Most of the NPCs sent over from Aelinbough Village were ordinary service NPCs.
They could open shops, sure. But as player trainers, they were nothing special.
Leo's arrival changed Starbough Village almost overnight.
First, he unlocked racial advancement quests, letting ordinary players undergo Class Advancement into elven paths. The options ran wide: Summoner, Archer, Priest, Rogue, Witch Doctor, and other agility- or intelligence-based classes.
He also opened a training system. Certain skills could now be trained through him and upgraded on the spot.
Second, once word spread that Leo had settled in Starbough, a host of his old friends followed. Among them were dwarven blacksmiths, ironblood knights, ethereal warlocks, and even a handful of orc NPCs.
An elven village now playing host to NPCs from enemy factions.
That alone was a sight to behold.
Another day passed, and somehow the shops and class NPCs inside Starbough Village were eighty percent staffed.
It was practically a miracle.
The only drawback was that the wares on offer still ran a little low-level.
There was nothing Kael could do about that. He'd been working hard to nourish the World Tree, but he could only water it with a single drop of Sap of Nature's Blessing per day.
The one thing that could speed the World Tree's growth was player quest completion.
Plenty of players had come to Starbough today, but most were only here to sightsee, snap a few screenshots, and move on.
Starbough sold a handful of special items, yet most of them sat a tier below what players could buy in the main cities. That wasn't enough to hold players here, let alone convince them to grind essence quests.
So Kael went to find his sister, Isolde.
"Isolde, do you have any way to get players doing more essence quests?"
Isolde looked surprised.
"Huh? They're already knocking them out pretty fast. Starbough's clearing almost as many essence quests in a day as the whole town used to finish in a week."
Kael shook his head. "Not fast enough. Not even close."
"Hmm. Let me think."
Isolde scratched her head, unable to fathom why her brother was in such a rush.
Then her eyes flicked around the room, and an idea landed.
"Big Brother, what's the hottest event right now?"
Kael answered without thinking. "Visiting Starbough Village, obviously."
Isolde shook her head. "No. I mean a system event. The kind everyone's grinding."
Kael clapped. "Oh. The Arena. But what does the Arena have to do with our World Tree? You got permission to rewrite the Arena rules or something?"
Isolde flicked him on the forehead. "Idiot. Of course not. Just because the system doesn't link them doesn't mean we can't link them ourselves."
Kael rubbed his forehead. "Then how do we link them?"
Isolde smiled, mysterious. "Think about it. Your Arena points are miles ahead of everyone else's. In team modes, the second people run into you, they basically scatter and run for their lives."
"So what if teaming up with you is the reward? The catch is they have to come to Starbough and clear essence quests to earn the slot."
Kael's eyes lit up, and he broke into applause. "Wow. Isolde, you're a genius. I can't believe you came up with that."
Then he stopped short. "Wait. Even if I team up with people every day, that's three 5v5 matches and one 20v20. Thirty-one people, tops."
"Counting both Arenas, that's still only sixty-two players."
"If most players figure they've got no shot, won't they lose interest in the quests?"
Isolde flicked him again. "Silly. Who said the slots should go to individuals?"
This time she dropped the teasing and explained, a sly gleam in her eyes. "We rank the top sixty-two guilds. Each one gets to send a single representative to team up with you. That blows the numbers wide open."
Kael was floored by the way her mind worked. "The top sixty-two guilds… if each one runs ten thousand members, that's six hundred twenty thousand people?"
"More than that. At least one or two hundred guilds will want in."
"Damn. Won't Starbough be packed to the rafters? What if players can't even pick up quests?"
One moment Kael had fretted there weren't enough people. The next, he was fretting there'd be too many.
Isolde patted her chest. "Leave that little problem to me."
Soon she posted an announcement in the world channel.
"Everyone's welcome to come to Starbough Village and clear essence-related quests. Each day, we'll rank the top sixty-two guilds by contribution. Every qualifying guild may pick one member to enter the Arena teamed with Dawnbreaker."
"Ranks 1–38 receive 20v20 slots."
"Ranks 39–62 receive 5v5 slots."
"Event Duration: 1 week."
Team up with Dawnbreaker in the Arena.
Love him or hate him, the news grabbed every player's attention.
Teaming with Dawnbreaker meant free points.
The guild leaders, especially, were thrilled.
If a guild could only send one person, who else would it be but the leader?
For a while, Starbough Village became the busiest spot on the entire server, its player density far above anywhere else.
And soon the problem Kael had worried about arrived.
Starbough didn't have enough room.
Isolde adjusted fast. She sent a wave of NPCs out of the village to hand out quests across the forest instead.
Players praised the move to no end.
"Isolde's way too on top of things!"
Kael was pleased with his sister's odd but effective ideas, too.
It seemed his little sister really had grown up.
Then guilt crept in.
"Isolde, juggling all these rankings must eat up a ton of time and energy. Is it cutting into your schoolwork?"
Isolde snorted and started ticking off fingers. "Big Brother, you're only now realizing you should feel bad for me? Starlight Village, Clearwind Haven, Beryl Creek, the Behemoth Lands, Meridian Mine—those already had me swamped. Now Starbough Village on top of it."
Kael felt a flicker of shame. "I was paying you fifty thousand a month before, right? I'll double it. A hundred thousand. How's that sound?"
"Hehe. Thanks, Big Brother."
Her pity act had landed, and she brightened at once.
Then she stuck out her tongue and added, playful, "Actually, it's not that bad. You're not the only one who knows how to hire help. I can hire people too."
Kael paused.
Then it dawned on him that his sister had been playing him.
"Nicely done, Isolde. You even conned your own brother. Who'd you hire?"
"You've met her. Blue. Well—her ID is AzureSky."
"AzureSky?"
The name rang a faint bell. The first time he'd met Isolde in the game, Preston had been bullying her, and there had been a girl who stepped in to shield her. He just hadn't paid much attention to her ID at the time.
Isolde nodded. "Yeah. She gets better grades than I do, and she barely plays. These days she logs in mainly to help me run the town."
Reassured that Isolde really wasn't running herself ragged, Kael relaxed. "If you trust her, then let her help."
Isolde's eyes started darting again. "Big Brother, she's done so much for me. You should pay her too. Say, twenty thousand a month?"
It was pocket change, so Kael had no reason to balk. "Fine. Your call. Take it from my account."
"Best big brother ever. I knew you cared about me. Oh—can you cover her salary from last month too?"
"Oh. Sure."
Then Kael went still.
After a long moment, it finally sank in.
His sister had hired her ages ago.