Sora and Bubbles were currently walking back towards Var, as they walked near Frost Peak Village they could see a large crowd of people surrounding a group of people. The crowd seemed to be fighting over the group's attention as a man with long black hair carefully responded to each person. Sora recognized this man, he was one of the guild leaders which he had an alliance with in his past life. He had been in charge of many guilds in other games and created a huge name for himself. His username was Drazi and he was the leader of a guild named The Crystal Dragons. He was one of the few players who didn’t let power go to his head, although he was currently leading a very powerful guild he still had a sense of right and wrong. In his past life Sora had butted heads with one of his guild officers because he was trying to keep Sora out of a area which they claimed as their own. This was before Sora had become famous so they could have easily pushed him away without any consequences. Yet when Drazi heard of this behavior he demoted the officer to make an example of him to the rest of the guild. Sora had a good impression of Drazi and hoped he could form an alliance again later on when he creates his own guild.

“Drazi can I join your guild?!”

“Me too!”

“No wait, I was here first!”

Drazi was being swarmed with players asking to join his guild, even though it hasn’t even been officially created yet. As he was about to respond he noticed Sora walking past the crowd, he stood out a lot thanks to his armor set being so unique. Drazi carefully watched Sora walk through the village before turning back to the crowd and dealing with them.

…..

Bubbles and Sora entered the city together and separated, Bubbles was in a hurry to advance his skills and Sora needed to talk to Gzarna before anything else. Sora walked through the city until coming up to the same palace where he had talked to the king. The guards stopped him once again, with a little more respect this time.

“Sir, only those who have important matters may pass through here.”

“I have a letter to deliver from Veradon to Gzarna, it is of utmost importance.”

Sora brought out the letter and showed the guard, once he saw the imprint he moved out of the way to let Sora pass by and commanded one of the nearby servants to take him to Gzarna. A few players who were around noticed him get through and had shocked faces. Many players had tried to go to the king to see if he offered any quests, every one of them was stopped at the gate and never gained entry no matter how much they tried.

Sora followed a maid as she walked on a winding pathway through a garden until stopping at what looked to be a normal wooden cabin. The maid bowed politely before leaving, mentioning that Gzarna could be found inside. Sora braced himself as he opened the door, once the door opened fully a force seemed to suck him into a different dimension. It was a little disorienting no matter how many times you go through it. Sora was now in a huge room that didn’t look like it belonged in the small wooden cabin, in fact even if you put ten of the cabins together it wouldn’t measure up to the size of this room. Gzarna could be seen inspecting a orb full of black energy, it was the same orb she had used to absorb the corrupt energy from the mantis arm that Sora had brought to the king. She noticed Sora and started to wave him over with excitement. Sora walked over to her and watched the orb of black energy while Gzarna started to bring an orb of a silver looking energy close to the orb with black energy. The black energy started to shake as the silver energy got closer, Sora already knew what this energy was. It was a new element that would be introduced later in the game to help fight against the corrupted enemies, the element was simply called Purging element and was specifically strong against corrupted energy.

“Hehehe, isn’t it great?! It’s not perfect yet but if I am given enough time then I can surely figure out a weakness to those corrupted creatures.”

“Mh, I’m sure it will revolutionize the way we fight against the corrupted.”

“That’s right, it definitely will! Hehehe, so what brings you here adventurer?”

“Veradon sent me to relay some info to you…”

Sora handed Gzarna the letter as he explained what was happening, Gzarna seemed to have stars in her eyes as she kept listening to the reports that Veradon had gotten. As a magic fanatic she saw this as a blessing, even if it could be catastrophic. Sora summarized everything he read in the reports down to the littlest detail.

As Sora finished his report Gzarna was already getting a few things ready. Sora watched as Gzarna nearly left without even telling him anything, luckily Gzarna turned around just before exiting as she remembered that she had a guest.

“Ah, Ethereal was it? Thank you for the information, come back to the mountain in two days if you're interested in my findings.”

Before Sora could reply Gzarna opened the door, sucking both her and Sora out of the dimension. Sora was once again assaulted by the disoriented feeling of being transferred into a different dimension. Gzarna was already gone by the time he teleported out, leaving Sora confused but also happy as the quest information changed.

[Mysterious Mana Mountain]

-Gzarna has told you to come back to the mountain in two days to learn more about the mana influx. You should prepare a little before heading back to Frost Peak Mountain.

…..

Sora had walked into the shopping district and headed towards the alchemy shop, he needed to buy vials and some extra ingredients to make health and mana potions. Right now Sora only had 67 Crimson Life Flowers and a staggering 367 Small mana Crystals, along with 237 Azure Spirit Flowers. This means Sora could make 67 Health Potions for himself, 237 Mana Potions that gave a small buff to Spirit, and 130 normal Mana Potions. Sora bought 434 vials at 10 copper per vial, totalling 43 silver and 40 copper. The vials were fairly cheap, but the ingredients cost quite a bit of money. To make a beginner Health Potion you needed the Crimson Life Flower as the base ingredient and Ground Bat Teeth as the secondary ingredient. Sora hasn’t killed any bats yet so he would have to buy them from the alchemy shop. The ingredients cost 1 silver a piece, making Sora spend 1 Silver per health potion. Although the health potions costs so much to make, it was due to the fact that player made items have a stronger effect than ones bought from NPCs The mana potions luckily only required the mana crystal so Sora only had to buy the vials for it. With everything in order Sora set up a small shop near the fountain in the city.

…..

Many players watched as a man kept filling up vials of water from the fountain in the city. He had his shop set up but by the looks of things he was only selling vials that were filled with water. Most people ignored him but some alchemists that didn’t like the tedious task of filling the vials with water went up to him and asked to buy some vials off of him. Everyone was confused when he stated that the vials of water were not for sell, most players started to just ignore him after that.

