Chapter 112: Chapter 112: Welcome to Aethelgardia

The battlefield outside the capital was a massive smoking ruin.

Dante didn’t bother tracking down Silas or the scattered remnants of the Gilded Syndicate.

They were broken, humiliated, and running for the hills.

He turned his attention back to his squad.

"Everyone alive?" Dante asked and glanced over the group.

"I did not even get a scratch!" Garrick declared proudly and tapped his Silver-grade chest piece.

"Only because you were hiding behind a shield powered by marital despair," Nyx muttered.

She pushed her dark glasses up her nose and was aggressively typing on her datapad to analyze the dropped loot strewn across the field.

Pip was in absolute heaven.

The tiny red dragon was zooming across the cratered earth. He vacuumed up swords, armor, and silver coins with terrifying efficiency.

He was moving so fast he looked like a red blur.

"So much money!" Pip shrieked and dropped a massive pile of gear at the feet of Sera.

Sera didn’t look at the loot.

The studio head was staring past the battlefield. Her eyes were locked on the towering flawless white marble walls of Aethelgardia.

The golden gates stood open and practically glowed in the sunlight.

"Dante," Sera said. Her voice dropped into a serious professional register. "We need to move. Right now."

"The army just ran away," Casanova pointed out and adjusted his torn silk shirt. "We have time to catch our breath."

"We do not," Sera corrected sharply.

"Do you know what just happened? We did not just survive an ambush. We were the first players to step foot outside the capital city. The server economy is officially unlocked."

Nyx nodded and turned her datapad around to show Dante the screen.

"Cipher streamed the entire fight. Millions of players just watched a seven-man party route a three-thousand-man army."

"You are not just an anomaly anymore, Dante. You are a brand. And right now, every major guild on the server is frantically scrambling their elite squads to try and catch up to us."

"The prime real estate inside Aethelgardia is a finite resource," Sera explained and picked up her digital ledger.

"The first guild to establish a commercial hub inside the capital dictates the market prices for the rest of the cycle."

"We need to buy property before Silas regroups and uses his real-world corporate funds to buy the city out from under us."

Dante understood.

He had the combat power, but Sera possessed the economic vision required to actually sustain a long-term campaign against the major syndicates.

"Leave the rest of the trash loot," Dante ordered and looked at Pip. "We are going in."

"But the silver!" Pip whined and clutched a rusty dagger.

Mei scooped the tiny dragon up and shoved him into her tunic. "We will buy you a mountain of hotpot later, you greedy lizard. Let us go."

The seven-man squad left the smoking crater behind and marched toward the golden gates of Aethelgardia.

As they crossed the threshold, the system interface chimed warmly.

[System Notification: Welcome to Aethelgardia, Capital of the Veridian Alliance.]

[High-Tier Commercial Districts Unlocked.]

[Guild Registration Hubs Unlocked.]

The interior of the capital city was breathtaking.

Unlike the heavy steampunk aesthetic of Ironhold, Aethelgardia was built purely on grand high-fantasy architecture.

Massive towers of white marble and gold spiraled into the sky. Rivers of crystal-clear water flowed through the streets in aqueducts.

The NPC guards here weren’t just standard soldiers. They were heavily armored paladins riding armored white lions.

The city was absolutely massive, and just like Ironhold, it was completely empty of other players.

"It is so quiet," Lila whispered and looked around at the towering marble buildings.

"Not for long," Sera said. Her eyes scanned the digital map. "The central commercial plaza is dead ahead. That is where the prime real estate is located. Follow me."

Sera took the lead and navigated the wide pristine avenues with absolute focus.

She ignored the beautiful architecture and the high-tier NPC merchants standing outside their shops. She was looking for a specific icon on her map.

They reached the central plaza.

It was a massive open square paved with polished white stone. It surrounded a towering statue of a winged angel holding a sword.

Facing the plaza and sitting in the absolute best and most highly visible location in the entire city was a massive multi-story building forged from dark marble and gold trim.

It looked like a palace.

Above the heavy oak doors, a blank glowing sign hovered to wait for an owner.

"This is it," Sera said and stopped in front of the building. She pulled up the system interface to interact with the property.

[Property Available: Grand Commercial Hub (Plaza-Front)]

[Purchase Price: 1,000,000 Gold Coins or 500,000,000 Veridian Credits (Real-World Conversion)]

Casanova whistled. "Half a billion credits just for the building? Boss, I know you are rich, but that is steep."

Sera didn’t hesitate. She didn’t even look at Dante for approval.

She tapped the interface to authorize the massive transfer directly from the offshore corporate trust Dante had established after selling her the Dark Demon loot earlier that day.

