"You found the path he used to get here from Luna?" Eik asked, hope welling up in his chest.

"He left a note with a series of coordinates under the sheets on his bed. The first one is on Earth and describes a fracture leading to an uninhabited world. The coordinates that follow pass through fractures on almost a dozen other uninhabited worlds in order to muddle the sequence and make it almost impossible to track without the information Vendekaabe has given us," Andihar said.

"And where does this string of coordinates end up, exactly?" Eik asked.

"Several hours of running from the city of Luna, in the basement of a dilapidated shed located in an old outpost. The oracle apparently arranged it for the exact purpose that Vendekaabe ended up using it for. To reach you in case of an emergency. She had immense confidence in you."

"Well, when can we go? The longer we wait, the greater the chance of those insane cult guys deciding that the oracle who says stuff they don't like is better off dead in favor of a new one that only says what they want to hear."

"Of course it would be great if we could go today," Andihar said but his tone revealed a hesitation. "but I just don't think we have the right personnel to carry out such a mission right now. I'm not saying it would be impossible to succeed, especially if we run a covert, blitz operation, but…"

"But ideally we recruit more specialists and high-rankers," Eik finished.

"Pretty much," the S-ranker nodded. "Both my house, Dayarunar, and the Ougi clan have considerable forces with skilled and well trained troops, but most of them are below B-rank and not fit for this kind of job no matter how you look at it. Even within large or powerful organizations, the truth is that high rank is something most people never reach, either due to death or retirement, so they are few and far between. There is a reason why the most common rank is F."

"So next step is finding people willing to help."

"Yes. I have some connections I can pull on, but I can't guarantee anything."

"I have a couple ideas as well," Eik said.

"Oh? Such as?"

"Well," Eik began, rubbing his hands together. "I know you're still mad about all the chaos today but I bet it's going to be great for when I now promise a whole Eik's Legendary Mystery Medicine for free to anyone with the right skill set and strength who joins us."

"That's… not a bad idea, probably, maybe. It's going to be like hiring mercenaries," Andihar said rubbing his chin.

"Yeah. What kind of force are we looking for?"

Andihar narrowed his eyes as he considered it. "Well, we would probably want one group to cause and maintain a distraction while another, smaller, group infiltrate Luna more stealthily in order to get to the oracle, wherever she is held. I'd say at least fifty members in total, and probably no more than a hundred and fifty. Beefing up the distraction team wouldn't be a bad idea."

"True, true. Sounds good," Eik said, nodding along with Andihar's reasoning. Then he was suddenly struck by an idea. "Oh, oh! I just remembered! Have you heard about this thing called the Omelet guild?"

Andihar frowned, puzzled. "I can't say that I have, no."

"Huh… What was it? The Nonprofit guild? No, definitely not."

"The Omega guild?" Andihar suggested

"Yes, that! I think I might be able to persuade them to get in on this action. They're pretty good, right?"

"Yeah, if we could get some of their forces, that would go a long way. But they're pretty difficult to hire, you know. And they usually do monsters, not other Awakened."

"Maybe, but there is this guy I know. His name is George."

***

"Who did you say you were again?"

"I didn't. I'm here to see George Pilam. My name is Eik Magnasen."

They were standing in front of the front gate of the compound of the Omega guild in Gimleh. It was located quite remotely, a considerable distance outside the residential areas. It was at least a couple of kilometers from the fenced boundary of the compound to the nearest unrelated building.

The gate guard narrowed his eyes as recognition flashed across his face. "Aren't you…" then that recognition faded just as quickly as it had appeared. "Who are you?"

Eik threw up his arms. "I totally just got the the new high score in a Crucible A-rank test!" he said, but the gate guard just looked at him with confusion. "Wiped the floor with Gilim Ougi?" he then tried. Still nothing. "I blotted out the sky with a titanic ocean of blue toxin and sent a big ass sword directly down into the Ougi estate yesterday? I'm the inventor of Eik's Legendary Mystery Medicine?"

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Once again recognition lit up his features. "Holy shit! That's you? Are you here to sell your pills to the guild?" he asked.

"No," Eik reiterated. "I'm here to see George Pilam."

"Djoardj? Our recruiter? Why, if I may ask?"

"He tried to recruit me. And now I would like to recruit you."

Having remembered, with gentle reminder from both Andihar and Ihasu, to bring along his identification card, Eik and Andihar were soon let into the Omega guild's compound and guided by one of the guild members.

Enormous platforms built for training and sparring were scattered throughout the compound. On the cool and overcast day they were all occupied by Awakened honing their skills, separated into groups according to power level. About half of the platforms even had established energy barriers that would allow high-rank sparring without risking the lives of onlookers or the surrounding buildings.

Several large, multi-storied buildings stood around the compound, the purpose of which weren't apparent. Even more smaller buildings flanked the larger ones, and it was one of those they were heading toward.

"How many members do you even have?" Eik asked, eyes scanning the many fighters.

"I must admit to not knowing the exact number, also because we constantly get new talent while old members retire or die, but at current size, I would say somewhere between two million and two and a half million members. Of those, probably about forty thousand non-combat personnel in charge of everything from general administration, accounting, construction, cooking, and maintenance," the guide told him

"Oh… Wow!" Eik breathed. "That is an absolutely massive operation."

