Stop Spouting Nonsense
The next day, I decided it was time to make the rounds of the guild properly.
Deoen was home to countless guilds, and the strongest among them was, without question, the Angel Guild — a kingdom alliance managed by Michael, ranked 3rd, and the Seven Archangels beneath him. We'd fought the Empire side by side during the last siege war, and I'd crossed paths with them a few times since, so arranging a meeting was no trouble at all.
I'd thought about turning on my stream, but with most guild information classified and things running at a fever pitch lately, they'd asked me to keep it off.
"Ohhh! That's insane!"
"Transcendent grade…"
"So that's the Multicolored Successor!"
The round table conference room of the Angel Guild. I'd only given them the barest heads-up before coming, but they were already in the middle of a meeting — all seven present except one.
"Yes. I owe it to the information you provided."
The multicolored necklace in my hand. The Angel Guild had told me where the Multicolored Successor had lain buried all this time, and using that intel, I'd claimed it from the World Tree.
Gabriel spoke with a gentle expression. "Congratulations. And I hear it's become Transcendent grade on top of everything…"
"That's right. The effects are better than I expected, so I imagine I'll be putting it to good use."
"God, I'm so jealous. Michael, give me a Transcendent-grade item too."
"Same here. With one of those, I could probably sleep through whole kingdoms' worth of work…"
"You two are supposed to be *managing* your kingdoms. You do realize this conversation happens every single time?"
Uriel, one leg propped up on the round table, leaned in with obvious interest while Sandalphon snickered and tipped his chair back. Then the two of them looked at each other and broke into laughter.
"Dunno~?"
"I'm working hard, Daddy~"
"Who are you calling Daddy?"
"You're the head of the household, so that makes you Dad."
"Fair. Fair."
Kukukukuku.
Still as thick as thieves, these two.
Checking on the now-familiar atmosphere, I turned to my side. There sat the Angel Guild's youngest, Raguel, head bowed politely, and…
"Hello there."
The first time meeting face to face — and yet the very first member of the Angel Guild I'd ever come to know.
"You must be Raphael."
"We finally meet. A pleasure."
The pro DCK player who had sponsored me ten million won back in my early streaming days and pitched a guild invitation. Raphael was a woman with a white martial uniform and brown eyes, her long ponytail swaying as she offered her hand.
A hand as calloused as Uriel's. I shook it.
"The pleasure's mine. Raphael, Fist Fighter of the Angel Guild."
"Nice to meet you too. I'm Lily."
"To finally stand before the Lily of legend… I'm truly moved."
"Wow, look how formal that was."
"You rehearsing a period drama or something?"
Uriel and Sandalphon tossed in their jabs, but Raphael didn't so much as blink. Instead, she fixed a glare on the two distractible guild seniors.
"Oh my, oh my."
"Raphael didn't used to be like this…"
"True. She used to follow Sandalphon around going, 'Oppa, what do I do about this? What even IS that?' every five seconds—"
THUD!
"Stop spouting nonsense. When have I ever done that."
"Gasp."
"See? This is what happens."
"I did not. That is absurd."
Raphael flatly denied it, and the two menace angels cackled, leaning even further back in their chairs.
After exchanging proper greetings with Raphael and Raguel, I turned to Michael, seated at the head of the table.
"By the way — weren't there seven of you?"
"Metatron. The problem is, he's gone AWOL."
"He's logged in, but he won't answer guild chat, and he's ignoring his phone in the real world too."
"Correct. So I've decided to go to his house in reality and rip out his internet cable."
Michael sounded genuinely furious, and the other Archangels looked inclined to agree. He'd gone missing during the last war as well, so if he pulled another no-show for the Great Cataclysm itself, an outburst was only fair.
Even Raphael, an active pro with a career to manage, had shown up in person.
"Anyway — you've heard why I came, haven't you?"
"We have."
"Yep!"
"Obcols, right~"
"We know perfectly well, Gabriel."
At Michael's light gesture, Gabriel, who had been sitting quietly, breathed a pure white light into the center of the round table. The light wove itself into a map, tracing out the Angel Guild's territory.
"The Eden Federation, which the Angel Guild belongs to, controls most of the northern coastline. We're directly adjacent to only a few regions, but our influence extends far beyond that."
Zzik. A red line drew itself across the white map — and before long, it circled the entire sea.
"As mentioned beforehand, we'll do what we can to hold this line. As long as nothing beyond Stage-4 entities shows up in numbers, we should be able to handle it."
"Send word if you need support. Once things settle down, I or one of my summons can head over."
"Understood. Next — about putting ships to sea…"
Tak. Another red line, and this time a circle sketched where continent met ocean.
