Chapter 25: Guild Creation

“Are you not joining a guild?”

“A guild?”

While I was studying in the living room, Harang’s question came out of nowhere.

A guild…

I had already been looking around for options.

However, perhaps because the world was different, the guilds I used to know were nowhere to be found.

Even if the guilds had the same names, the people inside them were entirely different.

Guilds were one of the essential elements of an RPG game.

“Do you have any suggestions for a guild I could join?”

“Are you planning to follow me?”

“Uh… yeah.”

Harang answered my question with a lack of confidence.

I patted him on the shoulder and said, “With your skills, you can go anywhere.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

I had painfully realized this on the battlefield.

The issue wasn’t with the archers themselves but with the players behind them.

How many archers had I encountered so far?

None of them could even come close to Harang’s level.

If it weren’t for those subpar players, Harang wouldn’t have been so underappreciated.

Tap-tap-tap.

I lightly tapped the table with the pen in my hand, lost in thought.

The guild system currently only had chat features, but thinking about the future additions like territory wars or guild-exclusive raids, it was clear I needed to either join a high-level guild or grow one myself.

“Should I create a guild?”

“Really? You’re going to make and run a guild?”

I nodded.

I wasn’t inexperienced as a guild leader.

However, the players in this world were the problem.

The overall standard was much lower, and this era was all about games dominated by overwhelming talent.

I wondered if I could find guild members who met my expectations.

And recruiting young talent had its own challenges—resources.

Deron was a game that was financially burdensome for students.

Harang and I were exceptions to the norm.

The 20-something men were another issue.

Even if they were skilled, what was the point?

Whenever you established a stable raid group, they’d suddenly vanish, called away by the nation.

Even in this world, the military service problem hadn’t been solved.

A small laugh escaped me at the thought.

In a few years, even the kid sitting next to me, whom I was teaching, would shave his head and enlist.

“What? Why are you laughing?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.”

A guild, huh. Let’s try building one.

I quickly pulled out my phone and posted a message in the raid team’s group chat.

Raid Leader – “Does anyone here not have a guild? I’m thinking of creating one. If you’re interested, send me a DM.”

First, I’d recruit the people closest to me.

Though I said this, deep down, I was hoping for something else—that some of the raid team members would leave their current guilds to join me.

My raid team members were unquestionably skilled.

If I could bring them along, they’d be a powerful force for any future guild content.

There’s no time to waste.

If I want to recruit talent, I need to hit the ground running.

I jumped up from my seat and ran to my room.

“Hey, hey! Aren’t you going to study?”

Future guild content would place equal importance on both PvE and PvP.

That meant I couldn’t just recruit players skilled at raids; I needed to target those who excelled in arenas and battlefields.

Where’s the best place to find players who specialize in PvP-focused class builds?

Even though the world had changed, the places where players gathered hadn’t.

I headed straight for the southern gate of the Lunaris capital city.

This was where players gathered, meeting the minimum gear specs and endlessly planting their flags.

Whenever they disappeared, it was clear they’d been matched for an arena battle.

I made my way to the central square in front of the southern gate and drove my sword into the ground.

Clang!

It’s an unspoken rule.

Even though the world has shifted, things like this remain the same.

By doing this, I was sending a message: I’m looking for a duel—anyone is welcome.

To recruit players interested in PvP, I had to show myself in this space.

“Isn’t that Yeon?”

“Who’s Yeon?”

“The middle school girl, or so the story goes…”

“Ah…”

Occasionally, I heard murmurs from the players.

I ignored them, keeping my hand on my sword’s hilt and staring straight ahead.

Then, a swordsman in light leather armor approached me.

He carried a short sword with limited range and a small round shield.

The silver gauntlet encasing his sword arm revealed his class—Gladiator.

A class specialized for one-on-one combat.

Judging by his lack of upper-body armor, it seemed he had chosen the Gladiator path for both first and second ranks.

He adjusted his brass-colored helmet and spoke.

“Are you here for a flag duel?”

His tone was annoyingly cocky, but it didn’t bother me much.

Despite his casual words, he was clearly using all his senses to assess my skill.

Through the narrow slits in his helmet, I could see his gaze darting around intently.

“Shall we have a match?”

No further words were needed.

We quickly set up a duel, ensuring all conditions were equal.

My equipped items’ options adjusted, aligning with the arena specifications.

This was to enable pure PvP combat without penalties.

A large flag descended from the sky.

Clang!

“Don’t you do arenas?”

“I don’t have the time.”

“You should, though. Even having a silver rank is better than standing here without one. It’ll attract more attention.”

The moment his sentence ended, a sharp white slash shot toward me.

Fast and precise.

There wasn’t the slightest hesitation in his strikes.

His movements carried the experience of countless PvP battles.

My breathing shifted.

