"...Next time, don't try to act cool, okay?" Lux nagged at the Boar, who was currently unable to move due to its broken legs.

He noticed that something was wrong with Cai because it stopped moving after it jumped off the canyon to join the battle. When he asked what was wrong with it, the latter replied that it broke its legs, making Lux want to slap it silly for doing something stupid.

A minute later, the Half-Elf busied himself with pouring healing potions on the Boar's legs, helping it recover faster from its injuries. Although Cai was a bit pitiful, its appearance had helped them greatly, so it was the least he could do.

Lux's clones had also descended into the canyon, fighting side by side with the defenders to keep the upper hand they had gained. Momentum was important in battles, so he didn't want to waste the opportunity that Cai and Keane had presented to them.

When only a few hundred monsters were left, the Vicious Horned Flame Rat thought that enough was enough and ordered a retreat.

Unfortunately for it, Lux had no intention of letting it go.

Why would he let a Rank 5 Field Monster leave? Wouldn't it be a shame if he didn't harvest its Beast Core?

After hearing their leader's order, the Rat Monsters pulled back in haste.

Lux had waited for the opportune moment before ordering Pazuzu to use his Duel [EX] Skill to force the Boss Monster to return.

The Vicious Horned Flame Rat shrieked in frustration as its body moved on its own to attack the Chubby Fortress Defender, who was surrounded by Hundreds of Skeleton Gang Bangers, who were eyeing the Field Monster with excitement.

"Gang Bang Time!" Pazuzu shouted, making the Skeletons charge at the approaching boss like mad men out for slaughter.

Lux, Diablo, Ishtar, Orion, and Asmodeus meaningfully stared at the Fortress Defender, whose face was as thick as the armor he was wearing.

"I just wanted to say it once," Pazuzu tried to explain himself after getting weird stares from his Master and comrades at arms.

Surprisingly, everyone nodded their heads in understanding. Deep inside, they wanted to say it too, but they thought it was too embarrassing to shout such thing in front of everyone.

When the boss was only dozens of meters away from Pazuzu, Orion ran forward with its arm pulled back, ready to deliver its most powerful strike.

"Gaia Smash!"

The Field Monster skidded a few meters back as Orion's punch hit it squarely in the face. However, it was still a Boss-Level monster, so it would take more than just that to bring it down.

Fortunately, Orion wasn't alone and the Vicious Horned Flame Rat found itself being attacked without mercy from every direction, making it unable to retreat even if it wanted to.

Diablo, who was the main damage dealer of the group, dealt massive damage to the enemy, shaving large portions of its health with every strike.

Orion who in second place pounded the Field Monster with devastating blows one after another that made everyone's teeth itch due to how painful it looked.

Isthar used her Ice Arrows to slow the monster's movements, buying time for everyone to encircle it completely.

Keane darted in and out of the battle as he used his Sword Style, Grand Void, to attack the Rat Boss Monster in its blind spot.

Finally, after nearly twenty minutes, the Boss Monster finally collapsed on the ground before drawing its last breath.

Cheers spread in the canyon as everyone celebrated their victory over such an overwhelming foe.

Of course, there had also been casualties, especially on the side of the Adventurers. More than fifty Adventurers had died to defend the path of the canyon, making Boris sigh in his heart.

As the Guildmaster who had commissioned them to help defend the townspeople, it would be his duty later to send the news to their families and ensure that all of them would be properly compensated by the Vahan Empire for their sacrifice.

Guthram, who had also joined the battle from the sky, nodded his head in satisfaction when the battle ended.

A smile appeared on the Guildmaster's face not because they had won, but because he was looking forward to how the Emperor would react after hearing about the destruction that had taken place in the Southern Regions of the Empire.

The Standeen Forest, which spanned a total of several miles and was used as the general hunting grounds of several High-Ranking nobles, had been burnt to the ground. This would certainly raise a lot of commotion in court, and the Emperor would be forced to conduct an investigation.

Naturally, the Adventurer's Guild would not say anything about the matter because they owed Lux a debt.

Even so, Emperor Andreas had many ways of finding the answers to his question, and once he did, it would certainly make things more difficult for the Half-Elf, who had already secured three Letters of Recommendations from three Guildmasters, which would allow him to take the Trial of Leadership.

'This boy really knows how to stir up trouble.' Guthram chuckled internally as he eyed the Half-Elf who was busy collecting the Beast Cores of the Monsters as his spoils of war.

