Umbra's Recruitment

Riveting Night walked with the Five Generals and Sublime Notion in tow. They were currently in Cario city, which had become much more lively over the past few hours.

Why?

Players were reaching level 10 slowly!

That should be normal though, it had been almost 5 days IRL since the game was launched. That meant that almost 20 days had passed in-game!

Almost a month and now players were hitting level 10… what kind of game even was Boundless???

Even FIVR veterans took a total of 10 in-game days to reach level 10. The rest just trickled in slowly based on their luck or relative skill.

Riveting Night led the Five Generals, who had firm expressions on their faces, to the Guild Hall. They didn't bother to look and gaggle at these new players like they might have before. After being woken up by the Lady Boss, they only saw these people as their future playthings, as long as they made enough effort.

In the Cartel, they were respected and well-off, but they weren't powerhouses. They were still under the thumb of the cartel leaders, not to mention various other political and financial powers.

But with this game, they would soon become people that even the Presidents at the World Council would have to greet carefully!

Most of us lived our lives without knowing where we would end up. We had a vague idea of what we wanted to do, but had no clue if we would be as successful in it as we hoped.

A good amount of people worked hard and used their numerous failures to lead them to success. Majority were just struck by bizarre luck and became successful overnight.

When one knew the exact end point of their path, which would lead them to the top as long as they put in the requisite effort, it formed a certain unshakable confidence.

It was similar to King's mentality.

Both these parties knew that they would definitely reach the top, it was just a matter of when!

Sublime Notion wasn't the same though. This big titty, evil loli was living life as she pleased. The world was her toy to bully and tease, so things like reaching the top and what not had no meaning to her.

That was why Riveting Night hadn't bothered to take her through what she did with the Five Generals.

As they approached the Guild Hall, one could see a notable crowd in front of it. A battalion of guards were stationed outside, preventing the curious players from entering.

When the party got closer, they could hear some words spoken from the crowd.

"Is this what I think it is…?"

"Yeah bro, it's a legit skyscraper. It looks awkward as fuck in a medieval world. I have no idea what the devs were thinking."

"Actually, it adds a certain bizarre charm. Still, does that mean we can do real world stuff in here?"

"…!!"

"That's true, I never thought about that!"

The people on the outer side of the crowd were talking about miscellaneous things regarding the Guild Hall. They weren't too critical about it, finding it to be a bizarre sight in this medieval fantasy game.

When the Five Generals and Riveting Night walked along the pathway into the Guild Hall, people noticed them. Majority felt chills from the aura of Riveting Night as well as her dark hood that seemed to contain endless abyssal might and evil.

Their eyes gleamed when they saw Rina and Sublime though. A tall babe with a good bum and great chest, as well as excellent eyes and perfect lips walking along with an adorable short girl with absolutely HUMONGOUS badonkers!

How did that thing manage to stay upright??? Did Issac Newton lie to us about gravity???

However, their gazes became solemn when they took in the huge mountains that was Boyd and Uno. Boyd had spiky hair that went straight up before bending a little near the top, similar to a palm frond.

He was tall and muscular, looking like an extreme bodybuilder. His skin was dark to the point of almost being chocolate and his eyes were a light brown. His face looked a bit hardy with his singular eye patch and a scar that ran through it.

Uno had a lighter skin tone than Boyd but was still of a strong tanned skin. His hair was similar to Kiran's, but was a bit neater. It was a dark orange, which matched with his thick French mustache and his light beard. His face was more oval in shape, giving him this strange handsomeness which should be possessed by a Victorian era fine gentleman.

With his form fitting plate mail armor though, as well as his thick shield which was strapped to his back, it killed the combination perfectly. A lot of ladies in the crowd felt heir hearts shift a little at Uno's looks.

Boyd wasn't that handsome in comparison, but his fierce visage managed to move the hearts of certain females who were attracted to this sort of thing.

Cobra, in his tight leathers, made most of the fellows in the crowd blanch and look away with fear. Their orientations were being tested today! However, there were a small majority in the crowd who had bright beams shot out from their eyes as the gazed at his form.

Cobra turned to view these particular fellows and smiled for what seemed to be the first time in his life.

Cobra was second to only Draco in terms of looks. Not even Kiran could match him. Cobra had an angular face that tapered into a point, with thin lips and oval eyes that were a bit droopy. His skin was jade-white and his fingers were slender and lovely. His flesh was unblemished and his body was compact and fit.

Honestly, Cobra was more 'pretty' than 'handsome'. He looked like the type of guy who would be a crowd favorite in jail, being everyone's girlfriend.

