MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

"I have a good reason for being late," Styrmir said confidently.

"Really...." Lluvia asked.

"Yes, I was completing a quest to save a helpless child from thousands of bandits," Styrmir said proudly.

"Styrmir, last time it was an old granny, and before that, it was a helpless puppy you were saving," Violet said, pointing out the coincidence.

"You guys know I don\'t Like wasting my time in these useless meetings," Styrmir said, accepting she was making a story about her being late.

"Aster, all the guild Elders are here now. Can you tell us the reason for this urgent meeting?" Elder Rosalba asked.

"I received this message from an anonymous player, and I wanted your opinions on how we should proceed," Aster said, showing them Alex\'s message on a holographic system screen.

"This is a system notification of discovering an instance dungeon," After seeing the message, all four guild Elders have the same reaction.

"Aster, Did you check the player auction forum?" Elder Rosalba asked in a serious tone.

"I checked, and this dungeon is not listed for sale," Aster replied.

"The anonymous player wants to hide his identity, and if that is true, then it an excellent news for us," Violet said.

The Elder was happy because most of the time, when a lucky player or a small guild found an instance dungeon and they wanted to sell it, things would only go two ways.

The seller would post it on the player auction publicly, giving every player an equal chance to bid or hold a private auction among the chosen guilds to sell the dungeon anonymously.

The first option was bad for big guilds because there was too much competition for the small amount of dungeon entry tokens making the buyer pay too much premium.

The money was not a problem for any big guild resulting in them overbidding for every dungeon entry token, and if the guild didn\'t get enough tokens for a raid team, it would only waste their guild\'s resources.

As the auction will be held publicly, every player will know who bid the highest amount, and the guilds will use this to screw over their enemy guild that wants to buy the entry tokens.

The instance dungeons were so precious that most guilds didn\'t mind losing a small amount of wealth and only buying one or two entry tokens to screw with the guild that desperately wanted to buy the tokens.

"Big Sis, How do you think we handle this situation," Aster asked Elder Rosalba.

"I think you should send a message to the anonymous player that you are willing to pay the premium price and willing to hear any other demand." Elder Rosalba said after thinking about the situation.

"This would give that player the upper hand while making the deal," Styrmir said, not liking the offer.

"Styrmir, We need such an opportunity more than you think." Elder Rosalba replied.

"Is it because of the war we will have in the future with Hydra Guild?" Styrmir said.

"We already know that the Hydra Guild is just a puppet that someone from the shadows controls," Lluvia said.

"Guild leader, you should ask the anonymous player if he is willing to sell the instance dungeon to us exclusively, and with his answer, we will have more information about the selling party," Violet said.

"The seller will try to auction the instance dungeon to every big guild and sell to the highest bidder," Lluvia said.

"If the seller wanted to auction the instance dungeon, he would have sent us a link to a private auction, but he didn\'t; that can only mean he is open to offers right now," Violet replied, making a valid point.

"It\'s not a bad idea." Elder Rosalba said knowing any answer would get them more information and increase their chances of acquiring the instance dungeon.

"Let\'s ask that anonymous player if he is willing to meet our demand and see what kind of reply he will give us," Aster said.

After agreeing on the message details, Aster sends her message to Alex with the help of AI ZERO.

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"The reply came faster than I expected." Alex received the system notification just as he finished recording the person with the mask skill.

"The response is as expected." Alex thought after reading Aster\'s demand to buy the instance dungeon privately at a premium price.

"The preparation is completed, so why waste time." Alex bought another golden token to send his last message.

Alex told guild leader Aster to meet him at a hotel in the inner circle of Capital City Stormward in one hour.

"Let\'s go back to the Capital City Stormward." Alex left for the teleportation building, and after paying a hefty sum of hundred gold coins, he reached the Capital City.

"This hotel is much fancier but will be expensive." After traveling for some time, Alex reached the hotel in the city\'s inner circle.

Alex entered the "White Lunar" hotel to book a private luxury room for the meeting with the Frozen Flower Guild Master.

Alex entered the hotel and approached the front desk, where he saw the receptionist was a fox Demi-human.

"I would like to book the private luxury room for Two hours," Alex said to the receptionist as he put his adventurer guild id on the desk.

"Your room total will be two hundred gold coins, and would you like to add any other services." The receptionist said after checking Alex\'s adventurer guild id.

"If I need anything, I will ask for it," Alex replied and gave the receptionist two hundred gold coins.

"Don\'t register the room in my name," Alex said, placing another hundred gold coins on the desk.

"Sir, you don\'t need to be concerned about little things." The receptionist smiled, placing the one hundred gold coins in his space ring.

"Sir, Your Room is on the fourth floor, and here are your keys." The receptionist said, giving Alex a golden luxury ring.

After getting the room key, Alex left the front desk area quickly to change his appearance and prepare for the meeting with a real giant of the game world.

"I am broke again." Alex thought, staring at the ceiling of his luxury room.

"Reality Shift" Alex used the Mask skill for the first time, and in seconds, Alex\'s physique, appearance and even his name changed.

Alex\'s physique was not much different than before, but his hair color was white with them reaching his shoulders, and his face was handsome but mature, giving a different vibe.

Alex\'s name got changed to "Eldrid" and with his new appearance, nobody could tell that he was the same person as a few seconds ago.F

"The Daunting Reality Mask is a broken item." Alex thought about the additional option he got after recording an NPC character.

Alex got different options like one will get when creating a character for the first time, but on a basic scale, he could change things like hair color, his name, and a little bit of the recorded specimen appearance.

"Let\'s get comfortable with my new body and voice before I meet with the guild leader Aster." Alex started testing things like face impressions and dialog to see if everything was alright.

The Daunting Reality Mask didn\'t work like other appearance-changing items; it didn\'t create an illusion but changed the player\'s basic body structure.

Alex has this information from his previous life, but many mysteries about the mask were never revealed, like the option to change the recorded specimen\'s appearance.

Alex was still exploring the things he could do with the Mask, and he wanted to be confident before meeting one of the world\'s strongest players.

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"Big Sis, How do you think the seller will be holding the private auction?" Aster asked Elder Rosalba.

Aster and Elder Rosalba were both sitting in a way more luxurious room than Alex, and they drank tea while discussing matters related to Alex.

"The seller ignored your request to sell our guild the instance dungeon and instead sent the location of this hotel."

"It is apparent that the seller doesn\'t want any guild to know about other participants, so they don\'t make a deal."

"When the auction starts without prior understanding between participants, it will lead all the parties to bid for the entry token to their limits, making him maximum profit." Elder Rosalba replied while drinking tea from a luxury cup.

"The seller is not an idiot for sure."

"I just worried he might not want to sell the entry tokens for the gold coins," Aster said.

"Stop overthinking things. We will get the answer in 30 minutes regardless." Elder Rosalba replied, not looking too worried about the deal.

"Did you get any news of any other guild higher-ups arriving at the White Lunar hotel?" Elder Rosalba asked.

"I forget to check my messages." Aster quickly checked, and after reading the message, her face changed from worried to serious.

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