Chapter 154 - Groups
Within Veninza City, Ralph, Noah, and Laura were trying their best to develop their force quickly.
Ralph's task was rather simplified. The only thing he had to do was go into the Dragon Tiger Palace and register himself as a member of that organization.
He handed over the necessary fee and, in return, received a silver badge. This Silver Badge indicated that he was one of the lowest-ranking members of the Dragon Tiger Palace.
Once he became a part of the Dragon Tiger Palace, he realized that anyone could start a group.
Meaning, even a warrior possessing Silver Badge could start his own group.
However, this was generally not preferred. Many of the warriors possessing the Silver Badge lacked the skills or power to lead a group.
But even if the person did have the necessary power, his prestige wouldn't be enough for people to join his group. After all, many people placed a lot of importance on things like status.
They wouldn't join a group of a warrior possessing merely a Silver Badge. That would be an insult to their status.
However, this didn't matter to Ralph. He stated his request that he wished to create his own group. Thus, Ralph was forced to pay another 300 Spiritual Coins to register the name of his group.
He named it "Beast Slaying Gang."
It was a pretty standard name. But he did give his requirements for someone who wanted to join his gang.
They must be atleast 2 Star Warriors and their age shouldn't cross 25.
The receptionist was slightly surprised to hear this requirement. Although there wasn't a lack of 2 Star Warriors under the age of 25, why would they join a group created by merely a man possessing the Silver Badge?
However, her only task was to record the information and then place it on the Notice Board. She wouldn't earn anything by contemplating it excessively.
For the first couple of days, Ralph waited for someone to join his group. However, he was bound to be disappointed when no one turned up to join his group.
There was no clear lack of groups. And no one really wanted to be under the command of an individual younger than them.
Even more, they didn't believe that Ralph possessed the necessary leadership skills to lead his gang.
This information couldn't be more accurate. Ralph had truly no idea how to lead his group. He was a complete novice in it.
A couple of days later, Ralph decided that he wouldn't gain anything if he continued to wait like this.
He had to shock the members of the Dragon Tiger Palace and increase his prestige. Thus, he took a mission and decided to complete it alone.
This was a mission to bring 20 Horns of the Ferocious Flame Blood Rhino. This was a special mission, and whoever completed it would be handsomely rewarded with not just Spirit Coins but also Contribution Points.
Nearly 2000 Spirit Coins would be rewarded along with 800 Contribution Points.
It had to be known that Ferocious Flame Blood Rhino was quite a terrifying creature. Its battle instincts were quite good, and its charge attack was something that could break past most defenses.
And most troublesome of all, they lived in a herd.
As a result, if a warrior wanted to battle one, he had to take on the entire herd. Fortunately, the team had to be prepared for this task because they had to slaughter the entire herd to finish it.
The contribution points were very useful. They could be utilized to be exchanged for a variety of things.
Whether it was a weapon, armor, pills, portable arrays, receive guidance from seniors, battle techniques, support techniques, and even hire another member of the Dragon Tiger Palace.
Because contribution points could be used for so many things, it was thought that you could do whatever you wanted in the Dragon Tiger Palace as long as you had them.
Contribution Points were gathered through the accomplishment of the missions. And most of the missions involved fighting against the beasts in a group.
Thus, the entire group would benefit when going on an expedition.
Naturally, the group leader would get the largest portion, while the rest would have to split it up.
Thus, there were many benefits in becoming the gang leader and completing the mission as a gang leader.
While Ralph went to the forest, Noah and Laura were slumped as they roamed around Veninza City and asked various people to be members of their group.
However, just like Ralph, there were quite disappointed as no one joined their group.
The two met up and planned to share ideas to get through this issue.
Azaroth hadn't told them they had to do this by themselves. They could meet and gather their minds to cope with their issues.
Soon, Laura had an idea, and she immediately shared it with Noah.
She told him, "Didn't Master give us a hint by saying 'Money makes the world go round'? Let's use the Spirit Coins master gave us. We will announce to the city that we are looking for 2 Star Warriors under 25 years of age, and we will give Spirit Coins to those who join our group. For your group, the skills they should know are close-combat skills, and for my group, the requirement would be some skill and experience in ranged combat. The rest would depend on ourselves. What do you say?"
Noah blankly stared at Laura for a few seconds. He was surprised because Laura actually gave a rather nice idea.
He had a feeling it would work wonderfully!
However, there were still a few undecided things. He asked her, "How much should we give the reward?"
Laura thought for a couple of seconds and then answered, "According to what Master has told me, a 2 Star Warrior can earn 100 or so Spirit Coins monthly. So let's use 100 Spirit Coins."
Noah nodded, and he added, "Alright. We will stop selecting after our group has 20 members each. After that, we can work on some other tasks and slowly increase our numbers later."
The two were confident that they could handle almost any warrior underneath the 4 Star Rank.
If some warriors disobeyed them, they had a very simple response to it. To beat them up until they acknowledged them as their leaders.
Laura and Noah hired a news agency that spread the newspaper to nearly all households within Veninza City.
Thus, they used it to spread this information that whoever joined their group would be rewarded with 100 Spirit Coins.
Laura's strategy succeeded, and they soon had a flood of individuals wanting to join their groups.
It was only after they experienced this situation that Laura and Noah realized just how troublesome it was.
So many people had come to join their groups that it was hard to inspect them all and then pass the judgement about their selection in the groups.
They also had to deal with the rage of the warriors who had been rejected by them.
Initially, Laura and Noah gave detailed reasoning to the warriors they rejected. However, slowly they realized how time-consuming and stressful it was.
Thus, they slowly stopped giving any reasoning. Naturally, this angered the people who had been rejected without even receiving an explanation about it.
It wasn't really their fault. It was just that due to Azaroth's training drills, their standards for close combat and ranged fighting had risen a lot.
When they saw another warriors' attacks, they simulated how that warrior would fight during real combat.
If the warrior's combat ability satisfied them, they would select him and, in the other case, reject him without giving him an explanation.
It took Laura and Noah nearly 8 days to finally gather their complete groups of 20 members each. Nearly more than 700 people had come for the trials, and only 40 were selected.
It showed just how strict Noah and Laura were when choosing members for their groups, respectively.