Agatha The Legendary Guild Master

"I don't want to hear your reasons for now, but I want your intel regarding that place. You spoke of a slave army that we can buy, where are they from? To whom their loyalty belongs? From where we can buy them and roughly how much they will cost is? And what will be their fate after we return?"

I said my own terms, as her own reasons would be for another time. All I wanted to know were the answers to these questions, as based on what she was going to say I might or might not agree on any idea proposed here right now.

A decision had to be made, and I intended to make it after gathering enough info.

Diana seemed not to care about my doubts, as she replied with weird calmness:

"Each sacred ground had a very large stone stele that could be seen from miles away. That stele acts as the link between these disputed lands and the game here.

When you go out for the test, you don't just get some assigned missions, you get some goals. These goals work as achievements and a testimony for your strength.

If you just went on there and completed some weak missions without achieving any big thing, you would lose a great opportunity out there.

The sacred lands aren't under anyone's control, however it's generally divided into two big camps, our camp and the enemy's camp.

If you can control a certain area out of the enemy's territory, then you will have the right to build a base for you out there."

Her words were fluent and smooth like she was telling a story. I felt some change in her, the one living here and the one fighting there. Diana was someone who loved the life of a warrior. This peaceful life here didn't suit her, or that what I felt.

"What do you mean by base? Can I control that base even after I leave the sacred lands?" I asked, expressing my concerns.

"Yes, these bases are linked through the stele with the game here. as long as your men out there still control the fort, and the stele is still standing, then you will always be linked to the base.

However, you need to fulfil one condition, which is to have either a guild or an adventure group."

She replied calmly again. This butler of mine was enjoying telling stories about these sacred lands.

"You mentioned men, are we going to leave a garrison there?" Rody asked.

She turned to look as Rody as she amusingly replied:

"Sure, if you left your post unprotected then others will claim it. you must defend it against the enemy and against each other. Warlords there aren't tolerable to any weakness."

Although I hated this chick from the first sight, what she was saying right now was very interesting. I suddenly felt like going home again, discussing strategic plans for wars with my father.

I missed that, and it seemed that I would be very interested with these lands much more than I initially thought.

"So we will conquer a post from one enemy and control a territory then we will start to supply our players from here to there to defend the posts.

This seemed like a good plan, but this plan won't be effective for us. The level of our players is so low in comparison with any other world out there. our players numbers are lower than others, we can't support that post for long."

I had my own thoughts about her plan, and I expressed them with the same calm plus some enthusiasm. Diana seemed to be expecting to my doubts as she instantly replied with her calm:

"We just need to amass a great amount of gold coins. There at the stele there is a way to obtain an army of well trained ex-players. this army will act as our own but it will cost a lot, as the price of each player ranges from one hundred to one thousand gold coins.

There are even some whose prices would soar to be in tens of thousands of coins. However we don't need those advanced players for now, all we need is some players to sustain the attacks on our post, which would be in a moderately low risk area in comparison to other regions."

"May I ask where these ex-players come from?"

This was my question as a flash of thought passed over my mind. I feared this would be the fate of my lost swordsman, Shin.

"They came from many lost posts along the history of these lands. Each post when fell, many would be killed but not all. The survivors would be marked as losers and be branded as ex-players.

You can buy them easily based on their level. for me I would prefer to not bring my people from here and instead buy as many ex-players from there as I can."

She explained calmly without a pause about the origin of these players. That seemed logical considering the long time of these lands. What piqued my interest, though, was her advice to me.

"Why are you saying that?"

"Tell me, how much do you need to pay to bring one extra player with you?" she calmly asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"One hundred gold coins," I simply answered.

"And those players' levels are like yours, right? I mean lower than level twenty five," she said this simply but my other friends felt some astonishment.

None of them was a newbie, and they knew Diana wasn't bluffing, so they realized my level was over level twenty. That was a surprise for them, as their levels were still a long way from reaching level twenty.

"I suppose they didn't even reach level twenty yet," I replied to not make anyone of my friends feel more awkward.

"What if I tell you the cheapest price there for any ex-player would be one hundred gold coins to buy a level fifty player? You might even buy level sixty with this price as well if you are lucky."

"What?!" I exclaimed in surprise. At the same time, she replied without any pause:

"I'm telling you about what you will see with your own eyes out there. if you want to make a lost bargain then lose all the money over the lousy players here. for me I would prefer to buy my own army from the sacred grounds."

I thought deeply about her words, and there was something odd in hers.

"What is the trick about this deal? It seems to be too perfect to be true," I said expressing my own doubts.

"Well, there is a catch here, those players can't be moved from that place to here, or to any other sacred land world. they will only be posted in that world no matter what."

Although she replied with a satisfactory answer, I still had my doubts so I asked again:

"What about their loyalty?"

"They will be loyal to you, as the game will bind them to you. In addition to that, serving a new lord will be much better for them than living in cages like the case of them if no one bought them."

This time her answer was satisfactory to me. as long as they would be loyal to me and would do as I say, then I had no complaint about having them.

The issue was about depending entirely over them. that wasn't something good in my opinion, as I still needed men to supervise them from my group.

Leaving everything to strangers from me wasn't something I desire or prefer. However that meant I must cut some gold coins to bring more players with me.

"Why would players take such a risk and accept this burden? Supporting the posts in the sacred lands is a very tedious task," Elyo suddenly asked after a long time of silence.

"That is because so many opportunities lie there. I don't only mean normal treasure boxes or equipment, as those are very plenty there. What I mean is things that might boost once power, like war designs, advanced fort tokens, lost mystic art medallions, secret classes and even forbidden skills.

You can get anything from these lands, and the most interesting part is this treasure trove doesn't cease to exist. Every time I went there I always heard a lot of new amazing discoveries and great treasures."

Her words were very alluring, however I didn't get exactly what she meant by that. Only the mystic art medallions were enough to make me interested, but the pressure and the burden created by these posts was something I couldn't ignore.

Just before I could say anything more, that sly auction hall master appeared again walking with a big smile over his face.

That man was something I despised, and his smile made me feel groose. He must have prepared something bad for us, or else why was he this happy?

"Hi, I have finished selecting the three treasures that you requested, and all the equipment you offered for selling were bought by the hall and the compensation is ready for you.

Do you want to hear more or you want to take them all and leave?"

His voice was really irritating, however I didn't show any of my true emotions to him as I smiled back as I replied:

"I want to see them first before I leave here. Tell me, how much did my equipment sell for? and what are the three treasures that you selected for me?"