Chapter 110- The new Members?...

Chapter 110: Chapter 110- The new Members?...

Leo stared at the notification, still processing it. He read through it a second time, slower.

So it just... became guild property automatically?

And the buffs attached to it were genuinely absurd.

He turned to Elly. "Log everything. The vault, its coordinates, depth below the ring, the lightning mana vein—full profile, current status, whatever data we’ve got on it. Same for the annexation, and the location of those three skeletons we cleared."

"Understood, Master." Her wide, pale eyes flickered as the emoji-shaped hologram shifted with the effort. "Recording complete."

"There’s not much solid data on the vein itself yet," Leo said, half to himself. "We don’t know what it does or how it can be used, so let’s not mess with it further for now."

As he thought it over, a familiar frustration crept in—he really wished Surtr were around to weigh in on this. He’d tried reaching out more than once already, but Surtr remained stubbornly out of contact.

He sighed.

"Alright, let’s head out," he said, and the group started making their way back.

The farther they got from the vault, the thinner the charge in the air became. Ash and Ember, still perched on Hugh, finally stopped trembling, their claws easing their death-grip on his coat.

Elona kept glancing at the cubs, fingers twitching every so often like she was fighting the urge to reach out and pet them—but she kept her expression perfectly composed, not letting an ounce of it show.

Hugh, meanwhile, was still lost in thought, his attention drifting back toward the stone walls the whole way down the corridor.

Rook gave him a light tap to snap him out of it. "Come on. We’re leaving, old man."

Hugh cast one last reluctant look back toward the vault before finally turning to follow.

"Don’t worry," Leo added, "we’ll be back soon enough."

That seemed to do the trick—Hugh’s eyes lit up again.

They made their way out of the vault, and the door sealed itself shut the moment they crossed the threshold. The charge in the air dimmed noticeably once it locked, thinning further with every step they put between themselves and the chamber.

Still, something had shifted. It wasn’t quite the same as before.

Rook, whose senses were sharp even by his own standards, tilted his head. "Is it just me, or does the air feel heavier up here too?"

Leo felt it as well. Something had changed the moment they’d registered the mana vein—mana density across the whole area had climbed.

Eventually they emerged from the tunnel entirely, which let out just beside the guild hall. They made their way inside the guild hall and settled into a meeting room built around a long table. Leo claimed the head seat; everyone else filled in around him.

"Elly, pull up the First Foundation notification again."

[First Foundation: Status — OPEN.]

[Secure Retainer plus 10 members. Retainer 1/1. Members 3/10. 7 remaining.]

Leo studied it for a second. "If you count me and Shen, that’s technically five people already—but I guess I don’t count toward membership, and Shen’s locked into the retainer slot separately. So really it’s just Elona, Hugh, and Rook counted so far. Which means we still need seven more."

"So the plan is—recruit seven, then get back to exploring?" Elona asked.

Leo gave a nod.

Rook nodded, planting a palm flat on the table. "I’ve got more than seven available, easily. My entire salle would join eventually if I asked. For now, though, bringing in my direct disciples should more than cover it."

"Tell me about them," Leo said.

Rook launched into it, running through each of his students in turn.

Three were fighters, each with a different specialty—one built for raw speed, one for raw strength, and one who somehow managed both.

"Specialists, then," Leo said.

Rook nodded. "The other three round things out differently. One’s excellent with formations. Another thinks in pure strategy—give her a problem and she’ll find six ways to solve it. The third’s my scout. Fights more like an assassin than a soldier."

"And the last one," he added, "is my direct disciple. When it comes to pure qi control, she’s nearly on par with me."

"Honestly, a few of them could beat me on a good day if we stuck to pure skill use, no qi involved. Some of them argue with me constantly, mind you—stubborn as mules, the lot of them. But loyal enough that they’d walk straight into a wall if I told them to."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "Loyal to you specifically?"

"Mostly."

"...Mostly?"

Rook just shrugged. "I’m not going to lie to you."

"Fair enough. Send them the invite, I’ll bring them into the guild, and they can teleport straight over once they’re in."

Rook nodded and fired off messages to all seven.

Not long after, the connection request notifications started rolling in one by one. Leo accepted each in turn.

[Ding~]

[Jae has joined the guild.]

Elly broadcasted every notification live, projecting them onto a hologram hovering over the center of the table.

"That one’s fast," Rook noted.

Before Leo could respond, a second chime followed.

[Ding~]

[Dara has joined the guild.]

