Chapter 90: Territory Management (1)

Ring-

• The status of user ‘Ian’, member of the ‘Lotus’ Guild, has upgraded to ‘Baron’ rank.

• The Guild Fame of the ‘Lotus’ Guild has increased by 150 thousand.

• The ‘Lotus’ Guild’s base has met all requirements in order to be promoted from ‘Village’ rank to ‘Domain’ rank. (However, the promotion can only be possible once a user with the aristocrat title becomes a Lord.)

Herz, Fiolan and Carwin, who were selling random items at the general merchandise shop in the base that they had obtained while hunting, simultaneously stopped what they were doing and looked at each other.

Because they were guild system messages that were sent to all of the guild members, the messages popped up at the same time for the three people.

The person that first opened their mouth was Carwin.

“Keu, this hyung’s timing is the best!”

The reason why the three people were at the general merchandise shop was to sell the random items that they had gained after hunting for a quarter of a day to meet the requirements for rank promotion.

In other words, it meant that as soon as all criteria for the next base was met, Ian’s promotion was completed.

Fiolan, who had hurriedly opened the guild information and checked Ian’s information as soon as she heard the system message, shook her head and grumbled.

“But I have no idea why Ian had put all of his information to private. I went in to see the new aristocrat title that appeared, but everything is marked as not available.”

Carwin also complained.

“No kidding. I’m also curious of Ian hyung’s level, but I can’t find it out?”

Herz spoke with a joking voice.

“Ay, are you sure you’re not like that because you’re worried that he’s caught up to you?”

Carwin momentarily flinched, but he snorted as he spoke shortly after.

“Don’t say such nonsense, hyung. How could he have already caught up to me when it hasn’t even been that long since he hit lv 90? Wouldn’t he have hit around lv 95 now?”

Fiolan, who was next to him, carefully stated her opinion.

“Couldn’t it be possible that he’s close to lv 100?”

“Ay, no way. Your level seriously doesn’t go up once you’re over lv 95.”

Herz, who heard the two people’s conversation, smirked.

“He probably set up those privacy settings when he was a low-level and hasn’t changed it because he’s too lazy. And Ian was at lv 98 or something like that the last time I asked him.”

Carwin wore a flustered expression out of astonishment.

“Huh? When exactly did he raise it up again like that?”

If they had found out that Ian was already at lv 103, the three would have probably fainted from shock.

Since Fiolan, who had the highest level, had barely reached lv 113 now, while Herz was at lv 107, and Carwin at lv 103.

In Carwin’s case, Ian had already caught up to him.

“Either way, he’s amazing, seriously.”

At Fiolan’s words, Carwin and Herz both nodded their heads at the same time.

And Herz’s mumbling continued.

“But exactly what kind of quest did this guy do to get the Baron title from the start?”

At those words, Fiolan asked back.

“Huh? What do you mean? Isn’t the first title that you can get from the beginning originally Baron?”

At her words, Herz shook his head.

“No, not so.”

This time Carwin asked.

“Then what do you normally start with?”

Herz’s response continued.

“From what I’ve heard, when you first clear the Empire Quest, you get the Baronet or Knight title.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. That’s why I was secretly hoping for Ian to start with a Baronet title. It’s possible to promote to a Domain with a Knight title as well, but there are a lot of restrictions. You could consider starting from the Baronet is when you’re a true aristocrat.”

Fiolan added on.

“Oh, now that you mention it, that’s right. I also roughly looked for information, but I never thought that Baronet and Baron were different. Since they were just Barons, I just assumed so… So then, Ian has received a title that’s higher than a Baronet, right?”

Herz nodded as he responded.

“Yes, that’s right. I’ve never heard of a circumstance like that… But either way, it’s better in our case, I guess.”

Carwin pouted as he complained.

“No, why is this hyung so lucky, too?”

While looking at that appearance, Herz smirked.

“At first, I also thought that he was just lucky, but lately, I feel like that’s not it.”

Herz took a breath before he opened his mouth again.

“Is there anybody amongst us that plays as hard as him?”

Fiolan and Carwin shook their heads at the same time.

The amount of time Ian’s spent gaming was to the point it was hard for anybody in the guild to even follow.

They weren’t referring to the time spent just logged on in the game.

Since there were quite a lot of guild members that were logged on all day.

However, Ian didn’t just stay logged on, he hunted or did quests without rest.

That was the difference.

“Anyways, he’s seriously amazing. From what I know, there’s not even twenty users that have received the Baron title.”

And amongst the new class users, Ian was probably the first.

On top of that, there was no user with the Viscount or Count title, which were a higher-rank than Baron.

This as well would become a good stepping stone for the rise in the guild’s ranking.

“No kidding. It seems like he’s completed all his quests now, too, so Ian will probably come to the base soon, right?”

Herz nodded his head.

“I think so. I told him about the Domain promotion, so he’ll probably come up here soon. Once Ian comes up here, I think we should take care of the Domain promotion immediately.”

“Sure. Speaking of which, I’m wondering, shouldn’t I be giving this sub-guild master position back to Ian?”

However, at those words, Herz and Carwin shook their heads at the same time.

Carwin spoke.

“No-no, let’s just keep it so that you remain the sub-guild master, Fiolan.”

Herz agreed as well.

“That’s right. I also think that it would be a lot more helpful towards the guild if you stayed the sub-guild master, Fiolan…”

In the guild beginnings, the role of the sub-guild master wasn’t much, but compared to then, the guild’s scale had more than doubled, and there was a lot for the sub-guild master to do especially with a base.

And rather than Ian, who just continuously hunts, the two people thought that Fiolan, who was a little more meticulous and good at taking care of tasks, fit that position better.

