Riveting Night silently watched the groups. Her own looked the most mature of the lot, as they had pretty much gone through hell and back. The groups under the Five Generals also looked like hardened veterans, as those 5 would certainly not be lenient.
In fact, she was the slightest bit proud of them having grown so much from the former 5 fools who knew nothing about the game to now being worthy to represent the apex of their guild who could train their own troops.
As for those led by Loving Aunt, they seemed to be… uncomfortable. The men were breathing roughly and trying to cover their third legs while the girls had clamped their thighs shut while they flushed deeply.
Those with Warm Spring gazed at the teen with respect and awe, at a level not far from worship. She radiated warmth and benevolence, making anyone who spent time with her come to view her as holy.
Those with Panty King also stood stoically, like trained warriors that had gone through the master courses of discipline. Aside from the panties they each wore on their head like a mask, they were…
Aside from the panties they wore on their….
Aside from the panties….
Aside from…
…
As for those with Wee Cunt, they were all just as stoic as those who went with Panty King. The only interesting to note here was that they had all cosmetically changed the lower-section of their armors to kilts and were currently playing bagpipes.
Riveting Night took this in and just nodded. She first turned to the 10,000 trainees and addressed them: "Now that you have all gained some rudimentary skill, you will spar with each other in a short tournament to show us how much you've learned."
"You will be brought to the Guild's Training Hall for this purpose. When only 16 of you are left you will proceed to have a final fight in the Guild's Arena for all our members to watch you. Once the rankings have been confirmed, your rewards and treatment in the guild will be distributed accordingly. In your own interest, I advise you to do your best and show what you have learned."
Riveting Night looked at Tunder. "As for you, your reward shall be a specially customized weapon by Draco. Make sure to give Sublime Notion your preference for weapons once the tournament is done."
Tunder was not too sure of the value of this, but if Riveting Night felt it was worth first place, then its value could be small. Not to mention that Tunder's sharp insight and perception allowed him to notice the shocked glances from the Five Generals and the other trainers.
He bowed reverently in front of the scary woman. "Thank you for your grace."
Riveting Night simply nodded. "I shall take my leave then. Before I go though…"
Suddenly, the complacent Panty King and Wee Cunt felt the aura of death approach them. Instantly they tried to flee while screaming for mercy, but such a word was meaningless in front of Riveting Night.
"HELP! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! VICE-GUILDMASTER SUBLIME SAID-"
"I WUS JUS TRYNTA EDUCATE THESE LADS ON FINE-"
Their pleas were cut off brutally as two of Riveting Night's knives found their way into the backs of their skulls, coated with light energy too, making sure it was an insta-kill with all her light-attack bonuses.
The other core members simply smiled, while the 10,000 trainees were clever enough to keep their mouths shut and pretend like they hadn't seen anything. After cleaning out the trash, Riveting Night summoned Luxia.
To the awe of all onlookers, trainees, and general onlooking noobs alike, Luxia flashed into sight above Riveting Night. The madwoman simply leaped onto the Light Phoenix's back instead of making her land, to not waste a single moment.
"Just fly anywhere, don't stop." Riveting Night requested gently.
Luxia affirmed her command with a shrieked and took off, only a streak of light showing that the lightspeed phoenix had passed through at all. Eva pulled down her hood and sighed.
She saw the world blur around them like a poorly painted panorama, the motion blur at Luxia's speed being something beyond her brain's processing ability.
However, that didn't matter to Eva as she wanted the distraction anyway. After taking care of most of her duties, she finally had some time for herself. Apart from needing to sort out the Three Pinnacles and their place in Umbra, she was technically free for a while.
As such, she finally began to ponder over the pressing issue that had weighed on her since Draco left for the Unique Quest. It was how to gather 1 billion platinum to be eligible for her own Divine Class.
She had naturally gone to check the price, hoping that hers would be cheaper than his. So far, the AI had openly shown her favoritism towards Draco, yet ironically, as if to achieve some kind of balance, it had also taxed Draco whenever possible. Unfortunately, the cost for the Divine Classes specifically created for her and Draco each cost 100 times what Rina had paid for hers.
That was also how she knew her class would be called Celestial Prime, as that was the designation. She had seen the details about Draco's class and her soulmate had told her about the effects of his transformation the last time he had logged out. Naturally, Eva was excited to get her own, for it held many benefits.
Unlike Draco, Eva had received top-tier training in her bloodline from a young age. As such, she didn't need the assistance the Divine Class gave in comprehending her bloodline, its techniques, and best utilizations as much as Draco did.
However, she still needed it to unlock her Celestial Maiden Inheritance further, as well as help her gain more of an understanding of her General Aspect.
As one could easily piece together from the details, their Divine Classes were basically having their General Aspect permanently activated, even if only at 1% of the usual potency at Rank 1.
Eva was unsure how much it would increase at Rank 2, but it could only get better. This would allow her to train her body to get used to the drain/strain the General Aspect had on her and to hopefully fish out the other hidden powers in their bloodlines.
