“The Starry Night Potion Shop is gathering ingredients to create Intermediate Mana Potions right now. When the first batch is made, I’ll give you guys a few,” Nie Yan said. A pity that these potions couldn’t be used as freely as their lower-ranked counterparts. After all, concocting them was just too expensive for now. It was fine to keep one or two in case of emergencies, but to down them frivolously as they grinded mobs? At present, very few, if any, could bear the burden of such a cost.

Even though Tang Yao’s mana was now in short supply, without the support of his Arcane Fairy, he was still able to deal with Sub-Elites without much effort. As for Elites, for the time being, killing them was a bit inefficient. They took much more effort and time to kill. Nevertheless, the drop quality from the Sub-Elites wasn’t too bad and they still gave a good amount of experience.

Apart from Tang Yao who had to focus on the Scaled Frogs, the rest of them had very little to do. Nie Yan took advantage of this time to message a few people.

「Godslayer[1], you there?」

「Yeah, what’s up? I saw the video of Young Sparrow Hawk on the forums. Is he your friend? That Thief in the background should be you, right?」Godslayer of Yore asked in pleasant surprise after noticing the sender was Nie Yan,

「Yep, he is. We just established a guild. Are you interested in joining? I plan to pull a few others to form the guild’s elite team,」Nie Yan replied. Although the quality of the team would be far from his ideal, rounding up twenty decently skilled players was nevertheless a good start.

「Phew... after not hearing anything back from you these past couple of days, I was starting to get worried, but now you’ve finally established a guild!」

「My name is red at the moment, so you’ll have to wait a few days for me to get it back to normal. In any case, join our guild first.」

「Sure, sure, Asskickers United, right? If I still didn’t hear about it by now, then I’d have been living under a rock this whole time.」

Nie Yan notified Guo Huai and the others in advance that Godslayer of Yore and his friends would be coming over to join their guild. Then, he hit up Leader Young Seven[2. Leader Young Seven and his group first appear in Chapter 75, but only have any real meaningful interaction with Nie Yan in Chapter 81.] and his group, informing them he was finally forming a team. They were simply ecstatic upon hearing this, but why wouldn’t they be? Ever since meeting him, they had been eagerly waiting for this day to come.

Nie Yan valued their group quite highly. In his past life, Leader Young Seven was one of the Seven Archbishops, so his prospects weren’t something to be looked down upon. The two most important roles in a team were without a doubt the main healer and main tank. They were very literally the life of the team, with a huge influence on whether a run would succeed or prematurely end in a wipe. Aside from Leader Young Seven, there was also Forgotten, a Shadow Dancer in the previous timeline. Although he wasn’t as dazzling as Sun, among the vast ocean of players, he was definitely a figure that was hard to come by. Then, there was Yi Yan. He could also be considered as noteworthy among Fighters.

Finally, Nie Yan contacted Resplendent Bladelight[3.Resplendent Bladelight first appears in Chapter 59. He’s the co-founder of the guild, Unhindered, but was betrayed by his friend, Hei Zhou.]. If he were able to get him to join their guild, then the team would be perfect.

A Fighter ranked in the top three, one of the Seven Archbishops two Shadow Dancers, the rank eleven Fighter, and Godslayer of Yore and his friends were all notable players in the previous timeline. Add Nie Yan with his ten years of gaming experience, and where could you find a guild that was able to assemble such a stacked lineup?

Even Victorious Return, Holy Empire, and Radiant Sacred Flame combined wouldn’t be able to pull it off!

When he thought of Sun, he couldn’t help but wonder... if Asskickers United was able to attract a legendary player like him, then perhaps there were a few more good seedlings that had yet to be found.

Because of Nie Yan and Tang Yao, Asskickers United was no longer considered a third-rate guild as experts started to trickle in. After noticing the guild had yet to form an elite team, some of the shrewder ones joined with the intention of trying out while they still had a chance, hoping to ride on the coattails of their success. After all, it was better to grab ahold of a chicken’s neck than a phoenix’s tail. With godly experts like Nie Yan and Tang Yao at the helm, anyone who joined their team was guaranteed to have a bright future.

With Young Seven, Resplendent Bladelight, and the others joining, Nie Yan would finally have the framework for an elite team. All he had to do afterwards was recruit a few passable, temporary fill-ins with clean backgrounds and the team would be pretty much established.

Naturally, for them to genuinely mature into a formidable force, everyone would have to persevere through many trials and hardships.

As for Yu Lan’s team, Nie Yan had no intention of disbanding them. The strength of the auxiliary teams was just as important to the growth of a guild, and generally, there would be at least ten or more of them.

「You established a guild?」Resplendent Bladelight asked after receiving Nie Yan’s message. His brows were knitted in contemplation.

「Not bad, right? So, after leaving Unhindered, have you found another guild yet?」Nie Yan asked.

「Can’t say that I have...」

「If that’s the case, then why not join mine?」

「If I join your guild, I have a group of brothers that will also want to follow me. They’re a rowdy bunch that don’t like authority. Are you willing to take them in?

」

「As long as they don’t break any of the guild’s rules, I’m more than willing to welcome them. If they really get unruly, then I can only rely on you to control them. How many of them are there?」Nie Yan asked. He didn’t believe for a second that merely a few dozen players could create much of a ruckus in the guild.

