Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

A loud burp broke the tranquil atmosphere and signaled the end of our meal.

“Oh, that was good!” Vadeem boomed, “Eating nothing but the same suitcase food for all those months has taken its toll on me!”

"I know," I muttered, "Why did you choose to pack nothing but fried food in? You had the whole cafeteria's worth of food to choose from."

Vadeem shrugged, "It was the fastest thing the workers could make, I just wanted to pack the thing with as much food as I could in a week."

“Speaking about your food suitcase,” I added, “Isn’t it getting a bit empty at this point?”

Vadeem thought for a moment and took out the object in question from his inventory. He fiddled around with it for a while, stared into space for a while to access whatever information Origin was giving him, and then nodded.

“You’re right, we were feeding that army of yours for a while, I do need to stock up again.”

“Let me pay for it, Vadeem,” I said, “My Sponsorship provided me with some extra funds I can use in any case.”

The Regressor and Vadeem frowned when they heard that word, they were clearly not happy about my supposed deal with Rogue since they didn’t know the full story behind it.

“You know what my thoughts are about your borrowed power, so I won’t say it again,” Vadeem grumbled, “but how much money did you swindle from that Sponsor of yours?”

Now how much should I tell them? Definitely not the full 100 million, I doubt any amount of suspension of disbelief would allow them to simply accept that this random sponsor liked me so much to give me probably more gold than any Aspirant could ever earn in their careers, or that the admins would allow it. But likewise, I couldn’t say that the amount is too small either since I want to use some of my funds publicly, if for nothing more than to help out my new guild.

I decided on a good number, and I have an excuse in place if the number I said was either too high or too low. I didn’t quite know the value of gold yet, so let’s aim for something relatively high.

“I managed to get 500 thousand,” I answered.

The Regressor looked at me with mild shock, "That's a lot to give for a new Aspirant, you must have done something to really impress that Sponsor."

Ok, it seems I aimed a bit too high, but it’s fine.

“Well, I did have to give some things up for it,” I continued before Jae-Hyun could grill me for more information, “I had to give up some of my rewards from completing the Trials for it. I only get gold now. I wasn’t in my best state of mind back there, so I agreed. I’m not sure if that’s fine or not though.”

And it was partly true again, I probably never will get any more end-of-trial rewards with the antagonistic Trash Matrix handing me out literally nothing, so I was explaining away two inconsistencies at once. I was a little proud of myself honestly.

Once Jae-Hyun and the rest heard how I had accepted the sponsorship while under the influence of the supernatural dark, their attitudes eased up a lot. I’m pretty sure that what I had given up, had I been speaking the truth, was definitely a bad deal on my end. Everyone knew it, but they couldn’t exactly scold a guy who did it while his brain was all screwed up.

“I see,” was the only thing the Regressor said, I could tell he was holding back a lot of his thoughts, “It’s… not the worst deal I’ve heard, and it is nice to have a lot of money while we're still starting out. And we’re working as a guild, so Walter can supply us with some of the initial funds needed to start our establishment, and we can help him out with items that he can’t buy in stores.”

“Yeah,” Yoona added, “Don’t worry Walter, you got us to count on! My brother can figure something out about your situation.”

Jae-Hyun nodded grimly, he clearly felt that he was responsible for dragging me into this mess. Once again I felt no need to correct any misconceptions here.

“It’s fine guys,” I answered, “What’s done is done, so you can worry about me later. For now, I’ll go and see if I can’t help Vadeem restock some of his food. I’m sure I can buy out whatever’s available in this store first.”

And I found out that I could. The store didn’t have a ton of food, but it wasn’t too little either. The golem workers cooked fast and I stuffed everything they had into Vadeem’s storage, and the total bill only came out to be 755 gold as well. I was starting to appreciate just how valuable this currency was. No wonder the Regressor was surprised I had 500k on me.

We exited the restaurant, stomachs full and spirits high, and went to check out the various stores so we could properly supply our Guild. Not to mention the fact that we would be staying in this particular town for the foreseeable future, some daily necessities, such as toiletries, clothes, and the like also needed to be purchased.

“You sure you’re ok with buying everything for us?” Yoona asked as we stepped into yet another store. The amount of stuff that we had purchased had necessitated hiring a delivery person to bring all the larger items back to our guild HQ, and it didn’t look like we were close to finishing getting everything we needed.

“I’m filthy rich right now,” I shrugged, “And it’s not like we won’t generate more money later on, so you can think of it as me investing in the future of our guild.”

The Regressor and Noel went somewhere else a bit earlier, something about looking for a particular smith to reforge my own weapon, and to get something better suited for the rest of us as well. The twins still needed proper gear of their own. I chose not to tag along, I’ve found out quickly that trying to keep up with the guy who knew the future tended to be more effort than it’s worth.

Yoona had wanted us to all stick together, but her brother stressed the importance of getting everything today while the streets were practically empty of Aspirants. The stores around here would give you special discounts if you were among the first people to shop. That ignited everyone’s drive to get as much out of this deal as they possibly could, and they went into overdrive trying to buy as many items as they could, as fast as they could. I was just dragged along like an oversized wallet.

I hadn’t even bothered checking on prices given how much cash I was hoarding, but the others seemed enthused about the prospect of getting things for cheap. I just handed everyone some money and let them go wild.

“He’s right Yoona,” Vadeem said happily, “We need the starting funds to get our little organization started, and Walter here is like the rich investor betting on our success. All we have to do is make sure that we live up to his expectations, and it's not a waste of money for him!”