What, you thought they were limited to three inheritances? Hehe, naïve!
The scope of the power lying dormant in their bloodline was unfathomable. Even their original selves, Lucifer and Amaterasu, did not control more than 10% of their power at best, much less Draco and Eva.
As such, the Divine Class was a must for her, alas the price to pay for it was simply too steep. If the Training Hall accepted Aether Crystals or bartered items, Eva would never have had this issue, even if it used the old era standard.
In terms of fixed capital or assets, many powers had above and beyond the amount of money needed. However, such things used currency only, and to gather the sum in one fell swoop was a very hard thing to do.
Heck, Umbra could even claim to be the richest entity on the main plane in terms of the quality of their fixed assets. However, their liquid funds were too scarce, the small that had been built up over time had been drained away with the core members' Class Ups.
It couldn't be helped that the amount of movable cash between the major powers and the various countries was so poor, they were getting fleeced of their lives and belongings every 1,000 years by the Demons.
In fact, they were even lucky that the time in which players entered the game was but a few years off from the new Great War, so the world was at its peak… of course, peak here was used relevant to its soon to come downfall.
Eva had originally planned to make some secret trades with the other powers, or even take a loan from different powers until she hit 1 billion, but even if she asked the top 50 and they gave her every single penny they had lying around, it still wouldn't reach that amount.
Even the Merchant's Guild could only bring out up to 100 million platinum after a long period of acc.u.mulation, notwithstanding the various purchases and usages the group had for that money.
Eva sighed with irritation. She had gone through so many ideas on how to earn money, but none of them, no matter how obscure or outrageous, was enough to reach that sum, even c.u.mulatively without taking at least half a year for preparations. Even that was an ideal scenario without any setbacks or other external factors intervening.
Draco had simply lucked out, there were no two ways about it. The existence of the World's Merchant made sense to Eva, and the fact that it only appeared in old era locations was also a fine way to limit its accessibility to players, but for her to encounter it at the last second just like Draco...
She stopped hoping for luck. Eva meant no offense by this, but she and Draco were fundamentally different. She had been given everything she ever wanted in the previous timeline while Draco had been forced to work like a dog to make a name for himself.
Now, like someone who had lived frugally while working three jobs during their entire youth, he could retire on a yacht and live out the rest of his days in luxury thanks to the hard work he put in for the early part of his life, or in this case, the previous timeline.
She was the opposite. Her youthful life had been spent being pampered and given everything she needed, so while she had some level of skill, she simply did not have the reserves of someone who worked like a dog.
Her life - in this analogical scenario - was smooth-sailing from beginning to end, being 'averagely' rich the whole time. This was why she had fewer techniques and skills compared to Draco, even though their bloodlines were 1=1 in terms of quality and power.
Even worse, when she started this life, she did not quickly build a strong foundation while the playerbase was hapless like Draco had done, instead wanting to lay-low to pay him homage for the perceived betrayal of her previous timeline's self.
After they reconciled, she had spent her time taking care of the time-consuming tasks that would slow Draco's development, allowing him to build on his momentum to soar higher and higher, while she had remained stagnant.
She wasn't bothered by this sacrifice, obsessed madwoman as she was, but she still felt like she could have been a bit more proactive during the time she had. Still, Draco's presence was like a drug that dulled her senses and made her lax, not wanting to leave for even a bit to pursue her own path.
Eva mussed her green hair slowly as she contemplated many options. Her mind crossed through many avenues as Luxia blazed past countless continents and locations with ease, Eva not even being able to tell where they were.
Her mind fell upon Draco, wondering how her other half was doing in that Treasury, wondering if he was okay… would he find something good for himself there?
Suddenly, Eva felt like she was struck by a thunderbolt, so frazzled and paralyzed was she that her mind blanked. As she slowly came to, she just realized an option she had not even considered because she had only placed it at the back of her mind recently.
This idea was sparked by the word 'treasury'. Of course, it wasn't that she was planning to mosey in on Draco's quest and loot the place with him, but then again, did she need to?
Was the Refinement God the only one with a Treasury? No!
During the First Player Auction, a shocking and earth-shaking secret has been unearthed that could change the entire fate of the main plane.
It was the fact that the top tier powers did not lose all their wealth and resources as after every Great War since the beginning of the new era Instead they had hidden a large majority of it away in pocket realms or heavily-guarded treasuries while 'giving up' a token amount.
It was unknown whether the Demons knew that these powers were bullshitting, or even whether they cared, but this was a truth Eva and Draco had managed to glean carefully.
So, all Eva had to do, was find the location of one of those treasuries and loot them completely. She didn't need the resources or items, but just the money. The sheer amount of platinum hidden away in there should be more than what she needed.
And Eva knew the perfect target for this heist. A target that no matter what, would have all that she needed and feel the backlash the least.
The Merchant's Guild.
