Chapter 204 - Free Life (1/2)
After he had talked to Rudra about his plans to develop even at the sea, he decided that he also needed to talk to Muramasa. Since, the Valhalla Raiders were already a strong influence at the Murk Water town, he felt it better to include another guild in their efforts. If a pair of cooperating guilds ended up having decent control over the coasts of the bay in regions ruled by different species, there is bound to be good trade options.
He first had to get a better picture of the town from Agua Canalon before he did anything. So, he chose to meet him at the local tavern in a private room. In a couple of minutes, he was already at the tavern talking to Agua and his teammates about the game over drinks. He started with the complexity of the game followed by sharing the difficulty the game posed to them. He then began to ask them about their secondary professions and their plans to develop in the town.
He also started to share some of his views about the difficulty they would face of they go to the fae region and join the guild there. It was always hard for players of one species to develop guilds in a region of another species. These regions and the NPC cities will have a few advantage that the native species could properly use. Even a majority of the NPCs of the regions discriminate between the players based on the race of the player.
”How do you know about all of this difference between the regions? I have never heard of you being in other regions. Most players when they visit other races are kept track by the local guilds,” asked Agua.
”It is common among all the regions, dude. I have friends who went to other races regions. Even getting a reputation point is very hard. The common consensus among the various guilds is to let the player get to higher level so that it would be easier to gain reputation and use their hearthstones. Else, 90% of the ones who attempted have already been killed and sent back to their native region on respawn. The others didn't even manage to get even 20 reputation points,” said Shadow.
”Still players could join the guilds established by the others with the same race as that of the region, but we both know that isn't the best option either. Those players growth would be stunted compared to the others. Sooner or later, they will just become a burden. This game is expected to have a longer life than most others as it is being made by the makes of the somnium technology,” said Shadow. ”You will definitely be pushed back in a guiild at that time.”
”What can I do?” said Agua sighing loudly. ”Moreover, it is not sure that it wouldn't improve in later stages. All I can do is change my race by resetting my account, but I will be looked down by others and the guild leaders also have insisted that the player in other races remain so that they have chance to move in different regions. They have become especially adamant after the auction house updated and they came to know of the use of the resources of other regions.”
”Of course, it is good to have someone we trust in other regions. I understand the reason for them to ask you to remain here,” said Shadow. ”It is just that most such players are unable to get a decent harvest or promote even in such areas as they don't have enough members. The other guilds would surely try to suppress your growth.”
”Isn't that the biggest problem that I am facing now,” said Agua as he nodded his head while pouring another mug of ale into his mouth. ”Can't do anything though. Even if I move to other guilds, the ones who know me would suspect me to be a spy. Unless, I get something valuable for them, it is impossible. Getting something valuable in this game is very hard. It is hard to pass by and even getting to the coast or the marshlands is a headache. How do we get something that is of value?”
”There is another option. You can have a guild here that competes. You surely want to start a branch of the Divine Swords guild here, right?” asked Shadow getting to the important question at hand.
”Of course, but a name like Divine Swords, if heard here would beget action from those Raiders. They will suppress us much more. They have the numbers here,” said Agua. ”Only a few from the guild actually chose other races to explore, but the rest all chose fae. So, to avoid any suppression, we were instructed to not use the name till more of our members join.”
”That is a reasonable assumption too, but you can also create a new guild under a different name,” said Shadow. There have been instances of sub-guilds being created by other guilds to tackle this scenario and also to maintain communication with other guilds favorably in his past life. The difficulty of the game and hurdles it caused kept the dynamics of the interactions between guilds everchanging.
”You kidding, right?” asked Agua in surprise almost spewing out the drink in his mouth. He was shocked as such an act would usually imply a certain members of the guild diverging from the guild. It is usually done when players are irreconcilable and there expect a certain amount of oppression from the guild which they split from.
”Don't misunderstand me,” said Shadow. ”You can have it as a sub-guild of the Divine Swords and don't inform anyone. Or even better, create a guild in the game but the let the elders and the current shareholders have the shares of this guild. Then, they would have no issue in supporting your efforts silently,” suggested Shadow.
”That sounds like a reasonable suggestion, but it still wouldn't be a good option. They know me and already have been monitoring me. They aren't suppressing us right now because we don't belong to a guild in the game and are independent players. They just don't want bad press among the potential recruits,” said Agua.
”Well, that is the good part, right? They don't want bad press among potential recruits. This is the main reason I am thinking of a guild. They are currently monopolizing a few areas and they are able to do so only because of the lack of decent competition. But it is not that the independent players don't resent them. They are just tolerating as they couldn't do anything. So, if we create a guild under the name of a person who is not famous and have him as the guild leader, we can avoid such effects. Just a small guild so that we can have the benefits provided by being in a guild,” suggested Balthazar.
”What is that going to do?” asked Agua confused.
”It will be under a different guys name. I will find someone, and you can just join. They have a lookout for you, but I am sure that we can get more people into the guild. I will get someone into the guild, and it won't be under my name either,” said Shadow.
”You went to that trip with them. They would have someone tailing you too, by now.”
”I can't be tracked by them,” said Shadow as he removed his clock effect to make his name visible to them and used his disguise skill to change his name. The others were surprised by it. Some have already heard of hiding their names and even that rare skills to modify one's appearance existed, but this was different.
”You can change your name? Wont that break the rules of the game?” asked Agua as the others also nodded.