World Online

The Roman Empire

Nolan limped along a corridor, shifting all of his weight onto a cane that he held with his right hand.

"Where the hell is the Praetorian Guard? Tell them to return back to camp!" He barked with what voice he had.

"I will go call them, Master. Why waste your energy?" A thieving voice came from beside him.

"Alright, whatever you want to do, little boy. Just don't waste too much time looking for them. You know that I sent them a message, and they are going to look at that message sooner or later." Nolan chuckled.

"Of course, master." Michael nodded as he started running through the corridor. This place had become like a second home to him, after being forced to stay here for the better part of the last month.

"Aizzz, how could he just decide something so big with little to no time to prepare? He should have told us about his plans much, much earlier." Nolan shook his head as he muttered.

He slowly turned around as he walked back to where he just came from.

Suddenly a woman appeared.

"Chairman! What happened? That boy left you alone again?" The woman suddenly exclaimed as she rushed up to him.

"He is running a few errands for me." Nolan chuckled.

"Now then, how many of our members are still outside? Tell everyone to return to the headquarters. We need to be in full capacity to prepare for what is about to happen." Nolan said.

"So it is true? We are finally going to start preparing to go on an expedition?" The woman's eyes lit up.

"The entire guild has been waiting a long time for this confirmation, chairman. Everyone is going to be overjoyed with this information." She said.

"Indeed. It has been hard, waiting for so long. But now, we are definitely prepared. We can only hope that this time, we do it right. With this one expedition, we should be able to rise to the top." Nolan smiled.

"Now then, how many are still outside? Have the summons gone out? Has everyone been told how important this is?" Nolan asked.

"Indeed, Chairman. Just a few hundred are still returning from their quests. All of them are prepared. Every single Tier Two player is already here, waiting for the day to arrive." The woman nodded.

"Good. Two more days and we will all depart. These next two days, try to start outfitting our best and then look at the others. All of the tier two players should get the best equipment possible." He said.

As he said this, he started walked past the woman to the headquarters that lay beyond the walls.

"As you wish, chairman." The woman nodded as she hastily ran forward, in the same direction that Michael had gone a few minutes ago.

"Hmmm… It would be good if we had just a few more tier two members though. From what I hear, the expedition is nothing to scoff at. And that one hurdle that no one is able to conquer, we need a really strong anchor to help us pass that trial." Nolan muttered as he continued walking.

The sound of his cane striking the ground echoed throughout the corridor.

Phoenix's Dawn

"Damn it!" A shrill voice echoed through the entire guild.

"How are we the second to last in manpower? Both Sirius and Horace managed to be stronger than we are!" a woman with red hair flowing all the way to her waist shouted as she turned around.

Her orange eyes had only flames in them.

"What the hell were you all lazy buffoons up to? How is it that we have only a hundred tier two experts, when everyone else has almost a hundred and fifty?" She snarled.

The two men who were in the room stuttered, but they didn't have an answer. How could they answer a question like this? It was simple. They didn't have that many tier two experts because not everyone passed their ascension quest.

But this woman was obviously too unreasonable to accept it.

"Fine then. At least we have more cannon fodder. How many peak tier one players do we have?" She asked.

"Around two hundred, guild master." the man on the left said.

"Out of two hundred, not even fifty could get to the second tier? What use are they even?" She snarked.

"Fine. How many are outside the guild even after I summoned them?" She asked.

"No one, guild master. Everyone returned. Everyone is ready for the expedition day after tomorrow." The man on the right said this time.

"Alright." She grunted as she walked out of the room, flicking her hair to the side.

"Just how the hell did that Bright Horizon manage to incentivize their people to level up like that though? To think that out of just a few thousand, they have seventy tier two experts. That conversion rate is pretty good." She said with a low voice.

"Well.." One of the men hesitated.

The red haired woman coldly looked at the man who spoke.

"Spit it out."

"He promised them epic items, Guild Master. The first few to get to the second tier were allowed to buy epic items. And the others got contribution points that would eventually add to help them obtain one." The man said.

"An Epic Item? Are they like cabbages? How can one just give them away like that? Those five thousand coins I gave him, he is splurging them left and right. How is he even afloat right now?" She said, shaking her head.

"The other three guilds are all ready, I suppose?" She asked.

"Yes, guild master. Our reports tell us that they have all gathered their forces to get ready for what is to come." The men nodded.

"Good. I can't wait. That Shadow King made us wait for so long. I can't wait to see some action." Phoenix said as she licked her lips in anticipation.

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