Hopeful Maggots HQ,

Ranad.

4 th Banem, 1093.

In recent weeks, Maggot HQ, the center of Ranad, had maintained a strangely silent atmosphere. With most of its guild members either assisting in the colonization efforts on the southern islands or away on training, it was no wonder the normally bustling compound lacked its usual bluster.

However, this day, the compound was even more quiet than usual, its gates tightly shut to visitors. All Hopeful Maggots’ craftsmen, tradespeople, and merchants around the area had abandoned all they were doing for an emergency convention at the building.

Despite the world’s curiosity, the Maggots were famous for their information security. Unless the Maggots themselves decided to divulge the information, they could only wait until the gates opened once again before finding out exactly what was happening within.

While the whole of Ranad pondered the reason for the Maggots' HQ’s summons, the very people being talked about were letting out strings of curses borne from frustration and excitement as they ran helter-skelter.

The Maggots’ minds were consumed by the unbelievable boon their elusive guild leader had brought with him upon his return.

The Maggot building, which housed several workshops and forges to meet the researchers and craftsmen's needs, was buzzing with life as several men and women poured through books that had been handed out to them earlier in the day. Books which held secrets to so many crafts they did not think possible, while at the same time, bursting the doors of their creative imagination to heights unseen before.

The person responsible for this hubbub frowned, muttering distasteful curses as his brush scribbled directions on building a seven-foot buster sword for the umpteenth time in a row.

Buried in paperwork, Kashi—who had no office of his own—hunkered down at Leila's desk, beginning to regret his decision as he finished what felt like the thousandth [Beginner Craftsman Guide Vol.1].

Resting on the couch prepared for visitors, the only other being in the office, Kira, chuckled as Kashi dumped the book to the side, picked up a new empty one, and began the process all over again, this time for [Beginner Runemaster Guide Vol.1].

"You wish to impress the girl but cannot handle the pain that comes with it ," Kira mocked, lips curled upward. "What a despicable man."

Kashi, whose red eyes had somehow managed to get even redder, cast a scathing, bloodshot glare at the lazily lounging direwolf. Seeing as she returned his glare with a limpid, mocking one of her own, he snorted, "I'm not trying to impress anybody."

"No?" Kira challenged, thoroughly enjoying herself. "Then why are you of all people slaving away at that table?"

Kashi's brow shot up, gaze rising from the manual he was writing. "What do you mean, "me of all people?" You do realize I am a guildmaster, right? Guild. Mas-ter. It's only natural I work hard for the sake of my guild."

Kira's gaze held contempt as if looking down at a bug. "Sure. It has nothing to do with the singer's words yesterday."

Kashi's fingers froze. "You are reading too much into things." With a light cough, he resumed writing, choosing to ignore the direwolf.

"Mm-hmm," Kira nodded, sarcasm in her eyes. "Believe what you want." She jumped down from the couch and made for the exit. "Open the door. I'm going out to hunt."

Kashi's eyes held a triumphant light as he proudly rose from his chair, making his way to the door with his chest puffed out and a smug grin on his face. Placing a hand on the round doorknob, he asked with a sickening smile, "Does the lady need me to open the door for her?" Placing a hand on his chest, he mocked, "It would be my honor."

"Kashi."

"Yeah?"

Kira's expression suddenly turned grim. "There are many ways to open a shut door." Her lips spread apart to reveal a very toothy grin. "Would you like me to demonstrate?"

Kashi sweated. Are you kidding!? This was Leila's office, the woman who might as well be the real guild master as far as seventy-percent of those here were concerned. What would the members say if he smashed her expensive door within a day of his return?

Yeesh, although he did not have much of a reputation within his guild, Kashi did not want to turn it into the negative.

Hastily opening the door, Kashi weakly chuckled, "Haha, Joking, joking. It was just a joke. Of course, you can go."

With a proud smirk, Kira took her time passing through the door. "You should know better than to start fights you cannot win." She did not have to look over her shoulder to know the daeben was most definitely rolling his eyes. Laughing, she called over her shoulder as she strutted down the corridor, "I will be out past sunset."

"Yeah, Yeah, just don't die out there."

"As if." Kira snorted as she disappeared around a corner. "If nothing else, I will definitely outlive you."

"Well, that's reassuring," Kashi muttered as he shut the door behind him. He leaned against the closed door, then slid down till he sat on the floor. He cast a tired gaze at the empty books on the table and the work ahead. Scratching his head, he cursed, "Crazy idiot. Why'd you have to go and say that?"

Previous Day.

Kashi, riding with Lunette atop Drixlia, made for Ranad, secretly impressed by the stallion's speed. Unknown to him, the horse leveled up from that last battle. It could now maintain a journey speed of nearly 100km/h while hitting 120km/h at sprint speeds over short distances.

