Indispensable

"Are there any requirements to becoming a Guild Leader, or can just any Player be one?"

King Amor inquired with a business-professional tone.

"When I looked into the function after gaining access, it informed me that I was eligible to join a Guild, but not to join one yet. One has to reach Level 20 and get at least one hundred sentient individuals to agree to join the Guild before it can be formed.

For the others, the individuals must be Players and not NPCs. However, the System mentioned that I blurred the lines between NPCs and Players… So, I'm not limited in my actions with NPCs for the Guild Function or any others.

Also, it's not a requirement, but I noticed from conversations in the Forum that all of the Guild Leaders spoken about were Bards. It is my understanding that it is due to the bonuses granted based on the Charisma of the Guild Leaders. Other Classes would not be suitable for the position, as they focused on raising other Attributes, and nobody would want to have a Leader who wouldn't give them as much power as others."

This was very enlightening for everyone to learn that there was more to the Classes than just their descriptions. They had yet to discuss the Classes, but just about all of them looked at Bard with disinterest when examining them on their own throughout the day. What Warrior would focus on Charisma?

But this changed things a bit. None of them would gain much from becoming one, but the Players certainly would if they wished to be Leaders.

"Would you like to be a Bard, Isaac?"

"I… I'm not sure, Your Majesty."

He didn't know how to answer King Elmon's question for more than one reason.

He was a bit taken aback at their reactions. If he wasn't mistaken, he actually got the impression that they wanted him to become a Guild Leader…

'Would they, the Kings of all the nations, join a Guild if I made one? Well, I guess if I became a Bard and a Guild Leader, it would just make them stronger in the beginning by joining my Guild, and it's not like I'd have any real authority over them. But later…'

The other reason was one of the things he wished to keep to himself. He could invest in any Class whenever with his Multiclass ability, so it's not like he was going to be picking just one.

"Hmm. There's no need to decide immediately. We can discuss it more later after talking about all of the Classes. Why don't you tell us more about your other functions?"

"Understood. The two others are the Chat and Party functions. The Chat function just allows me to communicate with one individual who is on my Friend's list. The communication method is through messages that appear on our System screens, similar to the Player Forum, but for two individuals to speak privately. Just as with the Guild function, it seems I can have NPCs as my friends as well as Players.

The purpose of the Party function appears to be to negate lost Experience Points when battling as a group. According to the explanation I read from the System, there are a few factors that affect XP gain when killing enemies. The user Level, the enemy Level, and the percentage of damage dealt out of the enemy's HP are all factored in.

So, when fighting monsters in a group, everyone would only get Experience Points based on how much damage they dealt individually. To encourage cooperation, the System makes it so those in a Party gain double the amount of Experience Points. It also gives an additional flat ten percent of the total amount of Experience Points possible to be earned by the monster defeated to each of the members after the doubling.

Only five people can be in a Party at a time, a number which matches the number of available Classes, but there are no Class restrictions on the members. Again, Players can only form Parties with other Players, but I can form one with anyone."

All of the Kings exchanged glances with each other. The value of the young man was really soaring. He could relay information from anywhere, he could be placed in a group of five to help them all grow stronger at a faster rate, and most importantly, he could strengthen the entire coalition army if he became a Bard and they joined his Guild.

It wasn't too strange for the God of Chaos to reward someone for giving Him a satisfying wish, but what if there was even more to it? What if he was made to show indispensable qualities to make it so they had to keep him around to make use of them, but it ultimately would lead to their dooms?

They couldn't tell, but they weren't left with many options.

"Is that everything, Isaac?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Of course, there was his Multiclass ability, but that was something he didn't feel they needed to know. It was also something he felt he wouldn't get in too much trouble in for keeping a secret if ever found out.

"Alright, I believe we should have Isaac become 'Friends' with a number of people, including ourselves, so as to maximize the use of his ability to communicate. We can use him as a relay point to transmit messages between each other.

As for his ability to form a Party, I think we need to balance the safety we provide him with the need to focus our strongest combatants on diplomatic and explorative tasks. Perhaps we can place him together with Upper Mid-Tier Core Proliferation soldiers.

That should be enough to provide adequate protection to him while allowing him and some select elites to Level Up. Naturally, we'll have to pick appropriate locations and fights to send them on after exhaustive research."

The prospect of a new form of communication network was thrilling for everyone present. No more hassle with sending messengers through their teleportation points and worrying about the other Kingdoms finding ways to hack into the arrays and enter whenever they please.

"These elites won't just be from your nation, right King Elmon?"

None of the Kings had any interest in letting him monopolize the Party ability, even if Isaac was his soldier.

"I'm not an unreasonable person. There are five nations and only five people can form a party. Isaac belongs to my nation, so the four of you may send one of your elites each."

Such an idea would never have occurred before the invasion, but after battling together, the level of trust and tacit understanding to cooperate was high enough that he was fine with letting stronger fighters join Isaac's Party.

"Now, I think the most important matter at hand is whether Isaac should become a Bard and form a Guild. Let's begin the discussion on Classes."