Zenith Affinity

“Sure, we will join your guild, but we are headed out to find a dungeon and hit tier 2 before that. Will that be a problem?” Raze Iver asked on behalf of his party, [Nature Green].

Sky shook her head, “Not at all. We can invite you via the chat window. Whether or not you are in a dungeon shouldn’t matter.”

If someone wasn’t in person or in local chats, one had to invite them to join the guild by inserting their name in a search window within the guild screen.

Sky was nervous about how that would work with NPCs, but she still planned on trying once they formed the guild. In the former game world, there were NPC adventurers, but they were mostly used as screen filler to make the world feel more alive. Now, though, the world couldn’t feel any more alive.

“Oh, very good then,” Raze said, nodding as he shook Sky’s hand.

“And while we are in Ostbury, we will keep an eye open for another front liner that could match your party, alright?”

“That would be great!” Sherafane replied. “Someone who likes nature!”

“Since you guys are joining the guild, you should use these!” Zaria said, handing two summoning stones over to Raze. He quickly scanned them and received their names.

[Raja, Silver Saberclaw, Companion Stone] and [Zira, Silver Saberclaw, Companion Stone].

Zaria spoke up again, “They were a mated pair of silver saberclaws that dropped these. You can have them.”

Raze exchanged glances with Sherafane, matching expressions of shock covering both of their faces. Looking at the summoning stones, the fact that they were named meant they were legendary, a set of companions that could last all the way until max level. The saberclaws would level up with them and remain powerful enough all the way until the endgame.

“This is too expensive…you can’t give these to us!” Raze objected, looking at the rarity. He wasn't wrong. Legendary drops would usually go for a plethora of gold. Even though the percentages of drops had changed from a 'random chance' to a 'first to kill' basis, they would still be worth a lot.

Zaria laughed, “If you were serious about joining our guild, then what’s the problem? It would just be us helping out our fellow guildies, right?”

Raze laughed, “I guess that is fair.”

Sherafane agreed with a nod. Both of them looked back at the dryads.

Kira responded first, a huge smile on her face, “Don’t look at us, we are on board no matter what.”

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

The sky began to turn from a clear blue into a myriad of colors, from pink to orange and even into a bit of indigo. Towering, rosy-pink stone walls glowed with the dwindling sunlight as they arrived outside of Ostbury. After being gone for a few weeks, it was surprising to see how tall they actually were from the outside, as if prepared to defend against titans. When they had first left the city, via jumping into the lake while sneaking over the wall, it was hard to gain a full view of the massive structure. Even on the way down.

The party only had eyes for the things away from Ostbury, for leveling up and gaining strength. But now, they had the whole journey up to the gates to watch the walls grow in their vision. The road from Osten wound through the starting zone hills and locked straight into the western gate of Ostbury, crossing over the lake they had dropped in on the first day.

Carts, adventurers, townsfolk, and players all walked in and out of the gate and across the wide bridge. Guards were watching from multiple levels of infrastructure within the wall, as well as posted up at the entrance.

The three parties were able to get the first glimpses of other players, as most hadn’t traveled as far as [Reality Check] did at the start. All of them had a myriad of emotions on display. Some walked out of the city into the night, excited for what they might find. Others were walking back into the city, looking tired and beat after a long day of adventuring. Some were starting to seem like they belonged in this world, fitting in with the ‘adventuring lifestyle.’

“Alright! We should head straight for the Adventure Association!” Sky declared.

“What are the chances of even finding an Inn or something?” Zaria asked.

Sky shrugged, “It might be tough with all the players here…but at least we have gold. I bet there are quite a few options for lodging for large groups.”

"That's fair, but I could really go for a good bed, you know?

“I suppose so. To be honest, I just want to start our guild. If anything, we can just camp outside the city somewhere if we need to, and that is good enough for me.”

