Guild Wars

Today was a quiet day in Umbra, where everything was running as usual. In Cairo City, the Rank 7 Guildhall saw the usual amount of traffic from those who wanted to join the guild as well as the ever-increasing members making use of the various facilities to become stronger.

In Vita Kingdom, the various core members were currently located in the Aether Palace, either resting or planning their next moves. After the matter with Maria and Sengo Muramasa, the core members had taken a pause on that front due to the command of Draco's avatar.

Today, Draco's avatar was with the 8 God Serpents, assisting them in becoming stronger and understanding their powers better. Just as he smiled and was about to lecture, he froze in place as his eyes glazed over. Immediately, his aura boiled over and exploded, as his power grew exponentially.

The God Serpents in the room were blown into various walls and furnitures, their bodies bloodlines and their lives hanging by a thread. Such a bloodline explosion near them was absolutely prohibited and fatal. If it weren't for their own magnificent strength, they would have all perished here.

When the avatar finished 'syncing' with Draco who had left the tower, his eyes resumed their sharpness. His expression changed to embarrassment when he saw the state of his God Serpent Generals, and he waved a hand to heal them and restore their energy.

The God Serpents shakily got up and gazed at Draco's avatar with a resentful look. He could only cough loudly and say: "Good news. The main body is out of the Unique Quest and on his way here, so he will likely takeover everything for you. As for me, I have work to do."

Without explaining further, the fellow apported away!

The God Serpents were left speechless. They had a bellyful of anger and grievances to share and nowhere to vent it! No wait, didn't the avatar say the main Draco was coming?

Hmph, they would make sure he felt the totality of their wrath and unhappiness when he came.

Like angry Karens tapping their feet until the manager came, the God Serpents waited in the Aether Palace until they felt an aura that made their hearts palpitate and their souls quiver with excitement. They were shocked by this feeling, and all of their God Serpents manifested at once.

Soon, Draco appeared above the Aether Palace with his arms folded behind his back. As he hovered in the air over Vita Kingdom, he couldn't help but look around and observe all the changes that occurred in the span of over a year.

Akainu had largely kept him up to date, but he couldn't have possibly told Draco everything. Right now, Draco was most interested in seeing these so-called God Serpent Inheritors for himself.

He sensed a certain familiar set of auras in the Aether Palace, so he teleported in. Vitae and Mortem appeared near Draco and bowed, something they never did for anyone else as they did not recognize them as the rightful owners.

"It's been a while. How has everything been?" Draco asked gently.

"There have been a lot of changes Palace Master. Should I take you through them?" Vitae responded with a similar tone to Draco.

"Please do." Draco smiled.

As such, the two walked through the long and winding halls of the Aether palace, Vitae filling Draco in on the changes that occurred specifically to the Kingdom, the core members, and Umbra. Draco had heard how rich Umbra had become thanks to one of the God Serpents, but when Vitae prompted him to access the warehouse's menu, Draco was stunned.

Remember how their initial warehouse was almost full? They then shifted to the Rank 7 Warehouse which was like a world of its own. Their previous near fullness from clearing the Sea Route had only swallowed up less than 1% of the new warehouse, making it feel like it could hold an infinite worth of items.

Now, that same motherfucking warehouse was filled by 25%!

TWENTY FIVE PERCENT!

Do you understand 25%?! That was a whole quarter of the total space. The warehouse had only 75% space remaining to hold anything and everything under the sun, and as Draco walked, the warehouse was still being filled with items.

"To combat this… situation, the Administrator has done two things. She has paired with the Rank 7 World Bank to give out loans to any and all parties. Even a dog by the roadside with rabies can take a loan of a minimum of 100,000,000 platinum. Because most assume they can get away with it due to the upcoming Great War, almost every major faction in the known world have taken hefty loans from us, even the War Maniac Pavilion and the Church of Light." Vitae explained with amusement.

Draco nodded with satisfaction, but was also slightly amused. Those factions knew about Vita Kingdom and the nature of the players, so they must know that this Great War would not be anywhere near as destructive as the last ones. It was only those small and ignorant factions that thought Vita would perish and they could get away with it.

The big factions should know otherwise, so why did they still come for money? To hoard more of it? Draco doubted so. The World Bank was a Rank 7 building, and not even the Demon Supreme of the Demon World could break in to rob it.

So if Umbra kept their money there, it would be safe. So why then did Umbra give out all this money? This was why the factions must've wondered before they took the loans. Draco estimated their likely conclusion was exactly what Sublime intended them to believe, that Umbra wanted to strengthen the world for the upcoming war.

So the loans they took were not for luxury spending, but for military spending. Buying powerful items and equipment, training troops using various methods, and doing everything money could do to make sure their martial power would increase.

Sublime, that Lolitician was clever.

She knew that these big leagues were probably secretly very angry that every 100 years, they had to pack up like dogs and hide their good stuff, be raided by the arrogant demons, and play nice till they left.

