Guildmaster Tor POV

`Spirit’s, much like elementals, are embodiments of concepts made of mana. However unlike their elemental cousins which manifest from unliving concepts, Spirits manifest from living concepts. The best example is the many beast spirits, such as Wolf Spirits, Cat Spirits, and Bird Spirits. Beast Spirits manifest whenever enough of one type of creature gather in an area of high mana. Spirits, much like elementals, often don’t make it to full maturity as they are frequently consumed as a catalyst to fuel evolutions. In the same way that a lizard might catalyze with a fire elemental and become a fire wyrm, a spirit can be used as a catalyst to become a more powerful evolved version of the concept they represent. Generally spirit’s are only used as catalysts by the concepts they are derived from, such as a wolf catalyzing with a wolf spirit. It should also be noted that beasts who catalyze with spirits or elementals have significantly higher odds of being capable of thought and speech. It is for this reason that it is believed that the beasts are somehow absorbing the souls of the elementals or spirits to complete their own, unfortunately soul magic is strictly forbidden by the system so this theory remains conjecture.`

I closed the book and stared blankly at the ceiling of my office. I had hoped that `A Study of Spirits` written by a master scholar would give me more insight, but I still felt as though I knew too little. Figuring out what the Spiritkin within the dungeon were was just one of the many tasks on my ever growing list. As the Guildmaster of the branch it was my job to try and give our adventurers the best chances at success as well as arbitrate any issues between them. The only fun part of my duties were the rare chances I got to fight something, but being deployed in the eastern Vicrost area means little of that, unless I want to die on the Impassable Wall. The only bits of fun I’ve had in my 26 years deployed here have been drinking with the other high level classers and the one time that the city lord sparred with me. I felt my blood begin to rise at the thought of a fight with that old monster and had to calm myself down before the battle lust took me.

I turned back to the many documents and various letters I had been reading and sending. After my report on the new dungeon the Guild Founder has had his watchful eye on any reports coming from my branch. Just last week he finally decided to make a move and has ordered me to remain in my position while awaiting the arrival of my old team. The mere thought that a single region should need five two star mithril adventurers to guard it is absolutely insane. I’m not even sure how he got Ray and Kit to agree, the last I heard those two psychos had gone into the frozen wastes to try and level their way to three star. The simple fact that the Guild Founder was sending not just them but even more administrative help, meant that she had taken a keen interest in this new dungeon. It was even likely that she wanted to have it declared as neutral ground and given up to the Guild just like the three star dungeon was.

I thought about what the aftermath would be if the various nations refused to give it up as neutral ground. The Guild Founder was the only Mythical Rank on the entire continent and she was also the highest leveled, it wasn’t a stretch to say that the Adventurers Guild easily had the fighting power of a large country. I felt my blood once more rise at the thought of getting to fight in a full on war between high classers, I took a drink from my flask to calm myself. I finished my drink and shook the bottle staring at the tiny hole that led within, damn, I’m out. I started drafting up another letter to the main branch, someone would have to get more to me before I charged into the Farza Mountains just to fight something fun.

My dreams of glorious combat were tempered by the knowledge that the Guild Founder was a principled and patient woman, war was highly unlikely when she could just promise favors instead. The Guild Founder hadn’t gotten to where she was now without knowing how to deal with politics and aristocrats. Most Guildmasters also knew how to do those things, the rare exception being those of us sent to punishment details. Although I suppose the only thing making it a punishment is the fact that we think of it as one. When your whole life has been about chasing bigger and better fights, getting stuck behind a desk and forced to listen to squabbling children was a punishment to you. It took me 20 years of slow adjustment before I finally started appreciating what the Guild Founder had done for me by giving me this position. I’ve learned how to keep a level head and gotten more comfortable in a leading position, two things that I had clearly needed.

It’s easy to judge the person you were yesterday and harder to see who you’ll be in the future, the only thing you can do is learn from the past and keep moving forward. One of my favorite quotes from my late mentor. I finished writing my letter to the main branch and placed it with the many reports and letters on their way back to the Guild Founder. With that done I now had to sort through all the different messages from The Vicrost Kingdom.

