Every member of the guild could fit somewhere into a rank accept those that were new in the guild. They were known as initiates until they were placed in one of the ranks. Junior was the lowest rank in Vanguard and Legendary the highest. The other ranks worked the same. With master the highest and novice the lowest in Rune knights. Scribes only had 3 ranks that all answered to Major. (Check out the Table i loaded into my Images topic)

Major ordered knights around since he was Co leader of the guild but his main focus were the scribes. In time the amount of members grew that a person could not know everyone by name and class. Thus if you met someone from the guild you could just ask their rank and they would tell you. For example Elder Vanguard Knight. Would tell you the division and rank a person was in. It will also give a good idea what class he was.

In the Scribes rank were all the non adventure classes like Merchants, Artist, sculpture, bard, engineers or any person that focused more on production of items like black smiting than killing monsters. A lot could fight but they would prefer to stay at the cities and quest.

The Knight division housed all the adventure types under the control of Gambit. First is the rank with the most players, the Vanguard Knights. They were plate wearing players. The main classes here were warriors, knights, paladins and any other class where a person wore plate armour.

The leader of the Vanguard Knights was Buster, a human knight who used a 2 handed sword and was the strongest player in the guild in single combat. He had been part and with the guild since day one. He never talked about anything other than the game. When normal people will talk how long they would be offline before they come back they would use real world time and game time. He only talked in game time.

The story goes that in the beginning when Gambit spent his first month and a half completing the basic training while Major did quests and provided the money to feed him. He saw Buster in the training hall doing the same. Gambit walked over to start up a conversation during one of his breaks but Buster ignored him. When Gambit took out something other than rye bread to eat he got Buster attention. Buster did not have a friend to give him other food to eat and his money and bread supply was running low.

He challenged Gambit to a friendly duel and the winner would get Gambit’s lunch. Normally a person does not get between Gambit and his food but Gambit was eager to test his metal. He had not had the chance to fight any body and after nearly hitting a scare crow for a month it became tedious to say the least. They both were level one and only had a wooden sword with the normal starting cloths. They would duel till the first person health drops below 10 % or he surrenders. They went at it right in the training hall. Buster had more skill and technique but Gambit had the bonus stats from a week of longer grinding on his side. Buster did the first damage and scored the first clean hit. Gambit started to get the feel of his opponent and repaid him in full. At the end of it all Gambit won with 13% of his life remaining. Being a nice guy and spotting a worthy opponent he shared his lunch with Buster. They talked and Buster agreed to go hunt with Gambit when they all could leave the city. Thus they became friends and it was only natural for Buster to join the guild when they made it.

That was also the last time Gambit manage to beat Buster. It was hard to compete with somebody with better stats and skill than you. Of course Gambit always claimed if he farmed as hard as Buster he would maybe take him, but he had a guild to run and manage the recruiting of new members. Also he had the odd task Major demanded him to do. Of course he did not always want to be sent around on errands by Major, but Major would play the card ‘Remember when we started, I fed you day after day’. Also on the up side these errands were almost always for the benefit of the guild.

The Rune Knights were the spell casters that did damage to enemies. At first they were mainly wizards and mages. Later on they would get warlocks, shamans, druids and necromancers. The leader of the Rune Knights was Asmodian. He was an Arcane Mage that was a secret class. He was raiding with another party in a dungeon not too far away from the capital. The party he was with, was also a new guild and sometime during the dungeon they invited him to join their guild. Asmodian rated them as average players and was considering joining them and would give his answer after the dungeon. Sometime during the hunting a second party smaller than theirs in number came up behind them.

They also seemed to be here to grind in the dungeon. The larger party did not want to join with the smaller party and thus did not invite them and chose to ignore them. They entered an area that had two groups of monsters that numbered the same. Asmodian group went left while the other group went to the right. They fought and killed the monsters in 15 minutes. They started the looting and Asmodian wanted to check up and see how the other group was doing. He was shocked to see the other group of monsters were dead and the party that killed them had already moved on. Thus he left the party he was in and raced after the other party to join with them. Gambit, Buster and a few other members of the guild were not really surprised to see people run up to them and asked to join their party. They usually declined most people request to join them but they were few in number and the dungeon would only get harder. They decided to give him a chance.