Fiolan wore a bashful expression.

“Still… Wouldn’t Ian be hurt?”

Carwin smirked as he answered.

“You know that hyung doesn’t care about stuff like that. Why is someone who has known Ian hyung for months now already acting like this?”

* * *

Meanwhile, just like how the three predicted, Ian was headed towards the base.

On top of the shoulder of Ian, who walked with incredibly light footsteps and was even humming, sat a baby Griffin that let its gold feathers hang down.

Kkuruk- Kkuruk-!

“Pin, are you hungry?”

Nod.

Ian named his newly obtained Legendary-rank Familiar, the Griffin, ‘Pin’.

And the Training skill that he was using on Ly was now completely being used on Pin.

‘Since Pin’s Potential will probably be able to hit 100 in about three days… I’ll just use Training on Ly after, I guess.’

Pin’s Potential was at 90 from when he first obtained him.

Just like Halli, because he planned on having Pin reach 100 Potential as well before Ian leveled him up, the top priority was to raise Pin’s Potential first.

“Let’s see here, where did I put the drug meatballs?”

As Ian began to search through his inventory, Bbookbbook, who was hanging from his back and dozing off, snapped back to reality.

To Bbookbbook, there was no better alarm than the word meatball.

Bbookbbook’s eyes widened whenever he heard the eight-letters of meatball.

Bbook-!

Ian, who saw that, smirked.

“Alright, I’ll give you one, too, just wait.”

Bbookbbook, who had already eaten his morning meatball quota, wasn’t anticipating much, but he was moved while looking at Ian, who willingly handed him a meatball for whatever reason.

Bbook…!

“Alright, here you go. Eat well.”

Ian, who handed the meatballs to his Familiars, perched on a boulder for a moment.

And while looking at his two Familiars eating their meatball, he organized his thoughts.

‘Firstly, once I return to the base, I probably need to start with the territory management, right?’

Including Herz, most of the guild members thought that Ian had no interest in the territory, but that was wrong.

As he was in mental chaos from trying to complete the quests that he spread out up until now, Ian just wasn’t able to focus on the territory, but he was feeling an incredibly big interest in the new content that was the territory.

Could he say that it felt like he had something new to research?

Ian had invested about two to three hours and did quite a lot of research on the base.

As he had received the Baron title, he would become the Lord and the base would be promoted, and if that was the case, he needed to draw out the highest effectiveness of all of the territory’s contents.

‘Since Yoohyun did well alone up until now, there was no need for me to pay much attention… But since I’ll actually have to take care of the territory’s management now, I should try and grow it as best as possible.’

As there were not a lot of guilds that had successfully promoted their base to a Domain-rank, there wasn’t a lot of information released, but despite that, there was quite a lot of interesting information.

Especially, the system that allowed them to raise soldiers grabbed Ian’s interest the most.

‘The hunting effectiveness will definitely be good if we raise soldiers well and manage a large-scale punitive expedition.’

As Ian had raked in an unbelievable amount of EXP thanks to the NPCs this time, he was even more expectant.

‘Since Halli is over lv 80 now, too, if I just get Pin’s level up to a certain level… Huhu.’

At the thought of wiping monsters with Pin’s Crush skill, Ian automatically wore a smile.

It was now time to concentrate on raising the Familiars he possessed.

He didn’t even have any extra Leadership to recruit a new Familiar anyways.

It seemed since Pin’s rank was Legendary, Ian’s Leadership was completely taken up thanks to Pin taking up a huge amount of it.

That was also only barely possible because of the extra Leadership he gained from being the very first to hatch a Legendary Familiar.

‘I have no idea when the God Dragon’s Egg will hatch, but there will probably be a way to raise my Leadership again then, too, I guess.’

Ian stood up from his spot.

It seemed like his Familiars’ meals were roughly finished.

However, he spotted Bbookbbook glancing at something that was in front of Pin.

Bbook- Bbook-

From Ian’s examination, Pin had just eaten half his meatball and left the rest in front of him.

Bbookbbook desired that specifically.

Pin glanced at Bbookbbook, and slightly pushed the meatball with one foot.

Kkuruk- Kkuk-kkuk-

Pin’s haughty and prim expression seemed as if he was saying, I’m already full so, whether you eat it or not is up to you.

And Bbookbbook swiftly crawled over and gobbled up Pin’s meatball in one bite.

Bbook- Bboo-bbook-!

While looking at Bbookbbook’s happy expression, Ian burst out laughing.

If a system message were to pop up for Pin as well, Ian felt that a message saying, ‘Bbookbbook’s Affinity towards you has increased by 200%’, would have popped up.

‘It looks like Pin isn’t that greedy for food.’

Pin was elegantly cleaning the oil from the meatball off his beak using his feathers, while on the other hand, Bbookbbook, who had eaten the meatball that Pin left in an instant, wore a satisfied expression as he ran around.

‘It looks like Bbookbbook will really like Pin.’

Could you say the situation for Bbookbbook was like going to a chicken restaurant with a friend who doesn’t like chicken drumsticks?

Before he knew it, Bbookbbook was next to Pin, rubbing his head against him.

Bbookbbook wore an expression as if he had basically found a soulmate. It looked as if Pin didn’t hate Bbookbbook, though, either.

Ian smirked before wearing a smile.

To see his Familiars getting along closely was a pleasant sight for him.

“Alright, let’s go, kids. We should be able to arrive soon.”

At Ian’s words, Pin immediately flew and sat on his shoulder, while Bbookbbook moved his short legs quickly and stood in front of Ian.

Ian petted Pin’s head once before beginning to move again.

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