Chow Li rested her hands on the top of the desk and looked directly at me. “So, what’s on your mind?”

  We were in her office at the Dragon Clan dojo. Sigrid was with us as well as Shannon, who apparently did more than just tend gardens and was serving us tea. The young cat girl seemed still new to it and every so often Chow Li would cut in to correct a minor error in her movements. People really took their tea ceremony seriously in these parts. I noticed one little error in the angle of the teapot during the pour and gently pointed it out, earning me a quizzical look from Chow Li and a grateful smile from Shannon.

  The strangest thing of all was that Madame Devorah was also there. I hadn’t seen her since the boy’s night out debacle but she’d been there in Chow Li’s office when we arrived, chatting like old friends. Which, as it turned out, they were. And more.

  I’d knocked on the door and Chow Li had invited us in, but I’d paused when I saw Devorah there with her. Devorah had turned her head to look at me and smiled.

  “I didn’t know you were busy. I’ll come back later,” I said.

  Chow Li had waved me in. “Not at all. Come, join us.

  “Daniel,” Devorah crooned. “What a nice surprise. And Sigrid too, hello.”

  “You know each other?” Chow Li said.

  Devorah’s mischievous smile widened. “Not in the way you probably think, but yes, we are acquainted.”

  “You never mentioned this,” Chow Li said.

  Devorah shrugged. “It did not seem pertinent.” Then she frowned at me. “Daniel, you promised to come visit us but we’ve yet to see that handsome face again. The girls are devastated. Especially after that new spectacle in the arena, they’ve all been watching the door in hopes you’ll walk through.”

  “I bet they are,” Sigrid had said.

  Chow Li gestured to the open chairs before her desk. “What’s on your mind?”

  I took the seat beside Devorah facing Chow Li where she sat behind her desk, with Sigrid on my other side. When I seemed reluctant to talk, Chow Li said, “You can talk freely in front of Devorah.”

  With a devious smile, Devorah lifted her skirt high enough to show her thigh. There was a strip of green cloth tied around it, identical to the one Chow Li had given me in this very office what seemed like forever ago.

  “You’re in the clan?” I said.

  “It doesn’t have to be worn on the arm, you know,” had been Devorah’s sly reply.

  “Madame Devorah is our eyes and ears in places the rest of us have trouble going,” Chow Li said. “Information gathering is her specialty.”

  “Among other things,” Devorah said, sipping her tea.

  Chow Li ignored her friend’s innuendo-laden remark. She rested her hands on the surface of her desk and looked directly at me. “So, what’s on your mind?”

  I took a deep breath and launched into the speech I’d been rehearsing in my head for a while. “Ever since we arrived a few months ago, we Players have been trying to find our place here. So far, it has been hit and miss.”

  “You seem to have done well,” she said.

  “I’ve been lucky, but not everyone has. Some Players haven’t managed to find ways of being productive so in their frustration and disappointment a lot of them end up being destructive.”

  “Mmm, indeed. It has gotten a bit better since your people started resolving personal conflicts in the arena, but the number of incidents of robbery, violence, and vandalism involving you, ah, Players, rises every week.”

  “I have an idea that might fix that,” I said. “Something that would help those people find ways to earn a living that contribute to the city’s prosperity, rather than suck away from it.” I took a page from Annabelle’s book and paused for dramatic effect. “A Players Guild.”

  “A Players Guild? What an interesting idea. How would it work?”

  “Like any other guild, really. It would be a place where Players could go to find jobs and improve their skills,” I said, nodding my thanks to Shannon as she filled my cup.

  “What kinds of jobs?”

  “Anything that needs doing. Players have all sorts of talents and skills, so the job could be anything from hunting the shadow wolves that are killing the farmers’ flocks to helping to rebuild the Cathedral to rescuing lost children. Curing the Blight in the forest could have been a job.”

  “I see,” she said.

  Many of the jobs I was talking about were ones that typically got assigned as quests, and Players were given meta-game rewards like Tokens or Gift Boxes from System for completing them. This plan of mine wouldn’t work if they no longer got these valuable quest rewards from Guild jobs, but I wasn’t worried about that. My experience with the game so far gave me a strong hunch that even though they were assigned in a different way, when Players took on a Guild job they’d still be assigned as System quests and they’d still get the usual System rewards in addition to what they were getting paid by the Players Guild to do them.

  Madame Devorah nodded in agreement. “There does seem to be no shortage of such things that need to be done. And we do now find ourselves in need of someone new to protect caravans bringing goods from the sea.” She raised her teacup to her lips. “I wonder if perhaps someone has been thinking ahead and laying groundwork this whole time,” she added with a wry smile before taking a delicate sip.

  “Yeah, Daniel,” Sigrid said. “How long have you been planning this?”

  “For a while,” I said. "I was just waiting until all the pieces came together."

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  The truth was I had been planning to have the Players Guild take over caravan protection duty when I added the Silver Sword’s banishment to the duel’s stakes, and I’d been planning the Guild itself for a lot longer than that. With the increase in trade bringing more and more such caravans traveling to and from the city, it promised a large and steady supply of work that was ideally suited for Players. Never having to deal with Flint and his goons again was just icing on the cake.

  “I can see how this would make life easier for everyone,” Chow Li said.

  “Exactly,” I said. “Everything can be tracked and structured. We can assess Players’ abilities to ensure they don’t take on a job that’s beyond them, and we’ll know who’s off doing what so that if they run into trouble we can send others out to find and help them.”

