Alice led the way to the new Guild house. It was nicely located rather close to the town hall, putting it almost center stage for new arrivals. What wasn't so nice OTOH was the fact that it was a totally anonymous 2 story building that didn't even fill out its lot properly.

There was a large gap on the left-hand side, leading to a large fenced area behind the structure. As far as Toby could see, it was totally overgrown with weeds. The entryway had only a single wooden door, with no decorations or accents.

To be honest, Toby felt that it looked more like someones abandoned home than a functioning business premise.

“Whoo boy” Urist grumbled dejectedly. “This place needs a lot of credits if it's going to be a decent place to do business."

“We have a big main quest to help finance that thankfully,” Alice said to placate him a bit. “There are of course limits to how far you can get on 3k and a 9k mortgage.”

“You got this for 12k?” Ortho exclaimed while raising his eyebrows.

“No”, Alice stopped him before he could continue. “We got it for 5k, the rest we need to spend on the stuff needed for upgrading it. We have a world management quest to perform”.

Ortho's jaw fell open “Only 5k?” “That's seriously cheap. Who did you kill for that price”?

Toby had tuned out their conversation at this point. He had no idea if the numbers they were spouting were cheap or not. He was more interested in getting in there to take a look around.

“Come on Urist.” Toby beckoned. “Let's leave those two money grubbers behind and take a look inside this dump.”

“I don't need asking twice,” Urist replied, heading straight for the door. He wasn't any more interested in the money talk either it seemed.

As soon as they got in, Toby got his worst fears confirmed. The inside was as bad as the outside.

It was a single dark and dusty room, with a badly worn staircase leading upwards in the back behind a rickety counter.

There were no seats around either, and the lights were all burned out.

“Let's check out the upper floor,” Urist urged Toby. “You need to claim the place in the main office before we can start working on it.”

“Ah”. Toby sighed. Of course, there was something like that needed in the Nexus.

He gently walked up the stairs, fearing that it would give out at any second, dumping him and Urist into the basement. If this place had a basement that is. He hadn't seen any stairs down after all.

The top floor was in much the same state as the lower floor, except there was a short hallway leading towards the front of the building with 3 doors. One on each side, and one at the end.

“So who's getting the big office?” Urist nudged Toby in the side.

“Alice,” Toby answered with no hesitation. He was absolutely not going to do any paperwork if he could get away with it.

“Absolutely not,” Alice said right behind them, causing Toby and Urist to jump. “You are the outward face of the guild Toby, I'll keep it running. But your handsome face is going to drag in the customers.”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

“But But. Paperwork!” Toby whined.

“That will primarily be my role” Alice sighed. “I knew that from the start when I first met you and got the idea to start a guild”

“So you had the Guide Quest from the System when you met him?” Urist looked quite excited by that prospect Toby thought.

“Yes,” Alice confirmed. “I also knew a rehabilitation world and quest was going to happen as well.” “I was working for the project when it had to go into emergency assimilation.”

“What!” Urist practically shouted in shock. “Are you saying that we were seconds away from missing out on humans?”

“We were” Ortho confirmed from behind. “I talked it over with Alice downstairs while you two were playing explorers.”

“We have gotten into something rather big this time Urist.”

“Humanity really need the help”. He finished.

“Damn good thing we are here then”. Urist answered back. “We got ourselves an endangered species to save!”

“Yeah yeah,” Toby interrupted. “I'm endangered alright. By Alice.”

That earned him a couple of snickers from the dynamic duo at least. “So I guess it's my job to activate this dump then?”.

“Yes, it is,” Alice said, while she handed a key to him. “Use this on the desk in the big office”.

Toby had to force the door open, it was stuck on the hinges and then skirt past a hole in the rather large office room before reaching the desk sitting in the middle. When he turned around, He could see a locked drawer on the right-hand side of the desk.

Lightly testing the drawer confirmed that it was locked, so Toby inserted the key and twisted it around to unlock it. The drawer unlocked with a smooth click, and Toby pulled it out.

Inside the drawer, there were several documents as well as a big key. He carefully pulled it all out and set it down on the desk. “So what do I do now?” Toby asked.

“First, you need to sign the deed”. Urist pointed to the topmost document. It had golden trimmings, and the word Deed written in large letters at the top.

Alice passed him a white quill and a small sharp knife “You know the drill by now, but this one takes a full signature”.

Toby sighed and sliced across his palm with the knife, before dipping the quill in the blood that seeped forth. It hurt quite a lot, actually it hurt like hell, but the mindset of this being a simulation did help him push the pain away a little bit at least.

He took one final look at his 3 companions and signed the deed with a flourish.

As soon as the last drop of blood in his signature seeped into the paper, it started glowing. The glow quickly spread outwards, covering the entire desk, then the room.

A few seconds later it subsided, And Toby was greeted with a very different view than what he had before.

All the dust was gone for one, and the oil lamps were burning. Flickering happily. The floor was whole again too, and the desk was gleaming.

Turning around, Toby saw the new guild badge adorn a flag on one wall, with a replica of his Achievement case underneath it. The guild badge was a blue and green marble with streams of golden light coming out from behind it like a rising sun.

Beneath it written in silver letters, the words 'olim fuerat. futura prospera' stood proudly.

“You completed the guild badge already?” Alice gasped. “I'm impressed!”

“Apparently I did... Not that I can remember doing it though?” Toby answered, feeling a bit confused about it. Honestly speaking, he had hardly spent any time thinking about it at all, except for a few seconds after she gave him the task. It did look darned good though.

“I thought it would require actual work,” he finished a bit puzzled.

“That is the system at work,” Urist stated. “It filled in all the blanks with stuff from your imagination when you took the mantle as the first guild master.”

“This is almost like it was in my domain,” Toby replied. “There were things I could do with effort, but a lot of stuff just appeared without my control.”

“That's how it works.” Ortho nodded. “That is also why the town looks like it does. It's taken from your mind.”

“Enough of this idle chatter” Alice said. Breaking off any further talk about the idiosyncrasies of the system.

“We need to get this place set up for business asap. The clock is ticking on our main quest already.”

“Yes Ma'am,” Toby replied quickly. “Should we set up the quest board then?”

“Yes. We need to get some sort of control center set up for our quest.” She nodded.

“Alright. Let's get to work then, people.” Urist proclaimed loudly while walking out the door.

Following his advice, Toby started to walk out the door as well. This was going to take a while to complete.

Guild:

Quest complete: Guild HQ.

Reward "Quest board token" has been added to guild inventory