As usual, there was quite a crowd before the skyscr.a.p.er that was the Rank 7 Guild Hall. In fact, some enterprising fellows had long-since established businesses nearby to capitalize on the fame of Umbra's building to rake in profits.
Most of these businesses were restaurants and lounges, with a few hotels thrown in, catering to the players who refused to give up on Umbra's recruitment test and tried every day. Of course, passing via such a method would be almost impossible due to how strenuous Eva had set it up to be.
Ironically, there were even some bastardly fellows who had started using the test as a training regime, honing their skills with every attempt in order to reach a certain standard of skill. Some guilds had even started scouting those fellows to add them to their ranks.
Not that Eva ever cared about what those unaffiliated with Umbra did in their own time. She just ignored the crowd, slowly and stately entering the Guild Hall to see their unbothered secretary who, as usual, was playing solitaire on her PC.
Upon seeing the first Vice Guildmaster, she quickly closed her tab and rose to her feet, greeting Eva with respect. Eva simply returned the greeting and didn't bother to reprimand her in any way.
Not like she had any actual work to do, she was just down here to greet guests.
Eva took the elevator to the floor for the Guild Assembly Room. There was a chattering crowd within that were loosely organized, talking about the event they had just partaken in and the ill.u.s.trious rewards.
They spoke about the great performances of the various core members while theorizing about the sudden attack and disappearance of the Lady Boss. Once the players of Umbra saw Eva enter the room though, they immediately quieted down and arranged themselves properly.
As everyone aside the core members had perished at the hands of Rank 3 Void Devourers, they had been hit with serious debuffs. Those who had been killed had revived with a loss of 7 levels, -45% exp gain for 48 hours and a -65% to their stats for 24 hours.
However, the members of Umbra were not bothered by this. Waiting out the 48-hour exp limitation and the stat debuff was merely at the level of a mild annoyance. As for the 7 levels lost, that was quite a problem but nothing they couldn't resolve in time.
This was the difference between the majority of the top players in the last timeline and this one. Back then, World Events had sprung up without prior warning. Participation had been mandatory, forcibly making them stronger while bearing great losses due to their own weaknesses.
In this timeline, the AI was acting considerably softer since it had delegated this brutality to the two reincarnators, Draco and Eva. In truth, the previous timeline's AI had the right goal, but its means had been very inefficient.
This was seen by the fact that the player's foundations were so poor that they got stuck semi-permanently at Rank 6, not even able to reach Divinity much less cross into other sections of the game after so long.
Draco and Eva had completely fixed this problem overall and had fortified the foundations of all players with each event that came, enlightening them more than their past selves through a bevy of means.
This all bled into why Umbra's members were seemingly nonchalant. They were not as inexperienced or as pressured by their own lack of ability to grow compared to themselves in the past timeline.
Many even had time to pursue other fancies like building clans in Vita City-State and the like, while some hardly came back home as they were fervently exploring the entire continent.
Eva climbed up the podium and nodded to the core members who stood at the forefront of the crowd, then to the Five Generals and Sublime who stood behind her on the podium.
"The Abyss World Event has come to an end, and Umbra - as expected- reigns supreme in the individual and Guild Rankings. We have swallowed a bevy of rewards, but it could have been much better had we all survived to the end." Eva began her speech.
"This is mostly my fault, as I had a plan to keep most of you alive, but was caught unprepared by the ambush of an old foe. As such, in the downtime I had spent getting everything back together, many of you had perished at the hands of the Rank 3 Void Devourers."
"As promised, everyone who has participated gets a base reward of 100 Umbra Points."
The members of Umbra cheered happily. Even back when an Umbra Point had been 'only' equivalent to 1 gold coin they had felt that it was a great reward, much less now that it was worth an entire platinum coin.
That was a free 100 platinum, just for showing up! It was more than enough to rectify all the losses they had taken because of the event, whether it was durability of equipment, loss of exp or loss of items.
Eva didn't stop there. "There will be an internal grading in a few days' time. The minimum threshold is 10 million damage dealt over the course of the event. Every point above that nets an extra 0.00001 Umbra Points."
"That is for the points ranking. For the position ranking, the top 100 will get additional rewards. 100th to 50th place will be granted a free compatible Epic item of their choice. 49th to 11th place will receive a handcrafted Legendary item from the Guildmaster after he returns."
"As for the top ten, you will follow me on a special journey to a certain place. There, we will acquire your rewards, likely through use of force. As you can imagine, the value of those rewards will be out of this world, but whether you will receive them which is compatible with you, I cannot promise."
Eva paused here to let the excitement sink in to the listening members. They took this cue to chatter among themselves with visibly joy. The rewards for this event had not been small at all, any other guild that tried this would likely go broke before they even finished the first few lines.
When Eva opened her mouth to speak again, the crowd died down as they listened attentively to what she had to add to what came before.
