Rina was surprised by all the progress they had made so far. A lot had happened while she was away, and she felt a bittersweet feeling as she acknowledged this.
"Hmm... I see. Are any of you about to Rank up?" Rina asked them.
The four shared strange looks before staring at her. "Not yet. We hardly have enough time or means to gather huge amounts of experience. Although we are close, most of us still have five or so levels to go."
Rina smirked. "I'm already level 50. I just need to go through the procedures and I can Rank up!"
The four fellows nodded their heads. It would truly have been bizarre for Rina to not be at the Rank cap with how efficient her experience farming was compared to any of them.
Rina smiled when she saw their acknowledgment and made a suggestion. "Why don't we gather all the core members and take the Portal Center to another continent?"
"While there, I can quickly use the active skill I possess to farm all the Rank 1 monsters on that continent, allowing all of us to take the Rank up procedures at the same time."
The four fellows were startled by this suggestion, and Kiran inquired her reason for this. "Why so?"
Rina leaned into her sofa lazily and explained her rationale. "Firstly, it would be counter-intuitive to use it in our home continent. Putting aside whatever strange effects the skill might have, it might harm Umbra in some way if something went wrong."
"I would not like to be the one who ruined Draco's plans for the guild. So, if we do it on another continent, preferably one which is far away, we could pop in and out quickly."
"Secondly, taking all of us to the Rank cap with some experience to spare would allow us to Rank up together."
"Hehe, just imagine what would happen if all of the core members of Umbra became Rank 2 at the same time while the rest of the playerbase are struggling to reach level 40."
"Our guild's reputation would soar once again, and those recalcitrant guilds who try to prevent our expansion would have to think twice."
The four fellows listened to her reasoning and nodded. What Rina said was sound, showing that her time spent grinding had increased her calculative abilities, as well as her leadership abilities by a significant amount.
At this time, Sublime Notion shuffled her papers and neatly aligned them on her desk. She then spoke lightly, "That is not a bad idea, I approve it as well. Let me send a notice to all core members. I have already selected a perfect continent for us to abuse- *cough* exploit."
The Five Generals smiled when they heard Sublime's input. With her along, this meant that apart from Draco and Riveting Night, the topmost echelon of the guild would be heading out.
As for the Tradeskill members, they were also included. After all, they had normal classes but focused on their Tradeskills. They didn't have pure Tradeskill classes like Merchant King or Trainer, so they could also earn experience through combat.
With Sublime sending the message out, it took a very short time for all the core members of Umbra to arrive here. There were now 21 people who qualified as core members of the guild, and all but one of them were online.
Sublime Notion, Rina, Boyd, Cobra, Uno, Kiran, Rambunctious Buttlover, Dreary Traveler, Slim Fatty, Warm Spring, Silent Walker, Loving Aunt, Jada, Jade, Akainu, Sanji, Deployed Soldier, Money Lover, Happy Saint, Noble Writer, and Local Lord.
Money Lover could not participate and Local Lord was offline. This left only 19 of the core members free to take on this task, and they set out pretty quickly as they all had things to do.
They all paid to enter the starting town of the Vareas Peninsula. A single trip was 100 gold per person, but such money was a pittance for the current Umbra.
When they re-appeared, they were in a humble town that was actually located on a small island. This island was surrounded by water on all sides, but what made things interesting was the fact that it was part of an archipelago.
This was Vareas Peninsula. It had many small islands surrounding its territory, with one large mainland in the center.
Players who started here focused on maritime exploits, though they had very little progress. There was a reason why even at Rank 6, Umbra and co didn't bother much with maritime.
It was simply too hard and too uncertain. If one focused on it a little, they could quickly make so much gold from the abundant resources in the sea, but they could lose everything at the very next moment to the treacherous waters.
There were few guilds who remained on this island. Only about 0.2% of the playerbase resided here, and it was mostly those who were seamen in the real world, or those who lived in island countries like Madagascar and co.
The starting town they appeared in had a few players about, but most of them were not close to where Sublime and co stood. As such, they were easily able to go unnoticed for a short while.
Rina raised her staff and prepared to cast Ultimate Supernova, but Sublime stopped her. "Wait, let me make some preparations."
The other guild members were surprised by Sublime's words. What did she want to prepare exactly?
Sublime just smiled and redeemed 19 scrolls from the Guild Shop. As for UPs, Sublime had an unlimited amount, but that was due to her relationship with Riveting Night.
Even though it all came to a whopping 950 UPs - which was 950 gold - it made almost no difference to Sublime. However, she started sharing out the scrolls she redeemed to the other members, who inspected it quickly.
｢Double Experience Scroll – Consumable
Rank: Epic (100% effectiveness)
Effect: All combat and Tradeskill experience earned in the next 24 hours is doubled.｣
This startled the core members, but they eventually smiled wryly. This item would have normal players go mad, not only from its price, but its utility. After all, even Vita City-State only gave up to a 70% boost after 24-hour acc.u.mulation.
