The days passed by.
Kyle focused on his power almost all the time while still doing his job.
As the months started to pass, Kyle had to go to more and more meetings with other powers.
Since the Guild now had around ten people in the Third Realm, they could start aiming towards the position of a Four-Weapons Guild.
Technically, if a Guild truly wanted a shot at becoming a Four-Weapons Guild, they needed around twenty Grandmasters.
However, the Stark Brotherhood had three advantages.
The Chief was extremely powerful for his Realm and had an Aristocrat's Body.
Kyle had an Aristocrat's Body.
And finally, they had Bonk.
Bonk had also already become an Early Grandmaster, and his physical power was nothing to scoff at.
Just on a baseline, he was already as powerful as a beast.
On top of that, he had Ether Strike.
In a fight with other Grandmasters, he was average, but when it came to fighting beasts, he was amazing.
He could keep a Mid Monster busy for a long time, which was invaluable.
Getting through the defenses of a Mid Monster took a long time, and Bonk's ability allowed the Ace Team to cause immense damage to it.
There were only two other Three-Weapons Guilds that could take down a Mid Monster.
One Mid Monster.
Meanwhile, the Chief and the Ace Team could take down one each.
In fact, the Chief had already killed his first Metal Elemental inside the mine.
In terms of top power, the Stark Brotherhood was already strong enough to become a Four-Weapons Guild.
However, top power wasn't everything when it came to a Guild's status.
Being able to kill a Mid Monster was only one of the requirements to become a Four-Weapons Guild.
Another requirement was that four different teams had to be able to kill Monsters in general.
At this moment, the Guild could only deploy five teams that could kill Monsters.
Sure, it was above the minimum, but being able to reach the minimum wasn't enough.
If they wanted an actual shot, they needed about seven teams.
A third requirement was having 20 teams that could kill Ferocious Beasts.
That wasn't hard to achieve since one could just assign an Initial Ferocious Beast to a Mid Fighter.
The third requirement was never an issue. Almost all Three-Weapons Guilds could fulfill that.
'The next promotion tournament is in two years,' Kyle thought. 'With luck, we will become a Four-Weapons Guild.'
At this moment, the entire Guild was focused on preparing for the tournament in two years, and Kyle had to work more as a result.
He had to cut deals with ore suppliers since their own mine couldn't supply the Guild with all the necessary ore.
Sure, the raw output was several times higher than what they needed, but they didn't have ore with the fitting Elemental Mana.
Because of that, Kyle had to deal with a lot of suppliers.
On top of that, Kyle had to interact with more Sorcerer and Beast Tamer Guilds.
The reason was to increase the likelihood of succeeding in a mission.
Beast Tamers and Sorcerers had unique skills that were useful for certain tasks.
As a result, the Guild also accepted a wider variety of missions.
For example, the Guild now also accepted beast research, healing, investigation, and general research requests.
Almost all of these things were purely done by Sorcerers or Beast Tamers, and the Stark Brotherhood had to pay a premium to employ them.
In fact, the Stark Brotherhood wasn't even earning anything from these missions.
But that also wasn't the point.
The point was customer acquisition.
More customers would come to them, and if they had a positive experience, they were more likely to employ the Stark Brotherhood in future missions.
Kyle had to go to quite a lot of meetings, and yet, there was even more work to do.
Meetings with blacksmiths, armor smiths, Hunting Guilds, Counts…
Kyle had an important meeting with a business partner almost every other day, and he had to prepare himself thoroughly before every meeting.
But it was worth it!
Due to their closer cooperation with all of these entities, the Stark Brotherhood got better stuff for less money.
The equipment of the Fighters got better overall, and they could purchase techniques for fewer Contribution Points since the Guild could spend more of their surplus income on buying teaching licenses for techniques.
The criteria for joining the Stark Brotherhood increased tremendously due to the higher employee benefits, which meant the Guild grew quickly.
New recruits could only join one of the outposts of the Stark Brotherhood as Initial Fighters, which didn't use to be the case.
In the past, a recruit only needed to be a Late Adept.
Even more, the Stark Brotherhood only accepted Mid Fighters and stronger for their headquarters.
Over the months, the Stark Brotherhood grew aggressively.
Within just eight months, the Stark Brotherhood managed to raise another two Grandmasters. They had to pay an arm and a leg for the two Ether Crystals, but it was worth it.
Yet, there were also dark sides.
Not everyone could keep up with the Guild's new requirements, and a lot of older Fighters were put in front of a choice.
Move to an outpost or leave the Guild without penalty.
Many people were unhappy, but it was a necessary step they had to take.
Ten months after Kyle had comprehended his first Fragment, the Stark Brotherhood's mode of operation suddenly changed.
Most of their focus was on the south.
They offered their services for cheap and sent overqualified Fighters for every mission from there.
The reason for that was simple.
The Three-Weapons Guild to the south had already been struggling due to the Stark Brotherhood's low prices.
Within just three months, the Stark Brotherhood achieved its goal.
The Three-Weapons Guild, owning the middle-sized territory to the south, was bought out.
The owners of the Guild received a ton of Ether Gems, while their strongest members were incorporated into the Stark Brotherhood.
Within a single day, the Stark Brotherhood received another three Grandmasters.
Meanwhile, Kyle managed to comprehend the Rank E Metal Material Fragment.
He could now create custom Rank D Materials.
Sadly, that wasn't very useful.
After comprehending his newest Fragment, Kyle looked at the Rank D Materials.
'There are fewer Rank D Materials than Rank E Materials.'
'With luck, I'll comprehend my third Fragment before the tournament.'
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