Snow was happy to step out of the portal. The air quality was quite different. She didn’t think that she would miss the dungeon’s sweeter and cleaner air than the cities. Even still, she didn’t want to go back to the same dungeon.
They headed back towards the camp. Snow noticed that large changes had been made as parts of the city were being rebuilt faster than before. She even saw the government coming in and assisting as they filtered and recorded people to assist in a new home.
Even the growing popularity of the Gold Phoenix guild and Heavenly guild became more prominent in the City of Atlantis. They were the two most powerful Player-owned guilds.
New streams of Players and Awakened alike were looking for a guild to associate with as the guild's bountiful harvest was a growing demand. Right now, the Player guilds were exploding all across the world. Only a few handfuls of Native Guilds could contend with them, but there weren’t many.
For the next week, Snow was so busy that she didn’t even get to say hi to Heather. Her guild had taken up a good portion of her free time, and Dragon Express was making her run around with paperwork, meetings, and calls. In between that, she dived into her own work out regime to keep her body in shape.
Since the destruction of the second dungeon, the amount of monsters that came out had drastically decreased, allowing the Players and Hunters to work together to keep the Overflow under control. Everything was going back to normal, bringing with it much-needed prosperity that the city needed after the small scale destruction.
The popular Dragon Express company momentary value increased as more and more personals were hired to attend to the sudden influx of monster parts. Even the creation of new armor, items, and weapons proliferated the market, creating a swing of money and movement.
It was a known fact around the world that the Sleepers were now all awakened. Even though there was an influx of the awakened, only twenty percent of the population had any magic in their blood.
Many of the awakened people were still in denial at the appearance of dungeons and monsters as it uprooted their everyday life. A good portion of them demanded reparations of the sudden change, pointing fingers at the magical community that they were unbiasedly dragged into the magic world without their consent.
In retaliation, the magical community stated that they had no control over what happened around the world, and it was best for them to adapt as quickly as possible because it was going to be an everyday occurrence.
The world was changing. There was no doubt that going back was an option.
The Gold Phoenix guild had searched for a new building to set up. They searched and eventually bought a decent size building to cheat. They had purposely bought somewhere away from the third dungeon with big enough space to continually add more people. Even the Dragon Express main headquarters were fifteen minutes away, giving them a bit of time to call for backup from them if needed.
So far, all the guild members moved in and got the guild ready for business. Unlike Rodney’s Heavenly guild, the building wasn’t brand new, but it was a tall twenty-five story building. While the Heavenly guild had purposely bought out a thirty-story building because of the number of guild members that they had.
Eventually, Snow sat down, exhausted on a chair. Her head resting on a table as bags under her eyes became apparent. Today, she only had enough time to sleep for three hours, and she was barely running on fumes.
Her phone rang. She lifelessly reached over towards her side, trying to figure out if she wanted to pick it up or not. When she pulled it out, she flopped it on the table and tilted to see whose name would pop up. Once again, for the seventh time in the past six hours was the Dragon Express.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
With a groan, she banged her head against the table lightly, wishing they would stop.
Snow reached over, pressing okay. “Hello?”
“Is this Snow?” A woman called out her name.
“This is she.”
“Hello, Ms. Snow. This is from the headquarters of the Dragon Express. I would like to inform you that today at six p.m we have an emergency meeting that you will need to attend.”
Snow sighed. She picked up the phone and placed it on her ears. “Could I know the content we would be talking about before I head in?”
“I’m sorry. It is classified. Please bring along with you the two guild leaders of the Heavenly and the Gold Phoenix guild.”
She groaned, why her?
“You couldn’t call them yourself?” Snow was getting annoyed that she was being ordered around, mostly because they could get in touch with the two guild leaders, usually without a problem.
“We have tried, but it seems that they have not picked up their phone.”
“I see.” Snow tried to think of why, but her mind was blank, and she didn’t really care at the moment. “I’ll give them a call, but I don’t know if they will pick up.”
“Well, it would be beneficial if they both come.”
“I understand.”
“We shall see you at 6 p.m. tonight.”
With a click, the women hung up.
Snow dialed a few buttons, waiting for Mike to answer. So far, Mike didn’t answer, nor did Audrey. She did it a few more times but gave up on the third. She was too tired to care as she set a timer to wake her up for the meeting. Placing her phone down, she made her way to the coach.
The same blanket was present since a few days ago as she was temporarily living in her office.
With tired eyes, she fell asleep.
***
A loud banging sound echoed on Snow’s door. The door burst opened as both Mike and Audrey came through with heavy breaths. They froze when they saw Snow sleeping curled up on her couch.
“Snow?” Mike spoke out first, which woke up Snow.
Snow turned around, she yawned. “Who?” Blinking a few times, she tried to see who had just entered.
“Mike?” She sat up.
“Yea, we saw your text and called you. When you didn’t pick up, we rushed over.” Mike said as he came over. “You usually don’t call us so many times. Is something wrong?”
Snow shook her head. She rubbed her right eye, pulling back her blanket. “We were summoned to an emergency meeting.”
Reaching over, she picked up her phone. It was 5:40 p.m., she woke up on time, allowing her to start heading over.
“Emergency meeting?” Audrey asked. He was in his full armor as if ready to go to battle. Even Mike was ready to go to war with the way he dressed.
“Yea, Dragon Express wanted all of us to arrive at 6 p.m. You guys are on time. Let’s go.” She brushed past Mike.
“Do you know what it is?”
“No. if I did, I wouldn’t have gone.” Snow yawned again. She still didn’t have enough sleep, but it was enough to push her through. “I’m entering in blind just like you.”
“Well, I hope it's not too long. I gotta get back out on the field to take care of a few things.” Audrey replied he walked up beside her. He wasn’t too pleased that he was being pulled around without any explanation.
“Don’t worry about it. It’ll probably be a long meeting,” She jokingly stated.
“Oh, god. I hope not.”
Snow chuckled. Pressing the button, they entered the elevators and headed downstairs. Eventually, the elevator door opened, allowing them to exit.
They headed straight towards the ground floor, where a handful of cars were located. Mike took the driver's side as Audrey sat in the front while Snow took the back seat behind Audrey. Her head felt heavy, and her mind sluggish as she flopped a bit on the side to get a quick nap.
It didn’t take long for them to make it to the Dragon Express headquarters. Compared to the small shop that Snow had worked in initially, it was a large skyscraper with over one hundred floors. The sublime building of slightly twisted frames in a helix-like shape was present with the end with two antennas.
Not too high up, the name Dragon Express was written in gold, red, and black, flashing between the three colors.
They stepped through the rotating doors, and what welcomed them was a tranquil space. The first thing they saw was a pond that stretched around the outer walls and down the middle. Cattails and exotic plants that covered the side were neatly present all around them—a brown wooden bridge connected over the water, allowing them to cross towards the middle.
A beautiful young woman with Asian features bowed, greeting them. “Welcome to Dragon Express. My name is Char, how may I help you today?”
Snow stepped forward. She pulled out her badge, showing it to the receptionist. “I’m Snow, and we have been called here for a 6’ o clock meeting.”
“Ah, this way.” Char turned around, heading towards the transmigration circle, not too far away. She stood in the middle, waiting for the others to arrive.
Everyone followed and stepped into the circle.