“Actually, I think I might be able to help with that,” Sera Boleyn said. “My uncle owns a few warehouses here in Ostbury. But if one is empty, we can just camp out in it, I’m sure. If we can’t find lodging, that is. It won’t be some 5-star inn, but it could hold all of us, and we have the gear for it.”

“That sounds perfect! We only need to be here for a few days, I think…depending on how many people we can recruit,” Sky replied.

“Recruit?” Alisha asked.

“Yup, we need 50 people in our guild to be eligible to buy the guild hall in the Crystal City. And to farm the dungeon that has the supplies we need to upgrade the hall requires 25 people to raid it at the highest level. That only works if all 5 groups are in parties because of the mechanics behind it.”

Sky noticed the confusion on many faces, mostly those who hadn’t played the game, “Don’t worry about it for now, but we need to ensure we have at least 5 parties…full parties that is. [Nature Green] will have to find a 5th to be eligible before they can join us in that dungeon. It doesn't matter for now, though, we will be knocking on the door of tier 3 by the time we get out there."

“Tier 3? Isn’t that a bit…I don’t know, bold?” Sera asked.

Sky and Zedra laughed, but Kesa was the one who spoke, “It really isn’t. I’d imagine these two have it planned out that we hit Tier 3 in just a couple of weeks.”

“Faster than that!” Zedra agreed with a huge smile. “We are going to be riding mounts and traveling in a huge squad of people by the time we take a sky whale to the other continent.”

Alisha shook her head, “We have been working around Ostbury for so long now, it’s hard to imagine that in just a few weeks we will have gone up two tiers.”

“Just wait until we can explore a whole new continent! It’s going to be amazing!” Sky’s tone and smile were infectious, and had spread across the parties as they entered Ostbury.

Ar’Gen spoke up, “The Adventure Association is on the southeastern side, correct?”

Zedra spoke up, “Yessir! It’s visible from the central markets, I think, or at least it was in the game.”

“Eh, no problem either way, I am excited to get this going.”

“Same! I want to get back out there and find our next dungeon.”

“Do you have one on your list?” Ar’Gen asked, referring to how Sky and Zedra mapped out a leveling plan before the arrival.

“We do! The Bloodfall Gulch, which should be a bit northwest of the Zaphid Caverns, maybe, I don’t know for sure,” Zedra replied.

“That sounds ominous…what level is it?” Kesa asked.

“I suppose it is, but a majority of the beasts are blood attuned, which means we will be getting loads of blood and physically attuned essence dust and shards. The physical ones are almost always in high demand for tier 1 and 2.”

“And that is because it’s smart to get an element, then boost your physical stats as a melee fighter?” Ar'Gen asked.

Zedra shrugged, "As long as Physical is one of your first 2 attunements as a melee fighter, you are fine. The other one should be the main element you wish to attune to, though."

Ar’Gen nodded.

Helga from [Pink Lotus] spoke up, “So, you’re saying it was a good call to take physical for my first attunement?”

“Absolutely. You are a Shield Guardian, yes?”

“Aye.”

Zedra nodded, “Yeah, it’s perfect, enhancing both offensive and defensive abilities and strength. Make sure to choose whatever element you want on your next attunement.”

Helga nodded in approval of her first attunement and her plans for the second. “Hmmm, what about the third attunement?”

Ar’Gen knew this one, “The specialization attunement, they call it sometimes.”

“That’s right. For many Shield Guardians, going with another element can be practical, say Physical, Fire, then grabbing Earth as well for more defense. Doubling down is a great call, but adding something more specialized, for instance, Spirit, you can cover a new area that hasn’t been touched before."

A frown crossed Helga’s brow, “Spirit?”

Zedra smiled, happy to talk about lore, “One of the most common, and most powerful attunement sets for Shield Guards is Physical, any random elemental, and then Spirit. Choosing abilities that go beyond physical removes much of the loss for building into a tank.

"In other words, you gain damage and toughness from your Physical attunement. You get damage and attuned abilities from your elemental attunement. Choosing Spirit as your final attunement will go beyond that and can add a bit of support to your build. For example, you can get the skill [Spirit Rend], a passive ability that makes all of your damage inflict magical vulnerability. It would be great for your party.”

