MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

"You said the pain was bad? and you stayed in darkness for eleven days and were conscious the whole time?" Alex questioned, recognizing that the silent darkness alone would be an overwhelming burden, constituting the worst form of torture, and adding the element of pain would only intensify the experience exponentially.

"The pain was beyond anything I can describe. It felt like my very essence was being torn apart, and the darkness was suffocating, lonely, and seemingly endless, and I could feel the weight of time pressing down on me with every passing moment." Venedikt said, his eyes briefly looking lost, like clouded with the remnants of the pain he had endured.

"So why did you go through it? What was the purpose of enduring such agony when you could just end it by simply giving up?" Alex questioned, already expecting what the answer would be, but he wanted to just confirm it.

"I thought about giving up, but I didn't want to disappoint the man who had given me so much importance, a new, had my family free of worries after a long time,"

"It was a horrible experience, but it was worth it," Venedikt said with a smile, the familiar calm returning in his eyes.

'He would never change,' Alex thought, knowing from experience what going through pain felt like, and without great courage and motivation, surrendering to the pain appeared not only justifiable but also the only viable choice.

"Congratulations on acquiring the legacy and physique, but above all, you have proven that my decision about you was not wrong," Alex said, what he truly felt at the moment.

Alex knew that the upright character of his brothers was forged throughout their lives, and hardship was not new to them, so he expected them to stand tall in the face of any issue, and with his actions, he proved his thinking right.

"Elder, do you know anything about the physique or the entity named The Outsider?" Alex asked, curious about the whole thing.

Alex was almost certain the legacy belonged to the Space Monarch because of its previous owner's show of strength, so it did not belong to some Monarch. It was quite surprising, and adding an ancient-grade growth-type physique into the mix only boosted his curiosity.

As for asking for the details from Elder Darrien in front of Venedikt, Alex didn't feel the need to hide it because he should have already guessed he was the Domain Ruler.

Alex was not planning to confirm his identity for a few months to give Venedikt time to get comfortable with that information, but after finding the training chamber, he didn't have much of a choice if he didn't want to waste months of time.

Alex knew the training chamber held tremendous value and would help the organization greatly in quickly increasing their strength, and keeping that hidden for months was nothing but a waste, which he couldn't afford, knowing the unpredictable and chaotic future.

So Alex planned to tell Venedikt about the training chamber in detail and give him entry badges right after the meeting with the various guild leaders.

"I am unfamiliar with the physique, but there might be some information in the royal library. However, I am aware that acquiring a physique through artificial means is possible,"

"As for the entity named The Outsider, he belongs to a mighty group of individuals who invaded our world many millennia ago and became the reason for the great war among the Ancient Titans,"

"The records of that time are few and incomplete, but it is known that the outsiders and rouge titans killed close to 99% of all Ancient Titans, the rulers of that time before the world was cleansed of them."

"It would be nigh impossible to find the entity whose legacy this young man has acquired unless we can find a name that is recorded in the small number of records from that bygone era," Elder Darrien said, making Venedikt scan his surroundings with heightened attention, while Alex focussed on the new info.

Alex knew about the war because his legacy weapon was forged by an unknown individual and perfected in the war of the Ancient Titans, so finding out that war was caused by outsiders and had such an aftermath was surprising to him, to say the least.

"Your legacy truly transcends the ordinary, as it comes literally from out of this world," Alex said with a chuckle, and Venedikt, who held clear surprise and clarity in his eyes, nodded with a smile.

"We have a few minutes before our meeting with the guild members, so first tell me about the recent developments, and then we can go through my plan with the guilds," Alex said after a moment of silence.

"A lot happened in the last few weeks that you stayed out of contact, and I would start by telling you about the unforeseen windfall," Venedikt said as he took a deep breath.

"I created the persona of Sheikh and released the coordinates of the underground city ruins, as you said, and it garnered the persona a lot of attention,"

"After one week, I contacted all six guilds as Sheikh ranking above the hundred that you gave the names of, and at first, as you said, they didn't take my offer seriously, asking for a wild amount of money to sell their shares,"

"However, luckily or unluckily, after I spread the rumors that Sheikh was interested in investing in the big guild, in making the six guilds fear of not being picked, a few big things started to happen,"

"A small mercenary group discovered a sealed vault that they sold to the Adventurer guild at a price of either one million gold or 50% of whatever was inside the vault, whichever value was bigger, and it was the latter, and the value of things found inside the vault was rumored to be over a hundred million,"

"The mercenary group said that they worked for the Sheikh, and it was he who gave them the coordinates of the vault, which made me very famous, with thousands of individuals and groups asking to work for or with me,"

"I understand the mercenary did it to shift the attention from themselves while they vanished with all the money they have lucked upon,"

"Before the heat could die down, another individual, a peak Sixth Rank, lone adventurer, found a rare ore mine, a large one, and sold it to the Darkness kingdom, and he also claimed that he worked for me,"

"After that, it became like a trend as every other individual who found something good from the ruins said he worked for Sheikh,"

"Many were doing it to get fame, while many others were doing it hoping to scam some big forces who were throwing money around to meet with the mysterious man,"

"The guilds that wanted Bilions to make us a major shareholder are now contacting me nonstop, willing to make me a major shareholder without a penny in return,"

"There are also many other guilds and mercenary groups belonging to both NPCs and players who had contacted me, making their offers,"

"I didn't know what your plans were with the persona besides keeping it separate from the Organization, and as you asked me not to contact you, I did what I thought best to stall the situation and wait for your training to end,"

"So the current situation is like this," Venedikt said as he moved to tell about the various guilds and organizations and what they were willing to offer and what they wanted in return. 

At first, Alex thought it was a good thing, but the more details he heard, the more he perceived that it was a complete mess because not only guilds above the top hundred but even guilds in the top hundred rankings were making offers to the fake persona.

Alex created the persona of Sheikh to get control of guilds both publicly and privately and also create a large number of mercenary groups who would work solely for him, with a few of them staying hidden and some known to the guilds and the public.

Once under his control, the guilds could receive funds from him to buy galactic technology, which would then be distributed to select businesses of his preference, and they would support various public projects in the real world and more.

Meanwhile, the mercenary groups could house influential members of his organization, allowing them to take out significant funds to better their lives without encountering any complications in the real world.

However, now the persona of Sheikh became more in the limelight than it needed to be, and anyone connected to it could also share that attention, which was not good for the things Alex had planned.

'I didn't plan to work in such a spotlight, but maybe if I handled things properly, I might progress things much faster than planned, and everything could work out as I want,' Alex thought, after considering his options a bit troubled but excited.