The Gamer Chapter 423 - Guild Hall Part 2 – Tier 0 Build-Out (Patreon)

“I cannot fucking believe you,” Eliza spat out. “Like, I literally cannot believe that I love you, you are an absolute idiot and I want you to bend me over and spank the shit out of me while fucking me up the ass.” Her insult fell apart at the end there, but John ignored her ill-intentions either way.

“I like it,” John said, hands stemmed into his hips, standing wide-legged as if he had just created the most ultimate of crafted works. With the remaining 7 Room Slots, he had made 4 more buildings. 3 Slots went to the Bank, a nice and simple brick building decorated with lots of shiny stuff and a giant golden dollar sign above the entrance, 1 to a Security Station that spawned up to three level 25 golems in the shape of floating orb sentries, another 1 into a similar station for cleaning, that spawned little white slimes, and the last 2 on the semi-circle shaped building in front of them. It had a main building that was a story taller than its two flat-roofed arms. As with most buildings around here, it had a nice simple brick look to it. Nothing too fancy on the face of it, the occasional white plastered line decor cutting through to make it look less like a lazily textured block.

With all of those buildings, John hoped he had the basic things covered. He had access to his Instant Dungeons, the Guild Bank system (he could access both the monetary supply and storage through the Bank building), a security system that was mostly there to alert them, something to keep the place clean and, lastly, a petting zoo.

Okay, technically it was called a Menagerie, where John could spawn cute, dormant monsters from materials taken from barriers where more mean and aggressive versions tried to murder John. Or animals that were largely unrelated and only shared some basic appearances. They were 100% useless for combat as they refused to fight unless threatened and could also not be taken anywhere. Maybe if John picked up something like beast master skills, he could have attempted something, but he didn’t see himself going that route. He really had enough summons already, no reason to add yet more adds to his encounter.

Of course, that last building existed, in large part, to fulfil his promise to Nia, but it would also be John’s business for the upcoming time. Well, it would be one of three businesses he would run.

Number one, the petting zoo, would probably be the least used of the three, just because John didn’t see it being particularly popular in a city where there was anarcho-capitalism and thus massive security concerns for everybody. 

Number two, he didn’t just put up the Bank for the storage, it also came with a loaning mechanic where money put into the Guild Bank could be lent to third parties at a negotiated interest rate and then naturally flow back to John through his mechanics. While within the building he also had access to windows that told him which loans were not being paid back (the mechanic still relied on consent by both parties) and who took them. He would then still have to find out where that person was and why, but that still was a pretty good way to ensure he got his money back.

The third business, the one that was likely to see the most use, was, in essence, a protection agreement. People would pay him and in return he would make sure they were reasonably protected. Taxes against citizenship, essentially. He planned to put this last one into effect only way later into the game, when he was sure putting a governmental body in effect was needed,

The reason why he was currently of the mind that he would need to do it sooner rather than later was that Thorne didn’t behave like a government, just like the biggest fish in the pond of the economy. They were setting different rules that advantaged their market position rather than put some sort of police force together and enforce a legal code.

“Of course, you fucking like it, it’s a nice building, but still you want to advertise yourself with a shitting ZOO?!” Eliza screamed that last word from the top of her lungs and then broke into cacophonic laughter before falling over backwards. “You must be ecstatic, you creepy blonde cum stained dress wearing bimbo!”

Nia was strangely quiet. Even more so than usual. John wasn’t thinking about it so much, because it was Nia and he honestly didn’t have any consistently applicable standards to her behaviour. It also felt like she was getting weirder rather than more normal as she hung around with them. Maybe she was coming out of some sort of shell? That was an interesting thought.

That image was only more reinforced when the pariah, having stood perfectly still ever since Gaia arrived, suddenly blurted out, in her perfectly emotionless and quiet voice, “Why are you looking like an adorable little creature?”

John went over to check what she was looking at; the answer was nothing. She was looking at nothing. “What are you talking about?” he had to ask.

“Gaia, she was engulfed in light but such a pattable small thing,” Nia answered.

“That was almost 30 minutes ago,” he pointed out. He only received a nod as a reaction. “And you said that just now, to no one, instead of to Gaia when she was here.”

“She hears me,” the pariah stated.

It was hard to argue with that, Gaia heard whatever Gaia wanted to hear. “I guess, let’s go into the zoo and check what we can do.”

The zoo came equipped with all the things it could ever need to be left autonomous. Feeding stations that ran on mana, different biomes in different rooms, which used the nice trick of being larger on the inside, and all of it customizable in exchange for money. It was a smaller version of the zoo they had visited back in Rome, much smaller. The number of biomes was limited to pretty average stuff (forest, plains and farm animals to be exact) and the rooms had no way to connect to each other, so there was no way for all the cute critters to play with each other. Future upgrades would necessarily transform it into something marvellous, but right now it was empty.

To Nia’s almost visible disappointment, John imagined he saw her lips moving into something that could graciously be called the beginning of the start of a pout, everything was empty. “Sorry, spawning stuff in costs money,” he told her. “I will start working on it within the hour.”

“Do you need help?” she asked.

“Nah, I may be a little rusty but I always found myself back into the grinding rhythm pretty quickly,” John said, rolling his shoulders. “It will be best if I go in with only people of my level.”

