The guards blew trumpets to sound the coming of the king. The hall fell silent and people rose. The king came in followed by many other people. He sat down on the chair which seemed to be the highest and at the head of the other chairs. The lords and advisers took their seats. A lot of them had to sit in the front rows which were reserved for them. The more prominent Lords sat on the chairs close to the king.

The chairs were in the shape of an Oval. The king would sit at the head and the moderator on the other side. Major explained that the show will start and play out like 2 sides arguing and discussing the issue at hand. Those against it will be on the one side and those that speak for it will be on the other. Each side had a prominent spokes person to argue for them and would do most of the talking. That person sits in the middle of their side. It makes it more dramatic as he can look around him and get the others Lords supports. An added bonus of sitting in the middle helps you glare at all the others sitting on the other side. A true show for the people. Major also said it will take less than two sentences to figure out which side supported what.

The king was not a big and fierce looking person. He seemed to be of average build and had a golden crown on his head. He also had Royal Robes which helped him being better identified. A lot of the Lords were also clothed in lavish robes. Not as impressive as the king but it showed the world they were Lords. Only a few Lords wore the less formal cloths. One lord however wore a plain robe that a lot of Npc’s wore. Tinker recognised him as Lancelot Collins. After the king sat down the other Lords took in their seats. Lancelot seemed to sit in the center of the side nearest to Tinker them. As best he would say they sat about 5 rows from the front. The Lord that was the best dressed sat opposite him. Major told him that was Lord Max Maximuss. As the last lord sat down all those that came for the meeting including Tinker them could sit down.

The moderator started first with the formalities. He announced the Kings name and titles. Next was the name and titles of the lords sitting on the chairs. With all that done they could finally start. The moderator started first. He named the date and the topic of this discussion. He asked for the opening arguments of each spokesperson.

Max was up first. “The outlanders that came to our lands about 5 months ago are bad for us, we should chase all of them away and send them back where they came from.”

Lancelot spoke next.”My fellow citizens and Lords, the gods themselves have sent these outlanders here to help us and usher in a new dawn for the Versailles Continent.”

After openings statements it was clear who were for players and who was against. Major complimented Lancelot on playing the game of politics well. Tinker was not sure what he meant so Major explained.

“Listen to what he said. He addressed the Lords as equals and planted the idea that he is part of the commoners and mentioned them first before the Lords. Since this is a show it will not really influence the hate or love between the Lords. But most of the people here think this is the real deal and they want their voices to be heard. Lancelot will be their voice. You also see that he is wearing common robes? Those that most Npc’s own? In addition to just saying he is part of the common man, he is also wearing the cloths they can identify too. I have never seen him in common robes, he usually wears well made and plain cut robes. It seems he is pulling out all the stops and should convince many people that we are the good guys. Right now I can tell you he is going to win. What I want to hear is what the king has to say.

“These outlanders appeared out of nowhere. They cause trouble where they go and they cannot die. It is not right and natural.”

“We all know where they came from. The Gods had sent them to us. Some claimed it was long ago prophesied that they would come. If they were here to do us harm the Gods would have stopped them. Yes they cause trouble but many more of them help us and do tasks which we need doing. Is it not a blessing that they can die and return to us?”

“What will we do if they form armies to kill us all? We may win every battle but in the end they will win the war. The only other thing that dies and come back alive are the Undead. Even if you claim that the Gods had sent them, why do they not know any of them or following the teachings?”

“We do not know that they are here to kill us all. So far they kill beasts and monsters that have been plaguing our lands for generations. Even if you class them with the undead they still do more good than harm. It is our task to teach them and educate them in our ways. Most of them that come obey our laws from the start.”

“Just how do we punish them? They keep unholy hours, they cannot die. How do we control them?”

“We keep punishing them as we always had. By fines and jail time. Even the Gods that bring them back to life, brings them back weaker with less items and gold. There have been a few outlanders that do not seem to learn from their mistakes and they are banished from cities and towns. They get tossed back into the wild the moment they try enter cities. It has also been proven that these outlanders that had been punished are less likely to do crimes again. The hours they stay awake and sleep are just the way the gods created them. A person cannot truly control them and they are like any person or wild beast. You just need to manage them and live along side them.”