In essence, one needed to stay in Vita City-State for 24 hours to get the 70% experience boost, but this one scroll gave 100% exp boost for a whole 24 hours.
It wasn't that Vita City-State was inferior, it was that Vita was not made or constructed for this specific purpose. Just having that boost alone made the City-State slightly better, as it was free.
This Epic scroll would cost around 5000 gold when purchased from NPCs, but it was only 50 UPs from Umbra's Guild Shop. The members were enjoying a 99% discount rate!
Sigh, Umbra's members were truly pampered. Such items were placed there by Draco, Riveting Night or Money Lover. Draco occasionally would go out to rob- *cough* claim items from Rank 1 and Rank 2 shops then toss them in there.
He was too rich to need such things. Riveting Night even had the authority to rob… uh, claim any item from up to Rank 5 shops. As such, Epic items like these were placed there by her for such low prices.
Money Lover was the fill-in for them. As a Merchant King, one of his passives allowed him to buy any item for 80% off. As such, Sublime Notion allocated around 70% of their budget on him so that he could buy whatever was needed and sell it for a markup.
Whatever items the guild would need, Money Lover placed in the Guild Shop for dirt cheap prices. His passive also allowed him to sell anything for 80% higher, so he was the king of buying low and selling high.
His profits alone made up 80% of the guild's income, of which the Rank 7 Shop made 10% while Vita City-State made the remaining 10%.
At this point, the guild had even stopped serfs from submitting their farmed gold. They were too rich to even take those little scraps, so serf players of Umbra could use it to increase their own power and fight for a chance to become basic members.
As such, this little expenditure was nothing, and there were even better items in the Guild Shop. Now, almost every core member had - at least - 3 Epic items on their bodies.
As for Epic potions like Angel's Kiss and All-Sight, they also had enough UPs to buy a few. The only thing sucking away their money was the constant need for repairs.
Umbra's Tradeskill players had not yet reached Master Rank, so they couldn't repair Epic stuff. As for the NPCs who could, they naturally charged a hefty amount.
But that was inconsequential to the current proceedings. Everyone activated their experience scrolls with a smile. It was clear that Sublime was going all out.
If they were going to cause an international uproar by farming a whole Continent Zone, it best be worth it. Sublime wanted to maximize their profits, as they would not get a chance like this for a whole year.
Sublime Notion then smiled. "All core members with buff abilities, cast them on Rina."
The core members gulped. Sublime was truly an evil monster. With Rina's level and her weapon, the modifier would already allow her to deal a hefty amount of damage.
With even more buffs, she might be able to even kill the bottom-tier Rank 2 monsters, though it would be unlikely.
Still, everyone who had a buff skill that could stack cast it on Rina. Most of them were damage boosting buffs, as those were the type that were most useful in this situation.
After this was complete, Sublime nodded to Rina. "Please begin."
Rina's lips twitched. She wondered whatever Vareas Peninsula did to Sublime that she was this wicked, but how would Rina know since she missed the First Player Auction?
Vareas Peninsula Continental Council had severely pressured Zaine when her scheme had been brought out, and had even made plans to strike them had the Church of Light and War Maniac Pavilion not been bribed.
Thinking that they would go scot-free afterward? How could there be such a good deal in this world?
Rina began casting Ultimate Supernova. Due to the various buffs she had been given, the cast time had been reduced to only 12 hours instead of 1 day.
The members of Umbra used this time to go exploring around the peninsula, striking weak Rank 2 monsters with their strongest attacks and then fleeing. The aim was to reduce the health of these monsters for Rina to hopefully get a kill.
Naturally, their attacks dealt little damage, less than 5% overall. After all, they might be outstanding among Rank 1, but they could not handle Rank 2 monsters easily.
Only someone with stats, skills, and equipment like Draco could hope to do so. In fact, if it wasn't for their talent, these core members would have been killed to death for their foolishness.
Soon enough, 12 hours came to pass. What was truly interesting was that unlike the Legendary version, the Ultimate Supernova of the Divine Flamesear was not conspicuous.
No, even that would not fit to describe it properly. It was better to say that the Ultimate Supernova was hiding in plain sight.
This was made obvious when Rina completed her cast and the world shook. When people looked round to see what the hell was happening, they felt like their shadows were moving about rapidly.
Was the sun about to set? But wasn't it a bit too soon? It was only mid-afternoon, not yet time for the sun to go.
Many looked up to see what was going on, and their hearts leaped into their throats. They were subjected to a sight they would never forget.
The sun itself, the eternal star that lit up the world, was falling on them.
Before they could even process this and panic, it collided with the continent, exploding with intense fire that washed over all the islands in less than a second.
This fire passed over many NPCs and players harmlessly, stunning them. However, all the monsters above on land and below in the sea within this territory were cooked alive in a horrific way.
-6,000,000!