World Online

Jake\'s eyes shone as he entered the room that was shown to him. It wasn\'t big. It wasn\'t an insanely big hall like the hall on the floor above, or the one that was just shown to him.

But what was in it was something that interested Jake a lot.

A decently sized room on its own right, and was only considered small because of the expectations that were raised with the prior two of Jake\'s tour of the quarters.

There were shelves everywhere, and on these shelves, items. Looking at these items, Jake was honestly shocked. There were materials here. Tons and tons of materials.

Not items, but materials.

Items weren\'t gong to be that interesting to Jake, who had his own store. He had an abundance of them. He also had a few Epic Items, as he got a few from the raid.

But materials were a different story. To get good materials to work with, there were two ways. One was to buy them. It cost more, and chipped away at profits. And the other was to complete missions, and grind in certain places. But to do that, one needed numbers.

Numbers that Jake didn\'t have until recently, and numbers that Horace had since the beginning.

And it looked like Horace put those numbers to very good use.

"No wonder you are so sure that you can grow your black smith division so well. You are very confident about this. But why are you showing this to me? I still don\'t understand. The Praetorian Guard was enough. You have convinced me that you will be an indispensable ally in the future. So why are you showing me cards that you are not supposed to show any outsider?" Jake asked.

​ "Cough!"

Nolan coughed as he smiled bitterly.

"You have seen me weak, frozen, and barely able to walk even though this is the virtual world." Nolan started.

"Well, what you thought was right. I have a little problem over here." He tapped his head.

"And it isn\'t going to go away. Not even with the way the world has progressed with medical advancements. Two hundred years they have been touting that a cure for cancer was on the horizon, and for ten years, I waited." He sighed.

"You have a tumor in your brain?" Jake was shocked.

"The future of Horace lies in you, little friend. For that boy to follow you, it means that the future of Horace is following you, riding on your coattails. That only means that what you do will affect how this company will turn out." He said.

"What is the true identity of Myriad Arrows? Why did you call him the future of Horace?" Jake frowned, confused at what was going on.

"Why not? He is my grand son after all. The one who was supposed to become the guild master of this place until you showed up and stole him away from me." Nolan chuckled.

"You want me to help Horace stay afloat?" Jake asked.

"No, little boy. You aren\'t understanding me. I have a few months to live. And for the next few months, it will be my task to make Horace on of the best guilds in the world. But after that, it will need a good leader to lead it. Kyle was supposed to be that leader. But then, he didn\'t listen to me and went off to Loviel for some reason, and joined another guild, because someone helped him get an Epic Class no less."

"I was interested, so I had to put a few tails on you, send a few people into your guild to see what was going on, and I am not going to lie, I was blown away. You are one of the few who has truly understood what to do with the game, and how to grow in it." He said.

"And that is why, when I go, Kyle may stay with you, but I want Horace to still be a part of the alliance, and I want you to help them with any difficulty that may arise." Nolan said.

Jake was shocked still for words. He didn\'t know what to say.

Nolan wanted to put the future of Horace in his hands? A billion dollar corporation and he was supposed to be the safeguard?

"I-"

"This is going to be a tough sell for me. To convince you to take up such responsibility. So I will give you time. But before that, I want you to just take a look at one other thing and maybe it will help expedite your answer." Nolan smiled.

"You will take me to the smithies, and I will be utterly flabbergasted, I know how this is going to end. You have given me enough surprises for the day. I understand. You have made this guild a unicorn, one that can grow as long as someone as good a leader as you steps up after you are gone." Jake nodded.

"And who doesn\'t want to be the leader of a unicorn guild, right?" Nolan looked expectantly at Jake.

"I am going to have to refuse. I cannot do this," Jake shook his head though.

Nolan\'s face fell. He was crestfallen.

"I wonder why. I thought that anyone would be thrilled at the fact that they would be leading one of the biggest companies in the world. I mean, Horace is no joke of a company. We have been pioneering innovation for decades, and our guild is bound to be huge." Nolan said.

"I understand where you are coming from, but what you want from me, it isn\'t going to come. You need a leader to replace you, but I cannot be that person. And Myriad Arrows is not someone that I can afford to lose, not after I have invested so much in him." Jake said.

"Then what do you want to do?" Nolan asked.

"Are you willing to take a disciple? Someone that you want to nurture?" Jake\'s mouth curled up into a smile as he thought of something, something truly interesting.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

076205