Back outside he found that Rave and Eliza had already returned to the ship, as they knew where he was going and his girlfriend probably didn’t feel like waiting in the cold. Nia then vanished when he looked away from her for a second, probably to chase some birds over at the side of reality.

That left the only people waiting for him a Stirwin that was still rolling around on the walkway, occasionally stopping to complain about the lack of grass – then continuing to roll anyway, Aclysia and Metra. “Master, I have a question before we go on,” the weaponized maid spoke up. “If I may?”

“Yes,” John bit the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from adding, ‘Now that I answered your one question, let’s go,’ like a proper smartass.

“Where do we get food from? The stocks on the ship will be enough for an extended period, but that cannot be said for the part of it that is fresh.”

“Mhm, that is a good question actually.” In his building spree he had seen a farm but had dismissed it as an unnecessary investment. Also, he kind of doubted Nia would let them slaughter anything that looked remotely pattable.

Now that John thought about it, Nia wasn’t eating a whole lot of meat. As a matter of fact, the only time he recalled her doing so was when it was placed in front of her; whenever she got the choice, she just ignored it. She must have been halfway to Veganism but also thought it impolite to say no to meat she was offered.

‘Fact of the matter is that I won’t stop eating meat though,’ he thought, ‘and neither are the other girls. Guess Nia will have to live with that. She doesn’t strike me as a person who would start chanting meat is murder at everyone around her anyway.’ To Aclysia he then explained out loud. “Even if I wanted to fix that right now, I can only make us self-sustaining with another building, and the only way I currently have to get more Room Slots would be to spend some GP on it via the Achievement Store. I would rather save those up for the extra class levels. So, I guess we are living off the Abyss Auction until then.”

“Understood, please proceed then,” Aclysia bowed.

“Just one more thing before we go into the Dungeon,” John opened his Guild Perk menu for the first time. Creating his Guild Hall had given him a perk and it was time to spent it. ‘Let’s see, automatic War-Quest, chance to get loot for the Guild Funds, Federation mechanic, a Patron God or an extra nice building to live in,’ he summarized the options.

The Federation was out for the moment, on the basis that its main appeal was that it extended other guild mechanics he had to his allies. He had neither other guild mechanics nor allies right now. A Patron God would also be useless as he had access to none right now. The extra building he couldn’t build, and even if he wanted to, the yacht did a perfectly fine job at being their home for the moment. The War-Quest and the extra money were the only really attractive options right now, and as John wanted to secure funds right now, he went with the latter.

The background of the option switched from the light blue of his normal interface to an orange that was failing at looking golden, marking it as taken.

“Do we go kill stuff now?” an impatient Metra asked, weapon laid over her neck and shoulders. “It has been TOO long.”

“Yes, now we go kill stuff,” John told her, fidgeting the slightest bit with his Advanced I.D. Settings, flipping Loot back on and thus reducing the gained experience bonus from 115% to 105%. “Just what stuff?”

He really hadn’t fought a lot of different things, having not touched the mechanic since the tournament ended and only grinding Orcs before that due to them being reliably grindable. That had been over a month ago. “Well, new time, new fights,” John decided as they went to the I.D. Gate. Pulling the door open, they found a simple black space behind. Not menacingly black as if filled with dark things, more a black that was like the white of an untouched canvas, ready to take in everything the artist chose.

“I feel like beating on some Undead, how about you guys?” John asked, his elementals materializing one by one.

“Well, Undead burn pretty well, not quite as good as Forest Elementals, but good enough,” Salamander was the first to comment.

“U-uhm, I do think we should stick to Orcs, we already know those. T-to get back into the rhythm and all that,” Gnome made the usual, careful suggestion.

“Whatever, as long as it’s FUUUUUN!” Sylph exclaimed.

Undine stayed silent, radiating a calm level of non-opinionated existence. On the other hand, Siena voiced her opinion for a change, “I do like the sound of Undead, they tend to skulk around in places I also feel comfortable.”

“I am fine with whatever Master decides,” Aclysia commented when looked at, “although I agree with Gnome that a well-known encounter is perhaps the smart thing.”

“Murder,” was the only word Metra had to add to this discussion.

“Mhm, after carefully weighing everyone’s opinion, I say we go with the Undead after all,” John said. Giving the little bit of extra explanation to Gnome, he added, “We still have the Escape Rope if things get too dicey. I don’t think we are too rusty though.”

“Why a-are we even starting with an Assault?” the earth elemental wasn’t quite convinced. “If our goal is money, wouldn’t Floor dungeons be better?”

“You are almost right, but here is the thing, I am halfway to level 111 and at that point we get another Tier. A higher Tier means better loot and more money. So I am prioritizing that for the moment.”

“Ah, okay,” Gnome nodded, “…s-so we are already at the tail end of this Tier right? As in we are almost out?”

“Yup, shouldn’t be too hard, although we will see how the change in our roster affects things,” he was talking about the lack of Momo and the new introduction of Metra. They were missing a pretty valuable support asset and in return had gained another frontline fighter. Adding that Metra’s abilities that made her best when she was fighting on her own and it might turn out that she was simply not a fit for this type of group content.

Well, the only way to find that out was in practice. The Escape Rope with its cooldown of a week had to get some use at some point.

“Mhm, if I set it to the usual 3 hours with my current level of Create I.D., that would scale it up all the way to over four… guess that is possible.” He waited for disagreement or anything, but no one had any further comments.

“Here we go then,” John stretched his arm upwards and created the dungeon.