Like always if the person did not pull his own weight he would be kicked. They were surprised to see Asmodian fight. His attacks looked different from most mages and thus he revealed to them he was an Arcane mage, a secret class. He got his guild invite after that successful dungeon raid.

The Protection Knights were those that focus on healing the group. Priests, shamans and druids were mostly in this group. They were led by Aurora. She was a human priest that was the first healer for Gambit them and she had just been around ever since. She was not the strongest or highest level healer but was very skilled in what she did and could compete with the best. Gambit met her when he, Buster and a few others needed a healer to hunt wolves outside the city. He added her to his friends list and she joined them on many more adventures. She was also there the day when they founded the guild.

The Precision Knights are the Hunters, Thieves and Assassin classes. Other then hunters the other two classes were more the shady type of people. Each class had its uses but Hunters seemed to be the most. Hunters had many classes to diverge into later. So it was a popular class.

The leader of them was an elf thief by the name of Dismas. When the guild was still small and new, Dismas was in the merchant area looking for a merchant he could rob. Major seemed like an easy enough target so he watched and waited for his moment to rob him. It was broad day light but Dismas was confident he would not get caught. After three hours of watching an opportunity presented itself. He was in the process of taking the huge amount of gold when a warrior punched him from behind and grabbed him. He could not escape and was in trouble. The merchant did not see him at all and he would have gotten away with the crime if the warrior had not exited the building behind the merchant the exact same time he was doing the crime. He was prepared to go to jail or being pk’ed by the warrior when the unexpected happened.

The merchant told the warrior to wait and not kick his ass. Major complimented him on his skill and invited him to the guild instead. He was not the type that played well with others but this merchant had the most money he had ever seen on a single person. Thus he decided he would play the long con. He would be a good guild member and rob them all blind when the time was right. Or at least that was his plan. He took orders and became very wealthy under the leadership of the guild. At the start Major would tell him of high priority targets to rob. After a while he would start stealing letters and personal items for Major. He was not sure what he wanted with all the items but he assumed that it was part of the reason why he was so dam rich. Before he knew it, he would do few quests from npc’s and instead he worked for Major that paid the same and even better than npc’s.

Another funny thing was that there was chaos in the thieves guild. It seemed a thief was stealing a lot in the city and nobody knew a single thing about this person. As a member of the guild he got the A rank Quest along with all the other members to hunt down this rogue thief that was giving them a bad name. Thanks to Major and his ingenuous plan they set up another thief to take the fall for all his crimes. An added bonus was that the reward for completing that A rank quest so early in the game was that he became a Master thief. A secret class with a lot of new perks. His plan was still to rob the guild until the day he was promoted to leader of the Precision Knights and he became a pillar in the guild.

The Natural Knights were all those classes that did not fit in somewhere in the above mention ranks. Like Shamans that healed, cursed or fought with elemental's or spirits. The odd Shaman would jump in weapons first also belonged in this class. A warrior that fights in leather. Druids that shape shifts or fights with nature magic. Most common was the monks. Their leader was Zane a human monk.

When the BoS had about 20 members Gambit and Buster were questing by killing monsters in the Greenland’s. There they encountered Zane and his party hunting the same moth like creatures. Instead of fighting in a mass free for all Zane challenged their strongest player to a duel. The loser will leave and let the winners do the quest. After he lost against Buster he healed up and agreed to leave. But before he left he wanted to duel their second strongest player. Gambit had won the match by the smallest of margins. Zane was furious about the losses. He demanded a fight against the third strongest player there but nobody stepped up to challenge him.

After he calmed down they talked things out and they managed to convince Zane to join the guild. He would only join if all his friends could. They thought of starting their own guild but the money for it was lacking. That is how the guild numbers nearly doubled in one afternoon. Later Zane would move away from traditional monk fighting and boasted how his feet and head were as hard and fast as his hands. It was truly odd to see a monk head butt an opponent after a 6 hit combo but his crazy style worked for him and he was the strongest player in his rank.

