Chapter 128: Duties of Official Guilds
One might be confused regarding how a guild could find themselves in this circumstance in the first place; after all, if they don’t have promising rookies, they just shouldn’t buy the contract for the dungeon from the association.
The issue arose from the duties of official guilds. While it was true that the standard process was guilds paying for exclusive access to dungeons, it was not the only way they could gain entry into one.
The second method was to be instructed by the association to clear it. The contract between guilds and the association stated that the latter could give a dungeon to the former, which had to be cleared. Naturally, such dungeons were the ones that had annoying clear conditions and were evaluated as ’too much trouble for little return,’ and as a result, no guild wanted to buy it from the association.
Dungeon gates were not just mere portals connecting two different dimensions but also acted as restrictors. Some dungeons had an entrance limit where the maximum number of awakened who could enter was lowered, others had level limits, class archetype limits, weapon or artifact limits, and the like. These restrictions were often randomized, forcing guilds to adapt or fail.
These dungeons could be bought for cheap, but if no guild went for them, then the association would force it upon guilds. Each guild tier, namely low, mid, and high, had to accept and clear a different number of forced dungeons each year. Failing to do so was one of the easiest ways for a guild to fall to lower tiers. Guilds that couldn’t fulfill their assigned quota faced audits, budget cuts, or even dissolution in extreme cases.
However, as Nova Circuit was already a low-tier one, the penalty for them would be to lose their full rights as a guild. They would either have to merge with another guild or get absolved.
All that is to say, Guild status wasn’t merely a title; it came with responsibilities, obligations, and a constant pressure to prove their usefulness to the association.
"That’s right…" Tessa nodded in response to Nyx’s observation.
She sighed dejectedly before explaining, "Our guild fell upon dire times, we’re struggling with recruiting promising rookies. There’s only a single A-tier awakened in our midst, and she’s eligible to enter the dungeon, but her presence won’t be enough to clear the dungeon, I fear.
We can’t afford to pay for the help of other guilds, while asking for help from the association would mean we failed to clear it and get penalized, so our best bet is to search the country for independent awakened who happen to be below level 10. One of my scouts saw your stream, and she estimated that you had to be around levels 5 and 9, which made you prime candidates for us to reach out to."
"Your scout estimated correctly. What’s the dungeon’s difficulty rating?" Kaiden asked.
"It’s a D-rank dungeon."
That was a two-rank jump from the F-rank dungeon they had experienced thus far. It explained why the low-level A-ranked awakened wasn’t believed to be enough to clear it.