Chapter 368: Regional Guildmaster

The second-floor lounge had become completely quiet after everyone left.

Sage remained seated at the long table with the papers from the meeting still scattered before him, including Caelis’s notes on the newly proposed Guild Share System, preliminary ideas for branch expansion, and several rough calculations that would need to be cleaned up later.

For the first time since returning from the Vault, he had a few moments completely to himself, and the silence felt strangely comfortable after days of fighting, running, arguing, and listening to Boren complain about everything under the sun.

Sage leaned back in his chair and rubbed his tired eyes, only for the familiar blue light of the System to suddenly appear directly in front of him.

[ Ding! ]

[New Mission Available!]

Sage stared at the notification for a moment before a smile slowly appeared on his face.

"Now that’s something I haven’t seen in a while." He shifted comfortably in his seat as his interest immediately replaced whatever tiredness had remained. "I haven’t received a proper System mission for quite some time. With everything that has happened recently, I was starting to wonder whether you had forgotten your actual job."

There was no response.

Sage wasn’t surprised. "Still ignoring me when it’s convenient, I see."

Before checking the new mission, however, another thought crossed his mind.

It had been a long time since he properly looked through his own information, and after everything that had changed recently, he was curious to see how far he had come.

With a thought, the mission notification moved aside and another familiar panel opened before him.

-----

[.Status Panel ]

Name: [ Sage Alistair ]

Race: [ Human ]

Identity: [ Regional Guildmaster ]

Class / Path: [ Mage ]

Warrior Rank: [ 4-Star Master Mage ]

Core Attributes:

Strength: 200

Intelligence: 1009

Speed: 290

Vitality: 215

-------

Sage studied the panel for several seconds before nodding in satisfaction. The identity immediately caught his attention first. Regional Guildmaster.

It was certainly a massive improvement over the embarrassing Guild Rookie that had followed him during the early days of the Adventurer Guild, back when the organization barely had enough people to fill a hall.

Now, with the Guild established throughout the Evergreen Region, the System clearly recognized that his position had changed as well.

More importantly, he was now officially a 4-Star Master Mage.

Sage leaned back and folded his arms with a pleased expression.

"A 4-Star Mage..." he muttered quietly. "In the Evergreen Region, I can finally be considered a genuine big shot instead of some suspicious Guildmaster hiding behind stronger people."

His eyes briefly moved toward the door as the image of Valeria appeared in his mind.

"...Well, I still have one ridiculously strong person standing in front of me, but that’s beside the point."

His Intelligence attribute had crossed one thousand, far beyond everything else on the panel, which wasn’t particularly surprising considering that nearly every major System enhancement he had obtained favored his ability as a Mage.

His Divine Grade Mana Veins, Aetheric Insight Eyes, and Mana Overlord Gaze had changed how he understood and controlled Mana completely.

The Sage who had first arrived in Eldoria would probably stare at his current self like he was some completely different person.

Satisfied with what he saw, Sage closed the Status Panel and opened the interface that mattered even more to him.

----

[ Adventurer Guild Interface ]

Guildmaster: [ Sage Alistair ]

Guild Rank: [ C ]

Guild Branches:[ Riverdale City Branch , Stonebridge City Branch, Silvercrest City Branch...etc.]

Guild Funds: [ 23,678,879 Gold Coins ]

Reputation: [ 98,894 / 100,000 ]

Reputation Status: [ Regional Renown ]

Active Members: [ 389,890 ]

Average New Registrations: [ 1,000+ Daily ]

Guild Territory: [ Gryphon District — Currently known as the Adventurer District ]

Guild Facilities [ Intermediate Stable, Intermediate Inn, Intermediate Restaurant, Mana Cultivation Tower, Intermediate Guild Smithy ]

[ Guild Objectives ]

Main Mission: [ Establish the First Adventurer Guild in the World of Eldoria ]

Current Mission: [ Establish the Kingdom’s Main Adventurer Guild Headquarters in the Royal Capital ]

Mission Objective:[ Travel to the Royal Capital and establish the central headquarters responsible for overseeing all Regional Guild Headquarters and their subordinate branches throughout the Kingdom. ]

------

Sage’s eyes slowly widened as he looked through the information.

Even though he had personally watched the Guild’s development, seeing everything summarized in one place made the growth feel ridiculous.

The Adventurer Guild now had almost four hundred thousand registered members, with more than a thousand people joining every day.

The reputation bar was practically touching one hundred thousand, and the old reputation title of Quite Famous had disappeared, replaced by Regional Renown, which made far more sense considering that there were probably very few people anywhere in the Evergreen Region who had not at least heard about the Adventurer Guild.

What surprised Sage most, however, was the new section beneath the Guild Rank.

"Guild Branches?"

He narrowed his eyes and touched the section.

Immediately, the interface expanded.

Several smaller windows appeared, each representing one of the branches currently operating under the Evergreen Regional Headquarters.

Sage’s expression brightened as he realized exactly what the System had done.

"This is actually useful," he muttered. "Very useful."

He selected the first branch.

-----

[ Riverdale City Branch ]

Branch Guildmaster: [ Edwin Hale ]

Branch Rank: [ D ]

Branch Funds: [ 12,345 Gold Coins ]

Active Members: [ 2,345 ]

Current Status: [ Stable ]

Mission Activity: [ High ]

Recruitment Status: [ Growing ]

-------

Sage stared at the smaller interface with obvious satisfaction. From here, he could see the basic information of every branch without waiting days for written reports to arrive in Greyvale.

