Summoning the Holy Sword

“Who’s there?” The two nobles were flabbergasted while Marlene’s eyes beamed with astonishment and luster.

Marlene stood up and turned to the door hurriedly. “Rhode… Sir,” she greeted while holding back her excitement.

“I’m back, Marlene.” Rhode pushed the door open and entered. He greeted Marlene before shifting his attention to the two nobles and waved his hand as though swatting a mosquito. “This is the Starlight Guild’s territory. Your Soloman Financial Group has stepped into where it doesn’t belong. I’ll give you one day to get out of the Land of Atonement.”

“And what rights do you have!” The fat noble stuck out his potbelly and scurried towards Rhode before lifting his head and glaring in disdain. “Let me tell you. We are…”

Bam! Rhode landed a punch on his nose. The fat noble wailed painfully like a butchered swine. He collapsed to the floor and rolled about while holding onto his broken nose. The other noble froze on the spot and gazed at his companion, who was groaning pitifully. He extended his arm and stopped their guards from avenging their master. Then, as he was about to speak, Rhode interrupted abruptly. “I don’t care who you are. This is my territory and you shall obey my rules. As for those who refuse to listen, we don’t have time to waste. Now, let me repeat. I demand you to leave the Land of Atonement immediately. If not, I can’t guarantee your safety.”

The noble continued to gaze at Rhode meaningfully while unrolling a strange smile before beckoning for his guards. The guards dragged the fat noble out of the room while the noble nodded slightly and left.

“Phew…” Marlene heaved a sigh of relief after the troublesome duo had left and sat back on the chair. Although she gazed at Rhode with some complaints in mind, her emotions relaxed as soon as she saw Anne and Gillian. “You guys are finally back, Rhode, Miss Anne, Miss Gillian. You must have had a hard time. How’s the situation?”

“No problem; everything is great.” Rhode nodded with assurance. After clearing the Castel Plateau Ruins, Rhode’s group didn’t return to the Fortress through the Teleportation Stone. Instead, they headed to Eagle City and handed the phylactery to the Mercenary Association. Upon confirming the completion of the mission, Rhode activated the Teleportation Ring and returned to the Fortress. They separated from Delno after leaving the ruins and the Battle Angel brought the ashes of his companion back to their homeland. Although Metzel’s mercenary team was eventually disbanded after suffering grave losses in the underground ruins, Rhode valued the young man’s sense of responsibility and sword skills and decided to recruit him. Even though Metzel’s performance was inflexible, his role as a mercenary team leader was commendable. Besides, he could be considered a rare talent for leading and defending his team under the pressuring waves of undead creatures for a long time, which even players in the game couldn’t accomplish. This was why Rhode invited Metzel into Starlight, which was also a huge surprise for Metzel. Metzel agreed with all his might. As for Shirley, she naturally followed Metzel’s footsteps and joined the guild too.

As a matter of fact, Rhode’s group had heard of an interesting rumor after returning to Eagle City. It concerned Earl Tyler, who competed against Rhode for the ‘Endless Forcefield’ during the auction. However, this rumor wasn’t regarding Earl Tyler, who paid a sky-high price for the Construct. Instead, it was about his household matters. Rumors had it that Earl Tyler’s wife had gotten into an affair with his one of his home guards and she was chased out of the house as soon as he discovered their adultery. As Earl Tyler’s wife was likewise born into a noble family, Earl Tyler’s actions had brought both families into a huge dispute.

It was naturally a good decision that Rhode had constructed the Fortress efficiently. After moving into the Fortress, a huge problem revealed itself immediately, and that was the lack of manpower to manage the entire operations of this Fortress. This Fortress was humongous and the daily chores for cleaning and maintenance required about a hundred people. Even though most of the villagers in Deep Creek Village had moved into the Fortress, it still wasn’t enough. After all, the Land of Atonement was too far away from the other hamlets and even interested parties faced the difficulties of moving in. On the other hand, Rhode clearly instructed that the Summon Gate was a top secret of the guild and shouldn’t be used to transport manpower. Therefore, Marlene had limited manpower on her side apart from the help of the civilians that moved in to work. She had to rotate the mercenaries and the church Clerics to tide over the daily operations of the Fortress. Yet the mercenaries and Clerics weren’t full-time servants, so this wasn’t a permanent solution.

“I hope you can come up with a solution, Rhode. This lack of manpower will definitely affect the guild’s development if it continues. The Fortress needs someone to specially manage it and it will be good if that person is trustworthy… Hmm?” Marlene thought that she was hallucinating because there weren’t any signs of nervousness on Rhode’s face. Instead, she felt that Rhode seemed unconcerned…

“A trustworthy servant… Maybe I can introduce one to you.” Rhode stood on his feet and beckoned to Marlene. “Come, follow me.”

“??” Marlene and Lize exchanged curious glances and followed Rhode out of the room to the hall on the first floor.

The hall was empty and cheerless which showed how serious the shortage of manpower was in here: even this place to receive visitors didn’t have anyone on standby.

“I got my hands on something good in the Castel Plateau Ruins.” Rhode retrieved a hexagonal crystal from his waist pouch. The clear, transparent crystal glittered in colorful radiance and small circles of mysterious magical runes could be seen floating on its surface. A small ball of light sat in the center of the crystal while radiating a strange light.

“What’s this?” Lize asked curiously while Marlene widened her eyes and focused her attention on the crystal as though she were waiting for something to spring out of it.

“This is the Fantasy Key.” Rhode tossed the crystal in his hand while gazing at Marlene.

“Borrowing magical powers from its source, it can open paths that link to the Seven Fantasy Boundaries and summon creatures from the Plane of Existence. These creatures will serve the summoner and could be a great help for the Fortress.”

“Seven Fantasy Boundaries?!” Marlene cried out in surprise.