Lots of nobles, merchants, and other Guilds were very interested in a new dungeon. While few knew the true value of what this new dungeon was, that didn’t stop everyone from trying to get a piece of it. However this was planned for, it’s why that girl brought her father into the loop, nobles deal with nobles and I can deal with most of the rest. Although Viscount Brahm wasn’t home at the moment, he and his first son had gone to investigate the rising bandit issue that’s been plaguing a lot of the eastern baronies recently. Hopefully they would return soon so that I could pass off all the noble requests to him, otherwise they were going to just be thrown out. I cared little for political ramifications when in two weeks time I would have four more two star mithril adventurers here to back me up. Worst case scenario the Guild Founder is forced to clean up whatever mess I make and I’m forced to be the Guildmaster of some other minor branch.

I pushed both my thoughts and the noble requests aside for now, I still had actual work to do. I needed to perform more interviews for the guild members we would employ in the new guild hall and process the various material requests for stocking it. There were lots of things that went into establishing a new guild hall and that guild hall being inside the dungeon only made things worse. It had taken the Guild a significant amount of time to acquire enough EC to purchase a central space large enough to fit our needs; we did end up getting a lot of donations once we declared that adventurers would be able to start living within the second floor once the guild hall was active. Now I had to make good on that promise.

I was stalling staffing the new guild hall so that I would have time to finalize the rules for living on the second floor. Of course it’s not like I could do much to the one group already living there, they technically owned the dungeon. Regardless it was important to keep a close eye on adventurers so that their less savory traits didn’t make them forget who they work for. I can’t allow adventurers to start hoarding dungeon knowledge, it's fine to restrict certain things especially when a team is doing an exploration dive, but the main business of the Adventurers Guild is to make diving a dungeon easy. We’re left in charge of the various dungeons all across the nations we operate in for a simple reason:We do all the hard work of learning about the dungeon and then the countries can send in their nobles and soldiers for easy levels. Of course it's impossible to level past a certain point if you never struggle and your skills will fall behind. Those who coast often find themselves stuck with lesser classes, it's the reason why nobles hoard legacy tomes so that their offspring can easily get a high rank class. Of course the proper nobility all know to make their children work for it, and by reintroducing adversity their children become stronger. One of the main differences between a High Noble house and a normal one could be found in how they train their youth.

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Thinking once again about nobility after just having pushed them out of thought. It’s inevitable that I’ll be forced to deal with them again and I’d rather fight than talk. Oh well, there’s nothing I can do about it. I breathe a heavy sigh before turning to another form requesting permission to live inside the dungeon, I had gotten sidetracked and it was time to actually finish this paperwork.

It takes me two hours to finish processing all the requests and by the end of it I’ve only given permission to under half. There's far too many adventurers signing up and most of them are doing it to get out of the Guild's sight, several groups were marked for extra watch by the guild for suspicious activities reported. I wanted nothing more than to violently interrogate those who are under suspicion but the Guild policies surrounding the matter are higher ranked than me.

It would be so much easier if I could just go into the dungeon myself, but there was a reason high levels never went into legacy dungeons. At least, not anymore. I shudder thinking about what happened to all those poor souls who never even stood a chance, all because some people twice their level thought they could crush a dungeon for easy loot. Fools, the whole lot of them. At least now the Adventurers Guild more actively restricts who can go into a dungeon so that tragedies are less likely to happen. I sighed again, I seem to be doing that a lot recently, and returned to my work.

It was another 4 hours later when I finally managed to crawl out from under all the paperwork to take a break. As soon as my butt hit the seat of the comfy couch I had chosen, my assistant appeared before me holding a golden envelope.

“Is this really important enough to ruin the only break I’m going to get today?” I ask her while trying not to look at the incredibly ostentatious envelope despite recognizing the mana signature on it.

“Sir, it’s a letter from King Vicrost himself, it is very important.” Is the response she gives me before placing the envelope directly in front of me and then quickly leaving before I can stop her. Damn she’s a good assistant, why didn’t the Guild Founder send her to me sooner. I put down the small snack cake I had been about to eat and pick up the envelope. I send a pulse of my mana into it causing it to quickly open revealing a blank sheet of paper. Really, double warded? I force a steady stream of my mana into the piece of paper revealing the writing to my mana sense and begin to read the letter. The more I read the more my eyebrows raise until I finish and have to simply sit and process what I’m being told.