“Just how are we to protect ourselves from them if they decide to murder us? I single out the Assassin class and even the thieves that rob us every chance they get. There are other classes that murder our people but these two classes receive the most complaints.”

“As you recall there was a time when they killed many of us for the items and gold we dropped. But by the Gods grace they got punished and are only able to pick up the bare minimum amount of gold and items. For every person they kill their infamy increases and when it reaches a certain point they are arrested by guards who know them to be murderers even though they had never seen or heard of the person before they arrest them. Also our own people are warned by the Gods not to give these people with high infamy quests to do. As we all know they murder each other and red marks appear on their foreheads. Unless we witness the said murder we cannot take action against them, but they have their own ways to deal with the murders. They can lose the mark by either killing monsters in the wild or get killed by other outlanders in areas they call non safe zones. It may not be the justice we are use to but in death the Gods weaken them and reward those that punish the guilty.”

He took a deep breath and went on.

“As for Assassins and thieves we all know their actions are banned. If a person is caught killing or robbing others we punish them. It is only because of their long service to us that we have not shut them down. Assassins killing high priority targets in war are praised. Thieves stealing battle plans and other vital items during war are considered heroes. The problem with them comes what they do in the times of peace to stay sharp. We cannot shut down their guilds because we need them for wars of the future. Also it is illegal for even the King himself to hire them to plague our enemies across the border of the Heaven Kingdom. We all know they still do jobs that are deemed illegal but they are so good at their jobs we cannot seem to catch them or find evidence that indicates them. Those that we catch seem to operate on their own and are punished.

“How do you suggest we stop their lust for war and their endless pursuit of gold and items?”

“I am sorry, are you sure you are describing them and not just us? Name one Kingdom that has lived in peace and did not need gold or stronger items to secure their borders before the outlanders had come? I agree their eagerness for war is more than ours, it is that lust and determination for gold that keeps them pushing onwards and killing monsters. The Gods grant those rewards and we even pay them gold to kill monsters for us. They will sometimes kill all the monsters a dungeon. Wait for the dark Gods to respawn them and kill them over and over again. All we do is send our soldiers in to get strong or fight a pack or group that is getting out of hand. After that they train for wars and killing other monsters.”

Arguments like this went back and forth for the better part of an hour. For every complaint Max had, Lancelot had a reply ready. These replies were all put in a way to put players in a good light and not make us look like warmongers. Tinker enjoyed the remark Lancelot gave when Max complained about outlanders corrupting the kids and defiling virgins. It seems Max job was to complain about everything bad that happens, from crops failing to people bumping their toes. Somehow he found it all traced back to players.

What was a good tell that the discussion was about to end was when Max took a long time to make his latest statement.

“What do we do about the outlanders that want land and control of towns?” Tinker was no expert but he knew nobles did not like giving away their lands and titles to others. Be they players or Npc’s.

“It is said in the prophesies that there will come a day again, that an Emperor will rule the entire continent of Versailles. Just like it was in the days of old. We do not know if it is an outlander or what race he or she will be from. We also do not know when it will happen. If one of these outlanders were destined to be Emperor do you really want to deny them land and provoke them into a war that we will eventually lose?” Tinker remembered something that he read on why the game was named Royal Roads. It turned out Unicorn claimed a person can be and become anything in the world. From a hardcore player to just a tourist who wants to take in all the sites. A person can even strive to be Emperor.

“So you say we must give way for them and make them our kings?”

“No it is just that if one of them becomes the Emperor we will not all be killed. A good Emperor will incorporate his new subjects into his kingdom. The continent is huge and he will need Lords and other people to help him govern all the kingdoms he controls. Thus I believe if this is the time of the Emperor it will usher in a new dawn for us and by the Gods will and our own strength we will be part of it and be better off than we are right now.”

“That may be, but how do we justify giving some of them lands and others not. We cannot give each one of them a town or land. We all know that they have started to take control of forts and garrisons all over the region.”