“Well…” Yoona said, “I guess that makes sense.”

“Which is why you should get as many things as you need now, while things are on discount! The more you buy now, the less you have to spend later!”

She couldn’t argue with that logic, and reluctantly agreed, although I think Vadeem’s encouragement was a little too effective. Once Yoona realized that she had to restock all the things that she used to take for granted when she lived back on Earth, the woman was like an unstoppable machine going from store to store, buying practically everything in sight. She said that because we would be expanding our forces, we needed to make sure that we had enough supplies for our future guild members.

I didn’t have to do anything other than hand out money after that. Was this how rich sugar daddies felt? It was just baffling seeing more and more hired help lug piles of stuff away. By the time we met back up with Noel and the Regressor, the sun had already started to set for the first day. I felt more exhausted now than I had back in that damn Trial, yet the others seemed more than happy to continue on. These truly were freaks of nature.

In total, we spent close to a hundred thousand gold, most of that went to whatever it was the Regressor needed on his end, yet even with all that spending, my available funds barely took a dent. Let’s just say that I won’t be running out of cash anytime soon.

“Did you get everything you needed on your end?” I asked Jae-Hyun as we met back up. Noel was by his side, but she had an odd look of quiet contemplation. I feared that she might have had a disagreement or fight with Jae-Hyun, but she didn’t look dissatisfied. Just… contemplative, which was definitely a strange look for her. She only waved hello in greeting when she saw us. I felt like Noel had some random quiet episodes every now and then.

Vadeem noticed this as well, but he just shook his head as he looked at the Regressor in what appeared to be… pity? What the hell’s going on?

He nodded, “Yes, and management contacted me while I was away as well.”

“Was there an issue?”

He smiled wryly, “None at all. For what it’s worth, the people working for these Trials have laws and regulations that they must abide by, and I was able to convince the nice employees of the legality of my purchase.”

Damn, Jae-Hyun’s able to out-legal literal demons and millennia-old monsters? Perhaps they were right to be afraid of him!

“Well, I am starting to get tired, so let’s head back and get some proper rest,” Vadeem said as he looked at the twins by his side.

I think he was saying that mainly for the girls because although they looked the same as always, small hints of weariness were starting to show underneath their masks of indifference. It seems that Vadeem was able to pick up on their microexpressions as well, which was honestly impressive considering he didn’t have Noe with him.

“Were you able to get everything we needed for the future?”

“Most of it,” Yoona answered her brother, “I think I might have to make another trip back here tomorrow, but we have everything the seven of us will need for the foreseeable future.”

“Perfect,” he smiled, “Let’s head back then, we still need to pick out places for all of us to stay.”

We stopped by one or two more smaller stores before making our way back toward the building. Strangely enough, I could see the structure now on the horizon. I had asked him why and the Regressor told us that it was only the case because we now officially control all of its various functions, although none of the other Aspirants could find it without knowing the specific route to the building. It made for a neat secret base.

Additionally, our new guild HQ was way more high-tech, or magical in this case, than I thought; there were a lot more functions that could be unlocked down the road, and Jae-Hyun said he’d show us some of the more useful functions down the road. It seemed that there was a clear reason why he spent so much time planning to purchase this building.

The sun had fully set by the time we made it back to our new home, and the various hired helpers were still busy moving cart after cart of things into the building. The Regressor and his sister had to step in to give them instructions on where to offload the stuff, but they were able to get everything settled in quickly enough.

Jae-Hyun looked at Yoona and pointed at the twins, “Hey, Yoona, do you mind finding a spot for the two girls to sleep? There should be spare bedrooms on the 5th and 6th floors.”

The twins looked at Vadeem, who nodded at them to go, “Don’t worry, I’ll get a room right next door, so you can holler- er, I mean knock if you ever need something!”

They nodded, a tiny hint of relief showing for just a microsecond, bowed to the rest of us, and walked beside Yoona. I think all the new things they saw and experienced today were really starting to tire them out. The change from what they were used to and their new life would take a long time to digest fully.

“No problem, brother,” Yoona said with a soft smile, “I’ll get them settled in. I’ll let Vadeem know which room they chose. Just let me know if you need anything else!”

“Thanks, Yoona,” Vadeem said smiling, “And get some proper rest you two, we have busy days ahead of us!”

Once the three girls were fully out of view, the Regressor’s entire demeanor turned dark, “We need to discuss the future of the Guild, so if you three would please follow me.”

I looked around and saw that even Noel and Vadeem’s usually light-hearted vibe was gone. They seemed to know exactly what Jae-Hyun wanted to do, while I could only guess that it was time to talk about the real side of the Guild’s management, the part that our leader didn’t want the children to see.

No sense being the odd one out now, so I nodded and followed the others. Jae-Hyun quietly led us down a separate set of stairs into the building’s basement, and into a darkly lit conference room. The room had bare concrete walls in a brutalist fashion, and only a small table with adjoining chairs furnished it. This was an intimidating space, it felt hostile just being in here.

The guild leader, now looking more like the head of a criminal syndicate, took a seat on the head of a conference table, and gestured for us to do the same around him.

We did so. Jae-Hyun's mood was solemn and I felt a chill when he looked me in the eye. I've never seen the man like this before.

“Noel, Vadeem, Walter,” he said as he turned to stare at each of us, his voice glacial, “To ensure the success of our future operations, I need the three of you to complete a couple of... minor tasks for me. There are some obstacles we need to remove.”

 

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