Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Godwin was also the man that saw the potential that Raven had and scouted him early.

That is not all, a rumour came from the capital city that he carries an unusual bloodline and his talent is so great that he is expected to join the status of the Rankers after a few years.

The word 'Rankers' sounded like a heavenly bell into Morgress' ears, he could only dream about achieving such a status. But Godwin was different, he had the potential to join the Rankers, and when he does, the Sea God's Trident won't just be in the top five of the Kingdom of Ellesmere, but would become renowned across the whole central continent.

That was how much weight the word 'Ranker' carried. It symbolised strength and authority that one would wish for even in their dreams.

What is a 'Ranker'? Ranker is a title awarded by the Adventurers Guild to the top adventurers who have limitless potential and skills. The adventurers guild is the authority that monitors and regulates all the guilds across the Central continent.

Unlike the other guilds, Adventurers guild does not indulge in the same activities and is only there to monitor them. Although it does not vie for supremacy like the other guilds, its authority extends to all.

In this whole central continent, there are only a handful of adventurers who could reach the realm of Rankers. At current, there are only a little over ten thousand adventurers in the entire central continent to have achieved the title of a Ranker. And most of them are associated with the Adventurers guild.

Each of these Rankers are geniuses who have outshined various other geniuses and each and every one of them were a peerless talent. When a person is titled as a 'Ranker', they will have an unimaginable amount of authority and would also raise the status of the kingdom or empire they came from.

These Rankers are categorized in numbers, and the lesser the digit they belonged to, the mightier they were and exercised more power and authority across the central continent.

Even the king and Emperors of a kingdom have to show them adequate respect and fulfil all their needs. After all, the more rankers a kingdom or an empire had, the more militaristically powerful it would become and wouldn't have to fear the neighbouring kingdoms to move against them.

The presence of a Ranker made a huge difference in status between a kingdom that had one and a kingdom that did not. One ranker is enough to cower an entire kingdom into submission.

A Ranker in an itself was a powerful tactical weapon for each kingdom, and every kingdom would show its utmost respect and try its best to curry favour the Ranker. At the very least they would try their best not to incur the ire of the Ranker.

Their Kingdom of Ellesmere did not have a single Ranker for the past hundreds of years and was one of the bottom tier kingdoms amongst the thousands of empires in the central continent.

However, with the appearance of Godwin, the Kingdom of Ellesmere would finally be able to cast away its status as a bottom tier kingdom. One could imagine the amount of attention, the royal family of Ellesmere was giving towards the Sea God's Guild or to be more precise towards Godwin.

The arrival of such a man was by no means good news for Morgress and his guild. Especially now when he was only a few steps away from accomplishing his goals.

The atmosphere around the meeting room was very tense as all the participants had grim and anxious faces. No matter how much they tried to act calm, their wildly beating heart and the anxiousness in their eyes gave themselves away.

Morgress pondered for a while before issuing a command "Boris, I want all information regarding their objectives and reason for coming to Mountmend. You hear me? Assemble all your underlings if you must. but you must find out the reason behind their arrival here. I refuse to believe that they had found out about our plans, it can be that they have a totally different purpose for coming here".

There was no way that their plan was leaked until unless there was a spy inside their guild. Just as this thought came to his mind, Morgress looked towards the four members while squinting his eyes.

Simultaneously, the same thought ran through the heads of the other members of the Seven Swords that were seated as they hurriedly shook their heads, trying to shake off the accusation.

Boris who had a pensive look all this while felt some relief after he saw that their guild master was not doubtful of them anymore. He immediately replied "Rest assure guild master, I shall personally investigate this matter. It would be impossible to tail those two, but I think the guild members from the branch that they have in Mountmend, might have an inkling to their motive of coming here".

Just as Boris' body began blurring and melding with the surrounding, Morgess hurriedly spoke "Wait, you told me that the guild investigating the mass outbreak of monsters from the Ghastly winding Forest is the Sea God's Trident?".

Boris' body which had partially dissappared, appeared once again "Indeed the report says that the guild issued for investigating this matter was the Sea God's Trident branch. Is something the matter guild master?".

Morgress caressed his beard for a while before saying "Tell Laris not to make any more flashy moves. If need be, he is to camp there in the forest for a few more months and send Dale's team to back them up. As for the members of the Sea God's Trident, lure them towards that newly emerged dungeon".

Boris who was quietly listening to the orders, suddenly had a crafty look in his eyes as he said "I see, the dungeon works as a perfect excuse for the displacement of the monsters in the forest. It could stall the members of the Sea God's Trident for quite a while until we finish subjugating the Forest Spring Spirit Clan. The guild master is wise"

The other three members suddenly understood what their guild master meant after Boris explained it to them. With awe in their eyes, they said "As expected of the guild master. If the guild master wants he could easily play the Sea God's Trident even without them realizing".

Another one said, "True.. What top five guilds? Nothing comes close to guild master's shrewdness".