Guild Wars

<strong>Author's Note</strong>: had power out for the whole day until like 2 hours to reset, so I had to split this chapter in half.

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Author's Note: had power out for the whole day until like 2 hours to reset, so I had to split this chapter in half.

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'Alright, I should be at a suitable level now to teach those brats something good.' Misery thought to himself as he calmly entered Vita Kingdom using the Portal Center. He had finally reached level 10, so he was free to enter cities.

Once he arrived, he saw Sublime and Kiran waiting for him by the side, their faces slightly anticipatory and nervous. When they saw him, his niece waved excitedly, while Kiran, still not used to having another living member of his family did so with a bit of hesitation, making Misery chuckle.

"Well, aren't you brats quite powerful? Halfway through Rank 3 whereas poor ol' me only just got into Rank 1." Misery joked as he took a swig of rum which he had procured from his Inventory, which made up around 80% of what he had put in there.

"It's not your fault, Uncle DB, we just started far earlier and have been through a lot of crazy stuff!" Sublime explained with a smile.

"Oh? Tell me more about this while we head to the training area." Misery prompted with interest.

And so, Sublime regaled her uncle with the struggles of Umbra and the various crazy shit they had been up to since the game had started over an in-game year ago. Misery was simply left speechless by the time she was 5% done, and his eyebrows kept twitching with every word that came after.

This guild… was definitely something else. Calling them crazy would be a compliment, and Misery didn't feel like it would be right to compliment Umbra.

"How has that prissy bastard been able to survive here?" Misery muttered to himself.

"Who... oh, do you mean your friend, Justin Davis Banks? Tsk, he was just a lucky bastard whose sister introduced him at the perfect time." Sublime pouted as she folded her arms unhappily.

"Oh? Why does it sound like my darling Little Princess doesn't like Justin?" Misery asked with surprise.

Sublime deflated slightly, choosing her words carefully. "Well, I know he's your good friend and you guys have fought together in real life, but we sort of have a rivalry. I control the administration, politics, and economy of this kingdom while he controls the military."

"Ah!!! Yeah, that'll do it." Misery nodded with understanding. As ex-special forces, he understood a bit about this kind of macro politics.

The one in charge of the economy controlled society and the flow of money, whereas the one with in charge of the military controlled the country's martial power and safety. Each one subsisted on the other and depended on them, which was a problem when considering the type of people who lead them.

Humans.

If it were an AI, there would be no qualms, only cold efficiency. However, for species that had emotions and individuality, a slight disagreement could sour relations and strain things on both sides.

Say an issue came up, the military leader would prefer to solve it via direct action whereas the economics leader would choose negotiation, how should they proceed?

In the mind of the military leader, his method was right, since the other side had weak defenses and would be unable to resist their martial might for any meaningful period of time, why waste time talking?

In the mind of the economic leader, the other side was one of their main source of XXX resources through imports, and war with them would cause price fluctuations along with strained supply, among other things that would affect the common man.

However, Justin and Sublime's case was not that bad because Vita Kingdom was too overpowered to have such little concerns, so they could unanimously agree on many things. It was just that one had to seek the counsel of the other which irked both parties, most likely.

Whatever the case, Misery soon reached the Rank 5 Training Hall in Vita Kingdom. It may not be as OP as the one in the Rank 7 Guild Hall, but it was slowly being developed to that stage.

Just like how Draco had directly built the three Rank 7 properties in Cario City, so too could they be built in Vita Kingdom. They just need to reach the right threshold and the Tradeskill Association would allow it.

Right now, they could only build up to Rank 5, so further growth of the Kingdom would see it develop more.

When they entered the Training Hall, they saw it was barely used, as most members of Umbra preferred to use the one in the Guild Hall. However, there were a few here who couldn't be bothered to use the portal to go all the way there, which was why this was built in the first place.

"Right, so let's pick that quiet corner over there to begin." Misery stated casually as he walked over. Kiran and Sublime shared a look before following him.

Once settled, Misery dropped his lance and shield and stretched himself. "We'll begin with a bit of theory. Kiran, do you still remember what I taught you about the Merlin Lineage Inheritances?"

Kiran nodded. "The Merlin Lineage is a part of the Advisor's class of Lineages because our Ancestor was able to place two complete Inheritances within our bloodline, which we would inherit depending on our circumstances."

