Near the center of the hub city was a rather large guild that was only rivaled in size by the Phoenix Guild across the street from it. This guild was famous and known world wide as not only one of the strongest guilds in the entire world, but also a guild that reached such heights with only women being allowed to join. It was a rare situation since even though men were behind at first there were still several men that were highly touted for their martial prowess before the change and now that they had super natural abilities were able to become stronger than most. Several guilds were started by such people yet hardly any of them were on the same level of the Serphant Guild.
It wasn't just the fact that the guild was exclusive to women, but the members all tended to be of a similar sort. Man haters that wanted to prove themselves in this new world. They didn't much mind working alongside men from other alliance guilds, but they still stuck to themselves for the most part. Even with all the personalities and flagrant issues that people in the guild had Madalyn was able to keep her members in control and take them as far as they had come. It was a remarkable accomplishment and she wasn't able to do it just being your everyday house wife that she had been in the past.
Oh no, Madalyn had a mean streak that stretched far and wide and all of the members of the guild knew it. Especially her right hand lady Isabella who had worked alongside Madalyn diligently ever since she had joined the guild. Isabella had noticed the difference between Madalyn's way of handling things and Laura's early on in the time she had spent working with the two of them. Laura allowed people to challenge her for her position so she could prove herself and stand at the lead of the members of her guild and give them inspiration. It was a nice way to lead if not a little to straight forward. Laura wasn't exactly accustomed to politics in the slightest so it came as no surprise that she needed help with that sort of stuff from Natalie most of the time.
Madalyn was almost the exact opposite. Oh people knew she was strong, but unless it was during an expedition where she had to step up to help her guild members nobody got to see her in action. No, the guild members that joined knew she was strong simply by the fact that anyone that tried to usurp her place in the guild from either within it or from another guild would end up disappearing soon after. Madalyn handled things quietly and efficiently and unlike Laura she played the game of politics with other guilds that tried to push their way in to her turf. She tore them apart piece by piece and it took the Serphant Guild absolutely destroying another large guild's territory to get the message across for some of the more arrogant guilds in the area.
Even if someone gained control of a territory they could lose it if either they were challenged by a guild of similar strength or they didn't keep up the area for a long period of time. That's why not all small territories had been occupied up to this point since it would spread Guild's to thin and cause other problems. When a guild tried to take one of Madalyn's territories, especially one of her more profitable ones, destroying the enemy's assault group in their attempt to take control of her territory wasn't the end of it. No, Madalyn spent the next week taking out each and every one of that guild's territories one by one. She kept the two larger territories, but left all the smaller ones for the smaller vulture like guilds to compete over. That moment was the first time all guilds became weary of Madalyn and the Serphant Guild.
Soon after Madalyn and Laura made their alliance public, any attempts at challenging them pretty much went out the window. The only other guild in the United States area that could even try to challenge them was the World Government Guild and that wasn't going to happen since the moment they attempted to attack any individual guild all of the guilds around the world would start attacking their thinned out defenses in their territories. One thing was certain in this new era and that was the government was not liked by other guilds and any sign of aggression between the two groups could cause a massive fall out.
At the moment things had settled down into a silence among the guilds of the world since it had gotten to the point most guilds had gotten as many territories as they currently could handle without worrying about other groups or up and coming guilds coming to try to steal their territories. So for the moment everyone was leveling so they can prepare to take on the next challenge while trying to increase their rank in the system. At the moment the members in the Serphant Guild were doing the same thing. They had taken a short break after their last large expedition and allowed some of their newer members to train with some guidance during that time frame.
In the last expedition Madalyn had taken Amy along to show her some more challenging areas and most of the members of the group were at least level fifty with Madalyn being at the head of the group at level sixty already. She was neck and neck with Laura for the moment in being the highest level in the United States region. Worldwide there were a few people higher level than them, but it wasn't by more than a level and those people didn't have to run guilds. At the moment Adrian and his group were closing in on them, but outside of that there weren't very many people close to their level. Amy however was gaining levels at a blinding speed in comparison to others and even though she was extremely hyper it was easy to tell she was Joshua's little sister. They had extremely similar values.
After coming back from that expedition Amy had thanked everyone for the experience and immediately went off to prepare for an expedition with Laura's guild. The girl was a tall ball of energy that didn't know when to settle down, but just about everyone in the two guilds loved her upbeat attitude about everything. Now that things had settled down once again Isabella found herself making her way through the halls of the Serphant Guild towards the Guild Masters room on the top floor. The building was a simple structure similar to the Phoenix Guild with a basement filled with sparing areas. A few floors for offices, a couple for meeting area, and then a large area at the top with the Guild Master's room. It was a simple design, but more than handled the needs of all the guild members that came in and out of the building daily.
