The group reached a 100 man dungeon on the outskirts of Cario City called Bizarre Domain. It was a dungeon with a level cap of 30.
Outside the dungeon were different groups of people that had different emblems pasted on their chests. Each of these groups had a minimum of a 100 man team that were lined up in different spots within the area.
The Bizarre Domain was located near a mountainous region, a small and narrow valley located in between two huge slabs of rock that pierced into the heavens.
The vegetation was a little sparse, probably because of the topography. The entrance to the dungeon was essentially a portal that was set into one of the walls of a mountain.
When the members of Umbra entered the lively field, they were met with a scene of different guild leaders hyping up their men as well as informing them on the circ.u.mstances of the dungeon in question.
However, everyone went silent when they saw the Umbra members enter the field. Their reaction was normal, as a lively classroom would instantly quieten at the very moment the principal entered the class.
Their breathing would be measured and their posture would be respectful as well as perfect. The other guilds in the area displayed this same demeanor.
Even though they had many more players than Umbra in terms of membership, one could not compare the combat capability of a thousand dogs to a hundred elephants.
Before the dogs could take down the elephants, they would be trampled to death!
At this stage, a numerical advantage was useless! Unless the gap between their members was small, having more people would just cause them heavier losses as they relinquished experience and equipment.
The Umbra members didn't bother to stop and greet anyone, neither did any of these small guilds dare to go up and greet them. Majority were new guilds with no prior history in terms of FIVR gaming, meaning they were created within Boundless.
Naturally, the players they could hire were average and banal. Not even their guild upper echelon could pass the basic test, unless maybe their guild leaders participated.
This meant that even the most common fellow walking in the Umbra group was as strong as - or even stronger than - their guild leader. How could they even think to breathe loudly?
One thing that must be noted, was that Riveting Night's recruitment scheme was truly clever.
Umbra only took in top talents and then split those talents even further into grades. This left the large majority of guilds unaffected since their members probably couldn't qualify to join Umbra anyway.
They also would never be able to compete, as the fundamental quality between the two was too different. So whatever Umbra did was really of no concern to them, similar to how the general activities of a first world country was inconsequential to the average third world individual.
Adding to that were the guilds with legacies from the very first FIVR games as well as even the VR, AR and PC based games from the old days. They had the members already present and bound together since the beginning.
Really, all they hired were harveeys and nothing else. The upper echelon members were fixed before even entering Boundless.
Darkrow was like this. It also had a long legacy starting from the PC Era, when Riveting Night's dad was a young lad and an avid gamer. He built Darkrow during that time and passed it onto his daughter when he was too old to game anymore.
If the old Draco had been tested properly, he might have started out higher than a harveey, but Darkrow didn't need middle echelon and upper echelon members, only the lower echelon ones.
Umbra was the opposite. They were recruiting like a guild without a legacy, now filling up its upper and middle echelon, while the legacy guilds were only searching for serfs.
Riveting Night had a different plan for acquiring harveeys though and she hadn't shared it with anyone. It was a secret only the five Divine-tier guilds knew and Draco was aware of it as well.
The members of Umbra entered the Bizarre Domain in the traditional dungeon mode. The difficulty was set to normal and those bystanders couldn't help but look between each other.
Was Umbra… doing the basic mode? They're like, the most powerful guild, right? Why waste time doing this?
"Could it be that Umbra wants to practice a bit and create some chemistry between their elites?" A random Guild Leader speculated aloud.
Many of those here felt that was logical. Umbra were powerful and their foundation was too solid. Everyone was aware that this guild only needed time to grow. Whether or not it would grow was unquestionable.
However, they did not have a legacy or good chemistry inside as well as outside the game. Since they had recruited top-tier elites, it was probably time to assess the new members and develop a proper battle style.
That was what they themselves were doing after all.