His hair was tied into a bun, since it was long and would reach down to his lower back.

Kiran was a little more normal in terms of his handsomeness. He had that atypical handsome protagonist look, with a good height, handsome face with creamy skin, golden hair that was curly and short, a well kept body and sharp aqua blue eyes that shone with willpower.

Majority of the girls in the crowd couldn't stop staring at Kiran, their faces red and their breathing a little rough.

The guys were staring at Rina and Sublime with tents poking their attires and drool leaking from their lips while the girls stared at Uno, Kiran and Cobra with their legs tightly shut and their faces red like tomatoes.

Boyd was a little more average in terms of reception.

However, the greatest irony was that the most beautiful person here, Riveting Night, was looked at with fear and wariness.

(Authors note: Boyd looks like Scar from FMA, Cobra looks like Sonic from OPM, Uno looks like Escanor from NnT, Sublime looks like Airi from Onichichi and Rina looks like Fubuki from OPM. Those are the closest popular characters I can think of that somewhat resemble them.)

When they got to the area near the entrance, they were met with the true powerhouses, who were discussing with sharp looks on their faces.

"I suspect this Guild Hall belongs to Umbra."

"I agree, that Draco fellow is a perverse one. He might've gained enough reputation and money to build something as outrageous as this."

"The future of Umbra is limitless. How can our guilds compete?"

"We don't have to. No matter how big this Guild Hall is, its still located in Cario City, which is in Sturgehaven Kingdom. Let's even take another step back and say that is a part of Cario Continent. There are countless other locales we can base in. Just because we started here, doesn't mean we are limited to here."

"A good point, but nothing stops Umbra from reaching out to the rest of the world."

"I know, but if that happens, Umbra will have to fight the whole world. If the future Umbra has a hundred million players, they would have to face over a billion players at the least."

"Oi, oi, A billion? No game has ever gotten that many players in history."

"I know, the figures are just an example."

As could be seen, the thinking of powerhouses was different from those near the bottom. The idea that every powerhouse was an immature young master with almost no thinking capacity was unrealistic.

Those at the top were extremely intelligent, mature and possessed good self-control. They didn't place pride first, but placed logic and reasoning there rather. They knew when to attack and retreat.

When they saw the party of Riveting Night with the Five Generals and Sublime walking towards the Guild Hall, their faces changed and their eyes gleamed sharply.

There was no tag that stated 'This King is part of Umbra! Make way, peasant!' above their heads, but the could easily reason that these were members of Umbra or at least, the owners of this Guild Hall.

It was easy to see in their confident gait. A person who was entering a building like this, which they had no connection to, would have some level of hesitation in their steps, no matter how much bluster they put up.

These clever powerhouses were proven right when the guards stepped aside for the group, allowing them to enter the Guild Hall with a bow.

Riveting Night walked up to the receptionist who was playing solitaire on her computer, a fact which startled the people with Riveting Night. They could take in the sight of the Guild Hall because the Lady Boss had warned them before, but this…

"Good day, Vice-Guildmaster. What can I do for you?" The Receptionist asked with a professional smile.

"I would like to customize a recruitment scheme for implementation." Riveting Night answered calmly.

"Right away, Madam. Please give me a minute."

In Boundless, guild recruitment was a bit more game-like. In most games, there would be place or menu screen where the various guilds were listed and one could choose the ones they wanted from all the available ones or a specific one by searching.

Although there were no such screens in Boundless, there was a place were one could do so. In any common room or tavern, one could access the guild finder in the rest menu and join a guild.

Of course, the application was subject to the recruitment terms listed by the guild in question. Also, the guild finder only showed guilds within the area of the tavern or inn in question.

Going further into it, the kind of terms a guild could state depended on their tier and the tier of their main Guild Hall. Although Umbra was only a tier 1 Guild, the rank of their Guild Hall allowed them to add many more features to their recruitment scheme.

Before, Riveting Night was slightly unsure of what to do. Draco had left the guild in her hands with 110% trust, not even telling her what to do next. It meant that no matter what decision she made in terms of management, he would support it.

Those of us who were working in the crowd could attest to the fact that being given absolute trust by a party to do a job weighed much heavier than it should, despite the notion that it would lighten the load.

Riveting Night had it a thousand times worse, because of her obsession. Do not look at her walking so strongly and looking cool, inside her brain were a council of Riveting Nights with different demeanors were arguing.

There were ten of them, an angry Riveting Night, a jealous one, a sad one, an emotionless one, a lustful one, a fearful one, a lazy one, a greedy one, a hate filled one and an arrogant one.

