"I hope they will get a happy end.", said Cyclone with a choked voice as she walked back to her friends. She noticed Silver Blade nodding while holding back tears and took her bestest friend's hand, sharing the moment.
The rest of the friends stared at them, baffled. For a couple of seconds the scene fell silent. Suddenly Cyclone noticed everyone's reactions, staring back at them:
"What? Why are you looking so strangely?"
"All good."
"Nothing, nothing…"
Hearing her friend's reactions, Silver Blade suddenly noticed what was going on. Her head reddened faintly from embarrassment as she explained in a meek voice:
"Cy and I like to watch drama series together. It's like our guilty pleasure."
Cyclone swiped her eyes around.
"What guilty pleasure? There is nothing wrong with it. Right, guys?"
"You're right."
"Mhm."
The friends nodded or shrugged their shoulders. They were only surprised because the two women didn't strike them as the type to enjoy such stories. Only Balm put her hands to her hips, staring at Cyclone:
"Of course there's something wrong with it."
"What?"
"How come you never told me?"
Cyclone was taken aback.
"I guess it just never came up. Why, do you like drama?"
"Well, not particularly…"
Seeing how Balm seemed somewhat dejected, Silver Blade realized something. At times Balm was probably still upset by the fact that Cyclone previously kept herself, Silva, another best friend, hidden from Balm, also a best friend.
Silver Blade smiled gently as she offered:
"I would be happy to have you join our next session!"
Balm looked up at Silver Blade, a thankful smile forming on her lips.
"I would love to."
"Haha, great!"
Cyclone exclaimed loudly. She was probably the happiest to see her two best friends getting along well. The three women smiled at each other.
Yet the rest of the party felt somewhat awkward. Silver Blade seemed to suddenly realize that they weren't alone. She turned towards the others, making an offer with a hint of embarrassment in her voice:
"Naturally, you guys can join as well if you want to…"
"No thanks."
"We'll see."
"I'm good."
The friends showed mixed reactions. With that the conversation gradually ended. Finally, the party got going. They returned to Dream Avenue's guild hall, discussing what to do next.
Three major matters were coming up. The guild's rank up quest, the territory war, and the Federation Tournament.
The tournament was at a fixed date and the party couldn't do anything about it. There was barely any information released. Everyone only knew that they had to register in either single combat, as a team of ten, or as a guild.
Liam was still debating internally whether to fight in all three contests.
Right now, the party didn't plan much for the tournament and instead focused on the territory war and the guild's quest.
"I suggest starting with the territory war. If we rank up first, the war's difficulty will increase accordingly. We would have to recruit new members quickly, who might not be up to standard."
Everyone nodded as Liam gave his opinion, but Cyclone and Balm appeared somewhat worried. On the way back they discussed the day's events and felt that something seemed off.
Although Theresa surely didn't need a reason to make things difficult for Cy, Ken was a businessman. He was definitely not that impulsive. Would he clash with Dream Avenue just for the possibility of stealing maybe one or two pieces of set equipment?
Inquiring with Silver Blade the tank also agreed with this conclusion. So, what was Ken's real purpose?
There was a rather obvious conclusion which was to delay Dream Avenue from ranking up. Right now, all the popular guilds were probably close to ranking up. Although no one made their progress public, this was something all the guild leaders could guess.
Maybe others had begun to target Dream Avenue preemptively. It was either 'The Only Way' themselves or once again the doings of Galaxy.
Naturally other guilds also had the same motive, but Galaxy would me a more likely culprit as Ken and Brayan knew each other and had worked together before. And since The Only Way entered the game with a slight delay, they might not have received their quest for rank 2 yet.
Considering all these things, Cyclone was feeling anxious once again. She didn't want another guild to rank up before them. Especially after these potentially dirty tactics were employed.
Cyclone and Balm revealed their worries, convincing their friends. Liam was apprehensive, knowing that this would seriously affect their territory war. But he reluctantly agreed to focus on the world boss first.
After coming to a decision, the friends realized that it was getting late.
Before going off Cyclone and Balm were reminded by Sun's Knight that they had to fulfill the duties of a guild leader.
The manager presented them with a list of six names. After thorough observation Sun's Knight could confirm that these people had given information to other guilds.
Sun's Knight had cleverly fed the less trustworthy team members with varying information and observed Dream Avenue's opponents' movements.
Based on the leaked information he could confirm that these six people had communicated with other guilds.
Whether they were initially spies or enticed by money didn't matter. For now, it was important to get rid of these people to increase the security around the upcoming fight against the world boss.
Cyclone and Balm looked at the eight names with heavy hearts. Familiar faces flashed before their eyes.
"Sunny Day? Isn't this a tier one member?"
"And Tresso, he appeared so thankful to be working here…"
The rest of the party sighed or showed their support in one way or another. Only Liam remained composed as he looked over the list:
"Only six people? That's really good! Well done, Cyclone and Balm."
"What do you mean, expert?", asked Cyclone, her voice subdued.
"Six out of three hundred and fifty is a great rate. It proves that the people have great trust in you. That's even better than the rate I would expect from top guilds."
"Are guilds really this susceptible for spies?", asked Silver Blade with raised brows. Silent Acacia, who had revealed a thoughtful expression as Liam spoke up, now answered with a nod.
"I agree with Mirage. Our last guild was teeming with spies as well. People who make it into these top guilds are often greedy for the money. If the bribe is high enough, they don't need to worry about the fee for breaching their contract should they be discovered.
Afterward they might lay low for a while before joining another club.
However, it might be different in Fate of Crunaboul. Since contracts are enforced by C, I don't know how strict the punishment is."
The less experienced members were surprised as they learned about this darker side of the industry.
Upon hearing Silent Acacia's and Liam's explanations, they felt somewhat better.
Still as they messaged the six spies and asked C to cancel the contracts, effectively kicking them out of the guild, the two young women were still heavy hearted. Their friends did their best to cheer them up afterwards.
Soon, the game was about to go offline. Cyclone posted a notice in the guild chat, asking all members to gather at a certain location tomorrow before the friends were kicked out.
When the party returned the next day, the mood had recovered. Wasting no time, they set off towards an obscure valley somewhere in Duabalis, which Liam had chosen the day before.
They waited for a while until all their available guild members had arrived, making for around three hundred players.
Everyone stared at the guild leaders in confusion. The lower tiered members didn't know that the guild was preparing for a world boss. However, no one was stupid, and they could guess that it had to do with the guild quest.
Meanwhile the most trusted members like Final Fend naturally knew the task at hand. Yet, they were also struck with confusion as the world boss appeared in the Northern Desert yesterday. It couldn't be that his next appearance was in Duabalis, could it?
As a murmur spread through the crowd, Liam finally revealed the purpose of their gathering. It was to train!
All the guild members were taken aback at first but when Liam asked them to bring out their mounts and began to give commands, it slowly dawned on everyone that it might not be easy to coordinate with so many mounted players.
Over the last two weeks Liam made sure that all guild members would get mounts for themselves. But this also meant that some of them only had their mounts for less than a week. Some players even found mounted combat unpleasant and had preferred to fight on foot.
Now, the people who could call themselves proficient in riding and mounted combat could be counted on two hands. Liam realized that the situation was worse than he thought. He could only force everyone to undergo a strict training regime.
Hopefully the guild could reach a barely satisfying level in less than a day.