Garrison News

"By the way, isn't he still offering a bounty for a guild base? He said he'd pay a full million to anyone who could help him take a base with over 2,000 NPC points. Does anyone have any leads?"

NPC points were almost equivalent to a guild base's initial strength. The very best bases could possess 3,000 NPC points, but there was only one in each world. In other words, only nine existed in all of YGGDRASIL, and they had long since been claimed.

Normally, the very best guild bases naturally had 3,000 NPC points. Anything above 2,500 counted as top-tier, while anything above 2,000 was considered an upper-tier guild base.

In the original work, the Ainz Ooal Gown Guild had started with 2,250 NPC points, making it a standard upper-tier guild base.

However, as the reward for being the first to clear a Lv80 dungeon in one go, they not only obtained the World Item "Throne of Kings," but also received an additional 500 NPC points, making it a top-tier guild base.

Generally speaking, obtaining a guild base was a reward for a guild's members being the first to clear a dungeon instance.

Of course, if members of a guild had already cleared one, and the new base was not much different from their old one, there would naturally be no need for it.

In such cases, they would usually sell the information. To keep others from getting there first, they typically would not hold onto it for long and would choose to sell it as quickly as possible.

YGGDRASIL had been operating for twelve years. Although new dungeon instances were added every year, by the game's final stage, players generally possessed powerful classes and equipment, making exploration far less difficult than before.

It was only because the game's popularity had declined so much over the past two years that high-level dungeon instances still remained.

Few did not mean none. Besides, after the shutdown announcement was released, information that some players had originally planned to sell had simply rotted in their hands.

And as the only person willing to spend money on such things, Higashino Makoto was not worried that no one would be tempted, even though what he offered was not "information," but "acquisition."

That was what a buyer's market was like.

For that very reason, several players had already contacted Higashino Makoto.

It was just that he had been busy leveling alone yesterday, and was also choosing the most suitable option among them, so he had not yet closed the bounty for "finding a guild base."

A few more hours passed. After realizing that the gains from grinding monsters alone and monopolizing the experience were no longer as good as getting carried by others, he began contacting the hired hands he had arranged beforehand.

A full fifteen high-level players were divided into three groups, taking turns leading Higashino Makoto through high-level dungeons.

After challenging high-experience dungeons day and night without rest, along with the experience bonuses provided by paid Items, Higashino Makoto had reached Lv92 with twelve hours remaining before the servers shut down!

Even in a game easier to level in than ordinary DMMOs, reaching Lv92 in such a short time was still incredibly unbelievable.

Thinking back on it now, the information his predecessor had known had been a tremendous help. If not for the first-clear rewards from those hidden dungeons that no one had entered yet, his level could never have risen so quickly.

What a pity. Although his predecessor had been one of YGGDRASIL's designers, his position had not been high. To prevent leaks, the uncleared portions of the dungeons he designed could provide at most 1,850 points as a base.

That would naturally have been pretty good if there were no better options, but when there was a choice, the more points, the better.

As Higashino Makoto picked up the boss's drops, he sent messages to his temporary teammates.

"Thanks for your hard work, everyone. My level is sufficient for now. Aside from Sofuma, you can all go rest. Don't worry, you'll be paid for the full day."

"If you need to, you can hand over the equipment, Items, and materials on you to me. I'll add another ten thousand for each of you, and send it along with the remaining payment later."

"Boss is generous!"

"Boss is generous!"

"Boss, make sure to call me next time there's an opportunity like this!"

"..."

Higashino Makoto did not continue listening to them. He had been playing continuously for three days now. Even though most of that time had merely been spent following behind them and picking up equipment, he still felt intense exhaustion.

His body had been poor to begin with. Even with high-quality potions propping him up, the fatigue in his brain kept Higashino Makoto in a dazed state for long periods.

"Phew... I just need to hold on for the last twelve hours..."

Sofuma was the holder of the World Calamity world-class job.

Since he needed to hire players to run dungeons anyway, the holders of the World Calamity job were generally strong enough. Once he reached the required level, he could directly seize—buy—the job qualification from him. There was no reason not to kill two birds with one stone.

After the others logged off, Sofuma, stripped of his equipment, voluntarily initiated a PK. He then stood there without moving as Higashino Makoto quickly emptied his health bar.

As a server-wide job, the number of World Calamity holders was limited. To become one, a player had to PK the current holder and strip away the qualification.

As Sofuma turned into fragments, Higashino Makoto obtained World Calamity as he wished.

"Congratulations to player Amon Nikola for defeating Sofuma. Player Sofuma has been detected to possess the World Calamity job. Player Amon Nikola has obtained World Calamity Lv1."

"Good! My job build is complete. I can save my remaining levels and use Sin Silver Coins to level up after transmigrating. The precious time ahead can be used to purchase Items and build my guild."

"I already have gold, Items, and even large Grem. Now, the first thing I need to do is acquire a guild base!"

Higashino Makoto had already established it two days ago.

The guild's name was Black Cross. Its emblem featured a black cross burning with flames, with a pair of pure white wings extending from behind it and wrapping around the main body.

He opened the forum and looked through the guild base information posted by countless players in the section before quickly making his choice.

The floating archipelago Novas Aetir, an instance consisting of seven floating islands connected by cloud bridges. Aside from large numbers of monsters, each island contained at least one extremely troublesome boss-level lord.

Higashino Makoto remembered this base. It had been completed by one of his coworkers last month. If he remembered correctly, it had a full 2,450 NPC points!

It was just short of meeting the standard for a top-tier guild base!

A highly ranked gold-farming guild had originally spent a great deal of time discovering it and had intended to sell it for a good price.

Before they could find a buyer, however, they received the news that the game was shutting down.

The guild leader had originally been prepared to accept his bad luck, but then a sucker appeared who was willing to spend a million to buy the base!

A full hundred thousand. Although that was somewhat less than their expected earnings, and they still had to put in the effort to help the other party clear it, it was still incredibly fortunate compared to losing everything.

After realizing they could not sell it, they had been planning to let their own guild have a go at it anyway. At most, they had already reduced the final boss's health to below ten percent. With just a little more effort, they could clear it.

If they brought along more paid Items, clearing it would definitely not be a problem!

And wasn't the other party planning to buy another batch of game Items tonight?

Their guild happened to have a huge pile of "treasures" they could not sell. If they served him well during the dungeon run, he was going to buy Items anyway. Was there any chance he would refuse to buy from them?

No matter how much they sold for, they could at least recoup some losses.

Thus, the instant the guild leader received the message, he replied immediately—

"We're professionals! We guarantee we won't disappoint you!"