As more time passed, Kyle's status in the Guild changed. Nov~el F i r e
Many of his weaker colleagues left, and most of the newer members hadn't even exchanged a word with him.
Kyle's time in the cafeteria could most accurately be measured in minutes per week, and when he entered the cafeteria, most of the time, he just passed through it since it was the fastest way.
In the very beginning, Kyle had been viewed as a weaker newbie, and plenty of people were willing to teach him some stuff.
Later, he became known by every member of the Guild due to his social skills and investigative abilities.
Then, he became the leader of a powerful team.
Now, he was simply viewed as an important person who sometimes exchanged some words with the Ace Team and Alpha Team.
The members only saw Kyle from a distance.
They knew that he had an important role since he was the Guild's representative, but that was it.
They didn't really have anything to discuss with him.
He was like a higher-ranking manager walking through the big office in a big company from time to time.
Most of the members didn't even refer to Kyle by name when talking about him with their colleagues.
They just called him the representative.
They knew what he did, roughly, but they didn't know his exact impact.
But that was understandable.
Noah was responsible for everything inside the Guild.
Kyle was responsible for everything outside the Guild.
And he was being quite aggressive in his recent approaches.
After taking over the territory to the south, the Guild immediately focused on the territory to their right.
The territory of the Sandsuns.
The Sandsuns were in a really unfortunate location right now.
To their east were the Shoreshells, a Four-Weapons Guild, and to their west was the Stark Brotherhood.
They were pressured by more powerful forces from both sides.
After six months of aggressive pressure, the Sandsuns capitulated.
Their Fighters were all just sitting around since they received barely any missions.
In the end, the Sandsuns decided to sell their Guild to the highest bidder.
Naturally, a lot of negotiations took place between the Shoreshells, the Sandsuns, and the Stark Brotherhood.
This was Kyle's busiest time as a representative.
Eventually, the Stark Brotherhood managed to purchase the Sandsuns, but the price was steep.
In fact, it was so steep that Kyle had to bankroll the purchase with his private funds.
Of course, he didn't just gift the Sandsuns to the Stark Brotherhood.
No, this was a five-year loan with 0% interest.
But it had done the trick.
The Stark Brotherhood received another five Grandmasters.
They finally had enough to have a realistic chance of becoming a Four-Weapons Guild in the promotion tournament in six months.
At this moment, the Stark Brotherhood's territory was bigger than the territory of the Shoreshells.
However, the Shoreshells were also the Four-Weapons Guild with the smallest territory.
Yet, they were definitely not the weakest.
One had to remember that the headquarters of the Shoreshells was in Deep Cove, and Deep Cove was also the headquarters of the Beast Master Guild.
The Beast Master Guild was the Beast Tamer equivalent of the sole Five-Weapons Guild for Fighters.
This afforded the Shoreshells certain invaluable advantages.
If a Four-Weapons Guild got demoted during the next tournament, it would not be the Shoreshells.
For the remaining time, the Stark Brotherhood decided to consolidate its power.
New people needed to be integrated, and their powers needed to be brought to the peak.
They would give their all in the next tournament.
Naturally, Kyle, Noah, and the Chief analyzed their future competition.
The power distribution of the Four-Weapons Guilds was quite clear.
The Shoreshells were a solid third place among the five Four-Weapons Guilds.
First place was taken by the Wild Wardens, the Four-Weapons Guild that worked with the Forthing Family.
The Wild Wardens were so powerful that they could even rival the Skysand Guild, the only Five-Weapons Guild.
Second place was the Naga Covenant. Their headquarters were in Janus' Hold, the place where Kyle had helped Michael win the tournament fight. The owner of the humongous Grand Sorcerer Tower gave them a lot of support.
Fourth place was the Mountain Tomb Gang. Their territory was southeast of the Skysand Guild's territory and east of the Wild Wardens' territory. Their power was a bit lower than the Shoreshell's power.
Last place was the Fathom Divers. Their territory was in the southeastern corner of the Skysand Kingdom, and they bordered the Fathoms.
The Fathoms were the place where one of the three Nature Gods of the Skysand Kingdom resided.
Sadly, this seemed to give more trouble than blessings.
The difference in strength between the Fathom Divers and the Mountain Tomb Gang was quite significant.
However, there were also some notable opponents amongst the Three-Weapons Guilds.
The majority of them wouldn't even take part in the tournament, but three of them were noteworthy.
One of them was a relatively small Three-Weapons Guild between the Mountain Tomb Gang and the Wild Wardens.
A Three-Weapons Guild that managed to survive while being surrounded by Four-Weapons Guilds couldn't be simple.
Another competitor was the Three-Weapons Guild directly south of the World Peak.
They had a ton of money due to their proximity to the World Peak. There were a lot of powerful beasts there, and there was no lack of missions.
The last competitor was to the west of the Naga Covenant. Their territory was about as big as the Stark Brotherhood's new territory, and they had just barely lost against the Fathom Divers in the tournament several years ago.
This time, they aimed to take the Fathom Divers down.
The big promotion tournament would be brutal.
Just one month before the tournament was about to take place, Kyle managed to comprehend the Rank D Metal Material Fragment.
Sadly, on its own, this Fragment was still useless.
Kyle had already upgraded his hammer to include Rank B Materials.
What was the point of having custom-made Rank C Materials?
However, Kyle noticed that the different concepts of momentum, explosion, and materials finally started to make some sense.
Additionally, he had already managed to create a framework for his new way to use Ether.
With this, he could start creating his first real techniques.
They wouldn't be much better than the ones he already had, but it was a start.
Kyle started to focus more on his techniques, but before he could make much progress…
The promotion tournament started.
Two Fart years had already passed.
tg://resolv?domain=StrongestHammerGod
The author's patreon. If he gets more than 1000€ per month, he will increase the number of words in the chapter.