"Okay. I don't mind you joining, but if you join, you should at least spend your time providing exotic goods for the guild as well. I will make sure that you don't have the obligation to do guild tasks, but you should be willing to help the guild with your expertise. You can still of course do your own business along the way, like providing wares for Ellie's restaurant here," Jack said. After all, the restaurant was still his. He couldn't let such a good ingredient procurer neglect his restaurant after joining his guild.
"All right, should be no problem as long as the task is to look for goods," Dylan said. "But why did you say it as if you can make the decision? Shouldn't you discuss this with your guild leader first?"
"Hehe, kid. I am one of the guild leaders," Jack said with a proud expression.
"What? For real? You completely don't look like a guild leader material. I'm now having a second thought. Are you sure that guild of yours is anything good?"
'Ugh,' Jack was repressing his indignation. Peniel was on his shoulder trying to stifle laugher.
"How dare you say my guild is nothing good! Do you know that my guild is currently the number one on the guild chart?"
"Number one? Hey, don't tell me your guild is Everlasting Heavenly Legends?" Dylan said with surprise.
"Oh, so you do know. And here I thought you don't care about guild stuff."
"I keep the top ones in mind because you never know if you will do business with any of them. Are you sure you are from that guild? Not to mention even the leader?"
"Bloody hell. Don't make me smack you and drag you to the headquarters to show you that I'm boss there."
"I'm not debating with you. Send me a guild invite if you want to prove it," Dylan said.
"What the shit! You still don't believe me? Fine!" Jack opened his guild interface and sent Dylan an invite.
Dylan received the invite, he then opened it. He appeared to be concentrating, as if scrutinizing something.
"Do you need that long to read the invite?" Jack asked.
"I'm making sure the guild name is the legitimate one. Do you know that email scam where they change one letter on the email address to make it look as if it is an email from someone in your contacts? Only to find out later that it is a scam. I'm making sure that this is not the case."
'Motherf*cker...' Jack cursed in his mind.
"I will be damned! It truly is that number one guild on the chart... Are you truly the leader?" Dylan asked again.
"If you doubt me one more time, I will reject you from joining the guild," Jack declared.
"Oh, great leader. Please don't be offended. Your humble member apologized."
"That's more like it," Jack said. "Now, once you accept the invitation, you can use the zone portal to teleport to Heavenly Citadel, that's the name of our Guild Headquarters by the way. Once there, send a message to Jeanny, she will take care of you. The teleport option to Larabar is limited, I will send her a message to set it so you have access to that city."
"Excellent! I'll head over right away!" Dylan rose and shook Jack's hand. Jack found it strange to have this boy acting so friendly after all this time pretending to be cool. "I always thought that befriending you is a waste of time, one of the less likely people that I will find valuable, that you are just a simple brute, but it turns out that you are pretty useful after all."
He then bolted out the door. Jack was still arguing with himself if he should scold the boy for what he said just now. He heard a giggle from his side, he turned and saw Ellie standing up. She said, "it seemed that he got you this time."
Jack didn't think about it too much. He sent a message to Jeanny to treat Dylan as one of the core members as well. She was questioning this new member at first because she could see from the guild page that Dylan was just a level 19 Ranger, but Jack gave her a short introduction about Dylan. He informed him to utilize his position as a member of the Trade Associations and that he was very good at sourcing things.
Life Runner might be good as their connection in Larabar, but he was no trader. With Dylan accessing Larabar, he might even gain access to the other cities in Verremor. That meant they could get more exotic materials and ingredients unavailable in Themisphere.
"There is another advantage by getting him into a member, you know?" Peniel said.
"Oh? What is it?" Jack asked.
"Every trade goods sold by a guild member will have 2% of the profit automatically given to the guild."
"Trade goods? That's the goods that Dylan mentioned can't be stored into player's storage bag and has to be transported using caravans, right?"
"Yes. He was right about cross-countries trade goods, they were extremely profitable. Just by having him focus on doing trades, your guild can get a steady supply of gold coins."
Jack immediately relay this information to Jeanny. He also reminded her to persuade Dylan if he could get more players from the Trades Association to join their guild. The more members who did trade goods, the more coins they would get from the profit shares.
Jack spent a little more time chatting with Ellie and Bill. Ellie gave him more Well-Done Steak. Dylan had delivered more ingredients required to cook this food that Ellie also had spare to sell to the public. It was a big hit for the players. Since there wasn't any problem with the restaurant, Jack left them to proceed as usual.
He then went to take his share of the restaurant's profit. It's a four-week accumulation. Although he had expected it to be substantial, the amount still made him take a deep breath. 141 gold coins were transferred into his bag. At this rate, in another four months, he should be able to make the final upgrade to this restaurant. That, of course, considering if he didn't spend the coins, which was most unlikely.
After finishing with the restaurant, he went next door to Amy's Bakery. Amy and Samantha were also busy, despite having more staff to help them. Business had also picked up greatly after the second upgrade. But because this was a native shop, it didn't have the same improvement on recipe variations as Ellie's restaurant. Still, Samantha was a great cook from the start, so her cakes and bread were still sought after.
When Amy saw Jack, she just left a customer behind and came at him. Samantha shook her head as she took over in serving the customer.
"Hey, you know I'm considered a partner of this shop, right? I can complain about you treating a customer badly," Jack said as she approached.
"Go ahead," she said with a smile. She proceeded to bombard him with questions about where he had been these many weeks. She also complained that he never spent time with them anymore. Jack felt bad hearing it. He was originally planning to immediately depart after his Archmage trial. But with Amy's pleading look, he promised he would spend tonight staying with them.
Amy was elated hearing it. She said she looked forward to hearing about all his adventures tonight. Jack left them to deal with customers as he went to check on the bakery's profit. It was less than the restaurant but still impressive. He collected 92 gold coins as his share.
He felt very rich again now. With a smile, he walked out of the bakery.
"Jack," he heard a woman's voice calling his real name.
He turned while wondering how fast the news about his real name had traveled. Even someone outside the guild had known already.
Jack saw Red Death as she stood beside the bakery.
"How do you know I'm here?" Jack asked.
"Please, you are our number one enemy. Our member had broadcast your presence once you stepped into this city."
"I see... So, are you really Cleo?" Jack asked. Domon had informed him about Red Death's infiltration during yesterday's battle and about her real identity.
Red Death didn't answer.
"This is truly unexpected," Jack said. "That tomboy from before has turned into such a stunning and beautiful woman. Deadly, of course, but still, you look great."
Some redness seemed to appear on Red Death's cheeks, but Jack thought it must be just an illusion.
"I see you are still as casual as before. Should have realized it was you."
"No way. We are still kids not even ten when we last saw each other. It's natural that we don't recognize one another."
The two stood there for a while. Jack began to feel awkward. He asked, "Are you looking for me for any particular reason?"
"I want to tell you, despite our past, we are still enemies."
"Okay."
Jack felt like he heard Red Death grinding his teeth. Must be his imagination, he thought.
Red Death turned around, but she didn't leave. She said, "Be careful, Death Associates is sending a specialized team to hunt you down. This team is led by one of our top members named Yellow Death."
"Is this Yellow Death more skillful than you?" Jack asked.
"No," Red Death replied.
"Then I have nothing to worry about."
"Suit yourself," Red Death said and then started walking away.
"Thanks for your warning," Jack called out.
Red Death paused for a second before resuming her walk.