Lunette, telling herself it was to stop her hair from flying all over Kashi's face, leaned back into his chest, silently enjoying the steady beating of the daeben's heart. She gazed at Kira, who easily kept pace with them, occasionally casting a look at Kashi with a mocking gaze or a knowing smirk. Through Kashi, she had learned the duo could communicate through their minds, which caused a feeling of envy in her heart.

Especially since Kashi spent most of the journey silent; but judging from Kashi’s frequent glances at Kira, the two of them were having some sort of private debate.

Lunette sighed. How nice would it be if she too could get into the daeben's head sometimes? Maybe she would be able to understand him a little better. She didn’t even have the option of stalking him on social media to learn everything about him, which left her with no choice but to rely on the archaic method used by people of a different era to find out how his brain worked: Talking.

"Hey..."

"Hmm?"

"You're a guildmaster, right?"

Kashi coughed. Scratching the back of his neck, he answered, "Uhh... Yeah."

"Is that so?" Lunette murmured. "How come you're never with your guild then? Those people from before are more like guildmasters."

"Uhh..." Kashi rapidly blinked, stunned for words. He couldn't very well say he only opened the guild just so he could participate in the Battle for Riven, and now he used it mostly as a tool for conquering purposes, now could he?

There was a reason Kashi left everything guild-related to Leila.

Kashi's heartbeat slightly quickened, eyes turning to Kira for help. Unfortunately, the direwolf suddenly seemed to have gained a profound interest on the horizon, not sparing the daeben the slightest glance even as he screamed into her head.

Numerous ideas and replies rushed through Kashi’s head in the span of a few seconds before his eyes suddenly brightened with enlightenment. Spine straightening, he exuded an air of assured confidence as he said, "Sure, I'm not like the traditional guild leaders. I like to think of myself as the guild’s vanguard. I forge ahead into the more dangerous territories to present my guild with better opportunities to grow."

"Oh?" Lunette murmured, hiding a teasing grin. "You are returning to the Headquarters of your very own guild for the first time in a very long while. Surely, you have something mind-blowing to give your members?"

Kashi started. The only 'mind-blowing' thing he could think of was highly classified and was supposed to be revealed in the leaders' meeting a few days away. There was no way he could show that to the regular guild members.

But indeed, Kashi could not return empty-handed, could he?

Brilliant Long-Term aspirations that benefited a company’s future were mostly only appreciated by the high-level workers and Shareholders who had more than enough money to survive the wait.

On the other hand, while still appreciative of good long-term plans, average workers were much more interested in what the company could do for them at present.

Right Now. People had bills to pays. Hopes and Dreams can't fill a person's stomach.

Kashi mentally cycled through everything he had gained since leaving Ranad. His brows suddenly jumped as he recalled a few items. They then faded to a frown as he remembered the sensitive nature of those items. They were too powerful. He couldn't let just anybody get access to them. But in terms of usefulness, they outranked everything he could offer the guild, both currently and for a long time to come.

"You could always release a few at a time."

Kashi shook, turning to stare at Kira, whose gaze was still fixed squarely on the horizon.

"Do not get the wrong idea ," she cautioned. "Some of your thoughts kept disturbing me. I would rather you were not in my head."

"You and me both," muttered Kashi under his breath, with an exaggerated eye-roll. Despite his words, however, immense gratitude filled his heart. Although Kira's suggestion was quite simple, it cut right to the heart of the matter.

In fact, it was so simple and obvious, Kashi felt like bashing his head against a wall for not realizing it sooner, especially with all the light novels and wuxia he had read.

Armed with a newfound purpose, fueled by a sudden drive to impress Lunette —er, improve his guild, Kashi finally arrived at Maggot HQ.

After a swift order to have all their craftsmen in the area return and have a lockdown in place, he immediately retreated to Leila's office, where he began transcribing some crafts from [Aygor's Notes]. The Notes were split into five levels, unlocking all crafts from common to Divine regardless of rank.

While freeing Aygor, Kashi withstood the hammer's test till the final level, granting him the recipes for all crafts up to the divine level. Naturally, knowing the recipe was no guarantee for success if he lacked sufficient skill, nor were the ingredients needed for those higher recipes easy to acquire or even find.

At this point, however, Kashi did not care about any of that. The very nature of the tome allowed him to take a page out of the wuxia handbooks. He could implement the fabled wuxia world’s Library Vault trope into his guild by making manuals segregated into different volumes of increasing levels and difficulties.

Only those with enough contribution points to the guild could access the higher-leveled material, going up to the divine level.

This way, it would discourage spies from gaining easy access to their better recipes and ensure the blacksmiths and leatherworkers did not get too bottled to follow the book's recipes alone.

