Chapter 16 - I Left You A Present
Day 10
Evening
It was a day and a half before Erin built up the courage to open the Last Will & Testament of her mentor. Even now, her hands shook from the anxiety this was causing her as she sat in the backyard. She didn't even get like this before tournaments. Fortunately she didn't need her hands to open the document stored in her inventory. Staring at it for far too long, she finally focused on the document, and a visualisation of a letter opening resulted in the document being displayed in her HUD.
As she read through the document, parsing the legalese, she found some surprises, some hopes met, and a few words of wisdom that caused more than a few tears.
Jin-soo's last personal words to her were printed at the bottom of the document.
"You have the heart of the Gumiho within. I believe in you, Moon Ye-rin."
Sabom Ryu had left her the Dojang, and charged her with preparing his students, now her students, for the coming trials. He didn't ask her to promise to protect them all, as he did not feel that was reasonable, but he asked her to try as hard to protect them as she did to train her martial arts. In her mind, the two were the same thing.
Part of the document talked about how the System offered for him to form a Guild the first time he entered Gumiho Dojang after the assessment period started. All existing students who entered the Dojang after that were automatically invited. He was able to give the senior students the ability to invite anyone who couldn't get to the Dojang for one reason or another. This meant that most of the students could remain in contact through the guild chat. She wondered briefly why Zack didn't mention that.
After all of that preamble about the Guild, Jin-soo's note stated that the system permitted him to designate his heir as the new leader of the Guild. He chose her. That was the hardest part for her. This document, she felt, was the final nail in Jin-soo's coffin. The last thing that acknowledged he wasn't coming back.
Once she finished the document and attempted to dismiss it, she received a request to acknowledge that she was done with the document. Focusing on Yes, another new notification appeared.
This document has been moved to a new section of your inventory for important documents. To access this document, request Documents.
Clearing that, she also saw her notifications flashing to indicate new things to deal with. Focusing on her notifications, she read the first one as the System AI narrated it.
Congratulations on your new ownership of Gumiho Dojang in Downtown Middletown! Included in this message is a master key to access every door in the building. In the event that your key is lost or destroyed, you can generate a new one from the Building Ownership menu.
A key appeared in Erin's inventory, so she retrieved it to have a look. To her eyes, it didn't look any different than the one Jin-soo had lent her sometimes when he had to leave early. Storing that back in her inventory, Erin brought up the next notification.
Congratulations on becoming the leader of the Guild named: Gumiho Dojang. As you are acquiring an existing Guild, no rewards will be awarded for a new Guild creation. You may receive rewards related to this for other reasons. Please review all notifications.
Would you like to rename the Guild? Yes/No.
Erin briefly debated renaming the guild to include Jin-soo's name, but decided he wouldn't want that. Focusing on No, the message resolved and a new one appeared.
Please enter a Message of the Day(MOTD) for the Guild, Gumiho Dojang.
Erin thought the words she wanted to set, then selected Yes when a confirmation prompt appeared. The MOTD was saved, and a message flashed on her screen.
Gumiho Dojang MOTD Updated to: Honour the memory of Ryu Jin-soo. Mentor, Friend, Good person.
She felt slightly self-conscious about that message appearing on the HUD for all of the students, but it was too late to change the message now.
The next notification in the list came up in reaction to focusing on it.
As per the Last Will and Testament of Ryu Jin-soo, all property and belongings not included in the transfer of Gumiho Dojang to his heir, Moon Ye-rin are to be liquidated into Guild Points. Points conversion occurs at 3:1, dollars to points.
Existing Guild Points: 45,371
New Guild Points: 367,903
Total Guild Points: 413,273
That nearly floored Erin. The whole Guild system was entirely new to her, and the points system kinda made sense, but finding out that Sabom Ryu was basically rich, if that conversion rate was right, was almost so incredulous as to be unbelievable. He lived a frugal life. He never charged students that much for training.
Erin decided she needed to head by the Dojang and maybe even see about using some of these points. Getting up and looking around to make sure no one was watching from the house, Erin glanced at her now monstrous Ki bar, then activated DKW and launched herself towards downtown.
As she came down from the long arc of her jump in an open road and transitioned to running at speeds that would filet the skin off a normal human, Erin laughed in delight. Few things since the first System message gave her cause for joy, but the speed she could move at was quickly becoming one of them. With so much Ki she could now maintain DKW for long enough, she suspected, to run to the nearest major city, and still have time left over.
It only took her a couple minutes to arrive at the Dojang by following the roads, not yet trusting herself to travel that far by leaping, lest she end up falling through someone's home.
Retrieving the key from her inventory, Erin unlocked the doors, entered, and relocked the front door. She breathed deeply, having missed this place. The smell of sweat and hard work still lingered in the air, mixed with a persistent sweet and floury scent from the incense Sabom Ryu would burn. Every time she asked him what the smell was, he would just reply, "The smell of home."
She walked the main instruction area near the front door, back to the sparring mats, and the loaner equipment, there for anyone who couldn't afford their own. Practice dummies beside one wall, practice weapons hanging on another. Jin-soo's office in the back. Neat and tidy, mostly because he didn't spend much time there.
Erin stepped into the office, she wasn't ready to call it her own, she definitely wasn't ready to sit in his chair. She took the guest chair, turning it so her back wasn't to the door. She couldn't remember having ever sat in this chair before, she always stood when he brought her in here to speak. It was surprisingly comfortable.
