Chapter 84

"Wait a moment. Can we take more time to think about establishing the guild?"

Just then, the desserts we had ordered came in a rush. Three waiters were diligently fulfilling the request to bring the entire menu, as if they were carrying a cart. It seems that when you become a VVIP, even a request to bring the entire menu is accepted without any fuss.

Upon reflection, I realized that I had a personal shopper and was assigned a special room through a special entrance. If I hadn’t made such a request, it might have been embarrassing.

Humans, you lack common sense, don’t you? Don’t you have any diamonds? I have a black card with an unlimited limit in my hand. I need to spend more diamonds.

I don’t even need to take diamonds out of my phone; sometimes my dwarves playfully throw diamonds out of my phone. When I put my hand in my pocket, I feel a lot of hard, angular objects. About 90% of the diamonds rolling around in my pocket are ones that my dwarves have thrown out of my phone in protest, as if there were a hole in my phone, and the diamonds kept leaking out.

I grabbed a handful of them and scattered them on the table like taking out change. Everyone’s attention was focused on me. I’m used to people being surprised by this amount of diamonds.

What scares me is that I don’t know how much more I need to take out to change people’s expressions. I’ve now grasped that this level of diamond wealth is still at the stage of showing off.

I divided the diamonds I took out into three equal parts with my fingers and gave them to the waiters as tips. A savvy rich person. Don’t they give tips abroad too? In American TV shows, they even give checks as tips.

"Could you come back in about 10 minutes and bring us the desserts and drinks that these people have tasted?"

The quality of service changed. The waiters, who were already polite, seemed to have unlocked their politeness skills. Everyone felt good, and it was a win-win situation.

Suddenly, even the sound of forks clinking stopped. Looking at the druid party, I saw Iris and Jeppe quickly straighten their backs.

At the long rectangular table, personal shoppers and dryads were sitting around me, and the druid party was sitting on the opposite side. The setup and tension made me feel as if I were in a corporate interview.

"Hey, you can sit comfortably! Enjoy the desserts, and if you want more, just say so! This is just a small token of my goodwill for a good start!"

"If this is a small token of goodwill…."

The food on the table, though I don’t know how it tastes, was beautifully arranged in various colors, making my mouth water just by looking at it. The only dessert I could recognize was a cupcake, but… to be honest, I didn’t really reach for the desserts; I wanted to eat the main dishes more.

I sipped my drink and held my phone with my artifact-equipped hand, calmly pondering.

The dryads I needed were Mesquite, who could provide general knowledge about guilds, and Daisy2, who could offer advice on how to operate them.

I pretended to look at my phone and subtly glanced at the terrarium artifact. Mesquite, help! It would be nice if I could call you out, but this place is also a commercial area, so large dryads are prohibited.

Mesquite and Elder were not in the artifact area. More precisely, they were not in the My Room area. They were in the 28th terrarium. Mesquite was holding two dandelion dryad children in her arms and looking up at me. The dandelion dryads seemed to have grown a lot since I last saw them.

"How nice…! Everyone is visiting the 28th terrarium except me!"

Elder, who was sitting on a bench amidst the debris, burst into anger. The bench was purchased from the 26th terrarium artifact workshop.

"I wanted to go there more than here!"

Sigh. She’s still in a bad mood. Elder turned her head away but I could feel her glancing at me with a subtle look. She’s cute with her pretty face.

"Mesquite, do you know about guilds?"

"We dryads form forests, and druids form guilds. That’s the extent of my knowledge."

The guild is indeed the kind of guild I know.

"Four druids I met today want to form a guild. What do you think, Mesquite?"

As long as my dryads are inside the terrarium artifact, my thoughts are shared with them. When I recalled the druids I met and the reasons for forming a guild, Mesquite put down the dandelion dryad children and fell into deep thought.

"I used to manage a guild exclusive to the 28th terrarium. To be precise, I wasn’t the guild master… but the administrator’s assistant was the guild master… I think it was because managing the terrarium alone was already overwhelming. The guild received many important requests and was also responsible for maintaining order."

