Chapter 423 – Guild Hall Part 2 – Tier 0 Build-Out

Chapter 423 – Guild Hall Part 2 – Tier 0 Build-Out

“I cannot fucking believe you,” Eliza spat out. “Like, I literally cannot believe that I love you, you are an absolute idiot and I want you to bend me over and spank the shit out of me while fucking me up the ass.” Her insult fell apart at the end there, but John ignored her ill-intentions either way.

“I like it,” John said, hands stemmed into his hips, standing wide-legged as if he had just created the most ultimate of crafted works. With the remaining 7 Room Slots, he had made 4 more buildings. 3 Slots went to the Bank, a nice and simple brick building decorated with lots of shiny stuff and a giant golden dollar sign above the entrance, 1 to a Security Station that spawned up to three level 25 golems in the shape of floating orb sentries, another 1 into a similar station for cleaning, that spawned little white slimes, and the last 2 on the semi-circle shaped building in front of them. It had a main building that was a story taller than its two flat-roofed arms. As with most buildings around here, it had a nice simple brick look to it. Nothing too fancy on the face of it, the occasional white plastered line decor cutting through to make it look less like a lazily textured block.

With all of those buildings, John hoped he had the basic things covered. He had access to his Instant Dungeons, the Guild Bank system (he could access both the monetary supply and storage through the Bank building), a security system that was mostly there to alert them, something to keep the place clean and, lastly, a petting zoo.

Okay, technically it was called a Menagerie, where John could spawn cute, dormant monsters from materials taken from barriers where more mean and aggressive versions tried to murder John. Or animals that were largely unrelated and only shared some basic appearances. They were 100% useless for combat as they refused to fight unless threatened and could also not be taken anywhere. Maybe if John picked up something like beast master skills, he could have attempted something, but he didn’t see himself going that route. He really had enough summons already, no reason to add yet more adds to his encounter.

Of course, that last building existed, in large part, to fulfil his promise to Nia, but it would also be John’s business for the upcoming time. Well, it would be one of three businesses he would run.

Number one, the petting zoo, would probably be the least used of the three, just because John didn’t see it being particularly popular in a city where there was anarcho-capitalism and thus massive security concerns for everybody.

Number two, he didn’t just put up the Bank for the storage, it also came with a loaning mechanic where money put into the Guild Bank could be lent to third parties at a negotiated interest rate and then naturally flow back to John through his mechanics. While within the building he also had access to windows that told him which loans were not being paid back (the mechanic still relied on consent by both parties) and who took them. He would then still have to find out where that person was and why, but that still was a pretty good way to ensure he got his money back.

The third business, the one that was likely to see the most use, was, in essence, a protection agreement. People would pay him and in return he would make sure they were reasonably protected. Taxes against citizenship, essentially. He planned to put this last one into effect only way later into the game, when he was sure putting a governmental body in effect was needed,

The reason why he was currently of the mind that he would need to do it sooner rather than later was that Thorne didn’t behave like a government, just like the biggest fish in the pond of the economy. They were setting different rules that advantaged their market position rather than put some sort of police force together and enforce a legal code.

“Of course, you fucking like it, it’s a nice building, but still you want to advertise yourself with a shitting ZOO?!” Eliza screamed that last word from the top of her lungs and then broke into cacophonic laughter before falling over backwards. “You must be ecstatic, you creepy blonde cum stained dress wearing bimbo!”

Nia was strangely quiet. Even more so than usual. John wasn’t thinking about it so much, because it was Nia and he honestly didn’t have any consistently applicable standards to her behaviour. It also felt like she was getting weirder rather than more normal as she hung around with them. Maybe she was coming out of some sort of shell? That was an interesting thought.

That image was only more reinforced when the pariah, having stood perfectly still ever since Gaia arrived, suddenly blurted out, in her perfectly emotionless and quiet voice, “Why are you looking like an adorable little creature?”

John went over to check what she was looking at; the answer was nothing. She was looking at nothing. “What are you talking about?” he had to ask.

“Gaia, she was engulfed in light but such a pattable small thing,” Nia answered.

“That was almost 30 minutes ago,” he pointed out. He only received a nod as a reaction. “And you said that just now, to no one, instead of to Gaia when she was here.”FOlloow newest stories at no(v)el/bi/n(.)com

“She hears me,” the pariah stated.

It was hard to argue with that, Gaia heard whatever Gaia wanted to hear. “I guess, let’s go into the zoo and check what we can do.”



He really hadn’t fought a lot of different things, having not touched the mechanic since the tournament ended and only grinding Orcs before that due to them being reliably grindable. That had been over a month ago. “Well, new time, new fights,” John decided as they went to the I.D. Gate. Pulling the door open, they found a simple black space behind. Not menacingly black as if filled with dark things, more a black that was like the white of an untouched canvas, ready to take in everything the artist chose.

“I feel like beating on some Undead, how about you guys?” John asked, his elementals materializing one by one.

“Well, Undead burn pretty well, not quite as good as Forest Elementals, but good enough,” Salamander was the first to comment.

“U-uhm, I do think we should stick to Orcs, we already know those. T-to get back into the rhythm and all that,” Gnome made the usual, careful suggestion.

“Whatever, as long as it’s FUUUUUN!” Sylph exclaimed.

Undine stayed silent, radiating a calm level of non-opinionated existence. On the other hand, Siena voiced her opinion for a change, “I do like the sound of Undead, they tend to skulk around in places I also feel comfortable.”

“I am fine with whatever Master decides,” Aclysia commented when looked at, “although I agree with Gnome that a well-known encounter is perhaps the smart thing.”

“Murder,” was the only word Metra had to add to this discussion.

“Mhm, after carefully weighing everyone’s opinion, I say we go with the Undead after all,” John said. Giving the little bit of extra explanation to Gnome, he added, “We still have the Escape Rope if things get too dicey. I don’t think we are too rusty though.”

“Why a-are we even starting with an Assault?” the earth elemental wasn’t quite convinced. “If our goal is money, wouldn’t Floor dungeons be better?”

“You are almost right, but here is the thing, I am halfway to level 111 and at that point we get another Tier. A higher Tier means better loot and more money. So I am prioritizing that for the moment.”

“Ah, okay,” Gnome nodded, “...s-so we are already at the tail end of this Tier right? As in we are almost out?”

“Yup, shouldn’t be too hard, although we will see how the change in our roster affects things,” he was talking about the lack of Momo and the new introduction of Metra. They were missing a pretty valuable support asset and in return had gained another frontline fighter. Adding that Metra’s abilities that made her best when she was fighting on her own and it might turn out that she was simply not a fit for this type of group content.

Well, the only way to find that out was in practice. The Escape Rope with its cooldown of a week had to get some use at some point.

“Mhm, if I set it to the usual 3 hours with my current level of Create I.D., that would scale it up all the way to over four... guess that is possible.” He waited for disagreement or anything, but no one had any further comments.

“Here we go then,” John stretched his arm upwards and created the dungeon.