Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

Just as she had originally intended, Eris gave the highest priority when it came to registering at her new guild to the orphans of Misty City, even going so far as to set up special booths in the Guild Hall specifically for all such children under the age of 16 to use.

The guild itself was a rather large complex with 4 buildings and a spacious yard partially surrounded by freshly built brick walls. None of these buildings was brand new, but they had all undergone extensive renovations to prepare them for their new roles.

The Main Guild Hall was where all forms of administration and business were taken care of and would probably be the most frequented for the foreseeable future.

The Teaching Hall was filled with a number of classrooms and even featured a rather large but simple lecture hall inspired by the ones Lucas knew of from his inherited memories. This Hall was where book knowledge was taught by a wide array of full-time and guest teachers.

It also had a small library, though there weren’t many books there yet as the people who Eris’ guild was aimed at helping had fairly low rates of literacy, something that would hopefully improve over time as language classes were among the first the guild was intending to offer.

The training hall was, just as the name suggested, for all types of training. There were several rooms here that Lucas’ Urban Development Team had built to test out different kind of sound and shock-proofing. There were also plans to add World Qi gathering Spirit Arrays and cultivation chambers in the future, or at least to experiment with such concepts, but that was for a much later date.

In addition to cultivation rooms, the training hall also had a large combat space where the guild members could either practice on their own, or receive instruction from the masters who were visiting that day.

Much of the outdoor space was also set up for physical and combat training, as was pretty much standard for any adventurer-style guild.

Everyone had also wanted to include a large shower room, but there was no nearby water supply sufficient to make that a reality, and the idea of ’pumping’ water from far away was still very much in its infancy, so the idea had to be scrapped.

All told, about 80% of the space in the Rising Phoenix Guild’s headquarters was taken up by the training hall and training fields, with the remaining 20% being dedicated to the other 3 halls, storage space, and a small stable where mounts, carts, wagons, and carriages could be kept.

Speaking of the 3 other halls, the last one was definitely going to be the most popular, as it was the Mess Hall.

Unlike other headquarters for adventurer guilds, which generally featured some kind of pub or tavern, the Rising Phoenix Guild’s Mess Hall didn’t serve any kind of alcohol; at least, not yet.

Another difference was that if you were a child from one of the orphanages in Misty City, you could get 1 free meal here every day.

The free meal was a very simple one, normally just a bowl of soup and some bread, but occasionally there would be tastier items served up as well.

If you wanted other food, you had to pay for it, but thanks again to generous donations, the prices were kept quite low.

What’s more, Christina had seen this as an opportunity to test out some of her bakery’s inventions, so the Rising Phoenix Hall had essentially partnered with Princess Bakeries and would frequently receive food from the now famous chain.

Christina even thought about expanding her offerings in the future to include things like sandwiches and other simple meals that still prominently featured her signature Redwood-Style Bread.

Clearly, the Rockwell Kingdom’s 12th Princess was becoming quite the entrepreneur and chef herself.

So much effort was put in to make the Rising Phoenix Guild not only a success, but a massive attraction, that some began to wonder if it was really all worth it for the Balfour Family; after all, this didn’t seem like a business that was going to be making money.

The free meals it would be giving out to all the orphan kids alone was probably enough to make this guild a losing investment, and that wasn’t even considering its other regular upkeep costs.

Still, most people who thought this way just wrote it off as none of their business, or as the Marquess spoiling her great granddaughter and Second Disciple a bit too much.

Little did the public know that creating a massive fuss and pumping up the Rising Phoenix Guild’s presence as much as possible was all done intentionally.

The Balfour Family needed there to be a huge commotion, so they could keep sending in more and more personnel, and more and more high-realm masters without it looking suspicious.

While it was true that Eris intended for her new guild to serve as a permanent fixture in Misty City, a place to help lift up the poor and needy children who society had mostly ignored until now, there was a second, more immediate, more clandestine reason for its establishment as well.

Late that night, when the hustle and bustle of the day had finally settled down, numerous masters from both the Balfour Family and Raging River Legion who had stayed behind for ’Eris’ birthday party’, met in the main lecture hall of the guild.

They were here to begin the investigation into the mysterious, malicious force which had seemingly infiltrated Misty City, the South-East Province, and quite possibly the wider Rockwell Kingdom.

After seeing all the joyous faces of innocent children filling the halls above today, these masters were now more determined than ever to find and root out this invisible threat before it could do serious harm.

Standing at the head of the room, Elliot Balfour, the one who had been tasked with leading this secret operation, tapped the blackboard behind him and declared, ”Alright, let’s get started.”