If he’s already down for it, then yes, Jordan affirmed to the System.
Congratulations!
By attaining your Guild, you have now qualified for placement on the leaderboard of the Quest: Mightiest Guild. You may now view the Mightiest Guild leaderboard and your current place on it at any time.
Guild created!
Automatically invited members: 1
Before leaderboard placement can be finalized, the user must affirm a name for the Guild. Any invited Guild members can also propose the name, but as its leader, the user will act as the final decider.
“Huh, did you get the invite for the Guild already?” Jordan asked while looking up from the screen.
“Yes,” Haje replied. Just a moment later, Jordan got a pop-up that confirmed the accepted invitation.
“So, all we need to do now is pick a name. If you have any ideas, I’m open to suggestions.”
Haje shrugged. “It is your Kingdom and Guild. You are the leader, so I will accept whatever your choice is. I only care for our position on the leaderboard; the name itself matters little compared to that.”
Hmm, fair enough, I guess it’s all on me then. Alright, Jordan, Industry was already a 10/10 name if I do say so myself as a biased source. What can you cook up this time, you naming savant you? Closing his eyes, he focused all his mental prowess on one train of thought. Every single point of intellect and creativity combined to think of the best name possible.
The desired name of the Guild has been finalized!
Industry’s placement on the leaderboard has been finalized!
“I see, that is the straightforward choice,” Haje commented as he’d likely also just gotten a pop-up about the finalized name. The human in front of him just nodded, feeling infinitely wise about his choice of what to call the Guild.
Did it actually end up being the most creative pick in the world? No, not at all. But at least one could say that it was functional. If something looked at Industry the Kingdom and Industry the Guild on separate leaderboards, then there would be no mistake in the connection. Better that than having a different name for each, and then just later on having people find out that they’re basically one and the same, anyway. Or at least that was the logic that he had ended up using to justify it.
“Can you access both of the leaderboards now?” Jordan asked as he went ahead and opened the Guild leaderboard to see where their starting placement was on the list.
Mightiest Guild:
1: Golden Empire of the Eternal Golden Prince
2: Adventurer’s Guild
3: League of Warriors
4: New Earth Guild
5: Yvaro’s Guild
…
26,812: Industry
“Hmm, yes. Ah! It pleases me to see that my friend is not only the proud leader of the Mightiest Kingdom,” Haje began while Jordan was still looking at the screen. “But for the Mightiest Guild… mmm. Being the top Kingdom is still an achievement to take pride in!”
Thank you, those words are very encouraging, and that pause was definitely not felt, Jordan sarcastically thought to himself. Though even he couldn’t disagree, because the results of this screen completely contradicted the over two leaderboards. How could someone be one of the people, have the top Kingdom, and yet also be so, so far down in this list for Guilds?
At the top, practically expected at this point, was the Golden Empire. Though, unlike the Kingdom leaderboard, Jordan found something a bit more unexpected. When he quickly scanned through the top couple hundred or so, he didn’t find another instance of them being on the list. Even going down a bit further than that, just to be sure, he still didn’t see another placing for the Golden Empire.
Huh, so no spamming different spots on the list this time. But while I got the option automatically just now for inviting Haje to my Kingdom, there’s no way that can be true as the only way. Not when there are tens of thousands more Guilds than there are Kingdoms. Like if we go to the bottom to see just how many there are under us…
He then had the System scroll all the way down. Which revealed that there were just about 140,000 Guilds in total. This was in comparison to under a few Kingdoms. And as for the total population of people on the Mightiest Individual list, that figure was even higher now at 315 million. Something that made for a pretty fair jump from 290 million, back when he’d checked it just a few hours ago. But then he had a sudden thought.
Hey, System, if you can automatically pick out names, then what about Species? Update the Mightiest individual leaderboard and then take me to the bottom, but only include human beings. Jordan then blinked as the text on the screen then shifted. He had half-expected that not to work.
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But when he then looked at the result… his heart skipped a beat.
40,240,502: Musa Khan
Only 40 million Humans had reached Level 2 over the last few days. So out of the few hundred million total on the leaderboard, mankind as a whole only represented a small minority. But… how? Out of eight billion people, how could so many have even failed to gain 100 Experience Points by now? Even if you weren’t trying to gain Levels, just defending yourself from random monsters should have at least gotten that much EXP, surely?
Briefly glancing over at Haje, it gave him an idea. Next, Jordan asked the System to show him a new screen for the leaderboard. This time, to filter it so that it only showed the Jabelite Species. The System obliged, and the updated number was even worse the humanity’s. For Haje’s entire Species, just under ten million had gotten to Level 2.
