Chapter 1842: Same But Different
Karl and Rue worked silently as the group chatted, pumping out gear for the store as fast as they could.
Rare Grade items could easily be mass-produced with the runes already on them, but Epic Grade items took a bit of tweaking to make them perfect, and account for flaws in the base material before they were completed.
Even so, they were still making a new item every few minutes, and the pile was beginning to grow beside them, which drew the attention of the Black Dragon.
"Are you planning to go to war?" He asked.
"No, these are for our Guild Shop. There is a recruitment event for the New Home Merchant Clan, and hundreds of other small Clans have come to see if they can find the perfect recruit.
These items are sold as bribes to help them recruit new members.
If they don’t have an appropriate gift to bring the new member in, it’s difficult to convince a young Immortal to join them, even if they’re a good fit. So, we offer suitable items, and they use them to get members."
"You’re not afraid that it’s stealing members from your Guild or the New Home, which you are allied with?"
"Not at all. In fact, the majority will still go to the New Home Merchant Clan, and those other Clans would still find a way to recruit the ones that they wanted.
This way, we get to profit off the recruits that we don’t even have to train."
"That’s just devious. You already know that they’re not a good fit for your Clan, they only came because the recruitment is the best place for them to find a master, but you’re still finding ways to profit off them.
It’s a surprise that the New Home Merchant Clan isn’t larger, given its tactics."
Karl shook his head. "Clan Leader Nerissa is actually quite discerning who she takes, but she also prefers recruits from the Mortal Worlds, or those born within her Clan. It keeps that sense of family, as so many came from other worlds that they have something to bond them, instead of being outsiders in a Clan that looks down on them."
"Ah, one of those. I have encountered many such Clans after entering the Divine Realms as well. Mostly, they prey on newly ascended Demigods, but some of them are genuinely hoping to build the power of the pantheons that they represent.
That’s why I aligned with the one that I did. We are all servants of the Black Dragon, so while we’re all working on our own ways to reach Divinity, we are all very similar personalities."
That sounded more than a little extreme to Karl. Not just followers of the Dragon Pantheon, his entire Clan was filled with black dragon followers?
Though, that still wasn’t as extreme as most of the Immortal Realm Clans that only followed one specific build of one specific class. So, perhaps the outlier here was him, and his view that a Guild should have a little bit of everything, just to keep it interesting.
Leo came to sit with the group, and waved to their new addition.
"Hello, Mister Dragon. If you’re all Black Dragon followers, who decides who is in charge? Like, you’re all doing the same job, and you’re all going for the same goal, right? So, is it just whoever is the most powerful?
That’s how most of the groups here do it, but it seems dumb because powerful and smart aren’t the same thing."
The dragon actually laughed out loud at the innocent little turtle.
"You are absolutely right. But when they’re powerful, nobody can stop them from being powerfully stupid. So, they do as they please, and others try to emulate them because they are powerful."
Leo sighed. "One day, I will be big, and people will look up to me."
"Because you can fly?"
Leo paused for a second, shocked that the Black Dragon Avatar had made a joke.
Then, a slow smile spread across his face.
"Yep. I will be huge and flying, and even the dragons will be impressed."
The Avatar nodded seriously. "Well, if you can keep up with the Great Turtle, the dragons will definitely be impressed."
"The Great Turtle?"
"He’s a God of the Beast Pantheon. Hangs out with this snake girl all the time. But he’s the size of a continent. Very impressive, if I do say so myself."
"Oh, know the one you mean. Have I been too narrow-minded? Are snake girls friendly? I don’t think I know any snake girls."
The Avatar winked at Leo. "When you grow up, you will find out that Snake girls can be very friendly, but they can also be very sneaky and mean, so you need to be careful and find the right one if you want to make lifelong friends."
Leo nodded as he took in this sage new advice. "I will remember that. Humans can be sneaky too. There is a boy at school that is always lying and trying to cause trouble for others.
My friend Cindy Lou warned me that he was a bad person, so I didn’t get fooled when he tried to get me in trouble.
She is human, but she got her class at only eight years old."
The Avatar was truly impressed by that. Earlier awakenings usually meant higher potential, so if a human could awaken before puberty, they were definitely going to grow into someone who could achieve great things.
As long as they didn’t die young.
"Did she get a good class?"
"She’s a druid! They won’t let us go out on missions yet, since Cindy Lou doesn’t have an Immortal Spirit yet, but I talked to the Matron, and she thinks that we can train in the tower here in the Tiny World when we have days off."
Rue smiled at the excited little turtle. "I will work with Karl to upgrade it, so that all the Immortals can use it, and you don’t have to hold back."
"Then we can bring all our friends and go as a group! That will be so fun. I will have them ask their moms tomorrow."
