NOVEL NEXT Chapter Forty Three - Guild
A heavy decision sat upon my shoulders and despite all my new strength, confidence and general joie de vivre, I found myself arrested at the implications. To make the wrong choice at this juncture would set a limiter on my path to glory. With the way I planned to live, such an outcome was genuinely life-or-death stuff.
“Why does it matter?” Naea asked like a heathen. My only answer was a glare of viscous proportions. I had made the mistake of showing it to Naea, a trick I picked up from the new group. I never really had cause to show my details before. The fairy had made a nauseous face at my attributes, so I didn’t mention the multiplicative effects of my attributes as well. Her flippant reaction to this momentous question was further proof she simply wasn’t as mature as I. I turned back to the System message.
Guild - Name?
Two simple words had kept me occupied for hours. Other than cycling my mana and pacing back and forth between Home Base and the new neighbourhood, I had done nothing. The guildhall and houses spaced out around it were gorgeous, but I had barely given them a look as the prompt had burst to life the moment I purchased the final building. My lip twitched and I swept the message away for now.
“I’ve got to clear my head.” Naea agreed with my statement and we went wandering towards the new members of the dungeon once more. Alongside purchasing the buildings, I had splurged on security for each place too. There had been no monster activity since my assault on Shub-Nagorath but I had warned the group of the possibility of danger.
Instead of a lone level 17 or 18 like Jason had been, this group were all close to their grade 1 evolution. None of them had evolved their Aspect to a Dao yet but they didn’t even know how to control their mana properly so baby steps were needed. I didn’t think they’d have trouble with a single random monster but the security was cheap enough once I explained what I was doing to the others.
When their ramshackle piles of wood had been turned to houses, they hadn’t known what to think. After I explained it was a System thing, they all looked excited. They showed me another thing I’d had no need for before now, one I approved of greatly. A System controlled trading menu appeared and was quickly filled with credits.
Just like myself, others could loot. Unlike myself, most people barely had 2,000 coins between them. The monsters I had battled were much higher level, and therefore valuable. Plus I had two draconic cash infusions since the Shift, but those were my secret. As far as the others were concerned, I had grinded out my levels and cash fair and square.
I said nothing but a genuine “Thank you all very much for contributing” as the others dumped the contents of their inventories into my own. There simply wasn’t much practical use for the coinage at the moment, even outside the Dungeon where people were mostly just trying to survive. If you weren’t bartering something useful, they didn’t care. We’ll see what we can do with that attitude.
Evil plans of conquering a burgeoning market aside, I was pleasantly surprised to see more than the full cost of the group’s living arrangements dealt with and then some. After all the money was finished moving around, I had spent around six thousand coins in total. I couldn’t even be jokingly upset with the investment because wow, the System decided to show off.
Just five buildings, the fairly wide space which contained them was completely remade. The ground had buckled and rippled like it had turned into pure water. A swirling mass of clay, wood, rock and copious amounts of mana writ change upon the land in a scale which blew me away. With my heightened sense of the mana in the air, it was both decadent to behold and supremely helpful to my own understanding of magic.
The five others were also spellbound by the process but none so much as Tom. I sidled up to my fellow aspirant of the magical arts and nudged him. He barely registered me, nodding but not looking away from the show. Loud enough for all to hear, I gave some advice. “This isn’t as simple as just magic. Everyone pay attention.”
Aaron, Ellie, Harry and Luke all looked at me like I was talking gibberish, but Tom gasped and I knew he’d figured it out. More than mana, the air was filled with a truly miraculous Dao. I could sense shades of the most prominent portions but even the fraction I could wrap my head around was mind-boggling. When combined, was there anything Dao and mana couldn’t accomplish together?
Each of the five homes which came to being were custom built masterworks. I had blasted straight past this level with Home Base but each building became a full detached house with a fair amount of rooms in each. Home Base was perfectly made for Naea and myself, with spots for her to lounge nearly everywhere and a touch of fantasy opulence which was all I needed in a magic house.
Letting everyone keep their privacy, I hadn’t been inside one of them yet. I had been wanting to explore the guildhall but the doors were locked. As my hands touched them, the System prompt of my nightmares appeared and my executive function was shot from then on. Only now that I returned with Naea did I take the time to look around. With a deep, calming breath, I decided on the name of the guild.
