Chapter 460 - Claimed Territory

While Lisa and Lohan were already making their way down the road leading toward the volcano Dan and Sam had described, stopping occasionally to hunt some smaller monsters that crossed their path, Dylan stayed back at the guild headquarters, handling the investigative and diplomatic side of dealing with the other guild.

It didn’t take him long to find out the name of the organization responsible for that supposed monopoly.

“Black Horn Legion,” he read out loud, his eyes scanning quickly through the public information available on Syn. “A mid sized guild, focused mainly on trading rare materials. Looks like they built a good chunk of their reputation exactly on controlling specific resources in regions close to their spawn, backed by funding from a group of smaller companies in the real world.”

Sitting at his own desk in the office, Dylan opened a contact channel through Syn, typing out a formal, polite message to the guild’s official representative, introducing Astralis Requiem and politely asking about the possibility of negotiating access to the hunting area near the volcano for a short period of time.

The initial response came surprisingly fast, a representative identified only as “Reeve” replying in a professional, even cordial tone, asking for details about Astralis’s specific interest in that region.

Dylan, following the standard protocol for any negotiation, explained plainly that his guild was interested in hunting the small demons popularly known as Whispers of the Abyss, creatures that inhabited the caves near the volcano.

The silence that followed that message lasted considerably longer than any previous reply.

When Reeve finally answered, the cordial tone from before had vanished completely, replaced instead by a cold formality that didn’t even bother extending the slightest bit of respect to Astralis.

The message stated, curtly, that that specific region was already under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Black Horn Legion, and that any attempt to hunt in that area without prior authorization would be treated as a direct territorial violation.

Dylan tried to keep the conversation going, politely questioning the exact terms of that supposed jurisdiction, asking whether there was any possibility of negotiation, maybe an access fee or a resource split.

No further response came.

Reeve’s status icon simply switched to offline, and no matter how many follow up messages Dylan sent over the next hour, none of them received any kind of reply.

“This is ridiculous,” Dylan muttered to himself, closing the Syn interface with an abrupt, irritated gesture.

Without wasting any time, he logged back into Elysium and opened a direct chat with Lisa and Lohan, typing out everything that had just happened with visible frustration.

“You’re not going to believe this,” he began, with no preamble at all. “I got in touch with the Black Horn Legion through Syn, and at first it actually seemed like the conversation was going somewhere. But the second I mentioned we specifically wanted to hunt the Whispers of the Abyss, the guy just stopped responding. Not even a polite excuse, not even a counteroffer, they just decided to ignore me!”

As someone working for the Vance group, this was the first time anyone from an unknown company had treated him with such contempt.

On the other end of the chat, while Lisa rode along the rocky trails leading to the volcano, she felt her own irritation spike instantly as she read through those messages.

“Seriously?” she asked, typing mentally as her expression closed off more and more. “They didn’t even have the decency to give a formal response? Did you tell them who we are?”

“Yes, I did! They just didn’t care,” Dylan confirmed, his frustration growing even heavier. “And the worst part is there’s absolutely no legal basis for this ‘jurisdiction’ they’re claiming to have over that area. There’s no rule in Elysium that guarantees permanent ownership of a hunting territory just because a guild decided to mark it as theirs.”

Lisa clenched her teeth, indignation spilling through her voice.

“That’s typical of this kind of arrogant guild that thinks it can just impose arbitrary rules because it has a little more power than everyone else,” she complained out loud, her tone growing sharper by the second. “We should send them a very clear message about who exactly…”

“Lisa,” Lohan cut in, his voice coming out in a calm, almost amused tone, one that stood in stark contrast to the rising tension in the conversation. “Why are you so bothered by this?”

Lisa stopped talking abruptly, turning her full attention to him, a momentary look of confusion replacing her earlier anger.

“What do you mean, why am I bothered?” she asked. “They’re being extremely disrespectful to us, Halon. This is a matter of principle.”

“I get that,” Lohan replied, still in that calm tone. “But think about it. We don’t need their permission for anything. We’re just going to go there and hunt the monsters anyway.”