“I propose we set aside lands and villages that are not doing well. Either the outlanders will ruin the places further or make it more prosperous for himself and the people that live there. If the worse happens new outlanders will try and at the end of it all it is not a major loss for us if things go bad. They too have hierarchies and form guilds. At the end of it all only the guild master controls the town or region. He can give control of certain parts to his underlings to delegate work and responsibility. If other outlanders want lands they should leave or take them from their fellow outlanders. All reports state that they act a lot like us and most of them only have their own interest at heart. I have personally talked to them and asked them if they have an emperor that controls everything in their world. All of them claimed that many have tried to be emperor of all the lands but none have succeeded. They also claim to be more diverse than us and have more kingdoms each with their own kings. How can they truly unite our diverse lands if they cannot even unite their own? I to have heard the same reports you have. I would just like to mention that it is happening all over the continent and not just by us.”

“This is how it starts, they first get fort’s and garrisons than they want more, than we give them more. Where does it stop?”

“That only the future can tell. We can speculate on best and worst case scenarios but for now we should not think too much of the future.”

“What about those outlanders that take control of regions that are not set aside for them. I have it on good authority that there is an outlander that has ownership, deeds and mineral rights to mines here close to our very own city. This person has already pre bought crops from farmers so that he can create a shortage and sell his stored supplies for high amounts when the supplies start to run low.”

There was a silence. Lancelot was usually fast to reply but now here was, speechless. For a moment it seemed all the Lords, advisers and King was looking at Tinker. It took a few seconds for him to notice that he was wrong. They were looking at Major. Tinker looked at the man who had the best poker face he had ever seen. He caught Major attention and the man just winked at him while keeping the perfect poker face. The stares did not last long and people seemed to be focusing on the meeting again. He could hear Major breathing out a sigh of relief.

“As far as I know the mines were overrun with monsters or no longer in working order for people to mine in safely. Are you going to complain that this person has given jobs for many of our people while at the same time increasing production and supplies we need? Now that we are mining again from those mines we spend less on import taxes and become more self efficient. If war breaks out with our enemies at the borders and trade routes are closed, the added silver, iron and gold we get in local lands will only help. Buying crops from farmers before they are harvested are not illegal and choosing not to sell them as soon as they are harvested is also not illegal. To wait for supplies of said product to run low and then flood the market with new supplies at high prices is not illegal. Personally I think it is not honorable, but from a business point of view it is good way to make money. You of all people should know the means your sister uses to run a big and successful merchant company. Maybe the King has more to add on this subject. Moderator I rest my case.”

“Lord Max, Your closing words?”

“All new outlanders to our lands rely on us to provide them with a class. Maybe we should make them all farmers or civil workers. That way they won’t kill and murder us without fearing our trained army of knights and warriors.”

The moderator asked the king if he was ready to speak. He nodded and started.

“That plan would work for a short while. But what will prevent our enemies from across the borders to assign warrior classes to all the new outlanders and those we reject? I believe this will provoke them faster and lead to our certain demise. As for the claims of this outlander that already possesses land and deeds. (He was looking straight at Major at this point) Despite the rumors of him stealing, bribing, extorting or blackmailing people to acquiring his wealth. None have been proven and no single person has come forward with evidence. By all rights he got his wealth through legal and legitimate ways. Since he had done nothing wrong he can keep what he owns and strive to further in rich not just himself but those he does business with. As for the other matter I decree that lands infested with the worse of monsters and struggling villages be made available for outlanders to control if they so choose too."

The moderator thanked all that were present and declared the meeting to be over. The king stood up to leave followed by his entourage and all the others after him. Major and Tinker hanged back to wait for the bulk of the people to leave. The king did not look over to Major again as he strode out. While they waited for the others to leave they did not say a word to each other. It seemed Major stayed quiet on purpose where Tinker was at a loss for words. He just joined this guild that seemed to have strong players in dungeons. Now this revelation was revealed to show that their merchants were as vicious and skilled as the fighters on their field of battle, the market place. The scale of what Major was doing, Tinker could not even begin to comprehend how big it was.

They left the meeting hall and started their way back to the guild house. With nobody close by Major broke the silence.

“That went well, for a moment I thought they would toss me in jail again. It seemed I am safe for now.”

“Did you really do all those shady things they talked about and what do you mean by again?”

Major laughed while saying “You heard the king, no evidence. Tinker you are brand new in the guild do not worry too much about what I do or not do. Know I put the guilds needs above my own and that everything I do is for the guild. I think you are part of a few to see this side of what I do, but this allows us to operate and do things that other guilds cannot.”