"The Seven Archangels can fight on the sea, even in the sky, but the average guild member doesn't stand a chance. They'll have to fight from aboard something, no question."
"I heard they're developing that. Not finished yet?"
When Uriel asked, Gabriel, who'd been continuing her explanation, shook her head. "Our contract with the Magitech guild hasn't gone smoothly, so we never received the supply. It seems we'll have to make do with reinforced vessels."
"…In *this* situation? What did they demand?"
"Fifty thousand gold per small vessel, a stockpile of top-grade mana stones, and usage rights to the northern dungeon…"
"Those lunatics."
"Look at all that greed. Damn vultures. Somebody really ought to declare a guild war on them to knock some sense—"
"Guys, please…"
Raguel clamped a hand over Sandalphon and Uriel just as the profanity was about to fly, and Michael rapped the table with a sharp crack! to mediate. An invisible pressure bore down on the entire room, and Uriel and Sandalphon folded face-first onto the round table with a strangled keok!
"We have a guest. Some composure, please."
"Awww, tch."
"And it's always rich coming from you — 'when *I* lose it, it's all HNNNGH! Hey hey! The arm! I said grab the ARM!!'"
"A small vessel? What exactly are we talking about?"
"Ah, allow me to explain."
Michael cleared his throat with a resonant hum and raised one hand. Hovering above his palm floated a miniature floating ship — a steampunk-styled vessel studded with blue mana stones from bow to stern.
"Beyond us, there are countless guilds in Deoen. The Angel Guild is the strongest and the finest, but we are not the best in every single field."
Faction strength, personnel, resources, buffs — in every one of those, the Angel Guild led the pack. And yet there remained a domain even they couldn't touch.
"Crafting."
"Crafting," Michael repeated.
"There's a guild called Magitech, home to Gunner, a Hidden-class user and 5th in the guild rankings. They used to be an unremarkable guild hovering around 30th place, but in the last month or two, they've grown so fast they've climbed twenty to thirty spots in one leap. And they're quite particular about—"
"They're not 5th anymore."
"Hm?"
"They climbed again. They're 3rd now."
"Wait, they rose *that* much?"
"That growth rate is absurd."
Rank 3. The Angel Guild's fame was towering, but guild rank 3 was no laughing matter — the guild buffs alone granted staggering stat bonuses, and the revenue they'd pull in was enormous.
Of course, I'm hardly one to talk, owning Elbritte as I do.
There was a world of difference between holding a few territories and owning an entire 'kingdom.'
"The Magitech guild used to confine itself to making magic a bit more, well, 'modern.' Deoen never cared much for modernity to begin with, and users like Gunner are special cases."
Just as the Setting Room cost a fortune to rent, the fantasy world of Deoen disfavored modern technology and traits.
"But lately, looking at the floating ships they produce… I suspect their guildmaster must have acquired something."
"Like what?"
"A Hidden class, or perhaps hidden items with the schematics to build floating ships. And on top of that—"
"Gunner's rank SKYROCKETED! She's already at 36th!"
"…Uriel."
"Big jump. Real big. And all within the last month or two."
"Hmm…"
"Gunner attends Lily's academy, doesn't she?"
"She does. Though she hasn't been showing up much lately…"
Gunner had always been a ranker teetering around 100th place. She was a pro like any other, with genuinely solid skill, but nothing that suggested she belonged inside the top 50. And then, suddenly, explosive growth.
Suuk. Raphael raised her hand.
"I've faced her in a few scrims, and she's undeniably different now. She used to be a player who could barely hold up in a 1-on-1 and always needed a frontline. These days, she's turned into an all-rounder."
"…Well, that's not a bad thing."
Strong players multiplying was good news. It meant more people capable of standing against the Kraken — and that meant far less damage overall.
But the problem, apparently, wasn't their strength.
"What exactly is a floating ship?"
"A vessel with near-Mythic-grade resistance to every element — with enough mana, it can sail sea or sky alike. It's equipped with self-repair capabilities and specialized magic, so once they're in wide supply, World Boss raid difficulty will drop dramatically."
"BUT! The problem is they cost a fortune! You're telling me a ship that seats ten people is over a hundred million won?! Those people are greedy to the CORE!"
"……"
The ships were expensive, sure, but a hundred million for a measly ten passengers crossed a line. Then again, they were clearly worth it, or everyone wouldn't be agonizing over them like this.
"Then what about something even better?"
"From what I hear, the moment you go up to 'medium vessel' class, the unit of payment changes entirely. It's genuinely insane."
Unit changes.
So that meant tens of billions of won for a single ship? Hundreds of billions for a large one?
"Where is that guild located?"