The guild chat welcomed Sumi as she joined the guild, showing her a friendly welcome. Blossom was especially excited, she had come to like Sumi and was going to talk to Sora about inviting her anyway. Sumi was under the impression that Blossom had already talked to Sora about inviting her since she didn’t have any connection with Sora yet she was still invited in. Her friend popped into her mind, she kept wondering if it would be rude to ask if she could also join. She decided to not ask for now, maybe she could make her way into the guild on her own and Sumi wouldn’t need to ask. She was grateful to Sora and didn’t want to put him in an awkward position by bringing up her friend.

“Thank you for accepting me, I’ll do my best to earn my spot.”

“As long as you have that mentality then you should be able to fit in.”

Sora wasn’t sure where to go from here, he already had so many feeling for Sumi but didn’t know how to connect those feeling he had with the current Sumi. His emotions were struggling between treating her as a long lost lover and treating her as a new member of the guild. The important part was that Sora had found her and secured her a position in the guild, meaning that he had plenty of time to mull things over. Sora steeled his heart to treat her as if she was a new member for now, rushing into things wouldn’t do any good. Sora had fallen in love with the Sumi five years from now, she could be completely different at this point.

“The guild will be doing an event together, you should tag along if you have the time. We will be stopping to turn in our contribution points first though.”

“Alright… let me tell my friend that I’ll be busy.”

“Bring her along if you want, she shouldn’t get in the way. Did she respawn in Var?”

“Yes.”

“We can pick her up when we go to turn in our contribution points then.”

Sora already had an idea of who the friend she was talking about was, they had joined Sora’s guild together in his past life. Her friend should have the username ‘Little Cloud’ and be a healer class. Sora didn’t have too much of an opinion on her, she was an outgoing girl that usually got along with everyone. She slowly became distant with Sumi and after a while completely stopped talking to her. Sora could still remember the times when Sumi cried and said she was afraid to tell him the reason why they stopped talking. Those memories still made Sora worried, even though they haven’t even happened yet. Sora decided to stop thinking about that, he started to look around for other guild members.

“All of the guild members can leave towards Var together.”

“I don’t think anyone else survived…”

“Oh… I guess it’s just us then.”

Sora and Sumi started walking together, Sora had always been used to walking side by side with her while Sumi was still nervous. Sora found himself always inching a little too close, he didn’t think he could handle this for too long and ended up summoning Luna to ride next to her, creating a gap. Sumi looked at Luna in amazement, letting out a sigh of adoration at the beautiful wolf.

“C-can I pet it?”

“Sure.”

Sumi stroked the silver fur, creating a glimmer of light that traveled along with her hand. Sora watched her and was glad to see she was just as gentle as he remembered, even when petting such a huge beast she calmly strokes its fur as if it was a delicate flower. Sumi enjoyed the soft sensation on her had, Luna’s fur felt like a mixture of cotton and silk; it was poofy yet smooth, nobody would be able to guess that this fur had an insane amount of defense. Sora hesitated to ask Sumi if she wanted to ride along with him, he kept telling himself not to accidentally slip up but eventually he convinced himself that this one thing was alright

“Hey Trinity, did you want to… maybe wanna ride up here too?”

“Eh? Are you sure? I don’t want to put too much weight on the poor thing.”

“It’s fine, Luna is tougher than she looks.”

“You named her Luna? It’s a beautiful name, very fitting for her… If you insist then I can’t refuse.”

Sora pulled Sumi up, letting her ride on the back. Luna started off by walking so that Sumi could get used to the ride, mounts may be added by the game but they still felt awkward when first riding them. Once Sora was sure that Sumi was used to it he made Luna go a little faster. Sumi was still able to hold on but she became a little more unsteady now that they were going faster. Sora continued letting Sumi get used to riding Luna all the way until they had reached Frost Peak Village. Sumi got off of Luna before they entered the village, they didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention. The flight service wasn’t that busy so they were able to take off towards Var as soon as they got there.

Var was currently packed with players, nearly everyone that had died in the battle had respawned here all at once. The flight service going out of Var had become so long that many players walked to their destinations since it would be faster than waiting in line. Sora had wanted to just get on his mount and push through the crowd but then Sumi would get lost, he found a nearby alleyway and started taking the long way around. Their destination was a building located in the royal territory. The events always had many players so a separate building was set up just to handle giving out rewards for contribution points.

Sora and sumi finally arrived at the building after a lot of detours, the main road was packed with players that made it hard to move around. Sora was hoping The Eastern Legion could take another territory already so they could open up new cities for the players.

The building was circular in shape with a dome shaped roof. There were one hundred different counters where players could turn in their contribution points. Sora and Sumi had to travel a long distance to get here so a majority of the players had already been through. Sora could see Blossom standing together with LeeLee, Nobunaga, Athenes, and someone else that he hadn’t met. His username was ‘Silent Justice’ and he had cleanly cut black hair. Sora looked at his level and it was barely at level 15, he wondered why he would be hanging around here after just getting out of the beginner village. Sora approached them and when the man turned around he finally recognized him.

“Kira?”

“Hehe, long time no see Sora.”

“Ah, it’s best we don’t use real names here, sorry I was just surprised.”

