118 Recruiting

Knock. Knock. Knock.

An irregular beat of knocking. Nimble Rod hesitated between each knock.

An old man opened the door. He had a gray beard with dark eyes.

"Show pass." The old man said with indifference.

Nimble Rod searched through his inventory and found the pass. He took it out and gave it to the old man.

The old man moved out of the way. He beckoned them. The party entered through the door. The man opened a cellar in his home.

"HQ," the man pointed at the open cellar. He was a man of few words.

The party thanked the old man and walked down the staircase. The staircase wasn't lit well causing the surroundings to be gloomy. They held the wall as they descended.

The light at the bottom was the only light they could see. It was a gentle blue light that gleamed through a hole.

As they walked down the final step, they observed a giant room. The room had lots of seating areas with people sitting and relaxing.

On the side of the room, there were chambers for people to practice Blacksmithing.

"

All right, the challenge starts now," Emile said. Earlier on, they had given the group of three who went to the Tailor Guild 1500 silver coins. Doing the math, it required them to use 100 silver coins per Blacksmith/Tailor.

Emile couldn't split the coins equally since it was an odd number. They each received 700 silver coins. A rock-paper-scissors battle decided the extra coins.

Scarlet Sunset and Nimble Rod won the rock-paper-scissors duel. They received 100 more silver coins.

If they run out of coins, they could use the coins owned by them. The goal of this competition was to determine the person who gets the Red Silver item.

The average player had common and uncommon items.

"All right... good luck," Emile said before walking away. The other walked to different regions of the place. They could track the progress of the quest by bringing it up.

Emile walked to the closest group and offered, "Excuse me, sirs and madams. Are any of you a Rank Two Blacksmith?"

These people looked at Emile.

One person who was lounging said, "I'm one."

The man had a small scar on his left hand. The injury was from learning how to Blacksmith.

"I would like to hire you to create items for my city mayor," Emile moved straight onto the main point.

"How much are you willing to pay," the man said with interest. A few others who were eavesdropping on the conversation had their ears perked as they listened for Emile's word.

"How much do you think you're worth?" Emile asked. He wanted to see how much these blacksmiths wanted for their work.

"Hmm... I haven't thought about how much I'm worth. I think I'm worth 75 silver coins," the man said. In his mind, he was overestimating the amount to get a better standpoint for negotiations.

"All right, the mayor has offered you 100 silver coins for your hard work," Emile said.

He didn't care about using the money since it was the mayors.

His loud voice spread to other tables. A few people took the initiative. They walked up to him with a smile. They wanted Emile to hire them.

Emile didn't deny their attempts. Emile hired them. He got six people in a few minutes. He checked the progress of the quest.

The quest was growing closer to being completed as the others continue to search for people to hire.

As Emile walked to another table, they completed their portion of the quest. The notification surprised Emile since he didn't reach the average amount hired per person.

He checked the contributions to see who got the most.

Nimble Rod was in last with zero people. He was attempting to build the courage to talk to a table. They completed the quest before he got the courage.

FBS Fulcron and Emile both hired six people for the cause. All that remained was one party member.

Scarlet Sunset. 18 Blacksmiths hired. How did she do it?

That story begins with the functions of Blacksmithing. Blacksmithing was a strength dependent occupation.

Men on average were stronger than women. Of course, if a woman practices they could grow to be stronger than the average male.

Blacksmithing was a profession that depended on strength and endurance which caused there to be more male than female. The ratio of male to female blacksmiths was 5 to 1. There were five times more male blacksmiths than female ones.

Scarlet Sunset stood near a large group and used her natural female charms to get people to listen to her. They accepted her offer since it was a good deal.

They grouped up after finding thirty.

"Heh, that was easy," Scarlet Sunset as she put out two fingers in a V pose.

"I didn't even get one person," Nimble Rod said as he scratched his head.

"Is that why you followed us to get the Rank Two Blacksmiths?" Emile asked after hearing her story.

"Yep," Scarlet Sunset said with a laugh. She had used her knowledge and picked the profession which would give her the highest chance to recruit people.

Emile's party gave Scarlet the extra coins from the mayor.

"I wonder how the other's are doing," Emile said.

...

After a bit of talking to people at the Tailor Guild, they got the location to their HQ. To enter the HQ they had to their own set of challenges.

They ended up on the side of a road leading to a sanctuary. A giant boulder rests next to the road. A hidden lever was in the surroundings. They had to flip the lever to move forward.

During their walk to the boulder, they noticed that the others had completed their portion of the quest.

They quickly realized that it was impossible for them to win the Red Silver item. They relaxed as they looked for the lever.

Time Walker flipped the lever after they scavenged the area. A hidden mechanism moved the boulder out of the way. A descending staircase appeared leading to an underground region.

They walked into the underground region, and the first thing they noticed was silk. Silk was all over the ground.

Silk was one of the most common materials a person could find. They used silk to practice and create intricate designs.

They walked around and asked the people in the same manner.

They recruited the Tailors by asking around. The quest was complete after Time Walker got the last person to agree to their proposals.

Severn messaged his father. His father told them to bring the people to the city.

His party gave the people space gems to teleport to the city. The space gems didn't work since those Blacksmiths and Tailors haven't been to White Star City. They had to take the long way by traveling back to a city and using the teleporter.

They also had to use ten silver coins per person which the mayor didn't take into account. The mayor wanted to save some money from the process.