It was a little odd but at the same time amazing. On the back wall directly in the middle jutted out a half-circle shaped building from the wall by 1km. It’s big when you think about it but overall isn’t something noteworthy… until you realise it reaches all the way up to the roof. Big is an understatement.
Metal, glass and precise edges it was like a bigger, better and cooler skyscraper. And this was the guild building.
Naturally there where other things in there as well but I haven’t gone inside yet so I can’t tell but from what our god tells me most of the building is the guild space which is awesome.
The rest of the place was plane weird in my opinion but beautiful at the same time. Giant mushrooms of varying heights that where hollowed out with all sorts of random things inside. None went past ten km high but I was told there where even markets, hotels and public places within them. On the ground there where houses dotted around that where still living, by that I mean a house grown instead of made with a variety or trees and plants and not to mention the general markets, and there was all sorts of other stuff you could find in this place.
What was amazing was the water cascading from the roof onto all the mushrooms and splitting into multiple streams of water that flowed down the sides and dropped into rivers and lakes. This place was a beautiful world of what nature could accomplish other than the modern guild building but rather than looking out of place it fitted in perfectly.
For the protection of the entrance it was a living wood wall made by uncountable wood-like vines twisting together to create a massive barrier with a smaller gate that can be open or closed at will. The reason this is good is because it makes them come through one direction rather than flood into the place freely and gives us a choke point to defend from. Naturally some will slip through but all we have to do is have some people dedicated to hunting the strays and it won’t matter. We had our perfect little paradise.
The thing I was most thankful for however was that it wasn’t overwhelming. It wasn’t some brightly coloured monstrosity but rather deep dark colours that blended with the soft glow on the walls perfectly. The water had glowing moss of various colours under it that coloured the lakes and streams while the mushrooms where a dark blue colour with a slight glow. The place was stunning.
Of course this all made the guild building stand out all the more since it was the tallest, easiest to see and only modern place but it is the most important with almost everything ran from there so it makes sense.
“Hey Leo” I whispered playfully as he looked around in awe.
“I own this place” My voice was smug and I couldn’t wait to see his reaction.
Not disappointing me, his face went through a variety of expressions all at once before settling on a resigned ‘I should have expected this’ look. I think I’m numbing my friend to reality, how dangerous.
“Hurry up and marry my sister before I murder you out of frustration.” He stunned me and walked off with a smug look while I was distracted. Sighing I looked sideways at Ally while I had the chance.
Beautiful, kind, compassionate, familiar, funny, happy, bright, strong, talented, smart and trustworthy. I could add a lot more words onto that list easily without any of them being false or exaggerated and I know that if I thought about it deeply it would be hard to find an end to the list. She is an amazing person. Someone irreplaceable or forgettable. Do I love her?
Before I simply brushed aside my feelings because I didn’t want to get too close to anyone. Both her and her brother helped me out of that time but it was her who really got me to get over it enough to care again. After that, I used depression as an excuse to cut off my thoughts on the subject but now that’s gone as well. Next it was safety, a weak and fragile excuse but even that was shattered now by the one month period we where given before any further attacks. I lost all my excuses.
Various thoughts, memories and emotions flooded in all at once, things which I had been supressing for years and made me think about this ignored topic more than I ever had before. I loved her. That came easily, it was the first thought I had once I asked myself and the further moments of sifting through all of those emotions and memories just made that even clearer but I was shocked by the extent of that love.
Looking at it objectively it’s only natural that someone deprived of any real happiness since they where nine would value love and happiness a lot higher than others but even that didn’t quite explain it to me. Maybe I can’t explain it. There isn’t some logical reason for this and even with all my stat points in intelligence and wisdom I feel like I won’t ever work it out. They merely helped me realise it as soon as I thought about it but they can’t solve something like that. Love isn’t so simple.
“Having fun?” Ally’s voice shocked me out of my thoughts.
On some level I had noticed she was in front of me long ago after she saw me zoned out staring at her but I just didn’t register it until that moment. I could physically feel the panic that flowed through my eyes like a love-struck kid… which I guess I was. I’m seventeen so technically I’m not an adult yet.
“Maybe. Anyway we’ve got a lot to learn about this place before we can run it properly.” I sighed as I temporarily put my thoughts on hold.