Soon Isabella found herself standing outside of the Guild Masters room and knocked first before letting herself in. The room was extremely spacious with a large couch to the side that would allow anybody to stretch out on it. At the moment there was no one there, but it was clear that it had been slept in recently with all the paper work on the table in front of it and the blanket left hanging on the back of the couch. Along the walls of the room were shelves that were either filled with books that clearly looked worn and used or jars of different poisons with notes and other things labeled across them. At the far back there was a desk with more paper work and materials stranded across it, but at the moment there was no one else in the room outside of Isabella.
With a slight sigh Isabella turned her icy eyes towards a certain shelf near the back of the room and walked over before pushing in a book and watching the whole shelf sink into the floor. She started to make her way down some stairs that lead to a dark room that was only dimly lit, but it wasn't hard to make out what was in the room. The place was filled with all sorts of experiments that would often be found in a lab of a support class with the alchemist job. Ever since Madalyn had gained the alchemist job as her support job to her combat one she had spent just about all of her free time researching different ways to use alchemy to improve her poisons. Although Madalyn had become a master with her knives over the years and was even able to push some of the strongest fighters to the edge with them alone, her specialty was still her poisons.
The lab was filled with all sorts of weird experiments, so Isabella made sure to grab a mask to cover her mouth along with a lab coat to cover her skin. If one of these experiments exploded on her she didn't want to deal with the side effects of getting poisoned by one of Madalyn's weird experiments. The consequences of that happening could range from a simple rash to, feeling like your insides were on fire, to death itself if you weren't careful. Even if a mask and heavy protection could keep you safe in a lab like this for the most part that wouldn't be the same case on the battlefield against Madalyn. Poison by air was the least of your worries. She had much more painful ways to poison you if she wanted too.
After searching the place for a moment Isabella was able to find her Guild Master at the back looking every bit like a mad scientist as she played with a system panel that controlled a valve to one of her experiment containers. She had bags under her eyes which proved that she probably had gone through another all-nighter in her crazy pursuits. If she stayed up another night then Isabella would have to put some sleeping powder in her coffee to get her to take a break. It wasn't an unusual occurrence. At first Madalyn had been mad at her, but after feeling how clear her head was after getting some sleep she forgave her. Now it was up to Isabella to decide when Madalyn needed a break.
Isabella set down a plate that was full of nachos and a glass of tea for her boss to eat and then called out to her. "Guild master you have been in here for over twelve hours without taking any breaks. It's time for you to eat." Isabella said gaining the attention of Madalyn.
"Oh, it's been that long already? I could swear I just had cereal for breakfast a few hours ago." Madalyn said with a tired smile before walking over and starting eat the food as she kept her eye on the poison mist mixture that was being formed.
"Yes, but that was for last night's dinner." Isabella calmly stated getting a guilty giggle out of Madalyn.
"Well I'll take a break soon, I just have a couple of more things to finish tonight…or should I say today? Anyways any news I should be aware of?" Madalyn asked.
"For the most part things have been quiet of late. As you know the last expedition went well and we're preparing to go on another one in a couple of days to finish clearing out the area and finding the dungeon. We will switch out groups then and proceed with the plan there." Isabella explained getting a small nod from Madalyn.
"Yes, but that's still a couple of days away so I've got time to get some rest before worrying about that. Any news outside of the guild that I should be aware of?"
"The World Government Guild is continuing to pursue getting other guilds to join them in their assault plan at the beginning of next year. They have recently visited the Raider's Guild so there standards are definitely lowering." Isabella explained getting a small smile in response. It didn't take long for her to notice that Madalyn had scarfed all of her nachos down quickly and was already sipping at her tea. She picked up the plate preparing to take it with her when she left the room.
"That's not surprising, but it is annoying. Smaller guilds like that might be short on members, but they usually have at least a few strong people in it otherwise they wouldn't be able to hold their own territories. If they can get a few guilds like that to join their efforts then they might actually stand a chance. Was there anything else?" Madalyn said before she heard a loud beep coming from her experiment. "Oh no!"
"Nothing else guild master, I'll be taking my leave. I will be back the next time to make sure you get some rest." Isabella casually said as she took the now empty glass of tea and plate with her before heading out of the lab she left her coat on one of the racks and took off her mask before closing the hidden shelf. When she was about to leave the guild master's room she heard a loud boom alongside a subtle shake. She could swear she could hear Madalyn's voice muffled as she cursed. That was all a normal part of a day at the Serphant Guild.