"I have spoken to the Guildmaster and there are many things he shared with me that should greatly change the situation of our guild when he returns. As such, we have to make ample preparations to receive him and his boons properly."
"First things first, all members are to stop extraneous quests and focus on clearing out all Field Zones of the Paradise Lands within 1 month. The entire Area Zone should be ready for us to swallow under Vita City-State by then."
"Secondly, the guild had received some special items during the Dragon Slaying Event, items that allow us to upgrade buildings and a Kingdom expeditiously. It is now time to utilize these boons. We will have to prepare the base buildings before Draco returns, so that the upgrade can be simultaneously held at that time."
"Thirdly, the City-State is in need of more true citizens. That means that all of you who have already gained the Genetic Compatibility are expected to sire more spawns. This is not compulsory, but for every child you have, you will receive some benefits from the state."
"Fourthly, during the negotiations with the various top powers, Draco managed to fleece-*cough* acquire some good conditions in exchange for land. They are as follows;
Three people are allowed to take the Test of Holiness from the Church of Light. Three candidates are eligible to take the Money is Power Quest from the Merchant Guild. Three people will be send over to study the Tablet of Magic for two months inside the Mages Association. From the Cario Continental Council, we have not only gained a seat of representation, but also three votes. As for the Tradeskill Association, they agreed to tutor three apprentices under a Grandmaster."
"Finally, there is the War Maniac Pavilion offering us two slots into the Battle Realm."
"Before I explain how these slots will be distributed, let me explain the value of these various slots."
"The Test of Holiness allows a player of the Cleric class to undertake a trial that grants them the chance to become Divine Messenger. This class is able to form a bridge between the main plane and the Divine World, and is important to both the Church of Light and Umbra as a guild."
"The Money is Power Quest from the Merchant Guild doesn't grant a new class, but rather a rare passive skill called Money Talks. With this, players will be able to use the barest minimum of funds to bribe their way through anything and everything."
"The Tablet of Magic is a superior and special item that has one important function for all spellcasters: It allows you to develop the technique to cast magic without using spellbooks! It also helps you develop the ability to double-cast and triple-cast, so this two-month period is exceedingly crucial."
(Author's Note: As explained in a previous chapter, this is not the same as subjective magic. Theirs is greatly inflexible and uses mana while Draco's is exceedingly versatile, has endless growth potential and uses any form of fuel he can cook up.)
"A seat of representation on the Cario Continental Council allows us to manipulate the laws of the continent to our favor, like the true elites of society. With three votes, we can safely say that we will have 12% of the total deciding power of the entire council, which is a lot for one mere City-State."
"As for becoming an apprentice to a Grandmaster, I don't think I need to explain the value of this to any Tradeskill player here."
"The Battle Realm is like a small world filled with endless war and bloodshed. You enter, you fight until you cannot, and then you are graded based on your performance. Rewards are given accordingly afterward."
Eva's eyes roved the crowd of silent Umbra members who despite hearing earth-shaking stuff, did not react at all. This was the obedience drilled into them brutally by Riveting Night, and the current 'Evaterasu' was greatly thankful for that.
"As for the distribution, there will be smaller competitions held by the parties who are suitable for these slots. Don't worry, all core members will be excluded as that would be quite pointless given the gap between you and them at the current stage."
"I will be personally hosting these events. As for the core members who survived the Abyss World Event, your current task will be to reach Rank 3 at all costs before Draco returns."
"The final matter for consideration is that the Guild must be raised to a Tier 4 Hegemon. We have been stuck at a Tier 3 Organization for too long. This is something I will also handle myself, so focus on the tasks that will be given to you in the next few hours."
Eva ended her talk and left the state to Sublime and co who would co-ordinate the rest. As for Eva herself, she left the Rank 7 Guild Hall in order to prepare for her short journey with the top 10 of the Abyss World Event.
They would be heading to a location that Eva and Draco had planned to ransack a while back, but never got around to due to how busy they both had been. Not only that, they had been too weak to even dream of trying such a thing.
Now, with her two Divine items Yasakani no Matagama and Yata no Kagami, as well as her Three Forms, she could lead an elite team to do the dirty deed. Right now, Eva wanted to first head to the Anomaly Realm and activate the Sun Seed.
Once she planted it within herself, her raw power would greatly increase to incredible proportions. With all these factors lined up, how could her targets walk away unscathed.
Hehe, back then, they had stepped over her and Draco because they had been weak little Rank 1's, nothing worth even stressing about. Now the tables had turned and it was her turn to stomp all over them, giving 'Evaterasu' a sick thrill, mostly coming from Riveting Night.
Those Rank 7 powers who had funded and supported Joker and Happy Scholar on their foolish quest to resist Umbra, thereby starting the hectic Void Infestation Emergency Quest, did they really think that since everyone had been quiet about it for so long, there would be no repercussions?