Aaron sat in a conference room on the upper floors of the Avalon Guild Headquarters. He was situated at the front of the room, with Yoona standing and giving a presentation. She was just setting up as they looked at the fifty people slowly settling inside the large room. Aaron was a member of the Round Table, just like Yoona was. It was just a fancy way of saying they were one of the co-founders of the guild.
"Welcome, everyone." Yoona spoke loudly, "If you're in this room, then you're invited to be the first starting members in our guild. We have already talked to the developers and reserved our Guild name for the game's launch. Whether you are here because of a colleague, or a friend of a friend, each of you has already gone through the recruitment process long ago. Everyone here is a well-renowned player in their own respective games, but the competition will be even bigger than before."
Yoona had a little clicker, which she would present her slides.
"We don't discriminate on age, but you are required to be over eighteen to sign our guild contract. This contract will include a five-hundred thousand dollar starting salary for each of you, with a few exceptions. The contract length will be over the span of six months, which you can then renegotiate with us depending on your performance."
"Is there a reason for this?" Someone in the room asked.
"Yes, I will answer that question." She replied, "Each season of the game is divided into six-month time frames. We learned from their site that every six months, the game will usher in a new huge update. Whether that be a weapon or skill rebalancing, new additions to previous floors, or curving out newer floors, the Season 1 ranking from PvE and PvP content will be solidified. This means that all achievements will be recorded, and that would give us a gauge on how to conduct your next salary."
"Aren't contracts usually a year?" another one asked.
"This is because of the time dilation in the game."
"Oh," He nodded, "Right."
A person raised his hand high into the air.
"Yes?" Yoona pointed.
"My name is Seungwoo." He replied, "Do you offer scholarships or any of the sort?"
"We do." She nodded, "You've talked to our Korean branch Guild Leader?"
"Yes, I've spoken with Woo-jin."
"He will give you all the details in your contract." Yoona replied, "I'll make sure to talk to him about it."
"Thank you." Seungwoo nodded.
"Moving on." Yoona clicked the remote to move onto the next screen, "The reason there is a fifty member guild cap is because most of the early game content can be divided into four-man statics, and eight main raid groups. We will have ten statics and five raid groups. The ten members leftover are our PvP focused players, along with some open agents. Please look at this graph to get acquainted with your static."
Aaron looked at the board, which divided each of the members into groups of four and eight. Two statics consisted of a raid group. He was with Yoona since they were both members of the Round Table. The last two members he was acquainted with quite well. The player named Ace, a top Chinese player, and a player name Kuro. She was an assassin highly ranked in PvP in Dragonstorm Online. That was their first primary static.
Their second primary static group contained Lee Woo-jin and Zhang Wei. Lee Woo-jin was the leader of the Korean branch, whilst Zhang Wei was the leader of the Chinese branch. Both members of the Round Table. Their two remaining statics would be a person named Seungwoo Kim and a girl by the name of Si Long.
"Hey," Aaron turned to Yoona, "Why are some names their actual names, and some their in-game names?"
"Incorrect." She replied back, "We only use their in-game names."
"So some of them just use their real name?"
"Yes. That's not a mistake."
"Right. I see." Aaron chuckled.
There was commotion amongst the people, but it soon died down as several hands were raised in the air. The room was filled with members ranging mostly from eighteen years old to around thirty. There were only a few old souls, above the age of fifty.
"What if we are unsatisfied with our static?" Someone asked.
"You are welcome to submit any complaints during the start of each month." Yoona replied, "You may also void your contract early if you wish to join other guilds. However, we do reserve the right to punish you according to our current contract. If a guild would like to exchange certain players or buy you out from us, we can also set that up, however, we will not be the ones to first initiate a buyout."
"Will there be an increased cap in the guild?"
"Not during Season one, we were told." Yoona shook her head.
"I have a friend that wants to join, is there going to be sister guilds?"
"We're still thinking about that." Aaron chimed in.
"Do we have any Alliance guilds?"
"We have a few." Yoona replied, "We're currently allied with guild Nation, Wonderland, and Sleeping Forest."
"Will there be any guild-backing for our world progression?" A female voice from the back stated, "How will access to the market work?"
"We are partnered with Grind Company." Yoona replied, "We also have some resource and gold farmers of our own. You can buy their products at a reduced price. They will match the current markets. We will have a guild board with interesting items or resources to buy that are available to us. Make sure you get the Avalon Guild App on your phone or NeuralDive helmet."
"Do we have a plan for our release?"
"Yes." Yoona clicked her remote, "We have insider knowledge that the first floor clear condition is time-based. The first floor is medieval-themed, but with magic-infused technologies. The first event is a Blood Moon hunt event. During the end of the month, the blood moon will arise and spawn a demon horde that will ravage the land. We're here to cull the mobs."
"So, we just prepare for the invasion?"
"We will be claiming land in key positions and building fortresses to defend against the onslaught. The mobs will drop blue fusion crystals, which can be used to upgrade gear amongst other things. They are the primary source for upgrading items in this iteration of the game, and the more mobs we destroy, the more money we can make selling them."
"What's the clear condition?"
"We just have to survive for three days."
"I don't understand." Someone frowned.
