Gii was currently running north of Incarnum following the road that traced along the western edge of the city. The Gate he had teleported to was just south of the city, so he needed to take the long road around it to make his way to the meeting point that was agreed upon with the gaming club.

The reason he had agreed to meet, was to provide them with the map he had obtained from his courier quest. He had long ago memorized the world map for Listonia as well as the locations of the different Gates that could be registered. Since it would be tedious to either bring the girls around or try to explain the areas they should be looking for, Gii decided to just mark the map he had with all of the locations available and let them figure out the rest.

Truthfully it wasn't completely necessary for players to go to every single gate that they knew and register it right away like Gii was doing. Most players would just choose to go to all of the ones with relevant hunting grounds or special locations. That way they could also start hunting and not waste so much time traveling everywhere. Both sides had their pros and cons, but the girls in the gaming club couldn't completely give up on hunting, so they compromised when Gii offered this as a solution for them.

As he was traveling along the road, Gii pulled open his status to check on his curse now that its effects had been strengthened.

Curse: Torment of Crassius

Effects:

+15% more soul energy loss upon death

Effectiveness with all weapons -10%

Gii frowned as he looked at the new effects of the curse.

This is going to be really harsh after the fifth altar...

Judging by the rate his curse advanced this time, it looked like after the fifth altar he would have a massive -25% penalty with all weapons. Additionally he would suffer 30% more soul energy loss whenever he died. Even though he had been prepared for some negative penalties, it was still alarming to see such large detrimental effects.

I'll have to think of a plan to counter the effects somehow...

There were a number of ways he knew of that would at least help mitigate the effects a little bit. As he was mulling over this information to himself, he received a chat message.

[OnyxVeteran: Hey we are waiting at the Gate in the piglet plains. where are you?]

[Gii: I have to run there, I should be there in a few minutes.]

[OnyxVeteran: Alright, see you in a bit then.]

With the speed increase from his courier boots, Gii was able to make very quick time and the Gate located in the piglet plains became visible in the distance. He could see 4 humanoid figures loitering around the Gate as he approached, one of which was wearing a set of vibrant violet plate armor. At this stage of the game plate armor was extremely hard to come by and customized plate armor like this was even rarer. Either this person was extremely rich or they had access to a high level armorer that would be able to craft for them.

The other 3 figures seemed more in line with what Gii expected, One of them was wearing a basic shield on their left arm and was also wearing one of the most iconic early game sets, the adventurer's armor . Gii recognized the name above this person's head as it said "OnyxVeteran" which he knew was Arden's avatar name. Standing next to her was a bubbly girl in standard mage robes who was waving frantically as he approached, above her head was the name "OnyxSlasher". Gii knew that this was most likely the girl with the fiery orange hair, Zoey. The other person standing with them was wearing a standard soldier uniform and above their head was the name "OnyxBerserker", which Gii knew was Cassie' Avatar name.

Gii approached and greeted everyone, at which point Veteran introduced him to the person wearing the purple plate armor.

"So this person here is one of our upperclassman who graduated last year. She's the one who came up with the clan name Onyx, which is why she has that in her name."

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"Nice to meet you!"

Gii had long ago recognized the name above this person's head, and it wasn't just because of the armor they were wearing.

No wonder their clan name was the same...

OnyxQueen was quite famous in Listonia's history from what Gii remembered, as she pioneered a build for rogues that became one of the most popular amongst the playerbase. Although it never matured and reached a tier 4 class, it was an easy build to replicate and was considered one of the best tier 3 builds even late into the game's lifespan. She was definitely considered a trailblazer for rogue builds

It looks like she didnt initially intend to play a rogue.

Gii extended his hand to shake hers as he thought about this, but only showed a smile on his face.

"So you're the upperclassman they keep talking about."

"I'm sure everything they've said is exagerated!"

"I'm sorry I didnt let you know beforehand, but she suddenly wanted to meet you when I mentioned you were a Beta player."

"Are you like super famous or something!?"

Gii chuckled "No way."

Queen gave a light tap on Slasher's head and she cried out "OW!"

"Oh stop being a drama queen!"

Gii laughed at the interaction between the two friends and then refocused his attention on Queen.

"So what do I owe this meeting to? I'm not really any different from other Beta testers."

"Straight to the point I see? Great, thats fine by me. I'm here to recruit you to my guild!"

The other girls all looked at her in shock.

"WOW! You made a guild!?"

"How did you make a guild already?"

"As expected of our former leader, you must be the first to create a guild right?"