Tinker understood, it is just that in his mind merchants were those people that stood in shops or at stalls and traded. When he met Sam his understanding of merchants increased. Sam had a wagon and claimed to buy things in bulk. He had transported rare items as well. Now Major comes along and introduces a whole new aspect of the merchant class.

He was not sure what he wanted to do. He needed to hand in his quest but on the other hand he wanted to tell his party members the news of how the meeting went and how Major kept a poker face while the most powerful man in Heaven kingdom said things like blackmail, bribes or extortion. There was a 4th thing but Tinker could not think of it right now. He opened the party chat.

“Guys where are you and what you doing?”

“We at an inn close to the guild house, enjoying drinks and food. What was the verdict of the meeting?”

“Ok, I’ll catch you guys later, heading over to the Alchemy guild now. The king declared the ruined villages and lands full of monsters become available to players.”

“Sounds harsh, but guess it’s a start. Chat later man.”

Tinker also thought so. He asked Major what was his thoughts about it.

“First I was wondering if lands and towns would be made available. But think of this like a huge patch 5 months in after a game launch. I am going to assume that similar talks are going on in every Kingdom and the verdict will be the same. Here is some food for thought, did the game masters decide now is a good time or was it predetermined to wait over 5 months before they make lands and towns available? If they did predetermine it when did they test it? I have not read one single post of any person claiming to be a beta tester. Did the beta testers sign a contract to not talk about the game or what? Even if that was the case someone always talks. There is a group that claims that we are playing the beta of the game ourselves. Just think about the amount of money you spent so far on this game and it’s just a beta.

But back the patch thing. The lands with all the monsters are going to be a problem. Sure it might make for good hunting grounds, but then what. A person can only farm a place so many times before the benefits are not counted as worth it any more. Since a lot of these lands are new there is no saying what will happen if you kill most of the monsters on the land. Do they respawn? If they do respawn is it in hours or days? When you kill monsters do others stronger or weaker monsters come to the area? Until you kill them and invest time and effort in it you will not know. On the up side you will most likely discover new dungeons you and your allies can raid. The towns are also tricky. Since they are already failing it will take a high amount of capitol to get it up and running. Even if you invest there is no way of guaranteeing that the village would transform into a running and worthwhile place. The upkeep is going to be a bitch as well”

“Upkeep?”

“Well think of it this way. Those run down villages will not have guards you are so accustomed to seeing here at the capital or pretty much every village and city that is doing well. So after you and your guild manage to capture a town or defeat the bandit group controlling it, you cannot leave the town. The guild will have to defend the town, keep the peace and collect the taxes. Also if you want a town to sustain itself it needs a source of income, be it mining or farming or whatever. Then you will have to divert forces to clear out the locations and protect against monsters. While all that goes on you will also have to defend against other players that want to take your village. If a person can get a fast Npc’s work force and militia going. You can leave your town and farm surrounding areas. But do you have any idea how long it takes to train Npc’s? Add that to the unknown factors like attacks from monsters and enemies? It will be hard and some guilds will succeed and others will crash and burn.”

“I see, will you take over a village?”

“Nope. Not worth it. We will be able to defend the place and do all the things I just mentioned that need doing. But to what end? Npc’s cannot defend against all enemies. I cannot ask and expect all the knights of the guild to farm and hang around the village for months on end. If they stay behind they will become weaker and get behind in levels. Add the fun fact we have no idea if the village we occupy will wield a high income it just seems to risky. A person would want a town for money and power. But to get money from a town like that you will most likely have to spend a lot of money first. In time you will be able to recruit Npc’s from the village to fight for you. So in the long run you will get power. All that still depends on if you can hold the village and not lose all your new guards, soldiers and any other Npc’s in a battle or enemy raid. As far as our guild goes we got money and our power is well above average. We won’t be taking over any towns soon. But I do see opportunity in places like this. Say you know the land is fertile or the village has a few mines that are run down. I can provide the capitol to a strong guild to make it worth their while to attack. As part of the deal I will gain ownership of said mines or fertile lands. While they are still playing Sims in their village and doing whatever is they do. I’ll be busy making money.”

“What is preventing them from taking said mines from you?”

