The guild mbers waited outside while Cyclone and Balm entered with all the core mbers.
Apart from the original party there were also the likes of Serena and Final Fend. Sun's Knight followed along as well. The manager wore a bitter-sweet smile. On one hand he was joyful to be part of a successful guild, on the other he dreaded the upcoming work.
When the group entered, the guild association was already rather crowded. People ca here to look for suitable quests and to gather information.
The group had to wait for a mont until an assistant was finally ready. Balm and Cyclone took the lead, approaching the counter, where an older woman was working with a bored expression.
“Hello, lady!”
“Hey!”
The two young won greeted the assistant enthusiastically. The latter raised her head slowly, her eyes clearly portraying her desire for a nap, yet she forced herself to return the greeting in a low voice.
“Hello. How can I help you?”
Balm led the conversation, answering quickly:
“We want to upgrade our guild to rank two!”
“Oh? Na?”
“Balm!”
The assistant nodded slowly, opened a drawer, seeming as if she browsed through so docunts. A mont later she looked at Balm shaking her head:
“I don't find a guild with that na.”
“Guild na? That's Dream Avenue, sorry.”
Letting out a sigh the older woman repeated her earlier actions. A mont later she nodded her head.
“Your guild exists and ets the requirents for an upgrade.”
“Great! Do you need sothing else from us?”
“No. Here.”
The assistant was still void of any enthusiasm, producing two white tokens out of nowhere and handing them to Cyclone and Balm.
Surprised, the young won took the items and checked them quickly.
[Rank 2 guild leader token
Category: Uncommon
Effect: Get a 5% discount when spending points after each guild war. Increase the chance of recruiting NPCs into your guild by 10%.
Congratulations! You took the first step as a guild leader to create a force to be reckoned with. As a rank 2 guild, you can finally be considered sowhat influential.]
“We did it!”
“That's it!”
Cyclone and Balm wore broad grins as they looked at each other. They felt incredibly fulfilled as they were constantly advancing towards their dream.
But an untily voice dimd their mood sowhat.
“Congratulations.”
Cyclone glanced at the old assistant who was yawning after giving so insincere congratulations. Cyclone's lips twitched as she retorted:
“You could at least pretend to care.”
The old woman rolled her eyes, mumbling a quiet 'sure'. She opened her palm, aid for the ceiling and suddenly shot out a flaming sphere.
Below the ceiling the sphere erupted, producing a colourful firework.
“Ah!”
“Enemy attack!”
While the players were shocked, ducking or drawing their weapons, Cyclone nodded with a satisfied smile.
“That's more like it!”
Just then loud footsteps ca from a set of stairs to the side. A young-looking nephilim appeared, scolding loudly:
“Ehphna! How often do I have to tell you not to use magic inside?! Damn it...”
“Maybe it's better if we go now.”
“Yeah. Before they bla us.”
“Let's go.”
Dream Avenue's core mbers felt awkward, quickly leaving the guild association. Silver Blade dragged Cyclone who was just about to instigate more trouble.
Cyclone opened her mouth, trying to complain to Silver Blade when sothing suddenly diverted her attention.
[Server Announcent:]
[Please congratulate Dream Avenue for being the first guild to reach rank 2.]
[Dream Avenue thanks Colville Constructions, St. Fabre, Dourand Electronics, Cider, Malney & Sons, and Lucky Ten Malls Ltd. for their generous support.]
This ti around the announcent shook the entire server. Many perceptive players also noticed the small change among the sponsors.
Lucky Ten Malls was a company owning multiple malls on Falva Star and even neighbouring planets. A while ago soone from their managent noticed the increased number of visits in one of their arcades.
After investigating he realized that it was because of Hotpot’s fans. They had seen pictures of Hotpot visiting the arcade and ca hoping that Hotpot might frequent the arcade more often.
The manager smartly realized the budding influence of Hotpot and offered to sponsor the guild. Thus, Cyclone, Balm, and Sun's Knight smoothly made a deal, winning another potent sponsor for Dream Avenue.