Now considering the number of Kingdoms under their control, Jordan had a bad feeling about what the next request would look like. He had it check how many Crabs were on the leaderboard. And as for what that number turned out to look like…
They were at just a little over 200 million. For the unfiltered Leaderboard, practically two out of every three people on it was actually a Crab. Now that did mean there were about 50 to 60 million individuals left on the leaderboard that were still unaccounted for. So that was at least one other sapient Species out there that Jordan still had yet to meet. But compared to the revelation of how poorly humanity was doing, that thought was secondary in importance.
“Now then, let us leave this cave. If there is nothing left for us to do here, then as promised, you can assist in my hunt. I do not wish to insult you, but with how small your body and limbs are, will you need help to get out?” Haje then asked, breaking Jordan out of his train of thought.
The human gave the leaderboard screens one last look, before dismissing them from his sight. Yet even after they were gone, the concerned expression on his face still remained. For only half a percent of Earth’s population to have gotten to Level 2 by now, that math just simply wasn’t mathing. Not unless there was something of truly gargantuan importance that he just didn’t know about.
This had to be the case, but what could possibly lead to such a drastic result? Yet for now, Haje’s question meant that he couldn’t just stay in his own head for as long as he wanted.
“You know? While I could get out on my own, I have a feeling it’ll be faster with your help. So I’d appreciate it, thanks,” he replied with a nod.
The next part was rather predictable. With one arm, Haje grabbed the much smaller human. Then, with his new friend secured, all he needed was just one leap to fully jump out of the cave. There was a deep boom of snow being shifted into the cave as Haje’s entire weight landed on the area just outside of the hole.
Jordan didn’t worry too much about the land drone still down there. With its core fully busted up, the TP connection had automatically gotten cut off anyway. So while he could summon a few more now, it’d just be several more minutes until that one in particular could be replaced.
One at a time, four land drones began to appear around him. With the busted-up one below, he was technically now at five “active” drones. He then looked over at his Status for his current TP, and was pleasantly surprised.
Resources:
Tech Points: 5/5 (31)
Tech Points Regen: 11.62/Min
Huh, I guess I shouldn’t have gotten so ready to be upset just earlier. I can still summon one more land drone, so that actually evens out in terms of what the current Scaling looks like. Sorry for doubting you, System; I guess your weird TP rounding still checks out to not make the Scaling useless. With that matter now something for him to feel a bit better about, he went ahead and cast Summon Air Drone as well.
Jordan pointed at the air drone. “That one found a Level 6 spirit just a short while ago. It should be able to find more like it, if the past predicts the future and all. Do you mean if these land ones also hunt around this area for me to keep getting Experience Points too? I’ll send them off in different directions, so they shouldn’t get in your way.”
“That should not be an issue. If this flying summon of yours allows me to find more prey than I was able to find myself, then you will already have my gratitude. To deny your own hunts in return would only dishonor my claim as your friend.”
Nodding, Jordan’s plan was to now send his land drones to find stuff to kill. Considering the amount of firepower it’d taken to beat that Ice Spirit, he figured that for now, it might be smarter to split the four of them into two pairs. It would mean less area covered by their search, but also that if they encountered something tough, they’d be less likely to get wiped out.
“Alright then, but I should let you know that the actual base for my Kingdom is… both near and very far away. You wouldn’t happen to have already come across a big sphere that’s labeled as a gateway, would you?” He asked.
From looking out at the landscape, Haje turned toward him. “I have. While the other side was full of warmth, but there were was little in terms of prey that I could hunt. Even with my Stats, the only worthwhile prey was far deeper underwater, where my kind often struggle to move.”
Jordan had politely nodded along. At first, in the back of his mind, he’d just been worried and glad that Haje had been the one to find and check out the portal. And not someone else, like an invasion of more Crabs. But the moment the stone giant had spoken that last sentence aloud, Jordan was immediately thrown for a loop. He looked up at his new companion’s head, not quite sure if he'd actually heard him correctly.
“Deep… underwater, you say?” Jordan inquired.
“Yes, I went inside a vast body of water that seemed to stretch as far as I could see.” Haje stretched out his arms to emphasize. “By the time I turned back, I had gone deep enough that the surface felt as distant as the sky above our heads. Back home, I have only heard stories of such a great amount of water, from a far-off clan that lived close to one.”
“And… where is this gateway?”
“Hmm, is it not the one you spoke of? I found it at the base of these mountains, on the first day that the System took us to this world. It should be should be that way,” Haje said, while then pointing in a particular direction.
A direction that was almost the opposite way from the portal Jordan had come through.