I care too much about the moment and right now just isn’t the right time to tell her.
----
Ally has been trying to discuss the morality of the gods decisions when he came out with this.
{This world would have been enslaved by an alien race in twenty years anyway, I saved you by doing this. Atleast now you can get power to fight for your own life rather than being helplessly enslaved with no chance of death, escape or love for atleast five hundred years. Besides the aim of this game is to get soul-bound powers like mister hotshot here who already has two of them. The winner gets the ultimate prize and becomes a VIP of existence. This game is salvation where you were only promised despair, not just for this life, for every life. Hotshot could already become a god by accident in all future lives with a little training and his eyes will stop him from being used. What do you think the ultimate prize is like? People died and experienced pain yeah but it’s nothing compared to what they where going to get anyway. Everyone in this world will reincarnate into good families and the higher they get before dying, the better the family.}
We where both a little stunned at that but evidently I was the first to recover.
“What IS protégé? I get that it helps my training but how?” I swear I could feel a smirk through the box that popped up next.
{Protégé… is exactly what it sounds like and more.}
Perk: Protégé
Description: Protégé is a soul-bound perk created by the creator of existence. With this perk you are a protégé in everything you do including things like natural talent or vague subjects such as gaining insights. The main use of it however is the phrase ‘It is about the strain, not the time’, which negates the natural laws of the universe and allows strength to increase at an extraordinary rate based off of the strain overloading the limits rather than the time it should take to build up such improvements. While it is harder and longer to get stronger with the more strength the have for most, it is merely a question of how much you can strain your body with protégé.
{Protégé is what makes hero’s look pitiful.}
I thought about it a bit and decided that it made sense. My training pushes the limits quite a bit now since I heal faster so the stat improvements are to be expected but I haven’t been training with precisely that goal, meaning I can optimise this a lot more still.
“Thanks. As much as I’d like to chat all day about this and work out some more helpful information we’ve been side-tracked from our original conversation about the guild and city.”
{I’ll explain as we check it out}
----
By the end of the day I had it all sorted out in my head.
- A guild needs territory to be founded. Unclaimed cities, plots of land sold by the guild owner for small but spread out guilds like the adventurers guild or even empty land. In the case of it being a city, the first one to claim it will get ten thousand gold to develop the city. Towns can count as cities as well meaning it is possible to abuse but the funds aren’t removable and stick to the city even if the guild moves.
-Building is instant with gold. You can buy buffs to your town, debuffs to anyone hostile and even shields for your territory. NPC’s can be purchased with money as well with a variety of jobs or skills such as magicians, swordsmen, blacksmiths, tailors etc. Of course you can still build normally or train people in the crafts but it’s easier not to.
-The guild gets an income. NPC’s cannot be extorted and are really just like little machines but they can fork out however much money they want to for quests they enter to the guild. The guild gets a commission for both putting up the quest and part of the reward while the ones who do it get the rest. As a dungeon town it means we will have many, many quests constantly which is very good for our income. Every square km of land brings in 1 gold a day but that only counts length x width rather than the height as well, meaning cities who build up don’t get any free money.
-Due to it being a dungeon town we gained a lot of NPC’s for free. This is naturally advantageous for us. NPC’s can reproduce at the same rate as their race and are completely loyal, though they might give you bad deals if they don’t like you. They can be sold back to the system to get money but it will be less than what they are priced for.
-Right now there is a general adventurers guild that even a guild leader can join. These are classified as trade guilds and are a different type altogether. They can own cities but usually they just take small plots of land in many cities and run it. There can be branch leaders in these guilds and although automatically an NPC, a player can take over the job and get a decent salary and special quests about the guilds expansion of influence if they qualify for the job but apparently it’s not a good deal so not many will do it.
-Inside the guild base there are a few floors reserved specifically for registering for the different permissions, guilds, jobs and requests. We can also rent out floors to guilds. By default the adventurers guild has three floors in our guild building and have to pay us money to stay and in return our quests will be put inside there as long as they are not guild-specific quests. There is much more space for others but the adventurers guild was the only one added by default.
