A month had passed, and the guilds ruled the tower. It was soon realized that superhuman adventurers would be the next step in war power. Preliminary tests had been done and mages and fighters beyond level ten could already stop bullets with their combined abilities and armor. It had further been estimated that by level 25 someone within the mage path could stop even larger bombs and maybe even nuclear bombs.
That changed the calculus for world governments and multinational businesses alike. If they could use their resources to fund tower climbers then it wouldn’t be long before they had an unstoppable army. Funding increased dramatically as more and more tests were done both in the tower and out of it. For these groups, the tower was just the newest battleground with which they could throw their money and power around in.
At first, the guilds were small and disorganized, often consisting of just a few dozen members. These groups were based on previous friendships or business relationships. But as the tower's first floor was flooded with paid climbers the guilds initially established for fun were redesigned to improve efficiency and farm as many resources as possible within the tower’s depths.
The initial alliances had formed and so had the rivalries. As each country realized the potential of the tower they built up protection around the tower beacons, the entryways to the tower. They hadn’t blocked entry for ow but there was a tension in the air.
It wasn't long before the most powerful guilds began to dominate their regions, using their strength and influence to take control of key areas within the tower that had been mapped so far. The guilds and the independent tower climbers also learned the value of the crafter path. The resources spent on repairs and new equipment were not a small one. It would make or break any small teams and for the guilds to dominate they needed every available Tower Point to spend. That meant hiring crafters in cash instead of the tower’s unique currency. Some new adventurers would immediately join guilds based on their crafter path alone. The guilds were able to fund the crafter’s levels and experience with near-endless amounts of collected loot from the monsters slain.
Some had even begun to divide themselves based on their chosen paths. Some guilds focused solely on magic or sword mastery, while others prioritized crafting or archery. Each guild had its own unique approach to tackling the challenges of the tower, and they competed fiercely to prove their superiority. And with the cash flows from their sponsors decently armed and leveled climbers flocked to join the most promising guilds.
“We need to join a guild,” said Kai.
“Not this again,” said Rich.
Alex and the rest of the team sat on a terrace eating food on Earth during one of their few downtime days.
“Listen. You put me in charge of our team finances, and they are not looking great, and they will get even worse if we don’t join one. In the past month, the Tower Point to dollar ratio has halved. We need to join a guild for better rates and better hunting spots.”
“He is right you know,” said Eric.
“But I don’t want to be locked into a contract or a war. I did not quit my Earth job just to be sucked into a business in the tower,” said Rich.
“We haven’t doubted your leadership, but we need a change,” said Kai.
“We haven’t gotten much further out of the village after paying for the spells for Kai and Taylor and the sword training for Eric,” said Alex. “We need to consider it.”
“Will you stop dog-pilling me? Fine. I will hear you out on the guild situation,” said Rich.
Kai took a deep breath and started his speech. “I know you are not one to be held down by anything so I picked out a guild that would work for us in the short term and if we don’t like it there should be no issue stepping away or moving to a better guild. The Golden Doves are good for us. They are a subcontractor-neutral guild that’s main purpose is to gather resources and sell them to the bigger and upcoming guilds that are interested in war and creating peak climbers. We would sign a deal for 6 months or so and then reevaluate. With their help, we could get paid in Tower Points or cash and get access to their rates, their internal crafters, and some rarer items. As a part of the contract, we will be required to gather a certain amount of resources, anything we want, minimum worth a certain amount of Tower Points per month as per our contract.”
Kai paused waiting for Rich’s response. They all sat in silence for a minute letting the considerations weigh in their minds.
“6 months. No more than that for now. AND I want to make sure we get a good rate on the selling of our stuff,” said Rich. “Go contact their representative and we will read over the contracts and sign when everyone has read over, agreed, and signed it.”
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“I’ll get it done.”
“Now anything else we need to discuss as a part of this team meeting?” asked Rich.
“Well seeing as we are now all level ten,” said Taylor. They were all level ten except for Alex. He had always seemed to lag due to his lack of damage output in most of the fights. Though Alex wasn’t going to correct her words. He felt that he was on the edge of level ten and would catch up to them soon. “I was thinking we could take the trek to the nearest city. Can we make it happen?”
“I think so,” said Rich. “What have you learned so far about the situation in the cities and what it takes to stay their long-term?”
