“Very well, then. Here are your rewards for your efforts thus far,” She set out a pouch of coins for each of those who had finished the quests already. “Best you teach the others the right ways to deal with the gnoll’s peculiar traits.”
Quest completed: Kill fifty gnolls
Receive: Twenty gold and increased rep with Stormguard guards
Quest completed: Clear five encampments of gnolls
Receive: Thirty gold and increased rep with Stormguard guards
They each picked up their gold as Alburet concluded the conversation. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.” He snapped a salute, which was repeated by the others.
“Are we supposed to be a military like guild?” Gerald asked as they exited the gates.
“Not so much, but with sergeants and above treating them with the respect due their rank does seem to help.” Alburet shrugged, “I just want to see all of the NPCs treated right. For those of us who are immersed in the game for such long periods, it will behoove us more than most to do so. You can’t just log out if you piss someone off, after all.”
“What exactly are the rules of the guild going to be?” Marysue asked as they walked towards the tree line in the distance.
“Basically just a few simple ones. First, treat your fellow Alpha Company members with respect. You don’t have to love or even like them, but you should treat them fairly. Secondly, treat the NPCs as real people. They are as real as we are while we’re immersed for these long lengths of time. Thirdly, comport yourself with dignity so as to not besmirch the name of the guild. That’s about it. We can flesh them out as needed once we have other members. Gerald, I’m willing to make you second in command since you have experience with large groups of people. Marysue, Fluffball and Karen are all going to be officers. Everyone okay with that?” Alburet looked over at them as he asked the last question.
Karen just nodded, along with Marysue as Gerald grinned slightly, giving Alburet a thumbs-up. Fluff shook her head, “I don’t think I should be an officer. I’m not good at confrontations.”
Karen tapped Fluff on the shoulder lightly, “He wants to make sure those of us in the guild at the start, have the power to deal with those that come after, Fluff. Take the title. If worst comes to worst then you can get me to help you, right?”
Fluffball chewed her lip for a moment then nodded, “Okay.”
“What about me?” Stacia asked, her voice a touch disappointed.
“That is an interesting issue, Kitten,” Alburet replied. “I don’t know how people will react to my wife being an officer. That kind of thing always causes issues in similar situations on the other world. If it’s something you are strongly wanting, then yes, you can be an officer, too. However, we should check to see if the same problem occurs that does when we group you. And we still need to group up,” Alburet sighed as he sent invites to Gerald, Marysue, Karen and Fluffball. “Okay, hang up on the edge of the trees for a second.” He summoned Tiny first, greeting the taciturn destroyer, then summoned Bob.
Bob looked around, smiling at Karen, Stacia and Fluff. “So how was the wedding? Did you go for round three, Karen?”
Karen shook her head, “Not on a wedding night. That would just be wrong, Bob.”
“An Imp has to have dreams,” Bob said slightly defensively.
“It was a wonderful day, Bob,” Stacia said with a grin at the imp. “Did ya find a succubus for the days away?”
“No,” Bob replied morosely, “struck out four times. Worst two days off ever.”
Alburet chuckled, “Too bad.” He turned his attention to Stacia. “Stacia, demon form so I can get two of you, please.” She did as he asked so he could use his Copy Ability on her, “Okay. All my demons are ready to go. Let me just check something real quick.”
He tapped open the guild tab, setting Gerald to second in command, followed by adding Fluff, Karen and Marysue as officers. He then tried to add Stacia and got an error message. “Kitten, it won’t let me add you as an officer. It gives the same error message as when we tried to group you while in demon form. Likely means if we did add you, it would kick you once you transition. Which is funny, because your name is still on the guild list currently. I’ll need to let Vicky know about the issue later.”
Stacia sighed, “Okay, master. Ya will let me join you in any meetin’s though, right?”
“Any objections?” Alburet asked.
Gerald pursed his lips slightly but didn’t say anything while the others all shook their heads. “Okay, then. Let’s get going, shall we?” Alburet said and they started into the woods.
“You still need to tell us about the whole marriage thing,” Karen reminded Alburet.
Alburet began to tell the tale of Stacia appearing before him as a succubus. By the time he’d finished his tale they had slaughtered their first camp of gnolls. “So that’s how that all happened,” Alburet said as they looted the corpses. “Which reminds me, though,” he chuckled as he pulled stuff from his bag. “One for Stacia, one for Fluff and finally one for a pain in the ass,” he finished, handing the last potion belt to Karen. Each had been fully stocked with potions before he had put them away. “Minor health potions, they only return 10% of your hit points. But this way you can use them quickly in combat.”
Stacia smiled as she put hers on, making Alburet dismiss her copy before resummoning her to see if the belt would duplicate. It didn’t. “Ah well, it was a bit much to ask,” she sighed before giving Alburet a quick kiss on both cheeks. “So, nice when ya husband buys ya things, even if he does it for all the other women he knows, too.”
Karen laughed, “Better be careful, Stacia, or he might want a harem.”
“Nay, he already told me otherwise or I would be lookin’ for promisin’ extras already,” Stacia grinned with a wink at Karen.
“One wife who can become multiple all by herself is enough, thanks,” Alburet said, shaking his head. “One day married and already I feel like she’s poking at me deliberately.”
Gerald shrugged, “I would only want a single wife as well.”
Marysue seemed thoughtful, “Hmm, two or three husbands, though, does have a certain appeal.” Her eyes flickered to Gerald, who had stopped walking, his face showing his shock clearly. Giggling, she shook her head, “I’m kidding, Francis.”
“Francis?” Alburet asked.
Gerald’s face went blank while Marysue quickly stumbled over her words, “I meant Gerald…”
Karen chuckled, “It’s easy sometimes to fall into real names when you know the person so well. No harm done. We won’t call you Francis, Gerald.”
Gerald nodded, his face still blank as his eyes flickered over the others, “Thank you.”
Alburet shook his head, “Okay. Now that we’ve derailed that train and made sure it was on fire, why don’t we get back to slaughtering gnolls?”
For the next four hours, they blazed a trail of destruction through the gnoll encampments. Gerald finally called a halt to the slaughter, “Marysue and I need to get going. We’ll turn in the quests tomorrow, but we want to drop off the letters at City Hall tonight. Meet up at the portal guild tomorrow at noon?”
“I can’t tomorrow,” Karen sighed. “Day after, though, we can try the cave, if that’s okay?”
“I can’t then,” Fluff said quietly. “I could the day after that, though.”
Everyone agreed to meet up for the gnoll cave in three days, with other arrangements for hunting over the next couple of days by those who could make it. Gerald and Marysue said their goodbyes, leaving the trio in the woods.
“Shall we also call it a day? We can show you the guild area attached to our home,” Alburet said.
“Can we kill gnolls for another hour?” Karen asked. “I’m so close to a level.”