"We are proud to be one of the largest, most powerful, and most influential exploration and combat guilds in the Nidafjeld Alliance."

"One of the oldest as well, if I remember correctly," Andihar chimed in.

The guide nodded. He was a young man who had also been stationed by the front gate before he was ordered to lead them to Djoardj Pilam's office. "More than two thousand years old, yes."

"Two thousand?" Eik asked. "I don't mean to be rude but… isn't that a little short? All things considered, I mean. It feels like everything in the Unified Mass is hundreds of thousands of years old. I'm surprised that the greatest guild in the Alliance isn't around that age as well."

The guide tilted his head from side to side, seeming unsure about how to respond to that. Andihar spoke up in his place. "Some things are that old, sure, but something like an organization such as the Omega guild tends to have a significantly less stable and longevous lifespan than, say, an entire civilization, within which individual countries usually also rise and fall quite frequently from a historical perspective, by the way. Even my family, the Dayarunars, have really only been socially prominent for a few generations. Before my great grandfather managed to hit S-rank and make a name for himself, the Dayarunars had been living in a tight, single-story house in one of the cheapest and most crowded neighborhoods of one of the cities of our home world."

Eik nodded along, absorbing the history lesson. "I suppose unimaginable cosmic power doesn't necessarily lend itself to political longevity, huh?"

"That is does not."

"The Omega guild will never fall, though," the young man piped up, an expression of undiluted pride plastered to his face.

"I bet you're right," Eik lied. Andihar hummed his agreement, also lying.

"We've arrived. Recruiter Djoardj Pilam's office is just inside. Third door on the left. It's been a pleasure to make your acquiantance, Mr. Magnasen, Mr. Dayarunar. Have a pleasant day." The young man bowed politely and both Eik and Andihar returned the gesture.

"Nice kid," Andihar remarked when the guide had left.

"Yeah, I hope he lives a nice life."

The entrance hallway had a few chairs lined up along the wall but was otherwise completely bare and unadorned. Walls painted white, the space reminded Eik of the building in Alliance headquarters where they had gone to argue their case and where Vendekaabe had been taken away. It left a bad taste in his mouth.

'Djoardj Pilam' read the sign on the door. All of the other doors had name tag of their own stuck to the front. Boring office buildings seemed numerous and identical no matter how much of a cosmic traveler one became. Where were the statues of great beasts guarding each side of the doors, carnivorous plants hanging from the ceiling, and strange, esoteric riddles instead of mundane keys?

Note to self, get cool statues of great beasts for the office at home. And force employees to use mysterious code words. And buy a mug with 'the most amazing boss in all of cosmos' written along the side.

At a knock, they were called inside. Djoardj sat surrounded by documents. "I told you, I'm seriously busy today. Come back tomorrow if it's not that impor— Mr. Magnasen!" he suddenly exclaimed when he realized who had come into his office. "You've finally come to join our ranks? I knew you would have a change of heart! And just after that shockingly magnificent performance of yours yesterday!"

"Uh, no. No, I haven't had a change of heart. I've come to you with a proposal, actually," Eik said.

"Oh," Djoardj said, deflating slightly. "May I ask what?"

"The details of the operation will be revealed on the day in order to prevent information leaks as much as possible."

"It's not my job to decide, but I can tell you already that the Omega guild doesn't just accept an uncertain job like that. It's too risky."

"What a shame," Eik said with a sorrowful shake of his head.

"Pardon?"

Eik pulled a handful of chromatic pills from his belt pouch of holding. "You do know who I am, right? I can pay."

Djoardj's eyes were glued to the pills as he swallowed hard.

***

"Now," Eik shouted from the top of a pair of very tall stilts made of Profound Toxin. Platform or pedestal were old news. Eik was convinced that stilts were where it's at if you wanted to grab somebody's attention. "I know this whole thing has been very vague, but there's a reason for that, so please bear with us. My name is Eik Magnasen and the two all the way down there on the ground are the heads of the house of Dayarunar and the Ougi clan respectively, Andihar Dayarunar and Gul Ougi. The three of us will lead this operation."

Eik had tried to persuade the two S-rankers to accept a pair of stilts of their own, but for some reason they had refused. That was their loss.

With reinforcements from the Omega guild to assist in the distraction, they just needed some more specialists and had therefore called all potential candidates for a meeting. All were either individuals or teams with skills and synergies that would work well for what they needed, and they had already been evaluated by Gul and Andihar and their strategic teams.

"I'm the money bag," he said and pulled out an Eik's Legendary Mystery Medicine. "One up front for each of you and another after everything's over."

All eyes were on him now. That was a lot of value, even for people at their levels. Cheers went up.

"But then you guys better make yourselves useful, alright?" he shouted, pumping his fist in the air.

More cheers. Damn if these little pills weren't just the miracle of the century! Actually…

"I hope you're all ready to show me what you're capable of! Prepare for the fight of your lives!" He let his stilts dissipate and started walking. "Thank you all for coming! I look forward to working with you!" he called over his shoulder. "You'll be contacted in a few days."

"Where are you going?" Andihar asked.

Eik smirked. "It just struck me that I may have more power than I realized. I'm going to go and get Vendekaabe back."

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