146 Bribery
"You already persuaded them?!?" Emile raised his voice when he spoke.
"Yeah, it was easy. The only thing I did was invite the guild to come back to the city," Scarlet Sunset said as she turned to the alchemists of high-ranking.
"Where's the exit?" Scarlet Sunset asked.
The four alchemists with power moved to the exit. The party followed the people. Emile decided to stay quiet.
"How long did it take to build this base?" FBS Fulcron asked with wonder. He didn't get to look around for long before his excitement about the surroundings kicked him out.
"I don't know who built this area. Our bodies moved here on their own, and we stayed near this location," the man with the pink shirt said. It was confusing how their body knew where to go with no directions. That's what controlling did to someone.
The exit was the same as the entrance. It didn't take long before they walked back to the city.
The party wasn't willing to reveal the fact they could teleport. They didn't know if these people were greedy for the items. Only close friends could have access to teleportation.
The party had a unanimous silent decision about this. No one brought it up when they walked to the city.
The party noticed that the people surrounding the mayor's tower had disappeared. Emile assumed that the mayor had catered to the needs of the people and decreased the price.
His assumptions weren't wrong.
"Flower Queen was the person who talked to the mayor. You guys should stay here while we go look for the blacksmith guild and persuade them as well," Scarlet Sunset said. All she wanted to do was to bring them to the city, so they didn't have to look for them again when they completed the quest.
The alchemist guild was willing to stay in the guild for them. They waited.
Emile and the party followed the instructions given by the man in the Blacksmith Guild.
They left the city once more.
They found the pentagon-shaped trees. The party walked around the edge of the forest before they found it, They scanned the trees one by one to check for any weird engravings. One tree had an engraving of a small cat with its mouth open. It was definitely a weird engraving to engrave to a tree.
They followed the directions that the branches pointed to until they found the miniature pond in a small clearing.
"Look around for the hatch," Nimble Rod said the next piece of instruction to have a sense of accomplishment.
The party did as he instructed and he looked around as well. They were trying to find out where the hatch was.
FBS Fulcron found the hatch. He opened it.
"Guys, remember: no emotions," Scarlet Sunset said.
The party nodded with seriousness as they controlled their emotions once more. Severn stayed outside after experiencing what happened last time. His body wasn't strong enough to withstand the curse, so it could affect him with ease.
They walked down the stairs and saw the same scene as the Alchemist Guild. People were talking about random things.
"The plan is the same. Look around and find anything you can find," Emile said.
During this walking experience. Emile noticed one strange thing about the guild. There wasn't a message about the place being cursed, and these people didn't seem cursed at all.
"Hey do you guys want to join back with Lyria City," Emile said as a test to see if they functioned the same.
"Not really, there's not much benefit to it."
"Some of us want to go back, but the others like it here."
"We get paid more if we work here instead of in the city."
Emile heard a variety of inputs from the people of the blacksmith guild. This time it wasn't a curse placed on the people.
Someone bribed them to give up the blacksmith guild and move it elsewhere. The guild leader accepted the offer of money. This is what Emile assumed about the guild.
Emile didn't know if his presumptions were correct. He noticed that Nimble Rod was interacting with the man at the counter, so he didn't have to do it. He walked back to the entrance and waited for the other party members.
"What information did you guys discover?" Emile said after all the party members arrived. He messaged Severn about entering the guild. Emile told him he wasn't in danger and he wouldn't get cursed.
Scarlet Sunset spoke first.
"It's obviously not a curse driven by emotion. These people seem happy. I've heard they got a pay raise by working at this location. Some people were happy about the change and the money increase while others were mad at the location change." Scarlet Sunset said.
"Nimble Rod, did you discuss with the guy at the counter go?" Emile asked.
"I asked him if he will come back to the city, and he responded by saying that the guild should get better treatment and benefits. I continued my questioning by asking him what kind of treatment or benefits. They get 30 silver coins each day. If the price they get paid increased to 35 silver coins, they might think about it. Also, they want benefits for when they retire or get injured," Nimble Rod said.
Scarlet Sunset spoke after listening to him.
"The second thing is easy to do. Copy how the real-world has insurance and all that stuff."
Emile discussed the first problem.
"They want a pay raise. I wonder how much gold the mayor has. Can he afford this amount of money? I don't think he can. so we need to get him gold. Everything is always related to money." Emile said with frustration as he connected the dots one by one.
"We could steal the people from the guild back?" FBS Fulcron said.
"What do you mean?" Emile asked.
"Well, we will individually ask each person about what they want to move back to the city. If we complete the quest, then they go back to the city. If it isn't hard, then we'll give it to the guild. And if it hard, we'll still give it to the guild," FBS Fulcron said with a laugh.
"That will take a lot of time, but I don't want to hunt for coins so let's go ask them if they need help," Emile said.
He was willing to do this method. It not only gave them ways to get the people to join back with the city, it also added quests for the guild. There was only one main quest for the guild which wasn't very good for a guild. It should be diverse with lots of quests.
Doing this would add variety to the quest pool.
"I would have rejected that idea if it wasn't for the fact that we need the quests for the guild," Scarlet Sunset said. Gathering gold coins wouldn't be hard. All they had to do was complete the other quest for 7500 gold coins.
The party meandered around with a great cause.
"Hello, I would like for you to join back with Lyria city. Is there anything you would like for us to give you in exchange for you to go back?" Scarlet Sunset said with a wink. She was good at using her benefits to her advantage.
"I needed... for an uncommon item called..." the man blabbered about what he needed and a quest appeared. The rewards of the quest were him moving back to the city.
She posted the first quest on the mission board. There was a mission board in the guild settings with no quests on it before this moment.
Scarlet Sunset placed the rewards to be four silver coins. It was an easy quest which shouldn't take too long. Four silver coins were worthy for the quest. This money would come out of her pocket.
These conversations were happening throughout the guild.
