Slime Evolution

Chapter 383 - Meeting or Stirring Up Trouble?

The morning sun of Mythlorien filtered through the translucent leaves of the tree headquarters, bathing the main hall in a tone of amber and emerald.

Seated at a round table carved directly from one of the Astralis Requiem Tree’s main roots, Lohan, in his vivid blue slime form, and Lisa, the fox with white fur and restless tails, faced the guild’s three vanguard pillars.

In front of them sat Alice, Dylan, and Skye.

The mood was one of seriousness that contrasted with the usual lightness of that place, with everyone keeping a serious, focused expression, just waiting for the guild leadership’s orders.

”Thanks for coming so early,” Lisa began, her telepathic voice resonating with a cold authority she rarely used in Elysium, mostly reserved for giving orders. ”We’re back from Thalendor with a contract that will shape the future of our presence in the elven capital. Archmage Yrneha has given us the task of discreetly investigating the Broken Suns guild.”

Alice tilted her head, her short hair swaying, Dylan, with his posture perfectly upright and a serious look, simply nodded. Skye, on the other hand, kept her arms crossed over the white jacket she’d managed to buy in Thalendor with the guild’s recent earnings.

Over the past few days, Skye’s group, Silver Lotus, had worked tirelessly under the veterans’ supervision and help, and their effort had paid off, even though they were still the guild’s lowest level group, all seven members of her team had reached Level 12, power that didn’t change each individual’s strength that much on its own, being just one level gained, but combined with the small growth each of them showed hunting together, the power they wielded now was much greater.

Lohan projected a small gelatin hand and gestured toward the center of the table, where a map of Thalendor lay. ”Putting it simply, the Broken Suns Guild claimed to have sealed a magical rift north of the city, but Yrneha believes their work was a fraud, likely a hasty patch job just to mark the mission as complete, gain prestige in Thalendor, and save some major nobles a large sum of gold coins. Considering we were the ones who were originally supposed to handle this problem, and that we would have handled it the right way, they’re gaining prestige and influence that should belong to Astralis. Our mission is to prove they’re incompetent or corrupt, without triggering an open diplomatic incident in the city.”

”Keep in mind this won’t just be a simple mission...” Lisa added, her golden gaze fixed on each of the leaders. ”This will be a major step toward addressing Thalendor’s monopoly. Right now they’re the biggest name in the city, probably even a few steps ahead of ours. If we eliminate their competition in Thalendor, and obviously, invest further in our own publicity in the elven city, which with this prestige will be even greater, Astralis Requiem will be the only elite outworlder guild in Thalendor. That’ll open the doors to far rarer and more valuable missions in the city, and, more importantly, give us the credibility needed to attract talented members from the city itself.”

”Members from the city? You mean NPCs?” Alice asked, her eyes gleaming with the possibility.

”Exactly, Alice,” Lohan replied, vibrating with satisfaction. ”We’re not an exclusive guild for Players only. Elysium is a living world, and if we want real sovereignty, we need to bring the sentient natives into our ranks. Imagine having elven scouts or dwarven blacksmiths from Thalendor under our emblem... even though Players theoretically have infinite potential, that potential needs time to be developed, whereas these beings, with hundreds, maybe even thousands of years behind them, would bring an experience and expertise that would raise our guild’s level to a whole new tier in a very short time.”

The excitement in the hall rose instantly. Dylan adjusted his glasses, an aesthetic item he wore to keep up his ’PrettyBoy’ persona, and smiled calculatingly. ”Your idea of recruiting local talent is something I’ve always thought was brilliant, Halon. It puts us light years ahead of any corporate guild that treats NPCs as nothing more than quest dispensing machines. If the goal is dismantling the Broken Suns, I can handle the intelligence side.”

”What do you have in mind, Dylan?” Lisa asked, interested.

”I still keep a few communication channels open with groups from my novice village and Players who’ve just arrived in the Open World, of course, on top of our large network in the real world.” Dylan explained, interlacing his fingers over the table. ”I’ll use my influence and some credits to look into the entire Broken Suns leadership. I want to know who they were in the real world, what their actual IDs are, and whether they have any criminal or suspicious history behind them, with dirt on others in hand, dealing with any future problem will be a lot simpler.”

Alice gave a light punch into her palm. ”And I’ll take the money trail! If they’ve grown this much in game to the point of hiring as many Players as you all said, someone in the real world is funding this operation. I’ll get my outside contacts working to figure out which company is investing in them. If I find any financial irregularities, or if they’re tied to some competitor of the Vance Group, I can apply massive pressure on them. They’ll find out just how hard it is to keep a guild running in the game once their real world bank accounts start getting audited.”

Skye, who listened to all of this with sharp attention, felt a little insecure in a meeting like this.

From the conversation, it was clear the game they were playing was much bigger and more important than something a small group like Silver Lotus could get involved in and have any real impact on, but being considered one of the guild’s three group leaders, she also didn’t want to be left behind and offered what she could.

”You two handle the politics and the spying. But if Halon says these guys are troublemakers, at some point this is going to turn into a fight. My Silver Lotus group volunteers to be the main combat force for this operation. Even though we’re low level, you can trust any job to us, especially if it involves more aggressive activities, we’ll handle that even better than other groups.”

The girl then looked at Lohan and then at Lisa, her voice carrying a confidence that came from someone who grew up fighting for their life. ”Both here inside Elysium and out there in the real world, we’re ready. If the Broken Suns try any funny business against Astralis, we’ll be their nightmare. I trust the power of my group a lot more than these boardroom negotiations.”

Lohan watched the scene and couldn’t help but let out a mental laugh that made his gelatin vibrate comically.

What had started as a meeting to explain a discreet investigation and avoid conflict had turned, in under ten minutes, into detailed planning for corporate warfare and social annihilation.

The guild was discussing how to dig into their opponents’ past, break them financially, and if necessary, crush them physically.

’Really, Bella... I think we created a monster,’ Lohan transmitted privately to Lisa, amused by the situation. ’But to be honest, I love it. It’s better for Astralis to be a synergistic hive hungry for victory than a group of people who can’t agree which direction to walk in. Even if their approach is a bit too aggressive for the mission’s original proposal, their loyalty is in the right place.’

Lisa let out a telepathic sigh carrying a hint of pride. ’They understood the concept of our guild perfectly, Halon. Even though we keep a low profile, I don’t expect Astralis will ever need to ask for space, if we want it, we take it. If the Broken Suns are in our way, they’ll stop being a guild and just become an obstacle for us.’