It doesn’t matter, I convinced myself, trying to agree with Naea, it’s just a name.
No one else was here yet. They had likely all found their favourite beds at this point. With the ability to make their houses invisible to each other, the safety of the barriers weren’t questioned. They probably would have taken any excuse to relax, really. I doubted they had spent more than four hours asleep since the Shift occurred. Luckily for me, I kept getting knocked out so I didn’t have that problem. Doubly true since my grade evolved.
The large building echoed in a stately manner as I entered. It had been a miraculous discovery the day after my evolution in which I saw I could ‘repair’ the home of a mess just like I could damage. The cost was miniscule, even with the grotesque sludge from my evolution. So, I wasn’t worried about my muddy boots on the nice new flooring, which was lovely.
As I wandered the various corridors and additional levels of the guildhall, I saw its primary purposes. There were barracks with comfortable bunk beds, three large spaces at the back of the building which could fit over one hundred people easily. These people would be well looked after with another stocked pantry of food and a large modern kitchen to cook it in. Not exactly my forte, but maybe someone had cooking magic?
“Naea,” I called across the room, “we should find someone who had cooking magic.” She squealed in agreement while I threw together a simple, large pasta. There was no inherent magic in the meal, though I did try to infuse mana into the mixture. It had just melted the end of the spoon, so I gave up and focused on getting the spices right. It was passable, but nice and filling. What organ did it fill now my stomach was unneeded? Who knows!
I didn’t have much interest in running a guild, so the offices and storage rooms in the upper levels didn’t hold my attention for long. I unofficially claimed the largest study all the same because unlike other rooms, this one had books inside of it. Naea groaned and practically ran away as I started leafing through one of them. My stomach filled with butterflies as I realised what I was holding.
Item - Book (History Of The System, part 1)
I hadn’t expected the prompt to appear and swept it away. There were words on the cover which I couldn’t read, a language cipher which was far different from anything on Earth. The closest I could guess was forms of ancient hieroglyphics I had seen. As I struggled to understand the words inside the book, I felt a slight empty space inside. Curious, I sent a small burst of mana into the pages.
The book fluttered and within a blink of an eye, the letters were legible. Childhood wonder overpowered my more mature curiosity and I was happy no one could hear me squeak in delight. A magical library? There’s one bucket list item checked off. I might have been pushing it, three large bookcases does not a library make but I was happy enough. I decided to read through the important information when I took time to rest.
I could have quite happily sat down and started studying right then but there were more important things to be getting on with. From the large floor to ceiling window in the guildhall study, the top of the pagoda tower was visible. Everyone was sleeping or busy, and there wasn’t much else to do.
I called Naea over with a mental nudge through our connection and met her outside. I had felt the magic move as I completed the quest and looked up to see the name of the guild on a sign above the main entrance. “Ah, so you did pick one then! Good! Though, what kind of a name is that?”
My glare from earlier returned and the air drew heavy with my Dao. Naea giggled and pushed her own power against mine in a kind of magical play fighting only possible through Dao. A genuine choke from behind us caused us to stop. Tom was there, looking like he had just been throttled. “Oops,” I said.
“Oops?!” Tom’s anger was surprising only because of the man’s timid nature to this point. I didn’t begrudge it. Together, Naea and myself had just given his soul and psyche a beating by accident. “What the bloody hell was that? It was that other magic you talked about earlier, wasn’t it? That’s why I was looking for you.”
My eyes darted to the tower once more before giving Tom my full attention. Even figuring out there was a difference between mana and Dao so quickly was impressive. His medium length hair was a complete tangle and his eyes, brown like the hair, were manic and tired at the same time. He definitely hadn’t slept. “How can I help you, Tom?”
His fervent eyes found mine with desperation, hope and excitement clear within them. With all the earnesty in the world, he asked a question I didn’t realise I had always wanted to hear. In me, Tom saw the teachers of mysticism from legends. I’m like Merlin. “Can you teach me how to do real magic?”
“Yes,” I answered immediately. I looked at the guild’s name above the door. The Ascent. Not The Dragon’s Ascent, because this place wasn’t going to just be for me to get stronger. A journey walked alone was bound to get lonely eventually. Let everyone else climb with me, if they could keep up. “Yes, I can.”