Artha had assumed this super hidden sub guild would be run by both Sun Lord and Baccara. He was wrong.
Baccara specialised in pioneering new maps and was well versed in training thieves and assassins. Her guild would be more oriented that way. However, Sun Lord has no such preference, he wanted to have a well functioning guild.
Each had pros and cons. Artha learnt this later. What mattered here was that there were two guilds, of sorts, within the village, which needed his investment.
Now, the important part- how much to invest. How much would Artha get as investor?
Sun Lord to the rescue. " Both guilds have their own uses, this will be valued differently."
"Okay."
" My guild - tentatively named 'Brave Warriors' will develop into balanced guild. At village level, having some 30- 50 members is enough. It will have around 3-6 teams so it can do dungeon raids and also grind in the fields. It will have two to three lifestyle players but they will not be prioritised much. A poor guild cannot afford to nurture so many lifestyle players. The situation will obviously change once we leave this village."
"How are you so sure?"
"We'll have more options there. The idea is to have starting based and to save whatever possible. If your group has a blacksmith apprentice, get all things repaired through him. Save few coins. At the same time, increase his profiency. That's how all the shoe string teams and guilds work."
" So this Brave Warriors is a shoestring guild."
"Currently, yes."
"So how much is this guild worth?"
" Around 100 million credits minimum?"
Artha was gobsmacked. 100 million credits is just a shoe string guild of sorts.
"How much are you putting in?"
"Well, I want to be owner. So 51%. Baccara has agreed to help me with 10%."
"Why?"
"Because I'll invest 10% in her guild. We back each other."
So, that totally made sense.
"So, Sun Lord is expecting me to pay around 39 million credits?"
"It doesn't work that way. You are investing just money. We have to do the real work. 40 million credits will not get you 30% of shares."
And the real wheeling dealing this began.
The game
This game...Sigh! They had blocked coin to credit conversion centre. There was no pay to win methods other than gift crates. The coins collected at beginning of character creation after paying 200 credits for a coin was long used up. With the starting line set up so high, at two hundred credits per bronze coin, no wonder everything got inflated multiple times.
Artha was hell bent on acquiring safest way to invest money. He wanted to own 39% percent of the shares of 'Brave Warriors' and 'Silent Woods'. It might take years to see return of this investment but he would get it back. Unlike other guilds which may disband any moment and the investment would be lost completely.
Never mind the fact that he didn't have fifty to eighty million credits at hand. He would invest in kind.
Thanks to new deal signed by Artha, Baccara and Sun Lord, Artha had direct line of customers ranging from forty to sixty, tentatively. He would buy their things at market price. He would sell things to them at market price. No, his investment would buy his own things at market price.
He just had to supply few millions of worth of items not just limited to basic potions but others too.
Another group was made. It had guild subordinates, vice guild leaders of Brave Warriors and Silent Woods. A tentative timetable was fixed.
They would sell the items to him at the end of the day or whenever was feasible. (Artha should have few space in his bags and not be far from the village.) They would request all the things needed for the next day at evening. Artha would either provide the items needed or give coins to purchase the same. Last part was just assumption. Artha would never give up a chance to trade.
Artha had to rush before other things were discussed. It was time for him to log off from the game completely.
After entering the VR lobby, he still gave his village all stars. It was not that bad in the village.
This was not usual VR head gear. He could still use the VR lobby for a bit longer. It was certainly a different experience to check the postal and news channels and trending searches inside a VR pod. Very novel.
But the real world was calling. Complete log off.
Atharva didn't have much time before he could meet Mrs Briggs. As he was getting ready, he called concierge to get him a transportation.
The hotel Mrs Briggs had chosen was run by a award winning chef. Apparently, even the breakfast was good there. No one has time to eat breakfast. If they do, they eat it at home. But his mad chef made breakfasts so yummy that people wanted to come out to have breakfast. Just goes to show that if there is no way, you can still make your own path.
Atharva chose one of the modest suits he had bought yesterday, with his own money and sat in the car. Being driven to a place by someone who was not a relative - check. One thing to cross from the bucket list.
The bank balance was reflecting a hefty balance. It would go back to previous state soon enough. He had agreed to pay in cash or kind to become investor in two smallish shoestring guilds. He won't be able to everything in kind, so he would have to hand over cash. He would become seriously cash strapped if all of his customers ban him completely.
Mrs Briggs was already in the hotel. Enjoying the scenery, sipping some refreshing drink. He sighed. This was the lady how had managed trillion credit conglomerate and pushed it to higher heights. Truly, never judge a book by it's cover.