by Ivan Kal
“No, I didn’t know much about Guilds in this world,” Morgan clarified. “But I had been running a Guild in my own world. It wasn’t exactly the same, but the principles can’t be all that different. And, well, you guys have the knowledge that I lack.”
Lucius turned to look at Vall. “He did have good plans in the dungeon. We survived because of him. We would’ve given up if it hadn’t been for him.”
“We don’t know how we escaped,” Vall added.
“Still, it was because of him that we are here now, alive,” Lucius said. He turned to look at Ves, who had been strangely quiet during their discussion.
Vestella looked torn between Vall and Morgan, but then she finally looked at her brother, took a deep breath and spoke. “I want to find out what happened to our parents, but I also want to get stronger. I want to climb the Tower. And we have a chance to do it on our own, without needing to depend on anyone else.”
Vall scowled at Morgan and he could see the moment when Vallsorim relented. “Fine. We can always leave the Guild, I guess.” “Great decision, you won’t regret it!” Morgan said.
Vall looked away and muttered something darkly under his breath.
“What was that?” Morgan asked cheerily.
“Nothing,” Vall said, a look of resignation on his face.
Morgan ignored him and turned to look at the strange stone, turning it in his hands. “So… How does this thing work again?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
After a few minutes of speaking with the group, he had a general idea of what to do. Although none of them knew exactly how it worked, they did know that the hearthstone should be placed on the spot where one wanted to construct the Guild Hold.
So they moved through the grove, looking for a good spot. Morgan gathered that using the hearthstone should be similar to entering soul space, and that he would have a menu where he could choose what type of a Guild Hold he wanted to build. They also told him that it could be upgraded later.
Morgan tried to use Inspect on it, but sadly a hearthstone seemed to be beyond his abilities.
After several minutes of searching the grove, which was maybe two hundred meters across—almost a plateau—they decided to use it next to the mountainside. Everyone gathered around Morgan, and he looked intently at the hearthstone.
After about a minute of him staring at it, Lucius coughed. “Are you doing it?”
Morgan scowled at him. “Of course I am,” Morgan said, and reinforced his efforts. Then he felt something at the edge of his senses. He pushed through and suddenly felt a sensation similar to entering the soul space. A moment later he and the others were standing in the same kind of endless void as the soul space—except there was no Sabila here.
Instead, there was a large screen in front of him. “It worked!”
“I’ve never heard of several people all entering the same soul space,” Lucius said.
“I don’t think that this is a soul space,” Ves said.
“Wait, we are still in a group right? That might be why,” Morgan said.
“It could be,” Lucius agreed.
Morgan peered at the screen, seeing what looked like a selection menu. There were several options: some were even grayed out, others were colored in red, and others still seemed available. He saw that there were requirements for many which were red, things that they didn’t have. Each of the choices had a picture of a building next to it, each in different styles, and beside each was a list of add-ons that the building had.
“Look at that,” Ves said, pointing at the green one. “It says material requirements met, and then that energy cost is increased because of…no refined materials?”
Morgan looked at the material requirements. It needed 500 lumber, but they didn’t have any of that. “It says here”—Morgan pointed to the side to another window—“that materials can be found in a large radius. I think that it counts the raw materials around us, the rock and the trees, but since they are not refined it requires more power?”
“That makes sense, but what is energy cost?” Lucius asked. “There are a few options here where we have enough materials but not enough energy.”
“There.” Vall pointed to the text near the materials. “It says ‘collective amount of energy—5455.’”
“Does that mean that it will take the energy from us?” Morgan asked. He had been surprised when he came to the World that there were no numerical values for health and energy, but it looked like they could be quantifiable—which begged the question why they weren’t represented. “You know what?” Morgan started. “I think that it counts all the ascension crystals that we have on us. I doubt that we would have enough energy to build this.”
“That might be a problem, if it spends all of them,” Vall said.
“Do all of you have more than a week of life left?” Morgan asked. The rest of the group nodded. “That’s enough, then. We can find some monsters between now and then.”
“Still, we need to choose. These are all so different. See the buffs that they give?” Ves pointed.
Morgan nodded, and took a look. The buffs ranged from increased regeneration while out of combat to bonuses on stats. Morgan could now see why Guild buffs were important.
“All right, let’s each choose one which we think would be the best, and then we will chose from those.” The others nodded and started looking. Morgan did the same. He looked both at the buffs, the appearances, and which add-ons could be purchased. It looked like there was really an insane amount of upgrades available, enough that a Guild Hold could expand to become a city in itself; which was what the others had told him, but he hadn’t really believed them. Each design had furniture in it, but Morgan didn’t see any requirements for that anywhere, so he wasn’t sure if it was included. In the end, he found one which he thought was good for what he had in mind.
All of them pointed out their choices and Morgan looked them over.
