It was the day after the welcoming ceremony , and the guild was empty again , as physical classes were in session for the recruits in real world.

  Things were back to normal , as guild members were teaming to level up and raid dungeons , while Rudra was racking his brain on how-to travel to Draconia.

  It was for this issue that he called a guild meeting , where anyone with information on draconia was asked to be present.

  While Rudra issued the mission about 21 days ago , and the guild members were dilligently looking for the information , only ten members returned with some information.

  Some talked about some history of draconia , while some talked about some myths regarding the location. Only wild speculation and nothing tangible was found soo far.

  One by one , Rudra heard gibbering followed by gibberish , untill finally it was Yume's chance to speak.

  Yume said " Amitabha …… I have the map to Draconia ".

  Everyone in the room started to check their ears …… And looked at each other for confirmation on , did you hear what I heard?

  Rudra asked " You have what ? ".

  Yume said patiently " The map , the thing that has terrain drawn on it to guide travellers to destinations , I have one such piece of paper which leads to Draconia ".

  Rudra was incredibly happy , obviously he knew what a map was , but this news was terrific!

  Karna said " Ohh , we have been in this meeting for 1 and a half hour , you should have said soo sooner , if you had the map ! ".

  Yume replied " Amitabha , it is impolite to interrupt others , you have to be patient for your turn to speak , else others would not value your words".

  Karna " …… "

  Rudra "…… "

  The others in the room " …… "

  Jhonny " Yume , you lovely lovely monk! , Well said ".

  Karna facepalmed himself …… This duo was above his realm of human understanding. However he was happy that the map was found.

  Rudra studied the map , and found out that Draconia was very close to the Kingdom of lizardmen , it's entrance was supposedly from a flooded narrow valley , that lied in a neutral buffer zone between the Light faction Kingdom of the lizardmen and the dark faction Kingdom of the Dark Elves.

  It was a level 200 map …… Extremely dangerous to traverse. Rudra instantly went into deep thinking mode , the token he had granted entry to only 10 people into the dragon kingdom. He needed to carefully choose the expedition members , as reaching the dragon kingdom through the flooded valley would be a challenge in its own.

  Rudra naturally wanted to Karna , SMG , Neatwit and Jhonny , they were his top picks , but he could not just take them all from Purplehaze city. Especially when he had no idea about how long the expedition would take …… He needed atleast one of them here.

  Rudra deliberated long and hard , and finally decided to leave the guild to Sir Jhonny , Rudra was assured that if it was him , no matter the problem , the guild would be safe.

  Hence he decided to replace Jhonny with the monk Yume , whose party buff would be very helpful .

  5 members were decided and 5 more were to be decided …… Rudra wondered whom to take , and whom not to .

  There was Bo , Skyla , Medivh , Gamabunta , Gamakichi , PinkLotus , Naomi, Tank , Rhino and Cola , to choose from.

  To make the party balanced , Rudra gave the nod to tank and rhino who were great to mentain tight defenses. Rudra decided to take Naomi too , because she was currrently the most adept healer in the guild above the 3 K sisters.

  Rudra also gave Medivh the nod , he was good at PVE and crowd control , now only one more member needed to be chosen. While Rudra was conflicted between all of them , he knew that Karna and Skyla were a newly made couple , and Skyla was adept in her own right , hence not wanting to seperate the duo , he gave her the nod to join the party hence finalizing the members.

  Little did he know that his one small decision to leave Jhonny in-charge of the guild , would be the only reason he would ever reach the gates of Draconia alive.

  If Jhonny with his terrible luck walked alongside the party through the high level region , it would have been a gauranteed party wipe!?Hence , Rudra unknowingly dodged a bullet there.

  With the party members decided , the expedition was finalized . Rudra decided to carry high value items , such as lots of gold , rare equipment and high quality potions and mana stones with every member , as he had no idea if there would be items he could trade it for inside Draconia.

  The time to set out was decided to be 7 am tommorow morning , and it was expected to be a 9 day long journey on mounts , as they would need to cross to the Elven kingdom , take their working teleportation formation to the Lizardman kingdom , and then go on foot again towards the swamp valley.

  Atleast 3 days of the journey could have been cut down if the teleportation array inside Purplehaze city was up and running. But it would need 10 more days to be completed and Rudra did not want to waste soo much time.

  Hence finalizing everything , Rudra logged out of the game to get some much needed rest , as come tommorow , he would play the game for long amounts of time.

  Rudra restocked the nutritional fluids in his gaming pod , and unplugged it to let it cooldown completely. Then checked in with Ethan Grey and informed him that he might not be available in the coming days due to an important quest being the priority.

  The duo chatted for a while , where Rudra was filled in on world events …… Seemingly Ambani was on the verge of a hostile takeover , as he had nearly lost the control of his company , with his son's death , the shares his son had would now go public , with the proceedings going to Ambani corporation.

  Ethan Grey was vying for those shares , as even if it grossly went over market value , buying all 15% would make him majority share holder of Ambani corporation . It was checkmate for Ambani , who would either loose a lot of money , and would have to liquidate a lot of company assets for hard money to outbid Ethan. Or loose control of his company.

  Knowing Ambani the former was more likely , which meant a firm footing for Ethan Grey inside County X . He was one step closer to exerting pressure on Ambani , as using Japan's newfound power , he and the Japanese government put newfound pressure and sanctions on country X , that forced them to tweak some of their policies in favour of Grey international!

  Overall , Ethan Grey was being Ethan Grey !

  /// Bonus chapter 5/8 , enjoy ! ///