It wasn’t enough to completely replace traditional communication, especially because he still needed detailed reports on problems, finances, politics, and personnel, but it would make overseeing the growing Guild considerably easier.

"This is really thoughtful of you, System," Sage said, smiling faintly. "If every Regional Headquarters eventually controls dozens of branches, managing everything manually would become a nightmare. At least now I can immediately tell when one branch is losing members, running out of funds, or having some kind of problem."

The System remained silent.

Sage’s eyes moved back toward the main Guild Interface, and that was when something bothered him.

His smile slowly disappeared. He stared at the Guild Funds.

23,678,879 Gold Coins.

Sage frowned deeply. "Wait a minute."

He leaned closer as though the number might somehow change if he stared hard enough.

"System."

Silence.

"System, don’t pretend you can’t hear me. Why hasn’t the Guild Fund increased?"

A faint blue notification appeared.

[Please clarify the Host’s question.]

Sage’s eyebrow twitched. "Clarify? I came back from the Vault carrying literal mountains of gold. I have so much treasure sitting inside the System Storage that Boren would probably marry the storage space if I allowed him. Why is the Guild still sitting at twenty-three million gold?"

A short silence followed before the System answered.

[Guild Funds and externally acquired wealth are separate financial classifications.]

Sage stared at the sentence. "...Explain."

Another panel opened.

[Guild Funds refer specifically to liquid currency earned, received, generated, or officially transferred through activities belonging to the Adventurer Guild.]

The System continued before Sage could interrupt.

[Examples include mission commissions, registration fees, Guild facility revenue, merchant contracts, Smithy sales, Inn revenue, Restaurant revenue, branch revenue, Guild taxes and service charges, officially registered donations, and proceeds from assets sold through the Guild.]

Sage’s expression slowly changed as he began understanding.

The System continued.

[The wealth obtained from the Vault was not generated through Guild operations. It was acquired as expedition loot and therefore remains classified separately as Vault Assets belonging collectively to the expedition participants until ownership has been formally determined.]

Sage rubbed his chin. "So you’re saying the gold we physically carried out doesn’t automatically become Guild Funds just because I’m the Guildmaster?"

[Correct.]

"What if we decide tomorrow that everything belongs to the Guild?"

[Once ownership is legally and organizationally transferred to the Evergreen Regional Guild, eligible liquid currency may be registered as Guild Treasury Reserves. Non-liquid assets will remain categorized as Guild Assets until sold, exchanged, consumed, assigned, or otherwise converted.]

That made sense.

Sage leaned forward with growing interest. "What about Skill Stones? Suppose the Guild keeps them, puts them inside some kind of Guild store, and Adventurers buy them."

[The Skill Stones themselves would initially remain Guild Assets.]

[Once sold through an official Guild facility, all revenue generated from the transaction would become Guild Funds.]

"And if I personally sell one outside the Guild?"

[If the item belongs to you personally, the proceeds belong to you personally.]

"What if the Guild owns it, but I sell it?" Sage asked.

[Then the proceeds belong to the Guild regardless of who physically completes the transaction.]

Sage nodded slowly. "Okay. That’s actually reasonable."

He thought for another moment. "So the gold itself from the Vault is currently what? Vault Funds?"

[More accurately: Vault Assets.]

[Vault Assets include currency, Skill Stones, weapons, armor, books, Mana crystals, ores, artifacts, materials, and all other property recovered from the Vault expedition.]

[The gold portion may separately be referred to as Vault Funds, but until the ownership agreement discussed by the expedition members is finalized, those funds are not considered Adventurer Guild revenue.]

Sage finally understood why the System refused to simply dump everything into the Guild’s balance.

The Guild Interface wasn’t measuring how much wealth Sage could physically access. It was measuring the actual financial resources belonging to the Adventurer Guild as an organization.

If Sage found ten million gold buried beneath his bed tomorrow, the Guild wouldn’t magically become ten million gold richer unless he officially transferred that money into the Guild.

In fact, the distinction was useful. Otherwise, personal wealth, expedition rewards, Guild operating funds, branch funds, emergency reserves, and stored assets would eventually become one gigantic financial mess.

Sage sighed and leaned back. "Fine. You win."

[The System was not competing with the Host.]

Sage’s eyebrow twitched. "Don’t start."

The System became quiet again.

Sage was about to close the interface when another thought entered his mind. His eyes slowly moved toward the System Storage, and the memory of those enormous treasure mountains appeared once again.

Gold coins, ancient weapons, Skill Stones, magical materials, artifacts, books, Mana crystals, and countless objects whose value they didn’t even understand yet.

His expression changed immediately.

"System."

[Yes, Host?]

"You can analyze items."

[Correct.]

"You can determine approximate market prices."

[Correct.]

"And everything we obtained from the Vault is currently inside the System Storage."

[Correct.]

Sage slowly leaned forward. "...Can you calculate the combined value of all the Vault Assets?"

There was a brief pause.

[Yes.]

Sage’s eyes instantly lit up. "Why the hell didn’t you tell me that earlier? Calculate it. Everything. Gold, Skill Stones, weapons, books, materials, Mana crystals, artifacts, all of it. Give me the total estimated value."

[Calculating...]

Sage waited impatiently, fingers tapping against the table.

A second later, another enormous blue screen opened in front of him.

Sage looked at the number displayed across it.

His pupils contracted. His mouth slowly fell open.

"Holy shit...!"