Chapter 9: Part 3

- Arthas -

"Anything else?" Shiroe asked out.

"What strategies do you use while hunting?" Someone from the group asked.

Shiroe thought for a moment and answered. "We use baits and large scale traps to hunt a large number of enemies at a time. I won't be telling anyone the details as they are the personal secrets of our teams although I will give everyone a piece of advice….several things which work in the outside world….also work here. Make of that what you will."

"Just that….that tells us nothing." Someone complained.

"Let me clarify something first….We are not here to babysit anyone. This is all the help you will get from us. You people are not our team members. We don't owe anyone anything so don't expect anything more from us." Shiroe clarified in a loud voice.

Now that the stick was out, Veena took charge. "No need to get so down. While it is true that we are not going to babysit anyone….there is indeed something we can do for some people." She hung the carrot in front of them.

As expected, the people latched onto her words immediately.

Everyone was looking at her as she explained.

"I am pretty sure all of you have seen the Global Announcements of the first player made guild formed yesterday." She asked and many nodded. "As of now, we are looking to invite ninety players to the Fairy Tail Guild." She announced and the crowd burst into a cacophony of noise.

"Are you the people who made the first guild?"

"What is Fairy Tail?"

"How can we make a Guild?"

"What did you people do to get the Guild?"

"Marry me, Miss Veena."

….

Several comments flew around the place and these were the only few I was able to pick out….although I wasn't able to find who said the last one.

She let them clamour around for several minutes until they quietened down.

"I will answer the questions one by one. First, yes. It was our team who established the Fairy Tail Guild, the first player-made Guild in this game." She finished and let them grasp the words.

She continued after a while.

"The conditions to establish a Guild are very difficult. There has to be one player of T6 or above to act as a Guild Leader. "

As expected, the conditions brought forward a barrage of new questions.

"Do you have a T6 Player among yourselves?"

"How high are your levels?"

She raised a hand and the crowd calmed down after a while.

"There are obviously some exceptions to these rules although they are stringent. First, you need to have at least a T5 Player as the Guild Master. Second, they have to have a house or property to act as a Guild Base and third they have to need an official permission from the City Lord and the country to establish a guild. This is the hardest part as generally people have to make some huge contribution towards the country to be allowed this….or just pay one million gold coins and get the Guild Order. We were lucky to get the last requirement completed with the reward from the country and form our guild."

"Do you all have a T5 Player?" Someone asked.

"Yes. As of yesterday….Arthas has become the first T5 Player in this city."

Actually, I was the first T5 Player on this continent but we had decided to keep the information about my target a secret between us.

"Why should we join your guild? You all said that you weren't here to babysit? What advantages would we get to ally ourselves with you?" Someone shouted.

I noticed that this guy was Dwain's team member and was currently standing near Gareth's team.

Seriously now….these fools are still trying to cause trouble?

But sometimes the crowd just needs one voice to rally behind.

Several people were already dissatisfied with our explanations. Some were angry, some were plain jealous. Those people started making noise.

We were however making a note of these people in the crowd.

This was something Veena had suggested.

Playing the good cop and the bad cop.

We didn't want to bring troublesome people in our guild unless it profited us in some way or the other. To separate these people, we had Shiroe play the rude guy and then Veena would come in with the Guild invitations but wouldn't tell them the information about Perks.

The annoying ones would no doubt make noise and try to cause trouble and we just need to identify them and keep them in mind when recruiting the members of the guild.

And boy, was the plan working.

Several people were causing trouble.

I even saw Gareth and his team trying to fan the flames from the side along with the remaining members of Dwain's team.

Too bad we need those two armour pieces so we cannot push them aside right now.

"Very well, those who do not intend to join us….can leave. Anyways, since we only have a small number of members, we are collecting a small fee. One thousand Gold Coins for registration and five hundred Gold Coins every month after that." Shiroe continued.

And this was probably the biggest hit yet. Over half the crowd went away. Some even hurled cuss words at us.

Most of them had gathered with Gareth's team while several others formed teams of their own.

It was fine.

There were still more than enough players left who were still discussing among themselves and once in a while, sneaking a few looks at us.

Many of these people were friends of Shiroe and Veena as well as the people we had sold our stuff to during the World Quest. They had stayed back despite the unpleasant looking deal and hadn't made any trouble.

I can work with these kinds of people.

Finally, seeing that no more people were leaving, Veena spoke once more.

"Obviously, there is a reason we are charging these prices." She spoke with a smile, attracting the attention of several people.

Seeing that they were paying attention, she continued.

"Guilds have several features which only the members of the guild can enjoy. One of these features is something many people might know….Guild Chat. A very convenient means of chatting with other friends even when away. You don't need to be in any parties to do so. I am sure you all understand the importance of this Skill."

Some people were faltering so she continued.

