After handling the black dragon sword, Liam felt hungry and tired, and he knew that he had to take some rest.
Perhaps because he had been pushing himself to the extreme a lot lately, he was also getting tired sooner.
Liam was not like the others. His experience and knowledge of this game and the new world were higher than other ordinary players.
So he recognized these signs quickly and decided to take some rest.
He leisurely had some food without thinking about anything complicated, and in the meantime, he also took care of the usual managerial duties in the garrison.
Of course, there was the massive elephant in the room whereby their small garrison had to participate in a spatial rift capture.
But other than that, Liam wanted to make sure that there were no other pressing concerns.
After all, this was his golden goose that continuously kept giving him big chunks of experience points without him having to do anything for it.
Especially with the increased rewards and the workflow he had established in the Thol city, wherein he took the weaponry and equipment from here and sold it to the other players in the auction house, everything had been progressing smoothly.
Gold was coming in at a steady pace, and there was a sort of equilibrium established. At least, this was the case when Liam visited the garrison the last time around.
But this time…
"Hiriyu, how much revenue do we owe this time?" Liam frowned, seeing the parchment in his hand.
Hiriyu, the demon from his personal team whom he had also appointed to take care of the garrison duties, stood in front of Liam, scratching his head hesitantly.
"Leader, we owe 5000 gold."
The other demons in the room as well exchanged glances with each other.
"Hmmm? This seems to be more than the usual?" Liam asked again.
They typically only paid around 1000 gold coins every time the emissary visited, and now this number had increased five times!
"Is this because of the war efforts?"
"Leader!" Hiriyu grunted. He did not know how to beat around the bushes so he directly came to the point.
"Only our garrison's revenue has been increased. Others are still paying the same amount."
"Hmmm?" Liam grinned. "Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, leader. I investigated this matter properly." Hiriyu solemnly nodded.
Liam did not say anything after that and silently nodded. As for what might have brought this upon them, he already knew the answer.
Those two women!
They were definitely more trouble than they were worth, but… considering that the crazy duo was out right now searching for essence crystals on his behalf… maybe not?
Liam shook his head and decided to think of this extra 4000 gold as payment for the essence crystals.
However… that was just this once.
"Things can't continue this way." Liam shook his head. He needed to do something.
Either he needed to extort the required amount of gold from someone or he needed to gain more power, influence, and allies so that they were not bullied like this.
The issue was that… something like this was easily doable in the Xion realm, but here in the nether realm, he only had limited knowledge and, therefore, limited opportunities.
Liam silently contemplated the different things that he could do. After a few minutes, he dismissed everybody.
He already had a plan in mind, and now it was going to be even trickier.
But if it worked… then it could take care of a lot of things at the same time.
"Luna! Get back here! Bring Talon also with you." Liam stood up and called the white fox. It was time to return to the Xion realm.
The beasts scurried over quickly to the garrison tower, and then Liam used his personal portal to teleport all of them back to the familiar lands immediately.
They had a bit of flying to do as they were on the outskirts, but they reached the royal city in a few minutes.
[Mia, are you still in the royal city?]
Liam first messaged her in the group. Almost immediately, a reply came but it was not from her. Rather it was from Alex.
[I am in the administrative building, finishing up some recruitment and guild residence establishment work]
Hmmm. Liam looked at it and was about to close the system interface when another message flashed.
[Liam, there is something else I need to inform you. There is someone targeting our guild.]
Just as he was reading this, another message as well popped up.
[Actually, I think several guilds are targeting us.]
[Ok, stay right there. I will join you in a minute.] Liam grinned and closed the messages. In all honesty, this was something he had already expected.
With the interview, they had managed to handle the public and sway their opinion, but their real opposition was still in the game.
And these enemies were not ones that could be moved with a simple speech from a beauty.
As long as they existed, especially now at the beginning stage, their guild's growth will stagnate and development will be hampered.
However, Liam was not too worried about it.
After all, how many strategies had he seen in his lifetime!
These were merely just playground politics!
The things that he knew of were far more vicious and domineering.
And it was about time to teach some of the pests lingering around them a lesson.
"The weather is good today, Luna." He smiled enjoying the gentle breeze, and walked towards the administrative building.
Kyuuuu
The fox snuggled close to him and sat on his back, half-hidden in his cloak, looking around everywhere curiously.
When the two of them reached the spot, Alex was already waiting outside for him.
The red-haired woman looked nervous, and as soon as she caught sight of Liam, she quickly tucked in a few strands of her hair behind her ears.
She pulled her cloak to make sure that her identity was still hidden and then hesitantly looked up.