"Well, that's that. Truthseekers has officially been born," I grin from ear to ear, "There's not a whole lot we can do with that status for the time being but it's, frankly, a huge weight off of my back."

I even got a Unique Astral-Tier Title as a bonus for the World First that will save us a ludicrous amount of money over the next decade or two. While it'll only save us a Stone Copper or Silver here and there for the immediate future, it'll never lose relevance, and if for whatever reason Truthseekers falls apart and I'm forced to make another Guild, the discount will follow along with me.

"So, what can we do?" Jade asks, curious.

"We now have access to Guild-only activities, such as Guild Expeditions, which you can think of as being like a massively upscaled Quest, that are often equivalent in difficulty to Raids," I throw out one example, "We can also gain permission to build a Headquarters in the Empire of Stone, and as I've already mentioned, we'll be basing ourselves out of Meteo City for the foreseeable future."

"Yeah, you said you'd explain why," She nods, "So...why? There's basically nothing here."

"Firstly," I take a seat on a bench and motion for the others to do the same, "Meteo City is one of the starting zones available to Newborn, which, combined with our current fame amongst the playerbase, means a steady stream of potential recruits. I shouldn't need to really justify that, should I?"

"Makes sense," Angelus nods, "But they'll still be noobs who barely know their heads from their ass."

"True enough," I admit, "But they can learn and be trained, and...speaking cynically, we still need a large number of menial labourers to keep operations running smoothly and bring in resources. Just because they lack heaven-shaking talent, doesn't mean they can't still be useful - we just have to offer fair terms and opportunities for advancement based on merit."

It's a practice that skirts uncomfortably close to the CIG Guilds of the last timeline, but I'll be doing my level-best to ensure that the system is implemented with sincerity, as opposed to the blatant exploitation they engaged in. I'm not going to allow Truthseekers to turn into a sweatshop - that would defeat the entire purpose, which is to elevate the standard of the entire playerbase. The more skilled people that can contribute to the demise of The Harbinger in the end, the better chance we stand of accomplishing it, and the more likely it is that I and the other Inheritors can get some answers as to what caused the phenomenon.

"I getcha," Jupiter nods sagely, "Many hands make light work."

"We'll still need some stronger hands," Windy muses, "But if we have control of the local supply of fresh recruits, we can raise our own, so long as we have enough people to teach them. I don't know about you guys, but I don't think I'm cut out to teach people the trade - I'm still in the process of re-learning everything myself."

"I don't mind giving out pointers from time to time, but I don't know about running like, an actual lecture or whatever," Jade concurs.

"We'll take matters as they come - raising an army is a concern for another day, so let's not put the cart before the horse here," I remind them, "Secondly, is that Meteo City is in a fantastic location."

"...It is?" Angelus looks confused, "The only things we have are Ujax Forest and a couple of low-level dungeons."

"I'm not talking about nearby resources, though Ujax Forest definitely counts as a desirable one," I clarify, "I'm talking about geographical location. Meteo City has a large amount of open space in the vicinity suitable for expanding the city itself with additional facilities, as a start - though gaining the ability to affect such matters is beyond us at present by a wide margin - but most important of all is where it sits on Foundation and in relation to the greater Empire."

I lick my lips, "Meteo City is far enough away from the capital that it's largely beneath the notice of the ruling Government, so we won't have to worry too much about interference from the Empire itself, to start with - that is, after all, how Geronil was able to act as he has been for so long without reprisal. Perhaps more importantly, it sits in a middle-ground between a neighbouring country, hence the smuggling problem, the ocean to the south and both our next levelling zone as well as The Enduring Empire. With some business savvy, investments and effort, we can turn Meteo City into a financial juggernaut and a hub for players on the continent, especially since, as mentioned previously, more and more Newborn will be arriving here and forming an attachment to the city."

"Put like that, I can certainly see the appeal," Windy admits, deep in thought, "That's still dependant on us gaining complete control of the city itself, however, and I doubt it'll be all that simple to pull off."

"Perhaps not, but we have an advantage - or we will, at any rate," I smile peacefully, "Which is why we need to get the first clear of Wolf Lord's Remains as soon as possible."

"Meaning?" Jade nudges me on.

"There's an item I need to get which will allow us to take over a small mansion a few minutes walk away from here - and we can make that our Guild Headquarters," I reveal cheerfully, "That's about all I know on the matter, but once we have a permanent residence, all sorts of options will open up to us."

"Guild housing? Sweet," Jupiter laughs, "Do I get my own room?"

I shrug, "Priority will be for Officers, but I can make an exception for you, for the time being, assuming we have rooms to spare. As I said, I'm not sure of the details, only that it's possible to take ownership of the place if we get the hidden Legacy. It's not called Wolf Lord's Remains for nothing: According to the lore, he used to be the City Lord in charge of Meteo City, and he spent most of his time at a small lodge in the forest as opposed to his family mansion in the city."

"So, he was a Crazy Dog Guy?" Jupiter jokes, "He must've smelled awful."

"Sounds like it," Jade snickers, "Won't lie, being surrounded by a sea of puppies sounds fantastic though."