-Guilds can be challenged by other guilds. The challengers will attack and if they can wipe out the defenders it will be theirs, along with any and all assets, trade agreements, treaties and bonuses. Usually this is not done as it makes a guild weak to have more than one city and after the war since their forces are split. A leader can also challenge one on one instead of fighting full-scale but only if the defending leader agrees since loss results in the absorption of your guild, whether you where the challenger or the challenged.
-Lots of other random bits and pieces like taxes, politics, relations, treaties, communication etc that I don’t want to get into for now. Taxes has ups and down, the biggest being that while it’s impossible to be in dept unless it’s a personal lone due to the nature of guilds if everyone hates you because of the taxes you will naturally make less money from small things like the guild having to pay more for wares and getting less quests or money rewards from them.
‘Guild Menu’
[Guild Menu]
Name: Origin
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Location: ‘Natures Origin’ Entrance City
Specialty: Dungeon Diving, Protection, Production, defence, money.
Leader: Jean Paradox
Generals: Ally, Leo, Page, Lea and Theodore.
Members: (click to expand)
Guild Respect: 10,000
Leader Respect: 4,750
Generals Respect (average): 1,000
Guild Member Respect (average): 500
Guild Bank: 11,231.54 Gold
Removable Assets: 1,231.54 Gold
Non-Removable Assets: 10,000 Gold
Land Size: 25x25x50Km (Length x width x height)
NPC’s: 500
Guests: 3
(click to expand)
That was basically the general overview. Everything from the siege was deposited into the guild bank with the items being directly converted into money which was a bit unfortunate but we now had much deeper pockets than my mere hundred and twenty one gold coins which was good. Defence and money will make the city safer and give us more money income so it seemed like a good idea.
What I had planned was something big. It would literally use the guilds ten thousand gold immediately but the benefits where numerous.
[Guild Menu - Sub Guilds - Magic Association]
Name: Magic Association (branch guild)
Location: Top five floors in Origin Guild Building
Branch Leader: Dean Patios
Rent: 50 Gold coins P/day.
Build Cost: 10,000 Gold.
Use: To teach magic, share knowledge and find talents. Offers various levels of protection, resources and status based on your rank within the association.
Confirm? Yes/No
It was more than worth the money. To teach us to sense magic and give access to spell theory and actual spells is impressive, fifty gold a day will return our spent money in no time and if we can get high enough ranks then never mind the starting area protection, even up to the mid area raids would be easy to repel with the troops they deploy here. It also unlocks a whole new set of quests. I clicked yes.
Instantly I saw the top levels of the tower glow in the distance before it settled down.
“Let’s go learn magic” I grinned eagerly.
Though I was alone so it was a little embarrassing.
Who wouldn’t want to learn magic?
“Senior I came to ask about the requirements for joining the association on behalf of my guild and if I could request seniors help in showing my people mana so they can sense it and begin to learn the wonders of magic.” I said as respectfully as I could.
“Scram. I don’t need a useless brat who can’t even sense his own mana.” He said without even looking up from his book.
“Apologies for disappointing you senior but knowing the circumstances of this world it is really too unfair to say that my people and I are useless. We where just unlucky never to have seen magic before and as such it was blocked from our sights. Please reconsider senior.” I couldn’t lose my chance so easily.
“Fine. Since this dungeon will soon be bustling with activity from outsiders and as such become a major talent scouting point I will give you a chance. I’ll show you magic once for five seconds and if you can sense it from that time then I will teach you. Watch closely.”
{Ha! This old man is trying to set you up for failure! Only someone extremely close to the stage of sensing mana without any magic interference would be able to pick it up in such a short amount of time, this old geezer, what a terrible guy. Too bad for him that you are a person like that and even have prodigy to back you up and your eyes, he just set himself up for failure without realising!}
I didn’t even read the message as I looked at the old man intently and suddenly something appeared that felt formless but restrained in the shape of a ball above his hand. In the first second something stirred, in the second I felt like I could reach it soon, on the third it was like a connection appeared and a limit I didn’t know existed snapped, on the fourth I felt the composition of the magic in his hand and on the fifth I had a replica on my own hand with only slight instability.
Reading the message I skipped earlier quickly as I watched the old mans eyes widen I smiled triumphantly inside and read the new one’s.