The party arrived back at the city. They first went to the warrior’s guild to complete their quest. They all had gained 4 levels for killing spiders and handing in the quest. Tinker on the other hand only gained 3 levels in this past week. Add another 2 levels his companions gained since they arrived at the capital he was getting further behind. In a way it bothered him, but he chose to focus on his profession rather than levelling. His time to catch up would come someday.

After the warriors guild they all went to the guild house. Quantum led the way, he claimed he notified Gambit they were coming and he would meet them there. The guild was in a big house surrounded by a combination of shops and other houses. The banners and flag flopping from the poles made it stand out. Quantum walked to the door and just opened it and walked in. The others just followed in afterwards. There were not many people inside but they all seemed to wear black cloaks. Even Quantum equipped a new black coat with the same silver sword and golden scale. They moved to an open table. The hall gave the feel of a bar or an inn, just without the service you would expect. The few people there looked at them briefly and went back to what they were doing.

“Well it seems Gambit not here yet. Guess I can start telling you people what is what. This is our main chapel. One of the rules are, that when you are here you must wear your cape. Outside you can wear what you want. We have a basement with stuff in it, I do not know what kind of stuff because I do not go down there. On the second floor are beds for those that want to sleep in game and Major office. It is probably the safest place here. We have a bad ass thief Dismas that puts in his own custom locks.

To this date no other thief or person including myself with locking picking skill has managed to pick the lock. If you ask me I think Dismas has a secret class or some sort of engineering profession. Further there is not more I can tell and add that Gambit will not cover. He handles most of the recruiting and telling new members what goes for what. I will keep you company till he gets back. After that you probably won’t see me again.”

“Why is that?”

“Well I have like 30 levels on you guys and will be raiding with the high level users and not with you guys. Maybe one day when you guys catch up you will see more of me. But again I doubt it. You guys won’t even see me in the street.”

“Well you are short and probably sneak around from place to place.”

“Hahaha, not at all. I only sneak around outside cities or in the dark. Other than that I use a skill that allows me to blend into a crowd. It is very handy and called Mass Hysteria.”

“How does a skill like that work for an assassin?”

“Well after I killed somebody and guards sound the alarm I can blend into a crowd or sneak away. Both have its uses and it’s good to have more than one escape plan. It has the down side of not working that well if people carry on normally. They have to be moving a lot and there needs to be a degree of hysteria or confusion which usually follows after hearing that someone important was just murdered. We once tested it out. We hired 4 people to look for me after another person was murdered. According to the guards they were to look out for an average to small human male with black hair that may be the murderer. I walked passed 2 of them and they did not stop me. Later we asked what happened and we explained the exact time that I walked past them, because they seemed to have forgotten that they saw me. The only way they could explain it was, when they looked at me in the street, they thought that guy looks normal and like he belongs, thus they immediately started looking for another person.”

“Wow you assassins are really skilled.”

“That we are and the sad part is you don’t even know the half of it.” With that said he stood up and left. He did not say goodbye and waved halfheartedly over his shoulder to them.

“That guy thinks he is so cool” Lina said in a voice that was close to being a shout.

“Can you imagine being in a full time party with him? Sure he can hold his own in a fight or raid but his whole style is so solo or more dare I say selfish.”

“Well to each his own, like he said we won’t be seeing him soon.”

They were about to complain more but Gambit came down from the second floor. First he talked to those closest to where he entered the room and after stopping at each table to say hi and talk to every person he came over to them. They only waited about 2 minutes for him to get to them, but they enjoyed the show. Seeing a leader of the guild in action was a good way to tell his character.

“Hello guys, welcome to our humble guild house.” They greeted him in return. He sat down and took out a pitcher of juice with 6 glasses for them.

“Alright guys where do you want to start. Must I tell you all there is about us or do you prefer to ask questions and I answer them?”

“I think it best we ask the questions, we remember most of what you told is the other day and Quantum just told us a few things.”

“No problem, ask away while I pour us all drinks.”