"Was it Scarecrow? Was there a guild exclusive to the 28th terrarium?"

"Yes, but when the terrarium’s situation worsened, it became difficult to maintain, so it was disbanded. If it had lasted a little longer, it could have been very helpful… especially when the fire invaded, and it would have been difficult to request help from other terrariums…."

Since I always joined guilds in the game where the bonds were strong, it felt a bit strange.

To disband during the hardest times and go their separate ways… Was it really a guild maintained only by money? Even so, if it was a guild, they would have been the first to ask for help in times of need…

"What do we need to do to establish a guild?"

"Are you planning to set it up in the 28th terrarium? And make it an exclusive guild for the terrarium? Then, first, the guild members become quasi-residents of the terrarium. Even if they live in other terrariums, they will have dual residency in the 28th terrarium. However, there is a difference in paying taxes. You either need to support the taxes or pay them all. This is a significant privilege, and it’s one of the main reasons to join an exclusive guild."

Since I had eliminated taxes in our terrarium, it wasn’t something I needed to worry about. This seemed to be the main reason for the high maintenance costs of running an exclusive guild for the terrarium: tax support.

"Also, you need a place where guild members can gather, operate a warehouse, and check requests. A place called Stonehenge, where druids gather, is needed, but isn’t there no suitable place left here, Mr. Jay?"

Stonehenge was a term I saw when forming a party with other druids. My phone switched to Stonehenge mode.

In other games, this would be called a guild house or guild castle, but in our terrarium, the issue of restoration was a significant problem. While Daisy2 has been working hard to clean up the terrarium since I left, it would be impossible to build and restore buildings in such a short time.

"Is there a temporary place we can use? It should be enclosed and can be considered a room…."

Even with the artifact, I could see that most places in the 28th terrarium were on the verge of collapse.

No, there was one. The orchard, which was less damaged because it was under the branches of the World Tree, was a good option. The former administrator’s room, where I found her diary, was messy at the time, but it was still acceptable.

"Are you really going to use that room? It’s the largest and best room in the orchard…."

"It’s fine. I’m busy running around, and I can check my business on my wallet from anywhere."

Although the orchard was the least destroyed and chosen as the location, another problem arose. To allow ordinary people to freely enter and exit the orchard, which is an open space, appropriate levels needed to be assigned.

In other words, just as I was designated a certain level of gardener in two terrariums, each guild member needed to be individually upgraded, and as a terrarium-recognized identity, they would have many responsibilities.

Moreover, with the administrator changing to me, the benefits according to each gardener’s level needed to be re-designated from the beginning.

I quietly placed my artifact-equipped hand on the table. Oh, there’s so much to do. It’s getting a bit annoying.

I was healing myself by watching Daisy, who was clearing a box of cookies with different flavors and systematically attacking the bakery on the tray.

She eats well. In contrast, Bagot, following Daisy, was picking up only a little, like bird feed, and making a puzzled expression.

When I was openly doing something else while looking at my phone, they asked.

"How is the guild going?"

I can’t say that I’m finding it a bit annoying because, in other games, I only needed to press a few buttons and type a little when creating a guild, but now I have to start from scratch, which feels like a task.

"I want to think carefully about it, as it’s an exclusive guild."

"Yes, of course! I completely understand! We’ve never established a guild before… We know it’s a complex process."

"I don’t think I’ll ever make a guild again. It costs a lot of money."

"Shut up. Eat more of this."

"Have you never joined a guild before?"

Thinking about it, I suddenly became curious. You have a lot of experience completing requests and seem skilled. In most games, high-level players like you usually don’t join guilds, right?

"Ah… We did have a guild before… but it ended badly…."

"The previous guild master was a notorious troublemaker and took a lot of fees from the guild’s request money…."

"It’s a money issue."

The atmosphere became solemn. I learned that the guild master can take fees from requests in a guild. How do non-terrarium exclusive guilds operate?

The terrarium artifact vibrated slightly. Checking it, I saw that Mesquite was calling me.

"I want to see them and judge for myself."

If Mesquite says so, then I have to!