“Well there are a number of things. First they won’t get a single coin until I have the mines under my command tab. This will only happen once they have control of the town and the person that gets the town issues all the rights of the mine to my command. Then I send my own npc force to start mining. When they start I will be able to tell how rich the mine is and what to do next. If it a low yielding mines I will move the workforce to the next. If it is medium I let them stay, and if it is a high yield mine I would invest. Since I control the mines I can put in deeper shafts or rail way tacks with 1 click of a button. Or construct a smelter in one second there. Sure they can take all the stuff I mine, but then I will just tell my Npc work force to stop working. They could send in their own workers but if they wanted deeper shafts they would have to dig and that takes weeks or months and about the same money I spent in an instant. That is why I prefer doing business with people I know. It makes these sorts of moves where they betray you less likely. To avoid taxes or tempting them to take the mine from me. I would only send the minimum amount of ore and supplies via traders and transports. For the people running the town it would seem my output matched the tax I pay. If they do the hard math behind how much it is and current market value they would come up with numbers that claim I make low amounts of profits or even losses a few times.

I like to mix things up like that. Best not to let them see I am making loads of money and encourage them to take the mines for their own greed. If all that fails I can always just sell the mine back to them. I wonder if I should tell you but my last resort is to collapse the said mine. I can do that from my command tab. It is a bit pricy to get it open again and if the enemies want to reopen the mine they have to do it the old fashion way which takes months. “

“Sounds like there are not many guarantees in some of your business deals. Guess that means the 99% realism is doing its thing.”

“Indeed, I have wondered about that 99% realism statement. I guess in a world where magic is possible a lot of the things we do are made possible. I have seen some of our Knights fight. The skills they use would never be practical in real world. But alas a person can think of this as a game or a new world. I like to think of them as both but I lean more to the latter.”

Tinker has also thought about this. Although this was a game. He could not help but feel and start thinking of it as a new world. He was in thought when Major stopped.

“I just remembered something. I am not going back to the guild house. This is where we part ways.”

“Yes, it is ok. I just decided I am going over to the Alchemy guild to hand in my quest. I will see you later.”

“Well this is awkward. I am heading to that part of the city so we might as well walk their together.”

“Cool beans.” They talked a bit more about the guild and its rules before they parted ways.

The guild tab was a new tab that became available right after he joined the guild. It was next to his party tab. He opened it up to view what was inside. There was a list of player’s name. Fist a message popped up to ask does he want to sort them by rank or name. He selected rank. The next message asked if he wanted to view the name of the offline users as well. He selected to show offline users. An offline players name would be darker and an online member name would be bright and all lit up. Before he started looking at the names he could see the number of guild members. The Brotherhood of Steel currently had 247 members.

He looked at the names and saw Major name was at the top. He selected it and was able to see nothing other than his location, Heaven Kingdom. It seemed he had turned off his level and all the other privacy settings. The only thing that appeared was the officer note. That read Head Scribe. Skills - Making money. Next he looked at Gambit who also had all his personal info turned off. His note read Head Knight. Skills – Raiding and recruitment. He continued to read the names that followed. He concluded that Asmodian, Aurora, Buster, Dismas and Zane where all the same rank but they were in Alphabetic order. After that there was a guy named Solmonster that was all alone before the next rank and person that named started with A. Later he would discover that Solmonster lead the chapel in the south, in the Aidern Kingdom. There were 6 ranks after him where all the other members fell into. The Legendary Vanguard Knight was in the same rank as the Master Rune Knights and so on. Only if you read the officer note could you tell who belonged to what division and also what their skills were. The 3 different Scribes fell in rank 1 3 and 5. The last or 6th rank belonged to the Initiates. Tinker and his party were here. After looking at his own name he turned off all his personal information that showed his level, personal note and class. A person could always go change the setting and information later.

Next he browsed over the Rules. It was a lot of information. He read through it all and tried to remember the important bits. A person must always wear your black coat in the guild house. Later he asked why they did it and Gambit explained it had to do with security. A person could make a duplicate of their black cloak but they wanted to make it hard as possible for thieves or assassins to surprise them. Gambit also explained later that any person that enters the guild and does not have a black cloak on or is not escorted by some someone with a cloak is under suspicion. It also explains why Quantum went with them to the guild house and left as soon as he could. This person or people get asked who they are and what they doing here. Some claim they are exploring, others came to join the guild and many other reasons. If they have no escort or active member with them, they are asked to leave and if they don’t they are escorted out. Those that won’t or come back are killed.

