“Guilds found themselves in a balancing act. The more players a guild had the greater power it could wield in the world. The guild base could only support a limited number of those same players. This led to stratification and frequent attempts at making subsidiary or partner guilds. The difficulty in securing resources to grow a multitude of guilds made fools of those who attempted this route.”

  From “The Rise of the Mega Guilds”

  Year 1, Month 1, Day 29, 16:00

  Thousands of players flooded into the Risk of Injury guild base causing an impromptu party to break out. Chef Bridges and Chef Daniels rounded up the cooking specialists and created a spread that gluttons, foodies and jaded hedonists would talk about for years. Mana enhanced food with ingredients fantastical in nature targeted at creating undreamt of culinary experiences appeared as if from thin air. The faeries, always eager for a celebration, broke out casks of enchanted root beer and wine.

  Torgon drank in the atmosphere, nibbling on select dishes before slipping away to the keep. The other leadership team members joined him to go over the events of the past day. The table in the room was piled high with food from the celebration and Torgon made a mental note to thank the Chefs for making sure they could enjoy themselves while they worked. The core leadership team was joined by Stabitha, Dirk, Elder Chestnut, Mark X, Frare and Dr. Masters. He gave everyone a few minutes to get comfortable and fill up a plate before he began.

  Torgon exhaled loudly, “It’s been a long couple of days. We succeeded in pioneering the Tomb of the Wight Lord and our ambush of the Young Master’s Alliance was semi-successful. Now that we have time, we need to go over what we managed to acquire from the dungeon and from our fighting.”

  Hyperia gestured, “I have the tally from the dungeon. The first clears of the 5 and 10 man netted us a total of 15 basic core units and 6 basic dungeon writs. The first clears for the 15 and 20 man sections rewarded us with 15 common core units and 6 common dungeon writs. There was a special reward for clearing all four sections and an additional reward for taking the first clear of all four normal difficulty levels. That amounted to an additional 20 basic core units and 10 common core units with a corresponding 8 basic dungeon writs and 4 common dungeon writs.”

  Torgon raised an eyebrow, “That’s a lot. That’s more than I was expecting.”

  Dusty chimed in, “Hype and I talked about it. It’s not really that big compared to the difficulty of what we achieved. Four simultaneous first clears is a feat usually reserved for the S tier guilds. Adding so many buildings with each new guild base improvement means that we need an increasing number of cores to keep up and relative to our guild size and it’s barely adequate.”

  Torgon nodded, “We’ll use 10 of the basic core units to expand the crafting specialist options. We’ll add additional levels for armor, weapons, alchemy and cooking. 25 total common core units means we can queue up the library to common rank and the guardian faerie hearth tree to common rank. That still leaves us 5. Should we save them, use them for defenses, the crafting hall or adventurer’s hall?”

  “Queue the Adventurer’s Hall,” Dirk supplied. “The quests there are an excellent source of guild income and free experience for everybody. It scales and even the greenest of recruits can take advantage of it. It will benefit us the most and benefit us immediately.” The others seated around the table nodded in agreement.

  Torgon snorted, “Well, that was easy. I agree that it will get us the most mileage out of the remaining upgrades.”

  “We need to save for the research hall next,” Dusty interjected.

  “What’s your reasoning Dusty?” Torgon asked.

  Dusty looked at everyone and spoke, “I have three primary reasons. The first is that it will double the number of people that we can use for researching. It’s slow to unlock blueprints, and having 40 people working instead of 20 would make a big difference. There are thousands of people in the guild and letting them unlock the blueprints with GCP saves everybody time and money. The second reason is upping the level cap on blueprints to 30. We’re already got quite a few people level 10 or higher and the sooner we can work in creating that gear, even at the most basic level, the better. The third reason is that it unlocks access to enchanted gear and common grade gear. We’re still working through the basics, especially on the longer research projects like siege gear and automatons, but it’s time to expand our offerings.”

  Mark added, “It would help to get more people crafting the weird stuff faster.”

  Elder Chestnut spoke in his high-pitched musical voice, “A tree cannot grow tall if its roots do not stretch deeply.”

  “It’s easier to defeat an enemy when you have quality gear.” Allestor continued, “It’s also easier to win when you have better training. I’ll concede that the research hall is the next project we need, but after that I feel that the training yard should be the next target. Everyone needs weapon skills if only to help defend during the guild base raids.”

  Torgon inclined his head, “Dusty is right about the research hall and Allestor makes another good point with the training yard. I think it’s a solid plan and we’ll stick to it unless something changes. I don’t know how long it’ll take to gather the necessary writs, especially since our access to the Tomb of the Wight Lord might be be, um, complicated.” Laughter rippled around the table at the understated remark.

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  Hyperia cleared her throat to get the room’s attention. “We do have a major concern. A few of our level 10 players were forced to respawn and discovered something nasty. When they die, they take a small durability hit to all their equipped gear. Combining that with the increased durability loss for higher level fights, repairs are going to be a pressing concern. The coin cost scales with level and rarity on gear. We are making repair kits that can be used in the field. It seems the materials to craft them are a lot cheaper than taking your gear to a blacksmith in the town.”

  Torgon sighed, “Dusty, can we put repair kits on the list of things to research for blueprints?”