“Ok when did you guys start playing and what exactly will our role and obligations be towards the guild?”

“We started on the day of the game launch. That will be about 5 months ago in game time. We started the guild about 2 months in. When you join we have a list of things from rules to guidelines and a few other nice things in your guild tab. I think most of the information posted there is self explanatory. You guys did the quest in less than 5 days. That means we won’t be monitoring your progress in detail. You will have more freedom to do what you want. Only when we have massive raids or other guild related issues will we call on you guys.”

“Sure and what are these guild related issues and what will the guild do for us?

“For now not much. If we need your expertise and skill or we will need you to do something in the area for us you are currently in. The other issues are war. For now only minor skirmishes and battles had been fought by us players. In time we are looking at full out battles and even wars for control of regions, towns and even the future of the guild.”

They did not know much about guilds. They only posts of guilds told how awesome guilds are and the other posts only complained how useless guilds are. Thus they knew very little and were not up to date with current world affairs.

“I don’t like thinking in terms of what the guild can do for you. I like to think of us more as one huge ass party. I can ask you guys the reason why you played together and not just do your own things. A person has more fun in a party and a huge ass party can do and become so much more than what a single person can. When we raid we share items and gold like a good party. What we strive for is the same level of cooperation between hundreds of people across multiple levels. Currently we do not have hundreds of members but we got a good 240. Also we have high level players will go farm a dungeon for a week or more. The items we pick up get given to the people that can best use them.

The others get brought back to the guild house. Here other members have a week to buy them at low prices before we sell them at the markets. We have many support players that make sure this process happens fast and with not to many problems. So about 2 weeks after the dungeon when you come back to our guild house you can claim your gold or even months later. We hold on to all our gold till that person claims it or gets kicked from the guild.”

“Ok, how do we know it won’t be better if we sell the items our self?”

“Well you can stand around all day and try and sell them. You should make a little more money, but there is no guarantee of this and it might take a while. Best to leave it for others and move on to the next quest. Major currently has over 100 000 gold. Sure not all of it is his and a lot or our players money is part of it. But all his gold and sales are tied into the guild. He paid for this house and all the other things we need. It is safe to say this guild is part of him. We do our part by protecting him along with the guild and gaining levels. He does his part to make money and help us in whatever way he can. Not to be a total leech I give him most of my money as well and carry the bare minimum with me.

You can say 90% of my gold I have earned since the start of the game I have given to the guild vault. I am also part of this and won’t demand things from other players I am not prepared to do myself. The other members of leadership in the guild are obligated to donate 15% of their monthly earnings. It sets a good example. They do no loose the money and records are kept of all that is donated. If they need the money for an emergency they can claim it at any time. When you guys join you will have the rank of initiate and will not have to worry about any of those things.

Currently we do not have many items for sale. The past few weeks we have been doing other things. But soon we are going to do a high level dungeon. That should keep us busy for the next month or so. We post the list of items we bring home after a raid like that in the guild tab. Under available items you can see them. You guys will maybe want to buy a level 80 item for when you catch up and can use it.”

“It would appear that you guys operate like a well oiled machine. Did you say he had 100 000 gold?”

“Yes, he truly knows what he is doing. A lot are from players in the guild that invest. But the bulk of it came from him making the right sales and investing in the right markets. Perhaps one day he would explain it to you guys but I can honestly say I don’t know how he does it.”

“All right, we will join. Do we sign something or you just send the invite.”

“Ok ill send the invites. Tell me your names one at a time and your professions or unique skills. I ask because I will add an officer note to your name that explains more. It helps other members find a black smith or thief and so on. It is up to you to show your level. Most keep it blocked from others.”

“Cuzen, paladin of Freya. Black smith. Tank and buffs”

“Good we don’t have many tanks. Most prefer two handed weapons and a more dps orientated role. What level is you black smith?”

“Like 2, do not really get time for it lately. So don’t ask me for a sword”

“Do not worry, we have got a skilled black smith or two already, Next.”

“Zomger, Shaman focusing on healing and curses. Bard, fisherman, and leatherworking which I gave up on.”

