Chapter 124

Chapter 124

Chapter 124

[15 attendant spots available, 600 Elysium Coins per month per active attendant are taxed by the system administrator. You may either mentally link this guild hall to the nearest friendly Elysium Altar that you have access to in order to hire attendants from the general store, or may hire attendants from associated factions at that altar.]

The screen flared, and mentally linking his guild core to the altar he actually owned himself - he quickly saw a new set of messages along with a very long list and a search option. There were also category checkmarks, with numerous options such as: Utility, Tank, Damage, Subterfuge, Crafting, Scouting, Magic-Based, Martial-Based, Miracle-Based, Long Range, Melee, Level, Guild Association, Corporation Association, Faction Association, Group-Contracts, Individual-Contracts, and others. There were even categories that divided up into what type of pillar the attendants were associated with, and the lists could be divided up by hiring price from lowest to highest or vice versa. Each of these categories had subcategories of their own, and the vast majority of listed groups were from the ‘General Elysium Store’ - while less than a twentieth of them were from Negrada or The Blood Moon Requiem.

[You are now accessing attendant listings from the following: General Elysium Store, The Blood Moon Requiem, Hellscape Dungeon Negrada. You may organize choices based on category to narrow down the search function.]

“Alright, what do I put into the search?” Riven asked, looking up when Fay came over to sit on the bed next to him.

The succubus narrowed her eyes, then started pointing out category tags. “He’ll be from the general store, so click that one.”

All of The Blood Moon Requiem and Negrada groups disappeared.

“Uhm... Click ‘demon’ for race, and type in ‘Sojavi Clan’ for ‘Faction Association.’”

Riven did as asked, and the list narrowed significantly from many tens of thousands of pages he could scroll through to only a handful of pages - each page having a couple dozen options. “What’s the point of hiring off of The Blood Moon Requiem or Negrada here when I could just look their factions up?”

Fay smirked, then patted him on the head. “Silly man. It’s because doing it through the general store is much more expensive, you get a large discount of Elysium Coins by hiring through associated friendly channels at the altar.”

“But isn’t it only 600 coins per month? That’s what my guild hall status page said.”

“Yes, but that's only for maintenance. That doesn’t include the up front fee to hire, and it doesn’t include the personal fee that the person you’re hiring requires either. The personal monthly fee that you’re paying them to be here isn’t taxed because you’re paying a maintenance fee to the system to keep that person attached to the guild hall, but the up front cost is always doubled as a tax for using the Elysium General Store. If you hired the same group or individual from, let’s say, Negrada: You could either do it through your altar’s channel and disregard the fee entirely, or hire that same group or individual through the general store and pay the doubled up front cost. And then there’s also the distance tax too, with longer distances costing more. I have no doubt that both Negrada and The Blood Moon Requiem had to pay quite a bit of money just to send their trade communes and all their people here under the same principle, as neither one of them are in this vicinity of the multiverse. We’re talking a LOT of money.”

Riven scratched his head. “I see. Interesting. Alright, what’s next?”

They selected a few other options after that, and the list became smaller and smaller. First they selected an area of the nether realms to pick from that was actually Fay’s homeland, then they cycled out group contracts and made them ‘individual contracts’ only. After that, the race was further narrowed from ‘demon’ to ‘Incubus’, and then they picked ‘crafting’ as yet another category.

“What kind of craft does he do?” Riven curiously pondered while scrolling through the list for Fay to look at.

The succubus kept her eyes on the screen, scanning the names that appeared one after the other. “Well.. not any one thing in particular. He’s... trying to figure out who he is as a person, but he doesn’t have any combat classes or even a class at all. However, I did tell him to list himself as a cook or scribe... Aha! Got him!”

She punched a name off the list, and a vision of a blue-skinned man appeared on screen. Just like Fay, this man had sky-blue skin, black eyes, black wings, small black horns, and white hair past his shoulders. He was far broader and taller than Fay was, obviously handsome, and had a thicker tail than his sister did. His name appeared as ‘Tupper.’

[Tupper. Level 2 Incubus Demon. Classless. Crafts listed by participant: Cooking. Combat abilities listed by participant: Not available. Affiliations: Not available.]

*THUD*

That would be a discussion for tomorrow morning before he set out to meet the rat man snagger at the designated spot within the underdark.

At his right, Athela was in her humanoid form and curled up under the blankets of his bed - yawning comfortably now that night had fallen and having already claimed the bed for her own while declaring that he sleep on the floor.

He snorted in amusement, remembering her proclamation, and said he’d just go to another room before she’d denied him and physically stopped him from doing so by dragging him back into the room by his legs.

“Master?”

Fay’s voice reached him and brought him out of his thoughts.

He gave her an apologetic wave of the hand and reached out to grasp the guild core again. “Sorry, let’s resume things.”

“Thank you!”

[Tupper. Level 2 Incubus Demon. Classless. Crafts listed by participant: Cooking. Combat abilities listed by participant: Not available. Affiliations: Not available.]

Her brother’s information populated the screen again, and the image of the blue-skinned succubus came on screen. He selected the option, and another notification appeared.

[This attendant will cost you 1 Elysium Coin up front, with a matching tax of 1 Elysium Coin, and a distance tax of 78,924 Elysium Coins. Maintenance fees for this guild hall are set at 600 Elysium Coins per month per active attendant, with 0 of 15 Attendant Spots already being filled. Do you wish to hire this attendant?]

Riven slowly shifted his gaze to the large pile of coins that Azmoth had brought up to his closet, then to Fay who was giving him a sheepish smile. “78,924? Really?”

Fay lowered her eyes apologetically. “Sorry. Is that too much? I wasn’t sure what the distance fee would be, the nether realms shift positions relative to physical realms all the time, so if you need to wait it might reduce the price. Or it might increase the price...”

Her voice trailed off in disappointment, and she looked sideways at the wall - almost as if embarrassed by her oversight.

“What are the odds it’ll decrease versus increase?” Riven asked, knowing full well he could afford it but also knowing that was still a lot for an attendant based on other prices he’d seen.

“Uhm... It’ll probably increase in the immediate future, but if you wait a year or two it may decrease. The nether realms are huge.”

Riven could see she was obviously disappointed. Whatever was going on with her brother, it was affecting her as well. “Then let’s just get it over with.”

He selected the ‘yes’ in relation to the prompt for hiring an attendant, and a final notification popped up right before a portal appeared in the middle of the room - and a large chunk of money vanished off the top of his closet-stash nearby.

[Tupper, Level 2 Incubus Demon, has been added as an attendant to this guild hall. 78,926 Elysium Coins have been taken from your belongings. 1 of 15 Attendant Slots filled. Current monthly cost for all attendants: 600 Elysium Coins. Tupper has been imbued with permanence as long as the guild hall core remains intact. Upon death, Tupper will be resurrected as long as guild hall core remains intact. Tupper has been restricted to a 3 mile exploration radius surrounding the guild hall before forced retrieval back to guild hall. Tupper can now utilize the ability ‘Homeward Teleportation’ to teleport back to this guild hall after a channel time based on distance.]