“Seriously? What kind of method?”

“From what I’ve found out, Lotus Guild has a base in the northern continent.”

“Really?”

“On top of that, the size of the base is on the larger side. It’s almost equivalent to the base of a Challenger class guild. Although they only have one base.”

Millun was still as he waited for Rukin’s next explanation.

A decent picture was being drawn in his head as well.

“On top of that, I found out their base protection will be released in 2 weeks. It must be a base they earned in the beginning after the northern continent was opened.”

“…!”

“This much is quite excellent bait, no?”

Their guild, Polaris Guild, was not able to obtain a base during the northern expedition.

Because of that, as a matter of fact, the executives of the guild were looking for an easy guild amongst the ones that would be losing their base protection soon.

Of course, amongst the targeted guilds that they had looked for, there were guilds that were weaker than the Lotus Guild. However, most of them were cases where the bases were incredibly shabby.

There was no other easy-looking guild that had a such a well-packed base like the Lotus Guild.

“But if it’s a battle between guilds with similar fighting powers, wouldn’t the defending side have an advantage? I feel like the Guild Master won’t want to move?”

At Millun’s words, Rukin nodded his head and spoke.

“That’s right. They’ll probably be very hesitant. We need to make it so that they’re not hesitant.”

“Then what kind of method do you have?”

Rukin’s words continued.

“I’m going to hire a mercenary. I have a couple acquaintances that I know in the top-ranking guilds. If we just even call over about ten users that are all over lv 110, it should be enough. If I support this much, the Guild Master will probably not hesitate and move.”

For sure, in a guild war between guilds that had similar fighting powers, if about ten top-ranked users that were over lv 110 were added, the scale of strength would definitely tip.

However, Millun still wore an unsatisfied expression.

“Will they obediently follow? They’ll demand quite a large amount of money.”

“There will probably be a lot of people that are willing to come even if without a big cost.”

“How come?”

“That’s because there are a lot of high-level users that want to experience a territory war beforehand. Because the Lotus Guild’s Domain belongs to the group where their protection is being quickly released, from the perspective of the top-ranking guilds who don’t have much time left on their base protection, it will be a proposal that will tug at their appetite. It will be even more so if it’s a territory war where their chances of winning are even higher.”

It was a plausible enough story.

Millun’s face brightened.

“That’s definitely true. There will be a ton of guilds that will be scared to death if there’s not a lot of days left on their base protection, so if there was a chance for them to experience a territory war beforehand, even I would want to go.”

The two people grinned as they looked at each other.

Now, if the guild executives spilled the information, then it would proceed on its own one by one.

“Alright, Rukin. Then you spill the information slightly to the Guild Master.”

“Then what about you?”

“I’ll go look for more information on the Lotus Guild.”

The two people moved their feet busily in order to execute their own plans.

* * *

“Finally, Pin, it’s time to raise you!”

While looking at Pin, whose Potential was filled up to 100, Ian wore a big smile.

Kkuruk- Kkuruk-?

Ian petted Pin’s golden feathers and spoke.

“Pin, for now, sit here and just watch.”

As Ian tapped his shoulder, Pin quickly flew over and sat on top of it.

‘Then, shall we start?’

If they moved a little to the east from Forlan Basin, a map called ‘Forlan Mountains’ came up.

It was a map with mountains in its name, but with strange rock and stone formations and blocks of ice, and was also permanently covered with snow, being a place where even one tree was hard to find.

This was the place that Ian was currently in.

‘As expected, there are a few people in the lowlands where it is easier to hunt. I should go up.’

Ian busily moved his feet and began to go up the mountain.

He also met a couple Yetis that were over lv 100 while going up, but he got rid of them easily and continued to move forward.

‘Oh, there’s a decent spot over there?’

Having discovered a terrain that was suitable for hunting, Ian’s eyes were filled with stars as he moved towards that area.

Meanwhile, from catching four or five Yetis, Pin’s level was over lv 20 now.

This was because he had received an enormous amount of EXP compared to his level.

Pu-deu-deuk-.

Pin flapped his wings as he energetically flew up into the air.

Seeing that, Ian’s eyes slightly rounded.

This was because in that short span, Pin’s form had changed.

