After resting for a while, Alex left the guild residence to go to the royal city. The hard part was done, and now it was time to collect her much deserved reward.
"Sis, do you really think that the King would give us the reward?" Rey was nervous as he instructed his new mount, an eagle, to head to the royal city. Since Alex still did not have a flying mount of her own, the brother and sister duo were sharing this one.
"I don't know, sis. I don't think the King will acknowledge us. This is bro's quest. He should come and submit it and get the rewards."
Alex immediately gave the guy a stink eye. "Yes. Yes. It's your precious brother's quest, but I was the one who completed it. Besides, this is a matter of guild residence. So it should be fine."
Soon they arrived at the city outskirts, and both Alex and Rey jumped off of the eagle, walking the rest of the way.
The outside of the city was always a prime PVP zone, with some petty players hanging around to harass those who entered and exited the city premises. However, Alex and Rey did not have this problem as most players recognized the redhead and immediately stepped away.
The duo entered the city without any issue, and they directly arrived at the royal palace, which was cordoned off from the rest of the city with huge walls and heavily armed guards.
Alex took out the guild medallion to show it to the guards, but it looked like they did not need it. "Thank you for your service to the Kingdom, Paladin." They bowed to her and stepped aside.
"So my rep from the divine temple works here too?" Alex grinned at the pleasant surprise and continued walking inside. Rey, who was getting a dirty look from the guards, quickly followed after her so he wouldn't lose her.
"Tch. This game is too heavily reliant on reputation. What bullshit. It should be more about the skills!" He grumbled.
"Ha Ha Ha. Mr. Sour grapes. You are only saying that because you have absolutely no reputation with any faction. Ha Ha Ha."
Rey pursed his lips together and didn't continue to argue with his sister as she had a bad habit of using her hands too often.
The two of them soon arrived at the main hall of the palace and were ushered in front of the King. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Paladin. I applaud your great services to the Kingdom in times of need." The young king of the Gresh Kingdom nodded with a smile.
Alex returned the greeting with a smile and bow, while Rey did the same with an odd look on his face. Something was definitely off. His tingly senses told him so.
He prided himself on being a good judge of people and to date has lorded over Mia and Alex with his 'I told you so' several times because they didn't listen to him about Liam in the beginning.
And in the same way, with one look at this King, he already had a gut feeling that something was amiss.
Just like he suspected, the next second the King's expression changed. As soon as Alex opened her mouth and mentioned why they were here, all signs of hospitality completely drained from the guy's face.
Instead, the smile turned upside down. "You managed to cleanse the lands?" He arrogantly asked with a brow cocked up.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Alex bowed again
"Fine, you may collect your reward." The King gritted his teeth and muttered. "Visit the administration office. They will officially assign the land to your guild."
Almost instantly, a wave of hushed whispers and murmurs spread across the courtroom. It was almost as if no one in the place respected the King.
Even Alex could see this. "Sis, something is wrong. Let's leave quickly." Rey sent a private message, and she also agreed.
"We thank your Majesty for your kindness. We will do our best to serve the Kingdom well." She hurriedly bowed, and the two of them excused themselves out of the hall.
They only stopped walking when they arrived outside of the royal palace. They were finally able to breathe. The pressure exuding from the different people back at the main hall was suffocating.
"What the hell, sis? Why was that guy treating us like that? Didn't we do the Kingdom a huge favor?"
"I have no idea." Alex frowned. "Everything about that interaction was wrong."
"Also, sis. Something is wrong with that guy. Don't you think that he looked a little like a woman?"
"Huh?" Alex turned to look at her idiot brother, wondering what the hell he was talking about. "Stop blabbering. Whatever. The quest is now complete, so let's go get the land deeds transferred."
"Ok, but I am telling you. Something is wrong with that guy."
Alex shook her head helplessly, and the two of them walked over to the administrative office. However, when they arrived there, they received another huge shock.
The quest reward that was originally just supposed to be the land around the guild residence, now somehow involved several key plots right here in the royal city, as well as trade city and divine city, the three main cities of the Kingdom, the places where the player base has always been abundant.
"What the hell?" Alex was speechless.
Now she understood why the King had looked so pissed off when she mentioned this quest. Liam had really swindled a lot from the poor guy this time around.
While others were still focused on robbing the players or small-time NPCs, this guy was going around stealing from the royal family in broad daylight.
"Isn't bro awesome." Rey grinned, standing beside her.
"Yup." Alex helplessly nodded with a sigh. She then took a deep breath and grinned, completely changing her attitude. "Ok. This makes our plans so much better."
She first wanted to set up some shops near their guild residence and conduct trading because their guild residence was in the middle of the higher-level zones.
Many players would require consumables frequently, and it would be very inconvenient to return back to the cities for every small thing, not to mention time-consuming.
Of course, this trading would naturally be conducted for raw materials and not for gold coins. Though not all players might go for it, some players would definitely use this service, and that was enough.
Slowly they could build momentum, and this would become a hub for trading. The fact that only their guild had the permits to do something like this was also a huge boost.
So this was the plan Alex had come up with to ensure that their guild received sufficient raw materials without having their members farm day and night for them and waste their time.
However, now after seeing this new development, things were going to be much more chaotic. They could actually do the same in the main three cities!
Alex frantically started making calls to the group of players back at the guild residence whom they have been grooming recently, their own group of alchemists, and blacksmiths.
Things were quickly put into motion, and soon the entire Gresh Kingdom was once again plunged into chaos as the word about these new plots of land quietly spread among the various guilds.
So far, this was the only area where the other guilds had been able to put pressure on Crimson Abyss but now it looked like they were going to lose even that edge.
Not even a few hours had passed after receiving the plots of land as a reward for the quest when suddenly a new notification appeared in the guild main menu.
<Ding. Guild Dragons of Justice has declared war on Guild Crimson Abyss>
<Ding. The defending Guild Crimson Abyss has the right to accept this challenge or decline>
<Ding. If declined, the Guild Crimson Abyss has to pay a fine of 5 million gold coins to the Kingdom's treasury>
Everyone in the guild was instantly shocked to their core. 5 million gold coins as a penalty? This was an astronomical amount that no one in the game would be able to afford at the moment.
So even the dumbest player in the guild knew that a war was definitely incoming.
Besides, even though many players did not want to admit it, Crimson Abyss was the uncrowned overlord of the Gresh Kingdom. So why should they be the ones worried about this challenge?
As soon as they realized this, the players started to relax a little. The sudden notifications had scared them a little, but now many were even ridiculing the Dragons of Justice guild for being reckless, and foolish.
Most of the guild was even rejoicing as this was simply free gold incoming when unexpectedly several other notifications popped up as well.
<Ding. Kingdom Announcement: Dragons of Justice is now an S-Rank guild>
<Ding. Realm Announcement: Dragons of Justice is now an S-Rank guild>