“No problem, I just came here from the beginner village and ran into Sister Blossom. You said to just tell someone from Phoenix Rising that I wanted to talk so I did just that and waited with them.”

“So that’s how it is… What are your plans now?”

“I actually had something to discuss with you, it’s rather important so I didn’t mind waiting.”

“Alright, we can all take a break after getting our rewards. We can talk at that time.”

“Sounds good to me, it would probably be best for us to talk in private though. I don’t have anything against anyone here but it really is important to me.”

“... We can get a private table at a restaurant or something then. Everyone else should go claim their rewards, Blossom, let the guild members know we will be relaxing at the usual restaurant. They don’t have to come but I would like to get to know our guildmates more.”

Sora got in line to claim his prize, most of the guild members had waited for Sora to claim their rewards. The large amount of reward vendors helped speed the process up and get every guild member through in only 10 minutes. Sora’s group was the last to claim their rewards. Blossom had the highest contribution and many people were curious to see what she would obtain. Sora and Blossom were the last ones to get their reward. Sora walked up to the counter, there was nothing but a chest with a glass lock. Sora held the lock in his hand and the number 28,457 appeared in front of him. The number depleted at a rapid rate, a tiny orb of swirling light appeared for every point deducted. The orbs all traveled into the glass lock, making the color of the light appear more and more vibrant as the orbs entered it. After every orb entered the lock a small clicking noise was heard as the lock turned blue and opened. Sora opened the chest and pulled out a book.

[x1 Skill Book: Enhanced Slash obtained]

-Use this item to enhance Slash skill.

[Enhanced: Slash obtained]

Cost: 20 mana

Cooldown: 5 seconds

-Attack that deals 175% Damage

It wasn’t what Sora was hoping for, he was fine with his old [Slash] skill and didn’t really need the upgrade yet. He could only let out a sigh and curse his bad luck. The only person left now was Blossom. LeeLee had gotten a new dagger, meaning Sora could go ahead and sell the dagger he was going to sell to her. Nobunaga secured a couple pieces of armor, it was pretty decent luck considering he had been killed off pretty early in the fight compared to everyone else. Athenes was probably the most unlucky and got another Greater Healing skill book. She could only let out a small sigh before putting on her same cheerful smile.

Blossom drained the last bit of contribution points she had into the lock, the light swirled wildly before turning purple and making a small clicking noise. Sora looked at the purple lock and already knew it would be a good item since the lock color would depend on the quality of the item. Blossom opened up the chest and a crow with dark violet feathers flew out from within.

-Server Announcement-

Player Sister Blossom has obtained the first Epic Pet. +100 Gold +100 Fame +Pet Level

The crow cawed as it bathed in a golden light, directly raising it’s level up to 35. Blossom looked at the little crow with shock before a wide smile appeared as the crow landed on her arm. The crow cocked it’s head at the laughing Blossom, looking fairly cute for a crow.

“Hehehe, I’ll call you Black Devil so we can share the burden of such a wonderful name.”

The crow simply responded with a caw before flying around some more and landing on Blossom’s shoulder. Many of the players around her started to look with curiosity at what a pet was like. Everyone in Phoenix Rising congratulated Blossom, making her even more happy as they walked out of the building.

The guild found their way to the usual restaurant, they just started calling it the Phoenix Restaurant thanks to how often guild members met up here. The entire place was nearly empty before they came but packed full as every member piled in. Sora and Kira found a table upstairs that was away from everyone else, they could still hear the loud cheering and laughing from the guild members but it was easy to ignore.

“So, what is so important?”

“I followed your advice and launched the delivery campaign. It’s still in a testing phase but most of the problems that arise get sorted out in the same day. We expect to go public with it very soon, possibly even before the new VR system comes out… The only problem is that we don’t have an efficient way to advertise the service to people who play the game.”

“So you want to sponsor Phoenix Rising, right?”

“Exactly. I tried to get you the best deal I could but many people within the company were opposed to the conditions I set forth. They won’t budge until they see results. That being said, I hope you don’t get offended when I offer a slightly lower sponsorship than I had intentionally planned.”

“Well, let’s hear it then. We might be acquaintances but if the value is really as low as you're making it seem then I honestly can’t agree to it so easily, especially if a contract is involved.”

“I thought you would say that so I managed to talk them out of a long term contract, we agreed on $3,000 for the first month of our delivery business. If things go smoothly then we will come back and negotiate more.”

“Hmm… I have one other condition, it’s more of a personal request though so it shouldn’t affect your company.”

“That is?”

“You join Phoenix Rising and manage it’s finances.”

“What would that include? I’ve never managed a guild before so I don’t know what I should do.”

“You will basically just keep an eye on the market and use the guild money to purchase supplies and services for our guild members. It may sound easy but it’s important to keep an eye on how prices fluctuate within the game, one day something might be dirt cheap while the next day it’s worth it’s weight in gold. The job itself only requires a bit of time each week to study prices, you should still have a lot of free time in between.”

“If it’s something like that then I can definitely agree to it. I’m better at running the market than playing the game anyways.”

“Alright, it’s a deal then.”

[Silent Justice has joined the guild.]