The King of Vicrost himself has stated in no uncertain terms that he will not be handing over a Mythical Legacy dungeon to the Guild, not only that but he is even prepared to fight us for it apparently. How did they even figure out the Guild ranking? No, I know how, that damn noble Brahm must’ve gone and told his King. I had his manor under watch by my more discrete associates so that we would know if he did exactly that, he must’ve used his spatial magic to deliver a report. Hell for all I know this bandit thing could’ve been a ruse to get him into a meeting with the King. It’s too late to do anything about it for now, all I can do is pass it up to the Guild Founder and let her decide our response. I sigh again, the work never stops.

Overview POV

As the Guildmaster of the Brahmstone branch continued to work tirelessly trying to manage his new dungeon, the other powers of the continent were readying themselves for conflict. The Vicrost Kingdom looked like it would soon be the crosshairs of not just the neighboring nations of the north, but also those who resided in the south. Viscost information specialists worked tirelessly to conceal the true value of their new dungeon for as long as possible as it would certainly be the spark of the coming conflict.

Meanwhile the Adventurers Guild was mobilizing en masse in their central headquarters of Forgestar City. The Founder herself was ready to move to claim this new dungeon. If the Adventurers Guild managed to hold both the only three star dungeon and a mythical legacy dungeon they could quickly grow their strength to be the strongest force on the continent. The Founder had to be careful however, any moves made too overtly would trigger events earlier than planned. Patience was key, she would await for everything to be in the perfect place and only then would she strike. As she gazed over her city her violet eyes quickly flashed with green and gold before one of her items suppressed the expression of power.

To the east of Vicrost, across the Impassable Wall, lies the nation Stolm. A nation that is a collection of city states each run by a powerful Lord who join together into a council that decides the course of the whole nation. Currently their court was in silent contemplation as their greatest seer had just finished delivering her prediction of the future before violently dying. The rest of the seers had desperately gleamed as much as they could from her and all of them now refused to use their powers until `the storm had passed` whatever that meant. The Lords Council of Stolm was now forced to decide what to do with the information they had at present. After much debate it was agreed that they should at least send forces to watch the Impassible Wall to see what `Great Gift of Knowledge from the Farzan Depths` really meant, if they were lucky it would help them learn more about what was coming.

To the West of Vicrost lies its greatest rival, the Dukedom of Limra. Occupying a large stretch of land the Dukedom of Limra was once a part of Vicrost before a bloody war of succession in which the Dukedom left the Kingdom. The Dukedom had quickly managed to grow by taking over smaller city states along its border and was now almost as large as the Kingdom that it once belonged to. However this was never enough for the petty Lords that ruled the Dukedom and its lands. They desired to overtake the Kingdom and break its record as the longest living nation on the continent. However this was no easy task.

The borders of The Vicrost Kingdom were all protected by natural barriers excluding an area along its western border. To the north lies the Frozen Wastes, a high magic zone that dominates the northern third of the Continent. To the east lies the Impassible Wall, the Farza Mountains are steep and filled to the brim with monsters. To the south lies the Primal Forest, a region dominated by ancient Spirits and powerful beasts. Finally to the West is the scorching gorge, a magic zone said to be the remnants of a dragon’s breath attack. It was the only weak point as bridges could be built over the canyon so long as the materials were resistant to heat. However the bridges that led across Scorching Gorge were all guarded by powerful fortresses on either side meaning that the only way to successfully attack would be to overwhelm the defenders.

This brings us to a group of bandits plotting their next moves within the eastern lands of Vicrost. Their job was simple: force the Vicrost military to move troops away from the Western border to leave them open to attack. However things begin to change for these bandits as they start hearing rumors of a new dungeon nearby. One with much of its information unavailable to the public. Perhaps this new dungeon is some secret that their bosses would like to know more of. The main group of bandits originally hired by the Dukedom of Limra begin to move south towards the town of Brahmstone, and as they do a pair of noble mages watch them from afar.