Lucius’s choice was a building buried inside the rock:
BURROWED DEEP
LVL 1 GUILD HOLD
Requirements
Amount
Lumber
x100
Logs
x50
Stone bricks
x600
Iron
x50
From what Morgan could see it was a very basic design, with very little requirements. The building had five chambers, one central and four adjacent, one of which was a forge, one a sleeping room, and the last two were a storage area and what looked like a kitchen. It gave a buff of increased affinity with earth and water alignments and a bonus to strength of +1.
The next one was Vall’s, which was something resembling a castle:
GREY KEEP
LVL 1 GUILD HOLD
Requirements
Amount
Lumber
x200
Logs
x20
Stone bricks
x800
Iron
x150
Water source
x1
This one was a bit more interesting, mostly because it looked like it had some kind of water-delivery system and sewage removal. It was two square buildings connected with a bridge. One building had four rooms, while the other had one large hall and one smaller kitchen and a scouting tower on top of it. It gave them a buff to air and earth alignments and a bonus to constitution of +1.
Ves’s was interesting as well:
GREAT FORGE
LVL 1 GUILD HOLD
Requirements
Amount
Lumber
x600
Logs
x80
Stone bricks
x1000
Iron
x250
Water source
x1
Magma source
x1
The volcano might be stable, but knowing that there was still magma down there made him shiver. Still, this hold was interesting, as it had an underground forge system which
used magma and a water source for power. It also had a heating system. Above it on the ground it had a smaller building with one hall, one sleeping room and kitchen. The buff that it gave was for increased affinity with fire and metal alignments and a bonus to constitution of +1.
The last was his own choice:
HALL OF MYTHS
LVL 1 GUILD HOLD
Requirements
Amount
Lumber
x1500
Logs
x300
Stone bricks
x600
Iron
x100
Water source
x1
Guardian Anchor
x1
This one had caught his eye because of the last requirement, which they met. After a closer look he learned that a Guardian was a beast that guards the hold, and could be upgraded later on—and the heart of the manticore filled that requirement. The hold also had some type of water-delivery system; it didn’t seem as extensive as the others, but it was there, at least. The base structure resembled a mead hall, or rather it looked almost exactly like Meduseld, the hall of Rohan from The Lord of the Rings. This immediately made Morgan suspicious; he knew that Oxy said that he played games, but could he be a movie fan also? He shook his head. It didn’t really matter.
The hall was slightly different on the inside. About halfway in there was a wall that separated the kitchen and the bathing room in the back from the hall proper, and it had a loft which had three rooms. The Hall of Myths also had three supporting structures attached at its sides. One was a round structure which was designated as a magic workshop. Morgan couldn’t resist that, as he really wanted to start experimenting with his enchanting. The other one was a forge, though one not as big or as complex as the others. The last building was a storage room of some kind.
The Hall of Myths also gave them a buff for increased affinity with spirits and another one for increased affinity with nature and metal alignments.
Each of them looked over their choices, and thought about what they wanted to do.
“Yours is the costliest,” Vall told Morgan once they had the chance to think. “And it requires most of our energy. Almost everything that we have available.”
“But it’s worth it; it’s the largest one, and the Guardian will be extremely useful. Especially since we will need to be away from the Guild Hold for an extended periods of time.”
Vall nodded, agreeing. “I didn’t think of that. You are right, we will need to go and hunt monsters, expand our domain. Until we recruit more ascended, it is just the four of us.”
Lucius looked unsure. “I’m not sure that spending all those resources would be wise. We can always upgrade the hold, but if we use up all the resources around us now, it will be harder to transport from far away.”
“Still, the Hall of Myths seems the best of these options,” Ves added.
“I’m not disagreeing,” Lucius said. “I’m just pointing out possible problems.”
“The guardian is what I think is drawing me to this one,” Morgan said.
“The others could be upgraded to have a guardian,” Lucius said.
“Sure, but it costs more to add it after. Here it is already the part of the package.”
“Very well, Morgan,” Lucius said. “If you all agree that this is the one, then I agree as well.”
“Great,” Morgan said, and picked the Hall of Myths. The screen flashed and then another replaced it, asking them to create a crest for their Guild. They debated for a while, looking at the ones that were available.
“How about a manticore head?” Ves suggested.
Everyone liked that idea, so they found a manticore symbol for the front, made it black, and placed it on a red shield. After that, it was the time to choose a Guild name.
“What did you say that the name of this mountain was?” Morgan asked after they couldn’t decide for a few minutes.
“Reach,” Ves answered.
“How about Skyreach?” Morgan asked.
The others thought it over.
“Skyreach…” Lucius said. “I like it. It means our base, and it means reaching for the sky. Yes, it is a good name.”
