by Ivan Kal
“Are we paying them anything?” Ves asked Lucius.
“Not right now, though we are providing the basic necessities and food for free, as well as building homes and dormitories,” Lucius said.
Morgan grimaced. He knew that they had quite a bit of gold coins from what they had gained in the Mountain’s Heart and in the Lord’s Hallow dungeon, but they needed that for the Guild to grow.
“We have been trading with other towns, yes?” Morgan asked.
“We have. Buying from them, mostly, or trading resources for things we need,” Lucius said.
“This will need to change,” Morgan said. “Ves, you should speak with the merchants down in Reach Town. See what the economy is like, and figure out salaries for the crafters and other workers ascended. The Sky Guard should also have a small stipend. Actually we can also make the loot we have available for purchase, but only for our ascended—that way we still get something out of it. Maybe we can introduce a discount for the combat oriented ascended.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Ves said. “But what about non-ascended workers?”
“They should get something too, of course, but less than the ascended. We need to stop building them homes for free, too—we can make dormitories that will be free housing with basic necessities and meals, but homes we will only build if we are paid for it, or traded with. We can make exceptions for the ascended who have families, however. That should be a requirement: if you have a family and are an ascended that provides for the Guild, whether by a combat or support role, we will build you a home. We should probably make those homes all in the same area down in the city.”
Morgan tried to remember his economic classes from Earth. I should’ve probably listened back then, but who could’ve guessed that I would end up in charge of an entire city? He had even entertained the idea about handling things by himself, since he had the knowledge, but ultimately decided against it. He just didn’t have the time, nor the interest, if he was being honest—there was a reason why he had been flunking out of college back on Earth. He hated what he had been studying. Ves, however, had proved capable in this area. Her mother had taught her a lot; as an elf she had run her household and had taught Ves to do the same. She only had to apply the same knowledge, if in a broader fashion, and Morgan was always close to help if she ever asked.
“There will be some grumbling about that,” Lucius said.
“Perhaps, but it needs to be done. We can’t be building homes for every person that wants to come and live here. If they become ascended, they get to live in the dormitories up here in the Guild Hold, and if not then down in the town. If they want a house, the non-ascended pay for it,” Morgan said.
“We’ll make it work,” Lucius said with a resolute look on his face.
“Then I think we need to create two more factions: one that will work with everything magical in nature—engraving, potion brewing and the like.” He turned to look at the resident mage. “Titus, I saw that you have already set up the workshop, and I want us to start engraving Sky Guard armor. I was thinking about enchanting it, but it takes too much time and energy, and I have too much to do. We should focus on engraving, and I might be able to enchant a few special pieces.”
“Sure,” Titus said. “I don’t know many wards yet, but I do know a few that could be useful.”
“Good. Do you think you could lead something like that? I would’ve done it myself, but I doubt I would have the time to truly devote myself to it.”
Titus looked surprised and clearly shocked that Morgan had asked him. “I am not really all that good…”
“You’ll learn, and then teach others. I will be there to help, of course, but we need someone in charge.”
“I am honored,” Titus said with an incline of his head, “and I accept. Thank you for the opportunity.”
“Good,” Morgan said, then turned to Lucius. “As for the next group… Before we created the Guild, you all spoke about adventurers. Explain them a bit more to me.”
Morgan already had some suspicions and plans, but he wanted all the facts before making the final decisions.
“Yes,” Lucius started. “In order to become an adventurer, you need to have a Guild. Aside from the mark that you get once you join a Guild, every Guild has its own badge: a hexagonal piece with the mark of the Guild on it. These can be commissioned from the hearthstone. Based on the level and accomplishments of the adventurer, there are tiers with different types of badge. The lowest-tiered ones are made out of wood, then iron, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and finally scarletite. The adventurers are allowed to move freely among other Guild territories and can be hired out by the guilds for a variety of tasks by different Guilds, as well as trade through an Adventurer’s Market—which are basically Guilds themselves, but ones only focused on trading in ascended gear,” he explained.
With a nod at Ves, he continued, “They have a representative branch in every Guild Hold—well, obviously not ours, but if we grow enough, they will come here. We are doing things a bit different, but most Guilds survive by dungeon diving and hunting monsters, and most people in every Guild are adventurers. They basically move through the world hunting and leveling and acquiring better loot, which they then give a portion of to the Guild and take the rest for themselves. Every Guild takes a different percentage, and offers different benefits for adventurers.”
That was about what Morgan had been thinking—they were basically constantly moving mercenary teams—so he nodded. “All right, I want to make an adventurer faction, make it a bit more organized, and give them some restrictions and requirements.”
“What kind of restrictions? Other Guilds usually allow even the beginners to be adventurers and go out and dungeon dive. They also provide information and guides on dungeons and classes, as well as ways to purchase advanced class stones.”
“And I bet a lot of adventurers die that way?” Morgan asked pointedly. He had a suspicion that it was far harder to advance in other Guilds, at least based on what Lucius told him.