「At least a thousand,」Bladelight replied.

Nie Yan nearly jumped up in fright. He couldn’t help but ask,「You’re not trying to take all of Unhindered with you, right?」

「No, not really. It’s less than half of the guild. All of them left voluntarily. They insist that I start a new guild with them, but I’ve no interest in managing guild affairs, and they refuse to follow anyone else. Some of my brothers are still in Unhindered, but if I join your guild, they’ll definitely come over as well. I sincerely hope that if I join, you’ll let them in too,」Bladelight requested. During these bleak times, what moved him the most was his band of brothers. No matter how disheartened he felt, they still never left his side. So even though he didn’t wish to be restricted, for the sake of giving them a place to settle, he was willing to give Nie Yan’s offer a go.

Nie Yan considered the pros and cons. Bladelight’s brothers made up nearly half of Unhindered’s strength. It would be a chance for more growth if such a force were to join Asskickers United. But at the same time, these players were only loyal to Bladelight and wouldn’t necessarily be under his and Tang Yao’s control. Therefore, there was a certain factor of risk at play. If Bladelight sincerely wished to join, reigned his brothers in, and told them to assimilate, then they would slowly be absorbed into the guild. However, if Bladelight’s heart wasn’t fully into it and he decided to leave later on, bringing his brothers along with him, it would be a huge loss for them.

To accept or reject... this was actually a bit difficult to decide. From what Nie Yan recalled of Bladelight’s personality, he was a trustworthy person, and he was never a wildly ambitious person to begin with.

「Fine, I’ll let them in. I’ll treat them just the same as ordinary members,」Nie Yan finally gave his reply. Asskickers United was already ten thousand strong. What difference could another thousand make? Besides, players tended to interact and befriend one another quite frequently, so Bladelight’s brothers would surely be digested quite quickly.

「You don’t have any doubts?」

「What doubts?」

「You’re not worried about me trying to seize power?」

Nie Yan chuckled and calmly replied,「If you truly cared for power, you would have never left Unhindered. With your prestige there, I don’t believe for a second you had no chance of vying with Hei Zhuo for control of the guild. If you two truly fought it out, perhaps right now, Unhindered would no longer have him as the guild leader. Yet, you still left of your own volition. Even though he betrayed you so heinously, you still valued what was left of the friendship between you two. I think this is why so many of your brothers were willing to follow you. After joining my guild, you’ll still be as you were before, Bladelight, but I definitely won’t be Hei Zhuo!」

Bladelight was struck by his words. He emotionally replied,「Thank you for putting your trust in me. After joining your guild, I’ll make sure my brothers don’t cause any trouble.」His mind relaxed as he breathed a sigh of relief. Giving them a place to belong to was one of his most pressing concerns, but he had never found a suitable guild. A few guild leaders had contacted him before, but none of them were worthy of his respect. Nie Yan, however, had more than earned it.

Bladelight joining was a great boon for Asskickers United. It would allow their strength to have another substantial spur. With his prestige, he would attract even more players to the guild. In this way, they would truly start to rival those top-ranked, second-rate guilds that were only beneath Victorious Return, Holy Empire, and the other major guilds.

「I’ve been thinking for a bit. Asskickers United will probably need a few vice-leaders. How about it, I can give you the position.」

「No need, I have no interest in managing the guild.」

With one of his worries relieved, Bladelight was finally starting to get over his falling out with Hei Zhuo.

「I can let you not do any work, but you must accept the position of vice-leader. Even if you don’t mind, I’m sure your brothers will,」Nie Yan said. If he assigned Bladelight the position of vice-leader, he would be able to appease the brothers following him.

Bladelight thought for a moment before finally relenting. He nodded his head, then said,「Fine.」He acknowledged that Nie Yan’s words were quite reasonable.

「You can head over to our headquarters. Right now the acting leader is a player called Watchful Snail. I’ll inform him that you and your brothers will be arriving, then he’ll deal with the task of adding you guys in,」Nie Yan said.

「Alright.」

「I’ll let Watchful Snail handle the matters regarding the elite team. I’ve already informed him of the few players I have in mind. You should form a team with them first and start running dungeons. After you clear all the low-level dungeons and accumulate some guild Honour, we’ll make some adjustments. With the average skill, level, and equipment of the team, I’m sure clearing Sosil Valley won’t be a problem,」Nie Yan said. A guild had to clear all the Special Instances in order to gain a certain amount of Honour. After accumulating enough honour, they would be able to receive certain rewards from the administrator that would aid them in their growth such as an upgrade to the guild headquarters. Besides money, a certain amount of Honour was required as well. The lowest level guild had a maximum size of 20,000 players. After that, they would need to accumulate enough Honour to advance to a Level 2 guild.

「No problem, I’ll start running dungeons. You should hurry and focus on clearing your red name,」Bladelight replied.

「Right.」Nie Yan nodded. When Bladelight was running the dungeons with Leader Young Seven, Godslayer, and the others, he could give them some simple guidance. With their strength and skill, and his guidance, they would have no problems clearing these dungeons on Expert or even Specialist!

[1] Godslayer of Yore first appears in Chapter 66.