131. Guildmates (II)

“Snow.” Mike was the first one to greet her as they stepped out of the room. He was picking dirt out of his finger while leaning against the wall. “You look nice, is that Angie’s new wardrobe that she has been working on?”

“How did you know?” Snow blurted out without realizing it. “Wait, she’s part of your guild.”

“Exactly.” With a snap of his fingers, he pushed himself off the wall. “Do you want to join my guild too?”

“Sure,” Snow unconsciously said without thinking. Her mind was a bit on auto-pilot, thinking about what she needed and got ready for. She didn’t know anything about the castle except for the little information she was given.

“You will?!” All three of them said in unison, startling her.

“You’re really going to join our guild?!” Mike had said with an excited tremor. He reached out, grabbing Snow’s arm.

“Oh my god.” Angie opened and closed her mouth, unable to say anything else.

“What?” Snow turned to face the three, unsure why they were so caught up.

“Do you really mean it by joining our guild?” asked Dairen. “I thought you didn’t want to join one.”

“Join what? A guild?” Snow mind quickly recalled the conversation, realizing why they were so caught up in the misunderstanding. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to join; she just didn’t think that she really needed to, but for the past two weeks, being stuck inside the tube made her realize that she didn’t have that many connections that could pull her out when she needed help. Even if Mike and Dairen were her friends, if they weren’t here, she would have died...again.

The company Dragon Express wasn’t quite tight-knit but was more business-based. Making it a bit of a cold transaction between the employer and the company. They weren’t cutthroat, and there were vast amounts of privileges, but there were very rare instances of an employer being thrown into a dungeon. Snow was the first.

“Yea.”

“Well, with a few stipulations.”

“As in?” Mike was getting excited.

“I just want to be a personal advisor for the Gold Phoenix guild, and because I have connections to the Dragon Express, I can’t do much guild related things.”

“Deal,” Mike hurriedly said, “but there are a few things I would want from the guild.”

“Like?”

“We want to be able to use your photo and become our poster girl for the guild.”

“Sure.” Snow didn’t really think it would affect her work anyways, they were just using her picture.

“You must come to the major meetings once a week.”

“Done, but you need to give me a heads up when and where.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll bug you unless you can’t make it. Also, all final orders that have to do with mobilization of the guild rest with Dairen and I.”

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“I know.” Snow didn’t really want to control the guild. She just wanted a connection with a guild she believed would become a powerful force in the Player community. Also, to protect her during a dangerous time as she was not an all-powerful being. Having back up wasn't a bad idea. She had the feeling that connecting with the Players with a more hands-on approach could benefit the Dragon Express. As a field agent, there was nothing against joining a Player’s guild, but there were a few things that she couldn’t do.

Mike stuck out his hand, waiting for Snow to take it.

“Are you sure you want this?” Dairen asked again, but he didn’t pull back his hand. He was waiting for her.

For a moment, Snow hesitated. She had a few nagging dark thoughts that put her on hold. Just as quickly as it came, it went away.

“Yes. Just send me the contract when you get the time.” She reached out, shaking his head.

Mike shook her hand a bit too vigorously for her, but she didn’t let go.

“Welcome to the Gold Phoenix guild.”

“Thanks,” Snow said, feeling a bit better.

Angie squealed in delight, jumping up in the air a few times. She pumped up her hand and ran a few circles around her. “I can’t believe this! Snow’s part of our guild now! I’m going to tell everyone!” She ran off, squealing in delight.

“By the end of the day, everyone’s going to know Snow joined.” Dairen smiled; a bit happy that she decided to join the group.

“Well, the guild notifications are already updated anyways, it’s not like they won’t know right now.”

“Guild notifications?” Snow tilted her head.

“Did you get some kind of pop up screen?”

“Pop up screen?” Snow wondered what they were talking about. She didn’t get any notifications that she could think of or understood what they were talking about.

“You don’t have one?” Darien contemplated seriously on what was going on.

“Holy shit,” Mike cursed, “She’s over level seventy-nine.” He gaped at Snow and back at her and the screen that popped up for Mike to read.

Dairen did a double-take, snapping towards Mike with disbelief.