“Yes, but that is the way of the ascended,” the Roman said with a shrug.
“Well, we are the Skyreach Guild, and we are not going to be like that. If someone wants to join us, they will have the other factions available to choose from once they reach level five, and before then they will be trained by the Guard. At that point, they can decide either to join the Crafter Faction, the Engraver Faction, or the Guard Faction. We will rework the factions a bit, to make their roles narrower. I do want to create the Adventurer Faction, who will do basically what the adventurers in the other Guilds do: go out explore, dungeon dive and hunt monsters. They will of course bring back any information about their dives and monsters back to the Guild for us to sell to other adventurer teams. I am also thinking that for every five ascended items they recover, they need to donate one to the Guild; we will buy anything that they don’t need. Also, let’s say ten percent of their ascended crystals should also go to the Guild to support the ascended who are not in combat roles. Any ability stones and class stones are theirs to keep if they can use them, but if they recover something that they can’t use, we will buy it from them as well.”
“That is about how it goes with the other Guilds. You are being a bit more generous, but not too much. You mentioned restrictions?”
“Yes,” Morgan said. “Only people that are level ten and up will be able to join the adventurers and have access to the faction’s knowledge about dungeons and monsters as well as advice. The Adventurer Faction will also be able to give out quests for the teams, like what you mentioned other Guilds having.”
“That… I don’t think many ascended will want to wait that long. And we can’t really stop them from going out on their own,” Lucius said.
“Of course not, but they will have no support from the Guild if they do go out before they reach that level. They can stay in the watch and go on the runs through lower level dungeons with someone high level from the Guard until they reach level ten, and a
fter they can go on their own. As an added incentive for waiting and being more prepared, we will allow teams to loan out gear from our stores.”
“That might actually work,” Lucius said thoughtfully. “One of the biggest problems for low tiered adventurers is the lack of gear. It is why there are so many deaths.”
“We don’t need to make that work now, obviously,” Morgan said with a nod, “but it is something that I have planned for in the future, and I wanted you all to know. I think that we ourselves will be the first adventurer team, but until we get to that point we will need to train up people who can work in our departments in our absence.”
Everyone nodded, and Morgan could see relief on everyone’s faces. All of them became ascended because they wanted to ascend, to dungeon dive and eventually go to the Tower. They didn’t sign up for running a Guild. I guess none of us really thought about what it would take to be leaders like this, Morgan thought, chuckling inwardly.
“All right, that’s enough for that. Is there anything else?” Morgan said.
Lucius went down his list. “The goblin threat,” he said darkly.
Morgan grimaced. “I don’t think there is anything that we can do yet other than look for the signs of movement from them. We don’t have enough forces to attack them—we can only wait and prepare. Level our people up, and come up with strategies for what to do once they do come.”
Clara cleared her throat and spoke out for the first time during the meeting. “I have a suggestion.”
Morgan gestured for her to continue, seeing the serious expression on her face.
“We should sent some people north, both to scout out the goblins and to make contact with the orc tribes. They will probably not be able to stay up north. The plan before I left was for them to leave the valley through the pass before the goblins attacked, but now they might have another option.”
“You want them to come here? I thought the orc tribes didn’t interact with the ascended all that much,” Morgan said dubiously.
“They don’t, but this valley is their home, and I know that they don’t want to abandon it. They could help us fight the goblins—as long as they think there is a chance of us winning, I know they would agree.”
“But will they even talk with us?” Morgan asked. “And they are all non-ascended, right? I don’t know how much help they can provide.”
Clara gave him a small smile. “Orcs might not actively involve themselves with ascension, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t even talk with us. Orcs are not like humans or the elves—we are naturally stronger than you, which is how the tribes have survived so long up north close to the goblins. An orc warrior is around as strong as a level eight or ten ascended, depending how many points they have in strength. They only lack particular abilities and skills, as well as an alignment, as we have forsaken the use of magic long ago. A single goblin party isn’t much threat to the orc tribes. It is only when they gather in large numbers.”
Morgan thought about it; he hadn’t been aware of that. I really need to get Lucius on board with those lessons about the World, Morgan grumbled inwardly. “How many are there?”
“I don’t know exactly. My tribe numbered around one hundred people, but it wasn’t the largest tribe. I do know there are four orc tribes in the north.”
“Then we shall send envoys. We can send a patrol to visit them all and ask them if they want to join. I assume you will want to go with them?” Morgan asked her.
Clara shook her head uncomfortably. “I didn’t really leave things well with my tribe before I left, so I don’t think that my presence would help much. In any case, I am just another ascended now, and my race will not sway them one way or the other.”
Morgan could see that there was more to the story she had told him before, and that was fine—everyone had their secrets and demons. “Very well, then. Lucius, can you have one of the patrols go north and make contact with the tribes?”
“Of course,” Lucius responded.