The rest agreed as well, and they put in the name. They next it asked them to chose a Guild Master and the Guild Leaders. Guild Leaders seemed to be something similar to officers, and after a short discussion all of them agreed to put Morgan as the Guild Master. He assured them that he knew what he was doing, and the others weren’t confident in their own abilities. And so they put Morgan as the Guild Master and the rest as Guild Leaders. Once they accepted that, Morgan felt a burning sensation on his hand. He looked at it and saw the manticore’s head symbol appear on the back of his hand. The hell? What kind of Fairy Tail anime bullshit is this?
“What the hell is this?” Morgan asked the others, who didn’t seem all that surprised.
“It’s our adventurer’s mark,” Vall told him.
“Wait, the enemy didn’t have one,” Morgan said.
Vall looked at him in confusion until he realized who Morgan was talking about. “Ah, Emily was wearing gauntlets, so you couldn’t see it.”
Morgan grumbled, and then another screen flashed before them.
They read it in confusion.
“‘Place the hearthstone on the ground and step away’? The hell does that mean?” Morgan asked—and then they were yanked back into the real world.
They were standing in a circle with Morgan holding the hearthstone.
“Uh… Why is this thing flashing?” Morgan said as blue light seemed to pulse from the stone in his hand. “And now it is getting warmer,” Morgan said, and then dropped it on the ground as it became too hot.
They stood there for a moment and looked at it, and then Morgan remembered the message.
“I think that we should start walking away.” He started backing off.
They didn’t reach more than ten paces before a black cloud exploded out of the hearthstone, spreading widely and quickly. “Run!”
They turned around and started running. They reached the spring and then climbed up on the boulder from which it was flowing out of. They watched in equal parts horror and fascination as the cloud spread over the plateau, devouring trees, cutting them up and carrying them off. Part of the cloud pushed into the mountain rock and started excavating resources. In mere moments, the cloud moved over the cliffs and down into the forests, bringing up more materials.
“Well, isn’t that something?” Morgan asked.
No one answered him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It took the cloud almost an hour to finish the construction. They watched on in fascination, and once it was finished it contracted and then shot into the hall, even closing the door behind itself.
They jumped of their watching place and started walking toward their new Guild Hold. The grove had changed a lot. There were still a few trees here and there, but most of them were gone, as if they were never there; there was in fact no evidence of them ever having been there. The stream now had something that looked like a dam, and a system that carried the water to the base of the hall. As they approached the hall there was a short stretch of stairs, about five, as the entire hall was raised on a foundation of stone. They could see the side of the mountain not far away from the hall, and a large portion of it was hollowed out, creating a kind of open cave. Somehow, it looked as if it were a natural formation.
As soon as they climbed up the stairs a large shape dropped from the roof right in front of them.
“Argh!” Morgan screamed like a little girl as the manticore sniffed in his direction. The others had similar reactions, but when it didn’t attack, they calmed down.
“I guess that this is the guardian?” Vall asked, looking at it in askance.
Morgan nodded and used his Inspect on him.
Skyreach guardian LVL 10
“Yup, that’s it,” Morgan said and approached the monster. He looked exactly the same as t
he manticore that they had fought in the dungeon. He looked at Morgan warily, but Morgan was close enough that he could put his arm on the manticore—which he did.
“Who’s a good boy?” Morgan whispered as he scratched his neck, then behind his horns, and then over his shoulder. The large cat-like horned beast purred. “Yeah, you’re a good boy.”
He turned back only to see the other look at him with mouth agape. “What?”
“You are insane, you know that, right?” Vall asked.
Ves strode forward despite her brother’s attempts to catch her and came to stand next to Morgan. She reached out with a hand tentatively. Morgan gave her a smile of encouragement and she put her palm on the manticore.
“He’s so warm,” Ves said with a voice full of wonder.
“You know what?” Vall said. “You two deserve each other.”
Morgan grinned at Vall from behind Ves’s back, and then showed him his tongue. Vall’s face turned red, but Morgan turned to Ves before he could say anything. “So, what should we name him?”
Ves looked at the manticore for a moment or two, and nodded. “How about Rann?”
“Rann,” Morgan said, looking at the great beast. “Do you like that, boy?”
The manticore purred even louder.
“Rann it is, then,” Morgan said. “Come on, let’s go inside.”
They all walked into the hall, and Morgan was struck by how similar it looked to the hall he was familiar with in The Lord of the Rings movies. The long hall was shorter than the one in the movies had been, but there were also benches and tables to the side, as well as a large fireplace on the right side. At the end of the hall was the hearthstone, which had grown and changed color. They approached it and Morgan saw that it now came up to his hip. It was a sphere, set into a short stone-and-wood pedestal. It was now red in color, and on top of it was the symbol of their Guild: the black manticore’s head. Rann sniffed at it and then walked around it before lying down next to it, putting his head on his paws and closing his eyes.