"You are truly an impatient one. Did you forget already I mentioned two benefits to choose from? My suggestion is to not hand over this one to the authority. He is of the rare elite grade and looks to have a good potential."
"Oh? Why is that good for us?"
"Because the possible second benefit is that you can choose to recruit this boss."
"Recruit? You mean… he works for us? He will fight for this guild?"
"That's exactly what I mean. But first, your guild has to reach level 3 and be able to build a certain structure called Hero's Altar. Apart from that, someone in your guild needs to defeat him in one-on-one combat before you have the chance to recruit him."
"Uh… one on one combat? Maybe we should just hand it over to the authority for the bounty," Jack said.
"Are you that pessimistic? Very unlike you," Peniel criticized.
"Ahaha, I'm kidding," Jack laughed. He then turned to Uruk who was still staring at him menacingly from behind his cell. "I look forward to defeating you in a one-on-one combat."
Uruk replied by spitting at him. Luckily Jack was not too near, he managed to dodge the spit. "Such uncivilized attitude. Wait till I am level 45 and I will teach you a lesson!" Jack said while walking backward.
He then went to the teleportation chamber. The device there was similar to the zone portal he had seen at capital Thereath and Thesewal town. He used the interface there and saw there was indeed an option to teleport to Thereath, however, the teleportation device requested the cost of 5 mana core.
"So this is the use of mana core?" Jack asked.
"Not just for this," Peniel replied. "Many magical devices that you could operate which was not in a town will require this mana core. There is also the option if you want to use this headquarter's mana to operate this portal, but that option is only available to high-ranking members of the guild, Officer or above. You don't get that option at the moment because this headquarter's mana pool is still empty."
"Oh, I see there is that Mana Cell in our headquarter's layout. That is the structure that produces our headquarter's mana?"
"Yes. The rate is around 5 mana per hour."
Jack made a fast calculation. "At that rate, it will take more than a week to fill up the maximum 1000 mana storage."
"Yes, at this time, this headquarter had not much need for the mana yet. But once you build more structures and open up more functions of this headquarter, there will be many things needing mana. Guild members can add to the amount of the mana pool by donating their mana core to the Mana Cell. Same as donating gold coins, members will get guild contribution points in exchange."
"I see," Jack didn't put much importance on the mana core, but now seeing how it can benefit the guild, he was motivated to collect more of these mana cores.
He then inserted 5 mana cores into the teleportation device. It hummed to life as the runes covering its surface flared with bright light. He felt that the air around him heated up as his body's particles slowly broke apart, his vision was then engulfed by pure whiteness. By the time he could see normally again, he found himself already at the portal zone of capital Thereath.
In front of the Heavenly Citadel, the troops that had gathered because of the Themisphere Beacon stone started to disperse. Although there was still a few minutes before the time limit passed, with Jack teleporting himself to the capital, he had gone out of the range of the beacon stone effect, so the troops gathered there were no longer bound by the duty to protect him.
Earmouth's team who saw the troops leaving, declared, "all right, this is our chance. Let's go scout out that place first before our main team arrive. But do not engage the enemy if you see Storm Wind, we are simply scouting the place out to learn about it. We will make a further plan once the others arrive."
They went down from their hiding place and proceeded towards the new building that had replaced the previous Bandit Outpost. All of the Everlasting Heavenly Legends members had gone into that building, so no one should notice them approaching.
However, while they were still some distance from that building, they bumped into an invisible wall.
Since he was leading the team, Earmouth was amongst the ones who collided with the unseen wall, hard. He was messaging his pained nose as he stared at the empty air in front. He extended both his arms forward and felt his hands touching something as if there was a solid wall. He tried to push hard but he could not move forward even an inch.
They then heard a notification, "Newly captured Guild headquarter is under protected status. Non-members are prohibited to enter until the protection status period ended."
"Guild Headquarter? Protection status?"
Earmouth observed the building in the distance as he thought about all that he had seen. He then sent a message to Scarface, "there is no need to have everyone come here anymore, but there is something important I need to report."
Jack was heading to the Guilds Association when Earmouth was playing wall push-up with the invisible wall outside of Heavenly Citadel. Due to the beacon stone's effect not yet ended, he ended up getting escorted by nearby patrol guards.
He felt awkward as more and more guards appeared and followed him as he walked. Everyone watched him in amazement.
Some who saw the march tried to get a better look at this lone player who walked around town with personal NPC troops. They used Inspect on him, yet they could not find any information about him from their Inspects because of Jack's Cloak of Shadow. However, several with a better memory remembered his face and exclaimed, "Hey, wasn't that the Demon of Crestfall Plain?"
"What? Hasn't that guy disappeared already? I heard the coalition guilds ambushed and caught him. They tied him and then bury him alive somewhere so he couldn't come back anymore."
"That's just rumor. How can you believe that kind of crap?"
"That crap explained his disappearance. Maybe he finally managed to free himself from where he was kept captive, and now he returned with an NPC army. And look, there is even a fairy pet following him. He must be on his way to take revenge on the coalition."
"Wow, I must really applaud your imagination."
"Hey, how about we go and introduce ourselves? If we can befriend such an expert, probably he can help us improve."
"If you are bored with your current level and want to restart again, sure, go ahead."
"What do you mean?"
"Didn't you know why he is called a Demon? He killed everyone who he disliked. If you as much as look at him the wrong way, you can kiss your ass goodbye."
"That is such a bull. I heard he is very loyal to his friends. He even clashed with the coalition because of his friends."
"Who he then murdered in cold blood for giving him such trouble."
"Are you for real? How can you believe such nonsense?"
"Go ahead and greet him then. I will stay back and observe first."
"… I think I will observe first as well."
Jack heaved a breath of relief when the patrol guards started to walk away when the Guilds Association building was in sight. The beacon's effect must have ended. He couldn't stand the attention if he walked into the building with such an escort. He ran into the association immediately in high speed, mixed in with the stream of guild members coming in and out of the association building, escaping the crowd who had followed him from behind out of curiosity.
He went directly to the hall with the row of counters where they had registered their guild the last time and went to an unattended counter. The counter staff greeted him cordially.
"Hi, I want to hire ten workers for my guild headquarter," Jack stated his intention without wasting any time.
"Place your hand here first," the staff told him. He was indicating a red orb on his desk. It was similar to the one at the Adventurers Association when he first registered there. Jack did as instructed.
After a while, the staff said, "Storm Wind, co-leader of guild Everlasting Heavenly Legends. You have a guild headquarter named Heavenly Citadel. Do you wish to hire workers?"
"Yes, ten of them please," Jack replied.
"All right. I will need payment of 10 gold coins then. The guild will have to pay each of them 1 gold coin every week and they will have to receive 2 food every day. Failure to do that will eliminate their contracts. Is that understood?"
"No problem," Jack handed him the coins. These workers had no star classification, but they were almost as expensive as the 5-star workers that he could get from the City Administration Bureau for his restaurant.
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