"But this is just one of the features of the Guild. The best part of being in the Guild is….Blessings or as players call it, Perks." She smiled. "You get perks for being a member of a Guild. These Perks vary greatly from one another and can be selected by the Guild Master of the Guild. With each level the Guild gains, it gets Perk Points which can be assigned by the Guild Master to any Perks of their choosing."

She gave them time to understand as well as let them shimmer in their curiosity before adding more details. "These perks can be anything, from Reduction in Price when buying items from NPCs to Increase in Gold Drops to Increase in Production Speed of Crafting or even something like our Guild has….Increase in Experience Gain when in a Party with other Guild Members." She dropped the bomb.

"Yes. You have heard it right. The members of our Guild will gain a 10% increase in Experience Gain when in party with any other members of the Guild. I am sure, five hundred Gold Coins per month….is not too big a price for that….wouldn't you all agree?"

There was a moment of quiet before the players jumped to pay the money.

"Now now, don't make any ruckus. Please line up properly. The chaos will only delay the process and harm you." She chided the crowd.

By this time, Shiroe and I had already prepared two registers to note down the people coming in to join.

In thirty minutes, we had over eighty members. There were still around thirty more people in line and more people were arriving bit by bit.

"Star, stop the line and call the next ten people in and note the names of the last twenty people. When the Guild levels up, they will be given the first slots. Till then, we cannot take any more members."

"Got it."

Veena too went ahead and talked to the people in line, explaining the situation. Some were a bit annoyed but they understood.

We had already offered them the chance. It was them who waited till the bait of the perks were thrown. We had already told them there were limited seats and we would only be recruiting ninety people.

We could technically get six more people but we had decided to keep some extra seats in hand for potential team members or friends we might meet in this game.

By the time we were done writing everything down, the crowd had started to gather there again.

The people who had just left were now starting to gather back, no doubt after hearing about the Guild Perks.

"10% experience is quite a good bait."

"Quite? No no, it's an amazing bait. I bet they will be hounding us outside the Guild to get in for days." Star said as he looked at the gathering crowd.

"Oh, look at that. The idiots who had followed Gareth are returning too."

"It's going to get annoying. Let's bring the members inside." Shiroe suggested.

"Alright." I agreed, directly speaking in the Guild Chat. "Everyone, get inside the Guild Halls. We will be holding the first ever Guild Meeting of the Fairy Tail Guild."

They all looked surprised at the sudden message but then turned towards me as I waved them to follow us.

We went inside the Guild Halls and closed the door outside, not that it was necessary.

Guild Halls was a property where only members of the Guild could enter.

Even if the others wanted to enter, they couldn't.

It was a place only for the members of the Guild with the only exceptions being the NPCs and during sieges of the town when the town is not a safe zone but in those cases, everything is a fair game.

They gathered on the ground floor and I took the first floor to have a clear look at them.

"Welcome everyone….to the Fairy Tail Guild." I addressed the crowd.

It was already decided that I was going to address the Guild Members as the Guild Master.

"Most of you might already know me but for those who don't, I am Arthas, your Guild Master." Some people listened while some clapped.

"As you all are already aware, we are an extremely new Guild and as such we only have a basic outline of rules for the Guild. You can check them on the wall in front of you." The rules were put there by Shiroe and me.

Calligraphy was a really useful Skill for these types of things.

"As you all might know, no organisation can stand without a set of rules. These are the basic rules of the Guild and we might add some in the future. We expect everyone to follow these. In case of violations, they will be investigated and first they will be given a warning. If they violate the rules again, they will be kicked out from the Guild. Does anyone have any questions?"

No one said anything. I looked at my team and then continued. "If anyone has any doubts, you can talk to Shiroe, Veena or me. In time, we will add a ranking system and give roles to different Guild Members accordingly."

Star was also a new member so he denied any administrative positions.

"Regarding the Guild Halls, the ground floor is for everyone. We plan to make the first floor for labs for production based players and the second floor will be for administrative purposes. Please don't make it a place to skip out on your Inn expenses. There might not be enough room for everyone." I added.

This part was reminded to me by Shiroe as he knew how many players were still staying in the Inn and would most likely put up a sleeping bag anywhere to save up on that cost.

"Maybe we can buy some properties nearby for the Guild Members to stay. A dorm of some kind." Veena suggested. "We do have the funds for it, courtesy of Mr. Dwain." She smiled.

All three of us, Shiroe, Star and me shivered as we saw that smile of hers.

"I….will ask around for that." Shiroe nodded at the idea, a bit hesitant.

Finally, when everyone looked settled, I spoke once more.

"Our Guild is new and you all are the first members of the Guild. I sincerely hope that we can work together and make Fairy Tail the best guild in this whole game. We will make it so that when people talk about Fairy Tail, they don't just remember the first guild established by a player but rather the best Guild there is in the game. Will you all lend me a hand?"

"Yeah!" The crowd cheered loudly.

"Thank you."