“Good. Is that all?” Morgan asked.
“It is,” Lucius said with a nod.
“Then we’re done here,” Morgan said, bringing their meeting to a close.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
After their meeting was over, Karissa arrived and Lucius and Morgan held another meeting that dragged on for about an hour. They began looking over the list of people who wanted to ascend from her people, and considered what areas they were interested in. Of the sixty-three people that came with them, six didn’t want to ascend, and eighteen were children that couldn’t—meaning that thirty-nine people wanted to ascend, Karissa included.
Out of them, twenty-two were interested in combat positions, the others only in picking up a craft of some kind. That would bring their ascended numbers to one hundred and thirty-six. They decided to have the admission ceremony for all of them together in a week, once they’d received the training necessary to ascend, after which they would each consume an ascension crystal. After that, they would need to touch the hearthstone and be accepted into the Guild, which was what they would base the ceremony around.
In the meantime, Morgan put Karissa to the task of helping Ves set everything up with the economy and the organizing the non-ascended and ascended. After the meeting, Lucius went off to the Sky Guard headquarters while Morgan walked to the other part of the Grand Hall. After walking up the stairs to the loft where the Guild Leaders quarters were, he stopped in front of the doors of Vall’s room and knocked. He waited a bit, and when there was no answer, he knocked again.
“Open up, Vall! I know you’re in there. It’s Morgan!” he yelled.
There was griping and then a crash followed by a curse. A shuffling of footsteps preceded the door finally opening to show a man, bulky, with red hair and a beard to match. His green eyes were framed by bags under them, and as Ves had warned him, there was a questionable odor lingering around him.
“What do you want?” Vall grumbled.
“You missed the meeting, and you didn’t even come down to say hello. Frankly, I’m hurt. I thought we were friends,” Morgan said honestly. “I’m sure that you didn’t mean it, really—I mean, I know that you wouldn’t want to hurt my feelings. Seeing as I am your friend and all that, I think that I will forgive you, but it best not happen again. Anyway, I don’t think I ever saw what your room looked like, but I guess now is as good a time as any,” Morgan blabbered with little pause, sending Vall completely off balance.
Morgan was sure that Vallsorim had expected a confrontation, and had prepared for that; but unfortunately for him, Morgan had personal experience with this kind of a thing. He pushed past Vall, who just stared at him with a confused expression on his face, not really comprehending what Morgan had just said or did.
Before Vall managed to even think about stopping him, Morgan was inside his room. He cast his glance around, seeing that it was pretty much what he’d thought it was going to be. The window probably hadn’t been opened in days, the bed was unmade and dirty looking, and the smell meant he hadn’t allowed any of the servants to come in and clean.
“Well, I see that you have been busy,” Morgan commented as he turned around and watched Vall close the doors.
His friend’s expression darkened, and Morgan allowed himself to really take a look at him. He looked haggard, as if he hadn’t been taking care of himself. He was wearing a long tunic, with one of the sleeves covering his left hand, hiding the stump that was there.
Morgan watched him for a minute, now letting his face settle into a serious expression. Seeing Vall fidget at his attention, he spoke. “Did you think that I would lie to you?” Morgan asked.
“What?” Vall asked, confused.
“I told you we would get you your arm back, that we would go beyond the valley and find either a replacement or a way to have it grow back. Do you think I would have lied to you about that?”
Vall grimaced, and Morgan could see him getting angry. “We haven’t even left this valley, and a goblin army is coming
down on us soon! We might never get beyond this valley.”
“So what? You decide to abandon everything? I left you in charge of training the recruits, and I am told that you have not been fulfilling that obligation,” Morgan said.
“And how am I to do that without a hand?” Vall glared at him.
“You needed to instruct. I’m sure you could’ve figured it out if you tried,” Morgan told him sharply.
Vallsorim snorted, and turned his head. “Go away, Morgan, and leave me be.”
“So you can crawl into bed and not come out for a few days?” Morgan asked bluntly. “That isn’t going to happen. We created this Guild together, and you are one of its leaders. We have been growing and expanding, and you are supposed to be an example for the new ascended. Instead, they see you like this!”
“Hah, some Guild we are. We all just ascended yesterday, and our Guild Master is a blabbering idiot,” Vall sneered.
Okay, that hurt. But don’t rise up to his provocation, Morgan! Fight it!
He took a deep breath. Sure, Vall had a bit of a point—Morgan had acted like an idiot most of the time they had known each other—but he had also been the one that got them out of the dungeon when they had been trapped, had planned their tactics during the defense of Reach. He might not be perfect, but Morgan had had some time for a introspection, and while he might not have done the best that he could have, he had done good enough. He had built something, for the first time in his life. Even though it was mostly by accident and divine intervention, Morgan told himself. With his memories of their first encounter with the Guiding Force now restored, Morgan had a suspicion that the reason why she had dropped them here on Reach was because she’d wanted them to make their own Guild.
