POV : PROSPEROUS GUILD

  The leader of the Prosperous Guild, Victor Drenwald, was furious.

  He slammed his hand down on the roundstone table in the temporary guild hall—aka a rented upstairs room in the Red Dragon bar.

  Victor had been expecting Prosperous Guild to be dominating the early rankings.

  They always did.

  They were Prosperous, damn it.

  Instead, they were a laughingstock.

  And it wasn’t just because they hadn’t gotten the first Alpha clear—someone had filmed them trying to threaten Ren and his random pickup group during the Shadow Wolf auction.

  The clip was already circulating in the VR boards, under the catchy title:

  “Big Guild, Small Dicks – Prosperous Throws a Tantrum!”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Victor’s face was red with rage.

  “We definitely have to make up for this!” he yelled at the assembled core party leaders.

  One of the mages, a thin wiry guy named Marlo, raised a tentative hand.

  “Well… I don’t know if you’ve heard yet,” Marlo said, “but there’s supposed to be another Alpha showing up soon.”

  Victor’s head snapped around.

  “What?” he barked.

  He definitely hadn’t heard about this.

  “Yeah,” Marlo said quickly, “from what I heard—friend of a friend—there’s a Goblin Alpha spawning soon. And it’s already weakened. Should be a cinch to kill it and take the first clear.”

  Victor leaned forward, eyes narrowing.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Pretty sure,” Marlo said. “People are whispering about it all over town.”

  Victor’s jaw tightened.

  “Alright, listen up!” he barked. “Nobody outside this room hears about this. Not a single word. We’re taking that clear. That title is ours.”

  “You got it,” said one of the hunters, a ranger class player who was already checking his bow.

  Victor turned to the logistics guy.

  “Do we know when it’s spawning?”

  “About six hours from now,” the ranger said promptly.

  Victor’s smile was razor-thin.

  “Good. Keep an eye on it. We’re moving everyone we’ve got into that field. Soon as the Alpha spawns—BOOM. Our kill.”

  Prosperous Guild wasn’t technically official yet inside Towerbound—nobody could form a real guild until they hit Level 10 and unlocked the guild creation system—but it didn’t matter.

  The Prosperous Guild’s 300-strong veteran squad had already regrouped ingame under Victor’s leadership, and they were treating Towerbound’s launch like it was war.

  Now?

  They had their new target locked in.

  And this time, they weren’t going to screw it up.