No one, not even the Adventurers, took part in the collection of Beast Cores because they all agreed that Lux deserved to have them all.

To the Half-Elf's disappointment, the Beast Cores of the Rat Monsters he got were still Rank 2 Beast Cores. It seemed that forcibly raising the rank of the monster to Rank 4 didn't affect the quality of its Beast Core, making it remain the same.

The only true prize was the Vicious Horned Flame Rat's Beast Core, which was a bonafide Field Boss, making Lux feel a little better about his effort.

Just as Lux was about to take the core of the Field Boss Monster, Cai beat him to it and dug the Monster's Core from its chest.

But, before the Boar could even place the Beast Core inside its storage ring, Orion's hand rested on its back, holding it in place.

"Um? Sir Orion, what's wrong?" Cai asked as he looked at the four-meter-tall Jade Golem, who was the same size as the boar in its Hildivisni Form.

Orion smiled and simply presented its open palm to the Boar as he looked at Cai with the "give it to me" stare.

Cai glanced at the Jade Golem's palm before shifting her gaze to Orion's face before once again looking at his palm.

"Great job!" Cai shouted as it smacked its hoof on the Jade Golem's palm, giving it a high five. "Our teamwork is the best!"

A moment later, a squeal filled with fear and pain could be heard as Orion tied up the boar's hooves, hanging it over the barbecue pit that Lux had made using his skill, Skeleton Make.

Stacks of firewood were placed under the Boar's body and they were ignited by one of the Skeleton Mages to start their barbecue.

It didn't take long before Cai begged for forgiveness and returned the Beast Cores that it had sneakily stolen earlier.

"You never learn," Keane sighed as he gave Cai a fed up gaze while the Boar shed crocodile tears over having its fur slightly burned by the flames of the fire pit that Lux had created earlier.

Cai was too sad and depressed to reply, so it just cried as if its life fortune had been stolen from it.

"What are you two doing here?" Lux was finally able to ask the question that was on his mind since his two friends appeared to help him.

"Well, Cai was bored, so it decided to follow you here to the Vahan Empire," Keane replied. "We are also still blacklisted in the regions of the Xynnar War Pact, so coming here to explore a bit is not a bad idea. Since you are already here, we decided to look for you and travel together."

Lux nodded his head in understanding because this was indeed the case.

"Thank you for coming," Lux said. "You helped us a lot."

"So, where are you going next? Did you already get your Letters of Recommendation?"

"Yes. I already got the letters. My next stop will be the capital city, Dainsleif, so I can take the Trial of Leadership and finally make my own guild."

After Keane left the mountains, he came to learn a bit about guilds in Elysium. He didn't have any intention of creating one since it was too much trouble. However, he was quite interested in joining one.

Although the Rowan Tribe had been good to him, he didn't have any sense of belonging with them. He also didn't want to join any random guild because he didn't want to be around strangers who had never fought side by side with him in life and death battles.

The skinny swordsman then stared at the Half-Elf with a serious expression before making up his mind.

"Can I join your guild when it is made?" Keane asked. "Of course, if you don't want me to, it's fine as well."

"I'd love to have you in it!" Lux readily agreed to make Keane one of his guild members. "Do you want to be one of its Vice-Guild Leaders?"

"No. Too much work."

"Alright, a Squad Captain then."

Keane thought about it before nodding his head. Since a Squad Captain only managed around a dozen people, he didn't mind accepting the position that Lux offered to give him.

"Then it is settled," Lux smiled. "Just wait for me to create the guild."

Keane nodded and smiled back at Lux. "Okay."

Suddenly, Cai squeezed itself between the two and nudged Lux with its tusks.

"How about me?" Cai asked. "I want in as well!"

"...Aren't you already in the Rowan Tribe's Guild?" Lux asked.

"Yes! But there is no rule that says that I can't guild hop, right? Guild hopping sounds fun, don't you think?"

"..."

Lux ignored the shameless boar and went to talk to Boris and Guthram about his next course of action. Since the crisis was already averted, he wanted to tell them that he would leave as soon as he had finished escorting the townspeople to Aeston Town to head to the capital city of the Vahan Empire.

The journey there would take some time because he would need to travel to several different cities in order to use their Teleportation Gates to reach his destination.

With Cai and Keane to accompany him, the Half-Elf was certain that his journey would be more fun because he had friends to travel with to the capital city of the Empire, which was known to be the most lively city in the entirety of the Skystead Alliance.