Finally, the death penalty duration expired.

Tenkawa Ouma, or Leon sighed in relief. These 24 hours seems too long for him. Almost 100 guild members including himself got wiped out yesterday, making them unable to logged in because of the death penalty.

He couldn't help but worried his Guild Base got raided clean when he was absent.

Fortunately, his position in the Rosenweil Kingdom is not low. Leon is a Templar, a 3rd tier Jobclass that was specially baptized by their Pantheon order.

By the native's perspective, his status was equal of a Baron. He has the right to assembles troops in his name and he has invested a great deal of effort to raise more than 30000 excellent native Knights and Wizards to protect his base.

Unlike Stellar Wing Guild who got their base ransacked by Black Phantom, his Genesis Guild is well funded and not stingy for recruiting armies. Even Black Phantom won't be able to breach his guild base easily.

Sure enough, he did not find the news of Genesis Guild's base was breached in the forum.

The first time Leon do after logged in was to secure funds. He accessed a trading site and purchase a lot of golds using his bank balance. It was an affiliate site of the Gaia Corporation that allows the players to trade their gold coins in the game with real money.

Real Money Trading!

Leon purchased a lot of gold coin deposits made by players.

With the current ¥1 : 2 average conversion rate, he spent about ¥30 million (plus 1% tax) to get 60.000.000. These gold coins will be used to maintain his Genesis Guild as well as the development of their Guild Base. The maintenance also includes paying the salary of his guild members.

He was not playing the game just for fun.

Leon had used salary to entice players so they would join into his guild. In a sense, Genesis Guild is a pseudo company where he was the employer and his guild members is the employees.

The salary for each member is in the form of a Guild Contribution Point (GCP), and this GCP can be exchanged further for either gold coins with an exchange rate of 1:1, or various resources in the Guild Treasury.

The amount of GCP they will get each month was not fixed and based on their contribution in the guild.

For example, a normal member who just join for fun only receives about ±10.000 GCP per month (equal ¥5.000), while the core members, like Hecate receives about ±1.000.000 GCP per month (equal ¥500.000).

♦♦♦

 

Leon appeared in the Rosenweil Town City Square, near the Save Crystal when he logged in.

He immediately checked his inventory, secretly praying the item that he dropped was not Skill Assimilation Orb. But alas, his hope was splashed with cold water. No matter how he scrolled his inventory, he did not find that specific item.

"DAMN!"

Leon was indignant.

It would be fine if it were another item that were dropped. At most he can buy another to replace it. But Skill Assimilation Orb was different, since it can't be bought with money.

Once again, his hatred towards the hateful Black Phantom intensified.

But what can he do?
The item has been lost and will not return no matter how he rages.

"Just wait, Black Phantom! I'll definitely make you pay for this!"

Leon clenched his teeth and decided to set aside his anger temporarily. For now, regrouping with his guild member takes priority.

He ignored the surrounding people that was startled with his loud curse and used a certain skill.

This is a skill that the players automatically get when they joined a guild that owns a base. By default, this skill does not appear in the Player's Skill List, but it can be found in the Guild Interface.

Shortly after he used the skill, he appeared inside his guild base, the Brynhildr Fort.

The fort and the town inside it was gifted by Rasca IV, the current King of Rosenweil Kingdom when he was inaugurated as a Templar. He had the right to govern the resident inside the town, setting up a tax and steer its development. But that's for another matter.

He silently waited for his guild core members to arrive in the Conference Room.

♦♦♦

 

Besides the leader, Genesis Guild have a total of 7 core members who act as its pillar.

They are players with various races that have been promoted to their respective 3rd tier Jobclass and act as Leon's right hand.

• Emilia, the Ranger - Elf.
• Rena-cchi, the High Priestess - Human.
• Astrid, the Paladin - Draconid.
• KA✰ZU, the Shadow Assassin - Werewolf.
• Shuna, the Warmonger - Dwarf.
• Grim, the Trickster - Werecat.
• Hecate, the Archwitch - Human.

They were called as the Genesis Guild's Seven Stars.

In Ascension, players can chose to start from 5 different races. Each of the races have their respective pros and cons.