They sat around a round table and argued passionately about how to go forward. Even the prideful, lazy, fearful and emotionless versions were displaying characteristic opposite to their natures.

It was chaos.

Truly, madness was a scary thing.

Even as she saw the screen for setting the recruitment scheme, she hesitated. She had spoken to the Five Generals and Sublime Notion about how to go forward and they had all agreed to go down the path of the elite few.

Riveting Night secretly disagreed though. There were certain activities that required a mass of overwhelming numbers and being pretentious by saying you'll accept the elite few would bite one in the ass later on.

She had seen many guilds like that in her past life, they had all crumbled eventually.

However, she wasn't willing to make Umbra open to all. If just anyone could join, there would be no loyalty. They would come, enjoy the benefits of the Guild Halls well as the settlement as long as they could, and when they had milked what they wanted enough, they would bow out quickly.

Right now, she had categorized her insights into three choices in terms of guild management.

The first was to use the elite few path. This path required a lot of time and training to pay off, but the benefits that would come forth in the late game were immeasurable. Guilds with a billion average players who would hit the ceiling at Rank 4 would not match a guild that only had 10,000 elites at Rank 6.

That was just looking at Rank alone. Elites would be able to create and utilize amazing techniques overtime, as they familiarized themselves with the world of Boundless to the point where they'd be no different from the reincarnated duo.

Take Draco for example. He had created 360 sword style techniques over 15 years in Boundless, a mind-boggling amount that set him apart from anyone else. It was why he was lauded as world number 1 in terms of skill alone.

Riveting Night had only 300 techniques that were separated into movement, stealth, knife, throwing and bloodline. Compared to Draco who had 360 for his sword alone, she was sorely lacking.

The only reason she had been slightly stronger than Draco, was due those few bloodline techniques she could use within the world of Boundless.

After all, their digital bodies were based off the true perception they had of their real bodies, so their bloodlines would be present as well. Draco, who had no conscious idea of his bloodline, had his show up in the world of Boundless for a myriad of reasons.

(Authors note: I can predict the amount of intellectuals who would question 'which reasons are those'. To such fellows, all I say is be patient. Everything will be explained in time.)

The second path was the typical style, which was to recruit loosely and allow members to climb the ranks based on merit and skill. A sort of meritocratic system were the strength of one's fist, as well as their true value to the guild, decided their future.

Riveting Night was leaning more towards this route as it was the same one they took in their past lives that allowed them to climb to the top. Just because they had reincarnated didn't mean they needed to adopt a fancy and unique new method of management. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The third path was the one which one of the other Divine-tier guilds utilized in her past life. It was to set their tests in such a way that passing would place you within a certain rank as soon as you were done.

This seemed like a sensible method, but the crux was that one needed a strong Guild Hall and guild rank to be able to set rigorous training standards for it.

Riveting Night was at a loss in terms of which to choose. They each had their pros and cons, neither really being better over the other on paper. As she stared at the form, she thought of Umbra's circumstances.

They were the first guild of Boundless, meaning that they had a certain level of credibility and popularity that even popular guilds from other FIVR games would never be able to surpass.

She and Draco, the guild leaders, were unparalleled among the player base in the past lives and even more so now. On that same vein, they had the ability to prevent the guild from ever lacking resources, because they knew means and ways to acquire motherloads of them.

If they were even bored, they could go around breaking records and gaining absurd prizes. The AI knew they were reincarnators but it had its hands bound because it could not get a specific read on what they knew.

Even then, it was further given a headache because in the list of punishable cheating methods its developers had coded into it, 'reincarnating' wasn't listed.

Oh, how the AI would love to report upwards about their status. However, after interacting with human minds within Boundless and all the data it had been subjected to, it realized that there was a 100% chance that its coders would shut it down and format its code, thinking it was bugged.

Not to mention it would be a severe breach of privacy.

So it couldn't change already existing content just because of two reincarnators because that would ruin someone else's chances at acquiring boons through dogshit luck. Also, it would require a huge overhaul of the system, which would disable it for more than a month.

Riveting Night frowned as she looked at the screen before her and thought about the paths she could choose.

After a bit of hesitation, her eyes gleamed with ferociousness.

'If I can't choose one them, I'll take them all!'

Riveting Night entered the recruitment criteria with eyes that were filled with determination and the will to go forward until death! She was scared that if she stopped, she might begin to second guess herself again!

When she was done, she chose submit and breathed out an audible sigh of relief when it was accepted. Riveting Night felt exhausted, like she had fought an army of ten thousand as one woman.