It turns out that Major had discovered a loophole of some sort. Where he classified the guild under the same class as a church or embassy. Thus they had full immunity of kingdom laws concerning the activities that happened inside the guild house. If they killed a person that trespassed on guild ground they get no murderers mark or harassment from the Guards. They did however gain infamy and the odd loot. If they were in a forgiving mood they would hand the person his items back when he came looking for them. More than a few people lodged complaints at the city guards but nothing ever came of it.

The other important rule he would have to follow is the code of conduct. The guild was proud and did not encourage people using the name while boasting about raids and items. The guild policies concerning these things were “that our deeds and action do the talking so that we don’t have to”. The only time details or heroic feats were mentioned were between guild members or when they were recruiting members. Of course not all people stuck to this and were punished in a way. That all went on till one guild member was caught boasting about the guild while drunk. When asked what is his defence he just claimed he was talking to strong level people that were possible candidates to join the guild. Since it took too much time to investigate if he was telling the truth most members caught boasting used that defence. Since it was hard to figure out who was lying and who was not, all the accused got away with it.

Gambit explained that they did this as a sort of way to control information. If other players heard the dungeon name and type of items that drop there they would go farm and hinder the BoS. To have the edge and power over others, information like this needed to be kept secret. Like in all games there are those players that believe in equality and sharing all the information. As soon as those players posted a dungeon location online you can forget to quest or farm in said dungeon. The masses would descend on the place. Thus a lot of the top guilds were not talking and all their activities they kept secret. As Tinker discovered those secrets included things like finding out your guild master is accused of blackmailing. He wondered how long he would have to stay in the guild before he heard the truth and rumors of what was really going on. Gambit also gave the example of when they first joined the guild. At the time he only told them that he was going to raid for the next few weeks. He never mentioned the location, level or items that could expect to get. The extra items would be made available well after the raid then a person could figure out the average level of the dungeon. In addition he also explained that as initiates he can only see the Kingdom a person is located in and not exact location. As he climbs in the ranks he would see the name of the specific city or dungeon you are in or closest to.

People exploiting the system would head into the wilds. They would leave from a town found in zone A and go into the wilds. The system would tell them they are in location A. They would just keep on monitoring the guild tab till a new location is revealed. As they enter the zone where dungeon B is located they would set out looking for it. If they are unlucky and keep walking in the wrong direction the system would tell them they are now in zone C. This way they would know they missed the dungeon and could head back looking for it. The same held true if they managed to walk in a circle and get back to zone A. A few days after the first posts online of how to use this system to cheat, it got fixed. Now the system would show the city or dungeon you are in. If you leave from city A to city B. The System would show you are in city A till the moment you first set foot in city B. When it came to dungeons the name would only appear once you enter the dungeon. So if somebody was tracking you via the guild tab they would only see you in are in the last city or town until the second you enter the dungeon. It made tracking through the wilds harder but the game was already well under way. Hunters had skills and abilities to help them track through the wilds. Other people would learn to travel via the stars and sun. Some bought compasses to help them along. After one patch to the game they were back to navigating like ancient humans did before GPS was invented.

Another rule that caught his attention was the activity. If a person does not log on for 3 months without telling a high ranking person they get kicked. If your progress or skills are not up to standards you are kicked. The standards were decided by the high ranking players. They understood that not all would level the same pace. But what you had to prove that you were better than other players of the same level and class. Tinker was not too worried about that. He could fight and once he finished basic training he would only be stronger. The rules went on and Tinker was not too worried he would break them. The only other rule that he would do well to remember is not to start fights or declare war on another guild.

There were more sub sections in the guild tab. One showed the items available. It seemed that there were a few sub sections under here as well. The name was that of the person handling the trade and his location. Tinker was surprised to see that it was not Major name alongside that of the Capital, after a quick look he saw the person was a merchant. It stands to reason that Major was not the only merchant and it seemed he did not have the time to sell items. Next was Walter, with the name of the city which the south chapter was located in. More names and places he did not know were on the list. It seemed they were some distance from the capital. The guild members did not all hang around the capital, they were spread all over. He browsed over the item list and saw a sword he wanted badly. It was at the south chapter so he was not going all the way there to buy it. The few items on the list from the person in the capital he could not use, he was not eager to buy a level 80 leg piece since it is still a long way off.

