Chapter 129: For as Long

The Commander leaned forward slightly as though the next part required more care than everything that had come before it.

"Guild Badges use the same grading system as treasures do: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Ultra, Legendary, Wonder, and God." His gaze settled on Jaxir before he continued, "The badge inside that special instance should be Legendary."

Nick stared at the screen for several seconds before turning toward Jaxir as though he needed confirmation that he had heard the same thing. "Are you people fucking insane? There are nine Ultra Guilds in the entire world, and that’s after something like a dozen times that many attempts ended in failure."

Jaxir hadn’t known enough about guilds for the number to mean much on its own, but Nick’s expression filled in the missing pieces. The man had gone from shamelessly volunteering them for government service to looking at the Commander as though he had just walked in on him fucking his mom.

Though, maybe for Nick, that wasn’t saying much. He did have a little bit of a coward’s streak in him. But then he went on.

"And getting the Guild Badge isn’t even the hard part," Nick continued as he looked back toward Jaxir, apparently deciding he needed to save him from agreeing to something stupid for Jahbri’s sake. "The badge just gives you the right to attempt the guild quest, and if you fail that afterward, all the work you did to get it means jack shit. If you already need us just to get your hands on the badge, how the hell are you planning to clear a Legendary guild quest?"

The Commander showed no irritation at the question, which made Jaxir suspect he had expected this reaction from anyone who understood what they were attempting.

"Because this particular Guild Badge isn’t normal, and the intelligence we’ve gathered suggests the dungeon’s storyline revolves around a talented group that attempted this exact guild quest in the past. They completed most of the preliminary stages before failing during the final step."

Nick’s brows drew together while the Commander continued, and Jaxir could almost see him rearranging what he knew around that new information.

"If the Nightmare Dungeon is cleared after activating the special trigger, we believe the party that obtains the badge will inherit their progress rather than beginning the guild quest from the start. That means most of the preparation stages should already be considered complete, leaving us with only the final challenge."

That changed something in Nick’s expression, though not enough to make him look comfortable. His gaze flickered toward the floor while he thought. It seemed that though Nick had had some information about this, it wasn’t everything, otherwise he wouldn’t look so surprised now.

The government’s weakness inside Divinity had little to do with its ability to dig up information. Whatever Nick had been involved in before he was forced back toward the tutorial villages couldn’t have been simple, and he had plenty of information Jaxir had certainly never heard of. But the government was on a level of their own in this regard.

"That still doesn’t make the last step easy," Nick muttered after a moment, his earlier disbelief settling. "If those people were good enough to get that far and still failed, then whatever killed their attempt is probably the exact same thing that will ruin ours. Skipping the easy parts doesn’t matter much if the last part is where everybody dies."

"We agree, which is why there is one more detail that made the operation worth pursuing." The Commander paused until Nick looked back toward him, then folded his arms across his chest. "If our information is correct, the final challenge imposes a Level 20 cap on every participating player."

Nick’s eyes widened again, except this time the surprise lasted only a second before excitement began creeping across his face. Jaxir didn’t understand the significance immediately, but he had already learned enough about Divinity to know that level restrictions had a habit of changing far more than the strength of the monsters involved. A cap meant anyone coming after them would be dragged onto the same playing field.

"The challenge itself isn’t even the only problem with high-grade guild quests," Nick explained as he began pacing across the room, thinking out loud. "You have to establish and defend the territory at the same time, which means dealing with whatever beasts the quest throws at you while other players and guilds pile in to stop another competitor from being born. Normally, some established monster could walk in with fifty levels on you and turn the whole thing into a joke. Though, they wouldn’t bother for a low-tiered guild badge."

Jaxir understood where this was going before Nick finished, and judging by the grin spreading across the man’s face, so did he.

If Level 20 became the ceiling for everyone involved, then the existing guilds could still bring experience, equipment and numbers, but they couldn’t simply drop someone absurdly powerful onto the battlefield and end the attempt through brute force. Considering Jaxir had spent almost his entire time in Divinity fighting people stronger than himself anyway, that sounded considerably less suicidal than it had a minute ago.

Nick moved beside him and slung an arm around his shoulders with such enthusiasm that Jaxir couldn’t help but chuckle.

"We are ever at your service, Commander, and you should know that I’m quite the patriot myself." He placed his free hand over his chest with an expression of deep sincerity and added, "My house is plastered with our great flag."

The Commander appeared to have dealt with enough shameless people in his career that Nick didn’t even earn a change in expression. His attention remained on Jaxir while he inclined his head toward the arm still hanging over Jaxir’s shoulders. "Will he be signing on along with you as well?"

Jaxir glanced sideways at Nick and chuckled at how quickly his new patriotism had become a subject of official review.

"Are you unwilling?" Jaxir asked.

"It’s not that," the Commander answered before Nick could speak, then shifted his attention toward him. "After we thought Jaxir had left earlier, I had my people begin gathering information on you, and several reports have already come back. There is nothing particularly concerning about your current identity, although your in-game identity may prove more troublesome."

Nick’s eyes narrowed slightly, but the Commander continued before he could interrupt.

"The larger concern is that Jaxir has made his position clear while you haven’t, and the government needs people who are both willing and able to participate, not fair-weather allies who disappear or stab us in the back the moment circumstances change. We may be limited inside Divinity, but we are not without backbone."

Jaxir nodded before Nick could take offense. That answer made him respect the Commander more than another desperate attempt to recruit anyone useful would have.

If these people were serious about building something capable of surviving the factions already entrenched in Divinity, they couldn’t afford to hand access to every opportunist willing to smile long enough to get inside.

Nick looked offended for another few seconds, then his expression loosened as he apparently reached the same conclusion.

"So long as Jaxir is here, I’ll be here." Nick released Jaxir’s shoulder and spread his hands, his grin returning with none of the fake patriotism from before. "If I pretend to be his friend long enough, maybe he’ll eventually get strong enough to help me get some sweet, sweet, sweet revenge."

Jaxir laughed while the Commander studied Nick for another moment, then gave a slow nod that seemed to settle the matter.

Whatever revenge Nick wanted was still another secret sitting on an increasingly long list, but Jaxir couldn’t complain when he had enough secrets of his own to fill several pages.

More importantly, Nick had fought beside him when walking away would have been much easier, and that carried more weight than whatever polished answer the Commander might have preferred.

The terms weren’t glamorous, the government was weak inside Divinity, and their first job apparently involved chasing a Legendary Guild Badge that nobody sane should have been aiming for this early.

Jaxir still had questions about how the faction operated and what they would expect from him afterward, but those could wait until they survived the first problem sitting in front of them. With that, Jaxir and Nick officially joined the government faction.