"Oh shut it you three, One hasn't been made yet but it will be once we get a Guild Gem."

The three spoke in unison "OHHH"

"Anyway, Beta players are definitely veterans at this point in the game and I've been told to recruit any if I come in contact with them, so that's why I'm here. Are you interested?"

"Well that depends. How many members do you have? Oh, and do you have a guild name yet?"

"At this time we have about 60 members lined up, most of whom are Beta players. Our leader is named PhotonDan and he plans to call the guild Ravenous."

As Queen began explaining their plans for organizing the guild and different events that were planned, Gii couldn't focus on what she was saying because he recognized that guild name. In the future of Listonia, the Guild named Ravenous was not a powerhouse guild that dominated all others. They were not a top guild that won any championships or tournaments, in fact, the guild collapsed about 6 months after it was formed. However any good historian of the game would recognize the guild name because it was one of the most influential guilds in the game's history.

The primary reason behind that was the fact that the leaders of 6 different powerhouse guilds and many of Listonia's top rankers and best PVP players, all got their start by joining the Ravenous guild. These players ended up writing the early history of the game with many of them remaining famous throughout the game's history! Unfortunately the guild broke apart due to internal strife, which is to be expected with so many alpha personalities in one place. Many people like Gii always speculated what would have happened if the guild managed to stay together. Gii knew this would be a great opportunity to meet and befriend some top players. Even though the guild would break up after 6 months, many of the members kept an amiable relationship with each other and often talked fondly of their days in Ravenous as guildmates.

As much as he wanted to create the first Tier 5 class, the game was meant to be played with other players, it was an mmorpg after all. Many of the late game dungeons would not be able to be completed solo, at the very least Gii had never heard of anyone completing them solo. No matter how strong he became individually it would always remain more fun to play with a team. Gii knew that even if he couldn't form a direct team with them, he could at least become basic aquantances so that he might be able to invite them for hunting or dungeons. Not to mention the opposite would be possible and they could invite him as well. It was pretty much a win win scenario for him.

"It's definitely something i'm interested in, but I have to warn you that i'm more of a casual player. Is it still alright if I join?"

"It's definitely alright! we intend to cater to all manner of players! Lets add each other as friends and ill send you a link to our website."

Queen seemed very enthusiastic about his willingness to join the guild, he guessed she must be getting some reward based on each person that she recruited as it was a common tactic for guilds. Eventually Queen left through the Gate after she had discussed everything they needed to. Gii then handed over his map which he had marked with various locations and explained to Veteran and the others.

"This map is not 100% accurate and the points I marked will only give you the general location so you will have to search a bit when you get to the area."

"That's fine, we can hunt while we search if its an area around our level."

"Yea, you sure you dont want to join us?"

"No sorry, I have a bit of a timetable I'm trying to keep and I still have a long way to travel..."

Veteran nodded in understanding.

"That's fine, we have our own plans as well and will need to plan where to meet with the others anyway."

They all bid farewell and the girls started traveling back towards the city while Gii continued toward the next destination in his journey.

***

Gii Continued traveling for another day and a half in game before he finally started reaching the region he had been looking for, the Kanegar Massif. This was a fairly small and remote region in Listonia, however it was located almost exactly in the middle of the entire continent. From here on and throughout the entire northern half of the continent, the largest population of people belonged to a beast race known as Kanegars. They were large beast people that had features similar to a tiger mixed with a kangaroo. They were inteligent and quite strong with most of thier average warriors having the strength of late tier 1. They lived in large tribes that wandered the great grasslands of the north and utilized martial arts specializing in tridents and spears.

This massif was a series of tightly packed plateau-like mountains that marked the entry point to the norther grasslands. It also marked the area where Kanegars could first be spotted when traveling north, hence why it got it's name. Gii walked through the towering flattop mountains and navigated the difficult terrain with experience. Although this place seemed really desolate he knew there was actually an extremely important location here. Gii finally traversed the most difficult of the areas and came upon a well kept walking path. When he followed where it led with his eyes, he could see a large temple like figure on the horizon.

Finally, The Sanctorium Archive!

For right now Gii only had 2 objectives while traveling to this location, the first of which would be to register the Gate. He travelled leisurely along the path and made his way to the botom of the massive amount of steps leading up the large pyramid like temple. In his past life Gii remembered how one crazy player had actually counted every step and as he approached his dread for climbing them grew. As he placed his foot on the first step he thought to himself.

Was it 18,578? or 18,576?

~sigh~

It doesn't look like I'll get to the top before the sun goes down...