40 || Forming Workshops!

"There's a theory that appeared around 50 years ago that states that training your body and mind will help you inside the game." The sound of Karuna's voice breaks Tara's concentration. Her mother stands before her and they each take a beginning stance.

"There isn't any real bias for this though," Karuna continues as she pivots away. Tara's only half listening as she recalls Di with how she narrowly touches Karuna's clothes.

"It's merely something your grandparents have tried to research and test for the last several decades, to say nothing of other companies and powers."

Tara's suddenly flicked on the head before relaxing. At least she lasted a little longer. "And the results?"

Karuna merely gives her a mysterious smile before herding Tara toward the dining hall.

"Has anything new happened recently? You haven't been keeping me up to date." Karuna asks, kissing her wife and thanking their maid for the wonderful spread.

"I kind of figured you were watching my progress somehow." Tara admittedly shrugs. Before Karuna can respond, familiar footfalls sound towards the dining room.

"Morning Mama Karuna! Mama Xia!" Renee chirps with a hug to both of them before sitting next to Tara.

"Aunties," Qisma greets taking her place across from her girlfriend.

"M-ma'ams!" Kristen stammers, embarrassed at having barged in on their breakfast meal unannounced.

"Girls! It's been so long since you came for a meal!" Xia says happily. "Kristen, welcome to breakfast, I do hope we can do this more often."

Kristen mumbles a thanks at the invitation as she sits across from an amused Tara. Renee all but devours her food, while Qisma is more demure in her use of utensils. Kristen's been hanging out with them more as she tries what's before her.

"Tara, you won't believe it! Not only did we reach level 8, so did Honest Wind's trio. After you gave Kingdom Blade that sword--" Renee's words fly out as she devours down food, only pausing when she feels Tara's glare.

"You gave someone a sword?"

Tara sighs at the look of utter excitement on Karuna's face. Them reaching level 8 was worth her intrigue alone, but it looked like her secret was out.

After Tara's explanation of meeting the other Dreamers and the System, which Karuna fervently wrote down her own personal notes, she calms down.

"So while you can't visit the main world--not without completing certain trials--you can trade with inhabitants there as long as your worlds are linked. Fascinating!" Karuna grins as she seems to be mentally calculating something.

"You aren't going to report us are you?" Qisma's face flashes with fear.

"And what for?" Karuna laughs, "I'd much rather ask this young woman for a job. The chances of having a connected Story like Tara and your new friends is infinitesimally small to begin with. The fact that a teen can isolate this chance--manipulate even a piece of data from a growing and evolving independent Artificial Intelligence on their own--I might as well quit from the field."

"It would drive your uncle up the wall," Xia speaks up with a sly grin, "Now you all mentioned that you caught up with those level maniacs and experts. What exactly did you do? Surely one piece of equipment couldn't do that."

"When we returned to our session, we immediately noticed something different in our first fight. Our Skills felt easier to use, like, more natural? When we get even more Proficiency for them than normal too!" Renee shares.

"When we rested, we noticed our energy came back quicker and then we realized those gauges had grown to be twice as much. It was only when we checked our Essence that we confirmed it. Later we even cleared two level 6 dungeons nobody had discovered yet." Qisma says, wiping her mouth daintily with a napkin.

"Even the named sword Kingdom received wasn't good enough for her to make it her main weapon but her subweapon. Tara's has a special property to it called Growth. It'll only match her to level 10, but Kingdom won't have to replace it anytime soon." Kristen injects with pride, earning Tara teasing looks from everyone else.

The trio trades stories of their adventures and hardships thus far with Tara giving more insight into how different her world was to theirs. Karuna and Xia eagerly listen to the girls.

As breakfast ends, the table filled with empty plates and glasses, Xia suggests they might as well make it a weekly event by staying over on the weekend.

Renee practically zips out of the house with a piece of bread in her mouth, pulling Qisma behind her effortlessly. Kristen heads home to get permission from her parents.

As Tara changes into comfortable clothes, she receives a call from Pakeeja.

"Good evening!" Pakeeja greets with a cheeky smile, subtitles appearing as she speaks.

"And good morning to you! Did you finish prepping whatever it was?" Tara asks, checking her update's status. It was almost a third of the way there. She is excited to see what'll happen when it's done.

"Mostly, yeah. I asked the others to bring anything they thought was interesting, but easily gatherable within a session's time. You're the final piece which is why I called."

"I do have something to bring but I already had it on me before I got kicked out," Tara admits since her session was updating. Pakeeja nods her head.

