15

Chance Lily and Mike walk into the secured room "alright mike since your going to join us we are going to need to understand the power dynamics of the guilds in this city" they all sit down at the table while rocky and bonny lay down in the corner. Chance takes the control from the table and turns on the projector and on the screen is shown 4 logos "these are the 4 guilds that control the city" on the screen was written the names of the guild with logos "the Sevens that control the central Las Vegas area, the Raiders Guild controls the Summerlin and spring valley area, the Salamanders manage the paradise and Henderson area, last but certainly not least is the Savage guild that controls North Las Vegas" Chance changes the screen to show locations of dungeons on a map "all of these dungeon have rented out dungeons from the ARA since they are the largest dungeon in the area they are given first choice as to what dungeons they want to rent out, however since there is a limit to what they can handle alone they sublet the dungeons to other guilds they also do this for dungeons on their borders to avoid altercations with each other…. We take those dungeons since they are at a discount and they are the only dungeons above D rank that the larger guilds pass up on, however sometimes others try to take control of them like in our current situation" the next slide shows a dungeon north the airport "this A rank dungeon was sold to us by the salamanders guild but due to its proximity to the Raiders border they are trying to take it over, we have a similar situation with this B rank dungeon with the Sevens Guild and the Savage Guild" Chance had changed to a slide showing a dungeon at Freedom Park. "right now we are in a difficult situation since the Sevens guild and the Salamanders guild have taken our funds but they don't want to take responsibility if the dungeons are taken from us so we are in a delicate situations against 2 large guilds and have no back up and our guild isnt large enough to comfortably raid both dungeons at the same time so both the Raiders and Savage are waiting for us to raid one dungeon to take the other" Chance looked at Mike and saw the he was overwhelmed by information "Mike the reason I am disclosing this information to you is that if you are in this guild you have to know that there are possible dangers since especially these guilds have been known to be violent, also I need you to know why I will not make you joining our guild public knowledge, and why you should also want to keep this quiet" Lily looks at Mike "if anyone finds out…. you could be in danger since you wouldn't be just another guild member to us, and although you have potential your still considered weak…. Once this little ordeal is over I'll take you along on raids but until then I need you to lie low" mike looked at the two "so I'm accepted but not until this situation is over" Mike thought that this would be fine considering him wanting to explore dungeons, learn how to use his skills a little longer and the fact that he still didn't have a permanent license.

Mike thought for a moment "would it be possible to get rights to a low level guild through your guild?" Chance looked at mike "getting a dungeon for you would be very costly and it would be very suspicious to just randomly give a whole dungeon to one person, our enemies would notice" Lilies eyes lit up in thought "if you had a party we could fund a dungeon for that party under a private contract and that party would pay us back a percentage, pretty much it would be like a guild investment" Chance looked at Lily "it would only work if in the paperwork only they were present, but that wouldn't be fair for the rest of the guild since we're in such a crisis right now" Lily stood up "what if I asked for an advance on the next dungeon raid" Chance smirked "it wouldn't amount to much at most you'll only be able to get a D rank or an unwanted C rank dungeon if we are lucky, although it would be an acceptable method for the guild, first mike needs to have at least C rank full hunters license in order to be a party leader and be responsible for a minimum of a 3 person dungeon party." Mike quickly thought "that shouldn't be a problem, I may be lacking but what I am missing I can make up with my summons" Chance was worried for mike because of his summons he was worried that mike didn't fully understand the dangers of a dungeon since he didn't have to personally kill the monsters "although you have 2 servants and one would be able to help you get a good rank license I don't know if it'll be enough" Mike had thought that his sister had explained more about him to Chance but it seemed that his sister kept everything secret "right now I have 6 servants and I can make more if needed, my problem right now is that when my servant hunt they can be confused by others for normal monsters and the sudden drop in monster population make people ask questions" Chance was surprised since the thought of having more than 1 familiar was amazing yet mike had 6 and could make more "so your telling me you can have your familiars hunt for you?" mike just nods acknowledging his question "if that the case then, it changes everything, the problem lower ranked dungeons is that they aren't very profitable until C rank, so getting a party together to raid them isn't very simple… usually those dungeons are for raiding individually or guilds training their prospects but if you can get your familiars to raid for you then the profits aren't divided in a party, and in that case it can be profitable for you" mike nodded again "the only problem is that I don't know how to properly collect monster resources and I haven't collected any of the monster corpses and if I have my familiars drag around corpses in public dungeons, it'll just bring unwanted attention… right now I have my orcs collecting orc tusks from their prey" Lily turns in surprise "and monster cores right?... right Miguelito?" mike was confused "what are monster cores?" Chance and Lily look at each other and laugh for a moment "Miguelito are you telling us you awakened and haven't looked up much information… look it up later online but in general the stronger monsters have monster core which at crystalized manifestations of mana and once processed their called mana crystals and companies are using them as power sources. This is great for us since they usually sell well depending on the size… you haven't lost to much since orcs don't always produce cores but it's something you should investigate, since it could possibly double your income from the sound of things. If you learned how to skin monster's orc hide is valuable for crafting but getting leather that hasn't been too damaged would be the difficult part" mike knew that he had plenty to learn "alright, I'll look into it when I get home. I'll let you guys know when I get my license and another 2 people for a party."