"For the Merlin Lineage, our two Inheritances are the Magus Inheritance and the Knight Inheritance. The former allows its members to use Bloodline Energy to cast various spells and manipulate the elements of the world, while the latter allows their members to use Bloodline Energy to strengthen our body step by step until you become like a superhuman."

Kiran repeated what Misery himself had taught him word for word, doing this with ease with his current Tier 3 Void of Perfection.

Misery nodded with satisfaction. "Great. Now you, Little Princess, what are the specifics of the Inheritances themselves?"

Sublime smirked and did the same as Kiran. "There are ranks for each Inheritance depending on a member's progression and talent. For the Magus Inheritance, one starts as an Apprentice Mage, to 1st Order Mage, 2nd Order Mage, and so on till 9th Order. For the Knight Inheritance, they start as an Apprentice Knight, to 1st Order Knight, 2nd Order Knight, and so on."

Errr…

Now Misery was stumped. He narrowed his eyes and gauged the duo who were smiling at him mischievously. He could tell something was up, but Control did not come to mind as it was hard to unlock even for bloodline holders.

Misery hadn't been there to see the guild members brutalized by Draco, otherwise he would drink on their behalf, lamenting their poor experience.

"Alright, brats, spit out whatever you find so amusing." Misery demanded with folded arms.

"We both have mastered Control up to Tier 2, and he has even unlocked Tier 3 Void of Perfection." Sublime finally spilled the truth while pointing at Kiran.

"Eh? Control? Nice, but what is this about tiers?" Misery asked with confusion.

Misery could not be blamed for not knowing, as Control having tiers was something that would have been developed later in the past timeline, and the maximum Tier had been 2. It was only in this timeline that Draco and Eva had created the pathway for Tier 3 and beyond.

"Draco was the one who came up with the differentiation. According to him the Fake Tier 1 would be possessing either the basic Body of Godliness or the basic Void of Perfection. The Real Tier 1 starts when one manages to unlock both. As for Tier 2, you would have to significantly upgrade your Body of Godliness and Void of Perfection."

"At Tier 3, you gain a slight sense of precognition, for like a split second, especially towards danger outside your range. Your Body of Godliness and Void of Perfection should be almost double as powerful. At Tier 4, you have majorly increased mental faculties and can even do the impossible." Kiran stated with folded arms.

Misery smacked his lips. "That sounds lovely, but it tells me nothing. Is that all?"

Kiran and Sublime shared a look and nodded, Sublime speaking this time. "There are subclassifications each for the Void of Perfection and the Body of Godliness. Tier 1 Body of Godliness is basically about having the ability to directly control most muscles in the body, which also allows one to perfectly re-allocate force in the body and control various senses. Tier 1 Void of Perfection though, is more about the ability to expand the mind outside the body in a short-range to sense the area around them using their 3 senses of sight, hearing, and smell."

"Uh-huh, I have already achieved that." Misery nodded impatiently.

"Well, then there's Tier 2 Body of Godliness, which is about being able to indirectly control all muscles. Here, one can even tighten muscles to reduce the impact of hits as well as resist bullets or blunt force impacts. Tier 2 Void of Perfection is about being able to expand the mind outside the body in a greater range, almost double. You can now sense the area around you using the 4 senses of sight, hearing, touch, and smell. At this stage, one can also act upon forces within the range of the domain, bending light and twisting sound, etc." Kiran added.

Misery snapped his finger. "That's the one. I think I'm somewhere here. And you can also sort of passively expand your VoP, right?"

Sublime nodded. "Yeah, they also call it active and passive control. You only get passive control at Tier 2 and above."

Misery rubbed his chin. "Interesting. So you, Little Princess are on the same level as me and this brat has actually managed to go beyond that for his Void of Perfection? What exactly does that mean?"

"Tier 3 Void of Perfection is more or less about being able to expand the mind outside the body for a scary large range, four times what Tier 1 VoP allows, at the minimum. I kinda gained some small psychic abilities, like an elementary form of telekinesis, telesthesia, telepathy, and one more." Kiran revealed with a smile.

Misery narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Oho? So brat, that means you can read my mind then?"

Kiran felt danger, and so quickly replied. "No! I can send messages to your mind and receive them only with your permission. Tier 1 and 2 of Control gives you heavy mental resistance to all forms of psychic abilities."

Misery then patted him on the shoulder with a strange smile.

"Smart lad."