The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]
Chapter 169: The Allen Guild

Chapter 169: The Allen Guild

The raid teams in the Allen Guild functioned differently from those in the Association. To be precise, there weren’t actually any set teams. Aside from the core elites, most members were free to pick what raids they wanted to participate in. Of course, they were obliged to participate if ordered to do so... But that rarely happened. Most of the time, all the available slots were filled quickly.

The way it worked was that every open raid was posted on the Guild’s online announcement board, with the dungeon details and minimum requirements listed. Interested members could apply, and the Commander in charge would later pick whom they wanted on their team, based on the stats and abilities, past performance reviews, as well as personal preferences. If chosen, they would get to participate in the raid. And if not... Then, well, they would have no option but to try their luck with another raid!

Everyone’s earnings depended on the raids they participated in, so there was a lot of competition, especially for the high-dungeons, or the teams led by elite Commanders, as those jobs paid the most! For many regular members, they were lucky if even one/third of their requests got approved.

Luckily for Lane, Oscar Morales, despite being relatively new, had excellent performance reviews. Combined with his rank, his overall stats, and the fact that he had diligently completed an astounding number of Guild trainings, the first raid Lane applied to, he was quickly accepted!

Taking advantage of the fact that he didn’t have the disciplinary meeting regarding his disappearance back at the summit yet, after which his performance was bound to drop at least a bit, Lane signed up for two more short raids. While it wouldn’t be anywhere near enough to ACTUALLY earn enough money to break the contract... That was how far Lane was willing to go in terms of making it look legit. Any more would just pointlessly keep him away from Damien for too long!

And so, two days later, he came to the Allen Guild Headquarters for the pre-raid meeting.

The Allen Guild Headquarters were... a city within the city. It was hard to describe it any other way. A massive building complex, with a large park with a pond, offices, training spaces, a hospital, restaurants, and even dorms... And that was only the visible part! Inside the buildings, there were hidden seven Gates in total! And three of them were kept a secret from the Association - illegally, of course! Lane only knew about them thanks to the spies he had planted in the Guild...

To be honest, even Lane found the complex rather impressive, although he’d never admit it out loud. Those gates they saw back in country K? You could easily construct at least a thousand of them with the money that was dumped into building the Allen Guild Headquarters! And they were still improving it every year... Just the other month, Miles had pressured... that is, convinced the owner of the neighborhood apartment complex to sell him the land, and the residents were currently being all relocated, just so that the Allens could build another training center...

Just the daily life of the Allens.

It’s been close to three years since Lane had last been there, but having studied the updated layouts plenty of times, he had no problems finding his way. He passed by several buildings, took a shortcut through the park, and got to one of the meeting centers, where the raid briefing was to be held.

The room was already full, as expected - in accord with his usual habits, Lane had arrived at the last moment. He was actually planning to come earlier, and snoop around a bit... But, he took a bit too long to decide where to stop for breakfast, and before he knew it, he was already running late! He could have eaten at the Guild, of course, all the restaurants at the Headquarters were top quality... But Lane didn’t feel like giving ’his’ money to the Allens, when he could spend it elsewhere!

As he stepped into the room, two or three people waved at him, but Lane just nodded at them with a smile, and fled to the back, taking a seat in the corner. He hasn’t really had a chance (or, well, hasn’t bothered yet, to be precise) to familiarize himself with Oscar’s social circle. From what he knew, the man was an introvert, very quiet, and mostly kept to himself, but there were still a few people he was getting along with quite well, having been on several raids together.

And one of them stood up now, seemingly wanting to approach ’Oscar’...

Thankfully, just then, the Commander arrived, and the meeting started, so even if anyone wanted to talk to ’Oscar’, they would have to wait.

The one in charge of this raid was Commander Eric Holt, a forty-something-year-old S-ranker... And a man absolutely unrelated to the Allens, which was one of the main reasons why Lane chose this particular raid. He started explaining all the information they had on the dungeon, and the monsters residing inside, as well as their plan for the raid and what they were hoping to accomplish...

Same old, same old. Lane stifled a yawn, only half-listening to what was being said - he had already read most of that information in the file he received upon being accepted on the team for this raid - while letting his eyes wander around, watching his temporary teammates.

He scanned the room mostly out of boredom, not expecting anything of particular interest, his fingers playing with the pull tab of his jacket’s zipper. Which is why he would have almost missed it. His unfocused gaze swept over the man, and moved past the two more people, before all of a sudden, he accidentally snapped the tab apart and froze, his mind slowly catching up.

...What did he just see?

He couldn’t help but do a double-take. That dark brown hair, emerald eyes, honeyed skin, and handsome face...

Damien?