A few days later.
The First Elder was completely covered up, with a huge hood covering his head, walking down the street like a suspicious thief.
He would stop every couple of steps like he was afraid of being discovered.
In the end, he turned into a small unremarkable house.
Inside, several men had already been waiting for some time.
The First Elder lowered his hood.
"Is it really necessary to be so cautious and secretive?"
Du Mingfeng explained, "It absolutely is necessary. I suspect that there's a spy in Giantree City, that the Demon King had set eyes within the city around us."
The elven First Elder's eyes twitched, "Any evidence of that?"
"There's no direct evidence, but the Demon King had been prepared for every operation we had recently. There's no way that's just a coincidence."
"Hm. That's logical. In times, caution is absolutely required. Besides, the current operation has to be kept absolutely secret. No one can be allowed to learn of it."
There are four others present.
The First Elder spoke suspiciously, "Are these the foreign Heroes you found specifically? Are just these few people really able to complete this task?"
Of those four here, two were orcs, one was a wing-kin, and the last one was a troll.
The one at the head was an orc warrior. He had a crimson greatsword on his back and his skill was covered in red patterns. He gave off a fierce aura.
He grinned, "Less people is better in this situation. We're professionals!"
The four of them are all level 3 pseudo Lords.
The orc leading them is by no means weaker than Du Mingfeng.
The other three Heroes with him definitely aren't much weaker than him either.
Heroes with such strength would definitely be top class powerhouses for the current period of the game apart from those extremely rare individuals who lucked out in winning the lottery.
They're different from Du Mingfeng, who directly gained a powerful body from the start.
The four of them were only around level 2 at the start. They got to their current state one step at a time by killing Demon Kings.
Du Mingfeng started introducing them.
"Wang Gang, orc fire god warrior. He gained the blessing of the god of fire, which gives him extremely high fire resistance, strong enough to even resist dragonfire. In total, he has hunted and killed 18 Demon Kings, and for 12 of them, he had assassinated them all by himself."
"Li Dingnan, orc shaman. Not only is he skilled in both fire and wind magic, he also has a powerful Talent skill and control type skills. In total, he has killed 14 Demon Kings."
"Jin Ying, wing-kin shadow assassin. He's skilled in assassination and his speed is unmatched. He's also skilled in high leveled stealth skills, which allowed him to single-handedly kill 9 Demon KIngs.
"Peng Sihai, troll alchemist. He's skilled in alchemy and specializes in poisons. He has in several cases poisoned an entire Demon King's Nest to death, and those Demon Kings died without even knowing what happened."
"They're all top class Heroes from Berserk Beast City!"
"They're pretty much the strongest solo Heroes within a thousand kilometers!"
They do sound pretty good, but when he heard the words Berserk Beast City, the First Elder couldn't help but be on his guard.
Berserk Beast City is around 500-600 kilometers from Giantree City. It's a city mainly habited by orcs. Their population and military force are both a good deal higher than that of Giantree.
Berserk Beast City rose only a few decades ago.
Their savagery and violent nature made them have poor relations with Giantree City.
There had been many conflicts between the two sides, so it was only natural that he would get suspicious.
Du Mingfeng spoke, "There's no need to worry, First Elder. Solo Heroes tend to keep to themselves. They have no real relations with the authorities of Berserk Beast City."
From the start, there were two types of Heroes.
Heroes that go solo and Heroes who work in groups.
Du Mingfeng is one who went the group route.
These kinds of Heroes will either join or form their own organizations, build and organize their own territory, and then expand their holdings and their forces to eventually build a demon subjugation army. Then, they'll wage large scale wars against Demon Kings and subjugate them with numbers.
Of course, aside from those who work in groups, solo Heroes aren't particularly rare either.
These kinds of Heroes would generally move about all on their own.
They won't build their own factions. Instead, they place extreme focus on improving their personal might.
This naturally requires a high demand on the Hero's personal strength and quality.
Solo Heroes won't form armies to take down Demon Kings. Instead, they'd form demon hunting parties made of a few individuals working together. Sometimes, they'd even take actions just by themself.
With less people involved, they're able to move more quickly and freely, so they would avoid clashing directly with the Demon King's army and instead directly infiltrate the Nest, lock onto the Demon King, and then kill the Demon King as quickly as possible. So long as the Demon King dies, all the troops that they summoned would also disappear.
Since there's no army involved, the single Hero or small party of Heroes would be able to monopolize all the rewards.
This allows solo Heroes to grow extremely quickly, thus creating a positive feedback loop!
As the saying goes, an obvious threat is easy to deal with, but a hidden one is far deadlier.
For Demon Kings, top class solo Heroes are the more dangerous ones!
Those four are the best, the strongest, and most experienced solo Heroes around this area!
Du Mingfeng saw that the First Elder was still not fully convinced, so he continued his explanation.
"Solo type Heroes require a high degree of skills and combat capabilities. Each and every single one of them is a one in ten thousand powerhouse!"