"That’s the quiet one. Scouting and assassination—her whole world."

Leo waited.

Rook glanced at the panel as another notification appeared.

[Ding~]

[Hobin has joined the guild.]

"Strong one, this. Pure fighter."

[Ding~]

[Yumi has joined the guild.]

"Formation specialist," Rook commented as her acceptance rolled in.

[Ding~]

[Ben has joined the guild.]

[Ding~]

[Tina has joined the guild.]

"The boy’s our strategist—loves his mind games more than actual combat sometimes, though he’s plenty capable when it counts. His ideas tend to be a little unconventional, but they work."

"And the girl—that’s my direct disciple. Strongest of the group, and by far the most gifted with qi. You two probably haven’t crossed paths; she keeps to herself, trains separately from the rest."

Leo blinked, mildly impressed.

He waited for one more notification. None came.

"Where’s the last one?"

Rook checked his own panel, frowning. "Ah—says she can’t make it today. Something came up."

Leo nodded and turned to Elona instead.

"Two more, then," she said.

"Former executives from my company. You won’t need to worry about their character or their discretion—I can vouch for both personally."

She pulled up her own status panel, scrolled briefly, and sent off an invite. A reply came back almost immediately. "They’re interested. You can expect their connection requests shortly."

Sure enough, two new connection requests appeared. Leo accepted both.

[Ding~]

[Min-seo has joined the guild.]

A second chime followed close behind, clean and immediate.

[Ding~]

[Yuna has joined the guild.]

"Alright—that’s eight registered. Go ahead and have them teleport over whenever they’re ready."

Elona and Rook both sent word, and moments later, all eight arrived in a burst of light.

Like everyone before them, they froze for a second, taking in the sheer scale of the guild hall.

Rook’s disciples spotted him immediately and bowed in unison. "Greetings, Master."

Rook gave a satisfied nod.

The two executives turned to Elona with similar formality. "Greetings, Ms. Mosk."

Both Elona and Rook made the introductions, bringing everyone up to speed on who Leo was.

"This is Leo—the blacksmith who’s been all over the news since the world announcements. He’s also the founder and guild master of Eternal Forge."

"Greetings, Guild Master Leo," all eight said, nearly in unison.

Leo nodded, gesturing toward the empty seats. "Go ahead and sit."

Once everyone settled in, Elona took over briefing the new members on the guild’s structure, along with a firm reminder about confidentiality.

Her own two recruits nodded immediately, no confusion at all—they understood exactly what discretion meant in a corporate context.

Rook’s six, on the other hand, tilted their heads in unison, visibly lost. They were fighters first and foremost; the concept of confidentiality agreements and what not clearly wasn’t part of their usual training. All six turned to look at Rook for clarification, waiting.

A vein bulged visibly at Rook’s temple.

"She means," he said through gritted teeth, "don’t breathe a word about anything you see or hear in here once you’re back outside. Or I will personally end you."

His disciples broke into a collective, nervous sweat and swallowed hard, nodding fast.

Leo, watching the whole exchange unfold, could only laugh under his breath and shake his head.

A new notification was already blinking at the edge of his vision.

"Alright, alright—looks like the Foundation quest just updated. Let’s take a look."

"Elly, pull it up."

"Right away, Master," the emoji-faced hologram replied.

The new arrivals all did a visible double-take at the sight of an AI answering back in real time.

The two executives were the most visibly stunned of anyone in the room. They knew, better than most, exactly how much effort Ms. Mosk’s company had poured into chasing true artificial general intelligence—and here they were, casually watching one operate in front of them like it was nothing.

Elona herself had gone through that same disbelief the first time she’d witnessed Leo speaking with Elly. Her initial assumption had been that it worked something like the AI systems her own company had built. It wasn’t until later that she understood the difference—this was genuine AGI, and it hadn’t come from any lab on Earth. It had come out of a game.

Even now, despite the shock, she kept her questions to herself.

But something had shifted in her all the same. A door she hadn’t known existed had cracked open, and she now understood, with total clarity, that what she’d once considered years away was actually within reach.

...

Elly displayed the updated notification for the whole room to see.

[Ding~]

[First Foundation: Status — OPEN.]

[Secure Retainer plus 10 members. Retainer 1/1. Members 11/10.]

[Requirement met for Mana Vein Awakening.]

[Ding~]

[Please proceed to the Mana Vein Chamber to begin the awakening ritual with full membership present.]