Chapter 57: The Server’s First Guild the Ascendant Concord

"Official?"

Something in that word landed harder than it should have. Kael kept his expression level, studying both of them without giving anything away.

"I’m just a solo player," he said. "What would an official team want with someone like me?"

"Modesty’s a good look, but let’s not pretend." Marcus Webb laughed, warm and easy, clearly rehearsed.

"Sitting at the top of the Ascendant Rankings without a guild behind you says plenty about what you’re actually capable of."

"So direct question. Would you be interested in joining the official team?"

"Someone with your numbers walks straight into a serious position.

Full government backing behind you from day one. No more worrying where the next resource comes from."

He spread his hands slightly. "It’s not unlimited nobody gets everything but the privileges that come with it are more than most people ever see in a lifetime."

And the price is my freedom, Kael thought, unmoved. Become a tool the state points wherever it wants, whenever it wants. No thanks.

He wasn’t interested. He also wasn’t foolish enough to slam the door on people with this much leverage.

"Appreciate the offer, but I’m not looking to join anything right now." A beat, measured. "Cooperation’s a different conversation, though.

I’d be open to giving your side first look at whatever gear I pull off future runs."

Webb’s whole face lit up.

He hadn’t walked in expecting a yes on anything. Getting this much goodwill out of a first conversation felt like a win he hadn’t earned yet.

He’d done his homework before ever approaching knew about the drop rate that defied explanation, knew Unrivaled’s personal ranking sat untouchable at the top of the board.

Word inside official circles put something close to eighty percent of the server’s best equipment through his hands alone.

A standing arrangement with a player like that wasn’t just good news. It was the kind of good news careers got built on.

"You won’t regret this, boss," Webb said, practically glowing. "Our offer’s completely fair. Nobody walks away shortchanged on our end."

Kael’s mouth curved. "Perfect timing, then. I picked up a full batch today. Name your price."

He opened a shared window and dropped the entire contents of the Ring of Infinite Fortune’s storage into view without ceremony.

A sharp breath hissed out of both of them at once.

Webb and Doyle stared into the panel, expressions sliding from polite interest straight through disbelief and out the other side.

They’d expected a solo player back from a full day’s grind to be carrying something worth having. Neither had braced for this.

Thousands of individual entries, every one of them level 30 or higher, quality running well above what either of them had ever seen listed on a single inventory sheet.

Several Legendary-grade pieces sat scattered through it items that, by current market rates, could each single-handedly buy a property in any major city.

A haul like this landing in front of two people pulling a few thousand dollars a month left them both a little glassy-eyed, mouths gone dry, staring in total silence for a stretch that ran longer than either of them probably realized.

Webb finally surfaced, swallowing hard. "Can we all of it? The whole batch?"

"All of it," Kael confirmed. "One package deal. Name your price. Gold only no cash."

"Of course! Give us a moment I’ll get the numbers running right now."

He shared the list off to whoever handled valuations on his end, already halfway into a separate channel before he’d finished the sentence.

With nothing left to do but wait, the conversation drifted into small talk.

Doyle’s eyes lingered on the plain bronze half-mask covering the upper half of Kael’s face for a beat longer than casual interest usually allowed, and then, carefully, she tested the water.

"So, boss you catch what happened over at Ironclad last night?"

Something in Kael’s chest went briefly still. He kept his voice level. "What happened?"

"Cynthia Miles their exec director and Ryan Tanner, the rising star they were grooming.

Both turned up dead. Assassinated."

"Rough break for them," Kael said, unbothered, letting just enough disinterest show through. "Must’ve stepped on the wrong toes somewhere."

Doyle didn’t push. She let the silence stretch a moment before adding, almost to herself, "Case is strange, honestly.

Would’ve gone deeper under normal circumstances. But with the merge landing the same day priorities shifted fast."

"Two people already gone versus keeping things stable for everyone still here. Not really a hard call, from where we’re sitting."

She didn’t say it outright, but she didn’t need to. Kael read every line underneath it clearly enough.

They’ve already connected the dots back to me.

Concealing his face this whole time had bought him exactly what it was supposed to deniability.

No confirmed identity meant no case that could actually move forward, and between that gap and whatever other pressures were weighing on people above her pay grade, the decision had landed on quietly closing the file rather than chasing it.

Sending Webb and Doyle to make contact, extend an olive branch, angle for recruitment instead of confrontation that read exactly the way Kael had expected it to, the moment he’d first heard the word official.

He allowed himself a faint, unreadable smile and said nothing more. Both sides understood the shape of the arrangement without either one spelling it out.

A few minutes later, a third official player arrived at a fast walk, breathless, already quoting a number before he’d fully stopped moving.

Four hundred thousand gold the full package, no negotiation needed.

Higher than Kael had actually expected going in.

A number that generous only confirmed how badly they wanted this relationship to stick. He accepted without hesitation, and the transaction closed with a clean chime, gold sliding into his balance in a single lump sum.

Realistically, across the entire server, only a state-backed operation could throw around that much liquid gold without blinking.

Even Alexis, with a conglomerate’s resources quietly behind her, didn’t have that kind of reach not anymore, not with every serious player hoarding coin instead of spending it.

A working relationship with people who could spend like that, without complication, was worth having. One less thing to manage going forward.

Once the deal closed, Kael added both of them as contacts, exchanged a final round of pleasantries, and headed off toward the guild registrar.

Barely ten minutes later, a chime rolled out across the entire server at once.

"Server-Wide Announcement: Congratulations to player Unrivaled for founding the server’s first player guild the Ascendant Concord.

Rewards: Reputation +2000, Luck +3, and the Banner of Conquest (Epic)."

"Server-Wide Announcement: As the first guild established server-wide, the Ascendant Concord has unlocked the legendary guild talent Sovereign’s Blessing.

Every member of the guild now receives a permanent +10% to all attributes."

Kael read both lines twice, more out of habit than any real need to confirm them.

A guild with exactly one member, and that member already sat ten percent stronger than he had a minute ago a rounding error next to everything else stacked in his favor tonight, but a welcome one all the same.

Somewhere out across the server, thousands of players were still doing the math on what "first guild" was actually going to mean for the balance of power going forward.

Kael already knew the answer. He’d known it for longer than any of them had been alive, in a manner of speaking.

One more piece in place.

The stronghold was still waiting. But that was a problem for tomorrow.