"A job? Doing what?" asked Aug, getting a sense of déjà vu from a few days ago.
Lacy sat down on the steel step and crossed her legs. Her suit pants were tight, and her legs being crossed showed off her strong thighs. Even though she was the guild master, he assumed she still did adventuring in her spare time.
"Hmm, you're too low level for the city guild. It would be unfair if I employed you. But I have another idea," she said, holding her chin to think.
Guilds you could join fell into two categories.
The first type of guild was a public or government guild. These guilds represented the city government and usually owned all the dungeons within the city. If they didn't own a dungeon within the city, the registered owner must pass it to the city upon death. Lacy was the head of Mystica's city guild, and as a result, she was a powerful woman.
The second type of guild was a private or corporate guild. These guilds can range from a solo endeavour to massive multinational conglomerates. They try to conquer dungeons outside of cities and use them to profit. It is also usually the private guilds that go into the wilds and take down rare bosses or clear high level areas, as these can be lucrative endeavours.
This didn't mean the city's guild didn't attempt to conquer dungeons outside the city. They usually competed with private guilds to own dungeons. As private guilds paid a lot better, the city guilds let the parties keep all loot from dungeons until it was conquered. This then created a competitive market for both public and private guilds.
To create a guild was much like a business: easy to create, hard to succeed.
"What did you have in mind?" asked Aug.
Lacy leaned forward and spoke to him quietly, as if someone were listening.
"I have a sister, just turned eighteen, and as you have seen, finding a party you can trust is hard. I want you to create a party with her. And if you do this, once you both reach level 100, I will hire your party to be part of the city guild."
"But why me? I'm sure you could find someone stronger to create a party with," asked Aug.
"I think your ability is powerful, and it will only grow in power over time. Getting you on my side now will benefit us both later on. Besides, I did some research on you this morning. I know you're looking for a job. I will personally sponsor your group as well, for my sister's sake, of course."
"I will, if you let me pick the rest of the party members."
Lacy raised one eyebrow. "Oh? Did you have people in mind?"
"What type of class is your sister? And yes, I have one person in mind," asked Aug, who was pacing back and forth in thought.
"Uh, well, she does not fit into a traditional role," sighed Lacy. Her sister sounded like she was a constant pain point. "I will call her, get her here, and let her explain."
Twenty minutes later, they were back in the office, and he was sitting beside a woman who was almost a spitting image of her sister. The only differences in her appearance were that she was younger, a little shorter, and had green eyes.
"Augustus, this is Ella," said Lacey, gesturing to her sister.
"Why am I here and who is this meathead?," asked Ella, not being able to hold back her opinions anymore.
Aug sighed internally; she was a brat. That was the last thing he needed in his life.
"Ella! This is your new party member and support," said Lacy, trying to redeem her sister's first impression.
"Why him? He looks dumb as rocks. Besides, support classes are abundant."
"Let me guess? She has had trouble fitting in with her past parties?" asked Aug, now ignoring Ella and talking to Lacy.
"That and her abilities don't play nicely with others," replied Lacy.
"I am right here," said Ella, surprised they were judging her while she was there, when she had just done the same thing.
"What is her class?" asked Aug, still ignoring Ella.
"Well, she-," began Lacy, before being cut off.
"Fine! I can't take this anymore. I'll play nice," began Ella. Lacy smirked and put her hand forward as if to say, keep talking.
"My class is called [Blood Sacrifice]. It requires blood to work, but I cannot use my own. This means I can't use my abilities until we kill the monsters. So at the start of the dungeon, I usually ask to borrow blood from my teammates, but most are hesitant to do so, leaving me stranded for that encounter. Even worse, if the enemies don't have blood, I can't do anything for the entire dungeon. I am only level twelve, so I only have three abilities, all of which are useless without blood."
Aug instantly saw why Lacy had chosen him to team up with his sister. He could store corpses for her, allowing her to gain blood to use her abilities when there was none around.
Aug looked Lacy in the eyes, and as if she knew what he was thinking, she nodded.
"This is where Augustus comes in. He can help you with your conundrum," said Lacy, looking at her sister lovingly.
"He can?" asked Ella, her eyes lighting up.
"Yes, Augustus, do you mind using a kobold to show her?" asked Lacy.
"I might still be able to use it afterward, so sure," replied Aug, nodding at Lacy.
Ella looked back and forwards between both of them, as if they were talking in code. She didn't quite understand what was happening, and her confusion was evident in her face.
"Let's go to the arena so we can show you," said Lacy, smiling at her sister.
As the three of them got to the arena, Lacy nodded, telling Aug to go ahead. Aug pulled a kobold from his inventory. The kobold slapped onto the floor, blood leaking from its arrow wound to the head.
"Ew, what the fuck! How did you do that? Where did that come from?" said Ella, who reeled back and hid behind her sister.
Lacy explained Aug's ability to Ella, which helped her understand why she chose him.
"I don't like it, but it makes sense," said Ella, who suddenly began drawing blood from the dead kobold.
Once the flow of blood from the kobold stopped, she gathered it into a floating sphere in front of her face. She then used a little bit of the blood, hardening it into spikes and shooting them off into the arena.
"I use my [Blood Drain] to create a blood ball. Then from the blood ball I can shoot [Blood Spikes] or turn them into," she paused while she shaped the remaining blood into a sword and shield.
Because of the small amount of blood in the kobold, the sword and shield looked flimsy. But Aug assumed that with more blood she could improve them.
"Then I can use my [Blood Weapon] ability to create these weapons."
"Amazing," replied Aug, genuinely impressed.
Ella then crumpled the blood weapons into dust, effectively dismissing them.
"Now it has lost all its blood, can you still process it?" asked Lacy, wonder in her eyes.
Aug scanned the corpse and received the report.
[Corpse scan complete]
[Tier 0 - Deep Rock Kobold - N6F]
[5 normal items obtainable from processing. Insufficient mana to proceed.]
Seeing his report, Lacy smiled. "I will take that as a yes."