After all, what it had were the works Aygor had seen up to that point. Unlike the [Runes of Creation], it did not automatically update itself whenever someone made a new craft. Which naturally meant an inspired individual could make something even better than those within the tome.

Kashi went even further and made a few copies of the runes he currently had within the [Runes of Creation], along with some research notes he had developed while working on them with the dwarfs. Although he did not have all the runes, those Kashi possessed were akin to the building blocks upon which the more complicated runes were constructed. He and the dwarfs had already discovered a few mid-level runes that they currently used in the airship’s construction through experimentation.

Kashi hoped that by releasing these foundational runes, his guild members would experiment independently and discover even more than he could.

After making a few corrections here and there, Kashi finally completed the first manual. Although he was using [Auto-Paint] to shorten the time spent, once he was done with the mental work of deciding what to add and what to remove, the minutes seemed to drag on forever as he began the monotonous grind of copying the completed manuals.

Eventually, Kashi finished the first batch. After going through the manuals a few more times, he asked Marie, Leila's secretary, to help distribute the manuals to the waiting craftsmen. Without waiting for the feedback, he got started on the next batch of manuals. When he finished, Marie entered the room and took the manuals into her inventory with a smile. Her timing was so unnervingly accurate that Kashi could not help but suspect that the place was bugged.

Regardless of the presence of a bug or not, the cycle continued until the present where Kashi was currently making copies of the Lv. 150 – Lv. 200 rare manual. The daeben, bored out of his mind with fatigue, shut his eyes, leaned back on his chair, and then massaged his sore palms.

"Seem the great Kashi whom many claim invincible can be bested by mere paperwork."

A wry grin cut across Kashi’s face as he raised a pair of relieved eyes to greet the wisben proudly standing by the door with a knowing smirk. “Leila,” Kashi greeted, unable to hide the relief and joy in his voice as he rose to his feet. “When did you get back?”

“Just now,” Leila replied as she pushed off the doorpost. She walked over to a table where a tray with cups and plates sat by a silver cylindrical device. “Someone said he has something important to report, so I had to cut my leveling short.” She placed a finger on the device, smiling as her mana lit up some runes etched onto its side. She pushed a lever on a ‘tap-like’ extension, from which boiling water flowed into a cup she already had in place. She mixed in some herbs and then smiled as she raised the teacup to her lips.

Settling on a sofa, Leila’s eyes twinkled as she took another sip of the delicious tea. “I hope it was worth it.”

Kashi’s brow rose, short laughter escaping his lips. “Well, that’s one way to apply runic technology.”

“Not all of us have the magnificent imagination for trains and aircrafts,” Leila teased as she took a grateful sip of her tea. “We also need little-thinkers. Those who can come up with small but satisfying uses like an easy way to get a hot cup of tea in the middle of winter. The common populace will relish not having to waste firewood just to boil some water.”

“The last part sounds like a sales pitch from Miote,” expressed Kashi with a chuckle.

“Oh? It’s that obvious?” remarked Leila, leaning into the sofa. Even though she enjoyed the work and stress that came with being in charge, she had to admit that rare moments like these were worth cherishing. “He is a brilliant merchant. Acquiring him was a remarkable achievement. He is always finding new ways to increase the guild’s coffers.”

Kashi looked up from the manual that he was copying with a playful sneer. “It doesn’t hurt that he greatly reduces your workload.”

“Of course not,” Leila proudly confirmed. Her complete lack of shame stumping the daeben. “You should find more people as capable as he is. There are several departments I would like to hand over to someone I can trust.” She lightly sighed as she took another sip. “I would have handed over the Information Department to Shadow, but he seems to come as a set with his sister.”

Kashi’s right hand froze. “We have an Information Department?”

“Kashi.” Leila turned to the daeben, eyes holding within them hints of pity. “You need to know the basics of your own guild, at least.” Shaking her head with a wry laugh, she conceded, “Though, I suppose your success in the field is as a result of not being bogged down by guild issues.” Demonstrating with her menu, she explained, “Go to your Guild Menu. You should see the various departments and the personnel in charge of them.”

Kashi did as she advised, and the subsequent menu caused his eyes to widen with shock. “We have five thousand members!? How!?”

Leila playfully rolled her eyes. “With a guild leader like ours pulling insane world-shaking stunts everywhere, it’s only because of our strict requirements and vetting we have only five thousand members.”

Kashi’s eyes rapidly examined the menu. His mind was too caught up to pay attention to Leila’s words. “Wow, it says here over two thousand members are Residents.”