Sora had just finished filling up his last vial of water and took out his Beginner Mana Potion Recipe, using it to gain the ability to make the potions. He carefully dropped a Small Mana Crystal into the mouth of one of his vials of water and waited for the crystal to dissolve, turning the water a very dark blue color. Sora then took out the Azure Spirit Flower and plucked each petal off of it before dropping it in the vial, making the potion look like it had glitter in it. Sora continued repeating the same process over and over again.

As Sora was continuing to make the mana potions, a woman was walking around the courtyard that wore what looked to be priestess robes and had a staff with a cross at the top. The girl herself was very ordinary looking but permeated a very gentle aura that even seemed a bit calming. She had a troubled look on her face as she walked around the market looking at every shop she could find. She kept walking around, only getting more and more irritated as she couldn’t find what she was looking for until finally she spotted something that caught her attention. Near the fountain in the middle of the courtyard was a man who was currently dropping petals into a vial of blue liquid. At first she had thought it was just another scammer, there have been many people who would try to sell you a vial filled with the juice of a local fruit called the Sky Berry. The Sky Berry grew in abundance around the kingdom and had a light blue color to it. The vial that the man was currently holding seemed to be a dark blue though, she thought of the possibilities of it being another type of fruit until the last petal fell into the liquid and seemed to make the liquid glitter in the sunlight. As soon as she saw that she went directly over to his small shop.

“Excuse me sir-”

“I wouldn’t waste your time on him ma’m, a few people already came up and asked to buy some vials of water but he said they weren’t for sell. I have a few things I could sell you, I’ll even knock the price do-”

“Why would I sell something I was going to use, do you sell your weapon before you go into a fight?”

Sora chimed in as the lady who had come up to his stall was about to be driven away by this man. The man had been here for a while and was selling various animal pelts and other loot drops that weren’t all that useful. The man looked at Sora with eyes that seemed to want to tear him apart. The man had been trying to impress the lady and was quickly put down by Sora.

“Hmph, I bet you're just another scammer. You think just because that juice is the same color as a mana potion that you can fool us?”

“I’m afraid I’m not like you, that wolf pelt is obviously from the beginner village but you have already told four customers that the pelt was from a rare wolf found within the forest.”

“Wh-... Don’t try to soil my reputation you little punk!”

“It’s hard to soil something that’s already so rotten, you even tried to trick that girl who didn’t even seem past the age of 13. It’s a good thing I sent her a message to warn her or she might have wasted money on your cheap little tricks.”

“SO YOU'RE THE REASON W-”

The man had accidentally slipped, a crowd had already gathered around the two of them and he basically just confirmed everything that Sora said. The players looked at the man with disgust before telling him to get out of here and not to set up shop here again. The man had a face full of anger as he packed everything up and logged out. Everyone went back to their business after the man logged out, they also believed that Sora was just a scammer that called out another scammer to make himself look trustworthy. The only person left at his shop was the lady that looked like a priest.

“So, are you buying? I have mana potions that will boost Spirit by 10 points.”

“D-did you s-say a m-mana potion that also boosts Spirit by 10 points? Are you sure you’re not a scammer? Sorry but those words just sound too good to be true.”

Sora didn’t waste any time trying to explain himself, the best proof was through evidence so he simply slid a potion towards the lady. As she picked it up and inspected the information her heart seemed to stop.

[x1 Beginner Mana Potion of Extended Spirit]

Rarity - Uncommon

Uses - 1/1

Cooldown - 1 Minute

“A potion that will replenish mana while also strengthening the spirit.”

+Restore 200 Mana

+10 Spirit for 5 minutes

The lady was so surprised that she nearly dropped the potion, realizing this she gripped it with so much strength that if this wasn’t a game it would probably break from the pressure. The lady quickly messaged a lot of people, this was the first batch of mana potions and these ones even had the special effect of boosting Spirit. She turned her attention back towards Sora and reluctantly gave the potion back to him.

“H-how much is it?”

“25 Silver for ones that don’t boost Spirit. 50 Silver for one’s that do.”

“That much?!”

“It’s the first batch in game, I think you understand the significance of this, especially when the first dungeon will be opening soon.”

“...”

The lady couldn’t argue with that, if she were in the same position then she would definitely sell the potions for at least that much, maybe even more. She messaged someone again before breathing a sigh of relief.

“How many do you have?”

“237 Spirit boosting potions and 130 normal potions.”

“Would it be alright is you held 100 of each for the next 2 minutes or so? I had to contact our guild's treasurer to make the transaction.”

“Already part of a guild? That’s too bad, I thought about inviting you to mine when I made it.”

“Hehe, of course it’s not an official guild yet but we plan on being the first to claim the title of an official guild.”

“Hoho, very ambitious. Then what if I make the first guild?”

“Hahaha, Then I will gladly become part of it.”

The lady said that so easily because it seemed impossible that this man could be the first person to create a guild. She actually didn't mind the idea of leaving her guild, she played a very minor role in it anyways and only joined it out of convenience. In fact she has had a lot of tedious work pushed onto her by the higher ranking guild members.

“Alright then, it’s a promise so you better not break it.”

“Hehehe, I guess introduction are in order then, especially towards someone who might be my guild leader in the future. I go by the name Gentle Water.”

The woman did a slight curtsy with a small smile, somewhat joking around with the interesting man. She really did think it was all a joke that the man was going to be the first person to start a guild, until she heard his next sentence.

“Nice to meet you Miss Gentle Water, I go by the name Ethereal.”