“Ok, healing or curses the strongest? And why did you give up on it?”

“Curses and I don’t have the time, besides we got Tinker now. At least when I fish I can work on poems and songs for the bard side.”

“That’s a good combo, I will tell Major to mention or type something for the guild tabs about how to use time even more productive. Next”

“Lina, Mage that uses only fire. I have medium level tailoring and high identification skill.”

“Great, always handy to have an adventure type with to identify those rare items. Not many support classes with the skills to identify want to hang around in dungeons all day for the off chance they are needed. Next.”

“Yuri, Hunter. Do more single target damage than aoe. Prefer precision over speed. Got medium level cooking and medium level Herbalism.”

“Does the herbalism combine with track skills or does it help you navigate the woods better?”

“Let us go with the track thing” he said with a sinister smile.

Gambit was silent and eyed him with a facial expression that showed he was sceptical it had anything to do with tracking. “….Next”

“Tinker. Warrior fighting dual wield in leather. Have medium level cooking, Medium level First aid, High level herbalism, Medium level leather working and in progress to get alchemy.”

“Think you have so many professions we can put you with the scribes and you will be able to do more than them. The herbalism I assume it also for tracking purposes?”

“No, it helps my cooking, first aid and soon my alchemy”

“We do not have a person dedicated solely on alchemy. The person that has it claims it costs a lot and needs a lot of items and time. According to him a person can get buffs and heals better from other players and classes than from potions. Since you have all these profession I am curious how are your battle abilities? I understand now why you so high level and only recently started with the basic training”

“I don’t know. Guess time will tell if alchemy pays off. My fighting I rate as average. Good enough to beat a paladin 6 levels higher than me, who was also further along in the basic training program.”

“No need to live in the past, best to focus on the moment” Cuzen smartly added.

“True, at this MOMENT I am explaining how I defeated some paladin from the past, whose name can be added for accuracy”

Tinker had nailed it and Cuzen had no smart reply. Gambit just laughed.

“You guys are funny and we will be keeping an eye out for you. For now take your black capes and read over the guild rules. If you have more questions ask me or pm any of the leaders. Do not forget your black capes.” He took out 5 and gave it to them.

“Welcome to the Brotherhood of Steel. You guys can come here whenever you want and leave when you want. In time you will get to know the people and we should totally talk more.”

Before they could thank him and do anything they heard a person shout from the door.

“Drinking Apple cider again are we?” Someone yelled

Gambit yelled back at the person. “No just juice, maybe if you gave me more money I could afford luxuries like cider.”

“I have bad news for you, the guild is broke and we cannot afford to indulge your vices.” After this statement the entire guild burst out in laughter. The person that said it was smiling as he walked over to them. Gambit was also having a good laugh.

“Guys let me introduce this ugly excuse of a human. This is Major. Co founder and leader of the Scribes.” They greeted him and he greeted them in turn. He was not ugly. Just a normal looking fellow. It seems Gambit was mocking him.

“What have we got here fatty? These the new recruits you talked about?”

“Yes, and all of them are Knights. Tinker here has professions to rival you and you’re Scribes. Check out his officer note when you have the time.”

“I will do it during my walk to the palace. The discussions will be starting soon.”

“What discussions?”

“The Emperor, advisers and fellow lords are going to hold public discussions of us. It seemed they are done with their secret meetings about us and now they are going to put on this show to satisfy the masses and us.”

Tinker was curious to hear what the NPC’s had to say about them. “Can I come he asked?”

“Sorry but you need sigils from one of the important Lords to attend the meeting.”

“Will the Collins sigils get me in?”

“Yes, he is one of the big shots in the current political structure. Let us be off and along the way you can tell me how you came by his sigils. We do not want to be late for this.”

They greeted the others and left the guild house. On the walk to the palace Tinker explained what he did to get the recommendation. Major told him he was lucky. Most of the players that wanted letters had to do a quest for about a week. Anything from public works to personal errands for the lords. As he put it not many tried to get the sigils and claimed only about 15 players would be at the meeting. Others that were able to gain letters would not attend or had already left the city for good. Along the way Major wanted to know more. He asked how long Tinker had been playing. Where his starting city was. How did he spend his first months? Tinker told him in lengthy detail all he wanted to know. It was good to put your best foot forward to the guild master and be on his good side. Tinker really wondered about that 100 000 gold they claimed he had.

