Desolate World

Troy thought that the guild's complex location was really strategic. It was between the marketplace in the West and the central area of the town in the East. No one who wanted to go to the central area from the human block, elven block, or the dragon block would miss it. 

Whoever chose the location of the guild complex must have had a great influence from the start of the construction of the town, as it was impossible such a good location would be given to an individual. If he was the planner of the town, he would use it as a market, not to give it to an individual.

But, it was also good. It told everyone that the owner of the guild was a powerful figure. And as a member of the guild, he would also benefit greatly.

He could hear a song and a guitar playing from the restaurant. And for some reason, he was familiar with the tone of the song. He was sure it was an old song from the last century of Earth. So the bard who was playing it surely came from Earth, just like him. In short, the player was from the human race.

As they entered the guild house, Toya introduced the buildings in the guild complex to Troy. He said that in the Western area was the store and the workshops of the guild. It was easily the biggest building in the guild complex. While the Southern part was used for selling the products of the workshops, the Northern part was the workshops where the production personnel were producing things. 

The first floor of the store was the area where the weapons were sold. The second floor was the area where the equipment was sold. The third floor was the area where the potions were sold, the fourth floor was the area where scrolls were sold and customers could order specific contracts. As for the top area was the VIP area, where the store received distinguished guests and sold precious items.

The guild house in the middle was the smallest building. Although it was said to be the smallest, it was not small at all. The first floor was used to issue and receive missions. It was also designed to be the gathering place for the guild personnel besides the second floor. On the second floor, besides the rest area, there was also an arena where guild members could spar with their guildmates.

The first and second floors of the guild house were also connected to the restaurant. So, the guild members could order food from the restaurant without exiting the building. The third floor was the meeting room and the office rooms of the guild executives. 

As for the restaurant, there were two floors in it. Toya said that the restaurant of the guild was well-known for its delicious foods, so, many town guards and the personnel of the town hall had breakfast and lunch there beside, of course, the ordinary townsmen. As for the dinner, all townsmen usually had it in the plaza, as the grand banquet was held every day. 

When Toya explained about the grand banquet, Troy's eyes were shining. It sounded like a fun activity. Furthermore, the plaza was just next to the beach. It made him reminisce about his early days of playing desolate world. He always came to the beach each afternoon to watch the sunset. For some reason, he wanted to do it again.

At the moment, only some people were in the guild house. Except for the lady who sat on the counter, all of them were players. They were an elf, a human, and three dragonlings. Although Troy had heard beforehand that there would be some players from other races, meeting them himself surprised him.

Various questions were appearing in his head. Were they also humans? If yes, why had he never heard about choosing other races when creating a new creature? If not, what were they actually? Where did they come from? And many more questions that puzzled him.

***

Actually, Troy was not the only person who had such questions. As the entire world was boiling at the moment with the streaming video of Emily. 

Although the rumors about the existence of players from other races had appeared sometime on the internet. They had never become viral. As there was not enough evidence that supported the validity of the posts. 

Many people had known from the start that there were NPCs from the different races in the 'game' world. But, people thought that they were part of the game settings. As it was not uncommon for RPG games that made such a setting. 

And at the moment, no human players even met other players from other races, as the location of each settlement was usually far away from other settlements. For example Laketown. It was around 300 km away from Dragma Valley, the settlement of the dragon race.

As for the iron gate fortress that many undead resided in, it was only a normal place. It didn't have a barrier and city core. 

As for adventuring to a far place from the settlement, at the moment, no players had ever been successful. As their survivability was too tender, the monsters would kill them on the way. And the setting of the game itself forced the players to be dependent on the settlement, making them not meet other players from different races yet.

There were also some doubts about the auction setting of the game. Many said, if the auction house wasn't available, the players and NPCs would be forced to take a risk to have diplomatic relations with other settlements. But the auction system made them too reliant on it, they didn't have to go out of their settlement to live well, because as long as they had the means to get diracs, they could buy material, equipment, weapons, potion, and even blueprints through the auction.

In short, the auction made them too lazy to explore the world. But was it really the case? 

***