Gilgamesh drove away a small enemy Faction and their Guards using the same harassing tactics and threats of violence as before. But this time, he let them go.

  “You see how inferior your Liege is? Can you really elevate yourselves within him?” Gilgamesh spoke to the Hunters who remained. “Leave with them or find greater success with me as your Liege.”

  The enemy Faction was small and its Lieges were not defeated, so he only gained a few dozen more Soldiers from the effort. But that was by design. Gilgamesh targeted only small Factions at the moment, as he waited for enough reports from his Scouts to glean the status and strategies of his temporary allies.

  [ River Post: They attacked a small Faction. Won Clashes against the Lieges and recruited most of the Vassals. ]

  River was the designation he had given to the Scout assigned to Jaded Woman, who was the least active member of the Alliance. As far as the reports had shown, nothing about her seemed particularly special. She was merely adequately competent.

  Her strategy was simply to have her Soldiers gather Prestige through Clashes and occasionally target small Factions to bolster her numbers.

  Gilgamesh was hardly the only one who ignored the agreement laid down by Ambitious Man to solely target other Factions without hunting for Clashes. Aristocrat Woman was another such dissident.

  In fact, she and Jaded Woman had very similar strategies, both moderate in nature. The only difference was that Jaded Woman had her Hunters work alone while Aristocrat Woman had hers work in groups of three. Or rather, he should say that her Nobleman Ally had them do so.

  It had not been long since he began observing them, but Gilgamesh’s suspicions from the meeting had only been reinforced by how they interacted. He was quite sure that the Nobleman was the brains behind the decisions, but he seemed strangely subservient towards her. Almost hostilely so.

  As such, Gilgamesh had given him the designation of Sycophant.

  Either way, neither Faction seemed much of a threat. Old Man had a much bolder strategy in comparison. He didn’t bother hunting at all, and only launched attacks on other Factions as soon as he was able to.

  His tactics were little more than semi-skilled brute force, but he did win each time. And the new recruits he gained outnumbered those he lost to the Dungeon.

  Old Man kept a sizable Guard Wall of around 50 people, and constantly maintained each to be around 300 Prestige. It seemed that he used the bulk of the Prestige he acquired to purchase the obedience and servitude of his important underlings.

  Then, of course, there were the roaming Assassins that brought in lump sums of Prestige whenever they were able to, often at the expense of the enemy Lieges he defeated.

  With no obvious hints as to how he was able to keep them loyal, Gilgamesh could only assume that he had promised them the wealth of a Marquis in the future. After all, that was the only thing that could appeal to lowly Assassins unable to reach 10,000 Prestige on their own.

  Old Man gained strength and Prestige steadily. However, Gilgamesh did not consider him a threat either.

  Stoic Man took an extremely prudent approach to the game. He had the highest ratio of Guards to Soldiers within the Alliance by far. And like Gilgamesh, his Baron underlings passed Prestige through several proxies before it reached him. Exceedingly cautious was Gilgamesh’s main assessment of him.

  But that did not mean he wasn’t also effective. Stoic Man’s strategy consisted of chipping away at enemy Factions using Clashes until the Lieges were forced to retreat, then recruiting some of the Soldiers that remained.

  It was a low rate of gain in both Soldiers and Prestige, but also a very low rate of loss. Not to mention it was also very low risk, since the recruited Soldiers would never have an opportunity to even get close to him.

  Gilgamesh did not consider him much of a threat either, but he did admit it would be difficult to eliminate him. Fortunately, it seemed that Stoic Man was content with endless small victories from behind the safety of his walls. Those were not the actions of someone who possessed great ambitions.

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  On that matter, Conceited Boy was perhaps the most ambitious of the Alliance. His Faction was also by far the most uniquely run, to match.

  To start with, he operated a roaming base and personally moved with his Soldiers. Conceited Boy ground down enemy Factions in rapid bursts of attacks before their Hunters could regather, and ruthlessly plundered the Lieges before recruiting the survivors into the ranks of his ceaseless warband.

  Conceited Boy was the only member of the Alliance whose Regalia he was certain of. A strategy of such risk required a Scepter, especially when Gilgamesh strongly suspected him to also possess a Dagger.

  His Faction grew the fastest of them all, but it was undeniably a strategy that carried heavy risk. Gilgamesh himself had no desire to replicate it, despite its success.