They wrap up the meeting and mike leaves to return home when he decides to stop by the orc dungeon. There was a short entrance line so mike waited, when he finally reached the ARA agent to enter the agent asked to his entrance reservation "I don't have a reservation, but I left something in there that I forgot to get before I exited yesterday would you mind if I just go in and get it" the agent looks at him "you're lucky todays been slow, go ahead but come back out quickly" mike enters the dungeon after registering his permit. When he enters he sends out rocky to call back his servants and waits in the cave, after a moment he hears the servants arrive and sees that Ruina, Rufus and Rollo are perfectly fine, Ruina handed Mike a pouch full of or tusks "seems like you guys really worked all night and day, doesn't look like you guys are tired" Mike starts to leave with the pouch "alright guys go to sleep" all the servants disappear into their dimensions and Mike walks out of the dungeon and turns in the tusks. The agent takes the tusks and places them into a bin then seals it shut "you will be credited once the ARA has evaluated the materials" Mike quickly leaves. The Agent found it strange that mike had spent very little time in the dungeon but was too busy admitting others into the dungeon, so he ignored the thought.

Mike had gone home, when he entered the apartment, he saw his roommate john playing a videogame "hey mike, grab some pizza on the counter if you want" after a while the two friends play videogames together. "hey mike, im getting really tired of my guild, and I don't really see getting to far with them… they stopped training us and just make us dissect the monsters the higher ranked awakened kill" mike kept playing "I thought you were happy with the guild… you said they paid really well" John realizes he is almost dying in the game and he starts mashing buttons until suddenly he stops and drops the controller "damn it… yea it's alright but that was when they were training us, turns out that instead of making us stronger awakened they made us stronger monster processors, I looked into it and they only did it to save money on since its almost dirt cheap for them to pay me my salary instead of what I would be making if I sold my services privately… if it wasn't for that damn contract that states I can't join their competitors" mike stopped playing and put down the controller "why not become a monster processor and make more money like you said earlier, you could make more money and you would work for yourself. Sounds like a good choice to me if you avoid their direct competitors" john tilts his head back "the problem is that getting started requires a lot of connections since having a steady job can be very difficult since there's plenty of competition". Mike raised his eyebrow "if I could get you a steady customer, would you quit your guild" john laughs "last year I wouldn't have quit for anything in the world but now… now I would really have to consider it since my supervisor is a real asshole, he doesn't work at all and blames us for all of his problems while he looks like a hard worker to everyone else" mike goes to the fridge and grabs 2 beers "alright its settled your gonna be quitting that guild, I just have to get 1 more person and we'll be able to form a 3 person party and we will collect our own monster materials to earn more" John take the beer "that sounds amazing but it's a real gamble since most parties don't work out and only C rank and above are usually worth the trouble" mike takes a large drink "I can't tell you the specifics but I have a way for D rank dungeons to become profitable and if all goes well we might be able to jump up a rank pretty quickly, all I really need is another party member to be able to bid for a dungeon" john chokes on the beer almost spiting some out "you're talking about dungeon rights but their never sold to small parties there's no way…" mike stops him "I found a way but I can't say to much since your technically still in a guild and I'll wait till you quit to make a move" john thinks for a moment "yea, your right we shouldn't be talking about this, sorry bro but I can't quit a good job for a possibility even if I'm unhappy for a bit, who knows maybe later ill be promoted" john takes a large drink and finishes the beer then stands up and goes towards his room "goodnight man, I have an early morning tomorrow" he turns in for the night an mike decides to do the same.

The next morning mike arrives at the ARA Las Vegas Branch and when he arrive he asks for Liv and the receptionist remembered him so she agreed and asked him to wait while they reached her. While he was waiting, he sees Mollie walk in with a paper in her hand and then speak with the receptionist, she leaves the paper with the receptionist and starts to walk out. Mike follows after her before she leaves the building "Hey Mollie" she turns around surprised that someone had called out to her "how have you been" when Mollie realizes that it was mike she smiles "hey, I've been well, right now I'm just looking for work" Mike was confused "I thought you were awakened why not go dungeon exploring" she looks a little sad as she says "since my dad died my mom made me promise to get a safer job so I'm applying to an office job here" mike thought this was perfect "I might have an opening in a party and we are going to need help dismantling monsters, it wouldn't involve any fighting, what do you say?" Mollie was surprised "I don't know I was really hoping for an office job for now" behind Mike someone coughed, and mike turns around to find Liv standing there, then he turns back around "sorry I'll send you a message later online" Mollie just nodded and walked out since she didn't think that mike was serious. Liv stares at mike and she turns back "hey, I'm back to get revaluated for a the License" Liv seemed annoyed at mike since she knew there was no way he could have become that much stronger in this short time "do you really want to waste this opportunity to start off strong in your career" Mike just smiled back. Liv was annoyed "fine! Have it your way but if you mess up, I'm telling your sister" Mike felt nervous but also felt that it was something he had to do.