“Despite the initial stumbles, guild bases soon proved very popular. Finding materials to upgrade them became a focus of all the leading guilds and the vast majority of the middle to smaller guilds.”

  Excerpt from “Guided Guild Growth” by Grant Gallows

  Year 1, Month 1, Day 24, 21:30

  Elder Chestnut was waiting for the party when they returned to the guild base. He stepped forward, eyes gleaming, “Do you have it? Do you really have it?”

  Torgon extended his hand with the vial of Forest King Bloodsap and gave it to the proud faerie.

  The normally dignified faerie fluttered around in a circle exclaiming, “Marvelous! Absolutely Marvelous!” He gathered himself and beckoned the group to follow him. “Come, Come. We must go to the tree and start the ceremony!”

  Torgon and the others followed the elder to the Faerie Hearth Tree growing inside the keep. Faeries from across the guild base began to form a mass in the center of the base. Ivy and her knights returned to take up positions around the tree. Corgis milled about, brushing against the legs of the larger players, seeking pets and scritches while Elder Chestnut laid out the ritual to apply the bloodsap to the hearth tree.

  “Guild Master, could you request that any free members join us here? We will need a lot of mana to fuel the working, plus, it will be quite a beautiful experience.” Elder Chestnut continued, “This bloodsap should strengthen the tree and improve the beneficial properties of it. It will also give us a mandate from the Earth Mother herself to defend the land around Miller’s Crossing.

  Torgon quickly sent out the announcement, “All free players, gather at the Faerie Hearth Tree inside the base. We need to fuel a magical working to make it stronger. Afterwards there will be punch, pie and ice cream.”

  Hundreds of players and faeries gathered around the tree. The players spread out in a circle around the tree, and the faeries flew to the upper branches. Elder Chestnut took the vial of bloodsap and poured it carefully around the base of the tree, letting it flow into the roots. A reddish-purple glow began to suffuse the base of the tree and slowly spread upwards. Torgon felt the tug on his mana as the tree began to drink from everyone surrounding it. The energy manifested as a blue mist leaking from the players and faeries. The mist enveloped the tree, the ancient living symbol of the faeries drinking deeply from the well of power.

  The color of the bark began to change. The brown acquired red and green patches and a feeling of strength beyond what the tree already possessed. New leaves grew in multicolored displays of vitality. A hum of transcendent power passed through the ears of everyone present. An expectant air took shape, a sense of impending consequence and profound change.

  The elder looked up, his eyes glowing with magical essence. “Ivy, please step forward. The tree is asking you to take up the mantle of Guardian. Would you accept this role with all the benefits and responsibilities that it grants?”

  Ivy flew forward to land in front of the elder, her loose leather armor muted in the glow of the tree, absorbing the light and energy. “I accept Elder Chestnut. I will serve the Earth Mother and the Land with every part of my being.” She bowed to the elder and then turned to bow to the tree.

  Elder Chestnut placed on hand on the tree and one hand on Ivy’s shoulder. “In the name of the Earth Mother, in the name of the Land and in the name of the primordial essence of life and growth, I pronounce you the Forest Knight of Miller’s Crossing. Your duty is to defend this land from any that would seek to defile it. Serve the land and it will serve you in turn.”

  Energy flowed from the tree, through the elder and into Ivy. Her diminutive frame began expanding. She grew at a perceptible rate until she stood a solid three and a half feet in height, towering over the other faeries. Her wings expanded, stretching wide and taking on an iridescent glow as mana passed along the diaphanous membranes. The drain of mana eased and the glow from the tree began to shift upwards along the trunk and branches. Fireworks of magical energy twinkled above the guild base. Small explosions of red and purple mana mixed with the vibrant green and brown eruptions of life energy. A refreshing rain of power fell across the base, invigorating all that gathered.

  A system announcement greeted everyone present.

  “Congratulations! Your Basic Faerie Hearth Tree has evolved into a Basic Guardian Faerie Hearth Tree. This tree allows faeries to bind and construct homes. This tree grants the Blessing of the Earth Mother, the Blessing of the Earth Guardian and the Blessing of the Moon. The Blessing of the Earth Mother provides a 6% reduction in the respawn time for all nodes related to plants and animals per rank. The Blessing of the Earth Guardian provides one champion with greatly boosted powers. These powers will double in the direct defense of the protected land when confronted by agents of Rot, Death and Decay. The Blessing of the Moon provides a 50% reduction in crafting time for four individuals per rank during the nighttime period and a permanent 50% reduction in crafting time for the designated leader of the settlement.”

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  An impromptu celebration of the minor miracle broke out. Tables were set up in the park and piled high with mugs of root beer, goblets of wine and platters of cheese and fruit. The air of the guild base was tinged with the magical energy from the transformation of the tree. Players and faeries shared their joy together and celebrated. Torgon and the others reveled for a while then slipped away to conduct needed business.

  Allestor nudged Torgon, “Going perma-crafter now?”