“We haven’t even reached level forty-five yet, and the highest Players level is around fifty-six. That level is held by Granite from the Raleon guild- one of the three heroes.”

“How high do you think her status is?” Mike whispered over towards Dairen. “All I can read is that she has six times the amount of magical ability than an average mage and a healer. Her attacks are definitely three times stronger...oh god, we hit the jackpot.”

Mike was almost skipping with glee.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the other high-level natives are just as strong as her. I think Tommy and Tamaki were around seventy-nine, but their strength is stronger than Snow though their magical power was quite pitiable. Her magical power reservoir is impressive.”

The two were debating as if she was not there in front of them.

Snow silently listened, trying to learn more about the Player’s so-called interface. From her understanding, she thought of a video game that she had learned from Dairen himself when he explained it to her.

Mike rummaged through the item bag that he pulled up on his watch, pulling out unique platinum tags with a gold chain around it. He handed it to Snow, who took it and observed it. She had seen these cards before on all the Player’s necks and even wrist. She had never gotten to ask what they were because she assumed it was a trend. Turning it around, she saw a golden phoenix symbol engraved into the platinum tag.

“You just need to inject your magic to get it registered to you.”

Snow injected her magical power. It absorbed it as quickly as possible, and an image of her face appeared on it. What interested her was that there were certain things written on the tag itself.

Name: Snow

Guild: Gold Phoenix

Job: Dragon Express Field Manager and Advisor for Gold Phoenix guild

Title: Saintess, the ice queen, the crazy black dragon armor lady, dragon lady, quiet one

Position in Guild: Advisor and poster girl for Gold Phoenix

Address: No temporary place has been designated. Temporary lives at the Atlantis Camp.

Gold Savings: 145,948 gold

Info:

An awakened native that has a high level of magical powers. Gifted and blessed by the God of Light and Darkness, she can resurrect the dead. Not many facts are known about her.

The information scrolled by. Snow was impressed that it had even tracked her place of residency.

“Are these something like a dog tag?” Snow asked, putting it around her neck. The dog tag magically shrunk in size to fit around, and the tag itself turned into a thin metal plate with the Gold Phoenix symbol on it. Even though Dragon Express had a way to identify Players and Hunters, it wasn’t as detailed as this. Most of the time, it was their normal driver license cards with a few added class bonuses and guild associations, but that was it.

“Yea, all the Players in every guild, have one. Our blacksmiths and magic castors created these so that we can identify each other if we die. It will have the amount of gold and items collected over time to be sent back home so we live a better life. Plus, our memory of this world will be gone, so this is like our honey pot to ourselves. Sometimes, we lose our guild cards. These dog tags will change shapes to a full platinum card allowing for a quick identification.”

“Impressive.”

“Anyways, I’m glad you are with us.” Mike beamed.

“Same,” said Snow.

“By the way, has anyone seen Rye?” Mike asked.

“The vampire?” said Snow. Thinking about it, she hadn’t seen him the whole time.

“Yea.”

“No.”

Dairen shrugged. “I haven’t seen him since the last raid, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he tagged along. His own vampire clansmen are in trouble, it wouldn’t make sense if he doesn’t join.”

“True, still, it would have been nice if he popped up a few times to help us here and there.”

“Just leave it be,” said Dairen. He was meticulously reading over all of Snow’s files on his interface that Snow couldn’t even see. “We’ll see him when we need him the most.”

“True.” Mike was grateful for Rye's spontaneous help at times.

Throughout this whole dungeon dive, she had forgotten all about Rye. Even looking through the camera, she didn’t even see a speck of his appearance once, which made her wonder if he was still with them. Tommy, Red, Mr. Everrett, and Tamaki couldn’t come with them on this raid as they were assigned to protect Heather and the camp.

“Let’s go.” Mike brushed the conversation aside. “We need to have a celebration for your acceptance to the guild.”

“Now? But we need to be ready for any possible attacks.”

“I don’t think we will have any. Plus, you got out of that cage. A little bit of fun won’t hurt.”

Mike sly grinned, “I know we could ask Captain Gilmore to fork over some good food and drinks for all the problems we had to go through.”

“Good idea,” Dairen said with a hint of mischief as the two were concocting a plan that made Snow a bit worried.