World Online

The one who spoke wasn\'t Jake. Surprisingly, it was someone who was quiet for quite a while. It was the leader of the Roman Empire.

"Looks like he can actually talk." Jake jokingly thought to himself.

But in no way did he belittle the man. For someone to become the leader of the soon to be feared Praetorian Guard, it was obvious that he was capable for great things.

If not now, Jake was absolutely certain, that in the future at least, this man was going to obtain an Epic class for himself.

And quite ironically, his name in the game was Lucius Aelius. One of the captains of the Praetorian Guard.

"What do you mean, the first guild to get that message?" Lone Wolf raised his eyebrows as he glanced at Lucius.

"We are a month late. How can we be the first guild to see this? And, that message. Don\'t you think it unnerving? A worthy opponent? Does that mean that it is going to have a vengeance against us or something?" He asked.

"You are thinking about it too much. Shadow King is right. We shouldn\'t focus too much on the things that we cannot control. We have to focus on what we have going on right now. And that happens to be the first checkpoint. A checkpoint that we haven\'t cleared yet." Lucius said.

"By now, the spies in all of our guilds should have reported to their superiors that they have seen something truly terrifying. It is going to be in the news soon enough. They will think enough about it. We shouldn\'t worry about it too much." Jake added.

"Instead, we should stop wasting precious time discussing the giant that we clearly can\'t beat. Remember what the plaque said? No retreat? That means that we can\'t go back through the doors. We have to use return stones if we want to return to a city. If we die, then we die. We can\'t do anything about it anyways." He said.

Lone Wolf and Phoenix stayed silent for a few moments.

"Good. Looks like you guys understand. Then let us get to business?" Jake smiled as he rubbed his hands.

"What do you want to do now? What is with that look on your face?" Phoenix was unnerved by Jake\'s look.

"What? All this fighting and you haven\'t even looked around you?" Jake shook his head and sighed.

"Why the hell did we waste all this time coming all the way to an expedition that doesn\'t have a clear advantage? We are here for the loot!" Jake exclaimed.

"And now, we are drowning in so much of it, and yet here I have three people who are more interested in talking about a giant that could well be just an animation that means nothing." He clicked his tongue.

"The drops! I forgot that every monster was going to drop it. When I faced these weaklings, I dismissed the possibility that they would drop something useful." Lucius nodded.

"Why do you have that look though?" Phoenix was still not sure why Jake looked like that.

"You see, it is only fair that all the guilds split the loots equally. After all, we all contributed, be it the mages inside, or the healers who healed our members. It only makes sense that everyone gets a fair bit. Calculating which guild killed more is pointless, especially if one of the guilds has more supporting players." Jake said.

"We had this discussion before. We were going to distribute it equally in the first place." Phoenix frowned.

"Well, the thing is, while all of you were frozen still, focusing on the useless wolves, I happened to risk my life and a bet by going to defeat a wolf that happens to be a little larger than the others." Jake smiled sheepishly.

"You want the loot for the wolf king? For yourself? Are you dreaming? Or are you forgetting that the only reason you were able to take care of the wolf king was because you were given that healing by the healers behind me and Phoenix?" Lone Wolf shook his head, harrumphing.

"Oh, don\'t get me wrong." Jake smiled.

"I know better than any one else that I wouldn\'t have been able to deal with the wolf king without you help. I am obviously not asking to monopolize all of that loot for myself." Jake smiled.

"This is probably the only loot of any particular interest in the entire field. Everything else is going to be pretty useless to us. So it makes sense that we split the loot." He nodded.

"But the thing is, not everyone that drops is the same. And sharing it won\'t be easy." Jake said, rubbing his hands.

"What are you asking for?" Phoenix bluntly asked.

"I was the biggest contributor. I want the first pick, and after I get the first pick, everything else will be distributed fairly among us." Jake said.

"What? You want the first pick and a share of the items?" Lone Wolf exclaimed.

"This guy… so irritating." Jake thought to himself.

"The only reason I am in an alliance with Sirius is because of that wise old man. I completely forgot that this bozo is going to be the face of the guild for a while. I should have thought about that when I sighed the alliance." Jake sighed as he thought to himself.

Still, he took a deep breath and smiled.

"I think you are missing something? I was the reason the fight stopped as early as it did. I took care of the wolf king." Jake said.

"Anyone could have taken the wolf king on. I mean, even you could do it, we could do it as well. I just didn\'t intervene because you were going in." Lone Wolf said, his head tilted with pride.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

076205