[Transaction Complete.]

[Property Acquired by: Astral Vanguard Studio]

[Please enter the designated title for this commercial property.]

Sera smiled. She typed rapidly on her holographic keyboard. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

The blank glowing sign above the heavy oak doors flared to life. It burned with bright elegant silver text.

[The Astral Emporium]

"We own the center of the capital," Sera announced and turned back to the group.

"This is not just a shop. It is a premier auction house. We control the flow of high-tier gear for the entire Veridian Alliance."

"It is beautiful," Lila smiled and looked up at the massive building.

"It is empty," Dante pointed out. "A building is useless if you do not have anything to sell."

"That is where you come in," Nyx said and pushed her glasses up.

"We just looted the equivalent of an armory of a small army. We have Silver and Gold-tier gear that the mid-level guilds are currently bleeding for."

"We stock the shelves, set the prices astronomically high, and let the desperate guilds bid against each other."

Dante opened his infinite inventory.

He had the massive pile of gear he had vacuumed up during the siege of Ironhold, the boss drops from the Frostfire Steppes, and the mountain of loot from the Sunken Necropolis.

He didn’t hand it over piece by piece.

He initiated a direct trade window with Sera and dumped thousands of items into her interface.

The eyes of Sera widened as the scrolling list of items flooded her screen.

"Dante," Sera breathed. "There are Dark Demon crafting materials in here. And... wait. Is this the Gold-tier [Guild Creation Token]?"

"I do not need it," Dante shrugged. "Auction it."

"You want me to auction the Guild Creation Token?" Sera asked and looked at him like he was insane.

"Dante, Silas has been trying to secure one of these for days. It is the only way to officially register a guild and unlock the massive passive buffs."

"If we put this on the block, every single Guild Master on the server will liquidate their real-world assets just to bid on it."

"Exactly," Dante smiled. "Let them bleed their bank accounts. I want Silas to pay through the nose for the privilege of making his little club official."

"You are an evil genius," Casanova laughed and clapped Dante on the shoulder.

"I will start organizing the inventory," Sera said and her business mode fully engaged.

She pushed the heavy oak doors of the Emporium open and walked inside to immediately begin directing holographic display cases.

"Nyx, get on the forums. I want a massive advertising campaign running within the hour. Tell them the Astral Emporium is hosting the first major auction of the cycle tomorrow at noon."

"I will hype it up," Nyx nodded and followed her inside. "I will make sure Cipher covers it on his stream."

"Lila, help me sort the armor sets by stat scaling!" Sera yelled from inside.

Lila sighed and gripped her staff. "I guess I am back on logistics duty. See you later, Dante." She hurried inside to help.

Dante was left standing in the plaza with Mei, Casanova, and Garrick.

"Well," Casanova stretched his arms. "That was a very profitable morning. What is next, Boss? Are we going to go hunt another dragon?"

"We are going to take a break," Dante said.

He had been diving for hours, and he had successfully secured their economic base of operations.

"Go explore the city. Do not cause trouble, and do not pick any fights you cannot win."

"I win all my fights," Mei declared proudly and gave her pan a spin. "Come on, Pip! Let us go see what kind of food the NPCs sell in the capital!"

"I want something spicy!" Pip yelled and flew after the brawler as she jogged away down a side street.

"I am going to go find a tavern and see if there are any lonely healers looking for a charming bard," Casanova winked. He tipped an imaginary hat before sauntering off.

Garrick stood next to Dante and looked around the massive marble plaza.

"What about me, buddy?" Garrick asked earnestly. "Do you need me to stand guard outside the shop? I can hold the door."

"No, Garrick," Dante sighed and patted the older man on his silver-plated shoulder. "You did great today. Just go log out and get some sleep."

"You got it, Boss!" Garrick beamed.

He immediately opened his interface and triggered the disconnect sequence.

His avatar dissolved into white light and left Dante completely alone in the plaza.

Dante turned away from the Astral Emporium.

He didn’t log out. He had the stamina, and he had a destination in mind.

Before he had left the Hall of Origins, the Blade-Saint had given him a highly specific quest.

He had handed Dante the [Blade-Master] Hidden Class scroll and told him to find his descendants in Aethelgardia.

Dante didn’t want to recruit an ally, but he wanted to see what kind of legacy a God-tier Guardian left behind.

He checked the vague coordinates embedded in the quest log.

It pointed toward the upper residential tiers of the city. This was a wealthy district located near the base of the massive royal palace.

Dante pulled his black cloak tight and began walking. The real game was about to start, and he needed to know exactly who was playing on the board.