It had been a long time since he had experienced a memory fragment before this. The last time, it was a memory fragment of a fight between players that was shown to him by Rudra. He was dazed by the entire fragment and was trying to commit to his mind the areas that he didn't recognize. It would be a sad joke, if he went to one of the locations and failed to realize it.
Optional Quest: Gather the complete Void Dragon Set:
Void Dragon Set consists of a 10-piece armor set and weapons.
Peices gathered: 1/11; Mask of Shadows;
"The collection of the entire set is a optional quest? I was under the impression it might by a main quest," thought Balthazar. "Then again, if it was a main quest that man in Foedus Rex wouldn't have been that successful. He didn't wear the other parts of the armor and failure in main quests usually have some kind of harmful effects to the character."
In a couple of seconds, he got up and saw that Luciophel was waiting from him. "Thank you, priest Luciophel. I believe I understand what I need to do now," said Shadow as he was waiting for him to take him out of the basement.
Luciophel was prompt and immediately led him out into the main hall of the temple. With him in the main temple, it was best if he tries to get some sort of quest from the temple right now. He immediately asked Luciophel, "Great priest, you have helped me a lot. Is there anything that you would like me to do for you or for the welfare of the temple?"
"Hmm, I would suggest improving your strength and collect the other parts of the armor. I think that takes priority over anything else that the temple needs," said Luciophel.
"That is true great priest, but I doubt I can gather all of them with the strength I have right now. I would have to improve my power in the meantime and would like to be of help in the meantime," said Shadow. "Why the heck is he delaying giving me a quest. I haven't heard that anyone else managed to get into the city. Rudra told me that he would look out for others, who might get in. There is no way that the quests were all taken by others," thought Balthazar.
"Well.. That is a valid point. There is one which I could ask you to do, but I would suggest that you put this off till you get a little stronger," said Luciophel. "There is a town called Jarko, a few kilometers west of the city. The priest of the temple in the town had been out of contact for two days. Though the law requires a person to be missing for at least three days before they are considered missing, it is quite unusual for Faroon to not be in contact. I would like you to check on him as there have been some unsavory rumors of missing persons near by the town."
New Quest: Find deacon Faroon at the Jarko town. (Difficulty: High)
Description: Go to Jarko town to find clues about Farron's disappearance. Suggested to attempt it after level 15.
Progress: Investigate the Jarko town for Faroon's whereabouts.
"I will check into it as soon as possible," said Shadow and made his way out of the temple. It was quite an odd sight for him to see the temple empty like this. "I guess, it would get crowded after more players come to the city," thought Balthazar. "Once that happens, the entire place would be crowded. It would become something of a holiday spot. I better take a few good pictures right now," thought Balthazar and he started taking a few pictures.
Being night-time the statues looked much more beautiful as the night lights of the temple got reflected off them. It made the statues appeared like heroic figures that were giving off light in the dark.
He immediately contacted Rudra, Merlin and the others. He wanted to check which monsters they encountered around the city and what resources they managed to get. Based on them, he could always try to get compatible designs and also try to create new ones.
They found quite a few quests in the city, but the best ones were found by Slaine. It was the exploration quest which required him to go to other towns from the barracks. This kind of quest would allow a person to get reputation in other towns and allow them to set up a base of operations there. It was exactly the kind of quest that one required at this time of the game.
He also asked Rudra, why they didn't have a guild registered yet. He wanted to setup the first guild in the game. That would definitely cause the popularity of Crimson Realm among the player base to rise and based on his observations, they would probably get guild popularity points too. The best part of guild popularity points is that they are not limited just the White Heart Kingdom. To his dismay, Rudra replied that he could not create a guild right now as it required at the very least 10 members above level 10 in the city to form a guild.
"Can't the five of you go to your beginner village and get more players back? It is best that we not allow someone else to get this chance," asked Shadow.
"We would like to. But a lot of people are trying to finish the quest even in the dark of the night. It is extremely hard to finish it. There are players who are a lot better than me struggling to get through. It is hard enough to level up at the beginner town by killing monsters in this light. The monsters tend to ambush the players and it will lead to deaths of any who come," said Rudra. Balthazar had known Rudra for a long time, and it felt like he was rambling on instead of saying what he meant.
"Stop rambling and come to the point," said Balthazar.
"I want you to ask your friends, Merlin and other to join the guild temporarily. Once, others come they can leave immediately," said Rudra. "I am not sure Merlin would want to join a guild after what happened with his last one."
"Don't ask Merlin. You should have asked the others."
"I don't really know any of them. It is not quite good for someone going to be guild leader to ask them to join temporarily. If someone else found out, it wouldn't be good for my reputation. I am afraid to ask them to join permanently as that may offend Merlin," explained Rudra.
"Oh! I can ask them and check. But they can stay if they wanted to, right?"
"Of course. They are good players. Why would I say no to it?"
"Ok. I will go and ask them," replied Shadow as he decided to contact them. "We need four of them. Even, if Merlin and Tetsujin disagree, we still will have 10 members including me," thought Balthazar.
