Second World

It was closed to sunset already at the time, Jack decided to return to Amy's Bakery for a rest. He also would like to see the changes to the shop after the renovation. On his way, he visited a magic apparel shop and spent 10 silver coins to buy cloth armors for all the armor pieces he was still missing for his Mage disguise. He also spent 2 silver to buy ten common magic stone, which was required to replenish his staff's ammo. After completing the transaction, he continued his way back to Amy's Bakery.

When he arrived in front of the place, he was astonished by the changes to the Bakery. The shop had become bigger, it had also added another floor, from the previous two-story building into a three-story one. The façade was also more appealing now compared to the previous simple look. With a more polished exterior, it should attract more customers. And indeed Jack noticed how popular the shop had become, there were still many customers inside despite it's getting late already. For a shop located in such a quiet street, this many customers already announced the shop's success.

As Jack admired the shop he had invested in, he noticed that many of the customers were players. Not only that, when he inspected the players, there were some with additional information shown. It was written the name of their guild, White Scarfs.

"Mister Storm Wind! Fancy meeting you here," he heard a voice from behind.

He turned around and saw Silverwing and Bluedaze. He instinctively used Inspect on Silverwing.

Silverwing (Archer), level 17

HP: 310

Guild: White Scarfs

He had also become an advanced class and was level 17. In the past, Jack had been on the lead for levels, but after two-day hiatus, most top players had caught up to him. It described how intense the competition was. For the additional information of the guild, he supposed that Silverwing had gone ahead and used the Guild Creation Token to establish their guild formally in this world. Hence now every member of his guild was tagged with their guild name.

"I live here," Jack replied to Silverwing's greetings while pointing to Amy's Bakery.

"In the shop? How do you manage to do that?" Silverwing asked.

"It's some sort of additional reward from a quest," Jack answered truthfully.

"An intriguing quest that is," Silverwing commented.

"What are you doing here?" Jack asked back. "I see many of your guild members lingering around here."

"We are prospecting for a suitable plot for our guild base."

"Guild base?"

Bluedaze cut in to interject, "is it wise to inform outsider of our plan?"

"Mister Storm Wind is our ally," Silverwing said. "Don't forget we managed to become the first party to form a guild was all thanks to his contribution."

Bluedaze could not deny it, so she said no more. Silverwing returned his attention to Jack, "a guild base is a structure that we can build after establishing a guild. Apart from a safe place to gather, it also can grant us many benefits if we can upgrade it later."

"It must cost a fortune though," Jack commented.

Silverwing nodded, "It does. Fortunately, we got a monetary reward from the system due to being the first party to form a guild."

"Really? How much of a boost?"

"Thirty gold coins," Silverwing said with a wide grin.

Thirty, it was still less than the amount of gold coin he got from vanquishing the Monster Settlement, Jack thought.

Silverwing was expecting Jack to show an awed expression after hearing the monetary reward, but disappointingly, Jack was indifferent about it. Of course, he could not have guessed that the fellow had already received a higher amount of gold coin rewards, hence such an amount did not surprise him anymore.

"I guess you are still quite a distance if you are planning to buy a land," Jack said, he had heard from Ellie that one needed at least 100 gold coins to purchase the land.

"That's right, you are surprisingly well informed, Mister Storm Wind," Silverwing said.

Jack scratched his head. "I read a lot in the library," he said.

Silverwing rolled his eyes, where can you find about property price in a library? If you don't want to say your source of information, why don't you use a better excuse?

However, he was not too bothered by it, everyone was entitled to have their own secret. He said, "we will need at least 100 gold coins to buy a plot of land. After that, we will still need more to construct the base. Currently, our guild members were busy collecting coins by doing quests and grinding monsters in order to save enough coins for the base."

"Why choose your prospective base in this area?" Jack asked.

"Our members have made lots of surveys. This area is one with the most plot of lands which we can buy, with relatively cheaper prices compared to other areas. To be honest, I think this area will be the place where most of us players will focus our activity. Many other guilds or players with funds will choose this place to build their bases as well. So it will be better if we can take control of this area early."

"How many of your members have reached advanced ranks?" Jack asked.

Silverwing was lost at Jack's sudden change of topic, but he still answered anyway, "including my self and Bluedaze here, five."

Jack glanced at Bluedaze and made a quick scan, she was a level 17 Healer. "Five," Jack murmured. A top guild was indeed something.

Jack then told them about the Hunters Association, about how the hunting quests and trophy loots from the monsters would net them coins faster than normal quests and grinding. Their eyes glowed with excited glint after hearing Jack's info.

"Mister Storm Wind, it was indeed the right move of me for befriending you. Too bad you are unwilling to join our guild, but still I thank you sincerely for this information." Silverwing then turned to bluedaze, "please send messages to Sinreaper and the others to make preparation, we will go to this Hunters Association first thing tomorrow."

Bluedaze acknowledged and went on to send the virtual messages.

"There is one thing I want to ask for your opinion," Jack said to Silverwing.

"What is it, mister Storm Wind?"

"Have you heard about the rumor regarding a planned meeting involving top guilds to discuss control over this city?"

Silverwing's eyebrows were lifted, but he did not seem to be surprised by the news. "So you have heard of it as well?" He said. "It was not a rumor, there was indeed such plan. My people have done some investigation, the initiators of the meeting are Death Associates, Corporate United, and Wicked Witches."

"Wicked Witches? They are involved as well?"

"Yes, apparently they had been in talks for some time already since they failed to get the Guild Creation Token. Their joint failures had prompted them to band together for a counterattack, ironic isn't it? My guild managed to take the lead but instead, we caused our competitors to join and become a greater menace. If they managed to influence the other prominent guilds in their cause, it will be troublesome for those that are not included in their circle."

"What do you plan to do about it?" Jack asked.

Silverwing sighed. "I'm afraid there is not much we can do. We are still discussing if we should gather the other guilds ourselves to form our own alliance. But they had gotten a head start, we will need to see how the results of their meeting go before we can think of a suitable response."

"Do you know when the meeting will take place?"

"If our intel is to be trusted, it will be five days from now. For the location, we didn't manage to get that info, but words are it will be outside the safe zone."

"Outside the city?"

Silverwing nodded, "kinda make you think if there is another agenda there, doesn't it?"

Jack was deep in thought, it might actually be essential for him to get to the bottom of this. After all, Death Associates had a grudge against him. He did not think the guild had forgotten about their enmity. His bet was they were planning to strike after they got a solid foothold in this place, thus it was important for him to hinder their progress for his own sakes too.

After a couple more brief chats, the three bid farewell. After the two left, he looked at his surroundings. He might need to do a little prospecting of his own as well since he would be using the deed. The deed allowed him to choose any ownerless land, but if Silverwing's approximation was correct, the best area to choose would be here. Most of Bill and Ellie's customers at this time were already players, so if this area will become future players' bases of activity, their profit in building a restaurant here would be maximized.