I began to move fluidly, matching the rhythm of his attacks.

After slashes aimed at my upper and lower body, his shield, strapped to his left hand, came swinging.

The Gladiator class allowed for the full utilization of the body as a weapon.

Bang!

I don’t just retreat.

I quickly twist my body and channel that power into my arm, swinging my sword.

But my opponent deflects the attack with a swing of his shield, which is strapped to his left arm.

Short exchanges like this occur frequently.

I don’t try to stop the deflected force of my sword.

Instead, I pull my body back and add rotation to my sword as I swing it again.

Clang!

With a cheerful sound, my opponent blocks my sword with the flat of his blade.

In that moment, his movements began to change.

Up until now, it seemed like he had been moving cautiously to analyze my actions.

But now, he threw caution to the wind, pushing forward aggressively, using his full strength.

His arms and legs moved threateningly.

I noticed a blue glow wrapped around his kick as he aimed to strike my leg.

My field of vision expanded.

Without armor on his upper body, I could clearly see the movement of his muscles, which were finely honed.

In my mind, I began to analyze the muscle movements.

As time passed, my body began to react instinctively to his attacks.

I could now predict the direction of his strikes.

Just before his sword began to swing, I inserted my blade into the opening.

At that moment, my opponent seemed to hesitate.

“Uh…”

Now was my chance.

His breathing became erratic.

I didn’t waste the opportunity.

I immediately activated a buff skill that enveloped my sword in a golden glow.

Accustomed to the short range of his sword, my opponent couldn’t react fast enough to the sudden increase in my sword’s length.

Swish!

The golden glow of my blade pierced through his body.

With the duel decided, my opponent let out a defeated laugh.

“Wow… ha… ha…”

“Another round?”

“Let’s do it.”

The duels continued without interruption.

I played a total of 20 rounds, winning 19 of them.

It was a series of continuous duels, and naturally, it drew the attention of many.

I waited just like before, driving my sword into the ground.

It was my way of saying I would accept any challenge.

One challenge after another came in.

By the end of the day, I had participated in nearly 100 duels.

100 matches, 95 wins, and 5 losses.

The next day, and the day after, I continued heading to the southern gate for duels.

Was it because of the rumors?

The southern gate became much busier than before.

Even high-ranking players, who had been hiding in corners running only in the arena, started showing up.

People attracted more people.

As a result, the southern gate became a place where free duels couldn’t be held as easily anymore.

It was time.

I, along with Hwang and a few others, went to find the guild manager NPC to create a guild.

“What will the guild’s name be?”

“Well… I have a few options…”

I mumbled as I responded to Hwang’s question.

I had come up with a few cool guild names, but I wasn’t sure which one to choose.

“Tell me the candidates.”

“Affectionate, Indifferent, The World, Fate, Myth, Royal, Immortal…”

“No… what…?”

“Yen, are you really a middle school girl?”

I blinked and looked around.

Everyone was looking at me strangely.

Why are they staring at me like that?

“What’s wrong?”

“Are you really asking because you don’t know?”

“Well, I guess there are a lot of names already taken, huh? Should we buy a guild name…?”

Choosing a guild name was a very important ritual.

At least, I thought so.

I didn’t have to think this much when deciding on a character nickname.

“Hey… the guild name candidates are too…”

“Too?”

“Too… cliché?”

“Cl… cliché?”

“Yeah.”

I was stunned by Hwang’s comment.

Cliché? How could he say that to me?

I was deeply shocked. I stared at Hwang with trembling eyes, and he looked away.

“Well, I think it would be better to choose something like your favorite food…”

“Right. Let’s find something that fits your image, Yen.”

Image… image…

I nodded and closed my eyes.

I, this girl named Yen, was a middle school student. What comes to mind when thinking about a middle school girl?

Stockings? School uniform? No, I couldn’t use that for a guild name.

Hwang said I should use my favorite food as the guild name.

Cold noodles…?

Ah.

Cold noodles also appeared as a taken guild name. But…

Maybe I should go with fish soup, but then, suddenly, I remembered the small candy Sohee had given me.

Chewy and Soft Cow.

“Oh, what…?”

The guild was created.

The guild name was “Chewy and Soft Cow.”

“This is better.”

“It’s cute. Fits the middle school girl image perfectly.”

I nodded.

It was an unexpectedly fitting guild name, even though it was decided on a whim.

I immediately began sending out guild invites.

Those who had already shown interest in joining my guild were now waiting after leaving their current guilds.

In no time, my guild had more than 30 members.

I looked at the guild name floating above my head.

[Chewy and Soft Cow]

Now, it was time to set a guild logo.

Through future updates, we could use external images for the guild logo, but for now, I could only use the basic images provided.

I chose an image of a fierce-looking bull as the guild logo.