“Mmhmm,” Leila nodded. “You were the one who said not to discriminate when choosing. Besides, I find putting Residents in monotonous sections like the Research & Development team much more productive than Summoned, who can flake at any time.” Shrugging, she added with a cold smile, “Although it cannot be denied the Summoned level and pick up skills much quicker, fewer Summoned dare slack off when they see the Residents working so hard, knowing they can easily replace them.”

Kashi involuntarily shuddered at the icy steel in the Vice-Master’s gaze. “You’re using the Man vs. Machine concept. I'm not sure how to feel about that.”

“Oh? That is an interesting way to look at it,” Leila admitted. “I saw it more as pitting a local group against a flock of immigrants who are willing to do any job wholeheartedly as long as they get paid. Only in this case, the role of the immigrants and the locals have been reversed.” She flashed a teasing smile at the daeben. “Does that make you feel any better?”

Kashi snorted. “Strangely enough, it does.”

“Weirdo,” Leila remarked with a chuckle as she emptied the last of her tea. “Well, I suppose that is enough play-time.” She placed the cup on a saucer then rose to her feet. She walked over to the daeben and picked up the manual he was copying. Her eyes could not help but light up as she scanned through the detailed manual, which even had notes by the daeben explaining some issues he had encountered and how he resolved them. “Now this is more like a guildmaster. I am almost tempted to ask what prompted you to do something like this.” Without waiting for his reply, she set the book down and asked, “How is your relationship with Lunette?”

“Keke,” Kashi coughed, nearly choking on his saliva. “Lunette?” He cleared his throat, spending a great deal of effort to compose himself. “Um, we’re fine? Nothing special. Why do you ask?”

Leila shook her head, the pity in her eyes deepening. “You really believe that, don’t you.” ‘ Ahh, poor Lune-chan. This guy is beyond help.’ ”Never mind.” Brushing off the issue, she pointed at the manual. “You do realize we have scribes, whose specific job is to make copies of documents and books such as these. As long as there isn’t a special restriction, they can copy just about any document. They might not have been able to copy whatever book you got these from, but they can definitely copy your simple manual.”

For the second time, Kashi’s hand froze. His head stiffly turned to glare at the grinning wisben across from him. “You knew this whole time?”

Leila shrugged, a hint of revenge in her smile. “You looked so much like a Guildmaster. I could not bear to tear you away.”

Kashi threw his hands in the air, unable to refute her words—especially after having a taste of her everyday life. “Fine, you win,” Kashi grumbled. Eager to change the topic, he asked, “Did anyone else come with you?”

“Just Gosha and I,” Leila replied. “We need the islands up and running before the grace period comes to an end. We cannot afford to spare any other personnel.”

“That’s a pity,” said Kashi with a rueful smile. “I wanted to meet Stryke and the others. Haven’t seen them in a while.”

“Ever heard of a rink? You can easily call them if you miss them so much.” Leila snorted, a little resentment in her tone. “The three of you are similar, like that.”

“Hey! I am nothing like those two,” Kashi vehemently refuted. Puffing out his chest with pride, he declared, “I have friends!”

Leila’s eyes went wide with shock. Unable to contain her amusement, she burst out with animated laughter. She laughed so hard that she had to lean on the table for support. “Definitely! Definitely!” she gasped, wiping tears from your eyes. “You really are nothing like those two.”

At this moment, Marie entered the office, her eyes going wide as she watched the usual stoic vice-master wipe tears from her eyes. The look she gave Kashi suddenly had more than a few extra shades of respect.

As expected of the Guildmaster, only he could break the Ice Queen’s barriers. Comporting herself in a manner befitting greeting the Guildmaster, she bowed as she announced. “The guildmasters have arrived. They await you downstairs.”

Kashi raised a brow, wondering the reason for the sudden formality. He chalked it up to Leila’s presence. ‘ Aish, her influence is really something.’ One could only imagine how the daeben would feel if he found out the real reason for Marie’s sudden politeness. “Is anyone missing?”

“No. They all came,” Marie confirmed.

“Good,” Kashi said with a grin. “Bring them up. Once Kira and Hogosha return, we will be on our way.”

“As you wish,” Marie bowed, turning to leave.

“Ah, wait, one more thing,” Kashi called. “Please call up some scribes too. In the future, they will be in charge of making copies of the manuals.”

Marie’s eyes widened. She looked from Leila to Kashi, understanding dawning. She nodded silently, bowed, and left the room.

Left in the room, Kashi suddenly released a defeated sigh. He turned to Leila. “She knew too, didn’t she?”

Leila covered the blooming grin with her hand, managing a nod in response.

Kashi hung his head in his hands, disbelief in his eyes. “By my own guild… I'm utterly hated everywhere.”

“It’s a talent,” Leila encouraged with a thumbs-up.

Kashi’s head hit the desk.