Things were finally starting to look up for Steven.
After a seemingly endless stretch of time living in fear, Steven was finally beginning to recover. Not the same person he had been before, but the person he always wanted to be. He was no longer a man trudging through the despair and fear that had so tightly constricted his life for too long, now Steven found himself blossoming
He no longer felt nervous when checking notifications from the guild chat. He could feel himself slowly emerging from the icy grasp of dread and anguish that had been entrenched in his heart for ages.
The warning notification sound blared from his game chat yet again, sending ripples of fear through his stomach as he prepared to flee from the unknown. His heart still quickened, albeit slower than before. But this time it wasn't because he expected an attack—it was out of habit.
He scanned the message with only mild caution, unlike the way he'd once read them; with one eye closed and the other squinted. It wasn't even a surprise anymore when his guild member hadn't insulted him once in the message—an unthinkable possibility just a fortnight ago!
BowsGoBrrrr: Hey Big Dawg, just wanted to make sure you know
Steven leaned back in his chair, soaking in the glory of the attention he was getting. Part of him couldn't help but think the other shoe was about to drop, and he'd be back to people raging in chat questioning his decisions, and threatening to quit the guild forever.
But for now, people had offered to help out fellow guild members — doing anything to be chosen as sub-officers.
He quickly crafted an open letter laced with the perfect balance of hope, scarcity and passive aggression - letting those who wanted to serve know that they would need to prove their worth over the next two days by doing the most guild runs with recruits. He posted to the guild announcements tab, and tagged the last 20 or who had covertly been asking for the new sub-officer slots.
Glad to see everyone is taking an interest in guild Affairs! We have a few slots open for sub-officers, but we have way more applying than available spots. We're giving the slot away to whoever does the most guild runs with recruits over the next 2 days. I set up a bot that has a running log of how many everyone has done in guild, top three get a slot! good luck everyone!
-- Your GL OhZone
In the depths of night, during an unscheduled shadow patch, the RoR developers had upended the guild system. In a single stroke; guilds weren't what they used to be. Before, all a guild was really used for was staying in contact with people in your server, maybe raiding, and just generally having a place to hang out.
Now there was a guild talent tree. Instant zone teleports teleports, experience boosts, shorter queues and Buffed NPC's to help you quest, and more. There was a whole row of talents on the tree that could save raiders thousands of gold by keeping buffs through death. There was even a choice node where you could either instantly reset bosses or put the trash mobs between bosses in stasis.
Even low-tier recruits in massive guilds reaped far greater benefits than those leading smaller ones. Rank 3 guilds allowed free repairs and 15% faster mount speed while Taco Knights were already rank 5.
Everyone had abandoned their cozy little corners for the bigger ones and Steven was running one of the biggest there were.
The once humble guild leader Steven had been elevated to the station of guild lord, Lord Steven if you would. His subjects would soon feel the force of his royal decree, as he set out on a journey to inspect their status, and if they were found wanting, correct such failings.
Lord Steven scrutinized the reports of his subjects. Sir James, the esteemed noble, had lately seen great success and been absent from court. King Steven remembered to honour him properly when time permits.
The messages from his loyal Knight Samantha were composed of urgent intonations, interspersed with odd noises... and chittering? Something seemed amiss in her training camp for new recruits, but her peasantry brought in contribution points by the wagonload. Thus by King Stevens decree, she was granted a prestigious standing amongst the ranks of officers.
He recalled the last he saw of Karl - nude and fleeing from some manner of vermin. Such tomfoolery could not be tolerated by His Majesty and Karl must soon answer for his wrongdoings. Lord Steven added Karl the Fool to a probationary period.
Attentive to the needs and contributions of his kingdom, King Steven perused statistics to discern who contributed most to his power and strength. Those who fell behind were punished harshly or even summarily removed if their efforts were deemed insufficient.
Finally, Lord Steven surveyed the new candidates seeking entry into his guild. Only the finest would be accepted; all others, however promising they may appear on paper, were sent away.
Steven scrolled up through the records of his loyal subjects. He reasoned to himself that he was not punishing those who had wronged him, but found himself dismissing any who had displeased him for... unrelated offences.
Things were finally starting to improve for Lord Steven-
His mother's voice boomed out of the kitchen, "Dinner is ready!"
"What is it, Mom?" he yelled back, the fear that he had finally banished back in his heart.
The words came: "It's a surprise!" He felt that familiar fear he had finally escape creep back. He was stronger now though, he wasn't Steven, but Lord Steven.
While her crazy experiments may have ended poorly for him in the past, the new more regal him was excited to see what she had concocted this time. As long as it had nothing to do with alligators. He swore that last one had still been moving in the pot she was cooking.