Chapter 173 - 173 Welcoming Carlos

The frozen age thing has again misled Cain. He thought that Odin was a mere boy, still in his teenage years. But if he's got nieces about to graduate university as first advancement Holy Clerics, he can't possibly be that young. In fact, he's likely been holding in that grudge against Carlos for well over a decade. 

[He should fit right in. Funny, morally questionable, loyal to the one he cares about.] Kone sends in Guild Chat. 

[Did we find a new friend?] Cixelcid asks. 

[Yeah, a Vampire Barbarian that got a Duke's daughter pregnant. Twice. Kicked from his Guild for breaking a table over the Guild master's head, and because said daughter is the Guild master's little sister.] Misha adds. 

[Well, he's brave, I'll give him that.] Cixelcid responds. 

[Aren't we collecting a lot of Vampires though? Get a cute gnome for me to cuddle.] Char adds. 

[Yeah, get the cute gnome too.] Kone chimes in and Cain tunes out the message notifications. 

"So, what does the Guild say?" Carlos asks, recognizing the vacant look of someone checking the text chat.

"The girls were hoping for a cute Gnome, not a huge vampire guy, but you've got their seal of approval." Cain laughs and sends the invitation. 

[C@rl0s has joined the Guild] 

[User nickname set to Carlos] 

A chorus of welcoming messages come in from the other locations as Carlos looks over the Guild information, seeing the locations of the Guild Houses. 

"How do you keep up membership in the Beginner's Valley? I heard once you leave you can't go back." He asks Cain. 

"We've got a method to send members between Guild Houses. We just need a way to get them from Assah back to Montauk and everything will be linked." Cain smiles at their newest member. 

"I can help you there." Niki, the last to make a deal for their shop, and the Inscriptionist supplies dealer suggests. 

"What have you got for us?"

"I've got a general purpose transport Inscription. Can go between any two properties owned by the same person or Guild. The materials are ridiculously expensive, but the range is long enough to go from one end of the continent to the other. From here you could even reach the very edges of the North and East continents if you got one made by an Artisan level Inscriptionist."

That's way beyond Cain's level, but a possibility in the future. Maybe. 

"How much are they worth?" Cain asks cautiously. 

"About 2500 Gold." Niki shrugs and Sam nods his agreement. That's half the price of her shop, and more money than they'd ever spent at one time, but worth it to keep their Guild in contact. Most Guilds break up because they're in different areas and don't ever see each other, so they drift apart. 

"Deal. That, plus the supplies for the books, and the rest in Gold?" Cain suggests. 

"That works for me. Come back anytime and I'll make you a good deal on supplies for your next project. Much better than the con artists at the Library, they overcharge for everything. Plus they skim off the top. Did you hear about the one who tried to steal entire Legendary Quality dragon claws?" Niki laughs. 

"Hear about? It was their Dragon that provided the Claws. I was coming back from the docks when it all went down." Carlos laughs. 

"You'll have to fill me in on the whole story later. But here are your supplies, and your coin, and now I need to go open my shop or I'm not going to be able to afford lunch. I'll have that circle ready for you tomorrow." Niki laughs, waving as she leaves. 

"How are the other deals coming along?" Cain asks. 

"Recipes, supplies and a thousand Gold is our deal." The Orcish tailor with Misha calls back and Cain nods, going over to sign the finalized deal. 

"I've got materials, recipes and training plus three thousand Gold." Kone says hopefully. Sure, she's the only one that benefits from the training, but they'll all benefit from her potions when she's done. 

"I can live with that. A trained alchemist is always good to have."

That's the final deal done, and with a round of handshakes, everyone leaves but the Gnomish trader. 

"If you're still taking in members that belong in the Beginner's Valley, I have a deal for you. I've got two daughters at level fifteen that just finished their primary school training as a Warlock and a Warrior. If you'd like to take them in, they're super cuddly." She grins.

"Don't worry, we can fix their levels in a hurry. In fact, we sort of specialize in it. Call it the trial by notifications, if you will. I'm certain our Shaman would love to have them. She's got an abundance of mom energy, and is currently still in the Beginner Valley, though she's got to be almost level 100 by now."

"Once you get that circle up and running I'll bring them by. Maybe day after tomorrow?" The Gnome suggests. 

"That works. We'll see you then."

