ScarletMoon's eyes lit up at the suggestion. She had sent ScarletDrink to recruit Li Huailin in the first place, but forgot it in the face of such shocking events. Thinking about it, isn't this a win-win proposal? After looking at ScarletDrink with approving eyes, ScarletMoon turned back to Li Huailin.
"Right, Huailin. Why not join our guild? This way, everyone benefits."
"Err… Say, ScarletMoon. I'm not really against joining your guild, but I really think that your guild's name doesn't really… suit me."
Li Huailin said so with hesitation.
"Pfft!"
Even ScarletMoon couldn't help but laugh after thinking about the scenario. After all, putting the name 'Scarlet Lady Army' on Li Huailin was really quite… inappropriate. Just imagine Li Huailin saying: 'Yes, I am Li Huailin, Brother Niubi, from the Scarlet Lady Army! Huh? What is my guild? Yes, it's the Scarlet Lady Army!'
Imagining such a scenario, ScarletMoon really couldn't stop laughing. The result is…
"N-no problem Huailin… pfft! You see, e-even the girls from our guild doesn't mind you joining, d-don't be so wishy-washy about such things… pfft!"
Li Huailin placed his palm on the head seeing ScarletMoon trying to convince him through laughter.
"The way you try to control your laughter makes me even more convinced that I shouldn't join your guild."
"Okay, ladies! Welcome our new guild member, the first male in our guild, Li Huailin!"
Without waiting for Li Huailin to consent, ScarletMoon had already made Li Huailin's admission a reality.
"Yay! Welcome, brother-in-law!"
Obviously, ScarletDrink was the first to jump on the bandwagon.
"Welcome! …Pfft-hahaha!"
This was ScarletBloodstain who was similarly trying to hold back her laughter.
"Fine, fine, I will join okay? I don't care about the guild name either way."
Li Huailin could only express helplessness in this situation.
"Then, to match with you girls, I will give myself a nickname too. Just call me ScarletRedRidingHood."
Li Huailin looked at the girls who were not talking at all.
"Was the joke too cold?"
"A-Anyways, just the guild first."
ScarletMoon quickly sent a guild invitation to Li Huailin.
[System Notice]: Player ScarletMoon is inviting you to the guild 'Scarlet Lady Army'. Do you accept?
"Yes."
[System Notice]: You have successfully entered the guild.
There is a guild column on Li Huailin's character page, but it was grey all the time. Now, it finally became selectable. Li Huailin opened up the guild page and say the brief introduction of the guild and the list of the guild members.
Li Huailin scrutinised the guild member list. Including him, there were only 45 guild members, and from the names, the rest was most probably girls. It would be scarier if it wasn't… Anyways, around half of the members had the 'Scarlet' heading. These were probably the core members of the guild. The rest were those who joined in later.
As for the level of the guild members… other than ScarletMoon who was Level 16, and the four Level 15 in front of him, all the others were below Level 15. There were even some who hadn't even reached Level 10 and leave Beginner's Village. Such a guild… compared to the big guilds… can only be described as miserable.
"Welcome, newcomer!"
Someone in the guild chat suddenly said.
"Wow! There really is a new member! Someone finally joined the guild later than me! Call me 'senpai', newcomer!"
This was another guild member.
"This 'ChestLikeAForest' person sounds like she is really satisfied with her chest…"
"Hmm? Where are you, newcomer-chan? Let big sis see if your chest is bigger or mine is bigger."
Seeing such outrageous comments, sweat started dripping from Li Huailin's head.
[Guild Leader] ScarletMoon: Restrain yourselves, sisters. 'ChestLikeAForest' is a male, don't talk about weird things in the guild chat anymore.
[Guild Member] Lil'PurpleFlower: Huh? Huh? Why is there a male in our guild?
[Guild Leader] ScarletMoon: He is currently wooing our Financial Manager ScarletRain, that's why he joined the guild. I have already been bribed.
[Officer] ScarletRain: Don't talk nonsense, big sis!
[Guild Member] MoonSis: Oh, I see! Don't worry, Sister Rain, we won't snatch him from you~
[Officer] ScarletRain: Whoever continues talking nonsense will have their pay for the month cut by half.
[Guild Leader] ScarletMoon: Okay, okay, Rain. Don't scare them anymore.
After settling everything in the guild chat, ScarletMoon looked at Li Huailin apologetically.
"Sorry, Huailin. Though our guild is small, we are all good sisters. If they say anything weird, don't get angry."
Li Huailin: "Haha…"
What else could Li Huailin do?
"Yay! Brother-in-law finally joined our guild! My secret mission is accomplished!"
ScarletDrink celebrated upon confirming Li Huailin's entry.
"Brother-in-law, brother-in-law, quickly bring us to clear the dungeon! This time, it will be a guild activity!"
