"Core Member?" At first, Valyr was slightly confused as to what position Julian had given him, recalling the four ranks Tristan had explained to him in the past. Fortunately, it did not take long for him to realize how much of a jump he had undergone in terms of rank, recalling the overall hierarchy of class guilds after rummaging through his memories for a while.
Oblivious to what was going on inside Valyr's mind, Julian interpreted the young man's response as a genuine question, prompting him to give Valyr an explanation on the hierarchy that was in place within class guilds. "Before I begin my explanation, do you happen to know the four ranks a member could reach in a guild?"
"Normal, Elite, True, and Legacy, right?" Though Valyr already knew how significant becoming a Core Member was, he decided to participate in Julian's explanation, using it to refresh and jog his memory regarding the hierarchy.
"That is correct." Julian nodded, flashing a slight smile at the young man. Turning around to look at how the metal he placed in the furnace was faring, he quickly noticed that it had already reached the optimal temperature for hammering, prompting him to summon a few mana strands that reached out to the metal.
"That is hot." Letting out a soft hiss as he swiftly placed the red hot metal onto the anvil, Julian did not waste time and grabbed his trusty forging hammer before proceeding to hammer the metal into shape. As sounds of the hammer clashing against the metal reverberated throughout the room, the man continued where he left off in his explanation. "Oh, right. Where was I?"
"So, everyone starts off as a normal member once they register," said Julian in between the hammering. "By doing a few deeds for the guild, you can increase your rank to Elite, eventually reaching True and Legacy after doing even more deeds for the guild."
"However, what not a lot of people know at the lower ranks is that these four ranks are actually stages for the actual ranks themselves."
"With that, the actual ranks that are in place within the guild are as follows: Member, Core Member, Lesser Elder, Elder, Protector, Vice Leader, and Leader." Stopping his explanation for a bit, Julian looked at the metal he had been hammering for quite some time, faintly nodding in satisfaction after making sure that it had taken on a good rough shape of what he planned to forge. Placing the shaped metal back into the furnace, he allowed the ambient heat already within the furnace to get the metal up to temperature.
"The Member and Core Member rank are separated into four stages each, which are the ones you mentioned earlier, while the Lesser Elder, Elder, and Protector rank are separated into five stages each. In their case, they have an additional stage called the Honorary stage before reaching the Normal stage."
"And then the Vice Leader and Leader rank don't have stages at all. After all, why would there be multiple vice leaders and leaders in one guild branch?" At these words, Julian let out a faint chuckle. "Anyways, since you're a Rank 2 class holder, if you were a normal member, then you would be able to get 100 Technology Points each month from the guild."
"However, you're an elite member, thus you instead get 200 Technology Points each month." Taking a look whether or not the shaped metal was ready to be molded even further, Julian turned around to take a look at the furnace, only to take it out once more after noticing that a couple of the edges had begun to warp from the extreme heat.
Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!
While fixing the warps on the metal through incessant hammering, Julian decided to ask Valyr a question. "Speaking of which, how did you become an elite member, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Participated in the Fledgling Forgers' Tournament," replied the young man in response, causing Julian to nod before proceeding to continue with his explanation.
"I see. Well, it seems I don't have to go into detail on the fact that the amount of points you could get per month doubles with each stage. Then again, with a normal core member only being one stage above a legacy member, how many Technology Points per month do you think the former gets?"
"1,600?" Though he already knew the answer, Valyr decided to humor the man.
"You thought that would be the case, but in fact, it isn't." Julian wryly smiled as he shook his head. "Instead, a normal core member gets a thousand Technology Points per month, which is exactly ten times as much as a normal member at your rank gets per month."
"Though, after that, the doubling rate applies once more, with a legacy core member getting access to 8,000 Technology Points per month." Hearing how much points a legacy core member had access to, Valyr thought about how nice it would be to have that much Technology Points at the moment, considering that it would be more than enough for him to increase his progress in the Technology Tree's Innovation branch past the Medieval Age.
'Then again, a thousand points a month ain't that small either.' Of course, Valyr was still more than pleased to have his rank increased to Core Member, considering that he thought that he would be stuck as an elite member for a long while until he found ways to increase his rank by the time he reached the higher class ranks.
"Anyways, once I finish this, I'll have someone increase your rank in the guild to Core Member, as well as update your class rank to Rank 2," said Julian as he began to treat the metal he was working with through the annealing process, leaving Valyr no choice but to nod in response. "Aside from that, do you have anything else you want me to know?"
"There is one thing I want to ask." Hearing Julian's question, Valyr was reminded of his conversation with Braum back at the Imperial Production Guild. "Would it be possible to sell equipment I forge through the guild's channels?"
"No problem." Julian nodded, still keeping an eye on the piece of metal he was working on. "I could also have someone guide you through the selling process while upgrading your badge. Of course, the guild deducts a commission fee from selling your equipment, though this fee is reduced since you're now a core member."
"Then again, I'd highly suggest you set up your own smithy if you want to keep all of the profits to yourself. The commission fee is still a large chunk of the profit, after all." At these words, Valyr could not stop a faint smile from creeping up onto his lips, only to tell Julian soon after that he did not have the capital to set up a smithy in the first place, hence the request.
"Are you going to use the money you earn from selling equipment through the guild to set up your own smithy, then?"
"As of now, no." Valyr shook his head. "I plan to use it to head to the Lesser Meltierre Mountains to grab some Skill Keys."
"The Lesser Meltierre Mountains, huh?" Hearing those words, Julian stopped what he was doing for a bit as he pondered over something in silence. After that, he looked at Valyr and gave the young man a suggestion… which only left the latter at a loss for words.
"How about you use the guild's teleportation constructs, then?"
