Rox and Roxy looked at each other and whispered with a voice that could be heard meters away.
“What are they talking about?”
“I don’t even know.”
Ren knew the siblings had a few loose screws in the head, and he explained further, “We provide services to guilds and players, helping them in dungeons, raids, fight bosses, and even get first blood.”
Rox and Roxy’s faces brightened. “Oh, I see.”
“I think they’re like Ren. Funny how his name is also the same?” Rox exclaimed.
Ren coughed between his fists and pretended not to know what Rox was talking about.
Rox then faced Ren with a sad smile. “Sorry, but . . .” he opened the door wide and added, “As you can see, there’s no one here but us.”
Ren and Leonel stared at the empty hall of Fighting Lamb’s guild. The place’s interior was cozy, with logs and wooden planks as the primary materials. It was small, around 100 sq. meters, with a round table and chair at the center.
“Huh? How did that happen?” Leonel asked. “I thought there’s a twenty-member requirement to establish a guild?”
“Ten,” corrected Roxy and sighed through her nose. “We can establish a guild but on probation. Within a month, we have to get eight members into joining us, or our guild will be dissolved.”
Rox took a deep breath, and his face said he was giving up. “That’s the current predicament we faced right now. No one wanted to join us. If there is, they only did because of the free snacks, and after that, they left.”
Leonel scratched his head. “Don’t you have like friends or something?”
Rox shrugged. “They have a guild of their own.”
While Ren wasn’t surprised. Newly established guilds like Fighting Lambs that didn’t even get any record like firstblood or dungeon clear were easily drowned in the thousands of other guilds. And more and more were emerging as they speak. It was the reason why Black Lion, Golden Phoenix, Poison Viper, Sleeping Dragon, and some others established their guild early on and grinded to get firstblood and dungeon clears to stay afloat amidst the sea of guilds. They knew that they’d be left out and easily left behind if they didn’t do that.
Advertising was also another bonus point if they had the money like what Black Lion and Golden Phoenix was doing all the time.
“That’s alright,” said Ren. “If you win this month’s Guild Wars, players will naturally flock to your guild without you offering any free snacks.”
“That’s good and all, but . . .” Rox couldn’t help but be disappointed when he looked at Ren and Leonel, “only you two?”
“Could you just join our guild?” Roxy clasped her hands in prayer, begging for Ren and Leonel to reconsider. Not to brag but . . . some said that she was cute when she begged. The words came mostly from her parents though.
Ren shook his head. “We have our own group to advertise. But since your SLOT isn’t enough to accommodate my ATP alone, I’ll temporarily join your guild while Leo here will represent our group as your backup.”
Rox, Roxy, and Leonel were both surprised at what Ren said that they didn’t even process how high Ren’s ATP was. It was like their brain was still in the middle of processing because they wanted to say something else but couldn’t.
“Is that going to work? Rox questioned.
Roxy was skeptical. “Are we still qualified to enter the Guild Wars with just the four of us? We’ll be wiped out in the first fight against those guilds that are in the hundreds.”
“Me alone? Maybe we should invite Isolde and Ragnar?” Leonel whined.
Ren answered their questions one by one. “Yes, it’s going to work. And no one knows about the wars this month. But one thing is for sure . . . the developers wouldn’t fight guilds with guilds since they knew that some were just newly established. They would make the war a bit fair.
“And lastly, we will contact both Isolde and Ragnar. I doubt about Isolde because she had her family’s guild, but Ragnar might join us.”
Rox and Roxy cocked their head to the side.
“Who’s Isolde?”
“Who’s Ragnar?”
Ren wasn’t worried that Rox and Roxy knew Ragnar. As long as Ragnar shut his lips tight, all was well.
“They’re our friends who sometimes help us with these kinds of stuff . . . ,” Leonel explained and added with an unsure voice, “I think.”
Roxy shook her head. “I still don’t think that we will win.”
Ren raised an eyebrow her way. “Do you want to win the war, though?”
“Of course I do! But . . .” Roxy’s eyes stared at the ground and said with a dejected voice, “just us?”
“No worries. I’ll recruit others while you do the same,” said Ren. “As long as you have the desire to win, that’s all that matters.”
When the two didn’t react, Ren said, “I’ll join your guild when the game announces the war this month. In the meantime, you recruit other players to join your guild. Even just temporary is also fine.”
After adding one another as friends, Ren and Leonel went their way.
“Who are you going to recruit, by the way?” Leonel asked Ren when they left Fighting Lamb.
Ren was silent before he said, “Sumeri and Nikolai.”
Leonel gaped. “Those two? Will they join if they know that it’s free, though?”
“They will,” said Ren without any hint of doubt. “Those two needed exposure, and what I’ll propose to them is something they can’t refuse.”
—-
“I refuse.”
“. . .” Ren couldn’t comment, and he hid his surprise over a cold front.
He and Sumeri were having early breakfast at a café in Diamond Palace to discuss his offer to her. His treat, of course. It was the only way he could meet her since the woman was a little bit of a snob to someone she had just met.
Looking at the lovely girl with long curly blue hair tied in a ponytail with a sleeveless white top and cargo pants, Ren couldn’t help but admire her beauty. Her charms were simple, but they had this striking effect the more you looked at her.
Compared to Silvia’s explosive splendor, Sumeri had that kind of pretty face that attracted a second look, and the more you stared at her face, the more she became prettier in your eyes.
However, Ren wasn’t interested in beauty. He needed her to work for him.
Ren took a deep breath. “Why not? I think that it’s good exposure for you.”
“If we won,” said Sumeri. “But what if we don’t? All I get will be a, thank you?”
“And gil and EXP,” added Ren, “If you want to be a mercenary, then this is your opportunity to get your name out there.”
Sumeri shook her head. “I don’t want to work for free.”
“Tell me that if you have enough ATP to defeat a puppy wolf alone.”
Sumeri sat straight on her chair, and her cheeks reddened. “H-how . . . *ahem. Of course, I can!” she denied. Who could solo a puppy wolf in your first game? Of course, she needed the help of Nikolai at her first try.
“I can pay you but only for one thousand bucks throughout the war.”
“That little?” It might be expensive to some, but to Sumeri, that amount would only last her a week or so from how expensive things were in the city.”
“Negotiate with me again after your ATP reaches the forty digits.” Ren stood to his feet and placed a few hundreds on the table for the food and drinks. “My offer is until this week. Think about it. No one will offer you that amount doing mercenary work with your current ATP. And the job only last until the Guild Wars.”
He then left, leaving Sumeri wide eyes in disbelief and with a gaping mouth.
So young but already so arrogant!