New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The hour of rest went by incredibly fast, during which Phoenix took the names and classes of each player that had joined to split them up into parties.

At first, she had thought Astaroth had split them into role lines to do the parties. But after his stunt with mana presence, the class spread was all over the place.

Splitting up the players into parties that would hold at least some coherence was a tougher job than she had expected.

But she did so without complaining. She knew if she asked Astaroth to do it, the compositions would be messy, at best.

Once this had been done, Astaroth and Phoenix met with all the players once again, this time inside the throne room.

It was cramped, inside of the throne room with all the people there. But she didn't care, and neither did Astaroth.

Once everyone had arrived, including those who wouldn't be coming, Astaroth stepped forward from his throne.

"Welcome to the palace. I assume most of you had yet to see the interior of this room. Know that aside from the guild's officers, the council members of the kingdom, and some important dignitaries, few have. See this as a motivation. Perform well for the guild, and maybe someday, you will be here more often."

From the players in the first two rows, which would be the ones accompanying them, he saw many smiles light up, as determined looks appeared on their faces.

Hearing this had certainly motivated them. It meant they did not limit the officer ranks to the ones they currently had.

If even the mere possibility of rising in the ranks existed, then many people would strive to climb that ladder.

Such was the nature of people.

"Now. There is a reason we decided to meet you here instead of back in the plaza. The ones coming with us will, starting today, gain the rank as inner members. This means you gain access to the palace, as well as the training facility on the sixth floor.

"This will cost you contribution points every time you want to use it, but it will be accessible at any moment, given you pay."

Astaroth took a moment to let this information sink in for the players. This was big news to them.

"As for the other parties, the ones on standby, you will be promoted to outer members. I know. It's not much of an upgrade from where you currently stand. But there are advantages. The first one is the amount of available quests on the guild board, and their contribution payout."

As he was saying this, already Phoenix was applying the changes to their ranks. Since she had a list with their names on it, it was simple.

And the Players didn't lose a second to check what the new quests were. And their faces were already lighting up with glee.

The quests in the new section they had access to were only a little harder than before, but gave out many more contribution points.

This was a great trade-off!

Contribution points were not super useful to the recruits of the guild, which was what all the newer members started as. But they knew once they reached further ranks, there were many advantages to having contribution points.

In a sense, the recruit rank was a time when they could stock up on contribution points for later.

And one such way of spending contribution points had just appeared in their guild interface window.

*Item Trade*

Already, some players present were clicking on the tab to see what they had access to.

Astaroth coughed lightly to gather up their attention again.

"I know you are all excited to see what your extra advantages are. But now is hardly the time. There are more pressing matters. So I ask you to wait later to check these new things."

Hearing his words, the Players understood they were still in a meeting and they had jumped the gun. All of them closed their interface, bottling up their excitement.

"Good. Now, I will name you one by one, and give you a team number. Teams one and two will be coming with me and Phoenix, but will be completely under the command of Commander Levine. Even if he isn't in your party, while we are out of the kingdom, he is the absolute authority, unless we say otherwise. Understood?"

Heads nodded all across, and Astaroth nodded in satisfaction.

"Then let's form those parties, shall we?" he said, flashing a smile.

Phoenix stepped forward with a rolled-up scroll. On it, she had written the names of every Player present, along with the team number she assigned them to.

"I will start with teams one and two. If I call your name, split to your left for team one."

Seeing everyone understood her instructions, her eyes went to the scroll.

"Kayle Pendragon; Simo; Kniffy Staberson; Stout Beard-o; Saida; Misty Mind; Grud Firefang; Casper The Unfreindly Ghost; Toony Spark; and finally, Mog. All of you will be in team one, with Astaroth and Commander Levine."

Astaroth watched the ten Players split up, and head to his right, and in them, the woman who had walked right up to him in the test earlier. She was the one called Kayle Pendragon.

'Fitting name, Pendragon. Your will is as strong as the fabled king,' Astaroth thought.

Once the ten Players had split off, Phoenix continued.

"Now for team two. Split off to your right once called.

"O'Santo; S'Tank McRot; Cory Trixster; Hanbi; Silverleaf Bloomsteen; Bella Storm; Chris Toffer; The Fabulous Houdini; Ratchet Gneimstein; Thomrir Axebearer; and Robin Dude. You eleven are team two, with me. The rest of you are the teams on standby."

Phoenix went ahead and named all the teams she had composed, trying to keep the mixes of class as even and efficient as possible. In the end, one team was a Player short, but they didn't pay much attention to it.

With all the teams separated, it was time to set out for the monarchs, commander, and two parties. Themiscus awaited their arrival.