A new subsection was a list of things the guild recommends for all players. Some he knew and other were new news to him. A list of things he knew was that they recommended you carry spare weapons and gear. To carry the odd healing potion for emergencies. To carry food for a month with you. To keep an antidote potion and common cloths with you. They suggested that you do not wear your battle gear in town in fear of it being stolen or you murdered for them. Also it helped from beggars and low level people following you all day asking for handouts. They suggested you give items to the merchant classes to sell and not just those from mass raids. This way you can go back to raiding while they sell your goods. Of course sometimes you get less or more money than what the item is worth. Most of the merchants knew what they were doing. Also this way other members of the guild have a chance to buy the items to increase their power. In return the merchants you give the items for gain faster levels and thus become better merchants. When he asked Major why he did not do it he claimed he had done it long ago for Gambit and their friends. But as the guild grew and other merchants joined he passed on the responsibilities because he needed more time to focus on his growing enterprises.

They also suggested that you do not carry all your gold with you. It turns out when you died, the amount of gold you drop is not just influenced by your level but also by the amount of gold you are carrying with you. If you know your friends are going to loot your corpse it is fine, but bad people and monsters are all around and a person must make ready for the worse case. There were small chests people could keep their gold in, back at their guild house or place of residence. These chests could only be added to you inventory if they were empty and belonged to you. Once they had money inside they were out in the world for all to rob and see. Not many people chose this and took their chances but for some people it worked out better.

The other suggestion was to put the money in the bank. They only suggest doing this if you have more than 500 gold and know you are going to stay in the area for a long time. There was not a branch of banks so you could not deposit money at one bank and withdraw it from another. In addition the message said that in the capital of the Heaven Kingdom any person with any amount of gold can go to the bank and open an account and store their money. As long as you talk to Barry at the bank. It sounded dodgy and here is why.

Major needed a NPC to help manage the huge amount of money he had. Barry was ambitious and when the big piles of gold started coming in, he became best of friends with Major. He claimed that Barry might have betrayed them in the start or accept bribes, but now he is pretty much one of them. He earns a salary with a bonus at the end of the month. The bonus varies from the amount of gold that came in that month. He was needed to set up dummy accounts with the names of other people so that Major name does not appear in all the sales. If a person was to follow the paper trail or money it would show that mister Johnson paid for the mine or that mister Smith bought the farm land. If you go look at the deeds and titles names you will see the real person Major was the owner. Barry’s bosses were pleased with him. He had many rich clients with more every month. He got promoted to his own office in the bank and now he was on the fast track to the top with all these clients of his. More than 90% of the clients he saw daily were from the BoS. The gold he managed was more towards 98% and just the BoS accounts. Most of that were Major’s dummy accounts, but everybody was pleased. When the bosses would look at his books it will check out and not seem like there is one person doing all the sales.

Tinker did not even know there were banks, it turns out they are only in prominent cities and capitals. One of the down sides to putting your money in bank was that you gained no interest. You also had to pay a monthly fee to keep your account open, add that to a once off fee for opening an account. The up side was that they could not be robbed. Even if you march a small army into a bank vault, magic will kill you if not the guards who escort any trouble makers from the bank.

So the list of things went onwards. They even suggested the best raid composition. A healer. 2 range fighters and the rest any other melee type fighter. Assassins and thieves should not be over looked as raid members especially in dungeons that have a lot of traps and secret passage ways. Among the melee fighters they suggested a person or 2 to focus more on defence than attack. This was still early on in game and even tanks could keep up with the damage but from level 100 they would not be able to keep up in damage and should lose sloppy duels they had against a warrior, knight or paladin that focuses on damage output.

As for professions, they only suggested you do not ignore it completely. Only later on it became mandatory for the plate wearing classes that where on the front line to take up the fishing profession for the increased vitality and for all warrior related classes to complete basic training. The spell casters also had similar basic training to complete at mages guilds and towers. From what Lina told them it was more like school where they test your knowledge and intelligence. It seemed the only thing this training and that of the warriors had in common was that you needed time and determination to get through it.