fearless adventurers just like you. Whoever delivers the scroll first gets the reward."

Hearing this, Lu Kuan thought to himself that it was just as expected. It seemed the condition to trigger this quest was simply reaching a certain level of reputation in Lava Fortress.

Moreover, there was competition from other players—just like in his past life, the usual style of high-level quests.

Lu Kuan tried once more to dig up more information, but unfortunately, Leila's lips were sealed tight. Other than knowing the quest had no time limit, he couldn't get any other useful clues.

With no other choice, he could only wait until he found Tandor to figure it out.

Leaving Leila's residence, Lu Kuan followed his plan, re-checked the items in his backpack, brought enough gold coins, and then crossed the south gate of Lava Fortress, leaving the city that had accompanied him for so long.

"Goodbye~ But sooner or later I'll be back~" Lu Kuan looked back at the dark city walls, smiling as he muttered to himself.

...

The sun was high in the sky, and players in the game were starting to become active, while Lu Kuan was already dozens of miles away from Lava Fortress, trekking through the dense black jungle.

At first, one could still spot a few players leveling up or gathering herbs in the jungle. As Lu Kuan gradually penetrated deeper into the high-level monster zone, the figures of players grew scarcer.

In the end, across the boundless jungle, only the sound of Lu Kuan's own running, his breathing, and unknown rustling noises from the forest remained.

So when the notification chime of the message manager rang out, Lu Kuan was genuinely startled.

"You brat, how come you didn't even tell me when you're going on a long trip~" Heaven's Abyss's hearty voice came through the communicator.

Upon hearing this, Lu Kuan replied, "Such a small matter, how could it possibly delay the great guild leader's time."

"You, oh you..."

Heaven's Abyss's tone carried a hint of helplessness as he sighed and said, "Have you gone far now? I could send someone to catch up with you. I wanted you to take a few things to Torrent Harbor."

Lu Kuan smiled upon hearing this. "Sixty miles away from Lava Fortress, on the west side of the black jungle. What's the matter?"

"That far already?"

Heaven's Abyss's tone was obviously somewhat disappointed. Pausing for a moment, he said, "Never mind then. My men might not necessarily make it there safely."

Lu Kuan didn't say anything further, but he understood the situation clearly.

Although Heaven's Abyss was personally holding down the fort in Lava Fortress, Lava Fortress was ultimately just a branch guild of Dark Heaven, and the future strategic focus of the guild would definitely be in Torrent Harbor.

Heaven's Abyss had a clever plan: he had his core guild members try creating characters multiple times, trying their best to spawn in Lava Fortress. The competition here was much smaller than in Torrent Harbor, allowing them to rapidly boost their strength.

Once their levels were about right, they would return to Torrent Harbor. By then, the main force of Dark Heaven would inevitably be a tier stronger than their competitors, giving them an absolute advantage in the white-hot competition to come.

Heaven's Abyss sending this message now must have been to ask Lu Kuan to help carry some items to Torrent Harbor. As for what those items were...

What Lu Kuan could guess was that they were likely the guild master's signed authorization letters, core materials collected by the guild, and the like. Currently, between two cities where teleportation arrays had not yet been activated, there was no way to mail items directly.

The only exception was the auction house, but for these priceless items, the auction house method was obviously highly unreliable.

Meanwhile, inside the bank of Lava Fortress, Heaven's Abyss smiled bitterly and shook his head, showing a look of regret.

"Guild Leader, did he get too far away?" Standing nearby, Bloody Battlefield saw Heaven's Abyss's expression and frowned.

"Yeah, we can't catch up anymore," Heaven's Abyss shook his head and said.

Upon hearing this, Bloody Battlefield grew anxious. "Then what should we do? If we can't get your signed letter delivered to Torrent Harbor, there's no way to register an official guild over there! Without registering a guild, we won't be able to prepare for the guild territory..."