[+50,000 Reputation with Magic Association!]
[+20,000 Reputation with Dean Patios!]
[+10,000 Reputation between Origin Guild with Magic Association!]
[A young prodigy not seen for thousands of years has appeared by chance in this remote world in front of a master magician. The organisation values such a prodigy greatly and as such the guild branch has been upgraded from second grade to first grade. Daily gold income will double and the magic books, resources and teachers present has greatly increased.]
[Achievement: First to use magic! Has been completed!]
[Unique Enhancement: Void Connection!]
I didn’t expect that but hell yeah, another soul-bound achievement. My inner smile widened.
“It looks like I misjudged you kid. Your reputation is high enough now for me to reveal a secret. To you, I am only an NPC, right? What you don’t understand is all the so called NPC’s from pre-built guilds are actually real people that are given a role to play in exchange for rewards. We can’t die while we’re playing these roles and our associations will get many benefits by sending us here. Me? I’m the son of the guild master. This world is merely a small, inconsequential one to us and beyond the benefits we gain we hold no attachment to it.
Even with the intelligence boost you get from this game you wouldn’t be able to replicate my magic in that short of time unless you are a once in a thousand years genius. The stats effect your mind, make it better and improve it but they don’t effect talent. Naturally this makes you extremely valuable to our organisation to the point where we are willing to sacrifice benefits we gained to pull you out of the game should you so wish to. You’ll be safe and raised as a young star in our association with numerous benefits. It’s your choice.” His words shocked me because I had no clue about any of that or that there was a way to escape but I already knew that my answer was a no.
“I have people I care about here and goals of my own so apologies senior but I cannot abandon this game. I thank you for the offer.” I was sincere when I said it.
“I wasn’t expecting you to up and abandon everything anyway since my offer was out of duty. Someone willing to abandon their loved ones and goals for safety wouldn’t be worthy of spending resources on.” He smiled.
[+5,000 Reputation with Dean Patios!]
“I will teach you. Even in here a genius is worth nurturing, although protecting you from danger will be harder. I only ask that you fulfil the original purpose of this guild and return knowledge to us in the future. I can’t directly upgrade your guild rank and as such there won’t be much protection other than the basics a first rank guild branch offers but it shouldn’t be too hard for you to gain enough mastery to rise in the ranks. Wipe some blood on this card and you’ll be registered.” Complying I cut my finger open and quickly wiped the blood before it healed.
[Status Card]
Name: Jean Paradox
Rank: Apprentice
Age: 17
Affinity(s): Chaos (100%), Blood (75%), Mana (2%), Wind (38%), Fire (3%), Spatial (2%), Lunar (1%), Crystal (7%), Life (14%), Cloud (1%), Rose (40%).
Mutated Affinity(s): Rose - Devine White (100%), ?, ?, ?.
Special: Void Connection.
Teacher: Dean Patios.
Other: Origin Guild Leader, Valued Talent.
“You… what the hell are you?” I was surprised. I have no idea about any of this other than chaos, blood and the void connection which I got from the apocalypse. While I assume they are valuable since they where achievements, I don’t know the extent of that and for the rest I feel like it’s underwhelming. Some are high but the fact that my natural affinities don’t even surpass 40% despite the amount I have feels disappointing.
“I… I don’t really know what you mean senior” I said honestly.
“Sigh… I guess you wouldn’t. Chaos and blood, while rare, aren’t something odd. There are many ways to get affinities and bring them up to 100% but there are also a lot of affinities where it is unknown how to get them so they only appear from birth. Lunar, Rose and cloud are affinities like that. In fact I’ve never even heard of someone having a rose affinity since it should be an off-shoot of nature, in other words a mutated affinity, and not it’s own entity. The fact you have a rose affinity and with a mutated version of it as well opens a whole new branch of possibilities for us.
For someone to be born with a mutated affinity is rare, let alone several. Usually it is one or maybe two if they have them, not four. You need to meditate and find them within yourself before we’ll know what they are and it’s possible to get more but let’s just look at it like starting a building with a good foundation. Mutations are unique and even ones that are seemingly the same on the surface are different below and as such it’s good for whoever has one since they are just another trump-card.