A brief silence followed that simple statement as Lisa let that truth sink in.

“If the Black Horn Legion decides to try to stop us,” Lohan continued, “then they’ll simply get killed along with any other monster we run into along the way. It’s not like those demons are actually their official property. There’s no contract, no rule in the game itself recognizing that. It’s just an empty claim they decided to impose on their own.”

Dylan, on the other end of the chat, who’d received a transcript of what Lohan had said as he spoke, went quiet for a moment, weighing that perspective carefully.

“He’s got a point,” Dylan finally admitted. “Technically, there’s no game mechanic that validates this kind of territorial monopoly. They’re just using brute force and social intimidation like it’s law.”

“Exactly,” Lohan confirmed. “And if someone wants to monopolize something through force and intimidation, the first thing that person, or guild, needs to make sure of, is having enough strength to actually back up that claim against anyone who decides to challenge it.”

He paused briefly, letting that logic settle before continuing.

“If they think they can just say ‘this is ours’ and expect everyone to obey without question, then they’ve chosen a dangerous path,” Lohan finished. “Because if someone stronger decides not to respect that empty claim, the only thing left for them to do is accept the consequences of that choice.”

Lisa felt her earlier anger gradually shift into a small smile at the corner of her mouth, Lohan’s reasoning making more and more sense as she processed it.

“So you’re saying we just ignore their claim and hunt anyway,” she summed up.

“Basically, yeah,” Lohan confirmed. “If they want to fight over it, we’ll deal with that when it happens. But I really doubt a mid sized trade focused guild is going to want to risk a direct conflict with the Astralis Requiem over a handful of minor demons.”

Dylan, listening to that analysis, started nodding slowly, even though no one on the other end of the chat could see him.

“That actually makes sense,” he agreed. “And honestly, after how rudely they just stopped responding, I don’t feel much like staying polite with them anymore.”

“Let’s keep heading the direction Dan and Sam pointed us to,” Lohan said, decisively. “If the Black Horn Legion wants to show up and discuss this in person, we’ll hear them out. But we’re not stopping our plans just because they decided to dig their heels in with no real justification.”

Lisa, feeling her own resolve fall back in line with that pragmatic logic, nodded silently to herself before answering.

“Agreed,” she said. “Let’s keep going. And if they want to confront us, let them come. We’re not just going to give up on something this important to you because someone decided they had the right to make that call for us, especially considering how important this really is to you.”

“Thank you, Lisa,” Lohan said with a grateful smile.

Dylan, still on the line, cleared his throat lightly before adding one last comment.

“I’ll keep monitoring Syn, just to make sure we have some kind of documented record of this contact attempt,” he said. “If things escalate into something more serious, it’s always good to have proof that we tried to solve this diplomatically first.”

“Good call,” Lohan agreed. “Never hurts to have your back covered.”

With that settled, the call ended, and Lisa guided her own body back into a steady pace toward the distant volcano, the mountain’s dark silhouette already starting to stand out against the horizon thick with residual smoke after a few hours at high speed.

As they advanced, a small group of rock lizards emerged from among the stones alongside the trail, medium sized creatures with gray scales that blended perfectly with the terrain around them.

“Looks like level 18 monsters…” Lohan commented, quickly analyzing the creatures approaching them. “Let’s be careful.”

Lisa wasn’t intimidated, extending her own claws outward as a white glow of spirit fire lit up around her front paws.

“Let’s take the chance to work off some of the irritation that stupid message caused,” she remarked, a sharp smile forming on her face as she charged at the first lizard.

Lohan laughed, projecting his own filaments to assist in the fight, his attention split between watching Lisa fight and keeping a watchful eye on the horizon, alert for any sign of a third party.

‘If you all really want to protect this territory,’ Lohan thought, watching Lisa tear through the lizard’s scales with anger, ‘you’d better come prepared to prove you deserve to keep it.’

NunuNote: Sorry for not releasing yesterday T?T