“If we are going to join up with a guild then we will need to travel to the nearest city. The starter village can’t hold us anymore. More people are flooding into the tower leaving the surrounding area bare of resources. We won’t be able to gain much of a foothold there when we have to travel further and further to get what we need to improve ourselves and pay guild fees. If we reach a city we can active it’s tower portal and go there directly.”
“I did that with the tower beacon a few hours away,” said Alex.
“The city is bigger than the village by a factor of five or more,” continued Taylor. “We could sell our stuff for better rates and most importantly we will be closer to the higher-level monster. We will encounter up to level 10 monsters or more. The guilds have also started renting out space in the cities so we will want to be there for the guild activities.”
“What is the catch?” asked Rich. “It can’t all be good.”
“We will be surrounded by higher-level adventurers for better or worse. Fighting may occur and some of the costs especially for living will be higher. We will want to stay on the floor while being as productive as possible.”
“We’ve run into hostile adventurers in the past. We can take them on again,” said Eric.
“Those adventurers weren’t associated with a guild,” said Kai, “they were independent. That won’t be as likely near the cities. If we run into trouble there we may face the ire of a guild. We don’t want to get into the political and power plays between the different guilds.”
“Then we will have to be careful and if it comes down to it we will deal with any attacks quickly and quietly,” said Eric resolutely. “Remember when we first entered the tower? Adventurers die all the time to monsters. We have had a few close encounters ourselves. We just have to make sure that death by monsters is the most likely cause of death for those who come for us.”
“I don’t like it, but he is right,” said Taylor, “We have never been one of the hostile groups, but we need to be ready for it when we are intermingling in the city and guilds more often.”
“I think the risk is worth taking,” said Caleb. “The main road if we hire a horse crew would take probably a week based on the reports I’ve read on travel around the floor. So, we would need to buy and pack a week’s worth of food and pay for passage to the city. Maybe if we time it right we could find some pro-bono work as guards with some of the merchants.”
“That is a good idea. While Kai takes care of the guild opportunity. Taylor, you will contact the merchants and see if we can find a quick way to the cities. Every day we spend traveling is one not used to improve ourselves or make money,” said Rich. “We also need to consider our long-term stay and base of operations. I want to be fully in the tower sooner rather than later. I mean have you seen the official names of those considered the peak in the tower? A guy is leading a group to enter the second floor. He is already level 15. It has been a month. Imagine what we could be doing if we stayed in the tower full time like some of them.”
“Those rankings are unofficial and don’t show the full picture,” said Eric, “I have tried finding out more information about the Top 100 list that was put out and couldn’t find much. Though the ranking was made by a collection of guilds I don’t see it as anything more than propaganda. They are announcing to the world that they have the climbers who will break barriers and the gods among men. And by listing their guild affiliations they are saying that they are better by having stronger members and it worked. The list was released and verified a week ago. Now look where we are. We are looking to join a guild because without one we will fall behind. The guilds don’t release their membership numbers beyond a general estimate, but I can guarantee you all this. The recruitment and application numbers for all the guilds even the small ones went up by four or five times.”
“I get it,” said Rich. ““Perhaps we're jumping on the bandwagon, but what's wrong with that? With the publicity from those reaching the second floor, all the guilds, even for small teams like us, will want to recruit more members to be successful. Now back on topic. What do our shared Tower Points looking like Kai? Could we splurge on a faster travel method?”
“Our current count is 1112 Tower Points. Our points were going to pieces of training initially. I know Alex we next on the list. We have enough points to rent an enchanted cart if we delay other purchases,” said Kai, “The current prices for that sort of thing are around 500 points and up to 600 for the nicer carts. It would in turn cut our travel time down to 4 or 4 and a half days.”
“Let’s do it,” said Rich, “We need to build a strong foundation in the city, and we need to take this opportunity now. When we get there we will have more than made up for our costs within the week. The monsters we have been killing have been giving close to 15 Tower Points consistently. As they reach level ten the points rewarded will keep going up. When we factor in the points and cash from the monster’s loot on top of that. We will be doing very well for ourselves.”
Alex finished up the last of his coffee considering his future.
“Being with Rich has been the best decision I’ve made entering the tower. It does suck that I can’t pay for some mage training, but it should only be two weeks or so until I can do the training. I'll need to train on my own more. I've been neglecting that lately.”
The ground rumbled and their table and chairs shook. Alex and the others stood up out of their chairs.
“What is going on?” Alex shouted. The system message appeared right after.
The Second Floor has been entered. The next step for the tower integration has begun. 100 Second Floor creatures have escaped from the floor per tower beacon. Kill them to regain entry into the Tower.