Chapter 235: A Week’s Preparation
Max chuckled. "Alright. But you should be able to do so within four years."
Enzo was utterly surprised.
"Within four years..." he mumbled in a daze.
He didn’t know why his elder brother had given him a deadline, but he simply treated it as a challenge.
It was to prove that he hadn’t gained an SS-rank class and established a Monsters Hunters Guild for nothing.
Enzo suddenly said, "Alright. Then, the goal of my Monsters Hunters Guild is to slay the dragon one day."
Max nodded and praised him.
"That’s the good spirit!"
"Can we have enough chattering about the game?" Auntie Sarah said in a vexed tone.
Max and Enzo looked at each other and laughed.
Max asked, "What else can we talk about besides the game?"
Auntie Sarah was surprised.
She shook her head and smiled.
...
A week had passed since the declaration of war by the Demon Lord’s messenger.
Throughout the past week, Max had not engaged in a single fight against a demon, causing Lewis to overtake his position in first place as he dropped straight to fifth in the ranking.
His Demon Hunters Guild, on the other hand, had dropped to fourth place, just slightly above the Sun Tzu’s Hand Guild.
It was inevitable.
For the past week, the Demon Hunters Guild had been preparing for its first large-scale war against a Demon Lord.
In other words, every Demon Hunter would fight against the Demon Lords in the same province.
At the moment, due to the high demand, the Demon Hunters Academy had been forced to produce 5,000 Demon Hunters.
In total, the Demon Hunters Guild only had 9,500 Demon Hunters ready to be deployed.
Knowing that they would face tens of thousands, if not possibly half a hundred thousand demons in the future, the Demon Hunters were not scared.
This time, they were defending.
In other words, the Empire could not simply sit idly by while the demons attacked the borders of the Empire.
Although Demon Lords and those above them could not enter the territory due to the presence of the Authority of Salvation, their presence alone could inspire thousands of demons to invade, making the Empire suffer terribly.
In fact, throughout the past week, many nobles who supported other Guilds after being rejected by Max’s Guild had gone all out to gather public opinion and criticize the Guild’s actions.
Even the Imperial Family was being affected by the scandal since they were the ones who mainly supported the Guild’s actions.
Of course, it was futile.
The Church itself supported Max and his Guild, so the public opinion remained nothing more than gossip without any clear direction.
In the past, whenever the people became dissatisfied with the Imperial Family, the Church itself, led by the High Pontiff, would appear in front of the Imperial Castle to protest.
Only then would the Emperor personally welcome the High Pontiff, who represented the voice of the people.
The Imperial Family might have abused their position many times in the past, but the Church, despite the changes in High Pontiffs, had always remained committed to protecting the well-being of the people.
Many clergy members from the Church explained to the people during their sermons the good things that the Demon Hunters Guild had done and would do for the sake of the Empire and its people.
Despite being influenced by the gossip surrounding the Guild, the people were compelled to trust the words of the clergy since they were considered more trustworthy.
They would still observe whether the Demon Hunters Guild could uphold its mission and vision for their sake.
The villagers in the three provinces that might be affected by the demon invasion were evacuated since they had been given a week’s time, with the help of the Imperial Army.
At the same time, the Imperial Army worked together with the three well-known Guilds to defend themselves against the demon invasion.
The Lewis Guild built traps and practiced formations to defend against the demons.
The Vikings Guild built walls that connected every frontier village in the Ironmarch Province while fortifying them with enchantments and runes.
The Demon Hunters Guild...
They were the most unusual.
Instead of building walls and traps, the Demon Hunters Guild, with its Demon Hunters cooperating with the Imperial Army, created a mobile demon-extermination force.
The Imperial Army was honestly surprised by the Demon Hunters Guild’s actions.
They were preparing specifically for the demon invasion—not just any other race’s invasion, but a demon invasion.
It simply meant that the knowledge they possessed when fighting against demons was vast.
What was even more amazing was how the Imperial Army continued to learn about demons from the Demon Hunters.
As if they had truly fought against demons before.
When clearly, they had learned that those Demon Hunters had only just graduated from the Demon Hunters Academy.
Furthermore, the Artificer Guild received assistance from other Grand Artificers across the Empire.
As a result, the Guild Communication Network was completed in less than a week!
The Guild Communication Network became their main weapon against the demons.
In other words, while the Lewis Guild and the Vikings Guild prepared to defend, the Demon Hunters Guild was fully preparing to hunt.
Their attitude toward the war naturally gained the attention of the other players, inevitably spreading their tactical preparations before the appearance of the demons.
When Lewis and Aaron learned about it, they could only furrow their eyebrows and fall into deep thought.
They could not mock Max and his Guild’s preparations like some of their members had, knowing fully well how knowledgeable the Demon Hunters Guild—and Max himself—were when it came to fighting demons.
In the end, they could only sigh, accepting the fact that they could not truly defeat Max in this war.
No.
The fight for first rank was already out of their reach.
They couldn’t help but wonder if Max had intentionally provoked the Demon Lord to destroy the balance between monsters and demons in the first world event...