Chapter 201: [201] Decisions…

Ark let out a breath and leaned back into his chair, staring up at the ceiling.

He was already planning on ascending very soon, and he was sure Olivia was also planning to do the same.

Fable’s request was not just a good opportunity to secure an ascension domain instead of waiting, it was also an opportunity for Olivia to see how she leveled up against their best newbies.

But was it really worth risking?

"Olivia, what do you want to do?" Ark asked.

If it was up to him, then the answer was a resounding yes. Ark was not bothered by whatever petty schemes Fable was cooking up in the shadows.

Whether this was a test to see what they were worth or if their plan was actually to wipe out their guild, Ark could care less.

At the end of the day, it came down to power. It was as simple as that.

No matter how powerful Fable was, only players who had not ascended to Bronze could enter a Bronze Ascension Domain.

Ark was confident that there was no one at his level who could take him on and win. Even if they banded together like rats, he would exterminate them all.

If anything, sending him into a dungeon with their newbies was foolishness on the part of Fable. They were not the only ones who saw him as competition, after all...

And if they were strong, it would just be another amazing opportunity to grow even stronger.

Perhaps Ark was arrogant, but it was just an expression of how confident he was in his abilities.

Still, although Ark was the type to risk his life to grow stronger, there was no need to force Olivia to come along with him.

She was strong, and that was without a doubt. But before he made any decision that was bound to affect her, he had to make sure she was okay with it.

Olivia raised a brow. "What do you mean? I can tell you want to go, and if you are going, then I am going too."

"Do you think those Fable midgets scare me?" She grabbed a forkful of braised meat and shoved it in her mouth.

"Ashh eiff!" She said in between mouthfuls.

Ark smiled when he saw the total absence of fear in her eyes.

"Besides," Olivia said after she swallowed. "Soo-jin will be there. I don’t trust any of the top guilds, but I trust her. Soo-jin won’t betray us..."

Ark paused. He had completely forgotten. Since Soo-jin had not ascended either, it was likely that she would be part of the team, both her and Isabella.

For the first time in months, the original team would be banding up for another dungeon run.

Ark found himself smiling. "I guess that means we are going!"

Thalia nodded, although she still looked worried. "I will send an appropriate response..."

"But before that," Ark said, cutting her off, his eyes growing dark.

Thalia’s expression faltered. "Is there a problem?"

Ark nodded. Not just a problem, a very big one indeed. He picked up the envelopes one by one and placed them on the table, then folded his hands before resting his jaw on them.

"What is common between all these envelopes?"

Although she was watching, Olivia did not seem to care much.

Thalia, on the other hand, stared at the envelopes for some time before she raised her head to look back at him, her pink eyes gleaming in a way that told him she had no idea what he was talking about.

"Seals!" An animated voice came from the other side of the table.

Everyone turned around to look at the little girl who now had sauce smeared all over her cheeks, Tessa.

Ark blinked. She had been so quiet that Ark had completely forgotten she was even in the room.

"They all have seals, right?" She cocked her head to the side.

"Correct!" Ark gave her a thumbs up. "You’re as intelligent as your sister!"

She smiled, her cheeks flushing slightly. Apparently, she loved the compliment.

"Seals are something that all guilds have, but even beyond that is what is etched on the seal."

Thalia’s eyes widened slightly. "An insignia... How did I not notice?"

Ark nodded. "Exactly. We call ourselves a guild, and we do not even have an insignia, let alone a guild flag!"

"Hmm." Olivia waved a half-eaten rib at them. "True. Insignificant. Very important," she said in between chewing the juicy flesh.

"In the next ten minutes, we are going to come up with our guild insignia, and that is what we will use in our official response to Fable."

Thalia got up from her chair with a serious expression on her face. "I will get the whiteboard right now!"

’We have a whiteboard?’ Ark mused.

It took longer than ten minutes, but after some time, they finally arrived at a design they all agreed on.

The insignia was simple, yet it represented the core principle of their guild rather well.

Two wings on both sides of a casket. The wings represented their dream to reach the absolute peak, and the casket that prophesied death to whoever would dare interfere.

And then in the middle of the casket was a broken, flaming sword tilting downward, so that it looked like a crucifix.

This represented instability, or in other words, their well of madness that would never run out.

This part had been suggested by Olivia.

Ark had initially thought the madness part suited only him, but looking at his guild members, he realized that none of them were quite right in the head.

After going through what Thalia had experienced, most players would have simply quit Eden or joined the temple.

But instead, Thalia had visited every single one of the players that had assaulted her and tortured them till she had her fill, most of them dying in the process.

Olivia sometimes acted as though Ark always went overboard during their trips, but not once had she tried to stop him. If anything, she seemed to enjoy it just as much as he did.

She had taken them to the volcanic plains and joined him to challenge an ascended obsidian giant.

On the brink of death back in the hidden event, instead of accepting her fate, she rejected it, going Berserk and wiping out more rock golems than Ark cared to count...

She had survived the tutorial where two hundred students had died.

"Yes..." Ark stared at the insignia with a smile on his face. They were all mad.

And so, from that day forward, the guild Casket finally had their symbol.

..

..

Little update, I realized there was a mistake in Chapter 118. I wrote that they would have to challenge an Iron Rank dungeon, but that was actually a mistake. It was meant to be Bronze Rank, but I have fixed it now.