“Uh, so his body grew if he leveled?”

Pin, whose body was the size of Ian’s fist at lv 1, had grown to the size of an average child in that short span.

His small beak also grew, and now, he was beginning to show a decent form of a rapacious bird.

Ian wore a pleased expression.

‘Keu, once he’s all grown, I wonder how big he’ll get?’

Ian had never seen an adult Griffin before.

That would probably be the same for any user in Kailan.

Because of that, he was anticipating the form of an adult Griffin even more.

Before Ian started hunting, he used all of his buff skills.

And then he called Pin.

“Pin, Roar of the King!”

Kyaoh-!

Along with Pin’s loud cry, which seemed to rip through the sky, a system message popped up in front of Ian’s eyes.

• Familiar ‘Pin’ has used the Roar of the King skill.

• For 10 minutes, the Agility of all allies within a 50-metre radius will increase by 30%.

• For 10 minutes, the movement of all opponents within a 50-metre radius will decrease by 30%.

It was still impossible for Pin, who was in the lv 20 range, to directly participate in fighting the monsters of the northern continent, but he could use buff skills like this.

And that was quite a big help in hunting as well.

“Shall we have some fun now?”

Before Ian’s words were even properly finished, Ddukdae began to move.

Thud- Thud-.

As he did so, tons of Ice Trolls and Gargoyles, as well as Yetis, began to gather where Ian was.

The other Familiars that had hunted countless of times with Ian, began to carry out their roles themselves before Ian’s commands came out.

The corners of Ian’s mouth rolled upwards.

It was the start of their hunt.

* * *

Ring-.

• An internal building of the Domain, the ‘Military Facility’ (Facility Lv 1) has been completed.

• From now on, ‘Low-rank Infantryman’ can be trained at the Lotus Domain.

• In order to train ‘Low-rank Infantryman’, 5 units of food and 15 gold is required every day, and if training is completed, 2 units of food will be consumed every day until the soldier is discharged. (To complete training, it takes a total of 3 days worth of time.)

• Through the influence of the ‘Summoner Guild’ that was built on the Domain, ‘Low-rank Summoner Soldiers’ can be trained.

• In order to train ‘Low-rank Summoner Soldiers’, 5 units of food and 30 gold is required every day, and if training is completed, 2 units of food will be consumed every day until the soldier is discharged. (To complete training, it takes a total of 5 days worth of time.)

• The number of soldiers that can be trained at once is restricted to 30 people.

• Currently, the maximum number of troops that can be possessed by the Lotus Domain is 500 people.

Ian and Herz, who stood in front of the Military Facility, timing it so that they were there as soon as it would be completed, thoroughly read through the system messages that were listed.

“Yoohyun, we have enough guild resources, right?”

Herz nodded his head and replied.

“Yeah, there was hardly any need to use our food supply up until now and have quite a bit gathered, so we have nothing to worry about. With this much money as well, we won’t be struggling for a while. Since we’ll be getting taxes as well once the month changes.”

“That’s a relief.”

Ian opened up the information windows of the Summoner Soldiers and the normal Infantrymen and began to compare their pros and cons.

‘Unrelated to their branch, all soldiers that are trained in the lv 1 Military Facility are lv 30.’

An interesting point was that the soldiers ranks and stats were formed randomly within a set range.

While looking at that, Ian instinctively felt that there was a relation to the NPC that was appointed as the person in charge and the stats of the soldiers.

‘As expected, it was definitely a good idea to have built the Human Resource Centre first.’

The basic combat stats of the soldiers of the Summoner branch were generally slightly lower than the infantrymen.

However, because they could summon 1-2 Familiars that weren’t more than 5 levels higher than their level, they could make use of more diverse tactics.

Ian, who had thoroughly looked through the functions of the completed Military Facility, immediately appointed an individual that he had already promoted as the person in charge.

• Individual ‘Roman’ has been appointed the person in charge of the Military Facility.

Roman was probably inside the manor right now, but just appointing alone could be done in the system settings even without calling them over.

And continued, a system message popped up.

• The requirements to upgrade the facility to lv 2 has been fulfilled. Will you upgrade?

Because they had found an individual that fit the lv 2 requirement beforehand in the Human Resource Centre while the Military Facility was being completed, they were able to upgrade immediately.