Helga looked like her system had just restarted, and she couldn’t figure out exactly what he meant.

Ar’Gen and Zedra exchanged glances.

“Uhhh, Helga?” Zedra asked.

Amara Goldtree, the quiet cleric from [Pink Lotus], walked over, “If you give her too much information, she sort of shuts down…don’t worry about it.”

The parties continued traveling through Ostbury, noticing a change in feel compared to the last time they had been briefly in the fantastical city. Players were everywhere, mingling and moving through the city, becoming a part of it. Some were enjoying their new world, perhaps a bit too much, partying at taverns. Others were huddling together for comfort if not warmth, with trails of dried tears on their faces.

It was a strange sort of discrepancy as some thrived in their new situation and others refused it. With another 15 minutes of walking, everyone made it to the Ostbury Adventuring Association’s Headquarters. A much larger presence than the huge building in Osten, this was more like a college campus with a myriad of large buildings with different purposes.

They quickly found the administration building, a tall and well-built centralized structure that pathways reached out from.

“Welcome, Adventurers. Is there something you need help with today? We are no longer conducting rank-up trials for the day, but we can register new parties,” The smiling human female asked.

Sky popped over and offered a huge smile in return, “Greetings to you! We wanted to register as a guild!”

The lady seemed slightly surprised, “You are aware of the hundred gold guild registration fee, are you not?”

“We are, and we obviously have enough people here, so no worries about that.”

She didn’t lose her surprise, “Oh, alright then.”

Reaching behind the counter, the woman grabbed a parchment with writing on it. “If you don’t mind, would you please fill this out, and have your two witnesses sign it as well.”

“Of course!”

Sky walked over to a counter, where ink wells and quill pens were available. She began to fill everything out.

“Wow, Sky, have you always had such nice handwriting?” Kesa asked, eyeing Sky’s graceful cursive.

She smiled, “I used to do calligraphy in college, it was just for fun, but ever since then, I find myself writing in as clean cursive as I could. You should have seen my notes for all my other classes…I almost became OCD about it.”

She quickly filled out the form, having Zedra and Zaria as her two witnesses for the formation of the guild. They would have to sign after she filled everything out and signed as the guild leader.

On the very top was the name: Zenith Star Guild.

The guild tag section was usually a text box when making a guild in the game, allowing people to drop text symbols in it. But this time, Sky drew a simple 5-pointed star.

“How does this look for our tag?”

“Looks great, Sky. Now hurry up, cause I need to get some food,” Dark Hero said, clearly not caring about the look.

“It’s perfect,” Zedra nodded as he signed.

As Zedra and Zaria signed the paper, all of [Reality Check] and the [Flamesouls] got a pop-up message.

_______________________________________________________

Guild Successfully Created:

Zenith Star Guild [★]

Guild Master: Solara Sky

Vice Guild Master: Zedra Stone

_______________________________________________________

Smiles broke out across their faces, and their individual name tags changed. Sky looked over to her party member, who now had their star guild tag:

'Zedra Stone, Rogue [★]'

They had officially become a guild.

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

The Zenith Star Guild officially had 10 members when Sky turned in the sheet. All of her party’s titles remained the same blue color, but now all of them had the Zenith Star Guild tag along with their names. All of their names were blue, signifying that they were tier 2 beings, but their guild tags were golden yellow, signifying that they were in the same guild. People in different guilds, or without one, would see the tag matching the tier color.

Sky turned to Alisha, a smile on her face, “Ready?”

Alisha gulped, “We are.”

Sky focused on her and mentally typed out: ‘/GuildInvite [Pink Lotus]. ‘

_______________________________________________________

Would you like to invite [Pink Lotus] to the Zenith Star Guild [★]? Y/N.

_______________________________________________________

“Yes.”