[Char, we found you a couple young Gnomes to cuddle. Or power level, whichever. They'll be ready in a couple days once we get set up here, and you can come collect them.] Cain sends in Guild chat. 

[Excellent! The Dwarves are not at all cuddly sorts, but they're coming along well in the levels. It's not as insane as when you were here, but it's still very fast. Give it half a year and the orphans we took in will be ready to move on to doing Demon Raids or joining a group in Montauk that can partially carry them.] Char sends back.

If they're that close, she must be weeks from graduating out. It's a good thing they can return as they wish. 

Checking the Guild Roster, Cixelcid and Lickity are also very close to level 100. They've also recruited a half dozen Elves from Sunnybrook without Cain noticing. At least they didn't forget that part, building up a legacy in every city is essential to Cain's newly forming ambition to have a Guild that truly encompasses the continent.

A full path from birth to level 200 or higher. After all, you can't build a Guild family if members are forced to leave to level up or can't join until adulthood. 

The problem they'll eventually run into is the member cap. Unless Cain can find a way around it, once they get to 100 members they'll have to form branches, which are just affiliated Guilds and don't share the main Guilds skills and benefits. 

"Hey, uh, about these Guild Skills. WTF am I looking at?" Carlos asks. 

"Well, first up is Summon Ogres. They're kind of trash, and can only be called once a day, it's a random group from 1 to 6. The next is [Demon Army] a group of 2 or more that only has Guild Members can call 18 Demon type Lesser Golems with a cool down of 30 minutes. Pretty much every Guild Group calls them every dungeon run. The last one is [Benevolent Leader] which lets every member Summon two Epic Golems. Technically it allows me to pick one Core Skill to share, but that's what I picked. They're a bit mana intensive to call, but you can do it pretty frequently if they happen to die." Cain explains.

"How tough is a Lesser Golem and how tough is an Epic Golem?" Carlos asks confused. 

"Without buffs, Lesser Golems are about as tough as random small dungeon mobs their level. Epic Golems are mostly clones of Dungeon bosses."

"So you're saying every group gets 18 trash mobs and 2 dungeon bosses their level to help them out?" Carlos says, shocked. 

"Technically 4 dungeon bosses. Because you need 2 members in the group to use [Demon Army] and they can both use [Benevolent Leader] if they have the mana." Cain explains.

"No wonder you guys are so disgustingly overpowered. Just flooding every dungeon with summons and letting the healers carry the run."

"If you want, you can Summon the healers too. There's a Dark Elven High Priestess among the Epic Golems that does an incredible job of healing. Pick her and a Tank type Epic Golem, like the Snapping Turtle Kin or a Wrath Bringer and you can go with just DPS classes." Kone suggests. 

"Be careful how much you pull through, because with only one tank you might take damage to everyone else too." Misha adds and Carlos shakes his head as if they've got an unrealistic expectation of what it means to enter a dungeon. 

"It might be easier to show you in person. We've got to go look at the new house we obtained, and set up the travel Inscription, but after that we're free to head out into the desert and do a quick dungeon run. Maybe the Lizardmen dungeon, since you export gear for a living. 

We usually drop everything into the Guild Bank, and members take what they need, then let the Smith and tailors rework the stuff with lousy bonuses. It sells better if it gets reworked into better bonuses, and if it doesn't we usually break it down for materials, or you can sell it overseas. Both work to fund the Guild."

"So gear is a free for all?"

"Sort of. Take only what you're using and put the old item in its place has been working so far. I'm certain we've got some seriously over geared newbies in the Guild, since a lot of items don't have restrictions on them, but there's lots still there as you can see."

"Yeah, just the stuff that's already been reworked and unclaimed is enough to fill a couple ships. It's not terrible gear, just a bit wonky in the combinations, so the Eastern Continent would love to get their hands on it." Carlos agrees, looking over the items. 

Nothing there will really help him, he's level 193, but anything they get out of the Lizardmen dungeon might. Plus, working with gear much higher level than you both grants experience and quickly increases your crafting skill. They might get a lot of failures and ruined gear, but they should get Guild members to Master level Tailoring and Smithing in a hurry. 

"The Lizardmen dungeon is half an hour out of town by horse. Or jogging if you prefer, they're about the same at level 100. If you think you can manage it, I'll gladly join you.." Carlos laughs, eager to see just how powerful his new Guild is, since he arrived just before the duel during yesterday's fight and only saw the numbers, not the ability.