Guild Registration and the Piccolo Gap-Toothed Guild
Right after parting ways with Lee Seoha, Seol Hwaryeon threw herself into researching the Demon Hunter Assassin Clan.
The clan had preserved two lineages of secret arts: those that manipulated shadows, and those that commanded ice.
Both had become possible because countless people had devoted themselves to exterminating the demons from this world. Many across the globe had stood in their way, yes — but just as many had lent their strength out of vengeance for slaughtered families, and that was what had made it achievable.
And there was one more thing the clan had possessed.
The power to wield flame.
A power made solely to kill demons. A power that burned away one's own life in exchange for the enemy's death. It had existed once.
There was no record of it remaining anywhere. Perhaps, she thought, the ancestors had simply hoped their descendants would never lay hands on it.
Lee Seoha had begun using the power of flame at some point. At first it had been a radiance of dazzling brilliance — a fire so sacred that merely beholding it stirred something reverent in the soul.
Now she understood what it meant.
The Elder had been burning his own lifespan, devoting himself utterly to the extermination of demons.
And I never even realized.
How pathetic must she have looked to him?
So for today, Seol Hwaryeon had driven herself relentlessly. There had been results. She was stronger than before. She had gained new insights, and she could now handle both frost and shadow with considerable skill.
'You are everything to our clan.'
The words her parents had once spoken drifted back to her. Back then, she had resented them for how mercilessly they had pushed her.
But now she felt a little differently. She had the talent worthy of such expectations.
'It would be nice to earn their praise.'
Yet even their praise meant less to her than the Elder's. That was simply the truth.
And Seol Hwaryeon had seen it — the power dyed in black flame, consuming the demons in a single strike. She had stared at Lee Seoha with trembling eyes.
'The gap in level is far too vast.'
She had vaguely suspected as much. The Elder had played the fool at first — surely a deliberate act, so he could quietly 'observe' her. The power he had revealed today carried, at minimum, the weight of the very highest rank.
The moment she realized what kind of being he was, she had been overjoyed. And at the same time, it had been painful — the nagging thought of whether she could ever live up to his expectations.
Seol Hwaryeon smoothed her mask. The Elder had promised to teach her the arts of frost and shadow.
'I can't spend my whole life sheltered under his protection.'
It was a resolve bordering on youthful recklessness. But the stronger feeling was this: even if she relied on his protection now, one day she wanted to stand beside him as an equal — or above — and be the one protecting him.
The holidays stretched on.
The incident at Divine Academy could not be hidden, and it was an event so colossal that the world economy itself had begun to wobble — so the Academy had declared a full week of vacation.
'It really was an enormous incident.'
America wasn't merely in chaos over it — chaos didn't begin to cover it. The economy had collapsed catastrophically, and the death toll was staggering. Their leadership was dead. Their backbone was broken.
In response, the United States had recalled every clergyman and hero stationed abroad, declared a state of quasi-war, and then gone eerily silent.
Which was exactly why the global economy was teetering so violently.
'I don't think it'll spiral into a world war. Yet.'
The one silver lining, from what she'd heard, was that Divine Academy possessed something like a vessel of the divine — casualties had been remarkably few. The girl blessed by dozens of gods had supposedly fought with tremendous effect.
'Which is why my recognition is skyrocketing.'
To a degree that was getting genuinely alarming.
The more that girl with the gods achieved, the more videos went up about the man who had felled her in a single blow — about how strong he must be.
The momentum was so fierce that neither I nor the Electronic Witch could fully contain it; the best we could manage was pushing other videos up the rankings and scrubbing the worst of the uploads.
"No, you've got nothing to apologize for."
It was my fault, plain and simple. I'd gotten carried away halfway through and ended it in one blow. I'd overestimated the enemy, if anything.
And the truth was, I had simply grown too strong. Too overwhelmingly strong.
'Never thought I'd reach that level at twenty.'
By my original plan, I'd have needed a lucky break just to get there by the end of this year — or more realistically, next year.
Not that it was a bad thing. The faster I grew, the more I could actually do.
Training the kids, for one. Or tracking down people who, in the original timeline, would already be impossible to find.
'Time to start building my own power base, I suppose.'
I needed to make people who belonged to other organizations my people.
Having woken up, I decided to head outside.
I reviewed the information the Electronic Witch had sent over. Almost all of it consisted of provisions I had no intention of breaking anyway.
"Looks fine to me."
I took a warp gate to Seoul, then caught a taxi to the association branch. Before long, we arrived.
"Here we are, sir."
The association was crowded. Even beyond the bustle of people, the auras themselves — and their sheer rank — hit me like a wall.
'So this is where Korea's greatest heroes once gathered, huh.'
Not anymore, of course.
The moment I stepped inside, I felt a wave of eyes on me.
"Whoa, who's that? Something like a glow behind his face, don't you think?"
The Hero Prospect List — in short, a system that compiled the most noteworthy rising stars under thirty and showcased them in videos. Every name worth knowing at Korea Hero Academy was on it, along with plenty of active, top-tier heroes. The three great guilds, commonly called Korea's finest, each had their own prospects on the list.
'Fifth place, huh.'
No one in their twenties was stronger than me. Out of curiosity, I'd looked into the assessment: the consensus was that my burst damage was ferocious, and that my attacks were of the piercing type, ignoring an opponent's defenses entirely. A foe you should never underestimate — but apparently, with sufficient caution, something of a counter was possible?
'Ridiculous.'
I walked up to the reception desk.
"Hello."
"......Y-yes! Ah, hello! How can I help you today?"
"I'd like to establish a guild."
"Oh, of course. Please fill in your personal details on this form first."