"I'll pass on that," Angelus frowns, "Being mauled by wolves took a lot of the appreciation I have for dogs out of me."

"Fair," Jade shrugs, "I'm not about to judge."

"That's the last reason, in any case," I conclude, "Though I'll admit that having Arevas buried somewhere nearby in Fander Field presents a serious issue that we'll have to account for in the future. I don't want to have to deal with a repeat of today's events."

"What are we gonna do about that?" Windy wonders.

"No idea," I raise my arms in defeat, "Our upcoming confrontation with him may provide some answers, assuming we're able to walk away unscathed. To be honest, I don't fancy our chances of dealing with him permanently, but so long as we can keep his influence suppressed while we're still operating here, that's as far as we need to go. There's an almost zero chance that we'll be able to kill him for a very, very long time - especially if a fucking Dragon Knight couldn't be bothered to do it."

"Whose bright idea was it to build a city on top of a super-powerful demon's prison, anyway?" Jupiter airs a question to nobody in particular.

"Someone who either didn't know any better, or who knew exactly what they were doing, would be my guess," Angelus offers an explanation, "Considering the kind of influence and tactics that Arevas has employed so far, if his agent could become powerful enough as to basically take over the city from the inside, what's to stop him from creating that settlement in the first place so he'd have ready access to patsies?"

I go silent at that. I have to admit that it certainly sounds plausible, definitely like something a bored, imprisoned Archdemon looking to make his escape would do, but I'm not sure if there wasn't a city already here, considering that Arevas was already based in the area.

"Let's go meet up with Miss Leovoldt and Henna," I clap my hands on my thighs, and push off the bench.

Stone Arsenal, Market District, Meteo City

Henna

To her relief, the forge area itself is relatively untouched, but a cursory glance at the interior of the shop itself tells a very different story, the door ripped halfway off of it's hinges, the display furnishings smashed and all the items contained within stolen, even her Uncle's old shield, once hung up as the pride of Stone Arsenal, is missing, leaving a rather telling outline of it's absence on the wall upon which it always used to hang. Even as a child, that shield was always there, and to see it gone sucks what little soul her family had imbued into Stone Arsenal left out of the building, leaving it alien and cold.

"All things considered, it could be worse," the Panoplast girl accompanying Henna mutters. A sentiment she doesn't entirely agree with - this place has been sullied and hollowed out by Geronil's lackeys - it's no longer the home in which she was born and raised, and even having recently resolving herself to walk her own path, apart from her father, seeing Stone Arsenal in this state wounds her heart.

"Hey," Ingrid taps Henna's shoulder, "You can always rebuild, don't let it get you down. A couple hours and some new furniture, the place'll be as good as new."

Henna sighs, clenching her fists tightly, "That's not really the point..."

"If you say so," she shrugs, "Just saying, you're a blacksmith, yeah? Nothing stopping you from recovering if you put your mind to it. All you need is some fire and materials to make something of it - think of it as a clean slate."

Henna turns her head to regard the cold, messy forge, considering. After a moment, she nods, "Yeah. 'spose so."

The blacksmith has to admit, that despite the insensitivity of Ingrid's words, she still has a point. After all, she did decide to embark on a new path, did she not? Clinging too tightly to the past would only serve as shackles to slow her down, even if forgetting it entirely is simply not something that Henna can muster the will to do. Moreover, she could feel that Silver would likely say something along the same lines if he were here right now, though perhaps a little less bluntly. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.

However, her decision to learn the ways of combat run in contrast to that possibility, and though she feels close to coming to a full realisation, there's still one final piece missing from the puzzle. With Henna's mind abuzz with speculation as to what else she needs to reconcile the two halves of herself, she leaves her borrowed sword by the door and makes a token effort to clean up the damages inflicted upon the shop's interior, and though Ingrid wasn't asked, she decides to chip in regardless, perhaps for the sake of having something productive to do.

Picking up a forgotten small letter-opener, made of extremely common iron that's prone to rusting, Henna inspects her work and finds it exceptionally lacking, a small hairline crack running along the spine which is almost imperceptible. She was trying to sell this junk? It'd be more worthwhile to melt it down and turn it into a couple of nails.

Fuelled by shame and suppressed anger, Henna violently throws the flawed blade at the wall, the metal shattering apart into two, long jagged shards and spinning apart. 

"You alright there, Henna?" Silver's quizzical voice comes from the doorway, at the head of his compatriots.

"Feeling stuck," the smith grunts, "Like I took a step forward and fell flat on my arse."

"I recommend standing up," he replies blandly, "In all seriousness, you're probably just getting nervous about our imminent confrontation with Geronil. He's been the bogeyman of your existence for half your life, and now you're at a point where you can actually take the fight to him once and for all. I told you before, that you need something to work towards, but if you think the journey stops at taking down Geronil, then that's thinking too small. You've still got a long life ahead of you yet."

Wordlessly, Henna pushes herself up to her feet, standing a little prouder, "I'll give it some thought. In the meantime, I expect yer ready to finish this nasty business off?"

Smiling arrogantly, Silver nods, "Time to go kick a racist demon worshipper's teeth in."