Harold was having the time of his life. He finally felt like he was living up to his potential.

Although… Maybe that was a strange thought to have whilst having exhausted himself to the point of near fainting on his pillow each night for the past few weeks; and while currently swimming in a sea of a thousand warrior wasps.

Mossy certainly seemed to think so, but Harold was feeling nothing but pride at having transformed his formerly measly swarm into such a proper squad over that time.

That's right, they still hadn't thought of a better name. The mosswolf was mostly busy doing its own thing, enjoying the easy access to food and staying out of the other’s way while challenging the parts of the forest which it dared enter on its lonesome.

Harold had taken the time to go by the old inn a couple of times, first just to see how Lena was treating it, but then because he found he could actually start to enjoy the atmosphere there again; Lena had done a wonderful job of giving the Hare's Retreat a new feel, with various new furniture and a menu better than anything the drunks of Salcret had been provided there before.

She had even planted some apple trees outside that had yet to sprout due to the quickly approaching winter, but Harold did take the time to provide the seedlings with a dormant boost.

And the people of Salcret knew how to party, so that’s where Harold found himself whenever he had time to relax.

Livia in the meantime had gone through a real transformation once they finally left the wilderness. She slept until late in the morning, almost to noon some days, but then she stayed up working late at night, every night.

When she had gotten her bearings and felt ready to make a choice it was only her 3rd day in Salcret, and so she picked out her Class; and the choice surprised all the people who had come to know her at all.

But the first thing she did on arrival was create a stir in the town square, and proceed to convince everybody of the quality of her hammer.

A couple of people in the crowd even had the Class, and so the ensuing bidding war resulted in what was nothing special; but it gave Livia some funds to go along.

She lent the rest from the other guys, and then quickly found and bought a rather run down three room house that had been vacated at some point.

The innermost room was where she got Oscar to help her put a large desk and a basic cabinet, so she could then declare it her office. She even tried her classic 'Declared it!'-joke but it fell flat to the young native and just dealt her another pang of homesickness.

Once that was dealt with she invited Kalle and Harold to come visit her new place, and then she asked them some rather pointed questions.

"Would you like to have your own [Druidic Enclave] Harold?" He did not know what that was, but he did not need to, the response was a resounding "Yes!"

And Kalle gave him a thumbs up and a happy but also envious look.

The [Esperlock] did not need to wait for long however. "And Kalle, would you like to have your own [Warlock Conclave]?" The answer was equally, resoundingly obvious. “Yes!”

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In the end having the two organizations recognized by the System was not a big deal; all you needed was the Class and a dedicated location.

But what else it did was what Livia was after: Provide a leadership Class. However, as she was standing in her office trying to mentally command her three minions–in order to summon the right prompt–all that she kept getting was: [Class Aspirant detected. Secretary. Advanced Bookkeeping. Yes/No?].

While she knew that was a Class with plenty of hidden depth, that few others were probably aware of, she was looking for something else entirely.

While Livia was figuring it out, Harold and Kalle got into an argument about who got the innermost room remaining, and who would get sat in the lobby; which of course resulted in the usual solution–a competition.

Harold wanted to arm wrestle, for obvious reasons, while Kalle preferred that they play a game of rock, paper, scissors.

Harold refused, citing a made-up ability to read minds that Kalle used to consistently win the game, while Kalle defended by saying it was just about being observant… To which Harold erupted with "I'm plenty observant!"

They were getting nowhere so Livia finally intervened by painting them a chessboard and quickly explaining the rules so they could play for it, while she absent-mindedly considered what might be missing for her chosen Class.

With the crew busy resolving their issues, Livia went to meet with the village head, who was an old woman by the name of Tyresa.

She explained how the two young Casters had established their organizations in town temporarily, and how she would like to officially declare her recently purchased building, where they were situated, the new [Guild Hall].

Such things were not unheard of, but it was a thing done in proper cities and not sleepy little towns like Salcret. Tyresa gave a mildly disapproving look but eventually acquiesced when Livia was done explaining how the situation was quite temporary.

When Livia returned to her new office later that hour–and sent some mental commands the guy’s way–was when she finally got the prompt she had been waiting for.

[Class Aspirant detected. Guild Master. Wondrous Ambition. Yes/No?]

Yes.

When Livia chose yes it felt like taking a giant step forward, and then she blacked out. When she came back to her senses, she was still standing, and had a vague recollection of her mind being bombarded with images of dollars rushing through counting machines, of being back on Earth at the height of an economic boom, of opening business after business and watching them build and build and build across generations, with a dedicated leader at the helm.

[Class granted: Business Guild Master]

[Skill granted: Basic Bookkeeping]

[Skill granted: Pitch Perfect]

[Skill granted: Extended Halls]

[Skill granted: Nurture Talent]

[Skill granted: Play the Host]

[Skill granted: Conflict De-escalation]

[Domain granted: Guild’s Chosen Perimeter]

[Skill granted: Wondrous Ambition]

[Passive granted: Master of the Merit Exchange]

[Skill granted: Guild Constitution]