_______________________________________________________

Would you like to convert [Pink Lotus] to the Player System? Y/N.

_______________________________________________________

Sky’s eyes widened in shock at the last question, quickly glancing up at Alisha, then back to the message that only she could see.

“Uhhh, this might be kind of interesting,” Sky said.

The others frowned in curiosity. “What do you mean?” Kesa asked.

Sky didn’t answer and instead, mentally clicked the ‘Y’ option, then she turned her gaze over to the party, expectantly.

A blue flash of light covered all of [Pink Lotus]. Along with that, their NPC grey-colored name tags turned to the blue and gold combination for tier 2 guild mates. Each of them had the telltale sign of someone reading screens that only they could see.

“What just happened?” Kesa asked, staring at the golden name plates hovering above them.

“When I invited them to the guild, I got a pop-up that asked if I wanted to convert them to the ‘Player System’ and…well,” Sky shrugged with a gesture at the new Players.

“Incredible,” Zedra said.

“So, they are what…Players now?” Zaria asked.

Sky didn’t know, so she decided to ask a few questions, “Alisha, could you do me a favor?”

Alisha was drawn from the HUD she was now seeing, and looked over to Sky with a dazed expression, “What?”

“You see those icons on the top left?”

“Icons?”

“Errr, yeah, symbols? Top left of your…vision.”

aze unfocused for a moment, “I do!”

“Good, mentally 'select’ the bag option,” Sky used her fingers to add parentheses.

“Do you see this?” Alisha asked, swiping a hand through the window that only she could see.

“No, that is only for you to see, just as all of them are. That is your inventory. Try to put your bag in there,” Sky gestured to her backpack, something that no player carried, but was commonplace for NPC adventurers.

Alisha’s bag disappeared into the storage space, and her eyes went wide. “It’s gone!”

“No, it’s in your inventory! There should be another icon on the inventory screen now,” Zedra said.

She pulled the bag back out, “This is incredible!”

With the help of the rest of Zenith Star, the new players began working through all the features that came with the former in-game system.

As they were exchanging information, Sera had sent out a message with a local courier and had received a reply. They were now on their way to meet her Uncle.

“You are sure he will be okay with all of us camping out in his warehouse?” Kesa asked.

Sera shrugged, “I don’t think he will mind, especially if it doesn’t interrupt his business. It’s just around this corner. He should be meeting us there.”

They turned the corner, and a well-dressed gentleman was waiting by some large warehouse doors, a set of guards along with him, as well as a butler.

“Uncle!”

The man turned and smiled, “My dear Sera! It has been too long!”

“It has!” They shared a bit of small talk, and the man looked over to the rest of the waiting guild.

“Introduce me to your friends, Sera. I remember your party here, Alisha, Helga, Ashariel, and of course, Amara. Great to see you all again.”

“We have joined a guild! You know, with the players and all that!”

“Indeed, there has been quite the commotion here in Ostbury…so these are players,” He stared at the rest curiously before offering a well-practiced bow. “Greetings, I am Richard Boleyn, Sera’s uncle, as it were. It has been quite the experience with all these new people in the city.”

“It’s great to meet you! I am Sky, and we are all Zenith Star Guild!”

Introductions went around, and Sera’s uncle offered to let them stay the night in the warehouse, but he felt bad about its condition. It wasn’t an inn by any means, just a plain stone foundation in a slightly dusty old building, though it was heated with a series of runic arrays. It was perfect enough for the few nights they would be staying in Ostbury.

Before Richard left, Zedra asked to speak with him, “Mr. Boleyn, you are a merchant that works with the open trade markets, are you not?”

The man nodded, “I do several things, but mostly deal with trade between several city-states with bulk goods. I am the leader of the branch here in Ostbury. Farsight Distributions is the company.”

Zedra nodded, though he didn't recognize the name, “Do you have a branch in the Crystal City?”

“We do! Though they are quite distant, and it’s quite a journey both to and from the Crystal City.”

“You don’t use Teleportation?”