  Chow Li nodded. “That makes sense. And what would these Players get for taking on these jobs?”

  “Whoever posts the job would offer the reward. Could be gold, or items, or whatever has enough value to compensate the Players for taking on the mission.”

  “I see. And your guild would take a percentage of the reward as an operational fee, of course.”

  “Like any other guild,” I said. “When jobs come in, they will be ranked according to their difficulty so Players will know what they’re getting themselves into and choose tasks appropriate to their level.”

  “The harder the challenge, the greater the reward,” Sigrid said. “And the stronger the Player grows.”

  “Exactly.”

  It became clear to me a while ago that the game rewarded initiative but not all Players demonstrated much of it. It was up to the Player to seek out adventures, or at least interact with the environment and act upon clues that led toward hidden quests. People were too used to RPGs dumping quests into their laps and too many hadn’t put much effort into finding things to do themselves. The Players with the initiative to do that had progressed and would likely always be stronger as a result, but there were degrees of excellence. Currently, the divide was too sharp. If the lagging players could be cultivated, guided toward improvement, there’s no telling how good they could also become.

  That was the real reason why a Players Guild was needed. Sigrid got it.

  “I am guessing you’re here to ask for my help in getting the city’s approval to create the guild,” Chow Li said.

  “You see through me.”

  She smiled. “I think the council will be receptive to the idea. Because of your relationship with the elves they already know you and have a favorable opinion.”

  “I also trained with all the martial clans in the city, so I know their masters quite well, too,” I said.

  “As long as you can show that this new guild won’t harm the operations of the other guilds, it shouldn’t be a problem. What do you think, Devorah?”

  “A Players Guild would benefit the other guilds as well,” Devorah said. “It would provide a steady supply of materials for the crafting guilds, plus a greater demand for their goods. Having reliable security for their caravans will be a welcome thing, too.”

  “The other guilds will also like that your guild members will spend all that gold they earn in the city, improving business all around,” Chow Li said.

  I nodded enthusiastically. “Right? Plus, Players would have to agree to a code of conduct to be members, so if they go around causing trouble for the citizens they could face penalties ranging from being denied access to certain guild services or, if the problem is serious enough, banishment or being denied their freedom.”

  “That’s good,” Chow Li said. “You should play up how it will help curb the criminal behavior of idle Players in your presentation to the council and I don’t think you’ll have a problem selling this.”

  “Who, me? You expect me to present this to them?”

  “Who else?”

  “I was hoping you’d help there.”

  Chow Li gave me an indulgent smile. “It is your idea, Daniel. You will be responsible for the guild. I can get you an audience with the council, but it will be up to you to convince them.”

  Well that was just great. Last time I talked to the council it was about inviting a few elves for dinner and look what that turned into. I needed to maintain control of this particular train. Sigrid or Jane would be much better suited to the task, maybe I could persuade one of them to do it for me.

  “What will you use for a guild house?” Devorah said.

  “Well, I do have my eye on a certain piece of real estate.”

  “Oh?”

  I pulled a large, rolled up parchment from my inventory and unfurled it onto the desk. It was the design and blueprints I’d drawn up for transforming the Cathedral’s ruins into my guildhouse.

  “The Cathedral?” Devorah said. “Aren’t you the ambitious one.”

  I walked them through the plans. “The guild house will be more than just a place where Players come to find jobs. It will also serve as a place where Players can trade in any materials they collect and know they’re getting a fair price, and a bank where they can store their treasure and know it’s safe. On this side, there’s a tavern and an inn with rooms to rent above, and on this side it’s a training facility, where Players can work on improving their abilities and growing stronger so they can take on more and more challenging jobs.”

  “Very impressive, Daniel,” Devorah said.

  “You have put much thought into this,” Chow Li said.

  Not really. No point trying to explain that this is just the standard Adventurer’s Guild that appears in every fantasy dungeon-crawling isekai. I could never figure out why this world didn’t have one. It would have been a great help for Players, especially the ones who didn’t get onto a team and struggled to find their place here. So I decided to just go ahead and make one.

  “The central location of the Cathedral is ideal, being close to the magic gazebo,” I said. That was what NPCs had started calling the city’s teleportation circle once they started seeing Players appearing and disappearing under it. “I also like that it is close to the arena.”

  “So they can easily settle their disputes there?” Chow Li said.

  “Yes, but also because I was thinking it could be used as a training facility for the Players Guild as well.”

  Chow Li leaned back. “That would be a very hard sell.”

  It was time to play a trump card. At least I hoped it was a trump card, I still didn’t know what it was for but it seemed important.

  I pulled out the medallion Annabelle had given me with the arena’s pagoda embossed on it.

  Chow Li and Madame Devorah reacted much the same way Akari had when she saw it, confirming my suspicion that it was something important.

  “Where did you get that?” Chow Li said, picking up her teacup and taking a measured sip. Her voice was calm and level, but her teacup rattled against its saucer when she went to pick it up, and her hand was shaking ever so slightly when she lifted it to her lips. So the medallion was very important indeed.

  “Annabelle gave it to me.”

  “I see. Perhaps it would not be such a hard sell after all.”

  Now Devorah was giving me that same weird look I was getting from people all the time now.

  I remained quiet to let Chow Li ruminate over my plans. “It will take a considerable amount of capital to set it up,” she said after a while. “Where will you get it?”

  “Don’t worry about that,” I said. “I’ve got a plan.”

  “Of course you do,” Sigrid said.

  Up next: I want you