1. Human:
   STR: 1x | AGI: 1x | VIT: 1x | INT: 1x | DEX: 1x | LUK: 1x
   The most versatile of the race. They have no weakness, but also no particular advantage either.
2. Elf:
   STR: 0.5x | AGI: 1x | VIT: 0.75x | INT: 1.25x | DEX: 1.5x | LUK: 1x
   1. Easy to master magic and archery, but weak at physical melee.
   2. STR stat effectiveness is halved, while INT and DEX stat effectiveness is enhanced.
   3. They have unique magic that only belonged to their race.
3. Dwarf:
   STR: 1.25x | AGI: 0.75x | VIT: 1.25x | INT: 0.5x | DEX: 2x | LUK: 1x
   
   1. Resilient and dexterous, but horrible at magic. Very good for blacksmithing.
   2. Can only be chosen by people with a height of ≤ 160cm.
4. Beastkin:
   (Werecat, Weredog, Werebunny, Werewolf...)
   AGI: >1.5x | LUK: 1x | Other Stat: Various
   
   1. Have various animal trait in their bodies, like animal ears and tails.
   2. They have various stat effectiveness according to the racial type. But mostly they were nimble and have sharp senses.
   3. Capable of transforming to their animal and hybrid form.
   4. Very vulnerable to silver.
5. Draconid:
   STR: 1.5x | AGI: 0.25x | VIT: 2.5x | INT: 1.25x | DEX: 0.75x | LUK: 1x
   
   1. A dragon-humanoid hybrid.
   2. Strong at physical melee, high regeneration, but their movement is slow.
   3. They have a tail and can be moved freely with the system assistance.
   4. Cannot swim, even if they can in real life.

From the 5 choice of race, Human is the most popular choice.

While it was true that the other races has many of its advantage, Human race also did not have any fatal shortcoming. This makes Human race very easy to maneuver.

They can became any Jobclass without much problem and they did not have many restriction for choosing their Subclasses. Many players, including Leon, Hecate, and Rena-cchi chose this race because of this reason.

As for the other races, they were more suited for the players that pursue specialization of their Jobclass.

For example, Elves were suited for the classes that uses magic or a bow as their weapon. The spell casted by an Elf is more powerful than the spell casted by a Human with the same INT stat. But in return, their STR and VIT efficiency is low so they weren't good in a melee combat.

By the way, Elves can't choose Blacksmith and Carpenter as their Subclasses.

♦♦♦

 

Fifteen minutes later. The door opened and the resurrected core members arrived one by one in the Conference Room.

As the moodmaker, Rena-cchi started by greeting everyone.

"Cyao! Everyone! Long time no see!" 

"What 'long time no see'? It's only yesterday we've went through with that disaster."

Emilia retorted with a dissatisfied expression.

Her mood was not bright ever since that day. She felt very humiliated every time she recalled how Black Phantom killed her after making her powerless with some kind of unknown skill.

"A day is still long! You should understand my frustration for being unable to login."

"A typical case of game addicted people."

KA✰ZU commented with a sneer in the side while Astrid, Shuna and Grim just quickly sit in their seat.

Astrid was not in the mood to talk, she felt the same with Emilia. Shuna sensed the atmosphere wasn't right and did not say anything, afraid if she would say something wrong. Meanwhile Grim only murmured 'Moron' in a low voice, but enough to be heard.

Leon only watched their interaction silently.

Alongside Leon, The Seven Stars' combat power were incomparable than most of the players in the Rosenweil Kingdom. Their strength elevated the Genesis Guild across the entire continent to a high position.

'But even with such a lineup, we are still got wiped out by Black Phantom!'

As their leader, he knows the best of their strength and weakness. The Seven Stars absolutely is not a weakling that can be snuffed with a single spell. Or it should have be.

But the reality says otherwise. His proudly guild members was rooted like cabbages in front of Black Phantom's spell.

'For now, I must think about the countermeasure.'

Leon had tasted his(?) power firsthand and understood clearly that his(?) power is not normal.

Hecate was the last one to arrive.

The moment the door opened once more, a girl with a delicate face appeared. Her blue shoulder-length hair gracefully swayed by the gentle wind. Her cutely appearance makes people want to hug and take her home.

She had petite build, enough to mistook her as a middle grade schooler. But, everyone in this room knows that this loli is already at a legal age to be snusnu-ed!

"HE~CA~TE~CHWAAN!!"

"Funyu~!"

Once again, attack of the oppai!

Everyone else in the room did not stop her and just looking with understanding expression. Rena-cchi seems very fond for cuddling this huggable loli. This fact is already widely known inside the guild.

Hecate herself was already given up about this point. It was pointless to say anything else to Rena-cchi.

Looking at this harmonious scene, even the gloomy atmosphere from Leon and the others started to melted away. It was similar to how people relieve their stress by seeing small animals like kittens or hamsters.

This was Hecate's importance in the guild. A strong mascot character that can bring everyone's smile.

"Looks like everyone has arrived. Let's starts the meeting now."

Leon slowly said as he rise from his seat.