"Thanks for listening, Cy. I needed that right now."
"Is there a need to say thank you between us? You know I'm always there for you! And so are Silva, Rachel and the others!"
"Yes. We really found a great group…"
"Exactly! The best group! The number one in the federation!"
"Haha! Number one, yes!"
"Let's make sure Dream Avenue can keep up with Hotpot! Imagine how happy your dad will be when he tells everyone his daughter is the number one guild leader!"
"Sounds great!"
After their intimate talk, Mel's worries weren't eliminated but she felt much better again. Her smile was bright when she and Cynthia went to the gym together. At that moment Liam was just done with his workout. The two women met him as he was on the way out and spontaneously asked if Liam would be willing to train them.
The young man was somewhat amused, thinking if he should change his job to fitness instructor. But he didn't have anything important to do and naturally agreed to assist Cynthia and Mel. For the two mages training their body was not of high priority. Instead, they focused on their spells.
In this regard Liam was somewhat less knowledgeable. In his past life training skills in real life wasn't as intense. Most people just went through the motions. Mages often meditated and recalled the feeling they had when casting skills in the game. This was enough to slowly increase their proficiency. But thanks to starlight energy spells could really be cast in this life.
Liam could only draw parallels from mana usage in the game, using this as example. Although this wasn't entirely the same, it was still helpful to the two mages. After only one training session, they felt some improvement. Cy and Mel tried to make Liam promise to help them more in the future, but the young man remained uncommittable. Liam was somewhat afraid that he would really end up training all his friends every day.
While the trio left the gym, Cy and Mel tried a few more times but didn't get Liam to agree.
"Hmpf. I bet if it was Silva, he would immediately agree. After all he hasn't rejected her 'sparring' request."
Cy whispered as she said this, gesturing quotation marks with her hands.
"Right. You think there is something going on?"
"Who knows? But I'm definitely suspicious! Why would they keep the results of their sparring a secret?"
"Wow. We need to catch them in the act!"
"You understand me!"
Liam walked a few steps ahead due to the pestering. He didn't know that a plot was being forged behind his back. If he could hear Cy and Mel right now, he would certainly think they had gone crazy.
After the training the trio went to the restaurant, meeting up with the other guild members. They spent some enjoyable time together until it was time to sleep. The sun fell and rose, and a new day arrived. Soon, all of Dream Avenue gathered in Greypine Town, ready to face the territory war.
A timer counted down in front of the guild leaders. One hour after the game opened it hit zero. C's voice echoed through the territory, announcing the start of the challenge. All the other players were kicked out and only Dream Avenue and their new allies remained.
People were gathered at the bottom of the cone-shaped tower. There were the territory's NPCs, Sephran Greypine, the general, clerk, and Vice-commander Enphour, all looking worried as they were about to face another war.
In stark contrast to them were the guild's NPCs, the special members, gathered around the strongest Troll Shaman Lekraxc. For them the outcome of the war wasn't of much concern as it didn't impact their situation. Special members would stay with a guild until it was disbanded.
The NPCs all stood on one side of the table, facing the players on the other side. There were naturally Cyclone, Balm, and Dream Avenue's core members. But also a few unfamiliar faces.
There were two more small groups of players. One of them was led by a towering orc in dark red armor, his menacing eyes scanning the room. Next to him stood a human woman in gorgeous silver armour, her long brown hair tied to a bun. The spear in her hand sparkled in the light.
The other group of players was standing behind a human woman in red-orange mage robes with flowing white hair. She was accompanied by another woman with strikingly similar features wearing a blue robe and pink hair.
"Phoenix Feather! We still have some time. Let's go outside and have a duel!"
"You brute. We are not here to fight."
"Tsk. Coward."
"I'm not even at the top of the ranking list right now. Why don't you ask Fortune? You don't dare? Who is the coward now?"
Fortune was startled as her name fell. She inwardly cursed Phoenix Feather. She was only number one on the ranking list because she was eager to use the staff slumbering in her inventory. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to reach level 50.
Just as Earthquake wanted to turn his head towards Fortune, Phoenix Feather's sister, Cherry Blossom, pointed her finger at him.
"Sis, why should we be afraid of that guy? He didn't make it much further than me in the guild tournament. I'm confident I can take him on."
"Oh, really? You think so?", asked Earthquake with an amused grin.
Finally, Cyclone had enough:
"Guys, guys! Why are you arguing? We are an alliance! Earthquake, didn't Bleary Mirage, Quickstep, and Silent Acacia already agree to duel you until you're satisfied? No need to bother Phoenix Feather and Cherry Blossom, right?"
"Yeah. Why are we weakening our fresh alliance before we even fought together once? Please save this for after the fight, honey."
As Callida stared at Earthquake with a smile that was not a smile, the robust orc shrank by a few centimetres. He grumbled something which could be understood as a 'sure' before going quiet.
Callida took over and soothed the atmosphere. Cyclone was amazed as the woman had such a high emotional intelligence on top of her widely known strategic talent. Thanks to her the alliance might be more cohesive than it appeared at first glance.
To be honest, Cyclone and Balm were quite glad that they managed to convince Force of Nature and Nest of Flames. The two guilds were not stupid. With Dream Avenue suddenly requesting an alliance they naturally knew that this was in preparation of the territory challenge. The guilds negotiated strongly. In the end Dream Avenue's most convincing trump card were various bits of information provided by Liam.
Additionally Dream Avenue agreed to some rather unconventional requests. Phoenix Feather asked for information on how to improve her level quickly while Earthquake requested duels with the guild's top players.
The guild leaders had no reason to reject. But as Earthquake mentioned that he only wanted to fight in close combat like real warriors, the situation turned around. Cyclone and Balm had to convince the stubborn orc that fights against ranged classes were also fun and effective or else Silent Acacia might just fall out with Earthquake.
Fortunately, everything went well in the end. The alliance had officially been formed and the three guilds were now standing together against Galaxy.
Speaking of Galaxy, with the start of the war they had also been transported to the territory. There was a large open area halfway up the mountain. Three thousand players were gathered here, led by their respective guild leaders. They were surrounded by mist, unable to clearly make out the town below. However, this didn't matter much as Galaxy had thoroughly scouted Greypine Town over the last two days.
Now, Age of Frost and Spiked Pen were standing in front of the guild members. Star Gazer went online once yesterday evening. They had hoped that the boss could make it to the territory war, but it seemed like there was no connection today. Thus, Age of Frost and Spiked Pen had to serve as substitutes.
One might think the two were happy, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Without Star Gazer it was difficult to make the other guilds in the alliance follow Galaxy's lead. After Beast Den's rejection they hastily looked for a replacement and found TwinThieves. But there was no strong connection between the guilds, and everything was a simple business relationship. This was obviously not a stable foundation for the guild alliance.
"So, who will take command now?"
Silken addressed the elephant in the room and the atmosphere quickly became tense. Sevrance looked at Miss I Never Miss, indicating that she would be a good commander. However, the other guild leaders didn't not seem convinced at all. Yet before there were any more arguments, Silken revealed his candidate.
"Shorty!"
"Here!"
A person suddenly came from the crowd of guild members. He wore light clothes which only faintly resembled armour and looked more like a military uniform. He had curly, brown hair and an ordinary face. Contrary to his name he was of average height, perhaps a little smaller than Silken.
"It's that guy!"
"Shorty? Where have I heard this name before?"
"Right, didn't he become famous during the federation tournament?"