On the Boss' lair.

They found a fresh corpse not far away from the lair. It was a young adult male. According to how his corpse looked, he died of blood loss. It might also be because he was stabbed in a fatal area, seeing that his throat was cut so deeply.

The path to the Boss' lair was littered with carcasses, all of which seemed to have suffered from Poison and Rot.

Of course, all of those were just decorations to set the lair's mood and aesthetic.

The group slowly advanced toward the Boss.

"There!" Leonel pointed ahead.

"Is that the boss?" Leonel cocked his head to the side as he pointed at a massive silhouette against the night sky. It stood about two stories tall, and its head was covered by a thick mane of hair that swayed with its movements. The rest of its body was covered in fur. On its back was a pair of large wings and a snake-like whip tail that came crashing to the ground. What was more disgusting about the beast was its rat-like face.

[WARNING! You have entered the lair of, SHATUR!]

"That's him!" Edgar was ecstatic. He was beginning to worry whether he had paid thousands for a scam. Fortunately, it turned out to be real. The map he acquired to Shatur's lair was very much real.

They'd finally have a first blood kill in their portfolio — not to mention the fantastic rewards that came along with it.

Edgar rubbed his hands together and instructed Isolde and Leonel to engage it.

Isolde shifted her hip to one side. "Aren't you going to help?"

The other four members exchanged looks with each other while Edgar sighed. "We will. But you guys engage it first while we think of a strategy to defeat it."

Isolde wasn't having it and grumbled under her breath.

She was about to give them her piece of mind when Leonel blocked her and said, "Don't worry. We'll be fine. That Boss's ATP is only in the two digits. Even I, alone, am enough to defeat that thing."

Isolde stared at Leonel seriously. He was right. The two of them alone were already overkilled. But what she didn't like was doing all the work, while the rest just stood on the side, benefiting from the rewards they worked for.

Their contract clearly stated that the guild would help in any way they could and not pass all the burden to them.

However, it seemed like Clawing Talons didn't want to honor the agreement in the first place.

Leonel grinned and patted Isolde's boots since he couldn't reach her head. "Don't mind them, and let's just get this done and over with. Let's treat this as their first time working with us as a gift."

Isolde stared at Leonel. He was too nice for his own good. But it was typical of him to avoid unnecessary trouble whenever he could. He wouldn't be Leonel if he weren't like that.

In a way, they complimented each other. She was hot-headed, while he was generally the calmer one out of the two of them.

Isolde took a deep breath and sighed. "Fine."

It would be troublesome if Ren got mad at her because their client wasn't satisfied with their performance.

Shatur was perched high up on a branch. It had already noticed them, but it didn't move or make any sound — it only resumed looking around as if it wasn't aware of their presence. It made no effort to attack them, remaining on its spot, waiting for them to move first.

Isolde pulled her gun and aimed at the target while Leonel engaged the Boss and locked its aggro on him.

At the side, Edgar and his team whispered to each other.

"Remember the plan. Once it goes berserk, we'll kick them out of the group and kite the Boss ourselves, so all its EXP and gil will belong to us," Edgar said. Since this wasn't a dungeon, and they were out in the open fields, they could kick out members.

This was their plan from the start to rake an enormous amount of EXP and gil.

"Right. But what about their pay?"

"Who cares? It's not like we will ever employ them again in the future."

"We've already paid them half. It's good enough."

"As long as we get Shatur's rewards, then we'll recover the money we lost, even more than that."

"But . . . aren't they going to get mad and exact revenge?"

". . ."

Edgar shrugged. "We can just log out after that. How many groups have we tricked so far? Have they ever exacted revenge on us?"

All nodded in response to their leader.

Clawing Talons only stopped chatting with each other when Shatur began attacking, quickly dashing forward for Leonel's throat.

It'd be good if the two of them died. Clawing Talons thought.

But against expectations, Shatur's damage was only -1 against Leonel, and the most shocking of all, the guy's HP seemed to be recovering. The more Shatur clawed him with its long sharp nails, the more his HP regenerated.

They haven't even recovered from their shock when they subconsciously jumped on their toes at the sound of Isolde's rattling gun.

It only took hundreds of bullets for Shatur's HP to drop below one, and before Edgar and his teammates could proceed with their plan, Leonel had already killed Shatur with a whack of his hammer.

At this point, Leonel's ATP was already nearing five hundred—thanks to the Kraken. And because of the Kraken's EXP and rewards, he also acquired plenty of rare skills from it.

Even if he had been alone, Leonel could end Shatur's life with a single swipe.

"Well . . . that ended quickly." Leonel laughed a little.

". . ." Clawing Talons stood frozen with gaping mouths. From start to finish, it barely took them five seconds!

They had seen the two fight beasts, but they didn't think too highly of their damage output since those beasts from before were weak.

But this time, it was a Hidden Boss that was supposed to be harder than a regular boss!

Isolde approached Clawing Talons, carrying her rattling gun that pointed at the sky. "We've done our end of the deal. You'll pay us in full . . . won't you?"

". . ." Edgar swallowed hard, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

"Do you accept cheques?"