-Renz's PoV-
*Player Novo' has joined the guild
A message pinged our entire guild.
"Welcome to our guild!" We greeted Novo in unison.
"T-thanks... I guess," she replied bashfully while scratching her head, clearly overwhelmed by our lively welcome.
I guess she could act cute sometimes huh? And here I thought she was just a bundle of silence, petulance, and annoyance at all times.
"Wait just a minute, I'll make you an officer right now," Liz tinkered with the guild system.
"How much do you know about guilds?" I asked her while Liz was busy.
"Not much," she replied curtly.
I guess she is still a newbie after all even if she is extremely talented at playing VR games. I asked Liz about her after our first battle out of curiosity due to her extraordinary skills and she said that Novo had been mainly playing VR single-player games. I guess that is where her mastery in dodging comes from.
Just as I was about to explain the guild system, Raynolds beat me to it. Tsk, this simp.
"Then let me enlighten you, Miss Katherine," he winked seductively before continuing, which in turn made my gut wrench. "There are 5 distinct rankings in a guild. First is a normal member who is part of the guild but has the lowest rank compared to others. Next is the officer rank which can be assigned by the guild leader and vice leaders, mainly for guild war purposes. Moving on is a high-ranking officer wherein a guild can have a maximum of 5. The last 2 ranks are the vice leader and guild leader. A guild can have only 1 vice leader and guild leader. They are responsible for assigning officers to participate in guild battles. In essence, a guild's ranking is classified as members, officers, high-rank officers, vice leaders, and guild leader," he explained.
"I... see," she muttered.
She seems unsurprised. Though to be fair, the guild system of CoA is no different from most fantasy MMO games.
Player Novo' has been promoted to Officer rank.
"There, all done!" Liz energetically said.
I checked the guild chat and saw that many players are online today. 67 online out of 82 members. It's no surprise though since it is Friday after all. A good day for gamers to play their favorite games and have a bit of fun after a long arduous weekend. Most of the response after Novo joined the guild was the standard greetings and welcome from the guild but after she became an officer instantly, the guild chat became a buzz.
Glave: Wow, an officer right off the bat? Is the new member that strong?
Serendipity: I wanna see this new guy.
Klyth: Yeah, me too, if I win in a duel against him, I'll be an officer too, right?
I typed in the guild
Renz: No, that's not how it works, besides she's a support player so a 1v1 duel is out of the question.
Serendipity: she is a girl? Now I'm itching to meet her!
Rayder: Must be the leader's friend so she became an officer this quickly. I'm sure she's not that good and only got promoted due to her connections.
Zed: What a bold assumption, Lizbeth is always fair in her decisions.
The guild members went on about their theories about the new member-turned-officer. Most of them are basically categorized into two factions. The Liz supporters and the anti-Liz faction. This is occurring right now because FairyDust, our former guild leader, stepped down from her position and assigned it to Liz. When I asked her about it personally, she conveyed to me that Liz would be a better guild leader than her and she wants the guild to thrive and become even stronger than it currently was.
I fully agree with her though. Liz is charismatic and has something particular in her that draws talented players like Novo and NambaWan. Still, many did not take the guild change in leadership lightly. It is mainly because the guild has been around for a long time (approximately just after the first Andartha's Cup) and is also one of the well-known guilds in the North American CoA server, composed of mostly skilled guild members. Most of the players who were unhappy about the change were veteran players who were jealous of young blood suddenly upping them in the guild sovereignty. It was more rampant 2 months ago when the leadership had just switched, but many have been silenced when Liz became a ranker. However, that achievement is clearly not enough given the current situation we are in. This is one of the main reasons why I suggested that Liz should only recruit members she knows and trusts for now until this whole thing blows over.
I glanced at Novo, the three of them appeared to be busy talking to each other. Good thing too, since I don't want her to see our guild in such discord. Raynolds probably knows it too that is why he's busy chatting her up. That, or he's just simping as usual.
"Want to go check our guild hall?" Liz invited her before continuing to explain how. "You can get there by checking your teleport list. It's already been added to your list since you're now part of our guild. You can go there anytime you want! Well, as long as you're not currently in a battle with monsters or players... but I'm sure you already know that" Liz rambled on.
"Sure, it's still early so why not," Novo shrugged.
We all teleported to our guild base. It is located in the guild continent where all of the guild halls are built after creating a guild. This continent cannot be visited by normal means, except by joining a guild and teleporting to your guild hall.
What greeted us outside was a huge guild hall with the usual three-story Gothic architecture-style building with large stained-glass windows, pointed arches, and flying buttresses situated on the sides of the building.
We went inside and what greeted us was an enormous hall complete with a vaulted ceiling, stone-clad statues of gargoyles for a more alluring design, and many more ornate decorations akin to medieval luxury designs. A few members passed us by while giving a quick greeting which Liz returned amicably.
Novo marveled at the sight, clearly impressed. A hint of pride welled up deep inside me even though I knew all too well that I did nothing to affect the designs of our guild hall. I have to admit though that FairyDust and Photon have a keen eye for architecture since I heard from Liz that they are the ones who renovated and designed this whole place.
"It's huge..." Novo murmured.
"Of course, we put a lot of resources into constructing this building for our fellow guild members to hang around and have fun!"
"Oh, but first, let's go to the workshop, I want to forge a set for you since you have Armor for beginners," Liz suggested.
"No need, I will outleve-," Liz placed a finger on her lips to silence her.
"No excuses, I will not have one of my members go around with a set for level 20s. Besides, we have a lot of guild resources since we are also a fairly strong guild," Liz said convincingly.
Or so she says, though I'm a hundred percent sure that all the resources will come right out of her pocket.
"Liz is correct Miss Katherine. Also, I will be the one to craft your set, if you would allow me to since I am the highest-level blacksmith of our guild so do not be wary of the quality," Raynolds bragged.
"Alright fine," Novo relented.
We all went to the guild workshop while garnering stares from members we passed by. Most of them likely already identified Novo and saw that she is only level 65. This is bad, it might start some severe rumors about Novo's recruitment even though they haven't really seen her aberrant skills. I should have advised Liz to not make her an officer right off the bat, though I'm certain she would ignore me anyway, she never was one for caring about reputations and other trivial stuff and always follows her heart in whatever she does, which is a trait that I greatly admire from her if I were to be completely honest.
"Here we are, the workshop!" Liz exaggeratedly gestured with her hands to the workshop like some kind of a grand reveal.
The workshop is just a large room inside the guild hall and not that grand compared to the main hall. We went inside to see a room full of assorted kinds of stuff, Armor, weapons, and such, with a forge smith situated at the farthest part of the room.
"How long does it take you to make a level 65 set?" Liz asked Raynolds.
"I could probably do it in a couple of minutes, but I want her set to be stylish so I would have to think of a good design instead of just a randomly generated one," Raynolds pondered.
"Oh, I want to help in designing her set! Let's add some frills and make it look cute to match her in-game avatar!" Liz proposed.
I took a quick glance at Novo and saw her look flabbergasted. I wallowed in schadenfreude at the sight.
"W-wait, at least let me pick the design!" She exclaimed.
"Nope! It's our gift to you for joining the guild so we want to surprise you with the finished product. Renz, please show her around the guild first, we will catch up once we finish her set," Liz instructed.
"Give it up, newbie. Once she's made up her mind, there is very little we can do about it," I dragged her out of the workshop by hand while she was still frozen in shock.