  Torgon grunted noncommittally, “Eh, It’s less stressful than the shorter buff. The buff is always there so I’m not wasting a limited resource. It also means that whenever I have free time, I can make efficient use of it. Let’s get back on track though. We have enough resources to start the next tier upgrade of the guild base. It will burn through most of our tier two resources but they’re there to be used and this is the most impactful way to use them for the entire guild.”

  “Queue it up,” Hyperia agreed. “When it finishes, we can look at our next steps. It’s going to take five common core points correct?”

  Torgon checked the requirements and replied, “Yes, just five. We’ll still have five available. We’re sitting at 31 basic core points as well. New slots for defense and buildings ought to be there too.” Torgon started construction on the next tier of the guild base. “It will finish in the morning. Dirk and the new batch of permanently online recruits should be arriving shortly after dawn, and we can take that into account when we plan our next moves.”

  The group watched as the materials began floating out storage and slipping into place in the guild base. The glow of the moon gave the wood and stone an unearthly feel as the magic shifted it around. After a few minutes they broke up to pursue their own goals. Torgon made his way into the crafting hall and stopped to consider his options.

  The immediate needs of the guild were mostly covered, but Torgon had to consider the future options. He thought about crafting the easy enchanted swords for profit and add in a few enchanted bows for guild use. Grinding away using recipes that offered no challenge didn’t inspire him tonight. Torgon exhaled and started arranging materials for the uncommon level 10 long bows. Not everything he did had to be in pursuit of the guild’s goal right now. He wanted the challenge of putting the bows together and seeing how many he could make.

  Laying out the wood and other materials serves as an act of meditation. He let himself sink into the flow state of crafting and making things. He took the wood and shaped it into a bowstave, then crafted a bowstring. The success or failure was determined by whether or not the wood could hold the tension when it was pulled into shape. He managed to succeed about half the time right now. He spent the night crafting the weapons and made just over a half dozen for the guild. It wasn’t a lot of experience points but it was steady progress and he smiled to himself with the joy of it all.

  He remembered the old quote “He who can destroy a thing controls a thing.” Torgon didn’t agree. Creation was true control. If you can create something, no matter how many times another destroys it, you can keep creating and thus you have the true control. Destruction was the refuge of the ill talented and mentally lazy. Creation was the realm of mastery and true power.

  The rising of the sun blessed him with more system notifications.

  “Congratulations! Your Guild Hall has reached rank 2. Many new building options have become available to you.”

  “Regional Notification. The guild Risk of Injury has become the first in the region of Miller’s Crossing to raise their Guild Hall to Rank 2.”

  “Congratulations! For being the first guild in Miller’s Crossing to raise your Guild Hall to rank 2, each member of the guild is awarded 1,000 experience and 50 reputation with the town of Miller’s Crossing. The guild is awarded 10 gold coins and 5 units of general research materials.”

  “Kingdom Notification. The guild Risk of Injury has become the first in the Kingdom of Thorn to raise their Guild Hall to Rank 2.”

  “Congratulations! For being the first guild in the Kingdom of Thorn to raise your Guild Hall to rank 2, each member of the guild is awarded 2,500 experience and 10 reputation with the Kingdom of Thorn. The guild is awarded 100 gold coins and 25 units of general research materials.”

  Torgon could hear Dusty’s shout of joy from the library. He briefly considered hiring a librarian to shush her when she showed too much excitement over more books to dig through. The thought put a stupid grin on his face that stayed there as he left the crafting hall to meet up with the team.

  The meeting hall in the guild keep was only half filled with the usual suspects. Kate and Digger were still at the front, working on the road into the Broken Hills while Dirk wouldn’t arrive until later when the new participants in the program showed up. Dr. Masters spoke first, “The new people should get here in an hour. Do you want to start now or should we wait on them?”

  Torgon looked briefly at the others before deciding, “We should wait. Dirk will have some insights, and I think we’ll all have a better idea of our needs after meeting the fresh meat. Dusty, any thoughts on the research materials while we’re waiting?”

  Dusty, fidgeting in her seat, spoke, “There’s so much Torg. I need to dig through it all as soon as possible. My skill indicates that using the materials we should be able to generate special quests or locate hidden treasures that are only accessible by groups that do the research. Every zone that isn’t a starter zone is filled with lore and hidden information that could benefit us. There are also dungeons that you can only unlock with the proper research. I’m going to need a staff of my own, just like everybody else here apparently.”

  Hyperia grinned, “That’s great Dusty. You too can learn the joys of management. We’ll start filling out your team after we induct the new people.”

  Torgon rose from his seat and spoke, “Let’s all head out to the park. We can relax until the new people get here. Once they arrive, we’ll do the meet and greet, work on building the houses and then get them into whatever groups they want to work with. We can issue them the most basic gear and start them on earning the guild contribution points they’ll need for skillbooks or buying the enchanted gear from the guild warehouse. I’m a little worried about how big our base raid tomorrow is going to be, especially since we’ll have more than half of our membership as completely new players.”

  “Don’t worry Torg.” Allestor patted Torgon on the head, “We’ve got this, I think Sir Boots is level 12 already. Your cat is a real serial killer.”

  The team lounged around, admiring the fountain until circles of light began to bloom and one by one hundreds of people appeared inside the base.