Chapter 204 - Free Life (2/2)
”It is temporary, but enough to fool others. Else, I wouldn't have been able to join their scouting team at the marshlands. I have methods to keep myself secret,” said Shadow. ”If I get someone to setup a guild and make noise that would get others to join would you help us. I promise that I will help you establish your guild if we manage to get decent amount now. Also, you can leave the new guild when the others from your guild join.”
”That is still very risky. I doubt that the others would not believe us,” said one of them. ”Even if we create a guild together won't the others in our guild just think we are creating a new guild and defecting.”
It was clear to Balthazar that these guys didn't trust him and were expecting some explanation. They were already informed by their leader to be wary of him and that he can't be completely trustworthy as they had a small conflict. Though Muramasa didn't go into the details, he warned them, and Balthazar also expected that they would already be warned.
”Ah, the concerns of official paid guild members. I miss those days. Your problem is simple to solve. Just get me a few passes to the town and I will do the rest. Your small team will just join us later and not at the start. If join during the creation of the guild, you would be defectors but if you join later, even after a few hours after you have informed your guild leader and other elders most would just consider that you are just using us for now and your loyalty still remains,” suggested Shadow. ”The others working alongside you at your guild office would even think you are spies in the guild.”
”We still need to inform the leader about it beforehand and based on what you told, I doubt you would let us have any important positions in the guild,” said one of them sneering. The guy believed that he had seen through the ruse of Shadow who had wanted to create a sub-guild using them. If they didn't join at the start, they wouldn't have any important position which would make it hard for them to influence guild members.
”I am willing to write a contract that states Agua to be made a vice-leader of the guild within a few days of his joining. Making him a vice-leader would raise suspicions,” said Shadow. ”I can also have another one of you as vice-leaders if you don't believe, but the guild leader of this new guild should be someone new whom no one in the game circles would know and should be just a nominal one. I can even make the guild leader sign the same. You would have a lot of influence on the new players and you can defect with them when your guild decides to put more effort in this region.”
”Ok. What do you want in return?”
”Huh?!”
”Come on? I doubt that you just gave us all these drinks to propose this,” said Agua. ”You need something from this, right?”
”I am getting what I want. I am choosing the guild leader,” said Shadow. ”It will allow me to influence the guild. I just need you to get a few passes to get some players and some more players to start up the guild.”
”That is well, but it is not practical. You started with something about getting independent players to help us, but all suggested was to have our guilds put in the effort. The Raiders will eliminate us out of the town and won't let us develop,” said Agua.
”Yes, I got the best item for it,” said Shadow. ”You know that there has been an issue with the marshlands right? The raiders didn't accomplish their mission due to the poisonous toads. Even the players are having a lot of trouble due to them. I got the antidote for that.”
”That would work. At the very least, we can attract enough to temporarily join us in exploring those regions,” said Agua.
”Apart from that, we need to put in a few more things in our agenda. First, we make sure that it is known that all the members who created the guild have just made it for fun and are using to mutually gain profit without subjugation from the other guilds. So, we need to make the rules extremely light and provide the antidote for our members at a lower cost. A few more might be required, but we can discuss them later,” said Shadow.
”Yes, it is a good strategy and there is no point discussing details, if we don't get the permission from the guild leader and the passes,” said Agua. ”Anyway, you need to put out the antidote in the market or auction them. It would get popularity and if everything goes as expected, it would give confidence to our guild too for investing in this idea.”
”Cool, I don't need much investment, except the passes and a few men to join us discreetly to create the guild. You guys will join later as we have talked before,” said Shadow.
”One last thing. The name for guild,” said Agua.
”Free Life?” asked Shadow. He honestly didn't care about the name and told that name sarcastically, but unexpected Agua nodded and agreed to it. ”It is a good option. Suits our agenda and it is best if the name suggests the same. I will go ahead and talk it out. It will require some talking in person with them and convincing,” said Agua as he downed his drink and got up along with the rest of his team and left the place. After a few minutes, Shadow also followed suit.
He needed a new disguise and a player to pose as a guild leader, but one who would be carefree and not be concerned of anything. Anyone, he gets from Rudra would be sooner or later traced back to the guild. Any player who had played professionally would be immediately identified by their habits.
Ideally, to get independent players to actually join them, he needed one who wouldn't look like a traditional guild leader and would feel like one of them. He also required the person to be someone he trusted. It was a very difficult thing for him to find.
He went ahead to call to Rudra to inform him of his plans and have some guys ready to join him in the Five Elements Empire. He could deal with this later. He decided to go and put some effort in the forging services in the coastal guard. It was a good chance to increase his forging proficiency and earn money and experience for free.