Relaxing in the chair, Erin brought up the Guild Menu. Looking it over, she could see the Guild name, Guild level, number of members, number of holdings…she suspected that it was buildings or property, since the number was one. The Guild Points were listed, as were the number of Allies, Alliances, and Enemies. The last three all zero. It was relatively simple info, but she was mostly focused on those Guild Points.
Focusing on the points readout, a new menu appeared.
Guild Upgrade Menu
Guild Points Available: 413,273
Categories:
➕Infrastructure
➕Equipment & Supplies
➕Resources
➕Customization
➕Quests
The list of Categories all had plus symbols to expand their options, so Erin started with the first option.
➖Infrastructure
➕Expand Structure
➕Purchase New Property
Rolling her eyes, Erin could see how this was about to go. She was debating whether to resign herself to the tedium or give up for now when she noticed an option at the bottom.
Expand All Expand +1 Child Expand +2 Child
"That's…marginally better." Erin focused on Expand +1 Child, and the menu expanded one option deeper for the entire list, meaning she would have to scroll the menu, but it would give her a better idea of what she was working with. She reviewed the newly expanded menu.
➖Infrastructure
➖Expand Structure
Expand to Adjacent Building 25,000 GP
Upgrade to Dimensional Space, Tier 1 50,000 GP
Temporal Upgrade, Tier 1 (Req. DSpace) 100,000 GP
➖Purchase New Property
None Currently Available
➖Equipment & Supplies
➖Training Tools
➕Armour
➕Weapons
➕Dummies
➖Combat Tools
➕Armour
➕Weapons
➖Structure Upgrades
Quest Station 10,000 GP
Member Tracker 15,000 GP
Upgrade Practice Dummies, Tier 1 20,000 GP
➖Resources
Research Station, Tier 1 10,000 GP
Mobile Training Space (/hour) 5,000 GP
➖Customization
New Guild Emblem 5,000 GP
Change Guild Colours 5,000 GP
➖Quests
➖Bounty Hunting
➖Defend Location
➖Delivery
➖Escort
➖Mob Clearing
➖Scavenge/Gather
➖Training
Erin didn't read the Quests section, choosing to collapse the category before the quests could fully load. Like everything tied to the System, some things made sense, and others did not. Focusing on the Expand to Adjacent Building option, she received a message declaring adjacent buildings were occupied, and that option was not currently eligible for purchase.
"Okay…"
Focusing on the Upgrade to Dimensional Space, Tier 1, she received more details this time.
Upgrade to Dimensional Space, Tier 1
Purchasing this will upgrade the requested building to a dimensional space, allowing for a 25% increase in square footage, without expanding the external walls.* Further tiers can be purchased for additional cost once this upgrade has been completed.
*WARNING! All biological matter should exit the building before initiating this upgrade. Although doing so is optional, what happens to you is not. You've been warned.
"Alright, cool but ominous." Focusing on the Temporal Upgrade, Tier 1, a description appeared for that.
Temporal Upgrade, Tier 1
The Temporal Upgrade, Tier 1 will upgrade any Dimensional Space to permit shifting the space between Normal and 2x speed.* This means for every 1 day outside the space, two days will pass inside the space. Time can only be changed once per 24 hour period. Further tiers can be purchased for additional cost once this upgrade has been completed.
*WARNING! Transferring from a time-dilated space to a non-dilated space is dangerous. A minimum of level 10 is recommended for Tier 1. As the time dilation option doubles for each Tier, so too is the recommended number of levels. It's an unpleasant experience even with those restrictions. DO NOT attempt to circumvent them.
"Holy shit! It's like the Hyperb…" She was muted. She should have seen that coming.
"Warning! Copyright Infringement Protection System initiated. An attempt to reference intellectual property owned by another has been detected. Referencing another IP is limited to meme references only. Further triggers of the CIPS system by Moon Ye-rin may result in punitive action. But yeah, it's totally like THAT thing."
"Ominous messages, and CIPS warnings. Is it my birthday?" Sarcasm aside, even with the concerning warnings, she couldn't not purchase those upgrades. If for no other reason than her own training could advance faster. Before she stepped out of the building to purchase those upgrades though, she wanted to check out a couple more upgrades.
The Quest Station was like the quests in the Guild Upgrade Menu, except these could be accessed by everyone. Checking the Quests menu briefly, she answered another question that popped into her mind. The quests in her menu were a way for her to assign existing quests, or create new quests for members. This was also how the Guild would normally earn more GP.
The Member Tracker was going to be a must purchase as well. It could track the location for any Guild member, living or dead, within the Guild's sphere of influence. Currently that was the borders of the town.
The Upgrade Practice Dummies would get more expensive per tier like other upgrades, but each tier would increase the beating they could take, and even advance them to automatons if the description was to be believed.
The Research Station, Tier 1 was an oddly named device, but it appeared to allow students to research and learn new skills, such as a new martial art, or expand knowledge in an existing martial art. There were rules, limits, costs and such, but it would help to fill gaps in Erin's knowledge, both for her own training, and as the new Sabom of Gumiho Dojang.
The last item of interest was the Mobile Training Space. The hourly cost wasn't ideal, but this would allow students who couldn't make it to the Dojang to train, albeit with limits. Erin would need to do some testing before telling the other students in case it wasn't as useful as it seemed.