"I picked these four among hundreds of solo Heroes. They're the very best among the best, so they're more than capable of completing our quest!"
After hearing that, the First Elder finally nodded.
They do sound quite capable.
Although the First Elder is still unable to completely trust them, at this point, it's also true that there are no better options available.
"I am extremely grateful that you would come help Giantree City in its time of need!"
"This quest is extremely difficult, but so long as you can complete it, we will agree to whatever price you want!'
The orc Wang Gang calmly spoke, "Guildmaster Du had already explained it to us. Isn't it just the Demon King of Darkness Valley? We can just team up and kill him!"
The First Elder was greatly alarmed by that.
He immediately corrected, "No, it's not to kill the Demon King, it's to rescue her ladyship!"
"As for that Demon King... If you can keep him from being alerted, then it would be best to not fight him!"
The four Heroes exchanged a glance.
They didn't seem to pay that much attention.
They're the most famed and most powerful solo Heroes. Any one of them would be able to hold down a major territory on their own.
Now that the four of them are working together, how could they possibly lose to a single Demon King?
Perhaps this Demon King's army might be especially strong, but for their kind of Heroes, the size and power of a Demon King's army doesn't matter much.
What solo Heroes seek is to grasp the single opportunity to kill the Demon King in a flash.
If the Demon King is dead, then it doesn't matter how powerful the army is.
Plus, the more powerful the Demon King and the bigger their army is, the richer the reward would be!
"I need to emphasize this again!"
The First Elder was afraid that those Heroes lacked understanding.
"The quest you're undertaking is only to rescue her ladyship, the city lord. Don't do anything unnecessary!"
The Heroes could only nod at that.
"Don't worry!"
"We're confident in our success!'
"We'll definitely complete this quest!"
The First Elder nodded, "There's also one other thing that you have to remember. You must not expose your relationship with Giantree City no matter what!"
"Understood!"
"We do have the professionalism for that."
Wang Gang spread his hands, "We're solo Heroes specializing in assassinating Demon Kings. We've never been to Giantree City, and we don't really know much about the elves of Giantree City either. Nor have we ever met the First Elder. Is that about right?"
That old bastard really doesn't have any guts.
Is he that afraid of the Demon King's revenge?
The four Heroes mentally looked down on the First Elder.
Thus, the First Elder signed a contract sealing the deal.
This way, the First Elder can finally relax and send the four of them to infiltrate Darkness Valley. If they could rescue the city lord, then that's of course the best case scenario.
If they were to fail the quest, then Giantree City would also be able to deny all involvement.
Isn't it only natural for Heroes to try to assassinate a Demon King?
What reason would the Demon King have to suspect Giantree City?
Du Mingfeng spoke, "If there's no more issues, then I'll be taking them out of the city now. First Elder, can we borrow the detection crystal?"
The First Elder took out a crystal.
"This is a mind detection crystal."
"It can detect the MP (mental power) of the city lord."
"You'll be able to find her ladyship by following the direction it's guiding you toward."
The four Heroes were overjoyed.
With this, things are now so much easier.
The First Elder spoke, "It's best not to delay. Get started as soon as possible. You must bring her ladyship back safely!"
Half an hour later, the Four Heroes were stealthily taken out of the city.
The five of them stopped after making sure that they weren't followed.
Du Mingfeng asked coldly, "What's the word from Berserk Beast City about my proposal for cooperation?"
Wang Gang grinned, "Our city lord is quite interested. He's willing to support you and help you take the seat of the city lord."
"Good!"
Du Mingfeng's eyes flashed, "In that case then, I don't think I need to tell you just what you need to do for this quest, right?"
"We know!"
"When we find the young city lord, we'll kill her!"
Du Mingfeng nodded, "So long as that useless city lord is dead, not only would the elves hate Darkness Valley, I'll also have no more threat to my position as city lord!"
After all, back at the Myriad Flower Valley, Du Mingfeng had nearly butchered that entire elven army with hellfire.
It's one thing if the city lord never returns, but if she does return and reveal this matter, Du Mingfeng would no longer be able to stay within Giantree City anymore.
Besides that, so long as the elf king's descendent still remains, her status among the elves will be extremely hard to budge.
In that case, just how is he supposed to control Giantree City and the elven race?
The young city lord must die!
Du Mingfeng used the First Elder.
He actually just wanted to kill with a borrowed knife!
"Alright, that's enough talking."
"It's about time we got started."
"Just wait for our good news!"
The four top class solo Heroes departed.
Du Mingfeng took a deep breath. At this point, everything is still within his control. Given those four's powers, while hostage rescue might be uncertain to succeed, they should be more than capable of killing the hostage.
The First Elder couldn't possibly imagine that his attempt at rescuing the city lord would instead end up sending four assassins after her.
Those four are not to be underestimated working together, and now they even got support from Giantree City. The future elf queen is truly in extreme peril.