"That's fine, I get that, what I'm really after is for you to give me and the others Manager privileges. I want to bring in our friends into our chatroom but it'd take too much time for you to accept everyone's IDs and send invitations."

"Oh, I can do that?" Tara pulls up the chatroom's interface in a separate translucent window. Sure enough as the co-owner of the chatroom, Tara can make the others' Managers if she wishes. "Okay but why do you want all your friends in one chatroom? What's the point, it's not like--" Tara pauses, her eyes widening at realization.

"I want to make my own Guild, but given all the powerful families and companies we need an advantage unlike anybody else. With the chatroom as our base even though trade between continents is currently impossible, we can have our friends swap information. And that's not even taking into account what our Worlds bring to the table," Pakeeja answers truthfully, a spark of excitement and eagerness in her eyes. "But first, I want to build a Workshop on each continent. That way none of the old monsters are none the wiser as we get stronger before we make a grand entrance."

Tara has to admit, Pakeeja's plan is pretty clever.

While there are a few Workshops as old and powerful as Guilds like Blueriver and Humility's Blade, most newbie Workshops went ignored more so than upstart Guilds. As it took money, talent, and plenty of luck to make a name for themselves as a Guild, it would be the perfect cover to fly under the radar and build their foundation over time.

Happily, Tara gives Pakeeja and the others the access they need. Afterwards, she sends a message to all her classmates to meet up in the chatroom first.

Qisma and Renee return before lunch, as sleepovers were common in the trio's childhood.

Kristen doesn't return until dinner, towing with two large suitcases as if she were going on a vacation. As the rest of the afternoon comes to a close, filled with teasing at the new couple's expense due to Kristen's father making sure there was no funny business to be had, they log on.

By now Tara's classmates had set the chatroom as their starting point. Unless they were amidst a Quest or outside a Dungeon, they would meet up here and then exit through the closest restaurant into their World.

Tara's met with the sight of two cultures clashing. Dwarves and Ifrits dressed in Central African style clothes and armor trade knowledge with the Elves and Dryads dressed in Southeast Asian attire.

Tiger, Wolf, and Fish Zoaria compare histories with Lion, Fox, and Bird Zoaria about what they'd found of their shared history. Gigantis and Bestia contrast the differences between similar weaponry and armor.

Tara actively uses Inspect as she watches them all interact friendly with each other despite just meeting. With a quick glance she learned two things:

Firstly, other than her girlfriend's party being level 8, the average level was 6. Secondly, the East's Physical Equipment was at the same poor level as the West's Magical Equipment. Many of the Eastern Continent's melees and Western Continent's casters are still at level 5 due in part to this.

"Star!" A voice calls out Tara's in-game name, as a group of Artisans scramble over to her. To Tara's glee, they all wore crests of the low tier Novice of their respective jobs.

"We couldn't get any Blueprints from the items, but we did get plenty of insight just from studying them before breaking them down." Flying Coop admits with a bit of pride, flicking the crest with a thumb.

"We were able to find similar materials to what you used to complete our own Design and items!" Jumping Sash recounts, handing a list of pristine notes. "I used what you gave me when I made copies but then surprisingly some became a higher quality. I kept those to hand out in case we got more folks who were curious. Didn't think I'd part with them so soon."

As Tara looks over the notes, she finally understands why so many of her classmates were better geared despite the quality difference between continents. Sash's few higher quality Blueprint copies that she had shared among the Artisan group had allowed them to in turn make better items with the same materials, with the lower rated Blueprints selling for at least 13 Silver at the Auction House.

At a time where the average player had only a tens of Copper on a great day, just that one session's wealth had created a cycle! Stronger Dungeon Runners and Field Goers meant more materials and vice versa. This had led a large portion of her friends to be closer to level 8 than even the experts in her family!

"That Craft Primer and Art Scroll you shared with us are amazing. The second we entered the game, everything was different. The Essence around us gathered faster, our minds were clearer, and our bodies felt easier to use!" One of them says, each sharing how the energy gathering technique they'd been gifted had also assisted in their work and growth.

The Alchemists' had already begun differentiating their creations with turquoise moons on pill cases and potion bottles. The Forgers had begun engraving amber suns into their weapons and armor. If such a thing had caused such an explosive difference with non-combative players then the rest would surely benefit!

"Alright everyone can I have your attention?" Pakeeja's voice booms over the crowd, as her small frame stands on the center table. All pairs of eyes go to her as they quiet down, with the exception of those that are close to her and choose to cheer, "It's great that we can all get together and compare notes. Like, I heard something really interesting that two continents NPCs are all based on African nations or Asian countries, which explains the outfits."