Also something that is odd is the fact that the first mutation is visible. That means that you have already found out about it previously whether it was a conscious or unconscious action, which for a mortal without knowledge of magic is close to impossible.
The void connection, while pretty rare, isn’t something unique like the roses. The Void let’s you tap into it’s energy to regenerate your own reserves faster and improves the rate you gain insights into magic. Affinities can be improved by insight, special objects and breakthroughs if they align right. The higher your affinity, the better your insights and the easier it is to use. The ideal method would be to improve it to 100% and then gain insights but a lot of the time that’s simply too hard and it’s not a perfect solution.
Always remember that while affinities help, having 100% in an affinity doesn’t mean that you are necessarily talented in it. For you, the chaos affinity might just make it easier to use chaos energy and your insight is the same as not having the affinity at all. Of course you can brute force your way through that with time, effort or luck but only the one’s you are truly connected to will come easily to you.
I want to explain more but you need to reach the basic level in what I teach you before you’ll understand what I’m saying. For now, go. Go show magic to your guild and improve their strength. They’ll need it.
I can tell your not human although it is subtle so let me give you some advice. Take it from a guy who is the last of nine brothers, love and trust is unbelievably fragile. Never trust more than two people. While now they value trust and friendship, what about ten thousand years from now? Time has a way of numbing people and this game will go on for atleast a hundred thousand years. Someone who would die for you today would be able to betray you in a year let alone ten thousand. By saying this I might be taking away something from you like innocence or youthfulness but atleast with a warning, you might survive a while longer.”
I almost didn’t register his last comment while I was thinking over everything he had said. He had a story to tell that much was obvious but he also had a story I felt reluctant to hear. It’s stupid but trust is something I want to keep and I won’t tempt my logic into destroying it, atleast not yet.
“Senior… the roses…. I know why I have them. They came from my sisters death.”
I walked out the door I had stalled at before he could ask anything.
----
“Retractable fangs, change in eye colour, got paler even though i supposedly don’t have side-effects from the change and my voice sounds pretty sexy. Did I miss anything?” I asked sarcastically to the god I’ve familiarised myself with to a small amount over the day.
{Your eyelashes got slightly longer, your body changed in slight amounts over it’s entirety which made you damn sexy, your hair got a bit longer with a little added volume and glossiness. When drinking blood your dark golden eyes will develop a slight red tinge that looks awesome and the inside of your body is also a lot cleaner/purer. Instead of ribs you have a bone plate but I guess you wouldn’t have noticed due to the muscles blocking sight and the shaping making you look like a normal human. Oh, and your kind of a freaky horror film guy now since your head and limbs can do 360 turns. I think the main thing you missed however where the retractable claws. You are an Alpha Predator by race, a weak and squishy human body that lacks weapons naturally isn’t suiting.}
I quickly felt up my chest and realised it was true. How did I miss that?
“Are there any racial traits I should be wary of?” I asked after checking myself out a bit more carefully.
{You can turn beings into vampires if you have the intent to turn them when you bite but they will be a lesser version due to the fact you are just a normal blood vampire. Nobles can make normal, royals can make nobles, main bloodline royals can make royals not of the main bloodline and mythical can make main bloodline royals. There’s also a main bloodline in mythicals but since mythicals are technically a different race it didn’t show up in the evolution list. Hmm, blood has different flavours depending on the strength, race, gender, health etc of the one you drink it from. There’s even breakfast cereals if you look hard enough and the fast regeneration of both health and mana.}
“How did you go over so much detail and ignore my hair colour?” I sighed as I mentioned the thing I purposefully left out.
{Eh? I just assumed you where playing a one-man drama that had you purposefully ignore it in order to make me reveal it spectacularly so I didn’t do it to be annoying.}
“Although it’s only been a day, somehow that really sounds like you.” I said blandly.
{Fine I’ll go the extra mile then. Due to your extremely deep personal connection with roses when you where evolving and your body was easily mouldable that connection came forth and changed your hair colour. It didn’t have the power to do it completely due to the other connections diluting it but it was enough to give your hair soft white tips like a white rose petal. Your hair itself is pure black since that is the colour usually aligned with chaos and dominated the rest. Oddly though, the colour of your pubi-}
“And that is my cue to ignore you for the rest of the day.”
