Infinite Realm

'Hm? I know that guy.'

Glancing at a brown head in a black gown but with a familiar haughty appearance, Sato had a weird look on his face as he never expected to cross paths with the same individual.

The player Sato was staring at was the man behind the production of trademarked double-edged iron and snake swords, Blue Flame, the obnoxious blacksmith he had met at the trade house back in Riverdale town. Sato never thought that he would see him so soon since lifestyle players tend to level up slower than regular players. Sato had expected that they would finally show up a week later due to their slow levelling progress so it was surprising that Blue Flame was already in town.

'Not like I know him that well do who cares.'

Sato stopped focusing on Blue Flame alone as he glanced that the others.

Besides Blue Flame were a bunch of other players in similar attire and attitudes. They all wore the same black gown but with the sign of a brown hammer engraved behind it.

'They've already unlocked the guild function.' Sato couldn't help but sigh.

Sometime during the week, players had discovered that they could officially launch a guild in IR. Previously, the system never recognized the existence of guilds, only parties, and individual play. As a result, while players were aware of who was and who wasn't in a guild, the system addressed all players as individual players irrespective of their true nature. This was until the release of the guild function.

Buying a guild function meant that guilds could officially exist in IR and be recognized by the system. This means that an official account for the guild could be opened, missions from NPCs could be addressed to the guild directly rather than having to go look for one at the adventurer's guild. Another benefit of the guild function was that a guild emblem could be developed and it could be attached to the clothing of the player in any manner. In the case of the black gowned men, their emblem was made to occupy the back of their cloaks rather than appear like a small badge on their chest.

Apart from that, the guild function also allowed players to get access to certain privileges that they normally wouldn't be able to access and it also enabled guild members to share these privileges with one another. A common example could be a discount at a certain store granted to a guild. In practice, this meant that the discount would be applicable for every member of the said guild.

After getting a guild function, guilds could also buy a building and have it take on the name of their guild alongside a guild sign attached to it. There were still a bunch of other little features attached to the guild function but this would be stressed later on.

The reason why the guild function wasn't so popular was that it came at a cost; 10 gold coins to be exact.

A price of 1 gold coin was expensive to current players and guilds much less 10 gold coins, hence not a lot of guilds, clubs, or players had gotten the function. Even for Sato and the others, the price was a little steep. The only ones who did so currently were super guilds, top-rank 1st tier guilds, and a few other guilds or clubs owned/sponsored by wealthy individuals. 

For these brown hammer players to have gotten a guild function without being popular meant that they were able to raise the funds amongst themselves or they had a big sponsor. It could also have been both.

'Who the heck are these guys?'

Noticing the special change in the atmosphere, some players who weren't aware of the identity of the new arrivals began asking about the identity of the new arrivals. While they were familiar with the perks of a guild function, the insignia of the black-clothed players wasn't any familiar to them.

"Seems like you've been living under a rock or something." One player said with a disdainful tone.

"Those guys are the founding members of League of Hammers; the new guild recently founded but consists of just blacksmiths. You could call it the blacksmith guild for players. Every popular blacksmith among the three towns, apart from the Cloud blacksmith and the ones who have already been poached by top guilds, has already joined them so you could imagine the clout they possess as well as funds."

Since not everyone in VR games was interested in the battles nor did they want to experience extreme action, some of them decided to enjoy the game differently, walking the path of a lifestyle. The League of Hammers was one such example.

They had recently come to existence not so long ago and the group of players aimed to develop a customer base to have their goods easily sold. As there were a lot of reputable names in the team, this goal wasn't so far from being possible and the guild began getting more and more famous.

'Even if they've racked in a lot recently, there's most likely a sponsor at the back.' Sato narrowed his eyes as he recalled the 10 gold coins fee that was needed to activate the guild features.

The difference between a guild with and without a sponsor was a lot especially in times like this. With the official exchange system not up yet, players exchanged cash amongst themselves. This made it possible for the rich ones to raise a large amount of money quickly, for example in the League of Hammers case where the team was able to raise 10 gold coins in a matter of days. Even Sato's team, which could count as one of the wealthiest teams in IR, couldn't compare to such guilds or clubs.

As the players from League of Hammers made their way towards the consignment department within the auction house, Fudo and the rest had finally made it to the auction house.

"What took you guys so long?" Sato asked.

"Traffic." Fudo grunted.

"There were so many players and NPCs heading over here. Even those who happened to just be following the same road the auction house's location to their destination were counted. Hence, the road became congested."

"Alright enough. Stop complaining. Let's get registered first and put out items up for sale. Don't forget the reason why we're here." Sato reminded as he pulled out a black cloak and wore it.

"Got that. " Both Xue Yan and Fudo nodded as they also wore their black cloaks.

"Katsuo and Yato, you two go find a place to stay and enjoy the show. Try not to cause a ruckus okay?"

"I should be saying that to you guys." Yato smirked.

"We're off now."

The trio then departed, following the same route as the League of Hammers team since both sides destinations.