Suddenly, another Guild Leader in the crowd was startled as he made a realization. "Shit! This is the most difficult 100 man dungeon around Cario City. If Umbra were to use it as practice for all the levels, wouldn't they eventually steal all the first clears?"
…
!?!
F.u.c.k!
One of the reasons they were here eyeing each other and hyping their members was for first clears. Not only did they receive Guild Accolades and unique-one time rewards, first clears were a potent means to spread fame for recruitment purposes!
Umbra wasn't like them who needed such things in order to gather talent. Just by existing, Umbra received thousands of applications per day. In fact, they were so swarmed that their passing rate was abysmal.
These guilds here didn't care about quality. If they could get even half of Umbra's application count in an hour, they'd be content.
.............
The Bizarre Domain was an area that looked like a world hidden within a grain of sand. The environment was eerily silent and the colors were muted. The border of the world was clearly seen, making it look like a huge plateau. After the borders was a realm eternal darkness.
One could not tell where the lighting came from, but it existed. The temperature was perfectly cool and refreshing. The air was clean and seemed pure.
Minus the existential crisis inducing visuals, the Bizarre Domain was a lovely place to be.
Riveting Night stopped here and turned to the group.
"Each of you will split up into one of six teams of 18 members and one captain. The first team will be captained by Sublime and her two vice captains will be Rambunctious Buttlover and Cold Summer (Hydromancer)."
"The second team will be captained by Uno and his two vice captains will be Silmzy (Mage Guard) and Lord Donger (Spellblade)."
"The third team will be captained by Boyd and his two vice captains will be Kicked Bucket (Paladin) and Maple Forest (Cleric).
"The fourth team will be captained by Cobra and his two vice captains will be Slight Breeze (Aeromancer) and Young Duel (Swordsman)."
"The fifth team will be captained by Kiran and his two vice captains will be Wee Cunt (Swordsman) and Midnight Fever (Assassin)."
"The sixth and final team will be captained by Rina and her two vice captains will be Loli King (Druid) and Eternal Lover (Guardian).
When she finished her divisions, the members moved into their teams as orderly as they could. If any team was above 18, Riveting Night would re-assign them carefully after checking their class.
When this was done, there was an outlier. Warm Spring looked left and right nervously, wondering why she had been left out so conspicuously. Her attention was stolen when Riveting Night suddenly appeared before her and she had to resist screaming out in fear.
"You are coming with me." Riveting Night commanded softly and Warm Spring could only mumble an agreement weakly.
Riveting Night turned to face the six teams and gave them their directives. "Each team shall choose a lane and clear all the squads of monsters together with no casualties. Anyone who dies will be penalized 10 UPs (Umbra Points)."
Everyone's faces changed.
What a vicious Guild Mistress!
10 UPs weren't at the same value as most of the other guild's contribution points. Case in point, Umbra was allowed to give a custom name to their Contribution Points and have it be recognized as an official currency due to their Guild Hall.
10 UPs were currently valued at 10 gold!
Lord!
One Umbra Point was equivalent to one gold coin, an amount that only 5% of players could claim to possess at this stage. However, earning Umbra Points was technically far easier than earning gold, which was why every member was so damn excited to be in this guild.
It also had much more utility than gold.
That was also why every player outside was convinced that Umbra will become peerless under heaven, as well as being the direct cause for the hellish application fever.
Work with Umbra and become richer and more powerful than any other player, much faster than any other player!
But, one needed the requisite skill too. And as the First Members of Umbra were now finding out, just being in the guild didn't mean that one could slack off and earn big bucks.
Umbra only dealt with talent! Display skill and expertise and rise to the top! Fool around and fall to the bottom!
Their faces stabilized as they became solemn. Everyone had tuned their minds to the hundredth percentile, making sure that they would not be that one guy who would ruin everything.
Seeing that they were all serious, Riveting Night nodded.
"Go."
(Author's Note: Please vote on this poll. I need to know your opinions on the matter. strawpoll.me/19025635)