He quickly contacted Merlin and Quiet Fire about it. Unexpectedly, all of them accepted his request. But Merlin put forward a condition. He wanted to establish an adventurer group and once the member count of Crimson Realm increased, he wanted a few of them to join it temporarily like they were willing to do.
In fact, they wanted to form the guild as quickly as possible. It was a weekend and they had most of the day to join him in the game. But unlike Balthazar who could take it easy by using the nutrient fluids as he was in a pod, they needed to eat because they were using helmets. Even in his workshop, he had only five V.R. cabins which Rudra and Slaine were using.
So, most of them were hungry and it being a weekend, they continued to play the game neglecting their lunch. It was high time they eat something to appease their hunger, else the helmet would automatically disconnect them.
To form a guild required all of them to visit the Adventurers Association and register to form the guild. Quiet Fire and team immediately teleported back to the White Heart City. Rudra had already called back Slaine and the other 3 members of the guild back to the city when he talked to Balthazar.
Rudra had no issue in accepting Merlin's request and had already made his way to the adventurers association. He was waiting for them. The went inside to register for the guild. Registering a guild is quite a simple affair which only required a small amount of 2 silvers to be paid to the Adventurers association.
Once, Rudra finished the formalities and provided their names, they received a request for joining the guild. The immediately accepted it causing another notification to appear before the twelve of them.
"Congratulations! Crimson Realm guild successfully registered to the adventurer alliance."
"Congratulations! You have been accepted as a member of the guild Crimson Realm."
"Guild Notification: Congratulations for being the first adventurer guild in vita-nova. Awarding guild 50 guild reputation. New guild quests available. Guild warehouse disabled."
As soon as the notification sounded, another option appeared beside the attributes panel. It was the guild panel. It contained the basic guild information. It being novice guild all the members except the guild head were considered equal and they could see the members list too. The guild chat could also be accessed from this panel.
"The warehouse isn't enabled by default?" asked Blinding.
"Let me create a few rules for the guild, get a room to rent for headquarters and warehouse. Then, we stock it up and enable the guild warehouse. You can check it tomorrow as soon as you enter the game. I will make it ready by that time," answered Rudra.
"Fine, I am done with this game for today," said Merlin as he logged out. The rest of them also followed him and logged out. Only Rudra, Slaine and Balthazar were still in the game.
In this time, Rudra has already created a post on the forum indicating that the Crimson Realm guild has been created in the White Heart City. This caused quite a commotion because though one required to get out of the beginner city or town to reach Adventurers association, they could join a guild as soon as they reached level 10. It only requires the guild leader to accept them into the guild.
So, all that was needed for one to join the guild, was them to contact Rudra or anyone else whom he provided the rights to join new members. At this stage in game, though it was extremely hard to reach level 10 and get to the city, there have been quite a few trade profession players who managed to reach level 10 and these players would have decent skill above the average trade profession players.
A chance to join a guild was equivalent to have access to funds and resources for these players. This would allow them to faster progress in the game as well as get money. If these players joined the game, their products would be used or sold by the guild which beneficial for the guild too. This could be done before too by signing contracts, but an official registered guild in the game would also provide them guild quests. Many players who were good at their trade would wait till they could prove their worth so that they would get a better contract. It was a win-win scenario. Rudra making the post at this time was highly beneficial and it was good chance to get better trade profession players into the guild.
He also created a small guild forum, explaining that they have created a guild at the White Heart City. To anybody who joined the guild, he left a standing post in the guild chat that their base of operations is at Blackrock town and trade profession players could come there.
He soon got requests to join the guild from various locations in the game. Even trade profession players could go to the Blackrock Town from the dungeon point of Cave of Wargs. It was a location of level 5 monsters. So, even in the dark they could make the trip with ease due to the level difference.
Luckily, the number of such players were very few in the game. If there were a large number of players, it would become hard for him to even supply materials for them.
"We would need to go back to Blackrock town and probably support more players from the guild to complete the quest tomorrow. Can you join me tomorrow?" asked Rudra. Now that he had put up a post which would get him recruits, it would be a total waste if he couldn't get more players complete their quest to the city. It would also cause other troubles if they failed to get more player in their guild to the city. The next day, a large number of guilds and players would fight to finish their quest. Failing at this, would mark them as lucky and rumors would spread that they are not actually a capable guild.
Maintaining a guild would have a lot of issues. Most of them would involve avoiding bad reputation and this required a lot of careful planning and good control over the members. Any guild which fails to maintain its reputation wouldn't be successful or would end up being a casual guild and would not have any decent profits from the game.
"Yes, let us organize group to clear the quest. I have checked the forums and I observed that the leaders which we killed in the forest are attacking once they get close to the city. It is best that we kill them before, we reach the city. Else, we might lose quite a few consumables in our attempt. I will also join the group. Let us make it a large one," replied Balthazar. He had invested in the workshop and a little help at the start of the game was necessary.
Rudra immediately sent messages to Slaine and a few others to join them at the Blackrock Town by the next morning to clear the quest. He also asked them to gather enough consumable to be on the safe side. Even if they didn't end up using them, they would find a use once they reached the city and started on other quests.