The man looked slightly surprised, “It’s not that we don’t, but they are usually reserved for our more profitable branches. Or rather, branches where we have much more traffic.”

“I see. And what type of goods do you usually move?”

“Crafting materials for the most part. Are there any specific things that you are looking to move?”

Zedra failed to hold back his smile. It seemed they had made a new potential connection.

≪ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ≫

The next morning came quickly, and the Zenith Star Guild was up and at 'em. Sky had officially invited [Nature Green] to the guild overnight, despite being out of Ostbury, all four members quickly accepted, joining the Guild Chat on their HUD’s. The guild now had 19 members, including 4 parties, though [Nature Green] still needed a 5th member, and preferably a tank.

“So, what is the plan for the day, GM?” Zaria asked.

“GM?” Sky replied.

“It’s either that or Sky Girl, what do you prefer?”

“Uhh…neither? Either way, we are going to the market where Zedra rented a stall.”

“All of us?”

“We will need some people at the crafting building, I suppose. Some at the Trade Center, and maybe even some of us, should be looking around for others who might fit into the guild as well.”

“So, a few on recruitment…” Zaria drawled.

Sky nodded, “That is part of it. Though we are looking for people who would fit well with all of us, not just random people. Nothing that would grate or cause a bunch of issues, right?”

"You said we will take a sky whale to travel to the Crystal City?" Kesa asked.

“To the other continent, but we need to get mounts before we go,” Sky clarified. "We will have to move through the jungle on our own once we get there."

Kesa interjected. “I hope I find something nice, and not just some basic mount."

“Oh, we will. I just need something-” Dark Hero began, but was quickly interrupted by his wife.

“Yeah, yeah, you need a big mount that is mean and dark.”

Dark laughed, “That’s right! You know me so well.”

Kesa shook her head, “Of course I do.”

“I am excited to bond with this…” Zaria zoned out as she double checked her inventory and pulled out the mount stone, “The cocatrice, Xalti, the Flamewalker!”

Atticus had been listening and was curious, “Will that be a flying mount? I know Zedra was saying that this Zaphid Stormhorn should fly later on.”

“Oh, that’s right, you have Karne, the giant beetle !” Sky said.

The kainen nodded, “He’s awesome looking!”

“That was a good fight,” Dark said.

Zedra spoke up, “I think Xalti should be able to fly, or at least have some form of it, come Tier 4.”

Alisha and Sera exchanged glances, a plethora of emotions moving between them at the casual mention of tier 4. It wasn’t an impossibility, but the amount of resources, deals, and work that it took to make that happen was borderline astronomical.

Sky laughed, “Yes! We will be making it to tier 4, and we will all have awesome mounts by then! It’s just a fact. There are so many more legendary mobs than there were in the game. It’s just a matter of time until we find something for everyone. Remember, though, affinity matters when trying to bond with a mount just as much as your first aura skill.”

“You mentioned the aura skill. How does that work again?” Atticus asked, wondering how the eventual process would go.

“The idea behind it is that your aura will allow the creature you are attempting to bond to to feel the connection to your chosen affinity. For creatures with more than one affinity, it is usually fine if you share at least one affinity, though I am told it can be harder to bond that way,” Sky explained.

"What about the....what did you call them? Basic mounts?" Atticus asked.

"Ah, there are pretrained and unattuned mounts that are purchasable, but there is nothing special about them. They have no abilities, they are slower, and they have no affinity that you can bond with," Sky explained.

Zedra picked up, "Most city-states have them, and they are different based on the species that call that place home. For instance, you can get horses or oxen as mounts here in Ostbury, since there are mostly humans here."

"And the Crystal City is home to celestials, tritons, and mirym, so they have pegasi, warsea horses, and rays, " Sky said while doing her best to keep a straight face.

"Warsea horses?" Atticus asked with incredulity.

The groups burst out laughing.

"Don't worry, there isn't a horror named a warsea horse," Kesa laughed.