"This event is meant to cull guilds that haven't set up a main territory on the first floor. Usually, the higher you climb on the tower, the less safe it is and the more resources you need to burn to progress. This is why securing a good guild location on the first floor is essential for future expansion. We can control areas that create gold value, lend the land to farming companies, and then expand up from there. We might have to fight other big guilds for land when the invasion comes, as they will use that opportunity to attack other guilds as well."
"Ah, so the smaller guilds can look to take over land from the bigger ones whilst the invasion is happening, and the big ones have to secure good land to farm for materials to fund their members to advance to the next floor," Seungwoo spoke.
"Yes." Yoona pointed, "Correct."
"How does land acquisition work?" Someone else asked.
"You buy the plot with gold, and you have to pay a monthly fee. You have to readily defend your land, as once you buy a plot, there will be a Nexus Crystal that will spawn. The crystal has high health, so it can only be destroyed by raiding, but that's why we are partnering with Grind Company. They will protect our land whilst our raiders progress, and we will give them exclusive rights to the land we own."
"What if a guild monopolized the first floor's land?"
"Only some land is allowed to be bought. There are sections where it is open land, which cannot be claimed by anyone."
"I see." The person nodded.
"What about the bosses?" A female asked, "Do we know any secret bosses or main bosses?"
"The main boss of the floor is Blood Fox Yima." Yoona replied, "After the three-day invasion event, Blood Fox Yima will spawn randomly on the first floor. Anyone who kills this boss will unlock the title [Blood Moon Expert] and the second floor will unlock. As for secret bosses, we don't know. Perhaps they will be in fixed dungeons or portal dungeons."
"Do we know what time the game will be released? Their website only shows the day, not the specific time."
"They will reveal it on the last day, but we already know it's 8 AM. There will be three locations you can spawn at. Three cities near each other, to spread the players out. The map size is large. The size of several countries."
"Any locations we know right off the bat?" Seungwoo posed the question.
"We have four key locations. The first one is Fort Kover. It contains a dungeon called Fortress of Farseer. This is the closest to the spawn locations, and it contains useful weapon drops. It is a fixed dungeon, so once you find it, please notify everyone else. You only get weekly rewards from this one, but it is a great dungeon to get accessories."
"Sounds good." He nodded.
"Does anyone have any extra questions?"
"There are only four members of the Round Table here, where are the rest?" Someone asked.
"They are currently busy managing other games. We will divert our guild resources and turn Perfect World our main game soon enough, but it is too early to be putting all our players into one basket."
"Fair enough." The person mumbled.
"Would that be all the questions?" Yoona prefaced.
This time, no hands were raised into the air.
"Alright, then I will end this presentation off with the things we have just discussed. Burn this into your memory, as once launch day comes, everyone will be too busy to answer any questions."
Yoona clicked through the slides one by one. Pictures of the landscape, the floating cities, and the fortresses could be seen. Several of the monsters were shown, including Blood Fox Yima. It had three tails, with crimson fur and glowing red eyes.
"We will provide you with your own gaming office on the upper floor of our building, and we will provide food for the first three days, delivered to your space. If you have any more questions about the game, please notify your branch leader, and he will give you guides tailored to your specific needs. If you want to enter this game blind, that's also fine. The game offers a lot of tutorials that will get you acquainted as you play along."
As the presentation ended, everyone shuffled out of the room until there were only four left. Yoona, Ace, Aaron and Kuro. Ace was only twenty-four, but his demeanour was quite chill and laid back. He was a joker-type player, often experimenting with fun builds or interesting mechanics and making them work. Kuro was twenty-one, and her playstyle was quite straightforward. She focused on mechanics alone, often playing high skill-cap classes and beating others with raw skill alone. She was around the same age as Ace.
"Whats our composition looking like?" Ace asked, "I play Knight class?"
"Yoona will be our Support, so you can play our Frontline," Aaron replied.
"What about you, Kuro?" Yoona asked, ruffling her head. They were close friends, but the height difference between them was pretty big. She had a small build but that didn't detract from her very volatile personality. She swatted Yoona's hand away, but eventually gave up as she realized that Yoona would never give in.
"Assassin, duh." She replied, "Stop that."
"You're just so cute," Yoona giggled, "Did you dye your hair again?"
She had silver hair, but her black roots were growing back.
"Stop asking, you witch," Kuro replied, "I forgot how annoying you were."
"Guess things never change." She hugged Kuro lightly.
"Fuck me." She grumbled.
"I'll be a fighter type class." Aaron replied, "Or a sword type, or maybe a mage."
"Well, you can decide when the game comes out." Yoona replied, "We have a Support and Tank, so we should be good to fit in two damage dealers. As long as the mobility isn't super low, we should be fine."
"You hear about the news lately?" Ace chimed in, "Game is going wild overseas. Big companies buying out building in New Korea to set up their teams. They make contracts with the government to play their game."
"I heard," Aaron nodded, "I'm excited."
"We meet back up in-game later?" Ace asked, "Kuro and I will be playing duo until we find first dungeon."
"Sounds good to me."
Yoona gave a thumbs up, "Get some rest and reset your sleep schedules before then. We'll be there for the game release."
Paypal
Thanks you for this chapter!