  Dusty chewed her lip before speaking, “We can. I’ve been reserving 5 slots for automatons and 5 for siege weapons, while leaving the others free for whatever researchers are willing to pursue. I can take another 5 slots for the repair kits until we have the level 0, 5 and 10 blueprints covered. They’re quick to make so the research shouldn’t take that long.”

  Torgon grinned broadly, “Outstanding! Frare, how have the auctions been?”

  Frare straightened up to speak, “They’ve been steady. It will help now that we’ve got an extra 40 ballistae to sell again.” More laughter circled the table, the jubilant mood lifting the meeting as they ate and discussed. “If we keep 500 gold coins for operating expenses, we have just over 4,000 gold coins available to use in the Deep Harbor monthly auction tomorrow.”

  Torgon asked the question, “Everyone still on board with using the guild funds for blueprints and unique items rather than a broad push for exceptional gear for the top?” No one at the table disagreed with the idea. “Just making sure. I think our lead is still enough that pushing up the broader guild benefits us more than setting up a smaller group of elites.”

  Hyperia shrugged gain, “It’s shaking out that way regardless. Our permanent residents are putting space between themselves and the tourist players. The ambitious players are acquiring better gear through their own efforts and as a guild, we’re giving everyone the opportunity to progress quickly.”

  “Point taken,” Torgon agreed. “Did we get any noteworthy loot?”

  Hyperia held up her hand in a so-so gesture. “We picked up several blueprints for decent armor. They’ve been passed to crafters so they can focus on one piece at a time. The most interesting one is a blueprint for a magelight globe that follows the owner and lights the area for a fifty-foot radius. Great for dark exploration in tight locations but not ideal for night fighting. The requirements are on the high side for constructing it, but we’ll test the magelights in different ways. The best drop was a pattern for skeletons to use in our guild base dungeon. Now we’re up to having rabbits, goblins and skeletons.”

  Torgon sighed, looking out the window before turning back to the table. “We’ll wrap it up there. I think we can all use some time to ourselves before we hop back into guild business tomorrow. The library will be up by then and we can sort out what common skills to grab before the auction.”

  The occupants of the room slowly filtered out, spreading across the base in pursuit of their own agendas. Torgon found himself heading to his personal chambers and tossing himself on the bed for a bit. The constant fighting had been a drain on his mind. He looked at his skills, happy with the gradual improvements in his combat and casting. His free experience was a healthy total that should let him free up at least two skill slots for common skills when the library finished upgrading. His level had risen to 12 and he used his free attribute points to boost his lagging strength and endurance a point each.

  He allowed himself the luxury of a few hours of sleep before he climbed out of bed and walked a quick circuit of the guild base. The level of activity surpassed his expectations. Dozens of children and adults sat around the water fishing. He spied Barkolemew running around, getting all the pets and the occasional fish. Someone had erected a wooden tower with a platform to jump into the water alongside a series of rope swings. Every couple of minutes, a child would call out to Barkolemew, run to the edge of the platform and jump towards the water, only to be snatched out of the air by the teleporting dog and deposited at the base of the tower.

  Torgon watched the games for several minutes before he wandered over the park. He sat on a bench, enjoying the fountain and the drifting ambient mana. His eyes unfocused as he considered the direction he wanted to take his build. An area of effect bow skill was the top priority. He needed it for the open world, fighting both against monsters and players. Ideally, it would work with the area of effect arrows to increase damage. His next priority was finding a sword or other type of melee weapon that scaled its damage with agility. The crafting skills pushed his agility ever higher, making that the most efficient path to pursue growing DPS.

  He sighed deeply. Torgon needed to spend more time crafting and wanted to play around with it. His soul called for him to make things, new things, not just weapons. He thought harder on the topic, trying to categorize what he wanted to make. He wanted to explore the automatons, he wanted to make siege engines, he wanted to work on repair kits, and he even wanted to try his hand at alchemy and armor crafting. He sighed again thinking to himself, “Yeah, I want to do it all.”

  Torgon was nothing if not patient. He could gradually expand his repertoire, one blueprint at a time. He would be first in line to grab copies of every unlocked blueprint from the guild research and until then, he could focus on what he already knew how to do. Feeling energized, he stood up from the bench and walked to the specialist crafting hall, whistling merrily all the way.

  He sat at his workstation and inhaled the air deeply. The sounds of crafting filled the air, knives scraping across wood, hammers banging against metal, the creaking of leather and the tinkling of glass. He ran his hands lovingly over the materials as he laid them out in order and began his work. He spent hours assembling swords and bows destined to be used by the higher-level members of Risk of Injury. Each weapon he crafted improved his guild and boosted the prospects of every member.

  Torgon felt relaxed and happy while he crafted. His hands were guided by the magic of the guardian faerie hearth tree. He could feel it, the energy that cycled through his body. That magic had the power to push him to be the best crafter in the world. He wanted that, to excel, to achieve, to advance farther and faster than anyone else. The hunger, the drive, the naked ambition, the fire in his soul that he thought extinguished had been smoldering inside him all the years when his body couldn’t support him. Now it blazed back to life, and he surrendered himself to the warm glow. The dawn crept over the horizon and Torgon smiled again, ready to make the world his own.