"You would have a Chaos Dragon that powerful in your Guild? Are you not worried about the stability of your members? A chaos element influence that strong is bound to cause issues." One of the Immortals asked.

"We’ve even got a Chaos Badger who is aiming for Supreme Rank by the end of the decade. I doubt that having one dragon in another branch will cause us that many issues.

Besides, as chaotic as her choices are, she is loyal, and that’s what matters most."

That was a rare attribute among the most powerful of beings. Even Supremes could barely work together, so getting a Legend to work with you, or even stay in a Guild, was incredibly rare unless they were the leader.

Even the fabled Divine Guilds on other worlds rarely had any Legends in them. Once they got that powerful, they would go off on their own to try to find their own route to Divinity.

One of the core aspects of Divinity was that there was no duplication.

Even if you had a Divine Being to guide you, only a handful in all of the realms could even begin to guide you on the way that would work for yourself. Not only did they have to understand Divinity on an exceptional level, they had to understand you in a way that no amount of time could allow.

Only specialized divine skills would allow that.

"So, your Guild is aligned with the Chaos Gods?" A Peak Immortal woman, who had been eyeing the mage ring with a large bonus to ice element damage, asked.

"The World Dragon, actually. That might have been obvious from my status as Branch Leader and Avatar of the World Dragon, but it’s not really a coincidence, as many would expect.

The branches are all favoured by the World Dragon."

"That actually makes a lot of sense, given how strange the Darklight Host is. The adherents of the World Dragon tend to be a bit... you know."

Karl didn’t actually know.

But he shrugged anyhow and smiled, which made the Immortals laugh. If he had given a proper response, they would have been shocked. The World Dragon’s followers tended to be more than a little lacking in self awareness, with zero sense of moderation or propriety, as their frame of reference tended to be the multiverse average that the World Dragon considered "normal".

But when you had created a hundred million or more Systems on both Mortal Realm and Immortal Realm worlds, how could you consider anything to be average?

"Well, I suppose when you’re used to the World Dragon’s viewpoint, Chaos doesn’t seem quite as disturbing as it does to the rest of us. Order and structure are important to most of us if we want to improve our skills and reach Supremacy.

We couldn’t do it with that much chaos in our lives."

"You know, it’s not all bad. Breakthroughs are an element of Chaos affinity. They break the stasis of order and propel your body into a new realm where you can try to establish a new form of ordered growth, different from what you had been working with before."

The Peak Immortal stared at him as if he had just told her that the sun was black and time was actually nonlinear.

That second part was true, if you had access to the fourth dimension. However, that wasn’t the sort of thing that it was wise to try to explain to others.

It would just make their head hurt.

More than one of the Immortals was now seriously considering the worth of Karl’s words. Indeed, breakthroughs were a violation of what would be considered "order". So, perhaps it was actually necessary to have some level of chaos in their development.

That could come after the most important parts, though.

They needed gear.

The Peak Immortal woman gestured to the ring up on the shelf.

"Branch Leader Karl, I would like to speak to you about an item."

"Of course. Everyone, we will be back in a moment."

This time the others began to cheer as they retreated to the back room to negotiate the price, but as soon as the door was closed, they took the opportunity to start making purchases of the less obscenely priced items from the Lycans.

There was an intake event coming up, and for kids who were just finishing school, an Epic Grade token of appreciation that fit their desired style would be a great bribe to recruit new members.

It was expensive, but getting the right item was normally a difficult task that involved many trips into dungeons. If you were unwilling or unable to do that, then you just took what you could get.

Of course, that meant that they needed two items at the very least, so that their existing personal disciples didn’t feel cheated.

If that happened, the newbie would just be ostracized, and the general mood in the Sect would turn sour unless the recruit was a true prodigy.

In which case, "sour" wouldn’t even begin to cover it.

Getting the best stuff and having the talent to justify getting it would only make the other members feel more mediocre, and they would want someone to lash out at.

Recruiting was always a touchy subject, even when everyone actually wanted to get new members.

Just because they didn’t object to more people didn’t mean that they were willing to give up any of their own share to get them, or to have the newbies treated better than they were as newbies.

That was the great trap.

Many Sects maintained traditions from when they were small and struggling, just because the old acolytes couldn’t stand to see the new ones have it easier than they did. And that would factor into what they purchased for the new members today.

In fact, it was leading many of them away from the Epic Grade items entirely, to the Rare Grade warrior gear that had been produced today by the Lycans.

It might be simple stuff, mostly carved wooden rings, but it was all good bonuses.

Enough that they could lure in a few members with it, and not upset the ones that they already had. Especially because the appearance was so plain. Flashy swords and intimidating armour were immediately noticed, but few people would bother to check the stats on a simple wooden ring, even if they had the ability while it was equipped.