This part of the announcent was only of interest to the business world, however. The general player base was causing a commotion after knowing that Dream Avenue reached rank 2.
The global chat erupted in chaos. But Cyclone and Balm had no ti to read it. As they left the guild association they were welcod by the excited cheers of all their guild mbers.
“We did it!”
“Dream Avenue!”
“Dream Avenue!”
The players watching for fun were astounded and hastily congratulated as well. A joyous celebration was spontaneously held in front of the guild association. Other players who were in Duabalis realized what was going on, coming to the guild association as well to join the fun.
Thus, the crowd increased gradually. After half an hour, however, Dream Avenue decided to privately celebrate in the guild hall. They pushed their way to the crowd and left.
Even after Dream Avenue left it took so ti until the crowd dispersed as a gathering of this many players turned into a small party.
Dream Avenue didn't know this as they continued to celebrate in private. With tasty food and drinks the mood was boisterous as the guild mbers celebrated themselves until it was ti for the ga to go offline.
Back at ho Liam had just turned off the console when a door opened, and Serena ca out of the bedroom. She laughed brightly, running towards Liam in excitent.
“Liam, this was great! Now I understand why Cy and l are so obsessed with their own guild! Everyone works together towards the sa goal! Such a nice feeling.”
Just looking at his smiling sister, Liam felt in high spirits. Serena sat down next to him on the couch and the siblings joyfully talked about everything concerning Crunaboul.
Serena even got Liam to tell her a couple of stories belonging to various undiscovered quests.
The two conversed for a while and eventually reached the topic of the upcoming federation tournant. Serena appeared full of confidence as she asked her brother:
“Do you think Dream Avenue will win the tournant?”
“Difficult to say. We don't even know the format.”
“You don't sound confident...”, remarked Serena with surprise.
“Well, to be honest our equipnt is still sowhat lacking. Only Hotpot has truly powerful equipnt, but tier 3 and 4 mbers are most likely sowhat weaker compared to other top guilds.”
“Really? Why is this?”
“In the end it is always a matter of money. Other guilds have the ans to employ all 350 mbers full ti and even organize equipnt for all of them.
anwhile we are still working hard to slowly integrate all 350 mbers into tier 1 and 2 mbers. But this will take ti. Dream Avenue's foundation is just lagging a bit compared to those long-standing and company-funded guilds.”
“Oh. So... we won't win?”
Liam looked at Serena's disappointed face. He realized that in his effort to explain everything clearly to Serena he accidentally broke her confidence.
Liam felt a pang in his heart, his mind racing, saying:
“The tournant is not only about guilds. There are also the solo contests and fights between teams of ten. We... should have a chance there.”
Liam hesitated for a mont as he didn't plan to fight in the solo contest. He didn't consider the current players any challenge. Even if it were soone from the central star system who sohow got their hands on a full set of unique equipnt, Liam was confident in his own skills.
If he lost a single fight his five years of experience would be a thorough failure.
Thus, to him there was no point in joining the competition. But what should he do if Serena now placed her hopes on him? Should he show his skills?
However, Liam was overthinking it. After he damped Serena's expectations, the young girl adjusted quickly, now taking a more realistic perspective.
Hearing Liam ntion the other contests she only looked at him sceptically. She pretended to be mature as she spoke with a sigh:
“Actually, it's ok if you don't win. Just give it your best. The federation is so big if you just make it into the top hundred it would already be a massive achievent.”
Liam stared at his sister, not knowing what to say. Now his pride had taken a hit from these words. He struggled in his mind, considering whether to join the solo contest and take first place.
But just then a familiar voice rang in his mind.
[Player Liam, receive your next challenge.]
[Win the federation tournant: solo contest]
[Rewards will be based on degree of completion.]
Liam was startled. It had been a while since he last heard from C.
I guess that settles it...
Liam sighed inwardly but outwardly he looked at Serena with a smile:
“It seems you are underestimating your brother. Let take first place for you.”
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