  And last was Ambitious Man, who Gilgamesh admitted wielded the most effective strategy of them all. He sent a single wedge-shaped point of attack charge at the enemy Faction to deliver a band of Assassins with the sole purpose of killing the Lieges.

  Whether the Lieges were actually killed or managed to teleport away seemed of little consequence to him. The same could be said of the fact that the Assassins did not return to offer their gains. All that Ambitious Man cared for were the Vassals he gained.

  Though Gilgamesh did find something else of note, and that was the fact that his two Noblewoman Allies had done nothing of note. In fact, they seemed nothing more than obedient, interchangeable pawns that blindly followed his orders.

  [ Valley Post: They’re attacking another Faction. Moderate size. ]

  His Scout finally sent him the Message he had been waiting for, so Gilgamesh took action.

  As Old Man’s Soldiers tried to break through the enemy Faction, Gilgamesh’s Soldiers intruded to form another line within the Guard Wall. The ‘Valley’ Soldiers did not stop to think. They merely continue to push and fight their way through, which did little but increase the rate of arrests. At the same time, groups of two began to challenge everyone else in the area, except the Guards.

  Confusion spread among the ranks of both the Valley Soldiers and the enemy Guards. Even the enemy Liege was slow to react at the sight, all while Gilgamesh’s Soldiers continued to plunder Prestige within the fray.

  Old Man was the first to adapt. Reinforcements arrived with a purpose, and the Valley Soldiers started to break through again. As they drew closer to the enemy Liege, Gilgamesh created an opening in the fray using his Soldiers, and the Liege fell for it immediately.

  “Come!”

  The Liege and his Guards towards the Hallway through that opening, only to run into a detachment of Soldiers that Gilgamesh had stationed in advance. They broke through to the Liege Allies and another of his Inner Guards challenged the Liege to a victory.

  [ Gained 1,793 Prestige. ]

  [ 9,295 Prestige. ]

  Gilgamesh maneuvered his Soldiers to allow his new Steward to enter the inner circle and present him the tribute of Prestige. Then he spoke to the defeated Faction. “Your Liege is beaten. Do you want to stay aboard a sinking ship, or join one with a future?!”

  [ Green: What do you think you are doing? ]

  Old Man sent him a message dripping with frustration.

  [ Purple: What do you mean? ]

  Gilgamesh pretended to be completely oblivious.

  [ Green: Don’t play dumb with me. This is against the rules of the Alliance. You'll pay for this. ]

  [ Purple: The rules were that the Prestige goes to whoever takes it, even between members who both happened to have the same target. ]

  [ Green: This was no coincidence! You stole my target! ]

  [ Purple: How was I supposed to know that army was yours when you didn’t even send an Assassin? ]

  No further responses came after Gilgamesh's blunt jab, so he simply ordered his Soldiers to roam and Clash as he searched for his next target.

  [ Red: Are those your Vassals hunting? ]

  The Message this time came from Ambitious Man.

  [ Purple: I’m just keeping them busy. ]

  [ Red: They are obstructing others in the Alliance. ]

  [ Purple: I’ll take better care to ensure they avoid the others. ]

  [ Red: Be sure that you do. ]

  Gilgamesh almost sneered. Ambitious Man knew full well that they were his, yet he was only given a warning for going against the agreed-upon general strategy. Ambitious Man might be the most powerful of them, but he was not so powerful that he could carelessly antagonize them.

  [ Purple: Shameful for a man of your age to run crying to another. ]

  Gilgamesh sent Old Man another jab. In truth, he only mostly suspected this was the case. It was entirely likely that Ambitious Man was observing everything on his own, and simply acted to keep Gilgamesh in check. Either way, the effects his Message would surely cause would be to his benefit.

  Gilgamesh scanned the region and chose another target. This time, he directed his Soldiers to use brute force as optimally as possible. Though at the same time, a swarm of other Barons invaded and ruined his attack.

  Gilgamesh watched as his target escaped, signifying that he had lost his Soldiers to arrests for nothing. Exactly as he wanted. He had slighted Old Man precisely to provoke an attack. Now he had just cause to intensify their conflict.

  The losses he had endured were not even that high as he had deliberately curtailed his strategy so Old Man would gain an easy victory. As a result, Old Man would become even more overconfident and careless.

  [ Green: My mistake. Your tactics actually had some backbone so I mistook you for someone else. ]

  Patreon is 20 chapters ahead. Things are getting pretty tense.