The Immortal that stopped in at Rae’s shop was far from the only one who was headed to the New Home compound today.

There were a surprising number of visitors in town.

Well, Karl only counted about five, but that was still more than he had expected, given that this place was abandoned only a few days ago. The word had obviously gone out from the Elders in the New Home compound that this place was occupied again, and the first ones here all appeared to be allies of the Clan.

They were familiar to the members of the Clan who had come to stay in the area, though they were mostly strangers to the Blackwoods Pack.

Not all of them, there were a few Ascended Rank Immortals who appeared to be familiar to everyone.

Those were likely Elders from the small Clans in the region, assembled for whatever the Clan Leader had planned for the day. She hadn’t bothered to inform Karl, so he didn’t know what the event was, but they were all waiting for the portal array to be ready.

With everything else that had needed to be done, Karl hadn’t found the time to make an array for the compound yet, though he had picked out the spot to put it.

He intended to put it right near the Guild House, but not in the yard, so that people would see the place, and be tempted to shop, but not close enough that a new arrival would be an immediate threat.

The Guild House was near an open area with a small grass park, which Karl thought should do just fine for the purpose.

With the Guild Store set up, and ready to be operated by the new members who were eager to see their first sale as Guild Members, Karl stepped outside to make the final upgrades to the city.

He didn’t expect that his presence would attract any attention. Even with his aura mostly unrestrained, so that everyone could feel that he was a Void Realm Immortal, he was far from the strongest presence in the city now that there were Lycan Elders around.

That didn’t stop the visitors from noticing him, either by the accents on his name in the System Interface, or because they had been informed of what he looked like and were waiting for him to appear.

"Mister Karl, it’s good to finally make your acquaintance. I was in Telheusto when your people threw a barbecue party with the berserkers.

We all saw that you took in the Blackwoods Pack, and I thought that it might be a good time to come visit their new location, and take the chance to get acquainted with some of the Elders in the New Home tomorrow for the first day of the induction ceremonies."

"Induction Ceremonies?"

The Immortal nodded. "It’s an annual holiday, of sorts. All over the region, the larger Clans pick unaligned Immortals to enter the Clan, as well as holding the graduation for senior students at their schools.

It’s more important to the Elders of the various Clans than the average person, I suppose."

Karl nodded. "I can see how that would be especially important to the small Clans, who are looking to poach members, or pick up the ones who didn’t make the cut for whatever quota the larger Clan set."

"Exactly. That’s what we’re all going to do, though most of them will try to put a friendly face on it and call themselves an ’alternate’ or claim that they ’pick only those most suited to their Clan’ when really, it’s just anyone they think could learn their skills." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Karl chuckled. "Well, I suppose that’s as good of a reason as any. The Darklight Host just took in an entire Lycan pack because their village was destroyed, even though we could have simply rebuilt it.

We are a crafters Guild, after all."

"Indeed you are. I saw a number of shops on my way in, though I haven’t taken the time to stop in any yet. Does your Guild House also have a bonded shop?"

"It does. We are just finishing setting it up now, but it’s a combination of work by the apprentices, and the sort of Epic Grade oddities that were a bit too specific to put on the Clan Warehouse listings for resale.

They are listed there, but not stored in the warehouse."

Meaning, that while they had informed the Clan first, they were open for sale to anyone who happened to come by the Guild House shop.

"Oh, that is wonderful news. But I heard you say that you had a few Epic Grade items, might I know what class they are for?"

"I actually made an assortment. If you have a moment, take a look in the shop while I get the portal array set up."

The Immortal nodded and headed for the shop, giving them their first customer of the day, and Karl made his way over to the intersection, fully aware of the level of chaos that he was about to unleash on the Lycans in the Guild House.

Karl began using [Earth Manipulation] to make the platform and walkway for the portal to the New Home Clan, and then altered the shape of the central platform with a combination of [Earth Manipulation] and [Runecrafting] so that he didn’t have to carve everything by hand.

It wasn’t long before he was finished, but the startled cries of the shop’s first customer had already brought other visitors to town, as well as some of the New Home Clan members, running over to see what was going on.

Surely, it wasn’t a fight.

It didn’t sound like that sort of shouting, but the urgency in the tone was enough to bring every busybody in town to the house.

"They’ve got Peerless grade warrior accessories here. PEERLESS!"

The man’s shouting finally began to make sense, and now everyone was headed that way, even if they weren’t in a financial position to buy any such thing.