"Wait for a while first. By the way, where's the guild's alchemist? Learn these recipe first and let us see what ingredients do we need. This makes it easier to prepare beforehand."
Li Huailin then passed the three recipes to ScarletMoon.
"Three?"
ScarletMoon thought that there will only be one recipe, but three is better! However, seeing that even the simplest recipe needed Intermediate Alchemy, she got a headache.
"Rain, looks like you can't learn it."
"En? Let me see."
ScarletRain walked over and looked at the recipe.
"The simplest requires Intermediate Alchemy… Though this type of potion is indeed of this standard, it's truthfully quite troublesome."
Li Huailin looked at ScarletRain in surprise.
"You are the guild's Alchemist?"
"Of course. All of the guild's money is managed by me, and only I have a clear idea of how much surplus does the guild have to advance it's alchemic department. Thus, the guild's best alchemist is naturally me too. Even then, I am only a Beginner Alchemist now. I can't learn any of the recipe."
"Is grinding levels for Alchemy so hard? Are you lacking in money or ingredients now?"
Li Huailin had never learnt Alchemy before, thus he could only ask.
"Money is secondary. After receiving 20 gold from you yesterday, our guild's finances are quite rich now. However, what we lack is a recipe that allows me to grind levels. That is, beginner alchemy recipes."
"Aren't there any in the auction?"
"There is, but in the current phase of the game, these recipes are all unusually expensive. The people selling are all aiming at big guilds that want to cultivate alchemist who will buy these recipes no matter how overpriced it is. Now, even the recipe of a useless potion that is suitable for grinding only is priced at 5 gold and above. Those that were a little useful like instant HP recovery potion recipe are priced at 20 gold and above. It's literally a scam."
ScarletRain continued her analysis.
"I've already discussed with leader. We will wait until most of the alchemist in the big guilds have reached Intermediate level. By then, these beginner recipes will become cheaper, and that is when we will grind our levels. After all, we are not big guilds; no need for us to compete with those giants."
"Hmm…"
Li Huailin could roughly understand the guild's actions now. Then he thought of something.
"Where do Beginner recipes drop the most?"
"Treasure boxes."
ScarletMoon from the side replied.
"Every map has a chance of treasure boxes appearing, and the probability of recipes appearing from treasure boxes is 100%. However, the profession and type that comes out is random. It could be Blacksmithing, or Tailoring."
"Every map?"
ScarletRain took over the explanation.
"Instance dungeons too. However, I heard that dungeons of normal difficulty had a lower chance of treasure boxes appearing. On the other hand, Hell difficulty had a much, much higher chance. However, the difficulty of Hell dungeons are too high. Up till now, not even a single guild had cleared it before."
ScarletMoon nodded her head with approval.
"En, after all, the game has only started for 10 days. Even the big guilds haven't farmed strong enough equipment and items to challenge Hell mode."
Hearing words such as 'normal mode' and 'Hell mode', Li Huailin asked:
"So there are different difficulty levels for instance dungeon?"
You can't blame Li Huailin for this. It wasn't stated on the official website, and the irregularity that is Li Huailin had obviously never visited instance dungeons much before.
"You didn't know?"
ScarletMoon was surprised.
Li Huailin rubbed his head.
"Yeah, I thought clearing once was all."
Seeing that Li Huailin was really clueless, ScarletMoon started explaining it to him.
"An instance dungeon has three modes, Normal, Hell, Abyss.
Normal mode is for players to get used to the dungeon, and the drops are much weaker. The fact that we could get a rare equipment last time was very good luck already. Normally, there will only be uncommon drops.
Hell mode is much more dangerous, but the drops are way better than Normal mode's.
Abyss mode is meant is a challenge. When you are the first to clear the Abyss mode of any dungeon, there will be a world announcement. Obviously, the levels of the party members cannot be more than 5 levels higher than the recommended one. For example, this Venom Snake Cave. The highest a player can be is Level 20 if you want to get a world announcement. Other than first clear, there is the time rush rankings too. The top three guild with the fastest time will have their names displayed there, perfect for guilds and players who want to become famous.
Additionally, only Abyss mode allows you to get the highest rating for a dungeon, S. Hell mode's highest is A, while Normal's is B. We got B the last time we cleared the normal dungeon."
Li Huailin spent some time to digest the info dump. Luckily, there weren't many technical terms in it, so it was easily understandable.
After digesting the information, Li Huailin suddenly said:
"Leader, I suddenly think that our guild can get really, really famous soon. Along with that, we can farm for treasure boxes too."
ScarletMoon instantly understood.
"You are saying that… we will become the first guild to clear Hell mode?"
With a wave of his hands, Li Huailin proudly declared:
"Hell mode doesn't have the world announcement. Go hard or go home, let's go for Abyss."
Saquacon (Translator)
Saquacon (PR)