New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

"You mean you wanted me to bear that pressure?" Phoenix asked, jokingly.

"That\'s not… You would make a better guild leader, I\'m certain."

"You will be fine. I\'ll help you. It needs to be you."

"Why me?"

"Because you\'re the strongest. And you are reliable and friendly. That\'s what people need of a guild leader. Someone they can count on to do the right thing and be there to defend them"

"But what if I mess up?"

"Jesus Astaroth. Have some confidence in yourself. I saw you rip men to shreds on the news, and you saved Violette, even at the risk of your own safety. You will be a great guild leader."

Violette nodded her head furiously.

Astaroth looked at them, still uneasy about having this responsibility shoved onto him. But it was too late to refuse now.

"Okay, fine. I\'ll do it. But you better help me with anything I don\'t understand, Phoenix."

Phoenix pecked him on the cheek.

"Of course."

She smiled at him.

"Ahem. Is there anything else I can do for you today, Sir?" the attendant asked.

"Ahh! Yes. I wanted to know how to recruit NP—ahem, locals, to the guild."

"I can help you with that. We can hang a flyer on our board for the locals to see. You will have to handle the negotiations with them yourself, though. Is that alright?"

"Yes, that\'s fine. How much for that service?"

"Since you are newly established, you get to use this service once, for free. Do you wish to redeem it?"

"Yes, please."

"Very well. I shall make sure it is done. Anything else?"

Astaroth turned his head to Phoenix, who shook her head.

"No. I think that will be all for today."

"In that case, let me bring you back to the front desks, so you may take your leave."

The man escorted them back to the common area, as the hubbub assaulted their ears again. The four players fled the building, trying to escape from the cacophony of laughter and shouting.

Phoenix opened up the guild interface, looking for the base management options. Astaroth had already assigned her as co-leader, so he had access to everything he did, aside from kicking him out of the guild.

She rapidly found what she was looking for. In the management tab, she could see the guild base level, its empty asset list, the virgin building plots, as well as the coordinates for their base.

She pinned the coordinates to her map, and saw that it was in a greyed-out place for her. That meant she hadn\'t been there yet.

Which wasn\'t such a stretch, since exploring hadn\'t been her primary focus. But for Athena and I\'die, it had been almost their only focus.

They probably had the most complete map out of all the players in New Eden. The pair travelled across the lands of New Eden, day in and day out.

That was most likely how they had found the location for the guild base.

"Alright. Let\'s go see what we have to work with. We need to have a semblance of a base before we think about joining in this guild war."

The three others agreed.

Phoenix messaged Athena, asking her which kingdom the base was in, since she couldn\'t see on her map.

\'It\'s in the Elven kingdom. You will need to teleport to the Elven capital, and travel South East.\'

After getting the response, Phoenix led the group to the city teleporters. Astaroth had yet to use one of those and wondered what it felt like. Violette was having the same line of thought.

As for Gale, he had used one to get to Sunpeak, since his starting zone was another kingdom to the North.

After walking to the center of the city, the party arrived at a busy plaza, with a solid cubic arch in the middle. The arch looked like the Arch de Triomphe, which all of them had seen at least once in pictures or movies.

The four sides of it were constantly flashing in blue light as people walked through it. Astaroth and Violette looked at the structure in awe.

"I\'ve only ever watched the structure from afar. It looks so much cooler from this close."

He was watching as he could see the other side through the arches, but every time someone walked through an arch, the opening flashed blue all the way up, for a millisecond, and the person was gone.

"You like it now. Let\'s see how you like it once we pass through."

Astaroth looked at her questioningly as they walked over to a guard.

Phoenix told the guard where they wanted to go, and he took out a stamp from a box. He stamped all four players; the ink sinking into their skin.

Astaroth could feel mana emanating from the stamp and ink, and he guessed it worked like a marker that the portal would read to send them to the right place.

\'Huh. Neat.\'

After getting marked, the four of them walked towards the large stone arch, wondering what the transfer would feel like. When they walked under the arch, everything around them shimmered, as goose bumps ran over them, and they reappeared in another plaza.

Astaroth looked around, examining the architecture of the nearby buildings, and his eyes almost sparkled.

"Even though the teleportation was kind of anti-climactic, the scenery here is lovely. I presume we are in the Elven kingdom?"

Phoenix nodded her head. But someone rapidly crashed their happy sightseeing.

"Hey! You! Identify yourselves!"

A squad of guards in leather armours, armed with longbows, and silvery lances blocked their path. Astaroth then slapped his forehead.

\'I should have known when I saw the trees. The Elves still hate Ash Elves.\'

The guards were looking at him and Violette with apparent hostility, and Astaroth already knew why. He raised his hands to signify his peaceful intentions, taking a step in front of Violette.

"We aren\'t here to cause trouble. We are simply passing through."

"You should have stayed away from our pristine cities, dark skin!" one guard spat.

\'God dammit. This will not end well…\'