Focusing I watched as my nails sharpened themselves into little spikes. I felt that they could lengthen to about five inches but the further out they go, the more fragile they are (though still strong). The optimal distance was merely a few centimetres out from the original as it is used to help the hand pierce through without much risk of my nails breaking.
With the intent to test it I entered an indoor garden in my stupidly big apartment I got with being the guild leader and flattened my hand before shoving it into a tree. It felt a little uncomfortable as I could feel wood splinters scraping over every part of my hand but otherwise it entered with an unnatural ease. I didn’t even use my excessive strength for that.
{Don’t ignore me, I have more to tell you! Jeez, so impatient.}
For a while I debated it before reasoning won out compared to childish annoyance.
“What is it?”
{The nails are one thing but if you concentrate a bit you’ll find that your hand will be covered with a serrated bone plating that brings your fingers into perfect little spikes. The nails are mainly for crowd control and defence as with the size, if augmented with magic it is optimal for crowds but the plating is for more even combat levels. Naturally the defence is a lot higher as well as it’s piercing power so one on one combat is best with it. Basically piercing and slashing modes, allowing you to be completely badass if used right.}
Reluctantly I admitted that that was pretty cool.
It was black, probably since the ‘natural predator’ part wouldn’t allow it to be white, just like the nails but because of that it could easily be mistaken for a glove.
“Well whatever. For now we’ll go have a chat with Lea.”
----
[POV Change]
“Bastard…” I ground my teeth in annoyance.
“What’s the big deal? You’re the leader, I’m just a figurehead used for protection. Naturally I don’t want to do something as annoying as management.” That’s not the point, I thought I just got out of this…
“So what? Did you think I wanted to lead? Everyone was just plain incompetent and all this crap got chucked on me but I don’t want to do it in the slightest. I literally only just thought I got out of it and you come to spout this crap.” I knew it wouldn’t change his opinion at all but in this situation I just really wanted to complain about the unfairness of it all.
“I’m not asking you to do all the work, in fact feel free to offload it all to Theodore or any other members you can trust but by nature I’m anti-social and distant. I can’t lead them and everyone looks to you for commands anyway. I’m a figure head for strength while you’re the person truly leading and I don’t have any intention to change my status as a figurehead.” It annoyed me but he was right, which just annoyed me even more.
He could be a good leader if he tried, I know that from the brief periods where he took command but he simply doesn’t want to. Could and would are two very different concepts and it’s undeniable that we need him as our guild leader. The two extra specialties alone which he told me about are reason enough to let him be the official leader even if he was weak, let alone the fact that he is stupidly powerful, trained and has friends the same even if slightly weaker. With the status of having a mere month to prepare for a predictably bigger, stronger and longer raid to occur it’s probably better not to hinder his training anyway as it’s likely he and his friends are the only thing which will bring us through it.
“Dammit… fine. But if your going to dump all this crap on me then you have to atleast take a crap ton of missions to improve the relations we have with the town and bring in money. Don’t just coop up training without giving us any means for survival.” I practically growled when I said it which surprised me a bit but I simply couldn’t bring myself to care.
“I’m a figurehead but that doesn’t mean I won’t help. You’ll have to find a way to make the members train whether it is in magic, gaining levels or stat training or I won’t be able to help you much though. I did a run by the adventurers guild earlier and the missions… well, it’s not looking good for us. There was a mission about clearing out a nest of a million hobgoblins. At this rate even if we can hold through the siege it will take almost a month to finish it and by then we’ll be severely weakened for the next siege.” All my anger and annoyance drained away to be replaced by the icy reality that his words brought. Fuck.
“Don’t look so grim. We have magic, remember? All kinds of stupidly bullshit crap can be done with it. I only skimmed through some basic books the guild gave me but I can already augment my body with it and bring my combat potential up massively. Even with magic things are looking grim right now but we have a month where we can create an NPC army, learn magic and train. Our priority is to bring the numbers down and increase our power and while a month is short it is still better than we would have gotten otherwise.”
Idiot, you can say such words that completely turn around the despair people feel but yet you refuse to lead. How frustrating.
“Can I ask you a favour…?” I asked hesitantly.