Master Of Myths

"I heard that you were pushing your new recruits hard missy"

"Yes, anything worth watching out for?"

Within a newly built hall specifically made to house their new meetings the guides leaders questioned Nee's motives for the rush she seemed to be in

"Not really, I only want them to catch up to your current level, we wouldn't want our sub-race to fall too far behind"

"That so"

Not really convinced the leaders kept the matter in mind, today they weren't here to discuss the vampire race, instead, they were going to discuss the new features that the Waxy guild had uncovered

"Thank you for coming on short notice, I shall hand over the matter of explaining these new discoveries to the Waxy guild leader"

The scarred woman nodded to Sofia before starting her introduction of the new discovery

"When you reach a certain amount of collective levels your guild will have the ability to house a guardian"

Was her brief about it, as for the longer explanation…there wasn't one

"So? What sort of guardian are you talking about and how do you get one? Is there something special about guardians or are they symbolic in nature?"

Sid shot one question after the other yet all he received was a shrug in response

"We didn't know what would happen if we set the guardian so we decided to hold off the matter"

Faris added so everyone could understand their situation, only then did all eyes shift from them toward each other, debating the matter among themselves and trying to speculate what the nature of this new feature was

"Sometimes things are rather simple with the system, this is one of them"

A voice came from their surroundings, smoke filtering in out of nowhere, a phenomenon they had witnessed before and thus were not anxious, still they gripped their weapons just in case

"No need to be on guard, I come in peace"

The shadow they had come across before, Ephai, came into being before their eyes, holding his hand up in a peace sign, perhaps his efforts of making a joke

"I assume you didn't just happen to be passing by"

Sid commented on the perfect timing

"No, of course not, I came bearing some wares, which would be in need of an explanation"

Sliding toward the Waxy guild leader he leaned on her chair and started the brief explanation

"Guardians, exclusive to guilds, are beasts that take up the role of acting as the guilds protector and symbol, in exchange for the guild providing it with ways to quickly grow in strength as well as an extremely prolonged life"

It was so simple everyone could follow

"The stronger the potential of the beast the better, naturally a guild cannot change their guardian once set, a downside for those who start off weak but quickly become powerful in a short span of time"

Placing his hands on the table in a slamming manner he further attracted their focus

"That's why I am here! Today I shall present every one of you a chance to contract good guardian,s infants even! With this, you can be assured that your future would not be hindered, and you would be ensuring the guild's safety in a short span of time with the quick growth of the baby beasts"

His announcement was quickly met with doubtful eyes, was there really such a good deal?

"What's the catch"

The demon wolf masked man questioned

"Simple, join an Alliance, well, a to be alliance"

"An Alliance?"

"It's a pact that could be set between Guilds and Houses alike, plus some minor groups like Covens and the such"

His explanation was still met with the same eyes so he shed a little more light on the matter

"Basically like your pact with the vampires but in a system official manner, everyone helps each other when conflict occurs, penalties are applied to those who betray the code of the alliance"

That sounded a lot more reasonable now, at least to most of them, some remained out of the loop

"Surely you benefit from it so mind sharing what it is that you're tricking us into?"

One guy with a spear on his back commented, this was one of the less spoken people as he mostly lied to fight

"Well, for started, gaining the only race in the world that can have three classes as an ally, for second, I have been paid to make the offer, else I would drive a hard bargain for the things I brought over"

Speaking of those items Ephai waved his hand causing smoke to cover the table, displaying a plethora of things, or rather, creatures and things when it cleared up

"Is that an infant dragon?"

"An egg?

"Whats t-t-this freezing ic-c-ce you brought!"

Every item on the table looked more intriguing than the last, perhaps only the grey unassuming egg seemed normal

"Anything that grabbed your fancy?"

Sid was the first to nod, no way in hell a small dragon was not desire invoking, especially now that they wanted to get a guardian, this shadow thing knew his stuff

"Sadly you can't choose, everything here has been preallocated accordingly to your strengths, if you like what you get then join the Alliance, if not then you can search for your own stuff"

"The hell you are to decide our guardians on your own!"

Rose the spear wielder in defiance, as well as another woman who kept her eyes trained on one of the dragons

"I want that scorpion like dragon, no matter the cost

She demanded

"No need to fight over it, it's already your Poison Bite guild's if you join"

"Then we will join!"