I took the paper and began filling it out.
"If you have any questions, feel free to ask."
"Ah, none needed. I did my research beforehand."
"Oh. I... see."
The receptionist's voice went distinctly sullen at that.
'Guild members, huh......'
I could list the Electronic Witch, but she was strongest operating from the shadows. Besides, a guild could be built slowly — no rush there.
Headmistress Seo Yebin — I'd casually mentioned it while helping her restore the Stars — had said she'd love to join, but having the Academy's head on their roster felt like a step too far.
The first people I could realistically bring in were the Veritas Cult kids.
'They're a bit much to deal with, but their abilities are outstanding.'
Ever since I taught them mana attunement, they'd begun developing techniques on their own and pushing toward the next stage on their own initiative.
Enchanting. Or inscribing — the act of etching an effect into a tool to draw out greater power from it.
I'd only dropped hints, but they had held their own meetings, run their own research, developed and refined everything themselves.
'Consolidated under the name of the Veritas Cult, no less.'
They were advancing at a terrifying pace. That was the necessity of a power base.
And beyond that — they were entangled with endless streams of funding. These were world-renowned master craftsmen. The potions they sold had reached the point where demand so far outstripped supply that they simply couldn't stock shelves.
'And I should check this stat out too, I suppose.'
Concept Stat: Alchemy. A stat that grew whenever I practiced alchemy.
With all that running through my head, I finished the paperwork.
"Seoha?"
A voice quietly called my name. I turned, and there was Kim Ara. Kim Seohyun was beside her.
"What are you two doing here?"
"Ara wanted to look around our guild, so I came along. But Seoha — what about you?"
"Me? I came to make a guild, actually."
Riiip.
Kim Ara tore the document in half.
"Sorry, Seohyun. I lost control of my strength and ripped up the application form by accident."
"It's fine. I brought a spare, knowing you would."
Kim Seohyun said it with a smile.
"So, Seoha — could I join too?"
"You two joining? I'd welcome it. But is it okay for you, Seohyun?"
Kim Seohyun was the adopted heir of one of the three great guild masters. It was bound to cause all sorts of complications.
"......Well. Y-yeah. It is."
"Sorry, Seohyun. I'll owe you one later."
"......F-fine. It's not like Ara has even joined yet, anyway."
Kim Ara gave the faintest of smiles and turned to Kim Seohyun. Kim Seohyun eyed the two of us with a distinctly uneasy expression.
"Then I'm joining."
Kim Ara wrote her name on the application.
'One down, then.'
Hong Yuhwa, granddaughter of the Red Tower Lord, would be difficult. So would Erciel, head of the Merhen household — a prestigious English lineage of illusion magic.
'My best candidates are probably Seol Hwaryeon and Seo Gayeon?'
For Seo Gayeon, there was actually a fairly effective recruitment method available.
Money.
And more money.
'Gayeon's family is poor, after all.'
Things had improved since Seo Yebin added a provision to the Academy budget granting scholarships to students whose grades surged — but Seo Gayeon would still need a great deal of money.
She had so many younger siblings, after all.
"Isn't a guild pretty hard to run alone, though?"
"Sure. But I've got someone helping me."
All thanks to the Electronic Witch. She'd agreed to handle everything related to computing and administration. She was, without question, the sharpest existence I knew.
"W-wouldn't it be better to have people you can actually rely on, though? I could talk to my grandfather and arrange some staffing support."
Kim Seohyun offered.
'Which feels like it'd just be unfair to those people, honestly.'
They'd probably be bitterly disappointed to be assigned to a brand-new guild. Well — judging by the members I was lining up, we'd surpass the great guilds soon enough.
I declined Kim Seohyun's offer and went back to deliberating. And now only the most critical problem remained.
'I have to write down the guild name.'
This was always the struggle.
My first playthrough's guild had a genuinely cool name — one I couldn't remember anymore. Around playthrough ten, I'd standardized on the Piccolo Gap-Toothed Guild.
'That was the run we conquered the world, too.'
The Piccolo Gap-Toothed Guild had dominated the globe. Somewhere in a single line of a news article, there it was: the Piccolo Gap-Toothed Guild, spreading its reach across the world.
I went back to the receptionist to check name availability.
"Guild names are best kept unique. And even similar ones can draw objections from all sorts of parties, so —"
"Is 'Summer' taken?"
"It is."
"What about 'Four Seasons'?"
"Also taken."
I rattled off name after name, and every single one was already registered. Enough to make me wonder: Korea, are you really okay like this?
"And the Piccolo Gap-Toothed Guild?"
"......That one's taken too."
Even that is registered...... Korea. Are you okay like this?
I despaired.
"......So how are you planning to build this guild?"
"Small and elite. A genuinely tiny handful of elites."
I answered Kim Ara's question. I'd be recruiting only true heavyweights — ones who made even the Wingless Brigade look second-rate. I would accept subordinate guilds beneath mine, but the core membership wouldn't even reach twenty. That was the identity of the guild I was aiming for.
"Then is this one available?"
"Yes, this one is not registered."
At the receptionist's words, I submitted the application with that name.
"So — do you have a guild building yet?"
"Nope. About to go hunting for one, actually."
"Then shall I help you lease one?"
"You, Ara?"
I considered her offer for a moment, then nodded. If Kim Ara helped, that was a good thing. She was Paewang's daughter, after all.
"I'd appreciate that."
"Then let's go together."
Kim Ara smiled with her eyes and hooked her arm through mine. I followed her out of the association.
And just like that, the final days of 2022 are upon us.
To all my readers — I hope next year treats you wonderfully. And Happy New Year!