Which merchant would enjoy being raided by bandits yearly for protection money? Which citizen would like to see the sleazy tax collector standing at their door with his goddamn forms?

These factions also knew that the undying players would bring a key change to the battle. They may not be strong enough to change the high-level battles since they were only around Rank 2, with the elites at Rank 3, but their undying nature meant that losses to the population could be greatly mitigated.

With this, their eyes gleamed. They could catch the Demons offguard in a counterattack since they didn't know about undying players! While the players were the vanguard of the battle and made use of their undying nature, their troops could become the lance that pierced the demons from the flank!

Not to mention, with that Draco fellow from the Immortal Adventurers, it was likely that many good items could be produced before the fight. If every Rank 7 power taking on the Rank 7 Demons had at least, a legendary weapon tailored for them, their win chances would go from 20% to 60% right away!

As such, they unhesitatingly took the money. They had more of it in their storage that they couldn't yet touch until they were sure. Besides, just like how companies in real life abused the loan system to avoid taxes, there were regulations from the world bank that made using Umbra's money more 'profitable' than using their own money for this.

After all, umbra didn't really need the money back. Their flow of income was too great to care about such things. Rather, they functioned based on the collateral and interest, which were both the same thing. Umbra might request access to certain personnel, technologies, information, secrets, locations, and resources.

These powers largely agreed because the money being given out was too good and likely worth more than umbra was giving them, so they felt they were getting a better deal. However to Umbra, platinum might as well be stones by the roadside, and that rare information or resources could add to their database and empower the Guild/Kingdom further.

It may sound ironic and irritating to the ear, but Umbra had most of everything. A strong and talented playerbase, hard-working serfs, endless money, and territory that gave boots and resources that were to die for.

But as a new guild, their foundation was… cough cough… lacking.

Of course, this wasn't like some Zero Wing guild that were always somehow lacking foundation despite beating everyone and everything by the ass as they came, and still being locked down on. Even the Rank 7 powers acknowledged Umbra to some extent and treated them with some respect, but objectively speaking, it was impossible for Umbra to be perfect so quickly.

So Sublime's decision was to patch up those holes and create a system for Umbra.

"What about the resources and materials in the warehouse?" Draco asked with worry.

After all, Vitae had only addressed their near-infinite money supply which would increase as Draco would clear more of the sea around Cario Continent to raise his own level. At that time, expanding would swallow some funds, but not near enough to offset the sea of platinum they would bathe in after everything stabilized.

"As for the resources, the Administrator had given all members full access to sue them for Tradeskills. The amount of resources wasted per week has been as high as 80%, but the growth of our Tradeskill crafters had been exponential. Core members like Happy Saint, Noble Writer, and Intellectual Monkey have reached the pinnacle of the Master Stage for at least, 3 Tradeskills." Vitae explained calmly.

Draco nodded in acceptance. "Passable. They have all their time to craft, but they could only get a minimum of 3? Are they making use of the Tradeskill Altars I brought back? And the Legendary Crafting Techniques in the 99 mansions?"

"They are. However, I said a minimum of three to give a base value. In truth, Noble Writer has 5 Tradeskills at Master Rank peak, Accounting, Cartography, Law, Journalism, and Creative Writing. All his other Tradeskills are at the Elite Rank at minimum."

"Happy Saint has 8 Tradeskills at Master Rank peak. Blacksmithing, Alchemy, Mining, Tailoring, Jewelmaking, Enchanting, Engineering, and Construction. Same as Noble Writer, all other Tradeskills are at elite Rank at the minimum."

Vitae paused here and took a deep breath, something a being like him didn't need to do. He then spoke solemnly.

"As for Intellectual Monkey, he has reached the Grandmaster Rank in 5 Tradeskills and Master Rank peak in 7 others. He has also created his own unique Tradeskill called Researching which has been graded to be a legendary Tradeskill."

"The Grandmaster ones are Blacksmithing, Alchemy, Enchanting, Engineering and Researching. The master ones are Taming, Farming, Mining, Architecture, Management, Urbanization and Administration. The rest of his Tradeskills are at the Expert Rank peak and need only a little to breakthrough to Master Rank Rank."

When Draco heard about Noble Writer, he was pleased and nodded with satisfaction. When Draco heard about Happy saint, he was surprised but very happy that his teacher from his previous life could achieve his life's goal and soar past his previous stage.

Why, becoming a Grandmaster was only a matter of time for him with such achievements.

When Draco heard about Armonia, Intellectual Monkey, he wasn't surprised at all. To the contrary, he sneered.  He knew Armonia's talent the best as they had been rivals their entire lives in the previous timeline.

How many times had Armonia one-upped him and beaten his ass with his talent? How many times had Armonia made him spit blood due to shock by his progress?

Did he think he could do same in this timeline when Draco was so enlightened? Dream on!