At the palace they entered with no problems and made their way to where the meeting was going to be. Weapons had to be put in bags and there were even a few guards in the middle where the important people are going to sit. They were early so the room was half way full. They talked some more. After Tinker explained his professions in more detail it was his turn to get information from Major. Gambit had said most what there is to say about the guild so Tinker wanted to know more about the player.

Major them had started here in the capital on the game’s opening day. He explained it was a mad house. New players were popping up like weeds. A lot of them chose to do a tutorial before they came so that helped them to get a head start. Major claimed he read the post on Unicorns web page of what people could expect in game. So he had his eyes set on being a merchant.

Thus when he appeared in the world he made his way over to the market place and started questing. At the start he wanted to be that guy you see in movies or games that has and knows everything that every adventurer came and saw. In those fantasies all the elite players sold and bought items from him. At first he ran errands and a week in game he got his first job at a shop. It was a shop that sold a bit of everything a starting player would need. Rye bread, better cloths, better food, sweets, juices. The odd sword and armour for those that could afford it.

It was in this time he chose the merchant class and made his first money and learned some skills a merchant needed. When the first month was over and people could leave cities the merchants that sold items like swords, armour or any other basic items adventurers needed popped up overnight. Major had made a more than a few gold coins and decided to give it a go. Others had the same idea unfortunately. When he negotiated with a person for the price of an item and they would settle on a price another merchant would walk up to them and offer him more money for the item. In one day he lost his cool and will to be a merchant. A person could not compete with those merchants that took customers away right in front of you. He tried to keep up and offer more money himself, but his profit margin was little to none. Some items even sold for a loss.

Since it was the start of the game many people made bad choices and were overpaying for items or sold them well under market value. But then many adventures that killed outside the city realized they could abuse the merchants. They could sell the items themselves for high prices and players that were of the merchant class needed the sales to gain levels and better their skills were forced to buy it. Some adventurers would stand next to a merchant that would not buy their items for the price they wanted. When other players came to buy items from the merchants they would sell it to the person for less. That way they still get money and force merchant to cough up the extra money for items the next time around.

After a few more days of struggling Major thought things over. He had three options. He could go on with this and be poor forever. Or he could focus on just doing merchant quests but a lot of them were stand here, sell that, make 50 sales in one day. They were closely related to what he had been doing. His last option was to think big and figure out a new way to make tons of money.

He managed to get the deed of a silver mine in a town near the city. How he did it he did not explain, but as far as he knew no other player owned a mine. Because all mines close to major cities were owned by Npc’s and if you wanted to buy them you needed thousands of gold. It was not all smooth sailing from there. The mine was infested with goblins and a few beast monsters. He asked his friends to help him out. They did not want to at first, since it was not a game quest but Major promised free food for a week. It took them a few days but they cleared the mine. With that done Major could hire Npc work force to start mining. Since a lot of the mines in the area were overrun the workers did not work and needed jobs bad. With one mine cleared they jumped at the chance to work for low wages.

Major saw an opportunity. With the silver mine cleared of monsters he started to see the first income after a week when they resumed mining. He focused on this area in the following weeks. He still did merchant quests to past the time in between everything. So it happened he acquired more deeds and mining rights to mines in the area. From coal mines to copper and gold.

Like last time he did not mention the way he did it so Tinker assumed there was an easy way which he wanted to keep secret or Major was a good merchant. After that he focused more on other things and markets. He would pre buy harvests, renting out land for farming or grazing. Not all of the things he sold and bought were on large scale but it was odd things that people did not focus on. At the start people all focused on items and the resources needed to make them. Major focused again on the other stuff like what a society needs and the basics of an economy. Most of his dealings had always been with Npc’s. In time his money and influence grew in each direction from the capital.

Tinker wanted to know more but the meeting was about to start.