Chapter 260: New guild

{The guild [Joshua's Guild] has been successfully created.}

At the same moment, another notification appeared before the soldier.

{You have entered an opposing guild's territory. You are not allowed to cause any harm to a member of this guild unless the Guild Bank of Matra officially declares war on [Joshua's Guild].}

Another notification immediately appeared beneath it.

{Due to the ongoing Newcomer Examination, guild wars are temporarily disabled.}

Joshua stared at the notifications for a moment, barely believing what he was seeing. The sword was still pressed against his neck, but the soldier couldn't move it any further. He tried to force the blade forward, only to realize that his body was refusing to obey him.

Joshua slowly reached for the soldier's wrist. For the first time since entering the forest, there was no fear in his eyes.

"You can't hurt me anymore," he muttered.

The soldier's expression changed, and he immediately tried to retreat. But Joshua had already understood the situation. They had entered his guild territory without permission, which meant they were now considered intruders. The System prevented them from harming him, but nothing prevented him from attacking them.

Joshua grabbed a nearby stone and swung it with all his strength. The blow struck the soldier's head.

He staggered backward, clearly stunned by the attack. Joshua's hands trembled, but he forced himself to keep moving. He grabbed another stone and struck him again, then again, until the soldier finally collapsed onto the ground, unable to do anything to resist.

The other two soldiers stared at him in disbelief. They could have killed him moments ago. Now, however, they couldn't even touch him.

"Run!" one of them shouted.

The two soldiers immediately turned around and fled into the forest. Joshua didn't chase them, because they would soon escape his territory.

Mentally, he turned his attention to the flood of messages that appeared before his eyes.

[You have obtained your first kill.]

[You have obtained all System Points belonging to the defeated System user — Rodry.]

[You have obtained 7,184 System Points.]

[Your level has increased from Level 3 to Level 10.]

[You have acquired a new skill: Insect Cultivation.]

[Insect Cultivation: The user's ability to breed, raise, and maintain insects has been greatly enhanced. The skill reduces the resources and time required to breed insects and makes it easier to cultivate insects under controlled conditions.]

Just a second later, one last notification flashed before his eyes:

[The guild intruders have been expelled. System users Rodolf and Vlac have left Joshua's guild domain.]

Joshua stared at the notifications, completely dumbfounded. He had just gained seven levels from a single kill. More importantly, he had acquired a new skill that could make his ability far more useful, even if it didn't sound all that powerful.

But maybe in the future, once he found powerful insects, he could more easily make an army of them. Also, he could experiment with different insects, breed them in captivity, and potentially create species specifically suited for scouting, tracking, or even combat.

But there was something even more important. Joshua opened the guild interface for the first time.

Five main options appeared before him.

[Guild Expansion]

[Guild Merging]

[Guild Configuration]

[Guild Contract Configuration]

[Special Guild Functions]

He immediately selected Guild Expansion, and, just as expected, he received a message just like the one the soldier had received earlier. All forms of expanding the guild territory were temporarily unavailable.

Joshua frowned before returning to the previous menu. He then selected Guild Configuration.

The interface allowed him to establish a tax on everyone inside his guild territory. After thinking for a moment, Joshua set it to the minimum amount allowed.

[Guild Tax has been changed to: 2%]

[2% of the System Points and XP obtained within your guild territory will be transferred to the Guild Master.]

Joshua nodded. Two percent wasn't much, but for the guild master of gigantic territories, even a measly 2% would be an absurd amount.

Next, he opened Guild Contract Configuration. The System allowed him to create a basic contract for new members, defining the rules they would have to follow after joining the organization. Joshua kept it simple. He didn't want to create another Matra.

Finally, he opened the last option.

[Special Guild Functions]

Joshua's eyes widened when he found the option Eva had told him to buy. He already knew the price would be high, but seeing it really was shocking: the price of the first available function.

[Special Function: Talent Stealing]

[Cost: 1,000,000 System Points]

[Description: Any guild possessing this function may accept members who currently belong to another guild, provided that those individuals willingly agree to join.]

It would be expensive, but luckily Eva had given him enough funds for that, and thanks to this function, he could free anyone who wanted from Matra's domain. That is, if people were willing to take the risk, because once the expansion system was working again, the clan would definitely want to kill everyone who left.

Joshua looked back toward the forest, where the dozens of men he had been leading were still waiting for him, and called for them, offering everyone the contract.

And thanks to that, in a single day, forty people had been freed, and that was just what Joshua knew about. Eva very likely had other small groups like his, led by other people. Not to mention, she was probably taking over the already existing resistance villages and turning them into an actual resistance.

But more importantly, he actually had a last mission to fulfill: "expand" his territory. He felt afraid of doing it, but following Eva's instructions, he gave money to the ones he felt were the most loyal, asking them to also open their own guilds.

First, they all looked together for the best spots for creating them, so that they would maximize the space gained when creating a guild, keep the guilds connected, and take good territories.

And finally, once the guilds were created, came the last step: merging guilds. As long as both parties agreed, they could merge a guild, basically expanding its territory — another loophole in the System.

But then came a very interesting perk of the System. Once both Guild Masters agreed on the merging, they had two options: either give up their power and let the other one be the Guild Master, or ask for a random decision.

And once one chose the random decision, nothing could be done. The merge couldn't be canceled. This meant that if someone wanted to betray him, they could choose the random selection and possibly take his territory.

But for now, everyone was loyal to Eva, and Joshua combined the territories of seven guilds. Soon, they would begin working on building a village there, planting crops, hunting monsters, and recruiting more people.