Ian nodded his head.

“Sure. We’ll upgrade.”

As he did so, the Military Facility building changed into a ‘Completing’ state again.

The time left until completion.

• 23:59:58

Herz, who was watching him, was astonished.

“Yo, this is seriously perfect. Where did you find information like this?”

Ian grinned as he spoke.

“Well, if you search around hard enough, it actually comes up. I went into places like top-ranking guild cafés and secretly watched. There are a lot of guilds that have promoted to a Domain weeks before us.”

Herz’s mouth slightly dropped open.

“Ah, there was that kind of method…”

Ian, who grinned while looking at Herz like that, checked Roman’s information window before grumbling.

“But we probably won’t be able to raise the facility to lv 3 right away.”

“Why? Is there a new requirement aside from a person in charge?”

“No, it’s not like that, but the level of the person in charge is too low.”

At Ian’s words, Herz checked the level of Roman, the person in charge.

Roman’s level was 95.

Herz, who had understood what Ian meant, nodded his head.

“Ah, you said the level requirement was lv 100, right? There’s a day left until completion, so can’t we make Roman’s level reach 100 before then?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Well, unless a martial arts instructor that’s over lv 100 appears in the Human Resource Centre before then, but there’s almost no chance that will happen.”

“That’s true.”

NPCs could also level up.

They just needed to take them on guild parties and hunt together with them to raise them.

On top of that, after more troops were developed and there were more NPCs that were able to fight, NPCs could be sent off to hunt together as well.

Ian was trapped in his thoughts for a moment.

‘There’s not even a week left for the base protection period now. I wanted to for sure make the Military Training Centre reach lv 3 at least…’

As the guild base’s rank was promoted to ‘Domain’, a lot of complex content here and there suddenly appeared, but Ian and Herz were going through them one by one in a calm and orderly way.

Herz opened his mouth, mumbling.

“In about 3 days from now, the base protections will start to be released one by one.”

Ian nodded his head.

“Yeah, that’s right. We need to keep a watch on what aspect it will turn into then.”

“Right. Fortunately, we don’t have many guilds surrounding our base that are affiliated with the Kaimon Empire.”

Starting from the ‘Domain’ rank, guilds became affiliated with either the Luspel Empire or the Kaimon Empire.

This couldn’t be helped because the Lord needs to receive a title from one of the two empires.

And obviously, Domains that were affiliated with the same empire couldn’t engage in a territory war.

This was because if a guild attacked a Domain that was affiliated with the same empire as them, they were automatically stripped of their aristocrat title and they would be attacked by the relevant empire.

If they could even defend the attack of the empire, then it was also possible to become a Domain that was not affiliated with any empire, but as it was impossible to even try blocking them, it could only be considered that there was no chance to do so.

In conclusion, in order to become independent of an empire, they needed to raise the rank of the guild base to the same rank as them, the ‘Empire’.

In other words, it could be considered an incredibly distant story.

“Anyways, we need to raise the Domain’s Defensive Power as much as possible until then, and we need to research a lot of information. There aren’t any Domains that are affiliated with the Kaimon Empire around us, but a guild with no base at all could come and attack us.”

Herz nodded his head in agreement.

“That’s right. I noticed that amongst the guilds that were a higher rank than us, there are ones without bases as well.”

The two people began to organize their future plans one by one.

And as their organization was roughly finished, Ian stood up from his spot in order to level up again.

‘Almost 90% or more is going as I planned.’

While thinking of Pin, who had leveled up to lv 50 before he realized, Ian wore a pleased smile.

‘If I use all 5 of the dungeon entries that I haven’t used at all today, I could probably make him roughly reach close to lv 70.’

And it looked as Ian’s level could also reach 110 if all went well.

While thinking of Pin, who was getting stronger at an incredible speed expected of a Legendary-rank, Ian’s mood brightened.

Ian turned his attention towards Herz.

“Yo, Yoohyun.”

“Hmm?”

“Do you want to go to Forlan?”

And at Ian’s suggestion, Yoohyun wore a broad grin.

With the corners of his mouth still hanging from his ears, Yoohyun abruptly stood up.

“Alright!”

Like that, three days passed by quickly.