Second World

"By the way, why have them gather food? Why not the other resources?" Jack asked.

"Once we started training Footsoldiers, we will need lots of food to support them," John replied. "Our priority is to recruit as many footsoldiers as we can afford in the remaining week of our protection status."

"What about coins?"

"We only spent coins when we recruit. They don't need one for upkeep, only food."

Peniel added, "that's for footsoldiers, once you get to advanced units, some will also need coins for upkeep."

"Talking about footsoldiers, here," Jack took out the Squire Insignia and Bandit Archer insignia.

"Where did you get these?" John asked with a surprise after reading their descriptions.

"Hehe, your grandfather here has his ways," Jack replied with a proud tone.

"Uh-huh," John gave a non-commital response, dousing Jack's prideful expression.

"You have returned," They heard Jeanny's voice as she approached.

"Good, now that the three of us are here. We need to talk about the next step," John said.

"What next step?" Jack asked.

"Remember our tenet?"

"Of course, we are to build a guild that focused on fun!" Jack declared.

"Did you only remember your part?" John said annoyingly.

"Hehe, so it is possible to annoy you as well," Jack said with a satisfied expression.

Jeanny chuckled, she then said, "A fun guild with close-knit friends aiming for the top, what about it?"

"Well, I didn't mention it before but aiming for the top is impossible with limited members of only close-knit friends. We will need sufficient manpower for that. So we need to recruit as many members as possible. This should not be a problem, considering the countless applications we have received since this afternoon."

Jack had also received the ping notification from his Guild status window. They could only invite someone from his Friend list to be a member of the guild, but others who wished to join a guild could also go to the Guilds Association and sent an application to a guild of their choosing. These applications would then be received by the leaders or the Councilors, if their applications were approved, then they would become a member.

Jack had been ignoring these applications because he thought they would only accept people they trusted.

"I was wondering about that, why do we get so many applications all of a sudden? Last few days no one applied at all," Jack asked.

"It was because we have occupied the first rank in the guild chart," Jeanny answered.

"Guild chart?"

"Yes, it is some kind of a ranking system that is available to the public inside the Guilds Association."

"So that's why…" Jack uttered. Jack had also been contacted by Silverwing and William of Wellington, congratulating him for his guild sudden rise to the top. He had no idea what they mean at the time. Both extended a desire to work together and form an alliance, considering the three of them were the enemies of the coalition.

Jack replied with a courtesy that it was a great idea. Having a friend was always good. However, he also understood that being friends amongst the guild had more to do with political power rather than true friendship. He had a good feeling about Silverwing, he was not so sure though about William of Wellington. He didn't know the guy too well, after all.

"How do you know about it? Did some of our members go to the Guilds Association and saw the chart?" Jack asked.

"No, Selena had messaged me asking about how we managed that, since she saw my name as the leader," Jeanny replied.

"Ask her if Queen Magenta is aware as well? I bet that crone must be hitting the roof when she learned about this," Jack said mischievously.

Jeanny ignored him. She continued, "our guild had managed to shoot to the top because our guild has become level 2 directly after gaining this headquarter, overtaking the other older guilds. So our guild can be said to have become famous overnight. If we want to increase our numbers, it should be now when interest on our guild is high."

"I agree. We should capitalize on this and accept as many members as we can," John said.

"But if we just accept anyone, won't that have the potential to ruin the harmony of our current members?" Jack asked. He didn't want to be in a guild that just ended up striving to be the best no matter the cost. That was the opposite of fun. It was not the reason he played games for. "Also, there will be high possibilities of many spies amongst those new members, considering we have become the number one guild on the chart. Everyone will want to know how we do it."

"I have no doubt about that," John said. "Don't worry, I didn't forget about our tenet. That's why I have thought of this membership structure."

John spread out a paper with a sketch on it. In that sketch, he saw three circles, each within the others. The biggest circle was marked with outer members, the second biggest in the middle was Inner members, the smallest circle inside in the center was core members.

"It was just a common member structure of a guild, what's so special about it?" Jack asked.

"Common doesn't mean it's bad. It simply means it is a trusted method that has been used very often. How we interpret this structure is the important part. As you mentioned, the close-knit friends will be these core members. It will be the 54 starting members we have now. We won't add any more to these core members unless all three of us agree to it. These core members will be the ones privy to all our arrangements and guild plans. The guild rank of Councilor and Officer will only be picked from this core members."

He then added, "For the four available Councilors, I suggest we picked Bowler, Flame, The Man, and Trinity Down. What do you two think?"

"I can understand three of your picks, but I am surprised you also pick Bowler. Aren't you always poking fun at him? I thought you are looking down at him," Jack asked.

"The guy did have his shortcomings, but one could not deny his ability to make friends. That guy was possibly the one with the most friends among us. We can see him as our guild ambassador."

"I have no problem with this selection," Jeanny said.

"Seconded," Jack agreed as well.

"Okay. For the ten Officers, I and Jeanny will talk later. Let me return to this membership structure again. The Outer members will be the ones that we mass recruited. These people will be our main labor force. Yes, there might be spies inside. Yes, there might be rotten apples inside. But that doesn't matter. They will just be here to work and in return, they can spend their guild contribution points to earn benefits from the guild. This group will be applied strict rules. They will have minimum contribution points required and minimum coin donations for each week, failure to do so will have them get kicked out of the guild. No tolerance here."

"As for the inner members are the ones who had racked up sufficient contribution points compared to others and has stayed long enough with us. These members will be given a discount for the contribution required to use guild services, and also more leniency for the minimum contribution required per week. But they will still not be given access to our guild secrets and plans, they will still mainly serve as our labor force like the outer members."

Jack lifted his hand to ask a question. "I thought we still don't have a service to provide at this time? Our blacksmith and other facilities are still not up and running. Our warehouse is also still empty. Giving them such a harsh requirement, won't that just cause them to quit?"

"Did you not check the description of our guild's Power Crystal yet?" John asked.

"Oh, um, I was busy, so… what's that structure do?" Jack asked sheepishly.

Jeanny was the one who answered him, "It gives a boost of 10% extra exp to all our guild members who were grinding within this region. Since the areas around the capital are also included as our region, so most of the current players' favorite grinding areas are within our regions. Once players find out about this buff, I believe many more will come running to join us."

"That's right," John said. "Moreover, that is only the passive effect, the power crystal also has an active effect. By paying 10 contribution points, a guild member can enjoy a 10% attribute boost, 5% damage and defense boost for 3 hours. This passive effect can be stacked up to a maximum of 12 hours. So if you pay 40 contribution points. You can go out there to grind for 12 hours before you need to return to recharge that boost."

"Wow, so good? Even I am tempted," Jack exclaimed.