"I guess I have your word"

He slid the cage housing the drunk little thing across the table, along with it he rolled over something covered in leather

"I will come to your guild and explain the process of awakening the Scorched Scorpius, I also provided the materials needed to awaken it as a bonus service"

"Scorched Scorpius…"

While the woman was busy grinning and repeating the species name Sid once more spoke up what everyone had in mind

"What do you mean awakening?"

"Oh, this thing is already an adult but cannot acquire its true form unless it consumes special materials, the better material the more successful of an awaking it has, though nothing usually changes, just the success rate, be assured however that what I give you with it guarantees their awakening"

"Well, that's convenient"

With that Sid went quiet, so did everyone else, all looking at him with eyes pleading to start announcing who was allocated what

"Well, if your all ready I shall begin"

They nodded and he looked at the Waxy guild who already had the prerequisites to set their guardian

"For the Waxy guild, I offer the Armoured Vaulter, a type of Dreonate that excels at melee fights"

"Dreonate as in one of these dragons?"

"Yes"

"Say no more, we accept"

They could almost feel him smile at the straightforward answer, sliding her the cage and materials

"Next the Twisted Sky guild, I offer Noble Tempest, its-"

"I can tell from the name, we accept, thank you"

He nodded and proceeded to allocate the rest

"Scroungers Guild, a Scavenger"

"We're fine with what you offer"

"Steel Spirit, also an Armoured Vaulter but one with a chance of being a Silver Sovereign"

"Sounds good to me"

"I would have liked to give this one to Vehemity but since they are not present Death Row will take their share, a Colossus"

The man in black nodded in agreement

"Nameless, Swamp Creeper"

The cloaked person also nodded in agreement

"That is all for the Dreonates, moving onto our lovely monstrosities"

Patting the grey egg first he looked at the veiled woman from Paradise Palace

"I am unsure what your guild is all about but this little egg contains a snake that is capable of casting illusion grounds over extremely large areas and sustaining it for a long time, does it fit?"

That was a first, a guild which the mysterious trader did not know much of, but given how these people dressed no one was surprised to see them practice a ton of secrecy, in fact, every time a meeting is held they could tell that a different woman had come over as a representative just by guessing from the different body proportions

The woman was still for many seconds, neither agreeing nor refusing, only once a full minute passed by did she slowly nod

"Then take good care of it, it doesn't need anything fancy like materials, just feed it a ton of energy, any energy, and you'll be good to rear it"

"For the last two special pieces of tonight, the proud owners of this blue and white eggs are"

He looked at the remaining eleven anticipating guild leaders, most of whom belonged to the bottom of the top twenty, not that the rankings have been set yet

"The Safe Keepers and Mad Masks respectively"

An uproar quickly followed the reveal, the remaining nine clamoring over their own right to a special guardian

"You want us to join your alliance and can't even show up with good gifts?"

"Is this an invitation or a mocking gesture?"

"What's with this blatant bias? Are you telling me we of the Tracer Hounds are inferior to the Safe Keepers?"

"Yeah, I can understand Mad Masks but Safe Keepers?"

The hostility quickly shifted from Ephai toward the Safe Keepers who were weaker than many of their peers, granted they were strong in humanity as a whole but not by that much among those present

"We also think that you should consider mister Ephai, our guild is weaker than most so it would do humanity, and your future comrades, good if you allocate it to someone else"

"You jest Gennady, if these ungrateful ones are to be my comrades then I would rather have them outside my circle, not to mention putting something dangerous in their hands"

That riled the others even more, some decided to quiet down though since it seems like they were getting on this mysterious man's bad side, the rest speed out their opinion before eventually calming down as well, thinking things through and finding themselves at no position to negotiate, just agree or disagree

"I can't accept this humiliation! If you shall stand there and take that man's insulting words then your a disgrace of a human being!"

The spear holder yelled and stormed off, following his footsteps were two other guild leaders dissatisfied with the way their fellow humans agreed to this unfair allocation

"Well, that's three guilds out the roster"

Ephai shrugged, turning toward those six leaders who were now silent, to them he presented some beasts which looked unique but weren't too special, telling them that they could find something better on their own if they wait until they were stronger

"You guys can think it through, I will be close by"

GIving his supposed residency location Ehpai disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving everyone to once more debate over the future of the top guilds, with a lot more information and much brighter hopes